27 Jun 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: EDUCATION

1. The pandemic imposes a steep learning curve

Context:

Across the world, education has been drastically affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Most instruction has moved online. Higher education has either gone digital or has simply been put on hold.

Issue:

• In the wake of the pandemic, other countries have embraced online education with mixed enthusiasm. 
• At the same time, educationists and policymakers advise caution.
• Online education has not lived up to its potential.

India’s Response:

• Given the diversity in institutions of higher education, the Indian education system has had a very heterogeneous response to the pandemic.
• The reactions also reflect the contrast in rural versus urban infrastructure, the variable quality of staff, and the diverse types of subjects that are taught.

Serious long term effects can be expected considering the scale of the social, political and economic changes that have been occurring these past several months.

Switch to online education :

• From a purely pedagogic point of view, it is clear that technology will play a bigger role in education in the coming years.
• However, for courses that traditionally need a laboratory or practical component, online classes cannot offer an alternative. 
• Considering a huge digital divide in the country, adoption or integration of technology in education also depends on the specific institution and its location.

Challenges:

Impact on academic research:

• Beyond classroom lectures and courses, there has been a serious impact on academic research in all disciplines.
• There is need for close personal interaction and discussion in research supervision.
• It is not clear when and how doctoral research and supervision can resume.
• The related economic crisis has consequences for funding, both of research as well as for the maintenance of research infrastructure. These are very long-term effects.

Digital divide:

• Not all students have equal access to the Internet.
• Lack of the required combination of hardware and electrical connectivity at homes is more pronounced in rural areas and non-metro cities, and for lower income groups as well.

Online teaching:

• Most teachers in India view online instruction with caution.
• The shift online is in response to a crisis and was poorly planned.
• Online teaching is a separate didactic genre in itself — one that requires investment of time and resources that very few teachers could come up with, in a hurry.
• Many online classes are poorly executed video versions of regular classroom lectures. Across the board, teachers recognise this as unsatisfactory.

Opportunity for Change:

• This is a chance to re-imagine higher education in India. For long this has been elitist and exclusionary; education has been less about learning and more about acquiring degrees. Now, higher education system can be made more inclusive.
• There is a positive aspect of even a partial move to online education: making lectures available online in public and open websites accelerates democratisation of knowledge and wide distribution of learning opportunities.
• If going online loses the human touch, the advantage of becoming available to many more people who aspire to learn is worth the trade.

Way forward:

Massive Open Online Classrooms:

• Online higher education using massive open online classrooms (MOOCs) has been encouraged by the Ministry of Human Resource Development for some time now via the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) and SWAYAM platforms. (SWAYAM is a Hindi acronym for “Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds”.)
  • These are presently used to augment classroom instruction but if these can be taken for credit, it may help address the question of access to quality education.
• If this is to make a serious difference, both the quality and quantity of online courses need to be enhanced.

Revamping examinations:

• If giving proctored examinations in a socially distanced world is more difficult, what needs to change is the idea of proctored examinations.
• There are simpler ways to validate pedagogy, some of which can be found in our own traditions.
  • For instance, Gandhiji’s “Nai Talim” put a high premium on self study and experiential learning.

Digital tools in teaching:

• With planning, significant qualitative changes can be brought about.
• Digital tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) — already used in teaching language — can be adapted to deliver personalised instruction based on the learning needs for each student.
• The use of AI can improve learning outcomes; in particular, this can be a boon for teaching students who are differently-abled.

Role of state:

• Pedagogic material must be made available in national languages; this will extend access, and can help overcome staff shortages that plague remote institutions.
• The state will have to bear much of the responsibility:
  • To improve digital infrastructure.
  • To ensure that every needy student has access to a laptop or smartphone.

Conclusion:

• The adoption of online education needs to be done with sensitivity.
• Imagination and a commitment to decentralisation in education is the need of the hour.
• In the future, blended modes of education will be unavoidable: online instruction where possible, and limited contact for laboratory instruction and individual mentoring.
• If this can lead to the emergence of a new pedagogic paradigm, India would have made the sweetest use of this adversity.

Category: GOVERNANCE

1. Getting out of the ‘guns, germs and steel’ crisis

Context:

India faces a “guns, germs and steel” crisis, to borrow from the title of Jared Diamond’s classic book on the evolution of societies and nations, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.

• There are Chinese “guns” on the borders.
• There are coronavirus “germs” in our bodies.
• There are “steel” makers and other businesses on the verge of bankruptcy.
• Each of these would qualify as an independent, large crisis by itself, warranting a specific resolution.

1) Dealing with China:

• Standing up to a military threat by a superpower neighbour will pose an inevitable drain on the finances of the government.
• India’s war against Pakistan in Kargil in May 1999 provides hints of the financial burden of a military threat.
  • India’s defence expenditure in the war year shot up by nearly 20% from the previous year.
  • It also forced the then government to increase India’s defence budget for the next financial year to 2.7% of nominal GDP, the highest in decades.
• China is a far mightier power than Pakistan.
• In the current stand-off, India is bound to assert its rights, which will necessitate higher expenditure.
  • India’s defence budget has been whittled down to just 2% of GDP for the financial year 2021.
  • China’s defence budget is nearly four times larger.
• In all likelihood, the Chinese conflict will stretch central government finances by an additional one to two percentage points of GDP, as India wards off the current threat and shores up its defence preparedness.

2) Health care:

• The health pandemic has exposed India’s woefully inadequate health infrastructure.
• The combined public health expenditure of States and the central government in India is a mere 1.5% of GDP, compared to China’s at 3% and America’s at 9%.
• With COVID-19 expected to linger on until a suitable vaccine is available at large, there is no option other than to significantly ramp up India’s health expenditure.
• Many public health experts are of the opinion that the central government will need additional funds of the equivalent of at least one percentage point of GDP to continue the fight against COVID-19.

3) Economy:

• The national lockdown has thrown India’s economy into utter disarray.
• India’s economy has four major drivers:
  • People’s spending on consumption
  • Government spending
  • Investment
  • External trade
• Spending by people is the largest contributor to India’s economic growth every year. For every ₹100 in incremental GDP, ₹60 to ₹70 comes from people’s consumption spending. The lockdown shut off people from spending for two full months, which will contract India’s economy for the first time in nearly five decades, regardless of a strong agriculture performance.
• Even prior to COVID-19 when the global economy was robust, India’s trade levels had fallen from 55% of nominal GDP in 2014 to 40% in 2020. Now, with the global economy in tatters, trade is not a viable alternative to offset the loss from consumption.
• Investment is also not a viable option at this stage since the demand for goods and services has fallen dramatically.

Way Forward:

Incremental Funds Needed:

• The only options are:

1. To put money in the hands of the needy to stimulate immediate consumption.
2. For the government to embark on a massive spending spree (similar to the “New Deal” – which was a series of programmes and projects instituted by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression of the 1930s.)

• The crisis will impose a total financial burden of an additional eight percentage points of GDP on the central government exchequer.

Where will the government get such a large sum of money from? 

• The government needs to spend an additional eight percentage points of GDP while revenues will be lower by two percentage points of GDP, a combined gap of 10% of GDP.
  • The government had expected a nominal GDP growth of 10% this year. It is clear now that GDP will not grow but shrink.
  • A ‘V’ shaped economic recovery (characterized by a quick and sustained recovery in measures of economic performance after a sharp economic decline), is a mere illusion.
  • Revenues will likely fall short by two percentage points of GDP.
• Potential new sources of revenue such as a wealth tax or a large capital gains tax are ideas worth exploring for the medium term but will not be of much immediate help.
• The only option for the government to finance its needs is to borrow copiously, which will obviously push up debt to ominous levels.
• When government debt rises dramatically, there will be a fourth dimension to the “guns, germs and steel crisis”; a “junk” crisis.

The ‘junk rating’ risk:

• With rising debt levels, international ratings agencies will likely downgrade India’s investment rating to “junk”, which will then trigger panic among foreign investors.
• India thus faces a tough “Dasharatha” dilemma — save the country’s borders, citizens and economy or prevent a “junk” rating.

Printing money at will:

• Some economists argue that there is a magical third choice – to print how much ever money the government needs to overcome these crises.
  • Economic theory states that if money is printed at will, it can lead to a massive spike in prices and inflation.
  • This theory has fallen flat in the past decade in developed nations such as America where the creation of phantom money has not led to inflation.
  • Hence, the Reserve Bank of India can just create money at will and transfer them to government coffers electronically, is the argument.
• There are multiple problems with this argument but the most important one is that regardless of whether money is printed or borrowed from others, it will still be counted as government debt and not escape a potential downgrade to a “junk” rating.
• The U.S dollar, by virtue of being the world’s reserve currency, has an in-built protection against a currency crisis that can be triggered by at-will printing of money, that other developing nations such as India do not possess.

Conclusion:

• The nation is at the precipice of an extremely challenging moment in her history. How India emerges from this crisis will shape not just India’s destiny but the world’s.
• The government’s choices are either to be bold and embark on a rescue mission or do nothing and hope the situation resolves itself.
• The Chinese military threat calls for immediate and strategic action by our defence and foreign affairs establishments.
• The COVID-19 health epidemic needs constant monitoring by the Health Ministry and local administration.
• The economic collapse is an enormous challenge that needs to be overcome with prudent policy.
• The common thread across these is that its resolution requires significant financial resources.
• On balance, it seems that the best course of action is to borrow unabashedly to pull India out of the “guns, germs and steel” crisis and deal with the consequences of a potential “junk” nation label.

F. Tidbits

1. Lakhs hit as Assam flood fury continues

• Incessant heavy rain for almost a week has led to flooding in large areas across Assam. Eight rivers including the Brahmaputra have been flowing above the danger level, threatening to inundate more areas.
• Floods in Assam have claimed human lives and displaced more than 2.52 lakh people across 16 districts.
• Standing crops across 704 villages and more than 1.62 lakh livestock and fowls have been affected too.
• Heavy rain has caused landslides in Guwahati.

2. ‘Noticeable thinning of Chinese troops along the LAC in Ladakh’

• As per a senior government official, Chinese troops have neither vacated nor removed any of the prefabricated or semi-permanent structures built since May, 2020 at the disputed sites along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
• However, there have been reports of a noticeable thinning of presence of Chinese troops at some of the three friction points along the LAC.
  • The three areas are Galwan, Hot Springs and the Finger area near Pangong Tso (lake) in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
• China has fortified positions at Depsang plains in north Ladakh.
• Another official has claimed that the entire stretch along the LAC in Ladakh was seeing a worrisome hardening of Chinese positions, including the placement of 10 mechanised and armoured regiments and at least 15 positions of artillery guns.

3. ‘Recovery from pandemic will be at terrible cost’

• The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, or DiEM25, is a pan-European political movement launched in 2015 by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
• The movement’s main tendencies are alter-globalisation, social ecology, ecofeminism, post-growth and post-capitalism with an emphasis on implementation of a universal basic income.
• DiEM25 argues for creation of political organisations at a pan-European level and calls for a pan-European movement to confront the great economic, political and social crisis that Europe is going through.

G. Prelims Facts

1. SC to hear petitions of foreign nationals soon

• The Supreme Court has decided to hear the petitions by foreign nationals challenging the government orders that blacklisted 2,500 citizens from 35 countries for their alleged involvement in Tablighi Jamaat activities.
• The petition argues that the government orders by its very unilateral nature, infringes the principle of natural justice, particularly ‘audi alteram partem’ by blacklisting the said foreigners present in India without first granting an opportunity of being heard or notice of any form, and resultantly depriving the aggrieved foreign nationals of their right of locomotion and travelling back to the country of their citizenship.
  • Audi alteram partem is a Latin phrase meaning “listen to the other side”, or “let the other side be heard as well”. It is the principle that no person should be judged without a fair hearing in which each party is given the opportunity to respond to the evidence against them.
• The petitioners have argued that the en-masse blacklisting of foreigners without any opportunity to defend themselves is a blatant violation of Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution.

2. UN-75 declaration delayed

• Owing to objections from the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Canada and India a commemorative declaration marking the 75th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter was delayed as member states could not reach an agreement on phraseology.
• The objection was to the use of a phrase “shared vision of a common future”, associated with China. The phrase, “community with a shared future for mankind” is closely associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and especially Chinese President Xi Jinping as an articulation of the country’s vision for the world.
• The current impasse comes at a time when China’s relationships with a number of democracies, including India, Australia and the U.S., are strained.
• The ‘silence’ process of the UN involves a procedure by which a resolution passes if no formal objections are raised within a stipulated time.

Q1. Which of the following correctly explains DiEM25?

Q2. Which of the following are the right bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra River?

Q3. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct?

Q4. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct?