General Studies Paper 3

Recent context:

• Recently, as per according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Consumer price inflation has fallen from 7.4 per cent to 5 per cent year-on-year between July and September, below the Reserve Bank of India’s 6 per cent upper tolerance limit.

What is the Inflation target?

• Under the Section 45ZA of RBI act1934, the Central Government, in consultation with the RBI, determines the inflation target in terms of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), once in five years and notifies it in the Official Gazette
• Under which Central Government notified in the Official Gazette 4 per cent Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation as the target for the period from August 5, 2016 to March 31, 2021 with an upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent and the lower tolerance limit of 2 per cent.
• On March 31, 2021, the Central Government retained the inflation target and the tolerance band for the next 5-year period – April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2026.
• Section 45ZB of the RBI Act provides for the constitution of a six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) (which is headed by RBI governor) determine the policy rate required to achieve the inflation target.
• Therefore, the Inflation target is set by the central government and it is maintained by RBI through monetary policy tools.

The main contributor to inflation: food-based items

• It has come on the back of retail food inflation registering an even sharper decline, from 11.5 per cent to 6.6 per cent, during this period.
• Much of the food inflation is at present concentrated in cereals (10.9 per cent) and pulses (16.4 per cent), while the price increases in vegetables and milk — items that were a source of angst until recently — have considerably moderated
• There is also relief on the vegetable prices front than tomatoes, whose annual inflation has collapsed from a mind-boggling 202.1 per cent in July to minus 21.5 per cent in September.
• Edible oil inflation has been in negative or low single-digits for over a year. Inflation has been high for salt and spices, but sufficiently under control in sugar
• The long and short of it is that food inflation is no longer generalised. While it’s early to say that the worst is over, El Niño’s impact hasn’t been as bad as was feared.
• There was definitely a lot to worry about when India recorded the driest and also the hottest August this time. However, rainfall was 13.2 per cent surplus in September

Adequate rainfall is September will positively affect rabi crops

• Apart from providing life-saving showers for the standing kharif crop, it has pared the overall water level deficit in major reservoirs (relative to the 10-year average) to 5.6 per cent, from 13.8 per cent on September 6.
• Reasonably filled-up dam reservoirs and recharged groundwater tables should enable plantings for the coming rabi season, the prospects for which seemed dire till the monsoon staged a timely recovery in September.
• This should, for now, keep a lid on food prices in general. Food inflation is, if at all, limited to “dal-roti” — unlike when its effects extended even to sabzi and doodh.

Way forward:

• If food inflation isn’t across-the-board, it calls for a more nuanced approach from the government that balances both consumer and producer interests.
• Currently, it has chosen a sledgehammer strategy to keep prices low at all costs — through export bans/restrictions (on wheat, sugar, onion and most rice) and stocking limits (pulses and wheat).
• Privileging consumers over producers may be politically expedient too, as the former generally outnumber the latter.

Conclusion

The government also needs to take a view beyond elections: Are excessively pro-consumer policies conducive for investments in a sector with the highest employment potential, both on- and off-farm.

General Studies Paper 2

Context

• As Hamas launched its lethal attacks on Israel on October 7, the assault has firmly overturned Israeli efforts, supported by the United States, to promote a normalisation of relations with Arab states without conceding anything to the Palestinians. Specifically, the Gaza war has dealt a mortal blow to the efforts for Saudi Arabia to normalise ties with Israel.

Saudi-Israel relations:

• In September 2023, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waved two maps to embellish his speech at the United Nations General Assembly: one depicted an isolated Israel in 1948, while the other showed Arab neighbours that now had peace agreements with Israel — Egypt, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Jordan. It also showed all the occupied Palestinian territories — the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem — as integral parts of Israel.

U.S. backed diplomacy

• S. officials pushed for diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, possibly within this year. The normalisation deal had hinged on three conditions that the kingdom had placed before the U.S.:
• S. approval for a civilian nuclear programme that provides for uranium enrichment within the country
• An “ironclad” U.S. security guarantee for the country

Sales of advanced weapons.

The Americans were said to be insisting that Saudi Arabia return the favour as follows :

• Back U.S. interests on oil prices
• Dilute its political, military and technological ties with China
• Deepen strategic engagement with the U.S.

Issues with the new US- Saudi Arabia deal:

• Saudi Arabia’s three conditions for normalisation were contentious in Israel and the U.S. Several U.S. politicians opposed the idea of giving security guarantees to an authoritarian state. They also warned the U.S. President against Saudi Arabia developing its own nuclear programme, believing that it poses an unacceptable proliferation risk — a concern shared in Israel as well.
• There were also obstacles to the U.S. sales of advanced weapons, largely due to Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record at home and in Yemen.
• Finally, there were concerns about Saudi insistence that arms supplies be accompanied by a transfer of technology to develop its arms industry.
• Despite these obstacles, the U.S. was confident the deal would go through. Palestinian interests and concerns did not figure in these normalisation discussions.
• At that time, Israel made provocative incursions into the Al Aqsa mosque complex, while the Jewish settlers in the West Bank increased their activities.

Impact of the war on Indian interests in the region:

• The conflict in Israel and Palestine will not dampen plans for the India- Middle East- Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), Finance Minister recently said. However, violence has brought concerns about fuel and food security to the fore again.
• Indian government has condemned Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians. This marks a departure from the traditional Indian foreign policy, which was supportive of Palestine till recently. India also supports the Two State solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River.

Saudi- Iran ties

• The Gaza war has once again placed the Palestinian issue at the centre of West Asian politics. Some writers are blaming Iran, arguing that the Islamic Republic has instigated the Hamas attacks to block Saudi Arabia’s normalisation initiative with Israel. This argument has little credibility.
• Saudi-Iran ties have already been normalised under Chinese mediation: embassies have been reopened in both capitals, high level visits have been exchanged and economic cooperation is being expanded.
• Now, following the Hamas attacks, the kingdom has recognised that peace and stability in the region are not possible without Palestinian interests being addressed.

Palestinian interests in focus

• Again, the Saudis have abandoned recourse to insincere verbal assurances to the Palestinians that were under consideration during the normalisation negotiations. The search now is for concrete action to serve Palestinian interests.
• Looking ahead, it has been obvious over the last three years that the kingdom had shrugged off the American yoke and was pursuing its foreign policy engagements in terms of its own interests, without any U.S. involvement. The kingdom rejects the U.S. interest in building an anti- China coalition globally and an anti- Iran cabal regionally.

Conclusion

• Regardless of the U.S.’s wishes there is no question of Saudi Arabia accommodating the Americans on oil prices or diluting its comprehensive strategic ties with China. They exemplify its assertion of strategic autonomy and are an integral part of its quest for diverse, multifaceted, and substantial ties across Asia. Promoting the Palestinian cause will now form an important part of this foreign policy approach.

General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Nations worldwide are grappling with the need to update their legal frameworks to adapt to the evolving digital landscape. India, with its ambitious ‘Digital India’ initiative, is no exception. The recent announcement of the Digital India Act 2023 (DIA) represents a significant step towards establishing a futureready legal framework for the country’s burgeoning digital ecosystem.

Digital India Act 2023 (DIA)

• This move by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) signals a proactive approach to regulating and shaping the digital future of the nation. \The DIA, poised to replace the two decades old Information Technology Act of 2000 (IT Act), is designed to address the challenges and opportunities presented by the dramatic growth of the internet and emerging technologies.
• The primary motivation behind the DIA is to bring India’s regulatory landscape in sync with the digital revolution of the 21st century. Since its inception, India’s internet user base has exploded from a mere 5.5 million to a staggering 850 million.
• The nature of internet usage has also evolved, with the emergence of various intermediaries and the proliferation of new forms of user harm, such as cyberstalking, trolling, and doxing. The DIA recognises these changes and aims to provide a comprehensive legal framework to address them.

Key provisions

• Firstly, it places a strong emphasis on online safety and trust, with a commitment to safeguarding citizen’s rights in the digital realm while remaining adaptable to shifting market dynamics and international legal principles.
• Secondly, recognising the growing importance of newage technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, the DIA provides guidelines for their responsible utilisation. The DIA does not just leave it to the market to dictate the course of these technologies but actively engages in shaping their development and use within a regulatory framework.
• It promotes ethical AI practices, data privacy in blockchain applications, and mechanisms for accountability in the use of these technologies. This forward looking stance is not only beneficial for citizens and businesses but also positions India as a responsible player in the global technology landscape, ready to harness the full potential of newage technologies while mitigating associated risks.
• Thirdly, it upholds the concept of an open internet, striking a balance between accessibility and necessary regulations to maintain order and protect users.
• Additionally, the DIA mandates stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for wearable devices, accompanied by criminal law sanctions.
• Lastly, it contemplates a review of the “safe harbour” principle, which presently shields online platforms from liability related to user generated content, indicating a potential shift in online accountability standards.

The myriad challenges

• One key concern is the potential impact on innovation and the ease of doing business. Stricter regulations, particularly in emerging technologies, could inadvertently stifle entrepreneurial initiatives and deter foreign investments.
• Additionally, the review of the “safe harbour” principle, which shields online platforms from liability for user generated content, could lead to a more cautious approach among these platforms, possibly impinging on freedom of expression.
• Furthermore, the DIA’s success hinges on effective enforcement, which will require substantial resources, expertise, and infrastructure.
• Balancing the interests of various stakeholders, including tech giants, while ensuring the protection of citizen rights, poses a significant challenge.

Conclusion:

• Therefore, while the DIA is a progressive move, its implementation and potential repercussions warrant vigilant monitoring and adaptability to avoid unintended consequences. The DIA is a crucial step towards ensuring a secure, accountable, and innovative digital future for India.

General Studies Paper 3

Context

• There has been intense focus on India’s growth performance of late. First, on the occasion of the Delhi meetings of the G20, the government announced that it was the world’s fastest growing major economy.
• It was met with a challenge from an independent economist on the grounds that the government had relied on the income method to estimate GDP, and that were the expenditure method to be used instead the observed growth rate would be lower. The Finance Ministry responded that the Government of India had been consistent in using GDP estimated by the income method throughout. This is correct.

A focus that is flawed

• However, it may be noted that the contestation had been over economic performance in a single quarter, namely the first quarter of the current financial year.
• Soon after this exchange, Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman investigated whether India’s growth rate is accelerating or decelerating after the COVID19 year of 2020-21 (FY21). They concluded that “after a strong recovery there has been a significant ebbing of dynamism over the last three quarters”.
• But both the government and those challenging its narrative are focused on very short phases of growth. This can result in mistaking the cycle — a temporary fluctuation — for the trend, which is the long term tendency.

Growth, from 1950 to the present

• Studying growth up to the year 201920, which is the preCOVID year, we find that the last time the growth rate increased in India was in 2000. The conclusion from this must be that the current government has not had success in raising the rate of growth of India’s economy while in office.
• There has been growth of income per capita, but this government has not been able to quicken the pace at which they have been coming our way for decades.
• The finding does not surprise, for in the six years up to the COVID19 pandemic, the growth rate had slowed sequentially in three, immediately upon the demonetisation of 2016. As no major exogenous shock struck the economy in this period, it must be concluded that it is the demonetisation that caused the slowing.
• We may forecast GDP in the years after COVID-19 by projecting forward the growth rate achieved prior to 2019-20, and see how actual outcomes compare to these projections. So, we forecast the GDP in 2022-23 by extending the average annual growth rate of 6.5% achieved for the period 2000-01 to 2019-20. We found that actual GDP in 2022-23 is 11.1% less than predicted. So, the recovery from the pandemic may well have been ‘V- shaped’ but till last year, GDP was yet below trend.

The COVID-19 year

• Finally, though focusing on GDP growth after the pandemic may show the Indian economy in a relatively good light compared to other major economies, it misses a crucial aspect of economic management during the present government’s term in office.
• During the COVID year of 2020-21, most BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the United States contracted less than India did. All these countries had also adopted a stronger macroeconomic stimulus. The stimulus adopted by the Government of India then was astonishingly small.
• The contraction of GDP during the pandemic in India is most related to that dogmatic refusal to stimulate the economy when needed. It accounts for the corresponding recovery that followed in 2021-22.
• In effect, very high growth that year reflects the restarting of production after the lifting of a very stringent lockdown, rather than an independent economic response to smart policy, which is how it is presented.

Conclusion:

• Having left the economy to shift for itself for much of its tenure recently, Modinomics has swivelled to addressing growth frontally. Perhaps having realised that it has not had much success in stimulating private investment, the government has, over the last two Budgets, hiked capital spending at historically high rates. The ideal of ‘minimum government’ seems to have been shelved in election season.

General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The debate over fundamental reforms at the United Nations (UN) has resurfaced at the ongoing General Assembly (UNGA) session. UN’s Secretary General, António Guterres, issued a stern warning: “The world has changed. Our institutions have not. We cannot effectively address problems as they are if institutions do not reflect the world as it is. Instead of solving problems, they risk becoming part of the problem.”

Old wine in new bottle

• It could not have been put more bluntly, but we have heard this song before. Politically, it is untenable that the P5 or the five permanent members of UN Security Council (UNSC)- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States- enjoy their position, and the privilege of a veto over any Council resolution or decision, merely by virtue of having won a war 76 years ago. In the case of China, the word ‘won’ needs to be placed within inverted commas.

An unjust situation in terms of equity

Issue of representation

• The Security Council reflects the geopolitical realities of 1945 and not of today. When the UN was founded in 1945, the Council consisted of 11 members out of a total UN membership of 51 countries; in other words, some 22% of the member states were on the Security Council. Today, there are 193 member states of the UN, and only 15 members of the Council — fewer than 8%.
• The one change ever made to the original Charter was in 1965 when the Security Council was expanded from 11 members to 15 by adding four more elected non-permanent members.

Issue of composition

• The composition of the Council also gives undue weightage to the balance of power of those days. Europe, for instance, which accounts for barely 5% of the world’s population, still controls 33% of the seats in any given year (and that does not count Russia, another European power).

Issue of financial contribution

• In terms of simple considerations of equity, this situation is unjust to those countries whose financial contributions to the UN outweigh those of four of the P5 members — Japan and Germany have for decades been the second and third largest contributors to the UN budget, while still being referred to as ‘enemy states’ in the United Nations Charter (since the UN was set up by the victorious Allies of the Second World War).

Case of India

• And it denies opportunities to other states such as India, which by its sheer size of population, share of the world economy, or contributions in kind to the UN (through participation in peacekeeping operations, for example) have helped shape the evolution of world affairs in the seven decades since the organisation was born.

Stances by countries

• So, the Security Council is clearly ripe for reform to bring it into the second quarter of the 21st century. But for every state that feels it deserves a place on the Security Council, and especially the handful of countries which believe their status in the world ought to be recognised as being in no way inferior to at least three of the existing permanent members, there are several who know they will not benefit from any reform.
• The small countries that make up more than half the UN’s membership accept that reality and are content to compete occasionally for a two year non permanent seat on the Council.
• But the medium sized and large countries, which are the rivals of the prospective beneficiaries, deeply resent the prospect of a select few breaking free of their current secondrank status in the world body.
• Many are openly animated by a spirit of competition, historical grievance or simple envy. They have successfully and indefinitely thwarted reform of the membership of the Security Council.

Difficulties in amending the UN Charter

• Part of the problem is that the bar to amending the UN Charter has been set rather high. Any amendment requires a two thirds majority of the overall membership, in other words 129 of the 193 states in the General Assembly, and would further have to be ratified by two thirds of the member states.
• Ratification is usually a parliamentary procedure, so, in other words, the only ‘prescription’ that has any chance of passing is one that will both persuade two thirds of the UN member states to support it and not attract the opposition of any of the existing permanent five.
• India’s credentials may seem obvious to us, but China is none too keen on diluting its status as the only Asian permanent member; Pakistan, which fancies itself as India’s strategic rival on the subcontinent, is unalterably opposed; and to some extent Indonesia seems to feel diminished by the prospect of an Indian seat.

Continuing gridlock

• So, while the debate keeps going round in circles for decades, gridlock continues in the Security Council, as most vividly illustrated recently over the Ukraine conflict, when a Permanent Member of the Security Council invaded a sovereign UN member state and the Council proved powerless to respond.
• Russia’s increasing resort to the veto has blocked resolutions on Ukraine, Mali, Syria and North Korea. Similar obstructionism by the West has affected proposals to reform the financial institutions established at Bretton Woods in 1944, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
• And yet this is the only global system we have got that brings all countries together on a common platform. Can we afford to let it fade into ineffectiveness and irrelevance?

General Studies Paper 2

Context:

• The case filed by a manufacturer of indigenous drugs against a medical practitioner on the grounds that his social media thread affected their business has become a cause celebrè in medical circles.

Modern medicine

• It is a fact that irrespective of the advances of modern medicine, several systems which lay claim to healing, and which all fall under the broad category of alternative medicine, exist. Certain systems such as Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha have their own pharmacopeia in India.
• Modern medicine really became science based only from the late 19th century when advances in technology made not only the study of the functioning of the human body in health and disease more accurate, but also led to safe anaesthesia and surgery.
• Later, this process led to marvels such as dialysis for kidney failure and the heartlung machine which made surgery on the heart a daily affair. The development of scientific thought in the 20th century, including the Popperian idea of falsifiability, led to advances in evaluating medical therapies.
• Subjected to the methods of modern science, which are continually being refined, many therapies were found to be ineffective and abandoned. This is the strength of the modern method, the recognition that science continually advances and self corrects.
• The Nobel Winning antimalarial artemisinin was synthesised thanks to investigators who were open minded enough to take cues from a 1,600 yearold text of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The case of Ayurveda

• The physiological basis of Ayurveda is not sound, but that does not ipso facto mean that its therapies are not sound either. Like many traditional medical systems everywhere, Ayurveda was constrained in its understanding of how the human body works by the lack of available technology.
• A reason based world view is what differentiates Ayurveda epistemologically from the erstwhile faith based forms of the Atharva Veda. Proponents of Ayurveda who claim that everything was already known to the ancient people do it a great disservice and stultify its growth and development.
• One of the greatest triumphs of modern epistemology is its ability to synthesise ideas from across the world to build a coherent system of how the world functions. This is an ongoing process, subject to corrections and improvements as thought and technology improve, building on past knowledge.
• In modern drug development, the commonly used method is to isolate the active principle. Thus, most modern medicines are single ingredient and only a few are combinations. Also, the exact amount of the active principle is carefully calculated.
• Ayurvedic medicines are commonly combinations, and it is uncertain how these combinations interact with each other. It would increase the acceptability of Ayurvedic medicines in the scientific community if they were evaluated by the methods of modern science in a way that does not compromise with the wholeness of Ayurvedic formulations.

Way forward:

• New investigational methods and trial designs which can evaluate Ayurvedic therapies without undermining the classical bases of administering them must be worked out. The Ministry of AYUSH must facilitate this.
• The purpose of government policy is to make life better for the people. The health of the people should not be hostage to false ideas of nationalism. The aim should be to carry out an evidence based appraisal of all traditional medical systems, retain and develop what is useful, and integrate them into one cogent system of medicine available to all.

Conclusion:

• A few individuals do a disservice to the cause of evidence based medicine by denouncing traditional medical systems wholesale. Science requires open mindedness disciplined by scepticism. Denouncing traditional systems in toto would result is a hasty dismissal of valuable medical experience that has undergone repeated, albeit informal, verifications at the hands of generations of practitioners

General Studies Paper 1

Context:

• 17th edition of the Global Gender Gap Report (G3R) of the WEF or World Economic Forum (2023), based on data from 146 countries, has concluded that at the current rate of progress, it will take 131 years to close the global gender gap; it is 149 years in populous South Asian countries including India.

Global gender gap

• It “assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities”.
• Gender Gap Index measures gender equality based on the relative gaps between women and men across 4 key areas:
• Economic Participation and Opportunity
• Educational Attainment
• Health and Survival
• Political Empowermen
• The value ranges between 0 (complete inequality) and 1 (complete equality)
• India has progressed from 135th rank in 2022 to 127th out of 146 countries in the report’s 2023 edition. India has closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap.

Closing the gender gap:

• What women want is a level playing field where the factor of gender which is completely irrelevant but looms large, is removed from the equation.
• Reservation is the most effective form of affirmative action and equity is the first step to equality. That it leads to inefficiency or incompetency is simply making excuses for not rendering tightly guarded spaces to ousted classes.
• The basic premise of advocates against reservation is that it will bring down competence. Incompetencies, even if they arise, are short term, and are removed soon after opportunity for skill building is made available. Statistics show that women perform much better than men in academics, more women graduate from colleges than men, and more women enter the workforce than men. In contrast to this trend, the number of women sharply spirals downwards in leadership positions not because of their incompetence, but because of the hegemony of men.

A fresh start

• The Women’s Reservation Bill or (128th Constitutional Amendment) Bill, 2023, became a rare piece of legislation in independent India to be cleared overwhelmingly by both Houses. While India’s founding fathers ensured that India was early to adopt universal adult suffrage, the role of women in shaping the country’s political future still remains minimal.
• The women’s reservation bill or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam reserves one-third (33%) of the seats in Lok Sabha, State legislative assemblies and the Delhi assembly. This will also apply to the seats reserved for SCs (Scheduled Castes) and STs (Scheduled Tribes) in Lok Sabha and State Legislatures.
• However, the reservation will not be effective immediately, but only after the next census. Based on the census, delimitation will be undertaken to reserve seats for women. The reservation will be provided for a period of 15 years. However, it shall continue till such date as determined by Parliamentary enactment.

In leadership roles

• Historical evidence points out that but for a few Taleb’s black swans, all women who have assumed leadership roles did not get there by sheer industry, competence and intelligence. They were allowed only for the convenience of men who were disqualified from assuming these positions, or, if it served some political agenda.
• In the Indian political arena women leaders were, most often, convenient choices. Historical evidence also shows that most women who make it to leadership positions have a mix of privileges — of higher education, the support of influential mentors or families, or belong to upper classes or castes. Despite these privileges, women also take longer to assume leadership positions, as can be seen from the relatively slow rise of Indira Gandhi vis-a-vis the mercurial rise of Rajiv Gandhi.
• Even the handful of privileged women who assume leadership are not supportive or empathetic to the aspirations of those women who do not even have access to basic needs such as nutrition, education and financial independence. They reel under the misconception that they have become leaders by virtue of their own efforts and sacrifices, ignoring the personal advantages they possess. Thus, the biggest block is the regressive views on gender equality held by men and women.

Way forward:

• Why do women have to wait so long to close the gender gap? The present Bill is the first step towards actualising gender parity. One only wishes that its implementation would be based on a readjustment of seats on the basis of the 1991 Census, as it is done in the case of Scheduled Caste seats by the Delimitation Commission, rather than waiting for the delimitation exercise pegged on the next Census, whenever it is held.

Conclusion:

• It is time to quickly set right historical wrongs. Women want change. Society needs change. And there is no reason why it should be late.

General Studies Paper 2

Context:

• From the very beginning of the Jewish-Arab conflict, the only viable long term solution has been to divide the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea by creating two countries for two people. This is the two state solution to the Israel- Palestine conflict.

Historical background:

• Both the Arabs and Jews have had strong self conceptions of nationhood tied to the same land. But for much of this 100 year war, Jews accepted the inevitability of partition while the Arabs rejected it.
• For the last few decades, however, the situation seems to have been reversed. One section of the Palestinian leadership, much of the Arab world, and all of the West seem to have agreed on a two state solution, while it is Israel that is balking at creating a sovereign Palestinian state in West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in East Jerusalem.
• Understanding its reason is central to predicting the consequences of Hamas’s recent terror attacks on Israel, one that has killed more than 700 Israelis and provoked the Israeli response.

The real stakeholders:

• From a position of justice, one could argue that the only two stakeholders who should matter are the Palestinian and Israeli people. But as a matter of realpolitik, the key stakeholder has always been the Israeli public. This is because, without the acquiescence of the more powerful Israel, no solution is possible. And since Israel is a democracy, without the agreement of the Israeli public no Israeli acquiescence is possible.
• So, the only question to ask is: will Hamas’s attacks push the Israeli public into creating a sovereign Palestinian state? Some opinion makers think so. They feel that Israel’s trauma from Hamas’s strikes will finally make the people understand that a sovereign Palestinian state is a prerequisite for peace.
• But it is more likely that Israelis will come to the opposite conclusion: that a two state solution — one where a Palestinian state will have its own Army and security — will empower Palestinians to attack Israel even more effectively. They fear that an independent Palestine will behave as Hamas has been doing all along.

Hamas’s stance

• Hamas does not accept Israel’s right to exist in any shape. It attacked Israel on its southern borders that will remain with Israel in any eventual peace deal, and killed and abducted innocent civilians, not religious settlers occupying the West Bank.
• That the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has supported Hamas will only heighten Israeli fears that an end to the conflict will not be a Palestinian and Jewish state living side by side, but a single Palestinian state between the river and the sea.
• The central obstruction to a two state solution has not been the Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza, but the inability of the Palestinians to convince Israeli voters that if given sovereignty in some part of the land, they would leave the Jews alone in the other.
• There has always been a radical Israeli fringe unwilling to see the Palestinians as a people deserving a state. These religious bigots had historically been on the margins of Israeli politics. Today, they are key members of the ruling coalition, reflecting a widening distrust among Israeli voters of Palestinians as partners in any eventual peace.

Lessons learnt and way forward:

• Palestinians have learnt from their decadeslong occupation and daily humiliations that Israeli civilians need to share their pain to force them to reduce it. But from the Israeli perspective, every wave of violence against their civilian community has made them less likely to risk ending the occupation of Palestinians.
• Given the power imbalance between Israel and the rest of the Arab world, there is only one way for Palestinians to get their sovereign state. That will be to convince Israeli voters that an eventual Palestine will live peaceably next to Israel.

The only way forward is for a Palestinian leadership that can credibly signal to the Israeli people that it will not use the freedoms it gains from any peace deal to hurt Israel. The prospects for that seem dim.

General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The theme of World Mental Health Day (October 10) this year is ‘mental health as a universal human right’. A segment often overlooked when it concerns mental health is the informal worker.

Informal workers’ mental health

• A study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) says that 15% of working age adults, globally, live with a mental disorder. On one hand, decent work influences mental health in a positive way while on the other, unemployment, or unstable or precarious employment, workplace discrimination, or poor and particularly unsafe working environments, can all pose a risk to a worker’s mental health.
• Workers in low paid, unrewarding or insecure jobs, or working in isolation, are more likely to be exposed to psychosocial risks, thus compromising their mental health.

The Indian experience

• India’s informal workforce accounts for more than 90% of the working population. These workers often operate without regulatory protection, work in unsafe working environments, endure long hours, have little access to social or financial protections, suffer high uncertainty and deep precarity, and face discrimination — all of which further undermine mental health and limit access to mental health care.

Gender disparities

• Over 95% of India’s working women engaged in informal, low paying, and precarious employment, often without social protection, in addition to suffering patriarchal structures and practices in their social and familial spaces.

Youth unemployment

• It is one of the highest in India which, along with the stigma around unemployment, significantly impacts their mental health. Moreover, an ILO report highlights how young workers are shifting to more precarious and informal work, accepting less pay and poorer working conditions, out of desperation, and, sometimes, giving up and exiting the labour force altogether.

State of Inequality in India Report 2022

• It observes that the unemployment rate actually increases with educational levels, particularly for educated young women who show an unemployment rate of 42%. With this phase of demographic dividend, where half of India’s population is of working age and projected to remain so for two decades, it is pertinent to think about the quality of employment and long term social security for them.

The elderly

• India will also become an ageing society in 20 years, with no apparent social security road map for this rapidly growing group that is especially vulnerable to poor mental health.
• Census of India 2011 shows that 33 million elderly people are working postretirement in informal work. Another study, by the ILO on elderly employment in India, shows high poverty among them, in terms of economic dependency and access to financial assets.

Impact of COVID-19

• A study by Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) among informal workers in Delhi, mostly migrants, indicates that recovery post COVID19 remains uneven among informal worker cohorts. Many still report food insecurity, skipped meals, or reduced consumption.
• While certain schemes have received a higher allocation this year, others such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) have seen their funding slashed.
• In 2021, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported that 26% of the people who died by suicide were daily wage earners. Employment guarantee programmes can indeed improve mental health outcomes. Thus, social security can be:
• promotional: aiming to augment income
• preventive: aiming to forestall economic distress
• protective: aiming to ensure relief from external shocks.

Way forward: A relook at the Code on Social Security (CSS) 2020:

• It shows how glaring issues concerning the social security of India’s informal workforce still remain unheeded. While India should universalise social security, the current Code does not state this as a goal.
• Care needs drastic improvement Informal workers, despite their significant contribution to national income, are perennially exposed to various economic, physical, and mental vulnerabilities.
• India’s budgetary allocation for mental health (currently under 1% of the total health budget) has overfocused on the digital mental health programme.
• As the World Mental Health Report 2022 observed, addressing mental health involves strengthening community based care, and people centred, recovery oriented and human rights oriented care.

Conclusion

• There is an urgent need for proactive policies to improve mental health recognition and action. This is critical in upholding the basic human right to good health, including mental health, and in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 3 on ‘good health and wellbeing’ and SDG 8 on ‘decent work for all/economic growth’.

General Studies Paper 3

Context

• A malaria vaccine —R21/MatrixM —developed by the University of Oxford, manufactured by the Pune based Serum Institute of India (SII) and tested in a phase 3 trial at five sites in Africa, was recommended by the WHO on October 2.
• Three countries — Nigeria, Ghana, and Burkina Faso — have already approved the use of the vaccine to immunise children aged less than 36 months.

The threat of Malaria:

• Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other vertebrates. Symptoms usually begin 10 to 15 days after being bitten by an infected Anopheles mosquito.
• Human malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death.
• While Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for more deaths, Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread of all of the malaria species.
• Malaria is most common in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. According to the WHO, in 2021, there were 247 million malaria cases worldwide and 6,19,000 deaths. About 25 million children are born each year in countries with moderate to high malaria transmission.
• India has been able to reduce the prevalence of the disease by 66% between 2018 and 2022.

Efficacy of malaria vaccines:

• The first malaria vaccine was RTS,S/AS01, recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2021 to be rolled out in high transmission African countries, understanding the urgency of malaria control and prevention.
• RTS,S/AS01 was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation etc. In India, Bharat Biotech has been granted license to manufacture this vaccine. All trials of this vaccine shows efficacy below 60%. Till now, no malaria vaccine has shown the benchmark efficacy of 75% set by WHO.
• The efficacy of R21/ MatrixM is much higher than RTS,S/AS01/ The results indicate that the new vaccine was more efficacious in places where malaria was seasonal than when it was perennial. The authors think that this may partly be due to timing of malaria episodes in countries with seasonal or perennial malaria.
• Since the vaccination is carried out just before the beginning of the malaria season, the protection offered is higher when the disease is seasonal than when malaria occurs throughout the year. The vaccine may help reduce malaria transmission, especially when combined with other strategies such as mosquito nets.
• According to WHO, the cost of the R21/MatrixM manufactured by Serum Institute will be between $2 and $4 per dose. Serum Institute will produce “over 100 million doses a year”. So it will be affordable and accessible to those who need it.

Global initiatives on malaria:

• Global Malaria Program: launched by WHO and guided by the “Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030”. The strategy aims to reduce malaria case incidence and mortality rates by at least 75% by 2025 and 90% by 2030, from 2015 level .
• Malaria Elimination Initiative: launched by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• E-2025 initiative: In 2021, WHO launched it to halt the transmission of malaria in 25 identified countries by 2025.

Indian initiatives on malaria:

• National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme: It is an umbrella programme for prevention and control of vector borne diseases including Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya etc.
• National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP): undertakes measures like insecticidal residual spray (IRS) or DDT, monitoring and surveillance of cases, treatment of patients etc.
• National Framework for Malaria Elimination 2016-2030: Based on WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 (GTS), it aims to eliminate malaria (zero indigenous cases) in India by 2030, maintain malaria–free status in areas where malaria transmission has been interrupted and prevent re-introduction of malaria.
• Malaria Elimination Research Alliance-India (MERA-India): an ICMR-led research collaboration on malaria control.

Conclusion

• The development and approval of new malaria vaccines will aid in India’s aim to be malaria-free by 2027 and to eliminate the disease by 2030.