Category: SSC

In this article, we will discuss Constitutional Framework for Disabled in India. So, let’s get started.

Constitutional Framework for Disabled in India

• Article 41 of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) states that the State shall make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, within the limits of its economic capacity and development.
• The subject of ‘relief of the disabled and unemployable’ is specified in the state list of the Seventh Schedule of the constitution.

In this article, we will discuss Social Model of Disability. So, let’s get started.

Social Model of Disability

• The social model focuses on the society which imposes undue restrictions on the behaviour of persons with impairment.
• In this, disability does not lie in individuals, but in the interaction between individuals and society.

In this article, we will discuss Medical Model of Disability. So, let’s get started.

Medical Model of Disability

• In the medical model, individuals with certain physical, intellectual, psychological and mental impairments are taken as disabled.
• According to this, the disability lies in the individual as it is equated with restrictions of activity with the burden of adjusting with the environment through cures, treatment and rehabilitation.

In this article, we will discuss Global Gender Gap Index. So, let’s get started.

Global Gender Gap Index

It benchmarks countries on their progress towards gender parity in four Key dimensions with Sub Metrices.

Economic Participation and Opportunity
Educational Attainment
Health and Survival
Political Empowerment

On each of the four sub-indices as well as on the overall index the GGG index provides scores between 0 and 1, where 1 shows full gender parity and 0 is complete imparity.
It is the longest-standing index, which tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.

• Objectives:
• To serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men on health, education, economy and politics.
• Through this annual yardstick, the stakeholders within each country are able to set priorities relevant in each specific economic, political and cultural context.

In this article, we will discuss Challenges faced by Urban Poor. So, let’s get started.

Challenges faced by Urban Poor

• Overcrowding
• Millions of people migrate to the cities to take up informal jobs such as domestic help, driving cars for middle-class people, taxi driving, construction site work, etc.
• This creates overcrowding in the already packed urban infrastructure.
• Water and Sanitation
• The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the poor sanitation standards of slum areas. Washing hands and observing physical distancing was impossible to follow in slums.
• Nearly 21.8 percent of slum households in Delhi depend on shared water sources such as public taps.
• Health Care
• The low income of these communities means that standard medical help is often unaffordable.
• Therefore, on occasions when it rains or the neighbourhood is flooded, their settlements become breeding grounds for various parasites and infections and the cycle repeats itself.
• Education
• For children living in slums, a host of issues affect their education.
• Even if some children of slum households get enrolled in a school, they have to drop out to support their family financially and are deprived of education.
• Risk of Forceful Eviction
• Lack of affordable housing leaves the people address-less on paper. They settle wherever they can, but as more people join, a whole community of undocumented settlers emerges that creates a risk of forceful eviction.
• Forced eviction is defined as the permanent or temporary removal against the will of individuals, families and/or communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy.

In this article, we will discuss Reasons Behind Urban Poverty. So, let’s get started.

Reasons Behind Urban Poverty

• Large Scale of Rural-Urban Migration:
• The urban poor is largely the overflow of the rural poor who migrate to urban areas in search of alternative employment and livelihood.
• Lack of infrastructure in rural areas (push factor), rapid Industrialisation in urban areas (pull factor) leading to migration due to asymmetrical development.
• Lack of Skills:
• Most of the poor are not able to participate in the emerging employment opportunities in different sectors of the urban economy as they do not have the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.
• It has led to generations of unskilled or semi-skilled people who find it difficult to find decent paying jobs.
• Indebtedness:
• Unemployment or underemployment and the casual and intermittent nature of work in urban areas lead to indebtedness, that in turn, reinforces poverty.
• Unemployment refers to the economic situation in which an individual who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work.
• Underemployment is a situation where there is a mismatch between the employment opportunities and the skills and education level of the employees.
• Inflation:
• A steep rise in the price of food grains and other essential goods further intensifies the hardship and deprivation of lower-income groups in urban areas.

In this article, we will discuss Causes of Energy Poverty in India. So, let’s get started.

Causes of Energy Poverty in India

• Lack of Energy Infrastructure:
• Because of the lack of modern energy infrastructure like power plants, transmission lines, underground pipelines to deliver energy resources such as natural gas, petroleum to rural areas leads to energy poverty.
• They have heavily relied on traditional biomass such as wood fuel, charcoal, burning crop residue and wood pellets.
• Nigeria, the largest oil-producing country in Africa, is second only to India in the number of people living without electricity.
• Without infrastructure for gathering or delivering natural gas much of the natural gas produced in oil fields of Nigeria is flared off.
• Lack of Affordability:
• Households at lower levels of income and development tend to be at the bottom of the energy ladder, using fuel that is cheap and locally available but not very clean nor efficient.
• Inefficiency of Energy:
• Disproportionately high loss of useful energy during energy conversions is a prime factor of Energy Poverty.
• Energy poverty rates tend to drop by 0.21% when energy efficiency index scores increase by 1 point, thus showing the direct effect of energy efficiency in energy poverty.
• Geopolitical Tension:
• Geopolitical instability results into disturbance in global energy supply chain,
• India’s oil import bill soared to 119 billion dollars in the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2022 as energy prices exploded after the Ukraine conflict.

In this article, we will discuss Digitisation of the FMCG Sector. So, let’s get started.

Digitisation of the FMCG Sector

• In a country where 80% of sales still occur from local Kirana stores, it becomes critical to make sure that orders from such channels remain steady. That’s what digitisation has ensured over the past couple of years during multiple waves of the coronavirus pandemic.
• E-commerce share of total FMCG sales is expected to increase 11% by 2030.
• FMCG companies are bringing together suppliers, inventory management, and distributor management within one ecosystem with the help of digital capabilities.
• Technologies like Artificial intelligence, Big Data and Predictive Analysis are being increasingly used by FMCG companies to predict customer behaviour accurately, helping them to understand what actually interests their customers.
• Online grocery stores and online retail stores like Grofers, Flipkart, and Amazon are making FMCG products more readily available.
• Digital payments like E-wallet and UPI are making the transactions smoother and more convenient.
• The number of online users in India is expected to cross 850 million by 2025.