Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: India FTAs
Mains level: Paper 2- Limits and challenges India faces in its engagement in Quad and Indo-Pacific construct
The article analyses the similarity, differences and limitations of the Quad and the Indo-Pacific construct and delineate the challenges India as it seeks to deal with China.
Expectations from India in countering China
- During the mid-2000s the world expected India to be an economic powerhouse, a decade later, those expectations remain modest, at best.
- The international community has once again decided to court New Delhi to play a decisive role in shaping the region’s strategic future.
- The expectation this time is more strategic and military, to lead the charge against China from within the region.
Role of India in the Quad and similarity with Indo-Pacific construct
- Quad is a forum for strategic and military consultations among India, the U.S., Australia and Japan.
- Quad members are also major States in the Indo-Pacific region.
- Both the Quad and the Indo-Pacific constructs are focused on China.
- More so, they are also in some ways centred around India’s geographic location and its policies.
- Put differently, if you take China out of the equation, they would have little rationale for existence.
- If you take India out of the picture, their ability to sustain as geopolitical constructs would drastically diminish.
Differences between Indo-Pacific Construct and Quad
- The Indo-Pacific is a politico-economic vision and the Quad is a military-strategic vision which does not form the military or strategic nucleus of the first.
- While the Indo-Pacific provides a complex political and economic picture with a hesitant, but growing, articulation of China as a strategic challenge.
- The Quad is inherently more anti-China in character and intent.
- The Indo-Pacific,will find it impossible to avoid engaging China, the Quad is mostly focused on diplomatic signalling and with little common intent let alone joint action.
- Quad’s ability to succeed would entirely depend on China — the more aggressive China gets, the more resolute the Quad countries would be in strengthening it.
Comparing Indio-Pacific with BRI
- The BRI is far more advanced, much more thought-out, and enjoyes the support of Chinese state.
- Several Indo-Pacific countries are already members of the BRI.
- On the flip side, the BRI is already under immense stress from its inherent weaknesses, such as China’s unilateral pursuit of the BRI and the associated economic burdens on the States that sign up to it.
Challenges India face
1) On economic front
- There must be strong economic partnerships and linkages among its members, merely focusing on strategic talk and possible military cooperation will not work.
- India’s recent decision not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), could potentially complicate the country’s future engagements in the region.
- Also worryinng is the already huge gap between India and China on trade with almost every Indo-Pacific country.
- This growing trade gap will be a major determining factor in shaping the region’s strategic realities.
- Institutional engagement: India does not have FTAs with Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Bangladesh and the Maldives. It has FTAs with South Korea, the Association of South East Asian Nations, or ASEAN, Japan and Sri Lanka.
- In the case of China, it has FTAs with all these countries barring the U.S.
2) On strategic and military front
- India strategic and military engagements in the region also fall short.
- Beijing is a major defence supplier to several of the region’s States including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
- This dwarfs India’s minimal sales, defence dialogues and occasional joint military exercises in the region.
Way forward
- India’s role in the Indo-Pacific will remain limited if it does not prove to be a major economic partner to these States.
- But given the economic slowdown in India today in the wake of COVID-19 and the lack of political consensus about RCEP, India’s ability to economically engage with the region remains limited.
- On the military-strategic side too, India’s performance in the region is less than desirable.
- The only choice, it appears then, is for some sort of a loosely structured regional strategic alliance with the U.S. and its allies in the broader Indo-Pacific region.
Consider the question ” What are the similarities and differences in the Quad and the Indo-Pacific construct? What are the challenges India faces as it increases its engagement in the both.”
Conclusion
India remains caught between a deeply constrained, but unavoidable, need to rethink its strategic posture, and the recognition of its material inability to do so, at least for now.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BECA
Mains level: Paper 2- India-US and optimism
The growing pace of India-US bilateral engagement has raised hopes in several quarters. However, there are several issues that must be considered and need to avoid excessive optimism.
Timing of 2+2 dialogue
- The India-US 2+2 third meeting was held in Delhi only a week before the US presidential elections.
- The government felt that it was important to seal the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) without delay.
- Other reason could be government’s assessment that there is bipartisan support in the US for higher and positive bilateral ties.
Need for caution in India’s approach
- In India-US ties, the leading outside consideration is China.
- A Biden presidency, should that be the choice of the American people, would seek to ensure that China’s rise is not at the cost of the US’s global pre-eminence.
- However, the strategy and methods it employs would be different from that of its predecessor.
- Further, even a Trump 2 administration, with the election done, may change course in its China approach.
- Hence, caution and prudence are good diplomatic watchwords.
- It is good that the agreements for a full defence engagement with the US are in place.
- But it is one matter to have them done and an entirely different one insofar as the nature and intensity of cooperation.
- So, India’s tradition of relying on its own strengths in matters of national security should not be eroded in the hope that an outside power would provide useful inputs.
Alliance Vs. Partnership
- India-US ties are in the framework of a partnership, not an alliance.
- The partnership may not be based on opposition to an outside element, the alliance almost always is.
- Alliances also demand a much higher price than partnerships, through loss of autonomy if the ally is a bigger power.
Excessive enthusiasm on Quad may be premature
- The 2+2 joint statement does not name China but its thrust is clear.
- The Quad is based on a commonality of concerns on account of China’s actions.
- India’s decision to go along with a more purposive group, including through its maritime exercises, is in keeping with its interests.
- The real direction that the Quad will take has to await the US’s overall China strategy over the next few years.
- Excessive enthusiasm on the Quad front may, therefore, be premature.
Way forward
- India has to change the nature of its economic and commercial ties with China.
- Thus, the joint statement’s reference on the need to “enhance supply chain resilience and to seek alternatives to the current paradigm” was timely, though here, again, the future US approach is not entirely certain.
- The areas where the bilateral partnership has the potential of evolving most positively for India relate to health, education and science and technology.
- There should not be any reluctance in developing ties in defence industries, too, but it cannot be forgotten that no country will part with any of its critical technologies.
- But there cannot be a substitute for developing indigenous capacity for India’s needs for weapon systems.
Conclusion
India-US ties will move positively forward but there will be imponderables ahead, principally arising out of US strategies towards China. But, a close embrace of another country is always problematic.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ASER
Mains level: State of school education in India
The ASER Wave 1 Survey was recently released since the COVID-19 crisis interrupted this years’ trajectory.
Practice question for mains:
Q.Discuss the efficacy of the One-Nation- One-Board System and its limitations.
About ASER Survey
- This is an annual survey (published by education non-profit Pratham ) that aims to provide reliable estimates of children’s enrolment and basic learning levels for each district and state in India.
- ASER has been conducted every year since 2005 in all rural districts of India. It is the largest citizen-led survey in India.
- It is also the only annual source of information on children’s learning outcomes available in India.
How is the survey conducted?
- ASER tools and procedures are designed by ASER Centre, the research and assessment arm of Pratham.
- The survey itself is coordinated by ASER Centre and facilitated by the Pratham network. It is conducted by close to 30,000 volunteers from partner organisations in each district.
- All kinds of institutions partner with ASER: colleges, universities, NGOs, youth groups, women’s organisations, self-help groups and others.
- The ASER model has been adapted for use in several countries around the world: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Pakistan, Mali and Senegal.
Assessment parameters
- Unlike most other large-scale learning assessments, ASER is a household-based rather than school-based survey.
- This design enables all children to be included – those who have never been to school or have dropped out, as well as those who are in government schools, private schools, religious schools or anywhere else.
- In each rural district, 30 villages are sampled. In each village, 20 randomly selected households are surveyed.
- Information on schooling status is collected for all children living in sampled households who are in the age group 3-16.
- Children in the age group 5-16 are tested in basic reading and basic arithmetic. The same test is administered to all children.
- The highest level of reading tested corresponds to what is expected in Std 2; in 2012 this test was administered in 16 regional languages.
- In recent years, this has included household size, parental education, and some information on household assets.
Key Findings
1.Enrollments:
- 5.5% of rural children are not currently enrolled for the 2020school year, up from 4% in 2018.
- This difference is the sharpest among the youngest children (6 to 10) where 5.3% of rural children had not yet enrolled in school in 2020, in comparison to just 1.8% in 2018.
- Due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic, families are waiting for the physical opening of schools to enrol their youngest children, with about 10% of six-year-olds not in school.
- Among 15-16 year-olds, however, enrollment levels are slightly higher than in 2018.
- The proportion of boys enrolled in government schools has risen from 62.8% in 2018 to 66.4% in 2020, while for girls, that number has gone up from 70% to 73% in the corresponding period.
- Patterns show a slight shift toward government schools, with private schools seeing a drop in enrolment in all age groups.
- The Centre has now permitted States to start reopening schools if they can follow Covid-19 safety protocols but the majority of the country’s 25 crore students are still at home.
2.Availability of Smartphones:
- Among enrolled children, 61.8% live in families that own at least one smartphone which was merely 36.5% in 2018.
- About 11% of families bought a new phone after the lockdown, of which 80% were smartphones.
- WhatsApp is by far the most popular mode of transmitting learning materialsto students, with 75% of students receiving input via this app.
3.Availability of Learning Material:
- Overall more than 80% of children said they had textbooks for their current grade.
- This proportion was higher among students enrolled in government schools (84.1%) than in private ones (72.2%).
- In Bihar, less than 8% got such materials from their schools, along with 20% in West Bengal, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
- More than 80% of rural children in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Gujarat received such input.
4.Learning Activities:
- Most children (70.2%) did some form of a learning activity through material shared by tutors or family members themselves, with or without regular input.
- 11% had access to live online classes, and 21% had videos or recorded classes, with much higher levels in private schools.
- About 60% studied from their textbooks and 20% watched classes broadcast on TV.
Suggestions
- Fluid Situation: When schools reopen, it will be important to continue to monitor who goes back to school as well as to understand whether there is learning lossas compared to previous years.
- Building on and Strengthening Family Support: Parents’ increasing levels of education can be integrated into planning for learning improvement, as advocated by National Education Policy, 2020. Reaching parents at the right level is essential to understand how they can help their children and older siblings also play an important role.
- Hybrid Learning: As children do a variety of different activities at home, effective ways of hybrid learning need to be developed which combine traditional teaching-learning with newer ways of “reaching-learning”.
- Assessment of Digital Modes and Content: In order to improve digital content and delivery for the future, an in-depth assessment of what works, how well it works, who it reaches, and who it excludes is needed.
- Mediating the Digital Divide: Children from families who had low education and also did not have resources like smartphones had less access to learning opportunities. However, even among such households, there is evidence of effort with family members trying to help and schools trying to reach them. These children will need even more help than others when schools reopen.
Way Forward
- Covid-19 has left the nation with deep economic distress and uncertainty over school-reopenings and thrown open new challenges in every sector.
- The nationally representative sample highlighted the role played by the families where everyone in the family supported children regardless of their education levels.
- This strength needs to be leveraged by reaching out to more students and reducing the distance between schools and homes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAATSA, COMCASA, LEMOA , BECA
Mains level: India-US relations as a response to China
India and the United States have signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), which, along with the two agreements signed earlier — the LEMOA and the COMCASA.
Try this question for mains:
Q. What is the troika of “foundational pacts” of India with the US? Discuss each of them. (150W)
Completing the troika
- The two agreements signed earlier are— the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) and the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA).
- This completes a troika of “foundational pacts” for deep military cooperation between the two countries.
What is BECA?
- BECA will help India get real-time access to American geospatial intelligence that will enhance the accuracy of automated systems and weapons like missiles and armed drones.
- Through the sharing of information on maps and satellite images, it will help India access topographical and aeronautical data, and advanced products that will aid in navigation and targeting.
Benefits of BECA
- This could be a key to Air Force-to-Air Force cooperation between India and the US.
- BECA will provide Indian military systems with a high-quality GPS to navigate missiles with real-time intelligence to precisely target the adversary.
- Besides the sailing of ships, flying off aircraft, fighting of wars, and location of targets, geospatial intelligence is also critical to the response to natural disasters.
What was the LEMOA about?
- LEMOA was the first of the three pacts to be signed in August 2016.
- LEMOA allows the militaries of the US and India to replenish from each other’s bases, and access supplies, spare parts and services from each other’s land facilities, air bases, and ports, which can then be reimbursed.
- LEMOA is extremely useful for India-US Navy-to-Navy cooperation since the two countries are cooperating closely in the Indo-Pacific.
Concretizing the mutual trust
- The critical element that underpins LEMOA is mutual trust.
- Without trust, no country will be willing to expose its military and strategic assets such as warships to the facilities of another country.
- The signing of LEMOA was in itself an affirmation of the mutual trust between the two militaries, and its application will enhance the trust.
- It took almost a decade to negotiate LEMOA, and the exercise in a sense bridged the trust deficit between India and the US and paved the way for the other two foundational pacts.
What about the COMCASA?
- COMCASA was signed in September 2018, after the first 2+2 dialogue during Mrs. Swarajs’ term as EAM.
- The pact allows the US to provide India with its encrypted communications equipment and systems so that Indian and US military commanders, and the aircraft and ships of the two countries, can communicate through secure networks during times of both peace and war.
- The signing of COMCASA paved the way for the transfer of communication security equipment from the US to India to facilitate “interoperability” between their forces.
Specific context and practical benefit for India
- The strengthening of the mechanisms of cooperation between the two militaries must be seen in the context of an increasingly aggressive China.
- Amid the ongoing standoff on the LAC in Ladakh — the longest and most serious in three decades — India and the US intensified under-the-radar intelligence and military cooperation at an unprecedented level.
- These conversations facilitated information-sharing between the two countries, including the sharing of high-end satellite images, telephone intercepts, and data on Chinese troops and weapons deployment along the LAC.
Conclusion
- Such agreements mark the enhancement of mutual trust and a commitment to the long-term strategic relationship.
- The US wants India to move away from Russian equipment and platforms, as it feels this may expose its technology and information to Moscow.
- So far, India is going ahead with the purchase of the S-400 air defence missile system from Russia, and this has been a sticking point for American interlocutors.
- For its part, India is wary of Pakistan’s deep-rooted ties with the Pentagon, and Washington’s dependence on Rawalpindi for access to Afghanistan as well as its exit strategy.
- But, because of the clear and present danger from China, New Delhi’s strategic embrace of Washington is the obvious outcome.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Atlantification
Mains level: Impact of climate changes
Scientists have uncovered “hotspots” where some parts of the Barents Sea are starting to more closely resemble the Atlantic. They call this phenomenon “Atlantification”.
Try this MCQ:
Q.The Atlantification phenomenon sometimes seen in news is most closely related to which of the following seas/water bodies?
a) Norwegian Sea
b) Kara Sea
c) Barents Sea
d) Baffin Bay
What is Atlantification?
- Streams of warmer water from the Atlantic Ocean flow into the Arctic at the Barents Sea.
- This warmer, saltier Atlantic water is usually fairly deep under the more buoyant Arctic water at the surface.
- Lately, however, the Atlantic water has been creeping up. That heat in the Atlantic water is helping to keep ice from forming and melting existing sea ice from below.
- This process is called “Atlantification”.
- The ice is now getting hit both from the top by a warming atmosphere and at the bottom by a warming ocean.
Reasons for it
- In the background of all of this is global climate change.
- The Arctic sea ice extent and thickness have been dropping for decades as global temperatures rise.
- As the Arctic loses ice and the ocean absorbs more solar radiation, global warming is amplified.
- That affects ocean circulation, weather patterns and Arctic ecosystems spanning the food chain, from phytoplankton all the way to top predators.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EOS-01
Mains level: Not Much
India would launch its latest earth observation satellite EOS-01 and nine international customer spacecraft onboard it’s PSLV-C49.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The term ‘IndARC’, sometimes seen in the news, is the name of:
(a) An indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence
(b) India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim
(c) A scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region
(d) India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region
EOS-01
- EOS-01 is intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support.
- This is the first launch by the Indian Space Research Organisation since the COVID-19-induced lockdown came into force in March.
- This will be the 51st mission of ISRO’s workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
What is Earth Observation Satellite (EOS)?
- An EOS or remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, cartography and others.
- Starting with IRS-1A in 1988, ISRO has launched many operational remote sensing satellites.
- Today, India has one of the largest constellations of remote sensing satellites in operation.
- Currently, *thirteen* operational satellites are in Sun-synchronous orbit and *four* in Geostationary orbit.
- The data from these satellites are used for several applications covering agriculture, water resources, urban planning, rural development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, ocean resources and disaster management.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pelagornithids
Mains level: Not Much
Scientists have identified the fossil of a giant bird that lived about 50 million years ago, with wingspans of up to 21 feet that would dwarf today’s largest bird, the wandering albatross.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The term “Sixth mass extinction/ sixth extinction is often mentioned in the news in the context of the discussion of
(a) Widespread monoculture practices in agriculture and large-scale commercial farming with indiscriminate use of chemicals in many parts of the world that may result in the loss of good native ecosystems.
(b) Fears of a possible collision of a meteorite with the Earth in the near future in the manner it happened 65 million years ago that caused the mass extinction of many species including those of dinosaurs.
(c) Large scale cultivation of genetically modified crops in many parts of the world and promoting their cultivation in other parts of the world which may cause the disappearance of good native crop plants and the loss of food biodiversity.
(d) Mankind’s over-exploitation/misuse of natural resources, fragmentation/loss of natural habitats, destruction of ecosystems, pollution and global climate change.
Pelagornithids
- Called Pelagornithids, the birds filled a niche much like that of today’s albatrosses and travelled widely over Earth’s oceans for at least 60 million years.
- They are known as ‘bony-toothed’ birds because of the bony projections, or struts, on their jaws that resemble sharp-pointed teeth, though they are not true teeth, like those of humans and other mammals.
- The bony protrusions were covered by a horny material, keratin, which is like our fingernails, the researchers said.
- Called pseudoteeth, the struts helped the birds snag squid and fish from the sea as they soared for perhaps weeks at a time over much of Earth’s oceans, they said.
Their extinction
- The pelagornithids came along to claim the wingspan record in the Cenozoic, after the mass extinction and lived until about 2.5 million years ago. Around that same time, teratogens, now extinct, ruled the skies, they said.
- The newly described fossil — a 50 million-year-old portion of a bird’s foot — shows that the larger Pelagornithids arose just afterlife rebounded from the mass extinction 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs, went extinct.
- The last known pelagornithid is from 2.5 million years ago, a time of changing climate as Earth cooled, and the ice ages began.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Highlights of the report
Mains level: Household electricity supply in India
NITI Aayog, Ministry of Power, Rockefeller Foundation, and Smart Power India have together launched the ‘Electricity Access in India and Benchmarking Distribution Utilities’ report.
About the report
- It is based on a primary survey conducted across 10 states––representing about 65% of the total rural population of India.
- Aimed at capturing insights from the demand (electricity customers) as well as supply-side (electricity distribution utilities), the report seeks to:
- Evaluate the status of electricity access in India across these states and distribution utilities along all dimensions that constitute meaningful access
- Benchmark utilities’ capacity to provide electricity access and identify the drivers of sustainable access
- Develop recommendations for enhancing sustainable electricity access
Key findings of the report:
- As much as 92% of customers reported the overall availability of electricity infrastructure within 50 metres of their premises; however, not all have connections, the primary reason being the distance of households from the nearest pole.
- Overall, 87% of customers have access to grid-based electricity. The remaining 13% either use non-grid sources or don’t use any electricity at all.
- The hours of supply have improved significantly across the customer categories to nearly 17 hours per day.
- Nearly 85% of customers reported to have a metered electricity connection.
- Access to electricity is observed in 83% of household customers.
- Considering the overall satisfaction level, a total of 66% of those surveyed were satisfied––74% of customers in urban areas and 60% in rural areas.
Recommendations made
The key recommendations provided in the report are in the areas of policy and regulation, process improvement, infrastructure and capacity-building of utilities. Other recommendations included:
- prioritizing the release of new connections for non-household customers
- transfer of subsidies or other benefits directly into a customer’s account
- enhanced technology-driven customer service; ensuring 100% metering of customers
- segregation of feeder lines
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