💥Join UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (August Batch) + XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Type: Op-ed

  • Legal issues involved in adoption pleas for Covid-19 orphans

    The Covid pandemic has orphaned many children. As a consequence there has been an increase in pleas on social media for adoption. However, such pleas go against the legal provisions. The article deals with the issue.

    Legal provisions for protection of children

    • Today, some people are offering infants for instant adoption by stating how the children have lost their parents to pandemic.
    • However, such adoptions are illegal.
    • The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) law was enacted in 2015.
    • The Juvenile Justice Act is a secular law, all persons are free to adopt children under this law.
    • The Juvenile Justice Rules of 2016 and the Adoption Regulations of 2017 followed to create the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
    • CARA is a statutory body for the regulation, monitoring and control of all intra-country and inter-country adoptions.
    • CARA also grants a ‘no objection’ certificate for all inter-country adoptions, pursuant to India becoming a signatory to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoptions.
    • India is also a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
    • Thus, protections afforded to children became a legal mandate of all authorities and courts.
    • Persons professing the Hindu religion are also free to adopt under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956.
    • Rehabilitation of all orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children is regulated by the strict mandatory procedures of the Adoption Regulations.

    Procedure for adoption

    • The eligibility of prospective adoptive parents living in India, duly registered on the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), irrespective of marital status and religion, is adjudged by specialised adoption agencies preparing home study reports.
    • The specialised adoption agency then secures court orders approving the adoption.
    • All non-resident persons approach authorised adoption agencies in their foreign country of residence for registration under CARINGS.
    • Their eligibility is adjudged by authorised foreign adoption agencies through home study reports.
    • CARA then issues a pre-adoption ‘no objection’ certificate for foster care, followed by a court adoption order.
    • A final ‘no objection’ certificate from CARA or a conformity certificate under the adoption convention is mandatory for a passport and visa to leave India.

    Way forward

    • CARA must conduct an outreach programme on social media, newspapers and TV, warning everyone not to entertain any illegal adoption offers under any circumstances whatsoever.
    • The National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights must step up their roles as vigilantes.
    • Social activists, NGOs and enlightened individuals must report all the incidents that come to their notice.
    • Respective State Legal Services Authorities have the infrastructure and machinery to stamp out such unlawful practices brought to their attention.
    • The media must publicise and shame all those involved in this disreputable occupation.
    •  At the same time, the police authorities need to be extra vigilant in apprehending criminals.

    Conclusion

    Tough times call for tough measures. This business of criminal trading of children must be checked with an iron hand.

  • Digital Technologies and Inequalities

    Impact of pandemic

    • The novel coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the use of digital technologies in India, even for essential services such as health and education, where access to them might be poor.
    • Economic inequality has increased: people whose jobs and salaries are protected, face no economic fallout.
    • Well-recognised channels of economic and social mobility — education and health — are getting rejigged in ways that make access more inequitable in an already unequal society.

    Growing inequality in access to education

    • According to National Sample Survey data from 2017, only 6% rural households and 25% urban households have a computer.
    • Access to Internet facilities is not universal either: 17% in rural areas and 42% in urban areas.
    • Surveys by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the Azim Premji Foundation, ASER and Oxfam suggest that between 27% and 60% could not access online classes for a range of reasons: lack of devices, shared devices, inability to buy “data packs”, etc.
    • Further, lack of stable connectivity jeopardises their evaluations.
    • Besides this, many lack a learning environment at home.
    • Peer learning has also suffered.

    Inequality in access to health care

    •  India’s public spending on health is barely 1% of GDP.
    • Partly as a result, the share of ‘out of pocket’ (OOP) health expenditure (of total health spending) in India was over 60% in 2018.
    • Even in a highly privatised health system such as the United States, OOP was merely 10%.
    • Moreover, the private health sector in India is poorly regulated in practice.
    • Both put the poor at a disadvantage in accessing good health care.
    • Right now, the focus is on the shortage of essentials: drugs, hospital beds, oxygen, vaccines.
    • In several instances, developing an app is being seen as a solution for allocation of various health services. 
    • Digital “solutions” create additional bureaucracy for all sick persons in search of these services without disciplining the culprits.
    • Platform- and app-based solutions can exclude the poor entirely, or squeeze their access to scarce health services further.
    • In other spheres (e.g., vaccination) too, digital technologies are creating extra hurdles.
    • The use of CoWIN to book a slot makes it that much harder for those without phones, computers and the Internet. 

    Issues with the creation of centralised database

    • The digital health ID project is being pushed during the pandemic when its merits cannot be adequately debated.
    • Electronic and interoperable health records are the purported benefits.
    • For patients, interoperability i.e., you do not have to lug your x-rays, past medication and investigations can be achieved by decentralising digital storage say, on smart cards as France and Taiwan have done.
    • Given that we lack a data privacy law in India, it is very likely that our health records will end up with private entities without our consent, even weaponised against us.
    • For example, a private insurance companies may use health record to deny poor people an insurance policy or charge a higher premium.
    • There are worries that the government is using the vaccination drive to populate the digital health ID database.

    Way forward

    • Unless health expenditure on basic health services (ward staff, nurses, doctors, laboratory technicians, medicines, beds, oxygen, ventilators) is increased, apps such as Aarogya Setu, Aadhaar and digital health IDs can improve little.
    • Unless laws against medical malpractices are enforced strictly, digital solutions will obfuscate and distract us from the real problem.
    • We need political, not technocratic, solutions.

    Conclusion

    Today, there is greater understanding that the harms from Aadhaar and its cousins fall disproportionately on the vulnerable. Hopefully, the pandemic will teach us to be more discerning about which digital technologies we embrace.

  • What does US departure from Afghanistan mean for South Asia?

    The article highlights the important role played by the US in the geopolitics of the region and the impact of the US retreat on the region foreign policy landscape.

    How the US shaped the regional politics of South Asia

    • Since it replaced Britain as the major external power in Greater Middle East half a century ago, America has been the pivot around which the regional politics has played out.
    • Many regional actors sought alliances with America to secure themselves against ambitious or troublesome neighbours.
    • Others sought to balance against America.
    • Israel’s security, ensuring oil supplies, competing with other powers, making regional peace, promoting democracy, and stamping out terrorism are no longer compelling factors demanding massive American military, political and diplomatic investments in the region.

    Region now has to learn to live with neighbours

    • As America steps back from the Middle East, most regional actors either need alternate patrons or reduced tensions with their neighbours.
    • Although China and Russia have regional ambitions, neither of them bring the kind of strategic heft America brought to bear on the Middle East all these decades.
    • Turkey has figured that its troubled economy can’t sustain the ambitious regional policies.
    •  After years of challenging Saudi leadership of the Islamic world, Erdogan is offering an olive branch to Riyadh.
    • After years of intense mutual hostility, Saudi Arabia and Iran are now exploring means to reduce bilateral tensions and moderate their proxy wars in the region.
    • Saudi Arabia is also trying to heal the rift within the Gulf by ending the earlier effort to isolate Qatar. 
    •  These changes come in the wake of the big moves last year by some Arab states — the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan — to normalise ties with Israel.

    How India’s approach helped maintain ties in the region

    • India’s emphasis on good relations with all the regional actors without a reference to their conflicts has been vindicated by the turn of events.
    • Barring Turkey, which turned hostile to India under Erdogan, India has managed to expand its ties with most regional actors.
    • Hopefully, the new regional churn will encourage Turkey to take a fresh look at its relations with India.

    Effect on India-Pak relations

    • The regional reset in the Middle East has coincided with efforts by Delhi and Rawalpindi to cool their tensions.
    • The ceasefire on the Line of Control in Kashmir announced at the end of February appears to be holding.
    • The US withdrawal from Afghanistan poses major challenges to the Subcontinent.
    • India and Pakistan, for very different reasons, would have liked to see the US forces stay forever in Afghanistan.
    • For India, American military presence would have kept a check on extremist forces and created conducive conditions for an Indian role in Afghanistan.
    • For Pakistan, American military presence in Afghanistan keeps the US utterly dependent on Pakistan for geographic access and operational support.

    Challenge of terrorism

    • The prospect of trans-border links between the Taliban and other extremist forces in the region is a challenge that South Asian states will have to confront sooner than later.
    • Soaring levels of violence in Afghanistan and attack on the former president of Maldives, underlines South Asia’s enduring challenges with terrorism.
    • Unless the South Asian states collaborate on countering extremism and terrorism, every one of them will be weakened.

    Consider the question “How US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will influence the regional geopolitics of the region?”

    Conclusion

    The region needs to focus on the peace and harmony in the region while resolving the bilateral issues through dialogue.

  • A TRIPS waiver is useful but not a magic pill

    The article highlights the challenges countries could face despite the patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccine.

    TRIPS waiver for Covid-19 vaccine

    • The United States has finally relented and declared its support for a temporary waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for COVID-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
    • Hopefully, the U.S.’s decision would cause other holdouts like Canada and the European Union to give up their opposition.
    • While the U.S.’s decision is to be welcomed, the devil would be in the details.

    The challenges after waiver

    1) Conditions of the waiver

    •  If the experience of negotiating such waivers, especially on TRIPS, were anything to go by, it would be too early to celebrate.
    • In the aftermath of the HIV/AIDS crisis the WTO adopted a decision in 2003 waiving certain TRIPS obligations to increase the accessibility of medicines.
    • However, this waiver (later incorporated as Article 31 bis in the TRIPS agreement) was subject to several stringent requirements such as the drugs so manufactured are to be exported to that nation only; the medicines should be easily identifiable through different colour.
    • Given these cumbersome requirements, hardly any country, in the last 17 years, made effective use of this waiver.

    2) Countries will protect the interest of pharma companies

    •  India and South Africa proposed a waiver not just on vaccines but also on medicines and other therapeutics and technologies related to the treatment of COVID-19.
    • So, the U.S. has already narrowed down the scope of the waiver considerably by restricting it to vaccines.
    • Medicines useful in treating COVID-19 and other therapeutics must be also included in the waiver.
    • While the U.S. would not like to be seen as blocking the TRIPS waiver and attracting the ire of the global community, make no mistake that it would resolutely defend the interests of its pharmaceutical corporations.

    3) Lack of access to technology

    • The TRIPS waiver would lift the legal restrictions on manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
    • But it would not solve the problem of the lack of access to technological ‘know-how’ related to manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
    • Waiving IP protection does not impose a legal requirement on pharmaceutical companies to transfer or share technology.
    • While individual countries may adopt coercive legal measures for a forced transfer of technology, it would be too draconian and counterproductive.
    • Therefore, governments would have to be proactive in negotiating and cajoling pharmaceutical companies to transfer technology using various legal and policy tools including financial incentives.

    4) Domestic IP regulation

    • While a TRIPS waiver would enable countries to escape WTO obligations, it will not change the nature of domestic IP regulations.
    • Therefore, countries should start working towards making suitable changes in their domestic legal framework to operationalise and enforce the TRIPS waiver.
    • In this regard, the Indian government should immediately put in place a team of best IP lawyers who could study the various TRIPS waiver scenarios and accordingly recommend the changes to be made in the Indian legal framework.

    Conclusion

    Notwithstanding the usefulness of the TRIPS waiver, it is not a magic pill. It would work well only if countries simultaneously address the non-IP bottlenecks.

  • What patent waiver in the COVID fight mean for global health equity

    The article highlights the implications of patent waiver for Covid-19 for global health equity.

    Where the opposition to waiver proposal came from

    • Recently, the US agreed to support the India-South Africa proposal, seeking a waiver of patent protection for technologies needed to combat and contain COVID-19.
    • Response to the proposal was divided during earlier debates at the WTO.
    • While many low and middle income countries supported it, resistance came from the U.S., the United Kingdom, the European Union, Switzerland, Australia and Japan.
    • Since the WTO operates on consensus rather than by voting, the proposal did not advance despite drawing support of over 60 countries.
    • Predictably, the pharmaceutical industry fiercely opposed it and vigorously lobbied many governments.
    • Right-wing political groups in the high income countries sided with the industry.

    Issues with the reasons given for opposition to the waiver proposal

    1) Quality and safety of vaccine production in low and middle-income countries

    • It was argued that the capacity for producing vaccines of assured quality and safety was limited to some laboratories.
    • So, it is argued that it would be hazardous to permit manufacturers in low and middle-income countries.
    • However, pharmaceutical manufacturers have no reservations about contracting industries in those countries to manufacture their patent-protected vaccines for the global market.

    2) Licenced manufacturing

    • The counter to patent waiver is an offer to license manufacturers in developing countries while retaining patent rights.
    • This restricts the opportunity for production to a chosen few.
    • The terms of those agreements are opaque and offer no assurance of equity in access to the products at affordable prices, either to the country of manufacture or to other developing countries.

    3) Supplying vaccines through COVAX facility

    • It was also stated that developing countries could be supplied vaccines through the COVAX facility, set up by several international agencies and donors.
    • While well-intended, it has fallen far short of promised delivery.
    • Some U.S. states have received more vaccines than entire Africa has from COVAX.

    4) No availability of extra capacity for vaccine production

    • Critics of a patent waiver say there is no evidence that extra capacity exists for producing vaccines outside of firms undertaking them now.
    • Even before the change in the U.S.’s position, manufacturers from many countries expressed their readiness and avidly sought opportunities to produce the approved vaccines.
    • They included industries in Canada and South Korea, suggesting that capable manufacturers in high income countries too are ready to avail of patent waivers but are not being allowed to enter a restricted circle.
    • The World Health Organization’s mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub has already drawn interest from over 50 firms.
    • Instead of arguing that capacity is limited, high-income countries and other donors should be supporting the growth of more capacity to meet the current and likely future pandemic.
    • They should learn from the manner in which India built up capacity and gained a reputation as a respected global pharmacy by moving from product patenting to process patenting between 1970 and 2005.

    5) Time required to utilise patented technology is long

    • Patent waivers are also dismissed as useless on the grounds that the time taken for their utilisation by new firms will be too long to help combat the present pandemic.
    • But many countries have low vaccination rates and variants are gleefully emerging from unprotected populations.
    • This makes it difficult to put the end date for the pandemic to end

    6) China factor

    • An argument put forth by multinational pharmaceutical firms is that a breach in the patent barricade will allow China to steal their technologies, now and in the future.
    • The original genomic sequence was openly shared by China, which gave these firms a head start in developing vaccines.

    Issue of rewarding innovation financially

    • Much of the foundational science that built the path for vaccine production came from public-funded universities and research institutes.
    • Further, what use is it to hold on to patents when global health and the global economy are devastated?
    • It is often argued that for defending patent protection, is that innovation and investment by industry need to be financially rewarded to incentivise them to develop new products.
    • Even if compulsory licences are issued bypassing patent restrictions, royalties are paid to the original innovators and patent holders.

    Way forward

    • Developing countries must take heart from his gesture and start issuing compulsory licences.
    • The Doha declaration on TRIPS flexibilities permits their use in a public health emergency.
    • High-income countries and multilateral agencies should provide financial and technical support to enable expansion of global production capacity.

    Consider the question “Why are the implications of patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccine for the global health equity? What were the reasons for opposition to waiver proposal?” 

    Conclusion

    The U.S.-supported patent waiver in the COVID fight has the potential to bring in much-needed global health equity.

  • Atmanirbhar Bharat & the informal sector

    The article highlights the important role the informal sector can play in the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

    Economic development through Atmanirbhar Bharat

    • The vision of the Atmanirbhar Bharat is rooted in the classical paradigm of economic development, based on demand injection in the economy via two sources, domestic and external.
    • ‘Vocal for local’ exhorts a distinct and decisive shift in consumer preferences towards locally-produced goods and services.
    • ‘Make for the world’ is more ambitious and resembles the export-led growth strategy adopted in East Asia.
    • Thus, the Atmanirbhar Bharat categorically bestows the Indian economy with twin engines of growth.

    Important role informal sector can play

    • The strategy is based on an assumption of lack of adequate demand.
    • So a prognosis of supply side with respect to the ability of domestic producers of goods and services to seize the opportunity at the requisite scale and scope is pertinent.
    • The nature, character, structure and contributions of the informal sector require retrospection.
    • The size of India’s informal sector is massive, it accounts for about 50% of GVA and a major share in the export basket.
    • This position proffers it with growth opportunities emanating from domestic as well as external sources.

    Constraints faced by informal sector

    • Most firms are micro in size and deploy little capital.
    • They have a small scale of production, substandard/unbranded quality of products, and localised scope of procuring raw material and marketing their products.
    • They are vulnerable to business downturns and other market uncertainties, as reflected in high mortality.
    • Their access to cheap, reliable and long-term credit sources is highly restricted.
    • The sector also endures a lack of official identity and recognition of its existence and contribution.

    Three transformations informal sector need to adopt

    • Atmanirbhar Bharat promises enhanced demand for domestically-produced goods and services, but the exposure to stiff global competition, especially for informal sector units, is imminent.
    • In such a scenario, the informal sector must embrace for three tectonic shifts with respect to internal transformation, strategic positioning and labour-market dynamics.

    1)  Internal transformation

    • Enterprises must undergo drastic internal transformation, progressively converging at incremental formalisation through spontaneous and self-propelled transition into economically-viable units.
    • It requires infusion of capital to ensure enhanced labour productivity and higher wages.
    • A systemic disruption, fostering natural growth must be ushered in, which would also curb the birth of new informal enterprises.
    • Moreover, internal consolidation in the sector via merger and acquisitions of units would bring benefits accruing from scale economies.

    2) Strategic positioning

    • Two, because the vision of the Atmanirbhar Bharat exposes the informal sector to global competition, entrepreneurs must embrace the subtle art of strategic positioning in global mega-supply chains.
    • They must pick their products and markets with utmost care, and engrain two mantras of success at the global stage in the DNA of their business strategies.
    • Global mega-supply chains demand ultra-flexibility in production cycle in addition to heightened resilience to withstand headwinds emanating from not just domestic factors but also global.

    3) Labour market dynamics

    • The informal sector employs more than 80% of India’s workforce.
    • The changes in the first two spheres i.e. higher capital intensity-led enhanced labour productivity and ultra-flexibility in production cycles may have severe repercussions on the availability and quality of jobs in India.
    • To alleviate these concerns, the first assumption is that the proportionate increase in expected demand must be more than the enhanced labour productivity to at least retain the currently employed workers.
    • To generate good quality jobs, diversification (both horizontal and vertical) must be encouraged.
    • Vertical diversification entails products not just be partly produced or assembled in India, they must be the end-products of fully indigenised and integrated production and supply chains, from design to made in India.
    • Horizontal diversification involves expansion into newer products and markets, smartly aligning with India’s comparative advantage of surplus labour.

    Consider the question ” India’s vast informal sector is poised to play an instrumental, decisive and intriguing role in the vision of the Atmanirbhar Bharat.  But the sector, in its current form, appears severely constrained to harness the opportunities. In lights of this, examine the constraints faced by the sector and suggest the measures needed to transform the sector.” 

    Conclusion

    The vision of the Atmanirbhar Bharat is an inflexion point for India’s informal sector, which stipulates adroit manoeuvring between contrasting forces of continuity and change.

  • India should go all out in its Westward trade push

    After walking away from the RCEP, India needs to find alternative trading partners that can offer the potential for trade expansion. The article suggests a Westward trade push as an alternative.

    Forging trade deals with the Western countries

    • Our rejection of RCEP, which covers much of the eastern hemisphere, had exposed us to the risk of losing out on cross-border commercial relations in a highly dynamic part of the world.
    • To compensate for the opportunity cost of that decision, it was imperative to strike other alliances.
    •  As a part of this, India adopted a roadmap for the rest of this decade to elevate ties with the UK and also moving to revive free-trade talks with the EU.
    • An India-UK plan unveiled recently will raise our bilateral relationship to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership in such areas as economic affairs, defence and health.
    • The two countries signed a £1-billion trade investment pact that is expected to generate jobs in both.
    • Separately, India and the EU are reportedly working out how to resume stalled negotiations for a trade deal.

    Issues India may face

    • The signing of pacts would involve mutual tariff reductions and the lowering of other barriers, both of which have proven thorny so far.
    • In general, while the West wants us to lower import duties, our negotiators have been citing India’s sovereign right to protect domestic businesses under World Trade Organization rules.
    • Globally, even before covid knocked the wind out of the sails of cargo ships, commerce across borders had been doing badly under the extended effects of a financial crisis that shook things up in 2008-09.
    • But world trade remains a reliable path to global prosperity and must therefore regain its gusto.
    • For us, deal-making would mean opening up markets to imports in lieu of easier access to foreign ones.

    Way forward

    • Concessions that cause very few job losses in India can easily be made. A broad cost-benefit analysis will have to guide our approach to talks, on complex issues like US visa rules which affect our software exports.
    • Since it is governments that thrash out deals, geopolitical convergences are often sought too.
    • We seem to be in a favourable position on this, given the West’s need to keep China’s rise in check.
    • The UK’s Rolls-Royce has just inked a memorandum with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for warship engines, a sign of our strategic ties.
    • Technology could come our way from the US, too.
    • If we can leverage an ability to play a role in Asia’s balance of power to our economic benefit, we should.

    Conclusion

    Mutually assured flexibility on tariff concessions would help India and its Western partners score economic gains and also counterbalance China’s growing dominance of world trade.

    —————————————————//———————————-

    B2B

    [pib] India-UK Virtual Summit

  • How Covid would impact India’s foreign policy canvass

    Foreign policy consequences

    • The devastation caused by the second Covid wave prompted India to accept foreign aid after a gap of 17 years.
    • This is bound to have far-reaching strategic implications for India.
    • As a direct consequence of the pandemic, India’s claim to regional primacy and leadership will take a major hit.
    • India ‘leading power’ aspirations will be dented, and accentuate its domestic political contestations.
    • These in turn will impact the content and conduct of India’s foreign policy in the years to come.

    What would be the strategic implications?

    1) Impact on India’s regional primacy

    • COVID 2.0 has quickened the demise of India’s regional primacy.
    • India’s geopolitical decline is likely to begin in the neighbourhood itself.
    • India’s traditional primacy in the region was built on a mix of material aid, political influence and historical ties.
    • Its political influence is steadily declining, its ability to materially help the neighbourhood will shrink in the wake of COVID-19.
    • Its historical ties alone may not do wonders to hold on to a region hungry for development assistance and political autonomy.

    2) Impact on India’s great power aspiration

    •  India aspires to be a leading power, rather than just a balancing power.
    • While the Indo-Pacific is geopolitically keen and ready to engage with India, the pandemic could adversely impact India’s ability and desire to contribute to the Indo-Pacific and the Quad.
    • COVID-19, for instance, will prevent any ambitious military spending or modernisation plans.
    • Covid-19 will also limit the country’s attention on global diplomacy and regional geopolitics, be it Afghanistan or Sri Lanka or the Indo-Pacific.
    • With reduced military spending and lesser diplomatic attention to regional geopolitics, New Delhi’s ability to project power and contribute to the growth of the Quad will be uncertain.

    3) Domestic political contestation  and its impact on strategic ambition

    • Domestic political contestations in the wake of the COVID-19 devastation in the country could also limit India’s strategic ambitions.
    • General economic distress, a fall in foreign direct investment and industrial production, and a rise in unemployment have already lowered the mood in the country.
    • A depressed economy, politically volatile domestic space combined with a lack of elite consensus on strategic matters would hardly inspire confidence in the international system about India.

    4) Impact on India-China equation

    • From competing with China’s vaccine diplomacy a few months ago, New Delhi today is forced to seek help from the international community.
    • China has, compared to most other countries, emerged stronger in the wake of the pandemic.
    • The world, notwithstanding its anti-China rhetoric, will continue to do business with Beijing — it already has been, and it will only increase.
    • Claims that India could compete with China as a global investment and manufacturing destination would be dented.
    • India’s ability to stand up to China stands vastly diminished today: in material power, in terms of balance of power considerations, and political will.

    5) Depressed foreign policy

    • Given the much reduced political capital within the government to pursue ambitious foreign policy goals, the diplomatic bandwidth for expansive foreign policy goals would be limited.
    • This, however, might take the aggressive edge off of India’s foreign policy.
    • Less aggression could potentially translate into more accommodation, reconciliation and cooperation especially in the neighbourhood, with Pakistan on the one hand and within the broader South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) framework on the other.
    •  COVID-19 has forced us to reimagine, to some extent at least, the friend enemy equations in global geopolitics.
    • While the United States seemed hesitant, at least initially, Russia was quick to come to India’s aid. 

    6) Implications for strategic autonomy

    • The pandemic would, at the very least indirectly, impact India’s policy of maintaining strategic autonomy.
    • As pointed out above, the strategic consequences of the pandemic are bound to shape and structure India’s foreign policy choices as well as constrain India’s foreign policy agency.
    • It could, for instance, become more susceptible to external criticism for, after all, India cannot say ‘yes’ to just aid and ‘no’ to criticism.

    Consider the question “Examine the strategic implications of Covid for India.” 

    Way forward

    • COVID-19 will also do is open up new regional opportunities for cooperation especially under the ambit of SAARC.
    • India might do well to get the region’s collective focus on ‘regional health multilateralism’ to promote mutual assistance and joint action on health emergencies such as this.
    • Classical geopolitics should be brought on a par with health diplomacy, environmental concerns and regional connectivity in South Asia.

    Conclusion

    While the outpouring of global aid to India shows that the world realises India is too important to fail, the international community might also reach the conclusion that post-COVID-19 India is too fragile to lead and be a ‘leading power’.

  • A ‘One Health’ approach that targets people, animals

    The article highlights the need for a holistic approach to animal and human health as more than two-thirds of existing and emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic.

    Need to document the link between environment animal and human health

    • Studies indicate that more than two-thirds of existing and emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, or can be transferred between animals and humans, and vice versa.
    • Another category of diseases, anthropozoonotic infections, gets transferred from humans to animals.
    • The transboundary impact of viral outbreaks in recent years such as the Nipah virus, Ebola, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has reinforced the need for us to consistently document the linkages between the environment, animals, and human health.

    India’s ‘One Health’ vision

    • India’s ‘One Health’ vision derives its blueprint from the agreement between the tripartite-plus alliance.
    • The alliance comprises the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) — a global initiative supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank under the overarching goal of contributing to ‘One World, One Health’.
    • In keeping with the long-term objectives, India established a National Standing Committee on Zoonoses as far back as the 1980s.
    • This year, funds were sanctioned for setting up a ‘Centre for One Health’ at Nagpur.
    • Further, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) has launched several schemes to mitigate the prevalence of animal diseases since 2015.
    • Hence, under the National Animal Disease Control Programme, ₹13,343 crore have been sanctioned for Foot and Mouth disease and Brucellosis control.
    • In addition, DAHD will soon establish a ‘One Health’ unit within the Ministry.
    • Additionally, the government is working to revamp programmes that focus on capacity building for veterinarians such as  Assistance to States for Control of Animal Diseases (ASCAD).
    • There is increased focus on vaccination against livestock diseases and backyard poultry.
    •  DAHD has partnered with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the National Action Plan for Eliminating Dog Mediated Rabies.

    Need for coordination

    •  There are more than 1.7 million viruses circulating in wildlife, and many of them are likely to be zoonotic.
    • Therefore, unless there is timely detection, India risks facing many more pandemics in times to come.
    • There is need to address challenges pertaining to veterinary manpower shortages, the lack of information sharing between human and animal health institutions, and inadequate coordination on food safety at slaughter.
    • These issues can be remedied by consolidating existing animal health and disease surveillance systems — e.g., the Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health, and the National Animal Disease Reporting System.

    Conclusion

    As we battle yet another wave of a deadly zoonotic disease (COVID-19), awareness generation, and increased investments toward meeting ‘One Health’ targets is the need of the hour.

  • India-UK Relations

    The article highlights the factors that make building sustainable partnership with Britain hard for India and suggests the ways to find fresh basis for bilateral relationship.

    Need to tap potential for bilateral strategic cooperation

    • The long-scheduled summit between Prime Ministers of India and UK will take place with a digital conversation scheduled for Tuesday.
    • India and the UK must tap into the enormous potential for bilateral strategic cooperation in the health sector and contributions to the global war on the virus.
    • Foreign ministers of India, Japan and Australia would also join this meeting to set the stage for the “Group of Seven Plus Three” physical summit next month hosted by the British Prime Minister.

    Challenges in forming a sustainable partnership with Britain

    • Few Western powers are as deeply connected to India as Britain.
    • While India’s relations with countries as different as the US and France have dramatically improved in recent years, ties with Britain have lagged.
    • One reason for this failure has been the colonial prism that has distorted mutual perceptions.
    • The bitter legacies of the Partition and Britain’s perceived tilt to Pakistan have long complicated the engagement between Delhi and London.
    • Also, the large South Asian diaspora in the UK transmits the internal and intra-regional conflicts in the subcontinent into Britain’s domestic politics.

    Finding fresh basis for bilateral relationship

    • The two leaders are expected to announce a 10-year roadmap to transform the bilateral relationship that will cover a range of areas.
    • Both countries are on the rebound from their respective regional blocs.
    • Britain has walked out of the European Union and India has refused to join the China-centred Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
    • Although both will continue to trade with their regional partners, they are eager to build new global economic partnerships.
    • While remaining a security actor in Europe, Britain is tilting to the Indo-Pacific, where India is a natural ally.
    • India needs as wide a coalition as possible to restore a semblance of regional balance.
    • Britain could also contribute to the strengthening of India’s domestic defence industrial base.
    • The two sides could also expand India’s regional reach through sharing of logistical facilities.
    • Both countries are said to be exploring an agreement on “migration and mobility” to facilitate the legal movement of Indians into Britain.
    • Both sides are committed to finding common ground on climate change.

    Consder the question “What are the factors that introduce friction in the sustainability of India’s bilateral relations with the Britain? Identify the areas in which both the countries can find fresh basis for the bilateral relations?”

    Conclusion

    If leaders of both the countries succeed in laying down mutually beneficial terms of endearment, future governments might be less tempted to undermine the partnership.