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The wheels to a low-carbon transport system (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3 : Environment
Prelims level : Low-carbon transport system
Mains level : Importance of the low-carbon transport system

• Context

• Congested streets and polluted air are common experiences in India’s metropolises, although the average Indian contributes only minuscule amounts of transport-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to global climate change.
• Patterns of road transport, however, diverge wildly between cities and districts.
• Delhi tops the charts and emissions are more than twice as high as other Indian megacities, such as Mumbai, Bengaluru or Ahmedabad.

Key highlights of the study

• India’s road transport emissions are small in global comparison but increasing exponentially.
• The Global Carbon Project reports that India’s carbon emissions are rising more than two times as fast as the global rise in 2018.
• Globally, the transport sector accounts for a quarter of total emissions, out of which three quarters are from road transport.
• Reducing CO2 emissions of road transport leverages multiple co-benefits, for example, improving air quality and increasing physical activity, which are critical for well-being, particularly in urban areas.
• Climate action also requires an understanding of how emissions vary with spatial context.

Situation in India

• In India, we find in our new study (published in Environmental Research Letters), that income and urbanisation are the key determinants of travel distance and travel mode choice and, therefore, commuting emissions.
• The way cities are built and the design of public transit are critical for low-carbon mobility systems.
• The study is based on the most recent results of the Indian Census in 2011.
• Average commuting emissions in high-emitting districts (Delhi) are 16 times higher than low-emitting districts (most districts in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh).
• Average per capita commuting emissions are highest for the most affluent districts, which are predominantly urban, and that heavily use four-wheelers for commuting.
• This is a surprising result, as in other parts of the world such as the United States, commuting emissions are low in urban areas but high in suburban or ex-urban settings.
• In contrast, average per capita commuting emissions are lowest for Indian districts that are poor, and commuting distances are short and rarely use three-wheelers.

Focus on well-being

• Two policy implications follow. First, mayors and town planners should organise cities around public transport and cycling, thereby improving mobility for many, while limiting car use.
• Uptake of non-motorised transport emerges as a sweet spot of sustainable development, resulting in both lower emissions and better public health in cities.
• According to the recent National Family Health Survey (2015-16), nearly 30% of all men are overweight or obese in southwest Delhi, but only 25% in Thiruvananthapuram and 13% in Allahabad.
• These data correlate with high reliance of car use in Delhi and low demand for walking.

India Human Development Survey highlights

• The India Human Development Survey shows that a 10% increase in cycling could lower chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases for 0.3 million people, while also abating emissions.
• Car use, in contrast, correlates with higher rates of diabetes.
• Therefore, fuel price increases, congestion charges or parking management could be a strategy that improves the well-being of individuals living in urban areas.
• In contrast, fuel price increases would be detrimental in poorer rural areas, impairing mobility where there is a lack of alternatives.

Technology transition

• India should double down in its strategy to transition to electric two and three-wheelers.
• India is the third-largest market for automobiles; about 25 million internal combustion engines were sold in 2017, including about 20 million two-wheelers.
• A recent study reports that India has 1.5 million battery-powered three-wheeler rickshaw (over 300,000 e-rickshaws sold in 2018).
• In the coming years, experts judge that the electric three-wheeler market is expected to grow by at least 10% per year.
• In 2019, nearly 110,000 electric two-wheelers were also sold, and the annual growth rate may be above 40% per year.
• The current statistics even suggest that electric three-wheelers and electric two-wheelers, rather than electric cars, will drive the electric vehicle market in India.
• Electric car sales are minuscule and even falling (dropping from 2,000 in 2017 to 1,200 in 2018).
• Consumers realise the practical advantages of lighter in weight two- and three-wheelers that require much smaller and less powerful batteries and are easily plugged in at home.

Way ahead

• India is one of the world’s largest producers and consumers in two- and three- wheelers and Indian companies can take a leading role in switching to electric vehicles.
• This will also help in transforming India’s vision of ‘Make in India’.
• Compact cities improve accessibility and reduce emissions from transport and even the building sector.
• Most Indian cities are already very dense, with few benefits expected by further high-rise. City managers should ensure that existing urban areas provide short routes and fast access to schools, hospitals and jobs, otherwise, residents would be required to travel long distances.

Conclusion

• To achieve this aim, mayors and decision-makers need to rethink how to deliver basic services such as education and health.
• Building schools and hospitals matters especially for informal settlements and are critical in achieving low carbon development as well as improving the quality of life.
• Providing access to public service, choosing rapid transit over car driving in cities and supporting the rise of electric two and three-wheelers will help drive India to a modern and low-carbon transport system fit for the 21st century.

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Trump in North Korea (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: Demilitarised zone
Mains level: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s
interests

Context

• U.S. President Donald Trump made history when he stepped on to North Korean soil from the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas.
• The U.S. President appears committed to diplomacy in dealing with North Korea.

Significance

• Stability in Korean peninsula and containing the threat of North-Korea’s Nuclear ventures are the two things that makes the president's visit significant.
• Further, he is the only American President to have visited North Korea, the isolated, nuclear-armed dictatorship that is historically seen as an enemy in Washington’s policy establishment.
• North Korea seized the opportunity, and both leaders met at the DMZ, held talks for nearly an hour and decided to resume parleys that have stalled since the two leaders’ failed summit in Hanoi.
• Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim have met and decided to set up teams on both sides to hold negotiations, the impasse is broken. But key challenges remain.
• Pyongyang, though often cryptic in its responses, has also shown interest in staying engaged with the U.S. Mr. Kim has, in principle, agreed to denuclearize the peninsula, which is the goal of the U.S. as well.

US-North Korea Negotiations

• North Korea had agreed to close down the Yongbyon facility, its main nuclear fuel production site.
• But, the U.S. rejected the offer, saying the North’s nuclear capability is now much more diversified and goes beyond that one plant.
• When they resume talks, the question of how much the North should compromise to get at least a partial reprieve from sanctions will be back. If the U.S. sticks to its maximalist demands such as complete denuclearisation, the talks are likely to run into trouble again.
• Here, nuclear weapons are its insurance against potential external aggression, and it would accede to total denuclearization only if its security concerns are ensured and sanctions are fully withdrawn. Both sides should learn from their failure in Hanoi. They can take small steps towards the final goal.

Way forward

• In sum, The U.S. could demand a total freeze on North Korea’s nuclear activities, besides shutting down Yongbyon, which the North has already agreed to, in return for providing
  partial reprieve from sanctions.
• Constructive and reciprocal confidence-building measures can make sure that the efforts will not go waste.

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5G spectrum pricing: Against national interest (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: 5G spectrum pricing and consequences

Context

• The decision by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to stick to its stand on pricing 5G spectrum does not augur well for the debt-laden telecom sector and, more importantly, for the propagation of affordable data services in the country.

Background

• In August, the regulator had set a base price of ₹492 crore per megahertz for the 3,300-3,600 MHz band, which has been earmarked for 5G services.
• Since every operator requires at least 100 MHz of spectrum to offer 5G, an operator will have to cough up ₹49,200 crore for spectrum alone.
• Such a payout would put more burden on the telecom sector given that the operators are already reeling under a debt of over ₹4 lakh crore.

Acknowledged by DoT

• The Department of Telecom had acknowledged the financial constraints faced by the industry while asking TRAI to review the reserve price.
• The DoT reminded the regulator that the goal of National Digital Communication Policy 2018 includes achieving digital empowerment and improved well-being of the people of the country, and one of the objectives of

NDCP is to provide broadband for all.

• Thus, pricing of spectrum should facilitate inclusive and affordable 5G services.
• The DoT had also said that the demand for spectrum is likely to be subdued due to consolidation in the market with just three players remaining and, therefore, the objective should be to sell the entire spectrum which is put for auction rather than having a situation where a large quantum of spectrum remains unsold.
• It was clear from the DoT’s note to TRAI that the policymakers did not want a repeat of the previous auction when it did not get a single bid for the 700 MHz band due to the high reserve price.
• It is surprising that TRAI has chosen to ignore these cues and has declined to reduce the reserve price.
• The regulator’s stand is flawed as it does not take into account various factors including the declining revenue generated by the industry and the operators’ capacity to pay.

Setback of flawed pricing

• It will be a huge setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India vision if the operators decline to bid for 5G spectrum because of the flawed pricing.
• India cannot afford to have another failed auction just when data consumption in the country is growing exponentially.
• 5G will enable the delivery of critical services such as tele-surgery and Internet of Things over a mobile network with unprecedented efficiency, in addition to opening the floodgates for innovative applications that require a massive amount of high-speed bandwidth.

Way forward

• The biggest benefit for millions of mobile users in a country like India, where call drops and poor data connectivity have become the norm, is that 5G promises to make wireless networks close to what wireline broadband networks offers uninterrupted service and unlimited bandwidth. Indian consumers cannot be robbed of these services.
• The DoT should ignore the TRAI’s pricing and should set a reserve price that is more in sync with national objectives.

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Opting out of e-comm talks, a good idea (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: e-comm talks
Mains level: To focussing on owning and processing its own data.

Context

• The plurilateral negotiations on e-commerce among 76 countries (EU and 43 other countries), which were launched in the beginning of this year, has raised concerns and anxiety amongst industry and policymakers in India.

Inherent fear

• The fear of losing out by not participating in the ongoing negotiations is primarily based on two arguments.
• First, India will lose out on the opportunity to shape the on-going negotiations in e-commerce, especially around the rules governing data, and second, if India decides to join later it will have to pay the cost, mainly by accepting the negotiated outcomes.
• These arguments have been reinforced by the recent retaliation from the US in terms of removal of India from its GSP beneficiary list as well as threats over H1-B visas and a frontal attack on India’s tariff and subsidies by advanced countries.
• Experts and policymakers are jittery and wonder whether India can afford to take the stand of not engaging in the e-commerce negotiations.
• What is intriguing here is the pressure put on India to join the negotiations by the western powers.

The centrality of data

• The reason for this is simple. Data is the heart of the digital revolution, the key resource which can make or break a country in the digital era.
• All digital technologies like Big data analytics, artificial intelligence, IoT, Robotics, etc need data for them to become more efficient and intelligent.
• But who generates data? The larger the population of a country the larger will be the amount of data generated and younger the population the more will be the data generated.
• India’s 1.3-billion population is bigger than the population of OECD members (36 countries) taken together! Sixty six per cent of its population falls in the age group of 15-64, which is around 18 per cent of the world’s young population.
• This amounts to huge data being generated every second in India, which is extremely valuable for the West for making efficient digital products and services in the future.
• This is the root cause for the pressure being applied on India to join the plurilateral e-commerce negotiations.

Beyond e-comm

• Does India really need to fear being left out of the e-commerce negotiations? The term ‘e-commerce rules’ is misleading as the rules that are being negotiated go much beyond e-commerce and encompass all digital rules which are required by the developed world to make sure that they have free access to data of the world in future as well.
• The current status in terms of ownership of data is that whoever has the capacity to collect and process data becomes its owner. Therefore, data collected by Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Alibaba, etc are owned by these super platforms, irrespective of where the data is generated. Bulk of these platforms are concentrated in the US.
• However, countries are waking up to the importance of data in the digital world, especially countries like China, India and continents like Africa, which are the data mines of the future.

Establishing ownership over data

• There are many emerging initiatives by the developing countries to establish their ownership over their data.
• China’s Cyber Security Law is an exemplary law which includes provisions around data not leaving the country, storing data locally, having joint venture partners, and source code sharing provisions.
• It has decided to be open to host its sovereign data in a cloud or co-located environment in data centres within national premises or outside of Rwanda under agreed terms and governed by Rwandan laws.
• It has also decided to put in place adequate legal, policy, infrastructure and privacy environment conducive for offering data hosting services to other external governments or private data owners. South Africa is also working on its Digital Industrial Policy.
• India has come out with its Draft National E-Commerce Policy which will allow it to own its data and steer the country into processing its own data and develop the much-needed digital capacities.

Fears overblown

• India has nothing to fear and lose by remaining out of these e-commerce negotiations. It has a comparative advantage of large population, growing young population and strong IT skills.
• India should therefore concentrate on owning its data and developing its own data centres and data processing capabilities, especially in terms of developing high-end software which can help India to build its own digital technologies like artificial intelligence, IoT, etc.
• Big Data analytical skills need to be encouraged so that the country’s key policies like industrial and foreign trade policies can be better digitally informed.
• In future, the country’s national security will also need to rely heavily on the digital technologies and software developed within India using its own data. China has secured the use of its data and so has the EU through its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Conclusion

• India should fear being left behind in the digital race and not fear losing out by remaining out of the negotiating room which intends to bind its hands with agreements forcing free flow of cross-border data and discouraging data localisation, which will disincentivise building of data centres and data processing skills in the country.

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Karnataka conundrum (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : Nothing Much
Mains level : Issues in Anti-defection

Context

• The Supreme Court’s decision to ask the parties to the political crisis in Karnataka to maintain the status quo until it examines the questions of law involved, is pragmatic and expedient.

Highlights of the order

• The Speaker has been asked not to decide the issue of MLAs’ resignation or disqualification.
• An order has been passed when one of the questions to be decided is whether the court can give such a direction to the Speaker.
• It now transpires that legislators can be prevented from resigning by claiming that they have incurred disqualification.
• It was argued in court that “the rebel MLAs are trying to avoid disqualification by tendering resignations.”
• This is astounding, as the penalty for defection is loss of legislative office.
• Quitting the current post before joining another party is a legal and moral obligation.
• Defection is condemnable, especially if it is to bring down one regime and form another.
• But politicians cannot be tied down to parties against their will by not letting them leave even their legislative positions.
• Even if it can be argued that two MLAs had pending disqualification proceedings against them, what about the rest?
• They say they tried to meet the Speaker, but could not.
• They may have been wrong to rush to the court without getting an appointment with the Speaker, but in the few intervening days, their parties issued a whip to all MLAs to be present in the House and vote for the government.

About Constitutional Issue

• The ongoing proceedings represent an increasingly common trend in litigation on constitutional issues.
• The propensity of the political class to twist and stretch the law in their favour and leave it to the court to set things right.
• The Speaker already enjoys extraordinary powers under the Constitution.
• In addition to immunity from judicial scrutiny for legislative matters, such as whether a Bill is a money bill, presiding officers get to decide whether a member has incurred disqualification under the anti-defection law.
• Though the decision is subject to judicial review, many Speakers have evaded judicial scrutiny by merely not acting on disqualification matters.

Conclusion

• The question whether the Speaker’s inaction can be challenged in court is pending before another Constitution Bench. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have instances of Speakers not acting on disqualification questions for years.
• The current crisis in Karnataka has exposed a new dimension to such partisan action.

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Ecological perils of discounting the future (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1 : Society
Prelims level : Nothing Much
Mains level : Managing urban water bodies

Context

• In a report last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) called the Chennai floods of 2015 a “manmade disaster”, a pointer to how the encroachment of lakes and river floodplains has driven India’s sixth largest city to this ineluctable situation.
• The Chennai floods are a symbol of consistent human failings and poor urban design which are common to most urban centres in India if not urban centres across the world. Now, Chennai is in the midst of another crisis one of water scarcity.

Urban Situation

• Unlike issues such as traffic congestion or crime which are visible, environmental degradation is not what most people can easily see or feel in their everyday lives.
• Therefore, when the consequences of such degradation begin to wreak havoc, it becomes difficult to draw the correlation between nature’s vengeance with human failings.
• In Chennai, more than 30 waterbodies of significance have disappeared in the past century.
• Concretisation or the increase in paved surfaces has affected the percolation of rainwater into the soil, thereby depleting groundwater levels to a point of no return.

Urbanisation without vision

• Chennai, however, is not alone in terms of suffering from the consequences of human folly.
• Urbanisation at the cost of reclaiming water bodies is a pan-India if not worldwide phenomenon.
• There are examples in cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad and even Mexico city.
• In Bengaluru, 15 lakes have lost their ecological character in less than five years according to a High Court notice to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the city’s administrative body responsible for civic amenities and some infrastructural assets.
• The lakes, which are now encroached areas, find use as a bus stand, a stadium and, quite ironically, as an office of the Pollution Control Board.
• In Mexico city, what was once a network of lakes built by the Aztecs in the 11th and 12th centuries, has given way to a downtown city centre.
• Parts of the city, especially downtown, sink a few metres every year causing immense damage to buildings.
• Mismanaged urbanisation and encroachments: Chennai continues to lose out on its water resources.

An example: Case study of Telangana

• In Telangana, the byzantine network of tanks and lakes built by the Kakatiya dynasty has disappeared over the years.
• However, the question is not about what follies were committed in the past, but about what we can do in the present and, more importantly, for the future.
• In Telangana, “tanks have been the lifeline of the State because of its geographical positioning”.
• The State’s “topography and rainfall pattern have made tank irrigation an ideal type of irrigation by storing and regulating water flow for agricultural use”.

The Telangana example of water rejuvenation

• The Chief Minister of Telangana launched a massive rejuvenation movement in form of “Mission Kakatiya” which involves the restoration of irrigation tanks and lakes/minor irrigation sources built by the Kakatiya dynasty.
• From the perspective of inter-generational justice, this is a move towards giving future generations in the State their rightful share of water and, therefore, a life of dignity.
• The city of Hyderabad is now moving towards a sustainable hydraulic model with some of the best minds in the country working on it.
• This model integrates six sources of water in a way that even the most underdeveloped areas of the city can have equitable access to water resources and the groundwater levels restored in order to avoid a calamity of the kind that has gripped Chennai now.

International Examples

• When Mexico city can create a new executive position of a “resilience officer” to save its sinking urban sprawls, Bengaluru can reclaim Kundalahalli lake (once a landfill) through corporate social responsibility funds in a Public Private Partnership model, and Hyderabad and the larger state of Telangana rebuild its resilience through a combination of political will and well-designed policies such as the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme and Mission, what stops us from learning from each other?
• Why should other urban centres shy away from adopting, remodelling and implementing some of the best water management practices to avoid disaster?
• The answer perhaps lies in the tendency of policymakers to discount the future and of their obsession of focussing on the here and now.

Conclusion

• It is estimated that in just 30 years from now, half of India will be living in cities.
• If we truly envision a great future for this country, how can we possibly risk the lives of half of our people and the next generations who could be facing a life in cities parched by drought, stranded by floods, mortified by earthquakes or torn by wars over fresh water?
• What has happened in Chennai now or what happened in Kerala last year in the form of floods are not a case of setting alarm bells ringing, but one of explosions.
• If we do not wake up now, we have to be prepared to face the consequences of nature wreaking great havoc on humanity.
• We would not need nuclear bombs for our obliteration.

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Aviation sector (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Aviation sector
Mains level: Requirement of fast-track policy implementation to boost Aviation sector

Context

• India's civil aviation industry has been witnessing rapid growth in the past few years to become the pride of the nation, and rightly so.
• Driven by a growing economy, rising incomes, increasing competition among airlines and a supportive policy environment, India stands proud as the seventh largest aviation market with 340 million passengers being handled at our airports in financial year 2018/19.
• It is expected to become the third largest by 2024.

Background

• As of last December, Indian aviation completed 52 consecutive months of double-digit growth. The first quarter of 2019, however, took a dip due to the unfortunate situation faced by Jet Airways, resulting in the rise in airfares.
• With the consistent airport development and expansion in airport infrastructure to improve air connectivity for passengers in the tier-II and III cities now, the sector is most likely to continue to witness growth in the years to come.
• In order to ensure that the existing and the upcoming airports are equipped to handle the rising passenger footfall without compromising on the quality of experience, ground handling - including check-in and baggage handling, aircraft handling, servicing and cleaning as well as cargo handling services - is critical.
• It enhances comfort and ensures safety of passengers in addition to securing short turnaround time for flights.
• Identifying ground handling as a core function in the sector, the Ministry of Civil Aviation introduced the draft Civil Aviation Policy in 2015 and issued a notification in 2017 that made modifications to the existing ground handling policy.

Steps taken

• According to the policy, airports with a footfall of over 10 million passengers annually would have three certified ground handling agencies which would include Air India or its subsidiary/joint venture, one of the airport operators and one more to be shortlisted by the airport operator.

Key provisions of the policy

• The policy provisions also prohibit ground handling operations to be carried out by non-certified manpower companies with little or no on-field experience.While the provisions seem perfect to build a structured ecosystem, the policy implementation still waits to see the light of the day at many airports in India.
• Since the announcement of the revision in the ground handling policy in 2017, the frequency of delays in its implementation has been a heated discussion point for the entire sector.
• Currently, there are various hurdles, or rather pitfalls, faced by the aviation sector when it comes to ground handling policy.
• The most critical one being the availability of a fair pool of certified handlers at a major chunk of airports.
• If the policy is implemented, most airlines will partner with certified ground handlers whose core business is ground handling.
• This model, followed globally, will also significantly bring down the number of ground handling units to maximum two to three.

Major impacts

• This will not only enable efficient utilisation of the premium space at the airports but will also ensure optimal and justified use of the ground handling equipment, which otherwise lay idle for most of the hours of the day in case of self-handling.
• Additionally, self-handling carried out by non-bonafide workers, who enter airport for cleaning, cargo and baggage handling and various other activities, poses a huge safety and security hazard for the airports.
• Safety and security of passengers is the utmost responsibility of the airports and can be carried out without a flaw if the policy is implemented as envisaged.
• A MoCA notification in December 2017 gave the airlines a lead time of eight months to dispense with non-certified labour contractors in ground handling services. The deadline has been further extended till June 30, 2019.
• Speedy policy implementation will give a better chance to the certified ground handling agencies to pass on the cost benefits to the airlines, accrued due to the economies of scale and ensure safety of the millions of travellers. And not to miss the timely arrival and departure of the flights.

Conclusion

• In a rapidly evolving aviation landscape, it is expected of the government to create an enabling ecosystem that nurtures and supports the growth of a professionally-driven and responsible ground handling industry.
• The speedy implementation of the policy will prove to significantly sustain the growth of the aviation sector, consistent support from the government and associated authorities will help scale up industry's standard, and set global success benchmarks.

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Technology is here to stay, and the public health system would be well-served to take advantage (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Sciecne and Tech
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Uses of Artificial Intelligence on public healthcare system

Context

• In Venture Capital pitch rooms and mass media alike, there is growing buzz around health-tech. In India alone, health-tech startups raised over $500 million in 2018.
• Care is getting smarter and better targeted. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Blockchain, Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) - healthcare is seen as a massive opportunity for each of these new-age technologies.

Government:

• As per the Indian constitution, health is a state subject. While state Governments have primary responsibility, the Centre also sponsors important national programs including the National Health Mission (NHM), Ayushman Bharat and others.
• It has also emerged as a subject with important political ramifications. Central and State Governments make policies and own end-to-end implementation through programs, health facilities and frontline workers.
• They are also responsible for prevention of disease outbreaks, surveillance, disaster management and the health of the population.
• New-age technology could help Governments better manage epidemics, allocate resources more effectively, design interventions offer more precise-targeted care, tackle human-resource issues, build capacity and more.
• India is already thinking actively in this direction with a National AI strategy in the works. The Government also actively uses dashboards to monitor real-time data and continuously improve effectiveness.

Facilities and frontline workers:

• India has a tiered network of public health facilities providing primary, secondary and tertiary care. The first point of contact for citizens in villages are the three frontline workers - a) ASHA, who mobilises the community, b) Anganwadi worker, responsible for nutrition needs of women and young children and c) Auxiliary Nurse Midwife, a nurse who carries out important services including antenatal care, immunisation and refers to higher facilities.
• Frontline workers discharge important responsibilities in difficult conditions with little support.
• They collect copious amounts of data. Voluminous registers are slowly being supplemented by digital solutions.
• However, there are barely any attempts to make data work for them, to provide precise, targeted services.
• The Government's ambitious proposal to upgrade ANM-run sub-centres to Health and Wellness Centres talks about taking advanced diagnostics closer to the people.
• Frontline workers refer cases they're not equipped to handle, to public health facilities. Primary Health Centres (PHCs) are led by medical officers and serve populations of 20,000-30,000.
• For specialised care, patients are referred to Community Health Centres (CHCs) which serve populations of 80,000 - 120,000. Each CHC has 4 specialists - physician, paediatrician, surgeon and obstetrician - gynaecologist.

Requiring more advanced care

• Cases requiring even more advanced care are referred to hospitals at the district and state level.
• Each of these facilities faces resource crunches - both in terms of equipment and personnel. Only 13% of PHCs meet the national public health standards. There is a shortfall of 82% in specialist positions at CHCs
• A similar structure is available in urban centres as well with Urban-Primary Health Centres (1 for every 50,000 people) and advanced secondary/tertiary facilities backed by community outreach services including systems like urban health kiosks, mohalla clinics and urban ASHAs.
• The private sector also plays an important role with over 82,000 private hospitals in India as of 2011 as per a study by the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development.
• Big data can help improve diagnosis and early identification of diseases. Techniques like genome scanning and imaging can help improve the quality of care at facilities. Greater use of robots for surgical procedures, 3D bioprinting and use of augmented reality for greater surgical comfort are some other potential applications.

Management systems:

• Management systems for the purpose of this article series would include the building blocks on which the health system is built such as health records, administration systems, centres of excellence, performance measurement and more.
• Collection, management and utilisation of health data in India still have much scope for improvement.
• Electronic health records based on blockchain, in addition to improving data integrity and security could also provide actionable data to improve solutions and consistency of care to citizens, across public and private facilities.
• Research institutions could build on this rich data bank to develop innovative solutions.
• Health administration in India has acute human resource gaps - clinical and management roles - that can be alleviated by improved use of data and technology.

Drugs and medical devices:

• The average lab-to-market cost for developing a drug has been estimated at $2.7 billion by the well-regarded Tufts Centre for the study of drug development.
• Prohibitively high costs result in companies passing on costs to consumers and sometimes even deciding not to produce a drug.
• Drug development costs are extremely high due to the low probability of successful development.
• Solutions based on nano-medicine and AI-ML can help pharmaceutical companies achieve greater precision. Further, better data management can enable more adequate estimation of population health needs to develop tailored solutions.
• Technology also aids development of devices that can be used by individuals to monitor their own health and facilities/health workers for improved diagnosis and care as mentioned above. Healthcare Financing:
• Paying for health services is a daily challenge for the Indian poor. The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) estimated that out-of-pocket health expenses pushed 55 million Indians into poverty in 2017.
• The Government's Ayushman Bharat, billed to be the largest health insurance scheme in the world, proposes to fix that gap. Apps and wearables can change the health insurance game with incentive-based solutions.
• New-age data-based solutions can also help insurers make more accurate assessments and informed decisions.
• This will help them offer improved, customised solutions while better managing risk.
• Electronic health records and AI-based analytics can also enable more effective and efficient processing of claims.

Supply chain:

• Pharmaceutical supply chain system in India is complicated, because of the sheer size, large number of players, inadequacies in infrastructure and opacity.
• Highways constitute a mere 2% of India's road network and the cold chain system remains underdeveloped. A study conducted by Newcastle University, Lakshya society and Tata Consultancy Services showed that several Indians lack access to essential drugs.
• In my experience, it is not uncommon to see expired drugs or imperfect management and storage practices.
• Supply of important drugs including vaccines and contraceptives is often intermittent or inadequate.
• Supply chain automation solutions, drones could enable drugs reach places and citizens who need it most, in a cost-effective manner.
• Blockchain also finds application in enhancing transparency within the supply chain.

Community:

• 'Community' in this context includes patients seeking care, people who need preventive solutions and others interested in remaining healthy.
• By impacting each of the above-mentioned factors, new-age technology could help improve health of communities.

Conclusion

• It further creates opportunities for citizens to take control of their own health and wellness.
• Think customised diets, self-diagnosis, tracking treatment, post-treatment care and so on. IoT based wearable devices can analyse data real-time and provide better access to patient history using the cloud.
• Technology is here to stay, and the public health system would be well-served to take advantage.

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Why is it important for Coke and Pepsi to hive off their bottling operations? (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Coke and Pepsi
Mains level: Coke and Pepsi to hive off their bottling operations

Context

• Last year, PepsiCo India sold off its bottling operations in the South and West of India to its bottling partner, RJ Corp.
• The latter already controlled the bottling operations of the beverage and food giant in the North and the East.
• The move also led to the company laying off a considerable number of its talent in India.
• Though Coca-Cola India has officially declined, there are murmurs that the Atlanta-headquartered beverage major, is also planning to sell its Rs 9,000-odd crore bottling operations in India to its franchise partners.
• In fact, both Pepsi and Coke have been increasingly hiving off the bottling side of their respective business to franchise bottlers across the globe.

So, why has it become imperative for the two beverage companies to get rid of their bottling business?

• Conventional wisdom tells us that the reason for the same would be the shrinking demand of the aerated drink category and the wafer thin margins thereof.
• We all know that both Coke and Pepsi have been pushed to the fence not just by domestic players, but the aerated beverage category itself has lost out with consumers increasingly opting for juices and other health drinks.
• Both Pepsi and Coke indeed have to find a way to get their mojo back by investing significantly beyond carbonated beverages, but before they do so, the need of the hour is to improve their margins and build an asset-light model.
• The primary driver of divesting bottling operations is to consolidate the balance sheet of the companies and increase profitability.

So, why did the two beverage majors take so long to take this call in India?

• Getting into bottling is only a stop-gap measure, explains Mathias.
• When Pepsi and Coke entered India in the late eighties and early nineties, the bottling partners wouldn't have had the financial wherewithal to invest in bottling operations.
• Pepsi decided to set up its own bottling plants so that it could make investments beyond what a bottler could afford to drive its share of ambitions and basically grow the soft drink habit among Indians. Coke also did the same.
• When Pepsi entered India, it bought out Dukes, while Coke bought out Parle Beverages and the primary reason for doing so was to integrate their bottling operations.
• Now that their franchise partners have the financial might, both the companies see merit in exiting their respective bottling business to invest in their various brands.

Conclusion

• Building an asset-light model is becoming the norm in the fast food industry too.
• KFC is reportedly selling off 61 company-owned restaurants to RJ Corp arm, Devyani International.
• The company had earlier sold 13 of its restaurants to Devyani International. Pizza Hut, on the other hand, is a completely franchise-run operation.
• The focus clearly is on how to increase the return to shareholders. "Roce (return on capital employed) is an important metric today," points out Kannan of Fireside.

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A case of confused thinking: on draft National Education Policy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: National
Prelims level: NEP
Mains level: Significance of the draft National Education Policy

Context

• The draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019 recommends a restructuring of school years and the curriculum, in a wide-ranging manner.
• If properly implemented, many of the suggested changes may help education.
• These include flexibility and wider scope at the secondary level, space for moral reasoning, re-emphasis on the true spirit of the three language formula, a focus on the core concepts and key ideas in subjects, vocational courses, and also a focus of assessment on understanding.
• However, the draft NEP also recommends much that may have just the opposite effect.
• These are, for example, 15 subjects/courses at the upper primary level, three languages in early childhood education, and confusing statements on a number of curricular issues.
• The curriculum the draft NEP suggests at the upper primary level has started looking like a laundry list, perhaps because of a lack of a coherent vision and the curricular thinking it adopts.

India-centric aim?

• The policy envisions an “India centred education system that contributes directly to transforming our nation sustainably into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society”.
• The proclaimed “India centred-ness” of education is limited to recommendations on Indian languages and a mention of Indian knowledge systems.
• The operational vision is that of a “knowledge society”, almost entirely contained in UNESCO-preached ‘21st century skills’.
• The democratic ideal is neither mentioned nor used in articulating the aims of education or curricular recommendation, though democratic values are mentioned in the list of key “skills” that are to be integrated in subjects.
• The vision of a knowledge society directly leads to the objectives of curricular transformation “in order to minimise rote learning and instead encourage holistic development and 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, scientific temper, communication, collaboration, multilingualism, problem solving, ethics, social responsibility, and digital literacy”.
• The most important and educationally worthwhile term is “skill” and everything has to fit in within that; even ethics and social responsibility.

Shaping an individual

• “The goal”, according to the draft policy, “will be to create holistic and complete individuals equipped with key 21st century skills”.
• This makes it quite clear what the definition of “holistic and complete individuals” means.
• After a host of curricular recommendations which includes new subjects/courses comes another statement which may sound like an articulation of curricular objectives or aims of education.
• Under the heading “Curricular integration of essential subjects and skills”, it says: “certain subjects and skills should be learned by all students in order to become good, successful, innovative, adaptable, and productive human beings in today’s rapidly-changing world.
• In addition to proficiency in languages, these skills include: scientific temper; sense of aesthetics and art; languages; communication; ethical reasoning; digital literacy; knowledge of India; and knowledge of critical issues facing local communities, States, the country, and the world”.

Influences educational discourse

• However, a policy document is read and interpreted at many levels and influences educational discourse.
• A document which places much emphasis on clarity of understanding and critical thinking cannot itself afford to fail in meeting the same standards.
• Shoddiness of thinking at the national level does not encourage hope of proper interpretation and implementation of the policy.
• This is already reflected in some policy recommendations.

Language teaching

• The draft NEP rightly criticises private pre-schools for being a downward extension of primary school and of there being formal teaching in them.
• But it goes on to recommend preparing children for primary by prescribing learning the alphabets of and reading in three languages (for 3-6-year olds).
• All this in the name of “enhanced (sic) language learning abilities” of young children. Further the draft policy mistakes “language acquisition when children are immersed in more than one languages” with a “language teaching” situation where immersion is impossible in three languages.
• It then extends it unjustifiably to a learning of three scripts.
• It prescribes teaching script and reading in three languages to three-year-old children, but writing is supposed to be taught to six-year-old children.
• It also wants to introduce “some textbooks” only at age eight. One wonders why there is a three year gap between teaching reading and writing. If script and reading are already taught, then why withhold textbooks till age eight?

Missing link

• Identifying key concepts and essential ideas are a matter of rational curricular decision making; not listing ideas as they come to one’s mind.
• The absence of discussion on socio-political life seems to be another casualty in the emphasis on a knowledge society and 21st century skills.
• Social studies seems to be missing entirely as it has been mentioned once and then left out of the entire discussion on curriculum.
• The vision of the draft NEP rests on UNESCO declarations and reports rather than the Indian Constitution and development of democracy in this country;
• This in spite of wanting to make education India-centred. Thus, in the suggested curriculum changes, socio-political life is almost invisible.

Way forward

• All this goes to show that the draft NEP 2019 itself lacks the very abilities it emphasises, namely critical thinking and deeper understanding.
• It is a badly written document which hides behind a plethora of terms that are half-understood and clubbed under the overarching master concept of “skill”.
• In short, the policy lacks depth and loses focus of the richness of secular democratic ideals by aiming for 21st century skills.

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Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana-lll (PMGSY-III) (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: PMGSY-III
Mains level: Highlights of the PMGSY-III

Context

• In a major boost to rural road connectivity across the country, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the launch of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana-lll (PMGSY-III).
• It involves consolidation of Through Routes and Major Rural Links connecting habitations to Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), Higher Secondary Schools and Hospitals.
• Under the PMGSY-III Scheme, it is proposed to consolidate 1,25,000 Km road length in the States.
• The Scheme will also include Through Routes and Major Rural Links that connect habitations to Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), Higher Secondary Schools and Hospitals.

Impact

• This would facilitate easy and faster movement to and from Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), Higher Secondary Schools and Hospitals.
• Roads constructed under PMGSY would also be maintained properly.

Financial Implications

• It will entail an estimated cost of Rs 80,250 crore (Central Share-Rs. 53,800 crore, State Share- Rs 26,450 crore).
• The funds would be shared in the ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and State for all States except for 8 North Eastern and 3 Himalayan States (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand) for which it is 90:10.

Implementation

• Project period: 2019-20 to 2024-25.
• Selection of candidate roads based on the sum total of the marks obtained by particular road on the basis of parameters of population served, market, educational and medical facilities, etc.
• Construction of bridges upto 150 m in plain areas and 200 m in Himalayan and NE States proposed, as against the existing provisions of 75 m and 100 m in plain areas and Himalayan and NE States respectively.
• The States shall be asked to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) before launching of PMGSY-III in the concerned State for providing adequate funds for maintenance of roads constructed under PMGSY post 5-year construction maintenance period.

Progress under PMGSY

• A total of 5,99,090 Km road length has been constructed under the scheme since inception till April, 2019 (inclusive of PMGSY-I, PMGSY-II and RCPLWEA Scheme.

Background

• PMGSY-III scheme was announced by the Finance Minister in Budget Speech for the year 2018-19.
• The CCEA in its meeting held on 9th August, 2018 approved continuation of PMGSY-I and II beyond 12th Five Year Plan and covering of balance eligible habitations under PMGSY-I by March 2019, PMGSY-II, and habitations under identified LWE blocks (100-249 population) by March 2020.

PMGSY-I

• PMGSY was launched in December, 2000 with an objective to provide single all-weather road connectivity to eligible unconnected habitation of designated population size (500+ in plain areas and 250+ in North-East, hill, tribal and desert areas as per Census, 2001) for overall socio-economic development of the areas. 97% of the eligible and feasible habitations have already been connected by all-weather road.

Way forward

• Government launched Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism affected Areas in the year 2016 as a separate vertical under PMGSY to provide all-weather road connectivity with necessary culverts and cross-drainage structures in 44 districts (35 are worst LWE affected districts and 09 are adjoining districts), which are critical from security and communication point of view.
• Under the Scheme, 5,066 Km road length has been sanctioned.

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Delhi to Tehran via US (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: India and its neighbourhood relations

Context

• Two pillars of India’s regional foreign policy are shaken today because of the American strategy in what Donald Trump calls the Middle East the relationships with Iran and Afghanistan.The delicate equation New Delhi had established with Tehran has not survived the new US sanctions.
• India could not resist the American pressures regarding oil imports from Iran: It stopped them in May in order to comply with the renewed American sanctions.
• It does not import oil from Venezuela either — increasing further its dependence from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq.

From the perspective of India

• India has also come to the conclusion that Chabahar, in which the country has invested financially and geo-strategically, was bound to stagnate in the present context.
• In the budget, the government has decided to reduce its allocation to the deep-sea port by two-thirds: For years, it had allocated Rs 150 crore to Chabahar, this year, the allocation is down to Rs 45 crore.
• New Delhi has had to admit that there was no point to further develop it when shippers and cargo handlers were kept away by US sanctions.

Key players

Iran

• Iran was an important partner for its regional policy.
• As “an extended neighbour” sharing cultural affinities, it could help India to encircle Pakistan and to get access to Central Asia. Pakistan was clearly worried about the Iran/India rapprochement.
• Now, we may see a new dialogue between Iran and Pakistan in the wake of Imran Khan’s visit to Tehran and Mashhad.

Afghanistan

• Afghanistan has become the second-largest recipient of Indian foreign aid over the last five years.
• India has become more and more popular in Afghanistan, not only because of its soft power, but also by setting up infrastructure, including hospitals, roads and dams, and contributing to the fabric of a democratic nation-state (through the training of civil servants, students in Indian universities and promotion of its elected governments — as evident from the support New Delhi gave to Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani).
• Delhi’s support to Karzai and Ghani formed an insurance policy for all the primary investments made by India.

Investment opportunities

• Like in Iran, these investments were not an end in themselves. India has invested in Afghanistan in order to reach out to other Central Asian countries, including the former Soviet Republics, in order to expand its trade and access to energy resources.
• Afghanistan appeared here as the missing link between these countries, and Iran, where India has developed the Chabahar Port, as an indirect route to avoid dealing with Pakistan and maintaining unhindered trade links with Afghanistan.

India had two priorities in Afghanistan:

• To prevent Pakistan from setting up a friendly government in Kabul again, like in 1996 with the Taliban of Mullah Omar and, secondly, to avoid the return of jihadi groups, like al Qaeda, which could strike in India.
• On both fronts, India is losing ground today, largely because of Trump’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. Trump promised to end the war in Afghanistan and get the US out.
• As a result, the American administration has intensified negotiations with the Taliban, short-circuiting Ghani, in spite of his protests.
• The seventh round of talks between the US and Taliban in Qatar has brought fruit: The US is now prepared to withdraw troops in exchange for a Taliban commitment not to let Afghanistan be used as a base for international terrorism.
• Kabul argued that negotiating and trusting Taliban to not disrupt Afghan state machinery was not sensible. But the US promoted an intra-Afghan negotiation too: As the Taliban refused to talk to the Kabul government, Qatar hosted a delegation of 60 Afghan “citizens” who were supposed to represent the Afghan state and who issued with the Taliban a joint statement in which both sides pledged to “to respect and protect the dignity of the people, their life and property and to minimise the civilian casualties to zero”.

Way ahead

• While the seventh round of talks in Qatar marked the beginning of the end-game in Afghanistan, India looks relatively passive, even as no one seems to pay attention to its interests.
• New Delhi may now draw four conclusions: Its game plan in the Iran-Afghanistan region has been greatly damaged; to salvage what can be retained of the initial projects, Delhi should upgrade its channels of communication with the Taliban and try to persuade Iran that cooperation between both countries is still possible.
• India will probably reassess the friendliness of the US because with such a friend, there’s no need of enemies — all the more so as the trade dispute is also hardening.
• And last but not least, to isolate Pakistan is easier said than done, not only because of US duplicity and the China factor — but also because of the tyranny of geography.

Conclusion

• Indeed, if India-Afghanistan relations are so badly affected today, it’s also because of Pakistan’s airspace ban, which followed the Balakot strike: It now takes five hours to fly from Kabul to Delhi, instead of one-and-a-half.

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Wage imbalance (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Wages bill
Mains level: Requirement of wages bill

Context

• Last week, the Union cabinet approved the revised version of the Code on the Wages Bill.
• The bill envisages a national minimum wage, linked to factors such as skill level and geographical region.
• This national wage would effectively serve as a floor wage, with states having the option of setting higher wages.
• Minimum wage legislation forms a vital component of the architecture for social protection.
• A well designed minimum wage system, as articulated in the Economic Survey 2018-19, can help “reduce inequalities in income, bridge gender gaps in wages and alleviate poverty”.
• It could also help address the imbalance of power between workers and employers.

Steps needs to be taken by the government

• The government must carefully think through the consequences of this move for the very constituency it seeks to address.
• There is concern that if wages are pushed up, without being linked to productivity, companies will respond by hiring fewer workers.
• In a country where preference for capital intensive production is well documented, despite the abundance of labour, a high minimum wage may further skew the capital-labour ratio.
• It is also likely that companies will try to circumvent the system by opting to route part of their workforce through informal channels.
• By pushing up costs, a high minimum wage could erode competitiveness, making certain segments economically unfeasible.
• Coming at a time when India is struggling to find ways to boost exports, especially those of labour intensive sectors such as garments, such a move might have unintended consequences.
• And while the bill has proposed to take into account regional variations, wage differences across regions could impact labour mobility.
• Then, there’s also the structure of the labour market in India to consider.
• The duality of the labour market, characterised by the presence of a large informal sector 93 per cent workers are in the informal economy according to the latest Economic Survey suggests that enforcement is likely to be problematic.

Way forward

• It is also true that with little bargaining power, workers are being squeezed, and that the government must intervene to address this.
• Though the share of workers’ wages in gross value added has risen to 12.7 per cent in 2016-17, up from a low of 9.2 per cent in 2007-08, it remains well below levels seen in the early 1980s.
• But it must be asked whether, for serving the goals of equity and justice, a high minimum wage is the best way forward.
• Lowering the costs associated with formalisation, creating more flexible labour laws, might be a more prudent approach.

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Jobless growth becomes more systemic (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Jobless Growth
Mains level: Jobless growth remedial solutions

Context

• The findings of the latest employment survey, called the Periodic Labour Force Survey (2017-18), are a cause for concern as the scenario is still far from anything that would denote decent employment.
• The two biggest issues here are: the shrinking share of the labour force; and the rising unemployment.
• The labour force participation rate (% of people working or seeking work in the above-15 years age category) in the earlier survey of 2012 was 55.5%.
• This has shrunk to 49.7% in 2018. There is an absolute decline in the number of workers from 467.7 million in 2012 to 461.5 million in 2018.

Multiple dimensions

• The figure for the overall unemployment rate at 6.1% is 2.77 times the same figure for 2012.
• A few experts have raised doubts about comparability of estimates between the two periods though we feel that they are not substantial issues that prevent anyone from a judicious comparison.
• The rise in overall unemployment has both locational and gender dimensions.
• The highest unemployment rate of a severe nature was among the urban women at 10.8%; followed by urban men at 7.1%; rural men at 5.8%; and rural women at 3.8%.
• When we ignore the location of residence, we find that severe unemployment among men at 6.2% was higher than among women at 5.7%.

Declining women labour force participation rate

• However, given the sharp decline in women’s labour force participation rate, they have been losing out heavily due to the double whammy of exclusion from the labour force and an inability to access employment when included in the labour force.
• The decline in women’s labour force participation from 31% to 24% means that India is among the countries with the lowest participation of women in the labour force.
• The issue of educated unemployment, given its link with not just growth but also with transformative development, has never been as acute as at present.
• Defined as unemployment among those with at least a secondary school certificate, it is at 11.4% compared to the previous survey’s figure of 4.9%.

Rising unemployment among educated youth

• But what is significant is that the unemployment rates go up as levels of education go up.
• Among those with secondary school education, it is 5.7% but jumps to 10.3% when those with higher secondary-level education are considered.
• The highest rate is among the diploma and certificate holders (19.8%); followed by graduates (17.2); and postgraduates (14.6%).
• Of course, educated persons are likely to have aspirations for specific jobs and hence likely to go through a longer waiting period than their less-educated counterparts.
• They are also likely to be less economically deprived.
• But the country’s inability to absorb the educated into gainful employment is indeed an economic loss and a demoralising experience both for the unemployed and those enthusiastically enrolling themselves for higher education.

Burden more among women

• The burden is the highest among urban women (19.8%) followed by rural women (17.3%), rural men (10.5%) and urban men (9.2%).
• Among the educated, women face a more unfavourable situation than men despite a low labour force participation rate.
• Compared to the earlier 2012 survey, unemployment of educated men has more than doubled in both rural and urban areas and in the case of women, the rate has nearly doubled.
• However, it is important to remember is that the rate was higher for educated women, when compared to educated men, in both the periods.
• It is almost scandalous that youth unemployment rate (unemployment among those in the 15-29 years age category) has reached a high 17.8%.
• The women stand more disadvantaged than the men, especially urban women, whose unemployment rate of 27.2% is more than double the 2012 figure of 13.1%.
• The rate for urban men, at 18.7%, is particularly high as well.

Conclusion

• The overall conclusion here is that the trend of ‘jobless growth’ that was till recently confined largely, if not only, to the organised sector has now spread to other sectors of the economy, making it more generalised.
• This calls for a thorough re-examination of the missing linkages between growth and employment.

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Picking out plastic: on recycling and waste management (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: CPCB
Mains level: Recycling process of plastic

Context

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has put 52 producers, brand owners and importers, including big online retailers such as Amazon and Flipkart, and companies such as Patanjali Ayurved and Britannia, on notice, for failing to take responsibility for their plastic waste.
• These and other entities with a large plastic footprint need to respond with alacrity.
• It is eight years since the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) was incorporated into the Plastic Waste Management Rules, but municipal and pollution control authorities have failed to persuade commercial giants to put in place a system to collect and process the waste.

Background

• Tighter rules in 2016 and some amendments two years later put the onus on producers and brand owners to come up with an action plan for the retrieval of waste within six months to a year, but that too failed to take off.
• Mountains of garbage with a heavy plastic load have been growing in suburban landfills, out of sight of city dwellers.
• It should be noted that the retail sector expects e-commerce to grow from about $38.5 billion-equivalent in 2017 to $200 billion by 2026.
• Given the role played by packaging, the waste management problem is likely to become alarming.
• There is also a big opportunity here, which the trade, municipal governments and pollution control authorities need to see.
• The two prongs of the solution are packaging innovation that reduces its use by using alternatives, and upscaling waste segregation, collection and transmission.

Key measures needed

• Recovering materials from garbage should be a high priority, considering that India is the third highest consumer of materials after China and the U.S.; the Economic Survey 2019 estimates that India’s demand for total material will double by 2030 at current rates of growth.
• Plastics may be less expensive than other inputs in manufacturing, but recycling them into new products extends their life and provides a substitute for virgin material.
• Keeping them out of the environment reduces clean-up and pollution costs.

Way forward

• Unfortunately, in spite of legal requirements, municipal and pollution control authorities fail to see this and mostly pursue business-as-usual waste management methods.
• Recyclable waste is rendered useless when it gets mixed with other articles.
• Online retailers have not felt compelled to take back the thousands of polybags, plastic envelopes and air pillows used to cushion articles inside cardboard boxes.
• This is in contrast to more developed markets where they are trying out labels on packages with clear recycling instructions.
• These companies can form waste cooperatives in India, employing informal waste-pickers.
• In such a model, consumers will respond readily if they are incentivised to return segregated plastic waste. Making municipal and pollution control authorities accountable is also equally important.

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Tread with caution: on labour laws (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Labour laws
Mains level: Key highlights of this labour safety laws

Context

• As part of its commitment to simplify and consolidate labour rules and laws under four codes, the Union Cabinet has cleared the Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, a week after it approved the Code on Wages Bill.
• The latter seeks to include more workers under the purview of minimum wages and proposes a statutory national minimum wage for different geographic regions, to ensure that States will not fix minimum wages below those set by the Centre.

Key highlights of this labour safety laws

• The Code on labour safety and working conditions include regular and mandatory medical examinations for workers, issuing of appointment letters, and framing of rules on women working night shifts.
• Other codes that await Cabinet approval include the Code on Industrial Relations and the Code on Social Security.
• Unlike these pending bills, especially the one related to industrial relations that will be scrutinised by labour unions for any changes to worker rights and rules on hiring and dismissal and contract jobs, the two that have been passed should be easier to build a consensus on, in Parliament and in the public sphere.
• Organised unions have vociferously opposed changes proposed in the Industrial Relations code, especially the proviso to increase the limit for prior government permission for lay-off, retrenchment and closure from 100 workers as it is currently, to 300.

Economic Survey highlights on labour reforms

• The Economic Survey highlighted the effect of labour reforms in Rajasthan, suggesting that the growth rates of firms employing more than 100 workers increased at a higher rate than the rest of the country after labour reforms.
• But worker organisations claim that the implementation of such stringent labour laws in most States is generally lax.
• Clearly, a cross-State analysis of labour movement and increase in employment should give a better picture of the impact of these rules.

Way ahead

• Simplification and consolidation of labour laws apart, the government must focus on the key issue of job creation.
• The Periodic Labour Force Survey that was finally made public in late May clearly pointed to the dire situation in job creation in recent years.
• While the proportion of workers in regular employment has increased, unemployment has reached a 45-year high.
• The worker participation rate has also declined between surveys held in 2011-12 and 2017-18.
• The government’s response to this question has either been denial, as was evident after the draft PLFS report was leaked last year, or silence, after it was finally released.

Conclusion

• In such a situation, the government should be better off building a broader consensus on any major rule changes to existing worker rights rather than rushing through them for the sake of simplification.
• The consolidated code bills should be thoroughly discussed in Parliament and also with labour unions before being enacted.

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Battling the squeeze (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3: Defense and Security
Prelims level: Standing committee on defence
Mains level: Highlights the budget allocation in defense sector

Context

• This works out to 2.04 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and accounts for 15.47 per cent of the total expenditure of the central government envisaged in the budget.

• On both these counts, the allocation for defence shows a downward trend vis-à-vis the last year’s outlay.

• The question, however, is whether additional funds could have been provided by the finance minister at this stage.

• Considering that the die had already been cast by the interim budget and the finance minister had barely five weeks to prepare the regular budget after the present government was sworn in, it was never going to be easy to make any substantial change in the budget already allocated to various ministries and departments.

Highlights the budget allocation

• This is evident from the fact that in the budget presented last week, the total estimated receipt of the government has gone up by a measly sum of Rs 2,149 crore vis-à-vis the interim budget. This was the only additional income of the government that was up for grabs.

• Last year (2018-19), the allocation for the armed forces was approximately Rs 1.12 lakh crore less than what they had demanded.

• Assuming that this year the gap would be half of that, it would still be more than Rs 55,000 crore. So, even if the entire additional income of Rs 2,149 crore were to be passed on to defence, it would have been just a drop in the ocean.

• The finance minister could, of course, resort to higher taxation, disinvestment and borrowing, or reduce the allocation for other schemes in order to generate more income or savings and then set aside a substantial portion of that for defence.

• But no one can seriously argue that it would have been pragmatic to exercise one or more of these choices to provide additional funds for defence in the regular budget.

• Seen in this backdrop, it is just well that the finance minister did not make routine statements in her speech about the government’s commitment to defence and security of the nation and its willingness to make additional funds available for the armed forces, if required.

• There is no point making promises that ring hollow when made and difficult to keep when the time comes.

Needs for modernization

• It is also just as well that she did not announce setting up of the long-talked-about non-lapsable fund for modernisation of the armed forces, which she is known to have been supportive of when she was the defence minister.

• The practicality and utility of setting up such a fund is questionable, notwithstanding the fact that even the standing committee on defence (SCoD) has been supporting the idea.

• The crux of the matter is that the funds have to be raised by the finance ministry through one or more of the means mentioned above, regardless of whether these are made available via a non-lapsable modernisation fund or out of the budget outlay for the year in which these are required by the armed forces.

• Bemoaning inadequacy of the budget outlay for defence is of no help.

• Serious efforts have to be made to figure out how the level of defence funding can be raised in a sustainable manner without causing an adverse impact on the funding for health, education, agriculture, infrastructure development, and other social sector schemes.

• While everyone talks about the need to raise the defence budget no one seems to have a clue as to how this can be done.

Way ahead

• It would also have been nice if in her speech the finance minister were to give an account of the outcome of several measures announced in the past five years: Constitution of the defence planning committee, commencement of the industrial corridor project, unrolling of the defence technology fund, setting up of an investor cell, promulgation of the strategic partnership scheme, and several Make in India projects, just to mention a few.

• That she did not mention any of this in her speech needs to be taken in its stride, though. The most pragmatic thing to do at this stage would be to quickly reformulate the modernisation roadmap for the next five years making sure that it conforms to the likely availability of funds. This has happened but rarely in the past.

• Even as recently as in July 2017, the armed forces had sought Rs 27 lakh crore over the next five years. This would have required defence budget to be more than doubled.

• No serious discussion ensued to figure out how this feat could be achieved, or if it could not be achieved, what would be the best alternative.

Conclusion

• It is time to get real and work according to a financially viable plan, which recognises that money is going to be the biggest challenge till the experts find a solution to the problem or India’s economy hits the $5-trillion mark and starts yielding higher receipts for the government.

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A demographic window of opportunity: on population and policy (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1: Society
Prelims level: Total Fertility Rate
Mains level: Populations and associated issues

Context

• In India, investing in the laggard States will ensure their role as being the greatest contributors of the future.

• The United Nations released the 26th revision of World Population Prospects and forecast that India will overtake China as the most populous country by 2027.

• The only surprise associated with this forecast is the way it was covered by the media.

Impact for short-term projections

• The biggest impact comes from an existing population, particularly women in childbearing ages.

• Having instituted a one-child policy in 1979, China’s female population in peak reproductive ages (between 15 and 39 years) is estimated at 235 million (2019) compared to 253 million for India.

• Thus, even if India could institute a policy that reduces its fertility rate to the Chinese level, India will overtake China as the most populous country.

• The element of surprise comes from the date by which this momentous event is expected. The UN revises its population projections every two years.

• In 2015, it was predicted that India would overtake China in 2022, but in the 2019 projections it is 2027.

• The UN has revised India’s expected population size in 2050 downward from 1,705 million in 2015 projections to 1,639 million in 2019 projections.

• This is due to faster than expected fertility decline, which is good news by all counts.

• Like it or not, India will reign as the most populous country throughout most of the 21st century.

• Whether we adjust to this demographic destiny in a way that contributes to the long-term welfare of the nation or not depends on how we deal with three critical issues.

Population control

Do we need to adopt stringent population control policies?

• History tells us that unless the Indian state can and chooses to act with the ruthlessness of China, the government has few weapons in its arsenal.

• Almost all weapons that can be used in a democratic nation, have already been deployed.

• These include restriction of maternity leave and other maternity benefits for first two births only and disqualification from panchayat elections for people with more than two children in some States along with minor incentives for sterilisation.

• If punitive actions won’t work, we must encourage people to have smaller families voluntarily.

• There are sharp differences in fertility among different socio-economic groups.

• Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for the poorest women was 3.2 compared to only 1.5 for the richest quintile in 2015-16. To get to TFR of 1.5, a substantial proportion of the population among the top 40% must stop at one child.

Population and policy

• We must change our mindset about how population is incorporated in broader development policies.

• Population growth in the north and central parts of India is far greater than that in south India.

• These policies include using the 1971 population to allocate seats for the Lok Sabha and for Centre-State allocation under various Finance Commissions.

• In a departure from this practice, the 15th Finance Commission is expected to use the 2011 Census for making its recommendations.

• This has led to vociferous protests from the southern States as the feeling is that they are being penalised for better performance in reducing fertility.

Reason for their concern

• Between the 1971 and 2011 Censuses, the population of Kerala grew by 56% compared to about 140% growth for Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

• A move to use the 2011 Census for funds allocation will favour the north-central States compared to Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

• However, continuing to stay with a 1971 Census-based allocation would be a mistake. Cross-State subsidies come in many forms; Centre-State transfers is but one. Incomes generated by workers in one State may also provide the tax revenues that support residents in another State.

• The varying pace of onset and end of demographic transition creates intricate links between workers in Haryana today and retirees in Kerala and between future workers in Uttar Pradesh and children in Tamil Nadu.

• Demographic dividend provided by the increasing share of working age adults is a temporary phase during which child dependency ratio is falling and old-age dependency ratio is still low. But this opportunity only lasts for 20 to 30 years. For States such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu which experienced fertility decline early, this window of opportunity is already past.

• As the United Nations Population Fund estimates, over the next 20 years, the window of opportunity will be open for moderate achievers such as Karnataka, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir.

• As the demographic window of opportunity closes for these States, it will open for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other States that are the last to enter fertility transition. This suggests that workers of Bihar will be supporting the ageing population of Kerala in 20 years.

The focus areas

• In order to maximise the demographic dividend, we must invest in the education and health of the workforce, particularly in States whose demographic window of opportunity is still more than a decade away.

• Staying fixated on the notion that revising State allocation of Central resources based on current population rather than population from 1971 punishes States with successful population policies is shortsighted.

• This is because current laggards will be the greatest contributors of the future for everyone, particularly for ageing populations of early achievers. Enhancing their productivity will benefit everyone.

Conclusion

• It is time for India to accept the fact that being the most populous nation is its destiny.

• It must work towards enhancing the lives of its current and future citizens.

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Turning down the heat: on forest restoration (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: Cop 21
Mains level: Role of forest on climate change

Context

• During the run-up to the Paris climate change meeting in 2015 (COP-21) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, each country decided the level and kind of effort it would undertake to solve the global problem of climate change.

• These actions were later referred to as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Strategies announced by India

• India made a number of promises that would lead to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, or mitigation, and actions to adapt to living in a warmer world, or adaptation.

• Many of its described programmes and plans were intended to enable India to move to a climate-friendly sustainable development pathway.

• Primarily, by 2030, there will be reductions in the emissions intensity of the GDP by about a third and a total of 40% of the installed capacity for electricity will be from non-fossil fuel sources.

• India also promised an additional carbon sink a means to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by the year 2030.

• Trees and other vegetation fix carbon as part of photosynthesis and soil too holds organic carbon from plants and animals.

• The amount of soil carbon varies with land management practices, farming methods, soil nutrition and temperature.

Enhancing green cover

• India has yet to determine how its carbon sink objectives can be met. In a recent study, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) has estimated, along with the costs involved, the opportunities and potential actions for additional forest and tree cover to meet the NDC target.

• Given that forest and green cover already show a gradual increase in recent years, one might use this increase as part of the contribution towards the NDC.

• Or one might think of the additional 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent sink as having to be above the background or business-as-usual increase.

• The additional increase in carbon sinks, as recommended in this report, is to be achieved by the following ways: restoring impaired and open forests; afforesting wastelands; agro-forestry; through green corridors, plantations along railways, canals, other roads, on railway sidings and rivers; and via urban green spaces. Close to three quarters of the increase (72.3 %) will be by restoring forests and afforestation on wastelands, with a modest rise in total green cover.

• The FSI study has three scenarios, representing different levels of increase in forest and tree cover. For example, 50%, 60% or 70% of impaired forests could be restored.

• The total increase in the carbon sink in these scenarios could be 1.63, 2.51 or 3.39 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030, at costs varying from about ₹1.14 to ₹2.46 lakh crore.

• These figures show that the policy has to be at least at a medium level of increase to attain the stated NDC targets.

Natural forests

• A recent study in Nature by Simon Lewis and colleagues provides insights into what works well with regard to green cover. Locking up the carbon from the atmosphere in trees, ground vegetation and soils is one of the safest ways with which to remove carbon.

• If done correctly, the green cover increase will provide many other benefits: it will improve water quality, store water in wetlands, prevent soil erosion, protect biodiversity, and potentially provide new jobs.

• The authors estimate that allowing land to be converted into forests naturally will sequester 42 times the carbon compared to land converted to plantation, or six times for land converted to agroforestry.

• Another study in Science by Jean-François Bastin and colleagues estimates that it is possible to add 0.9 billion hectares of canopy cover worldwide, potentially mitigating up to two-thirds of historical greenhouse gas emissions.

• This would then prevent or delay the worst impacts from climate change.

Restoration type is key

• These studies indicate that while there is enormous potential in mitigating climate change through forest restoration, the amount of carbon stored depends on the type of forest restoration carried out.

• The most effective way is through natural forest regeneration with appropriate institutions to facilitate the process.

• Vast monocultures of plantations are being proposed in some countries, including in India, but these hold very little carbon; when they are harvested, carbon is released as the wood is burned.

• Besides, some of the trees selected for the plantations may rely on aquifers whose water becomes more and more precious with greater warming.

• Such forms of green cover, therefore, do not mitigate climate change and also do not improve biodiversity or provide related benefits. India, therefore, needs first to ensure that deforestation is curtailed to the maximum extent.

• The area allocated to the restoration of impaired and open forests and wastelands in the FSI report should be focussed entirely on natural forests and agroforestry.

• While using a carbon lens to view forests has potential dangers, involving local people and planting indigenous tree varieties would also reduce likely difficulties.

Conclusion

• Instead of plantations, growing food forests managed by local communities would have additional co-benefits.

• Once natural forests are established, they need to be protected. Protecting and nurturing public lands while preventing their private enclosure is therefore paramount.

• Active forest management by local people has a long history in India and needs to expand to meet climate, environment and social justice goals.

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The Malaise of malnutrition (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Health and Education
Mains level : Malnutrition is the biggest challenge before India which needs attention

Context

• A new report, ‘Food and Nutrition Security Analysis, India, 2019’, authored by the Government of India and the United Nations World Food Programme, paints a picture of hunger and malnutrition amongst children in large pockets of India.

Indicates poor condition

• This punctures the image of a nation marching towards prosperity. It raises moral and ethical questions about the nature of a state and society that, after 70 years of independence, still condemns hundreds of millions of its poorest and vulnerable citizens to lives of hunger and desperation.

• And it once again forces us to ask why despite rapid economic growth, declining levels of poverty, enough food to export, and a multiplicity of government programmes, malnutrition amongst the poorest remains high.

A trap of poverty, malnutrition

• The report shows the poorest sections of society caught in a trap of poverty and malnutrition, which is being passed on from generation to generation.

• Mothers who are hungry and malnourished produce children who are stunted, underweight and unlikely to develop to achieve their full human potential.

Effects of malnourishment

• The effects of malnourishment in a small child are not merely physical. A developing brain that is deprived of nutrients does not reach its full mental potential.

• A study in the Lancet notes, “Undernutrition can affect cognitive development by causing direct structural damage to the brain and by impairing infant motor development.” This in turn affects the child’s ability to learn at school, leading to a lifetime of poverty and lack of opportunity.

• Another study in the Lancet observes, “These disadvantaged children are likely to do poorly in school and subsequently have low incomes, high fertility, and provide poor care for their children, thus contributing to the intergenerational transmission of poverty.”

• In other words, today’s poor hungry children are likely to be tomorrow’s hungry, unemployed and undereducated adults.

Extent of malnutrition

• India has long been home to the largest number of malnourished children in the world. Some progress has been made in reducing the extent of malnutrition.

• The proportion of children with chronic malnutrition decreased from 48% percent in 2005-06 to 38.4% in 2015-16.

• The percentage of underweight children decreased from 42.5% to 35.7% over the same period.

• Anaemia in young children decreased from 69.5% to 58.5% during this period. But this progress is small.

An ambitious target

• The government’s National Nutrition Mission (renamed as Poshan Abhiyaan) aims to reduce stunting (a measure of malnutrition that is defined as height that is significantly below the norm for age) by 2% a year, bringing down the proportion of stunted children in the population to 25% by 2022.

• But even this modest target will require doubling the current annual rate of reduction in stunting.

• The minutes of recent meetings of the Executive Committee of Poshan Abhiyaan do not inspire much confidence about whether this can be achieved.

Implementation became ineffective

• A year after it was launched, State and Union Territory governments have only used 16% of the funds allocated to them. Fortified rice and milk were to be introduced in one district per State by March this year.

• But the minutes of a March 29 meeting showed that this had not been done, and officials in charge of public distribution had not yet got their act together.

• Or, as the minutes put it, “The matter is under active consideration of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution”.

• Anganwadis are key to the distribution of services to mothers and children. But many States, including Bihar and Odisha, which have large vulnerable populations, are struggling to set up functioning anganwadis, and recruit staff.

The problem is access to food

• As Amartya Sen noted, famines are caused not by shortages of food, but by inadequate access to food.

• And for the poor and marginalised, access to food is impeded by social, administrative and economic barriers.

• In the case of children and their mothers, this could be anything from non-functioning or neglectful governments at the State, district and local levels to entrenched social attitudes that see the poor and marginalised as less than equal citizens who are meant to be an underclass and are undeserving of government efforts to provide them food and lift them out of poverty.

Way forward

• A lot of attention has focussed on the government’s aim of turning India into a $5 trillion economy in the next five years.

• Whether this will achieved is a matter for debate.

• But these declarations only serve to obscure a larger reality.

• There is a large section of society, the poorest two-fifths of the country’s population, that is still largely untouched by the modern economy which the rest of the country inhabits.

• As one part of the country lives in a 21st century economy, ordering exotic cuisines over apps, another part struggles with the most ancient of realities: finding enough to eat to tide them over till the next day.

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