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WE PROMISED & WE DELIVERED 7 0 + questions came from Our 10 RED BOOKS In 2020. See Proof : www.crackias.com/proof

GUARANTEED PRELIMS SELECTION OR GET 100% FEE BACK Tool for automated diagnosis of COVID-19 lung infection2 ‘U.S. will pay over $200 million to WHO’4 ‘Pak. to remain in FATF grey list until June’6 Govt to rope in pvt agencies to mine data for effective policing7 Foreign forex trading platforms are illegal in India9 An evergreening exercise that has gone unnoticed for too long11 A fully functional WTO would suit our interests13 NASA Perseverance rover attempting most difficult Martian touchdown yet15 Hitting the right notes with the health budget18 A growing rights crisis in Sri Lanka22 Kyrgyzstan’s Political Turmoil25 Charting India’s new liberalized mapping policy27 Best from science journals: Listen to the sound of an 18,000-year-old seashell horn29 Facebook says AI helped reduce hate speech on its platform32 Mexico eyes biometric phone registry, sparking privacy fears35 China steps up online controls with new rule for bloggers39 The viability of two proposals43 In telehealth, scaling up the Indian advantage46 Page 2 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 TOOL FOR AUTOMATED DIAGNOSIS OF COVID-19 LUNG INFECTION Relevant for: Science & Technology | Topic: Achievements of Indians in science & technology

A new software tool that reveals the severity of lung infections in COVID-19 patients has been developed by researchers from the Departments of Computational and Data Science (CDS) and Instrumentation and Applied Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in collaboration with colleagues from the Oslo University Hospital and the University of Agder in Norway.

The software tool, which is freely available to the public, has been described in a recent study published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems.

While it is known that COVID-19 can cause severe damage to the respiratory systems, and methods such as X-ray or CT scans can prove helpful in determining how bad the infection is, an IISc release said that the software tool, called AnamNet, can ‘read’ the chest CT scans of COVID-19 patients and estimate how much damage has been caused in the lungs by searching for specific abnormal features. Such a tool can provide automated assistance to doctors and help in faster diagnosis and better management of COVID-19.

“AnamNet employs deep learning and other image processing techniques, which have now become integral to biomedical research and applications. The software can identify infected areas in a chest CT scan with a high degree of accuracy,” the release explained.

A sample demo of the tool can be found on: https://github.com/NaveenPaluru/Segmentation- COVID-19.

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crackIAS.com Page 4 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 ‘U.S. WILL PAY OVER $200 MILLION TO WHO’ Relevant for: International Relations | Topic: Effect of policies and politics of developed & developing countries on India's interests

Antony Blinken

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that his country would pay the World Health Organization (WHO) $200 million by the end of this month. The announcement is significant as former U.S. President Donald Trump had begun the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO, a process stopped by his successor, President Joe Biden.

“Today, I’m pleased to confirm that by the end of the month, the United States intends to pay over 200 million in assessed and current obligations to the WHO,” Mr. Blinken told Foreign Ministers of UN Security Council member countries, at an online meeting to discuss the response to the pandemic. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was also part of the meeting.

“This is a key step forward in fulfilling our financial obligations as a WHO member and it reflects our renewed commitment to ensuring the WHO has the support it needs to lead the global response to the pandemic — even as we work to reform it for the future,” Mr. Blinken said. The U.S. is the largest funder of the WHO, contributing more than 15% of its total funds.

Mr. Trump had pulled the U.S. out of the WHO, which he had called a ‘puppet of China’’. This process would have been complete in mid-2021, but Mr. Biden reversed it hours after assuming office last month.

“The U.S. believes that multilateralism, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, are essential not just as an effective international COVID-19 health and humanitarian response but also building stronger global health capacity and security for the future,” Mr. Blinken told his counterparts on Wednesday.

“We plan to provide significant financial support to COVAX through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. And we’ll work to strengthen other multilateral initiatives involved in the global COVID-19 response — for example, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria,” Mr. Blinken said.

The Secretary also said all countries must be held to their human rights obligations. “No country should be allowed to use COVID-19 as an excuse to violate human rights or fundamental freedoms.” On ChinacrackIAS.com In what were presumably veiled references to China, Mr. Blinken called for transparency on outbreak data, saying countries should participate in “transparent and robust processes” in their prevention and response to health emergencies.

“The ongoing expert investigation about the origins of this pandemic — and the report that will be issued — must be independent, with findings based on science and facts and free from interference,” he said. Last week, a team of experts for the WHO had concluded a trip to China to trace the origins of the coronavirus.

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crackIAS.com Page 6 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 ‘PAK. TO REMAIN IN FATF GREY LIST UNTIL JUNE’ Relevant for: International Relations | Topic: FATF

Pakistan is unlikely to exit the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) ‘grey’ list until June, despite its efforts to garner support from the member nations ahead of the plenary meeting of the global terror financing and money laundering watchdog next week, according to a media report on Wednesday.

The FATF’s Plenary and Working Group meetings, scheduled to be held from February 21 to 26 in Paris, is all set to decide on Pakistan’s grey list status.

Pakistan was placed on the ‘grey’ list in June 2018 and given a timeline to implement 27 action points.

According to a report in The Express Tribune newspaper, officials admitted that Pakistan would remain in the ‘grey’ list at least until June.

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END Downloaded from crackIAS.com © Zuccess App by crackIAS.com Page 7 Source : www.livemint.com Date : 2021-02-18 GOVT TO ROPE IN PVT AGENCIES TO MINE DATA FOR EFFECTIVE POLICING Relevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of External State & Non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security incl. Terrorism & illegal Migration

Besides the firms’ performance and profitability, the agencies will dive deep into critical areas of corporate governance

The ministry of corporate affairs will rope in outside agencies to mine the vast trove of data available from corporate filings to detect trends in the way businesses manage their affairs that might need regulators to step in.

Besides the performance of companies and profitability, the agencies hired will dive deep into critical areas of corporate governance including whether businesses have used the funds raised from public for their stated purpose, according to a notice from the ministry inviting bids for the project.

Other key areas identified for data analysis include the debt structure and extent of corporate leverage, ease of doing business, bankruptcy and fraud. The idea is to keep a close watch over the emerging trends in the industry and corporate behaviour to gather knowledge that will “eventually inform policy and facilitate decision making in a market driven economy," the ministry said about the corporate data management project.

Insights from it will also be used for making policies that drive “faster, sustainable and inclusive growth."

The ministry does not want to get caught on the wrong foot when stress gets built up in the system leading to failure of systemically important entities. The effort is to cut down the time lag in regulatory response to any worrying systemic trend.

One trigger for the research is the failure of the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd that forced the government to replace its board of directors with a state-appointed one in 2018. It has also led to adding a provision in the Companies Act to mandate unlisted entities to prepare financial statements more frequently than once in a year. The government is yet to give finer details about the size of unlisted companies to be covered under this.

“We are consulting other ministries and the capital market regulator on this," said a government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The ministry is also scaling up its e-governance facility called MCA-21, currently maintained by L&T InfotechcrackIAS.com Ltd, for better compliance management. This will also enable it to quickly spot trends like statutory auditors quitting assignments in certain companies and take regulatory action.

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crackIAS.com Page 9 Source : www.livemint.com Date : 2021-02-18 FOREIGN FOREX TRADING PLATFORMS ARE ILLEGAL IN INDIA Relevant for: Indian Economy | Topic: Issues relating to Growth & Development - Capital Market & SEBI

There are chances that you may have come across advertisements of online forex trading platforms on social media. Many of them also advertise in the local Indian languages. The ad, typically, talks about how you can easily trade in the forex market and make quick money.

Many of these forex trading platforms are popular around the globe. However, they are illegal in India.

They execute binary trades. It means, the trader either gets a fixed amount or nothing. For example, you can bet on whether the US dollar would fall against the Indian rupee. If it does, you get a fixed amount. If you lose, the platform keeps the money. Such binary trades are not permissible in India and many other parts of the world.

Binary transactions are between the platform and the trader. There is no third party involved. If you look at how stocks trading works; the exchange's role is to provide a platform that facilitates trades between the buyer and seller.

Many online platforms offer high leverage to users. Some even advertise 100 times the investment amount. If you put in 1,000, you can trade for 1 lakh. They can do so as there is no third-party involved. Even if the trader utilizes the margin, the platforms have nothing to lose as they don't have any liability to pay it to a third party.

Binary trades are not permissible under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). According to the Reserve Bank of India's Liberalized Remittance Scheme, a person cannot use the money transferred abroad for speculative purposes or to provide margin money for trading. It allows investments but on delivery basis.

In India, individuals can trade in forex on stock exchanges but with restrictions. For example, there are only four available currency pairs – US Dollars (USD), Euro (EUR), Great Britain Pound (GBP) and Japanese Yen (JPY). Due to these restrictions, the forex market in India is smaller compared to many other developed markets. An investor can trade the four pair by opening a trading account with a broker.

There are also chances that you can fall prey to fraudsters claiming to be an online forex platform. It has happened in the past. The trader wins small trades initially. But as transaction amounts increase, the person starts losing money. Within a few months, the platform winds downcrackIAS.com its operations. Click here to read the Mint ePaperMint is now on Telegram. Join Mint channel in your Telegram and stay updated with the latest business news.

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crackIAS.com Page 11 Source : www.livemint.com Date : 2021-02-18 AN EVERGREENING EXERCISE THAT HAS GONE UNNOTICED FOR TOO LONG Relevant for: Indian Economy | Topic: Issues relating to Growth & Development - Banking, NPAs and RBI

Regulators must turn their attention to the indirect evergreening of loans before these swell to levels that threaten stability

With the recent union budget proposing a bad bank to clean up bank NPAs, the issue of evergreening by banks has come to the fore. The evergreening of loans is a well-known exercise, in which banks revive a loan on the verge of default by granting further loans to the same firm. The consequences of evergreening are well known: a reduction in reported defaults in the short run, followed by an eventual explosion in default rates. The pattern has manifested in all major economies, including the US, the European Union, Japan and India. In most cases, the process of evergreening is direct: a troubled bank lends to a troubled borrower, and therefore, is detectable with some effort. In a recent paper, Nishant Kashyap, Sriniwas Mahapatro and I highlight what we call ‘indirect evergreening’, in which banks and firms use related entities to evergreen loans. Worryingly, both markets and regulators seem to miss this phenomenon.

In the research paper, we examine the phenomenon of indirect evergreening using related entities in the Indian context. We examine 44,196 large corporate loans lent over a decade. The modus operandi can be explained through a stylized example. Consider a borrower B, who has a loan from a bank L. Assume that borrower B is in trouble and is not in a position to repay the loan. To hide this expected default, bank L could directly grant a loan to borrower B. However, such a transaction is easily detectable. The bank could be asked by the sector’s regulator to justify repeated lending to a borrower in trouble. To avoid scrutiny, the bank lends the subsequent loan, intended to rescue the loan on the verge of default, to an entity, say B1, which is a related party of B. It could be a shell firm run by the promoters of B, or even an existing subsidiary. B1 then passes on the funds to B, who then uses the same to repay bank L. Thus, a loan from bank L gets used by a financially insolvent borrower to repay L’s earlier loan.

Such indirect evergreening is more dangerous than direct lending to poor-quality firms, both because of its opaque nature and its consequences. First, we find that close to 5% of all large loans we studied were indirectly evergreened. Therefore, the phenomenon is economically meaningful.

Second, we find that both financial markets and regulators do a poor job of unearthing and preventing indirect evergreening. While bank stock prices react negatively to the renewal and/or restructuring of low-quality debt by banks that have large bad loans on their books, indirect evergreening seems to escape the market’s radar. Thus, borrowers and lenders engaged in the exercisecrackIAS.com need not fear an immediate decline in stock prices, and hence, are likely to prefer this route over direct lending to troubled borrowers or formal debt restructuring.

Third, the phenomenon in question seems to have escaped regulatory scrutiny even though a detailed asset quality review (AQR) was conducted by the bank regulator. Banks were required to report divergences between the provisions made for loan losses by them and what the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) considered appropriate after the AQR. We find that these divergences are positively correlated with direct evergreening done by way of loan restructuring. However, our measure of indirect evergreening is not significantly associated with the reported gaps. In other words, banks that engaged in indirect evergreening were not asked to make Page 12 additional provisions after the AQR.

We further find that the practice of indirect evergreening accelerated after the AQR, as direct evergreening through restructuring or lending became difficult on account of increased RBI supervision.

The practice of indirect evergreening cannot go on forever. Ultimately, either when depositors realize what is going on, or when the economy faces a shock such that banks cannot keep lending for want of capital, the chain of indirect evergreening will break down and borrowers will start defaulting. We find that evergreened loans eventually end up in default.

It is not surprising, therefore, that banks like Yes Bank, which was relatively less hurt by the AQR, saw an explosion of default rates and reached a point of technical failure. The buildup of toxic assets by indirect evergreening could be one possible explanation for this. In fact, going by our measure, Yes Bank ranked No. 1 among banks in terms of the proportion of indirectly evergreened loans just before its collapse.

The implications of indirect evergreening go beyond banking to the industrial economy. Industries that are dominated by firms that are beneficiaries of indirect evergreening see a significant distortion in credit, with ‘zombie’ firms cornering most of the credit and leaving startups and other productive firms high and dry for want of credit. The process of Schumpeterian creative destruction gets halted, with firms that should have ceased to exist lingering on longer and firms that should have taken their place not being able to obtain resources. Thus, overall productivity and employment end up being far lower than their likely levels in the absence of evergreening.

Our data sets show a rising trend in the country of indirect evergreening with time. The practice seems to be prevalent among many cooperative banks and non-banks as well. Indian regulators must take up this issue and act before it is too late. They will have to enhance their audit toolkit to be able to detect indirect evergreening. Even a bad bank solution will not work if bad assets are not identified properly in the first place.

Prasanna Tantri is assistant professor of finance at the Indian School of Business

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END Downloaded from crackIAS.com © Zuccess App by crackIAS.com Page 13 Source : www.livemint.com Date : 2021-02-18 A FULLY FUNCTIONAL WTO WOULD SUIT OUR INTERESTS Relevant for: International Relations | Topic: World Trade, WTO and issues involved

The appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as WTO’s head could herald a US-backed revival of its free-trade agenda. Global cooperation needs renewal. And we must make the most of it

In 2012, a retired professor named Kamene Okonjo got kidnapped in Nigeria. As ransom, the abductors wanted her daughter Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to resign as their country’s finance minister for having cracked down on a fuel-subsidy scam. She secured her mother’s release alright, but did not back down. She will need that tenacity. This week, the World Trade Organization (WTO) chose Okonjo-Iweala as its director-general for a four-year term by a consensus among its 164 members, as required for all its major decisions. This need underscores the immensity of the challenge that confronts her: a world more divided over trade than any period since World War II. As Roberto Azevêdo’s successor, she will have much going for her once she assumes office. She has dual US-Nigerian citizenship, had a long stint as a World Bank economist, and will be the first woman to lead the WTO. Crucially, she can count on the backing of America, which under President Joe Biden promises to revive global trade that abides by globally-agreed rules. This would be a relief after the Donald Trump interregnum that saw the WTO adrift—with its mechanism for dispute resolution jammed even as his mercantilist impulses caught wind, trade theory was almost prodded off the plank, and actual trade turned fractious.

Global shipments had been losing pace for about a decade when coronavirus fears sank cross- border commerce. A return to normalcy, however, must go far beyond a worldwide recovery in exports and imports. The WTO does not just need to re-establish itself as an effective arbiter of world trade, it must promote the principle of mutual gains made through global cooperation. On this, Okonjo-Iweala has got her priorities right. She has said she will start by ensuring the free flow of vaccines to quell the covid pandemic and aid an economic recovery. Given the glaring global gaps in vaccine availability, this is a must. Few other issues have ever made the benefits of acting in unison so obvious, and success in this exercise can open up space for enlightened self-interest to prevail over hyper-nationalist myopia in trade talks. To help everyone get a covid jab, India and South Africa have asked for a relaxation of WTO rules on vaccine patents. This proposal deserves attention. Once the pandemic subsides, the WTO focus should shift to China, whose domination of various markets overseas is under suspicion for good reason. It seems undergirded by an opaque system of state support that subverts the idea of fair trade as framed by free-market economists. A modus vivendi could perhaps be found if Beijing saw its export prospects cramped by a failure to address the concerns of other countries.

If the WTO gets active on its free-trade agenda again, we should be ready to guard our own interests, especially in the country’s troubled agricultural sector. Western nations have long glaredcrackIAS.com at our indirect farm subsidies, while aiding their farmers with big sums of money in the name of food security. We have resisted the West’s calls to dismantle our support structure for farming, though modest moves have been made to shift from input subsidization to direct cash transfers. The Indian government has been clear that enablers of our cheap-food assurance to the needy will stay in place. Now, talk has arisen of a ‘grand bargain’ by which rich nations reduce their farm props in exchange for easier access to markets like ours. Tricky trade negotiations may lie ahead.

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crackIAS.com Page 15 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 NASA PERSEVERANCE ROVER ATTEMPTING MOST DIFFICULT MARTIAN TOUCHDOWN YET Relevant for: Science & Technology | Topic: Space Technology & related matters

In this illustration provided by NASA, the Perseverance rover fires up its descent stage engines as it nears the Martian surface. This phase of its entry, descent and landing sequence, or EDL, is known as "powered descent." | Photo Credit: AP

Spacecraft aiming to land on Mars have skipped past the planet, burned up on entry, smashed into the surface, and made it down amid a fierce dust storm only to spit out a single fuzzy gray picture before dying.

Almost 50 years after the first casualty at Mars, NASA is attempting its hardest Martian touchdown yet.

The rover named Perseverance on February 18 is headed for a compact 5-mile-by-4-mile (8- kilometer-by-6.4-kilometer) patch on the edge of an ancient river delta. It's filled with cliffs, pits, sand dunes and fields of rocks, any of which could doom the $3 billion mission. The once submerged terrain also could hold evidence of past life, all the more reason to gather samples at this spot for return to Earth 10 years from now.

While NASA has done everything possible to ensure success, “there's always this fear that it won't work well, it won't go well,” Erisa Stilley, a landing team engineer, said on February 16. “We've had a pretty good run of successful missions recently and you never want to be the next one that isn't. It's heartbreaking when it happens.”

Also read: UAE publishes first photo from Mars probe

NASA has nailed eight of nine landing attempts, making the U.S. the only country to achieve a successful touchdown. China hopes to become the second nation in late spring with its own life- seeking rover; its vessel entered orbit around Mars last week along with a United Arab Emirates spacecraft. The red planet's extremely thin atmosphere makes it hard to get down safely.

Russia has piled up the most lander losses at Mars and moon Phobos, beginning in the early 1970s. The European Space Agency also has tried and failed. Two NASA landers are still humming along: 2012s Curiosity rover and 2018s InSight. Launched last July, Perseverance will set down some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away at Jezero Crater, descending by parachute, rocket engines and sky crane.

NASA has equipped the 1-ton Perseverance — a beefier version of Curiosity — with the latest landingcrackIAS.com tech to ace this touchdown. A new autopilot tool will calculate the descending rover’s distance to the targeted location and release the massive parachute at the precise moment. Then another system will scan the surface, comparing observations with on-board maps.

The rover could detour up to 2,000 feet (600 meters) while seeking somewhere safe, Neil Armstrong style. Without these gizmos, Jezero Crater would be too risky to attempt. Once down, the six-wheeled Perseverance should be the best driver Mars has ever seen, with more autonomy and range than Curiosity. “Percy’s got a new set of kicks," explained chief engineer Adam Steltzner, "and she is ready for trouble on this Martian surface with her new wheels.” Page 16 Where there was water, there may have been life. That’s why NASA wants Perseverance snooping around Jezero Crater, once home to a lake fed by a river. It’s now bone dry, but 3.5 billion years ago, this Martian lake was as big and wet as Nevada and California’s Lake Tahoe.

Perseverance will shoot lasers at rocks judged most likely to contain evidence of past microscopic life, analyzing the emitted vapor, and drill into the best candidates. A few dozen core samples — about a pound’s worth (one-half kilogram) of rock and dust — will be set aside in sealed titanium tubes for future pickup.

Scientists have wanted to get hold of Mars rocks ever since NASA’s Mariners provided the first close pictures a half-century ago. NASA is teaming up with the European Space Agency to do just that. The bold plan calls for a rover and return rocket to launch to Mars in 2026, to retrieve Perseverance’s stash of samples. NASA expects to bring back the rocks as early as 2031, several years before the first astronauts might arrive on the scene. The rover’s super sterilized sample tubes are the cleanest components ever sent into space, according to NASA, to avoid any contaminating traces of Earth.

Speaking of clean, NASA’s Mars Mission Control has never been so spotless. Instead of passing around jars of peanuts right before Perseverance’s landing — a good luck tradition going back decades — masked flight controllers will get their own individual bags. It’s one of many COVID-19 precautions at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The landing team will be spread over multiple rooms, with NASA bigwigs and journalists watching remotely. Launched last July, the aptly named Perseverance bears a plaque honoring health care workers battling the virus over the past year.

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END Downloaded from crackIAS.com crackIAS.com© Zuccess App by crackIAS.com Page 18 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 HITTING THE RIGHT NOTES WITH THE HEALTH BUDGET Relevant for: Indian Economy | Topic: Issues relating to Growth & Development - Public Finance, Taxation & Black Money incl. Government Budgeting

Health care has taken centre stage due to an unfortunate novel coronavirus pandemic that has devastated lives and livelihoods across the globe. Although India has performed relatively better in its COVID-19 management, even compared to countries with highly developed health systems, the impact of the outbreak on society and the economy is undeniable. Against this backdrop, the Union Budget 2021–22 was an eagerly awaited one and the announcements for the health sector, in particular, have been widely discussed.

It is important to view the Budget in the context of the various Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan packages announced by the Government of India, which also include several short-term and longer-term measures to strengthen the health sector. Production-Linked Incentive schemes have been announced to boost domestic manufacture of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Mission COVID Suraksha has also been launched to promote the development and testing of indigenous vaccine candidates. At least 92 countries have approached India for a COVID-19 vaccine, thus bolstering the country’s credentials as the vaccine hub of the world. Further, to ensure food and nutrition security for the poor and the vulnerable during the COVID-19 crisis, the Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package for providing free foodgrains to 800 million beneficiaries. To facilitate access to subsidised grains across the country, the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme has been enabled in 32 States/Union Territories covering 690 million beneficiaries.

Union Budget 2021 | Budget proposes 137% hike in health, well-being spend

With respect to the “padding” of the health Budget, with allocations for water, sanitation, nutrition and clean air, as pointed out by some commentators, it is important to appreciate that the presentation of a combined ‘health and well-being’ budget, which sets the tone for greater integration of these areas, is in fact a welcome step. The National Health Policy (NHP), 2017, highlights the close links between health, water and sanitation. This year’s Economic Survey too recognises that improvements in access to bare necessities such as water, sanitation and housing are strongly correlated with progress in health indicators.

The substantive allocation for the newly launched Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) is especially commendable as access to adequate, good quality water supply has major positive externalities for the health sector. A report released by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2019 suggested that nearly one out of every 100 Indian children does not live to celebrate their fifth birthday on account of either diarrhoea or pneumonia. Suboptimal access to clean watercrackIAS.com and sanitation is directly linked to diseases such as diarrhoea, polio and malaria. Moreover, water contaminated with heavy metals such as arsenic increases the risk of developing heart ailments and cancer.

Another important public health-related announcement in Budget 2021 was the government’s decision to expand the coverage of the pneumococcal vaccine across the country. Pneumococcal pneumonia is a major killer of children under the age of five years. Once universalised, this indigenously developed vaccine could save up to 50,000 lives annually. The Finance Minister has also made a special allocation of 35,000 crore for the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021–22, which could be increased if required. India has already delivered over eight million Page 19 doses of the vaccine to health-care and frontline workers thus far — the fastest vaccination drive in the world.

Data | While “health and wellbeing” budget records 137% rise, health outlay declines 9.5%

The priority accorded to capital expenditure through the launch of the Pradhan Mantri – Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PMANSBY), is also a much-need step. Capital expenditure has, historically, constituted only a small percentage of the overall health Budget, with the majority of funds going towards salaries and administrative costs. Further, PMANSBY lays emphasis on the health system being strengthened at all levels, including establishing integrated public health laboratories and institutes of virology. This is crucial as experts have repeatedly highlighted the need for enhancing disease surveillance and diagnostic capabilities to be better prepared for disease outbreaks. Additionally, the emphasis on expansion of health and wellness centres under PMANSBY, together with a 13,192 crore Finance Commission grant for strengthening the primary health system through local government bodies, is also noteworthy.

Another point of discussion in relation to the health Budget is the stagnant allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), a flagship scheme launched by the government in late 2018 as part of the Ayushman Bharat initiative. Despite being a relatively new scheme, the Economic Survey estimates a 20% decline in the infant mortality rate between 2015–16 and 2019–20 in States that adopted PM-JAY, compared to a 12% decline in States that did not. It is important, therefore, to persist with this highly ambitious scheme and accelerate its roll-out as the absorptive and governance capacity of States improve.

Union Budget 2021 | Healthcare industry welcomes increased budget allocation

A less talked about aspect of the health Budget is the nearly 40% hike for the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH). The pandemic has catalysed a behavioural shift in favour of preventive care, holistic health and wellness. There is considerable potential for promoting ayurveda and yoga as well as integrative health-care approaches in the post-COVID-19 scenario, especially for stress reduction and the management of chronic diseases.

Undoubtedly the budgetary allocation for health needs to be ramped up over time. We also have to ensure adequate funds for critical and closely-linked sectors such as nutrition, water and sanitation. The onus of increasing health spending, however, does not lie with the Centre alone but also with the States also. In fact, as elucidated in the National Health Accounts 2017, 66% of spending on health care in India is done by States. It is imperative, therefore, that States increase expenditure on health to at least 8% of their budget by 2022 as recommended by the National Health Policy (NHP), 2017 and the Fifteenth Finance Commission. CommentcrackIAS.com | ‘Budget lays foundation for Atmanirbhar healthcare system’ The health sector has found a prominent place in the government’s agenda over the last few years, with the implementation of a series of well-thought-out and carefully sequenced reforms. While much remains to be done, the Union Budget 2021–22 has laid a strong foundation to increase the resilience of the sector in the post-COVID-19 era and achieving Universal Health Coverage by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

Rajiv Kumar is Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog and Urvashi Prasad is Public Policy Specialist, NITI Aayog. The views expressed are personal

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crackIAS.com Page 22 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 A GROWING RIGHTS CRISIS IN SRI LANKA Relevant for: International Relations | Topic: Effect of policies and politics of developed & developing countries on India's interests

On January 8, 2021, authorities bulldozed a memorial at Jaffna university that commemorated Tamil civilian victims of the civil war. Photo: Twitter/@AngajanR

Indian leaders have committed to supporting the rights of minority Tamils in Sri Lanka to “live with equity, equality, justice, peace and dignity”. In pledges to the United Nations, the Indian government has also vowed to uphold global human rights.

These commitments have become crucial. The human rights situation in Sri Lanka has worsened since Gotabaya Rajapaksa became President in 2019. At its next session starting February 22, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will face a crucial test in taking action for protecting vulnerable Sri Lankans and upholding international law. India, as a council member, will have a key role.

Rajapaksa was the defence secretary in the government led by his brother Mahinda from 2005 to 2015, a period marked by particularly egregious human rights abuses. Critics of the government were murdered, tortured, and forcibly made to disappear. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the civil war which ended in 2009 between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with both sides responsible for numerous war crimes. In the final months of the war, the armed forces indiscriminately shelled civilians and summarily executed suspected LTTE fighters.

When Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the 2015 presidential election, there was hope for change. There was greater freedom of expression. The repressive and heavily militarised situation in Tamil- majority areas began to improve. The new government supported a consensus resolution at the Human Rights Council that offered victims of abuses and their families truth, justice, and reconciliation.

But now, fear has returned. Tamil communities in the north and the east fear increasing abuses. Since last year, singing the national anthem in Tamil has been dropped from Independence Day celebrations. The religious rights of minorities are under attack, including interference with Hindu temples.

In January, the authorities bulldozed a memorial at Jaffna university that commemorated Tamil civilian victims of the civil war. People who participated in a protest march in February are now facing criminal investigation. The RajapaksacrackIAS.com government, in 2020, renounced its commitments under the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution and is threatening victims’ families and activists who supported it. A presidential commission set up to investigate supposed “political victimisation” of officials by the previous government has recommended the exoneration of those implicated in cases of abuse. Numerous people who were involved in war crimes have been appointed to senior roles.

The Rajapaksa government has shown outright disdain for accountability. In September last year, Sri Lanka told the Human Rights Council that allegations against senior military officers are “unacceptable” and without “substantive evidence”.

Last March, Rajapaksa pardoned former army sergeant Sunil Ratnayake, who killed eight Tamil Page 23 civilians, including children. In October, the government amended the Constitution to remove constraints on political interference in Sri Lanka’s courts.

Since 2012, the Human Rights Council has sought to work with Sri Lanka to promote reconciliation and accountability, efforts that India has backed. Sri Lanka is now rejecting that endeavour, instead proposing a new domestic commission that UN experts have dismissed as lacking credibility or independence.

The UNHRC should recognise the government’s actions for what they are — an effort to impede justice. A new resolution is urgently needed to protect vulnerable minority communities in Sri Lanka, by upholding the principle of accountability for the worst crimes. India should join other member states in supporting a resolution to reduce the growing risk of future atrocities.

The author is South Asia director at Human Rights Watch

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crackIAS.com Page 25 Source : www.idsa.in Date : 2021-02-18 KYRGYZSTAN’S POLITICAL TURMOIL Relevant for: International Relations | Topic: Effect of policies and politics of developed & developing countries on India's interests

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Within a span of four months, the Kyrgyz Republic has witnessed power shifts, provisionally and definitively, among three presidents and five prime ministers. Most recently, Sadyr Japarov was sworn in as president on January 28, 2021, after winning the presidential elections held on January 10. Ulukbek Maripov, a former Chairman of the Accounts Chamber, was sworn in as the Prime Minister on February 3.

The January 10 presidential elections were the critical consequence of months of political upheaval that followed the contentious October 4, 2020 parliamentary elections. The opposition alleged widespread irregularities in the elections to the 120-member unicameral parliament (Jogorku Kenesh, or the Supreme Council). The parties aligned with the government of then President-elect, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, had emerged victorious in those elections.

The opposition incited protests, stormed government buildings, and demanded the conduct of new elections as well as the release of politicians controversially put in prison. A former elected member of the Supreme Council – Sadyr Japarov, serving an 11-year sentence for being involved in the kidnapping of a local official in 2013 during anti-corruption protests at the Kumtor gold mine – was among those freed from prison by his supporters.

Subsequently, the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda annulled the results of the parliamentary elections, and Prime Minister Kubatbek Boronov resigned on October 6, 2020. The very next day, Japarov was nominated as the interim prime minister by feuding opposition groups. A state of emergency was declared by President Jeenbekov, first on October 9 and then on October 12, of which only the latter got endorsed by the Parliament on October 13.

When Jeenbekov resigned on October 15, Japarov was declared as the acting President, after the Speaker of Parliament, Kanat Isayev, declined to hold the office. Japarov, therefore, went from being a parliamentarian to prisoner to assuming the roles of acting Prime Minister and acting President, within a short period of time.1

The interim government decided to postpone parliamentary elections, earlier scheduled to be held in December 2020, till June 2021 and to instead hold early presidential elections in January 2021, along with a referendum on whether the country should have a presidential form of government.2 Japarov stepped down from his posts in November 2020 to become eligible to run for the office of President, since the Kyrgyz constitution bars interim leaders from contesting in elections.crackIAS.com

The January 2021 elections saw seventeen claimants to power. Kyrgyz voters, of which just under forty per cent turned out, voted in favour of Japarov, while in the referendum, the majority voted for a return to a presidential form of government.3 In the Kyrgyz Republic, tenures of political leaders have been intricately linked with referendums for constitutional change. The January 2021 referendum vote for a presidential system is being viewed as having a better chance of ensuring accountability.4

Analysts note that the strong ‘anti-elite’ and ‘anti-establishment’ feelings in the electorate helped Japarov in securing victory in the elections.5 He was viewed as a nationalist, receiving the Page 26 popular sympathies for being allegedly wronged by the establishment. Japarov also promised a strong government sans corruption.6

Kyrgyzstan is viewed as Russia’s traditional sphere of influence and China’s strategic backyard. Both Russia and China have been monitoring the period of political turmoil with cautious non- intervention. Japarov reiterated his country’s strategic alliance with Russia and assured the continued status of Russian as the country’s official language.7 President Vladimir Putin, in his greetings to Japarov, pledged to cooperate to develop bilateral relations for mutual benefit.8

Kyrgyz-Russian relations, though, are not without challenges. Over half-a-million Kyrgyz workers in Russia face a host of issues, including charges of discrimination, in addition to the precariousness imposed on them by the COVID-19 crisis.9 Japarov, at multiple instances, has promised to create economic opportunities domestically for migrant workers.

However, no concrete policies have been put forth. The economy has also been ravaged by the pandemic and systemic corruption. GDP growth forecast for 2021 has been reduced from 4.5 per cent to 4 per cent.10 Kyrgyzstan scored 31 out of 100 in the Corruption Perceptions Index, lower than the 36 out of 100 average regional score of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.11

As for Kyrgyz-China relations, Japarov has difficult choices to make. In the violent uprisings that followed the October 2020 events, given long-standing apprehensions against the foreign- funded mining industry, Chinese-run mines were among the facilities occupied by protesters. A Chinese-owned oil refinery in Kara Balta, country’s largest, was threatened.

Beijing conveyed its concerns about the safety of its interests and enterprises in Kyrgyzstan, in meetings that the Chinese Ambassador had with the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister on October 16. The Kyrgyz Ambassador to China was also summoned by the Chinese Foreign Security Commissioner on October 19.12

Nearly 40 per cent of the country’s external debt, at $1.8 billion, is owed to China.13 While previous governments have secured temporary deferments, Japarov has also considered voluntary financial contributions from citizens to make the repayments.14 The auctioning of government assets is also part of the menu of choices. Developing the Jetim-Too iron ore deposit to pay off Chinese debt has also been deliberated upon.15

Analysts note that a failure on the part of Japarov to deliver on his campaign promises concerning the economy could lead to inevitable discontentment. A draft constitution, endorsed by Japarov in November-December 2020, seeks to undo the 2010 Constitutional referendum, and introduce a new consultative council, People’s Kurultai. This proposal, on which a referendum will be held later in the year, has drawn widespread criticism from the opposition, legal experts, journalists, and human rights activists. Political-economic compulsions created by external actors, in addition to the intensifying economic expectations, could lead to another politicalcrackIAS.com crisis. While popular support for Japarov could perhaps help tide over minor non- accomplishments, failure to deliver on the plethora of promises on ensuring economic prosperity could make his position untenable as well.

END Downloaded from crackIAS.com © Zuccess App by crackIAS.com Page 27 Source : www.livemint.com Date : 2021-02-18 CHARTING INDIA’S NEW LIBERALIZED MAPPING POLICY Relevant for: Indian Economy | Topic: Effects of Liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth incl. Economic Reforms

The country’s new policy on cartography comes with an atmanirbhar twist. Colonial-era provisions on who can make, modify or disseminate maps are finally set to change, although Indian entities will be granted greater leeway than foreign firms. Mint explains.

What reforms will the policy introduce?

Until now, mapping in India existed in a legal grey zone. The Survey of India was technically the only agency authorized to produce maps. Over the past two decades, private players like MapmyIndia and Google Maps had started to utilize satellite images to produce digital maps, but this required the help of a process called “ground truthing", wherein a person physically visited a building or a road to cross-check ground reality against the satellite-based map. In some instances, these surveyors would be hassled. Private entities could also not produce high-res maps with an accuracy of 1 metre or less. This will now be allowed.

So, can anyone create, publish maps now?

No. While the new policy liberalizes map making, it comes with a hint of protectionism. Only Indian companies or entities that store and display the data exclusively within the country will be allowed to undertake certain key activities: terrestrial mobile mapping, street view surveys, generating high-res maps, or surveying India’s territorial waters. Essentially, while all mapping firms can now operate freely, foreign players like Google Maps or Microsoft Bing will have to engage an Indian partner or a local subsidiary if they wish to enter certain businesses—for instance, street view maps.

Why is mapping important to the digital ecosystem?

Location information is an integral part of the modern digital ecosystem. It is critical to the success of any industry that offers location-based services such as e-commerce, delivery and logistics, and urban transport. It is also essential for more traditional sectors of the economy such as agriculture, construction and real estate, and mines and minerals.

Is therecrackIAS.com a push for a desi Google Maps?

While this might be the intent, it is not an easy task to execute. Even so, last week, Gurugram- based MapmyIndia partnered with Isro to develop a “fully indigenous mapping portal". India has also been looking to build a local variant to the US-backed global positioning system (GPS) called NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation). Russia and China already have local alternatives that they deploy for military purposes. The new digital maps race is about sovereignty and localizing mapping capability.

How will it impact the end consumer? Page 28 Services like street view maps and high-res commercial mapping will become possible. But whether users will actually experience these services will depend on two factors: the pace at which the local mapping ecosystem can ramp up its capabilities and whether foreign firms manage to find workarounds to the curbs. The other area of focus will be Centre-owned mapping data, which the policy states will be published freely. The norms merely signal intent. How the Centre follows through will determine outcomes.

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crackIAS.com Page 29 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 BEST FROM SCIENCE JOURNALS: LISTEN TO THE SOUND OF AN 18,000-YEAR-OLD SEASHELL HORN Relevant for: Science & Technology | Topic: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

The conch of Marsoulas in its Magdalenian context (hypothetical restitution) Credit: C. Fritz; drawing/ Fritz et al., Sci. Adv. 2021

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Published in Science Advances

About 18,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Marsoulas Cave (now in France) tuned a sea snail shell into a wind instrument and used it during important social events and rituals. Musicologists and researchers worked together and have now reproduced the sound of the horn. “This seashell horn, with its unique sonority...sheds light on a musical dimension until now unknown in the context of Upper Paleolithic societies,” notes the paper.

Click here to listen

Published in Nature Communications

The arrival of humans and over-hunting were believed to be one of the reasons behind the extinction of North America's largest mammals such as the woolly mammoth and saber-tooth cat. A new study found that climate change (a decrease in global temperatures around 13,000 years ago) initiated the decline of these massive creatures. They write that there was no evidence for a relationship between human and megafauna population levels in North America.

Published in Nature Communications

If your parents scold you for sleeping during the day, tell them to blame your genes. “Daytime napping is biologically driven and not just an environmental or behavioral choice,” says Hassan Saeed Dashti, co-author of the study that identified 123 regions in our genome that are associated with daytime napping.

Published in Optica

Ever wanted to look inside a semiconductor or a computer’s microchip? Meet a new imaging technology called Coherence Tomography with Extreme Ultraviolet Light. The researchers write that thecrackIAS.com method is highly precise and can help inspect the deep structure of the tiny samples and also study the chemical composition of the samples in a non-destructive manner.

Published in PNAS

White-faced capuchin monkeys found across Central and South America, have the largest relative brain size of any monkey and are also known to live past the age of 50, despite their small size. A study of their genome has now identified genes associated with longevity, brain development and also shown how they live in different environmental conditions. Page 30 You have reached your limit for free articles this month.

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Your support for our journalism is invaluable. It’s a support for truth and fairness in journalism. It has helped us keep apace with events and happenings.

The Hindu has always stood for journalism that is in the public interest. At this difficult time, it becomes even more important that we have access to information that has a bearing on our health and well-being, our lives, and livelihoods. As a subscriber, you are not only a beneficiary of ourcrackIAS.com work but also its enabler. We also reiterate here the promise that our team of reporters, copy editors, fact-checkers, designers, and photographers will deliver quality journalism that stays away from vested interest and political propaganda.

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crackIAS.com Page 32 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 FACEBOOK SAYS AI HELPED REDUCE HATE SPEECH ON ITS PLATFORM Relevant for: Science & Technology | Topic: Robotics & Artificial Intelligence

Facebook also said last year it will undertake an independent audit third-party audit of content moderation systems to validate the numbers it publishes. | Photo Credit: AFP

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Facebook said nearly 97% of the hate speech and harassment content taken down in the final three months of last year were detected by automated systems, before any human flagged it. In the July to September quarter, AI helped detect 94% of hate content; and 80% were spotted in late 2019.

The social network, in its ‘Community Standards Enforcement Report’, noted that in the fourth quarter ending December 2020, hate speech prevalence dropped to about 0.08% of total content from nearly 0.11%.

This means, there were about seven to eight views of hate speech for every 10,000 views of content in Q4, Facebook said in a statement.

Also Read | Facebook to temporarily reduce political content for some users in few countries

The California-based technology company introduced several artificial intelligence-powered systems last year to help detect misinformation. It started using AI technologies to identify hateful online content in 2016, and has since been adding several updates to its systems which now extends to images and other forms of media.

The company said its multilingual systems helped moderate content in several languages including Arabic and Spanish, targeting nearly 27 million piece of hateful content last quarter.

Also Read | Facebook faces new UK class action after data harvesting scandal

Facebook has faced criticism previously for its inability to curb hate speech on the platform. Most recently, the social network said it would reduce the distribution of all content and profiles run by Myanmar’s military after it seized power and detained civilian leaders in a coup earlier in February. FacebookcrackIAS.com also said last year it will undertake an independent audit third-party audit of content moderation systems to validate the numbers it publishes.

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Suresh Nambath PleasecrackIAS.com enter a valid email address. Data from research firm IDC showed Apple's shipments surged 22% to a record 90.1 million phones in the quarter, giving it global market share of 23.4%.

A contest among Wyoming schoolchildren will decide the new supercomputer's name.

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crackIAS.com Page 35 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 MEXICO EYES BIOMETRIC PHONE REGISTRY, SPARKING PRIVACY FEARS Relevant for: International Relations | Topic: Effect of policies and politics of developed & developing countries on India's interests

Criminals have been known to use up to 17 prepaid phones to carry out one kidnapping, making it nearly impossible for police to track them down, Huerta said. | Photo Credit: Reuters

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A plan by Mexican lawmakers to put millions of cell phone users' data in a biometric registry, billed as a tool to fight kidnapping and extortion, has sparked a backlash from telecoms companies and rights groups who warn it could lead to stolen data and higher costs.

Already approved in the lower house of Congress, the reform is in line with President Andres Lopez Obrador's vow to counter crime using intelligence methods rather than force, but critics say it reveals the pitfalls of governments seeking to gather more citizen data for law enforcement purposes.

The bill is scheduled to be taken up in the current session in the Senate, where the ruling MORENA party and allies hold a majority.

Under the plan, America Movil, AT&T Inc and other carriers would be responsible for collecting customers' data, including fingerprints or eye biometrics, to submit to a registry managed by Mexico's telecoms regulator.

Also Read | Amazon says, 750% increase in government demands for customer information

But a telecoms industry group that counts some major companies as members warned in an open letter that the reform could increase phone theft as criminals look to get around the registry by stealing devices and could risk customers' safety if personal data were misused.

America Movil -- owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim -- AT&T and Telefonica declined to comment.

The Mexico Internet Association, which includes Slim’s Telcel wireless company as a partner, said the registry would cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars to implement, could put jobs at risk and create a human rights violation by compromising personal data protection.

RightscrackIAS.com groups describe the plan as no better than a similar registry, which did not include biometric data, that Mexico dismantled in 2012 after a review found extortion calls, many of which come from inside prisons, actually increased by 40% after the data was leaked on the black market.

The new reform could lead people being exploited by bad actors and potentially wrongly convicted of crimes, according to Irene Levy, the president of Mexican telecommunications watchdog Observatel.

"El Chapo Guzman is not going to say, 'This is my phone number and I am El Chapo Guzman,'" Page 36 Levy said, referring to Cartel kingpin who is in prison in the United States.

Also Read | The uphill battle for India’s digital rights

"What criminals do is ask someone to go and buy certain telephone lines, and when there is a crime committed with these numbers, this boy or girl - who took the money out of necessity and registered without knowing the consequences - will go to jail."

Given the government's strong support in Congress, the bill has a good chance of being passed, said Jorge Bravo, a political science professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM). However, a rethink is possible if public concern grows ahead of June mid-term elections.

Extortion calls

However, Maria de los Angeles Huerta, a lawmaker with the ruling MORENA party, said the registry was needed to help fight kidnapping in Mexico, which has the highest incidence of the crime in the Americas and the third-highest globally, according to international consultancy Control Risks.

Criminals have been known to use up to 17 prepaid phones to carry out one kidnapping, making it nearly impossible for police to track them down, Huerta said.

The reform's supporters argue there is too little control of the country's more than 120 million mobile lines, 83% of which use pre-paid SIM cards available at corner stores.

As things now stand, you can "buy a card and put it on yourphone.... make an extortion call and then throw the phone in the garbage," said Huerta.

Also Read | EU countries agree joint stance ahead of WhatsApp, Skype privacy talks

The registry would make it harder for mobile users to remain anonymous by requiring proof of identification alongside hard-to-fake biometric data for anyone opening a new line. That information would then be available to law enforcement upon request.

Huerta called it a necessary tool in Mexico's fight againstextortion.

"Biometric data is not so falsifiable. If you are a horrendous criminal, you can tell your mother to open (a line), but at least you're going to find the criminal's mother, right?"she said.

The new registry would mandate the installation of biometric equipment, either to capture fingerprintscrackIAS.com or iris scans,anywhere mobile lines are sold. While 155 countries around the world maintain cellphone user registries, Mexico's collection of biometric data would go further than most.

Only about 8% of countries with registries also require biometrics, mainly for prepaid SIM card users, according to global telecoms industry lobby GSMA. Mexico's registry would collect biometric data from all cellphone users in the country including from postpaid customers who are normally seen as unlikely criminals.

Many of those countries which do retain biometric data have questionable records on human rights, including China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. No Western countries collect biometric data Page 37 from cellphone users.

Still, Mexico could serve as a model for other countries in the region, including Chile, where SIM registration is under consideration, experts said.

The reform implies a sweeping change for telecoms companies by making them responsible for the cost of collecting the data and then submitting it to the registry.

Others say the registry will obstruct mobile access for indigenous people who may lack official forms of identification.

Peru introduced fingerprint collection in 2016 for a regulator-managed registry, but it led to complications in ruralareas where mobile phone penetration was already a challenge.

If users fail to submit the data, mobile carriers will have to cut their lines, further isolating people who rely on their phones for internet access, said Elena Estavillo, a former commissioner of the IFT, Mexico's telecoms regulator.

"We should highlight this as something very worrying because it can be a circumstance that discourages or, for some people,makes it impossible to have access to these services, which is a fundamental right," Estavillo said.

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END Downloaded from crackIAS.com crackIAS.com© Zuccess App by crackIAS.com Page 39 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 CHINA STEPS UP ONLINE CONTROLS WITH NEW RULE FOR BLOGGERS Relevant for: International Relations | Topic: Effect of policies and politics of developed & developing countries on India's interests

Image used for representational purpose only.

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Ma Xiaolin frequently wrote about current affairs on one of China's leading microblogging sites, where he has two million followers. But recently, he said in a post, the Weibo site called and asked him not to post original content on topics ranging from politics to economic and military issues.

“As an international affairs researcher and a columnist, it looks like I can only go the route of entertainment, food and beverage now,” the international relations professor wrote on January 31.

Ma, who often posted on developments in the Mideast, is one of many popular influencers working within the constraints of China's heavily censored web who is finding that their space to speak is shrinking even further with the latest policy changes and a clean-up campaign run by the country's powerful censors. He declined an interview request.

Beginning next week, the Cyberspace Administration of China will require bloggers and influencers to have a government-approved credential before they can publish on a wide range of subjects. Some fear that only state media and official propaganda accounts will get permission.

While permits have been needed since at least 2017 to write about topics such as political and military affairs, enforcement has not been widespread. The new rules expand that requirement to health, economics, education and judicial matters.

“The regulators want to control the entire procedure of information production,” said Titus Chen, an expert in Chinese social media policy at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan.

The latest move is in line with ever more restrictive regulations under President Xi Jinping that constrict an already narrow space for discourse. The Chinese leader has made “digital sovereignty” a central concept of his rule, under which authorities have set limits and increased controlcrackIAS.com of the digital realm. The new credential requirement could restrict individuals from posting original content, including people like Ma who aren't openly challenging the line of Xi's ruling Communist Party. Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei, responding to Ma on the platform, said commentary on news released by official media was permitted but commentators could not “release news” themselves.

“The policy revision is meant “to standardize and steer public accounts and information service platforms to be more self aware in keeping the correct direction of public opinion,” according to a statement posted by the Cyberspace Administration. Page 40 A week after unveiling the new rules in late January, the administration held a nationwide conference on the importance of “strengthening order in online publishing.” The head of the agency, Zhuang Rongwen, said the agency must “let our supervision and management grow teeth.” On February 4, the agency publicly announced a month-long clean-up drive targeting search engines, social media platforms and browsers. Such campaigns, in which companies take steps to meet government demands, aren't new, but enforcement was looser in the past: In 2017, Weibo backed off after complaints it was lumping gay content in with a pornography ban.

It appears to be happening in concurrence with a crackdown to enforce existing rules.

“It is a big deal, it's a massive campaign,” said Xiao Qiang, an expert on digital censorship at the University of California at Berkeley. “And these are people who didn't write something sharp. They are intentionally not being edgy about things.” A notice on Sohu in January, which also hosts microblogs, said public accounts without credentials must not issue or republish current affairs news. Banned topics include “articles and commentary on politics, economics, military affairs, diplomatic and public affairs; Taking out of context and distorting the content of the Party and country's history; breaking news and commentary.” Internet giant Baidu, which also has a publishing platform, issued a similar notice.

It is unclear to what extent bloggers will be punished if they publish commentary without the credentials.

A current affairs account on Tencent's WeChat messaging app was shut down last week on “suspicion of providing an internet news information service.” Called “August Old Yu,” it was run by Yu Shenghong, a former journalist at state broadcaster CCTV, He did not respond to a request for comment.

Representatives of Baidu, Sohu, Weibo and Tencent did not respond to requests for comment. The Cyberspace Administration did not respond to a faxed request.

The coronavirus pandemic appears to have in part spurred the tightened regulations. In the early days of China's outbreak much of the news coverage was driven by online accounts and digital- only media outlets which circulated both news and rumors.

“During the pandemic, ‘self-media’ maliciously created rumors and casually disregarded others’ privacy, severely impacting the stability and harmony of society and damaged the legal rights and interest of others,” the Cyberspace Administration said in a notice explaining the new policies.

Ultimately, the new rules reflect the censors' worries, even if it isn't precisely clear what they are so insecure about, said Berkeley's Xiao. “In thecrackIAS.com past entire year, the control has been so tight that hardly anyone can speak about anything,” Xiao said.

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crackIAS.com Page 43 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 THE VIABILITY OF TWO PROPOSALS Relevant for: Indian Polity | Topic: Indian Constitution - Features & Significant Provisions related to The Preamble, Union & its Territories and The Citizenship

Speaking at a roadshow in Kolkata on January 23, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked why India should have only one capital and suggested that there be four. She directed Sudip Bandyopadhyay, MP and leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha, to raise the issue in Parliament. She suggested that Parliament sessions should be held in each of the four capitals in a rotating manner. While Ms. Banerjee has the right to have her opinion on the issue, she doesn’t seem to have given much thought to the feasibility of the proposal.

Four capitals would obviously mean having Parliament buildings in three other regions, too. If there are four capitals, accommodation for all the MPs and the adjunct staff will have to be constructed. While those from the northern parts of the country would prefer to be comfortably ensconced in the existing residential accommodation in New Delhi, those from other parts of the country may prefer to settle in the capital of the region to which they belong. During Parliament sessions, MPs will descend in droves to the envisaged capitals and fly out, leaving these residential accommodations vacant for months after every session. Add to this the huge expenditure involved in all the MPs and their staff having to fly to and from these capitals every now and then. Providing security to all the MPs will be a huge burden for the State Police. Even the vacant accommodations where the MPs don’t reside will have to be guarded round the clock. Depending on the risk factor, enhanced security will have to be necessarily provided to a fair number of them, many of whom manage to get top security cover merely for their imprudent utterances.

Calcutta (now Kolkata) was once a capital of this country until King George V announced in December 1911 that Delhi would be the new capital. Parliament House was opened in 1927 and the magnificent Viceroy’s residence (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) and the government buildings were inaugurated in 1931. One of the factors that may have weighed in favour of New Delhi could be its proximity to the summer capital, Shimla.

But today, even shifting a State capital would involve huge expenditure. In the 1980s, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister proposed to shift the State capital to Tiruchirappalli in central Tamil Nadu. The plan was ultimately shelved when the huge burden it would impose on the State exchequer became apparent. The cost to the government exchequer to have capitals in three other States will be mind-boggling and our nation can ill-afford this.

A similar request was made in January 2021 when the Bar Councils of the five southern States called for a Supreme Court bench in south India. This has been a long-standing demand. Unlike the proposal to establish four capitals, this one merits serious consideration given the prohibitivelycrackIAS.com long distance between the southern States and Delhi. Not many can afford to travel all the way to New Delhi to engage lawyers and plead their cases. The exorbitant fees of the Supreme Court lawyers in New Delhi is another deterrent.

While speaking at an online event last year, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal suggested that four benches of Court of Appeal with 15 judges each be created across the country to reduce the burden of the Supreme Court. This would enable judges to go through each case thoroughly and deliver a well-thought-out verdict. Setting up these courts would call for an amendment in the Constitution. Though the demand is to set up a bench in the south, southern Bar Councils may later take up the issue of setting up separate appellate benches in regions in the south. Such an arrangement would leave the apex court free to deal with constitutional issues. With Page 44 cases mounting in various courts, a viable solution needs to be worked out. Easy accessibility to justice for every citizen is a right that cannot be countered.

M.P. Nathanael is Inspector General of Police (Retd), Central Reserve Police Force

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Dear subscriber,

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Your support for our journalism is invaluable. It’s a support for truth and fairness in journalism. It has helpedcrackIAS.com us keep apace with events and happenings. The Hindu has always stood for journalism that is in the public interest. At this difficult time, it becomes even more important that we have access to information that has a bearing on our health and well-being, our lives, and livelihoods. As a subscriber, you are not only a beneficiary of our work but also its enabler.

Suresh Nambath Page 45 Please enter a valid email address.

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crackIAS.com Page 46 Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2021-02-18 IN TELEHEALTH, SCALING UP THE INDIAN ADVANTAGE Relevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Health & Sanitation and related issues

In the novel coronavirus pandemic, health-care providers have been reassigned from other specialties to COVID-19, restricting high quality care for other conditions. Simultaneously, lockdowns and fear of transmission have dampened demand for non-emergency care. A survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 105 countries in July 2020 (https://bit.ly/3aqKJ6R) showed that essential services were disrupted in the majority of countries, with immunisation, antenatal and childcare services among the most widely affected. About 45% of low-income countries incurred at least partial disruption of over 75% of services, relative to only 4% of high-income countries. Almost 60% of services were at least partially disrupted in South East Asian countries.

In India, detection of tuberculosis cases was down by 50% in April-December of 2020 relative to the same period in 2019, and antenatal care visits were down by 56% in the first half of 2020. With stoppage of routine follow ups, blood sugar control for diabetics was at risk, increasing the chances of adverse events requiring hospitalisation, including worse outcomes in the case of COVID-19 infection. Cancer care has been badly affected in many countries, as well as diagnosis and treatment of other non-communicable diseases.

Further, the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities — people living in rural and remote areas were further disadvantaged by not being able to travel to cities to seek specialist care. The pre- existing shortage of specialists in many rural areas led to care being delayed or not happening at all.

The acceleration in the use of digital technologies has mitigated the impact of COVID-19 to some extent. Virtual consultations avoid the risk of COVID-19 transmission and are helping to bridge this socio-economic divide.

The Indian government’s eSanjeevani platform offers both provider-to-patient interactions and provider-to-provider interactions, where patients visit smartphone-equipped community health officers in rural health and wellness centres; these in turn connect to general practitioners and specialist doctors through a hub-and-spoke model. Private providers and non-governmental organisations have also expanded virtual access to underserved populations.

Yet, given the scale of unmet demand, there is an urgent need to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of every minute spent in virtual care interactions. There are lessons we can learn from the pandemic that can be applied usefully to how we deliver health care.

Remote-sharedcrackIAS.com medical appointments in which multiple patients with similar medical needs meet with a clinician at once, remotely, and where each receives individual attention, can greatly increase telehealth capacity by eliminating repetition of common advice.

Remote shared medical appointments essentially virtualise in-person shared medical appointments (SMAs) which have been offered successfully in the United States for over 20 years. Patients get more time with their clinician, albeit not in private. SMAs enable peer support and peer-to-peer learning. Providers who have offered SMAs have found them to improve both productivity and outcomes for many conditions, notably diabetes. SMAs could help tackle India’s widespread “sugar” problem. Page 47 The Aravind Eye Hospital in Puducherry has successfully trialled in-person SMAs for patients with glaucoma, a disease that causes gradual, irreversible blindness. Glaucoma progression can be slowed through regular follow up and taking prescribed medications. The eye hospital found that in shared appointments, patients spur one another to engage more and ask more questions. Such (virtual) peer interaction could be welcome in the current paradigm of social distancing. eSanjeevani and other telehealth platforms could consider offering virtual shared medical appointments. Patients in different villages, with similar conditions can be seen at once remotely by a generalist or specialist, during the pandemic. Once transmission risk subsides, seeing patient groups within each village centre will help build supportive bonds, enable sharing of local knowledge, and likely attract supplementary providers (physiotherapists, optometrists, etc) due to scale.

Testing and vaccine adoption is stymied by misinformation. Providers can offer virtual group information sessions accessible via smartphone in which a health-care worker explains the benefits of COVID-19 testing and vaccination and answers questions, reaching potentially quite large audiences. Engaging in real time with a care provider in an interactive format will likely encourage safe behaviours to a greater extent than if the same information is provided without interaction.

Switching to radically different care delivery models requires rigorous testing combined with mentoring, training and behaviour change for both patients and providers. Adoption of in-person shared medical appointments has been slow. The unique telehealth capacity crisis which COVID-19 has created is drawing interest to virtual SMAs. Training platforms such as ECHO, which train primary-care providers in many States through an online platform — can accelerate adoption and should also guide implementers on how to gather data that can be used to scientifically validate this care model.

Patients who choose to attend an in-person SMA often like the experience and return for more. This is likely for virtual SMAs too. Trialling and acceptance of this model could amplify the impact of health systems both during the pandemic and beyond.

Relative to other nations, India is well poised to ramp up telehealth. Data plans are cheaper in India than anywhere. It is possible to get 1.5GB of data a day for a few hundred rupees a month, and Indians from all socioeconomic groups regularly enjoy group video chats with friends and relatives. Having a group interaction with a care provider on an appropriately secure platform is certainly conceivable.

WHO’s Global Strategy on Digital Health, adopted by the World Health Assembly, is a call to action providing a road map for nations to rapidly expand digital health services. With innovation in systems thinking, learning and adaptation, new digital tools bring an opportunity to leapfrog into acrackIAS.com reality of ‘Health for All’. Kamalini Ramdas is Deloitte Chaired Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan is Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization. This article draws on an article by the same writers that appeared in the January 2021 issue of Nature Medicine; https://rdcu.be/cdwgq

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