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  • Indian Air Force Updates

    Dassault Rafale Fighter Jets

    Prelims Only | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Various Security Forces, Agencies & Their Mandates

    The five Rafale fighter jets that landed in Ambala will resurrect the Number 17 Golden Arrows squadron of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2018:

    Q.What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?

    (a) An Israeli radar system

    (b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme

    (c) An American anti-missile system

    (d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea

    Dassault Rafale

    (Refer image for specifications)

    • The state-of-the-art 4.5 Generation Rafale jet can reach almost double the speed of sound, with a top speed of 1.8 Mach.
    • With its multi-role capabilities, including electronic warfare, air defence, ground support and in-depth strikes, the Rafale lends air superiority to the Indian Air Force.

    Armed with modern arms

    • Each aircraft has 14 storage stations for weapons. The jets come with one of the most advanced Meteor air-to-air missiles.
    • The 190-kg missile has a Beyond Visual Range (BVR) of over 100 km, travelling at a top speed of Mach 4.
    • The Rafale jets also come with SCALP, the air-to-ground cruise missile with a range over 300 km. It is a long-range deep strike missile.
    • The MICA air-to-air missile on Rafale is for both, close-quarter dogfights, and for BVR.
    • IAF has also asked for HAMMER (Highly Agile and Manoeuvrable Munition Extended Range), which is an air-to-ground precision-guided missile that can be used against bunker-type hardened targets within the range of 70 km.

    What is so special about Rafale fighter jet?

    1. India in September 2016 inked a direct deal with the French government to purchase 36 new Rafale fighter jets in a 7.87 billion euro deal that is likely to bring major work to the Indian private sector in terms of offsets under the make in India policy.
    2. The Rafale deal for 36 jets includes over 3 billion euros of work for the Indian industry over the next 7-8 years.This has a huge potential to develop direct and indirect employment opportunities.
    3. High-end technology like engine know-how, major structural assembly is also likely in India, besides a chunk of avionics work.
    4. India will also get latest weapons like the Meteor and Scalp missiles as part of the contract, besides a 5 year support package that assures high availability of the fighter.
    5. India will pay a 15 % advance and deliveries are to start in three years.

    India Specific enhancements

    The Rafale deal caters to specific Indian air force needs. The fighter jet will be modified by France to meet the following:

    • Helmet mounted sights and targeting system to give the pilots lightening quick ability to shoot off weapons.
    • Ability to taken off from high altitude airbases like Leh on a ‘cold start’ – for quick reaction deployment
    • radar warning receiver to identify hostile tracking systems
    • A towed decoy system to thwart incoming missile attacks
    • French industrial support for fighter for 50 years

    VITAL Stats

    • 7.87 billion Euro: Deal cost. This includes weapon systems, five year support, training, infrastructure and warranties. 15% to be paid in advance.
    • 91.7 million euros: as per contract, if other costs like weapons, training etc not counted, per unit price of single seat Rafale is 91.7 million euros
    • 75 % availability: French side will ensure that at any given point, at least 75 percent of the fleet is combat worthy. Failing which, heavy penalities to be invoked.
    • 67 months delivery: All aircraft ordered to be delivered within 67 months with first one coming in by 36 months
    • 50% offsets: Indian industry to get major boost as French side will invest half of deal value in Make in India products or technology transfer. Indian Partners to be firmed up within a year.
    • 328 million Euros: Saved by negotiation efforts by the Indian side on the Rafale deal, according to defence ministry sources.
    • 28/8: according to deal, India to get 28 single seater jets and 8 twin seaters for training.

    For an edge over China

    • While China’s J20 Chengdu jets are called fifth-generation combat jets, compared to 4.5 generation Rafale, the J20 have no actual combat experience.
    • Whereas the Rafale is combat proven, having been used by the French Air Force for its missions in Afghanistan, Libya and Mali.
    • It has also been used for missions in Central African Republic, Iraq and Syria. Rafale can also carry more fuel and weapons than the J20.

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  • Banking Sector Reforms

    Will capping the bank CEO tenure make difference

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    The article examines the utility of the proposed limit on the banks CEO tenure.

    Context

    • Last month, the Reserve Bank of India released a discussion paper on governance in commercial banks in India.
    • It has a proposal to cap the tenure of bank CEOs.

    Details of the proposed limit and rationale

    • The paper proposes to cap the maximum tenure of a promoter/major shareholder of a bank as a CEO or a Whole Time Director (WTD) at 10 years.
    • This move aims to separate ownership from management.
    • The rationale offered is that 10 years is an adequate period for a promoter/major shareholder of a bank as CEO/WTD to stabilise its operations and to transition the managerial leadership to professional management.
    • The corresponding limit for a CEO who is not a promoter/major shareholder is 15 consecutive years. T
    • Thereafter, that individual is eligible for re-appointment as CEO or WTD only after the expiration of three years.

    Why banks are different from other companies: 3 Reasons

    • Ordinary corporate governance norms exhort managers to run a company in the interest of shareholders but it may not be suitable approach for all types of banks.
    • 1) Banks are highly leveraged, creating powerful incentives for shareholders to engage in risky strategies at great risk to creditors, including retail depositors.
    • 2) Bank failure could involve systemic risk, which could result in a government bail-out.
    • This moral hazard creates even more high-powered incentives for shareholders to engage in risky strategies.
    • 3) Financial assets held by a bank are hard to monitor and measure.
    • Consequently, external scrutiny of a bank by depositors and creditors is difficult.
    • These unique factors are likely to encourage bank managers to take excessive risks to maximise shareholder value.

    Purpose of Bank governance

    • Bank governance seeks to curb such excessive risk-taking discussed above.
    • It encourages prudent risk-taking such that shareholders’ interests are secondary to depositors’ interests.
    • This is the main logic as suggested in the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision guidelines and the Financial Stability Board principles respectively.

    Will capping the CEO tenure help

    • It is unclear whether imposing a maximum cap on CEO tenure would encourage prudent risk-taking by the management.
    • For Indian banks, the limited empirical evidence seems to suggest that bank performance improves with increasing CEO tenure.
    • A paper published in International Journal of Financial Studies finds that an increase in CEO tenure is associated with significant improvements in asset quality and performance of the bank.
    • The effect of CEO tenure increases rapidly with the year of CEO tenure.
    • Concerning public sector banks (PSBs), the P J Nayak Committee report had identified shorter tenure of chairmen and executive directors as a key reason for weaker empowerment of their boards.
    • These findings seem to be at odds with RBI’s suggestion to cap CEO tenure.

    Consider the question “Examine the factors that justify the application of stricter governance principle for the banks. What would be the impacts of the RBI’s proposed limit on the CEO term of the banks on governance?

    Conclusion

    It may be prudent for the RBI to publish an empirical study on the impact of CEO tenure on bank performance before translating this proposal into an enforceable regulation.

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  • Higher Education – RUSA, NIRF, HEFA, etc.

    HRD Ministry to be renamed as ‘Education Ministry’

    Explained | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    The Union Cabinet has approved the renaming of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) to the Ministry of Education to more clearly define its work and focus.

    Before reading this newscard, try this PYQ from CSP 2019:

    Q.The Ninth Schedule was introduced in the Constitution of India during the Prime Ministership of:

    (a) Jawaharlal Nehru

    (b) Lal Bahadur Shastri

    (c) Indira Gandhi

    (d) Morarji Desai

    A flip-back

    • With the renaming, the Ministry got back the name that it had started out with after Independence, but which was changed 35 years ago when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister.

    Who were some of India’s early Education Ministers?

    • The Ministry which was focussed on education from the primary classes to the level of the university was headed by some of the stalwarts of Indian politics in its early years.
    • For more than a decade after Independence, the Ministry was led by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
    • He was followed by Kalulal Shrimali and the eminent jurist M C Chagla, with the poet-educationist Humayun Kabir holding the portfolio for a short while in between.
    • Later Education Ministers of India included Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who went on to become President.
    • The last Education Minister of India was KC Pant, who served in the post in 1984-85, after which the name of the Ministry was changed.

    Under what circumstances did the Ministry of Education become HRD?

    • Upon becoming PM in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi, who had surrounded himself with a new crop of advisers, showed restlessness for change and innovation in a number of areas.
    • He accepted a suggestion that all departments related to education should be brought under one roof.
    • There was some opposition from academic circles who complained that the country no longer had a Department with ‘education’ in its name. Some newspapers wrote editorials criticizing the change of name.
    • But the decision had been made, and subsequently, in 1986, the government cleared a new education policy – the second in the country’s history, and one that was to survive until now.

    Under HRD roof

    • On September 26, 1985, the Ministry of Education was renamed as the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and P V Narasimha Rao was appointed Minister.
    • Related Departments such as those of Culture and Youth & Sports were brought under the Ministry of HRD, and Ministers of State were appointed.
    • Even the Department of Women and Child Development – which became a separate Ministry with effect from January 30, 2006 – was a Department under the Union HRD Ministry.

    Were changes made in the Ministry even afterwards?

    • Yes, changes were made from time to time. After Atal Bihari Vajpayee became PM in 1998, the government decided to separate the Department of Culture from the Ministry of HRD.
    • In October 1999, a new Ministry of Culture came into being, with the late Ananth Kumar in charge.
    • The Department of Youth too was separated from the Ministry of HRD, and Ananth Kumar was given charge of this new Ministry as well.
    • With these decisions of the Vajpayee government, the HRD Ministry remained ‘HRD’ only in name – for all practical purposes, it was back to being a ministry for education.

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  • Digital India Initiatives

    Digital divide in India

    | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies

    The COVID-19 induced lockdown highlights India’s great digital divide.

    Practice question for mains:

    Q.What are the various facets of Digital Divide in India? Discuss how the Digital India initiative has impacted ruling out India’s digital divide?

    What is Digital divide?

    A digital divide is any uneven distribution in the access to, use of, or impact of information and communications technologies between any number of distinct groups, which can be defined based on social, geographical, or geopolitical criteria, or otherwise

    What are the implications of the digital divide?

    Political

    In the age of social media, political empowerment and mobilization are difficult without digital connectivity.

    Governance

    Transparency and accountability are dependent on digital connectivity. The digital divide affects e-governance initiatives negatively.

    Social

    Internet penetration is associated with greater social progress of a nation. Thus digital divide in a way hinders the social progress of a country.

    Rural India is suffering from information poverty due to the digital divide. It only strengthens the vicious cycle of poverty, deprivation, and backwardness.

    Economic

    The digital divide causes economic inequality between those who can afford the technology and those who don’t.

    Educational

    The digital divide is also impacting the capacity of children to learn and develop.
    Without Internet access, students can not build the required tech skills.

    Facets of the great Digital Divide in India

    • Education is just one area that has highlighted the digital divide between India’s rural and urban areas during the lockdown.
    • The trend is evident everywhere — telemedicine, banking, e-commerce, e-governance, all of which became accessible only via the internet during the lockdown.
    • The divide exists despite the rise in the number of wireless subscribers in India over the past few years.

    1) Telecom facility, not digital progression

    • According to a report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on June this year, the country had over 1,160 million wireless subscribers in February 2020, up from 1,010 million in February 2016.
    • This is a rise of 150 million subscribers in five years or 30 million per year.
    • The growth has been evenly distributed in urban and rural areas, with the number of urban subscribers increasing by 74 million (from 579 million to 643 million) and rural subscribers by 86 million (from 431 million to 517 million).
    • But this growth only indicates the rise in basic telecommunication facility.

    2) The Urban-Rural Divide

    • Services such as online classrooms, financial transactions and e-governance require access to the internet as well as the ability to operate internet-enabled devices like phones, tablets and computers.
    • Here the urban-rural distinction is quite stark.
    • According to the NSSO conducted between July 2017 and June 2018, just 4.4 rural households have a computer, against 14.4 per cent in an urban area.
    • It had just 14.9 per cent rural households having access to the internet against 42 per cent households in urban areas.
    • Similarly, only 13 per cent people of over five years of age in rural areas have the ability to use the internet against 37 per cent in urban areas.

    3) Regional Divide

    • States too greatly differ in terms of people that have access to computers or in the know-how to use the internet.
    • Himachal Pradesh leads the country in access to the internet in both, rural and urban areas.
    • Uttarakhand has the most number of computers in urban areas, while Kerala has the most number of computers in rural areas.
    • Overall, Kerala is the state where the difference between rural and urban areas is the least.

    4) Digital Gender Divide

    • India has among the world’s highest gender gap in access to technology.
    • Only 21 per cent of women in India are mobile internet users, according to GSMA’s 2020 mobile gender gap report, while 42 per cent of men have access. The report says that while 79 per cent of men own a mobile phone in the country, the number for women is 63 per cent.
    • While there do economic barriers to girls’ own a mobile phone or laptop, cultural and social norms also play a major part.
    • The male-female gap in mobile use often exacerbates other inequalities for women, including access to information, economic opportunities, and networking.

    5) Others

    • The earning member of the family has to carry the phone while going out to work.
    • Access to phones and the internet is not just an economic factor but also social and cultural.
    • If one family has just one phone, there is a good chance that the wife or the daughter will be the last one to use it.

    Programmes for Addressing the Challenges in Bridging the Digital Divide:

    India taking significant steps towards acquiring competence in information and technology, the country is increasingly getting divided between people who have access to technology and those who do not. 

      • The Indian government has passed Information Technology Act, 2000 to make to e- commerce and e-governance a success story in India along with national e-governance plan. 
      • Optical Fibre Network (NOF-N), a project aimed to ensure broadband connectivity to over two lakh (200,000) gram panchayats of India by 2016.
      • Digital Mobile Library: In order to bridge the digital divide in a larger way the government of India, in collaboration with the Centre for Advanced Computing (C–DAC) based in Pune.
      • Unnati, is a project of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) which strives to bridge the digital divide in schools by giving the rural students with poor economic and social background access to computer education.
      • E-pathshala: to avail study materials  for every rural and urban student. 
      • Common Service Centres: which enabled the digital reach to unreachable areas. 

    Initiatives of State Government:

    • Sourkaryan and E–Seva: Project of the government of Andhra Pradesh to provides the facility for a citizen to pay property taxes online.
    • The Gyandoot Project: It is the first ever project in India for a rural information network in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh which has the highest percentage of tribes and dense forest. The project was designed to extend the benefits of information technology to people in rural areas by directly linking the government and villagers through information kiosks

    Way forward

    1.Infrastructure

    • The promotion of indigenous ICT development under Atmanirbhar Abhiyan can play a significant role. The promotion of budget mobile phones is the key.

    • The creation of market competition between service providers may make services cheaper.

    • Efficient spectrum allocation in large contiguous blocks should be
      explored.

    • We should also explore migration to new technologies like 5G. It would resolve some of the bandwidth challenges.

    2.Digital literacy

    • Digital literacy needs special attention at the school / college level.

    •  The National Digital Literacy Mission should focus on introducing digital literacy at the primary school level in all government schools for basic content and in higher classes and colleges for advanced content.

    • When these students will educate their family members, it will create multiplier effects. Higher digital literacy will also increase the adoption of computer hardware across the country.

    3.Language

    • State governments should pay particular attention to content creation in the Indian regional languages, particularly those related to government services.

    • Natural language processing ( NLP) in Indian languages needs to be promoted.

    4.Role of regulators

    • Regulators should minimize entry barriers by reforming licensing, taxation, spectrum allocation norms.

    • TRAI should consider putting in place a credible system. This system will track call drops, weak signals, and outages. It ensures the quality and reliability of telecom services.

    5.Cybersecurity

    • MeitY will need to evolve a comprehensive cybersecurity framework for data security, safe digital transactions, and complaint redressal.

    Telecom ombudsman

    • The government should also set up telecom ombudsman for the redress of grievances.

    Conclusion

    • The Standing Committee on Information Technology in January 2019 concluded that the digital literacy efforts of the government are far from satisfactory.
    • Clearly, internet penetration is not deep enough. At one level, we all recognise that the internet has become indispensable.
    • On another level, it still doesn’t have adequate attention of the decision-makers.
    • The most crucial need of the hour is to ensure uninterrupted internet services.

    Back2Basics: Digital India Initiatives

    • Over the past decade, governments have been trying to improve internet access in the country.
    • In 2011, the BharatNet project was launched to connect 0.25 million panchayats through an optical fibre (100 MBPS) and connect India’s villages. Its implementation began only in 2014.
    • In 2014, the government launched the National Digital Literacy Mission and the Digital Saksharta Abhiyan.
    • In 2015, the government launched several schemes under its Digital India campaign to connect the entire country.
    • This includes the PM Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan, launched in 2017, to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 60 million households.

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  • Electronic System Design and Manufacturing Sector – M-SIPS, National Policy on Electronics, etc.

    Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for electronics manufacturers

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

    Global electronics giants are set to expand their presence in India under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for making mobile phones and certain other specified electronic components.

    Try this question for mains:

    Q. What is the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme? Describe its various features and benefits.

    What is the PLI scheme?

    • As a part of the National Policy on Electronics, the IT ministry had notified the PLI scheme on April 1 this year.
    • The scheme will, on one hand, attract big foreign investment in the sector, while also encouraging domestic mobile phone makers to expand their units and presence in India.
    • It would give incentives of 4-6 per cent to electronics companies which manufacture mobile phones and other electronic components.
    • A/c to the scheme, companies that make mobile phones which sell for Rs 15,000 or more will get an incentive of up to 6 per cent on incremental sales of all such mobile phones made in India.
    • In the same category, companies which are owned by Indian nationals and make such mobile phones, the incentive has been kept at Rs 200 crore for the next four years.

    Tenure of the scheme

    • The PLI scheme will be active for five years with financial year (FY) 2019-20 considered as the base year for calculation of incentives.
    • This means that all investments and incremental sales registered after FY20 shall be taken into account while computing the incentive to be given to each company.

    Which companies and what kind of investments will be considered?

    • All electronic manufacturing companies which are either Indian or have a registered unit in India will be eligible to apply for the scheme.
    • These companies can either create a new unit or seek incentives for their existing units from one or more locations in India.
    • Any additional expenditure incurred on the plant, machinery, equipment, research and development and transfer of technology for the manufacture of mobile phones and related electronic items will be eligible for the incentive.
    • However, all investment done by companies on land and buildings for the project will not be considered for any incentives or determine the eligibility of the scheme.

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  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    What is the Gandhi-King Initiative?

    | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History

    A Bill to promote Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr’s legacies has been passed in American Senate.

    Practice question for mains:

    Q. Discuss how the civil rights movement in America is paralleled by India’s freedom struggle under Mahatma Gandhi.

    Gandhi-King Initiative

    • The initiative is an exchange program between India and the U.S. to study the work and legacies of Gandhiji and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
    • It will establish annual scholar and student exchange programs for Indians and Americans to study the leaders’ legacies and visit historic sites in India and the U.S.
    • The visits will be relevant to India’s freedom struggle and the U.S.’s civil rights movement.

    Gandhi-King Global Academy

    • The bill also seeks to establish the Gandhi-King Global Academy, a conflict resolution initiative based on the principles of nonviolence.
    • It proposes the establishment of the United States-India Gandhi-King Development Foundation set up by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the GoI, organized under Indian law.
    • The Foundation, which has a proposed budget authorized of up to $ 30 million per year for five years through 2025.
    • It is tasked with administering grants to NGOs that work in health, pollution and climate change, education and empowerment of women.

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  • Social Media: Prospect and Challenges

    Turkey enacts Social Media Law

    | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Social Media Networks & Internal Security

    Turkey’s parliament approved a law that gives authorities greater power to regulate social media despite concerns of growing censorship.

    Unregulated social media promotes misinformation, hate speech, defamation, and threats to public order, terrorist incitement, bullying, and anti-national activities.

    Turkey: The forerunner of cyber policing

    • Turkey leads the world in removal requests to Twitter, with more than 6,000 demands in the first half of 2019.
    • More than 408,000 websites are blocked in Turkey, according to The Freedom of Expression Association.
    • Online encyclopedia Wikipedia was blocked for nearly three years before Turkey’s top court ruled that the ban violated the right to freedom of expression and ordered it unblocked.
    • The country also has one of the world’s highest rates of imprisoned journalists, many of whom were arrested in a crackdown following a failed coup in 2016.

    Features of the Law:

    1) Appointing representatives:

    • The law requires major social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to keep representative offices in Turkey to deal with complaints against content on their platforms.
    • If the social media company refuses to designate an official representative, the legislation mandates steep fines, advertising bans and bandwidth reductions.

    2) Bandwidth reductions

    • Bandwidth reductions mean social media networks would be too slow to use.
    • With a court ruling, bandwidth would be reduced by 50% and then by 50% to 90%.

    3) Privacy protection

    • The representative will be tasked with responding to individual requests to take down content violating privacy and personal rights within 48 hours or to provide grounds for rejection.
    • The company would be held liable for damages if the content is not removed or blocked within 24 hours.

    4) Data storage

    • A most alarming feature of the new legislation is that SM companies would require social media providers to store user data in Turkey.
    • The government says the legislation was needed to combat cybercrime and protect users.
    • This would be used to remove posts that contain cyberbullying and insults against women.

    Turkey seems to have given an attempt to regulate social media amidst the chaos. It lags on various fronts, making it realizable for India not to go hastily for such a regulation.

    Concerns over the law

    • Hundreds of people have been investigated and some arrested over social media posts.
    • The opposition is pointing that the law would further limit freedom of expression in a country where the media is already under tight government control and dozens of journalists are in jail.

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  • Innovation Ecosystem in India

    [pib] Atal Innovation Mission launches ‘AIM-iCREST’

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

    NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), has launched AIM iCREST – an Incubator Capabilities enhancement program for a Robust Ecosystem, focused on creating high performing Startups.

    Note the following things about AIM-iCREST

    1) Meaning of the acronym as it gives the central idea of the initiative

    2) Aims and objective

    3) Technological partners

    AIM-iCREST

    • AIM iCREST, as the name suggests, has been designed to enable the incubation ecosystem and act as a growth hack for AIM’s Atal and Established incubators across the country.
    • Under the initiative, the AIM’s incubators are set to be upscaled and provided requisite support to foster the incubation enterprise economy that will help them to significantly enhance their performance.
    • This will be complemented by providing training to entrepreneurs, through technology-driven processes and platforms.
    • The program aims at going beyond incubator capacity building.  This is a first of its kind initiative for advancing innovation at scale in India.

    Various partners

    • AIM has joined hands with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wadhwani Foundation – organizations that can lend credible support and expertise in the entrepreneurship and innovation space.
    • These partnerships will provide global expertise and showcase proven best practices to the AIM’s incubator network.

    An initiative for incubators

    • India needs world-class incubators fostering world-class startups leveraging the tremendous innovation talent of our country.
    • For the first time in the Government, the Incubator capacity development program is being extended to the entire portfolio of supported Atal incubators.
    • This programme is unique also in its design – it is a combination of interactive practices in the field of incubation; enabling the incubators to support sustainable and successful startups.

    Back2Basics: Atal Innovation Mission

    • Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is NITI Aayog’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in India
    • AIM has been established to create and promote an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship in a holistic manner through various initiatives at school, university and industry levels
    • The Atal Innovation Mission has thus two core functions:
    1. Innovation promotion: to provide a platform where innovative ideas are generated.
    2. Entrepreneurship promotion: Wherein innovators would be supported and mentored to become successful entrepreneurs at Incubation Centres.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Middle East

    The South Asian-Gulf Migrant Crisis

    | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Indian Diaspora

    The pandemic has exacerbated the plight of the migrant workers in the Gulf countries. This article examines the issue and suggests the ways to deal with it.

    Context

    • The Covid-19 exposed the precarious conditions of migrant workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
    • Employers have used the crisis as an opportunity to retrench masses of migrant labourers without paying them wages or allowances.

    Impact of Covid-19

    • The South Asia-Gulf migration corridor is among the largest in the world.
    • The South Asian labour force forms the backbone of the Gulf economies.
    • The pandemic, the shutdown of companies, the tightening of borders, and the exploitative nature of the Kafala sponsorship system have all aggravated the miseries of South Asian migrant workers.
    • They have no safety net, social security protection, welfare mechanisms, or labour rights.
    • Now, thousands have returned home empty-handed from the host countries.
    • Indians constitute the largest segment of the South Asian workforce.
    • Gulf migration is predominantly a male-driven phenomenon.
    • A majority of the migrants are single men living in congested labour camps.
    • The COVID-19 spike in these labour camps has mainly been due to overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions.

    Nationalisation of labour in Gulf

    • Now, the movement for nationalisation of labour and the anti-migrant sentiment has peaked in Gulf countries.
    • Countries like Oman and Saudi Arabia have provided subsidies to private companies to prevent native lay-offs.
    • However, the nationalisation process is not going to be smooth given the stigma attached to certain jobs and the influence of ‘royal sheikh culture’.

    Challenges and solutions

    • The countries of origin are now faced with the challenge of rehabilitating, reintegrating, and resettling these migrant workers.
    • The Indian government has announced ‘SWADES’ for skill mapping of citizens returning from abroad.
    • But implementation seems uncertain.
    • Kerala, the largest beneficiary of international migration, has announced ‘Dream Kerala’ to utilise the multifaceted resources of the migrants.
    • Countries that are sending migrant workers abroad are caught between the promotion of migration, on the one hand, and the protection of migrant rights in increasingly hostile countries receiving migrants, on the other.

    Way forward

    • The need of the hour is a comprehensive migration management system for countries that send workers as well as those that receive them.
    • No South Asian country except Sri Lanka has an adequate migration policy.

    Conclusion

    The pandemic has given us an opportunity to voice the rights of South Asian migrants and to bring the South Asia-Gulf migration corridor within the ambit of SAARC, the ILO, and UN conventions.

    Original article:

    https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-south-asian-gulf-migrant-crisis/article32215146.ece

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

    Russia-India-China: A triangle that is still relevant

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

    RIC engagement started on the promising note but the geopolitical changes over the last two decades have set the three countries on diverging paths. It is against this backdrop, the article articulates why RIC is still relevant.

    Background of RIC

    • The RIC dialogue commenced in the early 2000s.
    • At that time the three countries were positioning themselves for a transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world order.
    •  It was not an anti-U.S. construct though.
    • The initial years of the RIC dialogue coincided with an upswing in India’s relations with Russia and China.
    • The 2003 decision to bring a political approach to India-China boundary dispute and to develop other cooperation, encouraged a multi-sectoral surge in relations.
    • An agreement in 2005, identifying political parameters applicable in an eventual border settlement, implicitly recognised India’s interests in Arunachal Pradesh.

    Growing India-U.S. relations

    • During the same period in which RIC dialogues took place, India’s relations with the U.S. surged.
    • This involved trade and investment, a landmark civil nuclear deal and a burgeoning defence relationship.
    • This rising relations with the U.S. met India’s objective of diversifying military acquisitions away from a near-total dependence on Russia.
    • The U.S. saw value in partnering with a democratic India in Asia as China was rapidly emerging as a challenger.

    How India-U.S. relations affected RIC

    • China went back on the 2005 agreement.
    • It launched the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and worked to undermine India’s influence in its neighbourhood.
    • And expanded its military and economic presence in the Indian Ocean.
    • As U.S.-Russia relations imploded in 2014 after the annexation/accession of Crimea.
    • Russia’s pushback against the U.S. included cultivating the Taliban in Afghanistan and enlisting Pakistan’s support for it.
    • The western campaign to isolate Russia drove it into a much closer embrace of China.

    Thus, the RIC claim of overlapping or similar approaches to key international issues, sounds hollow today. But it is still holds significance.

    Why RIC is still significant for India

    1) SCO

    • Central Asia is strategically located, bordering our turbulent neighbourhood.
    •  Pakistan’s membership of SCO and the potential admission of Iran and Afghanistan heighten the significance of the SCO for India.
    • It is important for India to shape the Russia-China dynamics in this region, to the extent possible.
    • The Central Asian countries have signalled they would welcome such a dilution of the Russia-China duopoly.
    • The ongoing India-Iran-Russia is an important initiative for achieving an effective Indian presence in Central Asia, alongside Russia and China.

    2) Significant bilateral relations

    • India’s defence and energy pillars of partnership with Russia remain strong.
    • Access to Russia’s abundant natural resources can enhance our materials security.
    • With China too, while the recent developments should accelerate our efforts to bridge the bilateral asymmetries, disengagement is not an option.

    3) The Indo-Pacific issue

    • For India, it is a geographic space of economic and security importance, in which a cooperative order should prevent the dominance of any external power.
    • China sees our Indo-Pacific initiatives as part of a U.S.-led policy of containing China.
    • Russia’s Foreign Ministry sees the Indo-Pacific as an American ploy to draw India and Japan into a military alliance against China and Russia.
    • India should focus on economic links with the Russian Far East and the activation of a Chennai-Vladivostok maritime corridor.
    • This may help persuade Russia that its interests in the Pacific are compatible with our interest in diluting Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific.

    4) Strategic autonomy of India

    • The current India-China stand-off has intensified calls for India to fast-track partnership with the U.S.
    • National security cannot be fully outsourced.
    • India’s quest for autonomy of action is based on its geographical realities, historical legacies and global ambitions.

    Consider the question “The changing geopolitical landscape should not dampen the importance of India’s engagement in the RIC (Russia-India-China) triangle. Comment.” 

    Conclusion

    India should continue its engagement in the RIC while keeping and protecting its interests.

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