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  • [pib] 125 Years of Prabuddha Bharata Journal

    PM will address the 125th-anniversary celebrations of ‘Prabuddha Bharata’, a monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order, started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which one of the following pairs does not form part of the six systems of Indian Philosophy?

    (a) Mimamsa and Vedanta

    (b) Nyaya and Vaisheshika

    (c) Lokayata and Kapalika

    (d) Sankhya and Yoga

    Prabuddha Bharata

    • The journal ‘Prabuddha Bharata’ has been an important medium for spreading the message of India’s ancient spiritual wisdom.
    • It is India’s longest-running English language journal (wiki).
    • Its publication was started from Chennai (erstwhile Madras), where it continued to be published for two years, after which it was published from Almora.
    • Later, in April 1899, the place of publication of the Journal was shifted to Advaita Ashrama and it has been continuously published from there since then.
    • Some of the greatest personalities have left their imprint on the pages of ‘Prabuddha Bharata’ through their writings on Indian culture, spirituality, philosophy, history, psychology, art, and other social issues.
    • Luminaries like Netaji SC Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sister Nivedita, Sri Aurobindo, Former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, among others, have contributed to the Journal over the years.
  • (Tomorrow) 3rd Decimate Prelims Free Test | Few seats remaining for Sprint Prelims 2021 – Intensive revision program (link inside)

    (Tomorrow) 3rd Decimate Prelims Free Test | Few seats remaining for Sprint Prelims 2021 – Intensive revision program (link inside)

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    The third Decimate Prelims Open(free) Test 2021 has been scheduled for 31st Jan. The test will go live at 10 am.

    To help you understand your current preparation level before the start of our DECIMATE PRELIMS 2021 program three Free prelims tests were scheduled on 17th Jan, 24th Jan, and 31st Jan 2021.

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    3. Mode- Online, in English

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  • Myanmar’s Military Coup

    Myanmar’s military staged a coup detaining de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and declaring it had taken control of the country for one year under a state of emergency.

    Q.Despite its military coup, Myanmar is the key in linking South Asia to Southeast Asia and the eastern periphery becomes the focal point for New Delhi’s regional outreach. Analyse.

    What is the news?

    • The intervention came with rising tensions between the military, which ruled the country for nearly five decades, and the civilian government over allegations of fraud in November’s elections.
    • The military had signaled its intentions to seize power to settle its claims of irregularities in the polls, which Suu Kyi’s party won easily.

    How was the coup carried out?

    • The military detained the leaders of the governing NLD party and Myanmar’s civilian leadership, including Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, along with various ministers and even the opposition.
    • The military quickly seized control of the country’s infrastructure, suspending most television broadcasts and canceling all domestic and international flights, according to reports.
    • Telephone and internet access was suspended in major cities.
    • The stock market and commercial banks were closed, and long lines were seen outside ATMs in some places.
    • In Yangon, the country’s largest city and former capital, residents ran to markets to stock up on food and other supplies.

    Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?

    • Suu Kyi came to power as state councilor in 2016 after the country’s first fully democratic vote in decades.
    • Her ascension to leadership was seen as a critical moment in the transition of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to democracy from military dictatorship.
    • Suu Kyi, the daughter of the country’s independence hero General Aung San, spent more than 15 years under house arrest.
    • Her time in detention made her an international icon, and she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
    • Since her release, her reputation has been tarnished by her cooperation with the military and her deadly campaign against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group.

    India’s response to the takeover

    • India is “deeply concerned” with the return to military rule, which is a repeat of events thirty years ago.
    • It sees only option to engage, building on its outreach in recent years via the security and defence establishment.
    • India seeks a more pragmatic approach, engaging the military while pushing for more freedoms and democracy in Myanmar.

    Various issues concerning India

    • One important reason for the change is that India’s security relationship with the Myanmar military.
    • These days, it has become extremely close, and it would be difficult to “burn bridges” with them given their assistance in securing the North East frontiers from insurgent groups.
    • Apart from strategic concerns, India has cultivated several infrastructure and development projects with Myanmar, which it sees as the “gateway to the East” and ASEAN countries.
    • These include the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multi-modal transit transport network, as well as a plan for a Special Economic Zone at the Sittwe deep-water port.

  • [Burning Issue] Regime change in the US

    This January 20th officially marked the end of the Trump era in US politics as Joe Biden took over from him to become the 46th president of the United States of America. This major event is seen worldwide as undoing or a reset of American regressive protectionist policies and moves by Donald Trump.

    The world has been waiting for the day to unfold the broad contours of the policy on globalization and international relations. Most expect a return to the pre-Trump era with the US playing a more active role in world dynamics.

    India welcomes Biden

    PM Modi has personally congratulated Biden on his success and used the occasion to emphasize on the importance of strategic partnership between the two countries.  There is no doubt that the change of regime in the US will not affect the time-tested foundations of this friendship that were in fact laid with Obama administration declaring India as a major defense partner of the U.S.

    But much water has flown down the bridge since the time of Obama-Biden rule in the US after Trump.

    Lets’ have a look over recent developments in India-US ties:

    India’s relationship with the US has been largely confined only on strategic terms and the ties have been unusually constructive under Trump administration.

    In the strategic domain, this included, the finalization of many agreements and ministerial and QUAD meets among others.

    Challenges before the new regime

    President Joe Biden faces a slew of important foreign policy challenges some of which include:

    (A) Climate change

    • Joe Biden has warned the climate crisis poses an “existential threat” to the world as he unveiled a radical change in direction from the Trump era by halting fossil fuel activity on public lands.
    • He reaffirmed US commitment for Paris Agreement.
    • Biden said he will host an early Leaders’ Climate Summit aimed at raising climate ambition and making a positive contribution to the COP26 and beyond.

    (B) China’s expansionism

    • The coalition against China is likely to persist and ties with India and other Pacific nations, including Japan and Australia, may be further boosted.
    • Ties with Beijing were remarkably tense during the Trump administration.
    • The newly administered pentagon has continued Trumps legacy against China’s expansionist moves in the South East Asia.

    (C) Pakistan and terror

    • The Biden administration considers Pakistan a “major non-NATO ally,” a status bestowed upon only seventeen countries that facilitate military trade and cooperation.
    • However, in reality, Pakistan has not acted as an ally ever. The listing of Pakistan in FATF ‘Grey List’ clearly indicates its ambiguous policies.
    • It is against this backdrop that new US president Joe Biden must now confront the Pakistan test of appeasement of the new regime.

    (Lets’ not get into what the US prospect plans are with the Russia, Taliban and Afghanistan.)

    India’s expectations from the new regime

    • The US and India see each other as key strategic partners and analysts expect Indo-US relations to be less strained.
    • The major change India is hoping for is in terms of—software exports, H1 visa policy, minimum compensation for engineers via which Trump tried discouraging hiring Indian IT professionals.
    • Of late, the US was seen pressurizing India on its Agri subsidy policy, for which, there may not be a major shift, but it might be easier to deal with the new regime.

    Defense priorities

    • The new administration under Biden has iterated that India is ‘bipartisan success story’, and made it clear that strategic ties with India will remain strong, especially on the Indo-Pacific.
    • It ensured continuity from the Trump administration in dealing with China’s aggressive actions.

    India’s concerns remain

    South Asia does not seem to be a priority operational theatre for the new US administration. The Indian apprehension with regard to the Biden liberal administration seems to be a hard-press on various issues like:

    (A) Policies toward China and Pakistan

    • This could disrupt India’s current strategy. Whatever the complications for the US, Trump’s strident opposition toward China served Indian interests well.
    • India could avoid balancing against China and, until the recent troubles on the border, could actually entertain cooperation with Beijing.
    • India thus enjoyed the best of both worlds: limiting China’s opposition toward itself while having its rival constrained by American hostility.

    (B) Trade disputes

    • India seeks reinstatement of its privileged access as a developing country to the U.S. market.
    • Trump abolished this benefit and Biden may not restore it without greater U.S. access to the Indian market in return—exactly when New Delhi itself has become more Atmanirbhar.
    • More liberal U.S. visa policies for Indian professionals could take the sting out of these trade problems.

    (C) Look-out policies

    • Excepting its adversaries, the United States did not care much about what happened inside other countries in the areas of human rights, religious freedoms, and democratic practices.
    • A Biden administration would likely be different, bringing domestic Indian political developments under greater U.S. scrutiny and possibly pushback.
    • This could invite undue interference on Kashmir matters as well.

    (C) Iran

    • To be a friend of Iran and the US at the same time is getting more and more difficult day by day.
    • New Delhi may have to face a disappointment with Washington to continue its oil imports from Iran
    • After all, India needs Iran because of Chabahar and Afghanistan — where the American withdrawal is another bone of contention.

    Why does this regime change impacts India?

    (A) Support against terrorism

    • This intense engagement has helped achieve robust support from the US against terrorism.
    • This was evident after the Pulwama attack last year, leading to designation of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist under UN Security Council Resolution 1267, and the placing of Pakistan on the grey-list of the FATF.

    (B) Defence ties

    • For India, its relationship with the US on defence issues has strengthened. India has procured over $18 billion worth of defence items from the US, almost half of this in the last five years.
    • India conducts more bilateral exercises with the US than with any other country.

    (C) Energy

    • The other area where the relationship has grown in recent years is energy.
    • The bilateral Strategic Energy Partnership was launched in April 2018; India has started importing crude and LNG from the US from 2017 and 2018 respectively.
    • The total imports are estimated at $6.7 billion — having grown from zero.

    (D) Trade

    • In the backdrop of the global economic slowdown, where India’s global exports have fallen consistently, it is important for the country to diversify and strengthen bilateral relations with other markets.
    • It has set its sights on “large developed markets”, improved access to which would help its industry and services sectors.
    • These include the US, which has, over the last two decades, become a crucial trading partner in terms of both goods and services.

    US has no alternatives to India

    (A) India as an open data market

    • India is, after all, the largest open data market in the universe. Per capita, more data is consumed in India than anywhere else in the world.
    • For American “big tech” firms, India provides a scale for their products unavailable in any other country.
    • Despite current economic woes, this will continue to be the largest growing and relatively open consumer market for American products and business.

    (B) Indian-Americans

    • About 4.5 million people of Indian origin live in the US today, but despite their relatively small numbers, Indian Americans are a growing political force in the country.
    • Trump and even Biden has sought to court the Indian-American vote in the run-up to the 2020 election.

    (C) India as a defence partner

    • India is also a large arms importer.
    • Defence trade is widely seen as the silver lining in this relationship – US-India defence deals have ballooned in the past decade, from nearly zero in 2008 to a little more than $15bn in 2019.

    (D) Solution to China’s hegemony

    • On the trade front, India can be an effective supplier rather than being an outsourcing hub if compared to China.
    • Strategically also, the U.S. views India as a platform to contain China’s hegemony in the Indo-Pacific.
    • India sees it as an opportunity for economic expansion, with the U.S. being an equal partner.

    Way forward

    • There are rising concerns in the US about India’s fiscal limitations, its ties with Russia, its ponderous response to a pattern of Chinese provocations on its border, and its drift toward illiberal politics.
    • The current state of play suggests that the two countries might come at a crossroads.
    • India should be prepared to face a situation where Biden presidency is fully geared to deal with Chinese aggressiveness in the Indo-Pacific region militarily through QUAD.
    • India has to continue building its defence forces to counter any joint mischief by Pakistan and China on our borders even as our military-level talks with China for disengagement on LAC in Ladakh are kept up.
    • Also, India has to use all international forums to warn the democratic world against the grave threat of terrorism that it faces on account of the spread of radicalization.

    Conclusion

    • President Trump would be remembered for breaking from the traditional polity to confront the new challenges of the present, for shifting the focus from international politics to the domestic situation.
    • As usual, India cheers the inevitable strong support by the US on multiple fronts discussed above.  
    • However, India needs to keep the new US regime on its side for strategic and security reasons.
    • Till then, India should keenly watch Joe Biden unfold his foreign policy agenda.

  • POCSO Act

    In a recent judgement, Section 7 of POCSO Act was interpreted in a controversial way by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court. 

    Issue of the definition of sexual assault under POCSO Act

    • Recently, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court held that skin-to-skin contact is essential to constitute the offence defined under Section 7 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act).
    • Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, which deals with outraging modesty of women and which provides for a lesser sentence, was held to be applicable in such cases.
    • This ruling raises several concerns.
    • The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had asked the Maharashtra government to appeal this decision in the Supreme Court.
    • The Supreme Court has currently stayed the acquittal of the accused under this judgement.

    Concerns with the judgement

    • The Court held that the stringent nature of punishment provided for the offence required stricter proof and serious allegations.
    • The court said the punishment should be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime.
    • Nevertheless, while adjudging the seriousness of the offence the court has not given consideration to the fact that the victim, a minor, is entitled to greater protection.
    • The major concern is that the interpretation of the court seems to defeat the purpose of the POCSO Act.
    • Section 7 of POCSO defines sexual assault as “Whoever, with sexual intent touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the child or makes the child touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of such person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration is said to commit sexual assault.”
    •  The court has concluded that the touching of the breast without skin-to-skin contact is not similar to the abovementioned acts and, therefore, does not fall within this definition.
    • The court seems to have followed a rather pedantic approach to reach this conclusion.
    • The fact that the trauma of the child whose breasts were groped through a cloth could be of the same nature and severity as direct touching of the breast is not discussed.
    • And if the trauma is the same, the mere existence of cloth should not affect the applicability of the POCSO Act.

    Legislative history and object of POCSO Act

    POCSO Act

    • The POCSO Act was enacted with the specific intention of protecting children from sexual assault and sexual harassment.
    • It took into consideration the standards prescribed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations to which the Indian government acceded to on December 11, 1992.
    • The Act acknowledges the special vulnerability of children and that special protection, above and beyond that provided in the IPC, is required when the victim is a child.

    Conclusion

    If such an interpretation is followed, there is a threat that the POCSO Act in itself might become redundant as a wide range of sexually violative activities would be excluded from its ambit due to lack of skin-to-skin contact.

  • Recap: Covid 19 Vaccination Challenges

    Universal vaccination programs have eliminated smallpox and reduced serious diseases including measles, mumps, rotavirus, and polio. But in the coming few months, India will witness another great event in its history — the great Covid vaccination exercise. This is vaccination going to be one of the most anticipated events in the country. This mass universal vaccination drive might prove to be a daunting task.

    Making of a vaccine

    • A vaccine has to pass three tests to be successful – quality, ease of delivery, and public acceptance.
    • Quality, in turn, has three attributes – safety, efficacy, and duration of protection.
    • These are initially assessed in animals, then in humans through rigorously three-phased clinical trials involving thousands of persons, followed by post-marketing surveillance of several thousands more.

    India’s potential in vaccine-making

    • The universal immunisation programme in India has well established and time-tested vaccine distribution systems.
    • India has run massive immunisation programme earlier too, makes 60% of the world’s vaccines and is home to half a dozen major manufacturers, including Serum Institute of India – the largest in the world.
    • Not surprisingly, there’s no lack of ambition when it comes to vaccinating a billion people against Covid-19.
    • India plans to receive and utilise some 500 million doses of vaccines against the disease and immunize up to 250 million people by July next year.

    Mechanisms available

    • India’s vaccine distribution network is operated through four government medical store depots (GMSDs) in Karnal, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, which procure vaccines from the manufacturers.
    • About 53 state vaccine stores get their supplies either from these GMSDs or directly from manufacturers.
    • The state vaccine stores then distribute the vaccines to regional, district and sub-district level cold chain points via insulated vans.
    • The vaccine management has improved over the years thanks to a real-time supply chain management system known as the electronic vaccine intelligence network (eVIN).

    EVIN: The COVID-19 delivery system will use the UIP platform, with the innovative Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network enhancing efficiency and diligence.

    CO-WIN Platform: This user friendly mobile app for recording vaccine data is working as a beneficiary management platform having various modules. Once people start to register for the app, the platform will upload bulk data on co-morbidity provided by local authorities.

    India’s efficacy

    • India ranked within the 51-75 percentile range among 89 countries on effective vaccine management as per a global analysis by WHO-UNICEF in 2018.
    • Its performance was relatively poor when it came to following the required vaccine arrival procedures and using the MIS system for estimating demand of vaccine, syringe, etc.

    Various challenges looming before the roll-out of Vaccine

    [A] Infrastructure and other ground challenges

    For India, the magnitude of the task at hand is huge. If we have 1.3 billion Indians, a two-dose vaccine (such as Moderna or Oxford vaccine) implies 2.6 billion doses that need to be given across the nation.

    (1) Supply-chain challenges

    • The  supply  chain  of  the  vaccines  has to  be  strictly monitored  for  temperatures as the vaccines tend to be very sensitive to temperature variations.
    • Storing  the vaccines  in  temperature controlled  boxes proves  to  be  challenging  in  India,  because  of problems  with electricity supply, which in many places in India tends to get interrupted frequently.

    (2) Infrastructure challenges

    • Getting vaccines to people who need them will require over a billion vials to be manufactured, filled and shipped, at top speed and in some cases, under extreme stress.
    • India needs to scale up its cold chain and distribution infrastructure for the last-mile connectivity.
    • Cooling facilities in the final delivery stages and a lack of storage at clinics would pose the biggest challenge to delivering vaccines on a high scale.

     (3) Inter-state disparity

    • What adds to the vaccination challenge is the inter-state disparity in the distribution of cold chain points across the country.
    • Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar are among the least served states when it comes to cold chain infrastructure.
    • It won’t be easy to fill such deficits given that most of the private sector cold chain network is concentrated in the bigger cities and towns.

    [B] Access challenges

    (1) Access and affordability

    • Vaccine distribution poses another daunting challenge, and is accompanied by questions such as how much it will cost and who will pay for it.
    • Some of the concerns are about corruption over access to vaccines.

    (2) Vaccine safety

    • It is essential to assess safety as the vaccine will be administered to healthy persons.
    • This is a concern because some candidate vaccines have previously been known to have serious adverse effects.
    • The choices of vaccines, distribution, identifying groups for early vaccination, storage and more importantly, trained personnel, all play a role, the experts underline.

    (3) Uptake and monitoring

    • Apart from distribution and delivery, other issues would be vaccine uptake and monitoring.
    • Vaccine uptake requires confidence in the vaccines and the delivery system.
    • Documentation of vaccination and the tracking and investigation of vaccine safety events are essential components of monitoring.
    • India also has to battle with vaccine hesitancy. These have not been done well looking at the past experience.

    [C] Ethical challenges

    Acute humanitarian crises pose complex ethical dilemmas for policy-makers, particularly in settings with inadequate health-care services, which often become dependent on external agencies for urgently needed care.

    When resources, especially staff, are scarce, decision-makers often choose among interventions – implicitly or explicitly – on the basis of cost-effectiveness because they are seeking to maximize benefits.

    Many ethical issues surround the development and use of vaccines. These issues include

    • Requiring vaccination by law;
    • Development and testing of vaccines;
    • Informed consent about the benefits and risks of vaccination; and
    • Equitable distribution of vaccines

    Among these, one is very crucial, i.e.

    #Prioritization

    It is a matter of distributive justice. Distributive justice requires the fair allocation of scarce basic resources, such as shelter, food, potable water and vaccines is not an exception to this.

    • Different rules govern decision-making and priority-setting during acute crises.
    • Objective, transparent processes for making priority-setting decisions are extremely important to maintain trust in the vaccination plans.
    • Incidentally, the intent behind identifying the high-priority groups to receive the vaccine first was to safeguard them from severe disease and not to break the virus transmission chain.

    Prioritized group as per our Health Ministry

    Prioritized Population Groups include:

    1. Healthcare Workers in both Government and Private Healthcare facilities
    2. Frontline Workers including personnel from state and central police department, armed forces, home guard, civil defence organizations, disaster management volunteers and municipal workers and
    3. Prioritized Age Group, which includes those aged above 50 years & those with co-morbidities

    (Note: This is not the sequence, but categorization.)

    [D] The biggest global challenge: Vaccine Nationalism

    • Vaccine nationalism occurs when a country manages to secure doses of vaccine for its own citizens or residents before they are made available in other countries.
    • This is done through pre-purchase agreements between a government and a vaccine manufacturer.
    • It is harmful to equitable access to vaccines.

    Why it has to go away?

    • Most vaccine development projects involve several parties from multiple countries.
    • With modern vaccines, there are very few instances in which a single country can claim to be the sole developer of a vaccine.
    • And even if that were possible, global public health is borderless. As COVID-19 is illustrating, viruses can travel the globe.

    “An outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere”.

    Way forward

    • Considering the large population and limited capacity of production and distribution of vaccine, it will not be easy to provide everyone around the world with the vaccine at the same time.
    • There is a need to develop a strategy for the same which will guide us in deciding who should receive the vaccine first.
    • In this context, any effective vaccine that is developed should be treated as a global public good and should be distributed equally around the world, regardless of where it was invented or of a country’s ability to pay.
    • There has to be a comprehensive global framework that will ensure priority for the most vulnerable populations.
    • International institutions — including the WHO — should coordinate negotiations ahead of the next pandemic to produce a framework for equitable access to vaccines during public health crises.

    Conclusion

    The allocation of a limited supply of vaccine calls for a fine balance between utility and equality and fairness. Accountability demands that decision-making be explicit, documented and open to public review.

    • Efforts to maximize utility can conflict with the egalitarian goal of helping the neediest.
    • When limited supplies are allocated to the most vulnerable, overall health utility is sometimes suboptimal.
    • From the perspective of value pluralism, balancing utility and equality should be the goal, rather than prioritizing one or the other.
    • When it comes to vaccination, the utility is fortunately often greatest when the most socially disadvantaged groups are targeted.

    References

    https://www.livemint.com/news/india/india-s-vaccine-distribution-challenge-explained-in-five-charts-11607106132744.html

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55048925

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/covid-19-vaccine-global-health-covax/ https://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/a1G0X000006O6EHUA0?tab=publications

    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30773-8/fulltext#seccestitle90

    https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-the-unspoken-covid-19-vaccine-challenges-distribution-and-corruption-98437

  • Global antitrust and the challenge of Big Tech

    The article deals with the issue of checking the misuse of monopoly power by the Big Tech while encouraging their positive externalities.

    Worldwide Investigations against Big Tech

    • Big Tech firms, especially Facebook and Google have been investigated worldwide, including in the European Union and the United States, on the abuse of monopolistic power.
    •  Comparisons are drawn with investigations in the U.S. on the telecom industry and the break-up of the AT&T.
    • However, there are important differences this time around.
    •  First, the information good that is being provided by the Internet firms of today, is largely non-rival.
    • Second, Internet firms operate globally, therefore, it is often difficult to lay down international rules of obligation and fulfilment.
    • Third, while it is debatable whether the goods and services provided by the Internet firms are excludable.
    • It is this factor that was leveraged by the Internet firms to provide search, navigation, and social connectivity with no charge to the consumers, and, consequently, making these services non-excludable.

    Monetisation model of Big Techs and isseus with it

    • Public goods should be provided by governments, but the information goods as described above are being provided by private firms.
    • This arrangement poses several problems.
    • First, private firms need to have monetisation models to cover the costs of providing their services.
    • So,  the Internet firms have resorted to personalised advertisements and third-party sharing of the personal data of their users for monetisation purposes.
    • Second, the strong network effects present in these Internet platforms warrant increasing the subscriber base and garnering as much market share as possible.
    • This results in near-monopoly of some firms in their defined markets.
    • These firms may resort to anti-competitive behaviour including acquiring rivals to vertically integrate; erecting entry barriers by refusing to interconnect and inter-operate with competing firms, and leveraging their capital base, thereby engaging in predatory pricing, and driving out competitors.

    Positive externalities and consumer surplus

    • Network effects create a huge consumer surplus.
    • Even without our knowledge, these Internet firms have now become an indispensable part of our lives.
    • There are positive externalities as well, for example, Google Maps Application Program Interface (APIs) is being used by almost all logistic transand port companies.
    • Facebook APIs are used for advertisement by almost all firms across the industry.
    • Google, recently announced that its Search is being expanded to provide accurate and timely information on vaccine distribution to enable quick recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Challenge of regulation

    • The question before policymakers is how to regulate these Internet firms from abusing their monopoly power while encouraging the positive externalities and consumer surplus they create.
    • It is often very difficult to prove that the firms engage in the abuse of their monopoly power.
    • Due to strong network effects, it is not possible to ban or curtail these services.

    Way forward

    • A traditional view is to subsidise the good that creates positive externalities.
    • Governments can provide tax subsidy to these Internet firms in return for their orderly behaviour in the marketplace.
    • Governments could explore mandating sharing of Non-Personal Data (NPD) owned by these firms for societal and economic well-being as pointed out in the expert committee on NPD.
    • The other way to control any abusive behaviour of the Internet firms is to use the power of public voice.
    • The huge public outcry and subsequent government actions have delayed the recent changes to privacy policy relating to the sharing of personal information between WhatsApp and its parent firm, Facebook.

    Consider the question “Services provided by the Internet firms have become indispensable part of our life, this leads to the problem of checking their monopoly power while encouraging their positive externalities and consumer surplus. In light of this, discuss the challenges posed by the Big Techs and suggest the ways to deal with them.”

    Conclusion

    While governments and regulators deal with these dilemmas the Internet firms should adhere to core ethical principles in conducting their businesses as firms that aim at super monopoly profits and are greedy to become powerhouses of the world, often end up in the ditch.

    Back2Basics:What is positive externality

    • A positive externality exists if the production and consumption of a good or service benefits a third party not directly involved in the market transaction.
    •  For example, education directly benefits the individual and also provides benefits to society as a whole through the provision of more informed and productive citizens.

    What is Network Effect

    • The network effect is a phenomenon whereby increased numbers of people or participants improve the value of a good or service.
    • The Internet is an example of the network effect. Initially, there were few users on the Internet since it was of little value to anyone outside of the military and some research scientists.
    • However, as more users gained access to the Internet, they produced more content, information, and services.
    • The development and improvement of websites attracted more users to connect and do business with each other.
    • As the Internet experienced increases in traffic, it offered more value, leading to a network effect.

  • President’s address in Parliament

    Many Opposition parties announced their decision to boycott the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget session in solidarity with the farmers protesting against the three farm laws.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. The President’s address is one of the most solemn occasions in the Parliamentary calendar. Discuss. Highlight its importance in Parliamentary Democracy.

    President’s address

    • The Constitution gives the President the power to address either House or a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.
    • Article 87 provides two special occasions on which the President addresses a joint sitting. The first is to address the opening session of a new legislature after a general election.
    • The second is to address the first sitting of Parliament each year. A session of a new or continuing legislature cannot begin without fulfilling this requirement.
    • When the Constitution came into force, the President was required to address each session of Parliament.

    In the UK, the history of the monarch addressing the Parliament goes back to the 16th century.  In the US, President Gorge Washington addressed Congress for the first time in 1790.

    History & precedent

    • In India, the practice of the President addressing Parliament can be traced back to the Government of India Act of 1919.
    • This law gave the Governor-General the right of addressing the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State.
    • The law did not have a provision for a joint address but the Governor-General did address the Assembly and the Council together on multiple occasions.
    • There was no address by him to the Constituent Assembly (Legislative) from 1947 to 1950.
    • And after the Constitution came into force, President Rajendra Prasad addressed members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for the first time on January 31, 1950.

    By the govt, about the govt

    • The President’s speech essentially highlights the government’s policy priorities and plans for the upcoming year. The address provides a broad framework of the government’s agenda and direction.
    • There is no set format for the President’s speech. The Constitution states that the President shall “inform Parliament of the cause of the summons”.

    How it is done in India?

    • The speech that the President reads is the viewpoint of the government and is written by it.
    • Usually, in December, the PM’s Office asks the various ministries to start sending in their inputs for the speech.
    • A message also goes out from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs asking ministries to send information about any legislative proposals that need to be included in the President’s address.
    • All this information is aggregated and shaped into a speech, which is then sent to the President. The government uses the President’s address to make policy and legislative announcements.

    Assembly debates on the matter

    • During the making of the Constitution, Prof K T Shah wanted the President’s address to be more specific.
    • He suggested that the language be changed to specify that the President shall inform Parliament “on the general state of the Union including financial proposals, and other particular issues of policy he deems suitable for such address”.
    • His amendment was inspired by the US Constitution, according to which the President gives to Congress information on the State of the Union, and recommend measures as he shall judge necessary.
    • But Shah’s amendment was rejected by the Constituent Assembly.
    • The address of the President follows a general structure in which it highlights the government’s accomplishments from the previous year and sets the broad governance agenda for the coming year.

    Notable addresses till date

    • In 1985 President Giani Zail Singh announced that PM Rajiv Gandhi’s government intended to introduce a new national education policy and the anti-defection law.
    • In 1996, PM Vajpayee’s 13-day government announced its intention of giving statehood to Uttaranchal and Vananchal (Jharkhand) and 33 percent reservation to women in legislatures.
    • During his second stint in 1999, Vajpayee’s government mooted the idea of a fixed term for Lok Sabha and State Vidhan Sabhas.
    • After the devastating tsunami of 2004, PM Manmohan Singh’s government used the President’s Address to announce the creation of a national law for disaster management.

    Procedure & tradition

    • In the days following the President’s address, a motion is moved in the two Houses thanking the President for his address.
    • This is an occasion for MPs in the two Houses to have a broad debate on governance in the country.
    • The PM replies to the motion of thanks in both Houses and responds to the issues raised by MPs.
    • The motion is then put to vote and MPs can express their disagreement by moving amendments to the motion.

    Role of the opposition

    • Opposition MPs have been successful in getting amendments passed to the motion of thanks in Rajya Sabha on five occasions (1980, 1989, 2001, 2015, 2016).
    • They have been less successful in Lok Sabha. For example in 2018, Lok Sabha MPs tabled 845 amendments of which 375 were moved and negated.

    Significance of the address

    • The President’s address is one of the most solemn occasions in the Parliamentary calendar.
    • It is the only occasion in the year when the entire Parliament, i.e. the President, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha come together.
    • The event is associated with ceremony and protocol.
    • The Lok Sabha Secretariat prepares extensively for this annual event.
    • In the past, it used to get 150 yards of red baize cloth from the President’s house for the ceremonial procession.

  • What is Dark Matter?

    Space scientists from the University of Sussex have found a new way to know more about dark matter. They have narrowed down the range of masses within which particles that could make up dark matter may lie in.

    What is the news about?

    • Around 95 % of the Universe is unknown to human beings.
    • It is often referred to as dark which has nothing to do with the colour of any substance but to do with the unknown nature of cosmic entities known as dark matter and dark energy.

    Trending in news these days is the Quantum Technology. (as it used to be until last year were- the Internet of Things (IoT) CSP 2019, Artificial Intelligence (AI) etc.)

    Must read all this news in a loop:

    1. National Mission on QC
    2. Quantum Coin
    3. Quantum Supremacy
    4. Quantum Entanglement

    What is Dark Matter?

    • Dark matter is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so they cannot be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation.
    • Dark matter is a form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total mass-energy density or about 2.241×10−27 kg/m3.

    What does the research say?

    • Scientists carried out the research using quantum gravity, a field of study that tries to combine two of Einstein’s concepts — quantum physics and general relativity theory of gravity.
    • This is the first time anyone has thought of using what we know about quantum gravity to calculate the mass range for dark matter.
    • Their research shows that the dark matter particles can neither be super light nor super heavy unless there is a force acting on it that is yet unknown.

    Quantum gravity: The concept

    • Quantum gravity is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics.
    • Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles.
    • Here quantum effects cannot be ignored, such as in the vicinity of black holes or similar compact astrophysical objects where the effects of gravity are strong, such as neutron stars.

    Significance of the findings

    • This might help in finding out more about this mysterious force. There are currently four known forces in the Universe — gravitational, electromagnetic, weak and strong.
    • Scientists estimate that roughly 68 per cent of the Universe is made up of dark energy which is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the Universe.
    • Another 27 per cent is a dark matter whose existence was inferred from the observation that ordinary matter in galaxies, including the Milky Way, is far less than that required by gravity to hold the galaxies together.

    Why does the ‘Dark Matter’ matter?

    • Dark matter’s gravitational effects are also necessary to explain the motions of clusters of galaxies and the structure of the entire Universe at the largest scale.
    • On smaller scales, dark matter is too diffused to impact the motion of the Solar System, Earth or the origin and evolution of humans in any significant way.
    • But the nature of that dark matter is still unclear. It is most likely made of particles that do not couple to light because of which humans cannot see them.

  • Patharughat Uprising of Assam (1894)

    Twenty-five years before the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, more than a hundred peasants fell to the bullets of the British on January 28, 1894, in Patharughat, a small village in Assam’s Darrang district.

    Make a note of all breakthrough peasants’ revolt in the nineteenth century. Also, try this PYQ:

    Q.The demand for the Tebhaga Peasant Movement in Bengal was for-

    (a) The reduction of the share of the landlords from one-half of the crop to one-third

    (b) The grant of ownership of land to peasants as they were the actual cultivators of the land

    (c) The uprooting of Zamindari system and the end of serfdom

    (d) Writing off all peasant debts

    Patharughat uprising

    • After the British annexation of Assam in 1826, surveys of the vast lands of the state began.
    • On the basis of such surveys, the British began to impose land taxes, much to the resentment of the farmers.
    • In 1893, the British government decided to increase agricultural land tax reportedly by 70- 80 per cent.
    • Up until then the peasants would pay taxes in kind or provide service in lieu of cash.
    • Across Assam, peasants began protesting the move by organising Raij Mels, or peaceful peoples’ conventions.

    The day of the massacre

    • The unarmed peasants were protesting against the increase in land revenue levied by the colonial administration when the military opened fire.
    • Despite these gatherings being democratic, the British perceived them as “breeding grounds for sedition”.
    • On January 28, 1894, when the British officers were refusing to listen to the farmers’ grievances, things heated up.
    • There was a lathi charge, followed by an open firing which killed many of the peasants present.
    • Official records, as mentioned in the Darrang District Gazette, 1905, edited by BC Allen, placed the casualties in the Patharughat incident as 15 killed and 37 wounded.

    Why was the incident significant?

    • The incident was one of the most tragic and inspiring episodes in the saga of the Indian freedom movement.
    • However, it rarely features in the mainstream historical discourse of the freedom struggle.
    • For the larger Assamese community, Patharughat comes second only to the Battle of Saraighat, when the Ahoms defeated the Mughals in 1671.

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