Daily News Simplified - DNS

02 05 20
Notes
SL. THE HINDU
TOPICS
NO. PAGE NO.
1 It’s about food, nutrition and livelihood security 06

2 WHO raises concern over use of BCG 11

3 Direct taxes revenues defy lockdown, jump 36.6% in April 01

4 Ominous contraction 06
Dated: 02-May-2020 DNS Notes

Title 1. It’s about food, nutrition and livelihood security (Pg: 06)
Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II – Social Justice
Theme PDS, Design of Schemes
Highlights
Summary
• With abysmal levels of medical infrastructure the COVID 19 pandemic has forced the
economies around the world to a standstill. This is particularly true in India where there
are only 0.7 and 0.8 hospital beds and physicians per 1000 population respectively.
• While the negative fallout of the lockdown is felt across all sectors unabashedly, for a
country like India its impact on food security on majority of the population has been
unprecedented.
• In addition, with agriculture sector employing more than 50% of our population the
disruptions caused across all levels of the food supply chain is making us stare at
livelihood security for millions of farmers particularly small and marginal farmers who
constitute about 82% of the total famers in the country.
• In this article the author, an eminent food scientist, brings to fore various issues around
1. Food and nutritional security and
2. Livelihood security of those dependent on agriculture
Threat to Food and Nutritional Security
The 3 dimensions of food security are
1. Availability
2. Access
3. Absorption (food utilization)
1. Threat to Food Availability
Though as a part of economic package the government has extended additional provision food
grains and other essentials out of the excess stocks, we will soon run of supplies if we do not
intervene in the agricultural production cycle which is facing the following issues
1. Shortage of labour
2. Supply shortages of inputs like seeds, fertilizers, farm equipments etc.
3. Dysfunctional marketing infrastructure
4. Inadequate storage capacity (particularly cold chains for perishable)
5. Inadequate public procurement and
6. Fall in prices due to fall in demand
7. Finally uncertainty in the kharif sowing
2. Threat to Food Access
Notwithstanding the additional provision of food grains under NFSA, food access is affected in
the following ways
1. Disruption in Mid-day meal and other schemes
• Given the closure of schools and Anganwadi centres the access to food for
millions of children is affected thereby having long-term impact of their overall
development.
2. Hidden Hunger
• Given the disruptions in supply-chain particularly in horticulture (cold chains)
the problem of micro-nutrient deficiency is staring major chunk of the
population.
• Besides with low purchasing power due to loss of incomes and job losses,
majority of the poorer sections spend more on basic food grains and this
severely impacts their micro-nutrient requirement which is an important
dimension of nutrition security
3. Threat to Food Absorption
Dated: 02-May-2020 DNS Notes

• In addition to food availability and acesss, utilization of food by the body is linked to
multiple factors including access to clean drinking water, sanitation etc.
• These non-food factors are severely affected in most of the areas including rural and
urban India particularly slums.
Way Forward
1. Widen the food basket
• The additional provision of free food should include a widened food basket
including millets, pulses and oil.
2. Value addition in production cycle
• The agriculture production cycles should be innovated to include multiple
products in addition to food production. This will enhance incomes to
producers.
• For eg: Under the concept of Rice Biopark in Myanmar, in addition to
production of rice the entire biomass is utilized like straw, bran etc.
3. Widen the scope of MGNREGA work
• Currently MGNERGA applies only to unskilled, manual work. This should be
widened to include skilled jobs in agriculture and allied activities.
• We could also include other essential care tasks like child care, elderly care etc
under the scope of MGNREGA work.
4. Technological upgrading
5. Favourable public policies in procurement, pricing and distribution
Dated: 02-May-2020 DNS Notes

Title 2. WHO raises concern over use of BCG (Pg 11)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II – Social Issues
Theme Issues related to management of Health
Highlights Present status
There is no evidence that the Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine (BCG) protects people against
infection with COVID-19 virus.

Clinical trials
Two clinical trials addressing this question are underway, and WHO will evaluate the evidence
when it is available. In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination
for the prevention of COVID-19. WHO continues to recommend neonatal BCG vaccination in
countries or settings with a high incidence of tuberculosis.
There is experimental evidence from both animal and human studies that the BCG vaccine has
non-specific effects on the immune system. These effects have not been well characterized
and their clinical relevance is unknown.

Issue with the Usage of BCG for COVID -19

Studies have compared The incidence of COVID-19 cases in countries where the BCG vaccine is
used with countries where it is not used and observed that countries that routinely used the
vaccine in neonates had less reported cases of COVID-19 to date.

Such ecological studies are prone to significant bias from many confounders, including
differences in national demographics and disease burden, testing rates for COVID-19 virus
infections, and the stage of the pandemic in each country.

Present Usage of BCG

BCG vaccination prevents severe forms of tuberculosis in children and diversion of local
supplies may result in neonates not being vaccinated, resulting in an increase of disease and
deaths from tuberculosis.

In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of
COVID-19. WHO continues to recommend neonatal BCG vaccination in countries or settings
with a high incidence of tuberculosis.

Personal
Notes
Dated: 02-May-2020 DNS Notes

Title 3. Direct taxes revenues defy lockdown, jump 36.6% in April (Page No. 01)
Syllabus Mains: GS Paper III – Indian Economy
Theme Taxation
Highlights

Important Observations:

Gross Tax Revenue in FY 2019-20: Rs 21 Lakh crores (10.6% of GDP)

Decreasing order of Tax Revenue in FY 2019-20:

GST > Corporate Tax > Income Tax > Union Excise Duty > Customs Duty. Please note that here GST
includes all CGST, IGST and GST Compensation Cess collected by the Central Government.

Decreasing order of GST Collection: IGST>State GST>CGST > GST Compensation Cess.

Share of Direct Taxes (5.7% of GDP) is higher than the share of Indirect taxes (4.9%) --> Progressive
taxation system.

Tax Buoyancy: Denotes the increase in the tax revenue for every 1% increase in the GDP growth rate.
For example, the Government estimates that in FY 2020-21, the Gross Tax Revenue would increase by
12%. It has estimated that the nominal GDP growth rate would be 10%.
So, Tax Buoyancy = (Increase in Gross Tax Revenue/ Increase in GDP Growth rate) = (12/10) = 1.2.
Dated: 02-May-2020 DNS Notes

Title 4. Ominous contraction (Pg 06)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper III – Indian Economy
Theme Index of Industrial Production
Highlights
Context

The growth of eight core industries has dropped to 0.2% in June mainly due to a contraction in
oil-related sectors as well as in cement production.

Details
• In India there are eight core sectors comprising of coal, crude oil, natural gas,
petroleum refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.
• The eight core industries constitute 40.27% of the total index of industrial production
(IIP).
• This index is prepared by Office of the Economic Advisor, Ministry of commerce of and
Industry and is published monthly with the base year as 2011-12.
• Highest Weightage: Petroleum Refinery production.
• Lowest Weightage: Fertilizers production.

Note: It is to be noted that IIP is prepared by National Statistical Office (earlier CSO) under the
Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation.