Category: Burning Issues

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The 13th BRICS summit is set to be held on September 9 in digital format under India’s chairmanship. This plurilateral grouping comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is chaired by turn. India held the chair in 2012 and 2016 too.

The grouping is successful in moving towards the desire objectives for which it has come into existence. But currently, there are many challenges engulfing it. This is high time that it should look forward to resolving them and progress towards its desired objectives.

What is BRICS?

• BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• The BRICS Leaders’ Summit is convened annually. It does not exist in form of organization, but it is an annual summit between the supreme leaders of five nations.

Inception

• On November 30, 2001, Jim O’Neill, a British economist who was then chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, coined the term ‘BRIC’ to describe the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
• He made a case for BRIC on the basis of econometric analyses projecting that the four economies would individually and collectively occupy far greater economic space and become among the world’s largest economies in the next 50 years or so.

How it has formed?

• The grouping was formalized during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the margins of the UNGA in New York in September 2006.
• The first BRIC Summit took place in 2009 in the Russian Federation and focused on issues such as reform of the global financial architecture.

Who are the members?

• South Africa was invited to join BRIC in December 2010, after which the group adopted the acronym BRICS. South Africa subsequently attended the Third BRICS Summit in Sanya, China, in March 2011.
• The Chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.
• The importance of BRICS is self-evident: It represents 42% of the world’s population, 30% of the land area, 24% of global GDP and 16% of international trade.
• The five BRICS countries are also members of G-20.

Significant feats of BRICS

 1. Johannesburg Declaration, 2018

• The 2018 summit saw the BRICS leaders come together and discuss various international and regional issues of common concern and adopted the ‘Johannesburg Declaration’ by consensus.
• The leaders jointly reaffirmed their commitment to the principles of mutual respect, sovereign equality, democracy, inclusiveness and strengthened collaboration.
• The BRICS leaders have used the summit to reject the growing unilateralism and instead reiterate their commitment to the strengthening of multilateral institutions, calling for stronger intra-trade within member states.

2. Focus on New Industrial Revolution

• The other big idea emanating from the summit is to help nations to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
• Participants embraced it, articulating the need for a new strategy on employment, education and skill development as the digital revolution unfolds.
• The leaders commended the establishment of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR).
• It aims to deepen BRICS cooperation in digitalization, industrialization, innovation, inclusiveness and investment and to maximize the opportunities and address the challenges arising from the 4th Industrial Revolution.

3. BRICS Plus

• The BRICS outreach to Africa began at the last summit hosted by South Africa, in 2013. It has picked up momentum now but African leaders want more.
• They need big loans from the New Development Bank (NDB) for their infrastructure projects.
• China introduced the “BRICS Plus” format at the Xiamen summit last year by inviting a few countries from different regions.
• South Africa emulated it, arranging the attendance of top-level representation of five nations of its choice: Argentina, Jamaica, Turkey, Indonesia and Egypt.
• The precise role of “BRICS Plus” countries will take time to evolve but an immediate benefit is the immense opportunities it provides for networking among leaders.

4. Brasilia outcome

• During Brazil’s chairmanship, the grouping reported 30 new outcomes, initiatives and documents.
• The latest summit needed a 73 para-long Brasilia Declaration to spell out the leaders’ shared worldview and spectrum of their work.
• Much to India’s satisfaction, the commitment of BRICS to counterterrorism seems to be getting strengthened.

5. New Development Bank (NDB) projects

• The NDB, the grouping’s flagship achievement, has 44 projects with its lending touching $12.4 billion, in just five years.
• This is not a small gain, but the bank needs to grow as “a global development finance institution”. A move is now afoot to open its membership selectively.
• NDB has opened its regional centers in South Africa and Brazil and will do so in Russia and India in 2020.

6. Local Currency Bond Fund

• With a successful Contingent Reserve Arrangement in the bag, BRICS governments are set to establish a Local Currency Bond Fund.

7. Business promotion

• The BRICS Business Council held a substantive dialogue to foster cooperation in areas ranging from infrastructure and energy to financial services, regional aviation and digital economy.
• Its cooperation with the NDB is being encouraged. The national trade promotion agencies signed an MoU on cooperation among themselves.
• A BRICS Women Business Alliance was also created, both as a women empowerment measure and as a tool to bring “a distinctive perspective on issues of interest for the business community.”

How relevant is the BRICS in today’s world?

New front against western dominance

• The BRICS is group of countries having total population of approximately 3.6 billion which makes 40% of world population.
• Also, the cumulative economy of the group members aggregate to around 17 trillion in nominal term which is 22% of world economy in current context.
• The relevance of the group increases when it is considered as rival of western dominated institutions of World Bank and IMF.

Future power centers of the world

• India and China are today the fastest growing economies and they are considered as future super power of world.
• The group also has Russia the former USSR as a member which was one of the two super power until 1991 when it was disintegrated for various political and economic reason but still retain the hegemony of western, US led military dominance.

A step towards a more democratic world order

• In subsequent summits since its inception the group has taken various initiatives which have changed the world economic order.
• The group pledged a corpus of $75 billion to IMF on precondition of voting rights reform in June, 2012 which is not only the end of US hegemony in institution but also a start of more democratic world order.

New Development Bank

• During its fifth summit at Durban, South Africa in 2013, the member countries agreed to create a new global financial institution which finally came into existence as New Development Bank in 2015.
• It has a head quarter at Shanghai with initial capital of $50 billion and subsequently increased to $100 billion.
• The bank is today considered as rival of World Bank and the bank’s primary focus is to lend for various development projects in member and other developing countries.

Contingent Reserve Agreement

• To save members from immediate economic shocks the group has also agreed to Contingent Reserve Agreement.
• The agreement provide protection to member countries against global liquidity pressure as all the members are developing economies and prone to increased economical volatility in current globalized scenario and is considered as rival of International Monetary Fund.

A bridge between North and South

• The grouping has gone through a reasonably productive journey. It strove to serve as a bridge between the Global North and Global South.

Assuring global peace and security

• The US unilateral withdrawal from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and Iran deal has posed a great security threat to global peace.
• BRICS, being a pillar of fairer polycentric world order, can play a significant role in assuring world peace by playing an active role in dispute resolution based on principle of fairness.

Sustainable and inclusive growth and development

• Structural imbalances caused by the global financial crisis of 2008 and new threats to the global economy posed by trade war and unilateral economic sanctions are yet to be resolved.
• The growing contribution of the BRICS to the world economy and the rising importance of the economic relations between the BRICS and other Emerging Market and Developing Countries (EMDCs) create an opportunity for new initiatives.
• This would better help to support sustainable and inclusive growth and development.

Poverty Reduction

• The BRICS contribution to world poverty reduction has been sizeable.
• Continued BRICS growth remains important for poverty reduction as well as for reducing international inequalities.

Issues in its consolidation

• Common ground for the members was built by ensuring that no bilateral issues were brought up, but the contradictions remained.
• Many economists soon grew tired of “emerging” economies that didn’t reach the goals they had predicted.
• Others saw India’s closer ties with the US after the civil nuclear deal as a sign its bonds with BRICS would weaken.
• Meanwhile, Russia, which had hoped to bolster its own global influence through the group, had been cast out of the G-7 order altogether after its actions in Crimea in 2014.
• China, under Xi Jinping, grew increasingly aggressive, and impatient about the other underperforming economies in the group, as it became the U.S.’s main challenger on the global stage.

Long-term prospects

• China’s decision to launch the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in 2017 was opposed by India, and even Russia did not join the BRI plan, although it has considerable infrastructure projects with China.
• South Africa’s debt-laden economy and the negative current account have led some to predict an economic collapse in the next decade.
• Brazil’s poor handling during the Covid-19 crisis has ranked it amongst the world’s worst-affected countries, and its recovery is expected to be delayed.
• India’s economic slowdown was a concern even before Covid-19 hit, and government policies like “Aatmanirbhar” were seen as a plan to turn inward.

Issues with BRICS nations

• Concerns about aggressions from Russia in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and China in the South China Sea, the border with India and internally in Hongkong and Xinjiang are clear visible.
• There is creeping authoritarianism in democracies like Brazil and India have made investors question long-term prospects of the group.
• In the market, BRICS has been mocked for being “broken”, while others have suggested it should be expanded to include more emerging economies like Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, called the “Next-11”.

Importance of BRICS for India

Geo-Politics

• Global geopolitics today represents the case of a tug of war and India finds itself in the middle of it.
• This has made difficult for India to carve a middle path for balancing its strategic interests between the U.S and the Russia-China axis.
• Therefore, BRICS platform provides an opportunity for India to balance Russia-China axis.

Global Economic Order

• BRICS countries shared a common objective of reforming the international financial and monetary system, with a strong desire to build a more just, and balanced international order.
• To this end, BRICS community plays an important role in the G20, in shaping global economic policies and promoting financial stability.

Voice of Developing Nations

• As the western countries are raising challenges on issues ranging from World Trade Organization to climate change, the developing countries are crippling under the onslaught of these policies.
• In recent period, BRICS has emerged as the voice of developing countries, or the global south and playing a significant role in protecting the rights of developing countries.
• Terrorism
• BRICS also provides a platform for India to galvanize its efforts against terrorism and has worked within the grouping to take a strong stand against terrorism and bring about focused consultations on specific aspects relating to terrorism.

Global Grouping

• India is actively pursuing its membership for United Nation Security Council (UNSC) and Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG).
• China forms the major roadblock in pursuing such goals.
• Therefore, BRICS provides an opportunity to actively engage with China and resolve the mutual disputes. It also helps in garnering support of other partner countries.

What are the challenges with the BRICS?

Heterogeneity

• It is claimed by critics that heterogeneity (variable/diverse nature of countries) of the BRICS nations with its diverse interests possess a threat to the viability of the grouping.

China Centric nature of the group

• All the countries in BRICS grouping trade with China more than each other, therefore it is blamed that as a platform to promote China’s interest.
• Balancing trade deficit with China is huge challenge for other partner nations.

Global Model for Governance

• Amidst, global slowdown, trade war and protectionism, the critical challenge for the BRICS consists in the development of a new global model of governance which should not be unipolar but inclusive and constructive.
• The goal should be to avoid a negative scenario of unfolding globalization and to start a complicated merging of the global growing economies without distorting or breaking the single financial and economic continuum of the world.

Not Been Effective

• The five-power combine has succeeded, albeit up to a point.
• However, China’s economic rise has created a serious imbalance within BRICS.
• Also the group has not done enough to assist the Global South to win their optimal support for their agenda.

Contentious issues between India and China

• However, the future of the group seems little gloomy as the two biggest economy India and China of the group are having various contentious issues between them.
• The two countries are often seen as rival on various global forums which degenerate the confidence between each other.
• China is opposed to the entry of India to group like NSG and also a staunch supporter of Pakistan which has a demeaning record fuelling terrorism in India.
• China has also opposed to UN resolution of declaring Masood Azhar a global terrorist who is a mastermind of various terrorist attack in India and globally.
• At the same time India is also opposed to the China’s aggressive policy in South China Sea where various countries like Vietnam, China, Philippines and others in the reason have territorial disputes.

Sanctions on Russia

• In recent times the global slowdown, sanction on Russia since it annexed Crimea and political instability in Brazil has also added burden on BRICS economy.

Priorities/Immediate goals of BRICS

1. Reform of multilateral institutions

• The first is to pursue reform of multilateral institutions ranging from the United Nations, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the World Trade Organization and now even the World Health Organization.
• This is not a new goal. BRICS has had very little success so far, although strengthening multilateralism serves as a strong bond as well as a beacon.
• Reform needs global consensus which is hardly feasible in the current climate of strategic contestation between the U.S. and China and the devastation caused by COVID-19 to health, lives and livelihoods.
• BRICS emerged from the desire to challenge dominance (by the U.S.) in the early years of the century. The “counter-dominance instinct and principled commitment to multipolarity in all forms” is “written into the DNA of BRICS.”

2. Resolve to combat terrorism

• Terrorism is an international phenomenon affecting Europe, Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. Tragic developments concerning Afghanistan have helped to focus attention sharply on this overarching theme, stressing the need to bridge the gap between rhetoric and action.
• China, for example, feels little hesitation in supporting clear-cut denunciations of terrorist groups, even as its backing of Pakistan, which is heavily enmeshed with a host of international terrorist groups, remains steadfast.
• In this context, BRICS is attempting to pragmatically shape its counter-terrorism strategy by crafting the BRICS Counter Terrorism Action Plan containing specific measures to fight radicalization, terrorist financing and misuse of the Internet by terrorist groups.
• This plan is expected to be a key deliverable at the forthcoming summit and may hopefully bring some change.

3. Promoting technological and digital solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals

• Digital tools have helped a world adversely hit by the pandemic, and India has been in the forefront of using new technological tools to improve governance.

4. Expanding people-to-people cooperation

• However, enhancing people-to-people cooperation will have to wait for international travel to revive. Interactions through digital means are a poor substitute.

Way Forward

• A close examination of India’s record in BRICS reveals that New Delhi has used its membership to make a substantial contribution to the global financial architecture, while also making efforts to address glaring gaps in areas such as counter-terrorism, the fight against climate change and UNSC reform.
• India is not a free-rider in a system of global governance dominated by the West, and continues to provide a vision of global governance.
• The BRICS needs to expand its agenda for increasing its relevance in the global order. As of now, climate change and development finance, aimed at building infrastructure must dominate its agenda.
• For BRICS to remain relevant over the next decade, each of its members must make a realistic assessment of the initiative’s opportunities and inherent limitations.
• BRICS should promote comprehensive development of all states — both big and small — and enhanced mutually beneficial cooperation among them on the basis of shared interests.
• Democratization of international issues i.e agreements on global agendas should be reached with the widest and equal participation of all stakeholders and be based on universally recognized legal norms.
• The principle of respect for cultural and civilization diversity of the world should be a top priority.
• BRICS nations should strive for peaceful and politico-diplomatic settlement of crisis and conflict in various regions of the world.

Conclusion

BRICS, being one of the pillars of the emerging fairer polycentric world order, plays an important stabilizing role in global affairs. In the storming ocean of world politics, BRICS can contribute significantly in maintaining international stability and ensuring global economic growth, and becoming a united center of the multipolar world.

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India and Sri Lanka have a legacy of intellectual, cultural, religious, and linguistic interaction, and the relationship between the two countries is more than 2500 years old. Trade and investment have grown and there is cooperation in the fields of development, education, culture, and defense.

India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy towards Sri Lanka had resonated with Sri Lanka’s ‘India First’ foreign and security policy in 2020.

However in recent times, due to Chinese intervention, the ties between the two countries have plummeted. The condition is likely to worsen with Sri Lanka declaring a state of emergency in the country.

Brief background of India-SL relations

• India is the only neighbor of Sri Lanka, separated by the Palk Strait; both nations occupy a strategic position in South Asia and have sought to build a common security umbrella in the Indian Ocean.
• There are deep racial and cultural links between the two countries. Both share a maritime border.
• The India- SL relations have been however tested by the Sri Lankan Civil War and by the controversy of Indian intervention during the war.
• In recent years Sri Lanka has moved closer to China, especially in terms of naval agreements.
• India has signed a nuclear energy deal to improve relations and made a nuclear energy pact with Sri Lanka in 2015.

India’s role in the Lankan Civil War

• In the 1970s–1980s, the RAW and the state government of Tamil Nadu were believed to be encouraging the funding and training for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist insurgent force.
• In 1987, faced with growing anger amongst its own Tamils, and a flood of refugees India intervened directly in the conflict for the first time.
• This was after the Sri Lankan government attempted to regain control of the northern Jaffna region by means of an economic blockade and military assaults; India supplied food and medicine by air and sea.

Why did India intervene?

• Indian intervention in Sri Lankan civil war became inevitable as that civil war threatened India’s unity, national interest and territorial integrity.

Outcomes

• The peace accord assigned a certain degree of regional autonomy in the Tamil areas with a body controlling the regional council and called for the Tamil militant groups to lay down their arms.
• Further India was to send a peacekeeping force, named the IPKF to Sri Lanka to enforce the disarmament and to watch over the regional council.
• The accord failed over the issue of representations. The result was that the LTTE now found itself engaged in military conflict with the Indian Army.

Areas of cooperation

Economic Relations

• India and Sri Lanka enjoy a vibrant and growing economic and commercial partnership, which has witnessed considerable expansion over the years.
• India and Sri Lanka are member nations of several regional and multilateral organizations such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme, South Asian Economic Union and BIMSTEC.
• India is Sri Lanka’s third largest export destination, after the US and UK.
• India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA): More than 60% of Sri Lanka’s exports enjoy the benefits of the agreement, which came into effect in March 2000.
  • Sri Lanka remains among the largest trade partners of India in the SAARC.

Development co-operation

• Line of Credit: India is active in a number of areas of development activity in Sri Lanka. About one-sixth of the total development credit granted by India is made available to Sri Lanka.
• Development Partnership: India’s development partnership with Colombo has always been demand-driven, with projects covering social infrastructure like education, health, housing, access to clean water and sanitation, besides industrial development.
• Concessional financing of about $2 billion has been provided to Sri Lanka through various Indian government-supported Lines of Credit across sectors for railway connectivity, infrastructure, etc.
• Foreign direct investment (FDI) from India amounted to around $ 1.7 billion over the years from 2005 to 2019.
• Fishing Sector: Projects for providing fishing equipment to the fishermen in the East of Sri Lanka and solar energy aided computer education in 25 rural schools in Eastern Sri Lanka are under consideration.
• Healthcare: India has supplied medical equipment to hospitals at Hambantota and Point Pedro, supplied 4 state-of-the-art ambulances to the Central Province etc.
• Tourism: Indian governments have also showed interest in collaborating with their Sri Lankan counterparts on building tourism between the two countries based on shared religious heritage.

Defense and strategic cooperation

• India and Sri Lanka conducts one of the largest joint Military exercises called ‘Mitra Shakti’. Both conducts joint naval exercise called ‘SLINEX’.
• India is the largest provider of defense training program to Sri Lankan soldiers and Defence officials
• India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives have signed trilateral maritime security cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.
  • The cooperation aims at improving surveillance, anti-piracy operations and reducing maritime pollution

Cultural relations

• India and Sri Lanka have a shared legacy of historical, cultural, religious, spiritual and linguistic ties that is more than 2,500 years old.
• In contemporary times, the Cultural Cooperation Agreement signed between the two governments forms the basis for periodic Cultural Exchange Programmes between the two countries.

People-to-people ties

• Buddhism is one of the strongest pillars connecting the two nations and civilizations from the time when the Great Indian Emperor Ashoka sent his children Arhat Mahinda and Their Sangamitta to spread the teachings of Lord Buddha at the request of King Devanampiya Tissa of Sri Lanka.
• Underlining the deep people-to-people connect and shared Buddhist heritage, the venerated relics of Lord Buddha from Kapilawasthu discovered in 1970 in India have been exhibited two times in Sri Lanka.
• India in 2020, announced USD 15 million grant assistance for protection and promotion of Buddhist ties between India and Sri Lanka.
  • It may be utilized for construction/renovation of Buddhist monasteries, education of young monks, strengthening engagement of Buddhist scholars and clergy, development of Buddhist heritage museums, etc.

Plummeting relations

• The ties began to worsen between the two since February, 2021 when Sri Lanka backed out from a tripartite partnership with India and Japan for its East Container Terminal Project at the Colombo Port, citing domestic issues.
  • However, later, the West Coast Terminal was offered under a public private partnership arrangement to Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd.
• Sri Lanka in a state of economic emergency: Sri Lanka is running out of foreign exchange reserves for essential imports like food. It has recently declared a state of economic emergency.
  • Covid Impact:
    • Sri Lanka increased policy rates after the covid pandemic in response to rising inflation in August 2021 caused by currency depreciation.
    • Tourism sector has suffered since the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, followed by the pandemic.
    • Earnings fell from $3.6 billion in 2019 to $0.7 billion in 2020, even as FDI inflows halved from $1.2 billion to $670 million over the same period.
    • Sri Lanka’s fragile liquidity situation has put it at high risk of debt distress. Its public debt-to-GDP ratio was at 109.7% in 2020, and its gross financing needs remain high at 18% of GDP.
    • Its gross official reserves slipped to $2.8 billion, which is equivalent to just 1.8 months of imports. More than $2.7 billion of foreign currency debt will be due in the next two years.

Major outstanding issues

 Fishing disputes

• There have been several alleged incidents of Sri Lankan Navy personnel firing on Indian fishermen fishing in the Palk Strait, where India and Sri Lanka are only separated by 12 nautical miles.
• The issue started because of Indian fishermen having used mechanized trawlers, which deprived the Sri Lankan fishermen (including Tamils) of their catch and damaged their fishing boats.
• The Sri Lankan government wants India to ban use of mechanized trawlers in the Palk Strait region, and negotiations on this subject are undergoing.
• So far, no concrete agreement has been reached since India favors regulating these trawlers instead of banning them altogether.

Alleged political interference

• A media report from Colombo soon after Rajapaksa’s defeat in the January 8 elections of 2015 had said that an Indian Intelligence official was instrumental in uniting rival political parties — the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) — against him during the polls.
• In October 2018, President Sirisena alleged that Indian intelligence agencies were plotting his assassination.

Katchatheevu Island

• It is an uninhabited island that India ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974 based on a conditional agreement called “Kachchativu island pact”.
• Later on, Sri Lanka declared Katchatheevu, a sacred land given the presence of a Catholic shrine.
• But Tamil Nadu claimed that Katchatheevu falls under the Indian Territory and Tamil fishermen have traditionally believed that it belongs to them and therefore want to preserve the right to fish there.

China factor

• Sri Lanka has a history of taking independent decisions even if they cause misgivings in India.
• In the period of low profile relationship between the two nations, Sri Lanka apparently started favoring China over India.
• China is Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor: China’s loans to the Sri Lankan public sector amounted to 15% of the central government’s external debt, making China the largest bilateral creditor to the country.
  • Sri Lanka has increasingly relied on Chinese credit to address its foreign debt burden.
• China’s Exports surpasses India: China’s exports to Sri Lanka surpassed those of India in 2020 and stood at $3.8 billion.
  • India’s exports were $3.2 billion.
• Infrastructural Investment by China: Owing to Sri Lanka’s strategic location at the intersection of major shipping routes, China’s investment stands at $12 billion between 2006 and 2019.
  • Unable to service its debt, in 2017, Sri Lanka lost the unviable Hambantota port to China for a 99-year lease.
  • Sri Lanka passed the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act, which provides for establishing a special economic zone around the port and also a new economic commission, to be funded by China.
  • The Colombo port is crucial for India as it handles 60% of India’s trans-shipment cargo.
• Shifting interests due to economic crisis: Sri Lanka’s economic crisis may further push it to align its policies with Beijing’s interests.
  • This comes at a time when India is already on a diplomatic tightrope with Afghanistan and Myanmar.
  • Other South Asian nations like Bangladesh, Nepal and the Maldives have also been turning to China to finance large-scale infrastructure projects.

Why is Sri Lanka important to India?

• India is Sri Lanka’s closest neighbor. Both sides have built upon a legacy of intellectual, cultural, religious and linguistic interaction.
• Sri Lanka has always been politically and economically important to India given its strategic geographical position in the Indian Ocean. The relationship has been marked by close contacts at all levels.
• Sri Lanka sits at the epicenter of the arc connecting the Persian Gulf to the Strait of Malacca. An island nation with an economy that’s mainly reliant on tourism and tea exports, Sri Lanka’s blessed geography puts it at a crucial juncture of the busy shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean.
• India also has a vital strategic stake in Sri Lanka for its own security interests. An unfriendly Sri Lanka or a Sri Lanka under influence of a power unfriendly to India would strategically discomfit India.
• For the Indian Navy, Sri Lanka is important as the switching of naval fleets from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea and vice versa requires the fleets to go around the island nation.
• Both countries share a common broad understanding on major issues of international interest and experience common social-political problems relating to community divides.

What does Sri Lanka expect from India?

• The humanitarian work by Indian agencies like supplies of medicines, doctors and providing refuge to more than 3 lakhs IDP’s during the decade-old civil war has created a sense of mutual cooperation among the countries natives.
• SL is one of the leading recipients of India’s Line of Credits.
• India has always rushed for the relief at the first signs of the rains and floods in SL recently. SL still commends the post-tsunami HADR relief operations carried out by India in the end-2004.
• India’s military, intelligence and security establishment has maintained its relations with its Sri Lankan counterpart, and both sides have been on the same page at all times.
• The security environment in the neighborhood will be discussed in light of the 21 April Easter Church bombings, and lessons learned from it.
• India is also the largest provider of defense training programs for Sri Lankan soldiers and Defence officials.

A greater role for India

 Gathering convergence towards SL

• Delhi needs to invest some political capital in resolving problems such as the long-standing dispute over fisheries.
• Beyond its objection to China’s BRI projects, Delhi, either alone or in partnership with like-minded countries like Japan, should offer sustainable terms for infrastructure development.
• Delhi also needs to contribute more to the development of Colombo’s defence and counter-terror capabilities.

Answering the Tamil Question

• The second structural factor shaping India’s relations with Sri Lanka is the Tamil question.
• Delhi has certainly learned the dangers of being drawn too deep into the domestic conflicts of neighboring countries.
• If the new government in Colombo can advance reconciliation with the Tamil minority, it will be easier for India to strengthen ties with the Gotabaya government.

No china factor indeed

• Labeling governments in Sri Lanka as “pro-China” or “pro-India” is irrelevant. It is evident that China’s economic and strategic salience in the subcontinent is not tied to the regime leadership.
• Previous Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena who considered as pro-India came to power criticizing the Chinese projects in Sri Lanka, but within two years into power, it extended full backing to the Chinese projects.

Harnessing the ray of hope

• Our challenges in Sri Lanka will continue, but we are off to a good start with the new government.
• The new president has made repeated statements that his government would like Sri Lanka to be a “neutral country” and that “Sri Lanka won’t do anything that will harm India’s interests.”
• Gotabaya was also critical of the previous government giving Hambantota Port on a 99-year lease to China.
• He went on to add that giving land as investment for developing a hotel or a commercial property was not a problem but the strategically important, economically important harbor, giving that is not acceptable.
• The Rajapaksas have acknowledged that India has not interfered in the recent elections.
• The first visit abroad by Gotabaya Rajapaksa to India has its own symbolic significance, translating into a diplomatic gesture his statement to the EAM that while China is a trade partner, India is a relative.

Way Forward

• Nurturing the Neighborhood First policy with Sri Lanka will therefore be important for India, albeit with due caution, to preserve its strategic interests in the Indian Ocean region.
• Regional platforms like the BIMSTEC, SAARC, SAGAR and the IORA could be leveraged to foster cooperation in common areas of interest like technology-driven agriculture and marine sector development, IT and communication infrastructure, renewable energy, and transport and connectivity.
• Both countries could also cooperate on enhancing private sector investments to create economic resilience.
• This stability in the Indian government should find synergy with the new Sri Lankan president policy which includes “neutrality” and “non-alignment” between major powers.
• Rather than focusing on building the case against China, New Delhi must step up its efforts to show what it is for.
• India can never match Beijing’s economic wherewithal to make a difference to Colombo’s developmental requirements.
• But it can carve out a niche role in some areas and also partner smartly with likeminded strategic partners like Japan to make an economic and strategic difference in Sri Lanka and make use of and leverage India’s soft power.

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Banking is considered to be the “Backbone of a Nation’s Economy”. It is the most leading part of the financial sector of the country as it is responsible for more than 70% of the funds that flow through the financial sector in the country.

Indian banking was more or less turned into a tool of state policy by bank nationalization in 1969. While our 1991 reforms did decentralize the allocation of capital overall, lending India’s economy some efficiency, the Centre retained much of its command of credit flows.

PSU banks are under dual control, with the RBI supervising the banking operations and the Finance Ministry handling ownership issues. Many committees had proposed bringing down the government stake in public banks below 51% — the Narasimham Committee proposed 33% and the P J Nayak Committee suggested below 50%.

Timeline of Structural and Technological Developments in the Banking Sector in India: 1955: SBI Act passed and Imperial Bank of India became State Bank of India 1959: State Bank of India (subsidiary banks) Act passed to create subsidiaries of SBI 1969: The government nationalized 14 major commercial banks 1975: Regional Rural Bank was conceptualized to serve the rural population 1987: HSBC first introduced ATM kiosk in Mumbai 1996: Local Area Banks were set up in the Union Budget to mobilize rural savings. 1991: Licenses given to 11 Private Sector Banks 1994: ICICI bank introduced net banking for retail customers in India 2000: Introduction of ATMs in India through countrywide BANCS network 2006: Cash Deposit Machines first introduced in India by ICICI bank, starting from western India 2008: Mobile banking through Mobile Apps introduced, pioneered by ICICI bank 2010: Cheque Truncation System (CTS) introduced, it eliminated a lot of paper and reduced cheque clearing time to a minimum 2014: Automatic Passbook Printing machines introduced in India 2015: Payments banks were given license to operate in India 2016: Prime Minister announced demonetization of Rs. 1,000/- and Rs. 500/- currency notes, led to a forced yet phenomenal increase in the use of non-cash i.e. electronic payments. 2017: EMV chip cards made mandatory in ATM-cum-Debit cards to enhance security.

Banking System in India

Importance of Private Sector Banks

The private sector banks play a vital role in the Indian economy. They indirectly motivate the public sector banks by offering healthy competition.

• Professional Management: The private sector banks help in introducing a high degree of professional management and marketing concept into banking. It helps the public sector banks as well to develop similar skills and technology.
• Creates Healthy Competition: The private sector banks provide a healthy competition on general efficiency levels in the banking system.
• Attracts Foreign Direct Investment: The private sector banks especially the foreign banks have much influence on the foreign investment in the country.
• Access to Foreign Capital Markets: The foreign banks in the private sector help the Indian companies and the government agencies to meet their financial requirements from international capital markets.
• Innovation in the Banking Sector: The private sector banks are always trying to innovate new product avenues (new schemes, services, etc.) and make the industries achieve expertise in their respective fields by offering quality service and guidance. This helps the public at large and they have a range of options to choose between.
• Introduction of new technology: With innovations comes new technologies in the banking sector and they lead the other banks in various new fields. For example, introduction of computerized operations, credit card business, ATM service, etc

What is the government plan on the Privatization of PSBs?

• During Union Budget 2020-21 presentations, the government announced a new policy for strategic disinvestment of public sector enterprises. This policy provides a clear roadmap for disinvestment in all non-strategic and strategic sectors.
• The Banking Sector falls under the strategic sector. The government aims to keep a bare minimum presence in the strategic sector.
• In 2019, after a massive consolidation exercise, the no. of PSBs reduced from 28 to 12. Recently the NITI Aayog consolidation plan left 6 PSBs out of the Privatization plan.
• The NITI Aayog suggested privatizing all the PSBs except the SBI, Union Bank, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, and Bank of Baroda.
• Further, the government also decided to perform privatization of two PSBs in the next fiscal year.

Nationalization and Equitable growth

• Nationalization helped in promoting more equitable regional growth, and this is evident from RBI data.
• There were only 1,833 bank branches in rural areas in the country in 1969, which increased to 33,004 by 1995 and continued to grow over the next decades.
• Banking services also reduced the dependence on moneylenders in rural regions.
• Nationalized banking improved the working conditions of employees in the banking sector, as the state ensured higher wages, security of services, and other fringe benefits.
• As an institution, PSBs are vehicles of the Indian economy’s growth and development, and they have become the trustees of people’s savings and confidence.
• The PSBs played a huge role in making the country self-sufficient by supporting the green, blue, and dairy revolutions.
• They have also contributed significantly to infrastructural development.
• The PSBs pioneered the concept of ‘priority sector lending. This provided credit to certain priority sectors which were earlier deprived of credit such as housing, etc.
• The Differential Rate of Interest (DRI) loans are the brainchild of public sector banking. Under this poorest section of people will receive the loan at a very marginal interest rate.
• The PSBs extended loans to women’s self-help groups under various programs. This contributed to women’s empowerment in India.
• PSBs also funded rural infrastructure projects through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund.
• The PSBs provided access to a formal banking network for all and facilitated financial inclusion in India.
• Democratization of Banking: Before nationalization, banks had been lending 67% of their funds to industry and virtually nothing to agriculture.
  • Also, the commercial banks couldn’t lend money to farmers because they were only present in less than 1% of villages.
  • Farmers were unable to get bank loans just when the Green Revolution was getting underway and they needed credit to buy the expensive inputs required to increase output.
  • Thus, nationalizing banks helped in the democratization of banking services of the masses.

Reasons for Privatizing Public Sector Banks

• Increasing NPAs: RBI data shows that that 9.3 per cent of the industry loan book for private sector banks was stressed by March 2017, as opposed to 28.8 per cent for PSBs.
  • As of end-March 2016, RBI data showed that public sector lenders accounted for over 90 per cent of the Rs. 5.5 lakh crore gross NPAs with banks.
• Poor Lending: PSBs have been criticized for poor lending decisions, inadequate risk controls, and bad governance.
• Previous reform measures have not yielded results: Years of capital injections and governance reforms have not been able to improve the financial position of in public sector banks significantly.
  • Many of them have higher levels of stressed assets than private banks, and also lag the latter on profitability, market capitalization and dividend payment record.
• Aligned with Long Term Goal: Privatization public sector banks will set the ball rolling for a long-term project that envisages only a handful of state-owned banks, with the rest either consolidated with strong banks or privatized.
• Reduces Government Burden: Privatization will free up the government, the majority owner, from continuing to provide equity support to the banks year after year. 
  • The government front-loaded Rs 70,000 crore into government-run banks in September 2019, Rs 80,000 crore in in FY18, and Rs 1.06 lakh crore in FY19 through recapitalization bonds.
  • It will be another step towards reducing the fiscal deficit and financing revenue expenditure through revenue receipts in the long term.
• Rationalization of Banks in Post-COVID Scenario: After the Covid-related regulatory relaxations are lifted, banks are expected to report higher NPAs and loan losses. 
  • This would mean the government would again need to inject equity into weak public sector banks. The government is trying to strengthen the strong banks and also minimize their numbers through privatization.
• Changed Approach to Financial Sector Problems: Privatization and proposal of setting up an asset reconstruction company entirely owned by banks, underline an approach of finding market-led solutions to challenges in the financial sector.
• Private Participation promotes innovation in market: Private Banks’ market share in loans has risen to 36% in 2020 from 21.26% in 2015, while public sector banks’ share has fallen to 59.8% from 74.28%. They have expanded the market share through new innovative products, latest technology, and better services.
• Efficiency, financial prudence and governance: There is a belief that the public sector equates to inefficiency and corruption, while private ownership automatically brings with it efficiency, financial prudence and governance.
  • Also, privatizing a few loss-making PSBs will ensure that market discipline forces them to rectify their strategy, and this will have a ripple effect on other PSBs.
  • Better financial performance is ensured when a strong financial institution is involved as a significant shareholder in privatization.

What factors aggravated NPAs in PSBs?

• During high growth period, FY07 to FY12, corporate groups has invested in mega projects in power, metals and infrastructure. They were funded by domestic banks.
• By FY13, with regulatory hurdles hitting some projects and scams stalling others, many projects failed to take off and these groups landed in a classic debt trap.
• Many companies took on more loans to manage their debts, which eventually turned into NPAs.
• Which in turn took on a five-fold expansion in their aggregate debt from  Rs. 1 lakh crore to Rs. 5.5 lakh crore (present value of NPAs).
• Many PSBs chairman were given high political pressures to sanction loans to the companies which were favorable to politicians.

Factors against Privatization of PSBs

• Undermining Social Welfare: Public banks open branches, ATMs, banking facilities, etc even in the non-profitable rural areas of India or the poorer sides where the possibility of getting big deposits or making money is less.
  • However, Private Banks are not inclined to do so and they may prefer opening such facilities mostly in megacities or urban areas.
  • If the corporate sector is allowed to dominate banking again, profit will become the prime motive rather than the desire to serve the public.
  • The government will have difficulty in providing low-cost financial services to rural and poor sections of society as the private may not like to extend its services to them.
• International Precedent: Most East Asian success stories have been underpinned by financial systems effectively controlled by governments.
  • On the other hand, the governments of western countries, where banking is largely in the hands of the private sector, have had to rescue private banks from bankruptcy.
  • The past history of private sector banks tells the failure. Before 1969, all banks, except the SBI, were in the private sector. Between 1947 and 1969, 559 banks failed.
• This would totally defeat the idea of inclusive banking as it is practiced now and was the guiding principle at the time of the nationalization of banks.
• Public sector banks are created out of public money. These entities are therefore duty-bound to extend all types of services to customers across categories. Privatization will impact this very root purpose.

Way forward

• We need a broad set of actions, some immediate and others over the medium-term and aimed at preventing the recurrence of such crises. Wholesale privatization of PSBs is thus not the answer to a complex problem.
• Overall risk management at PSBs needs to be taken to a higher level. This certainly requires the strengthening of PSB boards. We need to induct more high-quality professionals on PSB boards and compensate them better.
• In the case of banking, what is needed is increased autonomy for state-backed banks and strict regulatory oversight by the banking supervisor.
• The boards of state-backed banks should be independent of political influence.
• Managers should be held accountable for operational performance and there should be constant monitoring of targets, risk assessment, and credit controls.
• The clean-up of bank balance sheets and the overhaul of India’s archaic insolvency law are steps in the right direction, but they will only bear fruit if accompanied by improved governance and regulation.
• The Privatization of PSBs is not going to be easy, as it would involve building consensus amongst various stakeholders, including unions and parliamentarians. Further, Bank privatization, without strengthening regulatory controls and improving governance, won’t prevent fraud or curtail undue exposure to risk.

Conclusion

Privatization of banks is not a remedy to all solutions. With steps like Privatization of Banks, the Government should also focus on comprehensive governance reforms, resolution of NPAs, and creating a free market so that investment can be reinvigorated and wheels of the economy can again get back on track. Even though private sector banks have better balance sheets than PSBs, it is very important to consider that Privatization alone would not solve all of the problems faced by the sector. A better solution than privatization may well be giving PSBs autonomy to reform themselves and function free of political interference.

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“Justice delayed is democracy denied”

—John F Kennedy, US president

Recently, Parliament passed the Tribunal Reforms Bill, 2021, which seeks to lay down terms for service and tenure of members of various tribunals. The new law contained the same provisions as the Tribunal Reforms (Rationalization and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021, which the Supreme Court struck down last month in a 2:1 verdict in Madras Bar Association versus Union of India saying it as unconstitutional as it interferes with the independence of the judiciary. This has triggered a fresh stand-off between the legislature and the judiciary over the powers of and limitations on lawmaking.

What are Tribunals?

• Tribunals are specialist judicial bodies that decide disputes in a particular area of law.
• They are institutions established for discharging judicial or quasi-judicial duties.
• The objective may be to reduce the caseload of the judiciary or to bring in subject expertise for technical matters.

Creation of Tribunals

In 1976, Articles 323A and 323B were inserted in the Constitution of India through the 42nd Amendment.

• Article 323A: This empowered Parliament to constitute administrative Tribunals (both at central and state level) for adjudication of matters related to recruitment and conditions of service of public servants.
• Article 323B: This specified certain subjects (such as taxation and land reforms) for which Parliament or state legislatures may constitute tribunals by enacting a law.
• Article 262: The Indian Constitution provides a role for the Central government in adjudicating conflicts surrounding inter-state rivers that arise among the state/regional governments.
• In 2010, the Supreme Court clarified that the subject matters under Article 323B are not exclusive, and legislatures are empowered to create tribunals on any subject matters under their purview as specified in the Seventh Schedule.

Tribunal Reforms Bill, 2021

(1) Dissolution of Existing Bodies

• The Bill seeks to dissolve certain appellate bodies and transfer their functions to other existing judicial bodies.

(2) Merging of Existing Bodies

• The Finance Act, 2017 merged tribunals based on domain.

(3) Search-cum-selection Committees

• The Chairperson and Members of the Tribunals will be appointed by the central government on the recommendation of a Search-cum-Selection Committee.
• The Committee will consist of:
  1. The Chief Justice of India, or a Supreme Court Judge nominated by him, as the Chairperson (with casting vote).
  2. Two Secretaries nominated by the central governments.
  3. The sitting or a retired Supreme Court Judge, or a retired Chief Justice of a High Court, and
  4. The Secretary of the Ministry under which the Tribunal is constituted (with no voting right).

(4) State Administrative Tribunals

• It will have separate search-cum-selection committees with the Chief Justice of the High Court of the concerned state, as the Chairman (with a casting vote).

(5) Eligibility and Term of Office

• The Bill provides for a four-year term of office (subject to the upper age limit of 70 years for the Chairperson, and 67 years for members).
• Minimum age requirement of 50 years for appointment of a chairperson or a member.

(6) Removal of Tribunal Members

• The central government shall, on the recommendation of the Search-cum-Selection Committee, remove from office any Chairperson or a Member.

To summarize the transfer of functions and other provisions of the Bill, consider the following table:

Transfer of functions of key appellate bodies as proposed under the Bill

Acts	Appellate Body	Proposed Entity
The Cinematograph Act, 1952	Appellate Tribunal	High Court
The Trade Marks Act, 1999	Appellate Board	High Court
The Copyright Act, 1957	Appellate Board	Commercial Court or the Commercial Division of a High Court*
The Customs Act, 1962	Authority for Advance Rulings	High Court
The Patents Act, 1970	Appellate Board	High Court
The Airports Authority of India Act, 1994	Airport Appellate Tribunal	The central government, for disputes arising from the disposal of properties left on airport premises by unauthorized occupants. High Court, for appeals against orders of an eviction officer.
The Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002	Airport Appellate Tribunal	Civil Court#
The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999	Appellate Board	High Court

Amendments to the Finance Act, 2017:

• The Finance Act, 2017 merged tribunals based on domain.
• It also empowered the central government to notify rules on:

(i) Composition of search-cum-selection committees,

(ii) Qualifications of tribunal members, and

(iii) Their terms and conditions of service (such as their removal and salaries).

• The Bill removes these provisions from the Finance Act, 2017.
• Provisions on the composition of selection committees and term of office have been included in the Bill.
• Qualification of members and other terms and conditions of service will be notified by the central government.

What are the issues raised by the Supreme Court?

(1) Bypassing the usual legislative process

• The government has re-enacted the very same provisions struck down by the Court in the Madras Bar association case (2021).
• There was no discussion over the bill in the Parliament.
• It amounts to “unconstitutional legislative overriding” of the judgment passed by the SC.

(2) Government not following repetitive directions issued by the Court

• The Centre is not following the repeated directions issued by the Court to ensure the proper functioning of the Tribunals.
• The provisions in the ordinance regarding conditions of service and tenure of Tribunal Members and Chairpersons were already struck down by the Supreme Court.

(3) Issue over the Security of Tenure

• The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 bars appointments to tribunals of persons below 50 years of age.
• It undermines the length/security of tenure.

(4) Violates the principles of separation of powers and judicial independence

• Central Government can take a decision on the recommendations made by the selection Committee within three months from the date of such recommendations.
• Section 3(7) of the bill mandates the recommendation of a panel of two names by the search-cum selection committee.
• This violates the principles of separation of powers and judicial independence.

(5) Existence of a large number of vacancies in the Tribunals

• Currently, India has 16 tribunals including the National Green Tribunal, the Armed Forces Appellate Tribunal, and the Debt Recovery Tribunal, etc.
• Many of these tribunals suffer from crippling vacancies.
• Existence of large number of vacancies of Members and Chairpersons and the inordinate delay caused in filling them up has resulted in weakening of the tribunals.

(6) Detrimental to the Decision-making Process

• These cases will be transferred to High Courts or commercial civil courts immediately.
• The lack of specialization in regular courts could be detrimental to the decision-making process.

Government is yet to constitute the National Tribunals Commission (NTC)

• Further, the Centre is yet to constitute a National Tribunals Commission (NTC), an independent umbrella body to supervise the functioning of tribunals, appointment of and disciplinary proceedings against members, and to take care of administrative and infrastructural needs of the tribunals.
• The idea of an NTC was first mooted in L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India (1997).
• Developing an independent oversight body for accountable governance requires a legal framework that protects its independence and impartiality.
• Therefore, the NTC must be established vide a constitutional amendment or be backed by a statute that guarantees it functional, operational and financial independence.
• As the Finance Ministry has been vested with the responsibility for tribunals until the NTC is constituted, it should come up with a transition plan. 

 Advantages of NTC

• The NTC would ideally take on some duties relating to administration and oversight.
• It could set performance standards for the efficiency of tribunals and their own administrative processes.
• It could function as an independent recruitment body to develop and operationalise the procedure for disciplinary proceedings and appointment of tribunal members.
• Giving the NTC the authority to set members’ salaries, allowances, and other service conditions, subject to regulations, would help maintain tribunals’ independence.

Inherent Issues with Indian Judiciary

The Constitution of India, through its Preamble, has guaranteed its citizens ‘ Justice’’—economic, political, and social. But even after 70 years of independence, achieving substantive justice for the vast majority of the citizens has remained a distant dream. In the specific area of the justice delivery system, India is faced with several problems relating to large backlogs and pendency of cases.

Despite the independence of the judiciary from the executive and legislative bodies, the Indian judicial system faces a lot of problems.

The major issues that the system faces are:

1. The pendency of cases.
2. Corruption.
3. Lack of transparency (particularly in the appointment of judges).
4. Under trials of the accused.
5. Lack of information and interaction among people and courts.

1) Pendency of cases

• India’s legal system has the largest backlog of pending cases in the world – as many as 30 million pending cases. Of them, over four million are High Court cases, 65,000 Supreme Court cases.
• This number is continuously increasing and this itself shows the inadequacy of the legal system.
• And also due to this backlog, most of the prisoners in India’s prisons are detainees awaiting trial.
• It is also reported that in Mumbai, India’s financial hub, the courts are burdened with age-old land disputes, which act as a hurdle in the city’s industrial development.

What led to the underperformance of the Indian Judiciary?

The issue of heavy arrears pending in the various courts of the country has been a matter of concern since the time of independence. The primary factors contributing to docket explosion and arrears as highlighted by Justice Malimath Committee report are as follows:

1. Population explosion
2. Litigation explosion
3. Hasty and imperfect drafting of legislation
4. Plurality and accumulation of appeals (Multiple appeals for the same issue)
5. Inadequacy of judge strength
6. Failure to provide adequate forums of appeal against quasi-judicial orders
7. Lack of priority for disposal of old cases (due to the improper constitution of benches)

2) Corruption in the judiciary

• Like any other institution of the Government, the Indian judicial system is also allegedly corrupt.
• There is no system of accountability. The media also do not give a clear picture on account of the fear of contempt.

3) Lack of transparency

• Another problem facing the Indian judicial system is the lack of transparency. It is seen that the Right to Information (RTI) Act is totally out of the ambit of the legal system.
• Thus, in the functioning of the judiciary, the substantial issues like the quality of justice and accountability are not known properly.
• In the recent past, there have been many debates regarding the Collegium system and the new system that the government wanted to introduce for the appointment of judges, the NJAC.

4) Hardships of the undertrials

• Right to a speedy trial is an integral part of the principles of fair trial and is fundamental to the international human rights discourse.
• In Indian jails, most of the prisoners are undertrials, which are confined to the jails until their case comes to a definite conclusion.
• In most of the cases, they end up spending more time in the jail than the actual term that might have had been awarded to them had the case been decided on a time and, assuming, against them.
• Plus, the expenses and pain and agony of defending themselves in courts is worse than serving the actual sentence. Undertrials are not guilty till convicted.

5) No interaction with society

• It is very essential that the judiciary of any country should be an integral part of the society and its interactions with society must be made regular and relevant.
• Lack of faith in a fair and swift judicial system creates a low-trust society.
• The rule of law and trust are central to enable people in large societies, who do not personally know each other, to live together peacefully and collaborate.

The inherent issues can be addressed with some simple measures like:

• For pendency, time-limits should be prescribed for all cases based on priorities. So setting time-standards is essential and it will vary for different cases, and also for different courts depending on their disposal-capacity. Alternative disputes resolution  (ADR) mechanisms should be promoted for out of court settlements.
• To imbibe transparency, a thorough understanding of the principle of independence of the judiciary and ensuring its accountability is the sole prerogative of the Supreme Court itself. The judiciary should come up with its own solution for transparent functioning and judicial appointments.
• To make trials speedy, the judiciary must scrutinize the sensitivity of a particular case before taking up for hearing. Fast track courts must be established for varieties of cases.

Way Forward

• Impartiality, independence, fairness and reasonableness in decision-making are the hallmarks of the judiciary.
• Speedy trial and quick justice are a fundamental right implicit in the guarantee of life and personal liberty enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.
• The effort to fast-track the judicial process is in a major policy tangle. The need for a new policy framework and governmental and judicial initiative are need of the hour.
• The executive and judiciary are the two pillars of Indian democracy and their independence is the most important thing for nation to grow and democracy to flourish and live long.
• Tribunals have shown immense potential in the past and to make most out of it, the government should look to strengthen them giving them more powers and resolving the issues faced by them like insufficient staff.
• The rapidly evolving field of “legal tech” enables us to use emerging technologies like digitization, process automation, data and analytics, AI to completely reimaging how a 21st century, the citizen-centric legal system should work.

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Program inclusion

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India recently announced the launch of the National Hydrogen Mission (NHM) with an aim to cut down carbon emissions and increase the use of renewable sources of energy. The broad objective of the mission is to scale up Green Hydrogen production and utilization and to align India’s efforts with global best practices in technology, policy and regulation. Accordingly, the Government of India has allotted Rs 25 crore in the Union Budget 2021–22 for the research and development in hydrogen energy.

The NHM aims to leverage the country’s landmass and low solar and wind tariffs to produce low-cost green hydrogen and ammonia for export to Japan, South Korea, and Europe. In this regard, there are immense possibilities for India to collaborate with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that have also invested significantly in developing hydrogen as a future source of energy.

What is National Hydrogen Energy Mission?

• Focus: The main aim of the mission is on generation of hydrogen from green power resources and to link India’s growing renewable capacity with the hydrogen economy.
• Goal: India’s ambitious goal of 175 GW by 2022 got an impetus in the 2021-22 budget which allocated Rs. 1500 crore for renewable energy development and NHM.
• Sustainable energy and help in reduce import: The usage of hydrogen will not only help India in achieving its emission goals under the Paris Agreement, but will also reduce import dependency on fossil fuels.
• The mission will include all aspects including research and exploration of areas where hydrogen can be used.

Green Hydrogen Mission is not only essential to decarbonise heavy industries like steel and cement but it will equally clean electric mobility that doesn’t depend on rare minerals to be explored.

What is Hydrogen Energy?

• Hydrogen is an important source of energy since it has zero carbon content and is a non-polluting source of energy in contrast to hydrocarbons that have net carbon content in the range of 75–85 per cent.
• Hydrogen energy is expected to reduce carbon emissions that are set to jump by 1.5 billion tons in 2021.
• It has the highest energy content by weight and lowest energy content by volume.
• As per International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Hydrogen shall make up 6 per cent of total energy consumption by 2050.
• Hydrogen energy is currently at a nascent stage of development, but has considerable potential for aiding the process of energy transition from hydrocarbons to renewable.

Hydrogen as an energy source:

• Hydrogen is the lightest (travels up in the atmosphere and rarely found in purity) and first element on the periodic table.
• Most hydrogen on Earth is bonded to oxygen in water and to carbon in live or dead and/or fossilized biomass. It can be created by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a nontoxic, nonmetallic, odorless, tasteless, colorless, and highly combustible diatomic gas.
• Hydrogen fuel is a zero-emission fuel when burned with oxygen. It can be used in fuel cells or internal combustion engines. It is also used as a fuel for spacecraft propulsion.
• Hydrogen can be sourced from natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind.

Why is India focusing on Hydrogen to fulfill its energy demands?

• The enthusiasm about hydrogen has a simple reason: whether it’s used in a fuel cell or burned to create heat, wherever hydrogen replaces fossil fuels, it slows global warming.
• Inclusion of “Hydrogen” as an energy carrier in the future energy portfolio presents a unique opportunity to address emerging energy vectors, including power to gas, power to power, and power to mobility and even vehicle to grid applications.
• India remains committed to environmental and climate causes with a massive thrust on deploying renewable energy and energy efficiency measures. 
• In the past six years, India has increased its renewable power portfolio from 32 GW to almost 100 GW and is well on track to achieve 450 GW target of renewable energy generating capacity by 2030.
• Diversification of our energy basket would be the key lever enabling this transition. That’s why the emergence of hydrogen at the centre stage is a welcome development.

How Hydrogen can be produced?

• Commercially viable Hydrogen can be produced from –

1. Hydrocarbons including natural gas, oil and coal through processes like steam methane reforming, partial oxidation and coal gasification

2. Renewables like water, sunlight and wind through electrolysis and photolysis and other thermo-chemical processes.

• The current global demand for hydrogen is 70 million metric tons per year, more than 76 per cent of which is being produced from natural gas, 23 per cent comes from coal and the remaining is produced from electrolysis of water.

• Storage: Hydrogen can be stored in cryo-compressed tanks in gaseous form apart from being kept in liquefied and solid state.

Primarily uses

• Presently, Hydrogen is mostly used in industry sector including those dealing with oil refining, ammonia production, methanol production and steel production.
• It has huge potential in transportation sector as a direct replacement to fossil fuels.
• Shipping and aviation have limited low-carbon fuel options available and represent an opportunity for hydrogen-based fuels.

What Is Grey, Blue, And Green Of Hydrogen?

• Hydrogen has been color-coded based on the source of production and the emphasis is on the use of Green Hydrogen as it helps in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases and increases the share of renewables in total energy consumption.

Grey Hydrogen

• The most common form of hydrogen, it’s created from fossil fuels and the process releases carbon dioxide which is not captured.
• There is also a gasification process which uses coal as a feedstock, creating brown hydrogen, which also releases carbon dioxide and can be put in the same category as grey.

Blue Hydrogen

• Blue hydrogen uses the same process as grey, except this time the carbon is captured and stored. This makes it much more environmentally friendly, but comes with added technical challenges and a big increase in cost.
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been around a while, with the technology being used by heavy industry and power generation companies burning fossil fuels.
• The technology can capture up to 90% of the CO2 produced, so it isn’t perfect but clearly a massive improvement.

Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen will be a unique energy vector that can enable deep decarbonization of many sectors such as transportation, industry, and power. One of the most common methods of generating green hydrogen is by electrolysis of pure water through electrolyzers.

We will discuss it in detail as it is very important for today’s world to rely on such a source of energy which can redefine the GHGs emission and sustainable use of energy resources while keeping global warming in check.

How is green hydrogen produced?

• In a world struggling to address the issue of climate change and growing carbon footprint, green hydrogen is being heralded as the future of energy.
• Unlike gray hydrogen, green hydrogen is fully renewable in both its source material and its energy supply. 
• For source material, green hydrogen today is typically generated from water through a process known as electrolysis, which uses an electric current to split water into its component molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. 
• This is done using a device called an electrolyzer, which utilizes a cathode and an anode (positively and negatively charged electrodes). 
• This process produces only oxygen – or steam – as a byproduct. 
• As for energy supply, to qualify as “green hydrogen,” the source of electricity used for electrolysis must derive from renewable power, such as wind or solar energy.
• Currently the production of green hydrogen is two or three times more expensive than blue hydrogen.

How can green hydrogen be used?

Hydrogen can be used in broadly two ways. It can be burnt to produce heat or fed into a fuel cell to make electricity.

• fuel-cell hydrogen electric cars and trucks
• container ships powered by liquid ammonia made from hydrogen
• “green steel” refineries burning hydrogen as a heat source rather than coal
• hydrogen-powered electricity turbines that can generate electricity at times of peak demand to help firm the electricity grid
• H-CNG can be used as a as a substitute for natural gas for cooking and heating in homes and automotive.

What makes Hydrogen one of the best options in disguise?

1. Its availability

2. Its efficiency: The energy in 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of hydrogen gas contains about the same as the energy in 1 gallon (6.2 pounds, 2.8 kilograms) of gasoline.

3. Its characteristics of a clean fuel: The only byproduct or emission that results from the usage of hydrogen fuel is water.

2H2 (g) + O2 (g) → 2H2O (g) + energy

With a wide range of methods to produce and use Hydrogen as a fuel, it thereby allows the impetus to a circular economy.

What are the challenges in producing Green Hydrogen?

India’s transition towards a green hydrogen economy (GHE) can only happen once certain key issues are addressed.

1. Supply chain issues: GHE hinges upon the creation of a supply chain, starting from the manufacture of electrolysers to the production of green hydrogen, using electricity from a renewable energy source.
2. Technology: Green hydrogen needs electrolysers to be built on a scale larger than we’ve yet seen.
3. Transportation and Storage: Either very high pressures or very high temperatures are required, both with their own technical difficulties. It is hazardous because of its low ignition energy and high combustion energy.
4. Risk to use as a fuel: Automotive fuels are highly inflammable, but a vehicle laden with hydrogen is likely to be more vulnerable in case of a major accident.
5. Cost: To become competitive, the price per kilogram of green hydrogen has to reduce to a benchmark of $2/kg. At these prices, green hydrogen can compete with natural gas.
6. Electricity: Creating green hydrogen needs a huge amount of electricity, which means an enormous increase in the amount of wind and solar power to meet global targets.
7. Lack of proper infrastructure, only 500 Hydrogen stations exist globally.
8. Only countable manufacturers are involved as market players in this technology.
9. Integration with other energy vectors using information and communication infrastructure.
10. Low user acceptance and social awareness.
11. Developing after-sales service for hydrogen technology.

Hydrogen Energy in India

• At present, bulk of the global energy consumption comes from hydrocarbons.
• Government as well as non-government funding agencies are engaged in R&D projects pertaining to hydrogen production, storage, utilisation, power generation and for transport applications.
• National Hydrogen Energy Board formed in 2003and in 2006 the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy laid out the National Hydrogen Energy Road Map identifying transport and power generation as two major green energy initiatives.
• By 2050 India intends to produce three-fourths of its hydrogen from renewable resources.
• R&D projects in India focus on improving the efficiency of water-splitting reaction, and finding newer materials, catalysts and electrodes to accelerate the reaction. 

What are the policy challenges?

• Economic sustainability: One of the biggest challenges faced by the industry for using hydrogen commercially is the economic sustainability of extracting green or blue hydrogen.
• Technological challenges: The technology used in production and use of hydrogen like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and hydrogen fuel cell technology are at nascent stage.
• Cost Factor: These technologies are expensive which in turn increases the cost of production of hydrogen and will require a lot of investment which in turn add fiscal pressure on government.
• Higher Maintenance costs: Maintenance costs for fuel cells post-completion of a plant can be costly.
• Commercial sector’s role is crucial: The commercial usage of hydrogen as a fuel and in industries requires mammoth investment in R&D of such technology and infrastructure for production, storage, transportation and demand creation for hydrogen.
• Need for legal and administrative adherence, certification mechanisms, recommendations, and regulations for different components of the system.

Way forward

• India’s National Hydrogen Mission is a futuristic vision that can help the country not only cut down its carbon emissions but also diversify its energy basket and reduce external reliance.
• Hydrogen energy is at a nascent stage of development but has significant potential for realizing the energy transition in India.
• Having missed out on many technology-led innovations in the past, hydrogen presents India with the opportunity to lead the change. The parts of the puzzle just need to be put together.
• Green hydrogen has the potential to decarbonise the sectors, which currently have the largest carbon footprint in the world.
• With the capability to provide a zero-emission fuel, green hydrogen is well placed to be integrated into the transport sector and replace the use of coal and coke in the industrial sector.
• India’s transition towards a green hydrogen economy can be a testament to the world on the achievement of energy security, without compromising the goal of sustainable development.
• The GoI, therefore, must strongly pursue the objective of creating a GHE to make India a global manufacturing hub of green hydrogen and place itself at the top of the green hydrogen export market.

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The National Policy on Education was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992. Since then several changes have taken place that calls for a revision of the Policy.

The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 is the first education policy of the 21st century and replaces the thirty-four-year-old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986. Built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability, this policy is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and aims to transform India into a vibrant knowledge society and global knowledge superpower by making both school and college education more holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, suited to 21st century needs and aimed at bringing out the unique capabilities of each student.

Backgrounder: Education Policies in India

Education Policy lays particular emphasis on the development of the creative potential of each individual. It is based on the principle that education must develop not only cognitive capacities -both the ‘foundational capacities’ of literacy and numeracy and ‘higher-order’ cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem-solving — but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions.

The implementation of previous policies on education has focused largely on issues of access and equity. The unfinished agenda of the National Policy on Education 1986, modified in 1992 (NPE 1986/92), is appropriately dealt with in this Policy. A major development since the last Policy of 1986/92 has been the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 which laid down legal underpinnings for achieving universal elementary education.

Evolution of Education Policy in India

1. University Education Commission (1948-49)
2. Secondary Education Commission (1952-53)
3. Education Commission (1964-66) under Dr D. S. Kothari
4. National Policy on Education, 1968
5. 42nd Constitutional Amendment, 1976- Education in Concurrent List
6. National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986
7. NPE 1986 Modified in 1992 (Programme of Action, 1992)
8. S.R. Subrahmanyam Committee Report (May 27, 2016)
9. K. Kasturirangan Committee Report (May 31, 2019)

Some of the major path-breaking policies and their features:

Earlier major Educational Policies (Year)	Key Features
1968	Based on the report and recommendations of the Kothari Commission (1964–1966)India’s first National Policy which called for a “radical restructuring” and proposed equal educational opportunities gave the “three-language formula” to be implemented in secondary education
1986	Introduced under Rajiv Gandhi’s Prime Ministership, expected to spend 6% of GDP on education for the 1st timeIt called for “special emphasis on the removal of disparities and to equalize educational opportunity” It called for a “child-centered approach” in primary education and launched “Operation Blackboard“Also called for the creation of the “rural university” model, based on the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi
1992	1986 Policy modified in 1992 by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government laid down a Three – Exam Scheme: JEE/AIEEE/State EEE (Engineering Entrance Exam)

The National Education Policy, 2020

• It marks the fourth major policy initiative in education since Independence.
• The last one has undertaken a good 34 years ago and modified in 1992.
• Based on two committee reports and extensive nationwide consultations, NEP 2020 is sweeping in its vision and seeks to address the entire gamut of education from preschool to doctoral studies, and from professional degrees to vocational training.

Salient features of the NEP 2020

School Education

(1) Ensuring Universal Access at all levels of school education

• Ensuring universal access: NEP 2020 emphasizes on ensuring universal access to school education at all levels- preschool to secondary.
• Bring back dropouts into the mainstream: Infrastructure support, innovative education centers to bring back dropouts into the mainstream, tracking of students and their learning levels, facilitating multiple pathways to learning involving both formal and non-formal education modes, association of counselors or well-trained social workers with schools, open learning for classes 3,5 and 8 through NIOS and State Open Schools, secondary education programs equivalent to Grades 10 and 12, vocational courses, adult literacy and life-enrichment programs are some of the proposed ways for achieving this.
• About 2 crore out of school children will be brought back into main stream under NEP 2020.

(2) Early Childhood Care & Education with new Curricular and Pedagogical Structure

• Emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education: The 10+2 structure of school curricula is to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively.  
• This will bring the hitherto uncovered age group of 3-6 years under school curriculum, which has been recognized globally as the crucial stage for development of mental faculties of a child.
• The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling.
• NCERT will develop a National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age of 8.
• The planning and implementation of ECCE will be carried out jointly by the Ministries of HRD, Women and Child Development (WCD), Health and Family Welfare (HFW), and Tribal Affairs.

(3) Attaining Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

• National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy: Recognizing Foundational Literacy and Numeracy as an urgent and necessary prerequisite to learning, NEP 2020 calls for setting up of a National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy by MHRD.
• States will prepare an implementation plan for attaining universal foundational literacy and numeracy in all primary schools for all learners by grade 3 by 2025.
• A National Book Promotion Policy is to be formulated.

(4) Reforms in school curricula and pedagogy

• Aim: It aims for holistic development of learners by equipping them with the key 21st century skills, reduction in curricular content to enhance essential learning and critical thinking and greater focus on experiential learning.
• Increased flexibility and choice of subjects with students: There will be no rigid separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams.
• Vocational education will start in schools from the 6th grade, and will include internships.
• National Curricular Framework for School Education, NCFSE 2020-21 will be developed by the NCERT.

(5) Multilingualism and the power of language

• Emphasis on mother tongue as the medium of instruction: The policy has emphasized mother tongue/local language/regional language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond.

• Convenience of optional language:
• Sanskrit to be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an option for students, including in the three-language formula.
• Other classical languages and literatures of India also to be available as options. No language will be imposed on any student.
• Students to participate in a fun project/activity on ‘The Languages of India’, sometime in Grades 6-8, such as, under the ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ initiative.
• Several foreign languages will also be offered at the secondary level.
• Indian Sign Language (ISL) will be standardized across the country, and National and State curriculum materials developed, for use by students with hearing impairment.

(6) Assessment Reforms

• Shift from summative assessment to regular and formative assessment which is more competency-based, promotes learning and development, and tests higher-order skills, such as analysis, critical thinking, and conceptual clarity.
• Revamping Board Exams: Board exams for Grades 10 and 12 will be continued, but redesigned with holistic development as the aim.
• A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), will be set up as a standard-setting body .

(7) Equitable and Inclusive Education

• Ensuring complete coverage: NEP 2020 aims to ensure that no child loses any opportunity to learn and excel because of the circumstances of birth or background.
• Special emphasis on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs) which include gender, socio-cultural, and geographical identities and disabilities.  
• Setting up of Gender Inclusion Fund and also Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups.
• Enabling disables: Children with disabilities will be enabled to fully participate in the regular schooling process from the foundational stage to higher education.
• It will be done withwith support of educators with cross disability training, resource centers, accommodations, assistive devices, appropriate technology-based tools and other support mechanisms tailored to suit their needs.
• Bal Bhavans: Every state/district will be encouraged to establish “Bal Bhavans” as a special daytime boarding school, to participate in art-related, career-related, and play-related activities.
• Free school infrastructure can be used as Samajik Chetna Kendras.

(8) Robust Teacher Recruitment and Career Path

• Robust, transparent processes for teachers’ recruitment: Teachers will be recruited through robust, transparent processes.
• Merit based promotions with a mechanism for multi-source periodic performance appraisals and available progression paths to become educational administrators or teacher educators.
• National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022, in consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers and expert organizations from across levels and regions.

(9) School Governance

• Schools can be organized into complexes or clusters which will be the basic unit of governance and ensure availability of all resources including infrastructure, academic libraries and a strong professional teacher community.

(10) Standard-setting and Accreditation for School Education

• NEP 2020 envisages clear, separate systems for policy making, regulation, operations and academic matters.  States/UTs will set up independent State School Standards Authority (SSSA).
• The SCERT will develop a School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF) through consultations with all stakeholders.

Higher Education

(1) Increase GER to 50 % by 2035

• NEP 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2035. 3.5 Crore new seats will be added to Higher education institutions.

(2) Holistic Multidisciplinary Education

• Broad based multi-disciplinary, holistic UG education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification.
• An Academic Bank of Credit is to be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different HEIs so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.
• Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs), at par with IITs, IIMs, to be set up as models of best multidisciplinary education of global standards in the country.
• The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.

(3) Regulation

• Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body the for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education.
• It will function through faceless intervention through technology, & will have powers to penalize HEIs not conforming to norms and standards.
• Public and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation and academic standards.

(4) Rationalized Institutional Architecture

• Higher education institutions will be transformed into large, well resourced, vibrant multidisciplinary institutions providing high quality teaching, research, and community engagement.
• The definition of university will allow a spectrum of institutions that range from Research-intensive Universities to Teaching-intensive Universities and Autonomous degree-granting Colleges. 
• Affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges.

(5) Motivated, Energized, and Capable Faculty

• Recommendations for motivating, energizing, and building capacity of faculty thorugh clearly defined, independent, transparent recruitment.
• Freedom to design curricula/pedagogy, incentivizing excellence, movement into institutional leadership.

(6) Teacher Education

• National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, NCFTE 2021: A new and comprehensive framework will be formulated by the NCTE in consultation with NCERT.
• By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. degree.

(7) Mentoring Mission

• A National Mission for Mentoring will be established, with a large pool of outstanding senior/retired faculty – including those with the ability to teach in Indian languages – who would be willing to provide short and long-term mentoring/professional support to university/college teachers.

(8) Financial support for students

• Efforts will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and other SEDGs.
• The National Scholarship Portal will be expanded to support, foster, and track the progress of students receiving scholarships.
• Private HEIs will be encouraged to offer larger numbers of free ships and scholarships to their students.

(9) Open and Distance Learning

• Measures such as online courses and digital repositories, funding for research, improved student services, credit-based recognition of MOOCs, etc., will be taken to ensure it is at par with the highest quality in-class programmes.

(10) Online Education and Digital Education

• A dedicated unit for building of digital infrastructure, digital content and capacity building will be created in the MHRD to look after the e-education needs of both school and higher education.

(11) Technology in education

• National Educational Technology Forum (NETF): An autonomous body will be created to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, and administration.

(12) Professional Education

• All professional education will be an integral part of the higher education system.
• Stand-alone technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities etc will aim to become multi-disciplinary institutions.

(13) Adult Education

• Policy aims to achieve 100% youth and adult literacy.

(14) Financing Education

• The Centre and the States will work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.

Positive Aspects of Higher Education in Regional Language

• Subject-Specific Improvement: Several studies in India and other Asian countries suggest a positive impact on learning outcomes for students using a regional medium rather than the English medium.
• Performance in science and math, in particular, has been found to be better among students studying in their native language compared to English.
• Higher Rates of Participation: Studying in the native language results in higher attendance, motivation and increased confidence for speaking up among students and improved parental involvement and support in studies due to familiarity with the mother tongue.
• Additional Benefits for the Less-Advantaged: This is especially relevant for students who are first-generation learners (the first one in their entire generation to go to school and receive an education) or the ones coming from rural areas, who may feel intimidated by unfamiliar concepts in an alien language.
• Increase in Gross-Enrollment Ratio (GER): This will help provide quality teaching to more students and thus increase Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education.
• Promotes Linguistic Diversity: It will also promote the strength, usage, and vibrancy of all Indian languages.
• It would also help prevent language-based discrimination.

Issues with the policy

1) Lack of integration

• In both the thinking, and in the document, there are lags, such as the integration of technology and pedagogy.
• There are big gaps such as lifelong learning, which should have been a key element of upgrading to emerging sciences.

2) Language barrier

• There is much in the document ripe for debate – such as language. The NEP seeks to enable home language learning up to class five, in order to improve learning outcomes.
• Sure, early comprehension of concepts is better in the home language and is critical for future progress. If the foundations are not sound, learning suffers, even with the best of teaching and infrastructure.
• But it is also true that a core goal of education is social and economic mobility, and the language of mobility in India is English.

3) Multilingualism debate

• Home language succeeds in places where the ecosystem extends all the way through higher education and into employment. Without such an ecosystem in place, this may not be good enough.
• The NEP speaks of multilingualism and that must be emphasised. Most classes in India are de facto bilingual.
• Some states are blissfully considering this policy as a futile attempt to impose Hindi.

4) Lack of funds

• According to Economic Survey 2019-2020, the public spending (by the Centre and the State) on education was 3.1% of the GDP.
• A shift in the cost structure of education is inevitable.
• While funding at 6% of GDP remains doubtful, it is possible that parts of the transformation are achievable at a lower cost for greater scale.

5) A move in haste

• The country is grappled with months of COVID-induced lockdowns.
• The policy had to have parliamentary discussions; it should have undergone a decent parliamentary debate and deliberations considering diverse opinions.

6) Overambitious

• All aforesaid policy moves require enormous resources. An ambitious target of public spending at 6% of GDP has been set.
• This is certainly a tall order, given the current tax-to-GDP ratio and competing claims on the national exchequer of healthcare, national security and other key sectors.
• The exchequer itself is choked meeting the current expenditure.

7) Pedagogical limitations

• The document talks about flexibility, choice, experimentation. In higher education, the document recognizes that there is a diversity of pedagogical needs.
• If it is a mandated option within single institutions, this will be a disaster, since structuring a curriculum for a classroom that has both one-year diploma students and four-year degree students’ takes away from the identity of the institution.

8) Institutional limitations

• A healthy education system will comprise of a diversity of institutions, not a forced multi-disciplinarily one.
• Students should have a choice for different kinds of institutions.
• The policy risks creating a new kind of institutional isomorphism mandated from the Centre.

9) Issues with examinations

• Exams are neurotic experiences because of competition; the consequences of a slight slip in performance are huge in terms of opportunities.
• So the answer to the exam conundrum lies in the structure of opportunity. India is far from that condition.
• This will require a less unequal society both in terms of access to quality institutions, and income differentials consequent upon access to those institutions.

 Way Forward

This ambitious policy has a cost to be paid and the rest of the things dwell on its implementation in letter and spirit.

• Implementation of the spirit and intent of the Policy is the most critical matter.
• It is important to implement the policy initiatives in a phased manner, as each policy point has several steps, each of which requires the previous step to be implemented successfully.
• Prioritization will be important in ensuring optimal sequencing of policy points, and that the most critical and urgent actions are taken up first, thereby enabling a strong base.
• Next, comprehensiveness in implementation will be key; as this Policy is interconnected and holistic, only a full-fledged implementation, and not a piecemeal one, will ensure that the desired objectives are achieved.
• Since education is a concurrent subject, it will need careful planning, joint monitoring, and collaborative implementation between the Centre and States.
• Timely infusion of requisite resources – human, infrastructural, and financial – at the Central and State levels will be crucial for the satisfactory execution of the Policy.
• Finally, careful analysis and review of the linkages between multiple parallel implementation steps will be necessary in order to ensure effective dovetailing of all initiatives.

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The government of India recently unveiled a four-year (FY 2022-25) National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) worth an estimated Rs 6 lakh crore. It aims to unlock value in brownfield projects by engaging the private sector, transferring to them revenue rights and not ownership in the projects, and using the funds so generated for infrastructure creation across the country.

The NMP has been announced to provide a clear framework for monetization and give potential investors a ready list of assets to generate investment interest.

What is monetization?

• In a monetization transaction, the government is basically transferring revenue rights to private parties for a specified transaction period in return for upfront money, a revenue share, and commitment of investments in the assets.
• Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) are the key structures used to monetize assets in the roads and power sectors.
• These are also listed on stock exchanges, providing investors liquidity through secondary markets as well.
• While these are a structured financing vehicle, other monetization models on PPP (Public Private Partnership) basis include:
  1. Operate Maintain Transfer (OMT),
  2. Toll Operate Transfer (TOT), and
  3. Operations, Maintenance & Development (OMD).
• OMT and TOT have been used in highways sector while OMD is being deployed in case of airports.

Global Instances

• The monetisation of assets is not a new concept. A number of countries including the United States, Australia, Canada, France and China have effectively utilized this policy.

Indian Scenario

• In India, the concept was suggested by a committee led by Vijay Kelkar on the roadmap for fiscal consolidation in 2012.
• The committee had suggested that the government start monetization as a key instrument to raise resources for development.
• It asked the government to use these resources for financing infrastructure needs

What is the difference between Greenfield and Brownfield projects?

• Greenfield and brownfield investments are two types of foreign direct investment.
• With greenfield investing, a company will build its own, brand new facilities from the ground up.
• Brownfield investment happens when a company purchases or leases an existing facility.
• In a greenfield investment, parent company opens a subsidiary in another country. Instead of buying an existing facility in that country, the company begins a new venture by constructing new facilities in that country.
• Brownfield investments, an entity purchases or leases an existing facility to begin new production.
• Companies may consider this approach a great time and money saver since there is no need to go through the motions of building a brand new building.

‘Infrastructure creation’

• Unlike privatization, which seeks to sell state-owned companies to the private sector, or disinvestment, in which shares of public sector units are sold to non-state firms or individuals, the National Monetisation Pipeline seeks to do something else.
• The NMP is talking about brownfield assets where investment has already been made, which are either languishing, not fully monetized or remaining underutilized.
• So, by bringing in private participation, monetization gets better, and the resource can be put it into further infrastructure creation. The idea is also known as “asset recycling”.
• Essentially, the government gives over operational duties and revenue rights to a private operator for assets like roads, power transmission lines, stadiums, warehouses and more.
• This allows government to build an ambitious infrastructure plan, without adding to existing government debt.
• A key aspect of this approach is that the government is not handing over ownership of the underlying asset.

Unlocking capital

Another difference from other privatization efforts, which often focus on loss-making public sector units, the effort here is to pick ones that aren’t necessarily struggling, on the assumption that the private sector can unlock efficiencies that the government cannot.

By keeping ownership and only transferring revenue rights for a set period of time, the government is essentially taking a fresh look at Public-Private Partnership model, commonly known as PPP.

What is the government’s plan?

• Roads, railways and power sector assets will comprise over 66% of the total estimated value of the assets to be monetized.
• The remaining upcoming sectors include telecom, mining, aviation, ports, natural gas and petroleum product pipelines, warehouses and stadiums.
• In terms of annual phasing by value, 15% of assets with an indicative value of Rs 0.88 lakh crore are envisaged for rollout in the current financial year.
• The NMP will run co-terminus with the National Infrastructure Pipeline of Rs 100 lakh crore announced in December 2019.

What is the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)? NIP includes economic and social infrastructure projects. During the fiscals 2020 to 2025, sectors such as Energy (24%), Roads (19%), Urban (16%), and Railways (13%) amount to around 70% of the projected capital expenditure in infrastructure in India. It has outlined plans to invest more than ₹102 lakh crore on infrastructure projects by 2024-25, with the Centre, States and the private sector to share the capital expenditure in a 39:39:22 formula.

• The estimated amount to be raised through monetization is around 14% of the proposed outlay for the Centre of Rs 43 lakh crore under NIP.
• NMP aims to provide a medium term roadmap of the programme for public asset owners; along with visibility on potential assets to the private sector.
• An empowered committee has been constituted to implement and monitor the Asset Monetization programme. The Core Group of Secretaries on Asset Monetization (CGAM) will be headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
• Real time monitoring will be undertaken through the asset monetization dashboard. The government will closely monitor the NMP progress, with yearly targets and a monthly review by an empowered committee 
•  The top 5 sectors (by estimated value) capture ~83% of the aggregate pipeline value. These include: Roads (27%) followed by Railways (25%), Power (15%), oil & gas pipelines (8%) and Telecom (6%)

What is the list of assets?

• The assets on the NMP list include:
  1. 26,700 km of roads, railway stations, train operations and tracks,
  2. 2,8608 Ckt km worth of power transmission lines,
  3. 6 GW of hydroelectric and solar power assets,
  4. 2.86 lakh km of fiber assets and 14,917 towers in the telecom sector,
  5. 8,154 km of natural gas pipelines and
  6. 3,930 km of petroleum product pipelines.
• In the roads sector, the government has already monetized 1,400 km of national highways worth Rs 17,000 crore. Another five assets have been monetised through a PowerGrid InvIT raising Rs 7,700 crore.
• Also, 15 railway stations, 25 airports and the stake of central government in existing airports and 160 coal mining projects, 31 projects in 9 major ports, 210 lakh MT of warehousing assets, 2 national stadiums and 2 regional centres, will be up for monetization.
• Redevelopment of various government colonies and hospitality assets including ITDC hotels is expected to generate Rs 15,000 crore.

What are the merits of the NMP?

• Resource Efficiency: Resources are scarce with the government. Proper and effective channelization of them is very important. NMP leads to optimum utilization of government assets.
• Keeping Fiscal Deficit at check: The revenue accrued by leasing out these assets to private sector will help fund new capital expenditure without pressuring government finances.
• Streamlining the Process: Monetization of assets is not new, but the government has finally organized it in baskets, set targets, identified impediments, and put in place a framework. 
• Mobilizing Private Capital: Since the assets are de-risked as it is brownfield projects, it will help in mobilizing private capital (both domestic & foreign). Global investors have revealed that they are keen to participate in projects to be monetized through a transparent/competitive bidding process.
• Less Resistance from the opposition: The plan involves leasing to private sector without transferring ownership or resorting to fire sale of assets. Therefore, it is going to face less resistance from the opposition.

• Cooperative Federalism: To encourage states to pursue monetization, the Central government has already set aside Rs 5,000 crore as incentive. 
  • If a state government divests its stake in a PSU, the Centre will provide a 100 per cent matching value of the divestment to the state. 
  • If a state lists a public sector undertaking in the stock markets, the Central government will give it 50 per cent of that amount raised through listing. 
  • If a state monetizes an asset, it will receive 33% of the amount raised from monetization from the Centre.
• Promoting Public-Private Partnership: The end objective of NMP is to enable ‘Infrastructure Creation through Monetization’ wherein the public and private sector collaborate, each excelling in their core areas of competence, so as to deliver socio-economic growth and quality of life to the country’s citizens.

What are the challenges associated?

(1) Lack of identifiable revenue streams in various assets and low interest among investors in national highways below four lanes.

• Monetization potential of toll road assets is limited by the percentage of stretches having four-lane and above configuration.

(2) Level of capacity utilization in gas and petroleum pipeline networks and regulated tariffs in power sector assets

(3) Dispute resolution mechanism

(4) Uncertainty of proper execution of the plan

(5) Slow pace of privatization in government companies including Air India and BPCL, and less-than-encouraging bids in the recently launched PPP initiative in trains, indicate that attracting private investors’ interest is not that easy.

(6) Asset-specific challenges such as the presence of an identifiable revenue stream. This is specifically relevant to the railway sector, which has seen limited PPP success as a mode of project delivery.

• Konkan Railway, for instance, has multiple stakeholders, including state governments, which own stake in the entity. Creating an effective monetization transaction structure could be a bit challenging in this case.

Way Forward

• Execution is the Key: While the government has tried to address many challenges, owing to infrastructure development in the NMP framework, execution of the plan remains key to its success.
• Dedicated and effective Dispute Redressal Mechanism: Looking at the track record of previous efforts of government to lure the investors and history of long pending cases in courts, there is a need for an efficient dispute resolution mechanism.
• Key to success lies in Multi-stakeholder approach: The success of the infrastructure expansion plan would depend on other stakeholders playing their due role. The role of State governments is going to be very important.

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On India’s 75th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Centre will launch ‘PM Gati Shakti Master Plan’, a Rs. 100 lakh-crore project for developing ‘holistic infrastructure’ and to and give an integrated pathway to country’s economy.

What are the focus areas of the project?

• Gati Shakti will be a National Infrastructure Master Plan for our country
• Leveling up local manufacturers: The Gati Shakti plan will help raise the global profile of local manufacturers and help them compete with their counterparts worldwide.
• Economic zones: It also raises possibilities of new future economic zones. India needs to increase both manufacturing and exports.
• Infrastructure development: Infrastructure development has the ability to create a multiplier effect with every rupee invested, yielding much higher returns.
• Employment opportunity: To act as a source of employment opportunities for the youth in future.

Why need such a plan?

• The push for infrastructure is in line with the government’s efforts to step up capital expenditure in infrastructure to promote economic growth.
• Infrastructure development has the ability to create a multiplier effect with every rupee invested, yielding much higher returns.
• A similar plan, called the National Infrastructure Pipeline was previously announced.

Let us learn about the National Infrastructure Pipeline in short.

What is the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)?

• NIP includes economic and social infrastructure projects.
• During the fiscals 2020 to 2025, sectors such as Energy (24%), Roads (19%), Urban (16%), and Railways (13%) amount to around 70% of the projected capital expenditure in infrastructure in India.
• It has outlined plans to invest more than ₹102 lakh crore on infrastructure projects by 2024-25, with the Centre, States and the private sector to share the capital expenditure in a 39:39:22 formula.

What are the key benefits of NIP?

• Economic: Well-planned NIP will enable more infra projects, grow businesses, create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all, making growth more inclusive.
• Government: Well-developed infrastructure enhances the level of economic activity, creates additional fiscal space by improving the revenue base of the government, and ensures the quality of expenditure focused in productive areas.
• Developers: Provides a better view of project supply, provides time to be better prepared for project bidding, reduces aggressive bids/ failure in project delivery, ensures enhanced access to sources of finance as a result of increased investor confidence.
• Banks/financial institutions (F1s)/investors: Builds investor confidence as identified projects are likely to be better prepared, exposures less likely to suffer stress given active project monitoring, thereby less likelihood of NPAs.

Why the infra sector is given more emphasis these days?

• Pandemic induces Slowdown: Slowdown due to the pandemic is a good time to catch up on infrastructure capacity and increase the expenditure.
• Multiplier effect on job creation and economy: Infrastructure spending is a critical component of the fiscal stimulus as it has multiplier effects on the economy and job creation.
• Inclusive Growth: Quality infrastructure is important not only for faster economic growth but also to ensure inclusive growth and uplifting standard of living of people.
• Easy access for essential Social Services: Lack of adequate infrastructure not only holds a lack of economic development, but it also causes additional costs in terms of time, effort and money of the people for accessing essential social services.

What are the recent projects included in the Infrastructural planning?

• Sectors such as energy (24%), roads (18%), urban (17%) and railways (12%) amount to around 71% of the projected investments.
• The projects will also be spread across sectors such as irrigation, mobility, education, health, water and the digital sector.

What are the key infrastructure sectors which have a massive role in India’s economic development?

(1) Green Infrastructure:

• Green infrastructure refers to natural or semi-natural ecosystems that provide water resource management by introducing the natural water cycle into urban environments.
• It provides effective measures to manage urban flooding, water supply and quantity regulation, at the same time generating multiple environmental benefits.
• India will benefit if investments are steered towards green-infrastructure projects.
• Green bonds can provide a long-term source of debt capital for renewable infrastructure projects.
• Germany is one country that has been a nest for the innovation and application of green technologies. This can provide a useful lesson for India.
• By reducing local temperatures and shading building surfaces, green infrastructure reduces the cooling demand of buildings, thus cutting energy needs.

(2) Logistics Sector:

• The logistics sector needs to be improved because of its impact on improving competitiveness in the economy.
• Improving logistics sector has huge implication on exports and it is estimated that a 10% decrease in indirect logistics cost can increase 5-8% of exports.
• The Indian logistics sector provides livelihood to 22 million-plus people and improving the sector would facilitate a 10% decrease in indirect logistics cost, leading to a growth of 5-8% in exports.
• The worth of Indian logistics market would be around US$ 215 billion in next two years compared to about US$ 160 billion currently. Today, the Indian logistics sector is a sunshine industry and is going through a phase of transformation.
• key objectives for logistics in India, to be achieved in the next five years:
  1. Creating a single point of reference for all logistics and trade facilitation matters in the country which will also function as a knowledge and information sharing platform
  2. Driving logistics cost as a % of GDP down from estimated current levels of 13-14% to 10% in line with best-in-class global standards and incentivize the sector to become more efficient by promoting integrated development of logistics

(3) Social Infrastructure:

• Social services include, education, sports, art and culture; medical and public health, family welfare, water supply and sanitation, housing; urban development; welfare of Schedule Castes (SCs), Schedule Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Castes (OBCs), labor and labor welfare; social security and welfare, nutrition, relief on account of natural calamities etc. Expenditure on ‘Education’ pertains to expenditure on ‘Education, Sports, Arts and Culture’.
• India is committed to achieve these SDGs and a strong social infrastructure is key to achieve them.
• The government has been focusing on provisioning of assets such as schools, institutes of higher learning, hospitals, access to sanitation, water supply, road connectivity, affordable housing, skills and livelihood opportunities.
• This gains significance given the fact that India is home to the world’s youngest population as half of its population is below the age of 25.
• It has also been estimated that demographic advantage in India is available for five decades from 2005-06 to 2055-56, longer than any other country in the world. This demographic advantage can be reaped only if education, skilling and employment opportunities are provided to the young population.
• Being a developing economy “there is not enough fiscal space” to increase expenditure on critical social infrastructure.
• India has made significant progress in quantitative indicators such as enrolment levels and physical infrastructure like construction of school buildings, drinking water facilities, toilet, etc.
• India has been successful in achieving gender parity in the school sector and in higher education it is moving towards a better gender parity.
• Growing expenditure on health is burdening the public in general and is one of the highest in South Asian countries as per Economic Survey 2020-21.

(4) Ports:

• The major economies of the world have always realized the potential of shipping as a contributor to economic growth. For instance, control of the seas is a key component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
• The entire shipping infrastructure in peninsular India only helps foreign shipping liners. Foreign ship owners carry our inbound and outbound cargo. This is the case in container shipping too.
• India has unrealized potential in shipping, with 7,500 km of coastline and 14,500 km of navigable or potentially navigable waterways.
• More than one billion tonnes of cargo was handled across over 200 ports in India in 2015 with maritime logistics accounting for 90 per cent of international trade by volume and 72 per cent by value.
• As a country, we have still not optimized our carrying capacity. Much of foreign currency is drained as transshipment and handling costs every day.
• As a result, there is a wide gap between carrying capacity and multi-folded cargo growth in the country.
• India needs to revamp institutional and regulatory environment around ports.
• Corporatization of ports is one way of achieving efficient and world class ports by the conversion of major port trusts into truly commercial organizations.
• In terms of infrastructure, it is important to maintain draft to serve bigger vessels, ensure mechanization of ports through introduction of new equipment and procedures, build new facilities, upgrade existing facilities and automate systems/procedures.

(5) Transport infrastructure

• India’s population growth and economic development requires improved transport infrastructure, including through investments in roads, railways, and aviation, shipping and inland waterways.
• A key goal of India’s suite of regulatory reforms is to attract more foreign investment into the sector, including through new investment vehicles and innovative financial instruments. By 2030, transport is expected to attract over 60 per cent of infrastructure investment in India.
• We need sound public transport infrastructure because if we do not have proper infrastructure we cannot have urbanization.
• The Government of India has a range of projects to improve road infrastructure-
  • The National Highways Development Projects, which require investments of up to USD170 billion
  • The Bharatmala project, stretching from India’s western to eastern land borders which is unique and unprecedented in terms of its size and design.
  • The Northeast Express Highway (1,300 km express highway in northeast India).
• Technologically sound projects which are engineering marvels such as the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge, Chenani Nashri Tunnel and Bogi-Beel bridge and world-class expressways such as the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Western Peripheral Expressway are the recent key achievement showing India’s technological readiness in the sector.

(6) RAIL

• India’s railways play a major role in affordable transport of passengers and cargo across the country
• It is one of the largest networks in the world with 7,216 stations; 92,000 km of track and 1.3 million employees.
• Indian railways carried eight billion passengers and transported over one billion tonnes of freight in 2017–18
• However, most major corridors are facing severe capacity constraints and there are safety issues.
• The Ministry of Railways plans to improve and expand the rail network, renew the train fleet, and improve passenger safety.
• It plans to invest up to $170 billion over the next five years, with the largest proportion aimed at network expansion and decongestion, and safety.64 Investments are also planned for station redevelopment and the dedicated freight corridor between Delhi and Mumbai.
• The Government of India is seeking greater private investment through:
  • Allowing 100 per cent FDI in railways for construction, operation and maintenance of suburban corridor projects, high-speed train projects, railway electrification and signaling, among others.
  • Encouraging the development of new investment vehicles such as the Railways of India Development Fund to attract long term investment from global institutional investors.

What are the major constraints in the implementation of infrastructural projects?

The major implementation constraints that will be faced possibly in future are:

• Revenue shortfall: Slippage in revenue estimates may not be ruled out on account of the realization of lower than anticipated increases in nominal GDP growth, direct tax buoyancy, and disinvestment targets.
• Lesser funds with States: The Union government has accepted the 15th Finance Commission report recommendation, according to which vertical share of tax devolution from the center to states has been reduced 42% to 41%.
• Increasing Fiscal Deficit: Infrastructure development in India will be funded by fiscal stimulus. This can be reflected as the Centre has indicated taking the fiscal deficit to 4.5% of GDP by 2025-26.
  • However, the rising fiscal deficit can cause macro-economic stability issues like high inflation, crowding out, a downgrade of international ratings, etc.
• Structural Problems: Due to the lengthy processes in land acquisition and payment of compensation, the rate of implementation of projects is very slow on global standards.
  • Getting approvals are very difficult in terms of land access, environmental clearances; impending litigation in court delays the infrastructure projects.
  • Time and cost overruns due to delays in project implementation and procedural
  • Delays and lesser traffic growth than expected to increase the riskiness of the projects
  • Stalled or languishing projects and a shortfall in funds for maintenance

Conclusion

• Infrastructure development is the key to economic growth and well-being of the country’s people, as it will propel economic growth, improve quality of life contribute to GDP nationally.
• It is seen that investments in infrastructure equal to 1% of GDP will result in GDP growth of at least 2% as infrastructure has a “multiplier effect” on economic growth across sectors.
• Capacity creation and expansion in important segments like roads and highways, power, railways, renewable sector, ports, airports, metros etc, is a must for delivering impressive results.
• Over the period, formalization of the economy has taken place and any growth now onwards once projects like Gati Shakti Master Plan, NIP is in place will be more sustainable, rather than a boom-and-bust process.
• Therefore, massive infrastructure development is a sure way of achieving the government’s $5 trillion economy target.
• This is will give a boost to several sectors, create new jobs directly and indirectly, and eventually boost the commercial market, thereby propelling the country’s economic growth.
• Huge fiscal stimulus, provided by the government in the Budget 2021 is a step in the right direction. However, it needs to address structural and macroeconomic stability concerns, emanating from high public expenditure.

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The Prime Minister’s dream of a $5-trillion Indian economy by 2025 along with effective financial inclusion and sustainable economic outcomes is premised on investment from both domestic and foreign investors. Government expenditure can only provide a stimulus, but cannot alone take India to PM’s goal.

For domestic private investments to happen, the role of timely, adequate, and quality (low cost) credit cannot be overstated, particularly during the current times when Covid induced stress is maximum on almost all industries.

With the recent change in the definition, more than 95 percent of Indian companies are bought under the definition of MSMEs. So what ails the MSME sector largely reflects the credit eco-system for more or less the entire industry in this country. So it is very important to identify the issues the MSME sector face today and how we can rectify them.

But before that, let us look at various aspects of the MSME sector.

India’s MSME Sector

• The Indian MSME sector is the backbone of the national economic structure and has unremittingly acted as the bulwark for the Indian economy, providing it resilience to ward off global economic shocks and adversities.
• With around 63.4 million units throughout the geographical expanse of the country, MSMEs contribute around 6.11% of the manufacturing GDP and 24.63% of the GDP from service activities as well as 33.4% of India’s manufacturing output.
• They have been able to provide employment to around 120 million persons and contribute around 45% of the overall exports from India.

What are MSMEs? How are they defined?

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006 which was notified on October 2, 2006, deals with the definition of MSMEs. The MSMED Act, 2006 defines the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises based on:

1. the investment in plant and machinery for those engaged in manufacturing or production, processing or preservation of and
2. the investment in equipment for enterprises engaged in providing or rendering of services.

The significance of MSMEs:

The significance of MSMEs is attributable to their caliber for employment generation, low capital, and technology requirement.

• They are also important for the promotion of industrial development in rural areas, use of traditional or inherited skill, use of local resources, mobilization of resources and exportability of products.
• According to the estimates of the Ministry of MSME, Government of India, the sector generates around 100 million jobs through over 46 million units situated throughout the geographical expanse of the country.
• With 38% contribution to the nation’s GDP and 40% and 45% share of the overall exports and manufacturing output, respectively, it is easy to comprehend the salience of the role they play in social and economic restructuring of India.
• Besides the wide range of services provided by the sector, the sector is engaged in the manufacturing of over 6,000 products ranging from traditional to hi-tech items.

Why the MSME sector is important especially for India?

• Employment: The Indian MSME sector provides maximum opportunities for both self-employment and wage-employment outside the agricultural sector.
• Help building inclusive and sustainable society: It contributes to building an inclusive and sustainable society in innumerable ways through the creation of non-farm livelihood at low cost, balanced regional development, gender and social balance, environmentally sustainable development, etc.
• For example: Khadi and Village industries require low per capita investment and employs a large number of women in rural areas.
• Contribution to GDP: With around 36.1 million units throughout the geographical expanse of the country, MSMEs contribute around 6.11% of the manufacturing GDP and 24.63% of the GDP from service activities.
• MSME ministry has set a target to up its contribution to GDP to 50% by 2025 as India becomes a $5 trillion economy.
• Exports: It contributes around 45% of the overall exports from India.

How many MSMEs does India have, who owns them?

• According to the latest available (2018-19) Annual Report of Department of MSMEs, there are 6.34 crore MSMEs in the country.
• Around 51 per cent of these are situated in rural India.
• Together, they employ a little over 11 crore people but 55 per cent of the employment happens in the urban MSMEs.

• The numbers suggest that, on average, less than two people are employed per MSME.
• At one level that gives a picture of how small these really are. But a breakup of all MSMEs into micro, small and medium categories is even more revealing.

What are the issues MSMEs face?

(1) Access to Credit: Most of the MSMEs are in rural and semi-urban areas where access to credit is extremely limited.

• They are vulnerable to predatory moneylenders and often fall into a cycle of debt.
• Lack of access to finance and timely credit support in business has been a long-standing issue for these MSMEs.

(2) Under Severe Debt: Due to difficulties faced in seeking loans and working capital from banks and delays in receiving government payments and tax refunds, most of the MSMEs are under severe debt.

(3) Under financing by formal institutions: There is an overall debt demand of ₹69.3 trillion of which 84 percent is financed by informal sources such as moneylenders, family, friends, and chit funds (IFC study).

• Formal sources such as commercial banks, NBFCs and government institutions cater to a mere 16 per cent.

• The failure of traditional lending mechanisms to guide credit towards these MSMEs has led to a scenario where financing is often not reliable, and steady.
• This has been particularly exacerbated by the pandemic, as well as the poor state of micro financing in the country, highlighted by India’s estimated credit gap of over $330 billion.

(4) Small size of the majority of firms: More these 80 percent of these MSMEs are in the micro and small category and are depending on informal sources of credit.

• The usefulness of the government’s emergency line credit stressed asset relief, equity participation and fund of funds operation make very little meaning and contribution to the sector.

(5) Insufficient financing by banks due to fear of NPAs: Banks employ various methods to limit risk by better assessment of the creditworthiness of individuals or firms, MSMEs included. To keep NPAs down, many credit-worthy individuals are denied loans by banks.

• While determining creditworthiness, there are two errors that are common — False Acceptance of a bad applicant and False Rejection of a good applicant.
• The former error is detrimental for banks and increases risk while the latter impacts financial inclusion and economic growth itself.
• While there are number of punitive actions prescribed against commissions of irregular loan financing, there is complete absence of punitive action against omissions of genuine credit financing of businesses, particularly the MSMEs.
• Thus, there is no incentive for bank managers to take risks and finance genuine credit requirements.
• This kind of approach to credit adversely impacts both growth and financial inclusion.

(6) Lack of paperwork or digital footprint for small MSMEs, a factor that holds them back from being integrated into the formal economy and deprives the MSMEs to take advantage of the formal credit system.

• They continue to gain access to credit against assets such as land, etc. when much of the MSME development has started to follow a digital model.

(7) Technological Disruption: India‘s MSME sector is based on obsolete technology, which hampers its production efficiency.

• The emergence of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Robotics, and related technologies (collectively called as Industry Revolution 4.0) is a bigger challenge for MSMEs than for organized large-scale manufacturing.

Other problems

• Long receivables cycles make a mess of working capital management.
• Limited access to trained labour, technical progress and management support limit their growth.
• Other common problems faced by small enterprises are related to the availability of technology, infrastructure and managerial competence, and limitations posed by labour laws, taxation policy, market uncertainty and imperfect competition.

Opportunity areas for MSMEs in India

Telecommunications

• Domestic manufacturing of low-cost mobile phones, handsets, and devices;
• Manufacturing of telecom networking equipment, including routers and switches;
• Manufacture of base transceiver station equipment;
• Mobile customer data analytics – services oriented toward analytical solutions; and
• Development of value-added services

Healthcare

• Manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and face masks, as the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed social behaviour, public health and hospital needs, and created new demand;
• Manufacturing of low-cost medical devices, and medical accessories such as surgical gloves, scrubs, and syringes;
• Low-cost surgical procedures to reduce the cost of healthcare;
• Telemedicine; and
• Diagnostic labs.

Electronics

• Domestic manufacturing of low-cost consumer electronics, consumer durables;
• Nano-electronics and microelectronics;
• Electronic Systems Design and Manufacturing including semiconductor design, electronic components design and hi-tech manufacturing under India’s ‘National Electronics Mission; and
• Strategic electronics, as the government is keen on encouraging the domestic manufacturing of products needed by the security forces.

Others

• Other areas that offer opportunities for MSMEs include information technology, pharmaceutical, chemical, automotive, renewable, gems and jewellery, textile, and food and agriculture.

COVID-19 and MSMEs

• The MSMEs were already struggling — in terms of declining revenues and capacity utilization — in the lead-up to the Covid-19 crisis.
• The total lockdown has raised a question mark on workers payment primarily because these firms mostly transact on cash. That explains the job losses.
• The problem with most small Indian businesses is that they operate on thin margins and don’t have the deep financial resources to survive a significant dip in cash flows.
• So, when an unexpected event like a lockdown happens and MSMEs can’t sell/produce their goods or services, it also means for many they can’t meet their monthly expenses – this includes costs like paying salaries to their employees.

Fiscal stimulus package to MSMEs under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

Finance Minister has announced the first tranche of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan economic package. The main thrust of the announcements was a relief to Medium, Small, and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) in the form of a massive increase in credit guarantees to them.

What is the package about?

Instead of directly infusing money into the economy or giving it directly to MSMEs in terms of a bailout package, the government has resorted to taking over the credit risk of MSMEs.

1) 100% credit guarantee

• Firstly, it will give a 100% credit guarantee for Rs 3 lakh crore worth of collateral-free loans to MSMEs that were doing fine before the pandemic hit and are now in trouble.
• This deal will only apply to small businesses that already had an outstanding loan of Rs 25 crore or those with a turnover of less than Rs 100 crore.
• Thus, banks don’t have to worry about potential NPAs – that headache is transferred to the government.

2) Subordinate debt scheme

• The second measure is a ‘subordinate debt scheme’ worth Rs 20,000 crore and is mainly for MSMEs who are already struggling with debt and are unlikely to get fresh funding by themselves.
• This scheme will allow banks and NBCs to give loans to MSMEs which are already deemed as ‘stressed’ and are thus less credit-worthy.

3) Availability of Funds

• The final step involves the government creating a Rs 50,000-crore fund which will infuse equity into “viable” MSMEs, thus helping them to expand and grow.
• The basic idea behind this is that MSMEs will keep their businesses afloat until they are able to operate at pre-pandemic levels.
• By doing this, the government also hopes to protect the employment that MSMEs create and thus save jobs.

Government schemes to promote MSMEs

1. Udyami Mitra Portal: launched by SIDBI to improve accessibility of credit and handholding services to MSMEs.
2. MSME Sambandh: To monitor the implementation of the public procurement from MSMEs by Central Public Sector Enterprises.
3. MSME Samadhaan: MSME Delayed Payment Portal –– will empower Micro and Small entrepreneurs across the country to directly register their cases relating to delayed payments by Central Ministries/Departments/CPSEs/State Governments.
4. Digital MSME Scheme: It involves usage of Cloud Computing where MSMEs use the internet to access common as well as tailor-made IT infrastructure
5. Revamped Scheme of Fund for Regeneration Of Traditional Industries (SFURTI): organizes traditional industries and artisans into clusters and make them competitive by enhancing their marketability & equipping them with improved skills.
6. A Scheme for Promoting Innovation, Rural Industry & Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE): creates new jobs & reduce unemployment, promotes entrepreneurship culture, facilitates innovative business solution etc.
7. Micro & Small Enterprises Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP) – adopts cluster development approach for enhancing the productivity and competitiveness as well as capacity building of MSEs.
8. Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) is operational for upgradation of technology for MSMEs.

Way Forward

• Focused regulatory and structural changes which will improve access, ease the transition to the formal sector and increase consumer education and protection are necessary.
• In the long term, once these regulatory issues are addressed, sanctioned loans will be disbursed more easily and private investment will be boosted, creating a virtuous cycle for MSMEs in the country.
• To minimize the false rejections of good applicants, routine audits of all loan applications on random sampling basis must be undertaken by RBI and administrative action taken against malafide omissions resulting in unethical denial of loans to deserving MSMEs.
• The problems faced by MSMEs need to be considered in a disaggregated manner for successful policy implementation as they produce very diverse products, use different inputs and operate in distinct environments.
• In general, there is a need for tax provisions and laws that are not only labor-friendly but also entrepreneur-friendly.
• More importantly, there is a need for skill formation and continuous upgrade both for labor and entrepreneurs.

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The Taliban entered Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, following a week of rapid territorial gains from retreating government forces battling to hold off the Islamist militant group. President Ashraf Ghani has fled the war-torn country.

Afghanistan being rugged and mountainous, ethnically heterogeneous, and poorly developed; foreign powers are now intervening on both sides of the conflict. Its leadership was demoralized by the unseemly haste of the US troops’ withdrawal.

Let us learn some key facts about the Taliban’s history and ideology.

Who are the Taliban?

The Taliban (literally meaning “students”) or Taleban, who refer to themselves as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) are a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement and military organization in Afghanistan currently waging war (an insurgency, or jihad) within that country.

A history of the Taliban

• The Taliban emerged in 1994 around the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
• It was one of the factions fighting a civil war for control of the country following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union and subsequent collapse of the government.
• It originally drew members from so-called “mujahideen” fighters who, with support from the United States, repelled Soviet forces in the 1980s.
• About 90,000 Afghans, including several bountied terrorists, were trained by Pakistan’s ISI during the 1980s.
• Hence it can be concluded that the Taliban have arisen from those US-Saudi-Pakistan-supported Mujahedeen: The West helped the Taliban to fight the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan.

What is its ideology?

At the core of its diplomacy lies the untenable violent extremism based on radical religious ideology.

• During its five years in power, the Taliban enforced a strict version of Sharia law.
• Women were predominantly barred from working or studying, and were confined to their homes unless accompanied by a male guardian.
• Public executions and floggings were common, Western films and books were banned, and cultural artifacts seen as blasphemous under Islam were destroyed.

International recognition of the Taliban

• Only four countries, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia, recognized the Taliban government when it was in power.
• The vast majority of other countries, along with the United Nations, instead recognized a group holding provinces to the north of Kabul as the rightful government-in-waiting.
• The United States and the United Nations imposed sanctions on the Taliban, and most countries show little sign it will recognize the group diplomatically.
• Other countries such as China have begun cautiously signaling they may recognize the Taliban as a legitimate regime.

The 9-11

• The United States invasion of Afghanistan occurred after the September 11 attacks in late 2001 and was supported by close US allies.
• Its public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda and deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power.
• US President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda; bin Laden had already been wanted by the FBI since 1998.
• The Taliban declined to extradite him unless given what they deemed convincing evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks and ignored demands to shut down terrorist bases and hand over other terrorist suspects apart from bin Laden.
• The US demand was dismissed by the Taliban with meaningless delaying tactics. Disgusted with it, the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001.

Afghan Peace Process

• The Afghan peace process comprises the proposals and negotiations in a bid to end the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
• This ‘US-Taliban deal signed in February 2020 was seen in India as a “victory for Taliban and Pakistan”.
• Besides the US, major powers such as China, India, Russia, as well as NATO play a part that they see as facilitating the peace process.
• The peace process has not made much headway mainly because violence by the Taliban continues unabated.
• The Taliban now view this as an important milestone and is busy trying to establish their military superiority on the ground.

Why did the US quit?

1. Huge cost: The Afghan war is estimated to have cost $2-trillion, with more than 3,500 American and coalition soldiers killed. Afghanistan lost hundreds of thousands of people, both civilians and soldiers.
2. Failure in curbing insurgency: After all these, the Taliban is at its strongest moment since the U.S. launched the war. The insurgents’ control or contest the government control in half of the country, mainly in its hinterlands.
3. Face saving: The US better recognized its defeat and considered not to sacrifice more American soldiers and inflict more suffering on the Afghan people.
4. Global recognition to Taliban: Taliban is now more organized as an organization with diplomats on par with modern democratic nations with state apparatus propaganda.

What are the implications of the deal for India?

• India has been backing the Ghani-led government and was among very few countries to congratulate Ghani on his victory.
• There has not been formal contact with top Taliban leaders, the Indian mission has a fair amount of access to the Pashtun community throughout Afghanistan through community development projects of about $3 billion.
• Due to so, although the Pakistan military and its ally Taliban have become dominant players in Kabul’s power circles, South Block insiders insist that it is not all that grim for New Delhi.
• These high-impact projects, diplomats feel India has gained goodwill among ordinary Afghans, the majority of whom are Pashtuns and some may be aligned with the Taliban as well.

What are India’s key investments in Afghanistan?

India’s contribution has been phenomenal in every area in Afghanistan since India built the Afghan Parliament. India has been a major military and developmental assistance partner for Afghanistan. Let us have a look at various projects India has built across Afghanistan.

A soft corner

• Afghanistan is vital to India’s strategic interests in the region.
• It is also perhaps the only SAARC nation whose people have much affection for India.
• Taliban takeover would mean a reversal of nearly 20 years of rebuilding a relationship that goes back centuries.

Projects across the country

(1) Salma Dam:

• It is one of India’s high-visibility projects is located — the 42MW Salma Dam in Herat province.

(2) Zaranj-Delaram Highway:

• The other high-profile project was the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by the Border Roads Organisation.
• India had transported 75,000 tonnes of wheat through Chabahar to Afghanistan during the pandemic.

(3) Parliament building:

• The Afghan Parliament in Kabul was built by India at $90 million. It was opened in 2015.

(4) Stor Palace:

• It is the restored Stor Palace in Kabul, originally built in the late 19th century, and which was the setting for the 1919 Rawalpindi Agreement by which Afghanistan became an independent country.

(5) Power Infrastructure:

• Other Indian projects in Afghanistan include the rebuilding of power infrastructure such as the 220kV DC transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri, to the north of Kabul. 

(6) Health Infrastructure:

• India has reconstructed a children’s hospital it had helped build in Kabul in 1972 —named Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health in 1985 — that was in shambles after the war.
• ‘Indian Medical Missions’ have held free consultation camps in several areas. Thousands who lost their limbs after stepping on mines left over from the war have been fitted with the Jaipur Foot.

(7) Transportation:

• India gifted 400 buses and 200 mini-buses for urban transportation, 105 utility vehicles for municipalities, 285 military vehicles for the Afghan National Army, and 10 ambulances for public hospitals in five cities.
• It also gave three Air India aircraft to Ariana, the Afghan national carrier, when it was restarting operations.

 (8) Ongoing Projects:

• Shatoot Dam: India had concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot Dam in Kabul district, which would provide safe drinking water to 2 million residents.

Bilateral trade

• The India-Afghanistan trade has grown with the establishment of an air freight corridor in 2017.
• In 2019-20, bilateral trade crossed $1.3 billion. The balance of trade is heavily tilted — exports from India are worth approximately $900 million, while Afghanistan’s exports to India are about $500 million.
• Afghan exports are mainly fresh and dried fruit.
• Exports include pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, computers and related materials, cement, and sugar.
• Trade through Chabahar started in 2017 but is restricted by the absence of connectivity from the port to the Afghan border.

India and the Taliban

• A Qatari official revealed that there was a “quiet visit by Indian officials to speak with the Taliban”.
• India wants to play a positive role and sabotage those countries that support other terror groups in Afghan.
• India is pressing on a peace process all around Afghanistan so that all countries shall be peaceful.

Why Taliban’s control over Afghanistan is a matter of concern for India and the world?

(1) Border issues and export of terrorism:

• The Taliban is occupying the border areas with other countries instead of central Afghanistan and have taken control of the districts bordering Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
• The Taliban is only 400 km away from the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. The Taliban have captured the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, which borders PoK.
• If Taliban establish their government by capturing all the districts of Afghanistan, then they will be able to easily send their terrorists to Jammu and Kashmir and help Pakistan.

(2) China factor:

• Apart from Pakistan, China can also become a challenge for India. That is because while Pakistan has influence over the Taliban, China is currently the biggest investor for Afghanistan.
• At present, there are big Chinese projects going on in Afghanistan and the Taliban knows that if it wants to keep its position strong then it will need Chinese money the most.

(3) Violence and loss of lives:

• India is concerned over the violence and loss of lives in Afghanistan. Violence has increased manifold after peace talks have started.
• It supports zero tolerance against violence.

(5) India’s investments are at stake:

• India, which has committed $3 billion in development aid and reconstruction activities, backs the Ashraf Ghani government in the war-torn country.

(6) Democracy:

• New Delhi wants an all-inclusive “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled” peace process—not one that is remote-controlled by Pakistan, seen as the backers of the Taliban.

(7) Neighborhood first:

• Afghanistan is a part of India’s extended neighborhood and a link to Central Asia.

(8) Pakistan controlling Afghan policy on India:

• Taliban’s extremist ideology leans heavily towards Pakistan’s official foreign policy towards India. A Taliban-controlled government in Kabul would mean Pakistan controlling Afghan policy on India.

Reasons for Taliban’s success in Afghanistan:

1. Lack of national sentiment in the Afghan army:

• The Afghan national army could never exist. The United States spent billions of dollars on their build-up and salaries, but there were several allegations of corruption in reaching out to those salaries soldiers.
• Many soldiers did not exist – they were only on paper and their salaries were being eaten by the officer.
• Many soldiers from various gangs lacked national spirit. So they started running away as soon as they saw the enemy.

2. The Taliban have a close understanding of local geography:

• The Afghan army had sophisticated weapons and aircraft, but it was difficult to maintain them. Also, the Taliban tracked down and killed their pilots.
• The American weapons of Afghan soldiers who had fled the war were easily available to those who fought for the Taliban. The Taliban already had weapons from the Soviet invasion.
• The Taliban had a close knowledge of local geography. There was also the help of many locals. Therefore, even though the weapons were slightly less, the deficiency was filled with this information.

3. Taliban gets revenue from drug trafficking:

• The Taliban generates huge revenue from drug trafficking. They closed each border and tightened the financial pulses of the government in Kabul.

4. Government fails to instill confidence in soldiers to fight:

• Although the United States had formed a democratic government in Afghanistan, the local people had a similar image of the Western rule. Therefore, the army and the people also did not trust the government.
• When the Taliban troops arrived to Kabul, it was President Ashraf Ghani who stepped out.
• Therefore, the national army was in a state of disrepair. The government failed to instill confidence in the soldiers to fight.

5. Efficient propaganda and intelligence:

• The Taliban are a revolutionary movement, deeply opposed to the Afghan tribal system and focused on the rebuilding of the Islamic Emirate.
• Their propaganda and intelligence are efficient, and the local autonomy of their commanders in the field allows them both flexibility and cohesion.

6. Use of local sentiments:

• They have made clever use of ethnic tensions, the rejection of foreign forces by the Afghan people, and the lack of local administration to gain support in the population.
• Doing so, they have achieved their objectives isolating the local Afghan administration, and establishing a parallel administration.

Pakistan’s affinity with the Taliban

• The Pakistani security and political establishment is now savoring the Taliban victory.
• While this is not possible to verify, Pakistan’s has undeniable in providing the Taliban shelter on its territory.
• The safe havens had existed from virtually the start of the US “war on terror” in 2001.
• The US was aware of this, but because its need for Pakistan as a logistics back end for the war in Afghanistan was greater.
• Concerns: An immediate fallout would be an influx of refugees, which would be a drain on Pakistan’s slender resources.

Taliban as a proxy

Over the last three decades, Pakistan has viewed the Taliban as serving a two-fold purpose:

1. First, a Taliban regime in Kabul and its umbilical connection with Pakistan would ensure the Pakistan military a free pass over Afghanistan, territory that it has coveted for “strategic depth” in its enmity with India.
2. Second, ensuring Pakistan agency over Afghan routes into Central Asia.

Why China is supporting the Taliban?

• Security of CPEC projects in Pakistan is the prime Chinese concern.
• China today commands an economy worth $14.7 trillion — more than 17 times its size in 1996 — and a massive trade-and-infrastructure initiative that stretches across the Eurasian landmass.
• Beijing’s fears about Islamist extremism among its own Uyghur minority have also deepened in recent years, leading it to build a vast police state adjacent to Afghanistan.

What next for India

• As India considers its options, it is fairly certain that while India will lose influence in Afghanistan, the India-Pakistan relationship will acquire one more layer of difficulty due to the Taliban comeback.
• Like all radical groups, the Taliban will have trouble balancing its religious ideology with the imperatives of state interests.
• India would want to carefully watch how this tension plays out. Equally important is the nature of the relationship between the Taliban and Pakistan.
• India must fully prepare for a renewal of cross-border terror, but there is a lot less global acceptance of terrorism today than in the permissive 1990s.

Way forward

• In the short-term, the Afghan people—especially women—must be spared violence and brutality arising from the Taliban regime’s assumption of power.
• Over the longer term, they must be allowed to live under the broad norms of the 21st century, assured of their safety, dignity and liberty.
• Taliban have several sections that are both radical and some want talks with the international community.
• So international organizations like the UN must come forward to stop the sponsor of terrorism.
• Nations should come together against the Taliban so that it can’t move forward without any foreign aid.
• Aid and developmental cooperation through the UN, India, USA must be done simultaneously for the restoration of democracy.
• Tangible demonstration of commitment is required from all stakeholders for a political settlement and to have a permanent ceasefire in Afghanistan.

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The Earth faces a looming crisis. Globally, temperatures are rising. Heatwaves, droughts, ocean acidification, and rising sea levels are on the horizon. Around 90% of the world lives in the northern hemisphere with major population centers in the tropical and subtropical regions. These regions will be severely affected.

Let us look at this issue in detail.

What is permafrost?

• Permafrost is ground that remains completely frozen at 0 degrees Celsius or below for at least two years and is defined solely based on temperature and duration.
• It is composed of rock, sediments, sand, dead plant and animal matter, soil, and varying degrees of ice and is believed to have formed during glacial periods dating several millennia.
• It is mainly found near the polar zones and regions with high mountains covering parts of Greenland, Alaska, Russia, Northern Canada, Siberia and Scandinavia. 
• Its thickness reduces progressively towards the south and is affected by a number of other factors, including the Earth’s interior heat, snow and vegetation cover, presence of water bodies, and topography.

How does permafrost form?

• Just as a puddle of water freezes on a frigid winter night, water that is trapped in sediment, soil, and the cracks, crevices, and pores of rocks turns to ice when ground temperatures drop below 32°F (0°C).
• When the earth remains frozen for at least two consecutive years, it’s called permafrost. If the ground freezes and thaws every year, it’s considered “seasonally frozen.”

What is the composition of permafrost?

• Permafrost is made of a combination of soil, rocks and sand that are held together by ice. The soil and ice in permafrost stay frozen all year long.
• Near the surface, permafrost soils also contain large quantities of organic carbon—a material leftover from dead plants that couldn’t decompose, or rot away, due to the cold.
• Lower permafrost layers contain soils made mostly of minerals.

• A layer of soil on top of permafrost does not stay frozen all year. This layer, called the active layer, thaws during the warm summer months and freezes again in the fall.

Permafrost thawing

• When permafrost thaws, water from the melted ice makes its way to the caves along with ground sediments, and deposits on the rocks.
• In other words, when permafrost thaws, the rocks grow and when permafrost is stable and frozen, they do not grow.

Why thawing?

• The link between the Siberian permafrost and Arctic sea ice can be explained by two factors:
• One is heat transport from the open Arctic Ocean into Siberia, making the Siberian climate warmer.
• The second is moisture transport from open seawater into Siberia, leading to thicker snow cover that insulates the ground from cold winter air, contributing to its warming.
• This is drastically different from the situation just a couple of decades ago when the sea ice acted as a protective layer, maintaining cold temperatures in the region and shielding the permafrost from the moisture from the ocean.
• If sea ice (in the summer) is gone, permafrost starts thawing.

How much of the earth’s surface is permafrost?

• In the northern hemisphere, permafrost covers an estimated 9 million square miles—nearly the size of the United States, China, and Canada combined. However, that footprint is rapidly shrinking.
• While global warming is upping temperatures around the world, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else—and faster than it has in the past 3 million years.
• And when surface air temperatures rise, below-ground temperatures do, too, thawing permafrost along the way.
• Scientists estimate there is now 10 percent less frozen ground in the northern hemisphere than there was in the early 1900s. With every additional 1.8°F (1°C) of warming, an additional 1.5 million square miles of permafrost could eventually disappear.
• Even if we meet the climate targets laid out during the 2015 Paris climate talks, the world may still lose more than 2.5 million square miles of frozen turf.

Associated issues with the Thawing of Permafrost

Worsen the effects of the climate crisis

• In the Arctic, temperatures are rising twice as fast in other parts of the world. As a result, the thick layer of soil called permafrost that has remained frozen throughout the year is thawing.
• The Permafrost contains vast amounts of carbon. Roughly about 60% of the world’s soil carbon is held in just 15% of the global soil area. This is estimated to be about 1.5 trillion metric tons of carbon.
• The thawing of permafrost will worsen the effects of the climate crisis, because stored carbon will be released in the process.
• Likewise, the loss of sea ice and ice sheets covering land will accelerate the rise in temperatures. White ice reflects sunlight keeping the planet cooler, whereas darker seawater absorbs heat.

• Experts believe this process may have already begun. Giant craters and ponds of water (called ‘thermokarst lakes’) formed due to thawing have been recorded in the Arctic region. Some are so big that they can be seen from space.
• Scientific estimates suggest that the Arctic Ocean could be largely sea ice-free in the summer months by as early as 2030, based on observational trends, or as late as 2050, based on climate model projections.
• A study has shown that every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature can degrade up to 39 lakh square kilometer due to Permafrost thawing ( the ice inside the permafrost melts, leaving behind water and soil).

Higher latitudes will face challenges hitherto faced by tropical areas

• Increase of average temperatures is modifying the environment in other ways too.
• Diseases that have typically afflicted the equatorial belt are spreading up into higher latitudes. Mosquitoes, ticks, and other insects spread many of these diseases.
• The West Nile virus causes hundreds of deaths every year in the United States, where it was first reported in 1999. With rising temperatures, West Nile will become more prevalent in Canada, including parts of the Arctic.
• Warming temperatures are also causing changes in the habitats of wild birds such as ducks and geese that can carry avian flu.
• Earlier this year, Russia reported the first case of the H5N8 avian flu passing from birds to humans. Changes in habitats of other wild animals such as foxes might also increase the geographic distribution of rabies.

Rise of viruses and bacteria

• Scientists are also concerned about the rise of viruses and bacteria from thawing permafrost and ice. In the summer of 2016, there was an outbreak of anthrax in a remote part of Siberia.
• Dozens of people were infected, and a young boy was killed. Around 2,300 reindeer perished in the outbreak.
• Spread:
  • Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by bacteria that can remain dormant as spores. Spores of anthrax can remain viable for at least a few decades in frozen soil and ice.
  • A plausible idea of how the outbreak started is that record temperatures that year caused a frozen reindeer carcass infected with anthrax spores to thaw.
  • And as carcasses of other animals (including those of extinct mammoths) thaw, we might see more disease outbreaks.

Potential to cause epidemics

• Another concern is the emergence of viruses and bacteria with the potential to cause epidemics. These disease-causing microbes might be dormant for hundreds or even thousands of years.
• Genetic material from the H1N1 influenza virus that caused the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, as well as that of smallpox have been recovered from permafrost.
• The reemergence of a virus like smallpox (which is the only human disease to have been eradicated) would be disturbing since humans are no longer routinely vaccinated.
• Infectious viruses and bacteria can be resurrected from frozen ice, soil, animal carcasses, and human corpses.
• In 2014, researchers reported the discovery of giant viruses that had been dormant in Siberian permafrost for around 30,000 years.

Tibetan Plateau and the virus samples

• These conditions are not restricted to the Arctic alone either. Glacial ice that has persisted for thousands of years is melting.
• Recently, the journal Microbiome reporting 15,000-year-old-viruses (including 28 different kinds identified for the first time) that they found in glacial ice from the Tibetan Plateau.

 The threat to infrastructure

• Thawing permafrost is also ominous for man-made structures overhead.
• The Russian oil leak occurred recorded temperatures in Siberia at more than 10 degrees Celsius above average, and called them “highly anomalous” for the region where the power plant is located.
• As temperatures rise, the binding ice in permafrost melts, making the ground unstable and leading to massive potholes, landslides, and floods.
• The sinking effect causes damage to key infrastructure such as roads, railway lines, buildings, power lines and pipelines.
• These changes also threaten the survival of indigenous people, as well as Arctic animals.

Altered landscapes

• Thawing permafrost alters natural ecosystems in many ways as well. It can create thermokarsts, areas of sagging ground and shallow ponds that are often characterized by “drunken forests” of askew trees.
• It can make soil—once frozen solid—more vulnerable to landslides and erosion, particularly along coasts.

• As this softened soil erodes, it can introduce new sediment to waterways, which may alter the flow of rivers and streams, degrade water quality (including by the introduction of carbon), and impact aquatic wildlife.
• Wetlands also deteriorate along with permafrost, as the water sinks further underground without a frozen buffer to keep it in place.
• This can create drier terrain more susceptible to wildfires, which expose even more permafrost to warming.

How Can We Stop Permafrost from Thawing?

Greenhouse gas emissions need to be arrested

• In order to curtail climate change and save the permafrost, it is indispensable that global CO2 emissions be reduced by 45% over the next decade, and that they fall to zero after 2050.
• To mitigate climate change, there is a need to take a global collective action. If one country cuts its emissions, that is going to be of little use if the others do not follow suit.

Slow down erosion

• The scientific journal Nature suggested building a 100-metre-long dam in front of the Jakobshavn glacier (Greenland), the worst affected by Arctic melting, to contain its erosion.

Refreeze the Arctic

• Indonesian architect has won an award for his project Refreeze the Arctic, which consists of collecting water from melted glaciers, desalinating it and refreezing it to create large hexagonal ice blocks.
• Thanks to their shape, these icebergs could then be combined to create frozen masses.

Strengthening their consistency

• Some researchers propose a solution to manufacture more ice. Their proposal consists of collecting ice from below the glacier through pumps driven by wind power to spread it over the upper ice caps, so that it will freeze, thus strengthening the consistency.

People’s awareness and policy intervention

• The tundra and the permafrost beneath it may seem far away, but no matter where we live, the everyday choices we make contribute to climate change.
• By reducing our carbon footprint, investing in energy-efficient products, and supporting climate-friendly businesses, legislation, and policies, we can help preserve the world’s permafrost and avert a vicious cycle of an ever-warming planet.

Conclusion

• For most of us, the tundra and the permafrost beneath it may seem a million miles away. But no matter where we live, the everyday choices we make that contribute in some small way to climate change collectively can add up to a big impact on the world’s coldest climes.
• By reducing our carbon footprint, investing in energy-efficient products, and supporting climate-friendly businesses, legislation, and policies, we can help preserve the world’s permafrost and avert a vicious cycle of an ever-warming planet.
• To be clear, the chances of an epidemic originating from microbes originating from permafrost or ice is low. But as the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated, even low probability events with major consequences need to be taken seriously.

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When democratically elected governments cease to be held accountable by a society weakened by poor health, low morale and joblessness, demagogues are prone to blindness and ineptitude.

John Keane

The global surveys are everywhere reporting dipping confidence in democracy and marked jumps in citizens’ frustrations with government corruption and incompetence. Young people are the least satisfied with democracy — much more disaffected than previous generations at the same age.

Most worrying are the survey findings for India, which is fast developing a reputation as the ‘world’s largest failing democracy’. In its Democracy Report 2020, Sweden’s V-Dem Institute noted that India “has almost lost its status as a democracy”. It ranked India below Sierra Leone, Guatemala, and Hungary.

In this context, let us find out that do India faces any challenges to democracy and what can be done to make it a better democratic country. But before that, let us find out what a true democracy means.

What is mean by democracy?

• Democracy is a form of government in which power ultimately comes from the people who are governed, either through direct voting or through elected representatives.
• Democracy is a whole way of life. It is freedom from hunger, humiliation and violence.
• Democracy is saying no to every form of human and non-human indignity.
• It is respect for women, tenderness with children, and access to jobs that bring satisfaction and sufficient reward to live comfortably.
• Democracy is public and private respect for different ways of living.
• It is humility i.e. the willingness to admit that impermanence renders all life vulnerable, that in the end nobody is invincible, and that ordinary lives are never ordinary.
• Democracy is equal access to decent medical care and sympathy for those who have fallen behind. It’s the rejection of the dogma that things can’t be changed because they’re “naturally” fixed in stone.

Why democracy?

• The idea of democracy derives its moral strength – and popular appeal – from two key principles:

1. Individual autonomy: The idea that no one should be subject to rules which have been imposed by others. People should be able to control their own lives (within reason).

2. Equality: The idea that everyone should have the same opportunity to influence the decisions that affect people in society.

What are the basic forms of democracy?

1.  Direct Democracy: Citizens participate in the decision-making personally. Example- Switzerland.

2. Representative Democracy: Elected officials represent a group of people. It is an element of both parliamentary and presidential systems of government.

For example India, UK, US, etc.

What are the essential elements of democracy?

1. Freedom
2. Respect for human rights
3. Holding periodic, genuine elections by universal suffrage.

Democracy in India

• Ancient India had democratic republic even before 6th century BCE and India has seen democratic rule through ages. Vaishali (in present day Bihar) is considered one of the first republics around 6th century BCE.
• Republics at that time were called ‘Mahajanpadas’ and Sabhas and Samitis (assemblies) existed. Panchayat systems were also used in some of these republics.
• Anti-colonial movements in India brought democracy in picture during British rule in India. Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, etc helped in bringing universal adult franchise, at a time when literacy rate was very low in the nation.
• Government of India Act, 1935 laid foundation of democratic rule in India.
• Although Gandhi wanted village republic as a basic unit, India went for Westminster type of political model.
• But India granted Universal Adult Franchise under Article 326 of its Constitution effective since 1950 giving a strong base for democracy.
• Indian Republic at present has a parliamentary system of democracy and a federal structure in which leaders are elected by citizens of various castes, classes, religions, etc.

How do democracies die (Causes of Democide)?

(1) Failure of the government

• Democide is usually a slow-motion and messy process. Wild rumors and talk of conspiracies flourish. Street protests and outbreaks of uncontrolled violence happen. Fears of civil unrest spread.  
• The armed forces grow agitated. As the government totters, the army moves from its barracks onto the streets to quell unrest and take control. Democracy is finally buried in a grave it slowly dug for itself.
• The military coup d’états against the elected governments of Egypt (2013), Thailand (2014), Myanmar and Tunisia (2021) are obvious examples.

(2) Social Emergencies

• Democracy suffers a slow-motion social death when social fabric weakens and the place of harmony taken by many evils of the society like discrimination.

(3) Weakness of constitutional machinery and institutions

• When a constitution promises its citizens justice, liberty and equality, the splintering and shattering of social life induce a sense of legal powerlessness among citizens.
• The judiciary becomes vulnerable to cynicism, political meddling and state capture.

(4) Inequality in the society

Massive imbalances of wealth, chronic violence, famine, and unevenly distributed life chances also make a mockery of the ethical principle that in a democracy people can live as citizen partners of equal social worth.

(5) Indignity: a form of generalized social violence

• Domestic violence, rotten health care, widespread feelings of social unhappiness, and daily shortages of food and housing destroy people’s dignity. It kills the spirit and substance of democracy.
• When millions of women feel unsafe and multitudes of migrant workers are forced to flee for their lives, the victims are unlikely to believe themselves worthy of rights, or capable for fighting for their own entitlements, or for the rights of others.
• Ground down by social indignity, the powerless are robbed of self-esteem.
• Social indignity undermines citizens’ capacity to take an active interest in public affairs, and to check and humble and wallop the powerful.

(6) Demagoguery

• When millions of citizens are daily victimized by social indignities, the powerful are granted a license to rule arbitrarily. Some at the bottom and many in the middle and upper classes turn their backs on public affairs.
• Citizen disempowerment encourages boasting and bluster among powerful leaders who stop caring about the niceties of public integrity and power-sharing.
• When democratically elected governments cease to be held accountable by a society weakened by poor health, low morale, and joblessness, demagogues are prone to blindness and ineptitude.
• They make careless, foolish, and incompetent decisions that reinforce social inequities. They license big market and government players — poligarchs — to decide things.
• Those who exercise power in government ministries, corporations, and public/private projects aren’t subject to democratic rules of public accountability.
• Almost everybody must pay bribes to access basic public services. The powerful stop caring about the niceties of public integrity. Institutional democracy failure happens.

(7) Absence of redistributive public welfare policies

• In the absence of redistributive public welfare policies that guarantee sufficient food, shelter, security, education, and health care to the downtrodden, democracy morphs into a mere façade.
• Elections still happen and there’s abundant talk of “the people”. But democracy begins to resemble a fancy mask worn by wealthy political predators. Self-government is killed.
• Cheer-led by lapdog media, phantom democracy becomes a reality. Society is subordinated to the state. People are expected to behave as loyal subjects, or else suffer the consequences.
• A thoroughly 21st century type of top-down rule called despotism triumphs.

Recent instances confirming to threats for democracy

NIA Amendment Bill, 2019

• The amendment to the NIA Act gives the agency authority to investigate crimes committed by persons which are against Indian citizens or “affecting the interest of India”.
• However, the term “affecting the interest of India” is undefined and can be misused by governments to curb freedom of speech and expression.

Bypassing the Parliament Committee System

• According to data by PRS Legislative Research, while 60% of the Bills in the 14th Lok Sabha and 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha were referred to Departmentally-related Standing Committees (DRSCs) concerned, this proportion came down to 27% in the 16th Lok Sabha.
• Apart from the DRSCs, there are negligible bills referred to Select Committees of the Houses or Joint Parliamentary Committees.
• The last Bill referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee was The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, in 2015.

Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021

• Social media intermediaries include messaging-related intermediaries, such as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, and media-related intermediaries, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
• The rules bring a high level of government discretion in determining which platforms need to comply with what regulations and it enables the Central government to enforce discriminatory compliances.
• These rules have far-reaching consequences on online privacy, freedom of speech and expression, and access to information.

Passage of the Aadhar Bill as a money bill

How can we avoid the democide?

(1) Constitutional Renaissance

• It refers to the process of constant repair and renewal of “constitutionalism” as a function of adjudication.
• It stands severally described now as –
  • a constant awakening as regards the text, context, perspective, purpose, and the rule of law”,
  • an awakening that makes space for a “resurgent constitutionalism” and
  • “allows no room for absolutism” nor any “space for anarchy”

(2) Constitutional Morality

• Constitutional morality means adherence to the core principles of the constitutional democracy.
• It effectively coordinate between conflicting interests of different people and the administrative cooperation to resolve the issues without any confrontation amongst the various groups.
• It also makes the governing institutions and representatives accountable.

(3) Rightful interpretation of the constitution by the judiciary

• This refers to the interpretation of the constitution by the judiciary in light of the interest of the people of India and maintaining institutional integrity.

(4) Good Governance

• Good governance unable reach out government schemes to the needy and it entrust the desire to do well in life.  It also helps to realize ones duties and rights and boosts confidence in government.

(5) Welcoming criticism

• The Government should hear criticism rather than rejecting it out rightly. Suggestions on eroding democratic values need a thoughtful and respectful response.

(6) Freedom of speech and expression to media for checks on the executive

• The press and the judiciary, which are considered the pillars of India’s Democracy, require it to be independent of any executive interference to enable auditing of the

(7) Need For Strong Opposition

• Strong democracy requires strong opposition. Without an alternative choice, the very objective of election to provide a check on arbitrary power gets defeated.

(8) Equality in the society

• If redistributive public welfare policies are effective, the inequality in the society would be reduced. Thus, it must be the priority of the government to maintain social and economic equality and inclusive growth.

(9) Parliamentary oversight

• It is necessary to hold strong checks on executive through parliamentary committees, question hours, etc. Separation of powers is the most important thing for healthy democracy.

Conclusion

Until and unless we don’t realize the real sense of Democracy we can’t live with dignity. It is the need of the hour to strengthen the voice of the public against Democide which takes away the rights of the people. Only with people’s participation, it can be achieved. It is important that all the government organs work in harmony to uphold the trust people of the country have held in them and ensure objectives of true democracy.

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The Union Government announced the formation of a separate Union Ministry of Cooperation, a subject that till date was looked after by the Ministry of Agriculture. This ‘historic move’ seeks to “provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement,” apart from deepening a “true people-based movement,” an “economic development model” that will now have a ministry to streamline “ease of doing business” and enhance the multistate cooperative societies.

What defines a Cooperative?

• A cooperative is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned enterprise”.
• Cooperatives are democratically owned by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors.

What will be the new Ministry’s objectives?

• Ministry created to realize the vision of ‘sahkar se samriddhi’ (through cooperation to prosperity).
• The Ministry of Cooperation will provide a separate administrative legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.
• It will help deepen Co-operatives as a true people based movement reaching up to the grassroots.
• In India, a Co-operative based economic development model is very relevant where each member works with a spirit of responsibility.
• The Ministry will work to streamline processes for ‘Ease of doing business for co-operatives and enable development of Multi-State Co-operatives (MSCS).

What is the cooperative movement?

• Cooperatives are organizations formed at the grassroots level by people to harness the power of collective bargaining towards a common goal.
• Village-level primary agricultural credit societies (PACSs) formed by farmer associations are the best example of grassroots-level credit flow.
• These societies anticipate the credit demand of a village and make the demand to the district central cooperative banks (DCCBs).
• State cooperative banks sit at the apex of the rural cooperative lending structure.
• Given that PACSs are a collective of farmers, they have much more bargaining powers than an individual farmer pleading his case at a commercial bank.
• There are also cooperative marketing societies in rural areas and cooperative housing societies in urban areas.

Sectors in which Cooperative societies have outperformed

(1) Agriculture:

• In agriculture, cooperative dairies, sugar mills, spinning mills etc are formed with the pooled resources of farmers who wish to process their produce.
• The country has 1,94,195 cooperative dairy societies and 330 cooperative sugar mill operations.

(2) Dairy:

• In 2019-20, dairy cooperatives had procured 4.80 crore litres of milk from 1.7 crore members and had sold 3.7 crore litres of liquid milk per day. (Annual Report, National Dairy Development Board, 2019-20).
• In 1991, Manmohan Singh, then finance minister wanted to delicense the dairy sector as well, but there was stiff opposition from Verghese Kurien.
• It was after 10 years in 2002 that the dairy sector was fully de-licensed. The competition between cooperatives and corporate dairy players has benefitted millions of farmers around the country.
• With the entry of the private sector, the growth of the dairy sector accelerated at double the speed.
• Today, both procure roughly the same quantities, and growth in the organised private sector is faster than in cooperatives.

(3) Sugar Industries: Cooperative sugar mills account for 35% of the sugar produced in the country.

(4) Banking and Finance: In banking and finance, cooperative institutions are spread across rural and urban areas.

Performance of cooperative movement in India

• India’s experience with the cooperative movement has produced mixed results — few successes and many failures.
• There are cooperatives in the financial sector, be it rural or urban.
• But the performance of these agencies when measured in terms of their share in overall credit, achievements in technology upgradation, keeping NPAs low or curbing fraudulent deals has been poor to average.
• Sugar cooperatives of Maharashtra initially touted as exemplars of the movement, are in the doldrums now.
• Many are being sold to the private sector.

What laws govern cooperative societies?

• Agriculture and cooperation are in the state list, which means state governments can govern them.
• A majority of the cooperative societies are governed by laws in their respective states, with a Cooperation Commissioner and the Registrar of Societies as their governing office.
• In 2002, the Centre passed a Multistate Cooperative Societies Act that allowed for registration of societies with operations in more than one state.
• These are mostly banks, dairies and sugar mills whose area of operation spreads across states.
• The Central Registrar of Societies is their controlling authority, but on the ground the State Registrar takes actions on his behalf.

Provisions of Indian Constitution related to Cooperatives

The Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2011 made following changes in Constitution

• New Part IXB regarding the cooperatives working in India added. (Part IXA deals with Municipals)
• In Art. 19(1)(c) the word “cooperatives” was added after “unions and associations”.  This enables all the citizens to form cooperatives by giving it the status of fundamental right of citizens.
• A new Article 43B was added in the Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV) regarding the “promotion of cooperative societies”.

Retaining the federal character of cooperatives

• The Supreme Court in Union of India v Rajendra Shah and Others (2021), has partly struck down the 97 constitutional amendments that sought to provide a clear framework for the administration of cooperatives across the country.
• The courts adjudicated that the amendment violated the powers of state legislatures with respect to items in the state list, by legislating on a matter specifically contained in Item 32 of the state list under Schedule 7.
• In what is a fillip towards the federal character of cooperatives, the Court clearly stated that cooperatives and any form of legislation pertaining to them are strictly within the domain of the state government and legislatures, and only in matters of multistate cooperatives does Parliament have sanction to legislate.

Why Cooperatives are so important?

• It provides agricultural credits and funds where state and private sectors have not been able to do very much.
• It provides strategic inputs for the agricultural-sector; consumer societies meet their consumption requirements at concessional rates.
• It is an organization for the poor who wish to solve their problems collectively.
• It softens the class conflicts and reduces the social cleavages.
• It reduces the bureaucratic evils and follies of political factions;
• It overcomes the constraints of agricultural development;
• It creates a conducive environment for small and cottage industries.

Why was the new Ministry necessary?

• In our country, a Co-operative based economic development model is very relevant where each member works with a spirit of responsibility.
• It was necessary to restore the importance of the cooperative structure in the country. The cooperative structure has managed to flourish and leave its mark only in a handful of states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka etc.
• Under the new Ministry, the cooperative movement would get the required financial and legal power needed to penetrate into other states also.
• Cooperative institutions get capital from the Centre, either as equity or as working capital, for which the state governments stand guarantee.
• This formula had seen most of the funds coming to a few states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka while other states failed to keep up.
• Over the years, the cooperative sector has witnessed drying out of funding. Under the new Ministry, the cooperative structure would be able to get a new lease of life.
• This creation has signaled its deep commitment to community-based developmental partnerships.

To what extent do the cooperative structure influence state and national politics?

• Cooperative institutions, be it the village-level PACS or the urban cooperative housing societies, elect their leaders democratically, with members voting for a board of directors.
• Thus, in states such as Maharashtra, cooperative institutions have served as schools for development of leadership.
• In the present Maharashtra legislature, there are at least 150 legislators who have had some connection with the movement.
• No matter which party is in power in a state like Maharashtra, the purse strings of the local economy always remain with the cooperative institution.

Challenges

• Mismanagement and Manipulation: A hugely large membership turns out to be mismanaged unless some secure methods are employed to manage such co-operatives. Money became such a powerful tool in the elections to the governing bodies that the top posts of chairman and vice-chairman usually went to the richest farmers who manipulated the organization for their benefits.
• Lack of Awareness: People are not well informed about the objectives of the Movement, rules and regulations of co-operative institutions.
• Restricted Coverage: Most of these societies are confined to a few members and their operations extended to only one or two villages.
• Dearth of trained staff: The Co-operative Movement has suffered from inadequacy of trained personnel.

Way forward

• The new Ministry of Cooperation can work towards ironing out distortions in state price policies due to subsidization such as in Maharashtra and Karnataka milk prices.
• New areas are emerging with the advancement of technology and cooperative societies can play a huge role in making people familiar with those areas and technologies.
• The Ministry of Cooperation can give them soft loans for innovation and technology upgradation.
• But such loans should also be extended to the private sector to ensure a level playing field.
• The Ministry of Cooperation needs to ensure the least political interference in the operation of cooperatives.
• To strengthen the cooperatives there should be market linkages for agricultural farmers as well as cooperative societies.

Conclusion

Critics argue that the Creation of a new cooperation ministry is an infringement upon the federal rights of the state governments. This is an intrusion into the authority of the state governments. This amounts to challenging the federal system of our country. However, the principle of the cooperative movement is to unite everyone, even while remaining anonymous. The cooperative movement has the capacity to solve people’s problems. The new Ministry of Cooperation can work towards bringing in professionalism in cooperatives and make them more competitive.

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Northeast India has been witnessing inter-state border disputes since the early 1960s when the process of carving out states from the undivided Assam commenced.

The most recent in the series of border disputes that plagued the region is the Assam–Mizoram border, which has been witnessing violent incidents since 2020.

What is the recent dispute?

In the recent incident, five policemen lost their lives and many were injured as a result of firing between the forces of Assam and Mizoram. Border disputes are not uncommon but it is the war-like confrontation between police personnel of the same country that is regretful and alarming. The violence spotlights the long-standing inter-state boundary issues in the Northeast, particularly between Assam and the states that were carved out of it.

About Assam-Mizoram Boundary Dispute

• The boundary between present-day Assam and Mizoram, 165 km long, dates back to the colonial era, when Mizoram was known as Lushai Hills, a district of Assam.
• The Assam-Mizoram border is shared between three districts of South Assam — Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj — and three districts of Mizoram — Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl
• Mizoram says Assam has been pushing its people 10-12 km inside their territory.
• Mizoram’s official stand is that the boundary should be demarcated on the basis of notification in 1875 that distinguished the Lushai Hills (erstwhile district of Assam that became Mizoram) from the plains of Cachar.
• The notification is based on the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act, 1873, which makes it obligatory for Indians beyond to possess a travel document to enter Mizoram.
• Assam also has border disputes with Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.

Had there been any confrontations in the Past?

• There have been confrontations over territory in the northeast region in the past. For instance, at least 28 policemen were killed in clashes on the Assam-Nagaland border in June 1985.
• The NSCN’s (National Socialist Council of Nagaland) demand for a Greater Nagaland or Nagalim.
• This includes parts of Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh. It has been a major roadblock in the resolution of the Naga issue.
• Manipur has had its share of inter-state disputes resulting in destructive economic blockades.
• The Assam-Mizoram border has seen the increase in violent incidents, particularly since last year, necessitating the deployment of paramilitary forces.

What is the present situation?

• At present, the situation remains tense along the border.
• Central forces are deployed along the border—Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and CRPF on Assam side and the Border Security Force (BSF) on Mizoram side of the border—to act as a buffer between the state police forces.
• Efforts are being made to diffuse the tension. Most of the meetings between the officials intended to defuse tensions following border clashes rather than finding a permanent solution.
• In this respect, in wake of a similar violent incident in 2018, the Mizo youth and civil society organizations had requested the Union government to constitute a boundary commission to demarcate the boundary.
• But no decision was taken by the Union government in this regard.
• Apart from Mizoram, other states in the Northeast are also embroiled in border disputes with Assam. The longest and the bloodiest of these is the border dispute between Assam and Nagaland.

What are the reasons behind the Assam-Mizoram border dispute and Inter-State border tensions?

(1) Fault lines created by Britishers in boundary demarcation are still unaddressed

• They created boundaries as per their commercial interests. In the process, sensitivities of local communities regarding land were either ignored or suppressed.
• Origin: The border dispute can trace its origins to the demarcation of Lushai Hills from the Cachar plains by the British in 1875. The British had drawn the boundary in consultation with Mizo chiefs.
• But in 1933, the boundary between Lushai Hills and the then princely state of Manipur was demarcated. Manipur boundary began from the tri-junction of Lushai Hills, Cachar district of Assam, and Manipur state.
• The Mizos do not accept this demarcation and point to the 1875 boundary, which was drawn in consultation with their chiefs.
• In the decades after Independence, states and UTs were carved out of Assam based on the 1933 line.
• This includes Nagaland (1963), Arunachal Pradesh (1972, formerly NEFA), Meghalaya (1972) and Mizoram (1972).

(2) Targeting migrants and outsiders

• There has been a proliferation of political conversations that target migrants and “outsiders”.
• This shrinks the space and scope for fluid borders and fixes the identities of people as per the region, to realize its cultural and economic potential.
• Last year, volunteers of a Mizo student body started putting up checkpoints reportedly on the Assam side of the border.
• They alleged that the descendants of the Lushai tribes were being denied their rightful home through increased encroachment by the Bangladeshi immigrants.
• These checkpoints even prevented Assam government forest officials from carrying out their routine movements.

(3) Failure of the constitutional machinery empowered to de-escalate tensions at the border

• The presence of central paramilitary forces should have helped maintain the peace, but it didn’t happen.
• Further, both the states are ruled by allies of the central government. However, the political leadership failed to preserve peace in the region.

(4) Economic competition for land and scarcity of non-farm jobs

Economic competition for land, engendered by a lack of non-farm jobs across the Northeast region, is also enhancing bitterness among states. Most of the population is dependent on agriculture and the rising population is putting pressure on available land.

(5) Transportation of illegal drugs

Other issues that complicate the situation on the border include the transportation of illegal drugs that travel via Mizoram to Assam and other parts of the country.

How such incidents impact on North-East relationship?

• Assam-Mizoram border dispute has the grave potential of disintegrating the cohesive regional relationship – politically, socially, and economically harboured by states for long.
• Augments Trust Deficit: It hinders the probability of Interstate cooperation in the future due to enhanced trust deficit. This is testified by competing claims on the issue.
• Increases Hatred in masses: Such instances tend to increase feelings of animosity between the residents of Mizoram and Assam. This will hamper India’s unity and integrity.
• China factor and risk to national security: China will be watching these fights with relish. The state which feels more betrayed can be manipulated by China for its vested interests.
• Domino Effect: If prudent action is not taken and violators are not duly punished, then such clashes will be seen on other disputed borders in the northeast region.

Need for the Interstate Boundary Commission

• Considering the contesting claims of both the parties and the complexity of the issue, the foremost priority in working out a solution should be the institution of an Independent Interstate boundary commission.
• After a careful consultative study, the commission should ideally formulate a solution that is considerate of all the stakeholders’ concerns.
• One option could be the utilization of the disputed lands by the central government after compensating both the states.
• Alternatively, an option of compensating one state and awarding land to the other or awarding the disputed land to both the states concerned equally could be considered as per stakeholders’ acknowledgement.
• Whatever be the solution once worked out and accepted by the states, the Court could play a role of a guardian and take serious note of its arbitrary acts.

What can be done to bring the situation under control?

• There is no sure-shot and quick solution possible to the border disputes between various states without a spirit of give and take, and a civic engagement brokered by the Union government.
• The state leaders must nurture the peace, put in place institutional mechanisms to prevent breakdowns, and negotiate a way out of long-standing disputes.
• The central government should use the opportunity to settle once and for all, the boundary disputes among states in North East India.
• The whole stretch of reserve forests has to be freed of encroachments from either side.
• The Home Ministry must ensure that the Assam-Mizoram border situation should first be subject to de-escalation and then return to the status quo.
• The Constitution’s mechanisms for addressing inter-state disputes should be duly used. This includes activating an Inter-State Council (Article 263) or asking the Supreme Court to adjudicate (Article 131).
• Further, a time-bound court-monitored commission involving local communities in joint demarcation exercises should be announced.

Other boundary issues in North-East India

During British rule, Assam included present-day Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya besides Mizoram, which became separate states one by one. Currently, Assam has boundary problems with each of them.

Assam-Nagaland

• Nagaland shares a 500-km boundary with Assam. It achieved statehood in December 1963 and was formed out of the Naga Hills district of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh (then North-East Frontier Agency).
• Violent clashes and armed conflicts, marked by killings, have occurred on the Assam-Nagaland border since 1965. The boundary dispute is in the Supreme Court.

Assam-Arunachal Pradesh

• Both states have a boundary of over 800 km. Arunachal Pradesh was granted statehood by the State of Arunachal Pradesh Act, 1986 in 1987.
• Clashes were first reported in 1992 and since then, there have been several accusations of illegal encroachment from both sides, and intermittent clashes.
• This boundary issue is also being heard by the Supreme Court.

Assam-Meghalaya

• The 884-km boundary between the two states also witnesses flare-ups.
• Meghalaya came into existence as an autonomous state within the state of Assam in April 1970 comprising the United Khasi & Jaintia Hills and the Garo Hills districts.
• In 1972, it got statehood. As per Meghalaya government statements, today there are 12 areas of dispute between the two states.

Way forward

• It is important for both the states to accept that any conflict resolution measures involve compromises and sacrifices for the larger good.
• The intervention of the Ministry of Home affairs by ordering central forces to all areas of disputed land until a lasting and amicable solution is reached should be respected in letter and spirit.
• Satellite mapping of the actual border locations can be used to settle boundary disputes between the states.
• Reviving the Inter-state council can be an option for the resolution of an Inter-state dispute.
• Under Article 263 of the Constitution, the Inter-state council is expected to inquire and advise on disputes, discuss subjects common to all states and make recommendations for better policy coordination.
• Similarly, Zonal councils need to be revived to discuss the matters of common concern to states in each zone—matters relating to social and economic planning, border disputes, inter-state transport, etc.
• Ethos of cooperative federalism need to be imbibed by both the center and state governments to maintain and further increase the unity of India.

We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.

Barack Obama

The Himalayan ecosystem is vulnerable and susceptible to the impacts and consequences of changes on account of natural causes, climate change resulting from anthropogenic emissions, and developmental paradigms of modern society.

The tragic death of nine tourists in a landslip in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh is an alarming pointer to the fragility of the ecology of the Himalayan States. This article focuses on the impacts of climate change on the Himalayan ecosystem and causes of climate change and other related issues.

What is climate change?

• Climate Change is a periodic modification of Earth’s climate brought about due to the changes in the atmosphere as well as the interactions between the atmosphere and various other geological, chemical, biological and geographical factors within the Earth’s system.
• Climate change can make weather patterns less predictable. These unforeseen weather patterns can make it difficult to maintain and grow crops, making agriculture-dependent countries like India vulnerable.
• It is also causing damaging weather events like more frequent and intense hurricanes, floods, cyclones, flooding etc.
• Due to the rising temperature caused by climate change, the ice in the Polar Regions is melting at an accelerated rate, causing sea levels to rise. This is damaging the coastlines due to the increased flooding and erosion.
• The cause of the current rapid climate change is due to human activities and threatening the very survival of humankind.

What are the factors that cause climate change?

Earth’s temperature is influenced by the energy entering and leaving the planet’s system. Both natural and anthropogenic factors can cause changes in Earth’s energy balance.

Natural Factors

(1) Continental drift

• The continents are formed when the landmass began gradually drifting apart millions of years back, due to Plate displacement.
• This drift also had an impact on the climate because it changed the physical features of the landmass, their position and the position of water bodies like changed the flow of ocean currents and winds, which affected the climate.

(2) Variation in the earth’s orbit

• The seasonal distribution of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface is directly related to Earth’s Orbit and a slight variation in Earth’s orbit leads to variation in distribution across the globe.
• This leads to the strong changes in the geographical and seasonal distribution.

(3) Plate tectonics

• Due to temperature variation in the core of the Earth, the mantle plumes and convection currents force the Plates of the Earth to adjust which causes the reconfiguration of the earth Plate. This can affect both global and local patterns of climate and atmosphere.

(4) Volcanic activity

• When the Volcano erupts, the outburst of gases and dust particles partially block the incoming rays of the Sun which lead to the cooling of the weather.

(5) Ocean currents

• Ocean currents are the major component of the climatic system which is driven by the horizontal wind forces causing the displacement of the water against the sea surface. Due to temperature variation of the water, the climate of the region is largely influenced.

Anthropogenic (Human Caused) Factors

(1) Greenhouse Gases

• Increased emission of huge amount of Green House Gases led to more absorption of heat being retained in the atmosphere thus an increase in global Temperature.
• Green house gases while largely transparent to incoming solar radiation, absorbs most of the infrared emitted by the earth’s surface.

(2) Atmospheric Aerosols

• Atmospheric aerosols affect climate in two important ways:
• They cause scattering and absorbing the solar and infrared radiation.
• They change the microphysical and chemical properties of clouds and possibly their lifetime and extent.
• Aerosols have the ability to influence climate directly by absorbing or reflecting incoming solar radiation, but they can also produce indirect effects on climate by modifying cloud formation or cloud properties.

(3) Land-use change

• Cutting down forests to create farmland led to changes in the amount of sunlight reflected from the ground back into space which greatly affected the climate.

What are the effects of climate change?

Global warming has caused a change in the climatic and weather conditions like change in the rainfall pattern, increased flooding, drought, heatwaves, etc. Some of the current impacts of rapid climate change are as follows:

How climate change is impacting the Mountain ecosystem and how it is impacting human livelihood?

• Climate change has a strong influence on the precipitation over the Himalayas as well as melting response of glaciers or snow cover in Himalayas.
• This, in turn, affects the runoff pattern of rivers draining from the glaciated catchments of Himalayas.
• These rivers support the life and livelihood of more than 500 million people living downstream in Indo-Gangetic plains, but also support several industries located in these plains.
• The melting of glaciers threatens water sustainability for hundreds of millions of people in counties, including India.
• These impacts become severe due to the increase in pressure on water resources for irrigation and food production, industrialization, and urbanization.
• Glacier melting, resulting in an abrupt rise in water causes floods and impacts the local society. Increased incidences of forest fire are also linked with warming of Himalayan region.
• Almost 33% of the country’s thermal electricity and 52% of hydropower in the country is dependent on the water from rivers originating in Himalaya.

Building dams: Choking up the Himalayas

• By planning hydropower projects, India and China are placing the region at great risk. Recently China announced that it is planning to build a major hydropower project on the Yarlung Zanbo River, in Tibet.
• On Indian side, there are two hydropower projects being built in Arunachal Pradesh on the tributaries of the Brahmaputra: the 600 MW Kameng project on the Bichom and Tenga Rivers and the 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectricity Project.
• High seismic zones coincide with areas of high population concentration in the Himalayan region where landslides and glacial lake outburst floods are common.

Havocs created due to these earthquakes

• About 15% of the great earthquakes of the 20th century occurred in the Himalayan region.
• The northeast Himalayan band has experienced several large earthquakes of magnitude 7 and above in the last 100 years, more than the share from other parts of the Himalayas.
• The 2015 Gorkha earthquake of magnitude 7.8 in central Nepal resulted in huge losses in the hydropower sector. Nepal lost about 20% of its hydropower capacity consequent to the earthquake.
• About 30 projects with a capacity of 270 MW, mostly located along the steep river valleys, were damaged.

What are the issues of high concern?

• Seismic sensitivity: The main mechanisms that contributed to the vulnerability of hydropower projects were found to be landslides, which depend on the intensity of seismic ground shaking and slope gradients.
• Siltation: Heavy siltation from giant landslides expected in the project sites and headwater region from future earthquakes will severely reduce the water-holding capacity and life expectancy of such dams.
• Land degradation: Even without earthquakes, the steep slopes made of soft rocks are bound to slide due to deforestation and road-building. These activities will get intensified as part of the dam-building initiatives.

Melting of Himalayan glaciers

• The number of glaciers in the Himalayan area has increased in the last five decades and this is an indicator of how severe glacier melting has been due to global warming.
• The increase in the number of glaciers is primarily due to glacier fragmentation. This is happening due to consistent loss in areas the glaciers occupy. It has ramifications for the global climate.
• Along with the Tibetan Plateau, this influences the Indian summer monsoon. So, any changes in this region would have a bearing on the monsoon itself that already shows signs of changes in spread and distribution.
• It could trigger a multitude of biophysical and socio-economic impacts, such as biodiversity loss, increased glacial melting, and less predictable water availability—all of which will impact livelihoods and well-being in the region.
• Faster snow and glacier melting due to warming is already manifesting in formation of glacial lakes. Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) are becoming frequent and causing huge casualties and loss to local infrastructures.
• Most of the lakes in high altitudes have also reported water level rise by 0.2 m/year besides their surface areas expanding.

Threat to the Himalayan Ecology

(1) Increased intensity and frequency of natural disaster

• The Himalayan landscape is susceptible to landslides and earthquakes.
• Formed due to the collision of Indian and Eurasian plates, the northward movement of the former puts continuous stress on the rocks, rendering them weak and prone to landslides and earthquakes.
• This, combined with steep slopes, rugged topography, high seismic vulnerability, and rainfall, makes the region one of the most disaster prone areas in the world.

(2) Unsustainable Exploitation

• From the mega road expansion project in the name of national security (Char Dham Highway) to building cascading hydroelectric power projects, from unplanned expansion of towns to unsustainable tourism, the Indian States have ignored warnings about the fragile ecology.
• Such an approach has also led to pollution, deforestation, and water and waste management crises.

(3) The threat of Development Activity

• Mega hydropower could alter several aspects of ecology, rendering it vulnerable to the effects of extreme events such as cloudbursts, flash floods, landslides and earthquakes.

Natural disasters in States of the Himalayan region The tragic death of nine tourists in a landslip in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh is an alarming pointer to the fragility of the ecology of the Himalayan States. Extraordinarily heavy rain hit the State recently, leaving the hill slopes unstable and causing floods in built-up areas including Dharamshala. The descending boulders from destabilized terrain, which crushed a bridge like a matchstick, are a source of worry even for cautious local residents, and for unwary visitors. Earlier, heavy rain-triggered flash floods in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh swept away three people, buildings, and vehicles. Uttarakhand too has been affected by natural disasters with the massive flash flood in Chamoli in February 2021 that killed more than 80 people.

What is stopping us from mitigating climate change?

The 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC has comprehensively identified the economic barriers that are preventing government decisions on adaption to climate change. These are as follows:

1. Transitional costs – These are broadly divided into information and adjustment costs. The former refers to the costs that occur while acquiring information and the latter are the costs for replacing the long-lived capital.
2. Market failures and missing markets – These include externalities, information asymmetries, and moral hazards. These cases are especially seen when one economic unit harms another unit. It also occurs when there aren’t sufficient incentives for the change.
3. Behavior obstacles to adaption – Irrational decisions, social norms, and cultural factors also pose as obstacles to adaption decision making.
4. Ethical and distributional issues – These issues connect to the differences in vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Though sometimes a decision could ensure cost-effective and sustainable solutions, ethical constraints hinder these decisions.
5. Coordination, government failures and politics – Though the governments must ensure the removal of the aforementioned barriers, they themselves face similar barriers like limited knowledge or resources. Also, coordination among various departments, though important, is highly difficult to obtain.
6. Uncertainty is the largest barrier to adaptation as it expands to different dimensions like future developments of demographics, technologies and economics and the future of climate change.

Way forward

• Early Warning System – It is important to have early warning and better weather forecast systems in order to forecast the disaster and alert the local population and tourists.
• Regional Cooperation – There is a need for a trans-boundary coalition of Himalayan countries to share and disseminate knowledge about the mountains and preservation of the ecology there.
• Area Specific Sustainable Plan – Projects that are incompatible with the local environment and ecology should not be promoted just by giving due consideration to development or economic growth.
• Hydro projects should be confined to the areas with the least impact in the Himalayas. Also, the government needs to build more low-impact run-of-the-river power projects rather than building destructive large dams and reservoirs.
• Promote Ecotourism – Initiating a dialogue on adverse impacts of commercial tourism and promoting ecotourism.
• Sustainable Development – Government must strive for achieving sustainable development not only development that is against the ecology.
• Detailed Project Reports (DPR), Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) are needed before implementing any project.

Conclusion

• The upper Himalayas should be converted into a nature reserve by an international agreement.
• There is a need to understand that – ‘’Carbon neutrality should not be at the expense of the environment’’.
• It is impossible to assign a real value to the costs to people and communities, together with the loss of pristine forests that weak forestation programmes cannot replace.
• From the mega road expansion project in the name of national security to building cascading hydroelectric power projects, from unplanned expansion of towns to unsustainable tourism, the Indian State has ignored warnings about the fragile Himalayan ecology.
• The need of the hour is that governments have a changing course to help preserve natural riches including human lives.

In recent years, there have been ongoing debates, campaigns, and demands for the implementation of coercive population control policies in India. Evidence shows no effectiveness of policy measures enforcing a two-child or one-child norm and instead highlights their adverse outcomes. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – 4 revealed that 24 states in the country have already achieved replacement level fertility of 2.1, which means that couples are increasingly choosing to have two children.

India’s declining fertility can largely be attributed to key determinants like the increasing emphasis on women’s education and their participation in the labor force.

Let us look at the future prospectus of population growth and related government policies and measures in India.

What are the causes of Over Population in India?

The two main common causes leading to overpopulation in India are:

(1) The birth rate is still higher than the death rate. We have been successful in declining the death rates but the same cannot be said for birth rates.

(2) The fertility rate due to the population policies and other measures has been falling but even then it is much higher compared to other countries.

Various social issues which are leading to overpopulation

• Early Marriage and Universal Marriage System: Even though the marriageable age of a girl is legally 18 years, the concept of early marriage still prevails. Getting married at a young age prolongs the child bearing age.
• Poverty and Illiteracy: Impoverished families have this notion that more the number of members in the family, more will be the numbers to earn income. Some feel that more children are needed to look after them in their old age. Indian still lags behind the use of contraceptives and birth control methods and are not willing to discuss or are totally unaware about them.
• Age old cultural norm: Sons are the bread earners of the families in India. This age old thought puts considerable pressure on the parents to produce children till a male child is born.
• Illegal migration: Last but not the least, we cannot ignore the fact that illegal migration is continuously taking place from Bangladesh and Nepal is leading to increased population density.

What are the effects of over-population?

Some major impacts of the high population are as follows:

Population Policy by Uttar Pradesh government

Recently, the government of Uttar Pradesh released a “Population Policy” in which it stated its intention to bring the gross fertility rate in the State down from the existing 2.7 to 2.1 by 2026.

What are the provisions in the Bill?

• This draft law, titled the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021, seeks to provide a series of incentives to families that adhere to a two-child norm.
• The Bill also intends on disentitling families that breach the norm from benefits and subsidies.
• It promises public servants who undergo sterilization and adopt a two-child norm several benefits.
• The draft Bill also contains a list of punishments.
• A person who breaches the two-child norm will be debarred from securing the benefit of any government-sponsored welfare scheme and will be disqualified from applying to any State government job.
• Existing government employees who infringe the rule will be denied the benefit of promotion.
• Transgressing individuals will be prohibited from contesting elections to local authorities and bodies.

Issues with coercive population control policies

With such types of coercive population policies, there come a number of issues associated with them. Let us look at some issues in context with India.

(1) Counter-productive measure

• International experience shows that any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions.

(2) Against international obligations

• India is committed to its obligations under international law, including the principles contained in the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, 1994.
• Foremost in those principles was a pledge from nations that they would look beyond demographic targets and focus instead on guaranteeing a right to reproductive freedom.

(3) Against the right to reproductive freedom and privacy

• In Suchita Srivastava & Anr vs Chandigarh Administration (2009), the Court found that a woman’s freedom to make reproductive decisions is an integral facet of the right to personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21.
• This ruling was endorsed by the Supreme Court’s nine-judge Bench verdict in K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017).
• The Constitution sees a person’s autonomy over her body as an extension of the right to privacy. U.P.’s draft law, if enacted, will grossly impinge on the right to reproductive freedom.
• However, In Javed & Ors vs State of Haryana & Ors (2003), the Court upheld a law that disqualified persons with more than two children from contesting in local body elections.
• But the present UP Bill is far more disproportionate; therefore, the judgment in Javed can no longer be seen as good law.
• The UP government will likely argue that there is no violation of privacy here because any decision on sterilization would be voluntary. But, as we know, making welfare conditional is a hallmark of coercion.
• Therefore, the proposed law will fall foul of a proportionality analysis.

(4) Sex-selective practices and forced sterilizations

• The Economic Survey of 2018 points out that ‘son meta preference’ – the desire to have a male child – has resulted in 21 million “unwanted girls” in India.
• Imposing a two child norm will add to the burden on women, by way of sex selective practices and forced sterilizations.
• In Devika Biswas vs Union of India (2016), the Court pointed to how these camps invariably have a disparate impact on minorities and other vulnerable groups.
• This could result in a setback to population stabilization efforts, as it happened during the emergency period in mid-1970s

(5) Violation of human rights

• A population control policy is not only a gross violation of fundamental human rights but will also have the maximum impact on the poorest, weakest and most marginalized sections of a country.
• The National Population Policy, 2000 had “voluntary and informed choice and consent of citizens while availing reproductive health care services, and continuation of the target-free approach in administering family planning services”.
• A coercive population control measure would be in direct contradiction to the tenets of this policy.

(6) Impact poor and marginalized people adversely

• Disincentives through denial of benefits under subsidized food grains through the PDS will impact the poorest and most marginalized sections of the population and worsen their impoverishment.

(7) High population is not always bad

• A high population is not necessarily a bad thing for the economy.
• Population controlling measures will result in:
  • There would simply not be enough people to work for the economy,
  • A large non-productive aging population to support and the government may not have enough resources to support pensions
  • This would lead to de-industrialization.

(8) Factor of religion

• Religious polarization makes population control an even more contentious issue in India.
• The bogey of population explosion is often used (directly or indirectly) to target a particular minority in India. The population controlling measure will impact social harmony.

China’s experience

China’s infamous one-child-per-couple policy and the subsequent two-child policy in 2015, have had several unintended consequences ranging from forced sterilizations and abortions to the abandonment of girl children, falling birth rates, skewed sex ratios, a rapidly growing ageing population, and a shrinking workforce.

What did we learn from our past experiences?

• The implementation of a one-child or two-child policy law will not result in immediate population reduction.
• Past trends in fertility and mortality from 1951 to 1981 have shaped the Indian population structure in such a way that there is a ‘bulge’ in the proportion of people in their prime reproductive age.
• This group accounts for 53% of India’s population today. Even if this group were to produce fewer children compared to previous generations, there will still be an increase in the absolute number of people.
• This pattern of growth is termed as “Population Momentum”. Approximately 70 percent of the total projected population increase today is due to this large young population in their childbearing years.
• India with its large proportion of young persons will take some time before the results of declining fertility start showing explicitly.
• The population of India in 1951 was 35 crore, but by 2011, it had increased to 121 crore. There have been few shortcomings.
  • Firstly, the NPP have a narrow perspective; give much importance to contraception and sterilization. The basic prerequisite of controlling population includes poverty alleviation, improving the standards of living and the spread of education.
  • Secondly, on national scale the policy was not publicized and failed to generate mass support in favor of population control.
  • Thirdly, we have insufficient infrastructure owing to the lack of trained staff, lack of adequate aptitude among the staff and limited use or misuse of the equipment for population control resulted in failure of the policy.
  • Lastly, the use of coercion during the Emergency (1976-77) caused a serious resentment among the masses. This made the very NPP itself very unpopular.

Way forward

• Increasing the welfare and status of women and girls, spread of education, increasing awareness for the use of contraceptives and family planning methods, sex education, encouraging male sterilization and spacing births, free distribution of contraceptives and condoms among the poor, encouraging female empowerment, more health care centers for the poor, to name a few, can play a major role in controlling population.
• The government should raise budgetary allocations in order to ensure expanded contraceptive choices for delaying and spacing births and better access and quality of health care for young people.
• Social Measures: Population outburst is considered to be a social problem and it is intensely rooted in the civilization. It is therefore necessary to make efforts to eliminate the social iniquities in the country.
• Minimum age of Marriage: As fertility depends on the age of marriage therefore the minimum age of marriage should be raised. In India minimum age for marriage is 21 years for men and 18 years for women fixed by law. This law should be strongly implemented and people should also be made aware of this through promotion.
• Raising the Status of Women: There are prevalent biases to women. They are restricted to house. They are still confined to rearing and bearing of children. So women should be given opportunities to develop socially and economically. Free education should be given to them.
• Spread education: The spread of education changes the views of people. The educated men take mature decisions and prefer to delay marriage and adopt small family custom. Educated women are health mindful and avoid frequent pregnancies and thus help in lowering birth rate.
• Adoption: is also effective way to curb population. Some parents do not have any child, despite expensive medical treatment. It is recommended that they should adopt orphan children. It will be helpful to orphan children and children to couples.
• Social Security: is necessary for people. It is responsibility of government to include more and more people under-social security schemes. So that they do not depend upon others in the event of old age, sickness, unemployment with these facilities they will have no desire for more children.
• Economic Measures: Government must devise policies for more employment opportunities and development of Agriculture and Industry. When their income is increased they would enhance their standard of living and accept small family norms.
• Urbanization: This can reduce population increase. It is reported that people in urban areas have low birth rate than those living in rural areas.

A global collaborative investigative project has discovered Israeli spyware Pegasus was used to target thousands of people across the world.

In India, at least 300 people are believed to have been targeted, including two serving Ministers in the government, three Opposition leaders, several journalists, social activists and business persons.

What is Pegasus?

• All spyware do what the name suggests — they spy on people through their phones.
• Pegasus works by sending an exploit link, and if the target user clicks on the link, the malware or the code that allows the surveillance is installed on the user’s phone.
• A presumably newer version of the malware does not even require a target user to click a link.
• Once Pegasus is installed, the attacker has complete access to the target user’s phone.
• A worrying aspect that has been revealed is the ability of the spyware to infect a device by a ‘zero-click’ attack, which does not require any action from the phone’s user.

A ‘Black Hole’ with no escape

• What makes Pegasus really dangerous is that it spares no aspect of a person’s identity.
• It makes older techniques of spying seem relatively harmless.
• It can intercept every call and SMS, read every email and monitor each messaging app.
• Pegasus can also control the phone’s camera and microphone and has access to the device’s location data.
• The app advertises that it can carry out “file retrieval”, which means it could access any document that a target might have stored on their phone.

Dysfunctions created by Pegasus

Privacy breach: The very existence of a surveillance system, whether under a provision of law or without it, impacts the right to privacy under Article 21 and the exercise of free speech under Article 19.

Curbing Dissent: It reflects a disturbing trend with regard to the use of hacking software against dissidents and adversaries. In 2019 also, Pegasus software was used to hack into HR & Dalit activists.

Individual safety: In the absence of privacy, the safety of journalists, especially those whose work criticizes the government, and the personal safety of their sources is jeopardised.

Self-Censorship: Consistent fear over espionage may grapple individuals. This may impact their ability to express, receive and discuss such ideas.

State-sponsored mass surveillance: The spyware coupled with AI can manipulate digital content in users’ smartphones. This in turn can polarize their opinion by distant controller.

National security: The potential misuse or proliferation has the same, if not more, ramifications as advanced nuclear technology falling into the wrong hands.

Snooping in India:  Legality check

For Pegasus-like spyware to be used lawfully, the government would have to invoke both the IT Act and the Telegraph Act. Communication surveillance in India takes place primarily under two laws:

1. Telegraph Act, 1885: It deals with interception of calls.
2. Information Technology Act, 2000: It was enacted to deal with surveillance of all electronic communication, following the Supreme Court’s intervention in 1996.

Cyber security safeguards in India

• National Cyber Security Policy: The policy was developed in 2013 to build secure and resilient cyberspace for India’s citizens and businesses.
• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In): The CERT-In is responsible for incident responses including analysis, forecasts and alerts on cybersecurity issues and breaches.
• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C): The Central Government has rolled out a scheme for the establishment of the I4C to handle issues related to cybercrime in the country in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
• Budapest Convention: There also exists Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. However India is not a signatory to this convention.

The bigger question: Government Involvement

It is worth asking why the government would need to hack phones and install spyware when existing laws already offer impunity for surveillance. The wide array of victims clearly brings the central government and its role to question.

In the absence of parliamentary or judicial oversight, electronic surveillance gives the executive the power to influence both the subject of surveillance and all classes of individuals, resulting in a chilling effect on free speech.

Is Right to Privacy a myth?

• Only in such exceptional circumstances, however, can an individual’s right to privacy be superseded to protect the national interest.
• In today’s times, when fake news and illegal activities such as cyber terrorism on the dark web are on the rise, the importance of reserving such powers to conduct surveillance cannot be undermined.

What should be the basis for surveillance?

The existing provisions are insufficient to protect against the spread of authoritarianism since they allow the executive to exercise a disproportionate amount of power.

• There should be some reasonable basis or some tangible evidence to initiate or seek approval for interception by State authorities.
• Any action without such evidence or basis would be struck down by courts as arbitrary, or invasive of one’s right to privacy.
• Any digression from the ethical and legal parameters set by law would be tantamount to a deliberate invasion of citizens’ privacy and make India a surveillance state.

Solution lies in Judicial Oversight

Surveillance reform is the need of the hour in India.

• The need for judicial oversight over surveillance systems in general, and judicial investigation into the Pegasus hacking in particular is very essential.
• Only the judiciary can be competent to decide whether specific instances of surveillance are proportionate, whether less onerous alternatives are available, and to balance the necessity of the government’s objectives with the rights of the impacted individuals.
• Not only are existing protections weak but the proposed legislation related to the personal data protection fails to consider surveillance while also providing wide exemptions to government.

Way forward

• The security of a device becomes one of the fundamental bedrocks of maintaining user trust as society becomes more and more digitized.
• There is an urgent need to take up this issue seriously by constituting an independent high-level inquiry with credible members and experts that can restore confidence and conduct its proceedings transparently.

Conclusion

• We must recognize that national security starts with securing the smartphones of every single Indian by embracing technologies such as encryption rather than deploying spyware.
• This is a core part of our fundamental right to privacy.
• This intrusion by spyware is not merely an infringement of the rights of the citizens of the country but also a worrying development for India’s national security apparatus.

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References:

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/surveillance-reform-is-the-need-of-the-hour/article35414371.ece

[Burning Issue] WhatsApp Snooping

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/project-pegasus-experts-fears-apple-android-duopoly-making-life-easier-for-spyware-a-losing-battle-for-users-7413430/

https://www.thequint.com/news/india/pegasus-spyware-malware-attack-nso-group-cyber-security-bjp-india-whatsapp

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) has invited suggestions for the draft Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021.

• The bill once finalized will need the Cabinet approval and assent from both the houses of Parliament to become a Law.
• The new Bill comes after a long process of revisions after the Trafficking of Persons Bill 2018 that was passed by the Lok Sabha’s nod amid a heated debate, never made it to Rajya Sabha.

What is the objective of the new bill?

To prevent and counter-trafficking in persons, especially women and children, to provide for care, protection, and rehabilitation to the victims, while respecting their rights, and creating a supportive legal, economic and social environment for them.

Human Trafficking in India

According to statistics of India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), trafficking has manifold objectives.

• These include forced labor, prostitution, and other forms of sexual exploitation. According to the NCRB, three out of five people trafficked in 2016 were children below the age of 18 years. Of these, 4,911 were girls and 4,123 were boys.
• Sexual exploitation for prostitution was the second major purpose for human trafficking in India, after forced labor.
• Victims of trafficking in India disproportionately represent people from traditionally disadvantaged gender, caste, and religious groups.
• People from these groups have been systemically kept at a disadvantage in education, access to productive resources and spaces and legal remedies enhancing their vulnerability.
• Across regions, studies have found that majority of victims are women and children belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and minority religions.
• Children are trafficked first and then placed in labor either forced or for earning a sub minimal wage or in case of the more unfortunate ones, i.e. particularly girls and young boys, are forced into sexual exploitation.
• Usurious money-lending and debt bondage will also become a force-multiplier for sourcing child labor from the country-side, from desperate families for bondage and trafficking.

Why the old bill was criticized so much?

• According to the United Nations’ human rights experts; it was not in accordance with the international human rights laws.
• The Bill seemed to combine sex work and migration with trafficking.
• The Bill was criticized for addressing trafficking through a criminal law perspective instead of complementing it with a human-rights based and victim-centred approach.
• It was also criticized for promoting “rescue raids” by the police as well as the institutionalization of victims in the name of rehabilitation.
• It was pointed out that certain vague provisions would lead to blanket criminalization of activities that do not necessarily relate to trafficking.

What are the provisions in the new bill?

(1) Coverage

• Persons on any ship or aircraft registered in India wherever it may be or carrying Indian citizens wherever they may be,
• A foreign national or a stateless person who has his or her residence in India at the time of commission of offence under this Act, and
• The law will apply to every offence of trafficking in persons with cross-border implications.

(2) Wider definition of trafficking

• It extends beyond the protection of women and children as victims to now include transgender as well as any person who may be a victim of trafficking.
• It also does away with the provision that a victim necessarily needs to be transported from one place to another to be defined as a victim.
• “Trafficking in Persons” is defined to include –

a) any person who recruits, transports, transfers, harbors or receives another person;

b) by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of authority or of vulnerability, or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person;

(c) for the purpose of exploitation of that person;

(3) Defines ‘Exploitation’

• Exploitation will include the “prostitution of others” or other forms of sexual exploitation including pornography, any act of physical exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or forced removal of organs, illegal clinical drug trials or illegal bio-medical research or the like.
• Examples of aggravated offences listed in the Bill include offences that result in the death of the victim or his dependent or any other person, including death as a result of suicide.
• This also includes cases where the offence has been caused by administering any chemical substance or hormones on a person for the purpose of early sexual maturity.

(4) Government Officers as Offenders

Offenders will also include defense personnel and government servants, doctors and paramedical staff or anyone in a position of authority.

(5) Stringent penalty

• It is proposed that whoever commits the offence shall be punishable with a term for ten years but which may extend to imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to Rs 10 lakh.
• Offence against a child of less than twelve years of age, or against a woman for the purpose of repeated rape, the person shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for twenty years, but which may extend to life.
• In case of second or subsequent conviction, the accused may be punished with death sentence. The fine may extend up to Rs 30 lakh.
• When a public servant, or a police officer, or a person in charge of or a staff of a women’s or children’s home or institution is involved, he shall be punishable on conviction for the remainder of natural life.
• A person advertising, publishing, printing, broadcasting or distributing any material that promotes trafficking of a person or exploitation of a trafficked person will invite punishment.

(6) Similarity to Money laundering Act

• Property bought via such income as well as used for trafficking can now be forfeited with provisions set in place, similar to that of the money laundering Act.

(7) Investigation agency

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) shall act as the national investigating and coordinating agency responsible for the prevention and combating of trafficking in persons.

(8) Timeframe for granting compensation

• The district legal services authority (DLSA) shall provide immediate relief to the victim and dependent, including aid and assistance for medical and rehabilitation needs, within seven days.
• The DLSA shall award interim relief to a victim or any dependant within a period of thirty days of an application submitted and after due assessment.
• The bill also says the investigation needs to be completed within 90 days from the date of the arrest of the accused.

(9) National Anti-Human Trafficking Committee:

• Once the law is enacted, the Centre will notify and establish a National Anti-Human Trafficking Committee, for ensuring overall effective implementation of the provisions of this law.
  • This committee will have representation from various ministries with the home secretary as the chairperson and secretary of the women and child development ministry as co-chair.
  • State and district level anti-human trafficking committees will also be constituted.

Why this bill is significant?

• The transgender community, and any other person, has been included which will automatically bring under its scope activity such as organ harvesting.
• Also, cases such as forced labour, in which people lured with jobs end up in other countries where their passports and documentation are taken away and they are made to work, will also be covered by this new law.

What are the legislations in India that prohibits human trafficking?

• Article 23 (1) in the constitution of India prohibits trafficking in human beings and forced labour.
• Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) penalizes trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
• India also prohibits bonded and forced labour through the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, Child Labour (Prohibition and Abolition) Act 1986, and Juvenile Justice Act.
• Sections 366(A) and 372 of the Indian Penal Code, prohibits kidnapping and selling minors into prostitution respectively.
• The Factories Act, 1948 guaranteed the protection of the rights of workers.

International Conventions, Protocols and Campaigns

• Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children in 2000 as a part of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
• This protocol was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000.
• The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is responsible for implementing the protocol.
• It offers practical help to states with drafting laws, creating comprehensive national anti-trafficking strategies, and assisting with resources to implement them.
• Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air. It entered into force on 28 January 2004.
• This also supplements the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime. The Protocol is aimed at the protection of rights of migrants and the reduction of the power and influence of organized criminal groups that abuse migrants.
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is a non-binding declaration that establishes the right of every human to live with dignity and prohibits slavery.
• Blue Heart Campaign: The Blue Heart Campaign is an international anti-trafficking program started by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
• Sustainable Development Goals: Various SDGs aim to end trafficking by targeting its roots and means viz.
• Goal 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls),
• Goal 8 (Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all) and
• Goal 16 (Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels).

Concerns over the new bill

• The bill is not clear about how the NIA will gather information and intelligence from different parts of the country through Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) at district level and State level.
• The bill is largely silent on rescue protocols except the “reason to believe” by a police officer not below the rank of a sub-inspector. This makes the role of the AHTUs unclear in the rescue and post-rescue processes.
• There are also concerns about absence of community-based rehabilitation, missing definition of reintegration and also about the funds related to rehabilitation of survivors in the bill.
• In absence of rescue protocol there is always the fear of forced rescue of adult persons who may have been trafficked but do not wish to get rescued.
• The proposed Bill criminalizes sex work and the choice of sex work as profession. The Draft Trafficking Bill has mixed up the issue of trafficking and sex work.

Way Forward

• Foresight and preparedness: in the midst of the current lockdown can save the lives of crores of women, men and children and avoid an impending humanitarian crisis
• Collaboration is key: A lot of work needs to be done in a collaborative manner, between key stakeholders such as the government and civil society organizations, for any substantial change to be seen.
• Assessment and review of legal framework: The central government must assess the existing criminal law on trafficking and its ability to counter the crime and meet the needs of the victim.
• Increase in budgetary allocation for law enforcement and victim rehabilitation: There is a gross deficit in the budgetary allocation to combat human trafficking.
• Curbing the rise of online Child Sexual Abuse material: The upsurge of child sexual abuse material and its easy access can only be controlled by placing greater accountability on Internet Service Providers and digital platforms that host this content.
• Safety net in source areas of trafficking: Schools, communities, religious authorities and the local administration need to recognize and control trafficking and bonded labour in villages.
• Intensive campaignings: must educate communities about the threat and modus operandi of trafficking agents, especially in the source areas such as Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam.
• Monitoring: The railway and other transport facilities have to be intensely monitored.
• Public Awareness and Sensitization: Awareness around existing government social welfare schemes and the means to access them should be generated and the government must immediately initiate registration of unorganized workers.
• Financial protection: Special financial protection should be extended for the next year in order to keep the wolf away from the door.