Syllabus subtopic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources. 

News: Health Minister reviews state preparedness for IMI 2.0

Prelims and mains focus: Key features and significance of the programme.

About Mission Indradhanush

• To strengthen and re-energize the programme and achieve full immunization coverage for all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace, the Government of India launched “Mission Indradhanush” in December 2014.

• Goal of Mission Indradhanush: The ultimate goal of Mission Indradhanush is to ensure full immunization with all available vaccines for children up to two years of age and pregnant women.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI):

To further intensify the immunization programme, the government launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) on October 8, 2017.

• Aim: To reach each and every child up to two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunisation programme/UIP.
• Coverage: Low performing areas in the selected districts (high priority districts) and urban areas. Special attention will be given to unserved/low coverage pockets in sub-centre and urban slums with migratory population.

IMI 2.0:

To ensure that not a single child in the country misses out on vaccination, the government has launched the ‘Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0‘ with a special focus on improving coverage in areas with “low” immunisation.

Key facts:

• Through ‘IMI 2.0’, the health ministry aims to reach each and every child below the age of two years and all pregnant women still uncovered/partially covered in 271 districts of the country and 652 blocks of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
• IMI 2.0 will include four rounds of vaccination, with each round involving a seven-day immunisation drive to be conducted each month from December 2 onwards.
• The IMI programme is supported by 12 ministries and departments and is being monitored by the cabinet secretary at the national level.

Existing gaps:

The current national full immunisation coverage rate stands at 87 per cent. According to government data, 260 lakh children are born every year and an estimated 31 lakh out of them would not receive complete rounds of vaccination in the first year of their life due to various reasons.

Syllabus subtopic: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections

News:  The Assam government has announced the launch of ‘Arundhati Swarna Yojana’.

Prelims focus: Overview of the scheme.

Mains focus: Need for and significance of such schemes. 

Key features of the scheme:

• Under the scheme, the state government will offer 10 grams of gold as a gift to every adult bride who has completed at least 10th standard and has registered her marriage.
• Note: The government will not give the gold directly but Rs. 30,000 to purchase 10 gms of gold.

Eligibility:

• The annual income of the bride’s family must be less than five lakh rupees to avail the scheme.
• Minimum age should be 18 years and 21 years for the bride and bridegroom respectively.
• The family has to register their marriage under the Special Marriage (Assam) Rules, 1954.
• Minimum education should be 10th standard. However, minimum educational qualification criteria have been relaxed for the tribes and workers of tea gardens.
• The eligible bride and bridegroom must apply for the scheme before the date of their wedding.

Syllabus subtopic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

News: Microsoft rolls out its K12 Education Transformation Framework more widely in India.

Prelims and Mains focus: Key features and significance of the programme.

About the framework:

1. The Framework provides a holistic framework to facilitate a comprehensive digital transformation of schools.
2. The framework is a flexible platform based on the latest research and input from hundreds of academics, experts, and policymakers.
3. It comprises four pillars — leadership and policy, modern teaching and learning, intelligent environments and technology blueprint.

Syllabus subtopic:  Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act. 

News: Ministry of Home Affairs has revoked the citizenship of Telangana MLA Ramesh Chennamaneni on the ground of misrepresentation of facts at the time of applying for citizenship in 2008

Prelims and Mains focus: About Citizenship Act 1955, procedure for granting and revocation of citizenship. 

About the issue

• Ramesh, who had been living in Germany since 1993, applied for Indian citizenship on March 31, 2008 and was granted the same on February 4, 2009.
• When the MLA applied for Indian Citizenship, he was holding Germany’s citizenship and never stayed in India for more than 12 months as required for a foreign national in the Foreigners Act.

About Citizenship Act of 1955

• Sections 5(1)(f) and 10(2) of the act deal with grant of citizenship and the authority of the government to cancel the same.
• According to Section 5(1)(f), “the Central Government may, on an application made in this behalf, register as a citizen of India any person if a person of full age and capacity who, or either of his parents, was earlier citizen of independent India, and has been residing in India for one year immediately before making an application for registration.”
• Section 10(2) says: “Subject to the provisions of this section, the Central Government may, by order, deprive any such citizen of Indian citizenship, if it is satisfied that the registration or certificate of naturalisation was obtained by means of fraud, false representation or the concealment of any material fact.”
• Protection against arbitrary action: Section 10(3) of the Act says, “The Central Government shall not deprive a person of citizenship under this section unless it is satisfied that it is not conducive to the public good that person should continue to be a citizen of India.”

Syllabus subtopic: Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention

News: A UN committee has passed a Russian-led resolution on a global cybercrime treaty, despite reservations that it could be used to justify shutting down civil society in repressive countries. 

Prelims focus: About Budapest Convention on Cybercrime

Mains focus: Reasons for India not signing the convention.

Context:

• The proposed treaty has been framed to serve as an alternative to the US-led Budapest Convention.
• The resolution was sponsored by China, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Syria, among others, and will up an “Open Ended Working Group” to examine cybercrime.

About Budapest convention

• Convention means an agreement signed between countries of a particular matter. There are many conventions between many countries in the world out of which one is Budapest Convention
• The Convention on Cybercrime, also known as the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime or the Budapest Convention, is the first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations.
• It was drawn up by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, with the active participation of the Council of Europe’s observer states Canada, Japan, South Africa and the United States.
• It is open for ratification even to states that are not members of the Council of Europe.
• As of September 2019, 64 states have ratified the convention.

 Aim:

• The Budapest Convention provides for the criminalisation of conduct, ranging from illegal access, data and systems interference to computer-related fraud and child pornography, procedural law tools to make investigation of cybercrime and securing of e-evidence in relation to any crime more effective, and international police and judicial cooperation on cybercrime and e-evidence.

India’s concerns over signing of this agreement:

• India did not participate in the negotiation of the Convention and thus is worried about it.
• The Convention — through its Article 32b — allows for transborder access to data and thus infringes on national sovereignty.
• The regime of the Convention is not effective, “the promise of cooperation not firm enough,” or that there are grounds for refusal to cooperate. 

Why India should join?

• India maintained its status as a non member of the Europe led Budapest Convention, even as it voted in favour of Russian-led UN resolution to set up a separate convention.

• The challenges currently being addressed by the parties to the Convention through the Cybercrime Convention Committee are highly relevant also for India;

• The Convention offers a legal basis and practical framework for police-to-police and judicial cooperation on cybercrime and e-evidence with an increasing number of other parties. This framework is constantly under review to make it more effective
• As the Convention evolves, India would be able to contribute to shaping future solutions if it were a party;
• India would become a priority country for capacity-building.