The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) led start-up has launched mWRAPR, a biological transport and storage medium for genomic sequencing labs, biobanks, and research labs handling biological samples for molecular analysis.
mWRAPR
It is India’s first indigenous bio-sample kit, a biological transport and storage medium.
It would help in preserving genetic content in all types of biological samples, including microbiomes, saliva, cells, tissues, blood, body fluids, and fecal tubes.
It is the only Molecular Transport Medium to be manufactured in India that competes with sample stabilisation and transporting media of notable foreign brands.
Significance
The disruptions in global supply chain limits accessibility to materials for molecular diagnostics.
India required to move to molecular tests (PCR/ RT-PCR test), but sample collection kits currently used were very cheap and not of molecular grade.
RNA WRAPR is the kind of molecular grade sample collection medium that India needs right now.
The annual Kodiyal Theru car (chariot) festival has begun in Mangalore, Karnataka.
Kodiyal Theru
It falls in late January or early February in the Hindu month of Magha.
It begins on Tritiya or the third day of the bright moon and ends on the seventh to be followed by Holi (Okuli) after the festival.
For these six days, the Car Festival rules in the Car Street in front of the Venkatramana Temple in Mangalore.
The Festival begins with the Dwajarohana or hoisting of the ‘flag’ – actually a framed picture of Garuda.
This is done ceremoniously on the first day of the festival amidst the clanging of bells and the reverberation of drumbeats.
The Garuda stays aloft for the rest of the festival until he is again lowered in an equally ceremonial manner on the day of the Holi and this is the concluding event of the festival.
The proposed amendment to Rule 6 of the IAS (Cadre) Rules 1954, seeks to do away with the consent of both the officer and the state government.
What makes All-India services different?
Article 309: Under Article 309 of the Constitution, the Centre and states are empowered to erect and maintain services for running their administration.
Both the Centre and the states exercise full control over their services independently of each other.
Article 312: Unlike a central service or state service, an All-India Service is compositely administered under Article 312.
While recruitment and allotment to a cadre (state) are determined by the Centre, the states determine the work and posting.
Balance between Centre and states: Hence, All-India Services are carefully balanced between the Centre and the states.
The Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Forest Service (IFS) are the three All-India Services.
Being an All-India Service, officers of the IAS are posted to the states, from where they are deputed to the Centre with the tripartite consent of the officer, the state government and the central government.
Issues with the proposed changes
The proposed amendment to Rule 6 of the IAS (Cadre) Rules 1954, seeks to do away with the consent of both the officer and the state government.
Reasons for amendment: The reason for the amendment, as declared by the central government, is to ensure adequate availability of IAS officers for central deputation, which at present is “not sufficient to meet the requirement at the Centre”.
However, the central government has gone beyond its declared reason and stretched the cadre rules to also allow for appropriation of IAS officers “in public interest”.
The Centre has virtually conferred upon itself the plenipotentiary power to pull out any number of IAS officers from the states.
States may divest IAS officers of key posts: To protect their administration from becoming paralysed, states may resort to altering their Transaction of Business Rules to divest IAS officers of key posts in the state, and vesting the same with the state officers.
Alternately, states may conjure provisional berths for retired bureaucrats to re-enter administration as special appointees, outside the cadre rules.
Flouting of cadre rules by States: As it is, the implementation of cadre rules is left to the mercy of the states, with the Centre showing a disinclination to enforce them.
Some states openly flout the cadre rules with impunity in matters of postings and transfers.
The Civil Services Board has been rendered impotent, non-cadre officers are being unilaterally appointed to IAS cadre posts, and the minimum tenure guarantee is openly flouted.
Against federalism: Not only could it allow distrust to fester in Centre-state relations, it would also result in the functional depreciation of the IAS in the states.
Conclusion
It is important for the states to be reassured that they are in control of their administration, and for the service to not lose its relevance.
Launched in July 2021, the Revamped Distribution Sector Reform Scheme (RDSS) is the latest of many central government grant-based programmes towards electricity distribution network investments.
RDSS overview
Revamped Distribution Sector Reform Scheme (RDSS) has an outlay of Rs 3 lakh crore for five years.
Half of the outlay is for better feeder and transformer metering and pre-paid smart consumer metering.
The remaining half, 60 percent of which will be funded by central government grants, will be spent on power loss reduction and strengthening networks.
RDSS stipulates universal pre-paid metering but post-paid options may be suitable in many contexts.
RDSS suggested measures such as privatization and franchisee adoption.
Legacy design issues in RDSS
Design issues: Complex processes and conditions for fund disbursal: Only 60 percent of the total Rs 2.5 lakh crore grants allocated in past schemes were disbursed.
Lack of review and regulatory oversight: Lack of public review and regulatory oversight in states is another issue.
Prescriptive approach: The prescriptive approach of the scheme design impedes effective implementation. For example, RDSS emphasizes loss reduction investments over system strengthening.
However, high losses are typically connected to sustained poor quality service which, in turn, is affected by inadequate investment in system strengthening.
Opportunities for discoms under RDSS
1] Strengthen rural networks
It is important to strengthen rural networks to meet growing demand.
In the past decade, 4.9 crore poor households have been electrified and more than Rs 50,000 crore has been invested in rural networks.
However, actual investments have been much less than planned.
Transformer and sub-station capacities were designed to meet the minimal demand assuming few lights, fans, and TV.
Increased supply hours, appliance usage, and the needs of rural enterprises will need more network investment.
Without this, the risk of power outages is high.
The RDSS system’s strengthening plans can focus on this challenge.
2] Opportunity to provide reliable supply and reduce subsidy requirements for agriculture
About 25 percent of electricity sales is to be highly subsidized, agricultural consumers who also receive an erratic, poor quality supply.
Under the national KUSUM scheme, day-time, low-cost supply can be provided to a large number of farmers by installing megawatt scale solar plants.
For this to work, separate feeders for agricultural consumers are needed. RDSS prioritizes investments and grants towards dedicated agricultural feeders to accelerate feeder solarisation.
States must leverage this grant support to provide reliable supply and reduce subsidy requirements.
3] Automatic metering of distribution feeders
Often, discoms under-estimate losses by over-estimating unmetered consumption in a bid to demonstrate loss reduction.
For greater veracity, all feeders must be equipped with meters capable of communicating readings without manual intervention.
States should leverage RDSS’s emphasis on automatic meter reading for this.
4] Smart metering
RDSS prescribes a phase-wise roll-out of consumer smart meters, starting with commercial and industrial consumers and urban areas.
Such an approach provides states with an opportunity to understand implementation issues, adopt suitable strategies for metering and evolve frameworks for assessing benefits vis-a-vis the costs.
5] Network for charging EVs
Discoms can avail 60 percent of grants under RDSS for network investments required to address the demand of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
This can accelerate a shift away from petrol and diesel fuels.
Way forward
Flexibility: To leverage various opportunities, states must emphasize the need for flexibility in prioritizing investments in their action plans.
Central government agencies should also be flexible in the monitoring, tracking, and fund disbursal mechanisms.
Accelerated implementation: This should be accompanied by state-level commitments towards accelerated but deliberate implementation.
Conclusion
Despite the challenges, there are opportunities for discoms under RDSS. However, without these efforts, despite its potential, RDSS will likely be important but limited in its impact, like its predecessors.
As the pandemic continues to wage on, people have started prioritising their health over most things.
This pandemic, especially during the Delta wave, exposed several gaps in the healthcare system and infrastructure.
Why discuss this?
Current health infrastructure in India paints a dismal picture of the healthcare delivery system in the country.
Public health experts believe that India is ill-equipped to handle such emergencies.
It is not prepared to tackle health epidemics, particularly given its urban congestion.
Healthcare in India: A Background
The Indian Constitution has incorporated the responsibility of the state in ensuring basic nutrition, basic standard of living, public health, protection of workers, special provisions for disabled persons, and other health standards, which were described under Articles 39, 41, 42, and 47 in the DPSP.
Article 21 of the Constitution of India provides for the right to life and personal liberty and is a fundamental right.
Public Health comes under the state list.
India’s expenditure on healthcare has shot up substantially in the past few years; it is still very low in comparison to the peer nations (at approx. 1.28% of GDP).
All-time Paradoxes of Indian Healthcare
(1) Healthcare is a fundamental right, but it is not fundamentally right in India
The Supreme Court has held healthcare to be a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The expenditure on healthcare is one of the lowest in the world, lower than nations with similar economic growth rates.
Though our economy has grown robustly post-liberalization, investment in healthcare has consistently hovered around 1% of the GDP.
(2) Sector attracts investments, but delivery remains contentious
India’s healthcare sector has attracted a steady stream of investments, albeit at the higher end of the value chain — the secondary & tertiary care.
Lack of penetration, inflated billing, opaqueness in diagnosis, and poor quality of service has ensured that most Indians get treated below the standards prescribed by the WHO.
(3) Among the cheapest in the world, yet unaffordable for most locally:
Healthcare in India is cheap. For example: Compared to India, the cost of a knee replacement treatment is over twenty times more in the US and double in Malaysia.
Yet India has one of the world’s highest rates of out-of-pocket spending in healthcare.
There are millions in India who cannot afford these procedures in their own country.
(4) Less than one doctor for 1,000 patients, but medical tourism booms:
India treated 3.6 lakh foreign patients in 2016 and the country’s medical tourism market is expected to grow to $7-8 billion by 2020.
The doctor-patient ratio in India is less than the WHO-prescribed limit of 1:1000.
There is a dearth of medical schools and clinicians.
Most hospitals in India are overburdened, understaffed, and ill-equipped.
(5) Stark divergence in healthcare outcomes within the country
Healthcare being a state subject, the healthcare outcomes have remained divergent based on the quality of the state administration.
While North India is the most populated part of India, it has one of the most undeserved healthcare infrastructures in the country.
History shows us that “blame” has been a standard human response during pandemics.
These are some issues that surfaced during this pandemic ………..
Poor Infrastructure: This is well revealed through indicators like hospital beds per 1,000 people.
Fewer doctors per thousand: The WHO mandates that the doctor to population ratio should be 1:1,000, while India had a 1:1,404 ratio as of February 2020.
Denial of healthcare: Private hospitals are reportedly denying treatments to the poor. Cases of overcharging patients are also being reported in private hospitals.
Underutilization: Despite private hospitals accounting for 62 percent of the total hospital beds as well as ICU beds and almost 56 percent of the ventilators, they are handling only around 10 percent of the workload.
Negligence for mental healthcare: Mental health problems are already a major contributor to the burden of illness in India which usually gets unnoticed.
Need of the hour: A tectonic overhaul
Universal health coverage: Access to healthcare in India is not equitable—the rich and the middle class would survive the COVID-19 or any other crisis but not the poor.
Increasing healthcare professionals in numbers: India has handled the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally well. However, India is in dire need of more medical staff and amenities.
Revamping medical education: If the government wants to stay successful in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it needs to rapidly build medical institutions and increase the number of doctors.
Cross-subsidization of health-care: How the poor managed without, or even with, any government insurance scheme is a big question. They can make up for the loss by cross-subsidizing treatments of patients with premium insurance policies.
Looping-in private players: For too long, India has allowed the private health sector to grow, with little regulation. Time is ripe to loop in private players and promote the industrialization of health-sector.
Recent initiatives
PLI scheme: In view of these challenges, the government announced various policies like PLI scheme for domestic manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
National Digital Health Mission: It also announced the National Digital Health Mission.
Budgetary allocation: In the Union Budget for the financial year 2021-22, an amount of Rs. 2,23,846 Crore was allocated This comes to about 6.43% of total Budget provision.
Way forward
India’s healthcare system is too small for such a large population.
There seems to be a long battle ahead. The public healthcare system cannot be improved overnight.
The country needs all hands on deck during and after this crisis—both public and private sectors must work together and deliver universal health coverage for all citizens.
Ultimately, the onus of governance always rests with the government, which needs to set standards, invest resources, ensure quality, and strategically purchase services from the private sector, as needed.
Fill Samanvaya form to discuss and resolve your UPSC IAS preparation issues, doubts, and insecurities with us.
Finding success in the UPSC journey requires every aspirant to identify their “weak” areas and rectify them.
I think my number of revisions of the syllabus is still less.
Why are my marks stagnant in the mock test? Do I need a new book?
Should I change the optional subject?
At any given point during preparation days, these questions cross every aspirant’s mind. While it is important to have the right technique aka “smart study” strategy for this examination but is that enough?
MENTAL HEALTH as an issue has always carried a sense of stigma in Indian society. So, why should the stress and anxiety associated with UPSC preparation be treated any differently!
Even if you are one of those courageous extroverts who speak about these mental challenges, you always have that one friend who sends you a motivational quote to get you over your MOOD SWINGS with some extra advice to memorize the quote as it can be helpful for GS 4 and essay.
Honestly, sometimes you need more than a motivational quote. In our interaction with some 1000+ students, even the smallest act of acknowledging an aspirant’s anxiety and stress can go a long way in maintaining the right frame of mind during preparation.
GAIN THE RIGHT CONFIDENCE TO HANDLE BOTH SUCCESS AND FAILURE
Emotional Stability is crucial to remain sane during this preparation and also to enjoy the whole process. The first step towards a balanced approach is to identify that as a human having lows and highs is pretty much normal. If you are not able to finish the decided target, then it is alright to feel bad and push yourself a little extra for the next day. What you need to avoid is “unhealthy behaviour”. For example, putting yourself under so much pressure that your performance starts to deteriorate or belittling yourself that it starts to affect your confidence.
We are not here to diagnose any clinical conditions. But as former aspirants and gaining years of experience through mentorship, we are a big advocate of people’s interaction for healthy minds.
Sometimes, in this preparation, all you need is a person to hear you out and understand you. And unfortunately, some of us are not able to find that one person in our family or friends. There is no shame in asking for emotional help. It helps if you have a person who can listen to your worries and reduce some of your pressure. Talking to your mentor can make you feel supported in the toughest times. The worst part of silo preparation is that aspirants tend to create the idea that all these emotional upheavals are exclusive to them. Trust us this is not true!
Why Mentorship helps you double your efforts in half the time?
A holistic UPSC preparation includes the right technique to complete your syllabus, revisions and mock test and a healthy mindset.
Reach out to us if you feel like nothing is going right in your preparation. Talk to our mentors about your emotional worries, and remove the burden of anxieties from your preparation.
Lack of direction in your UPSC IAS preparation, an absence of a well-defined strategy and inability to make required necessary changes either due to lack of guidance or awareness are the biggest killers of your LBSNAA dream.
Therefore, it is essential for you to get your approach rectified and tuned as per the demands of UPSC. If you feel lost in UPSC preparation and have been gripped by negativity, self-doubt, and demotivation, this is for you.
Fill the Samanvaya form for a free on-call mentorship session. We’ll call you within 24 hours.
Abhishek has benefited from Civilsdaily’s approach, so did 70+ candidates who cleared UPSC IAS 2019
The Perfect exam cracking pattern
Integrate them in your preparation. We’ll tell you how to do itIt’s about how ‘you’ should be doing it instead of how someone else did it. That is the ‘elephant in the room’.
1. First step starts with thisSamanvayacall: Once you fill in the form, our senior mentors will have a 1-to-1 detailed discussion (on-callbased on which we create a step by step plan for next week, next month and so on.
2. You are given access to our invite-only chat platform, Habitat where you can connect with mentors, ask your daily doubts, discuss your test-prep questions and have real-time live sessions on news and op-eds, and find your optional groups.
Daily target monitoring.
3. The third and the most personalized tier is the dedicated 1 on 1 mentor allotment who stays with you through the course of your UPSC preparation – always-on chat and on scheduled calls to help you assess, evaluate, and chart the next milestone of your IAS 2022/2023 journey.
Daily target monitoring on Habitat
Who are you?
Working Junta? If you are preparing for IAS 2022-23 and working simultaneously, we can help you strategize and decipher the IAS exam and design a timetable that fits right in your hectic schedule.
First-time prep? If you are in the last year of college or thinking of dropping a year and preparing for IAS 2022-23 full time, we’ll help you pick the right books and craft a practical & personalstrategy.
Have appeared before? and weren’t successful. We’ll help you identify your mistakes, rectify them for the necessary course correction. Let this be your final and successful attempt.
You just have to take 5 minutes out and fill this form: Samanvaya For IAS 2022-23
Fill up the following details in Samanvaya form given below to schedule a free one-on-one mentorship session with senior mentors from Civilsdaily. We’ll call you within 24 hours.
Don’t forget to check your email after form submission to download your free Tikdam e-book and Civilsdaily’s IAS starter material.
Fill Samanvaya form to discuss and resolve your UPSC IAS preparation issues, doubts, and insecurities with us.
Finding success in the UPSC journey requires every aspirant to identify their “weak” areas and rectify them.
I think my number of revisions of the syllabus is still less.
Why are my marks stagnant in the mock test? Do I need a new book?
Should I change the optional subject?
At any given point during preparation days, these questions cross every aspirant’s mind. While it is important to have the right technique aka “smart study” strategy for this examination but is that enough?
MENTAL HEALTH as an issue has always carried a sense of stigma in Indian society. So, why should the stress and anxiety associated with UPSC preparation be treated any differently!
Even if you are one of those courageous extroverts who speak about these mental challenges, you always have that one friend who sends you a motivational quote to get you over your MOOD SWINGS with some extra advice to memorize the quote as it can be helpful for GS 4 and essay.
Honestly, sometimes you need more than a motivational quote. In our interaction with some 1000+ students, even the smallest act of acknowledging an aspirant’s anxiety and stress can go a long way in maintaining the right frame of mind during preparation.
GAIN THE RIGHT CONFIDENCE TO HANDLE BOTH SUCCESS AND FAILURE
Emotional Stability is crucial to remain sane during this preparation and also to enjoy the whole process. The first step towards a balanced approach is to identify that as a human having lows and highs is pretty much normal. If you are not able to finish the decided target, then it is alright to feel bad and push yourself a little extra for the next day. What you need to avoid is “unhealthy behaviour”. For example, putting yourself under so much pressure that your performance starts to deteriorate or belittling yourself that it starts to affect your confidence.
We are not here to diagnose any clinical conditions. But as former aspirants and gaining years of experience through mentorship, we are a big advocate of people’s interaction for healthy minds.
Sometimes, in this preparation, all you need is a person to hear you out and understand you. And unfortunately, some of us are not able to find that one person in our family or friends. There is no shame in asking for emotional help. It helps if you have a person who can listen to your worries and reduce some of your pressure. Talking to your mentor can make you feel supported in the toughest times. The worst part of silo preparation is that aspirants tend to create the idea that all these emotional upheavals are exclusive to them. Trust us this is not true!
Why Mentorship helps you double your efforts in half the time?
A holistic UPSC preparation includes the right technique to complete your syllabus, revisions and mock test and a healthy mindset.
Reach out to us if you feel like nothing is going right in your preparation. Talk to our mentors about your emotional worries, and remove the burden of anxieties from your preparation.
Lack of direction in your UPSC IAS preparation, an absence of a well-defined strategy and inability to make required necessary changes either due to lack of guidance or awareness are the biggest killers of your LBSNAA dream.
Therefore, it is essential for you to get your approach rectified and tuned as per the demands of UPSC. If you feel lost in UPSC preparation and have been gripped by negativity, self-doubt, and demotivation, this is for you.
Fill the Samanvaya form for a free on-call mentorship session. We’ll call you within 24 hours.
Abhishek has benefited from Civilsdaily’s approach, so did 70+ candidates who cleared UPSC IAS 2019
The Perfect exam cracking pattern
Integrate them in your preparation. We’ll tell you how to do itIt’s about how ‘you’ should be doing it instead of how someone else did it. That is the ‘elephant in the room’.
1. First step starts with thisSamanvayacall: Once you fill in the form, our senior mentors will have a 1-to-1 detailed discussion (on-callbased on which we create a step by step plan for next week, next month and so on.
2. You are given access to our invite-only chat platform, Habitat where you can connect with mentors, ask your daily doubts, discuss your test-prep questions and have real-time live sessions on news and op-eds, and find your optional groups.
Daily target monitoring.
3. The third and the most personalized tier is the dedicated 1 on 1 mentor allotment who stays with you through the course of your UPSC preparation – always-on chat and on scheduled calls to help you assess, evaluate, and chart the next milestone of your IAS 2022/2023 journey.
Daily target monitoring on Habitat
Who are you?
Working Junta? If you are preparing for IAS 2022-23 and working simultaneously, we can help you strategize and decipher the IAS exam and design a timetable that fits right in your hectic schedule.
First-time prep? If you are in the last year of college or thinking of dropping a year and preparing for IAS 2022-23 full time, we’ll help you pick the right books and craft a practical & personalstrategy.
Have appeared before? and weren’t successful. We’ll help you identify your mistakes, rectify them for the necessary course correction. Let this be your final and successful attempt.
You just have to take 5 minutes out and fill this form: Samanvaya For IAS 2022-23
Fill up the following details in Samanvaya form given below to schedule a free one-on-one mentorship session with senior mentors from Civilsdaily. We’ll call you within 24 hours.
Don’t forget to check your email after form submission to download your free Tikdam e-book and Civilsdaily’s IAS starter material.
Smash Prelims Program is back after a thumping success in Prelims 2021. Out of 25 students Santosh sir has mentored, 15 have cleared prelims this time.Our students were kind enough to take time out of their hectic Mains preparation and let us know how Santosh sir’s mentorship benefitted them in the exams. We wish them all the very best for the upcoming Mains exam from 7th January onwards!
https://youtu.be/oTRUMSOQEY4
Why Your Focus for Next 5 Months Must be About Scoring Above Cut-Off Marks in UPSC-CSE Prelims? Isn’t the last 1 Month Enough for This?
Every year, the competition for UPSC-CSE is increasing while vacancies are decreasing drastically. This year there are only 712 vacancies as against 2019 which had 927 vacancies. However, atleast 10 lakh students will attempt the prelims exam. This is why right now, it’s important to start having an Olympic Athlete mindset. You need to daily focus on scoring above the cut-off marks in your test series.
Civilsdaily Student and 2019 UPSC-CSE AIR 8 Topper Abhishek Saraf had practiced nearly 6000+ MCQs under us to clear prelims!
What makes prelims tough? It’s because the paper is unpredictable. If this year, science questions are a breeze then the next year you will have to answer advanced concept-based questions. Unlike Mains, Prelims has negative markings.
Toppers like Pranav Vijayvergiya (AIR 65) andSwati Sharma(AIR 17) have found Prelims to be tougher than Mains. In fact, Pranav failed to clear Prelims thrice. But, in his fourth attempt he took Civilsdaily mentorship and cleared Prelims, Mains and Interview in one shot!
Are you feeling low that you are unable to get the required cut-off marks in your test series. Worry not, for about 65% of the UPSC toppers have said that they scored below cut-off marks till December. But by June, they were able to boost their marks to get through the prelims hurdle. It’s time to be like them now.
One has to be good at elimination methods to choose the right option amongst two similar ones. Our Smash Prelims Program started as a pilot project last year with an aim to introduce step-wise improvement in our chosen 25 aspirants. Over a period of 2 months, Santhosh sir inculcated confidence in aspirants who were either newbies or gave too many attempts. This year, we achieved a remarkable 60% success ratio. Next year, we have set our eyes on 100%. Yes, we are ambitious and aspirational just like any other UPSC aspirant.
Why is Mentorship Required for UPSC-CSE Prelims in Every Step – From Test Series, to Study Materials, Classes to Doubt Resolution?
If you are appearing for UPSC-CSE 2022 exams, you might have completed your entire prelims and mains syllabus right now. So what are your main priorities right now? To succeed in UPSC-CSE Prelims 2022, you have to check all these boxes in terms of preparation—
You need clear strategy for next 150 days.
You need to revise effectively to remember whole syllabus at the eve of exam.
You need to practice lots of tests to score accurately, to understand elimination techniques and reduce exam anxiety.
You need to revise current affair of 1.5 years that you have been studying daily.
You need a mentor to fill the critical gaps that have been ignoring till now as you had no one to address them for you.
Santhosh Sir’s Weekly Zoom Session
Do you want to have a mentor who conducts and evaluates medium to advanced test series regularly? A mentor explains to you the different kinds of elimination techniques after you have taken a test series. Before attending a test do you want the mentor to discuss with you the study materials required for the test and provide the right notes with integrated current affairs? While studying a subject, you might have umpteen number of questions. Having someone who responds quickly and explains the topics in simple terms saves your time. And, after a test do you want an experienced mentor to discuss the right answers and motivate you? Do you want the mentor to provide you classes on static+dynamic prelims topics? If yes, then this is the right program for you! The registrations are open for all UPSC 2022 aspirants
Self Preparation with Mentorship: What do Civilsdaily Students think of Santosh Sir’s Mentorship for UPSC-CSE Prelims?
Santhosh Sir, Core Civilsdaily Mentor. He has attended Interview Thrice & Cleared Prelims 6/6 times with above 145 marks.
We asked Santosh sir’s students about their opinion on mentorship — if it was something that saved their time or wasted their time in studies and this is what they had to say:
Kamini: “If I can say in one word, then Santosh sir’s mentorship is unique. Before I joined his program, I used to score 90 marks in Full Length Test Series. Santhosh sir had done in depth analysis of my test papers and suggested ways to reduce the negatives. Right now I am able to score 100+ in advanced test series of not only Civilsdaily but other institutes. He is always available to clear my doubts and solve my issues on call or phone. No issue is too big enough for Santosh sir. He has always told me after you finish a test series, read the same topics again and take another test series the same day to see if your marks improve. From Santosh sir’s polity and economic survey notes, we got questions in 2021 Prelims. I always feel its better to do self studies with mentorship than join coaching institutes and get spoon fed with information.”
Sweetie Raj: “I am a banking professional, living with a joint family. Attending coaching classes is out of question because I won’t have time to read the books myself. Santosh sir helps me self-study by providing me mentorship daily. I study daily from 9PM to 3AM. Santosh sir has been available for 1 hour strategy calls even during this time. No other teacher would have wanted me to succeed as much as he wants me to. I can understand concepts by myself and don’t need help in that. I want someone who pushes me to complete the target modules, checks if I did my mains answer writing for the day and analyses the previous year question papers with me. Because of Santosh sir, I understood that its just not enough reading one book but at the same time I dont have to waste time reading many books. He tells me the topic-wise sources to refer. Also he has designed a study plan for me that I can follow every week. Once, I told Santhosh sir I was missing test series discussion classes as it was conducted at 7PM. Immediately, he provided me recorded videos and kept the session at 8.30PM.”
Specific Features of Smash Prelims 2022 by Santosh Sir
Sincere aspirants who are scoring in the range of 80-90 marks must not attend last minute crash courses right now. They should instead focus on self revision, test series practice and guided mentorship to qualify for UPSC Prelims 2022. Here are the features of Prelims Focused Program by Civilsdaily —
Pillar-1
PRELIMS TESTS:
40 Full Length Tests(12 Basic + 6 Advanced + 10 CA tests + 8 Full tests + 4 CSAT).
In addition to this, in the month of January, we will have 60 sectional tests for practice. This will have 50 questions each. Hence, totally 100 Test Papers (40 FLTs + 60 Sectional Test Papers)
CHECK OUT THE TEST SERIES PROGRAM ON FEBRUARY 15TH & REGISTER ASAP.
VALUE ADDITIONS NOTES AND CLASSES BY VETERAN CIVILSDAILY MENTORS like SUDHANSHU SIR, SAJAL SIR & SUKANYA MA’AM
Polity: Sudhanshu sirwill conduct two sessions covering all the Polity Fundamentals, a session analyzing past year papers, another session on important current affairs related to polity this year and will discuss your test solutions.
History: Santosh Gupta sir will conduct a session on Sectoral Developments in Modern History, a session analyzing past year papers, and test discussion.
Economy: Sajal sir will conduct sessions on economic survey, trend analysis, discussion of most important economic current affairs, past year paper analysis, and economy final test discussion.
Geography: Santosh sir will conduct sessions on the most difficult aspects like Geography Mapping, Economic Geography, and Indian Agriculture.
Environment:Sukanya Ma’amwill cover sessions on Environment innovatively. Key concepts like vegetation and biome, Indian wildlife, conventions and protocols, national parks and sanctuaries, agriculture and sustainable development, and environment current affairs will be covered.
Science & Technology: This year’s prelims paper questioned on the basic concepts of science. Keeping this in mind, Santosh Gupta sir will conduct 2 sessions on One basic concept and current affairs of science and technology.
2. Civilsdaily Current Affairs Magazines for 1 year
3. Civilsdaily compilations of Yojna, Kurukshetra, PRS and RS TV.
4. Civilsdaily Budget And Economic Survey Summary.
5. Handouts on key subject-wise static topics to remember the terms and definitions for Prelims 2022.
Pillar-3
Santosh Gupta sir’s mentorship program
1. Introductory mentor call to every aspirant immediately upon commencement of program.
2. Weekly zoom strategy session by Santosh sir for doubt clearance and continuous improvement.
3. 1-1 mentor calls after 3-4 tests by mentor. After every test series, zoom sessions will be conducted by Birendra sir with all members of the batch for test discussion.
4. Support from mentors on the Habitat Group.
5. Frequent sessions with toppers for support and guidance. will have these special features for aspirants.
6. Mentor will guide on the FCE Approach i.e the Factual and Conceptual Methods of Elimination.
7. Mentor call as per request and mandatory check up call by mentor once a month.
Toppers’ Speak: How Civilsdaily Mentorship Helped Me Clear UPSC?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSwO38weHAA
About Santosh Gupta Sir
Santosh sir has scored above 140 twice in UPSC prelims and 120 plus in all 6 attempts. He has written all 6 mains and has appeared for Interviews 3 times. He has qualified UPSC EPFO and BPSC 56-59th also. As the Prelims coordinator at Civilsdaily, he has helped 15 out of 25 students clear the prelims examination this year.
GS-2 Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
GS-3 Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
GS-4 Aptitude and foundational values for Civil Service, integrity, impartiality and non-partisanship, objectivity, dedication to public service, empathy, tolerance and compassion towards the weaker sections.
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The National Health Authority (NHA) — the body responsible for administering the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) — has initiated a consultation process on the retention of health data by healthcare providers in India. The consultation paper asks for feedback on what data is to be retained, and for how long.
Issues with the policy for healthcare data retention
Risk of over-collection: A simple classification system, as suggested in the consultation paper, exposes individuals to harms arising from over-collection and retention of unnecessary data.
At the same time, this kind of one-size-fits-all system can also lead to the under-retention of data that is genuinely required for research or public policy needs.
Instead, we should seek to classify data based on its use.
Do we need a policy for the mandatory retention of health data?
Currently, service providers can compete on how they handle the data of individuals or health records, in theory, each of us can choose a provider whose data policies we are comfortable with.
Whether the state should mandate a retention period at all is an open question.
Given the landscape of healthcare access in India, including through informal providers, many patients may not think about this factor in practice.
Nonetheless, the decision to take the choice out of the individual’s hands should not be taken lightly.
Balancing the policy for public health data retention with the right to privacy
Four-part test for privacy: The Supreme Court of India has clarified that privacy is a fundamental right, and any interference into the right must pass a four-part test: legality; legitimate aim; proportionality, and appropriate safeguards.
Health data and privacy: The mandatory retention of health data is one such form of interference with the right to privacy.
1] Legality: In this context, the question of legality becomes a question about the legal standing and authority of the NHA.
Since the NHA is not a sector-wide regulator, it has no legal basis for formulating guidelines for healthcare providers in general.
2]Legitimate aim: The aim of data retention is described in terms of benefits to the individual and the public at large.
Benefits to the individuals: Individuals benefit through greater convenience and choice, created through portability of health records.
The broader public benefits through research and innovation, driven by the availability of more and better data to analyse.
Risk involved: Globally, legal systems consider health data particularly sensitive, and recognise that improper disclosure of this data can expose a person to a range of significant harms.
Benefits must be clearly defined: As per Indian law, if an individual’s rights are to be curtailed due to anticipated benefits, such benefits cannot be potential or speculatory: they must be clearly defined and identifiable.
3] Proportionality: This is the difference between saying that data on patients with heart conditions will help us better understand cardiac health — a vague explanation — and being able to identify a specific study that will include data from that patient.
It would further mean demonstrating that the study requires personally identifiable information, rather than just an anonymous record — the latter flowing from the principle of proportionality, which requires choosing the least intrusive option available.
4] Safeguard: Standards for anonymisation are still developing.
We are not yet able to rule out the possibility of anonymised data still being linked back to specific individuals.
In other words, even anonymisation may not be the least intrusive solution to safeguarding patients’ rights in all scenarios.
Way forward
Clear and specific case for retention: The test for retaining data should be that a clear and specific case has been identified for such retention, following a rigorous process run by suitable authorities.
Anonymise data: A second safeguard would be to anonymise data that is being retained for research purposes — again, unless a specific case is made for keeping personally identifiable information.
If neither of these is true, the data should be deleted.
Express and informed consent: An alternate basis for retaining data can be the express and informed consent of the individual in question.
User-based classification process: Health-care service providers — and everyone else — will have to comply with the data protection law, once it is adopted by Parliament.
The current Bill already requires purpose limitation for collecting, processing, sharing, or retaining data; a use-based classification process would thus bring the ABDM ecosystem actors in compliance with this law as well.
Consider the question “What are the advantages and concerns with the retention of public health data? Suggest the ways to ensure the privacy-centric public health data retention policy.”
Conclusion
A privacy-centric process is needed to determine what data to retain and for how long.
