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  • Trade Sector Updates – Falling Exports, TIES, MEIS, Foreign Trade Policy, etc.

    India should go all out in its Westward trade push

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 3- Exploring potential for a Westward trade push

    After walking away from the RCEP, India needs to find alternative trading partners that can offer the potential for trade expansion. The article suggests a Westward trade push as an alternative.

    Forging trade deals with the Western countries

    • Our rejection of RCEP, which covers much of the eastern hemisphere, had exposed us to the risk of losing out on cross-border commercial relations in a highly dynamic part of the world.
    • To compensate for the opportunity cost of that decision, it was imperative to strike other alliances.
    •  As a part of this, India adopted a roadmap for the rest of this decade to elevate ties with the UK and also moving to revive free-trade talks with the EU.
    • An India-UK plan unveiled recently will raise our bilateral relationship to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership in such areas as economic affairs, defence and health.
    • The two countries signed a £1-billion trade investment pact that is expected to generate jobs in both.
    • Separately, India and the EU are reportedly working out how to resume stalled negotiations for a trade deal.

    Issues India may face

    • The signing of pacts would involve mutual tariff reductions and the lowering of other barriers, both of which have proven thorny so far.
    • In general, while the West wants us to lower import duties, our negotiators have been citing India’s sovereign right to protect domestic businesses under World Trade Organization rules.
    • Globally, even before covid knocked the wind out of the sails of cargo ships, commerce across borders had been doing badly under the extended effects of a financial crisis that shook things up in 2008-09.
    • But world trade remains a reliable path to global prosperity and must therefore regain its gusto.
    • For us, deal-making would mean opening up markets to imports in lieu of easier access to foreign ones.

    Way forward

    • Concessions that cause very few job losses in India can easily be made. A broad cost-benefit analysis will have to guide our approach to talks, on complex issues like US visa rules which affect our software exports.
    • Since it is governments that thrash out deals, geopolitical convergences are often sought too.
    • We seem to be in a favourable position on this, given the West’s need to keep China’s rise in check.
    • The UK’s Rolls-Royce has just inked a memorandum with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for warship engines, a sign of our strategic ties.
    • Technology could come our way from the US, too.
    • If we can leverage an ability to play a role in Asia’s balance of power to our economic benefit, we should.

    Conclusion

    Mutually assured flexibility on tariff concessions would help India and its Western partners score economic gains and also counterbalance China’s growing dominance of world trade.

    —————————————————//———————————-

    B2B

    [pib] India-UK Virtual Summit

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  • How Covid would impact India’s foreign policy canvass

    op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Strategic implications of Covid second wave

    Foreign policy consequences

    • The devastation caused by the second Covid wave prompted India to accept foreign aid after a gap of 17 years.
    • This is bound to have far-reaching strategic implications for India.
    • As a direct consequence of the pandemic, India’s claim to regional primacy and leadership will take a major hit.
    • India ‘leading power’ aspirations will be dented, and accentuate its domestic political contestations.
    • These in turn will impact the content and conduct of India’s foreign policy in the years to come.

    What would be the strategic implications?

    1) Impact on India’s regional primacy

    • COVID 2.0 has quickened the demise of India’s regional primacy.
    • India’s geopolitical decline is likely to begin in the neighbourhood itself.
    • India’s traditional primacy in the region was built on a mix of material aid, political influence and historical ties.
    • Its political influence is steadily declining, its ability to materially help the neighbourhood will shrink in the wake of COVID-19.
    • Its historical ties alone may not do wonders to hold on to a region hungry for development assistance and political autonomy.

    2) Impact on India’s great power aspiration

    •  India aspires to be a leading power, rather than just a balancing power.
    • While the Indo-Pacific is geopolitically keen and ready to engage with India, the pandemic could adversely impact India’s ability and desire to contribute to the Indo-Pacific and the Quad.
    • COVID-19, for instance, will prevent any ambitious military spending or modernisation plans.
    • Covid-19 will also limit the country’s attention on global diplomacy and regional geopolitics, be it Afghanistan or Sri Lanka or the Indo-Pacific.
    • With reduced military spending and lesser diplomatic attention to regional geopolitics, New Delhi’s ability to project power and contribute to the growth of the Quad will be uncertain.

    3) Domestic political contestation  and its impact on strategic ambition

    • Domestic political contestations in the wake of the COVID-19 devastation in the country could also limit India’s strategic ambitions.
    • General economic distress, a fall in foreign direct investment and industrial production, and a rise in unemployment have already lowered the mood in the country.
    • A depressed economy, politically volatile domestic space combined with a lack of elite consensus on strategic matters would hardly inspire confidence in the international system about India.

    4) Impact on India-China equation

    • From competing with China’s vaccine diplomacy a few months ago, New Delhi today is forced to seek help from the international community.
    • China has, compared to most other countries, emerged stronger in the wake of the pandemic.
    • The world, notwithstanding its anti-China rhetoric, will continue to do business with Beijing — it already has been, and it will only increase.
    • Claims that India could compete with China as a global investment and manufacturing destination would be dented.
    • India’s ability to stand up to China stands vastly diminished today: in material power, in terms of balance of power considerations, and political will.

    5) Depressed foreign policy

    • Given the much reduced political capital within the government to pursue ambitious foreign policy goals, the diplomatic bandwidth for expansive foreign policy goals would be limited.
    • This, however, might take the aggressive edge off of India’s foreign policy.
    • Less aggression could potentially translate into more accommodation, reconciliation and cooperation especially in the neighbourhood, with Pakistan on the one hand and within the broader South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) framework on the other.
    •  COVID-19 has forced us to reimagine, to some extent at least, the friend enemy equations in global geopolitics.
    • While the United States seemed hesitant, at least initially, Russia was quick to come to India’s aid. 

    6) Implications for strategic autonomy

    • The pandemic would, at the very least indirectly, impact India’s policy of maintaining strategic autonomy.
    • As pointed out above, the strategic consequences of the pandemic are bound to shape and structure India’s foreign policy choices as well as constrain India’s foreign policy agency.
    • It could, for instance, become more susceptible to external criticism for, after all, India cannot say ‘yes’ to just aid and ‘no’ to criticism.

    Consider the question “Examine the strategic implications of Covid for India.” 

    Way forward

    • COVID-19 will also do is open up new regional opportunities for cooperation especially under the ambit of SAARC.
    • India might do well to get the region’s collective focus on ‘regional health multilateralism’ to promote mutual assistance and joint action on health emergencies such as this.
    • Classical geopolitics should be brought on a par with health diplomacy, environmental concerns and regional connectivity in South Asia.

    Conclusion

    While the outpouring of global aid to India shows that the world realises India is too important to fail, the international community might also reach the conclusion that post-COVID-19 India is too fragile to lead and be a ‘leading power’.

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

    A ‘One Health’ approach that targets people, animals

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Zoonotic diseases

    Mains level: Paper 2- 'One Health' approach to deal with infections diseases

    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.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India – EU

    India-UK Relations

    op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- India-Britain relations

    The article highlights the factors that make building sustainable partnership with Britain hard for India and suggests the ways to find fresh basis for bilateral relationship.

    Need to tap potential for bilateral strategic cooperation

    • The long-scheduled summit between Prime Ministers of India and UK will take place with a digital conversation scheduled for Tuesday.
    • India and the UK must tap into the enormous potential for bilateral strategic cooperation in the health sector and contributions to the global war on the virus.
    • Foreign ministers of India, Japan and Australia would also join this meeting to set the stage for the “Group of Seven Plus Three” physical summit next month hosted by the British Prime Minister.

    Challenges in forming a sustainable partnership with Britain

    • Few Western powers are as deeply connected to India as Britain.
    • While India’s relations with countries as different as the US and France have dramatically improved in recent years, ties with Britain have lagged.
    • One reason for this failure has been the colonial prism that has distorted mutual perceptions.
    • The bitter legacies of the Partition and Britain’s perceived tilt to Pakistan have long complicated the engagement between Delhi and London.
    • Also, the large South Asian diaspora in the UK transmits the internal and intra-regional conflicts in the subcontinent into Britain’s domestic politics.

    Finding fresh basis for bilateral relationship

    • The two leaders are expected to announce a 10-year roadmap to transform the bilateral relationship that will cover a range of areas.
    • Both countries are on the rebound from their respective regional blocs.
    • Britain has walked out of the European Union and India has refused to join the China-centred Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
    • Although both will continue to trade with their regional partners, they are eager to build new global economic partnerships.
    • While remaining a security actor in Europe, Britain is tilting to the Indo-Pacific, where India is a natural ally.
    • India needs as wide a coalition as possible to restore a semblance of regional balance.
    • Britain could also contribute to the strengthening of India’s domestic defence industrial base.
    • The two sides could also expand India’s regional reach through sharing of logistical facilities.
    • Both countries are said to be exploring an agreement on “migration and mobility” to facilitate the legal movement of Indians into Britain.
    • Both sides are committed to finding common ground on climate change.

    Consder the question “What are the factors that introduce friction in the sustainability of India’s bilateral relations with the Britain? Identify the areas in which both the countries can find fresh basis for the bilateral relations?”

    Conclusion

    If leaders of both the countries succeed in laying down mutually beneficial terms of endearment, future governments might be less tempted to undermine the partnership.

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  • Judicial Reforms

    Judicial federalism

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Article 139A

    Mains level: Paper 3- Judicial federalism and autonomy of the High Courts

    The article discusses the idea of judicial federalism and autonomy of the High Courts.

    Issue of transfer of cases from High Courts to Supreme Court

    • Under Article 139A of the Constitution, the Supreme Court does have the power to transfer cases from the High Courts to itself if cases involve the same questions of law.
    • In Parmanand Katara v. Union of India (1989), the Supreme Court underlined that the right to emergency medical treatment is part of the citizen’s fundamental rights.
    • As such, constitutional courts owe a duty to protect this right.
    • In the face of a de facto COVID-19 health emergency, the High Courts of Delhi, Gujarat, Madras and Bombay, among others, have done exactly that.
    • These High Courts among others have directed the state governments on various issues related to COVID-19 health emergency.
    • However, Supreme Court issued an order asking the State governments and the Union Territories to “show cause why uniform orders” should not be passed by the Supreme Court.
    • Therefore, the Supreme Court indicated the possibility of the transfer of cases to itself.

    Issues with the SC’s move

    • According to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, public health and hospitals come under the State List as Item No. 6.
    • There could be related subjects coming under the Union List or Concurrent List.
    • Also, there may be areas of inter-State conflicts.
    • But as of now, the respective High Courts have been dealing with specific challenges at the regional level, the resolution of which does not warrant the top court’s interference.
    • In addition to the geographical reasons, the constitutional scheme of the Indian judiciary is pertinent.
    •  In L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India (1997), the Supreme Court itself said that the High Courts are “institutions endowed with glorious judicial traditions” since they “had been in existence since the 19th century”.
    • Even otherwise, in a way, the power of the High Court under Article 226 is wider than the Supreme Court’s under Article 32.
    • This position was reiterated by the court soon after its inception in State of Orissa v. Madan Gopal Rungta (1951).
    • Judicial federalism has intrinsic and instrumental benefits which are essentially political.
    • The United States is an illustrative case.
    • The U.S. Supreme Court reviews “only a relative handful of cases from state courts” which ensures “a large measure of autonomy in the application of federal law” for the State courts.
    • The need for a uniform judicial order across India is warranted only when it is unavoidable — for example, in cases of an apparent conflict of laws or judgments on legal interpretation.
    • Otherwise, autonomy, not uniformity, is the rule.
    • Decentralisation, not centrism, is the principle.

    Consider the question “Under Article 139A of the Constitution, the Supreme Court does have the power to transfer cases from the High Courts to itself if cases involve the same questions of law. However, transferring such cases should not impinge on judicial federalism. Comment.”

    Conclusion

    In the COVID-19-related cases, High Courts across the country have acted with an immense sense of judicial responsibility. This is a legal landscape that deserves to be encouraged. To do this, the Supreme Court must simply stay away.

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  • Zoonotic Diseases: Medical Sciences Involved & Preventive Measures

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

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: TRIPS

    Mains level: Paper 2- Option to waiver from IP rights for vaccine production

    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.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Japan

    India-Japan relations

    op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: CoRe-Competitive and Resilient Partnership

    Mains level: Paper 2- India-Japan relations

    The article discusses the areas in which India-Japan are cooperating and also highlight the areas in which both countries can expand cooperation.

    Issues discussed in US-Japan summit

    • The discussion focused on their joint security partnership given the need to address China’s recent belligerence in territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas as well as in the Taiwan Strait.
    • Both sides affirmed the centrality of their treaty alliance, for long a source of stability in East Asia, and pledged to stand up to China in key regional flashpoints such as the disputed Senkaku Islands and Taiwan.
    • Both sides acknowledged the importance of extended deterrence vis-à-vis China through cooperation on cybersecurity and space technology.
    • Discussions also touched upon Chinese ambitions to dominate the development of new age technologies such as 5G and quantum computing.
    • Given China’s recent pledge to invest a mammoth $1.4 trillion in emerging technologies, Washington and Tokyo scrambled to close the gap by announcing a Competitiveness and Resilience Partnership, or CoRe.
    • Both sides have also signalled their intent to pressure on China on violations of intellectual property rights, forced technology transfer, excess capacity issues, and the use of trade-distorting industrial subsidies.
    •  Both powers repeatedly emphasised their vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.

    Issues that need to be discussed in Japan PM’s visit to India

    1) Continuation of balancing security policy

    • First, one can expect a continuation of the balancing security policy against China that began in 2014.
    • Crucially, India’s clashes with China in Galwan have turned public opinion in favour of a more confrontational China policy.
    • In just a decade, New Delhi and Tokyo have expanded high-level ministerial and bureaucratic contacts, conducted joint military exercises and concluded military pacts such as the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) logistics agreement.
    • Both countries need to affirm support for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific and continued willingness to work with the Quad.
    • Both countries need to take stock of the state of play in the security relationship while also pushing the envelope on the still nascent cooperation on defence technology and exports.

    2) Expanding cooperation in various sectors

    • The two powers will look to expand cooperation in sectors such as cybersecurity and emerging technologies.
    • Digital research and innovation partnership in technologies from AI and 5G to the Internet of Things and space research has increased between the two countries in the recent past.
    • There is a need to deepen cooperation between research institutes and expand funding in light of China’s aforementioned technology investment programme.
    • Issues of India’s insistence on data localisation and reluctance to accede to global cybersecurity agreements such as the Budapest Convention may be discussed in the summit.

    3) Economic ties

    • Economic ties and infrastructure development are likely to be top drawer items on the agendas of New Delhi and Tokyo.
    • Though Japan has poured in around $34 billion in investments into the Indian economy, Japan is only India’s 12th largest trading partner.
    • Trade volumes between the two stand at just a fifth of the value of India-China bilateral trade.
    • India-Japan summit will likely reaffirm Japan’s support for key manufacturing initiatives such as ‘Make in India’ and the Japan Industrial Townships.
    • Further, India will be keen to secure continued infrastructure investments in the strategically vital connectivity projects currently under way in the Northeast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

    4) Joint strategy toward key third countries

    • In years past, India and Japan have collaborated to build infrastructure in Iran and Africa.
    • Both countries have provided vital aid to Myanmar and Sri Lanka and hammer out a common Association of Southeast Asian Nations outreach policy in an attempt to counter China’s growing influence in these corners of the globe.
    • However, unlike previous summits, the time has come for India and Japan to take a hard look at reports suggesting that joint infrastructure projects in Africa and Iran have stalled with substantial cost overruns.
    •  Tokyo will also likely try to get New Delhi to reverse its decision not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

    Consider the question “Changes on the geopolitical horizon offers India-Japan relations multiple avenues to deepen their ties. In light of this, discuss the areas of cooperation and shared concerns for India and Japan.” 

    Conclusion

    Writing in 2006, Shinzo Abe, expressed his hope in his book that “it would not be a surprise if in another 10 years, Japan-India relations overtake Japan-U.S. and Japan-China relations”. Thus far, India has every reason to believe that Japan’s new Prime Minister is willing to make that dream a reality.

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  • Government Budgets

    Don’t worry about the deficit

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Government Budgeting

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Debt to GDP ratio

    Mains level: Paper 3- Need to shed the worry over fiscal deficit

    The devastation caused by the second wave calls for the government to shed its worry over the fiscal deficit. The article deals with this issue.

    Role of fiscal policy to support economy through second wave

    • As India battles to contain the surge in COVID-19 cases, several states have already imposed severe restrictions at the local level.
    • The services sector has been hit the most as a consequence of these lockdowns and it would be difficult for India to deliver on this optimistic growth projection.
    • Against this background, the role fiscal policy can play to support the economy needs consideration.
    • The monetary policy is already accommodative and may not have enough room to further boost the economy.
    • With headline as well as core inflation inching up in recent months, the RBI may not be in a position to further cut the policy rate.
    •  As per the latest Union Budget, the fiscal deficit is estimated to moderate from 9.5 per cent of GDP in FY21 to 6.8 per cent of GDP in FY22.
    • This expected decline in fiscal deficit is not on account of lower fiscal spending but because of expectations of sharper revenue growth.
    • The revenue receipts are estimated to grow by 15 per cent and fiscal spending by 1 per cent this financial year.
    • With the debt to GDP ratio already more than 90 per cent, additional fiscal expansion will not be an easy choice for the government.

    Government need to create fiscal space

    • Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and the government will have to find ways to create fiscal space.
    • This has become especially important as the economy is yet to shrug off the impact of the previous lockdown.
    • Under these difficult circumstances, immediate measures must aim at providing the requisite social safety net to the poor and the vulnerable.
    • The central government has already announced it will distribute an additional five kg of grain to the 800 million beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act, which is welcome.
    • However, given the unprecedented uncertainty brought about by this COVID wave, the ration support under the PDS should be raised further.
    • The government should also consider transferring cash to the bank accounts of the poor, just as it did last time.
    • This becomes important as MGNREGA  may not provide the safety cushion that it is indeed to as long as lockdown measures remain in place.
    • The best stimulus perhaps would be to provide free vaccinations to the population as the benefits of faster and wider vaccine coverage more than outweighs its monetary cost.
    •  Immunisation is a public good. As we get over this crisis, the government must increase its outlay on physical and human health infrastructure.

    How to finance additional cost?

    •  Part of this additional cost may be financed by reducing non-essential government expenditures and use it for COVID-related expenditure.
    • The government may need to resort to additional borrowings from the market than budgeted earlier.
    • The RBI may allow inflation above the upper bound of 6 per cent only in the short run.
    • The plausible rise in interest rates may also be crucial to prevent capital outflows, given the global “economic outlook” when the US economy adopts an easy monetary policy combined with a huge fiscal stimulus.

    Conclusion

    The government should not be deterred by a worsening fiscal deficit in the short run as the additional growth that it generates may make debt consolidation easier when things normalise.

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  • Zoonotic Diseases: Medical Sciences Involved & Preventive Measures

    Supreme Court must oversee vaccination to protect the right to life

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Article 32

    Mains level: Paper 3- Vaccination of Covid-19

    The article highlights the role the Supre Court can play in universal vaccination in India.

    Why Supreme Court needs to step in

    • Amid raging debate over the vaccination strategy, the role the Supreme Court of India can play to safeguard the right to life guaranteed under Article 21, for which it is duty-bound to exercise jurisdiction under Article 32 needs consideration.
    • In this regard, universal vaccination is a glimmer of hope.
    • The Supreme Court of India can facilitate speed and deeper penetration of universal vaccination, which is now commonly accepted as the only possible solution to the pandemic in the long run.

    Issue of patent of vaccine

    • It is time to question patents claimed by vaccines that have been developed with aid from the state in research and development.
    • These patents, if established, must be immediately acquired with just and adequate compensation and made accessible to all manufacturers.
    • This was done for medicines for AIDS and it can be done again under the Patents Act.
    • The Court can also issue mandamus to undertake this exercise on an emergency basis.
    • Thereafter, all pharmaceutical companies with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act must be allowed to manufacture vaccines at a pre-approved price of cost + 6 per cent return on investment.
    • States can also be directed to incentivise the setting up of new manufacturing facilities as a possible third wave, periodic booster doses and the need for ancillary vaccines make it a long-term phenomenon.
    • All this has to be ensured in addition to the free import of vaccines approved by advanced nations.

    Free for all

    • The availability of all the vaccines, whether indigenous or imported, must be free for all the recipients to be paid by GoI.
    • The vaccines can be distributed to states on a pro-rata basis as per population and price adjusted as part of general revenue sharing in GST.

    Vaccine administration

    •  The vaccine administration needs to be ramped up both in state and private facilities.
    • For vaccine hesitancy, we need to incentivise the vaccination through a direct deposit of Rs 500 in Jan Dhan accounts for each vaccinated member of BPL families.
    • This vaccination can be made compulsory for identifiable categories of persons from MGNREGA beneficiaries to Aadhaar Card holders to income-tax payers to bank account holders to driving-licence holders.
    • There must be a strict penalty to be recovered from those who do not get vaccinated without medical reasons.
    • Private efforts can be made eligible for reimbursement of cost.

    Conclusion

    The Supreme Court can steer us, with greater emphasis on the right to life. The pandemic may leave nothing and nobody behind to bicker about.

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  • Antibiotics Resistance

    Antimicrobial resistance

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Factors responsible for anti-microbial resistance

    Mains level: Paper 2-Threats posed by anti-microbial resistance

    The article highlights the challenges posed by anti-microbial resistance (AMR) and suggests ways to deal with it.

    Understanding the severity of challenges posed by AMR

    • Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the phenomenon by which bacteria and fungi evolve and become resistant to presently available medical treatment.
    • AMR represents an existential threat to modern medicine.
    • Without functional antimicrobials to treat bacterial and fungal infections, even the most common surgical procedures, as well as cancer chemotherapy, will become fraught with risk from untreatable infections.
    • Neonatal and maternal mortality will increase.

    How AMR will affect low and middle-income countries

    • All these effects will be felt globally, but the scenario in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) of Asia and Africa is even more serious.
    • LMICs have significantly driven down mortality using cheap and easily available antimicrobials.
    • In the absence of new therapies, health systems in these countries are at severe risk of being overrun by untreatable infectious diseases.

    Factors contributing to AMR

    • Drug resistance in microbes emerges for several reasons.
    • These include the misuse of antimicrobials in medicine, inappropriate use in agriculture, and contamination around pharmaceutical manufacturing sites where untreated waste releases large amounts of active antimicrobials into the environment.

    Stagnant antibiotics discovery

    •  The Challenge of AMR is compounded by fact that no new classes of antibiotics have made it to the market in the last three decades.
    • This has happened on account of inadequate incentives for their development and production.
    • A recent report from the non-profit PEW Trusts found that over 95% of antibiotics in development today are from small companies, 75% of which have no products currently in the market.
    • Major pharmaceutical companies have largely abandoned innovation in this space.

    Measures to deal with the challenge of AMR

    •  In addition to developing new antimicrobials, infection-control measures can reduce antibiotic use.
    • A mix of incentives and sanctions would encourage appropriate clinical use.
    • To track the spread of resistance in microbes, surveillance measures to identify these organisms need to expand beyond hospitals and encompass livestock, wastewater and farm run-offs.
    • Finally, since microbes will inevitably continue to evolve and become resistant even to new antimicrobials, we need sustained investments and global coordination to detect and combat new resistant strains on an ongoing basis.

    Way forward

    •  A multi-sectoral $1 billion AMR Action Fund was launched in 2020 to support the development of new antibiotics.
    • The U.K. is trialling a subscription-based model for paying for new antimicrobials towards ensuring their commercial viability.
    • Other initiatives focused on the appropriate use of antibiotics include Peru’s efforts on patient education to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.
    • Australian regulatory reforms to influence prescriber behaviour, and initiatives to increase the use of point-of-care diagnostics, such as the EU-supported VALUE-Dx programme.
    • Denmark’s reforms to prevent the use of antibiotics in livestock have led to a significant reduction in the prevalence of resistant microbes in animals and improved the efficiency of farming.
    • Finally, given the critical role of manufacturing and environmental contamination in spreading AMR there is a need to curb the amount of active antibiotics released in pharmaceutical waste.
    • Regulating clinician prescription of antimicrobials alone would do little in settings where patient demand is high and antimicrobials are freely available over-the-counter in practice, as is the case in many LMICs.
    • Efforts to control prescription through provider incentives should be accompanied by efforts to educate consumers to reduce inappropriate demand, issue standard treatment guidelines.
    • Solutions in clinical medicine must be integrated with improved surveillance of AMR in agriculture, animal health and the environment.
    • AMR must no longer be the remit solely of the health sector, but needs engagement from a wide range of stakeholders, representing agriculture, trade and the environment with solutions that balance their often-competing interests.
    •  International alignment and coordination are paramount in both policymaking and its implementation.

    Consider the question “Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) represents an existential threat to modern medicine. What are the factors contributing to AMR? Suggest the measures to deal with it.”

    Conclusion

    With viral diseases such as COVID-19, outbreaks and pandemics may be harder to predict; however, given what we know about the “silent pandemic” that is AMR, there is no excuse for delaying action.

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