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

    World trade fall mustn’t stoke export pessimism

    | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Context

    The WTO expects a sharp drop-off in global trade in the wake of Covid-19. But India must not withdraw inwards.

    Prospects of the exports

    • Impact on global trade: The World Trade Organization (WTO) predicts that global trade could fall by 13-32% this year on account of disruptions and all the turmoil.
    • At this point, we cannot even count on a quick recovery after this health emergency is past its peak.
    • A trade revival may have to wait till 2022 or later.
    • Indian exports have been in a slump for a large part of the past decade, and recent reports point to a rash of cancelled orders from abroad (except, notably, for drugs).
    • This, however, should not mean that we slip into export pessimism.
    • Opportunity in the crisis: Instead, a crisis such as this could serve as an opportunity to sharpen our competitive edge that has got blunt over the years.
    • Rupee and reform: This is best done through reforms, though a rupee on the decline vis-à-vis the US dollar should help too.

    Reasons for export orientations

    • The relation between growth and exports: No country is an island unto itself, and nations will continue to exchange goods and services so long as it makes economic sense.
    • Trade partners are usually better off producing what they’re best at, for all users, and buying from the rest what others turn out better—at a lower cost and higher quality.
    • Economies that participate in this game, as the historical record has shown, tend to grow faster.
    • There is another good reason for export orientation.
    • Foreign earnings: India needs foreign earnings, not just for oil imports and suchlike, but also for overall economic stability, given our reliance on foreign capital for growth.
    • In tough times such as these, when we may need to borrow money from abroad to bridge a hugely enlarged fiscal deficit, ensuring a stream of future dollar earnings becomes even more crucial.
    • To enable the issuance of dollar bonds and raise our chances of staging a less painful return to form, we need to get our export act together.

    Way forward to increase exports

    • Structural and policy changes: Export success goes by competitiveness, and for domestic businesses to achieve this, India would need to undertake several structural and policy changes.
    • We could begin with reversing the tariff barriers that have been raised in recent years.
    • Exposure to foreign competitors would force them to turn efficient and perform better.
    • Duties on inputs, especially, need to come down. So do other taxes that hold companies back. Other steps to raise productivity will help, too.
    • Good logistical backup is another big requirement.
    • The low value of rupee: The rupee’s slump is a plus for exporters, since their output is cheaper in dollar terms, but we may need to pursue a policy that does not let our currency’s value get over-inflated by inflows of foreign “hot money” (when they return).
    • Cost of capital: The cost of capital in India needs to be low, too, and this would depend on how well the government manages its finances.
    • India’s annual exports currently form less than 2% of the world’s. We should aim for 5%.

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  • Government Budgets

    A plan for the aftermath

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Government Budgeting

    Context

    Everyone is agreed that the whole world is hurtling towards an unprecedented economic recession. India, already facing a massive slowdown, is going to get hurt perhaps more than the others, because our economic immune system is already weak.

    Three things that we must do in the present situation

    • The first is containing the spread of the virus.
    • Apart from the manpower, medicines, protective equipment for frontline workers and other methods, it will need massive resources to tackle it.
    • Second, the poor are already suffering in more ways than one, including the daily wage earners. They will have to be taken care of, again needing massive resources.
    • Third, economic activity will have to be revived as soon as conditions return to normal or near-normal, for which businesses will have to be helped, again needing massive resources; both in terms of revenue foregone and actual cash outgo.
    • The question, therefore, on everyone’s mind is how much money will be needed for all this and where will it come from?
    • What the government and the RBI have done so far is clearly awfully inadequate. Other countries have done much more. India can be no exception.

    Where will the government will get resources?

    • Partly from market and partly form RBI: Broadly speaking, resources will come partly through market borrowings and partly from the RBI.
    • Manmohan Singh had decided in 1994 that in future the government of India would not monetise its deficit; in other words, would not borrow from the RBI but go to the money market and borrow from there.
    • Borrow from the RBI: In these unprecedented times, we may take leave from that very sound principle, which all governments have followed religiously since then, and borrow from the RBI.
    • What does it mean? This means printing of more currency notes with all its attendant problems including inflation.
    • Government of India will have to take the steps necessary to tackle the after-effects to the extent possible. It must ensure that the supply chains work smoothly.

    How will the money be spent?

    • The Important role of states: The states will have to play a very important role in this, as much of the work will have to be done by them.
    • Responsibility of finance commission: Since the finance commission continues to be in existence and has a clear idea of the state finances, it should be immediately tasked with the responsibility of discussing this matter with the state governments and making its recommendations available within a period of one month.
    • The task force under the finance minister could work out the needs of businesses and the government of India both in the short as well as the medium term.
    • Spending money properly and efficiently: It should not be wasted and each rupee spent creates its own multiplier effect.
    • Our system leaves much to be desired. And the moment it is known that funding is not a constraint, the system can go berserk.
    • We must guard against that and ensure that rules are in place, specially at the field level to ensure the proper use of resources.

    Role of banks, financial institutions and MGNREGA

    • The banks and other financial institutions will have to be provided with resources to help the private sector, especially the agricultural and MSME sectors.
    • In the rural areas, we must ensure that durable assets are created out of the funds made available.
    • The rules governing the MGNREGA scheme should be tweaked to the extent necessary in order to ensure that more material than labour is used wherever necessary.

    Conclusion

    India should and can come out of the present crisis with as little damage as possible if we tackle it together. We cannot control what happens in other countries, but we can surely learn from them and adopt their best practices. We must also play our role in defining the new global order because the world is more intertwined now than ever before.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

    The new multilateralism

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

    Context

    As the major global institutions — from the WHO to the WTO — are experiencing unprecedented turmoil India needs to be pragmatic and fleet-footed.

    Reorientation of India’s multilateral strategy

    • As many international institutions, including the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Security Council, come under great stress in the corona crisis, Delhi’s multilateral strategy is going through a rapid reorientation.
    • Realists in Delhi recognise that India’s engagement with the UN is not about the pursuit of some higher ideological calling, but the navigation of hardball geopolitics.

    China’s growing influence and implications for India

    • China’s role on Kashmir question: China repeatedly pressed the UN to discuss the Kashmir question after Delhi changed the constitutional status of the region last August.
    • China avoiding discussion on Covid crisis: But through last month, as the rotating chair of the UNSC, China blocked any discussion of the Covid crisis.
    • Beijing insisted that the crisis was not a matter of international peace and security that the UNSC ought to bother itself with.
    • A mere internal administrative change in Kashmir, Beijing continues to insist, is a grave threat to international peace and security.
    • With its veto power, Beijing can simply prevent the UNSC from doing anything against China.

    Why the credibility of the UN and WHO bureaucracy is under cloud?

    • Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, jumped quickly into the Indo-Pak arguments over Kashmir, and raised concerns over India’s Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.
    • Guterres went on an extended visit to Pakistan in February and made an ostentatious public offer to mediate between Delhi and Islamabad on Kashmir.
    • But when it comes to China’s role in the spread of the coronavirus, Guterres can’t seem to find the words.
    • The situation at the WHO is a lot worse.
    • The Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns against the dangers of “politicising” the Covid crisis.
    • Many in Europe and the US think that is exactly what Tedros has done at the WHO in the last few months.
    • Breakdown of the multilateral system: What we are witnessing is the breakdown of the multilateral system that emerged from the ashes of the Second World War amidst the deepening contestation between the world’s foremost powers — the US and China.

    NEW MULTILATERALISM adopted by India

    • India’s new multilateralism — as a pragmatic response to external change — involves downplaying some past associations and strengthening new partnerships.
    • Take, for example, two innovations India has made since the end of the Cold War.
    • One was the BRICS forum with Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa and the other was the so-called Quad — a coalition of democracies with Australia, Japan and the US.
    • Actions of BRICS members with respect to India: As India reorders its multilateral priorities amid the corona crisis, the BRICS forum is losing some of its salience and the Quad is gaining traction.
    • Preventing discussion on COVID crisis: Two of India’s partners in BRICS — Russia and South Africa — had reportedly backed the efforts of a third, China, to prevent a discussion of the COVID crisis in the UNSC.
    • If Delhi were sitting in the UNSC right now as a non-permanent member, it would have had every interest in pressing for a discussion of the COVID crisis that has severely damaged India’s economic and social prospects.
    • Meanwhile, India is in regular consultations on managing the corona crisis with the “Quad Plus” grouping that draws in South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand.
    • Neither the BRICS nor the Quad square with the conventional narrative on India’s multilateralism that was dominated in the past by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the G-77.
    • As circumstances change, India is finding new international partners to secure its interests.

    Context which gave rise to BRICS

    • It started out as a triangular coalition with Russia and China in the mid-1990s.
    • India’s interest in the RIC was borne out of fear of the unipolar moment and Russia’s relentless efforts to draw it into a “strategic triangle” that would resist “American hegemony”.
    • In the early 1990s, Delhi was rather wary of the Bill Clinton Administration’s plans to relieve India of its nuclear and missile programmes.
    • What made matters worse was the Clinton Administration’s formulation that “Kashmir is the world’s most dangerous nuclear flashpoint”.
    • This was not just a description; it was accompanied by a prescription for Delhi: Resolve the Kashmir question by sitting down with Pakistan and the Hurriyat.
    • If Delhi needs any help, Washington will be happy to chip in.
    • Balancing the US pressure: Going into a political tent with Russia and China seemed a sensible bet to ward off American pressures on the nuclear and Kashmir questions.

    Two decades after BRICS-Changes in circumstances

    • Two decades later, we are in a very different place.
    • Take the same two issues — Kashmir and the nuclear programme — that drove India into the BRICS.
    • China’s role on Kashmir issue: It is Beijing that wants the UNSC to take up the Kashmir question, and it is Paris and Washington that are preventing it.
    • NSG membership blocked by China: China has also resolutely blocked India’s effort to become a full member of the global nuclear order by joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
    • On the nuclear front too, it was France and the US that helped India break the nuclear blockade.
    • Shielding of Pakistan by China: China shields Pakistan from international pressures to end cross-border terrorism.
    • And it is India’s partners in the West and the Muslim world that are helping Delhi cope better with violent extremism.

    India’s engagement with Europe

    • India has also discovered the new possibilities for engaging Europe in the multilateral arena.
    • Europe as an important partner: If India’s definition of multilateralism — Afro-Asian solidarity — immediately after Independence was defined in opposition to colonial Europe, Delhi now sees Europe as a valuable partner in rearranging the global order.
    • India has joined the “alliance for multilateralism” initiated by Germany and supported by its European partners.

    Conclusion

    India needs all the pragmatism it can muster to pursue its interests in a world where all the major global institutions — from the WHO to the WTO — are experiencing unprecedented turmoil and are heading towards an inevitable restructuring.

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  • Agricultural Sector and Marketing Reforms – eNAM, Model APMC Act, Eco Survey Reco, etc.

    Alternative Market Channel: Bypassing the Farmer Mandis

    | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Issues Related To Farm Subsidies & Msp

    The start of the coronavirus pandemic coincided with the peak vegetable harvesting season. As the markets were locked down, there was a threat to the crop in over 100 lakh hectares in the country.

    Alternative Market Channels

    • The alternative market channel works on the principles of decentralisation and direct-to-home delivery.
    • The idea is to create smaller, less congested markets in urban areas with the participation of farmers’ groups and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) so that farmers have direct access to consumers.
    • It is providing a valuable option against the lockdown when efforts to avoid crowding in the wholesale markets are likely to continue.

    Success in Maharashtra

    • Maharashtra is one of a handful of states where FPCs are robust.
    • The model, implemented by the state Agriculture Department and Maharashtra State Agri Marketing Board (MSAMB), requires urban and rural local bodies and other stakeholders to buy into the agricultural marketing chain.

    Innovations in food supply chain management are always a hot topic in mains answers. Talk about decentralization and give examples of a successful implementation and you are all set for a good answer.

    How does it work?

    • The government and MSAMB identify farmer groups and FPCs, and form clusters; local bodies choose the market sites and link the markets for direct delivery to cooperative housing societies.
    • The FPCs and farmers’ groups are allotted space for weekly markets in municipal wards or localities.
    • Some producers group park pick-up trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables at the gates of housing societies.

    Why need such a mechanism?

    • The traffic of both buyers and sellers in these decentralized markets can be controlled more effectively than in wholesale mandis — a key advantage when social distancing is critical.
    • Most FPCs have minimized contact, and have taken to selling pre-packed, customised packets of vegetables.
    • This will likely help create alternative market chains that could continue even after more normal times return.

    Conclusion: A boon for the farmer

    • The practices of rudimentary packing, sorting and branding are being inculcated in farmers, as they pack and send pre-ordered packets to housing societies.
    • With this, a larger numbers of vegetable growers in Maharashtra have got into direct selling to consumers thus bypassing middlemen.

    Also read:

    Is e-NAM portal capable of supporting farmers?

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  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

    Know all about the National Board for Wildlife

    | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) hasn’t met since 2014. Policy decisions and clearances have, meanwhile, come from a standing committee to the dismay of experts.

    This newscard is all about the factoids on National Board for Wildlife. The fact that they haven’t met since 2014 makes it interesting for UPSC to quiz you on its details.

    About National Board for Wildlife

    • The NBWL is constituted by the Central Government under Section 5 A of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (WLPA).
    • It serves as an apex body to review all wildlife-related matters and approve projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries.
    • The board is advisory in nature and advises the Central Government on framing policies and measures for conservation of wildlife in the country.

    Composition

    • It is chaired by India’s Prime Minister and its vice-chairman is Minister of Environment.
    • The NBWL has 47 members including the chairperson.
    • Among these, 19 members are ex-officio members.
    • Every new government constitutes a new board, based on the provisions of the WLPA, with the new PM as the chair.

    Functioning

    • The primary function of the NBWL is to promote the conservation and development of wildlife and forests.
    • It has the power to review all wildlife-related matters and approve projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries.
    • No alternation of boundaries in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries can be done without the approval of the NBWL.

    Working through a Standing Committee

    • The National Board may, at its discretion, constitute a Standing Committee.
    • The Committee shall consist of the MoEFCC in charge as Vice-Chairperson, Member Secretary and not more than ten members to be nominated by the Vice-Chairperson from amongst the members of the National Board.
    • The WLPA mandates that without the approval/recommendation of the NBWL, construction of tourist lodges, alteration of the boundaries of PAs, destruction or diversion of wildlife habitat and de-notification of Tiger Reserves, cannot be done.

    Seeking clearances

    • Several proposals seeking statutory approvals for such projects come up before the Standing Committee.
    • Every proposal requires to be submitted by the State Government in the approved format with complete details (maps, field assessments, alternatives explored…).
    • It must also contain the clear opinion of the officer in charge of a PA, the Chief Wildlife Warden and the State Government in consultation with the State Board for Wildlife.
    • The Standing Committee will then have to consider such proposals in accordance with the provisions of the WLPA.

    Back2Basics: Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972

    • WPA provides for the protection of the country’s wild animals, birds and plant species, in order to ensure environmental and ecological security.
    • It provides for the protection of a listed species of animals, birds and plants, and also for the establishment of a network of ecologically-important protected areas in the country.
    • It provides for various types of protected areas such as Wildlife Sanctuaries, National Parks etc.
    • There are six schedules provided in the WPA for protection of wildlife species which can be concisely summarized as under:
    Schedule I: These species need rigorous protection and therefore, the harshest penalties for violation of the law are for species under this Schedule.
    Schedule II: Animals under this list are accorded high protection. They cannot be hunted except under threat to human life.
    Schedule III & IV: This list is for species that are not endangered. This includes protected species but the penalty for any violation is less compared to the first two schedules.
    Schedule V: This schedule contains animals which can be hunted.
    Schedule VI: This list contains plants that are forbidden from cultivation.

     

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  • Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Produce

    What is Market Intervention Scheme (MIS)? How does it compare with MSP

    | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Transport & Marketing Of Agricultural Produce

    Fruit and vegetable farmers are facing major losses due to obstacles in harvesting and marketing their perishable produce. The Centre has now directed all the States and UTs to implement the Market Intervention Scheme to ensure remunerative prices for perishable crops.

    Market Intervention Scheme

    • MIS is a price support mechanism implemented on the request of State Governments for the procurement of perishable and horticultural commodities in the event of a fall in market prices.
    • It is implemented when there is at least a 10% increase in production or a 10% decrease in the ruling rates over the previous normal year.
    • MIS works in a similar fashion to Minimum Support Price based procurement mechanism for food grains but is an ad-hoc mechanism.
    • Its objective is to protect the growers of these horticultural/agricultural commodities from making distress sale in the event of the bumper crop.
    • Under MIS, support can be provided in some years, for a limited but defined period, in specified critical markets and by purchasing specified quantities. The initiative has to emerge from the concerned state.

    UPSC Prelims can ask a question on the difference between MSP and MIP. All the agricultural and horticultural commodities for which Minimum Support Price (MSP) are not fixed and are generally perishable in nature are covered under Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).

    Commodities covered

    • The MIS has been implemented in case of commodities like apples, garlic, oranges, grapes, mushrooms, clove, black pepper, pineapple, ginger, red-chillies, coriander seed, chicory, onions, potatoes, cabbage, mustard seed, castor seed, copra, palm oil etc.

    Remuneration under MIS

    • MIS provides remunerative prices to the farmers in case of glut in production and fall in prices.
    • Proposal of MIS is approved on the specific request of State/UT Government, if they are ready to bear 50% loss (25% in case of North-Eastern States), if any, incurred on its implementation.
    • Further, the extent of total amount of loss shared is restricted to 25% of the total procurement value which includes cost of the commodity procured plus permitted overhead expenses.

    Implementation of MIS

    1) Market Intervention Price (MIP)

    • The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation is implementing the scheme.
    • Under the MIS, a pre-determined quantity at a fixed MIP is procured by NAFED as the Central agency.
    • There are other agencies designated by the state government for a fixed period or till the prices are stabilized above the MIP whichever is earlier.
    • The area of operation is restricted to the concerned state only.

    2) Funds transfer

    • Under MIS, funds are not allocated to the States.
    • Instead, central share of losses as per the guidelines of MIS is released to the State Governments/UTs, for which MIS has been approved, based on specific proposals received from them.

    The last 2 heads that you just read, Renumeration & Implementation, they have a lot of information on which you can be quizzed by UPSC Prelims. Make a note of the agency, %age share, state vs. center responsibility

    Back2Basics: Minimum Support Price

    • Minimum support price (MSP) is one of the instruments of Agricultural Price Policy (APP).
    • The basic intent of announcing MSP before the sowing season is to help farmers take a sowing decision keeping in mind that if they are not able to get a reasonable price by selling in the market, at least they will be able to get the MSP.
    • In that sense, MSP is an assured or guaranteed price (insured price).

    For additional reading on MSP, navigate to:

    Price Support Mechanism under MSP Operations

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  • Economic Indicators and Various Reports On It- GDP, FD, EODB, WIR etc

    A time for extraordinary action

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

    Context

    The lockdown and other movement restrictions, backed by scientific and political consensus on their inevitability, have directly led to a dramatic slowdown in economic activity across the board. What is its impact on the Indian economy? This question calls for an urgent answer.

    The methodology used to estimate the impact

    • We provide an initial, quantitative response, using a methodology that is based on the technique of input-output (IO) models, first elaborated by the economist Wassily Leontief.
    • How the model works: Such models provide detailed sector-wise information of output and consumption in different sectors of the economy and their inter-linkages, along with the sum total of wages, profits, savings, and expenditures in each sector and by each section of final consumers (households, government, etc.).
    • Crucially, it pays attention to intermediate consumption, namely consumption by some sectors of the output of other sectors (as well as consumption within their own sector).
    • Advantage of the model: The key advantage of such a model is that it allows the calculation of the impact of any change in any sector in both direct and indirect terms, which has made this model somewhat ubiquitous in the computation of the economic impact of disasters.
    • This also renders it well-suited to estimating the economic consequences of COVID-19.
    • Regrettably, the last officially published IO table for India was for the year 2007-2008.
    • In our estimates, we use the IO tables for India published by the World Input-Output Database for the year 2014 that updates the IO tables for individual countries using time series of national income statistics.
    • To calculate the impact of the lockdown, there are four different scenarios of the number of workdays lost in different sectors.
    • How daily output loss is calculated? Assuming that the estimated annual output is distributed uniformly across the year, it is possible to calculate the daily output and therefore the daily output loss.
    • The direct and indirect impacts of the lockdown are then estimated using IO multipliers which are assumed to be constant.
    • We then calculate the percentage decline in the national gross domestic product (GDP) of 2019-2020 that this impact amounts to.

    What is the impact on various sectors?

    • Loss at 7% to 33% of GDP: Model (see table) shows that the loss of GDP ranges from ₹17 lakh crore (7% of GDP) in the most conservative scenario, where the average number of output days lost is only 13, to ₹73 lakh crore (33% of GDP) in the most impactful scenario, where the number of days of lost output averages 67.
    • In intermediate scenarios of 27 and 47 days of lost output, the GDP decline is ₹29 lakh crore (13% of GDP) and ₹51 lakh crore (23% of GDP), respectively.
    • OECD estimate: These estimates also accord well with other estimates, such as those of the OECD that suggest a 20% loss to GDP for India.
    • Impact of varying lockdown period: Even assuming that sectors will have varying lockdown periods, all sectors face serious losses due to their
    • If we take the scenario where a prolonged lockdown happens, averaging about 47 days across sectors, we find that the mining sector faces the largest drop of 42% in value-added despite that sector itself being shut down for, say, 35 days.
    • The electricity sector sees a 29% fall in value-added, even though it faces no shut down per se.
    • Losses are expected across all sectors in terms of both wage compensation and the availability of working capital.

    Incorporation of feedback effect in estimates

    • The linear character of our estimates, intrinsic to IO analysis, does not allow incorporation of feedback effects and assumes that output commences where it left off without further constraints.
    • An attempt has been made to correct for this by using a varying number of days of output loss across sectors, but this is quite possibly inadequate to capture the continuing economic impact.
    • We are faced today with a unique situation where both supply and demand have collapsed in several sectors.
    • Impact on agriculture: In some sectors such as agriculture, the impact may manifest in the delayed fashion, if the anti-COVID-19 measures, or the pandemic itself, affects agricultural operations in the next the kharif season, even if, as reports suggest, much of this year’s rabi has been successfully harvested.
    • The shortfall in export not accounted for: Given the database, we are using and the initial character of our analyses we have also not explicitly accounted for possible shortfalls in exports due to lack of demand elsewhere in the world, as well as the unavailability of intermediate imported goods that are crucial for the Indian economy.
    • Nor are we able to adequately separate the impact on the informal sector, that is partially aggregated with the formal sector in the database that we are using and partially unaccounted for due to lack of data.

    Need for the huge stimulus package

    • The most striking feature of even this simple calculation is the all-round pervasive impact on the economy of the anti-COVID-19 measures that we are currently undertaking and that are likely to continue in modified form for a short period.
    • Measures such as debt relief, postponement of revenue and tax collections, immediate relief in cash and kind to the poor, and revamping and scaling up public distribution are all undoubtedly necessary but far from sufficient.
    • Our numbers suggest that the resort to huge stimulus packages that developed countries have already started putting in place is by no means mistaken.

    Way forward

    • Package for all the sectors of the economy: We need to compensate and pump cash into the hands of not only wage workers in the formal and informal sectors, and also into the livelihood activities of the informal sector.
    • But businesses too need to be primed with handouts in the case of small and medium enterprises, and with a variety of concessions even in the case of larger businesses.
    • It is critical to preserve the productive capacities of the Indian economy across the board. The annual budget of the current year, already passed, clearly cannot cope with such a massive effort and needs to be revisited by suitable parliamentary measures.
    • Caring too much about fiscal deficit will not be helpful: Redistributing expenditure, seeking to keep the fiscal deficit “under control” as it were, through measures such as cutting back on government salaries, are unlikely to be helpful.
    • Apart from sending the wrong signal to private sector employers, who have so far been exhorted to maintain salaries and wages during the lockdown, it is quite likely to lead to further reduction in demand since the government is the biggest employer in the country.
    • Ensure the key role of the state: Finally, one must note that the current crisis is not a transformatory moment for the Indian economy, even if the scale of the impact and recovery process will undoubtedly push the economy in new directions.
    • But “greening” the economy or more radical transformative measures are not particularly relevant in its current state.
    • What is needed is ensuring the key role of the state to lift up an economy that is in danger of being brought to its knees, and to restore some semblance of its normal rhythm, by an unprecedented scale of state investment.

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  • Communicable and Non-communicable diseases – HIV, Malaria, Cancer, Mental Health, etc.

    The law cannot fall silent

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

    Context

    Amid the many developments in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic one of the facets that is also discussed is-How to read international law in the context of the pointers to the future?

    Constitutional duty regarding international laws

    • Respect for the norms and standards of international law is among the paramount constitutional duties of the state under Article 51 of the Constitution.
    • The duty is regardless of the quibbles on whether the language here refers only to treaty/obligations or also to customary international law.
    • International norms remain relevant: Despite US President Donald Trump’s recent threat of actions against the WHO, international norms, standards, and doctrines remain relevant to making national policy and law.

    Possibility of discussion over pandemic at UNSC

    • The difference between the United Nations as a site of normative discursivity and as a site of doing global power politics is sadly manifest even now in the accelerated pace of the pandemic.
    • Discussion extremely unlikely: President Trump’s insistence on calling it a “Chinese virus” renders it extremely unlikely that the pandemic will be discussed during the current monthly presidency of the UN Security Council by China.
    • Possibility of veto: The threat of veto by China and Russia will always loom large whenever the matter is placed for discussion.

    Role of the UN in the codification of law

    • The UN is also a site of systems of norm enunciation.
    • Along with the International Law Commission, it is responsible for the progressive codification of law.
    • The UN system has developed lawmaking and framework treaties as well as provided auspices for systems of “soft” law that may eventually become the binding law.
    • There are three types of international laws which are described below.

    1. The fundamental overriding principle of international laws

    • Jus cogens: Some of the norms of international law are robust and deeply relevant. For example, the peremptory jus cogens — a few fundamental, overriding principles of international law such as crimes against humanity, genocide, and human trafficking apply to all states.
    • And Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties goes so far as to declare that a “treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law”.
    • And even when ingredients of genocide remain difficult to prove, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has held, in 2007, that states have a duty to prevent and punish acts and omissions that eventually furnish elements for the commission of crime of genocide.
    • Erga omnes: There also exist erga omnes rules prescribing specifically-determined obligations which states owe to the international community as a whole.
    • This was enunciated by the ICJ in 1970 for four situations — the outlawing of acts of aggression; the outlawing of genocide; protection from slavery; and protection from racial discrimination.
    • A great significance of this judicial dictum is that it lays down obligations which transcend consensual relations among states.
    • In addition, there are three other sets of international law obligations.
    • These are primarily derived from the no-harm principles crystallised in the International Law Commission’s 2001 Draft Articles on the Prevention of Transboundary Harm (DAPTH) and the Paris Framework Agreement on Climate Change, 2015.
    • The DAPTH has carefully developed norms of due diligence, stressing all the way that these may be adapted to contextual exigencies.
    • But due diligence obligations certainly extend beyond local and national boundaries, especially because the environmental problems have a transboundary impact.
    • Each state is obliged to observe these standards in the fight against COVID-19 as a matter of international law.

    2. International laws dealing with core human right measures

    • No law or policy to combat epidemics or pandemic can go against the rights of migrant workers, internally displaced peoples, and refugees and asylum seekers.
    • Respect for the inherent dignity of individuals in combating COVID-19 and for the rights of equal health for all, non-discrimination, and the norms of human dignity further reinforce accountability and the transparency of state and other social actors.
    • Panicky and sadist policing, including shoot-a- sight orders in collective exodus situations, and militaristic responses to food riots de-justify health lockouts and curfews.

    3. International humanitarian law

    • The third set of obligations arises out of international humanitarian law. The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) is pertinent here.
    • India did not subscribe to any conspiracy or racist theory about the origins of COVID-19 — in fact, India’s foreign minister rightly affirmed the BTWC obligations on March 26 (on the 40th anniversary of that Convention).
    • Surely, this global and non-discriminatory disarmament convention deserves applause because it outlaws a whole range of weapons of mass destruction.
    • India has, and rightly so, called for “high priority” to “full and effective implementation by all states parties”.

    Conclusion

    The starting point of a determined fight against COVID-19 has to be a full-throated repudiation of an ancient Latin maxim, inter arma enim silent leges (in times of war, the law falls silent). Combating this fearsome pandemic calls for re-dedication to nested international law obligations and frameworks.

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  • Disasters and Disaster Management – Sendai Framework, Floods, Cyclones, etc.

    Armed Forces: their role during crisis, procedures for requisition

    | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Disaster Management

    As the Army moves in to take over the COVID-19 quarantine facility in Delhi, the procedure for calling the armed forces to help the civil administration is in the spotlight.

    Requisition the Army

    • The regulations permit civil authorities to requisition the Army for controlling law and order, maintaining essential services, assisting during natural calamities such as earthquakes, and any other type of help that may be needed by the civil authorities.
    • The procedure for requisitioning armed forces is governed under several guidelines including:
    1. ‘Aid to Civil Authorities’ under the guidelines laid in Instructions on Aid to the Civil Authorities by the Armed Forces, 1970;
    2. Regulations for the Army, Chapter VII, Paragraphs 301 to 327 and
    3. Manual of Indian Military Law, Chapter VII

    How is Army invited?

    • Civil administration requests the Local Military Authority for assistance, for the maintenance of law and order, maintenance of essential services, disaster relief and other types of assistance.
    • Armed forces can be asked to provide troops and equipment for a flag march, rescue and relief, evacuation, and immediate aid.
    • The current case of checking the spread of COVID-19 is different, as the medical aspect is predominant.
    • These resources are being controlled centrally and judiciously, because of the requirement of doctors, equipment and facilities.

    Why need Armed forces in such situations?

    • Besides the specialised medical resources, which are centrally controlled, the local units are prepared for maintenance of law and order, crowd control, curfew in sensitive areas etc.
    • Moreover provision of essential supply of electricity and water, restoration of essential services, emergency feeding and shelter, prevention of panic, prevention of theft and loot are other areas of concerns.
    • During such multi-faceted challenges, local authorities have shortfall to perform all such functions.

    In such situations, what happens to the armed forces’ primary role?

    • Providing aid to civil authorities, as and when called upon to do so, is a secondary task for the armed forces.
    • It cannot replace the primary role of ensuring external security and operational preparedness.

    Is there a ceiling on such deployment?

    • No, there is no such ceiling either of a duration of deployment or on the number of armed forces personnel that can be deployed to aid civil authority.
    • The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by the cabinet secretary, is the final authority.

    Are there any templates or instances from the past that are applicable here?

    • The current situation is different from earlier cases such as tsunami or super-cyclone, which were natural disasters.
    • The major difference is that specialists are the key in the current situation, and their tasks cannot be performed by general duty soldiers.

    Who pays for the costs incurred?

    • The civil administration is responsible for the costs incurred by the armed forces in these roles.
    • The cost of assistance provided by the Armed Forces is recovered in accordance with the instructions contained in ‘Instructions on Aid to Civil Authorities by the Armed Forces 1970’.

    What is the role of the National Disaster Management Authority?

    • NDMA is involved in secondary follow-ups by the Home Ministry and is not very actively involved in the current case.
    • The roles of the Ministries of Health, Home, Civil Aviation and Defence are predominant in this case.
    • The armed forces are aligned with them at the apex level viz NCMC.
    • The directions are followed by execution-level coordination which is done by respective secretaries in the government.

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  • Human Rights Issues

    OPCW blames Syria for chemical attacks

    Prelims Only | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Important International Institutions

    The global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has for the first time explicitly blamed Syria for chemical attacks.

    What did the report say?

    • President Bashar al-Assad’s air force used the nerve gas sarin and chlorine three times in 2017.
    • The findings came in the first report from a new investigative team set up by the OPCW to identify the perpetrators of attacks in Syria’s ongoing nine-year-long civil war.

    About OPCW

    • The OPCW is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force on 29 April 1997.
    • The organisation is not an agency of the United Nations but cooperates both on policy and practical issues.
    • The OPCW, with its 193 member states, has its seat in The Hague, Netherlands, and oversees the global endeavour for the permanent and verifiable elimination of chemical weapons.
    • It promotes and verifies the adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the use of chemical weapons and requires their destruction.
    • It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for its work in Syria and says it has eliminated 97 per cent of the world’s chemical weapons.
    • The OPCW has the power to say whether chemical weapons were used in an attack it has investigated. In June 2018, it granted itself new powers to assign blame for attacks.

    Back2Basics: Syrian Crisis

    • The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided civil war in Syria fought between the Ba’athist Syrian Arab Republic led by Bashar al-Assad and various domestic and foreign forces opposing both the Syrian government.
    • Even before the conflict began, many Syrians were complaining about high unemployment, corruption and a lack of political freedom under Assad.
    • In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the southern city of Deraa, inspired by the “Arab Spring” in neighbouring countries.
    • When the government used deadly force to crush the dissent, protests demanding the president’s resignation erupted nationwide. The unrest spread and the crackdown intensified.
    • Opposition supporters took up arms, first to defend themselves and later to rid their areas of security forces. Assad vowed to crush what he called “foreign-backed terrorism”.
    • The violence rapidly escalated and the country descended into civil war.

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