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  • No one can be forced to get vaccinated: SC

    The Supreme Court has upheld the right of an individual against forcible vaccination and the government’s COVID-19 vaccination policy to protect communitarian health.

    What is the news?

    • Vaccine hesitancy has been on rise these days.
    • The SC has found certain vaccine mandates imposed by the State governments and Union Territory administrations disproportionate.
    • They tend to deny access to basic welfare measures and freedom of movement to unvaccinated individuals.

    Right not to get vaccinated

    • The bench upheld the right to bodily integrity and personal autonomy of an individual in the light of vaccines and other public health measures.
    • Bodily integrity is protected under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution and no individual can be forced to be vaccinated.
    • The court struck a balance between individual right to bodily integrity and refuse treatment with the government’s concern for public health.

    Subject to scrutiny

    • When the issue is extended to “communitarian health”, the government was indeed “entitled to regulate issues”.
    • But its right to regulate by imposing limits to individual rights was open to judicial scrutiny.

    What is Vaccine Hesitancy?

    • The reluctance of people to receive safe and recommended available vaccines is known as ‘vaccine hesitancy’.
    • This was already a growing concern before the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • A framework developed from research done in high-income countries, called ‘the 5C model of the drivers of vaccine hesitancy’, provides five main individual person–level determinants for vaccine hesitancy:
    1. Confidence
    2. Complacency
    3. Convenience (or constraints)
    4. Risk calculation
    5. Collective responsibility

    Questions raised by vaccine hesitancy

    1. To end the pandemic, wherein no one is safe until everyone is safe, how relevant and strong are the arguments on freedom of choice?
    2. How is the fight against this global crisis impacted when prominent personalities assert on making a choice contrary to global good?
    3. Amid the raging pandemic and the persistent threat of future waves, how can vaccine scepticism and hesitancy be addressed worldwide?

    Why is it a cause of concern?

    • Re-surging of covid cases: Amid the ongoing Omicron surge, there have been reports pointing to the unvaccinated population driving the current surge in COVID-19 cases in Europe and US.
    • Risk of future waves and danger mutations: Large scale vaccine hesitancy could drag the pandemic longer by ensuring sustained continuance of the COVID-19 diseases and emergence of newer and deadlier variants.

    Various causes for vaccine hesitancy

    • Scepticism: There are many reasons for vaccine scepticism. Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context specific varying across time, place and vaccines.
    • Fake news: The conspiracy theories on social media have brought negative publicity for vaccination. These seem to have created propaganda against the vaccines.
    • Malfunctions: The sensational highlighting of vaccine fatalities event by the media is driving vaccine hesitancy to some extent.
    • Myths and beliefs: In some places radical religious factors have driven vaccine hesitancy resulting in myth against vaccines. This is also a leading factor of prevalence of Polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
    • Policy fluctuations: The frequent flip-flops by governments on the vaccination issue have resulted in a low trust among the general populace regarding vaccination.
    • Public trust: Vaccine hesitancy is also influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience and confidence.

    Way forward

    With no “one-size-fits-all” solution to vaccine hesitancy, contextualised and curated approaches are crucial.

    • Dispelling misinformation: There is the need to dispel all misinformation – unscientific, incorrect and unsubstantiated.
    • Counselling: WHO has put forth the BeSD (behavioural and social drivers) vaccination model, which emphasises “motivation” as the vanguard of human psychology during a vaccination drive.
    • Standard safeguards: The fact that vaccines meet the necessary safety standards set by the various organizations needs to be highlighted.
    • Vaccine equality: There is the need to ensure access of affordable, quality and timely vaccines to all.
    • Highlighting success: Countries must highlight the success observed due to the vaccination programmes, wherein despite rapid rise in cases the hospitalization and death rates remain within controllable limits.

     

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  • [pib] National Open Access Registry (NOAR)

    National Open Access Registry (NOAR) has successfully gone live from 1st May 2022.

    What is NOAR?

    • NOAR is a centralized online platform through which the short-term open access to the inter-state transmission system is being managed in India.
    • It is an integrated platform accessible to all stakeholders in the power sector, including open access customers (both sellers and buyers), power traders, power exchanges, National/Regional/State LDCs and others.
    • The platform provides automation in the workflow to achieve shorter turnaround time for the transactions.
    • NOAR platform also has a payment gateway integrated for making payments related to interstate short-term open access transactions.
    • NOAR platform provides transparency and seamless flow of information among stakeholders of open access.

    Key features

    • Centralized System: Single point electronic platform for all the stakeholders
    • Automated Process: Automated administration process of the short-term open access
    • Common Interface: Interface with the RLDCs scheduling applications and Power Exchanges (s)
    • Payment Gateway: Make payments related to STOA transactions

     

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  • LIC

    Context

    LIC is now at a transformational moment. Its listing on the bourses should lift LIC to be a part of the elite corporate community in India.

    Insurance sector in India

    • Opening of the insurance sector: A milestone in the history of India’s insurance industry was the opening of the sector for private participation in the year 2000 and this caused widespread concern that LIC will find the competition tough and could very well be marginalised.
    • Today, there are 24 private players in the life insurance space and many of them have foreign collaborations.
    • LIC has steadily grown in the past six decades and today with over 290 million policyholders and an asset value of ₹38 lakh crore ($520 billion), it ranks as one of the largest insurance companies in the world.
    • Yet, LIC remains a colossus capturing 75% of the life insurance business in the country.
    • Its claim settlement at 99.87% is far above the industry average of 84%.

    Role of LIC in skilling and women’s employment

    • LIC created large scale employment for women right from its inception in 1956. 
    • Thousands of women became LIC agents in the 1950s and 60s, when job opportunities were scarce.
    • There was no entry barrier in terms of age or fixed time for work.
    • Education requirement was a mere high school pass.
    • Many of these women were housewives who could earn an extra income by selling LIC policies.
    • This was a period before the arrival of digital technologies and mobile phones.
    • Skill development program: LIC’s training programme with its mix of online education and real-life case studies offer the best model for India’s skill development programmes.
    •  LIC’s relevance comes from its track record of creating vast number of employment opportunities for ordinary Indians, male and female, urban and rural.

    Policies focused on savings

    • In a country of vast poverty and low income, LIC recognised from the beginning that it cannot sell insurance as a risk cover on premature death.
    • It, therefore, devised policies focussing on savings and the need for children’s education and daughter’s marriage which are fundamentals to family values in India.
    • These policies also ensured that a part of the premium paid was returned at regular intervals before the maturity period, providing liquidity for emergencies.
    • They simultaneously covered risk caused by death.
    • People-centric approach: While the private players concentrated on technology-driven marketing, LIC’s approach was significantly people-centric.
    • When Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched for financial inclusion of over 300 million of the rural population on August 15, 2014, LIC was already there with its policies covering a rural population of 200 million.

    Conclusion

    The nation must not forget the fact that LIC was built on sweat and tears, pain and sacrifice of ordinary Indians. It is these democratic credentials that remain LIC’s most valuable asset.

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  • India must use markets to decarbonise

    Context

    Climate change is bound to impact human lives and the global economy at an exceptionally high scale in the not-so-distant future. The solution to the problem calls for government intervention.

    Carbon intensive nature of India’s energy ecosystem

    • After China and the United States, India, which releases 2.44 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, is the third-largest emitter of this GHG, making it a key player in emissions reduction.
    •  The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2017 Report estimates that India will account for nearly one-fourth of the global energy demand by 2040.
    • As per the IEA’s India Energy Outlook 2021 Report, India’s energy system is highly dependent on fossil fuels — coal, oil and bioenergy — that supply about 90 per cent of the country’s demand.
    • Low electrification: About 38 per cent of primary energy is consumed for power generation, implying that the level of electrification is still low in the country.
    • Power generation is highly dependent on coal — about 78 per cent of it comes from this fossil fuel — and, transportation is almost entirely dependent on oil.
    • The Indian energy ecosystem is, thus, highly carbon-intensive.

    Climate change as a feature of market failure

    • Market failure due to climate change: Economic activities by consumers (driving or air-conditioning, for instance) and by producers (such as electricity generation and manufacturing) cause emissions, leading to pollution and global warming.
    • Negative externalities: These negative externalities, causing outcomes that are not efficient, are not reflected in the costs incurred by consumers or producers.
    • The true costs to the consumers, producers and society are not reflected in the market interactions.
    • This leads to an uncontrolled rise in emissions and also breeds apathy towards mitigation efforts.

    Way forward

    • Government intervention: Achieving economic growth sustainably requires a strategy for reducing carbon emissions aggressively while also focusing on efficiency, equity, fairness and behavioural aspects.
    • The solution to the problem of market failure calls for government intervention.
    • Limits of emission: The most natural option of government intervention for reducing emissions is by fixing limits of emissions through regulation, taking into consideration the Nationally Determined Contribution targets set by the country under the Paris Agreement.
    • Experts have shown that the wrongly set emission levels could lead to cost-inefficient outcomes.
    • It makes it difficult for the regulator to obtain the information about each firm’s abatement-cost and damage-cost schedules in advance.
    • Therefore, setting emission targets and regulating emissions through command and control might be good only during the initial phase of the mitigation strategy.
    • Why Carbon tax is a better option? The carbon tax is a better option than regulating the pre-fixed levels of emissions.
    • The marginal cost of abatement rises as the firms keep on reducing the emissions further, and the firm will stop reducing emissions and choose to pay tax at the point when the cost of abatement becomes higher than the rate of tax.
    • This option will lead to near-efficient outcomes.
    •  The trading scheme will bring in higher efficiency as the price of certificates will be determined by allowing firms facing low and high abatement costs to compete in the free market as per their own abatement and damage cost schedules.
    •  The emissions trading scheme will determine the optimal and cost-efficient levels of emissions reduction by providing a choice to the firms to either mitigate or trade — the net effect of this will be a reduction in emissions.
    • The low abatement-cost firms will keep reducing emissions as they would profit by trading the certificates.
    • Equity in energy access: The issue of equity in energy access must be addressed by channelling the revenues generated from carbon pricing to households and firms impacted by the carbon trading and carbon tax — these could be through incentives or lump-sum transfers.

    Conclusion

    The socio-economic impact of decarbonising the economy and the way humans live would be crucial in setting our priorities. We have limited time and our resources are scarce.

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  • PDS has had a spectacular run. That may not last

    Context

    2020-21 was one of Indian agriculture’s finest moments, as memorable as 1967-68 that inaugurated the Green Revolution. Agriculture was the only sector to grow 3.3 per cent in 2020-21, even as the economy overall contracted by 4.8 per cent.

    Increase in grain offtake under PDS

    • NFSA along with PMGKAY has led to a massive jump in grain offtake through the PDS.
    •  More importantly, this increase has largely taken place in the poorer states.
    • UP, Bihar and Jharkhand together accounted for 21.6 per cent of national grain offtake in 2012-13, which was pre-NFSA.
    • Sales of rice and wheat under various government schemes totalled 92.9 million tonnes (mt) in 2020-21 and 105.6 mt in 2021-22.
    • This was as against an average offtake of 62.5 mt during the first seven years after the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013-14 and 48.4 mt in the seven years preceding the legislation.

    Provisions under NFSA

    • The NFSA legally entitles up to 75 per cent of India’s rural and 50 per cent of the urban population — translating into some 813.5 million people — to receive 5 kg of grain per person per month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 2/kg for wheat and Rs 3/kg for rice.
    • In the wake of the Covid-induced economic disruptions, a new Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) scheme was launched giving NFSA beneficiaries an extra 5 kg grain per person per month free of cost.
    • PMGKAY was implemented for eight months (April-November) in 2020-21 and 11 months (May-March) of 2021-22.

    PDS reforms in states

    • Only a handful of states — Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh — had well-functioning PDS till the early 2000s.
    • In the late-2000s, Chhattisgarh initiated reforms to curb diversion/leakages by entrusting the running of fair price shops to cooperatives and local bodies (as against private licensees), making timely allocation and supplying grain directly to PDS outlets (bypassing middle-level distribution agencies), and using IT to track dispatches right from procurement centres to points of sale.
    • Chhattisgarh’s example was emulated by Odisha, followed by Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal — all by 2015-16.
    • The three poorest states are the latest entrants to the list.
    • The accompanying charts show the offtake of rice and wheat both at the all-India level and for the three poorest states as per the NITI Aayog’s National Multidimensional Poverty Index — Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh (UP).
    • UP particularly has seen its grain offtake soar from 9.5 mt to 17.3 mt in the last two years.
    • Out of the 17.3 mt (10.7 mt wheat and 6.6 mt rice) distributed in 2021-22, 7.8 mt comprised free grains under PMGKAY.
    • The PDS, indeed, turned out to be the only effective social safety net during the pandemic.
    • Some states went beyond rice and wheat.

    Challenges

    •  The expansion of the PDS, especially post-NFSA, was underwritten by the superabundance of rice and wheat in government granaries.
    • Official wheat procurement is likely to halve this time from last year’s record 43.3 mt, because of a poor crop singed by the abnormal spike in March temperatures.
    • Rice stocks are far more comfortable, though the precarious supply situation in fertilisers raises questions about the prospects for the coming kharif season.
    • Looking ahead, the Food Corporation of India’s stocks can probably sustain the pre-2020-21 annual offtake levels of 60-65 mt – enough for NFSA, but certainly not schemes such as PMGKAY.

    Conclusion

    The PDS was originally meant to protect ordinary people from extraordinary price rises. Whether it can do that at a time of renewed global inflation remains to be seen.

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  • Confidentiality ring amendment and its impact on antitrust disputes

    Context

    Amazon (the defendant) decided to take the confidentiality route towards its submissions in an order dated March 7 passed by the DG-CCI on the Amazon dispute.

    About the Confidentiality Ring

    • In 2015, the EU mandated the creation of a data room to respect the confidentiality of certain documents.
    • The EU has to protect this mandate to ensure that the right of defence is not prejudiced. 
    • Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty of the European Union, which states: “Through confidentiality rings, DG Competition (EU) can safeguard the rights of defence while respecting the legitimate interests in the confidentiality of the information providers.
    • In addition, confidentiality rings remove or reduce the burden of preparing non-confidential versions of documents.”

    Adoption of Confidentiality ring by CCI

    • CCI’s investigation under Sections 3, 4 or 5 of the Competition Act are related to the suo motu powers given to the director-general of the commission, which have now extended toward establishing a confidentiality ring.
    • The CCI has taken an alternative view by vaguely replacing the intent with the regulation.
    • The commission may provide the Confidentiality ring after providing a reasonable opportunity to the informant to represent its case before the Commission.
    • This casts an onus on the informant.
    • Turning to the provider of confidential information, the party seeking confidentiality has to submit reasons and the same must be rebutted by the informant, CCI or any other parties, largely driven by the CCI.

    Issues with the CCI adoption of the Confidentiality Ring

    1] Indiscriminate use of defendant’s reputation ground

    • What would happen if the informant seeks additional documents so that the agency is not prejudiced?
    • By hearing parties out, through redacted information the CCI is bound to be questioned as to the reasons for deciding in a certain manner and worse, could stifle the process at the start.
    • This is likely because the CCI has to hear the objections that the informant may have regarding the reasons for keeping information confidential.
    • The usual ground for seeking this protection is the defendant’s reputation.
    • However, this defence can be used to indiscriminately to subdue any counter that may arise from the informant, who may not possess the intricate details of how a cartel works.

    2] Rejection of informant’s right to know the information

    • The second question is about the relief under Section 35 of the Act that empowers the CCI to establish a confidentiality ring including the parties in dispute to disseminate the information for which the confidentiality clause is invoked.
    • However, this is immediately caveated by Regulation 8 of the “Confidentiality Ring” Amendment of April 8, which states that the informant shall not be part of the ring.
    • This will essentially lead the CCI to gather more information surreptitiously for the determination of the case.
    • Void the informant’s right to know information: It has also effectively rejected the informant’s right to know the information, which would be necessary to establish their claim.
    • Brings secrecy: This not only empowers the CCI to further its cause of suo motu investigation but also brings secrecy to cases of high-value disputes.

    3] It protects the defendant

    • The reason the CCI decided to establish a confidentiality ring is the opposite of the EU directive.
    • The EU would like to protect the information provider, but the CCI seems to want to protect the documents of the defendant.
    • This contradicts the intent in regulation 1 wherein the CCI intends to protect the informant and regulation 2, which gives unfettered rights to “parties” in the dispute to summarily drop the confidentiality card which, according to any reasonable person, includes the defendant.

    Conclusion

    The protection provided to the informants, unfortunately, turns out to be to the advantage of the defendants, who are usually large multi-billion dollar entities. It enables the CCI to ringfence its investigation creating legal immunity for “all” involved.

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  • Bangladesh offers Chittagong Port to India

    In a major development in India-Bangladesh ties, India has now gained access to the crucial Chittagong Port after it was offered by Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina.

    About Chittagong Port

    • The Chittagong/Chattogram Port is the main seaport of Bangladesh.
    • It is located in the port city of Chittagong and on the banks of the Karnaphuli River,
    • The port handles eighty percent of Bangladesh’s export-import trade, and has been used by India, Nepal and Bhutan for transshipment.
    • According to Lloyd’s, it ranked as the 58th busiest container port in the world in 2019. The port is one of the oldest in the world.
    • Chittagong Port is now being developed and modernized with Chinese investment and help.
    • It was widely believed that China will retain the right to use this port according to its plans and needs.

    Significance of the port

    • The use of Chattogram port was made possible under an agreement that allows the use of Chattogram and Mongla ports as transhipment hubs.
    • The port is significance for north-eastern states for enhancing connectivity between the neighboring countries.
    • This will reduce the distance, time and cost of logistics for transporting goods.
    • Currently, the road route between West Bengal to the northeast covers a distance of over 1,200 km.

    Some of the benefits India hopes from this new and shorter route are:

    • An additional connectivity route that’s economical and environment-friendly
    • States like Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya to get access to a port for transportation of goods
    • Lend a fillip to multi-modal connectivity between India and Bangladesh
    • Ease stress on supply chains that have been disrupted by the pandemic
    • Important bridge for India to reach Southeast Asia, East Asia and beyond

    Benefits for Bangladesh

    • Fresh investment flow in the logistics sector
    • New trade routes are expected to generate employment and give a fillip to transport, finance and insurance.
    • Generate revenue by way of administrative and port-related fees
    • Lead to economic transformation of cities such as Cumilla, Tamabil and Akhaura as well.

    Conclusion

    • India has settled the four-decade-old land boundary issue and also showing positive attitude towards Teesta water sharing issue.
    • At this moment, it is normal that Bangladesh would show some liberality towards use of ports.

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  • Governments ignoring court orders: CJI

    The CJI pointed to how courts had to deal with the new problem of “contempt petitions” triggered by the “deliberate inaction” of governments that chose to ignore judgments and orders.

    What did the CJI say?

    • The contempt petitions are a new category of burden on the courts, which is a direct result of the defiance by the governments.
    • Such actions show sheer defiance of governments towards judicial pronouncements.
    • There is visible inclination to pass off the responsibility of decision-making to courts.
    • The legislature’s work show ambiguity, lack of foresight and public consultation before making laws have led to docket explosion.

    What is Contempt of the Court?

    • Contempt of court is the offense of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behaviour that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the court.
    • There are broadly two categories of contempt: being disrespectful to legal authorities in the courtroom, or wilfully failing to obey a court order.

    How did the concept came into being?

    • The concept of contempt of court is several centuries old.
    • In England, it is a common law principle that seeks to protect the judicial power of the king, initially exercised by him, and later by a panel of judges who acted in his name.
    • Violation of the judges’ orders was considered an affront to the king himself.
    • Over time, any kind of disobedience to judges, or obstruction of the implementation of their directives, or comments and actions that showed disrespect towards them came to be punishable.

    What is the statutory basis for contempt of court?

    • There were pre-Independence laws of contempt in India. Besides the early High Courts, the courts of some princely states also had such laws.
    • When the Constitution was adopted, contempt of court was made one of the restrictions on freedom of speech and expression.
    • Separately, Article 129 of the Constitution conferred on the Supreme Court the power to punish contempt of itself.
    • Article 215 conferred a corresponding power on the High Courts.
    • The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, gives statutory backing to the idea.

    What are the kinds of contempt of court?

    The law codifying contempt classifies it as civil and criminal.

    • Civil contempt is fairly simple. It is committed when someone wilfully disobeys a court order or wilfully breaches an undertaking given to the court.
    • However, Criminal contempt is more complex.
    • It consists of three forms: (a) words, written or spoken, signs and actions that “scandalise” or “tend to scandalise” or “lower” or “tends to lower” the authority of any court (b) prejudices or interferes with any judicial proceeding and (c) interferes with or obstructs the administration of justice.
    • The rationale for this provision is that courts must be protected from tendentious attacks that lower its authority, defame its public image and make the public lose faith in its impartiality.
    • The punishment for contempt of court is simple imprisonment for a term up to six months and/or a fine of up to ₹. 2,000.

    What does not account to contempt?

    • Fair and accurate reporting of judicial proceedings will not amount to contempt of court.
    • Nor is any fair criticism on the merits of a judicial order after a case is heard and disposed of.

    Is truth a defence against a contempt charge?

    • For many years, the truth was seldom considered a defence against a charge of contempt.
    • There was an impression that the judiciary tended to hide any misconduct among its individual members in the name of protecting the image of the institution.
    • The Act was amended in 2006 to introduce truth as a valid defence if it was in the public interest and was invoked in a bonafide.

     

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  • Why are Electric Vehicles Catching Fire?

    The Union government has constituted an expert panel to probe the recent series of battery explosions in electric vehicles (EVs).

    Why is the world poised to transition to electric vehicles?

    • The growing concern over climate change has led to global efforts to electrify the transportation sector.
    • In parallel, cost of Li-ion (Lithium-ion) battery technology has decreased by a staggering order of magnitude in the past decade.
    • The convergence of these two factors has resulted in a unique time in our history where we are at the cusp of a dramatic transition in the transportation sector.
    • There are multiple trade-offs in this complex ecosystem: engineering higher safety often results in higher costs and lower driving range.
    • In this competitive landscape where companies are vying for market share, a race to the bottom can compromise safety.

    A race to nowhere

    • The world has taken note of this moment with governments providing incentives to usher in the transition and private industry ramping up plans for capturing the market.
    • There is a worldwide race emerging, with vehicle companies, battery manufacturers, and material suppliers vying with each other for market share.
    • However, Li-ion batteries are complex devices requiring a level of sophistication that can takes years to perfect.
    • Hurrying the development of this complex technology without careful safeguards are leading to increasing safety incidents, as evidenced recently on Indian roads.

    What goes into a Li-ion battery?

    • Every Li-ion battery consists of three active components:
    1. Anode: typically graphite
    2. Cathode: based on a nickel, cobalt, and manganese-based oxide; and
    3. Electrolyte: A salt of lithium in an inorganic solvent
    • Battery cells are assembled into modules and then further assembled into packs.
    • Li-ion batteries require tight control on the state of charge and the temperature of operation to enhance safety and increase usable life, achieved by adding multiple sensors.
    • Packs are designed to ensure uniform temperature profile with minimal thermal variation during operation.

    What is the level of precision involved?

    • Battery manufacturing is a complex operation involving forming sheets of the anode and cathode and assembling them into a sandwich structure held apart by a thin separator.
    • Separators, about 15 microns in thickness — about a fifth of the thickness of the human hair — perform the critical function of preventing the anode and cathode from shorting.
    • Accidental shorting of the electrodes is a known cause of fires in Li-ion cells.
    • It is important that the various layers are assembled with high precision with tight tolerances maintained throughout the manufacturing process.
    • Safety features, such as thermal switches that turn off if the battery overheats, are added as the sandwich is packaged into a battery cell.

    What causes battery fires?

    • Battery fires, like other fires, occur due to the convergence of three parts of the “fire triangle”: heat, oxygen, and fuel.
    • If an adverse event such as a short circuit occurs in the battery, the internal temperature can raise as the anode and cathode release their energy through the short.
    • This, in turn, can lead to a series of reactions from the battery materials, especially the cathode, that release heat in an uncontrolled manner, along with oxygen.
    • Such events also rupture the sealed battery further exposing the components to outside air and the second part of the fire triangle, namely, oxygen.
    • The final component of the triangle is the liquid electrolyte, which is highly flammable and serves as a fuel.
    • The combination leads to a catastrophic failure of the battery resulting in smoke, heat, and fire, released instantaneously and explosively.

    What triggers battery fire?

    • The trigger for such events can be a result of internal shorts (like a manufacturing defect that results in sharp objects penetrating the separator).
    • The external events may be accident leading to puncture of the cell and shorting of the electrodes, overcharging the battery.
    • Any of these triggers may cascade into a significant safety incident.

    Are battery fires inevitable?

    • Over the past three decades, Li-ion batteries have proved to be extremely safe, with the industry increasing controls as safety incidents have surfaced.
    • Safety is a must and is an important consideration that battery and vehicle manufacturers can design for at multiple levels from the choice of battery material to designs at the cell, pack, and vehicle level.
    • Protecting the cell with robust thermal management is critical, especially in India where ambient temperatures are high.
    • Finally, battery packs need to be protected from external penetration.
    • Any large-scale manufacturing process inevitably has a certain percentage of defects; therefore, such steps are needed to minimise the number of adverse events.

    Why battery safety matters?

    • Safety remains a concern for Li-ion manufacturers worldwide especially as cell sizes become larger for applications such as solar-connected storage.
    • There is a need to remove the threat of battery fires as the roll out of mass electrification takes place.

     

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  • Recent woes of the jute industry in West Bengal

    Member of Parliament (MP) from Barrackpore constituency in West Bengal met the Union Textile about issues concerning jute farmers, workers and the overall jute industry.

    What is the news?

    • The Barrackpore MP had earlier written to West Bengal CM, seeking her intervention into the “arbitrary decision” of capping the price for procuring raw jute from the mills.
    • He was referring to the Office of the Jute Commissioner (JCO)’s September 30 notification mandating that no entity would be allowed to purchase or sell raw jute at a price exceeding ₹6,500 per quintal.

    What is Jute?

    • Jute is the only crop where earnings begin to trickle in way before the final harvest.
    • The seeds are planted between April and May and harvested between July and August.
    • The leaves can be sold in vegetable markets for nearly two months of the four-month jute crop cycle.
    • The tall, hardy grass shoots up to 2.5 metres and each part of it has several uses.
    • The outer layer of the stem produces the fibre that goes into making jute products.
    • But the leaves can be cooked, the inner woody stems can be used to manufacture paper and the roots, which are left in the ground after harvest, improve the yield of subsequent crops.
    • A ‘Golden Fibre Revolution’ has long been called for by various committees, but the jute industry is in dire need of basic reforms.

    Jute production in India

    • India is the world’s biggest producer of jute , followed by Bangladesh.
    • Jute is primarily grown in West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh.
    • The jute industry in India is 150 years old.
    • There are about 70 jute mills in the country, of which about 60 are in West Bengal along both the banks of river Hooghly.
    • Jute production is a labour-intensive industry. It employs about two lakh workers in the West Bengal alone and 4 lakh workers across the country.

    Significance of Jute

    • Compared to rice, jute requires very little water and fertiliser.
    • It is largely pest-resistant, and its rapid growth spurt ensures that weeds don’t stand a chance.
    • Jute is the second most abundant natural fibre in the world.
    • It has high tensile strength, acoustic and thermal insulation, breathability, low extensibility, ease of blending with both synthetic and natural fibres, and antistatic properties.
    • Jute can be used: for insulation (replacing glass wool), geotextiles, activated carbon powder, wall coverings, flooring, garments, rugs, ropes, gunny bags, handicrafts, curtains, carpet backings, paper, sandals, carry bags, and furniture.

    Why in news now?

    • Mills are now procuring raw jute at prices higher than what they are selling them at after processing.
    • The government has a fixed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for raw jute procurement from farmers, which is ₹4,750 per quintal for the 2022-23 season.
    • However, as the executive stated, this reached his mill at ₹7,200 per quintal, that is, ₹700 more than the ₹6,500 per quintal cap for the final product.
    • Though the Union government has come up with several schemes to prevent de-hoarding, the executive believes the mechanism requires a certain “systematic regulation”.

    What happened to supply?

    • What made the situation particularly worrisome recently was the occurrence of Cyclone Amphan in May 2020 and the subsequent rains in major jute producing States.
    • These events led to lower acreage, which in turn led to lower production and yield compared to previous years.
    • Additionally, as the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) stated in its report, this led to production of a lower quality of jute fibre in 2020-21 as water-logging in large fields resulted in farmers harvesting the crop prematurely.
    • Acreage issues were accompanied by hoarding at all levels – right from the farmers to the traders.

    Where does India stand in comparison to Bangladesh?

    • As per the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), India is the largest producer of jute followed by Bangladesh and China.
    • However, in terms of acreage and trade, Bangladesh takes the lead accounting for three-fourth of the global jute exports in comparison to India’s 7%.
    • This can be attributed to the fact that India lags behind Bangladesh in producing superior quality jute fibre due to infrastructural constraints and varieties suitable for the country’s agro-climate.
    • Further, as the CACP report stated, Bangladesh provides cash subsidies for varied semi-finished and finished jute products.
    • Hence, the competitiveness emerges as a challenge for India to explore export options in order to compensate for the domestic scenario.

    What is at stake?

    • The jute sector provides direct employment to 3.70 lakh workers in the country.
    • It supports the livelihood of around 40 lakh farm families, closure of the mills is a direct blow to workers and indirectly, to the farmers whose production is used in the mills.
    • West Bengal, Bihar and Assam account for almost 99% of India’s total production.

     

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