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GS Paper: GS2

  • Raising marriage age won’t lead to women’s empowerment

    Context

    The announcement of a cabinet decision to raise the age at marriage for women from 18 to 21 years marks the fruition of a plan that was first revealed almost two years ago when a Task Force was set up for the purpose.

    Why the age of marriage of women matters

    • Age of marriage has bearing on maternal mortality rates, fertility levels, nutrition of mother and child, sex ratios, and, on a different register, education and employment opportunities for women.
    • It is also argued that other factors — such as poverty and health services — were far more effective as levers for improving women’s and children’s health and nutritional status.

    Issues with the decision

    [1] Role of poverty neglected

    •  If women who marry at higher ages seem to have better health and nutrition indicators, this is not caused by their marrying later than others — it is because women from better-off groups tend to marry at higher ages.
    • Conversely, the health indicators of poorer women do not change just because they marry at a higher age.
    • An illustration of this truth is found in the National Family Health Survey (IV) data, which show that levels of anaemia — which is the highest cause of maternal mortality in India and one of our worst statistics — show no change even at ages of marriage up to 25 years, once we control for other factors.
    • World Bank study finds no impact on women: Population control was at the heart of the 1978 amendment to the Sarda Act of 1929.
    • Moreover, reducing fertility rates globally by banning marriage before the age of 18 years is very much on the agenda of international agencies to this very day.
    • A major multi-country study undertaken by the World Bank in 2017 estimated that “savings” of no less than $5 trillion would accrue if marriage before the age of 18 was eliminated.
    • But such savings would be mostly due to reductions in fertility and consequent reductions in public health investments due to fewer births.
    • The same study saw no significant gains from raised age of marriage for women’s decision making, for lowering the levels of violence they face, or helping them find employment.
    • Restriction on the right of an adult woman: Globally, the age of 18 is widely regarded as the age of adulthood.
    • It is also viewed as an upper limit in terms of the physical and reproductive maturity of women, as well as the age of majority by child rights conventions to which India is a signatory.
    • Thus, the proposed move will restrict the rights of already adult women, an issue for legal experts to debate.
    • Law is meant to set minimum age not the right age: Equally important is the crucial slippage in the arguments made on behalf of the government from the minimum age at marriage to the right age at marriage.
    • The minimum age is obviously a floor, not a standard or desirable norm.
    • Laws are meant to set minimum levels, a threshold for triggering legal or penal action, because of the harm that may be done.

    Way forward: Address issues that drive empowerment

    • Going by the NFHS 4 data (2015-16), more than half — 56 per cent — of women in the age group 20-24 years marry before the age of 21 years.
    • The problem is that the real reasons that drive empowerment are not being addressed, at least not adequately.
    • Educational attainments have improved enormously in recent years.
    • But the shocking fact (evident in all major data sets) is that decline in early marriages has been accompanied by a fall in women’s employment rates, that persisted even during the 1990s boom.
    • Paradoxical outcomes: The proportion of women not in paid work increases at higher ages of marriage!
    • Complex paradoxes like these are the hallmark of our society.
    • They cannot be addressed by a legal fix, particularly one that will be very hard to implement.

    Consider the question “How the age of marriage of women is connected with the issue of women empowerment? What are the concerns with increasing it to 21 years? Suggest the way forward.“

    Conclusion

    Instead of criminalising our youth, the government must take concrete steps to really empower women. If they are truly in charge of their own lives — through affordable education, meaningful and decent employment opportunities — they will be able to make better decisions about whether, when and whom to marry.

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  • India- Sri Lanka Fisherman Issue

    The Sri Lankan Navy has seized eight Indian fishing vessels and arrested 55 fishermen on the charge of poaching.

    What is the issue?

    • As in the past, fishermen from Rameswaram and nearby coasts continue to sail towards Talaimannar and Katchatheevu coasts, a region famous for rich maritime resources in Sri Lanka.
    • Indian boats have been fishing in the troubled waters for centuries and had a free run of the Bay of Bengal, the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar until 1974 and 1976.
    • Treaties were later signed between the two countries to demarcate the maritime boundary — the ‘International Maritime Boundary Line'(IMBL).

    Issues for Sri Lanka

    • Proliferation of Trawlers: The overuse of mechanized trawlers in Palk Bay is damaging the marine ecosystem in SL waters.
    • Breach of sovereignty: There were many favorable reasons too for Indian fishermen as their access to Sri Lankan waters was easier at the time of Sri Lankan civil war.
    • Porous borders: Maritime boundaries were never tightly guarded as a result, Indian trawlers continue to routinely enter Lankan waters for fishing.
    • End of Civil War: Everything changed in 2009 with the end of civil war. Arrests and attacks increased on Indian fishermen as they continued entering Lankan waters because of depletion of marine resources on the Indian side.

    Fishermen’s concern:

    (1) Depletion of fisheries

    • There is a depletion of fisheries on the Indian side, so Indian fishermen cross into Sri Lankan waters thus denying the livelihood of their counterparts.
    • They deliberately cross the territorial waters even at the risk of getting arrested or shot dead by the Sri Lankan Navy.
    • Sri Lankan fishermen across Palk Bay are concerned over similar depletion on their side (where there is a ban for trawlers) because of poaching by Indian fishermen.

     (2) Rights over Katchatheevu Island

    • Tamil fishermen have been entering Sri Lankan waters nearby Katchatheevu island, where they had been fishing for centuries.
    • In 1974, the island was ceded to Sri Lanka after an agreement was signed by Indira Gandhi between the two countries without consulting the Tamil Nadu government.
    • The agreement allows Indian fishermen “access to Katchatheevu for rest, for drying of nests and for the annual St Anthony’s festival” but it did not ensure the traditional fishing rights.

    (3) Hefty fines

    • After some respite in the last couple of years, Sri Lanka introduced tougher laws banning bottom-trawling and put heavy fines for trespassing foreign vessels.
    • SL has increased the fine on Indian vessels found fishing in Sri Lankan waters to a minimum of LKR 6 million (about â‚č25 lakh) and a maximum of LKR 175 million (about â‚č17.5 Crore).
    • Quiet often, the fishermen are shot dead by SL marines.

    Fishermen issue in TN politics

    • It has been often a sensitive political issue in Tamil Nadu in the past one decade.
    • In a defiant speech in 1991, late CM Jayalalitha had called on the people of Tamil Nadu to retrieve the Katchatheevu Island.

    Way forward

    • Leasing: Two courses of action exist: (1) get back the island of Katchatheevu on “lease in perpetuity” or (2) permit licensed Indian fishermen to fish within a designated area of Sri Lankan waters and vice versa.
    • Licensing: The second course of action would persuade Colombo to permit licensed Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters for five nautical miles from the IMBL.
    • Reconsidering old agreements: The 2003 proposal for licensed fishing can be revisited.
    • Looping in fishermen themselves: Arranging frequent meetings between fishing communities of both countries could be systematized so as to develop a friendlier atmosphere mid-seas during fishing.

    Conclusion

    • The underlying issues of the fisheries dispute need to be addressed so that bilateral relations do not reach a crisis point.
    • Immediate actions should be taken to begin the phase-out of trawling and identify other fishing practices.

     

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  • Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021

    The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to link electoral rolls to the Aadhaar number has been listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha.

    Key Provisions of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021

    (1) Aadhaar authentication:

    • The Bill seeks to empower electoral officers to seek Aadhaar number of people, who want to register as voters, for establishing their identity.
    • It also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to ask for Aadhaar numbers from persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll.
    • This would also aim to identify registration of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency.

    (2) Aadhaar linking with Voter ID

    • Linking Aadhaar with voter ID will be voluntary.
    • The amendment makes it clear that no application shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for the inability to produce Aadhaar number.
    • Such people will be allowed to furnish other documents as may be prescribed.

    (3) Amendments to the RP Act for new voter registration

    • Section 23 of the RP Act, 1950 will be amended to allow linking of electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem to curb the menace of multiple enrolments.
    • Amendment to section 14 of the RP Act, 1950 will allow having four qualifying dates for eligible people to register as voters, instead of one that is January 1 at present.
    • As of now, people who turn 18 on or before January 1 can register as voters but those turning 18 after January 1 wait for the whole year to get registered.
    • The Bill proposes to make the 1st day of January, 1st day of April, 1st day of July, and 1st day of October as the qualifying dates.

    (4) Imbibing gender neutrality

    • An amendment to section 20 of the RP Act, 1950 and section 60 of the RP Act, 1951 seeks to make the elections gender-neutral for service voters.
    • The amendment will also replace the word ‘wife’ with ‘spouse’ to make the statutes gender-neutral.

     

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  • Disability in india

    Context

    The Draft Accessibility Standards/Guidelines recently released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for built infrastructure under its purview (police stations, prisons and disaster mitigation centres) and services associated with them assume significance.

    What are the provisions under the Standards?

    • Models for police stations: The Standards set out models for building new police stations as well as improving upon existing police stations and prisons that are modern, gender sensitive and accessible.
    • The Standards speak to the need to make the websites and institutional social networks of police stations accessible, ensuring that persons with disabilities accused of committing any crimes are treated appropriately, having disabled-friendly entrances to police stations and disabled-friendly toilets.
    • Inclusive police force: the Standards state that the police staff on civil duty could be persons with disabilities.
    • Equal protection during natural disasters: Acknowledging that persons with disabilities must receive equal protection as others in such situations, the Standards provide direction on disability inclusion in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts.
    • They also stress on disability inclusive training for persons involved in disaster relief activities, data aggregation, use of information and communication technology (ICT) and enforcing accessible infrastructure models for schools, hospitals and shelters following the principle of universal design.
    • Accessibility norm: The Standards introduce accessibility norms for services associated with police stations and prisons.
    • These norms promote the use of ICTs to facilitate communication, development of police websites, app-based services for filing complaints, making enquiries, etc., as well as encouraging the use of sign language, communication systems such as Braille, images for persons with psycho-social disabilities, and other augmentative and alternative modes of communication.

    Shortcomings of the Standards/norms

    • Accessibility of signage not ensured: The Standards call for the deployment of directional signage regarding accessibility features in the MHA’s physical infrastructure as well as to indicate the location of accessible toilets.
    • However, they do not require that such signage itself be accessible to the visually challenged, such as through auditory means.
    • Certain accommodations merely recommendatory: The Standards characterise several reasonable accommodations that are necessary for the disabled as being merely recommendatory.
    • These include having trained police personnel in every police station to assist persons with disabilities and placing beepers at all entrances to enable the visually challenged/blind to locate themselves.
    • Lack of detail on human assistance: In the case of Patan Jamal Vali, the Court suggested connecting special educators and interpreters with police stations to operationalise the reasonable accommodations embodied in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.
    • While the standards do require developing a mechanism to provide human assistance to the disabled such as sign language interpreters, they are short on specifics on this count.
    • Lack of representation: Interestingly, the Standards state that the police staff on civil duty could be persons with disabilities.
    • This is inconsistent with the Office Memorandum issued by the Department of Empowerment for Persons with Disabilities on August 18, 2021, according to which the Centre has exempted posts in the Indian Police Service; the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshdweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli Police Service; as well as the Indian Railway Protection Force Service from the mandated 4% reservation for persons with disabilities in government jobs.

    Conclusion

    In sum, the Standards, when enacted into law, will mark a huge step forward in making our law enforcement apparatus more disabled-friendly. Bolstering the Standards further, by incorporating the suggestions flowing from well- thought-out public comments, will take us closer to the aim of ensuring that India’s disabled citizens truly have the police they deserve.

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  • Election Commission

    The “informal interaction” of the CEC and two other Election Commissioners with the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary has raised questions about the neutrality of the Commission, especially when elections to crucial States are around the corner.

    About Election Commission of India

    • The ECI is a constitutional authority whose responsibilities and powers are prescribed in the Constitution of India under Article 324.
    • In the performance of its functions, the Election Commission is insulated from executive interference.
    • It is the Commission that decides the election schedules for the conduct of elections, whether general elections or by-elections.
    • ECI decides on the location of polling stations, assignment of voters to the polling stations, location of counting centers, arrangements to be made in and around polling stations and counting centres and all allied matters.

    Litigations against EC

    • The decisions of the Commission can be challenged in the High Court and the Supreme Court of India by appropriate petitions.
    • By long-standing convention and several judicial pronouncements, once the actual process of elections has started, the judiciary does not intervene in the actual conduct of the polls.

    Issues with PMO meeting

    • Executive interference: ECs are expected to maintain distance from the executive — a constitutional safeguard to insulate the commission from external pressure and allow it to continue as an independent authority.
    • Violating official channels: The EC’s communication with the Government on election matters is through the bureaucracy — either with its administrative ministry — the Law Ministry or the Home Ministry.
    • Breach of protocol: The Law Ministry spells the fine print on law for the country and is expected not to breach the constitutional safeguard provided to the commission to ensure its autonomy.

    Recent incidence of criticisms

    Ans. Partiality in Elections

    • Over the last couple of years, several actions and omissions of the commission have come in for criticism.
    • Nearly 66 former bureaucrats in a letter addressed to the President, expressed their concern over the working of the Election Commission.
    • They felt was suffering from a credibility crisis, citing various violations of the model code of conduct during the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.

    Importance of ECI for India

    • Conduction of Election: The ECI has been successfully conducting national as well as state elections since 1952.
    • Electoral participation: In recent years, however, the Commission has started to play a more active role to ensure greater participation of people.
    • Discipline of political parties: It had gone to the extent of disciplining the political parties with a threat of derecognizing if the parties failed in maintaining inner-party democracy.
    • Upholds federalism: It upholds the values enshrined in the Constitution viz, equality,
      equity, impartiality, independence; and rule of law in superintendence, direction, and control over electoral governance.
    • Free and fair elections: It conducts elections with the highest standard of credibility, freeness, fairness, transparency, integrity, accountability, autonomy and professionalism.

    Issues with ECI

    • Flaws in the composition: The Constitution doesn’t prescribe qualifications for members of the EC. They are not debarred from future appointments after retiring or resigning.
    • No security of tenure: Election commissioners aren’t constitutionally protected with security of tenure.
    • Partisan role: The EC has come under the scanner like never before, with increasing incidents of breach of the Model Code of Conduct in the 2019 general elections.
    • Political favor: The opposition alleged that the ECI was favoring the ruling party by giving clean chit to the model code of conduct violations made by the PM.
    • Non-competence: Increased violence and electoral malpractices under influence of money have resulted in political criminalization, which ECI is unable to arrest.

     

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  • Risks of mandatory Iron Fortification

    Many things have been said about the necessity for mandatory iron fortification of foods in India.

    Iron fortification

    • Iron fortification of food is a methodology utilized worldwide to address iron deficiency.
    • A critical problem in some food fortification programs is the lack of bioavailability of iron compounds.

    Why need iron fortification?

    Ans. Prevalence of Anaemia

    • Iron deficiency anaemia is due to insufficient iron.
    • National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 provides insights into anaemia prevalence in the country, indicating that 57.2% of women ages 15 to 49 are anaemic, up from 49.7% in NFHS-4.
    • Without enough iron, the body can’t produce enough of a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen (hemoglobin).
    • Severe anemia during pregnancy increases your risk of premature birth, having a low birth weight baby and postpartum depression.
    • Some studies also show an increased risk of infant death immediately before or after birth.

    Concerns over iron fortification

    Ans. Fear of diabetes and heart ailments

    • Iron increases the risk for many non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension and even high blood cholesterol.
    • A US based survey shows that high ferritin level had a four-fold higher risk of having diabetes.
    • The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey of Indian adolescents to resulted in such scary outcomes.
    • There was a clear and significant risk for each of these conditions as serum ferritin increased.

    India’s vulnerability

    Ans. India is world capital of diabetes and hypertension

    • No less than 50% of Indian children, aged 5-19 years, already had a biomarker of either high blood sugar or high blood lipids, even when thin or stunted.
    • Thus, the risk of chronic disease is already very high in our children.
    • Thus mandatory cereal fortification has severe hazards for India.

    Why mandatory fortification is not a feasible option?

    • Occurrence of deficiencies: We do not even know if anaemia is as rampant to warrant such mandatory measures.
    • Manipulating food choices: When mandatory fortification is enforced in parts of the population that do not need this, it removes their choice of foods, or autonomy.
    • Morbidities due to excess: It could even be unethical if the risk of other morbidities is increased.
    • No successful example: Rice fortification has not been shown to work in a combined analysis.

    Conclusion

    • Food fortification is not a magic bullet.
    • It should be viewed as a complementary strategy for the prevention and control of micronutrient deficiencies.
    • As dietary patterns and deficiency states change, monitoring and periodic evaluation will be essential in helping to make necessary changes.

     

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  • What is Nord Stream Pipeline?

    Germany has warned about severe consequences for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany if Moscow attacked Ukraine.

    Nord Stream 2 Pipeline

    • It is a system of offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
    • It includes two active pipelines running from Vyborg to Lubmin near Greifswald forming the original Nord Stream, and two further pipelines under construction running from Ust-Luga to Lubmin termed Nord Stream 2.
    • In Lubmin the lines connect to the OPAL line to Olbernhau on the Czech border and to the NEL line to Rehden near Bremen.
    • The first line Nord Stream-1 was laid and inaugurated in 2011 and the second line in 2012.
    • At 1,222 km in length, Nord Stream is the longest sub-sea pipeline in the world, surpassing the Langeled pipeline.

    Why is the pipeline controversial?

    • The US believed that the project would increase Europe’s dependence on Russia for natural gas.
    • Currently, EU countries already rely on Russia for 40 percent of their gas needs.
    • The project also has opponents in eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, whose ties with Russia have seriously deteriorated in the aftermath of the Crimean conflict in 2014.
    • There is an existing land pipeline between Russia and Europe that runs through Ukraine.
    • The country feels that once Nord Storm 2 is completed, Russia could bypass the Ukrainian pipeline, and deprive it of lucrative transit fees of around $3 billion per year.
    • Ukraine also fears another invasion by Russia once the new pipeline is operational.

     

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  • Issues with summoning CEC, EC to PMO

    Context

    The Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners were summoned by the PMO to attend a meeting with the Principal Secretary to the PM.

    Why the meeting raises questions?

    • The PMO summoning or “inviting” not just the CEC but the full bench is in violation of the Constitution, irrespective of how important or urgent the issue.
    • Violation of the principle of distancing from executive: When a person is appointed as CEC or EC, that person has to resign from his executive post in order to adhere to important constitutional principle of distancing from the executive/government.
    • The executive could appoint a person to these posts but could not order them, or remove me because of the constitutional scheme of things.
    • Violation of independence: An independent ECI is a gift of the Constitution to the nation. Free and fair and credible elections are sine qua non of the EC.
    • The Supreme Court has repeatedly stressed this point, calling it part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
    • Violation of warrant of precedence: The CEC is very high in the warrant of precedence — ninth, while the PS to PM is 23rd.
    • How can such a high constitutional functionary be summoned to attend a meeting with an officer, howsoever high and mighty?
    • It raises suspicions:  A meeting of the PS to the PM, formal or informal, online or in the PMO or ECI, just before elections raises unnecessary suspicions.

    Conclusion

    This incident is a transgression that should not happen again. The distance of an arm’s length in interactions between institutions envisaged in the Constitution is sacrosanct. It should not only be maintained but also “seen” to be maintained.

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  • How India’s data protection Bill compares with EU regulation

    The Personal Data Protection Bill is in some aspects very similar with some differences to global standards such as European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. Here is how:

    Must read:

    Draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2021

    Major similarities

    [1] Consent

    • EU: Users must have informed consent about the way their data is processed so that they can opt in or out.
    • India: Processing of data should be done in a fair and transparent manner, while also ensuring privacy

    [2] Breach

    • EU: Supervisory authority must be notified of a breach within 72 hours of the leak so that users can take steps to protect information
    • India: Data Protection Authority must be informed within 72 hours; DPA will decide whether users need to be informed and steps to be taken

    [3] Transition period

    • EU: Two-year transition period for provisions of GDPR to be put in place
    • India: 24 months overall; 9 months for registration of data fiduciaries, 6 months for DPA to start

    [4] Data fiduciary

    • EU: Data fiduciary is any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body that determines purpose and means of data processing
    • India: Similar suggestions; additionally, NGOs which also process data to be included as fiduciaries

    Differences:

    [1] Anonymous information

    • EU: Principles of data protection do not apply to anonymous information since it is impossible to tell one from another
    • India: Non-personal data must come under the ambit of data protection law such as non-personal data

    [2] Punishment

    • EU: No jail terms. Fines up to 20 million euros, or in the case of an undertaking, up to 4 % of their total global turnover of the preceding fiscal year
    • India: Jail term of up to 3 years, fine of Rs 2 lakh or both if de-identified data is re-identified by any person.

     

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  • How lack of public data on pandemic could harm us

    Context

    Questions are being asked about India’s preparedness as the cases with the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus has been on the rise in the country.

    Where does India stand?

    [1] The Positives

    • Addressing oxygen shortage: The extreme shortages of oxygen that we saw barely six months ago will hopefully not be a feature of a third wave.
    • Vaccinated population: We have now vaccinated more than 50% of the adult population with both doses of vaccine, and approximately 85% have received one or two doses.
    • Ramping up testing to deal with a spike should not require an increase in capacity.
    • More vaccine doses: We have more vaccine doses than in May 2021 and the potential for oral antiviral therapy in the near future.

    [2] The negatives

    • Lack of data: An urgent and important one is the lack of publicly available data on the pandemic from Government sources, particularly in regard to testing, but also in terms of being able to correlate disease severity with age, prior medical conditions, locations and other variables.
    • Data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India’s premier medical research agency, remains inaccessible.
    • The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has not responded.
    • The CoWIN data contains valuable information but it is of little value for future planning and prediction unless it can be tied to testing data and clinical information at the level of individuals.
    • ICMR data not correlated to CoWIN platform data: The Indian Council of Medical Research holds data on every COVID-19 test conducted in India.
    • However, these data are not correlated to the vaccine data in the CoWIN platform.
    • Data with States is inaccessible: Data on hospitalisations, etc. are apparently available at the State level, but seem inaccessible.

    What we can know from the data about pandemic

    • Infer the probability of reinfection: If we knew that a person had tested positive on successive tests separated by, say four months or more, with a negative test in-between, that would suggest a reinfection.
    • We could then infer the probability of such a reinfection.
    • Probability of vaccine breakthrough infection: With information about testing and vaccination status, we could compute the probability of a vaccine breakthrough event.
    • To know the efficacy of single vaccine dose: By checking to see whether the positive test happened after the first but before the second dose of vaccine, or after the second dose, the relative efficacy of such single vaccine doses at preventing disease could be derived.
    • Effect of the vaccine on disease severity: By examining symptoms reported after a vaccine breakthrough event, we could understand the extent to which vaccines reduce disease severity.
    • Impact of new variant: Add to this a layer of sequence information, and we could study the impact of new variants.

    Role of the volunteer organisation

    • The most trustworthy and granular data on cases in India have resulted from the remarkable and public-spirited work of a volunteer organisation, Covid19India.org.
    • Their work has now been taken over by several other voluntary groups, all operating on the same broad principles of data accessibility: covid19bharat.org, incovid19.org and covid19tracker.in.

    Way forward

    • Commitment towards data accessibility: We need to stress on data availability because this is the one area where a swift realignment is possible.
    • The more widely data are shared, the greater the likelihood of integration of the rapidly shifting scientific frontier with clinical practice.
    • Learning from the experience of South Africa: With the advantages of a relatively high-quality surveillance system among low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) countries, bolstered by a commitment towards transparency and data accessibility, South Africa’s rapid sharing allowed the world to prepare swiftly for the appearance of the highly mutated Omicron variant.
    • It is clear that pre-emptive decisions on vaccination and other measures could be made faster and better if more integrated data were available.

    Consider the question “Why availability and accessibility of data is important in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic? What are the challenges facing health data accessibility in India?”

    Conclusion

    Now, more than ever before is the time for us to urgently reassess our attitude towards data for public health purposes and the role of national health agencies in sharing data, generated with public funds, with scientists in India and across the world.

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