07 April 2023

DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS

Q1. Considering the situation for India at the moment, even while there may not be much to gain from working with Central Asia, staying silent could be costly. Do you agree? Observation (250 Words)

Paper & Topic: GS II – International Relations

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• India faces a challenge as it adjusts to the post-pandemic climate because of the loss of a friendly Afghan government. As a result, India’s relations with the Central Asian (CA) republics have become more crucial. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan are the three countries that border Afghanistan.
• In order to strengthen its common values with Central Asia and challenge the assertive Sino-Pakistani axis in Afghanistan, India’s key objective is to advance regional cooperation.

Body:

Averting Central Asia has risks:

• India’s economic initiatives in Central Asia have been hampered by a lack of access to land, a lack of resources, great-power politics, and the slowly moving implementation of the projects.
• China’s expanding influence in Central Asia and China’s One Belt and Road Initiative look to be endangering India’s efforts to resolve connectivity issues with Central Asia in order to assure improved economic-political links (BRI).
• Difficulty of accessibility: None of the Central Asian nations have land borders with India. Instability in Afghanistan, the effect of US-Iran tensions on regional connectivity initiatives, and India’s hostile relations with Pakistan have all further hindered the country’s chances for trade and connectivity.
• Domestic problems in the area, such as terrorism, authoritarian regimes, religious extremism, and ongoing conflicts, are detrimental to India’s economic interests.
• India had plans for the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (TAPI) and North South Transport Corridor projects even before China’s BRI, but our progress has been subpar.
• Our path through Chabahar and Bandar Abbas (Iran) has also been impacted by American sanctions, and Pakistan would never provide India access to Central Asia via the land route.
• Given China’s expanding influence in Iran, India may face greater difficulty advancing its ambitions there.

Reaching out to Central Asia:

• Trade: Considering the region’s heightened strategic importance, India should ideally take an assertive posture towards commerce with the area. In order to do this, India needs not only endeavour to assure the completion of connection projects that are currently delayed but also to find additional fields, such as education and digital infrastructure, that have the potential to boost regional presence.
• Military cooperation: Given the shared concern for security between India and the CARs, this field should be studied more than it already is, similar to the ongoing joint military exercise “KAZIND” between India and Kazakhstan.
• Roping in Russia: India may try to make use of its long-standing alliance with Russia, one of the most major players in Central Asia, in order to gain more traction in the area.
• The recent phone discussion between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who spoke extensively about expanding cooperation in Central Asia among other things, was a positive step towards attaining this objective.
• Connectivity: After spending $3 billion there, New Delhi has been fostering closer ties with Central Asian nations that are abundant in energy.
• New Delhi has also sponsored regional infrastructure projects like the North-South Corridor, which consists of highways and railroads connecting Chabahar port in Iran with Russia, in order to hasten shipments between Europe and central Asian markets.

Moving ahead:

• India should take use of the common history, culture, and civilization as well as the historically strong people-to-people links in order to deepen its relationship with Central Asia.
• The ICABC can help to promote trade, business, and investment, particularly in the area of Small and Medium Companies, as well as to facilitate a better understanding of taxation and business legislation in India and the Central Asian countries.
• Via the Central Asia Forum, India has the opportunity to actively contribute to Afghanistan’s economic recovery, notably through undertaking infrastructure, energy, transit, and transportation projects.
• Via Iran’s Chabahar port, India should effectively develop commercial and transportation connections with Central Asian markets.

Conclusion:

• Terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, and other issues are only a few of the many issues that Central Asia and India have in common. They are a natural partner in each other’s developmental journeys because of their many parallels, which calls for more regional and global cooperation.

Q2. After outlining the objectives of the health data retention policy, discuss the threats to the right to privacy that it poses. (250 Words)

Paper & Topic: GS II – Government Policies and Interventions

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• The act of managing and preserving personal health data for a set period of time is known as data retention. The kind, format, ownership, and procedures for policy infractions or breaches are frequently addressed by regulations.
• An encouraging development is that the National Health Authority (NHA), which oversees the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), has begun a consultation process on the retention of health data by Indian healthcare providers. Questions about the kinds of data to be maintained and how long they should be kept are discussed in the consultation document.

Body:

Objectives and benefits of data retention:

• The benefits for both the individual and the general public are used to justify data retention.
• When health records are mobile, people benefit from more convenience and choice.
• The general public gains from research and innovation, which are powered by the availability of more and better data to analyse.
• A Health Data Retention Guideline/Policy for India is being created with the intention of establishing uniformity that ensures record preservation and adherence to all Indian laws, regulations, and standards for every healthcare facility.
• The suggested Health Data Retention Guideline/Policy has been created to minimise risks associated with the use of personal health data and to maximise benefits from its use by ensuring that data retention requirements are in accordance with all applicable legal and regulatory compliances.
• Several lines of evidence show that the use of health data to enhance the delivery of healthcare and public health services has been done safely and securely in nations with strong health data governance mechanisms.

Retention of data puts privacy at risk:

• Risks from excessive data collection and storage are presented via a simple classification method, as outlined in the consultation document.
• A one-size-fits-all strategy, however, can also lead to underretention of knowledge that is truly required for research or public policy objectives. Instead, we should try to classify data based on its intended use.
• The Supreme Court of India has ruled that any violation of a person’s right to privacy must satisfy four requirements before it can be justified: it must be legal, have a legitimate goal, be proportionate, and have adequate safeguards.
• Storing private data, such cardiac conditions, violates the aforementioned requirements.
• Furthermore, this information might be misused to increase insurance premiums or even deny coverage for pre-existing diseases.
• The necessity to keep health information on file is one instance of an interference with the right to privacy.

Moving ahead:

• Data retention should only be allowed if a specific and well-defined reason has been established for it following a comprehensive investigation by the relevant authorities.
• An additional safeguard would be to anonymize data that is being retained for research purposes, unless a compelling case is made to keep personally identifying information. In the event that none of these claims are true, data should be erased.
• Explicit and informed consent: An alternative justification for data retention could be the subject’s express and informed consent.
• After being adopted by Parliament, the data privacy law will apply to all providers of healthcare services as well as to everyone else. the user-based classification approach.

Conclusion:

• It is necessary to follow a privacy-focused strategy when deciding what data to store and for how long. The requirement to secure sensitive data while ensuring that it is successfully used by healthcare professionals in clinical decision-making necessitates the development of guidelines on data retention for personally identifiable information (PII) or personal health information (PHI). This raises the general level of healthcare service, which can only be accomplished by requiring lengthier retention periods for particular types of health data while, whenever possible, ensuring privacy and anonymity.