APPLY EARLIEST,UPSC PRE EXAM 2016 NOTIFICATION IS OUT

APPLY EARLIEST,UPSC PRE EXAM 2016 NOTIFICATION IS OUT



 http://www.upsc.gov.in/


 

Sun Pharma, ICMR join hands for malaria eradication

Malaria eradication project will be first launched at Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh, covering 1,200 villages over three to five years

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and pharmaceutical major Sun Pharma on Monday entered into a public-private partnership (PPP) to eradicate malaria.

The partners will jointly set up management and technical committees to provide oversight for malaria surveillance and elimination. In its first phase, the project will be launched at Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh, covering 1,200 villages over three to five years.

As part of this corporate social responsibility initiative, Sun Pharma will launch an independent not-for-profit foundation.

“The idea of this partnership is to use our understanding and knowledge for the success of this project. We will be working with global agencies to make the project a success,” said Dilip Shanghvi, managing director of Sun Pharma.

Shanghvi added that through the Malaria Free India initiative both the partners aim to achieve zero malaria incidence in Mandla district by FY21. According to data from the health ministry, there are 91 districts spread across 17 states which are highly prone to malaria. These will be taken up in future phases of the project.

“The first of its kind PPP agreement reiterates India’s commitment to eliminate malaria. ICMR and Sun Pharma will aim to reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by malaria in this demonstration project as well as prevention of re-introduction of malaria,” said J.P. Nadda, Union minister of health and family welfare.

Sixty percent of malaria cases in India are take place in the Northeastern region and five states— Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra—said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, director general of ICMR.

India is the biggest virtual exporter of water

Except for Brahmaputra and Mahanadi, all river basins with a population of more than 20 million face water shortage for the major part of the year

How much water does it take to cook a cup of rice? Recipe books would say two cups. Now consider this: It takes 2,173 litres of water to produce a kilogram of husked rice. That is a global average. Out of this, 1,488 litres is typically rainwater, 443 litres is surface or groundwater and 242 litres of water is required to carry off pollutants produced during the process.

For India, the figure is 2,688 litres. The number is worse for several states, including some of the largest rice producers, as the first story in this series pointed out. In the case of goat meat, the requirement can go up to 8,763 litres per kilogram. Looking at it in terms of nutrition, more than 10 litres of water are required to produce a kilocalorie of nutrition from red meat, while only half a litre is required to produce the same amount from cereals.

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These numbers become all the more important when you consider exports. In 2014-15, India exported 37.2 lakh tonnes of basmati . To export this rice the country used around 10 trillion litres of water. Put it another way, the nation virtually exported 10 trillion litres of water. At least one-fifth of this would have been surface/groundwater. In these times of global climate change, water is the one commodity where you don’t want a trade surplus (i.e exports are higher than imports).

According to the Water Footprint Network (WFN) database, India had the lowest virtual imports of water in the world. How does it compare with China, which is the only other nation with a comparable population size?

China is the eleventh largest country in the world in terms of virtual water imports and it runs a virtual water trade surplus in crop and animal products, that is, it has higher virtual water imports. But China ends up exporting more water than importing because of its overseas sales of industrial products.

In contrast, India is a large virtual net export of water because of agricultural products. One policy implication: While the country strives to increase manufacturing exports, care should be taken to maximise water use efficiency lest it ends up virtually exporting more water.

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Rudimentary trade theory suggests that a country should be exporting things which it has in abundance and import those which are scarce. By that logic, India should be a virtual importer of water, especially so, when its report card of water scarcity looks very grim.

The WFN database gives data on water scarcity for more than 400 river basins in the world. Water scarcity is defined as the ratio of total surface/groundwater footprint to surface/groundwater availability in a given river basin. If the ratio is 1, it means that available surface/groundwater is being fully utilised. But ideally speaking, averting water scarcity requires that not more than 20% of the water that flows on the ground is used by human beings. So, even a ratio of 1 denotes moderate scarcity.

The WFN database recognizes four kinds of water scarcity situations: low (ratio <1), moderate (ratio between 1 to 1.5), significant (ratio between 1.5 to 2) and severe (ratio>2). Water scarcity is measured for each month. This is because water flow situation can be extremely skewed over a year. There could be excess flow on account of rains in a couple of months, whereas the rest of the period can witness abysmally low levels. Due to this reason the WFN database classifies river basins by scarcity levels for different months in a year.

Data for India shows that except for Brahmaputra and Mahanadi, all river basins with a population of more than 20 million experience water scarcity for a major part of the year. The two most populated basins—Ganga and Indus—suffer from significant to severe level of water scarcity for 7 and 11 months in a year, respectively. A caveat: a large part of the Indus river basin population would be located in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan.

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The upshot is India is exporting large amounts of virtual water despite being an extremely water scarce country. Should it be doing this is the question?

Indo- Mongolia Joint Military Exercise, Nomadic Elephant- 2016 Commences at Mongolia

Indo- Mongolia Joint Military Exercise, Nomadic Elephant- 2016 Commences at Mongolia

The Eleventh Indo-Mongolia joint training Exercise, ‘Nomadic Elephant - 2016’ to promote military associations between India and Mongolia has commenced today at Mongolia. The exercise will culminate on 08 May 2016. The aim of this exercise is to develop synergy and inter operability between the two armies to fight in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism environment under the United Nation mandate.

A platoon of the Kumaon Regiment of the Indian Army alongwith a team of two observers will be taking part in the event. From the Mongolian Armed Forces, a total of 60 personnel will take part in the exercise. The event will culminate in a 48 hours joint outdoor exercise covering specialised operations in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism environment.

The Indian contingent will share their practical experiences of Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism operations through a series of classroom lectures and outdoor demonstrations which include aspects like House Clearing and Room intervention techniques in hostage situation, road opening, establishing mobile check posts, intelligence gathering and drills for countering Improvised Explosive Devices. Besides, military training both the contingents will also share their techniques of unarmed combat, specialised rappelling and participate in various sports events during the two weeks exchange. 

The long road to a $10 trillion economy

The long road to a $10 trillion economy

A believable target but questions about the strategic path

The Niti Aayog has presented Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a rather airy strategy to make India a $10 trillion economy by 2032. The strategy document offers us some insights into the minds of the men around the prime minister.

Sceptics have been quick to point out that the goal is unrealistic. It is not. The International Monetary Fund publishes historical data on the size of its member countries. India had a gross domestic product of $494 billion in 2001. That is expected to grow to $2.2 trillion by the end of this year. In other words, the size of the Indian economy will have gone up 4.6 times in the past 16 years. The same rate of growth over the next 16 years will lead to an economy that produces more than $10 trillion by 2032. Bingo!

What the sceptics have missed — and the Niti Aayog head has also curiously glossed over — is that the change in the dollar value of national output depends on the nominal growth rate in rupees as well as the exchange rate of the rupee. The Niti Aayog presentation is instead focussed on the real growth rate in terms of the domestic currency, and assumes that it will be in the double digits over the next decade and a half, an unrealistic assumption given the state of the global economy. This is Economics 101.

So the $10 trillion target itself is not as unrealistic as it seems at first. The link drawn between faster growth and the removal of poverty as we understand it today is also welcome, especially given the erroneous belief of the previous government that entitlements could deal with the problem of mass poverty.

The more questionable part of the presentation to the prime minister is the strategic path that has been charted out. There is an interesting comparison to be drawn between the tightly argued Economic Survey written by the economists of the finance ministry in February on the one hand and the laundry list of various government programmes (Creating a movement for change) that the Niti Aayog seems to be banking on.

The policy focus in the latter document is clearly on new thinking, executive action and good implementation. This is perhaps not surprising given that Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer of Niti Aayog, has earned his spurs as an extraordinary project manager, as in the case of the proposed industrial corridor between Delhi and Mumbai. It also fits in with the administrative strengths of the prime minister. But it skirts the deeper challenges such as maintaining macroeconomic stability, raising the investment rate of the economy, tackling the problem of exit, improving the supply of public goods, putting an end to institutional decline and bolstering state capacity in areas that matter.

Economists have differed about what is the key variable that explains national economic performance over the long run. Is it the rate of capital accumulation? Or productivity growth? Or the quality of institutions? There are no easy answers to these grand questions, but there is no doubt that there is more to sustained economic growth than large projects that can be pushed by executive action. The Niti Aayog strategy misses the mark here, even though the experience of the private sector shows that a seemingly stretch target does focus management energy.

In September 2001, a group of McKinsey & Co. consultants had made a presentation to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his senior cabinet colleagues on how India can grow at double digits. The suits had argued that India was not constrained by resources but by barriers to their efficient use. They had also argued that the government should push ahead with reforms that require executive action rather than legislative approval, given the gridlock in parliament at the time (well, some things never change). A similar approach is evident in the Niti Aayog strategy document.

There is an apocryphal story that Vajpayee patiently sat through the McKinsey presentation, and then asked in a puzzled tone: “Magar yeh hoga kaise?”.

The same question needs to be asked about the technocratic Niti Aayog plan.

Building on the Paris Agreement

Building on the Paris Agreement

The 174 countries and the European Union that signed up to the Paris Climate Change Agreement in New York on April 22 have committed themselves to the decision that a range of actions must be undertaken to keep the rise in global average temperature well below 2° Celsius over pre-industrial levels. The debate on climate change shifted after the climate summit in Paris in December from whether scientific evidence is strong enough to warrant making aggressive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, to how this should be achieved without hurting economic growth in developing countries such as India. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change accepts differentiated responsibility for developing nations, which are not responsible for the accumulated stock of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as opposed to rich countries that historically had the benefit of the unfettered use of fossil fuels. What makes carbon emissions particularly problematic, however, is that polluting local flows have a global effect over relatively short periods, and far-flung countries, such as small island nations, suffer the impact. India’s estimate of its share of global greenhouse gas emissions submitted to the UN for the Paris treaty is 4.10 per cent, but it faces a double jeopardy: of having to emit large volumes of carbon dioxide to achieve growth, while preparing to adapt to the destructive effects of intense weather events, such as droughts and floods, linked to climate change.

After Paris, the challenge before India is to implement its pledge — to sharply cut emissions intensity of GDP by 2020. A small reduction was achieved between 2005 and 2010, and the effort now should be to maintain the trend. Energy, transport and infrastructure are key areas where sound national policies are needed. The doubling of the cess on coal in the Budget, and the general policy to keep fuel prices high using taxation are welcome, but they must translate into funding for green alternatives. It should be possible, for instance, to unlock middle class investments in renewable energy with an effective grid-connected rooftop solar subsidy programme. In the absence of strong backing from State governments to ensure net metering and transfer subsidies, progress in this area has been slow. New buildings should also be required to conform to energy efficiency codes in all States. The National Electric Mobility Mission Plan aims to put about seven million electric or hybrid vehicles on the road by 2020, but for this to happen, the creation of charging infrastructure and introduction of consumer incentives are vital; greening public transport bus fleets will give the Mission a face. Once the Paris Agreement is ratified, funding for such initiatives should come from the wealthy countries, which are required to raise at least $100 billion a year. The pact requires them to provide even higher levels of assistance. The success of the climate compact will ultimately depend on whether rich countries, including the U.S. — where a conservative President and Congress could reject it — fund innovation and open-source their green technologies to developing nations

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To Brexit or not to Brexit

To Brexit or not to Brexit
It should not have needed a visiting U.S. President to puncture the arguments of eurosceptic Britons, who believe their country is better off outside the European Union (EU). But so strong is the hold of Britain’s history as an imperial power that the prospect of a destiny inside Europe, that too one driven by a dominant Franco-German alliance, is deeply unpalatable to sections of the political class. For all the fury and noise over the referendum in June, the question whether to stay inside or leave the bloc has cast a long and troublesome shadow on a country that joined the EU in 1973 under a Conservative Prime Minister. When the Labour leader Harold Wilson won public approval for that step in a 1975 referendum, the hope was that the overwhelming mandate would be irreversible. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that the debate is far from over. Years on, Prime Minister David Cameron finds himself in Wilson’s shoes. His Conservative backbenchers forced his hand on a U.K. vote on continued EU membership and prominent Cabinet colleagues are now spearheading the leave campaign. Now, as in 1975, the main argument against membership is the perceived loss of national sovereignty. At the heart of the issue is what Brexit could mean for the workforce. There are over two million EU immigrants working in Britain today, a body of people that not only provides it with critical skills but also contributes to its tax kitty. Could Brexit lead to an exodus among such people? On the other hand, immigration has become a key element in the eurosceptic armoury, acquiring renewed potency following the large inflow of refugees from Syria into the EU. The exit camp is exploiting the cracks in EU policy over their rehabilitation to frontally attack the free movement principle underlying the Schengen borderless travel zone.

The objectives of the U.K.’s membership of the EU have always been primarily economic rather than political. It is apparent that these interests are better served if London assumes its rightful place at the European high table. Non-EU members Norway and Switzerland have access to the bloc’s internal market, but no voice in shaping its laws. Such an arrangement may not befit a country with the wealth and influence of Britain. As a result, a measure of euroscepticism has existed side by side with London’s desire to stake out special positions in key areas. This was reflected most recently in the package that Mr. Cameron negotiated ahead of the referendum to protect London’s status as a financial hub. The exemption from adopting the single currency and participation in the Schengen area are the other major opt-outs from common policies. The champions of Brexit have taken exception to the U.S. President expressing his opinion on the referendum. But they would surely know that from Washington’s standpoint the “special relationship” with Britain would carry real meaning only if it translates into an effective voice inside the EU, the world’s largest single trading bloc.