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THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 01 August 2020 (Towards a new normal: On Unlock 3 (The Hindu))
Towards a new normal: On Unlock 3 (The Hindu)
Mains Paper 2:Governance
Prelims level: Unlock 3
Mains level: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
Context:
- The Centre has announced further relaxations in the lockdown that began on March 25 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic although the numbers are unrelenting. The third phase will now take effect from August 5.
- At nearly 17 lakh, India stood third among countries with the highest number of cases; a third of these cases are currently active.
- With over 36,000 deaths, India’s case fatalityrate of 2.16% is relatively low.
Vigil must continue:
- The possibility of wider prevalenceindicated in serology surveys in Delhi and Mumbai suggests that the death rate could be even lower than current estimations.
- The disease spread has been uneven within the country. The responses of States and cities have also remained inconsistent.
- Along with the number of cases, overworked health-care professionals experiencing fatigueand the public showing impatience with restrictions are also on the rise.
- This is not a pleasant mix of circumstances, and utmost vigilmust continue.
- By now, it is also evident that complete lockdowns that disrupt economic activities cannot be sustained over long periods of time.
- Gyms and yoga centres, but not educational institutions, metro rail, and large gatherings, will be allowed in the next phase.
- Movement of people and goods across borders will be easier as per the Centre’s guidelines.
- Random restrictions on movement such as those in Tamil Nadu, where an e-pass is required for intra- and inter-State travel, must now be done away with.
Key adaptation:
- As a vaccine or a cure is not yet visible, it is time the focus on adaptation got sharper.
- Though many questions about COVID-19 remain, certain measures are evidently helpful in managing the pandemic better and bringing fatalities down.
- The coming phase of unlocking must prepare the country for complete opening.
- For that, first of all, testing should be unlocked and made available on demand as close to home as possible.
- For those infected to not step out of home is a far superior measure in preventing spread, compared to inadequate mask usage.
- With most cases turning out to be asymptomatic, wider and cheaper availability of testing must be a thrust area for the government now.
- Easy, early diagnosis of infections, even when asymptomatic, will go a long way in containment.
- The concerns regarding increased dependence on rapid antigen tests in some places must be addressed.
- Second, real time epidemiological data should be unlocked.
- Just as weather data is freely available, and allows for cropping practice readjustments, disaggregatedreal time data enables micro-planning and localised behavioural response.
- The proclivityshown by some States and cities to conceal data has been self-defeating.
- Even official death counts do not match with the numbers available with other sources.
Conclusion:
- There must be efforts to harvestaccurate data, and with ease of availability.
- Normalcy, albeita new one, could be reached faster with the right efforts.
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Prelims Questions:
Q.1)With reference to the Near Field Communication (NFC), consider the following statements:
1. Near Field Communication (NFC) is a contact-less communication technology based on a radio frequency (RF) field using a base frequency of 13.56 MHz.
2. NFC technology is perfectly designed to exchange data between two devices through a simple touch gesture.
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