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GS Paper: GS3

  • Self reliance in Agriculture

    Context

    For the Amrit Kaal (next 25 years) that the government has announced, we need to be self-reliant not just in missiles (defence equipment) but also in meals (food).

    What does self-reliance in food mean?

    • Its true meaning lies in specialising in commodities in which we have a comparative advantage, export them, and import those in which we don’t have a significant comparative advantage.
    • Self-reliance in food does not mean that we have to produce everything ourselves at home, irrespective of the cost.
    • If some protection is needed for new areas to develop (infant industry argument), that may be okay.
    • But one should not aspire to be self-sufficient behind high tariff walls.

    Importance of agri-R&D

    • What is it that gives a country an edge over others in attaining comparative advantage?
    • There is ample literature to show that agri-R&D raises total factor productivity and makes agriculture more competitive globally.
    • If India wants to be fully self-reliant in food, it is generally agreed that it must invest at least 1 per cent of its agri-GDP in agri-R&D.
    • The Economic Survey (2021-22) explicitly highlighted the correlation between spending on agri-R&D and agricultural growth.
    • Low expenditure on agri-R&D: But the budgets of both the Union government and the states put together reveal that this expenditure on agri-R&D and education hovers around 0.6 per cent of agri-GDP.
    • This is way below the minimum cut off point of 1 per cent and government policy must urgently work towards raising this substantially.
    • There are some global and local companies like Bayer, Syngenta, MAHYCO, Jain Irrigation, and Mahindra and Mahindra that spend a considerable amount of their turnover on R&D programmes and developing high-tech inputs.
    • The USP of these companies is that they develop technology that increases productivity while addressing the current challenges of limited net sown area, depleting water resources, vulnerability to climate change, and the need to produce nutrient-rich food.

    Way forward

    • Role of private sector: The private sector need to come forward and help India attain supremacy in agri-R&D and innovation systems and a hub for exports and agri-technology.
    • Increase expenditure on Agri-R&D and education: The need of the hour is to focus on increasing expenditure on ARE and other development projects, which can aid in the sustainable growth of the agriculture sector.
    • India’s budget allocations in the agri-food space should thrive on creating “more from less”.
    • There is a need to work on building long-term sustainable solutions that have an aggressive approach to implementing relevant policies and developing new ones.
    • India’s current budgetary allocation strategy and trends need to be reoriented to ensure that there is more room for R&D expenditure by the government.
    • Incentivise private companies for R&D: In addition to this, the government should come out with policies that incentivise private companies to expand their R&D programmes and invest more financial resources on development projects, which have the potential to overcome the challenges of the current agrarian setup of India.

    Conclusion

    If India wants to be fully self-reliant in food, it must focus on agri-R&D and increase allocation in the Budget.

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  • DRDO’s Corner-Shot Weapon System

    A corner-shot weapon system (CSWS), designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is at an advanced stage of being inducted by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Jammu and Kashmir police.

    What is CSWS?

    • The CSWS is a special purpose weapon designed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune.
    • It can engage targets located around the corners as the system bends and captures video feed thus saving soldiers from any surprise counter-attack and is best suited for urban, close quarter situations.
    • It is equipped with weapon, camera, laser, infrared illuminator and torch in front portion, while display, electronics, battery and swivelling mechanism are located at rear portion.
    • The body is made from high-grade aluminium alloy to make it lighter and durable.

    Key features

    • Day-night firing capability, colour display, digital zoom, zeroing facility, hot keys, high power battery along with status display and compliance with JSS 5855 makes it a very potent system for security forces.
    • It is very helpful in Counter Insurgency and Counter Terror (CI/CT) operations.
    • This indigenously developed system has many superior features compared to its contemporary international systems and available for 9 mm GLOCK 17/19 and 1A1 Auto Pistol variant.

     

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  • What is T-Cell Immunity?

    A new study from Wuhan has studied the role of T-Cell Immunity against prolonged and sever COVID-19.

    What are T-Cells?

    • Like B cells, which produce antibodies, T cells are central players in the immune response to viral infection.
    • For your immune system to fight off any kind of invader, such as a virus, you need a kind of white blood cell called a B cell, which makes antibodies, and a similar-looking white blood cell called a T cell.
    • T cells can play different roles altogether.
    • They can act as “killer cells”, attacking cells which have been infected with a virus or another kind of pathogen, or they can act as “helper cells” by supporting B cells to produce antibodies.

    How do they function?

    • Alongside antibodies, the immune system produces a battalion of T cells that can target viruses.
    • Some of these, known as killer T cells (or CD8+ T cells), seek out and destroy cells that are infected with the virus.
    • Others, called helper T cells (or CD4+ T cells) are important for various immune functions, including stimulating the production of antibodies and killer T cells.
    • T cells do not prevent infection, because they kick into action only after a virus has infiltrated the body. But they are important for clearing an infection that has already started.
    • In the case of COVID-19, killer T cells could mean the difference between a mild infection and a severe one that requires hospital treatment.

    What did the latest research find?

    • The researchers found that neutralising antibodies were detectable even 12 months after infection in “most individuals”.
    • It remained stable 6-12 months after initial infection in people younger than 60 years.
    • The researchers found that “multifunctional T cell responses were detected for all SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins tested”.
    • And most importantly, the magnitude of T cell responses did not show any difference immaterial of how severe the disease was.
    • While the ability of antibodies to neutralise was nearly absent against the Beta variant, it was reduced in the case of the Delta variant.

    Neutralizing antibodies

    • SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralising antibody and T cell responses were retained 12 months after initial infection.
    • Neutralising antibodies to the D614G, Beta, and Delta were reduced compared with those for the original strain, and were diminished in general.
    • Memory T cell responses to the original strain were not disrupted by new variants.
    • The findings show that robust antibody and T cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is present in majority of recovered patients 12 months after moderate-to-critical infection.

    Robustness of antibodies

    • The study reveals the durability and robustness of the T cell responses against variants, including Delta, even after one year of infection.
    • Most importantly, the robust and longstanding T cell responses were seen in people who have not been reinfected or vaccinated.
    • This would mean even in the absence of vaccination, a person who has been infected by the virus even one year ago would have robust immune responses.
    • It would offer protection against disease progressing to a severe form requiring hospitalization.

     

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  • Gahirmatha beach witnesses Arribada

    About 2.45 lakh Olive Ridley sea turtles crawled ashore on the Nasi-II beach of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary along the Odisha coast for laying eggs, marking one of the largest opening day arrivals of turtles at the site.

    Olive Ridley Turtles

    • The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a medium-sized species of sea turtle found in warm and tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
    • In the Indian Ocean, the majority of olive ridleys nest in two or three large groups at Rushikulya rookery near Gahirmatha in Odisha.
    • The coast of Odisha in India is the largest mass nesting site for the olive ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica.
    • The species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List, Appendix 1 in CITES, and Schedule 1 in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

    Special feature: Mass nesting

    • They are best known for their behavior of synchronized nesting in mass numbers, termed Arribadas.
    • Interestingly, females return to the very same beach from where they first hatched, to lay their eggs.
    • They lay their eggs in conical nests about one and a half feet deep which they laboriously dig with their hind flippers.
    • They hatch in 45 to 60 days, depending on the temperature of the sand and atmosphere during the incubation period.

     

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  • Forging a social contract for data

    Context

    The Draft India Data Accessibility and Use Policy 2022 released in February for public consultation, is silent on the norms, rules, and mechanisms to bring to fruition its vision.

    Aims of the policy

    • The Draft Policy aims for harnessing public sector data for informed decision-making, citizen-centric delivery of public services, and economy-wide digital innovation.
    • It seeks to maximise access to and use of quality non-personal data (NPD) available with the public sector, overcoming a number of historical bottlenecks.
    • This GovTech 3.0 approach — to unlock the valuable resource of public sector data — does upgrade the OGD vision of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), 2012.
    • It seeks to harness data-based intelligence for governance and economic development.

    What is lacking in the draft policy?

    • Lacking in norms and rules: The Draft Policy is silent on the norms, rules, and mechanisms to bring to fruition its vision of data-supported social transformation.
    • Ignores the canons of RTI: Any attempt to promote meaningful citizen engagement with data cannot afford to ignore the canons of the Right to Information (RTI), and hence, the need for certain citizen data sets with personal identifiers to be in the public domain, towards making proactive disclosure meaningful.
    •  The unfinished task of the NDSAP in bringing coherence between restrictions on the availability of sensitive personal information in the public domain and India’s RTI, therefore, has been lost sight of.
    • Risks to group privacy: With respect to government-to-government data sharing for citizen-centric service delivery, the Draft Policy highlights that approved data inventories will be federated into a government-wide, searchable database.
    •  But even in the case of anonymised citizen data sets (that is no longer personal data), downstream processing can pose serious risks to group privacy.
    • Lack of data trusteeship framework: The Draft Policy adheres to the NDSAP paradigm of treating government agencies as ‘owners’ of the data sets they have collected and compiled instead of shifting to the trusteeship paradigm recommended by the 2020 Report of the MEITY Committee of Experts on non-personal data governance.
    • The lack of a data trusteeship framework gives government agencies unilateral privileges to determine the terms of data licensing.

    Suggestions

    • Taking on board a trusteeship-based approach, the proposed Draft Policy must pay attention to data quality, and ensure that licensing frameworks and any associated costs do not pose an impediment to data accessibility for non-commercial purposes.
    • Create common and interoperable data spaces: In the current context, where the most valuable data resources are held by the private sector, it is increasingly evident to policymakers that socioeconomic innovation depends on the state’s ability to catalyse wide-ranging data-sharing from both public and private sector actors across various sectors.
    • The European Union, for instance, has focused on the creation of common, interoperable data spaces to encourage voluntary data-sharing in specific domains such as health, energy and agriculture.
    • Mandatory data sharing arrangement: Creating the right conditions for voluntary data-sharing is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for democratising data innovation.
    • In this regard, the data stewardship model for high-value data sets proposed by the MEITY’s Committee of Experts in their Report on Non-Personal Data Governance (2020) is instructive.
    • In this model, a government/not-for-profit organisation may request the Non-Personal Data Authority or NPDA for the creation of a high-value data set (only non-personal data) in a particular sector, demonstrating the specific public interest purpose.
    • Once such a request is approved by the NPDA, the data trustee has the right to request data-sharing from all major custodians of data sets corresponding to the high-value data set category in question – both public and private.

    Conclusion

    • What we need is a new social contract for data whereby:
    • a) the social commons of data are governed as an inappropriable commons that belong to all citizens;
    • b) the government is the custodian or trustee with fiduciary responsibility to promote data use for public good; and
    • c) democratisation of data value is ensured through accountable institutional mechanisms for data governance.

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  • Noise Pollution in India

    The city of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh is the second-most noise polluted city globally, according to a recent report title Frontier 2022 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

    What is Noise Pollution?

    • Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them harmful to a degree.
    • It is generally defined as regular exposure to elevated sound levels that may lead to adverse effects in humans or other living organisms.
    • The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport, and propagation systems.
    • Poor urban planning may give rise to noise disintegration or pollution, side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas.
    • Some of the main sources of noise in residential areas include loud music, transportation (traffic, rail, airplanes, etc.), maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines, explosions, and people etc.

    Defining Noise Pollution

    • Sounds with a frequency over 70 db are considered harmful to health.
    • The World Health Organization (WHO) had recommended a 55 db standard for residential areas in the 1999 guidelines, while for traffic and business sectors, the limit was 70 db.
    • The WHO set the limit of noise pollution on the road at 53 db in 2018, taking into account health safety.

    Noise Pollution in India

    • The report identifies 13 noise polluted cities in south Asia. Five of these, including Moradabad, are in India, which have recorded alarming levels of noise pollution:
    1. Kolkata (89 db)
    2. Asansol (89 db)
    3. Jaipur (84 db)
    4. Delhi (83 db)
    • The noise pollution figures given in the report relate to daytime traffic or vehicles.
    • Moradabad has recorded noise pollution of a maximum of 114 decibels (db). The Frontier 2022 report mentions a total of 61 cities.

    Case in the neighborhood

    • The highest noise pollution of 119 db has been recorded in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
    • At third place is Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, where the noise pollution level has been recorded at 105 db.

    Hazards created

    • High levels of noise pollution affect human health and well-being by having an effect on sleep.
    • This has a bad effect on the communication of many animal species living in the area and their ability to hear.
    • Regular exposure for eight hours a day to 85 decibels of sound can permanently eliminate the ability to hear.
    • Not only that, exposure to relatively low noise pollution for long periods in cities can harm physical and mental health.

     

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  • When Nehru took Pak to the UN over Kashmir in 1947?

    Finance Minister sought to remind Parliament that it was the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who internationalized the Kashmir issue by taking it to the United Nations.

    Kashmir at UN

    • The United Nations has played an advisory role in maintaining peace and order in the Kashmir region soon after the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947.
    • India took this matter to the UN Security Council, which passed resolution 39 (1948) and established the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to investigate the issues and mediate between the two countries.
    • Following the cease-fire of hostilities, it also established the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor the cease-fire line.

    Why did Nehru agree to these terms?

    • In December 1947, because the British perhaps suggested Nehru that this matter will not be resolved unless you take it to the UN.
    • British were convinced that an intermediary was needed.
    • Nehru, a loyalist to the British agreed upon the terms laid by Mountbatten.
    • It was Nehru who first put forth the idea of a referendum under the aegis of UN soon after independence.
    • There is evidence to believe Sardar Patel was uncomfortable with Nehru taking the matter to the UN, and thought it was a mistake.

    Issue: Adventurism by Pakistan

    • The discussions in the Security Council on our complaint of aggression by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir took a very unfavourable turn.
    • Pakistan then succeeded, with the support of the British and American members creating a western bias against India.
    • Pakistan is misusing this till date paving wave for third-party intervention.
    • It is an issue which should not have gone to a global forum, it is essentially an Indian issue.

    Article 35 of UN Charter

    • There has been some debate on whether India chose the wrong path to approach the UN.
    • In 2019, Home Minister said that had Nehru taken the matter to the UN under Article 51 of the UN Charter, instead of Article 35, the outcome could have been different.
    • India pointed out that J&K had acceded to India, and that the “Government of India considered the giving of this assistance by Pakistan to be an act of aggression against India.
    • Articles 33-38 of the UN Charter occur in Chapter 6, titled “Pacific (peaceful) Settlement of Disputes” :

    These Articles lay out that:

    1. the parties to a dispute that has the potential for endangering international peace and security are not able to resolve the matter through negotiations between them, or by any other peaceful means, or with the help of a “regional agency”
    2. the Security Council may step in, with or without the invitation of one or another of the involved parties, and recommend “appropriate procedures or methods of recommendation”
    3. Article 35 only says that any member of the UN may take a dispute to the Security Council or General Assembly
    4. Article 51, which occurs in Chapter 7, titled “Action With Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression”
    5. It says that a UN member has the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if attacked

    Issues with the internationalization of Kashmir

    • Kashmir issue no longer remains bilateral; it has thus been internationalized.
    • However, India has been successful in perhaps internationalizing terrorism but not the Kashmir problem.
    • But unwarranted statements against India’s sovereign concerns are increasing these days.

     

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  • GSAT 7B and India’s other Military Satellites

    The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh cleared the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for procurement of a GSAT 7B satellite.

    What are the GSAT 7 series satellites?

    • GSAT 7 satellites are advanced satellites developed by the ISRO to meet the communication needs of the defence services.
    • The satellite was injected into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) of 249 km perigee (nearest point to earth), 35,929 km apogee (farthest point to earth) and an inclination of 3.5 degree with respect to the equator.
    • The GSAT 7 satellite was launched in August 2013 from an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou in French Guiana.
    • It is a 2,650 kg satellite which has a footprint of nearly 2,000 nautical miles in the Indian Ocean region.

    Utility of this satellite

    • This satellite is mainly used by the Indian Navy for its communication needs.
    • The GSAT 7 provides a gamut of services for military communication needs, which includes low bit voice rate to high bit rate data facilities, including multi-band communications.
    • Named Rukmini, the satellite carries payloads in UHF, C-band and Ku-band, and helps the Navy to have a secure, real time communication link between its land establishments, surface ships, submarines and aircraft.

    What will be the role of the GSAT 7B satellite?

    • The GSAT 7B will primarily fulfil the communication needs of the Army.
    • Currently, the Army is using 30 per cent of the communication capabilities of the GSAT 7A satellite, which has been designed for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
    • The GSAT 7B will also help the Army enhance its surveillance in border areas.
    • While many features of this satellite are still a closely guarded secret, it is expected that the state of the art, multi-band, military-grade satellite shall be a shot in the arm for the communication and surveillance needs of the Army.

    What is the role of the GSAT 7A satellite, which is already operational?

    • The GSAT 7A was launched in 2018 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
    • It has gone a long way in boosting the connectivity between the ground radar stations, airbases and the airborne early warning and control aircraft (AEW&C) of the IAF.
    • It also helps in satellite controlled operations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which gives a great deal of reliability to the operations as compared to ground-controlled operations.
    • This satellite has 10 channels in Ku band with switchable frequency for mobile users, one fixed Gregorian or parabolic antenna, and four steerable antennae.

    Future plans

    • A GSAT 7C satellite is on the cards for the IAF, and a proposal to this effect was cleared by the DAC in 2021.
    • This satellite would facilitate real time communication with IAF’s software defined radio communication sets.
    • It will increase the capability of the IAF to communicate beyond the line of sight in a secure mode.

    What other kinds of military satellites does India have?

    • An Electromagnetic Intelligence Gathering Satellite (EMISAT), developed by ISRO, was launched in April 2020 through a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C45).
    • It has an Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) package called Kautilya, which allows the interception of ground-based radar and also carries out electronic surveillance across India.
    • The ELINT package provides the capability in direction-finding of radar and fixing their locations.
    • It is placed in a 748-km orbit, and is said to be based on the Israeli satellite system.
    • This satellite circles the globe pole-to-pole, and is helpful in gathering information from radars of countries that have borders with India.
    • India also has a RISAT 2BR1 synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite, which was launched in December 2019 from Sriharikota.
    • It has the capability to operate in different modes including very high resolution imaging modes of 1×0.5 metre resolution and 0.5×0.3 m resolution with a swath of 5-10 km.

     

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  • Sovereign green bond (SGB)

    Context

    The other two major budget announcements pertain to the issuance of sovereign green bonds and a central bank digital currency. While geopolitical turbulence might make the current moment inopportune for experimentation, the government seems firm on both the proposals and they will most probably be rolled out.

    Sovereign green bond (SGB):  how it is different from a traditional bond

    • The sovereign green bond is a novel idea.
    •  It will be a part of the government’s borrowing programme.
    • The gross borrowing programme of the government is pegged at Rs 14.95 lakh crore.
    • The SGB (sovereign green bond) raised will be part of the aggregate borrowing programme and has to be used for projects which are ESG (environment, social and governance) compliant.
    • Hence, if the bond is being used to finance a power project or road, or in case it is used to finance revenue expenditure, it has to be ESG compliant.
    • If they succeed at the central level, green bonds can be replicated by states.

    Challenges for SGB

    • Pricing challenge: As these bonds are different from G-secs (government securities), they may have to provide a better return as all ESG compliant companies have to make special investments that will push up costs.
    • Low-interest rate: Further, given the low-interest rates prevailing today — real returns on deposits are negative — the SGBs can be issued as tax-free bonds, open to the public.
    • This will evince a lot of interest given that these are government-issued bonds.
    • The RBI and the government have been trying to get retail investors to participate in the government’s borrowing programme, and this move will expedite the process.

    Central bank digital currency (CBDC) and challenges

    •  For launching such a currency, the RBI has to address certain fundamental questions.
    • 1] Will it replace currency: Is a CBDC going to replace currency at some point in the future?
    • One must remember that there are several sections in India that are not conversant with technology.
    • 2] How will it be different from digital payments: If it is going to coexist with currency, how different will it be for the public from the digital payments that are being made today?
    • Will people need to choose between a mobile wallet and a CBDC wallet?
    • 3] Security of owner’s information: any issuance of CBDC on a voluntary basis also raises a question on the security of the owner’s information.
    • CBDC has to be clear on the issue of confidentiality as it is bound to be a matter of concern.
    • 4] The future of the banking system: If people have to be incentivised to move voluntarily to the CBDC, the cash exchanged must earn interest or else all money will go to bank accounts where a minimal interest rate can be earned.
    • Will we require savings bank accounts with commercial banks in case all cash goes to the RBI?
    • Will we then require ATMs for cash withdrawal? Will bank tellers become redundant? Will we need logistics companies that handle cash?
    • These finer issues need to be addressed by the RBI as the widespread use of CBDC will progressively lead to lesser need for banks.
    • 5] Issue of security: Any financial system that runs on technology can be hacked.
    • It has to be foolproof and power failure resistant.
    • There is a real danger of cyber fraud increasing as the majority of the population is not tech-savvy.
    • Similarly, there is always downtime for bank servers when banking transactions cannot be carried on.
    • This cannot be allowed to be the case with CBDC as it has to be available on a 24 x 7 basis.

    Consider the question “What are green bonds? How the green bonds can act as a tool to achieve the targets of sustainable development as a means of finance?”

    Conclusion

    The arguments for CBDC are compelling on the grounds of keeping up with the central banks of other countries, and the possibilities of taking advantage of new technologies like blockchain. But before embarking on these measures, it might be useful to keep in mind the issues flagged above.

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  • Exports in India

    India’s annual goods exports crossed the $400-billion mark for the first time ever.

    The achievement of $400 billion in merchandise exports represents a growth of over 21 per cent from $330 billion achieved in FY2019 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Do you know?

    China’s total exports stood at $3.3 trillion ($3300 Billions) in 2021! Almost eight times of what we are celebrating!

    How did India achieve this?

    • The milestone was achieved due to increase in shipments of merchandise, including engineering products, apparel and garments, gems and jewellery and petroleum products.
    • The agriculture sector too had recorded its highest-ever export during 2021-22 with the help of export of rice, marine products, wheat, spices and sugar.

    Reasons behind the surge

    • One of the major reasons for jump in exports is rise in pent up demand, which had fallen as the Covid pandemic forced nations to remain under strict lockdown, thereby impacting global trade.
    • Beside, boost in domestic manufacturing due to production-liked incentive (PLI) schemes and implementation of some interim trade pacts have also led to surge in exports.
    • The Centre implemented a series of steps to promote exports of both goods and services and that includes the introduction of Refund of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) and Rebate of State and Central Levies and Taxes (RoSCTL) Schemes.

    External factors

    • One of the key factors driving the surge in exports is pent up demand that was not met during major waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.
    • Expansionary monetary policy by developed economies in response to the economic impact of the pandemic has also boosted demand for Indian exports.

    Where has been the increase in imports?

    • While exports have grown sharply, merchandise imports have grown even faster reaching $550 billion in the first 11 months of the fiscal.
    • It has seen sharp growth in imports of crude oil, coal, gold, electronics and chemicals.
    • Rising prices of commodities including crude oil and coal have played a significant role in adding to India’s import bill and taking the trade deficit for the first 11 months to a record high of $176 billion.

    Why exports are important?

    • Exports are one of the fundamental drivers of growth for any economy.
    • It can influence a country’s GDP, exchange rate, level of inflation as well as interest rates.
    • A robust export data is beneficial as it leads to increase in job opportunities, enhances foreign currency reserves, boosts manufacturing and also increases government’s revenue collection.
    • It is also a good means by which a country can bring itself out of the recession phase.
    • Besides, it also plays a key role in strengthening the domestic manufacturing units by scaling up their quality to make India made products compete and stand out against global peers.