17 February 2023

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – MGNREGA: GS II – Topic Government Policies and Interventions:

Context:

• The wages of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) recipients should also be paid by the states in order to encourage state governments to take more initiative in the fight against corruption.
• Concern has been voiced by academics and NREGA Sangarsh Morcha members regarding his Ministry’s most recent directive mandating Aadhaar-based wage payments. According to government data, 57% of the current workforce will be eliminated.

About MGNREGA:

• The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), passed in 2005, guarantees 100 days of employment to adult members of rural families who are willing to perform unskilled manual labour associated with public operations at the legal minimum pay.
• This Act also grants the SC/STs 150 days of employment during non-agricultural seasons.
• The Ministry of Rural Development is in charge of supervising every aspect of its execution, working with the State Governments.
• Women are only permitted to make up about one-third of the required workforce under this programme.
• With this initiative, jobs will be spread out over a 5-kilometer radius. If the distance is greater than 5 kilometres, the government will pay an additional salary.
• Within 15 days of receiving the application or the day the work is needed, the applicant will receive a paid job offer.
• Within fifteen days of finishing the project, the applicants will get payment.
• If a job is not offered within 15 days after submitting the application or from the date the job is sought, the candidate is entitled to unemployment benefits.
• The Gram Sabha is the main venue for wage workers to voice their issues and request things.
• The MGNREGA projects are also prioritised and approved by the Gram Sabha and Gram Panchayat.
• The following elements are the primary emphasis of this strategy:
• economic and social empowerment of women
• Offering the beneficiaries “Green” and “excellent” work that takes into account farmers’ sensitivity to climate change and protects them from such threats.

Why is MGNREGA important?

• MGNREGA is crucial if India is to address its current problems.
• It boosts rural demand and supports the economic advancement of the rural populace.
• It aims to close the gap between riches and poverty.
• This Act aims to boost the purchasing power of the rural populace, especially for those who are below the poverty line, by providing them with primarily semi-skilled or unskilled labour.
• Issues like rural poverty, farmer suicides, the rural employment crisis, etc. may be helped by this.
• Also, the programme has the ability to put forward-thinking policies into action, such as improving the infrastructure in rural India and boosting agricultural output through labor-intensive, auxiliary projects related to water conservation, drought relief, flood control, etc.
• This Act’s promotion of grassroots development, which is primarily carried out through Gram Panchayats, makes it even more crucial (GPs). Contractor participation is not permitted under this strategy in order to protect the workers from being exploited.
• It stands out for having a worker-centric policy that prioritises accountability and transparency.
• The Act might provide a solution to today’s problems, including water scarcity and climate change, if the government supports it.
• In times of drought or other natural calamities, it is a demand-driven pay employment scheme that extends unskilled wage employment by 50 days.
• According to Section 3(4) of the Act, States and the Center may use their own funds to provide more days than what is necessary.

 Source The Hindu

2 – GST Council: GS III – Topic Indian Economy:

Context:

• At its meeting on Saturday, the GST Council is reportedly planning to discuss the creation of appeal tribunals and other procedures to stop tax cheating in the pan masala and gutkha industries.
• The conclusions of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) panel regarding online gambling and casinos may not be discussed at the GST Council meeting on February 18 that will also include her state equivalents and be chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

What is the GST Council?

• Background: The Goods and Services Tax regime was implemented after the Constitutional (122nd Amendment) Bill was ratified by both Houses of Parliament in 2016.
• When it had been ratified by the state assembly of more than 15 Indian states, the President then granted his assent.
• The federal government and the states work together through the GST Council.
• The President formed it in accordance with Article 279A (1) of the updated Constitution.
• The Union Minister of State (Finance) from the Center and the Union Finance Minister are members of the Council (chairperson).
• Each state has the right to suggest a minister in charge of finances, taxes, or any other minister for membership.
• Functions: The Council is tasked with “providing recommendations to the Union and the States on significant GST-related matters, such as the GST-eligible products and services and model GST Laws,” as stated in Article 279 of the Constitution.
• Additionally, it establishes the various GST rate slabs.
• For instance, a panel of ministers’ interim report suggested taxing casinos, online gambling, and horse racing with a 28% GST.
• Recent Developments: This is the first meeting following the Supreme Court’s decision in May 2022 declaring that the GST Council’s recommendations are not binding precedent.
• The court asserts that Article 246A of the Constitution gives the federal government and state legislatures “simultaneous” authority to pass laws managing the GST, and that the council’s recommendations “are the outcome of a joint discourse comprising the Union and States.”
• Because they believe states can be more accommodating in embracing the proposals as they are suited for them, some states, including Kerala and Tamil Nadu, commended this.

 Source The Hindu

3 – Organ Transplant rules in India GS II – Topic Government Policies and Interventions:

Context:

• The limitation preventing patients older than 65 from obtaining cadaver organ transplants has been removed, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, signalling a dramatic shift in the country’s organ donation guidelines.
• The ceiling will be removed, as decided by the administration. According to reputable sources in the Health Ministry, persons over 65 who need an organ donation will also be qualified to receive one.

About:

• Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which a damaged or missing organ is replaced by removing an organ from one body and implanting it in the recipient’s body.
• The donor and recipient may both be present at the same location, or the organs may be transported from the donor site to another location.
• Organs and/or tissues that are transplanted into the body of the same person are referred to as autografts.
• Recent transplants between two individuals of the same species are called allografts.
• The heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, thymus, and uterus have all had successful organ transplants.
• The cornea, skin, heart valves, nerves, and veins are examples of tissues (both of which are referred to as musculoskeletal grafts).
• The kidneys, liver, and heart are the three organs that are transplanted the most frequently worldwide.
• The most frequently transplanted tissues are musculoskeletal and corneal grafts, which outweigh organ transplants by a factor of more than ten.

National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization:

• The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 was established in 1994. 25 years afterwards. The establishment of NOTTO was permitted under the Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Act of 2011.
• A national organisation called NOTTO has been founded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The National Human Organ and Tissue Removal and Storage Network was founded in Delhi with the purpose of obtaining, allocating, and distributing organs and tissues.
• The National Biomaterial Center (National Tissue Bank) was formed to fill the gap between “Demand” and “Supply” and to “Quality Assurance” in the accessibility of various tissues.

Transplantation:

• In order to gather information on surgeries and their outcomes at the national level, the Liver Transplantation Society of India established India’s first voluntary liver transplant registry.
• While there are approximately 2000 liver transplants performed in India each year, it does not have its own statistics. The doctor thus consults the registers in the US and the UK. This will be addressed by the change.
• Under NOTTO, only blood relations and intimate family members are permitted to donate organs; otherwise, registration is necessary, and receivers are selected from a waiting list and organ availability (tissues, lungs, kidney, heart).

National Organ Transplant Programme:

• As a part of the National Organ Transplant Programme (NOTP), a National Level Tissue Bank (Biomaterial Center) has been established at the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO), New Delhi, for the storage of tissues.
• Also, a clause was added to the NOTP to allow for the provision of financial support to the States for the development of Bio-material Centers.
• The Regional Bio-material Center has now been established by the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
• The States of Maharashtra and Bihar have also been given funding to establish Bio-material Centers under the NOTP.
• The Government of India is carrying out the National Organ Transplant Programme in order to promote organ donation and transplantation in all States and Union Territories (UTs), including Karnataka (NOTP).

The provisions of the programme include:

• the creation of state, regional, and national biomaterial centres; the formation of SOTTOs (State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organizations) in each State and UT.
• Financial support for the development of new Organ Transplant/Retrieval Facilities and the renovation of existing Organ Transplant/Retrieval Facilities.
• Transplantation experts get training, including doctors, surgeons, coordinators of transplants, etc.
• Medical schools and trauma centres can appoint Transplant Coordinators with funding.
• Immunosuppressive drugs for those who are under the poverty line (BPL).
• This project has resulted in the establishment of five Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organizations (ROTTOs), fourteen SOTTOs, and a National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) at the highest level.
• Moreover, funds have been made available to the States of Bihar and Maharashtra for the establishment of a Regional Bio-material Center at Tamil Nadu’s ROTTO.
• The “National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO),” “Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organizations (ROTTOs),” and “State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organizations” all provide the general public with information about organ donation (SOTTOs).
• Both a website, www.notto.gov.in, and a toll-free helpline, 1800114770, are now operating.
• Several initiatives to raise awareness are periodically carried out. These include, among other things, lectures, talks, debates, sporting activities, participation in marathons, nukkadnatak, and celebrations of Indian Organ Donation Day.
• Social media is also being used to inform the public about organ donation.

 Source  The Hindu

4 – Cheetah Conservation: GS III – Topic Environmental Conservation:

Context:

• On Saturday, twelve cheetahs will be sent from South Africa to India, three years after the Indian government first suggested the idea.
• The cheetahs were supposed to arrive in India by the middle of 2022, but preparations were put off since the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries took longer than expected. The animals are still being confined at a reserve in the province of Limpopo as a result.

About:

• The fastest land mammal in the world, the cheetah, which went extinct in India in 1952, will find a new home in the Kuno-Palpur National Park (KNP). African cheetahs are being transported between India and Africa as part of an intercontinental translocation programme (mainly from South Africa and Namibia).
• The contentious proposal to move cheetahs to India, first from Iran and later from Africa, has taken years to prepare. Indian conservationists are sceptical about the proposal’s chances of success and are concerned that it will take attention away from the need to relocate other critically endangered species, such the Asiatic lion.

What is the rationale behind India’s decision to reintroduce the cheetah?

• The biological objectives include restoring the cheetah’s ecosystem function role in representative areas of its former range and assisting in the conservation of the cheetah species globally.
• India will be the only country with all five species of great cats—the tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, and cheetah—with the reintroduction of the cheetah.
• Enhancing Choices for a Living: Cheetah reintroduction will raise living standards for the locals in and around the regions where the species is likely to be introduced by raising revenue from ecotourism and related activities.
• Top predators are regarded as the umbrella species for the food chain since they have control over all food chain levels, which helps to maintain the food chain.
• The charismatic cheetah can serve as a flagship and umbrella species to draw money for restoring the balance of the food web and open forest environments.
• Climate Change Mitigation: By regenerating ecosystems in cheetah conservation areas, India will be better able to sequester carbon and contribute to global efforts to combat climate change.

What Caused the India Cheetahs’ Defeat?

• Before the Common Era, there is historical evidence of Indian cheetahs. There are records of cheetah captures dating back to the 1550s.
• Reduced levels of genetic variation brought on by a previous genetic bottleneck, which resulted in high infant mortality in the wild and a decreased potential for reproduction in captivity, was one of the primary reasons of extinction.
• Cheetahs (both male and female) are regularly and widely captured in the wild throughout a prolonged period of sport hunting.
• The Mughals and other Deccan kings started documenting its contacts with people in great detail in the 16th century.
• Killings for reward: By offering a reward for the species’ extinction in 1871, the British made conditions worse for the animal.
• The last stages of its extinction occurred during British colonial rule.
• According to reports, the last cheetahs were shot in India in 1947, and the species was finally declared extinct in 1952.

What Issues Are Included in the Translocation of Cheetahs in India?

• A important question is whether a cheetah that is kept in a cage and fed game will be able to hunt in the wild by itself.
• For instance, Sundari the tigress, who after a failed attempt to relocate her to Satkosia in Odisha, was eventually kept prisoner in Bhopal Zoo for the rest of her life.
• Adaptability: Reintroduced species are more vulnerable to the effects of drift, selection, and gene flow evolutionary processes because of their tiny size and the climatic and ecological differences between their new home and their original environment.
• African cheetahs need wide, open spaces to run. There are less opportunities for such unrestrained roaming in Indian parks because they are frequently much smaller than those in Africa.
• Research in Africa has revealed that male cheetahs mate when females pass through their limited territories, which results in breeding issues. Female cheetahs, on the other hand, journey far and alone.
• Since it has never occurred anywhere, there is no precedent to infer that cheetahs, lions, tigers, and leopards could ever coexist peacefully.
• Similar worries exist for Kuno because studies have revealed that leopards have killed cheetahs as prey in Africa. Kuno has about 50 leopards in and around the central area where cheetahs will be housed.
• Concerns with rehabilitation To adequately protect the cheetah habitat, it will be required to relocate a number of communities, which will surely have an impact on the locals and cause disturbance and migration.
• What Additional Reintroduction Plans Do You Know About?
• The Bisalpur Rewilding Project for 2018: The project brought back some 150 of the endangered Indian antelope, along with a variety of other animals and plants in and around the Jodhpur area.
• Indian bison, or gaur: A safari firm with roots in Africa spearheaded the relocation of 19 gaur at Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
• In ten years, the gaur herd grew to about 70 animals.
• American bison: Due to overzealous hunting and slaughter for the fur trade, there were only 750 American bison surviving in the wild in the 1890s.
• Because to population management, reintroduction plans, and conservation efforts, the population has grown to over 350,000.
• Grey Wolves: The reintroduction of grey wolves to Yellowstone more than 21 years ago had a key role in halting the ecosystem’s degradation in the American national park.

 Source The Hindu