Comprehensive News Analysis - 30 August 2016

5. Centre moves on vote totaliser machines

• SC has set deadline for introducing the machines to mix votes from booths before counting
• A team of Union Ministers, constituted on the direction of the Prime Minister, has been deliberating on the Election Commission’s proposal in November 2008, which was seconded by the Law Commission.
• In the pre- electronic voting machine era, counting of votes was done by mixing of ballot papers, as provided under Rule 59A of the Conduct of Election Rules.
• Totaliser machine is envisaged as it supposedly doesn’t allow the disclosure of voting patterns across polling stations during counting, which will allay the fears of voters against any pre-poll intimidation or post-poll victimisation by any candidate.

1. Preparing for the Fed rate hike

Category: Economy

Topic:  India and the global economy

• The U.S central bank is expected to increase the interest rate shortly, due to consumption-led expansion in the U.S economy.
• The motivation to take this step stems from various factors. The domestic labour market has seen improvement and is expected to do better in the near future with more jobs being available. Further, this has boosted the real GDP of the US economy.
• Earlier, various economists have viewed the existing easy money policy with skepticism. This has several consequences. It has lead to upsurge in liquidity and the resultant effects on asset prices and inflation, and currencies and the terms of trade in the emerging economies.
• The fed bank has also highlighted some of the risks that lie ahead for the U.S economy.
• Tepid business investment and suboptimal global demand combined along with the dollar’s recent gains continues to constrain the country’s exports.
• A rate hike by the Fed will have implications for the Indian currency and interest rates that the RBI must take note of.

2. ISRO’s scramjet on couse

Category: Science and Technology

Topic:  India’s achievements in space

• The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched a rocket using a scramjet engine that was developed indigenously
• This is ISRO’s first major step towards developing an air breathing propulsion system. The scramjet engine functioned for around six seconds.
• Using scramjet engine has several advantages. Firstly, scramjet engine uses oxygen present in the atmospheric air to burn the hydrogen fuel. As a result, the amount of oxygen required to be carried on board would be reduced considerably as atmospheric oxygen is utilised to burn the fuel in the first stage.
• In general, propellant accounts for nearly 85 per cent of the weight of a rocket, and oxygen accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the weight of the propellant. Therefore, this can considerably reduce the weight.
• Secondly, Scramjet-powered rockets also have several times greater thrust compared with rockets powered by liquid fuel or even cryogenic fuel.
• Thirdly, Since about half of the propellant is required for the first stage to achieve the required velocity, a rocket using a scramjet engine would be significantly lighter and smaller and, therefore, cheaper.
• Further, rockets fired by scramjet engines will be able to carry more payload.
• The air intake mechanism and fuel injection systems were also successfully demonstrated during the maiden test flight. Since it relies on oxygen present in the atmosphere, the trajectories of scramjet engine-powered rockets are vastly different from conventional ones — rockets with scramjet engines should remain in the atmosphere for a longer period than normal rockets.
• Usually, scramjet rockets reach a certain altitude and remain in the atmosphere for as long as possible to achieve the required velocity.
• Deploying a commercial rocket powered by a scramjet engine would need overcoming of a few challenges.
• Testing the engine at higher Mach speeds and prolong the period of combustion would be a challenge.
• Since the scramjet comes into play only when the rocket goes beyond Mach 5, an engine that initially works at subsonic speed (as a ramjet) and later as a scramjet has to be developed.
• Nonetheless, the first experimental flight using a scramjet engine is a technological demonstration of ISRO’s capability and will go a long way in redefining its position as one of the leading space agencies in the world.

3. The neighbour’s concern

Category: India and its neighbourhood

Topic:  India-Pakistan 

• The great modern strategic thinker K.M. Pannikar, opined that, India as a geo-strategic entity should be more assertive about the challenges that it faces.
• Similarly, the strategic community has always believed that India is the ‘strategic core’ in Asia and our policies and actions will determine the future course of stability in South Asia.
• In this context, the recent statement on Baloch by Prime Minister Modi, is largely being viewed as one that conforms to the assertive contours of our foreign policy.
• The statement threw light on the strategic vulnerabilities that India is subjected due to adversarial neighbourhood.
• Further, it smacked of a subtle boldness, along with a clear indication of a mixed strategy of offence and defence.
• The foreign policy experts have viewed this as a significant development in the increasingly complex geo-political equations in the neighbourhood.
• The significance lies in the fact that, the Prime Minister, reiterated India’s stability as the fulcrum of its neighbourhood policy.
• It is largely opined that, world should now take note of the human rights violations committed by the Pakistani establishment upon the people of Gilgit, Baltistan and Baloch, which Pakistan conveniently forgets when it talks of human rights violations of Indian xitizens in the Kashmir valley.

The contours of the Kashmir map:

• The people of Gilgit-Baltistan, part of Jammu and Kashmir, have been systematically isolated from their mainstream Kashmir valley.
• According to Indian foreign policy elite, there is enough evidence to show that, the Pakistani state has left no stone unturned in preventing family and trade links to take shape between Gilgit- Baltistan and Jammu and Kashmir.
• Terrorist attacks, sectarian clashes, are a regular feature and the economic crisis has increased their problem.
• There are reports that, improvement of the Gilgit-Baltistan section of the Karakoram Highway linking Chinese Xinjiang with PoK has been entrusted to Chinese defence and security personnel.
• The constitution of India recognizes the people of Gilgit-Baltistan as its citizens.
• This has been forgotten in the stalemate.
• Therefore, the Prime Minister’s statement, which espouses that, Gilgit-Baltistan, Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir are all equal stakeholders and the issue cannot be solved by focusing on Kashmir alone, gains significance.

The Baloch gambit:

• Mention of Balochistan, marks a water shed movement in India’s foreign policy in general , and Indo-pak bilateral relations in particular.
• Apart from Pakistan, the mention of Baloch has stirred the Chinese diplomatic community.
• The Gwadar port, which is a strategic port for China’s CPEC, is located on the Baloch province. Further, CPEC( as part of China’s One Belt One Road) will run through the Indian-claimed territory of PoK and then to Gwadar port on Balochistan coast.
• Hence, the India’s reference to Baloch has stirred up debates in Chinese diplomatic community.
• For China, the establishment of a viable link across Karakoram from Xinjiang to Gwadar, is a calculated geostrategic move, to enhance its strategic ambitions along with economic development. Further, this route, provides a detour to maritime routes across South China sea and Malacca Straits.
• Balochistan, along with Nepal and the Naga Hills, formed a ring of defence, that, defined the security perimeter of undivided India prior to Independence.
• Balochistan, with its strategic location on both maritime and land routes from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula into the subcontinent, was the gateway to the the vital energy reserves of the Gulf.
• Post August 1947, Balochistan, was forced to accede to Pakistan. India has not questioned the status of Balochistan within a sovereign Pakistan state. If the area were to secede, Pakistan would be a greatly shrunken country.
• The Baloch are an ethnic group, spread across Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A major part of Pashtuns in Pakistan are ethically linked to Pashtuns in Afghanistan.
• The Balochs have faced brutal state repression, especially since 2003.There has been a considerable churn of the demographic profile in the region, and this has been possible due to the Pakistani state’s calculated strategy of having maximum central government control over the province.

Way forward:

• Notwithstanding the fact that, this gambit would now draw global focus, and its legitimate concerns of human rights are perfectly in consonance with India’s democratic traditions, the strategic community advises caution.
• A multitude of factors like Chinese response to this policy, India’s economic interests in the region , securing our defence and the like must be factored in before moving ahead .
• To maintain its strategic importance in the region, experts believe that, the Indian diplomatic elite must focus on multi-track approach. It should ensure a robust anti-terrorism infrastructure, keep the channel for talks open, and ensure palpable reduction of tensions in the valley .
• Although, the statement expressing legitimate concerns is welcomed, it is too early to expect any immediate radical shifts.

4. Privileging primary care

Category: Polity and Governance

Topic:  Policies in education

The issue:

Niti Aayog, has prepared the draft National Medical Commission Bill.

It seeks to set up a new body that will replace the medical council of India(MCI).

Challenges in Medical care:

• India faces twin challenges in the medical care. There is a significant burden of both infectious and chronic diseases, on one hand and medical professionals being concentrated in urban areas on the other.

Dealing with the challenge:

• This can be dealt by educating a cadre of medical professionals willing and able to deal with these issues. However, using medical education as the primary tool for dealing with India’s health challenges may not effectively address the problem.

Reservations in the draft Bill

• While creating a new structure to replace the MCI, it is important to envision a new framework to train a cadre of medical professionals equipped to deal with the needs of the people.
• Another important recommendation of the committee is to allow “for profit” entities to establish medical colleges.
• The justification given is that
• The micromanagement in giving approval to new medical colleges by the MCI encourages rent-seeking
• Cap on fees in private colleges discourages their entry and thereby undermines the objective of a rapid expansion of medical education, and
• Enforcing regulation on fees is difficult.
• Experts are of the view that, this recommendation to permit “for profit” colleges will undermine the objective of providing a cadre of medical professionals able and willing to work in small towns and villages.
• Policy advocates espouse that, efforts need to be made to make the career of a primary care physician attractive, as these professionals are the ones’ who are required to work in small towns and villages.
• At present, the role model of aspiring medical students is the emergency care physician and surgeons performing highly complex surgeries. The reality on the ground is that most lives are saved and most pain is alleviated by the primary care physician.
• Throughout the developed world, there is a great emphasis on primary care doctors, and most medical graduates enter primary care. But this is not so in India, and needs to change.
• We need to make primary care the first option of most medical graduates in India as well. We need to ensure that medical aspirants know as much as possible what their working lives are going to be like

Infrastructural shortcomings:

• A rapid expansion of medical colleges is simply unattainable. More than any other limitation, it is the severe shortage of suitably qualified teachers in certain absolutely essential specialties (for example, in forensic science, community medicine, tuberculosis and radio diagnosis) that is the challenge.
• This is due to years of failure to take any steps to deal with this obvious problem, and for this, the blame has to be placed on the MCI which failed to provide leadership and guidance on this faculty shortage.
• It will take some years to train enough teachers.
• Therefore, experts opine that, no more medical colleges should be opened till sufficient faculty are available.
• Private colleges hire faculty from government colleges which cannot be a long term solution.
• Regarding MCI, the bill envisages an elected body instead of a body with only nominated members, who would be selected mainly by the Central government and a few by the State governments.
• The bill says, the proposed National Medical Commission should have only 20 members, with a full-time chairperson and secretary.
• With the MCI now an unwieldy body comprising more than 100 members, this proposal is a good idea, but it would be sensible that at least a section of the membership of the commission should be elected. A mix of nominated and elected members will encourage balanced decision making.

Positives of the bill:

• The recommendations to streamline the administrative functions, create four verticals to oversee undergraduate and postgraduate education, and establish a medical assessment and rating board as also a board for medical registration all have the potential to produce major positive changes.
• The fundamental objective, however, should not be forgotten: creating a cadre of medical professionals trained and equipped to work effectively given the social conditions of the country.