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Alcohol Laws in India
The most ambitious Delhi’s Alcohol Policy 2021-22 which brought in big discounts for consumers was scrapped on July 31 amid allegations of corruption and irregularities in the drafting and implementation of the policy.
After scrapping the new policy, the Delhi government decided to bring back the ‘old excise regime’ that was in force before.
Definitely! We shall not nit-pick the old vs. new policy. Let us generally understand how alcohol is regulated in India.
Alcohol laws of India: A backgrounder
- The legal drinking age in India and the laws which regulate the sale and consumption of alcohol vary significantly from state to state.
- In India, consumption of alcohol is prohibited in the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Nagaland and Mizoram.
- There is partial ban on alcohol in some districts of Manipur.
- All other Indian states permit alcohol consumption but fix a legal drinking age, which ranges at different ages per region.
- In some states the legal drinking age can be different for different types of alcoholic beverage.
Regulation
- Alcohol is a subject in the State List under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.
- Therefore, the laws governing alcohol vary from state to state.
- Liquor in India is generally sold at liquor stores, restaurants, hotels, bars, pubs, clubs and discos but not online.
- Some states, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, prohibit private parties from owning liquor stores making the state government the sole retailer of alcohol in those states.
- In some states, liquor may be sold at groceries, departmental stores, banquet halls and/or farm houses.
- Some tourist areas have special laws allowing the sale of alcohol on beaches and houseboats.
Drunk driving law
- The blood alcohol content (BAC) legal limit is 0.03% or 0.03 mg alcohol in 100 ml blood.
- On 1 March 2012, the Union Cabinet approved proposed changes to the Motor Vehicle Act.
- Higher penalties were introduced, including fines from ₹2,000 to ₹10,000 and imprisonment from 6 months to 4 years.
- Different penalties are assessed depending on the blood alcohol content at the time of the offence.
Dry days
- Dry days are specific days when the sale of alcohol is not permitted.
- Most of the Indian states observe these days on major national festivals/occasions such as Republic Day (26 January), Independence Day (15 August) and Gandhi Jayanti (2 October).
- Dry days are also observed during elections in India.
Taxation on Alcohol
- Most states levy either Value added Tax (VAT) or Excise duty or both.
- Excise duty is a tax levied to discourage the consumption of a product.
- It is calculated on a per-unit basis. Meaning, if you buy 1 litre of liquor, you pay a fixed excise duty of Rs 15.
- Value-added Tax is charged in the proportion of the product. If a bottle costs Rs 100, and the state levies 10 percent VAT, the price rises to Rs 110.
Tax rates in States
- The 29 states/UTs in India approach liquor taxation differently.
- For instance, Gujarat has banned its citizens from consuming liquor since 1961.
- But outsiders with special licenses can still buy.
- Puducherry, on the other hand, earns most of its revenue from alcohol trading.
- Bihar has prohibited alcohol consumption entirely, meaning the state’s revenue from liquor consumption is nil.
- Its neighbour, Uttar Pradesh, earns the most excise duty on liquor.
- The state does not levy VAT but a special duty on liquor, collecting funds for particular purposes.
Do you know?
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu consume as much as 45 percent of the liquor sold in the country.
Nationally, Maharashtra charges the highest rate but draws only a portion of its revenue from its sales.
Why alcohol isn’t banned everywhere?
- Taxes from alcohol sales roughly form a quarter of state revenues.
- If this stream suddenly stops, states have to compulsorily cut some important spending.
- Also, moderate alcohol consumption may provide some health benefits.
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What it will take to fulfill India’s Solar Power Dream?
From less than 10 MW in 2010, India has added significant PV capacity over the past decade, achieving over 50 GW by 2022.
Solar energy in India
- Solar photovoltaics (PV) has driven India’s push towards the adoption of cleaner energy generation technologies.
- India is targeting about 500 GW by 2030, of renewable energy deployment, out of which ~280 GW is expected from solar PV.
- This necessitates the deployment of nearly 30 GW of solar capacity every year until 2030.
Key components
- A typical solar PV value chain consists of first fabricating polysilicon ingots which need to be transformed into thin Silicon wafers that are needed to manufacture the PV mini-modules.
- The mini-modules are then assembled into market-ready and field-deployable modules.
Various challenges
There are challenges that need to be overcome for the sustainability of the PV economy.
(1) PV Modules
- Indian solar deployment or installation companies depend heavily on imports.
- It currently imports 100% of silicon wafers and around 80% of cells even at the current deployment levels.
- India currently does not have enough module and cell manufacturing capacity.
- India’s current solar module manufacturing capacity is limited to ~15 GW per year.
- The demand-supply gap widens as we move up the value chain — for example, India only produces ~3.5 GW of cells currently.
- India has no manufacturing capacity for solar wafers and polysilicon ingots.
(2) Field deployment
- Also, out of the 15 GW of module manufacturing capacity, only 3-4 GW of modules are technologically competitive and worthy of deployment in grid-based projects.
- India remains dependent on the import of solar modules for field deployment.
(3) Size and technology
- Most of the Indian industry is currently tuned to handling M2 wafer size, which is roughly 156 x 156 mm2, while the global industry is already moving towards M10 and M12 sizes, which are 182 x 182 mm2 and 210 x 210 mm2 respectively.
- The bigger size has an advantage in terms of silicon cost per wafer, as this effectively means lower loss of silicon during ingot to wafer processing.
- In terms of cell technology, most of the manufacturing still uses Al-BSF technology, which can typically give efficiencies of ~18-19% at the cell level and ~16-17% at the module level.
- By contrast, cell manufacturing worldwide has moved to PERC (22-23%), HJT(~24%), TOPCON (23-24%) and other newer technologies, yielding module efficiency of >21%.
(4) Land issue
- Producing more solar power for the same module size means more solar power from the same land area.
- Land, the most expensive part of solar projects, is scarce in India — and Indian industry has no choice but to move towards newer and superior technologies as part of expansion plans.
(5) Raw materials supply
- There is a huge gap on the raw material supply chain side as well.
- Silicon wafer, the most expensive raw material, is not manufactured in India.
- India will have to work on technology tie-ups to make the right grade of silicon for solar cell manufacturing — and since >90% of the world’s solar wafer manufacturing currently happens in China.
- It is not clear how and where India will get the technology.
- Other key raw materials such as metallic pastes of silver and aluminium to form the electrical contacts too, are almost 100% imported.
- Thus, India is more of an assembly hub than a manufacturing
(6) Lack of investment
- India has hardly invested in this sector which can help the industry to try and test the technologies in a cost-effective manner.
Current govt policy
- The government has identified this gap, and is rolling out various policy initiatives to push and motivate the industry to work towards self-reliance in solar manufacturing, both for cells and modules.
- Key initiatives include:
- 40% duty on the import of modules and
- 25% duty on the import of cells, and
- Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to support manufacturing capex
- Compulsion to procure modules only from an approved list of manufacturers (ALMM) for projects that are connected to state/ central government grids
- Only India-based manufacturers have been approved
Way forward
- India’s path to become a manufacturing hub for the same requires more than just putting some tax barriers and commercial incentives in the form of PLI schemes, etc.
- It will warrant strong industry-academia collaboration in an innovative manner to start developing home-grown technologies which could, in the short-term.
- It needs to work with the industry to provide them with trained human resource, process learnings, root-cause analysis through right testing and, in the long term, develop India’s own technologies.
- High-end technology development requires substantial investment in several clusters which operate in industry-like working and management conditions, appropriate emoluments, and clear deliverables.
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9th September 2022 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions
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What is a Windfall Tax?
Finance Minister has defended the windfall tax imposed by the Centre on domestic crude oil producers, saying that it was not an ad hoc move but was done after full consultation with the industry.
What is a Windfall Tax?
- Windfall taxes are designed to tax the profits a company derives from an external, sometimes unprecedented event — for instance, the energy price-rise as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
- These are profits that cannot be attributed to something the firm actively did, like an investment strategy or an expansion of business.
- The US Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines a windfall as an “unearned, unanticipated gain in income through no additional effort or expense”.
- One area where such taxes have routinely been discussed is oil markets, where price fluctuation leads to volatile or erratic profits for the industry.
When did India introduce this?
- In July this year, India announced a windfall tax on domestic crude oil producers who it believed were reaping the benefits of the high oil prices.
- It also imposed an additional excise levy on diesel, petrol and air turbine fuel (ATF) exports.
- Also, India’s case was different from other countries, as it was still importing discounted Russian oil.
How is it levied?
- Governments typically levy this as a one-off tax retrospectively over and above the normal rates of tax.
- The Central government has introduced a windfall profit tax of ₹23,250 per tonne on domestic crude oil production, which was subsequently revised fortnightly four times so far.
- The latest revision was on August 31, when it was hiked to ₹13,300 per tonne from ₹13,000.
Why govt. introduced windfall tax?
- There have been varying rationales for governments worldwide to introduce windfall taxes like:
- Redistribution of unexpected gains when high prices benefit producers at the expense of consumers,
- Funding social welfare schemes, and
- Supplementary revenue stream for the government
Why are countries levying windfall taxes now?
- Prices of oil, gas, and coal have seen sharp increases since last year and in the first two quarters of the current year, although they have reduced recently.
- Pandemic recovery and supply issues resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict shored up energy demands, which in turn have driven up global prices.
- The rising prices meant huge and record profits for energy companies while resulting in hefty gas and electricity bills for households in major and smaller economies.
- Since the gains stemmed partly from external change, multiple analysts have called them windfall profits.
Issues with imposing such taxes
- Companies are confident in investing in a sector if there is certainty and stability in a tax regime.
- Since windfall taxes are imposed retrospectively and are often influenced by unexpected events, they can brew uncertainty in the market about future taxes.
- IMF says that taxes in response to price surges may suffer from design problems—given their expedient and political nature.
- It added that introducing a temporary windfall profit tax reduces future investment because prospective investors will internalise the likelihood of potential taxes when making investment decisions.
- There is another argument about what exactly constitutes true windfall profits; how can it be determined and what level of profit is normal or excessive.
- Another issue is who should be taxed — only the big companies responsible for the bulk of high-priced sales or smaller companies as well— raising the question of whether producers with revenues or profits below a certain threshold should be exempt.
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Fighting anaemia
Context - The recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data shows anaemia rates increased from 53 per cent to 57 per cent in women and 58 per cent to 67 per cent in children in 2019-21.
Definition of anaemia
- The WHO defines anaemia as a condition where the number of red blood cells or the haemoglobin concentration within them is lower than normal. This compromises immunity and impedes cognitive development.
Why anaemia is a concern?
- Adverse effects of anaemia affect all age groups lower physical and cognitive growth and alertness among children and adolescents, and lesser capacity to learn and play, directly impacting their future potential as productive citizens.
- Anaemia among adolescent girls (59.1 per cent) advances to maternal anaemiaand is a major cause of maternal and infant mortality and general morbidity and ill health in a community.
What causes anaemia?
- Imbalanced diet: Cereal-centric diets, with relatively less consumption of iron-rich food groups like meat, fish, eggs, and dark green leafy vegetables (DGLF), can be associated with higher levels of anaemia.
- Underlying factors: High levels of anaemia are also often associated with underlying factors like poor water quality and sanitation conditions that can adversely impact iron absorption in the body.
- Iron deficiency is major cause: A diet that does not contain enough iron, folic acid, or vitamin B12 is a common cause of anaemia.
- Some other conditions: That may lead to anaemia include pregnancy, heavy periods, blood disorders or cancer, inherited disorders, and infectious diseases.
Why is anaemia so high in the country?- Low vitamin intake: Iron-deficiency and vitamin B12-deficiency anaemia are the two common types of anaemia in India.
- High population and nutrition deprivation: Among women, iron deficiency prevalence is higher than men due to menstrual iron losses and the high iron demands of a growing foetus during pregnancies.
- Overemphasis on cereals: Lack of millets in the diet due to overdependence on rice and wheat, insufficient consumption of green and leafy vegetables could be the reasons behind the high prevalence of anaemia in India.
What is Iron fortification?
- Iron fortification of food is a methodology utilized worldwide to address iron deficiency. Iron fortification programs usually involve mandatory, centralized mass fortification of staple foods, such as wheat flour.
Why need iron fortification?- Iron deficiency anaemia is due to insufficient iron.
- Without enough iron, the body can’t produce enough of a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen (haemoglobin).
- Severe anaemia during pregnancy increases risk of premature birth, having a low birth weight baby and postpartum depression. Some studies also show an increased risk of infant death immediately before or after birth.
Success story / value addition- Nepal’s success story to improve maternal anaemia by national action plan .
Anaemia Mukt Bharat
- The scheme aims to reduce the prevalence of anaemia in India.
- It provides bi weekly iron Folic acid supplementation to all under five children through Asha workers.
- Also, it provides biannual Deworming for children and adolescents. The scheme also establishes institutional mechanisms for advanced research in anaemia.
- It also focuses on non-nutritional causes of anaemia.
We need to focus on the following interventions
- Prophylactic Iron and Folic Acid supplementation.
- Intensified year-round Behaviour Change Communication Campaign (Solid Body, Smart Mind).
- Appropriate infant and young child feeding practices.
- Increase in intake of iron-rich food through diet diversity/quantity/frequency and/or fortified foods with focus on harnessing locally available resources.
- Testing and treatment of anaemia, using digital methods and point of care treatment, with special focus on pregnant women and school-going adolescents
- Mandatory provision of Iron and Folic Acid fortified foods in government-funded public health programmes
Way forward
- India’s nutrition programmes must undergo a periodic review.
- The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), which is perceived as the guardian of the nation’s nutritional well-being must reassess itself and address critical intervention gaps, both conceptually and programmatically, and produce rapid outcomes.
- The nutritional deficit which ought to be considered an indicator of great concern is generally ignored by policymakers and experts. Unless this is addressed, rapid improvement in nutritional indicators cannot happen.
Conclusion
- When a person is anaemic, the capacity of his blood cells to carry oxygen decreases. This reduces the productivity of the person which in turn affects the economy of the country. Therefore, it is highly important to cover Anaemia under National Health Mission.
Mains question
Q. “Every second adolescent girl has anaemia. Every second woman of reproductive age is anaemic”. In this context do you think Women’s empowerment will not have any meaning without tackling anaemia? Discuss.
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Patents in India
Context - Increasing the efficiency of processing patent applications and wider academia-industry collaboration are crucial steps for patent system.
What is patent system?
- A patent system is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention.
Why are patents important?
- A patent is important because it can help safeguard our invention. It can protect any product, design or process that meets certain specifications according to its originality, practicality, suitability, and utility. In most cases, a patent can protect an invention for up to 20 years.
How to get patent? - To get a patent, technical information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent application.
- The patent owner may give permission to, or license, other parties to use the invention on mutually agreed terms.
- The owner may also sell the right to the invention to someone else, who will then become the new owner of the patent.
- Once a patent expires, the protection ends, and an invention enters the public domain; that is, anyone can commercially exploit the invention without infringing the patent.
Terms of Patent
- Patents may be granted for inventions in any field of technology, from an everyday kitchen utensil to a nanotechnology chip.
- An invention can be a product – such as a chemical compound, or a process, for example – or a process for producing a specific chemical compound.
- Patent protection is granted for a limited period, generally 20 years from the filing date of the application.
- Patents are territorial rights. In general, the exclusive rights are only applicable in the country or region in which a patent has been filed and granted, in accordance with the law of that country or region.
How patents can support inventors and improve lives- Recognize and reward: Patents recognize and reward inventors for their commercially-successful inventions. As such they serve as an incentive for inventors to invent. With a patent, an inventor or small business knows there is a good chance that they will get a return on the time, effort and money they invested in developing a technology. In sum, it means they can earn a living from their work.
- Economic opportunity: When a new technology comes onto the market, society as a whole stands to benefit – both directly, because it may enable us to do something that was previously not possible, and indirectly in terms of the economic opportunities (business development and employment) that can flow from it.
- Research and development (R&D): The revenues generated from commercially successful patent-protected technologies make it possible to finance further technological research and development (R&D), thereby improving the chances of even better technology becoming available in the future.
- Opportunities for business growth: A patent effectively turns an inventor’s know-how into a commercially tradeable asset, opening up opportunities for business growth and job creation through licensing and joint ventures, for example.
- Commercialization of a technology: Holding a patent also makes a small business more attractive to investors who play a key role in enabling the commercialization of a technology.
- Spark new ideas: The technical information and business intelligence generated by the patenting process can spark new ideas and promote new inventions from which we can all benefit and which may, in turn, qualify for patent protection.
- No freebies: A patent can help stop unscrupulous third parties from free riding on the efforts of the inventor.
What is KAPILA Initiative?
- Full form: KAPILA is an acronym for Kalam Program for IP (Intellectual Property) Literacy and Awareness.
- Guidelines for patent Filing: Under this campaign, students pursuing education in higher educational institutions will get information about the correct system of the application process for patenting their invention and they will be aware of their rights.
- Encouragement to students: The program will facilitate the colleges and institutions to encourage more and more students to file patents.
Thing to remember
Remember one thing, ‘KAPILA’ Program is related to IP awareness. It sounds much like an animal husbandry related initiative.
Way ahead
- As the patent system is a critical aspect of the national innovation ecosystem, investing in the patent ecosystem will help in strengthening the innovation capability of India.
- The right interventions should be made for the promotion of the quality of patent applications and collaboration between academia and industry.
Mains question
Q. A patent can help stop unscrupulous third parties from free riding on the efforts of the inventor. Discuss this statement in context of protection of innovative ecosystem in India.
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Who was Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker?
A recently-released Malayalam film Pathonpatham Noottandu (‘Nineteenth Century’) is based on the life of Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker, a social reformer from the Ezhava community in Kerala who lived in the 19th century.
Who was Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker?
- Born into a well-off family of merchants in Kerala’s Alappuzha district, Panicker was one of the most influential figures in the reformation movement in the state.
- He challenged the domination of upper castes or ‘Savarnas’ and brought about changes in the lives of both men and women.
- The social reform movement in Kerala in the 19th century led to the large-scale subversion of the existing caste hierarchy and social order in the state.
- Panicker was murdered by a group of upper-caste men in 1874 at the age of 49. This makes him the ‘first martyr’ of the Kerala renaissance.
What was Panicker’s role in initiating social reforms?
- Panicker is credited with building two temples dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, in which members of all castes and religions were allowed entry.
- One was built in his own village Arattupuzha in 1852, and one in Thanneermukkom in 1854, another village in the Alappuzha district.
- Some of his most significant contributions were in protesting for the rights of women belonging to Kerala’s backward communities.
- In 1858, he led the Achippudava Samaram strike at Kayamkulam in Alappuzha.
- This strike aimed to earn women belonging to oppressed groups the right to wear a lower garment that extended beyond the knees.
- In 1859, this was extended into the Ethappu Samaram, the struggle for the right to wear an upper body cloth by women belonging to backward castes.
- In 1860, he led the Mukkuthi Samaram at Pandalam in the Pathanamthitta district, for the rights of lower-caste women to wear ‘mukkuthi’ or nose-ring, and other gold ornaments.
- These struggles played an important role in challenging the social order and in raising the dignity of women belonging to the lower strata of society in public life.
Other work
- Apart from issues related to women, Panicker also led the first-ever strike by agricultural labourers in Kerala, the Karshaka Thozhilali Samaram, which was successful.
- He also established the first Kathakali Yogam for the Ezhava community in 1861, which led to a Kathakali performance by Ezhavas and other backward communities, another first for them.
Try this PYQ:
Q. The Shri Narayan Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) Movement(1902-03) was related to which of the following community?
a) Mopilla Community
b) South Indian Tea Planters
c) Ezhava Community in Kerala
d) North Eastern Tea Planters
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[Sansad TV] Perspective: Russia’s Far East- Opportunities for India
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Context
- PM Modi recently attended the Eastern Economic Forum, being held in the Russian city of Vladivostok. It was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- PM Modi recalled his participation at the forum summit physically in 2019, saying India had announced its “Act Far-East” policy at that time.
- India iterated its keenness to strengthen its partnership with Russia on Arctic subjects and there is immense scope for cooperation in newer areas, particularly in the field of energy.
Russia’s Far East and India
- At the fifth summit of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in 2019 at Vladivostok, PM Modi pledged a $1 billion Line of Credit for development of the Russian Far East.
- This pledge has now become a key pillar of the ‘Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership’ between India and Russia.
Russian Far-East Region: The geography
- The Russian Far East is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District.
- It is located between Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean.
- The region’s largest city is Khabarovsk, followed by Vladivostok.
- The region shares land borders with the countries of Mongolia, China, and North Korea to its south, as well as maritime boundaries with Japan to its southeast, and with the United States along the Bering Strait to its northeast.
Why is the region under India’s consideration?
- Although it is rich in natural resources including minerals, hydrocarbons, timber and fish, it is an economically underdeveloped region.
- The region faces several challenges, including a:
- Harsh climate
- Sparse population
- Increasing outmigration
- Poor infrastructure and
- Lacking connectivity
Why focus on the Far East?
- While the region is labor-scarce, it is resource rich.
- The Russian Far East needs capital, technology and markets.
- Meanwhile, India is a country with a labor-surplus and a resource-deficit, in need of energy, mineral resources and farming land.
- Russia is in a position to meet Indian requirements and vice-versa.
Economic significance of Far-East Region
- Natural resources: The region occupying 40 per cent of Russia’s total territory is rich in natural resources, particularly diamonds, gold, oil, natural gas, coal, timber, silver, platinum, tin, lead, and zinc. It also has rich fishing grounds.
- Agriculture: Indian interest has been focussed mainly on its need to tap into the region’s natural resources, including arable land. A recent Indian study identifies oil and natural gas, iron ore, copper, diamonds and gold, fresh water, timber and fish stocks as the resources of the region that would find an Indian market.
- Blue Economy: It is in this context that the Chennai-Vladivostok sea route development has been proposed. This link would facilitate cargo transfers between the two eastern ports of the two countries in 24 days compared to 40 days that it now takes for ships that sail via Europe.
- Employment opportunities: A lack of manpower is one of the main problems faced by the Far East and Indian professionals like doctors, engineers and teachers can help in the region’s development. Presence of Indian manpower will also help in balancing Russian concerns over Chinese migration into the region.
- Energy Security: The area is rich hydrocarbon reserves in the region throw up immense opportunities for Indian companies. ONGC Videsh has already invested in the Sakhalin-1 project and its terminal is acknowledged as the best in Russia. India is set to get gas from Gazprom that will probably be liquefied at a plant near Vladivostok.
- Scope for Small scale industries: For India, there is immense potential for mid-sized and small businesses who should be assisted to overcome language and cultural barriers so that they successfully adopt local business practices. The large diamond reserves in the region should be a magnet for the Indian diamond cutting and polishing industry, which is already facing tough competition in Africa from the Chinese.
- Export destination for key sectors: Infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture development are also areas of opportunity for Indian business and labour. Tele-medicine and long distance education are other areas where Indian companies can make a mark. It would also help in increasing India’s exports.
Strategic importance
- Opening to Indo-Pacific: The Russian Far East is at the forefront of geopolitics centred on the Indo-Pacific and is key in pivot to Asia.
- Direct gateway to Japan: India’s ties with the Russian Far East could help cement Indo-Russian relations as well as bolster its ties with Central Asia and East Asia. It would connect India to East Asia especially Japan.
- Confidence building with Russia: In the wake of the Ukraine crisis, the US-EU campaign to isolate Russia has gathered momentum. India’s simply cannot risk missing this opportunity to show its affinity for Russia. Although Russia needs Chinese investment it is uneasy with Chinese projects as they often use only Chinese workers.
Countering China:
- China’s emergence as a major economic power in Asia, as a source of investment, a market for exports and, above all, the source of mass labour migration have altered both the ground situation.
- At present, China is the leading investor in the region. Chinese investments account for nearly two-thirds of the total Foreign Direct Investment of $33 billion that has come to Russia’s Far East (RFE) in the last four years.
- A larger footprint in the Russian Far East enhances India’s presence and influence in China’s immediate neighborhood.
Various steps taken by India
- While 2019 is the first time that India has participated in the EEF, it is not new to the Russian Far East.
- India opened a consulate in Vladivostok in 1992, the first country in the world to do so.
- In the decades since, its interest in the Far East region, especially its oil and gas reserves, has grown.
- Indeed, back in 2001 India’s ONGC acquired a 20 percent stake in the Sakhalin reserves and over the last couple of years Indian companies have started announcing investments in the Russian Far East.
- In December 2017, for instance, Tata Power announced that it had secured a $4.7-million mining license for a thermal coal mine in the Kamchatka peninsula.
Note: Indian leadership was visionary even before the NDA-II regime!
Way forward
- A necessary pre-condition for increased trade and investment relations between India and the Russian Far East would be the development of necessary infrastructure aimed at improved connectivity between the two regions.
- India and Russia should put in place a free trade agreement, easier visa norms and improved travel facilities. Connectivity is key to development in the modern world.
- While land connectivity is impaired by several geopolitical and security constraints, developing sea connectivity is possible.
- To maintain the momentum of this engagement, both governments must ensure that their respective private sector firms participate, going beyond oil and gas into manufacturing and agriculture.
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What is National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM)?
The latest National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) released September 13, 2022 by the Union health ministry added 34 new medicines and dropped 26 old ones from the previous list.
What is NLEM?
- As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), Essential Medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population.
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare hence prepared and released the first National List of Essential Medicines of India in 1996 consisting of 279 medicines.
- The list is made with consideration to disease prevalence, efficacy, safety and comparative cost-effectiveness of the medicines.
- Such medicines are intended to be available in adequate amounts, in appropriate dosage forms and strengths with assured quality.
- They should be available in such a way that an individual or community can afford.
NLEM in India
- Drugs listed under NLEM — also known as scheduled drugs — will be cheaper because the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) caps medicine prices and changes only based on wholesale price index-based inflation.
- The list includes anti-infectives medicines to treat diabetes such as insulin — HIV, tuberculosis, cancer, contraceptives, hormonal medicines and anaesthetics.
- They account for 17-18 per cent of the estimated Rs 1.6-trillion domestic pharmaceutical market.
- Companies selling non-scheduled drugs can hike prices by up to 10 per cent every year.
- Typically, once NLEM is released, the department of pharmaceuticals under the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers adds them in the Drug Price Control Order, after which NPPA fixes the price.
Significance of EML
- Drawing an essential medicines list (EML) is expected to result in better quality of medical care, better management of medicines and cost-effective use of health care resources.
- This is especially important for a resource limited country like India.
- The list of essential medicines is intended to have a positive impact on the availability and rational use of medicines.
Also read
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