Daily News Simplified - DNS

13 08 20
Notes
THE HINDU
SL. NO. TOPICS
PAGE NO.

1 Kamala Harris to be Biden’s running mate + Running mate matters 01 + 06

2 Study finds poor access to abortion drugs 10

3 A self-reliant foreign policy 07

4 Shutting the door on Huawei 07

5 How the tiger can regain its stripes 07

6 Mega labs’ to boost COVID-19 testing 01

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Title 1. Kamala Harris to be Biden’s running mate + Running mate matters (The Hindu – Pg 01 + 06)
Syllabus Prelims: U.S Presidential Election
Mains: GS Paper II – International Relation
Theme U.S Presidential Election
Highlights Presidential Election Process
• Learn about the presidential election process, including the Electoral College, caucuses and
primaries, and the national conventions.
• The election process begins with primary elections and caucuses. These are two methods that
states use to select a potential presidential nominee tooltip . In general, primaries use secret
ballots for voting. Caucuses are local gatherings of voters who vote at the end of the meeting
for a particular candidate. Then it moves to nominating conventions, during which political
parties each select a nominee to unite behind. During a political party convention, each
presidential nominee also announces a vice presidential running mate. The candidates then
campaign across the country to explain their views and plans to voters. They may also
participate in debates with candidates from other parties.
• During the general election tooltip , Americans go to their polling place tooltip to cast their vote
for president. But the tally of those votes—the popular vote—does not determine the winner.
Instead, presidential elections use the Electoral College. To win the election, a candidate must
receive a majority of electoral votes. In the event no candidate receives a majority, the House
of Representatives chooses the president and the Senate chooses the vice president
• The presidential election process follows a typical cycle:
o Spring of the year before an election – Candidates announce their intentions to run.
o Summer of the year before an election through spring of the election year – Primary
and caucus tooltip debates take place.
o January to June of election year – States and parties hold primaries tooltip and
caucuses.
o July to early September – Parties hold nominating conventions to choose their
candidates.
o September and October – Candidates participate in presidential debates.
o Early November – Election Day
o December – Electors tooltip cast their votes in the Electoral College.
o Early January of the next calendar year – Congress counts the electoral votes.
o January 20 – Inauguration Day

Electoral College

o Map of the U.S. showing the number of electoral college votes by state.
o In other U.S. elections, candidates are elected directly by popular vote. But the president and
vice president are not elected directly by citizens. Instead, they’re chosen by “electors” through
a process called the Electoral College.
o The process of using electors comes from the Constitution. It was a compromise between a
popular vote by citizens and a vote in Congress.

After you cast your ballot for president, your vote goes to a state wide tally. In 48 states and
Washington, D.C., the winner gets all the electoral votes for that state. Maine and Nebraska assign their
electors using a proportional system.

A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors—more than half of all electors—to win the
presidential election.

In most cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November after you vote. But the
actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid-December when the electors meet in their states.

While the Constitution doesn’t require electors to follow their state's popular vote, many states' laws
do. Though it's rare, electors have challenged those laws and voted for someone else. But in July 2020
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the Supreme Court ruled (PDF, Download Adobe Reader) that those state laws are constitutional.
Electors must follow their state's popular vote, if the state has passed such a law.

U.S. Constitutional Requirements for Presidential Candidates

The president must:

o Be a natural-born citizen of the United States

o Be at least 35 years old
o Have been a resident of the United States for 14 years
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Personal Notes
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Title 2. Study finds poor access to abortion drugs (The Hindu - Pg 10)
Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II – Social Development
Theme Safe, legal and cost-effective abortion
Highlights Context:
• Over-regulation of drugs to curb gender-biased sex selection such as through government
programmes like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ has hindered access to safe, legal and cost-effective
abortion, according to a survey across six States which found an “overwhelming shortage” of
abortion pills or medical abortion drugs.

What the reports said

• A study conducted among 1,500 chemists in six States by Foundation for Reproductive Health
Services India (FRHSI) indicated a severe shortage of medical abortion (MA) drugs in five out of
the six States surveyed, with abysmal stocking in Madhya Pradesh (6.5%), Punjab (1%), Tamil
Nadu (2%), Haryana (2%) and Delhi (34%). The only State that seemed to be better was Assam
(69.6%).
• The findings show that State-wise regulatory and legal barriers are the key reasons why 79% of
the chemists surveyed refrained from stocking these drugs. As many as 54.8% of chemists also
reported that medical abortion drugs were over-regulated as compared to other prescription
drugs.

Misunderstood

• The regulatory hurdles are due to a misunderstanding that easy availability of medical abortion
drugs will be misused for sex selection.
• But this drug is approved for use only up to nine weeks, whereas an ultrasound can detect a
foetus only at around 13-14 weeks. Moreover, these abortions are allowed under the Medical
Termination Act. The law on abortions allows termination of pregnancy in the first nine weeks
and in some cases even in the second trimester, such as in sexual assault cases as well as due to
foetal anomalies.
• Abortion pills are different from emergency contraceptive pills. The latter are taken 72 hours
after unprotected sex to prevent an unintended pregnancy. Whereas abortion pills or MA drugs
are abortafacients which terminate a pregnancy by expelling an embryo or foetus.
• The regulatory crackdown has resulted in abortion services on the whole becoming inaccessible,
especially those during the second trimester, but there is little ground for restricting MA drugs.

Choice reduced

• The lack of availability of MA drugs forces many women to seek a surgical abortion from a
facility, reducing her choice. It will also reduce access to safe abortion and force them to seek
services from unsafe providers as there are only 16,296 approved abortion facilities in the
private sector in the country, whereas MA drugs can be provided by an obstetrician or a
gynaecologist, who are estimated to number about 60,000-70,000, the study highlights.
• A Lancet study on the incidence of abortion and pregnancy in 2015 estimated that 81% of
abortions annually are medical abortions and nearly 90% of abortions are sought in the first
trimester.
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Cost effective

Moreover, MA drugs are also cost-effective. The cost of first trimester surgical abortion varies from
₹2,000-5,000 in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns and smaller nursing homes or clinics. In these towns, the cost of
abortion pills plus the consultation fee is in the range of ₹700-1,000.

During COVID-19, the lack of access to abortion services is likely to have worsened as not only travelling
to a surgical facility is challenging, but the cost of such a procedure may have gone up as clinics charge for
PPE (personal protection equipment) and require a mandatory COVID-19

Missing Millions: A National Shame

According to Niti Aayog, the sex ratio at birth in India has worsened from 906 in 2012-2014 to 900 in
2013-2015. Further the Child Sex Ratio (0-6 years) was at an all time low of 914 girls to 1000 boys as per
the 2011 census. This led the Economic Survey of 2017-2018 to identify 63 million ‘Missing girls’ in India
until 2014.

The main reasons for the prevalence of ‘Missing Girls’ and decline Child Sex Ration are sex selection
biased in favour of male child, neglect of girl children, inadequate nutrition and discriminatory practices.
Further the son-meta preference has exasperated the national shame of daughter deficits in India.

Female infanticide to Sex selective abortions

The daughter deficit is a structural issue in India that is consciously perpetuated first through female
infanticide and with advancement in sex-selection techniques through abortions. Today the number of
abortions has outnumbered the number of infanticides in India reiterating prevalence of preference for
male child.

Pre-1970s: Female infanticide

• Till 1970s preferred way of killing the girl child was female infanticide.
• Post 70s: Sex determination and Female foeticide
• With emergence of technologies like amniocentesis, ultrasound tests etc, people started
adopting sex determination and abortion.
• Post 90s – Sex selection at conception
• Post 90s technologies for sex selection even before conception became available.

Failure of PCPNDT Act

In order to arrest the problem of sex-selection and female foeticide, the government in 1994 introduced
the Prenatal Diagnostics Techniques Act. In 2003, PDT act was amended to become the Prenatal
Conception and Prenatal Determination Act (PCPNDT) which regulates sex selection before or after
conception.

However the PCPNDT Act is a failure in India with around 2300 cases of infanticide and 2000 cases of
abortion registered under the act between 1994 and 2014. Today’s trend is that the number of abortions
has outnumbered infanticides.
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Beti Bachao and Beti Padao

To address this issue the government in 2015 launched the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Programme. The
programme is said to have produced positive results with child sex ratio improving from 914 to 919
(NFHS-4) in the 1st phase. This has led to nation-wide scaling up of the initiative to cover all 640 districts.
Beti Bachao Beti Padao focuses specifically on prevention of sex selective abortions through effective
enforcement of PCPNDT Act. The Supreme Court in 2017 also played its part in directing the search
engines such as Google and Yahoo to block content relating to pre-natal sex determination.

Besides the government has launched the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, a small savings scheme to reduce
financial burden associated with marriage and education of daughters.

From protection to promotion: The way forward

What is needed is a radical shift in the approach moving from protection of girl child to promotion of
women as a category. This is done not just by improving the image of the girl child but increasing the
value of the girl child. A rights-based lifecycle approach with focus on nutrition, health, education, equal
entitlements in property rights, employment and income generation is the need of the day. Finally only
an over-arching gender sensitization programme focusing at the individual level through education, at the
institutional level, public and private, at societal level through professional behavioural campaign is the
only way to not add more to the shameless inventory of ‘Missing Millions’.
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Title 3. A self-reliant foreign policy (The Hindu Page 07)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II – International Relation
Theme Strategic autonomy in India’s foreign policy

Highlights Context: This Article highlights that in the present and upcoming era of New Cold War between China
and United States, India, rather than picking any side, should diversify its relation with important and
significant players in the international arena to ensure strategic autonomy for India’s best interest. Let
us understand the important highlights of this article by going through the views expressed by India’s
External Affairs Minister on multilateralism and strategic autonomy.

View of India’s Minister of External Affairs

• Minister of External Affairs has contended that non-alignment as a concept belonged to a

bygone era and that multi-polarity in the world necessitated that India would have to take a
definite stand and even take “risks” on issues such as connectivity, maritime security,
terrorism and climate change.
• He further stated that even the U.S. must look beyond its present alliances, and engage with
more multilateral arrangements based on equality. Multilateral Agreements involve three or
more parties eg. WTO.
• Current discords between United States and China has been referred by many scholars as New
Cold War or Cold War 2.0. On this note, Minister said that principle of non alignment may have
worked during the Soviet-US Cold War time but now, things have changed. India and China
share land boundaries and this aspect will always be a factor in the New Cold War.
• China already sees India as quasi-ally of US whereas US wants India o become its military
partner and patrol South China Sea on its behalf. It is because of this situation, India even
though have good relations with US, does not want to become its military partner officially as
it fears that there is more strategic loss than gain from this entire exercise.

Views Expressed in the Article

Maintaining Strategic Autonomy even in the Past

• India has historically prided itself as an independent developing country which does not take
orders from or succumbs to pressure from great powers in the pas and has maintained its
strategic autonomy despite changing global world order.
• However, India has strategically aligned with different powers in the past based on need and
circumstances and decisions on such strategic alignments have always been taken in Sovereign
India’s best interest.
• Aid from US –
❖ In China War - For example, during war with China in 1962, Prime Minister Nehru
who was the best advocate of non-alignment had to appeal to the U.S. for emergency
military aid to stave off the Chinese from taking over the whole of Eastern India. This
decision may have been against non-alignment but it was in India’s sovereign interest
to ally with US at that crucial juncture when China was standing at India’s eastern
door.
❖ Kargil War, 1999 - India welcomed a direct intervention by the U.S. to force Pakistan
to back down.
• Treaty with Soviet Union - In the build-up to the 1971 war with Pakistan, Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi had to enter a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union to
ward off both China and the U.S.
• Any alignment was always in India’s favour - So, the point is that by aligning strategically with
United States or Soviet Union in the past, India did not lose its strategic autonomy. Rather,
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India secured its freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity by maneuvering the great
power equations in India’s favour.

Strategic Alliance in Present Times

India-United States

• In the present time, when China has again threatened our borders along Galwan, it is again
strategic to align our interest with United States without formally entering into any military
alliance with them.
• This not only secures our strategic autonomy but also the idea of multilateral arrangements
with different countries based on India’s sovereign interest. And any that proximity to the U.S.
will lead to loss of India’s strategic autonomy are overblown because independent India has
never been subordinated to a foreign hegemon.
India-Russia
• Another strategic move by India was its outreach to Moscow (knowing the closeness of ties
between Russia and China) including a visit by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the
participation of Mr. Jaishankar in the Russia-India-China trilateral last month.
• An important aspect of the trilateral talk was Jaishankar’s comment where he said that India
should also seek to build coalitions with “middle powers”, such as the European Union and
Japan.
• India is also viewing to be part of Moscow’s “Greater Eurasian Partnership which is a
geopolitical concept unveiled by President Vladimir Putin four years ago. Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO), Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and Russia-India-China
(RIC) are viewed as an integral part of this construct.

Diversification is the key

• In the backdrop where United States has started to confront China frontally, India should have
US support and also stay as an independent power centre by means of intensified cooperation
with middle powers in Asia and around the world.
• This is important because India should avoid relying only on United States to counter China as
it can constrict India’s options in other theatres of national interest such as its ties with Iran
and Russia and efforts to speed up indigenous defence modernisation.
• Thus, diversification is the essence of self-reliance. A wide basket of strategic partners,
including the U.S., with a sharper focus on constraining China, is the only viable diplomatic way
forward in the current emerging multipolar world order.

Conclusion

It is no longer a question of picking one out of two titans or oscillating between them. In an era of
dense networks, India must reconfigure autonomy to mean what the American scholar Joseph Nye calls
‘power with others’ to accomplish joint goals. Thus, the author concludes by saying that India is familiar
with the phrase ‘multi-vector’ foreign policy i.e. cooperating with important players in the global world.
It is time to maximise its potential.
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Title 4. Shutting the door on Huawei (The Hindu Page 07)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II: International Relation

Theme Cold War with China

Highlights Context - In January, U.K allowed Huawei to have a limited role in its telecommunications network.
However after a review, U.K. has finally decided to ban the Chinese company. This entails banning U.K.
mobile providers from buying new Huawei 5G equipment after the end of this year as well as removing
all of Huawei’s 5G kit from their networks by 2027.

U.S. sanctions imposed on Huawei has created uncertainty around Huawei’s supply chain. The U.K. can
no longer be confident that Huawei will be able to guarantee the security of future Huawei 5G
equipment.

The Domino effect

• The US government has banned Huawei from the country’s networks and has advised the UK,
Australia, New Zealand and Canada to do the same. The US claims that Huawei’s close ties
with the Chinese government and its army make it a national security risk.
• Last December, Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested by Canadian
authorities at the request of the US, with which it has an extradition treaty.
• In August 2018, the Australian government banned Huawei and ZTE from supplying telecom
equipment for 5G network, citing national security concerns.
• In November, New Zealand’s security services too blocked Huawei from supplying mobile
network kit to a local company on concerns of national security.
• France also decided to limit the use of Huawei’s 5G kit by issuing limited term licences.
• Germany too is reducing its reliance on Huawei as the mood against China has soured across
Europe.
• For Huawei, a domino effect across Europe might pose a serious challenge given that almost a
quarter of its sales come from the European market.

Allegation against Huawei

1. Close ties of Huawei with the communist government - it was founded by an engineer who
has earlier worked in PLA and is also a member of the Communist Party of China. Journalist
Richard McGregor, the author of The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers,
had claimed that Huawei has received state support at crucial points in its development.

2. National security risk due to hidden backdoors in the software - The concerns are over a
perceived security risk posed by Huawei to countries it is operating in. For example, as per a
report in Bloomberg quoting security briefing documents from 2009 and 2011 of Vodafone,
which was using Huawei equipment, Vodafone had identified hidden backdoors in the
software that could have given Huawei unauthorized access to the carrier’s fixed-line network
in Italy. According to the report, Vodafone had asked Huawei to remove backdoors in home
routers in 2011 and received assurances that the issues were fixed, but further testing
revealed that the security vulnerabilities remained.

3. Skirting US sanctions on Iran - U.S accuses Huawei of running a Hong Kong-based company,
Skycom, as an unofficial subsidiary to obtain US-origin goods, technology and services,
including banking services, otherwise prohibited to China.
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Geo-strategic stake in the Huawei controversy

• London is looking to engage with major global powers in a post-Brexit environment to

enhance its trade ties. However as U.S.-China relationship is entering a phase of Cold War 2.0,
the Trump administration made it clear that the U.K.’s “special relationship” with the U.S. was
under the scanner. Not only would their security and intelligence ties have been in jeopardy
but crucial trade negotiations would have been hampered too. U.K has to take tough decision
and this decision, which is likely to alienate China, will come with some serious strategic costs
as well.

• For the Trump administration, the U.K.’s change of stance is a major diplomatic win as it might
also convince fence sitters to make a final decision.

• After years of kowtowing to the Chinese, the European Union is becoming more explicit than
ever in challenging China. The issues range from China’s initial mishandling of COVID-19 and
Beijing’s disinformation campaign in Europe to the new national security law in Hong Kong.
China is viewed as a “systemic rival” that is hell bent on challenging the extant global order
with all its concomitant treaties, norms and institutions. And Huawei is the latest flashpoint
with individual countries shunning the company and the European Commission warning in a
recent report that “most Member States have not yet established or communicated clear
plans to effectively address existing situations of dependency on high-risk suppliers and
prevent future dependencies.”

India’s response

In India, there has been confusion among telecom operators on what to do about Huawei when they
switch to 5G networks. Huawei network equipment has been used by Vodafone Idea and Airtel in many
circles, but the Chinese company has still not got a nod on 5G trials. Huawei and ZTE were barred from
taking part in the trials initially.

The Indian response is being closely watched. Last year, India had allowed Huawei to participate in 5G
trials which could not happen because of the disruptions caused by the pandemic. Today, India-China
ties have altered due to the border crisis and Chinese insensitivity to Indian concerns. New Delhi is
toughening its posture across domains and it looks rather unlikely that Huawei would get to participate
in the 5G network roll-out in India. India is signalling that it is willing to bear economic and
technological costs if it means limiting Chinese involvement in critical infrastructure.
Losing such a large market might be a devastating blow to Huawei.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the decision on Huawei is not merely a technological or economic
decision but a fundamentally political decision for most countries. China’s decision to weaponise trade
and technology ties might now come back to haunt it as other nations begin to pay back in the same
coin.
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Title 5. How the tiger can regain its stripes (The Hindu Page 07)
Syllabus Prelims: Environment & Ecology
Mains: GS Paper III: Environment & Ecology
Theme Tiger Conservation

Highlights Context:
There has been increase in number of tigers from about 2,000 in 1970 to about 3,000 now. This is an
annual growth rate lower than 1% after 50 years of efforts.
India has done better than other tiger range countries, but flags have been raised regarding the cost
and efficiency in this increase.

Potential -
India has the potential to hold 10,000 to 15,000 wild tigers. However there is lack of a pragmatic plan
achieve this goal.

Why number of tigers increased

• Two legal instruments enabled tiger recoveries in India were the Wildlife Protection Act of
1972 and the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980,which reinforced Project Tiger.

• The political leadership and field efforts behind this recovery had to overcome very difficult
social challenges:

o Slow growth of the economy, excessive reliance on forest exploitation for livelihoods
and government revenues, dire poverty, and protein dependency on wild meat that
drove massive local hunting.

o These challenges were overcome and tiger recoveries occurred, but only sporadically in
a few reserves.

Changes post 2000 -

• There was a decline in political commitment to conservation and the gradual transition of the
field-oriented Forest Department to Indian Administrative Service.

• This was followed by unnecessary and massive borrowings from the Global Environment
Facility-World Bank combine to create new models for tiger recovery.

• Populist movement for tribal Rights led to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act of
2006, which has turned into an open-ended process of forest conversion even within wildlife
reserves. Its Impact on tiger habitats have been severe.

Tiger task force 2005 and After -

• The tiger extinction in Sariska Reserve caused a public outcry in 2005, leading to the
appointment of a Tiger Task Force (TTF) by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

• It resulted in a report that created a tiger management model that benefited the forest
bureaucracy more than it did the tigers.
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• Based on TTF recommendations, the United Progressive Alliance government began investing
heavily, but not very intelligently, in tiger conservation.

• Excessive funding of a few reserves while neglecting large areas with greater recovery
potential became the norm.

• Progress on voluntary village relocation schemes from within reserves slowed down.

• Tiger reserve managers were soon attracted to the massively funded eco-development
activities originally formulated by the World Bank.

• In reality, they needlessly replicated the rural development work already being done by
several other agencies and NGOs.

• Another feature of this emergent government monopoly over tiger management was the lack
of data transparency and rigorous, independent tiger monitoring.

Red Tape

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority has bloated in size. It has been assigned schemes
totally unrelated to tigers, such as the recovery of snow leopards and translocation of African
cheetahs to India.

What needs to be Done-

• The role of the forest bureaucracy should be once again restricted to wildlife law enforcement.
• Merging Project Tiger with other Central schemes for wildlife conservation would be a good
first step.
• Government monopoly over domains of tiger conservation such as tiger research, monitoring,
nature education, tourism and possibly even conflict mitigation should be erased.
• The vast reservoir of talent and energy in society should be drawn in to engage with these
diverse domains, by involving private enterprises, local communities, NGOs and scientific
institutions.

Conclusion

India’s tiger conservation needs a reboot to match the scale of the country’s aspirations in other
domains — a new vision that encompasses the talents and aspirations of a growing number of citizens
who want to save tigers without turning the clock back on material progress.
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Title 6. Mega labs’ to boost COVID-19 testing (The Hindu Page 01)
Syllabus Mains: GS Paper II: Social Issues

Theme Development of COVID-19 vaccination

Highlights Context:
• To speed up testing as well as improve the accuracy of testing for coronavirus (COVID-19)
positive cases, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is working on developing
“mega labs” where large machines, called Next Generation Sequencing machines (NGS), which
are also used for sequencing human genomes, will be repurposed to sequence 1,500-3,000
viral genomes at a go for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus.

How is this better than RTPCR?

• More accurate
o Used optimally and with appropriate modifications, these genome sequencing
machines can substantially detect the possible presence of the virus even in several
instances where the traditional RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain
reaction) tests miss out on them. This is primarily because the RT-PCR test identifies
the SARS-CoV-2 virus by exploring only specific sections of the virus whereas the
genome method can read a bigger chunk of virus genome and thereby provide more
certainty that the virus in question is indeed the particular coronavirus of interest.

• Evolutionary History
o It can also trace the evolutionary history of the virus and track mutations more
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reliably.

• Less Ingredients are needed

o Unlike the RT-PCR that needs primers and probes — a key hurdle in operationalising
such tests on a mass scale early on in the pandemic — the NGS does not need primers
and probes, and only needs custom reagents.

In Partnership
o The CSIR has partnered with the U.S.-based Illumina, a company that specialises in
the manufacture of NGS machines. Five such sequencers, costing ₹4 crore each, are
currently available in India.

Scaling up testing
• Though India has tested 24 million samples so far, that only works out to about 17,000 per
million. With about 7.5 lakh tests per day, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) says
it aims to scale up testing to at least a million per day. NGS could help with that, said Dr.
Sivasubbu, but would serve a larger purpose of continuous surveillance. “While RTPCR is 70%-
80% accurate and antigen tests 50% so, it implies that there would be a sizeable population
that is falsely negative. Regular surveillance of a large pool in, say industrial hubs, commercial
establishments or places where an outbreak is likely would help catch new infections,” he said
in a phone conversation.

Dr. Anurag Agrawal, Director, CSIR-IGIB, said that establishing “hubs” capable of whole genome
sequencing would help track significant mutations in the virus and can be repurposed for any kind of
outbreak, be they of viral or bacterial origin.

The NGS approach took 11 hours for sequencing 1,536 samples, and using methods such as “pooling”,
where batches of samples are optimally chosen and analysed, a single run could be used to double the
number of analysed samples. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of
three centres that would be able to sequence 10,000 samples a day, but these would be traditional RT-
PCR units.
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