Syllabus– General Studies 3(environment) 

Context

Despite many climate commitments and accomplishments, global pressures are intensifying on India to commit more towards the Conference of the Parties (COP26), scheduled for November 2021 in Glasgow. 

• The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021.
• The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Comparing base reality among nations in meeting climate goals

Examining World Bank data for CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita) over two decades since the Kyoto protocol informs that at the current rate, both China and the U.S. could emit five times more than India in 2030. 

• China, the world’s largest GHG emitter, joined the ‘race to zero’ and targets carbon neutrality by 2060. Interestingly, it hopes to peak CO2 emissions by 2030 by bending the emissions curve. 
  • The Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific analysis tracking governments’ actions, noted that China remains committed to supporting the coal industry while the rest of the world experiences a decline.
  • It is now home to half of the world’s coal capacity. 
• USA: Recently, the U.S. rejoined the Paris Agreement and committed to reducing emissions by 50%-52% in 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050. 
  • Such ambitions will also require much more near-term investment than even the U.S. President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure package.
• The U.K.’s emission levels could be more than 1.5 times that of India. Brazil, with its dense forests, may end up at similar levels.
• France set green conditions for bailing out its aviation industry, during the novel coronavirus pandemic. 
  • However no baseline for reducing emissions from domestic flights was fixed, and it is unclear what measures were adopted to promote rail for domestic travel.
• Australia: The complicated domestic politics prevented them from addressing the problem, despite the country being vulnerable, and stretches of the famous Great Barrier Reef having died in recent years. 

India’s performance

• Even at the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (December 2020), India was the only G20 nation compliant with the agreement.
• India has been ranked within the top 10 for two years consecutively in the Climate Change Performance Index.
  • It is published by Germanwatch, the New Climate Institute and the Climate Action Network annually
  • It evaluates the performance of countries emitting 90%+ of global greenhouse gases (GHGs)
• The Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) scheme is the world’s largest zero-subsidy LED bulb programme for domestic consumers.
• Achieving Nationally determined contributions (NDCs): India is on track to meet and exceed the NDC commitment to achieve 40% electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030; this share was 38.18%  in November 2020.
• Against the voluntary declaration for reducing the emission intensity of GDP by 20%-25% by 2020, India has reduced it by 24% between 2005-2016.
  • India achieved these targets with around 2% out of the U.S.$100 billion committed to developing nations in Copenhagen (2009), realised by 2015.
• Mitigation efforts: India is implementing one of the most extensive renewable energy expansion programmes to achieve 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030. 
• Coupling Post-pandemic revival with environmental protection: As part of the fiscal stimulus, the Government announced several green measures, including a $26.5-billion investment in biogas and cleaner fuels, $3.5 billion in incentives for producing efficient solar photovoltaic (PV) and advanced chemistry cell battery, and $780 million towards an afforestation programme.
• International efforts: India provided leadership for setting up the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

Syllabus– General Studies 1 

Context

The Prime Minister recently inaugurated a renovated version of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial complex.

Background:

• On October 14, 1919, six months after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre,  the Government of India, with approval of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, instituted a committee to investigate not only the Jallianwala Bagh incident at Amritsar but also the disturbances which took place in Bombay, Delhi and Punjab.
• Accordingly, the Disorders Inquiry Committee was set up with Lord William Hunter, a former Solicitor General of Scotland as the president with seven members. 
• The committee held its first meeting in Delhi on October 29, 1919 and heard evidence of witnesses on eight days in Delhi, 29 days in Lahore, six days in Ahmedabad and three days in Bombay. The report was presented on March 8, 1920 and was in the form of a majority report and a minority report. 
• The majority report delved into the incidents which had taken place in Amritsar prior to April 13, 1919 which included violence at several places in the city and police firing which left at least ten people dead. 
• The minority report of the committee brought out the evidence given by Dyer in great detail. He testified that his mind had already been made up to order the firing when he reached the Bagh.

Events Before the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

• During World War I (1914–18) the British government of India enacted a series of repressive emergency powers that were intended to combat subversive activities.
• By the war’s end, expectations were high among the Indian populace that those measures would be eased and that India would be given more political autonomy. The Montagu-Chelmsford Report, presented to the British Parliament in 1918, did in fact recommend limited local self-government.
• Further, the then government of India passed what became known as the Rowlatt Acts in early 1919, which essentially extended the repressive wartime measures. The acts were met by widespread anger and discontent among Indians, notably in the Punjab region. Gandhi in early April called for a one-day general strike (Rowlatt Satyagraha) throughout the country.
• In Amritsar the news that prominent Indian leaders (Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew) had been arrested and banished from that city sparked violent protests on April 10, in which soldiers fired upon civilians and angry mobs killed several foreign nationals.
• A force of several dozen troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Reginald Edward Harry Dyer was given the task of restoring order. Among the measures taken was a ban on public gatherings.

Syllabus– General Studies 3(science and technology) 

Context

• The Drugs Controller General of India granted Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to the COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Moderna and by Johnson & Johnson, in end June and early August 2021, respectively. 
  • In addition, India has an opportunity to receive 5 crore to 10 crore doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA-based vaccine, including through the COVAX mechanism co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and the World Health Organization, before the end of 2021.

About-

• The idea of not granting indemnity is to hold vaccine manufacturers accountable.
  • The manufacturers of the three vaccines currently being administered in India (Covishield, Covaxin, and Sputnik V) have not been granted indemnity. 
• There seem to be two key thoughts that are delaying the Government’s decision on indemnity. 
  • First, the supply from these manufacturers is likely to be a very small proportion of total vaccine availability in the country. 
  • Second, it is likely that once foreign manufacturers are granted indemnity, manufacturers currently supplying vaccines might make similar demands citing the fair play rule.

Furthermore

• Despite granting EUA for two vaccines and a third (that of Pfizer-BioNTech) being eligible for approval, uncertainty on supply and availability remains. 
• One of the primary reasons for this is the Indian government’s indecision on requests for indemnity from these manufacturers. 
  • Indemnity translates to protection from legal proceedings and liabilities, against claims from people who may experience rare and serious Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI).
• COVID-19 vaccines are given EUA by the regulatory authorities after a thorough review of their safety and efficacy. However, even though vaccines meet safety parameters, as an immuno-biological substance, a vaccine can be associated with rare and serious AEFIs, some of which — such as vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) and Myocarditis — are known. Other long-term impacts can only be known over a period of time.

Issues

• There is a need for increased and sustained vaccine supply in India. The country’s COVID-19 vaccination drive has been underperforming, and in the seven-and-a-half months since the drive was initiated, only 11% of the total population has been fully vaccinated, and 35.5% has received a single dose. 
• A reason for this is the insufficient supply, which has consistently been less than the projected vaccine availability. 
  • The situation persists in spite of the certain regulatory modifications enacted by the Government to increase availability, including: fast track authorisation of COVID-19 vaccines approved by regulatory authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Europe, and those included in the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency use listing; waiving off requirements for bridging trials; and doing away with mandatory batch testing for vaccines manufactured abroad. 
• Though these steps have led to the EUA of two additional vaccines, there is a lack of clarity on the definitive timeline on their availability in India. 
• Though at a broader level, the stand and unwillingness of these manufacturers to supply COVID-19 vaccines to any country unless granted indemnity is too rigid. However, beyond indemnity, India does have mechanisms in the current legal framework to ensure safety and legal remedy for any harm. 
  • First, the Drugs Controller General of India while granting registration certificates is empowered to take action against companies found to be in violation of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. 
  • Second, any individual seeking compensation after experiencing AEFI may directly file petitions before consumer courts and the High Courts. 
  • Third, recent amendments to the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 disallow individuals but permit the regulatory bodies to initiate class action suits (cases representing groups of people who have suffered from the same loss) based on individual complaints.

Syllabus: General Studies paper 3

Context:

Industrial Revolution 4.0 refers to the fourth industrial revolution related to manufacturing and chain production. Industry 4.0 is a complex Cyber-Physical Systems which synergizes production with digital technologies, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data & Analytics, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing.

The term ‘Industry 4.0’ was coined by the German government in 2011. Additive manufacturing, Internet of Things, Cyber Physical Systems, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality and data analytics are some of the technologies associated with Industry 4.0.

The potential of MSMEs for India:

• Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are expected to become the backbone of India as the economy grows larger.
• MSMEs form more than 95% of the industries in India, produce more than 45% of the total manufacturing output and employ more than 40% of the workforce.
• According to the Economic Survey 2020-21, over 6 crore MSMEs employ more than 11 crore people and contribute roughly 30% to the GDP and half of the country’s export.
• MSMEs are also ancillaries to larger enterprises, leading to seamless supply chain integration.
• As a result, making MSMEs more efficient will be advantageous for the whole economy.

‘Industry 4.0’ and MSMEs:

• In emerging economies such as India, inclusive development is particularly pertinent in addressing COVID-19’s impact.
• MSMEs are critical for ensuring that economically vulnerable people have suitable opportunities to rise above the poverty line.
• These cohorts include women, migrants, and minorities, who have a better chance of exiting poverty by taking up employment in MSMEs spread across India.
• The sector assumes a pivotal role in driving the government’s Make in India initiative for an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.
• Through the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s new-age business model, smart corporations and digitally-enabled MSMEs can enjoy a symbiotic relationship that promotes greater production efficiency, ensures lower time to market as well as higher service satisfaction for customers and other stakeholders.
• Given their role in promoting inclusive development, if MSMEs miss the global automation journey, it will exacerbate economic inequality.
• In addressing this issue, MSMEs need to leverage the support that the government and industry ecosystem offers to work for the common cause in overcoming these challenges.

Challenges with regard to Industry 4.0 for MSMEs:

MSMEs face challenges when it comes to adopting new technologies such as Industry 4.0.

• First, they lack awareness regarding Industry 4.0 and its benefits.

• They consider such technologies disruptive and having the potential to demolish their existing system.
• However, Industry 4.0 believes in improving the existing system. Scientific literature provides evidence of sensors and WiFi networks being integrated with old machines like lathes and mills to improve their performance.

• Second, MSMEs will need to make major financial investments to adopt Industry 4.0. Investing in the right set of technologies will need experts and consultants as well.
• Third, for any new technology to be adopted, an organisation requires a positive organisational culture and the support of people.

• MSMEs need to believe in the advantages that Industry 4.0 technologies can offer.

• Fourth, the frameworks and steps that can assist MSMEs in adopting Industry 4.0 technologies have been missing.

• In this regard, MSMEs need to understand the data they are producing from all their operational activities. Based on such data, their readiness can be evaluated.

• Finally, MSMEs should develop their own vision of Industry 4.0 technologies that they want to adopt and identify the relevant tools and practices they need for such a tailored vision.

Advantage of data-driven decision-making results in Industrial Initiatives:

• Though adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies by MSMEs requires transcending a labyrinth of impediments, it will make them more competitive as they will be able to offer world-class quality products to customers.
• Additionally, delivery timings and the flexibility to meet different needs will improve.
• Thus, Industry 4.0 integrated ‘data’ with manufacturing and Information Technology.
• To take advantage of data-driven decision-making, the governments of other countries also coined their own industrial initiatives like Industry 4.0.
• Integrating MSMEs into the smart manufacturing realm is also required because the world of connected devices and sensors offers a treasure trove of data that can drive better business outcomes through substantial insights.
• Moreover, connected gadgets make up the edge devices of the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), which is the fountainhead of Industry 4.0.
• For example, the U.S. calls it Smart Manufacturing, China calls it Made in China 2025, and India refers it to as Make in India or Digital India.
• Therefore, if MSMEs are mainstreamed into Industry 4.0, all stakeholders stand to gain.
• Corporates can gain from an indigenous and reliable supply chain, the government from higher tax revenues, and society at large, from more inclusive outcomes and opportunities.

Syllabus: General Studies paper 2

Context:

India’s parliamentary democracy is going through a phase of intense confrontation between the dominant ruling party and a weakened but belligerent Opposition. 

• Some say that this situation is a consequence of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, where a party with the highest votes gets the seat even if it doesn’t win a majority. 
• In 2014, the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party won 336 seats with only 38.5% of the popular vote.

Emergence of a second dominant party system in India

At the national level, 2014 marked the end of a 25-year period of a coalition/minority government. And post-2014, there was the emergence of a second dominant party system. 

• The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the central pole of Indian politics ever since it came to power at the Centre in 2014. 
• The hegemony enjoyed by the Congress in the 1950s and ’60s gave way to trends in Indian politics such as federalisation and regionalisation. 
• The similarity is in the vote share numbers garnered by the dominant party and in its capacity to fragment the Opposition.

The critics of the FPTP system have called for reexamining this constitutional choice and have argued for adopting the system of proportional representation. They believe that this system is undemocratic and unrepresentative of diverse identities.

The first-past-the-post (FPTP) system 

• The Indian constitution adopts the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system of elections, otherwise known as a simple majority where a candidate with the most votes from a constituency wins the seat. 
• It is also known as the simple majority system. 

This system is used in India indirect elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. 

The advantages and benefits of a FPTP voting system

• Voter’s convenience: It’s simple to understand. In a political environment, FPTP enables voters to clearly express a view on which party they think should form the next government.
• Lesser expenditure: It doesn’t cost much to administer.
• It’s is fairly quick to count the votes and work out who has won; meaning results can be declared relatively quickly after the polls close.

Issues with FPTP system

• It does not always allow for a truly representative mandate, as the candidate could win despite securing less than half the votes in a contest. 
  • The FPTP system tends to magnify the seat share of the party with the largest vote share, while parties receiving a lower vote share tend to get a much lower seat share. 
  • The disproportionate number of seats accrued by a party despite a lower vote share. 
• The other issue with the FPTP is that the threshold is so high that newer parties cannot enter the fray.
• Breeds Two-Party system: Duverger, a French political scientist, argued that the FPTP system tends to bring about a two-party system at the constituency level. In countries like India, this translated into the establishment of a two-party system at the State level which happened between 1967 and 1989. 

But the FPTP system can’t be blamed for polarisation in Indian Politics. Polarisation is linked to the politicisation of certain social cleavages.

Proportional representation system (PR)

• This refers to an electoral system in which the distribution of seats corresponds closely with the proportion of the total votes cast for each party. 
• This is a more complicated but representative system than the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, which is used in India. 
• If a party gets 40% of the total votes, for example, a perfectly proportional system would allow it to get 40% of the seats. Some countries used a combination of the proportional representation system and the FPTP system. 
• FPTP is currently used to elect members of the House of Commons in the UK, both chambers of the US Congress and the lower houses in both Canada and India.

Advantages of PR system

This system avoids the anomalous results of plurality/majority systems and is better able to produce a representative legislature.

• Facilitate minority parties’ access to representation. Unless the threshold is unduly high, or the district magnitude is unusually low, then any political party with even a small percentage of the vote can gain representation in the legislature. 
  • This fulfils the principle of inclusion, which can be crucial to stability in divided societies and has benefits for decision making in established democracies, such as achieving a more balanced representation of minorities in decision-making bodies and providing role models of minorities as elected representatives.
• Encourage parties to campaign beyond the districts in which they are strong or where the results are expected to be close. 
  • The incentive under PR systems is to maximize the overall vote regardless of where those votes might come from. Every vote, even from areas where a party is electorally weak, goes towards gaining another seat.
• Restrict the growth of ‘regional fiefdoms’. Because PR systems reward minority parties with a minority of the seats, they are less likely to lead to situations where a single party holds all the seats in a given province or district.

Issues with Proportional representation system

• • Logistical difficulties: First, as certain constituencies have a large population, its implementation becomes impractical and administratively difficult.
  • India’s poor literacy rate: This system may be too ‘advanced’ for our nation which had a poor literacy rate.
  • Threatens the stability of the government. 
    • Coalition governments, which in turn lead to legislative gridlock and consequent inability to carry out coherent policies. 
    • A destabilizing fragmentation of the party system. PR can reflect and facilitate fragmentation of the party system. It is possible that extreme pluralism can allow tiny minority parties to hold larger parties to ransom in coalition negotiations.

• Examples:

• • The proportional representation (PR) system in Europe and elsewhere, where seats are allocated roughly in accordance with the vote share, also produces distinct polarisations. 
  • The 1978 Sri Lankan Constitution instituted the PR system. Since then, there have been ethnic polarisation despite the small parties getting seat shares higher than what they would have received in an FPTP system. 
  • Similarly in Israel, which also enjoys a thoroughgoing PR system, there is severe polarisation in ethnic, religious and political terms.

Reasons behind Deteriorating relations between the ruling party and the Opposition

• The confrontational situation in Parliament and other legislatures has heightened in the last couple of years. 
• This is due to the sharpening of the ideological level in politics, which reflects the cleavages in the society, and to the suspicion that the fundamentals of the system are being sought to be changed.
• One of the general reasons for the adversarial relations between the ruling party and the Opposition is the failure in institutionalising the parliamentary system, which presupposes a certain negotiation, a spirit of give and take and continuous deliberation between the ruling party and the Opposition.
• Weakening state parties and federal relations
  • Also, the ability of Central government in the last three decades to directly transfer resources to local bodies in the States bypassing the State government besides controlling the administrations of the States has weakened the State parties’ ability to take on the Central government. 

Constitutional safeguards against executive’s dominance

There is a perception that the ruling party is pushing against the constitutional consensus, which is fairly strong in our system. 

• There are about three and a half layers of protection to the basic structure of our Constitution. 
• The government needs a two-thirds majority in both Houses subject to the presence of at least 50% of the House in attendance. 
• Then, it has to go through judicial review. 
• Finally, for some articles on Centre-State relations, it has to pass them through half the State Assemblies. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

Context:

The severe cyclones, Tauktae and Yaas, which battered India earlier this year, made landfalls on the country’s western coast, Gujarat, and the eastern coast, Odisha, on May 17 and May 26, 2021, respectively. Both storms caused massive damage to infrastructure, the agricultural sector, and houses. Moreover, 2.5 million people were evacuated to cyclone shelters and relief camps in these two States.

The large-scale uprooting of trees in the urban areas affected already depleting green cover. Thus, during the COVID-19 pandemic, these cyclones caused additional financial responsibility for State governments. The health costs need to be measured too.

More frequent in the occurrence of Tropical Cyclones:

• Increasing sea surface temperatures in the northern Indian Ocean and the geo-climatic conditions in India have led to a rise in the frequency of devastating cyclones in the coastal States accounting for 7% of the global tropical cyclones, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD), 2013 data.
• Every year, around five to six tropical cyclones are formed in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea; of these, two to three turn severe.
• The Indian coastline is around 7,500 km; there are 96 coastal districts (which touch the coast or are close to it), with 262 million people exposed to cyclones and tsunamis.
• The World Bank and the United Nations (2010) estimate that around 200 million city residents would be exposed to storms and earthquakes by 2050 in India.
• Between 1891 and 2020, out of the 313 cyclones crossing India’s eastern and western coasts, 130 were classified as severe cyclonic storms.
• The west coast experienced 31 cyclones, while 282 cyclones crossed the east coast.
• The Odisha coast witnessed 97 cyclones, followed by Andhra Pradesh (79), Tamil Nadu (58), West Bengal (48), Gujarat (22), Maharashtra/Goa (7), and Kerala (2).

Economic losses notified by various reports:

• As stated earlier, cyclones led to an increase in the fiscal burden of governments through increased spending to implement effective cyclone preparation measures.
• As a result, direct government expenditure on natural calamities increased 13 times.
• The Asian Development Bank’s report in 2014 estimated that India would suffer a loss of around 1.8% of GDP annually by 2050 from climate-related events.
• India lost around 2% of GDP and 15% of total revenue over 1999-2020.
• According to the Global Climate Risk Index report 2021, India ranks the seventh worst-hit country globally in 2019 due to the frequent occurrence of extreme weather-related events.
• Moreover, the report showed that India lost around 2,267 human lives, while damages stood at $68,812 million in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms in 2019.
• In the same year, India ranked first concerning human deaths and economic losses due to extreme weather-related events (Eckstein et al., 2021).

The economic costs of cyclones:

• Among the natural disasters, cyclones constituted the second most frequent phenomena that occurred in 15% of India’s total natural disasters over 1999-2020.
• During the same period, 12,388 people were killed, and the damage was estimated at $32,615 million.
• Cyclones are the second most expensive in terms of the costs incurred in damage, accounting for 29% of the total disaster-related damages after floods (62%).
• Government of India reports are that, put together, an estimated 199 people died, 37 million people were affected, and economic losses stood at ₹320 billion (U.S.$4.3 billion).
• In addition, crop area of 0.24 million hectares was affected, and around 0.45 million houses were damaged.
• In addition, they are the third most lethal disaster in India after earthquakes (42%) and floods (33%).
• However, fatalities due to cyclones declined from 10,378 in 1999 to 110 in 2020; the significant drop was on account of improved early warning systems, cyclone forecasting, and better disaster management activities such as timely evacuation, rehabilitation and relief distributions.
• But these measures are not adequate to achieve a zero-fatality approach and minimise economic losses from cyclones.

Best Case study for Disaster Preparedness: Measures in Odisha:

• In the aftermath of the 1999 super cyclone, the Government of Odisha took up various cyclone mitigation measures which included installing a disaster warning system in the coastal districts, and construction of evacuation shelters in cyclone-prone districts.
• Other steps were the setting up of the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), conducting regular cabinet meetings for disaster preparedness, and building the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF).
• All these activities have helped to minimise the toll from cyclonic storms such as Hudhud, Fani, Amphan, and Yaas.
• Still, Odisha’s disaster management model is inadequate to minimise the economic losses that result from cyclones.
• Therefore, the Government of India should adopt a few measures to minimise disaster damage and fatalities.

Syllabus: General Studies paper 3

Context:

In India, many women in poor households who use firewood or dung cakes for cooking spend long hours collecting firewood and making dung cakes. This is drudgery.

It affects their health and puts the safety of women and girls in jeopardy. Using firewood and dung cakes also leads to indoor pollution, as chulhas (firewood-based stoves) using these sources of energy release carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Both these gases have an adverse impact on the health of the family members. They also impact the environment.

Background:

The earlier solution to firewood cooking problem is smokeless or fuel-efficient chulhas for cooking — was introduced in the 1980s.

The National Programme on Improved Chulha was launched in 1984. This was backed by training programmes for making and maintaining these chulhas.

But these programmes failed when subsidies were withdrawn, governments lost interest, people could not be convinced to use the new chulhas and did not participate, target beneficiaries were not properly identified, and there was little quality control.

Introducing LPG: PAHAL scheme:

The Indian government then introduced Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in June 2013 under the PAHAL scheme on an experimental basis.

The scheme finally covered 291 districts. Access to this clean energy was expected to alleviate the public health burden posed by household air pollution on women. 

Drawbacks in PAHAL scheme:

• In India, the poor have limited access to cooking gas (LPG). The spread of LPG cylinders has been predominantly in the urban and semi-urban areas with the coverage mostly in middle class and affluent households.
• But there are serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels. According to WHO estimates about 5 lakh deaths in India alone due to unclean cooking fuels?
• Most of these premature deaths were due to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
• Indoor air pollution is also responsible for a significant number of acute respiratory illnesses in young children.
• According to experts, having an open fire in the kitchen is like burning 400 cigarettes an hour.
• Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country.
• This measure will empower women and protect their health. It will reduce drudgery and the time spent on cooking.
• It will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMYU):

In 2016, the Modi government launched the LPG scheme as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMYU).

NITI Aayog laid out a road map for universal access to LPG by 2025. The subsidy for LPG increased from Rs. 12,000 crore in 2016-17 to Rs. 21,000 crore in 2017-18 (Petroleum Analysis and Planning Cell, 2018), and 94% of all households had an LPG connection as of September 2019, an increase from 56% in 2014-15.

Shortcomings:

• Studies found that the poor use LPG mainly for making tea or snacks while they continue to use firewood or cow dung for their main cooking, as these sources of fuel are free of cost and easily available.
• However, as per evaluation studies, many LPG connection holders were found to still be using other fuels like firewood and dung cakes.
• This is because men, who usually make the decision of buying the refill, often do not agree to a refill which is expensive for the poor.
• Usually, as low value is attached to women’s time in production, the opportunity cost of women’s labour is low even when a capital subsidy is available, and women have to depend on traditional fuels.
• LPG is used for cooking when the opportunity cost of women’s labour is considered high, such as in the peak season in farming.
• On the other hand, urban households with reasonably high incomes and rural households belonging to upper income groups consider LPG refill a necessity for full cooking.
• Official data show that 48% rural households used LPG (2018) but only partially.

Ujjwala 2.0:

Despite these findings, the Prime Minister recently introduced Ujjwala 2.0 under which one crore additional PMUY connections aim to provide deposit-free LPG connections to those low-income families who could not be covered under the earlier phase of PMUY.

Under Ujjwala 2.0, migrants will not be required to submit ration cards or address proof. The amount allocated for this purpose is Rs. 14,073 crore this year.

Objectives of the scheme are:

• Empowering women and protecting their health.
• Reducing the serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuel.
• Reducing the number of deaths in India due to unclean cooking fuel.
• Preventing young children from significant number of acute respiratory illnesses caused due to indoor air pollution by burning the fossil fuel.

UJJWALA 2.0: One crore additional PMUY connections:

• In the Union budget for FY 21-22, provision for an additional one crore LPG connection under the PMUY scheme was announced.
• This one crore additional PMUY connections (under Ujjwala 2.0) aim to provide deposit-free LPG connections to those low-income families who could not be covered under the earlier phase of PMUY.
• Along with a deposit free LPG connection, Ujjwala 2.0 will provide first refill and hotplate (stove) free of cost to the beneficiaries. Also, the enrolment procedure will require minimum paperwork.
• In Ujjwala 2.0, migrants will not be required to submit ration cards or address proof.
• A self-declaration for both ‘family declaration’ and as a ‘proof of address’ will suffice. Ujjwala 2.0 will help achieve the Prime Minister’s vision of universal access to LPG. 

Syllabus– General Studies 3(environment) 

Context

• The policy significance of the recent report of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is that reaching net zero alone is not enough as it is the cumulative emissions up to net zero which determine the temperature that is reached, and that a global policy which considers only current emissions will not limit global warming and its adverse effects.

Background

• For 30 years, climate negotiations have struggled with a frame that created an imbalance between countries sharing global carbon space, the only limited natural resource. 
• Development depleted carbon space causing the climate problem and developing countries are being pressured to limit their use of the remaining space as the solution. 
• At the G20 Climate and Energy Ministerial meeting in July, India proposed that major economies bring down their own per capita emissions to the global average by 2030.
• Reframing negotiations in terms of bringing per-person emissions, or human well-being, as the essential first step highlights that merely achieving net zero of current emissions by 2050 — the proposal of the G7 — restricts well-being and is unacceptable as global policy. 
• Varying levels of per-capita emissions converging to a common point will allow those who have already used more than their fair share of the carbon space a larger share of the remaining space than countries such as India which need the remaining carbon space to grow to comparable levels of well-being.

About Per capita emissions

• The policy significance of the imbalance becomes clear when per-capita emissions are compared. The world’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are 6.55 tonnes of carbon dioxide. 
• India’s per capita emission at 1.96 tonnes is less than one-third; emissions of the United States, Canada and Australia are more than two-a-half times; Germany, the United Kingdom and France are above, and China, at 6.4 tonnes, is just below the global average. 
• Accepting ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050 effectively prevents India’s urbanisation and shift of the rural population into the middle class.
• India is rightly objecting to the obfuscation, as the Objective of the Climate Treaty is “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations”. By contributing over 60% of global cumulative emissions, with just one-fourth of the global population, North America and Europe are responsible for nearly 970 billion tonnes of carbon emissions.
• Whereas, the world’s remaining carbon budget — the total amount we can emit to have a chance of limiting warming to 1.5° C — is only 400 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, and the U.S. alone has contributed this amount for its high standard of living. For a global consensus, such countries will need some flexibility in the new climate policy.

Emission sources

• Infrastructure, or construction, essential for urbanisation and quality of living is responsible for two-fifths of global carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion and 25% of emissions overall. 
• The varying levels of per capita emissions are accounted for by expressways and the urban boom in the U.S. and Europe between 1950 and 2000, before China began its infrastructure push, leading to per-capita material use that is four times that of China. 
• The U.S. first recognised the implications of its way of life preparing for the Stockholm Summit in 1972, but then shaped the global agenda in terms of current emissions which were going to grow in developing countries as they urbanised, rather than the scientifically correct stabilisation of cumulative emissions, to draw attention away from its own urbanisation and lifestyle.

Implications

• New ideas such as ‘climate justice’, coming from India have three strategic implications. 
• First, a focus on drivers and patterns of natural resources, not just anthropogenic emissions, highlights that as against measuring emissions when considering solutions, the causes become important, in particular, the shift of the human population from rural to urban areas. 
• Second, the IPCC report has reiterated that impacts such as a rise in sea level, variability of rainfall and temperature increases will not be reversible for some time even after emissions fall. The adverse effects of climate change, or adaptation, are no longer a local but a global concern. 
• Third, consequently, multilateral cooperation will shift from common rules monitoring emissions based on international environmental law to common goals of human well-being as a universal human right based on a policy consensus.

Syllabus– General Studies 3(environment) 

Context

Delhi government inaugurated a ‘smog tower’ in Connaught Place and said similar towers would be built across the city, if results of the current pilot project are satisfactory.

Supreme Court Order

• On January 13 2020, the Supreme Court had ordered the Delhi government to build a ‘smog tower’ at Connaught Place by April 13, 2020, to control air pollution. 
• On the same day, the court also ordered a smog tower to be installed in Anand Vihar by the Central Pollution Control Board, by the same time.
• But both the governments missed the deadline.
• On July 29, 2020, the Supreme Court threatened contempt action against the IIT-Bombay on learning that the premier institution has opted to pull out of the court-ordered project to install the smog tower.

About the Smog tower

• It will draw in polluted air from the top and release filtered air near the ground through fans fitted on the sides. The tower has 40 big fans and 5,000 filters to clean the air.
• This tower has been established as a pilot project and detailed studies will be conducted on its performance.
• Once satisfactory results are received about the tower’s effectiveness, then the model will be replicated and smog towers will be established all over Delhi,
• The Delhi pollution control committee was the nodal authority for building the tower. IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi were technical advisors and Tata Project Ltd. executed the project.

Working on the Smog tower

• Polluted air is sucked in at a height of 24 m, and filtered air is released at the bottom of the tower, at a height of about 10 m from the ground. 
• When the fans at the bottom of the tower operate, the negative pressure created sucks in air from the top. 
• The ‘macro’ layer in the filter traps particles of 10 microns and larger, while the ‘micro’ layer filters smaller particles of around 0.3 microns.
• The downdraft method is different from the system used in China, where a 60-metre smog tower in Xian city uses an ‘updraft’ system — air is sucked in from near the ground, and is propelled upwards by heating and convection. 
• Filtered air is released at the top of the tower.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

The COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference, hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy, will take place from 31 October to 12 November 2021 in the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, UK.

What is the Net-zero emissions target?

• Net-zero emission is the method of balancing the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gas absorption from the atmosphere.
• In zero-carbon emission, the country will focus on limiting carbon emission. But in Net-zero carbon the country will focus on bringing the net carbon emission to zero.
• In the initial phase, the country will focus on reducing human-caused emissions like burning fossil fuels, balancing factory emissions, etc.
• But, gradually the Net-zero emissions can be extended to the remaining areas as well.
• Globally the idea of net-zero emissions by 2050 gaining momentum. It is advised by many countries as a solution to tackle Climate Change.
• So far 58 countries have announced net zero emissions targets. Together these countries account for more than half the world’s current GHG emissions.
• In the next 30 years, they all aim to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other GHGs. There are requests from the global forums that India also needs to adopt a net-zero emissions target.
• But there are other sections of environmentalists not in favour of adopting Net-zero emissions targets. They say that it is unjust for developing countries.

Global actions for net-zero:

Several other countries, including the UK and France, have already enacted laws promising to achieve a net-zero emission scenarios by the middle of the century.

The EU is working a similar Europe-wide law, while many other countries including Canada, South Korea, Japan and Germany have expressed their intention to commit themselves to a net-zero future.

Even China has promised to go net-zero by 2060. India, the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, after the US and China, is the only major player holding out.

Developed countries argument: 

• ‘Net zero’ talk by developed countries projects them as climate-action frontliners.
• But the fact is that foisting this as a common goal for all nations—with a ‘consensus’ deadline (2050, though China is targeting 2060)—obscures historical responsibility and forces poor nations to choose costlier paths to lift their many millions out of poverty.
• The West, at present, is the primary producer of technology that could aid green development.
• Thus, an India or a Bangladesh committing to the net-zero goal will further enrich developed nations.
• Given the pipedream that green financing under the Green Climate Fund turned out to be—at least until the deadline for meeting the target set at Paris was moved to 2025, from 2020—‘net zero’ by 2050, fundamentally, is the West telling the rest to “forget historical responsibility”.
• India will do well to organise the developing world in rallying behind the “common but differentiated responsibilities” principle.
• It must push rich nations to get more ambitious with their net zero targets instead of badgering the developing world to shoulder some of their burden.

India is already doing more:

• India is hoping to lead by example. It is well on its way to achieving its three targets under the Paris Agreement and looks likely to overachieve them.
• Several studies have shown that India is the only G-20 country whose climate actions are compliant with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperatures from rising beyond 2°C.
• Even the actions of the EU, which is seen as the most progressive on climate change, and the US are assessed as “insufficient”.
• In other words, India is already doing more, relatively speaking, on climate than many other countries.