Monthly Current Affairs June 2020

Easy to PICK537 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 back to 1918, with the formation of the  The NSCN(I-M) had then announced to Naga Club. “every citizen of Nagalim wherever they  In 1929, the Club famously told the Simon may be”, that a ceasefire agreement was Commission “to leave us alone to entered into between India and the outfit to determine for ourselves as in ancient bring about a lasting political solution. times”.  In 1946, A Z Phizo formed the Naga 2015: National Council (NNC), which declared  In August that year, the Centre signed a Naga independence on August 14, 1947, and then, in 1951, claimed to have framework agreement with the NSCN(I- conducted a referendum. M).  The referendum got overwhelming  PM Modi described it as a “historic majority in support of an independent agreement” towards settling the “oldest Naga state. insurgency” in India. This set the stage for  By the early 1950s, the NNC had taken up the ongoing peace talks. arms and gone underground.  In 2017, six other Naga armed outfits  The NNC split in 1975, the breakaway under the banned of the Naga National group being the NSCN, which split further Political Groups (NNPGs) joined the talks. in later years, most prominently into the  Today, Muivah remains the senior-most NSCN(I-M) and NSCN (Khaplang) in Naga rebel leader. Isak died in 2016. In the 1988. NSCN(-K), its leader Khaplang died in 2018. And how have the peace talks played out in recent years? What was in the framework agreement? Before the ongoing talks, which followed a  The government has not yet spelt out the framework agreement in 2015, there were two other agreements between Naga groups and details in public. the Centre.  Following the agreement, the government 1975:  A peace accord was signed in Shillong in had said in a press statement: “The Government of India recognised the which the NNC leadership agreed to give unique history, culture and position of the up arms. Nagas and their sentiments and  Several NNC leaders, including Isak aspirations. Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and S S  The NSCN understood and appreciated the Khaplang refused to accept the agreement Indian political system and governance. and broke away to form the NSCN.  On the other hand, the NSCN(I-M) issued  In 1988 came another split, with Khaplang a statement earlier this year which said that breaking away to form the NSCN(K) while Nagaland State does and will not represent Isak and Muivah headed the NSCN(I-M). the national decision of the Naga people.  The statement was in opposition the 1997: proposal for a Register of Indigenous  The NSCN(I-M ) signed a ceasefire Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) in the state of Nagaland. agreement with the government in 1997, preceded by rounds of talks since 1995. Where does the territorial demand  The key agreement was that there would be currently stand? no counter-insurgency offensive against  The accord being finalised “does not the NSCN(I-M), who in turn would not attack Indian forces. change the boundary of states; provides autonomous Naga territorial councils for Arunachal and Manipur; a common cultural body for Nagas across states.

Easy to PICK538 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020  It provides for specific institutions for state’s development, integration and rehabilitation of non-state Naga militia and the removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.  The map of Greater Nagalim in the NSCN(IM) vision, on the other hand, covers a 1,20,000 sq km sprawl across the Northeast and Myanmar — the area of Nagaland state itself is only 16,527 sq km, a fraction of this vision.  Amid the anxiety this has caused among citizens in neighbouring states, state governments have assured them that their respective states’ territorial integrity would not be compromised. What are the other issues?  The government and the NSCN(I-M) have failed to agree on issues relating to a separate Naga flag and a constitution.  In its latest statement, the NSCN(I-M) has said it will not budge from the demand for the flag and the constitution — and that it is looking for a lasting solution.  However the NSCN(I-M) has adopted a procrastinating attitude to delay the settlement raising the contentious symbolic issues of separate Naga national flag and constitution. Where could the disagreement lead to?  The statement from the Governor’s office has given rise to speculation that the government is ready to sign a final peace agreement with other groups without the NSCN(I-M), the largest group.  Civil society groups in Nagaland are divided in their opinion.  Some have said the talks should be wrapped up with whatever is offered now and keep other issues open for later negotiations.  Others believe all issues should be settled and the NSCN(I-M) should be on board, even if it takes longer than the deadline.

Easy to PICK539 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Liquidity Measures Extended Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has  The repo rate is given to banks that are extended the relaxation relating to Marginal looking to meet their short-term financial Standing Facility (MSF) scheme till needs. While, the MSF is meant for 30th September 2020. lending overnight to banks.  It has also extended the relaxation relating  Lending at repo rates involves to maintenance of Cash Reserve Ratio a repurchase agreement of securities. (CRR) up to 25th September 2020. While it is not so in MSF.  This was done in view of the hardships  Under MSF, banks are also allowed to use being faced by banks in terms of social the securities that come under Statutory distancing at work and consequent strain Liquidity Ratio (SLR) in the process of on reporting requirements. availing loans from RBI. Imp Points  Under SLR, commercial banks are  Marginal Standing Facility: The RBI, as mandated by RBI to maintain a stipulated proportion of their deposits a temporary measure, had increased the in the form of liquid assets like cash, gold borrowing limit of scheduled banks under and unencumbered (free from debt) the MSF scheme from 2% to 3% of their securities. deposits with effect from 27th March 2020. Earlier, the above relaxation was granted  Cash Reserve Ratio: On 27th March, 2020 till 30th June 2020. the minimum daily maintenance of the  MSF is a window for scheduled banks to CRR was reduced from 90% of the borrow overnight from the RBI in an prescribed CRR to 80%. The above facility emergency situation when interbank was available till 26th June 2020. CRR is liquidity dries up completely. Under the amount of liquid cash that banks interbank lending, banks lend funds to one have to maintain with the RBI, as a another for a specified term. Banks borrow percentage of their total deposits. from the RBI by pledging government securities at a rate higher than the repo Key Terms rate under Liquidity Adjustment  Scheduled Banks: Any bank which is Facility (LAF).  Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI listed in the 2nd schedule of the RBI Act, lends money to commercial 1934 is considered a scheduled bank. The banks against the securities in the event of banks included in this category should any shortfall of funds. Loans provided at fulfil two conditions: The paid up capital repo rate are provided for a specified and collected fund of the bank should not period with an obligation that the bank will be less than Rs. 5 lakh. Any activity of the repurchase the securities back at a bank shall not adversely affect the interests predetermined rate. of the depositors.  Commercial Banks: It refers to both Differences between Repo Rate and MSF scheduled and non-scheduled commercial  Repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends banks which are regulated under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. money to commercial banks, while MSF  Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) is is a rate at which RBI lends money a tool used in monetary policy by the RBI, to scheduled banks. that allows banks to borrow money through repurchase agreements (repos) or for banks to make loans to the RBI through

Easy to PICK540 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 reverse repo agreements.  Reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows money from commercial banks within the country.

Easy to PICK541 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 HAM Radio Recently HAM (amateur) radio operators have  According to the Indian Wireless volunteered to help a special task force that has been constituted in Bengaluru to ensure that Telegraphs (Amateur Service) citizens placed under home quarantine follow the Amendment Rules, 1984, ‘Amateur protocol for it. service’ means a service of self training ImpPoints intercommunications and technical  Amateur radio, also called ham radio, is investigation carried on by Amateurs that a noncommercial two-way radio communications. They use many is, by persons duly authorized under these frequency bands across the radio spectrum. rules interested in radio technique solely  HAM radio is a real-time communication network. This is much like wireless with a personal aim and without communication which is quick and pecuniary interest. transparent.  It is a non-commercial radio  Amateur Radio operators set up and operate organized communication communication service. networks locally for governmental and  Amateur radio operators are commonly emergency officials, as well as non- commercial communication for private known as hams. The term “Ham radio” is citizens affected by the disaster.  Amateur Radio operators are most likely to used to describe the hobby of Amateur be active after disasters that damage regular lines of communications due to radio and not the equipment. power outages and destruction of o Similarly the term “Ham” is used telephone, cellular and other infrastructure-dependent systems. to describe a radio amateur Indian Scenario enthusiast and not the equipment.  Any citizen of India who is above 12 years of age can become a ham by qualifying in the Amateurs Station Operators’ examination (ASO) and obtaining a valid Amateur wireless telegraph station license. Radio Waves have the longest  Radio waves the electromagnetic wavelengths in spectrum.

Easy to PICK542 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020  These were discovered by Heinrich Hertz in the late 1880s.  These are produced by the accelerated motion of charges in conducting wires. They are used in radio and television communication systems.  They are generally in the frequency range from 500 kHz to about 1000 MHz.  The AM (Amplitude Modulated) band is from 530 kHz to 1710 kHz. The FM (Frequency Modulated) radio band extends from 88 MHz to 108 MHz.  Higher frequencies up to 54 MHz are used for short wave bands. TV waves range from 54 MHz to 890 MHz.  Cellular phones use radio waves to transmit voice communication in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band.  Radio-wave communications signals travel through the air in a straight line, reflect off of clouds or layers of the ionosphere, or are relayed by satellites in space.

Easy to PICK543 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 EDITORIAL PLUS

Easy to PICK544 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Universal Basic Income It’s time for a universal basic income concept and have begun controlled UBI programme in India pilots to supplement their population. # India’s huge capacity and infrastructure- By, Anil K. Antony is the Convener of INC – building requirements will support plenty Kerala Digital Media, and the National of hands in the foreseeable future. Coordinator of PIIndia.org, a COVID19 Nonetheless, even before the pandemic, action group. Tweets @anilkantony India was struggling to find enough Introduction opportunities for more than a million job The ongoing crisis is creating changes that aspirants who were entering the job market could end up dividing society into pre- and each month. post-COVID-19 days. # The 2016-17 Economic Survey and These changes are also likely to exacerbate the International Monetary Fund the novel challenges accompanying the (IMF) had once proposed quasi-basic fourth industrial revolution. income schemes that leave out the well-off Disruptive technologies top quartile of the population as an effective Today, disruptive technologies like means of alleviating poverty and hunger. artificial intelligence are ushering in # The fiscal cost of a UBI pegged at ?7,620, productivity gains that we have never seen at 75% universality, was 4.9% of the GDP. before. # A UBI on par with the numbers suggested They are also steadily reducing human by the Economic Survey could lead capital requirements, making jobs a to targeted household incomes increasing premium. by almost ?40,000 per annum, since the A microcosm of these trends can be seen in average Indian household size is Silicon Valley. The region is home to five of approximately five. the world’s eight most valuable companies. Different times These giants, all technology companies, # The times now are very different. IMF have a cumulative market cap of over $4 has projected global growth in 2020 to be - trillion, yet they together directly employ 3.0%, the worst since the Great Depression. just 1.2 million people. # India is projected to grow at 1.9%. The Tool to eradicate poverty U.S. economy is expected to fall by 5.9%. # Many consider a universal basic income # The unemployment rate and (UBI) programme to be a solution that unemployment claims in the U.S., since could mitigate the looming crisis caused President Donald Trump declared by dwindling job opportunities. a national emergency, is the highest since # UBI is also deliberated as an the Great Depression. effective poverty-eradication tool. # Lockdowns in some format are expected # Supporters of this scheme include to be the norm till the arrival of a vaccine. Economics Nobel Laureates Peter Diamond # With almost 90% of India’s workforce in and Christopher Pissarides, and tech the informal sector without minimum leaders Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. wages or social security, micro-level # UBI in its true sense would entail the circumstances will be worse in India than provision of an unconditional fixed anywhere else. amount to every citizen in a country. # The frequent sight of several thousands of # Nevertheless, countries across the migrant labourers undertaking perilous world, including Kenya, Brazil, Finland, journeys on foot in inhumane conditions is and Switzerland, have bought into this

Easy to PICK545 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 a disgraceful blight on India. # One way to ensure their sustenance throughout these trying times is the introduction of unconditional regular pay checks at maximum universality, at least till the economy normalises. If universal basic income ever had a time, it is now.

Easy to PICK546 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 SpaceX Crew Dragon: A new era in space exploration SpaceX Crew Dragon: A new era in space the death of seven astronauts. exploration  On Sunday night, two American  After the 2003 accident, in which India- astronauts flew to the International born astronaut Kalpana Chawla was Space Station, the world’s only space- based laboratory, located about 400 km among those killed, the US government from the earth, in a journey that has been undertaken hundreds of times had decided to close the Space Shuttle earlier.  It was the first time that astronauts used programme. a spaceship built and launched by a private company, and the event is being  The three remaining widely seen as the beginning of a new era in space exploration. spaceships, Discovery, Atlantis, and  Two NASA astronauts flew onboard a spaceship named Crew Dragon built Endeavour, were formally retired in by SpaceX.  The rocket, named Falcon 9, which July 2011, even though they were fit for carried the spaceship into the orbit, was also built by SpaceX. many more flights.  The Florida launch facility used for the flight still belonged to NASA, however,  It was decided that it probably no longer and had previously been used to launch American spaceships including the made sense for NASA to build and Apollo missions that took human beings to moon. operate these spaceships. It was not  The mission was called Demo-2, in keeping with the fact that it was still just costly, but was also consuming a lot only a ‘test flight’, which if successful, would lead to more missions in the of scientific resources. coming months. What’s the big deal  The transportation needs could easily be  For NASA, it was the first flight of its astronauts on an American spaceship, fulfilled by space vehicles that some launched on American soil, after nine years. private companies were promising to  NASA used to have a fleet of five spaceships under its Space Shuttle make. Accordingly, it was decided to programme, that were used to make a total of 135 of journeys into space, and help and support these companies in the International Space Station (ISS), in the 30 years between 1981 and 2011. building these spaceships that can  Two of these were destroyed in accidents, the Challenger in 1986 be hired by other agencies as well, and and Columbia in 2003, each resulting in even private individuals.  The NASA collaboration with SpaceX and Boeing was a result of this.  In the meanwhile, NASA hitched rides on Russian spaceships to travel to the ISS, for which it paid tens of millions of dollars for every trip.  The new option is expected to be cheaper than that, besides offering the comfort of operating from home soil and eliminating dependence on a foreign country. Private participation, so far  The involvement of private industry in the space sector is nothing new.  There are literally hundreds of private entities building commercial satellites for their clients.  Launch services are still a somewhat restricted zone, considering that it requires elaborate facilities and deep pockets, but here too, there are

Easy to PICK547 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 several players apart from SpaceX and fresh investments, and Boeing. also technological innovation that will  Many, like Virgin Galatic of benefit everyone. businessman Richard Branson, have been already made space flights and hope very soon to start offering passenger rides to space whoever can afford to pay.  In fact, last year, a spacecraft built by Scaled Composites, a US company, even took a human being for a very short ride into space, becoming the first private spacecraft to do so.  In India the private space companies collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in building and fabricating the components that go into making rockets and satellites.  There are several that have started making satellites for their own use, or for their clients.  However, launch services, including the building of rockets or launch vehicles to take the satellites into space, is something that is still some distance away in India right now. Window to the future  Sunday’s flight also underlines the fact that space research and exploration is now a much more collaborative enterprise than earlier.  The International Space Station itself is a good example of international cooperation in the space sector.  The space facility is set to retire somewhere around 2028, and its replacement being planned is likely to have participation from at least ten countries, and possibly private players as well. Way ahead  There is also a growing realisation that space agencies need to direct their energies and resources more towards scientific research and deep space exploration.  Private players are expected to infuse

Easy to PICK548 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Open with caution-Unlock 1 plan Introduction # A genuinely universal PDS with adequate It is a truth universally acknowledged now that supplies of foodgrain, ensuring that no one is the severe restrictions to contain COVID- left behind, must be provided in all States. 19 produced traumatic displacement of the # Cash supplements should reach all intended weakest sections, while the check on infection beneficiaries. This needs to be underscored, as spread was modest. surveys of workers who lost jobs after the pandemic indicate rising hunger levels and Phased Unlocking missing financial support. # The Centre’s move for a phased unlocking of # Some sections, such as Dalits, women, and public activity after the rigorous lockdown low-skilled workers are even worse off. For since March 25 sets the stage for people to the elderly, vulnerable individuals and children resume their jobs and undertake some travel. below 10, the Centre’s advice is to shelter in # The ‘Unlock 1’ plan should ensure a careful place even during the relaxation phase. restarting of activities, the most important of # The course of COVID-19 in the weeks ahead which is the delivery of goods and everyday is by no means predictable, and the services, including health services unrelated to Centre recognises the possibility of new rural COVID-19 infections. clusters emerging due to large-scale return of # Latest data since the virus surfaced in the migrants. country show that 13 cities, including some of # Whether in the cities or the countryside, the biggest metros, host 70% of the cases, ‘Unlock 1’ must prioritise some actions: create and many of the earlier restrictions will public awareness that the virus is present, continue there. ramp up testing, provide health services, and intensively monitor relief measures. Solutions # Retaining curbs on big gatherings, such as in religious places, is reasonable, given the history of these sites unwittingly becoming super spreaders. # But States must show diligence in actively testing and quarantining individuals in cities with high incidence to significantly control the spread. # Half-hearted approaches to implementing the measures mandated by the National Directives for COVID-19 Management, such as those on face cover, physical distancing in public places, shops and establishments, spitting, and gathering in large numbers, can only worsen the crisis, especially with resumption of public transport. # Citizens who have accepted severe curtailment of liberties during the lockdown can be persuaded to adopt a healthy public behaviour code using measures that are civil, yet firm.

Easy to PICK549 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Ominous signals: on slowdown of India's economy Introduction # The revisions in the trade, transport, hotels India’s economy is in a severe slowdown that is and communications, and financial, real estate only going to get worse in a pandemic-stricken and professional services sectors have cut world. third-quarter growth figures by 1.6 and 4 Three months after Finance Ministry percentage points, respectively. mandarins prognosticated that India’s growth slowdown had bottomed out, the latest # The economy is visibly mired in a demand economic data has belied that prediction. drought that is unlikely to abate any time soon. GDP estimates # Private consumption spending, which # Crucially, the GDP growth estimates for accounts for 55-60% of GDP, extended a the January-March quarter and the full fiscal downtrend as growth slid to 2.7%. year barely reflect the impact of the public health crisis and the stringent lockdowns, # Investment activity contracted for a third which were imposed nationwide only from consecutive quarter and shrank 6.5%. March 25. # Data coming in for the current fiscal are # The NSO’s estimates show fourth-quarter revealing the devastating impact that the and fiscal 2019-20 growth slumped to 3.1% lockdown has had. and 4.2%, respectively, the slowest pace in 11 years. # Output at the eight core industries that represent 40% of the Index of Industrial # The government says the lockdown impacted Production contracted by an alarming 38% in data flow, and with statutory reporting April. timelines extended the estimates would likely undergo revision. # Merchandise exports shrank 60% in the same month. # However, the fact that Gross Value Added numbers for the first three # The RBI, which cut interest rates on May 22, quarters have been revised significantly was categorical in its assessment that a downwards shows that the economic malaise recovery would likely start only from the was deep and widespread even before the novel October quarter. coronavirus landed on Indian shores. # Four of the eight industry sectors that Way ahead together comprise the GVA are now revealed to # The Centre’s package so far has been focused be in far worse shape than was reported earlier. on credit enhancement measures that ease supply side constraints and structural reforms # This includes manufacturing, which that may bear fruit over a longer horizon. But contracted for a third straight quarter the imperative now is to bite the bullet and opt and shrank by 1.4% in the fourth for a massive fiscal stimulus that actually puts quarter; construction, a major job generating cash in the hands of consumers and the millions activity that continued to weaken of jobless youth in order to help revive demand. and contracted 2.2%; and the two largest services categories.

Easy to PICK550 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 A right time to shift pharma gears Background yield any profits, commercial pharmaceutical We are living in the shadow of the COVID-19 innovators must first cover their large R&D costs, pandemic — anxious about our families, our currently ?14 lakh crore a year (Mikulic 2020), friends and ourselves, depressed by worldwide including the cost of clinical trials needed to suffering and anxiety, upset by knowing that demonstrate safety and efficacy, the cost of capital once more the poor and marginalised are worse tied up during the long development process, and affected. Could the rules and practices the cost of any research efforts that fail somewhere organising health care around the world have along the way. been better suited to this outbreak. Consider the Health Impact Fund as a plausible institutional R&D and concerns reform of the current regime for developing and While we should evidently continue funding marketing new pharmaceuticals. pharmaceutical R&D, it is worth asking whether our current way of doing so is optimal. Data Medicines are among humanity’s greatest There are three main concerns achievements. They have helped attain dramatic First, innovators motivated by the prospect of improvements in health and longevity as well as large markups tend to neglect diseases suffered huge cost savings through reduced sick days and mainly by poor people, who cannot afford hospitalizations. The global market for expensive medicines. The 20 WHO-listed pharmaceuticals is currently worth ?110 crore neglected tropical diseases together afflict over annually, 1.7% of the gross world product one billion people (WHO n.d.) but attract only (IPFPA 2017, 5). Roughly 55% of this global 0.35% of the pharmaceutical industry’s R&D pharmaceutical spending, ?60 lakh crore, is for (IFPMA 2017, 15 and 21). Merely 0.12% of this brand-name products, which are typically R&D spending is devoted to tuberculosis and under patent. malaria, which kill 1.7 million people each year. What to do Second, thanks to a large number of affluent or Commercial pharmaceutical research and well-insured patients, the profit-maximising price development (R&D) efforts are encouraged of a new medicine tends to be quite high. and rewarded through the earnings that Consequently, most people around the world innovators derive from sales of their branded cannot afford advanced medicines that are still products. These earnings largely depend on the under patent. Every year, millions suffer and die 20-year product patents they are entitled to from lack of access to medicines that can be mass- obtain in WTO member states. Such patents produced quite cheaply. give them a temporary monopoly, enabling them to sell their new products without competition at a Third, rewards for developing and then providing price far above manufacture and distribution costs. pharmaceutical products are poorly correlated with therapeutic value. Firms earn billions by Problem developing duplicative drugs that add little to our In the United States, thousandfold (100000%) pharmaceutical toolbox — and billions more by markups over production costs are not cleverly marketing their drugs for patients who atypical. In India, the profit-maximising won’t benefit. These large R&D investments monopoly price of a new medicine is much would be much better spent on developing new lower, but similarly unaffordable for most life-saving treatments for deadly diseases citizens. To be sure, before such huge markups can plaguing the world’s poor.

Easy to PICK551 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 To address these problems, we propose a arsenal of effective interventions and complement to the present regime: the Health greater capacities for developing Impact Fund as an alternative track on which additional, more targeted responses pharmaceutical innovators may choose to be quickly. Pharmaceutical innovators would rewarded. Any new medicine registered with the thus have been much better prepared to Health Impact Fund would have to be sold at or supply or develop suitable medicines for below the variable cost of manufacture and containing the COVID-19 outbreak. distribution, but would earn ten annual reward  The Health Impact Fund would make an payments based on the health gains achieved with important difference also by rewarding for it. health outcomes rather than sales. For selling a medicine, it helps, of course, if On funding this medicine is known to be effective. The Health Impact Fund could start with as little as ?20000 crore per annum and might Way Forward then attract some 10-12 medicines, with one For achieving health gains with their product, entering and one exiting in a typical year. innovators need different strategies. They need Registered products would then earn to think holistically about how their drug can some ?17000-?20000 crore, on average, during work in the context of, or in synergy with, other their first ten years. Of course, some would earn factors relevant to treatment outcomes. They more than others – by having greater therapeutic need to think about therapies and diagnostics value or by benefiting more people. together, in order to identify and reach the Long-term funding for the Health Impact Fund patients who can benefit most. They need to might come from willing governments — monitor results in real time to recognize and contributing in proportion to their gross address possible impediments to uptake or national incomes — or from an international therapeutic success. They need to ensure that tax, perhaps on greenhouse gas emissions or high-value patients have affordable access to the speculative financial transactions. Non- drug and are properly instructed and motivated to contributing affluent countries would forgo the make optimal use of it with the drug still in prime benefits: the pricing constraint on registered condition. In sum, a reward mechanism oriented products would not apply to them. This gives towards health gains rather than high-markup innovators more reason to register (they can still sales would lead to a sustainable research-and- sell their product at high prices in some affluent marketing system that is better prepared for fast countries) and affluent countries reason to join and effective responses to outbreaks of unknown diseases, such as COVID-19. Benefits  The Health Impact Fund would get pharmaceutical firms interested in certain R&D projects that are unprofitable under the current regime – especially ones expected to produce large health gains among mostly poor people.  Such projects would predominantly address communicable diseases, which continue to impose devastating disease burdens mainly upon the poor.  With the Health Impact Fund in place, there would be much deeper and broader knowledge about such diseases, a richer

Easy to PICK552 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Shine a light: On retraction of a research paper About News started to swirl, the company, citing client Study in The Lancet, perhaps the most confidentiality, said it was unable to share influential medical journal in the world, found its data sources for independent no benefit from the use of hydroxychloroquine assessment. (HCQ), a well-known antimalarial, to treat sick  In their retractions, the journals have COVID-19 patients. Today, that study stands blamed Surgisphere for being opaque retracted. As it had relied on a huge dataset of with its primary data. So far, neither about 96,000 patients sourced from 671 hospitals journal has introspected on the peer- in six continents, the World Health review process that led to these studies Organization, citing a ‘do no harm’ principle, being published in the first place. suspended drug trials pending a safety  In hindsight it seems obvious that a review. This led to some countries in Europe disinterested analysis would have raised withdrawing the drug from their own trials. eyebrows regarding data sourcing, but the Imp Points post-COVID world is a panic-driven one Another study involving some of the same that has left no institution or appraisal authors and relying on the same data published process untouched. in The New England Journal of Medicine,  The average peer-review takes weeks and which sought to answer questions on the the clinical trial process months, but now associations between cardiovascular the expectation is that science delivers its disease, COVID-19 and drugs that target the results like magic. enzymes that play a role in facilitating the virus in  For years now, questions have been raised attacking a host, has also been retracted. on the effectiveness of the traditional, time-consuming peer-review process and  The Lancet study triggered a backlash this has launched a welcome culture of from scientists who found problems with papers being uploaded as preprints for the methodology and, more importantly, review. In the present instance of the HCQ the dataset. imbroglio, it is the independent effort by external scientists that brought the blight to  It emerged that mortality attributed to the light. disease in Australia did not match with the Way forward country’s own estimates; there was no way The key lesson is that it is a mistake to assume to tally patient records and the hospitals the scientific process as one divorced from the they were sourced from; and there were influence of power, privilege, finance and problems with the statistics deployed and politics. The means and methods to a scientific the conclusions about the potential risk result matter more than results — only achieved from the drug. through global scrutiny. Openness, more than blame game, is what the post-COVID world needs  The bigger concern was that the data now. was supplied by Surgisphere Corporation, which had a handful of employees with limited scientific expertise, and claimed to have aggregated its numbers by compiling electronic health records in less than two months.  Experienced clinical trial specialists said this was a labour-intensive process.  Moreover, when aspersions about the data

Easy to PICK553 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Addressing the elephant in the room Tarsh Thekaekara is a Post Doctoral Fellow at the empathy for the farmers who struggle to National Centre for Biological Sciences make their ends meet while growing food for all of us. Kerala had declared boar While there is outrage over the death of an “vermin”, but very few have been killed elephant, there are no protests against over the years. environmental destruction Administrative problems The news last week about a pregnant elephant Given the widespread destruction of crop by these having her mouth blown caused outrage on animals, farmers urgently need a safety net. social media. It’s impossible not to empathise with  Compensation schemes are one part of the pain of the elephant, which stood impassively the solution, but in India this is always in a river and died a slow death. But the wide only a fraction of the market value of the narrative about the death of humanity is crop, which is already precariously oversimplified. While people are demonising the low. Poor farmers spend a lot of time farmer responsible for the incident, it is important navigating bureaucratic processes to get it. to note that the elephant was an unintended And there is no end to this process — some target. Most crackers are aimed at wild boar animal numbers just keep going up, linked that destroy small farmers’ crop. to the availability of agricultural food crops, and the government cannot sustain Problems with the narrative an exponential growth in compensation.  With the absence of large predators outside  Second, this incident is far from new. forests and the huge availability of easily The start of the monsoon is when accessible food crops, deer, monkeys, boar animals move into human habitation and other species inevitably fill this space. more, partly on account of jackfruit and  In almost all developed nations these other crops/fruits. Incidents like this take species are kept in control so they don’t place as it is notoriously hard to identify destroy large crop areas. In less developed the culprits, since the event occurs much countries, local people take matters into before the injured elephants are found. their own hands. While there are dozens of calls to charge  Studies show this “reciprocity” — boars the culprits, it is far from easy for the forest eating crops, people eating boar — is what department and police to do this. allows farmers tolerate these otherwise  The third problem with the narrative problematic animals. around this incident is that all humans  India does not allow rural people to are grouped together. While some hunt animals, but neither does the people are indeed over-exploiting the government cull animals regularly planet, everyone is far from being equally despite their numbers shooting up. culpable for the ecological disaster that we  While the government has the provision are now in. Modern, developed, urban to declare overabundant animals humans are in fact disproportionately “vermin”, and cull them under the responsible since we consume infinitely Wildlife Protection Act, it very rarely more resources. It is our greed that has does this. destroyed vast tracts of forests and  Vocal urban wildlife activist groups thousands of elephants and other animals generally create a social media storm when over the last few decades. The poor farmer such decisions are taken and challenge the who inadvertently kills one elephant in an order in court. These groups have no attempt to feed us while making enough

Easy to PICK554 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 money for himself is much less more pressure on land, the challenges of living responsible. together will also increase. If arresting the person responsible is not going to be the solution, what can we do? This is best The way forward answered at two levels: one, how do we make sure  At a policy level, a good starting point that elephants don’t die in this way, and two, how would be to reorient the forest do we reduce negative human-elephant department to do away with the wildlife- interactions? territorial dichotomy of management The first problem is relatively simpler to that currently exists, especially since solve: we should control the population of wild nobody has managed to inform animals boar to minimise the impact they have on farmers. that they are only allowed to stay in This is untenable to most people, since wildlife divisions. conservation in India is arguably mixed up with  Beyond that there are no universal animal rights. Boars are classified “least solutions. Solutions vary based on the concern”, and are in absolutely no danger of context, the kinds of crops grown, density going extinct. If they are causing the death of of people, socioeconomic status, etc. much more threatened species like elephants, that  Farmers should be empowered and gives us all the more reason to control their subsidised to better protect their land numbers. The modalities of this have to be worked rather than wait for compensation or be out carefully to ensure there is no over-hunting forced to resort to these extreme, illegal and local extinction in some areas that have measures out of desperation. governance or enforcement problems. But the  India has done well in saving nature given inability to enforce rules should not be used as an its high population density. But as it excuse for not taking decisive action about the continues to develop, there is going to be expanding boar population. huge pressure on the natural world.  While it is heartening to see everyone get What can we do about the problem of elephants upset about the death of the elephant, the destroying crops, damaging property and hope is that there will also be large-scale killing people in accidental encounters? The protests about the large-scale destruction modern conservation movement aims to separate of the environment. human and wildlife spaces. When there is an  The National Board for Wildlife and the overlap, there is a mistaken assumption that Forest Advisory Committee are meant “conflict” is inevitable. This is arguably at odds to scrutinise and minimise the large- with the reality in India, where the majority of scale diversion of forest land for animal range is outside protected areas. For development projects, but they have been elephants only about 25% of their range is within reduced to rubber-stamping bodies. Even a protected areas. The extent of distribution of other coal mine inside an elephant reserve in species is not even fully known. One study in Assam was recently cleared. central India by Majgaonkar and others found  The government is easing up that only 2.6% of the range of leopards, hyenas environmental clearances and opening up and wolves in central India was within forests for destruction to boost a post- protected areas. So animals and people, COVID economy. particularly elephants, have always been  When industrialists like Ratan Tata, who interacting with each other. While there have are angry and easily condemn the farmer, always been problems, most interactions are also start to protest about these bigger peaceful, and there is a deep cultural tolerance not concerns on Twitter, we can pat ourselves found in other parts of the world. However, as on the back for being a truly animals and human numbers grow and there is environmentally conscious society.

Easy to PICK555 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Flattening the climate curve R. Sukumar is professor, Centre for Ecological would have been altered beyond Sciences and Divecha Centre for Climate Change, recognition. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru  Nature has been rather kind to us so far — about one-half of all CO2 emissions have Part of: GS-III- Climate Change (PT-MAINS- been sanitised from the atmosphere, PERSONALITY TEST) equally by growing vegetation on land and by absorption in the oceans. Leaders should act on the climate crisis with  Thus, the levels of CO2 in the the same alacrity they have shown towards atmosphere reached 407 ppm in 2018, a COVID-19 level last experienced by earth some three million years ago. Context Two interrelated curves began their upward Second curve trend two centuries ago with the advent of the  The second curve of direct consequence industrial age. The first curve was the to us is the global average temperature atmospheric concentration of carbon curve. From 1850 onwards, for over a dioxide (or, more generally, all greenhouse gases, century, the global temperature showed GHGs) and the second was the average global a slight warming trend. But there was temperature curve. nothing suggestive of anything serious.  From 1975 onwards, the temperature An upward trend graph has shown a distinct, upward trend.  Actually, the CO2 curve began its  By 2015, the globe had heated by a full upward march about 18,000 years ago degree Celsius relative to a hundred years when it was a little under 200 parts per previously. million (ppm) and earth was much  Climate modellers unequivocally project colder. By the time it reached 270 ppm that under the current trends of about 11,500 years ago, the warmer emissions the globe will heat up by 4?C conditions accompanying this curve by the end of the century. made it possible for the emergence of agriculture. What climate change includes  Over the past million years, CO2  Climate change involves not just a levels never exceeded 280-300 ppm. change in temperature but every other They always went back to 200 ppm before component of weather, including rising again in a cyclical fashion. rainfall, humidity and wind speed.  They remained steady at close to 280 ppm  Indirect effects follow, such as a rise in for 10,000 years until, beginning in the sea levels from melting glaciers. mid-19th century, they began to rise  Globally there have been several extreme again as humans burnt coal and oil to fuel weather events such as hurricanes, heat the industrial revolution, and burnt forests waves or droughts. to expand agriculture and settlements.  While no single event can be directly  From a mere 0.2 billion tonnes of CO2 attributed to climate change, the collective emissions in 1850, annual emissions trends are consistent with climate change increased to 36 billion tonnes by 2018. predictions.  If all this CO2 had accumulated in the atmosphere, we can say that human life For the sake of illustration, let us focus only on temperature change

Easy to PICK556 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020  The 2003 European heat wave killed Some of the wrangling over money relates to over 70,000 people. the amounts that the wealthy nations, which have caused most of the GHGs resulting in  The years 2015-19 have globally been the global warming, agreed to pay other countries warmest years on record. to cope with climate change. At the UN Climate Conference in 2009, the  Leave aside the Amazon fire of 2019, the richest nations had pledged to provide $100 bush fires of 2019-20 in Australia were billion in aid each year by 2020 to the poorer unprecedented in their scale and countries for climate change mitigation and devastation. adaptation. In 2017, for which data are available, only $71  While our attention has been on COVID- billion had been provided, with most of the 19, news has just come in that March 2020 money going towards mitigation and less than has been the second warmest March on 20% towards climate adaptation. record. Such numbers had been challenged prior to the 2015 Paris Summit by many countries,  The Climate Impact Lab at the including India, because much of the so-called University of Chicago put out a warning aid provided did not come out of dedicated for India last year that if global CO2 climate funds but, rather, development funds emissions continue to gallop at the or simply loans which had to be repaid. present rate, average summer It thus seems unlikely that the rich countries will temperatures would rise by 4?C in most deliver $100 billion in tangible climate finance States. during 2020. Covid and Climate change  Extremely hot days (days above 35?C), which were only five days in 2010, would  COVID-19 has unwittingly given increase to 15 days by 2050 and to 42 humanity a brief respite from the climate days by 2100 on average across all change curve. Carbon emissions from districts. fossil fuels have surely reduced in recent weeks.  A more moderate emissions scenario, as a result of countries largely fulfilling their  How long this respite will last ironically commitments under the Paris Agreement, depends on the extent to which the would keep average global temperature global economy has been wrecked by rise below 2?C compared to pre-industrial COVID-19. levels.  Commentators are already talking about Tackling the climate crisis a paradigm shift in the structure and The most common excuse is that the world functioning of societies once the cannot afford to curb GHG emissions for fear pandemic subsides. of wrecking the economy. An article in Nature in 2019 highlighted the financial dimensions of  This is also a make-or-break moment for tackling the looming climate crisis. the climate trajectory which has to be Apparently, the wealthy nations are spending flattened within a few years if we are to over $500 billion each year internally on projects avoid dangerous climate change. aimed at reducing emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Nature’s kindness is not expected to last Change, however, estimates that a sustained beyond a 2?C rise in temperature as the annual investment of $2.4 trillion in more carbon sequestered into vegetation will efficient energy systems is needed until 2035 in be thrown back into the atmosphere. order to keep warming below the more ambitious 1.5?C relative to pre-industrial levels.  Also remember that earth has already To put this in perspective, that is about 2.5% of warmed by 1?C and we really have only the global GDP.

Easy to PICK557 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 another 1?C (or 0.5?C if we are concerned about island nations) as a safety margin. Conclusion COVID-19 has elicited an unprecedented response worldwide. Only cognitive psychologists can explain why the spectre of dangerous climate change impacting human civilizations has not yet evoked a comparable response. There seems to be wishful thinking that technology can be used to suck out billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere and store this safely somewhere, but available ones are extremely slow and expensive. Harebrained schemes to regulate solar radiation by geo- engineering are bound to bring nasty surprises. There is no substitute to reducing GHG emissions. Technologists, economists and social scientists must plan for a sustainable planet based on the principles of equity and climate justice within and across nations. It is the responsibility of leaders to alter their mindset and act on the looming climate crisis with the same alacrity they have shown on COVID-19.

Easy to PICK558 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Needed, a transfusion for public health care Dr. Raj B. Singh is a pulmonologist in Chennai. rightly, focused attention on the larger The views expressed are personal picture. The priority in a developing country would be the provision of Part of: GS-III- Health (PT-MAINS- primary care at the peripheral level, PERSONALITY TEST) preventive measures, immunisation, maternity and paediatric care as well as Health services cannot be left to private dealing with common infections such as medicine in a developing country, or indeed, in tuberculosis. We have done this well, any country resulting in impressive improvements in many health-care indices in the last few Context decades. However, not enough hospital A news channel in India alleged recently beds and specialised facilities were that several private hospitals in the country provided by the public sector during this were “exposed” by a “sting operation” to be time. At the same time, the burgeoning levying fees in excess when COVID-19 patients middle class and increasing wealth went to them for care. It is not clear why a “sting produced an explosion in the demand operation” was necessary; the high cost of for good quality health care. Private medical care in the top hospitals of the country medicine was quick to capitalise on this is well known. Anyone who has had major demand. surgery or received intensive care in any of the  The second reason for the dominance of hospitals can testify to that. The debate now is private medicine in India is the lack of whether such exorbitant rates are justified adequate investment in public health. during a pandemic such as the one we are in the The Indian government spends an midst of, or indeed, ever. abysmally low 1.3% of GDP on public Why do we have so many private hospitals in a health care, which is woefully inadequate. poor country such as India? Allocation has to be at least double this to We have more hospital beds in the private address some of our pressing sector than in the public sector. It is estimated needs. Greater transparency and tighter that there are 19 lakh hospital beds, 95,000 ICU administration are necessary to ensure beds and 48,000 ventilators in India. Most of that our resources are utilised these are concentrated in seven States, Uttar appropriately. Specialists should be adequately compensated to obviate their Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, need for private practice. Karnataka, Telangana and West Bengal. Other points Except for Tamil Nadu, Delhi and West  Private medicine in India is by no means Bengal, there are far more beds and ventilators in uniform. It is estimated that there are more the private sector than in the public, according to than one million unqualified medical the Center For Disease Dynamics, Economics & practitioners, mostly in the rural areas. Policy.  Most of them provide basic health care, charging a modest fee. Some may have A mirror to public care claims of expertise (often unproven) in The reason for this abundance of private health alternative systems of medicine such as care is obviously the lack of adequate public ayurveda and homoeopathy. health care. This situation has developed due to  It is not unheard of them to sometimes two main reasons. venture into minor surgery.  Since Independence, India has, quite

Easy to PICK559 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020  At the other end of the spectrum are care expenditure in Europe is substantially state-of-the-art corporate hospitals, that less than in the U.S. are well equipped and well-staffed and  Health-care spending by the government which provide excellent service at high must be appropriate, based on evidence, cost. and transparent and accountable.  Training of doctors and health-care  These are often set up in metro cities at workers also need to be the responsibility huge cost and have successfully of the government mainly. engineered a reverse brain drain of many  Recent reforms in the selection of medical specialists from pursuing lucrative jobs students need to be scrutinised to see if abroad and staying back in or returning to they are having the desired result. India.  Private hospitals and institutions will need to be regulated. Costing and auditing of  Between the two extremes are a large care and procedures need to be done by number of private practitioners and independent bodies. institutions providing a wide range of  This will not only ensure appropriate care services of varying quality. at the right cost but also prevent unreasonable demands of suspicious  Some are run by trusts, charitable patients and family. organisations and religious missions, often providing excellent quality at modest Conclusion costs. No hospital, business, institution or individual should profiteer from a national calamity such  The wide range of quality in medical as the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals, like any services in India reflects the wide range of other institution, have a social responsibility to income and wealth in India. It is estimated provide care in times of need. But one should be that the wealth of the top 1% in India is also aware of the actual costs involved which four times the combined wealth of the have to be met. The cost of medical care often bottom 70%. follows the law of diminishing returns; as the treatment gets more sophisticated, further and  The wealthy demand, pay for, and often further increments, although small, cost get, world-class health care. The middle enormously more. Some of the drugs used in the class, seeing what is possible, is beginning care of severely-ill COVID-19 patients may cost to demand similar care at affordable cost. more than ?50,000 a shot, for example, and may provide only a marginally better  The poorer 70% are left to the vagaries and outcome. “Capping” costs may necessitate mercy of an unpredictable public health- sacrificing some of these expensive options. care system and low cost charlatans. Private hospitals should, and will, be prepared to forego profits and even suffer losses during a What needs to be done?? national disaster. But if losses become  The public health-care system unsustainable, they may be forced to lay off desperately needs higher government employees, close beds or even entire hospitals, spending. Health care cannot be left to like any other business. That will hardly benefit private medicine in a developing country, anyone. or indeed, in any country.  The United States, despite spending more than 15% of its enormous GDP on health care in the form of largely insurance-based private medicine, has poorer health-care indices than Europe, where government-funded universal health care (e.g. The National Health Service of the United Kingdom) is available, though the per capita health-

Easy to PICK560 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 What must schools do before reopening? Context summer holiday. àSchools in India have been shut since the first 21- day national lockdown from March 25, some When will schools reopen? from a week or two earlier, due to the novel àNo one knows when schools can reopen. Human coronavirus pandemic. Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh àWith the number of COVID-19 cases spiking this Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has said that physical week, there is a growing clamour to protect reopening of schools will not take place till children from going to examination centres and August 15, although some States such as Haryana keep them away from school for some time longer. have suggested a July reopening date. Many schools are offering online classes, but that àThe Centre will announce the earliest possible has its own perils. date for reopening after consultation between the HRD, Health and Home Ministries, but What are India’s schoolchildren doing now? the final call will be left to State governments. àThere are an estimated 25 crore schoolchildren àFor those in containment zones, the wait may be in 15 lakh Indian schools (from the Unified longer, leading to worries about unequal District Information System for Education, or educational opportunities among the same age UDISE, 2018-19), who have all been at home cohort. since classes stopped across the country from àA growing number of parents, Right to March 16. Education activists and the Delhi government àTheir current educational situation varies wildly, teachers’ association are calling for 2020-21 to be depending on age, location and socio-economic treated as a “zero academic year”, with no status. pressure to set a reopening date at all. àThe Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has largely left the decision on “Zero year” means teaching and learning will how to proceed to its affiliate schools, but has happen to the extent possible, but there will not be promised a syllabus reduction. grading or exams or promotion to the next class. àFor the 33% of students in private schools, classes have gone online with àAn online poll by Local Circles found that 37% teachers attempting to maintain a regular of parents want to send their child to school only schedule. 21 days after there are no new cases in their àFor others, the Centre has brought out districts, while another 36% say it should be three an educational calendar with lesson plans and weeks after no new cases in the State or country. learning activities, and is also beaming classes In fact, 13% do not want schools to restart until a through dedicated television channels in vaccine is developed. multiple languages, especially for older children. à It was the Tamil Nadu High and Higher àTeachers in government schools in Delhi are Secondary School Graduate Teachers Association giving out assignments via WhatsApp, that successfully filed a court case against while class 10 students in corporation schools in holding Class 10 board examinations in the Chennai were to have got an Android phone so State. that classes can continue. àIts president S. Bakthavatchalam pointed out that à However, given that this kind of distance apart from the impossibility of teaching classes education requires digital access and/or self- online in government schools, older teachers, motivation and parental involvement, the vast especially those with comorbidities are also at risk majority of children in government schools have spent the last three months on an extended

Easy to PICK561 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 from young students who cannot be expected to àEquity and access are the bigger problems with follow social distancing norms. online education in India. à Experts point out that countries such as France àOnly 11% of Indian households have and Israel saw cases shooting up when they tried a computer. to reopen schools. àAlthough smartphone penetration is What is the health protocol that needs to be in higher, only 24% have Internet facilities, which place before schools reopen? drops to 15% in rural areas, according to the àThe Centre is expected to release guidelines on latest National Sample Survey. this issue next week. àA single device in a household cannot help àHRD officials say some likely multiple children, while poor students in steps include temperature screening at the an economically weaker section (EWS) quota in entrance to schools and classrooms, monitoring a privileged school may be the worst hit. to ensure mask or shield-wearing and social àIf a government or school wants to run an online distancing, sanitisation routines to clean all education programme, it must ensure equal access furniture and facilities, isolation and to all participant. hospitalisation protocols for infected students How can evaluation be done? and staff, as well as plans for staggered àThis is the immediate battle, given that several attendance and blended learning to limit the boards, including the CBSE are yet to conclude number of students on the premises on any given examinations from the previous 2019-20 day. academic year. àPublic Health Foundation of India president K. àThe Board has exponentially increased the Srinath Reddy says that children are at more number of examination centres to 13,000 and risk for clinical symptoms than earlier is developing screening protocols, but the understood, and have been seen to develop question of whether Class 12 examinations can be a paediatric multi-system inflammatory safely conducted in the first two weeks of July is condition associated with COVID-19, although currently in the Supreme Court. they usually recover. àChildren’s health is more important than any àThe bigger danger is that because social academic advancement. distancing may be difficult for children, they àSchools are experimenting with multiple choice will act as transmission agents to staff and older tests and uploaded answers for at-home adults back home. evaluation options. àDr. Reddy has also raised the issue of mental health risks from COVID-19 stress, due Way ahead to economic or medical crises at home, or àIf a zero academic year is considered, conceptual the psychological impact of increased teaching and learning may continue isolation and treating everyone as a potential through varied modes through the year, threat. but without the pressure of evaluation and Is online education a viable alternative? grading. àThe Centre is preparing guidelines on digital education, including cybersafety. àIt is likely to include limiting the number of hours a child is online, with a one to three hour cap on synchronous interaction. àCurrently, some schools are trying to maintain a seven-hour teaching schedule, which creates stress and distraction. àEducational apps are largely in English, although multi-lingual apps are being developed.

Easy to PICK562 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Can a COVID-19 vaccine be developed soon? Purpose of a vaccine 2. pre-clinical stage, à The great hope in the control of infectious 3. clinical development, diseases is always a vaccine. 4. regulatory review and approval, à A vaccine could be a weakened biological or 5. manufacturing and quality control. synthetic agent administered to humans that will à If vaccine candidates do make it to the third protect them from contracting infectious diseases stage, clinical development is a three-phase by supplying specific antibodies to neutralise process. the disease-causing pathogen, while not making à It says: a person actually sick from it. 1. During Phase I, small groups of people à Vaccines have always sounded the bugle of relief from morbidity and mortality for receive the trial vaccine. societies. 2. In Phase II, the clinical study is expanded à They have played an important role in the reduction of communicable diseases from and vaccine is given to people who the second half of the 20th century. have characteristics (such as age and à In the last two decades with new infectious physical health) similar to those for whom diseases emerging, particularly post the H1N1 the new vaccine is intended. influenza, global vaccine development activity 3. In Phase III, the vaccine is given to has been rather frenetic. thousands of people and tested for à The World Health Organisation (WHO) site efficacy and safety. lists 10 vaccine candidates in clinical evaluation à If a vaccine is approved by a licensing agency, and 126 candidate vaccines in preclinical then it can move into the manufacturing stage, but evaluation, as on June 9. constant monitoring of the process and quality control measures must be put in place. What is the process of vaccine development? à Vaccine production should comply with the current Good Manufacturing Practice à Vaccine technology has significantly evolved standards to ensure constant quality and safety of vaccine. in the last decade, including the development What is the status of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine? of several RNA (ribonucleic acid) and DNA à To start with, the primary advantage with SARS-CoV-2 was that it was identified in record vaccine candidates, licensed vectored time, and its genomic sequence was made globally available by January. vaccines, recombinant protein à Amanat and Krammer say: “In addition, we know from studies on SARS-CoV-1 and the vaccines and cell-culture-based vaccines. related MERS-CoV vaccines that the S protein on the surface of the virus is an ideal target for a à However, despite the many advances, including vaccine… The structure of the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 was solved in record time at high using artificial intelligence to resolution, contributing to our understanding of this vaccine target. Therefore, we have a target determine potential vaccine candidates, the core antigen that can be incorporated into advanced vaccine platforms.” principles of ensuring safety and efficacy of the à Two important steps that are typically needed before bringing a vaccine into clinical trials. vaccine for use in humans remain unchanged.  First, the vaccine is tested in à While technology might have quickened some of the processes, the trials for the vaccine need to stick by these principles that are time consuming for a reason. à According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, the general stages of the development cycle of a vaccine are: 1. exploratory stage,

Easy to PICK563 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 appropriate animal models to see whether à The New York Times, meanwhile, has an it is protective. However, animal models updated status report on vaccines, as of June 12: for SARS-CoV-2 might be difficult to 125-plus are in the pre-clinical stage (not yet in develop... human trial phase, seven in the first phase  Even in the absence of an animal model (vaccines testing safety and dosage), another that replicates human disease, it is possible seven in the second phase (vaccines in expanded to evaluate the vaccine because serum safety trials) and two in phase three trials from vaccinated animals can be tested in in (vaccines in large-scale efficacy tests). Some vitro neutralisation assays coronavirus vaccines are now in phase I/II trials,  Second, vaccines need to be tested for for example, in which they are tested for the first toxicity in animals, e.g., time on hundreds of people. in rabbits. Usually, viral challenge is not part of this process, because only the safety What about current projections and what of the vaccine will be evaluated. This happens next? testing, which has to be performed in a à The development of vaccines for human use manner compliant with GLP (Good takes years normally. Many additional steps are Laboratory Practice), typically takes 3–6 needed before these vaccine candidates that have months to complete.” shown promise can be used in the population, and à The 10 candidates in clinical evaluation, as per this process might take months. WHO’s list, are based on five platforms — non- à Experts say, some of the other concerns for the replicating coral vector, RNA, inactivated, development of an effective vaccine are the protein sub unit, and DNA. prospect of the virus mutating, and a waning of à The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public the antibody response. Health in a paper, defined platform thus: “The à It is known that infection with human coronaviruses does not always produce long- process under which a vaccine is manufactured lived antibody responses, and re-infection, qualifies it as platform-based. If it has the likely to be mild [symptoms] in a fraction of capacity to form the basis of myriad other individuals, is possible after an extended period vaccines using some conserved structure, it can of time. be classified as a platform. The spectrum of à Any effective vaccine must overcome all these different platforms ranges from viral vectored issues in order to ensure protection against a virus vaccines to nucleic acid vaccines.” that seems to have taken the world by surprise. à In all, 126 candidate vaccines are in various à However, current projections indicate that stages of pre-clinical evaluation, including some the virus is likely to become endemic and in India. In mid-May, K. VijayRaghavan, cause recurrent seasonal epidemics. In such a scenario, a vaccine will be the most effective tool Principal Scientific Adviser to the Union to battle a virus the world is yet to fully government, said there were nearly 30 ‘attempts’ understand. from India to develop vaccines. à The leading attempts among them are: the Pune- based Serum Institute of India tie-up with Oxford University operating with a weakened adenovirus; the Indian Council of Medical Research’s collaboration with the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech to develop a vaccine based on a SARS-CoV-2 strain isolated at the National Institute of Virology, Pune. à Bharat Biotech is also involved in two other vaccine development projects with different groups, according to officials.

Easy to PICK564 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Making public transport safe during COVID-19 By, R. Jayakrishnan is Professor, University of distancing and sanitisation concerns, and to California, Irvine, U.S.; Ashish Verma is address the possibility of viral transmission Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Science, through tokens, push buttons on lifts, and Bengaluru; and S. Velmurugan is Chief Scientist, handrails at the station elevators. Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi à Unfortunately, public transit agencies around the world face the problem of a dearth of Context research by scientists on the specific modality of # Central to India’s lockdown to control the spread COVID-19 transmission during public transport of COVID-19 was a complete shutdown of the commute. transport system. Now, as the country emerges from the lockdown, a proper ramping up of the Need for contact tracing data transport system is needed. This should not be à Confidentiality laws usually prevent done in haste, however. the availability of contact-tracing data to extract the precise details of how any Can COVID-19 spread through public individual got infected. transport systems? à There have been some notable research efforts, à It is difficult to answer this question with currently under peer review, that did use detailed numbers. A recent paper from contact-tracing data from China and Korea. the Massachusetts Institute of à One study says that SARS-CoV-2 does not Technology argued that New York’s subways seem to get transmitted much outdoors. seeded the epidemic in the city. à In fact, only a single cluster of two cases out of à It is commendable that India shut down public nearly a thousand was traced to an outdoor transport before it could contribute to the spread, infection in China. with an early lockdown. We now need to consider à Correlation to the effect of air conditioning what can ensue on a restart, especially of metro airflow has also been established based on precise rail. seating locations of those infected at a restaurant and at a call centre. COVID-19 and public transport à Fearing crowd infections, commuters prefer Is it safe to travel via Metros ? travelling in private modes like two-wheelers. àIndian authorities who were already working à Cities like Delhi, that resumed services nearly under similar assumptions on the effects four weeks ago, observed less ridership than the of AC will be proven justified by the conclusion allowed 20 passengers per bus, despite the of such research that there is clearly high risk in limited frequencies on many routes. indoor areas under AC with focused air flow. à Although bus crowding is seen in some cities àFrom the above research we can conclude that such as Mumbai, it is temporary and due to a lack a non-AC bus with open windows offers a much of alternatives. less risky outdoor-like environment. à A significant drop in public transport àHowever, it would be wrong to conclude that ridership can be expected for months after an AC metro rail coach is risky – for a different resumption, based on opinion surveys. That means reason, in that contact-time is also very important measures are needed to gain the public’s in viral transmission in indoor spaces. confidence in mass transport modes, to avoid àA majority of metro rail trips in Indian cities are a significant modal shift to road traffic. no more than 20 minutes long, and there is à The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has research indicating that this may not be long released guidelines to tackle several social enough for significant viral

Easy to PICK565 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 densities and inhalation of sufficient viral available. particles, even without social distancing. à Paid staff or volunteers dispensing hand àIt is unlikely for any significant level of public sanitisers on platforms can be an option. transport infections to happen via inhalation or àOffering contact-less wash basins with soap even crowding and clothed-body contact, dispensers at the platform level could be though we cannot say it with certainty. effective. Signs on hand hygiene vis-a-vis àHowever, hand contact with common touching surfaces are needed. surfaces must be considered, as it is well-known àThere are possible options in metro trains to cause significant COVID-19 spread. to create external airflow to dissipate viral à However, they leave out certain key elements particles. that should be taken very seriously – the handgrip àMetro rail authorities are planning to leave the rings and handrails from the ceilings, the doors open at the terminal before the next run of stanchion poles, and any grabrails on the each train. seatbacks. àSince a majority of metro rail stretches in India àIf an infected asymptomatic person deposits are elevated, there are other creative options, if viral particles on such surfaces, and another safety considerations will allow them. One would person grabs the same spot even briefly, the viral be to have staff onboard to direct passengers particles could be picked up by their hand. away from a certain coach to other coaches. àThe second person could later deposit the à The doors of the empty coach can be particles on his/her face. opened during a run for two or three minutes. àThe handgrip rings. Their surface is potentially We are not aware of such operations anywhere, so the most dangerous inside a coach. Every any attempt must only be after careful successive individual who hangs on to the experimentation. handgrip where one infected person deposited the à Eventually, metro rail AC systems could be virus can pick up the virus at a high changed to High Efficiency Particulate Air density from the same spot. filters with frequent circulation of fresh air. àThen the probability is quite high that, within an àActions are needed from both authorities and hour, two or three others could pick up the virus the public to keep our public transport systems left by one person on a handgrip. There is also safe. a high probability that those people will touch àIf no such actions are taken and a serious level of their faces soon after. viral transmission is later traced to public transit, the result will be a mode shift to private vehicles. Suggestions for more safety à As pollution and accidents kill more people in à The first is to employ staff to wipe the India than COVID-19 does now, a mode shift handgrips at frequent intervals, constantly away from public transport will have long-term moving from end to end in the train. consequences. Our buses and trains must be àAnother is to give wet sanitising wipes to every perceived as safe, so it is vital to assure ourselves traveller entering a metro rail coach with a that public transport is for the public – not the suggestion to have it in their palms before virus. touching or gripping anything. Wipe disposal bins will be needed in the coaches. àThe metro rail agencies’ focus may need to shift to the egressing(going out) passengers, as it is important to prevent them from transferring what is on their hands to their faces after egress. àWe should expect a lot of passengers to leave in a hurry and to not bother with cleaning their hands, even if hand sanitiser dispensers are

Easy to PICK566 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Behind the curve: On GST compensation to States Behind the curve: On GST compensation to undertaking specified reforms. States # Meeting for the second time since the pandemic # GST compensation (for revenue shortfalls in took hold in the country, the GST Council, last the first five years of GST) due to States for Friday, decided to relax late fees and interest December 2019 to February 2020 was only payable for those taxpayers failing to file released on June 4. returns on time. # Centre-State ties could turn more fractious, # For businesses with no tax liabilities under the especially in the GST Council where things have indirect tax regime, the late fees were completely usually evolved with consensus so far — thanks to waived. the failure to finalise the way forward for paying States the compensation. # This is in line with similar relaxations announced by the Centre in March, before the # One of the ideas on the table, officially discussed lockdown was declared, to ease compliance for around two months, is to raise loans against deadline worries of small businesses in future GST cess accruals in order to recompense particular. States. # But given the extent of economic damage as # Any decision on this front, along with proposed well as the States’ fiscal positions in the period GST rate rationalisations in the between these two meetings of the Council, its textiles, footwear and fertilizers sectors that decisions are far from sufficient. were on the Council’s agenda, can now only be expected at a special meet in July. # In March, GST collections had slipped to ?97,597 crore after surpassing the ?1-lakh crore # Procrastination is not an appropriate response at mark over the previous four months, and the this arc of the curve — be it the pandemic or the numbers for April and May will not be known economy. before July. # Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has told State representatives in the Council that just 45% of the indirect tax target had been met in the past two months. Demands of the states # It is for this reason that several States have been urging the Centre to extend emergency fiscal support and release past GST compensation dues enshrined in the pact that allowed the new tax regime to take off three years ago. # In its stimulus package, in May, the Centre enhanced States’ power to borrow, but only part of that was completely unconditional, and a large chunk was contingent on States

Easy to PICK567 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Call for action: On ICMR antibody test study Context # Serological tests, despite inaccuracies, can be The results of a serological test conducted across a useful guide of the extent of the infections 69 districts by the Indian Council of Medical among vulnerable people and within hot spots, Research (ICMR) have indicated that the and periodic tests of this kind are a must amid the confirmed numbers of COVID-19 infections rise of cases that have now crossed the 3.2 lakh reported from the RT-PCR tests are likely an mark. undercount. # The clear takeaway from this report is not what Serological or antibody tests the Director-General of the ICMR claimed that # Serological or antibody tests are not as there is no evidence of “community accurate as the PCR tests, but they are useful transmission”, but that there has not indicators of the spread of the novel been adequate testing by the more accurate RT- coronavirus among people. PCR method. # The ICMR study found that 0.73% of the Inadequate testing population, examined for antibodies # While the “lockdown” strategy might produced specifically for SARS-CoV-2 via an ELISA test, had evidence of past exposure to the have slowed down the rise in cases and fatalities virus. in the early period of the outbreak in the country, the severe effect it had on the economy,. # In a population with a low infection rate, there # India continues to register among the highest is a higher possibility of “false positives” being daily rises in COVID-19 cases and fatalities reported. world-wide and this has now burdened the health institutions in many urban centres following the # A number of respondents could have been easing of the lockdown. found to have released antibodies specific to coronaviruses, but without actual exposure to # Yet, authorities continued to test at relatively SARS-CoV-2 alone. low levels with a lot of variance across States. # But the ICMR in its methodology note in a # Some States such as Maharashtra and Gujarat paper in its online publication, Indian Journal of have tested at a higher rate (tests per million Medical Research, had said that the actual population) than many others, but have not results would account for the limitations of the increased the overall testing to account for the ELISA test. relative rise in the size of the outbreak. # If this is accepted, then the number of people # Telangana has still not ramped up testing found to have been exposed to the virus would be numbers adequately and has been opaque in the 7 lakh people or more, if the overall population release of testing data. of these districts is considered, much higher than the 35,000 people who had tested positive in the Way ahead entire country during this period. # Testing, tracing and treatment at a higher order across the population besides measures such # The full paper detailing the results of the study as mask wearing and practising hand hygiene, as by the ICMR is still not out in the public domain. the experience of several countries that have considerably slowed down the rise in the

Easy to PICK568 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 case count shows, is the clearest way to address the outbreak.

Easy to PICK569 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Lessons for Yogi from Gandhi and Lee-Singapore and Gandhian model of development Lessons for Yogi from Gandhi and Lee and Japan to set up manufacturing By, Arun Maira is former member, Planning facilities in Singapore and use Singapore Commission, and author, ‘Transforming Systems: labour. Why the World Needs a New Ethical Toolkit’ # The companies were attracted by the large Context pools of low-cost labour in ASEAN countries. # Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is determined to bring all migrant # Amongst these countries, Singapore was the workers back to his State. He says he does not most attractive for its location. want U.P.’s citizens to migrate in future. # But Lee had a condition they were not prepared # He has a vision of providing homes and jobs to for. all of them . # He did not want them to merely set up labour- # Moreover, he will be competing with intensive assembly factories. Lee wanted wages neighbouring States (Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, to rise in Singapore, so that per capita incomes etc.) and also States further away, which will also would rise. Therefore, he wanted the companies be working harder to grow jobs. to train Singaporeans to do higher-value work. # He needs a good plan. He would do well to # Global supply chains were take some lessons from Lee Kuan Yew, forming then: MNCs were on the lookout for the founding father of modern Singapore, and lower-cost sources. from Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. # MNCs could ‘plug and play’ in larger labour markets. If wages rose in Singapore, which Lee Developing Singapore wanted, he feared they would move their # Lee declared that Singapore would become assembly operations to the neighbouring the first ‘developed’ country in Asia, when it countries. was founded in 1965. # Lee promised the companies world-class # His measure of development was the per infrastructure, an efficient administration, capita incomes of Singaporeans which would and low taxes. rise to the same levels as citizens in more advanced economies. # In return, he wanted the companies to help the government by investing in continuous # Singapore did not have any natural resources, upgradation of their employees’ skills, so that like oil or minerals, which it could sell to the Singaporeans would earn more and Singapore West to bring in money for its citizens. would become fully ‘developed’. # All that it could offer large Western companies # The companies were not willing to make to use was its strategic location on shipping such long-term investments in Singapore’s routes between the East and West, and its people. people. # Lee turned to J.R.D. Tata to set up a training # Lee invited companies from the U.S., Europe, centre and a precision tool room in partnership

Easy to PICK570 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 with the Singapore government, and help build # Gandhi said that unless people in India’s foundations for Singapore’s industrial growth. villages have economic and social freedom, India cannot be a free country. # Thus, the Tatas were pioneers in Singapore in the 1970s; other, much larger companies then # This was his vision of ‘poorna swaraj’. came along. # For him, political freedom from the British was # The rules of globalisation have made life easy a step on the way. for migrant capital, not for migrant labour. # Gandhi is often dismissed as an impractical # They make it easy for migrant capital to come romantic. However, Gandhi and his economic into a country, make profits, and leave when it advisers understood the economic and social wishes to. It has been hard for migrant labour to problems in India’s villages better than join the global party. the economists in India’s Planning Commission did. # They have died in hundreds while crossing the seas to Europe, and walls are shutting them out # Gandhi also knew the potential of India’s from the U.S. poorest people, who were merely statistics for the economists. # Tragically, even when they leave India’s globalising cities to go back to their villages, after # Above all, he believed that the economy must being used and discarded, they are dying on the serve human needs, rather than human beings way out too. becoming fodder for the GDP. This was a vision that Lee Kuan Yew had too: for him, the ultimate # Governments must listen to and care for their measure of Singapore becoming fully developed citizens and workers more than to investors. was not the size of its GDP, but the incomes of its citizens. # They must encourage only those investors who care as much for citizens and workers where # U.P. does not have a ‘migrant’ problem. It has they invest as for their own investors back home. a ‘citizen’ problem. # Economists who advise governments must be # All citizens of the State (and India too) deserve clear that humans are not tools to produce jobs, livelihoods and a good life with dignity, returns for investors; rather, money is a tool to whether they are migrants or not. produce benefits for humans. # In Lee’s, Tata’s, and Gandhi’s books, diluting Gandhian economics the rights of workers to make life easier for # U.P. is more complex than Singapore. investors was not done. # Singapore is a city state with about 6 million # The world has been ‘deglobalising’ since citizens, while U.P., with a population of more the financial crisis of 2008. than 200 million, has dozens of towns and thousands of villages. # Many countries have raised barriers against migrants from other countries. # Migrants are returning from India’s cities to villages in U.P. and other States. They are # The World Trade Organization is very sick. returning to a world Gandhi knew well. # COVID-19 has sharply accelerated a

Easy to PICK571 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 trend towards localisation that was already under way. Supply chains have broken up. Barriers against movement of people have gone up everywhere. # ‘Gandhian’ economics, which E.F. Schumacher (author of Small is Beautiful) and J.C. Kumarappa (sometimes referred to as Gandhi’s Planning Commission) articulated very well, is based on simple principles. 1. One, human beings and local communities must be the means for human progress — and their well-being must be the purpose of progress too. 2. Two, governance must be strengthened at the local level, in villages and cities. 3. Three, wealth is good, but wealthy people must be only trustees of a community’s wealth, and not its owners. 4. Four, the alienation of owners from workers must be reduced with the creation of new models of cooperative capitalist enterprises, where the workers, not remote capitalists, or the state, are owners of the enterprises. # India had come to a fork in the road in 1947: it could run behind the West to catch up; or it could take a path less taken, using a ‘Gandhian’ approach for human development. # It chose to run behind the others. Now, we are back at the crossroads. The health crisis and the economic crisis have made people everywhere consider what path we should take after this crisis.

Easy to PICK572 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 A prescription of equitable and effective care (Solutions for COVID-19 management) A prescription of equitable and effective care # The primary cause of death in COVID-19 By, Anand Zachariah is a Professor of Medicine pneumonia is respiratory failure. at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. George Thomas is an Orthopaedic Surgeon at St. Isabel’s # The mainstay of treatment in moderate and Hospital, Chennai. The views expressed are severe illness is clinical monitoring, oxygen persona therapy to correct hypoxemia (low oxygen levels in the blood), and good supportive care. Context # Medical care has been disrupted by the novel # Even in those above the age of 80 years, coronavirus. the mortality rate is only 15%. # Fear, anxiety, uncertainty and confusion have # Patients who require ventilator treatment have all overtaken clinical services. a mortality rate of over 50%. # The private sector, which delivers the major # Good supportive care for sick patients is part of medical services, is now functioning at essential in preventing deaths. a skeletal level and patients have considerable # Hospital services have to focus on in-patient difficulty in accessing medical care. management of moderate and severe pneumonia, prioritising intensive care unit # Tamil Nadu has one of the better health (ICU) beds for potentially reversible illness. systems in the country and has demonstrated that it can provide high quality care through public- # We need to ensure that every patient with private collaboration in the areas of maternity, moderate and severe COVID-19 cardiac and trauma care. pneumonia has access to the optimum level of care, to prevent deaths and ameliorate suffering. A neglect of the primary task # Until now, the focus of the government has Combating fear been on prevention of the # Because of the labelling and stigmatisation of epidemic through testing of suspects, isolation of those diagnosed with COVID-19, the public cases and institutional quarantine of contacts. are reluctant to come to hospital and may come late or die at home. # Hospitals have focused their efforts on prevention by admitting asymptomatic # We need to send out a clear contacts and mild infections. message that hospitals will provide good quality care for COVID-19, at affordable cost and # With the focus on prevention, doctors have ensuring confidentiality. been unable to attend to their primary task of providing good clinical care to reduce morbidity # For this to happen, the government must work and prevent deaths. with the private sector to make care accessible # The majority of COVID-19 infections are mild and affordable. and resolve on their own. # The Tamil Nadu government’s efforts to cap # Serious illness occurs in the elderly and those the cost for different levels of COVID-19 care in with multiple co-morbidities such as diabetes, private hospitals is a positive step. heart disease and respiratory problems.

Easy to PICK573 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 # The government should financially assist the COVID-19 should receive private sector by reimbursing basic patient care costs for providing COVID-19 care. appropriate compensation. # Medical staff taking care of COVID-19 patients Way ahead are anxious that they may acquire the infection # These initiatives can only be realised and transmit it to their family members. with appropriate leadership from the government. # Deaths of hospital staff due to COVID-19 have # The private sector has to be fully involved in been reported, although the mortality clinical care of the COVID-19 epidemic. risk is lower than that of the general # We should work towards making COVID-19 population. treatment available, affordable and effective. # Medical staff involved in COVID-19 care # Our response to the epidemic must should be adequately protected with appropriate combine good science, clinical reasoning and a personal protective equipment, or PPE, and humane response to save the lives of the people should be trained in infection of our country. control and clinical care protocols. A wish list # In Tamil Nadu, we should shift the discourse from the focus on prevention and reducing the number of cases to an equal priority for providing COVID-19 care. # Towards this we suggest that: a. all private hospitals which have the potential, should take care of COVID-19. b. They should be given requisite incentives and subsidies to that end; c. every patient should be able to access medical care for COVID-19 from a private or public hospital; d. only patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 pneumonia should be admitted; e. ICU care should be prioritised for COVID-19 patients who have potentially reversible illness; f. confidentiality of the patient should be protected; g. the government should support the basic cost of COVID-19 care in private hospitals as well; h. city hospitals should pool their ICU resources for the care of COVID-19 pneumonia; i. staff providing COVID-19 care, should receive adequate training and be provided appropriate PPE, and, j. finally, families of staff who die due to

Easy to PICK574 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Can India decouple itself from Chinese manufacturing? By, Amitendu Palit, is Professor at the Institute of # It’s a very strange situation that we have today, South Asian Studies, National University of that India is exporting a lot of raw materials and Singapore; Biswajit Dhar is Professor at the intermediate products, and importing finished Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, products from China. Jawaharlal Nehru University Context # And, of course, certain key intermediates such # The border clashes with China and the COVID- as active pharmaceutical ingredients. 19 pandemic have reignited questions about India’s dependence on Chinese # So I don’t think we are really on a strong footing manufacturing. because our dependence on China is huge. # India’s imports from China (2nd after USA) in # This needs to change significantly, if we are to 2019-2020 reached $65 billion, out of $81 billion think in terms of this whole discussion that is two-way trade. going on if there is to be relocation of industries here in India. Questions that arise # Is the pandemic, as Union Minister Nitin Amitendu Palit: Gadkari said last month, a “blessing in disguise” for Indian manufacturing? Will companies be able # What we are seeing in terms of India’s trade to move deeply integrated supply chains out of engagement is the fact that for a variety of China? And if so, will they choose India? reasons, India’s dependence on imports is getting to be localised, in the sense that there is not #1- Question a wide diversification of countries from which India is sourcing its imports. It has been more than five years since India # For example, if you look at critical medical launched the Make in India initiative. If we supplies which India has been importing for look at India’s dependencies on China as one frontline healthcare workers in the COVID-19 barometer, how would you assess where we are battle, most of these come from China. now? # China is one of the top sources but on the other Discussions hand, there isn’t a very widely diversified source of countries from which India can actually import Biswajit Dhar: these. # I think that the Make in India initiative was # This essentially means that aside from China, a good opportunity for us to get our there are probably three or four countries of the manufacturing sector back on track. world on which India's dependence is increasing. # I don’t think that we have taken advantage of what we had actually planned. # China is by and large widespread across different concentrations. To that extent, it’s # In the past five years, what we have seen is that going to be a difficult choice for India to get out the dependency on China has actually gone up. of this dependence and search for alternative

Easy to PICK575 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 partners. replicate what China did in the 1990s. But how # 2-Question different is the global environment — and global value chains — from 30 years ago when China was opening up? What are some of the concentrations and key Biswajit Dhar: sectors where the dependency is acute? # Global value chains today are looking quite Discussion different. Amitendu Palit: # What the data suggests is global value chains are in fact becoming more local. # Firstly, regarding capital goods, Indian manufacturing is dependent on supplies # Countries are depending more on their own from China. economies rather than on global markets. # This includes a wide variety # This is an impact of the great recession of of machineries, including electrical machinery, 2008. semiconductor driven machinery etc. # What we have seen over the past decade is that # We import fertilizers from China. there is a general tendency for countries to become more local. # Criticality actually comes in is when there are a number of imports which are not really a matter of # So I don’t think that the strategy that China choice but which are essential. followed, when a large part of the demand came from global markets, can work. # For example, if you look at humidifiers, which are being utilised in the COVID-19 battle, China # It was a global market-driven is again the main source. industrialisation strategy, an export-driven strategy, but that is not going to be a reality # For medical masks, China is the main source. anymore. # Even for something like liquid soap, which is # Policymakers keep making these statements, very much highly required across the country that we are going to become more open and we are today, China again happens to be the main source going to be relying more on the global markets. of the supplies. Unfortunately, that possibility has now passed. # We need to look at the whole situation very Amitendu Palit: clearly and probably prioritise in terms of what are the areas where India can relatively more easily # Let me come into this with a slightly different move back away from the dependency it has on perspective. China, and what are the areas where it will take much longer. Our approach has to go much deeper # If one looks at why China is so central to a and has to develop sector specific strategies. very large number of global and regional supply chains, there are two elements to it. #3- Question # The first is the fact that China does offer The conventional wisdom is we should aim to the capacity to businesses to develop the supply

Easy to PICK576 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 chains by considerable lengths within itself. This Discussions is not just because of the geography that it has, but also because of the fairly wide broad-basing that Biswajit Dhar: it has developed over different sectors, and by and large in most products. # We need to carefully look at ourselves and ask why is it that there was there’s always been a # China’s biggest value comes as a final stage huge gulf between FDI inflows into China and assembler. into India. # It’s important to note along with being an # The claim the government has often made that exporter of assembled final products, China has we are one of the most open regimes is actually also over the years become a major consumer for true. final products. # But why is it that FDI is still not interested in # So when we look at value chains today, let’s say coming here and we are not getting investment in in a post COVID-19 situation, the emphasis on the the sectors that we're looking for? part of businesses is to make these chains shorter, more resilient, more durable, and locate # The Make in India strategy talked about FDI them closer to the final demand markets. into manufacturing, but if you look at the data and see which sectors have been preferred by the # Now, this is where I think we often overlook foreign investors, you’ll see it’s all about service the importance of China. sectors. # China continues to remain a major source of # And many of these sectors are those where India the final demand market. does not need any investment, for instance IT services. # As a result of which, shifting physically supply chains out of the Chinese geography and it’s # I think the reason is clear, and that is there connected arms — I refer to Hong Kong and are skill set problems in India. Taiwan — is going to be pretty difficult because the geography offers a tremendous amount of what # Foreign investors get into the sectors where in economics we call agglomeration advantages, there are acknowledged skills, for instance in IT. moving back and forth across borders and offering integrated facilities. # But we don’t have similar skill sets in manufacturing. # So I am a bit doubtful as to whether we will actually see substantive supply chain relocations # The second issue is infrastructure. out of China. # It’s not just about having a good policy, but you #4- Question need to have the infrastructure in place so that the foreign investor can make profits. We have seen companies moving out, although # We should not see foreign investors as mainly to South-East Asia. Even assuming someone who comes to develop India. there is limited relocation that we can absorb, what should be our policy priorities to attract # Foreign investors will have to be given the this? opportunity to make money.

Easy to PICK577 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 # The advantages that China has locationally, we flexibility. don’t have any of these. We have outdated Amitendu Palit: ports, and all kinds of other problems. # There is a view that since the wage rates are # If you look at the kind of FDI that India has been low, investment is going to come here. getting over the last three to four years, and the big ticket FDI, whether it is Walmart’s # That’s not true. We all know that it’s actually acquisition of a large stake in Flipkart, or that productivity-linked wages that matter, of Facebook in Reliance Jio, all of these are and productivity in India is pretty awful. essentially intending to acquire existing assets. (Brownfield investments) # We can talk about offering land, but I don’t think that land is an issue because from 2005, after we # None of these are in the nature of building a announced our special economic zones policy, boat from scratch in terms of the the Government of India has gone and acquired typical greenfield investment, which is capable land all over the place. of creating substantial jobs and other additional capacities within the economy. # The government is sitting on a huge land bank, so that’s not an issue. # One needs to also accept the fact that India is unique as a country which has a huge domestic # These three issues are extremely important for market when one looks at other economies. us – Skills, Infrastructure, Productivity # Let me come back to the question of relocation. #5- Question When one looks to other economies like Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia or We often hear industries calling for labour Bangladesh that are all competing for a slice of reforms, and complaints that in India labour the pie of the relocated supply chains, they don’t unions are too powerful and it should be easier have that kind of a market. to hire and fire workers. Is that the issue, or is it a skills issue? # But what they have is the ability to provide access to other markets in a far more effective Discussion fashion. Biswajit Dhar: # For example, we now see Vietnam concluding a free trade agreement with the European # It is actually easy for industries to hire and Union, which will offer them two advantages. fire. # First, some businesses from China can move # If one lesson COVID-19 has taught everyone, it out and get relocated in Vietnam, which they is that there’s virtually no labour laws in this already have been doing. country. # They can take the advantage of the European # Labour was retrenched at the drop of a hat. market and they can also export back to China. The reverse migration we are seeing is because of this problem. # Along with that, they have the advantage of the greater ASEAN and Asia-Pacific region, which # This is a false kind of a narrative that has been is basically following a strategy of scaling up parroted time and time again, that we need more markets if one’s domestic market is relatively

Easy to PICK578 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 small. there was a very serious discussion about decoupling because the global markets # If you look at the question of labour in this don’t provide those kinds of certainties. context, we have been talking about wage rates in China going up. # So, countries need to actually rely on their own domestic markets. # We have been talking about skilled labour becoming pricey. # The unfortunate reality is we have not cared to harness the dominant domestic # We do see that happening even in Vietnam. But market adequately. the point is that at some level people also need to look at what kind of labour is wanted for what kind # And this is linked to our overall strategy of of operations. increasing the manufacturing sector, allowing the sector to absorb more labour, especially # There is a situation in India and across the region from agriculture, and so easing the burden of where skilled labour continues to be at agriculture, and then having a more resilient a premium. manufacturing sector, and reducing the dependence on countries like China which is now # There will be a choice between countries and becoming a thorn in one's neck. locations in terms of access to new labour. # What we are finding is that since none of these # One other factor which we often overlook is things have actually fallen in place, we find that there is a cultural commonness in business the unemployment rate has actually gone up. practices across region that you can find in China, Japan, Korea, and large parts of # And the direct implication of this increase in South-East Asia, the emphasis on settling unemployment rate is that the domestic market disputes through dialogues, the emphasis has shrunk. on informal consultations, as opposed to what we are familiar in terms of a more structured # There's less demand in the domestic market. fashion, not just in India, but in the West. # I think there is also a cultural element to this #7- Question entire question of supply chains and investment and relocation, which we often overlook. Is there a contradiction between India aspiring to become a linchpin in global supply chains #6- Question while being wary about trading agreements? One thing India can probably offer that other Discussion countries in South-East Asia cannot to the same degree, is the market. Can we leverage that Amitendu Palit: better? # First, we can all agree upon the fact that Discussion the WTO actually is the best set of rules for global trade as well as regional trade. Biswajit Dhar: # Unfortunately, there have been issues with the # In the context of the great recession of 2008, functioning of the WTO and various groups of countries have not been happy with it.

Easy to PICK579 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 # So they have moved on to pursue regional # There have been statements which have been agreements and bilateral agreements. made by most of the major ministers saying that we need to promote domestic goods, we need to # The Asia Pacific has been a very active region shun imported goods, and even products made by in this regard. foreign companies. # We are looking at the RCEP getting concluded # That is very, very disturbing. If for everything without India. Even if we go by what India's stated from air conditioners to furniture to leather objective is, that is reduce dependency on products, we start talking China and work towards relocation of supply about indigenisation, that means we are trying to chains with like minded partners, countries go down the path of import substitution. like Japan, Korea, Vietnam, those are all members of RCEP as well. # In this day and age, you can’t really do that. # And they’re all going to work on the same rules # There are practical problems, because in order of origin, which this agreement is going to give to go down that path, you have to garner huge them. resources which India doesn't have. # Now, what I’m trying to reconcile, and I’m # And surely India is not talking about autarky. unfortunately failing to, are these contradictory sets of objectives, with India looking to position # On the one hand, there are some people who say itself as a hub and working to relocate supply that we should go and do an FTA with the U.S. On chains along with a group of countries, but with the other hand, you find these strong voices countries which are part of a completely different of economic nationalism which are coming in. sub-regional trade understanding. # One thing which is very important for any # The question India needs to answer upfront is, is country today in the world that we live in is it going to stay engaged with the trade agreements that policies must be predictable and or not? transparent. # There could be two elements to this — reduce dependency on China, and reduce dependency on the rest of the world. # Just reducing dependency on China has one set of implications, but reducing dependency on the rest of the world is an approach that will drive you up the road of economic nationalism. Biswajit Dhar: # I think we are going to go more towards the road of economic nationalism. # India has gone more protectionist, and the average tariffs have actually gone up.

Easy to PICK580 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Has Google failed to protect its Chrome browser? Context unwittingly give it the okay to run when  A few days ago, Reuters reported a “newly prompted. discovered spyware effort” targetting users of Google’s browser Chrome. Are browser extensions a vulnerability?  The spyware, it said, has been pushed  A significant part of what we do on the through at least 111 malicious or fake computer these days is via the browser. Chrome browser extensions, which have  Also, the research report points out that it been downloaded some 32 million times. has been a challenge for security solutions to spot malicious (Browser extensions are add-ons that provide activity that is happening within the additional capabilities to the user.) browser.  The Awake Security report says, “Rogue  The report also said Google had taken off access to the browser therefore frequently more than 70 extensions from its official means rogue access to the ‘keys to the Web Store last month after being alerted to kingdom’ — from email and corporate their malicious nature by researchers file sharing to customer relationship at Awake Security. management and financial databases.” How do these malicious extensions get in to the How are users fooled? Chrome store in the first place?  Watch out for prompts that urge you to Short answer: they seem harmless, to being with. make a new browser as default.  The security firm has also documented  According to the report by Awake some standard characteristics of malicious Security, which brought this issue to light, campaigns. For starters, some of these these “sleeper agent extensions” appear malicious players have professional- to do nothing in the beginning. looking web sites that peddle false promises. An example recorded is that of a  The “malicious payloads” are only security extension that certifies a pushed on to the extensions much after the page with malicious content as secure. “clean” versions have been approved. Identifiers of a malicious web extensions What do the malicious extensions do?  Security experts can visually figure out if  They can take “screenshots, read the an extension is malicious or fake, says the clipboard, harvest credential tokens Awake Security report, listing out the stored in cookies or parameters, grab following easy identifiers: user keystrokes (like passwords),” says  These extensions, for an unknown the report. brand and little information, have a huge following; the user reviews are always How has Google reacted to this? great; these extensions have a huge  As mentioned above, Google has recently following despite being relatively new in removed the malicious extensions. the market. It has been mentioned that some of the fake What other vulnerability has this finding extensions were never in the Chrome Web revealed? Store. How were they made to work then?  The Awake Security report ends with a  This is due to the misuse of an open- source browser project, Chromium — installing it can lead to malicious add-ons.  This works as a rogue browser when users

Easy to PICK581 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 question mark on the conduct and practices of a small Israel-based domain registrar called Galcomm, formally known as CommuniGal Communication Ltd according to Reuters.  Its report says 60% of its domains are high risk for organisations.  These malicious domains have managed to evade categorisation as unsafe because their actions depend on where the client is connecting to it from.  They act maliciously only if the client connects from a broadband or cable network.  They act benignly if the request comes from a data centre or virtual private network.  It says, “This registrar, who also maintains a Registrar Accreditation Agreement with ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), is responsible for putting far more malicious domains, malware, and exploitative content on the internet than legitimate content.  We believe the research and analysis summarized in this report proves that Galcomm is at best complicit in malicious activity.”  The bigger issue raised by the report is one of lack of oversight by ICANN, which oversees domain name standards. Domain Registrar  A domain name registrar is a business that handles the reservation of domain names as well as the assignment of IP addresses for those domain names.  Domain names are alphanumeric aliases used to access websites; for example Google's domain name is 'google.com' and their IP address is 192.168. 1.1. What has been Galcomm’s response?  Reuters reported that Galcomm owner Moshe Fogel has denied any wrong-doing.

Easy to PICK582 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 The lone wolf threat: on isolated terror attack in London Context of terror attacks since the devastating 2005 # The knife attack at a park in Reading, a town London bombings that killed 52 people and west of London, which killed three people and injured 700 others. injured three others, is yet another reminder of the threat of lone wolf attacks the U.K. is facing. # But the U.K., especially London, continued to see low-tech lone attacks, where the attacker Lone wolf attacks in Britain either used vehicles to run over people # Last November, the British government reduced or launched knife attacks. the official threat level from “severe” to “substantial”, which means attacks could Terrorist organisations new tactic happen but there was no intelligence of # Terrorist organisations had also embraced this an immediate terror strike. tactic to spread violence in countries where coordinated big attacks are impossible. # Since then, the country has seen three major incidents. # When the territories it controlled in Iraq and # In November, Usman Khan, 28, who had Syria started shrinking in the wake of counter- been jailed for terror offences, killed two with a attacks, in 2015 and 2016 the Islamic State urged knife at the Fishmongers’ Hall, London. its supporters first to launch attacks in western cities and then declare allegiance to the ‘Caliph’. # In February this year, a 20-year-old was shot dead by police when he launched a knife attack in # In 2017, Khalid Masood, a British south London. A 25-year-old Libyan citizen, drove a car into pedestrians on the national has been arrested in connection with the pavement of Westminster Bridge and stabbed a latest incident. police officer. # British media have reported that Khairi # He killed six people and injured 40 others before Saadallah was on the MI5’s radar. He was being shot by police. investigated as the intelligence community got a report that he was looking to travel abroad to link # Lone wolf attacks continue to pose a security up with terror outfits. challenge to the public and the government. In all the last three knife attacks, the attackers # The investigation closed for lack of evidence. were known to the agencies. But he is now in custody for the Reading attack, which has been declared a terror incident. Way ahead # The government and the security agencies need What is a lone wolf attack? to adopt a multi-pronged approach towards # Lone wolf attacks, in which extremist radicalisation, which is anchored in human individuals translate their beliefs into violent intelligence, strong ties with communities and actions, are hard to detect and prevent. community leaders and deradicalisation programmes. New challenge for the Intelligence agencies # In coordinated terror attacks, the chances of competent intelligence agencies detecting the perpetrators are much higher. To their credit, the U.K.’s intelligence wings have foiled dozens

Easy to PICK583 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 A case to exempt GST in Central Police Canteens By, M.P. Nathanael is Inspector General of Police R.K. Singh, visited the Canteen Stores (Retd), Central Reserve Police Force Department headquarters in Mumbai to obtain first-hand knowledge for the gargantuan task of Context opening Central Police Canteens. # Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in early May that only indigenous products will # Headed by an Additional Director General, the be sold in all Central Police Canteens run by Central Police Canteen purchase the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF). Committee registered nearly 200 firms and the project took off in 2007. # This is a welcome step in keeping with Prime # Run by the CAPFs, the Central Police Canteens Minister Narendra Modi’s directive to promote are open to serving and retired CAPF and State indigenously manufactured products, or swadeshi police personnel and their families all over the products, in India. As almost all products sold in country. CAPF canteens are indigenous, detailed instructions on this are awaited from the Home # With over 119 master canteens functioning as Ministry. depots and 1,700 canteens running across the country catering to over 50 lakh family CAPF comprises members of 10 lakh serving personnel, the The CAPF comprises the Central Reserve Police Central Police Canteen boasts of sales of over Force, the Border Security Force, the Central ?2,800 crore worth of products annually. # Baba Industrial Security Force, the Indo-Tibetan Ramdev’s Patanjali has already made inroads into Border Police, the Sashastra Seema Bal, the these canteens with various products and is Assam Rifles and the National Security Guard. expected to expand. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission is also channelising the Clearing proposals sale of its products like textiles and # Repeated efforts over the years to get the uniform accoutrements through these canteens. facilities of the Canteen Stores Department for CAPF personnel proved futile though the items # Non-exemption of GST on all products sold were sold to civilians as part of the Army’s civic through canteens has been a sore point among the action programme in the Northeast. CAPF personnel. The rates at which the products are sold at present in the canteens are marginally # When Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as Prime Minister, less than the market rates. concurred with the Home Ministry’s proposal to include the CAPF in the list of beneficiaries of the # Exemption of GST will reduce the costs further Canteen Stores Department, the Defence Ministry making the products more easily affordable and opposed it and later shelved it. lucrative. The government has to pay serious attention to this aspect. # A proposal was subsequently cleared in 2006 by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to open Paying VAT Central Police Canteens for the police forces of # Before the GST came into effect, certain States the country on the lines of the Canteen Stores had exempted the levy of VAT while many Department. others, including Delhi, were reluctant to extend this benefit. # The first CEO of the Central Police Canteen,

Easy to PICK584 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 # While VAT was exempted for all Canteen Stores Department items, the Central Police Canteens in most States had to continue paying VAT. # The authorities cannot ignore the fact that the the CAPF is working in difficult conditions across the country at grave risk to their lives. Not only are these personnel combating terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, tackling insurgency in the Northeast and fighting the Maoists in left wing extremism- affected areas but are also in the forefront quelling riots, as they did in Delhi and Aligarh recently. Way ahead # While sale of indigenous products in CAPF canteens is a step in the right direction, the issue of exemption of GST needs to be addressed on priority lest the CAPF personnel feel that they are being given step-motherly treatment despite the arduous duties they carry out in inhospitable terrains and the innumerable sacrifices they make for the nation.

Easy to PICK585 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 Downing the shutters: On H1-B visa halt Context # There is little doubt that the policies of the # The White House has made a Trump White House are likely to genuflect to the proclamation restricting the issuance of non- broader requirements of the 2020 presidential immigrant work visas (H1B) across the board, campaign, one of which is a sharp focus purportedly to clamp down on American on “America First,” or in this case the need to jobs going to foreign workers, a consistent policy project aggressive action against American jobs priority of the Donald Trump administration. allegedly being lost to foreign workers. Halted Visas # This week’s proclamation offered data to bolster # The broad-brush order includes the H-1B visa that claim, noting that between February and for skilled workers, which is widely garnered by April, “more than 20 million U.S. workers lost Indian nationals, the H-2B visa issued to seasonal their jobs in key industries where employers are workers in the landscaping and hospitality currently requesting H-1B and L workers to fill industries, the L-1 visa for intra-company positions”. transfers, and the J-1 visa for students on work- study summer programmes. # Already Google CEO Sundar Pichai has responded by tweeting, “Immigration has # It will also impact the H-4 visa for dependents contributed immensely to America’s economic of H-1B visa holders. success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today. # The proclamation will enter into force on June 24 and be applicable until the end of the calendar year, which notably includes the November 3 presidential election. Objective of the order # It is intended as a follow-on order reducing the number of foreigners entering the U.S., as it comes on the back of the 60-day halt in legal migration that began on April 23. # The latest restrictions will not apply to visa- holders who are already within the U.S., or those who are outside it and have already been issued valid visas. Reason for this order # The reasoning offered by the White House is that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has “significantly disrupted Americans’ livelihoods,” to the extent that the overall unemployment rate in the country nearly quadrupled between February and May 2020 to 13.3%.

Easy to PICK586 – “UPSC Monthly Magazine\" June - 2020 The perils of follow the leader syndrome(Analysis of Disaster Management Act) By, Dushyant Dave is Senior Advocate and And yet, even now, the planners in the President, Supreme Court Bar Association of country do not have a national plan to combat India. The views expressed are personal the disease. Context # The Disaster Management Act, # André Gide, the French writer, once said, 2005 expressly defines “Disaster” as “a “Everything has been said before, but since catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave nobody listens we have to keep going back and occurrence in any area, arising from natural or begin all over again.” man made causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of Listen to the inner voice life or human suffering or damage to, # The reason for its most painful blow by the and destruction of, property, or damage to, Corona virus is its handling or mishandling by or degradation of, environment, and is of such a the government of the day, affecting not only the nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping economy but also the very livelihoods of lakhs of capacity of the community of the affected area”. Indians. # The Act is comprehensive and provides for, # We need to stir up our collective conscience, the inter alia, the constitution of a National inner voice that warns us that things are not Authority, a National Executive committee, the normal. But how do we do it? constitution of an advisory committee of experts in the field to make recommendations # We must remind ourselves of what B.R. and to prepare a national plan. Ambedkar said on November 25, 1949: “‘The second thing we must do as to observe the caution # This plan must provide for measures for which John Stuart Mill has given to all who are prevention or mitigation. interested in the maintenance of democracy, namely, not ‘to lay their liberties at # The Act lays down “guidelines for minimum the feet of even a great man, or to trust him with standards of relief, including “ex power which enable him to subvert their gratia assistance on account of loss of life... and institutions.’ for restoration of means of livelihood”. # For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the # It enables the creation of a National Disaster path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in Response Fund in which the central government its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it must make due contribution and requires “any plays in the politics of any other country in the grants that may be made by any person or world. institution for the purpose of disaster management” to be credited into the same Fund. # Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero- # It also provides for a National Disaster worship is a sure road to degradation and to Mitigation Fund, exclusively for mitigation. eventual dictatorship’. # The Act also provides for State and local-level Managing disaster plans and for creating State Disaster Response # COVID-19 has posed a grave threat to India Fund among others. right from the the time of the national lockdown.