INSIGHTSIAS

IA SIMPLIFYING IAS EXAM PREPARATION

INSTA EDITORIAL
COMPILATIONS

APRIL 2024

www.insightsactivelearn.com | www.insightsonindia.com
Table of Content:

GS2:

Polity and Governance:

1. Systems science for a better future

2. New data law, a barrier to journalistic free speech
3. Sounding the gavel on curative jurisdiction

International Relations:

1. India’s nuanced approach in the South China Sea

Social Justice:

1. Shaping India’s path to inclusive health care

2. Data for better education, a brighter future for students
3. Urbanization, no liberating force for Dalits
4. Navigating life as a consumer with disability
5. The reality of the Swachh Bharat Mission
6. For Future Ready Seniors

GS3:

Ecology and environment:

1. Poll campaigns in India must reflect climate issues
1. The climate crisis is not gender neutral
2. Preparing India for water stress, climate resilience
3. Restoring earth’s right to ‘good health’

Science and technology:

1. The ART of India’s HIV/AIDS response
2. New York Times vs OpenAI: Is there a case for copyright?
 EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Systems science for a better future

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Current events of national importance, democracy, global

Environment Performance Index etc
■ Mains GS Paper I and II: Important aspects of governance, transparency and
accountability, institutions and other measures etc
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ The Pew Research Center surveyed the citizens of many countries in 2023
to gauge how many prefer authoritarian rulers to multi-party democracy.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Democracy:
● Democracy is a form of government in which rulers are elected by the people
in a free and fair elections, on universal adult franchise.
● Fundamental rules: It is governed on the basis of certain fundamental rules
like a constitution.
● Political philosophy: It has been a part of contemporary political
philosophy and other social choice theories.
● Discussions: Democracy is about a government by discussion but that
discussion should not divide us into two hard brackets.
Pew Research Center surveyed :
The numbers choosing dictators will dismay democrats:
● In the Global South:
○ India (85%)
○ Indonesia (77%)
○ South Africa (66%)
○ Brazil (57%).
● In the West:
○ the United Kingdom (37%)
○ the United States (32%),

India:
● It has 17.5% of the world’s population living on only 2.4% of the world’s
land.
● In 2014, India ranked 155 out of 178 countries in the global Environment
Performance Index.
○ In 2022, India slipped to the very bottom — 180 out of 180.
Systems’ knowledge:

● It has been devalued by specialization.

● Heart specialists can keep the heart alive with amazing technologies.
● Brain specialists delve deeper into the biology of the brain.
○ They lose sight of the whole human being.
● Climate scientists research how to remove carbon from the atmosphere
○ The effects of their solutions on the livelihoods of citizens are not in
their science’s scope.
● High-tech solutions can improve parts of complex systems while reducing
overall health and well-being.

Way Forward
■ Systems acting to improve the world for everyone must be driven by
organizations whose purpose is cooperation, not by organizations driven by
competition.
 ■ The purpose of business corporations and armies is to make more profit
and gain more power
○ The purpose of families is to improve the well-being of their
members.
■ Women’s contributions to the well-being of families and societies are
under-valued in money terms and not counted in GDP.
○ The world needs more caring, less competition.
○ Women are natural family builders and systems facilitators whereas
men are brought up to compete.
■ Rather than men teaching women to think like men and compete with them
in hierarchies of the formal labor force
○ men must learn the caring ways of women to make the world better
for everyone.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. On what grounds a people’s representative can be disqualified under the
Representation of People Act, 1951? Also mention the remedies available to such
person against his disqualification.(UPSC 2019)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
New data law, a barrier to journalistic free speech

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: RTI Act, CIC, Data Protection Law, Governance etc

■ Mains GS Paper I and II: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial
bodies, Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability etc
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
 ■ In 2023, India got its first comprehensive data protection law, the Digital
Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023.
■ The government is in the process of framing rules and regulations to
operationalise the law.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Background of Digital Personal Data Protection Bill:
● It was placed in the public domain in December 2022 but the final Bill has
not been placed before the public.
● It has two provisions which would greatly weaken the Indian citizen’s right
to information.
● It plans to amend RTI Act Section 8(1)(j) to read as exempting information
under (j), which relates to personal information
● The proposed Bill defines the term ‘person’ very widely to include
individuals, companies, and the state.
○ Most information except budgets would be linked to one of these.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022:

● It is a crucial pillar of the overarching framework of technology
regulations the Centre is building.
● It includes the
○ Digital India Bill(the proposed successor to the Information
Technology Act, 2000)
○ The draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022
○ Policy for non-personal data governance.
● It will apply to processing of digital personal data within India
○ To data processing outside the country if it is done for offering
goods or services
○ for profiling individuals in India
● It requires entities that collect personal data — called data fiduciaries —
to maintain the accuracy of data, keep data secure, and delete data once their
purpose has been met.
● The law is largely based on users giving consent for the processing of their
personal data.
 ● It provides basic rights such as access to and erasure of data, places some
obligations on companies, and establishes a complaints body for grievance
redress.

Issues for journalists:

● Data protection laws exempt journalistic activities from privacy

obligations such as notifying users and taking their consent before using their
personal data.
● Previous drafts of the DPDP Act had exemptions for journalistic activities,
but the final law withdrew such an exemption.
● The Editors Guild of India requested that journalistic activities be exempted
from the DPDP Act.
● The information about an MP is their ‘personal data’, which is data
protected under the DPDP Act.
○ Any journalist who wishes to use this data will have to get their
consent before publishing the story.
○ Even after publication, the MP can exercise their right to erase and
request journalists to delete such stories.
● DPDP Act empowers the government to call for information from any data
processor in India.
○ This may impact the confidentiality that journalists must maintain
for their sources and research documents.
● The need for journalists to get consent before publishing their story,
○ the potential for the subject to rely on the right to erasure to have the
story deleted
○ the power of the government to call for information
 ○ It would likely impede a journalist’s ability to discharge their role as
the fourth estate — of holding the state accountable.

Concerns around Data Protection Bill:

● Wide-ranging exemptions for the central government and its agencies.
● The Bill has prescribed that the central government can exempt “any
instrumentality of the state” from adhering to the provisions on account of:
○ national security
○ relations with foreign governments
○ maintenance of public order among other things.
● Central government will appoint members of the data protection board.
○ Data protection board: an adjudicatory body that will deal with
privacy-related grievances and disputes between two parties.
● The chief executive of the board will be appointed by the central
government, which will also determine the terms and conditions of their
service.
● Law could dilute the Right to Information (RTI) Act, as personal data of
government functionaries is likely to be protected under it, making it difficult
to be shared with an RTI applicant.

Way Forward
■ The instance of the end stage removal of the clause for journalistic
exemption points to the need for adopting a more robust and transparent
public consultation process around proposed laws.
■ The primary way to get feedback on a law is to institute an ‘open and
transparent’ public consultation model.
■ Although the Indian government released three separate drafts of the
data protection law for public consultation
○ None of the comments received on the drafts has ever been released
in the public domain.
 ○ This impedes the ability of citizens to understand what different
stakeholders were saying and who was finally heard in the final
formulation of the law.
■ In addition to enabling an open and transparent consultation process,
the government can swiftly remedy this problem via rules under the DPDP
Act.
■ Under the Act, the central government has the power to exempt any data
processor or ‘classes’ of data processors from any provisions of the law.
○ These give wide powers to the government to single-handedly
provide and take away an exemption, but it is the quickest route
available in this case.
○ An exemption for journalistic work should form part of the core text
of the law
○ The government must use this rule to exempt journalistic entities,
including citizen journalists, from any obligations under the DPDP Act.
○ This will ensure that the DPDP Act does not have negative
consequences on journalistic free speech in India.
■ In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set a high
standard for data protection.
○ It has a strong watchdog that operates in a society with universal
literacy, and high digital and financial literacy.
■ In France, the data protection regulator was able to find Google €50
million for violation of policies related to consent.
○ Edward Snowden warned of the real danger of GDPR becoming a
“paper tiger”, that “the problem isn’t data protection, the problem is
data collection.”
○ Restricting data collection is not even being discussed in India.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. What do you understand about the term ‘good governance’? How far have recent
initiatives in terms of e-Governance steps taken by the State have helped the
beneficiaries? Discuss with suitable examples.(UPSC 2022)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Sounding the gavel on curative jurisdiction

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Supreme Court, Judges of SC, Curative Jurisdiction, right of privacy,

Tribunals etc
■ Mains GS Paper I and II: Structure, organization and functioning of judiciary,
role of CJI etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ The Supreme Court quashed an arbitral tribunal award directing the Delhi
Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to pay ₹7,687 crore to Delhi Airport Metro
Express Private Limited (DAMEPL), a special purpose vehicle of Reliance
Infrastructure Limited and Spain’s Construcciones Y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles SA.
■ In 2002, the Court took on a new power called the “Curative Jurisdiction”.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Curative Jurisdiction:
● It is a power to correct its judgments, after they have become final.
● This is distinct from the power of review under Indian law, which enables all
courts to rectify errors which are apparent from their records.
 ● Examples of changes in the Court’s views:
○ Right of privacy
○ Decriminalization of homosexuality
● Curative Jurisdiction is not merely the Court changing its view on a position of
law but is a reversal of the Court’s own view in a specific case, above and beyond
even the power of review.

The Delhi Metro Rail judgment(Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (“DMRC”) vs
Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (“DAMEPL”):

● This was a decision of a three-judge Bench of the Court in a curative petition in

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.
● DAMEPL before an Arbitral Tribunal: The termination, by DAMEPL, of a

long-term contract relating to a stretch of the Delhi metro rail, was valid.
○ Such termination was based on a termination clause which permitted
DAMEPL to terminate the contract based on issuance of a notice to cure
defects in the event that DMRC
■ “failed to cure such breach or take effective steps for curing such
breach”.
○ According to DAMEPL and the Arbitral Tribunal: The failure to cure
such defects had triggered DAMEPL’s right to terminate.
● The Supreme Court upheld the award after setting out the limited scope to
challenge an award under Indian law.
○ A review petition was dismissed.
○ The Court, in a curative petition, set aside an arbitral award.

Grounds of interference by the Court(Exercise of curative jurisdiction) :

 ● Interpretation of the termination clause was perverse since the Arbitral
Tribunal had failed to recognise that it was sufficient for the DMRC to take
effective steps to cure the breach
○ curing the breach in its entirety was not necessary.
● The CMRS sanction was vital evidence which had been ignored.
○ The Court had hitherto supported a position of minimal interference in
arbitral awards.
○ The Court held its own verdict in 2019, which was in line with this pre-
existing position, and was wrong.
● It settled law: A court, while setting aside an award, does not sit as a court of
appeal.
○ The Court is bound to accept a potentially incorrect, though plausible,
view on the interpretation of a contract
○ It does not have the power to re appreciate evidence.
○ Court has the power to interfere with a “perverse” interpretation
○ The subjective slope between a “perverse” interpretation and a
“plausible but incorrect” interpretation is slippery.
● The Arbitral Tribunal, being the sole judge of weight of any evidence, had
considered the evidence and held it to be of little significance.

Way Forward

■ Curative Jurisdiction is effectively the Supreme Court seeking to correct its

mistakes.
○ An institution which underpins the country’s judiciary and which is the
final interpreter of the Constitution must look beyond errors in individual
cases.
 ■ The Supreme Court declares the law for the nation and posterity, and not for
one-off cases.
○ The interpretation set out by the Supreme Court in DMRC vs DAMEPL is
the correct interpretation
■ It would have been justified had it been an exercise of appellate
jurisdiction
■ The exercise could be said to be beyond the contours of permissible
interference with an arbitral award.
■ The exercise of revisiting one’s own decisions is good in an individual, but is
not good for an institution that declares the law.
■ Justice Jackson’s: The Supreme Court is not final because it is infallible but
infallible because it is final.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Critically examine the Supreme Court’s judgment on ‘National Judicial
Appointments Commission Act, 2014’ with reference to appointment of judges of
higher judiciary in India.(UPSC 2017)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
India’s nuanced approach in the South China Sea

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Current events of national and international importance(indo-pacific,
India-Japan relations, South China Sea etc
■ Mains GS Paper II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings involving India or
affecting India’s interests, Significance of Indo-Pacific for India etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
 ■ India’s External Affairs Minister articulated, in a joint statement during his
visit to Manila, India’s full support for the Philippines in upholding its
national sovereignty.
■ A joint statement in 2023 between India and Philippines had called for
China to adhere to the rules-based maritime order and acknowledge the
International Court of Justice ruling of 2016 in favor of Manila.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
South China Sea:
● An arm of the western Pacific Ocean that borders the Southeast Asian
mainland.
● Bordered by Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
● It is connected by the Taiwan Strait with the East China Sea and by the
Luzon Strait with the Philippine Sea (both marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean).
● It Comprises three archipelagos, namely, the Spratly Islands, Paracel
Islands, Pratas Islands and Macclesfield’s Bank and Scarborough Shoal.

Dispute:
 ● China’s Nine Dash Line: Defines area claimed by China - by far the largest
portion of the Sea.
● Scarborough Shoal: Claimed both by the Philippines and China (known as
Huangyan Island in China).
● Spratlys: Occupied by claimants, which consist of Taiwan, Vietnam, the
Philippines, China and Malaysia.
● Paracel Islands: Subject of overlapping claims by China, Vietnam and
Taiwan.
● Island Chain Strategy: A geographical security concept crafted by the United
States in the 1940s to deter China and the Soviet Union’s maritime ambitions.

A policy evolution in India:

● India’s engagement with the region was initially primarily economic,

driven by its Look East Policy which aimed to:
○ enhance economic integration with Southeast Asia
○ secure energy resources to fuel its growing economy.
● The participation of Indian state-owned enterprises, such as the Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation’s overseas arm (ONGC Videsh), in oil and gas
exploration projects in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zones (EEZs)
signifies:
○ India’s economic stakes in the region
 ○ Support for the principle of freedom of exploration and
exploitation of maritime resources within the bounds of international
law(specifically UNCLOS).
● The transformation of India’s policy orientation from Look East to Act

East under Narendra Modi’s administration:

○ It has marked a shift towards a more strategic and active
engagement with the Indo-Pacific region.
○ It reflects India’s acknowledgment of the changing geopolitical
landscape
■ Need for a more proactive and multifaceted foreign policy
approach.
● Act East Policy emphasizes economic integration and strategic
partnerships.
○ expanded security cooperation with countries in the Indo-Pacific
including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore, besides the Philippines.
● India has strengthened its own capacities through forward positioning,
mission-based deployments, reinforced maritime domain awareness, and
deep-water maritime facilities.

India’s ties with China:

● The evolution of India’s position on the South China Sea cannot be

decoupled from its complex relationship with China.

● India and China have a long history of border disputes which have
intensified since the Galwan Valley incident of 2020
● China’s periodic incursions into India’s territory and even renaming
Indian villages in Arunachal Pradesh.

Developments between India and Philippines:

 ● The decision to open the resident defense attaché office in Manila
● Boosting cooperation between the Coast Guards of the two countries
● Acquisition of naval assets by Manila under a concessional line of credit
from Delhi
● Expansion of training and joint exercises on maritime security and
disaster responses
● Commencing a maritime dialogue
● Agreement on regional and multilateral issues, particularly on maritime
highways such as the South China Sea.

India’s position on South China sea dispute:

● It adhered to international law, including the United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
● India's call to respect the 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea is a
departure from India’s earlier position.
○ From ‘noted’ to ‘adherence to the 2016 Arbitral Award’ is a candid
recognition of its legitimacy.

Way Forward
■ India’s strategic recalibration has been driven by a recognition of the South
China Sea’s critical importance to regional security and the global maritime
order.
■ The disputes in the South China Sea, primarily involving China and
several Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, have
implications for the freedom of navigation and overflight
○ The principles are vital for India’s trade and energy transportation
routes and that of countries across the globe.
■ The ASEAN centrality in India’s Indo-Pacific strategy makes it imperative
for India to buttress the ASEAN position, though differences within the
regional grouping continue to pose a challenge to such endeavors.
■ India's advocacy for a rules-based international maritime order,
especially its emphasis on UNCLOS
 ○ It reflects a stance against unilateral actions that threaten regional
stability.
■ India’s principled foreign policy approach indirectly challenges China’s
expansive territorial claims and activities in the South China Sea
○ It reflects India’s positioning of itself as a responsible stakeholder
committed to regional stability and security.
■ India’s nuanced approach in the South China Sea is emblematic of its
broader strategy aiming to safeguard its interests while contributing to a
collective effort to maintain peace, stability, and respect for international law
in the Indo-Pacific region.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Evaluate the economic and strategic dimensions of India’s Look East Policy in the
context of the post Cold War international scenario.(UPSC 2016)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Shaping India’s path to inclusive health care

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Current events of national importance, WHO, NCDs, G20, age tax,
mortality, fertility rate, AI, robotic surgery etc
■ Mains GS Paper I & II: Development and management of social
sectors/services related to Health and education etc
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ World Health Day is observed every year on April 7
■ The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared health to be a
fundamental human right.
■ The theme this year is “My Health, My Right”.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Health:(WHO)
● A certain totality of health to the realms of mental and social well-being and
happiness beyond physical fitness, and an absence of disease and disability.
● We cannot achieve health in its wider definition without addressing health
determinants.

Non-communicable Diseases(NCD’s):

Health status around the globe:

● Over 140 nations recognise health as a constitutional right
● WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All reports that more than
half the world’s population needs complete access to essential health
services.

Health equity:

● It ensures that every person has an equal opportunity to achieve their

highest health potential, no matter what their circumstances.
 ● It recognises social, economic, and environmental factors impact on
health outcomes.
● True health equity addresses the root causes of health inequities such as:
○ poverty
○ discrimination
○ limited access to high-quality education
○ healthy diet
○ clean water and fresh air
○ housing
○ For example, a child born into poverty in a rural area has no access to
clean water, wholesome food, or immunisations, which lays the
foundation for chronic health problems.

Global challenges:

● The COVID-19 pandemic has starkly revealed that infectious diseases target
marginalized and vulnerable groups the most, thus widening the health
equity gap.
● Climate change poses a serious health risk since it disproportionately
impacts low-income and vulnerable people.
● The health-care provision is severely hampered by conflicts, which
destroy infrastructure, uproot communities, and shut off access to vital
medical services.

India’s health equity challenges:

● According to the 2011 Census, urban slums make up over 17% of India’s
metropolitan areas, and exhibit serious health disparities.
 ○ Health risks are increased by overcrowding, poor sanitation, and
restricted access to clean water.
○ Infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, are 1.5 times more
common in slums than in non-slum areas(Indian Council of Medical
Research)
● National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 (2019-21) data indicates that
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes experience higher child mortality
and lower immunization rates.
● 59% of women in the lowest wealth quintile suffer from anemia
○ Almost double the rate in the highest quintile, demonstrating the
intersection of caste, gender, and economic status in health outcomes.
● Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for more than 60% of all
fatalities in India.
● The Public Health Foundation of India: economic effect of NCDs could
surpass $6 trillion by 2030.
● Critical shortage of doctors: WHO data indicates only 0.8 doctors per
1,000 people, which is below the advised ratio.
○ Over 75% of health-care professionals work in metropolitan
regions, which only account for 27% of the population
○ The shortage is particularly severe in rural areas.
○ If other medical practitioners are considered, the ratio might be
balanced.

What steps need to be taken?

● India’s health equity issues require a comprehensive approach beyond

improvements in health-care facilities to address more extensive
socioeconomic determinants of health.
● To move India toward universal health coverage and a more equitable
future, the government, civil society, health-care providers, and communities
need to work together.
● Governments and officials may influence the state of health through
funding, creative policies, and laws.
 ○ For instance, India’s Ayushman Bharat initiative provides free
health coverage to the bottom 40% economically, demonstrating a
commitment to reducing health disparities.
● The National Health Mission (NHM), which includes both the National
Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the National Urban Health Mission
(NUHM), reduces the health-care gap between rural and urban India by:
○ expanding access
○ strengthening infrastructure
○ providing essential services to vulnerable populations.
● India should turn health equality into a shared, community-driven goal by
including health education in the NHM, enabling its people to seek equitable
care and make educated health decisions.
● Together with the government, the public and private health-care
sectors provide services to underprivileged communities, emphasizing
preventive education, workforce development, and infrastructure
enhancement.
● Non-governmental organizations and civic societies engage in direct
community outreach to draw attention to and resolve regional health
concerns.
○ Their collaboration with international and governmental
organizations allows them to tailor health initiatives that are
culturally sensitive to the community’s unique needs.
● International institutions such as WHO, the Global Fund, and Gavi
support health initiatives in places with limited resources and promote
sharing information and resources to enhance health-care systems, especially
in countries such as India.
 ● Through innovation and technical growth, particularly in digital health,
the commercial sector and charitable organizations advance accessibility and
affordability while extending reach and efficacy.
● Research institutes and academic institutions offer crucial insights into
health inequalities and the efficacy of interventions, assisting in creating
evidence-based practices and policies supported by scientific studies.

Way Forward

■ To guarantee that everyone may live a healthy life, attaining health equity
necessitates a comprehensive strategy that goes beyond legislative reform to
address the socioeconomic determinants of health.
■ Realizing each person’s potential for health demands a concerted effort
by governments, communities, and individuals to tear down these obstacles.
■ Organizations with a strong local presence are essential for health equity.
○ They actively participate in every phase, from planning to
evaluation, to guarantee the relevance and effectiveness of health
programmes.
○ They have a thorough understanding of their community’s
requirements.
■ Effective collaboration among many sectors, ranging from policymakers to
grassroots organizations, may significantly enhance health equity and pave
the path for a time when access to high-quality health care would be a shared
reality rather than a privilege.
■ India has made strides in AI applications for health care: It must continue
to invest in research and development, foster collaborations between
academia and industry, and create an ecosystem that encourages innovation.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
Q. Besides being a moral imperative of the Welfare State, primary health structure is
a necessary precondition for sustainable development.” Analyze.(UPSC 2021)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Data for better education, a brighter future for students

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Current events of national importance(Different social service
Schemes, NEP, ASER report, NCERT)
■ Mains GS Paper I & II: Social empowerment, development and management of
social sectors/services related to Education etc.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ Since 2005, except during the COVID-19 years, the Annual Status of
Education Report (ASER) 2023 was released in mid-January

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER):
● The survey is facilitated by Pratham Education Foundation, and is the oldest
survey of its kind in the country.
● It uses Census 2011 as the sampling frame and continues to be an important
national source of information about children’s foundational skills across the
country.
● ASER 2018 surveyed children in the age group of 3 to 16 years and
included almost all rural districts in India and generated estimates of
foundational reading and arithmetic abilities of children in the age group 5
to 16 years.
● ASER 2019 reported on the pre-schooling or schooling status of children in
the age group 4 to 8 years in 26 rural districts, it focused on the “early years”.
○ It laid emphasis on “developing problem-solving faculties and building
a memory of children, and not content knowledge”.
● ASER 2020 is the first ever phone-based ASER survey and it was conducted
in September 2020, the sixth month of national school closures.
Report:
● The ASER 2023 Beyond Basics survey:
○ It was carried out in 28 rural districts across 26 States of the country.
○ It is representative of the district level and indicative of broader
trends of the activities, abilities (including digital abilities), and
aspirations of 14-18 year olds.
○ Overall, 26% of 14-18 year olds cannot read a standard two level
text in their regional language.
● In 2018, around 32% of standard seven and 27% of standard eight
children could not read a standard two level text.
● Foundational learning trajectories are typically flat and become flatter in
the upper grades.
○ Solution: unless children acquire foundational skills in the primary
grades, they are extremely unlikely to acquire them in later grades, in
the absence of focused interventions.
● 57% of the 14-18 year olds surveyed who do not possess basic reading
skills are enrolled in standard 10 or below
○ Another 28% of these children are not enrolled in school, college or a
vocational institution.

Issues with ASER:

● It does not capture school attendance in secondary grades, the National

Sample Survey Office (NSSO) 75th round did so in 2017-18:
○ It recorded that in the secondary grades (standards nine and 10)
attendance in rural India was as low as 60%.
● Among the 14-18 year olds who are unable to read fluently, even those who
are enrolled in school may not be attending school.
 ● Focusing on school-based reading improvement programmes without
investing in encouraging and empowering these children to return to school
and to reading may not yield transformative results.
● Recognising letters or decoding simple words is not the major challenge
most face.
○ They need guidance, practice, and lots of encouragement and
motivation to read.
○ Exposed to ridicule and embarrassment, many of these children
may have given up and begun to hate reading now.

ASER 2023:

● It provides a peek into the aspirations and thought processes of the 14-
18 year olds regarding their future.
● The ASER team conducted focus group discussions with children of the
target age group in three districts.
● More than 60% of the surveyed children want to obtain at least a college
education
○ with a higher percentage of girls aspiring for a college education
(65%) when compared to boys (59%).
○ About their work aspirations: one in five said they had really not
thought about it.
○ Among those who had, joining the police or the defense forces was
the most prominent among career options for boys,
○ while becoming a teacher or doctor emerged as the most prominent
career option for girls.
 ● ASER points out that almost half of the surveyed 14-18 year olds who
have work aspirations do not know anyone else working in that profession,
whether at home, community, school or even a public figure.
● Focus group discussions conducted in three districts,m(Part of ASER
2023 survey: It discussed perceptions of 14-18 year olds around vocational
education.
● In Sitapur and Dhamtari (in Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,
respectively) vocational education was marred by negative perceptions of
being the route that people choose when they are unable to bag white collar
jobs.
● Solan (Himachal Pradesh): context-driven vocational courses such as
tourism and hotel management were introduced in schools as early as
standard nine.
○ The result was seen in the perspectives of students towards these
trades, which gained aspirational value.
● On-the-job training, certification at the end of the course and readily
available information on career prospects encouraged students to aspire for
related professions.

How is ASER measured?

● ASER has measured foundational skills in reading and arithmetic.
● The highest reading task on the ASER tool is reading a text at Grade II level
of difficulty.
● The assessment is done one on one with each sampled child in the
household.
● The child is marked at the highest level that she/he can comfortably reach.
○ The same tasks are used for all children aged 5 years to 16 years.
What steps need to be taken?

● ASER 2022, and later the State of Elementary Education in Rural India
Report(brought out by Sambodhi and the Development Intelligence
Unit): It clearly indicates that only a small fraction of rural households has
reading materials, other than school textbooks.
○ Community libraries can create rich, vibrant spaces that foster
reading, creativity and critical thinking.
○ They need to be managed right, led by committed and enterprising
individuals who can rekindle an interest in reading, drawing children,
youth and adults to these libraries
○ Nurturing an environment in homes and neighborhoods that guides,
supports and motivates readers of all ages, genders and abilities.

ASER Survey NAS Survey

Conducted on households Conducted on schools

It is meant to be an analysis of basic It is a school-based, grade specific,

competencies in reading and country-wide assessment (covering
mathematics across rural India, both rural and urban) but limited to
conducted by community volunteers, in government and government aided
the child’s home schools

Quality of learning measured by Significant disparities across states

reading, writing and arithmetic has
either shown no improvement or
worsened actually

Increase in mid-day meals served in The rural-urban divide also seems to

government schools. Compared to last have been bridged with most of the
year’s 97.7 per cent, 99.50 per cent Indian states showing no significant
schools now serve meals. Kitchen sheds disparity between rural and urban
have also increased. students.
Constitutional Provisions related to education:
● Part IV of Indian Constitution, Article 45 and Article 39 (f) of Directive
Principles of State Policy (DPSP), has a provision for state-funded as well as
equitable and accessible education.
● The 42nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1976 moved education from
the State to the Concurrent List.
● Article 21A: It provides free and compulsory education of all children in the
age group of six to fourteen years as a fundamental Right in such a manner
as the State may, by law, determine. The 86th Amendment in 2002 made
education an enforceable right under Article 21-A.
● Article 39(f): It provides that children are given opportunities and facilities
to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and
that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral
and material abandonment.
● Article 45: The State shall endeavor to provide, within a period of ten years
from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory
education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.
● ARTICLE 46: The State shall promote with special care the educational and
economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in particular, of
the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from
social injustice and all forms of exploitation.

Related Laws:
Right To Education (RTE) Act, 2009:
● It aims to provide primary education to all children aged 6 to 14 years and
enforces education as a Fundamental Right.
● It also mandates 25% reservation for disadvantaged sections of the
society.
● It states that sharing of financial and other responsibilities between the
Central and State Governments.
● It lays down the norms and standards related to:
1. Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs)
2. Buildings and infrastructure
3. School-working days
 4. Teacher-working hours.

Government Initiatives:
● National Education Policy 2020.
● Samagra Shiksha (SS) 2.0
● NIPUN Bharat Mission
● PM Poshan Scheme
● Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE).
● Performance Grading Index
● National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: It gives high priority to the
acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy skills especially for
children in early grades.
● “NIPUN Bharat” (where NIPUN is National Initiative for Proficiency in
Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) the government’s flagship
programme designed to translate policy into practice, is beginning to have
traction in many States.

Way Forward
■ The increasing ubiquity and access of youth to smartphones, as
highlighted by ASER 2023, and, earlier, the State of Elementary Education in
Rural India Report, must be leveraged.
■ Tapping into the incentives that youth may have to prepare and learn
more about what they want to become
○ Digital technology can equip youth with the foundations of their
aspired professions and also bridge connections with relevant
professionals.
○ For example, while in school or college, youth who wish to become
nurses can undertake online foundational courses on nursing and
related subjects, or even relevant short modules such as administering
first aid.
○ All this requires committed collaborations among ed-tech agencies,
industries and professional groups.
■ Schools and colleges must take the lead and do more to understand and
cultivate youth’s aspirations and guide them to the right platforms and
avenues.
■ Data, and not just ASER data, when designed and collected with rigor and
the right intent, highlight problems but also have crucial pointers for action.
 ■ Move beyond the immediate instinct to lament over the problem and dig
deeper to discern where to act, how to act and who must act.
■ ASER data shows that an “overambitious” curriculum and the linear age-
grade organizational structure of Indian schools result in a vast majority of
children getting “left behind” early in their school career.
○ Need for in-school mechanisms for “catch up otherwise children fall
further and further behind academically.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Has digital illiteracy, particularly in rural areas, coupled with lack of Information
and Communication Technology(ICT) accessibility hindered socio-economic
development? Examine with justification.(UPSC 2021)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Urbanization, no liberating force for Dalits

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: BR Ambedkar, constitution of India, SC, Phule etc
■ Mains GS Paper I: Modern Indian history from middle of eighteenth century
until the present-significant events, personalities, issues etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ B.R. Ambedkar: Rejected village life and encouraged Dalits to move to the
city.
○ Ambedkar said that an Indian village is “the working plant of the
Hindu social order” and argued that it is the ideal place to understand
caste.
■ Gandhi: Indian village as a self-reliant, equitable and a just non-violent order,
and argued for the decentralization of power to the villages through Gram
Swaraj
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
Dr. B R Ambedkar:
● He was born on 14 April 1891 in Mhow, Central Province (now Madhya
Pradesh).
● He founded the Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha (1923).
● Mahad Satyagraha: He led the Mahad Satyagraha in March 1927 to
challenge the regressive customs of the Hindus.
● Round table conferences: He participated in all three round-table
conferences.

Major contributions:
● Indian constitution: Main Architect of Indian Constitution
● Constitutional morality: Effective coordination between conflicting
interests of different people and administrative cooperation.
● Social Reforms: devoted his life to remove untouchability.
● 'Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha (Outcastes Welfare Association)-1923
● The temple entry movement was launched by Dr. Ambedkar in 1930 at
Kalaram temple, Nasik.
● Attended all the three Round Table Conferences (1930-32).
● In 1936: founded the Independent Labour Party.
● In 1990: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, was bestowed with Bharat Ratna.

Few important works of Dr. Ambedkar:

● Mook Nayak (weekly) 1920
● Janta (weekly) 1930
 ● The Annihilation of Caste 1936
● The Untouchables 1948
● Buddha Or Karl Marx 1956

Constituent Assembly(Ambedkar):

● He opposed the idea that villages should be recognised as autonomous

administrative units and felt relieved that the Assembly rejected the idea.
○ For the untouchables, there could not have been a bigger calamity.

Urbanization and Ambedkar’s belief:

● He believed that the systems of caste oppression that thrive in Indian

villages become weaker in cities.
● Segregation of Dalits into ghettos, restrictions on economic activities, and
denial of land ownership.
● Jyotirao Phule had admired city life for being liberal and enabling him to
earn a living.
● At the core of the liberating power of cities, for Ambedkar and Phule, was
the opportunity to become anonymous.
● Cities, in principle, offer an opportunity to become a stranger among a sea
of strangers and transition from a caste-based order to a class-based order.
○ One defined not by genealogy but by accumulation of resources or
capital.

Language of ‘purity-pollution’:

● Caste translates into a city’s spatiality through the language of ‘purity-

pollution’.
● Consumer survey in 2021 revealed that eating non-vegetarian food is the
biggest deal-breaker in finding rental housing in India.
● Segregation policies under the Peshwas in the Maratha kingdom: Gopal
Guru says that the ghetto is not merely a space but also forms the
constitution of the body of the ghetto dweller.
 ● The language of purity-pollution that identifies the savarna space as ‘pure’
and one that can be polluted by the Dalit body, extends to the logic of the city.
○ The ghetto dweller carries the ghetto on their body when they step
out into the city.
● The space of the ghetto characterized by filth and dirt — becomes
mutually reinforcing on the body of the Dalit characterized by meat-eating
and other“unacceptable” traits.

Examples of language of caste in present societies:

● In March 2017, the Uttar Pradesh government issued regulations for meat
shops that included:
○ A ban on selling meat near religious places
○ black paint or curtains in the facade of the shop to hide the sight of
meat from pedestrians.
● In 2021, several municipal corporations in Gujarat banned the sale of
meat-based street food on the city’s main roads citing “religious sentiments”.

Way Forward
■ Raphael Susewind, Sheba Tejani and Christophe Jaffrelot have shown
that Muslims and Dalits face the most crippling segregation in Indian cities.
■ Research in sacrifice zones regions marked for severe environmental
pollution such as landfills — shows that such areas are overwhelmingly
inhabited by Dalits and Muslims.
■ A recent report by the Housing and Land Rights Network(on forced
evictions in India): It shows that Dalits and Muslims are the most impacted
by slum demolition drives.
■ Indian cities have failed the aspirations and expectations that the Dalit
liberation movement had placed in urbanization.
■ While transition to city life might have weakened some structures of caste
oppression, they have morphed through language, state sanction and policy,
and have evolved to allow caste to thrive in Indian cities.
 ■ The Indian city has fallen short of the potential and promise that
Ambedkar saw in urbanization.
○ Dalits remain, to use Ambedkar’s words, “the children of India’s
ghettos”.
■ Ambedkar looked upon the modern state as the key transformative force
for the emancipation of Dalits and Adivasis.
○ However, in the neo-liberal realm, the state has been converted as
the passive associate of big business
○ It readily deviates from its social responsibilities and welfarist
values.
■ Ambedkar’s version of social justice would help us to redefine capitalism
as a pluralist and cooperative mode of economic order
○ It guarantees the substantive participation of Dalits and Adivasis
in the market economy and in the associated institutions of power and
privileges.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Are tolerance, assimilation and pluralism the key elements in the making of an
Indian form of secularism? Justify your answer.(UPSC 2022)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Navigating life as a consumer with disability

Source: The Hindu

Prelims: Current events of national importance(Different social service Schemes,
abala, sabala, All India Women’s Conference, NFHS, Rights of persons with
disabilities act.,2016, digital India, census 2011 etc )
■ Mains GS Paper II & III: Social empowerment, development and management
of social sectors/services etc.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ March 15 is celebrated as World Consumer Rights Day to create awareness
about the rights of consumers.
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
Disability:
● It is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and
participation restrictions.
● An impairment is a problem in body function or structure;
● An activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in
executing a task or action
● A participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in
involvement in life situations.

Constitutional Frameworks for Disabled in India

● Article 41 of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) states that
State shall make effective provision for securing right to work, to education
and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and
disablement, within the limits of its economic capacity and development.
● The subject of ‘relief of the disabled and unemployable’ is specified in the
state list of the Seventh Schedule of the constitution.

Issues faced by Disabled people:

● Current systems are designed for persons without disabilities and end up
being exclusionary to people with disabilities, resulting in:
○ higher instances of poverty
○ lack of access to education and opportunities
 ○ informality and other forms of social and economic discrimination.
● The current employment scenario is limited, providing fewer jobs for
persons with disabilities
● Current employment scenario perpetuates stereotypes that create
further barriers for people with disabilities to access the labor market.
● The limited access to education and employment.
○ Some developmental schemes, too, exclude them.
● They are viewed as objects of charity and not as persons with agency with
an ability to participate in decision-making processes.

Major challenges for consumers with disabilities:

● The inaccessibility of goods and services

● The inaccessibility of customer support options.
● Businesses: They generally don’t perceive persons with disabilities as their
target consumers.
○ Evidenced by their inaccessible offerings, which are typically
designed for ‘mainstream’ consumers.
○ In India, persons with disabilities account for 5-8% of the
population (World Bank, 2009): businesses could consider making
their offerings accessible just to broaden their customer reach.

What steps need to be taken for accessibility of disabled people?

● The gap in sensitisation among businesses can be abridged through

effective policy measures.
○ For example, FSSAI in October 2023 issued an advisory to all food
business operators for incorporating QR codes containing product
information on all food products.
 ○ It will allow people with visual impairment to ascertain crucial
product information on their own.
○ While transformative, this measure is limited to one type of product.
● The government could consider bringing comprehensive accessibility
guidelines for all goods and services.
● India can build on the lessons from the initiatives in countries such as
Australia, the U.S., and Canada and integrate similar strategies into its
policies.
● Persons with disabilities are empowered by laws that safeguard their
rights and interests as consumers.
○ Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWDA), 2016, which
grants a bouquet of rights including the rights to equality, accessibility,
and reasonable accommodation.
○ The Act includes provisions for universally designed consumer
goods and accessible services (Sections 43 and 46).
○ The Rules notified under the RPWDA require all Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) goods and services
■ To be accessible in accordance with the BIS standards laid
down by the government.

Way Forward

■ Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 2019: It details various consumer rights

and empowers Consumer Commissions to impose penalties and award
compensation against consumer complaints.
 ○ Consumers with disabilities have successfully obtained such
remedies in numerous cases brought before Consumer Commissions.
○ In S. Suresh v. The Manager i/c, Gokulam Cinemas, a person with
locomotor disability who encountered inaccessibility at a cinema hall
was awarded a compensation of ₹1,00,000.
■ Unlike the RPWDA, the CPA has strong enforcement and compliance
mechanisms.
○ It lacks any dedicated rights for consumers with disabilities
contrary to the RPWDA
■ which may deter them from filing complaints with Consumer
Commissions.
■ It becomes imperative to align the CPA with the RPWDA.
■ It is crucial to raise awareness about the existing rights and resources
available to consumers with disabilities under the two chief legislations.
■ While consumer awareness has been a key focus of the state, particularly
with the launch of the flagship Jago Grahak Jago Campaign, consumers with
disabilities have never received attention.
■ The creation of a designated body for handling cases on disability rights
has been a positive measure
○ Its actual impact on repairing accessibility barriers in the
marketplace remains to be seen.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 remains only a legal document
without intense sensitisation of government functionaries and citizens regarding
disability. Comment.(UPSC 2022)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
 EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
The reality of the Swachh Bharat Mission

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Current events of international importance, SDG, covid-19, SBM etc.

■ Mains GS Paper II: Social empowerment, development and management of
social sectors/services related to Health, education etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ India was ranked right at the bottom of 180 countries in the Environment
Performance Index (EPI) in 2022.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Environment Performance Index (EPI):

● The EPI ranks countries on:

○ climate change performance
○ environmental health
○ ecosystem vitality.
 ● It measures 40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, such
as air quality, and drinking water and sanitation.

Campaigns of development by the government:

● Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM)

● Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation
● Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
● National Clean Air Programme.

Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM):

Why should EPI be linked to Government missions?

● These missions aim to enable better living standards.

 ● The SBM is meant to address the issue of WASH (Water, Sanitation, and
Health).
● SCM is supposed to deliver on the clean energy requirements of towns.

Issues with SBM:

● Sanitation and waste management in India are associated with the wide
prevalence of caste.
○ Historically, the subjugated castes have been forced to carry out
sanitation work.
○ The SBM tried to create a narrative that sanitation is everyone’s job.
○ It has ended up continuing the same old caste practices.
● The SBM is a politically successful project:
○ The entire project is governed and monitored by state agencies.
○ Large capital-intensive technologies are promoted.
● The Union government claims India is open defecation-free:
○ A Comptroller and Auditor General report in 2020: It indicated the
poor quality of construction of toilets under this scheme.
● Few urbanization studies: pointed out that in some metros, communities in
slums still do not have access to public toilets.
○ Even in rural India, toilet construction has not been linked to waste
treatment.
● In peri-urban areas, the fecal sludge generated is tossed into the
environment.
● Septic tanks are cleaned by manual scavengers and the sludge is thrown
into various water systems.
 ● Via SBM was to reduce the involvement of people in waste management
by replacing them with large, capital-intensive technologies.
○ These installations have refused to live up to their promoters’
promises.
○ Health crises emerging from badly managed waste.
● The governments outsourced most of the work to private players, who
employed the same subjugated communities to handle waste.
● Solid and liquid waste management in cities: In most towns, the Union
government is employing technological solutions in handling solid waste.
○ Some of these solutions are in the form of waste-to-energy plants and
biological methanation.
○ But there are barely any success stories in either case.
● City governments are being asked to buy more machines including road
sweeping machines that cost no less than ₹1 crore
○ More vehicles to transport the waste from one corner to another
with geo-tagging, and soon.
○ Funds are made available to the city governments for such plans.
○ However, all this work is being handed over to large contractors
entering the city domains for making sanitation a profit entity.
○ Most of the workers employed by these contractors are Dalits.
○ Scheme fully owned by the state has become a toolkit for the
privatization of public health services and continues caste
discrimination.

Case study(Shimla):
 ● The Himachal Pradesh High Court, the Urban Development Department
said that there are just five sanitation inspectors in the Shimla Municipal
Corporation, which comprises 34 wards.
○ Instead of recruiting more such inspectors, this cadre is being
declared dead after they retire.
● There are more than 50 municipal bodies, there are only 20 sanitation
inspectors
○ There are some municipalities that have no sanitation inspectors.

Way Forward

■ There are problems associated with most of the programmes.

○ Such failures have been dragging down India’s EPI performance.
■ The EPI may be quite comprehensive:
○ Features of mapping exposes the unsustainability of our development
processes.
○ The development models must be altered.
■ The EPI must be seen in the background of a recent judgment where the
Supreme Court observed the links between climate change and basic human
rights.
■ Phase II of the SBM-G does not seem to have given enough thought to social
engineering through the social networks in a society haunted by regressive
norms and caste hierarchy
○ The spurt in coverage has triggered awareness regarding safe
sanitation practices.
■ Behavioral change in sanitation cannot happen independently.
○ It is contingent upon social networks and an overall improvement of
living standards, including better housing and access to basic services.
 ■ SDGs are a matter of urgency, and actions by all countries, both
developed and developing, to end poverty and other socio-economic and
environmental problems
○ Countries should align with strategies that improve the standard of
life and education, reduce inequality, and harness economic growth.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Reforming the government delivery system through the Direct Benefit Transfer
Scheme is a progressive step, but it has its limitations too. Comment.(UPSC 2022)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
For Future Ready Seniors

Source: Indian Express

■ Prelims: Elderly population in India, Schemes for old age people, OPS,
Provident Fund pension scheme, EPFO, etc
■ Mains GS Paper I & II: Schemes for vulnerable sections of society and
performance and issues associated with these schemes etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ The number of persons above 60 years is set to more than double from 100
million in 2011 to 230 million in 2036, making up nearly 15 percent of
the total population.
○ This is projected to further rise to 319 million by 2050, nearly one-
fifth of the total population.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Elderly Population:
● The National Elderly Policy defines people in the 60+ age group as elderly.
● According to the Population Census 2011, there are nearly 104 million
elderly persons in India.

Background of Population distribution:

 ● The average household size in India has reduced from 5.94 in 2011 to

3.54 in 2021.

● Households with smaller families

○ A growing number of older people.

Need for reset of the health and social care system(home care system):

● Market estimates project the home-based care industry to grow at a rate

of 15-19 per cent annually,

○ From nearly USD 6-7 billion in 2021 to USD 21 billion by 2027.

● Care for seniors at home is a growing concern as it oscillates between social

care and health care.

● The changing family structure is paving the way for external assistance in

caring for older people at home.

● The scope of services provided at home has expanded from assistance with
activities of daily living to routine nursing care as well as specialized care.
● According to a NITI Aayog report: healthcare offered at home can replace
up to 65 percent of unnecessary hospital visits and reduce hospital costs
by 20 percent.

Issues:

● Care practices at home are not well-defined and standardized.

 ● Caregivers who are well-trained and possess an empathetic outlook are in
short supply, and often complain of being mistreated by families.
● There are no specific grievance redressal mechanisms for either the users
or the caregivers.
● The cost of hiring a caregiver at home is substantial.

Policy interventions for care at home:

● Recognise “home” as a place for providing care and as a “place of work”

for caregivers.

○ This has implications for the rights and safety of both users and

providers.

○ The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India

(IRDAI) recognises hospitalization at home in certain conditions.

● Care at home is a different proposition than in an institution like a hospital

or an old-age home.

○ The terms of engagement and treatment protocols must be tailored

to the home environment.

● To meet the growing demand for trained caregivers, streamline their

vocational training, nomenclature, roles, and career progression.

 ● All need to be brought together under a comprehensive policy on home-

based care incorporating aspects such as:

○ A registry of providers of such services

○ ensuring transparency and accountability

○ establishing grievance redressal mechanisms

○ insurance coverage, among others.

● The policy should take cognisance of the fact that women, in India, on

average outlive men by three years.

○ The sex ratio of older people is projected to increase to 1060 by

2026.

○ Since women in India are usually younger than their husbands, they

often spend their later years as widows.

○ The policy should particularly cater to the more vulnerable and

dependent older single women so that they can live respectable and

independent lives.

Initiatives by government for elderly:

Way Forward
■ Greater collaboration between different ministries could get the ball

rolling on the required reforms.

■ The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens

(Amendment) Bill, 2019, seeks to regulate home-based care for older

people.

○ It proposes the registration of institutions providing home care

services and prescribing minimum standards for them.

○ It has not been passed since being introduced in Parliament in 2019.

 ■ While the emphasis on making India’s youth population “future ready” is

welcome.

○ It should not overshadow an equally critical group that needs

attention.

■ The experience of countries like Japan shows that systems to care for older

people are essential for the younger population to contribute to the country’s

economy.

■ It is a society’s moral and ethical responsibility to care for its people

beyond their prime, reciprocating their lifetime of physical, social, emotional,

and economic investment in the society.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Performance of welfare schemes that are implemented for vulnerable sections is
not so effective due to the absence of their awareness and active involvement at all
stages of the policy process – Discuss.(UPSC 2019)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

Q. With reference to the Indian economy, consider the following

statements:(UPSC 2022)
1. A share of the household financial savings goes towards government borrowings.
2. Dated securities issued at market-related rates in auctions form a large
component of internal debt.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Ans: (C)
 EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Poll campaigns in India must reflect climate issues

Source: The Hindu

Prelims: Current events of national importance(World Meteorological Organization

(WMO), tropical Cyclones, Covid-19, National Action Plan on Climate Change
(NAPCC)etc
Mains GS Paper II: Conservation of Environment, Biodiversity and
Environment(Environmental Pollution and pollutants and degradation)etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ The State of the Global Climate report released by the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO): It states that 2023 was the hottest
year in the recorded history of the planet

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

Key Highlights of State of global climate report:

 ● The average temperature rise from pre-industrial levels has been 1.45 °C,
with a margin of uncertainty of ±0.12 °C.
● The temperature rise is close to breaking the agreed limit of 1.5 °C by
different nations.
● The WMO report states that 2023 was the warmest year by a clear margin
and one where many records were breached.
○ Records for a rise in ocean temperatures
○ glacier retreat
○ The diminishing Antarctic ice cover
○ Sea level rise around the planet
● The heat content of the world's oceans reached a record high in 2023, with the
highest level of ocean heat content ever recorded.
● Slowdown of theAtlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a system of
ocean currents.
● Global average sea-surface temperatures (SST)were at a record high in 2023, with
several months breaking previous records by significant margins.
● The global ocean experienced an average daily Marine Heatwave coverage of
32%, well above the previous record of 23% in 2016

● The frequency of extreme weather events such as heat waves, torrential

rains and tropical cyclones has increased.
● Renewable energy generation surged in 2023, with renewable capacity additions
increasing by almost 50% from the previous year.

Reasons for degradation of environment:

● The industrial progress since the mid-18th century

○ The principal drivers of this progress have been mechanization
and technology-led innovations in all sectors.
 ● Exploitation of natural resources to drive progress has grown considerably
in the post-Industrial Revolution period.
● Progress driven by the use of natural resources had an adverse impact on
the environment.
○ Dependence on natural resources for energy requirements has had
enormous bearing on the climate.
● The use of fossil fuels has led to large emissions of greenhouse gasses,
leading directly to the rise in global temperatures.

Mitigatory steps

● Paris agreement: holding the temperature rise to well below 2 °C from that
in pre-industrial times, and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C.
○ It became a legally binding international treaty.

Other climate actions:

Steps by India:

● National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)

● The National Solar Mission(under the NAPCC).
● National Green Hydrogen Mission, making a strong commitment to the
energy transition plan.

Way Forward

■ The WMO report makes it imperative to trigger collective public action —

something similar to what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
■ In this election season, the WMO report should result in an awakening not
only for all of humanity, but also, specifically, for all political parties.
■ The anxiety over climate change expressed by the WMO, the UN and
scientific fraternity should motivate parties across the political spectrum to
make their action plans clear.
■ Political parties must commit themselves to enhancing public
awareness on climate change and clearly defining steps to reduce global
warming.
■ Political parties should spell out the steps that they would undertake to
reduce the impact of global warming on India.
■ If India were looking to find its rightful place in the global order, and be
counted as a true world power in the “Amrit Kaal”, the demands on its
leadership on climate change actions will be watched.
■ The media’s crucial role can in emphasizing the environmental impact of
conventional election methods, turn the spotlight on innovative eco-friendly
alternatives.
 ■ Embracing eco-conscious electoral practices can help India set an example
for other democracies around the world.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Discuss the role of the Election Commission of India in the light of the evolution of
the Model Code of Conduct.(UPSC 2022)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
The climate crisis is not gender neutral

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Current events of international importance, G20, UNDP, NFHS, Council

on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), PM 2.5, SHGs, UNFPA, SDG, ILO etc.
■ Mains GS Paper II & III: Bilateral, regional and global grouping and agreements
involving India or affecting India’s interests.

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die in a disaster.
■ The Supreme Court ruled that people have a right to be free from the
adverse effects of climate change under Articles 14 (right to equality)
and 21 (right to life).

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Impact of climate change on women:
● Climate-driven crop yield reductions increase food insecurity, adversely
impacting poor households that already suffer higher nutritional deficiencies.
● Within small and marginal landholding households, men face social
stigma due to unpaid loans (leading to migration, emotional distress, and
sometimes even suicide),
 ● Women experience higher domestic work burdens, worse health, and
greater intimate partner violence.
● National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 and 5 data showed that women
living in drought-prone districts were
○ more underweight
○ experienced more intimate partner violence
○ higher prevalence of girl marriages.
● For women, the increasing food and nutritional insecurity, work burdens and
income uncertainties lead to poor physical health
○ It impacts their mental health and emotional well-being.

Gender-based violence

● A report from the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in

2021 found that 75% of Indian districts are vulnerable to hydromet
disasters (floods, droughts and cyclones).
○ NFHS 5 data showed that over half of women and children living in
these districts were at risk.
● Studies are increasingly showing a direct correlation between these
natural disasters and gender-based violence against women.
● Extreme weather events and subsequent changes in water cycle patterns
severely impact access to safe drinking water
○ which increases the drudgery and reduces time for productive work
and health care of women and girls.
● Prolonged heat is particularly dangerous for pregnant women
(increasing the risk of preterm birth and eclampsia), young children, and the
elderly.
● Exposure to pollutants in the air (household and outdoor) affects
women’s health, causing respiratory and cardiovascular disease, unborn child
○ impairing its physical and cognitive growth.
● Emerging data from cohort studies in India show that for every 10
micrograms per cubic meter increase in PM2.5
○ the risk of lung cancer increases by 9%
 ○ the risk of cardiovascular deaths on the same day by 3%
○ stroke by 8%.
○ For dementia, the risk increased by 4% for 2 micrograms increase in
annual PM2.5.

Why does climate action need women?

● Climate action requires 100% of the population to achieve the Paris

Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5° C.
● Empowering women: provided with the same access to resources as men,
women increased their agricultural yields by 20% to 30%.
● Tribal and rural women, in particular, have been at the forefront of
environmental conservation.
○ Giving women and women collectives (Self-help Groups and
Farmer Producer Organisations) the knowledge, tools and access to
resources would encourage local solutions to emerge.
● Adaptation measures will necessarily be different in rural and urban
areas as exposure to heat, air pollution and access to water and food will vary
by context.

Best Practices for the effective involvement of women in climate change plans:
● Charlot Magayi is assisting Kenyan women in switching from filthy cook
burners to clean ones.
○ In addition to enhancing community health outcomes, this lowers
greenhouse gas emissions.
● An African programme run by women called Solar Sister assists localities
in creating small-scale solar systems so they can become energy independent.
○ These grids also lower greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
● In laboratories and research departments all over Africa, female
scientists are bridging gender gaps by contributing first-hand knowledge of
local conditions and agriculture.
 ● Gender and Climate Change Development Programme(Programme in
South Asia): which aims to increase women’s influence in policy making by
providing them with a stronger voice.
● In India, the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) teaches women
farmers how to respond to shifting climate patterns to support themselves
better financially.

Way Forward
■ Reduce the impact of prolonged heat on priority groups (outdoor
workers, pregnant women, infants and young children and the elderly).
■ Urban local bodies, municipal corporations and district authorities in all
vulnerable districts need to have a plan and provide training and resources to
key implementers.
■ Heat wave warnings (based on local temperature plus humidity),
change of timings for outdoor work and schools, cooling rooms in health
facilities, public drinking water facilities, and immediate treatment of those
with heat stroke will minimize deaths.
■ Urban planning to improve tree cover, minimizing concrete, increasing
green-blue spaces and designing housing that is better able to withstand heat
are longer-term actions.
○ The Mahila Housing Trust in Udaipur showed that painting the roofs
of low-income houses with reflective white paint reduced indoor
temperatures by 3° C to 4° C and improved quality of life.
■ Traditionally, India had one of the most advanced systems for rainwater
harvesting and storage with a system of ponds and canals.
○ Work by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in a few
districts of Tamil Nadu showed that using geographic information
systems
 ○ panchayat could map key water sources, identify vulnerabilities and
climate hazards and develop a local plan to improve water access by
directing government schemes and resources.
■ Convergence of sectors and services and prioritization of actions can
happen most effectively at the village or panchayat levels.
■ Devolution of powers and finances and investing in building the capacity
of panchayat and SHG members can be India’s way of demonstrating how to
build resilience in a community-led and participatory way.
■ A gender lens needs to be applied to all State-action plans on climate
change.
■ The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and State Action
Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) highlight the impacts on women.
○ A review of 28 SAPCCs showed a lack of transformative approaches,
with only a few recognising women as agents of change.
■ Recommendations for the ongoing revision of SAPCCs lay stress on the
need to move beyond stereotypes, recognise the vulnerabilities of all genders,
and implement gender-transformative strategies
○ To ensure a comprehensive and equitable approach to climate
adaptation.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. What is an Integrated Farming System ? How is it helpful to small and marginal
farmers in India?(UPSC 2022)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Preparing India for water stress, climate resilience
Source: The Hindu
■ Prelims: Current events of national and international importance(Ground
water, world Bank, UN Water Conference, SDG-6, WASH, Jal Shakti Abhiyan, etc
■ Mains GS Paper II & III: Geographical features and their locations- change in
critical geographical features etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts a hotter summer and
longer heat waves from April to June.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Groundwater;

● Groundwater is the water present below the earth’s surface and is a vast
resource of water.
● Almost 22 percent of water is below the surface land in the form of
groundwater.
● World Bank report: India is the largest groundwater user.

Importance of Groundwater:
● Groundwater is the backbone of India’s agriculture and drinking water
security in rural and urban areas
● It meets nearly 80% of the country’s drinking water and two-thirds of its
irrigation needs.
● Groundwater is pivotal to India’s water security.

Water crisis:

● It may be physical or economic

 ● Factors for water crisis:
○ Rapid urbanization
○ industrialisation
○ unsustainable agricultural practices
○ climate change
○ erratic rainfall patterns
○ water overuse
○ inefficient water management
○ pollution
○ inadequate infrastructure
○ lack of ‘belongingness’ among stakeholders
○ runoff due to high rain along with soil erosion and sedimentation.
● Water scarcity: It leads to the poor functioning of ecosystems, threatens
food and water security, and, ultimately, affects peace.
● According to the World Resources Institute: 17 countries face ‘extremely
high’ levels of water stress which is threatening to result in conflict, unrest
and peace among people.

Background:

● India houses 18% of the world’s population on 2.4% of the earth’s surface
area and has just 4% of global freshwater resources.
● Nearly half its rivers are polluted, and 150 of its primary reservoirs are
currently at just 38% of their total live storage capacity.
● India is the largest user of groundwater in the world.
○ Three-quarters of India’s districts are hotspots for extreme climate
events.
Relation between Water and Economy:

● Water connects hydrological, food, and energy systems, impacting millions

of people.
● Precipitation is the primary source of soil moisture and water stored in
vegetation (green water) and the water available in rivers and aquifers (blue
water).
● Both blue and green water impact the food we grow — irrigating crops,
influencing harvests, and being critical to the economy.
○ This sector employs the most and is increasingly climate
vulnerable.
● The India Employment Report 2024: It shows that agriculture still employs
around 45% of the population and absorbs most of the country’s labor
force.
● Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) study: It showed that
monsoon rainfall is changing patterns in India
○ with 55% of ‘tehsils’ or sub-districts seeing a significant increase of
more than 10% in southwest monsoon rainfall in the last
decade(compared to the previous three).
○ The increased rainfall is frequently coming from short-duration,
heavy rain, affecting crop sowing, irrigation and harvesting.
○ Making the agricultural sector more resilient to climatic and
water stresses matters for jobs, growth and sustainability.
● Water is a key component of the world’s clean energy transition.
● Green hydrogen is an important pillar for decarbonising industry and
long-distance transport sectors
 ○ It is produced using water and electricity sourced from renewables.
● Pumped storage hydropower which acts as a natural battery and is
essential to balance the power grid load.
○ It is an important component of a clean but reliable power system.

Climate crisis and its impact on hydrometeorological disasters:

● According to the UN World Water Development Report 2020: Almost

75% of natural disasters in the last two decades were related to water.
● According to CEEW analysis(between 1970 and 2019): the number of
flood associated events (such as landslides, thunderstorms and cloud bursts)
increased by up to 20 times in India.
● Freshwater, one of the nine planetary boundaries, has been transgressed
(2023 study).

The ingredients of water security

● Attaining water security will need a mix of the right policies, judicious
use of water, including reuse of urban wastewater, and finance for adapting to
a changing world.
● Effective water governance needs policies that recognise its interactions
with food and energy systems.
○ CEEW and International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
analysis shows that although India has adopted several policies
■ most do not recognise this nexus while planning or at the
implementation stage.
■ Scaling up of green hydrogen is desirable, the link with water
availability is not always considered.
● The impact of scaling up solar irrigation pumps on groundwater levels
must be analyzed to deploy the technology where there is an optimal mix of
solar resource and higher groundwater levels.
 ● Policies should incorporate the food-land-water nexus through localized
evidence and community engagement.
● India needs to focus on the judicious use of blue and green water
through water accounting and efficient reuse.
● The National Water Mission targets increasing water use efficiency by
20% by 2025.
● The Atal Mission on Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)
2.0 calls for reducing non-revenue water, which is lost before it reaches the
end user, to less than 20% in urban local bodies.
○ These are not backed by any baseline set using water accounting
principles that will help quantify the “20 percent” change in
freshwater use.
○ In the absence of water use data(for the reference year): It is
difficult to quantify the potential water saving in one sector, such as
agriculture, that can then be diverted to other sectors
■ such as industries or domestic purposes, which will drive
India’s water demand.
● Water accounting is essential for promoting water use efficiency and
creating incentives for investments in treated wastewater reuse.

Legally binding instruments on regulation of trans-boundary river water

courses:
■ UN Water Convention 1997
■ United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Water Convention
1992

Way Forward
■ We must move from panic reactions when disaster strikes (like the water
crisis in Bengaluru), to understand and respond to the chronic nature of risks
we face.
■ Climate action cannot be left to a few sectors or businesses.
○ Nor can environmental sustainability be reduced to sapling
plantation drives over a few days.
 ■ Leverage financial tools to raise money for climate adaptation in the water
sector.
○ India’s climate action has been largely focused on mitigation in the
industrial, energy, and transport sectors.
■ More funding is needed for adaptation-specific interventions such as:
○ strengthening wastewater management
○ providing incentives to promote climate-resilient agricultural
practices (micro irrigation and crop diversification)
○ scaling up desalination plants as an alternative water source for
thermal plants and green hydrogen production.
■ Market innovations such as India’s Green Credit Programme have the
potential to partially bridge the adaptation funding gap by encouraging
○ Investment in wastewater treatment
○ desalination plants
○ agricultural extension services.
■ Considering the investments in India under Corporate Social
Responsibility (between 2014-15 and 2020-21), there is a potential to
leverage about ₹12,000 crore worth of investments every year.
■ Pursuing more coherence in water, energy and climate policies, creating
data-driven baselines to increase water savings, and enabling new financial
instruments and markets for adaptation investments.
○ A water-secure economy is the first step towards a climate-resilient
one.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. What is water stress? How and why does it differ regionally in India? (UPSC
2019) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
 EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
Restoring earth’s right to ‘good health’

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Current events of international importance, G20, Global south, UNFPA,

SDG, Article 14, Article 21, World Meteorological Organization, International
Mother Earth Day, NDC, etc.
■ Mains GS Paper II & III: Bilateral, regional and global grouping and agreements
involving India or affecting India’s interests.

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ The European Court of Human Rights found the Government of
Switzerland guilty of violating the rights of a group of women senior citizens
of a Swiss civil society group called KlimaSeniorinnen.
○ The government’s actions to curb emissions were inadequate and
had failed to protect women against the impacts of climate change.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs):
 ● The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global
Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
● A universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that
by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
● It is a set of 17 SDGs which recognize that action in one area will affect
outcomes in others and that development must balance social, economic, and
environmental sustainability.
● Countries have committed to prioritizing progress for those who are
furthest behind.
● The SDGs are designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination
against women.
● The SDGs framework sets targets for 231 unique indicators across 17
SDG goals related to economic development, social welfare and
environmental sustainability, to be met by 2030.
● The United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development: It consists of 17 Goals and 169 targets as a plan of action for
‘people’, ‘the planet’, and ‘prosperity’.
● The resolution specifies mechanisms for the monitoring, review, and
reporting of progress as a measure of accountability towards the people.
● Member-states submit a Voluntary National Review (VNR) to the UN’s
High Level Political Forum (HLPF)
● VLRs is a means for driving and reporting local implementation of SDGs at
the sub-national and city levels.

The Supreme Court of India:

● It ruled that people have a right ‘to be free from the adverse impacts of
climate change’.
○ Citing Articles 14 (equality before law and the equal protection of
laws) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Indian
Constitution as the sources.

Impact of the Court's observation:

● By bringing the impacts of climate change within the purview of
constitutional fundamental rights.
○ It paves the way for legal accountability of climate action.
● The observation has the potential to accelerate climate action both on
the demand and supply side.
○ Demand side: By invoking a more rights-based approach to climate
action.
○ Supply side: by encouraging integrated approaches and action
between government, private sector and civil society.
● It will lead to the adoption of an overarching regulation on climate
change.
○ It takes forward the policy-driven approach of climate action in
India couched in the National and State Action Plans on Climate
Change.
● It has the intended benefits of enhancing state capacities by driving
allocation of funds, functions and functionaries.
● Report by the London School of Economics and Political Science: It
analyzed climate change framework laws across 60 countries.
○ They have helped establish the strategic direction for national
policies that go beyond meeting targets under global environmental
conventions.
○ This includes countries from:
■ Global North such as Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Finland
and South Korea
■ Global South such as South Africa and the Philippines.
Impact of these laws:

● These laws have resulted in increased public sector staffing and capacity
to deliver climate action
○ including a significant expansion in public sector resourcing.
● A framework law can help strengthen climate governance by building
effective institutional frameworks and processes, enabling more ambitious
climate action.
● It has the potential to provide for a more stringent and distributed
accountability, and promote the exchange of knowledge and ideas.
● A forum that enables the sharing of best practices on implementation of
policies can build coherence in policies and actions between States and Union
Territories.

SDGs and localisation model:

● India’s localisation model for the Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs): It has successfully integrated the SDGs into local-level planning
through multi-tiered and multi-stakeholder processes.
● States and territories take ownership by creating their own SDG road
maps and monitoring systems.
○ Friendly competition among them spurs innovation and faster
progress.
● To ensure effective implementation, capacities of local governments are
built.
● The model encourages broader participation from businesses, non-
governmental organizations, and citizens.
○ This has resulted in a more efficient and collaborative approach to
achieve the SDGs.
● It can build inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral approaches:
 ○ Example: One Health initiative: It brought together 13 Ministries
and departments in the domains of health, environment, science and
technology for disease control, research, and pandemic preparedness.
● There is a need to expand this approach to the private sector on
integrating a rights-based approach to climate action in their core operations.
○ For example: the circular economy approaches need to engage with
human rights compliant supply chains, including reverse logistics, to
have a truly transformative impact.

The State of the Global Climate Report(WMO):

● It reveals that most climate change indicators reached record levels in

2023.
● It confirmed 2023 to be the hottest year since we started recording global
temperatures.
● Records were broken for ocean heat, sea level rise, Antarctic Sea ice loss and
glacier retreat.

India and Climate Change:

● India has made rapid strides in decoupling emissions from economic

growth.
● India has achieved two of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)
targets:
○ Reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33% to 35% from
2005 level
○ Achieving 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from
non-fossil fuel sources.

Vulnerability to climate change:

 ● More than 80% of its population lives in districts that are at risk of
climate-induced disasters.
● Rising temperatures and natural disasters are manifesting into major
crises.
○ It affects livelihoods and food security
○ It exacerbates existing socio-economic inequalities.

Way Forward

■ Rights-based dialogue: This pathway can leverage the court’s observation

to empower citizen groups and civil society organizations in fostering a
rights-based dialogue on environment, biodiversity and climate action.
■ Within the ambit of environmental policy, it can build consensus on
overcoming potential tensions between climate mitigation and action.
○ Balancing conservation of the habitat of the Great Indian Bustard,
a critically endangered bird species
○ With developing solar energy parks to meet the country’s renewable
energy targets.
■ The idea of ‘Mother’ Earth has been embedded in India’s culture and
traditions for centuries, regarding nature as a ‘living’ entity rather than just a
resource.
■ The Madras High Court(2022): A case on changing the classification of
forest land, declared ‘Mother Nature’ a ‘living being’, granting it the status of a
legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities, in order to
preserve and conserve it.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. What is an Integrated Farming System ? How is it helpful to small and marginal
farmers in India?(UPSC 2022)
 (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
The ART of India’s HIV/AIDS response

Source: The Hindu

■ Prelims: Current events of national importance, HIV, AIDS, WHO, Antiretroviral

Therapy (ART), AZT (zidovudine), HAART, PLHIV etc
■ Mains GS Paper I & II: Development and management of social
sectors/services related to Health and education etc
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ On April 1, 2004, the Indian government had launched Free Antiretroviral
Therapy (ART), for Persons living with HIV (PLHIV).

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
HIV/AIDS:
 ● HIV attacks CD4, a type of White Blood Cell (T cells)in the body’s immune system.
T cells are those cells that move around the body detecting anomalies and infections
in cells.
● After entering body, HIV multiplies itself and destroys CD4 cells, thus severely
damaging the human immune system.
○ Once this virus enters the body, it can never be removed.
● CD4 count of a person infected with HIV reduces significantly.
○ In a healthy body, CD4 count is between 500- 1600, but in an infected body,
it can go as low as 200.
● Weak immune system makes a person prone to opportunistic infections and
cancer.
○ It becomes difficult for a person infected with this virus to recover from
even a minor injury or sickness.

Anti-retro vial Therapy(ART):

● It is a combination of daily medications that stop the virus from reproducing.

● The therapy helps in protecting CD4 cells, keeping the immune system strong
enough to fight off the disease.
● It helps in stopping its progression to AIDS (a spectrum of conditions caused by
infection due to HIV).
● The first antiretroviral drug, AZT (zidovudine), was approved by the US
Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) in March 1987.

The evolution to ART:

● The UN General Assembly’s Millennium Summit(2000): It issued the

declaration to stop and reverse the spread of HIV.
● The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created in
2002 which advocated universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care
and support services.
 ● In 2004, the number of PLHIV in India was estimated to be 5.1 million,
with a population prevalence of 0.4%.
● The ‘cocktail therapy’ or HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy),
became available starting in 1996, but costs were prohibitively high.
● In 2006, the free ART was made available for children as well.

Impact of free ART:

● ART have expanded from less than 10 to around 700 ART centers —
○ 1,264 Link ART centers are providing free ART drugs to approximately
1.8 million PLHIV on treatment.
● The prevalence of HIV in 15-49 years has come down to 0.20 (confidence
interval 0.17%-0.25%)
● The burden of disease in terms of estimated PLHIV has been coming down
to 2.4 million.
● India’s share in PLHIV globally had come down to 6.3% (from around
10% two decades ago).
● The annual new HIV infections in India have declined by 48% against the
global average of 31% (the baseline year of 2010).
● The annual AIDS-related mortalities have declined by 82% against the
global average of 47% (the baseline year of 2010).
● Dolutegravir (DTG), a new drug with superior virological efficacy and
minimal adverse effects was introduced in 2020.
● In 2021, India adopted a policy of rapid ART initiation in which a person
was started on ART within seven days of HIV diagnosis, and in some cases,
even the same day.

Other initiatives which have contributed to halting the HIV epidemic:

 ● Provision of free diagnostic facilities
● Attention on prevention of parent to child transmission of HIV (PPTCT)
services
● Prevention, diagnosis and management of opportunistic infections
including management of co-infections such as tuberculosis (TB).

Treat All’ approach(2017):

● It ensures that ART is initiated, irrespective of CD4 count.

● It has contributed to reduced virus transmission, both at the individual and
the community levels.
● It is supplemented by free of cost viral load testing for all PLHIV on
treatment.
● The programme adopted a patient-centric approach by providing two to
three months of medicines to stable PLHIV
○ which minimizes the number of patient visits to the ART centers,
reducing travel time and costs for the patients.
● It increases adherence to treatment besides decongesting ART centers by
reducing the average daily OPD, giving health-care workers more time to
attend to other patients.

Recent steps:

● The ongoing and fifth phase of India’s National AIDS Control

programme: It aims to (by 2025) reduce the annual new HIV infections by
80%,
○ reduce AIDS-related mortalities by 80%
○ eliminate vertical transmission of HIV and syphilis.
 ● The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) phase 5 calls for the
attainment of ambitious targets of 95-95-95 by 2025
○ 95% of all people living with HIV know their HIV status
○ 95% of all people diagnosed with HIV infection receive sustained
antiretroviral therapy (ART)
○ 95% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy achieve viral
suppression by 2025.

Challenges:

● The delayed enrolment to the ART facilities: In India, patients presenting

with CD4 count <200 to ART centers constitute almost a third of total foot
fall.
● After starting on ART and continuing, the patient starts feeling well.
○ Then they start missing doses and miss medicines for months or
completely drop out.
○ This results in the development of resistance as well.
○ This ‘loss to follow up’ needs to be addressed.

What steps need to be taken?

● The sustained supply and availability of ART needs to be ensured by the

national programme, in every geography of the country and more so for
tough terrain, hilly and remote areas.
● There is a need to focus on the private sector engagement in care of
PLHIV.
● There is a need for constant training and capacity building of staff as
science keeps evolving and should be focused more on hands-on training.
 ● There is a need to focus on strengthening integration with other
programmes such as hepatitis, non-communicable diseases (diabetes and
hypertension) and mental health
○ PLHIV are living normal but have other health conditions that need
to be addressed.
● A focused approach needs to be adopted to reduce preventable mortality
that includes systematic death reviews and availability of advanced
diagnostics.

Reasons for success of free ART:

● Political will and constant support of successive governments

● sustained and sufficient funding, regular programme reviews and field-
based monitoring, a series of complementary initiatives
● Community and stakeholder engagements and participation
● People-centric modifications in the service delivery
● Bridging the policy intentions to implementation gaps, and continuous
expansion of services to cover more people living with HIV.

Way Forward

■ The free ART initiative paved the path for bending the HIV/AIDS epidemic
curve in India.
■ The 20 years of free ART and subsequent steps under the NACP have the
potential to guide other public health programmes in the country.
■ The learnings can and should be used to launch a nationwide free
hepatitis C treatment initiative in India and accelerate progress towards
hepatitis C elimination.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
Q. Besides being a moral imperative of the Welfare State, primary health structure is
a necessary precondition for sustainable development.” Analyze.(UPSC 2021)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)

EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
New York Times vs OpenAI: Is there a case for copyright?

Source: Indian Express

■ Prelims: Science and technology, Artificial intelligence(AI), Generative AI, Big
Data, GANs, ChatGPT1 tool, DALL.E2, copyright etc
■ Mains GS Paper III and IV: Significance of technology for India, AI,
indigenisation of technology and development of new technology.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
■ The New York Times (NYT) in 2023 sued OpenAI and Microsoft for
copyright infringement.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context
Artificial intelligence(AI):
● It is a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent
behavior in computers.
● It describes the action of machines accomplishing tasks that have
historically required human intelligence.
● It includes technologies like machine learning, pattern recognition, big data,
neural networks, self algorithms etc.
● E.g: Facebook’s facial recognition software which identifies faces in the
photos we post, the voice recognition software that translates commands we
give to Alexa, etc are some of the examples of AI already around us.

Generative AI:
● It is a cutting-edge technological advancement that utilizes machine
learning and artificial intelligence to create new forms of media, such as text,
audio, video, and animation.
 ● With the advent of advanced machine learning capabilities: It is possible
to generate new and creative short and long-form content, synthetic media,
and even deep fakes with simple text, also known as prompts.
● Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) will transform into Artificial
General Intelligence (AGI), which can mimic the capabilities of human beings.
● It will dramatically improve the standard of living of millions of human
beings.
● Negative impact: AI would undermine human values and that advanced AI
could pose ‘existential risks’.

AI innovations:
● GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks)
● LLMs (Large Language Models)
● GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformers)
● Image Generation to experiment
● Create commercial offerings like DALL-E for image generation
● ChatGPT for text generation.
○ It can write blogs, computer code, and marketing copies and even
generate results for search queries.

Copyright:

● is a legal right that protects original works of literature, art, music, films, and
computer programs, among others, in India.
● It safeguards expressions of ideas rather than the ideas themselves.
● The owner of a copyright has exclusive rights to adapt, reproduce, publish,
translate, and communicate the work to the public.
Petition by NYT:

● It alleges that the “defendants’ generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)

tools rely on large-language models (‘LLMs’) that were built by copying

● It used millions of Times copyrighted news articles, in depth

investigations, opinion pieces, reviews, how-to-guides, and more.

● The NYT argues that the Constitution and the Copyright Act recognise the

“critical importance of giving creators exclusive rights over their works”.

● They argue that “powered by LLMs containing copies of Times content,

● Defendant's Gen AI tools can generate output that recites Times content

verbatim, closely summarizes it, and mimics its expressive style.

● Defendants use Microsoft’s Bing search index, which copies and

categorizes the Times articles that are significantly longer and more detailed

than those returned by traditional search engines.”

● The core argument of the NYT: The outputs of “Defendants’ GenAI models

compete with and closely mimic the inputs used to train them” copying NYT

works and hence is not fair use.

● The NYT’s petition includes extracts from searches conducted on

ChatGPT, and Bing Chat (Microsofts’ GenerativeAI) that are alleged to

throw up NYT articles verbatim.

Reply of OpenAI:

● OpenAI responds that “the Times paid someone to hack OpenAI’s products.
 ● It took the newspaper ten of thousands of attempts to generate the

“highly anomalous results” that constitute the illustrations in the complaint.

● NYT targeted and exploited a bug by using deceptive prompts that

blatantly violate OpenAI’s terms of use.

Reply by Microsoft:

● It compared the New York Times lawsuit to the one waged by the Motion

Picture Association of America and Hollywood against the VCR (Video

Cassette Recorder).

○ When the VCR was first introduced, the entertainment industry

claimed that it violated copyright.

○ The US Supreme Court rejected the alarmism and voted for

technological innovation and consumer choice (Sony Corp of America

vs Universal City Studios, Inc)

Ethical Issues with AI:

Way Forward
■ News conglomerates have not all chosen to fight the use of their work

product to feed the insatiable appetite of AI. Some have joined hands with it.
 ○ The large European news conglomerate Axel Springer has

announced a partnership with OpenAI to “strengthen independent

journalism in the age of AI”.

■ As The New York Times Co v Microsoft Corp et al weaves its way through

the court system, more such challenges for the law will emerge as

○ AI swiftly takes over how humans access, process and pay for news

and creative work.

■ The dangers associated with AI pose a greater threat than harm arising

from bias in design and development.

■ Elections apart, India being one of the most advanced countries in the

digital arena, again needs to treat AI as an unproven entity.

■ While AI brings benefits, the nation and its leaders should be fully aware
of its disruptive potential.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. What are the different elements of cyber security ? Keeping in view the
challenges in cyber security, examine the extent to which India has successfully
developed a comprehensive National Cyber Security Strategy.(UPSC 2022)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)