DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ARTICLES
27th OCTOBER 2021
GS 3 - Disaster Management
DAM SAFETY
Why in the News ?
Governor of Tamil Nadu, R.N. Ravi, has sought details on the functioning of various
departments and presentations on the implementation of welfare schemes
1.Background
● Dams are artificial barriers on rivers which store water and help in irrigation, power
generation, flood moderation, and water supply.
● In India, dams higher than 15 m or between 10 m and 15 m height that fulfil certain
additional design conditions are called large dams.
● As of June 2019, India has 5,745 large dams (includes dams under construction). Of
these, 5,675 large dams are operated by states, 40 by central public sector
undertakings, and five by private agencies.
● Over 75% of these dams are more than 20 years old and about 220 dams are more
than 100 years old.
● Most of these large dams are in Maharashtra (2394), Madhya Pradesh (906), and
Gujarat (632).
● As a large amount of water may be stored in a dam’s reservoir, its failure can cause
large scale damage to life and property.
● Therefore, monitoring dam safety is essential.
● The Central Dam Safety Organisation, under the Central Water Commission (CWC),
provides technical assistance to dam owners, and maintains data on dams.
● The National Committee on Dam Safety devices dam safety policies and regulations.
● Currently, 18 states and four dam owning organisations have their own Dam Safety
Organisations.
● CWC provides that each dam owner should carry out pre and post monsoon
inspections (covering site conditions, dam operations) every year.
● However, as per a CAG report on flood forecasting, from 2008 to 2016, of the 17
states studied, only two had carried out such inspections.
● A CWC Committee on Dam Safety (1986) had recommended unified safety
procedures for all dams and suggested a legislative framework for dam safety.
UPSC ICONIC SUBSCRIPTION Let us know your thoughts on this content here
● In 2007, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal passed resolutions requesting Parliament
to make a law on dam safety.
● Consequently, the Dam Safety Bill, 2010 was introduced in Lok Sabha under Article
252 (which allows Parliament to make laws on state subjects which will apply to
those states that pass a resolution requiring such law).
● The 2010 Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
● The Dam Safety Bill, 2019 was introduced and passed by Lok Sabha in 2019.
2.Dam Safety Bill 2019
● The Bill provides for the surveillance, inspection, operation, and maintenance of all
specified dams across the country.
● These are dams with height more than 15 metres, or height between 10 metres to 15
metres with certain design and structural conditions.
● It constitutes two national bodies: the National Committee on Dam Safety, whose
functions include evolving policies and recommending regulations regarding dam
safety standards; and the National Dam Safety Authority, whose functions include
implementing policies of the National Committee, providing technical assistance to
State Dam Safety Organisations (SDSOs), and resolving matters between SDSOs of
states or between a SDSO and any dam owner in that state.
● It also constitutes two state bodies: State Committee on Dam Safety, and State
Dam Safety Organisation.
● These bodies will be responsible for the surveillance, inspection, and monitoring the
operation and maintenance of dams within their jurisdiction.
● Functions of the national bodies and the State Committees on Dam Safety have
been provided in Schedules to the Bill.
● These Schedules can be amended by a government notification.
● An offence under the Bill can lead to imprisonment of up to two years, or a fine, or
both.
3.Controvercy on large dams
● Dam reservoirs cause water losses.
● This is believed as mainly a result of the considerable amount of evaporation losses
from the huge sizes of surface areas of reservoirs.
● Large dams are generally justified by regional and/or national macro-economic
benefits while their physical impacts are locally concentrated, mostly affecting
those within the confines of the river valley and along the river reaches.
UPSC ICONIC SUBSCRIPTION Let us know your thoughts on this content here
● The livelihoods of many millions of people also suffer because of the downstream
effects of dams: the loss of fisheries, contaminated water, decreased amount of
water, and a reduction in the fertility of farmlands and forests due to the loss of
natural fertilizers and irrigation in seasonal floods.
● Dams also spread waterborne diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis and
schistosomiasis.
● According to the study conducted dams can stop regular annual floods but often
fail to hold back exceptionally large floods. Eg- Recent floods in kerala
● Because dams lead people to believe that floods are controlled, they lead to
increased development of floodplains.
● When a large flood does come, damages caused are often greater than they would
have been without the dam.
● Some scientists do not consider hydropower as clean power because of the
destruction of river ecosystems and its many social impacts.
● Internationally, private investors in power projects are largely avoiding large dams
and prefer to invest in cheaper and less risky gas-fired power plants, solar and wind
mills.
Newslink- The Hindu
GS 2 - Government policies and intervention.
PRADHAN MANTRI JAN AROGYA KENDRA
Why in the News?
The Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission aims to build a robust public health
infrastructure.
1.Background
● Ayushman Bharat, a flagship scheme of Government of India, was launched as
recommended by the National Health Policy 2017, to achieve the vision of Universal
Health Coverage (UHC).
● This initiative has been designed to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and its underlying commitment, which is to "leave no one behind."
● Ayushman Bharat is an attempt to move from a sectoral and segmented approach
of health service delivery to a comprehensive need-based health care service.
● This scheme aims to undertake path breaking interventions to holistically address
the healthcare system (covering prevention, promotion and ambulatory care) at the
primary, secondary and tertiary level.
● Ayushman Bharat adopts a continuum of care approach, comprising of two
interrelated components, which are ○ Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) ○
Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)
UPSC ICONIC SUBSCRIPTION Let us know your thoughts on this content here
2.Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs)
● In 2018, the Government of India announced the creation of 1,50,000 Health and
Wellness Centres (HWCs) by transforming the existing Sub Centres and Primary
Health Centres.
● These centres are to deliver Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) bringing
healthcare closer to the homes of people.
● They cover both, maternal and child health services and non-communicable
diseases, including free essential drugs and diagnostic services.
● Health and Wellness Centers are envisaged to deliver an expanded range of services
to address the primary health care needs of the entire population in their area,
expanding access, universality and equity close to the community.
● The emphasis of health promotion and prevention is designed to bring focus on
keeping people healthy by engaging and empowering individuals and communities to
choose healthy behaviours and make changes that reduce the risk of developing
chronic diseases and morbidities.
3.Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)
● The second component under Ayushman Bharat is the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya
Yojna or PM-JAY as it is popularly known.
● Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY is the largest health assurance scheme in the world
which aims at providing a health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for
secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 10.74 crores poor and vulnerable
families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) that form the bottom 40% of the
Indian population.
● The households included are based on the deprivation and occupational criteria of
Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 (SECC 2011) for rural and urban areas
respectively. PM-JAY was earlier known as the National Health Protection Scheme
(NHPS) before being rechristened.
● It subsumed the then existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) which had
been launched in 2008.
● The coverage mentioned under PM-JAY, therefore, also includes families that were
covered in RSBY but are not present in the SECC 2011 database.
● PM-JAY is fully funded by the Government and cost of implementation is shared
between the Central and State Governments.
4. Key Features of PM-JAY
● PM-JAY is the world’s largest health insurance/ assurance scheme fully financed by
the government.
● It provides a cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care
hospitalization across public and private empanelled hospitals in India.
● Over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable entitled families (approximately 50 crore
beneficiaries) are eligible for these benefits.
● PM-JAY provides cashless access to health care services for the beneficiary at the
point of service, that is, the hospital.
UPSC ICONIC SUBSCRIPTION Let us know your thoughts on this content here
● PM-JAY envisions to help mitigate catastrophic expenditure on medical treatment
which pushes nearly 6 crore Indians into poverty each year.
● It covers up to 3 days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days post-hospitalization
expenses such as diagnostics and medicines.
● There is no restriction on the family size, age or gender.
● All pre–existing conditions are covered from day one.
● Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country i.e. a beneficiary can visit
any empanelled public or private hospital in India to avail cashless treatment.
● Services include approximately 1,393 procedures covering all the costs related to
treatment, including but not limited to drugs, supplies, diagnostic services,
physician's fees, room charges, surgeon charges, OT and ICU charges etc
● Public hospitals are reimbursed for the healthcare services at par with the private
hospitals.
4. Benefit Cover Under PM-JAY
● Benefit cover under various Government-funded health insurance schemes in India
have always been structured on an upper ceiling limit ranging from an annual cover
of INR30,000 to INR3,00,000 per family across various States which created a
fragmented system.
● PM-JAY provides cashless cover of up to INR5,00,000 to each eligible family per
annum for listed secondary and tertiary care conditions.
● The cover under the scheme includes all expenses incurred on the following
components of the treatment.
● Medical examination, treatment and consultation
● Pre-hospitalization
● Medicine and medical consumables
● Non-intensive and intensive care services
● Diagnostic and laboratory investigations
● Medical implantation services (where necessary)
● Accommodation benefits
● Food services
● Complications arising during treatment
● Post-hospitalization follow-up care up to 15 days
5.Ayushmaan Bharat Infrastructure mission
● In a bid to increase accessibility, the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure
Mission, an addition to the National Health Mission, will provide support to 17,788
rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 ‘high focus’ states and establish 11,024
urban Health and Wellness Centres across the country.
● The mission’s objective is to “fill critical gaps in public health infrastructure,
especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both the urban and rural
areas.”
UPSC ICONIC SUBSCRIPTION Let us know your thoughts on this content here
6.Challenges in PM-JAY
● Poor hospital empanelment.
● Absence of Public Healthcare Infrastructure.
● A Push towards the Privatisation of Healthcare.
● Parallel scheme running in states as health is state subject.
● Accountability of the Private Sector.
● Insurance without medical personnel is a great cause of concern
● Inclusion and exclusion error.
Newslink- The Hindu
PRELIMS BOOSTER
PEGASUS
● Pegasus is spyware that can be installed on devices running some versions of iOS,
Apple's mobile operating system, as well on devices running Android.
● It was developed by the Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group.
● Pegasus had been used in some of the “most insidious digital attacks” on human
rights activists in the world.
● It invades the device, steals sensitive information and internet usage data, and
relays it to advertisers, data firms or external users which leads to breach of
privacy.
● It's a huge privacy and security threat.
● In the wrong hands, spyware can be used to take someone's personal information
for the purposes of identity theft or fraud.
WARDHA SCHEME OF EDUCATION
● The Wardha Scheme of Education derives its name from the education conference
of National Workers held at Wardha under the presidentship of Mahatma Gandhi
organized by congress in 1937.
● The scheme is also known as Nai Talim (Basic Education), Buniyadi Talim (Shiksha).
● The scheme is based on a series of articles Gandhiji wrote in the Harijan newspaper.
It was given a concrete shape by the Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Zakir
Hussain.
● The basic features of the scheme are
○ The main principle is learning through activities like handicrafts etc.
○ Free and compulsory education to be given for 8 years ( from 6 to 14 years).
○ The medium of instructions is to be the mother tongue
○ Contact between community and school through service.
○ Providing handicraft training to children.
*****
UPSC ICONIC SUBSCRIPTION Let us know your thoughts on this content here
