Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna:

For BPL, effect of illness:

o   Threat to their earning capacity

o   Expenditure on treatment can push family into debt trap

o   They may have to sell house, cut the expenditure on education

o   May loose the wage for being absent

o   Savings can be wiped out

Health insurance is remedy to their all problems. Govt. has launched the scheme of health insurance for poor people. This is not a new Idea, govt. earlier too had many health  insurance schemes but none of them could achieve the intended objectives. Govt. learnt from the failures and now has launched a this scheme-RSBY.

What is RSBY?

Ø RSBY has been launched by Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India to provide health insurance coverage for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

Ø The objective of RSBY is to provide protection to BPL households from financial liabilities arising out of health shocks that involve hospitalization.

Ø Beneficiaries under RSBY are entitled to hospitalization coverage up to Rs. 30,000/- for most of the diseases that require hospitalization.

Ø Government has even fixed the package rates for the hospitals for a large number of interventions.

Ø Pre-existing conditions are covered from day one and there is no age limit.

Ø Coverage extends to five members of the family which includes the head of household, spouse and up to three dependents.

Ø Beneficiaries need to pay only Rs. 30/- as registration fee while Central and State Government pays the premium (Ratio 75:25 and For North East & JK 90:10) to the insurer selected by the State Government on the basis of a competitive bidding.

Unique Features of RSBY:

Ø Empowering the beneficiary: Provides freedom of choice between public and private hospitals and make them a potential clients

Ø Business Model for all Stakeholders- incentive for all stakeholders

Ø Intermediaries- NGOs, MFIs also being paid for their services

Ø Govt.- by paying only Rs. 750/- per family per year, the govt. able to provide access to quality health care to the BPL.

Ø It will increase the competition between public and private hospitals , hence the functioning will improve.

Ø Use of Information Technology: Biometric enabled smart card containing their finger prints and photographs. All hospitals are IT enabled and connected to the server at the district level. This will ensure the smooth data flow regarding service utilization periodically.

Ø Safe and Foolproof- the use of biometric enabled smart card and key management system ensure that the card reaches the correct beneficiary and there remains accountability in terms of issuance of the smart card and its usage.

Ø Portablity- Smard card can be used in any RSBY empanelled hospital across India- Helpful of migrant workers

Ø Cashless and paperless transactions-

Ø Robust monitoring and evaluation- backend data management system- track on any transaction across India and provide periodical analytical reports. This allows mid-course improvements in the scheme.

Chattisgarh Food Security Act, 2012

Chattisgarh govt. has enacted the Chattisgarh Food Security Act. 2012 which provide for food entitlements to all (35kg per month) as below:

Type of Household	Hunger Need	Nutritional Need
Antyodaya Households (Poorest of Poor)	Rs. 1 per kg	Iodized salt- 2 kg Pulses 2kg@Rs. 10 Black Chana 2kg @ Rs. 5
Priority Households (BPL)	Rs. 2 per kg
General Households (APL)	Rs. 15 per kg

While the Centre has gone for a socio-economic caste census to identify the poor and is dithering on who would be the beneficiaries, the Chhattisgarh government has clearly stated that it was not fixing any percentage limits of beneficiaries and “will bear all additional costs’’.

Ø This act will provide the food security to 90% of state population

Ø Act says that the entitlements are based on the households not on individuals – whereas the central govt. PDS is based on person

Ø Going beyond the Centre’s definition of Antyodaya, the Chhattisgarh government has declared as “Antyodaya households” all families of vulnerable social groups-including

o   tribal groups

o   widows or single women

o   terminally ill persons

o   physically challenged persons

o   elderly-headed households with no assured means of subsistence

o   persons freed from bonded labor.

Ø Pregnant women, lactating mothers, malnourished children, children between six months and 14 years and all students in hostels or ashrams will get mandatory subsidised foodgrains

De-notified tribes-India

Ø Over 200 communities were identified by the British as ‘criminal tribes’ under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871. However, the Act was annulled after Independence and the communities identified under this legislation were referred to as de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.

Ø Notified Tribe: all its member were to register with the local magistrate, failing which they will be charged with crime under Indian Penal Code. However Criminal Tribes Act 1952 repealed the notification. Hence now the Tribes called De-notfied Tribes.

Ø There is no authentic data on these tribes and no census has been conducted. They are found in almost all the States and belong mostly to the Other Backward Classes category in some large States and in Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes categories in other States.

Ø Some of them are not covered by any of the three categories. Even those covered under the three categories are often not able to avail the benefits because either they do not have caste certificates or because quotas are exhausted by non-nomadic/non de-notified communities in the reserved categories. A number of States have not even prepared lists of the de-notified or nomadic communities.

Ø Now the government proposes to create an enabling environment for the social empowerment of the de-notified tribes so that they could utilise reservation benefits in education and employment.

According to the 12th Plan documents:

Ø To provide all the support and facilities availed by SC ST & OBC categories

Ø Provide them scholarship and hostel facilities

Ø Housing for them under Indira Awas yojna

Ø To create a cluster development fund- for construction of their houses

Ø Skill development initiative to cover unemployed youth

WHO clearance will boost Indian vaccine exports

WHO said that India’s national regulatory authority — Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) — and its affiliated institutions meet the prescribed international standards.

Ø India is a major vaccine producer with 12 major vaccine manufacturing facilities. These vaccines are used for the national and international market, reaching nearly 150 countries. Every second child in the world is vaccinated for measles using a vaccine produced in India.

Ø India is the first country in 2012 to have passed the strict levels of seven indicators which are made more stringent every time in a single round of assessment which is done by a team of 12 international experts headed by a WHO member.

Ø Passing of this test means that 12 private vaccine manufacturing units from India are eligible and retain the pre-qualification status for supplying vaccines to international bodies like the WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank. WHO pre-qualification is a guarantee that a specific vaccine meets international standards of quality, safety and efficacy.

Ø The clearance by the WHO is expected to boost investment in the pharmaceutical sector and push exports higher, which touched $13 billion last year and is expected to touch $26 billion this year. Two-thirds of the vaccines produced in India are exported.

The WHO has established benchmarks that define international expectations for a functional vaccine regulatory system. It also conducts regular external audits of national regulatory systems and ensures they meet the necessary standards. The regulatory functions of India’s National Regulatory Authority (NRA) — the CDSCO — and its affiliated institutions were assessed for compliance against the WHO indicators and marketing authorisation and licensing, post-marketing surveillance, including adverse events following immunisation and so on.

In 2007, when the CDSCO had failed to meet the WHO-prescribed standards, it had led to the WHO suspending manufacturing licenses of three public sector vaccine manufacturing units on account of non-compliance of good manufacturing practices (GMP) norms. India had made up for the deficiency in the 2009 assessment and the units were re-started.

India-US civil Nuclear Deal and other related issues:

1      Chronological events:

Ø 1968: India refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) on the grounds that it is discriminatory.

Ø May 18, 1974: India conducts its first nuclear test.

Ø March 10, 1978: US President Jimmy Carter signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, following which US ceases exporting nuclear assistance to India.

Ø May 11-13, 1998: India tests five underground nuclear tests.

Ø July 18, 2005: US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh first announce their intention to enter into a nuclear agreement in Washington.

2      India-US Nuclear Deal (Also called 123 agreement)

Ø India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and to place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and, in exchange, the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.

Ø US- Amended its domestic law, Atomic Energy Act of 1954, grant of an exemption for India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an export-control cartel that had been formed mainly in response to India's first nuclear test in 1974

Ø India prepared separation plan for Civil Military Nuclear Separation, India-IAEA safeguards (inspections) agreement and the

Ø The implementation of this waiver made India the only known country with nuclear weapons which is not a party to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but is still allowed to carry out nuclear commerce with the rest of the world

3      Why India does not sign NPT:

Though neither India, Israel, nor Pakistan have signed the NPT, India argues that instead of addressing the central objective of universal and comprehensive non-proliferation, the treaty creates a club of "nuclear haves" and a larger group of "nuclear have-nots" by restricting the legal possession of nuclear weapons to those states that tested them before 1967, who alone are free to possess and multiply their nuclear stockpiles. India insists on a comprehensive action plan for a nuclear-free world within a specific time-frame and has also adopted a voluntary "no first use policy".

4      India’s Quest to International Groups:

The Indian quest for membership to the four non-proliferation regimes - NSG, Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group - took on a serious tone after the US President Barack Obama formally committed US support to helping India get into these regimes, during his visit to India in November, 2010.

However, the NSG itself took a massive beating when China announced that it would transfer two more nuclear reactors - Chashma III and IV - to Pakistan, without bothering to go to the NSG for a waiver, like the US and India did for their nuclear deal in 2008.

The Chinese transfer went through the NSG, despite some dissenting voices, and China actually got away with its "explanation" that these reactors had been "grandfathered", in other words, signed before China acceded to the NSG.

4.1  Missile Technology Control Regime:

The Missile Technology Control Regime is an informal and voluntary association of countries which share the goals of non-proliferation of unmanned delivery systems capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction, and which seek to coordinate national export licensing efforts aimed at preventing their proliferation. The MTCR was originally established in 1987 by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Since that time, the number of MTCR partners has increased to a total of thirty-four countries, all of which have equal standing within the Regime.

4.2  The Wassenaar Arrangement:

The Wassenaar Arrangement (full name: The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies) is a multilateral export control regime(MECR) with 41 participating states including many former COMECON (Warsaw Pact) countries.

It is the successor to the Cold war-era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM), and was established on July 12, 1996, in the Dutch town of Wassenaar, near The Hague. The Wassenaar Arrangement is considerably less strict than COCOM, focusing primarily on the transparency of national export control regimes and not granting veto power to individual members over organizational decisions.  

Food Security Bill

Important Provisions of the Bill:

Ø The Bill proposes food grain entitlements for up to 75 percent of the rural and up to 50 percent of the urban population.  Of these, at least 46 percent of the rural and 28 percent of the urban population will be designated as priority households.  The rest will be designated as general households.

Ø Priority households will be entitled to 7 kg of subsidized food grains per person per month.  General households will be entitled to at least 3 kg.

Ø The central government will determine the percentage of people in each state that will belong to the priority and general groups.  State governments will identify households that belong to these groups.  

Ø The Bill proposes meal entitlements to specific groups.  These include: pregnant women and lactating mothers, children between the ages of six months and 14 years, malnourished children, disaster affected persons, and destitute, homeless and starving persons.

Ø Grievance redressal mechanisms will be set up at the district, state, and central levels of government.

Challenges for the Food Security Bill:

Ø The Bill proposes reforms to the Targeted Public Distribution System.

Ø The Bill classifies beneficiaries into three groups. The process of identifying beneficiaries and placing them into these groups may lead to large inclusion and exclusion errors.

Ø Several entitlements and the grievance redressal structure would require state legislatures to make adequate budgetary allocations.  Implementation of the Bill may be affected if states do not pass requisite allocations in their budgets or do not possess adequate funds.

Ø The Bill does not provide a rationale for the cut-off numbers prescribed for entitlements to priority and general households.

Ø The grievance redressal framework may overlap with that provided in the Citizens’ Charter Bill that is pending in Parliament.

Ø Schedule III of the Bill specifies goals which may not be directly related to food security.  It is unclear why these have been included in the Bill.

Ø The Bill provides similar definitions for starving and destitute persons.  However, entitlements to the two groups differ.

What is the Need of such a bill?

Ø there is more than 8 crore tons of cereals in the FCI godowns which will increase to become 10 crore ton after the Kharif crops are harvested and procured. On the other hand, there are children, adults and aged people who are hungry and malnourished.

Ø Activists of an organisation working for food security, Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan appealed the government to provide subsidised cereals for all and asked for an effective National Food security legislation.

Ø Demanded from the government to remove the distinction of APL-BPL and open the doors of the godowns to distribute the grains to needy.

INCLUSIVE PDS

Ø Tamil Nadu has gone all the way to a universal PDS, every household there is entitled to 20 kg of rice every month, that too free of cost.

Ø Other States that have made significant moves towards a universal or near-universal PDS (at least in rural areas) include Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa, and Rajasthan.

IMPACT ON POVERTY:

Ø Based on these implicit subsidy calculations, it is possible to estimate the impact of PDS on rural poverty — by adding the implicit subsidy to the explicit NSS estimate of Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE) for each sample household.

Ø Using NSS data for 2009-10, it turns out that the PDS (more precisely, the foodgrain component of the PDS) reduces the Tendulkar poverty gap by around 18 per cent at the national level. This is a moderate achievement, but what is more interesting than the national average is the contrast between States.

Ø In Tamil Nadu, the PDS reduces the Tendulkar poverty gap by more than 50 per cent. Other States where the PDS has a large impact on rural poverty include Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh (about 40 per cent), and also Himachal Pradesh and Kerala (around 35 per cent).

National Optical Fibre Network, Mullaperiyar Dam, National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project

National Optical Fibre Network:

Ø To provide broadband connectivity to Panchayats Cost- Rs. 20000 cr

Ø Under Universal Service Obligation Fund

Ø World Bank- every 10% increase in broadband penetration will enhance 1.4% GDP

Mullaperiyar Dam:

Ø In Karala State on Periyar River. Build by Britisher in year 1887-1895.

Ø To divert water in then Madras Presidency (Now TN)

Ø Periyar National Park around the Dam

Ø Dam is controlled and operated by TN on a 999 year lease

Ø Structure is old and there is a risk of failure

Ø Lease – bone of contention

Ø Karala said- its ready to build new dam but TN opposes

Ø A.S Anand committee to examine the safety of the dam

National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP)

Ø To mitigate the risk of cyclone in AP and Orrissa

Ø Cost of the project 1500 cr

Ø Upgrade cyclone forecasting, tracking, and warning system

Carbon Nanotubes, SpaceX Capsule

Soon, carbon nanotubes to replace silicon in computer chips

A carbon 'chip' with more than ten thousand working transistors and made of nano-sized tubes could replace silicon in computer chips to create smaller, faster circuits.

"These carbon devices are poised to replace and outperform silicon technology allowing further miniaturisation of computing components and leading the way for future microelectronics,"

SpaceX capsule completes successful first mission

The unmanned SpaceX capsule returned to Earth today after successfully delivering its first commercial payload to the International Space Station commanded by Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams.

The Dragon spacecraft parachuted into the Pacific at 0052 IST after an 18-day mission to resupply the station with payload including hardware, supplies, and a GLACIER freezer packed with scientific sample

Black King Fish-Cobia (Sea Chicken), Indian Institute of Brackish Water Aquaculture, Clinical Trial

New technology to breed Cobia in farms and ponds:

Ø Black King fish- scavenging on the remnants of big predator-shark

Ø Central institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture has achieved controlled breeding of Cobia

Ø Cobia breeding done in Vietnam in Cages in water- Calm sea,

Ø India – not possible due to turbulent sea

Ø Fish is also known as sea chicken

Central institute of Brackish water Aquaculture:

Ø Established by ICAR in 1987 to conduct research for development of techno-economic viable and sustainable culture system for finfish and shellfish in Brackish Water, to act as a repository of information of resources of brackish water, to undertake transfer of technology to training education of extension program and to provide consultancy services.

Clinical Trials:

Ø All drugs- from innocuous cough to life threatening cancer are outcome of clinical trial

Ø Drugs go through various stages before tried on humans such as Animal Trial>>> Govt. approval>>> then human trials

Needless controversy:

Ø Portraying only negative side of the trials- by media, NGO, PIL

Ø Indian society for clinical research- ISCR denying the fact.

Ø Without clinical trials we would never be able to know that Herceptin is only useful for tumous of HER2 type

Advantage for India:

Ø Drug innovation based on cost and skills (Lack of credible regulations)

Ø Banning will deny poor the cheaper and better drugs

Ø For efficacy, drugs need to be tested on ethnic population for that India should have its representation (genetic variation can result in difference in results) i.e. Cancer drug- Iressa worked well on Japanese but not on Caucasians