The Hindu Editorial Analysis | 21st Jan’20 | PDF Download

Guaranteeing healthcare, the Brazilian way

•  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will be our guest at New Delhi this Republic Day.
• Achieving universal health coverage is a very complex task, especially for developing countries.
• Brazil: only country where more than 100 million inhabitants have a universal health system.
• Unified Health System was written into the new Constitution in 1988.
• Life expectancy has increased from 64 years to almost 76 years.
•  Infant Mortality Rate has declined from 53 to 14 per 1,000 live births.
• Polio vaccination has reached 98% of the population. 2015 report: 95% of those that seek care in the SUS are able to receive treatment.
• NHS: 7.9% of Britain’s GDP Brazil spends only 3.8% of its GDP on the SUS
•  Brazil will need to increase by nearly 1.6 percentage points of the GDP by 2060 in order to cover the healthcare needs of a fast-ageing society.
• Achieving universal coverage in India with a population of 1.3 billion, is a challenge of epic proportions.
• Public health expenditure is still very low in India, at around 1.3% of GDP in the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
•  Family Health Programme (Programa Saúde da Família)
• Community-based healthcare network
•  Community health agents who perform monthly visits to every family enrolled in the programme.
• They conduct health promotion and prevention activities.
• 4% of coverage in 2000 to up to 64% of the overall population in 2015
• Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, and Bihar differ in so many ways.
• Combination of standardised programmes and autonomy
• Moreover, regional disparities in terms of resources and institutional capabilities must be addressed.
• This diversity, nevertheless, can be a powerful source of policy innovation and creativity.

 Tragic trek

• Venturing into forests for a trek without certified guides is akin to walking into a death trap with one’s eyes closed.
• Many cases of trekkers being fatally attacked by wild animals, often elephants, and other accidents such as falling off cliffs in the Western and Eastern Ghats bear testimony to this.     Ignorance of laws governing forest entry. Private adventure clubs entice youngsters. Many States also promote eco-tourism by conducting organised treks along safe designated routes and escorted by persons familiar with the terrain.
• Atulya Misra Committee: government must fund acquisition of more unmanned, high-technology aerial vehicles.
•  Laws need to be tightened to deal with violators.
• Index

 Deciphering the moves on Russia’s power chessboard

• Vladimir Putin: has announced major changes in three directions

1. constitutional changes
2. reshuffling his close aides and policy makers
3. a slew of economic and social measures

• These changes came in last week when Mr. Putin addressed a joint session of both houses of Parliament.
• Mr. Putin has proposed that the Russian legislature, the Duma, actually get more powers.
• For example, the Duma will now approve the appointment of the Prime Minister, and the President’s Deputies and cabinet Ministers.
• In the original Constitution the President alone nominated them. Now the Duma will have the power to endorse or reject the President’s choice.
• However the President retains the right to suggest the names and dismiss them.
• The State Council worked as an assembly of Governors from federal states which met irregularly with primarily consultative powers.
• This body now gets constitutional status.
• Clearly, Mr. Putin continues to hold full control.
• Mr. Putin also addressed the major internal security threat.
•  He has called the low birthrate and high mortality as unacceptable.
• All low income families with children under age seven will receive monthly cash handouts.
• All children till grade four in all Russian schools will get free lunch.
• All mothers after the birth of their first or second child will receive benefits and payments.
• Besides these handouts, he announced public spending and infrastructure projects to address poverty, decrease social tensions, reduce income gaps, improve health.
• This will add up to 450 billion rubles ($7.5 billion) per year in terms of public spending in Russia’s yearly budget.
• Some would argue that Mr. Putin’s thirst for retaining control over the Russian Federation is not lessening.
•  He has been rightly critiqued for not building autonomous institutions, not considering a separation of powers, retaining a centralised federal system, controlling the press and promoting crony capitalist clique.
• But Mr. Putin and Russia also face external challenges.
• Mr. Putin has had to weave relations with states that are willing to ignore these sanctions.

 Stay put

• Mr. Putin is currently serving his fourth term as President.
• A 2008 manoeuvre, when the former KGB officer, at the end of a second successive term swapped the presidency with Dmitry Medvedev.
•  A third term from 2013, was after an amendment to extend presidential terms to six years.
•  Mr. Putin also pointed to a woman’s eligibility for the country’s highest office.
• Mr. Putin: liberalism had outlived its utility.
• Moscow’s Syrian military intervention has bolstered its influence across West Asia.
•  At home however, a persistent economic crunch has led his poll ratings to plummet.
•  Index

Redesigning India’s ailing data system

• The new series of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures with 2011-12 as base, released in 2015, has not gone well with analysts.
• The withholding of employment-unemployment data for some time and consumer expenditure data, which is not released, added to this unease.
•  Bringing the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the fold of National Statistics Office, altering its long-standing arrangement under the Governing Council and then National Statistical Commission, triggered suspicion.
• As official statistics is a public good, giving information about the state of the economy and success of governance, it needs to be independent to be impartial. GDP covers all productive activity for producing goods and services, without duplication. The System of National Accounting (SNA) is designed to measure production, consumption, and accumulation of income and wealth for assessing the performance of the economy.
• GDP data influence markets, signalling investment sentiments, flow of funds and balance of payments.
• The input-output relations impact productivity and allocation of resources; demand and supply influences prices, exchange rates, wage rates, employment and standard of living, affecting all walks of life.
•  Replacing Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) with Ministry of Corporate Affairs MCA21 posed serious data and methodological issues.
• The use of MCA21 data and blow up factors thereof without weeding out defunct enterprises, and then insufficient work on mapping of comparable ASI data, followed by similar survey on services sector enterprises were another major lacunae.
• The process for collection and collation of data needs modernization using technology.
•  Along with GDP, we need data to assess competitiveness, inclusive growth, fourth-generation Industrial Revolution riding on the Internet of things, biotechnology, robotics influencing employment and productivity, environmental protection, sustainable development and social welfare.
• Hence GDP data needs to be linked with a host of other data for deeper insight.
•  We cannot reconcile data inconsistencies by setting up committees alone.
• We need systems which have the capability to sift through a huge volume of data seamlessly to look for reliability, validity, consistency and coherence.
• Data is the new oil in the modern networked economy in pursuit of socioeconomic development.
• The economics now is deeply rooted in data, measuring and impacting competitiveness, risks, opportunities and social welfare in an integrated manner, going much beyond macroeconomics.
•  We have a commitment to produce these statistics transparently, following internationally accepted standards, tailormade to suit local conditions, for multidisciplinary analytics.

Dream Of Home

• 30th anniversary of the Kashmiri Pandits’ tragic displacement from the Kashmir Valley. #Hum WapasAayenge affirmation What the Valley needs today is a return to normalcy, and then of prosperity.
• A Kashmir to which the Pandits return will be one where its two communities come together and grow together again. But much work needs to be done to improve social and material conditions that can pave the way for the Pandits’ safe return.
• Kashmir economy has taken crushing blows since the nullification of Article 370 and the revocation of statehood.
• The Valley’s tourism industry, apple trade and services sector – all of which were anyway underperforming amid sporadic violence and frequent shutdowns – have virtually ground to a halt. Having prevented violence and mass protests, government must now move quickly to relax controls.
• Only then can businesses resume and generate employment.
•  Politicians who can offer a vision to shepherd Kashmir in this post 370 phase aren’t emerging.
•  The visits of foreign envoys and Union ministerial delegations are important for pan-India and international perceptions but sustained gains will only materialise with local political participation.

 NEWS

• J&K L-G invites investors, says communication curbs will go
•  Only 10% of the area is affected by militancy and law and order incidents. We are tackling those pockets and will ensure safety and security in a systematic manner
•  3 Hizb militants killed in Shopian encounter
• Supreme Court declines to stay poll bond scheme
• 19 convicted in Muzaffarpur shelter home case
•  A Delhi court on Monday convicted key accused Brajesh Thakur and 18 others of sexual and physical assault of girl inmates of a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
• Arguments on the quantum of sentence will be heard on January 28.
• Thanjavur gets a Sukhoi squadron
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) inducted a squadron of Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets armed with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, at its Thanjavur Air Force Station on Monday.
•  Govt. yet to seek green nod for water aerodromes
• A year after 10 water aerodromes were awarded to airlines for seaplane operations, the government is yet to seek environmental clearance for them.
• Iran says it may pull out of NPT
• Pak. urges U.S. to get it off FATF grey list
• Virus outbreak spreads to Beijing, Shanghai

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