Needed, a well-crafted social security net for all

India’s social security system:

1. Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2021-22:
   1. About 53% of all of the salaried workforce does not have any social security benefits in India.
   2. They have no access to a provident fund (PF), pension, and health care and disability insurance.
   3. Only 1.9% of the poorest 20% of India’s workforce has access to any benefits.
   4. 1.3% of India’s active labour force or gig workers, rarely have access to any social security benefit.
2. Mercer CFS ranked India at 40 out of 43 countries in 2021, indicating poor ranking of the India’s social security system.
3. About 91% (or around 475 million) of India’s workforce works in the informal sector which lacks access to social security.
4. Given that India will become an aging society within two decades, for such workers with limited savings, there will be no significant social protection.
5. The Code on Social Security (2020) which has been merged with existing social security legislation, it has fundamentally dealt with formal enterprises and has not covered informal ones.

Issues with India’s social security coverage:

1. Limited budgetary allocation.
   1. In FY11, the National Social Security Fund was set up for unorganised sector workers with outlay of only ₹1,000 crore, while the actual requirement was projected at ₹22,841 crore by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability.
   2. The contribution by the Centre to old-age pension schemes has stagnated at ₹200 a month since 2006 which is much below the minimum wage per day.
   3. The Budgetary allotments to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act have been on the declining trend or stagnated in spite of increasing demand for work.

2. Under-utilisation of existing funds:
   1. The CAG has identified that the cess collected for the purpose of social security to construction workers in Delhi has been highly under-utilised (~94% of the money was not utilised).
3. Poor targeting of Beneficiaries:
   1. CAG has found that direct benefit (DBT) scheme of the State’s Social Justice and Empowerment Department had made transfers of ₹ 98.96 Cr. to the accounts of deceased beneficiaries.

Steps to be taken by India:

1. Takeaway from schemes overseas- Brazil’s General Social Security Scheme:
   1. It is contribution-based in nature substituting income loss for a worker (and his family), both in partial or full.
   2. Covers almost all kind of situations that includes
      1. Accident at work
      2. A disability that prevents the worker from working, death,
      3. An illness/medical treatment that leads to time away from work
      4. Family burdens
      5. Prospect of unemployment.
      6. Income loss even due to imprisonment
   3. Unemployment insurance is paid from worker support funds while health care is covered through the Unified Health System.
   4. Hassle-free availing of social security benefits without the need of endless documents.
2. Adoption of a fiscally and administratively feasible social security to all of its workforce:
   1. Expansion of employer and employee contribution under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) system for formal workers.
   2.  For informal workers with meaningful income whether self-employed or in an informal enterprise,
      1. Partial contributions can be initiated
      2. Informal enterprises need to be persuaded to formalise and expand their total contribution.
3. The government should provide social protection to the poorest 20% of the workforce who are unemployed or have stopped looking for work, or do not earn enough.
4. Other reforms required:
   1. e-Shram platform which has enabled the enrolment of approximately 300 million workers, puts the burden of registration on informal workers by requiring them to furnish essential documents. The employer (even temporary) needs to be given enough incentive to foster registration for formalisation of employee-employer relationships.
   2. A push for a pan-India labour force card shall expand the ambit of social security benefits beyond construction and gig workers. 
   3. Existing successful schemes such as the Building and Other Construction Workers Schemes needs to be expanded to other categories of workers.
   4. Special attention is required for
      1. Domestic workers (usually female) who are unsure of their employment.
      2. Migrant workers often face discrimination and suspicion from authorities.
   5. Expansion of budgetary support and coverage of existing schemes like
      1. Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF)
      2. The Employees’ State Insurance Scheme (ESI)
      3. The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP)

The U.K.-India relationship is alive with opportunity

Why in the News?

UK has launched ‘Alive with Opportunity’, a marketing campaign that showcases the deep bond between India and UK and to build on the continuous exchange of people, ideas and culture.

‘Alive with Opportunity’ campaign:

1. It is a £1.5 million marketing campaign that aims to stimulate cooperation in areas of trade, exchange of people, ideas and culture between the two countries.
2. It aims to stimulate interest and demand for U.K. goods and services
3. It fosters to increase the U.K.’s ability to grow their business through trade with India
4. To attract new inward investment from India to the UK.

India-UK Trade relationship:

1. India and U.K. share a thriving trading relationship worth £36 billion in 2022.

2. India is the second largest source of investment projects in the last financial year in UK with 118 new projects creating 8,384 new jobs across the country.
3. UK stands as the sixth largest investor (2000-23) with an investment of $34 billion in India in the form of FDIs, 618 U.K. companies in India with a combined turnover of around $50 billion employing more than 4.5 lakh people directly.
4. UK houses Indian diaspora of over 1.6 million people in workforce and education with Indian students making up one of the U.K.’s largest groups of international students.

The ambitious Free Trade Agreement, a strong partnership:

1. India currently has an interim (early harvest agreement) pact with UK that aims to achieve 65% of coverage of goods and up to 40% coverage of services.
2. The early harvest agreement acts as a frontrunner to a more comprehensive FTA.
3. The U.K aims to double trade with India by 2030 and FTA would accelerate the attainment of this goal.
   1. Helps to boost exports for large sectors such as textiles, leather goods and footwear.
   2. The enhanced trade shall help in flow of foreign investments to both the countries.
   3. It also enhances the prospects for creating new employment opportunities.

Contentious areas in India-UK FTA:

1. Intellectual property rights
   1. IPR on production of Generic drugs is a red line that India doesn’t want to cross.
   2. UK wants stringent IPRs
2. Digital trade and data protection
   1. India wants to frame its own domestic laws regarding data protection without any additional commitments.
   2. UK expects free cross-border data flow and rules against data localisation
3. Rules of origin
   1. India wants to have strict rules of origin (ROO) in place to ensure that third countries do not take unfair advantage of the FTA, in contrast to UK’s demand of liberal ROO.
4. Labour, environment and services

Implementing a car safety programme

Why in the News?

The Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) was rolled out by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to create a rating system indicating the safety of cars in a collision and is planned to come into effect from October 1, 2023.

What is Bharat NCAP?

1. An indigenous star-rating system for crash testing cars.
2. Based on the crash testing results, vehicles will be assigned between one to five stars in correspondence to their safety in a collision.
3. Objective of the programme:
   1. To help consumers make an informed decision before purchasing a car, thereby spurring demand for safer cars.
   2. India sees nearly 1.5 lakh road fatalities in a year, accounting for 10% of deaths due to road crashes globally with only 1% of the world’s vehicles.
   3. According to a World Bank study, road crashes are estimated to cost the Indian economy between 5 to 7% of GDP a year.
4. Under the Bharat NCAP, cars voluntarily nominated by automobile manufacturers will be crash tested as per protocols laid down in the soon-to-be-published Automotive Industry Standard 197.
5. The rating system shall be voluntary for adoption by automobile companies, but in certain cases such as it becomes mandatory:
   1. For a base model of a popular variant (minimum clocked sale of 30,000 units)
   2. When the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recommends a model for testing based on market feedback or in the interest of public safety
6. The programme is applicable to passenger vehicles with not more than eight seats in addition to the driver’s seat with gross vehicle weight not exceeding 3,500 kgs.
7. Cars will be assigned a rating between one star to five stars after being evaluated on three parameters
   1. Adult occupant protection
   2. Child occupant protection
   3. Safety assist technologies present in the car.
8. The launch of the Bharat NCAP is another step to enhance road safety regulations rolled out in the past years such as mandatory dual front airbags, anti-lock braking system, seatbelt reminder and reverse parking sensors.

How has Bharat NCAP evolved?

1. It has been modelled on the lines of Global NCAP, a project of the U.K.-based NGO, Towards Zero Foundation that launched a Safer Cars for India campaign in 2014.
2. It serves as a platform for co-operation among new car assessment programmes worldwide, including countries such as the U.S. which has the world’s oldest crash testing regime since 1978.
3. In 2018, Tata achieved India’s first 5-star cars.
4. Now there is increased competition among manufacturers to obtain four and five- star results and using ratings in their marketing. This has also led to a sharp fall in the number of zero- star models in the Indian market.

Way forward:

1. India needs to develop its crash testing capabilities and knowledge expertise for the meaningful implementation of Bharat NCAP programme

• For instance, software system wired to the dummies placed inside cars can be used to assess the nature and extent of injuries to analyse scores.

2. India needs to align Bharat NCAP with global standards by expanding testing parameters.
   1. For instance, the U.S. NCAP also includes a roll-over test which tests whether a vehicle is vulnerable to tipping up on the road in a severe manoeuvre.
   2. Similarly, Japan’s NCAP covers
      1. electric shock protection performance after a collision
      2. performance of neck injury protection in a rear end collision
      3. passenger seat belt reminder evaluation
      4. evaluation of pedestrian protection technologies apart from preventive safety performance such as autonomous emergency braking system

What are the amendments to the Pakistan Army Act?

Why in the News?

Recently, an amendment was passed in Pakistan senate to amend the Pakistan Army Act, 1952.

The new amendments proposed in the Bill:

1. A new clause 1A in Section 8 of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 has been added to expanded the ambit of the Army Act. Upon this addition, civilians working in entities affiliated with or controlled by the Pakistan Army will be covered under the ambit of the act.
2.  Two new sections to Section 26 of the Act have been added:
   1. Section 26A on ‘unauthorised disclosure’: “if any person who is or has been subject to this act, discloses or causes to be disclosed any information, acquired in an official capacity shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years.”
   2. Section 26B: any person subject to this act, from the date of his retirement, release, resignation, discharge, removal, or dismissal from the service, cannot participate in any kind of political activity for two years.
3. Amendment of Section 55:
   1. Section 55A : Any person subject to the act shall not get into any form of engagement, consultation, or employment, directly or indirectly, with any entity that the Armed Forces of Pakistan and its affiliate entities are in conflict of interest.
   2. Section 55B: individuals will be liable to punishment if they have currently or previously subjected to this legislation, undermine, ridicule, or scandalise the Armed Forces.

Why was such a move initiated now?

1. The addition of Section 26A on ‘unauthorised disclosure’ was brought mainly to intimidate the veterans who have been supporting the former Pakistan PM.
   1. The May 9 incident in which supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan attacked army installations across the country, which led to leakage of information regarding installations.
   2. Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Faiz Hameed, former DG of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have been the biggest supporter of Imran Khan, who had plans to bring in the former to PTI to rebuild the party.
2. It aims to strengthen the power of the Army Chief while dissuading critics. 
3. Pakistan Army has formalised its intervention in the functioning of the country through additions in the act like,
   1. Section 175C (on welfare and rehabilitation)
   2. Section 175D (on welfare through affiliated entities)
   3. Section 176E (on national development)

Implications of the Bill:

1. These amendments would jeopardise the rights and liberties of individuals.
2. It imposes restrictions on the dissemination of information.
3.  The implementation of these draconian laws would garner the authorities to end up with absolute power to target anybody.
4. Democracy will be servile in the country with the acts intending to silence criticism of the Pakistan Army.
5. The ‘Deep-State’ crisis of Pakistan with expand giving an unwavering attempt for proxy-rule of the elected government.

How One Health can help India respond better to health crises

Why in the News?

India has been taking significant strides for the adoption of a ‘National One Health Mission’ to be led by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor.

The concept of ‘One Health Strategy’:

1. It is a holistic approach recognises the problems among the interconnections between the health of humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
2. It is based on ideas of:
   1. There is a strong relationship between public health and clean environments.
   2. Between animal and human medicines there are no dividing lines and there should not be.
   3. the value of ecology is vital for both animal and human health.
3. The One Health strategy aims for intersectoral management and the efficiency to handle the issue of health problems that results from environmental changes.  For instance, human population growth, urbanisation, and industrialisation have increased the damage to biodiversity and ecosystems which are linked to Zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance, food safety and security, and the control of vector-borne diseases.
4. This strategy helps in minimising resource requirements across sectors as it
   1. encourages coordination across governmental units and departments of various ministries.
   2. allows researchers to share their laboratories and findings, that helps them to make decisions which are resilient, sustainable, and predictable policies.
5. Helps in fostering economic benefits as in the case of managing a pandemic with a non-One-Health approach. For instance, the economic cost involved in managing a pandemic would cost around $30 billion a year as per an assessment of the G20 Joint Finance and Health Taskforce.

Recent One Health initiatives:

1. ‘Standing Committee on Zoonoses’ was established in 2006 under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
   1. It was set up to provide guidance and recommendations on challenges related to zoonoses to the Union and the State governments.
2. India’s first consortium on One Health was launched by the Department of Biotechnology in 2021.
   1. 27 organisations from several ministries and plans are brought together under the consortium.
   2. It was established to assess the burden of 5 transboundary animal diseases and 10 select zoonotic diseases. 
   3. It also intends to improve cross-cutting collaborations between the animal, human, and wildlife sectors with an outlay of Rs 31 crore for three years.
3. A One Health pilot project was launched in Karnataka and Uttarakhand in 2022
   1. Launched by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy (DAHD) – in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
   2. It aims to strengthen intersectoral collaborations via capacity-building, with the goal of improving livestock health, human health, wildlife health, and environmental health.
4. A ‘National One Health Mission’ has also been planned for launch that aims to coordinate, support, and integrate all existing One Health initiatives in the country.

How can we switch to a One Health approach?

It requires consistent political will and sustainable financing structures that has to be challenged through four stages of transformation process:

1. Communication between various ministries and/or sectors, keeping the important stakeholders informed and engaged by meeting regularly and reviewing progress.
2. Collaboration between the relevant sectors and its members to exchange their knowledge and expertise to enable translation of ideas into short-term interventions.
3. Coordination shall include,
   1. Routine environmental and disease surveillance
   2. Monitoring trade across borders with respect to animals and animal products
   3. Conducting regular awareness campaigns.
4. Integration both vertically (government sectors and their units) and horizontally (integration and development of synergies between programmes) across various sectors.

Right to Information (RTI) Act

Why in the News?

Recently, Hundreds of RTI applications and their responses from Union public authorities have been missing from the RTIOnline website.

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005:

1. The law empowers Indian citizens to seek information from a Public Authority.
2. Thus, it makes the Government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible for their actions.
3. The RTI Act has adequate “teeth” to bring in transparency and reduce corruption.
4. Section 4 of the RTI Act requires suo motu disclosure of information by each public authority.
5. Section 8 (1) mentions exemptions against furnishing information under RTI Act.
6. Section 8 (2) provides for disclosure of information exempted under Official Secrets Act, 1923 if larger public interest is served.

Key issues in implementation of RTI Act:

1. Inadequate planning at Public Authority level to proactively identify and address the constraints and ensure that citizens are provided the requested information.
2. Inadequate processes, infrastructure or resources with the Information Commission to measure the extent of implementation of the Act.
3. The role/ownership of State Information Commissioners (SIC) and State Nodal Department in implementation of the Act has been varying in spite of clearly laid out roles in the act.
4. Low success in providing information within the stipulated time.
5. Awareness about exercising the rights by the public and disadvantaged communities about RTI has been low, in spite of the act stating that it is the responsibility of the “appropriate” Government to create awareness.
   1. Only 13% of the rural population and 33% in urban population were aware of RTI Act
   2. Only 12% of the women and 26% of men were aware of RTI Act
6. Wide gap in ensuring convenience to the citizens in filing requests for information, where the citizen was discouraged to file for information requests.
7. Record Management
   1. More than 38% of PIOs stated ineffective record management system for delay in processing
   2. Approximately 43% of the PIOs were not aware of the record management guidelines.

Way forward:

1. Establishment of a RTI Implementation Cell at the State/Central level and to be headed by a senior bureaucrat to monitor the reports/status on various issues related to RTI based on inputs from SIC/CICs and the Public Authorities.
2. capacity-building within the Public Authority to provide information within the stipulated time to the citizens.
3. Government of India (GoI) should establish RTI as a “brand” through a mass awareness campaign by taking into account the linguistic and local relevance.
   1. Increase public knowledge and awareness
   2. Encourage citizen involvement and debate
   3. Increase transparency within the Government
4. Re-organisation of record management system to promote information management.

After Chandrayaan-3’s landing, the experiments: lunar quakes and water ice on Moon

Why in the News?

India has successfully made the Chandrayaan-3 landing on the lunar surface, becoming the first country to land on lunar south pole and 4^th country to land on moon (after the US, Soviet Russia and China).

The Mission Experiments:

Four experiments to be conducted by the Lander

1. RAMBHA: The Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere
   • Studies the electrons and ions near the surface of the moon and its changes over time.
2. ChaSTE: Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment 
   • To study the thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region.
3. ILSA: Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity 
   • Measures the lunar quakes near the landing site
   • To study the composition of the Moon’s crust and mantle.
4. LRA: LASER Retroreflector Array 
   • It is a passive experiment sent by NASA that acts as a target for lasers for very accurate measurements for future missions.

Two experiments to be conducted by the Rover

1. LIBS: LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope
   • To determine the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface.
2. APXS: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer
   • To determine the composition of elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, potassium, calcium, titanium, and iron in the lunar soil and rocks.

Discovery of water

1. The deep craters that remain in permanent darkness in the southern polar region of the Moon has high likelihood of having water-ice.
2. During Chandrayaan-1 mission,
   1. India’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP) was deliberately crashed on the lunar surface near the south pole enabled to study the concentration of water and hydroxyl molecules in the lunar atmosphere.
   2. mini-SAR payload helped to detect the subsurface deposits of water-ice in craters in the permanently shadowed regions near the south pole.
   3. Moon Mineralogy Mapper or M3 payload of NASA helped detect these molecules on the surface of the Moon.

Buried lava tubes

• Chandrayaan-1 detected an underground lava tube that can provide a safe environment for human habitation in the future.
• It can protect against hazardous radiation, small meteoric impacts, extreme temperatures, and dust storms on the surface of the Moon.

Magma ocean thesis

1. The Moon is believed to have been formed after an early piece of the Earth separated due to an impact. The energy generated by the impact is believed to have led to the melting of the Moon’s surface. This is called the magma ocean hypothesis.
2. The M3 payload on board Chandrayaan-1 picked up a specific type of lighter-density crystals on the surface of the Moon, which could be found on the surface only if it were liquid once.

Mapping of minerals

• CLASS X-ray Fluorescence experiment has mapped ~ 95% of the lunar surface in X-rays for the first time. X-ray spectrometers flown to the Moon in the past 50 years together have covered only less than 20% of the surface, according to ISRO.

A dynamic Moon

• Findings from the Chandrayaan-1 mission also showed that the Moon’s interior was dynamic and interacted with the exosphere, contrary to the belief that it was dormant.
• The terrain mapping camera found evidence of volcanic vent, lava pond, and lava channels as recent as 100 million years old, indicating recent volcanic activity. Measurements of carbon dioxide by the MIP also pointed towards de-gassing from the surface. This shows an interaction of the lunar surface with the exosphere even in the absence of impacts by meteors.

ASTRA Missile

1. LIGHT COMBAT Aircraft (LCA) Tejas has successfully fired the ASTRA indigenous Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile.
2. ASTRA is a state-of-the-art BVR air-to-air missile.
3. It is developed to engage and destroy highly manoeuvring supersonic aerial targets.
4. It has been designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Research Centre Imarat (RCI) and other laboratories of DRDO.
5. Astra Mk-1 has been integrated with Indian Air Force's Sukhoi Su-30MKI and will be integrated with Dassault Mirage 2000, HAL Tejas and Mikoyan MiG-29 in the future.

Sugar industry in ethanol sourcing

1. The Niti Aayog envisages requirement of 1,400 crore litres of ethanol to achieve 20% blending by 2025-2026. 
2. Nearly 550 crore litres of ethanol have been produced and 450 crore litres of it came from the sugar industry and the remaining from maize and damaged grain, in 2022.
3. Molasses, a byproduct of sugar processing, are currently being used for bioenergy production, especially ethanol.
4. Various physical, chemical, biological pretreatment, and enzymatic hydrolysis/saccharification and fermentation are applied to produce ethanol from sugarcane bagasse.
5. Ethanol can be mixed with gasoline to form various types of blends.
6. As ethanol contains oxygen molecule, it allows the engine to completely combust the fuel resulting in fewer emissions.

DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation)

1. A Research & Development wing of the Ministry of Defence, Govt of India.
2. It aims to empower India with cutting-edge defence technologies to achieve self-reliance in critical defence technologies and systems.
3. It also intends to equip the armed forces with state-of-the-art weapon systems and equipment in accordance with requirements laid down by the three Services.
4. DRDO has involved in indigenous development and production of strategic systems and platforms such as
   1. Agni and Prithvi series of missiles
   2. Light combat aircraft, Tejas
   3. Multi-barrel rocket launcher, Pinaka
   4. Air defence system, Akash