Higher Education Commission of India Faces Resentment from Academia

The Centre’s decision to scrap the University Grants Commission and replace it with a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), is witnessing growing resentment within the academic community. HECI is likely to be without the grant-giving powers that the UGC possesses.

Concerns

• The representatives from academia have their expressed resentment over the lack of debate on the issue.
• The move is being seen as an attempt to bring the universities under the strict and direct financial control of the MHRD. This shift in financial control to the Ministry can be used for the regimentation of knowledge.
• The composition of search and selection committees consisting of the Cabinet Secretary along with Higher Education Secretary and three co-opted academicians provides total governmental control over the appointment of the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson.
• The twelve members of this body are largely drawn from the Secretaries of the Departments, Chairpersons of other regulatory bodies of education and Chairpersons of accreditation bodies.
• The ex-officio members and bureaucrats have a dominant presence, which is expected to tighten the noose over the academic freedom of the universities.
• The proposed draft has reduced the teachers’ representation which again is being seen as a matter of concern. While UGC has 4 teacher members out of total 10 members, the HECI has only 2 teacher members out of total 12 members.

Draft Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill, 2018

• The Bill proposes to replace the UGC Act, 1956, and rechristen the UGC as the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI).
• The regulator will focus on setting, maintaining and improving academic standards in universities.
• The Bill if passed by the Parliament, will separate the academic and funding aspects of the sector.
• The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development will take over the grant-giving functions.
• HECI will be empowered to penalise or even shut down sub-standard institutions without affecting students' interests. If the management of the institution does not comply with the penalties, they can land in jail for up to three years.
• HECI shall comprise a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson, and 12 members to be appointed by the Centre, including educationists and a member of the industry. The Chairperson's retirement age is 70, will hold office for five years.

India to Get Control of Hambantota Airport

India has agreed to form a joint venture with Sri Lanka to operate the country’s Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota.

• The $210 million facility, 241km south-east of Colombo, is dubbed the “world’s emptiest airport” due to a lack of flights.
• The joint venture would see India gain a major stake of the airport.
• The final terms of the agreement, however, remain to be worked out.
• The loss-making Mattala airport, named after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was one of the major infrastructure projects of Rajapaksa’s nearly a decade-long rule.
• The project was funded through high interest Chinese commercial loans.
• The airport was officially opened in March 2013 but the only international flight operating from there was halted in May due to recurrent losses and flight safety issues.
• The seaport built in Hambantota has been leased to China to set off Chinese loans as equity.
• Gaining control of the airport is being seen as a strategic gain by India and it will look out to avoid being tagged as a deal that erodes Sri Lankan sovereignty, a criticism attached to Chinese management of the port.

Government Deploys 800 IAS Officers for Village Outreach

At least 800 Deputy Secretaries, Under-Secretaries and Director-level officers, drawn from various Ministries have been assigned about 75 villages to visit, as part of the Extended Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (EGSA) from June 1 to August 15.

Key Points

• Ministries of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and the Department of Personnel and Training are jointly coordinating the drive.
• In total, 49,178 villages — most with a majority SC/ST population — are being targeted.
• The government has deployed these officers to ensure the ground implementation of 7 flagship social welfare schemes in 117 aspirational districts by Independence Day.
• The campaign is being observed as a model for future implementation of welfare delivery.
• In each village, the Central team convenes a meeting of villagers and beneficiaries along with a State government or district official, a lead bank representative and local officials from the agencies responsible for enrolling people into the schemes.
• Central officers could direct the local representatives to give immediate sanction for gas cylinders, bank accounts or electricity connections.
• The teams can also directly input the day’s progress into a data system which can be tracked live on the EGSA dashboard.
  Senior Ministry officials can also make direct daily calls to a section of District Collectors to monitor progress, while third-party observers for each district, mostly from NGOs or academia, have been drafted in to do random checks of villages and report back to the Ministry.

Concerns

• Questions are being raised about Centre-State relations under this model, in an election year. Constitutionally, while the Centre has higher powers of taxation, the bulk of the expenditure on welfare is to be borne by the States.
• The large-scale involvement of Central officers raises questions about the viability of such drives, and about roles of centre and states in a federal democracy.
• The centralising trend in flagship welfare scheme allows the ruling party at the Centre to draw political mileage and build vote banks.
  Direct connections to the district administration tend to bypass State administrations. Also, sending out large Central teams to do the work of local officials fails to empower local human resources.

Gram Swaraj Abhiyan

• Gram Swaraj Abhiyan was launched under the Ministry of Rural Development in April 2018. 
• It aims to promote social harmony, spread awareness about pro-poor initiatives of government and also to obtain their feedback on various welfare programmes. 
• During this campaign, saturation of eligible households/persons in identified villages would be made under seven flagship pro-poor programmes. 
• The seven programmes are Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Saubhagya, Ujala scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Mission Indradhanush.

Aspirational Districts Programme 

• It was launched in January 2018, with an objective to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.
• 117 districts have been identified until now, at least one from each state. 
• The broad contours of the programme are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors), and Competition among districts driven by a mass movement or a Jan Andolan.  
• Each district is assigned a Prabhari (in-charge) officer from the Centre (of the additional secretary or joint secretary rank) and a Prabhari officer from the State (of the rank of Secretary to State government) who will work in cooperation with the district administration.

Elders Compromise for Sake of Care from Family: Study

A study, released by Agewell Research and Advocacy Centre for the United Nations has revealed that majority of the elderly have to compromise with their life circumstances for the sake of care and support from their family members, and over 50% face abuse and mistreatment.

Key Findings

• The elderly have to compromise and make adjustments in their lifestyle according to the wishes of the younger members of their families to ensure they are cared for.
• Over 75% of respondents had to limit their personal social interactions as their family members direct them to do so, otherwise, their family members can avoid providing their basic needs for food and medicines.
• Breaking up of the joint family system is one of the biggest factors for the challenges they face in getting long-term, palliative care.
• Though most of the elderly enjoyed their independence, a majority were financially dependent on others in their old age.
• The elderly need healthcare services to ensure their independence in old age. Most of them need a social support system and recreational facilities to enable them to lead more enjoyable lives.
• Most of the respondents were not getting any long-term palliative care. A majority of this needed traditional family support. While some sought maintenance to meet their old age requirements, others demanded better healthcare facilities and caregiving services in old age. Some of the respondents also spoke of the need for care and support such as housing and counselling as their most important needs.
• The financial health of the elderly usually determined the nature and quality of palliative care they received. Though providing long-term and palliative care to the elderly comes under family responsibilities in India, it is observed that senior citizens who are financially independent and have a high net worth, or who hold property entitlements, are treated comparatively better by their family.
• Many of the elderly were found to be unaware about the status of the policy framework and support and services for them.

Challenges

• Older people in India often face problems such as disability, restricted mobility, loneliness, poverty and lack of awareness on accessing old-term care. A fast-growing population of older people, the ever-increasing gap between generations and the fast and demanding lifestyle of young people contribute towards the major challenges faced by a majority of older people.
• Managing home care for the elderly is a massive challenge to multiple service providers, nursing agencies, physiotherapists and medical suppliers, are small scale and unorganized and, therefore, provide incomplete care.
• In India, health insurance coverage is essentially limited to hospitalization. The concept of geriatric care has remained a neglected area of medicine so far in the country.

Way forward

• There is an urgent need to make every elderly financially independent in old age. The provisions for ensuring independence in old age and long-term palliative care be made at all levels: family, community and government.
• Healthcare equipment such as wheelchairs, relief material such as adult diapers and caregiving service should be provided on a regular basis to destitute older people, who are bedridden and suffering from acute mobility issues.
  
  

Plan for Central Pool of Documentary Proof

The government is considering a proposal for creating a centralised pool of documentary evidence for expeditious sharing of actionable information on economic offences between various Central investigating agencies.

• The recommendation has been made to overcome the existing procedural and legal hurdles in sharing of evidence between the probe agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate, the Income-Tax Department and the Special Fraud Investigation Office.
• According to the proposal, documentary proof gathered by the respective agencies would be stored at one place and its certified copies shall be made available for the purposes of investigations. It would also be used as evidence in the court of law.
• Such an arrangement would require relevant amendments to the legislation governing each agency in terms of evidence collection.
• A robust and transparent system of sharing information with necessary backup of the law is needed to expedite the process of investigations within various investigating agencies.

Alternative Cereals can Save Water

Replacing rice and wheat with 'less thirsty' crops, such as maize, sorghum, and millet, could dramatically reduce water demand in India, while also improving nutrition - a study has found.

• India will need to feed approximately 394 million more people by 2050, and that is going to be a significant challenge -according to the study.
• Nutrient deficiencies are already widespread in India today - 30% or more are anaemic - and many regions are chronically water-stressed.

Background

• With the Green Revolution in the 1960s, a boom in rice and wheat production helped reduce hunger throughout India.
• But this also took a toll on the environment, increasing demands on the water supply, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution from fertilizers.
• If this route of rice and wheat is continued, with unsustainable resource use and increasing climate variability, it is unclear how long this practice will be able to keep up.
• Maize, finger millet, pearl millet or sorghum are less harmful to the environment and already produced in India but in smaller numbers.
• Some crops, like millets and sorghum, were part of the traditional diet, but the government’s heavy subsidies for rice and wheat had influenced production and dietary choices away from these nutrient-rich alternatives.
• Therefore, there is a need to better align food security and environmental goals.

Research Findings

• The study addresses two key objectives of the Indian government: to reduce undernourishment and improve nutrition, and to promote sustainable water use.
• The researchers studied six major grains currently grown in India: rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, and pearl and finger millet.
• For each crop, they compared yield, water use, and nutritional values such as calories, protein, iron, and zinc.
• They found that while rice is the least water-efficient cereal when it comes to producing nutrients, wheat has been the main driver in increasing irrigation stresses.
• The potential benefits of replacing rice with alternative crops varied widely between different regions, depending on how much the crops could rely on rainfall instead of irrigation.
• However, the researchers found that replacing rice with maize, finger millet, pearl millet, or sorghum could reduce irrigation water demand by 33% while improving production of iron by 27% and zinc by 13%.
• In some instances, those improvements came with a slight reduction in the number of calories produced, because rice has been bred to have higher yields per unit of land.
• In some regions, there is a tradeoff between water and land use efficiency.
• Therefore, while rice replacement is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for each district.
• There is also a need to study Indian food preferences, to see if people would be willing to incorporate more of these alternative cereals into their diets.

Plastic ban: Incentivise Options for Single-Use Plastic to Make a National Ban Possible

India’s second-populous state Maharashtra has started penalising all those found using plastic products, including single-use disposable items. The Devendra Fadnavis-led state government enforced the ban after issuing the Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol Products (manufacture, usage, sale, transport, handling, and storage) notification in March this year.

The Problem of Plastic in India: Facts and Figures

• India is responsible for about 60% of all the plastic dumped annually in the world’s oceans.
• Over 42% of our plastic use is in packaging.
• India produces 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste every day and nine million tonnes every year.
• Maharashtra is India’s largest generator of plastic waste.

The Problem with the Practice of Banning

• Lack of consultation with stakeholders such as manufacturers of plastics, eateries and citizen groups: This leads to implementation issues and inconvenience to the consumers.
• Exemptions for certain products such as milk pouches and plastic packaging for food items severely weaken the impact of the ban.
• No investment in finding out alternative materials to plug the plastic vacuum: Until people are able to shift to a material which is as light-weight and cheap as plastic, banning plastic will remain a mere customary practice.
• Lack of widespread awareness among citizens about the magnitude of harm caused by single-use plastic: Without citizens ‘buying in’ to a cause, bans only result in creating unregulated underground markets.
• No strategy to offset the massive economic impact: Sweeping bans like the one in Maharashtra are likely to cause massive loss of jobs and disruption of a large part of the economy dependent on the production and use of plastic.

What Needs to be Done?

• Incentivise sustainable, eco-friendly and cost-efficient alternatives to plastic.
• The government and all stakeholders involved must work together to find affordable as well as convenient alternatives to plastics.
• Create public ‘buy-in’ strategies by making them aware regarding the harmful effects of plastic.

Important Facts for Prelims (July 7th, 2018)

e-Tourist Visa Scheme

• In November, 2014 the Government launched e-Tourist Visa scheme in 44 countries. This e-Visa facility has now been extended to 165 countries.
• Under the e-visa scheme, foreigners do not have to meet any Indian official before their arrival at the landing port.
  The government has installed e-Visa processing facilities at 25 airports and 5 seaports in the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is now working to extend the e-Visa scheme to more countries in a planned manner after consulting all the stakeholders.
• The extension of e-Visa scheme is aimed at encouraging tourism, business travel and health tourism in the country.
• The government has done away with Embarkation and Disembarkation cards for Indian citizens and foreigners to streamline the immigration process.
• MHA has also introduced e-FRRO services for those foreigners who are staying in India and who need services like visa extension, visa conversion, exit permit, registration, change of passport details, change of address and others.