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With a view to bolstering the social and security framework along the China border, the Union Cabinet approved raising of seven new battalions of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and allocated ₹4,800 crore under the Vibrant Villages Programme to stop migration and boost tourism in villages along the border.
The Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the proposal for raising the new ITBP battalions during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This would entail recruitment of 9,400 personnel for deployment in Arunachal Pradesh, where 47 new border outposts and 12 staging camps are under construction.
The outposts were sanctioned in January 2020. In all, there are 176 ITBP outposts along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control.
A sector headquarters for the ITBP was also announced. Union Minister Anurag Thakur said the decision was taken keeping an eye on the need for effective monitoring in the border areas and that the battalions and the sector headquarters would be raised by 2025-26.
Under this, ₹1,808.15 crore non-recurring expenditure has been approved for construction of official and residential buildings, land acquisition, arms and ammunition. A recurring expenditure of ₹963.68 crore per year for the salary and ration of personnel has been approved.
With this, the strength of the ITBP will increase to 97,000 from the current 88,000.Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a stand-off at several locations in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020.
The Cabinet also approved the Vibrant Villages Programme for the financial years 2022-23 to 2025-26 with an allocation of ₹4,800 crore for the development of villages on the northern border, thus improving the quality of life of people living there.
Editorial
A manifesto for tackling the silent pandemic of AMR (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
While the world is emerging from the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the very harmful but invisible pandemic of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is unfortunately here to stay.
Most countries understood in 2020 the clear and present danger of COVID-19, forcing governments, including India’s, to respond with speed and accuracy. The rapidly rising AMR rates also need an accelerated, multi-sectoral, global and national response.
In recent decades, while new drugs have revolutionised human health care, health experts have been struggling with disease-causing microbes that have become resistant to drugs.
Global public health response has been threatened due to rising misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals.
Microbial resistance to antibiotics has made it harder to treat infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis (TB), blood-poisoning (septicaemia) and several food-borne diseases.
AMR also imposes a huge health cost on the patient in the form of longer hospitalisation, health complications and delayed recovery.
It puts patients undergoing major surgeries and treatments, such as chemotherapy, at a greater risk. Many times, patients recover from advanced medical procedures but succumb to untreatable infections.
In 2019, AMR was associated with an estimated 4.95 million human deaths. A 2018 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned of a phenomenal increase, by 2030, of resistance to back-up antibiotics (second and third-line).
AMR adds to the burden of communicable diseases and strains the health systems of a country. An Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study in 2022 showed that the resistance level increases from 5% to 10% every year for broad-spectrum antimicrobials.
An Indian Network for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (INSAR) study indicated a high rate of resistance to commonly used drugs such as ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, co-trimoxazole, erythromycin and clindamycin.
India’s Sri Lankan refugees need fair consideration (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
It will soon be 14 years since the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka. The three-decade war that ended in May 2009 devastated the once peaceful and prosperous nation.
Many civilians perished and large sections had no choice but to flee; some within the country while others left for foreign lands having lost livelihoods and fearing for their lives.
Many sought protection in India, among a population of identical ethnicity in Tamil Nadu. The vast majority travelled in boats and dinghies in desperation.
They entered India in search of safety, many without travel documents and were received and hosted by the Government of India on humanitarian grounds.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in its 2021-2022 Annual Report states that 3,04,269 Sri Lankan refugees entered India between July 1983 and August 2012 and were provided relief including shelter, subsidised ration, educational assistance, medical care and cash allowances.
In addition to the warm welcome provided, access to public education and health facilities embodies the Government of India’s recognition of the needs of Sri Lankan refugees. Sustaining assistance for decades is an example of best practices under the aegis of the Global Compact on Refugees.
The end of the civil war renewed hope for this nation wrecked after years of ethnic strife and displacement. The Government of Sri Lanka constituted the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in 2010 “to look back at the conflict Sri Lanka suffered as well as to look ahead for an era of healing and peace building in the country”. Its observations and recommendations on human rights, international humanitarian law, land rights, resettlement and reconciliation are noteworthy.
Since the end of the civil war, the Government of Sri Lanka, and development partners initiated programmes in the Northern and Eastern provinces, with objectives of resettlement, restoration of critical infrastructure, livelihoods and social services to the local population.
This led to significant improvements; the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), infrastructure development, expansion of agriculture and livelihoods.
Opinion
Judges and the lure of ‘political’ jobs (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Within a month of retiring from the Supreme Court of India, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer has been appointed Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
Like many others, I believe it is no coincidence that he was a part of the Constitution Bench that decided the Ayodhya Ram Mandir land issue.
In the tenure of the Narendra Modi-led government since 2014, he is the third Supreme Court judge who has received a high-profile political appointment soon after retirement, the other two being Justice P. Sathasivam (who was appointed Governor of Kerala), and Justice Ranjan P. Gogoi (who was appointed member of the Rajya Sabha).
These appointments are all signalling on the part of the government, letting the members of the higher judiciary know that they will be suitably rewarded if they issue favourable decisions.
Dangling such a proverbial carrot is akin to corrupting the judges, and encouraging a culture of sycophancy even, as we are seeing among some judges in the apex court. Worse, this also makes the public have less faith in the judiciary itself.
In 1980, Justice V. D. Tulzapurkar had said that “if judges start sending bouquets or congratulatory letters to a political leader on his political victory, eulogising him on assumption of high office in adulatory terms, the people’s confidence in the judiciary will be shaken.”
While a Governor’s position may seem largely ceremonial, it is in fact a squarely political appointment. In any event, this appears to be a part of the ruling party’s strategic mission — a long game, if you will — to destabilise the judiciary, chipping away in small and big ways at various aspects of its functioning. If you step back and observe, the judiciary is slowly but surely being subtly weakened.
To be fair, this is not the first government that has ventured so far as to corrupt the judges in this fashion. Congress-led governments, notably under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, have done it too.
But it is a cowardly defence that the Opposition party was equally guilty, and past precedent does not justify present transgressions.
The larger objective, for any reasonable executive, should be to ensure the independence of the other arms of the governing mechanism, and that democratic values are preserved.
Explainer
Taxing windfall profits of oil companies (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
On February 3, the Union government hiked the windfall profit tax levied on domestically-produced crude oil as well as on the export of diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF).
Just three days before this, the Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs Vivek Johri, told PTI that prices of crude were on the rise again and thus, “for the time being windfall tax will continue.” He added that it would be difficult to predict for how long the taxation will continue.
Windfall profits’ refer to an unanticipated spike in earnings of an entity resulting from an exogenous event (which could be one-off and/or prolonged) and not resulting from a business decision.
The B.K. Chaturvedi committee’s report on the Financial Position of Oil Companies (2008) had stated that taxing of these windfall gains has been seen as a prerogative of governments, in part to meet fiscal needs and in part to pursue redistributive justice.
The central idea here is for sovereigns to capitalise on the lofty profits made by the entities and use it for specific domestic pursuits, for example, spur collections (of taxes) to guard against the consequences of a larger geopolitical event or redistribute them for it to be used for domestic social service schemes, among other reasons.
As per the government, the collection of Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) for the ongoing financial year is estimated to be ₹25,000 crore from production of crude oil, export of petrol, diesel and ATF.
Windfall taxes are reviewed on a fortnightly basis and are subject to factors such as international oil prices, exchange rate and quantity of exports. India had first imposed SAED in July 2022.
Russia’s actions in Ukraine were central to the volatility observed in the oil market in the previous calendar year. For perspective, Russia was among the major players in the global oil market and among the largest producers alongside Saudi Arabia and U.S.
As a response to Russia’s actions, several Western countries, moved to stop or curtail their energy imports from Russia. This led to sharp increases in fossil fuel prices as sovereigns went to look for other suppliers for its energy needs, culminating in major profits for oil companies.
Understanding India’s Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in a report flagged the “inhuman and deplorable” condition of all 46 government-run mental healthcare institutions across the country.
The report notes that the facilities are “illegally” keeping patients long after their recovery, in what is an “infringement of the human rights of mentally ill patients”.
These observations were made after visits to all operational government facilities, to assess the implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 (MHA).
The MHA, 2017 “centered the agency of individuals, acknowledged their right to live as part of a community [under Section 19], and focused on rehabilitation,” says Ms. Priti Sridhar, CEO of Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI).
Under Section 19 of the Act, the government was made responsible for creating opportunities to access less restrictive options for community living — such as halfway homes, sheltered accommodations, rehab homes, and supported accommodation.
The Act also discourages using physical restraints (such as chaining), unmodified electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), and pushes for the right to hygiene, sanitation, food, recreation, privacy, and infrastructure.
More importantly, the Act recognised that “people have a capacity of their own — unless proven otherwise,” says Tanya Fernandes, a researcher with the Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy.
Additionally, under Section 5, people are empowered to make “advance directives”. They can nominate a representative for themselves, thereby potentially helping to eliminate absolute forms of guardianship in favour of supported decision-making.
This is barring cases where the person needs a higher degree of care and support. Experts note this was the first time a psychosocial approach to mental health was adopted.
The Act acknowledged that external factors — such as income, social status, and education — impact mental well-being, and therefore, recovery needs a psychiatric as well as a social input.
While the MHA safeguards the rights of people in mental healthcare establishments, enforcement challenges remain. Almost 36.25% of residential service users at state psychiatric facilities were found to be living for one year or more in these facilities, according to a 2018 report by the Hans Foundation.
Text & context
The role of welfare schemes and policies for the Parhaiyas of Jharkhand (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Population and Associated Issues)
Somanchi, Anmol, ‘Food and Social Security at the Margins: The Parhaiyas of Jharkhand’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 58, Issue 4, January 28, 2023.
While many government policies and schemes have been announced across the country to help vulnerable communities, it is imperative to look at the extent to which these schemes have succeeded.
Anmol Somachi’s paper, ‘Food and Social Security at the Margins: The Parhaiyas of Jharkhand’ is one such study that examines the level of penetration and coverage of government schemes and the bottlenecks that hinder its implementation.
In 2003, the Supreme Court instructed governments to provide 35 kilograms of subsidised foodgrains every month to the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) through the public distribution system (PDS).
Furthermore, the Jharkhand government, in 2015, introduced the Adim Jan Jati Pension (AJJP) scheme, which provides ₹600 every month to such households provided they are not already included in another pension scheme.
It is in this context that the author looks at the effectiveness of welfare schemes promised to the Parhaiyas. A door-to-door survey of all PVTG households was conducted in November 2018, in the Manika block of Latehar district and Satbarwa block of Palamu district in Jharkhand.
The survey, conducted by teams of student volunteers, looked at the status and coverage of social security programmes and the barriers to implementing such schemes.
They visited 13 and five villages/hamlets in Manika and Satbarwa, respectively. Incidentally, all the households where the study was conducted, were from the Parhaiya tribe.
The author introduces the Parhaiya community of Jharkhand as one of the 75 communities listed under the PVTGs in the country.
Like most tribal groups, despite having a rich culture and heritage, with different languages and livelihoods, the Parhaiyas share a history of exploitation, discrimination, marginalisation and alienation from mainstream society.
Traditionally, their main source of living came from shifting agriculture and hunting-gathering. But climate change, wildlife and forest policies, denial of land rights and encroachment of their ancestral land by governments have made their livelihoods precarious.
This has led to poverty, hunger and malnourishment in the community. The author explains that though the rate of development and advancement is extremely slow, the present living conditions are better, with almost every household having at least one source of clean drinking water, and toilet facilities and a few families even building pucca houses with the help of government housing schemes.
News
Cabinet nod for two lakh farm, dairy cooperatives (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
To strengthen the cooperative sector, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of two lakh primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) and dairy-fishery cooperatives in uncovered villages and panchayats over a period of five years.
A total of 25 facilities will be provided through them. Dairy and fishery will be linked to the agri cooperatives. At present, there are 63,000 functional PACS in the country.
The plan is to establish PACS in each uncovered panchayat, viable dairy cooperatives in each uncovered panchayat or village and viable fishery cooperatives in each coastal panchayat or village as well as panchayats and villages with large waterbodies.
World
Warm water melts Antarctica’s glacier: study (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1/3, Geography/Environment)
Scientists studying Antarctica’s vast Thwaites Glacier — nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier — say warm water is seeping into its weak spots, worsening melting caused by rising temperatures, two papers published in Nature journal showed.
Thwaites, which is roughly the size of Florida, represents more than half a metre of global sea level rise potential, and could destabilise neighbouring glaciers that have the potential to cause a further three-meter rise.
As part of the International Thwaites Glacier collaboration, a team of 13 U.S. and British scientists spent about six weeks on the glacier. They monitored the glacier using an underwater robot vehicle known as Icefin.
In one of the papers, Cornell University-based scientist Britney Schmidt said the melting was of grave concern.