Daily Analysis of 'The Hindu' - 31th January, 2020 | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


A troubling prescription 
?Novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV 
?has spread to 20 countries/ regions,  
?number of cases has risen to 7,711 
?number of deaths to 170 in mainland China alone. 
?Ministry of AYUSH has published a misleading advisory 
?certain Unani medicines for “ s y mp t o ma t i c management of Corona Virus 
i n f e c t i o n ” and certain Ayurvedic practices and homeopathy medicines to help 
“ p r e v e n t the infection ” 
?None of the medicines mentioned in the advisory has undergone any form of 
clinical validation. 
?There is no drug to specifically target the virus. 
?patients are being provided with symptomatic treatment 
Page 2


A troubling prescription 
?Novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV 
?has spread to 20 countries/ regions,  
?number of cases has risen to 7,711 
?number of deaths to 170 in mainland China alone. 
?Ministry of AYUSH has published a misleading advisory 
?certain Unani medicines for “ s y mp t o ma t i c management of Corona Virus 
i n f e c t i o n ” and certain Ayurvedic practices and homeopathy medicines to help 
“ p r e v e n t the infection ” 
?None of the medicines mentioned in the advisory has undergone any form of 
clinical validation. 
?There is no drug to specifically target the virus. 
?patients are being provided with symptomatic treatment 
?AYUSH M i n i st r y ’ s recommendation is highly 
irresponsible and dangerous. 
?it has not cared to list the symptoms that people 
infected with the novel virus exhibit 
?it has not mentioned which specific medicine should be 
taken if a particular symptom is noticed 
?Ministry is encouraging people to self-medicate, which 
is alarming 
?Ministry of Health and Family W e lf a r e ’ s current 
practice of quickly isolating patients suspected of 
carrying the virus to prevent its spread, and 
providing them with symptomatic treatment if 
they are found infected. 
 
Page 3


A troubling prescription 
?Novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV 
?has spread to 20 countries/ regions,  
?number of cases has risen to 7,711 
?number of deaths to 170 in mainland China alone. 
?Ministry of AYUSH has published a misleading advisory 
?certain Unani medicines for “ s y mp t o ma t i c management of Corona Virus 
i n f e c t i o n ” and certain Ayurvedic practices and homeopathy medicines to help 
“ p r e v e n t the infection ” 
?None of the medicines mentioned in the advisory has undergone any form of 
clinical validation. 
?There is no drug to specifically target the virus. 
?patients are being provided with symptomatic treatment 
?AYUSH M i n i st r y ’ s recommendation is highly 
irresponsible and dangerous. 
?it has not cared to list the symptoms that people 
infected with the novel virus exhibit 
?it has not mentioned which specific medicine should be 
taken if a particular symptom is noticed 
?Ministry is encouraging people to self-medicate, which 
is alarming 
?Ministry of Health and Family W e lf a r e ’ s current 
practice of quickly isolating patients suspected of 
carrying the virus to prevent its spread, and 
providing them with symptomatic treatment if 
they are found infected. 
 
Page 4


A troubling prescription 
?Novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV 
?has spread to 20 countries/ regions,  
?number of cases has risen to 7,711 
?number of deaths to 170 in mainland China alone. 
?Ministry of AYUSH has published a misleading advisory 
?certain Unani medicines for “ s y mp t o ma t i c management of Corona Virus 
i n f e c t i o n ” and certain Ayurvedic practices and homeopathy medicines to help 
“ p r e v e n t the infection ” 
?None of the medicines mentioned in the advisory has undergone any form of 
clinical validation. 
?There is no drug to specifically target the virus. 
?patients are being provided with symptomatic treatment 
?AYUSH M i n i st r y ’ s recommendation is highly 
irresponsible and dangerous. 
?it has not cared to list the symptoms that people 
infected with the novel virus exhibit 
?it has not mentioned which specific medicine should be 
taken if a particular symptom is noticed 
?Ministry is encouraging people to self-medicate, which 
is alarming 
?Ministry of Health and Family W e lf a r e ’ s current 
practice of quickly isolating patients suspected of 
carrying the virus to prevent its spread, and 
providing them with symptomatic treatment if 
they are found infected. 
 
For the rural poor, a manufactured crisis 
?National Population Register (NPR) and a possible 
National Register of Citizens (NRC) are being pushed 
at a time when rural distress is acute. 
?Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) is meant to be 
conducted once every five years by the National 
Statistical Office (NSO). 
?CES contains details about the spending patterns of 
households. 
?Data collected from this becomes a vital source of 
information to improve economic planning and 
budgetary allocation. 
Page 5


A troubling prescription 
?Novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV 
?has spread to 20 countries/ regions,  
?number of cases has risen to 7,711 
?number of deaths to 170 in mainland China alone. 
?Ministry of AYUSH has published a misleading advisory 
?certain Unani medicines for “ s y mp t o ma t i c management of Corona Virus 
i n f e c t i o n ” and certain Ayurvedic practices and homeopathy medicines to help 
“ p r e v e n t the infection ” 
?None of the medicines mentioned in the advisory has undergone any form of 
clinical validation. 
?There is no drug to specifically target the virus. 
?patients are being provided with symptomatic treatment 
?AYUSH M i n i st r y ’ s recommendation is highly 
irresponsible and dangerous. 
?it has not cared to list the symptoms that people 
infected with the novel virus exhibit 
?it has not mentioned which specific medicine should be 
taken if a particular symptom is noticed 
?Ministry is encouraging people to self-medicate, which 
is alarming 
?Ministry of Health and Family W e lf a r e ’ s current 
practice of quickly isolating patients suspected of 
carrying the virus to prevent its spread, and 
providing them with symptomatic treatment if 
they are found infected. 
 
For the rural poor, a manufactured crisis 
?National Population Register (NPR) and a possible 
National Register of Citizens (NRC) are being pushed 
at a time when rural distress is acute. 
?Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) is meant to be 
conducted once every five years by the National 
Statistical Office (NSO). 
?CES contains details about the spending patterns of 
households. 
?Data collected from this becomes a vital source of 
information to improve economic planning and 
budgetary allocation. 
?The Central government suppressed the release of 
the most recent survey data from 2017-2018. 
?Business Standar : consumer spending fell for the 
first time in 40 years. 
?A remarkable analysis of the report by Professor S. 
Subramanian in ‘The India Forum ’ compares the 
Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure 
(MPCE) from the CES 2011-2012 and 2017-2018.  
?It presents a grim picture of rural India. 
?According to his article, if we rank the rural 
population from the poorest to the richest, and 
divide them into 10 groups (or deciles), we find 
that the MPCE fell for every group.