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Crucial gains made in closing the gender gap across different undergraduate programmes suffered a setback in the pandemic year, according to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) released by the Education Ministry.0
Data show that the number of women for every 100 men enrolled across different Bachelor’s programmes dropped in the academic year 2020-21.
For instance, a year after the gender gap in BCom closed in 2019 — there were as many women as there were male students — the AISHE report for 2020-2021 showed that this gain was lost in the subsequent year that was marred by large-scale disruptions due to the pandemic.
From 100 women per 100 men who registered for the BCom programme in 2019, the enrollment for women fell to 94 for every 100 men in 2020 — a dip that takes the enrollment figures closer to what it was in 2016 (93 women per 100 male students).
Similar drops were witnessed in other programmes too, including medicine where, from 110 women for every 100 men in MBBS in 2019-20, there are now 100 women in 2020-21.
Other undergraduate programmes such as pharmacy, which came close to plugging the gender gap in 2019 — 93 women for 100 men — saw a drastic drop to 66 women in 2020-21.
Govt &Politics
Ukraine war makes obvious UNSC must be reformed: UNGA chief (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Underlining the need for reforms in United Nations, UN General Assembly president Csaba Kőrösi on Monday said the UN Security Council (UNSC) has become “paralysed” and “dysfunctional” in its “present form”, as it has not been able to take any decision since the Russia-Ukraine war started.
Earlier in the day, Kőrösi called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also emphasised the importance of reforming UNSC.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said that during the meeting, Korosi “lauded India’s transformational initiatives for communities, including in the area of water resource management and conservation.
Acknowledging India’s efforts towards reformed multilateralism, Mr Korosi underscored the importance of India being at the forefront of efforts to reform global institutions.”
The UNGA president’s handle tweeted later in the evening, “Glad to call on PM Modi. Appreciated his focused views on identifying simple, scalable & sustainable solutions that can transform societies.
Discussed ways India can contribute to true transformation of the water crisis through initiatives like Global Water Info System.
Stating that Modi thanked Korosi “for making India his first bilateral visit since assuming office”, the PMO said he appreciated Korosi’s “approach based on science and technology to find solutions to global problems”.
Modi also assured Korosi of “India’s fullest support to his Presidency initiatives during the 77th UNGA, including the UN 2023 Water Conference”.
The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of reforming the multilateral system, including the UN Security Council, so as to truly reflect contemporary geopolitical realities.
Ideas page
Let diplomacy flow (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
A fortnight ago, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed the desire for a diplomatic handshake from across the border.
The environment conducive to the thawing of relations between the two countries is far from appropriate and reconciling rhetoric with practice remains a challenge.
As of now, both countries have opted for diplomatic hedging. This attitude has framed the water diplomacy between the two countries as well.
By raking up the issue of hydroelectric projects, Pakistan has reiterated its desire for third-party mediation while India has reinforced its call for revisiting the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).
In a recent notice to Islamabad via the Indus Commissioners, New Delhi claimed that the “intransigence” of Pakistan had made the communication channels over shared waters defunct.
New Delhi has asserted that in light of this “material breach” of the agreement, it would like to “update the Treaty to incorporate the lessons learnt over the last 62 years”.
It has given a 90-day notice to Islamabad — this has opened space, both legally and politically, for discussing, debating, interpreting and possibly also analysing the faultlines of water diplomacy of both countries.
Conversations on renegotiating and upgrading the IWT began a few years ago. In 2021, a parliamentary standing committee report suggested renegotiating the Treaty.
Under Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Laws of the Treaties, a party can criticise an agreement and give notice of its intention to terminate it if the other party violates its fundamental provisions. India has adopted the moderate approach of not terminating but modifying the IWT.
India has attributed the “material breach” to Pakistan’s unilateral decision to approach the Permanent Court of Arbitration, bypassing the mandate of Indus Commissioners.
The arbitration proceedings started on January 27. India boycotted this hearing. New Delhi claims that Islamabad has violated the dispute settlement mechanisms, as mandated by Articles 8 and 9 of the Treaty.
Article 8 specifies the roles and responsibilities of the Permanent Indus Commission — a regular channel of communication for matters relating to the implementation of the Treaty. Article 9 is relevant for addressing any difference or dispute that might emerge between the two countries.
Explained
Three years of Covid (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
It was on January 30, 2020 that India reported its first case of infection with the novel coronavirus: a 20-year-old medical student in Kerala’s Thrissur, who had returned from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak.
The virus came to be named as SARS-CoV-2, and the infection was termed coronavirus disease, or Covid-19.In the three years since, India has seen three distinct waves of the pandemic — the first driven by the original virus in 2020, a sharp peak driven by the deadly Delta variant in April-May 2021, and the third by the less lethal but more contagious Omicron variant in January 2022. More than 4.4 crore Covid-19 infections and 5.3 lakh deaths have been reported across the country so far.
At the same time, more than 220 crore doses of vaccines have been administered, with over 90% of the population over the age of 12 years having received at least two doses.
Around the world, the virus has caused more than 752 million confirmed infections and 6.8 million deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) data.
The first three cases of Covid-19 in India were reported in medical students who returned to Kerala from Wuhan. They did not transmit the infection to contacts, and no new case was reported for over a month. The next set of infections was detected in early March, causing local spread and clusters.
The Centre initially brought in measures like screening international passengers for fever. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic.