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  • WTO and India

    India seeks TRIPS waiver for Vaccines

    IOCR | International Relations | Mains Paper 3: Intellectual Property Rights

    India and South Africa have jointly moved a proposal at the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) council for a waiver to help more countries get access to medicines and vaccines during the pandemic.

    Q.WTO and multilateralism is dying in the face of a greater reliance on plurilateral and bilateral trade pacts. Discuss. (250W)

    What is the TRIPS Agreement?

    • The TRIPS is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
    • It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations.
    • Its agreement was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990 and is administered by the WTO.
    • The TRIPS agreement introduced intellectual property law into the multilateral trading system for the first time and remains the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property to date.

    Why did India move such a proposal?

    • TRIPS waiver would deal with the question of equity along with global growth and livelihoods.
    • It is not only that we are coming in the way of life but it is very simple economics, asserted India’s ambassador.
    • For a commercial business of $30-40 billion of annual vaccine output of a few companies, we are coming in the way of $6-7 trillion of global GDP output in one year.

    Premise behind it

    • In 2001, developing countries, concerned that developed countries were insisting on an overly narrow reading of TRIPS, initiated a round of talks that resulted in the Doha Declaration.
    • The Doha declaration is a WTO statement that clarifies the scope of TRIPS, stating for example that TRIPS can and should be interpreted in light of the goal “to promote access to medicines for all.”

    Global response for the move

    • Fifty-seven WTO members have backed the proposal brought out by India.
    • But the EU, U.S., Japan and Canada have opposed the idea stressing the importance of intellectual property for innovation.

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  • Climate Change Negotiations – UNFCCC, COP, Other Conventions and Protocols

    What is Stockholm+50?

    | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena

    Stockholm+50 is a high-level meeting that the Government of Sweden plans to hold in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the first UN conference on the human environment – the 1972 Stockholm Conference.

    The 1972 Stockholm Conference

    • The UN Conference on the Human Environment, also known as the Stockholm Conference, was the first UN conference on the environment and was held between 5 and 16 June 1972 in Stockholm.
    • The meeting’s outcome document – the Stockholm Declaration – included several principles that are still important for environmental management.
    • Another result of the meeting was the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Environment Day, held annually on 5 June.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty drawn at:

    (a) United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 1972

    (b) UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1992

    (c) World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, 2002

    (d) UN Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, 2009

    Background

    • It’s been a generation since global leaders met in Stockholm in 1972 to discuss environmental challenges.
    • Then the concerns were for the local environment; there was no talk of climate change or even the depletion of the ozone layer.
    • All that came later. In 1972, the discussion was on the toxification of the environment as water and air were foul.

    Progress for 50 years

    • The toxification of the environment is still a pressing concern; countries have indeed cleaned up locally but added to the emissions in the global atmosphere.
    • Now, we are out of time as climate change impacts are spiralling out of control.

    Perils of Ecological Globalization

    • The fact is we stitched up the global ecological framework in terms of the many agreements only.
    • During this time, we also signed another agreement on free-trade — the economic globalisation agreement.
    • But we never really understood how these two frameworks — ecological and economic globalisation — would counteract each other.
    • As a result, we have worked to build an economic model based on discounting the price of labour and of the environment.

    Expectations from Stockholm+50

    • The aim of Stockholm+50 is to contribute to concrete action.
    • It aims at leveraging sustainable consumption and production patterns and nature-based solutions in order to achieve climate-neutral, resilient, circular and inclusive economies.
    • The narrative and result will be further developed together with interested governments and other partners.

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  • ISRO Missions and Discoveries

    ISRO places Brazil’s Amazonia-1 satellite

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    The successful launch of Brazil’s Amazonia-1 satellite by the Indian Space Research Organisation marks a new high point in space cooperation between the two countries.

    Note why Amazonia-1 Satellite is distinct in itself. It paves for statement based MCQs.

    Amazonia-1 Satellite

    • The Amazônia-1 or SSR- is the first Earth observation satellite entirely developed by Brazil.
    • It is optimized to peer at the cloud-covered region of its namesake, the Amazon forest since it has infrared capabilities that allow it to look at the forest cover regardless of the weather.
    • Brazil plans to use the satellite to “alert deforestation” in the region, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said in an Amazonia 1 mission description.

    Significance of the launch

    • This confirms the infinite potential of the India-Brazil partnership to overcome our development challenges through high technology.
    • The launch also marked the first dedicated mission of ISRO’s commercial arm NewSpace India Ltd. (NSIL).

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  • Imparting direction to science in India

    op-ed snap | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: S&T – Applications In Everyday Life

    The article elaborates on the various aspect of the 5th Science Policy.

    Scientific publication from India and issues with it

    • From the report published by the National Science Foundation of the U.S. in December 2019, India was the third-largest publisher of peer-reviewed science and engineering journal articles and conference papers, with 135,788 articles in 2018.
    • This milestone was achieved through an average yearly growth rate of 10.73% from 2008, which was greater than China’s 7.81%.
    • However, China and the United States had about thrice and twice the number, respectively, of India’s publications.
    • Also, the publications from India are not impactful.
    • From the report, in the top 1% of the most cited publications from 2016 (called HCA, or Highly Cited Articles), India’s index score of 0.7 is lower than that of the U.S., China and the European Union.
    • An index score of 1 or more is considered good.
    • The inference for India is that the impact, and hence the citation of publications from India, should improve.

    Patents filed by India

    • The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) through their Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is the primary channel of filing international patent applications.
    • In its report for 2019, WIPO says India filed a modest number of 2,053 patent applications.
    • Compared to the 58,990 applications filed by China and 57,840 by the U.S., India has a long way to go.
    • The Indian Government put in place the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy in 2016 to “stimulate a dynamic, vibrant and balanced intellectual property rights system”.
    • One of the objectives is human capital development.
    • The mission to foster innovation, replicate it at scale and commercialise it is a work in progress consequent to the policy.

    India’s Science Policies

    • There have been four science policies till now, after 1947, with the draft of the fifth policy having been released recently.
    • India’s first science policy adopted in 1958.
    • It led to the establishment of many research institutes and national laboratories, and by 1980.
    • The focus in the second science policy, Technology Policy Statement, in 1983, was technological self-reliance and to use technology to benefit all sections of the society.
    • The Science and Technology Policy 2003, the first science policy after the economic liberalisation of 1991, aimed to increase investment in research and development and brought it to 0.7%.
    • The Scientific and Engineering Research Board (SERB) was established to promote research.
    • In 2013, India’s science policy included Innovation in its scope and was called Science, Technology and Innovation Policy.
    • The focus was to be one of the top five global scientific leaders, which India achieved.

    What 5th science policy seeks to achieve

    • The draft of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 (STIP2020)  has an ambitious vision to “double the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers, Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GERD) and private sector contribution to the GERD every 5 years” .
    • It also aims to “position India among the top three scientific superpowers in the next decade”.
    • It also defines strategies to improve funding for and participation in research. India’s Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GERD) is currently around 0.6% of GDP.
    • This is quite low when compared to the investments by the U.S. and China which are greater than 2% and Israel’s GERD is more than 4%.
    • The policy seeks to define strategies that are “decentralized, evidence-informed, bottom-up, experts-driven, and inclusive”.

    Solutions to improve funding

    • STIP2020 defines solutions to improve funding thus: all States to fund research, multinational corporations to participate in research, fiscal incentives and support for innovation in medium and small scale enterprises.
    • The new measures should not become a pretext to absolve the Union and State governments of their primacy in funding research; the government should invest more into research.

    Other critical focus areas

    • 1) Other critical focal areas ar inclusion of under-represented groups of people in research.
    • 2) Support for indigenous knowledge systems.
    • 3) Using artificial intelligence.
    • 4) Reaching out to the Indian scientific diaspora for collaboration.
    • 5) Science diplomacy with partner countries.
    • 6) Setting up a strategic technology development fund to give impetus to research.

    Conclusion

    More specific directives and implementation with a scientific temper without engaging in hyperbole will be key to the policy’s success; and its success is important to us because, as Carl Sagan said, “we can do science, and with it we can improve our lives”.

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  • Who gets to decide what is legitimate free speech

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary,Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters

    The article highlights the challenges in regulating the Big Techs.

    Controlling Big Tech

    • Recently, the Indian government announced a sweeping array of rules reining-in social media.
    • Specifically, social media platforms are required to become “more responsible and more accountable” for the content they carry.
    • India is by no means alone in taking steps to regulate at Big Tech.
    • The social media companies would argue that they are self-regulating.
    • The problem is that their actions are ad hoc, inconsistent and reactive 

    Issues

    • A user can be removed from the platform if his post threatens the “unity, integrity, defence, security or Sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order, or causes incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence or prevents investigation of any offence or is insulting any foreign States”.
    • In other words, the government is giving itself plenty of room to cut Big Tech down to size.

    Why the issue needs government intervention: 3 arguments

    1) Conflict of interest

    • The government intervention rests on the presumption that it is never in the commercial interest of Big Tech to remove offensive speech.
    • This is because as such content goes viral more readily, bringing in more eyeballs, more data and more advertising revenue.
    • Big Tech proponents would contend that the companies are getting smarter about the risks of allowing such content on their systems and will inevitably find it in their self-interest to pre-emptively kill it.

    2) State is the guardian of public interest

    • A second argument in favour of government would be as follows: States are the guardians of the public interest.
    • In democratic societies, governments are elected to represent the will of the people.
    • So if there is a hard choice to be made about curtailing speech or permitting it, it seems only natural to turn to the public guardian.
    • The counter to this theory would be that, in practice, even democratically elected governments are far from perfect.
    • In fact according to The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, both India (ranked 53rd ) and the US (ranked 25th) are “flawed democracies”.
    • In parallel, the argument for Big Tech to be the upholder of the public interest could rest on the theory that well-functioning markets are superior to flawed democracies in optimising social welfare.
    • The counter-argument to this view would be that the tech industry is itself deeply flawed.
    • There is a lack of sufficient choice of platforms; there are asymmetries in power between the companies and users and Big Tech is amassing data on the citizens and using this information for its own purposes, which makes the disparity even greater.

    3) Bargaining power of BigTech

    • A third perspective is to acknowledge it doesn’t matter who is the “true” upholder of the public interest.
    • For all practical purposes, the outcome of the struggle between Big Government and Big Tech will be determined by relative bargaining power.
    • While governments technically have the ability to take entire platforms offline within the borders of their countries, these platforms are now so enormous that their users would revolt.
    • This is why we witnessed the audacity, recently, of Google and Facebook, threatening to de-platform Australia.

    Consider the question “What are the challenges in the regulation of Big Techs? Suggest ways to deal with these challenges.”.

    Conclusion

    While governments technically have the ability to take entire platforms offline within the borders of their countries, these platforms are now so enormous that their users would revolt. This is why we witnessed the audacity, recently, of Google and Facebook, threatening to de-platform Australia.

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  • Historical and Archaeological Findings in News

    10th century Buddhist Monastery uncovered in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh

    | History | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture

    The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has unearthed a Buddhist monastery, believed to be at least 900 years old, buried under a mound in a village situated in a hilly area of Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand.

    Details of the excavation

    • The findings were significant since the monastery is on the old route to Varanasi, 10 km from Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon.
    • Archaeologists found four statues of the deity Tara in Varad Mudra and six statues of the Buddha in bhumisparsa Mudra
    • So it is a significant finding as deity Tara’s statues mean this was an important centre of the Vajrayana sect of Buddhism.
    • Vajrayana is a form of Tantric Buddhism, which flourished in India from the 6th to 11th century.

    Tap to read more about Buddhism at:

    Chapter 5 | Mauryan Period (400BC – 200BC)

    Learning: Various Mudra of Buddha

    PC: Pinterest

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  • Digital India Initiatives

    E-Daakhil portal for consumer grievance redressal

    Prelims Only | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters

    The Union Government has informed that the ‘E-Daakhil’ portal for consumer grievance redressal is now operational in 15 states and Union Territories (UTs).

    Try this question from our AWE initiative:

    What are the objectives sought to be achieved through The Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 to regulate commercial transactions? What are the issues with the rules? 10 marks

    E-Daakhil

    • The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which came into force on July 20, 2020, has a provision for e-filing of consumer complaints in the consumer commissions and online payment of the fees for filing a complaint.
    • A web application for e-filing of consumer complaints named ‘edaakhil.nic.in’ has been developed by NIC for the purpose.
    • E-filing was launched by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) on September 7, 2020.
    • Delhi was the first state to implement it on September 8, 2020.

    Features of the portal

    • The E-Daakhil portal empowers the consumer and their advocates to file the consumer complaints along with payment of requisite fees online from anywhere for the redressal of their complaints.
    • It facilitates the consumer commissions to scrutinise the complaints online to accept, reject or forward the complaint to the concerned commission for further processing.
    • The digital software for filing consumer complaints has many features like e-notice, case document download link and virtual hearing link, filing written response by the opposite party, fling rejoinder by complainant and alerts via SMS/e-mail.
    • To facilitate the rural consumers for e-filing, it has been decided to integrate the common service centres (CSC) with the E-Daakhil portal.

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  • Historical and Archaeological Findings in News

    Inscription on Krishnadevaraya’s death discovered

    | History | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture

    The first-ever epigraphical reference to the date of death of Vijayanagara king Krishnadevaraya has been discovered in the Tumakuru district of Karnataka.

    Try this question from CS Mains 2016:

    Q.Krishnadevaraya, the King of Vijayanagara was not only an accomplished scholar himself, but was also a great patron of learning and literature. Discuss.

    Who was Krishnadevaraya?

    • Krishna Devaraya was the emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire during 1509–1529. He was the third ruler of the Tuluva Dynasty and is considered to be its greatest ruler.
    • He possessed the largest empire in India after the decline of the Delhi Sultanate.
    • Krishnadevaraya earned the titles Kannada Rajya Rama Ramana (lit, “Lord of the Kannada empire”), Andhra Bhoja (lit, “Andhra Bhoja(Scholar) King”) and Mooru Rayara Ganda (lit, “King of Three Kings”).
    • He became the dominant ruler of the peninsula of India by defeating the Sultans of Bijapur, Golconda, the Bahmani Sultanate and the Gajapatis of Odisha, and was one of the most powerful Hindu rulers in India.
    • Indeed, when the Mughal Emperor Babur was taking stock of the potentates of north India, Krishnadevaraya was rated the most powerful and had the most extensive empire in the subcontinent.
    • Portuguese travellers Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz also visited the Vijayanagara Empire during his reign.

    His literary work

    • The rule of Krishnadevaraya was an age of prolific literature in many languages, although it is also known as a golden age of Telugu literature.
    • He was fluent in many languages like Kannada, Marathi, Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil.
    • Eight Telugu poets were regarded as eight pillars of his literary assembly and known as Ashtadiggajas. He himself composed an epic Telugu poem Amuktamalyada.
    • He took the title of Abhinava-Bhoja and Sakala-Kala-Bhoja (“Bhoja of all the arts”) in honour of Parmara emperor Bhoja who was a polymath, a master of 64 arts and a military genius.

    What does the inscription say?

    • As per the inscription, Krishnadevaraya died on October 17, 1529, Sunday.
    • Incidentally, this day was marked by a lunar eclipse.
    • The inscription also registers the gift of village Honnenahalli in Tumakuru for conducting worship to the god Veeraprasanna Hanumantha of Tumakuru.
    • The Kalahasti inscription refers to the date of Achyutaraya’s (his successor) coronation as October 21, 1529 AD.

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  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

    Species in news: Caracal

    States | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and MoEFCC last month included the caracal, a medium-sized wildcat found in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, in the list of critically endangered species under the Species Recovery Programme.

    Caracal in India

    IUCN status: Least Concerned

    • The wildcat has long legs, a short face, long canine teeth, and distinctive ears — long and pointy, with tufts of black hair at their tips.
    • The iconic ears are what give the animal its name — caracal comes from the Turkish karakulak, meaning ‘black ears’.
    • In India, it is called siya gosh, a Persian name that translates as ‘black Ear’.
    • A Sanskrit fable exists about a small wild cat named deergha-karn or ‘long-eared’.
    • While it flourishes in parts of Africa, its numbers in Asia are declining.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following pairs:

    Wildlife:  Naturally found in

    1. Blue-finned Mahseer: Cauvery River
    2. Irrawaddy Dolphin: Chambal River
    3. Rusty-spotted Cat: Eastern Ghats

    Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched? (CSP 2018)

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    In history and myth

    • The earliest evidence of the caracal in the subcontinent comes from a fossil dating back to the civilization of the Indus Valley c. 3000-2000 BC.
    • The caracal has traditionally been valued for its litheness and extraordinary ability to catch birds in flight; it was a favourite coursing or hunting animal in medieval India.
    • Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88) had siyah-goshdar khana, stables that housed large numbers of coursing caracal.
    • It finds mention in Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama, like a hunting animal in the time of Akbar (1556-1605).
    • Descriptions and illustrations of the caracal can be found in medieval texts such as the Anvar-i-Suhayli, Tutinama, Khamsa-e-Nizami, and Shahnameh.
    • The East India Company’s Robert Clive is said to have been presented with a caracal after he defeated Siraj-ud-daullah in the Battle of Plassey (1757).

    Back2Basics: Species Recovery Programme of NBWL

    • The programme is one of the three components of the centrally funded scheme, Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (IDWH).
    • Started in 2008-09, IDWH is meant for providing support to protected areas, protection of wildlife outside protected areas and recovery programmes for saving critically endangered species and habitats.
    • So far, the recovery programme for critically endangered species in India now includes 22 wildlife species.
    • The NBWL in 2018 has added four species- the Northern River Terrapin, Clouded Leopard, Arabian Sea Humpback Whale, Red Panda- to the list.
    • Other species include the Snow Leopard, Bustard (including Floricans), Dolphin, Hangul, Nilgiri Tahr, Marine Turtles, Dugongs, Edible Nest Swiftlet, Asian Wild Buffalo, Nicobar Megapode, Manipur Brow-antlered Deer, Vultures, Malabar Civet, Indian Rhinoceros, Asiatic Lion, Swamp Deer and Jerdon’s Courser.

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  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    [pib] Who was Mannathu Padmanabhan (1878-1970)?

    Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

    The Prime Minister has tweeted tributes to Sri Mannathu Padmanabhan on his death anniversary.

    UPSC is digging deeper in the regional freedom movements to get such questions beyond our knowledge base.Try this question from CSP 2020

    Q.The Vital Vidhvansak, the first monthly journal to have the untouchable people as its target audience was published by:

    (a) Gopal Babu Walangkar

    (b) Jyotiba Phule

    (c) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

    (d) Bhimarao Ramji Ambedkar

    Here, we know something about options b, c and d. So it is less dicey to pull the odd man out.

    Mannathu Padmanabhan

    • Padmanabhan was an Indian social reformer and freedom fighter from the south-western state of Kerala.
    • He is recognised as the founder of the Nair Service Society (NSS), which claims to represent the Nair community that constitutes 12.10% (From KMS 2011) of the population of the state.
    • He fought for social equality, the first phase being the Vaikom Satyagraha, demanding the public roads near the temple at Vaikom be opened to low caste Hindus.
    • He took part in the Vaikom (1924) and Guruvayoor (1931) temple-entry Satyagrahas; the anti-untouchability agitations. He opened his family temple for everyone, irrespective of caste distinction.
    • He became a member of the Indian National Congress in 1946 and took part in the agitation against Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer’s administration in Travancore.
    • As the first president of the Travancore Devaswom Board, he revitalised many temples which had almost ceased to function.

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