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GS Paper: GS2

  • Matru Sahyogini Samitis Scheme

    The MP government has issued an order for the appointment of committees led by mothers to ensure better monitoring of services delivered at Anganwadi or day-care centres across the State.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which of the following are the objectives of ‘National Nutrition Mission’?

    1. To create awareness relating to malnutrition among pregnant women and lactating mothers.
    2. To reduce the incidence of anaemia among young children, adolescent girls and women.
    3. To promote the consumption of millets, coarse cereals and unpolished rice.
    4. To promote the consumption of poultry eggs.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 1, 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1, 2 and 4 only

    (d) 3 and 4 only

    Matru Sahyogini Samitis

    • Called ‘Matru Sahyogini Samiti’ or Mothers’ Cooperation Committees, these will comprise 10 mothers at each Anganwadi centres.
    • They would be representing the concerns of different sets of beneficiaries under the Integrated Child Development Services, or National Nutrition Mission.
    • Beneficiaries’ would include children between six months to three years, children between three years and six years, adolescent girls and pregnant women and lactating mothers.
    • These mothers will keep a watch on weekly ration distribution to them as well as suggest nutritious and tasteful recipes for meals served to children at the centres.
    • The move is being taken as per the mandate of the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA).

    Its’ functioning

    • The committees will include mothers of beneficiary children as well as be represented by pregnant women and lactating mothers who are enrolled under the scheme.
    • The Anganwadi scheme includes a package of six services delivered at the centres, including supplementary nutrition, health services including vaccination, early education, among others.
    • The Committees will also include a woman panch, women active in the community and eager to volunteer their support to the scheme, teachers from the local school, and women heads of self-help groups (SHG).

    Why such a move?

    • This is in a move that is aimed at strengthening community response to the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the State.
    • With the help of mothers, we will be able to turn anganwadis into a community health system, a nutrition management centre, and spread awareness against social evils.
    • These will turn into a model for local governance as well as allow for greater engagement between communities and the State government.

    Back2Basics: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

    • The ICDS aims to provide food, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.
    • The scheme was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.
    • The tenth FYP also linked ICDS to Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers.
    • The ICDS provide for anganwadis or day-care centres which deliver a package of six services including:
    1. Immunization
    2. Supplementary nutrition
    3. Health checkup
    4. Referral services
    5. Pre-school education (Non-Formal)
    6. Nutrition and Health information

    Implementation

    • For nutritional purposes, ICDS provides 500 kilocalories (with 12-15 grams of protein) every day to every child below 6 years of age.
    • For adolescent girls, it is up to 500-kilo calories with up to 25 grams of protein every day.
    • The services of Immunisation, Health Check-up and Referral Services delivered through Public Health Infrastructure under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

  • A four-point agenda for Indian banking in the post-covid world

    The article suggest 4 imperatives to the banks in India to emerge successful from pain inflicted by the pandemic.

    Impact of pandemic on banking industry

    • Unlike other shocks, covid is not a banking crisis; it is, instead, a crisis of the real economy.
    • Globally, the average return on equity (RoE) for banks could go below 1.5% in 2021 before recovering to the 2019 pre-crisis levels of 9% by 2024
    • This is effectively a loss of five years for the banking industry.
    • This will likely play out in two stages:
    • 1) Loan loss provisions over a period of 12-18 months.
    • 2) Followed by a period where banking revenue growth lags gross domestic product growth, or GDP.

    Important role played by banks in pandemic

    • India has entered this crisis well-capitalized.
    • Their provision coverage ratios improved to 65% in 2019-20, compared to 41% in 2016-17, and RoE (return on equity) has turned positive to 2.5% after two years of negative readings.
    • The banking system is playing a critical role in the economic recovery by supporting businesses and individuals.
    • New challenges, however, continue to emerge. These, if left unmitigated, will lead to severe losses in efficiencies gained.

    4 Imperative to tackle the emerging challenges to banking

    1) Need to increase productivity

    • Indian banks start at a materially higher cost-to-assets ratio of 2.2% versus 1.4% globally.
    • Regaining pre-covid RoE levels and negating higher risk costs and margin compression will, however, require that Indian banks improve productivity by over 30%.
    • The Indian banking sector lagged in efficiency improvements; other industrial peers have leveraged a combination of digital adoption and analytics, and strong governance.

    Suggestions for productivity transformation

    • The productivity transformation will comprise multiple agendas.
    • To start with, there will be a branch format and network re-configuration for custormers who has shifted to online mode.
    • To drive a permanent digital shift, banks will need to accelerate digital engagement via contact centre transformations.
    • In conjunction, there will be the equally important need to create minimum viable support functions (zero-based operations, demand management across human resources, finance, marketing).
    • And, finally, there will be the need to re-skill the workforce for digital operations.

    2) Pre-emptive risk management

    • The second imperative is pre-emptive risk management.
    • Banks must rapidly rewire their policies and analytical models such that they reflect fast- moving indicators of risk.
    • This means investing in self-serve channels, digital nudges and frictionless journeys across payments, settlements and recoveries.
    • The overall collections strategy will have to be underpinned by micro-segmentation, and also leverage analytical models to drive efficiency.

    3) Technology imperative

    • The third is the technology imperative that must scale with demand and analytical complexity.
    • Banks are required to handle high digital traffic and process enormous data sets, and regulators getting increasingly sensitive on downtimes.
    • This will requires modernizing core banking platforms, creating the data architecture that supports the analytics life-cycle, instituting modern engineering practices and moving towards automated infrastructure.

    4) Capital management

    • Banks with exposure to hard-hit sectors will face more of a challenge.
    • And existing risk models are unlikely to be tuned to the differentiated impact the pandemic has had on various sectors.
    • Risk teams will need to review critical models and add overlays to account for different credit risk in each sector.
    • Scenario planning, stress testing and balance sheet optimization will need to become core to planning and management decisions.

    Conclusion

    In its own way, the pandemic has given banks a glimpse into the art of the possible. Banks should take this opportunity to embed their newfound speed and agility, reinvent their business model, and collaborate with the communities they serve to recast their contract with society.

  • Demand for repeal of the law and importance of parliamentary scrutiny

    The article explains in detail the functioning of committees in the scrutiny of the Bills and underscores the importance of scrutiny of the Bills at the committee levels.

    Growing trend of bypassing the scrutiny at committee level

    • Data show that very few Bills are referred to the Parliamentary Committees now.
    • Ministers are generally reluctant to send their Bills to the committees because they are in a hurry to pass them.
    • They often request the Presiding Officers not to refer their Bills to the committees.
    • But the Presiding Officers are required to exercise their independent judgment in the matter and decide the issue.
    • They need to keep in mind the fact that the Bills which the government brings before the Houses often have serious shortcomings.

    Why scrutiny by the House committee matters

    • The demand for the repeal of the laws passed by Parliament only recently essentially points to a serious lapse in the management of the legislative work in Parliament.
    • Parliament has put in place a large machinery of committees to scrutinise the Bills which are brought before it by the government as a part of its legislative programme.
    • Rules of the Houses leave it to the Speaker or the Chairman to refer the Bills to the Standing Committees for a detailed scrutiny thereof.
    • After such scrutiny, the committees send their reports containing their recommendations on improvements to be made in the Bills to the Houses.
    • While undertaking such scrutiny, the committees invite various stakeholders to place their views before them.
    • Only after elaborate consultation do the committees formulate their views and recommendations.
    • Free India’s Parliament established a vast network of committees to undertake scrutiny of various aspects of governance including the Bills.
    • Prior to the formation of Standing Committees, the Indian Parliament used to appoint select committees, joint select committees, etc. for detailed scrutiny of important legislative proposals of the government.
    • With the formation of standing committees, the occasions for appointing select or joint select committees are few.

    Example of the Bills made better by suggestions of committe

    • The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Bill was introduced in 1999 in the Lok Sabha and was immediately referred to a joint committee of both Houses.
    • This Bill was meant to develop new varieties of plants and protect the rights of farmers and breeders.
    • The committee completed its work in eight months and made many improvements by way of bringing greater clarity into various terms and concepts.
    • The Seeds Bill, 2004 was referred to the Standing Committee on Agriculture which obtained the views from diverse sources.
    • Through the process of consultation with a wide range of experts and research organisations and farmers, the committee made significant improvements in the Bill; as a result, there was a better law on seeds.
    • It was the same case with the Companies (Amendment) Bill, the Information Technology Bill, and the Goods and Services Tax Bill.
    • The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2011, which was referred to the Committee, was again referred to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha when it was transmitted to that House after being passed by the Lok Sabha.
    • Thus, this Bill underwent double security by two committees of Parliament.

    Conclusion

    Our Parliamentary Committees have a tradition of working in a non-party manner. The reports of these Committees are based on consensus. It may be a bit difficult for people to believe that the instrumentalities of Parliament could rise above parties. But that is how they function.

  • N.K. Singh calls for a fresh look at the Seventh Schedule

    Fifteenth Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh has called for a fresh look at the Constitution’s Seventh Schedule, which forms the basis for allocating subjects to the Centre and States.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which of the following provisions of the Constitution of India have a bearing on Education?

    1. Directive Principles of State Policy
    2. Rural and Urban Local Bodies
    3. Fifth Schedule
    4. Sixth Schedule
    5. Seventh Schedule

    Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3, 4 and 5 only

    (c) 1, 2 and 5 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 4 and 5

    Why such calls by Mr NKS?

    • Singh said these issues needed urgent consideration to reinforce trust in fiscal federalism.
    • He urged a review of both the Seventh Schedule and Article 282 of the Constitution so as to give more flexibility to States in implementing centrally sponsored schemes.
    • Many have argued that the trust between various forms of government is waning.
    • Since the farmers’ agitation, these are seen through the prism of suspicion and mistrust.

    Q. The federal organisation of powers under the Constitution’s Seventh Schedule needs review. In light of this, examine the problems faced by the distribution and suggest the challenge the review would face.

    What is the Seventh Schedule?

    • This Schedule of the Indian Constitution deals with the division of powers between the Union government and State governments.
    • It defines and specifies the allocation of powers and functions between Union & States. It contains three lists; i.e. 1) Union List, 2) State List and 3) Concurrent List.

    The Union List

    • It is a list of 98 (Originally 97) numbered items as provided in the Seventh Schedule.
    • The Union Government or Parliament of India has exclusive power to legislate on matters relating to these items.

    The State List

    • It is a list of 59 (Originally 66) items.
    • The respective state governments have exclusive power to legislate on matters relating to these items.

    The Concurrent List

    • There are 52 (Originally 47) items currently in the list.
    • This includes items which are under the joint domain of the Union as well as the respective States.

  • Digital Voter ID Card and its benefits

    The Election Commission (EC) is keen to make the Elector’s Photo Identity Card or EPIC available in electronic form.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Regarding DigiLocker, sometimes seen in the news, which of the following statements is/are correct?

    1. It is a digital locker system offered by the Government under Digital India Programme.
    2. It allows you to access your e-documents irrespective of your physical location.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    Digital Voter ID Card

    • The digital voter card is not expected to look too different from its physical form.
    • It will be available as a PDF file and can be downloaded on one’s phone or computer.
    • The soft copy may also have a QR code that will carry the voter’s enrolment details such as name and date of birth and address.
    • This is still just a proposal and needs to be approved by the Election Commission.

    How to avail it?

    • To avail this facility, an eligible voter will have to provide her mobile number or email address to the EC machinery at the time of applying for enrolment in the voters’ list.
    • Once her name is included in the electoral roll, she will be intimated through an SMS or email.
    • The new voter can then download the Voter Card through OTP (One Time Password) authentication.
    • Existing voters may have to re-verify their details with the EC (similar to the Bank KYC process) and provide their email or mobile phone number to get their cards in the electronic form.

    Benefits offered

    • An electronic card will help the EC save costs on printing and distributing a hard copy of EPIC.
    • The EC feels that voters too will find it useful to have the PDF file of her voter card on her phone.
    • This will do away with the necessity of first producing a voter’s slip on the day of voting.

  • Morocco to normalize ties with Israel

    Morocco has become the fourth Arab nation this year to recognise Israel after interventions by the US.

    Must read:

    Israel and Morocco

    • After the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, Morocco is the fourth Arab State since August to commit to establishing diplomatic relations with the Jewish State.
    • Morocco and Israel had respectively maintained liaison offices in Tel Aviv and Rabat in the 1990s, before closing them in 2000.
    • Israeli PM Netanyahu anticipated direct flights between the two countries soon.
    • Palestinian officials condemned the agreement, saying it encouraged Israel’s denial of their rights.

    For the sake of Western Sahara

    • The White House said the US would recognise Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara as part of the deal with Israel.
    • The US recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory.
    • A former Spanish colony, it was annexed by Morocco in 1975.
    • Since then it has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and its indigenous Saharawi people.
    • Morocco says it has always been part of its territory, while the African Union recognizes it as an independent state.
    • A 16-year-long insurgency ended with an UN-brokered truce in 1991 and the promise of a referendum on independence, which has yet to take place.

    Ground realities

    • The latest move by the Trump administration will not necessarily have an immediate impact on the ground because the dispute is seen as greater than the whims of the American president.
    • However, Trump’s backing of Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara is a big deal because it diminishes the hope of a people who have aspired for the independence of that territory for decades.
    • The UN is still mandated to oversee a referendum for the independence of Western Sahara – although this hasn’t materialized since 1991.

    Why Arab countries are normalizing their ties with Israel?

    • Economics: The Gulf States see opportunities for trade and more. The deal helps the ambitious gulf, who has built themselves into military power as well as a place to do business.
    • Common enemy: The UAE has used its already well-equipped armed forces in Libya and Yemen. But its most serious potential enemy is Iran, just on the other side of the Gulf.
    • For the Iron wall: Normalizing its relations with gulf is a genuine achievement for the Israelis who is a believer in the strategy first described in the 1920s of an “Iron Wall” between the Jewish state and the Arabs.

  • What is Shakti Act?

    In a bid to curb crimes against woman and children in Maharashtra, the state cabinet unveiled the ‘Shakti Act.’ The Act is modelled on the lines of Andhra Pradesh’s Disha Act, which was brought last year after a veterinarian was raped and murdered in Hyderabad.

    Why have stringent laws have consistently failed to instill any fear in rapists?

    Shakti Act: Key Provisions

    • It proposes stringent punishment including the death penalty and heavy fines for the culprits.
    • Special police teams and separate courts will be set up for investigation and trial of cases against women and children.
    • The perpetrators if found guilty will be punished with imprisonment for life for not less than ten years but may extend to the remainder of natural life or with death in cases which have characteristics of being heinous in nature.
    • A sum of Rs 10 lakh will be given to an acid attack victim for plastic surgery and facial reconstruction and the amount will be collected as fine from the convict.
    • The investigation shall be completed within a period of 15 working days from the date of registration of an offence. This can be extended by 7 days.
    • After a charge sheet is filed trial shall be conducted on a day-to-day basis and completed within a period of 30 working days.
    • Some cases will be tried in-camera for the recording of evidence of victims and witnesses who are vulnerable.

    Enforcement, not the law

    • Despite several laws, incidences of rapes continue unabated.
    • In fact, now we hear cases of extreme brutality.
    • The general perception is that since the laws have been made more stringent, so the rapists resort to extreme measures in a bid to destroy the evidence.
    • One thing is very clear, Laws alone cannot provide a solution to this problem.

    What should be done?

    • Law provides for speedy investigations and fast track of trials in rape cases.
    • What we need is better policing, making public spaces safer for women, ensuring round the clock surveillance of isolated areas and deployment of police at all strategic points.
    • Prevention and not punishment is the solution and that requires concerted efforts on part of all the stakeholders.
    • It is not harsher punishments that will deter. It is the fear of being caught and not being spared.
    • The message should go out loud and clear that no one is above the dignity and safety of women in our country.

  • UN Population Award for 2020

    HelpAge India has been presented the UN Population Award for 2020 (institutional category), according to a release issued by UNFPA.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), a UN mechanism to assist countries transition towards a greener and more inclusive economies, emerged at:

    (a) The Earth Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, Johannesburg

    (b) The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012, Rio de Janeiro

    (c) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2015, Paris

    (d) The World Sustainable Development Summit 2016, New Delhi

    UN Population Award

    • Each year, the Committee for the UNPA honours an individual and/or institution in recognition of outstanding contributions to population and reproductive health questions and to their solutions.
    • The Award was established by the General Assembly in 1981, in resolution 36/201, and was first presented in 1983. It consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a monetary prize.
    • The Committee for the Award is comprised of 10 UN Member States, with UN Secretary-General and UNFPA Executive Director serving as ex-officio members.
    • Nominations for the award are accepted through 31 December of each year.

    Whats’ so special this year?

    • For the first time in the history of the UNPA, the honour is being conferred on an Indian institution.
    • HelpAge India, which has been working for ‘the cause and care of disadvantaged older persons to improve their quality of life’ for over four decades, is the first Indian institution to receive this award.
    • The last time the Award came to an Indian was 28 years ago, back in 1992, when it was awarded to Mr J.R.D. Tata as an individual laureate.

  • Iran’s calculated risk

    The article analyses Iran’s response to the recent killing of its top nuclear scientist. Instead of responding to the provocation, Iran has decided to wait and watch the new U.S. administrations response.

    Background of nuclear deal with Iran

    • In 2015, the P5+1 nations-China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S., plus Germany- reached an agreement with Iran to curb the country’s nuclear programme.
    • It was expected that the agreement would lead to a new beginning in West Asia, however, this did not happen.
    • Washington saw Iran’s nuclear programme, which was at an advanced stage in 2015, as a national security problem and tackled it via diplomacy.
    • However, for Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s nuclear programme was not the problem but was part of the larger geopolitical challenges Iran posed.
    • The problem was Iran itself: Tehran’s influence across West Asia, its backing for non-state militias, and its ambition to emerge as a dominant pillar in the region.
    • The Donald Trump administration took an entirely different line towards Iran.
    • It pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal, despite United Nations certification that Iran was compliant with its terms, and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

    Israels

    • Iran wants to set back Iran’s nuclear programme by taking out a prominent scientist and scuttle the possible revival of the nuclear deal.
    • If Iran does not retaliate, it shows that Iran’s deterrence is getting weaker, which could trigger more such attacks from its rivals.
    • If it retaliates, it could escalate the conflict, giving the outgoing Trump administration and Isarael reasons to launch heavier strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, closing off the diplomatic path.

    Iran’s response and challenges in it

    • Instead of walking into the trap of provocation, Iran’s Parliament passed a Bill that obliges the government to enrich uranium to a higher level, from less than 5% now to 20%.
    • This is a technical step away from the weapons-grade level of 90%.
    • And stop access for UN inspectors to the country’s top nuclear facilities in two months if sanctions relief is not given.
    • Within two months, Mr. Biden will be in the White House.

    Conclusion

    Iran is taking a calculated risk by enhancing its nuclear programme, which can be reversed if talks are revived. But it is leaving the Israel problem unaddressed, for now. This leaves the region vulnerable to a prolonged crisis.

  • Threat of malnutrition to promise of India

    POSHAN Abhiyan has completed 1000 days. The article analyses the challenges country face on the nutrition front which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 induced disruptions.

    Severity and impact of malnutrition

    • Malnourished children tend to fall short of their real potential — physically as well as mentally.
    • That is because malnutrition leaves their bodies weaker and more susceptible to illnesses.
    • In 2017, a staggering 68% of 1.04 million deaths of children under five years in India was attributable to malnutrition, reckoned a Lancet study in 2019.
    • Without necessary nutrients, their brains do not develop to the fullest.
    • Malnutrition places a burden heavy enough for India, to make it a top national priority.
    • About half of all children under five years in the country were found to be stunted (too short) or wasted (too thin) for their height, estimated the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, carried out by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with support of UNICEF three years ago.

    POSHAN Abhiyan against the background Covid-19 disruption

    • The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) Abhiyaan in 2018, led to a holistic approach to tackle malnutrition.
    • Under it, the government strengthened the delivery of essential nutrition interventions.
    • COVID-19 is pushing millions into poverty making them vulnerable to malnutrition and food insecurities.
    • Pandemic-prompted lockdowns disrupted essential services — such as supplementary feeding under anganwadi centres, mid-day meals, immunisation, and micro-nutrient supplementation which can exacerbate malnutrition.
    •  Leaders from academia, civil society, development partners, community advocates and the private sector have come together as part of ‘commitment to action’.
    • The ‘commitment to action’ includes commitments around sustained leadership, dedicated finances, multi-sectoral approach and increased uninterrupted coverage of a vulnerable population under programmes enhancing nutrition.

    Financial commitments

    • India already has some of the world’s biggest early childhood public intervention schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the mid-day meal programme, and Public Distribution System.
    • India needs to ensure coverage of every single child and mother.
    • To ensure this, the country needs to retain its financial commitments for nutrition schemes.
    • Economic insecurities often force girls into early marriage, early motherhood, discontinue their schooling, and reduce institutional deliveries, cut access to micronutrient supplements, and nutritious food.
    •  Accelerating efforts to address these will be needed to stop the regression into the deeper recesses of malnutrition.

    Conclusion

    It takes time for nutrition interventions to yield dividends, but once those accrue, they can bring transformative generational shifts. Filling in the nutrition gaps will guarantee a level-playing field for all children and strengthen the foundations for the making of a future super-power.