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.For centralized vaccine procurement
From May 1, the country’s entire adult population of approximately 900 million will be eligible for the Covid vaccine. This calls for, one, increasing vaccine supplies manifold, from the current level of 70 million doses a month, and, two, delivery of the vaccine in a manner calibrated to have maximum impact on the pandemic. Even with imports and authorisation and production of new vaccines, without conscious policy to increase production capacity for vaccines and their ingredients, India will be unable to either vaccinate its own people or meet its export commitments, which are not just a commercial opportunity but also a moral obligation, given India’s entrenched position as the world’s largest producer of vaccines. For rational allocation of vaccines, the Centre needs to take back the role of procuring and allocating vaccines among the states.
Rather than scramble to beat other states and private hospitals to the available supply of vaccines, states must focus on proper and efficient delivery, minimising wastage of vaccines and ensuring that priority target groups receive their jabs. Careful planning of vaccine allocation is critical. Therefore, the central government must resume this role, allocating to states based on transparent parameters such as the size of the vulnerable population and current need, based on pandemic levels and likely spread. Vaccine wastage must be penalised, however. The Centre should consider creating, if necessary, a priority order within the 18-44 years cohort. Together with state governments, it must step up efforts to increase vaccination rates among the different age cohorts, particularly the priority groups such as healthcare and frontline workers. It is worth considering if retail industry staff who interface with consumers should be deemed a priority category. Someone staffing a milk booth or handing out grocery interacts with a whole lot of people, even in a lockdown.
Centralized procurement of vaccines and priority-wise allocation to states would be the sensible way to proceed.
2. From coal to gas for low-carbon shift
India’s energy security gets a boost, with the Union Cabinet’s nod last week for the coal-gasification urea plant at Talcher, Odisha. It would boost domestic output of plant nutrients and reduce fertiliser imports in the process, by gainfully leveraging our large coal reserves. The project would also be a boost for the Make in India ‘Aatmanirbhar’ initiative.
The lack of gas feedstock has significantly raised urea imports lately in the backdrop of declining domestic production. The Talcher urea plant would induct technology for negligible discharge of SOx, NOx and particulate matter. Successful coal gasification at Talcher would enable technology diffusion elsewhere, such as Korba in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. India is aiming to step up gas usage in its energy mix from a lowly, 6%-odd today, to 15% by 2030. Meanwhile, ONGC and RIL-BP have recently announced plans to raise gas output from the Krishna-Godavari basin by 52% to 122 million standard cubic meters (mmscmd) per day by 2024. Natural gas is the cleanest and most efficient fossil fuel, and we do need to shore up domestic gas output, including by tapping biogas in bio-converters. However, drilling and extraction of natural gas from wells and its transportation in pipelines cause leakage of methane, with far stronger heat-trapping potential than carbon dioxide, in fact, as much as 86 times stronger over a 20-year period. Methane leakage should be curbed.
Use of gas as an intermediate step towards a low-carbon economy also runs the risk of locking into a hydrocarbon for long enough to recoup the investment made. However, gasifying coal is imperative for coal-rich India, to cut down hydrocarbon imports and move towards hydrogen, produced from gas, preferably using clean energy.
3. Don’t fail the young: Vaccine supply will be tight for a while. Centre should help with imports
A bit of vaccine hesitancy that was apparent in the early stages may soon be a thing of the past. In just a few hours after vaccine registration opened for the 18-45 age group, around 12.3 million signed up. To put this in context, the same day only 2.1 million vaccine doses were administered and about 150 million in all since the exercise began mid-January. India is now looking at a surge in demand because the 18-45 age group is a large demographic and the second wave has added incentive.
The challenge in the days ahead will be that of supply. Over recent weeks, the daily administered doses have been falling and many centres often run out of stock. On April 5, 4.3 million doses were administered. On April 28, they had dropped by 50%. Additions to domestic manufacturing capacity are underway but these will take at least three months to come on stream. Therefore, while the window is open from May 1 for the 18-45 age group, there’s unlikely to be much activity there.
The Maharashtra government has already said that it may take a month before they can start vaccinating this demographic. Many of the other states have promised free vaccinations but there is no clarity on when there will be a full-fledged rollout. Limitations in the domestic supply can be supplemented by states through imports. There are however constraints here. States are in the frontline of dealing with the current surge in Covid-19 cases and not really equipped to deal with the additional burden of contracting with overseas manufacturers. Also, the global supply situation is tightening as the fear of virus variants is increasing the likelihood of countries resorting to booster shots.
The UK, for example, has purchased an additional 60 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine to be ready for the possibility that booster shots may be needed by autumn. Given this backdrop, one way to ease India’s supply constraint is for the Centre to undertake imports on behalf of states. There are advantages here. A larger order will provide the government with leverage in negotiations over price and quantity. Moreover, the Centre is better equipped than many of the smaller states to deal with international contracts. The priority is to ramp up supply using the most effective means possible. That’s the only way to rein in the human and economic cost of Covid-19.
4. Give NGOs wings: They are providing invaluable Covid relief despite FCRA chains
A crisis so immense is afoot that governments at all levels in India seem to have abandoned lakhs of citizens who need emergency medical attention. Answering the distress calls emanating from society, it is NGOs and private enterprises that are delivering a significant chunk of the emergency services like oxygen cylinders, ambulances, food kitchens and plasma, day and night. The NGO response isn’t surprising: They have a track record of decades of work in healthcare, education, social upliftment, food security and charity in areas poorly serviced by governments.
Reports that Union home ministry is considering relaxations in last year’s unwarranted amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act suggest that Centre has recognised the utility of allowing NGOs to tap foreign aid at this critical juncture. Passed despite the pandemic, the amendments were also poorly timed. Foreign aid was being constricted even as the economic crunch at home denied NGOs avenues to tap domestic donors. Provisions requiring NGOs to meet administrative expenses with just 20% of the foreign contributions, curbs on seeding money to smaller NGOs, and greater compliance costs severely impacted their viability.
An immediate fallout was that many NGOs were forced to let go of thousands of social workers on their rolls, many with skills that would have helped local communities in the present crisis. Meanwhile, good sense is evident in the quiet policy shift after 16 years towards accepting aid in cash and kind from foreign nations and allowing state governments to also receive donations. A crisis of this magnitude has never befallen India since Partition and the damage could be long lasting. FCRA curbs that prevent NGOs from mobilising more resources for local communities may be endangering more lives and livelihoods. Treat them as partners in Covid relief, help NGOs help people.
5. Dealing with active Covid-19 cases | HT Editorial
On Wednesday, active cases of Covid-19 in India crossed the three million mark for the first time, adding to the burden on what is an already creaky health care infrastructure. Active cases – those Covid-19 patients still carrying the virus, and thus under treatment – is a crucial metric because it directly reflects the pressure on a region’s health care infrastructure. The metric is even more crucial in the current circumstances as resources and health personnel are over-stretched. The most worrying factor remains how fast active cases are continuing to grow. For the week ending Wednesday, India has on average added over 113,000 active infections every single day. At this rate, India is staring at four million active cases by the first week of May, and this number is likely to approach five million in the third week of May, by which time the country’s trajectory is expected to peak.
Handling such a volume can be debilitating for any country, leave alone one like India that has a shortage of resources. In terms of this, management of life-saving resources such as hospital beds, medicines, oxygen, ventilators, even ambulances is becoming the difference between life and death for thousands of people. On Wednesday, a record 3,643 people lost their lives to the disease in India. We may never know how many of those died from the disease and how many lives were lost because hospitals, doctors and families were unable to procure life-saving resources. This level of fatalities can be prevented provided two things are done: First, administrations create stockpiles of these resources when Covid waves are waning; second, administrations can improve on-ground coordination for better management so that available resources are present when and where needed.