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GS Paper: GS3

  • India Inc must follow global example, take affirmative action on climate change

    The article explains the global trend in investors and lendors are demanding companies to recognise their impact on environment and act on it.

    Accountability on climate change: global trend

    • There is a wave of investors pushing large corporations from across sectors, to recognise their carbon footprint and take affirmative action.
    • Aviva, the British insurance company announced it would divest stock and bond holdings in 30 of the biggest corporate emitters of carbon, if their boards failed to take affirmative action over climate change.
    • MPs in the United Kingdom called on the Bank of England to ratchet up environment standards in its pandemic stabilising, corporate bond programme.
    • Swedbank AB, Sweden’s biggest mortgage bank, has taken a decision not to provide fresh loans to new oil and gas projects.

    Companies realising social and environmental impacts

    • Several large and growing companies, especially in Europe, are realising their social and environmental impacts and making it a boardroom agenda even without investor guns on their heads.
    • Schneider Electric, the energy management and automation company, has embedded environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into every facet of its activities.
    •  The company climbed from 29th to number 1 rank in the 2021 Global 100 ranking in the Corporate Knights index of the world’s most sustainable companies.
    • Only one company from India, Tech Mahindra, has made it to the world’s 100 most sustainable list.

    Indian scenario

    • Indian institutional lenders and investors are simply not demanding enough on sustainability.
    • A majority of Indian companies are only meeting compliance norms set out by various state or city authorities.
    • Rarely do they go beyond rule-based compliances and implement environment, social and governance or ESG goals with purpose and passion like their European counterparts.

    Way forward

    • SEBI is putting the final touches on the Business Responsibility and Environment Reporting (BRSR) guidelines.
    • The new ESG reporting norm will apply to the top 1,000 listed companies on Indian exchanges.
    • Under BRSR reporting guidelines, companies will have to declare their R&D spends on improving environmental and social outcomes. 
    • They will have to disclose energy and water consumed to turnover ratios, and the percentage of recycled or reused input materials, among many other social and governance disclosures such as CSR, employee skilling and gender diversity.
    • It’s time for lending institutions and investors to align with SEBI and use their muscle to drive a deeper change.

    Consider the question “Indian institutional lenders and investors are  not demanding enough on sustainability from the companies. Rarely do they go beyond rule-based compliances and implement environment, social and governance or ESG goals with purpose and passion like their European counterparts. In light of this, suggest the measures to nudge the businesseses to act on their environmental responsibilities.” 

    Conclusion

    Stepping up green standards to meet Paris Climate Agreement goals cannot be the government’s responsibility alone. Businesses must be part of the movement, or the target of containing global warming to less than 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels, will remain elusive.

  • NASA’s Perseverance rover makes historic Mars landing

    NASA’s rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world has landed safely on the floor of Jezero Crater on Mars.

    Last week, separate probes launched by the UAE (Hope Mission) and China (Tianwen-1) reached Martian orbit. NASA has three Mars satellites still in orbit, along with two from the European Space Agency.

    Perseverance Rover

    • The Perseverance rover weighs less than 2,300 pounds and is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
    • It is a part of the mission named ‘Mars 2020’.
    • The rover’s mission will be to search for signs of past microbial life. It will also collect samples of Martian rocks and dust, according to the release.
    • All of NASA’s previous Mars rovers — including the Sojourner (1997), Spirit and Opportunity (2004) and Curiosity (exploring Mars since 2012) — were named in this way.

    Objectives of the mission

    • Looking for habitability: identify past environments capable of supporting microbial life.
    • Seeking bio-signatures: seek signs of possible past microbial life in those habitable environments, particularly in special rocks known to preserve signs over time.
    • Caching samples: collect core rock and regolith (“soil”) samples and store them on the Martian surface.
    • Preparing for humans: test oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere.

    Major components

    (a) Looking for underground water

    • Perseverance will carry the Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX).
    • The instrument will look for subsurface water on Mars – which, if found, will greatly help the case for a human mission or the cause of a human settlement on Mars.

    (b) Testing a helicopter

    • The Mars Helicopter is a small drone. It is a technology demonstration experiment: to test whether the helicopter can fly in the sparse atmosphere on Mars.
    • The low density of the Martian atmosphere makes the odds of actually flying a helicopter or an aircraft on Mars very low.

    (c) Producing oxygen on Mars

    • Perseverance will have an instrument – MOXIE, or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment – that will use 300 watts of power to produce about 10 grams of oxygen using atmospheric carbon dioxide.
    • Should this experiment be successful, MOXIE can be scaled up by a factor of 100 to provide the two very critical needs of humans: oxygen for breathing, and rocket fuel for the trip back to Earth.

  • India Energy Outlook Report, 2021

    The International Energy Agency (IEA) has recently released the India Energy Outlook 2021 report.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The Global Energy Transition Index recently seen in news is released by:

    a) International Energy Agency (IEA)

    b) World Economic Forum (WEF)

    c) International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

    d) International Solar Alliance

    Highlights of the India Energy Outlook Report

    (1) Energy consumption

    • India at present is the fourth-largest global energy consumer behind China, the United States and the European Union.
    • It will overtake the European Union as the world’s third-largest energy consumer by 2030.
    • It will account for the biggest share of energy demand growth over the next two decades.

    (2) Energy demand

    • India accounts for nearly one-quarter of global energy demand growth from 2019-40 — the largest for any country.
    • Its share in the growth in renewable energy is the second-largest in the world, after China.
    • A five-fold increase in per capita car ownership will result in India leading the oil demand growth in the world.
    • Also, it will become the fastest-growing market for natural gas, with demand more than tripling by 2040.

    (3) Industrial consumption

    • By 2040, India is set to account for almost 20 per cent of global growth in industrial value-added, and to lead global growth in industrial final energy consumption, especially in steelmaking.
    • The nation accounts for nearly one-third of global industrial energy demand growth to 2040.

    (4) Dependence on fossil fuels

    • To meet its energy needs, India will be more reliant on fossil fuel imports as its domestic oil and gas production stagnates.
    • India’s oil demand is seen rising by rising by 74 per cent to 8.7 million barrels per day by 2040 under the existing policies scenario.
    • The natural gas requirement is projected to more than triple to 201 billion cubic meters and coal demand is seen rising to 772 million tonnes in 2040 from the current 590.

    (5) Coal trade

    • India currently accounts for 16 per cent of the global coal trade.
    • Many global coal suppliers were counting on growth in India to underpin planned export-oriented mining investments.

    (6) Per-capita emission

    • On a per-capita basis, India’s energy use and emissions are less than half the world average, as are other key indicators such as vehicle ownership, steel and cement output.
    • India will soon become the world’s most populous country, adding the equivalent of a city the size of Los Angeles to its urban population each year.

    About International Energy Agency

    • The IEA is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis.
    • It was initially dedicated to responding to physical disruptions in the supply of oil, as well as serving as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors.
    • At the end of July 2009, IEA member countries held a combined stockpile of almost 4.3 billion barrels of oil.
    • They are required to maintain total oil stock levels equivalent to at least 90 days of the previous year’s net imports.
    • The IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states but also works with non-member countries, especially China, India, and Russia.
    • The Agency’s mandate has broadened to focus on the “3Es” of effectual energy policy: energy security, economic development, and environmental protection.

  • 54,000 lives lost in Delhi due to air pollution

    Air pollution claimed approximately 54,000 lives in Delhi in 2020, according to a Greenpeace Southeast Asia analysis of the cost to the economy due to air pollution.

    Try this question from CS Mains 2015:

    Q.Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are the three megacities of the country but the air pollution is a much more serious problem in Delhi as compared to the other two. Why is this so?

    Deaths due to Air Pollution

    • Globally, approximately 1,60,000 deaths have been attributed to PM 2.5 air pollution in the five most populous cities — Delhi, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo.
    • Six Indian cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Lucknow — feature in the global analysis.
    • An estimated 25,000 avoidable deaths in Mumbai in 2020 have been attributed to air pollution.
    • Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad estimated an approximate 12,000, 11,000, and 11,000 avoidable deaths respectively due to polluted air.

    The ‘Cost Estimator’

    • The ‘Cost Estimator’, an online tool that estimates the real-time health impact and economic cost from fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) air pollution in major world cities.
    • It was deployed in collaboration between Greenpeace Southeast Asia, IQAir and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
    • Using real-time ground-level PM 2.5 measurements collated in IQAir’s database, the algorithm applies scientific risk models in combination with population and public health data.

    Computing the “Lost Years”

    • To show the impact of air pollution-related deaths on the economy, the approach used by Greenpeace is called ‘willingness-to-pay.
    • It refers to a lost life year or a year lived with a disability is converted to money by the amount that people are willing to pay in order to avoid this negative outcome.
    • The cost estimator also sustained the estimated air pollution-related economic losses of ₹1,23,65,15,40,000.

    Greenpeace recommends-

    • Despite a temporary reprieve in air quality owing to the lockdown, the latest figures from the report underscore the need to act immediately.
    • The need of the hour is to rapidly scale up renewable energy, bring an end to fossil fuel emissions and boost sustainable and accessible transport systems.

  • Hyderabad wins Global ‘Tree City’ Status

    Hyderabad city has received another feather in its cap by being chosen as one among the ‘Tree Cities of the World’.

    Tree Cities of the World

    • The Tree Cities of the World programme is an international effort to recognize cities and towns committed to ensuring that their urban forests and trees are properly maintained, sustainably managed, and duly celebrated.
    • This status is accorded by the Arbor Day Foundation jointly with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN.
    • To receive recognition, a town or city must meet five core standards:
    1. Establish Responsibility
    2. Set the Rules
    3. Know What You Have
    4. Allocate the Resources and
    5. Celebrate the Achievements

    Try this question:

    Q.The Miyawaki Forests technique has to potential to revolutionize the concept of urban afforestation in India. Discuss.

    Why it is a great achievement?

    • Hyderabad is the only city in the country to have been selected for this recognition in response to its commitment to growing and maintaining urban forestry.
    • The recognition stands Hyderabad alongside 120 cities from 23 countries, including developed nations such as USA, UK, Canada, Australia and others.

  • [pib] Draft Blue Economy Policy of India

    The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has rolled out the Draft Blue Economy policy for India in the public domain inviting suggestions and inputs from various stakeholders.

    Blue Economy Policy

    • India’s draft blue economy policy is envisaged as a crucial framework towards unlocking country’s potential for economic growth and welfare.
    • The draft policy outlines the vision and strategy that can be adopted by the govt to utilize the plethora of oceanic resources available in the country.

    Objectives:

    The policy aims to-

    • Enhance the contribution of the blue economy to India’s GDP
    • Improve the lives of coastal communities
    • Preserve marine biodiversity and
    • Maintain the national security of marine areas and resources

    What comprises India’s blue economy?

    • India’s blue economy is understood as a subset of the national economy.
    • It comprises an entire ocean resources system and human-made economic infrastructure in marine, maritime, and onshore coastal zones within the country’s legal jurisdiction.
    • It aids the production of goods and services that have clear linkages with economic growth, environmental sustainability, and national security.
    • The blue economy is a vast socio-economic opportunity for coastal nations like India to utilize ocean resources for societal benefit responsibly.

    Need for such policy

    • With a coastline of nearly 7.5 thousand kilometres, India has a unique maritime position.
    • Nine of its 29 states are coastal, and the nation’s geography includes 1,382 islands.
    • There are nearly 199 ports, including 12 major ports that handle approximately 1,400 million tons of cargo each year.
    • Moreover, India’s Exclusive Economic Zone of over 2 million square kilometres has a bounty of living and non-living resources with significant recoverable resources such as crude oil and natural gas.
    • Also, the coastal economy sustains over 4 million fisherfolk and coastal communities.

    Key areas

    The policy recognizes the following seven thematic areas.

    1. National accounting framework for the blue economy and ocean governance.
    2. Coastal marine spatial planning and tourism.
    3. Marine fisheries, aquaculture, and fish processing.
    4. Manufacturing, emerging industries, trade, technology, services, and skill development.
    5. Logistics, infrastructure and shipping, including trans-shipments.
    6. Coastal and deep-sea mining and offshore energy.
    7. Security, strategic dimensions, and international engagement.

  • Drafting labour code keeping in mind the realities of informal sector workers

    The article highlights the vulnerabilities of workers in the informal sector and also highlights the issues in the draft rules in the labour codes.

    Context

    • The budget referred to the implementation of the four labour codes.
    • There is also a provision of Rs 15,700 crore for MSMEs, more than double of this year’s budget estimate.

    Impact of pandemic on informal workers

    • India’s estimated 450 million informal workers comprise 90 per cent of its total workforce, with 5-10 million workers added annually.
    • Nearly 40 per cent of these employed with MSMEs.
    • According to Oxfam’s latest global report, out of the total 122 million who lost their jobs in 2020, 75 per cent were lost in the informal sector.
    • The National Human Rights Commission recorded over 2,582 cases of human rights violation as early as April 2020.

    Issues with the draft rules in labour code

    • The rush to clear the labour codes and form the draft rules shows little to no intent on part of the government to safeguard workers.
    • The draft rules envisage wider coverage through the inclusion of informal sector and gig workers, at present the draft rules apply to manufacturing firms with over 299 workers.
    • This leaves 71 per cent of manufacturing companies out of its purview.
    • The draft rules mandate the registration of all workers (with Aadhaar cards) on the Shram Suvidha Portal to be able to receive any form of social security benefit.
    • This would lead to Aadhaar-driven exclusion and workers will be unable to register on their own due to lack of information on the Aadhaar registration processes.
    • A foreseeable challenge is updating information on the online portal at regular intervals, especially by the migrant or seasonal labour force.
    • It is also unclear as to how these benefits will be applicable in the larger scheme of things.

    Neglect of informal sector

    • The draft rules fail to cater to the growing informal workforce in India.
    • The growing informal nature of the workforce and the lack of the state’s accountability makes it a breeding ground for rising inequality.
    • The workers face the risk of violations of their human and labour rights, dignity of livelihood, unsafe and unregulated working conditions and lower wages.

    Consider the question “Assess the impact of covid pandemic on workers in the informal sector. Also examine the issues with the draft rules in the labour code.”

    Conclusion

    The Code on Social Security was envisaged as a legal protective measure for a large number of informal workers in India but unless the labour codes are made and implemented keeping in mind the realities of the informal sector workers, it will become impossible to bridge the inequality gap.

  • Explained: National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHEM)

    Recently, the Finance Minister in her budget speech formally announced the National Hydrogen Energy Mission which aims for generation of hydrogen from green power resources.

    Background

    • With this announcement, India has made an uncharacteristically early entry in the race to tap the energy potential of the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen.
    • The proposal in the Budget will be followed up with a mission draft over the next couple of months — a roadmap for using hydrogen as an energy source.
    • The mission would have a specific focus on green hydrogen, dovetailing India’s growing renewable capacity with the hydrogen economy.

    Hydrogen as an element

    • The most common element in nature is not found freely.
    • Hydrogen exists only combined with other elements and has to be extracted from naturally occurring compounds like water (which is a combination of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom).
    • Although hydrogen is a clean molecule, the process of extracting it is energy-intensive.
    • The sources and processes, by which hydrogen is derived, are categorised by colour tabs.

    Its types as fuel

    • Hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is called grey hydrogen; this constitutes the bulk of the hydrogen produced today.
    • Hydrogen generated from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage options is called blue hydrogen; hydrogen generated entirely from renewable power sources is called green hydrogen.
    • In the last process, electricity generated from renewable energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

    Hydrogen for mobility

    • While proposed end-use sectors include steel and chemicals, the major industry that hydrogen has the potential of transforming is transportation.
    • This sector contributes a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, and where hydrogen is being seen as a direct replacement of fossil fuels, with specific advantages over traditional EVs.
    • Hydrogen fuel cell cars have a near-zero carbon footprint.
    • Hydrogen is about two to three times as efficient as burning petrol because an electric chemical reaction is much more efficient than combustion.

    We already had H-CNG!

    • In October 2020, Delhi became the first Indian city to operate buses running on hydrogen spiked compressed natural gas (H-CNG) in a six-month pilot project.
    • The buses will run on a new technology patented by Indian Oil Corp for producing H-CNG — 18 per cent hydrogen in CNG — directly from natural gas, without resorting to conventional blending.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2019:

    In the context of proposals to the use of hydrogen-enriched CNG (H-CNG) as fuel for buses in public transport, consider the following statements :
    1. The main advantage of the use of H-CNG is the elimination of carbon monoxide emissions.
    2. H-CNG as a fuel reduces carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon emissions.
    3. Hydrogen up to one-fifth by volume can be blended with CNG as fuel for buses.
    4. H-CNG makes the fuel less expensive than CNG.
    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
    (a) 1 only
    (b) 2 and 3 only
    (c) 4 only
    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    Green hydrogen has specific advantages

    1. One, it is a clean-burning molecule, which can decarbonize a range of sectors including iron and steel, chemicals, and transportation.
    2. Two, renewable energy that cannot be stored or used by the grid can be channelled to produce hydrogen.
    • This is what the government’s Hydrogen Energy Mission, to be launched in 2021-22, aims for.

    Philosophy behind NHEM

    • India’s electricity grid is predominantly coal-based and will continue to be so.
    • In several countries that have gone in for an EV push, much of the electricity is generated from renewables — in Norway for example, it is 99 per cent from hydroelectric power.
    • Experts believe hydrogen vehicles can be especially effective in long-haul trucking and other hard-to-electrify sectors such as shipping and long-haul air travel.
    • Using heavy batteries in these applications would be counterproductive, especially for countries such as India, where the electricity grid is predominantly coal-fired.

    Back2Basics: How hydrogen fuel cells work?

    • Hydrogen is an energy carrier, not a source of energy.
    • Hydrogen fuel must be transformed into electricity by a device called a fuel cell stack before it can be used to power a car or truck.
    • A fuel cell converts chemical energy into electrical energy using oxidizing agents through an oxidation-reduction reaction.
    • Inside each individual fuel cell, hydrogen is drawn from an onboard pressurized tank and made to react with a catalyst, usually made from platinum.
    • As the hydrogen passes through the catalyst, it is stripped of its electrons, which are forced to move along an external circuit, producing an electrical current.
    • This current is used by the electric motor to power the vehicle, with the only byproduct being water vapour.

      Issues with H-Fuel cells

    • A big barrier to the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has been a lack of fuelling station infrastructure.
    • There are fewer than 500 operational hydrogen stations in the world today, mostly in Europe, followed by Japan and South Korea.
    • Safety is seen as a concern. Hydrogen is pressurized and stored in a cryogenic tank, from there it is fed to a lower-pressure cell and put through an electrochemical reaction to generate electricity.
    • Scaling up the technology and achieving critical mass remains the big challenge.
    • More vehicles on the road and more supporting infrastructure can lower costs. India’s proposed mission is seen as a step in that direction.

  • Cabinet approves PLI Scheme for telecom

    The Union Cabinet has approved the production-linked incentive scheme for the telecom sector with an outlay of ₹12,195 crores over five years.

    Why such a scheme?

    • The scheme aims to make India a global hub for manufacturing telecom equipment.
    • The sector is expected to lead to an incremental production of about ₹2.4 lakh crore, with exports of about ₹2 lakh crore over five years and bring in investments of more than ₹3,000 crores.

    PLI Scheme

    • The PLI scheme aims to boost domestic manufacturing and cut down on imports by providing cash incentives on incremental sales from products manufactured in the country.
    • Besides inviting foreign companies to set shop in India, the scheme aims to encourage local companies to set up or expand, existing manufacturing units.

    UPSC can directly as the sectors included in the PLI scheme. Earlier it was only meant for Electronics manufacturing (particularly mobile phones).

    Benefits for MSMEs

    • For inclusion of MSMEs in the scheme, the minimum investment threshold has been kept at ₹10 crores, while for others it is ₹100 crore.
    • For MSMEs, a 1% higher incentive is also proposed in the first three years.

    Employment generation

    • The scheme was also likely to generate 40,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities and generate tax revenue of ₹17,000 crores from telecom equipment manufacturing.

    Which equipments?

    • The telecom manufacturing would include core transmission equipment, 4G/5G Radio Access Network and wireless equipment, access and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), IoT access devices, other wireless equipment.

  • Farm laws must reflect regional and crop diversities

    The article argues for consideration of the regional variation in the conditions of farmers and their concerns in the context of recently introduced farm laws.

    Argument against diversification

    • In Punjab, Haryana and western UP, minimum support price (MSP)-based agriculture has a logic.
    • Not all regions must diversify.
    • The region has great alluvial soil, good irrigation and almost a century-long tradition of the application of science to agriculture.
    • In south Punjab, with less irrigation, and parts of Haryana not covered by the Indira Gandhi Canal, some diversification to pulses, cotton etc. could work but the solid specialisation in this region remains.

    Issue of middlemen

    • Arhtiyas (middlemen) are important in Indian agricultural markets.
    • They are a part of the supply chain in north-west India.
    • Here they are not like the middlemen elsewhere.
    • They function simply as agents of the procurement agencies.
    • This was done by the past government to reduce overhead costs of procurement.

    Steps need to be taken

    • The e-markets, forwards and farmer-managed companies are not the dominant mode of rural organisations.
    • Agriculture is the one good sector in otherwise dismal year.
    • So, we need to strengthen it, not feed off on its glory, even outside north-west India.
    • We have the largest spread of agricultural markets in the world according to spatial maps.
    • But they are not APMCs.
    • With weak markets (outside of grains) and without first-stage processing and other infrastructure, the farmer knows he is at the mercy of the trader and comes out on the streets when that is not understood.

    Evolution of MSP

    • The MSP played a crucial role in the days of compulsory procurement and zonal restrictions.
    • Each crop had its own report then.
    • Later separate reports were replaced by two reports, one for kharif and another one for rabi, apart from one for sugarcane (an annual crop).
    • The 1982 rabi report stated that relative prices and, in that context, MSP had the role of an intervention mechanism when markets failed, outside the compulsory procurement area.
    • Later, the concept of transport costs and managerial costs became important.

    Way forward

    • The Essential Commodities Act should be ditched.
    • Good laws are good because progress starts with them, but not all laws are good everywhere.
    • A modified version of the laws with a roadmap can be on the agenda — not everywhere, but most places outside the lands of the five rivers.

    Conclusion

    The amended laws should be considered in the context of regional variation in the country and necessary changes should be made to address the concerns of the farmers.