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

    Agricultural research in India

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Water usage for agriculture in India

    Mains level: Paper 3- Need for RD in agriculture

    The article highlight the need for more emphasis on agricultural R&D as a solution to the woes of the farmers.

    India needs low-input high-output agriculture

    • Amid farmers protest against farm acts, the current debates focus mainly on MSP, reducing farmers’ debt liabilities, reducing post-harvest losses, cash transfers and marketing reforms.
    • India with entrenched poverty requires low-input, high-output agriculture; low input in terms of both natural resources and monetary inputs.
    • Very little attention is being given to reducing the natural resource inputs — most critical being water —and agricultural R&D.
    • This cannot be achieved without science and technology.

    Following are the areas in which Indian agriculture needs R&D to reduce agriculture inputs

    1) Water usage for agriculture

    • India receives around 4,000 billion cubic meters (bcm) of rainfall, but a large part of it falls in the east.
    • Moreover, most of the rain is received within 100 hours of torrential downpour, making water storage and irrigation critical for agriculture.
    • India has one of the highest water usages for agriculture in the world — of the total 761 bcm withdrawals of water, 90.5 per cent goes into agriculture.
    • In comparison, China uses 385.2 bcm (64.4 per cent) out of the total withdrawals of 598.1 bcm for agriculture.
    • China’s per-unit land productivity in terms of crop production is almost two to three times more.
    • The total estimated groundwater depletion in India is in the range of 122-199 bcm .
    • The depletion is highest in Punjab, Haryana, and western UP.

    2) Increasing the yields of coarse-grain crops and oilseed crops

    • Years of intense research on yield increase and yield protection by breeding varieties and hybrids resistant to pests and pathogens have made wheat, rice and maize stable high yielders.
    • Environmentalists suggest replacing rice with coarse grain crops — millets, sorghum etc.
    • However, the yields of these crops are not comparable to those of wheat and rice even when protective irrigation is available.
    • These crops have a serious R&D deficit leading to low yield potential as well as losses to pests and pathogens.
    • This leaves us with pulses and oilseeds.
    • In the 2017-18 fiscal year, India imported around Rs 76,000 crore worth of edible oils.
    • Three oilseed crops (mustard, soybean, and groundnut) are already grown very extensively.
    • Soybean and groundnut are legume crops and fix their nitrogen.
    • All three crops not only provide edible oils but are also an excellent source of protein-rich seed or seed meal for livestock and poultry.
    • Unfortunately, yields of the three crops are stagnating in India at around 1.1 tons per hectare, significantly lower than the global averages.

    3) Genetic improvements of crops

    • Pests and pathogens can be best tackled by agrochemicals or by genetic interventions.
    • A recent global level study on crop losses in the main food security hotspots for five major crops showed significant losses to pests — on average for wheat 21.5 per cent, rice 20 per cent, maize 22.5 per cent, potato 17.2 per cent, and soybean 21.4 per cent.
    • India is one of the lowest users of pesticides.
    • In 2014, comparative use of pesticides in kilograms per hectare in some select countries/regions is as following: Africa 0.30, India 0.36, EU countries 3.09, China 14.82, and Japan 15.93.
    • A more benign method for dealing with pests is through breeding.
    • The Green Revolution technologies were based on the effective use of germplasm and strong phenotypic selections.
    • Recombinant DNA technologies since the 1970s have brought forth unprecedented opportunities for genetic improvement of crops.
    • Since 2000, genomes of all the major crops have been sequenced.
    • The big challenge is in the effective utilisation of the enormous sequence data that is available.
    • India’s efforts in all three areas are half-hearted.

    Way forward

    • Over the last 20 years, India has been spending between 0.7 to 0.8 per cent of its GDP on R&D.
    • This is way below the percentage of GDP spent by the developing countries and Asia’s rapidly growing economies.
    • There are structural issues like lack of competent human resources and lack of policy clarity.
    • However, the biggest impediment to agricultural R&D has been overzealous opposition to the new technologies.

    Consider the question “India needs low-input, high-output agriculture. This cannot be achieved without science and technology. In light of this, examine how R&D could play a role in the advancement of agriculture in India.”

    Conclusion

    Maybe the present crisis in agriculture would lead to a greater appreciation of the need for strong public supported R&D in agriculture.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-United States

    New horizon of India-U.S. ties

    op-ed snap | International Relations | : 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- India-U.S. relations and area of cooperation

    The article explores the area of cooperation for India and the U.S. under a new administration in U.S. amid changing geopolitical realities.

    China: Shared cause of concern

    • The Biden administration’s approach to India will be shaped by its position towards China.
    • There is a bipartisan change in the US’s attitude to China.
    • The Biden administration will continue Trump administrations trade policy- reducing the trade deficit, ensuring a level-playing field, keeping a keen eye on technology rivalry etc.
    • There are parallels in the concerns of India and the U.S. — invigorating the domestic economy and dealing with a rising rival.
    • These concerns can translate into opportunities for both countries.

    How India and U.S can convert concerns into opportunities

    1) Cooperation in healthcare

    • Healthcare is clearly an area that India can play up in bilateral relations.
    • The two countries can also work with multilateral agencies across the spectrum of vaccine (including Covid vaccine) development, logistics and distribution.
    • India produces around 20 per cent of the global requirement for generic drugs by volume and every third tablet of generics consumed in the US.
    • The President-elect has indicated his commitment to providing better and affordable healthcare
    • This could be an opportunity for the Indian pharma sector to play a role in reducing health costs of the American consumer.
    • India can benefit from advancements in medical technologies, devices, new medicines and R&D capabilities, presenting opportunities for American companies.

    2) Job creation through trade and exports

    • Biden has set an ambitious target for US-India trade.
    • Businesses in both countries are also looking for diversifying their manufacturing supply chains.
    • This portends well for the creation of employment in manufacturing.
    • An area where strategic considerations and imperatives of job creation converge is defence, especially since India has been designated a Major Defence Partner of the US.

    3) Focus on infrastructure in both countries

    • For the US, this can mean opportunities in India in transportation, power and other urban amenities.
    • The US’s renewed focus on climate change should lead to greater cooperation with India in energy-related areas.
    • Cooperation in energy-related areas includes more efficient energy dissemination and management (such as smart grids) to renewable energy technologies.

    4) Enhance opportunities in 5G tech

    • There is potential to enhance mutual opportunities in the 5G tech sector.
    • Increased partnership between the two nations can accelerate the development of technology solutions, promote vendors in the 5G open ecosystem and drive economic growth.
    • The two countries should engage in shaping the rules of a new order in this space.
    • This also has an important strategic element when seen in the light of developments in the Indo-Pacific as well as China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

    5) Multilateralism for cooperation in wider areas

    • Once the Biden administration assumes office, we should expect the U.S.’s return to multilateralism.
    • The Trans-Pacific Partnership aimed to create a rules-based order that all parties could subscribe to.
    • With the ascendancy of the Indo-Pacific paradigm and the Quad and Quad Plus, a successor to the TPP could include a wider canvas.
    • For India, this could mean cooperation beyond defence and security, including economics, technology and developments pertaining to the regional order.

    Conclusion

    Both countries should treat the economic and commercial dimension with as much priority as the strategic dimension. Both governments should embrace the prosperity-creating potential of such an approach.

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  • Blueprint of post covid development model

    op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Not much

    Mains level: Paper 3- Post-covid development model

    The article discusses the themes of the post-covid world which will be somewhat more aware and mindful of the dangers of global dimension.

    Collaborative model and public-private partnership

    • A few weeks back, Prime Minister visited the private companies involved with the formulation of the anti-COVID vaccine.
    • The PM’s visit was one more reminder of the critical importance of public-private partnerships.
    • The PM signalled the government’s receptivity to external expert advice.
    • The CEOs reaffirmed their commitment to partnering with the state to help address not just this medical crisis but also the many other social and humanitarian problems.
    • The government has appreciated that the model for sustainable development in a post-COVID world must be a collaborative one.
    • Businesses will repurpose their goals and look beyond profits.

    Working together to deal with the crises of global dimensions

    • COVID-19 was not the first, nor will it be the last crisis of global dimensions.
    • The threat of global warming, for instance, hangs over our heads.
    • Its impact is less immediate and for the present, at least less palpable.
    • But it looms and its consequences are existential.
    • COVID has offered, it is the tangible evidence that no one entity or group — the state, markets, businesses, entrepreneurs, scientists — can tackle existing and emergent economic and social problems on their own.
    • They have to work together to resolve them.

    Business uncertainties

    • Businesses has been the uncertainty of operating in the post-COVID digital world.
    • Every business leader has, in some form or other, expressed three types of uncertainties.
    • 1) Is their business facing a hinge moment, necessitating the reimagining and re-engineering of their strategy and product portfolio?
    • Or are they witnessing no more than another turn of the business cycle and that, once the vaccine is developed and distributed, the market will return to business as usual?
    • Or will conditions necessitate a middle of the road approach: Stay the pre- COVID course but at the same time, speed up the pivot toward a new business model.
    • Most business leaders are adopting this third hybrid path.
    • The key to corporate success in a digital world in which a distinct incident could influence it, is the capability of leaders to think out of the box and to handle the unexpected.
    • Financial, technological and human resources will be necessary, but they will not be sufficient.

    Consider the question “The post-covid development model must be based on the cooperation underscored by the public-private partnership as the challenges that could emerge are not possible to be tackled by any on entitiy. Comment”

    Conclusion

    COVID has “obliterated the one remaining obstacle to a digital future — human attitudes”. Covid forced them to adopt and adapt. The challenge for our business leaders will be to navigate a pathway that sustains the benefits of these tools but without deepening the existing social and economic inequalities. Life is not digital for millions in our country.

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  • Defence Sector – DPP, Missions, Schemes, Security Forces, etc.

    Carrying out transformational reforms in military

    op-ed snap | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Various Security Forces, Agencies & Their Mandates

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: CDS and Department of Military Affairs

    Mains level: Paper 3- Creation of Theatre Commands and issues with it

    The article examines issues of national security like the recent creation of a Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and also some focus areas like Threatre Command. 

    Understanding the significance of  DMA and CDS

    • Through the creation of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), the management of the armed forces, so far which was assigned to the civilian Defence Secretary, was brought under a military officer, the CDS.
    • The designation of CDS as Secretary DMA made him the first military officer to be recognised as a functionary of the Government of India (GoI).
    • With the DMA is now a part of the GoI, it would aid the resolution of organisational, hierarchical and financial issues faced by the military.

    Recent steps taken by DMA

    • The responsibility for accruing savings to fund defence expenditure has been placed on the DMA.
    • DMA has floated two schemes aimed at reducing the defence pensions bill.
    • One penalises officers seeking early release from service and another envisages a three-year “Tour of Duty” for jawans.
    • Issues with these ideas:
    • Penalising officers for early release is likely to harm morale.
    • “Tour of Duty” will degrade the military’s combat-capability in today’s technology-intensive battle-space.
    • The need here is that DMA must focus on military matters and leave the plans of financing national defence to finance ministry or the Niti Aayog. It will better serve it’s purpose.

    Another area of needed reform – Theatre Command

    • Theatre Commands stands for jointness and integration in the Indian military are varying degrees of synergy and cross-service cooperation between the military wings of Indian armed forces.
    • Objectives of the creation of theatre command should be:
    • To hand over the military’s warfighting functions to the Theatre Commanders, while retaining the support functions with service HQs.
    • To combine India’s 17 widely-dispersed, single-service Commands into four or five mission/threat-oriented, geographically contiguous “Joint” or “Theatre Commands”.
    • To place the appropriate warfighting resources of all three services directly under the command of the designated Theatre Commanders; and
    • To achieve efficiency/economy by pooling of facilities and resources of the three services.

    Advantages of Theatre Commands

    • The Theatre Commanders and their staff will be trained and groomed in jointness.
    • With that jointness, they will be able to plan operations and to employ land, maritime and air forces, regardless of the service to which they belong.
    • For this to happen, radical changes are required in the content of our system of professional military education.
    • The Theatre Commander will also have the benefit of advice from commanders representing each service.

    Issues with Theatre Commands

    • Two thorny issues are the chain of command of the Theatre Commanders and the relationship of the CDS (or his equivalent) with the service Chiefs.
    • To avoid over-concentration of power in any single military functionary, the system followed by the US ensures that the chain of command runs from the President to the Secretary (Minister) of Defence and then, directly to the Theatre Commander.
    • In India, the peacetime management of the armed forces is left to the MoD and the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC).
    • However, during war, strategic guidance to the military,  has always come from the PM.
    • In the system of higher defence under implementation, ideally, the Defence Minister needs to be brought into the command/operational chain of the Theatre Commanders, with the CDS acting as his adviser.
    • Due to frequency of elections and intensity of politics in India that no Defence Minister has had the time or inclination to devote his/her undivided attention to complex national security issues.

    Consider the question “Examine the implications of the creation of Theatre Commands. What are the challenges in its creation.”

    Conclusion

    India’s military reforms are complex, the GoI needs to seriously consider the constitution of a Parliamentary Committee, with military advisers, to oversee and guide this transformational process.

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  • Melting of the Arctic ice and its geopolitical footprints

    op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Effect Of Policies & Politics Of World On India’S Interests

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: NSR

    Mains level: Paper 2- Melting of Arctic ice cap and its geopolitical implications

    Melting of the ice in the Arctic region has as much impact on the geopolitics as it has on the environment. The article explains in detail the geopolitics involved.

    Melting of Arctic ice and its impact on climate

    • Arctic region is warming up twice as fast as the global average.
    • The ice cap is shrinking fast — since 1980, the volume of Arctic sea ice has declined by as much as 75 percent.
    • The loss of ice and the warming waters will affect sea levels, salinity levels, and current and precipitation patterns.
    • The Tundra is returning to the swamp, the permafrost is thawing, sudden storms are ravaging coastlines and wildfires are devastating interior Canada and Russia.
    • The rich biodiversity of the Arctic region is under serious threat.
    • These changes are making the survival of Arctic marine life, plants, and birds difficult while encouraging species from lower latitudes to move north.
    • The Arctic is also home to about 40 different indigenous groups, whose culture, economy, and way of life are in danger of being swept away.

    Opportunities in the melting of the Arctic

    • The Northern Sea Route (NSR) which connects the North Atlantic to the North Pacific through a short polar arc was once not open for navigation.
    • The melting ice has now made it a reality and a trickle of commercial cargo vessels have been going through every summer since the last decade.
    • The opening of the Arctic presents huge commercial and economic opportunities, particularly in shipping, energy, fisheries, and mineral resources.
    • Oil and natural gas deposits, estimated to be 22 percent of the world’s unexplored resources, mostly in the Arctic ocean, will be open to access along with mineral deposits.

    Challenges in exploiting opportunities

    • Navigation conditions are dangerous and restricted to the summer.
    • There is a lack of deep-water ports, a need for ice-breakers, a shortage of workers trained for polar conditions, and high insurance costs.
    • Mining and deep-sea drilling carry massive costs and environmental risks.
    • Unlike Antarctica, the Arctic is not a global common and there is no overarching treaty that governs it, only the UN Convention of Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
    • Large parts of it are under the sovereignty of the five littoral states — Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark (Greenland) and the US — and exploitation of the new resources is well within their rights.

    Geopolitics of the Arctic

    • Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark have put in overlapping claims for extended continental shelves.
    • The US, not a party to UNCLOS, is unable to put in a formal claim but is under pressure to strengthen its Arctic presence.
    • For the present, Russia is the dominant power, with the longest Arctic coastline, half the Arctic population, and a full-fledged strategic policy.
    • Russia anticipates huge dividends from commercial traffic including through the use of its ports, pilots, and ice-breakers.
    • China, playing for economic advantage, has moved in fast, projecting the Polar Silk Road as an extension of the BRI, and has invested heavily in ports, energy, undersea infrastructure, and mining projects.

    What are the concerns for India

    • India’s extensive coastline makes it vulnerable to the impact of Arctic warming on ocean currents, weather patterns, fisheries, and most importantly, our monsoon.
    • Scientific research in Arctic developments, in which India has a good record, will contribute to our understanding of climatic changes in the Third Pole — the Himalayas.
    • The strategic implications of an active China in the Arctic and it’s growing economic and strategic relationship with Russia are self-evident and need close monitoring.

    Way forward

    • India has observer status in the Arctic Council, which is the predominant inter-governmental forum for cooperation on the environment and development (though not the security) aspects of the Arctic.
    • India should leverage its presence in Arctic Council for a strategic policy that encompassed economic, environmental, scientific, and political aspects.

    Consider the question “Melting of the Arctic opens the door for geopolitical game in the region and India cannot be immune to its implications. In the context of this, examine the developments in the region and how it impacts India’s interests?”

    Conclusion

    India must strive to protect its interest and strive for strategic policy for the region.

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  • Higher Education – RUSA, NIRF, HEFA, etc.

    Issues with NEP’s regulatory architecture

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: NEP 2020

    Mains level: Paper 2- Regulation of higher education through single regulator

    The article deals with the idea of single regulator for higher education in the country and the challenges it could fece.

    Recommendations for regulation of higher education

    • Regulatory bodies came up in response to the rapid growth of private participation since the 1980s.
    • Due to multiplicity of regulatory bodies in higher education, nearly all advisory panels appointed since 2005 have been asked for a single regulator.
    • National Knowledge Commission (NKC) concluded in 2007 that the plethora of agencies attempting to control entry, operation, intake, price, size, output and exit had rendered the regulation of higher education ineffectual.
    • The NKC recommended the setting up of an overarching Independent Regulatory Authority in Higher Education (IRAHE).
    • A major concern of the Yash Pal Committee constituted in 2009 was compartmentalisation of academia.
    • To promote such a dialogue, the Yash Pal committee recommended the creation of an apex body called the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER).
    • TSR Subramanian committee in 2016 proposed an Act for setting up an Indian Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE) to subsume all existing regulatory bodies in higher education.
    • The draft national policy presented by the Kasturirangan Committee in 2019 proposed a National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA) as a common regulatory regime for entire higher education sector.
    • The draft NEP 2020 proposed a Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA) to coordinate, direct and address inter-institutional overlaps and conflicts.

    The regulatory regime under NEP 2020

    • NEP 2020 has now a single regulator for all higher education barring medical and law education.
    • It envisages an overarching Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), with four independent verticals comprising the National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC), the National Accreditation Council (NAC), the Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) and the General Education Council (GEC).
    •  The University Grants Commission (UGC) is to become HEGC while the other regulatory bodies will become professional standard setters.

    Fragmented regulation of medical education to continue

    • NEP-2020 provides for separate regulation for medical education.
    • But it envisions healthcare education as an inter-disciplinary system.[Allopathic student to have a basic understanding of Ayurveda, Yoga etc and vice-versa]
    • Multiple regulators in health education include the National Commission for Homoeopathy (NCH) and the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) and continuation of the Dental Council of India (DCI), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) and the Indian Nursing Council (INC),
    • Thus, making medical education inter-disciplinary would be difficult due to multiple regulators.

    Lessons from the governance of medical education

    • The above example demonstrate the difficulty in designing a single regulatory framework to take care of the domain-specific needs of even within healthcare education.
    • But if accepted as a principle, it has the potential to delay, if not derail, the idea of a single regulator.
    • And should that actually happen, the idea of reining in the regulators might mean abandoning the idea of regulation of regulators.

    Issues with the single regulator proposed in NEP 2020

    • The regulatory architecture proposed in the NEP is far too monolithic for a system of higher education serving a geographically, culturally and politically diverse country like ours.
    • Even in the matter of privatisation, there is enormous diversity of players and practices.
    • Historically too, private participation in the running of colleges has not followed a single pattern.
    • To imagine that a uniform structure called Board of Governors can serve all different kinds of institutions across the country is flawed.
    • Such a vision calls for better appreciation of what exists, no matter how worrisome a condition it is in.

    Consider the question “What are the challenges in the regulation of higher education in the country? What are the concerns with the idea of single regulator for the regualtion of higher education in country?”

    Conclusion

    Before proceeding with the single regulator, the government need to pay attention to the issue of diversity in various aspects in the country.

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  • Women Safety Issues – Marital Rape, Domestic Violence, Swadhar, Nirbhaya Fund, etc.

    Give adequate time for investigation

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: CrPC provisions

    Mains level: Paper 2- Reduction in the time for investigation and issues with it

    Andhra Pradesh’s Disha Bill of 2019 seeks to reduce the time period for investigation of some crimes to seven days. Such a move could have several consequences. The article deals with that issue.

    State governments reducing the period of investigation

    • The proposed Maharashtra Shakti Act of 2020 will have a provision to complete the investigation within 15 days.
    • Maharashtra has taken cur from the Andhra Pradesh’s Disha Bill of 2019.
    • Disha mandated completion of investigation within seven working days for offenses such as harassment of women, sexual assault on children, and rape, where “adequate conclusive evidence” is available.
    • The interpretation of “adequate conclusive evidence” by the police shall remain a problem.

    What are the CrPC provisions?

    • The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) provides that investigations relating to offenses punishable with imprisonment up to 10 years must be completed within 60 days.
    • For offenses with higher punishment (including rape) the time limit is of 90 days of detaining the accused, else he or she shall be released on bail.
    • To speed up the process, the CrPC was amended in 2018 and the period of investigation was reduced from 90 to 60 days for all cases of rape.

    Factors that decide the time required

    • Generally, the time of investigation depends on several factors like the severity of the crime, the number of accused persons and agencies involved.
    • This is besides the fact that in many cases of rape, the victim remains under trauma for some time and is not able to narrate the incident in detail.
    • The speed and quality of investigation also depend on whether a police station has separate units of investigation and law and order.[ a long-pending police reform]
    • It also depends on the number of available IOs and women police officers, and the size and growth of the FSL and its DNA unit.

    Consider the question “Examine the reasons for the high crime rate in India? Recently, some state governments have reduced the duration for the investigation of crime. How such move could impact the investigation?” 

    Conclusion

    Setting narrow timelines for investigation creates scope for procedural loopholes that may be exploited during the trial. Therefore, instead of fixing unrealistic timelines, the police should be given additional resources so that they can deliver efficiently.

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

    Need for comprehensive agri policy

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Issues Related To Farm Subsidies & Msp

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Agreement on Agriculture

    Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges of farm subsidies and declining farm incomes

    The article examines the reasons for declining farm incomes and the contribution of farm subsidies.

    Contribution of agriculture

    • India’s agriculture, which also supports the rural workforce, was, forever, living beyond its means.
    • In 1950-51, agriculture’s share in the country’s GDP was 45%, the share of the workforce dependent on it was close to 70%.
    • Today, agriculture’s share in GDP is below 16%, but almost 50% of the country’s workforce depends on this sector.
    • The squeeze on the agricultural sector becomes even more evident from its terms of trade vis-à-vis the non-agricultural sectors.
    • Agriculture has been facing adverse terms of trade over extended periods since the 1980s, and even during the phases when the terms of trade have moved in its favour, for instance in the 1990s and again since 2012-13, there was no distinct upward trend.

    Reason for fall in farm incomes: falling investment

    • The decline in farm incomes was triggered by growing inefficiencies.
    • This decline, in turn, was caused by a lack of meaningful investment in agriculture.
    • The share of this sector in the total investment undertaken in the country consistently fell from about 18% in the 1950s to just above 11% in the 1980s.
    • In the most recent quinquennium for which data are available (2014-15 to 2018-19), the average share of agriculture was 7.6%.

    India’s dismal performance in term of yields of major crops

    • If one ranks countries in terms of their yields in wheat and rice — India’s two major crops — the country’s ranks were 45 and 59, respectively, in 2019.
    • This ranking would go down sharply if the areas recording high yields, such as Punjab and Haryana, are excluded.
    • In other words, for farmers in most regions of the country, it is an uphill battle for survival amid low yields.

    Need for coherent policy for agriculture

    • The lack of a coherent policy for agriculture must surely be regarded among the most remarkable failures of the governments in post-Independence India.
    • Compare this failure with the United States, with less than 2% of its workforce engaged in agriculture, has been enacting farm legislations every four years since the Agricultural Adjustment Act was enacted in 1933.
    • These policies comprehensively address the needs of the farm sector through proactive support from the respective governments.

    Issue of the farm subsidies in India

    • The subsidies are the price that the country pays for the failure of the policymakers to comprehensively address the problems of the farm sector.
    • Wanton distribution of subsidies without a proper policy framework has distorted the structure of production and, consequently, undesirable outcomes in terms of excessive food stockpiling.
    • And, yet, the fundamental ills of Indian agriculture are not adequately addressed.
    • Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are expected to notify their agricultural subsidies as a part of their commitment under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA).
    • India’s latest notification, for 2018-19, shows that the subsidies provided were slightly more than $56 billion.
    • In most of the recent years, the largest component of India’s subsidies ($24.2 billion, or 43% of the total) is provided to “low income or resource-poor farmers”, a terminology that the AoA uses.
    • However, the designation of this category of farmers is left to individual members.
    • India has notified that 99.43% of its farmers are low income or resource-poor.
    • According to the agricultural census conducted in 2015-16, these are the farmers whose holdings are 10 hectares or less.
    • Thus, almost the entire farm sector comprises economically weak farmers.

    Comparing subsidies given by various countries

    • America provided $131 billion in 2017 and the EU, nearly €80 billion (or $93 billion) in 2017-18.
    • Instead of absolute numbers; the ratios of subsidies to agricultural value addition for the three countries give a much better picture.
    • Thus, for 2017, India’s farm subsidies were 12.4% of agricultural value addition, while for the U.S. and the EU, the figures were 90.8% and 45.3%, respectively.
    • This then is the reality of farm subsidies that India provides.

    Consider the question “Indian agriculture has been contributing beyond its means since Indian independence. However, agri incomes have shown a gradual decline. What are the reasons for such a decline? How far has farm subsidies succeeded in solving the low-income problem?” 

    Conclusion

    India needs a comprehensive Agri policy to deal with the distortion created by the subsidies.

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

    The climate policy needs new ideas

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

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Paris Agreement

    Mains level: Paper 3- Climate change policies and issues with them

    The article highlights the issues with the current climate policies which are centred on the inequality.

    Inequality and climate change

    • Inequity is built into the climate treaty, which considers total emissions, size, and population, making India the fourth largest emitter.
    • According to the United Nations, the richest 1% of the global population emits more than two times the emissions of the bottom 50%.
    • .China, with four times the population of the U.S., accounts for 12% of cumulative emissions.
    • India, with a population close to that of China’s, for just 3% of cumulative emissions that lead to global warming.
    • In an urbanized world, two-thirds of emissions arise from the demand of the middle class for infrastructure, mobility, buildings, and diet.
    • Well-being in the urbanized world is reflected in saturation levels of infrastructure.
    • Growth in the developed countries is consumption-driven not production driven.
    • The vaguely worded ‘carbon neutrality’, balancing emitting carbon with absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in forests is a triple whammy for latecomers like India.
    • Such countries already have less energy-intensive pathways that will not encroach on others’ ecological space, a young population, and are growing fast to reach comparable levels of well-being with those already urbanized and in the middle class.

    What changes are required in the policies

    • At present, the focus is on physical quantities which indicates effects on nature.
    • The solutions require analysis of drivers, trends, and patterns of resource use. 
    • This anomaly explains why the link between well-being, energy use, and emissions is not on the global agenda.
    • Modifying unsustainable patterns of natural resource use and ensuring comparable levels of well-being are societal transformations.
    • New thinking must enable politics to acknowledge transformational social goals and the material boundaries of economic activity.

    India’s unique national circumstances

    • India must highlight its unique national circumstances.
    • For example, the meat industry, especially beef, contributes to one-third of global emissions.
    • Indians eat just 4 kg of meat a year compared to those in the European Union who eat about 65 kg.
    • Also to be noted is the fact that the average American household wastes nearly one-third of its food.
    • Transport emissions account for a quarter of global emissions.
    • Transport emissions are the symbol of Western civilization and are not on the global agenda.
    • Rising Asia uses three-quarters of coal drives industry and supports the renewable energy push into cities.
    • India, with abundant reserves and per capita electricity use that is one-tenth that of the U.S., is under pressure to stop using coal.

    Way forward

    • India has the credibility and legitimacy to push an alternate 2050 goal for countries currently with per capita emissions below the global average.
    • These goals should include well-being within ecological limits, the frame of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as multilateral technological knowledge cooperation around electric vehicles, energy efficiency, building insulation, and a less wasteful diet.

    Conclusion

    Emissions are the symptom, not the cause of the problem. India, in the UN Security Council, must push new ideas based on its civilizational and long-standing alternate values for the transition to sustainability.

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

    Reforms with the future and farming needs in mind

    op-ed snap | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: Issues Related To Farm Subsidies & Msp

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Provisions in the act

    Mains level: Paper 3- Provisions in the new farm laws and their purpose

    Some provisions of the new farm laws are opposed by the farmers. The article explains the utility of these provisions.

    Major objections to farm laws

    • The first objection is that the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) will be eventually closed,
    • The second objection is that Minimum Support Prices (MSP) will be stopped,
    • The third fear is that corporates will take over the agriculture trade, and farmers’ land will be taken over by powerful corporates.

    Why reforms were needed

    • The gap between the agri-income of a farmer and that of a non-agriculture worker increased from ₹25,398 in 1993–94 to ₹1.42 lakh in 2011-12.
    • Aggregate food demand has fallen short of domestic production necessitating the export of a large quantity to prevent domestic prices from falling very low.
    • India is sitting on an excess stock of 60 lakh tons of sugar and nearly 72 million tons of extra buffer stock of wheat and rice which is causing a huge drain on fiscal resources.
    • India’s agri-exports are facing difficulty, imports are turning attractive as domestic prices are turning much higher.
    • Rural youth are looking for jobs outside agriculture and there is a serious problem of unemployment in the countryside.
    • There are numerous instances of market failure to the detriment of producers and consumers.
    • This is turning farmers to look at the government for remunerative prices through MSP for most agricultural products.
    • The growth rate in agriculture is driven by heavy support through various kinds of subsidies and output price support.
    • These costs and losses and subsidies will take away most of the tax revenue of the central government.

    3 Provisions and their utility

    1) Relation between MSP and APMC

    • APMC has nothing to do with the payment of the MSP.
    • The necessary and sufficient conditions for the MSP are procurement by the government, with or without the APMC.
    • Experience shows that even after fruits and vegetables were de-notified from the APMC, they continued to arrive at APMC mandis in large quantities while farmers got additional options.
    • The protesting farmers have raised concerns to keep the level-playing field for the APMC and private players, and the government has shown agreement to address this fully.

    2) Criteria for traders

    • Protesting farmers are also opposing the provision of the simple requirement of a PAN card for a trader.
    • After having a PAN card, even a farmer can go for trading, his son can do agri-business and other rural youth can undertake purchases of farm commodities for direct sale to a consumer or other agribusiness firms.
    • If stringent criteria such as bank guarantee, etc. are included in the registration, then the spirit of the new law to facilitate farmers and rural youth to become agribusiness entrepreneurs will be lost.

    3) Mistaking contract farming with corporate farming

    • Critics and protesting farmers are mixing contract farming with corporate farming.
    • The new Act intends to insulate interested farmers (especially small farmers), against market and price risks.
    • The Act is voluntary and either party is free to leave it after the expiry of the agreement.
    • It prohibits the transfer, sale, lease, mortgage of the land or premises of the farmer.
    • The Act will promote diversification, quality production for a premium price, export, and direct sale of produce, with desired attributes to interested consumers.
    • It will also bring new capital and knowledge into agriculture and pave the way for farmers’ participation in the value chain.

    Conclusion

    The policy reforms undertaken by the central government through these Acts are in keeping with the changing times and requirements of farmers and farming. If they are implemented in the right spirit, they will take Indian agriculture to new heights and usher in the transformation of the rural economy.

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