22 August 2023 : Indian Express
Indian Express
22-August–2023
The Indian Express, CSE candidates can stay informed about current events and developments in India and around the world.
1. CONNECT J&K DOTS
Context:
- An investigation by Indian Express newspaper has revealed that a devastating epidemic of drug addiction, mostly affecting young men, is sweeping across Kashmir, wreaking havoc on individuals and families, stretching the state’s public health system and posing a new challenge to the security forces.
Statistics:
- In 2022, one patient walked into the Valley’s largest de-addiction centre at SMHS Hospital Srinagar every 12 minutes.
- As per Police records the seizure of heroin, the most consumed drug in Kashmir has more than doubled in 2022 compared to 2019.
- Sixty percent more people were arrested for drug-related crimes last year compared to 2019.
Challenges:
- Breaking networks of drug cartels is imperative. However, punitive measures alone cannot uproot this problem.
- Substance abuse, universally, has been recognised as a manifestation of distortions in sociocultural, economic and political systems. It would be quite an upheaval task to put a tab on it.
- Investigations have revealed that the drug cartels are part of a narco-terror network with links to Pakistan and West Asia. This adds a new dimension to Kashmir’s security challenge.
Data on Drug Addicts in the State:
- As per a study done by the J&K administration in collaboration with Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Kashmir:
- 25 percent of the drug users are unemployed.
- 15 percent are graduates.
- 14 percent have studied up to the intermediate level.
- 33 percent have matric level education.
Similar situation in Punjab:
- Narcotic smugglers often find their way into Kashmir via Punjab, a state where the scourge of drugs has been extracting a high social cost for many years.
- With farming becoming less profitable in Punjab, the absence of initiatives and support structures to help the youth equip themselves with skills and opportunities has worsened the situation.
- In 2022, a study by the Chandigarh-based Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) revealed that one in seven persons in Punjab is dependent on addictive substances.
Lessons from Punjab:
- The J&K administration must heed the lessons from the crisis in the once prosperous state.
- It must invest in enhancing the economic and recreational opportunities for youngsters.
- It would also do well to engage civil society players in its endeavours.
- J&K could take a leaf out of the PGIMER study’s recommendations for Punjab — build the capacity of teachers, health inspectors and block-level officials for prevention activities and rope in religious leaders to advocate a “healthy and drug-free state”.
Way Forward:
- The crisis is also a governance test for J&K, especially at a time when it has no elected assembly. If the people and civil society have to play a significant role in thwarting the designs of the drug cartels, they should be empowered through vibrant political processes.
- The region needs a healing touch. This should be undertaken at multiple levels— public health, economy and politics.
- A growing corpus of work also shows that the myriad disruptions and the absence of recreational avenues in conflict zones leave psychological scars on people, especially the youth. In other words, a key part of the preventive measures should involve joining the dots between unemployment, financial difficulties and an ecosystem rife with political uncertainty on one hand and the addictive behaviour of young people on the other.
2. MINDING THE RESEARCH GAP
Context:
- Parliament recently passed the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF-2023) Bill.
- It aims to provide “high level strategic direction for research, innovation and entrepreneurship”, and enhance “India’s national research infrastructure, knowledge enterprise, and innovation potential, for scientific pursuit”.
Background:
- The publicly-funded research ecosystem fights battles on two fronts.
- The first is inadequate funding, and the second, the inflexible rules and regulations.
- Gross expenditure on R&D(GERD) at 2 percent of GDP is recognised as the ideal benchmark to maintain a competitive advantage, though Israel, South Korea, US, Germany and a few other nations invest more than 3percent annually.
- In contrast, India’s GERD stagnated at about 0.7 percent of GDP in the last two decades.
Key Features of Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF-2023) Bill.
- The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill 2023 seeks to establish a new body, the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (NRF), to promote and fund research and innovation in science, technology, engineering and social sciences.
- It seeks to set up a Rs 50,000-crore fund, with a sizeable contribution from the private sector, to “seed, grow and promote” research and development (R&D) and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout India’s universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories.
- It seeks to set up different funds:
- Anusandhan National Research Foundation Fund: For the financing of activities under the Act.
- Innovation Fund: For supporting outstanding creativity in the areas supported by the foundation
- Science and Engineering Research Fund: For the continuation of the projects and programmes initiated under the Science and Engineering Research Board Act, 2008.
- One or more special-purpose funds for any specific project or research.
- The NRF will replace the existing Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), which was created by the Science and Engineering Research Board Act 2008.
- The Bill states that the SERB Act will be repealed and the SERB will be dissolved upon the commencement of the NRF Act.
- The Bill aims to create a robust research ecosystem in India by supporting researchers across disciplines and institutions, fostering collaboration and excellence, and enhancing the quality and impact of research outcomes.
Challenges:
- Though the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rules allow contributions towards scientific research, they can only support projects for up to one year.
- The CSR mode might be viable if rules can be amended to raise a corpus and allow a 3-5 year rollover of funds committed for research purposes.
- The idea that private sources can fund basic and applied research through CSR or endowments awaits broader acceptance in India.
- Philanthropy-funded research centres are emerging, though fewer in number.
- The share of state governments and the public sector to GERD is about 10 percent, which must also increase substantially.
- Restrictions on procurement of research equipment costing up to Rs 200 crore were introduced to prioritise domestic industry, but its implementation has added to the delays.
- Often, funds are delayed even for approved research projects and salaries of research students, and staff.
The Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy 2020(STIP-2020):
- For decades, scientists have complained about the bureaucratic labyrinth and its impact on the research environment.
- The Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy 2020(STIP-2020) has flagged this issue by proposing to measure if “the research activities are adequately funded, are less bureaucratic and accountability is in both directions, the donor and the receiver”.
- The central issue is about timely allocation and flexibility to utilise grants. The STIP-2020 does recognise that “General Financial Rules will be required to be amended for funding of R&D projects to facilitate ease of doing research”.
Understanding the global research environment with an example:
- In the semiconductor industry, the capacity of integrated circuits doubles every 18 months, called Moore’s Law.
- New supercomputers followed this trend until a decade ago.
- With procedural delays lasting more than a year, new supercomputers were often outdated even on arrival in the Indian labs.
- Stanford University’s status report on Artificial Intelligence, AI Index (2019), states that critical machine learning tasks that took three hours to compute in 2017 had reduced to just 88 seconds in 2019 due to faster computers and better algorithms.
- The transition from research labs to market is happening faster than ever, at least in the high-tech segments. We must over haul the administrative palimpsest of rules and regulations to remain competitive.
Way Forward:
- The Bill is expected to bring about a paradigm shift in India’s research and innovation ecosystem by creating a single-window mechanism for funding and facilitating research across disciplines and sectors. It is expected to enhance India’s competitiveness in science and technology at the global level by fostering excellence, relevance and impact of research output.
- The administrative structures under ANRF must help recalibrate our practices and attitudes to capitalise on India’s research potential.
- Such good intentions not withstanding, its impact will depend on implementation details and how effectively it addresses long-standing issues of funding and processes.
For Enquiry
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