05 Dec 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: GOVERNANCE

1. How dearth of data killed a healthy diet

Context:

The editorial talks about the problems in the effective delivery of nutrition services in India and how it has impacted the poor population in general and children, pregnant women in particular.

Issues:

• The delivery of nutrition services to the poor in India has been brought to a halt or slowed down significantly due to lack of online data.
  • The problem of the lack of data is associated with the problem caused by poor Internet and server issues.
• This has affected both the beneficiaries and also the Anganwadi workers.
• It has also caused frustration among those working towards addressing India’s malnutrition, poverty and health issues.

The lack of publicly available nutrition data is not only affecting India’s nutrition goals to a large extent.

Government initiatives:

The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan:

• The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan is a scheme of the Union Health Ministry, that aims to provide quality antenatal care, free of cost, to all pregnant women in the country on the ninth of every month.
• It also provides a minimum package of antenatal care services to women in their second/ third trimesters of pregnancy at designated government health facilities.

Concerns:

• The supply of these has been erratic as Anganwadi workers have to wait for the stock to accumulate sufficiently before disbursing it.
• Though the aim of the programme is to ensure adequate nutrition for expectant mothers, often, this food is used by all the members of the pregnant woman’s impoverished and hungry family. (Especially owing to loss of income during the lockdown).

Also read more about the Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan Scheme – SUMAN Scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana:

• It is a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant and lactating women of 19 years of age or above for the first live birth.
• The scheme was launched in the year 2017 to provide monetary compensation to pregnant women who have lost their job owing to the pregnancy.
• It provides a partial wage compensation to women for wage-loss during childbirth and childcare and to provide conditions for safe delivery and good nutrition and feeding practices.

Concerns:

• Registration at the nearest Anganwadi Center within four months of Conception which is mandated under the scheme has become an issue due to the pandemic situation.
• There is a delay in paperwork and the release of the claim by the government.

Click here to know more about Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY).

Poshan Abhiyaan:

• Poshan Abhiyaan strives to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
• It aims at reducing undernutrition, bringing down anaemia, and increasing birth weight.
• As the aim of Poshan Abhiyaan is to reach 10 crore beneficiaries at 14 lakh Anganwadis, the government set up the Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS) to ensure swift tracking and effective implementation.
• ICDS is important because it caters to the entire life cycle of pregnant women and lactating mothers, adolescent girls and children between the age of six months and six years, by making direct interventions. It also provides a platform for delivering health services.
• Under the ICDS-CAS, Anganwadi workers are provided mobile phones, and Anganwadi supervisors, tablets.

Concern: (ICDS-CAS) in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan:

• An IT-based nutrition monitoring system called ICDS-CAS was inaugurated by Prime Minister in Jhunjhunu on International Women’s Day, in 2018.
• Under this system, Anganwadi workers log the details of the beneficiaries and daily activities to enable monitoring at the district, State and Central levels for improvement in the quality of delivery of services.
• However, due to internet issues, the devices were taken away.

Technology for efficient monitoring:

• The monitoring system ensures that if there is a lag in ration supply at the Anganwadis, programme supervisors at block levels are alerted and supply is restored.
• The use of technology and the monitoring of activities through mobile phones allow block-level supervisors to extend support to Anganwadi workers and plug gaps from time to time.
• Smartphones distributed to Anganwadi workers also help to alert them when vaccinations are due.
• They can maintain a list of the malnourishment levels of the entire village population.
• The phone helps them identify children at risk of being malnourished as well as those already stunted or wasted.
• A phone may help Anganwadi workers at the block and district levels fill the gaps in programme implementation.

Concerns:

• However, server issues and Internet problems plague the system.
• It is believed that server crash is a result of the government’s lack of preparedness to deal with a massive amount of data, cloud storage and managing the entire architecture including hardware and software.

Way Forward:

• The strength of India’s future will be determined by the health and nutrition of its babies today. The government must deploy significant resources alongside hundreds of thousands of front-line Anganwadi workers across the country to reach some of India’s more vulnerable citizens.
• The monitoring systems must be flexible and in tune with local interventions.
  • They must also be available to the front-line workers as well as at the local level for analyses and execution of corrective measures, and not just to programme developers.
  • Anganwadi workers can take corrective steps immediately.
• Data systems should also be built with local participation and consensus. The Centre can facilitate setting this up locally and providing a supportive role to ensure capacity building for effective use of data.
  • Data are critical to any programme, especially nutrition programmes.
  • Data must be open for evaluation so that there are no cover-ups.

Category: ECONOMY

1. The many layers to agricultural discontent

This topic has been covered in 1^st December 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis.

F. Tidbits

1. China poses greatest threat to U.S., says intelligence chief

What’s in News?

The outgoing Director of National Intelligence of the U.S asserted that China poses the greatest threat to America and the rest of the free world since the Second World War.

• He opines that Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically.
• He said that China follows the ‘rob, replicate and replace’ approach of economic espionage wherein it robs U.S. companies of their intellectual property, replicates the technology and then replaces the U.S. firms in the global marketplace.

Joe Biden, the 2020 President-elect agrees that China is not abiding by international trade rules, is giving unfair subsidies to Chinese companies and stealing American innovation.

G. Prelims Facts

1. India, Russia navies hold exercise in the Indian Ocean

What’s in News?

The navies of India and Russia have begun a two-day Passage Exercise (PASSEX) in the East Indian Ocean Region.

• It is aimed at enhancing interoperability, imbibing best practices and would involve advanced surface and anti-submarine warfare exercises, weapon firings and helicopter operations.
• Two warships from India and three ships from Russia are taking part in the PASSEX.

1. Consider the following statements with respect to National Air Quality Index (AQI):

2. Consider the following statements with respect to the 6th Schedule of the constitution:

3. Consider the following statements with respect to HL-2M Tokamak reactor:

4. Which of the following is/are applications of Technical Textiles?