The Hindu Editorial Analysis- 6th October, 2020 | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

1. PANDEMIC PEAK: ON FINANCE MINISTRY'S REPORT-

GS 2- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health

Context
(i) The Finance Ministry in a report said that while the pandemic was far from over in India, the country may be “past its peak” of the COVID-19 case load.
(ii) It premised this on a declining case load from September 17-30 when the daily positive cases dipped from 90,000 to 83,000 a day.

Test Positivity Rate
(i) This, along with an increase in testing had led to a falling test-positivity (or the number of tests needed to find a positive case) and so was a sign that India ought to be ‘further freeing up its economy.’
(ii) The pandemic being past its peak in India is irrational(illogical) optimism.
(iii) Last week the chief of the Indian Council of Medical Research, while announcing the results of the second all-India serology survey, said only 7% of Indians had been exposed to the virus.
(iv) The Health Minister too, referencing the same survey, said that India was “far from any sort of herd immunity.”
(v) The decline from 90,000 cases a day to around 75,000 for over a fortnight is certainly welcome but can be deceptive.
(vi) In the United States, daily cases steadily plummeted(decreased) from 70,000 in July to 24,000 in September, to ascend(rise) again to 50,000 this week.
(vii) India’s test positivity is declining but not substantially.
(viii) On September 23 it was 8.52% and as of October 4 had fallen to 8.29% — an improvement but not close to the World Health Organization-suggested safety barrier(restriction) of less than 5%.

Dynamic
(i) What further complicates projections based on ephemeral(temporary) undulations(outline) in cases is that it does not take into account the dynamic nature of the virus itself.
(ii) The early optimism(positivity) that its spread may be contained by changes in the weather, behavioural modifications and imposing a sudden, stringent lockdown has been belied(turned false).
(iii) If a complete shutdown could not stop it, it is hard to fathom(understand) how allowing public transport and religious congregations, permitting schools and educational institutions to restart, opening up malls in a season that is particularly conducive to viruses, will not catalyse(convert) the movement to a new peak.
(iv) The so-called peak is a statistical artefact closely connected to the number of tests a country administers.
(v) If testing were to decline, more cases would be undetected, and conversely, an increase in tests could push this hypothetical point even further.
(vi) Therefore, it is only after sufficient time has elapsed(passed) and in retrospect(from past) that a country’s peak can be inferred.
(vii) India has been opening up the economy and this increases the average person’s exposure to the virus.
(viii) Countries with much fewer cases have been far more cautious with opening.
(ix) The lockdown had shown the disruption in the economy, and it is understandable if Finance Ministry officials seek a justification for opening up.
(x) But just as it would be surprising for epidemiologists to forecast GDP growth, officials ought not to be prognosticating(predicting) outside their ken(lnowledge) merely to revive economic sentiment, when several alternatives based on fact and reason exist.

Conclusion
The economy needs to be unlocked with caution, without resort(falling) to irrational optimism.

2. RE-IMAGINING EDUCATION IN AN INDIA AT 100-

GS 2- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education

Context
(i) After 34 years, India rekindled the conversation on its National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020.
(ii) A policy is as good as it is actualised in practice and it would be ideal to explore the contours of national education practices leading to 2047 when politically independent India becomes 100 years old.
(iii) From a teacher’s perspective, the next education practices can be viewed through the following five design principles.

To Excel Is Key
(i) Autonomy: Currently, the clamour(urge) for autonomy in education practices is a mixed bag of pretentious idealism and hard-nosed practicality.
(ii) The Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017 granting autonomy to the IIMs has now become an Act.
(iii) In helming a first generation IIM for two terms, one has seen no dramatic variation in the nature of autonomy of the IIMs.
(iv) The reason for this is that the IIMs, as indeed the Indian Institutes of Technology, have been performing institutions with robust(strong) self-correcting systems.
(v) The greatest insurance for autonomy is excellence in students’ outcomes rather than a piece of legislation.
(vi) As long as institutions continue to excel, they will earn their autonomy through social, community and citizens’ sanctions.
(vii) Legislation may help. However, institutions and institutional leaders who are trained for blind conformity will find exercise of autonomy rather difficult even if the law is on their side.
(viii) In practice, autonomy cannot be defined by entitlement nor limited by unlawful encroachment.
(ix) Mere assumption of autonomy does not ensure exercise of autonomy.
(x) By 2047, autonomy has to be imbibed(digested) as an institutional culture rather than a personal perquisite of a vice chancellor, principal or a director.
(xi) There will be autonomy in teaching methods, autonomy of the learner in creating her own curriculum, autonomy of thought and self-governance — Swayttata.

Technology-Rich Settings
(i) Learning: In 2047, six billion people in the world would constitute the middle class.
(ii) With little money but with enormous hunger for learning, they will define the learner base for a networked global university system.
(iii) Technology will proliferate(increase) intelligence from hardware to software to everywhere.
(iv) Smart schools and smart classes may soon morph(transformed) to smart chairs and smart desks. Intelligence can be embedded(fitted) into everything.
(v) Smart chairs will have sensors to map the flow of attention in the classrooms.
(vi) On the other hand, the intangibles(can only be felt) of the teaching learning process such as creativity, mentorship and facilitation of learning will give birth to the quest for mastery.
(vii) Teachers will evolve from ring masters to zen masters, raising awareness rather than delivering content.
(viii) The four core tasks of the university: creation; dissemination(spreading); accreditation and monetisation of knowledge will require a sweet synthesis(mixture) of algorithm and altruism(selflessness).
(ix) Learning will involve mobilisation of knowledge for a specific person; is a specific context to face specific challenges or problems.
(x) In the ultimate analysis, learning will be about propagation of crucial questions rather than pre-determined answers.
(xi) Pressure of performance will have to co-exist with the pleasure and ecstasy of learning — ananda.

Coherence Across Fields
(i) Trans-disciplinarity: The new National Education Policy (NEP) roots for multi-disciplinary institutions rather than standalone schools.
(ii) Multidisciplinarity involves experts from different disciplines working together, each drawing on their unique disciplinary knowledge.
(iii) In a world that is going to be more complex and volatile, expertise from multiple disciplines will be required to construct an understanding of the real life problems we will face.
(iv) The challenges that COVID-19 has thrown before us require medical scientists, economists, historians, architects, health workers and political scientists and more experts to bring their disciplinary depth to the table.
(v) Frequent flooding of our cities is at once an urban planning issue, an engineering issue, environmental issue, public health issue, and of course a political issue that requires many diverse fields to create an understanding of the nature of the problem and its solution.
(vi) However, by 2047, trans-disciplinarity rather than multi-disciplinarity will be the norm.
(vii) Transdisciplinarity is about creating a coherence of intellectual frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives.
(viii) Knowledge in 2047 will move from discipline-based units to the unity of meaning and understanding.

School As A Connecting Hub
(i) Technology-innovation: Technology-led innovation will take learning from cognition to immersion.
(ii) The content of knowledge has evolved from text that had to be cognised(aware of) to include visual, audio and tactile immersive experiences.
(iii) Traditionally, students of professional courses learnt through field and factory visits.
(iv) Today, it is possible for a factory experience to be simulated in a classroom.
(v) A leading global engineering company, ABB, is using virtual reality to simulate a factory experience inside a school.
(vi) A classroom will not be a place but a space. In 2047, school will not be a brick and mortar house but a connecting hub that will digitally decode, deliver and disperse knowledge.
(vii) Disruptive innovation will enable technology to give greater access to hitherto(although) exclusive knowledge and fulfil unmet learner needs.
(viii) A vice chancellor’s office will look a lot more like a tech-studio. Technology will not be a cosmetic add-on but serve a strategic purpose.
(ix) Leading schools of the world will harness talent and technology seamlessly.

Nurturing Minds With Values
(i) Values, mindset and culture: By 2047, Indian teachers will be engaged in nurturing global mindsets based on three classical values of India: satyam (authenticity), nityam (sustainability) and purnam (wholeness).
(ii) Mindsets will be based on how learners receive information and not what information they receive; on how to think rather than what to think.
(iii) Education is finally about creating and sustaining wholesome cultures rather than serving the templates of outmoded civilisations.
(iv) The post-colonial Indian education system has managed to create mindsets of clerks and coders and imitators to serve a civilisation that bets on material values of exploitation of nature and increasing consumption.
(v) While civilisation is about what we acquire, culture is concerned with who we become.
(vi) The most valuable outcome of education is the becoming of a competent and compassionate human being.
(vii) In 2047, a teacher’s role will be to midwife this transformative re-birth of citizens of our great nation.

3. INDIA NEEDS A RAINBOW RECOVERY PLAN-

GS 3- Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment

Context
(i) The world could emerge from COVID-19 so much the worse by attempting ‘business as usual’, or it could take pathways to a more just, sustainable future.
(ii) In Europe and the U.S., a ‘green new deal’ (GND) proposed by some from the political mainstream puts the climate and employment crises at the centre of economic recovery.
(iii) In India, we have a chance to build on our genius and heritage to forge a multihued approach — a rainbow new deal (RND).
(iv) By RND, one refers to a seamless integration of ecological protection and tackling of wealth inequality and economic vulnerability of several hundreds of millions of people. Green meets red, so to speak.
(v) But ‘green’ itself is a restricted environmentalism; the oceans and rivers and natural deserts and mountains together are a lot more colours.
(vi) I also include here recognition of multiple genders and sexualities from whose movements I borrow the symbol of the rainbow.

What Would Rnd Entail?
(i) Our most urgent task is to generate dignified, sustainable livelihoods for the vast majority of the population and workforce that is today living precarious lives.
(ii) And this has to be built on regenerating and safeguarding the country’s soil, natural ecosystems, water, biological diversity, and air.
(iii) We should never forget that the more we destroy it, the more we invite crises, from COVID-19 to climate.
(iv) The nearly 200 million small farmers, pastoralists, and fishers can be enabled to sustain or switch to organic, ecologically sustainable production, with their own food security as the highest priority, and with local marketing links.
(v) This would include over 10 million people who appear to have gone back to agriculture in the COVID-19 period.
(vi) Next, the RND could encourage lifestyles and livelihoods that obtain substantial food, medicines, household items and other needs, as also sustainable livelihoods, from natural ecosystems.
(vii) Forest-based livelihoods alone, for instance, can support 100 million people.
(viii) Third, it would entail reviving and sustaining India’s incredible diversity of crafts, and decentralised production of most goods and services, across all villages and towns, with a massive investment in the small and medium sector enterprises.
(ix) This could gainfully employ 200 million people. All such production could be run democratically as producer companies or cooperatives.
(x) For all the above, schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme could be re-oriented and extended, including for urban livelihoods.
(xi) Then, the RND would entail(involve) substantial investments in public health, education, housing, transportation and other basic needs.
(xii) If these are run in a decentralised way, with appropriate training, they could generate many more millions of jobs.
(xiii) The same could be for other services like digital networks and communications, as also decentralised infrastructure development by worker collectives.
(xiv) All of this would be within ecologically sustainable limits, and specially focused on empowering and benefiting the most marginalised people.

Producing Locally
(i) In such a recovery, big companies need to be kept out.
(ii) Soap, footwear, furniture, clothes, energy, and myriad other items of everyday use can be produced by community-run units across the country.
(iii) ‘Made in India’ should be ‘Handmade in India’ by local workers.
(iv) In a recent webinar, Suresh Chhanga, sarpanch of Kunariya village in Kachchh in Gujarat, proposed that they can save ₹40 lakh a month on such items by producing them locally.
(v) Elango Rangasamy, former Dalit sarpanch of Kuthambakkam village in Tamil Nadu, proposes a ‘network economy’, in which clusters of villages can be self-reliant for most basic needs, and exchange with neighbouring clusters what they cannot produce or grow.
(vi) Ela Bhatt, founder of SEWA, has proposed the ‘100 mile radius’ as a region within which the objective of self-reliance can be met.
(vii) These are all currently relevant versions of Mahatma Gandhi’s focus on self-reliance.
(viii) There are hundreds of initiatives already demonstrating the feasibility of such an approach. Many are run by workers and communities themselves.
(ix) Government-sponsored programmes like Kudumbashree in Kerala and Jharcraft in Jharkhand show how they can be significantly scaled with state support.
(x) During the COVID-19 lockdown, community resilience based on such initiatives was amply demonstrated.
(xi) But let’s be clear: such RND will succeed only if there is a fundamental move away from a privatised, capitalist economy, and an authoritarian state, and head-on tackling of casteism, patriarchy and other structures of inequality.
(xii) There are many successful initiatives at empowering women, Dalits, Adivasis, landless, the LGBTQ+ community and the disabled to learn from.
(xiii) This also means a serious attempt at land reforms, including recognising collective rights over the commons: forests, grasslands, coastal and marine areas, biodiversity, wetlands, water, and knowledge.
(xiv) Legislation similar to the Forest Rights Act, and community mobilisation to implement it, is needed for all other ecosystems.

Wealth Redistribution
(i) Where substantial public investments are needed, serious wealth redistribution is called for.
(ii) As economist Prabhat Patnaik has pointed out, a mere 2% wealth tax coupled with a 33% inheritance tax on the richest 1% of India could generate more revenue than the total recovery package the Government of India announced in May 2020 .
(iii) It is of course foolish to expect the government to go for such RND.
(iv) Prime Minister’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ programme, with all its doublespeak on ‘self-reliance’, places India’s economy even more into the hands of private capital and big players.
(v) Massive, informed public mobilisation is needed to counter this policy regression.
(vi) The recent protests by lakhs of young people against the regressive Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2020 and against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens provide hope.
(vii) If these diverse strands of resistance, feminist, worker, farmer, and other mobilisations of the marginalised, and myriad grassroots initiatives at alternative living all can be synergised, a RND kind of transformation may yet be on the horizon.