Daily News Simplified - DNS

03 11 20
Notes
SL. THE HINDU
TOPICS
NO. PAGE NO.

1 The nutrition fallout of school closures 07

2 A-G declines consent for contempt case against Jagan 01

3 HC panel questions setting up of special courts to try MPs 08

4 Serosurveys underestimate building of herd immunity 07

5 Reinforcing RBI’s accountability 07

Strategic Partnership will aid smooth work in the event of

6 07
regional crisis’
Date: 03-Nov-2020DNS Notes - Revision

1. UPSC Current Affairs: The nutrition fallout of school closures | Page 7

UPSC Syllabus: Prelims: Schemes | Mains – GS Paper II – Social Justice
Sub Theme: Mid Day Meal Scheme |UPSC

The nutrition fallout of school closures

As per the report of State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020, released by the Food and
Agriculture Organization in partnership with other UN organisations, 369 million children globally were losing
out on school meals, a bulk of whom were in India.

A report by the International Labour Organization and the UNICEF, on COVID-19 and child labour, cautions
that unless school services and social security are universally strengthened, there is a risk that some children may
not even return to schools when they reopen.

The recent Global Hunger Index (GHI) report for 2020 ranks India at 94 out of 107 countries and in the
category ‘serious’, behind our neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The index is a combination of
indicators of undernutrition in the population and wasting, stunting, and mortality in children below five years of
age.

We are already far out in terms of achieving the ‘Zero Hunger’ goal (SDG goal-2). According to NITI Aayog’s
report on Sustainable Development Goals 2019, only seven states have managed to address UN’s zero hunger
goal.

Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is a party, India has committed to "adequate
nutritious food" for children.

Right to food is a fundamental right - In April 2001, the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) initiated
the public interest litigation - popularly known as the "right to food" case. The PUCL argued that article 21 –
"right to life" of the Indian constitution when read together with articles 39(a) and 47, makes the right to food
a derived fundamental right which is enforceable by virtue of the constitutional remedy provided under article 32
of the constitution.

The PUCL argued that excess food stocks with the Food Corporation of India should be fed to hungry citizens.
This included providing mid-day meals in primary schools. The scheme came into force with the supreme court
order which requires all government and government-assisted primary schools to provide cooked midday meals.

Article 39(a) - citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means to livelihood

Article 47 - Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health

Mid-day meal scheme

• The scheme guarantees one meal to all students up to Class VIII, least 200 days in a year, in government
and aided schools and madarsas supported under Samagra Shiksha.
• The Scheme comes under the Ministry of Education.
• It was launched in the year 1995 as the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education,
a centrally sponsored scheme. In 2004, the scheme was relaunched as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
• The central government provides free food grains to the states.
• The cost of cooking, infrastructure development, transportation of food grains and payment of honorarium
to cooks and helpers is shared by the centre with the state governments.
• The MDM rules 2015, provide that:
Date: 03-Nov-2020DNS Notes - Revision

o The place of serving meals to the children shall be school only.[Kerala is a providing hot-cooked
meals to students at home during COVID-19 pandemic].
o If the Mid-Day Meal is not provided in school on any school day due to non-availability of food
grains or any other reason, the State Government shall pay food security allowance.
o Procuring AGMARK quality items for preparation of midday meals.
o The School Management Committee mandated under the Right to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009 shall also monitor implementation of the Mid-day meal Scheme.
o The State Steering-cum Monitoring Committee (SSMC) shall oversee the implementation of the
scheme including establishment of a mechanism for maintenance of nutritional standards and quality
of meals.

• Nutritional norms
o The children in primary schools must be provided with at least 450 calories with 12 grams of protein,
including adequate quantities of micronutrients like iron, folic acid, Vitamin-A, etc. The children in
upper primary schools should get 700 calories with 20 grams of protein. This is approximately one-
third of the nutritional requirement of the child
o The food intake per meal by the children of primary classes is 100 grams of food grains, 20 grams
of pulses, 50 grams of vegetables and 5 grams of oils and fats. For the children of upper-primary
schools, the mandated breakup is 150 grams of food grains, 30 grams of pulses, 75 grams of
vegetables and 7.5 grams of oils and fats.

• Joint Review Mission of MDMS, 2015-16 noted that many children reach school on an empty stomach,
making the school’s mid-day meal a major source of nutrition for children, particularly those from
vulnerable communities.
• The Midday Meal Scheme is covered by the National Food Security Act, 2013.

Performance analysis
• Government of India announced that the usual hot-cooked mid-day meal or an equivalent food security
allowance/dry ration would be provided to all eligible school-going children even during vacation, to
ensure that their immunity and nutrition is not compromised. Nearly three months into this decision, States
were still struggling to implement this.
• According to the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) food grain bulletin, the offtake of grains under MDMS
from FCI during April and May, 2020 was 221.312 thousand tonnes. This was 60 thousand tonnes, or
22%, lower than the corresponding offtake during April and May, 2019 (281.932 thousand tonnes).
• There were 23 States and Union Territories that reported a decline in the grain offtake from FCI in April-
May 2020, compared with corresponding months in 2019.
• Data and media reports indicate that dry ration distributions in lieu of school meals are irregular.

The other worrying angle is the fact that there are reports of children engaging in labour to supplement the fall in
family incomes in vulnerable households.

Innovative strategies
A local livelihood model
Linking local smallholder farmers with the mid-day meal system for the supply of cereals, vegetables, and eggs.
This will help in –
o meeting protein and hidden hunger needs
o diversify production and farming systems
o transform rural livelihoods and the local economy.
Date: 03-Nov-2020DNS Notes - Revision

o Development of decentralised models which can overcome supply chain constraint due to COVID-19
like crisis.

School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden

o to provide fresh vegetables for mid-day meals.
o First hand experience to children on nature and gardening.
o Enhance children’s knowledge on nutrition
o Nagaland is promoting kitchen gardening in every school.
[The Ministry of Human Resource Development has recently released set of guidelines mandating schools to set
up a School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden.]

2. UPSC Current Affairs: A-G declines consent for contempt case against Jagan | Page 01
UPSC Syllabus: Prelims: Schemes | Mains – GS Paper II – Social Justice
Sub Theme: Contempt of Court |UPSC

Mr. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed PILs in Supreme Court against the criminalisation of politics
and the long-pending trials against legislators.

The top court ordered the setting up of special courts to try MPs and MLAs expeditiously.

The Bench led by Justice Ramana is presently monitoring the process.

Chief Minister of A.P, Jagan Mohan Reddy, wrote letter to the Chief Justice of India, containing
allegations against Supreme Court judge N.V. Ramana and others.

Mr. Upadhyay wanted to seek consent from Attorney General to file Contempt case against the
CM.

Mr. Upadhyay claimed that Mr. Reddy had 31 criminal cases against him. Mr. Reddy is not only
indulging in bench-hunting but also wants the court to stop hearing these PILs. This is not a silly
mischievous deceitful act but deliberate fraudulent calculated attempts to not only undermine
apex court but also to terrorise the judiciary.

Article 129 states that the Supreme Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers
of such a court including the power to punish for contempt of itself.

Section 2(a) of the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971 defines contempt of court as civil contempt or
criminal contempt.
• Civil contempt refers to the wilful disobedience of an order of any court.
Date: 03-Nov-2020DNS Notes - Revision

• Criminal contempt includes any act or publication which:

o scandalises' the court, or
o prejudices any judicial proceeding, or
o interferes with the administration of justice in any other manner

In case of contempt other than the contempt referred to in rule 2, the Court may take action –
• Suo motu, or
• on a petition made by Attorney-General, or Solicitor-General, or
• on a petition made by any person, and in the case of a criminal contempt with the consent
in writing of the Attorney-General or the Solicitor-General.

3. UPSC Current Affairs: HC panel questions setting up of special courts to try MPs| Page 08
UPSC Syllabus: Prelims: Polity | Mains – GS Paper II – Polity and Governance
Sub Theme: Criminalization of Politics |UPSC

What is the news?

• Supreme Court in 2017 had authorised the Centre to set up 12 Special Courts to
exclusively try criminal politicians across the country.
• However, the three Member Committee of the Madras High Court has questioned the
constitutional validity to constitute such Special Court by the Supreme Court.
• The Report of Madras High Court has come at a time when a three-judge Bench of the
Supreme Court led by Justice N.V. Ramana is looking at ways to expedite these trials
pending for years, in some cases, for decades.
• As of now over 4,400 criminal trials are pending against legislators where more than
2,500 trials involve sitting legislators.

What is the observation of Madras High Court Committee?

• Madras High Court has constituted Criminal Rules Committee on Special Courts for Trial of
Criminal Cases against MPs/MLAs. The Committee comprises of Justices P.N. Prakash, G.
Jayachandran and N. Sathish Kumar.
• Three Judge Committee of Madras High Court has observed that –
v If any MP/MLA commits an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO), or other Special Acts like Prevention of Corruption
Act, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, The Scheduled Castes &
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 etc. which provides for the
mechanism of Special Courts ---- then such offence committed by MP/MLA has to
be tried by such Special Court under the Act.
v There cannot be cannot be another Special Court created outside the Act
exclusively for trial of an MP/MLA for offences committed under such Acts which
provides for Special Courts.
• The Committee further observed that Special Courts can only be constituted by a
statute/legislation and not by any executive or judicial orders.
• Based on this observation, committee raised strong reservations against setting up special
courts in Tamil Nadu as the Committee feels that existing court structure in Tamil Nadu,
which is robust, is more than enough to deal with the cases involving MPs and MLAs.
• The Committee also urged the Madras High Court Chief Justice to bring this “fact” to the
notice of the Supreme Court to get an “exemption from establishing special courts for trial
of cases involving MPs and MLAs”.
Date: 03-Nov-2020DNS Notes - Revision

• These observations of the three member committee of Madras High Court have been filed
in the Supreme Court.
• Conclusion - Accordingly the Three Judge Committee of the Madras High Court has
questioned the constitutional validity of setting up special courts to exclusively try MPs
and MLAs for various crimes. The Court observed that the special courts should be
“offence-centric” and not “offender-centric.”

4. UPSC Current Affairs: Serosurveys underestimate building of herd immunity | Page 07

UPSC Syllabus: Prelims: Schemes | Science and Technology
Sub Theme: Sero Surveys | Anti Bodies |UPSC

Context:
• Author suggests that the antibody prevalence data derived from serosurveys must be
interpreted with caution and correction factors

The theory behind population-based serological surveys (seroprevalence surveys or sero surveys) to
detect the prevalence of antibodies against COVID-19 is robust.

What is the purpose behind Sero Surveys?

• Their purpose is to measure the proportion of a population already infected, as evidenced by
antibody positivity.
• When applied on a national scale, a random sample of the entire population is tested. Then, the
data are extrapolated to the whole population.

Let us first understand the “Random ness”

• ‘Random’, according to the dictionary, means something without a deliberate order. In
biostatistics, it means each individual has an equal probability of getting selected. Statisticians
stratify the population and select a random sample from all strata so that the prevalence figure
obtained is representative of the whole population. The result of random sample sero surveys
can be confidently extrapolated to obtain national-level prevalence of antibodies.

What presence of antibodies indicate?

• Antibodies are the footprints of the host’s response to virus infection. Their presence in the
blood-serum confirms past infection.

However, test results for antibodies throw up surprises. Antibody prevalence data derived from
serosurveys must be interpreted with caution and correction factors.

So why is there a need for caution?

• The virus carries several antigens, both on the surface and internally. The body responds to all
of them.
• Four antigens selected to detect antibodies are spike protein (S1, S2), receptor-binding domain
(RBD) and nucleocapsid (N).
• An antibody against each antigen has its own time of appearance, duration in blood and rate of
decay over time.

What does data suggest: Study

Date: 03-Nov-2020DNS Notes - Revision

• In people with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic infections, these antibody levels decline
over time, reaching 50% of the initial levels by about 36 days and become undetectable by 60
days after proven infection.
• Such asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases constitute more than 80% of those infected
with the virus.

Let us understand this with the help of a example: 2nd Sero Survey
• The second serosurvey gave 7.1% prevalence for those immune between July 20 and August
25.
• For the sake of simplifying calculations, we assign August 4, the midpoint of this time interval
to represent the second survey results.
• Subjects who were antibody positive by August 4 would have contracted the infection a month
earlier by July 4. The result is not time-appropriate as at least 50% of those infected two
months earlier by June 4 (representing the midpoint between April 20 and June 25) would have
become antibody negative. This was the time when infections were rapidly rising. In short, the
result is a gross underestimate of the true level of those with antibodies. Taking 50% as the
correction factor, prevalence was 14.2% on August 4.

Evidently, serosurvey results have to be cautiously interpreted to arrive at the true level of prevalence
of antibodies. If taken at face value, serosurvey results grossly underestimate true prevalence, except
in the very early phase of the epidemic when infected people two months earlier were very few.

Governments must continuously exhort citizens not to let their guard down, not only for the safety of
those who celebrate, but also, more importantly, their family members, particularly senior citizens.
People can celebrate festivals but governments must enforce strict norms regarding crowding,
especially inside buildings.

5. UPSC Current Affairs: Reinforcing RBI’s accountability | Page 07

UPSC Syllabus: Prelims: Economy | Mains: GS III Macroeconomy
Sub Theme: RBI | |UPSC

Context:
This article has appeared in the newspaper in the context of RBI's failure to maintain Inflation rate
within the targeted range. Accordingly, it argues for ensuring greater accountability of the RBI with
respect to inflation targeting.

Monetary Policy Framework Agreement

The RBI act, 1934 was amended in 2016 to provide for the adoption of flexible inflation targeting.
Under this act, the Central Government shall determine the inflation target in terms of the Consumer
Price Index, once in every five years. This inflation target is required to be met by Monetary Policy
Committee (MPC).
Presently, the Monetary Policy agreement (MPA) signed between Centre and RBI provides that MPC
should maintain an ideal rate of inflation of 4% which could increase or decrease by 2% i.e. the rate of
inflation should always be between 2% to 6%.
Such a flexible inflation targeting has been adopted in order to provide necessary autonomy to the RBI
to control inflation. This autonomy is in turn matched by its accountability.
Date: 03-Nov-2020DNS Notes - Revision

As per the agreement, if the rate of inflation is above 6% or below 2% for 3 consecutive quarters, then
it would be termed as the failure of the RBI to maintain Inflation. Accordingly, in order to ensure its
accountability, the RBI would be required to publish a report stating the following:
(a) the reasons for failure to achieve the inflation target;
(b) remedial actions proposed to be taken by the Bank; and
(c) an estimate of the time-period within which the inflation target shall be achieved.

Present Status
The rate of Inflation as measured by CPI has been higher than 6% in the last 3 quarters. As per the
Monetary policy framework agreement, this can be considered to be RBI's failure to maintain inflation
within the targeted range. Hence, accordingly RBI should have come out with detailed report
explaining the reasons for its failure and what actions it proposes to undertake.

Way forward
There is a need to ensure the accountability of the RBI. The RBI should be made to explain the reasons
for its failure to maintain the rate of inflation. The RBI should also come with what concrete steps
would it take to bring inflation under control. This would enhance credibility, transparency and
predictability of monetary policy.

6. UPSC Current Affairs: ‘Strategic Partnership will aid smooth work in the event of regional
crisis’| Page 07
UPSC Syllabus: Mains: GS II International Relations
Sub Theme: Comprehensive Strategic Partnership | |UPSC

A steady uptick in the momentum of bilateral cooperation

• Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP): Upgradation of the existing 2+2 dialogue to the
Ministerial level, elevating the 2009 bilateral Strategic Partnership to a CSP.
[India has signed CSPs with the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) thus far, while Australia has CSPs with China, Indonesia and Singapore.]
• As part of the CSP, there were agreements in relation to critical technologies such as Artificial
Intelligence, quantum computing, and 5G
• Mutual Logistic Support Arrangement, which is designed to improve the collaboration between the
armed forces.
[India has such agreements with the USA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement-LEMOA),
France, Singapore and South Korea]
• Australia’s inclusion in the Malabar naval exercises.
• Supply of rare earth minerals will help India’s program for batteries or electric vehicles.
• Australian India Strategic Research Fund has been going for over 20 years. Australia is contributing
to India’s National Quantum Mission by facilitating partnerships with universities, research institutions
and businesses.
• Since 2013, Australia has been doing laser ranging for Indian regional navigational satellite systems.
temporary ground station tracking facilities in Australia to support Gaganyaan Mission is being planned.

India and Australia have decided to recommence suspended talks over India-Australia Comprehensive
Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). which has been suspended since 2015. This move comes in the
wake of India opting out of the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Date: 03-Nov-2020DNS Notes - Revision

Area that need more cooperation/understanding

• Tensions between India and China over the standoff at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and Australia-
China tensions over trade issues and differences over the handling of the pandemic.
• Australia still expresses hope that India would reconsider joining RCEP.

Both India and Australia share a vision of a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region and
cooperative use of the seas by adherence to international law including the United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and peaceful resolution of disputes rather than through unilateral or coercive actions.