CNA 3rd April 2021:- Download PDF Here
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. GS 1 Related B. GS 2 Related HEALTH 1. Disquiet over policy for rare diseases 2. Maternal deaths rose during pandemic: study INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 1. U.S., Iran agree to indirect nuclear talks C. GS 3 Related D. GS 4 Related E. Editorials HEALTH 1. A missing science pillar in the COVID response ECONOMY 1. Prudence prevails F. Prelims Facts 1. First farm-based solar power plant comes up in Rajasthan G. Tidbits 1. Govt. asks PSU refiners to review Saudi oil deals 2. ‘India stands for revival of democracy in Myanmar’ H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
A. GS 1 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
B. GS 2 Related
1. Disquiet over policy for rare diseases
Context:
Caregivers to patients with ‘rare diseases’ and affiliated organisations are dissatisfied with the National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021.
Rare Disease:
- A rare disease is a health condition of particularly low prevalence that affects a small number of people compared with other prevalent diseases.
- Haemophilia, Thalassemia, sickle-cell anaemia, primary immunodeficiency in children, auto-immune diseases, Lysosomal storage disorders such as Pompe disease, Hirschsprung disease, Gaucher’s disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Hemangiomas and certain types of muscular dystrophies are the most common types of rare diseases recorded in India.
National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021:
- The National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021 was notified on the 31st of March 2021.
- The policy comes over three years after the health ministry formulated a National Policy for Treatment of Rare Diseases in July 2017 but kept it in abeyance.
- India plans to create a national registry for a database on rare diseases, classify known rare diseases in three groups.
- In the new policy, ‘rare diseases’ have not been defined but classified into three groups based on expert opinion.
- Group 1 has disorders controllable by one-time curative treatment, including osteopetrosis and Fanconi anaemia.
- Group 2 has diseases requiring long-term or lifelong treatment with a relatively lower cost of treatment and benefit has been documented in literature, including galactosemia, severe food protein allergy, and homocystinuria.
- Group 3 has diseases for which definitive treatment is available, but challenges are to make optimal patient selection for benefit, and very high cost and lifelong therapy, covering diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Pompe disease, and Hunter syndrome.
- The policy says the government would provide financial assistance of up to Rs 20 lakh to poor patients and those covered under Ayushman Bharat for diseases under Group 1.
- The state governments would be asked to undertake treatment of diseases covered under Group 2, which largely include disorders managed with special dietary formulae or food for special medical purposes (FSMP) and disorders that are manageable to other forms of therapy.
- For diseases classified under Group 3, which require life-long expensive treatments, the government would create a digital platform to bring together Centres for Excellence, patients undergoing treatment and corporate donors or prospective voluntary individuals who could help fund treatment.
- The government has identified eight Centres of Excellence for the treatment of rare diseases.
Details:
- Though the document specifies increasing the government support for treating patients with a rare disease from ₹15 lakh to ₹20 lakh — caregivers say this doesn’t reflect the actual costs of treatment.
- It is argued that the new policy offers no support to patients awaiting treatment since the earlier National Policy for Treatment of Rare Diseases 2017 was kept in abeyance.
- Concerns have been raised about the new policy not considering Group 3 patients, who require lifelong treatment support.
- It has been demanded that at least two centres in every state need to be identified as a centre of excellence to help the patients avoid the time and cost of moving out.
2. Maternal deaths rose during pandemic: study
Context:
According to a study, maternal deaths have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Details:
- The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to avoidable deaths of both mothers and babies.
- COVID-19 impact on pregnancy outcomes was disproportionately high in poorer countries.
- The failure of the health system to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in maternal deaths and stillbirths.
- There was a 28% increase in the odds of stillbirth.
- The risk of mothers dying during pregnancy or childbirth increased by about one-third.
- There was also a rise in maternal depression.
Way Forward:
- Policymakers and healthcare leaders must urgently investigate robust strategies for preserving safe and respectful maternity care, given the ongoing global emergency.
- Immediate action is required to avoid rolling back decades of investment in reducing mother and infant mortality in low-resource settings.
- Given the fact that the pandemic resulted in reduced access to care, personnel for maternity services must not be redeployed for other critical and medical care during the pandemic.
Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. U.S., Iran agree to indirect nuclear talks
Context:
The U.S. and Iran said that they would begin negotiations through intermediaries to try to get both countries back into an accord limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.
Details:
- The announcement marks the first major progress in efforts to return both countries to the 2015 accord.
- The accord bound Iran to restrictions on its nuclear programmes in return for relief from the U.S. and international sanctions.
- The development comes nearly three years after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal.
Read more on the issue of revival of Iran Nuclear Deal covered in 2nd March 2021 Comprehensive News Analysis.
C. GS 3 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
D. GS 4 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
E. Editorials
1. A missing science pillar in the COVID response
Context
- The rising trajectory of daily new Covid-19 cases.
Reasons why coronavirus cases are rising
- Mutations
- The evolution of coronavirus is among the major reasons for the second wave. Scientists have detected numerous mutations in the SARS-CoV-2.
- A resumption of global travel meant that spread of variants into India was inevitable.
- Increased Testing
- Increased testing is another reason why India is detecting more cases in the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The sero-surveys have shown that India had greater Covid-19 exposure than revealed through confirmed cases of coronavirus infection on the basis of laboratory tests.
- Multiple super spreader events happening in schools, colleges, offices, public transport.
- From attending large weddings and crowded public functions to heedless crowding in malls and marketplaces, the general public has been quite lax about adhering to basic safety protocols.
Way Forward
India needs to increase the quantity, quality and public availability of actual data to guide decision-making.
- First, collection of anonymized demographic (patient information) and risk details (age, sex, travel history, contact with other COVID-19 patients, existing chronic conditions, current smoking) on all positive cases on a central website in each State remains a priority.
- Second, greatly expanded sequencing of the viral genome is the need.
- Genome sequences play a critical role in our understanding of viral evolution, disease epidemiology, surveillance, diagnosis, and countermeasure development.
- It can be achieved by re-programming sequencing capacity in Indian academic and commercial laboratories.
- Third, far better reporting of COVID-19 deaths is needed.
- Daily or weekly reporting of the total death counts by age and sex by each municipality would help track if there is a spike in presumed COVID-19 deaths.
- Fourth, the Indian Council of Medical Research’s national serosurvey had design limitations such that it probably underestimated the true national prevalence.
- A far larger and better set of serial surveys is required.
- Fifth, the rich, influential and urban classes, are receiving their vaccination on time but the poor and the rural masses are left far behind.
- Vaccination campaigns need to reach the poor adults over age 45, without having to prove anything other than approximate age.
- Follow-up studies among the vaccinated can establish the durability of protection, and, ideally, reduction in transmission.
- Sixth, we need to understand better why some populations are not affected.
- For example, COVID-19 infection and death levels in Thailand and Vietnam are remarkably low, and cannot be assigned to their stronger testing and tracing programmes.
- Widespread existing immunity, perhaps from direct exposure to bat coronaviruses might be one explanation.
- Rapidly assembled comparative studies across parts of India and Asia are a priority.
- Finally, the government can formulate an adult vaccination plan.
- COVID-19 could well turn into a seasonal challenge and thus, the central government should actively consider launching a national adult vaccination programme that matches India’s commitment and success in expanding universal childhood vaccination.
- Adult and child vaccination programmes are essential to prepare for future pandemics.
Conclusion
- The resurgence of COVID-19 presents a major challenge for governments.
- Therefore, it should expand the epidemiological evidence, share it with the public and build confidence that the vaccination programme will benefit all Indians.
Context
- The Union government has decided to retain India’s inflation target at 4 per cent with a band of 2 per cent on either side for another five-year period, ending March 2026.
Inflation Targeting:
Read more about Inflation Targeting.
Background
- India adopted a flexible inflation targeting framework as a formal legal mandate of the RBI in 2016.
- The RBI Act, 1934, amended through the Finance Act of 2016, established a modern monetary policy framework with a clear objective of achieving price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth.
- One of the sections of the amended law requires that the inflation target, set in terms of the year-on-year change in the headline Consumer Price Index, is to be determined by the central government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, once every five years.
- To control the price rise, the government in 2016 gave a mandate to the RBI to keep the retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for a five-year period ending March 31, 2021.
How does it work?
- Central banks with inflation targeting regimes define their target in terms of
- point target
- point target with tolerance bands
- A range.
- Countries often start with a range, and after achieving a steady state of inflation, switch to a point target or a point target with a range.
What has India adopted?
- India has adopted a point target with a range.
- These have the advantage of being precise and giving a clear signal about the central bank’s objective.
- They are also symmetric, which conveys the central bank’s intention of avoiding deflation as effectively as it would avoid inflation.
- While a range provides some flexibility in the conduct of monetary policy, it also conveys that the central bank may have imprecise control over the inflation target.
Significance of Government’s move to retain inflation target at 4 plus/minus 2 per cent
- In recent months, there has been a debate about revising the inflation target to allow the central bank greater leeway to cut interest rates and focus on growth in the pandemic-struck economy.
- In addition to revising the target, many commentators had suggested modifying the inflation targeting framework. There have been calls to abandon it.
- The Economic Survey argued for changing the inflation metric from headline inflation to core inflation, and thus excluding food and fuel prices which are transitory and mainly supply side factors that monetary policy cannot influence.
Despite pressures to alter the framework, the Central government announced its decision not to alter the framework.
- Changing the inflation targeting framework may have sounded like an attractive proposition but it would have created considerable uncertainty over the stance of monetary policy.
- It would have also indicated a lack of fidelity to the objective of maintaining price stability in the economy.
- The inflation targeting that India has adopted gives enough flexibility to the RBI to focus on growth without losing sight of its inflation-control objective.
- One of the features of the inflation-targeting framework is the “anchoring” of inflation expectations, any change that would have signalled greater tolerance by the interest rate-setting committee for higher levels of inflation, would have led to an increase in the volatility of prices, thereby destabilising inflationary expectations. These in turn would have a bearing on the long-term consumption and investment decisions taken by economic agents.
Conclusion
- The move will certainly reassure investors and savers that inflation remains a central concern for all policymakers.
F. Prelims Facts
1. First farm-based solar power plant comes up in Rajasthan
What’s in News?
India’s first farm-based solar power plant under the Prime Minister’s Kisan Urja Suraksha Evum Utthan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) scheme has come up in Jaipur.
- The 1 MW project has been established on 3.50 acres of farmland.
- It has a provision for the production of 17 lakh units of electricity every year.
KUSUM Scheme:
- KUSUM stands for Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan.
- KUSUM scheme aims at furthering the production of solar power in India and also gives the benefits of solar farming to farmers.
- It is implemented by the New and Renewable Energy Ministry.
Read more on KUSUM Scheme.
G. Tidbits
1. Govt. asks PSU refiners to review Saudi oil deals
What’s in News?
Amid tensions with Saudi Arabia over oil production cuts, India has asked its state refiners to review contracts for buying crude oil from the West Asian nation and negotiate more favourable terms.
- Traditionally, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC producers have been the mainstay suppliers of crude oil for India. But their terms have often been unfavourable.
- Therefore, the government is now pressing for diversification of the supply base.
- Keen to break the producers’ cartel dictating pricing and contractual terms, the government has told PSUs to look for supplies from outside the region and use collective bargaining power to get favourable terms.
- Also, India is looking at buying from the spot market rather than through contracts as it would ensure that it can take advantage of any fall in prices on any day and book quantities.
Note:
- India imports 85% of its oil needs and is often vulnerable to global supply and price shocks.
- West Asia accounts for 60% of oil bought by India. Latin America and Africa are the other big supplier blocks.
2. ‘India stands for revival of democracy in Myanmar’
What’s in News?
India has said that it stands for the revival of democracy in Myanmar.
Background:
- The military has deposed the democratically elected leadership of Myanmar and has taken over the administration.
Read more on this topic covered in 2nd February 2021 Comprehensive News Analysis and 3rd February 2021 Comprehensive News Analysis.
Details:
- India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said that India has urged the release of political prisoners and supported any attempts at resolving the current situation, including through the efforts of ASEAN.
- India was among the first countries to express concern over the current situation in Myanmar.
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to PM KUSUM Scheme:
- The scheme was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
- Under the scheme, the farmers have the option to sell additional power to the grid through solar power projects set up on their barren lands.
- The first farm based solar power plant under the scheme was set up in Haryana.
Which of the given statement/s is/are correct?
- 1 and 3 only
- 2 only
- 1 only
- 1 and 2 only
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: b
Explanation:
- Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evum Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) Scheme is a farmer-oriented scheme involving decentralised solar power production.
- Under the scheme, the farmers have the option to sell additional power to the grid through solar power projects set up on their barren lands.
- The scheme was launched by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
- The first farm based solar power plant under the scheme has been set up in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to Rabha Tribe:
- Hamja is a folk dance performed by the Rabha tribes.
- Baikho Dera is the main festival of the Rabhas.
- Rabha people are found in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Which of the given statement/s is/are correct?
- 1 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 1 and 3 only
- 1, 2 and 3
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: d
Explanation:
- Rabha is an indigenous Tibeto-Burman community.
- They are found in Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
- Hamja is a folk dance performed by the tribes.
- The Hamja Dance is about paddy cultivation.
- Baikho Dera is the main festival of Rabhas.
Q3. Consider the following statements:
- The United Nations has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
- India, Nigeria and China are the largest producers of millets in the world.
- Millets are photo-insensitive and resilient to climate change.
Which of the given statement/s is/are INCORRECT?
- 1 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 3 only
- None of the above
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: d
Explanation:
- India, Nigeria and China are the largest producers of millets in the world, accounting for more than 55% of the global production.
- In the 160th session of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Council held in Rome in 2018, India’s proposal to observe an International Year of Millets in 2023 was approved.
- The United Nations has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
- Millets are photo-insensitive & resilient to climate change.
- They are hardy, resilient crops that have a low carbon and water footprint, can withstand high temperatures and grow on poor soils with little or no external inputs.
Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC):
- MCC comes into force from the date of election until the date that the results are out.
- They are a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India.
- MCC does not have a statutory backing.
Which of the given statement/s is/are INCORRECT?
- 3 only
- 1 and 3 only
- 1 only
- None of the above
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: c
Explanation:
- Model code of Conduct is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India for conduct of political parties and candidates during elections mainly with respect to speeches, polling day, polling booths, election manifestos, processions and general conduct.
- The MCC comes into force from the date the election schedule is announced until the date that results are out.
- It does not have statutory backing. This means, if someone breaches the MCC, a case cannot be filed under any clause of the code itself.
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
- India’s fight against the resurgence of the coronavirus is a challenge requiring strengthened data and better science. Discuss (10 Marks, 150 Words) [GS-2, Health]
- Has inflation targeting helped India keep inflation in check and maintain price stability? Critically evaluate. (10 Marks, 150 Words) [GS-3, Economy]
Read the previous CNA here.
CNA 3rd April 2021:- Download PDF Here
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