From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Refuse-derived fuel (RDF)
Mains level: MSW management
The new plant at Bidadi has several advantages but also some operational challenges.
Practice Question: Discuss the various benefits of waste to energy plants and challenges in running them successfully.
The prospectus of new plant
The new 5 MW waste-to-energy plant is going to set up near Bidadi, Karnataka.
This plant is expected to process 600 tonnes per day of inorganic waste.
The inorganic waste, which consists of bad quality plastics and used cloth pieces, can be processed as Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). This material has a calorific value of more than 2,500 kJ/kg.
This can be used to generate steam energy, which can be converted into electric energy.
A well-planned plant
The waste-to-energy plants usually accept the RDF material generated in organic composting plants.
They also segregate the wet and inorganic material near the plant, convert organic waste to compost, and inorganic waste to energy.
About 50 tonnes of RDF generate 1 MW of power, which indicates that the plant at Bidadi has been appropriately designed.
A permanent solution
Handling inorganic waste that is not fit for recycling has always been a challenge.
At present, these high-calorific materials are landfilled or left unhandled in waste plants and cause fire accidents.
Attempts to send this material to cement kilns have not fructified.
The proposed plant can source 600 tonnes per day of this RDF and generate 11.5 MW of power equivalent to 2.4 lakh units of power per day.
This will reduce the dependence on unscientific landfills, reduce fire accidents, and provide a permanent solution to recover value from inorganic waste.
Challenges
Needed a good demonstration model – Over the last decade, several Indian cities have been trying to set up such plants but a good demonstration model is yet to be established.
Nature of waste – Technology suppliers are international organizations who struggle with the change in quality and nature of waste generated in Indian cities. A few plants in India have stopped operations for this reason.
The plants require fine inorganic material with less than 5% moisture and less than 5% silt and soil contents, whereas the moisture and inert content in the mixed waste generated is more than 15%-20%.
The sticky silt and soil particles can also reduce the calorific value.
Economic cost per unit of electricity – The other big challenge for this plant is the power tariff which is around ₹7-8 KwH which is higher than the ₹3-4 per KwH generated through coal and other means.
Way forward
For the successful running, the plant needs to ease the challenge of handling inorganic waste, the efficiency of organic waste processing/ composting plants.
With the increasing waste generation in the coming years, there is a need for more such plants which are environment friendly.
Back2Basics: Refuse-derived fuel (RDF)
Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is a fuel produced from various types of waste such as municipal solid waste (MSW), industrial waste or commercial waste.
It is selected waste and by-products with recoverable calorific value can be used as fuels in a cement kiln, replacing a portion of conventional fossil fuels, like coal, if they meet strict specifications.
Sometimes they can only be used after pre-processing to provide ‘tailor-made’ fuels for the cement process.
RDF consists largely of combustible components of such waste, as non-recyclable plastics (not including PVC), paper cardboard, labels, and other corrugated materials.
These fractions are separated by different processing steps, such as screening, air classification, ballistic separation, separation of ferrous and non-ferrous materials, glass, stones and other foreign materials and shredding into a uniform grain size, or also pelletized.
This produces a homogeneous material which can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels in e.g. cement plants, lime plants, coal-fired power plants or as a reduction agent in steel furnaces.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Concerns of farmers other than MSP
With most farming land held by only 20% of its cultivators in Assam, there is a perception that agriculture is unimportant. However, the new farm laws are equally detrimental to small and marginal farmers in the state.
Muted response from the state’s farming community
With more than 70% of Assam’s population directly or indirectly dependent for their livelihood on the agricultural sector, it is surprising that the state has only seen sporadic protests against the farm laws passed by the Central government.
Reformists would like to read this muted response from the state’s farming community as the voice of the silent majority who expect to benefit from the new farm laws.
The real answer lies in the political economy of the state’s rural sector, which has its origins in the colonial handling of its agrarian possibilities.
Q. Farmers agitations in India are often region-specific. Discuss
Ungrounded and uncultivated
The pre-Independence British administration had invested substantially in the agriculture in what today constitutes Punjab and Haryana, building dams and irrigation facilities and creating conditions that allowed farmers to benefit from the post-independence Green Revolution.
This gave rise to the capitalist class among them.
However, at the same time, peasants in Assam were arbitrarily taxed by the British Raj to make them voluntarily give up farming in favour of joining the labour forces of the tea industry in the region.
Its policies did result in the transfer of land from the peasantry to mid-level revenue officials, leading to a highly unequal land distribution that has persisted since that time.
Since the landed class tended to support the Indian National Congress-led freedom struggle, no land reform programme has ever been pursued seriously in the post-independence period.
Unequal land distribution
Seven decades after independence, Assam’s agrarian setting is still characterized by a very high level of unequal land distribution.
The evidence documented in the Assam Human Development Report, 2014 shows that 20% of farmers hold as much as 70% of the state’s farmland and shows tenancy at a much higher level of 26%.
The lack of legal recognition of tenants means most of them have never been beneficiaries of public policies in agriculture in the state.
The state’s agriculture is characterized by mono-cropping, with rice accounting for 90% of the land cultivated, but public procurement at the minimum support price (MSP) is conspicuously absent.
The latest information from the public information bureau (PIB) shows that the state produces 4.2% of the country’s rice, but only 0.2% of its farmers availed public procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
Most farmers had to bear with the low prices of rice in the open markets, even as the state was flooded with rice sourced from elsewhere through the public distribution system.
Frequent floods often ravage the region, reducing farming operations to just one season in most flood-affected districts. Assam’s cropping intensity of 146% is one of the lowest among all major rice-producing states.
In such a setting, the landed class takes little interest in farming, even as small and marginal farmers have increasingly been migrating, many even outside the state, to earn their livelihoods.
It’s not surprising that the state’s agriculture is still stuck at the subsistence level. The Assam Economic Survey 2017-18 shows only 38% of the state’s land under high yielding variety seeds and 26% of its land under irrigation.
APMC must be strengthened
The farmers of Assam might benefit from the breaking down of MSP procurement elsewhere through higher prices in the open market.
The new farm laws are more or less meaningless, which are more about APMC markets than about MSP.
With just 24 regulated APMC markets, Assam does not have enough marketing infrastructure to justify the argument made by the advocates of the new farm laws that the new Acts will liberate the farmers from the APMC markets’ monopoly and boost private investment in the sector.
With the state’s agricultural marketing largely revolving around 700-odd unregulated haats (village markets), the 24 APMC markets are hardly enough to curtail the farmers’ ‘freedom’ to dispose of their produce.
The credit deposit ratio (CDR) reported by major national banks in the state in 2017 is still below 40% compared to 72% at the national level, showing that the state is losing much of its savings to better-endowed states instead of receiving investment from outside the state.
The APMC market as a public institution still has a large role to play in reviving the state’s agricultural sector. Additionally, it can stop growing inter-state migration that has come to light in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Bovine nationalism
The recent law passed by the Karnataka State Assembly on bovine slaughter is a topic of contention.
Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill (2020)
The Karnataka state assembly passed the Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill (2020).
It has banned the slaughter of all cows, bulls, bullocks and calves as well as it also outlaws the slaughter of buffaloes below the age of 13.
Smuggling and transporting animals for slaughter is also an offence.
The bill prescribes punishments of between three to seven years – which is more than the punishment prescribed in Indian law for causing the death of a human being by negligence.
It also gives the police powers to conduct searches based on suspicion.
Though the bill has yet to be passed by the state’s Legislative Council, the government has said it will pass an ordinance to implement its provisions.
Practice Question: The recent law passed by Karnataka State Assembly on bovine slaughter is a topic of contention. Analyze.
Muslims and farmers
The legislation, based on Hinduism’s reverence for the cow, undermines the food practices of many Indians, for whom beef is a cheap source of protein.
Already, Indians are some of the most malnourished people on the planet and, remarkably, nutrition standards are worsening.
The bill also penalizes people working in the meat and leather industries that depend on cattle slaughter, many of whom are Muslim.
Dairy economics
The sector that will take the largest hit from the legislation is the dairy industry. India’s dairy industry is massive with an annual turnover of Rs 6.5 lakh crore – making it by far India’s largest agricultural product.
India’s farmers earn more from dairy than wheat and rice put together. India has almost as many bovines as people in the United States with one for every four Indians.
The problem with the bill is that that slaughter is integral to the dairy industry’s economic functioning. Dairy farming in India functions on small margins. As a result, the upkeep of unproductive animals would throw their bottom lines out of alignment.
When a male calf is born or a milch animal stops giving milk (or yield falls), farmers need to be able to get rid of the animal. In normal times, this sale is also a source of capital for the farmer.
In 2014, the size of the used cattle market just in Maharashtra was valued at as much as Rs 1,180 crore per year.
Verghese Kurien, founder of Amul and the architect of India’s White Revolution, that supercharged India’s milk production from 1970, opposed any ban on cow slaughter. Kurein was clear that the economics of dairy demanded slaughter.
Cowed down
The statistics produced by the 2019 Livestock Census are clear: cow slaughter laws have actually ended up harming cows.
Between 2012 and 2019, states with cow slaughter laws such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh saw their cattle numbers fall (by 10.07%, 4.42% and 3.93%, respectively).
On the other hand, West Bengal – one of India’s rare states where cattle slaughter has no restrictions – saw a massive increase of 15.18%. As a result, Bengal now has the Indian Union’s largest cattle population.
Farmers simply let unproductive cattle loose, giving rise to the problem of large herds of feral cows which have caused economic havoc and pose a danger of citizens – a problem unique to India.
In the countryside of many states, famished cattle herds now pose a danger to crops and cause accidents.
Buffalo nation
Naturally, stray cattle numbers are directly linked to cow slaughter laws. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have seen substantial rises in their stray cow population between 2012 and 2019 while West Bengal has seen a sharp fall.
Between 2012 and 2019, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh saw their buffalo numbers rise.
Since the buffalo – not seen as sacred in Hinduism – could be slaughtered legally, dairy farmers were clearly preferring it over the holy cow.
But the Karnataka bill very alarming even compared to the devastation caused by the earlier cow slaughter laws is because it even targets buffalos.
Making it worse
Karnataka’s stringent laws against cow slaughter is part of a policy pattern that – rather than make India’s already precarious economic situation better – makes Indians worse off.
Recent examples include demonetization, the new Goods and Services Tax as well as putting in place the world’s harshest Covid-19 lockdown, making sure India’s was the worst affected country economically during the pandemic.
India is going through a rural crisis. With poor yields due to unscientific farming methods and lack of support structures like irrigation, the average monthly income of the Indian farmer stands at only Rs 6,427 per month.
To make matters worse, for small farmers (defined as owning less than a hectare of land), their farming income is too low to cover their expenses and they are in debt and this describes the situation of 83% of Indian farmers.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Green Revolution
Mains level: Crop diversification issues in Punjab/Haryana belt
In tackling agri-crises, these core Green Revolution States must shift to high-value crops and promote non-farm activities
Early adopters of Green Revolution Technology
The region comprising Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, was an early adopter of Green Revolution technology.
It was also a major beneficiary of various policies adopted to spread modern agriculture technology in the country.
The package of technology and policies produced quick results which enabled India to move from a country facing a severe shortage of staple food to becoming a nation close to self-sufficiency in just 15 years.
Practice Question:
Q. The traditional Green Revolution States of Punjab and Haryana would need to shed “business as usual” approach and embrace an innovative development strategy in agriculture and non-agriculture to secure and improve the future of farming and rural youth. Discuss.
The rice and wheat focus
Procurement of marketed surplus of paddy (rice) and wheat at Minimum Support Price (MSP) completely insulated farmers against any price or market risks. It also ensured a reasonably stable flow of income from these two crops.
Over time, the technological advantage of rice and wheat over other competing crops further increased as public sector agriculture research and development allocated their best resources and scientific manpower to these two crops.
Other public and private investments in water and land and input subsidies were the other favourable factors.
Thus, wheat in rabi and paddy in Kharif turned out to be the best in terms of productivity, income, price and yield risk and ease of cultivation among all the field crops (cereals, pulses, oilseeds).
It is no surprise then that the area share of rice and wheat in the total cropped area rose drastically in these states.
The progress and specialization towards these two crops served the great national goal of securing the food security of the country.
Problems of the Green Revolutionsurfaced during the mid-1980s
During the mid-1980s, some inimical trends related to the rice-wheat crop system in general and paddy cultivation, in particular, surfaced followed by serious second-generation problems of the Green Revolution.
Some experts foresaw the serious consequences of the continuation of paddy cultivation in the region and suggested diversification away from the rice-wheat system in the mid-1980s.
Since then a large number of reports and policy documents have been prepared to develop alternative options to reduce the area under paddy — necessitated by its adverse effect on natural resources, the ecology, the environment, and fiscal resources.
Serious concerns have also been expressed about plateauing productivity and stagnant income from rice-wheat cultivation. However, the area under these two crops has only increased rather than fallen.
In order to develop viable options to infuse dynamism in the agriculture economy of this Green Revolution belt, there is a need to understand: what attracts farmers to rice-wheat crops, why it needs to be changed, and how it can be changed.
Punjab, Haryana vs. States
High productivity, assured MSP which is often above open market price, free power, and fertilizer subsidy underlie the higher income per unit area from wheat and paddy cultivation.
Land-labour ratio is also very favourable in Punjab when compared to other States; on an average, a farmer owns and cultivates 2.14 hectares net sown area as against 1.42 hectares in Haryana and 1.17 hectares at the national level.
An estimate of income (derived from National Accounts Statistics) shows that all agriculture activities taken together to generate an annual net income of ₹5.31 lakh per cultivator in Punjab; it is ₹3.44 lakh in Haryana while the all-India average is ₹1.7 lakh (reference year, 2017-18).
A question often asked is that if per farmer agriculture incomes in Haryana and Punjab are two to three times more than the national average, then why is there so much talk of farmers’ distress in these two States?
Why farmers’ distress in these two States when everything looks good?
The reasons seem to be the loss of growth momentum in the income from the agriculture sector, which has fallen to 1% in Haryana and 0.6% in Punjab after 2011-12.
This is quite low by any standard and not keeping in pace with an increase in households’ expenditure. The prospects of further growth in agricultural income from the crop sector dominated by rice and wheat are very dim.
With the productivity of rice and wheat reaching a plateau, there is pressure to seek an increase in MSP to increase income. However, demand and supply do not favour an increase in MSP in real terms.
In India, the per capita intake of rice and wheat is declining and consumers’ preference is shifting towards other foods.
The average spending by urban consumers is more on beverage and spices than on all cereals. On the supply side, rice production is rising at the rate of 14% per year in Madhya Pradesh, 10% in Jharkhand and 7% in Bihar.
Issues related to procurement
The growing rice production will further increase pressure on the procurement and buffer stock of rice. Rice and wheat procurement in the country has more than doubled after 2006-07 and buffer stocks have swelled to an all-time high.
The country does not find an easy way to dispose of such large stocks and they are creating stress on the fiscal resources of the government.
The implication of all these changes is that farmers in the region will find it difficult to increase their income from rice-wheat cultivation and they must be provided alternative choices to keep their income growing.
Procurement of almost the entire market arrivals of rice and wheat at MSP for more than 50 years has affected the entrepreneurial skills of farmers to sell their produce in a competitive market where prices are determined by demand and supply and competition.
Thus, to enable Punjab and Haryana farmers to move toward high-paying horticulture crops requires institutional arrangements on price assurance such as contract farming.
Environmental issues, unemployment
The biggest casualty of paddy cultivation and the policy of free power for pumping out groundwater for irrigation is the depletion of groundwater resources.
In the last decade, the water table has shown a decline in 84% observation wells in Punjab and 75% in Haryana. It is feared that Punjab and Haryana will run out of groundwater after some years if the current rate of overexploitation of water is not reversed.
In the last couple of years, the burning of paddy stubble and straw has become another serious environmental and health hazard in the whole region.
Another rather more serious challenge for the two States is to provide attractive employment to rural youths. Most of the farm work in these two States is undertaken by migrant labour.
The younger generation is not willing to do manual work in agriculture and looks for better paying salaried jobs in non-farm occupations. Government jobs are few and far less than the number of job seekers.
Thus, the option left is to create jobs in the private industry and the services sector. This requires private investments in suitable areas.
Punjab has witnessed a flight of private capital from the State during the rise of militancy which hurt the State economy, employment and the revenues of the State.
This setback has pushed the rank of the State in per capita income from number one in the 1970s and the early 1980s to number 13 among the major states of the country.
For further progress and to meet the aspirations of rural youth to get satisfactory employment, the State needs large-scale private investments in modern industry, services, and commerce besides agriculture.
The solution lies in…
The solution to the ecological, environmental and economic challenges facing agriculture in the traditional Green Revolution States is not in legalizing MSP but to shift from MSP crops to high-value crops and in the promotion of non-farm activities.
Rather than focusing on a few enterprises, Punjab and Haryana should look at a large number of area-specific enterprises to avoid gluts.
This will require a mechanism to cover price and market risks. Farmers’ groups and farmer producer organizations can play a significant role in the direct marketing of their produce.
Agricultural specificities and way forward
Both Punjab and Haryana need to promote economic activities with strong links with agriculture tailored to State specificities.
Some options for this are: promotion of food processing in formal and informal sectors; a big push to post-harvest value addition and modern value chains; a network of agro- and agri-input industries; high-tech agriculture; and a direct link of production and producers to consumers and consumers without involving intermediaries.
The traditional Green Revolution States of Punjab and Haryana would need to shed “business as usual” approach and embrace an innovative development strategy in agriculture and non-agriculture to secure and improve the future of farming and rural youth.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PM-WANI
Mains level: Digital banking facilitation measures
The PM-WANI project seems to fit within the framework of an evolving decentralized concept to bridge the e-divide.
Practice Question:
With the PM-WANI, the state is expanding the reach of digital transformation to those who have been excluded till now. It is a game-changer because it has the potential to move Digital India to Digital Bharat. Discuss.
PM WANI – the ‘game-changer’
The term ‘game-changer’ can be seen as an accurate reflection of the capability of an initiative to change the status quo for Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface, or PM WANI.
It provides for “Public Wi-Fi Networks by Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) to provide public Wi-Fi service spread across the length and breadth of the country to accelerate the proliferation of Broadband Internet services through Public Wi-Fi network in the country”.
What the data shows
The initiative can help to bridge the increasing digital divide in India. Recently, the NITI Aayog CEO had said that India can create $1 trillion of economic value using digital technology by 2025.
As per the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, about 54% of India’s population has access to the Internet.
The 75th round of the National Statistical Organization survey shows that only 20% of the population has the ability to use the Internet.
The India Internet 2019 report shows that rural India has half the Internet penetration as urban, and twice as many users who access the Internet less than once a week.
Digital poverty
Umang App (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) allows access to 2,084 services, across 194 government departments, across themes such as education, health, finance, social security, etc.
The ability to access and utilize the app enhances an individual’s capabilities to benefit from services that they are entitled to.
With each move towards digitization, we are threatening to leave behind a large part of our population to suffer in digital poverty.
What the government is trying to achieve with PM-WANI is anyone living in their house, a paan shop owner or a tea seller can all provide public Wi-Fi hot posts, and anyone within range can access it.
This will also help to reduce the pressure on the mobile Internet in India. Going back to the India Internet report, it shows that 99% of all users in India access the Internet on mobile, and about 88% are connected on the 4G network.
This leads to a situation where everyone is connected to a limited network, which is getting overloaded and resulting in bad speed and quality of Internet access.
Key links
There are three important actors here.
First is the Public Data Office (PDO). The PDO can be anyone, and it is clear that along with Internet infrastructure, the government also sees this as a way to generate revenue for individuals and small shopkeepers. It is important to note that PDOs will not require registration of any kind, thus easing the regulatory burden on them.
Second is the PDOA, who is basically the aggregator who will buy bandwidth from the Internet service provider (ISPs) and telecom companies and sell it to PDOs, while also accounting for data used by all PDOs.
The third is the app provider, who will create an app through which users can access and discover the Wi-Fi access points.
Two pillars have been given as a baseline for public Wi-Fi.
Interoperability – where the user will be required to login only once and stay connected across access points.
Multiple payment options – allowing the user to pay both online and offline.
The products should start from low denominations, starting with ₹2. It is suggested in the report that the requirement of authentication through stored e-know your customer (KYC) is encouraged, which inevitably means a linking with Aadhaar.
Aiding rural connectivity
The PM-WANI has the potential to change the fortunes of Bharat Net as well. Bharat Net envisions broadband connectivity in all villages in India.
The project has missed multiple deadlines, and even where the infrastructure has been created, usage data is not enough to incentivize ISPs to use Bharat Net infra to provide services.
One of the reasons for the lack of demand is the deficit in digital literacy in India and the lack of last-mile availability of the Internet.
The term digital literacy must be seen as an evolving decentralized concept, which depends on how people interact with technology in other aspects of their life and is influenced by local social and cultural factors.
The PM-WANI seems to fit within this framework, simply because it seeks to make accessing the Internet as easy as having tea at a chai shop. This is not a substitute for the abysmal digital literacy efforts of the government, but will definitely help.
Security, privacy issues
There are some concerns, mainly with respect to security and privacy. A large-scale study conducted at public Wi-Fi spots in 15 airports across the United States, Germany, Australia, and India discovered that two thirds of users leak private information whilst accessing the Internet.
Further, the TRAI report recommends that ‘community interest’ data be stored locally, raising questions about data protection in a scenario where the country currently does not have a data protection law in place.
These are, however, problems of regulation, state capacity and awareness and do not directly affect the framework for this scheme.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Judicial conduct and associated issues
Several inadequacies in the justice delivery system lie hidden as disproportionate attention is given to the Supreme Court.
Public expects the judiciary to be ideal
The citizens of the country expect the Supreme Court and its constituents to be ideal, and the challenge of the Supreme Court is to come to terms with that reality.
However, it is not the Supreme Court alone that matters in the justice delivery system. There are other inadequacies of the system that don’t get as much public attention.
Practice Question: Explain the various inadequacies in the justice delivery system in India which lie hidden. What steps need to be taken to address them?
Spending on judiciary
The issue of spending on judiciary, most often, is equated with increasing the salaries of judges and providing better court infrastructure. Such perceptions are unfortunate.
India has one of the most comprehensive legal aid programmes in the world, the Legal Services Authority Act of 1987.
Under this law, all women, irrespective of their financial status, are entitled to free legal aid. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and children too are entitled to free legal aid.
In reality, this law is a dead letter. There has been little effort on the part of successive governments to provide a task force of carefully selected, well-trained and reasonably paid advocates to provide these services.
In comparison, the system of legal aid in the U.K. identifies and funds several independent solicitor offices to provide such services. India is yet to put in place anything similar to this.
Poor judge-population ratio
The judge-population ratio provides one of the most important yardsticks to measure the health of the legal system. The U.S. has about 100 judges per million population. Canada has about 75 and the U.K. has about 50.
India, on the other hand, has only 19 judges per million population. Of these, at any given point, at least one-fourth is always vacant.
Lower courts where the common man first comes into contact (or at least should) with the justice delivery system is also unnoticed and hardly any attention is focused on their gaping inadequacy.
These inadequacies are far more important to the common man than the issues relating to the apex court that are frequently highlighted in the public space.
In All India Judges Association v. Union of India (2001), the Supreme Court had directed the Government of India to increase the judge-population ratio to at least 50 per million population within five years from the date of the judgment. This has not been implemented.
Access to justice
Though ‘access to justice’ has not been specifically spelt out as a fundamental right in the Constitution, it has always been treated as such by Indian courts.
In Anita Kushwaha v. Pushpa Sadan (2016), the Supreme Court held unambiguously that if “life” implies not only live in the physical sense but a bundle of rights that make life worth living, there is no justice or other basis for holding that denial of “access to justice” will not affect the quality of human life.
It was for the first time that the Supreme Court had attempted a near-exhaustive definition of what “access to justice” actually means.
Further, the court pointed out four important components of access to justice.
The need for adjudicatory mechanisms.
The mechanism must be conveniently accessible in terms of distance.
The process of adjudication must be speedy.
The process of adjudication must be affordable to the disputants.
It is of course a paradox that this judgment, which emphasizes the concept of speedy justice, was passed in 2016 in a batch of transfer petitions that were filed between 2008 and 2014.
Way forward
The state in all its glorious manifestations — the executive, judiciary and the legislature — there is a need to draw out a national policy and road map for clearing backlogs and making these concepts real.
A disproportionate amount of attention that is given to the functioning of the Supreme Court, it is equally important to have a clear focus on these and similar issues.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Farmers agitation and the South Asia connection
With protests becoming catalysts for anti-authoritarian struggle, the air is ripe for new visions of rural emancipation
Recent policy changes and its impacts on agriculture
There has been a systematic attack on agriculture in South Asia over the last decades. This can be seen in ongoing protests in India.
Similar incidences of protests can be seen in Pakistan, where farmers protesting for support prices were beaten up and arrested in Lahore only a month ago, or Sri Lanka, where shortages of imported fertilizers and declining subsidies have led to farmers’ outcry.
In the middle of a long-simmering rural economic crisis pushed over the cliff by the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts by South Asian governments to project corporatization and deregulation as the way forward for agriculture have angered long-suffering farmers.
Successive governments have imposed a corporate agenda, seeking profits from food production and distribution by relaxing norms for cheap food imports, and encouraging export-oriented production, price speculation, agribusiness and retail supermarkets.
South Asia’s rural landscape has been profoundly reshaped by such ‘reforms’, dispossessing farmers of their land, and pushing them into wage labour and migration as coping mechanisms.
This hollowing out of rural livelihoods does not come with any assurance of stable jobs or a decent quality of life in urban areas.
Pandemic opportunism
The COVID-19 crisis has increased such efforts and policy changes.
India is not the only country to have attempted to seize this moment to deregulate agricultural markets. In Pakistan, the government inked an agreement with the World Bank to further deregulate the country’s wheat market.
In Sri Lanka, with the national budget just passed for 2021, there are only meagre allocations towards revitalizing agricultural livelihoods and policies focused on supporting technologies suitable for agribusinesses.
Instead of the current crisis sending governments back to the drawing board, South Asia’s authoritarian regimes, complicit with corporate interests, are railroading in anti-farmer agricultural policies.
Practice Question: Do you think there is a common ground between farmers protests in various South Asian countries. Discuss with proper examples.
Menace of the corporatization of Agriculture
Corporate agriculture further worsens the existential danger faced by South Asian farmers.
The corporate solutions do not address the role of middlemen and traders in denying farmers a fair price for their labour.
Instead, opening up markets to large corporations is likely to spark the same sort of race to the bottom that has been seen in the industrial and service sectors.
Deregulation makes farmers’ livelihoods even more precarious and threatens food sovereignty through increased dependence on global agricultural trade.
It was the collapse of global agricultural commodity prices in the 1970s that had a large role to play in the debt crisis that haunts countries such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Reviving resistance
There is a powerful legacy of rural movements in South Asia that have fought for the rights of farmers, peasants and agricultural workers.
Rural movements played a crucial role in the anti-colonial struggle and fought for progressive land and agrarian reform after independence.
Seventy years on, they continue to fight against the recent waves of anti-farmer policies, while advancing new progressive visions such as peasant agro-ecology and food sovereignty, which put small food producers and the environment at the centre.
The current convergence of authoritarianism and corporate capital brings this existential crisis for rural agricultural producers even more sharply in focus.
Farmers’ movements have been aware of state connivance with exploitative actors, but they must now also contend with a breakdown of the democratic process and increased repression.
These should be ominous signs for regimes across South Asia which continue to act with impunity in the face of demands for economic and social justice.
Voices of movements
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed food sovereignty back into the public imagination. The solution, of course, only begins with making farming a viable livelihood.
Dominant assumptions about inevitable rural-urban migration and techno-utopian transformation in agriculture must be challenged.
Questions of land redistribution and other rural inequalities must remain a crucial part of the political agenda.
The situation of mostly female agricultural workers, the rural landless and Dalits in South Asia remains precarious. Even as rural movements across South Asia fight the ongoing attack on their livelihoods, they must also tackle rural inequality head-on.
Conclusion
The air is ripe for new visions of rural emancipation in South Asia.
Rural movements are working to transform not just their world but are becoming catalysts for a broader anti-authoritarian struggle in South Asia.
The current phase of struggles has revived old questions while raising others about the future of our long-ignored rural world.
We must listen to the voices and demands of the rural movements converging across South Asia.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sushrut Samhita
Mains level: Debate over mixopathy
This conundrum of different standards for surgical training must be solved because patient safety is far more important than the career progression of Ayurvedic postgraduates.
Practice Question: There is a need to rethink on the recent notification of AYUSH Ministry allowing Ayurveda postgraduates to conduct surgeries keeping the safety of the patient at the centre. Discuss.
The current clash
The clash between the allopathic and AYUSH fraternities is about the AYUSH practitioners’ “right” to conduct surgeries.
The Ayurvedic fraternity maintains postgraduates in Shalya and Shalakya (two surgical streams among 14 post-graduate courses) are taught procedures listed in the curriculum.
The oldest-known surgical specialist was, in fact, an Ayurvedic surgeon/sage Sushrut (600 BC) who wrote the Sushrut Samhita — a profound exposition on conducting human surgery which continues to receive worldwide acclaim.
Surgery was practised by Ayurvedic surgeons long before the advent of western medicine.
Allopaths question the logic of Sushrut’s millennia-old pre-eminence bestowing the right to practise modern surgery. Ayurvedic surgeons may not know the hidden risks of every surgical procedure and how to surmount sudden mishaps.
The Ministry of AYUSH justifies its notification on the ground that not all vaidyas but only postgraduates qualifying from two surgical streams have been authorized to perform selected surgeries.
The contentious issue
The moot point is about who decides whether Ayurvedic surgeons possess sufficient proficiency to conduct these surgeries safely and by what standard their skills are judged.
Surgical proficiency cannot be judged by different standards in one country — particularly when less-educated patients would rather save money than question a surgeon’s qualifications.
The statutory regulatory body for AYUSH education is the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM). CCIM has only promoted what private college managements demand, propelled, in turn, by students’ need to earn a stable income as medical professionals.
In this misplaced zeal to give better earnings to the Ayurvedic vaidyas, CCIM has sidelined many skills that Ayurveda could have included, which are relevant even today.
This has subjugated the curriculum to nurture more and more replicas of doctors of modern medicine.
This has killed the knowledge, purity and goodness of classical Ayurveda, which ironically is the Ayurveda in high demand in Europe, Russia and America.
Nothing can replace practise and training to perform surgery
When it comes to surgery, it is not knowledge but rigorous training and continuous practice which makes for perfection. Both require clinical material and most Ayurvedic hospitals do not have a fraction of the surgical patients found in allopathic general hospitals.
Allopathic students of surgery learn first by watching and then performing scores of surgeries under supervision.
Surgical skills are by no means impossible to learn but they become difficult to master without continuous training and supervision.
Due to the paucity of patients, limited scope for training and access to gaining hands-on practice, it is hazardous to allow all Shalya and Shalakya postgraduates to undertake surgical procedures.
In the last three decades, specialization has excluded general surgeons from performing what was once considered routine. For example, only an ENT surgeon can perform a tonsillectomy.
Therefore, to notify that Ayurvedic postgraduates in surgery can perform omnibus operations runs counter to the norm in India and in other countries.
Way forward
In performing surgery, the only benchmark should be the duration of hands-on training received — counted by surgeries under supervision, and being judged through external evaluation.
Every surgeon’s skills and competence must be tested by applying exactly the same standards before she/he can operate.
This conundrum of different standards for surgical training must be solved because patient safety is far more important than the career progression of Ayurvedic postgraduates.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NFHS
Mains level: Various facets of hunger and malnutrition in India
Poor nutritional outcomes in NFHS-5 show that a piecemeal approach does not work.
Nutrition-related data released by NFHS-5
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released data fact sheets for 22 States and Union Territories (UTs) based on the findings of Phase I of the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5).
The 22 States/ UTs don’t include some major States such as Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
Practice Question: The latest findings from the National Family Health Survey data shows a sign of worry. Suggest the policy measures required to tackle the health and nutrition-related issues in India.
Worrying findings
There is an increase in the prevalence of severe acute malnutrition in 16 States/UTs (compared to NFHS-4 conducted in 2015-16). Kerala and Karnataka are the only two big states where there is some decline.
The percentage of children under five who are underweight has also increased in 16 out of the 22 States/UTs.
Anaemia levels among children as well as adult women have increased in most of the States with a decline in anaemia among children being seen only in four States/UTs.
There is also an increase in the prevalence of other indicators such as adult malnutrition in many States/ UTs.
Most States/UTs also see an increase in overweight/obesity prevalence among children and adults shows the inadequacy of diets in India both in terms of quality and quantity.
The data report an increase in childhood stunting (an indicator of chronic under-nutrition and considered a sensitive indicator of overall well-being) in 13 of the 22 States/UTs.
Poshan Abhiyaan, one of the flagship programmes of the PM, launched in 2017, aimed at achieving a 2% reduction in childhood stunting per year.
Economic growth vs health indicators
There is an increase in the prevalence of childhood stunting in the country during the period 2015-16 to 2019-20.
This calls for serious introspection on not just the direct programmes in place to address the problem of child malnutrition but also the overall model of economic growth that the country has embarked upon.
The World Health Organization calls stunting “a marker of inequalities in human development”.
Over the last three decades, India has experienced high rates of economic growth. But this period has also seen increasing inequality, greater informalisation of the labour force, and reducing employment elasticities of growth.
Currently, India is witnessing a slowdown in economic growth, stagnant rural wages and highest levels of unemployment. This is reflected in the rising number of reported starvation deaths from different parts of the country.
The situation has become even worse due to the pandemic and lockdown-induced economic distress.
Field surveys such as the recent ‘Hunger Watch’ are already showing massive levels of food insecurity and decline in food consumption, especially among the poor and vulnerable households.
All of this calls for urgent action with commitment towards addressing the issue of malnutrition.
Social protection schemes and their impact on nutrition indicators
Social protection schemes and public programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Public Distribution System, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), and school meals have contributed to a reduction in absolute poverty as well as previous improvements in nutrition indicators.
However, there are continuous attempts to weaken these mechanisms through underfunding and general neglect.
Only about 32.5% of the funds released for Poshan Abhiyaan from 2017-18 onwards had been utilized.
There are some improvements seen in determinants of malnutrition such as access to sanitation, clean cooking fuels and women’s status – a reduction in spousal violence and greater access of women to bank accounts.
A piecemeal approach
The overall poor nutritional outcomes show that a piecemeal approach addressing some aspects does not work.
Direct interventions such as supplementary nutrition (of good quality including eggs, fruits, etc.), growth monitoring, and behaviour change communication through the ICDS and school meals must be strengthened and given more resources.
Universal maternity entitlements and child care services to enable exclusive breastfeeding, appropriate infant and young child feeding as well as towards recognizing women’s unpaid work burdens have been on the agenda for long, but not much progress has been made on these.
The linkages between agriculture and nutrition both through what foods are produced and available as well as what kinds of livelihoods are generated in farming are also important.
Conclusion
The basic determinants of malnutrition – household food security, access to basic health services and equitable gender relations – cannot be ignored any longer.
An employment-centred growth strategy which includes the universal provision of basic services for education, health, food and social security is imperative.
There have been many indications in our country that business as usual is not sustainable anymore.
It is hoped that the experience of the pandemic, as well as the results of NFHS-5, serve as a wake-up call for a serious rethinking of issues related to nutrition and accord these issues priority.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Nursing education in India
The year 2020 has been designated as “International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife”.
But the nursing education in India displays a grim situation. It suffers poor quality of training, inequitable distribution, and non-standardized practices.
Nursing sector in India
Nurses and midwives will be central to achieving universal health coverage in India.
India’s nursing workforce is about two-thirds of its health workforce. Its ratio of 7 nurses per 1,000 population is 43% less than the World Health Organization norm; it needs 2.4 million nurses to meet the norm.
The sector is dogged by structural challenges that lead to poor quality of training, inequitable distribution, and non-standardized practices.
Uneven regulation
Nursing education in India has a wide array of certificate, diploma, and degree programmes for clinical and non-clinical nursing roles.
The Indian Nursing Council regulates nursing education through prescription, inspection, examination, and certification. 91% of the nursing education institutions are private and weakly regulated. The quality of training of nurses is diminished by the uneven and weak regulation.
The current nursing education is outdated and fails to cater to the practice needs. The education, including re-training, is not linked to the roles and their career progression in the nursing practice.
There are insufficient postgraduate courses to develop skills in specialities and address critical faculty shortages both in terms of quality and quantity.
These factors have led to gaps in skills and competencies, with no clear career trajectory for nurses.
Multiple entries point to the nursing courses and lack of integration of the diploma and degree courses diminish the quality of training.
A common entrance exam, a national licence exit exam for entry into practice, and periodic renewal of licence linked with continuing nursing education would significantly streamline and strengthen nursing education.
Transparent accreditation, benchmarking, and ranking of nursing institutions too would improve the quality.
The number of nursing education institutions has been increasing steadily but there are vast inequities in their distribution. Around 62% of them are situated in southern India.
There is little demand for postgraduate courses. Recognizing the need for speciality courses in clinical nursing 12 PG diploma courses were rolled out but the higher education qualification is not recognized by the recruiters.
The faculty positions vacant in nursing college and schools are around 86% and 80%, respectively.
Gaps in education, services
There is a lack of job differentiation between diploma, graduate, and postgraduate nurses regarding their pay, parity, and promotion.
The higher qualifications are underutilized, leading to low demand for postgraduate courses.
Those with advanced degrees seek employment in educational institutions or migrate abroad which has led to an acute dearth of qualified nurses in the country.
Small private institutions with less than 50 beds recruit candidates without formal nursing education. They are offered courses of three to six months for non-clinical ancillary nursing roles and are paid very little.
The Indian Nursing Act primarily revolves around nursing education and does not provide any policy guidance about the roles and responsibilities of nurses in various cadres.
Nurses in India have no guidelines on the scope of their practice and have no prescribed standards of care and is a major reason for the low legitimacy of the nursing practice and the profession. This may endanger patient safety.
The Consumer Protection Act holds only the doctor and the hospital liable for medico-legal issues; nurses are out of the purview of the Act. This is contrary to the practices in developed countries where nurses are legally liable for errors in their work.
Institutional reforms required
The governance of nursing education and practice must be clarified and made current.
The Indian Nursing Council Act of 1947must be amended to explicitly state clear norms for service and patient care, fix the nurse to patient ratio, staffing norms and salaries.
The jurisdictions of the Indian Nursing Council and the State nursing councils must be explained and coordinated so that they are synergistic.
Incentives to pursue advanced degrees to match their qualification, clear career paths, the opportunity for leadership roles, and improvements in the status of nursing as a profession should be done.
A live registry of nurses, positions, and opportunities should be a top priority to tackle the demand-supply gap in this sector.
The public-private partnership between private nursing schools/colleges and public health facilities is another strategy to enhance nursing education. NITI Aayog has recently formulated a framework to develop a model agreement for nursing education.
The Government has also announced supporting such projects through a Viability Gap Funding.
Practice Question:
Q. Discuss the various issues related to nursing sector in India and measures to be taken to address them.
A Bill that could spell hope
The disabling environment prevalent in the system has led to the low status of nurses in the hierarchy of health-care professionals. In fact, nursing has lost the appeal as a career option.
The National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Bill currently under consideration should hopefully address some of the issues highlighted.
These disruptions are more relevant than ever in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Concerns of farmers other than MSP
The standoff between farmers and the government continues even after a few rounds of discussion.
Un-timely reforms
Currently, the country was struggling with novel coronavirus-caused lockdowns, supply disruptions, job losses and falling incomes in an economy.
The reforms embedded in the three Acts are unlikely to help resolve the structural issues facing Indian agriculture, even their withdrawal is unlikely to change the ground reality.
Farmers protest continues
The immediate trigger for the current protests is the enactment of the three Acts, on agricultural marketing, contract farming and stocking of agricultural produce, which deregulates the existing Acts on these.
Farmer unions have rejected the proposal and continue to demand complete withdrawal of the three Acts along with making MSP a guarantee.
Government for negotiations
The latest proposal by the government indicates its willingness to amend the three agriculture-related Acts passed in September.
The government has proposed amendments which will empower the States to frame rules the contentious issues of registration of private traders, levy of taxes on trade outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis.
Similar assurances have been given on access to the judiciary for dispute resolution and continuation of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism.
Many protests, one thread
The last four years have seen a series of large protests in most of the States.
For example, a group of farmers from Tamil Nadu camped in Delhi for over 100 days, Maharashtra was witness to the ‘Kisan Long March’ of farmers on more than one occasion, protests erupted in Rajasthan, UP, Haryana and MP.
The latest round of protests may have seen spirited protests from farmers from Punjab and Haryana but has found the support of farmers from the other States as well.
The common thread in all these protests — of declining agricultural incomes, stagnant wages and withdrawal of state support to agriculture.
Changing faces of agriculture
The real issue is the lack of remunerative prices for a majority of agricultural commodities, a sharp increase in price variability in recent years, and an unpredictable and arbitrary government policy regime.
The other major problem is the changing nature of agriculture which has seen increased dependence on markets, increasing mechanization along with increasing monetization of the agrarian economy.
The increased dependence on markets has contributed to increasing variability in output prices.
Limited government intervention in protecting farmers’ income and stabilizing prices through MSP-led procurement operations made the increased variability in frequency as well as its spread.
Other than rice and wheat — and to some sporadic instances, of pulses — most crops suffer from inadequate intervention from MSP operations.
Even these procurement operations are unable to stabilize prices with falling demand and a slowing economy. For example, wheat has seen a steady decline in year-on-year inflation based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI).
Uneven nature of procurement in some states is also responsible to arrest the decline in prices. Crops like paddy, maize have seen in many States significantly lower market prices than the MSP.
Factors behind vulnerability
Increasing mechanization and monetization have led to an increase in the cash requirement.
Most of these are met by non-institutional sources including middlemen which have contributed to the rising cost of cultivation and an increase in loan defaults.
The demand for loan waivers is unlikely to subside with the rising cost of inputs.
These trends have accentuated after 2010-11 when the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) for fertilizers regime led to an increase in fertilizer prices.
The withdrawal of diesel subsidy and a rise in electricity prices also contributed to making agriculture unviable.
The government has declined the agricultural investment in the first four years which resulted in rising input costs and falling output prices.
The shocks of demonetizationand the lockdown only increased the uncertainty and vulnerability in the agricultural sector both on input and output prices.
What lies ahead?
The demand for making MSP a guarantee for private trade is meaningless if the government is unable to ensure procurement for a majority of the 23 crops for which it announces MSP.
Thus, the withdrawal of the three Acts by the government will only seem to offer a temporary truce.
Policy overhaul needed
The existing policy framework with an excessive focus on inflation management and obsession with the fiscal deficit will likely lead to lower support from the government either in price stabilization or reduction in the cost of cultivation through fiscal spending.
The agricultural sector needs a comprehensive policy overhaul to recognize the new challenges of agriculture which are diversifying and getting integrated with the non-agricultural sector.
This not only entails a better understanding of the structural issues but also innovative thinking to protect farmers’ livelihood from the uncertainty of these changes.
Above all, it requires financial support and institutional structures to support the agricultural sector and protect it. Only this can lead to the government’s dream of doubling the farmers’ income.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Paris Agreement
Mains level: Paper 3- Net zero emission targets and issues with it
Climate Ambition Summit was held on the 5th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. The article takes stock of the progress made on climate action in the last 5 years.
The Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016.
Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate-neutral world by mid-century.
It is a landmark process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
How does it function?
Implementation of the Paris Agreement requires economic and social transformation, based on the best available science.
The Agreement works on a 5- year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action carried out by countries.
By 2020, countries submit their plans for climate action known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
NDCs
In their NDCs, countries communicate actions they will take to reduce their Greenhouse Gas emissions in order to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Countries also communicate in the NDCs actions they will take to build resilience to adapt to the impacts of rising temperatures.
Long-Term Strategies
To better frame the efforts towards the long-term goal, the Paris Agreement invites countries to formulate and submit by 2020 long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies (LT-LEDS).
LT-LEDS provide the long-term horizon to the NDCs. Unlike NDCs, they are not mandatory.
Nevertheless, they place the NDCs into the context of countries’ long-term planning and development priorities, providing a vision and direction for future development.
Progress made after 5 years
All states have submitted their national contributions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
However, these contributions are radically insufficient to reach the “well below 2 degrees Celsius” limit and are even further from the “1.5 degrees Celsius” temperature limit identified in the Paris Agreement.
This initial shortfall was expected — the logic of the Paris Agreement relied on iterative scaling up of national targets over time to bridge the gap.
Are countries scaling up the targets
Although 151 states have indicated that they will submit stronger targets before December 31, only 13 of them, covering 2.4 per cent of global emissions, have submitted such targets.
While states have been slow to update their national contributions for 2025-2030, several have announced “net zero” targets in the recent past.
All G-7 states except the US and 11 G20 members have mid-century (2050 or 2060) net zero targets -carbon dioxide or other GHGs.
The Joe Biden administration is also expected to join this group.
Issues in Net Zero targets
1) Credibility of the commitments
First, the credibility check — are these long-term net zero goals aligned with short-term actions, policies and measures?
The IPCC 1.5 degrees Celsius Report indicated that to stay within a reasonable chance of achieving 1.5 degrees Celsius, global carbon dioxide emissions have to fall by 45 per cent from the 2010 levels by 2030.
Current national contributions are not on track for such a fall.
For many there is a mismatch between short-term actions and long-term commitments.
Further, there is a significant “overshoot” in terms of GHGs in the short and medium-term, and a reliance on negative emissions technologies to get there in the long-term.
2) Fixing accountability
Many net zero goals have not yet been embedded in national contributions and long-term strategies under the Paris Agreement.
In any case, accountability under the Paris Agreement is limited. States are not obliged to achieve their self-selected targets.
There is no mechanism to review the adequacy of individual contributions.
States are only asked to provide justifications for the fairness and ambition of their targets.
The transparency framework does not contain a robust review function, and the compliance committee is facilitative and limited to ensuring compliance with a short list of binding procedural obligations.
Accountability, therefore, has thus far been generated by non-state actors outside the UN regime rather than in the regime.
3) Fairness of climate action
The issue of equity and fairness, side-stepped in the Paris Agreement, is emerging in climate litigation before national and regional courts.
In the landmark Urgenda case (2019), the Dutch Supreme court considered “fair shares” when identifying benchmarks against which the Netherland’s national effort could be judged in the context of a collective action problem.
Issues of fairness and justice, both between and within generations, are “unavoidable”.
India’s commitment
In 2015, ahead of the UN significant climate conference in Paris, India announced three major voluntary commitments called the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC):
Improving the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33–35% by 2030 over 2005 levels
Increasing the share of non-fossil fuels-based electricity to 40% by 2030 and
Enhancing its forest cover, thereby absorbing 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide
A success (?)
The Environment Minister said that we have achieved 21% of its emissions intensity reduction target as a proportion of its GDP in line with its pledge to a 33-35% reduction by 2030.
India was the only major G20 country that was on track towards keeping to its nationally determined commitments to halt runaway global warming.
Conclusion
Credible short-term commitments, with a clear pathway to medium-term decarbonisation, that take into account the multiple challenges states face, such as on air pollution, and development, might well be the more defensible choice for some.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Iran's nuclear deal
Mains level: Paper 2- Iran nuclear deal and challenges
The article analyses Iran’s response to the recent killing of its top nuclear scientist. Instead of responding to the provocation, Iran has decided to wait and watch the new U.S. administrations response.
Background of nuclear deal with Iran
In 2015, the P5+1 nations-China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S., plus Germany- reached an agreement with Iran to curb the country’s nuclear programme.
It was expected that the agreement would lead to a new beginning in West Asia, however, this did not happen.
Washington saw Iran’s nuclear programme, which was at an advanced stage in 2015, as a national security problem and tackled it via diplomacy.
However, for Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s nuclear programme was not the problem but was part of the larger geopolitical challenges Iran posed.
The problem was Iran itself: Tehran’s influence across West Asia, its backing for non-state militias, and its ambition to emerge as a dominant pillar in the region.
The Donald Trump administration took an entirely different line towards Iran.
It pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal, despite United Nations certification that Iran was compliant with its terms, and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
Israels
Iran wants to set back Iran’s nuclear programme by taking out a prominent scientist and scuttle the possible revival of the nuclear deal.
If Iran does not retaliate, it shows that Iran’s deterrence is getting weaker, which could trigger more such attacks from its rivals.
If it retaliates, it could escalate the conflict, giving the outgoing Trump administration and Isarael reasons to launch heavier strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, closing off the diplomatic path.
Iran’s response and challenges in it
Instead of walking into the trap of provocation, Iran’s Parliament passed a Bill that obliges the government to enrich uranium to a higher level, from less than 5% now to 20%.
This is a technical step away from the weapons-grade level of 90%.
And stop access for UN inspectors to the country’s top nuclear facilities in two months if sanctions relief is not given.
Within two months, Mr. Biden will be in the White House.
Conclusion
Iran is taking a calculated risk by enhancing its nuclear programme, which can be reversed if talks are revived. But it is leaving the Israel problem unaddressed, for now. This leaves the region vulnerable to a prolonged crisis.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: POSHAN Abhiyan
Mains level: Paper 2- Analysing the contribution of POSHAN Abhiyan
POSHAN Abhiyan has completed 1000 days. The article analyses the challenges country face on the nutrition front which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 induced disruptions.
Severity and impact of malnutrition
Malnourished children tend to fall short of their real potential — physically as well as mentally.
That is because malnutrition leaves their bodies weaker and more susceptible to illnesses.
In 2017, a staggering 68% of 1.04 million deaths of children under five years in India was attributable to malnutrition, reckoned a Lancet study in 2019.
Without necessary nutrients, their brains do not develop to the fullest.
Malnutrition places a burden heavy enough for India, to make it a top national priority.
About half of all children under five years in the country were found to be stunted (too short) or wasted (too thin) for their height, estimated the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, carried out by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with support of UNICEF three years ago.
POSHAN Abhiyan against the background Covid-19 disruption
The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) Abhiyaan in 2018, led to a holistic approach to tackle malnutrition.
Under it, the government strengthened the delivery of essential nutrition interventions.
COVID-19 is pushing millions into poverty making them vulnerable to malnutrition and food insecurities.
Pandemic-prompted lockdowns disrupted essential services — such as supplementary feeding under anganwadi centres, mid-day meals, immunisation, and micro-nutrient supplementation which can exacerbate malnutrition.
Leaders from academia, civil society, development partners, community advocates and the private sector have come together as part of ‘commitment to action’.
The ‘commitment to action’ includes commitments around sustained leadership, dedicated finances, multi-sectoral approach and increased uninterrupted coverage of a vulnerable population under programmes enhancing nutrition.
Financial commitments
India already has some of the world’s biggest early childhood public intervention schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the mid-day meal programme, and Public Distribution System.
India needs to ensure coverage of every single child and mother.
To ensure this, the country needs to retain its financial commitments for nutrition schemes.
Economic insecurities often force girls into early marriage, early motherhood, discontinue their schooling, and reduce institutional deliveries, cut access to micronutrient supplements, and nutritious food.
Accelerating efforts to address these will be needed to stop the regression into the deeper recesses of malnutrition.
Conclusion
It takes time for nutrition interventions to yield dividends, but once those accrue, they can bring transformative generational shifts. Filling in the nutrition gaps will guarantee a level-playing field for all children and strengthen the foundations for the making of a future super-power.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ICDS program
Mains level: Paper 2- Role of Anganwadi centres in ICDS
The article highlights the role of Anganwadi’s in the effective implementation and service delivery under the ICDS.
Gaps in the utilisation of services by ICDS
The economic fallout of COVID-19 makes the necessity of quality public welfare services more pressing than ever.
The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme is one such scheme.
ICDS caters to the nutrition, health and pre-education needs of children till six years of age as well as the health and nutrition of women and adolescent girls.
However, recent reports have shown gaps in the utilisation of services.
Recasting the Anganwadi centres
Anganwadi centres (AWCs) could become agents of improved delivery of ICDS’s services.
According to government data, the country has 13.77 lakh Anganwadi centres (AWCs).
These centres have expanded their reach, but they need to play a much larger role in anchoring community development.
Nearly a fourth of the operational AWCs lack drinking water facilities and 36 per cent do not have toilets.
In 2015, the NITI Aayog recommended better sanitation and drinking water facilities, improved power supply and basic medicines for the AWCs.
NITI Aayog also suggested that these centres be provided with the required number of workers, whose skills should be upgraded through regular training.
It has acknowledged the need to improve anganwadi centres.
The Central government’s Saksham Anganwadi Scheme aims to upgrade 2.5 lakh such centres across the country. It is up to the state governments to take up the baton
Only a limited number of AWCs have facilities like creche, and good quality recreational and learning facilities for pre-school education.
An approach that combines an effective supplementary nutrition programme with pedagogic processes that make learning interesting is the need of the hour.
Steps taken for effective implementation of ICDS
Effective implementation of the ICDS programme rests heavily on the combined efforts of the anganwadi workers (AWWs), ASHAs and ANMs.
The Centre’s POSHAN Abhiyaan has taken important steps towards building capacities of AWWs.
Technology can also be used for augmenting the programme’s quality.
AWWs have been provided with smartphones and their supervisors with tablets, under the government schemes.
Apps on these devices track the distribution of take-home rations and supplementary nutrition services.
The data generated should inform decisions to improve the programme.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, anganwadi centres have been geotagged to improve service delivery.
Gujarat has digitised the supply chain of take-home rations and real-time data is being used to minimise stockouts at the anganwadi centres.
Conclusion
Government must act on the three imperatives. First, while infrastructure development and capacity building of the anganwadi remains the key to improving the programme, the standards of all its services need to be upscaled. Second, states have much to learn from each other’s experiences. Third, anganwadi centres must cater to the needs of the community and the programme’s workers.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Federal structure
Mains level: Paper 2- Federalism in India and factors sustaining it
The article analyses the various factor that helped in sustaining the federal structure in India.
Flexible federalism
The Indian Constitution was designed to be opportunistic about federalism.
As BR Ambedkar had put it, “India’s Draft Constitution can be both unitary as well as federal according to the requirements of time and circumstances.”
This flexible federalism is still the default common sense of Indian politics.
The concerns about security, state-building, and economic development are always given preference over the idea of federalism.
4 factors sustaining federalism in India
1) Linguistic and cultural diversity in India
The first was a genuine concern about whether a centralised state could accommodate India’s linguistic and cultural diversity.
The States Reorganisation Act and the compromises on the issue of languages was a victory for federalism.
It allowed India to use federalism to accommodate linguistic diversity.
So long as regional linguistic identities are not threatened there is no natural source of resistance to centralisation.
2) Distribution of political power
The rise of coalition governments, economic liberalisation, regional parties, seemed to provide a basis for political federalism.
Political federalism is quite compatible with financial, and administrative centralisation.
Fragmentation of power effectively meant was that each state could bargain for certain things, or very strong leaders could veto central proposals.
However, it is striking that the period of fragmented power, strong chief ministers, didn’t act to strengthen the institutions of federalism.
3) Political and institutional culture
The third thing that sustains federalism is the political and institutional culture.
But the culture of political parties ruling at the Centre was committed to the most extreme interpretation of flexible federalism, including procedural impropriety to oust opponents.
Because of the increasing presidentialisation of national politics, the attribution of policy successes or failures might change, diminishing the stature of chief ministers considerably.
The other source of institutional culture might be the Supreme Court.
There was mostly a bi-partisan consensus on honouring the technical recommendations of institutions like the Finance Commission.
4) Asymmetrical federalism
The fourth thing that sustained federalism was “asymmetrical federalism” — special exemptions given to various states.
But asymmetrical federalism has always been subject to three pressures.
For Kashmir, asymmetrical federalism came to be seen as the source, not the resolution, of the security threat.
Even in the North-east, local conflicts within the scheme of asymmetrical federalism and discourse of security allowed the Centre to step in.
And increasingly, there will be pressure on the question: Which laws under asymmetrical federalism are compatible with Article 14 of the Indian Constitution?
GST and Decentralisation in states
The most far-reaching change in the Indian Constitution on federalism was GST.
It does increase centralisation in the system.
But it is a product of the cooperation of the states, who still have a significant role in shaping it.
The states did push back against the possibility of the Centre reneging on its commitment on payments.
Most states are reluctant to honour more decentralisation within, to rural and urban bodies.
The Centre disproportionately controls resources in India; but very few states have shown a zeal to increase their own financial headroom by utilising whatever powers they might have on taxation.
Consider the question “How federalism in India is different from the U.S.? What are the factors responsible for its sustenance in India?”
Conclusion
The flexible federalism will be bent in all kinds of ways. But it is important to remember that this mess is not a product of Centre versus states. It has been co-produced by a political culture in both Centre and the states.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GDP
Mains level: Paper 3- Recovery of Indian economy and the issue of fiscal conservatism
Overoptimism stemming from the signs of recovery shown by the figures for the second quarter could result in reduced spending and the rollback of the stimulus. However, other features indicate that fiscal conservatism at this moment is not a good idea.
Hype over recovery
India’s economy contracted by 7.5% in the second quarter of financial year 2020-21.
There are two ways to look at that figure:-
1) That figure is far lower than the 23.9% contraction registered in the first quarter of this financial year.
2) A 7.5% second quarter contraction is high both in itself and when compared with most similarly placed countries.
The government, however, has chosen to focus on the unsurprising evidence that GDP rose sharply, by 23%, between the first quarter and the second when restrictions were substantially lifted.
Based on that evidence, the Finance Ministry’s Monthly Economic Report, for November, speaks of a V-shaped recovery reflective of “the resilience and robustness of the Indian economy”.
The danger is that such optimism would provide the justification to avoid adoption of the measures crucially needed to pull the economy out of recession.
India economy is still demand constrained: 3 signs
1) The decline in private final consumption expenditure at constant prices, which accounts for 56% of GDP, has come down from minus 27% in the first quarter to minus 11% in the second, it still remains high.
Though there are signs of a short-run recovery in private consumption demand with the lifting of lockdowns, net incomes and consumer confidence are not at levels that can even restore last year’s levels.
2) As is to be expected, with production restraints relaxed, depleted stocks are being replenished with a fall of 21% in the first quarter turning into an increase in stocking of 6.3% in the second quarter.
3) The decline in fixed capital formation has fallen from a high minus 47% in the first quarter to minus 7% in the second, investment is still falling year-on-year.
These are all signs of an economy that is severely demand constrained, requiring a significant step up in government expenditure.
Impact on spending by the Centre and the States
Figures from the Office of the Controller General of Accounts for the first seven months of 2020-21 (April to October) indicate that the total expenditure of the central government stood at only 55% of what was provided for in the Budget for 2020-21.
In fact, in a non-COVID-19 year, 2019-20, the ratio of actual spending by the central government over April-October relative to that budgeted figure was a higher 59%.
Meanwhile, with Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues having fallen from their lower-than-expected levels during the COVID-19 months, the States have been cash-strapped.
Yet, the government has decided not to compensate them for the shortfall, as promised under the GST regime.
States have been left to fend for themselves by going to market and borrowing at high interest rates, which they would find difficult to cover.
Needless to say, as a consequence, State spending has also been curtailed.
Why government should avoid fiscal conservatism
The loss of jobs and livelihoods that happened during lockdown is sure to affect demand now.
This leads to increased indebtedness and the bankruptcies well after restrictions are relaxed.
So, the tasks of providing safety nets, reviving employment and spurring demand become crucial.
Since the market cannot deliver on those fronts, state action facilitated by substantially enhanced expenditure is crucial.
And since government revenues shrink during a recession, that expenditure has to be funded by borrowing.
This is no time for fiscal conservatism, as governments across the world have come to accept.
Trend suggests that allocations for welfare expenditures — ranging from subsidised food to minimal guaranteed employment — needed to support those whose livelihoods have been devastated by the pandemic, would be reduced over time.
As collateral damage, this frugality in a time of crisis is likely to prolong the recession.
Conclusion
The optimism that a V-shaped recovery is imminent, and that optimism, in turn, would justify the view that fiscal conservatism pays. It does not, as time would tell.
Back2Basics: What is V-shaped recovery?
A V-shaped recovery is characterized by a quick and sustained recovery in measures of economic performance after a sharp economic decline.
Because of the speed of economic adjustment and recovery in macroeconomic performance, a V-shaped recovery is a best case scenario given the recession.
The recoveries that followed the recessions of 1920-21 and 1953 in the U.S. are examples of V-shaped recoveries.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: AI and machine learning
Mains level: Paper 3- Artificial intelligence and opportunities for Indian economy
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the Indian economy. In the last few years, India made significant progress in its adoption. However, there are several areas India need to focus on to make the most of what AI offers.
AI adoption and capacity building in India
NITI Aayog’s national strategy for AI envisages ‘AI for all’ for inclusive growth.
NITI Aayog identifies healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation as focus areas for AI-led solutions for social impact.
The Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra governments, among others, have announced policies and strategies for AI adoption.
Technology companies have established AI centres of excellence to create solutions for global clients.
India has a thriving AI start-up ecosystem.
Our talent pool in AI/ML (Machine Learning) is fast-growing, with over 5,00,000 people working on these technologies at present.
AI will boost Indian economy
Nasscom believes that data and AI will contribute $450 billion-$500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025, which is around 10% of the government’s aspiration of a $5 trillion economy.
The growing AI economy will create employment opportunity by creating an estimated over 20 million technical roles.
AI can create not just niche solutions to specific problems that banks and other service providers are deploying, such as speeding up loan application processing or improving customer service; it can also provide solutions for better governance and social impact.
AI can create not just niche solutions to specific problems that banks and other service providers are deploying, such as speeding up loan application processing or improving customer service; it can also provide solutions for better governance and social impact.
Way forward: Focus on 3 areas
1)Talent development
In 2019, we nearly doubled our AI workforce to 72,000 from 40,000 the year before.
However, the demand continues to outpace the supply.
That means our efforts to develop talent must pick up speed.
2) Policies around data
Without data, there cannot be AI.
However, we need a balanced approach in the way we harness and utilise data.
We need a robust legal framework that governs data and serves as the base for the ethical use of AI.
3) Providing the right amount of training data
Though the use of digital technologies has gone up, the level of digitisation continues to be low.
This poses a big challenge for organisations in finding the right amount of training data to run AI/ML algorithms, which in turn affects the accuracy of the results.
Then there is the problem of availability of clean datasets.
Organisations need to invest in data management frameworks that will clean their data before they are analysed, thus vastly improving the outcomes of AI models.
Consider the question “What is Artificial Intelligence? How it could help in providing a boost to the India economy?”
Conclusion
The future for AI looks promising but to convert the potential into reality, India will need better strategies around talent development, stronger policies for data usage and governance, and more investments in creating a technology infrastructure that can truly leverage AI.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Geopolitics of climate change and India's role in it
With the victory of Joe Biden in the U.S. Presidential election geopolitics of the climate change is headed for a new reset. The article examines the role India could play in the changing geopolitical realities and also spells out the challenge for India.
India’s role in geopolitics of climate change
India is probably better prepared than in the past when India was widely seen as part of the problem on climate issues.
But the urgency of addressing climate change is likely to intensify for two reasons:
1) The election of Biden as US President.
2) The prospect of cooperation on climate change between Washington and Beijing.
India’s ability to influence the new geopolitics of climate change will depend a lot on its domestic political resilience in adapting to the new imperatives.
While a democratic India struggles to deal with the new internal conflicts centred on climate, China has crafted a new template of “coercive environmentalism”.
The Chinese model of coercive environmentalism is finding an echo among some Western environmentalists.
Whatever the merits of authoritarian environmentalism, it has little political chance of being replicated in democracies.
Cooperation on climate change between the US and China
Modernising liberal environmentalism is the essence of president-elect Biden’s commitment to integrating the climate question with the domestic policy agenda.
“Climate justice” is another important objective of Biden’s domestic environmental policy.
It is based on the recognition that pollution and other ecological problems have a greater impact on the poor and minorities.
Although coercive and liberal approaches to managing climate change are different, the US and China share some important objectives.
Both China and the US (along with the West) recognise the urgency of the challenge.
Beijing and Washington are also racing to develop new technologies that will constitute the foundations of the green economic future.
Both have zeroed in on industrial policy to achieve their climate objectives.
For Xi and Biden, gaining the leadership of the global movement for mitigating climate change is a strategic mission.
Washington and Beijing understand that climate politics is in the end about rearranging the global order.
Consequently, the new direction of Chinese and US policies (in partnership with Europe and Japan) will inevitably put pressure on other states for climate actions.
Conclusion
India’s real test on climate change is on building a new domestic consensus that can address the economic and political costs associated with an internal adjustment to the prospect of a great global reset.
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Right to Education Act, Skill India Mission
Mains level: Paper 2- Skill development of youth in India
Significant progress has been made in India on the skill development front. However, there are many challenges that are needed to be tackled through policy measures and their effective implementation. The article deals with the issue.
Progress in skill development in India
Evidence shows that many people develop 21st-century skills on the job, or from courses that focus on practical application of skills, rather than in schools.
India has laid the foundation for delivering on the vision of making quality skills development programmes available to the youth.
Vocational education can be a route for many to gain specific skillsets, such education formats are referred to as Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
The National Skill Development Policy was launched in 2009 and revamped in 2015, recognising the challenge of skilling with speed and high standards.
The Skill India Mission was launched soon after, with the vision for making India the “skill capital” of the world.
Key finding and recommendations of the UNESCO’s State of the Education Report for India
The report focuses on vocational education and training and showcases the growth of the skills development sector.
It also provides practical recommendations to ensure that policy is effectively implemented.
One of the biggest challenges for expanding the reach of TVET-related courses has been the lack of aspiration and stigma attached to jobs such as carpentry and tailoring.
Considerable effort, including information campaigns involving youth role models, would help in improving the image of vocational education.
At the same time, common myths around TVET need to be debunked.
Research is now proving that TVET graduates for entry level jobs can get paid as much as university graduates.
Moreover, students from vocational streams typically take less time to find jobs as compared to university graduates.
The report emphasises the need for expanding evidence-based research.
High-quality research based on careful data-gathering and analytics can add value to all aspects of TVET planning and delivery.
Emphasis on vocational education in NEP
The new National Education Policy (NEP) aims to provide vocational education to 50% of all learners by 2025.
Schools are encouraged to provide students access to vocational education from Grade 6 onwards and to offer courses that are aligned to the local economies and can benefit local communities.
For the vision of the NEP to be fulfilled, a robust coordination mechanism for inter-ministerial cooperation is necessary for bringing the skills development and vocational education systems together.
Conclusion
Effective implementation of the policies for skill development is essential for capitalising on the country’s demographic dividend.
