GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

Recently, the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) has mentioned about the218.8% increase in budgetary allocation for schemes for the welfare and empowerment of women and even acknowledged that women in India face the “’motherhood penalty” with a drop-in female labour force participation rate around childbearing years.

About the move:

• As announced in the budgetary discussion, the central government is going to increase the gender budgeting up to5% of the GDP, in the financial year 2025.
• The step will enhance the stability of the women-led development model and increase fund allocation for Gender budgeting.

What is Gender Budgeting?

• Gender Budgeting is a powerful tool for achieving gender mainstreaming to ensure that the benefits of development reach women as much as men.
• The rationale for gender budgeting arises from recognition of the fact that national budgets impact men and women differently through the pattern of resource allocation.
• Women constitute 48% of India’s population
• , but they lag behind men on many social indicators like health, education, economic opportunities, etc. thus, gender budgeting is important.

Gender budgeting status in India:

• Gender Budget Statement was first introduced in Budget 2005-06. Various ministries and department provide information to finance ministry based on which Gender Budget Statement is prepared.
• This helps to monitor expenditure and public service delivery from a gender perspective, as a means of mainstreaming women’s concerns in all activities and improving their access to public resources.
• Also, it was instructed to all the ministries and departments, to open the Gender Budgeting Cell (GBC).

Issues with Gender Budgeting in India:

• India's gender Budget remains in the range of 4 - 6% of the total expenditure and less than 1% of its GDP. It also lacks fiscal marksmanship, which is the accuracy of budgetary forecasting.
• Around 90% of gender budgeting is concentrated in five ministries. When it comes to livelihood, MGNREGA is the biggest scheme in gender budgeting.
• Areas like transportation, water collection and water security remain ignored.
• The last Budget failed to address critical areas highlighted by the pandemic in 2021-22 and 2022-23, despite the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on women.

Measures to bring care economy in monetized economy

• Recognize unpaid Work: Recognizing the economic value of unpaid care work.
• Equal Pay for Equal Work: Irrespective of whether it falls under the care or monetized economy.
• Social Protection Measures: Implementing policies like paid parental leave, Work from home (WFH) culture, subsidized healthcare, and pensions, which support women in their dual roles as caregivers and workers.
• Supporting Women's Employment: Providing opportunities to participate in the formal labor force through skill development, training, education, and policies that enable work-family balance.
• Promoting Women's Entrepreneurship: Encouraging and supporting women to start and grow businesses, especially in sectors related to care services.Income-Generating Activities through Self-Help Groups.

The Economic survey has urged fora significant increase in social security expenditureon health, which was earlier estimated to grow from 5.7 per cent in FY15 to 9.3 per cent in FY20.

Primary Health Care(PHC) in India:

• Primary health care is the basic level of health care which includes programs focused on the elevation of health, the initial diagnosis of disease or ill health, and deterrence of illness.
• It involves the key healthcare structure which delivers the first level of interaction between the healthcare providers and the population. E.g., Sub Centres (SCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs).

Need for PHC:

According to the Rural Health Statistics report for 2021-22, there is an acute shortage of specialist doctors in rural areas of India, particularly at Community Health Centers (CHCs).

• Shortage of Specialists: The report reveals that nearly 80% of the required specialist doctors are unavailable at CHCs.

• Increase in Specialist Doctors: While the number of specialist doctors at CHCs has increased by 25% over the years, from 3,550 in 2005 to 4,485 in 2022, this growth has not been sufficient to meet the rising demand for specialists in rural areas.
• Lack of Female Health Workers: In addition to the shortage of specialist doctors, there is also a dearth of female health workers and auxiliary nursing midwives in primary health centers (PHCs) and sub-centers, with up to 14.4% of these positions remaining vacant.

Initiatives related to Primary Health Care Facilities:

• Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs):HWC are created under Ayushman Bharat Programme by converting the existing primary health centres and subcentres. They provide comprehensive primary health care (CPHC) including a child and maternal health services, non-communicable diseases, and also diagnostic services, and free essential drugs.
• Primary Health Centre (PHC): Under the National Health Mission (NHM), Primary Health Centre (PHC) are established to cover a population of 30,000 in rural areas and 20,000 in hilly, tribal and desert areas. PHCs are established to cover defined population.
• Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK): Thescheme is to benefit pregnant women and infant who access Government health facilities for their delivery and post-delivery care.

Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0:  It seeks to address the challenging situation of malnutrition among children up to the age of 6 years, adolescent girls (14-18 years) and pregnant and lactating women. The scheme is open to all eligible beneficiaries and the only pre-condition is that the beneficiary must be registered at the nearest Anganwadi centre with Aadhaar identification.

The Karnataka government’s recent intent to introduce legislation for the welfare of gig workers is a necessary step to overcome the challenges to boost gig-economy in India.

What is Gig Economy?

• As per the World Economic Forum (WEF), gig economy is defined by its focus on workforce participation and income generation via “gigs”, single projects or tasks for which a worker is hired.
• Gig economy includes all platformsthat hire independent workers across sectors like e-commerce, technology, food & beverages, home services among others.
• Gig workers are typically hired by companies on a contractual basisand are not considered employees. They do not receive some of the benefits that on-roll staffs do.
• Classification: Gig workers can be broadly classified into:
• Platform workers: Those whose work is based on online software apps or digital platforms such as food aggregator platforms Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, and others.
• Non-platform-based workers: Casual wage and own-account workers in conventional sectors, engaged part-time or full-time.

Benefits of Gig Economy:

• For Workers: Gig economy can provide more flexibility, autonomy, income opportunities, skill development, and inclusion.
• For Employers: It can enable access to a large and diverse pool of talent, lower fixed costs, higher scalability, and better customer satisfaction.
• For Customers: It can offer more choice, convenience, quality, and affordability.

Current trend in the Indian Economy-

• about 47% of gig work is in medium skilled jobs
• about 22% in high skilled
• about 31% in low skilled jobs

The trend shows the concentration of workers in medium skills is gradually declining and that of the low skilled and high skilled is increasing.

Expected trend:

• While in 2020-21, the gig workforce constituted 2.6% of the non-agricultural workforce or 1.5% of the total workforce in India, by 2029-30, gig workers are expected to form 6.7% of the non-agricultural workforce or 4.1% of the total livelihood workforce in India.

Why there is a need to regulate Gig- Economy?

• Due to non-permanent in nature: These jobs mainly have temporary contracts typically come with less protection, fewer benefits and pecuniary discounts.
• To bring gig-workers under Employment benefits protocol: The workers are mostly left out of the traditional social protection systems such as unemployment benefits, sick pay and pensions.
• Insurance and financial aids: Most transactions on the gig economy are done via the internet and as such they can be tracked. These companies do need to contribute to insurance and other social contributions.
• To reduce inequality of Income: Due to the increasingly complex supply chains and sub-contracting of gig jobs, make it hard to enforce protections. But without doing so we will not be able to combat the increasing levels of inequality.

Above 170 villages have been affected by the Godavari flood in the four mandals of Chintoor Agency in the Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) district in Andhra Pradesh mostly inhabited by Koya and Konda Reddi tribes.

About:

Koya Tribes:

• Koya tribe is a tribe found in the Papikonda hill range, near the Godavari and Sabari rivers in Andhra Pradesh.
• They are also found in Telangana where they are the second largest tribal community.
• The Koyas commonly refer to themselves as Dorala Sattam (Lords group) and Putta Dora (Original lords).
• Language: Telugu (Koyi)
• Religion:
  • Many Koya deities are female, the most important being the “mother earth “.
  • They also worship a number of Hindu gods Lord Bhima, Korra Rajulu, Mamili, and Potaraju.

Konda Reddi Tribes:

• Konda Reddis is a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group inhabiting the banks of the river Godavari and also in the hilly forest tracts of Godavari and Khammam districts of Andhra Pradesh.
• Their mother tongue is Telugu in its purest and chaste form, with a unique accent.
• Subdivisions:
• The Konda Reddy tribe is divided into exogamous septs for regulating matrimonial relations.
• Language:Like other Telugu-speaking people, their surnames are prefixed to individual names.
• Religion:
  • The primary religion practiced by the Konda Reddi is Folk Hinduism, characterized by local traditions and cults of local deities worshiped at the community level.

Recently, the State-owned Coal India has mentioned that it is going to bag the first critical mineral asset, a graphite block, in Madhya Pradesh.

About the move:

• Objective:
• Green energy transitions: Owning a graphite asset will give Coal India an advantage in powering green energy transition momentum to an extent.
• Towards self-reliance: With the electric vehicle market and energy storage systems fast gaining traction, where lithium-ion cells are used, graphite has a big market.

India’s import dependence on Critical Minerals:

• The country imports about 69 percent of its graphite needs - natural, synthetic, and end-use products.
• Graphite has its utility as an anode material in lithium-ion battery manufacturing due to its relatively low cost and energy density.

The Economic Survey 2023-24 indicated limited progress on safety-related works such as the deployment of the automatic train protection system Kavach and overhaul of signaling systems at all stations.

About the Kavach system:

• Kavach, an automatic train protection (ATP) system, developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian industry.
• It is a state-of-the-art electronic system with Safety Integrity Level-4 (SIL-4) standards.
• It is meant to protect by preventing trains to pass the signal at Red (which marks danger) and avoid collision.
• It activates the train’s braking system automatically if the driver fails to control the train as per speed restrictions.
• In addition, it prevents the collision between two locomotives equipped with functional Kavach systems. The system also relays SoS messages during emergencies.
  • SoS means, a call or request for help or rescue.

Current deployment:

• It has been deployed on 1,465 route km in the South-Central Railway, the Survey states.
  • This is just 2.14% of the total railway network of 68,426 route km and 7,349 railway stations.

The Recent software glitch caused global service outages, highlighted technology dependence and the need for robust failsafes and digital infrastructure resilience.

Impact of Software Glitch

• Global Blackout: A common software glitch caused simultaneous outages in supermarkets, banks, hospitals, and airports impacting worldwide interconnected communication networks.The glitch served as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities within the technological infrastructure, particularly in sectors that compete in the global market but adopt new technologies in a fragmented manner.
• Sectoral Disparities: Sectors like airlines can face monetary losses, while healthcare and power facilities facecritical disruptions.
• Importance of Failsafes: States must ensure digital infrastructure is shock-proof, accounting for social and economic interlinks.Emphasizes the need for failsafes and emergency protocols in technology-dependent sectors.Focus must be on the significance of network interconnections and the implementation of life-saving redundancies.

Digital Infrastructure and Governance

• 'Digital India' Push: Advocates for a 'Digital India' initiative aware of software privacy and data sovereignty.This initiative should recognize the importance of software privacy, data sovereignty, and the challenges posed by income inequality and political marginalization.
• Open-Source Software: Suggests open-source software and integrity testing to restore public trust in electronic systems.The state has a duty to develop and maintain a resilient democratic digital infrastructure that can withstand such shocks.
• Multi-Vendor Policies: Recommends moving away from single-vendor policies to maintain essential service links during outages.Theseoutages present an opportunity to reassess and improve the software solutions used by public sector institutions, incorporating redundancies and moving away from single-vendor dependencies to maintain essential service links during network-level outages.

Mains Question

Q. Discuss the implications of software glitches on global service sectors. How can governmentensure a resilient and shock-proof digital ecosystem? Illustrate with examples.

The Economic Survey 2023-24, an annual document by the Indian finance ministry, offers a realistic and detailed assessment of India's economic status, recovery post-pandemic, and the challenges ahead. It highlights the need for increased private sector investment, significant job creation, and overcoming external geopolitical and technological challenges to achieve sustained growth.

Economic Survey Highlights

• Assessment:The Economic Survey 2023-24 objectively evaluates India's economic state and growth prospects, noting a paradox where corporate profits and rising bank interest margins coexist with subdued private investment and limited productive employment growth.
• Paradox of Growth: Public sector investment has been driving capital formation, but there's a need for increased private sector investment in machinery and intellectual property.
• Public vs. Private Investment: Existing schemes like PLI and Mudra are inadequate for large-scale employment generation, and about half of college graduates are considered employable, highlighting a severe skill mismatch.

External Challenges and Policy Implementation

• Growth overestimation: India's journey to become Viksit Bharat by 2047 is fraught with geopolitical challenges, climate change, and AI advancements, which create barriers to sustained high growth rates.
• Insufficient Schemes: Achieving this goal requires a grand alliance between the Union and state governments and the private sector. While the Survey suggests various policy measures to address these issues, their effective implementation in the Union Budget remains uncertain.
• Skill Mismatch: India faces significant employment challenges, requiring 78.5 lakh non-farm jobs annually to absorb new labour market entrants and those leaving agriculture.

Mains Question:

Q. Discuss the key insights from the Economic Survey 2023-24 regarding India's economic growth, employment challenges, and external factors. How can the suggested policy measures be effectively implemented to achieve Viksit Bharat by 2047?

India's trade performance in tradehighlights the growth in exports and imports, the challenges of the trade and oil deficits, and the need for stable export policies to capitalize on global trade opportunities.

Trade Performance Highlights

• Goods Exports Growth: India’s goods exports grew 2.55% in June 2024, reaching 35.2 billion dollars, marking the third consecutive month of growth.
• Rising Imports: Imports increased by 5% to $56.2 billion, down from May’s peak of nearly $62 billion.
• Trade Deficit Concerns: The trade deficit rose 9.4% year-on-year but cooled slightly from the previous month.

Oil and Precious Metals Trade

• Oil Deficit Issues: The oil deficit, a significant concern, narrowed to $10 billion from May’s $13 billion record.
• Gold and Silver Imports: Gold imports fell by 38.7%, while silver imports surged 377% in June.
• Gems and Jewellery Exports: Exports in the gems and jewellery sector contracted for the seventh consecutive month in June.

Policy Focus and Recommendations

• Domestic Demand Recovery: Non-oil and non-gold imports rose 3% this year, with a 7% growth in June, indicating recovering domestic demand.
• Boosting Exports: Trade policy should focus on boosting exports rather than just checking the deficit, as 19 of 30 top export sectors grew.
• Stable Export Policies: The Centre should ensure stable policies, including adequate support for duty remission and interest equalisation schemes.

Mains Question:

Q.Examine India's trade performance and the challenges posed by the trade and oil deficits. Discuss the policy measures needed to boost exports and ensure stable trade policies for sustainable growth.