04 Sep 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News

Analysis
TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Gen. Rawat pushes for Quad
2. Afghan govt. frees 400 Taliban prisoners ahead of Doha talks
C. GS 3 Related
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. Experts flag concerns on EIA notification
SECURITY
1. Assam Rifles asked to shift base from Aizawl
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. A politics of avoidance that must be questioned
HEALTH
1. Mind the gaps in India’s health care digital push
SOCIAL ISSUES
1. Should the age of marriage for women be raised to 21?
F. Prelims Facts
G. Tidbits
1. COVID-19, NEP fuel fund raising by education technology firms
2. Relief for borrowers in moratorium case
3. Study links rice intake to diabetes
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

A. GS 1 Related
Nothing here for today!!!

B. GS 2 Related
Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Gen. Rawat pushes for Quad

Context:

Indian Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat has said that India has a strategy prepared to fight off the
dual-threat posed by neighbours Pakistan and China at its borders.

Details:
 • Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat has said that India wants the Quad to become a
system to ensure freedom of navigation (FoN) and freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) in
the Indian Ocean and around.
• The CDS asserted that India is keen to ensure that there is complete FoN on the seas and in the
airspace above.
• He added that Chinese economic cooperation with Pakistan in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and
Kashmir, along with continued military, economic and diplomatic support, mandates high levels of
preparation and also poses the threat of coordinated action on the Northern and Western fronts.
• He also emphasised that adequate precautions to ensure any misadventure by Pakistan is thwarted
and they are not able to succeed in their mission have been taken.

QUAD

• Quad grouping consists of India, Australia, Japan and the U.S.

• It is an informal strategic dialogue between India, USA, Japan and Australia with a shared objective
to ensure and support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region.

2. Afghan govt. frees 400 Taliban prisoners ahead of Doha talks

Context:

The Afghanistan government has said that it has released 400 Taliban prisoners under an exchange deal with
the militants and is expecting that the peace negotiations start soon.

Read more on the latest developments in the Afghan Peace Process covered in the 1st August 2020
Comprehensive News Analysis: War and talks.

Background:

This issue has been covered in the 10th August 2020 CNA: Loya jirga approves prisoner release.

C. GS 3 Related
Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Experts flag concerns on EIA notification

Context:

• A group of Special Rapporteurs to the United Nations has written to the Centre expressing concern
over the proposed Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020.
• The group has sought the government’s response on how the provisions of the notification are
consonant with India’s obligations under international law.

Note:

• Special Rapporteurs are independent experts working on behalf of the United Nations.
 • They work on a country or a thematic mandate specified by the United Nations Human Rights
Council.

Also Read South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) organization’s views on the
draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification.

This issue has been covered in 1st August 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis.

Category: SECURITY

1. Assam Rifles asked to shift base from Aizawl

Context:

Mizoram Chief Minister has asked the Assam Rifles to shift its base from the heart of the state capital
Aizawl to Zokhawsang about 15 km away at the earliest besides stepping up vigil along the border with
Myanmar to check drug trafficking.

• Mizoram shares a 404 km-long international border with Myanmar.

Details:

• One of the battalions of the Assam Rifles had moved to the state capital in 2019.
• The Mizo National Front government had, in 1988, asked the Assam Rifles to shift from Aizawl after
the killing of 12 civilians in an encounter.
• The stand-off between the Mizoram government and the Assam Rifles began in August 2020.

Assam Rifles

• The Assam Rifles (AR) is a Central Para Military Force (CPMF) along with two other forces —
Special Frontier Force and Coast Guard.
• However, only the Assam Rifles functions under the administrative control of the Union Home
Ministry.
• The Assam Rifles was formed under the British in 1835 by the name of Cachar Levy and had a
number of names — the Assam Frontier Police (1883), the Assam Military Police (1891) and
Eastern Bengal and Assam Military Police (1913), before finally becoming the Assam Rifles in
1917.
• It is India’s oldest paramilitary force.
• It fulfils the dual role of maintaining internal security in the north-eastern region and guarding the
Indo-Myanmar border.

D. GS 4 Related
Nothing here for today!!!

E. Editorials
Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. A politics of avoidance that must be questioned

Context:

• The deletion of ‘Question Hour’ provision in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Parliament.
o The Unstarred Questions will continue to be received and answered and it is only the
Starred Questions and the Supplementary Questions emanating from them that would not be
accepted.

For information on this topic, refer to:

CNA dated Sep 3, 2020: Question Hour dropped in LS schedule of monsoon session

Background:

Question Hour:

• Question Hour is the first hour of a sitting session and it is devoted to questions that Members of
Parliament can raise.
• The Rules of Procedure in both Houses prescribe the operational details for the question hour.
• Questions are addressed to a specific minister of the government. The concerned minister is obliged
to answer to the Parliament, either orally or in writing, depending on the type of question raised.
• The two major types of questions include the starred and non-starred questions.
o Starred questions require oral answers and the member is allowed to ask a
supplementary question, with the permission of the Speaker.
o Non-starred questions are those for which a written reply is expected. After the reply has
been provided, no supplementary question can be asked.
• Copies of answers given are available to Members at the Notice Office before the start of the day’s
proceedings as also on the websites.

Significance of question hour:

• The question hour serves as an important instrument of holding the executive accountable for its
actions and inactions.
o The Indian Constitution prescribes a parliamentary form of government in which the
executive is accountable to the electorate through a legislature. Executive accountability is
an inalienable aspect of a democracy.
o The legislature holds the executive accountable through discussions on matters of public
interest and concern by using the available provisions like asking questions in the question
hour, adjournment motion, calling attention, half-an-hour discussion, the motion of no
confidence, questions of privilege, etc. Read about all the devices of parliamentary
proceedings here.
• Given the specificity of the questions, the subsequent answers tend to lead to wider debates,
inquiries, and in some instances, have even brought to light administrative scandals.
• The information made available through the answers by the ministers adds to public information
essential for informed debates on matters of interest or concern.

Details:
 • The author, Hamid Ansari, the former Vice President of India, expresses concerns over the current
development based on the following arguments.

Lowering executive accountability:

• Among the available instruments of executive accountability, the ‘Question Hour’ is of special
significance given its regularity and its availability on a basis of equality to every Member of the
House, Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha. Given that it covers every aspect of government activity,
domestic and foreign, it acts as a powerful tool of accountability.
• The deletion of question hour will lower the ability of the legislature to hold the executive
accountable.

Against the spirit of democracy:

• The deletion of ‘Question Hour’ amounts to a curtailment of the right to question the government
and goes against the philosophy of democracy.

The significance of starred questions:

• Unlike the unstarred questions wherein written replies are allowed and a government can afford to
camouflage inconvenient details, the starred questions with the provision of the oral supplementary
questions provide an opportunity for the legislature to unravel hidden facts.

Lack of consultation:

• The decision to do away with the question hour has been taken without due deliberation and
discussion with the stakeholders.

Failing to explore alternatives:

• The author argues that citing the pandemic as a reason for the dropping of question hour from
parliamentary activity is unsatisfactory.
• There seems to have been little effort in trying to explore alternatives and procedural options
that would help retain the essence of the question hour.
o One possible solution could have been to admit the Starred Question, reply to it in a set of
prepositions and allow the Member concerned to table in writing the permitted number of
follow up questions also to be answered in writing the following day.
o Given that the Chairman and the Speaker exercise great powers relating to the proceedings of
their respective Houses, they could have used a Motion to develop a consensus on this issue.

Conclusion:

• Despite the unprecedented challenges brought forth by the pandemic, there is a need to find
solutions premised on the spirit of democracy.
• The politics of avoidance should be avoided and executive accountability needs to be prioritized.

Category: HEALTH

1. Mind the gaps in India’s health care digital push

Context:

• Public consultations over the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).

Background:

National Digital Health Mission (NDHM):

• The NDHM envisages digitizing all data relating to all patients available not just with government
and private hospitals but also with diagnostic centres, laboratories and individual practitioners of all
systems of medicine.
o Capturing data relating to patients and their digitizing could help all stakeholders including
the patients, the doctors who attend to them and the healthcare facilities where they seek
treatment.
o The NDHM will help revitalize India’s healthcare delivery system by connecting doctors,
hospitals and other healthcare providers in an integrated digital health infrastructure.
o The scheme promises an end-to-end, hands-free digital experience.

For more information on this, refer to:

CNA dated Aug 16, 2020: ‘Digital Health Mission will liberate citizens’

Existing measures:

National Health stack:

• The National Health Stack (NHS) envisages a centralized health record for all citizens of the
country in order to streamline the health information and facilitate its effective management.
• It aims to create a unified health identity of citizens.
• The NHS seeks to employ the latest technology including Big Data Analytics and Machine
Learning Artificial Intelligence.
• A registry of over eight lakh doctors, 10 lakh pharmacists and over 60,000 hospitals is under
preparation. At a later stage, online pharmacies, insurance companies and other stakeholders will be
added to the ‘Stack’.
• The scheme intends to replace existing data generation systems with new homogenised software for
all machines in the health sector in the country with a central processor that will extract the relevant
data from individual records.

National Health Mission:

• The National Health Mission through the IT network is connected to most public health centres even
in tribal areas. Personal health data are generated by name until the primary health centre level but
not transmitted to higher levels except aggregated numerical data.
• Many States have achieved some breakthroughs in the area of digital health within the framework of
the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

Concerns:

• The article discusses some of the shortcomings in the NDHM.

Extensive costs:
 • The implementation of the NDHM would require the healthcare institutions in the government as
well as the private sector to upgrade their available resources and data maintenance practices.
• There would be considerable costs involved in the transition to a new system. Public health
professionals estimate the cost in thousands of crores for all government and private HIPs to
upgrade their hardware and connectivity systems, training of present staff, the entry of data
afresh, apart from other indirect costs.
• This would not be financially viable for independent practitioners in allopathic and the Indian
systems of medicine who run small dispensaries especially in rural areas, where there is no practice
of even storing patient data on computers. Complying with the digitization protocols would entail
cost burdens on them.

Data leakage:

• Despite the claims that patient data safety and confidentiality would be ensured, the data is
vulnerable given that it is getting stored in a decentralised system holding transferable data.
• Despite the provisions like local storage of data, only anonymised data will be shared upwards, and
patients' consent will be taken every time for sharing any personal identifiable information, there are
serious concerns over patient privacy.

Other problems in the health sector:

• The NDHM will entail huge financial resources for its implementation.
• Digitization is not the immediate problem facing the health sector. While the digitization of
healthcare data could help, what many Indians face are unaddressed issues in the health sector.
• Unreliable healthcare facilities in both the government and private sectors, difficulties in getting
timely care, availability of beds and hygienically maintained hospital premises, availability of
doctors physically or online, and the continuous neglect of preventive and community health
initiatives constitute bigger problems in the health sector and require urgent attention and resources.

Limited benefits:

• Many tertiary hospitals and medical colleges rarely consider diagnostic reports from peripheral
centres or even the prescriptions of previous doctors and often repeat the procedures. This would
render past records redundant for the patients.
• With regard to insurance coverage, insurance schemes do not need the entire medical history of the
patient and can do with the cards issued under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and the
Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.

Federal provisions:

• Health is under the State List. The national-level digitization plan without consultation with the
state governments is a cause of concern.

Questions over accuracy:

• While using the generated data there is a presumption that all the data entered in each patient’s file is
accurate, which might not be true in all cases.

Conclusion:

• The article argues that the NDHM may not be the best way to go about addressing data gaps and
suggests that instead, the existing practices and systems for the compilation of data as in the
 Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme and the Health Management Information System (IDSP-
HMIS) could have been reformed for better efficiency and effectiveness.

Category: SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Should the age of marriage for women be raised to 21?

For information on this issue, refer to:

CNA dated Aug 16, 2020: Govt. may review the age of marriage: PM

F. Prelims Facts
Nothing here for today!!!

G. Tidbits

1. COVID-19, NEP fuel fund raising by education technology firms

What’s in News?

According to industry players, the recently announced National Education Policy (NEP) has come at the
right time and can lead to a double-digit growth for the estimated $3.5 billion education technology (ed-
tech) sector.

• With schools shut and online education gathering pace, ed-tech players are firming up plans to raise
funds to transform schools through digitalization and digital training of teachers even as students are
confined to homeschooling.
• They are of the opinion that the education sector is poised for a telecom and banking-like revolution.
• It is opined that post-NEP, the ed-tech revolution in India will finally facilitate universal access to
quality education for every child using digital/mobile technology.

2. Relief for borrowers in moratorium case

What’s in News?

The Supreme Court of India has passed an interim order saying that the accounts not declared as non-
performing assets (NPA) as on 31 August 2020 shall not be declared as NPAs till further notice.

• The order was passed amid apprehensions raised by borrowers whether their loans would be declared
NPAs the day after the expiry of the moratorium.

Note:
 • The court is examining the question of whether compound interest (interest on interest) should be
charged on loans deferred during the moratorium period.
• The Bench is also examining the powers of the Centre and the National Disaster Management
Authority to provide relief to borrowers, reeling under the financial effects of the pandemic.

3. Study links rice intake to diabetes

What’s in News?

According to a paper published after studying individuals from 21 countries over 9.5 years, higher
consumption of white rice regularly is associated with an increased risk of diabetes.

• The highest risk, according to the paper, was seen in South Asia, which had the highest consumption
of white rice at 630 grams a day.
• The study acknowledges the role of reduced physical activity as a contributing factor, as also an
increase in obesity rates, while it does adjust for various other diabetogenic factors, including family
history.
• Trying to establish the link, the paper advances a couple of theories.
o It is known that excess rice consumption leads to postprandial glucose spikes that, in turn,
lead to compensatory hyperinsulinemia [excess secretion of insulin] to maintain euglycemia
[normal blood sugar levels]. Over time, the b-cells become exhausted, leading to b-cell
failure and diabetes, the paper states.

H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions

Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to the Environment Pollution Control
Authority (EPCA):

1. EPCA is a Supreme Court-mandated body tasked with taking various measures to tackle air pollution
in all the metropolitan cities across India.
2. The body is constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
3. It is mandated to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the Delhi-NCR (National
Capital Region).

Which of the given statement/s is/are correct?

a. 1 and 2 only
b. 2 and 3 only
c. 3 only
d. 1, 2 and 3

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: b

Explanation:

• Environment Pollution Control Authority is a Supreme Court-mandated body tasked with taking
various measures to tackle air pollution in the Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region).
• The body is constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
 • It is mandated to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the Delhi-NCR (National
Capital Region).

Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to Paradip Port:

1. It is a natural, deep-water port.

2. It is the largest port by size and shipping traffic.
3. It is situated at the confluence of the Mahanadi river and the Bay of Bengal.

Which of the given statement/s is/are INCORRECT?

a. 1 and 3 only
b. 2 and 3 only
c. 2 only
d. 1 only

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: c

Explanation:

• Paradip is a natural, deep-water port situated on the east coast of India, in Odisha.
• It is situated at the confluence of the Mahanadi river and the Bay of Bengal.
• Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai is the largest container port in India. It is India's largest port by
size and shipping traffic.

Q3. Consider the following statements with respect to Assam Rifles:

1. It functions under the administrative control of the Union Home Ministry.

2. The Assam Rifles was formed under the British in 1835.
3. It is India’s oldest paramilitary force.

Which of the given statement/s is/are correct?

a. 1 and 3 only
b. 1 only
c. 1 and 2 only
d. 1, 2 and 3

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: d

Explanation:

• The Assam Rifles (AR) is a Central Para Military Force (CPMF) along with two other forces —
Special Frontier Force and Coast Guard.
• However, only the Assam Rifles functions under the administrative control of the Union Home
Ministry.
• The Assam Rifles was formed under the British in 1835 by the name of Cachar Levy and had a
number of names — the Assam Frontier Police (1883), the Assam Military Police (1891) and Eastern
Bengal and Assam Military Police (1913), before finally becoming the Assam Rifles in 1917.
 • It is India’s oldest paramilitary force.

Q4. Which of the following Indian state/s share/s international border with both
Myanmar and Bangladesh?

1. Tripura
2. Mizoram
3. Manipur
4. Nagaland

Choose the correct option:

a. 1 and 2 only
b. 2 only
c. 1, 3 and 4 only
d. 2 and 4 only

CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: b

Explanation:

• West Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam share a border with Bangladesh.
• Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh share a border with Myanmar.

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. Increasing the minimum age of marriage for women to 21 years may not really benefit women.
Comment. (10 marks, 150 words)(GS paper 1/Social Issues)
2. Discuss the concerns associated with the proposed National Digital Health Mission. (10 marks, 150
words)(GS Paper 2/Health)