Daily Current Affairs

Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States (Tele-MANAS) initiative (GS Paper 2, Health)

Why in news?

• Recently, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States (Tele-MANAS) initiative of Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare was launched at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru.

Background:

• Acknowledging the mental health crisis in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and an urgent need to establish a digital mental health network that will withstand the challenges amplified by the pandemic, Government of India announced National Tele Mental Health Programme (NTMHP) in the Union Budget 2022-23.

Aim:

• Tele-MANAS aims to provide free tele-mental health services all over the country round the clock, particularly catering to people in remote or under-served areas.

 

Salient Features:

• The programme includes a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bengaluru and National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHRSC) will provide the technical support.
• The Union Government aims to open at least one Tele-MANAS Cell in each State/UT.
• A toll-free, 24/7 helpline number (14416) has been set up across the country allowing callers to select the language of choice for availing services. The calls would be routed to Tele-MANAS cells in the respective state and union territory.

 

Tier system:

• Tele-MANAS will be organised in two tier system; Tier 1 comprises of state Tele-MANAS cells which include trained counsellors and mental health specialists.
• Tier 2 will comprise of specialists at District Mental Health Programme (DMHP)/Medical College resources for physical consultation and/or e-Sanjeevani for audio visual consultation. Presently there are 5 regional coordination centres along with 51 State/UT Tele MANAS cells.
• The initial rollout providing basic support and counselling through centralized Interactive Voice Response system (IVRS)is being customized for use across all States and UTs.
• This will not only help in providing immediate mental healthcare services, but also facilitate continuum of care.

Linkages:

• Specialised care is being envisioned through the programme by linking Tele-MANAS with other services like National tele-consultation service, e-Sanjeevani, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, mental health professionals, Ayushman Bharat health and wellness centres and emergency psychiatric facilities.
• Eventually, this will include the entire spectrum of mental wellness and illness, and integrate all systems that provide mental health care. NIMHANS has conducted training for 900 Tele MANAS counsellors from majority of States/UTs.

Indian scientists find efficient way to quantify quantum entanglement in higher dimensional systems    
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

Why in news?

• Experiments on the quantum entanglement (where several particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated), which received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022 has seen a major achievement by Indian scientists, who have found a simpler way to quantify the amount of entanglement in higher dimensional systems.

Why it matters?

• The study could help potentially enable better assessment of the efficacy of an entangled state for technological applications like quantum teleportation where the success and accuracy of the process depends on the amount of entanglement as well as other quantum communication protocols.
• Teleportation is a technique for transferring quantum information from a sender at one location to a receiver some distance away.
• Entangled state is a crucial state of quantum mechanics and can be used as a resource for quantum communication, quantum computation and information processing tasks that are impossible for classical systems.
• Higher dimensional systems (dimension greater than two) are proven to have advantages in both quantum computing and quantum communications. Thus experimentally realising higher-dimensional entangled states along with the studies of quantification of the entanglement are of critical importance.

 

Existing measures:

• So far, all the relevant investigations towards quantifying entanglement mainly focused on providing bounds (maximum/minimum) on entanglement measures.
• The existing method of characterising quantum state is Quantum State Tomography (QST), which can then be used to quantify entanglement. It requires determination of an increasingly large number of parameters as the dimension of the system grows.
• A method for empirical estimation of entanglement for any arbitrary dimensional entangled state was not available.

 

Recent development:

• The scientists from Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous Institute of the Department of Science and Technology, in a collaborative effort with scientists from the Institute for Quantum Computing, Canada have formulated analytical relations between statistical correlation measures and known entanglement measures for any arbitrary dimension.
• By using just two sets of measurements, they have experimentally quantified the amount of entanglement in a pair of three dimensional photonic qutrits at the Quantum Information and Computing lab at RRI.

 

Key Findings:

• Their research gives a more experimentally friendly and less cumbersome alternative to QST.
• It explores the percentage deviation of the entanglement of the given state from the maximally (100% entangled) entangled state as quantified by two different entanglement measures.
• For the first time it experimentally demonstrates this non-equivalence between different measures of entanglement in higher dimensional quantum state.
• The results can usher in a line of studies which can aim to shed light not only on deeper understanding of how entanglement is to be quantified but also on how to better assess the efficacy of an entangled state for a given technological application.

 

Way Forward:

• The central technological importance of the research rests in the context of quantum entanglement enabled information processing, quantum computing and quantum communication protocols, which lie at the heart of 21st century quantum technologies.
• For applications in quantum teleportation and remote state preparation, the fidelity of the process depends on the amount of entanglement given by a relevant entanglement measure.
• Hence, given any experimentally prepared entangled state, an a priori assessment of how much entangled the state is critically helpful. It is precisely this requirement which is addressed in this research.

 

2022 Nobel in Economics

(GS Paper 3, Economy)

Why in news?

• The Nobel Prize in economics for 2022 has been awarded to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond, and Philip Dybvig “for research on banks and financial crises.”
• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday jointly awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Economics to Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig “for research on banks and financial crises.”
• While Bernanke was the former chair of US federal reserve, Diamond and Dybvig are US-based economists.

 

Why was the Nobel given to these three scholars?

• The committee says that the research of the three laureates has helped understand the role of the banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises. Their research shows why avoiding a bank collapse is very important for the economy.
• The economics Nobel Prize is actually called the SverigesRiksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The SverigesRiksbank, which is Sweden’s central bank, came into being due to a bank failure.
• In 1656, the then king of Sweden approved the foundation of Sweden’s first bank, the Stockholms Banco, which also became the first bank to issue bank notes in Europe. However, Banco over-issued notes leading to its liquidation in 1667. In 1668, the Swedish Nobles decided to found the RiksensStänders Bank, which was later renamed as SverigesRiksbank in 1867.
• In 1968, on its tercentenary, the SverigesRiksbank decided to award the economics prize in memory of Alfred Nobel. The award itself was the result of an ongoing crisis and conflict between the central bank and the government.
• The purpose of mentioning this history is to highlight how failures are central to banks. Banks have failed ever since they were created. It is the first time the Nobel committee has decided to award the prize to three scholars who studied these failures. 

What does Ben Bernanke say about banking crises?

• In the 1930s, the world economy faced a serious economic contraction called the Great Depression. For many years, it was thought the Great Depression was due to a lack of policy stimulus.
• The economist John Maynard Keynes had argued that monetary policy was ineffective in such crises as interest rates could not go lower than zero percent, and one needed a large fiscal stimulus.
• Milton Friedman argued that central banks could create money even when interest rates were zero by buying assets, thereby increasing the money supply.

 

Bernanke’s version:

• Bernanke said that while a lack of policy stimulus explains the contraction, it does not explain why the Great Depression continued for such a long time. The economic contraction had led to a large number of bank failures.
• His argument was that it was this large-scale failure of banks which prolonged the crisis.Banks were not in a position to channel loans towards productive activities, leading to the crisis becoming more severe in the US.
• Banks have special insights into companies, and when a bank fails, all this information is lost. A failed banking system takes many years to repair and the economy performs very poorly in this period. This explains why the Great Depression became such a prolonged crisis. He drew his analysis from a deep understanding of economic and monetary history.

 

What are Diamond’s and Dybvig’s insights into banking crises?

• Bernanke explained what happens when banks fail. Diamond and Dybvig explained why banks fail. In a joint research, hence called the Diamond-Dybvig model, they explain that banks fail when depositors rush for their money. In their model, banks are seen as financial intermediaries that intermediate funds from depositors to loan seekers.
• The deposits are for shorter durations whereas loans are typically given for longer durations (technically called the maturity transformation function of banks). The banks are seen as entities that help savers meet investors, and by channeling loans towards good projects, banks help an economy grow.
• However, banks are also prone to runs by depositors. In their research, they show that once there is a rumor about a bank’s weakness, it spreads like wildfire, causing a bank run, when depositors literally run for their funds to the bank. As banks lend most of the funds towards long-term projects, the loans cannot be recalled easily to repay the depositors. If the rumouris not addressed, it leads to eventual bank failure.
• While many know this is basically how banks fail, the prize-winning duo formalised the model.
• They also presented a solution for bank failures via deposit insurance, which was also introduced before their research.
• In 1933, the US was the first country to adopt deposit insurance, followed by India in 1962. Both adopted deposit insurance after a significant number of banks failed in these countries.

 

What does the prize mean for Indian banking?

• India has been facing sporadic a banking crises from 2013 where few banks failed. Bernanke’s research shows how once a crisis starts, it can prolong not just banking problems but also lower economic growth over time.
• Diamond-Dybvig’s research shows how the weak performance of individual banks like the Punjab and Maharashtra Urban Cooperative Bank and Yes Bank lead to runs, and the banks need to be bailed out by the government.
• There was also the case of ICICI bank which faced a run in 2008 based on rumours, but the run was stalled by the central bank by issuing a notifcation assuring the sound health of the bank.
• Economist and former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief RaghuramRajan seemed to have missed out on the award. He is a leading scholar on banking and has written many research papers with  2022 awardee, Douglass Diamond. The committee has cited 12 of his research papers, which are a significant contribution to the field of banking.

 

About Nobel prize in economics:

• Unlike the other prizes, the economics award wasn’t established in Alfred Nobel’s will of 1895 but by the Swedish central bank in his memory. The first winner was selected in 1969.
• In 2021, half of the award went to David Card for his research on how the minimum wage, immigration and education affect the labor market.
• The other half was shared by Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens for proposing how to study issues that don’t easily fit traditional scientific methods.

Way Forward:

• Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on 10 December.

Russias continued defiance of international law

(GS Paper 2, International Relation)

Context:

• Despite widespread global condemnation, including a resolution in March 2022 adopted by 141 countries in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) demanding that Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw from Ukraine, it continues with its illegal military offensive against Ukraine.
• The resolutions by UNGA are not binding, but decisions by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are. 

International Courts:

• On Ukraine’s application, the ICJ, in a provisional measure ruling, again in March, ordered Russia to immediately suspend its military operations in Ukraine. Russia has not complied with this decision.
• In the meanwhile, Russian troops in Ukraine have been accused of indulging in war crimes under international humanitarian law. Ukraine is not only fighting a brave military battle to defend its sovereignty but is also using all possible levers under international law against Russia.
• It has moved international courts such as the ICJ, the International Criminal Court, and the European Court of Human Rights to put Russia in the dock. But nothing seems to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin’s revisionist and imperial designs.
• Russia is willing to go to great lengths to resurrect a Russian empire and attain mythical civilisational greatness even if that means striking at the very foundations of the post-war international legal order assiduously built on core values such as sovereignty and non-intervention.

 

Illegal annexation:

• The newest item added to the long Russian list of barefaced violations of international law is the recent annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, the four regions that are an integral part of Ukraine.
• Russia claims that these regions have had referendums and decided to join Russia.
• United Nations Secretary-General AntónioGuterres has rightly pointed out that the so-called “referenda” in Ukraine were conducted in areas that are under Russian occupation.
• Thus, it is highly unlikely that the so-called referendums constitute a genuine expression of the popular will of the people.

 

Invocation of UN Charter:

• To somehow prove the legitimacy of his actions to the Russian people, he frequently invokes the UN Charter. Just before invading Ukraine, he referred to Article 51 of the UN Charter (which provides for self-defence against an armed attack). He was wrong since Russia faced no aggression from Ukraine.
• In his recent speech announcing the illegal annexations, he referred to Article 1 of the Charter. The reference particularly was to the right of self-determination of the people of these regions. He is wrong again. The contours of the right of self-determination under international law are debatable.
• This right, also provided in Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, provides that a group of people can freely determine their political status.
• But this right has to be read with Article 2 of the UN Charter which lists the principle of non-intervention as one of the seven core principles of the UN.
• Moreover, since the drafting of the UN Charter, the principle of self-determination has been understood in the context of decolonisation rather than the annexation of new territories on the pretext of self-determination.

 

Rules on occupation in contrast to Hague Convention:

• Under international law, Russia’s control over the four Ukrainian regions, before the so-called referendums, is known as ‘belligerent occupation’. Rules on belligerent occupation are explained under the Hague Convention of 1899, the first treaty that laid down the laws of war.
• Article 43 of the Convention states that if “the authority of the legitimate power over territory” has “passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all steps in his power to re-establish and ensure public order and safety”. Furthermore, while doing so, the occupant shall “respect, unless absolutely prevented”, the domestic laws of the country whose territory it has occupied.
• Russia’s unilateral action of merging the four Ukrainian territories with it is a flagrant violation of Article 43 of the Hague Convention.
• The Article clearly states that Russia, being the occupier, only has ‘authority’ and not ‘sovereignty’ over these regions. Further, any change in this status, i.e. from ‘authority’ to ‘sovereignty’ can only happen with Ukraine’s consent.
• Moreover, Russia should have retained the existing Ukrainian laws of these regions. But Russia has made these regions part of its own territory, which means, Russian laws would apply there now.
• What is ironic is that the Hague Conferences were led by the Russian Tsar Nicholas II. For all the criticism of the West, he is not even following a law whose creation was led by his own countrymen.

Nuclear threat:

• In a recent speech, the Russian President, in an extremely irresponsible and provocative fashion, hinted at using nuclear weapons in the ongoing war.
• Consequently, the threat of a catastrophic nuclear war lingers in the background. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
• The Charter provides the right of individual and collective self-defence, which means that if Russia launches a nuclear attack, not only Ukraine but also its allies can launch a counter-attack on Russia in collective self-defence. Furthermore, the Charter empowers the Security Council to take action even in the case of threat of force.
• Russia’s statement is a threat of nuclear war, i.e., the threat of use of force in the Charter terms. As such, nothing stops the UN Security Council from initiating action under Chapter VII of the Charter against Russia. Of course, it is not going to materialise, primarily because of Russia’s veto power as a UN Security Council member.

Conclusion:

• Finally, ultra-realist foreign policy leaders will point to the irrelevance of international law as it has failed in restraining Russia. However, an autocrat’s defiance of international law does not diminish its importance.
• After all, there are scores of examples in contemporary times of totalitarian regimes violating their own country’s laws with impunity. But that does not make domestic law irrelevant.
• On the contrary, it underscores the need for everyone to emphasise its importance. Likewise, the need to articulate international law norms is highest in the face of its blatant violation.