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Mar 06, 2022
UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME MUST SERVE TO STRENGTHEN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND ENCOURAGE COLLECTIVE ACTION TO ADDRESS THE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES OF OUR TIME: INDIA AT 50TH SESSION OF UNEP
Recently, the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change delivered a national statement on the 50th session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi.
Highlights of The United Nations Environment Programme on Completing 50 Years
About Auroville
About Responsible AI
Monetary policy of RBI
About Karewas
Gin Berry Species
About Research
Highlights of The United Nations Environment Programme on Completing 50 Years
- UNEP’s 50th anniversary must serve to strengthen international cooperation and encourage collective action to address the major environmental challenges of our time, including climate change, conserving and enhancing biodiversity, and tackling pollution and waste, while moving to the path of sustainability.
- UNEP@50 has been a time to reflect on the past and envision the future. It provided an opportunity to reinvigorate international cooperation and spur collective action to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
- No country or continent can solve these global crises alone. But each nation has a crucial role to play in protecting our people and planet.
- Under UNEP@50, a year-long series of activities and outreach events are being organized to mark UNEP’s 50th anniversary. These events are being held to recognize the progress made on global environmental matters and address the upcoming planetary challenges.
- For the past 50 years, UNEP has made a global effort to address the world’s biggest environmental issues. Collaboration has helped in repairing the ozone layer, phasing out lead fuel, preventing the extinction of some endangered species, etc. The rigorous scientific research and convening power of the UNEP has provided a platform for countries to act boldly, engage, and advance the global environmental agenda.
- Since its inception in 1972, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been the global authority that sets the environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
- UNEP is one of the leading global voices on environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and people to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
- Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, UNEP works through its divisions as well as regional, liaison and out-posted offices and a growing network of collaborating centers of excellence.
- UNEP works closely with its 193 Member States and representatives from civil society, businesses, and other major groups and stakeholders to address environmental challenges through the UN Environment Assembly, the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment.
- The organization hosts the secretariats of many critical multilateral environmental agreements and research bodies.
- The Executive Director and Senior Management Team lead the implementation of UNEP’s Medium-Term Strategy (MTS). The four-year MTS articulates UNEP’s role in delivering the promises of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) as well as its outcome document, “The Future We Want.”
- UNEP supports Member States to ensure that environmental sustainability is reflected in development and investment planning and provides countries with the necessary tools and technologies to protect and restore the environment.
- Through its campaigns, particularly World Environment Day, UNEP raises awareness and advocates for effective environmental action.
- UNEP categorizes its work into seven broad thematic areas: climate change, disasters and conflicts, ecosystem management, environmental governance, chemicals and waste, resource efficiency, and environment under review.
- Its work is made possible by partners that fund and champion the mission. UNEP depends on voluntary contributions for 95 per cent of its income.
- For five decades, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been a leading advocate for the environment, a steadfast partner and a trusted adviser with a mission to inform, enable and inspire nations and peoples to improve their quality of life – without compromising that of future generations.
- UNEP monitors the state and health of the planet, ensures that science remains at the center of decision-making processes, and that environmental rule of law continues to underpin global environmental governance.
- As UNEP relies on voluntary contributions for 95 per cent of the funding, the work is made possible by partners who fund and champion its mission.
- The Environment Fund is UNEP's core source of flexible funds, providing the bedrock of the work worldwide.
- In addition, earmarked funds (funds given or "earmarked" to a specific project, theme, country etc.) enable UNEP to expand and replicate the programme in more countries and with more partners. Main providers of earmarked funds include the Global Environment Facility, the Green Climate Fund and the European Commission.
- Around the world, UNEP works in partnerships with governments, the scientific community, the private sector, civil society, and other United Nations entities and international organizations. UNEP brings together partners to agree on solutions to our common environmental challenges, for example through the UN Environment Assembly.
- India has been engaging with UNEP since 1972, dealing with critical environmental challenges.
- In 2018, India hosted the World Environment Day on the theme ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’.
- Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, gave a global call for eliminating single use plastics. This call of India provided the momentum leading to significant action on plastic pollution around the globe, culminating in the historic resolution and its adoption. We believe this will institutionalise ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ around the world.
- Sustainable lifestyles underpin the survival of our planet. We believe that our utilization of resources must be based on ‘Mindful and Deliberate Utilization’ and NOT ‘Mindless and Destructive Consumption’. Our Hon’ble Prime Minister gave a clarion call from L.I.F.E. - Lifestyles for Environment at COP26 at Glasgow. We believe that UNEP should join hands with India to spread the message of L.I.F.E. to the global community with a view to safeguarding humanity and the planet, as per Indian Government.
- India looks forward to stronger collaboration with UNEP on environmental issues including Conventions and multilateral agreements relating to the environment. UNEP should also build a robust portfolio of projects, particularly for delivering on the environmental dimensions of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, and other multilaterally agreed global environmental goals.
- India emphasized that UN Environment Programme must serve to strengthen international cooperation and encourage collective action to address the major environmental challenges of our time.
About Auroville
- Founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa – known as ‘The Mother’ – Auroville currently has a population of 3200 people, with the Auroville Foundation owning 3,300 acres of land. A plan, known as the Galaxy Plan, envisages a city of 50,000 residents.
- Created on the lines of the Galaxy Plan, the Auroville Universal Township Master Plan was approved by the HRD Ministry in April, 2001.
- According to the Master Plan, the ‘Galaxy’ is planned to be 20 square kilometers in size, of which 5 sq km are to be the city and 15 sq km are to be the ‘green belt’.
- The city is planned to have four zones: residential, cultural, industrial and international. Apart from this, there will be the ‘Crown’, which the Master Plan defines as “a special use zone, which traverses all the four zones in a concentric fashion with a width of 75 meters, consisting of a circular road with buildings facing it.”
- This Crown area will provide most of the service facilities required to support the activities in the four zones. The right of way of the Crown Road was brought down to 16.7 meters from 30 meters.
- He has been described as a rishi, a poet, a scholar, a literary critic, a philosopher, a yogi and much more.
- Born as Aurobindo Ghose in Kolkata on 15 August 1872, he left in his childhood to study in England; eventually he prepared for the Indian Civil Service examinations at King's College in Cambridge, but unconvinced that it was his future, he refused to attempt the last horse-riding examination, renouncing a brilliant carrier as a civil servant.
- After returning to India; Sri Aurobindo started working for the Maharaja of Baroda, but soon jumped into nationalist politics. During these years, his articles in Bande Mataram, Karmayogin and other revolutionary papers fired up the youth of India.
- In May 1908, he was arrested on suspicion of preparing bombs and he faced charges of treason in the Alipore Conspiracy Case.
- He was acquitted on 6 May 1909 after a brilliant defence by his counsel Deshbandu Chittaranjan Das who prophetically said: “That long after this controversy is hushed in silence, long after this turmoil, this agitation ceases, long after he is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and the lover of humanity. Long after he is dead and gone, his words will be echoed and re-echoed not only in India but across distant seas and lands.”
- One of his spiritual experiences was the ‘visit’ of Swami Vivekananda: “It is a fact that I was hearing constantly the voice of Vivekananda speaking to me for a fortnight in the jail in my solitary meditation and felt his presence,” he later wrote.
- Let us not forget that at that time, Viceroy Lord Minto said about Sri Aurobindo, the first proponent of Purna Swaraj: “I can only repeat that he is the most dangerous man we have to reckon with.”
- The second phase of the rishi’s spiritual journey is hardly known. To understand, we have to turn to the mother, Sri Aurobindo’s collaborator, who joined him 1920 and later founded the Ashram in Pondicherry: “What Sri Aurobindo represents in the world's history is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme.”
- On 4 April 1910, Sri Aurobindo arrived in the former French Establishment; that day, the Pondicherry pier witnessed a scene which will remain etched in history: A strict orthodox Tamil Brahmin, Srinivasachari, and Suresh Chakravarti, an 18-year-old Bengali revolutionary, shared a small boat to reach Le Dupleix, a steamer which had just arrived from Calcutta carrying the ‘most dangerous man’ on board.
- During this time, he wrote many books on religion, philosophy and Indian culture. Some of his well-known books are Essays on the Gita, The Foundations of Indian Culture, The Life Divine (1939), Savitri (1950), Mother India, The Age of Kalidasa, The Significance of Indian Art, Lights on Yoga, A System of National Education, The Renaissance in India, Speeches of Aurobindo. His Bangla books include Pondicherir Patra (1921), Karakahini (1921), Bharater Navajanma (1915), Dharma O Jatiyata (1931), Yoga-Sadhanar Vitti (1942) and Bharate Rastranitik Pratibha. Aurobindo died on 5 December 1950.
- Around 1914, he foresaw: “At present mankind is undergoing an evolutionary crisis in which is concealed a choice of its destiny.... Man has created a system of civilisation which has become too big for his limited mental capacity and understanding and his still more limited spiritual and moral capacity to utilise and manage, a too dangerous servant of his blundering ego and its appetites.”
- He believed that “the burden which is being laid on mankind is too great for the present littleness of the human personality and its petty mind and small life-instincts” and therefore “it cannot operate the needed change” without a change in consciousness.
- On 15 August 1947, the day India obtained her independence, coincided with Sri Aurobindo’s 75th birthday. It was a ‘justice of history’ for someone who had tirelessly worked for this momentous event.
- The previous day, Sri Aurobindo had been requested by All India Radio to give a message to the nation. He spoke about his Five Dreams. The first was that “India be united again”.
- The second dream was to see the “resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia”; it has already happened.
- Sri Aurobindo’s third dream was of a “world-union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter and nobler life for all mankind.” Many groupings such as the European Union, the ASEAN, the BRIC, etc, are slowly taking shape, though divisions remain.
- The fourth dream was a ‘spiritual gift of India to the world’. One only has to go to a bookshop in the West or look at the number of works on yoga, dharma, etc. to see that something of this has already been achieved.
- The final dream, perhaps the most important, was a new “step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness and begin the solution of the problems which have perplexed and vexed him since he first began to think and to dream of individual perfection and a perfect society”.
- But Sri Aurobindo knew that the journey would not be easy; “dark forces” would again and again try to derail the progress of humanity towards her destiny.
- The Nazi regime in Germany was one of these obstacles; in 1940, he had observed: “If Britain were defeated, that result would be made permanent and in Asia also all the recent development such as the rise of new or renovated Asiatic peoples would be miserably undone, and India’s hope of liberty would become a dead dream of the past or a struggling dream of a far-off future… Mankind itself as a whole would be flung back into a relapse towards barbarism, a social condition and an ethics which would admit only the brute force of the master and the docile submission of the slave.”
- Very few, even in his Ashram, understood his words that the victory of the British Empire during World War II was necessary for the world to evolve towards a more human, if not enlightened condition. The freedom of India would emerge from the Allies’ victory, he foresaw (it did, two years after the end of the War).
- At that time (1940), Sri Aurobindo saw “a clash between two world-forces which are contending for the control of the whole future of humanity”.
- Sri Aurobindo points out that science investigating life is a better tool to remodel society. Science investigating life posits that individual life can be “… best secured and made efficient by association with others subject to a law of communal self-development rather by aggressive self-affirmation” which in turn seeks to give precedence to the community.
- Sri Aurobindo is quick to highlight the dangers of the extension of such a model of community whereby it could potentially invade every aspect of human life. Therefore, it calls for balancing of both the individual and community, which are not mutually exclusive terms rather they complement each other and lead to mutual self-realization.
- This balancing is done in the democratic trinity of equality, liberty, and fraternity where the individual has not only individual existence but also forms a part of society. It is through this relationship that certain harmony is achieved by individuals with society.
- The right organization of society, in Sri Aurobindo’s opinion, is based on comradeship (or fraternity) and equality where every individual has a proper place in social order. His place is regulated by individual and collective good irrespective of his privileges and prejudices gained (or lost) by virtue of birth.
- The overarching control is exercised by the state, “This control can be most wisely and effectively carried out by the collective reason and will of the State which is larger, better, more enlightened than the individual’s; for its profits, as the average individual cannot do, by all the available wisdom and aspiration in the society.”
- It is pertinent to note here that such a society develops into sub-soul or group-soul where it belongs to all members alike taking into account its diversities and that the State is always “government by a number of individuals”. Here, society is different from individuals as it is not merely an association of individuals together but a separate entity with a soul, and not merely a body or mind.
- Sri Aurobindo sets out the balancing principle as, “Freedom and harmony express the two necessary principles of variation and oneness, - freedom of the individual, the group, the race, coordinated harmony of the individual’s forces and of the efforts of all individuals in the group, of all groups in the race, of all races in the kind, - and these are the two conditions of the healthy progression and successful arrival”.
- Law in an individualistic society is outside oneself – “… outside even when it is discovered or determined by the individual reason and accepted or enforced or enforced by the individual will”. In Sri Aurobindo’s conception, the law is a self-creating process which in turn is then extended to everyone else.
- Law when seen from an objective view of life, is enforced outside by the State and is backed by sanctions. This fits the Austinian gunman model which has been widely accepted as a fallacious understanding of law. Per contra, Sri Aurobindo’s idea of law as a self-creating process is closer to Hart’s model of law having authority in and of itself and being complied not because of sanctions but because of rules of recognition, having more acceptability.
- This in turn would help individuals to actually comply with the law to a greater degree as law is not something that is imposed from outside but a value developed from within the individual. Society will, thus, develop a rule of law as an internal value.
- The present confrontation, particularly with China, is between two opposite worlds. India, despite having an incredible number of weaknesses and deficiencies and the apparent chaos everywhere, represents an aspiration for freedom, peace and diversity on the planet. China is the opposite.
- Sri Aurobindo has shown the path: “Spirituality is indeed the master-key of the Indian mind.” One hundred years ago, he wrote: “When we look at the past of India, what strikes us next is her stupendous vitality, her inexhaustible power of life and joy of life, her almost unimaginably prolific creativeness. For three thousand years at least — it is indeed much longer — she has been creating abundantly and incessantly, lavishly, with an inexhaustible many sidedness, republics and kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems and all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works, communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of Yoga, systems of politics and administration, arts spiritual, arts worldly, trades, industries, fine crafts, the list is endless and in each item there is almost a plethora of activity.”
- Today, more and more the government would like to replace this creativity, by ‘development’; it will hopefully be only a passing phase because India “creates and creates and is not satisfied and is not tired,” noted the sage.
- Being devoted to this, eternal vitality and creativity would be the best homage to Sri Aurobindo for his 150th Birth anniversary. He was never interested in huge statues, grandiose projects or big institutions in his name; he just wanted a new better world to emerge from the present chaos. But it depends on each of us.
- The Alipore conspiracy case was launched against the revolutionary activities of the Anushilan Samiti. The most famous accused people were Aurobindo Ghosh, Barindra Ghosh and 37 other Bengali nationalists of the Anushilan Samiti. Sri Aurobindo was acquitted of all the charges.
- It was the first state trial of any magnitude in India. The British government charged them with ‘Conspiracy’ or ‘Waging war against the King’. These offences were equivalent to high treason and punishable with death by hanging.
- The under-trial prisoners were illegally held in the Presidency Jail and they were tortured. The final judgment was delivered by Judge Beachcroft in May 1909 after a trial of one year. The judge proclaimed that there was several evidence of flimsy nature against Sri Aurobindo.
- Barindra Ghosh was the head of the secret society of revolutionaries and Ullaskar Dutt was the maker of bombs and both these people were given death penalty. Seventeen others were given varying terms of imprisonment of transportation and the rest were acquitted.
- The partition of Bengal in 1905 led to a general outburst of revolt favouring the rise of the extremist party and the great nationalist movement. The British govt. responded with severe repressive measures against this Swadeshi Agitation.
- Anushilan Samiti was one of the secret revolutionary organizations operating in Bengal in the first quarter of the 20th century.
- It was bent on overthrowing the British colonial rule. The genesis of the terrorist parties in Bengal in the first decade of the twentieth century can be traced to the formation of small, non-terrorist youth clubs devoted to the three-fold aims of physical, mental, and moral development of the youth.
- Such a concept, developed by bankimchandra chattopadhyay, Swami vivekandanda, and aurobindo ghosh, is rooted in Shakta Hinduism. They urged the Hindus to become vigorous spiritually, physically and intellectually.
- To give effect to their thoughts, numerous youth clubs designated as Anushilan Samitis (Anushilan Samiti) in the rural and urban areas were formed for undergoing mental and physical exercises long before the actual beginning of revolutionary terrorism.
- The aims and methods of the Samiti and the Swadeshi Movement were quite similar. The Calcutta Anushilan Samiti and the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti were formed and organised on the lines of the secret societies of Russia and Italy. Pramathanath mitra, a Barrister and a leading figure in the revolutionary movement of late 19th and early 20th century Bengal founded Calcutta Anushilan Samiti in 1902.
- Jatindranath Banerjee, a young Bengali who took military training in the army of the Maharaja of Baroda and Barindrakumar ghosh, the younger brother of Aurobindo Ghosh, assisted him.
- The activities of the Calcutta Anushilan Samiti were initially confined to physical and moral training of the members and were not particularly significant till 1907 or 1908.
- From 1907 the members belonging to the Anushilan Samiti were very active in revolutionary activities. On 6 December 1907 they tried to blow up the train in which the Lieutenant-Governor of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam was travelling. A few days later, on 23 December, they attempted to assassinate Mr Allen, formerly District Magistrate of Dhaka.
- The Alipur trial led to a series of arrests and raids culminating in the divisions in the Anushilan Samitis. Though all the samitis were mutually independent of each other, there was a kind of central action committee led collectively by Pramathanath Mitra, Barindra Kumar Ghosh, and Pulin Bihari Das. However, the government had identified the samitis in two broad groups: Jugantar group and Dhaka Anushilan group.
- Surya Sen (Mastarda) conducted the last revolutionary terrorism in East Bengal. Sen, a member of the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti and also of the Jugantar, had organised the Chittagong armoury raid on April 18, 1930, an event which was matchless in organisation and prowess in the whole history of the terrorist movement. Surya Sen was tried and hanged to death on 12 January 1934.
About Responsible AI
- Responsible AI is a governance framework that documents how a specific organization is addressing the challenges around artificial intelligence (AI) from both an ethical and legal point of view. Resolving ambiguity for where responsibility lies if something goes wrong is an important driver for responsible AI initiatives.
- The development of fair, trustworthy AI standards is up to the discretion of the data scientists and software developers who write and deploy a specific organization's AI algorithmic models. This means that the steps required to prevent discrimination and ensure transparency vary from company to company.
- Interpretability: When we interpret a model, we get an explanation for how it makes predictions. Responsible AI can define how we build interpretable models or when it is okay to use one that is less interpretable.
- Fairness: It is possible for AI systems to make decisions that discriminate against certain groups of people. In general, the more interpretable a model the easier it is to ensure fairness and correct any bias.
- Privacy and Data Governance: The quality of data used is important. If there are mistakes in the data used by AI then the system may make incorrect decisions. In general, AI should also not be allowed to use sensitive data (e.g., medical history, trade-union membership).
- Comprehensiveness – comprehensive AI has clearly defined testing and governance criteria to prevent machine learning from being hacked easily.
- Explainable AI is programmed to describe its purpose, rationale and decision-making process in a way that can be understood by the average end user.
- Ethical AI initiatives have processes in place to seek out and eliminate bias in machine learning models.
- Efficient AI is able to run continually and respond quickly to changes in the operational environment.
- Responsible AI is an emerging area of AI governance and use of the word "responsible" is an umbrella term that covers both ethics and democratization.
- An important goal of responsible AI is to reduce the risk that a minor change in an input's weight will drastically change the output of a machine learning model.
- Besides being useful for transactional data, a distributed ledger can be a valuable tool for creating a tamper-proof record that documents why a machine learning model made a particular prediction. That's why some companies are using blockchain, the popular distributed ledger used for the cryptocurrency bitcoin, to document their use of responsible AI.
- AI can be used for anything from insurance underwriting to detecting cancer. The defining characteristic is that there is limited\no human input into the decisions made by the system. This can lead to many potential issues and companies need to define a clear approach to using AI.
- Responsible AI is a governance framework which can include details on what data can be collected and used, how models should be evaluated, and how to best deploy and monitor models. The framework can also define who is accountable for any negative outcomes of AI.
- Artificial Intelligence involves complex programming of products that cannot be explained to the common people. Moreover, algorithms of most of the AI-based products or applications are kept secret to avoid security breaches and similar threats.
- The privacy of citizens is constantly put at risk when companies collect consumer data without taking any prior permission — and this is made easy with the use of AI. Facial recognition algorithms are widely used across the world to support the functionality of different applications and products. Such products are collecting and selling huge amounts of customer data without consent.
- AI algorithms can show biased results when written by developers with biased minds. There isn’t any transparency about how the decision-making processes run in the background.
- When an AI system or product does something unethical, it’s challenging to assign blame or accountability. Earlier governance functions had to deal with static processes, but AI and data processes are iterative. Thus, we need a governance process that can similarly adapt and change.
- In the analogue world, where firms moved slow and new markets took decades to develop, lawmakers, and statutory regulators had enough temporal margins to work out the ‘perfect’ CAC prescriptions to rectify any market dysfunctionality.
- Government-led industry self-regulation is then proposed as an alternative regulatory approach to harness opportunities for AI-enabled productivity gains and public benefit, while also addressing critical public safety concerns around AI adoption.
- The CAC regulations typically end up prescribing significant compliance obligations on regulatees while also demanding the creation of brand-new enforcement and compliance monitoring mechanisms that could significantly burden the public exchequer.
- CAC regulators must exercise great caution in defining the subject and scope of regulation with due precision to avoid under- or over-regulation, and in a manner that is clearly comprehensible to both regulatory authorities and regulatees to ensure satisfactory compliance.
- CAC regulators must demonstrate an accurate understanding of what they are seeking to regulate, and the competence to deliver prescriptions that could adapt to temporal variations in the regulatory subject and scope.
- The extremely fast-evolving nature of the AI-innovation landscape strongly disfavours any anticipatory recognition of a finite set of distinct use-cases and the universe of associated risks and benefits associated with their adoption, in a timely and accurate manner.
- The gap between advancements in AI and optimal regulatory responses to steer them in the right direction becomes even wider in low- and middle-income countries, where regulatory institutions continue to grapple with resource crunches.
- The sub-optimal regulatory regime for AI could seriously damage the growth and scaling prospects of the AI industry by stifling investment and innovation, with missed opportunities for AI-enabled productivity gains and public benefit, while also under-serving critical public safety concerns around AI adoption as risky use-cases fall outside the regulatory subject and scope.
- At the moment, when it comes to AI, companies are expected to self-regulate. This means they must create and implement their own Responsible AI guidelines. A potential solution would be for all companies to adopt the same guidelines. Guidelines must become laws/regulations, and companies must face penalties for not abiding by them.
- Algorithm Fairness is an important part of responsible AI and will likely be the focus of a lot of AI regulation.
- The pacing problem in AI regulation implores the need for a robust government-led industry self-regulation (GIS) regime that could adaptively respond to risks arising from AI adoption.
- Under the GIS arrangement, the government, via rigorous consultations with all stakeholders, would define regulatory goals or principles, and refrain from prescribing the means and methods to achieve them; instead, the industry would take on that responsibility by formulating suitable standards and codes of conduct, which the government may choose to then certify.
- The GIS arrangement holds immense potential to perfectly combine government oversight with industry expertise to guide responsive and agile interventions in AI-led markets, equitably balancing the interests of private innovation and enterprise with that of public safety.
- There is always a fair possibility of regulatory capture by firms failing to realise incentives to self-regulate effectively, leading to unfavorable or even fatal consequences for the public. For instance, where the cost of adoption of a certain safety standard for an AI-based product could hurt the firm’s bottom line, and the firm perversely manages to cut costs by launching the unstandardized version of the product into the market, the prevailing industry self-regulation arrangement will have clearly failed.
- Strong market incentives for responsible AI adoption are becoming apparent. AI-led enterprises are recognising the medium- to long-term value for their shareholders from strategic investments in risk assessment and mitigation tools and resources, and strengthening corporate governance structures for end-to-end adoption of responsible AI best practices that prioritize user trust and safety.
- Globally, a good number of civil society organisations and interdisciplinary think tanks have hit the ground running to track and report emergent risks from AI adoption, propose rigorous measures for their mitigation, and make sure that fairness, transparency, and accountability remain listed as the highest corporate priorities for all AI-led enterprises.
Monetary policy of RBI
- The primary objective of the RBI’s monetary policy is to maintain price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth. Price stability is a necessary precondition to sustainable growth.
- In May 2016, the RBI Act was amended to provide a legislative mandate to the central bank to operate the country’s monetary policy framework. The framework, according to the RBI website, aims at setting the policy (repo) rate based on an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation; and modulation of liquidity conditions to anchor money market rates at or around the repo rate.
- Repo rate changes transmit through the money market to the entire financial system, which, in turn, influences aggregate demand – a key determinant of inflation and growth.
- The price stability under the statute has been defined numerically by a target of 4 per cent for headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) with a tolerance band of +/- 2 per cent around it. The flexibility in the FIT (flexible-inflation targeting) regime comes from provisions to accommodate or see-through transitory supply-side shocks to inflation.
- Failure to meet the monetary policy objective is defined in terms of average headline CPI inflation remaining lower or higher than the 2 to 6 per cent band for three consecutive quarters, rather than any instance where inflation exceeds/falls below the target. This helps monetary policy to avoid undue volatility in rate-setting behaviour that may adversely impact growth.
- The clearly defined inflation targets and the band, the setting up of the MPC, the explicit accountability mechanisms for defining failure in meeting the target, the detailed resolution and the quick release of individual assessments in the minutes have strengthened transparency and credibility of monetary policy formulation in India.
- Under Section 45ZB of the amended RBI Act, 1934, the central government is empowered to constitute a six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to determine the policy interest rate required to achieve the inflation target. The first such MPC was constituted on September 29, 2016.
- Section 45ZB lays down that “the Monetary Policy Committee shall determine the Policy Rate required to achieve the inflation target”, and that “the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee shall be binding on the Bank”.
- Section 45ZB says the MPC shall consist of the RBI Governor as its ex officio chairperson, the Deputy Governor in charge of monetary policy, an officer of the Bank to be nominated by the Central Board, and three persons to be appointed by the central government. The last category of appointments must be from “persons of ability, integrity and standing, having knowledge and experience in the field of economics or banking or finance or monetary policy”.
- Promotion of saving and investment: Since the monetary policy controls the rate of interest and inflation within the country, it can impact the savings and investment of the people. A higher rate of interest translates to a greater chance of investment and savings, thereby maintaining a healthy cash flow within the economy.
- Controlling imports and exports: By helping industries secure a loan at a reduced rate of interest, monetary policy helps export-oriented units to substitute imports and increase exports. This, in turn, helps improve the condition of the balance of payments.
- Managing business cycles: The two main stages of a business cycle are boom and depression. The monetary policy is the greatest tool using which the boom and depression of business cycles can be controlled by managing credit to control the supply of money. The inflation in the market can be controlled by reducing the supply of money. On the other hand, when the money supply increases, the demand in the economy will also witness a rise.
- Regulation of aggregate demand: Since monetary policy can control the demand in an economy, it can be used by monetary authorities to maintain a balance between demand and supply of goods and services. When credit is expanded and the rate of interest is reduced, it allows more people to secure loans for the purchase of goods and services. This leads to a rise in demand. On the other hand, when the authorities wish to reduce demand, they can reduce credit and raise interest rates.
- Generation of employment: As the monetary policy can reduce the interest rate, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can easily secure a loan for business expansion. This can lead to greater employment opportunities.
- Helping with the development of infrastructure: The monetary policy allows concessional funding for the development of infrastructure within the country.
- Allocating more credit for the priority segments: Under the monetary policy, additional funds are allocated at lower rates of interest for the development of the priority sectors such as small-scale industries, agriculture, underdeveloped sections of the society, etc.
- Managing and developing the banking sector: The entire banking industry is managed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While RBI aims to make banking facilities available far and wide across the nation, it also instructs other banks using the monetary policy to establish rural branches wherever necessary for agricultural development. Additionally, the government has also set up rural regional banks and cooperative banks to help farmers receive the financial aid they require in no time.
- Retail inflation breached RBI’s upper tolerance level at 6.01 per cent in January, compared to 5.66 per cent in December 2021.
- The rise was mainly on account of high food inflation, which jumped to a 14-month high of 5.43 per cent along with an unfavorable base.
- Referring to the current global conditions, it was posing complex challenges for central bank communication after about two years of living through the pandemic.
- A number of economies, including the major ones, are facing multi-decadal high inflation due to supply disruptions, tighter labour markets, fragility of the just in time inventory management and geopolitical disturbances.
- Financial markets world over has turned extremely volatile as they have been left grappling with heightened uncertainty over the pace of future monetary policy normalization.
- The central bank recognise that communication needs to be backed by commensurate actions to build credibility and instill wider confidence in policies.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has actively used communication through a variety of tools — the MPC resolutions and minutes, exhaustive post-policy statements together with a statement on developmental and regulatory measures, press conferences, speeches and other publications, especially the biannual Monetary Policy Report (MPR) — to anchor expectations.
- On the inflation front, renewed international crude oil prices need monitoring due to exogenous factors including geo-political developments.
- The RBI, in its latest monetary policy meeting has kept key policy rates, including repo and reverse repo rates, unchanged even amid other central banks withdrawing emergency support two years after the coronavirus outbreak caused widespread economic stress.
- The trajectories of growth and inflation diverged between countries has impelled some central banks to embark on aggressive policy tightening to quell inflation risks, while a few others, mostly emerging market economies (EMEs), continue to maintain accommodative policies. The adverse spillovers from such divergent policy responses could materialise quickly on the global and domestic outlook.
- Monetary policy is not merely a science where we tweak some instrument to achieve an objective. It is also an art of creating new instruments and taking policy calls in response to anticipated and evolving challenges and communicating them with prescience and clarity, especially during crisis times.
About Karewas
- The Kashmir valley is an oval-shaped basin, 140 km long and 40 km wide, trending in the NNW–SSE direction.
- The Kashmir valley owes much of its fortune to the plateau-like landforms that remain tucked away in the folds of the surrounding mountains, particularly the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas that borders the valley on the southwest.
- Known as karewa, these plateaus are 13,000-18,000-metre-thick deposits of alluvial soil and sediments like sandstone and mudstone. This makes them ideal for cultivation of saffron, almonds, apples and several other cash crops.
- Karewas are lacustrine deposits (deposits in lake) in the Valley of Kashmir and in Bhadarwah Valley of the Jammu Division. These are the flat-topped mounds that border the Kashmir Valley on all sides. They are characterized by fossils of mammals and at places by peat.
- The Karewa deposits in the Kashmir valley have been conventionally divided into two stages, lower and upper, representing argillaceous and arenaceous facies respectively. The upper Karewas are less fossiliferous than the lower Karewas.
- The entire belt touching the foothills of the Pirpanjal represents the lower Karewas, which has been exposed to the rivers starting from the south such as Veshav, Rembiara, Romushu, Dodhganga, Shaliganga, Boknag nar and Ningli. Lower Karewa sections at Aharbal, Anantnag, Arigam, Baramulla have been exposed by these rivers.
- Kashmir saffron, which received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2020 for its longer and thicker stigmas, deep-red colour, high aroma and bitter flavour, is grown on these karewas.
- The fertility of these patches is believed to be the result of their long history of formation. When formed during the Pleistocene period (2.6 million years to 11,700 years ago), the Pir Panjal range blocked the natural drainage in the region and formed a lake spanning 5,000 sq km (roughly three times the size of Delhi).
- Over the next few centuries, the water receded, making way for the valley and the formation of the karewas between the mountains. Today, the karewa sediments not only hold fossils and remnants of many human civilisations and habitations, but are also the most fertile spots in the valley.
- The Karewa soils of Kashmir have enormous agricultural potential. Commercial and cash crops like saffron, almond, apples, walnut, peaches, pears, cherry, plum, etc., with orchards and saffron beds. Moreover, some leguminous and fodder crops are also grown in Karewa. The pampore Karewa is famous all over the world for saffron cultivation.
- Despite its agricultural and archaeological importance, karewas are now being excavated to be used in construction.
- Between 1995 and 2005, massive portions of karewas in Pulwama, Budgam and Baramulla districts were razed to the ground for clay for the 125-km-long Qazigund-Baramulla rail line.
- Srinagar airport is built on the Damodar karewa in Budgam. The most recent violation took place on December 6, 2021, when the Baramulla deputy commissioner gave consent for the excavation of karewas around Pattan village and used clay for the construction of the Srinagar ring road.
- Two other karewas—in Pulwama and Budgam districts—are also being excavated for the 58-km-long project.
- Soil erosion and depleting soil fertility are the major problems of the karewa soils. The unrestrained and violent anthropogenic erosion for a couple of years has reduced these plateau lands into ugly ravines.
- Access to large amounts of soil for development projects is difficult in the valley because of its topography and physiology. At the highest elevation are mountain ranges that are predominantly made up of hard rocks. At the lowest point lies the valley, where the groundwater table is extremely close to the surface (6-9 m). Karewas, as a result, are an easy target due to their soil thickness.
- Each karewa runs for several kilometers. While most of the patches are owned by individuals who use them for farming, some belong to the government; these are locally called kahcharai and are used for grazing.
- Dust from the mining of karewas also settles in low-lying areas where people live. Constant movement of diesel-guzzling trucks also causes pollution. Almost every household has people suffering from respiratory problems.
- Residents allege that the government’s decision to allow clay mining is illegal. The Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, 1996, says the topographic shape of a karewa or hill cannot be changed in the valley. But clay mining often razes the highland to the ground and changes the entire topography of the place.
- The residents allege that the project also violates the Jammu and Kashmir Minor Mineral (Storage, Transportation of Minerals and Prevention of Illegal Mining) Rules, 2016.
- The destruction of the karewas has also led to the enormous accumulation of silt in the Jhelum River, which runs parallel to the Pir Panjal, and its 42-km-long flood spill channel that runs between Padshahi Bagh on the outskirts of Srinagar and Wular lake in north Kashmir through Hokersar wetland reserve.
- Siltation occurs due to degradation of catchment areas, which is caused by deforestation and changes in land use, such as clay mining. This has reduced the capacity of the flood spill channel from 481,440 liters of water per second to 169,920 liters per second. As a result, the capital city experienced massive floods in 2014.
- The government should immediately desilt the Wular lake and its flood plain channel and the muck should be used for developmental projects.
- The government should notify karewas as archaeological sites to promote tourism.
- The government should give legal protection to the Karewas for their conservation.
- Afforestation and reforestation should be promoted.
- Sustainable Development should be promoted.
- Environmental Impact Assessment should be conducted transparently.
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated Srinagar as a part of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), it is the duty of the Govt to ensure every bit of heritage in and around Srinagar is protected. This includes Karewas as well.
Gin Berry Species
- The species, named Glycosmis albicarpa with a distinct large white fruit, is endemic to the southern Western Ghats. The species belongs to the orange family, Rutaceae.
- Many of the related plants of these taxonomic groups are being utilised for their medicinal values and food. Most commonly related species of these plants are collected from the wild, mainly for local use as food and medicine.
- Berries of Glycosmis species have the unique characteristic of ‘gin aroma’ and has gained in popularity as an edible fruit. The species is also a larval host plant for butterflies like other species of Glycosmis.
- The species, an evergreen small tree, was found to be undergrowth in Tirunelveli semi-evergreen forests at the Panagudi forest section of the wildlife sanctuary as a single population that covers an area of approximately 2 sq.km.
- While exploring the study site, four sub-populations of the species were located in the valley between two hillocks, with each having three–seven mature individuals in groups.
- Though flowering, natural regeneration and seedling recruitment of this taxon is found to be fairly good within the locality, habitat modification causes a major threat to the survival of this species.
- Spread across six states- Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Western Ghats is a cauldron of biodiversity.
- Western Ghats extend from Satpura Range in the west stretching from Gujarat to Tamil Nadu in the south.
- It covers an area of 59,940 sq.km of natural landscape.
- Population here depends on agriculture in the area, fertilizer runoff is causing pollution in the rivers.
- Older than the Himalayas, the Western Ghats are the treasure trove of bio-diversity. In fact, they are recognized as one of the eight global hot-spots harbouring a wealth of flora and fauna.
- They influence Indian monsoon weather patterns by intercepting the rain-laden monsoon winds that sweep in from the south-west during late summer. The range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain called Konkan along the Arabian Sea.
- The Western Ghats form one of the four watersheds of India, feeding the perennial rivers of India. The major river systems originating in the Western Ghats are the Godavari, Kaveri, Krishna, Thamiraparani and Tungabhadra rivers.
- The majority of streams draining the Western Ghats join these rivers, and carry a large volume of water during the monsoon months. These rivers flow to the east due to the gradient of the land and drain out into the Bay of Bengal.
- A total of 39 areas in the Western Ghats, including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests, were designated as world heritage sites in 2012 – twenty in Kerala, ten in Karnataka, six in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra.
- The Ghats are currently known to have more than 5,000 plant and 140 mammal species, 16 of which are endemic, i.e., species found in that area alone. Notably among these being the lion-tailed macaque and the Nilgiri tahr.
- Out of the 179 species of amphibians found in the Western Ghats, 138 are endemic to the region. It has 508 bird species, 16 of which are endemic, including the Nilgiri flycatcher and the Malabar parakeet.
- The ghats are home to several illegal environmental activities which include - mining, quarrying, thermal power plants and highly polluting industries.
- The Western Ghats are considered an ecologically sensitive region with nearly 52 species moving one step closer to extinction. Habitat change, over-exploitation, pollution and climate change are the principle pressures causing bio-diversity loss.
- In the period between 1920 to 1990, 40 percent of its natural vegetation was depleted. This is coupled with dangers arising from encroachments.
- The rise in human settlements has led to the over-exploitation of forest products through activities such as livestock grazing.
- The mining establishments, especially iron-ore mining, have greatly contributed to damaging the ecological balance, by destroying farms, polluting rivers and damaging the top soil.
- Pollution is also playing its part, with high mercury levels in the water, and agrochemicals from tea and coffee plantations going unchecked. Unilever’s thermometer plant is a major culprit in adding to the dissemination of pollutants in the Western Ghats.
- A drop in the genetic variability of plants is identified, decreasing their natural resistance to diseases.
- Measures suggested For Western Ghats Conservation
- World Heritage Committee has suggested to the Indian government to take into account the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel.
- It has also asked the government to strengthen buffer zones to provide increased protection within the nominated sites.
- The UN body also wants to promote participatory governance approaches through community participation to ensure equitable sharing of benefits.
- The panel has said that no industrial activity should be allowed without the consent of the locals.
- Gadgil commission had recommended the entire Western Ghats should be declared ecologically sensitive— and had assigned three levels of ecological sensitivity to regions within the Ghats. The designation should have been done in three levels depending on the sensitivity to the regions.
- These were Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 (ESZ1), Ecologically Sensitive Zone 2 (ESZ2) and Ecologically Sensitive Zone 3 (ESZ3) depending on the topography, climatic features, hazard vulnerabilities, ecological resilience and origin of rivers, among other factors.
- A special conservation effort for this particular region is the need for the hour. The discovery not only re-emphasizes the uniqueness and endemism in Western Ghats’ flora but also adds to the growing inventory of the region’s flora.
- Since the world is losing precious habitats that are home to many unique and endemic species, it is high time we protected the Western Ghats to conserve such species before they are lost forever.
- In the recommendations made by the panel, it included that until and unless these suggestions are addressed, the states will have to face the monsoon fury with floods and landslides eventually killing hundreds across Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
- Reportedly, it stated that most sites where landslides took place fall into the zones which would otherwise have been marked ecologically sensitive.
- The report was submitted in 2011, where the panel had suggested measures for the preservation of the natural environment of the ecologically fragile Western Ghats region.
- The report referred to the region as the "Protector of the Indian Peninsula", it had raised alarm on the rapid erosion of natural capital for man-made capital in the Western Ghats.
- Due to capital gains, the suggestions made eight years ago were neglected by the state governments along with Centre following which, the natural habitat has been witnessing the wrath of nature.
About Research
- It is developed as a bio-degradable nanoparticle system with a metabolite – the end-product of metabolism or the process of conversion of food, extracted from the naturally occurring common soil fungi viz. Trichoderma asperellum strain TALK1.
- This extracted metabolite can be used as an effective organic antimicrobial agent and carbonaceous degradable encompassing to provide protection against crop diseases and enrichment of soil respectively.
- The invention of these novel nanoparticles would act as shields to protect crops, especially rice crops, from infection and diseases. Technology is a protective biological alternative that can be used to enhance crop protection against various diseases in rice crops.
- Precise target action
- Can be active at low concentration
- It is safe and biodegradable, unlike chemical pesticides and is fast in action
- The bio formulation protects the active compound from decomposition
- A nanoparticle is a small particle that ranges between 1 to 100 nanometers in size. Undetectable by the human eye, nanoparticles can exhibit significantly different physical and chemical properties to their larger material counterparts.
- Being more subject to the Brownian motion, they usually do not sediment, like colloidal particles that conversely are usually understood to range from 1 to 1000 nm. Nanoparticles occur widely in nature and are objects of study in many sciences such as chemistry, physics, geology and biology.
- As the most prevalent morphology of nanomaterials used in consumer products, nanoparticles have an enormous range of potential and actual applications. Nanomaterials can occur naturally, be created as the by-products of combustion reactions, or be produced purposefully through engineering to perform a specialised function.
- Due to the ability to generate materials in a particular way to play a specific role, the use of nanomaterials spans across a wide variety of industries, from healthcare and cosmetics to environmental preservation and air purification.
- Controlling the size, shape and material of the nanoparticle enables engineers to design photovoltaics (PV) and solar thermal products with tailored solar absorption rates. Absorption of solar radiation is much higher in materials composed of nanoparticles than in thin films of continuous sheets of material.
- The Sol-Gel process is a method for producing solid material from nanoparticles. Whilst it is generally viewed as a relatively new industrial technology, it is used extensively in a number of industries, such as abrasive powder manufacture, coatings production and optical fibers.
- Nano formulations of agrochemicals for applying pesticides and fertilizers for crop improvement;
- The application of nano sensors in crop protection for the identification of diseases and residues of agrochemicals;
- Nanodevices for the genetic engineering of plants;
- Plant disease diagnostics;
- Animal health, animal breeding, poultry production; and
- Post-harvest management.
- Nanoparticle-mediated gene or DNA transfer in plants for the development of insect-resistant varieties, food processing and storage and increased product shelf life.
- Nanotechnology may increase the development of biomass-to-fuel production.
- It aims to reduce spraying of plant protection products and to increase plant yields.
- Nano fertilizers may contain nano zinc, silica, iron and titanium dioxide, gold nanorods, core shell QDs, etc. as well as endorse control release and improve the its quality.
- It is simple, convenient, eco-friendly and requires less reaction time.
- Nanomaterials prepared by eco-friendly and green methods could increase agriculture potential for improving the fertilization process, plant growth regulators and pesticides.
- They minimize the amount of harmful chemicals that pollute the environment.
- This technology helps in reducing the environmental pollutants.
- Precision farming techniques might be used to further improve the crop yields but not damage soil and water.
- It can reduce nitrogen loss due to leaching and emissions, and soil microorganisms.
- Difficulty of scale-up of the process and Consuming large number of surfactants.
- Separation and purification of nanoparticles from the micro-emulsion (oil, surfactant, co-surfactant and aqueous phase)
- Some nanoparticle attractants are derived from biopolymers such as proteins and carbohydrates with low effects on human health and the environment.
- It is also important to mention that the bioaccumulation, biomagnification and biotransformation of engineered nanoparticles in food crops are still not well understood. Very few nanoparticles and plant species have been studied with respect to the accumulation and subsequent availability of nanoparticles in food crops.
- Nanotechnology has raised the standard of living but at the same time, it has increased pollution which includes air pollution. The pollution caused by nanoparticles is known as nano pollution and it is very dangerous for living organisms.
- Nanoparticles cause lung damage. Inhaled particulate matter may get deposited throughout the human respiratory tract then in the lungs.
- As the problems faced by the farmers are multi-fold, our efforts have also been relentless to enrich the whole ecosystem of farming in general. In that regard, the invention of these novel nanoparticles would lessen the worries of crop infection and give boost to yield.
- Nanotechnology has many uses in all stages of production, processing, storing, packaging and transport of agricultural products. Nanotechnology will revolutionize agriculture and food industry such as in the case of farming techniques, enhancing the ability of plants to absorb nutrients, disease detection and control pests.
- According to estimates from Ukraine, reported in the media, around 18,000 Indian students are in Ukraine. Hundreds of students are still stuck in several regions of Ukraine, while for those who have returned, an uncertain future threatens, unless the Government finds a solution soon.
- Students: Seats ratio: There are certainly far more MBBS aspirants than there are MBBS seats in India. In NEET 2021, as per a National Testing Agency press release, 16.1 lakh students registered for the exam, 15.4 lakh students appeared for the test, and 8.7 lakh students qualified.
- Medical colleges: As per data from the National Medical Commission (NMC), in 2021-22, there were 596 medical colleges in the country with a total of 88,120 MBBS seats.
- Preference for Government colleges for Economic reasons: While the skew is in favour of Government colleges, it is not greatly so, with the number of private medical institutions nearly neck-to-neck with the state-run ones. That means over 50% of the total seats are available at affordable fees in Government colleges. Add the 50% seats in the private sector that the NMC has mandated must charge only the government college fees. Assuming each one of these seats is also available at this reduced fee structure, that could be another 20,000 odd seats. In effect, roughly 65,000 seats are available within the affordable fee segment.
- Regional disparity: Additionally, these colleges are also not distributed evenly across the country, with States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala having many more colleges.
- Economic cost: The costs of an MBBS degree in a government college total up to a few lakhs of rupees for the full course, but in a private medical college, it can go up to Rs. 1 crore for the five-year course.
- In case it is a management seat, capitation fees can inflate the cost by several lakhs again.
- Whereas, an MBBS course at any foreign medical university in east and eastern Europe costs far less. Students from Tamil Nadu who returned from Ukraine said on an average they had to spend close to 30lakh-40 lakh, inclusive of lodging and boarding.
- Entrance examination: A majority of the students had written NEET at least twice, and only decided to move after they could not get an MBBS seat. On return, the requirement is to clear the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination, a licensure examination held for students who have studied medicine abroad, and for most countries, also a house surgency stint.
- Disparities: In India the disparities in income of doctors, and others, like nurses and allied health professionals, is also a key factor in making an MBBS degree alluring.
- People are willing to leave their home to study far away in much colder places and with completely alien cultures and food habits.
- Scope: The ability to practise as a doctor, in Government and private sectors simultaneously, and the scope of earning a life-long income are also powerful incentives, in addition to the social status it confers.
- Countries: Indian students have been heading out to Russia, China, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, the Philippines to pursue a medical degree.
- Language: The medium of education for these students is English, a language they are comfortable
- Economic: The amount spent on living and the medical degree are far more affordable than paying for an MBBS seat in private medical colleges in the country.
- Status Factor: The desire to study medicine still holds a lot of value in the Indian community. While it retains the prestige of an honourable profession, there is a great deal of aspirational zeal in taking up medicine.
- Doctors’ Association for Social Equality found caste factor: The lack of equal opportunities exacerbated by the caste factor in the Indian context, has a great deal of impact on the prestige still associated with being a doctor.For years, certain communities were denied the opportunities, and finally they do have a chance at achieving significant educational status. People still think it is good to have a ‘Dr.’ attached to their name, even if they do not specialise. In many rural areas, people still look at doctors as gods incarnate.
- Prime Minister Modi emphasised that more private medical colleges must be set up in the country to aid more people to take up MBBS, medical education experts have called for pause on the aspect.
- Public > Private: If the aim is to make medicine more accessible to students of the country, the path ahead is not in the private sector, but in the public sector, with the Central and State governments’ involvement, they point out. Schemes: From 2003, the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana has been working to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country.
- Advantages of going abroad: It could broaden students’ minds and thinking, expose them to a whole range of experiences, and their approach to issues and crises is likely to be far better.
- Beneficial: However, creating more medical colleges will be beneficial for the country, if access and availability can be ensured. This will not be possible by resorting to private enterprise only.
- State and Central governments can start more medical colleges, as recommended by NITI Aayog, by utilising district headquarters hospitals, and expanding the infrastructure. This way, students from the lower and middle socio-economic rung, who are otherwise not able to access medical seats, will also benefit.
POSTED ON 06-03-2022 BY ADMIN
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General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
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