Weekly Current Affairs (8th to 14th July 2023) Part - 2 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

China's Export Controls on Gallium and Germanium

Context: China has recently announced that it will impose export controls on gallium and germanium, which are essential for semiconductor manufacturing, starting from August 1, 2023.

• This action is seen as a response to export controls implemented by the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands, who express national security concerns and accuse China of military use and human rights violations.
• China denies these allegations, asserting that its export controls aim to safeguard global industrial and supply chain stability, without singling out any country.

What are Gallium and Germanium?

Gallium:

• It is a soft, silvery-white metal that is liquid near room temperature.
• It is not found as a free element and is only present in small quantities in certain minerals, such as zinc ores and bauxite.
• Gallium is used to make gallium arsenide, which is a core substrate for semiconductors.
• It is utilized in the production of semiconductor wafers, integrated circuits, mobile and satellite communications (in chipsets), and LEDs (in displays).
• Gallium also finds applications in automotive and lighting industries, as well as in sensors for avionic, space, and defense systems.

Germanium:

• It is a lustrous, hard, silvery-white semi-metal with a crystal structure similar to a diamond.
• Germanium is used in various electronic and optical applications.
• It is commonly used in fiber-optic cables and infrared imaging devices.
• Germanium enhances the ability to operate weapon systems in harsh conditions.
• It is also used in solar cells due to its heat resistance and higher energy conversion efficiency.

Note:

• Gallium and germanium, both listed on India's recently released critical mineral list by the Ministry of Mines, are also included in the European Union's list of critical raw materials, which are recognized as crucial to Europe's economy.
• Additionally, these elements are considered strategic resources by the United States and Japan.

How does China Dominate the Global Supply of these Raw Materials?

• China is the world's largest producer and exporter of gallium and germanium.
• According to the European industry body, Critical Raw Materials Alliance (CRMA), China accounted for 80% of global gallium production and 60% of global germanium production.
• Abundant reserves of gallium and germanium in China contribute to its dominant position in the market.
• China imports gallium and germanium from countries like Kazakhstan, Russia, and Canada to supplement its domestic supply.
• China has a strong industrial base for processing and refining gallium and germanium into high-purity products.
• The country benefits from low labor costs, favorable policies, and a large domestic market, giving it a competitive advantage in the global supply chain.

How will China’s Export Controls Affect the Market?

India:

• The Chinese export controls on gallium and germanium are expected to have a short-term impact on India and its industries.
• India currently imports all chips, and the market is estimated to touch USD100 billion by 2025 from USD 24 billion now. Disruption in immediate supply chains may result in increased prices and limited availability of these raw materials in India.
• India's chip-making plans could be affected due to the dependence on imports of gallium and germanium.
• Long-term consequences for India's semiconductor industry depend on alternative supply sources and domestic production capabilities.
• Strategic partnerships like the India-U.S. Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) may play a role in ensuring a reliable supply chain.
• Deloitte India suggests exploring waste recovery from zinc and alumina production as a potential source of gallium and germanium.
• India has an opportunity to develop domestic capabilities and diversify its supply chain by focusing on substitutes such as indium and silicon.

Global:

• The restrictions may lead to an increase in prices of gallium and germanium in the global market as supply becomes limited.
• Countries and companies heavily dependent on Chinese supply may seek to diversify their sources of gallium and germanium to reduce their vulnerability to such export controls.
• Export controls by China could present opportunities for other countries or regions to increase their production and supply of gallium and germanium, potentially creating a more diversified market.

OTT Communication Services

Context: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is revisiting its stance on regulating over-the-top (OTT) communication services, such as WhatsApp, Zoom, and Google Meet.

What are OTT Services?

• An “over-the-top” media service is online content provider that offers streaming media as a standalone product.
• The term is commonly applied to video-on-demand platforms, but also refers to audio streaming, messaging services, or internet-based voice calling solutions.
• These services that rely in data usage have become increasingly popular and widely used in India, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Monthly wireless data usage in India grew approximately 156 times from 2014 to 2022. Revenue generation has shifted from traditional voice and SMS services to data usage.

What is the Current Regulatory Status of OTT Communication Services in India?

• As of now, there is no specific regulatory framework for OTT communication services in India. TRAI has issued several consultation papers on this issue since 2015, but has not made any final recommendations or regulations.
• In September 2020, TRAI recommended against regulatory intervention for OTT platforms, saying that it should be left to market forces.
• However, it also said that the sector should be monitored and intervention should be done at an “appropriate time”.
• In 2022, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), which is the nodal ministry for telecom policy and licensing, suggested TRAI to bring a suitable regulatory mechanism and “selective banning of OTT services”.

Why is Regulation of OTT Communication Services Important?

• Leveling the Playing Field Between TSPs and OTT Platforms: It is important to create a fair competition between telecom service providers (TSPs) and OTT platforms.
  • TSP in India are regulated by several laws, including the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.
  • TSPs have to follow certain rules and pay fees to the government for providing voice and SMS services.
  • They also need to meet quality standards, ensure security, and protect consumers.
  • However, OTT platforms offer similar services without facing these requirements, which gives them an advantage.
  • Also, they do not contribute to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
  • This unfair competition affects the revenue and profitability of TSPs and also impacts the government's revenue from the telecom sector.
• Lawful Interception and National Security: Regulating OTT communication services is essential for national security and public order.
  • OTT platforms should be subject to lawful interception and monitoring by security agencies to prevent the spread of misinformation, incitement of violence, or facilitation of criminal activities.
  • Making OTT platforms responsible for any illegal content or activity on their platforms helps maintain a safe and secure online environment.

What does the Draft Telecommunications Bill, 2022 Focus on Regarding OTT Services?

• The Draft Telecommunication Bill, 2022 is a proposed legislation that aims to replace three existing laws governing the telecom sector in India: the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1950.
• The draft law proposes including OTT communication services, such as WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram, within the definition of telecommunication services.
• It proposes that OTT communication services in India should acquire a license and comply with the same set of rules governing telecom players.
• These rules encompass various aspects such as quality of service and security measures.

What is Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?

Legal Backing:

• The TRAI was established on 20th February 1997 by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.

Objectives of TRAI:

• TRAI's mission is to create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications in the country.
• TRAI regulates telecom services including fixation/revision of tariffs for telecom services which were earlier vested in the Central Government.
• It also aims to provide a fair and transparent policy environment which promotes a level playing field and facilitates fair competition.

Headquarters:

• The head office of the TRAI is located at New Delhi.

Composition of TRAI:

• Members: The TRAI consists of a Chairperson, two whole-time members and two part-time members, all of which are appointed by the Government of India.
  • The recommendations of the TRAI are not binding upon the Central Government.
• Tenure of Members: The Chairperson and other members shall hold their office for a term of three years or till the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

Concerns About National Exit Test

Context: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has urged the National Medical Commission (NMC) to reconsider its proposed National Exit Test (NeXT) for all MBBS students in India, which will now be the licentiate exam and post graduate selection exam.

What is the National Exit Test?

• The NExT is a medical licensing exam that is designed to assess the competency of medical graduates.
• Students who received their medical degrees (who have completed the final MBBS course) from NMC approved medical institutions and overseas students also will have to qualify for the National Exit Test.
• To register for medical practice in India, they must pass the NExT test.
• This centralized common exam will be conducted by a body formed by the commission for this purpose.
• National Medical Commission (Amendment) Bill,2022, proposes an autonomous board, ‘Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences’, which, when comes to effect, will be responsible for holding the NExT exam.
• NExT will take the place of tests like FMGE and NEET PG.
• The NExT will comprise two separate exams called ‘Steps’.
• There is no restriction in the number of attempts provided that the candidate passes both the steps within 10 years of joining MBBS.

What are the IMA’s Concerns?

• Nearly 50% of India's medical colleges have been established in the last 10-15 years and may not have the same level of well-trained teachers and systems as older institutions. Therefore, comparing the standards of these newer colleges with more established ones may not be appropriate.
• The IMA asserts that conducting the NExT through the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) could disadvantage students from recently established medical colleges.
• They advocate for a minimum passing mark of no more than 30% and suggest that the focus of the licensing exam should be on assessing the minimum standard rather than including challenging questions.
• Additionally, the IMA emphasizes that the post-graduate medical entrance exam should be separate from the NExT to evaluate the most meritorious students.

What is the Standard of Medical Education India?

Admission Process:

• In India, admission to undergraduate medical courses, including MBBS, in all medical institutions goes forward only after the student has cleared the NEET conducted by the National Testing Agency.
• The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) is responsible for holding exams for Post Graduation (NEET PG).

Accreditation:

• The Medical Council of India (MCI), replaced by the National Medical Commission (NMC), is responsible for accrediting and recognizing medical colleges in India.
• Accreditation ensures that colleges meet the prescribed standards of infrastructure, faculty, facilities, and curriculum. However, there have been instances where colleges fail to meet these standards, leading to concerns about the quality of education.

Seats:

• In recent years, there has been a significant rise in the number of available medical seats (MBBS) in colleges, increasing from 60,000 to 1,04,333 as of 2023. Among these seats, 54,278 are allocated to Government Medical Colleges, while the remaining 50,315 are designated for Private Medical Colleges.

What are the Problems Plaguing Medical Education in India?

Demand-Supply Mismatch:

• There is a serious demand-supply mismatch as well as inadequate seats in terms of population norms. In private colleges, these seats are priced between Rs 15-30 lakh per year (not including hostel expenses and study material).
• This is way more than what most Indians can afford. It is difficult to comment on quality as nobody measures it. However, it is highly variable and poor in most medical colleges, irrespective of the private-public divide.

Issues of Skilled Faculty:

• The government’s initiative to open new medical colleges has run into a serious faculty crunch. Except at the lowest level, where new entrants come, all that the new colleges have done is poach faculty from a current medical college. Academic quality continues to be a serious concern.
• The MCI did try to address many of the earlier loopholes of ghost faculty and corruption. It introduced the requirement of publications for promotions to improve the academic rigor of faculty. But this has resulted in the mushrooming of journals of dubious quality.

Problems with Private Medical Colleges:

• A change in the law in the 1990s made it easy to open private schools and so many such medical institutes cropped up in the country, funded by businessmen and politicians, who had no experience of running medical schools. It commercialized medical education to a great extent.

Corruption in Medical Education:

• Fraudulent practices and rampant corruption such as fake degrees, bribes and donations, proxy faculties, etc. in the medical education system is a major problem.

Way Forward

• Recent efforts by the NMC to regulate college fees are being resisted by medical colleges. The government should seriously consider subsidizing medical education, even in the private sector, or look at alternative ways of financing medical education for disadvantaged students.
• Quality assessments of medical colleges should be regularly conducted, and reports should be available in the public domain. The NMC is proposing a common exit exam for all medical undergraduates as a quality control measure.
• In addition to raising the standards of medical professionals, the system should innovate to meet the growing shortage of health professionals to serve aging populations with lifestyle and lifetime ailments.

Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023

Context: Recently, the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2023 has been released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

• The MPI measures “interlinked deprivations in health, education and standard of living that directly affect a person’s life and wellbeing”.

What are the Key Highlights of the Index?

Global Outlook:

• Globally, 1.1 billion people (18% of the total population) out of 6.1 billion people, are acutely multidimensionally poor and live in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries.
• Sub-Saharan Africa has 534 million poor and South Asia has 389 million.
• These two regions are home to approximately five out of every six poor people.
• Children under 18 years old account for half of MPI-poor people (566 million).
• The poverty rate among children is 27.7%, while among adults it is 13.4 %.

Outlook for India:

• Poverty in India: India still has more than 230 million people who are poor.
  • The UNDP defines, “Vulnerability — the share of people who are not poor but have deprivations in 20 - 33.3% of all weighted indicators — can be much higher.
  • India has some 18.7% population under this category.
• India’s Progress in Poverty Reduction: India is among 25 countries, including Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam, that successfully halved their global MPI values within 15 years.
  • Some 415 million Indians escaped poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-21.
  • The incidence of poverty in India declined significantly, from 55.1% in 2005/2006 to 16.4% in 2019/2021.
  • In 2005/2006, approximately 645 million people in India experienced multidimensional poverty, a number that decreased to about 370 million in 2015/2016 and further to 230 million in 2019/2021.
• Improvement in Deprivation Indicators: India progressed significantly in all the three deprivation indicators: Health, Education, Standard of living.
  • Decline in poverty has been equal as well, cutting across regions and socio-economic groups.
  • The poorest states and groups, including children and people in disadvantaged caste groups, had the fastest absolute progress.
  • The percentage of people who were multidimensionally poor and deprived of nutrition decreased from 44.3% in 2005/2006 to 11.8% in 2019/2021, and child mortality fell from 4.5% to 1.5%.

What are the Recommendations?

• There is a need for context-specific multidimensional poverty indices that reflect national definitions of poverty.
• While the global MPI provides a standardized methodology, national definitions offer a comprehensive understanding of poverty specific to each country.
• It is crucial to consider these context-specific indices to evaluate and address poverty effectively.

What is the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index?

About:

• The index is a key international resource that measures acute multidimensional poverty across more than 100 developing countries.
• It was first launched in 2010 by the OPHI and the Human Development Report Office of the UNDP.
• The MPI monitors deprivations in 10 indicators spanning health, education and standard of living and includes both incidence as well as intensity of poverty.

MPI Indicators and Dimensions:

• A person is multidimensionally poor if she/he is deprived in one third or more (means 33% or more) of the weighted indicators (out of the ten indicators). Those who are deprived in one half or more of the weighted indicators are considered living in extreme multidimensional poverty.

The Places of Worship Act, 1991

Context: The Supreme Court of India has adjourned the case regarding the validity of the Places of Worship Act of 1991, allowing the Centre until October 31, 2023, to clarify its stand on the matter.

What is the Places of Worship Act?

About:

• It was enacted to freeze the status of religious places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, and prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and ensures the maintenance of their religious character.

Major Provisions of the Act:

Prohibition of Conversion (Section 3):

• Prevents the conversion of a place of worship, whether in full or part, from one religious' denomination to another or within the same denomination.

Maintenance of Religious Character (Section 4(1)):

• Ensures that the religious identity of a place of worship remains the same as it was on August 15, 1947.

Abatement of Pending Cases (Section 4(2)):

• Declares that any ongoing legal proceedings concerning the conversion of a place of worship's religious character before August 15, 1947, will be terminated, and no new cases can be initiated.

Exceptions to the Act (Section 5):

• The Act does not apply to ancient and historical monuments, archaeological sites, and remains covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
• It also excludes cases that have already been settled or resolved and disputes that have been resolved by mutual agreement or conversions that occurred before the Act came into effect.
• The Act does not extend to the specific place of worship known as Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, including any legal proceedings associated with it.

Penalties (Section 6):

• Specifies penalties, including a maximum imprisonment term of three years and fines, for violating the Act.

Criticism:

Bar on Judicial Review:

• Critics argue that the Act prevents judicial review, which is a fundamental aspect of the Constitution.
• They believe this restriction undermines the checks and balances system and limits the judiciary's role in protecting constitutional rights.

Arbitrary Retrospective Cutoff Date:

• The Act is criticized for using an arbitrary date (Independence Day, 1947) to determine the status of religious places.
• Opponents argue that this cutoff date disregards historical injustices and denies redressal for encroachments before that date.

Violation of the Right to Religion:

• Critics claim that the Act infringes upon the religious rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs.
• They argue that it restricts their ability to reclaim and restore their places of worship, impeding their freedom to practice their religion.

Violation of Secularism:

• Opponents argue that the Act violates the principle of secularism, which is a core component of the Constitution, and favours one community over others
• They contend that this undermines the equal treatment of religions under the law.

Exclusion of Ayodhya Dispute:

• The Act is specifically criticized for excluding the land involved in the Ayodhya dispute.
• Opponents question its consistency and raise concerns about the differential treatment of religious sites.

Supreme Court’s Stance on the Act:

• The Supreme Court views the Places of Worship Act as a legislative intervention that upholds the commitment to secularism, a fundamental aspect of the Indian Constitution.
• The Act enforces the constitutional obligation of the State to ensure equality among all religions. It guarantees the preservation of places of worship for every religious community.

Way Forward

• Undertake a thorough review of the Places of Worship Act to address criticisms and shortcomings.
• Ensure the Act does not restrict judicial review, preserving the judiciary's role in upholding constitutional rights.
• Strike a balance between preserving religious character and respecting the rights of different communities.
• Involve public consultation, ensure transparency, and review the exclusion of specific sites to promote fairness and consistency.