DAY 121Quick read

In a capitalist economy, production takes place for selling the output in the market and is profit oriented. In a socialist economy, production takes place as per needs of the masses. The production of goods and services is based on supply and demand in the general market—known as a market economy—rather than through central planning—known as a planned economy or command economy.

Export revenues that a firm earns by selling its goods and services abroad is the 4th factor of calculating GDP based on the demand side of products. The method is also known as ‘Expenditure Method’. Value of change in inventories is one of the factors for GDP calculation based on the ‘Gross value added’ method. It reflects the supply side of products in the economy. Gross value added is defined as [Value of sales by the firm + Value of change in inventories – Value of intermediate goods used by the firm].

Market price includes indirect taxes. When indirect taxes are imposed on goods and services, their prices go up. We have to deduct them from NNP evaluated at market prices in order to calculate that part of NNP which actually accrues to the factors of production. Similarly, there may be subsidies granted by the government on the prices of some commodities (in India, petrol is heavily taxed by the government, whereas cooking gas is subsidised). So we need to add subsidies to the NNP evaluated at market prices. The measure that we obtain by doing so is called Net National Product at factor cost or National Income.

If the GDP of the country is rising, the welfare may not rise as a consequence. This is because the rise in GDP may be concentrated in the hands of very few individuals or firms. For the rest, the income may in fact have fallen.
Many activities in an economy are not evaluated in monetary terms. For example, the domestic services women perform at home are not paid for. This is a case of underestimation of GDP. Hence GDP calculated in the standard manner may not give us a clear indication of the productive activity.
Several economic activities may have a negative impact on society and the environment. For example, mining may cause respiratory issues among the laborers and construction may cause air pollution. Such negative externalities not only affect the welfare of people, but also affect productivity in the long term. GDP not including such externalities leads to overestimation.

Manav-Human Atlas Initiative aims to construct a comprehensive map of the entire human body which will explicitly document macro to micro level information. The project Manav will dramatically accelerate our understanding of the working of the human body and help design better therapeutic targets for treating diseases like cancer, diabetes and more. This project will require understanding, extracting and collating information from millions of scientific papers which would need a massive investment of time, effort and manpower.

Black holes were predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The Event Horizon Telescope has captured the just outside region of a black hole, located 55 million light-years from Earth, at the centre of a galaxy named Messier 87. The image shows a photon (light quantum) can orbit the black hole without falling in. This is called the ‘last photon ring’

The mission is an initiative of the Ministry of Railways. Elimination of unmanned crossings and train collision avoidance systems are the 2 submissions. Further, railway tracks are replaced through track renewal works which is an ongoing process. Superior and safer Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) Coaches having anti-climbing features have been progressively introduced on Indian Railways to reduce the fatalities in case of accidents. All staff including safety category staff are made to undergo structured training on a regular basis at various stages of their career. Safety category staff are also given training in Disaster Management with emphasis on Relief, Rescue and Rehabilitation.

It is a collaborative mission of the Department of Biotechnology and World Bank and implemented by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). The programme will help deliver 6-10 new products in the next five years, create several dedicated facilities for next-generation skills, and hundreds of jobs in the process. The initial focus will be on Vaccines for HPV, Dengue and biosimilars for cancer, diabetics and rheumatoid arthritis and medical devices and diagnostics.