Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Joint Commands of the tri-services
Mains level: Need for Joint Commands
- The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Rawat said his office is working on a tentative timeline for the establishment of joint commands among the three defence services.
- With the creation of the CDS post on December 31, the government has set the ball rolling for bringing jointness and integration among the services.
What are joint commands?
- Simply put, it is a unified command in which the resources of all the services are unified under a single commander looking at a geographical theatre.
- It means that a single military commander, as per the requirements, will have the resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to manage a security threat.
- The commander of a joint command will have the freedom to train and equip his command as per the objective and will have logistics of all the services at his beckoning.
- The three services will retain their independent identities as well.
- A committee headed by Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar had earlier recommended three new commands: Northern, for China; Western, for the Pakistan border’ and Southern, for maritime security.
Present commands
- There are two tri-services commands at the moment.
- The joint command at the moment, the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), is a theatre command, which is headed by the chiefs of the three services in rotation.
- It was created in 2001 after a Group of Ministers had given a report on national security following the Kargil War.
- The Strategic Forces Command was established in 2006 and is a functional tri-services command.
What is the structure right now?
- There are 17 commands, divided among the three services. The Army and the Air Force have seven commands each, while the Navy has three commands.
- The commands under the Army are Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Central, Southwestern and the Army Training Command.
- The Air Force has Eastern, Western, Southern, Southwestern, Central, Maintenance and Training commands, and the Navy is divided into Western, Eastern and Southern commands.
- These commands report to their respective services and are headed by three-star officers.
- Though these commands are in the same regions, they are no located together.
Advantages of joint commands
- One of the main advantages is that the leader of unified command has control over more varied resources, compared to the heads of the commands under the services now.
- For instance, the head of one of the proposed commands, Air Defence Command, will have under him naval and Army resources, too, which can be used as per the threat perception.
- And the officer commanding the Pakistan or China border will have access to the Air Force’s fighter jets and can use them if needed.
- However, that not all naval resources will be given to the Air Defence Command, nor will all resources of the Air Force come under another proposed command, Peninsula Command, for the coasts.
- The Peninsula Command would give the Navy Chief freedom to look at the larger perspective in the entire Indian Ocean Region in which China’s presence is steadily increasing.
- The other key advantage is that through such integration and jointness the three forces will be able to avoid duplication of resources.
- The resources available under each service will be available to other services too. The services will get to know one another better, strengthening cohesion in the defence establishment.
How many such commands are expected to roll out?
- While the number of commands India needs is still being studied, the CDS has envisaged that there could be between six to nine commands. It is not certain how many land-based theatre commands on the borders will come up.
- The CDS said it will be studied, and the study group will be given the options for creating two to five theatre commands.
- One possibility is to have single commands looking at the China and Pakistan borders respectively, as they are the two major threats.
- The other option is to have a separate command for the border in the J&K region, and another command looking at the rest of the western border.
- There could be independent commands looking at the border with China which is divided by Nepal.
- A proposed Logistics Command will bring the logistics of all the service under one person, and the CDS is also looking at a Training and Doctrine Command so that all services work under a common doctrine and have some basic common training.
Do militaries of other countries have such commands?
- Several major militaries are divided into integrated theatre commands.
- China’s People’s Liberation Army has five theatre commands: Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern and Central. Its Western Theatre Command is responsible for India.
- The US Armed Forces have 11 unified commands, of which seven are geographic and four functional commands. Its geographic commands are Africa, Central, European, Indo-Pacific, Northern, Southern and Space.
- Cyber, Special Operations, Transportation and Strategic are its functional commands.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Happiness Curriculum
Mains level: Happiness Curriculum and its significance
On the upcoming visit to India, US President Trump will visit a Delhi government school, where they will attend a happiness curriculum class.
What is Delhi’s ‘happiness curriculum’?
- The curriculum calls for schools in India to promote development in cognition, language, literacy, numeracy and the arts along with addressing the well-being and happiness of students.
- It further says that future citizens need to be “mindful, aware, awakened, empathetic, firmly rooted in their identity…” based on the premise that education has a larger purpose, which cannot be in isolation from the “dire needs” of today’s society.
- For the evaluation, no examinations are conducted, neither will marks be awarded.
- The assessment under this curriculum is qualitative, focusing on the “process rather than the outcome” and noting that each student’s journey is unique and different.
Objectives of the curriculum
The objectives of this curriculum include:
- developing self-awareness and mindfulness,
- inculcating skills of critical thinking and inquiry,
- enabling learners to communicate effectively and
- helping learners to apply life skills to deal with stressful and conflicting situations around them
Learning outcomes of this curriculum
The learning outcomes of this curriculum are spread across four categories:
- becoming mindful and attentive (developing increased levels of self-awareness, developing active listening, remaining in the present);
- developing critical thinking and reflection (developing strong abilities to reflect on one’s own thoughts and behaviours, thinking beyond stereotypes and assumptions);
- developing social-emotional skills (demonstrating empathy, coping with anxiety and stress, developing better communication skills) and
- developing a confident and pleasant personality (developing a balanced outlook on daily life reflecting self-confidence, becoming responsible and reflecting awareness towards cleanliness, health and hygiene).
How is the curriculum implemented?
- The curriculum is designed for students of classes nursery through the eighth standard.
- Group 1 consists of students in nursery and KG, who have bi-weekly classes (45 minutes each for one session, which is supervised by a teacher) involving mindfulness activities and exercise.
- Children between classes 1-2 attend classes on weekdays, which involves mindfulness activities and exercises along with taking up reflective questions.
- The second group comprises students from classes 3-5 and the third group is comprised of students from classes 6-8 who apart from the aforementioned activities, take part in self-expression and reflect on their behavioural changes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan
Mains level: Various schemes for drought management
Jalyukta Shivar, the flagship water conservation project launched by the earlier government has been officially scrapped by the present Maha government.
What is Jalyukta Shivar?
- Launched in December 2014 after Maharashtra experienced consecutive droughts, the project aimed at rolling out measures that could potentially mitigate water scarcity in the most drought-prone villages in a systematic manner.
- Nearly 52 per cent of the state’s geographical area is prone to drought, either naturally or due to poor rainfall.
- This includes Marathwada and adjoining areas of Madhya Maharashtra and large parts of Vidarbha.
- The project targeted strengthening and streamlining existing water resources like canals, bunds and ponds by arresting maximum run-off rainwater during monsoon.
- Tasks to widen and deepen natural water streams and connect them to nearby water storage facilities like earthen or concrete check-dams were proposed.
- In the first phase, planned during 2015 – 2019, Jalyukta Shivar envisaged making 5,000 villages drought-free, every year.
- During its proposed tenure, the government eyed at making 25,000 drought-prone villages water-sufficient.
Was Jalyukta Shivar beneficial?
- While the exact number of villages that were declared drought-free remains unknown, the programme attempted to bring water stress down in a majority of the most water-scarce villages in the state.
- In January last year, then CM had announced that the scheme had transformed 16,000 drought-prone villages of Maharashtra.
What is the future of water conservation in the state?
- Geologists and hydrologists, who worked on implementing the project, shared similar views and hailed Jalyukta Shivar.
- This was mainly due to the interventions undertaken in the existing water reserves, planned de-silting activities, among many others.
- However, experts agreed that the scheme was not appropriately implemented.
- Now with Jalyukta Shivar no longer in existence, focused efforts of the past five years, in most likelihood, will go down the drain unless a similar scheme is introduced.
- With rainfall variations getting more pronounced, in addition to depleting groundwater reserves, the state will need concrete interventions to tackle future water requirements.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: An-32, Biojet Fuel
Mains level: Biojet Fuel and its feasiblity
In his monthly Mann ki Baat radio address, PM hailed the use of biofuel in an Indian Air Force transport aircraft.
What did PM cite?
- IAF’s An-32 aircraft successfully used a 10% blend of Indian biojet fuel and took off from Leh’s Kushok Bakula Rimpoche Airport on January 31.
- This was the first time that this mix was used in both engines of an aircraft.
- Leh is at an altitude of 10,682 ft above mean sea level and is among the world’s highest and most difficult operational airfields.
- Even during clear weather, operating an aircraft at Leh is a challenge, given the reduced power output of the engines in the rarefied atmosphere, turbulent winds, and proximity of the mountains.
What is Biojet fuel?
- Biojet fuel is prepared from “non-edible tree borne oil” and is procured from various tribal areas of India.
- This fuel is made from Jatropha oil sourced from Chattisgarh Biodiesel Development Authority (CBDA) and then processed at CSIR-IIP, Dehradun.
- Generally, it is made from vegetable oils, sugars, animal fats and even waste biomass, and can be used in existing aviation jet engines without modification.
- Jatropha oil is suitable for conversion to jet fuel. This biojet fuel has received wide acceptance from the airline industry.
Why it matters?
- Evaluating the performance of biojet fuel under conditions prevalent in Leh was considered extremely important from an operational perspective.
- The success of the flight validated the capability of the aircraft’s engines to operate smoothly with biojet fuel at the extremities of the operational envelope.
- The tests were conducted by a team comprising test pilots from the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), Bengaluru and pilots from the operational squadrons.
- The successful test flight also demonstrated the IAF’s capability to absorb newer technology, while sponsoring indigenization.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Future for the World’s Children Report 2020 and indices mentioned
Mains level: Ensuring sustainable development worldwide
The Future for the World’s Children Report 2020 was recently released.
About the report
- The report was released by a commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world after assessing 180 countries.
- It was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and The Lancet medical journal.
What is Flourishing Index?
- Flourishing is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving.
- For Surviving, the authors selected maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation, and lack of extreme poverty.
- For Thriving, the domains were educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence.
Threats to Children
- The report highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing.
- Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250% in the U.S. over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.
- Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the U.S. — among many others — have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children.
- Children’s exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with the purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity.
- The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 — an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs, the report said.
What is Sustainability Index?
- Under the Sustainability Index, the authors noted that promoting today’s national conditions for children to survive and thrive must not come at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children’s ability to flourish.
- It ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target.
- This provides a convenient and available proxy for a country’s contribution to sustainability in future.
Highlights of the SI
- The report noted that under realistic assumptions about possible trajectories towards sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, models predict that global carbon emissions need to be reduced from 39·7 gigatonnes to 22·8 gigatonnes per year by 2030 to maintain even a 66% chance of keeping global warming below 1·5degrees C.
- No country in the world is currently providing the conditions we need to support every child to grow up and have a healthy future alarmed the report.
India’s performance
India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and secures 131st spot on a flourishing ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children.
Performance of nations in SI
- Norway leads the table for survival, health, education and nutrition rates – followed by South Korea and the Netherlands.
- The central African Republic, Chad and Somalia come at the bottom.
- However, when taking into account per capita CO2 emissions, these top countries trail behind, with Norway 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th and the Netherlands 160th.
- Each of the three emits 210 per cent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target, the data shows, while the U.S., Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the 10 worst emitters.
- The lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia.
- According to the report, the only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly — within the top 70 — on child flourishing measures are Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bay of Bengal Offshore Sailing Expedition (BBSE)
Mains level: Not Much
Indian Naval Sailing Vessels Mhadei and Tarini set sail for the Bay of Bengal Offshore Sailing Expedition from the Indian Naval Ocean Sailing Node at Goa.
BBSE
- This would be the maiden major mixed crew sailing expedition of the Indian Navy with crew composition of five naval officers including two women officers in each boat.
- It would be covering a total distance of 6,100 Nautical miles each and will be at sea for 55 days.
- The prolonged voyage of nearly three months during this expedition would showcase harnessing of renewal energy namely wind energy to propel the boats.
- The expedition is also in pursuance of the GOI mission of ‘Nari Shakti’ providing opportunity to women officers at par with men.
- The sailing vessels as part of the expedition would make replenishment halts at ports of Phuket, Yangon, Chittagong and Colombo.
About the vessels
- Mhadei and Tarini inducted in the Indian Navy on 08 February 2009 and 18 February 2017 respectively have been the vessels of choice for the naval expeditions in various sailing expeditions, including three circumnavigations and thus have thousands of miles tucked under their belt.
- Mhadei has successfully completed two circumnavigations, three Cape to Rio trans-Atlantic races and several other expeditions around various continents.
- The vessel has covered in excess of 1,36,000 nautical miles.
- Tarini created history in 2017-18 when six Indian Naval women officers sailed the vessel on maiden circumnavigation voyage titled Navika Sagar Parikrama.
- She thereafter also participated in mixed crew Kochi to Seychelles sail training expedition during the 10th-anniversary celebration of the IONS.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Leap Year and the science behind it
Mains level: Not Much
The year 2020 is a ‘leap year’, meaning the month of February will have 29 days instead of 28, and the total number of days will be 366 instead of 365. This was also the case in 2016, and 2024 will again be a leap year.
Leap Years
- A calendar is meant to correspond to the Earth’s seasons.
- For this, the number of days in a calendar needs to match the time required by the Earth to orbit the Sun.
- The time required by the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun is approximately 365.242 days. But years are usually only 365 days.
- To adjust for the extra 0.242 days in the orbital period, which becomes almost one full day in four years, the calendar adds an extra day once every four years.
- This approximates the time to 365.25 days, which is close to the actual 365.242 days.
But is that not inaccurate?
- Yes, it is. And further adjustments are made to the Gregorian calendar, the calendar we follow today.
- The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582. Before that, the calendar followed was the Julian calendar, introduced in 45 BC.
- The calendars were different in their treatment of leap years.
- The Julian calendar had leap days every four years, but since it still did not accurately conform to the Earth’s precise orbit time, it kept falling behind with respect to natural seasons over the centuries.
- By the 16th century, the Julian calendar had fallen out of tune with the natural seasons by almost 10 days.
- To correct this discrepancy, Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 decreed that the day of October 4 that year would be followed directly by October 15 – thus covering up the error.
- The Pope also modified the leap year system in the Julian calendar. That new system came to be known as the Gregorian calendar.
What is the new system?
- In the Gregorian calendar, a century year (a year ending with 00) is not a leap year, even though it is a multiple of 4. Thus, the year 2100 will not be a leap year.
- But even this does not provide total accuracy. To ensure that, some century years remain leap years. In the Gregorian calendar, leap years include those century years which are exactly divisible by 400.
- Thus, 2000 remained a leap year even though it ended with 00.
- The Gregorian calendar reduces the margin of error under the Julian calendar, thus keeping days more in tune with seasons.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Security cooperation with the US, security concern for India over the US withdrawal from the Middle East.
Context
With the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan and other regions, India must think about its new role in the region.
The US plans for Afghanistan and the Gulf-cause of concerns for India
- Why it matters? Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be eager to get a first-hand briefing from the US President on his plans for the Af-Pak region and the Gulf.
- These two regions are vital to India’s economic, political and military security.
- End of an important era in northwestern frontier: The impending withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the downsizing of the American security role in the Gulf region mark the end of an important era in India’s northwestern frontiers — both land and maritime.
- Can India overcome the past reluctance? The question is whether Modi and Trump can overcome the past reluctance in both capitals to collaborate in the regions west of India.
- Suitable for both the countries: There is a good fit between-
- America’s downward adjustment in the region under Trump, and-
- India’s ambition to play a larger role in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
Broad understandingIndo-Pacific and extending it to the West
- Development in the last three years: Over the last three years of the Trump presidency, Delhi and Washington had developed a broad understanding of how to secure the Indo-Pacific that the US had defined.
- Need to extend the same to Western Indian Ocean: Officials in Delhi frequently complained that these common perspectives did not extend to the Western Indian Ocean.
- In recent weeks, though, senior US officials have said the Indo-Pacific region extends to the east coast of Africa.
- Question of strategic cooperation: Extending Indo-Pacific is not a question of defining geography but finding ways to secure common ground through strategic cooperation.
Elevation of South West Asia to the top of America’s security concerns
- Filling the vacuum created by the British Empire: As the sun set over the British empire in the east after a century and a half, the US stepped in to fill the breach.
- What began as a cautious entry into the Indian Ocean became a full-blown military power projection at the end of the 1970s.
- Other events that played an important role? The dramatic rise in oil prices, the Islamic Revolution in Iran and its threat to export it to the Arab World, and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, saw the elevation of South West Asia to the top of America’s security concerns.
- Events after Gulf War: The First Gulf War during 1990-91 saw the US intervene to restore the sovereignty of Kuwait that was swallowed by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
- 9/11 attacks: The terror attacks on September 11, 2001, invited a ferocious response from the US that ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.
The Iraq and Afghanistan war-Endless wars
- Costly failures: Notwithstanding the initial successes in both Afghanistan and Iraq, there is a growing consensus in the US that these occupations have been costly failures.
- Trump has been among the first political leaders in the US to call these wars initiated by a Republican predecessor in the White House as “stupid”.
- The promise of ending the endless wars: During his presidential campaign in 2016 and since Trump has promised to end the “endless wars” in the Greater Middle East and bring the boys back home.
- It is an idea that has found considerable resonance among Democrats.
- Focusing on great power competition instead of small wars: While the security establishment is not willing to give up, US is now focusing more on the great power competition with Russia and China than the small wars that had preoccupied it over the last three decades.
- The Oil factor: The steep decline in US energy dependence on the Gulf, too, has reduced the salience of the region in Washington.
Three consequence of the change in the US policy
- Cutting down the military commitments
- The Middle East and Africa: Trump has been cutting down military commitments in the Middle East and Africa.
- His officials are about to sign an agreement with the Taliban that provides for American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- Maritime front: On the maritime front, Trump has called on all major powers, especially those importing oil from the Gulf, to contribute to the security of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
- How it matters for India?
- Challenges of limiting the consequences: The challenge for Indian policymakers has been to limit the consequences of what seems a definitive turn in US policy.
- Chance to extend the own role: It should also be about seizing the possibilities for expanding India’s own role in the western marches of the Subcontinent.
- To expand its role Delhi needs to make a few important shifts in its own thinking.
- One, it must overcome the still powerful belief in sections of the Indian establishment that the US-Pakistan relationship is unchanging.
- The US tilt toward India and away from Pakistan: Over the last two decades, there has been a tilt in US policies away from Pakistan and towards India.
- For instance, the US pressures on Pakistan to vacate the Kargil heights, an exclusive nuclear exemption to India and efforts to rein in Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism during the Obama years.
- Support in Trump period: Trump went further to acknowledge that Pakistan is part of the problem in Afghanistan and turned up the heat on Pakistan’s support for terrorism.
- He has supported India’s efforts at the UNSC to bring Masood Azhar to book in the face of Chinese resistance.
- Helped India isolate Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force.
- Prevented the UNSC from discussing Kashmir.
- But India must also recognise: That there will be a measure of cooperation between the US and Pakistan.
- Delhi’s focus should, instead, be on expanding its own security cooperation with the US in the troubled lands to the west of India.
- India needs to prepare for a larger security role in Afghanistan
- Question of being at the next-door: Trump has been asking a simple question: If India is next door to Afghanistan, should it not be doing more for Afghan security?
- Need to explore the options: The NDA government has stepped up security assistance to Kabul. As Afghanistan enters a turbulent phase, regional and other powers are bound to fill the vacuum left by the US.
- There are many options– between doing nothing and sending the Indian army into Afghanistan- that Delhi and Washington could discuss.
- Need to increase Naval activity
- Increased role as regional security provider: Delhi has already stepped up its naval activity within the Gulf and beyond as part of its emergence as a regional security provider.
- Cooperation with others: Effectiveness of India’s role will rise manifold if it acts in concert with the US and other partners.
- Modi and Trump could begin by laying the political foundation for such cooperation.
Conclusion
At the beginning of Trump’s term, sceptics dismissed the prospects for India-US security cooperation in the eastern Indian Ocean and the Pacific, but progress has been steady. That cooperation can and must be extended now to the Western Indian Ocean.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Success of Swachh Bharat Mission and replicating it in Jal Jeevan Mission.
Context
After the success of the SBM, government is looking for the next mission in the form of Jal Jeevan Mission.
Investment in Sanitation
- Investment of over 1 lakh crore: The central and state governments have invested in excess of one lakh crore on sanitation over the past five years.
- Where the fund was used? A majority of these funds have gone towards-
- Incentivising the poor and marginalised households to construct and use household toilets.
- Bringing about behaviour change, and-
- Building capacities of field functionaries.
- The success of the mission: Over 10 crore toilets have been built in rural India and nearly 55 crore people have stopped defecating in the open, all in just five years.
- This has contributed in bringing down global open defecation by more than half.
- Return on the investment in sanitation: The returns on these investments have been manifold, and their effects on the broader economy, markets and employment have been significant.
- 400 % return: The UNICEF recently estimated that investments in sanitation in India are yielding a 400 per cent return with each rural household in an open-defecation-free village saving Rs 50,000 on account of avoided medical costs and time savings.
- Future prospects for the sanitation infrastructure: The Toilet Board Coalition has estimated that the sanitation infrastructure and services market in India will be worth over $60 billion by 2021.
- Many new jobs, even in the most rural areas of the country, apart from reducing health and environmental costs and generating savings for households.
- Growth in the sanitation-related business: The business of manufacturing toilet-related hardware accessories have reported huge growth in sales during the SBM period.
- They project a continued uptrend through retrofitting and upgrades.
- This has been corroborated by another recent study by UNICEF in which they have estimated that SBM has resulted in creating over 75 lakh full-time equivalent jobs over the past five years, giving the rural economy a major boost.
A milestone, not a finish-line
- Sustaining the success: The government is committed to ensuring that this success is sustained.
- On October 2, 2019, the prime minister said that we must all ensure that people continue to use toilets and that no one is left behind.
- Allocation of 10,000 crores in the Budget: This has been backed up by the finance minister in the budget for 2020-21.
- In the budget, she announced about Rs 10,000 crore for rural sanitation to focus on-
- ODF sustainability.
- Bio-degradable waste management.
- Greywater management.
- Sludge management and-
- Plastic waste management for all villages by 2024.
Next Mission- Piped Water Supply
- Jal Jeevan Mission: The next critical basic service, is piped water supply. On Independence day this year, the prime minister announced the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
- With the goal of ensuring piped water supply for all households of India by 2024 and with a commitment of Rs 3.6 lakh crore of central and state funds for the scheme.
- The budgetary allocation of 12,000 crores: In the Union budget for 2020-2021, the government has already allocated Rs 11,500 crore for JJM, with an additional Rs 12,000 crore being made available through extra-budgetary resources.
- Earmarking 50% grants for drinking water and sanitation: In addition, a huge impetus to the rural water supply and sanitation sector is the earmarking of 50 per cent of the Rs 60,750 crore grant for rural local bodies provided under the Fifteenth Finance Commission for drinking water and sanitation.
- Making local bodies more responsible: This will ensure that the gram panchayats and local communities are responsible for the upkeep of their water and sanitation infrastructure, providing a boost to the sustainability of service delivery to people.
- Making sanitation and water supply everyone’s business: This approach will ensure that just like sanitation, provision of water supply and its upkeep will also become everyone’s business.
Conclusion
It is fairly clear now that investment in sanitation is actually a facilitator for broader economic, health and social gains. The government should ensure the sustainability of SBM and replicate its success in implementing the JJM.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-India-US, Importance for India, issues involved.
Context
It is clearer than perhaps ever before in recent times, that New Delhi needs the continued support of the U.S. government on almost everything substantial that matters to India in its quest to be a power of substance in the international system.
Preparing for Trump 2.0
- The world may have to deal with Mr Trump for four more years after the end of his present term this year.
- Where India can benefit from constructive ties with the US?
- A fairer trade regime.
- Accessing cutting-edge technology.
- The fight against terrorism.
- Stabilising our region.
- New Delhi stands to benefit from constructive ties on all issues, given a more sensitive United States.
- India must, therefore, seek greater understanding and engagement should there be a Trump 2.0.
- Understanding the asymmetrical partnership: Asymmetrical partnerships, as we know from history, are rarely easy.
- Partnership with the superpowers: Partnerships with superpowers are even more difficult; in international politics, as in life, even the best of unequal relationships results in a loss of some dignity and autonomy.
Why the partnership with the US matters for India?
- The growing influence of China in Indo-Pacific: Without the United States, the region could become willy-nilly part of a new Chinese tributary system.
- Chance of more organic rule-based order: With a fully engaged United States, the region has at least the chance of creating a more organic rules-based order.
- Past consequences for India: the history of “estrangement” with the United States, during the Cold War, has had consequences for vital national interests that continue to cast their shadow on the present.
- Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
- Nuclear non-proliferation.
- Festering of the Pakistan “problem”.
- The Chinese humiliation of 1962, are just a few examples.
- Change in the perception over the US: But much of course has changed today.
- Anti–Americanism is outdate: Anti-Americanism, once the conventional wisdom of the Indian elite, seems outdated.
- Close alignment with the US: New Delhi has, over the decades, gone on to align itself more closely with Washington.
- Opinion in favour of the stronger ties: More important, both within India and in the U.S., the consensus across the mainstream of political opinion favours stronger relations between the two countries.
Pro-US tilt of the Indian Foreign policy
- A survey suggests support for Trump: According to the latest Pew Surveys of Global Opinion, support for Mr Trump in India is high enough to suggest a great deal of public affection for the American President.
- That itself is a marker of the way India and Indians now see the world.
- Reason for the change in geo-strategic change: The reason for the change in New Delhi’s geostrategic outlook can be summarised quickly.
- If the 1971 Friendship Treaty with the Soviet Union was a response to the continuing U.S. tilt towards Pakistan and the beginnings of a Washington-Beijing entente.
- China factor: At present, it is the prospect of a potentially hegemonic China in the Indo-Pacific region is helping to cement the relationship.
- Beijing has managed to alienate nearly all its neighbours and allies, except North Korea and Pakistan.
- Gains made in bilateral ties in the last 3 years:
- COMCASA– A foundational military agreement that allows for the sharing of encrypted communications and equipment.
- Export control law relaxation: A change in U.S. export control laws that places India in a privileged category of NATO and non-NATO U.S. allies;
- 2+2 dialogue: New ‘2+2’ foreign and defence ministers dialogue.
- Oil export to India: An exponential increase in U.S. oil exports to India.
- Tri-lateral military exercise: The inauguration of the first India-U.S. tri-service military exercise and expansion of existing military exercises.
- The signing of Industrial Security Annex: The signing of an Industrial Security Annex that will allow for greater collaboration among the two countries’ private defence industries.
- Inclusion of India in a U.S. security Initiative: The inclusion of India and South Asia in a U.S. Maritime Security Initiative.
Preparing for the President from Democratic Party
- There is, of course, a chance that we may have a Democratic President next year.
- Bipartisan support in the US: In those circumstances, we can only hope that the bipartisan consensus on engaging India will prevail.
- To be sure, however, a new President will seek to put his/her own imprimatur on the relationship.
- Democrats and the Human Right issue: The Democrats will clearly be more proactive on human rights and on issues of inclusion and diversity, which would make a greater demand on India and test its capacity and creativity.
- Indian diaspora: India, of course, continue engaging with its strongest source of support in the United States: the Indian diaspora.
- Fortunately, there is a near consensus on the need to strengthen this constituency.
Conclusion
In any case, there is little doubt that whoever is the next occupant of the White House, a retreat from multilateralism (especially on trade-related issues) and concern about China will continue to be the two main pillars of contemporary American foreign policy. If for only those reasons, Mr Trump’s reason has undeniable significance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF), Spectrograph
Mains level: HPF and its applications
At 100 light-years from Earth, a low-mass star was sending signals in a pattern that suggested that an exoplanet was orbiting the star confirmed the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF).
Habitable-zone Planet Finder
- NASA’s Kepler mission observed a dip in the host star’s light, suggesting that the planet was crossing in front of the star during its orbit.
- To confirm, researchers turned to an instrument called Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF). It has confirmed that there is indeed an exoplanet.
- HPF is an astronomical spectrograph, built by Penn State University scientists, and recently installed on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas.
- The instrument is designed to detect and characterize planets in the habitable zone — the region around the star where a planet could sustain liquid water on its surface — around nearby low-mass stars.
- The newly confirmed planet, called G 9-40b, is the first one validated by HPF. It is about twice the size of Earth and orbits its star once every six Earth-days.
How it works
- A spectrograph is an instrument that splits light into its component wavelengths.
- Scientists then measure the properties of light over a specific portion of the spectrum and draw conclusions on what is responsible for the trends they observe.
Why need HPF?
- Kepler’s observations alone were not enough to confirm a planet. It was possible that a close stellar companion was responsible for the dip in the star’s light.
- Precision spectroscopic observations from HPF ruled out this possibility.
- Shooting a high-power laser into the air, researchers generated a “laser guide star”, and subsequent observations found no evidence of blending of light or other stellar companions.
- Finally, using HPF, an analysis of a set of radial velocities helped provide estimates for the planet’s mass.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WEFFI
Mains level: Need for internationalization of Indian education system
India has jumped five ranks in the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI) 2019.
About WEFFI
- The report is published by The Economist Intelligence Unit. The report and index were commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation.
- The index ranks countries based on their abilities to equip students with skill-based education.
- The report analyses the education system from the perspective of skill-based education “in areas such as critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, collaboration, creativity and entrepreneurship, as well as digital and technical skills.”
Global scenario
- Among the world’s largest economies, the US, UK, France and Russia all fell back in the index, while China, India and Indonesia took steps forward.
- Finland was at the apex of the index, with strengths across each category followed by Sweden.
India’s performance
- India ranked 35th on the overall index in 2019 with a total score of 53, based on three categories – policy environment, teaching environment and overall socio-economic environment.
- India scored 56.3 in policy environment falling from a 61.5 score in 2018.
- India’s score of 52.2 in the teaching environment category and 50.1 in the socio-economic environment category increased significantly from 32.2 and 33.3 in 2018 respectively.
- Earlier, India ranked 40th with an overall score of 41.2 across categories in 2018.
What made India progress?
- The report attributed India’s growth to the new education policy introduced by the government.
- India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the Union Budget 2020, had highlighted a
- The New Education Policy announced in this year budget under ‘Aspirational India’ will focus on “greater inflow of finance to attract talented teachers, innovate and build better labs.
- The policy will focus further on skill-based education.
Various shortcomings highlighted
- The 2018 WEFFI report had highlighted the shortcomings in India’s education system emphasizing upon its inability to utilise the opportunity of internationalizing its higher education system.
- A decentralized education system is another shortcoming of India’s education policy according to the 2019 report.
- Well-intentioned policy goals relating to future skills development often do not get filtered downward, a hazard in economies such as the US and India that have large, decentralized education systems, the report said.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tilhan Mission, Oilseed production in India
Mains level: Not Much
The government will launch Tilhan Mission to make the country self-reliant in oilseed production.
Why such mission?
- India is the fourth largest vegetable oil economy in the world after the USA, China and Brazil.
- Today, the oilseeds account for 13% of the cropped area in the country.
- Still, India is the largest importer of palm oil in the world.
Oilseed production in India
- Total Oilseeds production in the country during 2019-20 is estimated at 34.19 million tonnes which is higher by 2.67 million tonnes than the production of 31.52 million tonnes during 2018-19.
- Further, the production of oilseeds during 2019-20 is higher by 4.54 million tonnes than the average oilseeds production.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ask DISHA Chatbot
Mains level: Applications of AI
In order to resolve queries of railway passengers over the internet pertaining to various services offered, Indian Railways had introduced the services of Artificial Intelligence-based ASKDISHA chatbot in October 2018 for the benefit of the users.
ASKDISHA Chatbot
- IRCTC had launched this chat bot to answer various queries about ticket booking, cancellation and various value-added services.
- The chatbot is a special computer programme designed to simulate conversation with users, especially over the internet.
- It was jointly developed by IRCTC and CoRover Private Limited, a Bangalore-based startup.
- The first-of-its-kind initiative by IRCTC is aimed at facilitating accessibility by answering users’ queries pertaining to various services offered to railway passengers.
What is the new update?
- The ASKDISHA Chatbot was initially launched in English language but in order to further enhance the customer services rendered.
- To further strengthen the services of the chatbot, IRCTC has now powered voice-enabled ASKDISHA to converse with customers in Hindi language also in the e-ticketing site irctc.co.in.
- The customers can now ask queries to ASKDISHA in Hindi language by voice as well as text.
- On an average, around three thousand enquiries are being handled by ASKDISHA in Hindi language on daily basis and the figure is increasing day by day which also shows the acceptability of the new feature by the customer.
- IRCTC plans to launch ASKDISHA in more languages along with many other additional features in the near future.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Read the attached story
Mains level: NA
Friday, February 21 was International Mother Language Day.
International Mother Language Day
- It has been observed since 1999 to promote “linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism”, according to the UN.
- Of the world’s 6,000 languages, 43% are estimated as endangered, according to the UN.
- On the other hand, just 10 languages account for as many as 4.8 billion speakers — over 60% of the world population.
- Globally, English remains the most widely spoken language with 1.13 billion speakers in 2019, followed by Mandarin with 1.17 billion, according to the online database Ethnologue.
Why February 21?
- UNESCO declared International Mother Language Day in 1999, to commemorate a 1952 protest against West Pakistan’s imposition of Urdu as the official language of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
- According to a report, police opened fire on demonstrating Dhaka University students and “some people were killed”.
- When thousands thronged the university the next day, police fired again, killing more people.
- In Bangladesh, since 1953, February 21 is observed as Ekushe Day, after the Bengali word for twenty-one.
- According to the South Asia Democratic Forum, five among those killed were recognised as “language martyrs — Abul Barkat, Abdul Jabbar, Rafiquddin Ahmad, Abdus Salman and Shafiur Rahman.
Data on Indian languages
- Hindi is third with 615 million speakers while Bengali is seventh with 265 million.
- In India, Hindi is the most spoken language with over 528 million speakers in 2011, as per the Census.
- Bengali had 97.2 million speakers in 2011, followed by Marathi (83 million), while other languages with over 50 million speakers are Telugu (81 million), Tamil (69 million), Gujarati (55.5 million) and Urdu (50.8 million).
- Percentage trends from 1991 to 2011 underline the growth of the most widely spoken language, Hindi, which was spoken by 39.29% of the Indian population in 1991, and whose share grew to 43.63% in 2011.
- For other languages in India’s top 12, the 2011 percentage share has fallen when compared to that in 1991.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Preparing healthcare system for viral outbreaks.
Context
India is ill-prepared to deal with the new strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that is causing worldwide panic. Policymakers must take forceful action to prevent the spread of the new virus and heed the urgent warnings of global public health professionals about new pathogens.
No country is adequately prepared
- Finding of the Global Health Security Index: The World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Health Security Index finds that no country is adequately prepared.
- It assesses 195 countries across six categories–
- Prevention
- Early detection.
- Rapid response.
- Health system quality.
- Standards.
- Risk environment.
- India’s dismal rank: India is ranked 57th.
- That the country scores around the global average is no comfort, because the global average is a low 40.2 out of 100, and India’s score is 46.5. (For the record, the U.S. is ranked first and China 51st).
Four-point health agenda
- The prospect of new outbreaks puts four items on the health agenda in the spotlight that require both immediate and longer-term action:
- Early detection and prevention.
- Better collaboration across health service providers.
- More investment in health systems; outcomes, and education; and-
- Better care of the environment and biodiversity, which directly affects people’s health safety.
Thailand’s outstanding example
- Sixth rank on Health Security Index: That Thailand is ranked sixth in the Health Security Index- the highest ranking for an Asian country.
- The rank says a great deal about the country’s track record in disease prevention, early detection, and rapid response linked to investments in its public health system.
- When the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), also caused by a coronavirus, broke out in 2015, Thailand quickly notified the WHO of its first confirmed case and acted transparently to arrest the spread.
- This is in stark contrast to delayed notification by China’s officials of the recent outbreak.
India’s record in past outbreaks
- Underscoring inadequacies: The influenza A (H1N1) outbreaks since 2009 in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and other States have acutely underscored the need for better detection, awareness of symptoms and quarantining.
- Protocols for surveillance: Clearer protocols for all three types of surveillance are needed in all States.
- And these protocols need to be communicated to health professionals at all levels and the public in local languages.
Conducting stress tests on health system
- Countries need to do the stress tests for their preparedness to deal with health emergencies.
- Exposing the crucial gap: Each State in India should do this to expose crucial gaps in areas such as-
- Adequacy and supply of diagnostic equipment.
- Health facilities.
- Hygienic practices, and-
- Prevention and treatment protocols.
- Ensuring strong supply chains: Queues of desperate shoppers trying to buy hand sanitizer, face masks and other protective products in Hong Kong and China highlight the need for strong supply chains for products that people need during health emergencies.
The partnership between countries and with the private sector
- Partnership to ensure supply chains: Partnerships between private and public sectors, and between countries– that can sustain supply chains and bolster the medical capacity of countries struggling to cope.
- Collaborative approach in Asia: In Asia, collaborative approaches exist, for example, for combating tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria.
- Need to do more: More is needed to tackle health emergencies on the scale of recent outbreak, particularly on funding.
- Emergency loan option: There could be an emergency loan facility, with a “deferred drawdown option” as the World Bank uses for disasters, natural or health.
- The loan option can help augment own resources in times of a public health catastrophe.
- Investment is the best defence: But the best defence of all is to invest more, and more efficiently, in health and education to prepare populations and strengthen health services.
- Low health expenditure: Health expenditure by the government in India is less than 5% of Gross Domestic Product, which is low for a middle-income country.
- Spending at that level limits, among other things, the availability of health professionals during crises.
- According to WHO, India has only 80 doctors per 1,00,000 people.
Investment in health, education
- Kerala’s experience: Kerala’s experience in 2018 with the deadly Nipah virus showed the value of investing in education and health over the long term.
- What measures were taken in Kerala? The availability of equipment for-
- Quick diagnosis.
- Measures to prevent diseases from spreading and-
- Public information campaigns- all helped to keep the mortality rate from the Nipah virus relatively low.
- Having capable public health professionals helped in the information exchange with WHO and other international bodies.
The relation between environmental degradation and health
- A new dimension of new pathogens: One of the many dimensions of new pathogens that is getting increased attention is the link with environmental degradation.
- The relation between pollution and viral respiratory infection: The interaction between particulate matter from pollution and viral respiratory tract infections, especially in the young and the elderly, as well as the malnourished, has been increasingly noted in epidemiological studies.
- Many of the highest air pollution readings are being recorded in Indian cities.
- Most vulnerable country: An HSBC study of 67 countries ranks India as the most climate-vulnerable one because of the impact of severe temperature increases and declines in rainfalls.
- Reasons for vulnerability: The effects of such occurrences are magnified by the high density of the country’s population, the sheer number of people in harm’s way, and the high incidence of poverty.
- Research is increasingly connecting global warming to vector-borne viruses.
Conclusion
The dangerous trend for disease spillovers from animals to humans can be traced to increased human encroachment on wildlife territory; land-use changes that increase the rate of human-wildlife and wildlife-livestock interactions; and climate change. Protecting the precious biodiversity should be a priority.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- Sustainable economic growth and focus areas to achieve it.
Context
India has to forge a different development model -one that will shift India’s workforce from agriculture to globally leading, resource-efficient businesses.
How India can deliver sustainable prosperity?
- The two intertwined forces: Just as liberalisation and globalisation transformed the economy in the past, two different yet intertwined forces will likely transform the economy in the future.
- First–High competitiveness: India must have globally leading companies across a range of key sectors such as financial services and manufacturing.
- Global productivity frontier: These super competitive businesses should define the global productivity frontier so that they can surpass the production processes of the best companies in the world.
- Second-Long term sustainability: India must also adopt a resource-efficient, low-carbon development pathway to utilise scarce natural resources effectively. There is no other way.
- Apocalyptic air pollution.
- Dire water shortages.
- Rising temperatures and-
- Extreme climate events- have already brought us to the brink of an environmental crisis.
- The need for India’s leadership for achieving the target: Moreover, note that the world needs India’s leadership to achieve the 2 degree Celsius global warming target.
- In short, India’s growth has to be green.
- What is the problem in achieving these goals?
- No nation has ever attempted these twin transformations — high competitiveness and long-term sustainability — simultaneously.
- The traditional development model: The traditional development model has been a farm-to-factory development model with economies transitioning from traditional agriculture to resource-intensive, urban manufacturing.
- India has to forge a different development model — one that will shift India’s workforce from agriculture to globally leading, resource-efficient businesses.
- Also, these companies must use the most advanced green technologies and business models.
- India’s development model will, therefore, need to take the Indian economy from “the farm-to-green frontier”.
Three focus area for green transformation
- The productivity transformation driven by super competitive businesses is well underway.
- We now need to consider a comprehensive policy package that will enable us to simultaneously undertake a green transformation.
- Global best practices and India’s own experiences suggest three focus areas for such a transformation.
- India has the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world and our larger companies are also pursuing innovation-driven growth.
- Specific and stable policy goals
- Specific and stable policy goals need to be established to set detailed green targets for various sectors.
- A macro-economic model that factors in-
- Current skills.
- Sectoral connections.
- Relative emission and-
- Financial constraints are necessary to inform such targets going forward.
- Such a model can then be used to evaluate various green growth scenarios.
- Decarbonisation approaches in the green frontier scenario will drive the growth of green industries, green jobs, green skills, green entrepreneurs and green finance.
- Pursuing the policy goals: Global and Indian experience highlights that green targets will have to be pursued in a stable manner across decades.
- Most large emitters and pollutants are associated with long-lived (20-30 plus years useful life) assets.
- The basic requirement for investment in green assets: Investments in green assets will only be possible if there is the sanctity of contracts, pricing stability, and consistent policies that are backed up by the full force of law.
- Implementation: Finally, these specific and stable policy goals need to be implemented urgently to avoid lock-in with high-carbon assets.
- Revamp the institutional framework: India may need to revamp its existing institutional framework for environmental governance in order to align it with the country’s green transformation.
- Four levels of institutional structure: As demonstrated by global best practices, a comprehensive institutional framework could include four levels — super sovereign, sovereign, state/province and city.
- Council for monitoring: An independent council or board may also be required to monitor, report, and verify green targets.
- Appropriate financing capacity: Indian policymakers and entrepreneurs will unleash market forces that will drive the growth of waste management, solar panels, electric vehicles, super-efficient appliances, recyclable food packaging, clean coal, etc.
- These green industries will require massive investments and appropriate financing capacity will have to be created to support their growth.
- Preliminary estimates suggest that India’s green transformation may require an average investment of $95 billion to $125 billion per year, aggregating over $1 trillion in the next decade.
- A “green super fund” could be established to jumpstart green investments by pooling together international and domestic capital.
- Dual roles of financial institution: Such a financial institution could play a dual role in mediating and mitigating risk for global capital, as well as identifying sectoral project pipelines.
- The success of financial institution: Indian financial institutions have been very successful in building up new industries such as microfinance, EdTech, and affordable healthcare, which have delivered both financial and social returns; however, financial support for green industries will have to be orders of magnitude larger.
- Moreover, the “green super fund” may have to be able to invest across the capital structure (debt plus equity) as well as across the company lifecycle (early stage, growth capital, infrastructure investments, and so on).
Conclusion
Our future depends on how we resolve our environmental challenges. Further, we are the world’s third-largest carbon emitter and will play a crucial role in getting the planet to a low-carbon trajectory. Simply put, we must urgently transform our economy to get to the green frontier.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- India's relation with its neighbours and progress on SAARC and BIMSTEC.
Context
India has promoted regional cooperation in South Asia in a spirit of generosity, without insisting on reciprocity.
Relations with Sri Lanka
- Beginning of new chapter in ties: The visit of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to India in February marked the beginning of a new chapter in ties with a friendly neighbour.
- The neighbour with which India has close historical bonds straddling culture, religion, spirituality, art and language.
- Growing convergence against terrorism: More relevantly, there is a growing convergence against terrorism following the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka last April.
- There is deep appreciation in Sri Lanka for the free emergency services provided through 280 ambulances gifted by India, now operational in eight of the country’s nine provinces.
- Prospects for tri-lateral cooperation: There are much better prospects today for tri-lateral cooperation between India, Japan and Sri Lanka in the development of the East Container Terminal at Colombo port and the proposed joint development of the Trincomalee oil storage tanks.
- Indicators of a new warmth in relations:
- Several infrastructure projects.
- Direct flights between Chennai and Jaffna.
- Resumption of ferry services.
- India’s new lines of credit and construction of houses for the internally displaced.
- Homeless and landless people are indicative of a new warmth in relations.
- First visit to India: That both Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother President Gotabaya chose India as the destination for their first overseas visits after assuming office bodes well.
Relations with Maldives
- First visit by PM Modi: After the general elections last year, PM Modi’s first foreign visit was to the Maldives in June 2019.
- India first: The visit was to establish warm and friendly relations with President Ibrahim Solih, who has done much to promote closer relations with India through his “India First Policy”.
- First visit to India: India was the first country that Solih had visited in December 2018, a far cry from his predecessor’s brazen anti-India slant.
- Soon after assuming office, Solih’s government annulled a controversial 2015 law that was meant to allow foreigners, particularly from China, to arbitrarily own islands.
- Projects worth 180 crores inaugurated: The inauguration during Modi’s visit of two projects worth Rs 180 crore-the Coastal Surveillance Radar System and the Composite Training Center of the Maldivian National Defence Forces-has deep significance for the success of India’s neighbourhood policy.
- $800 million worth lines of credit: India’s offer of lines of credit worth about $800 million and other capacity-building projects for water supply and sewerage are strong planks in our economic ties.
- Terrorism and radicalisation are subjects of common concern.
- DOSTI exercise: The agreement to restart the tri-lateral DOSTI naval exercise as also the tri-lateral NSA-level dialogue between India, Maldives and Sri Lanka lay the ghost of the Yameen era to rest.
Relations with Nepal
- Inauguration of first cross-border petroleum pipeline: In September last year, India and Nepal jointly inaugurated South Asia’s first cross-border petroleum products pipeline from Motihari in India to Amlekhgunj in Nepal.
- Prioritising the rebuilding of houses: India is also prioritising the rebuilding of houses in Gorkha and Nuwakot districts, with “Build Back Better” as the guiding principle in keeping with Modi’s clarion call for a Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).
- Role played by geography: Geography plays a determining role in creating inter-dependence.
- Even as Nepal, like other South Asian countries, seeks closer ties with China, there is a much better appreciation today that India’s role as a key economic and developmental partner is unique and indispensable.
Relations with Bangladesh
- Model partnership: India’s relations with Bangladesh under Modi and Sheikh Hasina have evolved into a model partnership, consolidated by-
- High-level exchanges.
- Mutual trust and-
- Enhanced cooperation on security matters.
- Border firing incidents: Incidents of border firing, though rare, have an adverse fall-out on public perception and need to be handled with sensitivity.
Relations with Bhutan
- The India-Bhutan friendship runs deep, with growing cooperation in the vital hydro-power sector providing it a fresh impetus.
- Notably, the centrepiece Mangdechhu project (750 MW) was completed on schedule last year.
- RuPay card in Bhutan: The introduction of the RuPay card in Bhutan and elsewhere in the neighbourhood will further cement economic and people-to-people ties.
Relations with Myanmar
- Security cooperation: When India shortly hands over to Myanmar the INS Sindhuvir, a Kilo Class submarine, it will propel security cooperation to a higher pedestal.
- Cross-border strike in Myanmar: Close coordination with Myanmar was evident earlier in the cross-border strike on insurgents by Indian forces in 2015.
Unrealised potential of South Asia
- South Asia–some figures: has 1.8 billion people and a combined GDP of nearly $3.47 trillion, with India’s economy the largest by far.
- South Asia has great potential but has been held back by Pakistan.
- Hindrance for cooperation with Afghanistan: Pakistan has not only denied India and Afghanistan the overland transit route for trade, but has also thwarted Modi’s efforts to place at centre stage the common struggle against poverty, illiteracy and natural disasters.
Cooperation within SAARC: Pakistan has held to ransom cooperation within SAARC by raising extraneous matters, perpetuating terrorism and rejecting the ineluctable logic of intra-South Asian trade, which remains abysmally poor.
- Pakistan opt-out of satellite project: Islamabad decided to opt-out of the SAARC satellite project proposed by India, and it was finally launched in 2017 without Pakistan’s participation.
- Motor Vehicle Agreement: Pakistan also played the role of a spoiler at the 18th SAARC Summit in November 2014, preventing progress on the proposed Motor Vehicle Agreement for the regulation of passenger and cargo vehicular traffic amongst SAARC member states.
- Implications for Afghanistan: Pakistan’s intransigence on connectivity impairs Afghanistan’s ability to link up with other countries in South Asia.
- The air corridor between India and Afghanistan cannot cater to the full potential of trade ties.
- Sustainability of Chabahar port: Recent tensions between the US and Iran have cast a shadow on the sustainability of Chabahar port as an alternative maritime supply route to Afghanistan at a crucial juncture in its history.
- India’s role in Afghanistan: India’s proactive role in recent years in building much-needed infrastructure and capacities in Afghanistan is widely recognised.
- Deepened defence cooperation: Defence cooperation too has deepened under Modi, with India dropping its traditional coyness in such matters.
- Much more may have to be done, though, to help Afghanistan achieve stability through economic prosperity.
- Afghanistan’s true destiny lies with South Asia.
Key aspects of Neighbourhood First Policy
- Response to security challenges: Neighbourhood First involves India’s willingness to respond to security challenges with new grit.
- Humanitarian assistance: It also involves for India to be an enthusiastic responder in providing humanitarian assistance and conducting disaster relief operations in Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the extended neighbourhood.
- Developmental assistance: Even more important is the steady progress made by India to expand developmental assistance and improve project execution based on collaborative partnerships.
- India’s developmental assistance to six South Asian countries was over Rs 21,100 crore.
Progress on BIMSTEC
- BIMSTEC, the other regional grouping, has done well.
- Participation in disaster Management Exercise: In February this year, delegates and rescue teams from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar enthusiastically participated in disaster management exercises conducted at Ramachandi Beach at Puri in Odisha.
- Cross-border electricity grid: The signing of the MoU on BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection at the fourth BIMSTEC Summit, attended by all seven nations in Kathmandu in August 2018, provides a fillip to cross-border electricity trade.
- India’s focus on BIMSTEC and its Act East Policy have served to highlight India’s key role in promoting cooperative growth and development in several parts of South Asia.
Conclusion
In a world increasingly characterised by a “my country first” approach, India has endeavoured to harness the impulse for regional cooperation in a spirit of generosity, without insisting on reciprocity, to realise the motto of Security And Growth For All In The Region (SAGAR).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Read the attached story
The European Commission has recently released a “European strategy for data… to ensure the human-centric development of Artificial Intelligence” and a white paper on artificial intelligence.
EU data strategy
- The new documents present a timeline for various projects, legislative frameworks, and initiatives by the European Union, and represent its recognition that it is slipping behind American and Chinese innovation.
- The strategy lays out “why the EU should act now”.
- The blueprint hopes to strengthen Europe’s local technology market by creating a “data single market” by 2030 to allow the free flow of data within the EU.
- To aid a “data-agile economy”, the Commission hopes to implement an “enabling legislative framework for the governance of common European data spaces” by the latter half of the year.
- By the beginning of 2021, the Commission will make high-value public sector data available free through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) — a pathway for two different applications to speak to each other.
- Between 2021 and 2027, the Commission will invest in a High Impact Project to jump-start data infrastructure. Several other initiatives are laid out, including a cloud services marketplace.
Why such strategy?
- The EU has the potential to be successful in the data-agile economy. It has the technology, the know-how and a highly skilled workforce.
- However, competitors such as China and the US are already innovating quickly and projecting their concepts of data access and use across the globe, the strategy states.
- With American and Chinese companies taking the lead on technological innovation, Europe is keen to up its own competitiveness.
What does the EU move mean for legislation?
- Europe has been a frontrunner when it comes to technology regulation.
- Its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) released in 2018 was a game-changer across the industry. In the recent strategy, the GDPR is seen as giving the “solid framework for digital trust.”
- Parliamentarians are discussing India’s current Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill in a Joint Select Committee.
- The recent draft of the PDP introduced a clause on non-personal data, mandating entities to hand over such data to the government on command.
- This was not included in the draft proposed by the Justice B N Sri Krishna Committee in October 2018.
- Some of the movement around the PDP Bill comes from a desire to strengthen India’s own data economy, similar to the EU’s desire.
Has India done anything similar?
- The Union Cabinet approved the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) in 2012.
- As part of the initiative, the government worked with the US government to release data.gov.in, a site of government data for public use.
- The Economic Survey of 2018 envisioned a similar use of non-personal data.
- Just as the EU’s strategy discusses “data for public good”, the chapter titled “Data ‘Of the People, By the People, For the People’” advocated that the government step in to sectors that private players ignore, marking the first time India’s Economic Survey has isolated “data” as a strategic focus.
- Other data integration efforts have been announced or implemented by NITI Aayog (the National Data & Analytics Platform), the Smart Cities Mission (India Urban Data Exchange), and the Ministry of Rural Development (DISHA dashboard).
- In 2018, the National Informatics Centre worked with PwC and other vendors to create a Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics aimed at providing data analysis help to government departments.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Crop insurrance schemes in India
Mains level: Impacts of the said changes
The Centre has decided to restrict its premium subsidy in its flagship crop insurance schemes to 30% for unirrigated areas and 25% for irrigated areas (from the existing unlimited), and to make enrolment of farmers in the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) voluntary from the 2020 Kharif season.
Other changes in crop insurance schemes
- The government has given flexibility to states/UTs to implement PMFBY and RWBCIS, and given them the option to select any number of additional risk covers/features like prevented sowing, localised calamity, mid-season adversity, and post-harvest losses.
- Earlier, these risk covers were mandatory.
Why such a move?
By capping the subsidy for premium rates up to 30%, the Centre wants to dis-incentivize certain crops in such areas where growing these crops involve high risks in terms of crop insurance premiums.
What were the schemes?
- At present, under PMFBY and RWBCIS, farmers pay a premium of 2% of the sum insured for all foodgrains and oilseeds crops of Kharif; 1.5% for all foodgrains and oilseeds crops of Rabi; and 5% for all horticultural crops.
- The difference between actual premium rate and the rate of insurance premium payable by farmers, which is called the Rate of Normal Premium Subsidy, is shared equally between the Centre and the states.
- However, states and UTs are free to extend additional subsidy over and above the normal subsidy from their budgets.
- Until now, there was no upper limit for the central subsidy.
- The Cabinet decided to cap the Centre’s premium subsidy under these schemes for premium rates up to 30% for unirrigated areas/crops and 25% for irrigated areas/crops.
How many farmers are covered under these two schemes?
- During 2018-19, about 5.64 crore farmers are enrolled with PMFBY for an insured sum of Rs 2,35,277 crore, and 30% of the gross cropped is insured.
- When the government approved PMFBY four years ago, it was described as a path-breaking scheme for farmers’ welfare” under which there was no upper limit on government subsidy.
- Even if balance premium was 90%, it was to be borne by the Government
- While PMFBY is based on yield, RWBCIS is based on proxies and farmers are provided insurance protection against adverse weather conditions such as excess rainfall, wind and temperature.
- The number of insured farmers under RWBCIS is relatively low.
Impact of the move
This change will have two main implications.
- First, it may bring down the rates of overall premium as the state governments now will not be required to invite bids factoring these risks.
- Second, it will make these schemes less attractive for farmers.
- However, states/UTs can offer specific single peril risk/insurance covers like hailstorm etc under PMFBY.
Burden of premium
- One interpretation of this decision is that the burden of premium subsidy will go up for the states.
- Example: In the old regime, if a farmer’s Kharif crop was insured for Rs 1,00,000 and the rate of actuarial premium was 40%, then the premium paid by the farmer was 2% (Rs 2,000), and the remaining premium was shared by the Centre and the state equally (19% or Rs 19,000).
- In the new regime, for the same sum insured (Rs 1,00,000) and the same rate of premium (40%), the Centre will give subsidy for premium rates up to 30%.
- This means that from the Kharif 2020 season , the Centre will have to pay premium at the rate of 14% (out of 30%, the farmer’s share is 2%, and the Centre’s and state’s 14% each).
- The state has to bear the entire burden of the premium subsidy in cases where the rate of premium goes beyond the threshold of 30%.
No insurance of certain crops
- Another interpretation is that the Centre may stop supporting insurance of certain crops in certain areas where the rate of premium is more than 30%.
- The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare in consultation with other stakeholders/agencies will have to prepare State specific, alternative risk mitigation programme for crops/areas having high rate of premium.
- While the average premium rate under PMFBY and RWBCIS at the national level was 12.32% for 2018-19, for some crops in certain districts, the rate of premium has been higher than 30% in recent years.
- For instance, the rate of premium for Kharif groundnut has reached 49% in Rajkot of Gujarat, and the rate for Rabi paddy crop Ramnathapuram (Tamil Nadu) has reached 42%.
Impact on states
- The states are already defaulting on their share, and the Centre’s new cap will put an additional financial burden on them.
- Madhya Pradesh has not paid its share of premium even for Kharif 2018, which comes to Rs 1,500 crore. As a result, farmers have not got their claims.
- In fact, most states have delayed the payment of their share of premium.
- Sources said that in some states, the expenditure on premium of PMFBY is more than 50% of their budget for agriculture.
Immediate implications
- That move will lead to a rise in the rates of premium, as the area covered under insurance and the number of enrolled farmers is expected to come down significantly.
- As of now the schemes are compulsory for all loanee farmers and optional for other farmers.
- Non-loanee farmers under the crop insurance schemes are much fewer than loanee farmers.
- If the latter opt out of the schemes, the number of insured farmers will drastically come down.
- In such a scenario the rate of premium of certain crops in some areas may go beyond 30%.
Back2Basics
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana – Min Premium, Max Insurance
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