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GS Paper: GS3

  • RBI cannot ignore inflation

    Context

    Despite being legally mandated to keep inflation in check, RBI has persisted with easy monetary policy, even as inflationary pressures have increased. We need to understand why, and what could be the repercussions.

    Inflation problem in India

    • For most of the past two years, CPI (consumer price index) inflation has been hovering close to the 6 per cent upper threshold of the RBI’s target band.
    • Inflation averaged 6.1 per cent during the pandemic period (April 2020 to June 2021), despite a massive collapse in aggregate demand.
    • Then in January 2022, as food prices recovered, headline inflation once again crossed the upper threshold of the inflation targeting band.
    • Inflationary pressures do not seem to be diminishing either. Instead, they continue to build up.
    • The standard measure of inflation “in the pipeline” is WPI (wholesale price index) inflation, since price increases at the wholesale level tend to translate into retail inflation in due course.
    •  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in a sharp increase in global commodity prices, including prices of crude oil, edible oils, and fertilisers.
    • Indian firms are already adapting to this situation, passing on commodity price increase to retail prices.

    Issues with RBI’s stance

    • Standard economics gives us a guide for how central banks should react in a situation like this.
    • Two conditions: It says that monetary policy should accommodate the first round of commodity price increase, but only under certain conditions, notably that inflation is initially on target, and expectations are firmly anchored.
    • But neither condition holds at present. Inflation is already too high, and so are expectations.
    • An argument is nonetheless being made that monetary policy should not be tightened when inflation is driven by supply-side factors, as it can adversely impact growth.
    • This is fallacious. When there are supply constraints, using easy monetary policy to boost demand is not going to boost output.
    • And if firms are expecting high inflation, this will send things into a vicious spiral, as they will increase their prices even more in advance of any input price pressures.
    • Surely the RBI is aware of all of this. So why is it still not acting on it?

    Why RBI is ignoring inflationary pressure?

    • Growth concerns: The problem seems to be that governments all over the world are worried about growth.
    • The US Federal Reserve has been slow to raise rates even as inflation has reached a four-decade high. The European Central Bank has been even slower to react.
    • Fiscal dominance in India: In India, monetary policy also suffers from a strong fiscal dominance.
    • As a result, not only is the RBI expected to support growth, it is also expected to keep the government’s borrowing costs in check, which is in direct conflict with its inflation targeting objective.

    Implications of RBI ignoring inflationary pressure

    • Aggressive reduction in interest rates: A decade ago, we were in a similar situation when RBI delayed its response because it was focusing on growth.
    • When inflation subsequently took off, it reached double digits and the RBI had to raise interest rates aggressively to bring it down.
    • That was a very painful adjustment.
    • Impact on credibility of the RBI: In addition, if the RBI does allow inflation to take off, there will be long-lasting repercussions for its credibility.
    • Unachrored expectation:  if the public sees the RBI consistently ignoring inflation, expectations can rapidly get unanchored, and then it becomes very costly to bring it down.

    Conclusion

    To conclude, inflation is best addressed by the central bank using monetary policy, not by the government adjusting taxes. The RBI needs to urgently revisit its inflation forecast and its monetary policy stance in order to avoid potentially painful adjustments down the road.

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  • Detecting Microplastics in Human Blood

    A study by researchers from The Netherlands has found Microplastics in blood samples. About half of these were PET (polyethylene tertraphthalate) plastics, which is used to make food grade bottles.

    What are Microplastics?

    • Microplastics are tiny bits of various types of plastic found in the environment.
    • The name is used to differentiate them from “macroplastics” such as bottles and bags made of plastic.
    • There is no universal agreement on the size of microplastics. It defines microplastic as less than 5mm in length.
    • However, for the purposes of this study, since the authors were interested in measuring the quantities of plastic that can cross the membranes and diffuse into the body via the blood stream.
    • Hence they agreed on an upper limit on the size of the particles as 0.0007 millimetre.

    What were the plastics that the study looked for in the blood samples?

    • The study looked at the most commonly used plastic polymers.
    • These were polyethylene tetraphthalate (PET), polyethylene (used in making plastic carry bags), polymers of styrene (used in food packaging), poly (methyl methylacrylate) and poly propylene.
    • They found a presence of the first four types.

    Significance of the study

    • Making a human health risk assessment in relation to plastic particles is not easy, perhaps not even possible, due to the lack of data on exposure of people to plastics.
    • In this sense, it is important to have studies like this one.
    • The authors of the paper also remark that validated methods to detect the tiny (trace) amounts of extremely small-sized (less than 10 micrometre) plastic particles are lacking.
    • Hence this study, which builds up a methods to check the same, is important.

    Health hazard of microplastics

    • It is not yet clear if these microplastics can cross over from the blood stream to deposit in organs and cause diseases.
    • The report point out that the human placenta has shown to be permeable to tiny particles of polystyrene ( 50, 80 and 24 nanometre beads).
    • Experiments on rats where its lungs were exposed to polystryrene spheres (20 nanometre) led to translocation of the nanoparticles to the placental and foetal tissue.
    • Oral administration of microplastics in rats led to accumulation of these in the liver, kidney and gut.
    • Further studies have to be carried out to really assess the impact of plastics on humans.

     

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into environment?

    (a) They are considered harmful to marine ecosystems.

    (b) They are considered to cause skin cancer in children.

    (c) They are small enough to be absorbed by crop plants in irrigated fields.

    (d) They are often found to be used as food adulterants.

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”erdar14d0j” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

     

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  • What are Articulated All-Terrain Vehicles?

    The Indian Army has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for the supply of Articulated All-Terrain Vehicles to be deployed in Ladakh and Kutch.

    What are Articulated All-Terrain Vehicles?

    • Articulated ATV is a twin cabin, tracked, amphibious carrier for off road mobility.
    • The special design of this equipment exerts low ground pressure on the soil and a pull-push mode of locomotion between two cabins facilitates mobility over varied terrains like snow, desert and slush.
    • A ballistic protection in the cabin body ensures protection to troops travelling in it from small arms fire.
    • They can reach where wheeled vehicles cannot due to deep snow, slush or marshy terrain and can be very effective for patrolling and rapid deployment in operational situations.

    Utility of these vehicles

    • These vehicles are very useful to move troops or supplies in snow-bound terrains and in marshy/sandy environments.
    • The Indian Army wishes to use these vehicles in the snow-bound areas of Ladakh and in the marshy terrain of the Rann of Kutch.

     

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  • Self reliance in Agriculture

    Context

    For the Amrit Kaal (next 25 years) that the government has announced, we need to be self-reliant not just in missiles (defence equipment) but also in meals (food).

    What does self-reliance in food mean?

    • Its true meaning lies in specialising in commodities in which we have a comparative advantage, export them, and import those in which we don’t have a significant comparative advantage.
    • Self-reliance in food does not mean that we have to produce everything ourselves at home, irrespective of the cost.
    • If some protection is needed for new areas to develop (infant industry argument), that may be okay.
    • But one should not aspire to be self-sufficient behind high tariff walls.

    Importance of agri-R&D

    • What is it that gives a country an edge over others in attaining comparative advantage?
    • There is ample literature to show that agri-R&D raises total factor productivity and makes agriculture more competitive globally.
    • If India wants to be fully self-reliant in food, it is generally agreed that it must invest at least 1 per cent of its agri-GDP in agri-R&D.
    • The Economic Survey (2021-22) explicitly highlighted the correlation between spending on agri-R&D and agricultural growth.
    • Low expenditure on agri-R&D: But the budgets of both the Union government and the states put together reveal that this expenditure on agri-R&D and education hovers around 0.6 per cent of agri-GDP.
    • This is way below the minimum cut off point of 1 per cent and government policy must urgently work towards raising this substantially.
    • There are some global and local companies like Bayer, Syngenta, MAHYCO, Jain Irrigation, and Mahindra and Mahindra that spend a considerable amount of their turnover on R&D programmes and developing high-tech inputs.
    • The USP of these companies is that they develop technology that increases productivity while addressing the current challenges of limited net sown area, depleting water resources, vulnerability to climate change, and the need to produce nutrient-rich food.

    Way forward

    • Role of private sector: The private sector need to come forward and help India attain supremacy in agri-R&D and innovation systems and a hub for exports and agri-technology.
    • Increase expenditure on Agri-R&D and education: The need of the hour is to focus on increasing expenditure on ARE and other development projects, which can aid in the sustainable growth of the agriculture sector.
    • India’s budget allocations in the agri-food space should thrive on creating “more from less”.
    • There is a need to work on building long-term sustainable solutions that have an aggressive approach to implementing relevant policies and developing new ones.
    • India’s current budgetary allocation strategy and trends need to be reoriented to ensure that there is more room for R&D expenditure by the government.
    • Incentivise private companies for R&D: In addition to this, the government should come out with policies that incentivise private companies to expand their R&D programmes and invest more financial resources on development projects, which have the potential to overcome the challenges of the current agrarian setup of India.

    Conclusion

    If India wants to be fully self-reliant in food, it must focus on agri-R&D and increase allocation in the Budget.

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  • DRDO’s Corner-Shot Weapon System

    A corner-shot weapon system (CSWS), designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is at an advanced stage of being inducted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Jammu and Kashmir police.

    What is CSWS?

    • The CSWS is a special purpose weapon designed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune.
    • It can engage targets located around the corners as the system bends and captures video feed thus saving soldiers from any surprise counter-attack and is best suited for urban, close quarter situations.
    • It is equipped with weapon, camera, laser, infrared illuminator and torch in front portion, while display, electronics, battery and swivelling mechanism are located at rear portion.
    • The body is made from high-grade aluminium alloy to make it lighter and durable.

    Key features

    • Day-night firing capability, colour display, digital zoom, zeroing facility, hot keys, high power battery along with status display and compliance with JSS 5855 makes it a very potent system for security forces.
    • It is very helpful in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terror (CI/CT) operations.
    • This indigenously developed system has many superior features compared to its contemporary international systems and available for 9 mm GLOCK 17/19 and 1A1 Auto Pistol variant.

     

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  • What is T-Cell Immunity?

    A new study from Wuhan has studied the role of T-Cell Immunity against prolonged and sever COVID-19.

    What are T-Cells?

    • Like B cells, which produce antibodies, T cells are central players in the immune response to viral infection.
    • For your immune system to fight off any kind of invader, such as a virus, you need a kind of white blood cell called a B cell, which makes antibodies, and a similar-looking white blood cell called a T cell.
    • T cells can play different roles altogether.
    • They can act as “killer cells”, attacking cells which have been infected with a virus or another kind of pathogen, or they can act as “helper cells” by supporting B cells to produce antibodies.

    How do they function?

    • Alongside antibodies, the immune system produces a battalion of T cells that can target viruses.
    • Some of these, known as killer T cells (or CD8+ T cells), seek out and destroy cells that are infected with the virus.
    • Others, called helper T cells (or CD4+ T cells) are important for various immune functions, including stimulating the production of antibodies and killer T cells.
    • T cells do not prevent infection, because they kick into action only after a virus has infiltrated the body. But they are important for clearing an infection that has already started.
    • In the case of COVID-19, killer T cells could mean the difference between a mild infection and a severe one that requires hospital treatment.

    What did the latest research find?

    • The researchers found that neutralising antibodies were detectable even 12 months after infection in “most individuals”.
    • It remained stable 6-12 months after initial infection in people younger than 60 years.
    • The researchers found that “multifunctional T cell responses were detected for all SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins tested”.
    • And most importantly, the magnitude of T cell responses did not show any difference immaterial of how severe the disease was.
    • While the ability of antibodies to neutralise was nearly absent against the Beta variant, it was reduced in the case of the Delta variant.

    Neutralizing antibodies

    • SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralising antibody and T cell responses were retained 12 months after initial infection.
    • Neutralising antibodies to the D614G, Beta, and Delta were reduced compared with those for the original strain, and were diminished in general.
    • Memory T cell responses to the original strain were not disrupted by new variants.
    • The findings show that robust antibody and T cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is present in majority of recovered patients 12 months after moderate-to-critical infection.

    Robustness of antibodies

    • The study reveals the durability and robustness of the T cell responses against variants, including Delta, even after one year of infection.
    • Most importantly, the robust and longstanding T cell responses were seen in people who have not been reinfected or vaccinated.
    • This would mean even in the absence of vaccination, a person who has been infected by the virus even one year ago would have robust immune responses.
    • It would offer protection against disease progressing to a severe form requiring hospitalization.

     

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  • Gahirmatha beach witnesses Arribada

    About 2.45 lakh Olive Ridley sea turtles crawled ashore on the Nasi-II beach of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary along the Odisha coast for laying eggs, marking one of the largest opening day arrivals of turtles at the site.

    Olive Ridley Turtles

    • The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a medium-sized species of sea turtle found in warm and tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
    • In the Indian Ocean, the majority of olive ridleys nest in two or three large groups at Rushikulya rookery near Gahirmatha in Odisha.
    • The coast of Odisha in India is the largest mass nesting site for the olive ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica.
    • The species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List, Appendix 1 in CITES, and Schedule 1 in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

    Special feature: Mass nesting

    • They are best known for their behavior of synchronized nesting in mass numbers, termed Arribadas.
    • Interestingly, females return to the very same beach from where they first hatched, to lay their eggs.
    • They lay their eggs in conical nests about one and a half feet deep which they laboriously dig with their hind flippers.
    • They hatch in 45 to 60 days, depending on the temperature of the sand and atmosphere during the incubation period.

     

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  • Forging a social contract for data

    Context

    The Draft India Data Accessibility and Use Policy 2022 released in February for public consultation, is silent on the norms, rules, and mechanisms to bring to fruition its vision.

    Aims of the policy

    • The Draft Policy aims for harnessing public sector data for informed decision-making, citizen-centric delivery of public services, and economy-wide digital innovation.
    • It seeks to maximise access to and use of quality non-personal data (NPD) available with the public sector, overcoming a number of historical bottlenecks.
    • This GovTech 3.0 approach — to unlock the valuable resource of public sector data — does upgrade the OGD vision of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), 2012.
    • It seeks to harness data-based intelligence for governance and economic development.

    What is lacking in the draft policy?

    • Lacking in norms and rules: The Draft Policy is silent on the norms, rules, and mechanisms to bring to fruition its vision of data-supported social transformation.
    • Ignores the canons of RTI: Any attempt to promote meaningful citizen engagement with data cannot afford to ignore the canons of the Right to Information (RTI), and hence, the need for certain citizen data sets with personal identifiers to be in the public domain, towards making proactive disclosure meaningful.
    •  The unfinished task of the NDSAP in bringing coherence between restrictions on the availability of sensitive personal information in the public domain and India’s RTI, therefore, has been lost sight of.
    • Risks to group privacy: With respect to government-to-government data sharing for citizen-centric service delivery, the Draft Policy highlights that approved data inventories will be federated into a government-wide, searchable database.
    •  But even in the case of anonymised citizen data sets (that is no longer personal data), downstream processing can pose serious risks to group privacy.
    • Lack of data trusteeship framework: The Draft Policy adheres to the NDSAP paradigm of treating government agencies as ‘owners’ of the data sets they have collected and compiled instead of shifting to the trusteeship paradigm recommended by the 2020 Report of the MEITY Committee of Experts on non-personal data governance.
    • The lack of a data trusteeship framework gives government agencies unilateral privileges to determine the terms of data licensing.

    Suggestions

    • Taking on board a trusteeship-based approach, the proposed Draft Policy must pay attention to data quality, and ensure that licensing frameworks and any associated costs do not pose an impediment to data accessibility for non-commercial purposes.
    • Create common and interoperable data spaces: In the current context, where the most valuable data resources are held by the private sector, it is increasingly evident to policymakers that socioeconomic innovation depends on the state’s ability to catalyse wide-ranging data-sharing from both public and private sector actors across various sectors.
    • The European Union, for instance, has focused on the creation of common, interoperable data spaces to encourage voluntary data-sharing in specific domains such as health, energy and agriculture.
    • Mandatory data sharing arrangement: Creating the right conditions for voluntary data-sharing is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for democratising data innovation.
    • In this regard, the data stewardship model for high-value data sets proposed by the MEITY’s Committee of Experts in their Report on Non-Personal Data Governance (2020) is instructive.
    • In this model, a government/not-for-profit organisation may request the Non-Personal Data Authority or NPDA for the creation of a high-value data set (only non-personal data) in a particular sector, demonstrating the specific public interest purpose.
    • Once such a request is approved by the NPDA, the data trustee has the right to request data-sharing from all major custodians of data sets corresponding to the high-value data set category in question – both public and private.

    Conclusion

    • What we need is a new social contract for data whereby:
    • a) the social commons of data are governed as an inappropriable commons that belong to all citizens;
    • b) the government is the custodian or trustee with fiduciary responsibility to promote data use for public good; and
    • c) democratisation of data value is ensured through accountable institutional mechanisms for data governance.

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  • Noise Pollution in India

    The city of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh is the second-most noise polluted city globally, according to a recent report title Frontier 2022 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

    What is Noise Pollution?

    • Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them harmful to a degree.
    • It is generally defined as regular exposure to elevated sound levels that may lead to adverse effects in humans or other living organisms.
    • The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport, and propagation systems.
    • Poor urban planning may give rise to noise disintegration or pollution, side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas.
    • Some of the main sources of noise in residential areas include loud music, transportation (traffic, rail, airplanes, etc.), maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines, explosions, and people etc.

    Defining Noise Pollution

    • Sounds with a frequency over 70 db are considered harmful to health.
    • The World Health Organization (WHO) had recommended a 55 db standard for residential areas in the 1999 guidelines, while for traffic and business sectors, the limit was 70 db.
    • The WHO set the limit of noise pollution on the road at 53 db in 2018, taking into account health safety.

    Noise Pollution in India

    • The report identifies 13 noise polluted cities in south Asia. Five of these, including Moradabad, are in India, which have recorded alarming levels of noise pollution:
    1. Kolkata (89 db)
    2. Asansol (89 db)
    3. Jaipur (84 db)
    4. Delhi (83 db)
    • The noise pollution figures given in the report relate to daytime traffic or vehicles.
    • Moradabad has recorded noise pollution of a maximum of 114 decibels (db). The Frontier 2022 report mentions a total of 61 cities.

    Case in the neighborhood

    • The highest noise pollution of 119 db has been recorded in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
    • At third place is Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, where the noise pollution level has been recorded at 105 db.

    Hazards created

    • High levels of noise pollution affect human health and well-being by having an effect on sleep.
    • This has a bad effect on the communication of many animal species living in the area and their ability to hear.
    • Regular exposure for eight hours a day to 85 decibels of sound can permanently eliminate the ability to hear.
    • Not only that, exposure to relatively low noise pollution for long periods in cities can harm physical and mental health.

     

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  • When Nehru took Pak to the UN over Kashmir in 1947?

    Finance Minister sought to remind Parliament that it was the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who internationalized the Kashmir issue by taking it to the United Nations.

    Kashmir at UN

    • The United Nations has played an advisory role in maintaining peace and order in the Kashmir region soon after the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947.
    • India took this matter to the UN Security Council, which passed resolution 39 (1948) and established the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to investigate the issues and mediate between the two countries.
    • Following the cease-fire of hostilities, it also established the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor the cease-fire line.

    Why did Nehru agree to these terms?

    • In December 1947, because the British perhaps suggested Nehru that this matter will not be resolved unless you take it to the UN.
    • British were convinced that an intermediary was needed.
    • Nehru, a loyalist to the British agreed upon the terms laid by Mountbatten.
    • It was Nehru who first put forth the idea of a referendum under the aegis of UN soon after independence.
    • There is evidence to believe Sardar Patel was uncomfortable with Nehru taking the matter to the UN, and thought it was a mistake.

    Issue: Adventurism by Pakistan

    • The discussions in the Security Council on our complaint of aggression by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir took a very unfavourable turn.
    • Pakistan then succeeded, with the support of the British and American members creating a western bias against India.
    • Pakistan is misusing this till date paving wave for third-party intervention.
    • It is an issue which should not have gone to a global forum, it is essentially an Indian issue.

    Article 35 of UN Charter

    • There has been some debate on whether India chose the wrong path to approach the UN.
    • In 2019, Home Minister said that had Nehru taken the matter to the UN under Article 51 of the UN Charter, instead of Article 35, the outcome could have been different.
    • India pointed out that J&K had acceded to India, and that the “Government of India considered the giving of this assistance by Pakistan to be an act of aggression against India.
    • Articles 33-38 of the UN Charter occur in Chapter 6, titled “Pacific (peaceful) Settlement of Disputes” :

    These Articles lay out that:

    1. the parties to a dispute that has the potential for endangering international peace and security are not able to resolve the matter through negotiations between them, or by any other peaceful means, or with the help of a “regional agency”
    2. the Security Council may step in, with or without the invitation of one or another of the involved parties, and recommend “appropriate procedures or methods of recommendation”
    3. Article 35 only says that any member of the UN may take a dispute to the Security Council or General Assembly
    4. Article 51, which occurs in Chapter 7, titled “Action With Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression”
    5. It says that a UN member has the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if attacked

    Issues with the internationalization of Kashmir

    • Kashmir issue no longer remains bilateral; it has thus been internationalized.
    • However, India has been successful in perhaps internationalizing terrorism but not the Kashmir problem.
    • But unwarranted statements against India’s sovereign concerns are increasing these days.

     

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