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GS Paper: GS2

  • UK invites India to attend G7 Summit

    The United Kingdom has invited PM Modi to attend the G7 summit that is scheduled to be held in June.

    Note the members of G7 and G20. UPSC may puzzle you asking which G20 nation isn’t a member of G7.

    G7 Countries

    • The G-7 or ‘Group of Seven’ includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
    • It is an intergovernmental organisation that was formed in 1975 by the top economies of the time as an informal forum to discuss pressing world issues.
    • Initially, it was formed as an effort by the US and its allies to discuss economic issues.
    • The G-7 forum now discusses several challenges such as oil prices and many pressing issues such as financial crises, terrorism, arms control, and drug trafficking.
    • It does not have a formal constitution or a fixed headquarters. The decisions taken by leaders during annual summits are non-binding.
    • Canada joined the group in 1976, and the European Union began attending in 1977.

    Evolution of the G-7

    • When it started in 1975—with six members, Canada joining a year later—it represented about 70% of the world economy.
    • And it was a cozy club for tackling issues such as the response to oil shocks.
    • Now it accounts for about 40% of global GDP.
    • Since the global financial crisis of 2007-09, it has sometimes been overshadowed by the broader g20.
    • The G-7 became the G-8 in 1997 when Russia was invited to join.
    • In 2014, Russia was debarred after it took over Crimea.

    Significance of G7 for India

    • India will get more voice, more influence, and more power by entering the G7.
    • After the UN Security Council (UNSC), this is the most influential grouping.
    • If the group is expanded it will collectively address the humongous issues created by the Wuhan virus,
    • Diplomatically, a seat at the high table could help India further its security and foreign policy interests, especially at the nuclear club and UN Security Council reform as well as protecting its interests in the Indian Ocean.

    Back2Basics: The G-20

    • The G-20 is a larger group of countries, which also includes G7 members.
    • The G-20 was formed in 1999, in response to a felt need to bring more countries on board to address global economic concerns.
    • Apart from the G-7 countries, the G-20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey.
    • Together, the G-20 countries make up around 80% of the world’s economy.
    • As opposed to the G-7, which discusses a broad range of issues, deliberations at the G-20 are confined to those concerning the global economy and financial markets.
    • India is slated to host a G-20 summit in 2022.

  • Problem of control and governance of knowledge in a globalised world

    The article highlights the issues with the criteria applied by the UGC to evaluate the faculty research.

    Impact of UGC standardisation on social sciences and humanities research

    • UGC has been the regulatory body responsible for maintaining standards in higher education, while addressing challenges of globalisation.
    • Processes of UGC mandated standardisation have in particular impacted social sciences and humanities research in Indian universities.
    • Over the years, UGC has linked institutional funding to ranking and accreditation systems like NAAC and NIRF.
    • In order to evaluate institutions, these bodies have evolved  criteria, which rank universities based on faculty research measured by citations in global journal databases like SCOPUS.
    • In comparison, importance granted to research outputs like books or other forms is declining.

    Issues with the criteria

    • The insistence of publication in journals fails to distinguish between the varied trajectory of disciplines.
    • While in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Management) disciplines, research is often highly objective and quantified.
    • In social sciences and humanities research is subjective, analytical and argumentative.
    • In disciplines like history, sociology, politics, philosophy, psychology and literature, researchers spend years writing books that engage with ideas in complex ways.
    • In devaluing books as authentic forms of research, UGC does major disservice to scholars of social sciences and humanities.
    • Due to emphasis on publication, teachers spend most of their productive time writing articles and getting them published, thereby missing out on quality engagement with pedagogy and research.

    Issues with the process of peer review

    • The process of peer review itself is subjective, and depends upon the knowledge, inclination and availability of time of the particular reviewer.
    • It is often quite challenging for scholars to meet peer-review standards of A-listed journals.
    • This has actually required the UGC to expand its own list, ending up including and subsequently deleting a large number of locally published journals.

    Issue of inaccessibility

    • Publication of research in paywalled journal databases makes research inaccessible for students as universities continue to cut down library budgets.
    • Students and teachers, access articles through pirated sites like Libgen and Scihub, prone to be shut down at any point of time as evident from the litigations.
    • Clearly, access to knowledge is structurally made inequitable in favour of the elite and/or moneyed institutions and their constituents.

    Way forward

    • The above arguments maintain for the possible multiplicity that can emerge as the end-result of research.
    • Interdisciplinary and practice-based research can throw up social and ecological experiments, artworks and performances, and numerous new outcomes yet to be conceived as research outputs.
    • While the UGC hopes to raise the standards to global levels, precarity of employment, longer teaching hours, a dismal student-teacher ratio, lack of sabbaticals, research and travel grants, access to research facilities and office space, adversely impact the research potential of teachers.
    • Regulating research needs to be replaced with facilitating research, allowing minds to think and gestate.
    • Regulations without facilitation will merely bureaucratise the governance of knowledge without generating any pathbreaking insights.

    Conclusion

    The UGC needs to widen its criteria which values publication of a book as much as a research paper in the mandated journal to widen the research in social sciences and humanities.

  • Russia withdraws from Open Skies Treaty

    Russia has announced that it was pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty, saying that the pact had been seriously compromised by the withdrawal of the United States.

    The New START, INF and now the OST …. Be clear about the differences of these treaties. For example- to check if their inception was during cold war era etc.

    Open Skies Treaty (OST)

    • OST is an agreement that allows countries to monitor signatories’ arms development by conducting surveillance flights over each other’s territories.
    • The idea behind the OST was first proposed in the early years of the Cold War by former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.
    • It came to existence decades later and was signed in 1992, during the George H.W. Bush presidency and after the Soviet Union had collapsed.
    • The OST came into effect in 2002 under the George W. Bush administration and it allows its 34 signatories to conduct unarmed reconnaissance flights over the territory of treaty countries.

    Issues with the OST

    • The U.S. has used the treaty more intensively than Russia.
    • Between 2002 and 2016, the U.S. flew 196 flights over Russia (in addition to having imagery from other countries) compared to the 71 flights flown by Russia.

  • Nepal once again raises Kalapani Boundary Issue

    Nepal has raised the Kalapani boundary dispute with India during the Joint Commission meeting of the Foreign Ministers.

    Q.The India-Nepal bilateral relations these days are increasingly seen through the lens of China factor. Examine.

    Kalapani Boundary Issue

    • Mapped within Uttarakhand is a 372-sq km area called Kalapani, bordering far-west Nepal and Tibet.
    • A treaty signed between Nepal and British India in 1816 determined the Makhali river, that runs through Kalapani, as the boundary between the two neighbours.
    • The Treaty of Sugauli concluded between British India and the Kingdom of Nepal in the year 1816, maps the Makhali River as the western boundary with India.
    • But different British maps showed the source of the tributary at different places which were mainly due to underdeveloped and less-defined surveying techniques used at that time.
    • However, the river has many tributaries that meet at Kalapani. For this reason, India claims that the river begins at Kalapani but Nepal says that it begins from Lipu Lekh pass, which is the source of most of its tributaries.
    • While the Nepal government and political parties have protested, India has said the new map does not revise the existing boundary with Nepal.
    • India claims that the river begins at Kalapani but Nepal says that it begins from Lipu Lekh pass, which is the source of most of its tributaries.

    Legal Dimension of Issue

    According to International Laws, the principles of avulsion and accretion are applicable in determining the borders when a boundary river changes course.

    • Avulsion: It is the pushing back of the shoreline by sudden, violent action of the elements, perceptible while in progress. Also, it can be defined as the sudden and perceptible change in the land brought about by water, which may result in the addition or removal of land from a bank or shoreline.
    • Accretion: It is the process of growth or enlargement by a gradual buildup. It is the natural, slow and gradual deposit of soil by the water.

    If the change of the river course is rapid – by avulsion – the boundary does not change. But if the river changes course gradually – that is, by accretion – the boundary changes accordingly.

    Since, the Gandak change, of course, has been gradual, India claimed Susta as part of their territory as per international laws.

    • On several occasions, India has tried to resolve the issue through friendly and peaceful negotiations, but the Nepali leadership has always shown hesitation in resolving the issue.
    • In Nepal, the issue has become a tool for arousing strong public sentiment against India. Therefore, resolving the issue may not be in the best interest of Nepal’s domestic politics.

    Significance for India

    • The Lipu Lekh pass serves strategic importance for India as a key point to monitor Chinese troop movement.
    • The link road via Lipulekh Himalayan Pass is also considered one of the shortest and most feasible trade routes between India and China.
    • The Nepalese reaction would probably have triggered in response to Chinese assertion.

    An undefined boundary claimed by Nepal

    • Nepal’s western boundary with India was marked out in the Treaty of Sugauli between the East India Company and Nepal in 1816.
    • Nepali authorities claim that people living in the low-density area were included in the Census of Nepal until 58 years ago.
    • Five years ago, Nepali Foreign Minister had claimed that the late King Mahendra “handed over the territory to India”.
    • By some accounts in Nepal, this allegedly took place in the wake of India-China War of 1962.

    Must read:

    [Burning Issue] India-Nepal Border Row

  • [pib] PMKVY 3.0

    The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 3.0.

    Note the differences between all three versions of PMKVY.

    PMKVY 3.0

    • PMKVY 3.0 envisages training of eight lakh candidates over the scheme period of 2020-2021.
    • This phase three will focus on new-age and COVID-related skills.
    • The 729 PM Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs), empanelled non-PMKK training centres and more than 200 industrial training institutes under Skill India will be rolling out under it.
    • On the basis of the learning gained from PMKVY 1.0 and PMKVY 2.0, the MSDE has improved the newer version of the scheme to match the current policy doctrine and energize the skilling ecosystem.

    Implementation

    • PMKVY 3.0 will be implemented in a more decentralized structure with greater responsibilities and support from States/UTs and Districts.
    • District Skill Committees (DSCs), under the guidance of State Skill Development Missions (SSDM), shall play a key role in addressing the skill gap and assessing demand at the district level.
    • The new scheme will be more trainee- and learner-centric addressing the ambitions of aspirational Bharat.
    • PMKVY 2.0 broadened the skill development with the inclusion of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and focus on training.
    • With the advent of PMKVY 3.0, the focus is on bridging the demand-supply gap by promoting skill development in areas of new-age and Industry 4.0 job roles.

    Back2Basics: PMKVY 1.0

    • PMKVY is a skill development initiative scheme of the Government of India for recognition and standardization of skills launched on16 July 2015;.
    • The aim of the scheme is to encourage aptitude towards employable skills and to increase the working efficiency of probable and existing daily wage earners, by giving monetary awards and rewards and by providing quality training to them.
    • For this qualification plans and quality, plans have been developed by various Sector Skill Councils (SSC) created with the participation of Industries.
    • National Skill Development Council (NSDC) has been made coordinating and driving agency for the same.

  • The ‘Difficult Four’ Countries

    A UK think-tank ‘Royal Institute of International Affairs’ has listed India in ‘Difficult 4’; clubs India with China, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

    This newscard helps analyse the Western esp. that of the EU’s perception of India and its global image under the present regime.

    What is the news?

    • A report called ‘Global Britain, Global Broker’ has warned the UK government to consider India as more of a rival that a cooperative partner.
    • It accepts the fact that India is set to be the largest country in the world by population very soon and will have the third-largest economy and defence budget at some point in this decade.
    • But it cautions that gaining direct national benefit from the relationship, whether economically or diplomatically, will be difficult for the UK government.
    • The report also accepts India’s importance to the UK as being “inescapable”.

    The ‘Difficult Four’

    • Clubbing India with China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey as the “difficult four”, the report says the Johnson government should be more realistic about developing deeper ties with India.
    • They may be important to the UK’s commercial interests, but they will be rivals or, at best, awkward counterparts on many of its global goals, the report warns.
    • India is now classed as a country, destined to count among the UK’s “rivals” or “awkward counterparts” as it pursues its global goals.

    India has had bitter (colonial) past

    • The think-tank strikes a note of caution over the two countries’ shared colonial history proving a stumbling block to the promise of a deeper relationship.
    • India has a long and consistent record of resisting being corralled into a ‘Western’ camp.
    • As a result, India is always on the list of countries with which a new UK government commits to engage.
    • But it should be obvious by now that the idea of a deeper relationship with India always promises more than it can deliver.
    • The legacy of British colonial rule consistently curdles the relationship.

    Indian flaws

    • The report points to India’s “complex, fragmented domestic politics”, which make it one of the countries resistant to open trade and foreign investment.
    • It highlights concerns raised by domestic groups as well as the UN over a “crackdown on human rights activists and civil society groups” not being actively challenged by the judiciary.
    • It raises concern over India’s pursuance of extreme right-winged policies. Indian domestic politics also has entered a more ethnic-nationalist phase, the report argues.
    • Against this backdrop, the report reflects on the prospect of including India within any new Democratic 10 or D10 coalition of 10 leading democracies.

    Try this question from 2019 CS Mains:

     

    Q.What are the challenges to our cultural practices in the name of secularism? (150W)

    UK’s resentment

    • In a critique of India’s diplomatic behaviour, the report points out that despite border clashes with China, “India did not join the group of countries that criticized China at the UN in July 2019 over HR violations in Xinjiang.
    • India has also been muted in its criticism of the passage of the new national security law in Hong Kong.

  • Covid-19 vaccine policy

    The article explains the challenge in the vaccination program for the Covid-19 vaccine.

    Issue of lack of data about the vaccine

    • In the COVID vaccine roll out, there is no clear data for either of the two vaccines proposed for use in the programme.
    • We do not know if they provide protection for life, for a year or six months, its efficacy among the elderly or the very sick or in stopping new infections.
    • Getting such data requires at least three years and cannot be obtained in a few months.

    Guidelines for implementing vaccine programme

    • Given these limitations, the government has drawn up strategic guidelines for implementing an vaccine programme covering 30 crore people by July.
    • The guidelines draw upon the knowledge of running national campaigns acquired over three decades of implementing the Universal Immunisation Programme.
    • These guidelines detail the skills, roles and responsibilities of the required human resources, logistics for delivering vaccines at point of use, physical infrastructure, monitoring systems based on digital platforms and feedback systems for reporting adverse events.
    • The approach involves 19 departments, donor organisations and NGOs at the national, state, district and block level.
    • The guidelines also mention the priority criteria — caregivers, front line workers of the departments of health, defence, municipalities and transportation; persons above the age of 50 and those below 50 having diabetes, hypertension, cancers and lung diseases.

    Issues with the guidelines

    • Of the 28,932 cold chain points, half are in the five southern states, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
    • Combined with poor human resources — doctors, nurses, pharmacists — a weak private sector, poor safety and hygiene standards, frequent power outages, poor infrastructure, the capacity to implement with the expected speed, quality and accuracy is daunting.
    • The immunisation can disrupt routine health service delivery — antenatal care, national programmes like those pertaining to TB or other immunisation drives.
    • While data for the above-50-year-olds is available in the electoral rolls, line listing of the under 50s with comorbidities can be challenging.
    • Not only are urban-rural variations substantial, but urban areas have weak public health infrastructure and a multiple number of private providers due to the poor implementation of the Clinical Establishment Act, 2010.
    • Patient tracking can be problematic.
    • The non-availability of efficacy data could also impact the procurement and supply of vaccines, result in huge wastage, and can introduce scope for errors and duplication.

    Way forward

    • Central to the success of the roll out will be the confidence of the people in the vaccines.
    • Coming out of this messy situation is necessary and one option — as adopted for the polio eradication programme — is to establish an independent team of experts under the aegis of the WHO to ensure the safety of the vaccine.
    • This will create confidence in the community and international authorities as well.

    Conclusion

    it is important to understand that vaccination is an incomplete solution to ending the epidemic, since the virus is mutating. Adopting safe behaviour is.

  • Europe’s China gambit will fall short of its stated goals

    Thought the article is not directly related to India, the conclusion of the investment treaty between the EU and China serves as the prelude to the post-pandemic world order which surely matters for India. The article explains the implications of the agreement.

    Investment agreement between EU and China

    • Recently, the EU and China announced the completion of a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) between the two.
    • The CAI gives European firms enhanced access to the Chinese market, removes (or relaxes) Chinese government requirements on joint ventures and technology transfer in some sectors.
    • The European Commission has claimed that the CAI allows the EU to maintain its “policy space”, especially in “sensitive” sectors such as energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and public services
    • The deal also promises equal treatment with state enterprises and greater regulatory transparency in China.
    • Moreover, the Chinese government has undertaken some obligations on environmental sustainability and labour rights, notably by agreeing to make “continued and sustained efforts” to ratify the Forced Labour Convention.

    Reaction to the agreement

    • The US reaction ranged from disappointment to outright hostility.
    • The incoming Biden administration would have preferred a unified front against China, by striking an economic deal with Europe first.
    • For others, it was the EU’s apparent misjudgement on China’s human rights promises.

    Post-pandemic world order and role of democracies

    • The Europe-China agreement underscores a fundamental question of the post-pandemic world order: Can democracies remain true to their values while engaging in trade and investment with China?
    • To answer that, we must recognize two facts.
    • First, it is impossible to decouple the economies of the West from the Chinese economy without causing an economic catastrophe.
    • Second, there is little that Western countries can do to reshape China’s state-driven economic model or repressive human- and labour-rights regime.

    What should be the approach in dealing with China

    • The West should pursue more limited, more attainable, and ultimately more defensible goals.
    • Two goals are paramount.
    • First, trade and investment rules should be such that Western firms and consumers are not directly complicit in human-rights abuses in China.
    • Second, such rules should safeguard democratic countries against Chinese practices that could undermine their domestic institutional arrangements on labour, environment, technology, and national security.

    Lack of clarity over arbitration mechanism

    • The agreement contains an arbitration scheme that enables the parties to bring violation complaints against each other.
    • Arbitration scheme could serve as a means for the Chinese government to challenge specific entry barriers against Chinese firms.
    • How much this mechanism will be sensitive towards the issues such as treatment given to workers or the environmental protection is not clear.
    • Similarly, how much deference will panels show to exceptions to market access based on “national security” considerations is not clear.

    Conclusion

    We should not judge the CAI by whether it enables Europe to export its system and values. We should judge it by whether it allows Europe to remain true to its own.

  • Issues with suspension of the Farm laws

    The article deals with the recent Supreme Court order in which it suspended the implementation of the Farm Acts. This order gives rise to several issues. The article deals with these issues.

    What is the issue

    • The Supreme Court has suspended the implementation of the farm laws.
    • The court created a committee to ascertain the various grievances of the farmers.
    • But the Supreme Court has not clarified the legal basis of this suspension.

    What are the issues with the suspension?

    • The court’s action, at first sight, is a violation of separation of powers.
    • It also gives the misleading impression that a distributive conflict can be resolved by technical or judicial means.
    • It is also not a court’s job to mediate a political dispute.
    • Its job is to determine unconstitutionality or illegality.
    • Even in suspending laws there needs to be some prima facie case that these lapses might have taken place.
    • It has set a new precedent for putting on hold laws passed by Parliament without substantive hearings on the content of the laws.
    • Also in appointing the committee, the court has violated the first rule of mediation: The mediators must be acceptable to all parties and appointed in consultation with them.

    Conclusion

    The Supreme Court order has given the government a setback while not addressing the concerns of the protesting farmers. The court needs to consider these facts and mend its implications.

  • Reclaiming SAARC

    The article examines the issues are making it difficult to function and suggests its revival.

    Dysfunctional SAARC and its implications

    • The year 2020 marked the sixth year since the leaders of the eight nations that make up SAARC were able to meet.
    • India-Pakistan issues have impacted other meetings of SAARC as well.
    • Inactive SAARC is making it easier for member countries, as well as international agencies, to deal with South Asia as a fragmented group.
    • India’s refusal to allow Pakistan to host the SAARC summit is akin to giving Pakistan a ‘veto’ over the entire SAARC process.
    • The events of 2020, particularly the novel coronavirus pandemic and China’s aggressions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) shone a new spotlight on this mechanism.
    • This should make the government review its position and reverse that trend.

    Reasons India should review its position on SAARC

    1) India attend other forums with Pakistan

    • India continued to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meetings along with their Pakistani counterparts.
    • While China’s incursions in Ladakh constituted the larger concern in the year, India did not decline to attend meetings with the Chinese leadership at the SCO, the Russia-India-China trilateral, the G-20 and others.
    • No concerns over territorial claims stopped the government from engaging with Nepal either.

    2) Pandemic caused challenges

    • Reviving SAARC is crucial to countering the common challenges brought about by the pandemic.
    • Studies have shown that South Asia’s experience of the pandemic has been unique from other regions of the world.
    • This experience needs to be studied further in a comprehensive manner in order to counter future pandemics.
    • Such an approach is also necessary for the distribution and further trials needed for vaccines, as well as developing cold storage chains for the vast market that South Asia represents.

    3) Impact of the pandemic on economies of South Asia

    • Apart from the overall GDP slowdown, global job cuts which will lead to an estimated 22% fall in revenue for migrant labour and expatriates from South Asian countries.
    • World Bank have suggested that South Asian countries work as a collective to set standards for labour from the region, and also to promoting a more intra-regional, transnational approach towards tourism, citing successful examples including the ‘East Africa Single Joint Visa’ system.
    • In the longer term, there will be a shift in priorities towards health security, food security, and job security, that will also benefit from an “all-of” South Asia approach.
    • While it will be impossible for countries to cut themselves off from the global market entirely, regional initiatives will become the “Goldilocks option”.

    4) Dealing with the China challenge

    • In dealing with the challenge from China too, both at India’s borders and in its neighbourhood, a unified South Asian platform remains India’s most potent countermeasure.
    • At the border, tensions with Pakistan and Nepal amplify the threat perception from China, while other SAARC members (minus Bhutan), all of whom are Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partners of China will be hard placed to help individually.
    • Significantly, from 2005-14, China actually wanted to join SAARC.
    • Despite the rebuff, China has continued to push its way into South Asia.

    Conclusion

    Seen through Beijing’s prism, India’s SAARC neighbourhood may be a means to contain India, with the People’s Liberation Army strategies against India over the LAC at present, or in conjunction with Pakistan or Nepal at other disputed fronts in the future. New Delhi must find its own prism with which to view its South Asian neighbourhood as it should be: a unit that has a common future, and as a force-multiplier for India’s ambitions on the global stage.