21 October 2023

MAINS DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS

Q1. The Indian healthcare industry has made incredible progress. But in order to take advantage of having the youngest population in the world, a few obstacles must be overcome. Analyse.

GS II – Health related issues

Introduction:

• India’s healthcare industry is now one of the biggest in terms of jobs and income. Due to increased spending by both public and private entities, innovation, digitization, and the introduction of new hybrid business models, the sector has expanded quickly during the past five years. The Economic Survey 2022–2023 notes that the percentage of overall social service spending that goes towards health has increased from 21% in FY19 to 26% in FY23.

Recent successes in the Indian healthcare industry include:

• Increased life expectancy: India’s life expectancy has increased significantly. India’s life expectancy in 2023 is predicted to be 70.42 years, up 0.33% from 2022.
• Decreased total fertility rate (TFR): India has made great strides recently in reducing the TFR as a population management tactic. India’s total fertility rate (TFR) decreased from 2.2 in 2015–16 to 2.0 in 2019–21, per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5).
• Rise in institutionalised births: According to the most recent NFHS-5 data, hospital deliveries have increased to 89%, even in the so-called BIMARU states. In Kerala, institutional births accounted for almost all births.
• Child nutrition: At the all-India level, indicators of child nutrition have also shown a little improvement, with stunting falling from 38 to 36 percent, wasting from 21 to 19 percent, and underweight falling from 36 to 32 percent.
• Achievements in the immunisation programme: The percentage of children aged 12-23 months who received the full immunisation drive improved significantly from 51% to 70%. In addition, India organised the biggest immunisation campaign against COVID-19 in history, and with to its well-established vaccine infrastructure, it was a great success.

Nonetheless, the healthcare industry has a number of difficulties that must be overcome, including:

• Non-communicable illnesses: According to a research titled “India: Health of the nation’s states,” the percentage of deaths attributable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) rose from around 38% in 1990 to 62% in 2016.
• The growing issue of obesity: A growing number of young individuals are overweight or obese. Between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5, the percentage of people who are obese climbed from 19 to 23% in both urban and rural areas. Particularly in young adults, this raises the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, and hypertension.
• State of Infrastructure: Significant differences were observed in the primary healthcare infrastructure between states in a 2022 assessment published by the AIIMS Centre for Community Medicine. Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand had the lowest percentages of primary health institutions operating at full institutional capacity.
• Mental health issues: Depression, mood swings, substance addiction, eating disorders, and other mental illnesses are expected to affect at least 20% of young people.
• Health care gaps: Bridging the hospital service gap between tier II and tier III cities and major urban agglomerations is a challenge in metropolitan settings. Just 4-5 percent of the beds in the private sector are occupied by big hospital chains like Apollo, Fortis, and Max. Ninety-five percent of private hospital beds are provided by independent hospitals and nursing homes. They can’t, however, offer multispecialty treatment, let alone tertiary and quaternary care.
• Low rate of health insurance uptake and high out-of-pocket expenses: Individuals employed in the unorganised sector are not covered by health insurance and must pay for diagnostic tests and outpatient doctor visits. This is currently estimated to be 50% of the total cost of healthcare.
• Ethical issues with digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI): robot-assisted surgery, genetic code utilisation, and AI-based therapeutic decisions should all be welcomed. Regulating and ethical issues, however, still surround the application of these technologies.
• With programmes like the National Health Mission, Ayushman Bharat Programme, Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), etc., India has made incredible progress in healthcare and demonstrated that even the seemingly impossible is doable. Innovative thinking and the will to overcome the upcoming obstacles are what we need.

Q2. “The oceans serve as reservoirs for biodiversity worldwide,” Explain the significance of the “blue economy” in this context, as well as the government’s actions to support its growth. Outline the blue economy’s sustainability problems as well.

GS II – Government Policies and Interventions

Introduction:

Government initiatives to support the growth of the blue economy include:

• Sagarmala Project: The main goals of the Sagarmala project are to facilitate port-led growth, both directly and indirectly, and to build the necessary infrastructure for the timely, economical, and efficient transportation of commodities to and from ports.
• The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) seeks to expand India’s fisheries industry in a sustainable and ethical manner in order to usher in the Blue Revolution.
• The Sagar Manthan dashboard is a real-time vessel tracking performance monitoring dashboard. All integrated data pertaining to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways is available on the platform.
• The goal of the Deep Ocean Mission, sometimes called the Samudrayaan programme, is to investigate deep-sea resources in the continental shelves and exclusive economic zones (EEZ) and to develop technologies for their exploitation. The mission’s main goal is to locate and extract polymetallic nodules.
• Notice of the Coastal Regulation Zone: India enacted the Coastal Regulation Zone notice in order to categorise and manage coastal regions more effectively and to preserve environmentally vulnerable marine and coastal areas, including ecosystems.
• Norway and India are working together through the India-Norway Task Force on Blue Economy to find solutions to guarantee integrated ocean management at the national level.
• The draught Blue Economy policy aims to develop coastal areas sustainably by making the best use of all marine domain sectors, including tourism, ocean energy, and the use of living and non-living resources.

Challenges of sustainability pertaining to India’s concept of the blue economy:

• Marine pollution: India’s marine biodiversity, which is especially rich, is seriously threatened by the marine debris issue that the country is currently experiencing. Sixty-one large Indian cities contribute around 15,343 tonnes of rubbish every day to the South Asian oceans, according to UNEP.
• Overexploitation of marine resources: Overfishing in India’s coastal waters can lead to the depletion of fish supplies and the degradation of the marine ecosystem. The fishing sector and other facets of the blue economy may suffer as a result.
• Extreme marine events and climate change: Extreme marine events can be produced by the combination of natural ocean cycles, rising water temperatures, acidification, and low oxygen levels. Among these occurrences are dead zones, coral bleaching, and marine heat waves. Furthermore, in reaction to climate change, several fish species have already changed the geographic region in which they live.
• Unplanned urbanisation: As the population grows, coastal areas are seeing an increase in unplanned urbanisation. The ocean, biodiversity, and marine and coastal ecosystems are all seriously threatened by this.
• Lack of a cogent regional governance arrangement: The lack of a regional governance agreement that protects different species or encompasses countries in the Indian Ocean region leads to additional difficulties and regional conflict. Consider the fishing dispute between India and Sri Lanka.
• Given the chances and difficulties, India’s G20 presidency has the potential to be very beneficial in encouraging both individual and group efforts to speed up the shift to a sustainable blue economy. Future generations will benefit from an investment in ocean preservation. For the sake of our ocean commons’ wellbeing, the entire community must be brought together in the spirit of “One Earth, One Family, One Future.”