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Contents

General Studies Paper - I Contested history (The Hindu) .................................... 3

Human Geography .............................................. 3 The ghosts of Adichanallur (The Hindu) ...................... 4

Art & Culture ....................................................... 4 Ramayana is a bridge that connects India with

Asean (Hindustan times) ............................................. 5

Culture ................................................................ 5 The liberation of Goa (The Hindu) ............................... 6

Freedom struggle ................................................ 6 Khaps defanged (Indian Express) ................................ 7

Society ................................................................ 7 The dream of the city (Indian Express)........................ 8

Development ...................................................... 8

General Studies Paper - II A strategy for the sea (Indian Express) ....................... 9

International Relation ......................................... 9 The people connection (The Hindu) .......................... 11

International Relations ...................................... 11 Standing up for human rights (The Hindu) ................ 12

Human Rights .................................................... 12 The birth of India’s powerful Supreme Court

(Livemint) .................................................................. 13

Judicial judgement ............................................ 13 Offices Without Profit (Indian Express) ..................... 16

Indian Politics.................................................... 16 An eye on the police (Indian Express) ....................... 17

Governance....................................................... 17 Not a criminal act (The Hindu) .................................. 18

Legal Reform ..................................................... 18 Master and the roster (Indian Express) ..................... 19

Judicial Reform ................................................. 19 The ABC of the RTE (The Hindu) ................................ 20

Education Policy ................................................ 20 Left behind (The Hindu) ............................................ 21

Education Policy ................................................ 21 Training teachers (The Hindu) ................................... 22

Education Policy ................................................ 22 Three milestones in education (The Hindu) .............. 23

Education Policy ................................................ 23

No Eminence By Diktat (Indian Express) ................... 24

Education Policy ................................................ 24 Questionable remedy on the National Medical

Commission Bill (The Hindu) ..................................... 25

Health Policy ..................................................... 25 Prescription for the future (The Hindu) .................... 26

Health Policy ..................................................... 26 Making our roads safe (The Hindu) ........................... 28

Public Policy ...................................................... 28 A poor prognosis (The Hindu) ................................... 29

Health Policy ..................................................... 29 The price prescription (The Hindu) ........................... 30

Public Policy ...................................................... 30 Enabling a form of super surveillance (The Hindu) ... 32

Public Policy ...................................................... 32 Be colour blind (Indian Express) ................................ 33

Rights Issues ..................................................... 33

General Studies Paper - III Natural partners in the Asian century (The Hindu) ... 34

Economic Policy ................................................ 34 Fiscal populism would be really

counterproductive’ (The Hindu) ................................ 35

Economic Policy ................................................ 35 The money trail: on the need for investor awareness

on cryptocurrencies (The Hindu) ............................... 36

Digitalization..................................................... 36 Economic policy challenges in 2018 .......................... 39

Economy ........................................................... 39

......................................................................... 39 IBC Amendment Bill cleared by the Parliament ........ 40

Economy ........................................................... 40 Indian Real Estate is on an upward Trajectory

(Livemint) .................................................................. 41

Infrastructure & Development ........................... 41 Three paradigms of banking regulation (Livemint) ... 42

Banking Reform ................................................ 42 The problem of land hoarding (The Hindu) ............... 43

Agro-Economy .................................................. 43 The age of crypto-economics (The Hindu) ................ 44

Digital Economy ................................................ 44 Behavioural economics needs a unifying theory

(Livemint) .................................................................. 46

CAO Editorial Analysis Volume 07: January 2018

https://currentaffairsonly.com EG Classes (Mukherjee Nagar)

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Economy ........................................................... 46 A case of miscasting (Indian Express) ........................ 46

Environment ..................................................... 46 Budget 2018: A lower corporate tax rate may not

make all happy (Livemint) ......................................... 47

Business Economy ............................................. 47 SEBI ban to spell trouble for Price Waterhouse

business in India (Livemint) ....................................... 48

Business Economy ............................................. 48 Cut the confusion (Indian Express)............................ 49

Banking Sector .................................................. 49 Banking on good faith (The Hindu) ........................... 50

Banking Reform ................................................ 50 A sum of contributions (The Hindu) .......................... 50

Environment ..................................................... 50 A new weapon in the carbon fight (The Hindu) ........ 51

Climate change ................................................. 51 A turtle recovery plan (The Hindu) ............................ 52

Biodiversity ....................................................... 52 Red alert on the green index (The Hindu) ................. 54

Environment ..................................................... 54 For a wider pool (The Hindu) .................................... 55

Health Sector .................................................... 55 Expanding the donor pool (The Hindu) ..................... 55

Science ........................................................... 55 Feeling SAD? Blame it on the winter (The Hindu) ..... 58

Health Issue ................................................... 58 Starting their own (The Hindu) .................................. 59

Health policy ..................................................... 59 Capacity building for primary health care (The Hindu)

................................................................................... 60

Health Sector Reforms ...................................... 60 A misleading story of job creation (The Hindu) ......... 61

Unemployment ................................................. 61 Good morning jam (Indian Express) .......................... 61

Cyber Security ................................................... 61 Towards a genomics revolution (The Hindu) ............ 62

Science and Technology .................................... 62 ‘In 50 years, there’s been no new neuropsychiatric

drug’ (The Hindu) ...................................................... 63

Medicinal Science ......................................... 63 Agriculture needs a reforms package (The Hindu) .... 65

Agriculture Sector ............................................. 65 Towards solar-powered agriculture .......................... 65

Agriculture Sector ......................................... 65

General Studies Paper - IV The ethics of excellence ............................................ 66

Ethics ................................................................ 66 The duty of the young (Indian Express) ..................... 67

Ethics ................................................................ 67 Challenging a culture of obedience (The Hindu) ....... 68

Ethics ................................................................ 68 Should euthanasia be allowed? (The Hindu) ............. 69

Rights Issues ..................................................... 69 Prescription for the doctor (Indian Express) ............. 70

Professional Ethics ............................................ 70



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General Studies Paper - I

Contested history (The Hindu)

Human Geography

Context Relations of the Government with the Hill Tribes of the North-East Frontier of Bengal.

Alexander Mackenzie’s monumental work, History of the Relations of the Government with the Hill Tribes of

the North-East Frontier of Bengal, first published in 1884

Lushai Expedition The British Indian Army Lushai Expedition of 1871 to 1872 was a punitive incursion under the command of

Generals Brownlow and Bourchier.

Objective To rescue British subjects who had been captured by the Lushais in raids into Assam—including a six-year-

old girl called Mary Winchester—and to convince the hill tribes of the region that they had nothing to gain

and everything to lose by placing themselves in a hostile position towards the British Government.

For the British, the expedition was a success: the prisoners were freed and the hill tribes agreed to

negotiated peace terms. The border region was to remain peaceful until 1888 when large scaled raiding

was resumed and another punitive expedition was organised.

After turning the Burmese out of Assam during the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824, the Bengal

Government of the East India Company attempted to administer all that was not absolutely necessary for

the control of the frontier through Purandar Singha a native prince; this arrangement failed, and Assam

became a non-regulation province in 1838. On its southern borders lay the Lushais, the principal tribes

known to Assam being Thadoe and PoitooKukies. For many years, long before the British occupation, the

inhabitants of the plains to the south had lived in dread of the Kukies, who used to come down and attack

the villages, massacring the inhabitants, taking their heads, and plundering and burning their houses.

Boundary modifications In 1834, when the boundary of Manipur was redrawn to gift the disputed Kabaw valley to Burma, Chassad-

Kuki settlements were left neither in Manipur nor Burma.

This 1834 line came to be known as the Pemberton Line, after Capt. R. Boileau Pemberton who drew it

along the foot of “Muring hills” (British records), indicating that these hills were once the domain of the

MaringNagas.

The boundary was redrawn to bring Chassad within Manipur and this brought peace. The boundary

became the Pemberton-Johnstone Line after Col. James Johnstone, head of the 1881 boundary

commission. Burma was invited but failed to turn up.

This boundary was modified again in 1896 and thereafter came to be known as the Pemberton-

Johnstone-Maxwell Line. This is the line ratified by the Rangoon Agreement of 1967 between India and

Burma. The 1834 line is India’s earliest demarcated international boundary.



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The ghosts of Adichanallur (The Hindu)

Art & Culture

Context Adichanallur in southern Tamil Nadu has been an active playground of archaeologists and anthropologists

for more than 150 years. M. Kalyanaraman reports on the possible implications of recent research on

skeletal remains and artefacts that suggest an ancient Tamil civilisation of great sophistication and

antiquity.

Recent founding The four excavations in Adichanallur — by a German, a Frenchman, the British, and finally by Indians —

have unearthed hundreds of burial urns, most likely several thousands of years old, along with skeletal

remains and thousands of iron and bronze artefacts, including weapons and gold jewellery.

The recent discovery of an urban settlement in Keezhadi, in Sivaganga district, dates back to the Sangam

era (300 BC to 300 AD).

The skeletal remains excavated at Adichanallur did not quite match the biological structure of the

contemporary Tamil people. For instance, the jaws of many of the skulls were protruding, and appeared to

match those of Australian aborigines or Black Africans rather than a typical Tamil or south Indian.

The most recent Adichanallur excavations in 2004-05, led by Mr. Satyamurthy, showed that

Adichanallur, besides being an Iron Age burial site, was also a ‘habitation site’ where ancient

people lived.

Background At Adichanallur, arsenic was deliberately added to copper so that the alloy could be work-hardened over a

wide range of temperatures without fear of embrittlement. Among the ancients in India, this technique has

been found only in the Indus Valley, besides Adichanallur.

Awaiting closure 170 skeletal remains studied, Caucasoid constituted 35%, Mongoloid 30%, Negroid 14%, Australoid 5%,

Dravidian 8%, and mixed traits 8%. He says that the Australoid were likely contemporary Australian

aborigines who were known to have had seafaring qualities.



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Modern anthropologists frown upon any significance being attached to race, save for the purposes of

reconstructing history. The present belief is that there are four races: Australoid, Negroid, Caucasoid and

Mongoloid.

Adichanallur Adichanallur is an archaeological site In Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, India. The town is known

locally as Aathichanallur, and has been the site of a number of very important archaeological finds. Korkai

the capital of the Early Pandyan Kingdom is located about 15 km from Adichanallur.

Ramayana is a bridge that connects India with Asean (Hindustan times)

Culture

Context The eclectic interpretations of the epic in different Southeast Asian countries throw up many surprises

Story Behind In the 15th century, the capital of Thai- land was a city called Ayutthaya, which is Ayodhya in the local

language. When Burmese soldiers over ranthiscity in the 18thcentury,a new king rose. He called Himself

Ramal, established the city we now Known as Bangkok, wrote the epic Ramakien, which is Ramayana in

the local language, made it the national epic, and had it painted as murals on the walls of the Temple of the

Emerald Buddha, patronised by the royal family.

Though he was a Buddhist, the king established his royal credentials by identifying Himself with the

mythical Ram.

In those days, long before British Orientalists and the divide-and-rule policy, no one distinguished between

Buddhism and Hinduism.

Ram was as much a hero for Buddhists of Southeast Asia as he was for the Hindus of South Asia. Soon he

became a role model for local kings. This legitimising of kingship through Ramayana began more than

1,000

Buddhist monk Xuanzang travel to India and find original Buddhist scriptures.

Asin Thailand and Burma, kings of Cambodia today follow Theravada Buddhism. But centuries before, they

followed Mahayana Buddhism.

Story of the Epic Ramayana Differs in Other Parts of Asia Originally written in Sanskrit by sage Valmiki, the Ramayana has been interpreted in different ways in these

countries. These adaptations take the basic plot of Valmiki’s Ramayana but modify it according to the

culture of their own communities. It is then represented in different ways in their literature, dance, theatre

and also temple architecture.

1. The Buddhist version

In Dashratha Jataka, the Buddhist version of the Ramayana, Dashratha was the king of Kashi first and

then of Ayodhya. But the main point of departure from Valmiki’s version in this Ramayana is that Rama,

Sita and Lakshmana were sent to a hermitage in the Himalayas for twelve years by Dashratha in order to



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protect them from his over ambitious third wife Kalyani, instead of being banished from the kingdom as is

popularly believed.

2. The Jain version

In this version, Rama is a follower of non-violence. So, it is Lakshmana who kills Ravana and both of them

go to hell. Rama, in the end, renounces his kingdom and becomes a Jain monk and eventually

attains moksha. He also predicts that both Lakshmana and Ravana will be re-born as upright persons and

attain salvation.

3. The Malay version

Hikayat Seri Rama, the Malay version of the epic poem, gives Lakshmana a larger role and even increases

his importance as compared to Rama in some incidents. Malay writers and storytellers have also glorified

Lakshmana’s courage.

4. The Thai version

One of the most popular works of

literature in Thailand, Ramakien is

the Thai version of the Ramayana. It

is considered to be Thailand’s

national epic and has a deep

influence on Thai literature, culture

and art.

Though most of the stories are the

same as those in Valmiki’s

version, Ramakien gives more

importance to Hanuman.

5. The Burmese version

The Burmese version of the

Ramayana is known as Yama

Zatdaw and is the unofficial national epic of Myanmar. The plot, the features and characteristics of the

characters remain the same in this version, the only difference being the names, which are Burmese

transliterations of the Sanskrit names.

The liberation of Goa (The Hindu)

Freedom struggle

Context After Britain and France left India, it was expected that Portugal would leave too. But Portugal refused, this

article explains how Indian leaders were successful in liberating Goa.



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Why did Goa refused to leave? Portugal said that the Goan Catholics would not be safe if it left. Portugal conveniently overlooked the fact

over 60% of Goans were Hindus, and many Goan Christians, like the editor Frank Moraes, had a place of

honour in Indian public life.

Compared to only two lakh Catholics in Goa, there were five million Catholics living peacefully in secular

India. Geography, language and nationality bound the people of India with the people of Goa.

Reaction of other peoples in India In the rest of India, people began demanding that Goa be liberated forcibly. In 1955, a satyagraha was

launched by the communist and socialist parties for the freedom of Goa.

When the satyagrahis entered Goa, the Portuguese opened fire, killing 20 Indians. Nehru imposed an

economic blockade, but was not prepared to go further.

He hoped that the popular movement in Goa and the pressure of world public opinion would force the

hands of the Goan authorities.

Military action It was in 1957, in a letter to Vinoba Bhave, that Nehru first hinted at the possibility of military action.

Finding that his policy of patience and adherence to international ethics had not yielded results, Nehru

decided to free Goa by force.

Final liberation On December 18, after a long-drawn fight against Indian troops, the Portuguese gave up resistance. The

Governor General of Goa, Vassalo e Silva, signed a document of unconditional surrender.

Khaps defanged (Indian Express)

Society

Context SC makes it illegal for extra-constitutional

organisations, society and parents from forcing marital

choices

A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Dipak

Misra observed on 16th January, that khaps have no

right to question the marital choices of community

members. While the matter in dispute, filed by the

NGO Shakti Vahini, concerned honour crimes and the

role of khaps.

Khap Panchayats A Khap Panchayat is an assembly of Khap elders,

and a SarvKhap is an assembly of many Khap

Panchayats.

Khaps are not affiliated with the formally elected

government bodies and is instead concerned with the



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affairs of the Khap it represents. It is not affiliated with the democratically elected local assemblies that are

also termed Panchayat.

A Khap Panchayat has no official government recognition or authority, but can exert significant social

influence within the community it represents.

Khaps have been the most egregious offenders in this regard, sanctioning ostracism, humiliation and the

use of lethal force against young people who exercise personal choice and marry in contravention of the

complex web of exogamous and endogamous conventions which govern marriage, and which prevail in the

social domain, outside the legal system.

In response to outrage about honour killings in India and Pakistan, some khaps have tried to embrace

modern values. In 2014, the Satrolkhap panchayat, Haryana’s biggest, permitted inter-caste marriages.

The dream of the city (Indian Express)

Development

Context India is home to many castes, subcastes, sects, faiths, creeds, ideologies and other undefined social

groupings. Each one of these groups has its own beliefs and ways of thinking.

If India is to be seen as a powerful and united nation, then the process of urbanisation will have to be

accelerated.

Why? The social, economic, cultural and political configurations in our villages are acutely patriarchal, communal

and casteist. By contrast, social structures in our cities, at least visibly and on the surface, mostly appear to

be civilised and sensitive.

Urbanization It is a process whereby populations move from rural to urban area, enabling cities and towns to grow. It can

also be termed as the progressive increase of the number of people living in towns and cities. It is highly

influenced by the notion that cities and towns have achieved better economic, political, and social mileages

compared to the rural areas.

Urbanization in India began to accelerate after independence, due to the country’s adoption of a mixed

economy, which gave rise to the development of the private sector. Urbanisation is taking place at a faster

rate in India. Population residing in urban areas in India, according to 1901 census, was 11.4%.

How can urbanization enhance the growth of a country? Social benefits and services

There are numerous social benefits attributed to life in the cities and towns. Examples include better

educational facilities, better living standards, better sanitation and housing, better health care, better

recreation facilities, and better social life in general.

Employment opportunities

In cities and towns, there are ample job opportunities that continually draw people from the rural areas to

seek better livelihood. Therefore, the majority of people frequently migrate into urban areas to access well



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paying jobs as urban areas have countless

employment opportunities in all developmental

sectors such as public health, education,

transport, sports and recreation, industries, and

business enterprises.

Modernization and changes in the mode of

living

Modernization plays a very important role in the

process of urbanization. As urban areas become

more technology savvy together with highly

sophisticated communication, infrastructure,

medical facilities, dressing code, enlightenment,

liberalization, and other social amenities

availability, people believe they can lead a

happy life in cities.

General Studies Paper - II

A strategy for the sea (Indian Express)

International Relation

Context India needs to mark 25 years of Indo-ASEAN by breaking diplomatic stasis, broadening horizons.

In news 10 ASEAN leaders will be the guests of honour at India’s 2018 Republic Day celebrations, and their

confabulations could decide the future course of this relationship.

Background ✓ India was accorded CSCAP membership in 2000 and participates in periodic conferences that act

as a forum for regional scholars and experts to exchange views and often provide useful policy

option inputs for Track I.

✓ This is for the first time that more than one Head of State/Government has been invited as Chief

Guest on India’s National Day.

✓ It is also a measure of India’s growing international profile and prestige that leaders of all 10 ASEAN

countries have readily acquiesced to participate in this event.

Issues with urbanization



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✓ The presence of the entire ASEAN leadership on this occasion is a natural extrapolation of the Act

East Policy (AEP) launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the first East Asia Summit (EAS)

attended by him in Myanmar in November 2014.

Act East Policy

✓ AEP is the successor to the Look East Policy (LEP) that was put in place by then Prime Minister

Narasimha Rao in 1992 under radically different geo-political and economic circumstances.

✓ LEP was primarily focused on strengthening economic ties between India and ASEAN states. The

end of the cold war and disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 provided a welcome opportunity

for India to reach out to South-East Asia to capitalize upon its historical, cultural and civilisational

linkages with the region.

✓ As External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said at the recently held ninth edition of the Delhi

Dialogue, India’s age-old ties with South-East Asia have been established through culture, trade

and religion and not through” conquest and colonization.”

✓ The Look East Policy registered impressive gains for 20 years after its inception. Having become a

sectoral partner of ASEAN in 1992, India became a dialogue partner and member of the ASEAN

Regional Forum (ARF) in 1996.

✓ India and ASEAN entered into a summit partnership in 2002, the 10th anniversary of LEP, and

launched negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in goods in 2003. These discussions

culminated in a bilateral deal being concluded in 2009 and becoming effective in 2010. Bilateral

trade and investment showed impressive gains in the first decade of this century.

Challenges and Opportunities Common concerns and aspirations, as well as similar

threats and challenges, confront the ASEAN countries and

India at a time when not only Asia but the whole world is in

the throes of an uncertain and unpredictable phase.

Developments over the next few months and years could

determine the final contours of relations in Asia and the

world.

Connectivity between India and ASEAN, particularly

Myanmar and Thailand, has emerged as a significant

element in cementing bonds between the two regions.

Better infrastructure connecting Northeast India and

ASEAN has become the sine qua non for stronger

economic and trade partnership and vital contributor to

prosperity and economic development of the region.

Two major connectivity projects, viz., the Trilateral

Highway between north-east India and Myanmar and

onwards to Thailand (and Laos and Vietnam) as well as the

Kaladan multi-modal transit and transport project, have

been under implementation for several years. The NDA

government has taken it up seriously.



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The people connection (The Hindu)

International Relations

Context

This article deals with relations between India and Israel, Young Israelis visit India in huge numbers each

year, forging a stronger acquaintance.

Why in news? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accompanied on his visit to India by a large delegation drawn

from the defence, cyber, and agricultural sectors; he intends to boost trade, investment, and tourism

between the two nations.

Highlights This year, Israel’s will spend $5-6 million in India in a bid to boost tourism to Israel. The goal is to have one

lakh tourists visiting Israel in 2018. Ministry of Tourism

Several people from the Israeli foreign service visited India to help make arrangements for those Jews who

wished to makealiyah – the right of any Jew to “ascend” to Israel.

Most Israelis knew little about India until about the mid-1990s. Some of the European pioneers of Israel

were familiar with Tagore’s writings, and a street in Tel Aviv is named after him.

Condition of Indian origin Jewish in Israel There are many Indian Jews living in Israel – over 80,000 – they have remained a relatively quiet and

somewhat “invisible” community.

In Israel, Indian Jews are largely subsumed into the larger “Mizrahi” community of non-white Jews from

North Africa and West Asia.

The Jews from Cochin settled mostly in “ moshavs ”, or community farms, in southern Israel.

The Indian Jews in Israel have always held strong ties to India

‘A human bridge’ More than 40,000 Israelis visit India each year. For a country with a population of 6.5 million, that is a

considerable number. India is now almost an obligatory visit for Israelis after finishing their compulsory

army service.



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Standing up for human rights (The Hindu)

Human Rights

Context India must hasten to bring in an anti-torture law

Why? This is because the torture of individuals in state custody remains a brazen human rights abuse that mocks

our governance even as we claim human dignity as the end objective of the Indian state, with the Supreme

Court affirming it as “an intrinsic value, constitutionally protected in itself”

Cause for concern The necessity to move the highest court arose because even years after India became a signatory to the

Convention Against Torture in 1997, we have not been able to ratify it or have in place a domestic

legislation to effectuate the right to life with dignity read into Article 21 of the Constitution.

Baffling stand The court’s disinclination to exercise its expansive review jurisdiction for enforcing the non-negotiable right

to dignity in the face of legislative and government inaction is inexplicable given the court’s activism as

sentinel on the qui vive qua enforcement of constitutional rights.

And this despite the 2010 recommendation of the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha supported by the

National Human Rights Commission, the Law Commission of India and repeated assurances given on

behalf of the Indian government at the UN Universal Periodic Review.

Facts ✓ India does not have an Anti-Torture Law

✓ India had signed the UN Convention against torture way back in 1997, had still not ratified it. The

Convention defines torture as a criminal offence

✓ Due to this, extraditions are difficult

✓ 90% of the States had no objection for a special law on torture and the NHRC itself had strongly

supported the need for such a law

What does SC say? India may be finding it tough to secure extraditions because there is a fear within the international

community that the accused persons would be subject to torture here.

The court referred to the setback suffered by the CBI in its efforts to get Kim Davy — a Danish citizen and

prime accused in the Purulia arms drop case of 1995 — extradited from Denmark. A Danish court had

rejected the plea on the ground that he would risk “torture or other inhuman treatment” in India.



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Steps taken so far Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 was passed by Lok Sabha in 2010 itself. But even six years after that, it has

not been passed by RS.

India had signed the UN Convention against torture way back in 1997, had still not ratified it.

The birth of India’s powerful Supreme Court (Livemint)

Judicial judgement

Supreme Court The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under the Constitution of

India, the highest constitutional court, with the power of constitutional review. Consisting of the Chief

Justice of India and 25 sanctioned other judges, it has extensive powers in the form of original, appellate

and advisory jurisdictions.

Summary of ten events which are of special importance to paramount judiciary in India between 1921 and 1964

First would be Sir Hari Singh Gour’s resolution, introduced during the first session of the Central Legislative

Assembly in 1921, in which he urged the establishment of an indigenous appellate tribunal. Gour’s

resolution marked the beginning of efforts made to persuade the colonial authorities, and Indian nationalist

leaders as well, that there was real need and justification for the creation of a central judicial institution on

Indian soil. The purposes Gour sought to achieve were really quite modest

He sought the establishment in India of a court which would be empowered to decide civil and

criminal appeals from the High Courts of British India, and a reduction in the number of such appeals

which for decades had gone directly from the High Courts to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in

London. Although Gour and others could offer many substantial arguments in support of their proposals,

their efforts met with failure for several years, chiefly because key Indian leaders were not convinced that

India’s interests would be served best by decreasing the role of the Privy Council, which over the years had

earned a reputation for impartiality and integrity which placed it in a category apart from all other colonial

institutions.



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The next development of significance took place in 1930 at the opening session of the Indian Round Table

Conference in London. At this conference, spokesmen for the Indian States indicated a willingness to

participate in a federation with the Provinces of British India, and the leaders of each side agreed that

should a federation emerge, a Federal Court would be essential to interpret the constitution and settle

disputes which might arise between the federated units.

This general agreement, however, concerned the creation of a central tribunal which would exercise only a

purely federal jurisdiction. Considerable controversy was evident on the question of conferring a general

appellate, not merely federal, jurisdiction on the proposed court. The result was a compromise, for the

Government of India Act of 1935 made provision for a Federal Court without a general appellate

jurisdiction, but which might at some future date take over the appellate jurisdiction of the Privy Council.

A third milestone was the inauguration of the Federal Court in 1937. Although this event marked the

establishment of India’s first central judicial institution, this beginning was quite unspectacular. Composed

of only two puisne judges and a Chief Justice, the Federal Court was smaller than any of the Provincial

High Courts and looked little like an important institution. Its jurisdiction was very limited, the subcontinent-

wide federation for which it was to serve as the demarcator of spheres of authority had failed to materialize,

and its decisions were subject to review by the Privy Council.

For a few years, the existence of the Federal Court was almost unnoticed, for it handed down only twenty-

seven decisions and two advisory opinions over the first four and one-half years. But in April of 1942 the

Federal Court handed down the first of a series of decisions in which it either boldly struck down provisions

of the infamous sedition, preventive detention and special criminal court ordinances and legislation, or

declared that the executive had not acted within the limits of its authority. All but one of these decisions

were unanimous, with the British Chief Justice joining his Indian colleagues in restraining the alien

executive from interfering arbitrarily with individual liberties. These decisions were proof of the

resoluteness, impartiality and independence of the Federal Court, and they served to inspire a high degree

of confidence in the Court.

Thus these World War II decisions must be regarded as a fourth milestone in the evolution of the

paramount judiciary in India.

The achievement of national independence had hardly an effect on the functioning of the Federal Court.

But just over two years later a very significant step was taken by the Constituent Assembly when it passed

the Abolition of Privy Council Jurisdiction Act. The fact that judicial autonomy was delayed until over two

years after the achievement of national independence indicates that considerable thought was given to

desirability of severing all ties with the Privy Council. In terms of the evolvement of the Indian judiciary, the

effect of severing ties with the Privy Council was largely psychological, for as long as India maintained

these ties the Federal Court was looked upon by many as an intermediate appellate tribunal,

notwithstanding the fact that the Privy Council reversed Federal Court decisions only five times.

The sixth event of great significance was the replacement of the Federal Court by the Supreme Court in

1950 when the Constitution of India became operative.

Although continuity was apparent in that judges of the Federal Court continued to serve on the Supreme

Court, the jurisdiction and powers of the Supreme Court bear little resemblance to those of its predecessor.

Sitting at the summit of a pyramidal and unified judicial system, endowed with an extraordinarily wide

jurisdiction, and explicitly authorized to exercise the power of judicial review, the Supreme Court was

placed in a position of central importance.

Seventh in this listing must be the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of A. K. Gopalan v. The

State of Madras. This was the first case in which the Supreme Court was called upon to interpret the new

Constitution, the first to involve the fundamental rights, the first to involve the controversial Preventive

Detention Act, the first in which an individual bypassed all lower courts and took his grievance directly to

the Supreme Court, and the first in which the Supreme Court, in the exercise of its new powers, declared

unconstitutional a portion of a Parliamentary enactment. Understandably, the Gopalan decision has been

more commented upon by foreign writers than any other decision of the Court. In one important respect,

however, the Gopalan ruling is atypical, for in this decision the Court was modest in defining its own powers



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and role vis-à-vis Parliament. While it is true that the Court started off on a modest and self-distrustful note

regarding its powers of review in this case, this certainly has not been the general approach of the

Supreme Court in cases involving other fundamental rights.

The next important development took place in 1951 when the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in

the Dorairajan case. This decision must be regarded as one of the most important ever rendered by the

Supreme Court, for it was the first to involve both the fundamental rights and the directive principles, and

the Court in its decision not only enforced the fundamental right over the directive principle, but went so far

as to describe the fundamental rights as “sacrosanct” and the directive principles as“subsidiary”.

Ninth in this listing, and the single most important constitutional development since 1950, is the enactment

of the Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Act in 1955. Precipitated by several Supreme Court decisions

concerning the degree to which property rights were protected by the Constitution, the Fourth Amendment

had the effect of limiting the Court’s review powers in cases involving restriction and acquisition of property

rights. If proof was necessary that the Government intended to proceed with its various programs affecting

property rights irrespective of decisions of the Supreme Court, or that judicial review in India does not mean

judicial supremacy, the Fourth Amendment provides the relevant evidence.

A tenth and final development of significance is the Supreme Court’s shift toward a more liberal

interpretation of the Constitution, which has become perceptible since the late 1950s. In a few recent

decisions, the Court has discussed rather freely the social and economic policy considerations which are

either explicit or implicit in the Constitution and various enactments, and has even endorsed the directive

principles as worthy goals. While such decisions have been too few to justify speaking in terms of a new

trend, they may indicate that the Court is attempting earnestly to accommodate both itself and the

Constitution with the welfare state aims of the Government.

Although the Supreme Court has been treated here as the lineal descendant of the Federal Court, the

differences between the two institutions are much more notable than the similarities. Small in size, limited in

jurisdiction, and functioning during the tumultuous twilight of the British raj and the difficult period which

followed national independence and the partition of the subcontinent, the Federal Court was an institution

of peripheral importance. Few important questions were submitted to the Federal Court for its adjudication;

indeed, the major questions which stirred the subcontinent between 1937 and 1950 were hardly justiciable.

Importance of federal courts The real importance of the Federal Court lies in the fact that it was a stable and respected institution which

functioned according to the terms of its charter during the most critical period in the history of modern India,

and that in spite of the severe handicaps under which it operated, it was independent of the executive.

Indeed, it demonstrated all the qualities—independence, impartiality, integrity, and dignity—which Indians

associated with the Privy Council, and which they wished to have emulated by the judiciary in India. The

Federal Court earned the respect and confidence of the Indian public, and when the Supreme Court

replaced the Federal Court in 1950, it inherited this invaluable legacy.

In contrast with the Federal Court, the present Supreme Court of India occupies a position of

central importance. Its jurisdiction is so extraordinarily extensive that there are very few questions

or disputes which can escape the scrutiny of the Court.



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Offices Without Profit (Indian Express)

Indian Politics

Context

This article explains the office without profit in details with reference to disqualification of AAP MLAs is

questionable on both legal and procedural grounds.

We know that our constitution is heavily based on English antecedents.

With the recent recommendation by the Election Commission (ECI) to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs.

Important conventions have been thrown into sharp relief Convention of state practice comes from the Commons tradition of England. In the Act of Union 1707, the

House of Commons sought to secure its independence from the Crown.

As a result, the legislative body espoused the disqualification that “no person who has an office or place of

profit under the King, or receives a pension from the Crown, shall be capable of serving as a member”. The

idea was to adopt a House that was free from the executive influence of the monarch (executive or

government); against whom the tussle of power was underway.

What is ‘office of profit’? The word ‘office’ has not been defined in the Constitution or the Representation of the People Act of 1951.

But different courts have interpreted it to mean a position with certain duties that are more or less of public

character.

However, a legislator cannot be disqualified from either the Parliament or state Assembly for holding any

office.

It can be done by holding

✓ An office;

✓ An office of profit;

✓ An office under the union or state government;

✓ An office exempt by law from purview of disqualificatory provisions.

All four conditions have to be satisfied before an MP and MLA can be disqualified.

Office of profit under Indian Constitution The term office of profit has not been defined in the Constitution. But, articles 102 (1) and 191 (1) – which

give effect to the concept of office of profit — prescribe restrictions at the central and state level on

lawmakers accepting government positions. Any violation attracts disqualification of MPs or MLAs, as the

case may be.



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According to Article 102 (1) (a), a person shall be disqualified as a member of Parliament for holding any

office of profit under the government of India or the government of any state, “other than an office declared

by Parliament by law not to disqualify its holder”. Article 191 (1) (a) has a similar provision for the members

of state assemblies.

However, articles 102 and 191 clarify that “a person shall not be deemed to hold an office of profit under

the government of India or the government of any state by reason only that he is a minister”.

Further, the last part of the two provisions protects a lawmaker holding a government position if the office

has been made immune to disqualification by law.

An eye on the police (Indian Express)

Governance

Context Delhi needs an effective police complaints authority

On December 5, 2017, Delhi High Court asked the Centre and Delhi government to finalise a scheme for a

Police Complaints Authority (PCA) for the national capital by January 2018.

Why this urgency? It is required because policymakers must be made to feel the pressure. While Delhi Police routinely tops

the charts in the number of complaints against police personnel, residents have been denied an effective

and independent body to respond to their complaints.

Background In 2006, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered all states and Union Territories to set up PCAs as one of seven

directives to usher in police accountability.

A PCA is intended to be a free-standing, absolutely independent adjudicator with diverse membership,

intended to act as a remedy for the public and a corrective mechanism for the police. In the court’s scheme,

a PCA is envisaged as a body to address complaints filed by the public against police officials in cases

ranging from custodial death, torture, illegal detention, and even land grabbing

In 2012, the Delhi government with the approval of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), extended the

mandate of the existing Public Grievances Commission (PGC) in the city to respond to complaints against

the police.

At present, there are individuals who act “as the PCA” within the PGC.

This is in violation of the court’s directive and led to a petition being filed in the Delhi High Court in 2015,

seeking an independent specialised PCA.

Factors to mandate and jurisdiction of a PCA for Delhi There are standards in place, namely the SC’s directive on the PCAs and a memo issued by the MHA

directing the setting up of PCAs in the Union Territories.



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The MHA’s memo is in violation of the court’s directive with several gaps impeding both the independence

and potential effectiveness of the agency.

The MHA’s memo sets up a single complaints authority for Delhi, presumably with jurisdiction over all

complaints and police ranks.

The memo is also silent on providing independent investigators for the PCA

Not a criminal act (The Hindu)

Legal Reform

Similarities between the offence of ‘theft’ and ‘adultery’ under the Indian Penal Code.

Adultery is, after homicide, the most punishable of all crimes, because it is the cruellest of all thefts.”

In 1707, English Lord Chief Justice John Holt stated that a man having sexual relations with another man’s

wife amounted to “the highest invasion of property.”

Our Supreme Court too held that breaking a matrimonial home is no less serious a crime than

breaking into a house and refused to strike down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), under

which men can be prosecuted for adultery.

The gender argument Under Section 497, a wife cannot prosecute her husband or his lover for violating the so-called

sanctity of a matrimonial home as the husband is not her exclusive property but a husband and

only a husband can prosecute his wife’s paramour under Section 198(2) of the Code of Criminal

Procedure, 1973.

Section 497 of the IPC punishes only the man for stealing another man’s property, i.e. his wife. The court

treated Section 497 as a special provision made by the state in favour of women in exercise of its powers

under Article 15(3) of the Constitution.

Across the world Adultery is no more a criminal offence in most European countries. In the U.S., adultery is generally

punished in some states only if committed habitually or with public notoriety. But in countries such as Saudi

Arabia, Yemen and Pakistan, adultery continues to be a capital offence.

The 42nd report of the Law Commission (1971), with some hesitation, recommended retention of adultery

provision as in its view, the time was not yet ripe to repeal it but it did recommend making the law gender

neutral and reduction of punishment of imprisonment from five years to two years.

In its 156th report, the Law Commission (1997) favoured the legislative initiative in reforming adultery law

but, surprisingly, the commission preferred retention of five years imprisonment.



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Master and the roster (Indian Express)

Judicial Reform

Context Power is increasingly being centralised with the CJI. It calls for reform that brings accountability and

transparency to the office without compromising on judicial independence

Why in new? Recently four of the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference at the residence of

Justice JastiChelameswar. In the press conference — an unprecedented event in the annals of the

judiciary — they expressed concern about the manner in which the Chief Justice of India was administering

the Court, and released a letter that they had written to him.

Key point The chief justice decides when a case may be listed for hearing, and she also decides which judges will

hear it.

It is followed by many constitutional courts across the world and facilitates smooth and efficient judicial

functioning.

Comparison with US Courts Supreme Court now consists of 26 judges, who predominantly sit in benches of two.

Compare this with the US Supreme Court, for example, where all its nine judges sit together (en banc) to

hear cases, or the UK’s Supreme Court, where 12 judges often sit in panels of five (or more). The Chief

Justice of the US Supreme

Court, therefore, has no choice in the question of which judges will hear a case, and in the UK, the choice

is significantly constrained.

If judges are meant to apply the law, wouldn’t the outcome of a case remain unchanged, no matter which

judge hears it,

Why does it matter? Legal texts are linguistic artefacts, and language is always open to interpretation. Nor can the discipline of

law be segregated from the social, political and historical context in which it exists. Two judges who come

from different contexts may even understand the same set of facts very differently.

Now, to curtail these kinds of divergences, legal systems evolve homogenising tools, such as a system of

precedent, and a commonly accepted interpretive approach towards legal texts.

Another issue Supreme Court is dealing with a massive backlog of cases. This means that “in the normal course of

things”, a petition will take many years to be heard and decided. The chief justice, however, has the power

to “list” cases for hearing.



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The ABC of the RTE (The Hindu)

Education Policy

In news Clauses in the Act which have gone largely untouched and unnoticed

Focus on retention

Context The Act envisaged that the state, i.e. State governments and panchayats, would aggressively ensure that

each child is brought into the schooling system and also “retained” for eight years, it has been business as

usual.

Issue

Unfortunately, tracking dropouts and preparing and mainstreaming them into age-appropriate classes has

been subsumed into existing scheme activities.

The problem now is more about dropouts than children who were never enrolled.

Solution

Strategies to ensure retention need to change from the earlier approach of enrolling the un-enrolled.

Pupil-teacher ratio Issue

The most critical requirement, which has also got the least public attention, is the pupil-teacher ratio

(PTR).

Few stats

According to the Education Department’s data, under the Unified District Information System for

Education (U-DISE) database 2015-16, 33% of the schools in the country did not have the requisite

number of teachers, as prescribed in the RTE norms, for PTR at the school level.

Solution

Teacher provisioning should be the first option to fund as no educationally developed country has built up a

sound schooling foundation without a professionally-motivated teaching cadre in place.

Think decentralisation Issue

The academic calendar will be decided by the local authority, which, for most States and Union Territories,

is the panchayat. This provision recognises the vast cultural and regional diversities within the country such

as local festivals, sowing and harvesting seasons, and even natural calamities as a result of which schools

do not function academically.

Solution

If panchayats, perhaps at the district level, decide the working days and holidays, this would not only

exponentially increase attendance and teaching-learning but also strengthen local panchayats, being

closest to the field, to take ownership of their schools.



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Basic Gyan

Right to education (RTE)

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Act of

the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free

and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21a of the Indian

Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when

the Act came into force on 1 April 2010.

The Act makes education a fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 and specifies

minimum norms in elementary schools. It requires all private schools to reserve 25% of seats to children (to

be reimbursed by the state as part of the public-private partnership plan).

Kids are admitted into private schools based on economic status or caste-based reservations.

It also prohibits all unrecognised schools from practice and makes provisions for no donation or capitation

fees and no interview of the child or parent for admission. The Act also provides that no child shall be held

back, expelled, or required to pass a board examination until the completion of elementary education.

There is also a provision for special training of school drop-outs to bring them up to par with students of the

same age.

Left behind (The Hindu)

Education Policy

Context The right to free and compulsory education must be extended to the 14-18 age group

In news The ASER sample study estimates that 14% of (14-18) age group — a total of 125 million young Indians in this category — are not enrolled. It is absolutely essential for all of them to get an education that equips them with the skills, especially job-oriented vocational capabilities, if the expectation of a demographic dividend is to be meaningful.



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Requirement It is absolutely essential for all of them to get an education that equips them with the skills, especially job-

oriented vocational capabilities, if the expectation of a demographic dividend is to be meaningful.

The state of rural elementary education is far from encouraging. To begin with, only 5% of the respondents

in the survey, which was aided by the NGO Pratham, reported doing any kind of vocational course, and

even among this small minority a third were enrolled for three months or less.

Only 43% of the youth could solve an arithmetic problem involving division of a three-digit number by a

single digit.

Right to education The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Act of

the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free

and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21a of the Indian

Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child

when the Act came into force on 1 April 2010.

The title of the RTE Act incorporates the words ‘free and compulsory’. ‘Free education’ means that no child,

other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the

appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent

him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.

Compulsory education’ casts an obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to provide

and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in the 6-14 age

group.

With this, India has moved forward to a rights-based framework that casts a legal obligation on the Central

and State Governments to implement this fundamental child right as enshrined in the Article 21A of the

Constitution, in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act.17.

Training teachers (The Hindu)

Education Policy

Context This article talks about an Amendment Bill that seeks to better the lot of teachers.

Institutions which impart teacher training courses have failed to get the necessary recognition from

the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

The future of those who graduate from such institutions, which are funded by the Central/ State government

or Union Territory administration concerned, has been in jeopardy.

The NCTE (Amendment) Bill, 2017 The Bill amends the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993. The Act establishes the National

Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). The NCTE plans and co-ordinates the development of the teacher

education system throughout the country. It also ensures the maintenance of norms and standards in the

teacher education system.



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Key features of the 2017 Bill include Retrospective recognition of certain teacher education institutions:

The Bill seeks to grant retrospective recognition to institutions:

✓ Notified by the central government,

✓ Funded by the central government or state/union territory government,

✓ Which do not have recognition under the Act,

✓ Which must have offered teacher education courses on or after the establishment of the NCTE until

the academic year 2017-2018.

Retrospective permission to start new courses

The Bill also seeks to grant retrospective permission to start a new course or training in teacher education

to institutions:

✓ Notified by the central government,

✓ Funded by the central government or state/union territory government,

✓ Which have satisfied certain conditions required for the conduct of a new course or training in

Teacher education,

✓ Which must have offered teacher education courses on or after the establishment of the NCTE until

the academic year 2017-2018.

Three milestones in education (The Hindu)

Education Policy

Context There is enough data about the learning crisis in India. What is needed is effective decentralised action.

Benefits of RTE The children who are today in Class VIII are the first cohort to benefit from the Right to Education Act,

which came into effect in April 2010.

With almost all these children not only enrolling in school but completing at least eight years in the

education system, we are in an excellent position to think seriously about what eight years of schooling

should entail and what it should enable children to do.

Sources of data available on Children learning Annual Status of Education Report (ASER).

National Achievement Survey (NAS).

Both use different methodologies – ASER is a household survey and NAS is a school-based effort.



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Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)

• The word aser means impact in Hindustani. If development programs are to lead to desired outcomes,

their impact on the ground needs to be regularly assessed.

• ASER Centre seeks to use simple yet rigorous methods to generate evidence on scale on the outcomes

of social sector programs. It also aims to strengthen the link between evidence and action by building the

capacity of individuals and institutions to design, conduct, and understand assessments that focus on key

outcome indicators.

• The regular annual release of ASER findings has brought the issue of basic learning to the centre of

discussions on elementary education. Following the national release in mid January each year, ASER

findings are widely disseminated both in the media and directly by ASER Centre in a variety of ways and at

many different levels.

National Achievement Survey (NAS)

NAS is a representative sample of schools from all districts in India aimed at understanding the health of

the education system in government and government aided schools.

Findings from the NAS will be used for formulating policies, planning and pedagogical interventions to

improve student learning. It is not designed to assess the individual student performance.

Comparison Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) National Achievement Survey (NAS)

ASER is a household survey ✓ ASER conducts its assessment one-on-

one ✓ ASER focusses mainly on foundational

skills like reading and arithmetic, while NAS looks at a wider variety of skills.

✓ NAS is a school-based effort. ✓ NAS is a pen-paper test. ✓ NAS is a representative sample of children

who are enrolled in government or aided schools.

No Eminence By Diktat (Indian Express)

Education Policy

Context Education in India is systematic problem. According to Economic Survey 2017-18 Government is spending

less than 3 GDP in education. And it has been decreasing consistently since 2012-13.

Universities cannot be made world-class if the desire doesn’t come from within

The government is aiming at having many universities with a global footprint.

What needs to be done? The government will have to fund them. If later, we are told that the fiscal deficit is binding and funds are

scarce but universities can do without much money because systems in any case need improvements and

unit costs will fall, the disappointment will be crushing.



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For, good teachers have learnt to listen to assorted bureaucrats and netas for survival but don’t expect

much change from their lectures.

They know that systemic improvements can go far but while not too much money is needed, the net

additional costs of incentives and disincentives will have to be met.

Accountability of students, teachers and other officials in education sector is necessary.

Issues with education system in India Half the country does not even have access to proper education, and only a small fraction can go to

university.

– Lack of quality primary education for the poor

– Limited seats in Universities

Everything is about rote memorization, leading to behaviour which encourages cramming and forgetting

rather than life long learning.

Standardized testing determines everything, and aptitude of students is not recognized outside this format

Lack of diversity in the subjects you can take in college (e.g. can’t double major in Math and German like

you can in the USA)

Extreme pressure from parents / society to use education for financial security = CSE degrees for

programming jobs or medicine. Societal pressure to get into the “right schools“, not only for the education

aspect but to ensure good job/ marriage prospects, in general success in life. Little incentive to take risks

and follow own interests or encourage creativity. Generally conformist culture, which makes educational

achievement the only thing that matters to social standing.

Additional extreme pressure due to limited seats resulting in very intense competition between students.

Questionable remedy on the National Medical Commission Bill (The Hindu)

Health Policy

Context Key sections of the National Medical Commission Bill need a rethink

The Bill aims to overhaul the corrupt and inefficient Medical Council of India, which regulates medical

education and practice.

Objectives One of its goals is to rein in corruption in the MCI through greater distribution of powers.

The most controversial provision of all is for a bridge course allowing alternative-medicine practitioners to

prescribe modern drugs.

One motivation could be to plug the shortfall of rural doctors by creating a new cadre of practitioners.



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Issue The shortfall of MBBS doctors is partly due to the fact that many of them seek a post-graduate degree to

improve career prospects.

MCI regulations prevent even experienced MBBS doctors from carrying out procedures like caesarians

and ultrasound tests, while nurses are barred from administering anaesthesia.

What is lagging in NMC bill? Empowering doctors and nurses to do more is a reform many have called for, and that would have been

easier to implement than a bridge course for AYUSH practitioners.

A three-year diploma for rural medical-care providers, along the lines of the Licentiate Medical Practitioners

who practised in India before 1946.

Graduates from such a three-year programme would only be allowed to provide basic care in under-served

pockets.

Massive protests by the Indian Medical Association and poor execution derailed the Chhattisgarh

experiment, but the idea wasn’t without merit.

Prescription for the future (The Hindu)

Health Policy

Context The National Medical Commission Bill has to be fine-tuned, especially in planning for rural health care.

Questions National Medical Commission Bill seeks to address How can India produce enough competent doctors to meet its evolving health-care challenges?

How can it minimise opportunities for rent-seeking in medical education and practice?

MCI’s (Medical Council of India) failures

For years, it was mired in allegations of bribery and going soft on unethical doctors. Under its stewardship,

the medical curriculum grew obsolete, resulting in a cadre of MBBS doctors who frequently couldn’t perform

basic procedures. This led to a rush among MBBS doctors to specialise, competing for a small number of

post-graduation seats. Today, India neither has enough basic doctors, nor specialists.

The National Medical Commission Bill, 2017 It 2017 was introduced by the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mr. J. P. Nadda in Lok Sabha on

December 29, 2017.

The Bill seeks to repeal the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and provide for a medical education

system which ensures



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✓ Availability of adequate and high quality medical professionals,

✓ Adoption of the latest medical research by medical professionals,

✓ Periodic assessment of medical institutions, and

✓ An effective grievance redressal mechanism. Key features of the Bill include:

Constitution of the National Medical Commission The Bill sets up the National Medical Commission (NMC). Within three years of the passage of the Bill,

state governments will establish State Medical Councils at the state level.

The NMC will consist of 25 members, appointed by the central government. A Search Committee will

recommend names to the central government for the post of Chairperson, and the part time

members. These posts will have a maximum term of four years.

The Search Committee will consist of seven members including the Cabinet Secretary and three experts

nominated by the central government (of which two will have experience in the medical field).

Members of the NMC will include ✓ The Chairperson,

✓ The President of the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board,

✓ The President of the Post-Graduate Medical Education Board,

✓ The Director General of Health Services, Directorate General of Health Services,

✓ The Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, and

✓ Five members (part-time) to be elected by the registered medical practitioners from amongst

themselves from the prescribed regional constituencies under the Bill.

Functions of the National Medical Commission

✓ Framing policies for regulating medical institutions and medical professionals,

✓ Assessing the requirements of healthcare related human resources and infrastructure,

✓ Ensuring compliance by the State Medical Councils of the regulations made under the Bill,

✓ Framing guidelines for determination of fees for up to 40% of the seats in the private medical

institutions and deemed universities which are regulated as per the Bill.

Medical Advisory Council: Under the Bill, the central government will constitute a Medical Advisory

Council. The Council will be the primary platform through which the states/union territories can put forth

their views and concerns before the NMC. Further, the Council will advise the NMC on measures to enable

equitable access to medical education.

Autonomous boards: The Bill sets up certain autonomous boards under the supervision of the

NMC. Each autonomous board will consist of a President and two members, appointed by the central

government.

These boards are

The Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) and the Post-Graduate Medical Education Board

(PGMEB): These Boards will be responsible for formulating standards, curriculum, guidelines, and granting



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recognition to medical qualifications at the undergraduate and post graduate levels respectively,

The Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB): The MARB will have the power to levy monetary

penalties on medical institutions which fail to maintain the minimum standards as laid down by the UGMEB and the

PGMEB. The MARB will also grant permission for establishing a new medical college, and

The Ethics and Medical Registration Board: This Board will maintain a National Register of all licensed

medical practitioners, and regulate professional conduct. Only those included in the Register will be allowed to

practice medicine.

Entrance examinations There will be a uniform National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to under-graduate medical

education in all medical institutions regulated by the Bill. The NMC will specify the manner of conducting

common counselling for admission in all such medical institutions.

There will be a National Licentiate Examination for the students graduating from medical institutions to

obtain the license for practice. The National Licentiate Examination will also serve as the basis for

admission into post-graduate courses at medical institutions

Making our roads safe (The Hindu)

Public Policy

Context This article talks about The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017

The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2017. If passed by the Rajya

Sabha, it will be the first of its kind to extensively reform existing legislation on road safety, the Motor

Vehicles Act, 1988.

Highlights of the bill Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill,2017 provides uniform driver licensing system, protection of children and

vulnerable road users along with rationalising penalties. This bill focuses on eliminating lacunae by

digitization.

It centralises information by using Central Registry pertaining to drivers, such as types of licences held and

a record of violation of traffic laws. In this way those who are holding multiple licenses would be eliminated

in future for violating the traffic rules and regulations.

Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill emphasis on child safety as well. It mandates rider to take special care of

the child while riding and makes headgear must for each and every rider above 4 years age. It restricts

motor vehicle riding below 14 years and penalises the driver or guardian for the same. It asks state to

follow electronic monitoring mechanism for enhancing road safety.

It has raised drunken driving penalty to Rs10,000 for the first time and Rs15,000 subsequently. The new

Motor Vehicle Accident Fund also provides for the compensation for hit and run accidents ,in addition to

other accident cases.



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The bill also allows the central government to make a scheme for providing interim relief to claimants

seeking compensation under third party insurance for motor vehicle accident.

Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill,2017 carries immense potential to reduce the road accident if

implemented in true spirit. India has committed to reduce road fatalities to 50% by 2020 being a signatory

of Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety So, there is need of the hour that the traffic administration and the

citizen to be well aware of their duties and rights on the road itself. Then only India can secure its place in

accident prone nation.

A poor prognosis (The Hindu)

Health Policy

Context The National Medical Commission Bill is unlikely to provide a dynamic new thrust to medical care in India

Why in news? Medical Council of India (MCI) has outlived its utility and should be reformed or replaced. The remit for the

proposed new body, the National Medical Commission, should be clear, direct and workable.

Flaw in Medical Commission The lack of clarity on its function. In the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017 in the chapter titled

“powers and functions of the commission”, the phrase “lay down policy” occurs repeatedly.

Issues What type of medical practitioners should the country train? This is a matter that the government should

decide.



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It is poor policymaking to smuggle in clauses about interdisciplinary meetings between different medical

systems and bridge courses into this Bill, under the omnibus “miscellaneous” section (item number 49).

Solution It must be emphasised that modern medicine is wrongly labelled “Western”or “Allopathy”. Modern medicine

takes all that is useful in therapy regardless of its source. It subjects every treatment protocol to the

impartial tests of science.

It would be great statesmanship to move to just one scientific system of medicine in India, combining all

that is proven from different streams.

Other concern

Who should the members of the Commission be?

The present system of appointing members to the MCI has failed, resulting in rent-seekers repeatedly

entering the Council.

The present method of election, where potential candidates have to spend quite a large amount of money

and time to get elected, has the unfortunate outcome of ensuring that mostly rent-seekers seek election.

The election process should be reformed, not replaced

The price prescription (The Hindu)

Public Policy

Context This article talks about the laws regarding sale and advertisement of tobacco products.

Facts India is the second largest consumer and producer of tobacco-based products — categorised as sin goods

or demerit goods — and it has become imperative for policymakers to devise measures to effectively curb

their use.

Supreme Court Judgment The Supreme Court recently stayed a Karnataka High Court order setting aside the 2014 amendment rules

to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and

Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 that prescribed tobacco packages having

pictorial warnings covering 85% of the package space.

A skewed pattern The World Health Organisation’s Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS 2016-17) highlights India’s distinct

pattern of tobacco consumption in multiple forms such as cigarettes, bidis, chewing tobacco and khaini

(smokeless tobacco) — in contrast to the global trend of cigarettes being the primary source of

consumption. In India, bidis, chewing tobacco and khaini form 89% of consumption as against 11% for

cigarettes.



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Explanation If we look at the competitive dynamics and pricing, a key reason for such disparity is because it is based on

the unit-level pricing of multiple forms of tobacco.

The average unit price of a bidi or smokeless tobacco is significantly lower than of a cigarette.

After GST The price of an average bidi pack has been increased by 20 paise.

In comparison, the price rise post-GST is much higher for cigarettes. The average increase in pack price

has been the highest for the economy pack followed by the premium and mid-priced packs.

If we consider other tobacco-related variants such as smokeless tobacco and pan masala, their pricing

trends move in the opposite direction with respect to pack sizes.

Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 It is an Act of Parliament of India enacted in 2003 to prohibit advertisement of, and to provide for the

regulation of trade and commerce in, and production, supply and distribution of cigarettes and other

tobacco products in India.

This Act was enacted by the Parliament to give effect to the Resolution passed by the 39th World Health

Assembly, urging the member states to implement measures to provide non-smokers protection from

involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke.

Impact of GST Rate on the Tobacco Industry Excise duty is charged on the manufacturing of cigarettes, bidi, and other chewing tobacco products at

different rates.

Cigarette – 64%

Bidi – 22%

Chewing products – 81%

A lot of revenue is generated from the sale of tobacco for the Indian government. Although the tax burden

levied on the Indian tobacco industry is not enough as per the recommendation of the WHO for a tax

burden of 75% on all tobacco-related products.

There has been an increasing demand for a higher tax burden on the tobacco manufacturers.

Under GST, there will be an additional cess charged on the tobacco-related products, over and above the

GST charged at the rate of 28%

Conclusion Impact on the tobacco industry is going to be largely neutral since the 5% cess declared by the Indian

government was less than the expected rate by the tobacco industry. There will be an increase in the

expense of smokers due to the rise in the price of a cigarette in the initial period. Although, it is expected

that the tobacco industry, irrespective of the tax rate, would have a neutral effect due to the implementation

of GST.



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Enabling a form of super surveillance (The Hindu)

Public Policy

Context The Aadhaar project falls short in limiting biometrics collection to voluntary choice and in guaranteeing data

protection, this article talks about origin and growth of Aadhar card in India.

Why in news? On Wednesday, January 17, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to commence hearings

on a slew of petitions.

Few question to be discussed

What really is Aadhaar all about?

Is the machinery that supports it constitutionally sustainable?

How does the creation of a central identity database affect the traditional relationship between the

state and its citizens?

What, in a democracy, ought to be the role of government?

Aadhar

✓ The Aadhaar project (although the christening of it came later) was put in motion through an executive

notification issued in January 2009, which established the Unique Identification Authority of India

(UIDAI).

✓ The UIDAI’s task was to conceive a scheme that purported to identify residents using biometric

information — including, but not limited to iris scans and fingerprints — and to provide to people a

“unique identity number”.

✓ This, the state told us, will enable it to ensure a proper distribution of benefits and subsidies, by

plugging age-old leakages in delivering welfare services.

✓ A mountain of data was collected without any safeguards in place.

The project lacked any legislative sanction

Matter of concern Whether the state can at all compel a person to part with his or her biometric information without securing

the person’s informed consent.

The surveillance apparatus that the Aadhaar Act creates.

The third raises questions over the level of exclusion caused by the use of Aadhaar, for example, concerns

over the extent to which the programme meets its purported objectives.

The degree of protection offered to the data that the UIDAI collects, stores and operates.



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Imperilling access to welfare The Aadhaar programme possesses the capacity to exclude individuals from welfare schemes, as opposed

to aiding a more beneficial delivery of benefits.

How? Given that Aadhaar is being seeded with public distribution schemes, the likelihood of people being denied

basic welfare services, therefore, increases in manifold ways. The elderly and people involved in manual

labour are but two groups of people whose fingerprints are difficult to record accurately, imperilling, thereby,

their access to state services.

Be colour blind (Indian Express)

Rights Issues

Context This article talks about colour of passports in India

Why in news? As per the new rules issued by the Ministry of External Affairs last week, those who require emigration

check (the ECR category) will hereafter be issued orange-coloured passports while others (ECNR

category) will get blue ones.

Idea behind the proposal The government will be able to protect vulnerable labourers, who form the bulk of ECR category, from

exploitation when they travel outside India.

The intention behind the proposal is, no doubt, laudable, but in practice it is likely to facilitate discrimination.

The colour of passport could become an easy marker to segregate Indian citizens on the basis of their

socio-economic profile and discriminate against vulnerable sections.

The Emigration Act, 1983 Insists that certain categories of Indian passport holders obtain an “Emigration Clearance” from the office

of the Protector of Emigrants (POE) before travelling to certain countries.

The “ECR” stamp is to ensure the safety of uneducated and unskilled Indian citizens, leaving India with the

intent to secure employment, against the prevailing legal conditions in those countries.

The Indian Constitution promises all citizens equal rights and envisages an equal social order, irrespective

of caste, class, language, ethnicity etc, in place of a society, which practised, in Babasaheb Ambedkar’s

words, graded inequality.

Different passports for different classes is a return to an unequal social order: You can’t be equal if you are

kept different.



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General Studies Paper - III

Natural partners in the Asian century (The Hindu)

Economic Policy

Context This article compares growth and development of Asian countries to western countries

There is a need for a fresh perspective in India’s China policy

What is causing changes in Global power? Technology and size are causing this change. The physical size of a nation did not matter during the 19th

and most of the 20th centuries. Britain, Germany, France and Japan leveraged their Industrial Revolution

advantage on technology for armaments to become world powers despite their relatively small size.

Europe thus became the global centre till the late 1950s.

Potential power It is shifting to the two large nations of the Asian mainland, China and India, which are nuclear weapons

states and with fast-growing economies. Together they represent 60% of the Asian mainland.

Asia already accounts for almost half of the world’s population, half of the world’s container traffic, one-third

of its bulk cargo and 40% of the world’s off-shore oil reserves.

It is home to several fast-growing new economies with GDP growth rates above 7% per year, i.e. a

doubling of the GDP every 10 years.

Asian defence spending ($439 billion) is also much more than Europe’s ($386 billion). I

n a few years half of the world’s naval fleet and combat aircraft with extended range missiles, supported by

highly sophisticated communications networks, will soon be seen roaming in the Indo-Pacific region.

How can Indian and China reach the top in terms of Global power? To achieve that potential, both require hardware, software and the clear mindset for exercising this power.

As of now, China is ahead of India in reaching that level

India’s China policy thus needs a re-structuring based on a fresh perspective that is relevant for the 21st

century

Issue with India India is at present only a regional power. Because of its present mindset, it is obsessed with the problem of

Pakistan-trained terrorists entering Indian territory rather than asserting higher priority on global issues.



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Solution India, therefore, needs a new mindset: to look beyond Pakistan. Moreover, it depends on whether India’s

intellectual outlook matures enough to find acceptable accommodation with China for a partnership in Asian

peace.

The key for India today is to bond strategically with China.

India, therefore, has to strive imaginatively to become a stakeholder in this new global power paradigm

Fiscal populism would be really counterproductive’ (The Hindu)

Economic Policy

Context This article talks about an interview with chief Economic advisor regarding Economic Survey 2018, several

issues and solutions for them are being discussed.

Stock market levels and rising oil prices Inflation is going to be above your target, monetary policy will have to react accordingly.

It’s just a fact of life that when oil prices go up for an importing economy like India, corrective action has to

be taken make sure macro stability is maintained.

Note: If oil prices go up, it’s not necessary that excise duties come down because that presumes only one

perspective, which is of the consumer.

If the government does this, revenue comes down and deficit might go up.

Putting savings into equity A lot of people are putting their savings into equity.

Factors

Asset prices go up too much, they come down again. One can never time this, one can never say this is a

bubble.

All investors should be aware that this is not just going to go up and up. At some point it will come down.

How can this be tackled? Broader financial education.

Maybe heightened regulation as well.



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Fiscal consolidation Fiscal Consolidation refers to the policies undertaken by Governments (national and sub-national levels) to

reduce their deficits and accumulation of debt stock.

Fiscal Deficit = Budgetary Deficit + Market Borrowings + other liabilities

If growth is reviving and inflation and other things are happening, then this is the time for some serious

fiscal consolidation.

Bond markets are worried, inflation is rising. So, fiscal populism would be really counterproductive.

Structural issues in private investment Private investment to come back strongly, we need to grow to utilise the existing capacity, it’s still quite low.

And second is that the whole twin balance sheet issue will have to be addressed. Corporates will have to

start spending again, and the resolutions could be very important for them. Banks will have to start lending,

cleaning up debt.

The money trail: on the need for investor awareness on cryptocurrencies (The Hindu)

Digitalization

Context The Finance Ministry’s warning to potential investors in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin popularity The price of bitcoin, the most popular of all cryptocurrencies, not only shot up by well over 1000% over the

course of the last year

But the price also fluctuated wildly

One of the main reasons for this volatility is speculation and the entry into the market of a large number of

people lured by the prospect of quick and easy profit

Governments caution ✓ Most new users(of the technology) know close to nothing of the technology, or how to verify the

genuineness of a particular cryptocurrency

✓ A number of investors, daunted by the high price of bitcoin, have put their money into less well-

established and often spurious cryptocurrencies, only to lose it all

✓ Even some private cryptocurrency operators in India have gone on record saying that as many as

90% of the currencies are scams

✓ The use value of cryptocurrencies, both as a medium of exchange and as a store of value, is still

being explored



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View of other countries on bitcoins Countries like South Korea and the U.S. are intensifying regulatory scrutiny of the market

South Korea, where bitcoin became something of a craze, recently proposed legislation to either heavily

regulate exchanges or ban them

Recently in the U.S., a court ordered a popular cryptocurrency platform to hand over information related to

14,000 accounts to the Internal Revenue Service, undermining the anonymity the digital currencies offer

India’s concern India must be careful to differentiate between cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology they are

based on

Cryptocurrencies may or may not emerge as a useful tool, especially since the government may not want to

encourage the proliferation of anonymous, non-fiat currencies as its anti-black money fight intensifies

Prediction Yet some bitcoin enthusiasts still believe that the currency may only be consolidating to begin its next huge

rally to the sky.

Trend The digital currency, since it hit its peak price last month, has struggled to maintain its uptrend.

Each time it has tried to rally upwards, the price has failed to go past its previous high and subsequent

corrections have been severe enough to push the price below its previous low.

Bitcoin’s bearish price behaviour in the last one month is in direct contrast to its monster rally last year

when its price showed a clear uptrend marked by higher highs and higher lows.

Time for prudence If you were a speculator simply looking to make a quick buck without any care about fundamentals, a good

time to buy bitcoin was when its price action showed a clear uptrend in price, which was over most of last

year.

Now, when its price is showing clear signs of reversal, a prudent speculator is likely to keep away if not

go short on the digital currency

This is not to completely rule out the possibility that bitcoin might stage a surprise comeback, as it has in

the past after severe price corrections.

People buying bitcoin at the moment in fact believe that they are simply buying a temporary dip in its price

before the next huge rally.

Possibilities For one, the digital currency, which is supposed to derive its value from its use as a medium of exchange,

has had negligible acceptance in the real world of commerce.

Second, it has always seemed foolish to think that governments, which fancy their monopoly power over

the issuance of currency, would be ready to allow private currencies to compete against national

currencies.



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Blockchain technology

Positive

High quality data: User are in control of all their information and transaction

Process integrity: Use can trust that transactions will be executed exactly as the protocol commands

removing the need for a trusted third party.

Transparency and immunizability: Changes to public blockchain are publicly viewable by all the parties

creating transparency and all transaction immutable that they cannot be altered or deleted.

Demerits



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Economic policy challenges in 2018 (Livemint)

Economy

Recently, the government announced that it would go in for additional market borrowings of Rs50,000

crore

The latest data showed that the government’s fiscal deficit reached 112% of the full-year target during April-

November 2017

The decline in GST collection for December indicates that the system is likely to take more time to stabilize

Challenge The challenge for the government will be to find a balance where it is able to address problems in the

agriculture sector, which are genuine and need attention, with the minimum possible fiscal slippage

What government needs to do?

✓ It will immediately need to work to stabilize the GST system

✓ Better visibility on the revenue side will also help in managing expenditure

✓ The government has done reasonably well so far this year on the disinvestment front

✓ It should aggressively use this option to overcome temporary glitches on the revenue side and

maintain the momentum on capital expenditure

✓ The government will need to continue to move forward with reforms in order to improve the ease of

doing business

✓ India managed to move up 30 notches in the World Bank’s doing business rankings in 2017

✓ Continued progress will increase economic activity, which will also help in generating revenue

Why is economy unlikely to get support from monetary policy?

✓ Government intervention in the farm sector in terms of higher support prices, or higher import tariffs,

will push up food prices

✓ Crude prices have firmed up in recent months, rising significantly from the lows seen in 2015

✓ Higher food and fuel prices and the possibility of fiscal slippage are unlikely to encourage the

monetary policy committee of the RBI to lower rates in the foreseeable future

Future Challenges in Brief Overall, even though the growth rate is likely to improve, economic management will be comparatively

difficult in 2018

Fiscal management will be a real challenge and a big downside surprise could affect market sentiment

Further, the government would be well advised to move forward on the reforms path



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http://www.civilsdaily.com/govt-to-borrow-more-fiscal-deficit-may-widen/

http://www.civilsdaily.com/govt-to-borrow-more-fiscal-deficit-may-widen/

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Both foreign and domestic investors, for instance, will closely watch how well the bank recapitalization plan

is executed

It is possible to use this opportunity to transform the sector forever

IBC Amendment Bill cleared by the Parliament (Livemint)

Economy

In news The IBC Amendment Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha amid concerns that the changes could bar genuine

domestic investors from the insolvency resolution process, adversely affect MSMEs and lead to large scale

litigation.

Highlights ✓ Insolvency is a relatively new area in India and there could be further corrections in laws and rules

depending on the experience of the resolution process.

✓ The IBC ordinance sought to bar wilful defaulters, defaulters whose dues had been classified as non-

performing assets (NPAs) for more than a year, and all related entities of these firms from participating

in the resolution process.

✓ The bill, however, allows defaulting promoters to be part of the debt resolution process, provided they

repay dues in a month to make their loan account operational and the resolution happens within the

overall time frame specified in the code.

✓ This will help promoters who had submitted resolution plans before the ordinance barred them from

taking part in the resolution process of companies.

✓ The bill also allows asset reconstruction companies, alternative investment funds (AIFs) such as private

equity funds and banks to participate in the bidding process.

Background The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was enacted in 2016 to find a time-bound resolution for ailing and

sick firms, either through closure or revival, while protecting the interests of creditors.

The bill has also sought to bring any individual who was in control of the NPA under the ambit of the

insolvency code.



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Indian Real Estate is on an upward Trajectory (Livemint)

Infrastructure & Development

Context India’s real estate sector witnessed some significant developments over the past year-and-a-half. These

have changed the face of the industry and augur well for it in the long run.

The sector has become more transparent and organized owing to recent policy changes and consumers

are better off for these.

Significance of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 (RERA)

✓ The act brought unprecedented levels of transparency into real estate projects

✓ RERA promises to minimize delays in projects, weed out unscrupulous developers, and provide

homebuyers with detailed information on the specifications and the progress of the projects they

invest in

✓ The Real Estate sector also got benefited due to simultaneous implementation of the RERA and the

GST

Other government’s efforts for encouraging Real Estate Sector ✓ The sector will also benefit from the amendments that were made late in 2016 to the Benami

Transactions Prohibition Act

✓ This, coupled with the central government’s stated intent to make Aadhaar linkage compulsory for all

property transactions, will help in curbing malpractices and stopping the inflow of black money into

real estate

✓ The recapitalization of banks will also rejuvenate the banking sector and give a boost to lending(for

the sector)

Significance ✓ These reforms will bring transparency and accountability in the sector

✓ Developers need to be sufficiently funded to achieve RERA compliance

✓ Small or cash-starved developers will probably have no choice but to partner with larger, established

players to survive

✓ Moreover, unscrupulous developers—big or small—will have no place to hide in the transparent

environment that RERA will usher into the industry

✓ The real estate sector will be institutionalized, and probably have fewer—but larger and more reliable—

developers in the years to come

New policies by the government The Union budget for 2017–18 granted infrastructure status to the affordable housing segment



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More recently, the ministry of housing and urban affairs introduced as many as eight public-private-

partnership options to encourage private investments in affordable housing projects

These new policies, if implemented well, could give a much-needed boost to this segment and make it a

powerful growth driver for the real estate sector

The way forward A boom in affordable housing and the resulting construction and allied jobs can help make a significant

dent in the malaise of joblessness

It can also have a multiplier effect on the national gross domestic product, and boost the demand for

different categories of products and services

India’s real estate is transitioning to a new era after what has been a rather eventful year

Three paradigms of banking regulation (Livemint)

Banking Reform

History of control over Banks Banks are among the most regulated businesses

Ever since the inception of banking as a business in the medieval period, the state has exercised some

form of control

While banks have been regulated since their inception, the approach to regulation has followed an

evolutionary path where we can discern different paradigms

The Money paradigm, the Intermediation paradigm, and the emerging Marketplace paradigm(as described

by the writer)

The Money paradigm It views banks essentially as monetary institutions whose primary role is to “create” money

When banks are seen primarily as issuers of money, issuing loans is incidental

The approach to bank regulation focuses on the role they play in the creation and use of money, and on

controlling the price of money i.e interest rates

Transformation from money paradigm to intermediation paradigm

Central banks had became more powerful in the 20th century, with a monopoly in issuance of money which

transformed note issuance of banks into deposits

Post World War II, under the Bretton Woods system, the gold standard was abandoned and central banks

started issuing “fiat” money, making the money role much less important

The intermediation role became more prominent and progressively became the focus of regulation

The Intermediation paradigm I this, the role of banks is to use loans with deposits as “raw material”



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The Banking Regulation Act of 1949, defines banking as an activity of “accepting for the purpose of lending

or investing, deposit of money from public”, thus indicating the primacy of the Intermediation paradigm

The most prominent example of the Intermediation paradigm is the Basel regime that has at its core capital

regulation based on risk-weighted assets

Issues with the above two paradigms ✓ These two traditional paradigms of bank regulation sit somewhat uncomfortably with each other

✓ The Money paradigm results in some form of administered interest rates, which will invariably result in

mispricing of risk a

✓ And, hence, misallocation of capital by banks due to artificially and somewhat arbitrarily determined

cost of funds

✓ The Intermediation paradigm, on the other hand, will mostly result in capital regulation with unregulated

deposit pricing, which will invariably dampen monetary transmission

✓ As a result, the banking channel is quite poor in transmitting monetary policy, as we witness in India

The Marketplace paradigm The banking system can be viewed as a marketplace for funds where banks act as market makers

Regulating market making is primarily about regulating the liquidity provided by the market maker

In the more developed financial systems, there is a clear evolution of the regulatory approach from the

Money to the Marketplace paradigm, reflecting the underlying evolution in the role and functioning of banks

As the financial markets develop in India and bank balance sheets have more tradable securities

and loans, this paradigm will become more relevant

The way forward A comprehensive approach should carefully balance these three paradigms. Banks are a collection of

several businesses and activities

For specific businesses or activities, one of the three paradigms may be more relevant

Especially for a developing country like India, the regulating banks(through the above discussed

paradigms) is an important component of the management of the overall economy

The problem of land hoarding (The Hindu)

Agro-Economy

Land hoarding It is the purchase of large area of a land with the intent of pushing up the price. An investor hoping to

increase the price of land can do so by leveraging his or her demand for it, and buying physical inventory

as well as purchasing futures contracts for that land. It can also take place in financial instruments like

bonds.



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The problem of unused land The Ministries of Railways and Defence, respectively, have 43,000 hectares and 32,780 hectares of

land lying vacant, without even any proposed use. According to reports of the Comptroller and Auditor

General of India (CAG), the 13 major port trusts have 14,728 hectares of land lying idle.

Land hoarding by government agencies has created artificial scarcity and is one of the main drivers of

skyrocketing urban real estate prices

The allocation of unused land is rife with corruption.

Land use patterns Land is a crucial and often constraining input for production, not only in agriculture but also in secondary

and tertiary sectors.

A useful measure of this is the floor space index (FSI), which is the total floor area built per square metre of

land. For example, if a single-storey building occupies 50% of a plot, the FSI would be 1/2. If the building is

expanded vertically to have four stories, the FSI will go up to two (4 times 1/2), as the effective floor area

has quadrupled.

The use of surplus land Surplus land should be utilised to meet the ever-growing demands for services, such as water and waste

disposal, as well for government-sponsored housing and transportation projects.

Land intended for future use can be rented out till such time it is needed, through a transparent auctioning

process.

The age of crypto-economics (The Hindu)

Digital Economy

Why in news? The Finance Ministry recently issued a statement warning against investing in bitcoin and other

cryptocurrencies (CCs).

Likening CCs to ‘Ponzi schemes’, it linked them to terror-funding, smuggling, drug-trafficking, and money-

laundering.

Why the distrust? Aspects of the bitcoin phenomenon have attracted great interest

✓ The challenge it poses to states and central banks.

✓ The potential of its underlying technology to unleash a new wave of creative destruction.

World’s top central bankers have finally realised the futility of trying to control CCs. They are preparing to

join them — by issuing their own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs).

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs) Central bank digital currency (CBDC) (also called “Digital Fiat Currency” or “digital base money“) is the

digital form of fiat money which is a currency established as money by government regulation or law.



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Central bank digital currency is different from “digital currency” (or virtual currency and cryptocurrency),

which are not issued by the state and lack the legal tender status declared by the government. As such,

public digital currencies could compete with commercial bank deposits and challenge the status quo of the

current fractional reserve banking system

Benefits and Impacts Digital fiat currency is currently being studied and tested by governments and central banks in order to

realize the many positive implications it contributes to financial inclusion, economic growth, technology

innovation and increased transaction efficiencies.

• Safety of payments systems: A secure and standard interoperable digital payment instrument issued

and governed by a Central Bank and used as the national digital payment instruments boost confidence in

privately controlled money systems and increase trust in the entire national payment system while also

boosting competition in payment systems.

• Protection of money as a public utility: digital currencies issued by central banks would provide a

modern alternative to physical cash – whose abolition is currently being envisaged.

• Preservation of seigniorage income: public digital currency issuance would avoid a predictable

reduction of seignior age income for governments in the event of a disparition of physical cash.

• Financial inclusion: safe money accounts at the central banks could constitute a strong instrument of

financial inclusion, allowing any legal resident or citizen to be provided with a free or low-cost basic bank

account;

• Technological efficiency: instead of relying on intermediaries such as banks and clearing houses,

money transfers and payments could be made in real time, directly from the payer to the payee.

• Banking competition: the provision of free bank accounts at the central bank offering complete safety of

money deposits could strengthen competition between banks to attract bank deposits, for example by

offering once again remunerated sight deposits.

• Monetary policy transmission: the issuance of central bank base money through transfers to the public

could constitute a new channel for monetary policy transmission (ie. helicopter money), which would allow

more direct control of the money supply than indirect tools such as quantitative easing and interest rates,

and possibly lead the way towards a full reserve banking system.

• Financial safety: CBDC would limit the practice of fractional reserve banking and potentially render

deposit guarantee schemes less needed.

Risks A general concern is that the introduction of a CBDC would precipitate potential bank runs and thus make

banks’ funding position weaker.

Issue In order to be functional, a virtual currency must solve the problem of double spending.

Given that anything digital can be copied, how do you prevent someone from spending the same unit of

currency twice?

Solution Nakamoto solved the double spending problem by designing a decentralised ledger that bundles data

about transactions into blocks, timestamps them, and links each new block of transactions with the

previous one in an immutable chain of blocks that are copied, authenticated, and updated continuously,

and publicly, on thousands of computers — the blockchain.



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Behavioural economics needs a unifying theory (Livemint)

Economy

Context Economics models are mathematical in nature, and representing the full complexity of human behaviour

with math would make models unwieldy

Issues Behavioural ideas are difficult to put into economic models. For one thing, many psychological biases and

irrationalities involve people behaving in very complex, situation-dependent ways. Economics models are

mathematical in nature, and representing the full complexity of human behaviour with math would make

models unwieldy.

A second problem is that drawing too many different insights can lead to a problem called overfitting.

Solution Enter Xavier Gabaix. The French-born Harvard professor has been on somewhat of a mission to

incorporate behavioural economics into the mainstream.

Gabaix’s unified theory is based on limited human attention. Standard economic theory requires that

consumers and businesspeople pay close attention to a vast array of prices, quantities and other

information.

A case of miscasting (Indian Express)

Environment

Context Ganga cleaning mission

In news National Mission for Clean Ganga drew flak from a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, the

Centre has decided to infuse military vigour into the programme.

Highlights It has sanctioned the raising of a Territorial Army Battalion, which will be responsible for the “tasks and

activities related to resurrecting the Ganga”.

The battalion comprising ex-servicemen will keep tabs on pollution levels, assist the government in

enforcing pollution control measures and support the civil administration and police in managing the ghats.

Similar action in past In the past, the Territorial Army has done well in ecological endeavours such as the rejuvenation of forests.



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Stats of the mission According to the National Mission for Clean Ganga website, nearly 12,000 million litres of sewage is

generated every day in the Ganga basin. Barely a third of this waste is treated; the rest flows into the river.

The volume of muck might actually be even greater because large parts of cities like Haridwar, Varanasi

and Kanpur are not even connected to the sewage network

National Mission for Clean Ganga National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG) was registered as a society on 12th August 2011 under the

Societies Registration Act 1860.It acted as implementation arm of National Ganga River Basin

Authority(NGRBA) which was constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act

(EPA),1986. NGRBA has since been dissolved with effect from the 7th October 2016, consequent to

constitution of National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga

The Act envisages five tier structure at national, state and district level to take measures for prevention,

control and abatement of environmental pollution in river Ganga and to ensure continuous adequate flow of

water so as to rejuvenate the river Ganga as below;

1. National Ganga Council under chairmanship of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.

2. Empowered Task Force (ETF) on river Ganga under chairmanship of Hon’ble Union Minister of

Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

3. National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG).

4. State Ganga Committees and

5. District Ganga Committees in every specified district abutting river Ganga and its tributaries in

the states.

Budget 2018: A lower corporate tax rate may not make all happy (Livemint)

Business Economy

Context If the tax rate is lowered and exemptions removed, there will certainly be gainers but the irony is that there

could be losers as well

The government’s contention is that if it has to lower the corporate income-tax rate, it will eliminate tax

exemptions.

Significance A lower tax rate without exemptions will lead to a more equal tax treatment across sectors.

Firstly, the services sector suffers an ETR of 30.3% compared to 25.9% for manufacturing. A lower rate will

see the services sector, a key driver of economic growth, benefit.

Secondly, larger firms pay a much lower ETR compared to smaller companies.



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If the average tax rate is lowered, say to 25% from the current 34.47%, sectors such as banks and financial

institutions, food processing and electronics will benefit, but there are sectors which had a lower ETR than

this rate. They could see their tax liability increase.

Effective tax rate The effective tax rate is the average rate at which an individual or corporation is taxed. The effective tax

rate for individuals is the average rate at which their earned income is taxed, and the effective tax rate for a

corporation is the average rate at which its pre-tax profits are taxed.

SEBI ban to spell trouble for Price Waterhouse business in India (Livemint)

Business Economy

Context Price Waterhouse, the auditing arm of consultancy firm PwC India, is the auditor for 77 companies listed on

the NSE.

In news The Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) two-year ban on Price Waterhouse spells trouble for

its business in the country and is also a signal for the auditing profession to pull its socks up.



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Price Waterhouse It is the auditing arm of consultancy firm PwC India, is the auditor for 77 companies listed on National Stock

Exchange of India, according to data from Prime Database.

Highlights ✓ The order will not impact the audit assignments relating to the fiscal year 2017-18 undertaken by the

firms forming part of the PwC network.

✓ The objective of insulating the securities market from such fraudulent accounting practices perpetrated

by an international firm of repute will be ineffective if the directions do not bring within its sweep the

brand name PwC.

✓ The network structure of operations adopted by the international accounting firm should not be used as

a shield to avoid legal implications arising out of the certifications issued under the brand name of the

network.

Cut the confusion (Indian Express)

Banking Sector

Context This article talks about comparing the real interest rate with the ‘natural’ rate

Why in news? The renewed focus on monetary policy has arisen due to a few factors.

The last few years have been marked by slower GDP growth as compared to the growth rates achieved till

2014.

There is a general awareness that the room to use fiscal policy, which is the other standard policy lever,

may be somewhat limited due to concerns about large fiscal deficits.

Between January 2015 and December 2017, the RBI/MPC reduced the repo rate from 8 per cent to 6 per

cent

The criticism is centred on the fact that the fall in the inflation rate over the past couple of years has

implied that the real interest rate, which is the difference between the nominal (or rupee) interest

rate and the inflation rate, has risen as a result

Argument Growth slowdown, for a major part, is due to the high real interest rates induced by the stubbornness of the

MPC in not reducing the repo rate.

Indeed, the implied real rate since October 2016, based on the average of the year-over-year monthly CPI

inflation rates, has averaged around 3.9 per cent.

Interest rate When we save, we give up goods and services that we could have consumed instead. Since we all tend to

prefer consuming today to tomorrow, we need to be compensated. That compensation is the interest rate

offered on our saving.



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Natural Rate Consumption growth can fluctuate from year-to-year. So, to get a long-term perspective on the real rate

through the consumption growth rate, one needs to take long averages.

The 10-year moving average of real consumption growth in India has averaged around 5.5 per cent since

2007. This would indicate that the natural rate of interest in India is around 6 per cent.

Banking on good faith (The Hindu)

Banking Reform

Context More structural reforms are needed to maximise the bank recapitalisation effort.

About Rs. 1 lakh crore is expected to be pumped into India’s 21 public sector banks by March, which the

Centre hopes will enable them to extend fresh credit lines worth over Rs. 5 lakh crore to spur economic

activity.

The government has described each of the banks as “an article of faith”. Its assertion that no public-

sector bank will fail and that depositors’ money will remain safe should allay customers’ worry about the

safety of their savings under the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance legislation.

Prompt corrective action (PCA) The RBI deploys the PCA to monitor the operation of weaker banks more closely to encourage them to

conserve capital and avoid risks.

State Bank of India, the country’s largest, and the nine others that are out of the RBI’s PCA net will receive

nearly Rs. 36,000 crore in order to strengthen their lending capacity.

Why the need for PCA? The 1980s and early 1990s were a period of great stress and turmoil for banks and financial in situations all

over the globe. In USA, more than 1,600 commercial and savings banks in sured by the Federal Deposit

Insurance Corporation (FDIC) were either closed or given financial assistance during this period.

The cumulative losses incurred by the failed institutions exceeded US $100 billion. These events led to the

search for appropriate supervisory strategies to avoid bank failures as they can have a destabilising effect

on the economy.

A sum of contributions (The Hindu)

Environment

Context

Fulfilment of national pledges related to carbon emission reductions under the Paris Agreement would be

inadequate to keep global warming below 2°C. Thus, a renewed focus on climate governance is imperative.



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India’s focus ✓ India has committed to meet its current target of 33% reduction in emission intensity of the 2005 level

by 2030, by generating 40% of its energy from renewables. States are important for the realisation of

this goal.

✓ Enhancing climate actions is expected to involve routine engagement of the States in the international

process.

✓ The Under2 Coalition, a Memorandum of Understanding by subnational governments to reduce their

greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions towards net-zero by 2050, is generating a unique precedent for bold

climate leadership, with its member states and regions surpassing 200 in number.

✓ Currently, Telangana and Chhattisgarh are signatories to this pact from India, as compared to

representations from the other top emitters: 26 subnational governments in China and 24 in the U.S.

Greater representation of Indian States is crucial.

Way forward Towards this end, both national and State plans would need to be periodically reassessed and reviewed.

A transparent framework for review, audit and monitoring of GHG emissions is needed.

As State capacities vary significantly, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities should be

applied to allocate mitigation targets in different States, based on the principle of equity.

A new weapon in the carbon fight (The Hindu)

Climate change

Context The ability of soils to sequester carbon as a win-win strategy must be recognised by policymakers

Tradition way of tackling climate change

Policy is usually focussed on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the electricity sector,

transport and industry.

What is the new weapon? Soils can serve as a sink for carbon dioxide since atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have

crossed 410 parts per million and oceans are already turning acidic.

Besides, increasing soil carbon offers a range of co-benefits and this would buy us time before other

technologies can help us transition to a zero-carbon lifestyle.

Highlights Carbon pools on earth are found in the earth’s crust, oceans, atmosphere and land-based ecosystems.

Soils contain roughly 2,344 Gt (1 gigatonne = 1 billion tonnes) of organic carbon, making this the largest

terrestrial pool.



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Soil organic carbon (SOC) comes from plants, animals, microbes, leaves and wood, mostly found in the

first metre or so.

Merits ✓ Increasing SOC through various methods can improve soil health, agricultural yield, food security,

water quality, and reduce the need for chemicals.

✓ Changing agricultural practices to make them more sustainable would not just address carbon

mitigation but also improve other planetary boundaries in peril

such as fresh water, biodiversity, land use and nitrogen use.

SOC (Soil Organic carbon) approach ✓ It includes reducing soil erosion, no-till-farming, use of cover crops, nutrient management, applying

manure and sludge, water harvesting and conservation, and agroforestry practices.

✓ In contrast, it has been estimated that SOC in India has reduced from 30% to 60% in cultivated soils

compared with soils that are not disturbed.

Soil and agriculture After the changes undertaken as part of the Green Revolution, crop yields increased for several decades,

but there has also been a dramatic increase in the use of chemicals — pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

Still, agricultural yields have begun to drop in many places for a variety of reasons primarily related to

degraded soils.

India has a large number of successful sustainable agricultural practices that are consistent with ecological

principles.

A turtle recovery plan (The Hindu)

Biodiversity

Context Integrated conservation measures are needed to protect sea turtles

Why? Every year, thousands of sea turtles are accidentally captured, injured or killed by mechanised boats, trawl

nets and gill nets operated and used by comercial fishermen.

They can also sustain internal injuries from fishing hooks or suffer serious external injuries after becoming

entangled in nets. Each year, environmentalists record a high number of dead turtles washing up ashore.

Place where maximum attention is required This heavy toll, of injuries and deaths, occurs when turtles begin migrating to their nesting grounds on

beaches and in fishing areas that are their feeding grounds.

Species found in India Leatherback, Loggerhead, Hawksbill, Green and Olive Ridley.



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Legal provision for protecting turtles In India, though sea turtles are protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, under the

Schedule I Part II

Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 It is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted for the protection of plants and animal species. Before 1972,

India only had five designated national parks. Among other reforms, the Act established schedules of

protected plant and animal species; hunting or harvesting these species was largely outlawed.

The Act provides for the protection of wild animals, birds, and plants; and for matters connected therewith

or ancillary or incidental thereto. It extends to the whole of the country, except the State of Jammu and

Kashmir which has its own wildlife act. It has six schedules which give varying degrees of protection.

Schedule I and part II of Schedule II provide absolute protection – offences under these are prescribed the

highest penalties.

Steps taken to reduce the extinction rate of turtles Scientists are now working on programmes such as new fishing nets and gear that reduce the amount of

bycatch while fishing.

Growing public interest in bycatch reduction programmes is motivated by factors such as an appreciation

for endangered species and concern for maintaining marine biodiversity.

Bycatch: It is the name given to ocean animals that are unintentionally caught by fishing gear.

The turtle breeding season is usually between November and December. In Tamil Nadu, for example, the

Olive Ridley nests between December and April along the Chennai-Kancheepuram coastline.

Role in marine ecosystem Sea turtles, especially the leatherback, keep jellyfish under control, thereby helping to maintain healthy fish

stocks in the oceans.

The Green turtle feeds on sea grass beds and by cropping the grass provide a nursery for numerous

species of fish, shellfish and crustaceans.

The Hawksbill feeds on sponges in the reef ecosystem and opens up crevices for other marine life to live

in.

Turtles are also transporters of nutrients and energy to coastal areas. Unhatched eggs, eggshells and fluids

help foster decomposers and create much needed fertilizer in sandy beaches.

Workable solutions Under current regulations, mechanised trawl boats are not allowed to operate within 8 km of the shore in

Andhra Pradesh, 5.5 km in Tamil Nadu and 5 km in Odisha.

In Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the closed season for commercial fishing boats is from April 15 to May 29

(east coast) and June 15 to July 29 (west coast).

If sea turtle conservation is to have meaning, all trawl boats should be fitted with a vessel monitoring

system that must be kept on at all times.



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Red alert on the green index (The Hindu)

Environment

Out of the 180 countries assessed, India ranks low in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2018,

slipping from rank 141 in 2016, to 177 in 2018.

The EPI is produced jointly by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World

Economic Forum.

Governments initiative to protect the environment ✓ The government has set ambitious targets for environmental protection.

✓ In December 2015, it notified new, strict environmental standards for coal-fired power plants, to be

effective from January 2018.

✓ An aggressive target was set to implement Bharat Stage VI emission norms from April 1, 2020, skipping

Stage V norms.

✓ In 2017, the Minister of State for Power and Renewable Energy said that a road map was being

prepared so that only electric vehicles would be produced and sold in the country by 2030.

✓ In order to accelerate the transition to renewable sources of power, the government, under the National

Solar Mission, revised the target for setting up solar capacity from 20 GW to 100 GW by 2021-22.

✓ The Centre has also assured the Supreme Court of India that the highly polluted Ganga will be cleaned

up by 2018.

Issue ✓ The government has gone back on its promise of implementing strict power plant emission norms by

December 2017, and may even dilute the norms.

✓ The automobile industry has categorically stated that based on current estimates, full conversion to

electric vehicles is realistically possible only by 2047.

✓ Recent environmental policy failures.

✓ It is linked also to the lack of political will to implement even existing environmental laws and

regulations.

Possible solution Rapid transition to solar energy can be accomplished not only by enabling subsidies but also by pricing the

more polluting fuels correctly.

The transition to electric vehicle use would be aided by pricing petrol and diesel, and perhaps the vehicles

that use these fuels, to reflect their external costs to society.



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For a wider pool (The Hindu)

Health Sector

Context The burden of volunteering for clinical trials must not fall only on the poor and vulnerable.

Clinical trials involving human subjects have long been a flashpoint between bioethicists and clinical

research organisations (CROs) in India.

Issues ✓ The big problem plaguing clinical research is an over-representation of low-income groups among trial

subjects.

✓ Sometimes CROs recruit them selectively, exploiting financial need and medical ignorance; at other

times people over-volunteer for the money.

✓ Such over-volunteering occurs more frequently in bioequivalence studies, which test the metabolism of

generics in healthy subjects.

✓ Because these subjects are well-paid, and get no therapeutic benefit, their only reward from the trial is

financial. This results in an incentive to lie about one’s medical history or enrol in multiple trials to

maximise one’s income.

Consequence Such deception is a risk not only to volunteer health but also to society, because it can throw off the trial’s

results.

Solution National registry of trial volunteers, which will alert a CRO when someone signs up for two studies

simultaneously.

Pay volunteers less, taking away the financial incentive to fudge their participation history.

To encourage a wider cross-section of society to participate in research on human subjects.

Expanding the donor pool (The Hindu)

Science

Context Indian scientists develop a mechanism to rejuvenate aged stem cells.

In news A group of Indian scientists have now developed a mechanism that can rejuvenate stem cells from older

donors, making them useful for transplantation.



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The mechanism developed by researchers at the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune,

involves rejuvenating aged hematopoietic stem cells in a short-term culture using microvesicles secreted by

young stromal cells.

Merit The finding has relevance in clinical bone-marrow transplantation, wherein aged donors are usually not

preferred as their stem cells could have compromised engraftment ability due to ageing. With the new

mechanism, it might be possible to rejuvenate aged stem cells and thereby expand the donor pool.

Bone marrow transplantation A bone marrow transplant is a medical procedure performed to replace bone marrow that has been

damaged or destroyed by disease, infection, or chemotherapy. This procedure involves transplanting blood

stem cells, which travel to the bone marrow where they produce new blood cells and promote the growth of

new marrow.

Bone marrow is the spongy, fatty tissue inside your bones. It creates the following parts of the

blood

red blood cells, which carry oxygen and nutrients throughout the body

white blood cells, which fight infection

platelets, which are responsible for the formation of clots

Bone marrow also contains immature blood-forming stem cells known as hematopoietic stem cells or

HSCs. Most cells are already differentiated and can only make copies of themselves. However, these stem

cells are unspecialized, meaning they have the potential to multiply through cell division and either remain

stem cells or differentiate and mature into many different kinds of blood cells. The HSC found in the bone

marrow will make new blood cells throughout your lifespan.

A bone marrow transplant replaces your damaged stem cells with healthy cells. This helps your body make

enough white blood cells, platelets, or red blood cells to avoid infections, bleeding disorders, or anaemia.

Healthy stem cells can come from a donor, or they can come from your own body. In such cases, stem

cells can be harvested, or grown, before you start chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Those healthy cells

are then stored and used in transplantation.

Need of a Bone Marrow Transplant Bone marrow transplants are performed

when a person’s marrow isn’t healthy

enough to function properly. This could be

due to chronic infections, disease, or

cancer treatments. Some reasons for a

bone marrow transplant include:

aplastic anaemia, which is a disorder in

which the marrow stops making new

blood cells

cancers that affect the marrow, such as

leukaemia, lymphoma, and multiple

myeloma

damaged bone marrow due to

chemotherapy

congenital neutropenia, which is an inherited disorder that causes recurring infections



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sickle cell anaemia, which is an inherited blood disorder that causes misshapen red blood cells

thalassemia, which is an inherited blood disorder where the body makes an abnormal form of haemoglobin,

an integral part of red blood cells

Complications Associated with a Bone Marrow Transplant A bone marrow transplant is considered a major medical procedure and increases your risk of

experiencing:

✓ A drop-in blood pressures

✓ A headache

✓ Nausea

✓ Pain

✓ Shortness of breath

✓ Chills

✓ A fever

The above symptoms are typically short-lived, but a bone marrow transplant can cause complications. Your

chances of developing these complications depend on several factors, including:

✓ Your age

✓ Your overall health

✓ The disease you’re being treated for

✓ The type of transplant you’ve received

Complications can be mild or very serious, and they can include Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), which is a condition in which donor cells attack your body graft failure,

which occurs when transplanted cells don’t begin producing new cells as planned bleeding in the lungs,

brain, and other parts of the body cataracts, which is characterized by clouding in the lens of the eye

damage to vital organs early menopause anemia, which occurs when the body doesn’t produce enough red

blood cells infections nausea, diarrhea, or vomiting mucositis, which is a condition that causes inflammation

and soreness in the mouth, throat, and stomach

Talk to your doctor about any concerns you may have. They can help you weigh the risks and

complications against the potential benefits of this procedure.

Types of Bone Marrow Transplant There are two major types of bone marrow transplants. The type used will depend on the reason you need

a transplant.

Autologous Transplants

Autologous transplants involve the use of a person’s own stem cells. They typically involve harvesting your

cells before beginning a damaging therapy to cells like chemotherapy or radiation. After the treatment is

done, your own cells are returned to your body.

This type of transplant isn’t always available. It can only be used if you have a healthy bone marrow.

However, it reduces the risk of some serious complications, including GVHD.

Allogeneic Transplants

Allogeneic transplants involve the use of cells from a donor. The donor must be a close genetic match.

Often, a compatible relative is the best choice, but genetic matches can also be found from a donor

registry.



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Allogeneic transplants are necessary if you have a condition that has damaged your bone marrow cells.

However, they have a higher risk of certain complications, such as GVHD. You’ll also probably need to be

put on medications to suppress your immune system so that your body doesn’t attack the new cells. This

can leave you susceptible to illness.

Feeling SAD? Blame it on the winter (The Hindu)

Health Issue

Context The cold months mean sunlight deprivation for some, which can trigger seasonal affective disorder, a form

of depression

Sadness SAD occurs in climates where there is less sunlight at certain times of the year. Sometimes, it is mistaken

to be a “lighter” version of depression, which is untrue. It is a different version of the same illness and

people with SAD are just as ill as people with major depression, according to psychiatrists.

In India, more than 10 million people experience similar or the same symptoms of this usually self-

diagnosable ailment called Seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

“SAD is not a separate entity of depression but should be seen as a sub-type. This is prevalent in people

who are already under the spectrum of depression.

Symptoms fatigue, depression, a feeling of hopelessness and social withdrawal.

Reason The dip in mood apart, they also perceive and have an increased need for sleep and food, particularly

carbohydrates, which can eventually lead to weight gain

Start & end SAD generally starts in late fall and early winter and goes away during spring and summer. Depressive

episodes linked to summer can occur, but are much rarer than winter episodes.

Prevention A few ways in which people can prevent winter depression include ensuring a healthy and balanced diet.

Staying well hydrated is key during the winter months since it gives you more energy, mental clarity and an

enhanced digestive function.

Getting enough sunlight and engaging in regular outdoor physical exercise are also important.

“People have the tendency to isolate themselves from everyone during the winter months.

Treatment Treatment for SAD involves enough light exposure, artificial light exposure, sun therapy and drugs, if

needed. Artificial light exposure is effective but may take four to six weeks to see a response, although



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some patients improve within days. Therapy is continued until sufficient and daily natural sunlight exposure

is available.

Starting their own (The Hindu)

Health policy

Context In the U.S., a group of large hospital systems plans to create a non-profit, generic drug company to battle

shortages and high prices

Why? For years, hospital executives have expressed frustration when essential drugs like heart medicines have

become scarce or when prices have skyrocketed because investors manipulated the market.

The plan ✓ The hospitals have long experienced shortages of drugs such as morphine or encountered sudden

price increases for old, off-patent products such as the heart medicine Nitropress.

✓ Several major hospital systems, including Ascension, a Catholic system that is the nation’s largest non-

profit hospital group, plan to form a non-profit company that will provide a number of generic drugs to

the hospitals.

✓ The focus will be only on certain drugs.

✓ The idea is to directly challenge industry players who have capitalised on certain markets, buying up

monopolies of old, off-patent drugs and then raising prices.

Difference between patented and generic drug PATENT DRUG means a drug belonging to the original company who has researched the pharmaceutical

molecule. The company will have rights of that molecule for ten years. During these ten years, no other

company can manufacture and sell this compound. After ten years, the patent finishes then any company

can copy or modify the molecule and come out with its own brands.

After the patent is over the patent drug becomes a GENERIC DRUG.

Brand means any drug which is marketed by a company specific name. Both patented and generic drugs

can have a brand name. Brand names are so designed so that a person can easily remember the drug, or

its action

The word GENERIC NAME means the original salt name of the compound. It is not same as generic drug.

A drug can be sold under any of the three categories: Under the name of the generic salt (no brand name),

unpopular brand name and a popular brand name.

How to reduce the cost of the drugs being prescribed?

One can write AMLODIPINE (Dr Reddys lab) instead of a known brand. In that case the chemist should

give the unbranded version of the drug which will be cheaper.

The government should ensure availability of unbranded drugs with generic name.



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The reimbursement policy should be to reimburse the cheapest drug (branded or unbranded with generic

name version). If a person wants a costlier brand he or she should be allowed to pay the difference.

Capacity building for primary health care (The Hindu)

Health Sector Reforms

Context This article talks about revamping the medical education system in India to ensure an adequate supply of

quality medical professionals.

Issue A primary health system that is struggling with a below-par national physician-patient ratio (0.76 per 1,000

population, amongst the lowest in the world) due to a paucity of MBBS-trained primary-care physicians and

the unwillingness of existing MBBS-trained physicians to serve remote/rural populations.

Urban-rural disparities in physician availability in the face of an increasing burden of chronic diseases make

health care in India both inequitable and expensive.

Requirement There is an urgent need for a trained cadre to provide accessible primary-care services that cover minor

ailments, health promotion services, risk screening for early disease detection and appropriate referral

linkages, and ensure that people receive care at a community level when they need it.

Issue of cross-prescription The issue of AYUSH cross-prescription has been a part of public health and policy discourse for over a

decade, with the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 calling for multi-dimensional mainstreaming of

AYUSH physicians.

Current academic training includes a conventional biomedical syllabus covering anatomy, physiology,

pathology and biochemistry.

The 4th Common Review Mission Report 2010 of the National Health Mission reports the utilisation of

AYUSH physicians as medical officers in primary health centres (PHCs) in Assam, Chhattisgarh,

Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand as a human resource rationalisation strategy.

Capacity Building Capacity-building of licensed AYUSH practitioners through bridge training to meet India’s primary care

needs is only one of the multi-pronged efforts required to meet the objective of achieving universal health

coverage set out in NHP 2017.

Current status Include other non-MBBS personnel such as nurses, auxiliary nurse midwives and rural medical assistants,

thereby creating a cadre of mid-level service providers as anchors for the provision of comprehensive

primary-care services at the proposed health and wellness centres.

and modern systems of medicine”



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A misleading story of job creation (The Hindu)

Unemployment

A recent research report titled “Towards a Payroll Reporting in India” authored by the Group Chief

Economic Adviser of the State Bank of India and a professor from the Indian Institute of Management,

Bangalore has caught the media’s and the Prime Minister’s fancy.

Objective To make a case for a better payroll reporting system in India, which is perfectly justified and needed. But,

along the way, it also made an extravagant claim that 55 lakh new jobs are created every year in India.

How did the report arrive at the 55 lakh new jobs number? ✓ It used data from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) which registers employees

from the formal sector for provident fund benefits.

✓ It found that as of November 2017, there were 36.8 lakh new members in the age group of 18-25 years

who registered with the EPFO vis-à-vis the previous year. It assumed that any 18- to 25-year-old

registering with the EPFO implies that he or she found a new job in the organised sector.

✓ It then extrapolated this November 2017 data to the full year of FY-2018 and boldly claimed that 55.2

lakh new jobs were created in FY-2018.

Accumulated deposits in banks It is generally agreed that growth in total accumulated deposits in banks is an indicator of the robustness of

the economy.

The total number of deposits in all banks in India was Rs. 6.22 lakh crore at the end of FY-2016. By the end

of FY-2017, bank deposits had grown to nearly Rs. 11 lakh crore, a 76% increase of Rs. 4.8 lakh crore.

This shows Indians grew substantially richer in FY-2017 and the overall economy is very robust

Is it true? Obviously not because demonetisation forced people to deposit their currency into banks which is why

bank deposits grew in FY-2017. Instead, if we combine the value of currency and bank deposits and

compare, we find that there is actually a 5% decline in FY-2017, not a 76% increase.

Good morning jam (Indian Express)

Cyber Security

In news Google is now reportedly launching an app, complete with image-recognition software and Artificial

Intelligence protocols, to help customers weed out the space-guzzling greetings from their phones.



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16 gigabytes of hard disk space can hold about 6,000 books

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the eggheads at Google were puzzled by smartphones in

India running out of space at a rapid rate.

How? Google’s findings only confirm what many smartphone-wielding Indians already know: Every morning, a

flood of WhatsApp messages, embedded in an image (CG landscapes, divinities, flowers) and

accompanied by a saying (which hopes someday to rise to a cliché), choke inboxes across the country.

These “broadcast” messages have increased manifold as the number and spread of internet-enabled

devices has multiplied. Google is now reportedly launching an app, complete with image-recognition

software and Artificial Intelligence protocols, to help customers weed out the space-guzzling greetings from

their phones. But the malaise of the good morning assault is more than just a technological issue.

For the 200 million active WhatsApp users in India, the internet age has enabled a regular, virtual

verboseness that used to be a feature of large families and close-knit communities.

Website Disk Space Disk space is the amount of data you can store on the web server. Obviously, the amount

of space needed depends on the size of your website. Most websites are composed of HTML (text),

images, Flash, or a combination of all.

Towards a genomics revolution (The Hindu)

Science and Technology

Context India has the scientific resources for genetic research — all it needs is the vision at the national level to

leverage them.

Towards a genomics revolution

The prospect of building individualised medicine based on the precise informationstored in each human’s

DNA (their genome) had come into view.

The human genome has around 3 billion base pairs and in 1953 it wasn’t possibleto imagine extracting

genetic information on the molecular scale and of thiscollective size.

Human genome project and its private competitor, Celera Genomics, showed that an entire genome could

be sequenced.

Currently it’s cost is something like $1000 per person and becoming cheaper — and the age of genomics-

informed medicine is now within sight.

Surveying Indian variation Under Surveying Indian variation several questions arise

What implications do these developments have for India and are there deliberate choices that would

shape this coming future more advantageously for the country and its people?



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Are there strengths that India can bring to this task?

Answers to questions India needs to collect information about the genetics of its population and train manpower capable of

interpreting it.

The information that is needed has to come from a large and sustained collection of data — fully

sequenced individual genomes along with medical histories for the individuals who volunteer for this effort.

Decreasing disease burden This knowledge could then also be quickly applied to the task of managing diseases in these groups as well

as be used for genetic counselling that could reduce their incidence in future generations.

‘In 50 years, there’s been no new neuropsychiatric drug’ (The Hindu)

Medicinal Science

Context This article talks about the study of behaviour of our brains during emotions

The way our brain functions Neural circuits that control supposedly innate behaviour are wired in the brain, the more we realise that

there is experience-dependent plasticity that sculpts those circuits. Some components of the behaviour are

hardwired

We are born with the ability to learn language as it is hardwired into our brains by evolution, but which

language we speak depends on where we grow up.

Key point The behaviours— aggression and mating behaviour — are, in a sense, hardwired. The animal doesn’t need

to be trained in how to do those behaviours, but it needs experience to express them correctly, namely,

aggression towards another male competing for a female and expressing mating behaviour towards

females.

Other observation We can deduce the type of behaviour that the animal (a mouse in a cage) is engaging in. When another

mouse is brought into the cage, we can say from the pattern of brain activity in a specific region (of the first

mouse’s brain) if it’s fighting, ‘sniffing’, or investigating if the new mouse is male.

If it’s female, we can predict if it’s sniffing or mounting (the female). This is just by taking the patterns of

brain activity, performing a computational analysis and asking whether we can train a computer algorithm to

predict the behaviour the animal is engaged in.



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Brain Imaging A scanner detects radioactive material that is injected or inhaled to create an image. Commonly used

radioactively-labeled material includes oxygen, fluorine, carbon and nitrogen. When this material gets into

the bloodstream, it goes to areas of the brain that use it. So, oxygen and glucose accumulate in brain areas

that are metabolically active. When the radioactive material breaks down, it gives off a neutron and a

positron. When a positron hits an electron, both are destroyed and two gamma rays are released. Gamma

ray detectors record the brain area where the gamma rays are emitted. This method provides scientists

with an idea of the function of the brain.

Advantages Provides an image of brain activity.

Disadvantages Expensive to use.

Radioactive material used.

Observing brain behaviour in humans

✓ Brain is that the neurons that control aggression — and to some extent mating — in males are neurons

that express the oestrogen receptor.

✓ Now, many people find that surprising because the popular view is that aggression is controlled by

testosterone and female behaviours by oestrogen. That, however, is only partly true.

✓ There is an enzyme in the brain called aromatase that can convert testosterone into oestrogen. The two

molecules are so close to each other — it’s a very simple chemical reaction — and in many species it is

known that if you block that enzyme, you can block aggressive behaviour.

✓ There are drugs that block aromatase that have been used in humans for decades, but have only

been used in females as adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Issues in testing medicines It’s been very difficult to raise even small amounts of money to test this in the U.S. because these drugs are

off-patent, available in a generic form and offer no profits for companies in finding a new use for an old

drug.

Work on both mice and fruit flies, mice being mammals, maybe closer to humans than flies, but they’re still

not human. There’s a dismal history of failure in the pharmaceutical industry in translating studies of

emotional behaviour of anxiety in rats or mice to humans.

Neuropsychiatry It is a branch of medicine that deals with mental disorders attributable to diseases of the nervous system. It

preceded the current disciplines of psychiatry and neurology, which had common training, however,

psychiatry and neurology have subsequently split apart and are typically practiced separately.

Nevertheless, neuropsychiatry has become a growing subspecialty of psychiatry and it is also closely

related to the fields of neuropsychology and behavioral neurology.



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Agriculture needs a reforms package (The Hindu)

Agriculture Sector

Unattractive farm income The absurdity of policies features among them.

The overriding objective of price stability, over time, has tilted farm policy in favour of the consumer, the

numerically larger vote bank.

Trade and price controls are highly restrictive, and mostly anti-farmer. The protection afforded to the

inefficient fertilizer industry ensures that input costs are high.

The farmer is forced to sell in the domestic market where prices tend to be lower than global agricultural

prices.

Cause for food prices inflation Poor management of food stocks

Solution The government had been raising MSPs to reduce the gap between low domestic and high global

agricultural prices.

The launch of the National Food Security Mission and a global food prices crisis necessitated hikes more

aggressive than were originally planned.

The high MSP ensured that the increase in food grain production in the four-year period, 42 million metric

tonnes, was more than double of what had been targeted.

Industrial liberalisation of 1991 Budget 1991 together with the Industrial Policy of 1991 allowed private sector investment in almost all

industrial sectors. The Reserve Bank of India stipulated a floor rate of interest and freed commercial banks

to charge interest rates above the floor level based on their perceptions of risk.

The Government extend a similar freedom to term-lending financial institutions.

Towards solar-powered agriculture

Agriculture Sector

Context India must exploit the potential of this technology to help farmers meet irrigation needs

In the past few years, solar pumps have consistently piqued the interest of various bureaucrats and

politicians.

There is no shortage of ideas which the Centre, States, civil society organisations, and enterprises are

adopting to enhance penetration of solar for irrigation.



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Issue How should India proceed with this impactful technology?

Case study

Maharashtra is solarising its agricultural feeders by installing solar power plants at the substation level,

through competitive bidding.

Karnataka is promoting solar pumps for existing grid-connected farmers under a net-metering regime,

allowing them to generate additional income by feeding back surplus energy into the grid.

In eastern States, GIZ, a German development agency, has piloted community ownership models providing

water-as-a-service using solar pumps.

What can be done? ✓ Seven takeaways for the government to consider while promoting solar for irrigation.

✓ Target marginal farmers with smaller solar pumps, particularly in areas with good groundwater

development potential.

✓ Couple solar pump deployment with micro-irrigation and water harvesting interventions at the farm

and community levels. While lack of irrigation is a major bottleneck, 30% of farmers reported limited

water availability for irrigation as a challenge.

✓ Focus on technology demonstration and deploy at least five solar pumps in each block of the

country.

✓ In regions with already good penetration of electric pumps, prefer feeder solarisation through

competitive bidding over solarisation of individual pumps.

✓ In regions with prevailing local water markets, promote community-owned solar pumps. CEEW

research finds that while joint ownership drew interest from 20% of farmers, close to 80% of them

were interested in buying water from a community-owned or enterprise-owned solar pump at

competitive prices.

✓ Encourage sharing of solar pumps among farmers through farmer extension programmes

✓ Provide interest-subsidy to farmers combined with reduced capital subsidy to enable large-scale

deployment of solar pumps in a shorter span of time.

General Studies Paper - IV

The ethics of excellence

Ethics Global research and competition are now increasingly diverse and in this scenario, India rightfully wants to

be an important player.



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For this there has been a rapid expansion with the setting up of more Central and State universities which

includes more focussed institutions such as the IIT, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, IIM

and NIT Technology, enhancing the opportunities for high-quality teaching

Excellence as ethics Generally, we blame the government and the bureaucracy for not achieving the goal

It is important to look inward and ask whether our academics display an adequate ethical commitment to

excellence.

Ethical Excellence‘ is one of the most critical aspects of Corporate Governance will not be a misnomer.

Ethical Excellence should be seen as sustainable source of competitive advantage for organizations and a

practice that ensures long term success, customer loyalty and creating shareholder value. This paper

endeavors to provide a framework for delivering efficacious performance while being ethically sound.

In India, in contrast, excellence is at best one of multiple criteria in faculty hiring.

The faults within One might be tempted to solely blame failed institutions/departments on the calibre of leadership, and,

ultimately, the government that appoints such leaders. But the problem persists even in those institutions

led by respected academics. The reasons need to be examined. While academics freely criticise

personality cults in the political sphere, they are happy to cultivate those of their own.

The duty of the young (Indian Express)

Ethics

Context Since the politicians would do nothing to inform the youth about the socio-economic problems facing the

nation today and only exploit them, it is the responsibility of civil society organisations and the media to

educate young people.

National Youth Day Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary, also called Swami Vivekananda Jayanti, is celebrated on

January 12. The day is also observed as National Youth Day.

The government said that “the philosophy of Swamiji and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be

a great source of inspiration for the Indian youth” and since then, Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary is

being celebrated as National Youth Day.

National Youth Day is celebrated across India in schools and colleges and programmes like processions,

speeches, recitations, music, youth conventions, seminars, sports competitions are held on this day.

Role of youth in shaping better India National Youth Day is celebrated across India in schools and colleges and programmes like processions,

speeches, recitations, music, youth conventions, seminars, sports competitions are held on this day.



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The right to vote It is not just a right enjoyed by every individual over the age of 18, it is also a responsibility to make an

informed and responsible choice and to bring to power the most well-suited candidate.

For a long time, there has been a trend to vote for people who give the maximum amount of freebies in

return.

Changes required Instead of following this path, the youth must make a conscious decision to vote on the basis of the agenda

of the candidates and their past work.

Youth, who should be the most important participants in the Indian democracy, are mostly absent from the

daily discourse on democracy.

Challenging a culture of obedience (The Hindu)

Ethics

Context This article talks about all of us who are bound under some system and structure and follow them it may be

caste, religion, caste etc.

Mantra of obedience The first cultural hardwiring that’s stitched onto you is an awareness of the group (or set of groups) that you

belong to, overlaid by a circuit of total compliance to the perceived needs of that group.

Growing older you form your own groups, but these are usually balanced on top of the initial set into which

you were born.

Even here, a certain unquestioning tribal loyalty is demanded and received from each member.

So, for instance, by birth you could be of gender M or F, caste B, ethnicity G, economic strata X, in school

H, class 1-12, section A or B and then, within that, in a gang of boys or girls led by sundry strong

personality types

Issue The above mention system comes into our attitude and it becomes extremely difficult to act against them,

and sometimes we can’t even raise questions against them because of our society.

The cost of rebellion The first thing you are made to feel is that you are wrong, out of tune and stupid.

People you thought were your friends and allies suddenly melt away, leaving you standing alone.

In extreme cases, this leads to your expulsion (you may be asked to leave the organization)



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Comparison with other nations

Other Nation India ✓ In some places, both political and

philosophical questioning are encouraged from an early age;

✓ The individual is lauded above the group, leading to some negative but also some positive tendencies;

✓ In many countries, the system of ruling and administration has been set up long enough that it kicks in almost automatically to provide checks and balances.

✓ In India, our models of questioning are still being formed.

✓ We are too obsequious. ✓ We have too much feudal programming

that we need to delete. For instance, there is no need to add ‘respected’ or ‘ adarniya ’ or ‘honourable’ before an official position, just as there is no need to add a ‘ji’ after it, but we do

What needs to be done? We should not follow anything, anyone blindly instead think it rationally and then make decision.

There is need to our attitude and mentality.

It can be done gradually

Should euthanasia be allowed? (The Hindu)

Rights Issues

Context Narayan Lavate (88) and IravatiLavate (78) from Maharashtra say that they do not wish to be a burden on

society in their old age. They don’t have children and their siblings are no more, they say. They argue that

spending the country’s scarce resources on keeping them alive, the old and ailing alive, is a criminal waste.

Euthanasia Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide refer to deliberate action taken with the intention of ending a life,

in order to relieve persistent suffering.

Euthanasia: A doctor is allowed by law to end a person’s life by a painless means, as long as the patient

and their family agree.

Assisted suicide: A doctor assists a patient to commit suicide if they request it.

Voluntary and involuntary euthanasia Voluntary euthanasia is conducted with consent. Voluntary euthanasia is currently legal in Belgium,

Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and the states of Oregon and Washington in the U.S.

Involuntary euthanasia is euthanasia is conducted without consent. The decision is made by another

person, because the patient is unable to make the decision.



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Passive and active euthanasia Passive euthanasia is when life-sustaining treatments are withheld. The definitions are not precise. If a

doctor prescribes increasing doses of strong painkilling medications, such as opioids, this may eventually

be toxic for the patient. Some may argue that this is passive euthanasia.

Others, however, would say this is not euthanasia, because there is no intention to take life.

Active euthanasia is when someone uses lethal substances or forces to end a patient’s life, whether by

the patient or somebody else.

Active euthanasia is more controversial, and it is more likely to involve religious, moral, ethical, and

compassionate arguments.

Living wills A living will – also known as an advance directive – is a legal document that specifies the type of medical

care that an individual does or does not want in the event that he is unable to communicate his wishes.

In the case of an unconscious person who suffers from a terminal illness or a life-threatening injury, doctors

and hospitals consult his living will to determine whether or not the patient wants life-sustaining treatment,

such as assisted breathing or tube feeding. In the absence of a living will, decisions about medical care

become the responsibility of the spouse, family members or other third parties. These individuals may be

unaware of the patient’s desires, or they may not wish to follow the patient’s unwritten, verbal directives.

Prescription for the doctor (Indian Express)

Professional Ethics

In news The National Medical Commission Bill 2017 proposes a revamp of the regulatory framework for medical

education and practice.

In recent months, doctors have been protesting legislation proposed by the Centre and various state

governments to regulate the profession. As a professional self-regulatory mechanism, the Medical Council

of India (MCI) has repeatedly been found short in fulfilling its responsibilities.

Issues Doctors with poor clinical skills are being produced.

Medical services continue to be inaccessible or unaffordable for the rural and urban poor and instances of

unethical practices abound.

Medical Council of India (MCI) has repeatedly been found short in fulfilling its responsibilities.

Why has self-regulation in the medical profession failed? Self-regulation of the Indian medical system is impossible, especially considering the very objective of

students who want to become doctor is corrupted from the outset.

Becoming doctor in India, in most cases, is driven by an aspiration to fulfil the desire for a higher social

status, which is closely related to monetary benefits.



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Parents and students in India do not want to become a doctor for the sake of being doctor, that is to

achieve scientific ambitions and academic fulfillment, but in most cases just to become rich. And at the root

lies the high fees many students pay to get an admission.

Under such situations it’s impossible to even think of self-regulation. The govt must intervene to protect

patient’s interests. There is no other option. People have suffered a lot in the hand of corrupt medical

system of India.

Self-Regulation ✓ The need for self-regulation was reinforced by those studying medicine in the early 1900s who believed

that the complexity of the knowledge base and skills required, especially as technology advanced,

would make regulation by non-professionals difficult and it was thought that the profession could be

trusted to carry out this necessary activity.

✓ By the latter part of the 20th century, however, many social scientists concluded that the profession had

abused its privileged status and public trust and that its regulatory procedures were seriously flawed.

Standards were considered to be weak, variable, and inconsistently applied, and physicians were

further accused of using collegiality as a means of shielding poorly performing peers.

✓ Self-regulation of the medical profession is complex, and involves many levels of oversight aimed at

guaranteeing the competence of the practicing physician.

✓ Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare presented its 92nd report, an incisive

document on the failures of the MCI and a proposed restructuring.

Workable solution This requires a system of checks and balances that will prevent the emergence of monopolies and keep

considerations of public interest alive.

A second screening by a more democratic body, such as the PSC, that has public representatives of

various political parties, including parliamentarians with medical qualifications.

Its recommendation should go to the President for final selection. Further, the bill should stipulate that all

NMC members declare their professional and commercial involvements as well as financial assets.

Professional interest needs to be balanced with societal interest and, therefore, lay people, social scientists

and civil society members with credibility, must be included in the NMC.



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