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Distribution: weekly

  • India resists Community Transmission tag despite soaring cases

    How other countries are classifying themselves

    • Inspite of adding the highest number of cases in the world every day, India continues to label itself as a country with no community transmission (CT) according to the latest weekly report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 11.
    • India opts for the lower, less serious classification called ‘cluster of cases’.
    • Countries such as the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, France have all labelled themselves as being in ‘community transmission.
    • Among the 10 countries with the most number of confirmed cases, only Italy and Russia do not label themselves as being in community transmission.
    • Both countries have been on a declining trajectory for at least a month and together contribute less than 20,000 cases a day — about 5% of India’s daily numbers.
    • India, since the beginning of the pandemic has never marked itself as being in community transition.

    Understanding the classification

    • Broadly, CT is when new cases in the last 14 days can’t be traced to those who have an international travel history, when cases can’t be linked to specific cluster.
    • Instead, the classification, ‘cluster of cases’ says “Cases detected in the past 14 days are predominantly limited to well-defined clusters that are not directly linked to imported cases”.
    • The WHO guidelines further suggest four subcategories within the broader definition of CT.
    • CT-1 implying “Low incidence of locally acquired, widely dispersed cases…and low risk of infection for the general population.
    • The highest, a CT-4 suggests very high incidence of locally acquired, widely dispersed cases in the past 14 days.
    • Very high risk of infection for the general population.

    Why right classification matters

    • If cases were still a cluster, it would mean that the government ought to be prioritising testing, contact tracing and isolating to prevent further infection spread.
    • CT, on the other hand meant prioritising treatment and observing advisories to stay protected.
    • CT — far from being stigmatic or an indicator of failure — has a bearing on how authorities addressed a pandemic.

  • Black marketing during the pandemic

    The article highlights the issue of black-marketing of drugs during the pandemic and the factors responsible for it.

    Problem of fake and sub-standard drugs

    • There have been reports of fake remdesivir amid the Covid pandemic.
    • It is difficult to quantify the morbidity and mortality effects of fake or sub-standard drugs, but they are substantial.
    • Legally, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (DCA) has different categories of misbranded, adulterated and spurious drugs.
    • In 2003 Mashelkar Committee noted that although the Drugs and Cosmetics Act has been in force for the past 56 years, but the level of enforcement in many States has been far from satisfactory.
    • The committee also noted that the problems in the regulatory system in the country were primarily due to inadequate or weak drug control infrastructure at the State and Central level.

    Steps taken to deal with the issue

    • Assistance has also been provided under the World Bank assisted Capacity Building Project to upgrade testing facilities and to establish new drug testing laboratories.
    • The Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 has recently been amended in 2008 for providing more stringent penalties to those involved in the trade of spurious drugs.
    • There are specially designated courts and regulatory infrastructure has been strengthened.
    •  There is also a whistle-blower scheme.

    Distinction between hoarding and black-marketing

    • A hoarder is anyone who stocks up items.
    • The crime isn’t hoarding per se but of selling a drug without a licence.
    • Data on prosecutions, and convictions when prosecuted, of crimes under Drugs and Cosmetics Act, are not encouraging.
    • Incidentally, courts have ruled police officers can’t register FIRs, arrest and prosecute (for cognisable crimes) under this law.
    • That’s the job of drugs inspectors.
    • The notion of a black market is different, though the two can be related.
    • In this context, it means charging a premium when there is a shortage.
    • A black market occurs when the price at which a product is sold is higher than an administratively determined price.

    Conclusion

    Action not taken in the best of times now strikes back at us in the worst of times.

  • Cabinet clears MoU between ICAI and Qatar Financial Centre Authority

    Signing of MoU

    • The Union Cabinet approved the signing of a pact between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA)
    • The ICAI has more than 6,000 members in the Middle East.

    Increase opportunities and enhance cooperation

    • The MoU would enhance cooperation between the institutes to work together to strengthen the accounting profession and entrepreneurship base in Qatar.
    • The MoU would provide the ICAI members in the entire Middle East better recognition, together with working to support Indian businesses desirous of doing business in Qatar
    • The MoU will endeavour to increase opportunities for ICAI members to provide professional services in Qatar in the areas of assurance and auditing, advisory, taxation, financial services and allied areas.

  • Rajasthan to use MLA fund for vaccination

    MLA-LAD Fund for buying vaccine

    • As part of the efforts to mobilise financial resources for COVID-19 vaccination, Rajasthan Chief Minister has approved a proposal to provide ₹3 crore each from the MLA Local Area Development (LAD) Fund.
    • For meeting the expenses, the fund for each legislator has been increased from ₹2.25 crore to ₹5 crore a year.
    • The 200 MLAs in the State will contribute a total of ₹600 crore to the vaccination fund account under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
    • From the remaining ₹2 crore in the MLA-LAD Fund, ₹1 crore will be spent on strengthening the medical infrastructure, purchase of equipment and setting up of model community health centres.

    About MLA-LAD Fund

    • Member of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development is a scheme that enables each MLA to undertake small developmental works in his/her constituency.
    • The MLALAD Scheme is intended to be utilised for small but essential projects/works based on the felt needs of the local public.
    • Under this scheme, funds will be provided in the State’s Plan Budget every year.

  • Legal issues involved in adoption pleas for Covid-19 orphans

    The Covid pandemic has orphaned many children. As a consequence there has been an increase in pleas on social media for adoption. However, such pleas go against the legal provisions. The article deals with the issue.

    Legal provisions for protection of children

    • Today, some people are offering infants for instant adoption by stating how the children have lost their parents to pandemic.
    • However, such adoptions are illegal.
    • The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) law was enacted in 2015.
    • The Juvenile Justice Act is a secular law, all persons are free to adopt children under this law.
    • The Juvenile Justice Rules of 2016 and the Adoption Regulations of 2017 followed to create the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
    • CARA is a statutory body for the regulation, monitoring and control of all intra-country and inter-country adoptions.
    • CARA also grants a ‘no objection’ certificate for all inter-country adoptions, pursuant to India becoming a signatory to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoptions.
    • India is also a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
    • Thus, protections afforded to children became a legal mandate of all authorities and courts.
    • Persons professing the Hindu religion are also free to adopt under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956.
    • Rehabilitation of all orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children is regulated by the strict mandatory procedures of the Adoption Regulations.

    Procedure for adoption

    • The eligibility of prospective adoptive parents living in India, duly registered on the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), irrespective of marital status and religion, is adjudged by specialised adoption agencies preparing home study reports.
    • The specialised adoption agency then secures court orders approving the adoption.
    • All non-resident persons approach authorised adoption agencies in their foreign country of residence for registration under CARINGS.
    • Their eligibility is adjudged by authorised foreign adoption agencies through home study reports.
    • CARA then issues a pre-adoption ‘no objection’ certificate for foster care, followed by a court adoption order.
    • A final ‘no objection’ certificate from CARA or a conformity certificate under the adoption convention is mandatory for a passport and visa to leave India.

    Way forward

    • CARA must conduct an outreach programme on social media, newspapers and TV, warning everyone not to entertain any illegal adoption offers under any circumstances whatsoever.
    • The National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights must step up their roles as vigilantes.
    • Social activists, NGOs and enlightened individuals must report all the incidents that come to their notice.
    • Respective State Legal Services Authorities have the infrastructure and machinery to stamp out such unlawful practices brought to their attention.
    • The media must publicise and shame all those involved in this disreputable occupation.
    •  At the same time, the police authorities need to be extra vigilant in apprehending criminals.

    Conclusion

    Tough times call for tough measures. This business of criminal trading of children must be checked with an iron hand.

  • National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage

    About the scheme

    • The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister has approved the proposal of Department of Heavy Industry for implementation of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme ‘National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage’.
    • Each selected ACC battery Storage manufacturer would have to commit to set-up an ACC manufacturing facility of minimum five (5) GWh capacity and ensure a minimum 60% domestic value addition at the Project level within five years.
    • Furthermore, the beneficiary firms have to achieve a domestic value addition of at least 25% and incur the mandatory investment Rs.225 crore /GWh within 2 Years (at the Mother Unit Level) and raise it to 60% domestic value addition within 5 Years, either at Mother Unit, in-case of an Integrated Unit, or at the Project Level, in-case of “Hub & Spoke” structure.
    • The scheme will help in achieving manufacturing capacity of Fifty (50) Giga Watt Hour (GWh) of ACC and 5 GWh of “Niche” ACC with an outlay of Rs.18,100 crore.

    About ACC

    • ACCs are the new generation of advanced storage technologies that can store electric energy either as electrochemical or as chemical energy and convert it back to electric energy as and when required.

    Benefits of the scheme

    • Setup a cumulative 50 GWh of ACC manufacturing facilities in India under the Programme.
    • Direct investment of around Rs.45,000 crore in ACC Battery storage manufacturing projects.
    • Facilitate demand creation for battery storage in India.
    • Facilitate Make-ln-lndia: Greater emphasis upon domestic value-capture and therefore reduction in import dependence.
    • Net savings of Indian Rs. 2,00,000 crore to Rs.2,50,000 crore on account of oil import bill reduction during the period of this Programme due to EV adoption as ACCs manufactured under the Programme is expected to accelerate EV adoption.
    • The manufacturing of ACCs will facilitate demand for EVs, which are proven to be significantly less polluting.
    • As India pursues an ambitious renewable energy agenda, the ACC program will be a key contributing factor to reduce India’s Green House Gas (GHG) emissions which will be in line with India’s commitment to combat climate change.
    • Import substitution of around Rs.20,000 crore every year.
    • The impetus to Research & Development to achieve higher specific energy density and cycles in ACC.
    • Promote newer and niche cell technologies.

  • Digital Technologies and Inequalities

    Impact of pandemic

    • The novel coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the use of digital technologies in India, even for essential services such as health and education, where access to them might be poor.
    • Economic inequality has increased: people whose jobs and salaries are protected, face no economic fallout.
    • Well-recognised channels of economic and social mobility — education and health — are getting rejigged in ways that make access more inequitable in an already unequal society.

    Growing inequality in access to education

    • According to National Sample Survey data from 2017, only 6% rural households and 25% urban households have a computer.
    • Access to Internet facilities is not universal either: 17% in rural areas and 42% in urban areas.
    • Surveys by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the Azim Premji Foundation, ASER and Oxfam suggest that between 27% and 60% could not access online classes for a range of reasons: lack of devices, shared devices, inability to buy “data packs”, etc.
    • Further, lack of stable connectivity jeopardises their evaluations.
    • Besides this, many lack a learning environment at home.
    • Peer learning has also suffered.

    Inequality in access to health care

    •  India’s public spending on health is barely 1% of GDP.
    • Partly as a result, the share of ‘out of pocket’ (OOP) health expenditure (of total health spending) in India was over 60% in 2018.
    • Even in a highly privatised health system such as the United States, OOP was merely 10%.
    • Moreover, the private health sector in India is poorly regulated in practice.
    • Both put the poor at a disadvantage in accessing good health care.
    • Right now, the focus is on the shortage of essentials: drugs, hospital beds, oxygen, vaccines.
    • In several instances, developing an app is being seen as a solution for allocation of various health services. 
    • Digital “solutions” create additional bureaucracy for all sick persons in search of these services without disciplining the culprits.
    • Platform- and app-based solutions can exclude the poor entirely, or squeeze their access to scarce health services further.
    • In other spheres (e.g., vaccination) too, digital technologies are creating extra hurdles.
    • The use of CoWIN to book a slot makes it that much harder for those without phones, computers and the Internet. 

    Issues with the creation of centralised database

    • The digital health ID project is being pushed during the pandemic when its merits cannot be adequately debated.
    • Electronic and interoperable health records are the purported benefits.
    • For patients, interoperability i.e., you do not have to lug your x-rays, past medication and investigations can be achieved by decentralising digital storage say, on smart cards as France and Taiwan have done.
    • Given that we lack a data privacy law in India, it is very likely that our health records will end up with private entities without our consent, even weaponised against us.
    • For example, a private insurance companies may use health record to deny poor people an insurance policy or charge a higher premium.
    • There are worries that the government is using the vaccination drive to populate the digital health ID database.

    Way forward

    • Unless health expenditure on basic health services (ward staff, nurses, doctors, laboratory technicians, medicines, beds, oxygen, ventilators) is increased, apps such as Aarogya Setu, Aadhaar and digital health IDs can improve little.
    • Unless laws against medical malpractices are enforced strictly, digital solutions will obfuscate and distract us from the real problem.
    • We need political, not technocratic, solutions.

    Conclusion

    Today, there is greater understanding that the harms from Aadhaar and its cousins fall disproportionately on the vulnerable. Hopefully, the pandemic will teach us to be more discerning about which digital technologies we embrace.

  • NASA’s OSIRIS-REx begins journey back from asteroid

    On May 11, NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will depart asteroid Bennu, and start its two-year-long journey back to Earth.

    About OSIRIS-REx

    • OSIRIS-REx is NASA’s first mission to visit a near-Earth asteroid, survey its surface and collect a sample from it.
    • The mission was launched in 2016, it reached its target in 2018 and since then, the spacecraft has been trying to match the velocity of the asteroid using small rocket thrusters.
    • It also utilised this time to survey the surface and identify potential sites to take samples.
    • In October 2020, the spacecraft briefly touched asteroid Bennu, from where it collected samples of dust and pebbles. 
    • Once the surface was disturbed, the spacecraft’s robotic arm captured some samples.
    • The spacecraft’s engineers have also confirmed that shortly after the spacecraft made contact with the surface, it fired its thrusters and “safely backed away from Bennu”.

    About Bennu

    • Bennu is considered to be an ancient asteroid that has not gone through a lot of composition-altering change through billions of years, which means that below its surface lie chemicals and rocks from the birth of the solar system.
    • Around 20-40 percent of Bennu’s interior is empty space and scientists believe that it was formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system’s creation, implying that it is roughly 4.5 billion years old.
    • Bennu is a B-type asteroid, implying that it contains significant amounts of carbon and various other minerals.
    • Because of its high carbon content, the asteroid reflects about four percent of the light that hits it, which is very low when compared with a planet.
    • Bennu is named after an Egyptian deity.
    • The asteroid was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.

  • Israel-Palestine Clash

    Context

    On Monday, Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, leaving a reported 300 people injured. The stand-off came at the end of a week of tensions over the eviction of Palestinian residents from two neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, to make way for Jewish settlers.

    Cause of the clashes

    • The Al-Aqsa is located on a plaza at Temple Mount, which is known in Islam as Haram-e-Sharif.
    • The Mount is also Judaism’s holiest site.
    • The most imposing structure on the compound is the Dome of the Rock, with its golden dome.
    • The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall sacred to Jews, is one side of the retaining wall of the Al-Aqsa compound.
    • Soon after the 1967 Six-Day War ended, Israel gave back to Jordan the administration and management of the Al-Aqsa compound.
    • While non-Muslims have not been allowed to worship at Al-Aqsa, Jewish individuals and groups have made repeated attempts to gain entry to the Mount Temple plaza.
    • Since the late 1990s, around the time of the first intifada, such attempts began occurring with a regularity as Jewish settlers began claiming land in East Jerusalem and surrounding areas.
    • It has led to repeated clashes and tensions at Al-Aqsa.

    Rival claims over Jerusalem

    • Both Israel and Palestine have declared Jerusale their capital.
    • In July 1980, the Israeli Parliament passed the Jerusalem Law declaring it the country’s capital.
    • Palestinians declared Jerusalem the capital of the putative state of Palestine by a law passed by the Palestinian Authority in 2000.
    • The 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence also declared Jerusalem as the capital.
    • For the present, the Palestinian Authority has its headquarters in Ramallah.

    How the world is reacting

    • The Security Council held a meeting on the situation in Jerusalem, but did not make any statement immediately.
    • Last Friday, the US said it was “extremely concerned” .
    • The UAE, which recently recognised as Israel as a state and sealed a historic peace agreement to normalise relations with it, has “strongly condemned” the clashes and the planned evictions in Jerusalem over the past week.
    • Saudi Arabia said it “rejects Israel’s plans and measures to evict dozens of Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem”.
    • Pakistan Prime Minister also condemned Israel for violation of international law.

  • A TRIPS waiver is useful but not a magic pill

    The article highlights the challenges countries could face despite the patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccine.

    TRIPS waiver for Covid-19 vaccine

    • The United States has finally relented and declared its support for a temporary waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for COVID-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
    • Hopefully, the U.S.’s decision would cause other holdouts like Canada and the European Union to give up their opposition.
    • While the U.S.’s decision is to be welcomed, the devil would be in the details.

    The challenges after waiver

    1) Conditions of the waiver

    •  If the experience of negotiating such waivers, especially on TRIPS, were anything to go by, it would be too early to celebrate.
    • In the aftermath of the HIV/AIDS crisis the WTO adopted a decision in 2003 waiving certain TRIPS obligations to increase the accessibility of medicines.
    • However, this waiver (later incorporated as Article 31 bis in the TRIPS agreement) was subject to several stringent requirements such as the drugs so manufactured are to be exported to that nation only; the medicines should be easily identifiable through different colour.
    • Given these cumbersome requirements, hardly any country, in the last 17 years, made effective use of this waiver.

    2) Countries will protect the interest of pharma companies

    •  India and South Africa proposed a waiver not just on vaccines but also on medicines and other therapeutics and technologies related to the treatment of COVID-19.
    • So, the U.S. has already narrowed down the scope of the waiver considerably by restricting it to vaccines.
    • Medicines useful in treating COVID-19 and other therapeutics must be also included in the waiver.
    • While the U.S. would not like to be seen as blocking the TRIPS waiver and attracting the ire of the global community, make no mistake that it would resolutely defend the interests of its pharmaceutical corporations.

    3) Lack of access to technology

    • The TRIPS waiver would lift the legal restrictions on manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
    • But it would not solve the problem of the lack of access to technological ‘know-how’ related to manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
    • Waiving IP protection does not impose a legal requirement on pharmaceutical companies to transfer or share technology.
    • While individual countries may adopt coercive legal measures for a forced transfer of technology, it would be too draconian and counterproductive.
    • Therefore, governments would have to be proactive in negotiating and cajoling pharmaceutical companies to transfer technology using various legal and policy tools including financial incentives.

    4) Domestic IP regulation

    • While a TRIPS waiver would enable countries to escape WTO obligations, it will not change the nature of domestic IP regulations.
    • Therefore, countries should start working towards making suitable changes in their domestic legal framework to operationalise and enforce the TRIPS waiver.
    • In this regard, the Indian government should immediately put in place a team of best IP lawyers who could study the various TRIPS waiver scenarios and accordingly recommend the changes to be made in the Indian legal framework.

    Conclusion

    Notwithstanding the usefulness of the TRIPS waiver, it is not a magic pill. It would work well only if countries simultaneously address the non-IP bottlenecks.