The Hindu Editorial Analysis 2nd August 2018

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Table of Contents

Prudent increase

Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee
Decision: raise benchmark interest rates again by 25 basis points
A response to mounting uncertainties on the inflation front. Continuing volatility in crude oil prices .Its vulnerability to geopolitical tensions and supply disruptions is one of the main risks to the inflation outlook. Volatile global financial markets Fiscal slippage at the Central and State levels increase in the MSP for kharif crops & upward revisions to house rent allowance paid by States.

Rainfall has so far been 6% below the long-period average and deficient over a wider area than last year — more than a fifth of the country’s 36 sub-divisions have reported shortfalls.
While rising trade protectionism threatens to impact investment flows.
Disrupt global supply chains and hurt all-round productivity.
Depreciations in the value of most currencies against the strengthening dollar have rippled through many major advanced and emerging economies, spurring inflation across these markets.

Reconsider the ban

- The Union Health Ministry’s ban on the retail sale and private manufacture of OXYTOCIN is an extremely ill-thought-out one.
- The drug, a synthetic version of a human hormone, is a life-saver for women. Doctors use it to induce labour in women and to stem postpartum bleeding.
- World Health Organization: drug of choice in postpartum haemorrhage.
- The government’s ban ignores this, and is motivated instead by the misuse of the hormone in the dairy industry.
- One of the concerns was that oxytocin leads to infertility in dairy animals, and some studies show this to be true.
- Oxytocin is simply too important to Indian women, 45,000 of whom die due to causes related to childbirth each year.
- A parallel to the situation lies in the misuse of antibiotics in humans and poultry.
- In much of rural India, more people still die due to a lack of antibiotics than due to antibiotic-resistance.

Misadventures in education

Two recent legislative interventions are short-sighted 1. Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, which seeks to replace the University Grants Commission 2. Right to Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018, was passed by the Lok Sabha on July 18 and is now before the Rajya Sabha. It seeks to eliminate the no-detention policy and reintroduce testing for Classes V and VIII.
National Knowledge Commission Report (2006) + Yashpal Committee on Higher Education (2009): made a solid case for bringing in a new regulator.
But the draft HECI Bill makes the problem worse through overcentralisation and enhanced political interference.
To improve learning outcomes in children, there are other specific provisions in the RTE that need attention maintaining a good pupil-teacher ratio (PTR)ü proper infrastructure like all-weather r buildings
barrier-free access in schools
separate toilets for boys and girls
• Declining funds is another reason why the RTE has not been
implemented in letter and spirit.
Accountability Initiative Report shows that allocations for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the main vehicle to drive RTE implementation, have remained much below the resource estimates made by the MHRD.
No-detention can work only if there is improved quality, which the
current amendment to RTE does not ensure

Scaled-up solutions for a future of water scarcity

While we thoughtlessly build artificial infrastructure, we forget that this kills natural infrastructure which took evolution aeons to create and cannot be engineered.
India is in the midst of a suicidal water crisis as urban and rural landscapes go thirsty.
The scale of our water problems is much larger.
High densities of our cities do not allow for water harvesting to fill the gap. 1. Cities are huge parasites on water, food, energy and all other resources. 2. In our global market economies, the products and services that are derived from natural infrastructure have often led to the terminal loss of the source itself.
Long-term loss for short-term gain.
Natural resources are living evolutionary resources that are constantly renewed by natural cycles.

Floodplains of rivers are exceptional aquifers.
Any withdrawal is compensated by gravity flow from a large surrounding area and can be used as a source of providing water to cities.
Floodplains are formed over millions of years by the flooding of rivers with deposition of sand on riverbanks.
Himalayan rivers’ floodplains: contain up to 20 times more water than the virgin flow in rivers in a year.
Since recharge is by rainfall and during late floods, the water quality is good.
If we conserve and use the floodplain, it can be a self-sustaining aquifer wherein every year, the river and floodplain are preserved in the same healthy condition as the year before.
Preserving the floodplain in a pristine condition is essential for this scheme to work.
Forested hills are a result of evolution over millions of years.
They are not polluted and sit on a treasure of underground aquifers that contain natural mineral water comparable to that found in a mountain spring.
About 30 sq.km of the forest could then provide enough natural mineral water to 5 million people in the city.
The Aravalli forested hills can provide mineral water to all major towns of Rajasthan.
Such non-invasive, local, large-scale ‘conserve and use’ projects till now have not been part of our living scheme.
Unlike large-scale dams, we need projects that work with nature rather than against it.

Polio jitters

• On June 29, 28 children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were paralysed by the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus Type 2 (cVDPV).
• The outbreak, first reported from Haut-Lomami Province in June 2017, has since spread to five more provinces, the latest being Ituri Province this May.
• Since this province is close to Uganda, there is a heightened risk of the virus spreading within and outside Africa.
• According to the WHO, there is an increased risk of virus transmission during the imminent rainy season.
• the problem is not with the vaccine itself, but low vaccination coverage.
• If a population is fully immunized, they will be protected against both vaccine-derived and wild polioviruses.
• Since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of OPV have been administered to nearly 3 billion children worldwide. As a result, more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented, and the disease has been reduced by more than 99%.
• The solution is the same for all polio outbreaks: immunize every child several times with the oral vaccine to stop polio transmission, regardless of the origin of the virus.

IMPORTANT NEWS

• Cabinet clears Bill to restore the provisions of SC/ST Act
• Centre has decided to introduce a Bill to restore the original provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, which the Supreme Court had struck down in a March ruling.
• The first stipulates that for the purposes of the Act, “preliminary enquiry shall not be required for registration of a First Information Report against any person.”
• The second stipulates that the arrest of a person accused of having committed an offence under the Act would not require any approval.
• The third says that the provisions of Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure — which deals with anticipatory bail — shall not apply to a case under this Act, “notwithstanding any judgment or order of any Court.

• Kerala firm on lifting Sabarimala temple ban

TRAI’s nod for sale of 5G spectrum
Status quo in Doklam: Sushma
‘Conflict resolved through diplomacy’
London’s India Club saved from redevelopment
The India Club has been at the location since 1964, though the club itself had strong connections to the India League and the independence movement. Since then, it has become an important centre of diaspora events in London, as well as being a hub for students, lawyers, journalists and others in the area.
Iran rejects Trump’s offer for talks • Cabinet okays 51% stake for LIC in IDBI