Food for thought :- Recently the corruption index by Transparency International has ranked India at 76th position and Iceland at 13. However, the prime minister of Iceland of resigned recently after Panama cable leak.How ironic.
Transnational Skill Standards in India:-
Background:-
With the aim to support two major initiatives of the Government i.e. “Make in India” and “Skill India” and to align to skill standards which are recognized globally, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship ,announced the launch of “Transnational Skill Standards” in India. These standards in skill development are benchmarked to United Kingdom across 82 identified job roles.
Details:-
- To support international mobility of Indian workforce, 15 Indian Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) have benchmarked standards of 82 job Roles with the standards of 11 UK SSCs.
- The Transnational Standards will highlight the gaps in Indian Standards against the UK standards. To cover the gaps, those intending to migrate, will undergo ‘bridge training’. The Further Education Colleges (FE) of the United Kingdom will partner with Indian Training Providers to impart training on bridge courses. FE Colleges to set up Skill Academies of Excellences in the identified sectors in India.
- Further the UK Awarding organization, such as City & Guilds and Pearsons, in association with Indian SSCs will certify the trainees on the gap.
- The key highlight of this partnership is recognition of the Indian SSC Assessment and Certification by the UK Awarding bodies. Those interested to migrate will simply have to take “bridge training” on the gap identified in the benchmarking process and get assessed on the components of the “bridge training”. Thus just by doing “bridge training” and getting assessed and certified on it, will lead to award of UK IVQ which has a global acceptance including Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
- The Indian Sector Skill Councils which participated in the project are: Automotive, Agriculture, Life Science, Healthcare, Capital Goods, Apparel, Textiles, Beauty and Wellness, Telecom, Hospitality, IT & ITeS, Construction, Retail, Electronic and Security.
UIDAI generates a billion (100 crore) Aadhaars A Historic Moment for India:-
Aadhaar Achievements
- More than 100 crore people have Aadhaar
- 73.96 Crores (93%) of adults in India have Aadhaar
- 22.25 Crore (67%) Children of age 5-18 Years have Aadhaar
- 2.30 Crore (20%) Children of Age 0- <5 years have Aadhaar
- Every day more than 5-7 lakhs people get enrolled for Aadhaar.
- Aadhaar is now the largest online digital identity platform in the world.
Aadhaar Benefits
- DBTL (Pahal) – estimated savings of Rs 14,672 cr.
- PDS – estimated savings of Rs 2,346 cr. across 4 states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry and Delhi
- Scholarship – estimated savings of Rs 276 cr. across 3 states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Punjab
- Pensions (NSAP) – estimated savings of Rs 66 cr. across 3 states of Jharkhand, Chandigarh and Puducherry
Aadhaar Usage
- 25.48 cr. Bank accounts linked with unique Aadhaars
- Over 12.28 cr (71%)LPG connections linked with Aadhaar
- Over 11.39 crore (45%) ration cards linked with Aadhaar
- Over 5.90 cr. (60%) NREGA Cards linked with Aadhaar
Aadhaar Authentication
- Over 150.6 cr. authentication transactions done by UIDAI
- Over 8.4 cr. e-KYC transactions done at UIDAI
- UIDAI authenticates over 40 lakh auth transactions per day
Solid Waste Management Rules Revised After 16 Years; Rules Now Extend to Urban and Industrial Areas:-
Salient features of the revised rules:-
- The Rules are now applicable beyond Municipal areas and extend to urban agglomerations, census towns, notified industrial townships, areas under the control of Indian Railways, airports, airbase, Port and harbour, defence establishments, special economic zones, State and Central government organizations, places of pilgrims, religious & historical importance.
- The source segregation of waste has been mandated to channelize the waste to wealth by recovery, reuse and recycle.
- Responsibilities of Generators have been introduced to segregate waste in to three streams, Wet (Biodegradable), Dry (Plastic, Paper, metal, wood, etc.) and domestic hazardous wastes (diapers, napkins, empty containers of cleaning agents, mosquito repellents, etc.) and handover segregated wastes to authorized rag-pickers or waste collectors or local bodies.
- Integration of waste pickers/ ragpickers and waste dealers/ Kabadiwalas in the formal system should be done by State Governments, and Self Help Group, or any other group to be formed.
- No person should throw, burn, or bury the solid waste generated by him, on streets, open public spaces outside his premises, or in the drain, or water bodies.
- Generator will have to pay ‘User Fee’ to waste collector and for ‘Spot Fine’ for Littering and Non-segregation.
- Used sanitary waste like diapers, sanitary pads should be wrapped securely in pouches provided by manufacturers or brand owners of these products or in a suitable wrapping material and shall place the same in the bin meant for dry waste / non- bio-degradable waste.
- The concept of partnership in Swachh Bharat has been introduced. Bulk and institutional generators, market associations, event organizers and hotels and restaurants have been made directly responsible for segregation and sorting the waste and manage in partnership with local bodies.
- All hotels and restaurants should segregate biodegradable waste and set up a system of collection or follow the system of collection set up by local body to ensure that such food waste is utilized for composting / biomethanation.
- All Resident Welfare and market Associations, Gated communities and institution with an area >5,000 sq. m should segregate waste at source- in to valuable dry waste like plastic, tin, glass, paper, etc. and handover recyclable material to either the authorized waste pickers or the authorized recyclers, or to the urban local body.
- The bio-degradable waste should be processed, treated and disposed of through composting or bio-methanation within the premises as far as possible. The residual waste shall be given to the waste collectors or agency as directed by the local authority.
- New townships and Group Housing Societies have been made responsible to develop in-house waste handling, and processing arrangements for bio-degradable waste.
- Every street vendor should keep suitable containers for storage of waste generated during the course of his activity such as food waste, disposable plates, cups, cans, wrappers, coconut shells, leftover food, vegetables, fruits etc. and deposit such waste at waste storage depot or container or vehicle as notified by the local authority.
- The developers of Special Economic Zone, industrial estate, industrial park to earmark at least 5% of the total area of the plot or minimum 5 plots/ sheds for recovery and recycling facility.
- All manufacturers of disposable products such as tin, glass, plastics packaging etc. or brand owners who introduce such products in the market shall provide necessary financial assistance to local authorities for the establishment of waste management system.
- All such brand owners who sale or market their products in such packaging material which are non-biodegradable should put in place a system to collect back the packaging waste generated due to their production.
- Manufacturers or Brand Owners or marketing companies of sanitary napkins and diapers should explore the possibility of using all recyclable materials in their products or they shall provide a pouch or wrapper for disposal of each napkin or diapers along with the packet of their sanitary products.
- All such manufacturers, brand owners or marketing companies should educate the masses for wrapping and disposal of their products.
- All industrial units using fuel and located within 100 km from a solid waste based RDF plant shall make arrangements within six months from the date of notification of these rules to replace at least 5 % of their fuel requirement by RDF so produced.
- Non-recyclable waste having calorific value of 1500 K/cal/kg or more shall not be disposed of on landfills and shall only be utilized for generating energy either or through refuse derived fuel or by giving away as feed stock for preparing refuse derived fuel.
- High calorific wastes shall be used for co-processing in cement or thermal power plants.
- Construction and demolition waste should be stored, separately disposed off, as per the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016
- Horticulture waste and garden waste generated from his premises should be disposed as per the directions of local authority.
- An event, or gathering organiser of more than 100 persons at any licensed/ unlicensed place, should ensure segregation of waste at source and handing over of segregated waste to waste collector or agency, as specified by local authority.
- Special provision for management of solid waste in hilly areas:- Construction of landfill on the hill shall be avoided. A transfer station at a suitable enclosed location shall be setup to collect residual waste from the processing facility and inert waste. Suitable land shall be identified in the plain areas, down the hill, within 25 kilometers for setting up sanitary landfill. The residual waste from the transfer station shall be disposed off at this sanitary landfill.
- In case of non-availability of such land, efforts shall be made to set up regional sanitary landfill for the inert and residual waste.
Few Facts:-
- President of India presents National Geoscience Awards 2014.The National Geoscience Awards, previously known as the National Mineral Awards, was instituted by the Ministry of Mines in 1966, to honour individuals and teams of scientists for their extraordinary achievements and outstanding contributions in fundamental and applied geosciences and mining and allied fields.
- An all women high altitude trek to Pindari Glacier was organized by the Indian Navy.The Pindari Glacier is a glacier found in the upper reaches of the Kumaon Himalayas,Uttarakhand.
- India’s First Semi-High Speed Train Christened as Gatimaan Express Capable of Running at a Maximum Speed of 160 Kmph to be Flagged off.
- World’s First White Tiger Safari has been opened in Madhya Pradesh.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.