DIKSHA IAS FEB 17 CURRENT AFFAIRS

PRELIMS IMP

PLI Scheme for Telecom and Networking Products

Prelims - Economy

1. The Union Cabinet has approved Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Telecom and Networking Products.

2. The PLI Scheme intends to promote the manufacture of Telecom and Networking Products in India with a financial incentive.

3. Globally Telecom and Networking Products exports represent a US$100 billion market opportunity, which can be exploited by India.

4. The schemes aim to manufacture equipment such as core transmission equipment, 4G/5G Next Generation Radio Access Network and Wireless Equipment, Internet of Things (IoT) Access Devices, Other Wireless Equipment and Enterprise equipment like Switches, Routers etc. in India.

5. India will be positioned as a global hub for manufacturing of Telecom and Networking Products.

Source: PIB

Draft Blue Economy Policy for India

Prelims – Economy

1. Ministry of Earth Sciences has released Draft Blue Economy Policy document.

2. The document outlines the vision and strategy that can be adopted by the government to utilize the oceanic resources available in the country.

3. The document recognizes the following seven thematic areas.

a. National accounting framework for the blue economy and ocean governance.

b. Coastal marine spatial planning and tourism.

c. Marine fisheries, aquaculture, and fish processing.

d. Manufacturing, emerging industries, trade, technology, services, and skill development.

e. Logistics, infrastructure and shipping, including trans-shipments.

f. Coastal and deep-sea mining and offshore energy.

g. Security, strategic dimensions, and international engagement.

4. The policy document aims to enhance the contribution of the blue economy to India’s GDP, improve lives of coastal communities, preserve marine biodiversity and maintain the national security of marine areas and resources.

Source: AIR and PIB

Juvenile Justice Act, 2015

Prelims – Polity

1. The Union Cabinet has approved to amend the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

2. Amendment to introduce measures for strengthening Child Protection set-up to ensure the best interest of children.

3. The amendments include authorizing District Magistrate to issue adoption orders to ensure speedy disposal of cases and enhance accountability.

4. The District Magistrates to ensure its smooth implementation and garner synergized efforts in favour of children in distress conditions.

5. It also defines the eligibility parameters for the appointment of CWC members and categorizing offences as ‘serious offence’.

Source: PIB

eDNA

Prelims – Environment

1. Rivers have various small creatures that are highly sensitive to environmental threats.

2. The worms, fly larvae and snails (macroinvertebrates) live in the sediment at the bottom of a river (the “benthos”) can serve as biological monitors for water quality.

3. The presence of biological monitor species that are less tolerant of poor water quality is suggestive of a healthy river.

4. But it is challenging to sample and identify these macroinvertebrates.

5. A technique called “environmental DNA metabarcoding” (eDNA) takes samples of soil or water and searching for fragments of DNA specific to certain species.

6. This method eliminates the time-consuming process of sorting individual samples and enables to identify of the different species present in a river system.

Source: Down To Earth

Indian Sign Language Dictionary

Prelims – Miscellaneous

1. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Minister has released the third edition of the Indian Sign Language Dictionary having 10 thousand terms.

2. The dictionary has been created by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre.

3. The new dictionary contains 10 thousand terms of everyday use including academic, legal, administrative, medical, technical and agricultural terms.

4. The dictionary also contains regional signs used in different parts of the country.

Source: AIR

Mapping Policy

Mains -GS3- Technology

India has liberalized mapping policy that set to change colonial-era provisions on who can make, modify or disseminate maps.

What reforms will the policy introduce?

1. Until now, the Survey of India was the only agency authorized to produce maps.

2. Private players like MapmyIndia and Google Maps had utilized satellite images to produce digital maps, but this required a process called “ground-truthing".

3. In this process a person physically visited a building or a road to cross-check ground reality against the satellite-based map.

4. Private entities could also not produce high-res maps with an accuracy of 1 meter or less. This will now be allowed.

Who can create, publish maps now?

1. Only Indian companies or entities that store and display the data exclusively within the country will be allowed to undertake certain key activities.

2. Key activities include terrestrial mobile mapping, street view surveys, generating high-res maps, or surveying India’s territorial waters.

3. All mapping firms can now operate freely but foreign players will have to engage an Indian partner or a local subsidiary to enter certain businesses such as street view maps.

Why is mapping important to the digital ecosystem?

1. Location information is an integral part of the modern digital ecosystem.

2. It is critical for any location-based service industry such as e-commerce, delivery and logistics, and urban transport.

3. It is also essential for traditional sectors such as agriculture, construction and real estate, and mines and minerals.

Which is the intent of the policy?

1. The intent of the policy is to push indigenously developed maps, but it is a tough task to execute.

2. India has also been building a local variant to the US-backed GPS (Global Positioning System) called NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation).

3. Russia and China have local alternatives deployed for military purposes.

4. The new digital maps race is about sovereignty and localizing mapping capability.

5. Recently MapmyIndia partnered with ISRO to develop a fully indigenous mapping portal.

How will it impact the end consumer?

1. Services like street view maps and high-res commercial mapping will become possible depending on two factors –

a. The pace at which the local mapping ecosystem can ramp up its capabilities and

b. Foreign firms manage to find workarounds to the curbs.

2. The policy also states that Centre-owned mapping data will be published freely.

The norms are merely intent. Outcomes depend on the implementation by the Centre.

Source: Live Mint

Capital of India

Mains -GS2- Polity

The Chief Minister of West Bengal suggested that India should have four capitals and Parliament sessions should be held in each capital in a rotation manner.

Feasibility of Four Capitals

1. Having four capitals requires Parliament buildings in other three regions along with accommodation for all the MPs and the adjunct staff.

2. During Parliament sessions, these accommodations would remain vacant for months while MPs and their staff need to fly to different capitals.

3. Providing security to all the MPs including their vacant accommodations will be a huge burden for the State Police.

4. The cost to the government to have capitals in three other States will be significantly high and our nation can ill-afford this.

5. In the 1980s, the Tamil Nadu government proposed to shift the State capital to Tiruchirappalli in central Tamil Nadu, but the plan was dropped due to high cost.

Capital of Modern India

1. Calcutta (now Kolkata) was once the capital of this country.

2. In 1911, King George V announced that Delhi would be the new capital.

3. Parliament House was opened in 1927 and the Viceroy’s residence (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) and the government buildings were inaugurated in 1931.

4. One of the factors for New Delhi as capital was its proximity to the summer capital, Shimla.

Multiple Benches

1. There is a long-standing demand for the creation of the Supreme Court (SC) in South India.

2. Unlike the four capital proposal, there are merits in considering this one.

3. Many cannot afford to travel to New Delhi to engage lawyers and plead their cases in SC from South India.

4. The exorbitant fees by the SC lawyers in New Delhi also a deterrent.

Court of Appeal

1. The Attorney General has suggested four benches of the Court of Appeal with 15 judges each be created across the country to reduce the burden of the SC.

2. This would enable judges to go through each case thoroughly and deliver a well-thought-out verdict.

3. Setting up these courts requires a Constitutional amendment.

4. Such an arrangement would leave the apex court free to deal with constitutional issues.

A viable solution needs to be worked out as the cases are mounting in various courts. Easy accessibility to justice is right for every citizen.

Source: The Hindu

Telehealth

Mains -GS3- Economic Development

1. In the pandemic, health-care providers have been reassigned from other specialties to COVID-19, restricting high-quality care for other conditions.

2. During lockdown essential healthcare services such as immunization, antenatal services, detection of tuberculosis, routine follow-ups, etc. were disrupted.

3. Further, cancer care, diagnosis, and treatment of other non-communicable diseases have been badly affected in many countries.

4. The pandemic has exacerbated inequalities among urban and rural areas, as there was a shortage of specialists in rural areas and people were unable to travel to cities.

Enhance Technology Use

1. The acceleration use of digital technologies has mitigated the impact of COVID-19 to some extent.

2. Virtual consultations to avoid the risk of COVID-19 transmission helped to bridge this socio-economic divide.

3. The Indian government’s eSanjeevani platform offers both provider-to-patient interactions and provider-to-provider interactions.

4. eSanjeevani platform connects to general practitioners and specialist doctors through a hub-and-spoke model.

5. Private providers and non-governmental organisations have also expanded virtual access to underserved populations.

6. Yet, the scale of unmet demand was high, so there is an urgent need to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of virtual care interactions.

Shared Medical Appointments

1. In remote-shared medical appointments (SMAs) multiple patients with similar medical needs meet virtually with a clinician at once and each receives individual attention.

2. This can greatly increase telehealth capacity by eliminating the repetition of common advice.

3. SMAs has been working successfully in the USA for 20 years.

4. In India, the Aravind Eye Hospital in Puducherry has successfully trialed SMAs for patients with glaucoma, a disease that causes gradual, irreversible blindness.

Utilising Shared Appointments

1. eSanjeevani and other telehealth platforms could consider offering virtual shared medical appointments.

2. Patients get more time with their clinician and it enables peer support and peer-to-peer learning.

3. SMAs in other countries have improved both productivity and outcomes for many conditions, notably diabetes.

4. It also enables sharing of local knowledge, and likely attracts supplementary providers (physiotherapists, optometrists, etc) due to scale.

Combating Vaccine Hesitancy

1. Testing and vaccine adoption are prevented by misinformation.

2. Providers can offer virtual group information sessions by explains the benefits of COVID-19 testing and vaccination and answers questions.

3. It would reach potentially large audiences and engage in real-time with a care provider will likely encourage safe behaviors to a greater extent.

Challenges and Opportunities

1. Switching to different care delivery models requires rigorous testing combined with mentoring, training and behavior change for both patients and providers.

2. Adoption of in-person shared medical appointments has been slow.

3. But, the COVID-19 crisis has created interest in virtual SMAs.

4. SMA adoption can be accelerated by guiding implementers on data gathering to scientifically validate this model.

5. ECHO platform trains primary-care providers in many States through an online platform in this regard.

6. Relative to other nations, India is well poised to ramp up telehealth as both data plans and developing technology are cheaper in India.

Innovation in systems thinking, learning and adaptation, the new digital tools bring an opportunity to leapfrog into a reality of ‘Health for All’.

Source: The Hindu

Legislative Process Reforms

Mains -GS2- Governance

1. Indian democracy has shown signs of dysfunction.

2. Indian agricultural needs reform but the government passed the farm bills without following a transparent legislative process.

3. Although the government followed the basic procedure, the constitutional principles and the parliamentary spirit were ignored.

4. There has been a lack of attendance, and the absence of debate, deliberation, or expert committees in Parliament while laws are passed in minutes.

Anti-Defection Law

1. The 52nd constitutional amendment created rules to expel legislators who defect from political parties and de-stabilize governments in exchange for money.

2. The amendment also included disobeying a party directive on a vote as defection.

3. So, legislators can lose membership of the House if they abstain or vote against their party’s whip.

Consequences of this Amendment:

1. It damages the legislative process because it restricts legislators from voting their conscience and representing the interests of their constituents.

2. The forum where legislators express their views has changed as all deliberations and deal-making are done behind closed doors in party offices.

3. All power is concentrated in the party leadership and individual legislators are rendered powerless.

4. In a ruling party, the prime minister or chief minister and party president hold power thus enhancing the centralized nature of Indian governance.

5. In the case of the majority party, there is no scope for checks by coalition partners.

Screwed Process

1. Over the decades, this has corrupted the processes of deliberation.

2. The decisions are made in a party’s office, so the legislators stop attending Parliament or legislative assembly sessions.

3. Each party confers with its preferred experts ignoring the parliamentary or standing committees.

4. Bills are introduced in bulk and voted into law in mere hours, so the opposition stops preparing debates.

5. Legislative action is predetermined and staged in Parliament or an assembly.

PRS Report

1. PRS Legislative’s Functioning of 16th Lok Sabha (2014-2019) Report:

a. Only a quarter of the bills introduced were referred to committees, much lower than 71% during the 15th and 60% during the 14th Lok Sabha.

b. However, the 16th Lok Sabha discussed 32% of the bills for more than three hours improvement over 22% in the 15th Lok Sabha and 14% in the 14th.

c. In the 15th Lok Sabha, a quarter of the bills were passed in under 30 minutes, which went down to 6% in the 16th.

2. PRS Legislative reports on legislative assemblies shows that in many state assembly, the bulk of the bills were passed in minutes with almost no discussion.

Consequence of Dysfunctional Democratic process

1. There is no forum left for consensus-building so constituents are left with no choice but to protest.

2. Protests are an important part of the democratic process and a direct line of feedback from people between elections.

3. But protests are only good for some kinds of action, like starting an inquiry or reopening a case, or demanding repeal or ban.

4. They have no mechanism for consensus formation or discussions on policy options.

5. Protests foster binaries i.e. one is either for or against protesters. Protests do not make space for the mediation of nuanced criticism or agreement.

6. Farmers protesting the agricultural reforms are seeking to keep their rents and entitlements at the cost of others and the policy is stuck in a transitional gains trap.

7. Agriculture needs to be reformed, but such a trap cannot be solved through protests. It also needs deliberation and reforms in other areas like land policy.

8. Consensus cannot be built through protests better than through a parliament and assemblies.

9. So, India must reform its legislative processes to continue with reforms and heal as a society that aims for consensus.