16 Aug 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

16 Aug 2020 CNA:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
SOCIAL ISSUES
1. Govt. may review the age of marriage: PM
B. GS 2 Related
HEALTH
1. ‘Digital Health Mission will liberate citizens’
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Enact law to bar criminals from polls: HC
C. GS 3 Related
HEALTH
1. Govt. think tank flags chemical industry’s infra shortcomings
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. How will the Israel-UAE pact impact the Gulf?
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. The verdict on women’s right to property
INTERNAL SECURITY
1. Hurdles to Naga peace
F. Tidbits
1. Bengal mulls ‘industry’ tag for logistics
2. Arunachal forms panel for autonomy demands
G. Prelims Facts
1. Dimming star
2. The council of elders
3. Fifty years ago, when the black hole whispers were first plotted
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

A. GS 1 Related

Category: SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Govt. may review the age of marriage: PM

Context:

• The Indian Prime Minister has stated in his Independence Day speech that the government may take a relook at the age of marriage of women.

Background:

• The Budget Speech of 2020 proposed the setting up of a task force to look into the issue of age of a girl entering motherhood to help lower maternal mortality rates and malnutrition levels. In June 2020, the government announced a 10-member panel for this purpose.
• The committee has missed its July 31 deadline to finalise its report and give recommendations.

Details:

• When a girl is married too early and has a child before the age of 20 years, available evidence highlights the detrimental effect it has on the health and growth of the baby as well as the health of the mother.
  • Scientific studies have shown that children born to adolescent mothers (10-19 years) were more likely to be stunted (shorter for their age) than those born to young adults (20-24 years), and adult mothers.
  • Children born to adolescent mothers also had higher prevalence of low weight as compared to adult mothers.
• Given the relation between age of a girl entering motherhood and the age of a girl at marriage, the government has indicated its willingness to take strong decisions about the age of marriage of girls.
• Increasing age at first marriage, age at first birth, can be a promising approach to improve maternal and child nutrition.

Counter arguments:

• The National Coalition Advocating for Adolescent Concerns has asserted that increasing the legal age of marriage for girls will only expand the number of married persons deemed underage and criminalise them and may render underage married girls without legal protection.
• There are also arguments that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 instead of curbing child marriages, has only played as a weapon in the hands of parents to punish their daughters for elopement and is used in conjunction with other laws to punish boys in self-arranged marriages.
• The reasons for early marriage vary across the country. The issue of poor nutritional status in teenage mothers is also due to poverty and lack of safety driving early marriage in girls.
• Some have argued that lack of proper education, poor economic status among teenage mothers also contribute to poor nutritional outcomes for the mother and child and emphasize the need to act on these factors first before lowering the marriage age.

Way forward:

Focus on empowerment:

• While legal enactment to prevent child marriages is necessary, there is also the need to simultaneously work towards empowering the girls by ensuring education, ensuring economic and social empowerment of women and girls.
• There is the need for well resourced initiatives aimed at increasing girls’ access to education and health, create enabling opportunities for economic independence of the girls, which will result in empowerment of the girls. This will not just delay marriage but lead to a long term, positive health and education outcomes.

B. GS 2 Related

Category: HEALTH

1. ‘Digital Health Mission will liberate citizens’

Context:

• The Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech has stated the government’s intention to implement a National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).

Background:

• The National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 had laid significant emphasis on leveraging digital technologies for enhancing the efficiency effectiveness of all healthcare delivery services.

Details:

• Under the National Digital Health Mission, every Indian will be given a digital health ID which will contain information regarding disease, medical reports, medicine prescribed and consultant doctor details of a person.
• The National Health Authority (NHA), which runs the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, would be designing and implementing the NDHM.
• While the core systems of NDHM like Health ID, Digi-Doctor and Health Facility Registry shall be owned, operated and maintained by the Government of India, Private stakeholders will be given an equal opportunity to integrate with the core system and create their own products.
• The NDHM would be a voluntary programme.

Significance:

Patient-centric healthcare:

• The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) aims to empower the citizens and make the health care system more patient centric.
• The system will lead to convenience for the patient, given that the patient will not need to store and carry old records. The digital access to patient data can lead to more effective diagnosis.
• The digital data will also help in providing prompt and accurate treatment, especially in emergencies by avoiding repetition of medical history taking and unwarranted tests.

Affordability:

• Digital health can help ensure the delivery of health services to a large population at affordable costs.

Improved accessibility:

• NDHM will help improve access by providing a big boost to consultation through telemedicine with specialist doctors for patients in smaller towns and remote locations.
• The introduction of telemedicine and e-pharmacy will bring in more inclusivity. NDHM can help provide quality healthcare to rural masses and bridge the divide between urban and rural India.
• It will lead to quality care and better access to healthcare facilities and doctors.

Quality healthcare:

• Providing a unique identification to doctors as well as health facilities can lead to streamlining several issues of quality and accountability.

Integrating the stakeholders:

• The NDHM will help revitalize India’s healthcare delivery system. The NDHM will help reduce the gap among stakeholders, such as doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers, by connecting them in an integrated digital health infrastructure.

Data value:

• The use of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to analyse the data generated from the records will help learn disease patterns, predict the onset of ailments and suggest seasonal outbreaks, bringing efficiencies and effectiveness in healthcare.

Impetus to entrepreneurship:

• The NDHM brings a huge opportunity for digital health start-ups to work with providers and insurers to help build the continuum of patient centric care. NDHM provides opportunities for innovation in the healthcare sector.

Challenges:

Implementational challenges:

• To achieve the proposed shift in the storage and retrieval of medical records in the country, the digital integration of interfaces of various stakeholders in the healthcare sector will have to be achieved.
• Given the large participation of the private sector in the healthcare delivery system in India, the challenge would be to bring the private health care sector under the NDHM and ensure both reliability and quality of the information recorded.
  • Currently, 66 percent of treatment of all ailments is met by private hospitals and clinics (as per NSS 75th Round: Key Indicators of Social Consumption in India: Health, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, 2017-18).
  • A large share of diagnostic centres and pathology labs are run by the private sector.

No digital penetration:

• The low penetration of digital technology in rural areas will be a challenge in ensuring the potential of inclusivity and accessibility offered by NDHM.

Data privacy:

• Data privacy and security issues would be a prime concern in the NDHM.
• Dealing with ethical issues, breach of privacy, and dealing with social stigma are significant challenges for the NDHM.

Public health infrastructure:

• The digital health mission must be backed up by high-quality public health infrastructure. The absence of a robust public health infrastructure will rob the NDHM of its potential benefits.
• The biggest hurdle for NDHM is the meagre health budget of India.
• Currently, total health expenditure (both private and public) in India is just 3.6 per cent, while public spending on health is just above 1 per cent of the country’s GDP, which is a low compared to the countries that have some of the best digital health systems in the world.

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Enact law to bar criminals from polls: HC

Context:

• The Madras High Court has directed the Central government to explain in two weeks as to why the centre should not enact a law prohibiting people with criminal background from contesting in parliamentary, Assembly and local body elections.

Background:

• The analysis carried out by the Association for Democratic Reforms has revealed that 43% Members of Parliament had declared criminal cases pending against them while 29% of the legislators were facing serious criminal cases.

Details:

• Recognizing the increasing criminalization of politics and the threat posed by it, the Madras HC has stressed on the need to cleanse the system.
• Recognizing that measures against the criminalization of politics can succeed only when political parties do not admit criminals in their parties and given the reluctance of the parties to do so, the Madras HC has called on the Central government to come out with comprehensive legislation to prohibit persons with criminal background from contesting elections.

For more information on the issue of criminalization of politics refer to: CNA 10^TH July 2020.

C. GS 3 Related

Category: ECONOMY

1. Govt. think tank flags chemical industry’s infra shortcomings

Context:

• Report prepared by the Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC).
  • The Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) is an autonomous technology think tank under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India.

Details:

• The report flags the lack of technology, plants and infrastructure in the chemical industry of India to manufacture key chemicals in a cost effective manner.
  • Solvent and chemicals manufacturing costs in India are over 15% more than China.
• India depends on China for 67% of chemical intermediates and API that it needs to manufacture drugs and export. The United States and Italy are the other countries that India depends on for API.
• The report underlined that India had nearly stopped manufacturing several key active pharmaceutical ingredients (API).

D. GS 4 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

1. Which of the following tribes are predominantly found in the North eastern states of India:

2. Article 129 of the Indian Constitution deals with which of the following provisions?

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

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

Read the previous CNA here.

16 Aug 2020 CNA:- Download PDF Here