UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 13th December 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

The script, once patronised by Meitei rulers but which fell into disuse with the advent of Hinduism and eventually disappeared, is now enjoying a new lease of life after a decades-old movement for its revival.

The Meiteilon script

• The Meiteilon (Manipuri language) script is fairly old.
• The earliest epigraphic record of the script is a stone inscription from Khoibu village which was erected on the orders of Meidingu Kiyamba (1467-1508).
• ‘Meidingu’ are kings who belong to the Ningthouja clan whose rule extends from 33 AD to 1949 AD.
• The Meitei Mayek or Meitei script evolved with time and this led to conflict between various proponents.
• The inscriptions on the coins of the 7th and 8th Century were perhaps in the 18-letter script, which, with the advent of Hinduism in the 17th century during the reign of Meidingu Pamheiba (1709-1748), was perhaps expanded to the 36-letter script.
• With the advent of Hinduism, Bengali scripts became so popular that stone inscriptions in the 18th and 19th century were in Bengali script.
• A movement to revive the Meitei Mayek started in the 1930s and gathered strength in the 1950s.
• By a Cabinet decision taken on May 18, 2005, Manipuri written in Meitei Mayek was introduced in schools and by now, it is taught even at the university level, replacing Bengali script.

About Meitei

• Meitei, also spelt Meetei or Meithei, also called Manipuri, dominant population of Manipur in northeastern India.
• They are predominantly Vaishnavite Hindus.
• They are divided into clans, the members of which do not intermarry.
• An interesting aspect of the village socio-economic organization in Meitei society is the Marup system (literally means friendship association), a type of cooperative saving and credit institution.
• They speak a Tibeto-Burman language, they differ culturally from the surrounding hill tribes by following Hindu customs.
• Rice cultivation on irrigated fields is the basis of their economy.

Source: Indianexpress.com

Context

Recently, the daytime’s temperatures in Delhi were above normal in December 2022 because of fewer western disturbances Western Disturbances (WD).

• In winter, WD brings rain and snow over the hills, and more moisture to the plains. The cloud cover results in higher minimum temperatures at night and lower day-time or maximum temperatures.

What are Western Disturbances?

• About:
  • Western disturbances are storms that originate in the Caspian or Mediterranean Sea, and bring non-monsoonal rainfall to northwest India, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
  • A Western Disturbance, labelled as an extra-tropical storm originating in the Mediterranean, is an area of low pressure that brings sudden showers, snow and fog in northwest India.
  • The disturbance travels from the “western” to the eastern direction.
  • These travel eastwards on high-altitude westerly jet streams - massive ribbons of fast winds traversing the earth from west to east.
  • They gradually travel across the middle-east from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to enter the Indian sub-continent.
  • Disturbance means an area of “disturbed” or reduced air pressure.
  • Equilibrium exists in nature due to which the air in a region tries to normalise its pressure.
• Impact in India:
  • A WD is associated with rainfall, snowfall and fog in northern India. It arrives with rain and snow in Pakistan and northern India.
  • The moisture which WDs carry with them comes from the Mediterranean Sea and/or from the Atlantic Ocean.
  • WD brings winter and pre-monsoon rain and is important for the development of the Rabi crop in the Northern subcontinent.
  • The WDs are not always the harbingers of good weather. Sometimes WDs can cause extreme weather events like floods, flash floods, landslides, dust storms, hail storms and cold waves killing people, destroying infrastructure and impacting livelihoods.
  • During the summer months of April and May, they move across North India and at times help in the activation of monsoon in certain parts of northwest India.
  • During the monsoon season, western disturbances may occasionally cause dense clouding and heavy precipitation.
  • Weak western disturbances are associated with crop failure and water problems across north India.
  • Strong western disturbances can help residents, farmers and governments avoid many of the problems associated with water scarcity.

What have been the Recent Instances/Impact of WD?

• Excess rainfall was recorded in January and February 2022. In contrast, there was no rainfall in November 2021 and March 2022, and the summer saw an unusually early start with heat waves setting in at the end of March 2022.
• Multiple western disturbances that brought cloud cover had also kept the maximum temperature low in February 2022, when the lowest maximum temperature in 19 years was recorded.
• Active western disturbances eluded northwest India in March 2022, and absence of cloud cover and rain allowed temperatures to remain high.
• The frequency of western disturbances has increased, but not the precipitation associated with them, partly due to a warming atmosphere (Global Warming).
• In 2021, western disturbances brought rain to Delhi in the first week of December.
• Delhi is, however, likely to get colder with the maximum temperature likely to fall to around 24 degrees by December 15, 2022.

Source: Indian Express

GS-II

Context

A failure to examine and interpret public health problems from a population perspective is leading to ineffective and unsustainable solutions.

• Propagating individualism has always been a characteristic feature of a consumerist society as every individual can then be a potential ‘customer’ in the face of risk and susceptibility. All forms of individualistic approaches in public health need to be resisted to safeguard its original principles of practice, viz. population, prevention, and social justice.
• However, public health must be based on population characteristics and economic resources.

Meaning of Individualism:

• A strong tendency in public health to prioritise individual-oriented interventions over societal oriented population-based approaches, is known as individualism in public health.
• Determinants:
• Misconception that what is done at an individual level, when done at a population level, becomes public health.
• Atomistic fallacy in public health: The public and health experts will make the mistake of judging a population’s characteristics based on individual experiences.
• Market’s role and the effect of consumerism in public health practice:
• Health effects are more visible and appear convincing at the individual level, wherein improvements at the population level will be clear only after population-level analysis

Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)

• It falls under Ayushman Bharat
• It is the largest publicly-funded health insurance scheme covering hospitalisation expenses for a family for ₹5 lakh a year.
• It aims to ensure ‘free’ curative care services for all kinds of hospitalisation services so that there is no financial burden to the beneficiary.

Challenges:

• Lack of population-based health-care planning.
• Giving assurance to every individual without ensuring the necessary health-care services to the population is not sustainable.
• As per NSSO 75th round – on an average, only 3% of the total population in India had an episode of hospitalisation in a year.
• Ideally, the Government needs to ensure health-care facilities to only 3%-5% of the population to cover all the hospitalisation needs of a population.
• Low proportion of benefit distribution:
• More than 90% of those who were given the promise do not need hospitalisation
• From an individualist perspective, any individual can be at risk for hospitalisation anytime but from a population perspective, one can confidently argue that each year, the maximum proportion of population in need of hospitalisation will be in the range of 5% of the total population.
• Covid management issues:
• Around 20% of the total COVID-19 positive cases needed medical attention, with around 5% needing hospitalisation and around 1%-2% needing intensive care (ICU) or ventilator support.
• Most of the deaths due to COVID-19 reflect the failure to offer ventilator and ICU support services to the 1%-2% in desperate need of it.

Suggestions:

• Quantum increase in budget allocations
  • India spends one of the lowest amounts as a country on health – 1.1% of its GDP.
  • The National Health Policy recommends increasing the outlay – Centre and state combined – to 2.5%.
  • It further recommends that state budgets increase health allocation 8% of the total budget.
• Supplementary nutrition programmes
  • Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey in 2019 – anganwadi centres in many states introduced eggs in their meals for protein requirements.
  • Strengthening of the Public Distribution System(PDS)
• Chronic disease control
  • For example, tuberculosis continues to push people into poverty – in southern Rajasthan people incur a debt of Rs 22,000 on average before presenting themselves to outpatient clinics
  • Most stop working due to the disease’s ill effects.
• Early diagnosis and treatment:
  • A report the Centre for Policy Research showed – in 15 states, not a single Primary Healthcare Center (PHC) meets the national public health standards set by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Building skilled manpower:
  • India has one of the highest numbers of medical colleges in the world.
  • India has 0.7 per thousand physicians in the country as opposed to the WHO-recommended 1 per thousand; and regional disparities compound this problem.
  • A General Physician (GP) in UK treats about 20 patients per day compared to treating up to 250 patients per day in India.
• Social justice in healthcare
  • The biological advantage reflected in the lower infant mortality rates among female babies relative to the males is offset by social and cultural preferences for male children.
  • Distressing incidents of discrimination in care for women in southern Rajasthan, where many families often deny women and girls hospital care even in life-threatening situations.

Way forward:

• The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted several issues in healthcare systems like high treatment costs, overburdened health facilities, lack of access to medical equipment, etc.
• We must now rise to anchor a revolution to change the face of health services in the country rooted in sustainable, evidence-based changes.
• Only then can we solidify India’s commitment to providing an equitable and inclusive healthcare service model to its citizens.

Source: The Hindu

Context

A major confrontation is on between the Union government and the Supreme Court over the former’s resentment towards the Collegium system of appointments and its push to have a dominant say in judicial appointments and transfers.

• The government has also started airing its grievance against the invalidation of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) by the court in 2015.
• Government’s repeated public criticism of the Collegium system on the ground that it is “opaque”.
• A ping-pong battle between the Collegium and the government over the names being recommended and reiterated for appointment in constitutional courts.

Collegium system:

• It is the system of appointment and transfer of judges
• It has evolved through judgments of the Supreme Court, and not by an Act of Parliament or by a provision of the Constitution.
• Supreme Court collegium is headed by the CJI (Chief Justice of India) and comprises four senior most judges of the Supreme court.
• A High Court collegium is led by the incumbent Chief Justice and two other senior most judges of that court.
• Judges of the higher judiciary are appointed only through the collegium system and the government has a role only after names have been decided by the collegium.

What is MoP:

• The MoP is the playbook agreed upon by the government and the judiciary on the appointment of judges, in accordance with the Collegium system.
• It was laid down in 1998.
• It states that the initiation of a proposal for appointment of Supreme Court judges vested with the CJI and that of High Court judges with the Chief Justice of the High Courts concerned.
• The MoP required the Chief Justices of High Courts to initiate the proposals six months prior to vacancies.
• The Constitution (99th Amendment) Act was passed by Parliament to provide for a National Judicial Commission, which was duly formed by the NJAC Act.
• In 2015, the court struck down the NJAC Act and the Constitution Amendment which sought to give politicians and civil society a final say in the appointment of judges to the highest courts.

The challenges: Government’s view

• Delaying judicial appointments by the Collegiums, both at the Supreme Court and High Court levels.
• The Supreme Court itself has six vacancies.
• Thwarting of NJAC that allowed proportionate representation to both centre and judiciary.
• Lack of due procedure: High Courts are not making recommendations six months in advance of a vacancy.
• In 2022, there are 332 judicial vacancies in the High Courts out of a total sanctioned strength of 1,108 judges.
• The High Courts have made 146 (44%) recommendations which are under consideration of the government and the Supreme Court.
• It said 43 High Court judges are scheduled to retire between December 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023, taking the vacancies up to 229. So far, no recommendations have been received.
• Dominance of Supreme Court: It rejects 25% names recommended by the High Courts for judgeships.
• While making 165 appointments during 2022, 56 proposals were rejected by the Supreme Court Collegium.
• Efficiency: The delay in the appointment process has affected the timely filling up of vacancies in the High Courts and efficient working of the judicial system.

Suggestions:

• No immunity from disclosure of the reasons recorded on the file when questioned in court.
• The concept of an open Government is the direct emanation from the right to know which seems to be implicit in the right of free speech and expression in article 19.
• Mandatory Requirement of Recording views of all consultees in writing.
• Full-scale Judicial Review about transfer or non-appointment of a candidate/judge.
• Difference between challenging appointment by proceeding in quo warranto vis a vis challenging non-appointment at the instance of the candidate.

Way forward:

• The Collegium system, combined with the MoP, is the current law.
• The Collegium and the government should work with a sense of “constitutional statesmanship”

Source: The Hindu

GS-III

NavIC

Context

To promote the use of ‘NAVigation with the Indian Constellation’ (NavIC), the Indian version of GPS, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will introduce the L1 frequency in all its future satellites, for civilian navigational use.

What is NavIC:

• It is the navigation satellite system and homegrown alternative to GPS.
• Developed by ISRO, it was first approved in 2006 but became operational only by 2018.
• At present, it consists of eight satellites, covering the whole of India and up to 1,500 km from its boundaries.
• The seven satellites in the NavIC constellation use two frequencies for providing positioning data — the L5 and S bands.
• The new satellites NVS-01 onwards, meant to replace these satellites, will also have L1 frequency.
• NavIC is as accurate as GPS.

What is L1 frequency:

• The L1 is the oldest and most established GPS signals
• Even the less sophisticated, civilian-use devices such as smartwatches can receive it.
• Thus, with this band, the use of NavIC in civilian-use gadgets can go up.
• GPS satellites generally transmit on two frequencies—L1 (42 MHz) and L2 (1227.60 MHz).

Use of NavIC:

• It is mainly being used in public vehicle tracking, to provide emergency warning alerts to fishermen venturing into the deep sea, and for tracking data related to natural disasters.
• The government is also pushing for its increased use in smartphones.

Advantages of NavIC:

• Since it is homegrown, will be more accurate than other systems.
• With a fully operational constellation and ground stations outside of India — ISRO plans to set up ground stations in Japan and France to better triangulate the entire area under NavIC coverage – the system is likely to become more accurate than GPS.
• The satellites placed directly over India also ensure better availability of signals in varied geographical regions compared to GPS, which India receives at an angle, making it difficult to access in dense forests or valleys.

Other navigation systems:

• Galileo – European Union
• GLONASS – Russia
• China’s – Beidou
• QZSS – Japan

Source: Indianexpress

Context

 NASA’s Orion capsule splashed down back to Earth

• The Orion’s landing in the Pacific Ocean marked the end of the inaugural Artemis 1 lunar mission exactly 50 years after Apollo’s final moon landing.
• It also performed a new landing technique called ‘skip entry’, designed to help the spacecraft accurately splash down at the landing site.
• Orion entered the Earth’s upper atmosphere and used the atmosphere and its lift to “skip” back outside the atmosphere only to re-enter once again.
• What is the Artemis I Mission?
  • Artemis I is an uncrewed mission of NASA.
  • Named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, it is NASA’s successor to the Apollo lunar missions from fifty years ago.
  • Artemis I is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence at the Moon for decades to come.
  • The primary goals for Artemis I are to demonstrate Orion’s systems in a spaceflight environment and ensure a safe re-entry, descent, splashdown, and recovery prior to the first flight with crew on Artemis II.
  • It is only a lunar Orbiter mission even though, unlike most Orbiter missions, it has a return-to-Earth target.
  • Artemis I is the first step into that new space age of achieving the promise of transporting humans to new worlds, of landing and living on other planets, or maybe meeting aliens.

• What are the Upcoming Artemis Missions?

  Artemis II:

  • It will take off in 2024.
  • Artemis II will have a crew aboard Orion and will be a test mission to confirm that all of the spacecraft’s systems will operate as designed when it has humans on board.
  • But the Artemis II launch will be similar to that of Artemis I. A crew of four astronauts will be aboard Orion as it and ICPS orbit the Earth twice before moving to the direction of the Moon.

• Artemis III:

  • It is scheduled for 2025, and is expected to ferry astronauts to the moon for the first time since the apollo missions.

Source: Indianexpress

Context

India needs to bring down its fiscal deficit which is highest among G20 countries

India and G20 presidency

• As India takes over the G20 presidency, one of the big jobs under the finance track is to ensure that G20 nations come up with a credible policy framework to tame inflation, especially food inflation, while protecting growth and ensuring overall financial stability.

What happened?

• The massive stimulus that was injected in almost all G20 nations to circumvent the fear of recession during Covid-19 has come back to haunt them in the form of excess liquidity, causing inflation.
• On top of that, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has flared fuel and food prices while climate change in the form of intense heat waves, floods and droughts, is also hitting at food prices in several countries.
• The year 2023 will be a test case for the collective wisdom of the G20 in taming inflation and protecting growth.

Other economies

• Global growth is likely to tumble from 6 per cent in 2021 to just 3.2 per cent in 2022 and 2.7 per cent in 2023.
• Advanced economies are likely to see even lower growth at only 2.4 per cent and 1.1 per cent in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
• Against this global backdrop of inflation and growth, India can surely stand tall and may be able to give a lesson or two to the G20 on how it has managed not to let food inflation go out of control and yet maintained the highest rate of GDP growth.

How did India manage inflation with growth?

• Managing inflation with growth was done in a synchronised manner by the RBI, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Food, and many other ministries. It is like playing an orchestra with various policy tools to create a symphony.

Fiscal Deficit

• However, there is no room for complacency even for India as we step into 2023. While our GDP growth prospects are the brightest and inflation is under control our fiscal deficit at 9.9 per cent (Centre and states combined) is the highest amongst all G20 countries.

Reasons for High Fiscal Deficit

The Fiscal Deficit can happen either due to poor revenues or high expenditures. However, the reasons for this are macroeconomic in nature. The reasons for the high fiscal deficit during COVID-19 is due to:

• Lower Revenue Realisation – Because of interruption in simple business deeds following the pandemic and lockdowns, the fiscal deficit has faced a lower revenue realization.
• Higher Expenditure: With an identified increase in revenue expenses for food and public Maintenance and development of rural areas could be imputed in pandemic relief programs by the government, the increase in Expenditure has one noticed.

Implications of Fiscal Deficit

• Inflationary Spiral: Borrowing from RBI, increases the supply of money in the economy, which increases the general price level. A prolonged increase in the general price level results in an inflationary spiral, i.e. borrowing from RBI > Increase in money supply > Increase in prices > Inflationary Spiral.
• National Debt: Fiscal Deficit gives birth to the national debt. It hampers GDP growth, as a large portion of the national income is spent on repaying past debts.
• Vicious Circle of High Fiscal Deficit and Low GDP Growth: When there is a high fiscal deficit constantly, it gives rise to a situation in which GDP growth remains low due to high fiscal deficit and the fiscal deficit remains high due to low GDP growth.
• Debt trap: Borrowing leads to two main problems, with respect to the repayment of loan and payment of interest, because the payment of interest again increases the revenue deficit. And more borrowing will be required to finance interest payments which results in a debt trap.
• Crowding Out: Crowding Out Effect is an outcome of Fiscal Deficit. It refers to a condition when high government borrowings because of high fiscal deficit, decreases the availability of funds for private investors. This reduces overall investment in the economy.
• Erosion of Government Credibility: High fiscal deficit destroys the credibility of the government in both domestic and international markets. This lowers down the government’s credit rating, and the foreign investors will begin withdrawing money that they have invested in the domestic economy. As a result of which GDP is reduced.

Measures Taken

• A high fiscal deficit can also be good for the economy if the money spent goes into the creation of productive assets like highways, roads, ports and airports that boost economic growth and result in job creation.
• The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 provides that the Centre should take appropriate measures to limit the fiscal deficit upto 3% of the GDP by 31st March, 2021.
• The NK Singh committee (set up in 2016) recommended that the government should target a fiscal deficit of 3% of the GDP in years up to 31^st March, 2020, cut it to 2.8% in 2020-21 and to 2.5% by 2023.

What can be done?

• Instead of subsidies same expenditure on building irrigation facilities, roads, warehouses and other infrastructure would help farmers earn higher incomes on a much more durable basis.
• Reduction in GST rates would be easier to implement, this measure would put more money into the hands of the people.
• Private firms would bring into use their excess capacities, and ultimately incur the much needed capital for increasing production and generating employment.

Source: Indian Express