GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

In the first round of public hearings for the WHO’s first-ever pandemic treaty (currently underway), global leaders united and made recommendations on how to prevent future outbreaks from becoming global pandemics.

• The aim of the body is to “strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” by drafting a global treaty.
• Once finalised, it would be the first-ever pandemic treaty in the world.

Key-highlights of the recommendations

Suggestions range from accountability to more powers to developing countries to the insufficiency of the International Health Regulations (IHR) to deal with pandemics currently.

• Global Public Health Convention (GPHC) pushed for three other non-negotiable principles: Solidarity, transparency, and equity.
• It also suggested incentivising alerting any public health threat, making public health measures an obligation and sharing information, sequences and samples “rapidly and systematically” so everyone can benefit from it, essential.
• The G20 Health and Development Partnership (HDP) suggested creating a body similar to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for pandemic preparedness and health system resilience which would report annually to the British Parliament.

• The Geneva Global Health Hub released a report on the politics of a WHO pandemic treaty.
• It stated, “Whatever the route of the pandemic treaty, whatever the strategies for pandemic preparedness and response, it will not be possible for negotiators to side line how deeply unjust the international order is and to avoid positioning themselves vis á vis this conjuncture, worsened by COVID-19.”

International Health Regulations (IHR):

• Since IHR falls under Article 21 of the WHO’s Constitution, countries have to explicitly opt out if they wish to do so.
• The potential treaty will be formed under Article 19 under which countries have to explicitly opt in.
• To address issues of inequity, developed countries have to undertake some positive obligations, which mean they must be party to the treaty. But if they are not, inequity will persist even with a treaty.
• The IHR, in its ambit, already covers all kinds of public health emergencies of international concern which includes a pandemic.

Need of international collaboration

• The pandemic has highlighted dangerous fissures in the global health system.
• The IHR adopted in 2005 in the aftermath of the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, do provide a legal framework on how to proceed in such events.
• The Panel for a Global Public Health Convention (GPHC) — an independent coalition of global leaders working towards preventing infectious disease outbreaks from becoming pandemics — has stressed on the need for accountability in a report released recently.
• The report noted, “While we appreciate the complexity of negotiating a Convention, we also urge haste. With current systems, we are little better prepared now to face a new pandemic threat than we were two years ago”.

The World Health Assembly constituted an intergovernmental negotiating body in December 2021.

PM paid tributes to the great leader, former Tanzania President and friend of India, Mwalimu Nyerere on his 100th Birth Anniversary.

About Mwalimu Julius Nyerere:

• Julius Nyerere was born in March 1922. After working as a teacher, he was a founder member of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and became a strong voice in the struggle for independence of Tanganyika from Britain.
• After independence was gained, he became the first Prime Minister of Tanganyika from 1961 to 1962 and its first President from 1963 to 1964.
• When Tanzania was formed by the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, Nyerere became its first president, ruling from 1964 to 1985.
• Nyerere did create a one-party state and there have been accusations of economic mismanagement and detaining his opponents without trial.
• Despite these misgivings, his rule brought stability to the country after independence and his legacy is viewed favourably by most Tanzanians.
• He is often described as the "Father of the Nation" and Mwalimu, his honorific Swahili title means "Teacher", reflecting the regard in which is he was held.
• Ideologically, he promoted a political philosophy known as Ujamaa.

Philosophy of Ujamma:

• Swahili word ujamaa which means familyhood is the term chosen by Nyerere, with the cooperation of his nationalist party, Tanzania African National Union (TANU) to describe the kind of socialist society they aim to establish in Tanzania.
• Nyerere's philosophy of Ujamaa was rooted in traditional African values and had as its core the emphasis on familyhood and communalism of traditional African societies.
• At the same time, it was influenced by a mix of Fabian socialism and Catholic social teachings.
• Nyerere's ideas represented an attempt at fusing European concepts deriving from Kantian liberalism with the ethos derived from his more communitarian native African society.
• Nevertheless, Ujamaa was founded on a philosophy of development that was based on three essentials - freedom, equality and unity. The ideal society, Nyerere argued, must always be based on these three essentials:
  • According to him, there must be equality, because only on that basis will men work cooperatively.
  • There must be freedom, because the individual is not served by society unless it is his. And
  • There must be unity, because only when society is unified can its members live and work in peace, security and wellbeing.
• The uniqueness in Nyerere's concept of Ujamaa however, was the complete rejection of class struggle as the basis of his "African socialism".
  • For him, the foundation of African socialism is not the class struggle, but the traditional African institution of the extended family system.
  • It was as a result of his or her socialization in the family, not antagonistic class relations that the African acquired that attitude of mind, which ensured a predisposition towards socialism.

The Supreme Court has directed the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) not to exclude candidates suffering from colour blindness from its courses on film making and editing and asked it to make changes to its curriculum instead.

About Colour blindness:

• Colour blindness, also known as colour deficiency, is the inability to see colours in the normal way.
• Colour blind individuals often cannot distinguish between certain colours — usually greens and reds, and sometimes blues as well.
• Two types of cells in the retina detect light, the “rods”, which distinguish between light and dark, and the “cones” that detect colour.
  • There are three types of cones that see colour — red, green, and blue — and our brains use the information from these cells to perceive colour.
• Colour blindness can be the result of the absence of one or more of these cone cells, or their failure to work properly.
• In a situation where all three cone cells are present but one of them is malfunctioning, mild colour blindness may occur.
• Colour blindness may be of different kinds and degrees.
• In the most severe kind of colour blindness, vision is black-and-white, that is, everything appears as a shade of grey. This is not very common.
  

Causes colour blindness:

• Most colour blind people are born with the condition (congenital colour blindness), but some can develop it later in life.
  • Congenital colour vision deficiencies are usually passed on genetically.
• A problem with colour vision that arises later in life could be the result of disease, trauma, or ingested toxins.
• If colour blindness arises out of disease, one eye may be affected differently from the other, and the difficulty could worsen over time.
• Medical conditions that may increase the risk of getting colour blindness include glaucoma, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, alcoholism, leukaemia, and sickle-cell anaemia.

Impact:

• Colour blindness impairs in some ways the ability to do certain kinds of jobs, such as being a pilot or joining the armed forces.
  • However, whether you can or cannot do these jobs often depends on the severity of the colour blindness, and the rules in place in different jurisdictions.
• In June 2020, India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways amended the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 to enable citizens with mild to medium colour blindness to obtain a driver’s licence.
  • The decision was taken after the Ministry received representations that colour blind citizens are not able to get a driver’s licence because restrictions specified in the requirements in the declaration about physical fitness (Form I) or the Medical certificate (Form IA) make it difficult, a government release said.
  • The release noted that medical experts had recommended that mild to medium colour blind citizens should be allowed to drive, and that restrictions should be put only on the severely colour blind citizens.
  • This is also allowed in other parts of the world.

As the West imposes harsher sanctions on Russia in a bid to stop its invasion of Ukraine, India, one of Russia’s trade partners has been under pressure to reduce its oil imports, defence imports.

What is the Rupee-Rouble mechanism?

• The Rupee-Rouble trade arrangement is an alternative payment mechanism to settle dues in rupees instead of Dollars or Euros.
• The idea was first conceived in 1953 under the Indo-Soviet trade agreement.
• Under Article VI of the Indo-Soviet agreement:
  • All payments between India and the then Soviet Republic USSR may be made in Indian Rupees.
  • For this purpose the State Bank of the U.S.S.R. will maintain one or more accounts with one or more commercial banks in India authorised to deal in foreign exchange.
    • In addition, the State Bank of the USSR will, if that Bank considers necessary, maintain another account with the Reserve Bank of India.
  • All commercial transactions to be financed in Rupees will take place through the commercial bank accounts while the account with the Reserve Bank of India will be used only for replenishing the balances with the commercial banks when necessary
  • Payments made to and by Indian residents and USSR residents will be done only in those specified accounts by debiting/crediting.
  • The accounts will be replenished by
    • by transfer of funds from another account of the State Bank of the USSR with another commercial bank or with the Reserve Bank of India; or
    • by the sale of Sterling to the bank concerned
• The payments covered:
  • Commercial transactions and covering insurance, freight, port charges, storage and forwarding expenses and bunkering
  • Distribution of films
  • Technical assistance
  • Tours of commercial or cultural nature
  • Maintenance of Embassy of India in the USSR and of the Embassy and the Trade Representation of the U.S.S.R. in India
  • Other non-commercial payments agreed between Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of the USSR

Need of Reviving Rupee-Rouble Mechanism:

• Over 40 U.S. and European allies have imposed economic sanctions against Russian banks and entities amid the war in Ukraine.
• As per Bloomberg, Indian exporters are awaiting payments of about $500 million that have been delayed amid the sanctions.
• According to the Department of Commerce, India currently has imports worth Rs. 64,623 crore from Russia in 2021-22.
• Moreover, India’s exports to Russia are worth Rs 23,658 crores in 2021-22.
• In total, India-Russia trade is worth Rs 68.98 lakh crores — a mere 1.28% share of India’s trade figures.
• India’s trade deficit with Russia amounts to Rs 12.83 lakh crores, which include crude oil, defense trade.

India’s imports of oil and defence equipment

• India being a net importer of Russian goods has currently increased its import of Russian crude oil amid falling oil prices.
• According to Reuters, India bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian oil since the Ukraine war began, a steep rise from last year, when India bought 16 million barrels of Russian oil in all of 2021.
• Moreover, India is also awaiting the timely delivery of the S-400 air defence systems under a deal signed in 2018.
• The deal worth $5.43 billion faces looming U.S. sanctions under CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act.

Mahavir Jayanti, the birth anniversary of the 24th and the last Jain Tirthankar Bhagwan Mahavir is being celebrated across the country.

About Mahavir Jayanti:

• Mahavir Jayanti is considered to be one of the most auspicious events for the Jain community and holds a lot of importance in their religious life.
• Lord Mahavir was born on the thirteenth day of rising moon of Chaitra month, 599 B.C. in the state of Bihar, India.
• This day falls in the month of April as per English calendar.
• His birthday is celebrated as Mahavir Jayanti day.
• This festival is celebrated widely by the Jain community in memory of the last spiritual teacher of the religion.
• A procession is called with the idol of Lord Mahavira called the Rath Yatra.
• Reciting stavans or Jain prayers, statues of the lord are given a ceremonial bath called

Jain Philosophy:

• According to Jain philosophy, all Tirthankaras were human beings but they have attained a state of perfection or enlightenment through meditation and self-realization.
• They are the Gods of Jains. The concept of God as a creator, protector, and destroyer of the universe does not exist in Jainism.
• Also the idea of God's reincarnation as a human being to destroy the demons is not accepted in Jainism.

About Mahavir:

• Mahavir was a prince and was given the name Vardhaman by his parents.
• Being son of a king, he had many worldly pleasures, comforts, and services at his command.
• But at the age of thirty, he left his family and royal household, gave up his worldly possessions, and become a monk in search of a solution to eliminate pain, sorrow, and sufferings.
• Mahavir spent the next twelve and half years in deep silence and meditation to conquer his desires, feelings, and attachments.
• Mahavir spent the next thirty years travelling on bare foot around India preaching to the people the eternal truth he realized.
• The ultimate objective of his teaching is how one can attain total freedom from the cycle of birth, life, pain, misery, and death, and achieve the permanent blissful state of one's self.
• This is also known as liberation, nirvana, absolute freedom, or Moksha.

Teachings of Mahavir:

• Lord Mahavira taught renunciation and restraint, love and compassion and modesty and righteousness as the basis to lead a balanced human life.
• Mahavir preached that right faith (samyak darshana), right knowledge (samyak jnana), and right conduct (samyak charitra) together is the real path to attain the liberation from karmic matter of one's self.
• At the heart of right conduct for Jains lie the five great vows:

1. 1. Nonviolence (Ahimsa) - not to cause harm to any living beings
   2. Truthfulness (Satya) - to speak the harmless truth only
   3. Non-stealing (Asetya) - not to take anything not properly given
   4. Chastity (Brahmacharya) - not to indulge in sensual pleasure
   5. Non-possession/Non-attachment (Aparigraha) - complete detachment from people, places, and material things

• His philosophy of ‘Anekantavad’ signifies India’s civilizational values of plurality and tolerance.
• Lord Mahavir's sermons were orally compiled in Agam Sutras by his immediate disciples.
• These Agam Sutras were orally passed on to the future generations.
• In course of time many of the Agam Sutras have been lost, destroyed, and some are modified.
• About one thousand years later the Agam Sutras were recorded on Tadpatris (leafy paper that was used in those days to preserve records for future references).
• Swetambar Jains have accepted these Sutras as authentic versions of His teachings while Digambar Jains did not accepted as authentic.