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This year, International Migrants Day (observed annually on December 18) must be seen in the backdrop of unprecedented volatility that began in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Besides this infectious disease outbreak, there were events such as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, worsening poverty in the sub-Saharan region, and also climate change, resulting in large-scale migration.
According to the International Organization of Migration (IOM)’s World Migration Report 2022, there were 281 million international migrants globally in 2020, with nearly two-thirds being labour migrants. While there were 169 million labour migrants in 2019, the figure touched 164 million in 2020.
In the larger pool of migrants, South Asia’s share is nearly 40%; further, the South Asia-Gulf Migratory corridor is the world’s largest migrant corridor.
Long-term data on international migration show that “migration is not uniform across the world and is shaped by economic, geographic, demographic and other factors, resulting in distinct migration patterns, such as migration corridors developed over many years”.
Recently, there were the cases of around 300 Indian engineers from Tamil Nadu who were trafficked to Myanmar to work for a crypto-scam and nearly 20 Indian nurses trafficked to the United Arab Emirates for fake job offers. Both groups had migrated after a desperate “post COVID-19 job hunt”.
According to Kerala government data, some 1.7 million Keralites returned from abroad during the pandemic between June 2020 and June 2021; 1.5 million had suffered job losses. None of them had a proper plan to survive, and were staring at no jobs or self-employment opportunities in Kerala.
Unfortunately, despite India being the largest migrant-sending and remittance-receiving country, the welfare of Indian migrants abroad is hardly a priority for the Government and policymakers.
It is a matter of serious concern that India has yet to have a tangible and comprehensive migration policy to ensure decent living and safe movement of migrants.
Staying prepared (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Three years after strict enforcement of its Zero-COVID strategy, China abandoned it abruptly, leading to a jump in cases each day — an estimated 250 million people were infected in 20 days in December, according to the media, overwhelming hospitals and crematoria.
Based on 30 genome sequences deposited between October and December and 14 genome sequences in December alone from China, the BF.7 appears to be the dominant variant.
Though this variant was found in many countries, including India, months ago, there is fear that the uncontrolled spread of the virus in China may result in newer variants with an even higher transmissibility.
For instance, the BF.7 sub-lineage with three additional immune escape mutations already seen in other variants has been found in some people arriving from China; these mutations may increase transmissibility further but will not increase disease severity.
With a case surge in a few more countries, India has taken the right and proactive measures to be ready for any eventuality. With over 90% of the adult population already fully vaccinated by July this year, over one-fourth of adults also boosted, and a large percentage of the population also naturally infected, the chances of India witnessing large-scale deaths as seen during the second wave last year from existing variants are slim.
In fact, given that a large percentage of the population enjoys hybrid immunity from vaccination and natural infection leading to all Omicron sub-lineages causing only a mild disease, the focus in India should not be on daily new infections but only on any increase in hospitalisations, particularly ICU admissions.
It is, therefore, not surprising that the Health Ministry has urged States to only ramp up genome sequencing (and not increase testing) to track new variants as the virus evolves by accumulating mutations.
The pace of genome sequencing in India has to be scaled up soon after a dramatic slowdown this year. The Government in an effort to minimise the chances of the spread of new variants has introduced 2% random post-arrival sampling of international passengers and mandatory RT-PCR tests for arrivals from China and four other countries.
Opinion
Focus on Africa, the heart of the Global South (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
India, through the G20 presidency, intends to be remembered as the voice of the Global South at the heart of which is Africa. Most of the 54 countries of this continent are developing or least developed countries.
To truly represent the South, it is essential to grasp the mood and changes in Africa, especially in its external partnerships. This will determine the contribution India can make to advance the African agenda. In this context, the outcome of the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit needs a critical examination.
The second U.S.-Africa summit was held in Washington from December 13 to 15. The leaders of 49 countries and the chair of the African Union (AU) participated from Africa.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who is yet to visit the continent, played gracious host, discussing the political, security, and economic cooperation with his guests.
The leaders also deliberated on the ways to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and future pandemics, respond to the climate crisis, promote food security and deepen diasporic ties.
Mr. Biden declared that African voices, leadership and innovation are “all critical to addressing the most pressing global challenges” and realising the vision of a free, open, prosperous and secure world. The U.S. is “all in on Africa and all in with Africa,” he stressed.
Several important decisions were taken. First, the U.S. announced its support for the AU to join the G20 as a permanent member. Second, the U.S. said it “fully supports” reforming the UN Security Council (UNSC) to include permanent representation for Africa.
The first assurance is implementable immediately, provided the U.S. and India overcome likely resistance from the ASEAN and European Union. But the second is vague since UNSC reform is still far into the future.
Third, a promise for the president and the vice president to visit Africa next year was made. This will be a refreshing change as no U.S. president has been seen in Africa since 2015.
Summits with Africa are often judged by the quantum of funds external partners are willing to offer for economic development. The U.S. announced new investments and initiatives, including $21 billion to the International Monetary Fund to provide access to necessary financing for low-and middle-income countries, and $10 million for a pilot programme to boost the security capacity of its African partners.
Explainer
India’s bid to beat cervical cancer (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The government has announced that it will roll out vaccines for the prevention of cervical cancer to girls aged between 9 and 14 years through schools.
The National Technical Advisory Group for Immunisation (NTAGI) had recommended the introduction of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).
The UIP is one of the largest public health programmes which offers free vaccines for at least 12 diseases, and has successfully eradicated diseases like polio and maternal and neonatal tetanus.
Cervical cancer is preventable and curable if it is detected early and managed effectively. It is the second most common cancer in women in India, and the cause of a large number of deaths annually.
It is caused by infection with the human papillomavirus, and there are vaccines to protect against cancerous HPV. A recent study in The Lancet shows that India accounts for the highest number of cervical cancer cases in Asia, followed by China. more than 58% of all cases of cervical cancer and deaths globally were estimated in Asia with India accounting for 21% of cases and 23% of deaths, followed by China (18% and 17%).
According to the paper, globally, there were an estimated 6,04,127 cervical cancer cases in 2020, with an incidence rate of 13.3 new cases per 1,00,000 women a year. In India, the incidence rate is 18 per 1,00,000 women, and in 2019, according to The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, over 45,000 women died of the disease.
The WHO has specified that countries must reach and maintain an incidence rate of fewer than 4 new cases per 1,00,000 women a year by 2030.
To achieve that goal, one of the most important things required is that 90% of girls will have to be vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15.
The indigenous HPV vaccine, called CERVAVAC, is likely to be rolled out by mid-2023. The vaccine has got the approval of the Drugs Controller General of India and was cleared by the government advisory panel, NTAGI, for use in the UIP programme.
What is the CAG audit report on Assam’s NRC? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
A recent Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) report on the update exercise of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has flagged serious irregularities, including “haphazard development” of software for the exercise, making it prone to data tampering, and flagged undue profits worth crores amassed by the system integrator (SI) by violating the Minimum Wages Act.
The auditor flagged concerns in a compliance report of ‘logistical arrangements for NRC update project in Assam’ tabled in the Assam Assembly on December 24.
An NRC was first created in 1951 in Assam to identify those born in India and migrants from erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
In 2013, the Supreme Court issued directions to the Centre and State to initiate an exercise in Assam to update the 1951 register. The order was based on a petition filed by an NGO named Assam Public Works.
The first draft was released in 2018. The final list, published in 2019, included those who could establish their Indian citizenship by being residents or descendants of people living in Assam before March 25, 1971 — the cut-off date for deportation of foreigners as per the Assam Accord of August 1985.
As many as 19.06 lakh people out of 3.3 crore applicants were excluded due to a lack of adequate documents to prove their citizenship. Several parties dismissed the final list as “faulty”. Three years later, the process is on pause as the Registrar General of India (RGI) is yet to notify the final list.
At the time, the process to update the NRC was started in December 2014 with a deadline for completion in February 2015 and the project cost was pegged at ₹288.18 crore.
There was, however, a five-fold increase in the cost by March 2022 due to additional time to complete it and changes in the update software.
The final draft of the document was, however, published in August 2019 and the project cost escalated to Rs 1,602.66 crore (expenditure of Rs 1,579.78 crore was reported) mentioned the report.
It said that a test check of records revealed irregularities in the utilisation of funds including “excess and inadmissible payment to vendors.
News
Parliamentary panel pulls up govt. for failure to create Tourism Council (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Service Sector)
Merely drafting a National Tourism Policy is not enough for the development of the tourism sector in the country, a parliamentary committee has said.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture has suggested fast-tracking the creation of a National Tourism Council on the lines of the GST Council to directly make recommendations to the Union and the State governments.
Observing that “Vision without action is a daydream, and action without a vision is a nightmare”, the panel sought to know from the government the action taken for the creation of the Tourism Council after the inter-ministerial consultations.
The committee also sought to know the steps taken by the Tourism Ministry regarding its earlier recommendation of including tourism on the Concurrent List.
“Inclusion of tourism on the Concurrent List will help in simplifying the issues of the pandemic-hit Indian tourism sector since tourism is a multi-sectoral activity.
The Ministry should inform the committee whether any action has been taken on the long-standing recommendation.It also sought to know why some 20 States were yet to accord industry status to hospitality projects, and asked the Ministry whether anything in this regard has been conveyed by these States to the Centre.
As of now only eight States — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand — have accorded industry status to hospitality projects in their regions.
The committee also questioned the Centre over releasing a meagre ₹3.88 crore to Kerala for development of spiritual tourism as compared to ₹69.47 crore sanctioned.
It expressed concern that in projects sanctioned five years ago or before 2017-18, such as “Development at Hazratbal” in Jammu and Kashmir and “Infrastructure Development at Puri, Shree Jagannath Dham – Ramachandi – Prachi River front at Deuli under Mega Circuit” in Odisha, the progress rates achieved have been less than expected.
Business
Bank balance sheets see double-digit growth in FY22 after 7-year gap: RBI (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Fuelled by robust credit demand in FY22 as also in FY23 so far, the consolidated balance sheets of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) registered double-digit growth in FY22 after a gap of seven years, led by credit growth, which accelerated to a ten-year high in the first half of this fiscal, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Report on Trends and Progress of Banking in India 2021-22.
Commercial banks may have to raise deposit rates more to meet a surge in credit demand, the central bank added. RBI has raised rates aggressively this year to tame inflation. While banks have swiftly transmitted increases to lending rates, deposit rates have been laggards for most.
During [FY22], as credit growth picked up and deposit growth moderated, the incremental credit-deposit ratio reached a four-year high. Loans of Indian banks rose 17.5% in the two weeks to December 2 from a year earlier, while deposits rose 9.9%.
The Indian economy exhibited signs of a gradual strengthening of the growth momentum, drawing from macroeconomic fundamentals, the RBI said in the report. It added this had come amid an uncertain global environment caused by globalisation of inflation, energy and food shortages, and synchronised tightening of monetary policy worldwide.
The gross non-performing assets ratio of SCBs has been declining sequentially from its peak in 2017-18 to reach 5.8% at end-March 2022, led by lower slippages as well as reduction in outstanding GNPAs.