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THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 04 May 2020 (Across the Aisle (Financial Express))

Across the Aisle (Financial Express)

Mains Paper 2: National
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Imagination is everything in war against reality

Context:

The war against COVID-19 and its social and economic consequences is being led by the Central and state governments and we the people are mere followers.
But as followers, we can imagine many things.

The virus can be defeated without a vaccine:

That will lead us to imagine that a lockdown is a cure and, until the cure is complete, a lockdown will stop the spread of the virus.
The reality is that a lockdown is not a cure, nor does it stop the spread of the virus.
A lockdown is a pause, it may slow the spread of the virus, and it will buy us valuable time to build our medical and health infrastructure, spread awareness and be prepared to deal with the peak number of infected persons who will require hospitalisation.
Those who had demanded a lockdown had understood the reality.

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Migrant workers who were prevented from going back:

The migrant workers who were prevented from going back to their homes are happy to be in their shelter homes, quarantines or camps, are content with the living conditions, and are satisfied with the food.
The reality is what the Delhi Police found after inspecting the shelter homes.
Fans not working, and no power back-up; sanitisation of toilets rarely done; most migrants want to leave as their families cannot survive; rude behaviour of civil defence staff; food quality not good; no hand wash and sanitizers; foul smell in toilets; water supply in the toilets only between 7 am and 11 am; one soap for bathing and no detergent for washing clothes; mosquito bites.
If those are the conditions of shelter homes (where the stay is voluntary), don’t imagine what they will be in quarantines and camps (where the stay is involuntary).
The reality is that the vast majority of such workers got no assistance from the governments — no cash transfer, no rations.
Their only desire is to go home. Uttar Pradesh and some other states took an enlightened approach and sent buses to ferry them to their home states, Bihar refused, and the Central government was non-committal until April 29. Now, Bihar has joined others to demand non-stop trains!

No job losses and its availability:

The reality is what CMIE reported on April 27: that the unemployment rate stood at 21.1% even while labour force participation had fallen to 35.4%.
The reality is that once an MSME is shut down, it is not easy to re-start it. The few workers — two to 10 — in the unit may have found other ways to earn a wage or migrated and, even if they are willing to come back, there will be arrears of wages.
The unit would have bills to be collected and bills to be paid, and neither is easy after a prolonged shutdown.
The unit would have run out of working capital and no bank or NBFC will lend without a credit guarantee.
The supply chain would have been interrupted: what is the use of re-opening a dealership if the manufacturer has not resumed production?
No one who has never invested his own money to start a business will understand the problems of running a business or the pain of closing it down.

Financial Action Plan II:

The Central government will keep its promise, made on March 25, that it will soon come out with Financial Action Plan II to help businesses, especially the MSMEs.
The reality is that nothing has been done until the time of this writing. We don’t know if the Financial Task Force has made any recommendation.
A new committee to think ‘Big and Bold’ is still thinking.
The reality is that banks are flush with funds but they prefer to park them with the RBI than lend to NBFCs or SMEs. NBFCs are fast becoming illiquid and cannot on-lend.

Survive and flourish the big industries:

The reality is that big industries have realised that the old normal is out forever and are in search of a new normal.
They are looking for conserving cash, curtailing capital expenditure, optimising capacity utilisation, downsizing their workforce, becoming debt-free, and expanding work-from-home.
Big industries will also consolidate, which will result in less competition (for example, telecom).

V-curve:

Imagine that the economy will bounce back smartly after the lockdown is lifted and we will see the V-curve.
The reality is that the Indian economy did not recover after the demonetisation blunder, it did not recover after the botched-up GST, and will not recover easily after the lockdown is lifted.
Even a tick-shaped recovery will require hard work, plans, meticulous implementation, money, open markets, smart alliances and international co-operation.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Artificial Neural Networks based global Ionospheric Model, consider the following statements:
1. Researchers from Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), Navi Mumbai, has developed a new Artificial Neural Networks based global Ionospheric Model (ANNIM) using long-term ionospheric observations to predict the ionospheric electron density and the peak parameters.
2. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) replicate the processes in the human brain (or biological neurons) to solve problems such as pattern recognition, classification etc.

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