Comprehensive News Analysis - 07 February 2016

Useful News Articles

A. GS1 Related:

— Nothing here today, folks! —

.

B. GS2 Related:

1. Chettinad cotton sari wins India Handloom Brand

Topic: Development Processes, Read with GS3 as well

Category: Development processes and the development industry

Location: The Hindu, Page 9

Key Points:

• The Chettinad cotton saree, which inherited the intricacies of now out-of-vogue and over a century-old ‘Kandangi’ pure silk sarees, has won the ‘India Handloom’ tag for its unique designs and identity.

2. On malaria, the government’s rhetoric must meet reality

Topic: Social Justice, Read with GS3 as well

Category: Health

Location: The Hindu, Page 10

Key Points:

• This month, the Health Ministry will unveil an ambitious new plan to eliminate malaria from the country by 2030.

• The disease is one of the worst public health crises the country has ever faced, endangering one in every six Indians and costing the economy $2 billion in lost productivity each year.

Poor Track Record :

• The disease has been a low political priority for decades, rendering the current malaria control programme ineffective and confusing to implement.

• Under-reporting is a global problem because malaria tends to reach where health workers don’t always do. It is a disease of the poor and powerless — Indians living in the forests and hills of the Northeast, or of Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

• Threadbare and chronically understaffed clinics often turn sick patients away or refer them to overcrowded district hospitals.

• Mosquito nets and pesticide sprays are seldom deployed on time or in sufficient quantities, ruining their efficacy.

• The country also faced a shortage of anti-malarial drugs in 2014, and a longer shortage of life-saving mosquito nets.

• Government officials responsible for the programme succumbed to a culture of fear, afraid to report poor progress to their supervisors.

The way forward :

• Medicated mosquito nets, also known as long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), are essential tools in the global war on malaria, saving millions of lives throughout the developing world.

• Eliminating malaria is, and should be, a priority for the country, but grand pronouncements are meaningless as long as manipulated data distort our knowledge and bad governance impedes genuine attempts to fight the disease.

• According to the World Health Organization, India spends by far the least malaria control per at-risk capita (that is, on each individual living in a highly malaria-prone area) than any other country in the region, including Bangladesh and North Korea.

• Over 90 per cent of national spending on malaria control in 2014 went towards administrative costs, salaries, and expenses other than the nets, medicines and insecticide sprays that make a concrete difference.

• The average global spending on administrative costs and salaries, meanwhile, is just 35 per cent.

Conclusion :

• Malaria strikes the hardest in the Northeast, in places like Bastar, in Chhattisgarh, or Koraput, in Odisha, that are already torn by the state and separatist violence and by the hold of corporations.

• Ultimately it can only be eliminated once the people in these areas are included as participants in the country’s development who can hold the state accountable to them.

• It would require absolute transparency from the government, and a focus not on its global image but instead on the actual people dying across the country every single day.

3. India assures Sri Lanka of support for reconciliation

Topic: International Relations

Category: Indo – Sri Lanka

Location: The Hindu, Page 14

Key Points:

• India has expressed support for Sri Lanka on its reconciliation and development policies.

• The problem being faced by fishermen of the Northern Province due to “bottom trawling”, allegedly by fishermen of Tamil Nadu, and wanted the Indian government to reduce this method of fishing – was also raised.

• President Sirisena sought India’s assistance for his government’s comprehensive programme to improve the health and education of people living in estates who were essentially of the recent Indian origin.

• Inaugurating an exhibition on digital India in the city, Ms. Swaraj announced India’s offer to set up an IT park in Sri Lanka that could attract investments.

C. GS3 Related:

1. India has a pivotal maritime role : Pranab

Topic: Internal Security

Category: Maritime Security

Location: The Hindu, Page 8

Key Points:

• The International Fleet Review, the second in the country, on the vast expanse of the Bay of Bengal off Visakhapatnam

• There were 24 foreign ships, 65 Indian Navy ships, three submarines, two Coast Guard ships and three merchant marine ships. Fifty-one navies sent either their ships or delegations to the IFR.

• Mr. Mukherjee said India’s geographical location on major shipping routes of the Indian Ocean gave it a pivotal maritime role, and the Indian Navy played a central role in ensuring the safety of the vital sea lines of communication across the ocean.

• The IFR brought together navies from across the globe to the Indian shores for IFR 2016 has signified “our common desire to use the seas to promote peace, cooperation and friendship as also develop partnerships for a secure maritime future as the blue ‘commons’ link one another, true to the theme of IFR — United Through Oceans.”

2. India, Thailand in talks for exchange of prisoners

Topic: Internal Security

Category: Human Trafficking, Narcotics

Location: The Hindu, Page 13

Key Points:

• India and Thailand have started talks on exchanging prisoners that are of mutual interest.

• The trigger for these talks is that both countries are worried over the possible proxy use of narcotics and human trafficking networks by terror operators.

• Prisoners exchange is one of the steps being planned in bilateral legal collaboration following two major extraditions from Thailand since January 2015.

• The latest plan to fast track prisoners exchange is based on the bilateral extradition treaty, 2013, and the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, 2004, which provide the legal basis for negotiation to both sides.

• The prisoner-swap mechanism will also be a humane step and help in returning several Thai victims of human trafficking who are in various prisons of India.

3. U.S, India in talks to settle solar power trade dispute

Topic: Non-Conventional SOurces of Energy

Category: Solar Energy

Location: The Hindu, Page 16

Key Points:

• The United States and India are in talks that could settle a long-running solar power trade dispute, delaying the announcement of a ruling by the World Trade Organization.

• Washington filed the WTO challenge three years ago, claiming that India’s national solar power programme illegally discriminated against imported solar panels and related products though its domestic content requirements.

• The U.S. complaint in 2013 alleged that the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission subsidies were available only if developers used equipment produced in India, violating a key global trade rule.

• The Obama administration argued that the rules are a barrier to solar products made in America and elsewhere but also effectively raised the cost of generating solar power in India and were extending the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.

The Programme : is aimed at easing chronic energy shortages in India, Asia’s third-largest economy.

C. GS4 Related:

D. Important Editorials: A Quick Glance

E. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn:

i. Kandangi pure silk sarees

ii. Malaria

iii. Solar Energy

iv. Indo-Thailand

v. Indo-Sri Lanka

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F. Fun with Practice Questions 🙂

Question 1: The Chettinad cotton saree was recently in the news for which of the below reason?

Question 2: Which of the following statement about Malaria in India is true?

1. According to the World Health Organization, India spends by far the least malaria control per at-risk capita than any other country in the region, including Bangladesh and North Korea.
2. the Health Ministry will unveil an ambitious new plan to eliminate malaria from the country by 2030.
3. The disease has endangered one in every six Indians, costing the economy $2 billion in lost productivity each year.

a) 1 & 2 Only

b) 1 & 3 Only

c) All of the above

d) Only 2

Question 3: Which among the following is not a renewable source of energy?

a) Biomass energy

b) Solar energy

c) Geothermal energy

d) Hydro-power

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