In this section, we are presenting our readers/aspirants compilation of selected editorials of national daily viz. The Hindu, The live mint,The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, PIB etc. This section caters the requirement of Civil Services Mains (GS + Essay) , PCS, HAS Mains (GS + Essay) & others essay writing competition.
1.Killing the chills: On the malaria vaccine
The malaria vaccine must see speedy implementation from the lab to the field
The triumphs of science are best appreciated when they make human lives easier or safer, or simply, offer hope. The first ever World Health Organization (WHO)-approved anti-malaria vaccine must count among those triumphs. The approval marks a milestone in a timeline that records a long and laborious process to grapple with malaria, and somehow make it less of a killer. The vaccine that WHO has approved — RTS,S — has been used in pilot programme participants (children and infants) in Africa from 2015 after it got a nod for this specific use from the European Medicines Agency. This triumph comes at a time of great scientific endeavour, yes, but also notably at a time when it was feared that the progress against malaria was flagging. With this vaccine, which will significantly reduce the severity of cases and prevent deaths, hope has sprung anew that humankind might retard in its tracks a pathogen that has stalked sub-Saharan Africa and several other parts of the world for years now. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom rightly termed it as a historic moment, achieving a breakthrough not only for malaria control but also child health and science itself. The malaria vaccine, RTS,S, which has been in the making for nearly 30 years, acts against P. falciparum, believed to be the most deadly malaria parasite globally. As per WHO, in 2019, nearly half the world’s population was at risk of malaria, while most cases and deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. There were an estimated 229 million cases in 2019, and malaria deaths stood at 4,09,000, with the WHO African region carrying a disproportionate burden — 94% of cases and deaths. Children under five are the most vulnerable group affected by malaria; in 2019, they accounted for about two thirds of all malaria deaths.
WHO said it was making a recommendation for use based on the key findings of pilot projects implemented in child health clinics in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi over two years. Data and insights gathered from these studies showed that the vaccine was not only feasible to introduce but that it also improves health and saves lives. Remarkably, it facilitated equitable access to malaria prevention, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping reach even hitherto unreached populations. While further steps are taken to manufacture, fund and roll out the vaccine to nations affected by malaria, maintaining equity of access is key. Dr. Tedros emphasised in his press conference that as the work towards providing vaccination continues, nations may, by no means, relinquish their routine malaria prevention activities, including providing insecticide-treated bed nets. While the world now has a way to kill the rigors — the chills characteristic of the infection — the next step should be speedy and meticulous implementation of the scientific miracle from the lab to the field.
2.Handling complexity: On 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics
The Physics Nobel winners have developed tools to get a handle on complex systems
Bringing to a close speculation about the winner of the Physics Nobel prize this year, the Nobel committee decided to award a trio of researchers. One half went to Syukuro Manabe of Princeton University, U.S., and Klaus Hasselmann of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany, for their work in climate science. In the long line of researchers who estimated the warming of the atmosphere due to gases in it, Syukuro Manabe’s modelling, in collaboration with others — and over decades — is a classic work that showed, even in the 1960s, that the atmosphere would undergo another 2.3° C warming with the doubling of carbon dioxide content. Klaus Hasselmann identified a way of treating the random noise-like variations of the weather, devising a method to generate useful “signals” on the scale of the climate. Of interest was the way these models could show the effect of human activities on the climate. The other half of the prize, to Giorgio Parisi from the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, is for developing a method to sensibly study complex condensed matter systems called “spin glasses” — an outstanding feat in both mathematical and physical innovation. The idea to break what is called “replica symmetry”, seen in a spin glass, in a consistent manner, which was his contribution, led to a method to study one of the simplest models of a genuinely complex system. His work has helped solve problems in mathematics, biology and neuroscience; for instance, how memory is stored in networks of nerve cells.
What ties together the seemingly disparate works — the climate science work by Syukuro and Hasselmann on the one hand and theoretical condensed matter physics work by Parisi on the other — is that both describe complex physical systems. Physics is often thought of as a science of simple systems, and it is mostly celebrated and sometimes chided for this. Even rocket science, which inspires awe for its grandeur and accuracy, is mostly the study of so-called simple systems. Complexity arises when there are many, many interacting pieces in the system, with each moving in an independent way. The deceptively easy-looking problem of water rushing out of a tap is notoriously difficult to understand as to when it makes a transition from simple streamlined flow to a complex turbulent flow. The Nobel winners this year have handled such complex systems and developed tools to get meaningful, quantitative results out of them. Notable in this is the climate scientists’ work, which makes it obvious where science stands on the issue of global warming and estimates the human fingerprint on climate change. With the COP26 summit drawing close, the Nobel committee’s decision only underscores the need to take this into account.
3. Terror’s new turn: Targeted killings in Kashmir must be countered immediately to preserve socio-political gains
Terrorism in Kashmir appears to be entering a new phase with the recent spate of targeted killings throwing a fresh challenge to security forces. On Tuesday, Kashmiri Pandit businessman Makhan Lal Bindroo was shot dead in his pharmacy while a street food vendor from Bihar and the president of a taxi stand were also gunned down. Yesterday, terrorists stormed into a government school in Srinagar and shot dead the principal and a teacher who were from the Sikh and Hindu communities. Earlier in September, a probationary sub-inspector was shot point-blank by militants, although targeting of policemen in Kashmir isn’t new.
While there has been a perceptible decline in big-ticket terror attacks following New Delhi’s decision to nullify Article 370 in 2019 – thanks in large measure to a security grid that sees the army, CRPF and police forces coordinate effectively – terrorism is yet to be fully stamped out. On the contrary, the targeted killings signal that the terrorists are adapting to the new environment – which has largely been peaceful, defying expectations of massive unrest after the revocation of special status – and now intend using small hit squads to intimidate anyone that supports the new normal.
This new tactic is bound to have a chilling effect on Kashmiri civil society. In fact, there are parallels here with what was witnessed in Afghanistan after the US inked the Doha pact with Taliban. Afghan cities saw a significant rise in targeted killings with gunmen targeting women activists, social workers and journalists. The killings were Taliban’s way of sending across the message that the eliminated individuals did not have space in their incoming regime.
With Pakistan backing both Taliban and terrorists in Kashmir, the copying of terror tactics can’t be ruled out. Targeted killings are difficult to tackle given their decentralised nature – they also allow Pakistan to portray violence in Kashmir as local. To counter this, there needs to be a quantum leap in intelligence capabilities in Kashmir leading to quick neutralising of the militants. The terrorists want Kashmiri civilians to lose faith in the Indian state. The latter, therefore, must not fail the people.
4.Just cut it: High fuel taxes are squeezing household budgets when demand is weak
The price of a barrel of the Indian basket of crude oil breached the $80 mark this week. It’s risen by about 60% since June, when mobility began to increase after the second wave. The retail pump price of petrol has gone past Rs 100/litre mark, partly on account of rising crude price. The real hit however has come from the unusually high level of taxes.
On 1 October, the pump price of petrol in Delhi was Rs 101.95, of which taxes and commissions made up Rs 60.28. Fuel taxes have been an easy option for governments to shore up revenue during the pandemic. For GoI, revenue during 2020-21 from excise collections on fuel was Rs 3.44 lakh crore, higher by 74% year-on-year. This dependence on fuel taxes makes governments reluctant to lower them even when the economy’s aggregate demand is weak. The defence of high fuel taxes is that it goes into government spending on public goods. It’s an unconvincing reason. Fiscal policy is about designing a tax and spending package to influence economic growth. There are a multitude of taxes, and their rates should be in sync with the prevailing economic context.
The context is that aggregate demand is weak because households have lost spending power. To illustrate, India has had a loose monetary policy for two years even though inflation has been relatively high. The unusual situation prevails because demand is weak and supply shocks have led to price spikes. The worst hit by an economic contraction are the relatively poorer households. In a country where over 80 of 100 passenger vehicles sold are entry level two-wheelers, high fuel taxes can only squeeze them further in an already difficult situation. In volume terms, fuel consumption is relatively inelastic. Extra revenue from fuel taxes comes partly at the cost of GST as spending elsewhere has to be reined in. High fuel taxes in the current context have adverse distributional effects. GoI should take the lead and cut its excise duty. Some states have already shown the way.