21 Jul 2022: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

B. GS 2 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

E. Editorials

Category: HEALTH AND EDUCATION

1. Revamp India’s school health services

Syllabus: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Mains: School health services – Significance; challenges and recommendations to improve.

Background:

• School health services have remained largely neglected in India. The COVID-19 pandemic has only brought to light the importance of health services everywhere including in schools. 
• In this context, the article analyses some of the problems in the school health services segment and makes recommendations.

Concerns with respect to school health services in India:

• There has been an excessive focus on curative-focused services while there continues to be a neglect of preventive healthcare. Healthcare needs are often equated with medical care needs. Aspects such as unhealthy dietary habits, irregular sleep, lack of physical activity, mental, dental and eye problems, sexual behaviour, and the use of tobacco and other substances, addiction, etc. are often overlooked.
• Most interventions in the domain of school health services have focused mostly on nutrition provision and neglected other equally important aspects such as the timely and quality provision of healthcare services within school premises.

Recommendations:

Recognizing the importance of school health services:

• There is a need to recognize the importance of school health services in the post-pandemic period given the age-specific health needs of schoolchildren.
• The provision of school health services should become a top policy priority for the administration.
• The states should review the status of existing school health services in India and draw up a road map to revamp and strengthen them, along with a dedicated budgetary allocation. The dedicated financial allocation will help bring sufficient human resources and infrastructure into the segment.

Partnership and collaborative effort needed:

• There is the need to ensure multi-stakeholder partnership for school health services while also ensuring internal collaboration between health and education departments within the government for better effectiveness of the interventions.
• A convergence of the National Health Policy, 2017 and National Education Policy, 2020 should result in the provision of comprehensive school health services in every Indian State.

Comprehensive healthcare:

• There is a need to ensure comprehensive school health services in the form of preventive, promotive and curative services.
  • The health-promoting schools (HPS) initiative observed in many countries of Europe might be worth emulating in India.
• School health services apart from catering to curative care must also promote positive health, raise health consciousness in children and enable the provision of a healthy school environment.
• Requisite health education should be imparted to the school children and healthy lifestyles should be promoted among them as this will lay the foundations of healthy behaviour for the rest of their life. 
• Subjects such as adolescent sexual health, mental health, menstrual hygiene, etc. should be integrated into regular classroom teaching.
• School health services should have components of screening leading to early diagnosis and care and/or referral and support as appropriate. 

FRESH approach:

• Based on the FRESH framework – an acronym for Focusing Resources on Effective School Health, as suggested by UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, school health services need to focus on the following four core areas i.e., water, sanitation and the environment; skills-based health education and school-based health and nutrition services. 

Nut Graf: A robust and comprehensive school health service system in India is necessary to ensure the good physical and mental health of the school-going children. This along with quality education can help India reap the rich demographic dividend it possesses.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. India-Vietnam ties, from strong to stronger

Syllabus: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Prelims: India-Vietnam cooperation in the maritime domain – Significance and recommendations

Context:

• India and Vietnam are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. In this context, the article analyses the India-Vietnam relationship under various aspects.

India’s engagement with Vietnam in the maritime domain:

• The scope and scale of the India-Vietnam defence cooperation, particularly in the maritime domain, have been deepening with time.
  • The signing of the ‘Joint Vision for Defence Cooperation’ and a memorandum of understanding on mutual logistics support has strengthened mutual defence cooperation between the two countries.
  • India has offered a U.S.$100 million Defence Line of Credit to Vietnam and has promised early finalisation of another U.S.$500 million Defence Line of Credit to enhance Vietnam’s defence capability. 
  • India has agreed to expand training to the Vietnam Navy.
  • India has handed over 12 high-speed boats to Vietnam and a Khukri-class corvette is also expected to be given soon to Vietnam. The two countries have regular maritime security dialogues, naval exercises, ship visits and Coast Guard cooperation. 
• At the sub-regional and multilateral levels too, India and Vietnam have been looking for ways to coordinate and collaborate in the maritime domain.
  • India and Vietnam have been working with each other in multilateral frameworks, such as the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, ADMM-Plus or the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus. 
  • There is also the proposal for an ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise and an informal meeting between India and ASEAN Defence Ministers in November 2022. 

Significance of maritime engagement with Vietnam for India:

• There are four key motivations behind India’s growing maritime engagement with Vietnam. 
  • India seeks to counter an assertive China in the region by strengthening Vietnam’s military power. Notably, India and Vietnam face territorial disputes with and shared apprehensions about their common neighbour, China.
  • Given the increasing share of maritime trade of India with East and Southeast Asia, the sea lines of communication including the ones through the South China Sea occupy strategic significance for India. Vietnam shares a long coastline with the South China Sea and could help India find a foothold in the region. Also notably Vietnam is supportive of the freedom of navigation and sovereign maritime territorial rights as enshrined under international maritime law.
    • 55% of India’s trade with the Indo-Pacific region passes through the South China Sea.
  • India’s presence in the South China Sea region will help it track potential developments in the maritime domain that could affect its national interests. 
  • The maritime engagement with Vietnam will allow the Indian Navy a forward maritime presence and also help forge naval partnerships with other countries in the region.

For more related information on the topic of India-Vietnam relations refer to the following article:

CNA dated June 27, 2022: How Hanoi and New Delhi are fortifying defence ties

Recommendations:

• Given the strong potential of the bilateral relationship, a strong commitment of political leadership along with the necessary institutional frameworks for cooperation between the two countries is the need of the hour.
• The two countries should explore more collaboration and cooperation in the domains of shipbuilding, maritime connectivity, maritime education and research, coastal engineering, blue economy, marine habitat conservation, and collaboration between maritime security agencies. 

Nut Graf: Growing convergence of strategic and economic interests of the two countries makes India and Vietnam indispensable partners for each other in the coming years. Apart from the mutual benefits, the bilateral relationship can also bring peace, security and prosperity to the region at large.

Category: HEALTH

1. Saving mothers

Category: SECURITY

1. CAPFs: children of a lesser God

Syllabus: Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate. 

Prelims: About Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF)

Mains: Challenges faced by the CAPF personnel and key recommendations in this regard.

Context

This article talks about the various issues faced by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel.

Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) Central Armed Police Forces were formerly called Paramilitary Forces. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs in March 2011, adopted the uniform nomenclature ‘Central Armed Police Forces’ to avoid confusion. CAPF refers to the security forces of seven central armed police organisations of India working under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.  CAPF includes: Assam Rifles Border Security Force (BSF) Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBF) National Security Guard (NSG) Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Each of these forces performs a separate function and is led by an IPS officer with Assam Rifles being an exception as it is led by an Army officer of the rank of Lieutenant General. Know more about – CAPF and other security forces of the country

Challenges faced by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel

• It is said that the personnel of the police department are given a step-motherly treatment as compared to the personnel from the defence services. 
  • The personnel of defence services are rewarded more handsomely in terms of monetary grants as compared to policemen.
  • Example: An Ashoka Chakra reward includes ₹2 lakh and 25 bighas of land or ₹2 lakh in lieu of land. 
    • The awardee of the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) receives a sum of ₹1 lakh along with 25 bighas of land. 
    • An awardee of the President’s Police and Fire Service Medal for Gallantry (PPFSMG) gets only ₹75,000 and 25 bighas of land and the amount paid for the Police Medal for gallantry (PMG) is only ₹50,000 and 25 bighas of land.
• The personnel of CAPF were eligible for the Chakra series of medals only if the battalions were placed under the operational control of the Army as in 1952, a President’s order debarred personnel of the police forces and the fire services from being conferred with chakra series of medals, though civilians were eligible.
  • However, a notification in 1999 amended the order to include “citizens of either sex in all walks of life and members of police forces including Central Para Military Forces and the Railway Protection Force”, which rendered them eligible for the Chakra series of medals. 
  • Various policemen and personnel of the CAPFs have been awarded the Chakra series of medals since then.
• The Standing Committee on Home Affairs in the year 2017 highlighted the harsh working conditions of CAPF personnel and said that they often worked for about 16-18 hours a day, with little rest and sleep.  
• CAPF personnel also are provided with inadequate medical facilities, especially at the borders and in remote locations.
• The Estimates Committee pointed out that there are various challenges associated with the curriculum and infrastructure of training institutes of CAPF and there is an immediate need for reforms.
• There are also various impediments to the modernisation of equipment and weaponry of CAPF personnel.

Learn more about – Difference between the Indian Army and CAPF

Recommendation

• The Government should establish a high-powered committee to examine the opportunity of creating three classes of gallantry medals exclusively for the police forces on the lines of the Ashoka Chakra, the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra.
  • These awards could be named Sarvottam Police Chakra (SPC), Uttam Police Chakra (UPC) and Police Chakra (PC). 
• The reward extended for those personnel who are awarded the PPFSMG and the PPMG could be placed at par with the Kirti Chakra and the reward for awardees of the PMG could be placed at par with the Shaurya Chakra.

Nut graf: Acknowledging the crucial role played by the personnel of CAPF in protecting the borders of the country, preventing trans-border crimes, smuggling, and ensuring India’s internal security, more efforts must be undertaken to honour the CAPF personnel better.

G. Tidbits

1. Cheetahs likely to arrive in Kuno before August 15

• India is now a step closer to reintroducing the Cheetahs in the country as an agreement was signed between the Union government and the Namibian Deputy Prime Minister.
• The Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952, and the agreement will help in the relocation of Cheetahs from southern Africa to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
• The agreement aims to promote the conservation and restoration of Cheetahs in their former range from which the species went extinct and will help to revive the ecological dynamics of the landscape.
• According to officials, plans for the cheetah translocations to Kuno are in compliance with the IUCN’s guidelines, with the main focus on the forest site quality, prey density and the current carrying capacity for a large mammal like the cheetah. 

For more information on the Re-introduction of Cheetahs in India

Q1. Consider the following statements: (Level - Medium)

Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to Indian Sandalwood tree (Santalum
album)? (Level - Difficult)

Q3. Which of the following statements is/are correct with respect to XPoSat? 
(Level - Medium)

Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to domestic steel production in India.
(Level - Difficult)

Q5. Consider the following statements about the Charter Act of 1813:  (Level - Medium) 
PYQ (2019)

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. What factors have played a key role in boosting India’s defense exports over the past few years? Also enlist the stumbling blocks that still remain. (250 words; 15 marks) (GS III – Economy)
2. Development at the cost of environment is a bad deal. Elaborate in the context of emergence of various Urban Heat Islands in India. (250 words; 15 marks) (GS III – Environment)

Read the previous CNA here.

CNA 21 July 2022:- Download PDF Here