IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs Analysis

Daily Current Affairs [IAS UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam] – 3rd January 2019

(PRELIMS + MAINS FOCUS)

Bill to allow voluntary use of Aadhaar ID introduced

Part of: GS Mains II – National issue; Right to Privacy

In news:

Bill to allow voluntary use of Aadhaar ID was introduced that will provide legal backing for voluntary seeding of biometric Aadhaar ID with mobile numbers and bank accounts after the Supreme Court barred mandatory use of the 12-digit unique identifier by private firms.
The proposed amendment Bill is said to be in compliance with the Supreme Court’s judgment and there would be no infringement of privacy.

Committee in news: U.K. Sinha

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains III – Indian Economy and related issues; Revival of MSME sector

In news:

The RBI has appointed an eight member expert committee headed by former SEBI chairman U.K. Sinha to comprehensively review and propose long-term solutions for revival of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector.
The MSME sector has been facing stress due to the demonetisation exercise and implementation of GST.

Amalgamation of the three banks

Part of: GS Mains III – Indian Economy and related issues

In news:

The Union Cabinet approved the amalgamation of the three banks, with Bank of Baroda as the transferee bank, and Vijaya and Dena as transferor banks.
This would mean that the merged entity would be known as the Bank of Baroda.
The amalgamation will help create a strong globally competitive bank with economies of scale and facilitate realisation of wide-ranging synergies.

China building ‘advanced’ warships for Pak.: report

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains II – International affairs; Security issues

In news:

China is building the first of four “most advanced” naval warships for Pakistan as part of a major bilateral arms deal to ensure among other things “balance of power” in the strategic Indian Ocean.
China, an “all-weather ally” of Islamabad, is the largest supplier of weapon system to Pakistan. Both countries also jointly manufacturing the JF-Thunder, a single engine multi-role combat aircraft.

Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI)

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains II – International affairs; Environment and Climate Change

In news:

Morocco has been named the second best performing country after Sweden in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).
Morocco significantly increased the share of renewables over the past five years and increased new renewable energy capacity.
The bottom five in the list are Saudi Arabia, U.S., Iran, South Korea and Taiwan.
With the connection of the world’s largest solar plant to the grid, Morocco is on track for achieving its target of 42% installed renewable energy capacities by 2020.

Two young women entered the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple

In news:

Two young women (Bindu from Kozhikode and Kanakadurga from Malappuram) entered the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala under police cover.
It triggered anti-government protests across the State.
Chief priest performed rites of ‘purification’. Chief priest’s action violates Supreme Court verdict. Any form of exclusion based on concepts of ‘impurity and pollution’ amounts to untouchability.
Dawn-to-dusk strike was called after the incident.
This is the first time that women in the 10-50 age group have managed to enter the temple following the Supreme Court verdict of September 28.

(MAINS FOCUS)

SECURITY/DEFENCE

TOPIC:General studies 2

Role of external state and nonstate actors in creating challenges to internal security

Security challenges and their management in border areas

Deterrence or danger?

Context:

It has been universally recognised that the sole justification for having nuclear weapons is their deterrence value.
The initiation of a nuclear attack would mean utter destruction, not just for the two parties involved but also for regions far beyond.
If nuclear weapons fail to deter the outbreak of war involving use of such weapons, they have disastrously failed in their deterrence mission.

Second strike capability theory

The theory is that if country A initiates a nuclear attack on country B in a first strike, country B must be in a position, even after absorbing the nuclear strike, to retaliate with a massive nuclear attack on the enemy country. This is called second strike capability.

Concept of nuclear triad

A country which is equipped with land-based, air-based and sea-based nuclear delivery systems is considered to be a nuclear triad.
In the event that country A manages to destroy the land and air-based nukes of country B, country B will still have its third leg in the shape of sea-based nuclear-tipped missiles, called SLBMs or submarine-launched ballistic missiles, for use against country A because the sea-based missiles, launched from nuclear-powered submarines, would have remained undetected and hence safe from enemy attack.
Thus, the rationale for the naval leg of the triad is its survivability for retaliation, rather than deterrence.

Do you know?

On December 5, 2018, India announced that it had achieved its nuclear triad, after the completion of its first indigenous ship submersible ballistic nuclear (SSBN) maiden deterrence patrol.

The author argues that India does not gain anything by escalating the nuclear arms race in the region (especially with INS Arihant)

One, because the main purpose of naval leg of the triad is its survivability for retaliation, rather than deterrence. Therefore, acquiring SSBNs or a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine will not make our deterrent more credible.
Two, if the hostilities reach the threshold where a country may consider using nuclear weapons, it would be preceded by a period of conventional warfare.
Three, any conventional conflict itself will not start before several days of negotiations, including possible mediation by external powers and the UN Security Council. Even a small incident involving India and Pakistan would immediately invite big powers to rush in and mediate pull-back of forces, etc.
Four, whether the external interventions succeed or not in preventing a major war, the target country would have ample time to disperse its land and air-based nuclear assets. The naval leg does not seem indispensable.

HEALTH ISSUE

TOPIC:General studies 2

Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

Lessons from Kerala : Transforming Primary Care

Introduction:

Primary health care is in crisis. It is underdeveloped in many countries, underfunded in others, and facing a severe workforce recruitment and retention challenge.
Half the world’s population has no access to the most essential health services.

Do you know?

1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata – It united health leaders and highlighted the importance of primary health care as key to delivering better health for all, and to the value of social justice, health equity, and the social determinants of health.
But even after 40 years later, this vision has not been realised.
Hence, world leaders declared their commitment to ‘Primary Care’ in recently held (October 2018) Declaration on Primary Health Care at Astana, Kazakhstan.
Now the Sustainable Development Goals also provide new impetus to reach universal health coverage via strengthened primary health care.
The Astana Declaration would “aim to meet all people’s health needs across the life course through comprehensive preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative services and palliative care”.

List of primary care services

According to Astana Declaration, the following services are part of PHC services –

vaccination;
screenings;
prevention, control and management of non-communicable and communicable diseases;
care and services that promote, maintain and improve maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health; and
mental health and sexual and reproductive health

Aardram mission of Kerala

In 2016, Kerala attempted to re-design its primary care via Aardram mission.
It aimed to transform health care, address the current and future epidemiological situation.
In the revamped primary care, Kerala tried to provide the above provided PHC services.
These services cannot be provided without adequate human resources. It is nearly impossible to provide them with the current Indian norm of one primary care team for a population of 30,000. Kerala tried to reduce the target population to 10,000. Even the reduced target turned out to be too high to be effective.

Kerala’s experience suggests that providing comprehensive primary care would require at least one team for 5,000 populations.

Lessons learnt from Kerala’s experience could provide insights into what needs to be done to ensure the objectives of the Astana Declaration do not remain a statement of pious intentions in India.

Providing the entire set of services is beyond the capacity of medical and nursing graduates without specialised training. Building the capacity of medical and nursing graduates will be even more of a challenge and time taking.

Hence, Kerala has tried to get over this through short courses in specific areas such as management of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and depression.

Conclusion:

Primary Health Care is the most effective, efficient and equitable approach to enhance health, making it a necessary foundation to achieve universal health coverage (UHC).
The primary care system will be effective only when the providers assume responsibility for the health of the population assigned to them and the population trusts them for their health needs.
Both are linked to capacity, attitude and support from referral networks and the systemic framework.
Involving private sector will help in providing good quality primary care.
The private sector provides primary care in most countries though it is paid for from the budget or insurance. The private sector can provide good quality primary care if there are systems to finance care and if the private sector is prepared to invest in developing the needed capacities. (Therefore, efforts to include of Private Health Provider in Government Policy will help)
Achieving Universal Health Coverage, one of the Sustainable Development Goals to which India is committed, is not possible without universal primary health care.
The experience of Kerala in transforming primary care reveals the steepness of the path India will have to cover to reach the goals committed to in the Astana Declaration.

Connecting the dots:

Achieving Universal Health Coverage, one of the Sustainable Development Goals to which India is committed, is not possible without universal primary health care. Do you agree? Examine.

(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)

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

Note:

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Q.1) U.K. Sinha committee is associated with –

Teacher Reforms
Pension Reforms
Labour Reforms
MSME Reforms

Q.2) Consider the following statements with regard to recent Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI)

Morocco has been named the second best performing country after Sweden
The bottom five in the list are Saudi Arabia, U.S., India, South Korea and China.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?