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Subject: Governance

Important aspects of Society

  • Stress test of leadership in pandemic

    The article discusses the three stages involved in successfully dealing with the pandemic. In the next part, it goes on to explain the factors that determine the success or failure of the governments. In the last week, we read about the success story of Kerala and underlying reasons. This article is also written on similar lines.

    Stages in the pandemic response

    • Disease outbreaks, even global pandemics, are scarcely new. The playbook for dealing with them, therefore, is well understood and has been honed by practices and lessons gleaned from hard-fought battles.
    • A first stage is an early clear-eyed recognition of the incoming threat, and, in the case of COVID-19 at least, requires the unpalatable decision to lock down society.
    • Ideally, this is done with full consideration of how to support the most vulnerable members of society, especially in a country such as India, where so many survive hand-to-mouth.
    • This is a phase aimed at buying time, of flattening the epidemic curve, so that public health facilities are not overwhelmed.
    • And, for using this time, paid for by collective sacrifice, to secure the personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies necessary to save lives.
    • The second phase of the pandemic response is slowly to ease the burden on the economy by permitting a measured return of business activity so that livelihoods and supply chains can be restored.
    • This stage can only be safely executed if accompanied by a war-footing expansion of testing capacity so that new infections can be identified and isolated at once, allowing contact tracing to be implemented by masses trained to do this crucial and painstaking work in communities across the country.
    • The final stage, which for COVID-19 seems a lifetime away, is a mass vaccination programme and then the full rebuilding of economic and social life.
    • None of this is easy, but, like an examination in a dreaded subject, one’s only hope is early and persistent preparation and, at crunch time, remembering the lessons learned.

    The above-mentioned stages are sort of a template that seems to have gained acceptance for dealing with the pandemic. A question based on it, like “What are the various stages involved in government’s response to deal with a pandemic?”

    Following three factors make the difference between successful and failed response

    1. Leadership problems in global politics

    • The defensive finger-pointing, opportunistic politicking and xenophobic posturing are shown by some leaders amid pandemic.
    • This is not a crisis that can be tackled without robust and multidimensional international cooperation between nations.
    • We are watching in real-time the benefits of intellectual collaboration that does not stop at national borders.
    • From the epidemiologists to the medical community identifying more effective treatments, to the research scientists racing to find a vaccine, we are benefiting from collaboration.
    • But the nationalistic turn in global politics over the past two decades has reduced investment in and undermined the legitimacy of the very institutions that facilitate international partnership at the very time they are needed most.
    • Prime Minister Narendra Modi did well to convene the leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations in mid-March to discuss the possibility of a regional response.
    • But that video-conference call also highlighted that there have been no summit-level meetings of SAARC since 2014.
    • Similarly, United States President Donald Trump demanded that the U.S. end funding of the World Health Organization (WHO).
    • This not only endangers American lives by cutting off his own administration’s access to vital international data.
    • But also directly affects India which receives significant funding and expertise from WHO with ~10% of its overall WHO financing in 2019 coming directly from the U.S.

    2. The whole-of-the-government strategy

    • Pandemic response requires a whole-of-government strategy, for which political will and legitimate leadership are vital to convene and maintain.
    • Germany and Kerala provide two powerful though different examples of this in action.
    • In Germany, in spite of a high level of federalism that gives its States (Länder) a lot of power, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ability to mobilise the entire system has allowed Germany to emerge as a success story in Europe.
    • In Kerala, State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan convened a State response team at the earliest possible moment and has provided the full weight of his office in support of a coordinated public health strategy that has been accepted by the State’s citizens who have learned to trust the government in such situations.
    • Yet these two examples stand out in part for how rare they are.
    • Consider again the cautionary tale of the U.S. where some State Governors have yet to issue stay-at-home orders.

    3. The robust public health system

    • We are seeing first hand the consequences of starving public health systems of necessary funds and resources.
    • The comparative advantage of the private sector is efficiency; the need of the hour in pandemic response is redundancy, or, more precisely, excess capacity.
    • Most hospitals do not need invasive ventilators normally, just as they do not need vast stocks of PPE and extra intensive care units beds, but these are essential goods right now as we brace ourselves for a flood of sick patients into hospitals.
    • Watching the advanced health-care system of northern Italy buckle under the unimaginable pressures to which it was exposed over the past six weeks should be a cautionary tale for all countries that thought turning health care over to private actors was responsible governance. It is not.
    • Again, consider Kerala, which has consistently ranked at the top of State rankings for health expenditures.
    • Kerala has, a well-functioning local public health system capable of implementing the test-isolate-trace protocols critical for fighting COVID-19.

    Conclusion

    With the central role of leadership and governance underlined in the successful dealing with the pandemic, leadership across the world need to come together to coordinate at all levels in dealing with the problems that are not bound by any border.

  • SWAMITVA Scheme to map rural inhabited lands

    The Prime Minister has launched the Swamitva Scheme and e-Gramswaraj Portal & mobile app as a portal to prepare and plan Gram Panchayat Development Plans.

    Swamitva Scheme

    • SWAMITVA stands for Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas.
    • Under the scheme, the latest surveying technology such as drones will be used for measuring the inhabited land in villages and rural areas.
    • The mapping and survey will be conducted in collaboration with the Survey of India, State Revenue Department and State Panchayati Raj Department under the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
    • The drones will draw the digital map of every property falling in the geographical limit of each Indian village.
    • Property Cards will be prepared and given to the respective owners.

    Benefits

    • The scheme will create records of land ownership in villages and these records will further facilitate tax collection, new building plan and issuance of permits.
    • It will enable the government to effectively plan for the infrastructural programs in villages.
    • It would help in reducing the disputes over property.

    What is e-Gramswaraj Portal?

    • E Gram Swaraj portal is the official portal of central govt for the implementation of Swamitva scheme.
    • By visiting this portal people can check their Panchayat profile easily. It will also contain the details of ongoing development works and the fund allocated for them.
    • Any citizen can create his or her account on the portal and can know about the developmental works of villages.
    • The user of E Gram Swaraj portal can also access all work of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
    • This single interface will help speed-up the implementation of projects in rural areas from planning to completion.

  • Highlights of the World Press Freedom Index, 2020

     

    India has dropped two places on a global press freedom index to be ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in the annual World Press Freedom Report.

    Press freedom  especially after the abrogation of Art. 370 in J&K was profoundly debated back then.  We can expect a mains question like-

    “Reasonable restrictions to the freedoms enjoyed by media are necessary while addressing the concerns of national security.  Critically comment.”

    World Press Freedom Index

    • The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders.
    • It is based upon the organization’s own assessment of the countries’ press freedom records.
    • It intends to reflect the degree of freedom that journalists, news organisations, and netizens have in each country, and the efforts made by authorities to respect this freedom.
    • The report is partly based on a questionnaire which asks questions about pluralism media independence, environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, and infrastructure.

    Highlights on India

    • The report said that with no murders of journalists in India in 2019, as against six in 2018.
    • However, there have been constant press freedom violations, including police violence against journalists, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials.

    Global scenario

    • Norway is ranked first in the Index for the fourth year running.
    • India ranked better than its neighbours Pakistan (145) and Bangladesh (151), but worse than Sri Lanka (127) and Nepal (112).
    • China at 177th position is just three places above North Korea, which is at 180th.

    Various threats to press freedom

    • Across the world, press freedom is under pressure from aggressive authoritarian regimes.
    • The media is also facing a technological crisis, due to a lack of democratic guarantees and a democratic crisis following polarization and repressive policies, the report reads.
    • In addition comes a crisis of trust following growing suspicion and even hatred of the media, and an economic crisis and impoverishing of quality journalism.
    • Among other issues, the report has listed coordinated social media hate campaigns against journalists reporting on issues that “annoy right-wing followers”, criminal prosecutions to gag journalists critical of authorities and police violence against journalists.

  • [pib] VidyaDaan 2.0 Programme for e-learning content contributions

    The Union HRD Ministry has e-launched VidyaDaan 2.0 program for inviting e-learning content contributions.

    There are various web/portals/apps with peculiar names such as YUKTI, DISHA, SWAYAM etc. Their core purpose is similar with slight differences. Pen them down on a separate sheet under the title various digital HRD initiatives.

    Add one more to this list.

    VidyaDaan

    • ‘Vidya Daan’ is a digital program to enable contributions to improve teaching & learning.
    • It encourages the sharing of high quality, curated, relevant & curriculum-linked digital content.
    • This program attempts to synergize countrywide developments in the field of education by providing schools all over India, from the Metro cities to the smallest villages with good quality e-content.

    How does it work?

    • VidyaDaan has a content contribution tool that provides a structured interface for the contributors to register and contribute different types of content (such as, explanation videos, presentations, competency-based items, quizzes etc.), for any grade (from grade 1 to 12), for any subject as specified by the states/UTs.

    About phase 2.0

    • The programme has been re-launched due to the increasing requirement for e-learning content for students especially in the backdrop of the situation arising out of COVID- 19.

  • [pib] ‘COVID India Seva’ platform for citizen engagement on COVID-19

    The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has launched the COVID India Seva platform to establish a direct channel of communication with millions of Indians amid the pandemic.

    We can take this initiative as an example while answering mains questions like – “India’s fight against Coronavirus pandemic is a public movement at large. Discuss.”

    COVID India Seva

    • This initiative is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery in real-time and answering citizen queries swiftly, at scale, especially in crisis situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
    • Through this, people can pose queries @CovidIndiaSeva and get them responded to in almost real time.
    • @CovidIndiaSeva works off a dashboard at the backend that helps process large volumes of tweets, converts them into resolvable tickets, and assigns them to the relevant authority for real-time resolution.
    • The dedicated account will be accessible to people be it local or national in their scope.
    • The Ministry will respond to broader queries and public health information. This does not require the public to share personal contact details or health record details.

  • A virus, social democracy, and dividends for Kerala

    This article is an analysis of Kerala’s success in dealing with the Covid-19. Factors that emerge are-strong emphasis on the social democracy, the participation of civil society and strong social compact between the government and citizenry. We have also covered the same subject in a previous article but focus there was more on the administrative level.

    Kerala’s success story

    • Kerala was the first State with a recorded case of coronavirus and once led the country in active cases.
    • It now ranks 10th of all States and the total number of active cases (in a State that has done the most aggressive testing in India) has been declining for over a week and is now below the number of recovered cases.
    • Given Kerala’s population density, deep connections to the global economy and the high international mobility of its citizens, it was primed to be a hotspot.
    • Yet not only has the State flattened the curve but it also rolled out a comprehensive ₹20,000 crore economic package before the Centre even declared the lockdown.

    Why does Kerala stand out in India and internationally?

    • Kerala’s much-heralded success in social development has invited endless theories of its cultural, historical or geographical exceptionalism.
    • But taming a pandemic and rapidly building out a massive and tailored safety net is fundamentally about the relation of the state to its citizens.
    • From its first Assembly election in 1957, through alternating coalitions of Communist and Congress-led governments, iterated cycles of social mobilisation and state responses have forged what is in effect a robust social democracy.
    • The current crisis underscores the comparative advantages of social democracy.

    Kerala’s success is built on social democracy in the state. Following are the factors that constitute the social democracy in the state which is helping it fight against the Covid-19 pandemic with considerable success. These factors are also important from the Mains point of view if the question is framed on Kerala’s success story.

    How social democracy is practised in Kerala?

    • Social democracies are built on an encompassing social pact with a political commitment to providing basic welfare and broad-based opportunity to all citizens.
    • In Kerala, the social pact itself emerged from recurrent episodes of popular mobilisation.
    • Popular mobilisations include the temple entry movement of the 1930s to the most recent various gender and environmental movements.
    • These movements nurtured a strong sense of social citizenship.
    • These movements also drove reforms that have incrementally strengthened the legal and institutional capacity for public action.
    • Second, the emphasis on rights-based welfare has been driven by and in turn has reinforced a vibrant, organised civil society.
    • This civil society demands continuous accountability from front-line state actors.
    • Third, this constant demand-side pressure of a highly mobilised civil society and a competitive party system has pressured all governments in Kerala.
    • The pressure made governments to deliver public services and to constantly expand the social safety net, in particular a public health system that is the best in India.
    • Fourth, that pressure has also fuelled Kerala’s push over the last two decades to empower local government.
    • Nowhere in India are local governments as resourced and as capable as in Kerala.
    • Finally, all of this ties into the greatest asset of any deep democracy, that is the generalised trust that comes from a State that has a wide and deep institutional surface area.
    • That on balance treats people not as subjects or clients, but as rights-bearing citizens.

    How the built-in social democracy is helping in dealing with the pandemic?

    • A government’s capacity to respond to a cascading crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic relies on a very fragile chain of –(1)mobilising financial and societal resources, (2)getting state actors to fulfil directives, (3)coordinating across multiple authorities and jurisdictions and maybe, most importantly, (4)getting citizens to comply.
    • First, an effective response begins with programmatic decision-making.
    • From the moment of the first reported case in Kerala, Chief Minister convened a State response team that coordinated 18 different functional teams.
    • The CM held daily press conferences and communicated constantly with the public.
    • Kerala’s social compact demanded no less.
    • Second, the government was able to leverage a broad and dense health-care system.
    • The health-care system, despite the recent growth of private health services, has maintained a robust public presence.
    • Kerala’s public health-care workers are also of course highly unionised and organised, and from the outset the government lay emphasis on protecting the health of first responders.
    • Third, the government activated an already highly mobilised civil society.
    • As the cases multiplied, the government called on two lakh volunteers to go door to door, identifying those at risk and those in need.
    • A State embedded in civil society — the women’s empowerment Kudumbasree movement being a case in point.
    • Kudumbasree movement was in a good position to co-produce effective interventions, from organising contact tracing to delivering three lakh meals a day through Kudumbasree community kitchens.
    • Fourth, you can get the politics right and you can have a great public health-care system, but its effectiveness in a crisis like this will only be as good as the infamous last kilometre.
    • And this is where two decades of empowering local governments have clearly paid off.

    Conclusion

    At a time when India is dealing with this unprecedented crisis, it is important to be reminded that Kerala has managed the crisis with the most resolve, the most compassion and the best results of any large State in India. And that it has done so precisely by building on legacies of egalitarianism, social rights and public trust. Other states and the Central government must learn from Kerala’s experience.

  • What nation can learn from Kerala in the fight against Covid-19?

    With figures emerging of Kerala’s success in dealing with the Covid-19, the rest of the nation has lessons to learn from it. This article describes the approach adopted by Kerala, and how various factors like robust health infrastructure, past experience etc. are helping it.

    Kerala stands out in India: some figures and facts

    • The COVID curve in Kerala is flattening.
    • Every day, for a week now, the number of recoveries has exceeded the number of new infections.
    • The recovery rate in Kerala is nearly 50 per cent while the all-India average is around 11.
    • While the mortality rate among the infected is 5 per cent in Kerala, the all-India average is 3.4 per cent.
    • The transmission rate of a primary carrier is 6 while in Kerala it is only 0.4.

    With Covid-19, we are in unknown territory in many ways. If Kerala emerges as the success model, the question can be framed from that perspective. So, note down the factors described below that are helping the state in tackling Covid-19 successfully.

    Preparing for the next challenge

    • Kerala is preparing for the next challenge, the outcome of which will determine the result of the war against COVID.
    • Lifting of the lockdown is going to result in an influx of returning migrants from foreign countries and other states.
    • Hundreds of thousands would have to be quarantined, tested and, if positive, treated, ensuring there is no secondary spread.
    • State authorities have already identified accommodation and other facilities for more than two lakh persons.
    • Use of big data analytics: The state is also exploring the possibility of big data analytics to plan a strategy and, if necessary, for reverse quarantining.
    • Authorities have access to WHO data covering nearly two-thirds of the state`s population.
    • Integrating this data with the information currently being generated, we will be able to map vulnerable sections of the population, simulate scenarios and plan ahead.
    • Exit strategy: An exit strategy from the lockdown is being prepared to protect livelihoods and stimulate the economy.

    Strength of the public health system of Kerala

    • The single most important factor that enabled Kerala to be prepared for the COVID is the strength of the public health system.
    • Kerala’s health system is a proud legacy of our past.
    • It has had a big push in infrastructure and equipment investment of around Rs 4,000 crore from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board.
    • Five thousand seven hundred and seventy-five new posts have also been created.
    • The Aardram Health Mission was launched with a focus to transform the PHCs into family health centres.
    • Distinctive feature: There is also the distinctive flavour of Kerala — mass participation in preventive and palliative healthcare.
    • Training to health workers: The morale of health personnel has been exceptionally high.
    • Special training, protective gear, scientific duty rotation and, most importantly, societal empathy and solidarity, have all contributed.

    Learning from the past experience

    • Nipah outbreak experience: The recent experiences of successful containment of the Nipah outbreak and management of the two post-flood health situations have provided a kind of herd immunity to the health workers to crisis situations.
    • Covid-19 preparedness: Once news of the Wuhan pandemic came, the Kerala health system scrambled to readiness — the control room was set up, mock drills were organised and the first influx was contained.
    • Once migrants from the Gulf and Europe began to return, things began to get out of hand.
    • But now this battle has been successfully concluded.

    Testing and tracing in Kerala

    • A route map of each COVID positive case is prepared and given publicity, alerting everybody who might have been in contact.
    • The protocol of cycles of intense test, trace, isolate and treatment has been the norm.
    • Kerala has the highest test rate in the country.
    • Break the Chain Campaign to promote social distancing has been successful.
    • Lockdown by itself is not going to contain the COVID spread. It would continue to multiply within households and dormitories.
    • Testing has been woefully insufficient in the national response so far.

    Welfare payment in Kerala more than the rest of the country

    • In Kerala, 55 lakh elderly and disadvantaged have received Rs 8,500 as welfare payments.
    • An equal number of workers have been paid Rs 1,000-3,000 each from the welfare funds.
    • Every family has been provided with a food kit.
    • Interest-free consumption loan of Rs 2,000 crore has been distributed.
    • Besides, nearly 4 lakh meals are distributed every day to the needy from community kitchens set up by local governments.
    • Local governments are also duty-bound to monitor the camps of migrant workers, set up new ones and ensure medicine and food to them.

    Decentralisation paying off in Kerala

    • All the above was not made possible by the state government alone.
    • It is the synergy generated by integrating state government plans and programmes with the local governments, the co-operatives, women neighbourhood groups (Kudumbashree) and civil society organisations that make Kerala distinct.
    • The floods and the pandemic have given testimony for the potential of democratic decentralisation.
    • It is a case of multi-level planning with technical committees and groups working at the state level coordinated by the chief minister.

    Conclusion

    Though it is too early to declare Kerala as a success story, still there are many lessons to be learned by the rest of the country in its fight against Covid-19.

  • What is Post-intensive Care Syndrome (PICS)?

    • Various news reports in recent weeks have pointed out that for some COVID-19 patients who needed intensive care, the journey to recovery is a long one.
    • After leaving the ICU, they may suffer from what is known as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS), which can happen to any person who has been in the ICU.

    Infectious disease outbreaks, like the current Coronavirus (COVID-19), can be scary and can affect our mental health. This pandemic is going to leave a bigger trauma for those who had lost their dear ones as well those who recovered.

    What is PICS?

    • PICS comprise impairment in cognition, psychological health and physical function of a person who has been in the ICU.
    • Further, such patients may experience neuromuscular weakness, which can manifest itself in the form of poor mobility and recurrent falls.
    • The psychological disability may arise in a person in the form of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

    Its symptoms

    • The most common PICS symptoms are generalized weakness, fatigue, decreased mobility, anxious or depressed mood, sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbances and cognitive issues.
    • These symptoms may last for a few months or many years after recovery, the authors of the aforementioned article note.
    • Patients who develop this may take at least a year to fully recover, until which time they may have difficulty in carrying out everyday tasks such as grooming, dressing, feeding, bathing and walking.

    What causes PICS?

    • A combination of factors can affect aspects of an ICU survivor’s life.
    • PICS may be induced if a person was on prolonged mechanical ventilation, experienced sepsis, multiple organ failure and a prolonged duration of “bed-restore deep sedation”.

    Treatment

    • It is recommended that to avoid PICS, patients’ use of deep sedation is limited and early mobility is encouraged, along with giving them “aggressive” physical and occupational therapy.
    • Further, patients should be given the lowest dose of pain medications when possible and should be put on lung or cardiovascular rehabilitation treatments along with treatments for depression, anxiety and PTSD.

  • Partnership with the private sector in a fight against Covid-19

    The article delineates five areas in which partnership with the private sector is essential to deal effectively with the epidemic and ensure a whole-of-society response. Ensuring the participation of the private sector has been the recurring theme of many op-eds we have come across after the outbreak.

    Significance of private healthcare in India

    • According to the WHO, a critical lesson from the 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic was that both the public and private sector need to work in tandem in responding to large-scale epidemics.
    • In the COVID-19 response in India, the private sector has to play an even more important role, as it is the dominant provider of health services in the country.
    • The private sector includes the for-profit and not-for-profit segments.
    • The dominance of the private sector in India: The NSSO 71st round data on social consumption of health show that private hospitals, clinics and nursing homes provide over 70 per cent of healthcare.
    • Data on the nearly 1 crore treatments received under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) corroborate this finding.
    • AB PM-JAY data shows that over half of all treatments are being availed of from private providers, accounting for over 60 per cent of total disbursements.

    UPSC asked about community-level healthcare intervention in 2018. So, pay attention to the significant role played by the private health sector in India.

    Following five are the areas in which cooperation with the private sector will be essential-

    1 Testing

    • Creating a large and accessible testing infrastructure is the first weapon in the armoury.
    • Countries like South Korea, Singapore, Germany and Japan have been successful at controlling the spread of COVDID-19 and reducing mortality through early detection and quick containment.
    • This has been possible only through widespread testing.
    • India has opened testing up to private labs.
    • Testing has been included under the AB PM-JAY as well.
    • We need to substantially expand testing capacity.
    • This cannot happen without the active participation of the private sector.

    2 Converting private hospitals into Covid-19-only hospitals

    • As the government deepens its containment efforts, the country will need to rapidly surge the numbers of quarantine units, isolation wards and ICU beds in COVID-19-only
    • It will also need to ensure increased and continued supply of essential medical products — from testing kits, masks and other PPEs to oxygen and ventilators.
    • According to a recent ICMR study, around five per cent of those infected will need intensive care and half of those in intensive care units will need mechanical ventilation.
    • These projections translate into large numbers that considerably exceed the capacity of the government health system.
    • Private hospitals with adequate infrastructure will need to convert in COVID-19-only hospitals.
    • There should be a clear policy framework of designated hospitals, reporting and referral systems and an appropriate payment system.
    • With many government facilities being converted into COVID-19-only hospitals, a large number of non-COVID-19 patients will need facilities and providers to take care of their other urgent, critical or continuing healthcare needs.
    • The AB PM-JAY has started a process to bring on board more hospitals to respond to such needs.

    3 Protecting healthcare workers

    • As more private providers join this fight, a major concern that will arise is keeping healthcare workers from becoming infected.
    • In addition to being at a high risk of contracting the virus, healthcare workers are also potential carriers.
    • Ensuring their protection is of paramount importance.
    • Increasing the production: Companies manufacturing essential medical products such as ventilators, masks will need to crank up their production.
    • Direct support from banks may be needed to keep production and supply chains going.

    4 The private sector has to support the ecosystem driving health system

    • The private sector will need to vigorously support the large ecosystem that drives the health system as the lockdown and ongoing epidemic restrict movement and normal economic activities.
    • Activities such as the production of essential drugs and medical products, logistics to maintain smooth supply need to not only continue but also accelerate.
    • Support for community activities such as night shelters and community kitchens will need to be strengthened.

    5 Collaborate to share knowledge on the epidemic

    • An adequate stage-wise response to the pandemic and its economic, social and political aftermath will require the rapid filling of the many knowledge gaps.
    • Government, private and not-for-profit research institutions need to collaborate to understand the nature of transmission of the virus.
    • They must understand the factors that slow its spread, the most at-risk communities, or the optimal quarantine period.

    In 2015, UPSC asked whether the private health sector could help bridge the gap in providing universal health coverage. A question can be asked based on the same theme but in reference to dealing with the pandemic.

    Conclusion

    The fight against COVID-19 is not a race to a hilltop. It involves the continuous management of an evolving public health crisis that threatens to spawn economic and social crises. These multiple dimensions will require a whole-of-society approach that goes beyond the government alone.

  • TRAI wants set top boxes to be made interoperable

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that all set-top boxes (STBs) in the country must be interoperable, meaning that consumers should be able to use the same STB across different DTH or cable TV providers.

    The TRAI and Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal are quite often seen in the news.  Most recent was the dispute risen due to AGR dues.

    TRAI has a wide range of jurisdiction over Telecoms. Keep a track on all such news.

    Why such a recommendation?

    • TRAI noted that while the STBs deployed in the cable TV networks are non-interoperable, those by DTH players complied with licence conditions to support common interface module based interoperability.
    • However, in practice, even in the DTH segment the STBs are not readily interoperable.
    • The lack of interoperability of set-top boxes between different service providers deprives the customer of the freedom to change her/his service provider.
    • It also creates a hindrance to technological innovation, improvement in service quality, and the overall sector growth.

    About TRAI

    • The TRAI is a statutory body set up under section 3 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.
    • It is the regulator of the telecommunications and its tariffs in India.
    • The TRAI Act was amended by an ordinance, effective from 24 January 2000, establishing a Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to take over the adjudicatory and disputes functions from TRAI.
    • TRAI regularly issues orders and directions on various subjects such as tariffs, interconnections, quality of service, DTH services and mobile number portability.