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GS Paper: GS3

  • Traditional vaccines just as effective, say US Scientists

    Vaccines like Biological E’s Corbevax and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin that are made by traditional methods are “just as effective” as the latest mRNA technology-based vaccines a/c to US scientists.

    What are Vaccines?

    • A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease.
    • It typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins.

    Types of Vaccines

    There are several types of vaccines, including:

    • Inactivated vaccines
    • Live-attenuated vaccines
    • Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines
    • Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines
    • Viral vector vaccines

    [1] Inactivated vaccines

    • Inactivated vaccines use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease.
    • Inactivated vaccines usually don’t provide immunity (protection) that’s as strong as live vaccines.
    • So you may need several doses over time (booster shots) in order to get ongoing immunity against diseases.
    • Inactivated vaccines are used to protect against: Hepatitis A, Flu (shot only), Polio (shot only), Rabies etc.

    [2] Live-attenuated vaccines

    • Live vaccines use a weakened (or attenuated) form of the germ that causes a disease.
    • Because these vaccines are so similar to natural infection that they help prevent, they create a strong and long-lasting immune response.
    • Just 1 or 2 doses of most live vaccines can give you a lifetime of protection against a germ and the disease it causes.
    • They need to be kept cool in refrigerated conditions.
    • Live vaccines are used to protect against Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), Rotavirus, Smallpox, Chickenpox, Yellow fever

    [3] Messenger RNA vaccines

    • Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades and this technology was used to make some of the COVID-19 vaccines.
    • mRNA vaccines make proteins in order to trigger an immune response.
    • mRNA vaccines have several benefits compared to other types of vaccines, including shorter manufacturing times and, because they do not contain a live virus, no risk of causing disease in the person getting vaccinated.

    How does mRNA vaccine work?

    • The mRNA vaccines function differently from traditional vaccines.
    • Traditional vaccines stimulate an antibody response by injecting a human with antigens.
    • mRNA vaccines inject a fragment of the RNA sequence of a virus directly into the cells, which then stimulate an adaptive immune response mRNA fragment is a specific piece of the virus that carries instructions to build the antigen of the virus.
    • An advantage of RNA vaccines is that they stimulate cellular immunity.

     

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  • A partnership to carry India into net-zero future

    Context

    At a time when our planet faces an existential crisis, there is little doubt that we need innovative, scientific and urgent steps to secure humanity’s future.

    India’s climate commitment

    • We need to act decisively to reach global net-zero, restricting future cumulative emissions to the remaining carbon budget — as COP26 noted — if the rise in temperature is to remain within the limits of the Paris Agreement.
    • At COP26, India announced its climate commitments — the “Panchamrit”, including a commitment to reach net-zero by 2070.
    • India’s announcement of its net-zero goal is a major step considering that our country is not the cause of global warming.
    • Its historical cumulative emissions are a mere 4.37 per cent of the world’s total. 

    India’s steps to achieve the targets

    [1] India’s renewable energy targets and achievements

    • India’s renewable energy targets have steadily become more ambitious, from the 175 GW by 2022 declared at Paris, to 450 GW by 2030 at the UN Climate Summit, and now 500 GW by 2030, announced at COP26.
    • India has also announced the target of 50 per cent installed power generation capacity from non-fossil energy sources by 2030, raising the existing target of 40 per cent, which has already been almost achieved.
    • Renewable technologies: India will not lag in terms of new cutting-edge renewable technologies and has already announced a Hydrogen Energy Mission for grey and green hydrogen.
    • In energy efficiency, the market-based scheme of Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) has avoided 92 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions during its first and second cycles.

    [2] India’s E-mobility transtion

    • FAME: India is accelerating its e-mobility transition with the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles Scheme to support the electric vehicle market development and enable its manufacturing ecosystem to achieve self-sustenance.
    • Incentives for customers and companies: The government has also announced a slew of incentives for customers and companies to promote e-vehicles.
    • Adoption of BS-VI: India leapfrogged from Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) to Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) emission norms by April 1, 2020.
    • Scrapping policy: A voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and unfit vehicles now complements these schemes.
    • Electrification of railway routes: Indian Railways is charging ahead, targeting the full electrification of all broad-gauge routes by 2023.

    [3] Ujjwala Yojana and UJALA

    • The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has benefitted 88 million households with LPG connections.
    • More than 367 million LED bulbs have been distributed under the UJALA scheme, leading to energy savings of more than 47 billion units of electricity per year and a reduction of 38.6 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
    • With these and many other initiatives, India has already achieved a reduction of 24 per cent in the emission intensity of its GDP between 2005 and 2016, and is on track to meet its target of 33 to 35 per cent by 2030.

    Role of private sector

    • Since industries also contribute to GHG emissions, any climate action will need to reduce or offset emissions that emerge from industrial and commercial activity.
    • The public and private sectors in India are already playing a key role in meeting the climate challenge, helped by growing customer and investor awareness, as well as increasing regulatory and disclosure requirements.
    • Enterprises are well-positioned to not just adapt to but also gain from the low-carbon transition.
    • The low-carbon transition challenge is bigger for companies that are largely coal-powered and contribute more than half of our country’s emissions.
    • The business fraternity must make the best possible use of this opportunity to invest in climate technologies and expand the use of renewable energy sources.
    • The Indian cement industry has taken pioneering measures and achieved one of the biggest sectoral low carbon milestones worldwide.

    Way forward

    • India’s journey on the low-carbon pathway towards net-zero requires the active participation of all stakeholders.
    • Sustainable lifestyles and climate justice are at the core of this journey.

    Conclusion

    With cooperation from the private sector, India will be able to responsibly use its fair share of the global carbon space and contribute to reaching the global net-zero goal to build a more environmentally sustainable planet.

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  • Multi Agency Centre (MAC): A common counter-terrorism grid

    The Union government has asked the States to share more intelligence inputs through the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), a common counter-terrorism grid under the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

    Why in news?

    • States are often reluctant to share information on the platform.
    • There are several gaps in sharing critical information at the right time.
    • Plans are afoot for more than a decade to link the system up to the district level.

    About MAC

    • The Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) was formed in December 2001 following the Kargil intrusion and the subsequent overhaul of the Indian national security apparatus suggested by the Kargil Review Committee report.
    • Accordingly, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was authorized to create a multi-agency centre (MAC) in New Delhi.
    • Now functioning 24×7 as the nodal body for sharing intelligence inputs, MAC coordinates with representatives from numerous agencies, different ministries, both central and state.
    • Various security agencies share real-time intelligence inputs on the MAC.
    • The state offices have been designated as subsidiary MACs (SMACs).
    • As many as 28 organisations, including the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), armed forces and State police, are part of the platform.

    Back2Basics: NATGRID

    • NATGRID is an intelligence-sharing network that collates data from the standalone databases of the various agencies and ministries of the Indian government.
    • It collects and collates a host of information from government databases including tax and bank account details, credit/debit card transactions, visa and immigration records and itineraries of rail and air travel.
    • It came into existence after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
    • It is accessible to only authorized people from 10 security agencies on a case-to-case basis for investigations into suspected cases of terrorism.
    • It will also have access to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, a database that links crime information, including First Information Reports, across 14,000 police stations in India.

    Note: NATGRID data will be made available to 11 central agencies, which are: Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Intelligence Bureau (IB), National Investigation Agency (NIA), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Directorate General of GST Intelligence.

     

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  • Understanding IC15, India’s first Crypto Index

    Superapp CryptoWire recently launched India’s first cryptocurrency index, IC15, which will measure the performance of the 15 most widely traded cryptocurrencies listed on leading crypto exchanges by market capitalization.

    What is IC15?

    • CryptoWire constituted an Index Committee of domain experts, industry practitioners, and academicians that will select cryptocurrencies from the top 400 coins in terms of market capitalization.
    • The eligible cryptocurrency should have traded on at least 90% of the days during the review period and be among the 100 most liquid cryptocurrencies in terms of trading value.
    • Also, the cryptocurrency should be in the top 50 in terms of the circulating market capitalization.
    • The committee will then select the top 15 cryptocurrencies. The index will be reviewed quarterly.

    What is its significance?

    • IC15 can be replicated for creating index-linked products such as index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
    • Usually, the performance of a mutual fund scheme is assessed with reference to a benchmark, which could be a total return index of the Nifty or the Sensex.
    • IC15 is the first index in India that can act as a benchmark of the underlying cryptocurrency market and the performance benchmark for fund managers.
    • Moreover, robo-advisors, which provide financial advice with moderate to minimal human intervention, can use this index to create investment products at lower costs.

    How  does  IC15  correlate  with other market indicators?

    • IC15’s base value as on 1 April 2018 was 10,000.
    • It would mean that the index has gained 615% in absolute terms to 71,475.48 till 31 December 2021.

    Can  index-based  crypto investment reduce risks?

    • Index investing can be an effective way to diversify against risks as a fund invests in a basket of assets against a few limited coins.
    • However, index-based investing may not fully remove risks associated with investing in crypto assets.
    • Case in point: IC15 saw a 50% plunge in 2018, whereas other asset classes have seen a maximum drop in the range of 3-4%.
    • Further, bitcoin and ethereum have a combined weightage of 77% in the index, making it highly vulnerable to any volatility in these two coins.

    Can crypto funds be launched in India?

    • SEBI has recently asked mutual fund houses not to launch crypto-based funds until the Centre comes out with clear regulations.
    • This means asset management companies for now won’t be able to launch crypto funds based on IC15.
    • However, in the absence of any regulations, crypto platforms can offer products based on the index.
    • Global crypto investment platform Mudrex last year launched Coin Sets—crypto funds based on themes such as decentralized finance or market cap.

     

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  • A reality check on great CAPEX expectations

    Context

    Economists are predicting a potential virtuous capital investments (capex) cycle to kick in globally as we emerge from the pandemic.

    Why do analysts think that capital investment cycle is about to start?

    • Less leveraged: Corporates are less leveraged today compared to 2008.
    • Indian corporates repaid debts of more than Rs 1.5 trillion.
    • Fiscal and monetary support: Companies are also more confident of durable fiscal and monetary support.
    • Increased savings: Households have large excess savings built during Covid — $1.7 trillion in the US and roughly $300 billion in India as per a UBS report.
    • Cash: Lastly, corporates are sitting on a large cash pile – S&P 500 firms’ cash has soared from $1 trillion pre-pandemic to $1.5 trillion now.

    Why capex wave is difficult in India?

    • Fall in capital formation: India’s fixed capital formation rate has steadily fallen from 36 per cent of GDP in 2008 to 26 per cent in 2020.
    • For a set of 718 listed companies for which data is consistently available from 2005, the capex growth rate has decreased from 7 per cent in 2008 to around 2 per cent in 2020.
    • Low return on invested capital: The return on invested capital in FY21 is still low at 2-3 per cent compared with 16-18 per cent returns in 2005-08.
    • Structural issues: Land acquisition is still tough, changes to labour laws have been slow, and reform uncertainty has resurfaced with the rollback of the agriculture reform laws.
    • Discouraging current data: As per CMIE data, the quarter ending in June 2021 saw Rs 2.72 lakh crore worth of new projects announced. This fell to Rs 2.22 lakh crore for the September 2021 quarter.
    • This is much below the average of Rs 4 lakh crore a quarter of new project announcements during 2018 and 2019.
    • Further, new projects are concentrated in fewer industries (power, and technology) with the top three accounting for 44 per cent of the total of new projects announced.
    • Low capacity utilisation: At the same time, capacity utilisation for corporate India is at an all-time low.
    • From a peak of 83 per cent in 2010, when capex was running hot, utilisation levels declined to 70 per cent just before the pandemic, and further to 60 per cent in June 2021 as per the RBI’s latest OBICUS data.
    • Capex is funded either from fresh debt or equity issues or from accumulated cash. Large firms are repaying debt.

    Conclusion

    It is too early in the cycle to predict anything with confidence, but we need more evidence to predict a capex cycle.

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  • Gaganyaan and other new Missions in 2022

    After a rather muted 2021 in terms of satellite launches, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is gearing up for a number of missions in 2022 including the launch of the first unmanned mission of Gaganyaan.

    Gaganyaan Mission

    • Gaganyaan is crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the formative spacecraft of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (IHSP).
    • The IHSP was initiated in 2007 by ISRO to develop the technology needed to launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low Earth orbit.
    • The first uncrewed flight, named Gaganyaan 1, is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 2022 on a GSLV Mark III rocket.
    • ISRO had been working on related technologies and it performed a Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment and a Pad Abort Test for the mission.
    • If completed in meantime, India will become the fourth nation to conduct independent human spaceflight after the Russia, US and China.

    Details of the project

    • The spacecraft is being designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with rendezvous and docking capability.
    • In its maiden crewed mission, this capsule will orbit the Earth at 400 km altitude for up to seven days with a two or three-person crew on board.
    • This Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) manufactured crew module had its first un-crewed experimental flight in 2014.
    • DRDO will provide support for critical human-centric systems and technologies like space-grade food, crew healthcare, radiation measurement and protection, parachutes for the safe recovery of the crew module and fire suppression system.

    Other missions this year

    • Earth Observation Satellites: EOS-4 and EOS-6
    • Flights for Crew Escape System of Gaganyaan
    • Chandrayaan-03
    • Aditya Ll
    • XpoSat

    New projects

    • Venus mission
    • DISHA –a twin aeronomy satellite mission
    • TRISHNA, an ISRO-CNES [Centre national d’études spatiales] mission

     

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  • RBI approves Offline E-Payments

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with the framework for facilitating small-value digital payments in offline mode, a move that would promote digital payments in semi-urban and rural areas.

    Offline E-payments

    • Offline digital payment does not require Internet or telecom connectivity.
    • Such payments can be carried out face-to-face (proximity mode) using any channel or instrument like cards, wallets and mobile devices.
    • Such transactions would not require an Additional Factor of Authentication.
    • Since the transactions are offline, alerts (by way of SMS and/or e-mail) will be received by the customer after a time lag.
    • There is a limit of ₹200 per transaction and an overall limit of ₹2,000 until the balance in the account is replenished.

    Conditions applied

    • Payment instruments shall be enabled for offline transactions only after the explicit consent of the customer.
    • That apart, these transactions using cards will be allowed without a requirement to turn on the contactless transaction channel.
    • The customers shall have recourse to the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, as applicable, for grievance redressal.
    • RBI retains the right to stop or modify the operations of any such payment solution that enables small value digital payments in offline mode.

     

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q. With reference to digital payments, consider the following statements:

    1. BHIM app allows the user to transfer money to anyone with a UPI-enabled bank account.
    2. While a chip-pin debit card has four factors of authentication, BHIM app has only two factors of authentication.

    Which of the statements given above is/ are correct? (CSP 2018)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”naidd0dw2j” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

     

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  • Preparing for a green energy shift in 2022

    Context

    Political leaders find themselves currently amid a messy reality. The seemingly “irresistible force” for clean energy has met, it would appear, the “immovable object” of an embedded fossil fuel energy system.

    Changes in the energy sector in 2021

    • Commitment to Net-zero: One hundred and thirty-three countries pledged to a “net-zero carbon emissions date” and most governments, corporates and civic entities have shown determination to “phase down” and eventually phase out fossil fuels from their energy basket.
    • Price volatility: The petroleum market seesawed and was expectedly volatile.
    • High price: Natural gas prices reached stratospheric levels as demand exceeded supplies and geopolitics compounded the imbalance. 

    Five trends that will shape the emergent energy landscape

    [1] Transition to clean energy will be long and expensive

    • Redesign and rebuilding: The fossil fuel-based economic system will have to be redesigned and, in parts, rebuilt for clean energy to achieve scale.
    • The process will take decades and require massive capital infusion.
    • No country or multilateral institution can finance this transition individually.
    • The world needs to collaborate: The world will have to collaborate and if it fails to do so, the financing deficit will push back the transition even further.

    [2] Fossil fuels will dominate the energy basket during the transition

    • Fossil fuels will dominate the energy basket during this transition phase.
    • Contributing factors: As has been the case so far, its market will be defined by the “fundamentals” of demand, supply and geopolitics and the “non-fundamentals” of exchange rates and speculative trade.
    • The price movements will be sharp, volatile and unexpected.

    [3] The resurgence of market influence of OPEC plus after private companies move beyond fossil fuel

    • The “ OPEC plus” will resurge in market influence.
    • The low-cost, high resource petrostates (Saudi Arabia, the Gulf nations, Iraq, Iran, Russia) will, in particular, gain greater control over the petroleum market as private companies move beyond fossils under pressure from shareholders and regulators.

    [4] Transition will create new centres of energy power

    • The Democratic Republic of Congo controls, more than 50 per cent of the global supply of cobalt; Australia holds a comparably large share of the lithium market; and China controls the mining, processing and refining of rare earth minerals.
    • It is difficult to tell how and when these countries will exercise their market power but it is clear that the “green transition” will create new centres of energy power.

    [5] Nationalism and political opportunism will influence energy policy

    • The US and China are currently embroiled in a “Cold War” over technology, trade, cyber issues and the South China Sea.
    • The US and China appear to be in a similar face-off. But that has not come in the way of their energy relations.
    • A few weeks ago, the two countries decided to coordinate the release of oil stocks from their strategic reserves to cool off the oil market.
    • The underlying reality is that national self-interest and short-term political ambition will be the defining determinant of future energy supply relations cutting across values and rhetoric.

    Suggestions for India

    • Nurture relations with traditional suppliers: India must assiduously nurture relations with our traditional suppliers of oil and gas.
    • It must not assume their role in the energy market will diminish.
    • Increase storage capacity of strategic reserves: It should accelerate the build-up of the storage capacity for oil and gas; the latter to hold strategic oil reserves, the former to store gas for inter alia conversion to blue hydrogen.
    • Ecosystem for search and development of minerals required for clean energy: It must create a facilitative ecosystem for the search and development of the minerals and metals required for clean energy.
    • Clean energy supply chain: It should create a “clean energy aatmanirbhar supply chain”.

    Conclusion

    The green transition must not lead to import dependency on raw minerals and manufactured inputs, especially from China. The current policy to incentivise the manufacture of semiconductors is a step in the right direction.

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  • Global shortage of Semiconductor Chips

    Worldwide carmakers have slashed production due to an abrupt and cascading shortage of semiconductors.

    Semiconductor Chips

    • Semiconductors — also known as integrated circuits (ICs), or microchips — are most often made of silicon or germanium, or a compound like gallium arsenide.
    • It’s the thing that makes electronic items smart and faster.
    • Made from a material, usually silicon, that “semi-conducts” electricity, the chip performs a variety of functions.
    • Memory chips, which store data, are relatively simple and are traded like commodities.
    • Logic chips, which run programs and act as the brains of a device, are more complex and expensive.

    Reasons for shortages

    • Stay-at-home shift: This pushed chip demand beyond levels projected before the pandemic. Lockdowns spurred growth in sales of smartphones, laptops etc to the highest in a decade
    • Fluctuating forecasts: Automakers that cut back drastically early in the pandemic underestimated how quickly car sales would rebound.
    • Stockpiling: Chinese smartphone industry dominates the global market for 5G networking gear — began building up inventory to ensure it could survive US sanctions.

    How is the chip crisis playing out in geopolitics?

    • The global chip crisis and geopolitical tensions with China have shifted focus back on semiconductors.
    • The US, which was once a leader in chip manufacturing, wants the crown back.
    • The protectionist US is looking to bring manufacturing back to America and reduce its dependency on a handful of chipmakers mostly concentrated in Taiwan and South Korea.
    • China’s renewed aggression on Taiwan is also being seen in light of the chip crisis.

    Impact of semiconductor shortages

    • Chip shortages are expected to wipe out $210 billion of sales for carmakers this year, with the production of 7.7 million vehicles lost.
    • Broadband providers were facing delays of more than a year when ordering internet routers.

    Why is it so hard to compete?

    • Manufacturing advanced logic chips requires extraordinary precision, along with huge long-term bets in a field subject to rapid change.
    • Plants cost billions of dollars to build and equip, and they have to run flat-out 24/7 to recoup the investment.
    • A factory also consumes up enormous amounts of water and electricity and is vulnerable to even the tiniest disruptions, whether from dust particles or distant earthquakes.

     

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  • The functioning of INSACOG

    The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) has sequenced about 1,00,000 samples.

    What is INSACOG?

    • INSACOG is a consortium of 10 labs and 18 satellite labs across India tasked with scanning COVID samples from patients and finding the variants that has led to spike in transmission.
    • The institutes involved include the laboratories of the Department of Biotechnology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Council of Medical Research, and the Health Ministry.
    • Its work began in January 2020, by sequencing all samples with a history of travel from the U.K. and a proportion of positive samples in the community.

    Tasks of INSACOG

    • The NCDC is tasked with coordinating collections of samples from the States as well as correlating disease with certain mutations.
    • It is mainly involved in genomic sequencing which is done by isolating the genetic material of the coronavirus samples.
    • It is also tasked with tracking certain combinations of mutations that become more widespread in India.

    What has it found so far?

    • The INSACOG sequenced about 1,00,000 samples as of early December 2021 when this data was last made publicly available.
    • The bulk of its effort has been focussed on identifying international ‘variants of concern’ (VoC) that are marked out by the WHO as being particularly infectious or pathogenic.
    • International travellers who arrive in India and test positive are the ones whose samples usually get sent to INSACOG for determining the genomic variant.

    Why is genome sequencing useful?

    • Understanding mutations: The purpose of genome sequencing is to understand the role of certain mutations in increasing the virus’s infectivity.
    • Immune response: Some mutations have also been linked to immune escape, or the virus’s ability to evade antibodies, and this has consequences for vaccines.
    • Effectiveness of vaccines: Labs across the world, including many in India, have been studying if the vaccines developed so far are effective against such mutant strains of the virus.
    • Evolution of viruses: Studies such as this have shown that Omicron, for instance, has evolved to evade antibodies much better than the Alpha or Delta variant. This prompted the push towards booster doses.

    How is it done?

    • Genomic sequencing is done by isolating the genetic material (RNA) of the coronavirus samples.
    • RNA consists of millions of nucleotide bases and genomic sequencing is about identifying and comparing the sequence in a given sample to a reference sample.
    • Changes in the sequence are clues to mutations that show that the virus may have undergone distinct changes at some key locations.
    • There are several approaches to genome sequencing — whole genome sequencing, next-generation sequencing — that have different advantages.
    • It has now evolved to a stage where large sequencers can process even thousands of samples simultaneously.

    Various challenges that INSACOG faces

    • Geographical variations: Given that COVID-19 is spreading, mutating and showing geographical variations, the original aim of the group was to sequence at least 5% of COVID-19 samples.
    • Shortage of funds: But only 1% has been achieved yet, primarily due to a shortage of funds, insufficient reagents and tools necessary to rapidly scale up.
    • Red-tapism: The INSACOG, in spite of being peopled by expert scientists, is ultimately within the Central government’s communication structure.
    • Infrastructure lacunae: Not all INSACOG labs have the same quality of equipment and manpower and therefore a surge or spike in some cities can mean difficulties in processing.

     

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