Relevance IN - Prelims (about gender gap index and its findings) + Mains (GS II Social issues and social justice)
What's the NEWS

• India ranked lower than many of its international peers, and some of its neighbours like China (106^th), Sri Lanka (102^nd), Nepal (101st), Brazil (92^nd), Indonesia (85^th) and Bangladesh (50^th)
• India's latest position is 14 notches lower than its reading in 2006 when the WEF started measuring the gender gap

• India has slipped four places on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap index to 112, behind neighbours China, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, due to rising disparity in terms of women's health and participation in the economy.
• Moreover, India is now ranked in the bottom-five in terms of women's health and survival and economic participation, according to an annual survey report.
• Iceland remained the world's most gender-neutral country, while Yemen was ranked the worst at 153th place. Iraq and Pakistan remained in bottom three of the ladder.
• The WEF's Gender Gap Index ranks countries according to calculated gender gap between women and men in four key areas: health, education, economy and politics. It measures women's disadvantage compared to men, and is not a measure of equality of the gender gap.
• The time it will take to close the gender gap narrowed to 99.5 years in 2019. While an improvement on 2018 -- when the gap was calculated to take 108 years to close -- it still means parity between men and women across health, education, work and politics will take more than a lifetime to achieve
• Geneva-based WEF said this year's improvement can largely be attributed to a significant increase in the number of women in politics.
• The report said that the political gender gap will take 95 years to close, as against 107 years last year.
• Worldwide, women now hold 25.2 per cent of parliamentary lower-house seats and 21.2 per cent of ministerial positions, compared to 24.1 per cent and 19 per cent respectively last year.
• There is a sharp deterioration in the economic opportunity gap, especially in women's under-representation in emerging roles, such as cloud computing, engineering and data and artificial intelligence. At the current rate of progress, the economic opportunity gap will take 257 years to bridge, compared to 202 last year.
• The report showed that economic opportunities for women are extremely limited in India (35.4 per cent), followed by Pakistan (32.7 per cent), Yemen (27.3 per cent), Syria (24.9 per cent) and Iraq (22.7 per cent).
• India also ranked among countries with very low women representation on company boards (13.8 per cent), while it was even worse in China (9.7 per cent).
• The report also highlighted abnormally low sex ratios at birth in India (91 girls for every 100 boys) and Pakistan (92/100).
• On health and survival, four large countries -- Pakistan, India, Vietnam and China -- fare badly with millions of women not getting the same access to health as men, the WEF said.
• On a positive note, India has closed two-thirds of its overall gender gap, but the condition of women in large section of India's society is precarious and the economic gender gap has significantly widened since 2006.
• India is the only country among the 153 countries studied where the economic gender gap is larger than the political one.
• India ranks high on the political empowerment sub-index, largely because the country was headed by a woman for 20 of the past 50 years. But, female political representation today is low as women make up only 14.4 per cent of Parliament (122nd rank globally) and 23 per cent of the cabinet (69th), the report said.

• Cine star Deepika Padukone, China's popular media personality Jin Xing and two other artists have been selected for Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
• The winners would be honoured during the opening session of the WEF Annual Meeting 2020 at Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, on January 20, 2020.

• The award celebrates the achievements of artists and cultural figures whose leadership inspires inclusive and sustainable change.
• Padukone would be given the award for her leadership in raising mental health awareness
• More than 300 million people suffering with the illness, depression is the leading cause of ill health and disability in the world today and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.
• It is therefore increasingly clear that, now more than ever before, we need to aggressively address what is an invisible and overlooked health and social burden
• Sir David Attenborough, Margaret Atwood, Sir Elton John and Shah Rukh Khan are among the previous recipients of Crystal Award

• The 2020 annual meeting will take place from 22-25 January under the theme, ‘Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World'.
• The WEF Annual Meeting brings together leaders from international organisations, government, civil society, culture and media, business, foremost experts and young generation from all over the world, at highest level and in representative ways.

• Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs has envisaged engagement of Mahila Police Volunteers (MPVs) in the States/UTs who will act as a link between police and community and help women in distress.

• All Chief Secretaries of States/UTs were requested to adopt this initiative in their respective States.
• Haryana was the first state to adopt the initiative at Karnal and Mahindergarh District on a pilot basis under Nirbhaya Fund during the financial year 2016-2017.
• Further, the proposals of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have also been approved for implementation of MPVs.
• The Government has also launched Mahila aur Shishu Rakshak Dal (MASRD) in the country.
• Under the Mahila Police Volunteers Scheme, one of the activities/ responsibilities of Mahila Police Volunteers is to motivate and mobilize individuals to form themselves into MASRDs as well as to integrate the existing groups working in the community on women empowerment issues with MASRDs.
• The Scheme of Mahila Police Volunteers is a central sector scheme which is required to be implemented with active financial and administrative participation of State Governments and UT Administrations.

• Through the National Health Resource Repository it will now be possible to provide comprehensive data on all private and public health establishments

• The Union ministry of health and family welfare launched the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR), the first ever registry in the country registry of authentic, standardised and updated geo-spatial data of all public and private healthcare.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the project technology partner for providing data security.
• It will now be possible to provide comprehensive data on all private and public health establishments and other resources, including Railways, Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), defence and petroleum healthcare establishments.
• Under the Collection of Statistics Act 2008, more than 20 lakh healthcare establishments such as hospitals, doctors, clinics, diagnostic labs, pharmacies and nursing homes would be enumerated under this census, which will capture data on more than 1,400 variables.
• The Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) has looped in key stakeholders, including leading associations, allied ministries, and several private healthcare service providers.
• This resource repository shall enable advanced research towards ongoing and forthcoming healthcare challenges arising from other determinants of health such as disease and the environment.
• Approximately 4,000 trained professionals are working with dedication to approach every healthcare establishment to collect information.
• The NHRR project aims to strengthen evidence-based decision making and develop a platform for citizens and provider-centric services by creating a robust, standardised and secured Information Technology (IT)-enabled repository of India's healthcare resources.

• The health minister also released the National Health Profile (NHP)-2018, prepared by CBHI. The National Health Profile covers demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, along with comprehensive information on health infrastructure and human resources in health.

Relevance IN - Mains (GS II Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.)
What's the NEWS

• After the ‘Green Revolution', India brought Seed Act, 1966. It was the first act to govern matters of seed and seed quality. It was modelled on the US Legislation. This Act served well in making the Indian Seed Industry vibrant and competitive to serve the interests of the farmers.

What Is Covered Under The Existing Seeds Act, 1966?

1. It covers "notified kinds or varieties of seeds". Regulation of quality is limited to the seeds of varieties that have been officially notified.
2. Such varieties are mostly those bred by public sector institutions like, ICAR State Agricultural Universities (SAUs).
3. These are officially released for cultivation after multi-location trials, over three years or more, to evaluate their yield performance, disease and pest resistance.
4. "Release is a precondition for notification" and the provisions of The Seeds Act, 1966, apply only to certified seeds produced of notified varieties.
5. It has punitive measures against seed sellers, in case of any deficiency in seed quality parameters mentioned on the label.

Shortcomings In The Provision Of Seed Act 1966

1. The 1966 legislation was enacted at the time of the Green Revolution. The high-yielding wheat and paddy varieties, which made India self-reliant in cereals by the 1980s, were developed by various ICAR institutes and SAUs.

• However over the last one decade, private companies and multinationals have made significant inroads, especially into hybrids. These private companies and their hybrid varieties of seeds are not covered under the Seeds Act 1966 by virtue of not being officially "released". Thus this companies resort to ‘Truthful labelling' (self declaration) without any official verification.

2. It has labelling provisions, but no licensing provisions.
3. Lack of varietal (generic name of the plant or seed by which such variety is known to the public) registration prior to sale.

How to make the new Seed Bill 2019 acceptable to all stakeholders

1. Farmers' rights under PPV&FR should be protected.
2. The Government proposes compulsory registration of varieties/ hybrids. India has more than hundred crops and hundreds of seed companies with R&D and the biggest challenge is the development of infrastructure by the Government.
3. For fast-tracking the registration, an Empowered Committee can be formed. Evaluation systems of seed companies can be subject to regular audit by the technical auditors, appointed by the Empowered Committee.
4. Price control is another sensitive item and Govt. should tread cautiously and should intervene as and when required.
5. Damage to seeds can occur due to rain, weather, contamination. Some of them are intentional and some are not. Deterioration of seed quality is a biological process due to accelerated ageing, when the seed lots are subjected to very harsh conditions. Penalizing the seed manufacturers should be assessed in an objective way on case-to-case basis. Otherwise, courts will be clogged with several cases.
6. For the major offences, due judicial process should be followed, but for minor offences, the seed inspectors should be empowered to compound the offence or initiate a fine.
7. All registrations can be harmonized with the provisions of PPV&FR Act.

Conclusion

• Healthy seed industry will lead to enhanced quality seed availability at affordable prices to the farmers. The seed industry should see vibrant growth in an enabling environment. Also farmers must be provided quality seeds at competitive price. The Seeds Bill is expected to strike the right balance in this direction.

Know! more about

1. Farmers' Rights Under PPV&FR Act, 2001 And Indian Patents Act, 1970

• As per Section 39 (1) (iv) of The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, a farmer is allowed to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce, including seed of a variety protected under this Act. He is not punishable as long as, he does not sell "Branded Seed".

• As per the Indian Patents Act, a biological process to create a seed or plant cannot be patented.

• Hybridization comes under biological process and cannot be patented. Hybridization is the process of interbreeding between individuals of different species.

• The PPV&FR Act is the first of its kind in granting intellectual property rights not only to plant breeders but also to the farmers by protecting new, extant and farmers' varieties. The total period of validity of certificate of registration shall not exceed 18 years in case of trees and 15 years in case of other crops.

2. International Union For The Protection Of New Varieties Of Plants (Upov)

• The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is an intergovernmental organization with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. UPOV's mission is to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection.

Why India Is Not A Member Of UPOV?

• In India, farmers' interests far outweigh the breeders interests.
• UPOV primarily looks at the rights of plant breeders.
• Though it offers limited rights to the farmers, the countries subscribing to UPOV have to uphold commercial interests of the seed developers.
• Hence India did not join UPOV as a member, as farmers' interests are paramount in India.
• However, there is constant pressure on India from advanced countries to subscribe to UPOV

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