💥UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (April Batch) + Access XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Archives: News

  • Trade Sector Updates – Falling Exports, TIES, MEIS, Foreign Trade Policy, etc.

    What is Cartelization?

    | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Effects Of Liberalization On The Economy, Changes In Industrial Policy and their effects on Industrial Growth

    The Competition Commission of India (CCI) issued its final order in an alleged case of cartelization involving four Japanese shipping firms, asking them to desist from avoiding competition with each other.

    What is a Cartel?

    • According to CCI, a “Cartel includes an association of producers, sellers, distributors, traders or service providers who, by agreement amongst themselves, limit, control or attempt to control the production, distribution, sale or price of, or, trade in goods or provision of services”.
    • The three common components of a cartel are:
    1. an agreement
    2. between competitors
    3. to restrict competition

    What is Cartelization?

    • Cartelization is when enterprises collude to fix prices, indulge in bid-rigging, or share customers, etc. But when prices are controlled by the government under law, that is not cartelization.
    • The Competition Act contains strong provisions against cartels.
    • It also has the leniency provision to incentivize a party to a cartel to break away and report to the Commission, and thereby expect total or partial leniency.
    • This has proved a highly effective tool against cartels worldwide.

    How do they work?

    • Four categories of conduct are commonly identified across jurisdictions (countries). These are: price-fixing, output restrictions, market allocation and, bid-rigging
    • In sum, participants in hard-core cartels agree to insulate themselves from the rigors of a competitive marketplace, substituting cooperation for competition.

    How do cartels hurt?

    • They not only directly hurt the consumers but also, indirectly, undermine overall economic efficiency and innovations.
    • A successful cartel raises the price above the competitive level and reduces output.
    • Consumers choose either not to pay the higher price for some or all of the cartelized product that they desire, thus forgoing the product, or they pay the cartel price and thereby unknowingly transfer wealth to the cartel operators.

    Are there provisions in the Competition Act against monopolistic prices?

    • There are provisions in the Competition Act against abuse of dominance.
    • One of the abuses is when a dominant enterprise “directly or indirectly imposes unfair or discriminatory prices” in the purchase or sale of goods or services.
    • Thus, excessive pricing by a dominant enterprise could, in certain conditions, be regarded as abuse and, therefore, subject to investigation by the Competition Commission if it were fully functional.
    • However, where pricing is a result of normal supply and demand, the Competition Commission may have no role.

    What is the penalty for cartelization?

    • The Competition Act calls for a penalty on each member of the cartel, which is up to three times its profit for each year of anti-competitive behavior, or 10% of turnover for each year of its continuance, whichever is higher.
    • However, in case of a leniency petition, CCI can waive the penalty depending on the timing and usefulness of the disclosure  and  full cooperation  in  the  probe.

    How might cartels be worse than monopolies?

    • Monopolies are bad for both individual consumer interests as well as society at large.
    • Monopolist completely dominates the concerned market and, more often than not, abuse this dominance either in the form of charging higher than warranted prices or by providing lower than the warranted quality of the good or service in question.

    How to stop the spread of cartelization?

    • Strong deterrence to those cartels that are found guilty of being one.
    • Typically this takes the form of a monetary penalty that exceeds the gains amassed by the cartel and it is not always easy to ascertain the exact gains from cartelization.
    • The threat of stringent penalties can be used in conjunction with providing leniency — as was done in the beer case.

    Back2Basics: Competition Commission of India (CCI)

    • The CCI is the chief national competition regulator in India.
    • It is a statutory body within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
    • It is responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 in order to promote competition and prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Mother and Child Health – Immunization Program, BPBB, PMJSY, PMMSY, etc.

    Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

    Schemes | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies

    The government’s recent announcement that the maternity benefits program which provides ₹5,000 for the first child will be extended to cover the second child only if it is a girl has met with sharp criticism from activists who have demanded that it be universalized.

    What is PMMVY?

    • Launched in 2017, this scheme provides ₹5,000 for the birth of the first child to partially compensate a woman for the loss of wages.
    • It also aims to improve the nutritional well-being of the mother and the child.
    • The amount is given in three installments upon meeting certain conditions.
    • It is combined with another scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana, under which nearly ₹1,000 is given for an institutional birth so that a woman gets a total of ₹6,000.

    Eligibility Conditions

    The first transfer (at pregnancy trimester) of ₹1,000 requires the mother to:

    • Register pregnancy at the Anganwadi Centre (AWC) whenever she comes to know about her conception
    • Attend at least one prenatal care session and take Iron-folic acid tablets and TT1 (tetanus toxoid injection)
    • Attend at least one counseling session at the AWC or healthcare centre.

    The second transfer (six months of conception) of ₹2,000 requires the mother to:

    • Attend at least one prenatal care session and TT2

    The third transfer (three and a half months after delivery) of ₹2,000 requires the mother to:

    • Register the birth
    • Immunize the child with OPV and BCG at birth, at six weeks, and at 10 weeks
    • Attend at least two growth monitoring sessions within three months of delivery

    Additionally, the scheme requires the mother to:

    • Exclusively breastfeed for six months and introduce complementary feeding as certified by the mother
    • Immunize the child with OPV and DPT
    • Attend at least two counselling sessions on growth monitoring and infant and child nutrition and feeding between the third and sixth months after delivery

    Why in news?

    • Under the revamped PMMVY under Mission Shakti, the maternity benefit amounting to ₹6000 is also to be provided for the second child.
    • However, this is only in case the second is a girl child, to discourage pre-birth sex selection and promote the girl child.

    Issues with this provision

    • To provide maternity benefit only to the mother of the firstborn is illegal as the National Food Security Act, 2013 lays down that every pregnant woman and lactating mother are entitled to it.
    • For second child as a girl, it is to promote the birth of a girl child is nothing but posturing since it penalizes the mother for not giving birth to a girl child.
    • Subsequent adding of more conditions to the scheme will prove to be a bureaucratic nightmare, which can be overcome if the scheme is universalized.
    • Women will be able to access the scheme only after the delivery, which will not have any impact on their nutritional uptake during the course of their pregnancy.

     

    Before judging this factual information, take this PYQ form 2019:

    Q.Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017?

    1. Pregnant women are entitled to three months pre-delivery and three months post-delivery paid leave.
    2. Enterprises with creches must allow the mother a minimum of six crèche visits daily.
    3. Women with two children get reduced entitlements.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

    Post your answers here.

     

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Primary and Secondary Education – RTE, Education Policy, SEQI, RMSA, Committee Reports, etc.

    Paray Shikshalaya Initiative

    Prelims OnlyStates | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    The West Bengal government has launched ‘Paray Shikshalaya’ Initiative.

    Paray Shikshalaya

    • It is an open-air classroom in the neighborhood programme – for students from class 1 to 7.
    • The aim of this initiative is to encourage students who dropped out of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic to continue their education.

    Why was this initiative launched?

    • In view of the rising demand for physical classes, the state government reopened schools.
    • Classroom teaching could not be called on due to fear of spikes in covid cases.
    • Hence, students are being called in batches.

    Where were these classes held?

    • Schools which do not have open-air spaces conducted the classes in neighbourhood parks and grounds.
    • Local councilors and MLAs helped set up infrastructure in such parks like putting up makeshift shades and chairs, besides making mid-day meal arrangements for the students.
    • Schools which have open-air spaces held the classes there.
    • Benches were set up for students and blackboards were placed to provide a real classroom experience.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Human Rights Issues

    What is Operation AAHT?

    Prelims Only | Indian Society | Mains Paper 1: Poverty & Development Issues

    The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has launched a nationwide ‘Operation AAHT’ to curb human trafficking.

    We can site such examples in essays as well as mains as initiatives for curbing human trafficking in India

    Operation AAHT

    • As part of this operation, special teams will be deployed on all long-distance trains/routes with focus on rescuing victims, particularly women and children, from the clutches of traffickers.
    • The RPF will act as a bridge cutting across States to assist the local police in the mission to curb the menace.
    • The infrastructure and intelligence network of the force could be utilized to collect, collate and analyse clues on victims, source, route, destination, popular trains used by suspects, identity of carriers/agents, kingpins etc and shared with other law-enforcing agencies.

    Why need this mission?

    • The Railways, which operate about 21,000 trains across the country daily, is the most reliable mode of transportation for the traffickers who often move their victims on long-distance trains.
    • Thousands of Indians and persons from neighboring countries are trafficked every day to some destinations where they were forced to live like slaves.
    • They are also being trafficked for illegal adoptions, organ transplants, working in circus, begging and entertainment industry.

    Also read

    [Burning Issue] Draft Anti-Trafficking Bill, 2021

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Innovations in Biotechnology and Medical Sciences

    India’s first indigenous Bio-Sample Collection Kit: mWRAPR

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    The Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) led start-up has launched mWRAPR, a biological transport and storage medium for genomic sequencing labs, biobanks, and research labs handling biological samples for molecular analysis.

    mWRAPR

    • It is India’s first indigenous bio-sample kit, a biological transport and storage medium.
    • It would help in preserving genetic content in all types of biological samples, including microbiomes, saliva, cells, tissues, blood, body fluids, and fecal tubes.
    • It is the only Molecular Transport Medium to be manufactured in India that competes with sample stabilisation and transporting media of notable foreign brands.

    Significance

    • The disruptions in global supply chain limits accessibility to materials for molecular diagnostics.
    • India required to move to molecular tests (PCR/ RT-PCR test), but sample collection kits currently used were very cheap and not of molecular grade.
    • RNA WRAPR is the kind of molecular grade sample collection medium that India needs right now.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Festivals, Dances, Theatre, Literature, Art in News

    Kodiyal Theru Festival

    Prelims Only | History | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture

    The annual Kodiyal Theru car (chariot) festival has begun in Mangalore, Karnataka.

    Kodiyal Theru

    • It falls in late January or early February in the Hindu month of Magha.
    • It begins on Tritiya or the third day of the bright moon and ends on the seventh to be followed by Holi (Okuli) after the festival.
    • For these six days, the Car Festival rules in the Car Street in front of the Venkatramana Temple in Mangalore.
    • The Festival begins with the Dwajarohana or hoisting of the ‘flag’ – actually a framed picture of Garuda.
    • This is done ceremoniously on the first day of the festival amidst the clanging of bells and the reverberation of drumbeats.
    • The Garuda stays aloft for the rest of the festival until he is again lowered in an equally ceremonial manner on the day of the Holi and this is the concluding event of the festival.

     

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Civil Services Reforms

    Upsetting the Centre-state balance

    | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Civil Service

    Context

    The proposed amendment to Rule 6 of the IAS (Cadre) Rules 1954, seeks to do away with the consent of both the officer and the state government.

    What makes All-India services different?

    • Article 309: Under Article 309 of the Constitution, the Centre and states are empowered to erect and maintain services for running their administration.
    • Both the Centre and the states exercise full control over their services independently of each other.
    • Article 312: Unlike a central service or state service, an All-India Service is compositely administered under Article 312.
    • While recruitment and allotment to a cadre (state) are determined by the Centre, the states determine the work and posting.
    • Balance between Centre and states: Hence, All-India Services are carefully balanced between the Centre and the states.
    • The Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Forest Service (IFS) are the three All-India Services.
    • Being an All-India Service, officers of the IAS are posted to the states, from where they are deputed to the Centre with the tripartite consent of the officer, the state government and the central government.

    Issues with the proposed changes

    • The proposed amendment to Rule 6 of the IAS (Cadre) Rules 1954, seeks to do away with the consent of both the officer and the state government.
    • Reasons for amendment: The reason for the amendment, as declared by the central government, is to ensure adequate availability of IAS officers for central deputation, which at present is “not sufficient to meet the requirement at the Centre”.
    • However, the central government has gone beyond its declared reason and stretched the cadre rules to also allow for appropriation of IAS officers “in public interest”.
    • The Centre has virtually conferred upon itself the plenipotentiary power to pull out any number of IAS officers from the states.
    • States may divest IAS officers of key posts: To protect their administration from becoming paralysed, states may resort to altering their Transaction of Business Rules to divest IAS officers of key posts in the state, and vesting the same with the state officers.
    • Alternately, states may conjure provisional berths for retired bureaucrats to re-enter administration as special appointees, outside the cadre rules.
    • Flouting of cadre rules by States: As it is, the implementation of cadre rules is left to the mercy of the states, with the Centre showing a disinclination to enforce them.
    • Some states openly flout the cadre rules with impunity in matters of postings and transfers.
    • The Civil Services Board has been rendered impotent, non-cadre officers are being unilaterally appointed to IAS cadre posts, and the minimum tenure guarantee is openly flouted.
    • Against federalism: Not only could it allow distrust to fester in Centre-state relations, it would also result in the functional depreciation of the IAS in the states.

    Conclusion

    It is important for the states to be reassured that they are in control of their administration, and for the service to not lose its relevance.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Policy Wise: India’s Power Sector

    Revamped Distribution Sector Reform Scheme (RDSS)

    | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.

    Context

    Launched in July 2021, the Revamped Distribution Sector Reform Scheme (RDSS) is the latest of many central government grant-based programmes towards electricity distribution network investments.

     RDSS overview

    • Revamped Distribution Sector Reform Scheme (RDSS) has an outlay of Rs 3 lakh crore for five years.
    • Half of the outlay is for better feeder and transformer metering and pre-paid smart consumer metering.
    • The remaining half, 60 percent of which will be funded by central government grants, will be spent on power loss reduction and strengthening networks.
    • RDSS stipulates universal pre-paid metering but post-paid options may be suitable in many contexts.
    • RDSS suggested measures such as privatization and franchisee adoption.

    Legacy design issues in RDSS

    • Design issues: Complex processes and conditions for fund disbursal: Only 60 percent of the total Rs 2.5 lakh crore grants allocated in past schemes were disbursed.
    • Lack of review and regulatory oversight: Lack of public review and regulatory oversight in states is another issue.
    • Prescriptive approach: The prescriptive approach of the scheme design impedes effective implementation. For example, RDSS emphasizes loss reduction investments over system strengthening.
    • However, high losses are typically connected to sustained poor quality service which, in turn, is affected by inadequate investment in system strengthening.

    Opportunities for discoms under RDSS

    1] Strengthen rural networks

    • It is important to strengthen rural networks to meet growing demand.
    • In the past decade, 4.9 crore poor households have been electrified and more than Rs 50,000 crore has been invested in rural networks.
    • However, actual investments have been much less than planned.
    • Transformer and sub-station capacities were designed to meet the minimal demand assuming few lights, fans, and TV.
    • Increased supply hours, appliance usage, and the needs of rural enterprises will need more network investment.
    • Without this, the risk of power outages is high.
    • The RDSS system’s strengthening plans can focus on this challenge.

    2] Opportunity to provide reliable supply and reduce subsidy requirements for agriculture

    • About 25 percent of electricity sales is to be highly subsidized, agricultural consumers who also receive an erratic, poor quality supply.
    • Under the national KUSUM scheme, day-time, low-cost supply can be provided to a large number of farmers by installing megawatt scale solar plants.
    • For this to work, separate feeders for agricultural consumers are needed. RDSS prioritizes investments and grants towards dedicated agricultural feeders to accelerate feeder solarisation.
    • States must leverage this grant support to provide reliable supply and reduce subsidy requirements.

    3] Automatic metering of distribution feeders

    • Often, discoms under-estimate losses by over-estimating unmetered consumption in a bid to demonstrate loss reduction.
    • For greater veracity, all feeders must be equipped with meters capable of communicating readings without manual intervention.
    • States should leverage RDSS’s emphasis on automatic meter reading for this.

    4] Smart metering

    • RDSS prescribes a phase-wise roll-out of consumer smart meters, starting with commercial and industrial consumers and urban areas.
    • Such an approach provides states with an opportunity to understand implementation issues, adopt suitable strategies for metering and evolve frameworks for assessing benefits vis-a-vis the costs.

    5] Network for charging EVs

    • Discoms can avail 60 percent of grants under RDSS for network investments required to address the demand of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
    • This can accelerate a shift away from petrol and diesel fuels.

    Way forward

    • Flexibility: To leverage various opportunities, states must emphasize the need for flexibility in prioritizing investments in their action plans.
    • Central government agencies should also be flexible in the monitoring, tracking, and fund disbursal mechanisms.
    • Accelerated implementation: This should be accompanied by state-level commitments towards accelerated but deliberate implementation.

    Conclusion

    Despite the challenges, there are opportunities for discoms under RDSS. However, without these efforts, despite its potential, RDSS will likely be important but limited in its impact, like its predecessors.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    Weighing in on a health data retention plan

    | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    Context

    The National Health Authority (NHA) — the body responsible for administering the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) — has initiated a consultation process on the retention of health data by healthcare providers in India. The consultation paper asks for feedback on what data is to be retained, and for how long.

    Issues with the policy for healthcare data retention

    • Risk of over-collection: A simple classification system, as suggested in the consultation paper, exposes individuals to harms arising from over-collection and retention of unnecessary data.
    • At the same time, this kind of one-size-fits-all system can also lead to the under-retention of data that is genuinely required for research or public policy needs.
    • Instead, we should seek to classify data based on its use. 

    Do we need a policy for the mandatory retention of health data?

    • Currently, service providers can compete on how they handle the data of individuals or health records, in theory, each of us can choose a provider whose data policies we are comfortable with.
    • Whether the state should mandate a retention period at all is an open question.
    • Given the landscape of healthcare access in India, including through informal providers, many patients may not think about this factor in practice.
    • Nonetheless, the decision to take the choice out of the individual’s hands should not be taken lightly.

    Balancing the policy for public health data retention with the right to privacy

    • Four-part test for privacy: The Supreme Court of India has clarified that privacy is a fundamental right, and any interference into the right must pass a four-part test: legality; legitimate aim; proportionality, and appropriate safeguards.
    • Health data and privacy: The mandatory retention of health data is one such form of interference with the right to privacy.
    • 1] Legality: In this context, the question of legality becomes a question about the legal standing and authority of the NHA.
    • Since the NHA is not a sector-wide regulator, it has no legal basis for formulating guidelines for healthcare providers in general.
    • 2]Legitimate aim: The aim of data retention is described in terms of benefits to the individual and the public at large.
    • Benefits to the individuals: Individuals benefit through greater convenience and choice, created through portability of health records.
    • The broader public benefits through research and innovation, driven by the availability of more and better data to analyse.
    • Risk involved: Globally, legal systems consider health data particularly sensitive, and recognise that improper disclosure of this data can expose a person to a range of significant harms. 
    • Benefits must be clearly defined: As per Indian law, if an individual’s rights are to be curtailed due to anticipated benefits, such benefits cannot be potential or speculatory: they must be clearly defined and identifiable.
    • 3] Proportionality: This is the difference between saying that data on patients with heart conditions will help us better understand cardiac health — a vague explanation — and being able to identify a specific study that will include data from that patient.
    • It would further mean demonstrating that the study requires personally identifiable information, rather than just an anonymous record — the latter flowing from the principle of proportionality, which requires choosing the least intrusive option available.
    • 4] Safeguard: Standards for anonymisation are still developing.
    • We are not yet able to rule out the possibility of anonymised data still being linked back to specific individuals.
    • In other words, even anonymisation may not be the least intrusive solution to safeguarding patients’ rights in all scenarios.

    Way forward

    • Clear and specific case for retention: The test for retaining data should be that a clear and specific case has been identified for such retention, following a rigorous process run by suitable authorities.
    • Anonymise data: A second safeguard would be to anonymise data that is being retained for research purposes — again, unless a specific case is made for keeping personally identifiable information.
    • If neither of these is true, the data should be deleted.
    • Express and informed consent: An alternate basis for retaining data can be the express and informed consent of the individual in question.
    • User-based classification process: Health-care service providers — and everyone else — will have to comply with the data protection law, once it is adopted by Parliament.
    • The current Bill already requires purpose limitation for collecting, processing, sharing, or retaining data; a use-based classification process would thus bring the ABDM ecosystem actors in compliance with this law as well.

    Consider the question “What are the advantages and concerns with the retention of public health data? Suggest the ways to ensure the privacy-centric public health data retention policy.”

    Conclusion

    A privacy-centric process is needed to determine what data to retain and for how long.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-SCO

    India- Central Asia Relations

    | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    Context

    The inaugural India-Central Asia Summit, the India-Central Asia Dialogue, and the Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan in New Delhi — all held over the past four months — collectively indicate a renewed enthusiasm in New Delhi to engage the Central Asian region.

    Significance of Central Asia for India

    • India has limited economic and other stakes in the region, primarily due to lack of physical access.
    • And yet, the region appears to have gained a great deal of significance in India’s strategic thinking over the years, particularly in the recent past.
    • New geopolitical realities: India’s mission Central Asia today reflects, and is responsive to, the new geopolitical, if not the geo-economic, realities in the region.

    Factors driving India’s engagement

    • One of the factors driving this engagement and shaping it is the great power dynamics there.
    • Withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan: The decline of American presence and power in the broader region (due primarily to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan) has led to a reassertion by China and Russia seeking to fill the power vacuum.
    • India-Russia relations: Moscow considers India to be a useful partner in the region: it helps it to not only win back New Delhi, which is moving towards the U.S., but also to subtly checkmate the rising Chinese influence in its backyard.
    • For the U.S., while growing India-Russia relations is not a welcome development, it recognises the utility of Moscow-New Delhi relations in Central Asia to offset Beijing’s ever-growing influence there.
    • India’s dilemma:  In the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, New Delhi faces a major dilemma in the wider region, not just in the pre-existing theatres like the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control.
    • India’s China challenge: India in the region might get further hemmed in due to the combined efforts by China, Pakistan and Taliban-led Afghanistan.
    • If so, it must ensure that there is no China-led strategic gang up with Pakistan and the Taliban against India in the region, which, if it becomes a reality, would severely damage Indian interests.
    • Consolidation of Afghan policy: India’s engagement of Central Asia would also help it to consolidate its post-American Afghan policy.
    • Now that the Taliban have returned to Kabul, New Delhi is forced to devise new ways of engaging Afghanistan.
    • That’s where the Central Asian Republics (CARs) and Russia could be helpful. 
    • The announcement of a Joint Working Group on Afghanistan during the summit between India and the CARs is surely indicative of such interest.

    Russia’s prominence

    • In India’s current vision for a regional security architecture, Russia appears prominent
    • Countering China: By courting Russia — its traditional partner, also close to China and getting closer to Pakistan — to help it re-establish its presence in the Central Asian region, India is seeking to work with one of the region’s strongest powers and also potentially create a rift between China and Russia.
    • Joint defence production by India and Russia has been on the rise and the CARs could play a key role in it.
    • India’s non-critical stance on developments in Ukrain and Kazakhstan: This growing India-Russia partnership also explains India’s non-critical stance on the developments in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

    Challenges in India’s engagement with Central Asia

    • China’s dominance in the region:  China, which shares a land border with the region, is already a major investor there.
    • Iran’s role: An even bigger challenge for India may be Iran.
    • India’s best shot at reaching the CARs is by using a hybrid model – via sea to Chabahar and then by road/rail through Iran (and Afghanistan) to the CARs.
    •  So, for New Delhi, the ongoing re-negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action are of crucial importance.
    • While Iran getting close to the West is not preferred by Russia (but preferred by India), if and when it becomes a reality, India would be able to use it to its advantage and join Russia in engaging the CARs.
    • Delivering on the commitment: Most importantly, India will have to walk the talk on its commitments to Central Asia.
    • Does it have the political will, material capability and diplomatic wherewithal to stay the course in the region?

    Conclusion

    India’s renewed engagement of Central Asia is in the right direction for the simple reason that while the gains from an engagement of Central Asia may be minimal, the disadvantages of non-engagement could be costly in the longer run.

    UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor

Join the Community

Join us across Social Media platforms.