Hindu Editorial Analysis Today – UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Model Answer

The approval of Qdenga (TAK-003) by India's CDSCO marks a significant advancement in dengue prevention. As India's first licensed dengue vaccine with WHO prequalification and approval in over 40 countries, it offers a new tool to reduce the burden of a disease that causes hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations annually. Crucially, unlike Dengvaxia, Qdenga does not require prior screening for previous dengue infection, making it more deployable in India's public health systems.

However, Qdenga's limitations must be clearly understood. Clinical evidence shows strong protection against DENV-1 and DENV-2 but more uncertain and limited protection against DENV-3 and DENV-4, particularly in dengue-naïve individuals. If DENV-3 or DENV-4 become the dominant circulating serotypes in India, the vaccine's population-level effectiveness could be substantially lower than expected. Affordability is another critical concern — if cost prevents the most vulnerable populations from accessing Qdenga, the vaccine's public health impact will be severely limited. The two-dose schedule also creates a risk of incomplete vaccination.

Dengue control must therefore remain integrated and comprehensive. Vaccination cannot substitute for Aedes mosquito control — breeding site elimination, community sanitation, fogging and public awareness remain essential. Government must negotiate subsidised procurement and consider universal immunisation in high-burden zones. Continuous serotype surveillance will be critical to monitor real-world effectiveness. Strengthening diagnostics and clinical management capacity will ensure that the vaccine's benefits are maximised within a broader, evidence-based dengue control strategy.

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Women's participation in the workforce is not merely a social justice imperative — it is a fundamental economic necessity for India's aspiration to become a developed nation by 2047. Despite significant improvements in female educational attainment, India's female labour force participation rate (LFPR) remains among the lowest globally, representing a massive underutilisation of human capital. Studies estimate that a 10 percentage-point increase in female LFPR could add nearly 2 percentage points to India's GDP growth.

Multiple interconnected barriers suppress women's workforce participation. Economically, the sluggish growth of labour-intensive manufacturing — the primary historical driver of women's formal employment — and the shift towards capital-intensive industries have limited job creation for women. Youth unemployment has doubled since 2012. Socially, persistent gender norms restrict women's mobility, safety concerns deter participation and disproportionate household care responsibilities — unpaid and largely unrecognised — prevent women from entering or remaining in the workforce. Structural deficits including limited childcare facilities, inadequate public transport, skill mismatches and weak implementation of maternity benefits compound these challenges.

The contrast between southern and northern states is instructive. Tamil Nadu's stronger female employment outcomes are linked to its manufacturing base in textiles, electronics and automobiles, better transport and hostel facilities near industrial zones and higher female literacy — a replicable model for lagging states.

India must expand labour-intensive industries, invest in affordable crèche and childcare infrastructure, enforce workplace safety laws including POSH, improve women's transport and hostel facilities, promote flexible formal employment and adopt gender-responsive labour policies and budgeting. Empowering women economically is simultaneously a social imperative, a rights-based obligation and the most powerful investment India can make in its future growth and human development.

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India is the world's second-largest supplier of seafarers, with approximately 3.2 lakh Indian citizens working on commercial vessels globally — constituting over 12% of the world's maritime workforce. As growing geopolitical tensions, Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, piracy in strategic maritime corridors and complex conflicts in West Asia expose Indian seafarers to unprecedented risks, protecting them must become a central dimension of India's foreign policy.

The major challenges are multidimensional. Most Indian seafarers work on ships registered under foreign flags, creating complex overlapping legal jurisdictions involving the Flag State, the coastal State, the ship owner's country and India. This complexity often means that responsibility for crew safety becomes legally uncertain during emergencies. Delays in consular access, inadequate emergency evacuation protocols, poor coordination among shipping companies, recruitment agencies and governments, and the absence of a comprehensive maritime consular framework further compound these vulnerabilities.

India has taken initial steps through the Seafarer First Mission, deployment of naval vessels in the Red Sea for escort duties and the creation of digital monitoring systems. However, tracking ships alone is insufficient without a comprehensive legal and diplomatic framework.

India must establish a dedicated maritime consular protocol with standardised emergency response, evacuation and repatriation procedures. Bilateral agreements with major Flag States — Panama, Liberia, the Marshall Islands — should explicitly provide for Indian consular access. India must leverage its maritime influence through the IMO and ILO to strengthen international seafarer protection norms. Mandatory pre-deployment risk disclosure by shipowners and recruitment agencies will empower seafarers to make informed decisions. Integrating seafarer protection into India's Blue Economy strategy and maritime diplomacy will reinforce India's credibility as a responsible maritime power and a reliable partner for its global diaspora.