Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Non-refoulment principle
Mains level: Paper 2- Usage of international law for furthering national security interests
Context
Military experts, international relations academics, and practitioners like retired diplomats dominate the debates on global security in India. International lawyers are largely absent in these debates despite security issues being placed within the framework of international law.
Using international law to further security interests
In recent times, several examples demonstrate India’s failure to use an international law-friendly vocabulary to articulate its security interests.
- First, India struck the terror camps in Pakistan in February 2019, after the Pulwama attack India did not invoke the right to self-defence; rather, it relied on a contested doctrine of ‘non-military pre-emptive action’.
- Second, after the Pulwama attack, India decided to suspend the most favoured nation (MFN) status of Pakistan.
- Under international law contained in the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade, countries can deviate from their MFN obligations on grounds of national security.
- Instead of suspending the MFN obligation towards Pakistan along these lines, India used Section 8A(1) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, to increase customs duties on all Pakistani products to 200%.
- The notification on this decision did not even mention ‘national security’.
- Third, India wishes to deport the Rohingya refugees who, it argues, pose a security threat.
- India’s argument to justify this deportation is that it is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention.
- This is a weak argument since India is bound by the principle of non-refoulment.
- National security is one of the exceptions to the non-refoulment principle in international refugee law.
- If India wishes to deport the Rohingya, it should develop a case on these lines showing how they constitute a national security threat.
- Fourth, to put pressure on the Taliban regime to serve India’s interest, India has rarely used international law.
- India could have made a case for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) using its implied powers under international law to temporarily suspend Afghanistan from SAARC’s membership.
Reasons for international law remaining at the margins
- First, there is marginal involvement of international lawyers in foreign policymaking.
- The Legal and Treaties Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, which advises the government on international law matters, is both understaffed and largely ignored on policy matters.
- Second, apart from the External Affairs Ministry, there are several other Ministries like Commerce and Finance that also deal with different facets of international law.
- They have negligible expertise in international law.
- Third, there has been systemic neglect of the study of international law.
- Fourth, many of the outstanding international law scholars that India has produced prefer to converse with domain experts only.
Way forward
- If India wishes to emerge as a global power, it has to make use of ‘lawfare’ i.e., use law as a weapon of national security.
- To mainstream international law in foreign policymaking, India should invest massively in building its capacity on international law.
Conclusion
Notwithstanding the central role that international law plays in security matters, India has failed to fully appreciate the usage of international law to advance its national security interests.
Back2Basics: Non-refoulement principle
- The principle of non-refoulement constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee protection.
- It is enshrined in Article 33 of the 1951 Convention, which is also binding on States Party to the 1967 Protocol.
- Article 33(1) of the 1951 Convention provides:
“No Contracting State shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his [or her] life or freedom would be threatened on account of his [or her] race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Integrated approach to Eurasia
Context
Delhi’s Indo-Pacific strategy has acquired political and institutional traction, thanks to intensive Indian diplomacy in recent years. It must now devote similar energy to the development of a “Eurasian” policy.
Need for Eurasian strategy and challenges
- This week’s consultations in Delhi on the crisis in Afghanistan among the region’s top security policymakers is part of developing a Eurasian strategy.
- National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has invited his counterparts from Pakistan, Iran, Central Asia, Russia, and China to join this discussion on Wednesday.
- Pakistan has declined to join.
- Pakistan’s reluctance to engage with India on Afghanistan reveals Delhi’s persisting problem with Islamabad in shaping a new Eurasian strategy.
- But it also reinforces the urgency of an Indian strategy to deal with Eurasia.
Factors shaping India’s Eurasian policy
- The most important development in Eurasia today is the dramatic rise of China and its growing strategic assertiveness, expanding economic power and rising political influence.
- Beijing’s muscular approach to the long and disputed border with Bhutan and India, its quest for a security presence in Tajikistan, the active search for a larger role in Afghanistan, and a greater say in the affairs of the broader sub-Himalayan region are only one part of the story.
- Physical proximity multiplies China’s economic impact on the inner Asian regions.
- These leverages, in turn, were reinforced by a deepening alliance with Russia that straddles the Eurasian heartland. Russia’s intractable disputes with Europe and America have increased Moscow’s reliance on Beijing.
- Amidst mounting challenges from China in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain, Washington has begun to rethink its strategic commitments to Eurasia.
- Whether defined as “burden-sharing” in Washington or “strategic autonomy” in Brussels, Europe must necessarily take on a larger regional Eurasian security role.
- More broadly, regional powers are going to reshape Eurasia.
What should be India’s approach to Eurasia
- Like the Indo-Pacific, Eurasia is new to India’s strategic discourse.
- To be sure, there are references to India’s ancient civilisational links with Eurasia.
- While there are many elements to an Indian strategy towards Eurasia, three of them stand out.
- Put Europe back into India’s continental calculus: As India now steps up its engagement with Europe, the time has come for it to begin a strategic conversation with Brussels on Eurasian security.
- This will be a natural complement to the fledgling engagement between India and Europe on the Indo-Pacific.
- India’s Eurasian policy must necessarily involve greater engagement with both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
- Intensify the dialogue on Eurasian security with Russia: While Indo-Russian differences on the Indo-Pacific, the Quad, China, and the Taliban are real, Delhi and Moscow have good reasons to narrow their differences on Afghanistan and widen cooperation on continental Eurasian security.
- Indian collaboration with both Persia and Arabia: If Persia’s location makes it critical for the future of Afghanistan and Central Asia, the religious influence of Arabia and the weight of the Gulf capital are quite consequential in the region.
- India’s partnerships with Persia and Arabia are also critical in overcoming Turkey’s alliance with Pakistan that is hostile to Delhi.
Challenges
- Contradictions: India will surely encounter many contradictions in each of the three areas — between and among America, Europe, Russia, China, Iran, and the Arab Gulf.
- As in the Indo-Pacific, so in Eurasia, Delhi should not let these contradictions hold India back.
Consider the question ” Eurasia involves the recalibration of India’s continental strategy. India has certainly dealt with Eurasia’s constituent spaces separately over the decades. What Delhi now needs is an integrated approach to Eurasia. In the context of this, examine the challenges in India’s engagement with Eurasia and suggest the elements that should form part of India’s strategy towards Eurasia.”
Conclusion
The current flux in Eurasian geopolitics will lessen some of the current contradictions and generate some new antinomies in the days ahead. The key for India lies in greater strategic activism that opens opportunities in all directions in Eurasia.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gati Shakti plan
Mains level: Paper 2- Gati Shakti plan's impact beyond border
Context
The Gati Shakti National Master Plan will have an important economic multiplier effect at home, it must also be leveraged to have an external impact by aligning it with India’s regional and global connectivity efforts.
Main components of the Gati Shakti National Master Plan
- The Gati Shakti plan has three main components, all focused on domestic coordination.
- Increase information sharing: The plan seeks to increase information sharing with a new technology platform between various ministries at the Union and state levels.
- Reduce logistics’ costs: It focuses on giving impetus to multi-modal transportation to reduce logistics’ costs and strengthen last-mile connectivity in India’s hinterland or border regions.
- Analytical tool: The third component includes an analytical decision-making tool to disseminate project-related information and prioritise key infrastructure projects.
- This aims to ensure transparency and time-bound commitments to investors.
How Gati Shakti Plan can strengthen India’s economic ties with its neighbours
- The plan will automatically generate positive effects to deepen India’s economic ties with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, as well as with Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean region.
- India’s investment in roads, ports, inland waterways or new customs procedures generate positive externalities for these neighbours, who are keen to access the growing Indian consumer market.
- Any reduction in India’s domestic logistics costs brings immediate benefits to the northern neighbour, given that 98 per cent of Nepal’s total trade transits through India and about 65 per cent of Nepal’s trade is with India.
- In 2019, trade between Bhutan and Bangladesh was eased through a new multimodal road and waterway link via Assam.
- The new cargo ferry service with the Maldives, launched last year, has lowered the costs of trade for the island state.
- And under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Programme, India’s investments in multimodal connectivity on the eastern coast is reconnecting India with the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia through integrated rail, port and shipping systems.
- Whether it is the alignment of a cross-border railway, the location of a border check post, or the digital system chosen for customs and immigration processes, India’s connectivity investments at home will have limited effects unless they are coordinated with those of its neighbours and other regional partners.
- While India recently joined the Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) convention, which facilitates cross-border customs procedures, none of its neighbouring countries in the east has signed on to it.
Suggestions for Gati Shakti Plan to have maximum external effect
- First, India will have to deepen bilateral consultations with its neighbours to gauge their connectivity strategies and priorities.
- Given political and security sensitivities, India will require diplomatic skills to reassure its neighbours and adapt to their pace and political economy context.
- A second way is for India to work through regional institutions and platforms. SAARC’s ambitious regional integration plans of the 2000s are now defunct, so Delhi has shifted its geo-economic orientation eastwards.
- The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has got new momentum, but there is also progress on the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) Initiative.
- Finally, India can also boost the Gati Shakti plan’s external impact by cooperating more closely with global players who are keen to support its strategic imperative to give the Indo-Pacific an economic connectivity dimension.
- This includes the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, but also Japan, the US, Australia, EU and ASEAN.
Conclusion
Gati Shakti plan must also leveraged to have an external impact by aligning it with India’s regional and global connectivity efforts.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Net-Zero
Mains level: Roadmap for net-zero targets
India has joined a high-profile group of countries pledging for net-zero target by 2070.
What does Net-Zero mean?
- Net-zero, which is also referred to as carbon-neutrality, does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero.
- That would be gross-zero, which means reaching a state where there are no emissions at all, a scenario hard to comprehend.
- Therefore, net-zero is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
What’s the difference between gross zero and net-zero?
- Gross zero would mean stopping all emissions, which isn’t realistically attainable across all sectors of our lives and industry.
- Even with best efforts to reduce them, there will still be some emissions.
- Net-zero looks at emissions overall, allowing for the removal of any unavoidable emissions, such as those from aviation or manufacturing.
- Removing greenhouse gases could be via nature, as trees take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or through new technology or changing industrial processes.
What is carbon negativity?
- It is even possible for a country to have negative emissions if the absorption and removal exceed the actual emissions.
- *Bhutan has negative emissions because it absorbs more than it emits.
What is the outlook for India’s emissions?
- Analysis of India’s growth path points to rising GDP per capita, with a rise in carbon emissions in the short term, primarily from energy.
- There is pressure from absolute increase in population and consumption, but population growth is slowing.
India’s major emission sources
- In terms of sectoral GHG emissions, data from 2016 show that electricity and heat account for the highest share (1.11 billion tonnes).
- It is followed by agriculture (704.16 million tonnes), manufacturing and construction (533.8 million tonnes), transport (265.3 million tonnes), industry (130.61 million tonnes).
- Land-use change and forestry (126.43 million tonnes) is also a major source.
- Other fuel use (119.04 million tonnes), buildings (109.2 million tonnes), waste (80.98 million tonnes), fugitive emissions (54.95 million tonnes) accounts for major urban sources.
- Aviation and shipping (20.4 million tonnes) accounts for the least source of emission.
Immediate interventions that can be made
- Legal mechanism: India needs to create a legal mandate for climate impact assessment of all activities.
- Investment: This can facilitate investment by dedicated green funds.
- Wholistic participation: Public sector institutions promoted by the government, co-operatives and even market mechanisms will participate.
- Renewable energy: The 500 GW renewables target needs a major boost, such as channeling more national and international climate funding into decentralized solar power.
- Hydrogen economy: Another emerging sector is green hydrogen production because of its potential as a clean fuel. India has a National Hydrogen Mission now in place.
- Waste Management: India’s urban solid waste management will need to modernise to curb methane emissions from unscientific landfills.
- Stored carbon mitigation: Preventing the release of stored carbon in the environment, such as trees and soil, has to be a net zero priority.
Role of developed countries
- India’s argument is that it has historically been one of the lowest emitters of GHGs.
- The impetus has to come from the developed economies that had the benefit of carbon-intensive development since the Industrial Revolution.
Way forward
- These plans need a political consensus and support from State governments.
- Net-zero will involve industrial renewal using green innovation, green economy support and supply chains yielding new jobs.
- It also needs low carbon technologies, zero-emission vehicles, and renewed cities promoting walking and cycling.
- The industry will need to make highly energy-efficient goods that last longer, and consumers should be given a legal right to repair goods they buy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: India's quest for Afghan Peace
India is hosting the National Security Advisors (NSAs) level ‘Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan’ this week.
About the dialogue
- It will be headed by NSA Ajit Doval.
- It aims to organise a conference of regional stakeholders and important powers on the country’s current situation and the future outlook.
- Invitations are sent to Afghanistan’s neighbours such as Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and other key players including Russia, and China.
Pakistan’s response
- Not surprisingly, Pakistan has denounced India’s invitation. China too followed Pakistan’s footsteps.
- Had Pakistan consented to come, it would have been the first high-level visit to India from Pakistan since 2016.
- Pakistani position reflects its mindset on Afghanistan, where it has played a conspiring role.
- It reflects its mindset of viewing Afghanistan as its protectorate.
Response from the other countries
- India’s invitation has seen an overwhelming response.
- Central Asian countries as well as Russia and Iran have confirmed participation.
Significance of the dialogue
- This will be the first time that all Central Asian countries, and not just Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours, would be participating in this format.
- The enthusiastic response is a manifestation of the importance attached to India’s role in regional efforts to promote peace and security in Afghanistan.
- If peace is established in Afghanistan, it could become a major trading hub as a corridor of connectivity in the heart of Asia.
When you are not at the table, you are on the menu… this conference is India’s attempt to set the table, be on the table, and decide the agenda.
India’s motive for the conference
- This is India’s attempt to secure for itself a seat at the table to decide the future course of action on Afghanistan.
- It underlines the need to actively engage with the world to protect India’s security interests.
- Until the fall of Kabul, India had not engaged with the Taliban through publicly-announced official channels.
India’s expectations form Taliban Govt
- Taliban should not allow safe havens for terror on its soil.
- The administration should be inclusive, and the rights of minorities, women, and children must be protected.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Freedom of Air
Mains level: Not Much
A flight from Srinagar to Sharjah had to avoid flying over Pakistan after the country denied permission to use its airspace for the said flight. With this refusal, Pakistan has violated the first freedom of air.
Freedom of Air
- Following the Chicago Convention in 1944, the signatories decided to set rules that would act as fundamental building blocks to international commercial aviation.
- As a part of these rules, initially, six ‘freedoms of air’ were decided.
- These freedoms or rights still operate within the ambit of multilateral and bilateral treaties.
- It allows to grant airlines of a particular country the privilege to use and/or land in another country’s airspace.
‘Freedoms’ accorded
- Flying over a foreign country without landing
- Refuel or carry out maintenance in a foreign country without embarking or disembarking passengers or cargo
- Fly from the home country and land in a foreign country
- Fly from a foreign country and land in the home country
- Fly from the home country to a foreign country, stopping in another foreign country on the way
- Fly from a foreign country to another foreign country, stopping in the home country on the way
- Fly from a foreign country to another foreign country, without stopping in the home country
- Fly from the home country to a foreign country, then on to another destination within the same foreign country
- Fly internally within a foreign country
Why did Pakistan deny use of its airspace?
- There has been no official explanation given by Pakistan authorities.
- Indian has approached Pakistan to raise the issue of the refusal to use its airspace for the said flight.
- Notably, other Indian airlines flying to west Asia from airports such as Delhi, Lucknow, etc have not been barred from using Pakistan airspace.
- This also raises the concern of Pakistan violating the first freedom of air.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Financial inclusion in India
India is now ahead of China in financial inclusion metrics, with mobile and Internet banking transactions rising to 13,615 per 1,000 adults in 2020 from 183 in 2015.
What does one mean by Financial Inclusion?
- Financial inclusion is defined as the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services.
- It refers to a process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services.
- These include banking, loan, equity and insurance products etc.
Key highlights of the Report
- Boosted by PM Jan-Dhan Yojana, the number of bank branches per 100,000 adults in India rose to 14.7 in 2020 from 13.6 in 2015.
- It is higher than Germany, China and South Africa.
- Data shows that states with higher Jan-Dhan accounts balances have seen a perceptible decline in crime.
How did India achieve financial inclusion?
- Financial inclusion policies have a multiplier effect on economic growth, reducing poverty and income inequality, while also being conducive for financial stability.
- India has stolen a march in financial inclusion with the initiation of PMJDY accounts since 2014.
- It was enabled by a robust digital infrastructure and also careful recalibration of bank branches and thereby using the BC model judiciously.
- Such financial inclusion has also been enabled by use of digital payments.
What is the BC Model?
- The report highlighted that the Banking Correspondent (BC) model in India is enabled to provide a defined range of banking services at low cost.
- The new branch authorisation policy of 2017 –recognises BCs that provide banking services for a minimum of 4-hours per day and for at least 5-days a week as banking outlets.
- The BCs are enabled to provide a defined range of banking services at low cost and hence are instrumental in promoting financial inclusion.
- This has progressively done away the need to set up brick and mortar branches.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UCCN
Mains level: Not Much
The UNESCO has picked up Srinagar among 49 cities as part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) under the Crafts and Folk Arts category.
What is UCCN?
- UCCN created in 2004, is a network of cities that are thriving, active centers of cultural activities in their respective countries.
- These cities can be from all continents with different income levels or with different levels of populations.
- UCCN believes that these cities are working towards a common mission by placing creativity at the core of their urban development plans to make the region resilient, safe, inclusive and sustainable.
- Ministry of Culture is the nodal Ministry of the Government of India for all matters in UNESCO relating to culture.
Objective of UCCN
- Placing creativity and the creative economy at the core of their urban development plans to make cities safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable, in line with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
The 7 categories for recognition under UCCN are as follows:
- Crafts and Folk Arts
- Design
- Film
- Gastronomy (food)
- Music
- Media Arts
- Literature
Previously, 3 Indian cities were recognized as members of UCCN namely-
- Jaipur-Crafts and Folk Arts (2015)
- Varanasi-Creative city of Music (2015)
- Chennai-Creative city of Music (2017)
- Mumbai-Film (2019)
- Hyderabad- Gastronomy (2019)
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