UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis June24

A. GS1 Related
1. Jami Masjid in Gulbarga in Karnataka
B. GS2 Related
GOVERNANCE
1. Democracy and why we treasure it?
2. Health care Dilemmas
C. GS3 Related
ECONOMY
1. Is external debt a cause for worry?
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. Huntington’s disease (HD) 
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. Maharashtra government ban on plastic
D. GS4 Related
E. Editorials
1. Suryashakti Kishan Yojana 
F. Prelims Fact
1. A chorus against U.K.’s ‘hostile policy’ on visas for Indian students
2. Police link rape to Pathalgadi drive
3. Why we treasure democracy
4. The features of a nationalist
5. ‘Rhino habitat under threat of mining’
6. ‘Animals, birds will be affected: experts’
7. Karnataka opposes guidelines for Cauvery authority, panel
8. Kerala acquires over 55% land for NH 66 widening

G. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
H. UPSC Mains Practice Questions 

• The uniqueness of the mosque is that it has no open courtyard and the entire structure is covered by a roof.
• It was produced under the direction of a hereditary architect named Rafi, not of India, but from the distant town of Kazvin in northern Persia.
• They have interiors similar to the Great Cathedral–Mosque of Córdoba in Spain

Tughlaq and Bahmani Kingdom

• Mohammad bin Tughlaq, who ruled from 1321 to 1351 as the Delhi Sultan, captured large parts of the Deccan including Gulbarga.
• In 1347, a Tughlaq officer named Alauddin Hasan revolted against Tughlaq and declared his independence by establishing the Bahmani kingdom (1347-1527) with Gulbarga as its capital.
• Hasan built Gulbarga as a fortress city. The Bahmani Sultans ruled from here till the capital of the kingdom was shifted to Bidar in 1424.

Inspiration for Architecture

• When Mohammad bin Tughlaq shifted his capital to Daulatabad in the Deccan, he took artisans and architects with him. However, the Bahmani Sultans chose to look towards Persia as a source of inspiration
• this was combined with existing and developing local styles and at other times the architecture of the Tughlaq style remained, as seen in the tombs of the Bahmani kings in Gulbarga.

Peace, Freedom, Well-Being

• The attractiveness of democracy lies in its ability to give us a peaceful transfer of power.
  • it frees us from the bloody battles and gory coup d’états through which wealthy and powerful super elites conventionally settled their conflicts.
  • It is a non-violent substitute for the marauding warrior ethic.
• Second, it eliminates the most basic fears and anxieties to which social and political life is prone — the fear of being killed, beaten or humiliated for doing or saying what we want or for challenging the powerful.
  • It promotes the maximum possible openness in our lives — in how and what we think, speak, behave.
• Third, no other system — a monarchy, dictatorship or an empire — takes seriously a people’s own view of its needs, wants and goals, giving the best possible shot at satisfying them.

difficulties of democracy

• A culture of equality is believed to be crucial to democracy but India inherited a social structure replete with hardened gender and caste inequalities.
• A democracy’s success depends on fairly high levels of growth, but India’s rate of growth in 1947 was virtually zero, with 65-70% of its population trapped in extreme poverty.
• Successful democracies need a fair degree of cultural, linguistic and religious homogeneity but India has deep cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.
• Most Western democracies have high levels of literacy and education but a substantial section of the Indian population was illiterate, with virtually no formal education.

How democracy has to be transformed?

• The colonial state apparatus inherited by us was insensitive to the needs of the people, working almost entirely for the British Empire.
  • A number of colonial laws were repressive and excessively regulatory. Their primary objective was the creation of a ‘nuisance-free’ public order, controlling a defiant population and exploiting them for the benefit of the empire.
  • The colonial state was built to resist democracy, not facilitate it. This repressive apparatus, a permanent threat to our democracy, always comes in handy for authoritarian officials/leaders, as it did during the Emergency.
  • So, democracy needs a competent state, but one that is tamed to work for it.
• Second, to be democratic, the state must be relatively independent of classes and ethnic groups in society. No class or ethnic group (religious or linguistic community) must completely control state power or use it to push its own agenda in its entirety.
  • Therefore, each class and ethnic group must learn to live with this fact — that all its objectives cannot be met.
  • This realization occurs either when each class or ethnic group has enough power to prevent inter-group domination or when, for the sake of a more inclusive moral vision, every group forsakes part of its interests and achieves a principled compromise.
  • By curbing the inclination to impose our agenda on others, and instead arriving at negotiated settlements, we produce stable democracies. This precisely is achieved in the Indian Constitution.

Conclusion

• Any attempt to subordinate the state to the whims of a powerful individual or to use it disproportionately in favour of one group disturbs this delicate consensus, destabilises Indian democracy and wrecks the collective future of its citizens.
• The nasty experience of our own Emergency and the unsavoury condition of societies plagued with attempts at domination (by the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka or Sunnis in Pakistan) teach us to treasure democracy.
• Forgetting this lesson is disastrous.

• On the eve of Independence, the founding principles of health care for India were established through the Bhore Committee.
• Here, health care was envisaged as comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery, based on a government-led service, and to be paid from tax-funded revenues.
• These policies, which were adopted from the National Health Service (NHS), a major social reform in the U.K. following the Second World War, have stood the test of time and remain a source of pride for the U.K.
• But for India, it is an embarrassment that this health model has declined because of chaotic, mismanaged, unregulated and discriminatory policies and the priorities of successive governments.
• This has created a second system (supposedly more efficient) in the form of the urban private sector, which is responsible for most health care in India.

Issues

• The private sector over-medicalises: over-promises, over-investigates, over-treats and overcharges to meet management targets, creating needless fear and paranoia.
• There has been a paradigm shift from a service to a fee-for-service model of health care.
• Medicine has changed from ‘doctor-patient-treatment’ to ‘customer-provider-delivery’.
• All this disorganisation has led to a trust deficit between patient and doctor.
• The decline of a universal, social health system has led to the cost of treatment becoming astronomical.
• Health care in India is changing from a conservative, clinical, affordable, accountable, patient-centric British model to a more investigative, aggressive, expensive, commercial and insurance-driven American system, without the safety mechanisms of either.
• India still faces many communicable diseases (malaria, dengue and tuberculosis) which require a robust public health system.
• Along with non-communicable diseases (diabetes, heart disease and cancer) also on the rise, this is a double burden.
• This mismatch is further compounded with only 4% of GDP allocated to health.
• India has one of the highest (86%) out-of-pocket (private) expenditures on health care in the world.
• With little or no health insurance, this leads to approximately 40 million people falling below the poverty line every year.
• Let’s draw an analogy with the organised, Western health system (public and private care), taking the example of any international university.
• There are two kinds of fees — one for national students and usually a slightly higher one for international students, which is akin to treatment costs in a hospital where there are higher private fees.
• At the end of the course, all students are awarded the same degree much like patients who get the same level of care in a public or private hospital in the West.
• Private care in the West exists to streamline routine services and possibly reduce waiting times.
• In an ideal world we would want an egalitarian health-care model.
• However, misuse of private health care at the patient’s expense leads to a breakdown of the whole model.
• Compare it to transport, where there are buses and taxis, representing public and private health care, respectively. An imbalance (with taxi overuse) can induce chaos.

Way forward

• A balance between the two health systems is required, where there is no compromise made on the quality of care delivered.
• Expensive treatments and interventions with marginal benefits should be realistically considered to treat frail, futile, terminal patients and relatives should be explained the outcomes.
• It is for the society to decide the ceiling of treatment.
• We need to strengthen our public health-care system based on the pillars of trust, accountability and efficiency.
• A balance needs to be made between public and private health care.
• This balance will only be restored by the mutual respect and belief between a doctor and patient.

 What is external debt?

• External debt is the money that borrowers in a country owe to foreign lenders.
• India’s external debt was $513.4 billion at the end of December 2017, an increase of 8.8% since March 2017.
• Most of it was owed by private businesses which borrowed at attractive rates from foreign lenders.
• To be precise, 78.8% of the total external debt ($404.5 billion) was owed by non-governmental entities like private companies.
• The size of external commercial borrowings and foreign currency convertible bonds, which represents Indian companies’ foreign borrowings, has risen from ₹99,490 crore at the end of December 2015 to ₹1,72,872 crore at the end of December 2017.
• While external debt may be denominated in either the rupee or a foreign currency like the U.S. dollar, most of India’s external debt is linked to the dollar.
• This means Indian borrowers will have to pay back their lenders by first converting their rupees into dollars.

What are the risks?

• There are two major risks involved in foreign borrowings.
• One is that, like in the case of domestic borrowings, there could be unexpected changes in the interest rates charged on these loans.
• This can, for instance, cause widespread default when rates rise as borrowers may not be able to make higher interest payments, thus raising the risks of a systemic crisis.
• The raising of interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve has already caused borrowing rates to rise in various countries, including in India where bond yields have shot up sharply.
• The yield on the 10-year government bond, for instance, has risen to about 8% from around 6.5% at the end of June last year.
• Another major risk is unexpected changes in the exchange rates of currencies.
• An unexpected fall in the value of the rupee, for instance, can cause severe difficulties for Indian companies that need to pay back dollar-denominated loans as they will now have to shell out more rupees than they had previously estimated to buy the necessary dollars.
• Lenders generally take possible fluctuations in the value of currencies into account when determining their lending rates.
• But such forecasts are not always perfect.
• Unexpected changes in exchange rates could still impose surprise gains or losses on them.
• Various emerging market currencies have seen a sharp fall in value this year against the dollar.
• The rupee, in particular, has fallen about 7% since the beginning of the year.
• The fall in the value of the emerging market currencies is due to increasing demand for dollars from investors, who wish to sell their assets in the emerging markets and invest them in the U.S. where yields have been rising quite rapidly.

What happens next?

• The U.S. central bank, which has already raised its benchmark interest rate twice this year, is expected to raise rates two more times in the rest of 2018.
• Further interest rate hikes could cause more outflow of capital from the emerging markets, thus causing unexpected changes in borrowing rates and the value of the rupee.
• Both government and non-government borrowers in India, who are exposed to foreign debt, could be in trouble in such a scenario.
• The foreign exchange reserves, held by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), were around $425 billion as on March 2018.
• This is the firepower that the RBI can use to support the rupee and bail out borrowers who get into trouble.
• The RBI, which raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than four years this month, may also decide to raise domestic interest rates further.
• While such a step could help to stem the capital outflow from the country and support the rupee, it could lead to further uncertainty about borrowing rates in the domestic economy.

• A study by researchers at the Department of Genetics, Delhi University, has shown that it is possible to restrict the progression of Huntington’s disease by increasing insulin signalling in the brain’s neuronal cells.
• The enhanced level of insulin signalling rejuvenates the neuronal cells which are otherwise stressed during disease condition.

Huntington disease

• It is an inherited disorder that results in death of brain cells.
• Afflicted individuals lose their ability to walk, talk, think and reason.
• The earliest symptoms are often subtle problems with mood or mental abilities.
• This disease begins between ages 30 and 45, and every individual with the gene for the disease will eventually develop the disease.
• It is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder, which means that even if one parent carries the defective Huntington’s gene, their offspring has a 50:50 chance of inheriting the disease.
• There is no treatment or cure for Huntington’s at present.
• But there are treatments available to reduce the severity of some of its symptoms

• The country’s commercial capital on Saturday became the first major city to embrace a tough plastic-free regime, even as the rains made the transition from the ubiquitous polythene carry-bag a tricky affair.
• The municipal authorities, meanwhile, decided to defer penal action against users and small traders till Monday, and said the weekend would be used to generate awareness.
• However, not everyone got off lightly. Some big eateries in the tony suburb of Bandra, including a Starbucks and McDonald’s outlet, faced action for plastic articles found on their premises.
• The highest number of violations were found around the main markets and railway station.
• A lot of vegetable vendors and hawkers were let off with warnings as it was only the first day of the ban.

Background

• On World Environment Day, June 5, India was the host nation, with the theme for this year being ‘Beat plastic pollution.’
• On March 23, the government issued a notification banning the manufacture, use, transport, distribution, wholesale and retail sale, storage and import of plastic bags with and without handle.
• The ban also covers disposable products, made from plastic and thermocol (polystyrene), such as single-use disposable dishes, cups, plates, glasses, fork, bowl, container, disposable dish/bowl used for packaging food in hotels, spoon, straw, non-woven polypropylene bags, cups/pouches to store liquid, packaging with plastic to wrap or store the products and packaging of food items and grain material.
• The ban is not applicable to PET bottles, irrespective of capacity. These bottles, however, should have predefined buyback price ranging from ₹1 to ₹2, depending on the size, printed on them.
• Plastic used for packaging of medicines, compostable plastic bags or material used for plant nurseries, handling of solid waste, plastic bags not less than 50 micron thickness used for packaging of milk (with the specific purpose printed on it), plastic manufactured for export in SEZs and plastic to wrap the material at the manufacturing stage are excluded from the ban.
• The ban is applicable to manufacturers and consumers as well as the chain in between, which includes shops, hawkers, vendors and offices.

What is the penalty?

• Urban and rural civic bodies, Collectors, forest officers, police authorities and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board officials have been empowered to implement the ban and take legal action.
• The penalty for violating the ban starts from ₹5,000 (first offence), ₹10,000 (second time) and ₹25,000 (third time) with three months in jail.
• In case one fails to pay the minimum penalty, the civic body can file a prosecution complaint before the court, which will decide the amount to be paid.

Why was this necessary?

• Environment experts have been blaming plastic for choking of nullahs in Mumbai and the flooding in parts of the city during monsoons.
• Plastic bag manufacturers approached the Bombay High Court against the decision, but their appeal was turned down.
• The State has 2,500 units making plastic bags, employing 56,000 people.
• They owe nearly ₹11,000 crore to banks as of March 31.
• The Clothing Manufacturers’ Association of India has spoken out against the ban, saying the apparel trade employs 30 lakh people in the country and depends on polypropylene for packaging.

What is the alternative?

• The State is not directly providing alternatives to banned items and has relied on people for solutions.
• Urban local bodies, like the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), have invited manufacturers of alternative products to showcase their wares at a three-day exhibition.

What lies in store?

• The BMC has trained 250 inspectors for levying penalties. Their list is available on its website, along with that of its 37 collection centres where people can dispose of plastic.
• While levying penalty, they will be registering the offender’s Aadhaar number, PAN number or driver licence number.
• It has also started a dedicated helpline for door-to-door collection.
• As on June 21, the BMC has collected 145 tonnes of banned plastic from Mumbai.
• However, most of this was plastic segregated from regular waste and only a fraction is from the 24 dedicated bins for dumping plastic. This underlines the need for more awareness.
• Not surprisingly, sellers of alternative material like jute and cloth bags have made a killing, as everyone from retailers to citizens flocked to their stores.

F. Prelims Facts

1. A chorus against U.K.’s ‘hostile policy’ on visas for Indian students

2. Police link rape to Pathalgadi drive

3. Why we treasure democracy

4. The features of a nationalist

5. ‘Rhino habitat under threat of mining’

6. ‘Animals, birds will be affected: experts’

7. Karnataka opposes guidelines for Cauvery authority, panel

8. Kerala acquires over 55% land for NH 66 widening

9. Centre may offer sops to military

G. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

Question 1. Which of the following statement(s) is/ regarding the Preamble 
of the Indian Constitution are incorrect?

G. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

Question 2. Which of the following statements is incorrect?

G. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

Question 3. Consider the following statements with respect to specialised 
agencies of the United Nations.

G. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

Question 4. Consider the following statements regarding 
Hindustan Republican Association (HRA).

Also, check previous Daily News Analysis