SECURE SYNOPSIS: 12 FEBRUARY 2018
NOTE: Please remember that following ‘answers’ are NOT ‘model answers’. They are NOT synopsis too if we go by definition of the term. What we are providing is content that both meets demand of the question and at the same time gives you extra points in the form of background information.
General Studies – 1
Topic: Changes in critical geographical features (including waterbodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
Geoengineering interventions:-
- Geoengineering interventions are large-scale attempts to purposefully alter the climate system in order to offset the effects of global warming. Most geoengineering proposals can be divided into two types: solar radiation management (SRM) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR).
- Climate engineering offers the hope of temporarily reversing some aspects of global warming and allowing the natural climate to be substantially preserved whilst greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control and removed from the atmosphere by natural or artificial processes
- One such technology is inspired by volcanoes that entails spewing sulphate aerosols into the upper atmosphere to deflect sunlight and artificially cool the planet.
Impact on climate change:-
- Negative:-
- A recent study shows that rapid application, followed by abrupt termination of this temporary tech-fix can in fact accelerate climate change.
- The increase in temperature from the abrupt termination is so quick that most species, terrestrial or marine, may not be able to keep up with it and eventually perish.
- The increase in temperature is two to four times more rapid than climate change without geoengineering. This increase would be dangerous for biodiversity and ecosystems.
- Reptiles, mammals, fish and birds that have been moving at 1.7 km/year on average will now have to move faster than 10 km/year to remain in their preferred climatic zones. This raises serious concerns, especially for less-mobile animals like amphibians and corals.
- Not just species but entire ecosystems could collapse by suddenly hitting the stop button on geoengineering.
- For example, temperate grassland and savannahs, which are maintained by specific combinations of temperature and rainfall, may experience increasing rates of temperatures, but an opposing trend in rainfall, after 2070.
- Ineffectiveness
- The effectiveness of the techniques proposed may fall short of predictions.
- In ocean iron fertilization, for example, the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere may be much lower than predicted, as carbon taken up by plankton may be released back into the atmosphere from dead plankton, rather than being carried to the bottom of the sea and sequestered.
- Model results from a 2016 study, suggest that blooming algae could even accelerate Arctic warming.
- Moral hazard or risk compensation
- The existence of such techniques may reduce the political and social impetus to reduce carbon emissions
- Albedo modification strategies could rapidly cool the planet’s surface but pose environmental and other risks that are not well understood and therefore should not be deployed at climate-altering scales.
- In the case of environmental risks, the offsetting of greenhouse gases by increasing the reflection of sunlight is not going to be perfect. Some people, potentially a small minority, will get less rainfall. There is concern about what particles might do to the ozone layer.
- The drop off of tropical storms in one area would actually lead to a spike in drought in parts of Africa, according to the data.
- Positive:-
- As expected, the climate would begin to cool once geoengineering commences. This initial cooling phase, would provide relief, particularly for species that were unable to keep up with past warming.
- Also birds and fish which may have moved in response to elevated temperatures in the past will possibly turn back.
- If solar geoengineering were ramped up slowly to half the rate of warming over the coming decades, then it seems likely it would reduce many climate risks. Solar geoengineering deployment can be ended without the impacts of a termination shock if it is gradually ramped down over decades.
- The climate models reveal that the large-scale action would indeed calm things down a bit and potentially reduce the number of North Atlantic cyclones.
Conclusion:-
- In any case in the meantime, two aspects are certain: under no scenario could climate engineering serve as a substitute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and it would be better to implement such technologies with more nuanced research.
General Studies – 2
Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health
Health index report :-
- In its first attempt at establishing an annual systematic tool to measure and understand the heterogeneity and complexity of the nation’s performance in Health the NITI Aayog released a Health Index report
- The report ranks states and union territories (UTs) on their year-on-year incremental change in health outcomes and their overall performance with respect to each other.
- The report has ranked all states and UTs in three different categories: big states, small states and UT.
Significance and implications for competitive federalism:-
- It lays out the general map and helps in prioritising sectoral fund allocations and implementation of schemes to bring everybody at par with the desired quality of life.
- The toppers are not entirely unexpected with Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat having consistently maintained their robustness. The laggard states Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh seem to continue in the historical classification of BIMARU and despite changed dispensations and nomenclature have not been able to quite break through.
- It shows the incremental improvements or the quantum of jump that each state has made from the baseline year of 2014-2015.
- By this measure, the tribal-dominated states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have done very well, having been successful in bringing the marginalised into the fold of medical insurance and basic health entitlements.
- This was not a race for numbers but for promoting cross-learning and cooperation to pull everybody out of the morass.
- The whole point of the ranking is to ensure that State health departments strengthen their primary healthcare systems.
- The Health Index will act as a tool to leverage cooperative and competitive federalism, accelerating the pace of achieving health outcomes.
- This index can make states focus more on health care and help India achieve sustainable development goals .
- States can help each other and replicate successful programmes of one state in another.
- Delhi government’s flagship project Mohalla clinics was replicated in the Greater Hyderabad region. These local health centres, to be called ‘Basthi Devakhanas’.
Shortcomings:-
- Many may argue that such comparisons label certain states as inferior that act as a deterrent for proactive approaches in them.
- The states with already good performance are not improving further.
- The states with bad performance may need help from the centre in terms of funds which might lead to conflict with developed states.
- It is not a very comprehensive index as it entails only a few parameters into consideration
- Private health care is not considered.
Way forward :-
- Both the Centre and the States have the responsibility to scale up their investment on health as a percentage of their budgets, to be more ambitious in interventions.
- While the NHPS may be able to address some of the financial risk associated with ill-health, it will take systematic improvements to preventive and primary care to achieve higher scores in the Index.
- As the experience from countries in the West shows, socialisation of medicine with a reliance on taxation to fund basic programmes is the bedrock of a good health system. If the NITI Aayog Health Index leads to a mainstreaming of health on these lines, that would be a positive outcome.
Topic: India and its neighborhood- relations
Background:-
- Maldives is in the midst of a deep political crisis. President Abdulla Yameen has declared a state of emergency just days after the Supreme Court of Maldives has ordered for the release of political prisoners.
- India’s approach need to be assertive at the same time too much coercion should not be used. So a steady balance need to be maintained.
India should intervene now :-
- Earlier instances:-
- India has often intervened in the internal affairs of other countries for instance the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, the intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war in the late 1980s etc.
- Doing something would involve political mediation between the government and Opposition, the use of diplomacy and ultimately restore order in Maldives. Such an intervention is likely to get considerable international support .
- Experts say that India is steadily losing stature in the neighbourhood and its inability to act in the Maldives will only further accentuate this reality.
- The current President of Maldives role:-
- Ever since he took power in 2013, India-Maldives relations have deteriorated.
- He went close to China and handed out big infrastructure projects to Chinese companies and also let Chinese naval ships to dock in Male.
- His relations with Saudi Arabia and the growing trend of radicalization in Maldives have also been areas of concern in India which compel it to intervene.
- India cannot be a global power if it does not intervene in major crises. The current crisis in the Maldives is an opportunity for India and any global role is always dependent on a country’s performance in the neighbourhood first.
- India’s first priority is to ensure the safety of Indian tourists and workers in Maldives. An Indian intervention can ensure that.
No intervention now:-
- As the situation does not meet the requirements articulated by the ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine, unilateral military intervention would fall foul of Article 2 of the UN charter.
- There is increasing recognition today that humanitarian intervention often leads to more chaos than order. And the crisis in the Maldives is not even humanitarian in nature.
- A military intervention today could leave Indian troops in the Maldivian crisis for a long time.
- It could also prove counterproductive to India’s long-term interests for instance It would push Maldives even closer to the Chinese.
- India’s foreign policy follows no intervention in the internal affairs of other sovereign countries. Intervening in what is strictly a domestic political issue of the Maldives would also be in breach of India’s traditional approach to dealing with crises in its neighbourhood.
- It would boost perception of India as a big brother and a bully in the region.
- An Indian military intervention is unlikely to benefit democratic forces in the Maldives in the long run .Even if a democratic government is formed due to Indian intervention such a government would lack legitimacy in Maldivian people.
- Intervention by India could consolidate public opinion behind the present Maldivian president and ramp up nationalist fervour, giving his actions greater acceptability.
- An Indian intervention will push the Maldives towards more Islamist politics.
- Indian intervention could also complicate life for over 25,000 Indian expatriates who live and work in the Maldives
What should be done?
- India may also take the dispute to and lobby the UN Security Council to bring international attention to the issue.
- India should also think deeply about the instruments it can use to ensure a favourable outcome in Maldives. The use of a instrument like the economic blockade in Nepal in 2015-16 will not help.
- If things go very awry imposition of sanctions can also be done.
- India needs to be patient and monitor the situation especially till the planned elections in Maldives in the next few months.
Conclusion:-
- In short, India has very little moral, legal and political locus standi to justify an intervention in the Maldives. It’s at best an interested party whose best bet is diplomacy and persuasion.
Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health
Background:-
- Recently in the union budget ,the National Health Protection Scheme was announced. The government has committed itself to providing coverage up to Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation for 10 crore poor families, with approximately 50 crore people as beneficiaries. However many questions were raised whether this would be enough for strengthening the public health care system in India.
Concerns with NHPS and other schemes which show it does not focus on public health care system adequately are:-
- In effect, these schemes will support the expansion of private insurance and hospital industries.
- Important lesson from the American model of healthcare is that spending on medical care alone does not improve health outcomes. The US has the highest expenditure on medical care, but does not compare well in terms of health outcomes and equity in access when compared with other developed countries.
- In a context where the insurance coverage is small, the clientele for private hospitals is inadequate to earn profits. In order to increase patient volume, expanding demand through insurance is a sure way. Public insurance schemes assure private hospitals a steady supply of patients to ensure their viability and survival.
- There were serious loopholes in the implementation of Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (RSSY) especially in the empanelment of private hospitals. There is no clarity on how the new scheme addresses this.
- Reimbursement as a percentage of medical cost of hospitalisation in government schemes is abysmally low, especially for the bottom 40% of the population.
- Only 4.5% of total hospitalisation expenses are reimbursed to the bottom 40% and 11.9% for the entire population. There is no guarantee that increasing coverage will improve this.
- The proportion of hospitalisation cost reimbursed is much higher for insurance schemes directly bought by households than government ones. In the case of insurance being paid by the government, insurance companies are most often unwilling to pay the reimbursement as compared to when a household pays.
- Though NHPS improved access to health care, it did not reduce out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), catastrophic health expenditure or health payment-induced poverty.
- The NHPS addresses those concerns by sharply raising the coverage cap, but shares with the RSBY the weakness of not covering outpatient care which accounts for the largest fraction of OOPE.
- The NHPS too remains disconnected from primary care.
- A majority of health insurance schemes do not cover the cost of a non-hospitalised outpatient visit.
- Universal health insurance through private hospitals has not worked for the poor anywhere.Biggest beneficiaries are the private hospitals and insurance companies. There is no substitute fo public health care.
- The government’s proposals do little to prevent poor health in the first place. India is plagued by increasing levels of water and air pollution, some of it worsened by pro-business policies. Malnutrition, poor sanitation and lack of proper housing also remain major problems.
Why strengthening public healthcare is important?
- India’s health-care infrastructure is largely inadequate to serve its vast population. So for access of healthcare strengthening healthcare is needed
- The total number of hospitals and health-care professionals, public and private included, fall short of addressing the total demand for health-care services, despite being large in numbers.
- According to KPMG report, around 80 per cent of all doctors and 75 per cent of dispensaries serve 28 per cent of the country’s population.
- The focus of policymakers has been to address the demand-side issues rather than the supply-side inefficiencies.
- Dismal health-care expenditure has aggravated the inadequacy of health-care infrastructure.
- India accounts for over 17 per cent of the world’s population while spending very less of the world’s total health expenditure.
- There is usually a considerable delay of funds disbursed for utilisation in critical government schemes rendering them ineffective.
- Funds allocated for skill building of health-care professionals are usually not utilised owing to lack of such human resources.
- lack of nursing, Para-medical personnel and doctors, both at the MBBS and post-graduate level
- Problems of governance deficit and regulatory capture arise due to myriad laws and regulations which impede the normal development of this sector.
- A large number of institutions and health-care providers like doctors, equipment manufacturers, drug companies, and hospitals are not formally recognised by the state due to a host of laws and regulations. This has inhibited access to health care.
- Finally, the lack of awareness and monitoring of diseases as well as the steps needed to eradicate them pose a serious challenge to the access of health-care.
- To reduce out of pocket expenditure
- At one end of the spectrum India has high-end hospitals delivering healthcare comparable to any developed nation in sharp contrast to this just a few hundred kilometres away in the villages, one does not even have basic primary care
- The tragedy of India’s healthcare system is that the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ is increasing.
What is needed to be done?
- India needs to set appropriate goals and reform the public health care sector’s governance and management systems
- Without good governance, additional spending would be worth little.
- One potential model to adopt is to set up publicly owned corporations at the state level that can take over the existing state health infrastructure and health delivery operations, thus permitting greater flexibility in management
- For secondary and tertiary care are concerned, the government’s role should be to provide sensible and responsive regulation that allows a health care market to develop.
- The government’s regulatory mechanism will need to address issues of information asymmetry between doctors and patients, Hospital accreditation, increased importance for patient safety standards and guidelines, Electronic Medical Records
- Three-tier model
- The Government should focus on promoting primary healthcare at all rural centres, secondary care hospitals at taluk levels and tertiary care establishments at district hospitals.
- Supporting primary and secondary care could be predominantly the Government’s responsibility, while tertiary care could be promoted as a public-private partnership.
- India needs a major revamp of the healthcare infrastructure, which includes upgrading primary healthcare systems to provide preventive healthcare.
- Awareness on preventive healthcare measures, nutrition, prenatal care, vaccinations and counselling on the importance of hygienic practices like sanitation and clean drinking water should be pursued aggressively.
- India needs to increase the availability of skilled healthcare workers at all levels. This calls for liberalisation of the medical education policy to allow for more doctors especially at the postgraduate level to be trained at corporate/private hospitals.
- Attending to health needs right from primary level care coupled with enhanced investments into better sanitation, water supply and nutrition. In short, an inter-sectoral approach to improve health outcomes is needed.
Conclusion:-
- The plans announced in the budget would have limited impact unless measures are first taken to strengthen primary care in a manner that it will act as a gatekeeper that reduces the need for secondary and tertiary healthcare services.
Topic: Poverty; Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Background:-
- The Union Budget announced recently is committed to provide assistance for building 3.7 million houses in urban areas in 2018-19 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).Similarly there are other schemes like Ujjwala,Saubhagya yojana etc which have been initiated to cater to the needs of the poor.
Concerns:-
- However, this does little to resolve India’s urban housing crisis, which affects the poorest and most marginalised populations in cities.
- For these workers, there is no line between their work and personal lives. They stay at the workplace itself. They are not only constantly exposed to workplace hazards, but also face a higher degree of exploitation from the employer.
- The housing policies remain disconnected from the country’s socio-economic reality of growing rural-urban migration where one in ten Indians are seasonal and circular labour migrants.
- Migrants are unable to afford housing even in slum settlements, resorting instead to living in the open, in shared rented rooms in deplorable conditions or within the workplace.
- They are not only deprived from basic services such as subsidised ration, water, sanitation and cooking fuel, but also face the constant threat of eviction and confiscation of their meagre assets.
- Permanent houses created by schemes like PMAY in cities do not cater to the temporary and transient housing needs and imaginations of seasonal migrant workers.
- They are also denied access to these housing schemes as they do not possess the required domicile documents in the city.
- They cannot afford to invest in a second home in the city, which is the only solution that the affordable housing scheme offers them.
- Many of migrants work as construction workers and the protection under Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act of 1996 is also not ensured to them leads them to live in deplorable conditions.
Way forward:-
- The creation of dignified housing arrangements for seasonal migrant workers demands the immediate attention of urban planning authorities as migrants spend six-ten months of a year in the city.
- The question of their housing should be contextualised within the larger question of their integration with the city, and right to the city itself.
- There is need for establishment for migrant welfare boards to analyse the correct estimate of these migrants and ensure protection and coverage under the government schemes.
General Studies – 3
Topic: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
Background:-
- India’s three main stock exchanges – the National Stock Exchange, BSE Ltd and Metropolitan Stock Exchange said they would stop licensing products and data to foreign exchanges to prevent trading from migrating overseas.
Why offshore markets have become preferred destinations for investors to invest in Indian derivatives:-
- Dollar denominated products on Singapore Stock Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange benefit investors in terms of cost of trading.
- Also, unlike India, Singapore, Taiwan and other South-East Asian markets have a friendlier tax regime and easier margin requirements. They have far more friendly accessibility norms for overseas investors.
- These instruments are traded for longer hours in offshore exchanges, including hours when Indian exchanges are closed for business, making them more investor-friendly.
- Places like Singapore and Dubai, where these derivatives are traded, are low-tax jurisdictions that offer investors the chance to lower their transaction costs as well.
- The fact that offshore derivatives are denominated in dollars adds to their allure.
- Constraints with India:-
- In India, in contrast, the securities transaction tax and the capital gains tax discourage foreign investment in financial assets.
- India also requires all foreign investors to register with regulators.
- For foreign investors, trading derivatives in India’s exchanges means factoring in currency risks for rupee-based contracts.
- The union budget announcement of LTCG along with STT is a retrograde step which will further push India’s disadvantage.
Disadvantages of these derivatives moving offshore are:-
- The volume of derivatives linked to Indian stocks trading in the offshore market is higher than volumes in the domestic bourses showing that capital outflow is taking place leading to financial constraints in the Indian markets.
- More secrecy will be maintained leading to difficulties in tracking down illegitimate transactions leading to money laundering and generation of black money.
- Can lead to volatility of rupee
- Offshore markets do not come under Indian jurisdiction so investor might not be protected.
- Also Foreign bourses, however, will likely find other ways to list derivatives linked to Indian stocks and indices without any help from Indian exchanges soon.
How can Indian policymakers rein in the vast offshore market for Indian derivatives:-
- NSE is also working with the regulators and the government to make Indian markets more attractive and competitive as compared to foreign jurisdictions.
- Offshore markets are thus simply catering to the unmet demands of foreign investors. India’s policymakers should thus first of all address the structural problems that have caused trading in Indian derivatives to move offshore.
- Changes in tax regime are needed to make the exchanges investment friendly.
- SEBI regulations:-
- After the SEBI’s regulation that direct registration is mandatory for any overseas fund to trade in Indian single-stock futures a lot of US-based funds withdrew from the Indian derivatives markets. Efforts need to be made to make exchanges friendly rather than highly regulated.
- Duration of the exchanges need to increase
Topic: Achievements of Indians in science & technology
7) What are Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS)? Should LAWS be banned? Examine. (250 Words)
Lethal autonomous weapons system :-
- The use of AI in military applications, specifically those termed as Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS).
- LAWS are weapon systems that once activated, can select and engagetargets without further human intervention.
Why LAWS should be banned:-
- The prospects of this military application has given rise to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a global coalition of 64 non-government organisations (NGOs) launched in 2013 under the aegis of Human Rights Watch with the aim of pre-emptively banning fully autonomous lethal weapons.
- Retaining human control over the use of force is a moral imperative
- Weapon systems that have autonomy in the critical functions of ‘select and engage’ would be in violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and specifically its principles of distinctionand proportionality.
- While the former principle requires weapon systems to be able to reliably distinguish between combatants and civilians, the latter requires value judgement to be used before applying military force.
- According to this argument, LAWS will never be able to live up to these requirements.
- In addition, there is also the consideration of what is known as the Martens Clause, wherein it is contended that delegating to machines the decision power of ‘life and death’ over humans would be against the principles of humanity and the dictates of public conscience.
- may prove to be disastrous if acquired by Terrorist organisations
Counter view :-
- Development and deployment of LAWS would not be illegal, and in fact would lead to the saving of human lives. This is because without the driving motivation for self-preservation, LAWS may be used in a self-sacrificing manner, saving human lives in the process.
- Moreover, they can be designed without emotions that normally cloud human judgment during battle leading to unnecessary loss of lives.
- Autonomous weapons would have a wide range of uses in scenarios where civilian presence would be minimal or non-existent, such as tank or naval warfare, and that the question of legality depends on how these weapons are used, and not on their development or existence.
- Indian scenario:-
- Autonomous systems designed to disarm improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are already in use by Indian forces, although these are non-lethal and defensive in nature.
- Future possible applications include AI-enabled drone swarms to boost surveillance capabilities, robot sentries along the borders to check infiltration by terrorists, autonomous armed UAVs for use in conventional as well as sub-conventional scenarios and so on.
Conclusion:-
- Given India’s security landscape, perhaps there is a need to adopt a radically different approach for facilitating the development of LAWS. Only a determined effort, with specialists on board and due impetus being given from the apex level, is likely to yield the desired results.
- Also an international treaty to regulate LAWS needs to be generated to make countries accountable and not misuse these weapons.
General Studies – 4
Topic: Laws, rules, regulations and conscience as sources of ethical guidance; accountability and ethical governance
Answer:-
Relation between law and morality:-
- Law is essentially a set of rules and principles created and enforced by the state whereas morals are a set of beliefs, values and principles and behaviour standards which are enforced and created by society.
- Legal and moral rules can be isolated with the former being created by the legislative institution of parliament whereas the latter have evolved with and through society and are the standards which society in general accepts and promotes.
- Some laws mirror the majority of society’s moral view, for example, that murder is wrong but the introduction of same sex marriages is seen by some people as morally wrong and society is divided.
- The existence of unjust laws (such as those enforcing slavery) proves that morality and law are not identical and do not coincide.
- The existence of laws that serve to defend basic values such as laws against murder, rape, malicious defamation of character, fraud, bribery, etc. prove that the two can work together.
- Laws govern conduct at least partly through fear of punishment. Morality, when it is internalized governs conduct without compulsion. The virtuous person does the appropriate thing because it is the fine or noble thing to do.
- Morality can influence the law in the sense that it can provide the reason for making whole groups of immoral actions illegal.
- Law can be a public expression of morality which codifies in a public way the basic principles of conduct which a society accepts. In that way it can guide the educators of the next generation by giving them a clear outline of the values society wants taught to its children.
How is civil disobedience justified:-
- Civil disobedience is an act performed that violates a specific law. Typically, one violates that law because the law in some way unjustly restricts the freedom of citizens in what is believed to be an immoral way.
- There are several requirements the civilly disobedient act must satisfy to be morally justified:
- The act of civil disobedience must be a last resort:
- If there is a legally appropriate way to address the wrongness of a law, that way must be exhausted before one resorts to disobedience. This is to show respect for the legal system as a whole .
- The act must be public:-
- For all practical intents and purposes, the act means nothing if it is done in secrecy. The idea behind the disobedient act is to show that the law is wrong.
- The act must be done conscientiously:-
- The only acceptable reason for acting in civil disobedience is that one believes that the law one is breaking is wrong and that one believes that breaking that law is the only way available to show how wrong the law is.
- The person who performs an act of civil disobedience must accept the consequences of disobeying the law.
- The act must be non-violent.
- The act of civil disobedience must be a last resort:
- Civil disobedience in a democratic society is a way for minorities to be heard. Civil disobedience makes more impact than other forms of protest. It has proved very significant in bringing justice to the society during the Indian freedom struggle and at the same struggle it is necessary even today to uphold democracy of a nation, making government accountable and giving voice to the voiceless.
