Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Global slowdown and India' economic growth
“The mantle of the G20 presidency has come at the right time, allowing India to influence the global agenda based on its own priority of accelerated, inclusive and resilient growth”
Context
- The pandemic has proven to be the breakout moment in India’s long overdue emergence as the world’s next engine of growth. New India is bearing fruit at a time when one-third of the world’s economy is facing a slowdown. Speaking at FICCI’s 95th annual general meeting, Finance Minister said that the upcoming budget will set the template for the next 25 years, which is India’s Amrit Kaal.
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A gloomy global outlook
- Prospectus of global growth: According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global growth will nearly halve to 3.2 per cent in 2022 and fall further to 2.7 per cent in 2023, reflecting stalling growth in the US, China and the Euro Zone.
- Global inflation: Higher food and energy prices have led to global inflation peaking at 8.8 per cent in 2022 which is, however, expected to decline to 6.5 per cent in 2023 and 4.1 per cent in 2024.
- Developed nations are struggling to tame inflation: Developed nations have adopted excessive stimulus measures. According to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, in 2020 and 2021, households globally added $100 trillion to global wealth on paper as asset prices soared and $39 trillion in new currency and deposits were minted and debt and equity liabilities increased by about $50 trillion and $75 trillion, respectively, as governments and central banks stimulated economies.
- Russia- Ukraine conflict inflicting fiscal pain: Meanwhile, the continuing Russia-Ukraine conflict is inflicting fiscal pain beyond the immediate region
- Disrupted supply chain by China’s covid policy: While China’s Covid policy has disrupted supply chains, which are now once again threatened by a potential fallout of an abrupt reversal.
- India’s inflation is largely imported: India’s own fight against inflation, which is largely imported, has been aided by fiscal and monetary policy working in tandem with a little help from easing commodity prices.
- Fastest-growing large economy in the world: However, India stands out as a rare bright spot with the economy estimated to grow around 7 per cent in FY23 and a growth forecast of 6.1-6.5 per cent in FY24, thus retaining the tag of the fastest-growing large economy in the world.
- Inflation coming down within RBI’s tolerance level: In an encouraging sign, retail inflation eased to 5.88 per cent in November, thus coming within the RBI’s tolerance band after 11 months. While it is too early to declare victory in terms of taming inflation, policymakers must now chart out a path that prioritises growth
- India likely to overtake Japan and Germany to become 3rd largest economy: Having recently surpassed the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, India is likely to overtake Japan and Germany before the end of the decade to become the third-largest economy in the world.
- What made this possible: Reforms aimed at enhancing ease of doing business and reducing the cost of doing business in a large, unified domestic market along with a focus on boosting the manufacturing sector through the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, which are helping attract large investments including in critical areas like semiconductors.
What India has to share with the world?
- G20 leadership to bring about structural transformation: Its priority as G20 president is to focus on areas, which have the potential to bring about structural transformation leading to accelerated, inclusive and resilient growth.
- Concept of LiFE for a sustainable lifestyle: Similarly, the concept of LiFE (Lifestyle for the Environment) draws upon ancient sustainable traditions to reinforce modern-day environmentally conscious practices.
- Knowledge sharing: Finally, knowledge sharing in areas like digital public infrastructure and financial inclusion will enable the wider adoption of disruptive technologies.
Conclusion
- Investors both domestic and global must now come forward and participate in the India growth story which, in turn, will give a much-needed boost to global growth going ahead. Speaking at the World Economic Forum last year, PM Modi said “Make in India, Make for the World”. There has never been a better time to invest in India and reap the benefits of what it has to offer.
Mains question
Q. At a time when one-third of the world’s economy is facing a slowdown India stands at a brighter spot Discuss. Highlight what India has to share with the world?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Tackling online child abuse, Challenges and efforts.
Context
- With the increasing popularity of social media platforms, utilisation of education apps and shift to online classes, children these days have a much higher chance of being exposed to harmful content. Hence, the need to secure children’s welfare and safety online is more urgent than ever.
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Online Child Sexual Abuse
- Definition: Online child sexual abuse and exploitation refers to activities such as the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), live streaming sexual assault of minors, obtaining sexually explicit material, exhibitionism and meeting the abuser in-person.
- Psychological harm to children: This poses serious harm to children who experience psychological stress such as anxiety, trauma, and depression.
- Behavioural changes: It can also lead to behavioural changes like drug and alcohol abuse, self-harm, and lower motivation for academics.
- Problems in adult life: It doesn’t end there, as the consequences of online sexual abuse in childhood are far-reaching and may well extend into adulthood bringing forth issues with intimacy and affecting interpersonal relationships.
- Encryption and anonymity: The rapidly evolving digital landscape and advances in information technology have given rise to better encryption services and the dark net, which provide a safe cover of anonymity to offenders, allowing them to engage in child sexual abuse.
- Pace of response is still slow: Needless to say, the danger and complexity of online abuse has escalated at an alarming rate and needs to be dealt with swiftly. Moreover, the ubiquitous nature of the internet and online interaction has made it so that almost all cases of child sexual abuse feature a virtual aspect. Therefore, a broad perspective and a systems-level approach should be considered when deciding on strategies to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA).
- Limited capacity of police: Broadly speaking, the main administrative challenges when dealing with OCSEA are limited law enforcement capacities, gaps in legislative framework, and a lack of awareness and urgency around the issue.
- Understaffing of workforce: The workforce in relevant social welfare organisations is understaffed. The need of the hour is close collaboration between non-traditional partners from the industry, government ministries dealing in technological communication, and law enforcement. Provisions should be in place to prevent future cases and safeguard the victims or survivors.
Efforts by India in fighting OCSEA
- Improved mechanism and new tools: India have made a significant effort to tackle the wave of rising OCSEA cases in recent years. Not only has it improved the mechanism for reporting online offences against children, but it has also developed new tools and software to control and remove the presence of CSAM on social media and other platforms.
- Sensitise school and boosting capacity: Efforts have also been made to sensitise schools and boost the technological capacity of law enforcement agencies to further deal with the issue. Although this four-pronged model has shown some promising results, it is surpassed by the exponential rise in cases across the country.
What are steps that can be taken?
- Evaluate and improve the governance systems: It is imperative to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of cross-sectoral governance mechanisms that are set up to systematise the national response to child sexual abuse material.
- Fast tracking the cases: The huge backlog for cases of OCSEA in India must also be fast-tracked. As for prevention, institutionalising the collection of national-level data on CSAM can also assist in strengthening children’s online security. The recent Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology can provide an opportunity to meet this exigency.
- Clear mandate and responsibility of stakeholders: There should be further development of clear mandates and creation of a logical framework of roles and duties of all relevant stakeholders within standard operating procedures for investigation. Continuous dialogue between the industry, government and other collaborators, with a distinct agenda and division of responsibilities is necessary.
- Training of enforcement agency: Industry partners, in particular the IT industry, must be provided with suitable training and awareness of the magnitude of OCSEA, along with proper toolkits and guidance. Promoting a systematic and constant approach to training the judiciary and prosecution on CSAM can prove beneficial, if centred around child-sensitive protocols.
- Reparation for victims: In the same vein, comprehensive remedies or reparations for victims are just as important and need to be handled by a specialised workforce.
- Parental and community training: Basic online safety measures, parental support initiatives and community awareness training can be integrated into existing education programmes for violence prevention, and sensitising the most vulnerable audience. Existing systems must be evaluated by monitoring and documenting their overall effectiveness and accessibility, including assessment of relevant hotlines and portals (checking to see if they are linked to relevant referral systems), and analysing context-specific reasons for limitations.
- Ethical media reporting: Dedicated effort must be made to aid ethical and informed media reporting on relevant cases.
Conclusion
- A collaborative effort of various institutions across the nation is required to build a safer cyberspace. The highest priority is assessment of current OCSEA response systems and reporting mechanisms, stricter implementation of prevention laws, and adequate resources to sustain these efforts. The end goal must be to ensure long-term safeguards for online platforms that allow secure navigation for minors and a disruption of the actions of offenders.
Mains Question
Q. What are the challenges in fight against online child sexual exploitation and abuse? What steps can be taken to tackle OCSEA?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Net zero
Mains level: India's plans of decarbonization and orderly transition towards net zero
Context
- India’s per capita emissions are relatively low (1.8 tons of CO2e per person), but we are still the world’s third-largest single emitter. India has pledged to get to net zero by 2070. This goal can only be met with urgent actions in this decade, potentially accelerated through India’s recently-assumed G20 presidency.
Current trajectory
- Emissions are set to grow: On its current trajectory, India’s emissions are set to grow from 2.9 GtCO2e a year to 11.8 GtCO2e in 2070.
- Decarbonisation comes with the cost: According to a recent McKinsey report, effective decarbonisation, down to 1.9 GtCO2e by 2070, would require India to spend a total of $7.2 trillion on green initiatives by 2050. This line of sight (LoS) scenario is based on announced policies and expected technology adoption.
- Investment needed: Deeper decarbonisation an accelerated scenario that would reduce emissions to just 0.4 GtCO2e by 2050, or close to net zero would require $12 trillion in total green investments by 2050. Under this scenario, India could create 287 gigatonnes (GT) of carbon space for the world, almost half of the global carbon budget, for an even chance at limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
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Memory shot: Net Zero
- Net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with remaining emissions re-absorbed by oceans/ forests.
- China, US, EU and India contribute 75% of total GHG emissions
- However, per capita GHG emissions for US, EU and China are7,3 and 3 times of India
- India has set target to achieve net zero emissions by 2070.
What India needs to speed up the decarbonization?
- Orderly transition will benefit but the projects are of heavy investments: To take just one example, If India shifted to a predominantly renewable (and hydrogen)-based energy and materials system, it could save as much as $3 trillion in foreign exchange by 2070. While the investment is large, a vast majority of the abatement projects are in the money.
- Investment, regulation and capacity building is necessary: Three-quarters of the buildings, infrastructure, and industrial capacity of India in 2050 is yet to be built. We have a choice to invest in current technologies or to invest futuristically. Futuristic investment will need India to take urgent actions in this decade on regulation, technology development, and on technology adoption to make the right investments.
- Employing the experience in renewable power: In renewable power, the right policies, strong institutions and industrial capabilities built in the last decade are providing India with the base to scale up four to five times in this decade.
- Making electric vehicles competitive in the market: India also has other advantages. For example, its high taxation on automotive fuels translates to an imputed carbon tax of $140 to $240 per tonne of carbon dioxide. This makes electric vehicles competitive against petrol or diesel ones, explaining the recent rapid growth of electric two-wheelers.
- Setting up national and structural decarbonisation plans: Set out five-year, 10-year, and 25-year national decarbonisation plans. Policies that enable carbon prices or blending mandates can make the economics viable. Such policies need to be held steady and require coordination across sectors like power, hydrogen and steel. A national decarbonisation plan would enable timely investment decisions.
- Defining a national land use plan and consider using barren lands for renewables: India risks being land-short for its dual goals of growth and decarbonisation. For example, McKinsey estimates that renewable power and forest carbon sinks need 18 million additional hectares of land. India would need to maximise the use of barren land for renewable power, urbanise vertically, improve agricultural productivity, and increase forest density.
- Accelerate compliance with carbon markets: Pricing carbon creates demand signals that accelerate emissions reductions, especially in hard-to-abate sectors. Let’s illustrate this through steel, demand for which could multiply eight times by 2070; right now, much of the new capacity is likely to be added using high-emission coal. With a price on carbon emissions, more expensive green steel becomes competitive against high-emission steel. For example, a carbon price of $50 a ton could make green steel cost competitive by 2030, leading to the possibility of the next 200 million tons of capacity being created through low-emissions technologies.
- Investing in opportunities: Companies can aim to play on the front foot, investing in opportunities like recycling, hydrogen, biomass, electrolysers, rare earths, battery materials and battery making. Some of these opportunities would take time to mature. Meanwhile, companies could invest in opportunities opened up by decarbonisation of other countries, such as exporting green hydrogen derivatives like ammonia.
Conclusion
- To embark on an orderly path to net zero, India needs imagination, realism, determination and a sense of urgency. An orderly transition to net zero could help India decarbonize while creating an engine for growth. We must take steps this decade to set things up, to establish momentum, and to build India right for generations to come.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Indian economic growth estimate and the areas of concern
Context
- The Indian economy is expected to grow at 7 per cent in 2022-23 as per the first advance estimates of national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday. This is marginally higher than the RBI’s most recent assessment in the December monetary policy committee meeting, the central bank had lowered its expectation of growth to 6.8 per cent.
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Estimate: Indian economic growth
- As per the latest estimates growth is likely to slow down in later half: Considering that the economy grew by 9.7 per cent in the first half of the financial year (April-September), the latest estimate implies that growth is likely to slow down to 4.5 per cent in the second half of the year (October-March) as the base effect wanes.
- Full year growth estimates India will be fastest growing economy: Notwithstanding that, the full-year growth estimate suggests that India will be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Positive signs in the Indian Economy
- Positive medium-term growth prospects: Company and bank balance sheets are healthier, credit growth is rising, and capacity utilisation has increased, all of which augur well for investment activity.
- Positive impact on tourism: The waning of Covid-19 should hopefully have a positive impact on travel, transport and tourism. Construction activity should pick up further with the reduction in housing inventory and almost stable prices over the last decade.
- On inflation India is doing better: On the inflation front, India is doing better than many advanced economies and emerging markets.
Areas of concern
- Private consumption is likely to contract in the second half of the year: While the pace of contraction is expected to be marginal, the slowdown in spending could be due to either the exhaustion of pent-up demand or the lagged impact of a tighter monetary policy.
- Exports growth likely to grow: As per the estimates, exports are likely to grow at almost 12 per cent in the second half of the year. This is at odds with recent data which showed that export growth has actually slowed down considerably as advanced economies have come under pressure.
- Agriculture growth likely to slow down: Agricultural growth is expected to slow down in the second half. As per some analysts this is not in sync with the healthy sowing rates and reservoir levels.
- Manufacturing will go upward: The manufacturing sector, which was almost flat in the first half of the year, is expected to witness an uptick in the second half. It is difficult to reconcile this with the view that both domestic demand and exports are likely to remain subdued, which would in turn impact industrial production.
- Government spending will remain almost flat: Public administration, defence and other services, which largely connotes government spending, is expected to remain more or less flat in the second half. This is odd considering that government consumption expenditure is pegged to grow at 7.2 per cent during the period.
- As the first advance estimates suffer from data limitations, they are based only on seven to eight months of data these are likely to change once more data is available.
- However, they do provide some sense of underlying momentum in economic activities, and are useful in the context of the upcoming Union budget.
- The last budget had assumed a nominal GDP growth of 11.1 per cent. However, as per the latest estimates, nominal GDP is expected to grow at a significantly higher pace of 15.4 per cent.
Conclusion
- Along with trends in tax collections as per which the government’s revenues will surpass budgeted targets by a significant margin, these growth estimates only increase the likelihood of the Centre meeting its budgeted fiscal deficit target for the year.
Mains question
Q. As per the first advance estimates of national income released by the National Statistical Office, Indian economy is expected to grow at 7 per cent in 2022-23. In light of this discuss some of the latest projections and the areas of concern for Indian economic growth.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas and its theme and related facts
Mains level: Overseas citizens of India, and their concerns
Context
- Government will observe the 17th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The day is meant to celebrate the contributions of India’s diaspora. The theme for this year’s event is, “Diaspora: Reliable Partners for India’s Progress in Amrit Kaal”.
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Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas
- Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (Non-Resident Indian Day) is a celebratory day observed (starting in 2003) on 9 January by the Republic of India to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community towards the development of India. The day commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to Mumbai on 9 January 1915.
Who are the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI)?
- OCI are not citizens: Overseas Citizenship of India is a form of permanent residency available to people of Indian origin and their spouses which allows them to live and work in India indefinitely. Despite its name, OCI status is not citizenship and does not grant the right to vote in Indian elections or hold public office.
- It can be revoked: The Indian government can revoke OCI status in a wide variety of circumstances. As of 2020, there are 6 million holders of OCI cards among the Indian Overseas diaspora.
- Scheme for dual citizenship: Originally conceptualised in 2003 by the then NDA government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the OCI scheme was envisaged as a dual-citizenship project.
- All rights of citizen of India: OCIs would enjoy all rights as normal citizens except the right to hold public office and cast their vote.
- Citizenship to OCI from certain countries: The Vajpayee government introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2003 in Parliament. The statement accompanying the Bill, that was passed by Parliament in December that year clearly stated that it was meant to provide dual citizenship to persons of Indian origin from certain countries.
- Present government Downgraded OCI status: Nearly two decades later, the Union Home Ministry is downgrading the OCI scheme from dual-citizenship to virtually a residency permit scheme. The ministry’s statements in circulars and courts declaring that OCIs are not Indian citizens and that they would not enjoy any fundamental rights under the Indian Constitution have been particularly disheartening.
What are the ambiguities about the downgrading of OCI status?
- Confusion over rights: There is considerable legal confusion about the status of OCIs. Can they practice certain professions like journalism without prior government permission? Do contributions by OCIs residing in India to charities/schools violate the country’s laws?
- Problem in donation: During the pandemic, resident OCIs had to ensure their donations went only to NGOs that had FCRA clearance. As a result, many local level initiatives could not be supported with their monetary contributions.
- Confusion over the status: Very often OCIs have been confronted with remarks, including at courts, that we are foreigners in India. Unlike several other countries, the Indian Constitution does not have exhaustive provisions on citizenship.
Making a case of citizenship for OCI
- Vasudaiva kutumbakam philosophy: The Government of India announced that India’s Presidency of G20 will be grounded in the principles of “Vasudaiva kutumbakam” wherein the entire world is considered as one family.
- Push to Mobility for diaspora: Hopefully such political homilies are reflected in the way the government thinks about the idea of citizenship in relation to the increasingly mobile Indian diaspora.
- Injustice to people born in India: Clearly, an elemental question is whether it is proper to cancel the citizenship of people born in the country, and who have continued engagement with it, merely because they have acquired foreign citizenship. No other progressive democracy does that today, even though most countries had similar laws when India enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- Removing the outdated laws: In a recent address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories to focus on quality of service over outdated laws and rules, to achieve the goal of making India a developed country by 2047. Realising the essence of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003 is in the spirit of the PM’s directive.
Conclusion
- OCI contribute immensely to India at home and abroad. But granting a citizenship to Overseas citizens of India will create structural asymmetry in economic, social, political life of ordinary people of India. It will open the flood gates for demand for dual citizenships from other sections of diaspora.
Mains Question
Q. What are problems of Overseas Citizens of India? Discuss why OCI deserve the better status in India?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Mains level: Antimicrobial resistance, challenges and preventive measures
Context
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), often also called antibiotic resistance, is a global health challenge and a looming public health crisis. The WHO has declared it as one of the top 10 health threats facing humanity.
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What is antimicrobial resistance (AMR)?
- AMR is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop and survive exposure to an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others.
How AMR occurs?
- Improper use of antimicrobials: Antimicrobials, chemicals or molecules that kill harmful bugs, are the backbone of modern medicine. Improperly used antimicrobials create selective pressure on bugs.
- Resilient bugs survive the exposure to antimicrobials: The bugs most vulnerable to the drugs die quickly, while the most resilient ones survive, replicate and become superbugs. AMR occurs when superbugs develop and antimicrobials stop working.
- For example: Microorganisms (bugs) are everywhere with some being helpful like the yoghurt-making lactobacillus and some being harmful like the typhoid-causing salmonella.
What are superbugs?
- Microorganisms that become resistant to most antimicrobials are often referred to as superbugs.
- Superbugs makes medical procedures such as organ transplantation, cancer chemotherapy, and other major surgeries very risky.
Interesting fact
- Research has shown that the use of certain types of antimicrobials in animal feed can lead to the development of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in food-producing animals.
- These resistant bacteria can then be transmitted to humans through the food supply, leading to the spread of AMR.
- The first prescription is prevention: Disease prevention and wellness are key to public health and thus preventing infections whenever and wherever possible is equivalent to averting resistance. We need to spearhead sanitation drives, ensure a clean water supply and support hospital-driven infection-control programmes.
- Judicious prescription of antimicrobials: Reducing AMR also requires prescribing antimicrobials judiciously and only when they are absolutely needed.
- Effective coordination and management: There is also a need for more cohesion within management strategies. Coordination across the animal industry and environmental sectors to prevent the unnecessary use of antibiotics in farms these nurtures drug-resistant organisms in our food supply is necessary.
- Robust surveillance systems to detect resistant pathogens of all kinds: Other prescription closely connected with prevention is the development of robust surveillance systems that allow us to detect resistant pathogens of all kinds in the environment and hospitals that would eventually allow containment.
- Heavy investment in research and development: There is an urgent need for a strong pipeline of new antibiotics; an essential component in restoring the balance and ensuring that we have new tools in the fight against AMR. Bringing a new antibiotic from basic research through clinical trials takes more than a decade and requires upward of $1 billion. So there is need to invest heavily in research and development through both government and private funding.
- New financial incentives to make it profitable keeping in mind the social value: Profits on these drugs are negligible. Hence, there is need to formulate new types of financial incentives to measure return on investment and measure profitability by the social value of the antibiotic, breaking the conventional link between sales and profits.
- Bringing in the collective moral vision: Last but not least, we need to bring a collective moral vision to AMR and start thinking of antibiotic/antimicrobial drugs as limited resources that should be available to all.
Conclusion
- Although seemingly distant and abstract, AMR is in the air and potentially catastrophic for those burdened by it. The success of modern medicine, women’s health, infectious diseases, surgery and cancer would be at increased risk for lack of working antimicrobials. The cost of AMR to the economy is significant and it is critical to develop policies and implement them through a holistic One Health approach.
Mains question
Q. What is Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)? Given that AMR is an impending health disaster, discuss what measures can be taken to reduce AMR?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Problem of pendency of cases and the role of the Government
Context
- Much has been said about why we have a staggeringly high number of cases that constitute pendency or cases that are undecided in the court system. Pendency or cases pending in courts have been a source of agony for litigants, lawyers and judges alike. In 2018, the Law Commission of India, in its 230th report, noted that the government is the biggest litigant in the system.
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Ratio: Number of Judges serving the population
- India has 21 judges for every million people: India has a terribly low number of judges serving a very large population to be more precise, India has about 21 judges for every million people, as the government recently informed the Rajya Sabha.
- Comparatively in China: China has about 159 judges for every million people.
What is cause of concern for the government?
- Pendency impacts governance and weakens law and order: It is a cause of concern for the government since an arduous dispute resolution system adversely impacts governance and weakens law and order in any country.
- Government is the largest litigant: Our government has been seized by the burdens of the justice system for long, and is acutely aware of its own role in contributing to the number of cases that enter the courts and remain to be decided.
- Government is well aware: The government has been cognisant of its role in contributing to litigation simply by being the biggest litigator in the courts.
- Action plan in response to large number of Government litigation: On June 13, 2017, the department of justice of the Government of India, released an Action Plan to reduce Government Litigation. The action plan was in response to the fact that 46 per cent of the total pending cases in the court system pertains to the government.
- Legal Information Management Briefing System (LIMBS): In 2015, they started the rather aptly named LIMBS project that intends to connect 55 ministries and their departments for litigation management. Aptly named, for it seeks to connect the various limbs of governance of our state. As on January 3, LIMBS shows that there are 6,20,000 cases involving the government pending before the court system.
- National Litigation Policy (NLP), 2010: The status report to the NLP, 2010, was prepared because it is based on the recognition that the government and its various agencies are the predominant litigants in the courts and tribunals in the country. And, hence, it aimed to transform the government into an efficient and responsible litigant.
Is all its litigation is initiated by the government?
- To be fair to the government, not all its litigation is initiated by it.
- For instance, the government is the catalyst in inter-departmental litigation (between wings of the government) and routine appeals in service matters.
- However, citizens trigger writ jurisdiction of the courts and file appeals in criminal cases. These also constitute a segment of cases involving the government being heard at various high courts and the Supreme Court.
- So, while the government can control some of the litigation it is involved in, it is not the catalyst in certain classes of cases that involve it.
Way ahead
- Insights provided by the Vidhi Centre: The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in its report on Government Litigation published in 2018, provides great insights into where the government can and cannot control the litigation it is party to.
- Where Government control its litigation: For instance, the government’s 2010 National Litigation Policy (NLP) recognises that service matters should not be normally appealed and only cases which involve questions of constitutional interpretation should be pursued all the way till the Supreme Court. The government should implement this reform suggested by its own policymakers.
- Reasons to reduce the litigation: There are many good reasons to reduce litigation that involves the government. Reducing the burden on the courts is a prime reason. As Vidhi 2018 notes, the costs involved in pursuing litigation eat into public funds. And a court battle between the individual and the state is also a battle of unequals.
Conclusion
- What we need to address the overburdened court system is for the largest litigant to use the court system more efficiently and cautiously. This would be a tremendous start to addressing the problem of pendency. Appointing more judges would be a massive step to helping more dispute resolution as well.
Mains question
Q. Pendency of cases haunts Indian judiciary for a very long time. While there are multiple reasons for pendency, it is said that Government is the largest Litigant discuss. Enlist what efforts are taken by the government to reduce its litigation?
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Deployment of AI powered underwater drones and associated challenges
Context
- India is on a drive to induct unmanned combat systems into the military. Months after the Indian Army announced the induction of swarm drones into its mechanized forces, the Navy chief, Admiral R Hari Kumar, reiterated the importance of autonomous systems in creating a future-proof Indian Navy (IN).
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Indian Navy’s expanding surveillance and reasons for doing so
- The IN, indeed, has been on a mission to expand surveillance in India’s near-seas: Two years after it leased MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones from the US, the navy, in July 2022, released an unclassified version of its unmanned roadmap for the induction of remote autonomous platforms including undersea vehicles.
- Maritime deterrence in the Eastern Indian Ocean: A key driver for the enterprise is underwater domain awareness, deemed an increasingly vital component of maritime deterrence in the Eastern Indian Ocean.
- Chinas undersea presence in the Indian ocean: In the aftermath of the conflict in Ladakh in June 2020, there is a growing sense among Indian experts and military planners that China’s undersea presence in the Indian Ocean is on the cusp of crossing a critical threshold.
- Recent reports of sighting of Chinese drones in the waters of Indonesia: Recent reports of the sighting of Chinese drones in the waters off Indonesian islands suggest the Peoples Liberation Army Navy has been studying the operating environment of the Indian Ocean.
- China already deployed vessels around Andaman in the name of research: Already, there has been a rise in the deployment of Chinese research and survey vessels in the waters around India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- Recognizing the threat, Indian Navy sought acquire to own AUV: Ever more alive to the dangers posed by foreign undersea presence in Indian waters, the IN sought to acquire its own autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) with twin surveillance and strike capabilities.
- Underwater vehicles never viewed as warfighting assets: Despite being widely used in underwater search and exploration, underwater vehicles have never quite been viewed as warfighting assets by India’s military establishment.
- Never sought deploying underwater drones in combat roles: Notwithstanding the AUVs’ utility in tasks such as mine detection and ship survey, India’s naval planners have traditionally desisted from deploying undersea drones in a combat role.
- Acknowledging war fighting capabilities and need of the hour: Indian analysts and decision-makers seem to be belatedly acknowledging the warfighting abilities of underwater autonomous platforms powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
- Getting ready for the new era warfare: With the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) shaping a new era in warfare, Indian observers are beginning to recognise the likely impact of disruptive technologies on the maritime domain. AI powered by deep learning, data analytics, and cloud computing, many say, is poised to alter the maritime battlefront, potentially triggering a revolution in naval affairs in India.
Challenges to harness the disruptive technologies in maritime combat
- Ethical paradox: There is an ethical paradox that typifies artificially intelligent combat systems.
- Imported AI tech algorithms cannot be under user control: Despite rendering warfare more deadly, AI compromises the control, safety, and accountability of weapon systems it also enhances the risk of shared liability between networked systems, particularly when weapon algorithms are sourced from abroad, and when the satellite and link systems that enable combat solutions are not under the control of the user.
- Predisposition of data in AI can undermine the decision making: AI is characterised by a predisposition to certain kinds of data. Biases in the collection of data, in the set of instructions for data analysis, and in the selection of probabilistic outcomes muddle rational decision-making, undermining confidence in automated combat solutions.
- The doctrinal paradox is equally troubling: There is no easy way of incorporating AI-fuelled warfighting approaches into doctrine, particularly when many technologies are in a nascent stage of development, and there is little clarity about how effective AI could be in combat.
- Capacity limitation that restricts the development of AI: While technology absorption in the navy has matured in certain areas over a period of time, a large gap still exists in the development of critical technologies, which are system engineering, airborne and underwater sensors, weapon systems, and hi-tech components.
The critics of AI in warfare
- Technology without comprehensive testing is risky: That fielding nascent technologies without comprehensive testing puts both military personnel and civilians at risk.
- Probabilistic assessment by computers not always provide optimal solution: A system of targeting human beings based on probabilistic assessments by computers that act merely on machine-learned experiences, is problematic because the computer neither has access to all relevant data to make an informed decision nor recognizes that it needs more information to come up with an optimal solution.
- Shaping policy to account for AI is challenging: That is because military doctrine is premised on a traditional understanding of conflict. If war is a normative construct, then there are rules and codes to be followed, and ethical standards to be met.
- AI could be inconsistent with the laws of war: What is more, AI seemingly automates weapon systems in ways that are inconsistent with the laws of war.
Legality issues of underwater combat drones
- Status by UNCLOS is not yet clear: It is not yet clear if unmanned maritime systems enjoy the status of ships under the UN convention of the laws of the sea; even if they do, it is unlikely that they can be classified as warships.
Way ahead
- Notwithstanding the announcement of multiple AI projects, the navy remains focused on using AI in noncombat activities such as training, logistics, inventory management, maritime domain awareness, and predictive maintenance.
- India’s maritime managers recognize that the IN is still at a place on its evolutionary curve where incorporating AI in combat systems could prove risky. An incremental approach, many believe, is the best way forward.
Conclusion
- It is worth acknowledging that AI in warfare is not just a matter of combat effectiveness but also of warfighting ethics. AI-infused unmanned systems on the maritime battlefront pose a degree of danger, making it incumbent upon the military to deploy its assets in ways that are consistent with national and international law. India’s naval leadership would do well if it takes careful and calculated steps in developing AI-powered underwater systems.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Green hydrogen and its applications
Mains level: National Green Hydrogen mission
Context
- As countries work on reducing their dependence on fossil fuels due to climate change considerations, a race is currently on to secure the energy sources of the future. Green hydrogen, produced through a clean process, is rightly seen as the most dependable source of energy of the future.
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Highlights: India’s efforts towards clean energy transition and the challenges
- Seasonality challenge for solar and Wind energy: Solar and wind energy have almost been tamed, but their intermittency and seasonality continue to be a challenge.
- High cost of nuclear energy: The Nuclear energy has been in use for several decades now, but its cost remains a constraint.
- Electric vehicles are still not convenient: Even though electric vehicles are fast gaining in popularity, the convenience of petrol or diesel is still missing.
- The government approval to the National Green Hydrogen Mission: recently government approved National green hydrogen Mission a keenly-awaited decision. The nearly Rs 20,000 crore mission is aimed at building domestic capabilities in developing technologies to produce hydrogen, an element that is readily available in nature but never alone, because of which it requires segregation.
What is Green Hydrogen?
- Clean and no harmful gas emission: The Green hydrogen is the one produced with no harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
- Produced by electrolysis of water: It is made by using clean electricity from surplus renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power, to electrolyse water. Electrolysers use an electrochemical reaction to split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, emitting zero-carbon dioxide in the process.
- Energy intensive process: It is an energy-intensive process for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable power to achieve this.
Analysis: Green Hydrogen most dependable source of energy of the future
- Energy of the future: The Green hydrogen, produced through a clean process, is rightly seen as the most dependable source of energy of the future.
- Fuel for vehicles or to generate electricity: It can be used to generate electricity or as fuel in industries or vehicles.
- Not yet cost effective: Even though the technology to produce hydrogen in an emission-free manner is not yet mature or cost-effective, it features prominently in several countries’ strategies to achieve net-zero emission status by the middle of this century.
- Production is expensive: The green hydrogen currently makes up a small percentage of the overall hydrogen, because production is expensive. The current cost of green hydrogen in India is ₹300 to ₹400 per kg.
Late entry in Solar energy: a lesson to be remembered
- Green hydrogen is still in a nascent stage: Efforts to harness the energy of hydrogen in a clean and affordable manner have been stepped up significantly in the last few years. In many ways, green hydrogen is where solar energy was 10-12 years ago.
- Technology was available but not economical: The technology to harness the energy was available, but wasn’t economical. Then, dramatically, in a period of less than five years, a combination of technology improvement and massive demand in countries like China saw the prices of solar photovoltaic cells come down by 80-90 per cent, suddenly making solar energy an extremely attractive proposition.
- India’s entry in solar revolution was a little late: India joined the solar revolution a little late, after the prices had come down. And while India is now one of the biggest players in solar energy, most of the raw materials and components are imported.
- The big concern: There are already concerns that inability to develop domestic capabilities in solar manufacturing will only result in India moving from one kind of dependency oil imports to another.
- Early entry in Hydrogen energy: With the hydrogen mission, India is making a relatively early entry into a still nascent technology domain.
- Emphasis on developing domestic manufacturing capabilities: It is reassuring to see that the bulk of the financial allocation for the mission is geared towards developing domestic manufacturing of electrolysers, the equipment in which hydrogen is separated from water molecules, and the production of hydrogen.
- Allocation of funds for R&D, a move in right direction: A substantial part of the money has been earmarked for R&D activities with the aim of developing globally competitive technologies.
Conclusion
- With the much-needed hydrogen mission, India is making a relatively early entry into a still nascent technology domain. It is important not to miss the bus like the solar revolution this time. For now, the government seems to be moving in the right direction.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ayushman Bharat, UHC, ABHA etc
Mains level: Digital public goods, Success of Ayushman Bharat and India's G20 presidency.
Context
- India leveraged information and communications technologies (ICTs) during the pandemic. Digital health solutions played a crucial role in bridging the gap in healthcare delivery as systems moved online to accommodate contactless care.
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India’s spectacular demonstration of digital public good (DPG) so far
- Aadhar and UPI are like the building blocks of DPG: India has demonstrated its digital prowess by building digital public goods the digital identity system Aadhaar, the DPGs built on top of Aadhaar and the Unified Payments Interface.
- Aadhar for PDS and UPI for payments: While Aadhaar has become central to India’s public service delivery architecture, UPI has transformed how payments are made.
- One of the largest internet users: Our digital public infrastructure has reached the last mile, enabled by 1.2 billion wireless connections and 800 million internet users.
- Some examples of DPGs developed during the pandemic: For instance, the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) and the Aarogya Setu application. CoWIN propelled India to adopt a completely digital approach to its vaccination strategy. Aarogya Setu provided real-time data on active cases and containment zones to help citizens assess risk in their areas.
- Increasing use of Telemedicine platforms: Telemedicine platforms saw a steep increase in user acquisitions, as 85 per cent of physicians used teleconsultations during the pandemic, underscoring the need to better incorporate cutting-edge digital technologies into healthcare services.
Acknowledging the current need?
- Although the impact of the pandemic on health services put the spotlight on the benefits of digital innovation and technology-enabled solutions, private entities, health technology players, and the public sector have been driving digitisation in the sector for some time now.
- It has become clear that a comprehensive digital healthcare ecosystem is necessary to bring together existing siloed efforts and move toward proactive, holistic, and citizen-centric healthcare.
Government efforts in this direction?
- Shared public goods for healthcare: Recognising this need, the government has created shared public goods for healthcare and developed a framework for a nationwide digital health system. This brought healthcare to a turning point in India.
- Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM): The PM launched the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission on September 27, 2021, under the aegis of the National Health Authority. Within a year of its launch, ABDM has established a robust framework to provide accessible, affordable, and equitable healthcare through digital highways. The ABDM has implemented vital building blocks to unite all stakeholders in the digital healthcare ecosystem.
- The Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA): ABHA creates a standard identifier for patients across healthcare providers. With the ABHA and its associated Personal Health Record (PHR) app, citizens can link, store, and share their health records to access healthcare services with autonomy and consent. With more than 300 million ABHAs and 50 million health records linked, the mission is growing at a massive rate.
- The Health Facility Registry (HFR) and the Health Professional Registries (HPR) for central digital health information: HFR and HPR accounts provide verified digital identities to large and small public and private health facilities and professionals. This enables them to connect to a central digital ecosystem while serving as a single source for verified healthcare provider-related information. HFR and HPR improve the discovery of healthcare facilities and help health professionals build an online presence and offer services more effectively. The
- Drug registry for centralised repository of approved drugs: It is a crucial building block designed to create a single, up-to-date, centralised repository of all approved drugs across all systems of medicine.
- Unified Health Interface (UHI) enables a connect between healthcare providers with end users: It aims to strengthen the health sector by enabling all healthcare service providers and end-user applications to interact with each other on its network. This will provide a seamless experience for service discovery, appointment booking, teleconsultations, ambulance access, and more. The UHI is based on open network protocols and can address the current challenge of different digital solutions being unable to communicate with each other.
- To give UHI the necessary push, the government is repurposing Aarogya Setu and CoWIN: Aarogya Setu is being transformed into a general health and wellness application. At the same time, CoWIN will be plugged with a lite Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) for small clinics, to bring digitisation to the masses.
- Addressing well the patient registration process at the hospital counters: Another use-case of ABDM is scan and share, which uses a QR code-based token system to manage queues at hospital counters. It uses the foundational elements of ABHA and PHR to streamline the outpatient registration process in large hospitals
- Expanding healthcare digital initiative worldwide: The government is also planning to expand its digital initiatives in the healthcare sector with Heal by India, making India’s healthcare professionals’ services available worldwide.
- Platform for organ donation: Additionally, a platform is being developed to automate the allocation of deceased organ and tissue donations, making the process faster and more transparent.
Way ahead
- Digitise insurance claim settlement process: With the implementation of digital solutions, the next step is to digitise and automate the insurance claim settlement process through the Health Claim Exchange platform.
- Making claim settlement process inexpensive and transparent: There is need to make claim-related information verifiable, auditable, traceable and interoperable among various entities, enabling claim processing to become inexpensive, transparent and carried out in real time.
- Bringing together global efforts for digital health: India assumes the G20 presidency this year. The G20 Global Initiative on Digital Health calls for the creation of an institutional framework for a connected health ecosystem to bring together global efforts for digital health.
- Accelerating UHC by scaling up the technologies: It also calls for the scaling-up of technologies such as global DPGs to accelerate Universal Health Coverage.
Conclusion
- The ABDM has proven to be a valuable asset and its adoption across states has been accelerated by the National Health Authority. It aims to build the foundation for a sustainable digital public infrastructure for health, enabling India to achieve universal health coverage. The mission embodies G20’s theme of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “One Earth. One Family. One Future”
Mains question
Q. India has demonstrated spectacular success in digital public goods, specifically in Digital health. Discuss how the government efforts are taking shape in this direction and suggest a way ahead in short.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Freedom of speech and restrivtions
Mains level: Freedom of speech, political free speech, And Hate speech
Context
- A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously and rightly ruled out any additional curbs on free speech by ministers. It said, like other citizens, they are guaranteed the right to freedom of expression under Article 19(1) (a), governed by the reasonable restrictions laid out in Article 19(2) and those are enough.
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What is the issue of freedom of speech to Ministers?
- Scope: Ministers and lawmakers enjoy the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1) of the Constitution as other citizens and additional restrictions cannot be imposed to curb their right to free speech.
- Restrictions: A five-judge Constitution bench held that curbs on free speech cannot extend beyond what is prescribed under Article 19(2) of the Constitution imposes reasonable restrictions and applies equally on all citizens.
- Rights are not residual privileges: Court said that the role of the court is to protect fundamental rights limited by lawful restrictions and not to protect restrictions and make the rights residual privileges.
- Distinction on government’s responsibility and remarks by individual minister: The ruling also made a valid distinction on the government’s vicarious responsibility for ill-judged or hateful remarks made by its individual ministers, the flow of stream in collective responsibility is from the Council of Ministers to the individual ministers. The flow is not on the reverse, namely from the individual ministers to the Council of Ministers.
- Clarification on the concept of collective responsibility: It is not possible to extend the concept of collective responsibility, it said, to “any and every statement orally made by a Minister outside the House of the People/Legislative Assembly”.
- Public functionaries should be more responsible while they speak: Even while agreeing with the majority ruling, however, it is possible to underline the concern articulated in the minority judgment over a hateful public discourse “hate speech, whatever its content may be, denies human beings the right to dignity”. And to agree with it when it speaks of the special duty of public functionaries and other persons of influence to be more responsible and restrained in their speech, to “understand and measure their words”.
What is ‘Hate Speech’?
- There is no specific legal definition of ‘hate speech’.
- The Law Commission of India, in its 267th Report, says: “Hate speech generally is an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief and the like.
- Thus, hate speech is any word written or spoken, signs, visible representations within the hearing or sight of a person with the intention to cause fear or alarm, or incitement to violence.
- In general, hate speech is considered a limitation on free speech that seeks to prevent or bar speech that exposes a person or a group or section of society to hate, violence, ridicule or indignity
Brief Analysis: Hate speech by Ministers
- Problem is real but primarily political: The problem of hate speech by ministers and others belonging to the party in power is real, but it is primarily political.
- Solution is not in new law as, there are enough provisions to deal with it: The solution is not for the court to draw a new line, or even, as the minority judgment proposed, for Parliament to make another law. There are enough provisions in the statute book to deal with speech that promotes enmity and violence or results in cramping the freedoms of others.
- Legal provisions can be weaponised so what is needed is a political resolve: What is missing is the political resolve and will of governments to act on instances of hate speech, especially when they involve one of their own, and there are no legal shortcuts to make up for that absence. In fact, the same legal provisions that are designed to curb hate speech can be twisted and turned and weaponised by governments against citizens who dissent and disagree.
Conclusion
- The problem of hate speech by ministers and others associated with the party in power is real, but it is primarily political. The solution lies not in making new laws, but in individual responsibility and collective political resolve.
Mains question
Q. How do you understand hate speech? Do ministers and MLAs have freedom of speech? Discuss the recent court ruling on free speech restrictions on ministers.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Latest developments in AI
Mains level: ChatGPT, AI generative models, limitations and challenges
Context
- 2022 had an unusual blue-ribbon winner for emerging digital artists; Jason Allen’s winning work Théâtre D’opéra Spatial was created with an AI Generative model called Midjourney.
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What is Midjourney?
- Midjourney is an AI based art generator that has been created to explore new mediums of thought.
- It is an interactive bot, which uses machine learning (ML) to create images based on texts. This AI system utilises the concepts and tries to convert them into visual reality.
- It is quite similar to other technologies such as DALL-E 2.
The journey of AI generative models so far
- Midjourney generator: Midjourney is one of the rash of AI-generated Transformer or Generative or Large Language Models (LLMs) which have exploded onto our world in the last few years.
- Earlier models: Models like BERT and Megatron (2019) were relatively small models, with up to 174 GB of dataset size, and passed under the collective public radar.
- Composition skills of GPT3: GPT3, released by OpenAI with a 570 GB dataset and 175bn parameters was the first one to capture the public consciousness with some amazing writing and composition skills.
- Models that creat images or videos based on texts: The real magic, however, started with Transformers which could create beautiful and realistic pieces of art with just a text prompt OpenAI’s DALL-E2, Google’s Imagen, the open-source Stable Diffusion and, obviously, Midjourney. Not to be left behind, Meta unleashed a transformer which could create videos from text prompts.
- ChatGPT, a latest and more evolved, like real communication: Recently in late 2022 came the transformer to rule them all ChatGPT built on GPT3, but with capabilities to have real conversations with human beings.
Are these models ethical?
- Ethics is too complex a subject to address in one short article. There are three big ethical questions on these models that humanity will have to address in short order.
- Environmental: Most of the bad rap goes to crypto and blockchain, but the cloud and these AI models running on it take enormous amounts of energy. Training a large transformer model just once would have CO2 emissions equivalent to 125 roundtrips from New York to Beijing. This cloud is the hundreds of data centres that dot our planet, and they guzzle water and power at alarming rates.
- Bias; as it do not understand meaning and its implications: The other thorny ethical issue is that sheer size does not guarantee diversity. Timnit Gebru was with Google when she co-wrote a seminal research paper calling these LLMs ‘stochastic parrots’, because, like parrots, they just repeated a senseless litany of words without understanding their meaning and implications.
- Plagiarism, question of who owns the original content: The third prickly ethical issue, which also prompted the artist backlash to Allen’s award-winning work is that of plagiarism. If Stable Diffusion or DALL-E 2 did all the work of scouring the web and combining multiple images (a Pablo Picasso Mona Lisa, for example), who owns it. Currently, OpenAI has ownership of all images created with DALL-E, and their business model is to allow paid users to have rights to reproduce, paint, sell and merchandise images they create. This is a legal minefield the US Copyrights office recently refused to grant a copyright to a piece created by a generative AI called Creativity Machine, but South Africa and Australia have recently announced that AI can be considered an inventor.
- ChatGPT is a chatbot built on a large-scale transformer-based language model that is trained on a diverse dataset of text and is capable of generating human-like responses to prompts.
- A conversation with ChatGPT is like talking to a computer, a smart one, which appears to have some semblance of human-like intelligence.
What are the other concerns?
- Besides the legal quagmire, there is a bigger fear: This kind of cheap, mass-produced art could put artists, photographers, and graphic designers out of their jobs.
- Machine does not have human like sense: A machine is not necessarily creating art, it is crunching and manipulating data and it has no idea or sense of what and why it is doing so.
- As it is cheap, corporate might consider using it at a large scale: But it can do so cheaply, and at scale. Corporate customers might seriously consider it for their creative, advertising, and other needs.
Conclusion
- Legal and political leaders across the world are sounding the alarm about the ethics of large generative models, and for good reason. As these models become increasingly powerful in the hands of Big Tech, with their unlimited budgets, brains and computing power, these issues of bias, environmental damage and plagiarism will become even more fraught. Such AI models should not be used to create chaos rather a harmonious existence.
Mains question
Q. Name some of the models of AI based art generators. Discuss the ethical concerns of such models.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: E-rupee
Mains level: UPI and future of E-rupee
Context
- Paperless payments have been a big national goal ever since 8 November 2016, when India rendered ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes useless in a stunning decision that was upheld as valid by the Supreme Court on recently. Today, our cash intensity remains roughly on the same incline as it was earlier. But online payments have soared. This means a fine policy judgement call will need to be made soon.
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Demonetization: A brief Analysis
- The supreme court rejected petitions arguing that demonetization was done illegally and by 4:1 bench majority Supreme court held the process as satisfactory.
- The overnight note-ban was also found to satisfy a general test of proportionality. For all the hardship caused by weeks of cash starvation, that exercise of authority was not judged too drastic for its aims.
- The extent to which unaccounted-for money was flushed out, terror funding frozen and commerce formalized cannot reliably be estimated, but small businesses were clearly hit hard and India’s economy slowed down soon after.
The changing trend: How we are transacting?
- Rise of digitals payments: The past half decade’s big trend in our use of money has been the exponential rise of a platform that’s part of our digital stack of public goods.
- Spectacular success of UPI: Designed for instant transfers between bank accounts done via mobile phones, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been a spectacular success since its 2016 launch.
- UPI transactions for instance: According to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), its operator, UPI processed more than 74 billion transactions in 2022, up 90% over 2021, worth almost ₹126 trillion, a 76% leap.
Examining feasibility of levying user fee on UPI and the E-rupee
- Financial support to UPI: The case for UPI as India’s payment bedrock is weakened by the fact that while it levies no user fee, it isn’t a costless service. Last year, the finance ministry justified financial support for UPI on the ground that it’s a digital public good with immense convenience for the public and productivity gains for the economy.
- Coast benefit review must be done: If public funds are increasingly needed to back UPI as it expands, we must put it to a cost-benefit review as we go along; UPI is already logging huge sums and the total for 2023 may be much more.
- Promoting E-rupee: It’s not just a cost consideration that should make us promote RBI’s retail e-rupee instead for routine payments.
- E-rupee is a direct liability of RBI: The E-rupee’s mass usage would involve circulation of money that’s a direct liability of the central bank (an IOU issued by it, i.e., like cash), which would better serve the cause of economic stability. This is because what RBI owes its currency bearers is entirely free of risk, while the same cannot be said of banks.
- Online transactions: India is a leader in digital payments, but cash remains dominant for small-value transactions.
- High currency in circulation: India has a fairly high currency-to-GDP ratio.
- Cost of currency management: An official digital currency would reduce the cost of currency management while enabling real-time payments without any inter-bank settlement.
Conclusion
- For superior systemic safety, the e-rupee should get a significant share of online payment swipes. Even if its holdings earn no interest, it could catch on if the security of its value, ease of liquidity and erasure of data trails (below a limit) are duly advertised. For an e-rupee to aid macro level prudence, it will have to eat into UPI.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: India's role in present International relations
Context
- As the great powers get at each other’s throats, the prospects for multilateral agreements have diminished. On both the economic and political fronts, the conflict among the major powers has sharpened. That makes India’s chairmanship of G20 more challenging.
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Historical understanding of major global events
- Major wars and rebalancing: Major wars have always reshaped great power relations and rearranged the international system. Russia’s war against Ukraine will be no exception.
- First world war: The First World War saw the collapse of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and the Russian empires. It also helped the Bolsheviks in Russia form the Soviet Union, gave birth to new nations in Europe, and accelerated the rise of Asian nationalism.
- The Second World War: Hastened the demise of European colonialism and heralded the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union as the superpowers. Washington and Moscow managed an armed peace in a divided Europe during the Cold War. The process of decolonization saw the birth of a number of new nations in Asia and Africa.
- The Cold War: It led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, undid its sphere of influence in East and Central Europe and led to the rise of the unipolar moment. The era of massive economic interdependence that followed the Cold War saw the rapid rise of China and a slower but definitive emergence of India as a major power.
How Russia and China are colluding to change regional and global world order?
- Asserting themselves against US: Moscow and Beijing, which were willing to acquiesce in the unipolar moment in the 1990s, began to assert themselves against the US-led international order in the 21st century. Europe focused on strengthening its economic and political integration, and sought greater strategic autonomy from the United States.
- Apparent decline of USA: As they drew steadily closer over the last decade, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping bet that the apparent American decline was real and irreversible. That emboldened Putin to fancy his chances in ending Ukraine’s sovereignty.
- China backed Russia against Europe: The seeming political disarray in the West also convinced Xi to back Putin’s attempt to reorder European regional security order. The partnership without limits and no forbidden areas of cooperation was unveiled less than three weeks before Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
- Only option is diplomacy: As the costs of war mount, the case for diplomacy will gain ground in 2023. While both sides talk about peace, they are also gearing up to fight through the harsh winter. Bridging that gulf between Russian and Ukrainian negotiating positions will occupy diplomacy in 2023.
- Weaker Russia: Whatever the nature of the eventual settlement, Russia will come out weaker from this military misadventure. Putin’s attempts to eliminate Ukraine as an independent nation and roll back the eastward expansion of NATO have backfired. The war has consolidated Ukraine as a nation and NATO has expanded to include Sweden and Finland.
- Self-defense Inability of Europe: The war has also demonstrated Europe’s inability to defend itself against Russia despite the EU’s economy being 10 times larger than that of Russia. But for now, and the near term, Europe will remain dependent on the US to defend it against an expansionist Russia. While Europe is weaker, trans-Atlantic NATO has become stronger.
- US industries are winning: The US is emerging as a big winner from the Ukraine war. American oil companies are raking it in from high energy prices. US weapons like the HIMARS and its high technology companies like SpaceX with its Starlin satellite system and Palantir with its algorithms have actively shaped the battlefield in favour of Ukraine, the underdog in the war. Far more consequential is the fact that without being directly involved in the fight, the US is influencing the direction of the war and has the most leverage in defining the terms of peace in Ukraine.
Impact of Chinese and Russian aggression on Mid-power countries
- US as reliable partner: Thanks to the overreach of Putin and Xi, the US has become a valuable partner for the middle powers at the receiving end of Russian and Chinese bullying.
- Eyeopener for Germany and Japan: Russian expansionism in Europe and Chinese aggressiveness in Asia have compelled Germany in Europe and Japan in Asia to boost their defence spending.
- Regional security Policy: Poland in Europe and Australia and South Korea in Asia have embarked on ambitious regional security policies.
What should be the approach of India?
- India should rework its status: India that long relied on Russia to provide a regional balance of power will have to rework its great power sums. This should not be too hard, given India’s improving relations with the US and Europe and its focus on diversifying its defence partnerships.
- Boosting the domestic capabilities: Delhi, however, will have to move much faster in developing the national capabilities and international partnerships to deter China’s aggressive actions on the border and balance Beijing’s power in the Indo-Pacific. Delhi certainly can’t take for granted that its current economic and political advantages will endure.
- Prevent the breakdown of multilateral system: Finally, it is unlikely the world will return to the kind of multilateralism we got used to since the 1990s. India’s G20 leadership would be a success if it can prevent the complete breakdown of the multilateral system and generate major power consensus on a few issues.
Conclusion
- India should take the advantage of chaotic world order to strengthen itself. Indigenous military capabilities, double digit economic growth and securing core foreign policy interest should be the top priorities for India.
Mains Question
Q. Major wars in world have often culminated into rebalancing of international politics. Comment. What should be the India’s approach towards new emerging global order in the aftermath of Russia-Ukraine war?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Blue economy
Mains level: Blue economy , maritime pollution and associated challenges
Context
- Blue economy relates to presentation, exploitation and regeneration of the marine environment. It is used to describe sustainability-based approach to coastal resources. The worry is that the oceans are under severe threat by human activities, especially when the economic gains come at the cost of maintaining environmental sanity.
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- Origin of the concept: Gunter Pauli’s book, “The Blue Economy: 10 years, 100 innovations, 100 million jobs” (2010) brought the Blue Economy concept into prominence.
- A project to find best nature inspired and sustainable technologies: Blue Economy began as a project to find 100 of the best nature-inspired technologies that could affect the economies of the world. While sustainably providing basic human needs potable water, food, jobs, and habitable shelter.
- Inclusive approach and objective: This is envisaged as the integration of Ocean Economy development with the principles of social inclusion, environmental sustainability and innovative, dynamic business models
- Environment friendly maritime infrastructure: It is creation of environment-friendly infrastructure in ocean, because larger cargo consignments can move directly from the mothership to the hinterland through inland waterways, obviating the need for trucks or railways
Significance of Maritime transport
- One of the largest employers within ocean-related activities: Maritime transport plays a big role in the globalised market in the form of containerships, tankers, and ports, coastal tourism is the largest employer within ocean-related activities.
- Eighty percent trade happens on the seas: Eighty per cent of world trade happens using the seas, 40 per cent of the world’s population live near coastal areas, and more than three billion people access the oceans for their livelihood.
- Annual value makes up equivalent to seventh largest GDP: A healthy marine environment is essential for a sustainable future for people and the planet. Its value is estimated to be over $25 trillion, with the annual value of produced goods and services estimated to be $2.5 trillion per year, equivalent to the world’s seventh largest economy in gross domestic product (GDP) terms.
- Ensures food security: The oceans, seas and coastal areas contribute to food security and economic viability of the human population. The ocean is the next big economic frontier, with the rapidly growing numerous ocean-based industries.
What are the concerns?
- Human induced Oceanic pollution: Marine activities have brought in pollution, ocean warming, eutrophication, acidification and fishery collapse as consequences on the marine ecosystems.
- Oceans are rarely financial institutions: The ocean is uncharted territory, and rarely understood by financial institutions. Hence preparedness of these institutions in making available affordable long-term financing at scale is nearly zero.
- Developing nations pay heavy price: In this journey of achieving blue economy goals, it is developing nations that pay a heavy economic price.
- Lack of capacity is a critical hindrance: Many of the developing nations have high levels of external debt. Lack of capacity and technology for transition between agri economy and marine economy is also a critical hindrance.
- Not having a elaborative guiding principles is a major concern: There is concern that without the elaboration of specific principles or guidance, national blue economies, or sustainable ocean economies, economic growth will be pursued with little attention paid to environmental sustainability and social equity.
What should be the approach towards achieving Blue economy?
- Inclusive discussion and participation is must: The blue economy is based on multiple fields within ocean science and, therefore, needs inter-sectoral experts and stakeholders. It is imperative to involve the civil society, fishing communities, indigenous people and communities for an inclusive discussion.
- SDG-14 journey cannot undermine the other SDGs: The UN stresses that equity must not be forgotten when supporting a blue economy. Land and resources often belong to communities, and the interests of communities dependent on the ocean are often marginalised, since sectors such as coastal tourism are encouraged to boost the economy.
- Integrated marine spatial planning with national and global expertise is necessary: Developing the blue economy should be based on national and global expertise. It is important that any blue economy transformation should include using integrated marine spatial planning. This would provide collaborative participation of all stakeholders of the oceans, and would make room for debate, discussion and conflict resolution between the stakeholders.
Where does India stand at this hour?
- Suitable natural geography: Vast coastline of almost 7,500 kilometres, with no immediate coastal neighbours except for some stretches around the southern tip. In some sense, India has the advantage of its natural geography
- Opportunity on G20 presidency: It is an opportunity for India to use its G20 Presidency to ensure environmental sustainability, while providing for social equity.
- Rising role and significance: India’s engagement in the blue economy has been rising, with its active involvement in international and regional dialogues, and maritime/marine cooperation.
Conclusion
- Achieving the Blue economy goal would need tremendous human effort, and would call for global cooperation through various legal and institutional frameworks. This also includes the need to develop newer sectors such as renewable ocean energy, blue carbon sequestration, marine biotechnology and ex-tractive activities, with due attention paid to the environmental impacts.
Mains question
Q. What do you understand by mean Blue economy? Highlight the importance of maritime transport and discuss what need to be done to achieve blue economy in a true sense?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Wealth tax
Mains level: Income inequality, Wealth tax and its necessity
Context
- The discourse on efficient, effective and equitable public spending often takes us into the realm of limited resources facing competing demands. India definitely needs to widen its revenue collection as well as base. In this context its time to consider a wealth tax.
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What is wealth tax?
- Wealth tax is a direct tax unlike the goods and services tax or value-added tax, can take several forms, such as property tax, inheritance or gift tax and capital gains tax.
- It aims to reduce the inequalities of wealth.
- It is based on the market value of assets owned by a taxpayer and charged on the net wealth of super rich individuals.
Wealth Tax in India
- Abolished wealth tax: The government abolished wealth tax as announced in the budget 2015. In its place, the government decided to increase the surcharge levied on the ‘super rich’ class by 2% to 12%. (Super rich are persons with incomes of Rs.1 crore or higher and companies that earn Rs.10 crores or higher).
- Abolished to simplify tax structure and discourage tax evasion: The abolition was a move to do away with high costs of collection and also to simplify the existing tax structure thereby discouraging tax evasion.
- No wealth tax at present: India presently does not have any wealth tax i.e., a tax levied on one’s entire property in all forms. It did not impose a one-time ‘solidarity tax’ on wealth in post-covid budgets that could have generated resources for essential public investment.
What is the need for levying a wealth tax?
- High inequality: India’s top 10% population owns 65% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 10% owns only 6%, according to the World Inequality Database, 2022.
- Massive accumulation of wealth in a few hands: A small section of people has access to a large share of economic assets and resources that remain almost completely untaxed and thus unavailable for public allocation.
- Capital gains tax has limited base: Capital Gains tax exists in India, but applies only to transactions and hence is limited in its base.
- Wealth largely depends on inheritance and privilege: Wealth, much less than even income, has little to do with one’s education, merit or efforts; it is largely dependent on inheritance and opportunities that come with the advantages associated with belonging to one of India’s privileged classes and castes.
- India does not have inheritance tax: India scrapped its estate duty in 1985 and has no inheritance tax.
- Almost entirely exemptions on gift tax: Although the receipt of gifts is subject to income tax in the beneficiary’s hands, it has various exemptions; it is almost entirely exempt if received from within the family, including the extended family of self and spouse. These exemptions shrink the base significantly, as most accumulated wealth is acquired through family, and that remains outside the gift tax’s ambit. Given the cultural context of wealth inheritance, some exemptions make sense, but upper thresholds can be easily added to make it more effective.
Comprehensive PoV: Why wealth tax is necessary at present economic condition
- Wealth of rich doubled during the pandemic but not channelised well to create productive resou: An Oxfam report has highlighted how India’s richest doubled their wealth during the pandemic. This happened for a variety of reasons. despite facing grave financial and economic challenges, has no means to convert any of this growing wealth into productive resources that can generate employment opportunities and push up the incomes of multitudes, which in turn can drive demand for goods something that is needed to counter an economic drag-down.
- There is no sufficient increase in private investment: The government lowered the corporate tax rate significantly from 30% to 22% in 2019-20, which has continued despite the economic crises caused by the pandemic. However, this did not elicit much private investment. Obviously, there is something else at work, and one cannot assume that accumulated wealth in private hands will necessarily be invested in the domestic economy.
- Not only investment is important but also the right application is important: It is not only investment that is important, but also where that investment is going and whether it is creating employment opportunities for the youth.
- Data on youth unemployment: Data from diverse sources show high unemployment rates during May-July 2022 for the youth: 28.3% in the 15-24 age group and an even higher 43.3% for the 20-24 age-group.
- Likely global recession overhead: The likelihood of a global recession and the related layoffs being announced by corporate giants will make the situation worse.
- Jobless growth and wealth inequality: The recent economic growth experienced in India, especially in the post-covid recovery phase, has largely been jobless growth and can further deepen both income and wealth inequalities.
- Economy cannot afford to have such high level of youth unemployment: No economy can afford to have such youth unemployment rates for long without adversely affecting economic growth and social cohesion.
Way ahead
- A number of Latin American countries, including Argentina, Peru and Bolivia, have either introduced or are introducing a progressive annual wealth tax levied on the wealth gains of each year or a one-time covid ‘solidarity’ tax.
- There is no reason why India cannot do so too. This is the right time to introduce a progressive wealth tax along with other fiscal steps that can directly reverse the trend of growing inequalities in the country.
Conclusion
- India needs a shift in its fiscal policy, as suggested by a number of economists, to adopt measures that create employment opportunities and in turn drive demand for products made by small and medium level producers. This would also push up growth while not necessarily widening inequalities.
Mains question
Q. What is wealth tax? Why wealth tax abolished? Considering the present economic situation Discuss the need to levy wealth tax in India?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Status of prisons in India and associated challenges
Context
- Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi (L-G) Vinay Kumar Saxena directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to allocate 1.6 lakh square metres of land to Delhi’s prison department to construct a district prison complex in Narela.
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Background: Recent prison reform debate
- Speech by president of India: At the Constitution Day celebrations organised by the Supreme Court in November 2022, President Draupadi Murmu shared a snippet of her journey with the audience.
- Prisoners unaware of their rights: She reflected on her visits to prisons across India and the circumstances of those incarcerated. She highlighted that these individuals were often unaware of their fundamental rights and had been incarcerated for prolonged periods for minor offences, while their families, struggling with poverty, were unable to bail them out.
- All organs of state must work together: President Murmu emphasised how the judiciary, executive, and legislature must work together to help them, and concluded by poignantly asking: How are we claiming that we are progressing as a nation, if we are still building prisons to address the issue of overcrowding?
What is the problematic architecture of Prison?
- High security prison in Delhi: In phase 1, which is expected to be completed by April 2024, a high-security jail is to be built in the complex with a capacity to lodge 250 high-risk prisoners.
- Stringent security measures: The prison administration has incorporated stringent security measures in the design such as constructing high walls between cells to prevent inmates from viewing others, and interacting with each other, as well as building office spaces between cells to facilitate surveillance.
- Intention of torture: Architecture of prisons is often used as a tool to surveillance, torture, and break the souls of inmates.
- Physical and mental health of prisoners: With this prison design, the Delhi prison administration is essentially creating solitary confinement which will have a severe detrimental effect on prisoners’ mental health.
- Governed by colonial act: Prisons in India are still governed by the Prisons Act, 1894, a colonial legislation which treats prisoners as sub-par citizens, and provides the legal basis for punishment to be retributive, rather than rehabilitative.
- Caste biases in laws: These laws are also highly casteist, and remain largely unchanged since they were drafted by the British. For example, some jail manuals continue to focus on purity as prescribed by the caste system, and assign work in prison based on the prisoner’s caste identity.
- Colonial mindset in prison governance: Organisations such as the Vidhi Centre of Legal Policy have taken us one step further in identifying colonial legal continuities that India must shred, and the manner in which she can do so.
- SC/ST community suffers more: Furthermore, Dalits and Adivasis are over-represented in Indian prisons. The National Dalit Movement for Justice and the National Centre for Dalit Human Rights’ report ‘Criminal Justice in the Shadow of Caste’ explains the social, systemic, legal, and political barriers that contribute to this. Legislations such as the Habitual Offenders Act and Beggary Laws allow the police to target them for reported crimes.
What should be way forward?
- Preventive measures are necessary: We must take preventive measures before we realise that we have travelled far down this road, and have subjected several people to unnecessary trauma and confinement.
- Prison reforms rather than more prisons: With the warning signs beseeching us, we must amplify President Murmu’s message on the need to de-carcerate and stop building more prisons, so that the L-G takes adequate steps in that direction.
Conclusion
- Many prisoners in India continue to suffer for petty crimes just because of lack education and legal assistance. More than 70% of them are economically poor people. Government must address the false cases by police and judicial delay before building more prisons.
Mains Question
Q. Critically examine the present condition of prisons in India? prisons reform should be prior step than building more prisons. Comment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Indian Economy, stock trade indicators and economic growth
Context
- Even as the RBI steadily downgraded India’s growth forecasts for the year from 7.2 per cent in April to 6.8 per cent in December, and the benchmark Nifty50 index ended the year up a mere 4.1 per cent, a handful of stocks delivered outsized returns to investors.
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Expansion of business and reward
- Adani gained because of expansion: The top trade was undoubtedly that of Adani Enterprises with the stock more than doubling over the year. But that should not come as a surprise. After all, the group has embarked on a breathless pace of expansion (both organic and inorganic) that is perhaps unparalleled in recent times.
- Unexpected rise in prices: Share prices of associated companies such as Adani Green have also seen a remarkable surge, catapulting the group into the top leagues of Indian conglomerates.
- Risky price-to-rent ratio: One should be forgiven for thinking that residential real estate in Delhi, with a price-to-rent ratio that ranges between 40-50, is expensive. Adani Enterprises is currently trading at a price-to-equity ratio of 394 as per NSE. The Nifty50, in comparison, is trading just above 21.
Performance of Public sector banks
- SBI AND PNB gained: The year also belonged to Indian banks, more specifically to public sector banks, who at last seemed to have turned the corner. SBI is up more than 30 per cent, while Punjab National Bank is up almost 50 per cent. Others like Bank of Baroda and UCO Bank have more than doubled.
- Outperforming private banks: While private sector bank stocks have also seen a sharp rise Axis is up almost 35 per cent, while ICICI is up 17 per cent, public sector banks have outperformed their private counterparts by a significant margin. The Nifty PSU bank index is up 70 per cent for the year, while in comparison, the private bank index is up only 21 per cent. This was perhaps to be expected.
- Cleaning up balance sheet: Public sector banks have been on a multi-year drive to clean up their balance sheets, and shore up capital. And while there are still some concerns over possible slippages from accounts that were restructured during the pandemic, gross non-performing assets or bad loans were down to 6.5 per cent at the end of September 2022.
- Rising lending rates: Moreover, lending is growing at a brisk pace. And banks’ spreads also have improved with the interest rate cycle on the upswing. In typical fashion, lending rates have risen faster than deposit rates. But, as credit growth picks up and competition for deposits among banks begins to intensify, deposit rates are likely to edge upwards, putting pressure on the spread.
Status of Consumption and auto sector
- Consumption is up: while concerns over the unevenness of the economic recovery persist, consumption stocks have fared well. ITC is up more than 50 per cent, as are Britannia (almost 20 per cent) and HUL (9 per cent).
- Real wages have not increased: But with firms underlining the continuing pressure on volumes with elevated inflation, real wage growth has been subdued in rural areas it is likely that in some product segments, the formalisation theme is still playing out.
- Size of market is not expanding: The bigger formal firms gaining market share even as the overall size of the market isn’t expanding as hoped.
- Auto sector have done well: Among the auto stocks, M&M and Maruti are up 50 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, though Tata motors is down 22 per cent, while among the two-wheelers, both Bajaj and Hero are up.
- Moderate uptick in infrastructure: Infrastructure stocks are a mixed bag. Larsen & Toubro, often thought of as a proxy for the domestic capex cycle, is up almost 9 per cent, recently hitting a new high.
- Impact of PLI scheme: Perhaps, this reflects a pick up in the public sector capex or the private sector push under the government’s production-linked investment scheme.
- Mix picture of steel and cement: Among cement stocks, Ultratech is down, though ACC is up, while among steel stocks, SAIL is down, Tata steel is almost flat, but JSW Steel is up.
IT sector was worst performing
- IT NIFTY significantly down: The sector which has taken a beating has been IT. The Nifty IT index is down 26 per cent.
- Heavy correction in market: All major IT firms from TCS to Infosys to Wipro have witnessed heavy correction.
- Impact of slowdown in advanced economy: Valuations of the sector will be heavily influenced by market views over the slowdown in advanced economies which are major revenue centres for these firms.
Conclusion
- Though stock market doesn’t reflect the entirely true picture of economy but it certainly a good indicator of where the retail investor and common man invest his money. India’s stock market is going to be top 3 in the world. SEBI must protect the retail investor from this highly volatile terrain.
Mains Question
Q. Analyze the performance of the auto and IT sector in India through lenses of stock market? Why the balance sheet of public sector banks is improving?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: International energy market, decarbonatization and Challenges in front of India
Context
- India marches ahead carrying the same challenge projected as last year that it will have to navigate the choppy waters of a volatile petroleum market without straying from the green path towards clean energy. Energy security cannot be achieved by focusing only on the supply and distribution side of the equation. The demand conservation and efficiency sides are equally important.
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- Fragmented energy market: the energy market has fragmented and energy nationalism is the driving force behind policy.
- Restricted markets for Russia: Irrespective of how and when the Ukraine conflict ends, Russia will not be allowed access to the western markets for as long as President Putin is at the helm of the affairs. One fallout is the tightening energy embrace between Russia and China.
- Declining western orbit and increasing non-aligned approach: Three, OPEC plus one which is, in effect, Saudi Arabia plus Russia has stepped outside the Western orbit. Saudi Arabia has made clear it intends to pursue a Saudi first, non-aligned approach to international relations including with the US.
- Emergence of new energy centres: The new centres of energy power are emergent around countries that have a large share of the metals, minerals and components required for clean energy. China is currently the dominant power.
What should India do against this backdrop?
- Government must increase productivity of existing sources: Discounted Russian crude is an opportunistic panacea. It does not provide a sustainable cover to meet our requirements. To secure such a cover, government must increase the productivity of our existing producing fields; additional resources should be allocated for accessing relevant enhanced oil recovery technologies.
- Secure long- term supply relationship with Saudi Arabia and Iran: Further, it should leverage the country’s market potential to secure a long-term supply relationship with Saudi Arabia and an equity partnership with Iran.
- Enhance the strategic petroleum reserves: It should enhance the strategic petroleum reserves to cover at least 30 days of consumption and remove the sword of Damocles that the CBI/CVC/CAG wield over the heads of the public sector petroleum companies so that their traders can, without fear, take advantage of market volatility.
- Expediate gas pipeline grid: The construction of a pan-India national gas pipeline grid should be expedited.
Analysis: Phasing out coal and the energy transition in India
- Coal one of the major sources of energy in India: Coal will remain the bulwark of India’s energy system for decades. It is no doubt the dirtiest of fuels, but it remains amongst, if not the cheapest, source of energy. Plus hundreds of thousands depend on the coal ecosystem for their livelihood.
- Phasing out is not yet a near possibility: The option of phasing out coal whilst environmentally compelling is not yet a macroeconomic or social possibility.
- Need a balance: In the interim, the government has to find an energy transition route that balances livelihoods and pushes forward the green agenda.
- Steps to be taken: Some small, politically feasible steps in that direction would include increased R&D expenditure for coal gasification and carbon capture and sequestration technologies; setting a carbon tax; the establishment of regulatory and monitoring mechanisms for measuring carbon emissions from industry; the closure of inefficient and old plants and a decision not to approve any new ones.
- Determining competitiveness: In parallel, it would help if Niti Aayog were to pull together a group of economists and energy experts to determine the competitiveness of coal versus solar on a full-cost basis
Other possible measures
- Upgrading the transmission grid: Allocation of funds for upgradation of the transmission grid network to render it resilient enough to absorb clean electrons on an intermittent basis. The sun does not shine at night and the wind does not blow all the time. In parallel, the underlying structural issues currently impeding the scaling up of renewables must be addressed.
- Repairing the balance sheets of discoms through various regulatory reforms: In parallel, the repair of the balance sheets of state distribution companies (discoms), easing the procedures for the acquisition of land and the removal of regulatory and contract uncertainties are most important.
- Building up the domestic chip industry: It will take decades to harness our indigenous resources of the metals and minerals critical for clean energy and build up a domestic chip industry. In the interim, diplomats should secure diversified sources of supply to reduce the country’s vulnerability.
- Developing and commercializing 3G clean energy technologies: Finally, the creation of an enabling ecosystem for developing and commercializing third-generation clean energy technologies like hydrogen, biofuels and modular nuclear reactors. Nuclear, in particular, should be pushed.
Conclusion
- India is not responsible for global warming, but it will be amongst the worst affected. Millions live around its coastline. Their livelihoods will be undermined by rising sea levels. Millions will also be affected by melting glaciers and extremes of temperatures. So irrespective of who is to blame, India has to stay on the path of decarbonization. It cannot afford to develop first and clean up later.
Mains question
Q. What is the current situation of international energy market? What are the measures that India should take in the time of global uncertainty of energy market.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: E- waste and gender justice
Context
- According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2020, out of the total 56.3 million tonnes of discarded e-waste products generated in 2019, only 17.4 percent was officially recorded as being collected and recycled. The rest end up in landfills, in scrap trade markets or are recycled by the informal markets.
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E-waste in India
- Third largest contributor: India is the third largest contributor to this great wall of waste after China and the United States (US) with a whopping 1,014,961.21 tonnes generated in 2019-2020, out of which only 22.7 percent was collected, recycled or disposed of.
- More than 12 million workers: For the 12.9 million women working in the informal waste sector, Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE’s) are lifelines as it contains valuable recyclable metals notwithstanding the detrimental effects it can have on health and the environment.
E-waste and Burden on women
- Less women in value chain: Inequalities are particularly pronounced in this largely gender-neutral sector across the value chain which is heightened by the barriers in decision-making roles.
- Negligible percent of women: With reliable data hard to come by from this sector recent reports indicate that an estimated 0.1 percent of waste pickers account for India’s urban workforce with women populating the lower tiers in this economy as collectors and crude separators at landfill sites.
- Men at skilled position: Men unsurprisingly dominate the entire spectrum of skilled positions as managers, machinery operators, truck drivers, scrap dealers, repair workers and recycling traders.
- Women mostly from poor background: Workers in this ‘grey sector’ are some of the most marginalised, poverty-stricken, uneducated people from vulnerable backgrounds with little social or financial security. They remain unprotected at their workplaces, and often are victims of sexual abuse with no bargaining power in selling their goods. All of these factors then act upon their exclusion as cities begin to formalise the waste sector to effectively control discarded goods.
E-waste Impact on Health
- Incineration and leaching: Open incineration and acid leeching often used by informal workers are directly impacting the environment and posing serious health risks, especially to child and maternal health, fertility, lungs, kidney and overall well-being.
- Occupational health hazards: In India, many of these unskilled workers who come from vulnerable and marginalised are oblivious to the fact that that what they know as ‘black plastics’ have far reached occupational health hazards especially when incinerated to extract copper and other precious metals for their market value.
- Exposures to children: This ‘tsunami of e-waste rolling out of the world’, as described in an international forum on chemical treaties, poses several health hazards for women in this sector as they are left exposed to residual toxics elements mostly in their own households and often the presence of children.
- Constant contact with organic pollutants: According to a recent WHO report, a staggering 18 million children, some as young as five, often work alongside their families at e-waste dumpsites every year in low- and middle-income countries. Heavy metals such as lead, as well as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), like dioxins, and flame retardants (PBDEs) released into the environment, have also added to air, soil, and water pollution.
- India’s E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016: Released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) flagged e-waste classification, extended producer responsibility (EPR), collection targets, and restrictions on imports of e-wastes containing hazardous substances.
- Amendment to Rules: The amended Electronic Waste Management Draft Rules 2022, expected to come into effect by early next year has also emphasised on improving end-of-life waste throughout the circular economy.
- Lack of clear guidelines: These progressive measures, however, lack clear guidelines on the role of informal recyclers and have particularly blind sighted the role of women creating a lacuna in equitable growth.
- The Beijing Platform of Action: It is worth mentioning that The Beijing Platform of Action clearly maintains that a properly designed e-waste processing system can meet both economic and environmental goals to improve the status of women in the informal economy. Sculpting this blueprint in a variegated social and cultural milieu can perhaps play out to examine best practices and success stories around the world.
How to make E-waste sector more gender inclusive
- Ownership of supply chain: The social stigma attached to this sector progressively manifests in discrimination and loss of dignity. Women lack ownership at the end of the value chain as business owners of material processing units nor have access to capital for starting business ventures.
- Separate policy for ground workers: Educating the un-educated takes more than simply designing training modules, skill development and generating awareness about e-waste should be tailored to run at ground-zero where workers operate without disrupting their daily work schedules.
- Gendered data collection: All of these factors compounded by the severe lack of gender-disaggregated data necessitate earmarked gender budgeting to shape an inclusive e-waste management system.
Conclusion
- The concept of the 3R’s, Reduce, Reuse, recycle as envisaged under Mission LiFE will have to invest in women as drivers of a responsible waste management economy, recognising their critical role to minimise the quantum of waste with the ultimate objective of zero waste.
Mains Question
Q. Analyze the gender inequality in the E-waste sector? What are the ways to make e-waste sector more gender Inclusive?
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