Eye on Indian Ocean, India-Australia joint naval exercise to begin April 2                                     

No clinical trials in India for new drugs                                                                                                

Stubble burning menace emerges in Kuttanad                                                                                   

India’s carbon dioxide emissions up 5%                                                                                              

Sharp rise in H1N1 cases                                                                                                                       

China destroys maps showing ‘wrong’ border                                                                                   

A bridge to nowhere [ Editorial / Opinion ]                                                                                          

 

 Eye on Indian Ocean, India-Australia joint naval exercise to begin April 2

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

     ✦   India and Australia would further deepen defence and strategic relationship with the third iteration of bilateral exercise AUSINDEX 19, which will see the largest Australian defence joint task force to visit India.

AUSINDEX 19 :

     ✦   AUSINDEX is a biennial bilateral maritime exercise between Indian Navy and Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

     ✦   The first edition of the exercise, AUSINDEX-15 took place in 2015 off the East Coast of India.

     ✦   The exercise is aimed at strengthening professional interaction and enhance interoperability between the two navies.

     ✦   It seeks to strengthen maritime cooperation between the India and Australia.

     ✦   The Focus of the AUSINDEX 2019  exercise will be “anti-submarine warfare”.

     ✦   The exercise is part of strong and growing australia - India strategic partnership.

     ✦   Australia and India are working together to promote peace and prosperity based on shared values and interests in a stable, secure, rules-based and inclusive Indo-Pacific .

                                                                                                                             Source :- Indian Express

No clinical trials in India for new drugs

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

      ✦   Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules,2019.

Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules,2019.

      ✦   New drugs approved for use in select developed markets will be automatically allowed in India provided global trials included Indian patients.

      ✦   This waiver would also extend to drugs that receive these marketing approvals even while a trial is underway in India.

      ✦   Data generated(clinical trial) outside the country will be acceptable.

      ✦   Providing post-trial access of the drugs to the patients that require it have been defined for the first time.

     ✦   It removed a clause in the clinical trials that mandated the sponsor (the entity initiating the trial) to pay 60% of compensation upfront in case of death or permanent disability of a patient.

     ✦   Now companies will pay the total amount once it is proven that the injury occurred because of the trial.

     ✦   Compensations in cases of death and permanent disability, or “other” injuries to a trial participant will be decided by Drug Controller General of India(DCGI).

     ✦   It removed regulations on tests conducted on animals in case of drugs approved and marketed for more than two years in well-regulated overseas drug markets.

Significance :      

     ✦   It will end the unnecessary repetition of trials and speed up the availability of new drugs in the country.

     ✦   It will lower the cost of drugs.

     ✦   It will improve the ease of doing business for drug makers.

 Criticism :

    ✦   India is a country of vast ethnic diversity and most of the trials are done in the West. There is need of bridging trials for ethnically diverse populations to check drug suitability population.

     ✦   Waiver should be only for drugs required urgently for national emergency.

     ✦   Proving injury due to the trial is problematic and it is prone to manipulation.

                                                                                                                                   Source :- Livemint

Stubble burning menace emerges in Kuttanad

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

     ✦   Paddy fields in Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala, look black these days with some of them emitting plumes of smoke.

     ✦   Relatively a new phenomenon in this part of the region, setting paddy fields on fire after harvest by the farmers is emerging as a major cause for concern.         

More about the news:

     ✦   In Punjab or Haryana, residue burning is rampant after harvest, resulting in heavy smog choking the region every year.

     ✦   In Kuttanad, the farmers are burning fields to destroy stubble, to check the germination of weedy rice and prevent diseases, as part of preparing their fields for the next crop season. They believe setting the fields on fire will improve the soil fertility.

     ✦   Unaware of the dangers, rampant burning of fields has started in paddy fields in Kuttanad.

     ✦   The smoke from stubble contains carbon monoxide and other toxic chemicals, which adversely affect human health and environment.

     ✦   Burning impacts the quality of soil as it robs the soil of vital nutrients.

                                                                                                                                                  Source :- The Hindu

India’s carbon dioxide emissions up 5%

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

     ✦   According to the Global Energy & CO2 Status Report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), India’s CO2 emissions are up by 5%.

Key findings :     

     ✦   India emitted 2,299 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2018, a 8% rise from last year.

    ✦  India’s emissions growth this year was higher than that of the United States and China — the two biggest emitters in the world — and this was primarily due to a rise in coal consumption.

     ✦   China, the United States, and India together accounted for nearly 70% of the rise in energy demand.

     ✦   India’s per capita emissions were about 40% of the global average and contributed 7% to the global carbon dioxide burden.

     ✦   The United States, the largest emitter, was responsible for 14%.

Global energy consumption :

     ✦   Global energy consumption in 2018 increased at nearly twice the average rate of growth since 2010, driven by a robust global economy and higher heating and cooling needs in some parts of the world.

     ✦   Demand for all fuels increased, led by natural gas, even as solar and wind posted double digit growth.

     ✦   Higher electricity demand was responsible for over half of the growth in energy needs.

     ✦   Energy efficiency saw lacklustre improvement.

     ✦   As a result of higher energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions rose 1.7% last year and hit a new record.

     ✦   The United States had the largest increase in oil and gas demand worldwide.

Concerns :

     ✦   As per its commitments to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, India has promised to reduce the emissions intensity of its economy by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.

     ✦   It has also committed to having 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and, as part of this, install 100 GW of solar power by 2022.

     ✦   However, the IEA report showed that India’s energy intensity improvement declined 3% from last year even as its renewable energy installations increased 10.6% from last year.

       

International Energy Agency (IEA) : ✦The International Energy Agency is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. ✦The IEA was initially dedicated to responding to physical disruptions in the supply of oil, as well as serving as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors. ✦The IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states, but also works with non-member countries, especially China, India, and Russia. ✦A candidate country must be a member country of the OECD. But all OECD members are not IEA members (Ex:Chile, Iceland, Israel, Latvia and Slovenia). ✦Headquarter :  Paris, France. The four main areas of IEA focus are: Energy Security: Promoting diversity, efficiency, flexibility and reliability for all fuels and energy sources; Economic Development: Supporting free markets to foster economic growth and eliminate energy poverty; Environmental Awareness: Analysing policy options to offset the impact of energy production and use on the environment, especially for tackling climate change and air pollution; and Engagement Worldwide: Working closely with partner countries, especially major emerging economies, to find solutions to shared energy and environmental concerns.

                                                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

Sharp rise in H1N1 cases

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

     ✦   Recently, there has been a sharp rise in cases and deaths from H1N1 influenza.

     ✦   The data on H1N1 cases has been collected by Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, National Centre of Disease Control, Delhi.

Key Findings :    

     ✦   The number of cases reported till March 17 this year is far more than what was reported in the whole of 2018 (14,992).

     ✦   Delhi has the third most number of cases; the number increased from 2,738 to 3,484.

     ✦   The number of cases in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka has nearly doubled in three weeks.

     ✦   Rajasthan continues to report the most number of cases and deaths, followed by Gujarat. In Rajasthan, the number of cases has increased from 3,964 (February 24) to 4,720 (March 17), while in Gujarat the increase has been from 2,726 to 4,296. Deaths from H1N1 in Rajasthan have increased from 137 to 178, while in Gujarat the increase as been from 88 to 125.

         

H1N1 : Swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, is a relatively new strain of an influenza virus that causes symptoms similar to the regular flu. The H1N1 infection was originally transmitted through contact with pigs, but can also be spread from person to person. Its symptoms, which include fever, coughing, a sore throat, and body ache, are similar to the regular flu. But if not treated, the H1N1 infection can lead to more serious conditions, including pneumonia and lung infections. The risks are especially high for children under the age of five and the elderly.

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Source :- The Hindu

China destroys maps showing ‘wrong’ border

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - India and its neighborhood

Context :

     ✦   Chinese authorities have destroyed nearly 29,000 world maps that showed Arunachal Pradesh as a part of India.

     ✦   The maps were destroyed as they contradicted Beijing’s claim that India’s north-eastern frontier state is an extension of China’s Tibetan region.

More about the news:

     ✦   Both Taiwan and South Tibet are parts of China's territory which is sacred and inviolable based on the international law

     ✦   China regards Taiwan as one of its provinces although it has its own flag, currency, military and elected government.

     ✦   China has been claiming that Arunachal is a part of its South Tibet Autonomous Region and reiterates this vociferously every time any Indian political functionary visits the frontier state.

     ✦   The country also routinely objects to Indian leaders visiting Arunachal Pradesh to highlight its stand.

     ✦   The two countries have so far held 21 rounds of talks to resolve the border dispute covering 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC).

                                                                                                                                   Source :- Times of India

A bridge to nowhere [ Editorial / Opinion ]

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

     ✦   Poor are facing problems due to diverted payments and aadhar based payment system.

Diversion of Payment :

     ✦   The mass diversion of LPG subsidies to Airtel wallets that came to light in 2017.

     ✦   Many of the wallets were unwanted, or even unknown to the recipients. Those affected, fortunately, included millions of middle-class Airtel customers who protested when the goof-up emerged.

     ✦   This is an instance of what might be called “diverted payments” — bank payments being redirected to a wrong account, without the recipient’s consent or knowledge.

    ✦   Diverted payments have become a widespread problem in recent years, not so much for the middle class as for powerless people such as old-age pensioners and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers.

     ✦   The main culprit is the Aadhaar Payment Bridge System (APBS).

Aadhaar Payment Bridge System (APBS) :

    ✦   APBS is a gateway created by National Payments Corporation of India to enable departments and agencies administering government schemes to transfer funds to Aadhaar-enabled bank accounts of beneficiaries.

    ✦   The basic idea of the APBS comes from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI); it acts on the principle that a person’s Aadhaar number becomes their financial address. Instead of providing multiple account details to receive a bank transfer, one only has to provide their Aadhaar number which significantly eases out the entire process.

    ✦   Induction of a bank account into APBS involves two distinct steps, both of which are meant to be based on informed consent. First, the account must be linked or ‘Seeded’ with the customer’s Aadhaar number.

    ✦   Second, it must be connected to the NPCI mapper, which serves as a repository of Aadhaar numbers linked with particular bank and used for the purpose of routing the Aadhaar based payment transactions to the destination banks. This step is known as “mapping”.

     ✦   In cases of multiple accounts for the same person, the APBS automatically sends money to the latest-mapped account.

Problems and challenges :

     ✦   Haphazard seeding continued well beyond 2014 because the government wanted to bring all direct benefit transfer (DBT) payments — pensions, scholarships, subsidies, MGNREGA wages, and so on — under the Aadhaar payments umbrella.

     ✦   Thus the groundwork required for APBS to work — reliable seeding of bank accounts with Aadhaar — had simply not been done when the APBS was rolled out.

     ✦   The seeding mess, it seems, was sought to be cleaned up by making “e-KYC” compulsory.

     ✦   To enforce e-KYC, many banks used the “ultimatum method”: a deadline was set, and people’s accounts were blocked when they missed the deadline.

     ✦   Compulsory e-KYC became a nightmare for poor people, for a number of reasons:

     ✦   Some did not know what they were supposed to do.

     ✦   Others had problems of biometric authentication.

     ✦   Others still struggled with inconsistencies between the Aadhaar database and the bank database.

     ✦   Among the worst victims were old-age pensioners.

     ✦   To this day, in Jharkhand, many pensioners are struggling to understand why their pension was discontinued after e-KYC was made compulsory.

A risky Bridge :

     ✦   Mapping (the induction of an Aadhaar-seeded account into the APBS), according to NCPI and UIDAI guidelines, should be based on an explicit request from the customer. This gives a measure of protection to educated middle-class customers.

     ✦   It ensures, for instance, that they know which account their money is being directed to by the APBS.

     ✦   For poor people, however, consent is a fiction. In Jharkhand at least, bank accounts have been mass-mapped onto the APBS without any semblance of consent, with or without e-KYC being completed in other words, without necessarily verifying that an account has been correctly seeded with Aadhaar.

Lack accountability :

     ✦   Firstly, diverted payments are not the only problem associated with the APBS. There are others, discussed elsewhere, such as rejected payments — another nightmare for powerless DBT recipients.

     ✦   Second, these problems are magnified by a pervasive lack of accountability.

     ✦   Some experts point out that the ABPS is a very opaque payment system and few people have a clear understanding of it.

     ✦   When people have problems of diverted or rejected payments, they have no recourse. More often than not, they are sent from one office to another. Even with the best of intentions, a bank manager may be unable to help them.

     ✦   Further, guidelines for resolving payment problems are conspicuous by their absence.

     ✦   Some cases of diverted payments have taken days to understand and weeks to resolve.

     ✦   Third, none of this seems to perturb the agencies that are promoting the APBS and related financial technologies.

     ✦    nobody appears to be in charge of enforcing the consent norms and other “guidelines” issued by the NPCI.

Way forward :   

     ✦   The RBI may be the nominal regulator, but the real action is at the NPCI, the UIDAI and other strongholds of the Aadhaar lobby.

    ✦   Lastly, the UIDAI did take cosmetic damage control measures from time to time in the last two years. Judging from Jharkhand’s experience, however, the pathologies of the APBS continue to cause havoc on the ground.

     ✦   An independent and participatory review of the system is long overdue.

                                                                                                                                               Source :- The Hindu

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