GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

The deteriorating condition of public health centres in India, often described as emblematic of the country's failing healthcare system, has garnered attention due to a recent paper challenging this narrative. The paper highlights the ongoing struggles faced by these centres while also acknowledging signs of improvement and potential for redemption.

1: Dimension- Role of Health Centres in India's Healthcare System:

• Backbone: Health centres form the backbone of India's public healthcare system, providing essential primary care services across the country.
• Accessible and affordable healthcare: Comprising sub-centres, public health centres (PHCs), and community health centres (CHCs), these facilities aim to offer accessible and affordable healthcare, particularly in rural areas.

2: Dimension- Challenges Faced and Implications for Healthcare Equity:

• Ineffectiveness: Despite their vast number, reports indicate that less than 20% of these centres operate effectively, leading many underserved communities to rely on costly private healthcare services.
• Burden on patients: The prevalence of inadequate health centres contributes to significant health and financial burdens on patients, with nearly half of health expenditures in India still borne by individuals.

Study Overview and Scope:

Researchers examined 241 health centres across - Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan, with Himachal Pradesh noted as a longstanding leader in healthcare provision.

• Positive improvements: Contrary to common perceptions, the study found evidence of functionality across public health centres, indicating consistent operational hours, patient treatment, basic facilities, and largely free healthcare services, particularly notable in states other than Bihar.
• The flip side: The study highlights modest improvements in health centres, with ongoing challenges such as staff absenteeism, limited services, and poor-quality care, particularly evident in Bihar.
  • Neglected issues include insufficient staff, funding irregularities, inadequate facilities, and social discrimination based on caste, class, gender, and religion.
  • Investment in healthcare increased, but the “improvements are patchy” and allocations prioritise material development in tertiary healthcare.
• What changed between 2002 and 2022? The share of health expenditure in the Union Budget increased drastically, coupled with the introduction of the National Rural Health Mission. India’s flagship Ayushmann Bharat programme, launched with the vision of achieving universal health coverage, in 2018 introduced a health insurance component (PMJAY) and a public provision component through health and wellness centres (HWCs). Top of Form

Expanding and enhancing the functionality of health centres could serve as a pivotal solution to address social and health disparities, offering localized and more effective healthcare delivery compared to larger hospitals or private facilities.

Bloomberg announced including Indian government securities called “Fully Accessible Route (FAR) bonds” in the Bloomberg Emerging Market (EM) Local Currency Government Index and related indices, to be phased in over a ten-month period, starting January 31, 2025. 

1: Dimension- Impact of index inclusion

• The weighting of FAR bonds will be increased in increments of 10 per cent of their full market value every month over the 10-month period ending in October 2025, when they will be weighted at their full market value in the indices.
• Within the market cap weighted version of the index, India is expected to be the largest country after China and South Korea.
• The inclusion could attract billions of dollars of foreign investment in the Indian government securities (G-Sec) market.
• Bloomberg Indices will create an ex-India version of the EM Local Currency Government Index and other standard and custom versions of the index.
• This is an important marker in the development of India’s financial markets and a reflection of India’s growing importance to the global economy.

2: Dimension- Scope for inclusion

• Indices in scope for inclusion include the:
  • Bloomberg EM Local Currency Government Index
  • Bloomberg EM Local Currency Government Index
  • 10 per cent Country Capped Index
  • all related sub-indices
• India will continue to be excluded from the Bloomberg Global Aggregate and related indices.
• FAR is a separate channel introduced by the RBI, in consultation with the Government, for non-resident investment in G-Secs with effect from April 1, 2020.
• The eligible investors can invest in specified Government securities without any investment ceilings.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in addressing the climate crisis poses a paradox: while AI holds promise for solving environmental challenges, the energy demands of AI models contribute to carbon emissions, particularly through the infrastructure supporting data centers.

1: Dimension: Scope of the problem

• Source of emission: The emissions come from the infrastructure associated with AI, such as building and running the data centres that handle the large amounts of information required to sustain these systems.
  • To put things in perspective, training GPT-3 (the precursor AI system to the current ChatGPT) generated 502 metric tonnes of carbon, which is equivalent to driving 112 petrol powered cars for a year.
  • GPT-3 further emits 8.4 tonnes of CO? annually due to inference. 

2: Dimension- Technological approach to reduce emission

• Different technological approaches to build AI systems could help reduce its carbon footprint. Two technologies in particular hold promise for doing this: spiking neural networks and lifelong learning.
• Spiking neural networks (SNNs) and lifelong learning (L2), have the potential to lower AI’s ever-increasing carbon footprint, with SNNs acting as an energy-efficient alternative to Artificial neural networks (ANN).
  • Artificial neural networks (ANNs), which learn patterns from data to make predictions, require significant computing power due to their reliance on decimal numbers, leading to increased energy consumption as networks grow larger and more complex, mirroring the brain's structure with billions of interconnected neurons.
• L2 is a set of algorithms aimed at minimizing forgetting in sequentially trained artificial neural networks (ANNs), allowing models to learn new tasks without losing previous knowledge, thereby reducing the need for energy-intensive retraining from scratch.
• Advances in quantum computing could revolutionize training and inference processes in ANNs and SNNs, potentially offering energy-efficient solutions for AI on a much larger scale

MethaneSAT — a satellite to track and measure methane emissions at a global scale — was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket.

1: Dimension- Methane’s role in global warming

• Methane is an invisible but strong greenhouse gas, and the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, responsible for 30 per cent of global heating since the Industrial Revolution. Over a period of 20 years, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.
• The gas also contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone — a colourless and highly irritating gas that forms just above the Earth’s surface.
  • According to a 2022 report, exposure to ground-level ozone could be contributing to one million premature deaths every year.
• Therefore, it is crucial to cut methane emissions. And the main culprit: fossil fuel operations, which account for about 40 per cent of all human-caused methane emissions. The objective of MethaneSAT is to help achieve this goal.

2: Dimension- Role of MethaneSAT is filling critical data gaps

• Essentially, MethaneSAT will orbit the Earth 15 times a day, monitoring the oil and gas sector.
• It will create a large amount of data, which will tell “how much methane is coming from where, who’s responsible, and are those emissions going up or down over time”.
• The data is to be available public for free in near real-time to allow stakeholders and regulators to take action to reduce methane emissions.
• Equipped with a high-resolution infrared sensor and a spectrometer, MethaneSAT will fill critical data gaps.
• It can track differences in methane concentrations as small as three parts per billion in the atmosphere, which enables it to pick up smaller emissions sources than the previous satellites.
• MethaneSAT also has a wide-camera view — of about 200 km by 200 km — allowing it to identify larger emitters so-called “super emitters”.

3: Dimension- Why is MethaneSAT significant?

• The launch of MethaneSAT has come at a moment when the world is implementing more stringent methane management policies.
• More than 150 countries signed the Global Methane Pledge in 2021,to cut their collective methane emissions by at least 30 per cent from 2020 levels by 2030.
• At last year’s COP, more than 50 companies committed to virtually eliminating methane emissions and routine flaring. MethaneSAT will help them meet these targets.

In the backdrop of protests across Ladakh, the Centre is mulling granting Article 371-like protection to the Union Territory.

What is Article 371?

• Articles 371, 371A, 371B, 371C, 371D, 371E, 371F, 371G, 371H, and 371J define special provisions with regard to another state (or states).
  • Article 371, Maharashtra and Gujarat
  • Article 371A (13th Amendment Act, 1962), Nagaland
  • Article 371B (22nd Amendment Act, 1969), Assam
  • Article 371C (27th Amendment Act, 1971), Manipur
  • Article 371D (32nd Amendment Act, 1973; substituted by The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
  • Article 371E
  • Article 371F (36th Amendment Act, 1975), Sikkim
  • Article 371G (53rd Amendment Act, 1986), Mizoram
  • Article 371H (55th Amendment Act, 1986), Arunachal Pradesh
  • Article 371J (98th Amendment Act, 2012), Karnataka

Role of Special status

The main objectives behind the Article 371 granting special provisions to some states are to meet the unique needs of the backward regions of these states, protect the economic and cultural interests of these regions, combat the local challenges and protect the customary laws in these regions.

India's unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years or above declined to 3.1 per cent in 2023, the lowest in the last three years, as per a report by the National Sample Survey Organisation under the statistics ministry.  The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for the calendar year 2023 indicates a positive trend, showcasing a decline from 3.6% in 2022 and 4.2% in 2021.

Key-highlights of the Data

• The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for the calendar year 2023 shows the unemployment rate came down to 3.1 per cent in 2023 from 3.6 per cent in 2022 and 4.2 per cent in 2021.
• The employment situation is improving after the Covid pandemic hit the country.
• Gender-wise data:
  • For females, the unemployment rate declined to 3 per cent in 2023 from 3.3 per cent in 2022 and 3.4 per cent in 2021.
  • For males, it came down to 3.2 per cent in 2023 from 3.7 per cent in 2022 and 4.5 per cent in 2021.
• Region-wise data
  • In Urban areas: The overall rate of unemployment also declined to 5.2 per cent in 2023 from 5.7 per cent in 2022 and 6.5 per cent 2021.
  • In rural areas: It came down to 2.4 per cent in 2023 from 2.8 per cent in 2022 and 3.3 per cent in 2021.
• Labour force participation rate (LFPR) in Current Weekly Status (CWS) in urban areas for people aged 15 years and above increased to 56.2 per cent in 2023 from 52.8 per cent in 2022 and 51.8 per cent in 2021.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India's first-ever underwater metro route in Kolkata, a landmark project showcasing the nation's stride towards infrastructure development.

• The underwater service is part of the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section of Kolkata Metro's East-West corridor, which will cover a distance of 16.6 km under the Hooghly river.
• The metro service will connect Howrah and Salt Lake -- the West Bengal state capital's twin cities. Three out of six stations will be underground.
• It is expected to zoom through a 520-meter stretch under the Hooghly in just 45 seconds.

The Indian Navy commissioned a new naval base, INS Jatayu, in the Minicoy Islands of Lakshadweep. 

• INS Jatayu is India’s forward operating naval base in the Arabian Sea, acting as India’s sentinel and a primary responder to the escalating threats. 
• INS Jatayu is India’s second naval base in Lakshadweep after INS Dweeprakshak in Kavaratti.
• Other key forward-operating bases and radar stations in Lakshadweep include INS Androth, INS Bitra, and INS Minicoy.
  • Minicoy Islands is the southernmost island of Lakshadweep, about 215 nautical miles southwest of Kochi, which straddles the vital Sea Lines of Communications (SLOCs).