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G20 : Economic Cooperation ahead

A new global vision for G20

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: G-20

Mains level: Paper 2- New framework for G20

Context

While India has taken a clear view of the role of the G20, there is concern that the agenda, themes and focus areas which India will set for 2023 lack vision.

What is G-20?

  • Formed in 1999, the G20 is an international forum of the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies.
  • Collectively, the G20 economies account for around 85 percent of the Gross World Product (GWP), 80 percent of world trade.
  • To tackle the problems or address issues that plague the world, the heads of governments of the G20 nations periodically participate in summits.
  • In addition to it, the group also hosts separate meetings of the finance ministers and foreign ministers.
  • The G20 has no permanent staff of its own and its chairmanship rotates annually between nations divided into regional groupings.

Significance of G20 in shaping global order

  • The G20 plays an important role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on all major international economic issues.
  • It recognises that global prosperity is interdependent and economic opportunities and challenges are interlinked.
  • The challenge is to craft new approaches to overcome the acute global discord.

Why we need new model of cooperation

  • Multilateral commitments are faltering: Governance in a world that is steadily becoming more equal needs institutional innovation.
  • This is because the role of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization in securing cooperation between donor and recipient country groups is losing centrality.
  •  There are now three socio-economic systems — the G7, China-Russia, and India and the others — and they will jointly set the global agenda.
  • Strategic competition: Ukraine conflict, rival finance, the expanding influence of the trade and value chains dominated by the U.S. and China, and the reluctance of developing countries to take sides in the strategic competition as they have a real choice requires fresh thinking.
  • Preventing the clash of ideas through reorientation: The primary role of the G20, which accounts for 95% of the world’s patents, 85% of global GDP, 75% of international trade and 65% of the world population, needs to be reoriented to prevent a clash of ideas to the detriment of the global good.
  • The solution lies in a new conceptual model seeking agreement on an agenda limited to principles rather than long negotiated anodyne text.

What should be on agenda when India hosts G20 in 2023

1] Underlining the need for new framework

  • Redefining common concerns: First, the presumed equality that we are all in the same boat, recognised in the case of climate change, needs to be expanded to other areas with a global impact redefining ‘common concerns’.
  • Second, emerging economies are no longer to be considered the source of problems needing external solutions but source of solutions to shared problems.
  • Third, the BRICS provides an appropriate model for governance institutions suitable for the 21st century where a narrow group of states dominated by one power will not shape the agenda.
  • Ensuring adequate food, housing, education, health, water and sanitation and work for all should guide international cooperation.
  • Principles of common but differentiated responsibilities for improving the quality of life of all households can guide deliberations in other fora on problems that seem intractable in multilateralism based on trade and aid.

2] Collaboration around science and technology

  •  The global agenda has been tilted towards investment, whereas science and technology are the driving force for economic diversification, sustainably urbanising the world, and ushering the hydrogen economy and new crop varieties as the answer to both human well-being and global climate change.
  •  A forum to exchange experiences on societal benefits and growth as complementary goals would lead to fresh thinking on employment and environment.

3] Redefining digital access as universal service

  • Harnessing the potential of the digital-information-technology revolution requires redefining digital access as a “universal service” that goes beyond physical connectivity to sharing specific opportunities available.
  • For global society to reap the fruits of the new set of network technologies, open access software should be offered for more cost-effective service delivery options, good governance and sustainable development.

4] Collaboration in space technology

  • Space is the next frontier for finding solutions to problems of natural resource management ranging from climate change-related natural disasters, supporting agricultural innovation to urban and infrastructure planning.
  • Analysing Earth observation data will require regional and international collaboration through existing centres which have massive computing capacities, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

5] Collaboration in health sector

  • Public health has to learn from the COVID-19 fiasco with infectious diseases representing a market failure.
  • A major global challenge is the rapidly growing antimicrobial resistance which needs new antibiotics and collaboration between existing biotechnology facilities.

6]  Avoiding strategic competition

  • Overriding priority to development suggests avoiding strategic competition.
  • Countries in the region will support building on the 1971 UNGA Declaration designating for all time the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace and non-extension into the region of rivalries and conflicts that are foreign to it.

7] Reviving Global Financial Transaction Tax

  •  A Global Financial Transaction Tax, considered by the G20 in 2011, needs to be revived to be paid to a Green Technology Fund for Least Developed Countries.

Conclusion

Given the significance of G20 for the global order it should lead the way in formulating the new framework based on collaboration in areas such as science and technology, innovation and away from aid and trade.

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-Myanmar

India’s response to Sri Lanka and Myanmar crises is a study in contrast

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 2- Crisis in Myanmar and issues with India's response to it

Context

There is a stark contrast contrast between the Indian response to the crisis in Sri Lanka and the dawning civil war in Myanmar.

Crisis in Myanmar

  • According to UN human rights monitors, over 2,000 people have been killed, around 14,000 are in prison, including 90 lawmakers, over 7,00,000 are refugees and half a million internally displaced.
  • Humanitarian aid to coup opponents is blocked.
  • The economy is in free fall.
  • Though the international community has not accepted the junta or its nominees as official representatives of Myanmar, it has not recognised the unity government as the legitimate successor of the pre-coup elected administration either.
  • Its armed wing, the recently-formed People’s Defence Force (PDF), exists in a shadowy limbo.
  • If it is too weak to impose significant costs on the junta, one root cause is the lack of support from neighbours.
  • As against Europe’s military support for Ukraine’s defence, no Asian country has stepped up to support the unity government and PDF.
  • Role of ASEAN:  It is ASEAN which shouldered the responsibility to mediate in Myanmar, whereas India took the initiative with Sri Lanka.
  • But ASEAN has been largely unsuccessful.
  • The five-point consensus that the junta agreed on with the regional grouping included an immediate end to violence and resumption of negotiations between the ousted administration and the Tatmadaw.
  • ASEAN’s reaction has been weak at best.
  • The US, EU, Australia and Canada announced targeted sanctions on the junta, and the EU imposed an embargo on arms sales to the country. ASEAN did not.

India’s response and issues with it

  • The contrast between the Indian response to the crisis in Sri Lanka and the dawning civil war in Myanmar could not be starker.
  • There is no support from the India administration for Mizoram’s aid effort, and apparently there is no Indian policy vis a vis the coup either.
  • Cooperation against cross-border insurgency: Given our land and sea borders with Myanmar, and the troubled history of cross-border insurgencies between our two countries, the India’s inertia is alarming, though not entirely surprising.
  • Successive Indian administrations maintained relations with the junta in the hope that they would cooperate against cross-border Indian armed groups.
  • But these insurgencies have reduced.
  • In fact, over the 10 years of Myanmar’s partial democracy, from 2011 to 2021, cross-border support for Indian insurgents dipped sharply.
  • Direct security interest: In other words, we have a direct security interest in the restoration of our neighbour’s democracy.

Way forward

  • Stringent sanctions: Sanctions that will starve the junta are a first step that Myanmar’s neighbours are yet to try.
  • While ASEAN has the initiative, all Myanmar’s neighbours need to unite on sanctions, especially nations such as Japan, Australia and India that are members of the Quad along with the US.
  • Myanmar ought to have topped the recent Quad summit’s agenda and it is shameful that it did not.
  • It is still not too late to call a virtual emergency meeting of Quad heads of state, along with ASEAN heads of state, to agree to stringent sanctions.

Conclusion

Our neighbourhood is more unstable today than it has been for decades. Four of our bordering countries are in free fall, while China’s grip comes closer to our shores by the hour. Can India afford to fiddle while wildfires ignite around us?

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-Bangladesh

India, Bangladesh, Pakistan: What east can teach west

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 2- India-Bangladesh ties

Context

The bilateral relationship between India and Bangladesh dominated by endless contentions at the turn of the millennium has transformed into a very productive partnership.

Contrast between India’s relations with Bangladesh and Pakistan

  • The persistence of cross-border terrorism, the conflict over Kashmir, the militarisation of the frontier, little connectivity, poor trade relations and no formal inter-governmental negotiations paint a bleak picture of the India-Pak border.
  • The inability of successive generations of Indian and Pakistani leaders to bring a closure to Partition in the west makes the talk of a “100-year war” credible.
  • The only trend that can counter this pessimism is the good news from India’s eastern frontier with Bangladesh.
  • In contrast to the talk of a 100-year war between India and Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have proclaimed a “sonali adhyay” or “golden chapter” in bilateral relations.
  • While the unresolved land and maritime territorial disputes constitute one of the main problems in India’s relations with Pakistan, their resolution with Bangladesh transformed the context of bilateral relations.
  • For both Delhi and Dhaka, the reinvention of the bilateral relationship has been one of the most significant successes of their recent foreign policies

Rebuilding the Bangladesh-India ties after 2010

  • The work on rebuilding ties began in earnest in 2010, when Sheikh Hasina came to India after taking charge of Bangladesh as prime minister for the second time in 2009.
  • Addressing bilateral problems: Both sides embarked on an extraordinary effort to address most bilateral problems—including border settlement, river water sharing, cross-border terrorism, market access to Bangladeshi goods, and connectivity.
  • The land boundary deal got parliamentary approval in 2015 in India.
  • India also accepted the award of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on settling the maritime boundary dispute between Delhi and Dhaka. 
  • Security cooperation: Cooperation on cross-border terrorism that began a couple of years earlier helped build much-needed political trust between the two national security establishments.
  • Connectivity: On the connectivity front, we have seen a substantive movement towards reopening the border that was largely shut down after the 1965 war between India and Pakistan.
  • Trans-boundary bus services, reopening of railway lines, and the revitalisation of waterways are restoring connectivity in the eastern subcontinent that was severed.
  • Bilateral trade: Bilateral trade volumes have grown by leaps and bounds in recent years touching nearly $16 billion last year.
  • Bangladesh is one of India’s top export markets.
  •  India and Bangladesh have also developed inter-connected power grids facilitating Dhaka’s purchase of power from India.
  • It currently buys about 1200 MW of power from India and an additional 1500 MW is in the pipeline.
  • Development of the northeastern India: Today the northeastern states have realised the immense benefits of deeper economic engagement with Bangladesh — none of them more important than ending the geographic isolation of the region.
  • Assam today is at the forefront of imagining a bolder agenda for deepening economic ties with Bangladesh.
  • Peace and prosperity in the region: For India, the expansive partnership with Bangladesh has significantly eased its security challenges and laid the basis for peace and prosperity in the eastern subcontinent.
  • For Bangladesh, discarding the temptation to balance India and embark on a cooperative strategy has allowed Dhaka to focus on its economic growth and lift itself in the regional and global hierarchy.

Way forward

  • Consolidating the gains: Rather than regret the unfortunate dynamic on the western frontier and bemoan Pakistan’s reluctance to let the SAARC become a vehicle for regional cooperation, Delhi should focus on consolidating the “golden moment” in the east.
  • The issues that need resolution are protecting the rights of minorities, sharing the waters of more than 50 rivers, promoting cross-border investments, managing one of the longest borders in the world, facilitating trade and preventing illegal migration, countering forces of religious extremism, promoting maritime security in the Bay of Bengal, expanding defence cooperation, and mitigating climate change in the shared regional environment to name a few.
  • Solving problems and tending to the relationship must necessarily be a continuous effort rather than episodic.

Conclusion

Nor can Delhi and Dhaka take each other for granted and let domestic politics overwhelm the logic of bilateral cooperation. The 75th anniversary of independence offers Delhi and Dhaka a special opportunity to elevate the ambition for their bilateral partnership.

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Economic Indicators and Various Reports On It- GDP, FD, EODB, WIR etc

Macrovariable projections in uncertain times

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Stagflation

Mains level: Paper 3- Challenges in projection of economic macrovariables

Context

The Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate again by a whopping 0.75%. The Reserve Bank of India has also been forced to raise interest rates further but also take other steps.

Two challenges for policymakers

  • Decisions in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting are based on what the members of the MPC see as the likely course of the economy in the months ahead.
  • But, the trajectory of the world economy, and its likely impact on the Indian economy, is imponderable.
  • So, Indian policymakers would face two crucial problems.
  • 1] Uncertainty due to war and Covid-19: First, the main uncertainty is due to Russia’s war on Ukraine and the resultant economic sanctions on Russia, as well as the zero-COVID-19 policy in China that repeatedly implements lockdowns leading to global supply bottlenecks.
  • 2] Uncertainty in data: Policy has to base itself on data.
  • If it is deficient, it introduces additional uncertainty, making projections for the future difficult and causing policies to fail.
  • This will compound the problem that results from the global uncertainty.

Role of uncertainties related to Covid and Ukraine war

  • Since early 2020, the SARS-COV-2 virus has caused global uncertainty.
  •  In a globalised interdependent world, production was hit resulting in price rise (inflation) and loss of real incomes.
  • This has resulted in decline in demand and, in a vicious cycle, a further slowing down of the economy.
  • As prices have risen globally and economies slowed down, many countries have faced stagflation.
  • Decline in uncertainty: The uncertainty due to the novel coronavirus has declined in spite of waves of attack persisting because the impact of new virus mutants of the virus is milder and there is also immunity due to vaccination.
  • However, China is an exception with its zero-COVID policy.
  •  It has been implementing strict lockdowns in the last six months, even when only a few cases of the disease have been detected.

The uncertainties due to Ukraine conflict

  • The war in Ukraine and western sanctions on Russia have caused huge uncertainty since February 2022 (when Russia invaded Ukraine) and displaced the disease-related uncertainty, i.e., COVID-19.
  • The reason is that the war is a proxy war between two powerful capitalist blocs.
  • There is needless continuing suffering of the people of Ukraine, with a bombardment of cities, and this could escalate.
  • The war and the sanctions have already affected the world economy and the Europeans in particular.
  • The U.S. economy has entered technical recession with two quarters of GDP decline.
  • As supplies of critical items supplied by Russia and Ukraine have been hit, prices have soared.
  • Europe, the United States and India have experienced or are experiencing high inflation.
  • The biggest disruption is in energy supplies from Russia, impacting production.
  • The availability of food, fertilizers, metals, etc., have been hit as Ukraine and Russia are important sources.
  • To weaken Russia, sanctions may be imposed on countries that carry out trade with it.
  • Many Indian entities may face the heat since India has increased its imports from Russia, which undermines sanctions.
  • China may also face sanctions since it has increased trade with Russia and is backing it.

Data related uncertainties

  • Indian policymakers also face data-related issues.
  • It is not only available with a big lag on most macroeconomic variables but for many variables, data are either not available or has huge errors.
  • Errors in data: Policymakers rely on high frequency data to proxy for actual data.
  • For example, very little data are available for quarterly GDP data which is used to calculate the growth rate of the economy.
  • First, except for agriculture, unorganised sector data is not available.
  • Second, for the organised sector, very limited data are available.
  • Third, projections from the previous year or proxies are used — both these introduce errors when there are repeated shocks to the economy, such as the pandemic and now the war.
  • Issues with price data: Price data too are problematic.
  • The services sector is under-represented.
  • Prices of many services have risen and expenditures on them have increased dramatically, thus changing their weight in the consumption basket.
  • Common CPI: Further, the consumer price index is common for the upper classes and the poor.
  •  Earlier, there was a different index for various categories of people, which reflected the differential impact of inflation on people.
  • This gave a truer picture of the economy and peoples’ distress.

Conclusion

Indian policymakers face the unenviable task of predicting the course of the economy for the next few months and even the year (or years) ahead because of the shocks and faulty and inadequate data. The problem is compounded by international factors.

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RBI Notifications

Curbing inflation in tomatoes, onions and potatoes requires streamlining their value chains

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Agriculture and related issues,Indian Economy
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: CPI basket in India

Mains level: Paper 3- Inflation challenge

Context

The higher the weight of food in the overall CPI, the more difficult it is for the monetary policy squeeze alone to contain inflation.

Inflation challenge in Indian economy

  • Under the FRBM Act, The RBI has the unenviable task of keeping inflation within the 4+/-2 per cent range.
  • But lately, despite its best efforts, inflation has remained defiant and above its tolerance band.
  • The RBI’s major policy tool, the repo rate has already been hiked by 90 basis points, raising it to 4.9 per cent in June.
  • It is likely to rise to at least 5.5 per cent, if not more, over the course of this financial year.
  • But this will not be enough to tame inflation due to the nature and structure of inflation in India.

How India’s CPI basket is different

  • The CPI basket in India comprises of 299 commodities grouped into six major categories.
  •  The food and beverages group has a weight of 45.86 per cent (with food at 39.06 per cent, prepared meals at 5.55 per cent and non-alcoholic beverages at 1.26 per cent).
  • High weight of food in overall CPI: It is this overwhelmingly high weight of food in overall CPI, based on the consumer expenditure survey (CES) data of 2011-12, that distinguishes Indian inflation from many other developed countries where the food weight is much smaller.
  • It is much lower in Germany (8.5 per cent), the UK (9.3 per cent), the US (13.42 per cent), Canada (15.94 per cent), France (16.49 per cent), Australia (16.8 per cent), China (19.9 per cent), and Japan (26.3 per cent). Even developing nations like South Africa (17.24 per cent), Brazil (25.5 per cent), and Pakistan (34.83 per cent) have lesser weightage of food in overall CPI than India.
  •  The higher the weight of food in the overall CPI, the more difficult it is for the monetary policy squeeze alone to contain inflation.

Tomato inflation

  • Interestingly, of the 299 commodities that comprise CPI, the highest contributor to overall inflation was tomatoes at 8.9 per cent.
  • Inflation in tomatoes was stupendously high at 158.8 per cent (year-on-year).
  • One of the prime reasons was the low base effect as inflation in June 2021 was minus 14.4 per cent.
  • Due to low price realisation last year, this year tomato farmers shifted acreage to other crops.
  • On top of that, some tomato growing areas got flooded, while many others faced heat waves that further depressed tomato supplies.
  •  It is for this reason a scheme called TOP (Tomatoes, Onions, and Potatoes) and allocated Rs 500 crore to streamline their value chains.
  •  But the scheme went to the Ministry of Food Processing, and was expanded to TOTAL by including several other vegetables.
  • Without having a champion, like Verghese Kurien was for milk, this scheme (from TOP to TOTAL) got diffused in focus and has not shown any visible impact in improving the value chains of vegetables.
  • Way forward: The real solution to tomato inflation may lie beyond the ambit of the RBI.
  • Processing: It requires linking tomato value chains to processing of at least 10 per cent of tomato production into tomato paste and puree during bumper years and using them when fresh tomato prices spike.
  • Reduce GST: Further, to enhance the affordability of processed tomatoes, its GST rates need to be reduced from 12 per cent to 5 per cent.
  • This would also help farmers to stabilise their incomes and avoid the typical cobweb problem they face in case of perishables.

Way forward

  • So, monetary policy alone may not be as effective in the Indian case.
  • Revise CPI: India desperately needs to revise its CPI with the latest consumption survey weights.
  • Our parliamentarians must recognise the limitations that the RBI faces in taming inflation.

Conclusion

The upshot of all this is that the nature and structure of inflation in India is different than in developed countries.

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Foreign Policy Watch: India – EU

India-UK Relations

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Free trade agreement

Mains level: Bilateral ties, Strategic partnership

Context

  • The year 2022 is significant for both India and the UK as our country commemorates the 75th anniversary of its Independence and the two celebrate 75 years of bilateral ties.
  • India-UK relations were elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2021, based on a shared commitment towards democracy, fundamental freedoms and multilateralism.

Background of the India-UK ties

  • Partnership: The historical legacy has its own imprint on the relationship. But what is truly remarkable is the broad range of partnerships that have evolved between the two countries, transcending trade, investment and strategic affairs.
  • Close ties: This broader partnership between the world’s fifth and sixth largest economies has its foundations on three critical aspects: education, common law system and the increasingly influential role and impact of the Indian diaspora in the UK.
  • Shared values: The India-UK partnership is based on shared values, respect for the rule of law and common law, and institutional integrity protected by democratic institutions in the both the countries.

What progress has been made in the India-UK relationship?

1.Economic: During 2019-20, trade between the two countries stood at US$ 15.45 billion with the balance in favor of India. Between April 2021-February 2022, Indian exports to the UK stood at US$ 9.4 billion (2.5% of India’s exports). The imports in the corresponding period were US$ 6.59 billion (1.2% of India’s imports). There is a scope for significant improvement. Both countries expect that the bilateral trade can reach US$ 100 billion by 2030.

2.Defense and Security: India and the UK signed the Defence and International Security Partnership (DISP) in November 2015. It provides a strategic roadmap and direction to the evolving India-UK Defence Relations. At present some 70 companies in the UK supply goods for aircraft and related equipment besides supporting platforms like the Jaguar, Mirage and Kiran aircraft.

3.Indian Diaspora: Around 1.5 million people of Indian origin live in Britain. Indian diaspora are making significant contributions to the British Society. This includes 15 Members of Parliament, three members in Cabinet, and two in high office as Finance and Home Ministers.

4.Education: The UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) was launched in 2005. A new ‘UKEIRI Mobility Programme: Study in India’ was also launched in 2019. Under this Britain’s universities collaborate with Indian partners and send UK students to India.

5.Health: The successful partnership between Oxford University, AstraZeneca and SII on COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated the potential of Indian and UK expertise working together to solve international challenges. The two sides are also working on pandemic preparedness, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), digital health, Ayurveda and alternative medicines, as well as health worker mobility.

What is the significance of India-UK Relationship?

1.Regional and global issues of mutual interest: A healthy relationship between the two is imperative for enhancing cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, Afghanistan, UNSC, G20 and Commonwealth. For instance, India welcomed the UK’s accession in the Indo-Pacific Ocean’s Initiative under the Maritime Security pillar.

2.Tackling Climate Change: The cooperation between them can be helpful to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and in implementing the Glasgow Climate Pact. For instance, the countries have agreed to work for early operationalisation of the Global Green Grids-One Sun One World One Grid Initiative (OSOWOG) under ISA. They are also working on the IRIS platform under CDRI which was jointly launched by India and UK at COP26.

3.Supporting 3rd World Countries: Through the Global Innovation Partnership, India and UK have agreed to co-finance up to £ 75 million to support the transfer and scale up of climate smart sustainable innovations to third countries. The novel GIP Fund created under this Partnership will also aim to raise additional £ 100 million from the market to support Indian innovations.

3.Strategic Considerations: India can engage with the UK to counter China’s rise in the Indian Ocean Region. The UK on other hand can use India as an alternative destination to China and its companies can invest in India as part of China plus one strategy. It is the business strategy to avoid investing only in China and diversify business into other countries.

Challenges in India-UK relations

1.BREXIT

  • Impact on Diaspora– Many members of Indian Diaspora in Britain had voted against BREXIT because it is likely that Indian IT Professional in Britain will face tough competition when UK will open up its border for more skilled migration.
  • Impact on Indian Companies in UK– A hard Brexit would inevitably impact more than 800 Indian companies in UK in crucial sectors of British economy Indian. But data has shown that companies are increasing investments in the UK and creating many thousands of new jobs. This demonstrates that, Brexit or no Brexit, India supports Britain.
  • Impact on India-EU Relations –With €72.5 billion worth of India-EU trade and €19.4 billion of India UK trade at stake, all partners needed to think through this issue carefully in the business and commercial context. Brexit seems to be a challenge to the India EU strategic partnership but India would need to learn to manage its relations with the EU without UK
  • Impact on Trade–Forging a Free Trade Agreement with India will not be a priority for UK as it leaves EU. Instead, Britain would initially focus on tackling existing barriers to trade. But India should grab the opportunity to fill the trade gap in UK, post-Brexit.

2.Visas and Immigration

  • Illegal Migration: There are more than 1 lakh illegal Indian immigrants in UK. Britain has started putting pressure on Indian government to ensure that Indians who have no right to remain in UK be sent back to India
  • Latest Measures: On the other hand, a white paper on post-Brexit visas and immigration strategy has been unveiled. It is expected to benefit Indian students and professionals, with a focus on skills rather than country of origin. An annual cap of 20,700 on the number of skilled work visas issued will also be removed.

3.Terrorism

  • In the context of Brexit, unlike the United States’ contemporary view, India continues to be hyphenated with Pakistan in London’s outlook.
  • India states the fact that bilateral relations went beyond the economic realm to issues such as security and terrorism were not being heeded in Britain, despite continuous efforts by India over the past decades.

4.Totalization agreement

  • The UK government has also made it mandatory for people to pay a health care surcharge as part of their immigration application.
  • When employees are there for a short term as part of their work, it is important that they get to keep their hard-earned money rather than giving UK thousands of pounds of free money as social security taxes.
  • Therefore, it is important for UK and India to sign the totalization agreement at the earliest.
  • The totalization agreement with the UK would have exempted Indian professionals who are working for a certain period of time in the UK from paying those social security taxes if they are paying such taxes in India.

Way forward

  • The historical baggage also needs to be addressed cooperatively to diminish the possibility of hindrance in future cooperation.
  • The India-United Kingdom are dynamic democracies and the world’s leading economies with impressive advancements in human resources, manufacturing, innovation, research, education, space, defence, green technologies, and clean energy, among other areas.
  • This relationship can be utilized for the betterment of the fields and more collaborations should be undertaken.

Conclusion

  • As we celebrate the historic collaboration between the UK and India in producing the Covishield vaccine, and look forward to the much-awaited signing of the bilateral Free Trade Agreement, we should not lose sight of the tremendous power that transnational university-wide collaborations can leverage in the accord. Education, research and knowledge partnership ought to become the centre-piece of the India-UK relationship at 75, as we move forward.

Mains question

Q.Analyse India-UK bilateral relations with scope of upscaling and challenges they need to overcome .

 

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Deciding the terms of debate on freebies, subsidies and compensation

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Not much

Mains level: Paper 2- Debate on subsidies

Context

The Reserve Bank of India, in a report published in June, linked the precarious state of state finances to “freebies”, particularly power subsidies, and last week, the Supreme Court, waded into the debate, recommending the creation of an expert body to examine the matter.

Political, economic and institutional context

  • The determination of what is a good or bad freebie is and always will be a political choice.
  • A constructive debate must necessarily locate itself in the underlying political, economic and institutional context in which these so-called freebies are a feature of our electoral politics.
  • In the Public Interest Litigation filed in the Supreme Court, the petitioner has argued that “irrational freebies… is analogous to bribery”.
  • Commodification of electoral process: The problem with this framing is that it commodifies the electoral process and strips voters of their agency.
  • Voters, in this framing, are passive, unsophisticated actors who can be bought and therefore there is a need to be vigilant.
  • The honourable court had gone a step further, arguing for an expert, independent body, rather than Parliament, to tackle the issue.
  • This is judicial overreach and it privileges “experts” over legitimate democratic negotiation and strikes at the core of the political bargain.
  • Politics is central to welfare, not experts.

Economic context

  • In that spirit, a debate on the merits and demerits of freebies is important but this debate cannot be divorced from the economic context.
  • India’s structural transformation, particularly since 1991, has been slow and unique.
  • Despite abundant low-skilled labour, our growth trajectory has mostly skipped manufacturing, growing instead on the back of a far smaller, high-skilled services sector.
  • Consequently, as economist Amit Basole has shown the bulk of jobs our economy generated even in its peak growth years were in the largely informal, low value add construction sector.
  • The distributional consequences of this have been significant.
  • Under-employment and low inter-generational mobility have been persistent features of the Indian economy resulting in deep inequalities.
  • Growth lifted a large population out of poverty.
  • However, as the World Bank data show, most of those who escaped poverty between 2005-2012 moved into the vulnerable group — one income shock away from falling below the poverty line.
  • Somewhat reassuringly, democracy created pressure on our politics to respond to these economic failures.
  • It is in this context that the demand for so-called freebies has found legitimate place in our democracy.

Challenges

  • While democratic pressures led to the halting creation of limited social protection in the form of PDS and MGNREGA, they did not translate into investments in core public and merit goods — health and education being the most critical.
  • It is these accumulated failures that have created the new political logic that we confront today.
  • A logic where welfare freebies are being offered to compensate citizens for what economic growth has failed to do.

Conclusion

The answer does not lie in rapping state governments on the knuckles for being profligate. It lies in building a renewed democratic consensus on our economic and institutional growth path.

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Finance Commission – Issues related to devolution of resources

fiscal federalism in India

op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Federalism
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Finance Commission

Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with fiscal federalism in India

Context

The centralisation of fiscal powers in India has been blamed for the poor fiscal health of the states.

Centralisation of fiscal powers: A background

  • Jawaharlal Nehru believed that socio-economic inequities could be addressed through the planning process.
  • A degree of centralisation in fiscal power was required to address the concerns of socio-economic and regional disparities.
  • As a result asymmetric federalism is inherent to the Indian Constitution.
  • India was never truly federal — it was a ‘holding together federalism’ in contrast to the ‘coming together federalism,’ in which smaller independent entities come together to form a federation (as in the United States of America).
  • In fact, the Government of India Act 1935 was more federal in nature than the Constitution adopted on January 26, 1950 as the first offered more power to its provincial governments.
  • Historically, India’s fiscal transfer worked through two pillars, i.e., the Planning Commission and the Finance Commission. 
  • But the waning of planning since the 1990s, and its abolition in 2014, led to the Finance Commission becoming a major means of fiscal transfer as the commission itself broadened its scope of sharing all taxes since 2000 from its original design of just two taxes — income tax and Union excise duties.
  •  Today, the Finance Commission became a politicised institution with arbitrariness and inherent bias towards the Union government.
  • Tamil Nadu government constituted a committee under Justice P.V. Rajamannar in 1969, the first of its kind by a State government, to look at Centre-State fiscal relations and recommend more transfers and taxation powers for regional governments.

Declining fiscal capacity of the states

  • While States lost their capacity to generate revenue by surrendering their rights in the wake of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, their expenditure pattern too was distorted by the Union’s intrusion, particularly through its centrally sponsored schemes.
  • The ability of States to finance current expenditures from their own revenues has declined from 69% in 1955-56 to less than 38% in 2019-20.
  • While the expenditure of the States has been shooting up, their revenues did not.
  • Stagnant revenue: Since States cannot raise tax revenue because of curtailed indirect tax rights — subsumed in GST, except for petroleum products, electricity and alcohol — the revenue has been stagnant at 6% of GDP in the past decade.

Implications of fiscal centralisation in India

  • Use of non-divisive cess: Even the increased share of devolution, mooted by the Fourteenth Finance Commission, from 32% to 42%, was subverted by raising non-divisive cess and surcharges that go directly into the Union kitty.
  •  This non-divisive pool in the Centre’s gross tax revenues shot up to 15.7% in 2020 from 9.43% in 2012, shrinking the divisible pool of resources for transfers to States.
  • Cut in the corporate tax: The recent drastic cut in corporate tax, with its adverse impact on the divisible pool, and ending GST compensation to States have had huge consequences.
  • States paying high interest rates: States are forced to pay differential interest — about 10% against 7% — by the Union for market borrowings.
  • Centrally sponsored schemes curbing autonomy:  There are 131 centrally sponsored schemes, with a few dozen of them accounting for 90% of the allocation, and States required to share a part of the cost.
  • They spend about 25% to 40% as matching grants at the expense of their priorities.
  • These schemes, driven by the one-size-fits-all approach, are given precedence over State schemes, undermining the electorally mandated democratic politics of States.
  • In fact, it is the schemes conceived by States that have proved to be beneficial to the people and that have contributed to social development.
  • Driven by democratic impulses, States have been successful in innovating schemes that were adopted at the national level.
  • The diversion of a State’s own funds to centrally sponsored schemes, thereby depleting resources for its own schemes, violates constitutional provision.
  • Deepening inequality: The World Inequality Report estimates ‘that the ratio of private wealth to national income increased from 290% in 1980 to 555% in 2020, one of the fastest such increases in the world.
  • The poorest half of the population has less than 6% of the wealth while the top 10% nearly grab two-third of it’.
  • India’s tax-GDP ratio has been one of the lowest in the world — 17% of which is well below the average ratios of emerging market economies and OECD countries’ about 21% and 34%, respectively.
  • Its income tax base has been very narrow.
  • Indirect tax still accounts for about 56% of total taxes.
  • Instead of strengthening direct taxation, the Union government slashed corporate tax from 35% to 25% in 2019 and went on to monetise its public sector assets to finance infrastructure.

Conclusion

In sum, India’s fiscal federalism driven by political centralisation has deepened socio-economic inequality, belying the dreams of the founding fathers who saw a cure for such inequities in planning. It has not altered inter-state disparities either.

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Labour, Jobs and Employment – Harmonization of labour laws, gender gap, unemployment, etc.

Labour welfare necessity

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Laws, Institutions & Bodies Constituted For The Vulnerable Sections
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NA

Mains level: Labour welfare initiatives

Context

  • One of the biggest economic fallout of the pandemic has been the deteriorating labour market conditions.
  • In the years ahead when the health crisis subsides and the economy witnesses a rebound, the healing of the labour market may take some more time. This is because the impact of recovery on this market is always felt with a lag.
  • Given the ebb and flow of the pandemic, the growth recovery is likely to be fragmented and will weigh on the number and types of jobs available.

Definition

  • Labour welfare relates to taking care of the well-being of workers by employers, trade unions, governmental and non-governmental institutions and agencies.
  • Welfare includes anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is provided over and above the wages.

What are labour rights?

  • Labour rights or workers’ rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labour relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labour and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in relations of employment.

Why labour law is needed

  • Labour law aims to correct the imbalance of power between the worker and the employer; to prevent the employer from dismissing the worker without good cause; to set up and preserve the processes by which workers are recognized as ‘equal’ partners in negotiations about their working conditions etc.

Constitutional mandate

  • Article 41 – The state shall within the limits of its economic capacity and development make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement and in other cases of underserved want.
  • Article 42 – The state shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.

Necessity for welfare

  • There were only 25 million during the initial period of industrial growth, while the strength of the workers is increasing year after year and hence, need for a mechanism to look into the welfare of the labour.
  • Workers put in long hours of work in unhealthy surrounding and the drudgery of the factory work continues to have adverse effect. To counter these welfare measures were felt necessary.
  • As a result of hardwork, they fall prey to alchoholism, gambling and other immoral activities results in absenteeism and other problems in the organisation. Hence the need was felt.

Scope for labour welfare in India

  • Contribute to the productivity of labour and efficiency of the enterprise.
  • Raise the standard of living of workers by indirectly reducing the burden on their purse.
  • Be in tune and harmony with similar services obtaining in a neighbouring community where an enterprise is situated.
  • Be based on an intelligent prediction of the future needs of industrial work and be so designed as to offer a cushion to absorb the shock of industrialization and urbanization
  • Be administratively viable and essentially development in outlook.

Government steps in this direction

  • Social Security Measures: The social security measures would help man to face the contingencies as such it is difficult for him either to work or to get work and support himself and his family. Thus social security measure provides a self balancing social insurance or assistance from public funds.
  • Social Insurance: is described as the giving in return for contribution, benefits up to subsistence level, as of right and without a means test, so that an individual may build freely upon it.
  • Social Assistance: is provided as an supplement to social insurance for those needy persons who cannot get social insurance payments and is offered after a means test.
  • Public Service: is a programme constituting the third main type of social security. They are financed directly by the government from its general revenues in form of cash payments or services to every member of the community falling within a defined category.

Case study of Finland

  • Universal basic income pilot project: For two years Finland’s government gave 2,000 unemployed citizens €560 a month with no strings attached. It was the first nationwide basic income experiment. The concept is slowly becoming difficult for people to ignore.

Challenges in labour welfare in India

  • Technical glitches: Under the Constitution of India, Labour is a subject in the concurrent list where both the Central and State Governments are competent to enact legislation. As a result, a large number of labour laws have been enacted catering to different aspects of labour e.g. occupational health, safety, employment etc.
  • Loopholes: Because of the predominantly heavy-handed labour regulations (also called as Inspector Raj) with exploitable gaps, the MNCs and domestic organizations have resorted to alternate ways i.e. employing contract labour at less than half the payroll of a permanent employee.
  • Gaps in labour laws: One of the main reasons for labour reforms is the concept of contract labour. Trade Unions suggest that this concept itself should be removed. There is stringent hiring and firing process defined in Industry Disputes Act. It makes it mandatory for the organization to seek Government permission before removing an employee.

Conclusion

  • Labour Welfare helps labourers improve their working conditions, providing social security and raising their standard of living.
  • Raise the employee’s morale use the workforce more effectively besides removing dissatisfaction help to develop loyalty in workers towards the organization.

Mains question

Q.What is labour welfare according to you? Why it is needed? Explain the challenges in front of Indian labour reforms.

 

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Medical Education Governance in India

Medical education in India

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NA

Mains level: Medical education in India

Context

  • The increasing population (1.32 billion ) and the occurrence of diseases, demands Indian medical education and the training approach to be modified and ensure enhancing practical clinical skills, than just sticking with predominantly theoretical or classroom training.
  • The demand for medicine to be taught in language beside English has been made repeatedly over the years, and was reiterated by union home minister recently.

Definition

  • Medical education consists of training aimed at ensuring physicians acquire the competencies, skills and aptitudes that that allow them to practice professionally and ethically at the highest level.

Goal of medical education

  • The goal of basic medical education is to ensure that medical students have acquired the knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors that prepare them for a spectrum of career choices, including, but not limited to, patient care, public health, clinical or basic research, leadership and management, or medical education.

Why medical education in India needs urgent reforms

  • Current Status: Despite being home to one of the oldest medicinal systems in the world, India is still struggling to bring its medical education at par with the leaders around the world. The 541 medical colleges in the country haven’t been able to reach the standard of education that could meet the healthcare needs of the country.
  • Deficiency: The doctor-patient ratio of 1:1655 in India as against WHO norm of 1:1000 clearly shows the deficit of MBBS. While the government is working towards a solution and targeting to reach the required ratio, there is a need to relook at the overall medical education.
  • Post pandemic scenario: The lag in formal medical education has come up evidently post-pandemic when the nation saw the medical fraternity struggling to fill the doctor deficit.
  • Structural issues: It also brought forth the outdated learning methods that most of the medical institutes were using. Due to lockdown and fear of Covid-19 spread, a lot of institutes cancelled lectures and practical sessions.

Current challenges faced by medical education in India

  • Limited government seats: The number of seats available for medical education in India is far less than the number of aspirants who leave school with the dream of becoming doctors.
  • What data speaks: Of the 1.6 million students who appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in 2021, only 88,120 made it into the 562 medical colleges in the country. Others had to enrol in non-medical courses in India or seek admission to foreign medical colleges. While the number of medical colleges has now increased to 596 (with 89,875 seats), the entry barrier is still high.
  • Lack of skills: Though the institutes are managing to hire professors and lecturers, there is a lack of technical skills. Finding faculties in clinical and non-clinical disciplines is difficult and there are very few faculty development programs for upskilling the existing lot.
  • Lack of infrastructure: The gap in digital learning infrastructure is currently the biggest challenge the sector is facing. There is an urgent need to adopt technology and have resources available to facilitate e-learning.
  • Lack of research and innovation: The medical research and innovation needs an added push as there haven’t been many ground-breaking research here. The education system needs to focus more on increasing the quality of research. Additionally since industry academia partnership is not available, hence innovation also takes a back-seat.

A recent analysis estimates that India has only 4.8 fully qualified and actively serving doctors per 10,000 population.

Government steps in tackling these challenges and issues

  • NMC bill: The National Medical Commission Bill, 2019 was passed recently by the parliament. The bill sets up the National Medical Commission (NMC) which will act as an umbrella regulatory body in the medical education system. The NMC will subsume the MCI and will regulate medical education and practice in India. Apart from this, it also provides for reforms in the medical education system.
  • MCI suggestion: The Medical Council of India (MCI) launched the globally recognized Competency-based medical education (CBME) for MBBS students in 2019. The CBME curriculum seeks to step away from a content-based syllabus and more towards one that is more practical and aligned with the country’s increasing health demands.
  • Schemes: 22 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were developed under this initiative, and MBBS classes have already commenced at 18 of the new AIIMS.

About NMC

The Aim of the National Medical Commission are to (i) improve access to quality and affordable medical education, (ii) ensure availability of adequate and high quality medical professionals in all parts of the country; (iii) promote equitable and universal healthcare that encourages community health perspective and makes services of medical professionals accessible to all the citizens; (iv) encourages medical professionals to adopt latest medical research in their work and to contribute to research; (v) objectively assess medical institutions  periodically in a transparent manner; (vi) maintain a medical register for India; (vi) enforce high ethical standards in all aspects of medical services; (vii) have an effective grievance redressal mechanism.

Steps to be taken 

  • To cater to any unprecedented demand in the future and to bring up the quality of education, the Indian medical education system undoubtedly needs major reforms.
  • While the focus needs to be put on improving the curriculum to bring competency-based education, there are several ways that can help bring reform in the current medical education system. Some of these are;
  1. Leveraging technology to offer digital learning solutions
  2. Capitalizing on e-learning and facilitating infrastructure to support it
  3. Revising curriculum to have more practical training, competency-based skill development
  4. Inculcating problem-solving approach by situational/case-based examination
  5. A broad-based faculty development program to sharpen the competency of teachers
  6. Eliminating caste-based reservation and paving way for merit-based admission
  7. Industry academia collaboration to facilitate innovation

Way forward

  • There should be a substantial step-up in public investment in medical education.
  • By establishing new medical colleges, the government can increase student intake as well as enhance equitable access to medical education.
  • Besides, it must allocate adequate financial resources to strengthen the overall capacity of existing medical colleges to enrich student learning and improve output.

Try this question for mains

Q. Considering the large diaspora of medical students across the globe do you consider there are problems in Indian medical education system? If there are any ,discuss them along with current health status and steps needed to counter them .

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Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Development vs sustainability

op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Green carbon fee

Mains level: Sustainable development

Context

  • According to NITI Aayog, “600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress with nearly 70% of water being contaminated; India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index”.
  • The latest global environmental ranking by Yale and Columbia Universities puts India at the bottom among 180 countries.

What is development?

  • Economic development means different things to different people. On a broad scale, anything a community does to foster and create a healthy economy can fall under the auspice of economic development.

What is sustainability?

  • The integration of environmental health, social equity and economic vitality in order to create thriving, healthy, diverse and resilient communities for this generation and generations to come. The practice of sustainability recognizes how these issues are interconnected and requires a systems approach and an acknowledgement of complexity.
  • Sustainability is the balance between the environment, equity, and economy.

What sustainability do for us?

  • Sustainable practices support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality.
  • Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are used.
  • In simplest terms, sustainability is about our children and our grandchildren, and the world we will leave them.

Definition of carrying capacity of earth

  • Carrying capacity: Carrying capacity is the maximum number of a species an environment can support indefinitely. Every species has a carrying capacity, even humans. The species population size is limited by environmental factors like adequate food, shelter, water, and mates. If these needs are not met, the population will decrease until the resource rebounds.

Mother earth has reached its carrying capacity now

  • No species has altered the Earth’s natural landscape the way humans have.
  • Global climate change, mass extinction, and overexploitation of our global commons are all examples of the ways in which humans have altered the natural landscape.
  • Our growing population, coupled with rising affluence and per capita impact, is driving our planet closer to its tipping point.
  • With population expected to reach 5 billion by 2050, many wonder if our natural resources can keep up with our growing demands.

Enrich your mains answer with this

8 Billion dreams, ambitions, aspirations and only one earth to support them all . Human population, now nearing 8 billion, cannot continue to grow indefinitely. There are limits to the life-sustaining resources earth can provide us. In other words, there is a carrying capacity for human life on our planet.

Development vs environment issues

  • Unemployment: For India, the national context is shaped by high youth unemployment, millions more entering the workforce each year, and a country hungry for substantial investments in hard infrastructure to industrialise and urbanise.
  • Growth with low emission footprint: India’s economic growth in the last three decades, led by growth in the services sector, has come at a significantly lower emissions footprint.
  • Infrastructure: But in the coming decades, India will have to move to an investment-led and manufacturing-intensive growth model to create job opportunities and create entirely new cities and infrastructure to accommodate and connect an increasingly urban population.

Why a Carbon Fee and Dividend is Imperative

It is clear that we will soon pass the limit on carbon emissions, because it requires decades to replace fossil fuel energy infrastructure with carbon-neutral and carbon negative energies.

What could India do to pursue an industrialization pathway that is climate-compatible?

  • A coherent national transition strategy is important in a global context where industrialised countries are discussing the imposition of carbon border taxes while failing to provide developing countries the necessary carbon space to grow or the finance and technological assistance necessary to decarbonise.
  • What India needs is an overarching green industrialisation strategy that combines laws, policy instruments, and new or reformed implementing institutions to steer its decentralised economic activities to become climate-friendly and resilient.
Case study for value addition

  • Bhutan: Bhutan remains, for example, the first and only carbon-negative country in the world, and they have also recently prevented the COVID-19 pandemic from overwhelming its population, with only one Bhutanese citizen  passing away from the virus to date.

 

 

Way forward

  • India should set its pace based on its ability to capitalise on the opportunities to create wealth through green industrialisation.

Mains question

Do you think mother earth has reached its carrying capacity? Discuss this in context of development vs environment debate.

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Uniform Civil Code: Triple Talaq debate, Polygamy issue, etc.

The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 is a colonial burden on Goa

op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution - historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Article 44

Mains level: Paper 2- Uniform civil code issue

Context

The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867, the so-called “common civil code” of Goa, is in the news again. A 28-member parliamentary standing committee recently visited the state to study it in the context of the demand for a uniform civil code.

Background

  • Long before the arrival of the British imperialists in India, the Portuguese had occupied certain territories in the coastal regions with its capital in Cochin, later shifted to Goa.
  • They did not interfere with the local customs relating to family relations and framed, in the mid-19th century, three separate codes of religion-based customary laws of Goa, Daman and Diu.
  • The three codes were formally enforced as the law by royal decrees issued by the King of Portugal.
  • The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 was extended to Goa, Daman and Diu by a royal decree of November 18, 1869, declaring that the code would apply to the natives subject to the local usages and customs “so far as they are not inconsistent with morality or public order”.
  •  In 1910, the Portuguese parliament enacted two civil marriage and divorce decrees and, in 1946, a canonical marriage decree for Catholics.
  • All of these too were extended to Goa, Daman and Diu.
  • The family law applied by the Portuguese, both at home and in the occupied Indian territories, was thus not a uniform code but a loose conglomeration of civil and religious laws.

After Indian independence

  • Fourteen years after the advent of Independence, Goa and its affiliated territories were liberated and turned into a Union Territory (UT) under central rule.
  •  The Goa, Daman and Diu Administration Act of 1962 declared that all laws in force in these territories before their liberation would continue to be in force “until amended or repealed by a competent legislature or other competent authority” (Section 5).
  • None of the pre-liberation family laws was, however, amended or repealed.
  • Nor was any central law on family rights, including the four Hindu law Acts of 1955-56, extended to any of the three territories.
  • In 1987, the Goa, Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act made Goa a full-fledged state with its own legislative assembly and left Daman and Diu as a UT.
  • Twenty-five years later, the Goa state legislature enacted the Succession, Special Notaries and Inventory Proceedings Act, amending certain provisions, mainly procedural, of the 155-year old civil code.
  • In 2019, the UT of Daman and Diu was merged with another such territory – Dadra and Nagar Haveli (also ruled in the past by Portugal) — to form a single UT under central rule.
  • As laid down in Section 17 of the unifying Act, this development did not in any way change the family law system prevailing in either of these places since their liberation from foreign rule.

Need for uniform civil code

  • The law ministry has told the concerned standing committee of Parliament that the Portuguese civil code and its later amendments as in force in Goa may — if required — be duly reviewed.
  • Uniform civil code: What has been said now by the law ministry about Goa is in the context of implementing the constitutional directive of Article 44 for a uniform civil code for the citizens throughout the territory of India.
  • However, while the 21st Law Commission had already given its opinion against the feasibility and need of such a code at this juncture
  • In recent months, the ministry has told Parliament about its reference on this issue to the Law Commission.
  • There is no justification for retaining over a century-old archaic law, 75 years after the independence of India.
  • Hindu law Acts of 1955-56 governing four religious communities in the rest of the country needs to be extended to the same communities in Goa, Daman and Diu.

Conclusion

The ministry has now reportedly told the parliamentary committee that enacting a uniform civil code would be possible only when a “sizeable majority” of the people seeks such a change.

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Innovation Ecosystem in India

Journey towards innovation

op-ed snap | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Achievements Of Indians In S&T
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Samba mashuri rice, Wax Deoiling Technology

Mains level: CSIR ,IPR regime

Context

  • Senior scientist Nallathamby Kalaiselvi was appointed the director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), on Saturday, August 6, 2022. This makes her the first woman to head the largest research and development organisation in India, which runs 38 laboratories and institutes, 39 outreach centres, and three innovation centres. 

What is CSIR?

  • The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the largest research and development organisation in India.
  • CSIR covers a wide spectrum of science and technology – from oceanography, geophysics, chemicals, drugs, genomics, biotechnology and nanotechnology to mining, aeronautics, instrumentation, environmental engineering and information technology.

Who established it?

  • Dr Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
  • He was the Founder Director (and later first Director-General) of CSIR who is credited with establishing twelve national laboratories. He played a significant role in the building of post-independent Science and Technology infrastructure and in the formulation of India’s S & T policies

CSIR’s Vision

  • “Pursue science which strives for global impact, technology that enables innovation – driven industry and nurture trans-disciplinary leadership thereby catalyzing inclusive economic development for the people of India”

Why CSIR is important?

  • Innovation: Regarding intellectual property, the CSIR has over 2971 patents filed internationally with 1592 patents filed in India. Since its inception in 1942 over 14000 patents have been granted worldwide. It was awarded the National Intellectual Property Award in 2018 by the India Patent Office.
  • Pandemic handling: CSIR identified the unmet needs, assessed its strengths and capabilities for addressing the pandemic and adopted a multi-pronged strategy of working on diagnostics, surveillance, drugs, hospital assistive devices, personal protective equipment and supply chain and logistics. This strategy is now beginning to yield exciting solutions.

Contribution of CSIR

Strategic Sector

  • Head-Up-Display (HUD) In high-tech areas, CSIR-NAL made significant contribution by developing indigenous Head-Up- display(HUD) for Indian Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. HUD aids the pilot in flying the aircraft and in critical flight maneuvers including weapon aiming.
  • Design and Development of Indigenous Gyrotron: Addressing the challenges of technology denial:Design and development of indigenous gyrotron for nuclear fusion reactor has been accomplished.

Energy & Environment

  • Solar Tree: On July 22nda solar tree designed by CSIR- CMERI lab in Durgapur was  launched which occupies minimum space to produce clean power.
  • Wax Deoiling Technology:Technology developed for recovery of wax developed in collaboration with Engineers India Limited (EIL) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd., (NRL). Country’s largest wax producing (50,000 metric ton) plant has been commissioned at NRL with investment of over Rs 600 crore.

Value added Agriculture

  • Medicinal and Aromatic Plants:Enhanced cultivation of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the country brought about through development of new varieties and agro-technologies.
  • Samba Mahsuri Rice Variety – Bacterial Blight Resistant:CSIR has in collaboration with DRR (ICAR) and DBT part funding developed an improved bacterial blight resistant Samba Mahsuri variety.
  • Rice Cultivar (Muktashree) for Arsenic Contaminated Areas:A rice variety has been developed which restricts assimilation of Arsenic within permissible limit. The variety has been released to farmers of West Bengal.
  • White-fly resistant Cotton variety:Developed a transgenic cotton line which is resistant to whiteflies. It is expected to render it commercially cultivable in 10 years, after due regulatory clearances.

Healthcare

  • JD Vaccine for Farm Animals:Vaccine developed and commercialized for Johne’s disease affecting Sheep, Goat, Cow and Buffalo so as to immunize them and increase milk and meat production.
  • Plasma Gelsolin Diagnostic Kit for Premature Births, and Sepsis related Deaths:A new kit is being developed to diagnose pre-mature birth and sepsis.
  • Genomics and other omics technologies for Enabling Medical Decision – GOMED: Genetic diseases, though are individually rare, cumulatively affect a large number of individuals. A programme called GOMED (Genomics and other omics technologies for Enabling Medical Decision) has been developed by the CSIR which provides a platform of disease genomics to solve clinical problems.

  Food & Nutrition

  • Ksheer-scanner: The Ksheer Scanner, a new technological invention by CSIR-CEERI detects the level of milk adulteration and adulterants in 45 seconds at the cost of 10 paise,
  • Double-Fortified Salt:Salt fortified with iodine and iron having improved properties developed and tested for addressing anaemia in people. To be launched in the market soon.
  • Anti-obesity DAG Oil:Oil enriched with Diacylglycerol (DAG) instead of conventional triacylglycerol (TAG) developed. To be launched in the market soon.

Water

  • Aquifer Mapping of Water Scarce Areas: Heliborne transient electromagnetic and surface magnetic technique based aquifer mapping carried out in six different geological locations in Rajasthan (2), Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
  • Understanding the Special Properties of the Ganga Water:Assessment of Water Quality & Sediment Analysis of Ganga from different parts being done.

Some of the challenges faced for sustainable growth of R&D in India are

  • Low research professionals: India has an estimated full-time equivalent R&D professional strength of only 150 professionals per million, compared to that of other countries.
  • Low investment: Indian research is mostly skewed towards basic research and lacks in application oriented R&D. The vast majority of organizations would rather go for quick acquisition of technology rather than invest in internal R&D.
  • IPR enforcement: Inadequate enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR). While India has improved its IPR regime, the protection of intellectual property remains weak in some areas owing to inadequate laws and ineffective enforcement.

Some positive suggestions to improve innovation

  • Embrace technology: Technologies, such as machine learning, can be used to improve R&D decision-making. Documents need to be filed throughout the R&D process, for example, and the process could be automated to free up employees to do more complex tasks.
  • Invest in innovation hubs: Companies that invest in innovation hubs expand talent and relationships with local universities and startups can support a two-way learning process and faster innovation cycles.
  • Promoting startups: Most radical innovations are coming from startups and more of them are needed. Tilting higher education towards science and encouraging more students to take degrees in science-based subjects can provide the people needed for R&D.

Conclusion

India is a strong contender in the field of Global R&D. For India to derive maximum growth and sustainability of R&D, its R&D fundamentals have to be strong and excellent.

Mains question

Q.Culture of innovation is needed in national growth in this context discuss what is IPR regime? How CSIR has helped to consolidate it?

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Policy Wise: India’s Power Sector

Assessment of discoms

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: National Open Access Registry (NOAR):

Mains level: UDAY,RDSS

Context

  • The Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) power distribution companies (DISCOMs) subscribed to the Late Payment Surcharge (LPS) scheme introduced by the Central government to reduce their liability to generators in a phased manner over the next 12 months.

What are discoms?

  • Power distribution companies collect payments from consumers against their energy supplies (purchased from generators) to provide necessary cash flows to the generation and transmission sectors to operate.

What is UDAY scheme?

  • Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana is the financial turnaround and revival package for electricity distribution companies of India initiated by the Government of India with the intent to find a permanent solution to the financial mess that the power distribution is in.

What is The Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS)?

  • The revamped power distribution sector scheme aims to: Improve operational efficiencies, financial sustainability of discoms and power departments. Provide financial assistance to discoms. Modernise and strengthen distribution infrastructure. Improve reliability and quality of supply to the end consumers.

Low performance of Discoms

1) On the basis of AT&C losses

  • A key metric to measure the performance of discoms is AT&C losses.
  • The UDAY scheme had envisaged bringing down these losses to 15 per cent by 2019.
  • However, as per data on the UDAY dashboard, the AT&C losses currently stand at 21.7 per cent at the all-India level.
  • In the case of the low-income north and central-eastern states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — the losses are considerably higher.

2) On the basis of cost and revenue per unit

  • On another metric — the gap between discoms costs and revenues — the difference, supposed to have been eliminated by now, stands at Rs 0.49 per unit in the absence of regular and commensurate tariff hikes.
  • For the high-income southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, this gap between costs and revenues is significantly higher.

What are the factors responsible for inefficiencies?

1) Electrification push without cost restructuring

  • The government’s push for ensuring electrification of all have contributed to greater inefficiency.
  •  To support higher levels of electrification, cost structures need to be reworked, and the distribution network would need to be augmented — in the absence of all this, losses are bound to rise.

2) Economic fallout of the pandemic

  • With demand from industrial and commercial users falling, revenue from this stream, which is used to cross-subsidise other consumers, has declined, exacerbating the stress on discom finances.
  • A turnaround in the economy will provide some relief, but will not form the basis of a sustained improvement in finances.

3) Lack of consumer data and metering

  •  Even six years after UDAY was launched, various levels in the distribution chain — the feeder, the distribution transformer (DT) and the consumer — have not been fully metered.
  • As a result, it is difficult to ascertain the level in the chain where losses are occurring.
  • Other than discoms in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, there is also limited data on which consumer is attached to which DT.
  • This lack of data makes it difficult to isolate and identify loss-making areas and take corrective action.

4) No tariff hike

  • The continuing absence of political consensus at the state level to raise tariffs or to bring down AT&C losses signal a lack of resolve to tackle the issues plaguing the sector.

Suggestions to improve the situation

  • Single discom: One of the solution centres around a national power distribution company.
  • Financial adjustment: Another option is to deduct discom dues, owed to both public and private power generating companies, from state balances with the RBI forcing states to take the necessary steps to fix discom finances.
  • National Open Access Registry (NOAR): NOAR is a centralized online platform through which the short-term open access to the inter-state transmission system is being managed in India.
  • Promote privatization: Since in an earlier policy statement the government had mentioned that privatization of discoms is to be promoted, it would make sense to consider this transitional support as a catalyst.
  • Provide transitional financial support: An alternate approach that could be considered by the Centre (in lieu of such assistance schemes) is providing only transitional financial support to all discoms, which are privatized under the private-public partnership mode.

Conclusion

  • Continuously subsidising discoms for their AT&C losses (operational inefficiencies), and for not supplying power at commensurate tariffs to low-income households and agricultural customers (for political considerations) will become fiscally untenable.

Mains question

Q.There is growing demand for one nation one grid in this context Discuss the problems faced by various discoms. Suggest some robust solutions to address these problems sustainably.

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Disinvestment in India

Nehru’s luminous legacy

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways Etc.
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Public sector enterprise

Mains level: Challenges of public sector undertakings

Context

  • Seventy-five years ago, India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru made these remarks in his stirring speech on India attaining freedom at midnight: “The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?”

Nehru’s vision for India

  • Nehru’s vision of India was anchored in a set of ideas such as democracy, secularism, inclusive economic growth, free press and non-alignment in international affairs and also in institutions that would lay the foundation for India’s future growth.

Leadership of Nehru after independence

  • In 1947, Nehru, as Prime Minister, inherited an India that was politically shattered, socially divided and emotionally devastated. Yet, with restraint and self-confidence, he steered the country through those turbulent times and laid out the vision of a modern, progressive nation that quietly earned the respect of the global community.

Temple of modern India

  • The Bhakra-Nangal Dam: The Bhakra-Nangal Dam project is a series of multi-purpose dams that were among the earliest river valley developments schemes undertaken by the government of India after independence. The project, though, had been conceived long before independence.
  • Bhilai Steel Plant: Bhilai, located in Chhattisgarh, was home to massive iron-ore deposits at Dalli Rajhara. Taking this into consideration, the government of India and the USSR entered into an agreement which was signed on March 2nd 1955, at New Delhi.
  • Bhabha Atomic Research Centre: The Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET), was started by the government of India on January 3rd 1954 with the intention of consolidating all research and development activities for nuclear reactors and technology under the Atomic Energy Commission.
  • Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR): to support indigenous scientists like Boshi Sen, who is credited with producing hybrid maize and irradiated wheat mutant.

Relevance of these institutions

  • Economic Development:Economic development mainly depends upon industrial development. Heavy & basic industries like iron & steel, shipping, mining, etc. are required for supplying raw materials to small industries.
  • Regional Development:Private sector usually neglect backward area. But public sector organizations set up their units in economically backward areas. By this public sector removes regional imbalance & brings regional development.
  • Employment:Various public sectors operating in India needs lot of manpower & this provide employment to unlimited individuals according to their education, experience & abilities.
  • Service Motive: Public sector organizations are working with the only motive of providing public utility services to society at large irrespective of profit.
  • Sound Infrastructure:Rapid industrial growth in a country needs sound infrastructure. Infrastructural industries require huge capital for construction of Roads, Railways, Electricity & many such industries. Private sector is unable to have such huge capital & that also without any high return but public sector can easily afford to provide all infrastructural facilities.

Some challenges they face today

  • Inefficient Management: It has been found that these enterprises are managed by public savants. They are not professionally qualified nor experts in the management of industrial enterprises.
  • Lack of Efficiency: They are not run on commercial principles. Their main motto is social welfare, not profit earning.
  • Lack of Innovations: Innovations are essential for economic development. Public enterprise lacks it due to monopoly or lack of competition. The private sector is always busy with innovating new techniques, new production methods, etc. For the purpose of cost reduction and profit maximization.

Some suggestions to address the challenges

  • Sound business principles: The enterprise should be run on sound business principles. There should be focus on improving efficiency in all functional areas. Policies, systems and procedures should be modified with the aim of making the enterprise flexible, efficient and profitable.
  • Autonomy: Public enterprises should have considerable autonomy in their functioning. Authority should be delegated and they should have the freedom to take decisions. Autonomy would ensure that decisions are taken at the right time and growth opportunities utilized in the best possible manner.
  • Freedom from political interference: Many public enterprises are considered to be the kingdoms of politicians. They are run to suit the needs and requirements of the ruling party.

Conclusion

  • Today, opinions are divided about the iconic leader. While Nehru always had his critiques even back in the day, a significant section of the masses despise the dynasty politics of the Congress that ensued after his passing in 1964.
  • However, his contributions to India’s freedom, and as a Prime Minister to his country are acknowledged by people both within and outside India. His shortcomings do not take away from the legacy he cemented as a propagator for freedom, and as the free nation’s first Prime Minister.

Mains question

Assess the Nehruvian legacy of public sector. Do you think they are still relevant today? While discussing challenges they face what suggestion will you give to improve their performance.

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Foreign Policy Watch: India – EU

India-EU Relations

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Green strategic partnership

Mains level: EU–India Cooperation Agreement, Strategic Partnership

Context

  • While India celebrates its 75th year of Independence, it also celebrates 60 years of diplomatic relations with the European Union (EU).
  • A cooperation agreement signed in 1994 took the bilateral relationship beyond trade and economic cooperation.

Definition

  • Relations between the European Union and the Republic of India are currently defined by the 1994 EU–India Cooperation Agreement. The EU is a significant trade partner for India and the two sides have been attempting to negotiate a free trade deal since 2007.

Common roadmap and shared vision

  • The road map highlights engagement across five domains: foreign policy and security cooperation; trade and economy; sustainable modernisation partnership; global governance; and people-to-people relations.

 

Brief history

  • India-EU relations date to the early 1960s, with India being amongst the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the European Economic Community.
  • At the 5th India-EU Summit at The Hague in 2004, the relationship was upgraded to a ‘Strategic Partnership’.
  • The two sides adopted a Joint Action Plan in 2005 (which was reviewed in 2008) that provided for strengthening dialogue and consultation mechanisms in the political and economic spheres, enhancing trade and investment, and bringing peoples and cultures together.

What is strategic partnership?

  • A ‘strategic partnership’, as the term suggests, involves a shared understanding between the two or more states involved on the nature of threats in the environment and the place of their collective power in helping mitigate the threats.

Why they are important?

  • As the world’s two largest democracies, the EU and India share a commitment to protecting and promoting human rights, a rules-based global order, effective multilateralism, sustainable development and open trade.

Significance

[A] Political Partnership

  • The Joint Political Statement signed in 1993, opened the way for annual ministerial meetings and a broad political dialogue.
  • The Cooperation Agreement signed in 1994 took the bilateral relationship beyond trade and economic cooperation.
  • A multi-tiered institutional architecture of cooperation has since been created, presided over by the India-EU Summit since 2000.
  • Today EU stands as a major reference for India’s legislative process in the field of Data security and privacy.

[B] Economic Ties

  • Bilateral trade: The EU is India’s largest trading partner, while India is the EU’s 9th largest trading partner. It is the second-largest destination for Indian exports after the United States.
  • Investment: The EU’s share in foreign investment inflows to India has more than doubled from 8% to 18% in the last decade. This makes the EU an important foreign investor in India.
  • Preferential treatment: India is the benefactor of the unilateral preferential tariffs under the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP).
  • Energy: Both sides have finalised civil nuclear cooperation agreement after 13 years of negotiations called as the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). It involves collaboration in the civil nuclear energy sector.
  • Development cooperation: Over €150 million worth of projects by EU are currently ongoing in India. European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing loans for Lucknow, Bangalore, and Pune Metro Projects.

[C] Defence & Security

  • EU and India have instituted several mechanisms for greater cooperation on pressing security challenges like counterterrorism, maritime security, and nuclear non-proliferation.
  • Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region in New Delhi (IFC-IOR) has recently been linked-up with the Maritime Security Centre – Horn of Africa (MSC-HOA) established by the EU Naval Force (NAVFOR).

[D] Climate Change

  • EU and India also underline their highest political commitment to the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC despite US withdrawing from the same.
  • India-EU Clean Energy and Climate Partnership was agreed at the 2016 Summit – to promote access to and disseminate clean energy and climate friendly technologies and encourage R&D.
  • Energy cooperation is now ongoing on a broad range of energy issues, like smart grids, energy efficiency, offshore wind and solar infrastructure, and research and innovation.
  • EU and India also cooperate closely on the Clean Ganga initiative and deal with other water-related challenges in coordinated manner.

[E] Research and Development

  • India-EU Science & Technology Steering Committee meets annually to review scientific cooperation.
  • Both have official mechanisms in fields such as Digital Communications, 5G technology, Biotechnology, artificial intelligence etc.
  • ISRO has a long-standing cooperation with the European Union, since 1970s. It has contributed towards the EU’s satellite navigation system Galileo.

Future scope

  • Trade figures and Investments: Bilateral trade between the two surpassed $116 billion in 2021-22. The EU is India’s second largest trading partner after the U.S., and the second largest destination for Indian exports.
  • Job creation: There are 6,000 European companies in the country that directly and indirectly create 6.7 million jobs.
  • Green strategic partnership: between India and Denmark aims to address climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, and the India-Nordic Summit focused on green technologies and industry transformation that are vital for sustainable and inclusive growth.
  • Energy security: Energy serves as an important aspect of the relationship between India and the EU. Given the impacts of climate change, this aspect has become extremely crucial today. Both entities have been pursuing cooperation for the joint development of clean energy.
  • Political cooperation: India and the EU may benefit from increasing cooperation in the resolution of issues such as terrorism and radicalization, cyber-security, coordinating on certain key and relevant aspects of foreign policy, and other humanitarian issues.
  • International support: It is crucial that Europe recognize India as a partner for peace that is committed to human rights, both regionally and internationally.

Challenges before them

  • Deadlock over BTIA: The negotiations for a Broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) were held between 2007 to 2013 but have remained dormant/suspended since then.
  • Export hurdles: Indian demands for ‘Data secure’ status (important for India’s IT sector) to ease norms on temporary movement of skilled workers, relaxation of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS), etc. stands largely ignored.
  • Trade imbalance: This heavily leans towards China. India accounts for only 1.9% of EU total trade in goods in 2019, well behind China (13.8%).
  • Brexit altercations: In the longer term of balancing of global powers, a smaller Europe without the key military and economic force UK, is much weaker in the wake of an ambitious China and an increasingly protectionist US.
  • EU primarily remains a trade bloc: This has resulted in a lack of substantive agreements on matters such as regional security and connectivity.
  • Undue references to sovereign concerns: The European Parliament was critical of both the Indian government’s decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019 and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
  • China’s influence: EU’s affinity lies with China. This is because of its high dependence on the Chinese market. It is a major partner in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
  • Ukrainian war: EAM S. Jaishankar’s witty reply about EU’s oil import from Russia has not been welcomed across the EU. It still expects India to criticize Russia.

EU’s interests in India

  • Reducing dependence on China: It is necessary for both sides as it is making them highly vulnerable to Chinese aggression.
  • Western lobby: EU acknowledges its supply chain’s vulnerability, the risk posed by overdependence on China, and the need to strengthen the global community of democracies.
  • Healthcare: The on-going pandemic has shown the need for cooperation in global health. India and the EU have called for a reform of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
  • Perception of India as a huge market: EU still largely perceives India as huge market rather than a partner.
  • Promotion of multilateralism: Both sides are facing issues related to US-China trade war and uncertainty of the US’ policies. They have common interest in avoiding a bipolarised world and developing a rules-based order.

India’s stakes in EU

  • Global leadership vacuum: Retreat of the U.S. from global leadership has provided opportunities for EU- India cooperation and trilateral dialogues with countries in the Middle Fast, Central Asia, and Africa.
  • Chinese Aggression: China’s increasing presence in Eurasia and South Asia is creating similar security, political and economic concerns for Europe and India.
  • Fall of the conventional global order: Trade war, crumbling WTO and break down of TPP etc. has made EU understand the economic importance of India.
  • BREXIT: Brexit is pushing India to look for new ‘gateways’ to Europe, as its traditional partner leaves the union. A renewed trade and political cooperation are the need of the hour.
  • Conformity over Indo-Pacific: The Indo-Pacific is the main conduit for global trade and energy flows. Rule-based Indo-pacific is of everyone’s interest with EU no exception.

Way forward

  • A close bilateral relation between India and the EU has far-reaching economic, political and strategic implications on the crisis-driven international order.
  • Both sides should realise this potential and must further the growth of the bilateral ties with a strong political will.
  • As highlighted by EU strategy on India 2018, India-EU should take their relations beyond “trade lens”, recognizing their important geopolitical, strategic convergences.
  • India can pursue EU countries to engage in Indo-pacific narrative, geo-economically if not from security prism.

Mains question

What do you understand by the term strategic partnership? India and EU are celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations trace their journey with significance and challenges in their ties.

 

B2BASICS

About European Union (EU)

  • The EU is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe.
  • The union and EU citizenship were established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993.
  • The EU grew out of a desire to strengthen international economic and political co-operation on the European continent in the wake of World War II.
  • It has often been described as a sui generis political entity (without precedent or comparison) with the characteristics of either a federation or confederation.
  • The eurozone consists of all countries that use the euro as official currency. All EU members pledge to convert to the euro, but only 19 have done so as of 2022.

Members of the EU

  • Through successive enlargements, the European Union has grown from the six founding states (Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) to 27 members.
  • This entails a partial delegation of sovereignty to the institutions in return for representation within those institutions, a practice often referred to as “pooling of sovereignty“.
  • In the 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum, the UK voted to leave the EU. The UK officially left the EU in 2020

 

Mains question

What do you understand by the term strategic partnership? India and EU are celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations trace their journey with significance and challenges in their ties.

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Economic Indicators and Various Reports On It- GDP, FD, EODB, WIR etc

Inclusive growth, social justice and income inequality

op-ed snap | Economics | Mains Paper 2: Schemes For Vulnerable Sections
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NA

Mains level: Inclusive growth, Social justice

Context

  • Key findings of the World Inequality Report 2022 related to India: National Income: In India, the top 10% and top 1% hold respectively 57% and 22% of total national income.

What is inclusive growth?

  • Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines Inclusive growth as the economic growth that is distributed fairly across society and creates opportunities for all. It refers to ‘broad-based’, ‘shared’, and ‘pro-poor growth’.

What is social justice?

  • Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Social workers aim to open the doors of access and opportunity for everyone, particularly those in greatest need.

Meaning of Inclusiveness

  • Inclusiveness is a concept that encompasses equity, equality of opportunity, and protection in market and employment transitions and is, therefore, an essential ingredient of any successful growth strategy.

Need of inclusive growth

  • Complete development: India is the 7th largest by area and 2nd by population and 12th largest economy at market exchange rate. Yet, India is away from the development.
  • Income inequality: Low agriculture growth, low quality employment growth, low human development, rural-urban divides, gender and social inequalities, and regional disparities etc. are the problems for the nation.
  • Human development: Reducing poverty and inequality and increasing economic growth are the main aim of the country through inclusive growth.

Need of social justice

  • Equality: We should shift from equality of outcomes to equality of opportunities.
  • Peace and Order: If the majority disregards smaller sections in the community, it drives them to rebellion.
  • Dignity: To ensure life to be meaningful and liveable with human dignity.
  • Mitigate Sufferings: It is a dynamic device to mitigate the sufferings of the poor, weak Dalits, tribal and deprived sections of the society.
  • Human Resources: It will help in the conservation of human resource by provision of health and education facilities.
  • Freedom to form political, economic or religious institutions: It will help to eradicate the challenges of caste system, untouchability and other discrimination in the society.

Challenges before inclusive growth and social justice

  • Wage Gap: When it comes to wages in the workplace, there is a noticeable differentiation between men and women. According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), in 2018, the gender pay gap from men and women for the same job was 82 percent. Stated simply, women make 82 percent of what men make doing the same work. This can be further broken down into a pay gap for minority men and women.
  • LGBTQ Oppression: When it comes to oppression and human rights, individuals of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer (LGBTQ) community face several forms of social injustice and oppression. For example, same sex marriages are outlawed in some states and countries. Additionally, transsexual students often face discrimination and bullying within school settings.
  • Education System: Globally, steps are being made to close the education gap between male and female students. However, there are still several areas around the world where girls may never set foot into a classroom at all. UNESCO notes that more than nine million girls never go to school, compared to only six million boys in areas of Africa.
  • Child Welfare: Social workers and human rights activists are working tirelessly to combat issues relating to children and their welfare. Despite their efforts, there are still several problems children face that are harmful to their health and mental wellbeing.
  • Forced Child Labour: Laws are in place around the world to ensure a safe work environment for children. These laws were drafted from historically harsh and dangerous working conditions for children. While many would like to believe that child labour is a thing of the past, it persists in some areas around the globe.
  • Child Abuse and Neglect: Thousands of children globally are being neglected. They’re also being physically, sexually and emotionally abused. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that as many as a quarter of adults have been abused as children. This abuse has both social and economic impacts that include mental health problems.

Government measures to address this challenge

  • SETU(Self Employment and Talent Utilization)
  • Skill India
  • Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
  • Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
  • MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency)Bank

Way forward

  • Equality of opportunity is the core of inclusive growth, and the inclusive growth emphasises to create employment and other development opportunities through rapid and sustained economic growth, and to promote social justice and the equality of sharing of growth results by reducing and eliminating inequality of opportunity.

Mains question

Explain the term inclusive growth in brief. How we can achieve social justice through inclusive growth?

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Economic Indicators and Various Reports On It- GDP, FD, EODB, WIR etc

Reaping our demographic dividend

op-ed snap | Indian Society | Mains Paper 1: Population & Associated Issues
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NA

Mains level: India's demographic dividend

Context

  • India’s biggest strength is its ‘demographic dividend’ and people need to fully leverage it to fast-track the country’s progress in various sectors

Why in news

  • The 2022 edition of the World Population Prospects (WPP) of the United Nations has projected that India may surpass China as the world’s most populous country next year.
  • The report estimates that India will have a population of 1.66 billion in 2050, ahead of China’s 1.317 billion around that time.

What is demographic dividend?

  • Demographic dividend, as defined by the United Nations Population Fund, is “the economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure, mainly when the share of the working-age population is larger than the non-working-age share of the population”.

Current status for India

  • India entered the demographic dividend opportunity window in 2005-06 and will remain there till 2055-56.
  • This is the period when the working age ratio is equal to or more than 150% and the dependency ratio is equal to or lower than 66.7%, generally taken as the cut-off for the demographic dividend window.

How India can leverage this dividend

(1) Investment in right direction

  • Investments in human and physical infrastructure will need to be scaled up dramatically to promote entrepreneurship and create jobs.
  • Investment in education is crucial for ensuring that working-age people are prepared for the demands of the economy.
  • Increase spending on health
  • Increase investments in Research and Development

(2) Absorption of labour into productive employment

  • Promote entrepreneurship and job creation
  • Service sector like tourism, logistics should be promoted
  • Skill development of the working-age population so that they can turn out to be productive for the country’s economy

Challenges in reaping this

  • Drastic quality improvement: India’s challenge is to create conditions for faster growth of productive jobs outside of agriculture, especially in the organized manufacturing and in services.
  • Severe shortages: India currently faces a severe shortage of well trained, skilled workers. Large sections of the educated workforce have little or no job skills, making them largely Unemployable.
  • Dismal health sector: A closer look implies various factors such as poor health which although obvious, play a major role in the poor performance of working population.
  • Socio economic dimensions: The status of institutions in India regarding caste discrimination, gender inequalities, widening income gap between the rich and the poor, religious differences, inefficient and slow legal system- all contribute to the poor standard of living of the masses.

Government steps

  • National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC): incorporated on 31st July, 2008, is a first-of-its-kind Public Private Partnership (PPP) in India set up to facilitate the development and upgrading of the skills of the growing Indian workforce through skill training programs.
  • National Skill Development Agency: Currently, skill development efforts are spread across approximately20 separate ministries, 35 State Governments and Union Territories and the private sector.
  • National Skill Certification and Money Reward Scheme: encouragement is given for skill development for youth by providing monetary rewards for successful completion of approved training programs.

Way forward

  • Strategies exist to exploit the demographic window of opportunity that India has today, but they need to be adopted and implemented.
  • The dreams of huge income flow and resultant economic growth due to demographic dividend could be realized only when we inculcate the required skills in the work force to make it as competent as its counterparts in the developed world.

Important data for mains

  • India’s working-age population has numerically outstripped its non-working age population.
  • India’s total fertility rate (TFR) has declined from 2.2 in 2015-16 to 2.0 in 2019-21, indicating the significant progress of population control measures, revealed the report of the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5).
  • The TFR is the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime.

Mains question

Q. Do you think the right has come that India should adopt moving away policy from population control towards reaping its demographic dividends? Critically examine.

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Police Reforms – SC directives, NPC, other committees reports

Police reforms in India

op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Civil Service
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Malimath Committee

Mains level: Police reforms due in India

Context

  • There is a widely shared view that the All India Services, which provided the ‘steel frame’ of governance in a democratic India, particularly on the police front, are failing to deliver.
  • This is because of the declining decision-making ability of its officers, their smugness arising from notions of total employment security, and the inadequacy of parameters used for evaluating their performance.
  • Anti-corruption bureau Was Constituted To Shield Corrupt Politicians, Officers From Lokayukta: Karnataka High Court

Role of Police

  • Law enforcement: The basic role of the police is to function as a law enforcement agency and render impartial service to law, without any heed to wishes, indications or desires expressed by the government which either come in conflict with or do not conform to the provisions contained in the constitution or laws.
  • Service delivery: The police should have duly recognised service-oriented role in providing relief to people in distress situations. They should be trained and equipped to perform the service oriented functions.

Issues with police institution

  • Public relationship: The police-public relations relationship, which is crucial to effective policing, is troubled by a severe lack of confidence.
  • Public perception towards police: Most people believe police to be abusive and also believe that police personnel misuse their power in order to bring order to society.
  • Police Accountability: Police priorities are constantly changed at the request of political leaders. This obstructs police officers’ ability to make professional decisions
  • Overburdened force and vacancies: A high percentage of vacancies in police departments exacerbates an already-existing problem of overworked officers. Given India’s low police strength per lakh population in comparison to international standards, each police officer is also responsible for a huge group of people.
  • Infrastructure: The weapons used by lower police forces are obsolete and cannot match modern weaponry used by anti-social elements.
  • Custodial Death: There are many cases on custodial death means Death by torture/pressure in police/judicial custody.
  • The dilemmas and challenges:

(1) The Ubiquitous infrastructure (2) Explosion of police tasks (3) Dis-functionalism of rural police (4) Anomalous personnel system (5) The colossal ignorance of either side (6) The fragility of the equipment (7) The paradox of para militarism (8) Non-development to policing

Steps taken till now

  • Establishment of a Central Police Committee:

A Central Police Committee to look after the functions of consultancy and monitoring be

Created because an expert agency is required by the Central Government and the State

Security Commissions to advise them on matters relating to:

(i) Police Organisation and police reforms of a general nature;

(ii) Central grants and loans to the State Police Forces for their modernisation and Development; and

(iii) Budgetary allotments to State Police Forces.

  • Enactment of a Model Police Act:

The Police Act of 1861 replaced by a new Police Act, which not only changes the

System of superintendence and control over the police but also enlarges the role of the

Police to make it function as an agency which promotes the rule of law in the country and

Renders impartial service to the community.

  • The Prime Minister’s call for making the police a SMART force: standing for a force which is:
  1. Strict and Sensitive,
  2. Modern and Mobile,
  3. Alert and Accountable,
  4. Reliable and Responsive,
  5. Tech-savvy and trained.
Malimath committee:

  • Government had set up (November, 2000) a Committee under the Chairmanship
  • of Justice V.S. Malimath , a former Chief Justice of the Karnataka and Kerala High
  • Courts to consider and recommend measures for revamping the Criminal Justice System.

Key recommendations :

  • Strengthening of training infrastructure, forensic
  • Science laboratory and Finger Print Bureau,
  • Enactment of the new Police Act,
  • Setting up of Central Law Enforcement agency to take care of federal crimes
  • Separation of the investigation wing from the law and order wing in the police stations,
  • Improvement in the investigation by creating more posts.

Some suggestions for better policing:

  • Screen for Implicit Bias and Aggression: State legislatures should pass legislation that requires current and prospective police officers to undergo mandatory implicit bias testing
  • Focus on Collaborative Approaches to Policing: Police departments should rely upon collaborative approaches that respect the dignity of individuals within the community; focus on problem-solving; and are generally more community centered and build community trust.
  • Encourage Consistent Monitoring and Screening: Police departments should create early warning systems for detecting patterns of behaviour, such as complaints filed against officers or personal hardships like divorce, which indicate potential vulnerabilities for the officer and the department.
  • Use Video Recording to Promote Accountability: Legislatures should require that police interrogations be electronically recorded “during the time in which a reasonable person in the subject’s position would consider themselves to be in custody and a law enforcement officer’s questioning is likely to elicit incriminating responses.
  • Increase the use of special prosecutors in police misconduct investigations
  • Enhancing the collection of data on fatalities involving police

Conclusion

  • India is the target of an ever-growing list of terrorist groups, insurgent forces and criminal networks.
  • Even petty criminals are now in possession of hi-tech gadgets that allow them better access and reduce their chances of being caught.
  • In such an environment, the need for skill and competency up-gradation of the police force is a sine qua non.

Q. What is smart policing? Considering the rise in custodial deaths give some suggestions to improve criminal justice delivery system in India.

 

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India Switzerland Relations

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India
Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: UNSC

Mains level: Paper 2- India-Switzerland relations

Context

Two countries will commemorate next year the 75th anniversary of the signing in New Delhi of the 1948 Treaty of Friendship.

Cooperation between two countries in various area

  • Switzerland and Indian partners are collaborating on digital transformation, sustainability, health, life sciences, medtech, infrastructure, cleantech, fintech, blockchain, AI and robotics.
  • Innovation and investment continue to be the primary drivers of our bilateral relations.
  • With over 330 Swiss companies, Switzerland is the 12th largest investor in India.
  • About 100 Swiss companies manufacture locally and support the Make in India initiative.
  • Trade talks between Switzerland (European Free Trade Association EFTA) and India are high on the priority list.
  • Digitalisation is emerging as a relatively new area of engagement with enormous potential for Switzerland and India.
  • Switzerland plays a leading role in researching new technologies and is home to many innovative and world-leading technology companies.
  • As one of the most innovative countries of the world, Switzerland seeks to engage with India, the leader of the Industry 4.0 revolution, in areas ranging from digital governance to digital self-determination.

Switzerland in UNSC as non-permanent member

  • Switzerland was elected to the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member for the first time this year in June.
  • Convergence in priorities at Security Council: There are convergences in Swiss and Indian priorities at the UN Security Council.
  • Switzerland, like India, is committed to a robust and effective multilateral system.
  • In the Security Council, Switzerland will do everything possible to ensure sustainable peace.
  • Many years ago, from 1971 to 1976, Switzerland represented India’s interests in Pakistan and vice versa.
  • In the Security Council, Switzerland will focus on the protection of civilians and on international humanitarian law.
  • Impact of climate change on security: Switzerland will also address climate change and its impact on security.
  • Reforms of Security Council: Switzerland desires effective UN institutions.
  • India has been advocating for a reform of the Security Council.
  • Switzerland’s fourth priority in 2023 and 2024 will be to contribute to improving the United Nations Security Council’s effectiveness towards greater transparency and accountability.

Conclusion

Two countries can together contribute to global good. This engagement is a result of not only our shared priorities, but also our shared democratic values and foreign policy independence.

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