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Table of Contents
Making NHPM work
• September 25: formal launch of Ayushman Bharat or National Health Protection Mission
• 10 crore families chosen through the Socio-Economic Caste Census
• Linkages between health care and economic development.
• Awareness: it is unsustainable (अरक्षणीय) for a country of 1.3 billion people to rely on household savings to pay for health care.
• State governments, which will administer it through their own agency.
• Reaching a consensus on treatment costs through a transparent consultative process is vital for a smooth and steady rollout.
• A large-scale Information Technology network for cashless treatment should be set up and validated. • NHPM has a problem with the distribution of hospitals, the capacity of human resources, and the finances available for cost-sharing.
• The Centre should extend the scheme to all children and senior citizens, and cover out-patient consultation and essential drugs to sharply reduce out-of-pocket spending.
Fear isn’t the key
• Front-running, insider trading, shady accounting practices that are tantamount (समान/ बराबर) to window-dressing firms’ performance, and other shenanigans to manipulate share prices continue.
• T.K. Viswanathan: stock market watchdog be granted the power to act directly against “perpetrators of financial statements fraud”.
• SEBI can act not only against listed entities under its extant powers but also against those who aid or abet financial fraud — including accountants and auditors.
• Greater executive powers leads to swifter actions
• Since SEBI is better placed to understand the complex nuances that financial market fraud entails, compared to other investigative agencies or even those in charge of implementing the Companies Act, it may also be better placed to enforce the law.
• SEBI is widely considered to be one of the more efficient regulators, but it is not faultless.
• Given that SEBI is now considering a cap on trading by retail investors based on their assessed ‘net worth’ , the committee’s suggestion that it may consider any trading by players beyond their known ‘financial resources’ as fraud could lead to undue harassent of investors.
• Sledgehammer is not deployed to crack a nut.
Probing an amendment
• Recent amendments to laws on corruption 1. Prior approval for initiating investigation into allegations of corruption against public servants (all categories of public servants.)
1. The only exception to this are cases of traps in which such public servants are caught red-handed while taking bribe.
2. Requiring prior sanction for prosecution of public servants.
1. This safeguard has been extended to retired public servants.
• Under the law of the land, the police has unfettered jurisdiction to initiate investigation into a crime or acts of corruption, once it gets credible information.
• There are Supreme Court rulings that even the courts can’t interfere in this exercise of power by a competent investing agency. For e.g. Vineet Narain case
• The burden of the court order was that under the scheme of the criminal justice system and the rule of law, which we have adopted and have been practising, the police and the CBI are bound by the law and the Constitution to investigate a crime reported to them, if there is credible information.
• The recent amendment, therefore, is retrograde in nature and is likely to be quashed if contested in the apex court.
Questioning a crackdown
• Ministry of Health: restrict, from September 1, the manufacture of oxytocin only to the public sector unit, Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (KAPL)
• It is made primarily by the private sector
• Oxytocin — which is considered to be a critical drug in maternal health care.
• The restriction is because of alleged misuse of the drug by dairy farmers on milch cattle to stimulate milk production.
• Stand of High Court of Himachal Pradesh followed by GoI
PM healthcare scheme from Sept. 25
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced not just the launch date for his ambitious health insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Abhiyan (PMJAA), but also permanent commission for women officers on short service commission in the uniformed services and plans for a manned space mission.
• India will send a “son or daughter” to space with the national flag in hand by 2022, the Prime Minister said.
• Mr. Modi not only decried the “demonic tendencies” of violence against women but also lauded fast-track courts dealing with rape cases handing out the death penalties in several cases (a mention that got a round of applause from the audience too).
We serve the Lady of Justice, says CJI Misra
• After a year of facing dissent from within the Supreme Court judiciary and an impeachment motion by Opposition MPs, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Wednesday said it is easy to criticise but transforming an institution into a performing one is the difficult part.
• The Chief Justice said the institution (the court) refuses to bow to those trying to weaken it. Anyone trying to create a dent in the justice delivery system hurts the Lady of Justice, he said.
• “We serve the Lady of Justice, the queen of justice… When the queen of justice sheds tears, possibly all of us will shed tears, ”
Kerala reels under its worst floods
India, China Armies meet in Ladakh
• Amid continuing transgression by China at Demchok in eastern Ladakh, the Armies of India and China held a ceremonial Border Personnel Meeting to mark India’s Independence Day.
• However, not far from the venues, a stand-off has been going on in Demchok since early July when Chinese troops intruded 300 metres into the Indian territory and pitched tents. Official sources said a group of Chinese soldiers entered the area, in the garb of nomads, and pitched five tents. However, four tents were removed within days, after India opened discussions between border commanders under the existing mechanisms.
• One tent is still there, and the discussions are continuing, an official source said. The incident comes a year after the 73-day stand-off at the Doklam trijunction.
With human space flight, India to push frontiers
New species of orchid found in Peruvian jungle
• Botanists have discovered a new species of orchid in Peru’s central Amazonian rainforest.
• “The new species of orchid was recently discovered in the Tingo Maria National Park” , the parks service SERNANP announced. The orchid was given the name Andinia tingomariana and has been classified as belonging to the Andinia genus.
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