Infrastructure investments and the slowing job creation

Unemployment in India:

1. India is the fastest-growing large economy in the world, but the unemployment rate has also increased.
2. More than 50% of India’s population is <25 years and more than 65% is >35 years of age.
3. The unemployment rate of India stands at 8% as per the data of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
4. There is a coexistence of high economic growth and high unemployment in India.
5. The reason for high growth and unemployment is not because of reflection of automation or AI but lop-sided development policies that has not addressed the growing demand for jobs balanced with employment opportunities.

Challenges

1. Poor infrastructure:
   • Poor physical and human infrastructure has constrained the growth drivers and limited the size of the manufacturing sector in India.
2. Illiteracy especially in rural areas due to multitude of factors:
   • India has the largest concentration of illiterate people in the world with more than one-third of the adult population in the country remaining illiterate, and less than 20% have completed secondary education.
   • Multidimensional damages faced by rural areas in terms of access, quality, relevance, finance and governance
   • huge variation in the quality of graduates from both the public and private systems due to absence of any effective systems for quality assurance.
   • shortage of qualified faculty due to poor compensation
   • Outdated curricula and pedagogical methods like rote learning rather than creative thinking and problem-solving and teamwork needed by the market.
3. India’s infrastructure investments are focused on majorly urban areas which has led to uneven spatial development and resultant slowing down of the pace of job creation. 
4. India’s manufacturing sector is showing a de-urbanising trend by moving from urban to rural areas to remain competitive. But the manufacturing sector is not able to grow fast in rural areas as they lack adequate physical and human infrastructure.
   • Industrial firms migrate to rural areas due to advantages offered such as cheaper land prices, lower pollution restrictions, weaker congestion and other spatial factors.
   • India’s slow-down in the manufacturing trend is due to the divergence in the paths of urbanisation and industrialisation.

What has to be done?

1. Development of good infrastructure both physical and human, to create more jobs.
   1. Physical infrastructure investments particularly focus on urban areas, but the manufacturing sector is migrating away from urban to rural areas to remain cost-competitive.
   2. Physical infrastructure in rural areas has been inadequate, thus limiting the size of the manufacturing sector in India.
   3. Poor human infrastructure like education and skills has constrained the growth drivers of India.
2. Investments in Education has to be increased.
   1. Returns to investment in education are much higher compared to returns to investment in physical investment.
   2. Focus on education has to emphasized on both basic education and higher education.
      • The World Bank has focused on basic education and has highly ignored higher education.
   3. Governance needs to be improved in education system
      • The governance of education system needs better incentives, monitoring, performance assessment, and accountability both for the internal processes of the education process as well as for students.
   4. Scaling up of tertiary education will increase the cadres of professionals who can create new enterprises and maximise job creation.
3. Focus on Tier-2 cities to unleash its growth potentials:
   1. The future of economic growth will be minimal in the very dense tier I cities and shall be exponential in tier II cities.
      • New cities can generate 70% of the country’s new jobs and GDP over the next 20 years which will lead to a 4-fold increase in per capita incomes.
      • Across the world, manufacturing has been dispersing from high-density clusters to less dense areas.
4. Policy making has to encompass a broader focus on rural structural transformation to accelerate job creation.
   1. This shall help to overcome the divergence in the paths of urbanisation and industrialisation.
   2. Scaling up of physical and human infrastructure investments is required to build the missing links between urban and rural India.

Link: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/how-infrastructure-investments-may-be-slowing-job-creation-8908158/

India and the Northern Sea Route

Why in the News?

India has been witnessing the rising trend of involvement in cargo traffic in Murmansk port with a lion’s share of 35% of eight million tonnes of cargo handled by the port in the last 7 months in 2023.

Significance of Arctic region to India:

1. The Arctic region encompassing Arctic Ocean with the North Pole at its centre, is highly vulnerable to unprecedented changes in the climate. This can impact India’s economic security, water security and sustainability.
2. The region has the largest unexplored prospective area for hydrocarbons remaining on the earth. 
   1. An estimated amount of ~40% of the current global reserves of oil and gas may have its presence in the Arctic region.
   2. Chances for significant reserves of coal, zinc and silver.
   3. Greenland alone possesses about a quarter of world’s rare earth reserves.
3. Murmansk Port is famously called as the capital of the Arctic region and the beginning point of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), situated about 2,000 km northwest of Moscow.

India’s engagement with the Arctic:

1. Svalbard Treaty, 1920:
   • Signed in February 1920 in Paris
   • This has enabled India to undertake several scientific studies and research in the Arctic region such as atmospheric, biological, marine, hydrological and glaciological studies.
2. India established a research station, Himadri, at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard in 2008.
3. In 2016, India became an observer-state of the Arctic Council along with five others including China.
4. Launch of multi-sensor moored observatory in 2014.
5. Launch of northernmost atmospheric laboratory in 2016.
6. Till 2022, 13 expeditions have been successfully conducted to the Arctic region.
7. India’s Arctic policy, 2022 unveiled by Ministry of Earth Sciences.The six pillars of the Policy are:

• Science and Research
• Economic and Human Development Cooperation
• Climate and Environmental Protection
• Transportation and Connectivity
• Governance and International Cooperation
• National Capacity Building

What is The Northern Sea Route (NSR):

1. NSR is the shortest shipping route for freight transportation between Europe and countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
2. It spans across four seas of the Arctic Ocean, namely East Siberian Sea, Kara Sea, Chukchi sea and Laptev Sea.
3. The route runs up to 5,600 km beginning at the boundary between the Barents and the Kara seas (Kara Strait) and ends in the Bering Strait (Provideniya Bay).
4. The use of NSR can save a distance as high as 50% compared to the currently used shipping lanes via Suez or Panama.
5. The 2021 blockage of the Suez Canal which forms part of the widely-used maritime route involving Europe and Asia has caused diversion of interests to the NSR.

How is Russia making the NSR navigable?

1. Russia has employed a nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet, the only country in the world to own and use it, to carry out icebreaking assistance to ensure safe navigation along the NSR, as the seas of the Arctic Ocean remain icebound during most of the year.
2. In 1959, the world’s first nuclear icebreaker “Lenin” was put into icebreaking which was decommissioned 30 years later.
3. Today, the fleet comprises 7 nuclear-powered icebreakers, apart from one nuclear container ship and 3 more are expected to be commissioned between 2024 and 2027.

What are the driving factors for India to participate in the NSR development?

1. The growth rate of 73% registered in cargo traffic along the NSR during 2018-2022 and the record supplies of energy resources importing crude oil and coal from Russia to India in recent years.
2. India’s geographical position and its major share of trade association with sea transportation emphasizes the importance of NSR as a transit route.
3. The Chennai-Vladivostok Maritime Corridor (CVMC) project signed between India and Russia, is linked with the international container transit through the NSR.
   1. The 10,500 km-long CVMC which pass through the Sea of Japan, the South China Sea and Malacca Strait, will bring down transport time to 12 days.
   2. This will be almost one-third time taken through the existing St. Petersburg-Mumbai route of 16,000 km.

4. There is a growing possibility of China and Russia gaining collective influence over the NSR, which is a matter-of-concern to India.

Future prospects:

1. The NSR development plan until 2035 was approved by Russia in 2022 and sets the cargo traffic target at 80 million tonnes and 150 million tonnes for 2024 and 2030 respectively [The current cargo traffic is at 34 million tonnes].
2. Recently a Russian delegation held meetings with the Indian business community on the NSR development, which has assured availability of key components for the year-round operation of the route.

ICMR study on long COVID

Why in the News?

A recent study was conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on the post Covid-19 conditions and its report has been recently published.

• The WHO estimates that 10 to 20 per cent of Covid patients develop prolonged symptoms.

Key findings of the Study:

1. 1. Nearly 6.5% people hospitalised with Covid-19 died in the following year.
   2. About 17.1% of the participants experienced post-Covid-19 conditions.
      • The study defines “post Covid-19 conditions” as persistent or new onset of fatigue, breathlessness, or cognitive abnormalities.
   3. People were nearly three times more likely to die if they experienced these post-Covid-19 conditions.
   4. Even a single dose of the vaccine before the infection reduced the number of deaths in the one-year period by 60%.
   5. The factors that increased the risk of death following a Covid-19 infection later in the year were,
      • Comorbidity- people with one comorbid condition were more than 9 times likely to die during the year following the infection.
      • Age- people above the age of 60 years are 2.6 times more likely to die compared to other age groups and Children between the ages of 0 and 18 years were at a 5.6 times higher risk of death.
      • Gender- Men were 1.3 times more likely to die compared to women.
   6. Long Covid can happen even in people who have had mild Covid-19.

About:

Coronavirus:

1. The virus spreads mainly through close contact between people mainly through air transmission through small, liquid, virus-carrying particles that float through the air for longer periods of time and can be inhaled by others.
2. The virus transmission via contaminated surface contact is markedly less efficient than airborne transmission.
3. Biological changes in the virus can lead to mutations causing emergence of COVID-19 variants.
4. COVID‑19 vaccine was developed to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID‑19.
5. The vaccines were used in reducing the spread of COVID‑19 and reducing the severity and death caused by COVID‑19.
6. COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in India include:
   1. Covaxin of M/s Bharat Biotech for age group of 6-12 and 12-18 years
   2. Sputnik -V of M/s Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.  (Importer)
   3. Sputnik -V of M/s Panacea Biotec Ltd
   4. Janssen - Johnson & Johnson (Importer)
   5. Janssen - M/s Biological E Limited
   6. ZyCoV-D of Zydus Cadila - age group >12 years
   7. Sputnik -V of M/s Hetero Biopharma Ltd 
   8. Corbevax of Biological E. Limited - age groups 5-12, >12 and >18 years
   1. Covovax of M/s Serum Institute of India - age groups >12 and >18 years
   10. Moderna - M/s Cipla (Importer)
   11. SPUTNIK Light of M/s Dr. Reddy’s Lab. Ltd. (Importer) 
   50. SPUTNIK Light of M/s Hetero Biopharma Ltd 
   1000. Lyophilized mRNA Vaccine for Injection (COVID-19) [HGCO-19] of M/s Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Limited
   14. BBV154 (iNCOVACC) - M/s Bharat Biotech

India’s G-20 opportunity for an African Renaissance 

Why in the News?

South Africa is raising its demands on multilateral fora such as BRICS, G-20 and the UNGA in recent times, acting as an atypical representative of the Black continent with 54 countries- over a quarter of population of the “Global South”.

Challenges and disruptors of the African continent:

1. 1. Existential crisis in Africa in general and the Sahel region in particular due to issues of
      • Misgovernance
      • Unplanned development
      • Dominance of ruling tribes and corruption.
   2. Strain in the traditional socio-political fabric of the nations due to new disruptors like,
      • Islamic terror
      • Inter-tribal scrimmage
      • Changing climate
      • Runaway food inflation
      • Urbanisation
      • Youth unemployment
   3. Military interventions by other countries to curb militancy in the region has turned out to be counter-productive:
      • Keeping dictatorships in power to protect their economic interests, such as uranium in Niger, gold in the Central African Republic and oil in Libya.
      • Undermining the rights of individuals.
      • Resource-wastage in curbing civil wars leading to food insecurity.
   4. The African political elite are increasing showing less interest for de-legitimisation and containment of coup in African countries.
      • For instance, when the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) recently threatened to act militarily against Niger’s junta, two member-States, Mali and Burkina Faso- both run by military governments opposed the idea.
      • Similarly, the warring generals of Sudan have defied calls for a ceasefire.
   5. Eroding international support
      • Africa’s slowing economy and trade has reduced China, Africa’s largest trading partner and investor to have reduced appetite for Africa’s commodities.
      • Russia which hosted an African summit in July witnessed only a tepid participation.
      • Europe’s main concern is limited only to stopping illegal migration from African shores.
      • France, the UK and other colonial powers as well as the US have continued to exploit mineral wealth in Africa, but their economic downturn has limited their outreach. 

India’s Robust ties:

1. India-Africa trade reached $98 billion in 2022-23 in spite of less oil imports and fewer agricultural products exports.
2. India is the fifth largest investor in Africa with robust investments and other socio-economic engagements in sectors such as education, health care, telecom, IT, appropriate technology and agriculture.
3. India has extended over $12.37 billion in concessional loans, completed 197 projects and has provided 42,000 scholarships since 2015.
4. Nearly 3 million people of Indian origin live in Africa, forming Africa’s largest non-native ethnicity.
5. With India acting as the host of G20 Summit, it can leverage the opportunity to,
   1. Resolve the stalemated security and socio-economic situations in several parts of Africa.
   2. Combine peacekeeping with socio-political institution building to deliver political stability and economic development in the region.
   3. Targeted investments in the region that has potential of a force multiplier.
   4. Transfer relevant and appropriate Indian innovations to the African land, such as the
      1. JAM trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile)
      2. DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer)
      3. UPI (Unified Payments Interface)
      4. Aspirational Districts Programme.

By offering a more participative and less exploitative alternative, India’s G20 presence offers an exemplary win-win paradigm for India-Africa ecosystem in the 21st century.

The real purpose of the medical college

Why in the News?

Recently, a surgical instrument left behind in the patient’s stomach was found after her having suffered with pain for almost a year, a case of medical negligence in one of the leading medical colleges in Kerala.

Growing need to examine contribution of medical colleges in a public health perspective:

1. The case of the patient was due to medical negligence even in one of the most advanced health care systems in the country.
2. Growing vacancies in seats to Bachelor of Dental Surgery and Master of Dental Surgery courses in dental colleges across the country.
3. A policy proposal of 2019 by the GoI to convert district hospitals to medical colleges that is being pursued along with a policy of sanctioning an AIIMS- like institution in every State.

Medical colleges:

1. The institution serves two main purposes:
   1. Educational role: To provide education and training of students to become medical professionals through teaching and apprenticeship (internship).
   2. Offering medical care: Patients with serious illnesses can avail services from medical colleges anytime when they have a referral from the lower-level facilities.
2. Myths about medical colleges:
   1. A medical college sanctioned for a district would take care of every health-care needs of the people there
   2. False security and hope that the chances of children living near the vicinity of medical college has increased chance of getting a medical seat.
   3. Increasing the no. of medical professionals is the solution to the issue of inadequate access to health care.

Tertiary care needs:

1. Emphasis on secondary-care facilities is required rather than large state-of-the-art medical colleges, if curative care needs of the people are the priority.
   1. Only 1% of the total population requires advanced tertiary care, annually.
2. District hospitals which have to function and follow referral systems from the lower-level facilities face challenges such as,
   1. Poor infrastructure
   2. Lack of specialists
   3. No referral system, which is partly due to non-functional secondary-level care facilities.
3. Overload of all kinds of patients- requiring primary care to the most advanced care waiting for treatment in higher-level facilities, i.e., district hospitals or medical colleges. 
4. Ideal model for secondary-care facilities:
   1. Referral system
   2. Patient care specialities such as
      1. Cardiac care and surgery
      2. Regular dialysis services
      3. Cancer treatment with a network of regional cancer centres
   3. Best trauma care responses after road traffic accidents.
5. Problems faced by medical colleges:
   1. crowding of patients in need of primary and secondary care
      1. 80% of the cases that are treated in medical colleges do not require treatment under tertiary specialty care.
      2. perennial failure of India’s health services to implement a referral system in tertiary-care facilities is because of failure to strengthen secondary-level care.
   2. Most secondary-care needs do not require hospitalisation and hence are excluded from any health insurance scheme. Therefore, medical colleges are being stormed by the patients for curative care.

Popular versus people-centric policy:

Though popular support rests with establishment and the creation of a medical college as it encompasses an ‘image’ of advanced technology and development, inadequate provisioning of secondary-level health care in the region should be real problem to be addressed.

1. If district hospitals are converted to medical colleges, the priority shifts from a treatment centre to that of an education and research centre, where patient priorities become secondary.
2. Strengthening secondary-level curative care can be the best policy for governments to strengthen their health-care system.
3. It can be a strong regulator for the commercial private sector which survives on the less complex secondary-care needs of people.

Should the CJI be part of the committee selecting the CEC?

Why in the News?

The Rajya Sabha has introduced the Chief Election commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, conditions of service and Term of office) Bill, 2023 seeking to dilute the SC verdict on composition of the Selection committee.

Appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Election Commissioners (ECs):

Constitutional Provision: Article 324(2)

• The Election Commission shall consist of the CEC and such number of other ECs as the President shall determine from time-to-time.
• The Appointment of the CEC and other ECs shall be subject to the provisions made in that behalf by Parliament, be made by the President.

The process of Appointment done so far:

• The Law Minister shall suggest a pool of candidates from the database of serving / Retired officers of the rank of Secretary to the GoI/ Chief Secretaries to the PM
• The President shall make appointment on the recommendations of the PM.

What was the Supreme Court ruling?

1. The SC ruled that a high-power committee shall choose the CEC and ECs. It shall consist of:
   1. The Prime Minister
   2. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha
   3. The Chief Justice of India (CJI)
2. The unanimous judgement was delivered by a 5-judge bench led by Justice KM Joseph.
3. A 2015 PIL challenged the constitutional validity of the appointment of members of ECI by the Centre before a two-judge bench.
4. This was later referred to a larger bench for the want of close examination of Article 324(2) of the Constitution that delas with the ECI.

What did the ruling seek to achieve?

1. The ruling found a mechanism to maintain the independence of the Election commission by keeping the Executive in a minority with the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India offering a balance.
2. The Court stepped on to fill the “Constitutional Vacuum” for the appointment of members of the ECI as no Parliamentary law governed the appointment process.
3. The presence of CJI in the selection process was made to usher impartiality in the appointment process of members of EC.

The Chief Election commissioner and other Election Commissioners Bill, 2023:

1. Search committee for choosing a panel of five persons for the consideration of the Selection committee:
   1. 1. The Cabinet secretary – head
      2. Two other members not below the rank of the Secretary to the GoI having experience and knowledge related to election matters.
2. Selection committee consisting of
   1. 1. The Prime Minister – Chair Person.
      2. The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha
      3. A cabinet minister nominated by the PM for selection of the CEC and ECs (replacing the Chief Justice of India).
3. The term of the CEC and ECs shall be 6 years or till they attain the age of 65 years. However, the tern shall be considered a composite term meaning, the total tenure of an EC including a candidate later became CEC would be 6 years.
4. The ECs can be removed only through a process of impeachment like that of a SC judge, bringing them at par with the CEC.

Positive features of the Bill:

1. A Search committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary to the government to prepare for a panel of 5 members for consideration of the Selection committee.
2. Qualification of the member to be appointed as member of EC has been mentioned

“Amongst persons who are holding or who have held a post equivalent to the rank of secretary and shall be persons of integrity, knowledge and experience in management and conduct of Election”.

3. The other ECs will also have the same removal procedure as the CEC or the Supreme Court judge, bringing independence to the office of ECs and undermines the discretionary power of the CEC.

Concerns associated with the bill:

1. Executive is given a central role in the appointment of CEC and other ECs that may lead to a partisan person to be appointed. This was the concern that was raised by the SC in its March ruling.
2. It affects the independence of the election Commission as the Constitution mandates that the Judiciary, EC and even investigative agencies be independent from the Executive.
3. In a selection panel that consists of the PM and a minister nominated by the PM in the three-member panel, the role of Leader of opposition becomes irrelevant even before the process begins.
4. The Composition of the Selection Committee shall do disservice to the to the newly appointed ECs as they suffer from risk of being seen through lens of partisanship even while carrying out institutional actions in good faith and course of their duty.
5. The bill has followed the letter of the judgment i.e., to frame a law regarding the appointment process but it has not followed the spirit of the judgment i.e., existence of Election Commission independent of the executive.

Way forward:

The inclusion of unanimous verdict as a precondition shall enable more credibility to the appointment process.

The collegium of either the SC ruling or the Bill is not perfect.

1. 1. SC verdict consisting of the CJI contains concerns:
      1. He can be a legal luminary but is hardly likely for him to know the candidates
      2. How can he sit in a judgment if an appointment is challenged in the SC.
   2. The Bill’s collegium gives an upper hand to the executive and role of LoO has been diluted which increases risk of partisanship in the appointment process.

India-China LAC

Why in the News?

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to intensify efforts for expeditious disengagement and de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Disengagement along the LAC:

1. 19th round of India-China military talks outcome: There is a possibility for limited disengagement at certain mutually-accepted points along the boundary.
2. Corps Commanders of India and China have been discussing resolution of the flashpoints along the LAC since 2020.

3. Both sides have agreed to pull back troops and dismantle temporary structures from
   • Galwan Valley,
   • The north and south banks of Pangong Tso
   • Patrolling Points in the Gogra and Hot Springs area.
4. Disengagement in many areas has led to the creation of buffer zones hindering troops of both sides from accessing areas which they patrolled earlier.
5. The legacy issues of Depsang Plains and Demchok which predates the 2020 incursions by the Chinese PLA still continue.
   • Chinese troops have been blocking Indian access to Patrol Points 10 to 13 from a bottleneck known as the Y-junction in Depsang plains (located close to the strategically important Daulat Beg Oldie.).
   • In Demchok, PLA has been stopping Indian graziers at the Saddle Pass at the Charding Ninglung Nullah (CNN) junction, well within India’s perception of the LAC.

About:

Line of Actual Control (LAC):

1. McMahon line acts as a boundary line between Indian and China.
2. The tripartite Conference of 1913, between the British Indian government and Tibet led to delimitation of Indo-Tibetan Boundary. But this has not been accepted by China.
3. LAC is a line of demarcation between the Indian-controlled territory and the Chinese-controlled territory that was agreed on post Indo-China War, 1962 that was stated with China’s occupation of Aksai region and built a road through it.
4. India considers LAC to be 3488 km long stretch while China claims it to be only 2000 km long.
5. It is divided into three sectors
   1. The eastern sector which spans Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim
   2. The middle sector in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
   3. The western sector in Ladakh.

Infrastructure developments along LAC (Line of Actual Control):

1. To improve the connectivity and accessibility to the rough terrains along LAC, extensive construction of Roads has been carried on which includes strategic Indo-China Border roads (ICBRs) entrusted to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

2. Trilateral highway aimed at connecting India, Myanmar and Thailand that also acts a connectivity route to Southeast Asia.
3. Connecting roads between Mizoram and Port of Sittwe in Rakhine Province of Myanmar and construction of 69 bridges.
4. Roadway to connect India and Nepal can facilitate easier connectivity between the two countries and bolster bigger business opportunities. The Raxaul-Kathmandu Rail link project can facilitate in greater people-to-people connectivity.
5. The connectivity projects will enable timely and smooth supply of essential commodities and ammunitions to border forces present in remote locations.
6. It shall also enable to reduce instances of Ceasefire violations and infiltration due to continued monitoring and patrol facilitated by the infrastructural development projects.

Hurdles that hinder the infrastructural projects along LAC:

1. Delay in execution of road projects due to:
   1. Delay in obtaining Forest/Wildlife clearances
   2. Hard rock stretches
   3. Limited working season
   4. Difficulties in availability of construction materials
   5. Delay in land acquisition
   6. Natural calamities such as earthquakes, flash floods, etc.,
   7. Strategic security consideration.
2. The Military junta in Myanmar has resulted in volatile conditions in the Chin and sagaing regions of Myanmar that has halted further talks on the Trilateral highway project.

MCQ: Arrange the following places from West to east: Depsang Plains Hot springs Daulat Beg Oldie Galwan Choose the correct option from below: a)3-1-4-2 b)1-3-4-2 c)3-2-4-1 d)1-4-3-2   Ans: a) Explanation: Daulat Beg Oldie-Depsang plains-Galwan-Hot springs

Sodium-ion battery packs 

1. Na-ion cells offers an efficient alternative to lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) as the latter has disadvantage over lithium and other battery raw material prices.
2. The three main Na-ion cathode type that uses low-cost materials than Li-ion cathodes.
   1. Prussian white
   2. layered oxide
   3. polyanion

Therefore, Na-ion is expected to be at least 20% cheaper than LFP

3. Na-ion has lower energy density and insufficient charge-discharge cycles compared to Li-ion ones, but is much safer and perform better in a wide operational temperature range. 
4. However, greater cell and pack material costs could result in Na-ion being more costly.
5. It is a type of rechargeable battery and it replaces lithium with sodium as the cathode material.
6. The largest advantage of sodium-ion batteries is the natural abundance of sodium which can be readily harvested from saltwater. 

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI)

1. IRDAI cuts minimum capital requirement for foreign reinsurance branches from Rs 100 crore to Rs 50 crores with the provision to repatriate any excess assigned capital.
2. The move is intended to
   1. Increase the overall capacity of the reinsurance sector to accommodate growing demand and manage larger risks.
   2.  broader goal of positioning India as a global reinsurance hub.
   3. Enhance technical expertise within the industry, fostering an environment of excellence and innovation.
3. IRDAI:
   1. a statutory body formed under Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999.
   2. The body functions for overall supervision and development of the Insurance sector in India and ensuring the financial security of the Insurance market.
   3. The Insurance Act, 1938 is the principal Act governing the Insurance sector in India.
   4.  Entities regulated by IRDAI:
      1. Life Insurance Companies - Both public and private sector Companies
      2. General Insurance Companies - Both public and private sector Companies.
      3. Re-Insurance Companies
      4. Agency Channel
      5. Intermediaries such as Corporate Agents, brokers, third-party administrators, Surveyors and loss assessors.

Honey Bees

1. The Muğla region in Bayram mountains of Turkey which produces almost all of the world's pine honey from Mugla Bees, ravaged by 2021 wildfires is yet to recover to pre-wildfire production levels.
2. Honey bees are all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia.
3. The western honey bee, (Apis mellifera) has been domesticated for honey production and crop pollination.
4. There are around 2 billion honey bees around the globe except Antarctica.
5. Honey bees pollinate flowers, fruits, and vegetables aiding the growth of other plants, thus playing an important role in the ecosystem.
6. The average lifespan of a honey bee is between 8 weeks to 5 years depending on its type.
   1. Drone bees have a lifespan of around 8 weeks.
   2. Worker bees live up to 6 weeks in the summer and up to 5 months or more in the winter.
   3. The queen bee, the sole reproductive bee in the colony, can live over several years.