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GS Paper: GS3

  • Striking a fine balance in the review of RBI’s policies

    Judicil review of central bank action could impact several stakeholders at the same time. This type of problems could be termed as polycentric problems. The article disusses the issues with judicial reviews in such cases.

    Judicial review of central bank actions

    • The Supreme Court is currently considering if the RBI should extend the COVID-19 induced loan moratorium and waive the accrued interest on interest.
    • Earlier this year, the court struck down an RBI circular imposing a ban on virtual currencies.
    • Last year, it quashed RBI circular that mandated banks and financial institutions to initiate insolvency proceedings against defaulting companies with significant loan exposures.

    Unsuitable for adjudication

    • Legal scholars have long recognised that certain disputes are inherently unsuitable for adjudicative disposition.
    • The most influential arguments on this subject were advanced by the American legal philosopher Lon Luvois Fuller.
    • Fuller compared polycentricity with a spider’s web — a pull on one strand distributes the tension throughout the web in a complicated pattern.
    • Applied to adjudication, polycentric problems normally involve many affected parties and a somewhat fluid state of affairs.
    • The range of those affected by the dispute cannot easily be foreseen and their participation in the decision-making process by reasoned arguments and proofs cannot possibly be organised.
    • As a result, the adjudicator is inadequately informed and cannot determine the complex repercussions of a proposed solution.

    Complexity of functioning of bank

    • Disputes involving certain central bank functions are highly polycentric and are unsuitable for resolution through judicial review.
    • For example, consider monetary policy function.
    • This involves varying short-term interest rate to control supply and demand of money in the economy, which, in turn, influences economic activity and inflation.
    • If judicial review supplants the central bank’s decision on this rate with the decision of the adjudicator, the repercussions would affect every single borrower and saver.
    • Yet, the adjudicator can neither offer a meaningful hearing to all those affected parties, nor can he effectively process all the necessary information to determine an optimal solution.
    • Evidently, disputes about monetary policy rate are highly polycentric and are better resolved outside the court.\

    Which actions of banks should involve judicial review

    • Not all disputes involving central bank functions are polycentric.
    • For example, a dispute regarding imposition of a pecuniary penalty by a central bank could be resolved through judicial review.
    • If the adjudicator finds the central bank to be correct, it need not interfere.
    • If the adjudicator finds the central bank to be incorrect, it could modify or overturn the central bank’s decision.
    • Clearly, judicial review could be effectively used to resolve bipolar disputes involving the central bank if they exhibit low polycentricity.

    Need for striking the balance

    • Monetary policy and pecuniary penalties are at two extreme ends of the polycentricity spectrum.
    • There are, however, various central bank functions of intermediate polycentricity.
    • Consider prudential regulations such as bank capital regulation.
    • If judicial review supplants provisions of such regulations with the decision of the adjudicator, it may appear to directly impact only the banks and nobody else.
    • But in reality, it could impact bank lending, which, in turn, would have complex repercussions on the entire credit market and risk-taking abilities across the economy.
    • Effective hearing of all affected parties, directly or indirectly, would, therefore, be impossible.
    • Consequently, some bipolar disputes involving the central bank may be too polycentric for meaningful resolution through judicial review.
    • Judicial review could be purely procedural — the adjudicator could merely review whether the central bank’s action is within its legal mandate or not.
    • The adjudicator could at most nullify a procedurally invalid central bank action, but may never supplant the decision of the central bank with his own.

    Consider the question “Judicial review of the central bank actions could be different from the other judicial reviews. Examine the issues in such reviews by the judiciary.”

    Conclusion

    Adopting polycentricity test within constitutional jurisprudence would help sustain the legitimacy of judicial review while retaining the accountability of technocratic institutions such as the central bank.

  • India’s catch-up evolution in techno-policy landscape

    This newscard is an excerpt of the original article published in the DownToEarth.

    Central theme: India needs to work out problems in old policies and develop new ones that ensure a rapid tectonic shift in India’s technological future.

    Past lessons:

    (1) From Agriculture

    • The Father of the Green Revolution, Norman E Borlaug, was credited with the development of semi-dwarf, disease-resistant and high-yield variety of wheat that he introduced in India, Pakistan and Mexico.
    • Led by Mexico, and soon followed by India, many countries adopted what is now commonly known as the ‘Green Revolution’.
    • Even after suffering two famines and recovering from the colonial catastrophe, India transformed itself into a self-sufficient nation in terms of rice and wheat over the next two decades.

    Sustaining GR with farm mechanization

    • Nearing the end of this decade, farm mechanization in India stands at 40-45 per cent, which is low compared to the USA (95 per cent), Brazil (75 per cent) and China (57 per cent).
    • Renewal of focus on farm mechanization was afforded only in the 12th five-year plan through a sub-mission on agricultural mechanization.
    • Regional disparities aside, India has broken the inertia in adopting farm machinery when compared to previous decades that is largely owed to the current push by the Union government.

    Still stranded with Land reforms

    • Yet, the response came late as compared to other countries with similar levels of development and was off by decades when compared to advanced economies.
    • Indian policymakers are still catching-up when implementing agriculture reforms, including land record digitization that should have been done and dusted by now.

    (2) Agriculture to Industries

    • After adopting resistant-variety cotton, India became the largest producer and second-largest exporter of cotton.
    • But it lags significantly behind in exporting cotton fabric at 5-6 per cent of the global share as China leads at 51 per cent.
    • Even with technical textiles, India’s production share is at four per cent and we suffer from an overall trade deficit.

    Why do we lag?

    • The earlier policies have not been revamped to reorient them into improving the technologically laggard and decentralized small-scale industries.
    • The overall direction is guided by budgetary announcements and segregated schemes that often leads to ambiguity in policy.
    • The new textile policy that is expected to provide for the economy of scale through textile parks is yet to be rolled out and the dedicated National Technical Textile Mission has only been recently announced.
    • Both policies should have been in place a decade ago.

    (3) Automobile sector

    • India’s automobile sector is yet another example of playing policy catch-up.
    • None of the Indian companies has any substantial market share in electric vehicle (EV) production, and retail sale of EVs in India has not registered any significant growth.
    • The biggest hurdle to the growth of EVs in India, among others, is policy ambiguity in relation to conventional internal combustion (IC) engine vehicles that hamper strategic business decisions.

    Beyond lofty roadmaps

    • In June 2019, NITI Aayog claimed that only EVs would be sold in India after 2030, replacing conventional IC engine vehicles, a claim that was later refuted by the Union Minister of Transport.
    • Policy ambiguity and lack of clear-cut directives on such a revolutionary technology can create disarray within the industry and on the broader strategic direction of the manufacturing sector.

    (4) Gaps in data and privacy lawmaking

    • The world is fast changing with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing (QC).
    • Every dimension of technology will start interacting with each other as the physical operations will all be controlled and operated by intelligent and adaptive virtual systems.

    Here too, India lags

    • Advanced economies have already put data regulation guidelines in place. China and the United States are already far too ahead in their R&D and policy research into AI and QC.
    • India developed its national strategy for AI only in 2018 and still lacks a full-proof futuristic policy on quantum computing.
    • Revolutionary and disruptive technologies require full-proof futuristic policies and strategies for development, and not vision documents and segregated schemes.

    Dealing with data

    • As of November 2019, the Internet and Mobile Association of India put India’s active Internet users at 504 million; in 2020, India would register nearly 700 million internet users.
    • We generate a copious amount of data, which, when combined with personal data from individual users in India, demand a new legal and paradigm change.
    • India’s data fiduciary laws are still in their nascent stage.
    • Data Protection Bill based on the recommendation of the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee is still pending with Parliament.

    Not treating the symptoms

    • Every day millions of Indians share intricate personal details and data over the internet; a majority of active users are unaware of the threats posed by an open-access to data.
    • Political battles are slowly gaining traction on the internet by harnessing the loopholes in social media.
    • Threats of state surveillance loom over millions of Indians and even now, any legal framework to protect data or privacy is missing.

    What we can deduce from the above discussion?

    • The Indian State heavily influences the outcome of the country’s technological development, largely due to the significant presence of PSEs, the dominance of public expenditure in R&D and the type of mixed economy.
    • Therefore timely policy intervention is essential to drive technological development in India.
    • Policies also require time to materialise and bear fruit, and thus far, India’s track record in implementing policies does not inspire confidence.

    India isn’t always laggard

    • India has been able to harness the potential of technology in the past by timely policy intervention. India was an early bird to its environmental policies and space technology.
    • The United States set up its Solar Energy Research Institute in 1977 and India set up its Commission of Alternate Sources of Energy (CASE) in 1981.
    • Today, India leads by example in the share of renewable energy in its power generation matrix. India’s space technology is another success story that doesn’t miss the public eye.
    • Time and again, through innovation and research, Indian academia and industries have exemplified its willingness and capacity to change, and all it requires is the desired policy push.

    Conclusion

    • With the rapid pace of technological development, the Union government and states cannot set to lose out time, as they have done in the previous decades.
    • India must hunt for new technological innovations, fund research into prospective applications and build policies to facilitate the adoption of new technologies.
    • Ministries and public-funded research bodies must be re-tasked to actively seek out new and emerging technologies all across the globe.

  • Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT)

    With regime change in the US, hopes have been raised for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii. India is one of the partners in the ambitious next-generation observatory project along with the US, Canada, China and Japan.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.“Event Horizon” is related to:

    (a) Telescope

    (b) Black hole

    (c) Solar glares

    (d) None of the above

    Thirty Metre Telescope

    • The TMT is a proposed astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT) that has become the source of controversy over its planned location on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii.
    • It is being built by an international collaboration of government organisations and educational institutions, at a cost of $1.4 billion.
    • “Thirty Metre” refers to the 30-metre diameter of the mirror, with 492 segments of glass pieced together, which makes it three times as wide as the world’s largest existing visible-light telescope.
    • The larger the mirror, the more light a telescope can collect, which means, in turn, that it can “see” farther, fainter objects.
    • It would be more than 200 times more sensitive than current telescopes and would be able to resolve objects 12 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

    Utility of the telescope

    • One of its key uses will be the study of exoplanets, many of which have been detected in the last few years, and whether their atmospheres contain water vapour or methane — the signatures of possible life.
    • For the first time in history, this telescope will be capable of detecting extraterrestrial life.
    • The study of black holes is another objective.
    • While these have been observed in detail within the Milky Way, the next galaxy is 100 times farther away; the Thirty Metre Telescope will help bring them closer.

  • The cost of cleaning air

    The article deals with the issue of allocation of funds to tackle air pollution and issues with it.

    Allocation in the budget

    • A ₹4,400 crore package was announced in last budget for 2020-21 to tackle air pollution in 102 of India’s most polluted cities.
    • The funds would be used to reduce particulate matter by 20%-30% from 2017 levels by 2024 under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

    Issues with estimating the scale of the problem

    • It is unclear if this amount is adequate because the scale of the problem is unknown.
    • Delhi government spent money on the measurement of pollution for in Delhi that far exceeds s allocations that find mention in the Centre and State government’s budgeting books.
    • The funds allocated don’t account for the trained manpower and the support system necessary to effectively maintain the systems and these costs are likely to be significant.
    • Historically, cites have used manual machines to measure specified pollutants and their use has been inadequate.
    • An analysis by research agencies Carbon Copy and Respirer Living Sciences recently found that only 59 out of 122 cities had PM 2.5 data available.
    • Only three States, had all their installed monitors providing readings from 2016 to 2018.
    • Prior to 2016, making comparisons of reduction strictly incomparable.
    • Now manual machines are being replaced by automatic ones and India is still largely reliant on imported machines.
    • In the case of the National Capital Region, at least ₹600 crore was spent by the Ministry of Agriculture over two years to provide subsidised equipment to farmers in Punjab and Haryana and dissuade them from burning paddy straw.
    • Yet this year, there have been more farm fires than the previous year and their contribution to Delhi’s winter air woes remain unchanged.
    • This indicates that money alone doesn’t work.

    Conclusion

    A clear day continues to remain largely at the mercy of favourable meteorology. While funds are critical, proper enforcement, adequate staff and stemming the sources of pollution on the ground are vital to the NCAP meeting its target.

  • Economic lessons from Vietnam and Bangladesh

    The article examines the emergence of Bangladesh and Vietnam as the major export hubs in the world and explains the lessons India could draw from it.

    Context

    • Bangladesh has become the second-largest apparel exporter after China.
    • Vietnam’s exports have grown by about 240% in the past eight years.

    Analysing Vietnam’s success

    • An open trade policy, a less inexpensive workforce, and generous incentives to foreign firms contributed to Vietnam’s success.
    • Vietnam’s open trade policy through Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) means trading partners do not charge import duties on products made in Vietnam.
    • Vietnam’s domestic market is open to the partners’ products.
    • Vietnam has agreed to change its domestic laws to make the country attractive to investors.
    • Over a decade or so, large brands such as Samsung, Canon, Foxconn, H&M, Nike, Adidas, and IKEA have flocked to Vietnam to manufacture their products.

    What explains Bangladesh’s success?

    • In Bangladesh, large export of apparels to the EU and the U.S. make the most of the country’s export story.
    • The EU allows the import of apparel and other products from least developed countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh duty-free.
    • India, as a good neighbour, accepts all Bangladesh products duty-free (except alcohol and tobacco).
    • Bangladesh may not have this facility in four to seven years as its per capita income rises and it loses the LDC status.
    • Bangladesh is working smartly to diversify its export basket.

    Lessons for India

    • The key learning from Bangladesh is the need to support large firms for a quick turnover.
    • Yet, most of Vietnam’s exports happen in five sectors, in contrast, India’s exports are more diversified.
    • The Economic Complexity Index (ECI), which ranks a country based on how diversified and complex its manufacturing export basket is, illustrates this point.
    • The ECI rank for China is 32, India 43, Vietnam 79, and Bangladesh 127.
    • India, unlike Vietnam, has a developed domestic and capital market.
    • To further promote manufacturing and investment, India could set up sectoral industrial zones with pre-approved factory spaces.
    • There should be no need to search for land or obtain many approvals.

    India should pursue organic growth

    • Most of Vietnam’s electronics exports are just the final assembly of goods produced elsewhere.
    • In such cases, national exports look large, but the net dollar gain is small. China also faces this issue.
    • Country’s Export to GDP ratio (EGR) indicates its export capacity.
    • Vietnam’s EGR is 107%, such high dependence on exports brings dollars but also makes a country vulnerable to global economic uncertainty. 
    • The U.S.’s EGR is 11.7%, Japan’s is 18.5%, India’s is 18.7%. Even for China, with all its trade problems, the EGR is 18.4%.
    • Most such countries, including India, follow an open trade policy, sign balanced FTAs, restrict unfair imports, and have a healthy mix of domestic champions and MNCs.
    • While export remains a priority, it is not pursued at the expense of other sectors of the economy.
    • The focus is on organic economic growth through innovation and competitiveness.

    Consider the question “While export is essential for the growth of the country, over-dependence on it and its promotion at the expense of the other sectors could do more harm to the economy than good. Comment.” 

    Conclusion

    With reforms promoting innovation and lowering the cost of doing business, India is poised to attract the best investments and integrate further with the global economy without increasing its dependence on export.

  • GRACE-FO Mission

    The GRACE-FO mission has mapped deviation in Earth’s surface mass and spatial variations in the rate of sea-level rise between 1993 and 2018 using altimetric and gravimetric analysis.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.NASA’s VIPER mission sometimes seen in news is related to the study of-

    a)Moon

    b)Venus

    c)Sun

    d)None of these

    GRACE-FO Mission

    • The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission launched in 2018 is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
    • It is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which orbited Earth from 2002-2017.
    • It carries on the extremely successful work of its predecessor while testing a new technology designed to dramatically improve the already remarkable precision of its measurement system.

    How did NASA measure this?

    (1) Altimetric Study

    • Altimetry missions are used to know the ocean surface topography — the shape and height of the ocean’s peaks and valleys.
    • Radar altimeters continually send out pulses of radio waves (microwaves) that bounce off the surface of the ocean and reflect back toward the satellite.
    • The instrument calculates the time it takes for the signal to return, while also tracking the precise location of the satellite in space. From this, scientists can derive the height of the sea surface directly underneath the satellite.

    (2) Gravimetric Study

    • Gravimetry is a process of using ice’s gravitational pull on a pair of satellites. It helps estimate ice loss and its contribution to sea-level rise.
    • The twin satellites in each mission detect subtle shifts in Earth’s gravity field.
    • The strength of gravitational forces is determined by mass, so changes in Earth’s gravity field indicate a change or redistribution in mass.

  • Regulation of Other Service Providers (OSP)

    The Department of Telecom (DoT) has eased the rules for registration, submission of bank guarantee and other norms for other service providers (OSP) in the business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology-enabled services (ITes).

    Recall your basics from NCERT books… Sectors of the Economy … More precisely, the Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary Sectors.

    What are Other Service Providers (OSP)?

    • OSPs or other service providers are companies or firms which provide secondary or tertiary services such as telemarketing, telebanking or telemedicine for various companies, banks or hospital chains, respectively.
    • As computers made their foray into the Indian information technology space, a number of such OSPs, which were either voice or non-voice based, came into the market.
    • The sector required minimal investment but gave great returns in business, which prompted a large number of individuals and companies to float other service providing firms.

    Registration of OSPs

    • The new telecom policy of 1999 suggested that all OSPs register themselves so that the government could keep a check on the usage of its resources.
    • Since most of these firms used leased telephone lines, this in turn used the telecom spectrum auctioned by the DoT, hence facing the regulation.
    • Further, the registration was also made mandatory to ensure that firms did not establish fake OSPs which swindled customers under the garb of providing telebanking and other such sensitive services.

    What were the various registration norms for OSPs?

    • To start services in India, OSPs had to register themselves with the DoT and declare to the government as to how many employees were working in the firm as well as the area of service it was engaged in.
    • For example, if a firm wished to provide telebanking services, it had to tell the government the number of people working with the BPO and the state that firms catered to.
    • Further, the OSPs also have to declare whether they were providing services to domestic firms or international firms, and the nature of services being offered.

    Significance of the new guidelines

    • The guidelines will make it easier for BPOs and ITes firms in many ways, such as cutting down on the cost of location, rent for premises and other ancillary costs such as electricity and internet bills.
    • The doing away of registration norms will also mean that there will be no renewal of such licenses and therefore will invite foreign companies to set up or expand their other service providing units in India.
    • This change, in line with the norms of countries in the West can also allow employees to opt for freelancing for more than one company while working from home, thereby attracting more workers in the sector.

  • What is Einstein’s Eclipse?

    This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in the DownToEarth.

    Einstein’s Eclipse

    • Albert Einstein’s prediction of the bending of light by the gravity of the Sun, one of the components of his general theory of relativity, can be tested during a solar eclipse.
    • Following an unsuccessful attempt to validate this prediction during the Solar eclipse of June 8, 1918, two expeditions were made to measure positions of stars during this eclipse.
    • The eclipse presented a rare chance to verify one of the essential consequences of general relativity, the bending of light by gravity.
    • Einstein’s theory predicted that rays of light passing near a massive body in space would be visibly bent as they followed the curve in space-time created by the body’s mass.
    • In the case of a ray of light originating from a distant star and passing near the edge of the Sun, Einstein calculated a deflection of about 1.75 arc seconds.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following phenomena:

    1. Light is affected by gravity.
    2. The Universe is constantly expanding.
    3. Matter warps its surrounding space-time.

    Which of the above is/are the predictions of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, often discussed in media?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    What was studied during the eclipse?

    • Einstein published his theory and predictions in 1915, and in 1919 the British physicist Sir Arthur Eddington took advantage of a total solar eclipse to attempt to detect the shifting images of stars near the limb of the sun.
    • The problem was that during totality the sky does not get perfectly dark, and only a handful of stars were visible near the sun from which to make the measurement.
    • The darkness of an eclipse, though, would allow the astronomers to observe and photograph the field of stars around the Sun.
    • By comparing the photographs with reference images taken at night, it would be possible to measure how much the presence of the Sun had bent the stars’ light.
    • Conveniently, a cluster of bright stars known as the Hyades would appear near the Sun during the eclipse.

    Significance

    • After several months of analysis, researchers announced in November that their findings supported the theory of general relativity.
    • Media coverage tended to dwell on the recondite nature of Einstein’s work, emphasizing that there were only a handful of people in the world who could understand it.
    • It could be argued that 1919 was the year when Einstein’s name became a byword for superhuman intellectual ability—making possible the small industry of Einstein-themed merchandise that still exists today.

    Back2Basics: General Relativity

    • Einstein’s theory proposes that gravity is not an actual force, but is instead a geometric distortion of space-time not predicted by ordinary Newtonian physics.
    • The more mass you have to produce the gravity in a body, the more distortion you get.
    • This distortion changes the trajectories of objects moving through space, and even the paths of light rays, as they pass close-by the massive body.
    • Even so, this effect is very feeble for an object as massive as our own sun, so it takes enormous care to even detect that it is occurring.
    • General Relativity predicts how much of this bending of light you should see given the mass of the object.
    • Called ‘gravitational lensing’ it has been detected on the cosmological scale as entire clusters of galaxies distort the light from more distant galaxies behind them as this image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows.

  • Ghogha-Hazira Ferry Service

    PM has virtually inaugurated the Ghogha-Hazira Ro-Pax ferry service in Gujarat.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    Q.Recently, which of the following States has explored the possibility of constructing an artificial inland port to be connected to the sea by a long navigational channel?

    (a) Andhra Pradesh

    (b) Chhattisgarh

    (c) Karnataka

    (d) Rajasthan

    Ghogha-Hazira Ferry Service

    • It will work as a Gateway to South Gujarat and Saurashtra region. It will reduce the distance between Ghogha and Hazira from 370 km to 90 km.
    • It has a load capacity of 30 trucks (of 50 MT each) on the main deck, 100 passenger cars on the upper deck and 500 passengers plus 34 crew and hospitality staff on the passenger deck.
    • The reduced cargo travel time from 10 to 12 hours to about four hours will result in huge savings of fuel (approx 9,000 litres per day) and lower the maintenance cost of vehicles drastically.
    • The ferry service, while making three round trips per day on the route, would annually transport about 5 lakh passengers, 80,000 passenger vehicles, 50,000 two-wheelers and 30,000 trucks.

    Benefits

    • It will reduce the fatigue of truck drivers and enhance their incomes by giving them more opportunity to do extra trips.
    • It will give an impetus to the tourism industry with ease of access to the Saurashtra region and lead to the creation of new job opportunities.
    • With the onset of ferry services, the port sector, furniture and fertilizer industries in Saurashtra and Kutch region will get a big boost.
    • Eco-tourism and religious-tourism in Gujarat, especially in Porbandar, Somnath, Dwarka and Palitana will grow exponentially.
    • The benefits of enhanced connectivity through this ferry service will also result in increased inflow of tourists in the famous Asiatic lion wildlife sanctuary at Gir.

  • Using the crucial expertise of CAPFs

    The article emphasises the role played by the CAPFs in dealing with the disasters.

    Dealing with the disasters

    • When disaster strikes our country, be it natural or man-made, the government summons the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) to carry out the task of overcoming the disaster.
    • The CAPFs help in carrying out rescue and relief operations, and also mitigates the pains and problems arising out of the disaster.

    Role played by CAPFS during Covid

    • CAPFs comprise the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, Assam Rifles and the ITBP.
    • Even before the country got to know about the COVID-19, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) had already set up its 600-bed quarantine centre in Chawla on the outskirts of New Delhi.
    • The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had roped in specialists from the Safdarjung Hospital to coordinate with ITBP officials.
    • Doctors and paramedical personnel of other CAPFs were also roped in.
    • The expertise acquired by ITBP personnel and the Standard Operating Procedure prepared by the ITBP came handy for the States and other police forces in establishing their own quarantine centres and COVID-19 hospitals.

    Role of NDRF during Covid-19

    • NDRF personnel are wholly drawn from the CAPFs.
    • So, they form a good reserve of trained personnel when they go back to their parent force after their stint with NDRF.
    • With 12 battalions of the NDRF— each comprising 1,149 personnel — spread across the country, its experts have the core competency to tackle biological disasters like COVID-19.
    • Such personnel can be deployed at quarantines centres after short-term courses.
    • A proposal mooted by NITI Aayog last year, to conduct a bridge course for dentists to render them eligible for the MBBS degree, could be revived, and such doctors could be on stand-by to help in such emergency crises.

    Conclusion

    It is these CAPF personnel who give a semblance of existence of government administration even in the remotest corners of the country. Their versatile experience can be utilised to the nation’s advantage.

    B2BASICS:

    CAPF

    The Central Armed Police Forces refers to uniform nomenclature of five security forces in India under the authority of Ministry of Home Affairs. Their role is to defend the national interest mainly against the internal threats.