Contents
- States roll out Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0
- Govt. starts probe on Dumping Steel Imports from China
- Proposals cleared by Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC)
STATES ROLL OUT INTENSIFIED MISSION INDRADHANUSH 3.0
Context:
According to the Health Ministry, States/Union Territories (UTs) have rolled out Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 to cover children and pregnant women who missed the routine immunisation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Relevance:
GS-II: Social Justice
Dimensions of the Article:
- About Mission Indradhanush (MI)
- Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0
- Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 Scheme
- Universal Immunization Programme
About Mission Indradhanush (MI)
- Mission Indradhanush (MI) was launched in December 2014 and aims at increasing the full immunization coverage to children to 90%.
- It targets to immunize all children below two years of age either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated as well as all pregnant women.
- It includes seven vaccine preventable diseases namely Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Childhood Tuberculosis, Polio, Hepatitis B and Measles.
- In addition to this vaccine for Japanese Encephalitis, Haemophilus influenza type B, inactivated polio vaccine, Rotavirus and Rubella are also being provided in selected states.
Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0
- To boost the routine immunization coverage in the country, Government of India has introduced Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 to ensure reaching the unreached with all available vaccines and accelerate the coverage of children and pregnant women in the identified districts and blocks from December 2019-March 2020.
- The IMI 2.0 aims to achieve targets of full immunization coverage in 272 districts in 27 States and at block level (652 blocks) in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar among hard-to-reach and tribal populations.
- With the launch of Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0, India has the opportunity to achieve further reductions in deaths among children under five years of age and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending preventable child deaths by 2030.
Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 Scheme
- Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 Scheme aims to each the unreached population with all the available vaccines under Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and thereby accelerate the full immunization and complete immunization coverage of children and pregnant women.
- It will have two rounds this year which will be conducted in 250 pre-identified districts/urban areas across 29 States/UTs.
- Beneficiaries from migration areas and remote areas would be targeted as they may have missed their vaccine doses during the pandemic.
Universal Immunization Programme
- The Immunization Programme in India was introduced in 1978 as ‘Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- In 1985, the Programme was modified as ‘Universal Immunization Programme (UIP)’.
- UIP prevents mortality and morbidity in children and pregnant women against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases. But in the past, it was seen that the increase in immunization coverage had slowed down and it increased at the rate of 1% per year between 2009 and 2013.
- To accelerate the coverage, Mission Indradhanush was envisaged and implemented since 2015 to rapidly increase the full immunization coverage to 90%.
Objectives of the Universal Immunization Programme
- Rapidly increasing immunization coverage,
- Improving the quality of services,
- Establishing a reliable cold chain system to the health facility level,
- Introducing a district-wise system for monitoring of performance, and
- Achieving self-sufficiency in vaccine production.
-Source: The Hindu
GOVT. STARTS PROBE ON DUMPING STEEL IMPORTS FROM CHINA
Context:
The Commerce Ministry’s investigation arm DGTR has initiated a probe to review the need for continuing imposition of anti-dumping duty on certain types of steel products imported from China following complaints from domestic industry.
Relevance:
GS-III: Indian Economy
Dimensions of the Article:
- What is Dumping?
- What is Anti-Dumping Duty?
- Background regarding India’s Anti-dumping measures and China
- Role of the WTO in Regulating Anti-Dumping Measures
- Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR)
What is Dumping?
- Dumping is a term used in the context of international trade. It’s when a country or company exports a product at a price that is lower in the foreign importing market than the price in the exporter’s domestic market.
- Because dumping typically involves substantial export volumes of a product, it often endangers the financial viability of the product’s manufacturer or producer in the importing nation.
What is Anti-Dumping Duty?
- Anti-dumping duty is a tariff imposed on imports manufactured in foreign countries that are priced below the fair market value of similar goods in the domestic market.
- The government imposes anti-dumping duty on foreign imports when it believes that the goods are being “dumped” – through the low pricing – in the domestic market.
- Anti-dumping duty is imposed to protect local businesses and markets from unfair competition by foreign imports.
Background regarding India’s Anti-dumping measures and China
- World Trade Organization (WTO) members are allowed to apply anti-dumping measures on any company if it exports a product at a lower price than its home market, and if the product threatens to impact the local industry.
- China joined the WTO after years of negotiations on the condition that it will be treated as a non-market economy by other member countries for anti-dumping proceedings.
- While the 15-year period ended the European Union and the US have held back from granting market economy status to China, citing wide-ranging price control on export commodities by China.
- India initiated 18 anti-dumping proceedings in 2019, most of them against China, however, China remains one of India’s largest trading partners and a major source for intermediate products for its industry.
What is a non-market economy?
A non-market economy refers to a country which has a complete or substantially complete monopoly of its trade and where all domestic prices are fixed by the state.
Role of the WTO in Regulating Anti-Dumping Measures
- The World Trade Organization (WTO) plays a critical role in the regulation of anti-dumping measures. As an international organization, the WTO does not regulate firms accused of engaging in dumping activities, but it possesses the power to regulate how governments react to dumping activities in their territories.
- Some government sometimes react harshly to foreign companies engaging in dumping activities by introducing punitive anti-dumping duties on foreign imports, and the WTO may come in to determine if the actions are genuine, or if they go against the WTO free-market principle.
- According to the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement, dumping is legal unless it threatens to cause material injury in the importing country domestic market. Also, the organization prohibits dumping when the action causes material retardation in the domestic market.
- Where dumping occurs, the WTO allows the government of the affected country to take legal action against the dumping country as long as there is evidence of genuine material injury to industries in the domestic market. The government must show that dumping took place, the extent of the dumping in terms of costs, and the injury or threat to cause injury to the domestic market.
Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR)
Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) is an apex national authority responsible for administering all the trade remedial measures which include:
- Anti-Dumping Duties
- Countervailing Duties and
- Other Safeguard Measures.
Established in 1998 as the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties, it was renamed in 2018 as the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR).
- The Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS) and Safeguards (QR) functions of DGFT were merged into one single entity, DGTR, making it an integrated single umbrella National Authority.
- DGTR works alongside the Department of Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- The Department of Revenue considers the recommendations of DGTR for imposing Anti-Dumping, Countervailing and Safeguard Duties.
- Trade defence support would be provided by the DGTR to our domestic industries and the exporters in dealing with the trade remedy investigations instituted by other countries against them.
-Source: The Hindu
PROPOSALS CLEARED BY DEFENCE ACQUISITIONS COUNCIL (DAC)
Context:
The Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister cleared procurement proposals worth ₹13,700 crore including 118 Arjun MK-1A tanks.
Relevance:
GS-III: Internal Security Challenges
Dimensions of the Article:
- Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)
- Composition of Defence Acquisition Council
- What is Defence Procurement Process (DPP)?
Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)
- As an overarching structure, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), under the Defence Minister is constituted for overall guidance of the defence procurement planning process.
- DAC is the highest decision-making body in the Defence Ministry for deciding on new policies and capital acquisitions for the three services (Army, Navy and Air Force) and the Indian Coast Guard.
- The objective of the Defence Acquisition Council is to ensure expeditious procurement of the approved requirements of the Armed Forces in terms of capabilities sought, and time frame prescribed, by optimally utilizing the allocated budgetary resources.
- It was formed, after the Group of Ministers recommendations on ‘Reforming the National Security System’, in 2001, post Kargil War (1999).
Composition of Defence Acquisition Council
- Defence Minister: Chairman
- Minister of State for Defence: Member
- Chief of Army Staff: Member
- Chief of Naval Staff: Member
- Chief of Air Staff: Member
- Defence Secretary: Member
- Secretary Defence Research & Development: Member
- Secretary Defence Production: Member
- Chief of Integrated Staff Committees HQ IDS: Member
- Director General (Acquisition): Member
- Dy. Chief of Integrated Defence: Staff Member Secretary
What is Defence Procurement Process (DPP)?
DPP is a national policy to purchase defence equipment.
The Defence Procurement Procedure mainly contains processes that needs to be followed to streamline and simplify defence procurement procedures and ultimately achieve the objective of self-reliance in meeting all the security needs of the Indian Armed Forces by promoting indigenous design, development and manufacture of Defence weapon systems and, platforms in a time-bound manner without any delays.
-Source: The Hindu
