6 Apr 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

D. GS 4 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

E. Editorials

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Enemy at the gates

Context:

• Kerala’s grievance over Karnataka sealing its border with Kerala.

Background:

Karnataka’s restriction on cross border movement:

• Kasaragod district of Kerala has reported a very high number of COVID-19 cases and has Kerala’s largest number of positive cases.
• The Karnataka government has a reasonable apprehension that allowing movement between Kasaragod and its bordering districts might result in the disease spreading to its territory.
• This led to Karnataka imposing a complete restriction of movement between Kerala and Karnataka even in case of emergency medical needs.
• Karnataka has argued that even other states have such measures in place. Karnataka has argued that it is entitled to seal its borders and restrict essential services.
  • It has quoted Kerala state’s ‘Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020’ which arms the state with extraordinary powers to deal with the pandemic.
  • The State can seal its borders for such period as necessary and also restrict the duration of essential or emergency services, including health, food supply and fuel.

Kerala High Court’s observation:

• The Kerala High Court took the view that denying emergency medical aid amounts to a violation of the right to life and liberty.
• It addressed jurisdictional objections from Karnataka that Kerala High Court has no territorial jurisdiction over Karnataka territory, by stating that its direction was to the Centre, as the case was against the closure of a national highway.
• The Kerala High Court further directed the Centre to ensure free vehicular movement for those requiring urgent medical treatment on the national highway that connects Kasaragod in Kerala to Mangaluru in Karnataka.

Concerns:

Kasaragod’s connectivity:

• Given the geographical terrain of the region, Kasaragod, which lies in North Kerala suffers from connectivity issues with Kerala.
• Mangaluru, the neighbouring district in Karnataka is the closest and well connected centre to Kasaragod. The people of Kasaragod depend on medical facilities in Mangaluru for emergencies, and other districts south of Kasaragod also rely on inter-state movement for essential medicines to reach them. This includes even those battling endosulfan poisoning for many years.
• There have been numerous reports of Kasaragod district suffering due to the highway closure.

Key legal questions:

• The present situation has brought under focus the extent and the possible limits, of restrictions that may be imposed by the government to deal with a public health emergency.
• A key question that has arisen is whether legal measures taken by the State to prevent the further spread of an epidemic can extend to a point where there is no exception even for medical needs.
• Interestingly, inter-state migration and quarantine are under the Union List, while the prevention of infectious diseases moving from one State to another is under the Concurrent List.

Way forward:

Centre’s role:

• Going by the division of powers as envisaged by the 7^th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, the States do have the power to impose border restrictions. However, it remains the centre’s responsibility to prevent a breakdown of inter-state relations in light of restrictions.
• The centre should intervene to amicably solve the problems due to restrictions.

Supreme Court’s observation:

• The Supreme Court has rightly directed the Centre to confer with the States and formulate the norms for creating a passage at the border to cater to emergency needs. This should lead to an amicable solution.

Taking a humane approach:

• Given Kasaragod’s dependence on Mangaluru and given the fact that medical emergencies involve people who may travel across the border for urgent medical needs, ideally Karnataka should allow movement in such cases with suitable safeguards in place.

Category: AGRICULTURE

1. Reducing farm distress during a pandemic

Context:

• The national lockdown and its impact on agriculture.

Lockdown impact on rural economy:

• The economy has come to a complete halt in most of the informal and formal enterprises in urban areas. Apart from its evident effect on urban economy, the lockdown is also likely to affect a large population in rural areas.
• Even prior to the lockdown, the rural economy was witnessing declining incomes, both for casual workers and self-employed workers. Even the rural wages were declining in real terms. The lockdown is only going to further hurt the rural economy.
• The majority of the rural population is dependent on agriculture.

Lockdown impact on Agriculture:

Impact on supply chains:

• The restriction on movement and lockdown has led to the breakdown of supply chains of agricultural produce with no facilities for transportation of produce.
• This will affect the farmers involved in production of fruits and vegetables, which are perishable goods and cannot be stored.
• Over the last decade there has been a considerable increase in horticultural production with horticultural production exceeding food grain production. Farmers are likely to face uncertain or no markets for their produce. There have been media reports of some farmers destroying their produce due to lack of market.
• While the government has exempted operation of agricultural markets and mandis from the lockdown, government procurement is likely to be subdued.

Lack of labour:

• There will also be short-term impacts on food grains and other Rabi crops that were ready to be harvested at the beginning of April.
• It will be difficult for farmers to harvest the agricultural produce in the States of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the absence of migrant labourers.
• Though harvesting may be postponed, it is difficult to do so beyond a week or a fortnight.
• Labourers are also required for packing, processing, transporting and selling the produce. 2020 is expected to register a record in the production of cereals, pulses, cotton and oilseeds. Most of these are labour-intensive crops and the absence of working labourers during the harvest and post-harvest season is likely to affect agricultural activities.

Reduced demand:

• The closure of restaurants, hotels and supermarkets has reduced the demand for agricultural goods.
• The slowdown in the economy domestically and the expected recession worldwide will contribute to lower demand for agricultural commodities.

Decline in prices:

• The food price index of the Food and Agricultural Organization, which registered a rising trend in food prices until January 2020, has a 1% decline in prices month-on-month in February 2020. This is likely to worsen further, particularly for cash crops.
  • Commercial crop prices follow a similar pattern as other primary commodities, particularly petroleum prices. With the sharp decline in petroleum prices, most of the commercial crops have seen a downward pressure on prices, which is likely to worsen in the coming months.
• For food grains and other crops too, there is likely to be downward pressure on prices due to declining demand.
• The real worry for farmers is going to be the decline in prices for the majority of agricultural produce.

Impact on agricultural income:

• Some of the short-term impact may affect price realization by farmers. The declining prices for the produce and the likely higher labour charges will adversely affect the prospect of higher agricultural income.
• It is the decline in prices which is likely to hurt the income of farmers in the long run more than the short-run supply disruptions and labour shortages.

Way forward:

• Given that agriculture will be affected due to short-term disruptions and the long-term economic impact of the pandemic, the government must help the farmers who are battling declining demand and lower prices through state support.

Enhanced state procurement under MSP scheme:

• As part of the economic package announced by the central government, for the next three months, 5 kg of free grains will be distributed in addition to what people are entitled to under the National Food Security Act.
• This would free up the FCI godowns. This can enable the government to increase its procurement under the MSP scheme for the forthcoming Rabi crops.

Ensuring remunerative income to farmers:

• The state should intervene and assure remunerative incomes to farmers.
• The government can help reduce the input costs through existing schemes of subsidies such as the fertilizer subsidy and through price reduction in petrol/diesel meant for agricultural purposes.

Direct Income support:

• For the immediate short-term, farmers need to be compensated for the loss of income. While income transfers may not be the best way of supporting the agricultural sector, given the criticality of the moment they are the best available instruments.
• The government can use the existing framework of the PM-KISAN scheme.
• Efforts should be made to not only enhance the coverage monetarily but also include tenant farmers and wage labourers as well.

Conclusion:

• The steps suggested are not only important for the survival of the agricultural sector but also for the overall economy which is expected to see a sharp slowdown and decline in demand.
• The agricultural sector is important in the Indian context. Given the large section of population it supports, a well functioning agricultural sector will help raise rural incomes and create demand, which can revive economic growth in India.

2. Punjab villages self-isolate to fight COVID-19

• In the backdrop of the nationwide lockdown, many villages in Punjab have gone into self-isolation mode. As many as 7,842 of the total 13,240 villages have isolated themselves.
• Since many people were not taking the curfew seriously, it was decided that entry and exit should be restricted. Several youths are guarding the village entry and exit points day and night. This points to the important role of people’s participation in ensuring the success of the governmental efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19.
• The recently appointed Village Police Officers (VPOs) are playing a pivotal role in facilitating the self-isolation. The VPOs have become the bridge between the villagers and the supply chain of essential items.
• Notably, drug peddling has also reduced significantly due to the presence of village watchers.

Q1. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct?

Q2. Which of the following statement/s is/are incorrect?

Q3. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct with respect to the Ayushman Bharat
Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)?

Q4. Which of the following Indian Biosphere Reserves is not part of the UNESCO’s World 
Network of Biospheres?