With the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) upon us, it is inevitable that there will be changes in how we engage to get things done. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding Cabinet meetings and interacting with political leaders through video conferences. Last month, 82 Congress leaders discussed the party’s response to Covid-19 on a video call. The Supreme Court is using video conferencing to hear cases. Government conferences are moving online.
Parliament has been disrupted and the Budget session was cut short by eight days, delaying the debate on key bills. Many state legislatures such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala curtailed their sessions. Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh issued ordinances to enable them to spend money in the new financial year.
It is here that technology-centric solutions can ensure work continuity in law-making institutions. Parliament has been agile in its adoption of technology through its history in three key areas.
First, to empower members of Parliament (MPs) to work more efficiently, as early as 1954, a teleprinter was installed in the lobby of the Lok Sabha to enable MPs to keep up to speed with important developments. Now MPs can access wireless Internet on their phones and tablets inside the Houses. Gone are the days when MPs or their staff had to visit the Parliament House to submit notices for their interventions. Now, there is a dedicated portal where they can electronically file their questions, zero-hour submissions and other notices for participating in debates.
Second, there has been rapid technology adoption in the two parliamentary secretariats. They started using computers for their work in the mid-1980s. An example of their digital prowess is the daily uncorrected debate: A transcript of proceedings in the Houses is uploaded online on the same day the debate takes place.
Making Parliament an open and transparent institution is the third area where the institution has leveraged technology. The proceedings of the Houses are broadcast on dedicated TV channels and also streamed online. The parliamentary websites maintain records of all its work, and the two secretariats have also digitised parliamentary debate since 1858, and made them freely available to the public.
The pandemic challenges the ability of the institution to physically assemble and debate matters of national importance. There are two occasions when MPs have to assemble in person. One, when they meet as a whole to constitute a sitting of the House. This situation will arise in July when MPs assemble for the monsoon session of Parliament. Parliaments around the world are gearing up to ensure that some parts of their proceedings can be conducted online.
For example, the Scottish parliament recently conducted its question hour virtually for the first time. Meanwhile, in London, 100 MPs signed a letter calling for the creation of a virtual parliament. In response, the Speaker of the House of Commons has urged the government to ensure that some part of parliamentary proceedings can be done virtually before the house resumes next week. The second occasion when MPs meet in person is during meetings of parliamentary committees. These committees are smaller sub-groups of MPs which meet outside the House to deliberate on issues. The committees play a critical role as they are tasked with the in-depth examination of government bills. Currently, there are six bills being examined by different committees.
There are international examples that our Parliament could examine to restart the functioning of committees. For example, the House of Commons has successfully completed a trial in conducting the proceedings of their committees digitally. Its treasury committee recently heard witnesses on a video conference on the subject of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
In New Zealand, the Epidemic Response Committee, led by the leader of opposition, has been operating via video conferencing to evaluate the government’s response to Covid-19. The proceedings of the committee are streamed on social media and on the Parliament website. The Australian Parliament also has a provision in its rules of procedure to allow for audio and video links to be used for committee proceedings.
The workings of legislatures in India and around the world are marked by ceremony and rigid rules of functioning. But they also have an advantage. They can regulate their functioning, allowing them to effect institutional changes quickly. Working remotely is the new normal, and for Parliament to adapt to it is a necessity.
This disruption by the pandemic is an opportunity for our Parliament. It should evaluate which aspects of its functioning are amenable to being done online. The virtual working of parliament in other countries underlines one key principle. Parliament is an institution of public trust and needs to continue its role of scrutiny of government’s actions, especially in times of crisis.
Chakshu Roy is head of legislative and civic engagement, PRS Legislative, Abhijit Banare is a Chevening scholar at Cambridge University
Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' held a detailed review of the National online education platform SWAYAM and the 32 DTH Television Education Channels SWAYAM PRABHA in New Delhi today. Secretary, MHRD Shri Amit Khare, Chairman, UGC, Shri D.P Singh, Chairman AICTE, Shri Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman NCERT, Shri Hrushikesh Senpaty, Chairman NIOS, senior official of the ministry, National Coordinators and Professors from IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIM Bangalore and IIIT Hyderabad participted in the meeting.
A brief presentation of the progress of these schemes was made. In the lockdown condition there has been a tremendous increase in demand and the usage of SWAYAM Courses and SWAYAM PRABHA videos.
SWAYAM 1902 courses are available currently in SWAYAM, which have been offered to 1.56 cr. students since launch. Currently, over 26 lakh students are taking 574 courses on offer. In all, 1509 courses are available for self-learning. SWAYAM 2.0 also supports launch of Online degree programmes. Mapping of SWAYAM courses to AICTE model curriculum has been done, gaps identified. A similar exercise for non-technical courses is underway by a committee of UGC.
It was decided that all the 1900 SWAYAM Courses and 60000 SWAYAM PRABHA videos would be translated into ten regional languages and made available to the students so that more benefit can be derived from the same. The more popular content, and for engineering courses taught in first year shall, however, be prioritized for translation. It was decided to decentralize the task of translation to the National Coordinators, who may be allowed to use all possible services like students, government or private agencies, available technology to undertake translation of content.
The whole project will be started immediately and completed in a time bound manner. The popular courses and videos would be done first. In order to complete this exercise in the shortest possible time a number of educational institutions across the country would be asked to contribute. Each NC shall submit an action plan to MHRD (E-mail: [email protected]) by 23rd April.
An advisory shall be issued to all Directors of IITs to provide all help to the NCs in the task of translation of content, creation of new content in gap areas, and acceptance of credit transfer. It was also decided that UGC and AICTE will follow up with Universities and institutions to accept SWAYAM credits. This will enable students to do part of their course though MOOC and part in various colleges.
Also, to encourage faculty to provide more courses under SWAYAM, appropriate incentives for their career will be provided. Further, UGC has been asked to prepare guidelines regarding online and Distance learning guidelines to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio.
SWAYAM Prabha The SWAYAM PRABHA is a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. Every day, there will be new content for at least (4) hours which would be repeated 5 more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience.
The following decisions were taken: Possibility of redistribution of channels to match available content, and viewership shall be explored.
It was also decided to enrich the content in SWAYAM PRABHA by collecting content from who so ever willing to contribute the same under Vidya Daan Programme. Subject expert committees shall be formed by each NC to approve the content received, before getting it uploaded on SWAYAM Prabha
The broadcast over DTH will be popularized through all available channels, including radio, social media. The video content on SWAYAM Prabha shall be mapped to curriculum, and the academic calendar For the translation of content of four IIT-PAL channels, CBSE, NIOS shall provide all assistance to IIT-Delhi. This matter shall be followed up by JS(IEC) in MHRD.
NALSA has also been providing assistance to prisoners who were eligible to be released on parole or interim bail under the relaxed norms, through its panel lawyers.
About NALSA: NALSA has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, to provide free legal services to weaker sections of society.
The aim is to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reasons of economic or other disabilities. ‘Nyaya Deep’ is the official newsletter of NALSA.
Composition: As per section 3(2) of Legal Service Authorities Act, the Chief Justice of India shall be the Patron-in-Chief. Second senior-most judge of Supreme Court of India is the Executive-Chairman.
Important functions performed by NALSA: Organise Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes. Identify specific categories of the marginalised and excluded groups and formulates various schemes for the implementation of preventive and strategic legal service programmes.
Provide free legal aid in civil and criminal matters for the poor and marginalised people who cannot afford the services of a lawyer in any court or tribunal.
State and district legal services authorities: In every State, State Legal Services Authority has been constituted to give effect to the policies and directions of the NALSA and to give free legal services to the people and conduct Lok Adalats in the State. The State Legal Services Authority is headed by Hon’ble the Chief Justice of the respective High Court who is the Patron-in-Chief of the State Legal Services Authority.
In every District, District Legal Services Authority has been constituted to implement Legal Services Programmes in the District. The District Legal Services Authority is situated in the District Courts Complex in every District and chaired by the District Judge of the respective district.
Need- Constitutional basis: Article 39A of the Constitution of India provides that State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disability.
Articles 14 and 22(1) also make it obligatory for the State to ensure equality before law and a legal system which promotes justice on a basis of equal opportunity to all. Legal aid strives to ensure that constitutional pledge is fulfilled in its letter and spirit and equal justice is made available to the poor, downtrodden and weaker sections of the society.
How they are helping? The Civil Defence personnel are supplementing the local administration in conducting surveillance of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases. They have been working as rapid response teams.
They have been deployed in all the States and most Union Territories, barring Ladakh, Daman & Diu, and Puducherry.
Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Assam have taken the lead in using their services.
The volunteers have been deployed under the command of District Magistrates to assist the local administration in implementing the COVID-19 guidelines and policies effectively.
How civil defence personnel can be employed? Provisions in this regard? Civil Defence operates under the Civil Defence Act and associated rules and regulations. The Act was amended in 2009 and a notification was issued in 2010 to include disaster management as an additional role. Civil Defence is primarily organised on voluntary basis except for a small nucleus of paid staff and establishment which is augmented during emergencies.
Administration: Although it is a Central law, Section 4 of the Civil Defence Act empowers State governments to raise corps at the local administration level as per their requirement. The District Magistrate, District Collector or Deputy Commissioner is designated as Controller of the Civil Defence.
Eligibility for becoming a Civil Defence Volunteer: A person who intends to apply for appointment to a Civil Defence Corps must fulfil the following conditions; s/he shall be a citizen of India, or a subject or Sikkim or of Bhutan or of Nepal.
s/he shall have completed the age of 18 years provided that this age limit may be relaxed at the discretion of the competent authority up to a maximum of 3 years for any branch or category of the Corps. s/he shall have passed at least the primary standard, that is to say, the fourth class, and this condition may be relaxed by the Controller at this discretion. Both men and women shall be eligible for appointment to the Corps.
The health and family welfare ministry has identified 170 hotspot districts, 207 non-hotspot districts reporting cases and 359 green zone districts not reporting any cases across the country.
These numbers will increase or decrease based on fresh cases of novel coronavirus infection.
Why this classification was necessary? What are its implications? This will help in managing the Covid-19 pandemic as well as partial opening up of economic activities during the extended period of the nationwide lockdown. This would help in management of hotspots and spread of pandemic.
How are the districts divided? The health ministry used two criteria to classify the districts as hotspots — the absolute number of cases and the speed of growth in cases.
The technical definition followed to classify the districts is any district reporting more than six cases would be classified as hotspot district or red zone.
Any hotspot district with more than 15 cases would be treated as a district witnessing outbreak.
Which districts are under red zone? Delhi and NCR, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Thane, Yavatmal, Sangli, Buldhana, Ahmednagar, and Latur in Maharashtra, and Chennai, Chengalpattu, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Erode, Dindigul, Karur, Madurai, Namakkal, Ranipet, Tiruchirapalli, Tiruppur and Theni in Tamil Nadu.
Demarcation of epicentre and containment zones: A house with positive cases or a cluster with positive cases is marked as the epicentre of the containment zone. A radius of 0.5 km is taken and the area around it is cordoned off with only essential services available.
Also, a buffer zone is marked where people with severe and acute respiratory illnesses (SARI) are checked and monitored.
Containment zones are created to map the local transmission of the disease and prevent the contagion from spreading.
Key observations: The price of crude has already fallen about 60% since the start of the year due to a pricing war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and then the economic devastation wrought by the virus outbreak.
Now, global demand for oil will fall this year by the most ever due to the economic lockdowns enforced around the world to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
An estimated drop in demand of 9.3 million barrels a day this year is equivalent to a decade’s worth of growth.
Impact and implications of these changes: While the cheaper energy can be helpful for consumers and energy-hungry businesses, it is below the cost of production. That is eating away at the state finances of oil-producing countries, many of whom are relatively poor economies, and pushing companies to bankruptcy.
With broad limits on travel and business, many consumers are unable to take advantage of the low prices anyway.
The recent deal by OPEC and other countries to reduce global output by some 9.7 million barrels a day will help stabilize the situation somewhat. On top of those cuts, countries like China, India, South Korea and the United States will look to buy more oil to store away in strategic reserves.
About IEA: Established in 1974 as per framework of the OECD, IEA is an autonomous intergovernmental organisation. MISSION – To ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its member countries and beyond. Its mission is guided by four main areas of focus: energy security, economic development, environmental awareness and engagement worldwide Headquarters (Secretariat): Paris, France.
Roles and functions: Established in the wake of the 1973-1974 oil crisis, to help its members respond to major oil supply disruptions, a role it continues to fulfil today. IEA’s mandate has expanded over time to include tracking and analyzing global key energy trends, promoting sound energy policy, and fostering multinational energy technology cooperation.
Composition and eligibility: It has 30 members at present. IEA family also includes eight association countries. A candidate country must be a member country of the OECD. But all OECD members are not IEA members. To become member a candidate country must demonstrate that it has:
Crude oil and/orproduct reserves equivalent to 90 days of the previous year’s net imports, to which the government has immediate access (even if it does not own them directly) and could be used to address disruptions to global oil supply.
A demand restraint programme to reduce national oil consumption by up to 10%. Legislation and organisation to operate the Co-ordinated Emergency Response Measures (CERM) on a national basis.
Legislation and measures to ensure that all oil companies under its jurisdiction report information upon request. Measures in place to ensure the capability of contributing its share of an IEA collective action.
Reports: Global Energy & CO2 Status Report. World Energy Outlook. World Energy Statistics. World Energy Balances. Energy Technology Perspectives.
Google is planning to launch this emergency fund to help local news outlets struggling to maintain operations in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Under this, Google would offer grants ranging from the “low thousands of dollars” for the smallest operations to “low tens of thousands for larger newsrooms.”
This financial support is for local newsrooms hit by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of its Google News Initiative.
Need: The move comes with the media sector facing deep cutbacks resulting from the global consumer lockdown, an intense economic slump and a retrenchment in advertising revenues that many news outlets depend on.
Context: Thrissur Pooram has been cancelled for the first time on account of the COVID-19 outbreak.
About the festival: It is called the ‘mother of all festivals’ in Kerala. The Pooram dates back to the late 18th century and was started by Sakthan Thampuran, the Maharaja of the erstwhile Kochi state.
MK 54 lightweight torpedo: Context: US Department of State has approved a Foreign Military Sale to India of 16 MK 54 all round up lightweight torpedoes.
MK 54 lightweight torpedo was known as the Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo (LHT). It weighs around 608 pounds, while its warhead weighs around 96.8 pounds and is highly explosive. These torpedoes are used by US surface ships, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters and are their primary anti-submarine warfare weapon.