IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs (Prelims + Mains Focus)- 25th May 2018

Archives

(PRELIMS+MAINS FOCUS)

‘Clean Air India Initiative’

Part of: Mains GS Paper III- Environment conservation

Key pointers:

• Prime Minister of Netherlands Mark Rutte, who is in India on a two-day visit, launched the ‘Clean Air India Initiative’ in the national capital.
• The Clean Air India Initiative is a collaborative project between Get In The Ring, a platform for start-ups, the government of the Netherlands, Start-up India, and INDUS Forum, an online matchmaking platform of Indian and Dutch businesses.
• The campaign aims to curb air pollution in Indian cities by promoting partnerships between Indian start-ups and Dutch companies and build a network of entrepreneurs working on business solutions for cleaner air.
• A major business opportunity for Dutch firms that was highlighted included the potential for sale of equipment (such as sensors), data, and solutions concerning air quality monitoring (AQM).
  It is estimated that 80% of India is not covered by AQM data collecting which is the first step toward monitoring and combating air pollution.

‘INDUS impact’ project:

• An ‘INDUS impact’ project aims to halt the hazardous burning of paddy stubble by promoting business partnerships that “upcycle” it.
• This entails using paddy straw as feedstock to make materials that would find use in construction and packaging — a technology and expertise that Dutch companies are keen to market in India.
• Severe air pollution in Delhi is caused by the burning of paddy straw in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab.

‘Samagra Shiksha’ Programme

Part of: Mains GS Paper III- Environment conservation

Key pointers:

• It aims to make school education an integrated whole from pre-school to Class-12.

• The programme will subsume three existing schemes: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikskha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
• The programme will focus on quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students, bridging social and gender gaps in the school education, and promoting vocalisation of education.
• Focus will also be on empowerment of girls. The upgradation of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) has been extended from class VI-VIII to class VI-XII.
• CWSN (Children With Special Needs) girls from Class I to XII would be given a stipend of ₹200 per month.
• To focus on the importance of libraries, schools would be given an annual grant of ₹5,000 to ₹20,000 under the initiative.

• As part of the scheme, the Centre will give government schools grants for buying sports equipment so as to promote sports in schools, so that one hour can be devoted to sports daily.

Nepal: First in WHO’s South-East Asia Region to defeat Trachoma

Part of: Mains GS Paper II- Government interventions in key sectors

Key pointers:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Nepal for having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem – a milestone, as the country becomes the first in WHO’s South-East Asia Region to defeat the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness.
• Trachoma was the second leading cause of preventable blindness in Nepal in the 1980s.
• In 2002, the Government of Nepal stepped up efforts to eliminate the disease with the establishment of a national trachoma programme.
  From 2002 to 2005, following the implementation of sustained control activities, the prevalence of active (inflammatory) trachoma fell by 40%.
• To increase awareness, the national trachoma programme collaborated with the Ministry of Education to include a module on trachoma in the school curriculum.
• Between 2002 and 2014, eye hospitals and dozens of eye centres and clinics with trained staff were established across Nepal.

(MAINS FOCUS)

NATIONAL

TOPIC:General Studies 2:

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Protecting Digital Health Data: DISHA

In news:

Recently, the government has put in place the draft of a new law – Digital Information Security in HealthCare Act (DISHA). The law is meant to protect digital health data.
With healthcare providers’ growing dependence on IT, there’s all the more need for stronger data protection laws.

Data leakages:

• The recent reports of Aadhaar data leakage and the still recent breach of information by Facebook of its registered users have posed more questions on the significance of data protection and the need to have strict laws for the same.
• In a serious breach of data safety, the health data of about 35,000 people in a pathology laboratory in Maharashtra was leaked in 2016. Notably, it was the EMRs (electronic medical records) that were leaked.

As we use computers on a routine basis and depend on them to process the data of a large number of patients, we are increasingly susceptible to hacking attempts and data theft.

IT Technology: A necessity

Computer or IT technology is no longer a luxury or value addition, it has become a necessity.

• ‘Big Data Analytics’ is the new buzzword in the field of healthcare with data analysis being used by healthcare providers to record, share and study a number of parameters associated with diseases, their types and demography.
• In healthcare, IT is being increasingly used today for analysing, simplifying and applying algorithms to data collected from patients for further productive purposes.
• This practice is also duly included in the Clinical Establishments (Registration & Regulation) Act 2010, which mandates maintenance and provision of EMR for every patient by clinical establishments. Maintenance of data in electronic form provides several benefits to the hospitals for clinical establishment.
• It also helps the government in analysing mass data and formulating public policies.

Thus, the solution lies not in doing away with IT but to have strong data protection laws with sufficient deterrent against theft and hacking attempts.

Where are we today at data protection?

The need for data security is recognised in Indian healthcare to save the data of patients from being misused or leaked.

• Under the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, doctors are required to maintain confidentiality of all patients during various stages of the medical treatment and procedures and also of the information provided by them.
  However, it failed to clearly define the time-line for accessing data of patients. It also failed to include URLs and IP addresses as sensitive information, something which is of paramount significance in the internet driven world today.
• Certain sections of the Information Technology Act also provide a basic framework for the protection of personal information in India, but these suffer from a number of flaws.
  For example, Section 43(a) is applicable only to a ‘body corporate’ and leaves out individuals and legal entities like trusts or NGOs and many others from its purview.

‘Electronic Health Records Standards for India’:

To overcome some of these shortcomings, the government came out with ‘Electronic Health Records Standards for India’ in 2013.
These standards safeguard patients’ data in many ways and require safeguarding of financial information of patients.
These standards also require healthcare providers to designate “a privacy officer who will be responsible for implementing privacy policies, audit and quality assurance”.
It also has a provision for patients “to request a healthcare organisation that holds their health records, to withhold specific information that he/she does not want disclosed to other organisations or individuals.”

The new Digital Information Security in HealthCare Act (DISHA):

• It makes any breach punishable with up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5 lakh.
• It redefines personal information of the patients. It adds, “use of narcotic or psychotropic substances, consumption of alcohol, human immunodeficiency virus status, sexually transmitted infections treatment, and abortion” related information of the patient to the list of sensitive information.
• DISHA also defines a ‘clinical establishment’ as well as the term ‘entity’ clearly and unambiguously to include individuals, trusts, private and public establishments, hospitals, diagnostic centres, pathological laboratories, radiology laboratories, etc.
• It also accords great significance to “informed consent” of individuals and emphasises on obtaining explicit consent before transfer and use of digital health data.

While it is yet to be seen what the final shape of this new law will be, it is definitely a move in the right direction as it ensures protection of digital health data at every step, including at the time of their generation, collection, storage and transmission.

Conclusion:

As it is true for any law, the devil lies in implementation. Unless implemented effectively, no law, howsoever stringent, can have the desired impact.
It will be pertinent to look at actual cases of data theft after DISHA is implemented and other emerging trends to revise and replenish this legislation from time to time.

Connecting the dots:

• Recently, the government has put in place the draft of a new law – Digital Information Security in HealthCare Act (DISHA). It is definitely a move in the right direction as it ensures protection of digital health data. Discuss.

NATIONAL

TOPIC:General Studies 2:

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

The Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018

In news:

On April 4, the Union Cabinet approved the Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018, in order to protect and promote better human rights in India.
The Bill intends to give the NHRC teeth as well as claws to act against human rights violations.

Background:

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been often described as a paper tiger, unable to protect ordinary citizens from human rights violations, committed at times by the state machinery.
In one such case, the NHRC, disillusioned by its helplessness in bringing justice in the alleged extrajudicial killings of 1,528 persons in Manipur, had last year referred to itself as a “toothless tiger” before the Supreme Court.

The Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018: Salient features

• To ensure that the NHRC is more inclusive, the Bill proposes to include one member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights within its fold as a deemed member as well as a woman member.
• It proposes to enlarge the scope of eligibility and selection of the Chairperson of the NHRC as well as of State Human Rights Commissions.
• It proposes to incorporate a mechanism to look into cases of human rights violations in Union Territories.
• It proposes to amend the term of office of the Chairperson and members of the NHRC and the State Human Rights Commissions to ensure that it is in consonance with the terms of the Chairpersons and members of other commissions.

The Amendment Bill seeks to strengthen human rights institutions so that they can discharge their roles and responsibilities effectively.

Sync with agreed global standards and benchmarks:

The amended Act will be in sync with the agreed global standards and benchmarks on ensuring rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of individuals in the country.
The amendment to the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 will make the NHRC and State Human Rights Commissions more compliant with the Paris Principle “concerning its autonomy, independence, pluralism and wide-ranging functions in order to effectively protect and promote human rights”.

Connecting the dots:

• The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been often described as a paper tiger. In this light discuss the salient features of the Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018.

(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)

Model questions: (You can now post your answers in comment section)

Q.1) Which of the following statements is/are true regarding ‘Samagra Shiksha’ Programme’.

1. It aims to make school education an integrated whole from pre-school to Class-12.
2. The programme will subsume three existing schemes: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikskha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
3. The programme will focus on quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students, bridging social and gender gaps in the school education, and promoting vocalisation of education.

Select the correct option

1. 1 only
2. 1 and 2 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 1,2 and 3

Q.2) Which of the following statements is/are true regarding ‘Clean Air India Initiative’.

1. It is a joint initiative between Indian and Netherlands governments.
2. The campaign aims to curb air pollution in Indian cities.
3. On similar lines, ‘INDUS impact’ project aims to halt the hazardous burning of paddy stubble by promoting business partnerships that “upcycle” it.

Select the correct option

1. 1 only
2. 1 and 2 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 1,2 and 3

Q.3) Nepal has become the first in WHO’s South-East Asia Region to defeat Trachoma. The disease Trachoma affects which body part:

Select the correct option

1. Eyes
2. Ears
3. Eyes and ears
4. None of the above.

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