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Type: op-ed snap

  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Russia

    Energy cooperation as the backbone of India-Russia ties

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Energy partnership with Russia

    Context

    With its abundant energy sources and appetite for trade diversification, Russia could be an ultimate long-term partner of India as it tries to diversify its trade relations.

    Energy partnership

    • Indian Prime Minister in a virtual address at 6th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Russia’s Vladivostok said that “India-Russia energy partnership can help bring stability to the global energy market.”
    • Indian and Russian Energy Ministers announced that the countries’ companies have been pushing for greater cooperation in the oil and gas sector beyond the U.S.$32 billion already invested in joint projects.
    • India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri referred to Russia as the largest investor in India’s energy sector.
    • One of the examples of cooperation between the two countries in energy transformation is the joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. and Russia’s Sibur, the country’s largest petrochemicals producer.
    • Apart from accounting for most of the Indian butyl rubber market, Reliance Sibur Elastomers exports its products to Asia, Europe, the United States, Brazil and other countries.
    • A few years ago, Rosneft invested U.S.$12.9 billion in India’s second-largest private oil refiner, Essar Oil, renamed Nayara Energy, marking it one of the most significant foreign investments in years.
    • Partnership in renewable: In efforts to transition to green energy, India has recently achieved a significant milestone of completing the countrywide installation of 100 gigawatts of total installed renewable energy capacity, excluding large hydro.
    • A recent Deloitte report has forecasted that India could gain U.S.$11 trillion in economic value over the next 50 years by limiting rising global temperatures and realising its potential to ‘export decarbonization’.
    • Unknowns of climate change and threats of a new pandemic suggest that the country should accelerate its energy transition. Russia, one of the key global players across the energy market, could emerge as an indispensable partner for such a transition.
    • Partnership in nuclear energy: Russian companies have been involved in the construction of six nuclear reactors in the Kudankulam nuclear power project at Tamil Nadu.
    • India and Russia secure the potential of designing a nuclear reactor specifically for developing countries, which is a promising area of cooperation.
    • India’s nuclear power generation capacity of 6,780 MW may increase to 22,480 MW by 2031, contributing to the country’s efforts to turn to green energy.

    Way forward

    • In September, almost all of Russia’s major energy companies were interested in projects in India, Russia’s Energy Minister said at the Vladivostok forum in September, adding that he sees prospects for energy cooperation in all areas.
    • However, the current bilateral exchange rate needs to accelerate for India to grasp its potential from energy transformation.

    Conclusion

    To meet its growing energy demand and succeed in green transformation, India needs approximately U.S.$500 billion of investments in wind and solar infrastructure, grid expansion, and storage to reach the 450 GW capacity target by 2030. Therefore, more efforts are needed to expand cooperation with such partners as Russia.

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  • Important Judgements In News

    Analysing the Supreme Court’s Pegasus order

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Pegasus

    Mains level: Paper 2- Pegasus issue

    Context

    The Supreme Court of India has appointed a committee presided by Justice (Retd.) R V Raveendran to inquire into the Pegasus revelations.

    Terms of reference

    • The court’s terms of reference include queries on, “What steps/actions have been taken by the Union of India after reports were published in the year 2019 about hacking of WhatsApp accounts”, and, “Whether any Pegasus suite of spyware was acquired by the Union of India, or any State Government, or any central or state agency for use against the citizens of India”.
    • The constitution of this committee marks an important step towards accountability for the victims and the larger public on the use of Pegasus.

    Significance of the committee on Pegasus issue

    1) Transparency and disclosure

    • The order of the court constituting the committee attains significance for three clear reasons.
    • The first is the court’s continuing insistence on transparency and disclosure by the Union government.
    • The only filing made in court by the government was a limited affidavit, containing short paragraphs of generalised denials and the sole annexure of a statement by the Minister for Electronics and IT before Parliament.
    • Immediately, the Supreme Court pointed out that these are inadequate and provided further time.

    2) The SC’s approach towards national security

    • The second reason is the Supreme Court’s firm approach towards the national security submissions by the Union government.
    • The court correctly applied the settled convention on legal pleadings and affidavits by asking the government to, “necessarily plead and prove the facts which indicate that the information sought must be kept secret as their divulgence would affect national security concerns.”
    • The second aspect of the national security argument is how the court balances it with the fundamental right to privacy.
    • Here, drawing from the framework of the K S Puttaswamy judgment the court specifically states that, “national security cannot be the bugbear that the judiciary shies away from, by virtue of its mere mentioning” and, “mere invocation of national security by the State does not render the Court a mute spectator”.
    • These are significant observations that, when followed as precedent, will bolster confidence in constitutional adjudications especially when courts demand evidence on arguments of “national security” to avoid generalised statements made to evade accountability.

    3)  Rejection of the suggestion by the Solicitor-General to constitute a government committee of experts

    • The court correctly notes that even though the Pegasus revelations were first made on November 1, 2019, there has been little movement on any official inquiry.
    • It also records the genuine apprehension of the petitioners, many of whom are victims of Pegasus, that since the sale of this malware can only be made to governments, they fear the involvement of state agencies.

    Challenges

    • These include the functioning of the committee and the cooperation of government witnesses, the publication of the report so as to ensure public confidence and, ultimately, the directions and remedy provided by the Supreme Court.

    Conclusion

    Hence, the constitution of this committee provides hope. At the same time, any honest assessment should consider the more challenging tasks ahead.

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  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    Preparing for outbreaks

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: ABHIM

    Mains level: Paper 2- ABHIM

    Context

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening healthcare infrastructure, in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

    Aims of Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (ABHIM) and how it seeks to achieve it

    • This was launched with an outlay of ₹64,180 crore over a period of five years.
    •  In addition to the National Health Mission, this scheme will work towards strengthening public health institutions and governance capacities for wide-ranging diagnostics and treatment, including critical care services.
    • The latter goal would be met with the establishment of critical care hospital blocks in 12 central institutions such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and in government medical colleges and district hospitals in 602 districts.
    • Laboratories and their preparedness: The government will be establishing integrated district public health labs in 730 districts to provide comprehensive laboratory services.
    • Research: ABHIM will focus on supporting research on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, including biomedical research to generate evidence to inform short-term and medium-term responses to such pandemics.
    • One health approach: The government also aims to develop a core capacity to deliver the ‘one health’ approach to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks in humans and animals.
    • Surveillance labs: A network of surveillance labs will be developed at the block, district, regional and national levels for detecting, investigating, preventing, and combating health emergencies and outbreaks.
    • Local capacities in urban areas: A major highlight of the current pandemic has been the requirement of local capacities in urban areas.
    • The services from the existing urban primary health centres will be expanded to smaller units – Ayushman Bharat Urban Health and Wellness Centres and polyclinics or specialist clinics.

    Conclusion

    The Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (ABHIM) is another addition to the arsenal we have to prepare for such oubreaks in the future.

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  • Climate Change Negotiations – UNFCCC, COP, Other Conventions and Protocols

    Why India shouldn’t sign on to net zero

    op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Global carbon budget

    Mains level: Paper 3- Why India should not commit to net-zero emission target

    Context

    The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made it clear that limiting the increase in the world’s average temperature from pre-industrial levels to those agreed in the Paris Agreement requires global cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide to be capped at the global carbon budget.

    Understanding why reaching net zero by itself is irrelevant to forestalling dangerous warming

    • The promise of when you will turn off the tap does not guarantee that you will draw only a specified quantity of water.
    • The top three emitters of the world — China, the U.S. and the European Union — even after taking account of their net zero commitments and their enhanced emission reduction commitments for 2030, will emit more than 500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide before net zero.
    • These three alone will exceed the limit of about 500 billion tonnes from 2020 onwards, for even odds of keeping global temperature increase below 1.5°C.

    Issues with ‘net zero’ target

    • Neither the Paris Agreement nor climate science requires that net zero be reached individually by countries by 2050, the former requiring only global achievement of this goal “in the second half of the century”.
    • Claims that the world “must” reach specific goals by 2030 or 2050 are the product of specific economic models for climate action.
    • They front-load emission reduction requirements on developing countries, despite their already low emissions, to allow the developed world to backload its own, buying time for its own transition.
    • These stringent limits on future cumulative emissions post 2020, amounting to less than a fifth of the total global carbon budget, is the result of its considerable over-appropriation in the past by the global North.
    • Promises of net zero in their current form perpetuate this hugely disproportionate appropriation of a global commons, while continuing to place humanity in harm’s way.

    Suggestions for India

    • India is responsible for no more than 4.37% cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era, even though it is home to more than a sixth of humanity.
    • India’s per capita emissions are less than half the world average, less than one-eighth of the U.S.’s.
    • For India to declare net zero now is to accede to the further over-appropriation of the global carbon budget by a few.
    • India’s contribution to global emissions, in both stock and flow, is so disproportionately low that any sacrifice on its part can do nothing to save the world.
    • India, in enlightened self-interest, must now stake its claim to a fair share of the global carbon budget.
    • Technology transfer and financial support, together with “negative emissions”, if the latter succeeds, can compensate for the loss of the past.
    • Such a claim by India provides it greater, and much-needed long-term options.
    • It enables the responsible use of coal, its major fossil fuel resource, and oil and gas, to bootstrap itself out of lower-middle-income economy status and eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition for good.
    • India’s resource-strapped small industries sector needs expansion and modernisation.
    • The agriculture sector, the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions for India after energy, needs to double its productivity and farmers’ incomes and build resilience.
    •  Infrastructure for climate resilience in general is critical to future adaptation to climate change.
    • All of these will require at least the limited fossil fuel resources made available through a fair share of the carbon budget.

    Conclusion

    Without restriction of their future cumulative emissions by the big emitters, to their fair share of the global carbon budget, and the corresponding temperature target that they correspond to made clear, India cannot sign on to net zero.

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  • Industrial Sector Updates – Industrial Policy, Ease of Doing Business, etc.

    What to do about the heavy cost of doing business in India

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Effects Of Liberalization On The Economy, Changes In Industrial Policy and their effects on Industrial Growth,Indian Economy

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: EoDB

    Mains level: Paper 3- Reducing the cost of doing business in India

    Context

    The controversy over Ease of the Doing Business (EoDB) notwithstanding, India must now sharpen its focus on the Cost of Doing Business (CoDB).

    Cost of Doing Business in India

    • India has made considerable progress on EoDB rankings since 2016.
    • While the Centre’s focus on EoDB has been commendable, several state governments have also made efforts to improve business conditions.
    •  India must now sharpen its focus on the Cost of Doing Business (CoDB).
    • India lags behind other countries in terms of CoDB on several counts.

    Two key factors influencing CoDB — energy costs and regulatory overload

    • High fuel costs: Diesel prices in India are 20.8 per cent higher than those in China, 39.3 per cent higher than in the US, 72.5 per cent higher than Bangladesh and 67.8 per cent higher than in Vietnam.
    • This is largely because of heavy taxation — total taxes on diesel account for over 130 per cent of the base price in India.
    • High power costs: In the case of electricity, prices for businesses in India were higher by around 7-12 per cent vis-à-vis those in the US, Bangladesh or China and by as much as 35-50 per cent as compared to those in South Korea or Vietnam prior to the recent coal/energy crisis.
    • Coal, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of electricity generation in India, is also pricier vis-à-vis other countries leading to higher electricity prices.
    • Like in the case of the petroleum sector, government levies account for nearly half of the prices paid by coal consumers.
    • And coal producers cannot claim input tax credit because electricity is not under GST.
    • Further, coal freight costs are amongst the highest in the world as high freight rates are used to cross-subsidise passenger fares by the railways.
    • Regulatory overload: Outsized regulatory levels also pose a significant burden on businesses.
    • A Teamlease report highlights that a small manufacturing company with just one plant and up to 500 employees is regulated by more than 750 compliances, 60 Acts and 23 licences and regulations.
    • A mid-sized manufacturing company with six plants spread across different states is regulated by more than 5,500 compliances, 135 Acts and 98 licences and registrations.
    •  Keeping track of such a large number of regulations along with the changes thereof, imposes huge operational and financial costs on businesses, particularly the MSME segment.

    Way forward

    • Including fuels under GST would lower costs for businesses owing to input tax credit even if taxation levels continue to remain high.
    • Cleaning up the power distribution sector, which is largely state-controlled, could potentially lower electricity prices for businesses.
    • Fiscal incentives by the Centre: A majority of the compliances stem from the states and reducing this burden would require a significant push on states to act on this front.
    • The Centre could leverage the “carrot and stick” framework — using fiscal incentives to nudge the states to act and disincentivise them from maintaining the status quo.

    Consider the question “What are the factors affecting the cost of doing business in India? Suggest the measures to reduce it.”

    Conclusion

    The Government must prioritise reducing the cost of energy and compliances for businesses rather than focusing on de jure measures to boost ease of doing business. These will boost India’s manufacturing competitiveness significantly and further increase formalisation in the economy.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

    A ‘bubbles of trust’ approach to globalisation

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Emerging Technology Working Group

    Mains level: Paper 2- Bubble of trust approach to globalisation

    Context

    An asymmetric globalisation favouring China allowed Beijing to attain power. It is now using that power to undermine liberal democratic values around the world.

    What is Globalization?

    Globalization is a process of increasing interdependence, interconnectedness and integration of economies and societies to such an extent that an event in one part of the globe affects people in other parts of the world.

    OR

     Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, organizations, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.

    Asymmetric globalisation

    • The Chinese market was never open to foreign companies in the way foreign markets are to Chinese firms.
    • This is particularly true in the information and communications technology sector: foreign media, technology and software companies have always been walled out of Chinese markets.
    • Meanwhile, Chinese firms rode on the globalisation bandwagon to secure significant market shares in open economies.

    Global retreat from globalisation and role of Quad

    • We are currently witnessing a global retreat from the free movement of goods, services, capital, people and ideas.
    • But this should not be understood as a reaction to globalisation itself, but of its skewed pattern over the past four decades.
    • The Quad countries – Japan, India, Australia and the U.S. – have an opportunity to change tack and stop seeing engagement with China through the misleading prism of free trade and globalisation.
    • It will be to their advantage to create a new form of economic cooperation consistent with their geopolitical interests.
    • Indeed, without an economic programme, the Quad’s geopolitical and security agenda stand on tenuous foundations.

    Economies inside bubbles of trust

    • Policies of self-reliance: The popular backlash against China – exacerbated by the economic disruption of the pandemic – is pushing Quad governments towards policies of self-reliance.
    • But while reorienting and de-risking global supply chains is one thing, pursuing technological sovereignty is inherently self-defeating.
    • Worse still, inward-looking policies often acquire a life of their own and contribute to geopolitical marginalisation.
    • There is a better way.
    • A convergence of values and geopolitical interests means Quad countries are uniquely placed to envelop their economies inside bubbles of trust, starting with the technology sector.
    • The idea of ‘bubbles of trust’ offers a cautious middle path between the extremes of technological sovereignty and laissez-faire globalisation.
    •  Unlike trading blocs, which tend to be insular and exclusive, bubbles tend to expand organically, attracting new partners that share values, interests and economic complementarities.
    • Such expansion will be necessary, as the Quad cannot fulfil its strategic ambitions merely by holding a defensive line against authoritarian power.

    Way forward

    • The U.S. is a global leader in intellectual property, Japan in high-value manufacturing, Australia in advanced niches such as quantum computing and cyber security, and India in human capital.
    • This configuration of values, interests and complementary capabilities offers unrivalled opportunities.
    • The Quad’s Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group, announced in March 2021, is well placed to develop the necessary ‘bubbles of trust’ framework, which could be adopted at the next Quad summit.
    • To be successful the Working Group must seek to strengthen geopolitical convergences, increase faith in each member state’s judicial systems, deepen economic ties and boost trust in one another’s citizens.
    • There are fundamental differences between authoritarian and liberal-democratic approaches to the information age.
    • The Quad cannot allow differences of approach on privacy, data governance, platform competition and the digital economy to widen.

    Conclusion

    This agenda cannot be about substituting China. Rather, the approach would allow Quad countries to manage their dependencies on China while simultaneously developing a new vision for the global economy.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch- India-Central Asia

    India’s Central Asian outreach

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: The Ashgabat Agreement,

    Mains level: Paper 2- India's central Indian outreach

    Context

    The evolving situation in Afghanistan has thrown up renewed challenges for India’s regional and bilateral ties with Central Asia and the Caucasus, prompting India to recalibrate its rules of engagement with the region.

    Background of India’s relations with Central Asian countries

    • After the breakup of the Soviet Union and the formation of the independent republics in Central Asia, India reset its ties with the strategically critical region.
    • India provided financial aid to the region and established diplomatic relations.
    • New Delhi signed the Strategic Partnership Agreements (SPA) with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to stimulate defence cooperation and deepen trade relations.
    • In 2012, New Delhi’s ‘Connect Central Asia’ policy aimed at furthering India’s political, economic, historical and cultural connections with the region.
    • However, India’s efforts were stonewalled by Pakistan’s lack of willingness to allow India passage through its territory.

    Renewed engagement with Central Asia

    • The growing geostrategic and security concerns regarding the BRI’s China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its violation of India’s sovereignty forced New Delhi to fix its lethargic strategy.
    • Eventually, Central Asia became the link that placed Eurasia in New Delhi’s zone of interest.
    • India signed MoUs with Iran in 2015 to develop the Chabahar port in the Sistan-Baluchistan province that was in the doldrums from 2003.
    • External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was in the region earlier this month.
    • In Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Jaishankar extended a credit line of $200 million for the support of development projects and signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) on High-Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP).
    • Kazakhstan: His next stop was the Kazakhstan capital, Nur Sultan, where he attended the 6th Foreign Ministers’ Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
    • Armenia: Mr. Jaishankar has become the first Indian External Affairs Minister to visit Armenia.
    •  During the visit, Mr. Jaishankar also supported efforts for a peaceful solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk group.

    Limits of SCO

    • The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was created in response to the threats of terrorism that sprang from Afghanistan.
    • The Taliban re-establishing its supremacy over Afghanistan has also exposed the weaknesses of coalitions such as SCO.
    • The SCO has been used by most member countries for their own regional geostrategic and security interests, increasing the trust-deficit and divergence within the forum.

    Way forward

    • Most of the Central Asian leaders view India’s Chabahar port as an opportunity to diversify their export markets and control China’s ambitions.
    • They have admitted New Delhi into the Ashgabat Agreement, allowing India access to connectivity networks to facilitate trade and commercial interactions with both Central Asia and Eurasia, and also access the natural resources of the region.
    • Rising anti-Chinese sentiments within the region and security threats from the Taliban allow New Delhi and Central Asia to reimagine their engagement.
    • Central Asian countries have been keen to have India as a partner as they have sought to diversify their strategic ties.

    Conclusion

    India cannot afford to lose any time in recalibrating its regional engagements.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Pakistan

    Crises in Pakistan is an occasion to reflect on the long-term regional consequences

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 2- Crises in Pakistan and India's approach towards it

    Context

    Whether it can or should make a difference to Pakistan’s internal politics, India must pay greater attention to the internal dynamics of our most difficult neighbour and more purposefully engage a diverse set of actors in that polity.

    India’s interventions in internal affairs of neighbours

    • Except for Pakistan, in most other countries of the subcontinent, India is drawn quickly into their internal political arguments.
    • Delhi has always exercised some influence on the outcomes of those contestations.
    • It is enough to note that India’s interventions are a recurring pattern in the subcontinent’s international relations.
    • Even when Delhi is reluctant to get into the weeds of these conflicts, the competing parties in the neighbourhood demand India’s intervention on their behalf.
    • All of the contestants, of course, resolutely oppose India’s meddling when it goes against them.
    • But Delhi has rarely been a decisive player in Pakistan’s internal politics.
    • Delhi’s hands-off attitude is surprising, given India’s huge stakes in the nature of Pakistan’s policies and their massive impact on regional security.

    Current crises in Pakistan

    • Internal crises: Among the many challenges confronting Pakistan is the fresh breakdown in civil-military relations.
    • Pakistan’s economy is in a tailspin as it struggles to negotiate a stabilisation package with the International Monetary Fund.
    • The militant religious movement Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has mounted a fresh march against the capital demanding the release of its arrested leader.
    • External crises: The internal crises are sharpened by worsening external conditions.
    • In Afghanistan, Pakistan has succeeded in restoring the Taliban to power.
    • The celebrations have not lasted too long; the long-awaited victory is turning sour.
    • The Arab Gulf states that have been fast friends of Pakistan are now tilting towards India.
    • Once a favourite partner of the West, Pakistan today faces tensions in its ties with the US and Europe.
    • More broadly, nuclear weapons and a powerful army seem unable to stop Pakistan’s relative decline in relation to not just India but also Bangladesh.
    • Pakistan’s economy is now 10 times smaller than that of India and is well behind Bangladesh.

    Suggestions

    • Whether it can or should make a difference to Pakistan’s internal politics, India must pay greater attention to the internal dynamics of our most difficult neighbour and more purposefully engage a diverse set of actors in that polity.
    • For Delhi, it is always about narrow political arguments with Rawalpindi and Islamabad; it is as if the people of Pakistan do not exist.
    • For India, the crises in Pakistan should be an occasion to reflect on the long-term regional consequences of Pakistan’s internal turbulence.
    • It might be argued that that unlike elsewhere in the neighbourhood, Delhi’s leverage in Pakistan’s politics is limited. But it is by no means negligible.

    Consider the question “For Delhi, it is always about narrow political arguments with Rawalpindi and Islamabad; it is as if the people of Pakistan do not exist. The depth of the current crises in Pakistan, however, should nudge India into overcoming this entrenched indifference. Comment.”

    Conclusion

    India looms so large in Pakistan’s mind space. For Delhi, it may be worth trying to turn that into influence over Pakistan’s policies if only at the tactical level and at the margins.

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

    Nutritional security and climate-friendly agriculture for Punjab

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Issues with paddy cultivation

    Mains level: Paper 3- Pathway to switch from paddy to maize cultivation

    Context

    As per the latest Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), an average Indian farmer earned Rs 10,218 per month in 2018-19 (July-June).

    SAS analysis: Variation across the states and cause of concern for Punjab

    • Across states, the highest income was received by a farming household in Meghalaya (Rs 29,348) followed by Punjab (Rs 26,701), Haryana (Rs 22,841), Arunachal Pradesh (19,225) and Jammu and Kashmir (Rs 18,918).
    • While the lowest income levels were in West Bengal (Rs 6,762), Odisha (Rs 5,112) and Jharkhand (Rs 4,895).
    • But this is not a fair comparison as holding sizes vary widely across states.
    • After normalising these incomes of agri-households by their holding sizes, as in the SAS, Punjab’s ranking on per hectare income falls from 2nd to 11th and Haryana goes down from 3rd to 15th (see figure).
    • The states that would do well on this score are Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
    • In these states, people earn their income from cultivating fruits and vegetables, spices, and livestock.
    • These are high value in nature, not linked to MSPs, and market and demand-driven.
    • As per the SAS, the average operated area per holding for Punjab is 1.44 ha (we have used that in the figure), but the Census gives a much higher value of 3.62 ha of average operational holding.
    •  If we normalise incomes of agri-households using Census values of average holding sizes, Punjab’s rank would go further down to 21st (household monthly income Rs 7,376) out of 28 states.

    How can farmers in Punjab and Haryana augment their incomes with more sustainable agriculture?

    1) Swith from paddy to maize

    • Punjab’s former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had approached the Centre with an idea to create a fund of around Rs 25,000 crore to help farmers switch from paddy to maize.
    • The Centre should give this idea a serious thought with the following modifications:
    • One, the fund should be under a five-year plan to shift at least a million hectares of paddy area (out of a total of 3.1 million hectares of paddy area in Punjab) to maize.
    • Two, the corpus should have equal contributions from the Centre and state.
    • Three, since Punjab wants that farmers be given MSP for maize, an agency, the Maize Corporation of Punjab (MCP), should be created to buy maize from farmers at MSP.
    • Four, this agency should enter into contracts with ethanol companies, and much of this maize can be used to produce ethanol as the poultry and starch industries will not be able to absorb this surplus in maize once a million hectares of paddy area shifts to maize.
    • Fifth, maize productivity must be as competitive as that of paddy in Punjab and the best seeds should be used for that purpose.
    • This is to ensure that ethanol from maize is produced in a globally competitive manner.
    • The GoI’s policy for 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol should come in handy for this purpose.

    2) Diversification

    • Other parts of the diversification strategy have to be along the lines of increasing the area under fruits and vegetables, and a more focused policy to build efficient value chains in not just fruits and vegetables but also livestock and fisheries.
    • They are more nutritious and the SAS data shows that their profitability is much higher in these enterprises than in crop cultivation, especially cereals.
    • The sector needs to be backed by proper processing, grading and packaging infrastructure to tap its full potential.

    Benefits of switching to maize from paddy

    • Punjab will arrest its depleting water table as maize needs less than one-fifth the water that paddy does for irrigation.
    • Also, Punjab will save much on the power subsidy to agriculture, which was budgeted at Rs 8,275 crore in the FY2020-21 budget, as paddy irrigation consumes much of the power subsidy.
    • This saving subsidy resulting from the switch from paddy to maize can be used to fund a part of the state’s contribution to the Maize Corporation of Punjab.
    • This could result in a win-win situation for all — farmers, the Government of Punjab and the country — as there will be lesser methane emissions and less stubble burning.
    • Moreover, ethanol will also reduce GHG emissions in vehicular pollution.

    Consider the question “Switching from paddy cultivation to maize can help the Punjab farmers deal with the several issues. In light of this, explain the issues with paddy cultivation and suggest the way forward.”

    Conclusion

    Their income on a per hectare basis needs to increase more sustainably, protecting the state’s land, water and air from further degradation, and producing more nutritious food. Punjab can then shine again on the nutritional security front with sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture.

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  • LGBT Rights – Transgender Bill, Sec. 377, etc.

    Step towards more LGBTQIA+ affirmative medical curriculum doesn’t go far enough

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Laws, Institutions & Bodies Constituted For The Vulnerable Sections

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: National Medical Commission

    Mains level: Paper 2- More LGBTQIA+ affirmative curriculum

    Context

    The National Medical Commission (NMC), the body responsible for regulating medical education in India, released an advisory regarding the LGBTQIA+ community and the necessary changes in the competencies of its competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum.

    Exclusion of LGBTQIA+ community in medication

    • Medical education in India has focussed only on the binary of male and female, heterosexuality and cis-gendered lives, while excluding homosexuality and gender non-binary and transgender issues.
    • This results in the exclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community.
    • Even with the release of the competency-based medical curriculum in August 2019, the curriculum continues to include a queerphobic syllabus.

    About the NMC notification

    • The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 mandates governments to take measures for the “review of medical curriculum and research for doctors to address their [transgender] specific health issues,” but no action has been taken since then.
    • In June 2021, in response to a case filed by a queer couple, the Madras High Court laid down a set of guidelines and directed the NMC to ban queerphobic practices such as conversion therapy which aims to forcibly change the sexual orientation of a person.
    • In its notification, the NMC has advised medical colleges to teach gender in a way that is not derogatory to the queer community.
    • The authors of medical textbooks have also been asked to amend the books to remove any harmful contents regarding virginity and the queer community.

    Issues with the NMC notification

    • While the NMC advisory title mentions necessary changes in the competencies of its CBME curriculum, there are no specifications on what these changes are.
    •  At the same time, the CBME curriculum itself mentions queerphobic things that are to be taught to students.
    • Certain acts are called as sexual offences even though the Supreme Court has read down Section 377. 
    •  Also, the competencies which will make a future Indian doctor respectful and empathetic in treating a queer patient are missing.

    Way forward

    • The NMC must start by recognising the flaws in its own CBME curriculum and explicitly state the changes required.
    • Specific guidelines on how to make healthcare queer-affirmative are needed.
    • The directive also needs to specify changes across several subjects and not just forensic medicine and psychiatry.
    •  For this, there needs to be a participatory stakeholder consultation towards the development of a queer-affirmative curriculum.
    • Finally, there needs to be clarity on what the NMC plans to do for tackling queerphobia in the current set of health professionals.

    Consider the question “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 mandates governments to take measures for the review of the medical curriculum. In light of this, discuss the changes needed in the medical curriculum regarding the LGBTQIA+ community.”

    Conclusion

    Without these changes, equitable access to healthcare for queer persons will remain a faraway dream.

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