How air pollution increases India’s burden of disease

How air pollution increases India’s burden of disease
Indoor and outdoor air pollution made up more than 10% of the total burden of disease in 2016, second only to child and maternal malnutrition
I have just discovered, courtesy of the first such study conducted by the ministry of health and independent health agencies, that I live in the Indian region with the highest number of life years lost due to air pollution.

I’ll explain.

That Delhi’s air is among the foulest is well known—it’s close to being declared a hardship assignment for foreign diplomats. What is new is that we now have a much better idea of exactly what this is costing the residents of Delhi in terms of their health and general well-being.

It’s an internationally accepted measure called DALY, short for Disability Adjusted Life Years, and it is aimed at explaining what we see around ourselves every day—at work, on the street and at home. This measure gives you a good picture of the cost of a disease, or condition or environmental risk—not only in terms of death. One DALY, according the World Health Organization (WHO), is one full year of lost healthy living per 1,000 population (in India, per 100,000). It is a measure of the burden of disease carried by a nation, region or sub-region.

On 14 November, the health ministry published a report on the Health of the Nation’s States—a study of how the burden of disease has changed in Indian states from 1990 to 2016 (see page 18). The study is the outcome of research by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a global health research institute at the University of Washington in Seattle; the Public Health Foundation of India, a premier public health institution in India with a presence across the country, and the Indian Council of Medical Research, the apex government body for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical and health research.

This report defines DALY as “years of healthy life lost to premature death and suffering. DALYs are the sum of years of life lost and years lived with disability”.

The importance of this report cannot be over-emphasized. It is a landmark publication in disaggregated health data in India, a country that must make heroic efforts (including by massive increases in government spending) to improve the health of its people if it is to enjoy the full benefits of its slowing but still rapid economic growth.

Essentially, the report shows that India is faced with the double whammy of increases in the burden of both lifestyle and infectious diseases. The first is commonly associated with sedentary lifestyles brought about by greater wealth, the second a classic indicator of poverty. Not surprisingly, the first category is dominant in wealthier states and the latter, alongside malnutrition, in poorer states.

This, in other words, is India’s health gap.

However, cutting across both categories is air pollution. The report, correctly, makes a distinction between indoor and outdoor air pollution. Nationally, indoor air pollution, mainly the result of cooking with fossil fuels such as coal and wood, has come down markedly since 1990, but outdoor air pollution has increased.

The really worrying part? Taken together, indoor and outdoor air pollution made up more than 10% of the total burden of disease in 2016, second only to child and maternal malnutrition. The main risks from air pollution are cardiovascular and respiratory diseases—to which it makes a “substantial contribution”.

Broken down, the risk from air pollution was higher in the poorest states—these are eight so-called Empowered Action Group (EAG) states that receive special development effort attention from the government of India, namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. This means the poor as ever will be disproportionately impacted by air pollution, unlike those who are able to afford air purifiers and good quality pollution masks, while benefiting from the protected environment of sealed and confined spaces such as cars and offices.

“The burden due to household air pollution is highest in the EAG states, where its improvement since 1990 has also been the slowest. On the other hand, the burden due to outdoor air pollution is the highest in a mix of northern states, including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, and West Bengal,” the report says.

The report says risks from outdoor air pollution increased due to a variety of pollutants from five sources—power production, industry, vehicles, construction and waste burning. As advocates of green development will point out, these are all outcomes of a path of development that ignores environment-friendly solutions.

What does the report recommend? Air pollution, it says, can be effectively dealt with “only if the efforts of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, ministry of power, ministry of new and renewable energy, ministry of road transport and highways, ministry of housing and urban affairs, ministry of health and family welfare, and a variety of non-governmental partners come together.”

What the report does not mention is that there must be political will too—for political parties and governments ruled by them to firstly acknowledge the scale of this health emergency and then work together, sinking differences for the greater good.

What’s been the policy response so far? One of jaw-dropping inefficiency and political bickering. In Delhi, air pollution is seasonal: with the onset of the winter, two things happen. On the one hand, paddy farmers in neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, having harvested the rice, start burning the leftover stubble in order to prepare the farms for winter sowing. At the same time, as climate scientist Krishna Achuta Rao writes in a recent article, “Like Los Angeles and Mexico City, Delhiites are cursed by geography to be prone to a meteorological phenomenon called inversion where warm air rests above the colder air closer to the ground, preventing it from mixing upwards, thereby trapping all that we put into it—almost like a lid.”

This is an annual affair, but the policy response has been marked by a complete lack of preparedness, and charges traded between the governments of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana that are ruled by three rival political parties, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, respectively. There are no signs that these governments are even prepared to work together, in contrast to the consensus (albeit not without its difficulties) that marks efforts to execute a single goods and services tax for the country.

Neither, surprisingly, has there been any firm signal from the Union government that there’s an emergency that needs to be dealt with.

Delhiites are a beleaguered lot and a degree of resignation characterizes the popular response to this health crisis. “What’s the point of purifiers; we still need to step outside,” is something you hear commonly. Yet, pollution masks are now far more ubiquitous than they were a year ago.

The day the report was launched, 14 November, is celebrated as Children’s Day in India, which knows from bitter experience that environmental pollution can impact generations. For those looking to get away, I can offer you a quick data-based solution from the report cited above: the states with the lowest levels of DALY rates due to risks from air pollution (unfortunately, not disambiguated between indoor and outdoor) in 2016 were: Nagaland (1,409), Arunachal Pradesh (1,436), Goa (1,482) and Kerala (1,698). The national mean is an eye watering 3,469.

Upgrading the public education system

Upgrading the public education system
This, rather than looking to the private sector for support, is essential for realizing India’s economic potential
The World Bank’s recent flagship World Development Report, 2018 addressed some immediate challenges of quality education. One of the ways that it broke new ground was on the issue of provision for private education. Growing private school enrolment is a global trend and the phenomenon must be taken seriously and discussed on evidence.

Education systems in many countries are not performing up to expectation and many families have been turning to private schools since they feel that the latter deliver better education, especially when public schooling itself is not fully free. India too fails to provide free secondary public education.

However, the report highlights that research across 40 countries finds no difference in the learning outcomes of children with similar family backgrounds in both public and private schools. Private schools appear better since they enrol children from relatively advantaged backgrounds who are able to pay, not because they deliver better quality. The World Bank report thus challenges a popular perception in India and finds no consistent evidence that private schools deliver better learning outcomes than public schools. Indeed, of the 1.27 million untrained teachers teaching in India, 925,000 are in private schools, pointing to the massive historic neglect of quality. States’ capacities to fully monitor and enforce adherence to quality standards, mitigate against negative equity impact and ensure contract compliance must be enhanced if justice is to be done to those who already study in private schools.

The report warned that some private schools’ quest for profit “can lead them to advocate policy choices that are not in the interests of students”. In some instances, private schools may indeed deliver comparable learning outcomes with lower input costs, but this is achieved largely through lower teacher salaries. The report reiterated that while this may make education cheaper, it does not make it better, and has the additional disadvantage of reducing the supply of qualified teachers over time. The quality of education can only be improved if steps are taken to ensure children come to school prepared to learn, teachers have the skills and motivation to teach effectively, inputs reach classrooms and management and governance systems are strengthened in schools that serve the poorest. Other research on the issue, such as the recent report by the Global Campaign for Education, suggests that learning outcomes are poor in both.

There are also clear risks as private schools skim off higher-income students that are easiest and most profitable to teach, leaving the most disadvantaged within the public system. The reliance on private schools risks segregating the education system on family income and deepening existing social cleavages; it also undermines the political constituency for effective public schooling in the long run. This has particularly dangerous outcomes in India where caste, gender and class inequalities dominate. Indeed, recent research from India suggests that the gender gap in private enrolment may be on the rise, even as it is reducing in government schools. Data for relatively richer countries also shows that systems with low levels of competition have higher social inclusion and that upward social mobility is higher in government systems.

Despite this evidence, and given the scale of the challenge of delivering quality education for all, governments have progressively looked to the private sector for support. However, mechanisms to track the quality of education in private schools have historically tended to be weak or absent, even in developed countries. Building this regulatory capacity requires significant financial and human resource investments. The report concluded that “overseeing private schools may be no easier than providing quality schooling” and that “governments may deem it more straightforward to provide quality education than to regulate a disparate collection that may not have the same objectives”.

India has taken some steps in the direction of developing regulatory frameworks for private schools, with several states enacting fee-regulation legislation and the courts intervening to challenge private sector failures. Last month, the Supreme Court intervened to direct states to enforce guidelines on safety in schools; in January, it had to enforce fee regulation. Building regulatory capacities, however, is only one solution. The long-term solution lies in strengthening the public education system in its complexity and ensuring that all of India’s children receive quality education.

The government is set to unveil the first New Education Policy in 25 years in December 2017. It needs to address the key concerns and should focus on equity in quality—ensuring universal access to free, quality, equitable and safe public education for all of India’s young citizens. This alone would help achieve India’s aspirations of global leadership by tapping into the demographic dividend that India still enjoys. This must be backed by adequate resources. India is committed to the global and domestic benchmark of allotting 6% of gross domestic product to education, but has never crossed the 4% threshold. Failing to invest in the best education for the poor will only widen the social inequalities that exist in India today. The road to reform is fraught with challenges but the cost of inaction will be much higher.

upsc 2018 test series

Finally upsc 2018 test series is going to start.due to hindi medium candidates demand we will conduct it in both medium.

Timing : 10 am. for working people flexible time is also available.

Climate Change Performance Index

Climate Change Performance Index

Context:

Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2018 has been released by environmental organisation Germanwatch. The report was made public on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change negotiations (COP23) in Bonn.

About CCPI:

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an instrument covering 58 countries and supposed to enhance transparency in international climate politics. Its aim is to encourage political and social pressure on those countries which have, up to now, failed to take ambitious actions on climate protection as well as to highlight countries with best-practice climate policies.

On the basis of standardised criteria, the index evaluates and compares the climate protection performance of 58 countries that are, together, responsible for more than 90% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. 80% of the evaluation is based on objective indicators of emissions trend and emissions level. 20% of the index results are built upon national and international climate policy assessments by more than 200 experts from the respective countries.

Performance of various countries:

India is ranked 14th, an improvement from its 20th position last year. China, with its high emissions and growing energy use over the past five years, still ranks 41st.
The bottom three of the index is formed by Korea (58), Iran (59) and Saudi Arabia (rank 60), all of which are showing hardly any progress or ambition in reducing its emissions and energy use.

Highlights of the report:

As per the report, fifty-six countries and the EU are together responsible for about 90% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The report notes that global energy transition is taking up speed but no country is doing enough. For this, the countries have to strengthen targets and implementation.
The data show encouraging growth in renewable energy, ever cheaper prices for solar and wind energy and successes in saving energy in many countries. This was responsible for stabilising global energy CO2 emissions in the last three years.
But progress is achieved much too slow for a fully renewable energy based world economy in a few decades, because growing oil and gas consumption is higher than the welcomed reduction in coal use.

RBI Governor Urjit Patel has been appointed to the Financial Stability Institute Advisory Board or the Bank of International Settlement (BIS),

RBI Governor Urjit Patel has been appointed to the Financial Stability Institute Advisory Board or the Bank of International Settlement (BIS), a global financial organisation owned by major central banks from across the world.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is the world’s oldest international financial organization. It was established in May 1930.

Manushi Chhillar’s Miss World win draws India level with Venezuela with 6 titles

Manushi Chhillar’s Miss World win draws India level with Venezuela with 6 titles
Manushi Chhillar is the sixth Miss World from India, following in the footsteps of Bollywood actors Priyanka Chopra and Aishwarya Rai
Manushi Chhillar’s Miss World win on Saturday has tied India with Venezuela for most number of titles won by a single country.

Chhillar is the sixth Indian to become Miss World, following in the footsteps of Bollywood actors Priyanka Chopra and Aishwarya Rai. Her win brings India level with Venezuela as the countries with most victories in the history of the pageant, now in its 67th edition.

Reita Faria, Yukta Mookhey, Diana Haydon are the other India Miss World winners.




...........................the government has given the go-ahead for setting up India’s first mega coastal economic zone (CEZ) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Maharashtra as part of a plan to develop 14 such industrial clusters to spur manufacturing and generate jobs.

The plan envisages a total investment of Rs 15,000 crore in the first phase and creation of more than 1.5 lakh jobs. The idea is to attract large firms interested in serving the export markets as they would bring with them technology, capital, good management and links to the world markets. This in turn would help create an ecosystem around them in which productive small and medium firms would emerge and flourish.
These zones are expected to provide business-friendly ecosystem including ease of doing business, ease of exporting and importing, swift decisions on applications for environmental clearances, and speedy water and electricity connections

India up one place on Per Capita GDP terms to 126, Qatar No 1: IMF report

India up one place on Per Capita GDP terms to 126, Qatar No 1: IMF report
India’s per capita GDP rises to $7,170 in 2017 from $6,690 last year—lowest among BRICS peers, shows IMF’s World Economic Outlook report
India has moved up one position to 126th in terms of per capita GDP of countries while Qatar remains the world’s richest on this parameter, as per IMF data.

The data, which forms part of the latest World Economic Outlook report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), ranks over 200 countries in terms of per capita GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP).

PPP between two countries is the rate at which the currency of one country needs to be converted into that of a second country to ensure that a given amount of the first country’s currency will purchase the same volume of goods and services in the second country as it does in the first.

India has seen its per capita GDP rise to $7,170 in 2017, from $6,690 last year, helping improve its rank by a position to 126th. Qatar remains top ranked with per capita GDP of $124,930, followed by Macao at the second position with $114,430 and Luxembourg third with $109,190.

Among BRICS countries, India has the lowest per capita GDP. Russia boasts of a GDP per capita of $27,900, while for China, it stood at $16,620, Brazil at $15,500 and South Africa at $13,400.

A recent Credit Suisse report said India is home to 245,000 millionaires with a total household wealth of $5 trillion. As per the IMF data, the richest 10 countries in the world in per capita GDP terms also include Singapore (4th, $90,530), Brunei (5th, $76,740), Ireland (6th, $72,630), Norway (7th, $70,590), Kuwait (8th, $69,670), United Arab Emirates (9th, $68,250) and Switzerland (10th, $61,360). The US has failed to make it to the top 10 and is ranked 13th with a per capita GDP of $59,500 while the UK is ranked even lower.

According to a Fortune magazine report based on the IMF data, several top-ranking countries such as Qatar and Brunei “have fuel and oil propelling their economies”, while investment and strong banking systems have helped propel economic growth in other countries like Iceland and Ireland.

.......................................Qatar remains top-ranked with per capita GDP of $1,24,930, followed by Macao at the second position with $1,14,430 and Luxembourg third with $1,09,190.

PPP between two countries is the rate at which the currency of one country needs to be converted into that of a second country to ensure that a given amount of the first country's currency will purchase the same volume of goods and services in the second country as it does in the first.
India has seen its per capita GDP rise to $7,170 in 2017, from $6,690 last year, helping improve its rank by a position to 126th.

Among BRICS countries, India has the lowest per capita GDP. Russia boasts of a GDP per capita of $27,900, while for China, it stood at $16,620, Brazil at $15,500 and South Africa at $13,400.