💥Mains Ready By December. Smash Mains & Smash PYQ Admissions Open
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

GS Paper: GS2-13.Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

  • Online education must supplement, not replace, physical sites of learning

    Left with no choice, many education institutions turned to online mode. But could that be a new normal? This article analyses the indispensable role of online education. However, online education cannot be a substitute for traditional education institutes. WHY? Read the article to know about the vital role of traditional educational institutions…

    Online education (OE): Supplement not the substitute

    • The incredible synergy unleashed by information and communications technology (ICT) is the best thing to have happened to education since the printing press.
    • Indeed, higher education today is unthinkable without some form of the computer and some mode of digitised data transmission.
    • OE can use content and methods that are hard to include in the normal curriculum.
    • OE can put pressure on lazy or incompetent teachers.
    • OE can provide hands-on experience in many technical fields where simulations are possible.
    • And OE can, of course, be a powerful accessory for affluent students able to afford expensive aids.
    • As products of this revolution, online methods of teaching and learning deserve our highest praise — but only when cast in their proper role.
    • This proper role is to supplement, support and amplify the techniques of face-to-face education.
    • The moment they are proposed as a substitute for the physical sites of learning we have long known — brick-and-cement schools, colleges, and universities — online modes must be resolutely resisted.

    So, what are the vested interests involved?

    • Resistance to OE is often dismissed as the self-serving response of vested interests, notably obstructive, technophobic teachers unwilling to upgrade their skills.
    • But these are not the only vested interests involved.
    • Authoritarian administrators are attracted by the centralised control and scaling-at-will that OE offers.
    • Educational entrepreneurs have been trying to harvest the billions promised by massive open online courses (MOOCs) — think of Udacity, Coursera, or EdX.
    • Pundits are now predicting post-pandemic tie-ups between ICT giants like Google and Amazon and premium education brands like Harvard and Oxford that will launch a new era of vertically-integrated hybrid OE platforms.

    Is OE a viable alternative to traditional educational institutions (TEI) for the typical Indian student?

    • No one with access to an elite TEI chooses OE.
    • Instead, we know that OE always loses in best-to-best comparisons.
    • Favourable impressions about OE are created mostly by comparing the best of OE with average or worse TEIs.

    But is it true that the best OE is better than the average college or university?

    • OE claims that neither the campus nor face-to-face interaction are integral to education.
    • Since the comparative evaluation of virtual versus face-to-face pedagogic interaction needs more space, the campus question is considered here.
    • How does the typical student’s home compare with a typical TEI campus?
    • Census 2011 tells us that 71 per cent of households with three or more members have dwellings with two rooms or less.
    • According to National Sample Survey data for 2017-18, only 42 per cent of urban and 15 per cent of rural households had internet access.
    • Only 34 per cent of urban and 11 per cent of rural persons had used the internet in the past 30 days.
    • It is true that many TEIs (both public and private) have substandard infrastructure.
    • But these data suggest that the majority (roughly two-thirds) of students are likely to be worse off at home compared to any campus.
    • The impact of smartphone capabilities and stability of net connectivity on OE pedagogy also needs to be examined.

    Importance of college as a social space

    • It is as a social rather than physical space that the college or university campus plays a critical role.
    • Public educational institutions play a vital role as exemplary sites of social inclusion and relative equality.
    • In Indian conditions, this role is arguably even more important than the scholastic role.
    • The public educational institution is still the only space where people of all genders, classes, castes, and communities can meet without one group being forced to bow to others.
    • Whatever its impact on academics, this is critical learning for life.
    • Women students, in particular, will be much worse off if confined to their homes by OE.

    Consider the question- “Covid-19 pandemic forced many educational institute to explore the online more of education. And this also brought to the fore the potential of the online mode of education. In light of this, examine the issues with substituting the online mode of education for the traditional educational mode.”

    Conclusion

    Though an indispensable supplement for traditional education, there are certain aspects of education and a social life that online learning cannot substitute. So, the government should not divert its attention from the traditional educational institution and look at online education as its substitute.

  • [pib] Star Ratings of Garbage Free Cities

    The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has released the Star rating of garbage-free cities for the assessment year 2019-2020.

    Practice question for mains:

    Q. Discuss how the Swachh Bharat Mission has become a people’s movement in India. Also, discuss how it has managed to instill a behavioural change amongst the citizens.

    About Star Rating Protocol

    • The Star Rating Protocol was launched by the MoHUA in January 2018 to institutionalize a mechanism for cities to achieve Garbage Free status and to motivate cities to achieve higher degrees of cleanliness.
    • The protocol has been devised in a holistic manner including components such as the cleanliness of drains & water bodies, plastic waste management, managing construction & demolition waste, etc.
    • While the key thrust of this protocol is on Solid waste management(SWM), it also takes care of ensuring certain minimum standards of sanitation through a set of prerequisites defined in the framework.
    • The new protocol considers ward-wise geo-mapping, monitoring of SWM value chain through ICT interventions like Swachh Nagar App and zone-wise rating in cities with a population above 50 lakh.

    Performance of cities

    • Accordingly, as per the 2020 survey, 6 cities have been graded 5 stars, 65 Cities rated 3 Star and 70 Cities rated 1 Star.

    5 Star Cities

    ULB Name State Final Rating
    Ambikapur Chhattisgarh 5 Star
    Rajkot Gujarat 5 Star
    Surat Gujarat 5 Star
    Mysore Karnataka 5 Star
    Indore Madhya Pradesh 5 Star
    Navi Mumbai Maharashtra 5 Star

    Assessment under the protocol

    • To ensure that the Protocol has a SMART framework, the MoHUA has developed a three-stage assessment process.
    • In the first stage, ULBs populate their progress data on the portal along with supporting documents within a particular timeframe.
    • The second stage involves a desktop assessment by a third-party agency selected and appointed by MoHUA.
    • Claims of cities that clear the desktop assessment are then verified through independent field-level observations in the third stage.

    Significance

    • This certification is an acknowledgement of the clean status of Urban Local Bodies and strengthened SWM systems as well as a mark of trust and reliability akin to universally known standards.

    Back2Basics: Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)

    • SBM is a nation-wide campaign in India for the period 2014 to 2019 that aims to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of India’s cities, towns, urban and rural areas.
    • The objectives of Swachh Bharat include eliminating open defecation through the construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets and establishing an accountable mechanism of monitoring toilet use.
    • Run by the GoI, the mission aims to achieve an “open-defecation free” (ODF) India by 2 October 2019, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi by constructing 90 million toilets in rural India.
    • The mission will also contribute to India reaching Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), established by the UN in 2015.
    • It is India’s largest cleanliness drive to date with three million government employees and students from all parts of India participating in 4,043 cities, towns, and rural areas.
    • The mission has two thrusts: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (“gramin” or ‘rural’), which operates under the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation; and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (‘urban’), which operates under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

  • What is Palliative Care?

    The newscard talks about palliative healthcare which may help when the world is reeling under this most unexpected and unprecedented pandemic, COVID-19.

    Palliative Care is a promising approach to counter the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. We can use this as an example to quantify the measures required to improve mental healthcare infrastructure in India.

    Social sufferings caused by the pandemic

    • COVID-19, because of its unique nature and magnitude has brought in its wake, not only physical illness but more of emotional and social suffering.
    • These include- fear, anxiety, uncertainty, loss of loved ones and social distress such as losing jobs and income, inability to move freely to work and other places, frustrations, staying long hours at home and other hardships, all leading to psychological disturbances for many.

    What is Palliative Care?

    • The literal meaning of the word ‘palliate’ is ‘to alleviate pain — physical and emotional’, meaning, relief of suffering. ‘Suffering’ literally means ‘the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship’.
    • It is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with a life-threatening illness.
    • It involves prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
    • It is part and parcel of treatment for any patient for any disease at any stage, for any age. It is simply a ‘whole person’ approach to improving health in any patient.

    A promising remedy

    • ‘Palliative Medicine’ is a medical speciality, which involves the treatment of pain, breathing difficulty and other distressing physical symptoms caused by chronic and life-limiting diseases.
    • It also addresses the psychological issues of both patient and family, with the sole aim of improving the quality of life. It is most beneficial when started early in the disease trajectory.
    • It is also a form of supportive care, giving that extra layer of support a patient needs, to alleviate suffering, alongside disease treatment even in acute illness.
    • In the present scenario, in addition to what physicians are toiling with to cure patients, and the government and health care policies and strategies, palliative care can play a supportive role.

    Supportive role

    • Distressing physical symptoms like pain, breathing difficulty, restlessness (delirium) and others can be well relieved or palliated with medicines in consultation with the specialists.
    • Similarly, skilled counselling is an integral part of the palliative approach.
    • It helps address the psychological, social and spiritual issues, which both patient and family are experiencing in the present scenario.
    • There is a way of responding to their fears, anxieties and to questions. They rarely need antidepressants when we acknowledge their emotions as normal.

    Conclusion

    • Active listening is by far the most important part of counselling.
    • This care can be availed of from psychologists, specialists in palliative medicine, as well as those from medical organisations who have the expertise and willingness to render their services.
    • Hence, Palliative care is the reinstatement of the humane aspects of medical care and is complementary to all medical specialities, a common thread running through the total care of all patients.

  • Global Nutrition Report, 2020

    The Global Nutrition Report 2020 has stated that India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025.

    UPSC may puzzle you by asking a prelim question like-

    With reference to the Global Nutrition Report, which of the following is/are a Global Nutrition Targets?

    Visit this link for more graphics related to India: https://globalnutritionreport.org/resources/nutrition-profiles/asia/southern-asia/india/

    About the Global Nutrition Report

    • The GNR is a report card on the world’s nutrition—globally, regionally, and country by country—and on efforts to improve it.
    • It is an independently produced annual stock-take of the state of the world’s nutrition. It is a multi-stakeholder initiative, consisting of a Stakeholder Group, Independent Expert Group and Report Secretariat.
    • It was conceived following the first Nutrition for Growth Initiative Summit (N4G) in 2013 and was first published in 2014.
    • The report tracks global nutrition targets on maternal, infant and young child nutrition and on diet-related Non-Communicable Diseases adopted by member states of the WHO as well as governments’ delivery against their commitments.

    India would miss the targets

    • According to the Global Nutrition Report 2020, India will miss targets for all four nutritional indicators for which there is data available, i.e.

    1) Stunting among under-5 children,

    2) Anaemia among women of reproductive age,

    3) Childhood overweight and

    4) Exclusive breastfeeding

    What are Global nutrition targets?

    • In 2012, the World Health Assembly identified six nutrition targets for maternal, infant and young child nutrition to be met by 2025. They are:

    1) Reducing stunting by 40% in children under 5 years age

    2) Reducing anaemia by 50% among women in the age group of 19-49 years

    3) Ensuring a 30% reduction in low-birth-weight

    4) Ensuring no increase in childhood overweight,

    5) Increasing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months up to at least 50% and

    6) Reducing and maintaining childhood wasting to less than 5%.

    Data on Underweight children

    • Between 2000 and 2016, rates of underweight have decreased from 66.0% to 58.1% for boys and 54.2% to 50.1% in girls.
    • However, this is still high compared to the average of 35.6% for boys and 31.8% for girls in Asia.
    • In addition, 37.9% of children fewer than 5 years are stunted and 20.8% are wasted, compared to the Asia average of 22.7% and 9.4% respectively.
    • One in two women of reproductive age is anaemic, while at the same time the rate of overweight and obesity continues to rise, affecting almost a fifth of the adults, at 21.6% of women and 17.8% of men.

    Data about India

    • Stunting and wasting among children

      • Data: 37.9% of children under 5 years are stunted and 20.8% are wasted, compared to the Asia average of 22.7% and 9.4% respectively. 
    •  Inequity:
        • India is identified as among the three worst countries, along with Nigeria and Indonesia, for steep within-country disparities in stunting, where the levels varied four-fold across communities.
        • For example, Stunting level in Uttar Pradesh is over 40% and their rate among individuals in the lowest income group is more than double those in the highest income group at 22.0% and 50.7%, respectively.
        • In addition, stunting prevalence is 10.1% higher in rural areas compared to urban areas.
    • Overweight and Obesity
      • Data: Rate of overweight and obesity continues to rise, affecting almost a fifth of the adults, at 21.6% of women and 17.8% of men.
      • Inequity: There are nearly double as many obese adult females than there are males (5.1% compared to 2.7%).
    • Anaemia
      • One in two women of reproductive age is anaemic.

    Inequities in Malnutrition

    • The report emphasises on the link between malnutrition and different forms of inequity, such as those based on geographic location, age, gender, ethnicity, education and wealth malnutrition in all its forms.
    • Inequity is a cause of malnutrition — both under-nutrition and overweight, obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases.
    • Inequities in food and health systems exacerbate inequalities in nutrition outcomes that in turn can lead to more inequity, perpetuating a vicious cycle, says the report.

  • What is Stringency Index?

    India enforced one of the strongest lockdowns at an early phase of case growth. Now, an index created by the University of Oxford quantifies that.

    The Stringency Index provides a computable parameter to evaluate the effectiveness of the nationwide lockdown in India.

    What is Stringency Index?

    • It is among the metrics being used by the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker.
    • The Tracker involves a team of 100 Oxford community members who have continuously updated a database of 17 indicators of government response.
    • These indicators examine containment policies such as school and workplace closings, public events, public transport, stay-at-home policies.
    • The Stringency Index is a number from 0 to 100 that reflects these indicators. A higher index score indicates a higher level of stringency.

    What does the Stringency Index tell us?

    • It provides a picture of the stage at which any country enforced its strongest measures.
    • Oxford provides an overlay of countries’ death curve and their stringency score.
    • Some countries saw their deaths just begin to flatten as they reached their highest stringency, such as Italy, Spain, or France.
    • As China pulled stronger measures, its death curve plateaued.
    • In countries such as the UK, the US, and India, the Oxford graphs find that the death curve has not flattened after strictest measures were enforced.

    How does India compare with others?

    • The Index has found that India indeed had one of the strongest lockdown measures in the world — at a 100 score since March 22.
    • When compared to other countries with the similar or higher caseload, India called its strict lockdown at a much earlier point on its case and death curves.
    • These 18 other countries had more than 500 cases when they called their strictest lockdown, while India had 320.
    • Again, India had only four deaths on March 22, when its score reached 100, while most countries had more deaths at that point (except Switzerland; no deaths).
    • Spain called for its strictest measures later in its case and death count than all others. Sweden has had the most liberal measures in this set, and Iran the second most liberal.

  • Strategy for calibrated opening of economy

    The article discusses the performance of India so far and the strategy for reopening of the economy. Dividing the districts based on the number of cases and adopting a suitable approach for opening the economy there while keeping the spread of the virus in control is suggested in the article.

    India performing better

    • While the OECD countries are reeling under the COVID-19 impact, India is clearly ahead of the curve.
    • This is not merely in terms of the confirmed cases in the country but is also strongly reflected in very low mortality numbers (8.5 deaths per lakh population) compared to other nations (4,040 in the UK and 1,930 in the US).
    • While the first cases were reported in most hotspot countries and India around the same time (last week of January), today, the outbreak is far more manageable in India than in most other countries.
    • It was pragmatic for a resource-poor country to be pre-emptive and declare a national lockdown when the total number of cases were still low at 500.
    • The subsequent growth of the pandemic clearly shows a perceptible decline in the number of cases due to the lockdown.
    • Though stringent, this was much-needed and a timely policy intervention by the government.
    • It is important, however, to appreciate the high and growing opportunity costs that are involved during a lockdown.
    • We must brace ourselves for long-term pandemic management (18 to 24 months) with significant economic impact on our lives.

    Policy interventions by government and two major concerns

    • The immediate costs of the lockdown are borne by the most economically vulnerable people in society.
    • This perhaps was the rationale behind the first round of economic policy interventions announced by the finance minister within a few days of the lockdown.
    • They targeted front-loading of cash transfers through PM-Kisan, support to construction workers, self-help groups, food distribution through the public distribution system, among others.
    • Two major concerns: Beyond welfare concerns, there are significant growth concerns that are mounting with every day of economic inactivity in the country.
    • Companies are struggling to honour payroll and maintain their workforce against cancelling orders and declining demand for their goods and services.
    • These in turn will lead to greater delays and defaults in loan repayments, thereby further weakening the fragile banking sector and struggling credit markets.

    The RBI’s intervention and increasing damage to the economy

    • The Reserve Bank of India stepped in for some timely monetary interventions.
    • However, the longstanding climate of risk aversion within the banking sector will mean that transmission of these monetary interventions is unlikely to be timely or adequate.
    • All eyes are set expectantly in one direction.
    • Historically, when economies are faced with major calamities, governments step in to stabilise the environment and boost confidence within the business community.
    • We have seen this response from all major economies disrupted by COVID-19 over the last several weeks.
    • India will not be an exception to this as the government fine-tunes its strategy to support and kickstart our immobilised economy.
    • The opportunity cost of time, however, is ballooning with each passing day.
    • Just like the spread of the virus, we are up against the full force and power of compounding.
    • Mindful policy interventions, when timed well, can cut growing losses and the misfortune of many.

    How the states are performing against Covid-19?

    • While we have succeeded in slowing the growth of the virus at the national level, the true gains and pains are at the state and local level.
    • As the data reveals, currently we have three states that have made remarkable gains and “flattened the curve” of COVID cases.
    • These are Kerala, Haryana and Tamil Nadu where recoveries are growing and active cases are rapidly declining.
    • States like Karnataka and Telangana are improving their recovery rates consistently, despite fluctuations.
    • Every state and local administration has to keep eternal vigil and double down on containment and testing.
    • They have to aggressively improve their contact tracing efforts with the help of their police who are trained in debriefing, call record mapping and have more manpower than public health departments of local administrations.

    The article contains the policy and governance aspects which are important from Mains Paper-2, and economic issues such as the size of the package and opportunity cost of time involved are important from the Mains Paper-3 perspective. Take note of these issues.

    What should be the strategy?

    • Given the scale and variation in infection control across the country, our national strategy needs to be informed and calibrated.
    • Currently, there are more than 300 districts in the country which have reported zero COVID-19 cases.
    • This can be confirmed quickly with some random testing and the lockdown can be lifted effective immediately.
    • Then there are about 225 districts which have reported less than 10 cases each.
    • With adequate ring-fencing at the level of the block where these cases are reported, these districts too can afford to lift their lockdowns.
    • There are, however, approximately 30 districts across the country which have reported large numbers of confirmed cases and are identified as “hotspots”.
    • The lockdown in these places needs to continue with some relaxations for basic trade and essential services.
    • Not surprisingly, these “hotspots” are also important economic centres of the country.
    • The capacity of the local administration to develop and enforce appropriate strategies of containment, contact tracing and testing, should determine their decisions to ring-fence and isolate blocks while allowing other parts of the district/city to resume economic activity.

    Way forward

    • Given the uncertainty of the virus, we seem prepared for large hospitalisation and care if the need arises.
    • The efforts now must be to further contain the growth of the infection.
    • Acting against the power of compounding: If the current rate persists, we will reach over lakh cases within three weeks. That is the power of compounding we are against.
    • Public health support team: Beyond knowledge sharing across states and adopting successful containment strategies from each other, there is a role for the central government in providing “NSG-like” public health support teams to states that need them.
    • Economic package: On the economy front similarly, the central government’s timely economic package should flatten the curve of exponentially rising opportunity costs across the sectors.

    Conclusion

    Given the relative scale and virulence of the COVID-19 virus in India, the odds seem stacked in favour of a calibrated opening of the economy.

     

  • [pib] Year of Awareness on Science & Health (YASH) Program

    National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC) has launched a programme on health and risk communication ‘Year of Awareness on Science & Health (YASH)’ with focus on COVID-19.

    There are various initiatives named with Hindi acronyms. YASH is newer among them. It is very unlikely to frame a prelim question on it. Still, we should know it for the sake of general awareness.

    YASH Program

    • YASH is a comprehensive and effective science and health communication effort for promoting grass-root level appreciation and response to health.
    • The current pandemic scenario has posed concerns and challenges all around, where scientific awareness and health preparedness play a significant role to help combat the situation.
    • This requires translation and usage of authentic scientific information to convey the risks involved and facilitates communities to overcome the situation.
    • The programme will encompass the development of science, health, and risk communication software, publications, audio-visual, digital platforms, folk performances, trained communicators, especially in regional languages to cater to various cross-sections of the society in the country.
    • It would help to save and shaping the lives of people at large, as well as build confidence, inculcate a scientific temper and promote health consciousness among them.

    Activities under YASH

    • The programme is aimed at minimizing risks at all levels with the help of public communication and outreach activities.
    • It would promote public understanding of common minimum science for community care and health safety measures like personal sanitation and hygiene, physical distancing, maintaining desired collective behaviour and so on.
    • It also includes information dissemination mechanisms to reduce the fear of risks and build confidence with necessary understanding for adopting sustainable healthy lifestyles and nurturing scientific culture among masses and societies.

  • Spanish Plan for Phased Easing of Lockdown

    • Spain’s Prime Minister has presented a four-phase lockdown exit strategy for the country.
    • It’s imperative for India to learn from global examples for easing lockdown without doing away with health concerns.

    With the nearing end of nationwide lockdown, various exit strategies are being discussed for a smooth restart.

    Spain’s exit strategy

    • The opening up of the lockdown will begin with phase 0 throughout Spain, except for a few islands that will already be in phase 1 by then.
    • A week later, provinces will enter phase 1, which will last for two weeks and the remaining phases will also last for two weeks each.
    • In total, the de-escalation will take at least six weeks to be complete.

    Phase 0: The preparation phase

    • De-escalations in this phase include opening up of takeaway facilities at restaurants and opening up of some other establishments such as hair salons.
    • From May 2, individuals will be able to go out for a walk or to exercise alone or with people they stay with. In this phase, professional athletes will be able to access individual training sessions.
    • Children aged 14 years or younger have been allowed to go out for walks from April 26.

    Phase 1: The initial phase

    • Begins on May 11. Small businesses will be allowed to open under strict security measures.
    • For instance, gyms can open for people who want to train individually and by appointment.
    • Further, hotels and tourist accommodations will be allowed to open, excluding the common areas and with certain restrictions in place.
    • Places of worship will also be allowed to open, limiting their capacity to one-third. Owners of terrace bars can open their establishments but with 30 per cent capacity.
    • In this phase, some degree of social contact with a limited number of people may also be allowed, subject to what the conditions are then.

    Phase 2: The intermediate phase

    • Begins on May 25.Will include the resumption of hunting and sport fishing, and the opening of cinemas and auditorium theatres at one-third of their capacity.
    • Visits to monuments and cultural facilities, such as exhibition halls and conference rooms, will resume with one-third occupancy.
    • Cultural shows will be allowed with less than 50 people in closed spaces. In the outdoors, shows and events can be held with less than 400 people provided they are seated.
    • All places of worship will have to limit their capacity to 50 per cent.

    Phase 3: The advanced phase

    • Begins on June 8 and provided the situation is under control, general mobility will be made more flexible.
    • Wearing masks will be recommended when people venture outside, especially on public transport. In commercial settings, capacities will be restricted to 50 per cent.
    • Beaches may also open in this phase. The movement of people into other provinces or islands is restricted until the de-escalation process is complete.

  • Stress test of leadership in pandemic

    The article discusses the three stages involved in successfully dealing with the pandemic. In the next part, it goes on to explain the factors that determine the success or failure of the governments. In the last week, we read about the success story of Kerala and underlying reasons. This article is also written on similar lines.

    Stages in the pandemic response

    • Disease outbreaks, even global pandemics, are scarcely new. The playbook for dealing with them, therefore, is well understood and has been honed by practices and lessons gleaned from hard-fought battles.
    • A first stage is an early clear-eyed recognition of the incoming threat, and, in the case of COVID-19 at least, requires the unpalatable decision to lock down society.
    • Ideally, this is done with full consideration of how to support the most vulnerable members of society, especially in a country such as India, where so many survive hand-to-mouth.
    • This is a phase aimed at buying time, of flattening the epidemic curve, so that public health facilities are not overwhelmed.
    • And, for using this time, paid for by collective sacrifice, to secure the personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies necessary to save lives.
    • The second phase of the pandemic response is slowly to ease the burden on the economy by permitting a measured return of business activity so that livelihoods and supply chains can be restored.
    • This stage can only be safely executed if accompanied by a war-footing expansion of testing capacity so that new infections can be identified and isolated at once, allowing contact tracing to be implemented by masses trained to do this crucial and painstaking work in communities across the country.
    • The final stage, which for COVID-19 seems a lifetime away, is a mass vaccination programme and then the full rebuilding of economic and social life.
    • None of this is easy, but, like an examination in a dreaded subject, one’s only hope is early and persistent preparation and, at crunch time, remembering the lessons learned.

    The above-mentioned stages are sort of a template that seems to have gained acceptance for dealing with the pandemic. A question based on it, like “What are the various stages involved in government’s response to deal with a pandemic?”

    Following three factors make the difference between successful and failed response

    1. Leadership problems in global politics

    • The defensive finger-pointing, opportunistic politicking and xenophobic posturing are shown by some leaders amid pandemic.
    • This is not a crisis that can be tackled without robust and multidimensional international cooperation between nations.
    • We are watching in real-time the benefits of intellectual collaboration that does not stop at national borders.
    • From the epidemiologists to the medical community identifying more effective treatments, to the research scientists racing to find a vaccine, we are benefiting from collaboration.
    • But the nationalistic turn in global politics over the past two decades has reduced investment in and undermined the legitimacy of the very institutions that facilitate international partnership at the very time they are needed most.
    • Prime Minister Narendra Modi did well to convene the leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations in mid-March to discuss the possibility of a regional response.
    • But that video-conference call also highlighted that there have been no summit-level meetings of SAARC since 2014.
    • Similarly, United States President Donald Trump demanded that the U.S. end funding of the World Health Organization (WHO).
    • This not only endangers American lives by cutting off his own administration’s access to vital international data.
    • But also directly affects India which receives significant funding and expertise from WHO with ~10% of its overall WHO financing in 2019 coming directly from the U.S.

    2. The whole-of-the-government strategy

    • Pandemic response requires a whole-of-government strategy, for which political will and legitimate leadership are vital to convene and maintain.
    • Germany and Kerala provide two powerful though different examples of this in action.
    • In Germany, in spite of a high level of federalism that gives its States (Länder) a lot of power, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ability to mobilise the entire system has allowed Germany to emerge as a success story in Europe.
    • In Kerala, State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan convened a State response team at the earliest possible moment and has provided the full weight of his office in support of a coordinated public health strategy that has been accepted by the State’s citizens who have learned to trust the government in such situations.
    • Yet these two examples stand out in part for how rare they are.
    • Consider again the cautionary tale of the U.S. where some State Governors have yet to issue stay-at-home orders.

    3. The robust public health system

    • We are seeing first hand the consequences of starving public health systems of necessary funds and resources.
    • The comparative advantage of the private sector is efficiency; the need of the hour in pandemic response is redundancy, or, more precisely, excess capacity.
    • Most hospitals do not need invasive ventilators normally, just as they do not need vast stocks of PPE and extra intensive care units beds, but these are essential goods right now as we brace ourselves for a flood of sick patients into hospitals.
    • Watching the advanced health-care system of northern Italy buckle under the unimaginable pressures to which it was exposed over the past six weeks should be a cautionary tale for all countries that thought turning health care over to private actors was responsible governance. It is not.
    • Again, consider Kerala, which has consistently ranked at the top of State rankings for health expenditures.
    • Kerala has, a well-functioning local public health system capable of implementing the test-isolate-trace protocols critical for fighting COVID-19.

    Conclusion

    With the central role of leadership and governance underlined in the successful dealing with the pandemic, leadership across the world need to come together to coordinate at all levels in dealing with the problems that are not bound by any border.

  • [pib] VidyaDaan 2.0 Programme for e-learning content contributions

    The Union HRD Ministry has e-launched VidyaDaan 2.0 program for inviting e-learning content contributions.

    There are various web/portals/apps with peculiar names such as YUKTI, DISHA, SWAYAM etc. Their core purpose is similar with slight differences. Pen them down on a separate sheet under the title various digital HRD initiatives.

    Add one more to this list.

    VidyaDaan

    • ‘Vidya Daan’ is a digital program to enable contributions to improve teaching & learning.
    • It encourages the sharing of high quality, curated, relevant & curriculum-linked digital content.
    • This program attempts to synergize countrywide developments in the field of education by providing schools all over India, from the Metro cities to the smallest villages with good quality e-content.

    How does it work?

    • VidyaDaan has a content contribution tool that provides a structured interface for the contributors to register and contribute different types of content (such as, explanation videos, presentations, competency-based items, quizzes etc.), for any grade (from grade 1 to 12), for any subject as specified by the states/UTs.

    About phase 2.0

    • The programme has been re-launched due to the increasing requirement for e-learning content for students especially in the backdrop of the situation arising out of COVID- 19.