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Demographic dividend to demographic wasteland (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Society
Prelims level : Not much
Mains level : Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism and secularism

Context:

• One of the greatest privileges of being a Chief Economic Advisor was the opportunity to meet with students from all over India.

Dividend to wasteland:

• We speak of creating a $5-trillion economy by taking advantage of our demographic dividend.
• But if our universities become war zones rather than sacred sanctuaries of learning, we don’t build human capital.
• We make carcasses of the hopes of our students.
• Just as the psychological burdens of poverty and hardship narrow cognitive bandwidth (according to research by Sendhil Mullainathan and Anandi Mani), the psychological burdens of violence on students could impair their capabilities and turn the demographic dividend into a demographic wasteland.
• Since building human capital, maintaining social peace and creating strong institutions are key determinants of long-run development, recent actions triply undermine achieving sabka saath, sabka vikas.
• It is bad enough that our higher education system has routinely been failing our youth. It is bad enough too that their prospects of getting decent, well-paying jobs are becoming more grim.
• To heap violence and physical and psychological insecurity only adds more hopelessness to their educational years and to their sense of the future that awaits them.

Conclusion:

• For exercising their right of expression, their right to articulate their concerns and opinions about a set of measures they fear might consign many Indians to second-class citizenship.
• Regardless, they must be heard.
• This will we be able to understand and address their concerns and to be clear, address them we must.

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Tech’s 2020 agenda (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Science and Tech
Prelims level : Artificial Intelligence
Mains level : Challenges associated with the rise of Artificial Intelligence

Context:.

• The year 2019 stood testimony to this fact.
• This was a period in which dramatic developments occurred in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, cloud computing and more.

Rise of Artificial Intelligence:

• The AI juggernaut got all powered up in 2019 so much so that concerns around its advancements and application in fields such as welfare distribution, recruitments, match-making, etc.
• For companies, governments and similar agencies drew worldwide criticism, with data scientists and technologists calling for more transparency and ethical clarity in the development, distribution and application of such algorithmic tools and products.
• And there has been some progress towards that end, with policymakers in a few geographies introducing bills and laws to tackle abuse of AI.

Need to regulate:

• It more needs to be done to tackle the wilfully wrong application of technologies.
• Given the pace at which technologies evolve, we’d better hurry.
• The governments are quite handicapped when it comes to developing tools and procedures to tackle mal-tech.
• One of the most alarming tech trends of 2019 was the unbridled use and abuse of deep fake technology.
• For starters, this is a malicious technology which helps make fake videos of people in which they can be shown doing things they would never have done in reality.
• The promise that computers can now create convincing videos and images of events, people and actions that never happened is quite scary.

Way ahead:

• Verifying the veracity of such products is a tall order as things stand now.
• The response from Big Tech, when asked about developing solutions to address such problems, has not been really proactive so far.
• The onus is now on consumers and policymakers.
• The year 2020 should see more efforts towards making tech more humane, proactive and egalitarian.

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For universal access to healthcare (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Health
Prelims level : Ayushman Bharat scheme
Mains level : Accessibility of Universal health coverage

Context:

• Most middle-class taxpayers in private jobs are stuck between the devil and the deep sea when it comes to accessing quality, and yet affordable, healthcare.
• Their faith in government hospitals is eroding, and dependence on expensive private hospitals is increasing.

Coverage of Ayushman Bharat scheme:

• The government claims to cover 50 crore poor people under the cashless health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat, officials say a much lesser population is being tracked in urban areas because of lack of proper addresses in the Socio-Economic Caste Census.
• The rest of the population, except government employees, are bereft of any government sponsored health cover or subsidy.

Challenges for achieving Universal Health Coverage:

• In 1948, the World Health Organisation had enshrined ‘Universal Health Coverage’ — which means quality health services provided at affordable costs — as a fundamental right of each citizen.
• Seventy-two years have passed without that becoming a reality in India, even as the country acceded to this in 1979 and hence making it obligatory to progress towards the goal.
• To expand the health net, the government will also have to increase its healthcare budget, which is currently around 1.5 per cent of GDP.
• As per the government’s own reckoning, the budget has to be scaled up by 26 per cent year-on-year to achieve a target of 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025.

Way ahead:

• As the government aims at ushering in universal health coverage, it has not charted a way forward yet.
• The biggest hurdle to universalising access to health is improving and regulating the quality of care.
• In the event of non-upgradation, taxpayers may have to pay up but not get care in their choice of hospital.
• This apart, doctors themselves are the biggest roadblock, as they oppose implementation of The Clinical Establishments Act, which aims at regulating the quality of care.
• While funds for schemes can gradually be figured out, improving and regulating the quality of care is a bigger issue.
• Without addressing this, talking about access to healthcare is futile.

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As US-Iran tensions rise, what should be India’s gameplan? (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level : US-Iran tensions
Mains level : Effect of policies and politics of developed anddeveloping countries on India's interests

Context:

• The Middle East has been thrown into chaos in the wake of the US assassination of Iran’s Major Gen Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds special forces and the second-most powerful figure after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
• Iran’s vowed to retaliate, and rockets have already landed near the US Embassy in Baghdad.

How it affects India’s economy?

• This conflagration could destabilise oil prices at a time when India’s economy is in fragile health.
• The US now an oil exporter, higher prices could help it narrow its trade deficit.
• India, a major Iranian oil buyer before US pressure forced a halt, purchases two-thirds of its crude from the Gulf, with Iraq the top supplier.
• Oil prices rose $3 right after the attack and Indian pump prices were hiked Monday.
• Gold prices have also hit six-year highs and the BSE slid by 800 points on Monday.

Affecting equity and trade markets:

• The rupee declined sharply to 71.8 against the dollar on Friday, it recovered after an initial slide on Monday.
• Similarly, the dollar index and the Japanese Yen too have not reacted too much on Monday.
• Equity markets were however nervous and all global indices are trading 1-2 per cent lower.
• Also, as risk aversion increases in the equity market, foreign portfolio investors tend to pull money out of emerging markets into safe havens.
• The Reserve Bank should keep its power dry to defend the rupee.
• Despite the US sanctions against trade with Iran, India’s trade with Iran increased in 2018-19 owing to the waiver on oil from November 2018.
• Exports went up to $3 billion in 2018-19, which was 33 per cent higher than the previous fiscal, while imports increased 21 per cent to $13.5 billion.
• After the waiver period ended in mid-2019, oil imports reduced to zero.
• Exports have been hit as payments are stuck. Basmati and tea exporters fear further difficulties in obtaining payments.
• It is high time that India created a major strategic reserve for oil to deal with contingencies.

Way forward:

• The Iranians played a key role in Afghanistan and had been backers of the Northern Alliance along with India. US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, called Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa to explain US moves.
• The US also announced it’s resuming training of Pakistan military personnel halted earlier by Trump.
• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has reportedly been in talks with the US to defuse the situation in the region.
• The Gulf is home to over eight million Indians, a source of crucial remittances. So far, Washington has not resumed military aid but there’s an assumption Pakistan will get assistance in some form.
• It’s not clear what Trump hoped to achieve by the killing, rejected by his two predecessors as too risky for Middle East peace.
• What’s certain is that we have entered a new stage of brinkmanship.

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Taking a holistic approach to dengue (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Health
Prelims level : Dengue disease
Mains level : Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health

Context:

• The advent of a new tetravalent vaccine against the dengue virus has thrown new light into the evidence-based management of dengue.

Background:

• An article of New England Journal of Medicine revealed that this vaccine confers about 80% protection to children vaccinated between 4 and 16 years of age without any major side effects.
• It was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, multi-centre trial which included 20,017 participants from the dengue-endemic countries.
• Apart from promoting the use of the vaccine, gaining control over dengue will also require a holistic approach that has to include within its ambit vector control and proper case management.

About Dengue:

• Dengue is essentially a tropical disease that occurs in the countries around the Equator; hot weather and intermittent rainfall favour the sustenance of Aedes aegypti — the vector transmitting the dengue virus —and Aedes albopictus, a minor contributor.
• Aedes eggs can remain dormant for more than a year and will hatch once they come in contact with water.
• Urbanisation, poor town planning, and improper sanitation are the major risk factors for the multiplication of such mosquitoes.
• Aedes mosquitoes cannot fly beyond a hundred metres. Hence, keeping the ambience clean can help prevent their breeding.
• Further, these mosquitoes bite during the daytime, so keeping the windows shut in the day hours is also useful.

Shortage of skilled manpower

• Many other source reduction activities can be undertaken, including preventing water stagnation and using chemical larvicides and adulticides.
• These chemicals need to be applied in periodic cycles to kill the larvae that remain even after the first spray.
• The number of skilled workers available for such measures is low; many posts in government departments remain vacant despite there being a dire public health need.
• Due to this deficiency of manpower, active surveillance is not being done in India, says the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program.

Other factors:

• Also, dengue cases are often under-reported due to political reasons and also to avoid spreading panic among the common people.
• There is a lack of coordination between the local bodies and health departments in the delivery of public health measures.
• A comprehensive mechanism is required to address these issues.

Need epidemiological measures:

• Moreover, epidemiological measures are essential in the management of any communicable disease.
• Singapore uses one successful model of mapping and analysing data on dengue, using Geographical Information System (GIS). This involves mapping the streets with dengue cases for vector densities.

Type of infection:

• Dengue is mostly an asymptomatic infection, and only a very few develop severe disease.
• Those very young or very old and those who have a chronic ailment are at a greater risk of developing severe disease.
• But the worldwide case fatality rate is as low as 0.3%.
• The dengue virus has four serotypes and only a second infection with a different serotype will cause a severe disease. \
• Fluid management is the cornerstone in the management of severe diseases like dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome.
• Here, the role of platelet depletion in exacerbating the condition of a patient is overemphasised even by many medical personnel. \
• Contrary to the common belief, platelet transfusions are not needed even in cases of active bleeding, as per the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Coagulation abnormalities are not due to a reduction in the number of platelets alone.
• This is why the WHO recommends fresh whole blood or packed cell transfusion in the event of bleeding. The platelet count will increase automatically as fever subsides.

Alternative medicine drugs:

• Despite the adequate and well-formed guidelines for the management of dengue cases by the WHO and the Indian government, the usage of complementary medicines like Nilavembu kudineer (a Siddha medicine) and papaya leaf extract are rampant among the people.
• Nilavembu sooranam, which reportedly contains about nine different substances, has been widely promoted for use to treat dengue fever despite the safety of and complex interactions among its different constituents not having been tested.
• The efficacy of Nilavembu kudineer in the management of several other diseases is based on very primitive forms of research like case reports, in-vitro studies, and animal studies.

Side effects:

• There are case reports where Andrographis paniculata, an active constituent of Nilavembu sooranam, showed anti-fertility effects in animal models, causing abortion.
• Even meta-analysis of various studies has shown that there is no credible evidence for the use of papaya extract in dengue fever. \
• For unknown reasons, even some pharmaceutical companies are being allowed to market papaya extract pills.
• In Tamil Nadu, complementary medicine practitioners often argue that a proper double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial cannot be conducted as it involves huge money and manpower.
• Though this argument is partially correct, patients cannot be treated as guinea pigs. For any medicine, safety is more important than efficacy. \
• Every modern medicine drug has come out after rigorous safety and efficacy studies for around 10 years, with an informed declaration of the side effects.
• Hence, instead of carrying out distribution of medicines like Nilavembu kudineer, the government can concentrate its energies on other public health activities.

Conclusion:

• Modern medicine is not against any complementary medicine; when such a medicine is approved after rigorous testing, modern medicine will absorb it, and there are many examples of that.
• However, in the absence of evidence, the efficacy of such medicines remains in the realm of belief instead of science.

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Exam Name: Engineering Services Exam (IES)

Paper : General Studies and Engineering Aptitude

Year: 2020

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Indian Cobra Genome Decoded (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Science and Tech
Prelims level : Cobra Genome
Mains level : Challenges in production of effective anti-venom

Context:

• An international team of researchers have sequenced the genome of the Indian cobra, in the process identifying the genes that define its venom.

Major significance:

• This genome sequence can provide a blueprint for developing more effective anti-venom.
• The cobra genome sequence is of really high quality.
• Sequence information of the genes that code for venom proteins is very important for the production of recombinant anti-venoms.

Existing anti-venoms not effective enough:

• Their efficacy varies, besides producing side effects.
• In India, the challenge has been producing anti-venom for the species known collectively as the “big four”, The Indian cobra (Naja naja), Common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii), and Saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus).
• Common anti-venom is marketed for the treatment of bites from the “big four”, but its effectiveness came under question in a recent study.
• The common anti-venom worked against the saw-scaled viper and the common cobra.
• But this anti-venom fell short against some neglected species and also against one of the “big four” - the common krait.
• Facts - Accidental contacts with snakes lead to over 100,000 deaths across the world every year.
• India alone accounts for about 50,000 deaths annually, and these are primarily attributed to the “big four”.

Challenges in production of effective anti-venom:

• Venom is a complex mixture of an estimated 140-odd protein or peptides.
• Only some of these constituents are toxins that cause the physiological symptoms seen after snakebite.
• But anti-venom available today does not target these toxins specifically.
• Anti-venom is currently produced by a century-old process.
• In this process, a small amount of venom is injected into a horse or sheep, which produces antibodies that are then collected and developed into anti-venom.

Issues with this ‘horse technique’

• This is expensive, cumbersome technique and comes with complications.
• Some of the antibodies raised from the horse may be completely irrelevant.
• The horse also has a lot of antibodies floating in its blood that have nothing to do with the venom toxins.
• One more problem with horse antibodies is that our immune system recognises it as foreign and when anti-venom is given our body mounts an antibody response. This leads to what is called serum sickness.

Decoding the genome:

• In the Indian cobra genome, the researchers have identified 19 key toxin genes, the only ones that should matter in snakebite treatment.
• They stress the need to leverage this knowledge for creation of safe and effective anti-venom using synthetic human antibodies.
• The next step would be obtaining the genomes and the venom gland genes from the other three of the “big four” and the deadly African species.

Way forward:

• However, there is a very long way to go from genomes to effective anti-snake venoms.

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Betrayals from outside and within (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1: Society
Prelims level : Islamic State
Mains level : Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism and secularism.

Context:

• The fight against the Islamic State (IS) was won with the help of three major forces on the ground, for the Western coalition on its own would not have managed to do much with remote-controlled bombs.
• These were the Kurds, the Shia militia and ordinary Muslims (Sunni and Shia) who spoke up against the kind of Islam espoused by the IS and its supporters, choking the movement of easy recruits.
• Towards the end of 2019, Donald Trump’s America betrayed the Kurds and abandoned them.
• In early 2020, with the ‘targeted killing’ of Qassem Soleimani, Trump’s America betrayed the second partner.
• The very Shia forces with which the West had collaborated in both Afghanistan and Iraq to fight al-Qaeda and the IS.

Narrow identity:

• At the core of the crisis in the so-called Muslim world is not the U.S. or any other external factor. It is the narrowness of Muslims themselves.
• It is the narrowness of their understanding of themselves.
• By failing to allow other Muslims to believe or not to believe in their own ways, they do not just divide themselves up — persecuting the atheists, Ahmedis, Bohras, Shias, Sunnis etc. — they also cut themselves off from other communities.
• If you cannot allow fellow Muslims to differ openly, how will you accept Hindus or Sikhs who do not believe like you do?

Conclusion:

• This is at the heart of the problem. Religious Muslims need to expand their understanding of Islam in order to embrace — and be embraced by — the world.

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It is high time the National Defence University takes off (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Defense and Security
Prelims level : National Defence University
Mains level : Reforms in military education system

Context:

• Generals, Admirals and Air Marshals must move away from their comfort zone of “being in charge” on the battlefield, and smoothly make the transition to being “combat enablers and policy advisers”.
• Immediate challenges rest in the sub-conventional and limited war domains.
• It is these domains that demand high levels of proficiency and autonomous leadership qualities at the unit, battalion, squadron and brigade levels, with the senior leadership playing primarily a facilitating role.
• If this is an outcome that India’s military needs to strive for, the path must be shaped by a new kind of education.

Improvement in military institution:

• The military’s existing educational institutions should remove training from their curriculum”.
• This, he argued will “free up time for academic study in subjects such as international relations, strategic theory, geopolitics and conflict analysis and resolution”.
• Senior leaders, he suggested, need to retrain themselves to move away from rigid chains of command, and learn to “respectfully disagree, balance multiple viewpoints and opinions, and present complex arguments” to diverse audiences.

Demands on senior leadership

• We are entering a period of momentous change in which the war of networks and ideas is overtaking the established state.
• We need to take a close look at what propels this warfare.
• If chaos is the signature of modern warfare, it must be countered with more unpredictability and chaos, something that is alien to structured militaries the world over.
• Traditional military skills, systematic problem solving and structured thinking have to be supplemented with creatively modified academic and intellectual skills at every level.”
• Some of these reflections should strike a chord in India among those within the national security establishment who feel that educational reform is long overdue in the Indian military.

Way forward:

• The process must begin at the top.
• One of the major responsibilities of the armed forces’ leadership is to crystal gaze into the future and suggest military capabilities and structures that would keep pace with the rapid changes in warfare, geopolitics and technology, and arm the man behind the machine with the necessary skills and intellectual armour required to stay ahead of competitors and adversaries.
• This is an imperative if India wants to move up the strategic value chain, from being a regional power to a leading power.
• Of the several attributes that a military leader in India must possess, it is not so much the operational or technological domain that demands special attention, but the intellectual dimension.

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A multilateral alternative, by Asia (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level : Belt and Road Initiative
Mains level : Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context:

• After a gap of 200 years, Asian economies are again larger than the rest of the world’s combined.
• As India and China resolve their border dispute, Asia is providing the multilateral alternative to a world divided by values, and no longer by ideology.

Asian Century:

• The phrase ‘Asian Century’ is said to have arisen in the 1988 meeting between Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, re-establishing relations after the India-China border conflict in 1962.
• It responds to the re-emergence of the two countries, leveraging size and technological competence to shape a new order that reflects their civilisational values which are distinct from those of the West.
• The travails of the West, for example, stagnating incomes of the middle class and also climate change, confirm that the global division is now based on values, as has been the case throughout civilisation.
• Even notions of a balance of power are a western construct, as the Asian giants have by and large lived in peace across the ages.
• China, in 2013, after attaining 15% of global wealth, announced the multilateral Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and in 2014, launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, challenging the global governance paradigm.
• In 2015, emerging India established the International Solar Alliance, laying out a distinct global sustainable development framework, and seeking a triumvirate.

From U.S. perspective:

• The United States has recognised the ‘Asian Century’ bypassing multilateralism; its direct dealings with China and India and the Indo-Pacific construct are examples.
• The way the U.S. defined human rights solely in political and procedural terms, withdrew from climate change after shifting the burden onto developing countries and the forced inclusion of intellectual property rights into the trade regime illustrate the colonial origins of current multilateralism now being questioned by even its proponents and not just by Asia.

New frameworks:

• The decisive shift responds both to the Asian growth engine and to Asian technology.
• Global competition is moving away from country-specific actions to fragmented competition, transformed by global value chains accounting for three-quarters of the growth in global trade over the 20-year period: 1993-2013.
• There is no provision in global trade rules for company-specific concerns where the global digital economy rather than countries are determinants of wealth and power.
• Imposing U.S.-determined national security standards on the world has led to only a handful of countries agreeing to ban Huawei 5G technology,
• This has angered Europe over sanctions on companies building a gas pipeline from Russia; sanctions on Iran have affected India’s interests, impacting long-term relations and forcing a tacit choice between the two systems.
• The BRI bilateral agreements optimise, not maximise, financial returns with countries having an effective veto by remaining outside. Countries support the BRI.\
• It covers the territories of 72 countries and 70% of the world population as a network-based evolving process even with market-based interest rates because of benefits of connectivity and integration into Eurasian markets.
• Half of future BRI funding is expected from multinational corporations and multilateral banks, adding to their stake in solving difficulties.

Potential of BRI:

• The BRI provides a strategic framework for new global institution building as its scope is as wide as multilateral treaties.
• The state-owned enterprises in infrastructure sectors in the BRI, with backing from national banks, are contributing to internationalisation of the Renminbi, enhancing China’s role in global economic governance.
• As the world leader in digital transactions China is developing block chain-based financial infrastructure in BRI countries and exploring an international block-chain currency for digital settlements without relying on the dollar, thus reducing U.S. leverage.
• With the speed and scale of such change, rising Asia remains wary of China and is eager, as is China, that India joins the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, poised to become the world’s largest trading bloc because of the huge Indian market.
• With the U.S. military ‘pivot to Asia’, China is keen to resolve the border dispute with India to avoid constraints.
• The recent India-China Summit on boundary issues resolved to work out a “framework on a roadmap to a final solution on border issues”;
• India has rejected American opposition to Huawei taking part in 5G trials.
• The Indian government has allowed all applicants, including Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, to participate.

New values:

• The contours of the new order should not be seen through a western prism.
• In 2018, China was the largest supplier of goods to the U.S.; it has also been India’s major trading partner.
• Every big state has bilateral relations with all three, and they take part in limited sectoral cooperation on a regional basis. \
• Even faraway NATO has recently discussed the implications of the rise of China; China, like India, is not part of any collective security system.
• Both the U.S. and China have regular high-level discussions on strategic issues with India, recognising its demographic, technological and resource potential to be part of a future global triumvirate.

What are the implications of this state of flux?

• Asia formed two-thirds of world GDP, and colonialism, not stagnation, led to a decline of the Asian giants.
• Their re-emergence is not part of a global transformation of “westernization”.
• The border problem, too, is a remnant of colonialism and not the result of aggression.
• The U.S., China and India will retain their civilisational models into the future. In Asia, differences will centre on overlapping priorities — security (the U.S.’s efforts to maintain hegemony), economic (China’s emphasis on connectivity, markets and growth) and equitable sustainable development (India-led framework of digital infrastructure designed as a public good).
• By 2030, there is every possibility of a triumvirate

Conclusion:

• Asia, and Africa, former colonies with conditions closer to India than to China, are waiting for late-comer India, a civilisational state like China, to lay out its vision of a digital, cooperative, sustainable multilateral strategic framework to complement the frameworks of the other two powers.
• Early concrete moves for their simultaneous rise are in the global interest.

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From the brink of war: on U.S.-Iran conflict (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level : Article 51 of the UN Charter
Mains level : Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests

Context:

• The latest spell of conflict between the U.S. and Iran turned full circle on Wednesday when Tehran launched ballistic missile attacks at American troops in two military bases in Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
• In its first direct attack on U.S. forces, Iran targeted Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan in the north, and Al-Asad in the west, which is some 400 km away from the Iranian border.

An act of retaliation and capability:

• Foreign Minister Javad Zarif invoked Article 51 of the UN Charter, which allows member-states to take military actions in self defence if they come under attack.
• He said Iran has taken and concluded “proportionate measures in self-defence”, which can be interpreted that Iran is now ready for de-escalation.
• The man who is primarily responsible for the current explosive situation is U.S. President Donald Trump.
• His decision to kill Soleimani, a top Iranian military leader who commanded the elite Qods Force for over two decades, in the Iraqi capital, was practically an act of war, forcing the Islamic regime to respond.
• However, despite the wide range of rhetoric issued by Iranian military leaders and hard-line politicians, what Tehran actually did was to launch a calculated, limited strike.
• It is as much an act of revenge as an opportunity for de-escalation.

Moves taken by U.S.

• The Pentagon’s assessments suggested there were no American casualties and only minimal damage in the attacks.
• Mr. Trump, in his response later on Wednesday, has signalled that he was backing away from further conflicts with Iran. If the U.S. had responded with air strikes or missile attacks inside Iran, it could have triggered further attacks from Iran, setting off a cycle of violence and aggression.
• A direct shooting match between the U.S. and Iran would have been disastrous for the whole of West Asia.
• Iran may be a weaker power compared to America’s conventional military might, but it is a formidable rival.

Way ahead:

• It not only has ballistic missiles and a wide range of rockets but also a host of militias under its command across the region.
• It could have made an invasion and air strikes on its territories extremely costly for the U.S. and its allies.
• It could also have disrupted global oil supply by attacking the Gulf waterways.
• By any assessment, a direct war would have been catastrophic. Mr. Trump did well to step back and not push the Gulf region into a disastrous cycle of violence and destruction.

Conclusion:

• The international community should now push for a diplomatic settlement of the crisis and find ways to revive the nuclear deal which could bring long-term peace to the Gulf. And Iran should seize this opportunity for de-escalation.

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(Download) UPSC IES Exam Paper - 2020 "Civil Engineering"

Exam Name: Engineering Services Exam (IES)

Paper : Civil Engineering

Year: 2020

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Smart Cities Mission needs to be efficient, socially inclusive (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Smart City mission
Mains level: Challenges ahead for achieving Smart City mission

Context:

• In 2014, the NDA government had announced that it will set up 100 smart cities across the country.
• The objective of the Mission was to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, and a clean and sustainable environment with the application of technology.

About Smart City mission:

• 81 per cent of the projects proposed under the Smart City Mission have been tendered out, while 25 per cent of the projects stand completed.
• A total of 5,151 projects worth ₹2,05,018 crore have been proposed by cities participating in the Smart Cities Mission.
• Due to the lack of coordination between various agencies implementing the project and lopsided priorities when it comes to investing the funds allocated under the programme.

Reasons behind the progress lacking behind:

• Globally, a smart city is built on a communication network that gathers data from smart devices and sensors embedded in roadways, power grids, buildings and other assets to create efficient services.
• But cities selected under India’s Smart Cities Mission are busy focussing on basic infrastructure.
• The Mission cities are putting their highest share of investment (16.60 per cent) into urban transport development.
• Despite cities facing a solid-waste management crisis, only 2.4 per cent of the funds have been allocated towards this issue.
• Social sectors and storm-water drainage are also low on priority. Lack of coordination between various government agencies and project execution is another area of concern. In some areas, Smart City Missions have created a parallel mechanism of governance instead of strengthening local governing bodies.
• There is also little attempt being made to create awareness among citizens about the need for such cities.
• Some of these smart cities are being built from the ground up, on land currently owned by villagers who complain that the project is being thrust on them without considering their requirements.
• A World Economic Forum paper recently pointed out that people’s participation in the Smart City Mission is limited to digital literates, potentially skewing opinions.

Way ahead:

• The Centre needs to urgently initiate systemic reforms if it wants to make India’s cities future-ready.
• By 2050, about 70 per cent of the global population will be living in cities, and India is no exception. India will need about 500 new cities to accommodate the influx into its urban regions.

Conclusion:

• The Smart City Mission has raised great expectations. But commitment from the State governments and governance reform at all levels of government is required to make it a success.
• Institutional reform, as well as an inclusive notion of city spaces, is required to take the Smart City project ahead. Cities need to be not just technologically smart, but liveable for all.

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On unmet emission goals (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level : Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Mains level : Highlights the new report by IPCC

Context:

• Two important reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), on the impact of higher global temperatures on land, oceans and the cryosphere, lend further urgency to the task before countries now meeting in Madrid for the UN conference.
• The member-nations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have been trying to finalise measures under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to commodify carbon emissions cuts, and to make it financially attractive to reduce emissions.

Major findings:

• The IPCC scientists research helps the international community decide on actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• It has been threat the most optimistic scenarios, human health, livelihoods, biodiversity and food systems face a serious threat from climate change.
• In the case of oceans and frozen areas on land, accelerated rates of loss of ice, particularly in Greenland.
• The Arctic and the Antarctic, will produce a destructive rise in sea levels; increases in tropical cyclone winds, rainfall and extreme waves, combined with relative sea level rise, will exacerbate catastrophic sea level events.
• All this will deal a blow also to the health of fish stocks.
• The countries with a long coastline, including India, is that local sea level anomalies that occurred once in a century may become annual events, due to the projected global mean sea level rise over the 21st century.
• This is an alarming scenario for the 680 million residents of low-lying coastal areas, whose population may go up to one billion by 2050, and for those living in small islands.

Why the new assessment is significant?

• The new IPCC assessment underscores the need for unprecedented and urgent action in all countries that have significant greenhouse gas emissions.
• It strengthens the case for industrialised nations to provide liberal, transparent funding to developing countries under the Paris Agreement, reinforcing the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities, and recognising that rich countries reduced the carbon space available to the poor.
• The developed world will be focusing in Madrid on creating a global system of accounting for emissions reductions, introducing credible carbon markets, and making some of the gains from these markets available to developing nations to invest in green energy.
• The scientists have a high degree of certainty on losses that will arise from climate change, there must be steady progress on addressing damage.

Way forward:

• The existing Nationally Determined Contributions filed under the Paris Agreement fall short and need augmenting.
• There is a yawning gap between planned emissions cuts, and what needs to be done by 2030 to contain global temperature rise at 1.5°C.

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Undoing harms (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level: Citizenship Amendment Act
Mains level: Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure

Context:

• There is a country wide protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 which was passed recently.

What could be done?

• The government must pay attention to bring out meaningful changes that would dispel fears gripping the country, especially minorities.

Further amend the Act: Drop its religion specific wording

• There is a need to further amend the Act, even by an ordinance, to drop its religion specific wording, and make it explicit that the benefit would be open to all undocumented migrants who can prove persecution in their home countries.
• There is no need to bar Muslims for allowing a Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Buddhist or Parsi to apply for citizenship after staying in the country for six years from making a similar claim.

Relaxation of minimum residency requirement:

• General enabling provision to allow a relaxation of the minimum residency requirement will serve the purpose of considering citizenship to any persecuted people.
• This would be non-discriminatory, without obligation to grant citizenship.

Enact a refugee law:

• India should enact a refugee law wherein the right to live a life without fear or confinement can be protected.
• If the fear is that people may seek permanent asylum, the UNHCR can work with them officially for their voluntary repatriation, and without rendering longterm refugees ineligible for applying for citizenship.

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There’s hope for the rare Great Indian Bustard (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: Great Indian Bustard
Mains level: Challenges ahead to conservation of species

Context:

• Once the frontrunner to be named India’s national bird, the Great Indian Bustard has long been on the brink of extinction.
• The Great Indian Bustard (GIB), is one of the heaviest flying birds, and is found mainly in the Indian subcontinent.
• Barely 150 of these birds are estimated to be surviving now globally. However, a major conservation effort launched about four years ago is bringing a ray of hope.

Nine chicks:

• Since June last year, nine GIB eggs collected from the Desert National Park in Jaisalmer where a conservation centre has been set up, have hatched, and the chicks are reported to be doing well.
• This is the largest number of hatchings reported within a six-month frame by any GIB conservation programme in the world, say officials.
• Forest officials have identified seven females and one male among the GIB chicks; the sex of the ninth and youngest chick, which hatched a couple of months ago, is not yet known.
• The GIB is known to eat insects, harvested foodgrains, and fruit. “The uncontrolled use of pesticides and insecticides in farms has badly hit their food habitat,” said Tomar, who took over as the project head in early 2019.
• Vanishing grasslands, and attacks by dogs and foxes have contributed to the threat to the GIB’s survival.

Conservation:

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, are working to save the GIB.
• The Ministry has allotted special funds to the tune of Rs 33 crore, a part of which was used to set up the incubation and chick-rearing centre in Jaisalmer.
• In a report submitted to the Ministry in November 2018, the WII said extensive land surveys have been carried out to locate suitable habitats for the chicks.
• Officials have zeroed in on 14 spots, based rainfall, accessibility, proximity to wild source, habitat and topographic suitability, availability of water, temperature, etc., and identified Sorsan as the site most conducive for their rearing.

Challenges:

• Male birds reach sexual maturity between the ages of 4 and 5; females at age 3-4. Generally, the GIB lives up to age 15 or 16, experts said.
• A female lays an egg once in 1-2 years, and the chicks’ survival rate is 60%-70%.
• Being such long-lived and slow reproducing species, adult mortality remains high.
• According to the WII report, the bird was once abundant in Kutch, Nagpur, Amravati, Solapur, Bellary, and Koppal districts in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.
• Karnataka has expressed interest in working with us, but there is nothing concrete from Maharashtra so far.

Way ahead:

• Globally and in India, high voltage power lines are a major threat to the GIB.
• The bird has poor frontal vision, which restricts it from spotting power lines early. About 15% of the population (dies) due to the power lines in Jaisalmer alone.
• This, in comparison to the natural cause of deaths contributed only 4% to 5% cases.

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Taking stock of infant deaths (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Health
Prelims level : Infant mortality rate
Mains level : Welfare schemes for the vulnerable sections

Context:

• Every day, India witnesses the death of an estimated 2,350 babies aged less than one year. Among them, an average 172 are from Rajasthan and 98 from Gujarat.
• In 2014, of every 1,000 children born in the country, 39 did not see their first birthday. Today, that figure has come down to 33. That is 1,56,000 fewer deaths every year.
• As outrage continues over the deaths of babies in J K Lon Hospital in Kota, Rajasthan, and in the civil hospital in Rajkot, Gujarat, the fact remains that India has the most child deaths in the world. In 2017, UNICEF estimated 8,02,000 babies had died in India.

How high are the mortality numbers?

• India has an annual birth cohort of approximately 26 million. The infant mortality rate (IMR) in the country currently stands at 33 per 1,000 live births. This means babies numbering in the region of 8,50,000 die every year in India, or an average daily toll to 2,350.
• Gujarat has an annual birth cohort of 1.2 million. In 2017, the infant mortality rate in the state was 30 per 1,000 live births. This means the state sees about 36,000 deaths a year, or an average 98 a day.
• In Rajasthan, an estimated 1.65 million births take place every year. The infant mortality rate is 38 per 1000 live births which implies an estimated 62,843 deaths annually, or an average 172 every day.

Do Gujarat and Rajasthan have the highest infant mortality?

• No. Between 2014 and 2017, India’s IMR has declined by 15.4%. At a decline rate of 17.4%, Rajasthan has been ahead of the national average in reducing IMR while Gujarat has a decline rate of 14.3%.
• The IMR in Rajasthan dropped from 46 per 1,000 live births in 2014 to 38, and in Gujarat from 35 to 30.
• In 2017, states such as Arunachal Pradesh (42), Madhya Pradesh (47), Assam (44), Uttar Pradesh (41), Meghalaya (39), Odisha (41) and Chhattisgarh (38) had a higher IMR than Gujarat and Rajasthan. Arunachal, Tripura and Manipur have recorded a negative reduction rate between 2014 and 2017, which means child death rates there have gone up.
• In Arunachal it went up from 30 to 42, in Tripura from 21 to 29 and in Manipur from 11 to 12.

Why do so many infants die in India every year?

• On January 1, 2020, according to a UNICEF estimate, India, with an estimated 67,385 babies born that day, accounted for 17% of the estimated 392,078 births globally.
• This is higher than the 46,299 babies born in China that day, the 26,039 born in Nigeria and 16,787 born in Pakistan.
• According to the National Family Health Survey-4, only 78.9% births in India happen in a facility.
• This means 21.1% or about 54 lakh births in a year still happen outside of a facility where hygiene levels can be low, sometimes without the help of a trained health worker.
• Apart from the obvious infection risks in a non-institutional birth, vaccine compliance too is usually worse in these cases.
• According to the Health Ministry, the vaccination cover in India after several rounds of Intensified Mission Indradhanush (MI) and the original MI, now stands at 87%. This means over 33 lakh children continue to miss out on some or all vaccinations every year.

What measures are in place for sick newborns?

• Special newborn care units (SNCUs) have been established at district hospitals and sub-district hospitals with an annual delivery load more than 3,000 to provide care for sick newborns: that is, all type of neonatal care except assisted ventilation and major surgeries.
• It is a separate unit in close proximity to the labour room with 12 or more beds, and managed by adequately trained doctors, staff nurses and support staff to provide 24×7 services.
• According to officials in the Health Ministry, approximately 1 million children are admitted to the 996 SNCUs in the country every year with an average death rate of 10%.
• The death rates are usually higher in medical college-based SNCUs like J K Lon (Kota) because they tend to get sicker babies, sometimes from faraway districts when parents rush them there in a last minute effort.
• J K Lon (Kota) for example has a 20% death rate. But that is because the challenges are higher.
• Extramural cases we only take those that are very sick, babies that nobody else will take such a heart disease kidney failure etc.

Conclusion:

• As outrage continues over the deaths of babies in J K Lon Hospital in Kota, Rajasthan, and in the civil hospital in Rajkot, Gujarat.
• The fact remains that India has the most child deaths in the world. In 2017, UNICEF estimated 8,02,000 babies had died in India.

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(The Gist of Science Reporter) Methanol and DME Economy in India

Methanol and DME Economy in India

Introduction

• Globally, production and utilization of methanol have been on the rise due to multiple drivers like availability of cheap raw material like coal and natural gas: securing energy supplies among increasing oil prices; strategic like reduction of oil import bills, and environmental concerns about pollution and climate change.
• Use of methanol as a fuel and chemical intermediate provides multiple avenues for its utilisation with rapidly increasing demand for automobile and consumer sectors. Methanol is an efficient fuel due to its high octane number (~100) and emits lesser pollutants like SOx. NQx and Particulate Matter (PM) as compared to gasoline.
• Methanol-gasoline blends ranging from M15 to M85 have been adopted in countries like China, and it has been established as a transportation fuel along with other applications.
• Methanol can be dehydrated to produce Dimethyl Ether (DME) which can replace diesel and also can be blended with LPG. Other applications of methanol include conversion to chemicals formaldehyde, acetic acid and various olefins like ethylene and propylene.
• The initiative by Niti Aayog towards the “Methanol Economy” promises to help our nation in mitigating petroleum import costs and at the same time counter problems associated with global warming due to excess CO2, emissions. India imported 37% of its total primary energy demand in 2015-16, whereas the import dependence of crude oil and natural gas has increased from 73% and 17% in 2005-06 to 81% and 40% in 2015-16 respectively.
• The current production process for biomethanol involves gasification of biomass to generate syngas which can be converted to methanol using existing catalyst and conversion technology. However, the technology requires cleaning of gas generated and is viable at large scale.
• Due to its relatively high cost biomethanol production is limited as compared to standard methanol Also the challenge in logistic of biomass collection provides the opportunity to develop novel approaches in smaller scale and decentralised production processes that reduce the capital costs of biomethanol plant and benefit the rural communities.

Biogas as Feedstock for Methanol Production

• Anaerobic digestion of agro-residues and agro-industrial waste into biogas provides a sustainable source of energy Biogas contains methane (CH4) as the major component (50%
  -70%) and is an emerging renewable feedstock for fuels and chemicals. Currently, the total biogas production in India is around 2.07 billion m’/year, Biogas produced by digestion of distillery spent wash, food waste, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), sugar and oil industries can serve as a major feedstock for production of methanol.
• The new biofuel policy of India has also put major thrust on the development of Biogas/Bio-CNG plants across the country. According to the estimates of oil marketing companies, approximately 100-120 million tonnes of biogas (50- 60 million tonnes of Bio-CNG) can be produced from different sources. This provides an investment opportunity of around 5000 biogas plants with a capacity of 50 tonnes/day of biogas assuming 300 days of operation.
• Growth in biogas plants can support several applications including methanol along with replacement of imported natural gas for existing applications, Methane can be thermo-chemically converted to methanol using syngas route, but the process requires expensive metal catalysts and operates at high temperatures (200°C-900 °C) and pressures (5-20 MPa), Thermo chemical technologies have a high capital expenditure due to large size of plants and require a methane source that is free of impurities. Moreover, existing technologies for methanol production are inefficient due to multiple steps and by-product generation.
• Biogas contains carbon dioxide (30%-50%) and trace impurities such as hydrogen sulphide (0-2000 ppm) and purification processes to enrich methane makes it an expensive feedstock for chemical conversion.
• Biological conversion of biogas to methanol is an emerging, attractive approach as it may not require biogas purification and uses ambient conditions, reducing operational costs and energy Demands.

Technology Status

• The interest in methanol production is the main driver for research into novel process technologies. However, the current scale of production in the natural gas based methanol plants increases the risks and challenges in the introduction of renewable technology routes. The new biomass based technologies may be better deployed in small-scale plants through savings in feedstock supply chain and consumption in local markets.
• Improvements in gasification technology can be applied to both renewable and non-renewable sources of methanol. Conventional gasification such as fixed bed, fluidized bed and entrained flow reactors have been proven for commercial biomass to power applications and can be adapted to produce biomethanol. However, high investment costs, low gas quality and poor efficiencies have limited their application to liquid fuel production.
• New developments in gasification technologies are focused on plasma gasification along with exploration of improved process integration and intensification for biomethanol production. Although these approaches are technically feasible they are not yet economically attractive for biomass to methanol conversion.
• A fermentation-based technology for methanol production can be developed using methanotrophic bacteria, which possess the ability to convert methane to methanol using methane monooxygenase enzyme. The major advantage of a fermentation-based technology lies in the direct conversion of methane to methanol vis-a-vis indirect conversion by chemical catalysis route. Direct biochemical conversion to biomethanol at ambient temperatures provides several benefits like improvement in overall yield and selectivity of the process. Fermentation based processes also have lesser operating cost and can be economical at smaller scale as compared to a chemical process. From environmental viewpoint, fermentation processes are cleaner as they generate lesser effluent and greenhouse gases.
• Ethanol production is the best example of a fermentation-based process with wide-ranging capacity plants operating in a decentralised manner. A sugar-ethanol distillery complex installed with a biomethanation system for treating press mud and distillery spent wash can be retrofitted to produce biomethanol from generated biogas, The other benefit of using methanotrophic bacteria lies in its ability minimal media requiring to grow on lesser process inputs. Methanotrophic organisms have better tolerance to impurities like H2S and do not require the cleaning of biogas as in the case of a chemical catalyst. Some of the methanotrophs are reported to utilize CO2, a characteristic that can be further exploited in the biogas to methanol conversion.
• R&D of Biomethanol Production National Status In India, agro-residues and agro-industrial wastes form a major source of bio-resource having the potential for bioenergy. Anaerobically converting them to biogas provides a sustainable energy source as well as simultaneous route to nutrient recycling (nutrient-rich compost) to soil. Some studies have been done on the bioremediation potential of Trichloroethylene (TCE) using methanotrophic organisms. Negligible reports are available on the development of wild type or genetically engineered organisms for conversion of methane to methanol. Also synergistic research areas like development of advanced gas fermentation system for increasing gas to liquid mass transfer rates and life cycle analysis studies of biogas to methanol conversion are lagging in comparison to global status.

R&D of Biomethanol Production International Status

• At the global level, both chemical and biotechnological routes of direct methane to methanol conversion are under development. For direct methane to methanol conversion using chemical catalysis, several approaches like catalytic gas phase oxidation, catalytic liquid phase oxidation and mono-halogenated methane have been studied. These approaches had challenges like low conversion yields and expensive catalyst. Globally, no direct conversion based plants have been built till date.
• The development of MMOs as standalone biocatalysts for methane to methanol bioconversion has been hindered by their structural complexity and requirement for regeneration of reducing power for the biocatalytic reaction.
• A polymeric hydrogel material immobilizing the membrane-bound pMMO has been developed which was embedded in a silicone lattice to construct a flow-through bioreactor for production of methanol up to 600 nmol/mg enzyme.
• Genome scale metabolic reconstruction models have been studied in Methylosinus trichosporium. Methylomicrobium buryatense and Methylomicrobium alcaliphilum. The model for M. buryatense 5G(B1) strain incorporated 841 reactions using whole genome predictions and expression data. Such models can be applied to study and predict metabolic parameters for nutrient and genetic variations to devise strategies for enhanced methanol accumulation and engineer cofactor regeneration. R&D Interventions to Bridge Technological Gaps.
• In order to develop a commercially viable fermentation process for methanol production, more research is required in the area of bioreactor design to improve gas to liquid mass transfer rates. Gas-based fermentation is fundamentally different and more challenging from ‘traditional’ glucose based fermentation for several reasons including the low solubility of methane in aqueous solution; the need to feed multiple gases at high mass transfer rates; and significant heat loads generated from the metabolism of the high-energy methane substrate.
• Significant improvements in the methanotrophic strains would be required to further improve the yield, titer and productivity of methanol. An integrated approach based on modern techniques of genetic engineering, enzyme engineering, reactor design and computational fluid dynamics tools would be useful in designing an efficient biocatalyst and a robust bioprocess for biogas to methanol conversion. Toxicity of methanol is one of the major limiting factors in increasing methanol accumulation by methanotrophic strains. To improve the tolerance of methanotrophs to methanol directed evolution strategies like serial adaptation or chemostat cultivations be employed. Directed evolution strategies can also be applied for overcoming inhibitions from impurities like Hydrogen sulphide present in biogas streams.

Commercialisation Roadmap

• Biomass/MSW based biogas plants can create a viable alternative for methanol production in India which will be competitive at the global scale. Addition of methanol production unit will result in significant value addition to the. Biogas plants resulting in higher revenue for the biogas. As compared to current applications of biogas like steam and power generation, or enrichment to BioCNG, Biogas to Biomethanol conversion can provide maximum returns per unit of biogas produced.
• Development of indigenous technologies will create a viable alternative for methanol production in India which will be competitive at the global scale. The biomethanol production will result in significant value addition to the biogas plants resulting in higher revenue for the biogas as well as the construction of several decentralised small plants across the nation. Biomass-based biogas plants will help in the creation of rural jobs and additional income for fanners. Several small and medium scale industries will be benefitted by the commercialization of biomethanol technology and will help in improving the rural and national economy.

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संघ लोक सेवा आयोग सिविल सेवा - मुख्य परीक्षा (Download) UPSC IAS Mains Exam 2019 समाजशास्त्र (Paper-2)

Exam Name: UPSC IAS Mains SOCIOLOGY (समाजशास्त्र) (Paper-2)
Marks: 250
Time Allowed: 3 Hours.

खण्ड 'A'

Q1. निम्नलिखित प्रत्येक प्रश्न का संक्षिप्त उत्तर लगभग 150 शब्दों में एक समाजशास्त्रीय परिप्रेक्ष्य में लिखिए :

(a) कुर्गों के धर्म समाज पर श्रीनिवास के विचारों का विस्तारण कीजिए|
(b) भारत में कृषक संघर्ष में तेभागा आन्दोलन योगदानों को स्पष्ट कीजिए |
(c) भारत में पट्टेदारी प्रणाली की परिवर्तनशील पहलों का परीक्षण कीजिए |
(d) भारत में जाति का घुर्ये के संकल्पन पर एक टिप्पणी लिखिए |
(e) भारत में स्वायत्तता हेतु जनजातीय समुदाय के बढ़ते स्वाग्रहों पर टिप्पणी कीजिए |

Q2. (a) भारतीय ग्रामों के अध्ययन में दुबे के योगदानों का समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए |
(b) जाति राजनीति क्या है ? अपने उत्तर की पुष्टि सोदाहरण कीजिए कि कैसे पहचान जाति गत्यात्मकता द्वारा परिभाषित होती हैं|
(c) क्या आप सोचते हैं कि भारतीय संत भारतीय समाज में सामाजिक सुधार एवं जागरूकता लाए हैं? व्याख्या कीजिए |

Q3. (a) नृजातीय राष्ट्रवाद क्या है ? भारत में जनजातीय असंतोष हेतु उत्तरदायी समीक्षात्मक कारकों का परीक्षण कीजिए |
(b) कृषक वर्ग वर्ग संरचना के लिए भारत में औद्योगिक विकास एक अभिशाप है या एक वरदान? अपने उत्तर की पुष्टि उपयुक्त उदाहरणों सहित कीजिए |
(c) 'सबाल्टर्न वर्ग' के अध्ययन में रणजीत गुहा के उपागम का एक विवरण दीजिए |

Q4. (a) पितृसत्ता को परिभाषित कीजिए | क्या भारतीय परिवार प्रथा में महिलाओं की हकदारी पर इसका प्रभावोत्पदन है ? व्याख्या कीजिए |
(b) 'अल्पसंख्यक' प्रश्न को आप कैसे समझते हैं ? भारत में धार्मिक अल्पसंख्यकों के प्रति हिंसा और भेदभाव का परीक्षण कीजिए |
(c) एल० जी० बी० टी० क्यू० से आप क्या समझते हैं ? उनके विवाह अधिकारों से सम्बंधित विषयों पर टिप्पणी कीजिए |

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खण्ड 'B'

Q5. निम्नलिखित प्रत्येक प्रश्न का संक्षिप्त उत्तर लगभग 150 शब्दों में एक समाजशास्त्रीय परिप्रेक्ष्य में लिखिए |

(a) भारत में उच्चतर शिक्षा के वाणिज्यीकरण के समीक्षात्मक विषयों पर टिप्पणी कीजिए |
(b) भारत में ग्रामीण विकास कार्यकर्मों के क्रियांवयन में चुनौतियों की विवेचना कीजिए |
(c) भारत में नागरवाद का एक जीवन-पद्धति के रूप में विस्तार कीजिए |
(d) भारत की परिवर्तनशील लोकतान्त्रिक रुपरेखा पर टिप्पणी कीजिए |
(e) भारत में बढती नगरीय विस्थापन गत्यात्मकता के सरोकारों की व्याख्या कीजिए |

Q6. (a) भारतीय मिश्रित अर्थव्यवस्था में विकास नियोजन के महत्व का परिक्षण कीजिए तथा इसकी समस्याओं व संभावनाओं का विश्लेषण कीजिए |
(b) भारत में 'नदियों के अंत:संबंधन' परियोजना की मुख्य विशिष्टताओं को आलोकित कीजिए | भारतीय कृषि को उससे क्या-क्या संभावित लाभ मिल सकते हैं ?
(c) क्या हरित आवरण में ह्रास ने पारिस्थितिकी अवनयन को प्रभावित कर भूमंडलीय तापन को अग्रमित किया है ? अपने उत्तर का दृष्टान्तों सहित विस्तारण कीजिए |

Q7. (a) क्या आप सोचते हैं कि 'विमुद्रिकर्ण' ने भारत में आर्थिक वृद्धि को गतिमान किया है? इस सन्दर्भ में श्रम के अनौपचारिकरण, अल्परोजगारी और लैंगिक (जेंडर) भेदभाव को आप कैसे समझते हैं?
(b) 'स्वच्छ भारत अभियान' के निहितार्थों की विवेचना कीजिए| क्या आप सोचते हैं कि इसमें नागरिक समाज की कोई भूमिका है? आपने उत्तर की पुष्टि सोदहरण कीजिए |
(c) क्या आप सहमत हैं कि सामाजिक आन्दोलन मीडिया द्वारा उत्पन्न अवसर संरचनाओं से प्रेरित होते हैं ? क्यों ?

Q8. (a) 'सक्रीय आयुर्वृद्धि' एक भुस्थानीय (glocal) लक्ष्य क्यों बन गया है? क्या आप सहमत हैं कि विकासशील देशों में बुजुर्गी देखभाल का दायित्व लैंगिक अनुपातहीनता से घिरा हुआ है ? क्यों?
(b) पी० ओ० एस० एच० अधिनियम क्या है? "आज भी कार्यस्थल पर उत्पीड़क की पहचान महिलाओं द्वारा सरलता से नहीं हो पाती है|" इस कथन का वास्तविक भारतीय उदाहरणों सहित परीक्षण कीजिए|
(c) 'सामाजिक सुरक्षा' क्या है? भारत में सरकार द्वारा अपनाए गए अभिनव सुरक्षा उपायों का परीक्षण कीजिए |

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California’s data privacy law (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Security
Prelims level: California Consumer Privacy Act
Mains level: Challenges to internal security through communication networks

Context:

• California’s new privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), recently went into effect.

Aim:

• The Act gives Californians new controls over how companies use their data.
• These controls include ;
• The right to access the data,
• The right to ask for its deletion,
• The right to prevent its sale to third parties,
• Significantly, because of the global nature of the Internet, these changes will affect users worldwide.

Rights of the CCPA give Californian users:

• The users will have the right to see what personal information businesses collect about them, and the purpose and process of the collection.
• [Personal information refers to any information that can be linked back to the user.
• Users can request and view what inferences the businesses make about them.
• They also have the right to see details about their personal information being sold or given to a third party.
• Users can make businesses delete their personal information, and opt out of having their data sold to third parties.
• The law lays out some exceptions too.
• These include information necessary for completing transactions, providing a service, protecting consumer security, and protecting freedom of speech.
• Users can get a copy of the collected personal information for free.
• Parents have to give permission to companies before the companies can sell the data of their children under the age of 13 to third parties.

Which companies does the law apply to?

• The law only applies to businesses with gross annual revenues of more than $25 million that buy, receive or sell the personal information of 50,000 or more consumers in California that derive more than half of their annual revenue from selling consumers’ personal information.
• The law applies to businesses collecting information of Californians and not just to businesses that operate in the state.

What will the implications be?

• Unintentional noncompliance will lead to fines of $2,500 per violation.
• Intentional noncompliance will attract a penalty of $7,500 per violation.
• Some studies estimate it will cost businesses $55 billion to initially meet the standards.
• Of this, $16 billion is expected to be spent over the next decade.
• Reportedly, the law protects $12 billion worth of personal information that is used for advertising in California every year.

What has changed in practical terms?

• The law went into effect on January 1, 2020.
• The California Attorney General (AG) has not begun enforcing the act yet.
• The AG will be allowed to take action 6 months after the rules are finalised.
• At the very least, companies will need to set up web pages and phone numbers to take requests.
• Users also may begin to see a new button on websites stating “Do Not Sell My Personal Information”.
• Several large companies have set up new infrastructure to comply.
• Google launched a Chrome extension to block Google Analytics from collecting data.
• Facebook has said that the law does not apply to them since they do not “sell” data, and that they already have features that comply with the law.

How does this affect non-Californians?

• Primarily, even Indian companies that have customers in California would have to comply with the law.
• Many firms are finding it easier to make the legal changes for all users rather than trying to distinguish users from California.
• E.g. the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) too, shifted the entire Internet economy, not just that of the EU

What are the concerns?

• The Act gives users the right to stop the selling of their data, but not the collection of their data.
• So, this regulates the data broker system.
• However, it does not do much to affect companies like Facebook and Google that make most of their money by collecting the data, not by selling it.
• Advertisers pay Facebook to target ads to users based on that data; they do not pay Facebook for the data itself.
• Also, the Act seems to place the burden of navigating this complex economy on users.
• There are also concerns that many of the provisions are vaguely worded.\
• E.g. the Act leaves concepts such as “third-party sharing” or “selling” to interpretation
• Also, compliance challenges are expected to be greater with CCPA than with the GDPR.

Way forward:

• Several of the rights discussed above are also in India’s Personal Data Protection Bill.
• These include the right to access a copy of one’s data, and the right to deletion.
• India’s bill goes further in some regards, including the right to correction.
• However, India’s bill is more focused on users’ rights over collections.
• On the other hand, California’s act is focused more on the third-party sharing and selling of a user’s data.

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