Daily Current Affairs 14 April 2020 | UPSC 2020 Current Affairs

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has collapsed to just over 1%

Employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has collapsed to just over 1% of the usual rate this month due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Key Points

Data from the MGNREGA website show that less than 1.9 lakh families have been provided work under the scheme so far in April 2020, in comparison to almost 1.6 crore households which were provided work in March, and the 1.8 crore households employed under the scheme in February before the lockdown began. Chhattisgarh was the highest employment generator under the scheme in April, providing work to more than 70,000 families, followed by Andhra Pradesh with more than 53,000 households given work. However, these figures are a fraction of the usual employment provided in these States, and also raise concerns about COVID19 infection being spread at worksites.
Overall, 7.6 crore families hold active job cards under the scheme, and almost 5.5 crore families found work under the scheme last year.
The crash in employment rates under the scheme is even though migrant workers returning to villages should have increased demand in rural areas.
No exceptions from restrictions were provided for the MGNREGA under the lockdown, although States were asked to continue implementing the scheme while following social distancing guidelines.
While announcing the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana relief package last month, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said MGNREGA daily wages would be increased by ₹20 and would support the 13.6 crore families who hold job cards.

MGNREGA: A brief introduction

A. Objectives:

MGNREGA, which is the largest work guarantee program in the world, was enacted in 2005 with the primary objective of guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment per year to rural households. Secondly, it aims at addressing the causes of chronic poverty through the 'works' (projects) that are undertaken and thus ensuring sustainable development. Finally, there is an emphasis on strengthening the process of decentralization by giving a significant role in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in planning and implementing these works.

B. Key features:

Legal right to work: Unlike earlier employment guarantee schemes, the Act provides a legal right to employment for adult members of rural households. At least one-third of beneficiaries have to be women. Wages must be paid according to the wages specified for agricultural laborers in the state under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 unless the central government notifies a wage rate (this should not be less than Rs 60 per day). At present, wage rates are determined by the central government but vary across states, ranging from Rs 135 per day to Rs 214 per day.
Time-bound guarantee of work and unemployment allowance: Employment must be provided with 15 days of being demanded failing which an ‘unemployment allowance’ must be given.
Decentralized planning: Gram sabhas must recommend the works that are to be undertaken and at least 50% of the works must be executed by them. PRIs are primarily responsible for planning, implementation, and monitoring of the works that are undertaken.
Worksite facilities: All work sites should have facilities such as crèches, drinking water, and first aid.
Transparency and accountability: There are provisions for proactive disclosure through wall writings, citizen information boards, Management Information Systems and social audits. Social audits are conducted by gram sabhas to enable the community to monitor the implementation of the scheme.
Funding: Funding is shared between the center and the states. There are three major items of expenditure – wages (for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labor), material and administrative costs. The central government bears 100% of the cost of unskilled labor, 75% of the cost of semi-skilled and skilled labor, 75% of the cost of materials and 6% of the administrative costs.
MGNREGA was implemented in phases, starting from February 2006, and at present, it covers all districts of the country except those that have a 100% urban population. The Act provides a list of works that can be undertaken to generate employment related to water conservation, drought proofing, land development, and flood control and protection works.

Source: The Hindu

2) Bihar launches app for govt. school students

Government efforts to ensure access to learning opportunities for children during the lockdown phase.

Background:

Schools and colleges have been shut due to the COVID-19 lockdown. They had closed even before the national lockdown was imposed. It is possible that the reopening of schools and colleges might take more time given the difficulty in ensuring physical distancing norms in schools and colleges.
The prolonged shut down can affect the educational outcomes of children.
There has been a spurt of Edu-tech companies offering online courses for students.

Details:

The Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC), a wing of the State Education Department, has launched a mobile application “Unnayan: Mera Mobile, Mera Vidyalaya” for Class VI to XII of over 70,000 government-run schools.
The app was jointly developed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Bihar government and Eckovation, a social learning platform.
Class-wise and subject-wise study materials are being prepared for access under this app. The efforts are oriented towards the needs of government school students.
Given the deep penetration of radios into villages and the relative simplicity of its operation via basic phone or smartphones, BPEC plans to book a slot with the All India Radio for the audio broadcast of study materials.

Concerns:

Independent research by an alumna of the London School of Economics has flagged some fundamental challenges in the present approach.
The research calls into question the viability of viewing technology-enabled education as a solution in a state like Bihar which has a huge digital divide and socio-economic inequalities.
Given the deprivation, the research notes that it would be highly unlikely that the children would be able to digitally connect with schools and teachers or participate in online classes.

Way forward:

Ensuring universal access:

Though there is a good usage of mobiles in rural areas, there might still be a lack of access in some parts, where the government will need to step in with state support.
Common service centers might act as a resource for digital access to the underprivileged.
Community support would help reduce the disparities in access to digital resources.

Ensuring digital literacy:

Civil society and NGOs can play an important role in increasing digital literacy among the masses. Government schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan can be utilized.
The user interface should be made as easy and simple as possible to ease the user experience.

Involving parents:

Parents should be made to realize the importance of education for the development of their children. This could push the parents to ensure adequate learning opportunities for their children despite any economic hardships.

Source: The Hindu

3) Issues faced by people with disabilities during the pandemic.

India is home to nearly 150 million people with some degree of disability. Nearly 25-30 million have severe disabilities.
Most of the people live as part of their families and are dependent on a carer to take care of their daily essential needs.

Details:

Unique challenges faced by people with disabilities:

People with disabilities have unique issues in a situation like the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
They would be experiencing hardships in accessing the information on prevention and risk of infection and find it hard to maintain personal hygiene and social distancing.
People with visual impairment and blindness cannot read the messages that the rest of the population can see. They often need handholding to move around thus negating the possibility of maintaining physical distancing.
The hearing impaired, especially those who are not literate, cannot hear the message or read it. Since many depend on lip-reading, they are compromised when the person giving a message is wearing a mask. None of the messages in the media is using sign language interpreters.
The physically disabled cannot reach a washbasin or may not be able to wash their hands vigorously.
Children and adolescents with conditions like cerebral palsy or Down’s Syndrome need to be assisted in feeding.
People with mental health issues cannot comprehend messages. They may experience higher stress because they are unable to understand what is happening all around them.
People with disabilities have a higher risk of conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, which are high-risk factors for COVID-19 mortality. Routine health needs that they have are also not provided as health centers or transportation facilities are not accessible.

Concerns:

Given their unique issues and vulnerability, people with disabilities need much more support than the rest of the population in the face of a pandemic.
There is very little attention being given to addressing the special needs of people with disabilities and making efforts at reaching out to them.
The need for the disabled and their carers for special support are not routinely forthcoming.

Way forward:

Government’s role:

The government and its organizations working with people with disabilities have to make efforts to convert prevention and care messages on COVID-19 into an accessible format.
Health facilities should prioritize the needs of people with disabilities. Their medicine needs have to be provided for.
Mobile health teams can help provide services at home. A dedicated helpline can be set up for this so that the medical teams can reach them.

Public’s role:

The general public needs to be educated on the need for special support for people with disabilities.
Technology-savvy professionals can help to make information available in an accessible format for people with disabilities.
Civil society should volunteer their time to provide support for this section.

Conclusion:

A country’s development is measured by its social support and inclusive policies for the most vulnerable. An inclusive society is the need of the hour.
There is a need for a humane response with affirmative action for people with disabilities.

Source: The Hindu

4) National Agriculture Market portal e-NAM Completed four Years

The pan-India Agriculture trading portal e-NAM completed four years of implementation on 14th April 2020
e-NAM was an innovative initiative in agricultural marketing to enhance farmers' accessibility digitally to multiple numbers of markets & buyers and to bring transparency in trade transactions with the intent to improve price discovery mechanism, quality commensurate price realization and also to develop the concept of One Nation One Market for agriculture produce. Keeping in view the need of making the marketing of commodities easier for farmers, e-NAM was envisioned and launched by Prime Minister in 21 mandis on 14th April 2016 which has now reached 585 mandis across 16 States and 02 UTs.
States like Jharkhand has initiated farm gate trading through the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) platform whereby farmers are uploading the details of their products along with a picture for online bidding without reaching to the APMC. Similarly, FPOs are also uploading their produce from their collection centers for trading under e-NAM.
For traders the additional OTG (On the Go) features have been added such as Buyers bidding from anywhere even without physically present in the mandi, e-NAM shopping Cart facility in Trader login, single e-payment transaction features for multiple Invoices/ Bunching of multiple invoices, automatic discount/ rebate on e-Payment/ Discount to traders during e-payment, online registration for the unified trading license, etc. to name a few. To build confidence among the traders for assaying, the Department has launched new features related to assaying like :

The 360-degree image capturing of the commodity heap through an e-NAM mobile app,
Assayer can upload 2/3 2D image of Laboratory with equipment and
Also, upload the 2D image of the commodity sampling process for the lot for better confidence of trader on e-NAM.

The platform has seen a pick-up in inter-mandi trade both within and, more recently, between states. So far, 13 States/ UT has participated in inter-State trade (Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand& Tamil Nadu). Inter-state trade has been recorded in 20 commodities (which include vegetables, pulses, cereals, oilseeds, spices, etc.).

Source: PIB

5) Ambedkar Jayanti

Ambedkar Jayanti or Bhim Jayanti is an annual festival observed on 14 April to commemorate the memory of B. R. Ambedkar. It marks Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's birthday who was born on 14 April 1891. Since 2015 it has been observed as an official public holiday throughout India. Ambedkar Jayanti is celebrated not just in India rather all around the world.
Ambedkar Jayanti processions are carried out by his followers at Chaitya Bhoomi in Mumbai and Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur. It is customary for senior national figures, such as the President, Prime Minister and leaders of major political parties, to pay homage at the statue of Ambedkar at the Parliament of India in New Delhi. It is celebrated throughout the world especially by Dalits, Adivasi, labor workers, women and also those who embraced Buddhism after his example. In India, large numbers of people visit local statues commemorating Ambedkar in procession with a lot of fanfare. First Online Jayanti Celebration also goes to Babasaheb Ambedkar

Ambedkar and the Poona Pact

In late September 1932, B.R. Ambedkar negotiated the Poona Pact with Mahatma Gandhi. The background to the Poona Pact was the Communal Award of August 1932, which, among other things, reserved 71 seats in the central legislature for the depressed classes. Gandhi, who was opposed to the Communal Award, saw it as a British attempt to split Hindus and began a fast unto death to have it repealed.
In a settlement negotiated with Gandhi, Ambedkar agreed for depressed class candidates to be elected by a joint electorate. However, on his insistence, slightly over twice as many seats (147) were reserved for the depressed classes in the legislature than what had been allotted under the Communal Award. Also, the Poona Pact assured a fair representation of the depressed classes in the public services while earmarking a portion of the educational grant for their uplift.
The Poona Pact was an emphatic acceptance by upper-class Hindus that the depressed classes constituted the most discriminated sections of Hindu society. It was also conceded that something concrete had to be done to give them a political voice as well as a legup to lift them from backwardness they could not otherwise overcome.
The concessions agreed to in the Poona Pact were precursors to the world’s largest affirmative program launched much later in independent India. A slew of measures was initiated later to uplift Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Despite what Ambedkar had achieved for the depressed classes through the Poona Pact, there were carpers.
The Poona Pact had several positive outcomes for Ambedkar. It emphatically sealed his leadership of the depressed classes across India. He made the entire country, and not just the Congress Party, morally responsible for the uplift of the depressed classes. Most of all he succeeded in making the depressed classes a formidable political force for the first time in history.
As a practical man, Ambedkar was not looking for the perfect solution. As he remarked in a 1943 address to mark the 101st birthday celebrations of Mahadev Govind Ranade, all he wanted to be “a settlement of some sort”; that he was not “prepared to wait for an ideal settlement”. It is very much in this spirit that he affixed his signature to the Poona Pact saving Gandhi’s life as well as that of the Congress Party’s while giving a big voice to the depressed classes.

Source: The Hindu

6) CollabCAD

Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog and National Informatics Centre (NIC) jointly launched CollabCAD, a collaborative network, computer-enabled software system, providing a total engineering solution from 2D drafting & detailing to 3D product design.
The aim of this initiative is to provide a great platform to students of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) across the country to create and modify 3d designs with free flow of creativity and imagination. This software would also enable students to create data across the network and concurrently access the same design data for storage and visualization.
ATLs established across India, provide tinkering spaces to children to hone their innovative ideas and creativity. AIM’s collaboration with NIC’s CollabCAD is a great platform for students to utilize indigenous, state-of-the-art made-in-India software for 3D modeling/slicing to use 3D Printing.
A customized version of CollabCAD for ATLs with features that are most relevant to school students to materialize their ideas and creativity into physical solutions has been developed to enable designing without constraints and, thus, allowing creativity and innovation to thrive.
AIM also launched the Game Development module in partnership with DELL Technologies and Learning Links Foundation. It is an online platform where students can start their learning journey while tinkering from home. Through the platform, they can learn to create their own games and also share it with others. This platform envisages making students transition from ‘game players’ to ‘game makers’
Similarly, by launching CollabCAD and gaming module as part of the ‘Tinker from Home’ campaign, young students are encouraged to learn and contribute to the journey of nation-building from the safe space of their homes.

About AIM

Atal Innovation Mission housed at NITI Aayog is the Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. At the school level, AIM is establishing ATLs in all districts across India. As of today, AIM has selected a total of 14,916 schools across the country spread across 33 different states and union territories, for the establishment of ATLs.

Source: PIB

7) India talking to the U.S. over visa sanctions

India seeking an exemption from U.S. visa sanctions.

Background:

Illegal Indian immigrants into the U.S.:

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s 2018 survey, Indians constitute one of the largest groups of illegal aliens in the U.S., numbering an estimated 4,70,000, who had entered by 2015.
The U.S. administration has pushed for India to tighten its controls on emigration and accept more deportations in the past few years.
Recently, India brought back 150 citizens who had entered the U.S. illegally and accepted 311 others deported by Mexico who was trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
India had been cooperating with the U.S. to repatriate illegal Indian nationals from the U.S. as it is the government’s policy not to encourage illegal immigration to any country.

The announcement by the U.S. administration:

The administration has passed orders to impose visa sanctions on countries that don’t repatriate illegal “aliens” in the U.S. within a week.

Details:

Given the fact that India has COVID-19-related travel restrictions in place, which restricts all passengers, including Indian citizens from any other country, the U.S. order poses a major challenge.

If the U.S. refuses to relent on its seven-day deadline, or India refuses to lift the ban on incoming travel within the week, Indians could face a major cut in U.S. visas granted for the year.

The Indian government is engaged in talks with the U.S. administration to reconsider its orders.
The U.S. Presidential Memorandum does include a clause permitting the Secretary of State to make exceptions consistent with the foreign policy interests of the United States. This can help India get a reprieve from the deadline.

Source: The Hindu

8) Resume industrial activity in 15 sectors

The letter was written by the Industries Secretary to the Home Secretary seeking relaxations for the industrial sector amid the national lockdown.

Background:

The National lockdown and the restrictions in place have harmed the industrial sector.
The sector has been affected by the disruption of the supply chain of raw materials, shortage of labor force, drastic fall in demand and cancellations of pre-existing orders, which have severely affected the financial position of the industries. This is bound to impact the financial health of the banks and subsequently the entire economy.
There have been reports of cancellation of orders from importing countries due to delays in the delivery of goods. There have also been reports of China, which has reopened its industries, bagging some of the orders lost by India. There is the possibility of India losing its market share to China in the long term. This, apart from hurting India’s exports, will also lead to reduced employment opportunities.
Given the likelihood of an extension of the lockdown, there are concerns that the prolonged lockdown would further impact the industrial sector.

Details:

The Commerce Ministry has called for measures to mitigate the negative effects of the lockdown on the industrial sector.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has urged the Home Ministry to allow relaxations of the restrictions on several industrial sectors. It has called for allowing more activities in the industries with reasonable safeguards in place.

Way forward:

There are recommendations that industrial activity is restarted in at least 15 core sectors, including heavy electricals, electronics, and telecom equipment, automobiles, steel mills, power looms, defense units, cement, rubber, seeds, agrochemicals, and fertilizers.
There needs to be a gradual approach to reopening. In the initial phases, manufacturing could be restarted in single shifts of 20-25% capacity, following proper social distancing and sanitation norms.
To address the problem of labor shortage, companies should be allowed to insist on workers returning for duty to avail wages. The relevant authorities should allow the company administration to ferry people back to work.
The state administration should also ensure easy movement of necessary raw materials and supplies with necessary safeguards in place.

Significance:

The gradual opening of a few important industrial sectors is essential to improve economic activity and provide liquidity in the hands of the people.
The opening of the industrial sector is key to revive and improve the economy, which would help relieve some of the economic pressure of the lockdown phase.

Source: The Hindu

9) World Bank on India’s Growth

The World Bank has released the South Asia Economic Focus report. The report saw India’s growth at 1.5-2.8% in 2020-21 which is the slowest since 1991 economic reforms.

Key Points

The South Asian region has been estimated to grow by 1.8-2.8% in 2020, down from 6.3%, projected six months ago.
For 2020-21, for India, estimated growth (1.5-2.8%) is lower than 4.1-5.4% estimated in October 2019.
It estimated that India will grow 4.8% to 5% in the 2019-20 fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2020.

This is lower by 1.2-1% of the estimate made in October 2019.

India is likely to record its worst growth performance in 2020-21 since the 1991 liberalization as the coronavirus outbreak severely disrupts the economy.

Growth recovery estimated at the end of 2019 has been overtaken by the negative impacts of the global crisis.

Disruptions due to Coronavirus:

The COVID-19 outbreak came at a time when India’s economy was already slowing due to persistent financial sector weaknesses.
To contain it, the government imposed a lockdown, shutting factories and businesses, suspending flights, stopping trains and restricting the mobility of goods and people.
This resulted in domestic supply and demand disruptions.

Impact :

A sharp growth deceleration in FY21 (April 2020 to March 2021).
The services sector will be particularly hit.
A revival in domestic investment is likely to be delayed given enhanced risk aversion on a global scale, and renewed concerns about financial sector resilience.

Growth is expected to rebound to 5% in Fiscal 2022 (2021-22) as the impact of COVID-19 dissipates, and due to fiscal and monetary policy support.

India has set aside just over 1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for programs to increase health sector spending and compensate the unemployed, with the bulk of the money going towards cash transfers, free food and gas cylinders, and interest-free loans.

Suggestions by the World Bank:

India should focus on mitigating the spread of the disease and to make sure that everybody has food.
It should also focus on temporary jobs programs, especially at the local levels. These initiatives should be supported.
It should prevent bankruptcies, especially of a small and medium-sized enterprises.

World Bank’s Support to India

The World Bank has approved USD 1 billion to India, of which the first tranche has already been released to deal with the emergency in the health care sector.
The first tranche aims at delivering civilian diagnostic equipment, put in place additional capacity to deal with testing and make testing available that benefits the entire population.
It is also working with India on two additional operations, which is anticipated to be ready in a matter of weeks.

These include employment, banking, and micro, small and medium enterprises sectors.

Other international agencies that have made similar growth estimates:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) sees India’s economic growth decrease to 4% in the current fiscal.
S&P Global Ratings has estimated the GDP growth forecast for the country to 3.5% from a previous downgrade of 5.2%.
Moody’s Investors Service has slashed its estimate of India’s GDP growth during the 2020 calendar year to 2.5%, from an earlier estimate of 5.3%.

1991 Economic Reforms

The year 1990-1991 Indian economy faced several uncertainties and strains. Inflation had increased to an annual rate of 17%.
The fiscal deficit reached a peak of 8.2% of GDP while revenue deficit reached to a height of 2.6% of GDP, growth rate decelerated to about 1% showing symptoms of recession and industrial production falling at a low level.
The foreign exchange reserves of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had fallen to less than USD 1 billion resulting in an unprecedented external debt crisis.
Hence, the New Economic Policy was introduced, which consisted of a gradual process of easing out government controls of industrial deregulations and some import liberalization.

Significant changes in national policy with regards to Taxation, Industrial Licensing, Imports, Technology, and Investment priorities were made.

South Asia Economic Focus

The South Asia Economic Focus is a biannual economic update presenting recent economic developments and a near-term economic outlook for South Asia.
It aims at providing important background information and timely analysis of key indicators and economic and financial developments of relevance to World Bank Group operations and interaction with counterparts in the region, particularly during annual and spring meetings.
This biannual series is prepared by the Office of the Chief Economist for the South Asia region.
It includes a Focus section presenting a more in-depth analysis of an economic topic of relevance for stability, growth, and prosperity in the region as well as country briefs covering Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
It concludes with a data section providing key economic indicators for South Asia “at a glance."

Source: Indian Express

10) Neighboring Rights Law

The French competition regulator has asked Google to negotiate with publishers and news agencies the remuneration due to them under the law relating to neighboring rights.

The French regulator has announced that Google must start paying media for sharing their content, as its practices had caused serious harm to the press sector.
The order is an interim decision. Though the order is only for the French press, it has global ramifications for Google and the press, as it can set a legal precedent and shape the discourse around the economics of news on the net.
The neighboring rights law that came into force on 24th July 2019 in France aims to set the conditions for a balanced negotiation between publishers, news agencies and digital platforms, to redefine, in favor of press publishers and news agencies, the sharing of the value between these actors.

Neighboring Rights

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), related rights, also referred to as neighboring rights, protect the legal interests of certain persons and legal entities that contribute to making works available to the public or that produce subject matter which, while not qualifying as works under the copyright systems of all countries, contains sufficient creativity or technical and organizational skill to justify recognition of a copyright-like property right.
Traditionally, related rights have been granted to three categories of beneficiaries:

Performers (actors/musicians);
Producers of sound recordings (also referred to as phonograms); and
Broadcasting organizations.

Protection in India

The Copyright Act, 1957 protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and cinematograph films and sound recordings from unauthorized uses. Unlike the case with patents, copyright protects the expressions and not the ideas. There is no copyright in an idea.

Copyright is a right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings. In fact, it is a bundle of rights including, inter alia, rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation, and translation of the work.
Copyright is an Intellectual Property Right (IPR).

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, and images used in commerce.
Other IPRs include trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, etc.

Copyright, as provided by the Indian Copyright Act, is valid only within the borders of the country. To secure protection to Indian works in foreign countries, India has become a member of the following international conventions on copyright and neighboring (related) rights:

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, 1886.
Universal Copyright Convention (Revised in 1971).
Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorised Duplication of their Phonograms, 1971.
Multilateral Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation of Copyright Royalties, 1979.
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, 1995.

Source: Indian Express