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  • International Space Agencies – Missions and Discoveries

    Chinese astronauts enter Tiangong Space Station

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

    Three Chinese astronauts floated into the country’s new Tiangong space station for a three-month mission.

    Tiangong Space Station

    • Tiangong means “Heavenly Palace”.
    • It was 10.4 metres long and 3.35 metres wide at its widest point, and weighed 8.6 metric tonnes.
    • It was launched on September 15, 2016 and, in late 2016, hosted two Chinese astronauts for 30 days in what was China’s longest manned space mission so far.
    • The recently decommissioned space lab followed the Tiangong-1, China’s first space station, which crashed into the southern Pacific Ocean on April 1, 2018 after Chinese scientists lost control of the spacecraft.
    • China had launched Tiangong-1 in 2011 as proof-of-concept of technologies for future stations.
    • The Tiangong will be fully operational by the end of 2022.

    Features of this Space Station

    • The significant feature of Tiangong is its two robotic arms.
    • The US has previously expressed concern over its ability to grab objects including satellites from space.
    • The 10-meter-long arm was in action previously seen in action successfully grabbing and moving a 20 tonne Tianzhou-2 cargo ship in a test.
    • One of the noteworthy tasks for the Shenzhou-14 crew is to test and operate the large and small
    • The small arm is quite flexible and can perform operations with greater precision.

     

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  • Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

    What are eVTOL Aircrafts?

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

    The Union Civil Aviation Ministry is exploring the possibility of inviting manufacturers of Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft to set up base in India.

    What is eVTOL?

    • EVTOL aircraft is one that uses electric power to hover, take off, and land vertically.
    • Most eVTOLs also use what is called as distributed electric propulsion technology which means integrating a complex propulsion system with the airframe.
    • There are multiple motors for various functions; to increase efficiency; and to also ensure safety.
    • It works on electric propulsion based on progress in motor, battery, fuel cell and electronic controller technologies.
    • It is also fuelled by the need for new vehicle technology that ensures urban air mobility (UAM).

    Features of eVTOL

    • eVTOL is emerging as a runway independent technological solution” for the globe’s transportation needs.
    • There are an estimated 250 eVTOL concepts or more being fine-tuned to bring alive the concept of UAM.
    • Some of these include the use of multi-rotors, fixed-wing and tilt-wing concepts backed by sensors, cameras and even radar.
    • The key word here is “autonomous connectivity”. Some of these are in various test phases.
    • In short, eVTOLs have been likened to “a third wave in an aerial revolution”; the first being the advent of commercial flying, and the second, the age of helicopters.

    What are the developments in powering eVTOLs?

    • The roles eVTOLs adopt depends on battery technology and the limits of onboard electric power.
    • Power is required during the key phases of flight such as take-off, landing and flight (especially in high wind conditions).
    • There is a “Diamond Nuclear Voltaic (DNV) technology” using minute amounts of carbon-14 nuclear waste encased in layered industrial diamonds to create self-charging batteries.
    • There are some industry experts who are questioning the use of only batteries and are looking at hybrid technologies such as hydrogen cells and batteries depending on the flight mission.

    What are the challenges?

    • As the technology so far is a mix of unpiloted and piloted aircraft, the areas in focus include “crash prevention systems”.
    • There are also issues such as ensuring safety in case of power plant or rotor failure.
    • Aircraft protection from cyberattacks is another area of focus.
    • A third area is in navigation and flight safety and the use of technology when operating in difficult terrain, unsafe operating environments, and also bad weather.

     

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  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

    World’s first Fishing Cat Census done in Chilika

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

    The Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon, has 176 fishing cats, according to a census done by the Chilika Development Authority (CDA) in collaboration with the Fishing Cat Project (TFCP).

    About Fishing Cats

    • About twice the size of a typical house cat, the fishing cat is a feline with a powerful build and stocky legs.
    • It is an adept swimmer and enters water frequently to prey on fish as its name suggests.
    • It is known to even dive to catch fish.
    • It is nocturnal and apart from fish also preys on frogs, crustaceans, snakes, birds, and scavenges on carcasses of larger animals.
    • It is capable of breeding all year round but in India its peak breeding season is known to be between March and May.

    Conservation status

    • IUCN Red List: Endangered
    • CITES: Appendix II
    • Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I

    Various threats

    • One of the major threats facing the fishing cat is the destruction of wetlands, which is its preferred habitat.
    • As a result of human settlement, drainage for agriculture, pollution, and wood-cutting most of the wetlands in India are under threat of destruction.
    • Another threat to the fishing cat is the depletion of its main prey-fish due to unsustainable fishing practices.
    • It is also occasionally poached for its skin.

    Back2Basics: Chilika Lake

    • Chilika Lake is a brackish water lagoon, spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Odisha.
    • It is located at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal, covering an area of over 1,100 km2.
    • It is the largest coastal lagoon in India and the largest brackish water lagoon in the world after The New Caledonian barrier reef.
    • It has been listed Ramsar Site as well as a tentative UNESCO World Heritage site.

    Its formation

    • The process of the formation of the Chilika might have begun in the latter part of the Pleistocene epoch, around 20,000 years ago.
    • India’s peninsular river Mahanadi carried a heavy load of silt and dumped part of it at its delta.
    • As the sediment-laden river met the Bay of Bengal, sand bars were formed near its mouth.
    • These created a backflow of the seawater into the sluggish fresh water at the estuary, resulting in the huge brackish water lake.
    • Marine archaeological studies on the Odisha coast clearly show that the Chilika once acted as a safe harbor for cargo ships bound for Southeast Asia and other parts of the world.

     

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

    How to keep inflation under control

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Agriculture and related issues

    Context

    The economy now seems to be largely out of the shadow of Covid-19, and only a notch better than in 2019-20. But the big question remains: can India rein in the raging inflation that is at 7.8 per cent (CPI for April 2022), with food CPI at 8.4 percent, and WPI at more than 15 per cent?

    Need for bold steps on three fronts to tackle inflation

    • Unless bold and innovative steps are taken at least on three fronts, GDP growth and inflation both are likely to be in the range of 6.5 to 7.5 per cent in 2022-23.
    • 1] Tightening of loose monetary policy: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is mandated to keep inflation at 4 per cent, plus-minus 2 per cent.
    • The RBI has already started the process of tightening monetary policy by raising the repo rate, albeit a bit late.
    • It is expected that by the end of 2022-3, the repo rate will be at least 5.5 per cent, if not more.
    • It will still stay below the likely inflation rate and therefore depositors will still lose the real value of their money in banks with negative real interest rates.
    • That only reflects an inbuilt bias in the system — in favour of entrepreneurs in the name of growth and against depositors, which ultimately results in increasing inequality in the system.
    • 2] Prudent fiscal policy: Fiscal policy has been running loose in the wake of Covid-19 that saw the fiscal deficit of the Union government soar to more than 9 per cent in 2020-21 and 6.7 per cent in 2021-22, but now needs to be tightened.
    • Government needs to reduce its fiscal deficit to less than 5 per cent, never mind the FRMB Act’s advice to bring it to 3 per cent of GDP.
    • However, it is difficult to achieve when enhanced food and fertiliser subsidies, and cuts in duties of petrol and diesel will cost the government at least Rs 3 trillion more than what was provisioned in the budget.
    • 3] Rational trade policy: Export restrictions/bans go beyond agri-commodities, even to iron ore and steel, etc. in the name of taming inflation.
    • But abrupt export bans are poor trade policy and reflect only the panic-stricken face of the government.
    • A more mature approach to filter exports would be through a gradual process of minimum export prices and transparent export duties for short periods of time, rather than abrupt bans, if at all these are desperately needed to favour consumers.
    • Liberal import policy: A prudent solution to moderate inflation at home lies in a liberal import policy, reducing tariffs across board.

    Way forward

    • If India wants to be atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in critical commodities where import dependence is unduly high, it must focus on two oils — crude oil and edible oils.
    • In crude oil, India is almost 80 per cent dependent on imports and in edible oils imports constitute 55 to 60 per cent of our domestic consumption.
    • In both cases, agriculture can help.
    • Ethanol production: Massive production of ethanol from sugarcane and maize, especially in eastern Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar, where water is abundant and the water table is replenished every second year or so through light floods, is the way to reduce import dependence in crude oil.
    • Palm plantation: In the case of edible oils, a large programme of palm plantations in coastal areas and the northeast is the right strategy.

    Conclusion

    We need to invest in raising productivity, making agri-markets work more efficiently.

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  • Judicial Reforms

    Issues with Frivolous PIL Petitions

    | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

    A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitioner in the Supreme Court barely escaped having to pay ₹18 lakh for indulging in a “luxury litigation”.

    What is the news?

    • A Supreme Court Bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Hima Kohli initially asked the litigant to pay ₹18 lakh, that is, ₹1 lakh for every one of the 18 minutes the case took up.
    • However, the court later, in its order, slashed the amount to ₹2 lakh on the request of the litigant’s counsel.

    Why did the apex court got disgusted?

    • The bench criticized the highly derogatory practice of filing frivolous petitions encroaching valuable judicial time.
    • This time can otherwise be utilised for addressing genuine concerns.

    What is Public Interest Litigation (PIL)?

    • PIL refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and demonstrates the availability of justice to socially-disadvantaged parties.
    • It was introduced by Justice P. N. Bhagwati in 1979.
    • It is the chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India.
    • It is suited to the principles enshrined in Article 39A[a] of the Constitution to protect and deliver prompt social justice with the help of law.

    How was it introduced?

    • PIL is a relaxation on the traditional rule of locus standi.
    • Before 1980s the judiciary and the Supreme Court of India entertained litigation only from parties affected directly or indirectly by the defendant.
    • It heard and decided cases only under its original and appellate jurisdictions.
    • However, the Supreme Court began permitting cases on the grounds of PIL, which means that even people who are not directly involved in the case may bring matters of public interest to the court.
    • It is the court’s privilege to entertain the application for the PIL.

    Filing a PIL

    Any citizen can file a public case by filing a petition:

    • Under Art 32 of the Indian Constitution, in the Supreme Court
    • Under Art 226 of the Indian Constitution, in the High Court
    • Under 133 of the Criminal Procedure Code, in a Magistrate’s Court

    Parties against whom PILs can be filed

    • A PIL may be filed against state government, central government, municipal authority, private party.
    • Also, private person may be included in PIL as ‘Respondent’, after concerned of state authority.
    • g. a private factory in Mumbai which is causing pollution then PIL can be filed against the government of Mumbai, state pollution central board including that private factory of Mumbai.

    Importance of PIL

    • PIL gives a wider description to the fundamental rights to equality, life and personality, which is guaranteed under part III of the Constitution of India.
    • It also functions as an effective instrument for changes in the society or social welfare.
    • Through PIL, any public or person can seek remedy on behalf of the oppressed class by introducing a PIL.

    Issues with PIL

    • Off late, PILs have become a tool for publicity.
    • People file frivolous petitions which result in the wastage of time of the courts.
    • People have used them with a political agenda as well.
    • They unnecessarily burden the judiciary.
    • Even if the petition is eventually dismissed, the courts spend time and effort on them before dismissing them.

    How do frivolous petitions waste time?

    • At present, only judges have the power to dismiss a petition.
    • The Registry of the SC or HC only ensures that the technical requirements of filing a petition are fulfilled.
    • As a result of which petitions are admitted to the court irrespective of the merits of the case.

    Way forward: Preventing frivolous PILs

    The Supreme Court had issued eight directions in its Balwant Singh Chaufal Judgment to help constitutional courts separate genuine PIL petitions from the barmy ones:

    • It had asked every High Court to frame its own rules to encourage bona fide PIL petitions and curb the motivated ones
    • Verifying the credentials of the petitioner before entertaining the plea
    • Checking the correctness of the contents
    • Ensuring the petition involves issues of “larger public interest, gravity and urgency” which requires priority
    • Ensuring there is no personal gain, or oblique motive behind the PIL
    • Ensuring that it is aimed at redressal of genuine public harm or public injury

    Conclusion

    • PIL petitions have had a beneficial effect on the Indian jurisprudence and has alleviated the conditions of the citizens in general.
    • Such petitions bring justice to people who are handicapped by ignorance, indigence, illiteracy.

     

     

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  • Waste Management – SWM Rules, EWM Rules, etc

    E-Waste Recycling in India

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

    Attero Recycling, one of India’s largest electronic waste management companies, is set to invest close to $1 billion in expanding their electronic waste recycling facilities in India.

    E-waste Management: A tricky task

    • E-waste management is a complicated process given the multitude of actors that are involved in the process.
    • The major stakeholders in the value chain include importers, producers/manufacturers, retailers (businesses/government/others), consumers (individual households, businesses, government and others), traders, scrap dealers, dissemblers/dismantlers and recyclers.
    • To critically assess each in the different stages of processing, it is important to understand the e-waste value chain.
    • The process involves four stages: generation, collection, segregation and treatment/disposal.

    India’s regulatory ecosystem

    • Indian electronics sector boomed in the last decade.
    • Increased production and penetration of imported electronics items led to an accelerated e-waste generation that necessitated regulatory control over the sector.
    • India has Electronic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011 in place since . Its scope was expanded in 2016 and 2018 through amendments.

    Provisions of the 2011 Rules

    • To streamline e-waste management, the Government introduced Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) whereby producers were required to collect and recycle electronic items.
    • Since manufacturers were incurring the disposal cost, their designs would incorporate less toxic and easily recyclable materials, thereby reducing input material requirements.

    Inherent flaws in Implementation

    • Recycling: Less than five percent of the waste is treated through formal recycling facilities.
    • Informal sector: The rest is handled by the informal sector with very little enforcement of environmental and occupational safety norms.
    • Weak Regulations: A deeper analysis revealed that the EPR regulations in India were not quantified through collection or recycling targets as in other countries with better implementation framework and mechanisms.
    • Lack of incentivization: In the absence of targets, producers had little incentive to ensure the collection of their used products.

    Current scenario and issues in e-waste recycling

    • Crude and Scrappage: As of today, some 95% of e-waste is managed by the informal sector which operates under inferior working conditions and relies on crude techniques for dismantling and recycling.
    • Infrastructure lacunae: Another important issue is the lack of sufficient metal processing infrastructure which is why recyclers have to export materials to global smelters.
    • Price competencies: As aggregators are mostly informal, they demand up-front cash payments.
    • Bloomed informal network: The informal network is well-established and rests on social capital ties that PROs have yet to establish and are hence insulated from reaching the viable number of aggregators.
    • Policy failure: Policy changes have tried repeatedly to formalize the sector, but issues of implementation persist on the ground.

    Way forward

    • Effective design: Since India is highly deficient in precious mineral resources, there is a need for a well-designed, robust and regulated e-waste recovery regime that would generate jobs and wealth.
    • Consumer responsibility: The consumers must responsibly consume the product for its useful life and then weigh between the chances of repair or disposal with utmost consciousness towards the environment.
    • Recyclable products: On the supply side, e-waste can be reduced when producers design electronic products that are safer, and more durable, repairable and recyclable.
    • Reuse: Manufacturers must reuse the recyclable materials and not mine rare elements unnecessarily to meet new production.
    • Commercial recycling: Rather than hoping that informal recyclers become formal it would be more feasible for companies and the state to design programs ensure e-waste easily makes its way to proper recyclers.

     

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  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

    Keep ESZ of 1 Km around Forests: SC

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

    The Supreme Court has directed that every protected forest, national park and wildlife sanctuary across the country should have a mandatory eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of a minimum one km starting from their demarcated boundaries.

    Why such move?

    • The purpose of declaring ESZs around national parks, forests and sanctuaries is to create some kind of a “shock absorber” for the protected areas.
    • These zones would act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to those involving lesser protection.

    What are the Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)?

    • Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas notified by the MoEFCC around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
    • The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
    • They also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.

    How are they demarcated?

    • The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 does not mention the word “Eco-Sensitive Zones”.
    • However, Section 3(2)(v) of the Act, says that Central Government can restrict areas in which any industries, operations or processes or class of industries, operations or processes shall be carried out or shall not, subject to certain safeguards.
    • Besides Rule 5(1) of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 states that central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations or processes on the basis of certain considerations.
    • The same criteria have been used by the government to declare No Development Zones (NDZs).

    Defining its boundaries

    • An ESZ could go up to 10 kilometres around a protected area as provided in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002.
    • Moreover, in the case where sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecologically important patches, crucial for landscape linkage, are beyond 10 km width, these should be included in the ESZs.
    • Further, even in the context of a particular Protected Area, the distribution of an area of ESZ and the extent of regulation may not be uniform all around and it could be of variable width and extent.

     

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  • Telecom and Postal Sector – Spectrum Allocation, Call Drops, Predatory Pricing, etc

    What is D2M Technology?

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

    The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and India’s public service broadcaster Prasar Bharati are exploring ‘direct-to-mobile’ (D2M) broadcasting.

    What is D2M Technology?

    • The technology is based on the convergence of broadband and broadcast, using which mobile phones can receive terrestrial digital TV.
    • It would be similar to how people listen to FM radio on their phones, where a receiver within the phone can tap into radio frequencies.
    • Using D2M, multimedia content can also be beamed to phones directly.

    Benefits of D2M

    • It allows broadcasting video and other forms of multimedia content directly to mobile phones, without needing an active internet connection.
    • It promises to improve consumption of broadband and utilisation of spectrum.

    Why need D2M?

    • The idea behind the technology is that it can possibly be used to directly broadcast content related to citizen-centric information.
    • It can be further used to counter fake news, issue emergency alerts and offer assistance in disaster management, among other things.
    • Apart from that, it can be used to broadcast live news, sports etc. on mobile phones.
    • More so, the content should stream without any buffering whatsoever while not consuming any internet data.

    What could be the consumer and business impact of this?

    • For consumers, a technology like this would mean that they would be able to access multimedia content from Video on Demand (VoD) or Over The Top (OTT) content platforms.
    • This will be without having to exhaust their mobile data, and more importantly, at a nominal rate.
    • The technology will also allow people from rural areas, with limited or no internet access, to watch video content.
    • For businesses, one of the key benefits of the technology is that it can enable telecom service providers to offload video traffic from their mobile network onto the broadcast network.
    • It thus helps them to decongest valuable mobile spectrum.
    • This will also improve usage of mobile spectrum and free up bandwidth which will help reduce call drops, increase data speeds etc.

    What is the government doing to facilitate D2M technology?

    • The DoT has set up a committee to study the feasibility of a spectrum band for offering broadcast services directly to users’ smartphones.
    • Band 526-582 MHz is envisaged to work in coordination with both mobile and broadcast services.
    • DoT has set up a committee to study this band.
    • At the moment, this band is used by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting across the country for TV transmitters.

    What are the possible challenges to the technology’s rollout?

    • Bringing key stakeholders like mobile operators onboard will be the biggest challenge in launching D2M technology on a wide scale.
    • A mass roll out of the technology will entail changes in infrastructure and some regulatory changes.

     

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  • Goods and Services Tax (GST)

    GST Council must uphold fiscal federalism

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

    Context

    The recent ruling of the Supreme Court held that the states were free to use means of persuasion ranging from collaboration to contestation.

     Simultaneous or concurrent powers under Article 246A

    • Article 246A confers simultaneous or concurrent powers on Parliament and the state legislatures to make laws relating to GST.
    • This article is in sharp contrast to the constitutional scheme that prevailed till 2017.
    • It clearly demarcated taxing powers between the Centre and states with no overlaps.
    • After 2017, several central and state levies were subsumed into GST.
    • Each state was to have its own GST Act, all of them being almost identical to the Central GST Act.
    • Inter-state supplies and imported goods are liable to IGST.

    Composition of GST Council

    • The GST Council has the Union finance minister as the chairperson and the Union minister of state in charge of revenue or finance as a member.
    • Centre has one-third voting power, 31 states (including two Union Territories) share the remaining two-thirds of the vote.
    • The GST Council has a total of 33 members.
    • Out of a total of 33 votes, 11 belong to the Centre and 22 votes are shared by 31 states/UT, with each state/UT having a 0.709 vote.
    • Any decision of the GST Council requires a three-fourth majority or a minimum of 25 votes.
    • As the Centre has 11 votes, it requires an additional 14 votes.
    • Unlike so many statutes, Article 279A has made no provision to make the decision of the majority binding on the dissenting states.
    •  Paragraph 2.73 of the Select Committee Report on the 122nd Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2014, noted that this voting pattern was to maintain a fine balance as, in a federal constitution, the dominance of one over the other was to be disallowed.

    Role of GST Council

    • Under Article 279A, the GST Council has to make “recommendations” on various topics including the tax rate and exemptions.
    • The Union of India argued that the “constitutional architecture” showed that Articles 246A and 279A, when read together, made the GST Council the ultimate policy-making and decision-making body for framing GST laws.
    • The GST Council was unique and incomparable to any other constitutional body and its recommendations would override the legislative power of Parliament and state legislatures.
    • Neither of them could legislate on GST issues independent of the recommendations of the GST Council.
    • The argument went further: On a combined reading of Article 279A, the provisions of the IGST and CGST Acts and the recommendations of the GST Council were transformed into legislation.
    • The Supreme Court rightly noted that several sections in the state GST laws, CGST and in IGST, cast a duty even on dissenting states to issue notifications to implement the recommendations of the GST Council.

    Observations on federalism

    • Delving into legislative history, the court ruled that a draft Article 279B, which provided for a GST Disputes Settlement Authority, was omitted because it would have effectively overridden the sovereignty of Parliament and the state legislatures, and diminished the fiscal autonomy of the states.
    • It was desirable, the Court said, to have some level of friction, some amount of state contestation, some deliberation-generating froth in our democratic system.
    • Putting to rest any controversy, the court held that the recommendations of the GST Council had only a persuasive value.
    • To regard them as binding edicts would disrupt fiscal federalism because both the Union and states were conferred equal power to legislate on GST.
    • Rule-making power bound by recommendations of GST Council: The Court held that the state governments and Parliament, while exercising their rule-making powers under the provisions of the State GST Acts, CGST & IGST Acts, are bound by the recommendations of the GST Council.
    • States can amend GST laws: But even this did not mean that all recommendations of the GST Council are binding on state legislatures or Parliament to enact primary pieces of legislation on GST.
    • In effect, states can amend their GST laws if they so choose.

    Way forward

    •  If the GST Council meets periodically as mandated and there is active participation of the states in making recommendations, no state will oppose a recommendation that has been carefully deliberated and is in the national interest.

    Conclusion

    Indeed, there is little chance of cracks developing in the GST edifice as long as the spirit of cooperative and collaborative federalism prevails.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: Indo-Pacific and QUAD

    China’s growing footprint in the Pacific Islands

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

    Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of China, is currently on an eight-day visit to ten Pacific Island Countries (PICs) after the MoU failed to gain consensus among the PICs.

    What are the PICs?

    • The Pacific Island Countries are a cluster of 14 states which are located largely in the tropical zone of the Pacific Ocean between Asia, Australia and the Americas.
    • They include Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
    • The islands are divided on the basis of physical and human geography into three distinct parts — Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia.

    Geo-economics of PICs

    • The islands are very small in land area, and are spread wide across the vast equatorial swathe of the Pacific Ocean.
    • Even being the smallest and least populated states, they have some of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) in the world.
    • Large EEZs translate into huge economic potential due to the possibility of utilising the wealth of fisheries, energy, minerals and other marine resources present in such zones.
    • Hence, they prefer to be identified as Big Ocean States, rather than Small Island States.
    • In fact, Kiribati and FSM, both PICs, having EEZs larger than that of India.

    Strategic significance

    • PICs have played an important role in major power rivalry as springboards for power projection and laboratories for developing and demonstrating strategic capabilities.
    • The major powers of the colonial era competed with each other to gain control over these strategic territories.
    • The Pacific islands also acted as one of the major theatres of conflict during the Second World War — between imperial Japan and the US.
    • Due to the remoteness of these islands from major population centres of the world, some of the major nuclear weapon test sites of the US, UK and France were located here.
    • In addition, the 14 PICs account for as many number of votes in the United Nations, and act as a potential vote bank for major powers to mobilise international opinion.

    China’s vested interests in PIC

    • China does not have any particular historical linkages to the PICs unlike the Western powers.
    • Therefore, its interest in the PICs is of relatively recent origin, and is linked to China’s rise in the past few decades.
    • The PICs lie in the natural line of expansion of China’s maritime interest and naval power.
    • They are located beyond China’s ‘First Island Chain’, which represents the country’s first threshold of maritime expansion.
    • The PICs are located geostrategically in what is referred to by China as its ‘Far Seas’.
    • Their control will make Chinese Blue Water Navy capable, an essential prerequisite, for becoming a superpower in maritime domain.

    For the Taiwan narrative

    • China is preparing for what seems like an inevitable military invasion of Taiwan, sooner or later.
    • In this context, it becomes important to break Western domination of island chains of the Pacific.
    • This could otherwise impede reunification.
    • Wooing the PICs away from the West and Taiwan will therefore make the goal of Taiwan’s reunification easier for China.
    • Currently, only four PICs have recognised Taiwan. They are Tuvalu, Palau, Marshall Islands and Nauru.

    What are the implications of China’s latest move?

    • China has increasingly started talking about security cooperation in addition to its economic diplomacy towards the PICs.
    • In April 2022, China signed a controversial security deal with the Solomon Islands, which raised regional concerns.
    • The PICs as a collective did not agree to China’s extensive and ambitious proposals, and therefore China failed to get a consensus on the deal.

    Why did the PICs refuted China?

    • PICs perceived that they could have negative implications for the sovereignty and unity of PICs and may drag them into major power conflicts in the future.
    • Some have argued that China has acted too boldly and has therefore met with such a debacle.
    • China might have also miscalculated the regional reaction, perhaps led by a monolithic understanding of the PICs after seeing Solomon Islands’ positive response earlier this year.

    A caution for the world

    • China can always come back with improvised plan (rather bigger lollipop) which is more acceptable and use it to further pursue its final objectives incrementally.
    • Moreover, this debacle does not stop China from pursuing bilateral deals of similar nature.

    Conclusion

    • The intensification of China’s diplomacy in PICs have made the powers who have traditionally controlled the regional dynamics like the US and Australia more cautious.
    • The US has started revisiting its diplomatic priority for the region ever since the China-Solomon Islands deal.
    • The role played by the US in mobilising opposition against China’s proposed deal could not be ruled out.

     

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