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Subject: Governance

Important aspects of Society

  • EdTech needs an ethics policy

    The article highlights the privacy concerns associated with EdTech apps in the absence of a regulatory framework.

    Privacy risks associated with EdTechs

    • Since the onset of the pandemic, online education has replaced conventional classroom instruction.
    • This has given rise to several EdTech apps which have become popular.
    • To perform the process of learning customisation, the apps collect large quantities of data from the learners through the gadgets that the students use.
    • These data are analysed in minute detail to customise learning and design future versions of the app.
    • The latest mobile phones and hand-held devices have a range of sensors like GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer and biometric sensors apart from the camera and microphones.
    • These provide data about the learner’s surroundings along with intimate data like the emotions and attitudes experienced and expressed via facial expressions and body temperature changes.
    • In short, the app and device have access to the private spaces of the learner that one would not normally have access to.

    Informed consent in research

    • Researchers dealing with human subjects need to comply with ethics rules along with global standards.
    • One of the cardinal rules that should never be broken is informed consent.
    • Before any research on human subjects is undertaken, researchers have to submit detailed proposals to their respective ethics committees and obtain their permissions.
    • Further, a researcher working with children, for example, would also have to convince schoolteachers, parents, and school managements about the nature of the research to be undertaken, type of data to be collected, method of storage, the potential harmful effects of such data, etc.

    Minimal safeguards in EdTech

    • The safeguards that traditional researchers are subject to are either missing or minimal in research that the EdTech industry promotes.
    • The concept of informed consent is not meaningful since there are no proper primers to explain to stakeholders the intricacies in layperson terms.
    • Since India does not have protection equivalent to the GDPR, private data collected by an EdTech company can be misused or sold to other companies with no oversight or protection.

    Way forward

    • Given these realities, it is necessary to formulate an ethics policy for EdTech companies.
    • Such a policy draft should be circulated both online and offline for discussions and criticism.
    • Issues of fairness, safety, confidentiality and anonymity of the user would have to be dealt with.
    • EdTech companies would have to be encouraged to comply in the interest of a healthier learning ecosystem.

    Consider the question “What are the challenges associated with the adoption of online education mode? Suggest the ways to deal with these challenges.”

    Conclusion

    The lack of a regulatory framework in India along the lines of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe could impinge on the privacy of students. What we need is ethics policy in online education space.

  • Rajasthan to use MLA fund for vaccination

    MLA-LAD Fund for buying vaccine

    • As part of the efforts to mobilise financial resources for COVID-19 vaccination, Rajasthan Chief Minister has approved a proposal to provide ₹3 crore each from the MLA Local Area Development (LAD) Fund.
    • For meeting the expenses, the fund for each legislator has been increased from ₹2.25 crore to ₹5 crore a year.
    • The 200 MLAs in the State will contribute a total of ₹600 crore to the vaccination fund account under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
    • From the remaining ₹2 crore in the MLA-LAD Fund, ₹1 crore will be spent on strengthening the medical infrastructure, purchase of equipment and setting up of model community health centres.

    About MLA-LAD Fund

    • Member of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development is a scheme that enables each MLA to undertake small developmental works in his/her constituency.
    • The MLALAD Scheme is intended to be utilised for small but essential projects/works based on the felt needs of the local public.
    • Under this scheme, funds will be provided in the State’s Plan Budget every year.

  • Legal issues involved in adoption pleas for Covid-19 orphans

    The Covid pandemic has orphaned many children. As a consequence there has been an increase in pleas on social media for adoption. However, such pleas go against the legal provisions. The article deals with the issue.

    Legal provisions for protection of children

    • Today, some people are offering infants for instant adoption by stating how the children have lost their parents to pandemic.
    • However, such adoptions are illegal.
    • The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) law was enacted in 2015.
    • The Juvenile Justice Act is a secular law, all persons are free to adopt children under this law.
    • The Juvenile Justice Rules of 2016 and the Adoption Regulations of 2017 followed to create the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
    • CARA is a statutory body for the regulation, monitoring and control of all intra-country and inter-country adoptions.
    • CARA also grants a ‘no objection’ certificate for all inter-country adoptions, pursuant to India becoming a signatory to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoptions.
    • India is also a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
    • Thus, protections afforded to children became a legal mandate of all authorities and courts.
    • Persons professing the Hindu religion are also free to adopt under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956.
    • Rehabilitation of all orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children is regulated by the strict mandatory procedures of the Adoption Regulations.

    Procedure for adoption

    • The eligibility of prospective adoptive parents living in India, duly registered on the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), irrespective of marital status and religion, is adjudged by specialised adoption agencies preparing home study reports.
    • The specialised adoption agency then secures court orders approving the adoption.
    • All non-resident persons approach authorised adoption agencies in their foreign country of residence for registration under CARINGS.
    • Their eligibility is adjudged by authorised foreign adoption agencies through home study reports.
    • CARA then issues a pre-adoption ‘no objection’ certificate for foster care, followed by a court adoption order.
    • A final ‘no objection’ certificate from CARA or a conformity certificate under the adoption convention is mandatory for a passport and visa to leave India.

    Way forward

    • CARA must conduct an outreach programme on social media, newspapers and TV, warning everyone not to entertain any illegal adoption offers under any circumstances whatsoever.
    • The National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights must step up their roles as vigilantes.
    • Social activists, NGOs and enlightened individuals must report all the incidents that come to their notice.
    • Respective State Legal Services Authorities have the infrastructure and machinery to stamp out such unlawful practices brought to their attention.
    • The media must publicise and shame all those involved in this disreputable occupation.
    •  At the same time, the police authorities need to be extra vigilant in apprehending criminals.

    Conclusion

    Tough times call for tough measures. This business of criminal trading of children must be checked with an iron hand.

  • Digital Technologies and Inequalities

    Impact of pandemic

    • The novel coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the use of digital technologies in India, even for essential services such as health and education, where access to them might be poor.
    • Economic inequality has increased: people whose jobs and salaries are protected, face no economic fallout.
    • Well-recognised channels of economic and social mobility — education and health — are getting rejigged in ways that make access more inequitable in an already unequal society.

    Growing inequality in access to education

    • According to National Sample Survey data from 2017, only 6% rural households and 25% urban households have a computer.
    • Access to Internet facilities is not universal either: 17% in rural areas and 42% in urban areas.
    • Surveys by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the Azim Premji Foundation, ASER and Oxfam suggest that between 27% and 60% could not access online classes for a range of reasons: lack of devices, shared devices, inability to buy “data packs”, etc.
    • Further, lack of stable connectivity jeopardises their evaluations.
    • Besides this, many lack a learning environment at home.
    • Peer learning has also suffered.

    Inequality in access to health care

    •  India’s public spending on health is barely 1% of GDP.
    • Partly as a result, the share of ‘out of pocket’ (OOP) health expenditure (of total health spending) in India was over 60% in 2018.
    • Even in a highly privatised health system such as the United States, OOP was merely 10%.
    • Moreover, the private health sector in India is poorly regulated in practice.
    • Both put the poor at a disadvantage in accessing good health care.
    • Right now, the focus is on the shortage of essentials: drugs, hospital beds, oxygen, vaccines.
    • In several instances, developing an app is being seen as a solution for allocation of various health services. 
    • Digital “solutions” create additional bureaucracy for all sick persons in search of these services without disciplining the culprits.
    • Platform- and app-based solutions can exclude the poor entirely, or squeeze their access to scarce health services further.
    • In other spheres (e.g., vaccination) too, digital technologies are creating extra hurdles.
    • The use of CoWIN to book a slot makes it that much harder for those without phones, computers and the Internet. 

    Issues with the creation of centralised database

    • The digital health ID project is being pushed during the pandemic when its merits cannot be adequately debated.
    • Electronic and interoperable health records are the purported benefits.
    • For patients, interoperability i.e., you do not have to lug your x-rays, past medication and investigations can be achieved by decentralising digital storage say, on smart cards as France and Taiwan have done.
    • Given that we lack a data privacy law in India, it is very likely that our health records will end up with private entities without our consent, even weaponised against us.
    • For example, a private insurance companies may use health record to deny poor people an insurance policy or charge a higher premium.
    • There are worries that the government is using the vaccination drive to populate the digital health ID database.

    Way forward

    • Unless health expenditure on basic health services (ward staff, nurses, doctors, laboratory technicians, medicines, beds, oxygen, ventilators) is increased, apps such as Aarogya Setu, Aadhaar and digital health IDs can improve little.
    • Unless laws against medical malpractices are enforced strictly, digital solutions will obfuscate and distract us from the real problem.
    • We need political, not technocratic, solutions.

    Conclusion

    Today, there is greater understanding that the harms from Aadhaar and its cousins fall disproportionately on the vulnerable. Hopefully, the pandemic will teach us to be more discerning about which digital technologies we embrace.

  • What patent waiver in the COVID fight mean for global health equity

    The article highlights the implications of patent waiver for Covid-19 for global health equity.

    Where the opposition to waiver proposal came from

    • Recently, the US agreed to support the India-South Africa proposal, seeking a waiver of patent protection for technologies needed to combat and contain COVID-19.
    • Response to the proposal was divided during earlier debates at the WTO.
    • While many low and middle income countries supported it, resistance came from the U.S., the United Kingdom, the European Union, Switzerland, Australia and Japan.
    • Since the WTO operates on consensus rather than by voting, the proposal did not advance despite drawing support of over 60 countries.
    • Predictably, the pharmaceutical industry fiercely opposed it and vigorously lobbied many governments.
    • Right-wing political groups in the high income countries sided with the industry.

    Issues with the reasons given for opposition to the waiver proposal

    1) Quality and safety of vaccine production in low and middle-income countries

    • It was argued that the capacity for producing vaccines of assured quality and safety was limited to some laboratories.
    • So, it is argued that it would be hazardous to permit manufacturers in low and middle-income countries.
    • However, pharmaceutical manufacturers have no reservations about contracting industries in those countries to manufacture their patent-protected vaccines for the global market.

    2) Licenced manufacturing

    • The counter to patent waiver is an offer to license manufacturers in developing countries while retaining patent rights.
    • This restricts the opportunity for production to a chosen few.
    • The terms of those agreements are opaque and offer no assurance of equity in access to the products at affordable prices, either to the country of manufacture or to other developing countries.

    3) Supplying vaccines through COVAX facility

    • It was also stated that developing countries could be supplied vaccines through the COVAX facility, set up by several international agencies and donors.
    • While well-intended, it has fallen far short of promised delivery.
    • Some U.S. states have received more vaccines than entire Africa has from COVAX.

    4) No availability of extra capacity for vaccine production

    • Critics of a patent waiver say there is no evidence that extra capacity exists for producing vaccines outside of firms undertaking them now.
    • Even before the change in the U.S.’s position, manufacturers from many countries expressed their readiness and avidly sought opportunities to produce the approved vaccines.
    • They included industries in Canada and South Korea, suggesting that capable manufacturers in high income countries too are ready to avail of patent waivers but are not being allowed to enter a restricted circle.
    • The World Health Organization’s mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub has already drawn interest from over 50 firms.
    • Instead of arguing that capacity is limited, high-income countries and other donors should be supporting the growth of more capacity to meet the current and likely future pandemic.
    • They should learn from the manner in which India built up capacity and gained a reputation as a respected global pharmacy by moving from product patenting to process patenting between 1970 and 2005.

    5) Time required to utilise patented technology is long

    • Patent waivers are also dismissed as useless on the grounds that the time taken for their utilisation by new firms will be too long to help combat the present pandemic.
    • But many countries have low vaccination rates and variants are gleefully emerging from unprotected populations.
    • This makes it difficult to put the end date for the pandemic to end

    6) China factor

    • An argument put forth by multinational pharmaceutical firms is that a breach in the patent barricade will allow China to steal their technologies, now and in the future.
    • The original genomic sequence was openly shared by China, which gave these firms a head start in developing vaccines.

    Issue of rewarding innovation financially

    • Much of the foundational science that built the path for vaccine production came from public-funded universities and research institutes.
    • Further, what use is it to hold on to patents when global health and the global economy are devastated?
    • It is often argued that for defending patent protection, is that innovation and investment by industry need to be financially rewarded to incentivise them to develop new products.
    • Even if compulsory licences are issued bypassing patent restrictions, royalties are paid to the original innovators and patent holders.

    Way forward

    • Developing countries must take heart from his gesture and start issuing compulsory licences.
    • The Doha declaration on TRIPS flexibilities permits their use in a public health emergency.
    • High-income countries and multilateral agencies should provide financial and technical support to enable expansion of global production capacity.

    Consider the question “Why are the implications of patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccine for the global health equity? What were the reasons for opposition to waiver proposal?” 

    Conclusion

    The U.S.-supported patent waiver in the COVID fight has the potential to bring in much-needed global health equity.

  • Section 142 of the Social Security Code – 2020 Notified

    Aadhaar mandatory

    • The Union government has made Aadhaar mandatory for availing social security benefits, and for registration on a national informal workers’ database being developed for migrants.
    • The labour ministry has notified section 142 of the social security code.
    • It allows authorities to collect Aadhaar details for the database of beneficiaries under various social security schemes.
    • The move will be applicable to both formal and informal workers and may also help in curbing duplication of data by keeping imposters at bay, authorities said.
    • However, people who don’t have Aadhaar will not be denied of benefits, the ministry claims.

    National informal workers’ database

    •  National database for unorganized workers is at an advanced stage of development by National Informatics Centre.
    • The portal is aimed at collection of data for unorganized workers, including migrant workers for the purpose of giving benefits of the various schemes of the government.
    • An inter-state migrant worker can register himself on the portal on the basis of submission of Aadhaar alone.

    ——————————————————//—————————————–

    BACK2BASICS

    • The Code on Social Security, 2020 is a code to amend and consolidate the laws relating to social security with the goal to extend social security to all employees and workers either in the organised or unorganised or any other sectors.
    • The Social Security Code, 2020 brings unorganised sector, gig workers and platform workers under the ambit of social security schemes, including life insurance and disability insurance, health and maternity benefits, provident fund and skill upgradation, etc. The act amalgamates 9 central labour enactments relating to social security.
    • To access complete Act, you can click on the link given below:

    https://labour.gov.in/sites/default/files/SS_Code_Gazette.pdf

  • [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.

  • Scientists see flaws in SUTRA’s approach to forecast pandemic

    About SUTRA

    • SUTRA (Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive), and Removed Approach) first came into public attention when one of its expert members announced in October that India was “past its peak”.
    • Unlike many epidemiological models that extrapolated cases based on the existing number of cases, the behaviour of the virus and manner of spread, the SUTRA model chose a “data centric approach”.
    • However, the surge in the second wave was several times what any of the modellers had predicted.
    • The predictions of the SUTRA model were too variable to guide government policy.

    So, what went wrong in the model

    • The SUTRA model was problematic as it relied on too many parameters, and recalibrated those parameters whenever its predictions broke down.
    • The more parameters you have, the more you are in danger of overfitting.
    • One of the main reasons for the model not gauging an impending, exponential rise was that a constant indicating contact between people and populations went wrong.
    • Further the model was ‘calibrated’ incorrectly.
    • The model relied on a serosurvey conducted by the ICMR in May that said 0.73% of India’s population may have been infected at that time.
    • This calibration led our model to the conclusion that more than 50% population was immune by January.
    • The SUTRA model’s omission of the importance of the behaviour of the virus; the fact that some people were bigger transmitters; a lack of accounting for social or geographic heterogeneity and not stratifying the population by age as it didn’t account for contacts between different age groups also undermined its validity.

  • A ‘One Health’ approach that targets people, animals

    The article highlights the need for a holistic approach to animal and human health as more than two-thirds of existing and emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic.

    Need to document the link between environment animal and human health

    • Studies indicate that more than two-thirds of existing and emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, or can be transferred between animals and humans, and vice versa.
    • Another category of diseases, anthropozoonotic infections, gets transferred from humans to animals.
    • The transboundary impact of viral outbreaks in recent years such as the Nipah virus, Ebola, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has reinforced the need for us to consistently document the linkages between the environment, animals, and human health.

    India’s ‘One Health’ vision

    • India’s ‘One Health’ vision derives its blueprint from the agreement between the tripartite-plus alliance.
    • The alliance comprises the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) — a global initiative supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank under the overarching goal of contributing to ‘One World, One Health’.
    • In keeping with the long-term objectives, India established a National Standing Committee on Zoonoses as far back as the 1980s.
    • This year, funds were sanctioned for setting up a ‘Centre for One Health’ at Nagpur.
    • Further, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) has launched several schemes to mitigate the prevalence of animal diseases since 2015.
    • Hence, under the National Animal Disease Control Programme, ₹13,343 crore have been sanctioned for Foot and Mouth disease and Brucellosis control.
    • In addition, DAHD will soon establish a ‘One Health’ unit within the Ministry.
    • Additionally, the government is working to revamp programmes that focus on capacity building for veterinarians such as  Assistance to States for Control of Animal Diseases (ASCAD).
    • There is increased focus on vaccination against livestock diseases and backyard poultry.
    •  DAHD has partnered with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the National Action Plan for Eliminating Dog Mediated Rabies.

    Need for coordination

    •  There are more than 1.7 million viruses circulating in wildlife, and many of them are likely to be zoonotic.
    • Therefore, unless there is timely detection, India risks facing many more pandemics in times to come.
    • There is need to address challenges pertaining to veterinary manpower shortages, the lack of information sharing between human and animal health institutions, and inadequate coordination on food safety at slaughter.
    • These issues can be remedied by consolidating existing animal health and disease surveillance systems — e.g., the Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health, and the National Animal Disease Reporting System.

    Conclusion

    As we battle yet another wave of a deadly zoonotic disease (COVID-19), awareness generation, and increased investments toward meeting ‘One Health’ targets is the need of the hour.

  • A WTO waiver on patents won’t help us against covid

    There has been growing clamour across the world for waiver of intellectual property protection for Covid-19 vaccines under TRIPS. The article suggests alternatives to achieve the desired production of vaccines without setting the precedent for a waiver.

    Waiver from TRIPS

    • Last October, India and South Africa moved a motion at the WTO asking its council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to provide a waiver on intellectual property protection for pharmaceutical patents.
    • Many developing countries have since supported the joint move.
    • While most advanced countries, home to the world’s major pharmaceutical companies, have opposed it.
    • Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, along with activist Lori Wallach, penned an opinion piece making a case for such a waiver.

    Voluntary licensing

    • Alternative to waiver could be voluntary licensing arrangements between pharmaceutical companies and countries that wish to make vaccine doses for their own use.
    • This is exactly what has occurred in India’s case, with a licensing agreement between AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India.
    • The recent difficulties with this arrangement are a result of India diverting some doses intended for export (or for Covax) to its domestic vaccination drive.
    • But India will soon begin making other important global vaccines under similar licence arrangements, and a waiver would do nothing to speed up this process.

    Compulsory licensing

    • In the event that India needs to ramp up production more than is feasible via licences from global manufacturers, there is another alternative available, which is ‘compulsory licensing’.
    • Such an approach would not permit the export of vaccine doses made under a compulsory licence.
    • This approach should be taken by any developing country, if, for some reason, global pharmaceutical companies are unwilling to license a life-saving vaccine for domestic manufacture and distribution in that nation.

    Why TRIPS waiver won’t help

    • India’s limiting factors are a shortage of raw materials and low production capacity, neither of which would be cured with the supposed magic bullet of a WTO waiver.
    • Not only would a WTO waiver not do anything to address the real bottlenecks that constrain the global production and distribution of vaccines, it would also set a bad precedent.
    • It is true that governments, including the US and others, have significantly subsidized or incentivized in other ways the research and development activities of private pharmaceutical companies that now hold patents for major covid vaccines.
    • Yet, these governments required the ingenuity of private enterprise to invent these vaccines.

    Consider the question “What are the legal provisions to ensure the accessibility of life-saving drugs in the country?”

    Conclusion

    While it may seem appealing, a WTO waiver on intellectual property protection is an inappropriate priority. It’s a distraction from the heavy lifting needed to create the capacity to fight the scourge of covid.