Weekly Current Affairs (8th to 14th September 2022) - 1 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Healthcare Sector in India

Context:

• Healthcare has become more focused on innovation and technology over the past two years and 80% of healthcare systems are aiming to increase their investment in digital healthcare tools in the coming five years.

What is the Scenario of the Healthcare Sector in India?

About:

• Healthcare industry comprises hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance and medical equipment.
• India’s healthcare delivery system is categorised into two major components - public and private.
  • The government (public healthcare system), comprises limited secondary and tertiary care institutions in key cities and focuses on providing basic healthcare facilities in the form of Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in rural areas.
  • The private sector provides a majority of secondary, tertiary, and quaternary care institutions with major concentration in metros, tier-I and tier-II cities.

Market Statistics:

• The Indian healthcare sector is expected to record a three-fold rise, growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 22% between 2016–22 to reach USD 372 billion in 2022 from USD 110 billion in 2016.
• In the Economic Survey of 2022, India’s public expenditure on healthcare stood at 2.1% of GDP in 2021-22 against 1.8% in 2020-21 and 1.3% in 2019-20.
• In FY21, gross direct premium income underwritten by health insurance companies grew 13.3% YoY to Rs. 58,572.46 crore (USD 7.9 billion).
• The Indian medical tourism market was valued at USD 2.89 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 13.42 billion by 2026.
• Telemedicine is also expected to reach USD 5.5 billion by 2025.

What are the Challenges with the Health Sector?

Inadequate Access:

• Inadequate access to basic healthcare services such as shortage of medical professionals, a lack of quality assurance, insufficient health spending, and, most significantly, insufficient research funding.
• One of the major concerns is the administrations' insufficient financial allocation.

Low Budget:

• India’s public expenditure on healthcare is only 2.1% of GDP in 2021-22 while Japan, Canada and France spend about 10% of their GDP on public healthcare.
  • Even neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan have over 3% of their GDP going towards the public healthcare system.

Lack of Preventive Care:

• Preventive care is undervalued in India, despite the fact that it has been shown to be quite beneficial in alleviating a variety of difficulties for patients in terms of unhappiness and financial losses.

Lack of Medical Research:

• In India, R&D and cutting-edge technology-led new projects receive little attention.

Policymaking:

• Policymaking is undoubtedly crucial in providing effective and efficient healthcare services. In India, the issue is one of supply rather than demand, and policymaking can help.

Shortage in Professionals:

• In India, there is a shortage of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
• According to a study presented in Parliament by a minister, India is short 600,000 doctors.

Paucity of Resources:

• Doctors work in extreme conditions ranging from overcrowded out-patient departments, inadequate staff, medicines and infrastructure.

What is the Potential of the Indian Health Sector?

• India's competitive advantage lies in its large pool of well-trained medical professionals. India is also cost competitive compared to its peers in Asia and western countries. The cost of surgery in India is about one-tenth of that in the US or Western Europe.
• India has all the essential ingredients for the exponential growth in this sector, including a large population, a robust pharma and medical supply chain, 750 million plus smartphone users, 3rd largest start-up pool globally with easy access to VC (Venture Capital Fund) funding and innovative tech entrepreneurs looking to solve global healthcare problems.
• India will have about 50 clusters for faster clinical testing of medical devices to boost product development and innovation.
• The sector will be driven by life expectancy, shift in disease burden, changes in preferences, growing middle class, increase in health insurance, medical support, infrastructure development and policy support and incentives.
• As of 2021, the Indian healthcare sector is one of India’s largest employers as it employs a total of 4.7 million people. The sector has generated 2.7 million additional jobs in India between 2017-22 -- over 500,000 new jobs per year

What are the Initiatives for the Health Care Sector?

• National Health Mission
• Ayushman Bharat.
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).
• National Medical Commission
• PM National Dialysis Programme.
• Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK).
• Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK).

Way Forward

• There is an urgent need to improve the infrastructure of public hospitals, which are overburdened as a result of India's large population.
• The government should encourage private hospitals because they make a significant contribution.
• Because the difficulties are severe and cannot be tackled just by the government, the private sector must also engage.
• To improve the sector's capabilities and efficiency, more medical personnel must be inducted.
• In order to connect the dots in the health system, technology must be used.
  • Medical gadgets in hospitals and clinics, mobile health apps, wearables, and sensors are only a few examples of technology that should be included in this area.

US Start-up SETU

Context:

• The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry recently launched the US Startup SETU - Supporting Entrepreneurs in Transformation and Upskilling programme in the Bay Area of San Francisco, United States of America.

What are Startups?

About:

• The term startup refers to a company in the first stages of operations. Startups are founded by one or more entrepreneurs who want to develop a product or service for which they believe there is demand.
• These companies generally start with high costs and limited revenue, which is why they look for capital from a variety of sources such as venture capitalists.

Growth of Startups in India:

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has recognized startups which are spread across 56 diversified sectors.
  • More than 4,500 Startups have been recognized in sectors relating to emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, artificial intelligence, analytics, etc.
• Sustained Government efforts in this direction have resulted in increasing the number of recognized Startups from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 in 2022.

What is Startup SETU?

About:

• SETU or Supporting Entrepreneurs in Transformation and Upskilling is an Indian government initiative under Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• The initiative would connect start-ups in India to US-based investors and start-up ecosystem leaders with mentorship and assistance in various areas including funding, market access and commercialization.

Significance:

• To break the geographical barriers between US mentors willing to invest in entrepreneurship and sunrise startups in India.
• The interaction will be supported through the mentorship portal under the Startup India initiative MAARG, or the Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience, and Growth program, which is a single-stop solution finder for startups in India.
  • The portal has been developed with the idea to be accessible from every corner of the country to connect with a mentor.

Need:

• It is estimated that about 90% of the start-ups and more than half of the well-funded startups fail in their early days. Lack of experience in handling the business is a key issue, and founders require the right guidance for taking a decision and moral support.
• As India becomes a leading start-up destination, the proper guidance at the right time is paramount.
• Further, the Government of India invites stalwarts, seasoned experts, and industry leaders to give back to the nation by adding value to a startup’s journey.

Slide in Global Oil Prices

Context:

• Brent crude prices have fallen sharply over the last ten days, the prices have declined to under USD 90 per barrel.
• While they were trading at around $110 per barrel in July,2022.

What led to the Fall in Global Crude Oil Prices?

• The crude prices fell sharply by around 4% and the decline has come despite Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) plus announcement to cut supply by 100,000 barrels per day beginning October, 2022 in a bid to prop up the prices.
• While the prices have been softening over the last couple of months, the recent sharp decline is due to renewed fears of recession in Europe and decline in demand from China, which brought in new Covid lockdown measures amid weakening factory activity.
• There is a concern that these factors could dent the future demand of crude oil.
• Market participants say OPEC’s decision to cut production is in itself an indication that it expects a decline in demand and further softening in prices.

How would Global Crude Oil Price Impact India?

Impact of Rise in Global Oil Price:

• India imports nearly 85% of its crude requirement and in the year ended March 2022, the oil import bill doubled to USD 119 billion on account of rise in prices.
• The rise in import bill not only leads to inflation and rise in current account deficit and fiscal deficit, but also weakens the rupee against the dollar and hurts stock market sentiment.
• A rise in crude oil price also has an indirect impact on India as it leads to a rise in edible oil prices, coal prices and also that of fertilizers as they use gas as feedstock. Gas accounts for 80% of all fertilizer production costs.
• So, if a rise in crude oil prices could lead to a much-enhanced import burden, it also leads to reduction in demand in the economy which hurts growth.
• It could also lead to higher fiscal deficit if the government chooses to bear the burden by way of subsidies.

Impact of Fall in Global Price:

• A softening in crude oil prices is a big relief for all stakeholders – the government, the consumers and even the corporates.
• If oil continues to trade at lower levels, it will result in lower inflation levels, higher disposable incomes and thereby higher economic growth.
• If on the one hand it is a reflection of expectations of slowdown in global growth which may have its bearing on India’s growth too, on the other it comes as a big respite for India.
• Softening crude oil price has also played a role in the index rise on equity and debt markets as companies across sectors are sensitive to crude oil prices.

Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile system

Context: 

• Recently, India conducted six successful flight-tests of the Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) system from Integrated Test Range (ITR) Chandipur off the Odisha coast.
• The test was jointly conducted by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Army.

What is QRSAM?

About:

• QRSAM is a canister-based system, which means that it is stored and operated from specially designed compartments.
  • In the canister, the inside environment is controlled, thus along with making its transport and storage easier, the shelf life of weapons also improves significantly.
• The system is capable of detecting and tracking targets on the move and engaging targets with short halts.

Range and mobility:

• It is a short-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, primarily designed and developed by DRDO to provide a protective shield to moving armoured columns of the Army from enemy aerial attacks.
• The entire weapon system has been configured on a mobile and manoeuvrable platform and is capable of providing air defence on the move.
• It has been designed for induction into the Army and has a range of 25 to 30 km.

Functioning:

• The QRSAM weapon ensemble, which functions on the move, consists of a fully automated command and control system.
  • It also consists of two radars - Active Array Battery Surveillance Radar and Active Array Battery Multifunction Radar - with one launcher.
• Both radars have 360-degree coverage with “search on move” and “track on move” capabilities.
• The system is compact, uses a single stage solid propelled missile and has a mid-course inertial navigation system with two-way data link and terminal active seeker developed indigenously by DRDO.

Wikipedia Content Moderation

Context:

• Recently, India summoned officials of Wikipedia, in response to a national cricketer’s Wikipedia page being edited with misleading information.
• The Minister of State for Electronics and IT has expressed that no intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation, as it violated the government’s expectation of a safe and trusted internet.
• Content Moderation refers to the process of ensuring user-generated content upholds platform-specific guidelines and rules to establish the suitability of the content for publishing.

What is Wikipedia?

About:

• Wikipedia is a free Internet-based encyclopedia, started in 2001, that operates under an open-source management style.
• It is overseen by the nonprofit “Wikimedia Foundation”.
• It is maintained by a community of volunteers through open collaboration and a wiki-based editing system.
• Anyone can contribute to their pool of knowledge by making edits to existing pages for updating or correction and can even add new pages.

Structure of Wikipedia:

• The architecture of Wikipedia is that of an intermediary i.e., it hosts content generated by its users.

Responsibility for Content:

• Under the majority of laws regulating online content, intermediaries are endowed with immunity from the user generated content they host, provided they maintain some due diligence over their platforms.
• In previous challenges to the content on wikipedia, it has been ruled that the Wikimedia Foundation does not own the content, and does not have the legal responsibility for it.
  • However, administrators or editors have taken notice of the content concerns arising out of the situation and have made suitable edits.
  • Wikimedia can also “contribute, monitor or delete content” for legal compliance.
  • Therefore, it is arguable that since Wikimedia can exercise such power, it can be held responsible for illegal content being hosted on Wikipedia.

What can the Government do regarding Online Content?

Section 69A of IT Act 2000:

• Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act confers on the Central and State governments the power to issue directions “to intercept, monitor or decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource”.
• Section 69A enables the Centre to ask any agency of the government, or any intermediary, to block access to the public of any information generated, transmitted, received or stored or hosted on any computer resource.
  • The term ‘intermediaries’ includes providers of telecom service, network service, Internet service and web hosting, besides search engines, online payment and auction sites, online marketplaces and cyber cafes.
• Any such request for blocking access must be based on reasons given in writing
  • In 2020, the government had asked the Wikimedia Foundation to remove a map from one of its pages that incorrectly showed Aksai Chin to be a part of China.
  • In that instance, the government had proposed the use of section 69A, IT Act, 2000 for violating the territorial integrity of India.

Section 79 of IT Act 2000:

• Under Section 79 of Information Technology Act 2000, intermediaries can claim the “safe harbour” of not being responsible for the content they host, considering they abide by due diligence requirements under the Act and its Rules.

IT Rules 2021:

• As per the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, there are certain categories of information that an intermediary should not allow to be hosted or uploaded on its platform which includes:
• Information that is “patently false and untrue, and is written or published in any form, with the intent to mislead or harass a person, entity or agency for financial gain or to cause any injury to any person”.
• In the Context of Wikimedia Foundation:
  • Although Wikimedia Foundation does not own the information hosted on Wikipedia, once Wikimedia Foundation has “actual knowledge” of such content being hosted on its platform, it would be held responsible for the same according to Indian Law.
  • Actual Knowledge means when an intermediary has been notified by either a court order or through an order of the appropriate agency demanding removal of the offending content.