Public discourse continues to explore the possibility of an Arctic “scramble,” as if it were some kind of a 19th-century scramble for Africa.

Anti-Scramble for the Arctic:

There are high reserves of oil, gas, minerals, and fisheries in the Arctic, giving the region a big resource potential and making it one of the more interesting regions in which to extract resources.

In some sense, they are strategic avenues because they account for the meltage of the ice with sea and now one can take easier routes between Asia and Europe within less time while at the same time saving many costs. Very high international power competition is prevalent once again today, and many countries will battle to prove some relevance in such a region today.

-Climate Change: Climatic changes have altered the Arctics conditions so fast. This means vast opportunities exist there for extracting its resources and traversing its ocean routes, also spurring an element of contest for controlling this region.

Points Against a “Scramble for the Arctic”:

-International Cooperation: Through the inter-governmental Arctic Council, it is highly successful for building cooperation within the Arctic countries in terms of environmental protection, sustainable development etc.

Environmental Concerns: The Arctic is an extremely fragile system that easily falls victim to environmental destruction. International concern about the preservation of the Arctic environment and responsible development is rapidly on the rise.
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights: The rights and interests of indigenous peoples in the Arctic region are increasingly acknowledged and respected.

-Economic and Technological Challenges: Developing in the Arctic environment presents serious economic and technological challenges that could limit the speed of development.

Conclusion

Although the site and potential for conflict and competition over the Arctic region do exist, it is unlikely to be a direct replica of the 19th-century scramble for Africa. The factors that are likely to influence the future of the Arctic region include international cooperation, environmental concerns, and the rights of indigenous peoples.

There are numerous challenges India faces in terms of accessibility in its healthcare services. Some of the significant steps the country can take toward achieving this objective include the following:

Strengthen Primary Health Care:
-Investment in infrastructure: Upgrade and expand Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres in rural areas.
-Human resource development: Recruitment and retention of qualified medical officers, nursing staff, and other health professionals, especially in underserved areas.
-Preventive care: Preventive health care services comprise immunizations, family planning, and health education.

Public Health Care
-Public health expenditure should be enhanced to provide public hospitals and healthcare facilities with enough funding. This will enhance the quality of services in public hospitals by upgrading equipment, infrastructure, and developing mechanisms for quality assurance.
-Reduce Corruption: Eliminate corruption and poor management in the public healthcare system.

Promote Private-Public Partnerships:
-Partner with the private sector: Involves engaging the private sector to contribute towards the provision of healthcare in remote and resource-constrained setups.
-Regulate private sector: This is providing a strong framework that will enable private healthcare services to be offered that are not only quality and accessible.

Technology Leveraging:
-Telemedicine: Enhance expansion in telemedicine for easy reach and access into distant areas for better healthcare.
-Digital health records: Implement electronic health records to improve data management and patient care.
-Use of AI and data analytics: Use AI and data analytics to improve disease prediction, diagnosis, and treatment.

Health Education and Awareness:
-Healthy lifestyle promotion: Raise awareness on healthy lifestyles, including nutrition, exercise, and hygiene.
-Social determinants of health: Poverty, inequality, and environmental factors determine the health outcomes.

Healthcare Workforce:
-No. of medical education seats: Increase the no. of medical colleges and MBBS seat to replace the shortage of health professionals.
-Improvement in medical education: Improve the quality of medical education to produce skilled competent health professionals.

The Ayushman Bharat program, now Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), has the following strategic objectives:

It will provide access to universal healthcare. The policy ensures that there is quality medical care for citizens in India and all of the population, from whatever background one comes from.

-Reducing out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare: PM-JAY provides cashless and paperless healthcare services that reduce the burden of financial outlays on the individual and family during medical emergencies.

-Improving the quality of healthcare services: The scheme lays emphasis on quality healthcare and promotes the establishment of a network of empaneled hospitals with strict quality standards.

-Strengthening primary care: PM-JAY encourages the establishment of HWCs that deliver full-fledged primary healthcare at the doorsteps of all citizens.

Impact on Rural Indian Population:

The Ayushman Bharat has had the following impact on the rural population of India:

-Increased access to health care: To millions of people residing in rural areas, the program has significantly ensured quality health care is accessed. Many are from the economically weaker sections of society.

-Cost burden has reduced: Since PM-JAY covers most of the required medical expenses such as the hospital and surgery costs among others, the cost of health care as a burden upon rural households, has reduced.

It has also reduced catastrophic health expenditure. Earlier, many rural families were driven into poverty because of huge medical expenses. This platform has reduced the risk of catastrophic health expenditure, thereby enhancing the financial security of the household.

Women empowerment: PM-JAY provides special packages for women-related health issues that have empowered women in rural areas to acquire essential healthcare services.

Overall, Ayushman Bharat has transformed the entire healthcare landscape of rural India, availing quality health care services and reducing the financial burden associated with the same kind of medical expenses.

The “Once a Speaker, Always a Speaker” principle might have been designed to promote impartiality but may also prove a boon and a bane to efficient parliamentary business management in India.

Advantages:

It would highly increase the impartiality of the Speaker because there would be no chance of ever returning to active party politics and, hence, any perceived or actual biases that may result from future political ambitions.

Strengthen Democratic Norms: This convention would strengthen the non-partisan character of the office of the Speaker, hence improving the democratic process and further instilling confidence in the institution among the people.

Reduced Impact of Political Pressure: Since there is no hope of political benefits in the future, the Speaker may not be under so much pressure to make political decisions but rather make impartial ones.

It may be considered a limitation of the political career of someone holding the office of Speaker, thereby discouraging men and women of good standing from holding such an office.

-Potential Not to Join Party After Term Has Been Completed: The potential not to join their party once their term has been served would reduce the incentive for highly qualified people to seek the position of Speaker.

Detachment from Political Realities: A Speaker permanently disconnected in active politics may become disoriented from the dynamic political scenario and thus would not be able to efficiently preside over the business of parliament and understand the nuances of contemporary political oratory.

Constitutional Issues: It may even attract constitutional questions because it can breach one’s right to associate oneself or oneself with political activity.

Alternative approaches to the “Once a Speaker, Always a Speaker” principle can be utilized to neutralize the office of the Speaker as follows:

-Strengthening the existing norms and conventions: It could be in focusing on strengthening existing norms and conventions governing the office of the Speaker to be directed toward non-partisanship and impartiality.

-Public awareness of the importance of the Speaker’s neutrality as well as to the need of maintaining the office dignity.
-Policies on periodical and clear review of conduct of the Speaker so that judgment is perceived not to be arbitrary and concerns will be addressed.

This is a class of British policies in India with regard to economic exploitation and the interests of commerce from the British East India Company; thus, the category would be commercial policies.

-Monopoly in Trade: To begin with, the idea was to create a monopoly in the trade with India. That comprised stripping of trading rights on particular items such as spices without letting the activities of other European traders go unchecked.

Land Revenue Policies: “The Company introduced land revenue systems such as the Zamindari system to maximize revenue collection in favor of the Company. This system of tenancy often exploited Indian farmers and resulted in the accumulation of wealth by the Company.”.

– Promotion of Cash Crops: The Company encouraged cash crops such as cotton, indigo, and opium to be sold as exports to Britain at the cost of food crops, thus famines and economic hardship on the Indian farmers’ side.

De-industrialization of India: The Company positively encouraged the de-industrialization of India by policies which benefited British manufactured goods, thereby causing a demand for the product and hence increased profit to the Company.