Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

18 October, 2013

Pollution & disease

• The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialised agency of the World Health Organisation, announced that it had classified outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic to humans.
• This is the first time that experts have done so and claimed there is sufficient evidence to prove it.
• After thoroughly reviewing the scientific literature, the experts convened by the IARC Monographs Programme concluded that there is sufficient evidence that exposure causes lung cancer.
• They also noted a positive association with an increased risk of bladder cancer.
• Particulate matter, a major component of outdoor air pollution, was evaluated separately and was also classified as carcinogenic.

Spurt in lung cancer

• The IARC evaluation showed an increasing risk of lung cancer with increasing levels of exposure to particulate matter and air pollution.
• Though the composition of air pollution and levels of exposure can vary dramatically between locations, the conclusions of the Working Group apply to all regions of the world.
• Air pollution is already known to increase risks for a wide range of diseases such as respiratory and heart diseases.
• Studies indicate that in recent years exposure levels had increased significantly in some parts of the world, particularly in rapidly industrialising countries with large populations.
• The most recent data indicate that in 2010, 223000 deaths from lung cancer worldwide resulted from air pollution.
• “The conclusion is based on the independent review of more than 1000 scientific papers from studies on five continents.

National Green Tribunal

• The NGT is a Statutory Tribunal and was created by Parliament as a specialised judicial and technical body to adjudicate on environmental disputes and issues.
• The enactment of the NGT Act, 2010 was itself an outcome of a long process and struggle.
• The Supreme Court in a number of cases highlighted the difficulty faced by judges in adjudicating on complex environmental cases and laid emphasis on the need to set up a specialised environmental court.
• Though the credit for enacting the NGT Act, 2010 goes to the then Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, it became functional only because of repeated directions of the Supreme Court while hearing the Special Leave Petition titled Union of India versus Vimal Bhai (SLP No 12065 of 2009) .
• The recent developments and the hostile approach of the MoEF towards the NGT seems to suggest that the aim of Mr. Ramesh’s successor (Jayanthi Natrajan) is to dismantle the tribunal.
• Despite all the hurdles including financial and administrative bottlenecks, the NGT has emerged as a new hope for the environmental movement in the country.
• The NGT Act is no less important than the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Right to Food Bill and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005.
• Environmental degradation affects livelihoods, health and access to food.

Healthcare in India

• The Union Ministry of Labour has done well to raise the salary cap for availing Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) to Rs.25,000.
• While the move is expected to expand coverage to an additional five million workers and their dependents, this is still small comfort in a country where barely three per cent of the workforce enjoys any social protection.
• The evolution of ESI has been characterised by an accent on widening its reach across various categories of industry and geographic regions.
• For instance, the relevant 1948 Factories Act originally applied to non-seasonal factories that employed 10 or more persons.
• Over the years, transport undertakings, hospitals, newspapers, the hospitality industry and educational institutions have been brought within its ambit.
• The 2010 amendments raised the age ceiling for dependents of employees to 25 years.
• They even envisage the provision of medical benefits under the ESI to workers in the informal sector — that is, those outside the current employer/employee contributory system.
• The need to enlarge the scope of medical services can hardly be overstated in an economy where the overwhelming proportion of the workforce remains outside the formal sector.
• Moreover, out of pocket expenditure on health, at 67 per cent of India’s total spending on health as per the Planning Commission figures, is the highest in the world. Critics of the latest revision of eligibility for ESI cover must appreciate that any reduction in medical expenses is a potential boost for consumer spending.

Paradox of capitalism

• With the US Senate passing the debt ceiling bill, the government will be able to borrow and function till January 2014.
• Few people believed that the US government would actually default — a delay in payment is technically a default — but even the tiny probability that it would do so was scary.
• A few days of delay in interest payments would have been enough to cause huge volatility in bond prices. The large number of central banks, such as those in China, India and Japan, which hold the supposedly risk-free bonds of the US government, might have started adjusting their portfolios to exit such bonds.
• The main issue of contention was the Obamacare health plan, which is being strongly opposed by some Republicans.
• That issue has not been resolved. The general sense in the US and in financial markets was that an agreement would be reached before the last day, at the eleventh hour, and that the shutdown was disruptive and unnecessary, leading to difficulties for thousands of employees and loss of income for businesses.
• While a crisis has been averted, the problem has been postponed.
• In three months' time, some of the same discussions may be resumed.
• While in principle all agree that excessive borrowing is bad, for any individual, household or government, the US government has been able to build up huge debts due to its unique position as the producer of the reserve currency.
• In all likelihood, the US government will now go back to issuing debt and markets will continue to buy its bonds.
• Indeed, despite a reduction in its credit rating and the probability of a further downgrade, US bonds remain popular as there are few alternatives for investors.
• Safe financial assets for the world's ageing population are rare. Similarly, for countries buying some insurance, US treasury bills, with their high liquidity and still low default risk, remain the first choice.
• This has allowed the US to build up trillions of dollars in debt, and will probably keep allowing it to do so, regardless of the recent episode.

Click Here for Daily News Archive