Lalit Kala Akademi chief’s powers curbed by Culture Ministry
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance
Main Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-IN AN unprecedented move, the Ministry of Culture has curtailed the powers of the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) Chairman, V Nagdas, barring him from taking any “administrative actions”, including on matters related to “appointment, recruitment, transfer, disciplinary action and financial decisions”, without consulting the ministry.
• Why Ministry of Culture has curtailed the powers of the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) Chairman, V Nagdas?
• What is the function of Lalit Kala Academy?
• What is the contribution of Lalit Kala Academy?
• Who established Lalit Kala Academy?
• “The Lalit Kala Akademi is not a discriminatory body, it has projects and programmes not only for folk and tribal artists but also for promoting and propagating these genres among modern and contemporary artists across various platforms¬”-Comment
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍‘Irregularities’ in Lalit Kala Akademi: Probe panel gives clean chit to suspended secy
EXPRESS NETWORK
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NREGA wages: Goa sees highest hike of `34 per day, UP, Uttarakhand lowest at `7
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Main Examination: General Studies II: Important aspects of Governance and Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-THE CENTRE on Wednesday notified new wage rates for unskilled manual workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 for the financial year 2024-2025, with Goa seeing the maximum hike of 10.56% over the current wage rate, and Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand recording the lowest raise of 3.04% each.
• How were the new wage rates for unskilled manual workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of 2005 decided?
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• For Your Information-The new wage rates, notified by the Ministry of Rural Development under sub-section (1) of section 6 of MGNREGA 2005, will become effective from April 1, 2024. As per the notification, the highest rate of NREGS wage (Rs 374 per day) has been fixed for Haryana, while the lowest (Rs 234 per day) has been fixed for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. As far as the state-wise increase over the current year (FY 2023-2024) is concerned, Goa has seen the maximum hike of 10.56% (Rs 34), taking the wage to Rs 356 per day for FY 2024-2025 against Rs 322 per day in the current fiscal.
In fact, three other states — Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana — have also seen over 10% hike in the NREGS wages.
In Karnataka, the new NREGS wage rate will be Rs 349 per day, 10.44% higher than the existing rate of Rs 316 per day. For Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the NREGS wage rates have been fixed at Rs 300 per day for 2024-2025, which is 10.29% higher as compared to Rs 272 per day during the current financial year.
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which share the same wage rate under the NREGS, have seen almost 10% hike — Rs 243 per day from the existing Rs 221. Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which share the same NREGA wage rate, have recorded the lowest hike at just 3.04% from existing Rs 230 to Rs 237 per day. Eight other states have seen a hike below 5% — Haryana, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Kerala and Lakshadweep. Overall, the wages have seen an average increase of about 7% — from the existing all-India average wage rate of Rs 267.32 per day to Rs 285.47 per day for the financial year 2024-25.
The Central government fixes state-wise wage rates for NREGS workers under sub-section (1) of section 6 of the MGNREG Act, 2005. The NREGS wage rates are fixed according to changes in the CPI-AL (Consumer Price Index- Agriculture Labor), which reflects the increase in the inflation in the rural areas.
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)-Mandate, Goals
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• What are the core objectives of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)?
• When was Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act passed by the Indian Parliament?
• What is the relationship between the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS)?
• In what way paradigm shift has taken place with the implementation of MGNREGA?
• Who are the key stakeholders of MGNREGS?
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• What is the role of Gram Sabha and Gram Panchayat in MGNREGS?
• How is Household defined in MGNREGA?
• Issues with MGNREGA?
• What are the eligibility criteria for receiving the benefits under MGNREGA scheme?
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)-Nodal Ministry
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Social Audit
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• How schemes such as MGNREGA can help alleviate distress migration?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Budget 2023 cuts MGNREGS funds: The debate around the rural employment scheme
📍NREGS wages set to be hiked, Govt gets EC nod after poll conduct code
India TB Report-2024: Missing cases shrinking, 95% got treatment in 2023
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Main Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Key Points to Ponder:
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• What’s the ongoing story– The gap between the estimated number and actual cases of tuberculosis (TB) is closing, according to the India TB Report 2024 released by the Union Health ministry on Wednesday. This is an important marker as the “missing cases” are assumed to not have received treatment, continuing to spread the infection to others.
• India TB Report 2024-What are the key takeaways?
• For Your Information-According to the report, the majority of the TB cases are still reported by the government health centres, even as there has been an uptick in notifications by the private sector. Nearly 33% or 8.4 lakh of the 25.5 lakh cases reported in 2023 came from the private sector. To compare, only 1.9 lakh cases were reported by the private sector in 2015, the year considered to be the baseline by the programme that is geared towards the elimination of the disease.
The estimated incidence of TB in 2023 increased slightly to 27.8 lakh from the previous year’s estimate of 27.4 lakh. The mortality due to the infection remained the same at 3.2 lakh as per the data. These estimates are based on a new methodology that India developed and has since been accepted by the World Health Organisation.
Last year, when the in-country model was used to estimate the number of cases and deaths due to tuberculosis, there was a sudden drop in the mortality figures seen in the global report released by the WHO. India’s TB mortality dropped from 4.94 lakhs in 2021 to 3.31 lakhs in 2022. The number of cases reported in a year also went down from 29.4 lakh in 2021 as per the previous method to 27.4 lakh in 2022, according to the data.
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The report shows that India reached its 2023 target of initiating treatment in 95% of patients diagnosed with the infection. It says 58% of those diagnosed were offered a test to check whether their infection was resistant to the first line drugs, an increase from 25% in 2015. The programme recommends drug susceptibility treatment to ensure that people who may have drug resistant TB are able to access e therapies from the get go instead of being treated with the first-line therapy initially.
• What does the report say about coverage of TB treatment in India?
• India TB Report 2024 and Global TB Report 2023-key Highlights and who publishes?
• Tuberculosis (TB) and India-Impact
• World Health Organisation’s Global TB Report 2023-what are the key takeaways?
• India has made tremendous progress in its fight against TB-What measures India adopted?
• “Despite this, elimination by 2025 doesn’t seem to be happening”-Why so?
• Know the term-BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin)
• National Strategic Plan 2017-2025 for TB Elimination in India-Issues and Challenges
• Do You Know-India’s contribution to the global burden is 27%, which is down one percentage point from the previous year’s 28%. What is more important is that there has been an increase in reporting of TB cases. The estimated number of cases in a country is based on a mathematical model, and there is a gap between that and the number of people who actually get diagnosed and put on treatment in a country.
The Global TB report 2023 shows that reporting of cases has improved in India, going beyond the pre-pandemic levels. This is despite the fact that India, along with Indonesia and the Philippines, accounted for 67 per cent decline in reporting of TB cases globally during the pandemic. India reported 24.2 lakh cases in 2022 similar to the 24.04 lakh cases reported during 2019.
The report also noted that India was the only country to have completed a National TB prevalence survey since 2019. “The survey was started in 2019, interrupted for several months in 2020 and then completed in 2021. Results from this survey were a key input to the estimates of TB incidence in India published in this report,” the WHO report said. India has set a target of 2025 for eliminating TB in the country. The national strategic plan 2017-2025 sets the target of no more than 44 new TB cases per lakh population by 2025. The 2023 report pegs this number at 199 cases per lakh. Achieving this target is a big task as the plan had envisaged an incidence of only 77 cases per lakh population by 2023.
The programme also aims to reduce the mortality to 3 deaths per lakh population by 2025. Even with the WHO accepting the lowered estimates for India, this stands at 23 per lakh population.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍India’s TB problem and the right to treatment
THE EDITORIAL PAGE
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-Bengaluru is experiencing its worst water crisis in decades. The weak monsoon last year has compounded an already difficult situation caused by unregulated urban growth and depleting groundwater resources. Chennai too has experienced shortages in recent years. Several other Indian cities are under similar stress, indicating that water supply is rarely factored in urban planning.
• “The entire state of Karnataka is facing water scarcity”-Why?
• Why the shortage?
• What makes the difference in the case of Karnataka?
• For Your Information-During last year’s monsoon, Karnataka received rainfall that was 18 per cent below normal, the least since 2015. Even the post-monsoon period did not bring much rain to the state. Like most other parts of the country, Karnataka receives a bulk of its annual rainfall during the monsoon, and it is this water that fills up the reservoirs and recharges the aquifers. A rainfall deficit in the monsoon months almost inevitably results in water stress.
Karnataka was not the only state to receive below-normal rainfall last monsoon. Kerala, for example, finished the season with a 34 per cent deficit. Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh had almost 25 per cent deficit each. However, what makes the difference in the case of Karnataka, as pointed out by Vimal Mishra, a professor of Civil Engineering and Earth Sciences at IIT Gandhinagar, is the nature of the underground aquifers in the area.
“South India has a very different kind of aquifer system. It is very rocky. The aquifers don’t hold a lot of water. They empty out quickly, and they also get recharged pretty quickly. What this means is that groundwater resources are not able to sustain for very long in the event of a prolonged dry spell. This is very different from the aquifers in north India, which have a much better capacity to hold water. This is why Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which got even less rainfall last year than Karnataka, have not seen similar water scarcity,” Mishra, the Vikram Sarabhai Chair professor at IIT Gandhinagar, said. “Aquifers in north India, once full, can hold enough water to sustain the demand for a couple of years,” he said.
Another direct consequence of low rainfall has been the relatively low level of water in reservoirs. Latest data from the Central Water Commission shows that Karnataka reservoirs are currently holding water at only 26 per cent of their full capacity, which is at least ten percentage points lower than what is expected at this time of the year. Instead of the nearly 8.8 billion cubic meters of water that is expected in Karnataka’s reservoirs at this time of the year, only 6.5 billion cubic meters is currently available. And this is depleting steadily. A month earlier, the state’s reservoirs were holding 7.78 billion cubic meters of water, CWC data shows.
Again, it is not just Karnataka’s reservoirs that have below-normal water levels. Other states in south India are facing the same problem, with Telangana being in a far worse situation. But the demands in Karnataka are different, and its reservoirs are depleting faster than those of the neighbouring states. Clearly, the state is being forced to draw more from the reserves even before the start of the summer season.
“Roughly about half of Bengaluru gets its drinking water through piped supply. The remaining half mostly uses groundwater for drinking purposes. The areas that have piped supply are not facing much disruption because this water is coming from the reservoirs. In these kinds of situations, when the rainfall has been scanty and reservoir levels are low, the tendency of the governments is to prioritise drinking water needs, especially in the urban areas. It is in parts of Bengaluru that are dependent on groundwater that the drinking water problem seems most acute,” Mishra said.
• “There are a lot of long-term structural issues”-What are they?
• The quality of water is known to deteriorate in the distribution network because of multiple factors-what are they?
• Do You Know-According to the standards of the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation — the technical wing of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that sets norms for water supply and sanitation — Indian cities have a daily per capita water requirement of 135 litres per capita. Under the current piped water supply approach, all of this water is treated to meet drinking water quality standards. However, a person requires only a fraction of this amount for drinking and cooking purposes. The practice of treating enormous quantities of water to drinking water quality standards and distributing it through a network that cannot guarantee safe delivery needs examination. Considering the capital-intensive nature of the distribution network and constraints on repair and maintenance, we need to segregate water for drinking purposes and other domestic uses.
The model of decentralised treatment and non-pipe mode of drinking water delivery, followed by the PDW industry is promising. Bengaluru’s recent crisis has pushed the city’s authorities to experiment with water ATMs. Such initiatives are at an early stage in some other cities including Delhi. There are caveats, though. Not everyone can afford water sold by private players. The WHO’s concerns about the reverse osmosis method used by the industry to purify water — it robs the water of essential minerals — are also valid. Acknowledging the feasibility of decentralised water treatment and supply does not rule out conversations on appropriate technologies. More experiments to evolve affordable and context-specific institutional arrangements, including those related to technology, need to be undertaken. Piped water supply too evolved over centuries because of a series of technological and institutional improvements. It is time to look for an alternative model of water supply to overcome the water quality issues. Decentralised treatment and non-pipe mode of service delivery are worth experimenting with.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍What has caused the water crisis in Bengaluru, neighbouring areas
EXPLAINED
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: India and its neighbourhood- relations.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-On March 23, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar said his country may “seriously examine” the question of resuming trade with India. Pakistan stopped trade after the constitutional changes in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. Like other aspects of the India-Pak relationship, trade too has been impacted by Islamabad’s hard line on Kashmir and its support for terrorism. The dire state of the Pakistani economy, however, has raised hopes for a change in Pakistan’s approach. But New Delhi will keep its fingers crossed.
• Why was India-Pakistan trade paused?
• What was the composition of India-Pakistan trade?
• What was the fallout?
• Has anything changed since then?
• Why might Pakistan be reconsidering trade with India?
• What explains the timing of Pakistani minister Dar’s comments?
• How seriously should Dar’s comments be taken?
• What are the challenges to normalisation of India-Pakistan trade?
• What is the broad history of India-Pakistan trade?
• For Your Information- After the wars of 1965 and 1971, trade links were largely cut off. The borders were shut, and became heavily militarised, which is part of the reason trade volumes between the two countries never grew significantly. Much of the real trade took place via other countries.
Agreements such as the SAARC Preferential Trade Agreement (1993) were signed, but Pakistan was not interested in trade with India. It demanded that India must resolve the Kashmir issue before the normalisation of economic ties.
In the 2010s, the Manmohan Singh-led government tried very hard to improve trade ties. The World Bank was helping negotiate a petroleum agreement that would allow Pakistan to buy fuel across the border from the Jalandhar refinery. There were also talks about trading in electricity. However, the Pakistan Army pulled the plug every time.
During the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit of 2014, member countries agreed to open borders to facilitate the movement of trucks and trains. But the Pakistan Army stepped in again to block the agreement.
Meanwhile, India’s position on Kashmir has strengthened. The abolition of Article 370 shocked Pakistan. Its efforts to get China to do something about it in the UN Security Council did not work. Pakistan’s best friends in the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have not criticised India, and have maintained close ties with New Delhi. Pakistan recognises that it has put itself in a tight corner. The logic of the economy demands that it changes its hard line. But domestic political inertia makes it difficult for Pakistan to do so.
• How soon could India and Pakistan move towards better economic ties?
• Who benefits from a resumption of bilateral trade?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Pakistan may ‘seriously examine’ resuming trade with India: Why it paused, what it constituted
State of employment in India: what a new report says about youths & women, concerns & caution
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Mains Examination:
• General Studies I: Social empowerment
• General Studies II: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
• General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health,
Education, Human Resources.
• General Studies‐ III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment
• General Studies III: Inclusive growth and issues arising from it
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-There have been “paradoxical improvements” in labour market indicators such as the labour force participation rate, workforce participation rate, and unemployment rate in India in recent years after long-term deterioration from 2000-2019. The improvement has coincided with periods of economic distress, both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, says the India Employment Report 2024 released by the Institute for Human Development and International Labour Organisation on Tuesday
• ‘India Employment Report 2024’-What are the key takeaways?
• For Your Information- The report has flagged concerns about poor employment conditions: the slow transition to non-farm employment has reversed; women largely account for the increase in self-employment and unpaid family work; youth employment is of poorer quality than employment for adults; wages and earnings are stagnant or declining. The ‘employment condition index’ has improved between 2004-05 and 2021-22. But some states — Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, and UP — have remained at the bottom throughout this period, while some others — Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Gujarat — have stayed at the top.
The index is based on seven labour market outcome indicators: (i) percentage of workers employed in regular formal work; (ii) percentage of casual labourers; (iii) percentage of self-employed workers below the poverty line; (iv) work participation rate; (v) average monthly earnings of casual labourers; (vi) unemployment rate of secondary and above-educated youth; (vii) youth not in employment and education or training.
Informal employment has risen — around half the jobs in the formal sector are of an informal nature. Self-employment and unpaid family work has also increased, especially for women. Almost 82% of the workforce is engaged in the informal sector, and nearly 90% is informally employed, the report said. Self-employment remains the primary source of employment — 55.8% in 2022. Casual and regular employment accounted for 22.7% and 21.5% respectively.
The share of self-employment remained almost stable around 52% between 2000 and 2019, while regular employment increased by almost 10 percentage points, to 23.8% from 14.2%. This reversed by 2022, with self-employment increasing to 55.8%, while the share of regular employment declined to 21.5%. Casual employment consistently declined to 22.7% in 2022 from 33.3% in 2000. Regular employment is generally seen as providing better-quality jobs due to the regularity of employment and associated social security benefits, while casual work is linked with relatively poor-quality jobs due to its irregular nature and lower daily earnings.
• What about female labour force participation rate (LFPR) in India?
• Do You Know-The female labour force participation rate (LFPR) in India remains among the world’s lowest. Female LFPR declined by 14.4 percentage points (compared to 8.1 percentage points for males) between 2000 and 2019. The trend reversed thereafter, with female LFPR rising by 8.3 percentage points (compared to 1.7 percentage points for male LFPR) between 2019 and 2022.
There is a considerable gender gap — women’s LFPR (32.8%) in 2022 was 2.3 times lower than men’s (77.2%). India’s low LFPR is largely attributed to the low female LFPR, which was much lower than the world average of 47.3% in 2022, but higher than the South Asian average of 24.8%, as per ILO data. There has been a reversal of the slow transition towards non-farm employment after 2018-19. The share of agriculture in total employment fell to around 42% in 2019 from 60% in 2000.
This shift was largely absorbed by construction and services, the share of which in total employment increased to 32% in 2019 from 23% in 2000. The share of manufacturing in employment has remained almost stagnant at 12-14%. Since 2018-19, this slow transition has stagnated or reversed with the rise in the share of agricultural employment. There has been a rise in youth employment, but the quality of work remains a concern, especially for qualified young workers.
Youth employment and underemployment increased between 2000 and 2019 but declined during the pandemic years. However, unemployment among youths, especially those with secondary-level or higher education, has intensified over time.
In 2022, the share of unemployed youths in the total unemployed population was 82.9%. The share of educated youths among all unemployed people also increased to 65.7% in 2022 from 54.2% in 2000.
The unemployment rate among youths was six times greater for those who had completed secondary education or higher (18.4%) and nine times higher for graduates (29.1%) than for persons who could not read or write (3.4%) in 2022. This was higher among educated young women (21.4%) than men (17.5%), especially among female graduates (34.5%), compared to men (26.4%).
The unemployment rate among educated youths grew to 30.8% in 2019 from 23.9% in 2000, but fell to 18.4% in 2022.
• What is the way forward for this situation?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍India’s employment conditions continue to be poor: Report
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