ILO reported 400 million workers in India may face poverty due to COVID-19 crisis

Context: Recently, United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that the Indian economy is to face catastrophic consequences in the second quarter of 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Key Points of the Report

• In its report titled 'ILO Monitor 2nd edition: COVID-19 and the world of work', ILO described COVID-19 pandemic as "the worst global crisis since World War II".
• It stated that about 400 million people working in the informal economy in India are at risk of falling deeper into poverty due to the coronavirus crisis.
• The report highlighted that the economic breakdown will wipe out 195 million full-time jobs or 6.7% of working hours globally in the second quarter of the year 2020.
• The COVID-19 pandemic might cause a catastrophic effect on working hours and earnings across the globe.

About International Labour Organization (ILO)

• Established in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles as an affiliated agency of the League of Nations.
• Became the first affiliated specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946.
• Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
• Founding Mission: social justice is essential to universal and lasting peace.
• Promotes internationally recognized human and labour rights.
• Received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969.
• It is the only tripartite U.N. agency. It brings together governments, employers and workers of 187 member States, to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.

Functions of the ILO

• Creation of coordinated policies and programs, directed at solving social and labour issues.
• Adoption of international labour standards in the form of conventions and recommendations and control over their implementation.
• Assistance to member-states in solving social and labour problems.
• Human rights protection (the right to work, freedom of association, collective negotiations, protection against forced labour, protection against discrimination, etc.).
• Research and publication of works on social and labour issues.

Objectives of the ILO

• To promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights at work.
• To create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment.
• To enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all.
• To strengthen tripartism and social dialogue.

Context: Recently, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said that the unemployment rate shot up in March. The employment rate in the economy fell to an all-time low of 38.2 percent in March 2020.

• With the coronavirus outbreak severely affecting every country, its impact on an already hobbling Indian economy is set to be devastating if the latest data on unemployment rate is taken as an indicator.

Key Points

• The Labour Participation Rate (LPR) in March 2019 was 42.7 percent. This is the first time the LPR has fallen below 42 percent.
• The monthly figures from the CMIE that were released recently also show a curious inversion.
• In urban India, unemployment among the uneducated is at a higher level than those with a graduate degree (13%), for the first time since early-2016. Most of the people are employed in service sector jobs in construction, repair, or unorganized transport, all of which have come to a standstill due to the current lockdown.
• Early estimates from CMIE’s weekly tracker indicate that at least 50 million Indians may have lost their jobs in the last two weeks.
• The real impact of wage cuts and job losses won’t be felt immediately on account of the temporary relief measures announced by the government and the RBI.
• The government has unveiled a Rs 1.75 lakh crore welfare package for poor while the RBI announced a series of measures to ease liquidity in the system (to the tune of Rs 3.74 lakh crore).

About Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) 

• It is a leading business information company. It was established in 1976, primarily as an independent think tank.
• It is a privately owned and professionally managed company head-quartered at Mumbai.
• It provides services to the entire spectrum of business information consumers including governments, academia, financial markets, business enterprises, professionals and media.
• It produces economic and business databases and develops specialised analytical tools to deliver these to its customers for decision making and for research. It analyses the data to decipher trends in the economy.

Functions of CMIE

• CMIE has built India's largest database on the financial performance of individual companies; it conducts the largest survey to estimate household incomes, pattern of spending and savings; it runs a unique monitoring of new investment projects on hand and it has created the largest integrated database of the Indian economy.

Context: Recently, the decision by a Pakistani court in Sindh to acquit Ahmed Omar Sheikh Saeed of murdering journalist Daniel Pearl will be raised by India at the next meeting of the Financial Action Task Force, where Pakistan’s greylist status will come up for discussion.
Background

• In December 1999, Saeed was released along with Masood Azhar and another alleged terrorist Mushtaq Zargar by the Indian government in exchange for 155 hostages aboard the hijacked IC-814, famously known as "Kandahar Kand"

About FATF

• It is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.
• It is a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various areas.
• The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
• Initially it was established to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering.
• In October 2001, the FATF expanded its mandate to incorporate efforts to combat terrorist financing, in addition to money laundering.
• In April 2012, it added efforts to counter the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
• Composition: The FATF currently comprises 37 member jurisdictions and 2 regional organisations, representing most major financial centres in all parts of the globe. It also has observers and associate members.
• Objectives: To set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
• India became an Observer at FATF in 2006. Since then, it had been working towards full-fledged membership. On June 25, 2010 India was taken in as the 34th country member of FATF.

About Blacklist and Grey List
Black List: Countries known as Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCTs) are put in the blacklist. These countries support terror funding and money laundering activities. The FATF revises the blacklist regularly, adding or deleting entries.
Grey List: Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list. This inclusion serves as a warning to the country that it may enter the blacklist.
Once a country is blacklisted, FATF calls on other countries to apply enhanced due diligence and counter measures, increasing the cost of doing business with the country and in some cases severing it altogether. As of now there are only two countries in the blacklist — Iran and North Korea — and seven on the grey list, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria and Yemen.
About Dark Grey list
According to FATF rules there is one essential stage between ‘Grey’ and ‘Black’ lists, referred to as ‘Dark Grey’.

• It means issuance of a strong warning, so that the country concerned gets one last chance to improve.
• It was the term used for warning upto 3rd Phase. Now it’s just called warning — that is the 4th phase.

The following challenges faced by a nation under consideration of Grey list are  

• Economic sanctions from IMF, World Bank, ADB.
• Problem in getting loans from IMF, World Bank, ADB and other countries.
• Reduction in international trade.
• International boycott.

Context: Recently, In Telangana, a unique initiative titled Consumer-Farmer(Confarm) is being implemented to ensure food availability to consumers and secure income for farmers.

Key Points

• Indian farmers and urban consumers have a common concern amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak — of food security.
• While farmers need money and resources to harvest their crops, consumers need to ensure the harvested crop reaches them for consumption. 
• This is precisely what a partnership between farmers and urban consumers in Telangana, christened ‘ConFarm’ (Consumer-Farmer Compact), has been doing for the last two years. The consumers support farmers with their agriculural needs; in return, farmers ensure consumers are able to access food in a hassle-free manner.   
• The partnership is the brainchild of Deccan Development Society (DDS) and Disha Collective — two community-level organisations based in Sangareddy and Hyderabad districts respectively.
• The initiative kicked off in June 2018 and has been endeavouring to bring farmers and consumers on the same platform for their benefit. 

How does this initiative work?

• The initiative requires consumers to support farmers in the beginning of a farming season. Each consumer supports a group of farmers with about Rs 12,500 per acre for their farming needs.
• In return, at the time of harvest, consumers are given products according to the value they invested, leaving the middlemen out.
• They are are provided with millets, pulses, oil, jaggery and other necessary items produced organically — either in bulk or on monthly basis.
• The initiative also aims to give millets a push in the urban market, enabling consumers to move beyond the commonly consumed grains such as rice and wheat.
• Over the last two years, over 60 quintals of food grains have been delivered to urban consumers, according to the organisers. 

?Benefits of this move

• The coordinators of the program said technology and cooperation of consumer helped easy transportation of food to consumers. 
• "Such supply chains are the need of the hour. Farmers and consumers must come together to face crisis moments in the future as well
• The farmers who are part of the initiative practice traditional ecological farming with an emphasis on biodiverse cultivation. 
• It helps them have dietary diversity in their food choices and control over their land and food production that are not dictated by the vagaries of the market.
• The practice has brought them closer to a group of consumers who have been keen on trying an alternative route.
• When free-market system and global trade are staring at an uncertain future — local solutions such as ‘Confarm’ hold greater prominence.

Context: Recently, World Food Programme (WFP) has said that rapidly growing novel Coronavirus pandemic is so far having little impact on the global food supply chain, but that could change for the worse if major food importers remain anxious.
Key Findings

• The UN agency said global markets for basic cereals are well-supplied and prices are generally low.
• However, given the highly globalised nature of food production and supply, commodities need to move from the world's breadbaskets to where they are consumed and the novel Coronavirus-related containment measures are starting to make this more challenging.
• WFP Senior Spokesperson said, Disruptions are so far minimal; food supply is adequate, and markets are relatively stable, noting that global cereal stocks are at comfortable levels. The outlook for wheat and other staple crops is positive for the rest of the year.

About  World Food Programme (WFP) 

• It is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations.
• It is the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security.
• It works to help people who cannot produce or obtain enough food for themselves and their families.
• It was established in 1961 after the 1960 Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Conference.
• Its headquarter is in Rome (Italy) and has more than 80 country offices around the world.
• It provides food assistance to an average of 80 million people in 75 countries each year.
• It is a member of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) and part of its Executive Committee.

Objectives that the WFP hopes to achieve are to:

• "Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies"
• "Support food security and nutrition and (re)build livelihoods in fragile settings and following emergencies"
• "Reduce risk and enable people, communities and countries to meet their own food and nutrition needs"
• "Reduce under-nutrition and break the inter-generational cycle of hunger"
• "Zero Hunger in 2030"

Context: Recently, the Federation of Indian Exports Organization (FIEO) has introduced the facility of issuing digital certificate of origin in order to address the challenges faced by the exporters during lockdown to obtain Certificate of Origin (CoO).
About the certificate

• The certificate will be provided through its online system to both non-preferential and preferential, for which it is authorized.
• The online certificate is expected to reduce the transaction time and cost to exporters.
• Such a facility will help exporters to send CoO electronically to buyers to help them clear the consignment particularly as most of the courier companies are not operating in the country.

About Preferential and Non Preferential certificate

• A preferential certificate of origin is a document attesting that goods in a particular shipment are of a certain origin under the definitions of a particular bilateral or multilateral free trade agreement. This certificate is usually required by the importing country's customs authority in deciding whether the imports should benefit from preferential treatment allowed under the applicable agreement. Unlike non-preferential certificate of origin which often indicates only the country of origin in its title, a preferential certificate will indicate at the top of the document under which trade agreement it is issued.
• Where as the Non-preferential certificate of origin is the form of certificate issued for the purpose of complying with non-preferential rules of origin. This type of certificate basically certifies the country of origin of the product without allowing it to be entitled to preferential tariffs under preferential trade regimes. 

About Federation of Indian Exports Organization (FIEO)

• It is an apex body of the export promotion councils, commodity boards and export development authorities in India.
• It was established in 1965 and under the administrative control of Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• It is responsible for representing and assisting Indian entrepreneurs and exporters in foreign markets.
• It provides the crucial interface between international trading community of India & the Central and State Governments, financial institutions, ports, railways, surface transport and all engaged in export trade facilitation.
• In 2018, the Minister of Commerce and Industry launched the FIEO's Mobile App called 'NIRYAT MITRA'.The app provides wide range of information required to undertake international trade right from policy provisions for export and import, applicable GST rate, available export incentives, tariff, preferential tariff, market access requirements – SPS and TBT measures.

Context: Recently, IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index (Service Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was at 49.3 in March, down from February’s 85-month high of 57.5, as the new coronavirus pandemic pulled the service sector into contraction.
Key Points

• The Index is compiled by IHS Markit which is a global leader in information, analytics and solutions for the major industries and markets.
• The fall implies contraction in India’s services sector activity during March basically due to COVID-19.
• The Composite PMI Output Index that maps both the manufacturing and services sector also fell to 50.6 in March, down 7 points from February’s 57.6.
• In PMI language, above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction.

About Purchasing Managers’ Index

• PMI is an indicator of business activity-both in the manufacturing and services sectors.
• It is a survey-based measure that asks respondents about changes in their perception of some key business variables from month before.
• PMI is usually released at start of month, much before most of official data on industrial output, manufacturing and GDP growth is made available. It is, therefore, considered a good leading indicator of economic activity.
• Manufacturing growth measured by PMI is considered good indicator of industrial output.
• It is calculated separately for manufacturing and services sectors and then composite index is constructed.
• It is different from the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which also gauges the level of activity in the economy.

Context: With the novel coronavirus pandemic severely affecting the global economy, some experts have begun comparing the current crisis with the Great Depression — the devastating economic decline of the 1930s that went on to shape countless world events.
Concerns

• Experts have warned that unemployment levels in some countries could reach those from the 1930s era, when the unemployment rate was as high as around 25 per cent in the United States.
• Currently, unemployment levels in the US are already estimated to be at 13 per cent, highest since the Great Depression, according to a New York Times report.

About the Great Depression

• It was a major economic crisis that began in the United States in 1929, and went to have a worldwide impact until 1939. 
• It began on October 24, 1929, a day that is referred to as “Black Thursday”, when a monumental crash occurred at the New York Stock Exchange as stock prices fell by 25 per cent.
• While the Wall Street crash was triggered by minor events, the extent of the decline was due to more deep-rooted factors such as a fall in aggregate demand, misplaced monetary policies, and an unintended rise in inventory levels.

Impacts

• In the United States, prices and real output fell dramatically. Industrial production fell by 47 per cent, the wholesale price index by 33 per cent, and real GDP by 30 per cent.
• The havoc caused in the US spread to other countries mainly due to the gold standard, which linked most of the world’s currencies by fixed exchange rates.
• In almost every country of the world, there were massive job losses, deflation, and a drastic contraction in output.
• Unemployment in the US increased from 3.2 per cent to 24.9 per cent between 1929 and 1933. In the UK, it rose from 7.2 per cent to 15.4 per cent between 1929 and 1932.
• The Depression caused extreme human suffering, and many political upheavals took place around the world.
• In Europe, economic stagnation that the Depression caused is believed to be the principal reason behind the rise of fascism, and consequently the Second World War.
• It had a profound impact on institutions and policymaking globally, and led to the gold standard being abandoned.

How did Great Depression impact India?

• Due to the global crisis, there was a drastic fall in agricultural prices, the mainstay of India’s economy, and a severe credit contraction occurred as colonial policymakers refused to devalue the rupee.
• The decline of agricultural prices, which was aggravated by British financial policy in India, made substantial sections of the peasantry rise in protest and this protest was articulated by members of the National Congress.
• The effects of the Depression became visible around the harvest season in 1930, soon after Mahatma Gandhi had launched the Civil Disobedience movement in April the same year.
• There were “No Rent” campaigns in many parts of the country, and radical Kisan Sabhas were started in Bihar and eastern UP.
• Agrarian unrest provided a groundswell of support to the Congress, whose reach was yet to extend into rural India.
• The endorsement by farming classes is believed to be among the reasons that enabled the party to achieve its landslide victory in the 1936-37 provincial elections held under the Government of India Act, 1935– which significantly increased the party’s political might for years to come.

Context: Recently, the National Highway Authority of India has accomplished construction of 3,979 km of national highways in the financial Year 2019-20. This is the highest ever highway construction achieved in a financial year by NHAI.

• The construction pace as noticed in last years has seen a steady growth with 3,380 Km construction in the FY 2018-19.
• Following the same trend with the development of 3,979 km of national highways during FY 2019-20, NHAI has achieved an all-time high construction since its inception in 1995.
• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has envisaged an ambitious highway development programme Bharatmala Pariyojana which includes development of about 65,000 km NHs.
• Under Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana, the Ministry has approved implementation of 34,800 km of national highways in 5 years with an outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crore.
• NHAI has been mandated development of about 27,500 km of national highways under Bharatmal Pariyojna Phase-I.

About Bharatmala Pariyojana

• It is a centrally-sponsored and funded Road and Highways project of the Government of India.
• The total investment for 83,677 km (51,994 mi) committed new highways is estimated at Rs 5.35 lakh crore (US$75 billion), making it the single largest outlay for a government road construction scheme (as of December 2017).
• The project will build highways from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and then cover the entire string of Himalayan states – Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand – and then covering all other parts of country including North-East.
• Bharatmala Project will interconnect 550 District Headquarters (from current 300) through a minimum 4-lane highway by raising the number of corridors to 50 (from current 6).
• The ambitious umbrella programme will subsume all existing Highway Projects including the flagship National Highways Development Project (NHDP), launched by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998.
• It is both enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridors, Industrial corridors, UDAN-RCS, BharatNet, Digital India and Make in India.

About National Highway Authority of India

• It is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, set up in 1988. It is responsible for management of a network of over 50,000 km of National Highways out of 1,15,000 km in India.
• It is a nodal agency of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
• NHAI has signed a MoU with the ISRO for satellite mapping of highways.
• Vision: To meet the nation’s need for the provision and maintenance of National Highways network to global standards and to meet user’s expectations in the most time bound and cost effective manner and promote economic well being and quality of life of the people.

About Golden Quadrilateral

• The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway network connecting many of the major industrial, agricultural and cultural centres of India.
• A quadrilateral of sorts is formed by connecting Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai, and hence its name.
• The largest highway project in India and the fifth longest in the world was launched in 2001 by Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was completed in 2012.
• It is part of the first phase of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and consisted of building 5,846 km (3,633 mi) four/six lane express highways at a cost of Rs600 billion (US$8.4 billion).

Rural India and Covid-19

A key arsenal in rural India’s pandemic fight
Context: With the influx of thousands of migrant labourers into their villages, the houses in villages, which are often one or two-room dwellings with an average seven family members to accommodate, are some of the worst places where one can hope to contain the deadly disease. 
Issues faced by Rural villages

• Every village is in itself a fortress during these difficult times and every village needs attention within.
• No place to isolate: Unfortunately, the houses in villages are often one or two-room dwellings, with an average seven family members to accommodate.
• Absence of running water within households: Villages consist of common points for water and there are heavy chances of these becoming hotspots for COVID-19.
• No decentralisation in reality: Issuing orders from the top is the norm and an ecosystem has evolved where even the elected representatives of panchayats wait for directions and a sarpanch does not assert himself before a bureaucrat.
• Villages are more prone: Many scientists and researchers have already predicted the possibility of villages becoming hotspots of the disease after the 21-day lockdown is lifted.

Suggestions for Gram Panchayats

• A model needs to be established, with concrete standard operating procedures and best practices that can be replicated throughout rural India.
• Organisations such as Professional Assistance For Development Action (PRADAN) have been trying to influence gram panchayats in many States to coordinate with the administration to use the resources of panchayats. This should be done more.
• Even with the harvesting of wheat almost over in States such as Madhya Pradesh; people are still out in the fields, but once they are done with their work it is the panchayat that can do the work effectively to confine people within their homes with adequate awareness generation.
• Community policing with the active engagement of panchayats, by collaborating with women’s collectives, is a potential area where a people-led movement can be kick-started in a short time span.
• Despite the financial packages being rolled out to avert panic about basic food requirements, many will be left out as documentation is core to availing these social-service provisioning schemes.
• Without gram panchayats, it is not possible to deploy any system to adequately take prompt actions to include the excluded.

Road Ahead

Panchayats can work exactly in three areas:

• Awareness generation,
• Setting up isolation conditions, and
• Streamlining social security measures announced by the Central and State governments.

Context: Eighteen operational MSME Technology centres, autonomous bodies under Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), are playing their role and contributing in the fight with COVID-19.

• The MSME occupies strategic importance in terms of output (about 45% of manufacturing output), exports (about 40% of the total exports) and employment (about 69 million persons in over 29 million units throughout the country) based on the Planning Commission, 2012.
• India’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) base is the largest in the world after China.
• The state of Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of estimated MSMEs with a share of 14.20 percent of the total MSMEs in the country. West Bengal comes as close second with a share of 14 percent, followed by Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra at eight percent.

Efforts of Various MSME Technology centres in the fight with COVID-19

• Central Footwear Training Institute (CFTI) Chennai: Procured and installed Hot Sealing Machine for job work of sealing masks and Medical gowns.
• MSME Technology Centre, Hyderabad: Developing a prototype of VENTILATOR. (It is electro mechanical ventilator based on sensors.) First prototype will be ready soon.
• SME TC, Aurangabad has developed 3D prototype of Face mask.
• Central Tool Room and Training Centre (CTTC), Kolkata is developing a simple and low cost ventilator system in consultation with Sagar Datta Super speciality hospital, who have agreed to test it and also handhold during application trials.It also developed Face shield prototype. It will start production (20000 per month), at Rs. 15 to 20 per piece.
• MSME Technology Centre, Kannauj started manufacturing Alcohol based sanitizers and supplied to DM, Farrukhabad. It will also supply to Railways and other organisations.
• Institute for Design of Electrical Measuring Instruments (IDEMI) is developing ion based sanitizer.
• MSME Technology Centre, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and Jamshedpur: They are going to manufacture components for 650 Corona Testing Kits. Each Kit consists of 20 hardware components.
• ESTC Ramnagar: It designed IV Stand.
• MSME Technology Center, Bhiwadi and TC, Jamshedpur: They offered vacant rooms for establishing isolation centres.
• Process and Product Development Center (PPDC) AGRA and IGTR INDORE: They jointly plan for hospital furniture.
• PPDC, Meerut: It fabricated Face masks and distributed free of cost.
• CFTI Agra: It fabricated Medical Gowns for M/s Ramsons, Agra. It will also fabricate triple layered Face masks.

Context: Recently, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal recently held the All India Video Conference on ‘The Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020’. As part of the Video conference, a key emphasis was laid down on the need of stakeholders’ participation in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism to create a dispute-free tax collection system.
About Income Tax Appellate Tribunal

• It was set up on 25 January 1941, and it was the first experiment in tribunalization in the history of India. 
• It is second appellate authority under the direct taxes and first independent forum in its appellate hierarchy.
• The orders passed by the ITAT can be subjected to appellate challenge, on substantial questions of law, before the respective High Court.
• It functions under the Department of Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Law and Justice, and is kept away from any kind of control by the Ministry of Finance.
• The appeals before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal are generally heard by a division bench- consisting of one judicial member and one accountant member.
• In cases involving assessed income of less than Rs15 lakh (US$21,000), however, any one Member, though with a work experience of minimum five years in the Tribunal, can decide the appeals in a single member bench as well.
• Monetary limit for deciding an appeal by a single member Bench of ITAT enhanced from Rs15 lakh (US$21,000) to Rs50 lakh (US$70,000) in 2016 Union budget of India.
• In case of conflict of opinions by the division benches on the issues involved in an appeal, the appeals are sometimes heard by the special benches consisting of three of more members- at least one of which must be a judicial member and at least one of which must be an accountant member.

About Vivad se Vishwas Scheme

• It is an attempt by the Government of India (GoI) to put an end to pending direct tax disputes. The benefit under the Scheme is maximised if taxpayers avail it before 1 April 2020, though the Scheme is likely to be available till 30 June 2020.
• The Scheme is likely to cater to all the taxpayers having income tax disputes in India.
• Depending on the contours of the pending dispute, a proportion of the total tax, interest and penalty demanded, needs to be paid under the Scheme for settlement.

Context: Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in the process of putting together an exclusive wing for banking fraud oversight, which will have teams for meta-data processing and analysis, artificial intelligence analysis units, as well as pro-active risk assessment cell.
Background

• The RBI had been mulling ways to proactively detect such frauds after the loan fiasco at Punjab National Bank.
• The bank fraud to the tune of Rs 11,450 crore involving diamond merchant Nirav Modi. It came to light that the company, in connivance with retired employees of PNB, got at least 150 LoUs, allowing Nirav Modi Group to defraud the bank and many other banks who gave loans to him.
• As part of that plan, the banking regulator in 2019 had moved to create a separate cadre of its own employees who would work in regulation and oversight sections.
• However, the working conditions were very strict and anyone opting for that cadre would not be allowed to leave for three years. To overcome this problem, the RBI sought to create a fraud oversight wing.

Key Findings

• The new team is likely to be formed as soon as within the next month, and could have a capacity of up to 600 officers.
• These new teams will also be given training in the latest technologies, so that they can also prevent another Yes Bank kind of event.
• The banking regulator is also planning to bring in experts from the private sector working in all these domains to train the new members in the fraud oversight wing. 
• These training sessions are will be repeated every year in the initial years.
• Conditions: The working conditions, however, were very strict and anyone opting for that cadre would not be allowed to leave for three years. 

Yes Bank Case
Three reason behind its Fail

• Firstly, it has often yielded to directives in the past from the national government — regardless of party in power — thus compromising its independent decision-making and operational authority.
• Secondly, RBI has failed to institute stringent control mechanisms to effectively prevent the occurrence (recurrence) of (a) serious bank frauds and (b) significant levels of non-performing assets (NPAs) in both the public as well as the private sector.
• Thirdly – and the cause of the second deficiency — there has been a sharp decline in governance standards and oversight mechanisms covering commercial banks, which RBI is expected to follow consistently, covering all facets – not just policing — of this vital sector of the national economy.

Steps Taken

• The RBI, on March 5, superseded the board of Yes Bank and placed it under immediate moratorium.
• Withdrawals from the bank were capped at Rs 50,000.
• RBI appointed the former State Bank of India (SBI) Chief Financial Officer as the bank’s administrator.

Reconstruction Plan

• RBI had suggested the possibility of SBI, India’s largest bank, acquiring a 49% equity stake.
• SBI later committed to invest up to Rs 7,250 crore in Yes bank.

Even though there were representatives of RBI on the Yes Bank board, it was difficult for them to flag the risk for they had never done a credit risk assessment task in their career so far.

Context: Recently,India has sought consultations with the US, under the WTO’s safeguard agreement, against American authorities’ decision to increase import duties on derivatives of steel and aluminium products.
Issues

• In January 2019, the US issued a presidential proclamation stating that steel and aluminium derivatives would be subject to tariff increase.
• According World Trade Organisation (WTO), India considers this measure of the US to be a safeguard measure within a provision of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, and the Agreement on Safeguards.
• The WTO said that India reserves the right to raise additional issues and make further factual arguments, without prejudice to any other remedies provided under the understanding on rules governing the settlement of disputes.

Background

• In March 2018, US levied a 25 % tariff on steel and a 10 % tariff on aluminium.
• After this, India drags the US to WTO’s safeguard committee and had sought consultation. On that request, the US had stated that the taxes imposed are not safeguard duties.
• In April 2018, India had requested consultations with the US with respect to tariff imposed by the US through a presidential proclamation issued in March 2018.
• The consultations, however, do not fall under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO’s) dispute settlement system.

About WTO Agreement on Safeguards

• The Agreement on Safeguards (“SG Agreement”) sets forth the rules for application of safeguard measures pursuant to Article XIX of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994.
• Safeguard measures are defined as “emergency” actions with respect to increased imports of particular products, where such imports have caused or threaten to cause serious injury to the importing Member’s domestic industry.
• SG agreement explicitly applies equally to all WTO Members.
• As per a provision of the Agreement on Safeguards, a WTO member country proposing to apply a safeguard measures shall provide adequate opportunity for prior consultations with those members having a substantial interest as exporters of the product concerned, to review the information provided and reaching an understanding on ways to achieve the objective set out in the agreement.

Major guiding principles of the Agreement with respect to safeguard measures are that

• Such measures must be temporary; 
• They may be imposed only when imports are found to cause or threaten serious injury to a competing domestic industry;
• They should be applied on a non-selective (i.e., most-favoured-nation, or “MFN”, basis);
• They should be progressively liberalized while in effect; and
• Member imposing them must pay compensation to the Members whose trade is affected.

Need

• The SG Agreement was negotiated because GATT Contracting Parties increasingly had been applying a variety of so-called “grey area” measures (bilateral voluntary export restraints, orderly marketing agreements, and similar measures) to limit imports of certain products.
• These measures were not subject to GATT, and the legality of such measures under the GATT was doubtful.
• The SG Agreement now clearly prohibits such measures, and has specific provisions for eliminating those that were in place at the time the WTO Agreement entered into force.

Context: Recently, Researchers have spotted a giant alien creature in the Australian coast that has bamboozled the authorities. The strange object in the ocean is very massive in size and appears like UFO spaceship.

• A giant, strangely ribbon-like looking siphonophore, Apolemia, was found near the expense of Australia by a team of international scientists from local institutes, including Western Australia Gallery, Schmidt Ocean Institute as well as Scripps Organization of Oceanography. 
• The Ningaloo Canyons Exploration was exploring the adjacent sea with an aid of finder tools and ROVs when they spotted a possibly “biggest ever before taped” sampling in a strange UFO-like kind.

About Siphonophores

• They are marine organisms which are essentially gelatinous strings that can grow to 100 feet long.
• They look like giant strings made up of small varieties called zooids that join together in large swarms to function as one giant animal. 
• They usually feed upon fish or crustaceans, with each person in the body acting like a body organ serving its very own function.
• It looks like the giant might have been consisted of hundreds or thousands or even numerous zooids, where the nutrients from any captured victim were passed along its huge body along a stem shared by all.
• Siphonophores can resemble one big private aquatic microorganism to some, however as a matter of fact, they are made up of little private bodies comprising one huge swarm, with each one serving its own gastrointestinal, hunting or reproductive objectives.

Key Findings

• Siphonophores feed on tiny crustaceans, such as copepods, fish, and even other siphonophores. 
• Apolemia is a genus of the siphonophore. The Apolemia siphonophore featured in the video is addressed as possibly the “largest-ever recorded” specimen. 
• The 175 species of siphonophores that make up Siphonophorae are each, in actuality, made up of an enormous colony of “zooids,” which themselves are individual animals. 
• These zooids, or “drones,” as they’re sometimes called, work together as a massive team to keep any given siphonophore alive and moving. 
• And while all of a siphonophore’s zooids share identical DNA, they still mutate to perform very different functions. 
• Like any other animal, siphonophores start off with a single fertilized egg. And this egg develops into a small larva, and at some point this larva will develop its first tentacle, and it has a mouth opening by then.
• Siphonophores have along the stem one long axon, which probably propagates signals from one end of the colony to the other. 
• But how they coordinate all this and how the whole colony appears to act as an animal, it's really not well understood.

Context: Recently, a new study shows that as rising heat drives some key species extinct, it will affect other species, as well, in a domino effect.
Background 

• Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants and greenhouse gases collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface.
• Global warming is about to destroy Earth’s delicate web of life. As some key species go extinct, entire ecosystems like coral reefs and forests will crumble, and some will collapse abruptly, starting as soon as this decade.

Key Findings of the Study

• Many scientists see recent climate-related mass die-offs, including the coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and widespread seabird and marine mammal mortality in the Northeastern Pacific linked to a marine heat wave, as warning signs of impending biodiversity collapse. 
• Many species live in small geographic areas under a narrow range of climatic conditions. As global warming heats their habitat to the point that it is intolerable, many species have no place to go. 
• Some will go extinct, with a domino effect that affects scores of other species. At the current rate of warming, abrupt exposure events in tropical oceans will begin before 2030 and spread to tropical forests and higher latitudes by 2050. 
• The risks decrease and arrive more slowly if global warming is capped at less than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, as per the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. 
• Even an immediate curb on greenhouse gas emissions doesn't preclude warming of up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century because the current amount of warming could be magnified by big increases of heat-trapping methane in the Arctic or by changes to cloud processes. 
• In the study, the team assessed temperatures ranges for more than 30,000 land and sea species, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and other marine animals and plants, to estimate when they will start experiencing unprecedented temperature conditions. 
• Results show very clearly that it is not too late to act to delay the risk or even avert it entirely for many thousands of species. 
• By holding warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), we can effectively flatten the curve of how climate risks to biodiversity accumulate over time.

Third mass bleaching of Great Barrier Reef recorded 
Context: Recently, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has suffered its most widespread coral bleaching on record.Record sea temperatures caused the third mass bleaching of the 2,300-kilometre reef system in just five years.
Key Findings

• For the first time, severe bleaching has struck all three regions of the Great Barrier Reef — the northern, central and now large parts of the southern sectors.
• The damage came as February brought the highest monthly sea temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef since Australia began keeping records in 1900.

About Bleaching 

• Bleaching occurs when healthy corals become stressed by changes in ocean temperatures, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues which drains them of their vibrant colours.
• Bleaching was first seen on the reef in 1998 — at the time, the hottest year on record — but as temperature records continue to tumble its frequency has increased, giving coral less time to recover.

Context: Scientists have warned that the Great Barrier Reef will face a critical period of heat stress over the coming weeks, following the most widespread coral bleaching the natural world has ever endured.
About the current scenario

• Warming ocean temperatures, a sign of climate change, is associated with the deteriorating health of the Reef. 
• The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which spreads across a length of over 2,300 km and is roughly the size of Italy, is home to about 3,000 coral reefs, 600 continental islands, 1,625 type of fish, 133 varieties of shark and rays and 600 types of soft and hard corals.

About Coral bleaching

• According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), when corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light or nutrients, they expel the algae living in their tissue, causing them to turn white, hence bleached.
• Coral bleaching does not mean the corals are dead, but make them vulnerable, hence increasing their mortality. 
• Warm ocean temperatures are one condition that could lead to coral bleaching. For instance, in 2005, the US lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event.
• Even so, NOAA says that not all bleaching events are due to warmer temperatures. In January 2010, cold water temperatures in the Florida Keys caused a coral bleaching event that resulted in some coral deaths.

How does it affect the Great Barrier Reef?

• The Great Barrier Reef, which covers an area of 344,400 sq km makes up roughly 10 per cent of the world’s coral reef ecosystems. Today, the reef is a Marine Park and World Heritage Area and supports a range of activities and contributes over AUD $5.6 billion each year to the Australian economy and is also responsible for creating over 70,000 jobs.
• In the 2019 Outlook Report prepared by the Australian government, it said that climate change was the greatest threat to the Reef. Other threats included coastal development, land-based run-off and direct human use, such as activities like illegal fishing.
• Significantly, coral bleaching events such as the ones that took place in 2016 and 2017 have had severe impacts on the Reef, causing changes in its ecosystem. However, some parts of the reef that escaped the impact of the bleaching and cyclones still remain in good condition, the report said.
• The 2016 bleaching caused by intense heat exposure affected the northern third region of the Reef, while the 2017 bleaching affected the central region.
• As per the latest Reef health update, while sea surface temperatures have remained relatively stable this week (until March 5, 2020), the temperature is still above normal for this time of the year. As of March 3, most of the marine park varies between 0.5 degree-1.5 degree Celsius above normal. In some inshore areas, the temperature is 2.5-3 degrees Celsius warmer.

Ways to maintain the balance between nature and human

• The world needs coral reefs, and decisive action will help ensure that we do not face a future without them.Adequate mitigation and adaptation measures must be put in place to arrest the effects of climate change
• We must devise policies to provide protection to existing carbon sinks such as corals like Reducing greenhouse emissions will be critical here.
• Effectively reducing local stresses to reefs, such as from land-based sources of pollution and overfishing.
• Increasing electricity generation from the renewable sources rather than depend on the artificial removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• Conserving water. The less it is used, the less runoff and wastewater that will eventually find its way back into the ocean.
• Educating people about why healthy coral reefs are valuable to the people, fish, plants, and animals that depend on them.

Context: Recently, the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) had its first ever video-conferencing meet. In the meet the NBWL cleared infrastructure projects in 11 States.
Key Findings

• According to experts associated with the conference most of the projects were given “in-principal approval”.
• In a virtual conference, it is difficult to scrutinise maps that show the location of the proposed projects.
• It is because only the formal minutes of the meeting would reveal the conditions which projects would have to adhere to.
• Projects that encroach into forests or protected reserves require NBWL approval as part of the government’s environmental clearance process.

About Environment Clearance (EC) Process

• An Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report is prepared to get Environment Clearance (EC) for a project.
• A process of ‘Public Hearing’ is conducted before the issue of ‘Consent to Establish (NOC)’ by state regulators. Concerns of people living in the proposed project area are heard.
• An application form with EIA report, details of public hearing and NOC is submitted for environmental clearance with the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) if the project falls under A category or the state government if the project falls under B category.
• The documents submitted for A and B category are then analyzed by an Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the Union Environment Ministry or the concerned State Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs) respectively.
• The recommendations of the Committee gets processed in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for final approval or rejection.

About National Board for Wildlife

• It is a “Statutory Organization” constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• The NBWL is chaired by the Prime Minister and is responsible for promotion of conservation and development of wildlife and forests.

Roles and functions:

• Its role is “advisory” in nature and advises the Central Government on framing policies and measures for conservation of wildlife in the country.
• Primary function of the Board is to promote the conservation and development of wildlife and forests.
• It has power to review all wildlife-related matters and approve projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries.
• No alternation of boundaries in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries can be done without approval of the NBWL.

Zoos in India on High Alert

Context: Recently, Zoos in India are on high alert after the United States (USA) Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories has confirmed SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in a Tiger housed in the Bronx Zoo, New York.

Key Points

Taking cognizance, the Central Zoo Authority under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has advised Zoos in the country

• to remain on highest alertness, watch animals on 24X7 basis, using CCTV for any abnormal behavior/symptoms,
• keepers/handlers not to be allowed in the vicinity without safety gear preferably PPE (Personal Protective Equipment),
• Isolate & quarantine sick animals, and have least contact while providing feed to animals.
• The advisory further stated that Mammals like carnivores, especially cats, ferrets and primates to be carefully monitored.
• The fortnightly samples of suspect cases to be sent to the designated animal health institutes to initiate COVID-19 testing while following all bio-containment and safety measures required to handle this high-risk pathogen as per the national / ICMR.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment also issued an advisory to Chief Wildlife Wardens of all states and union territories. Here is what they are required to do:

• Take immediate preventive measures to stop the transmission and spread of the virus from humans to animals and vice versa, in National Parks/Sanctuaries/Tiger Reserves.
• Reduce the human-wildlife interface.
• Restrict the movement of people to National Parks/Sanctuaries/Tiger Reserves.
• Constitute a Task Force/Rapid Action Force with Field Managers, Veterinary doctors, Frontline staff, to manage the situation as quickly as possible.
• Create a ‘round the clock’ reporting mechanism with a Nodal Officer for swift management of any cases noticed.
• Set up essential services for emergency treatment of animals and their safe release back to their natural habitats, as and when required.
• Enhance disease surveillance, mapping, and monitoring system through coordinated effort amongst various Departments.
• Maintain all other stipulations issued by the Health Ministry in the movement of staff/tourists/villagers, etc. in and around National Parks/Sanctuaries/Tiger Reserves.
• Report the action taken to the Ministry of Environment.

About Central Zoo Authority

• It is the body of the government of India under direct control of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and is responsible for oversight of zoos.
• It has been constituted under the section 38A of Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972.
• The Authority consists of a Chairman, ten members and a Member Secretary.

Objective: The main objective of the authority is to complement the national effort in conservation of wild life.

• Standards and norms for housing, upkeep, health care and overall management of animals in zoos has been laid down under the Recognition of Zoo Rules, 1992. Every zoo in the country is required to obtain recognition from the Authority for its operation.
• Since its inception in 1992, the Authority has evaluated 347 zoos, out of which 164 have been recognized and 183 refused recognition.
• It also regulates the exchange of animals of endangered category Listed under Schedule-I and II of the Wildlife Protection Act among zoos.
• Exchange of animals between Indian and foreign zoos is also approved by the Authority before the requisite clearances under EXIM Policy and the CITES permits are issued by the competent authority.

Context: Recently, a report suggesting that in almost five years after the launch of Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY), it has failed to engineer a turnaround in discom finances.

• As of November 2019, the dues owed by discoms to power producers, both independent and state-run entities, stood at Rs 80,930 crore.
• Out of Rs. 80,930 crore, Rs 71,673 crore extends beyond the allowed grace period of 60 days.
• Rajasthan leads the states with the most dues, followed by Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Background

• The Ministry of Power launched Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) which was approved by Union Cabinet in 2015.
• It was launched as a path breaking reform for realizing the Prime Minister’s vision of affordable and accessible 24x7 Power for All.
• It is another decisive step furthering the landmark strides made in the Power sector over the past one and a half years, with the sector witnessing a series of historic improvements across the entire value chain.

Features of UDAY
The UDAY scheme, which involved state governments taking over the debt of discoms, had three critical components:

• Reduction in the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses,
• Timely revision of tariffs, and 
• Elimination of the gap between average per unit of cost and revenue realized.

The scheme provides: (a) Financial Turnaround, (b) Operational improvement, (c) Reduction of cost of generation of power and (d) Development of Renewable Energy and Energy efficiency & conservation.
It has the provision of ensuring the rise of vibrant and efficient DISCOMs through a permanent resolution of past as well as potential future issues of the sector.
It seeks to empower DISCOMs through four initiatives:

• Improving operational efficiencies of DISCOMs
• Reduction of cost of power
• Reduction in interest cost of DISCOMs
• Enforcing financial discipline on DISCOMs through alignment with State finances.

It increases the speed of the process of reform across the entire power sector
It also aims to ensure that power is accessible, affordable and available for all.
Limitations/Challenges of UDAY

• Over the five years, it has failed to augment a sustainable turnaround in the fortunes of the beleaguered distribution segment.
• The target to reduce AT&C losses has not been achieved and has declined in some states.
• Due to over-emphasis on political consideration as compared to commercial decisions, there has been insufficient raise in power tariffs of some states.
• Inconsistent tariff hike - Few states like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh have not increased tariff as per the hikes envisaged in the MoUs signed under UDAY.
• Rise in sales via open access - The number of open access consumers have increased by 4.3%, thus the sales migration has significantly impacted DISCOM’s revenue as well as operations and power procurement planning, because it adds to demand uncertainty and makes the management of the DISCOM’s thermal fleet a challenging task.
• According to a report of the RBI which states that the outstanding debt of states has increased to 25% of their combined GDP over the last five years.

Measures to be adopted for UDAY

• A new plan should be formulated which aims to address these issues by reducing electricity losses, eliminating the tariff gap, smart metering, privatizing discoms, and having distribution franchisees.
• The state governments need to eliminate revenue gaps in a time-bound manner in order to turn around loss-making discoms.
• The UDAY scheme needs to be integrated with other schemes such as KUSUM to increase amount of electricity to DISCOMS as well as Make in India and Start-up India to ensure overall development.

Context: Recently, the nine-minute ‘lights-off’ exercise scheduled for Sunday evening, as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to people across the country, has forced the grid operator to initiate an elaborate set of contingency measures to avert any crisis caused by the sudden massive load reduction quickly followed by a sharp increase.
Issues

• India has a baseload power demand of roughly 160 gigawatts (GW), that is 160,000 megawatts (MW). 
• Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO), which is the national load despatch centre and operates the national electricity grid, predicts daily demand of power and regulates supply from power generators based on these predictions. 
• In order to maintain the grid’s stability within a certain frequency (48.5- 51.5 hertz) and because we don’t have adequate electricity storage mechanisms, the accuracy of these predictions are very important so that power demand can be matched with supply. 
• During this 9-minute lights out initiative, about 10,000-12,000 MW of power demand is expected to vanish, according to estimates by power industry experts. 
• So POSOCO needs to ramp down electricity supply accordingly during this time block and ramp up again once this 9-minute period is over and the baseload demand returns in full strength. 
• Any missteps in handling this could possibly lead to a high voltage surge, tripping the lines, causing damage to the national grid and an extended power outage.

About Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO)

• It is a wholly owned Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of Power. 
• It was earlier a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (Powergrid). 
• It was formed in March 2009 to handle the power management functions of PGCIL. 
• It is responsible to ensure the integrated operation of the Grid in a reliable,efficient and secure manner. 
• It consists of 5 Regional Load Despatch Centres and a National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC).
• The subsidiary was eventually made a separate company, leaving the parent firm with only the task of setting up transmission links. 
• The load despatch functions, earlier handled by PGCIL, have now come up to POSOCO.

Vision: To be a global institution of excellence for reliable & resilient power systems, fostering efficient electricity markets, promoting economy and sustainability.
Mission

• Ensure Integrated Operation of the Indian Power System to facilitate transfer of electric power within and across the regions and trans-national exchange of power with Reliability, Economy and Sustainability.
• Facilitate competitive and efficient wholesale electricity markets and administer settlement systems.
• Promote innovation and adoption of latest technology with cyber security.
• Nurturing human & intellectual capital.

Context: Recently, the Government of India has set up an empowered group to undertake discussions with the private sector and international organisations on actions planned and challenges faced in dealing with COVID-19.

• The Empowered Group is chaired by Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog.

This Empowered Group will address the issues pertaining to identification of problems, effective solutions and formulation of plans with three groups of stakeholders –

• International Organisations:The UN agencies, World Bank, Asian Development Bank
• NGOs: Civil Society Organisations and development partners
• Private Sector:Industry associations – CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM

About International Organisations

• The six detailed meetings with UN Resident Coordinator for India, and country heads of WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, ILO, UN Women, UN-Habitat, FAO, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank.
• Outcome: Providing technical support in monitoring and surveillance systems, strengthening health and nutritional services, capacity building, financial resources and critical equipment support, etc.
• The UN in India has built a Joint Programme Response Plan and submitted it to NITI Aayog, defining their clear activities and deliverables in different sectors and States, where they are partnering with Union Ministries and State Governments.

About Civil Society Organisations and Development Partners

• Detailed deliberations with 40 plus prominent CSOs and NGOs working in different parts of the country and with different communities.
• Several challenges and issues raised by these CSOs were addressed to facilitate their working in the field during this crisis.

CEO NITI Aayog has written to NGOs/ CSOs registered on the Darpan portal of NITI Aayog, appealing them to assist the government in identifying hotspots and deputing volunteers and care givers to deliver services

• to the elderly, persons with disabilities, children, transgender persons, and other vulnerable groups;
• to create awareness about prevention, social distancing, isolation, and combating stigma;
• to provide shelter to homeless, daily wage workers, and urban poor families;
• set up community kitchens for migrants.

Industry Associations – CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM and Representatives from Industry

• The committee has opened up cross-sectoral dialogue within the private sector and startups to engender collaboration among them to produce health equipment and PPEs.

Context: Recently,Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions released the National Preparedness Survey on COVID 19 - Responses of District Collectors and IAS Officers.
About National Corona Survey

• The survey was conducted in 410 districts within 3 working days to attain a bird’s eye view of the governance challenges of the nation while coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives of the Survey

• To develop a comparative analysis of COVID 19 preparedness across States.
• To highlight the main priorities and constraints of COVID 19 preparedness, as they are perceived by the civil servants working in the field.
• To access enabling factors in making institutional/logistics/hospital preparedness, etc.
• To capture trends to identify systemic and process related deficiencies, in combating COVID 19 in the districts of India.

Key Highlights of the survey 

• The survey was conducted across all districts of India, with responses from 410 civil servants who are providing field level leadership. 
• District Collectors and IAS officers of (2014-2018) batches who have served as Assistant Secretaries in Government of India participated in the survey.
• The survey was conducted by distributing questionnaire to district magistrates/collectors. They were asked to register into portals and submit replies. 

The findings of the survey are as follows

• The people’s awareness about the virus has increased 
• 75% said people are taking precautions 
• 69% said that the lock down is being handled in a peaceful way
• Only 50% agreed on the adequacy of availability
• The main concern of the survey was the non-availability of adequate ventilator machines.

iGOT e-learning Platform

Context: Recently, the Department of Personnel and Training, under the Government of India, launches a digital platform to train all healthcare and COVID-19 warriors of India.
key Points

• The e-learning platform is for all front-line workers to equip them with the training and updates in coping with the coronavirus pandemic.
• Appropriate training will also prepare them for the subsequent stages of the pandemic.
• The target group is Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics, Hygiene Workers, Technicians, Auxiliary Nursing Midwives (ANMs), Central & State Govt. Officers, Civil Defence Officials, various Police Organisations, National Cadet Corps (NCC), Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), National Service Scheme (NSS), Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), Bharat Scouts & Guides (BSG) and other volunteers.

About iGOT Platform

• The platform delivers curated, role-specific content to each learner at his place of work or home and to any device of his choice.
• iGOT platform is designed to population scale, and will provide training to around 1.50 crore workers and volunteers in the coming weeks.
• To begin with, nine courses on iGOT have been launched on topics like Basics of COVID, ICU Care and Ventilation Management, Clinical Management, Infection Prevention through PPE, Infection Control and Prevention, Quarantine and Isolation, Laboratory Sample Collection and Testing, Management of COVID 19 Cases, COVID 19 Training.
• Through its customized approach COVID warriors can learn about critical areas from this one-stop source and respond to the prevailing and emergent situations, by keeping themselves updated in a real-time manner.
• The platform is well equipped to cater to the demands of unlimited requests of learning at any time anywhere.
• The platform can be accessed by following an easy to use manual for desktop and mobile versions, thereby making it accessible for all.

Context: Recently, the Central Government has sanctioned Rs15,000 crore to States under the India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package.

• The package will be implemented in three phases between January 2020 and March 2024. Phase 1 will span January 2020 to June 2021, phase 2 from July 2020 to March 2021 and Phase 3 from April 2021 to March 2024.
• The package is a 100% centrally-funded scheme and the funds will be provided under a mission mode approach.
• Amount of Rs7774 crore will be utilised for immediate Covid-19 Emergency Response and rest will be used for medium-term support (1-4 years).
• The amount of Rs4113 crore has already been disbursed to all the States and Union Territories (UTs) dealing with the emergency response to the pandemic.

key objectives of the package

• Mounting emergency response through development of diagnostics and dedicated treatment facilities.
• Strengthening pandemic research, community engagement, risk communication and implementation
• Management, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation.

The States can use the funds for:

• Centralised procurement of essential medical equipment and drugs required for treatment of infected patients (Personal Protective Equipment, isolation beds, ICU beds, ventilators, etc.)
• Strengthen and build health systems to support prevention and preparedness for future disease outbreaks.
• Setting up of laboratories and bolstering surveillance activities, biosecurity preparedness, pandemic research and proactively engage communities.
• Conducting risk communication activities.

In response to the containment of the coronavirus in India, a total of 223 laboratories comprising a network of 157 government and 66 private laboratories are conducting screening.

Context: Recently, the pharmacists who are called 'Swasth Ke Sipahi' of Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra are delivering essential services and medicines at doorstep of patients and elderly under Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP).
About Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana

• It is a campaign launched in 2008 by the Department of Pharmaceuticals to provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the masses.
• The implementing agency of the scheme is Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI).
• Its vision is to bring down the healthcare budget of every citizen of India through providing Quality generic Medicines at Affordable Prices.
• State Governments or any organization such as NGOs/ Trusts/ Private Hospitals/ Charitable Institutions/ Doctors/ unemployed Pharmacist/ individual entrepreneurs are eligible to apply for new Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras.

MISSION: The main mission of PM Bharati Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) is:

• Creating awareness among the public regarding generic medicines.
• To create demand for generic medicines through medical practitioners.
• Creating awareness through education and awareness program that high price need not be synonymous with high quality.
• Providing all the commonly used generic medicines covering all the therapeutic groups.
• To provide all the related health care products too under the scheme.

About Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI) 

• It was established in 2008 under the Department of Pharmaceuticals.
• It is registered as an independent society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
• It is the implementing agency of the PMBJP.
• It was established as a separate independent legal entity in 2010.

About generic medicines

• A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire.
• Because the active chemical substance is the same, the medical profile of generics is believed to be equivalent in performance.
• The Indian government began encouraging more drug manufacturing by Indian companies in the early 1960s, and with the Patents Act in 1970. The Patents Act removed composition patents for foods and drugs, and though it kept process patents, these were shortened to a period of five to seven years.
• India is a leading country in the world’s generic drugs market, with Sun Pharmaceuticals being the largest pharmaceutical company in India. Indian generics companies exported US$17.3 billion worth of drugs in the 2017–18 (April–March) year.

Context: In a major relief for almost 50 crore citizens during the tough times amid the coronavirus outbreak, the central government on Saturday decided to make testing and treatment for the coronavirus available for free in private testing labs under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

Purpose of this move

• To increase the supply of testing and treatment facilities.
• To increase access by roping in the private sector through AB-PMJAY as per the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines.
• It will help more than 50 crore Ayushman beneficiaries to avail free testing and timely and standard treatment in designated private hospitals across India.
• States have already enlisted private sector hospitals to convert them into Covid-19 only hospitals.
• Hospitals can use their own authorised testing facilities or tie up with an authorised testing facility for the scheme.
• It will significantly expand our capacities by including private sector hospitals and labs and mitigate the adverse impact of this catastrophic illness on the poor?
• These tests would be carried out as per the protocol set by ICMR and by private labs approved/registered by the ICMR.
• This decision will also help attract more private sector players for providing testing and treatment for the coronavirus
• Information on symptoms, testing and treatment for the disease can be accessed from the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and by calling the national Covid-19 helpline 1075.

About Ayushman Bharat
Launched as recommended by the National Health Policy 2017, to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

• This initiative has been designed on the lines as to meet SDG and its underlining commitment, which is “leave no one behind”.
• Aim: to undertake path breaking interventions to holistically address health (covering prevention, promotion and ambulatory care), at primary, secondary and tertiary level.
• Includes the on-going centrally sponsored schemes – Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS) and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).

Ayushman Bharat adopts a continuum of care approach, comprising of two inter-related components, which are:

• Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs).
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).

Key Features of PM-JAY

• The world’s largest health insurance/ assurance scheme fully financed by the government.
• It provides cover of Rs5 lakhs per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization across public and private empaneled hospitals in India.
• Coverage: Over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable entitled families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) are eligible for these benefits.
• Provides cashless access to health care services for the beneficiary at the point of service.

Benefits and significance

• Helps reduce catastrophic expenditure for hospitalizations, which pushes 6 crore people into poverty each year.
• Helps mitigate the financial risk arising out of catastrophic health episodes.

Eligibility to avail benefit under it

• No restrictions on family size, age or gender.
• All pre–existing conditions are covered from day one.
• Covers up to 3 days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days post-hospitalization expenses such as diagnostics and medicines.
• Services include approximately 1,393 procedures covering all the costs related to treatment, including but not limited to drugs, supplies, diagnostic services, physician’s fees, room charges, surgeon charges, OT and ICU charges etc.
• Public hospitals are reimbursed for the healthcare services at par with the private hospitals.

Context: Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved a 30% cut in the salaries of all Members of Parliament for a year and a two-year suspension of the MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme so that the amount saved can go to the Consolidated Fund of India to fight COVID-19.
About 30% Salary Cut

• It is applicable to all MPs, including the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, for the financial year 2020-2021.
• The President and Vice-President of India along with all the State Governors, have also decided on their own to take a 30% salary cut.
• However, the amendment will only cut MPs’ salaries, not allowances or the pensions of ex-MPs.
• According to the pay hike in 2018, each MP draws a monthly salary of ?1 lakh, ?70,000 as constituency allowance and ?60,000 for running office besides other perks.

About Suspension of MPLADS

• The amount saved from the scheme would be around ?8,000 crore and will be redirected to the Consolidation Fund.
• Many MPs had already pledged to use their MPLADS funds for efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
• 74 Rajya Sabha members had contributed a total of ?100 crore, and 265 Lok Sabha members had given a total of ?265 crore.
• Currently, the Lok Sabha has 542 members while the Rajya Sabha has a strength of 245 members, including 12 nominated.
• The comprehensive decision was taken to convey the message of social responsibility of the MPs.

About MPLADS

• It was launched in December, 1993, to provide a mechanism for the Members of Parliament to recommend works of developmental nature for creation of durable community assets and for provision of basic facilities including community infrastructure, based on locally felt needs.
• The MPLADS is a Plan Scheme fully funded by Government of India. The annual MPLADS fund entitlement per MP constituency is Rs. 5 crore.

Special Focus of the Scheme

• MPs are to recommend every year, works costing at least 15 per cent of the MPLADS entitlement for the year for areas inhabited by Scheduled Caste population and 7.5 per cent for areas inhabited by ST population.
• In order to encourage trusts and societies for the betterment of tribal people, a ceiling of Rs. 75 lakh is stipulated for building assets by trusts and societies subject to conditions prescribed in the Scheme Guidelines.

Works under the Scheme

• Works, developmental in nature, based on locally felt needs and always available for the use of the public at large, are eligible under the scheme.
• Preference under the scheme is given to works relating to national priorities, such as provision of drinking water, public health, education, sanitation, roads, etc.

Release of Funds

• Funds are released in the form of grants in-aid directly to the District Authorities.
• The funds released under the scheme are non-lapsable.
• The liability of funds not released in a particular year is carried forward to the subsequent years, subject to eligibility.

Execution of Works

• The MPs have a recommendatory role under the scheme. They recommend their choice of works to the concerned district authorities who implement these works by following the established procedures of the concerned state government.
• The district authority is empowered to examine the eligibility of works sanction funds and select the implementing agencies, prioritise works, supervise overall execution, and monitor the scheme at the ground level.

Recommendation of Works

• The Lok Sabha Members can recommend works in their respective constituencies.
• The elected members of the Rajya Sabha can recommend works anywhere in the state from which they are elected.
• Nominated members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha may select works for implementation anywhere in the country.

About Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament

• Salaries and allowances of members of either Houses is determined by the Parliament.
• No provision of pension in the Constitution. However, in 1954, the Parliament enacted the Salaries, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act.
• In 2010, the salary of members increased from 16,000 to 50,000 p.m.
• Office expenses allowance from 20,000 to 45,000 p.m.
• The daily allowance from 1,000 to 2,000 (for each day of residence on duty)
• The constituency allowance from 20,000 to 45,000 p.m.
• Members are entitled to a pension on a graduated scale for each 5-year-term from 1976.
• Besides, they are provided with travelling facilities, free accommodation, telephone, vehicle advance, medical facilities, etc.

Context: Recently, Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory has become 12th State where the Price Monitoring and Resource Unit (PMRU) has been set up by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).

• PMRUs have already been set up by NPPA in 11 States, including, Kerala, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram.

About Price Monitoring and Resource Unit 

• It is basically a registered society and shall function under the direct control and supervision of State Drug Controller of respective states. The unit shall be funded by NPPA for its recurring and non-recurring expenses.

Functions of Price Monitoring and Resource Unit

The key functions of Price Monitoring & Resource Unit of NPPA include:

• Helping NPPA and State Drug Controller in ensuring availability and accessibility of medicines at affordable prices.
• Organising seminars, training programs and other information, education and communication (IEC) activities in the areas of availability and affordability of medicines for all.
• Collecting samples of medicines, collect and analyse data and make reports with respect to availability and over-pricing of medicines for taking action under the provisions of Drug Price Control Order (DPCO).

About National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority

• It is a government regulatory agency that controls the prices of pharmaceutical drugs in India.
• It was constituted via Government of India Resolution on 29th August, 1997 as an attached office of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers.
• It was constituted as an independent Regulator for pricing of drugs and to ensure availability and accessibility of medicines at affordable prices.
• The NPPA regularly publishes lists of medicines and their maximum ceiling prices. The latest DPCO was released in 2013 which has a list of 384 drugs.

Functions of NPPA

• Implementation: Implementing and enforcing the provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order in accordance with the powers delegated to it.
• Legal: It deals with all legal matters arising out of the decisions of the Authority.
• Monitoring: Monitoring the availability of drugs, identify shortages, if any, and to take remedial steps.
• Collection: It collect/ maintain data on production, exports and imports, market share of individual companies, profitability of companies etc, for bulk drugs and formulations.
• Studies: Undertaking and/ or sponsoring relevant studies in respect of pricing of drugs/ pharmaceuticals.
• Recruitment: It is also responsible for recruitment/ appointment of the officers and other staff members of the Authority, as per rules and procedures laid down by the Government.
• Advice: It render advice to the Central Government on changes/ revisions in the drug policy.
• Assistance: It also render assistance to the Central Government in the parliamentary matters relating to the drug pricing.

Context: DARPG’s National Monitoring Dashboard on COVID 19 Grievances was launched where COVID19 related grievances received in CPGRAMS with all Ministries/ Departments and States/ Union Territories are monitored on priority basis by a technical team of DARPG.

• The National Monitoring Dashboard was developed by DARPG in pursuance of the recommendations of the Empowered Group of Officers constituted under the Disaster Management Act 2005 on Public Grievances and Suggestions to ensure timely implementation of COVID 19 Response Activities.

About Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG)

• It is an attached department of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances is to facilitate the pursuit of excellence in governance through the promotion of:
Improvements in Government structures and processes

• Citizen-friendly initiatives including redressal of public grievances
• Documentation, incubation and dissemination of best practices
• Codification and simplification of procedures and
• Networking with various agencies
• This department acts as a facilitator, in consultation with central ministries/departments, states/UT administrations, organisations and individuals, to improve government functioning through administrative reforms.
• It provides online grievance redress services through Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System(CPGRAMS)

About Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System(CPGRAMS)

• It was created in June 2007 by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances for addressing the grievances of general public.
• Under this public grievance mechanism any citizen of India can raise their problems, grievance or bto the central govt and state government Ministries and Departments. Grievances can be submitted to all important portfolio ministers and departments.
• The system has been designed in-house by the National Informatics Centre team and has a telephonic feedback feature also. Prime Minister of India is the supreme head of the public grievances.

Context: Recently, India is working with the United States to secure a dollar (currency) swap line that would help in providing an additional comfort in an event of any abrupt outflow of funds.India already has a currency swap facility with other central banks like Japan, UAE etc.
Current Scenario

• The economic effects of COVID-19 hit investor sentiment, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been large sellers of Indian equity and debt markets in March and April so far. This has led to outflow of funds from the country.
• India liquidated its forex assets, to stabilise the rupee which recently fell below the 76 level against the dollar.
• India’s foreign currency assets had declined by around $7.50 billion in two weeks to $ 439.66 billion as on March 27.
• According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, 63.7 per cent of India’s foreign currency assets — or $256.17 billion — is invested in overseas securities, mainly in the US treasury.
• But India is expected to comfortably tide over any challenge posed by continued outflows of funds from the markets, given the adequacy of foreign exchange reserves, a swap line with the US Fed provides an additional comfort to the forex markets.

About Dollar Swap Arrangement

• Dollar swap is a kind of currency swap. The word swap means exchange.
• A currency swap between the two countries is an agreement to exchange currencies with predetermined terms and conditions.
• The US Federal Reserve will provide dollars to a foreign central bank. At the same time, the foreign central bank provides the equivalent amount of funds in its currency to the Fed, based on the market exchange rate at the time of the transaction.
• The parties agree to swap back these quantities of their two currencies at a specified date in the future, which is the next day or as far ahead as three months, using the same exchange rate as in the first transaction.
• It carries no exchange rate or other market risks as transaction terms are set in advance.
• The Central banks and Governments engage in currency swaps with foreign counterparts to meet short term foreign exchange liquidity requirements or to ensure adequate foreign currency to avoid Balance of Payments (BOP) crisis till longer arrangements can be made.

About Forex Reserves (Foreign Exchange Assets)

• They are assets held on reserve by a central bank in Foreign Currencies.
• It includes foreign currencies, bonds, treasury bills and other government securities.
• These are held to ensure that a central bank has enough funds if its national currency weakens/ devalues rapidly.

A) About Virtual Courts

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court passed a slew of directions for all courts across the country to extensively use video-conferencing for judicial proceedings due to the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 has necessitated social distancing and it is necessary to ensure that court premises do not contribute to the spread of coronavirus.
Benefits of Virtual Courts
1) Cost-Effective Technique

• When compared to litigation, Virtual Courts are extremely profitable as it cuts down on the costs associated with manpower and paperwork.
• It also cuts down on the vast travelling expenses during the process of resolving cases Manually.

2) Convenient Technique

• Virtual Courts can cover a wide range of geographical areas.
• This guarantees quality service to all the people of different regions.

3) Better Court Management

• Virtual courts would help in the computerization of workflow management in courts.
• Thus, it would help to create a better court and case management. Video conferencing facilities would be installed in every court complex.
• Evidence of eyewitnesses, who are unable to attend the court can be recorded through this method.

4) Security of the witnesses

• In many cases, the witnesses are not able to come to the court and make their statement as the other party is too strong and scares them of the consequences. e-Courts can help in dealing with such cases

Drawbacks of Virtual Courts
1) Impersonal

• Due to the virtual process of Virtual Courts, the emotional state of the disputed parties and the resultant body language and tone are not expressed to the judges.
• This poses a hindrance to forming any personal relationship with the dispute resolver.
• Also the judges have no control over the temper and tone of the disputed parties. This may sometimes lead to contempt of courts.

2) Knowledge of Computers

• The essential preliminary requirement is to have a basic knowledge of computers and operation of the internet. Digital literacy in India being significantly low, this might be a roadblock for such. Even those who do have digital literacy, lack the trust required to avail Virtual courts. Thus, there is not only ignorance about computers, but also the reluctance of the usage of them.

3) Breach of Confidentiality

• Often in the virtual courtroom processes, confidential information regarding the parties themselves or the parties whom they represent is revealed.
• Sensitive information is particularly more crucial in corporate negotiation in which often trade secrets are revealed.
• Cyberspace is prone to cybercrime. If not properly secured, confidential information can be easily leaked out, having a detrimental effect on the parties concerned.

B) About testing and Medical professionals safety concerns

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court of India has passed an order asking people to behave responsibly with the medical teams fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. The order has also made the testing for Coronavirus free in all hospitals.
Key Highlights of Order

• The order comes in the backdrop of several petitions highlighting the need to provide sufficient protective gear to the medical professionals. A few of them also highlighted the violence against the doctors.
• The SC has called Covid-19 a ‘National Calamity’ and termed doctors and health workers as ‘Corona Warriors’.
• All citizens of the country have been urged to act in a responsible manner and be helpful to the government and medical staff who are trying to contain and combat the pandemic.
• Medical teams will be provided protection while visiting the screening sites or places where new positive people are found or quarantined.
• The police have been ordered to take action against people who obstruct and commit any offence against doctors, medical staff and other medical officials performing their duty.
• The government has been directed to explore alternatives, including enabling and augmenting domestic production of protective clothing and gear for medical professionals.
• This includes alternative modes of production of such clothing (masks, suits, caps, gloves, etc.) and permitting movement of raw material.
• The government may also restrict export of such materials to augment inventory and domestic stock.
• It is the responsibility of the Centre and the States to ensure availability of appropriate Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) to doctors, nurses, ward boys and other medical and paramedical professionals.

Free Testing for Covid-19

• The order comes in response to a petition asking for implementation of free testing by private labs.
• An earlier SC notice also challenged the legality of the advisory price cap of ?4,500 in private labs and hospitals saying that it may not be within the reach of a large population of the country.
• The order states that the tests relating to Covid-19, whether done in approved government or private laboratories, shall be free of cost.
• The government has been asked to issue the necessary directions immediately.
• These tests must be carried out only in the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited laboratories or any agencies approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
• Recently, the government has also decided to provide free testing and treatment to the existing beneficiaries of the Ayushman Bharat Scheme or the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).

Context: During lockdown, Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code has been widely invoked against those not following it.

• In a communication to the states on March 24, the Home Ministry said persons violating the containment measures will be liable to be punished under provisions of the Disaster Management Act 2005, besides Section 188 IPC.

The related provisions of IPC and Disaster Management are as follows
For disobedience

• Section 188 IPC deals with those disobeying an order passed by a public servant, and provides for imprisonment ranging from one to six months. For those violating orders passed under the Epidemic Diseases Act, Section 188 IPC is the provision under which punishment is awarded.
• Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 provides for punishment for two kinds of offences: obstructing any officer or employee of the government or person authorized by any disaster management authority for discharge of a function; and refusing to comply with any direction given by the authorities under the Act.
• Punishment can extend to one year on conviction, or two years if the refusal leads to loss of lives or any imminent danger.

For spreading fear

• Section 505 IPC provides for imprisonment of three years or fine, or both, for those who publish or circulate anything which is likely to cause fear or alarm.
• Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act provides for imprisonment, extending to one year, of those who make or circulate a false alarm or warning regarding a disaster or its severity or magnitude.

For false claim to aid

• Under Section 52, Disaster Management Act, whoever makes a false claim for obtaining “any relief, assistance, repair, reconstruction or other benefits” from any official authority can be sentenced to a maximum of two years imprisonment and a fine will be imposed on the person.

For refusing to do duties

• In case of refusal or withdrawal of any officer who has been tasked with any duty under the Act, the officer can be sentenced to imprisonment extending to one year.
• However, those who have written permission of the superior or any lawful ground are exempt from such punishment.
• A case cannot be initiated without the explicit sanction from the state or central government.

For refusing to help

• Any authorized authority under the Act can requisite resources like persons and material resources, premises like land or building, or sheds and vehicles for rescue operations.
• Though there is a provision for compensation under the Act, any person who disobeys such an order can be sentenced to imprisonment up to one year.

Legal shield of the Acts

• For any offence under the Disaster Management Act, a court will take cognizance only if the complaint is filed by the national or state or district authority, or the central or state government.
• However, there is another provision: if a person has given notice of 30 days or more about an alleged offence, and about his intention to file a complaint, he or she can approach the court which can then take cognizance.
• The Act protects government officers and employees from any legal process for actions they took “in good faith”.
• Under the Epidemic Diseases Act too, no suit or other legal proceedings can lie against any person for anything done or intended to be done under good faith.

Context: Recently, India has shared nine whole genome sequences of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) — a public platform started by the WHO in 2008 for countries to share genome sequences.
Background

• Early in March, India became the fifth country in the world to sequence the genome of the novel Coronavirus, or Covid-19, and share its data with the international community.
• All the sequences have been shared by the Pune-based National Institute of Virology.
• So far, 3,086 sequences of the virus isolated from humans have been shared by 57 countries. With 621, the U.S. has shared the most number of sequences, followed by the U.K. (350), Belgium (253) and China (242).

About genome sequencing

• Genome: It is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes.
• Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism. In humans, a copy of the entire genome—more than 3 billion DNA base pairs—is contained in all cells that have a nucleus.
• Genome sequencing: It is figuring out the order of DNA nucleotides, or bases, in a genome—the order of Adenine, Cytosine, Guanines, and Thymine that make up an organism's DNA.
• Sequencing the genome doesn't immediately lay open the genetic information of an entire species. Even with a rough draft of the human genome sequence in hand, much work remains to be done. Scientists still have to translate those strings of letters into an understanding of how the genome works.

Importantance of genomic sequencing to understand  to COVID-19

• The SARS-CoV2 genome, as it is formally known, has about 30,000 base pairs, somewhat like a long string with 30,000 places where each one of these occupy one of four chemicals called nucleotides.
• A look at virus genome sequences from patient samples that test positive for COVID-19 helps researchers to understand how the virus is evolving as it spreads. So far, there are over 1,000 COVID-19 genomes that have been published worldwide.

Therefore, sequencing is necessary because:

• It helps track the transmission route of the virus globally.
• It can determine how quickly the virus is adapting as it spreads.
• It identifies targets to therapies.
• It is required to understand the role of co-infection.

About Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID)

• GISAID is a public–private partnership between the German government and the non-profit organization Friends of GISAID.
• Formed in: 2008. 
• Type: Non-profit organization.
• Headquarters: Munich, Germany
• Functions: It provides public access to the most complete collection of genetic sequence data of influenza viruses and related clinical and epidemiological data through its database (named EpiFlu). The database is hosted by the German government.
• The GISAID Initiative promotes the international sharing of all influenza virus sequences, related clinical and epidemiological data associated with human viruses, and geographical as well as species-specific data associated with avian and other animal viruses
• This helps researchers understand how the viruses evolve, spread and potentially become pandemics.
• It actively promotes the development of novel research tools for the analysis of influenza data by helping developers to facilitate the integration or connection of their tools to analyze GISAID data.

Context: Recently, US President Donald Trump threatened to freeze US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), saying the international group had failed on the coronavirus pandemic.
Background 

• Trump suggested that the WHO had gone along with Beijing’s efforts months ago to under-represent the severity of the outbreak.
• The WHO also serves as a forum for summits and discussions on health issues.

About WHO Funding

There are four kinds of contributions that make up funding for the WHO.

• Assessed contributions are the dues countries pay in order to be a member of the Organization.
• The amount each Member State must pay is calculated relative to the country’s wealth and population.
• Voluntary contributions come from Member States (in addition to their assessed contribution) or from other partners. They can range from flexible to highly earmarked.
• Core voluntary contributions allow less well-funded activities to benefit from a better flow of resources and ease implementation bottlenecks that arise when immediate financing is lacking.
• Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Contributions were started in 2011 to improve and strengthen the sharing of influenza viruses with human pandemic potential, and to increase the access of developing countries to vaccines and other pandemic related supplies.

About its contributor

• The United States is currently the WHO’s biggest contributor, making up 14.67 percent of total funding by providing USD 553.1 million. The US is followed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation forming 9.76 percent or USD 367.7 million.
• The third biggest contributor is the GAVI Vaccine Alliance at 8.39 percent, with the UK (7.79 percent) and Germany (5.68 percent) coming fourth and fifth respectively.

The four next Biggest Donors are International Bodies:

• United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (5.09 percent)
• World Bank (3.42 percent),
• Rotary International (3.3 percent),
• The European Commission (3.3 percent).
• India makes up 0.48 percent of total contributions and China 0.21 percent. 
• The biggest program area where the money is allocated is polio eradication (26.51 percent), followed by increasing access to essential health and nutrition services (12.04 percent), and preventable diseases vaccines (8.89 percent).

About  World Health Organization (WHO)

• It is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. 
• It is part of the U.N. Sustainable Development Group. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with six semi-autonomous regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide. 
• The WHO's broad mandate includes advocating for universal healthcare, monitoring public health risks, coordinating responses to health emergencies, and promoting human health and well being. 
• It provides technical assistance to countries, sets international health standards and guidelines, and collects data on global health issues through the World Health Survey. 
• Its flagship publication, the World Health Report, provides expert assessments of global health topics and health statistics on all nations.

Context: India is seeking as much as $6 billion of loans from multilateral institutions such as the Asian Development Bank,AIIB to bolster its efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
Background

• India has already secured $1 billion funding from the World Bank to better its health sector for fighting against the coronavirus pandemic according to previous reports. The World Bank has approved a fast-track $1 billion “India COVID Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project” to help India prevent, detect, and respond to the pandemic and better its public health preparedness. It was the largest ever healthcare sector support from the World Bank.

About Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

• It is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia.
• It is established by the AIIB Articles of Agreement (entered into force Dec. 25, 2015) which is a multilateral treaty. The Parties (57 founding members) to agreement comprise the Membership of the Bank.
• It is headquartered in Beijing and began its operations in January 2016.
• The members to Bank have now grown to 97 approved members worldwide.There are 27 prospective members including Armenia, Lebanon, Brazil, South Africa, Greece, etc.
• Fourteen of the G-20 nations are AIIB members including France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
• By investing in sustainable infrastructure and other productive sectors in Asia and beyond, it will better connect people, services and markets that over time will impact the lives of billions and build a better future.

Board of Governors

• The Board of Governors consists of one Governor and one Alternate Governor appointed by each member country.
• Governors and Alternate Governors serve at the pleasure of the appointing member. All the powers of the AIIB are vested in the Board of Governors.

Board of Directors:  Non-resident Board of Directors is responsible for the direction of the Bank’s general operations, exercising all powers delegated to it by the Board of Governors. This includes approving the Bank’s strategy, annual plan and budget; establishing policies; taking decisions concerning Bank operations; and supervising management and operation of the Bank and establishing an oversight mechanism.

International Advisory Panel (IAP)

• The Bank has established an IAP to support the President and Senior Management on the Bank’s strategies and policies as well as on general operational issues.
• The President selects and appoints members of the IAP to an initial two-year term, which can be renewed upon completion.
• The Panel meets at least twice a year, once in tandem with the Bank’s Annual Meeting, and second time at the Bank’s Headquarters in Beijing.
• Panelists receive a small honorarium and do not receive a salary. The Bank pays the reasonable costs associated with Panel meetings.

Membership

• Membership in the AIIB is open to all members of the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank and is divided into regional and non-regional members.
• Regional members are those located within areas classified as Asia and Oceania by the United Nations.
• Unlike other MDBs (multilateral development bank), the AIIB allows for non-sovereign entities to apply for AIIB membership, assuming their home country is a member.
• Thus, sovereign wealth funds (such as the China Investment Corporation) or state-owned enterprises of member countries could potentially join the Bank.

Voting Rights

• China is the largest shareholder with 26.61 % voting shares in the bank followed by India (7.6%), Russia (6.01%) and Germany (4.2 %).
• The regional members hold 75% of the total voting power in the Bank.

The AIIB has a governance structure similar to other MDBs (multilateral development bank), with two key differences:

• it does not have a resident board of executive directors that represents member countries' interests on a day-to-day basis; and
• the AIIB gives more decision making authority to regional countries and the largest shareholder, China.

About AIIB Lending

• The recipients of AIIB financing may include member countries (or agencies and entities or enterprises in member territories), as well as international or regional agencies concerned with the economic development of the Asia-Pacific region.

The AIIB has signed a co-financing framework agreement with the World Bank and three nonbinding Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with:

• the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

Significance of AIIB
The United Nations has addressed the launch of AIIB as having potential for “scaling up financing for sustainable development” for the concern of global economic governance. The capital of the bank is $100 billion, equivalent to ?2⁄3 of the capital of the Asian Development Bank and about half that of the World Bank.

Context: Recently, The United Nations General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution, co-sponsored by 188 nations including India, on COVID-19, calling for intensified international cooperation to defeat the pandemic that is causing severe disruption to societies and economies.

• The resolution titled Global solidarity to fight the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)’ was the first such document on the global pandemic to be adopted by the world organisation.
• The UN Security Council is yet to discuss the coronavirus outbreak, even as the total number of coronavirus cases across the world crossed one million

Key Points

• The resolution said the 193-member General Assembly notes with great concern the threat to human health, safety and well-being caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, which continues to spread globally.
• It recognises the “unprecedented effects of the pandemic, including the severe disruption to societies and economies, as well as to global travel and commerce, and the devastating impact on the livelihood of people”.
• The resolution called for intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat the pandemic, including by exchanging information, scientific knowledge and best practices and by applying the relevant guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization.
• It also emphasised the need for full respect for human rights, and stressed that there is no place for any form of discrimination, racism and xenophobia in the response to the pandemic.

About United Nations General Assembly(UNGA)

• It one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), the only one in which all member nations have equal representation, and the main deliberative, policy-making, and representative organ of the UN.
• Popularly known as the parliament of the world, where all the 193 UN member states are represented, the UNGA is the deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN.
• Its powers are to oversee the budget of the UN, appoint the non-permanent members to the Security Council, appoint the Secretary-General of the United Nations, receive reports from other parts of the UN, and make recommendations in the form of General Assembly Resolutions.
• It is headquartered in New York City, U.S.A.

Functions of UNGA

• Takes a decision on important matters such as peace and security, discusses various global issues and budgetary matters.
• Decides on matters such as the admission of new members.
• Decisions are taken through a vote. Admission of new members and budgetary matters require a two-thirds majority, while the decision on other issues are taken by a simple majority.
• Each sovereign state gets one vote and the votes are not binding on the membership, except in budgetary matters.
• The Assembly has no binding votes or veto powers like the UN Security Council.
• The UNGA can express world opinion, promote international cooperation in various fields and make recommendations to the UNSC and elect the Security Council’s non-permanent members.

Main Organs of United Nations

• United Nations General Assembly (UNGA),
• United Nations Security Council (UNSC),
• The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC),
• United Nations Trusteeship Council,
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ),
• UN Secretariat.

All the 6 were established in 1945 when the UN was founded.

Context: Nearly a hundred scientists from across the globe worked together to study the genes of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and have published a list of drugs that can be re-purposed to treat COVID-19. They have also mapped out the human proteins that interact with those of the virus.
Background

• When virus invades human cells, it takes over the cells’ molecular machinery to replicate itself because it cannot do this on its own.
• If these molecular machines of the viruses can be inhibited, Viruses cannot survive.
• The proteins of the virus must attach to the human proteins to cause the infection. The team studied 26 coronavirus genes that help in the production of these proteins. 

Key Findings

• They studied human proteins and found 332 SARS-CoV-2 and human protein interactions. The team then listed 67 human proteins that can be targeted by 69 drugs to fight the infection. 
• These drugs include the existing FDA-approved drugs, drugs under clinical trials and/or preclinical compounds. 
• When the virus invades the cells, it hijacks the cells’ molecular machinery to replicate itself because it cannot do this on its own.
• The drugs that have been identified may be able to inhibit these molecular machines so that the virus can no longer use them for its own survival. 
• Some of these drugs will be able to decrease viral load and disease severity for patients. However, they still need to be further tested. 
• The list includes unexpected candidates such as entacapone used to treat Parkinson’s disease and antiviral medication named ribavirin, which was administered to Nipah patients in Kerala during the 2018 outbreak. 
• Chloroquine, an antimalarial drug, and metformin, used to treat diabetes, were also found on the list. 
• The drugs/compounds that are being used are relatively well studied. Many of them are already approved for other diseases. One can easily look up what adverse side-effects, if any, are expected from these drugs. 
• Future studies are geared up to more deeply understand the exact molecular mechanisms used by the coronavirus to drive disease in humans. This could reveal additional drug targets and drugs to treat COVID-19.

Context: Recently, Bharat Biotech is getting into development and testing of a vaccine against COVID-19 called CoroFlu as part of an international collaboration of virologists and vaccine makers.
Background 

• CoroFlu is a one drop COVID-19 nasal vaccine built on a flu vaccine “backbone” that has been shown to be safe and well-tolerated in humans, in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials.

Key Findings

• The company said that the product is part of an international collaboration of virologists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and vaccine companies FluGen along with Bharat Biotech. 
• CoroFlu will build on the backbone of FluGen's flu vaccine candidate known as M2SR. M2SR is a self-limiting version of the influenza virus that induces an immune response against the flu.
• Researchers will insert gene sequences from SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19, into M2SR so that the new vaccine will also induce immunity against the coronavirus. 
• Under the collaboration agreement, FluGen will transfer its existing manufacturing processes to Bharat Biotech to enable the company to scale up production and produce the vaccine for clinical trials. 
• Four Phase I and Phase II clinical trials involving hundreds of subjects have shown the M2SR flu vaccine to be safe and well tolerated.
• This safety profile, M2SR’s ability to induce a strong immune response, and the ability of influenza viruses to carry sequences of other viruses make M2SR an attractive option for rapidly developing CoroFlu as a safe and effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. 
• M2SR is a unique form of the flu virus. It lacks a gene called M2, which restricts the virus to undergoing only a single round of replication in cells. 
• CoroFlu, like M2SR, will be delivered intranasally. This route of administration mimics the natural route of infection by coronavirus and influenza and activates several modes of the immune system. 
• Intranasal delivery is more effective at inducing multiple types of immune responses than the intramuscular shots that deliver most flu vaccines.

Context: In the ongoing efforts against COVID-19 pandemic, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been using scientific endeavours to develop products in an accelerated manner. The DRDO laboratories are working with industry partners for volume production.
About Personnel Sanitisation Enclosure (PSE)

• Vehicle Research Development Establishment (VRDE), Ahmednagar, a DRDO Laboratory has designed full body disinfection chamber called as PSE. 
• This walk through enclosure is designed for personnel decontamination, one person at a time. This is a portable system equipped with sanitiser and soap dispenser. 
• The decontamination is started using a foot pedal at the entry. On entering the chamber, electrically operated pump creates a disinfectant mist of hypo sodium chloride for disinfecting. 
• The mist spray is calibrated for an operation of 25 seconds and stops automatically indicating completion of operation. 
• As per procedure, personnel undergoing disinfection will need to keep their eyes closed while inside the chamber.

About the system

• The system consists of roof mounted and bottom tanks with a total of 700 liters capacity. Approximately 650 personnel can pass through the chamber for disinfection until the refill is required.
• The system has see-through glass panels on side walls for monitoring purpose and is fitted with lights for illumination during night time operations. A separate operator cabin is provided to monitor overall operations.
• The system has been manufactured with the help of M/s D H Ltd, Ghaziabad, within a time span of four days. This system can be used for disinfection of personnel at the areas of controlled ingress and egress such as entry and exit to hospitals, malls, office buildings and critical installations.

About Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) 

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a bio suit to keep the medical, paramedical and other personnel engaged in combating COVID-19 safe from the deadly virus.
• This Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) having specific type of fabric with coating. 
• The DRDO has prepared a special sealant as an alternative to seam sealing tape based on the sealant used in submarine applications.
• Presently, bio suits prepared using this glue for seam sealing by an industry partner has cleared test at Southern India Textile Research Association (SITRA) Coimbatore.
• This can be a game changer for the textile industry. The DRDO can mass produce this glue through industry to support the seam sealing activity by suit manufacturers.
• M/s Kusumgarh Industries is producing the raw material, coating material, with the complete suit being manufactured with the help of another vendor.

R₀ (Pronounced R naught)

Virus transmission term ‘R₀’(Pronounced R naught) : Covid-19

Context: While people around the world are currently living under a lockdown due to the COVID- 19, researchers are still in the process of understanding the nature of its transmission.

About R₀(Reproduction Rate)

• It is the rate at which a virus is transmitted.
• It is also called the basic reproduction number, it indicates the average number of people who will contract the virus from a person who has already been infected, in a population that does not have immunity for the said disease.

Its Mathematical Representation

• R₀ is the division of the number of new infections by the number of existing infections, or the average number of new infections over an infectious period
• R₀= new infections/existing infections

Infectious Period

• It depends on the virus, which can be a few weeks, months, or even decades.
• The virus is assumed to be introduced to a population that does not have herd immunity or vaccination against it.

Range of R0 for Eradicating a Disease

• The ideal scenario is when the R₀ is below 1.
• This means the infection is transmitted to fewer people. When such a rate is maintained over a considerable period of time, the disease is eradicated.

About World Study

• While many studies have differed in their conclusions, the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated the R₀ for coronavirus at 1.4 to 2.5.
• In China’s Wuhan, where the disease originated, lockdown measures brought the Rt (effective rate) down to 0.3, thus significantly slowing the number of new infections.
• Governments around the world which have enforced such measures are hoping to follow the same path, although experts fear a second wave of infections once lockdowns are lifted.

Anti-influenza drug Favipiravir being tested for COVID-19

Context: Recently, Japanese conglomerate Fujifilm announced the start of phase III clinical trials of Avigan, an influenza antiviral drug that is being experimented with in many countries for the treatment of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Background 

• As there is still no specific cure for COVID-19, medicines used for other ailments are being repurposed around the world for it. Drugs for malaria, HIV, arthritis, among others have been administered to COVID-19 patients, with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Key Points

• The anti-influenza drug Avigan (generic name: Favipiravir), which showed promising results when it was repurposed during the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic, is now being touted as a ray of hope in the treatment of COVID-19 as well. 
• Favipiravir was originally intended to be used as an antiviral in the treatment of influenza. It received regulatory approval in Japan in 2014 and was marketed as Avigan. 
• Japan supplied Favipiravir to affected countries as emergency aid during the Ebola virus epidemic of 2014-16, which claimed over 11,000 lives. The drug was effective in bringing down mortality rates from 30 per cent to 15 per cent when administered to those with low to moderate viral loads.
• The drug has shown promising results in treating patients at a mild or moderate stage of COVID-19. It has been used as an emergency measure to stop the disease from worsening when treatment becomes more challenging. 
• Since the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is an RNA virus like the influenza A and B viruses, Favipiravir could potentially also work against the former. The drug is less effective when the virus has already multiplied. 
• According to some studies, its side effects may include fetal deaths or deformities. It is hence not prescribed for patients who are pregnant.

Context:  Recently, India has ended its earlier ban on the export of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which is now being used in countries such as the U.S. as a possible line of treatment for COVID-19.

• The Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had prohibited the export of the drug on March 25. But it left the option of export open to fulfil export obligation and on humanitarian grounds.
• On April 4, the DGFT issued a new notification, ending the exception mentioned in the previous order. As a result, India did not export Hydroxychloroquine and formulations made from it even against full advance payment.

• While the drug’s efficacy is not yet clinically proven, Mr. Trump has been a proponent of its use, calling it a “game changer”. The Indian Council for Medical Research has also cleared HCQ to be used as a prophylaxis, or preventive medication, by doctors, nurses and other health staff. 
• Despite the requirement, the Centre said it had assessed that current stocks of HCQ and other drugs that had been freed for export were sufficient for “for all possible contingencies”. 
• India imports Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) from China for the manufacture of drugs at cheaper costs. The supply of APIs got affected due to COVID-19 outbreak in China. To ensure that India’s doesn’t fall short of supply for its own citizens, the drug was banned from exporting.

About Hydroxychloroquine

• It is an anti-malarial drug.
• It is now being used by many countries as a possible line of treatment for COVID-19.
• It works by diminishing immune system’s response to viral infections. 
• These dosages are also linked to instances of cardiac arrhythmia (Improper beating of the heart) and liver damage. 
• A study in France showed that hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with Azithromycin appeared to reduce virus levels quicker. 

Context: It is still unclear whether a pregnant woman runs the risk of transmitting the virus to her baby during pregnancy. While there is no concrete evidence for vertical transmission of SARS-CoV2 from mother to foetus, it is known that pregnancy involves a risk, after birth, of adverse outcomes from many respiratory viral infections.
Key Points

• A virus may be transmitted after delivery either from mother during breastfeeding or from the hospital environment.
• The World Health Organization notes that there is no evidence yet to show that pregnant women are more vulnerable or are at a higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 than the general population.
• Experts have flagged this concern as they cite the recent history of vertical maternal-foetal transmission of such emerging viral infections as the Zika virus, Ebola virus, Marburg virus and other agents.
• Maternal management and foetal safety are a significant concern, but the infection is at a low level and there is not sufficient number of patients for studies to assess the vulnerability of pregnant women and whether there was vertical transmission of COVID- 19 virus to their babies.
• So far no reliable evidence recommends any specific COVID-19 treatment for pregnant women. Before allowing drugs for pregnant women, clinical trials would be needed to prove the effectiveness of drugs and the effects on the foetus to establish a standardised treatment.

Context: Scientists from TCS Innovation Labs in Hyderabad are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to identify new molecules which might have the potential to target specific parts of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). 
Background

• Drug discovery is a complex process, needing several layers of validation before the drug may come in use. 
• In this work, the researchers have brought down the time taken for the initial step of designing suitable candidate molecules for testing from years to just a week, reinforcing the power of AI in handling huge datasets.

Key Findings

• Scientists have identified 31 candidate small molecules, which may serve as inhibitors of the chymotrypsin-like protease, one of the key drug targets in the fight against COVID-19. 
• The genome of the novel coronavirus codes for several proteins that have crucial roles in entry of the virus into the host cell, its replication, assembly and host-pathogen interactions. 
• Some of these proteins that help the virus perform its functions are common targets for drug developers. Among these drug targets are the spike protein, which helps the virus attach itself to the host cell and enter it, and viral proteases which help it replicate. 

Role of the protease protein 

• The viral RNA synthesises two long polyproteins when it infects human cells via a human cell surface protein. 
• The role of the protease protein is to cut the polyproteins to individual proteins, so that new viruses can be assembled. This is important for its replication and survival. 
• The chymotrypsin-like protease or the main protease primarily does the function of cleaving the polyprotein into proteins and the papain-like protease also aids in this process.

About the Process of study

• First, using a database of approximately 1.6 million drug-like small molecules from the ChEMBL database, the researchers trained the generative deep neural network model. 
• As a second step, the network was re-trained with protease inhibitor molecules. This was done with a view to narrow the focus of the neural network on to a smaller subset of the chemical space. 
• Starting from a space of nearly 50,000 molecules, the team has made a short list of 31 candidates. Two of the designed molecules had a high degree of similarity to Aurantiamide, a naturally occurring antiviral-compound. 
• The clinical trials will take time. The first step is the chemical synthesis and biological testing in vitro, followed by pre-clinical testing on laboratory animals.

Context: Recently, Evidence is emerging that a subset of the infected patients develop severe COVID-19 because of an overreaction of their immune systems, which triggers what is known as a “cytokine storm syndrome” (CSS).
Background 

• While various studies have shown that the disease has more severe consequences for those above the age of 60 years, and especially those with existing co-morbidities such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, chronic respiratory disease and cancer, some countries have also reported deaths of younger people, including teenagers, after catching the infection.

Key Findings

• An analysis of over 55,000 laboratory-confirmed cases revealed that 2.5 per cent of those under the age of 19 developed severe disease from the coronavirus, and 0.2 per cent were critically ill. 
• Critical COVID-19 patients are defined by manifestations that include respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation and shock or organ failure that requires intensive care, and which may lead to death. 
• The immune systems in our bodies protect us from bacteria, viruses, and parasites by removing them from our systems. The immune system gets activated by things that the body does not recognise as its own. These things are called antigens, and include bacteria, fungi and viruses. 
• An effective immune system response involves inflammation, an important and indispensable part of the process. 
• Without such an immune response, injuries would not heal, and infections would become deadly. Inflammation has an important protective function. 
• The release of inflammatory mediators increases the blood flow to the area, which allows larger numbers of immune system cells to be carried to the injured tissue, thereby aiding the repairing process. 
• However, if this inflammatory response is not regulated, very dangerous consequences can follow. This is when a ‘cytokine storm’ can be triggered. 
• The damage to the surrounding cells can be catastrophic, leading to sepsis and potentially, death. 
• Cytokines are signalling proteins that are released by cells at local high concentrations, a cytokine storm or CSS is characterised by the overproduction of immune cells and the cytokines themselves because of a dysregulation in the process. 
• A severe immune reaction, leading to the secretion of too many cytokines in the bloodstream, can be harmful since an excess of immune cells can attack healthy tissue as well. 
• Cytokine storm can occur due to an infection, auto-immune condition, or other diseases. Signs and symptoms include high fever, inflammation (redness and swelling), severe fatigue, and nausea. 
• Cytokine storms are not exclusive to coronavirus patients. It is an immune reaction that can occur during other infectious and non-infectious diseases as well. 
• In the case of any flu infection, a cytokine storm is associated with a surge of activated immune cells into the lungs, which, instead of fighting off the antigen, leads to lung inflammation and fluid build-up, and respiratory distress.
• Increased pro-inflammatory cytokine responses against human coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-1 (which caused SARS), SARS-CoV-2 (which is responsible for the current COVID-19 pandemic), and MERS can result in acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Context: Recently, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has prepared a data science-based tool to make easy the task of tracking the movements of Covid-19 patients or quarantined people across the country.
About NAADI

• It is developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), a Scientific Society under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India.
• NAADI platform has many features that would be helpful to Administrators, Decision Makers, Health Workers and Common Citizens.
• The development of this tool is undertaken by C-DAC under Supercomputer using Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Healthcare Analytics based Research, Covid-19 (SAMHAR).
• The SAMHAR project is in partnership with the National Supercomputing Mission. 
• The mission was established in association with startups and industries to build a rapid supercomputing system and research community for India to fight COVID-19. 

It Provides:

• Automatic Data collection and Analytics
• Big data Ingestion Platform that can take in Multi-Modal Location data
• Privacy Preserving methods through Encryption and Anonymization
• Intelligent Real-time Data Analysisand Visualization forProactive Decisions
• National-level, State-level, District level and Individual level Granularity
• Scalable Platform powered by High-Performance Computing Infrastructure  

Components of NAADI
Visualization and Analytics Dashboard

• Live Tracing and Tracking of Geo-Locations of COVID-19 suspected/Quarantined/Infected members
• Pushing proactive alerts to Authorised Government Health Officials and Experts
• Automatic Data Collection & Analysis to aid Decision Makers
• Big data Ingestion Platform that can take in Multi-Modal Location data
• Tracking Ambulances
• National-level, State-level, District level and Individual level Granularity

112 – India App++ : Mobile App for Citizens/Public

• Facilitate Instant connect Emergency Health Experts
• Violation detection of quarantined individuals through GPS
• Triggering methods for immediate Medical Emergency and Response
• 'SHOUT' feature for registered volunteers close to the victim for immediate assistance
• Automatic Proactive alerts to avoid COVID-19 affected locations precisely
• Spatio-temporal view of user movements in reference to COVID-19 affected areas

nCoV-Satrak - Mobile App for Government Health Officials/ Decision Makers

• Facilities to maintain records of COVID-19 related patient information
• Multi-Role enabled Workflow for Health Eco-system for data confirmation
• Automatic Data extraction &Analysis of Past travel history of affected Individuals
• Violation detection based on Location based tracking (GPS)of movements of quarantined/affected individuals
• National and Regional Level Real-time Analytics and Visualization
• Triggering mechanisms for sending proactive alerts

About Centre for Development of Advanced Computing 

• It is the premier R&D organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for carrying out R&D in IT, Electronics and associated areas.
• The National Centre for Software Technology,Electronic Research and Development Centre of India (ER&DCI) and Centre For Electronics Design And Technology Of India (CEDTI) were merged into C-DAC in 2003.

Context: Recently, Google has released a report that reveals that during India's coronavirus lockdown, the number of people visiting the public places has gone down significantly.

• Companies like Google are using technology and location data in order to curb the impact of the novel coronavirus and combat the pandemic. 
• However, there are security concerns that lie ahead for privacy. For this, the company has said that an individual’s location, contacts or movements has been made available for the analysis of the report.

About Covid-19 Community Mobility Report

• The reports aim to provide insights into what has changed in response to policies aimed at combating COVID-19.
• The reports cover 131 countries and chart movement trends over time by geography, across different categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential.
• The report comes at a time when communities across the globe are looking at measures such as social distancing as a key action to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The reports have been developed according to the company’s stringent privacy protocols and policies.

Current Scenario in India 

• As per the Report India has divided the trends into six categories that include groceries and pharmacies, retail and recreation, transit stations, residential, workplaces and parks. 
• A huge drop has been noticed in case of people visiting parks, hotels, metro, buses, railway stations and restaurants, highlighting the effectiveness of the lockdown strategy by the Indian government.
• The report depicts a 77 percent decrease in the visit to retail and recreational places that are cafes, shops and restaurants, theme parks, libraries and museums by the end of March 2020.
• Apart from this, there has been a 65 percent dip in visits to grocery stores and pharmacies.
• Public transit stations have also seen 71 percent decline in visits as people have been mostly working from homes. 
• Google has found that the only place that has witnessed a surge is people’s houses as they’re staying at home. There has been a 22 per cent increase in visits to residences.
• However, the report released by Google does not only measure the response to social distancing in India but other countries as well.

Current Scenario across the other parts of World

• Google’s location mobility report for Italy, which remains the European country hardest hit by the virus, illustrates the extent of the change from lockdown measures applied to the population — with retail & recreation dropping 94% vs Google’s baseline; grocery & pharmacy down 85%; and a 90% drop in trips to parks and beaches.
• It’s a similar story in Spain — another country hard-hit by COVID-19. Though Google’s data for France suggests instructions to stay-at-home may not be being quite as keenly observed by its users there, with only an 18% increase in activity at residential locations and a 56% drop in activity at workplaces.
• In Japan and Sweden, where authorities have not imposed harsh restrictions, visits to retail and recreation sites fell by roughly only a quarter.
• While in South Korea, which has successfully contained a large outbreak through aggressive testing and contact tracing, the decline was just 19%.
• There were no reports for China and Iran, where Google services are blocked.

Context: Under its Intensification of Research in High Priority Area or IRHPA scheme, SERB had invited competitive proposals to ramp up national R&D efforts for epidemiological studies on new anti-virals, vaccines, and affordable diagnostic against COVID-19 and related respiratory viral infections.
Key Points

• The Intensification of Research in High Priority Areas (IRHPA) program of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) supports proposals in high priority areas from the viewpoint of advances in fundamental science.
• The project will be set up around established research groups led by a Principal Investigator (PI).
• The duration of the project is normally for a period of 5 years (3 years for COVID-19).
• Under its Intensification of Research in High Priority Area (IRPHA) scheme, SERB had invited competitive proposals having a strong interdisciplinary component to ramp up national R&D efforts for epidemiological studies against COVID-19 and related respiratory viral infections.

Apart from this, SERB also invited short-term ‘Core Research Grant Special Call on COVID-19’ to meet the current requirements of the health workers such as:

• Affordable and portable rapid diagnostic kits or tools,
• Computational identification and validation of COVID-19 molecular targets, and
• Drug repurposing against key COVID-19 targets and in-vitro/clinical dose testing of nutritional supplements for immunity.

About Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)

• It is a statutory body under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, established by an Act of the Parliament of India in 2009.
• It is chaired by the Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Science and Technology.
• It was set up for promoting basic research in science and engineering and to provide financial assistance to scientists, academic institutions, R&D laboratories, industrial concerns and other agencies for such research.

Context: In a study, scientists have described how micro-organisms survive in rocks nestled thousands of feet beneath the ocean floor in the lower oceanic crust.

Background 

• Organisms seeking out an existence far beneath the sea floor live in a hostile environment. Very little resources find their way into the seabed through seawater and subsurface fluids, which circulate through fractures in the rock and carry inorganic and organic compounds.
• The latest example comes from studies of rock cores drilled from the floor of the Indian Ocean, where microbes were discovered alive and well under almost half a mile of rock.

Key Findings

• The discoveries were made as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), which studies samples of rock and sediment taken from beneath the seafloor. 
• Normally, it’s to investigate the historic climate records preserved there, but in this case an international team of scientists found evidence of life. 
• The first analysis of messenger RNA, the genetic material containing instructions for making different proteins, from this region, coupled with measurements of enzyme activities, microscopy, cultures and biomarker analyses, has provided evidence of a low biomass but diverse community of microbes that includes heterotrophs that obtain their carbon from other living (or dead) organisms. 
• The researchers travelled to Atlantis Bank, an underwater ridge that cuts across the southern Indian Ocean. Tectonic activity there exposes the lower oceanic crust at the sea floor, providing convenient access to an otherwise largely inaccessible realm.
• By isolating messenger RNA and analysing the expression of genes, the researchers found evidence that micro-organisms under the ocean floor express genes for various survival strategies. 
• Some microbes appeared to have the ability to store carbon in their cells for use in times of shortage. Others showed indications they could process nitrogen and sulphur to generate energy, produce Vitamin E and B12, recycle amino acids, and pluck out carbon from the hard-to-break-down compounds called polyaromatic hydrocarbons. 
• This environment and lower oceanic crust is comprised largely of types of material called gabbro and peridotite, and these allow for some chemical reactions that were likely present on early Earth and also on other planets where water and volcanic rocks interact. 
• The findings provide a complete picture of carbon cycling by illuminating biological activity deep below the oceans.

Context: Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that supports the exploration and the use of space resources by the U.S. citizens and businesses.
Background 

• The order, titled “Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources,” gives Americans the the right to engage in the commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space.

Key Points

• This Executive Order establishes U.S. policy toward the recovery and use of space resources, such as water and certain minerals, in order to encourage the commercial development of space. 
• According to Trump’s executive order, the US will object to any attempt to use international law to hinder its efforts to remove chunks of the moon or, should the opportunity arise, additional mining of Mars and other celestial bodies. 
• U.S. policy contradicts the 1979 Moon Treaty, which America has not signed. The treaty says that all non-scientific use of space resources be governed by an international regulatory framework. 
• The executive order gives companies operating in space the right to any resources mined there. The U.S. Congress already passed a law in 2015 that allowed individuals as well as companies to use the moon and asteroid for its resources. 
• Trump has taken a consistent interest in asserting American power in space, forming the Space Force within the US military last year to conduct space warfare where needed. 
• Russia’s space agency Roscosmos also released a statement criticizing the move. They said, attempts to expropriate outer space and aggressive plans to de facto seize the territories of other planets will hardly encourage other nations to participate in fruitful cooperation.

Context: Recently, NASA's Artemis program plans on establishing a base camp on the Moon as soon as 2024. After testing technologies and securing resources on the surface of the Moon, NASA plans on exploring Mars.
Background

• The agency will fly two missions around the Moon to test its deep space exploration systems.
• NASA is working toward launching Artemis I, an uncrewed flight to test the SLS and Orion spacecraft together, followed by the Artemis II mission, the first SLS and Orion test flight with crew.
• NASA will land astronauts on the Moon by 2024 on the Artemis III mission and about once a year thereafter.

About Artemis Program

• Artemis– Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun. 
• It is NASA’s next mission to the Moon. Objective: To measure what happens when the Sun’s radiation hits our rocky moon, where there is no magnetic field to protect it. 
• Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology. 

Significance of the mission

• With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024. 
• NASA’s powerful new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft nearly a quarter million miles from Earth to lunar orbit.
• Astronauts will dock Orion at the Gateway and transfer to a human landing system for expeditions to the surface of the Moon.
• They will return to the orbital outpost to board Orion again before returning safely to Earth.

About Artemis Base camp

• It is meant to be a long-term foothold for lunar exploration, perhaps in Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole.
• The Camp itself would be a lunar foundation surface habitat that could host four astronauts at the south pole for visits of perhaps a week.
• In the long term, the facility would also require infrastructure for power, waste disposal and communications, as well as radiation shielding and a landing pad.
• The base could also be a site for testing new techniques for dealing with pesky lunar dust and the long, cold lunar nights, turning local materials into resources like water, and developing new power and construction technologies.

Scientific Objectives of the Mission

• Find and use water and other critical resources needed for long-term exploration.
• Investigate the Moon’s mysteries and learn more about our home planet and the universe.
• Learn how to live and operate on the surface of another celestial body where astronauts are just three days from home.
• Prove the technologies we need before sending astronauts on missions to Mars, which can take up to three years roundtrip.

Hospitals warned of Cyberattacks

Context: Recently, the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has warned member countries that cybercriminals are attempting to target major hospitals and other institutions on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 with ransomware.
Current Scenario

• Cybercriminals are using ransomware to hold hospitals and medical services digitally hostage, preventing them from accessing vital files and systems until a ransom is paid.

Key Points

• In an alert sent to 194 nations, including India, Interpol said organisations at the forefront of the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak had also become targets of ransomware attacks, which were designed to lock them out of their critical systems in an attempt to extort payments.
• The agency’s Cybercrime Threat Response Team had detected an increase in the number of attempted ransomware attacks against key organisations and infrastructure engaged in the virus response.
• Interpol also issued a ‘Purple Notice’. It is issued to seek or provide information on modus operandi, objects, devices and concealment methods used by criminals. 

About International Criminal Police Organization

• Interpol is an intergovernmental organization that helps coordinate the police force of 194 member countries.
• INTERPOL originated with the first International Criminal Police Congress in 1914, which brought officials from 24 countries to discuss cooperation on law enforcement matters.
• It was founded in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), adopting many of its current duties throughout the 1930s. 
• Each of the member countries hosts an interpol National Central Bureau (NCB). This connects their national law enforcement with other countries and with the General Secretariat.
• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is designated as the National Central Bureau of India.
• The General Secretariat provides a range of expertise and services to the member countries.
• It is headquartered in Lyon, France

About Interpol Notices
INTERPOL Notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.

• Red Notice: To seek the location/arrest of a person wanted by a judicial jurisdiction or an international tribunal with a view to his/her extradition.
• Blue Notice: To locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest in a criminal investigation.
• Green Notice: To warn about a person’s criminal activities if that person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety.
• Yellow Notice: To locate a missing person or to identify a person unable to identify himself/herself.
• Black Notice: To seek information on unidentified bodies.
• Orange Notice: To warn of an event, a person, an object or a process representing an imminent threat and danger to persons or property.
• Purple Notice: To provide information on modus operandi, procedures, objects, devices, or hiding places used by criminals.
• Interpol – UNSC Special Notice: To inform Interpol’s members that an individual or an entity is subject to UN sanctions.

Pattern of crimes 

• Separately, Interpol warned that with a majority of people working from home due to the pandemic, there was a change in the pattern of crimes. The lockdown period had not only led to a “significant” increase in domestic violence but made business establishments/factories vulnerable to thefts. 
• A spurt in drug commerce via social media/encrypted apps, fraudulent trade in personal protective equipment and anti-viral medicines, and individuals/businesses on reduced income becoming potential targets of loan sharks were among the threats perceived by the organisation. 
• Alerts had been received from the Government of India on the threat of ransomware/malware attacks and the same was communicated to the concerned departments. 

Context: Recently, The global chemical weapons watchdog for the first time explicitly blamed Syria for toxic attacks, saying President Bashar al-Assad's air force used the nerve gas sarin and chlorine three times in 2017.
Issue

• The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has blamed Syria explicitly for the first time for toxic attacks of 2017. 
• Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad’s air force has been accused of using the nerve gas sarin and chlorine three times in 2017. 
• The attack had killed hundreds of people and caused injuries to many. 
• The use of chemical weapons is strictly prohibited by international law.

About Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

• It is an international organization established by the Chemical Weapons Convention, 1997 to implement and enforce the terms of the non-proliferation treaty, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, or transfer of chemical weapons by signatory states.
• It is authorized to perform inspections to verify that signatory states are complying with the convention.
• It includes a commitment to grant inspectors full access to chemical weapons sites.
• It also performs testing of sites and victims of suspected chemical weapons attacks.
• It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. Its headquarters are located in The Hague, Netherlands.
• It established OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) in 2018 to identify the perpetrators of illegal attacks.
• By the 2001 Relationship Agreement between the OPCW and the United Nations, the OPCW reports on its inspections and other activities to the UN through the office of the Secretary General.

Working Areas of Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

1. Demilitarisation: Under the provision of Chemical Weapons Conventions, organisation verifies the destruction process for the safety of people and on protecting the environment.
2. Non-proliferation: It is one of the fundamental tenants of the Chemical Weapons Conventions and in this regard OPSW keep on checking that if any country engage or induce or encourage in any prohibited activity to a State Party under the convention should be banned.
3. Assistance & Protection against Chemical Weapons: Member States are bound to provide assistance & protection to the fellow members States threats by the use of chemical weapons or attacked with chemical weapon.
4. International Cooperation: The objective of the Convention to ban chemical weapon in the pursuit of peace through international cooperation among States parties.
5. Universal Adherence to the Convention: Adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention demonstrates a state's commitment to disarmament and international co-operation, and helps to reinforce its position in the mainstream of international politics. It builds confidence and transparency in security-related policies at regional and international levels.

About Sarin Gas

• It is a chemical warfare agent classified as a Nerve Agent.
• They are similar to certain kinds of insecticides (insect killers) called organophosphates in terms of how they work and what kind of harmful effects they cause.
• It was originally developed in 1938 in Germany as a pesticide.
• It is a clear, colorless, and tasteless liquid that has no odor in its pure form. However, it can evaporate into a vapor (gas) and spread into the environment. It is also known as GB.
• Chlorine gas: Chlorine is a choking agent. Its greenish-yellow clouds of gas cause shortness of breath, wheezing, respiratory failure, irritation in the eyes, vomiting, and sometimes Death.

Context: Recently, the Indore district administration invoked the National Security Act (NSA), 1980, against four persons accused of instigating residents of a locality to pelt stones and chase away health workers where health workers were in the locality to trace the contact history of a Covid-19 patient.
History 

• Preventive detention laws in India date back to early days of the colonial era when the Bengal Regulation III of 1818 was enacted to empower the government to arrest anyone for defence or maintenance of public order without giving the person recourse to judicial proceedings.
• A century later, the British government enacted the Rowlatt Acts of 1919 that allowed confinement of a suspect without trial.
• Post-independence, India got its first preventive detention rule when the government of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru enacted the Preventive Detention Act of 1950 (expired in 1969). The NSA is a close iteration of the 1950 Act.

About National Security Act, 1980

• It allows preventive detention for months, if authorities are satisfied that a person is a threat to national security or law and order.
• The person does not need to be charged during this period of detention.
• The goal is to prevent the individual from committing a crime.
• It was promulgated on September 23, 1980, during the Indira Gandhi government.

As per the National Security Act, the grounds for preventive detention of a person include:

• acting in any manner prejudicial to the defence of India, the relations of India with foreign powers, or the security of India.
• regulating the continued presence of any foreigner in India or with a view to making arrangements for his expulsion from India.
• preventing them from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State or from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order or from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community it is necessary so to do.

Constitutional Provision

• Article 22 (3) (b) of the Constitution allows for preventive detention and restriction on personal liberty for reasons of state security and public order.
• Article 22(4) states that no law providing for preventive detention shall authorise the detention of a person for a longer period than three months unless: An Advisory Board reports sufficient cause for extended detention.
• The 44th Amendment Act of 1978 has reduced the period of detention without obtaining the opinion of an advisory board from three to two months. However, this provision has not yet been brought into force, hence, the original period of three months still continues.

Duration

• Under the National Security Act, an individual can be detained without a charge for up to 12 months; the state government needs to be intimated that a person has been detained under the NSA.
• A person detained under the National Security Act can be held for 10 days without being told the charges against them.

Appeal: The detained person can appeal before a high court advisory board but they are not allowed a lawyer during the trial.

Criticisms

• The NSA has repeatedly come under criticism for the way it is used by the police. As per a Law Commission report from 2001, more than 14 lakh people (14,57,779) were held under preventive laws in India.

How Is It Draconian?

• Typically, if a person is arrested, then he/she enjoy certain rights bestowed by the Indian Constitution. The person has to be informed of the reason for the arrest. Under Section 50 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the person arrested has to be informed.
• However, in the case of the NSA, the person can be held up to ten days without being informed of the reason.
• Sections 56 and 76 of the same penal code guarantee the detained person to be produced before a court within 24 hours. Apart from this, Article 22(1) of the Constitution allows the detainee to seek legal advice from a legal practitioner. However, under the NSA, none of these above mentioned basic rights is permitted to the suspect.

About National Investigation Agency

• The National Investigation Agency (NIA) was constituted under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, 2008.

It is a central agency to investigate and prosecute offences related to terrorism and certain other Act post-2008 Mumbai terror attacks such as:

• Affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India, security of State, friendly relations with foreign States.
• Against atomic and nuclear facilities.
• Smuggling in High-Quality Counterfeit Indian Currency.

It’s objective is also to combat terror in India. It acts as the Central Counter-Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency.

• Assist all States and other investigating agencies in the investigation of terrorist cases.
• Build a database of all terrorist-related information and share the database available with the States and other agencies.
• Study and analyse laws relating to terrorism in other countries and regularly evaluate the adequacy of existing laws in India and propose changes as and when necessary.
• To execute in-depth professional investigation of scheduled offences using the latest scientific methods of investigation.

The various features or provisions of the NIA (Amendment) ACT, 2019 are as follows

• It applied the provisions of the NIA Act also to persons who commit a scheduled offence beyond India against Indian citizens or affecting the interest of India.
• It provided that the officers of the NIA shall have the similar powers, duties, privies and liabilities being exercised by the police officers in connection with the investigation of offences, not only in India but also outside India.?

Genders equality issue

Context: Recently, a data compiled by GlobalHealth5050, an independent research initiative that tracks gender and health, suggest that the gender-split in all countries is roughly 50-50, barring two exceptions: India and Pakistan. 72% of our neighbour’s 4,004 cases have been confirmed in men.
Key Points of Data

• Men in India more than women likely to test positive for COVID-19.
• Another unusual exception was South Korea — the country that has conducted the maximum number of tests as a proportion of population — in that more women tested positive than men.
• GlobalHealth50/50 is an independent research initiative that tracks gender and health. It compiled data from almost 40 countries on Covid-19 cases.
• Many countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, do not have sex-segregated national data while publicising data on cases and death rates.
• As per Data Analysis (% of men out of total cases): Greece- 55%; Italy- 53%; China- almost 51%(February data); India- 76%; Pakistan- 72%; Germany- 50% and South Korea- 40% (more women positive)
• India has not shared national figures on Covid-19 mortality rates in men and women yet. However, on April 6, 2020, the Health Ministry said 76% of the confirmed cases in India were men.

Reasons behind this variation

• Epidemiologists have highlighted that in most countries men and women equally travelled internationally.
• Indian case is reflective of employment trends also. There are less working women and very less are likely to travel internationally for work.
• India’s wide disparity is more likely due to sociological factors.
• Global research on coronavirus so far has shown that men are more likely to be harbouring additional ailments like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more likely to smoke.

Domestic violence cases since the imposition of lockdowns

Context: Recently, There have been reports of a significant increase in domestic violence cases since the imposition of lockdowns in many parts of the world.
Violence against women in India

• The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data show that 24% of women faced domestic violence in 2015-16 not seeing any reduction since 2005-06.
• Compared to above survey results, the actual reports of domestic violence to the police are negligible at 58.8/ one lakh women. 
• The disparity between the crimes reported in a survey and registered with the police highlights how women are unlikely to seek help. 
• As per NFHS data is perhaps that 52% of the surveyed women and 42% of the surveyed men think there is at least one valid reason for wife-beating. 
• The NFHS data also highlight how the proportion of women reporting violence is increasing among families with lower wealth.

Reason for increasing abuse during lockdown

• When men and/or women get employed, domestic violence tends to fall as interactions between couples reduce.
• Under a lockdown, interaction time has increased and families have been left without access to the outside world.
• Violence is a way for the man to assert his notion of masculinity. The current atmosphere of fear, uncertainty, food insecurity, and unemployment may create feelings of inadequacy in men.
• The lack of access to friends, family and support organisations is expected to aggravate the situation for abused women further.

Suggestions

• Acknowledge and accept that domestic violence happens and work to reduce the stigma attached to the victims of such violence. Such support may prompt abused women to seek at least informal means to redress their issues.
• The provision of cash transfers and ration support are likely to sustain the family and also reduce stress in the household leading to lower violence against women.
• The National Commission for Women (NCW) could increase its advertising expenditure on TV to relay messages requesting women to contact the police station for help. The 181 helpline number set up for this reason should remain active, and women should be reminded of this number via TV ads.
• The government could also send mass SMS messages as it did during the onset of the COVID-19 crisis as most women have access to at least a basic phone.

Context: Recently, UN-Women, women’s rights activists, government authorities, and civil society partners across the globe have said that domestic violence during the Covid-19 crisis has increased against women.
Key Points

• The reports of violence have increased in countries like Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Cyprus, Singapore and Australia among others.
• In India, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has recorded a more than twofold rise in gender-based violence.
• It has been said that confinement due to Covid-19 is fostering the tension and strain created by security, health, and money is the reason behind this.
• This will have multiple impacts on women’s wellbeing, their sexual and reproductive health, their mental health, and their ability to participate and lead in the recovery of our societies, economy and difficulty in achieving Sustainable Development Goal -5 (SDG-5) -Gender equality.

Challenges faced by Women

• According to UN Women, globally, 243 million women and girls aged 15-49 have been subjected to sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months.
• The number is likely to increase as security, health and money worries heighten tensions and strains are accentuated by cramped and confined living conditions.
• It says, according to emerging data, violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has intensified.
• As per data compiled by the U.N. body, France has seen a 30% increase in domestic violence since the lockdown.
• In Argentina, emergency calls for domestic violence cases have increased by 25% since the lockdown on March 20 and Cyprus (30%), Singapore (33%) have also registered an increase in calls.
• Canada, Germany, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. have also registered an increase in cases of domestic violence and demand for emergency shelter.
• Also, Interpol has warned that with a majority of people working from home due to the pandemic, there was a change in the pattern of crimes. The lockdown period has led to a significant increase in domestic violence.

About UN Women

• It is the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. It was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. 
• In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

• Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW).
• International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).
• Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI).
• United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

The main roles of UN Women are

• To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms.
• To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.
• To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

Context: Recently, the exodus of migrant workers from the cities following the announcement of the 21-day lockdown threw the spotlight on the vast number of Indians who live outside their home states.
Key Facts

• As per the 2011 census, the total number of internal migrants in India is 45.36 crore or 37% of the country’s population.
• This includes inter-state migrants as well as migrants within each state, while the recent exodus is largely due to the movement of inter-state migrants.
• The annual net flows amount to about 1 per cent of the working age population.
• As per Census 2011, the size of the workforce was 48.2 crore people.
• This figure is estimated to have exceeded 50 crore in 2016 — the Economic Survey pegged the size of the migrant workforce at roughly 20 per cent or over 10 crore in 2016.

Estimates for 2020

• While there is no official data for the inter-state migrants in the country, estimates for 2020 have been made by Professor Amitabh Kundu of Research and information System for Developing countries.
• His estimates, which are based on the 2011 Census, NSSO surveys and economic survey, show that there are a total of about 65 million inter-state migrants, and 33 per cent of these migrants are workers.
• By conservative estimates, 30 per cent of them are casual workers and another 30 per cent work on regular basis but in the informal sector.
• Uttar Pradesh and Bihar account for the origin of 25 per cent and 14 per cent of the total inter-state migrants, followed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, at 6 per cent and 5 per cent.

Migration in cities

• Delhi has a migration rate of 43%, of whom 88% are from other states and 63% are from rural areas.
• Mumbai has a migration rate of 55%, with 46% migrants from other states and 52% from rural areas.
• Surat has a migration rate of 65%, with 50% migrants from other states and 76% from rural areas.

District wise migration data

• District-wise migration data in the Economic Survey for 2016-17 show that the highest influx of migrants within the country is seen in city-districts such as Gurugram, Delhi and Mumbai along with Gautam Buddh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh); Indore, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh); Bangalore (Karnataka); Thiruvallur, Chennai, Kancheepuram, Erode, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu).

Gender wise distribution

• The Report of the Working Group on Migration shows that the share of migrant workers is the highest in construction sector for females (67 per cent in urban areas, 73 per cent in rural areas).
• While highest number of male migrant workers are employed in public services (transport, postal, public administration services) and modern services (financial intermediation, real estate, renting, education, health) at 16 per cent each and 40 per cent each in rural and urban areas, respectively.

TRIFED's Digital Campaign
Context: Recently, TRIFED has launched through a Webinar, Virtual training to its Trainers and Self Help Groups (SHGs) on basic orientation on Covid-19 response.

• The webinar was organised for Virtual training of TRIFED Trainers and Self Help Groups (SHGs) on basic orientation on Covid-19 response and key preventive measures to ensure that tribal gatherers carry on their work safely.
• It is launched in collaboration with UNICEF and WHO.
• The campaign will be aimed at developing a digital communication strategy for promoting a digital campaign for Self Help Groups (SHGs) involved and highlighting the importance of Social Distancing.
• To create awareness among the community about social distancing and steps to be followed.
• Do’s and Don’ts Advisories during collection of Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP).
• To provide suggestive practices for maintaining personal hygiene, adopting cashless practices, etc.
• To reach more than 18,000 participants and cover tribal regions across all the 27 States.
• Its target is to reach up to 50 lakh tribal gatherers to ensure their safety as it is the peak season for collection and harvest of Minor Forest Produce (MFP)/Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) in many regions.
• UNICEF is providing the necessary support to the SHG Centers in the form of Digital Multimedia content, Webinars for Virtual trainings (basic orientation on COVID response, key preventive behaviours), SocialMedia campaigns (on social distancing, home quarantine, etc.) and Vanya Radio.
• TRIFED has reached out to the Art of Living Foundation’s #iStandWithHumanity Initiative with a Stand With Tribal Families component in providing much needed food and ration for survival of the tribal community.
• Promotion of 15,000 SHGs as Van Dhan Social Distancing Awareness cum Livelihood Centers’ through a digital training program. Over 3.6 lakh tribal gatherers will be involved in the scheme.
• A total of 1205 Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (VDVKs) have been sanctioned in 27 States and 1 Union territory involving around 18,075 Van Dhan Self Help Groups.

About TRIFED

• The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) came into existence in 1987.
• It is a national-level apex organization functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
• The ultimate objective of TRIFED is socio-economic development of tribal people in the country by way of marketing development of the tribal products on which the lives of tribals depends heavily as they spend most of their time and derive major portion of their income.

About Van Dhan SHG & Van Dhan Vikas Kendras

• A Van Dhan SHG will comprise tribal or non-tribal MFP gatherers and can have maximum of 20 members. The SHG can have non-tribal members but majority (more than 60%) members should be tribal and leader of the SHG should be a tribal member.  
• Around 15 Van Dhan SHGs will together form a VDVK group of around 300 members. The VDVK can have non-tribal members but majority (more than 60%) members should be tribal and leader of the VDVK should be a tribal member.