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  • U.S. to support intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines

    US in support of TRIPS waiver

    • The United States announced its support to an initiative at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to waive Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) protection for COVID-19 vaccines.
    • The initiative was first floated by India and South Africa last October.
    • Over a 100 countries have supported the proposal, according to the Associated Press.

    Opposition to the move

    • Among the arguments proffered to retain IP protection are that biotech jobs will be transferred from the U.S. to foreign countries and that waiving IP still not does overcome bottlenecks like manufacturing capacity.
    • Twelve Republican Members of Congress wrote to Mr. Biden on Tuesday urging him to consider other means to increase vaccine access that did not involve weaking IP protections.
    • Weakening protections would hamper American competitiveness and innovation, they said.

  • [pib] Kerala presents its Annual Action plan under Jal Jeevan Mission

    Annual Action Plan presented

    • Annual Action Plan (AAP) on planning and implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Kerala was presented.
    • Kerala State officials outlined the roadmap of the financial year 2021-2022 to the national committee via video conferencing.
    • The State plans to achieve the target of ‘Har Ghar Jal’ by 2024.
    • The State also plans to provide potable water in all quality-affected habitations by June 2021 through piped water supply or Community Water Purification Plants (CWPP).
    • The national committee analysed and advised on the plan presented by the State.
    • The committee emphasized the preparation of Village Action Plans and the constitution of Village Water &Sanitation Committee/ Pani Samiti as a sub-committee of Gram Panchayat with a minimum 50% of women members.
    • Also, emphasis is required on Water Quality Monitoring & Surveillance (WQM&S) activities to ensure Field Test Kit testing at Gram Panchayat level, Aanganwadi centres and schools.

    About Jal Jeevan Mission

    • Jal Jeevan Mission is the flagship programme of Government of India, which aims to provide household tap water connection to every rural household by 2024.
    • Since announcement of the mission in August 2019, 4.17 Core new tap connections have been provided in the rural areas of the country during this period.
    • As a result, 7.40 Crore (38.56%) rural households have tap water supply vis-à-vis 3.23 Crore (17%) in 2019.
    •  Efforts are made to dovetail all available resources by convergence of different programmes viz. MGNREGS, SBM, 15th Finance Commission Grants to PRIs, CAMPA funds, Local Area Development Funds, etc.

    Allocation for the JJM

    •  In 2021-22, Rs. 50,000 Crore budgetary allocation has been made for Jal Jeevan Mission.
    • In addition to this, there is also Rs. 26,940 Crore assured fund available under the 15th Finance Commission tied grants to RLBs/ PRIs for water & sanitation, matching State share and externally aided projects.
    • Thus, in 2021-22, more than Rs. 1 lakh Crore is planned to be invested in the country on ensuring tap water supply to rural homes.
    • This huge investment will give a boost to manufacturing activities, create employment opportunities in rural areas as well boost the rural economy.

  • The vaccine patent row

    What is the vaccine patent row about?

    • Medicines and other inventions are covered by patents which provide legal protection against being copied, and vaccines are no exception.
    • Patents give makers the rights to their discoveries as well as the means to make more money from them – which is an incentive to encourage innovation.
    • But these are not normal times.
    • Last autumn, developing nations led by India and South Africa proposed to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that the patents on vaccinations and other Covid-related items should be waived.
    • They argued that, given the extreme nature of the pandemic, the recipe for the life-saving jabs should be made widely available so they could be produced locally in bulk by other manufacturers.

    What’s the problem?

    • The proposals were met with immediate criticism from pharmaceutical companies and Western nations including the EU, UK and the US.
    • The obvious objection to lifting patents is that it could erode revenue and deter innovation.

    So, does this just come down to money?

    • The key argument from vaccine producers and their home countries is that waiving patents alone wouldn’t solve much. It would, they say, be like handing out a recipe without the ingredients or instructions.
    • The patent covers the bare bones of the blue print but not the precise production process. That’s crucial here. Vaccines of the mRNA type – such as Pfizer and Moderna – are a new breed and only a small number of people understand how to make them.
    • BioNTech, the German company which partnered with Pfizer, have said that developing the manufacturing process took a decade and validating production sites can take up to a year. The availability of the raw materials needed has also been an issue.
    • Industry bodies fear that without access to all the know-how and parts, a waiver could result in quality, safety and efficacy issues and possibly even counterfeits. They point out that Moderna has already said it would not prosecute those found to be infringing their patent – but no one has yet.

    What’s the alternative?

    • The EU says it is ready to talk, but it previously said the best short-term fix would be supply chain improvements and pushing richer countries to export more jabs.
    • The UK says it is one of the biggest donors to Covax, which is masterminding the rollout of vaccines to many poorer countries. It also favours voluntary licensing – such as collaborations between the Serum Institute of India and Oxford-AstraZeneca. It wants the WTO, which oversees the rules on global trade, to support more partnerships.
    • The WTO system allows for this licensing arrangement to go even further. Governments can impose compulsory licenses on vaccine makers, compelling them to share their know-how and overseeing the production process along the way. But those pharmaceutical companies would have to be compensated for doing so.

    Why did the US change its mind?

    The announcement came after the US Trade Representative Katharine Tai held meetings with the big vaccine makers in an effort to supercharge vaccine production.

    What happens next?

    • Now the discussions will continue at the WTO where decisions are made by consensus.
    • Without the backing of other key nations, the proposals may stall. But they may pave the way to a compromise that could boost production.
    • The key question is when – and by how much.

    Support grows for IP waiver

    • Attention is now turning to those richer nations, notably in the European Union — and France was the first to voice its support.
    • France joined the United States in supporting an easing of patent and other protections on COVID-19 vaccines that could help poorer countries get more doses and speed the end of the pandemic.
    • Russian President Vladimir Putin also said he supported the idea of a waiver on patent protections for coronavirus vaccines.

     

  • [pib] India-UK virtual summit strengthens STI cooperation

    Enhance partnership in science, education, research and innovation

    • The Prime Minister of India and the UK  met virtually on 4 May 2021 and emphasised their shared commitment to an enhanced partnership in science, education, research and innovation.
    • In keeping with this commitment, both the leaders welcomed the following:
    • The new MoU on Telecommunications/ICT and the Joint Declaration of Intent on Digital and Technology.
    • There was also the establishment of new high-level dialogues on tech.
    • A new joint rapid research investment into Covid19.
    • A new partnership to support zoonotic research,
    • New investment to advance understanding of weather and climate science.
    • There will be continuation of the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI).

    Key points to strengthen STI cooperation

    • Enhance cooperation between India and the UK on strengthening the role of women in STEM at schools, universities, and research institutions through initiatives like Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI) project.
    • Develop collaborations between Industry, Academia and the Government to foster innovation among school students by focusing on teacher training, mentoring and sharing of global best practices through initiatives like the India Innovation Competency Enhancement Program (IICEP)
    • Build on the two countries’ existing bilateral research, science and innovation infrastructure and governmental relationships to continue to support high-quality, high-impact research and innovation through joint processes.
    • Forge partnership across the pipeline of research and innovation activity, from basic research to applied and interdisciplinary research.
    • Leverage and build on existing, long-standing bilateral partnerships such as on education, research and innovation, to stimulate a joint pipeline of talent, excellent researchers and early-career innovators.
    • Work together to share knowledge and expertise regarding artificial intelligence, scientific support to policies and regulatory aspects including ethics, and promote a dialogue in research and innovation.
    • Through Tech Summits, bring together tech innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs and policy makers to work together on challenges including the norms and governance of future tech under the cross-cutting theme of ‘data’.
    •  Grow programmes such as the Fast Track Start-Up Fund to nurture innovation-led, sustainable growth and jobs, and tech solutions that benefit both countries.

  • 7th May 2021 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

    [WpProQuiz 624]

    [WpProQuiz_toplist 624]

  • 6th May 2021 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

    [WpProQuiz 623]

    [WpProQuiz_toplist 623]

  • What the easing of IP norms on Covid vaccines means for India

    Background of waiver proposal

    • U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration announced its support for waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
    • Following the onset of the pandemic, the World Health Organisation proposed a COVID-technology access pool as a knowledge sharing initiative to rapidly scale up vaccine output around the world.
    • As vaccine research progressed last year, wealthy and advanced countries, placed huge advance purchase orders for vaccines.
    • This meant that smaller, developing countries would take longer to get vaccines and find resources to pay for them.
    • In October 2020, India and South Africa floated a proposal at the World Trade Organisation’s TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Council to waive certain provisions of the WTO’s TRIPS pact till the pandemic subsides.
    • The proposal envisaged facilitating wider access to technologies necessary for the production of vaccines and medicines.
    • While a majority of the least developed countries backed the proposal, some like China, Turkey and Thailand sought more clarity.
    • However, the proposal was nixed with the E.U., the U.S., Switzerland, Norway, Australia, Canada, Japan and the U.K. rejecting it outright, along with Brazil.
    • Among other things, the argument was that such waivers could dampen innovation and research in areas such as pharmaceuticals and diagnostic technologies.

    What next

    • The WTO’s TRIPS Council is tentatively expected to hold a meeting on the waiver proposal again later this month.
    • If and when an agreement is reached here, the WTO’s Ministerial Council will also have to sign off.
    • Since WTO decisions are based on consensus, all 164 members need to agree on every single aspect of the negotiated waivers and conditions attached.

    Way forward for India

    • The Centre can take two steps immediately in consonance with its stance at the WTO, following the U.S.’ statement of support.
    • The Union government must issue notification under Sections 92 and 100 of the Patents Act to freely licence all patents necessary for vaccine and drug production to treat COVID-19.
    • Issues of the amount of royalties can be decided in due course as laid out in the Patents Act, but that should not come in the way of immediate licensing by the government.
    • The government need to provide full support to companies to scale up vaccine production.
    • Indian industry has a well-respected expertise and capability to rapidly manufacture raw materials, consumables and equipment necessary to produce drugs, vaccines, medical devices and equipment if Intellectual Property barriers are removed.

    ————————————————-//—————————————

    BACK2BASICS

    • COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) will compile, in one place, pledges of commitment made under the Solidarity Call to Action to voluntarily share COVID-19 health technology-related knowledge, intellectual property and data. C-TAP works through its implementing partners, the Medicines Patent Pool, Open COVID Pledge, UN Technology Bank-hosted Technology Access Partnership and Unitaid to facilitate timely, equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health technologies.

    Understand how the story has progressed:

    India seeks TRIPS waiver for Vaccines

    How IPR served as barrier to the right to access healthcare

  • ESCAPE THE SNOOZE MODE IN YOUR UPSC-CSE PREPARATION

    ESCAPE THE SNOOZE MODE IN YOUR UPSC-CSE PREPARATION

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    They are Consistently Inconsistent. Meaning, they go through these highs and lows in their preparation. They are able to study for days, week but they hit a sudden gap in preparation. Then, they find it very hard to come back. The good news is that we have the solution.

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    Our philosophy behind MENTORSHIP is to get you out of this Snooze cycle. This ensures that you are the BEST VERSION of yourself in this journey. If you are under the impression that mentorship is weekly calls you attend, then you are mistaken, my friend. Trust us, your mentor will be your ‘FRIEND, PHILOSOPHER AND GUIDE’.

    How Mentorship can fight inconsistency in preparation?

    TO EACH THEIR OWN – Every aspirant is different. Their strengths and weaknesses are different. Their time availability is also different. Identifying this is important so you don’t end up making unrealistic targets and lose momentum. Your mentor will make sure you start slow but remain consistent to build your confidence. Making your schedule structured based on our experience of working with 2500+ students is our first priority. 

    TRACK YOUR PROGRESS – When you see yourself grow, it becomes easier to motivate yourself to push boundaries. Tracking your progress can happen in many ways like mentorship calls or chat sessions or by regular tests. The idea is to ensure that you don’t go off track in your preparation, and even if you do, we have your back.

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    EVOLUTION – A constant guidance is important to bring consistency to your UPSC preparation. Guidance is not about clearing your doubts or asking you to study when you don’t. It is also about the evolution of your preparation. This is where you and your mentor work as a team. A constant effort to PLAN AND BUILD UP YOUR ABILITY to learn in a faster and more efficient way.

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    TALK IT OUT – The biggest hurdle in achieving your highest level of consistency is the emotional part. Every now and then, you. surround yourself with negative thoughts, you feel scared and depressed. Instead of resolving these emotional issues, you avoid them as it seems like a waste of your precious time. You have to understand that ignoring emotional troubles does not solve them. What your doing is building an emotional time bomb that may burst a week before your mains or prelims! This is where your MENTOR AS A FRIEND comes in. All our mentors have been through this journey. We understand your fears and anxieties. So, TALK IT OUT.

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    Don’t let inconsistency keep you away from your dreams.

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  • India should go all out in its Westward trade push

    After walking away from the RCEP, India needs to find alternative trading partners that can offer the potential for trade expansion. The article suggests a Westward trade push as an alternative.

    Forging trade deals with the Western countries

    • Our rejection of RCEP, which covers much of the eastern hemisphere, had exposed us to the risk of losing out on cross-border commercial relations in a highly dynamic part of the world.
    • To compensate for the opportunity cost of that decision, it was imperative to strike other alliances.
    •  As a part of this, India adopted a roadmap for the rest of this decade to elevate ties with the UK and also moving to revive free-trade talks with the EU.
    • An India-UK plan unveiled recently will raise our bilateral relationship to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership in such areas as economic affairs, defence and health.
    • The two countries signed a £1-billion trade investment pact that is expected to generate jobs in both.
    • Separately, India and the EU are reportedly working out how to resume stalled negotiations for a trade deal.

    Issues India may face

    • The signing of pacts would involve mutual tariff reductions and the lowering of other barriers, both of which have proven thorny so far.
    • In general, while the West wants us to lower import duties, our negotiators have been citing India’s sovereign right to protect domestic businesses under World Trade Organization rules.
    • Globally, even before covid knocked the wind out of the sails of cargo ships, commerce across borders had been doing badly under the extended effects of a financial crisis that shook things up in 2008-09.
    • But world trade remains a reliable path to global prosperity and must therefore regain its gusto.
    • For us, deal-making would mean opening up markets to imports in lieu of easier access to foreign ones.

    Way forward

    • Concessions that cause very few job losses in India can easily be made. A broad cost-benefit analysis will have to guide our approach to talks, on complex issues like US visa rules which affect our software exports.
    • Since it is governments that thrash out deals, geopolitical convergences are often sought too.
    • We seem to be in a favourable position on this, given the West’s need to keep China’s rise in check.
    • The UK’s Rolls-Royce has just inked a memorandum with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for warship engines, a sign of our strategic ties.
    • Technology could come our way from the US, too.
    • If we can leverage an ability to play a role in Asia’s balance of power to our economic benefit, we should.

    Conclusion

    Mutually assured flexibility on tariff concessions would help India and its Western partners score economic gains and also counterbalance China’s growing dominance of world trade.

    —————————————————//———————————-

    B2B

    [pib] India-UK Virtual Summit

  • Reading Maratha quota verdict

    • A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the Maharashtra law granting reservation to the Maratha community.
    • The court had framed six questions of law on the issue.
    • The court unanimously agreed on three of those issues, while the verdict was split 3:2 on the other three.

    Issue 1:  Whether Indra Sawhney judgment needs to be revisited

    • One of the key issues was to examine whether the 1992 landmark ruling by the nine-judge bench in Indra Sawhney v Union of India had to be revisited.
    • First, it said that the criteria for a group to qualify for reservation is “social and educational backwardness”.
    • Second, it reiterated the 50% limit to vertical quotas reasoning that it was needed to ensure “efficiency” in administration.
    • However, the court said that this 50% limit will apply unless in “exceptional circumstances”.
    • The Maratha quota exceeded the 50% ceiling. 
    • The arguments by state governments before the court was that the Indra Sawhney verdict must be referred to a 11-judge Bench for reconsideration since it laid down an arbitrary ceiling which the Constitution does not envisage.
    • The court said that the 50% ceiling, although an arbitrary determination by the court in 1992, is now constitutionally recognized and held that there is no need to revisit the case.

    Issue 2 and 3: Does Maratha quota law come under exceptional circumstances

    • The state government’s argument was that since the population of backward class is 85% and reservation limit is only 50%, an increase in reservation limit would qualify as an extraordinary circumstance.
    • All five judges disagreed with this argument.
    • The bench ruled that the above situation is not extraordinary.

    Issue 4,5 and 6: Validity of 102nd Amendment

    • The Constitution (One Hundred and Second Amendment) Act, 2018 gives constitutional status to the National Backward Classes Commission.
    • The Amendment also gives the President powers to notify backward classes.
    • The Bench unanimously upheld the constitutional validity of the 102nd Amendment but differed on the question of whether it affected the power of states to identify socially and economically backward classes (SEBCs).
    • Attorney General, appearing for the central government, clarified that this was not the intention of the law.
    • The Attorney General argued that it is inconceivable that no State shall have the power to identify backward class”.
    • The Attorney General explained that the state government will have their separate list of SEBCs for providing reservations in state government jobs and education.
    • The Parliament will only make the central list of SEBCs which would apply for central government jobs.
    • However, the Supreme Court held that “the final say in regard to inclusion or exclusion (or modification of lists) of SEBCs is firstly with the President, and thereafter, in case of modification or exclusion from the lists initially published, with the Parliament”.
    • This raises a question: How does this impact interventions by other states to provide reservations for other communities, for example Jats in Haryana and Kapus in Andhra?
    • The majority opinion essentially says that now the National Backward Classes Commission must publish a fresh list of SEBCs, both for states and the central list.
    • The Supreme Court also issued a direction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India which says that till the publication of the fresh list the existing lists will continue to operate.

    ————————————————-//————————————-

    BACK2BASICS

    • National Commission for Backward Classes is a constitutional body (102nd amendment 2018 in the constitution to make it a constitutional body) (Article 338B of the Indian Constitution).
    • It was constituted pursuant to the provisions of the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993.
    • According to Article 338B, Commission shall consist of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and three other Members and the conditions of service and tenure of office of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and other Members so appointed shall be such as the President may by rule determine. The Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and other Members of the Commission shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal.

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