Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

National Digital Health Mission

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Digital health id
Mains level: National digital health mission
Context
- The covid-19 pandemic has presented a watershed moment, bringing the world’s healthcare systems to a halt, forcing us to rethink existing healthcare delivery models and embrace the digital health transformation of the sector.
Definition of digital health care
- Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise.
Digital Health: A Backgrounder
- The National Health Policy 2017 had envisaged creation of a digital health technology eco-system aiming at developing an integrated health information system.
- A Digital Health ID was proposed to reduce the risk of preventable medical errors and significantly increase the quality of care.
- It recognised the need to establish a specialised ecosystem, called the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).
The National Digital Health Mission
- The NDHM is a digital health ecosystem under which every Indian citizen will now have unique health IDs, digitized health records with identifiers for doctors and health facilities.
- The mission will significantly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of health service delivery and will be a major step towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.8 of Universal Health Coverage, including financial risk protection.
Significance of digital health
- Prioritizing patients: Say, mortality from Covid-19 is significantly increased by comorbidities or the presence of other underlying conditions like hypertension or diabetes.With digital health records, doctors can prioritise patients based on their test results.
- Portability of health records: Portability of records fairly eases in a patient with the first hospital visit, or her/his most frequently visited hospital. If she/he wishes to change a healthcare provider for cost or quality reasons, she can access her health records without carrying pieces of paper prescriptions and test reports. People will able to access their lab reports, x-rays and prescriptions irrespective of where they were generated, and share them with doctors or family members — with consent.
- Easy facilitation: This initiative will allow patients to access healthcare facilities remotely through e-pharmacies, online appointments, teleconsultation, and other health benefits. Besides, as all the medical history of the patient is recorded in the Health ID card, it will help the doctor to understand the case better, and improved medication can be offered.
- Technology impetus in policymaking: Meanwhile, it is also not just individuals who could emerge beneficiaries of the scheme. With large swathes of data being made available, the government too can form policies based on geographical, demographical, and risk-factor based monitoring of health.
Critical point to remember

In the case of lung cancer, only 18.5 % of patients survive five or more years once diagnosed. These are threats that data-led technology will help address.

Major privacy issues involved
- Informed Consent:The citizen’s consent is vital for all access. A beneficiary’s consent is vital to ensure that information is released.
- Data leakages issue:Personalised data collected at multiple levels are a “sitting gold mine” for insurance companies, international researchers, and pharma companies.
- Digital divide:Other experts add that lack of access to technology, poverty, and lack of understanding of the language in a vast and diverse country like India are problems that need to be looked into.
- Data Migration:The data migration and inter-State transfer are still faced with multiple errors and shortcomings in addition to concerns of data security.
Other challenges
- Existing digitalization is yet incomplete:India has been unable to standardise the coverage and quality of the existing digital cards like One Nation One Ration card, PM-JAY card, Aadhaar card, etc., for accessibility of services and entitlements.
- Lack of healthcare facilities:The defence of data security by expressed informed consent doesn’t work in a country that is plagued by the acute shortage of healthcare professionals to inform the client fully.
- Lack of finance:With the minuscule spending of 1.3% of the GDP on the healthcare sector, India will be unable to ensure the quality and uniform access to healthcare that it hoped to bring about.
Conclusion
- With an enabling ecosystem, supported by effective policies for digital healthcare and increased innovation, the promise of digital solutions in healthcare is immense. It’s not long before precision healthcare becomes central to the health and well-being of every citizen.
Mains question

Q. The covid-19 pandemic has presented a watershed moment, bringing the world’s healthcare systems to a halt, forcing us to rethink existing healthcare delivery models. In this context discuss challenges and opportunities of digital health ecosystem in India.

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Robust Sport governance for national pride

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: sports bodies
Mains level: sport governance transparency
Context
- The judicial push for reforms in sport governance of various sporting bodies, football, hockey, table tennis and the Indian Olympic Association has understandably received mixed reactions.
Why in news?
- The national sports federation’s usual governance practices do not place either the sport or the athlete front and centre; that space is reserved for official egos, whims and political clout.
What is sport governance?
- Sport governance refers to the power a government has over institutions and allows their decisions to be made with due consideration to their influence, authority, and organizational structure.
Sports in India
- Physical activity is fundamental to human beings: The report states that having a fundamental right to literacy would mean identifying the intrinsic value of physical activity to human living.
- Part of elementary education: It would mean not seeing physical activity as an end in itself, and the establishment of physical activity/ physical education as a core component of the education curriculum.
- Supportive to other FRs: A fundamental right to physical literacy would actualise and enhance the enjoyment of other fundamental rights. It would go a long way in enhancing the opportunities and freedom to express oneself.
- Enhancing life quality: A physically literate individual would have a more fulfilling life of higher quality than one who is not. Physical literacy, as a building block, would go a long way in the promotion and realisation of the right to health and the right to education.
Issues with the Current Sports governance
- Lack of check and balance: The biggest concern regarding these bodies so far has been a complete lack of checks and balances.
- Excessive autonomy: In the pretext of autonomy, they have been allowed to function in any manner.
- Less people centric approach: The federations have generally fallen short of public expressions and have failed to carry out their jobs. It has been largely attributed to the way they are governed.
- Accountability: The current sports model faces accountability issues such as that of having unlimited discretionary powers and also there is no transparency in the decision-making.
Sport governance in India is administered by
- Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS)
- National Sports Federation (NSF)
- Indian Olympic Association (IOA)
- State Olympic Association (SOA)
- Sports Authority of India (SAI)
Positive Suggestions
- Legislation: There must be presence of powerful and defined sports legislation in India covering all the nuances of sports and giving no arbiter powers to any authority.
- Transparency-: To maintain transparency with expenditure and fund utilization, Information like a board of members, administrative officials, and remuneration information must be in public domain.
- Women Representation: It is very important to have sufficient women representation in sports as well as in the administrative bodies, and it is the responsibility of these admin bodies to ensure sufficient representation from women in the board too, to maintain the diversity within the board.
- Plans: There should be fix timelines disclosed which are to be adopted by sports bodies for the purpose of growth and development of sports in future, which is to be achieved in a given specific period of time. These kinds of timelines and plans would be motivational for players and bodies to. Goals to be targeted in future must be predecided, which can be well monitored and regulated by the authorities. Effective implementation would bring positive results in future.
- Committees: To set up specific committees for specific activities relating to sports activities, like for planning, financing, research and development purposes. These committees would look after the particular task, which would bring transparency in work and achieving the common objective.
- Rules and Regulations: like other fields, sports also have conflicts regarding disciplinary, administrative and management issues, to solve this issues governing bodies must set up a common judicial system (tribunal) to deal with sports-related conflicts.
Conclusion
- There is a close association of sports with national pride and the kind of influence it has on the psyche of the nation, a role for the State is urgent in sports reforms.
Mains question

Q. The national sports federation’s usual governance practices do not place either the sport or the athlete front and centre; that space is reserved for official egos what do you think on this ? Explain the term sport governance with some dynamic changes needed in it.

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Forest Fires

Forest fire management for positive sustainable forest growth

op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: National Action Plan on Forest Fires
Mains level: environment conservation
Context
- Forest fires are becoming more common and wildfires are destroying nearly twice as much tree cover globally as they did in 2001.
Why in news?
- Climate change is driving more intense and widespread forest fire by fuelling more extreme heat and deepening drought, which dries out forests.
How to define forest fire?
- A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation starting in rural and urban areas.
What causes forest fires?
- Human activities: Forest fires can be caused by a number of natural causes, but officials say many major fires in India are triggered mainly by human activities.
- Climate change: Emerging studies link climate change to rising instances of fires globally, especially the massive fires of the Amazon forests in Brazil and in Australia in the last two years. Fires of longer duration, increasing intensity, higher frequency and highly inflammable nature are all being linked to climate change.
- Season: In India, wildfires are most commonly reported during March and April, when the ground has large quantities of dry wood, logs, dead leaves, stumps, dry grass and weeds that can make forests easily go up in flames if there is a trigger.
- Natural reasons: Under natural circumstances, extreme heat and dryness, friction created by rubbing of branches with each other also have been known to initiate fire.
Key fact

7.4 million acres of forest are getting burnt annually now an area roughly the size of Belgium.

What factors make forest fires a concern?
- Carbon emission: They act as a sink, reservoir and source of carbon.
- Livelihood loss: In India, with 1.70 lakh villages in close proximity to forests (Census 2011), the livelihood of several crores of people is dependent on fuelwood, bamboo, fodder, and small timber.
- Destruction of animals’ habitat: Heat generated during the fire destroys animal habitats. Soil quality decreases with the alteration in their compositions.
- Soil degradation: Soil moisture and fertility, too, is affected. Thus forests can shrink in size. The trees that survive fire often remain stunted and growth is severely affected.
Measures to curb Forest fires

1) National Action Plan on wild fires
- The MoEFCC has prepared a National Action Plan on wild fire in 2018 after several rounds of consultation with all states and UTs.
- The objective of this plan is to minimize forest fires by informing, enabling and empowering forest fringe communities and incentivizing them to work in tandem with the State Forest Departments.
- The plan also intends to substantially reduce the vulnerability of forests across diverse forest ecosystems in the country against fire hazards, enhance capabilities of forest personnel and institutions in fighting fires and swift recovery subsequent to fire incidents.
2) Forest Fire Prevention and Management scheme
- The MoEFCC provides wildfire prevention and management measures under the Centrally Sponsored Forest Fire Prevention and Management (FPM) scheme.
- The FPM is the only centrally funded program specifically dedicated to assist the states in dealing with forest fires.
- The FPM replaced the Intensification of Forest Management Scheme (IFMS) in 2017. By revamping the IFMS, the FPM has increased the amount dedicated for forest fire work.
- Funds allocated under the FPM are according to the 90:10 ratio of central to state funding in the Northeast and Western Himalayan regions and 60:40 ratio for all other states.
- Nodal officers for forest fire prevention and control have been appointed in each state.
Way forward
- Awareness should be created among the villagers residing near the forests with respect to the long-term ill effects of forest fires.
- Measures to prevent wildfires have to be taken before summer season when fires are prevalent.
- Local people should be given skills to use online portals or mobile apps in order to monitor the forests for fires and inform forest authorities regarding the same.
Mains question

Q. Climate change is driving more intense and widespread forest fires by fueling more extreme heat and deepening drought. Why forest fires are cause of concern? Discuss our preparedness level for the same in the above context.

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Water Management – Institutional Reforms, Conservation Efforts, etc.

Dam safety bill for sustainable water management

op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies,Statutory, Regulatory & Various Quasi-Judicial Bodies

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: mullaperiyar dam
Mains level: dam safety bill ,DRIP.
Context
- Integrated risk assessment of dam safety required to prevent human-made disasters: Experts
Why in news?
- The recent floods in the Mahanadi basin in Odisha have brought to the fore, the faulty management of dam safety, which were built to mitigate floods and not be the cause of them.
What is a dam?
- A dam is a barrier that stops the flow of water and results in the creation of a reservoir. Dams are mainly built in order to produce electricity by using water. This form of electricity is known as hydroelectricity.
- Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aquaculture, and navigability.
Key facts

India has 5,745 large dams according to the National Register of Large Dams, 2019, prepared by the Central Water Commission. Some 5,334 of them are operational and the remaining 411 are under construction.

What is the Dam Safety Act, 2021?
- The Act comprehensively postulates for surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of dams to prevent disasters.
Features
- National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS): It will be constituted and will be chaired by the chairperson, Central Water Commission. Its’ functions will include formulating policies and regulations regarding dam safety standards and prevention of dam failures, analyzing the causes of major dam failures, and suggesting changes in dam safety practices.
- National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA): It will be headed by an officer, not below the rank of an Additional Secretary, to be appointed by the central government. The main task of this authority includes implementing the policies formulated by the NCD, resolving issues between State Dam Safety Organisations (SDSOs), or between an SDSO and any dam owner in that state, specifying regulations for inspection and investigation of dams.
- State Dam Safety Organisation (SDSO): Its functions will be to keep perpetual surveillance, inspection, monitoring the operation and maintenance of dams, keeping a database of all dams, and recommending safety measures to owners of dams.
- Dam Safety Unit: The owners of the specified dams are required to provide a dam safety unit in each dam. This unit will inspect the dams before and after the monsoon session, and during and after any calamity or sign of distress.
- Emergency Action Plan: Dam owners will be required to prepare an emergency action plan, and carry out risk assessment studies for each dam at specified regular intervals.
- Certain offences: The act provides for two types of offences – obstructing a person in the discharge of his functions, and refusing to comply with directions issued under the proposed law.
Dam rehabilitation and improvement programme DRIP
- Government of India, with financial assistance from the World Bank initiated Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) in April 2012 with an objective to improve the safety and operational performance of selected existing dams along with dam safety institutional strengthening with system wide management approach. It was a State Sector Scheme with Central component.
Do you know?

Four dams — Mullaperiyar, Parambikulam, Thunakkadavu and Peruvaripallam — located in Kerala but owned, operated and maintained by the Tamil Nadu Government.

Conclusion
- The bill aims to help all States and Union Territories to adopt uniform dam safety procedures which will ensure safety of dams and safeguard benefits from such dams. In order to iron out the differences and issues in the bill, central government should take the state governments into consideration and hold talks with all the stakeholders. This will go a long way in ensuring the safety of dams in India, which ranks third in the world in terms of number of large dams.
Mains question

Q. India, which ranks third in the world in terms of number of large dams. Ageing dams poses several challenges for India. In this context discuss the importance of dam safety bill 2021.

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Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

Equitable education and health care needed for better future

op-ed snap | | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: equitable health and education
Context
- To create the foundation for the next century, we need to invest in equitable education and health care in the next 25 years not just for the elite, but for all.
What is current status of education?
- Expenditure on Education: The expenses on education as a percentage to GDP, India lags behind some developed/ developing nations.
- Infrastructure deficit: Dilapidated structures, single-room schools, lack of drinking water facilities, separate toilets and other educational infrastructure is a grave problem.
- Student-teacher ratio: Another challenge for improving the Indian education system is to improve the student teacher ratio.
What is current status of healthcare?
- Weak delivery: Current health infrastructure in India paints a dismal picture of the healthcare delivery system in the country.
- Unpreparedness: Public health experts believe that India is ill-equipped to handle emergencies.
- Technical glitches in urban areas: It is not prepared to tackle health epidemics, particularly given its urban congestion.
A systemic approach to reforming education system in the country needs
- Dynamic pedagogy: Academic interventions involve the adoption of grade competence framework instead of just syllabus completion.
- Directional efforts: Effective delivery of remedial education for weaker students like after-school coaching, audio-video based education.
- Administrative reforms: that enable and incentivize teachers to perform better through data-driven insights, training, and recognition. Example: Performance based increments in Salary.
A systemic approach to reforming healthcare system in the country needs
- Universal health coverage: Access to healthcare in India is not equitable—the rich and the middle class would survive the COVID-19 or any other crisis but not the poor.
- Increasing healthcare professionals in numbers: India has handled the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally well. However, India is in dire need of more medical staff and amenities.
- Revamping medical education: If the government wants to stay successful in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it needs to rapidly build medical institutions and increase the number of doctors.
- Cross-subsidization of health-care: How the poor managed without, or even with, any government insurance scheme is a big question. They can make up for the loss by cross-subsidizing treatments of patients with premium insurance policies.
Recent initiatives
- PLI scheme: In view of these challenges, the government announced various policies like PLI scheme for domestic manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
- National Digital Health Mission: It also announced the National Digital Health Mission.
Way forward
- India’s healthcare system is too small for such a large population.
- There seems to be a long battle ahead. The public healthcare system cannot be improved overnight.
- The country needs all hands on deck during and after this crisis—both public and private sectors must work together and deliver universal health coverage for all citizens.
Conclusion
- Providing expanded access to high quality education and healthcare supports—particularly for those young people who today lack such access—will not only expand economic opportunity for those individuals, but will also likely do more to strengthen the overall state economy.
Mains question

Q. To create the foundation for the next century, we need to invest in education and health in the next 25 years not just for the elite, but for all. Critically examine

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Digital India Initiatives

Data diplomacy

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 2: Effect Of Policies & Politics Of World On India’S Interests

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Data localisation
Mains level: Data diplomacy, Data sovereignty
Context
- The government has withdrawn the Personal Data Protection Bill from Parliament after several amendments were proposed by the Joint-Parliamentary Committee.
Definition of data
- Data is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted.
What is Data Protection?
- Data protection refers to policies and procedures seeking to minimise intrusion into the privacy of an individual caused by collection and usage of their personal data.
What is data localisation?
- Data localization or data residency law requires data about a nation’s citizens or residents to be collected, processed, and/or stored inside the country, often before being transferred internationally.
What is Data Governance?
- Data governance is a collection of processes, roles, policies, standards, and metrics that ensure the effective and efficient use of information in enabling an organization to achieve its goals. Data governance defines who can take what action, upon what data, in what situations, using what methods.
Interesting facts
- Over 90% of all the data in the world was created in the past 2 years;
- The total amount of data being captured and stored by industry doubles every 1.2 years;
- If you burned all of the data created in just one day onto DVDs, you could stack them on top of each other and reach the moon – twice.
Data sovereignty of India
- Definition: India has placed itself at the heart of the battle, its foreign policy vision fuelled by the principle of ‘data sovereignty’—a broad notion that supports the assertion of sovereign writ over data generated by citizens within a country’s physical boundaries.
- Issues: The ideal of “data sovereignty”, and global attempts to leverage it, has come under heavy criticism from various stakeholders who are of the view that the concept violates the principle of “free and open internet”. They also argue that “data sovereignty” hampers innovation and economic growth, and is a ruse for authoritarian digital governance.
India’s Data Diplomacy: Three Pillars
- Pillar 1: India’s data for India’s development
The flagship ‘Digital India’ programme clearly views data as the cornerstone of India’s socioeconomic future—one where the government leverages the Indian citizen’s data for the benefit of the people themselves, and not solely for profit-making.
- Pillar 2: Cross-border data flows and digital trade
In keeping with its foreign policy tradition of actively shaping debates on global trade rules, India has been an active participant in the ongoing contestation on regulating cross-border data flows.
- Pillar 3: Securitising the economic
The final pillar of India’s data diplomacy has been predicated ostensibly on safeguarding its citizens’ data from external threats.

Why data is important?
- Improve People’s Lives: Data will help you to improve quality of life for people you support: Improving quality is first and foremost among the reasons why organizations should be using data.
- Make Informed Decisions: Data = Knowledge. Good data provides indisputable evidence, while anecdotal evidence, assumptions, or abstract observation might lead to wasted resources due to taking action based on an incorrect conclusion.
- Stop Molehills from Turning into Mountains: Data allows you to monitor the health of important systems in your organization: By utilizing data for quality monitoring, organizations are able to respond to challenges before they become full-blown crisis.
- Get The Results You Want: Data allows organizations to measure the effectiveness of a given strategy: When strategies are put into place to overcome a challenge, collecting data will allow you to determine how well your solution is performing, and whether or not your approach needs to be tweaked or changed over the long-term.
Conclusion
- The fulcrum of India’s data diplomacy should be predicated on the rule of law and the genuine protection of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. A commitment to the rule of law and accountability for all actors sets India apart from present adversaries like China and offers an opportunity to burnish its reputation globally.
Mains question

Q.Data is considered as new gold across the globe in this context analyse data sovereignty along with status of data diplomacy of India.

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Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

Tribute to women freedom fighters

op-ed snap | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Freedom fighters in news
Mains level: Feminist contribution in freedom struggle
Context
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech underlined the role of women veeranganas in our freedom movement. The initiative highlighting the brave women of our freedom struggle, under the broader celebration of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, will mark a turning point in Indian feminist history writing from an Indic perspective.
What veerangana means?
- Veerangana means a brave female, someone who can fight for their rights. A strong woman not only protects herself, but protects others too.
Veerangana’s in freedom struggle

Rani Laxmibai
- The queen of the princely state of Jhansi, Rani Laxmibai is known for her role in the First War of India’s Independence in 1857.
- Refusing to cede her territory, the queen decided to rule on behalf of the heir, and later joined the uprising against the British in 1857.
- Cornered by the British, she escaped from Jhansi fort. She was wounded in combat near Gwalior’s Phool Bagh, where she later died.
- Sir Hugh Rose, who was commanding the British army, is known to have described her as “personable, clever…and one of the most dangerous Indian leaders”.
Jhalkari Bai
- A soldier in Rani Laxmibai’s women’s army, Durga Dal, she rose to become one of the queen’s most trusted advisers.
- She is known for putting her own life at risk to keep the queen out of harm’s way.
- Till date, the story of her valour is recalled by the people of Bundelkhand, and she is often presented as a representative of Bundeli identity.
Durga Bhabhi
- Durgawati Devi, who was popularly known as Durga Bhabhi, was a revolutionary who joined the armed struggle against colonial rule.
- A member of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, she helped Bhagat Singh escape in disguise from Lahore after the 1928 killing of British police officer John P Saunders.
- Later, as revenge for the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev, she made an unsuccessful attempt to kill the former Punjab Governor, Lord Hailey.
Rani Gaidinliu
- Born in 1915 in present-day Manipur, Rani Gaidinliu was a Naga spiritual and political leader who fought the British.
- She joined the Heraka religious movement which later became a movement to drive out the British. She rebelled against the Empire, and refused to pay taxes, asking people to do the same.
- The British launched a manhunt, but she evaded arrest, moving from village to village.
- Gaidinliu was finally arrested in 1932 when she was just 16, and later sentenced for life. She was released in 1947.
- Then PM Nehru described Gaidinliu as the “daughter of the hills”, and gave her the title of ‘Rani’ for her courage.
Rani Chennamma
- The queen of Kittur, Rani Chennamma, was among the first rulers to lead an armed rebellion against British rule.
- Kittur was a princely state in present-day Karnataka.
- She fought back against the attempt to control her dominion in 1824 after the death of her young son. She had lost her husband, Raja Mallasarja, in 1816.
- She is seen among the few rulers of the time who understood the colonial designs of the British.
- Rani Chennamma defeated the British in her first revolt, but was captured and imprisoned during the second assault by the East India Company.
Begum Hazrat Mahal
- After her husband, Nawab of Awadh Wajid Ali Shah, was exiled after the 1857 revolt, Begum Hazrat Mahal, along with her supporters, took on the British and wrested control of Lucknow.
- She was forced into a retreat after the colonial rulers recaptured the area.
Velu Nachiyar
- Many years before the revolt of 1857, Velu Nachiyar waged a war against the British and emerged victorious. Born in Ramanathapuram in 1780, she was married to the king of Sivagangai.
- After her husband was killed in battle with the East India Company, she entered the conflict, and won with support of neighbouring kings.
- She went on to produce the first human bomb as well as establish the first army of trained women soldiers in the late 1700s.
- Her army commander Kuyili is believed to have set herself ablaze and walked into a British ammunition dump.
- She was succeeded by her daughter in 1790, and died a few years later in 1796.
Conclusion
- The veeranganas are a potent symbol of nationalism and patriotism. They can overturn oppressive attitudes towards women in society. Their role and celebration in popular culture also refutes the colonial allegations about the suppression of women throughout Indian history. But it is essential to discover, rewrite and reinterpret the role and representation of these heroic women in the liberation of the motherland.
Mains question

Q. The veerangana’s are a potent symbol of nationalism and patriotism. They can overturn oppressive attitudes towards women in society. Discuss examples of them showing how they inspire women’s today.

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Primary and Secondary Education – RTE, Education Policy, SEQI, RMSA, Committee Reports, etc.

Anganwadi scheme

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: ICDS
Mains level: Paper 2- Early childhood care and education
Context
- The economic fallout of COVID-19 makes the necessity of quality public welfare services more pressing than ever.
- The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme is one such scheme.
What is ICDS?
- ICDS caters to the nutrition, health and pre-education needs of children till six years of age as well as the health and nutrition of women and adolescent girls.
What is anganwadi scheme?
- The scheme was started in 1975 and aims at the holistic development of children and empowerment of mother.
- It is a Centrally-Sponsored scheme. The scheme primarily runs through the Anganwadi centre. The scheme is under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Need for focus on early childhood care and education (ECCE)
- Low enrolment: The National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) finds only 13.6 per cent of children enrolled in pre-primary schools.
- Weakest link: With its overriding focus on health and nutrition, ECCE has hitherto been the weakest link of the anganwadi system.
- Low awareness: Unfortunately, due to a lack of parental awareness compounded by the daily stresses of poverty, disadvantaged households are unable to provide an early learning environment.
Data to remember

According to government data, the country has 13.77 lakh Anganwadi centres (AWCs).

A meaningful ECCE programme in anganwadis
- Activity-based framework which reflect local context: To design and put in place a meaningful activity-based ECCE framework that recognises the ground realities with autonomy to reflect the local context and setting.
- Remove non-ICDS work: Routine tasks of anganwadi workers can be reduced and non-ICDS work, such as surveys, removed altogether.
- Extend Anganwadi time: Anganwadi hours can be extended by at least three hours by providing staff with an increase in their present remuneration, with the additional time devoted for ECCE.
- Change in policy mindset: ICDS needs a change in policy mindset, both at central and state levels, by prioritising and monitoring ECCE.
- Engagement with parents: Anganwadi workers must be re-oriented to closely engage with parents, as they play a crucial role in the cognitive development of young children.
Case study / value addition

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, anganwadi centres have been geotagged to improve service delivery.

Gujarat has digitised the supply chain of take-home rations and real-time data is being used to minimise stockouts at the anganwadi centres.

Way forward
- Government must act on the three imperatives. First, while infrastructure development and capacity building of the anganwadi remains the key to improving the programme, the standards of all its services need to be upscaled.
- Second, states have much to learn from each other’s experiences.
- Third, anganwadi centres must cater to the needs of the community and the programme’s workers.
Conclusion
- Nearly 1.4 million anganwadis of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) across India must provide ECCE for the millions of young children in low-income households.
Mains question

Q. Some educationists have suggested that owing to the high workload of anganwadi workers, ECCE in anganwadis would remain a non-starter. Critically examine this statement and give dynamic suggestions to improve EECE in anganwadis.
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Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Concept of ‘Lifestyle for the Environment’

op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Concept of LiFE
Mains level: Paper 3- LiFE movement
Context

In the midst of a global climate crisis, and as India gets closer to hosting the G20 presidency, it is important to recognise our country’s leadership at both ends of the climate debate: By walking the talk on our climate commitments as well as leading people-powered climate action.

Power of individual and collective action to address the climate change
- Adopting eco-friendly behaviours: According to the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP), if one billion people out of the global population of close to eight billion adopt eco-friendly behaviours in their daily lives, global carbon emissions could drop by approximately 20 per cent.
- Such eco-friendly behaviours include turning off ACs, heaters and lights when not in use, as this, for instance, can conserve up to 282 kilowatts of electricity per day.
- Avoiding food wastage can reduce an individual’s carbon footprint by 370 kg per year.
The concept of Lifestyle for Environment
- In November 2021, at the CoP 26 in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in addition to announcing the panchamrit, or five climate-related commitments of the country, also articulated the concept of “Lifestyle for the Environment” (LiFE).
- Mindful and deliberate utilisation: The concept advocate for mindful and deliberate utilisation by people worldwide, instead of “mindful and wasteful consumption”.
- LiFE was launched on June 5, 2022, World Environment Day, by PM Modi, with a vision of harnessing the power of individual and collective action across the world to address the climate crisis.
- The objective of the movement is to nudge individuals and communities to adopt simple and specific climate-friendly behaviours in their daily lifestyles.
- For instance, an individual can carry a reusable cloth bag instead of a plastic bag.
- By making such daily actions an integral part of our collective social norms, LiFE aims to activate a global community of “Pro Planet People” and steer the world towards a sustainable model of development.
- Global precedents: There are already precedents of pro-planet initiatives around the world.
- For example, Denmark promotes the use of bicycles by limiting parking within the city centre and providing exclusive bike lanes.
- Japan has its unique “walk-to-school” mandate, which has been in practice since the early 1950s.
- LiFE, however, is planned as a first-of-its-kind global movement, led by India in partnership with other countries, that will provide the world with a unique people-powered platform to relentlessly focus on bringing individual and collective actions to the core of the climate action narrative.
How the LiFE moment can change people’s behaviour
- 1] Consume responsibly: The prevailing perception that climate-friendly behaviour necessarily implies a frugal lifestyle has played a major role in preventing populations worldwide from adopting a sustainable lifestyle.
- LiFE plans to methodically break down this mental model by nudging the world to consume responsibly, rather than consuming less.
- Using behavioural technique: Building on the unique insights from Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), LiFE will deploy a range of tested behavioural techniques, including nudges, social and behaviour change communication and norm influencing to make mindful consumption a mass movement.
- 2] Produce responsibly: Our society reflects our markets and vice versa.
- If sustainable choices are not supported from the supply-side, any change in our consumption patterns will only be temporary.
- By nudging the consumption patterns of the society at scale, LiFE can also trigger a huge boost for the sustainability market.
- Several green industries and a large number of jobs are likely to be initiated as a positive externality of LiFE.
- 3] Live responsibly: The Covid pandemic is a wake-up call to all of us that no matter how much technological progress we make as a global society, we all remain at the mercy of the natural world.
- As a global community of people with a shared natural world, a threat to one is a threat to all.
- In this context, through its multi-dimensional, multi-cultural and global approach, the LiFE movement can play a pivotal role in not merely reversing the effects of climate change but, at a broader level, mainstream a harmonious and mindful way of living.
Conclusion

As the world moves in fits and starts towards its shared commitment to achieve ambitious climate goals, the time is ripe for India to lead the LiFE movement and mainstream it into the climate narrative.

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Agricultural Sector and Marketing Reforms – eNAM, Model APMC Act, Eco Survey Reco, etc.

Doubling farmer’s income

op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Agriculture and related issues

Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Particulars of KUSUM
Mains level: Doubling farmer income
Context
- By making solar energy the ‘third crop’, promoting this innovation on a mission mode, the government can double farmers’ income.
- The famous slogan of late Lal Bahadur Shastri, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan,” was extended by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to include “Jai Vigyan”. Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended it to, “Jai Anusandhan”.
What is doubling farmer’s income scheme
- Doubling farmers’ income is a target set by the government of India in February 2016 to be achieved by 2022.
- To promote farmers’ welfare, reduce agrarian distress and bring parity between income of farmers and those working in non-agricultural professions.
KUSUM Scheme
- The scheme would provide extra income to farmers, by giving them an option to sell additional power to the grid through solar power projects set up on their barren lands.
- It was announced in the Union Budget 2018-19.
Component of KUSUM Scheme

Component-A
- Renewable power plants of capacity 500 KW to 2 MW will be setup by individual farmers/ cooperatives/panchayats /farmer producer organisations (FPO) on their barren or cultivable lands.
Component-B
- Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps.
- Individual farmers will be supported to install standalone solar pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP. Solar PV capacity in kW equal to the pump capacity in HP is allowed under the scheme.
Component-C
- Solarization of 10 Lakh Grid-connected Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps is included in this component, Individual farmers will be supported to solarise pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP.
Expected outcomes of KUSUM
- Welfare: By providing greater financial assistance to smaller farmers, instead of a one¬size¬fits¬all approach.
- Equity: To encourage equitable deployment, the Centre could incentivise States through target linked financial assistance and create avenues for peer learning.
- Addressing inequity within a State – This is addressed by a share of central financial assistance under KUSUM should be appropriated for farmers with small landholdings and belonging to socially disadvantaged groups.
Punchline

Annadata becoming the urjadata – This one policy has the potential to double farmers incomes within a year or two.

Challenges
- Awareness challenge: Barriers to adoption include limited awareness about solar pumps.
- Upfront contribution: The other barrier includes farmers’ inability to pay their upfront contribution.
- Regulatory hurdle: Progress on the implementation front has been rather poor due to regulatory, financial, operational and technical challenges.
Constraints in the path of doubling the income
- Outdated technology: Use of outdated and inappropriate technology is the main reason for low productivity of crops and livestock.
- Affordability: Given the pre-dominance of small and marginal farmers in Indian agriculture, affordability becomes a significant constraint on technology adoption by farmers.
- Low research in agriculture: Agricultural research in the country is constrained by resource inadequacy, regulations and intellectual property rights (IPR).
The Measures Taken by Indian Government
- Institutional Reforms: Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Soil health card, and Prampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana- Aiming to raise output and reduce cost.
- Technological Reforms: Various Technology mission like Technology mission on cotton, Technology Mission on Oilseeds, Pulses and Maize etc.
Way forward
- To secure future of agriculture and to improve livelihood of half of India’s population, adequate attention needs to be given to improve the welfare of farmers and raise agricultural income.
- It is essential to mobilize States and UTs to own and achieve the goal of doubling farmers’; income with active focus on capacity building (technology adoption and awareness) of farmers that will be the catalyst to boost farmer’s income.
Mains question

Q. By making solar energy the ‘third crop’, promoting this innovation on a mission mode, the government can double farmers’ income. Critically analyse this statement.

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Type: op-ed snap

Context

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Digital Health: A Backgrounder

The National Digital Health Mission

Significance of digital health

Critical point to remember

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Measures to curb Forest fires

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What is anganwadi scheme?

Need for focus on early childhood care and education (ECCE)

Data to remember

A meaningful ECCE programme in anganwadis

Case study / value addition

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Conclusion

Context

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The concept of Lifestyle for Environment

How the LiFE moment can change people’s behaviour

Conclusion

Context

What is doubling farmer’s income scheme

KUSUM Scheme

Component of KUSUM Scheme

Expected outcomes of KUSUM

Punchline

Challenges

Constraints in the path of doubling the income

The Measures Taken by Indian Government

Way forward