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  • United Nations’ World Population Prospects (WPP)

    The 2022 edition of the United Nations’ World Population Prospects (WPP) was released.

    Why in news?

    • India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023.

    What is the World Population Prospects?

    • The Population Division of the UN has been publishing the WPP in a biennial cycle since 1951.
    • Each revision of the WPP provides a historical time series of population indicators starting in 1950.
    • It does so by taking into account newly released national data to revise estimates of past trends in fertility, mortality or international migration.

    Main takeaways for the global population

    (1) Slow pace of growth

    • The world’s population continues to grow, but the pace of growth is slowing down.
    • The global population is expected to grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.
    • In 2020, the global growth rate fell under 1% per year for the first time since 1950.

    (2) Region-wise differential

    • Rates of population growth vary significantly across countries and regions.
    • More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries- Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
    • Disparate growth rates among the world’s largest countries will re-order their ranking by size.

    (3) Ageing population

    • The population of older persons is increasing both in numbers and as a share of the total.
    • The share of the global population aged 65 years or above is projected to rise from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2050.
    • The report suggests measures for ageing population by improving the sustainability of social security and pension systems and by establishing universal health care and long-term care systems.

    (4) Decline in fertility rate

    • A sustained drop in fertility has led to an increased concentration of the population at working ages (between 25 and 64 years), creating an opportunity for accelerated economic growth per capita.
    • This shift in the age distribution provides a time-bound opportunity for accelerated economic growth known as the “demographic dividend”.

    (5) International migration

    • This is having important impacts on population trends for some countries.
    • For high-income countries between 2000 and 2020, the contribution of international migration to population growth (net inflow of 80.5 million) exceeded the balance of births over deaths (66.2 million).
    • Over the next few decades, migration will be the sole driver of population growth in high-income countries.
    • In many of these countries, the outflows were due to temporary labour movements, such as for Pakistan (net flow of -16.5 million), India (-3.5 million), Bangladesh (-2.9 million), Nepal (-1.6 million) etc.

    How reliable is the UN projection, and how do they compare with India’s Census?

    • In India, of course, the Registrar General comes out with a population projection based on the Census.
    • The last such projection was released in 2019 and it was based on Census 2011.
    • The Census projection is slightly lower than the UN projection.
    • Still UN projection is widely acknowledged across the world

    What is the significance of India overtaking China?

    • That India would overtake China has been known for a while.
    • Moreover, in the past, when the world population was still at 5-billion or 6-billion levels, there was a concern about overcrowding.
    • Those concerns no longer exist because the global population is already 8 billion and several countries (including India) have achieved a replacement rate of fertility.
    • The concern now is not about the absolute numbers — India’s population is already 1.4 billion and may go up to 1.6 billion before declining.

     

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  • What is the Nord Stream 1 Gas Link?

    The Nord Stream 1, Germany’s main source of gas from Russia, was recently shut down for scheduled maintenance work.

    Why in news?

    • There are growing concerns in European countries that Russia would shut down its gas supplies in retaliation against the current sanctions against Moscow.

    What is Nord Stream 1?

    • It is a system of offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
    • Nord Stream 1 is a 1,224 km underwater gas pipeline that runs from Vyborg in northwest Russia to Lubmin in northeastern Germany via the Baltic Sea.
    • Two further pipelines under construction running from Ust-Luga to Lubmin termed Nord Stream 2.
    • Majority owned by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, the pipeline is the primary route through which its gas enters Germany.

    Worry for Europe

    • There have been growing concerns that there could be further restrictions to European gas supplies.
    • European countries rely on Russian energy for their cold winters.
    • But now they believe that Russia could weaponized their dependency as a response to their sanction due to the conflict in Ukraine.

    What are Europe’s alternative sources of energy?

    • As an alternative source for energy, European countries have increasingly turned towards the US, from whom they purchase liquified natural gas (LNG) that comes via ships.
    • Since ship-delivered gas ends up being far more expensive, there are also attempts to get non-Russian pipeline gas from Norway and Azerbaijan.
    • While EU countries were earlier seeking to phase out fossil fuels and emphasize renewable forms of energy, many are now returning to coal to deal with the energy crisis.

     

     

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  • The West has a chance to wean India off Russian weaponry

    Context

    Perturbed by India’s reluctance to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and keen to bind the country closer in confronting China, Western governments have launched a fresh push to wean India, the world’s biggest importer of arms, off its long dependence on Russian weaponry.

    India’s concerns after Ukraine war

    • India has grown increasingly alarmed about China, following deadly border clashes in 2020.
    • Since the war in Ukraine began, it has also worried about Russia’s reliability as an arms supplier and about the quality of some of its weapons.
    • Diversification away from Russia: India, though insistent that it has every right to choose its own suppliers, is already diversifying away from Russia. 
    • The share of weapons it imports from Russia has fallen sharply, to around 50% between 2016 and 2021, down from 70% during the previous five-year period.
    • Western help for diversification: It has welcomed Western help in fulfilling its ambition to make more of its own weapons.

    Joint arms production plan

    • As the West cannot compete with Russia on price and remain reluctant to share their most cutting-edge technology, they are counting on joint arms production.
    • Western leaders have been vocal about their willingness to help India arm itself.
    • At a ministerial meeting in Washington in April, American officials discussed helping India to make advanced weapons, including reconnaissance aircraft and a system for combating aerial drones.
    • On visits to Delhi that month, Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, also proposed joint arms ventures.
    • Despite avowed interest from both sides, such a shift faces many challenges.

    Challenges

    • Dominance of PSUs: India’s arms industry, technically open to private investment since 2001, has long been hampered by the dominance of a small number of state-owned giants such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
    • Inefficiencies: State-owned arms-makers remain notoriously inefficient.
    • They also retain long-running tie-ups with Russia, making Western governments wary of accepting India’s demands for the transfer of more advanced technology.
    • Low presence of private sector: The share of defence production in the hands of the private sector, which is a more natural partner for big Western defence manufacturers, is about a fifth—scarcely higher than it was five years ago.
    • Lack of industrial capacity and skill: Both the state and private sector still lack the industrial capacity and skilled workers to produce highly specialised defence technology at scale—especially military aircraft.
    • Trust issue: While Western companies worry about inadvertent technology transfers to Russia, India worries about the reliability of its Western partners.
    • Past record: Many see America, which in the past has imposed sanctions on India for its nuclear-weapons programme, as a fickle supplier.
    • More recently America refused to sell India its Patriot missile system, prompting India to fall back on a Russian alternative and thereby put itself at risk of American sanctions once more.

    Way forward

    • Liberalisation of defence sector: As a step to liberalise the industry as part of his push towards self-reliance, in 2020 India raised the limit on foreign ownership of defence firms from 49% to 74%.
    • Ordinance Factory Board was dissolved into small units to corporatize the entity.
    • Lockheed Martin, a big American defence manufacturer, last year approved the manufacture of wings for the f-16 fighter jet by its joint venture with Tata.
    • The company has also pledged to produce a more advanced fighter, the f-21, in India, provided it wins a multi-billion-dollar contract to supply 114 fighter jets.
    • Big deals like those would provide incentives for foreign governments to approve more technology transfer and for Western manufacturers to make the investments needed to spur India’s indigenisation drive.

    Conclusion

    Russia’s war and China’s muscle-flexing have opened a door for India and the West to walk through, but crossing the threshold will require some resolve on both sides.

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  • As GST compensation ends, state governments need to be provided certainty of revenues

    Context

    The five-year transition period after the adoption of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on July 1, 2017, came to an end on June 30, 2022. With this, the era of GST compensation that the state governments were entitled to has ended.

    High estimated loan issuance

    • Many state governments have asked for the compensation period to be extended by a few years.
    • To tangibly assess the near-term outlook for state finances, we have to rely on the states’ own estimates for their market borrowing requirements for the second quarter of 2022-23.
    • The indicative calendar of market borrowings by 23 state governments and two Union territories for the second quarter has pegged their total state development loan issuance — the primary source of financing state government deficits — at Rs 2.1 trillion.
    •  This projected issuance is 29 per cent higher than the same period last year, and at an eight-quarter high.
    • This high level of issuance projected by states reflects concerns that some of them might rightfully have regarding the uncertainty of their cash flows in the post-GST compensation era.
    • High dependence on GST compensation: Of these 23 states, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat have indicated large increases in borrowings.
    • Most of these states have an above-average dependence on GST compensation.

    Implications of discontinuation of GST compensation

    • Alter the revenue compensation: The discontinuation of the GST compensation flows would alter the revenue composition of some states adversely, particularly those with a relatively larger share of such receipts in their overall revenue streams.
    • Increase in debt level: To offset a portion of the associated revenue loss, such states are likely to enhance their borrowings and/or to undertake some expenditure adjustments in the quarters ahead.

    Adjustment of borrowing limit of the States by the Centre

    • At the time of communicating to states their annual borrowing limits for the ongoing year, we understand that the Centre had informed state governments that their off-budget borrowings for the past two years (2020-21 and 2021-22) would be adjusted from their borrowing ceiling this year.
    • Data on off-budget borrowing: It appears that the calculation of the adjusted borrowing limit required the submission of detailed data by the state governments related to their off-budget borrowings for the last two fiscal years, followed by a thorough assessment of the same by the Centre.

    Need for early step up in tax-devolution

    • On the whole, though, states appear to have entered the year with a comfortable cash flow position.
    • This follows from the back-ended release of the tax devolution to states for 2021-22 — nearly half of the full-year amount was released in the fourth quarter.
    • Additionally, the total amount was also well above the revised estimate, providing an unexpected gain to states.
    • This may have allowed them to temporarily withstand the changes related to their borrowing permission.
    • Subsequently, the release of the GST compensation grant of Rs 869 billion for several months in May is likely to have further eased their cash flows.
    • If the government does decide to step-up tax devolution to the states in the near term, instead of back-ending it as was done in the last year, it may reduce the size of state borrowings in the second quarter.
    • But more significantly, such revenue certainty, despite the end of the GST compensation era, may embolden states to ringfence their capital spending, providing a positive impulse to the economy.

    Conclusion

    The discontinuation of the GST compensation flows would alter the revenue composition of some states adversely, tax devolution to the states in the near term could cushion the blow of the discontinuation.

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    Back2Basics: Compensation under GST regime

    • The adoption of the GST was made possible by the States ceding almost all their powers to impose local-level indirect taxes and agreeing to let the prevailing multiplicity of imposts be subsumed under the GST.
    • While the States would receive the SGST (State GST) component of the GST, and a share of the IGST (Integrated GST), it was agreed that revenue shortfalls arising from the transition to the new indirect taxes regime would be made good from a pooled GST Compensation Fund for a period of five years that is set to end in 2022.
    • This corpus in turn is funded through a compensation cess that is levied on so-called ‘demerit’ goods.
    • This GST Compensation Cess or GST Cess is levied on five products considered to be ‘sin’ or luxury as mentioned in the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 and includes items such as- Pan Masala, Tobacco, and Automobiles etc.

  • The road to productivity

    Context

    The commute time for the labour force to the workplace plays a very important role in determining their productivity in cities.

    Issue of long travel time to work

    • Labour market: Cities are labour markets where the labour force exchanges their labour and creates knowledge spillovers.
    • Relation between commute time and productivity: The commute time for the labour force to the workplace plays a very important role in determining their productivity in cities.
    •  The longer the commute time in a city, the smaller is its effective labour market and vice-versa.
    • Difference between nominal and effective labour market: While the nominal labour market of the city refers to all jobs created in the metropolitan area, the effective labour market refers to the jobs accessible within a certain commute.
    • Importance of effective labour market: The larger a city’s effective labour market, the greater its agglomeration economies and knowledge spillovers will be.
    • From the viewpoint of enlarging a city’s effective labour market and economic output, it is therefore very important to keep the commute time short and commuting cost cheap within a city as it keeps growing in population.

    Way forward

    • One way in which urban local bodies (ULBs) directly impact the city’s economic output is through their infrastructure.
    • Increase in tax base: Road length has a positive effect on the city’s tax base.
    • Motivation to pay texes: This is because roads lead to easy access to jobs and increased economic activity; that also gives the public more confidence and motivation to pay taxes.
    • Cities should not view investment in road networks as expenditure; rather, roads add to the city’s revenue base which the city can use to improve infrastructure and public services.

    Conclusion

    Investing in roads not only reduces travel time and enlarges effective labour markets of cities and their economic output, but also improves access to schooling for children as well as healthcare, thereby upgrading human development. This is indeed the road to the $5 trillion economy along with improvement in human well-being.

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  • Proposed Amendments to the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

    The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), put out a note, proposing amendments in the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

    Environment Protection Act (EPA), 1986

    • EP Act was passed under Article 253 of the Constitution, which empowers the Centre to enact laws to give effect to international agreements signed by the country.
    • The purpose of the Act is to implement the decisions of the UN Conference on the Human Environment.
    • They relate to the protection and improvement of the human environment and the prevention of hazards to human beings, other living creatures, plants and property.
    • It was enacted in 1986 on the backdrop of Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
    • The Act was last amended in 1991.

    Why this Act?

    • The Act is an “umbrella” legislation that has provided a framework for the environmental regulation regime in India.
    • It covers all major industrial and infrastructure activities and prohibits and regulates specific activities in coastal areas and eco-sensitive areas.
    • The Act also provides for coordination of the activities of various central and state authorities established under other environment-related laws, such as the Water Act and the Air Act.

    What are the proposed amendments?

    • The Environment Ministry has proposed amendments in four key legislations:
    1. Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
    2. Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
    3. Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and
    4. Public Liability Insurance (PLI) Act, 1991
    • These are the cornerstone environmental laws that led to the setting up of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
    • These laws empowered the CPCB to take criminal action against individuals and corporate bodies who pollute air, water and land.

    Powers given to CPCB by these Laws

    • The clutch of laws currently empowers the CPCB to either:
    1. Shut down a polluting industrial body or
    2. Imprison executives of an organization found to be environmental violators
    • The EPA currently says that violators face imprisonment up to five years or a fine up to ₹1 lakh or both.
    • There’s also a provision for the jail term to extend to seven years.

    Purpose of the Amendments

    • The Environment Ministry had received suggestions to decriminalise existing provisions of the EPA to weed out “fear of imprisonment for simple violations.”
    • These, however, don’t apply to violations that cause grave injury or loss of life.

    How will violators be punished?

    • The changes proposed include the appointment of an ‘adjudication officer’.
    • He/She will decide on the penalty in cases of environmental violations such as reports not being submitted or information not provided when demanded.
    • Funds collected as penalties would be accrued in an “Environmental Protection Fund.”
    • In case of contraventions of the Act, the penalties could extend to anywhere from 5 lakh to 5 crore, the proposal notes.

    Need for such amendments

    • Limited success of existing laws: The history of environmental action and its success in India shows that the current laws have had limited effectiveness.
    • Backlog of cases: An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment found that Indian courts took between 9-33 years to clear a backlog of cases for environmental violations.
    • Capitalist power: Myriad challenges dogged the process of bringing violators to book.
    • Red tapism: Flag pollution from an industrial unit would mean filing a complaint with the court of the concerned DM, or furnishing evidence to the CPCB which would again have to approach the same institution.
    • Burden of proof: In most cases, it was practically impossible to hold a specific individual in an organization responsible for a specific crime given the burden of proof required.

     

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  • Centre releases guidelines for Mission Vatsalya

    In order to access Central funds and benefits under Mission Vatsalya (an umbrella scheme for child protection services in the country), the centre has issued certain guidelines.

    What is Mission Vatsalya?

    • Mission Vatsalya promotes family-based non-institutional care of children in difficult circumstances based on the principle of institutionalization of children as a measure of last resort.
    • It is one of the new triad of schemes along with Mission Shakti, and Poshan 2.0, that aims at securing a healthy and happy childhood for every child.

    Components under the mission include:

    1. Improve the functioning of statutory bodies;
    2. Strengthen service delivery structures;
    3. Upscale institutional care/services;
    4. Encourage non-institutional community-based care;
    5. Emergency outreach services;
    6. Training and capacity building.

    Implementation

    • It will be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in partnership with state governments and UT administrations, with a fund-sharing pattern in a 60:40 ratio.
    • However, for the eight states in the Northeast — as well as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the UT of J&K — the Centre and state/UT’s share will be 90:10.
    • The Centre will cover the whole cost in UTs without a legislature.

    What are the new guidelines?

    (1) Official changes

    • States will have to retain the official name, as given by the Centre. Only a correct translation to local language is permissible.
    • The centre detailed the process by which funds will be disbursed to states under various heads by defining institutionalised arrangements.
    • Funds to states will be approved through the Mission Vatsalya Project Approval Board (PAB), which will be chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of WCD.
    • The Secretary will scrutinise and approve annual plans and financial proposals received from states and UTs for release of grants.

    (2) Special arrangements

    • States/UTs have also been directed to focus on special needs children with physical or mental disabilities.
    • Institutions now have to provide special educators, therapists and nurses to impart occupational therapy, speech therapy, verbal therapy and other remedial classes.
    • The staff in these special units will have to know sign language, Braille, etc, according to the new guidelines.

    (3) Newly shouldered tasks

    • The guidelines state that Mission Vatsalya will support State Adoption Resource Agencies (SARA), which will support the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
    • This move aims at promoting in-country adoption and regulating inter-country adoption.
    • Mission Vatsalya, in partnership with states and districts, will execute a 24×7 helpline service for children, as defined under JJ Act, 2015.

    Name change saga: Child Protection Services Scheme

    • Before 2009, three schemes were being implemented under the WCD Ministry for children in need of protection:
    1. Programme for juvenile justice for children in need of care and protection, and children in conflict with law;
    2. Integrated programme for street children and
    3. Scheme for assistance to homes for children
    • These were clubbed in 2010 into a single scheme called the Integrated Child Protection Scheme.
    • It was then renamed “Child Protection Services” Scheme in 2017, and again as Mission Vatsalya in 2021-22.

  • Sannati and Kanaganahalli Buddhist Sites

    Left almost unattended to for 20 years after excavation, the ancient Buddhist site on the bank of Bhima river near Kanaganahalli (forming part of Sannati site) in Kalaburagi district, has finally got some attention.

    About Sannati

    • Sannati is a small village on the banks of the River Bhima in Chittapur Taluka of Kalaburagi (Gulbarga).
    • It came into prominence after the collapse of the roof of the Kali temple in Chandralamba temple complex in 1986.
    • The collapse revealed the historically valuable Ashokan edicts written in Prakrit language and Brahmi script at the foundations of the temple, attracting historians from across India.
    • While the Stupa is believed to be one of the largest of its time.
    • The stone-portrait is considered to be the only surviving image of the Mauryan Emperor which had the inscription ‘Raya Asoko’ in Brahmi on it.

    Significance of Sannati

    • Further revelations led to the discovery of the magnificent Maha Stupa, which had been referred to as Adholoka Maha-Chaitya (The Great Stupa of the Netherworlds) in the inscriptions.
    • More importantly, a sculpture-portrait of Ashoka seated on his throne with his queens was also discovered.
    • Historians believe that the Sannati Ranamandal (war zone) was a fortified area spread over 210 acres, of which only a couple of acres have been excavated so far.

    Try this PYQ:

    In which of the following relief sculpture inscriptions is ‘Ranyo Ashokan’ (King Ashoka) mentioned along with the stone portrait of Ashoka?

    (a) Kanganahalli

    (b) Sanchi

    (c) Shahbazgarhi

    (d) Sohgaura

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”tkeut67v6e” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

     

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  • [pib] National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

    Two new Internet Exchange points (IXP) of NIXI were inaugurated at Durgapur and Bardhman.

    What is NIXI?

    • NIXI is a not for profit Organization under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013 and was registered on 19th June 2003.
    • It’s an initiative under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) vision 1000 days.
    • It aims for spreading the internet infrastructure to the citizens of India through the following activities:
    1. Internet Exchanges through which the internet data is exchanged amongst Internet Service Protocols (ISPs), Data Centers and CDNs.
    2. .IN Registry, managing and operation of .IN country-code domain and .भारत IDN domain for India.
    3. Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN), managing and operating Internet protocol (IPv4/IPv6).

    Why NIXI?

    • NIXI was set up for peering of Internet Service Protocols (ISPs) among themselves for the purpose of routing the domestic traffic within the country, instead of taking it all the way to US/Abroad.
    • It is thereby resulting in better quality of service (reduced latency) and reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs by saving on International Bandwidth.
    • NIXI is managed and operated on a Neutral basis, in line with the best practices for such initiatives globally.

    Utility of NIXI

    • The launch of these new NIXI internet exchanges will contribute to the enhancement and improvement of Internet and Broadband services at local level and in neighbouring regions.
    • The internet service providers connecting at these points will benefit as their broadband services to their end users will improve, bringing about a change in the lives of the people of the region.
    • It will benefit every sector of the state ranging from health, education, agriculture, startup, and ecosystem to MSMEs & other business verticals.
    • Accessibility and convenience will increase for citizens in terms of availing government benefits and improving quality of life.

     

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  • Places in news: Singalila National Park

    The Singalila National Park, the highest protected area in West Bengal, will soon wild Red Panda.

    Singalila National Park

    • Singalila National Park is located on the Singalila Ridge at an altitude of more than 7000 feet above sea level, in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
    • It is well known for the trekking route to Sandakphu that runs through it.
    • The Singalila area in Darjeeling was purchased by the British Government from Sikkim Durbar in 1882, and notified a Reserve Forest under the Indian Forest Act 1878.
    • It was notified as a National Park in 1992 and was also officially opened up for tourism.

    Why introduce Red Panda?

    • The number of red pandas has been declining in the wild, even in the Singalila and Neora Valley National Parks, the two protected areas where the mammal is found in the wild in West Bengal.
    • Recent studies estimate that there are 38 of them in Singalila and 32 in Neora.
    • The zoological park who is at the centre of the Red Panda Augmentation Programme.
    • Conservation breeding of red pandas is only one part of the programme.

    About Red Panda

    IUCN Red List: Endangered

    • The red panda (Ailurus fulgens), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.
    • It was first formally described in 1825.
    • The red panda inhabits coniferous forests as well as temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, favouring steep slopes with dense bamboo cover close to water sources.
    • It is solitary and largely arboreal.
    • It feeds mainly on bamboo shoots and leaves, but also on fruits and blossoms.

     

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