The shipping sector is at sea{1/2}

✔️Context

◆The major economies of the world have always realized the potential of shipping as a contributor
to economic growth. 
◆Control of seas is a major component of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It is trying to take
control of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean Region.
◆According to world shipping council, seven of the top 10 container ports in the world are in
China, though it is not geographically blessed like India and has coast only on the east.
◆Before the 16th century, both India and China were equal competitors on GDP and India had
maritime supremacy in the world. 
◆But over the past 70 years, India lost its global presence in shipping due to poor legislation and
politics.
◆While China made strong efforts for marine and infrastructure to carry and handle merchandise
all over the world.

✔️Helping foreign shipping liners

●Establishment of ports in India has been visionless as it concentrated on short term solutions and
helping foreign shipping liners.
●Establishment of new ports in independent India to the establishment of the present-day
Chabahar Port in Iran, all ports have been counter-effective.
●In the past, colonial traders developed strong merchant marine along with optimum shore-based
infrastructure with road and rail connectivity to facilitate their trade, thus having a balanced at sea
and onshore to cater carrying capacity.
●Today, foreign ship-owners carry our inbound and outbound cargo. We have still not optimised
our carrying capacity in container ports.
●Foreign carriers charge huge in the logistics cycle due to which much of our foreign currency is
drained as transhipment and handling cost every day.
●Also, members of our maritime business community have chosen to be agents for foreign ship
owners or container instead of becoming ship owners and container liners themselves. 
●This historical mistake led to the major economic failure of the country, and now there is a wide
gap between carrying capacity and multi-folded cargo growth in the country.
●In the name of coastal shipping, Now Ministry officials are happily relaxing "Cabotage" regulation
benefiting only the foreign container-carrying companies and not Indian ship-owners.
●Due to the Official actions which allow foreign carriers to enjoy the situation here and push the
Indian tonnage owners to vanish from the scene. 
●Starting from the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company of V.O. Chidambaram Pillai to the
Scindia Steam Navigation Company of our times, Indian owners have not got the blessings of
successive governments.
●In the port sector due to the bureaucracy of the government, it has repeatedly allowed the similar
infrastructural development of multi-cargo handling ports resulting in Indian ports competing only
for the same cargo.
●Making our major ports cargo-specific and developing infrastructure on a par with global
standards, also connecting them with international sea routes and hinterlands, would make Indian
ports transhipment hubs.
●We need to concentrate on developing the contributing ports to serve as the regional
transhipment hubs for which improving small-ship coastal operations is mandatory.
●By developing a balanced infrastructure onshore and at sea, our long-cherished dream to be
competent and cost-effective in international supply chain logistics shall come true by supplying
quality products at competitive market price.

✔️A ray of hope

◆The government initiative of Sagarmala project aiming at port-led industrialization, developing
world-class logistics institutions, and coastal community development would help in developing
domestic as well as international carrying capacity.
◆The small ship-owning community in India prefers foreign registry for their ships instead of
domestic registration because as of now shipbuilding, repair and ownership are not viable in
peninsular India. 
◆There is a need to change the mindset of the authorities and the maritime business community
to develop the Indian shipping industry.Rapid growth in multi-folded cargo and 'Make in India' urge
the need for increased ships to cater to domestic and international trade. 
◆River and sea voyages should be encouraged. 
◆The ship-owning spirit of the Indian merchant marine entrepreneur has to be restored and
encouraged by the Ministry. 
◆The National Shipping Board, an independent advisory body for the Ministry of Shipping, should
question the functioning of the DGS (Directorate General of Shipping) so that DGS ensures
optimum utilisation of carrying capacity in the country.
◆Sagarmala should evolve schemes to involve coastal communities who have century-old ship-
owning spirit and sailing skills of peninsular India.
◆By making Coastal communities the ship owners, carriage of cargo in inland waterways using
shallow drafted small ships can be initiated.
◆By encouraging coastal communities, all minor ports in peninsular India could contribute to the
existing major ports and become transhipment hubs. 
◆Also, by encouraging Old sailing vessel, owners should become small ship owners can improve
the shipping industry.
◆Major global shipping companies which depend on Indian cargo for their business have Indians
as either as commercial heads or Indian crew onboard their ships. 
◆The Indian youth is employed outside India, and the creative human resource is not used in the
country.
◆The youth population In India has become merely a number not utilising their skill-based
strength.

✔️Conclusion

In the coastal region, the strength of the youth has to be tapped by using the Sagarmala project
and utilise the Nation's youth in contributing to the Nation's economy and improve the Shipping
industry and make India a global Competitor.

Building a robust Health Care System{1/2}

✔️Context

◆The COVID 19 pandemic disclosed in front of the public the Flaws in the public health care
system and several articles now demand the revamp of the health sector so that such
emergencies can be handled better in future.
◆Once the pandemic is over, the government shall ignore the health sector reforms as it thinks
much has been done on the health front.

✔️Poor Health Indicators

◆The public health system's efficacy varies widely within the states across the country since it is a
State subject.

◆Public health system efficiency can be judged through health parameters such as Infant Mortality
Rate, Maternal Mortality Ratio and Total Fertility Rate. 
◆With the given Numbers, India shall not achieve its Goal 3 of sustainable development goals set
by the U.N. in 2015.

◆India could not achieve its Millennium Development goals due to poor performance of Northern
states; however, the government didn't hold them accountable and instead was satisfied with
average performance. Further State governments themselves are indifferent to their poor
performance.

◆Since Health is a state subject, the primary onus lies on the State to improve the health
indicators, but certain states have skewed priorities such as cow protection and 'love jihad'.

◆More mothers are perhaps dying for want of care than cows. Health has to be given the highest
priority for rapid improvement in numbers of health indicators.

◆The northern State is performing very poor in terms of health indicators.

◆In Madhya Pradesh, the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births (IMR) is as high as
48 compared to seven in Kerala.

◆In U.P., the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)is 197 compared to Kerala's 42 and Tamil Nadu's
63. 

◆The percentage of deliveries by untrained personnel in Bihar is190 times that of Kerala.

◆The total fertility rate in Bihar is 3.2 against the average rate of 2.1.

◆Kerala and Tamilnadu with their effective Maternal and Child Health and Family Welfare services
have performed well.

◆Government is looking at the overall averages of indicators which are better due to good
performance by certain states; however, there will be no dramatic improvement in the health
system unless all states perform well.

◆Even though additional funds were given by Finance commission other than the substantial
allocation by Ministry of Health and Family welfare states could not improve the health system,
only better governance and effective implementation instead of money can improve the health
system.

✔️Tamil Nadu's example

◆In southern states, the political leadership was interested in the Health and well-being of the
people. 

◆In the 1970s it organised numerous camps to eradicate cataract and Family planning and
encourage healthy competition among the districts by giving prizes to the well-performing ones.

◆By the 1990s, family planning drives were no more required, only some fine-tuning of the
Maternal and Child Health programme. Was in need.

◆Due to clear focus of political executives and good administrative structure today the Total
Fertility Rate of Tamil Nadu is among the lowest in the country (1.6) comparable to that of
Germany (1.57) and Japan (1.43). 
◆Both the Central Government and empowered action group - states should consider preventive
care and Public Health as a priority and improve public health in the Northern States in Par with
southern states.

◆Prime Minister should get involved in this fundamental task of improving the Health of the
people. By holding the Empowered Action Group States accountable to the SDGs, he should be
asked to reach the health indicator levels of the southern States within three to five years.

◆The political leaders of Tamilnadu in the 1970s have to be implemented by Chief Ministers of
Northern states by focusing more on Health and making the district health administration
accountable.

◆Tamil Nadu manages its public health set-up with just 150 public health professionals. Therefore,
it cannot be difficult for other States to build a public health cadre quickly.

◆The first step towards the improvement of Health would be improving primary and preventive
health care.

✔️Giving health importance

●Investing in FDI will only increase the wealth of the already wealthy and accentuate income
disparity. 

●Investing in human capital like Health and education is the primary responsibility of both central
and State governments.

●Piecemeal schemes may help get publicity would not improve Health in the long run; instead,
concerted efforts have to be made to improve Health. 

●The southern States started early and are reaping the benefits, but they can still do more to
reach developed countries' level. 

●While the Empowered Action Group States must start at least now since only persistent and
focused efforts at the highest level of government would help improve preventive care and primary
healthcare.

One Nation One Election

◆As the elections in four states and one UT in March-April are suspected to have contributed to
the second wave of Covid infections, a well-reasoned debate on a concept as important as “one
nation, one election” is called for.

▪️Simultaneous Election: Background

●The idea has been around since at least 1983, when the Election Commission first mooted it.
However, until 1967, simultaneous elections were the norm in India.

●The first General Elections to the House of People (Lok Sabha) and all State Legislative
Assemblies were held simultaneously in 1951-52.

●That practice continued in three subsequent General Elections held in the years 1957, 1962 and
1967.

●However, due to the premature dissolution of some Legislative Assemblies in 1968 and 1969, the
cycle got disrupted.
●In 1970, the Lok Sabha was itself dissolved prematurely and fresh elections were held in 1971.
Thus, the First, Second and Third Lok Sabha enjoyed full five-year terms.

●As a result of premature dissolutions and extension of terms of both the Lok Sabha and various
State Legislative Assemblies, there have been separate elections to Lok Sabha and States
Legislative Assemblies, and the cycle of simultaneous elections has been disturbed.

▪️Arguments For Simultaneous Election

◆A NITI Aayog paper says that the country has at least one election each year; actually, each
state has an election every year, too. In that paper, NITI Aayog argued that multiple elections
incurs many direct and indirect disadvantages

◆Incalculable Economic Costs of Elections: Directly budgeted costs are around Rs 300 crore for a
state the size of Bihar. However, there are other financial costs, and incalculable economic costs.

◆Each election means government machinery misses out on their regular duties due to election
duty and related work.

◆These costs of the millions of man-hours used are not charged to the election budget.

◆Policy Paralysis: The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) also affects the government's functionary,
as no new significant policy can be announced and executed after the elections are announced.

◆Administrative Costs: There are also huge and visible costs of deploying security forces and
transporting them, repeatedly.

◆A bigger invisible cost is paid by the nation in terms of diverting these forces from sensitive areas
and in terms of the fatigue and illnesses that repeated cross-country deployments bring about.

▪️Arguments Against Simultaneous Elections

●Federal Problem: Simultaneous elections are almost nearly impossible to implement, as it would
mean arbitrarily curtailing or extending the term of existing legislatures to bring their election dates
in line with the due date for the rest of the country.

●Such a measure would undermine democracy and federalism.

●Against Spirit of Democracy: Critics also say that forcing simultaneous elections is against
democracy because trying to force an artificial cycle of elections and restricting the choice for
voters is not correct.

●Regional Parties At Disadvantage: Regional parties are supposed to be at a disadvantage

because in simultaneously held elections, voters are reportedly likely to predominantly vote one
way, giving the dominant party at the Centre an advantage.

●Diminished Accountability: Having to face the electorate more than once every 5 years enhances
the accountability of politicians and keeps them on their toes.
❓Conclusion

◆It is obvious That the Constitution and other laws would need to be amended for implementing
simultaneous elections. However, it should be done in such a way that it doesn’t hurt the basic
tenets of democracy and federalism.
◆In this context, the Law Commission has suggested an alternative i.e. categorising states based
on proximity to the next general election, and having one round of State Assembly polls with the
next Lok Sabha election, and another round for the remaining States 30 months later. But there is
still no guarantee that mid-term polls would not be needed.

How to make our roads safer?{1/2}

✔️Introduction

◆Recently, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways released the World Bank Report,
titled “Traffic Crash Injuries And Disabilities: The Burden on India Society”, prepared in association
with the NGO-Save Life Foundation.

◆He termed the road accident scenario in India more dangerous than the Covid pandemic. He
also added that the accident cost is a tremendous burden to society and the nation as the
estimated cost of one death in one road accident is around Rs 91 lakh.

✔️Major Findings of the Report

●India has just 1% of the world's vehicles but accounts for nearly 11% of the global road accidents
and 10% of road crash victims worldwide. This accounts for about 4.5 lakh road crashes per
annum, in which 1.5 lakh people die.

●Among these, over 70% of this fatalities are in their prime working-age, 18-45 years. (due to
pandemic – 70% of fatalities took place in the age group >65yrs)

●The financial impact of the crash is much more on poorer households. It says more than 75% of
poor households in India reported a decline in their income as a result of a road traffic crash.
Every road accident death causes depletion of nearly seven months of household income in poor
families and pushes the families of victims in a cycle of poverty and debt.

●Vulnerable Road Users(pedestrians, cyclist, motorcyclist, etc. ) bear a disproportionately large

burden of road crashes and account for more than half of all road crash deaths and serious
injuries in the country.

●Gender-Specific Impact - Women in the families of victims bore the burden across poor and rich
households, often taking up extra work, assuming greater responsibilities, and performing
caregiving activities.

●It was found that there is very low awareness, especially among low-income households, about
insurance mechanism and institutional support given by the govt.

✔️What are the Major Causes of Road accidents?

◆The poor condition of the road infrastructure. Many road accidents are the result of faulty road-
design.

◆Malfunctioning traffic signals - signage boards either not present or put in the wrong places.

◆Lack of proper knowledge about the traffic rules and signage boards.

◆Weak Vehicle Safety Standards in India.

◆Distraction while driving like talking over mobile phones while driving has become a.major cause
of road accidents.
◆Lack of responsibility among people regarding driving like over speeding, driving under. the
influence of alcohol or drugs, tiredness or riding without a helmet, driving without.
seatbelts,.parking, following rules etc.

◆Traffic management is quite casual.

✔️What are the measures taken at the global level for road safety?

◆UN declared the decade of 2011-20 as a Decade of Road Safety. As part of SDGs, its goal was
to reduce road traffic deaths around the world.

◆Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety(2015) – the countries plan to achieve SDG 3.6 i.e to half the
no. of global deaths and injuries from road accidents by 2030. India has signed this and committed
to a reduction in fatalities.

◆The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) - Is a registered charity dedicated to

saving lives through safer roads.

✔️What are the measures taken by the Indian government for road safety?

●Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019 -TheAct hikes the penalties for traffic violations, defective
vehicles, juvenile driving, etc.

●It provides for a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, which would provide compulsory insurance cover
to all road users in India for certain types of accidents.

●It also provides for a National Road Safety Board, to be created by the Central Government
through a notification.

●It also provides for the protection of good Samaritans i.e. people coming forward to help accident
victims will be protected from civil or criminal liability.

●3 Year Action Agenda NITI Aayog also highlighted the need for Road Safety.

✔️Potential Inputs that can be added:

◆If we reduce the deaths by half, we can increase our GDP per capita to 20-25% in the next two
decades. This is the huge potential on which we are losing out. So, it is very important for all the
agencies (traffic police, state transport, central govt) to come together and set up an effective
institutional policy mechanism.

◆Areas that require immediate improvements include post-crash emergency care and protocols,
insurance and compensation systems.

◆We need to innovate in terms of urban design, road transportation, etc. to make roads safer for
pedestrians, cyclist, motorcyclist, etc.

◆Mass transit systems like metros can also be incorporated. Through this, we will be able to
create safer roads and more just transition for the low-income group people. We need a paradigm
shift in the mobility pattern.

◆Tamil Nadu has brought down the road accidents drastically over 25%. They are conducting
road safety audits on road to be constructed and on existing roads as well to identify the source of
accidents. This can be adopted by other states as well.
◆increasing awareness among people.

✔️Conclusion:

Idea is to make the road as a whole more conducive, safer and more equitable. For that, there are
institutional reforms and a plethora of paradigm shifts that we need to take forward. At this point,
India needs a transitional shift towards the models and ideas. Further, awareness and a sense of
responsibility need to be developed among the people regarding road safety.

How to Modernize the Indian Armed Forces?{1/2}

✔️Introduction

◆Prime Minister of India addressed a webinar on the effective implementation of the Union
Budget’s provisions in the defence sector.

◆The Prime minister listed a series of measures taken by the government to boost self-reliance in
the defence sector and regret the fact that the country is amongst the biggest defence importers in
the world.

◆PM urged the private sector to come forward and take up both the designing and manufacturing
of defence equipment.

◆A total amount of Rs 4.78 lakh crore has been earmarked for the Ministry of Defence in the
Budget, with a nearly 19% increase in capital outlay. A share of the budget has been reserved for
domestic procurement.

✔️What is the Current Status of India’s defence sector?

●India is the second-largest importer in defence procurement in the world after Saudi Arabia.

●Airforce: India is gradually moving toward indigenisation in the defence sector, it is only now that
India has got its own indigenous aircraft, Tejas.

●India is lagging behind in manufacturing its own engines, avionics and self-sufficient radars.

●Army: India has made a great breakthrough in terms of artillery guns but the technological edge
required to modernise its equipment has not been touched yet.

●Navy: The Navy has very serious capability gaps; as per the Maritime Capability Perspective
Plan by 2027, India ought to have about 200 ships but there is still a lot to cover to reach the
target.

✔️How the modernisation of armed forces can be done?

◆Modernization of the defence Forces is a complex process, which includes cardinal changes in
the material capacities in order to accomplish all the strategic objectives.

◆The Forces aim at increasing the qualitative levels through their transformation into a
professional force, well-trained, equipped with contemporary systems of the technique and
armament, modern and interoperable tools as well as capable of to accomplish the operation of a
larger spectrum.

◆The Modernization of the Forces is focused on several important areas -

•Command and Control System.
•System of information, including the systems of the surveillance of the air and maritime space, as
well as the security of the systems of other intelligence equipment.
•Systems and equipment for the protection of the troops.

✔️What are the Challenges Associated with the modernisation of armed forces?

◆The entire acquisition process of India is very slow and the time taken from planning to acquire
defence equipment to actually executing the thought is a quite long procedure.

◆The public defence manufacturing sector has really not been able to deliver the way it was
mandated to which is why the involvement of the private sector should be encouraged.

◆India lacks a proper industrial base for the manufacturing of defence equipment. However, two
defence zones have been set up in Tamil Nadu and in Uttar Pradesh which will provide the private
sector with a base to operate upon.

✔️What are the Initiatives taken by govt to the modernisation of armed forces?

◆The Defence Ministry has decided to earmark around 64% of its modernisation funds under the
capital acquisition budget for 2021-22, for purchases from the domestic sector. Last year it was
58%.

◆It will have a positive impact on enhanced domestic procurement, having a multiplier effect on
the industries including MSMEs and start-ups. It would also increase employment in the defence
sector. Hence, it is a welcome step towards encouraging Atmanirbhar Bharat goals.

◆The ‘negative import list’ has been prepared by the government containing items that India seeks
to stop buying from other countries thus encouraging self-reliant India.

◆The government has taken initiatives like de-licensing, deregulation, export promotion,
encouraging FDI, etc to liberalise the defence industry.

✔️Students approach

●India is among the biggest importer of armed weapons, it should focus on exporting its
indigenous weapons.

●The scientific community and private players should come together to play an important role in
producing quality weapons in India.

●Public sector undertakings need to be boosted and should give the specific task to fulfil the
desire of all three services.

●There is a need to invest in the defence economy. If India modernises its defence sector and
reduces the defence imports, it can increase its GDP by 2-3% and create lakhs of jobs. It is a win-
win situation and economically profitable.

●Indian navy needs to be modernised because this is the time for a blue economy and maritime
security.

●Hence, India is a major power and an emerging economy in the world. Its defence should be well
equipped.
 Healthcare in India: Digitisation is the way forward

✔️Context

◆During the pandemic, the world witnessed the resilience and courage of people, patients, and
healthcare professionals who were in the frontlines of the fight against COVID 19.

◆The launch of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) and National Digital Health Blueprint
(NDHB) by the Indian government shows the importance of digital technologies in improving
healthcare.

✔️Digitization of health care

●Digitization of health care was an elusive long-term goal, however, the pandemic provided a
tailwind to the need for reinforcing the role of digital technologies in improving India’s healthcare.

●Due to digitization, care is moving towards patients in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Earlier these
patients used to come to tier-I cities for treatment; with COVID-19 that not being possible, tier-2
and tier-3 cities are building capacity to treat patients with the diagnosis being done by experts in
tier-1 cities through the internet in form of e-consultations, telemedicine, and others.

●ICUs, NICUs (neonatal ICUs) and Remote Operating Centres (ROCs) can be monitored by
experts who aren’t really in the same geographic location due to digitisation.

●India currently having more than 11.5 lakh doctors, more than 25,000 government hospitals, and
more than 7 lakh beds in these hospitals can be more optimally utilised by using digital
approaches to healthcare.

●A solution-driven approach, where products and services are delivered through new mediums
can alter the healthcare landscape for the better in the future.

●Further, due to digitization, is the online training and education of medical professionals is
gaining acceptance after the pandemic.

●New technologies in a simulation like haptic feedback by which trainees can get an experience of
touch to simulate the jerks and vibrations which would otherwise be experienced by a surgeon
during surgery make inline training more realistic.

●For greater accreditation, hospitals and doctors are investing in knowledge to be on par with
global standards by conducting various webinars and online discussions which allows doctors to
get updated on the latest techniques in medicine and surgery resulting in better diagnosis and
care.

●NDHM, within a month of its launch, had more than1 lakh health IDs created ensures the safe
and secure availability of patient medical records across the country, which would help the doctor
to review the entire continuum of past diagnosis and treatment to diagnose better and decide on a
course of future care.

●NDHM also encourages hospitals to standardize themselves, by improving technology and

digitisation India could enter the next phase of healthcare in India.

✔️Conclusion
◆After the pandemic, India is moving towards digital health care where patients are no longer
constrained by geography for accessing care.

◆If NDHM is effectively implemented, in future our doctors and hospitals would be well equipped
to deliver accurate diagnosis and treatment to patients using the latest in online and collaboration
technologies.

◆Thus, the will and determination to deliver better care to Indians would make India a global
leader in health care.

MOBILE INTEGRATED NETWORK TERMINAL (MINT) FOR INDIAN ARMY UNDER

AATMANIRBHAR BHARAT ABHIYAAN

◆Robust communication support has always been a key enabler of combat potential of the field
army. Advancements in communication technologies have facilitated solutions which can be
adapted and customised as per operational requirements to give a distinctive winning edge.

◆To this end, the Indian Army is in the process of procuring Mobile Integrated Network Terminal
(MINT) systems under Make II Category of DAP 2020. The system is envisaged as a lightweight,
portable, state of art integrated communication solution with satellite backhaul and wireless access
system to support voice, video and data.

◆Post evaluation of response submitted by the Indian Industry, a total of 11 (eleven) firms have
been issued with the Project Sanction Order on 12 March 2021 for development of prototype. The
Contract will subsequently be placed with one of the firms on successful development of prototype
as per provisions of Buy (Indian-IDDM) of DAP 2020.

◆Development of MINT systems will enhance the operational communication capability of the field
army in consonance to the self-reliance vision of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” for Defence production.