In Chains
(TT)
Paper: GS II; Topic:
Education
Issue:
Government of West Bengal’s bid to bring uniformity and accountability in
Higher Education.
Government of West Bengal wants to impose a common
syllabus for science and technology in all universities across the state.
The education minister of West Bengal, Partha
Chatterjee, has also talked of introducing a biometric system of attendance for
the faculty members of universities and colleges.
In West Bengal, the erstwhile Left Front government
started the tradition of politicizing education that is being followed
diligently by the current dispensation.
The consistent efforts at homogenizing education seem
to have succeeded only in levelling it down. In West Bengal, the Left Front
government's decision to stop the teaching of English in primary schools sealed
the fate of generations of students.
Such results are not unexpected when
politicians, rather than academics and scholars, formulate educational policies.
Partha Chatterjee: State has every right to regulate
teachers since it pays their salaries.
Last Word: Educational
institutions do rely on the State for funding. But to use this dependence as a
justification for deciding the syllabi on the institutions' behalf or for
policing teachers is to coerce them into submission. Authoritarian States
survive by controlling thought. India runs the risk of turning into one.
Long road
to gender equality in India (Mint)
Paper: GS I, II,
& III; Topic: Women Issues, Gender Equality, Gender Budgeting
Issue: Gender
budgeting has helped but women need more economic freedom and better access to
public goods
India formally adopted gender budgeting in 2005. In
that year, finance minister P. Chidambaram included in the budget documents a
separate statement on spending programmes/schemes that benefit women in
particular.
There are two types of schemes that are included—those
in which the entire provision is for women and those where at least 30% of the
money is meant for women.
Sixteen states have also embraced gender budgeting
over the past decade.
Has gender budgeting just been for show or has it had
a real impact? A new research paper by economists at the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) uses data from the states to check whether a focus on gender
budgeting has made a difference in those states that have adopted it.
Research Paper Highlights:
* States which have adopted gender budgeting have
tended to move towards greater gender equality measured by female to male
enrolment ratios at different levels of schooling. The impact is more intense
when it comes to primary rather than secondary schooling.
* Gender budgeting has a significant impact on
spending on infrastructure.
* Specific programmes targeted at women do make a
difference. One of the best examples is the decision of some state governments
to give free bicycles to girls going to school.
However, gender budgeting alone is unlikely to solve
the massive problem of gender inequality.
There are two other issues that also need public
policy attention—economic freedom and public goods.
The Fraser Institute has developed an index to measure
the legal barriers women face when it comes to exercising the same economic
freedom available to men in their countries. There are five components to the
index of gender disparity—freedom of movement, property rights, financial
rights, freedom to work and legal status. In the Indian case, these legal
rights are protected by a liberal constitution but social norms do prevent
women from exercising these freedoms.
The other big issue is public goods. The lack of
certain core public goods such as safe streets or lack of clean drinking water
are more likely to hurt the economic prospects of women more than men. The
argument for safe streets is almost self-evident. The lack of clean drinking
water on tap in effect means that women in many parts of the country spend
several hours every day walking in search of water.
Bitter
pills (IE)
Paper: GS III; Topic:
Pharma Industry
Issue: Substandard
pills in circulation in India and its impact
Twenty-seven commonly-used medicines (antibiotics,
painkillers, cough syrups etc.) in the country have failed quality tests in
seven states.
The medicines were found wanting on several counts,
including false labelling and inadequate quantity of ingredients.
The regulatory tests that began in March have
incriminated 18 pharma majors. Alarmingly, only three of the medicine brands in
question have been recalled from the market.
A 2014 study by ASSOCHAM estimated that around a
fourth of the drugs sold are either substandard or counterfeit.
Shortcomings of the inspection and regulation system:
Shortage of Drug Inspectors: A drug inspector has the
responsibility of inspecting various facilities including those producing
allopathic drugs, homeopathic drugs, blood banks, even cosmetics. There has
been no focus on specialists for each of these.
The country consumes more than 385 billion medicines
every year. But an ICRIER report of 2015 notes that there is no consolidated
list of drug manufacturing outfits.
Drug regulatory offices have been hamstrung by
incomplete digitisation — in some cases, even incomplete computerisation.
In most cases, failure to comply with standards
results in a short-term suspension of a manufacturer’s production licence —
hardly an effective deterrent when manufacturers have several production units.
Impact of Circulation of Substandard Drugs
Health: The repeated administration of sub-therapeutic
doses of anti-malaria medicines played a role in the proliferation of
drug-resistant parasites.
Health: Poor quality antibiotics have been
incriminated in the spread of tuberculosis.
Economics: Internationally, India’s generic medicine
industry has been questioned for compromising on product quality. The US Food
and Drug Administration, for example, has banned medicines from at least 35
plants in the country. Last year, the EU banned 700 Indian drugs on grounds of
quality.
Last Word: The
country’s medicine industry has to put its house in order. The government
should monitor it stringently.
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