03 Nov 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

B. GS 2 Related

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. SC stays EC order revoking ‘star campaigner’ status of Nath

Context:

The Supreme Court has stayed the order of the Election Commission (EC) revoking the ‘star campaigner’ status of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath.

Background:

The Election Commission (EC) revoked the status of a Congress leader as a star campaigner stating the reasons as repeated violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and completely disregarding the advisory issued to him.

This topic has been covered in the 31^st October 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis.

Details:

• Raising concerns that the revocation of his name from the ‘star campaigner’ list impeded the principle of ‘free and fair’ and level playing field in elections, Mr. Nath had raised a petition against the EC order.
• He argued that it was the prerogative of his party and not the EC to remove his name as a star campaigner.
• He asserted that Section 77(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 read with Guidelines for Star Campaigners issued by the Election Commission, from time to time, makes selection/revocation of ‘star campaigners’ the sole prerogative of the political party.

Supreme Court Order:

Heading a three-judge Bench, Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde, said that the Election Commission had no power to determine who should be the ‘star campaigner’ of a political party.

E. Editorials

Category: NUTRITION

1. The nutrition fallout of school closures

Context:

• The article analyzes the negative impact the school closures have had on the nutrition status of children.

Background:

Mid-day meal scheme:

• The mid-day meal scheme (MDMS) guidelines recommend providing one hot-cooked mid-day meal for school-going children. All school-going children from classes I to VIII in government and government-aided schools are eligible under the scheme. The National Education Policy, 2020 recommends extending the MDMS to cover other school-going children as well.
• MDMS is the largest school-feeding programme in the world, which has played an extremely significant role in increasing nutrition and learning among school-going children.
• The school’s mid-day meals are a major source of nutrition for children, particularly those from vulnerable communities.
• The mid-day meal in India should provide 450 Kcal of energy, a minimum of 12 grams of proteins, including adequate quantities of micronutrients like iron, folic acid, Vitamin-A, etc. This amounts to approximately one-third of the nutritional requirement of the child.

Challenges posed by the lockdown:

• The MDMS has been virtually dysfunctional due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Serving hot meals, at the children’s homes or even at the centre, poses many challenges in the present scenario.
  • Even states like Tamil Nadu, with a relatively good infrastructure for the MDMS, are unable to serve the mandated ‘hot cooked meal’ during the lockdown.

Concerns:

Loss of school meals:

• The report of ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020’, released by the Food and Agriculture Organization in partnership with other UN organisations estimates that in April 2020 at the peak of school closures, 369 million children globally were losing out on school meals, with an estimated 116 million of them from India.

Nutritional insecurity for children:

• The current situation has exacerbated the problem of child hunger and malnutrition.
• The recent Global Hunger Index (GHI) report for 2020 ranks India at 94 out of 107 countries and in the category ‘serious’. The Global Hunger Index is a combination of indicators of undernutrition in the population and wasting, stunting, and mortality in children below five years of age.

For related information, refer to:

CNA dated Oct 19, 2020: No great escape

Goal of Zero hunger:

• India is already far from achieving the ‘Zero Hunger’ goal envisaged under the Sustainable Development Goals. The current circumstances will only further increase the gap.

Non-implementation of government orders:

• Despite the orders in March and April 2020 that the usual hot-cooked mid-day meal or an equivalent food security allowance/dry ration would be provided to all eligible school-going children even during vacation, to ensure that their immunity and nutrition is not compromised, states are still struggling to implement this decision. The dry ration distributions in lieu of school meals have been irregular.
• According to the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) food grain bulletin, the off-take of grains under MDMS from FCI during April and May 2020 has been 22% lower than the corresponding off-take during April and May 2019. Most states have reported a decline in the grain offtake from FCI in April-May 2020.

Increase in child labour:

• There are also reports of children engaging in labour to supplement the fall in family incomes in vulnerable households.
• A recent report by the International Labour Organization and the UNICEF notes that unless school services and social security are universally strengthened, there is a risk that some children may not even return to schools when they reopen and may indulge in child labour.

Way forward:

Retrospective distribution of dry ration:

• Given that the distribution of dry ration started only in late May, there needs to be the immediate distribution of the April quota with retrospective effect.

Innovative strategies:

• Across the country and the world, innovative learning methods are being adopted to ensure children’s education outcomes, similar efforts are necessary to ensure nutritional security of the children.

Decentralised and local supply chains:

• Nutrition experts have suggested local smallholder farmers’ involvement in the school feeding programme. This could involve a livelihood model that links local smallholder farmers with the mid-day meal system for the supply of cereals, vegetables, and eggs.
• Locally produced vegetables and fruits may be added to the MDMS, also providing an income to local farmers.
• This would lead to decentralised models and local supply chains.
• This envisaged system apart from enabling nutritional security of children will also aid in diversifying production and farming systems, transform rural livelihoods and the local economy, and fulfill the ‘Atmanirbhar Poshan’ (nutritional self-sufficiency) agenda.

School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden:

• Initiatives such as the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden under MDMS to provide fresh vegetables for mid-day meals should be further strengthened.

School mid-day meal centre:

• Hot meals can be provided to non-school going but eligible children in the school mid-day meal centres, similar to free urban canteens or community kitchens for the elderly and others in some states.

Category: ECONOMY

1. Reinforcing RBI’s accountability

Context:

• The article analyzes the inflation targeting role played by the Reserve Bank of India.

Background:

Inflation targeting in India:

• Inflation targeting is a monetary policy strategy used by central banks for maintaining inflation at a certain level or within a specific range. With many central banks adopting it, inflation targeting has emerged as an important monetary policy framework.
  • This approach was in contrast with the multiple indicator approach that predated this inflation targeting framework where the central bank focused on both growth and price stability.

Monetary Policy Committee and its mandate:

• In 2016, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) signed an agreement with the Indian government that led to the creation of the first-ever monetary policy committee (MPC) in the country. The MPC was given the target of keeping inflation at 4% with a tolerance limit of 2%, over the next five years till 2021. This meant that inflation should be between 2% and 6%.
• Average inflation overshooting the upper tolerance level or remaining below the lower tolerance level for any three consecutive quarters constitutes a failure to achieve the inflation target.
• In case of failure to achieve the inflation target, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is required to send a report to the Centre, stating the reasons for the failure to achieve the inflation target, the remedial actions it proposes to initiate, and an estimate of the time period within which it expects to achieve the inflation target through the corrective steps proposed. The report is aimed at ensuring enhanced transparency and accountability of the RBI in its inflation targeting role.

For related information, refer to:

CNA dated Dec 23, 2019: Counter-cyclical steps, structural reforms needed to tackle slowdown

Concerns:

Missed targets:

• In the last three quarters of the current financial year, average inflation has exceeded the target remaining above the upper tolerance limit set by the Centre.
  • Inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), was 6.7% in the January-March quarter, 6.6% in the April-June quarter (based on imputed data) and 6.9% in the July-September quarter.

For related information, refer to:

CNA dated July 16, 2020: Inflation alert

Unjustified arguments:

• The MPC in its August policy review has cited the lack of adequate and quality data and called for a break in the CPI series for the purpose of monetary policy decisions and exempting the RBI from complying with the requirement of writing to the Finance Ministry, explaining why inflation missed the set targets.
  • The normal data collection exercise of the National Statistics Office was disrupted during the lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The justification of data complications does not hold ground due to the following reasons:
  • There has been a continuous upward trend in the inflation figure. The break that the MPC referred to is not visible in the inflation data. The data for the last four quarters — 5.8%, 6.7%, 6.6%, 6.9% — appear continuous.
  • The range around the inflation target (+/- 2%) provided to the RBI is for accommodating constraints and challenges like data limitations, projection errors, short-run supply gaps and fluctuations in the agriculture production.

Questions on the inflation-targeting regime:

• Of late there have been calls from certain sections questioning the desirability of persisting with the inflation-targeting regime.
• Such an approach would only help artificially prop up numbers like business revenues and profits, or tax collection figures but would not be good economically in the longer run given the experience in some economies. Price stability is equally important as growth.

Way forward:

Upholding institutional mechanisms:

• RBI should not be allowed to side-step the institutional mechanism provided under the RBI Act. RBI must abide by the law and apprise the Centre of why it failed to control inflation and what measures it intends to take.
• Transparency can enable more informed decision-making within the government, greater public scrutiny of the RBI’s performance, and an improved inflation-targeting regime. This would also help improve the credibility, transparency and predictability of monetary policy.

Coordination and collaboration:

• The central bank should also be allowed to state expressly what support by way of government policy it needs to meet the inflation target.

Q1. Consider the following statements:

Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to ‘Red Sanders’: 

Q3. The Global Hunger Index is calculated using which of the following indicators?

Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to Purchasing Managers’ Index:

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. Analyze the negative impact the school closures due to the pandemic have had on the nutrition status of children and suggest requisite short and long term measures to ensure nutritional security for the children. (10 marks, 150 words)(GS Paper 2/Nutrition)
2. What is meant by inflation targeting? Discuss the significance of inflation targeting and also enumerate the inflation targeting framework in India. (10 marks, 150 words)(GS Paper 3/Economy)

Read the previous CNA here.