Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Agri-exports from India
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with India's agri-exports
The article highlights the unsustainability of agri-exports owing to their water-intensive nature and subsidies provided in their production.
India’s agri-exports
- Agri-exports touched $41.8 billion in FY 2020-21, registering a growth of 18 per cent over the previous year.
- Amongst the various agri-commodity exports, rice ranks first with 17.7 million tonnes valued at $8.8 billion, roughly 21 per cent of the total value of agri-exports.
- It is followed by marine products ($6 billion), spices ($4 billion), bovine (buffalo) meat ($3.2 billion) and sugar ($2.8 billion).
Trend analysis of agri-exports
- During the last seven years, agri-exports have remained lower than the level reached in FY2013-14 ($43.3 billion).
- That was when the highest agri-trade surplus (exports minus imports) was generated ($27.8 billion).
- That was also when Indian agriculture was most globally integrated, with agri-trade (exports plus imports) touching 20 per cent of the agri-GDP.
- It has slid to 13.5 per cent by FY2020-21, indicating India is becoming less globally competitive in exports and more protectionist in imports, presumably in the name of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
- It is high time to review current agri-trade policies and accompanying tariff structures.
Why sustainability of agri-exports is a concern?
- From a strategic point of view, however, one must ask whether this growth rate can be sustained over a longer period, and the implications it has for Indian agriculture.
- Water consumption: India is a water-stressed country with per capita water availability of 1,544 cubic metres in 2011, down from 5,178 cubic metres in 1951.
- It is well known that a kg of sugar has a virtual water intake of about 2,000 litres.
- In 2020-21, India exported 7.5 million tonnes of sugar, implying that at least 15 billion cubic metres of water was exported through sugar alone.
- Rice, needs around 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water for irrigating a kg, depending upon topography.
- Also, rice cultivation contributes to more than 18 per cent of the GHG emission generated from agriculture.
- Subsidies: Power and fertiliser subsidies account for about 15 per cent of its value in states like Punjab and Haryana.
- If these subsidies are withdrawn, rice will not be as preferred a crop with farmers as it is today.
Way forward
- Farming practices such as alternate wetting drying (AWD), direct-seeded rice (DSR) and micro-irrigation will have to be taken up on a war footing.
- Farmers may be incentivised and rewarded to save water, switch from paddy and sugar to other less water guzzler crops, and reduce the carbon footprint.
- It is high time that policymakers revisit the entire gamut of rice and sugar systems from their MSP/FRP to their production in an environmentally sustainable manner.
- At least in the case of rice, procurement will have to be limited to the needs of PDS, and within PDS, it is high time to introduce the option of direct cash transfers.
Consider the question “Rice and sugar forms the part of India’s agri-basket. However, there are concerns over their sustainability. What are the reasons for concerns and suggest the measure to deal with these concerns”
Conclusion
To maintain the sustainability of the agri-exports, crops must be produced efficiently and with minimal subsidies. The government needs to take steps to ensure that with rice and sugar.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Role of the States in health crisis
The States are better equipped to deal with the health emergencies and the Centre needs to augment them in their efforts. The article deals with this issue.
Role of the States in health crisis
- Covid-19 pandemic is a national crisis calling for concerted efforts by both, the Government of India (GoI) and state governments.
- Health is a state subject, and the states have been pioneering many health programmes on their own, some with support and funding from the GoI, for a very long time.
- The number of employees in the health wing of the GoI is negligible as compared to that in any state government.
- The GoI must help them, motivate them to do better and assist them in their task.
- Also, the GoI must and can play a major role is in vaccination.
Role of the Central government
- It must try to augment supplies by encouraging companies to produce more and through imports/gifts.
- However, whatever it procures must be allotted to states in proportion to their eligible population.
- State governments must be involved in this policy.
- The vaccination policy may be left to the state governments based on the allocation.
- The GoI must also augment supplies of critical medical goods through imports and donations from friendly nations in view of their acute shortage.
- It must distribute them to the needy states transparently and equitably.
Steps that need to be taken
- Lockdowns need to be lifted in a calibrated manner depending on local conditions.
- Lockdowns are not the solution, they just buy breathing time which can be used by governments to ramp up capacity.
- State governments must set up efficient and well-functioning control rooms and telemedicine centres to guide people on home treatment and timely admission to hospitals.
- The private sector can also be fully involved in these efforts.
- Bed capacity must be increased in both private and public sectors, with all necessary requirements such as oxygen, medicines, and health workers.
- It is also important to put in place a standard guidance protocol for health workers and control rooms to guide patients through the disease.
- Enforcement of masks and distancing in public places must go on till the country is fully vaccinated.
- The measures suggested above require hard work and efficient management by state governments, by a team of reputed professionals and civil servants.
- Daily briefing by a professional, not a politician, is the need of the hour at both the Centre and state level, giving some confidence and assurance to the public.
Consider the question “In dealing with the health crisis the Union Government and the State governments are better placed for certain roles. In light of this, examine the important role of the States in dealing with the Covid pandemic and how the Union government can complement it.”
Conclusion
The central government must realise that states are on the forefront in this war, and therefore, play a supporting and proactive role. It has only a minor, behind-the-scenes role in the health sector.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Net-zero emission targets and G-7
The article highlights G-7 countries’ emphasis on adoption of net-zero emission target and its implications for India.
Shifting responsibility to developing countries
- The Cornwall G7 summit sought to re-establish a common purpose among the richest democracies of the world.
- The G7 agreed “collectively” to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 and called on “all countries, in particular, major emitting economies” to join as part of global efforts.
- And, ODA (official development assistance) has been made contingent on net-zero emissions by 2050 and deep cuts in emissions in the 2020s.
- G7 made an equal effort to shift the responsibility to the large developing countries.
- However, “common and differentiated responsibilities” is the agreed guiding principle for tackling climate change.
- Differentiation underscores the responsibility of the industrialised countries to lead.
India’s climate actions
- India has been a leading stakeholder in climate action and is among the few in the G20 in line to meet their commitments under the Paris Accord.
- It has also taken on a most ambitious target of 450 GW of renewable power by 2030.
- India has shown the world the way forward on solar power with producers now offering ultra-competitive tariffs.
India’s concerns
- Coal was particularly in the eye of the G7 which stressed “that international investments in unabated coal must stop now” .
- India, that continues to rely on coal, could face a crunch in assistance in thermal power.
- BASIC, comprising India, China, Brazil and South Africa, has so far led the efforts of large developing countries in climate negotiations.
- But with possible differences of opinion on net zero, BASIC’s clout in future global negotiations is questionable.
Way forward
- Finance and technology are the key areas where the industrialised West can and must lead.
- The collective developed countries’ commitment of $ 100 billion per year was made in Copenhagen in 2009 and is nowhere near being reached.
- A smallish sum of $2 billion was committed by G7 to accelerating the transition from coal.
- For India, with its huge developmental needs and global high-table aspirations that require carbon and policy spaces, the imperative is strong diplomatic partnerships with large developing economies that have an inherent interest in GREEN-Growth with Renewable Energy, Entrepreneurship and Nature.
Conclusion
India, which has huge developmental needs and global high-table aspirations that require carbon and policy spaces, must protect its interests.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues of Discoms
The article highlights the need for frequent financial aids to the discoms by the Centre and discusses the factors responsible for this.
Frequent rescue packages for discoms
- Recently, there was a sharp decline in the dues owed by power distribution companies, discoms, to power generating companies.
- Discoms have paid off their dues in part by drawing down a liquidity facility arranged by the Centre last year.
- This rescue package was arranged to prevent the entire power sector chain from suffering because of the discoms’ inability to meet their obligations.
- In the initial years after the introduction of UDAY some states did, in fact, witness an improvement in their financial and operational indicators.
- But it wasn’t sustained, There has been a sharp deterioration in several parameters.
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.
Way forward
- One of the solution centres around a national power distribution company.
- 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.
- The Centre has linked additional state borrowings to the completion of distribution reforms to incentivise states to act.
Consider the question “Despite several efforts by the Centre to improve the efficiency, discoms continue to perform dismally requiring frequent financial aids. What are the factors responsible for this? Suggest the way forward.”
Conclusion
Short of radical measures — privatisation remains a chimera — it is difficult to see how a sustainable turnaround in the financial and operational position of discoms can be engineered. As the amounts involved rise, minor tinkering isn’t likely to produce the desired results.
Back2Basics: AT&C losses
- Distribution loss consists of two parts:
- a. Technical loss
- b. Commercial loss.
- It is also called AT&C loss.
- AT&C loss is nothing but the sum total of technical and commercial losses and shortage due to non-realization of billed amount.
- AT&C Loss = (Energy input – Energy billed) * 100 / Energy input.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Regulation of social media and related issues
The article discusses the need for regulation of social media and counters against placing social media on a higher pedestal for the application of reasonable restrictions.
Social media and its regulation
- Social media is a commercial product that connects people all over the globe.
- It allows people to converse with each other through profiles both known and anonymous.
- The object is purely commercial, that is to make money.
- The fact that a commercial product could be used for a social purpose does not make the product a social good.
- The new Information Technology Rules, 2021 formulated by the Government of India attempts to bring in a minimum regulatory standard to social media.
- The present amendment to the rules is to formulate a broad and soft-touch regulation mechanism for use of the product, just like one would for a good like a car or a service like chartered accountancy.
Issues with regulation of social media
1) Immunity from content posted on platforms
- Social media companies enjoy an immunity — they are not considered responsible for the contents posted on them.
- The immunity is granted on the ground that social media is merely a platform or a sort of a glorified postbox.
- It is incorporated under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 framed under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.
- This protection is itself unique as it is not extended to newspapers, magazines or even websites.
- This protection is given by the government as an exceptional measure.
- The present amendment to rules only tries to update and make these rules workable considering the latest global developments.
2) Constitution allows for restriction of freedom of speech
- The Constitution itself gives us a restricted right to freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) and 19(2).
- The argument that social media is entitled to some form of higher protection because it exists on the internet is an untenable argument.
- The Constitution doesn’t recognise a hierarchy of rights depending on the medium through which the freedom of speech is exercised.
3) Important for political and commercial speech
- Social media has become so crucial to commercial and political speech in this country, there is an urgent need to regulate it.
- It has effectively become a public square in which the most important conversations on politics and society are discussed.
- The function of social media is clearly a public function at the lowest and as a public utility at the high end, and, therefore, automatically subject to regulation and the writ jurisdiction of the courts.
Conclusion
For all its significance and importance, social media needs to be regulated. However, the regulations should not hamper the freedom of expression and free speech.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Increasing the public spending for economic recovery
The article takes an overview of the impact of the second covid wave and suggests the need for more public spending.
Impact of reforms in recovery
- Overlapping State-level lockdowns that started in April have now lasted for almost as long as the nationwide lockdown of 2020, impacting the economy.
- Output may well have contracted in the beginning of this year.
- So, though recovery will eventually come, it could be W-shaped rather than V-shaped.
- It is asserted that the economy will recover due to the reforms planned or already implemented by the government.
- Since 1991, the term ‘reforms’ has been used to mean both policy changes that remove restrictions on private sector activity in certain areas and those that increase profits in existing lines of production.
- Recent examples of such reforms include the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan launched in 2020 and the significant lowering of corporate tax in 2019, respectively.
- However, more reforms may be ineffective in spurring recovery.
- Presently for the private sector is not undertaking investment given their expectation of the state of the economy in the near future, upon which their revenue will depend.
Public expenditure
- In February, believing that the peak of the epidemic had been crossed, the government reverted to fiscal consolidation or the paring down of the fiscal deficit.
- Accordingly, it raised its budgeted expenditure by less than 1% in the last Budget.
- But now, with a possible further contraction of the economy, to continue with the frigid fiscal stance would be disastrous.
- Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy show that unemployment has risen in May, indicating slack demand for output.
- With this knowledge, the private sector is unlikely to respond with alacrity to liberalising reforms.
Way forward
- The objective is to revive the economy, public spending is the instrument and the funding must be found.
- It need not involve money creation.
- India’s public debt is low by comparison with the OECD countries, and debt financing remains an option.
- Even if money financing is adopted, it need not cause accelerating inflation.
- How the expansion is financed is less relevant for inflation at least in the near term.
Consider the question “Are the economic reforms enough to ensure the recovery of the economy? Also, examine the importance of public spending for economic recovery.”
Conclusion
Reforms albeit important for the economy in long run, may not be much effective in an economy battered by the pandemic. What we need is public spending and welfare measures.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Use of disruptive technologies in medical sector
The adoption of technologies such as AI and blockchain has the potential to transform the medical sector.
How new technologies can play important role in medical sector
1) Blockchain technology
- Blockchain technology can help in addressing the interoperability challenges that health information and technology systems face.
- The health blockchain would contain a complete indexed history of all medical data, including formal medical records and health data from mobile applications and wearable sensors.
- This can also be stored in a secure network and authenticated, besides helping in seamless medical attention.
2) Big data analytics
- Big data analytics can help improve patient-based services tremendously such as early disease detection.
- AI and the Internet of Medical Things, or IoMT are shaping healthcare applications.
- IoMT is defined as a connected infrastructure of medical devices, software applications, and health systems and services.
3) Medical autonomous system
- Medical autonomous systems can also improve health delivery to a great extent and their applications are focused on supporting medical care delivery in dispersed and complex environments with the help of futuristic technologies.
- This system may also include autonomous critical care system, autonomous intubation, autonomous cricothyrotomy and other autonomous interventional procedures.
4) Cloud computing
- Cloud computing is another application facilitating collaboration and data exchanges between doctors, departments, and even institutions and medical providers to enable best treatment.
Challenges
- The possible constraints in this effort are standardisation of health data, organisational silos, data security and data privacy, and also high investments.
Using technology for Universal Health Coverage
- According to the World Health Organization, Universal health coverage (UHC) is a powerful social equalizer and the ultimate expression of fairness.
- Studies by WHO show that weakly coordinated steps may lead to stand-alone information and communication technology solutions.
- India needs to own its digital health strategy that works and leads towards universal health coverage and person-centred care.
- Such a strategy should emphasise the ethical appropriateness of digital technologies, cross the digital divide, and ensure inclusion across the economy.
- ‘Ayushman Bharat’ and tools such as Information and Communication Technology could be be fine-tuned with this strategy to promote ways to protect populations.
- Online consultation should be a key part of such a strategy.
Using local knowledge
- In addition to effective national policies and robust health systems, an effective national response must also draw upon local knowledge.
- Primary health centres in India could examine local/traditional knowledge and experience and then use it along with modern technology.
Way forward
- Initial efforts in this direction should involve synchronisation and integration, developing a template for sharing data, and reengineering many of the institutional and structural arrangements in the medical sector.
- Big data applications in the health sector should help hospitals provide the best facilities and at less cost, provide a level playing field for all sectors, and foster competition.
Consider the question “Examine the role technologies such as AI and data analytics could play in the medical sector. What are the challenges in the adoption of such technologies?”
Conclusion
The above-discussed aspects highlight the potential benefits of the adoption of disruptive technologies in the healthcare system. India should embrace it while addressing the concerns with such technologies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Cooperation among South Asian countries in dealing with pandemic
Pandemic know no borders. So, dealing with it has necessited global cooperation. The article introduce us to some of the cross-country collaborations in dealing with the pandemic, igniting the hope for new era social partnership to the advantage of South Asia.
Regionally-coordinated strategy against pandemic
- Containing Covid pandemic has necessitated global cooperation.
- The deadly pandemic surge in 2021 makes a regionally coordinated, evidence-driven strategy critical.
- It is necessary to construct multi-stakeholder regional coalitions to devise new solutions and frugal innovations that can be applied across South Asia.
- Given our shared and mostly similar social, economic and cultural contexts, local successes must be amplified across South Asia.
- Despite wide variation in how nations have responded to the pandemic, the most successful strategies find commonality in their adherence to science and attention to local context.
How successful interventions could be applied across the subcontinent
- Beliefs, priorities, traditions and aversions to behavioural change are more similar across South Asia.
- This means that interventions that are successful in changing behaviour in one place are highly likely applicable in other parts of the subcontinent.
- For example, Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) campaigns to solve the problem of open defecation, developed by Bangladeshi NGOs in partnership with an Indian consultant is now broadly applied across South Asia and beyond.
- The Grameen Bank microcredit model was an indigenous South Asian innovation that spread rapidly.
- India’s digitised social protection ecosystem with Aadhaar ids and Jan Dhan accounts serves as a model for the region.
Changing social norm around mask-wearing
- The new pan-South Asian consortium in response to Covid-19 evolved out of an experiment conducted in Bangladesh around mask-wearing in rural communities termed as NORM.
- It was observed that a combination of no-cost distribution, information, reinforcing the message, modeling and endorsement by community leaders (NORM) leads to large, sustained increases in mask usage.
- NORM implementation teams based in Lahore, Ahmedabad, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Delhi are learning from each other’s successes and failures.
- The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) quickly implemented the model to reach over one million members in Gujarat.
- Additional 1.5 million masks were shipped from Bangladesh to support SEWA’s outreach to other states.
- Lahore’s commissioner worked with the research team to adapt the NORM model to an urban setting.
- To manage mild and moderate cases of Covid-19 in rural India, where institutional health care access is limited a host of physicians, scientists and community-based organisations created the Swasth Community Science Alliance.
- The Masking-Treatment-Vaccine Preparation (MTV) approach offers a sensible strategy to mitigate the pandemic until universal vaccination is achieved.
Conclusion
We need to come together to solve problems that affect us all. Let the lasting legacy of this pandemic be a new era of partnership in social innovations that can benefit all South Asians.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Right to be forgotten
The article discusses the interplay between right to be forgotten and the right of the public to access courts of record, concepts of fair criticism and accountability.
Context
The Delhi High Court recently ordered the removal of one of its own judgments from easy access. The High Court recognised that the petitioner may have a right to be forgotten, which must be balanced with the right of the public to access courts of record.
Right to be forgotten
- In 2017, the Supreme Court recognised the right to be forgotten as being under the ambit of the right to privacy (specifically, informational privacy) under the Constitution.
- The Supreme Court observed that a lot of personal information may serve no “legitimate interest”, was “incorrect”, or was not “necessary” or “relevant”.
- For now, individuals may request data hosts to take down some content, and it may be taken down based on the policies of the respective hosts.
- There is a general consensus that people should be allowed to modify or delete information uploaded by themselves.
- However, whether this extends to information uploaded by third parties is uncertain.
- The right to be forgotten is, generally, the right to have information about a person removed from public access.
Balancing between right of the public
- The Delhi High Court recognised that the petitioner may have a right to be forgotten, which must be balanced with the right of the public to access courts of record.
- Judgments are published for good reasons.
- Trials held under public scrutiny act as a check against judicial caprices and help in enhancing the confidence of the public in the fairness and objectivity of the administration of justice.
- The Supreme Court has made is clear that the right to be forgotten was subject to reasonable restrictions based on countervailing rights such as free speech.
Consider the question “What is right to be forgotten and how it is related to the right to privacy? Examine the issues related to the implementation of the right to be forgotten.”
Way forward
- The High Court could have ordered that the name and personal details of the petitioner be redacted while maintaining public access to the judgment itself.
Conclusion
The right to be forgotten needs to be studied along with the concepts of fair criticism and accountability.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Electoral bond and issues related to it
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with electoral bond
The article highlights the issues with the political funding through electoral bonds.
Changes made for the electoral bond and issues with them
- Earlier, only profit-making domestic companies could contribute to political parties; now loss-making companies can too.
- Earlier, foreign companies or companies where the controlling stake was held by a foreign company couldn’t contribute; now they can.
- India’s political parties could theoretically be fully funded by a foreign company operating in India or by a foreign entity through a shell company.
- Only the ruling party via the State Bank of India (SBI) has a full account of all donations being made via electoral bonds, to itself and to Opposition parties.
Issues in the Supreme Court verdict
- In March 2021, the Supreme Court refused to stay the sale of electoral bonds before the West Bengal elections.
- Instead, the judgment listed several documents which supposedly establish a paper trail on donations and do some ‘match the following’.
- This is impractical and plainly incorrect.
- The Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 enables easier access to information held by public authorities.
- Suggesting a “match the following” is incorrect for three reasons.
1) Full scale of registered entities in unknown
- If we set aside individual donors and focus just on registered entities, we will find that the full scale of registered entities is unknown.
- According to back-of-the-envelope calculations, there are close to 25 lakh potential donors comprising just companies and firms.
- This includes about 12.6 lakh active private limited companies as of January 31, 2021.
- Firms, unlike companies, have no regulatory mandate to submit their annual reports except for filing their annual tax returns, since their functioning is regulated by Acts other than the Companies Act of 2013.
2) No disclosure by companies about donation to political parties
- Even if registered companies filed annual financial statements, many do not disclose political donations.
- Conveniently, the Finance Bill of 2017 amended Section 182 of the Companies Act of 2013 to remove the requirement for declaring disaggregated donations to political parties.
- Even if registered companies filed annual financial statements, many do not disclose political donations.
3) Political parties do not need to disclose their donor
- Crucially, political parties do not need to disclose their electoral bond donors either.
- Strictly speaking, political parties are not even supposed to know their electoral bond donors.
- The only requirement is the annual audit reports with a total of all donations received via electoral bonds.
- These reports are submitted with great delays.
- Even if these reports are submitted on time, there is no way to match a donation of a company to that received by a political party as only aggregate amounts are available.
Implications
- Electoral bonds give political power to companies, wealthy individual donors, and foreign entities, thus diluting the universal franchise of one voter-one vote.
- Every vote is not equally valuable if companies can influence policies through hidden donations.
- The winner of this arrangement is the ruling party, whether at the Centre or in a State, and the loser is the average voter.
Way forward
- Companies and political parties could exercise moral leadership and voluntarily disclose the identity of recipients and donors, as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha recently did.
Conclusion
Opacity in political funding goes against the basic tenets of democracy. What we need is a system of political funding which is transparent and fair.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: What are cryptocurrencies
Mains level: Paper 3- Regulating cryptocurrencies
As India struggles to come up with an appropriate approach towards cryptocurrencies, the growing trend of the adoption of cryptocurrencies across the world offers a lesson.
Rising global trend of embracing cryptocurrencies
- El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
- The U.K. has classified cryptocurrency as property.
- The U.K. has sought to regulate the functioning of crypto-businesses while still imposing some restrictions to protect the interests of investors.
- On the other hand, while there is no exact legal classification of cryptocurrency in Singapore, there is now a legal framework for cryptocurrency trading.
- In the U.S., the open approach taken by the authorities has resulted in the trade in cryptocurrency being both taxed and appropriately regulated.
India’s approach
- Between 2013 and 2018, the government’s response to the rise of virtual currencies was cautionary, alerting users to the potential risks posed by cryptocurrency transactions.
- Instead of developing a regulatory framework to address these issues, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in April 2018, effectively imposed a ban on cryptocurrency trading.
- This ban was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2020.
- The court reasoned that there were alternative regulatory measures short of an outright ban through which the RBI could have achieved its objective of curbing the risks associated with cryptocurrency trading.
- India’s next move lies in the draft Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021.
- The draft Bill proposes to criminalise all private cryptocurrencies while also laying down the regulatory framework for an RBI-backed digital currency.
What should be India’s approach?
- The global regulatory attitude towards cryptocurrencies offers valuable insights into the alternative ways to achieve balanced regulation.
- In India, the absence of an existing legal classification of cryptocurrency should not be the impetus to prohibit its use.
- The government should use this as an opportunity to allow private individuals the freedom to harness a powerful new technology with appropriate regulatory standards.
Consider the question “As India finds itself at a crossroads of prohibition and regulation in its tryst with cryptocurrencies, globally, the inclination towards permissive regulation recognises the freedom of choice given to people. In light of this, examine the advantages and concerns with the cryptocurrencies and suggest the approach India should adopt towards the cryptocurrencies.”
Conclusion
Regulations to avoid the pitfall and not the outright ban is the right way towards the cryptocurrencies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-China relations after Galwan valley clash
What happened in Galwan?
- The Indian and Chinese armies are engaged in the standoff in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh.
- A sizable number of Chinese Army personnel even transgressed into the Indian side of the de-facto border in several areas including Pangong Tso.
- The actions on the northern bank of Pangong Tso are not just for territorial gains on land, but enhanced domination of the resource-rich lake.
- The stand-off at Ladakh’s Galwan Valley has escalated in June 2020 due to the infrastructure projects that India has undertaken in the recent years. India is building a strategic road through the Galwan Valley – close to China – connecting the region to an airstrip.
- China is opposed to any Indian construction in the area. In 1962, a stand-off in the Galwan area was one of the biggest flashpoints of the 1962 war.
- The border, or Line of Actual Control, is not demarcated, and China and India have differing ideas of where it should be located, leading to regular border “transgressions.” Often these don’t escalate tensions; a serious border standoff like the current one is less frequent, though this is the fourth since 2013.
- Both countries’ troops have patrolled this region for decades, as the contested 2,200-mile border is a long-standing subject of competing claims and tensions, including a brief war in 1962.
- Reasons: The violent clash happened when the Chinese side departed from the consensus to respect the LAC and attempted to unilaterally change the status quo.
- It is part of China’s ‘nibble and negotiate policy’. Their aim is to ensure that India does not build infrastructure along the LAC. It is their way of attaining a political goal with military might, while gaining more territory in the process.
The current situation in Ladakh
- With a continued deployment of 50,000-60,000 soldiers, the Indian Army has been able to hold the line to prevent any further ingress by the PLA.
- There has been no progress in talks after the disengagement at Pangong lake and Kailash range in February.
- Outside of Ladakh, the Indian Army remains in an alert mode all along the LAC to prevent any Chinese misadventure but the bigger change has been its reorientation of certain forces from Pakistan border towards the China border.
- The Ladakh crisis has also exposed India’s military weakness to tackle a collusive threat from China and Pakistan.
External balancing
- To deal with the threat of combined China and Pakistan, the Government opened backchannel talks with Pakistan which led to the reiteration of the ceasefire on the Line of Control.
- The Ladakh crisis has also led the Government to relook external partnerships, particularly with the United States.
- The U.S. military officials have earlier spoken of the intelligence and logistics support provided to the Indian forces in Ladakh.
- The military importance of the Quad remains moot, with India reportedly refusing to do joint naval patrolling with the U.S. in the South China Sea, the two treaty allies of the U.S., Japan and Australia, also refused.
Challenges for India
- India attempts to counter the growing Chinese influence in the neighbourhood have faltered, exacerbated by the mishandling of the second wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
- With the widening power gap between New Delhi and Beijing, the challenge is as much economic as it is geopolitical.
- Despite the border crisis and the Indian restrictions on Chinese technology companies, China displaced the U.S. to be India’s biggest trade partner in 2020-21, up to nearly 13% of India’s total trade compared to 10.4% a year ago.
- For the past few decades, Indian planners operated on the premise that their diplomats will be able to manage the Chinese problem without it developing into a full-blown military crisis.
- Militarily, Chinese incursions in Ladakh have shown that the idea of deterrence has failed.
- India has learnt that it can no longer have simultaneous competition and cooperation with China.
- A new reset in bilateral ties, àla the early 1990s, is difficult because China is now in a different league, competing with the U.S.
Conclusion
The events of the past one year have significantly altered India’s thinking towards China. The relationship is at the crossroads now. The choices made will have a significant impact on the future of global geopolitics.
B2BASICS
Line of Actual Control
- Demarcation Line: The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the demarcation that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory.
- LAC is different from the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan:
- The LoC emerged from the 1948 ceasefire line negotiated by the United Nations (UN) after the Kashmir War.
- It was designated as the LoC in 1972, following the Shimla Agreement between the two countries. It is delineated on a map signed by the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of both armies and has the international sanctity of a legal agreement.
- The LAC, in contrast, is only a concept – it is not agreed upon by the two countries, neither delineated on a map or demarcated on the ground.
- Length of the LAC: India considers the LAC to be 3,488 km long, while the Chinese consider it to be only around 2,000 km.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: G-7
Mains level: Paper 2- Opportunity for India to institutionalise its relations with the West
The article highlights the significance of the recent G-7 summit for India.
India’s engagement with the West
- Two important messages emerge from India’s participation in G-7 with the members of the G-7 and three other invited guests — Australia, South Africa and South Korea.
- First is that India is a “natural ally” of the G-7 and its partners.
- The other is the emphasis on shared democratic values that bind India with the West.
- The two ideas are certainly not new to India’s foreign policy, but they acquire special importance at the current juncture.
- In the last few years, India embarked on an expansive engagement with Europe.
- This G-7 summit can be seen as the beginning of an institutionalisation of India’s cooperation with the West.
What makes this G-7 Summit different from the past Summits?
- China factor: After the 2008 financial crisis, the more representative G-20, which includes China, Russia, India and many others, seemed to supersede the G-7.
- But amidst the growing sense that China has gamed the global economic order to America’s disadvantage, there has been renewed interest in like-minded coalitions like the G-7.
- Widening the base of G-7: There is also the recognition of the case for widening the base of institutions like the G-7 beyond the geographic West to include large democracies like India.
- Coalition of democracies: The case for a “coalition of democracies” was certainly gaining ground over the last two decades within American academia and the political class.
- But economic globalisation and the absence of great power rivalry meant there was no compelling policy urgency to construct an “alliance of democracies”.
- That condition has altered radically in the last few years amidst the growing US tensions with China and Russia.
Dealing with the challenges presented by China
- U.S. President Biden declared his main objective as rallying democracies to meet the great challenges of our time, especially those presented by China.
- G-7 summit has responded to Biden’s call in the following forms:
- 1) By offering the outline of a potential alternative to China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.
- 2)By calling for a reorientation of global supply chains away from China.
- 3) By demanding a fresh inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic in China.
- 4) By reprimanding Beijing policies in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
- 5) By raising concerns about the conflict across the Taiwan Strait.
- However, there is a strong view that the door must be kept open for engagement with China on issues like climate change while calling out its unacceptable policies.
India’s relations with China: New context for engagement with West
- The rupture in the US engagement with China coincides with the rapid deterioration in India’s relations with China.
- This also sets up a new context for India’s partnership with the West.
- If the Indo-Pacific provides a regional basis for India’s engagement with the US and Europe, mitigating climate change and the management of the Covid-19 pandemic provides a global template for India’s engagement with the West.
Way forward
- The case for renewal and reform of democratic institutions is urgent in both the US and India.
- So is the need for sustained consultations between India and its Western partners on a range of new challenges presented by digital technologies, including radicalisation, disinformation, electoral interference, cyber-attacks and the role of large social media companies.
- The statement on open societies provides a sound basis for such an engagement.
Conclusion
India must begin institutionalisation of its relationship with the West and increase its engagement on various common issues including the China challenge.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BTWC 1972
Mains level: Paper 3- Security challenges associated with synthetic biology
Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, the article discusses the national security threat emanating from biological weapons.
Synthetic biology
- Synthetic biology is a revolutionary technology that can help us manipulate biological organisms and processes for human betterment, especially in treating diseases, by re-engineering cells.
- In 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense categorised synthetic biology as one of the six ‘disruptive basic research areas’.
- Unlike the nuclear domain, the fields of biology or synthetic biology are not regulated internationally despite growing military interest in it.
Risks involved
- There is the possibility of deliberate misuse of synthetic biology.
- There is a need to carefully review, especially in the wake of the pandemic, the biosecurity systems in place where such technologies are in use.
- Accidental leaks of experimental pathogens are another concern.
- There has been very little focus on threats emanating from biological sources as compared to the focus on nuclear weapons.
- This is despite the fact that a well-orchestrated biological attack could have serious implications.
- This was before synthetic biology came into play.
- A well-planned attack using highly infectious pathogens synthetically engineered in a lab could be disastrous.
- It would be difficult to pin responsibility on a specific actor if the incubation period is high,
BTWC: An inadequate mechanism for regulation
- Despite being the weapon of mass destruction (WMD) safety and security attention given to bio-weapons is not at par with nuclear and chemical weapons.
- There is an international convention and an implementing body for both nuclear and chemical weapons.
- However, for bio-weapons, all we have is the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) of 1972 with no implementing body.
- The BTWC does not have a verification clause, nor does it have clearly laid down rules and procedures to guide research in this field.
- Article 1 of the BTWC bans bio-weapons but research for medical and bio-defence purposes are allowed.
- While this is understandable, the problem is that there is a thin line between bio-defence research and bio-weapons research.
- An Ad Hoc Group set up in 1994 to negotiate a Protocol to enhance the transparency of treaty-relevant biological facilities and activities to help deter violations of the BTWC submitted a report at the Fifth BTWC Review Conference in 2001 but was not accepted by the member states.
Concerns for India
- India is at a uniquely disadvantaged position in this area given poor disease surveillance, insufficient coordination among various government departments dealing with biosecurity issues, and the pathetic state of the healthcare system.
- India has multiple institutions dealing with biosafety and biosecurity threats but there is no coordination among them.
- Given the rising risk of diseases of zoonotic origin, the traditional ministry-wise separation might not be useful.
- India, with its porous borders and ill-trained border control institutions, will remain vulnerable to pathogens or dangerous biological organisms.
Way forward
- Pandemics have also highlighted that the traditional distinction at the international institutional level between biological weapons (a field governed by the BTWC) and diseases (governed by BTWC) may not be useful anymore.
- There needs to be more conversation between health specialists and bio-weapons/defence specialists.
- The November 2021 BTWC review conference must take stock of the advances in the field, address the thinning line between biotechnology research and bio-weapons research, and consider international measures for monitoring and verification.
Consider the question “How synthetic biology poses security challenges for India and the rest of the world? Suggest the measures to deal with this challenge.”
Conclusion
Covid-19 should serve as a wake-up call to give BTWC more teeth in dealing with the bio-weapons with a suitable institutional mechanism.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ransomware
Mains level: Paper 3- Threat of cyberattacks
The article highlights the threat posed by cyberattacks to our critical infrastructure and suggest the ways to deal with the the ever evolving threat.
Civilian targets of cyberattacks
- Several high-profile cyberattacks were reported from the United States during the past several months.
- These attacks were all primarily on civilian targets, though each one was of critical importance.
- Obviously cyber, which is often referred to as the fifth domain/dimension of warfare, is now largely being employed against civilian targets.
- Most nations have been concentrating till date mainly on erecting cyber defences to protect military and strategic targets, but this will now need to change.
Challenges
- Defending civilian targets, and more so critical infrastructure, against cyberattacks such as ransomware and phishing is almost certain to stretch the capability and resources of governments across the globe.
- The distinction between military and civilian targets is increasingly getting erased and the consequences of this could be indeterminate.
- In the civilian domain, two key manifestations of the ‘cat and mouse game’ of cyber warfare today, are ransomware and phishing, including spear phishing.
- Banking and financial services were most prone to ransomware attacks till date, but oil, electricity grids, and lately, health care, have begun to figure prominently.
- Ransomware attacks have skyrocketed, with demands and payments going into multi-millions of dollars.
- India figures prominently in this list, being one of the most affected.
- Compromised ‘health information’ is proving to be a vital commodity for use by cybercriminals.
- All indications are that cybercriminals are increasingly targeting a nation’s health-care system and trying to gain access to patients’ data.
- The available data aggravates the risk not only to the individual but also to entire communities.
- Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated, and are now engaged in stealing sensitive data in targeted computers before launching a ransomware attack.
- Also, today’s cybercriminals, specially those specialising in ransomware and similar attacks, are different from the ordinary criminals.
- Many are known to practise ‘reverse engineering’ and employ ‘penetration testers’ to probe high secure networks.
Way forward
- The need to be aware of the nature of the cyber threat to their businesses and take adequate precautionary measures, has become extremely vital.
- Cybersecurity essentially hinges on data protection.
- As data becomes the world’s most precious commodity, attacks on data and data systems are bound to intensify.
- With mobile and cloud computing expanding rapidly cybersecurity professionals are now engaged in building a ‘Zero Trust Based Environment’, viz., zero trust on end point devices, zero trust on identity, and zero trust on the network to protect all sensitive data.
- Building deep technology in cyber is essential.
- New technologies such as artificial intelligence, Machine learning and quantum computing, also present new opportunities.
- Pressure also needs to be put on officials in the public domain, as also company boards, to carry out regular vulnerability assessments and create necessary awareness of the growing cyber threat.
Consider the question “Several high-profile cyberattacks across the world have exposed vulnerabilities in the critical infrastructure of even advanced nations. In light of this, examine the challenges posed by cyberattacks and suggest measures to deal with these challenges.”
Conclusion
The threat posed by the cyberattacks highlights the need for improved defences against actual, and potential, cyberattacks by all countries across continents.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Dealing with vaccine hesitancy
Reoriented vaccine policy
- The foremost challenge in vaccination in India has been a supply deficit.
- Announcing a reoriented vaccine policy recently, the Prime Minister announced a coherent path forward.
- Starting from June 21, the Union government will take charge of 75 per cent of the total procurement, and provide vaccines to states at no cost.
- The government has reserved 30 crore vaccines with Hyderabad-based Biological-E by facilitating an advance payment of Rs 1,500 crore.
- Fortnightly updates on the supply of vaccines to states are being taken to ensure transparency and efficiency in planning.
Dealing with two complex challenges
- Two other complex challenges that need immediate focus are vaccine hesitancy and the much-discussed digital divide in the country.
1) Challenge of vaccine hesitancy
- Contextualised and curated approaches are crucial.
- The WHO has put forth the BeSD (behavioural and social drivers) vaccination model, which emphasises “motivation” as the vanguard of human psychology during a vaccination drive.
- Vaccination coverage could be increased by incentivising and motivating citizens.
- Unfortunately, in India, misinformation, disinformation and misplaced beliefs have led to fears about the potential harmful effects of vaccines.
- The diversity of India necessitates community engagement at the local level to counter this narrative of misinformation.
- A successful information campaign requires dissemination through mediums that invoke trust.
- Local languages and dialects should be used to engage people via local radio, television channels and regional newspapers.
- Another network that can be leveraged at the district level is that of the ASHA workers and the auxiliary nurse-midwives.
- These are trusted local figures.
2) Bridging the digital divide
- It is important to introduce solutions that bridge the digital divide.
- A toll-free helpline number 1075 has been activated for those without internet.
- Similarly, districts can explore missed-call campaigns, which could ensure that minimal infrastructure is being optimised for processing high-volume user requests.
- Even though the reported adverse events following immunisation stands at only 0.012 per cent, dedicated representatives can provide vaccine-related pre- and post-counselling to individuals.
Way forward
Startups could help bridge digital divide
- The devastating effects of the second wave in rural areas have prompted fintech startups to enable vaccine registration.
- PayNearby has helped over 8 lakh citizens register through its network of agents called “digital pradhans”, who are present in kirana, ration, mobile and hardware stores, frequented regularly by rural users.
Use points of contact for publicising benefits of vaccine and registration
- Almost 81 crore beneficiaries, 75 per cent of whom are in rural areas, procure ration from 5,46,165 fair price shops across India.
- There are over 11 lakh business correspondent outlets in India working mostly in rural areas to advance the mission of financial inclusion.
- A network of around 1,54,965 post offices (as on March 2017) exists in India of which 1,39,067 are in the rural areas.
- Such points of contact can be leveraged as dedicated units for publicising the benefits of Covid vaccines and as physical locations for vaccine registration
Direct engagement with citizens
- The Prime Minister recently described district officials as “field commanders” in our efforts against Covid.
- This ambit should move beyond just the district bureaucracy to the extensive network of public services.
- A stellar example of direct engagement also stems from the success of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
- Direct engagement with citizens contributed greatly to the operational success of previous immunisation campaigns like the pulse polio programme.
Consider the question “What are the factors responsible for vaccine hesitency? Suggest the ways to deal with it.”
Conclusion
Thinking local and utilising established networks to create culturally resonant messages is the need of the hour to reduce vaccine hesitancy, bridge the digital divide and achieve vaccine saturation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: G-7 countries
Mains level: Paper 2- Relevance of G-7
The article highlights the challenges associated with the globalisation and important role G-7 can play in dealing with these challenges.
The context that makes this G-7 Summit significant
- The most significant expectation of the summit is that it will help determine the shape of globalisation.
- There has been much discussion of the possibility of the G-7 pushing for global coordination on minimum corporate taxation.
- The summit also seeks to redefine the broader relationship between states and markets in three ways.
Redefining the relationship between states and market in 3 ways
1) States reasserting the control over markets
- States are reasserting control over the terms on which markets operate.
- The idea of Neoliberalism did convey the idea that states should follow where the market leads, or step in only where there is a market failure.
- However, this account of the relationship between states and markets had four harmful consequences.
- 1) It provided a misleading picture of what makes economies vibrant.
- 2) It led to a sense of loss of collective control over our economic future.
- 3) It led to great inequality.
- 4) In some fields like technology, it created new forms of corporate power.
- To reverse some of these consequences, some coordination at the global level on taxation, or treatment of technology monopolies etc is required.
2) Global interdependence cannot be managed without global public goods
- At one level the global roles of the G-7 or even the G-20 were something like the political steering committee for global capitalism.
- Their most useful political roles were during the financial crisis, when global financial coordination was required.
- But there was relatively little attention to the systemic vulnerabilities that globalisation might create.
- These could be vulnerabilities because of the way supply chains were distributed, or those that arose from the creation of winners and losers within globalisation.
- Most importantly, there was short shrift given to global public goods like health.
- The Covid crisis has reminded us of all of these vulnerabilities.
- The commitment of G-7 to provide one billion vaccine doses is a welcome step.
- But whether this crisis-driven commitment will translate into an enduring and just framework for providing global public goods on health and environment remains to be seen.
3) Geopolitical context
- There are two geopolitical “cold wars” that cast a shadow on the G-7.
- The first involves China.
- In the context of rising geopolitical tensions with China, greater coordination and unity of purpose amongst the G-7 will become more important.
- The second is a threat of authoritarian disruption.
- Greater global disarray strengthens the possibility of giving political support to these political tendencies.
- It is important, therefore, to demonstrate that the G-7 countries are part of a functional democratic civilisation.
Challenges ahead
- Despite the directional changes, many of the central distributive conflicts that beset globalisation are likely to continue.
- The talk of global public goods works only in a context where the advanced economies are at the receiving end.
- Take the G-7 proposal for the coordination of taxation.
- In principle, this is not a bad idea, if it can close off tax havens and prevent a global race to the bottom.
- However, it is sobering to read the Tax Justice Network’s “The State of Tax Justice Report” 2020.
- According to this report, the United States, Netherlands and United Kingdom are three of the top five countries (along with Cayman Islands and Luxembourg) responsible for tax losses inflicted on other countries.
- The US, Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong are amongst the highest on the Financial Secrecy Index.
- So, the visible corporate tax rate, or taxing at point of sales, may just be the window dressing the global tax problem that allows countries to hold onto their privileges.
- Similarly, on climate change. There is a lot of encouraging talk of ambitious targets, investment-led transformations.
- Intelligently done, this might be for the good.
- But it could also repeat the familiar pattern of regulation serving to preserve the dominance of advanced economies.
- There is also, in the talk of a new global economic order, the curious absence of discussions on finance.
- But if one is looking at potential sources of vulnerability, the ability to create winners and losers, and possible threats to global resilience, then regulation and coordination of global finance deserve more attention.
Consider the question “What are the vulnerabilities associated with globalisation. Suggest the solutions to deal with these vulnerabilities.”
Conclusion
If the G-7 wants to truly exercise more leadership, it will have to convince the world that all its wonderful new principles, resilience, inclusion, global public goods, are not simply ruses to serve only the interests of the developed world.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Sustainability pressure on companies
The article discusses the three undercurrents that are pushing companies to adopt more sustainable business models.
Demand for sustainable business practices
- Companies across the world are facing pressure to adopt sustainable business practices.
- In a global first, a judicial court in the Netherlands has invoked the principles of human rights obligations of companies to rule that the Royal Dutch Shell will have to further accelerate its targeted reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission.
- The shareholders of Chevron forced upon the management a resolution to set strict emission targets from the products that it sells.
- The German cabinet approved a law that requires all coal-fired plants to close down much earlier than the target date set only eighteen months ago.
- In India, the SEBI came out with a new set of Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR).
- BRSR will be mandatory for the top 1,000 companies from the next year.
Three factors driving the change
1) Investors’ pull
- Workers saving for their pension do not want their investments to go to companies whose tailings-dam can burst and cause hundreds of death in Brazil.
- Investors also realise the long-term business risk of companies if sustainability isn’t a focus.
2) Governments’/regulators’ push
- In 2021, the US announced that it will cut emissions by over 50% by 2030.
- Japan has almost doubled its 2030 targets.
- The UK has now announced a target to cut 40-45% by the same time, from the earlier goal of a 30%-cut.
- China has announced that its emissions will peak by 2030, and by 2060, it would have net zero emissions.
- India is expected by the global community to announce net-zero by 2050.
- All of these have huge implications not only for hydrocarbon companies but across multiple sectors.
- Banking regulators are asking banks to include climate in the risk assessment of the companies they lend to.
- Insurance and pension regulators are raising similar questions in their sector.
3) Measurement/reporting
- When sustainability debates picked up, many organisations like CDP, CDSB, PRI, GRI, TCFD, IMP, IIRC, SASB, etc, sprang up to fulfill the need for sustainability reporting.
- Often, these worked at cross purposes and in competition with each other, leading to ‘greenwashing’ and other malpractices and creating confusion in the minds of investors.
- But, the realisation that the investors need a set of comparable and verifiable reporting formats has gathered momentum in the past one year.
- The last excuse to avoid focus on sustainable business practices will also wither away.
Consider the question “Financial capital is just one of the multiple capitals a successful company must possess. This brings sustainability into the focus. In light of this, discuss the factors that are forcing the companies to factor in the sustainability in their business models.”
Conclusion
The decades-old debate on environmental damage and sustainability is now reaching a decisive phase. Companies need to factor in the sustainability aspect in their profit calculus to remain relevant in changing world.
Source:
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/the-sustainability-heat-on-companies/2268494/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tax buoyancy
Mains level: Paper 3- Dealing with the challenge of Covid second wave
The article takes an overview of the fiscal and monetary challenges posed by the second covid wave and suggest ensuring the availability of liquidity.
GDP projections need to be re-examined
- According to NSO’s provisional estimates for 2020-21, the annual contraction in real GDP turned out to be 7.3 per cent.
- The erstwhile GDP growth projections for 2021-22 are being re-examined to take into account the adverse impact of the second wave of the pandemic.
- The RBI has revised down its 2021-22 real GDP growth forecast to 9.5 per cent.
- Some other recent estimates (ICRA) indicate the feasibility of a 9 per cent growth.
- It is also important to consider nominal GDP growth for 2021-22 since that would be a critical determinant of fiscal prospects.
- In the light of supply-side and cost-push pressures, the RBI has projected CPI inflation at 5.1 per cent.
- The nominal GDP growth may be projected at 13.4 per cent, that is, 1 percentage point lower than Centre’s budget assumption of 14.4 per cent.
Fiscal aggregates
- The Controller General of Accounts’ data indicate a gross tax revenues (GTR) of Rs 20.2 lakh crore and net tax revenue of Rs 14.2 lakh crore for 2020-21.
- The likely growth in GTR for 2021-22 may be derived by applying a buoyancy of 0.9.
- This gives a tax revenue growth of 12 per cent, translating that to projected gross and net tax revenues for 2021-22 would mean Rs 22.7 lakh crore and Rs 15.8 lakh crore respectively.
- This implies some additional net tax revenues to the Centre amounting to Rs 0.35 lakh crore as compared to the budgeted magnitudes.
- The main expected shortfall may still be in non-tax revenues and non-debt capital receipts.
- According to the CGA numbers, their 2020-21 levels are respectively Rs 2.1 lakh crore and Rs 0.57 lakh crore.
- Applying a growth rate of 15 per cent on these, a shortfall in 2021-22 to the tune of Rs 1.3 lakh crore may arise in non-tax revenues and non-debt capital receipts.
So, how much would be the Fiscal Deficit?
- The growth rates of non-tax revenues and and non-debt capital receipts average to a little lower than 15 per cent during the five years preceding 2020-21.
- In any case, the large budgeted growth of 304 per cent in non-debt capital receipts for 2021-22 seems quite unlikely because of the challenges posed by the second wave.
- Taking into account RBI’s recently announced dividend of Rs 0.99 lakh crore to the Centre, the main shortfall may be in non-debt capital receipts.
- Together, the overall shortfall in total non-debt receipts may be limited to about Rs 0.9 lakh crore, or 0.4 per cent of estimated nominal GDP.
- This indicates that a slippage, if any, in the budgeted fiscal deficit of 6.7 per cent of GDP, as revised in view of the recently released GDP data, could be a limited one.
Way forward: Prioritise three heads
- First, an increase in the provision for income support measures for the vulnerable rural and urban population.
- Second, in light of the recent decision, the budgeted expenditure on vaccination of Rs 0.35 lakh crore ought to be augmented, at the very least, doubled.
- Third, additional capital expenditure for select sectors, particularly healthcare, should also be provided for.
- Together these additional expenditures would amount to Rs 1.7 lakh crore, about 0.8 per cent of the estimated nominal GDP.
- Thus, we need to plan for a fiscal deficit of about 7.9 per cent of GDP.
Borrowing programme would need RBIs support
- The Centre has announced borrowings of Rs 1.6 lakh crore to meet the shortfall in the GST compensation cess.
- Given the higher fiscal deficit, it would need to add to its borrowing programme another Rs 2.6 lakh crore, taking the total borrowing, including GST compensation, to about Rs 16.3 lakh crore, from Rs 12.05 lakh crore now.
- Borrowing by states would be in addition to this.
- The net result will be an unprecedented borrowing programme by the Centre which may require RBI’s support.
- RBI is injecting liquidity into the system through various channels.
- Banks have sufficient liquidity to subscribe to new debt.
- This is indirect monetisation of debt.
- This is not new, but the scale is much higher.
- Direct monetisation is best avoided.
- The success of the borrowing programme of the Centre depends on the support provided by the RBI.
- The support need not be direct.
- It can be indirect as is currently happening. RBI is injecting liquidity into the system in a big way.
- Despite this, the money multiplier is low.
- This may be attributed to two reasons: Low credit expansion and larger leakage in the form of currency.
- The potential for money supply growth is large.
- The discussion in the monetary policy statement on inflation is focused entirely on supply availability and bottlenecks in the distribution of commodities.
- The output gap is certainly relevant.
- But equally relevant in an analysis of inflation is liquidity in the system, and its impact on output and prices with lags.
- The injection of liquidity has its limits.
Conclusion
With higher expenditure, financed through borrowings, the impact of liquidity expansion on inflation needs to be monitored.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GST Council
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with special treatment to states contributing more to GST pool
The article highlights the issues with the demand for special treatment of states with higher contribution to GST pool.
Debate on GST
- The issue of GST concessions on COVID relief has brought into focus the structural flaws in the GST structure.
- In this process, the structure and design of GST — essentially a tax on consumption — is being questioned.
- The issue of “rich” states versus “poor” ones, the decision-making process in the GST Council, and the representation of various states in the Council have also come into the focus.
Why States should be treated equally in GST Council
1) Consensus on GST
- The structure and design of GST and its basic features, as enshrined in the 101st Constitution Amendment Act, were unanimously adopted and endorsed by Parliament.
- The broader and finer points of the law, were thoroughly discussed and debated and recommended by the GST Council after a complete consensus.
- These were further debated and approved by not only Parliament but also by each of the state legislatures.
- There was complete consensus even on the issue of delegated legislation — something unheard of in a federal environment.
2) Equality of all states
- In this process of consensus building, no state was accorded even the slightest of special privilege.
- That is why the consensus surrounding GST was unprecedented whether in India or any other federation.
- Therefore, arguing for special treatment of some states is a dangerous idea, particularly in governance, and more so in a welfare state.
- For, this would open the gates for elitist arguments such as special rights for bigger taxpayers, unequal voting rights in elections and preferential treatment for a select few.
3) Issues with greater contribution to GST revenue pool
- It is not correct to argue that the GST collected in a state represents the revenue of that particular state for, under the GST mechanism, the tax deposited by a taxpayer in a state is a function of largely the value of supplies made by such taxpayer.
- Approximately 50 per cent at the aggregate level and much higher at the state level of such values are of an inter-state nature.
- In other words, most supplies made from any producing state are consumed elsewhere and the revenue in such a situation naturally and rightfully accrues to the destination state.
4) No transfers based on a formula
- It is equally fallacious to argue that under GST, most of the revenue is collected by the Union and is transferred to the states on the basis of some formula.
- The quantum of IGST revenue that is settled to any state is directly related to the returns filed in that state and the cross utilisation of credit exhibited in such returns; part of this settlement also comprises tax on supplies destined to that state, as exhibited in the returns of such suppliers.
- There is no “formula” as such for “transfer” of revenue collected by the Centre. Instead, such “transfers” are directly relatable to the consumption (whether intermediate or final) in any state.
5) Locational or geographical advantage
- There is another dimension to the higher revenue collection in a few states.
- One may note that such states enjoy locational or geographical advantages, being mostly coastal and immensely suited to the needs of trade and distribution as also manufacturing.
- Also, the disadvantage to such states on account of lower availability of certain vital minerals like coal and iron ore was undone by the principle of freight equalisation resorted to in the years following Independence.
- This contributed, in no small measure, to the development of such states.
6) Unequal transfers of Central receipts
- The argument of unequal transfers of central receipts also does not hold water, either in India or in any other federation.
- As is well known, such transfers are intended for correcting horizontal fiscal imbalances in a federation.
Conclusion
We should thus concentrate on carrying forward the glorious traditions of perhaps the only institution of co-operative federalism that we have been able to build so far.
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