DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Wholesale Infaltion: GS III – Indian Economy

What exactly is WPI?

• The wholesale price index is a measure and track of changes in the price of items before they reach the retail level.
• In some countries, the WPI is used to calculate inflation.
• WPI is made up of three parts:
• 2 percent of manufactured goods
• 6 percent of articles are primary.
• 1 percent goes to fuel and power.
• The WPI’s base year will be 2011-12, rather than the previous year of 2004-05.
• The new WPI series now covers 697 items, up from 676 in the previous series.

What is the problem with WPI?

• The RBI Act has been revised in response to the Urjit Patel Committee’s recommendations, and flexible inflation targeting (FIT) with CPI inflation as the nominal anchor has been implemented.
• The usage of WPI inflation has been fully phased out under the FIT, as the RBI has been mandated to achieve price stability assessed in terms of CPI inflation.
• All inflation projections are now made in terms of the CPI.
• WPI is currently used mostly to translate GDP/GVA at current prices to the same at constant prices.
• In truth, the GDP deflator (commonly referred to as the genuine gauge of inflation), which is calculated by multiplying GDP at current prices by 100, closely tracks WPI inflation.
• The steep drop in the GDP deflator and the dramatic drop in WPI inflation occurred at the same time. This has a substantial impact on India’s actual GDP growth.
• Separate services sector input/output price indices are also needed to deflate services sector GDP, which WPI isn’t suitable for.
• One of the most notable elements of the new WPI series is the use of geometric mean for item level averaging. This is in accordance with worldwide best practises.
• Apart from other considerations such as changes in the composition of the basket, the geometric mean has greatly slowed WPI inflation.
• In recent years, the moderated WPI on a revised base has pushed up real GDP significantly.
• The removal of excise duty from the WPI calculation has also led to decreased WPI inflation in recent years, which has driven real GDP up to a degree.

What options do we have?

• Deflating input and output prices using distinct indices, often known as double deflation, is a superior technique to assess GDP accurately.
• The single deflation technique overestimates GDP/GVA when output prices change faster than input prices, and vice versa.
• To ensure accuracy, the single deflation approach of estimating GDP/GVA using WPI as a deflator should be abandoned.

Source The Hindu

2 – Inter State River Water Disputes Tribunal: GS II – Inter State and Centre State Disputes

Constitutional Provisions:

• Water is included in Entry 17 of the State List, including water supply, irrigation, canals, drainage, embankments, water storage, and water power.
• Entry 56 of the Union List gives the Union Government authority to regulate and develop interstate rivers and river valleys to the degree that Parliament deems it necessary in the public interest.
• According to Article 262, in the case of water conflicts, Parliament may provide by law for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint relating to the usage, distribution, or control of the waters of any inter-State river or river valley.
• By legislation, Parliament may declare that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court has jurisdiction over any of the aforementioned disputes or complaints.

The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill of 2017 :

• The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was presented in Lok Sabha in March 2017 to streamline the adjudication of inter-State river water disputes by revising the existing ISRWD Act, 1956.
• The bill proposes to establish a stand-alone Tribunal with a permanent location, office space, and infrastructure, obviating the need to form a separate Tribunal for each water dispute, which is generally a lengthy procedure.
• The proposed Bill includes a provision for the Central Government to create a Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) to resolve inter-State water issues amicably within a maximum of one year and six months.
• Any disagreement that cannot be resolved through dialogue is sent to the Tribunal for resolution.
• The Chairperson of the Tribunal shall appoint the matter referred to the Tribunal to a Bench of the Tribunal for determination.
• The requirement that the final judgement of the tribunal be published in the official gazette has been repealed under the Bill.
• The bill also states that the tribunal’s decision will be final and binding on all parties involved in the dispute.
• The bill also calls for a transparent national data gathering system for each river basin, as well as a single body to manage the data bank and information system.
• The Bill’s suggested modifications will expedite the resolution of water disputes presented to it.
• For review, the bill was forwarded to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources.
• As a result of the Standing Committee’s proposal, the Ministry has issued a draught Cabinet Note for Official Amendments to Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Source The Hindu

3 – One Nation One Ration Card Scheme: GS II – Government Policies and Interventions

ONORC Scheme Status:

• At the moment, 32 states and union territories have completed the scheme’s procedures, which include linking recipients’ ration cards to their Aadhaar numbers and installing e-Point of Sale (e-POS) devices in each FPS.
• The digitalization of the public distribution system (PDS), a network of nearly 5,00,000 fair-price stores, is required for the complete mobility of food subsidies under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) of 2013. (FPS).
• Aadhaar authentication and authenticated data would be used to ensure this.
• All purchases made under ONORC are recorded on the Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IMPDS) site.

ONORC Advantages:

• Providing Access to Food: Ration cardholders could previously only get their subsidised food grains from the approved Fair Price Shop (FPS) within their state under the National Food Security Act.
• If a beneficiary moves to another state, he or she will need to apply for a new ration card in the new state.
• As a result, ONORC plans to eliminate geographical barriers to social justice and enable the right to food.
• Supporting 1/3 of the Population: Migrant workers account for over 37% of the population. As a result, the plan is critical for anyone moving from one location to another.
• Reducing Leakages: Because deduplication is a key need of this approach, the ONORC can reduce leakages.
• This will prevent the same person from being a beneficiary in two distinct places across the country.
• Furthermore, the system is linked to Aadhaar and fingerprints, which eliminates the majority of corruption risks.
• Reducing Social Discrimination: Given how social identity (caste, class, and gender) and other environmental factors (including power relations) create a powerful backdrop in accessing PDS, ONORC will be especially useful for women and other disadvantaged groups.

Associated Obstacles:

• Exclusion Error: In an effort to prevent leakages, the digitalization of this PDS procedure has been pushed through Aadhaar-linked ration cards and smart cards. However, post-Aadhaar seeding has seen an increase in exclusion errors.
• Many people in the country still do not have Aadhar cards, putting their food security at risk.
• Not only PDS, but most anti-poverty, rural employment, welfare, and food security plans were historically predicated on domicile-based access, limiting people’s ability to obtain government social security, welfare, and food entitlements at their place of origin.
• Supply Chain Disruption An FPS receives a monthly quota of items in precise proportion to the number of workers allocated to it.
• When fully functioning, the ONORC will disrupt this practise, since some FPSs may have to cater to more cards while others cater to less, due to population mobility.

Next Steps:

• Opening Alternative Delivery Centers: If ration shop uptake continues to be hampered by emergencies, alternative delivery channels for supplying food grains to vulnerable groups should be examined.
• Putting a Focus on Nutritional Security: Food security should be viewed through the lens of nutritional security. In the long run, the PDS system may be replaced by a fool-proof food coupon system or direct benefit transfer.
• A Below Poverty Line family can buy rice, beans, sugar, and oil at market price from any Kirana store by paying in full with the coupon or by cash.

About the e-Shram Portal:

• The goal of the e-Shram Portal is to register 38 million unorganised workers, including construction workers, migrant workers, street sellers, and domestic workers.
• The employees will receive an e-Shram card with a 12-digit unique number.
• If a worker is enrolled on the eSHRAM platform and has an accident, he will be eligible for Rs 2.0 lakh if he dies or becomes permanently disabled, and Rs 1.0 lakh if he becomes partially disabled.
• Background: After the Supreme Court ordered the government to complete the registration procedure of unorganised employees so that they might benefit from various government initiatives, the e-Shram portal was created.
• Implementation:Unorganized workers will be registered by state/UT governments across the country.

Source The Hindu

4 – RFID Technology: Prelims Specific Topic

RFID Technology Overview:

• RFID stands for ‘Radio-frequency identification,’ and it is a method of encoding digital data in RFID tags or smart labels that can be read by a reader. It’s comparable to barcoding in that a gadget captures data from a tag. RFID is a type of technology that incorporates automatic data capture and identification. With little or no human participation, such technology automatically recognises objects, collects data about them, and feeds it directly into the computer.

RFID system components:

• An RFID tag or label, a reader, and an antenna are the three components. A circuit and an antenna are built into the tag to transfer data to the reader. The reader then turns the waves that have been transferred into data that can be used. After then, the data is sent to a host computer system, where it can be stored and examined.

RFID’s applications include:

• Logistics and supply chain– RFID can assist increase efficiency, minimise errors, and improve quality in the supply chain by providing visibility.
• Inventory tracking– With the help of an RFID reader, tracing things through the supply chain to the point of scale can be done in minutes.
• Attendee tracking— Using an RFID-based system to manage a conference can help reduce the need for long registration lines.
• RFID-based access— Certain places demand a higher level of protection. Access to RFID control tags can be restricted to just those who have been pre-approved.
• Real-time location system— This system allows you to track the whereabouts of employees and assets in real time. It aids in the evaluation of a floor-based plan as well as the tracking of resource locations.

Source The Hindu

5 – North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Prelims Specific Topic

What exactly is NATO?

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance formed in April 1949 by the United States, Canada, and many Western European countries to guarantee collective security against the Soviet Union.
• Currently, there are 30 members.
• Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States were the founding members.
• Greece and Turkey (1952), West Germany (1955, renamed Germany in 1990), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017), and North Macedonia (2018) joined the original signatories (2020).
• In 1966, France withdrew from NATO’s integrated military command but remained a member of the organisation; it rejoined the military command in 2009.
• Brussels is the headquarters.
• Mons, Belgium is the headquarters of the Allied Command Operations.

What are NATO’s goals and objectives?

• NATO’s primary and long-term goal is to protect all of its members’ freedom and security by political and military methods.
• NATO’s political goals are to promote democratic values and to enable members to consult and collaborate on defence and security issues in order to solve problems, establish trust, and, in the long run, avoid conflict.
• NATO’s military objectives include the peaceful resolution of disputes. It has the military power to conduct crisis-management operations if diplomatic attempts fail.
• These are carried out, either alone or in concert with other countries and international organisations, under the collective defence provision of NATO’s founding treaty, Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, or under a United Nations mandate.
• NATO has only used Article 5 once, on September 12, 2001, in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

How does NATO operate?

• NATO has an integrated military command structure, yet it only has a few forces and assets.
• Until member countries agree to take on NATO-related activities, the majority of forces remain under full national command and control.
• All 30 allies have an equal say in the Alliance’s decisions, which must be unanimous and consensual, and its members must uphold the Alliance’s core ideals of democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law.
• Civil wars and domestic coups are not covered by NATO’s protection.
• NATO is supported entirely by its members. The United States pays nearly three-quarters of NATO’s budget.

Why was NATO formed?

• Western Europe was economically depleted and militarily weak when World War II ended in 1945. (the western Allies had rapidly and drastically reduced their armies at the end of the war).
• The Marshall Plan, which injected huge amounts of economic help into western and southern Europe on the condition that they collaborate with one another and engage in collaborative planning to speed their mutual recovery, was initiated in 1948 by the United States.
• In terms of military recovery, the United Kingdom, France, and the Low Countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg—signed the Brussels Treaty of 1948, which established the Western European Union.
• However, it was quickly realised that a much powerful coalition would be required to provide a sufficient military counterweight to the Soviets.
• Following a communist coup d’état in Czechoslovakia in February, the three governments began discussions in March 1948 on a multilateral collective-defense programme to strengthen Western security and promote democratic ideals.
• France, the Low Countries, and Norway finally joined the discussions, and the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in April 1949.
• The Cold War began when relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated after World War II.
• The Soviet Union intended to expand its influence in Europe by spreading communism, but the United States considered the Soviet Union’s ideology as a threat to its way of life.
• In 1955, as the Cold War was intensifying, the Soviet Union signed the Warsaw Pact with communist states in Central and Eastern Europe (1955). The Pact was considered as a direct strategic counterweight to NATO because it was primarily a political-military partnership.
• Albania (which left in 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania were all part of it.
• Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the Pact was officially abolished in early 1991.

What are the NATO Alliances?

• NATO is a member of three alliances that extend its reach beyond its 30 member nations.
• EAPC (European-Atlantic Partnership Council): It is a 50-nation multilateral platform for debate and consultation among Allies and partner countries on political and security matters.
• It establishes the broad political framework for NATO’s Euro-Atlantic cooperation, as well as bilateral partnerships created between NATO and individual partner countries under the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme.

About the PfP Program:

• The Partnership for Peace (PfP) is a practical bilateral cooperation programme between NATO and individual Euro-Atlantic member countries.
• It allows partners to develop their own relationship with NATO, setting their own cooperation goals.
• The EAPC replaced the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), which was established in 1991 shortly after the Cold War ended.
• The Mediterranean Dialogue is a partnership forum aimed at promoting good relations and understanding among participating countries and NATO Allies while also contributing to security and stability in NATO’s Mediterranean and North African area.
• Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia are now participating in the Dialogue as non-NATO countries.
• The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) is a collaboration forum that intends to contribute to long-term global and regional security by allowing non-NATO countries in the Middle East to collaborate with NATO.
• The Initiative now includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Source The Hindu