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11th August 2022 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions
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Development vs sustainability
Context - According to NITI Aayog, “600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress with nearly 70% of water being contaminated; India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index”.
- The latest global environmental ranking by Yale and Columbia Universities puts India at the bottom among 180 countries.
What is development?
- Economic development means different things to different people. On a broad scale, anything a community does to foster and create a healthy economy can fall under the auspice of economic development.
What is sustainability?
- The integration of environmental health, social equity and economic vitality in order to create thriving, healthy, diverse and resilient communities for this generation and generations to come. The practice of sustainability recognizes how these issues are interconnected and requires a systems approach and an acknowledgement of complexity.
- Sustainability is the balance between the environment, equity, and economy.
What sustainability do for us?
- Sustainable practices support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality.
- Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are used.
- In simplest terms, sustainability is about our children and our grandchildren, and the world we will leave them.
Definition of carrying capacity of earth
- Carrying capacity: Carrying capacity is the maximum number of a species an environment can support indefinitely. Every species has a carrying capacity, even humans. The species population size is limited by environmental factors like adequate food, shelter, water, and mates. If these needs are not met, the population will decrease until the resource rebounds.
Mother earth has reached its carrying capacity now
- No species has altered the Earth’s natural landscape the way humans have.
- Global climate change, mass extinction, and overexploitation of our global commons are all examples of the ways in which humans have altered the natural landscape.
- Our growing population, coupled with rising affluence and per capita impact, is driving our planet closer to its tipping point.
- With population expected to reach 5 billion by 2050, many wonder if our natural resources can keep up with our growing demands.
Enrich your mains answer with this
8 Billion dreams, ambitions, aspirations and only one earth to support them all . Human population, now nearing 8 billion, cannot continue to grow indefinitely. There are limits to the life-sustaining resources earth can provide us. In other words, there is a carrying capacity for human life on our planet.
Development vs environment issues
- Unemployment: For India, the national context is shaped by high youth unemployment, millions more entering the workforce each year, and a country hungry for substantial investments in hard infrastructure to industrialise and urbanise.
- Growth with low emission footprint: India’s economic growth in the last three decades, led by growth in the services sector, has come at a significantly lower emissions footprint.
- Infrastructure: But in the coming decades, India will have to move to an investment-led and manufacturing-intensive growth model to create job opportunities and create entirely new cities and infrastructure to accommodate and connect an increasingly urban population.
Why a Carbon Fee and Dividend is Imperative
It is clear that we will soon pass the limit on carbon emissions, because it requires decades to replace fossil fuel energy infrastructure with carbon-neutral and carbon negative energies.
What could India do to pursue an industrialization pathway that is climate-compatible?
- A coherent national transition strategy is important in a global context where industrialised countries are discussing the imposition of carbon border taxes while failing to provide developing countries the necessary carbon space to grow or the finance and technological assistance necessary to decarbonise.
- What India needs is an overarching green industrialisation strategy that combines laws, policy instruments, and new or reformed implementing institutions to steer its decentralised economic activities to become climate-friendly and resilient.
Case study for value addition - Bhutan: Bhutan remains, for example, the first and only carbon-negative country in the world, and they have also recently prevented the COVID-19 pandemic from overwhelming its population, with only one Bhutanese citizen passing away from the virus to date.
Way forward
- India should set its pace based on its ability to capitalise on the opportunities to create wealth through green industrialisation.
Mains question
Do you think mother earth has reached its carrying capacity? Discuss this in context of development vs environment debate.
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The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 is a colonial burden on Goa
Context
The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867, the so-called “common civil code” of Goa, is in the news again. A 28-member parliamentary standing committee recently visited the state to study it in the context of the demand for a uniform civil code.
Background
- Long before the arrival of the British imperialists in India, the Portuguese had occupied certain territories in the coastal regions with its capital in Cochin, later shifted to Goa.
- They did not interfere with the local customs relating to family relations and framed, in the mid-19th century, three separate codes of religion-based customary laws of Goa, Daman and Diu.
- The three codes were formally enforced as the law by royal decrees issued by the King of Portugal.
- The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 was extended to Goa, Daman and Diu by a royal decree of November 18, 1869, declaring that the code would apply to the natives subject to the local usages and customs “so far as they are not inconsistent with morality or public order”.
- In 1910, the Portuguese parliament enacted two civil marriage and divorce decrees and, in 1946, a canonical marriage decree for Catholics.
- All of these too were extended to Goa, Daman and Diu.
- The family law applied by the Portuguese, both at home and in the occupied Indian territories, was thus not a uniform code but a loose conglomeration of civil and religious laws.
After Indian independence
- Fourteen years after the advent of Independence, Goa and its affiliated territories were liberated and turned into a Union Territory (UT) under central rule.
- The Goa, Daman and Diu Administration Act of 1962 declared that all laws in force in these territories before their liberation would continue to be in force “until amended or repealed by a competent legislature or other competent authority” (Section 5).
- None of the pre-liberation family laws was, however, amended or repealed.
- Nor was any central law on family rights, including the four Hindu law Acts of 1955-56, extended to any of the three territories.
- In 1987, the Goa, Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act made Goa a full-fledged state with its own legislative assembly and left Daman and Diu as a UT.
- Twenty-five years later, the Goa state legislature enacted the Succession, Special Notaries and Inventory Proceedings Act, amending certain provisions, mainly procedural, of the 155-year old civil code.
- In 2019, the UT of Daman and Diu was merged with another such territory – Dadra and Nagar Haveli (also ruled in the past by Portugal) — to form a single UT under central rule.
- As laid down in Section 17 of the unifying Act, this development did not in any way change the family law system prevailing in either of these places since their liberation from foreign rule.
Need for uniform civil code
- The law ministry has told the concerned standing committee of Parliament that the Portuguese civil code and its later amendments as in force in Goa may — if required — be duly reviewed.
- Uniform civil code: What has been said now by the law ministry about Goa is in the context of implementing the constitutional directive of Article 44 for a uniform civil code for the citizens throughout the territory of India.
- However, while the 21st Law Commission had already given its opinion against the feasibility and need of such a code at this juncture
- In recent months, the ministry has told Parliament about its reference on this issue to the Law Commission.
- There is no justification for retaining over a century-old archaic law, 75 years after the independence of India.
- Hindu law Acts of 1955-56 governing four religious communities in the rest of the country needs to be extended to the same communities in Goa, Daman and Diu.
Conclusion
The ministry has now reportedly told the parliamentary committee that enacting a uniform civil code would be possible only when a “sizeable majority” of the people seeks such a change.
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Journey towards innovation
Context - Senior scientist Nallathamby Kalaiselvi was appointed the director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), on Saturday, August 6, 2022. This makes her the first woman to head the largest research and development organisation in India, which runs 38 laboratories and institutes, 39 outreach centres, and three innovation centres.
What is CSIR?
- The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the largest research and development organisation in India.
- CSIR covers a wide spectrum of science and technology – from oceanography, geophysics, chemicals, drugs, genomics, biotechnology and nanotechnology to mining, aeronautics, instrumentation, environmental engineering and information technology.
Who established it?
- Dr Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
- He was the Founder Director (and later first Director-General) of CSIR who is credited with establishing twelve national laboratories. He played a significant role in the building of post-independent Science and Technology infrastructure and in the formulation of India’s S & T policies
CSIR’s Vision
- “Pursue science which strives for global impact, technology that enables innovation – driven industry and nurture trans-disciplinary leadership thereby catalyzing inclusive economic development for the people of India”
Why CSIR is important?
- Innovation: Regarding intellectual property, the CSIR has over 2971 patents filed internationally with 1592 patents filed in India. Since its inception in 1942 over 14000 patents have been granted worldwide. It was awarded the National Intellectual Property Award in 2018 by the India Patent Office.
- Pandemic handling: CSIR identified the unmet needs, assessed its strengths and capabilities for addressing the pandemic and adopted a multi-pronged strategy of working on diagnostics, surveillance, drugs, hospital assistive devices, personal protective equipment and supply chain and logistics. This strategy is now beginning to yield exciting solutions.
Contribution of CSIR
Strategic Sector
- Head-Up-Display (HUD) In high-tech areas, CSIR-NAL made significant contribution by developing indigenous Head-Up- display(HUD) for Indian Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. HUD aids the pilot in flying the aircraft and in critical flight maneuvers including weapon aiming.
- Design and Development of Indigenous Gyrotron: Addressing the challenges of technology denial:Design and development of indigenous gyrotron for nuclear fusion reactor has been accomplished.
Energy & Environment
- Solar Tree: On July 22nda solar tree designed by CSIR- CMERI lab in Durgapur was launched which occupies minimum space to produce clean power.
- Wax Deoiling Technology:Technology developed for recovery of wax developed in collaboration with Engineers India Limited (EIL) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd., (NRL). Country’s largest wax producing (50,000 metric ton) plant has been commissioned at NRL with investment of over Rs 600 crore.
Value added Agriculture
- Medicinal and Aromatic Plants:Enhanced cultivation of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the country brought about through development of new varieties and agro-technologies.
- Samba Mahsuri Rice Variety – Bacterial Blight Resistant:CSIR has in collaboration with DRR (ICAR) and DBT part funding developed an improved bacterial blight resistant Samba Mahsuri variety.
- Rice Cultivar (Muktashree) for Arsenic Contaminated Areas:A rice variety has been developed which restricts assimilation of Arsenic within permissible limit. The variety has been released to farmers of West Bengal.
- White-fly resistant Cotton variety:Developed a transgenic cotton line which is resistant to whiteflies. It is expected to render it commercially cultivable in 10 years, after due regulatory clearances.
Healthcare
- JD Vaccine for Farm Animals:Vaccine developed and commercialized for Johne’s disease affecting Sheep, Goat, Cow and Buffalo so as to immunize them and increase milk and meat production.
- Plasma Gelsolin Diagnostic Kit for Premature Births, and Sepsis related Deaths:A new kit is being developed to diagnose pre-mature birth and sepsis.
- Genomics and other omics technologies for Enabling Medical Decision – GOMED: Genetic diseases, though are individually rare, cumulatively affect a large number of individuals. A programme called GOMED (Genomics and other omics technologies for Enabling Medical Decision) has been developed by the CSIR which provides a platform of disease genomics to solve clinical problems.
Food & Nutrition
- Ksheer-scanner: The Ksheer Scanner, a new technological invention by CSIR-CEERI detects the level of milk adulteration and adulterants in 45 seconds at the cost of 10 paise,
- Double-Fortified Salt:Salt fortified with iodine and iron having improved properties developed and tested for addressing anaemia in people. To be launched in the market soon.
- Anti-obesity DAG Oil:Oil enriched with Diacylglycerol (DAG) instead of conventional triacylglycerol (TAG) developed. To be launched in the market soon.
Water
- Aquifer Mapping of Water Scarce Areas: Heliborne transient electromagnetic and surface magnetic technique based aquifer mapping carried out in six different geological locations in Rajasthan (2), Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
- Understanding the Special Properties of the Ganga Water:Assessment of Water Quality & Sediment Analysis of Ganga from different parts being done.
Some of the challenges faced for sustainable growth of R&D in India are
- Low research professionals: India has an estimated full-time equivalent R&D professional strength of only 150 professionals per million, compared to that of other countries.
- Low investment: Indian research is mostly skewed towards basic research and lacks in application oriented R&D. The vast majority of organizations would rather go for quick acquisition of technology rather than invest in internal R&D.
- IPR enforcement: Inadequate enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR). While India has improved its IPR regime, the protection of intellectual property remains weak in some areas owing to inadequate laws and ineffective enforcement.
Some positive suggestions to improve innovation
- Embrace technology: Technologies, such as machine learning, can be used to improve R&D decision-making. Documents need to be filed throughout the R&D process, for example, and the process could be automated to free up employees to do more complex tasks.
- Invest in innovation hubs: Companies that invest in innovation hubs expand talent and relationships with local universities and startups can support a two-way learning process and faster innovation cycles.
- Promoting startups: Most radical innovations are coming from startups and more of them are needed. Tilting higher education towards science and encouraging more students to take degrees in science-based subjects can provide the people needed for R&D.
Conclusion
India is a strong contender in the field of Global R&D. For India to derive maximum growth and sustainability of R&D, its R&D fundamentals have to be strong and excellent.
Mains question
Q.Culture of innovation is needed in national growth in this context discuss what is IPR regime? How CSIR has helped to consolidate it?
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Assessment of discoms
Context - The Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) power distribution companies (DISCOMs) subscribed to the Late Payment Surcharge (LPS) scheme introduced by the Central government to reduce their liability to generators in a phased manner over the next 12 months.
What are discoms?
- Power distribution companies collect payments from consumers against their energy supplies (purchased from generators) to provide necessary cash flows to the generation and transmission sectors to operate.
What is UDAY scheme?
- Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana is the financial turnaround and revival package for electricity distribution companies of India initiated by the Government of India with the intent to find a permanent solution to the financial mess that the power distribution is in.
What is The Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS)?
- The revamped power distribution sector scheme aims to: Improve operational efficiencies, financial sustainability of discoms and power departments. Provide financial assistance to discoms. Modernise and strengthen distribution infrastructure. Improve reliability and quality of supply to the end consumers.
Low performance of Discoms
1) On the basis of AT&C losses
- A key metric to measure the performance of discoms is AT&C losses.
- The UDAY scheme had envisaged bringing down these losses to 15 per cent by 2019.
- However, as per data on the UDAY dashboard, the AT&C losses currently stand at 21.7 per cent at the all-India level.
- In the case of the low-income north and central-eastern states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — the losses are considerably higher.
2) On the basis of cost and revenue per unit
- On another metric — the gap between discoms costs and revenues — the difference, supposed to have been eliminated by now, stands at Rs 0.49 per unit in the absence of regular and commensurate tariff hikes.
- For the high-income southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, this gap between costs and revenues is significantly higher.
What are the factors responsible for inefficiencies?
1) Electrification push without cost restructuring
- The government’s push for ensuring electrification of all have contributed to greater inefficiency.
- To support higher levels of electrification, cost structures need to be reworked, and the distribution network would need to be augmented — in the absence of all this, losses are bound to rise.
2) Economic fallout of the pandemic
- With demand from industrial and commercial users falling, revenue from this stream, which is used to cross-subsidise other consumers, has declined, exacerbating the stress on discom finances.
- A turnaround in the economy will provide some relief, but will not form the basis of a sustained improvement in finances.
3) Lack of consumer data and metering
- Even six years after UDAY was launched, various levels in the distribution chain — the feeder, the distribution transformer (DT) and the consumer — have not been fully metered.
- As a result, it is difficult to ascertain the level in the chain where losses are occurring.
- Other than discoms in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, there is also limited data on which consumer is attached to which DT.
- This lack of data makes it difficult to isolate and identify loss-making areas and take corrective action.
4) No tariff hike
- The continuing absence of political consensus at the state level to raise tariffs or to bring down AT&C losses signal a lack of resolve to tackle the issues plaguing the sector.
Suggestions to improve the situation
- Single discom: One of the solution centres around a national power distribution company.
- Financial adjustment: Another option is to deduct discom dues, owed to both public and private power generating companies, from state balances with the RBI forcing states to take the necessary steps to fix discom finances.
- National Open Access Registry (NOAR): NOAR is a centralized online platform through which the short-term open access to the inter-state transmission system is being managed in India.
- Promote privatization: Since in an earlier policy statement the government had mentioned that privatization of discoms is to be promoted, it would make sense to consider this transitional support as a catalyst.
- Provide transitional financial support: An alternate approach that could be considered by the Centre (in lieu of such assistance schemes) is providing only transitional financial support to all discoms, which are privatized under the private-public partnership mode.
Conclusion
- Continuously subsidising discoms for their AT&C losses (operational inefficiencies), and for not supplying power at commensurate tariffs to low-income households and agricultural customers (for political considerations) will become fiscally untenable.
Mains question
Q.There is growing demand for one nation one grid in this context Discuss the problems faced by various discoms. Suggest some robust solutions to address these problems sustainably.
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Centre to file review petition on Eco-Sensitive Zones in SC
Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has said that the Ministry will file a review petition in the Supreme Court urging a relook into its judgment on eco-sensitive zones.
Why in news?
- The Supreme Court has earlier 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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[Sansad TV] Perspective: Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022
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Context
- Almost 39 years after India signed the Antarctic Treaty; the Parliament last week passed the Indian Antarctic Bill 2022.
- With a growing number of Indian scientists in Antarctica’s research stations and in accordance with India’s commitment to the Antarctic treaty, the center introduced this bill.
About Antarctica
- Antarctica is the southernmost continent and does NOT have any indigenous population.
- The entire region is demilitarized and is used for scientific and peaceful purposes as per the Antarctic Treaty that came into force on June 23, 1961.
What is the Antarctic Treaty?
- The Antarctic Treaty was signed on December 01, 1959, by 12 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the USSR, the UK, and the US.
- Their objective was to:
- Demilitarise Antarctica
- Promote international scientific cooperation, and
- To set aside territorial sovereignty disputes
- In the following years, more countries joined the Antarctic treaty.
- There are now 54 members, of which 29 countries have consultative (voting) status in the Antarctic Consultative Meetings held annually and 25 countries have non-consultative membership.
India and Antarctic Treaty
- India became a member of the Antarctic Treaty on August 19, 1983, and on September 12 of the same year, it received consultative status.
- Following the Antarctic treaty, member countries signed the ‘Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources at Canberra in 1980 which India ratified in 1985.
- The countries also signed the ‘Protocol on Environmental Protection” to the Antarctic Treaty (the Madrid Protocol) in 1991, which designates the continent as a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science.’
India in Antarctica
- Though there is no permanent human habitation in Antarctica, there are over 70 research stations scattered across the region from 29 countries that are signatories of the Antarctic treaty.
- These countries are obliged to protect and preserve the well-being of the environment and to cooperate with fellow researchers.
- India currently has two operational research stations in Antarctica:
- Maitri (Commissioned in 1989) and
- Bharati (Commissioned in 2012
- It has also successfully launched 40 annual scientific expeditions to date.
- With Himadri station in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, above the Arctic Circle, India is among the elite set of nations that have multiple research centers in the Polar Regions.
Indian Antarctic Expedition
- India’s Antarctic expeditions started in 1981 with a team of 21 scientists and support staff.
- Thereafter, India launched 40 annual expeditions to the continent and set up the Antarctic Scientific Division and the Antarctic Logistics Division.
- India has conducted a wide range of research on topics including the climate process and its connection with climate change, environmental processes and conservation, terrestrial ecosystem, observational research, and polar technology in the Antarctic.
- The entire Indian Antarctic program is managed by the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Goa.
- On November 15, 2021, India launched its latest exploration in the Antarctic with two major programs which aim to explore the link between India and Antarctica in the past and to understand the Antarctic climate.
Why need this bill?
- The bill provides a regulatory framework for India’s Antarctic activities through legal mechanisms which will help in the efficient operation of the Indian Antarctic Programme.
- It confers jurisdiction on Indian courts to deal with crimes and disputes committed by Indian citizens in parts of Antarctica.
- Legislation of such a kind will bind the citizens to the policies of the Antarctic treaty system.
- The bill plans to facilitate India’s involvement in the management of tourism in the Antarctic and the sustainable development of fisheries.
- It also aims to increase India’s international visibility and credibility in Polar governance for cooperation in scientific studies and logistics.
- The Bill prohibits activities that contaminant the Antarctic continent including, nuclear explosion and radioactive waste disposal, introduction of non-sterile soil, and discharge of plastic, garbage and other substance into the sea.
Key feature: Indian Antarctic Authority (IAA)
- The Bill plans to set up IAA as an apex decision-making authority under the Earth Sciences Ministry, to provide an accountable process for supervision of Antarctic research and expeditions.
- IAA will ensure the protection and preservation of the Antarctic environment and will ensure compliance by Indian citizens engaged in the Antarctic programs and activities with relevant rules and internationally agreed standards.
- It will be headed by the secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences and will have members from other relevant ministries.
Hurdles for India
- The issue of a polar research vessel, however, still needs to be addressed immediately.
- So far, India has been chartering such ships from countries like Russia and Norway while China has raced ahead and has two of its own.
- A decision was indeed taken by the Union Cabinet in October 2014 for India to have its own research ship with ice-breaking and other advanced technological capabilities but it remains unimplemented.
Way forward
- The acquisition of a vessel on a permanent basis is a logical next step to the passage of the Bill as also the revamp of the quite old Maitri research station.
- The polar research vessel will also be required as India expands its association with and involvement in the Arctic as well.
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Nehru’s luminous legacy
Context - Seventy-five years ago, India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru made these remarks in his stirring speech on India attaining freedom at midnight: “The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?”
Nehru’s vision for India
- Nehru’s vision of India was anchored in a set of ideas such as democracy, secularism, inclusive economic growth, free press and non-alignment in international affairs and also in institutions that would lay the foundation for India’s future growth.
Leadership of Nehru after independence
- In 1947, Nehru, as Prime Minister, inherited an India that was politically shattered, socially divided and emotionally devastated. Yet, with restraint and self-confidence, he steered the country through those turbulent times and laid out the vision of a modern, progressive nation that quietly earned the respect of the global community.
Temple of modern India
- The Bhakra-Nangal Dam: The Bhakra-Nangal Dam project is a series of multi-purpose dams that were among the earliest river valley developments schemes undertaken by the government of India after independence. The project, though, had been conceived long before independence.
- Bhilai Steel Plant: Bhilai, located in Chhattisgarh, was home to massive iron-ore deposits at Dalli Rajhara. Taking this into consideration, the government of India and the USSR entered into an agreement which was signed on March 2nd 1955, at New Delhi.
- Bhabha Atomic Research Centre: The Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET), was started by the government of India on January 3rd 1954 with the intention of consolidating all research and development activities for nuclear reactors and technology under the Atomic Energy Commission.
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR): to support indigenous scientists like Boshi Sen, who is credited with producing hybrid maize and irradiated wheat mutant.
Relevance of these institutions
- Economic Development:Economic development mainly depends upon industrial development. Heavy & basic industries like iron & steel, shipping, mining, etc. are required for supplying raw materials to small industries.
- Regional Development:Private sector usually neglect backward area. But public sector organizations set up their units in economically backward areas. By this public sector removes regional imbalance & brings regional development.
- Employment:Various public sectors operating in India needs lot of manpower & this provide employment to unlimited individuals according to their education, experience & abilities.
- Service Motive: Public sector organizations are working with the only motive of providing public utility services to society at large irrespective of profit.
- Sound Infrastructure:Rapid industrial growth in a country needs sound infrastructure. Infrastructural industries require huge capital for construction of Roads, Railways, Electricity & many such industries. Private sector is unable to have such huge capital & that also without any high return but public sector can easily afford to provide all infrastructural facilities.
Some challenges they face today
- Inefficient Management: It has been found that these enterprises are managed by public savants. They are not professionally qualified nor experts in the management of industrial enterprises.
- Lack of Efficiency: They are not run on commercial principles. Their main motto is social welfare, not profit earning.
- Lack of Innovations: Innovations are essential for economic development. Public enterprise lacks it due to monopoly or lack of competition. The private sector is always busy with innovating new techniques, new production methods, etc. For the purpose of cost reduction and profit maximization.
Some suggestions to address the challenges
- Sound business principles: The enterprise should be run on sound business principles. There should be focus on improving efficiency in all functional areas. Policies, systems and procedures should be modified with the aim of making the enterprise flexible, efficient and profitable.
- Autonomy: Public enterprises should have considerable autonomy in their functioning. Authority should be delegated and they should have the freedom to take decisions. Autonomy would ensure that decisions are taken at the right time and growth opportunities utilized in the best possible manner.
- Freedom from political interference: Many public enterprises are considered to be the kingdoms of politicians. They are run to suit the needs and requirements of the ruling party.
Conclusion
- Today, opinions are divided about the iconic leader. While Nehru always had his critiques even back in the day, a significant section of the masses despise the dynasty politics of the Congress that ensued after his passing in 1964.
- However, his contributions to India’s freedom, and as a Prime Minister to his country are acknowledged by people both within and outside India. His shortcomings do not take away from the legacy he cemented as a propagator for freedom, and as the free nation’s first Prime Minister.
Mains question
Assess the Nehruvian legacy of public sector. Do you think they are still relevant today? While discussing challenges they face what suggestion will you give to improve their performance.
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India-EU Relations
Context
- While India celebrates its 75th year of Independence, it also celebrates 60 years of diplomatic relations with the European Union (EU).
- A cooperation agreement signed in 1994 took the bilateral relationship beyond trade and economic cooperation.
Definition
- Relations between the European Union and the Republic of India are currently defined by the 1994 EU–India Cooperation Agreement. The EU is a significant trade partner for India and the two sides have been attempting to negotiate a free trade deal since 2007.
Common roadmap and shared vision
- The road map highlights engagement across five domains: foreign policy and security cooperation; trade and economy; sustainable modernisation partnership; global governance; and people-to-people relations.
Brief history
- India-EU relations date to the early 1960s, with India being amongst the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the European Economic Community.
- At the 5th India-EU Summit at The Hague in 2004, the relationship was upgraded to a ‘Strategic Partnership’.
- The two sides adopted a Joint Action Plan in 2005 (which was reviewed in 2008) that provided for strengthening dialogue and consultation mechanisms in the political and economic spheres, enhancing trade and investment, and bringing peoples and cultures together.
What is strategic partnership?
- A ‘strategic partnership’, as the term suggests, involves a shared understanding between the two or more states involved on the nature of threats in the environment and the place of their collective power in helping mitigate the threats.
Why they are important?
- As the world’s two largest democracies, the EU and India share a commitment to protecting and promoting human rights, a rules-based global order, effective multilateralism, sustainable development and open trade.
Significance
[A] Political Partnership
- The Joint Political Statement signed in 1993, opened the way for annual ministerial meetings and a broad political dialogue.
- The Cooperation Agreement signed in 1994 took the bilateral relationship beyond trade and economic cooperation.
- A multi-tiered institutional architecture of cooperation has since been created, presided over by the India-EU Summit since 2000.
- Today EU stands as a major reference for India’s legislative process in the field of Data security and privacy.
[B] Economic Ties
- Bilateral trade: The EU is India’s largest trading partner, while India is the EU’s 9th largest trading partner. It is the second-largest destination for Indian exports after the United States.
- Investment: The EU’s share in foreign investment inflows to India has more than doubled from 8% to 18% in the last decade. This makes the EU an important foreign investor in India.
- Preferential treatment: India is the benefactor of the unilateral preferential tariffs under the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP).
- Energy: Both sides have finalised civil nuclear cooperation agreement after 13 years of negotiations called as the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). It involves collaboration in the civil nuclear energy sector.
- Development cooperation: Over €150 million worth of projects by EU are currently ongoing in India. European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing loans for Lucknow, Bangalore, and Pune Metro Projects.
[C] Defence & Security
- EU and India have instituted several mechanisms for greater cooperation on pressing security challenges like counterterrorism, maritime security, and nuclear non-proliferation.
- Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region in New Delhi (IFC-IOR) has recently been linked-up with the Maritime Security Centre – Horn of Africa (MSC-HOA) established by the EU Naval Force (NAVFOR).
[D] Climate Change
- EU and India also underline their highest political commitment to the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC despite US withdrawing from the same.
- India-EU Clean Energy and Climate Partnership was agreed at the 2016 Summit – to promote access to and disseminate clean energy and climate friendly technologies and encourage R&D.
- Energy cooperation is now ongoing on a broad range of energy issues, like smart grids, energy efficiency, offshore wind and solar infrastructure, and research and innovation.
- EU and India also cooperate closely on the Clean Ganga initiative and deal with other water-related challenges in coordinated manner.
[E] Research and Development
- India-EU Science & Technology Steering Committee meets annually to review scientific cooperation.
- Both have official mechanisms in fields such as Digital Communications, 5G technology, Biotechnology, artificial intelligence etc.
- ISRO has a long-standing cooperation with the European Union, since 1970s. It has contributed towards the EU’s satellite navigation system Galileo.
Future scope
- Trade figures and Investments: Bilateral trade between the two surpassed $116 billion in 2021-22. The EU is India’s second largest trading partner after the U.S., and the second largest destination for Indian exports.
- Job creation: There are 6,000 European companies in the country that directly and indirectly create 6.7 million jobs.
- Green strategic partnership: between India and Denmark aims to address climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, and the India-Nordic Summit focused on green technologies and industry transformation that are vital for sustainable and inclusive growth.
- Energy security: Energy serves as an important aspect of the relationship between India and the EU. Given the impacts of climate change, this aspect has become extremely crucial today. Both entities have been pursuing cooperation for the joint development of clean energy.
- Political cooperation: India and the EU may benefit from increasing cooperation in the resolution of issues such as terrorism and radicalization, cyber-security, coordinating on certain key and relevant aspects of foreign policy, and other humanitarian issues.
- International support: It is crucial that Europe recognize India as a partner for peace that is committed to human rights, both regionally and internationally.
Challenges before them
- Deadlock over BTIA: The negotiations for a Broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) were held between 2007 to 2013 but have remained dormant/suspended since then.
- Export hurdles: Indian demands for ‘Data secure’ status (important for India’s IT sector) to ease norms on temporary movement of skilled workers, relaxation of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS), etc. stands largely ignored.
- Trade imbalance: This heavily leans towards China. India accounts for only 1.9% of EU total trade in goods in 2019, well behind China (13.8%).
- Brexit altercations: In the longer term of balancing of global powers, a smaller Europe without the key military and economic force UK, is much weaker in the wake of an ambitious China and an increasingly protectionist US.
- EU primarily remains a trade bloc: This has resulted in a lack of substantive agreements on matters such as regional security and connectivity.
- Undue references to sovereign concerns: The European Parliament was critical of both the Indian government’s decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019 and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
- China’s influence: EU’s affinity lies with China. This is because of its high dependence on the Chinese market. It is a major partner in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
- Ukrainian war: EAM S. Jaishankar’s witty reply about EU’s oil import from Russia has not been welcomed across the EU. It still expects India to criticize Russia.
EU’s interests in India
- Reducing dependence on China: It is necessary for both sides as it is making them highly vulnerable to Chinese aggression.
- Western lobby: EU acknowledges its supply chain’s vulnerability, the risk posed by overdependence on China, and the need to strengthen the global community of democracies.
- Healthcare: The on-going pandemic has shown the need for cooperation in global health. India and the EU have called for a reform of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
- Perception of India as a huge market: EU still largely perceives India as huge market rather than a partner.
- Promotion of multilateralism: Both sides are facing issues related to US-China trade war and uncertainty of the US’ policies. They have common interest in avoiding a bipolarised world and developing a rules-based order.
India’s stakes in EU
- Global leadership vacuum: Retreat of the U.S. from global leadership has provided opportunities for EU- India cooperation and trilateral dialogues with countries in the Middle Fast, Central Asia, and Africa.
- Chinese Aggression: China’s increasing presence in Eurasia and South Asia is creating similar security, political and economic concerns for Europe and India.
- Fall of the conventional global order: Trade war, crumbling WTO and break down of TPP etc. has made EU understand the economic importance of India.
- BREXIT: Brexit is pushing India to look for new ‘gateways’ to Europe, as its traditional partner leaves the union. A renewed trade and political cooperation are the need of the hour.
- Conformity over Indo-Pacific: The Indo-Pacific is the main conduit for global trade and energy flows. Rule-based Indo-pacific is of everyone’s interest with EU no exception.
Way forward
- A close bilateral relation between India and the EU has far-reaching economic, political and strategic implications on the crisis-driven international order.
- Both sides should realise this potential and must further the growth of the bilateral ties with a strong political will.
- As highlighted by EU strategy on India 2018, India-EU should take their relations beyond “trade lens”, recognizing their important geopolitical, strategic convergences.
- India can pursue EU countries to engage in Indo-pacific narrative, geo-economically if not from security prism.
Mains question
What do you understand by the term strategic partnership? India and EU are celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations trace their journey with significance and challenges in their ties.
B2BASICS
About European Union (EU)
- The EU is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe.
- The union and EU citizenship were established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993.
- The EU grew out of a desire to strengthen international economic and political co-operation on the European continent in the wake of World War II.
- It has often been described as a sui generis political entity (without precedent or comparison) with the characteristics of either a federation or confederation.
- The eurozone consists of all countries that use the euro as official currency. All EU members pledge to convert to the euro, but only 19 have done so as of 2022.
Members of the EU
- Through successive enlargements, the European Union has grown from the six founding states (Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) to 27 members.
- This entails a partial delegation of sovereignty to the institutions in return for representation within those institutions, a practice often referred to as “pooling of sovereignty“.
- In the 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum, the UK voted to leave the EU. The UK officially left the EU in 2020
Mains question
What do you understand by the term strategic partnership? India and EU are celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations trace their journey with significance and challenges in their ties.
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