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  • The new consumer

    The focus of this article is on the behavioural changes in the consumer post Covid. It also suggest the ways to deal with these changes.

    Context

    • The consumer during and post-COVID is showing remarkable flexibility, bringing about a paradigm shift in her consumption pattern.

    Issue of generating demand

    • Some state governments are busy demanding the opening up of the economy.
    • However, the issue is that the economy does not merely need opening up, but it requires urgent generation of basic demand.
    • That is why consumer behaviour needs to be closely watched.
    • Since the lockdown, the priorities of consumers have seen a drastic shift.

    Factors to consider to increase demand

    • 1) The decrease in the purchasing power to buy products needs to be addressed.
    • The government must look at ways like a reduction in taxes which will help the common man.
    • 2) The current scenario has also made all of us go back to the basic needs.
    • Luxury products hold little value. But renting will increase.
    • 3) The emphasis will be on saving for a rainy day, whether in the case of banks or households
    • 4) Aviation, tourism and hospitality sectors have been hit and continue to remain so even after the restrictions are lifted.
    • 5)  e-commerce has shown exponential growth and will continue to do so.
    • 6) With “Vocal for Local” gaining momentum, there’s a huge increase in local apps, local kirana stores, local artisans and brands.
    • 7) Schools and colleges have taken a hit as e-learning and online courses are being preferred.
    • 8) The entertainment industry has been drastically hit. The media and entertainment industry needs to pay heed to this and curate content accordingly.
    • 9) With a lot of people laying emphasis on their health and immunity, there’s been a substantial rise in the consumption of organic, ayurvedic, and immunity-boosting products.
    • Apart from the obvious products, financial and medical insurance will play an important role.
    • 10) Real estate will suffer as no long-term, high investment purchases will be favoured, but renting will increase.

    Role of the government

    • 1) People need to be provided with their daily needs — basic essentials such as food, water, housing, and electricity.
    • The government is already taking care of that, but money also needs to be given.
    • 2) Jobs need to be provided through development of infrastructure projects.
    • 3) Farmers need to have insurance for their crops and the infrastructure to sell at the right price.
    • 4) Migrant workers with their livelihoods being disrupted are looking for support,and many are focusing on agriculture as a means of income.

    Way forward

    • The government should focus on generating demand for products, and create jobs by improving infrastructure.
    • The government must incentivise spending by offering tax benefits on the amount spent.
    • Government must forget about fiscal prudence this year.
    • Consumers in rural areas are buying more than before.Companies should focus on tapping the rural demand

    Consider the question “Demand has been the driver of India’s growth. But the pandemic has dampened it with devastating effect. Agaist this backdrop suggest the measures to be taken by the government to revive the demand.”

    Conclusion

    With focus on these emerging trends and changing behaviour of the consumers, the government must take steps to bring the economy fast on the tracks.

  • What are Immunity Passports?

    There is a growing debate for a rethink on “immunity passport” to be handed out to those who have recovered from COVID-19 for the purpose of travel or work without restrictions of quarantine.

    Try this question form mains:

    Q.Discuss various ethical issues evolved during the outbreaks of pandemics (of the scale of COVID-19).

    Immunity Passports

    • They are the recovery or release certificate or a document attesting that its bearer is immune to a contagious disease.
    • The concept has drawn much attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential way to contain the pandemic and permit faster economic recovery.
    • The can be used as a legal document granted by a testing authority following a serology test demonstrating that the bearer has antibodies making them immune to a disease.

    What is the ongoing debate?

    • Experts argue that if reinfections were a significant problem, by now, there would have been hundreds or at least thousands of cases of reinfections at the global level.
    • Till such time effective vaccines become available people who have recovered from COVID-19 should be permitted to travel without restrictions.

    A case for consideration

    • Immune protection after infection/disease is always much more robust than most vaccines, and definitely than most COVID-19 vaccines in development.
    • Some of the vaccines undergoing clinical trials are mostly directed at a single or a couple of proteins (spike) of the virus.
    • But vaccines under trial that use the inactivated coronaviruses would expose the immune system to a whole range of viral proteins, much like natural infection and can produce immune responses.
    • However, it is not known if people who have experienced asymptomatic infection would show robust immune responses like those who have recovered from moderate or severe disease.

    Ethical issues involved

    • Issuing ‘immunity certificates’ to people who have recovered can be an ethical minefield.
    • Doctors do not generally prefer immunity to be induced by natural infection compared with vaccines. It seems logical, but there are multiple challenges.
    • There might be long-term health complications in those who had COVID-19, whereas the vaccine will have minimal or no adverse health consequences.
    • There is a danger that similar arguments will be made for other vaccine-preventable diseases for which we have a universal immunisation programme.

    There is also a public health risk of issuing immunity certificates:

    • People whose livelihood has have been affected would be encouraged to adopt risky behaviour so as to get infected rather than taking precautions to stay protected from the virus.
    • This would lead to a sharp increase in cases across the country with huge numbers requiring hospitalization.
    • Such a situation would lead to testing capabilities getting overwhelmed, crumbling of the health-care systems and increased deaths.

    Threats over malpractices:

    • Immunity certification will include a system for identification and monitoring, thus compromising privacy.
    • Other contentious issues would be profiteering by private labs performing tests, and the menace of fake certificates which we have already seen in some Indian states.
    • In the end, an immunity passport will further divide the society with different ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.

    Way forward

    • We need to look at COVID-19 with a sense of balance and not hysteria.
    • Terms such as immunity passports may not have relevance as we do not know anything about specific kinds of immune responses and the duration of protection in people.
    • There is currently not enough evidence about the effectiveness of antibody-mediated immunity to guarantee the accuracy of an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’.
    • The permission to travel or work should be decided on a case by case basis, according to the principles of ethics while dealing with a pandemic.

  • How Quit India movement gave a new direction to India’s freedom struggle?

    On August 8, 78 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi gave the call for British colonizers to “Quit India” and for the Indians to “do or die” to make this happen.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.With reference to the Indian freedom struggle, consider the following events:

    1. Mutiny in Royal Indian Navy
    2. Quit India Movement launched
    3. Second Round Table Conference

    What is the correct chronological sequence of the above events?(CSP 2017)

    (a) 1-2-3

    (b) 2-1-3

    (c) 3-2-1

    (d) 3-1-2

    What led to the events of August 1942?

    • While factors leading to such a movement had been building up, matters came to a head with the failure of the Cripps Mission.
    • World War II was raging, and a beleaguered British needed the cooperation of their colonial subjects in India.
    • To this end, in March 1942, a mission led by Sir Stafford Cripps arrived in India to meet leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League.
    • The idea was to secure India’s whole-hearted support in the war, in return for self-governance.
    • However, despite the promise of “the earliest possible realization of self-government in India”, the offer Cripps made was of dominion status, and not freedom.

    A final blow

    • The failures of the Cripps Mission made Mahatma Gandhi realize that freedom would be had only by fighting tooth and nail for it.
    • Though initially reluctant to launch a movement that could hamper Britain’s efforts to defeat Fascist forces in the World War, Congress eventually decided to launch a mass civil disobedience.
    • At the Working Committee meeting in Wardha in July 1942, it was decided the time had come for the movement to move into an active phase.

    The Gowalia Tank address and Gandhiji’s arrest

    • On August 8, Gandhiji addressed the people from Mumbai’s Gowalia Tank maidan with the ‘Do or Die’ mantra.
    • By August 9, Gandhi and all other senior Congress leaders had been jailed.
    • He was kept at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune, and later in the Yerawada jail.
    • It was during this time that Kasturba Gandhi died at the Aga Khan Palace.

    The slogan ‘Quit India’

    • While Gandhi gave the clarion call of Quit India, the slogan was coined by Yusuf Meherally, a socialist and trade unionist who also served as Mayor of Mumbai.
    • A few years ago, in 1928, it was Meherally who had coined the slogan “Simon Go Back”.

    Outcome: A people’s movement

    • The arrest of the leaders, however, failed to deter the masses. With no one to give directions, people took the movement into their own hands.
    • In Bombay, Poona and Ahmedabad, lakhs of people clashed with the police on August 9. On August 10, protests erupted in Delhi, UP and Bihar.
    • There were strikes, demonstrations and people’s marches in defiance of prohibitory orders in Kanpur, Patna, Varanasi, and Allahabad.
    • The protests spread rapidly into smaller towns and villages.
    • Till mid-September, police stations, courts, post offices and other symbols of government authority were attacked.
    • Railway tracks were blocked, students went on strike in schools and colleges across India, and distributed illegal nationalist literature.
    • Mill and factory workers in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Poona, Ahmednagar, and Jamshedpur stayed away for weeks.
    • In some places, the protests were violent, with bridges blown up, telegraph wires cut, and railway lines taken apart.

    Outcome

    • The Quit India movement was violently suppressed by the British – people were shot, lathi-charged, villages burnt and enormous fines imposed.
    • In the five months up to December 1942, an estimated 60,000 people had been thrown in jail.

    Significance

    • Soon after, Gandhi and almost the entire top Congress leadership was arrested and thus began a truly people-led movement in our freedom struggle.
    • Eventually dispersed violently by the British, it left behind a clear message that the British would have to leave India, and no other solution would be acceptable to its masses.

  • Boreal Summer Intra-Seasonal Oscillation (BSISO)

    Researchers at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad have reportedly found a way to better forecast the Boreal Summer Intra-Seasonal Oscillation (BSISO).

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.With reference to ‘Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)’ sometimes mentioned in the news while forecasting Indian monsoon, which of the following statements is/are correct? (CSP 2017)

    1. IOD phenomenon is characterized by a difference in sea surface temperature between tropical Western Indian Ocean and tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean.
    2. An IOD phenomenon can influence an El Nino’s impact on the monsoon.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    What is BSISO?

    • The BSISO of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) is one of the most prominent sources of short-term climate variability in the global monsoon system.
    • It is the movement of convection (heat) from the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean roughly every 10-50 days during the monsoon (June-September).
    • Compared with the related Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) it is more complex in nature, with prominent northward propagation and variability extending much further from the equator.
    • It represents the monsoon’s ‘active’ and ‘break’ periods, in which weeks of heavy rainfall give way to brilliant sunshine before starting all over again.
    • The active phase also enhances monsoon winds and hence the surface waves.

    Why predict BSISO behaviour?

    • Some phases of boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation or BSISO induce high wave activity in the north Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, the researchers claimed.
    • Wave forecast advisories based on the BSISO would be more useful for efficient coastal and marine management.
    • This finding has a great significance in developing seasonal and climate forecast service for waves and coastal erosion for India.

  • [pib] E-Sanjeevani Tele-Medicine Platform

    1.5 lakh teleconsultations were recently completed on the “eSanjeevani” and “eSanjeevani OPD” tele-medicine.

    Why Telemedicine?

    Telemedicine can increase the efficiency of care delivery, reduce expenses of caring for patients or transporting to another location, and can even keep patients out of the hospital.  

    E-Sanjeevani Platform

    • E-Sanjeevani is a platform-independent, browser-based application facilitating both doctor-to-doctor and patient-to-doctor tele-consultations.
    • It provides the ease of accessing the health records at the comforts of one’s home.
    • The application is based on invite-system which restricts it to the actual beneficiaries of the application.
    • It has a user-friendly interface which facilitates both tech-savvy and novice doctors/users in the rural and urban environment to access the application.
    • This eSanjeevani platform has enabled two types of telemedicine services viz. Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations.
    • The former is being implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWCs) programme.

    Services included:

    The telemedicine platform hosts speciality OPDs which include:

    • Gynaecology, Psychiatry, Dermatology, ENT, Ophthalmology, antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the AIDS/HIV patients, Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) etc

    With inputs from:

    https://www.cdac.in/index.aspx?id=hi_pr_eSanjeevani

  • Restructuring to cushion impact on the economy

    “The article analyses the present scenario of the economy and impact of the steps taken by the central bank and the government.” 

    Context

    • Monetary policy committee (MPC) members, through a unanimous vote, decided to keep policy rates unchanged.
    • MPC also maintained an accommodative stance.
    • This was the result of inflation hovering around 6% i.e. above the MPCs target of 4%.

    Restructuring package after moratorium ends

    • Moratorium on loans ends 31 August, RBI said the way forward is a restructuring package for businesses and households.
    • Recent data released by large banks indicate that there has been a sizeable reduction in moratorium in June from 50% in April for all scheduled commercial banks (SCBs).
    • As economic activity normalizes further, the need for restructuring will be even lower.

    What do the trends indicate

    • Most indicators—manufacturing and services Purchasing Managers’ Index(PMI’s) electricity output, vehicle sales, exports, imports—point to economic momentum settling at 10-15% below covid levels in the near-term.
    • The RBI’s consumer confidence survey—gauge of consumer spending—was at its lowest in May, and the one-year outlook is not promising.
    • This implies that consumption demand, especially discretionary demand, will be far lower.
    • With muted consumption, capacity utilization, which had fallen to 68.2% last December, has fallen further in the last few months.
    • Thus, investment demand is not likely to see upward momentum in the near term, even with lower interest rates.

    How RBI’s intervention made the difference

    • An economic slowdown of such proportions leads to an increase in risk premium.
    • Rating upgrade to downgrade ratio of the corporate sector had fallen to 0.05 as in May from a high of 1.11 in December 2018.
    • Spread between 3-year AAA corporate bonds and sovereign bonds rose to 276 basis points on 26 March.
    • But the spread has since fallen to 50bps.
    • This was possible because of the abundant liquidity made available by RBI and credit enhancement provided by the government.

    Way forward

    • RBI and the government will have to work together to revive demand.
    • Centre has already expanded its gross borrowing to ₹12 trillion.
    • Even with net tax collections at 53% of last year’s levels, the Centre has increased its spending by 13% over 2019-20.
    • The government better understand that this is the time to apply Keynesian economics.
    • Global central banks have become large buyers of sovereign debt to support the larger roles being played the governments.
    • In India, too, the Centre and states will have to spend to crowd-in private sector spending.
    • RBI’s role will be important not only as the lender of last resort but also as a buyer of government securities.
    • It has carried out its function as a central bank well, and brought a semblance of stability to financial markets.
    • It will have to do the same in the sovereign bond market.
    • More importantly, it will have to remain vigilant of impending risks to growth and inflation, and be ready to act.

    Consider the question “To what extent the steps taken by the RBI and the government to stabilise the economy battered by the covid pandemic were helpful? 

     Conclusion

    As India’s central bank comes towards the end of its interest rate reduction cycle, it will have to navigate the economy through financial and macroeconomic stability. The government will also have to act in tandem with the central bank in steering the economy through this storm.

    Original

    articles:https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/opinion-restructuring-to-cushion-impact-on-the-economy-11596758908360.html

  • Importance of increasing the income of those at the bottom of income pyramid

    India’s growth has been fuelled by demand which has dampened owing to various factors. One untapped source of demand could be the group which lies at the bottom of income pyramid. This article suggests the ways to increase the income of this group.

    Structural demand problem

    • India’s structural demand problem predates the COVID-19 shock.
    • This problem has been compounded after lockdown as jobs have been lost and incomes have collapsed.
    • Boosting domestic demand is critical for an economic revival as external demand is likely to remain muted.
    • It is argued that India’s growth story has been driven by demand generated by those who are at the top of India’s socio-economic pyramid
    • But the demand from that section has now plateaued.

    So, where the demand is going to come from?

    •  Turn to those at the bottom of the pyramid.
    • Those at the bottom of pyramid have a high marginal propensity to consume.
    • But realising the untapped demand potential of this group requires enhancing their incomes and earnings.

    Division of India’s workforce

    • Periodic Labour Force Survey (2018-19) tells us that less than 10 per cent of the workforce is engaged in regular formal jobs.
    • Another 14 per cent are engaged in regular informal jobs with average monthly earnings (Rs 9,500), which is roughly equivalent to or slightly below a minimum wage.
    • The self-employed and casual workers account for 50 per cent and 24 per cent of the workforce respectively and report average earnings that are considerably below a decent minimum amount.
    • Casual workers, who are unlikely to receive work on every day of the month, are at the bottom of the employment structure.

    How to increase the earning of those at the bottom of employment structure

    • Devising strategies that enhance productivity growth in the informal economy could increase their income.
    • Raising the minimum wages of the worst-off workers.
    • At present, under the Minimum Wage Act,  India has a complex set of minimum wages which offer different wages by occupation type and skill levels.
    • The Code on Wages (2019) seeks to universalise minimum wages and extend them to the unorganised sector.

    Way forward

    • 1) Ensuring a decent minimum wage for those who are the bottom of the distribution — the casual labour, would be helpful in this context.
    • This will help set a higher wage floor for others engaged in low-paid work, including regular informal workers.
    • 2) It is also important that minimum wages are paid in public workfare programmes too, in particular MGNREGA works.
    • At present, MGNREGA wages are not covered under the Minimum Wages Act.
    • 3) The minimum wage can be linked to the consumption expenditure of the relatively better-off group of workers.

    Consider the question “India’s growth story is scripted by demand which has been tapering off. The new source of demand could be those at the bottom of income structure. Suggest the strategies to increase the income of this group which could then translate into demand.”

    Conclusion

    The Indian employment challenge today cannot be seen independently of the problem of inadequate income. The above intervention will not only enable income enhancement of those in low-paid work but also add fuel to demand and growth, this time from those at the bottom of the distribution.

  • Digital realities of India

    Context

    • Google has recently announced a decision to invest $10 billion in India.
    • To put that sum in context, it is over 10 times the money set aside for 100 smart cities and almost 20 times that for Digital India.
    • Purpose of that investment is stated to be digitising India.

    Digital realities of India Google must consider:

    1) Contradictions

    •  India recognises the internet as a human right, and yet, has led the world in internet shutdowns.
    • Its internet speeds can be slow and variable, but its uptake of smartphones is the world’s fastest.
    • It is second only to China in internet users, app downloads and social media users.

    2) Lack of access to internet

    • Only 21 per cent of women are mobile internet users, while the percentage for men is twice that number.
    • There are many societal factors that make it difficult for women and girls to enjoy full digital freedoms.
    • In rural India, where two-thirds of the country lives, just about a quarter of the population has internet access.
    • Differences in digital access mean differences in the quality of education.
    • The gaps are both digital and societal.

    3) Lack of access to banks

    •  India’s workforce is mostly informal.
    • Only 22 per cent of recipients of migrant remittances have access to banks within one km, according to a report by the Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion.
    • A push from Google and its competitors could make payments and financial access more inclusive.

    4) Need for special products for India

    • you mention new products for India’s unique needs, of which there are many.
    • Consider the needs in the agricultural sector alone.
    • Impac of predictive data analytics and basic artificial intelligence into Indian agriculture using readily available technologies would be huge.
    • Precision farming to improve the timing and quantity of seeding, irrigation and fertiliser usage.
    • Helping farmers get credit at lower costs and helping predict commodity prices can create $33 billion in new value annually in Indian agriculture.

    5) Lack of data governance and issues with it

    • Nandan Nilekani has said, India will be data rich before it is “economically rich”.
    • With 650 million internet users, there is a lot of data richness already.
    • But this data richness exists without a forward-looking and inclusive data governance policy.
    • The experience with Aarogya Setu, provided a perfect case study on the discomfort within India because of the absence of such governance.

    6) Prevalence of misinformation

    • It is essential to get a handle on the “infodemic” problem in India.
    • The situation was made far worse by the pandemic, where many of the prejudices, fears have converged.
    • Google-owned YouTube is a critical medium for spreading information, fact and fiction.
    • To its credit, YouTube removed over 8,20,000 videos in India in the first quarter of 2020.
    • This is a great start, but the bad guys will only find ways around it and Google must make deeper investments in both human and machine intelligence to stay ahead.

    7) Geopolitical context

    • India is inching closer to the US corner in the tech Cold War between the US and China.
    • India-China relationship has cooled this year as a fallout from the political tensions between New Delhi and Beijing.
    • India acted against Chinese ByteDance-owned video streaming app TikTok, along with 59 mobile apps.
    • Google’s role will be important as a bargaining chip against China and the partnership with Jio.
    • This important role may help Google get some domestic leverage with Indian regulators.

    8) Job creation

    • Digital technologies can create jobs.
    • For this to happen India must streamline the regulations to enhancing the country’s digital and physical foundations.
    • There is also need for developing more progressive data accessibility laws.
    • To translate into productive work, the government must invest in skill-building and education at all levels.

    Consider the question “Digitising India could accelerate its progress toward development but there are certain factors which must be addressed before India could reap benefits of digitising. Examine such factors and suggest the ways to deal with the issues in digitising the country.”

    Conclusion

    There is a lot Google can take while working on the task of digitising India. But the above-mentioned factors will help Google chart out its journey well.

    Original articles:

    https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/sundar-pichai-google-education-digital-india-6544793/

  • Why August 7th is called National Handloom Day?

    Yesterday, August 7th was celebrated as the National Handloom Day. It was in 2015, the first National Handloom Day was celebrated.

    Try this PYQ:

    What was the immediate cause for the launch of the Swadeshi movement? (CSP 2010)

    (a) The partition of Bengal done by Lord Curzon.

    (b) A sentence of 18 months rigorous imprisonment imposed on Lokmanya Tilak.

    (c) The arrest and deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh; and passing of the Punjab Colonization Bill.

    (d) Death sentence pronounced on the Chapekar brothers.

    Why 7th August?

    • With the partition of Bengal, the Swadeshi Movement gained strength.
    • It was on August 7, 1905, that a formal proclamation was made at the Calcutta Town Hall to boycott foreign goods and rely on Indian-made products.

    What is handloom?

    • While different definitions for the word have evolved since the Handloom (Reservation and Articles for Production) Act, 1985, where ‘handloom’ meant “any loom other than power loom”, in recent years it has become more elaborate.
    • In 2012, a new definition was proposed: “Handloom means any loom other than power loom, and includes any hybrid loom on which at least one process of weaving requires manual intervention or human energy for production.”

    Back2Basics: Swadeshi Movement

    • Credit to starting the Swadeshi movement goes to Baba Ram Singh Kuka of the Sikh Namdhari sect, whose revolutionary movements which heightened around 1871 and 1872.
    • It gained momentum with the partition of Bengal by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon in 1905 and continued up to 1911.
    • It was the most successful of the pre-Gandhian movements.
    • Its chief architects were Aurobindo Ghosh, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, Babu Genu.
    • Swadeshi, as a strategy, was a key focus of Mahatma Gandhi, who described it as the soul of Swaraj (self-rule). It was strongest in Bengal and was also called the Vandemataram movement in India.

    Important phases of the Movement

    • 1850 to 1904: developed by leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji, Gokhale, Ranade, Tilak, G. V. Joshi and Bhaswat K. Nigoni. This was also known as the First Swadeshi Movement.
    • 1905 to 1917: Began in 1905, because of the partition of Bengal ordered by Lord Curzon.
    • 1918 to 1947: Swadeshi thought shaped by Gandhi.

  • Exercise Kavkaz 2020

    In a resumption of bilateral and multilateral military exercises which were deferred due to coronavirus (COVID-19), India will take part in the Russian Kavkaz 2020 strategic command-post exercise next month.

    Go through the list for once. UPSC may ask a match the pair type question asking exercise name and countries involved.

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/prelims-spotlight-defence-exercises/

    Kavkaz 2020

    • The Kavkaz 2020 is also referred to as Caucasus-2020.
    • The exercise is aimed at assessing the ability of the armed forces to ensure military security in Russia’s southwest, where serious terrorist threats persist and preparing for the strategic command-staff drills.
    • The main training grounds that will be involved are located in the Southern Military District.
    • The invitation for participation has been extended to at least 18 countries including China, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey apart from other Central Asian Republics part of the SCO.