In a pushback against the Centre’s plan to mandatorily fortify rice and edible oils with vitamins and minerals, a group of scientists and activists have warned of the adverse impacts on health and livelihoods.
Food Fortification
Food fortification is defined as the practice of adding vitamins and minerals to commonly consumed foods during processing to increase their nutritional value.
It is a proven, safe and cost-effective strategy for improving diets and for the prevention and control of micronutrient deficiencies.
Types of food fortification
Food fortification can also be categorized according to the stage of addition:
Commercial and industrial fortification (wheat flour, cornmeal, cooking oils)
Biofortification (breeding crops to increase their nutritional value, which can include both conventional selective breeding, and genetic engineering)
Home fortification (example: vitamin D drops)
Advantages offered
Health: Fortified staple foods will contain natural or near-natural levels of micro-nutrients, which may not necessarily be the case with supplements.
Taste: It provides nutrition without any change in the characteristics of food or the course of our meals.
Nutrition: If consumed on a regular and frequent basis, fortified foods will maintain body stores of nutrients more efficiently and more effectively than will intermittently supplement.
Economy: The overall costs of fortification are extremely low; the price increase is approximately 1 to 2 percent of the total food value.
Society: It upholds everyone’s right to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger
Issues with fortified food
Against nature: Fortification and enrichment upset nature’s packaging. Our body does not absorb individual nutrients added to processed foods as efficiently compared to nutrients naturally occurring.
Bioavailability: Supplements added to foods are less bioavailable. Bioavailability refers to the proportion of a nutrient your body is able to absorb and use.
Immunity issues: They lack immune-boosting substances.
Over-nutrition: Fortified foods and supplements can pose specific risks for people who are taking prescription medications, including decreased absorption of other micro-nutrients, treatment failure, and increased mortality risk.
The freight trains have started commuting via the restored Haldibari (India) – Chilahati (Bangladesh) rail link.
Haldibari- Chilahati Rail Link
The Haldibari – Chilahati rail link between India and then East Pakistan was operational till 1965.
The distance between Haldibari Railway Station till the international border is 4.5 km, while that of Chilahati is around 7.5 km till the ‘zero points’.
This was part of the Broad-Gauge main route from Kolkata to Siliguri during the partition.
Trains traveling to Assam and North Bengal continued to travel through the then East Pakistan territory even after partition.
However, the war of 1965 effectively cut off all the railway links between India and then East Pakistan.
The link was reopened in 2020 for the movement of passenger and goods traffic.
Other railway links between India and Bangladesh
As of now, five links connecting India with Bangladesh have been made operational which include:
The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has inaugurated the Kuthiran Tunnel in Kerala
Kuthiran Tunnel
Kuthiran Tunnel is a Twin-tube tunnel at Kuthiran in Thrissur District of Kerala.
It is located on National Highway 544, owned and operated by the National Highways Authority of India.
It is Kerala’s first-ever tunnel for road transport and South India’s Longest 6-lane road tunnel.
Kuthiran gradient is situated in the Kuthiran Hills, situated in the western part of Anaimalai Hills. The hills are a notified Peechi- Vazahani wildlife sanctuary.
It will drastically improve connectivity to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The road will improve connectivity to important ports and towns in North-South Corridor without endangering wildlife.
We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.
Barack Obama
The Himalayan ecosystem is vulnerable and susceptible to the impacts and consequences of changes on account of natural causes, climate change resulting from anthropogenic emissions, and developmental paradigms of modern society.
The tragic death of nine tourists in a landslip in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh is an alarming pointer to the fragility of the ecology of the Himalayan States. This article focuses on the impacts of climate change on the Himalayan ecosystem and causes of climate change and other related issues.
What is climate change?
Climate Change is a periodic modification of Earth’s climate brought about due to the changes in the atmosphere as well as the interactions between the atmosphere and various other geological, chemical, biological and geographical factors within the Earth’s system.
Climate change can make weather patterns less predictable. These unforeseen weather patterns can make it difficult to maintain and grow crops, making agriculture-dependent countries like India vulnerable.
It is also causing damaging weather events like more frequent and intense hurricanes, floods, cyclones, flooding etc.
Due to the rising temperature caused by climate change, the ice in the Polar Regions is melting at an accelerated rate, causing sea levels to rise. This is damaging the coastlines due to the increased flooding and erosion.
The cause of the current rapid climate change is due to human activities and threatening the very survival of humankind.
What are the factors that cause climate change?
Earth’s temperature is influenced by the energy entering and leaving the planet’s system. Both natural and anthropogenic factors can cause changes in Earth’s energy balance.
Natural Factors
(1) Continental drift
The continents are formed when the landmass began gradually drifting apart millions of years back, due to Plate displacement.
This drift also had an impact on the climate because it changed the physical features of the landmass, their position and the position of water bodies like changed the flow of ocean currents and winds, which affected the climate.
(2) Variation in the earth’s orbit
The seasonal distribution of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface is directly related to Earth’s Orbit and a slight variation in Earth’s orbit leads to variation in distribution across the globe.
This leads to the strong changes in the geographical and seasonal distribution.
(3) Plate tectonics
Due to temperature variation in the core of the Earth, the mantle plumes and convection currents force the Plates of the Earth to adjust which causes the reconfiguration of the earth Plate. This can affect both global and local patterns of climate and atmosphere.
(4) Volcanic activity
When the Volcano erupts, the outburst of gases and dust particles partially block the incoming rays of the Sun which lead to the cooling of the weather.
(5) Ocean currents
Ocean currents are the major component of the climatic system which is driven by the horizontal wind forces causing the displacement of the water against the sea surface. Due to temperature variation of the water, the climate of the region is largely influenced.
Anthropogenic (Human Caused) Factors
(1) Greenhouse Gases
Increased emission of huge amount of Green House Gases led to more absorption of heat being retained in the atmosphere thus an increase in global Temperature.
Green house gases while largely transparent to incoming solar radiation, absorbs most of the infrared emitted by the earth’s surface.
(2) Atmospheric Aerosols
Atmospheric aerosols affect climate in two important ways:
They cause scattering and absorbing the solar and infrared radiation.
They change the microphysical and chemical properties of clouds and possibly their lifetime and extent.
Aerosols have the ability to influence climate directly by absorbing or reflecting incoming solar radiation, but they can also produce indirect effects on climate by modifying cloud formation or cloud properties.
(3) Land-use change
Cutting down forests to create farmland led to changes in the amount of sunlight reflected from the ground back into space which greatly affected the climate.
What are the effects of climate change?
Global warming has caused a change in the climatic and weather conditions like change in the rainfall pattern, increased flooding, drought, heatwaves, etc. Some of the current impacts of rapid climate change are as follows:
How climate change is impacting the Mountain ecosystem and how it is impacting human livelihood?
Source: WWF
Climate change has a strong influence on the precipitation over the Himalayas as well as melting response of glaciers or snow cover in Himalayas.
This, in turn, affects the runoff pattern of rivers draining from the glaciated catchments of Himalayas.
These rivers support the life and livelihood of more than 500 million people living downstream in Indo-Gangetic plains, but also support several industries located in these plains.
The melting of glaciers threatens water sustainability for hundreds of millions of people in counties, including India.
These impacts become severe due to the increase in pressure on water resources for irrigation and food production, industrialization, and urbanization.
Glacier melting, resulting in an abrupt rise in water causes floods and impacts the local society. Increased incidences of forest fire are also linked with warming of Himalayan region.
Almost 33% of the country’s thermal electricity and 52% of hydropower in the country is dependent on the water from rivers originating in Himalaya.
Building dams: Choking up the Himalayas
By planning hydropower projects, India and China are placing the region at great risk. Recently China announced that it is planning to build a major hydropower project on the Yarlung Zanbo River, in Tibet.
On Indian side, there are two hydropower projects being built in Arunachal Pradesh on the tributaries of the Brahmaputra: the 600 MW Kameng project on the Bichom and Tenga Rivers and the 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectricity Project.
High seismic zones coincide with areas of high population concentration in the Himalayan region where landslides and glacial lake outburst floods are common.
Havocs created due to these earthquakes
About 15% of the great earthquakes of the 20th century occurred in the Himalayan region.
The northeast Himalayan band has experienced several large earthquakes of magnitude 7 and above in the last 100 years, more than the share from other parts of the Himalayas.
The 2015 Gorkha earthquake of magnitude 7.8 in central Nepal resulted in huge losses in the hydropower sector. Nepal lost about 20% of its hydropower capacity consequent to the earthquake.
About 30 projects with a capacity of 270 MW, mostly located along the steep river valleys, were damaged.
What are the issues of high concern?
Seismic sensitivity: The main mechanisms that contributed to the vulnerability of hydropower projects were found to be landslides, which depend on the intensity of seismic ground shaking and slope gradients.
Siltation: Heavy siltation from giant landslides expected in the project sites and headwater region from future earthquakes will severely reduce the water-holding capacity and life expectancy of such dams.
Land degradation: Even without earthquakes, the steep slopes made of soft rocks are bound to slide due to deforestation and road-building. These activities will get intensified as part of the dam-building initiatives.
Melting of Himalayan glaciers
The number of glaciers in the Himalayan area has increased in the last five decades and this is an indicator of how severe glacier melting has been due to global warming.
The increase in the number of glaciers is primarily due to glacier fragmentation. This is happening due to consistent loss in areas the glaciers occupy. It has ramifications for the global climate.
Along with the Tibetan Plateau, this influences the Indian summer monsoon. So, any changes in this region would have a bearing on the monsoon itself that already shows signs of changes in spread and distribution.
It could trigger a multitude of biophysical and socio-economic impacts, such as biodiversity loss, increased glacial melting, and less predictable water availability—all of which will impact livelihoods and well-being in the region.
Faster snow and glacier melting due to warming is already manifesting in formation of glacial lakes. Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) are becoming frequent and causing huge casualties and loss to local infrastructures.
Most of the lakes in high altitudes have also reported water level rise by 0.2 m/year besides their surface areas expanding.
Threat to the Himalayan Ecology
(1) Increased intensity and frequency of natural disaster
The Himalayan landscape is susceptible to landslides and earthquakes.
Formed due to the collision of Indian and Eurasian plates, the northward movement of the former puts continuous stress on the rocks, rendering them weak and prone to landslides and earthquakes.
This, combined with steep slopes, rugged topography, high seismic vulnerability, and rainfall, makes the region one of the most disaster prone areas in the world.
(2) Unsustainable Exploitation
From the mega road expansion project in the name of national security (Char Dham Highway) to building cascading hydroelectric power projects, from unplanned expansion of towns to unsustainable tourism, the Indian States have ignored warnings about the fragile ecology.
Such an approach has also led to pollution, deforestation, and water and waste management crises.
(3) The threat of Development Activity
Mega hydropower could alter several aspects of ecology, rendering it vulnerable to the effects of extreme events such as cloudbursts, flash floods, landslides and earthquakes.
Natural disasters in States of the Himalayan region
The tragic death of nine tourists in a landslip in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh is an alarming pointer to the fragility of the ecology of the Himalayan States. Extraordinarily heavy rain hit the State recently, leaving the hill slopes unstable and causing floods in built-up areas including Dharamshala. The descending boulders from destabilized terrain, which crushed a bridge like a matchstick, are a source of worry even for cautious local residents, and for unwary visitors. Earlier, heavy rain-triggered flash floods in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh swept away three people, buildings, and vehicles. Uttarakhand too has been affected by natural disasters with the massive flash flood in Chamoli in February 2021 that killed more than 80 people.
What is stopping us from mitigating climate change?
The 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC has comprehensively identified the economic barriers that are preventing government decisions on adaption to climate change. These are as follows:
Transitional costs – These are broadly divided into information and adjustment costs. The former refers to the costs that occur while acquiring information and the latter are the costs for replacing the long-lived capital.
Market failures and missing markets – These include externalities, information asymmetries, and moral hazards. These cases are especially seen when one economic unit harms another unit. It also occurs when there aren’t sufficient incentives for the change.
Behavior obstacles to adaption – Irrational decisions, social norms, and cultural factors also pose as obstacles to adaption decision making.
Ethical and distributional issues – These issues connect to the differences in vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Though sometimes a decision could ensure cost-effective and sustainable solutions, ethical constraints hinder these decisions.
Coordination, government failures and politics – Though the governments must ensure the removal of the aforementioned barriers, they themselves face similar barriers like limited knowledge or resources. Also, coordination among various departments, though important, is highly difficult to obtain.
Uncertainty is the largest barrier to adaptation as it expands to different dimensions like future developments of demographics, technologies and economics and the future of climate change.
Way forward
Early Warning System – It is important to have early warning and better weather forecast systems in order to forecast the disaster and alert the local population and tourists.
Regional Cooperation – There is a need for a trans-boundary coalition of Himalayan countries to share and disseminate knowledge about the mountains and preservation of the ecology there.
Area Specific Sustainable Plan – Projects that are incompatible with the local environment and ecology should not be promoted just by giving due consideration to development or economic growth.
Hydro projects should be confined to the areas with the least impact in the Himalayas. Also, the government needs to build more low-impact run-of-the-river power projects rather than building destructive large dams and reservoirs.
Promote Ecotourism – Initiating a dialogue on adverse impacts of commercial tourism and promoting ecotourism.
Sustainable Development – Government must strive for achieving sustainable development not only development that is against the ecology.
Detailed Project Reports (DPR), Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) are needed before implementing any project.
Conclusion
The upper Himalayas should be converted into a nature reserve by an international agreement.
There is a need to understand that – ‘’Carbon neutrality should not be at the expense of the environment’’.
It is impossible to assign a real value to the costs to people and communities, together with the loss of pristine forests that weak forestation programmes cannot replace.
From the mega road expansion project in the name of national security to building cascading hydroelectric power projects, from unplanned expansion of towns to unsustainable tourism, the Indian State has ignored warnings about the fragile Himalayan ecology.
The need of the hour is that governments have a changing course to help preserve natural riches including human lives.
Bill Gates recently announced the decision to launch his own nuclear reactor with an eye on the possibility of exporting fast breeder reactors to power-hungry nations.
About the Gates plan
TerraPower, the nuclear company founded by Mr. Gates, has just announced an agreement with private funders, including Warren Buffett, and the State of Wyoming, U.S. to site its Natrium fast reactor demonstration project there.
Moreover, since it falls within the “advanced” small modular reactor project of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Department will subsidise the project to the extent of $80 million this year.
Mr. Gates believes that the fast breeder reactors will replace the current reactors.
The DOE and other nuclear enthusiasts also believe that small, factory-built, modular reactors will be cheaper and safer, and will be so attractive to foreign buyers.
The impact of Fukushima Daiichi accident on nuclear power situation
The Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan on March 11, 2011 completely transformed the nuclear power situation.
Countries phased out nuclear power: As the global community turned its attention to strengthening nuclear safety, several countries opted to phase out nuclear power.
The nuclear industry was at a standstill except in Russia, China and India.
Liability clause in India: Even in India, the expected installation of imported reactors did not materialise because of our liability law and the anti-nuclear protests in proposed locations.
India had to go in for more indigenous reactors to increase the nuclear component of its energy mix.
Regaining place as a climate-friendly energy option
Two factors have contributed to the emergence of nuclear power as a climate-friendly energy option once again after the Fukushima Daiichi accident:-
1) Intensive efforts to strengthen nuclear safety, and
2) Threat of global warming is becoming ever more apparent.
Countries such as Japan and Germany reopened their reactors to produce energy.
Organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) recognise the ability of nuclear power to address major global challenges.
Challenges ahead
Delay in adoption: Even as IPCC and IEA recognise the importance of nuclear power, it remains uncertain whether the value of this clean, reliable and sustainable source of energy will achieve its full potential any time soon.
Policy and financing framework issue: In some major markets, nuclear power lacks a favourable policy and financing framework that recognise its contributions to climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
Without such a framework, nuclear power will struggle to deliver on its full potential, even as the world remains as dependent on fossil fuels.
Concerns with Gates plan
Proliferation risk: TerraPower announced in March that Natrium would be fuelled with uranium enriched to 20% U-235 rather than explosive plutonium.
The critics believe that there will be a rush to make 20% enriched uranium world wide.
The main objection to nuclear enrichment beyond a point in Iran arises from the fact that it would lead to weapon-grade uranium being available for them.
Facilitates the production of material used as nuclear explosives: The other objection being raised against is that the principal reason for preferring fast reactors is to gain the ability to breed plutonium.
That is surely what foreign customers will want.
The way it is configured, the reactor would make and reuse massive quantities of material that could also be used as nuclear explosives in warheads.
Focus on India and China: The opponents of TerraPower believe that India and China will be encouraged in their efforts to develop fast breeder reactors and may even want to buy them from Mr. Gates.
India’s fast breeder reactor, which is not subject to international inspections, is seen as capable of feeding the nuclear weapons capability of India.
Conclusion
With the threat of global warming due to climate change amplifying with each coming day, the world needs to take a serious relook at the adoption of nuclear technology.
Back2Basics: What is a fast breeder reactor?
This special type of reactor is designed to extend the nuclear fuel supply for electric power generation.
Whereas a conventional nuclear reactor can use only the readily fissionable but more scarce isotope uranium-235 for fuel, a breeder reactor employs either uranium-238 or thorium, of which sizable quantities are available.
Uranium-238, for example, accounts for more than 99 percent of all naturally occurring uranium.
In breeders, approximately 70 percent of this isotope can be utilized for power production.
Conventional reactors, in contrast, can extract less than one percent of its energy.
Natrium fast reactor demonstration project
Natrium nuclear power plants represent a significant advance over the light water reactor plants in use today.
The Natrium plant uses a sodium-cooled fast reactor as a heat source.
This heat from the reactor is carried by molten salt from inside the nuclear island to heat storage tanks outside the reactor building, where it is utilized as needed for generating electricity or industrial processes.
The net effect is that the overall plant can load follow, thus increasing the revenue and value of the plant while maintaining the optimum constant reactor power.
At the same time the cost of the overall plant is reduced since many of the systems outside of the nuclear island need not be nuclear safety grade.
The Natrium reactor enables these abilities because it operates in much higher temperature regimes than the light water reactor, thus pairing well to the temperature requirements of the molten salt heat transfer medium.
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In recent times, several economists have been arguing that the Government does not need to do anything with the economy. They argue that like after the Great Depression, the economy rebounded worldwide, and so will it with us. The argument is fallacious on four accounts:
Four factors that make recovery different from the recovery after the Great Depression
1) Demand destruction
In the case of the Great Depression, demand was created by the Second World War effort, especially in the United States.
Demand destruction: In the current scenario, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in demand destruction.
This is because many jobs have been lost, and even where jobs were retained, there have been pay cuts.
Both of these trends were confirmed in the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy and other surveys.
Bright spot on export front
The only bright spot in this dismal scenario is that the western world has spent a lot of money stimulating the economy.
However, the Indian exporter face the challenge of rising freight costs and structural issues such as a strong rupee relative to major competitors.
Only the Indian IT sector is placed well to capitalise on rising demand in the world markets.
2) Inflation and factors driving it
India is suffering from stagnant growth to low growth in the last two quarters.
As in the low initial base set by last year, almost any growth this year is seen as a significant growth percentage.
Commodity prices and monetary policy: Inflation in India is being imported through a combination of high commodity prices and high asset price inflation caused by ultra-loose monetary policy followed across the globe.
Liquidity infusion: RBI is infusing massive liquidity into the system by following an expansionary monetary policy through the G-SAP, or Government Securities Acquisition Programme.
Foreign portfolio investors have directed a portion of the liquidity towards our markets.
India has a relatively low market capitalisation, therefore, India cannot absorb the enormous capital inflow without asset prices inflating.
Supply chain issues: Additionally, supply chain bottlenecks have contributed to the inflation we see in India today.
Rising fuel prices: India’s usurious taxation policy on fuel has made things worse.
Rising fuel prices percolate into the economy by increasing costs for transport.
Impact of inflation
The middle and lower-middle-class get destitute due to regressive indirect taxes and high inflation, with their wealth eroding due to said inflation.
Especially in the case of the lower middle class, inflation is lethal as they do not have access to any hard assets, including the most fundamental hard asset, gold.
The increase in fuel prices will also lead to a rise in wages demanded as the monthly expense of the general public increases.
This leads to the dangerous cycle of inflation and depleting growth.
3) Interest Rate
The only solution for any central banker once he realises that inflation is entrenched is tightening liquidity and further pushing the cost of money.
If this does not dampen inflation, repo rates will need to go up later this year or early next year.
Tightening the money supply is a painful act that will threaten to decimate what is left of our economy.
Rising interest rates lead to a decrease in aggregate demand in a country, which affects the GDP.
There is less spending by consumers and investments by corporates.
4) Rising NPA and its impact on credit growth
Rising interest rates, lack of liquidity, and offering credit to leveraged companies instead of direct subsidies to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to counter the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects will result in NPAs of public sector banks climbing faster.
Our small and medium scale sector is facing a Minsky moment.
The Minsky moment marks the decline of asset prices, causing mass panic and the inability of debtors to pay their interest and principal.
India has reached its Minsky moment.
This means that the public sector unit and several other banks will need capital in copious amounts to make up for bad debt.
The Union government’s Budget is in no position to infuse large amounts of capital.
As a result of the above causes, credit growth is at a multi-year low of 5.6%.
Way forward
Indian economy is in a vicious cycle of low growth and higher inflation unless policy action ensures higher demand and growth.
Conclusion
In the absence of policy interventions, India will continue on the path of a K-shaped recovery where large corporates with low debt will prosper at the cost of small and medium sectors. This means lower employment as most of the jobs are created by the latter.
GS-1 Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of art forms, literature and architecture from ancient to modern times
GS-2 Important Aspects of Governance, Transparency and Accountability
GS-3 Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment
GS-4 Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators; role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values
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