Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The lack of a coherent international response to the COVID-19 pandemic is proof of an absence of international order and of the ineffectiveness of multilateral institutions. 

Changing world order

• The following factors are changing the dynamics of the global order:
  • Stagnation in the global and Indian economies 
  • Retreat from globalisation
  • the regionalisation of trade, 
  • a shifting balance of power, 
  • the rise of China and others, and 
  • structural China-United States strategic rivalry 
  • Inequality between and within states has bred a narrow nationalism

After Effects of COVID-19 crisis:

Crumbling world order

• UN’s insignificance: The United Nations Security Council took so long to meet (that too inconclusively) to discuss the pandemic is a ringing testimony to the UN’s insignificance.
• Ineffective regional initiatives: For example Prime Minister’s SAARC initiative, curiously resurrecting a practically dead institution, was short-lived. 
  • The EU was clueless when the virus spread like wildfire in Europe. Its member states turned inward for solutions: self-help, not regional coordination.
  • Reason for failure of global governance: The global institutional framework is unrepresentative, a pawn in the hands of the great powers, cash-strapped, and its agenda is focused on high-table security issues. 

More powerful China

• China appeared to use its manufacturing power to its geopolitical advantage. Beijing has offered medical aid and expertise to those in need; 
• This will aid Beijing’s claims to global leadership, push Huawei 5G trials as a side bargain, and showcase how the Belt and Road Initiative is the future of global connectivity. 
• Weakened economic globalisation: Economists are warning of a global recession.The COVID-19 shock will further feed states’ protectionist tendencies fueled by hypernationalism. 

We are entering a new polarised information age, and face ecological crises of climate change, an existential threat.  The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated some of these changes and transformed others. 

Asia as the nucleus

• All the above factors have shifted the geopolitical and economic centres of gravity from the Atlantic to Asia.
• Asia is the center of geopolitical rivalries, and the U.S. remains the most formidable power, though its relative power is declining. 
• China sees a window of opportunity but is acting in a hurry.
• China’s crowded geography constrains her both on land and at sea but we can expect her profile and power to continue expanding, particularly in our neighbourhood. 
• As neighbours and in the present situation, a mix of confrontation and cooperation is likely to continue to mark India’s relations with China.
• There is very little possibility of conventional conflict between the great powers in Asia, though other forms and levels of violence and contention in the international system will rise, with Taiwan a special case.

Challenges and opportunities for India

• Increasing security congruence with the U.S. could enable growing cooperation in fields significant for India’s transformation: energy, trade, investment, education and health. 
• Other areas in which India and the U.S. could increase cooperation are: climate change and energy, on tech solutions for renewable energy, and on digital cooperation. 
• Building broader coalitions in the developing world on issues of common interest. This is the time of transition when new global standards and norms are being developed, particularly in the digital space. India can and must be present at the creation. 
• India should create a Maritime Commission, a Bay of Bengal Initiative with partner countries, and cooperate with South East Asia in maritime security, cybersecurity and counter-terrorism. We should aim for multipolarity in Asia.
• The core strategic principles in Non-Alignment 2.0 are still relevant: independent judgement, developing our capacities, and creating an equitable and enabling international order for India’s transformation. 
• Preserving India’s strategic autonomy: One productive way to do so would be through issue-based coalitions including different actors, depending on who has an interest and capability.
• Revive SAARC: India could be the primary source of both prosperity and security in the neighbourhood — the subcontinent and the Indian Ocean Region. It can be done through SAARC.
• The over securitisation (militarization) of policy towards our neighbours has hurt trade, criminalised our borders, and enabled the large-scale entry of Chinese goods destroying local industry in the northeast. 
• While lessening dependence on China, and seeking external balancing, our primary effort has to concentrate on self-strengthening. If there is one country which in terms of its size, population, economic potential, scientific and technological capabilities can match or even surpass China, it is India.
• Economic policy must match political and strategic engagement: Globalisation has been central to India’s growth. 
• A more active regional and international role for India is incompatible with a low Indian global trade.
• Self-reliance in today’s world and technologies can only be realised as part of the global economy. 
• National unity: We should affirm our own strength and historic national identity.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

A policy is needed to guide the planning and management of cities towards enabling India’s growth 

Background:

• As India urbanises, it must ensure that its cities offer a decent quality of life and facilitate job creation. 
• These imperatives are fundamental to India’s ambitions of becoming a five trillion-dollar economy by 2025 and a 10 trillion-dollar economy by 2030.
• From a population of 377 million in 2011, Indian cities are projected to house 870 million people by 2050, according to the UN’s projections — by far the highest among all nations. 
• Delhi is likely to become the world’s most populous urban agglomeration by 2030, surpassing Tokyo. Clearly, a major demographic transformation is taking place.

Urbanisation

• In general usage, urbanization refers to the relative concentration of a territory’s population in towns and cities (i.e. relative urban growth). It may also refer to the process of being urban.
• As a demographic process, which is the commonest use of the term, urbanization involves towns and cities growing in relative size within a space economy through, first, an increasing proportion of the population living in an urban place and, second, their concentration in the target urban settlement. The end of the sequence is an almost completely urbanized society, with the great majority of the population living in just a few larger places.
• Linked to these demographic processes (with migration the main contributor to urban growth) are the structural changes in the society consequent upon the development of capitalism (i.e. structural urbanization). Cities are the foci of production, distribution, and exchange process, because of the economies of scale and scope from agglomeration. Urbanization is the necessary component of industrialization and development (though seen over urbanization)
• Finally, there is behavioural urbanization. Urban areas especially the larger ones are centres of social change. Values, attitudes, and behaviour patterns are modified in the urban milieu (known as urbanism) and new forms (which may be reflected in townscape as with architectural styles) then spread through the urban system through diffusion processes.

Major causes of urbanization

• Industrial revolution: Industrial employment catches the attention of people from rural to urban areas. In the urban areas, people work in modern sector in the occupations that assist national economic development. This represents that the old agricultural economics is changing to a new non-agricultural economy. This is the trend, which will build a new modern society (Gugler 1997).
• The emergence of large manufacturing centres.
• Job opportunities: There are ample job opportunities in megacities therefore village people or individuals from town frequently migrate to these areas.
• Availability of transportation: Due to easy transport, people prefer to stay in big cities.
• Migration: Migration is the main cause of the rapid growth of mega-cities. Migration has been going on for centuries and it is a normal phenomenon. When considering urbanization rural-urban and urban-rural and rural-rural migrations are very important. Urban-urban migration means that people move from one city to another. People may move to the city because they are forced by poverty from the rural communities or they may be pulled by the magnetism of city lives. A combination of these push and pull factors can force people to migrate to cities (Gugler 1997).
• Infrastructure facilities in the urban areas: Infrastructure has a vital role in the process of urbanization in the development of countries. As agriculture becomes more fruitful, cities grow by absorbing the workforce from rural areas. Industry and services increase and generate higher value-added jobs, and this led to economic growth. The geographic concentration of productive activities in cities creates agglomeration economies, which further raises productivity and growth. The augments income and demand for agricultural products in cities.

Problems faced by Urban Governance

• Planning

Planning is mainly centralized and till now the state planning boards and commissions have not come out with any specific planning strategies and depend on Planning commission for it. This is expected to change in present government, as planning commission has been abolished and now focus is on empowering the states and strengthening the federal structure.

In fact for big cities the plans have become out-dated and do not reflect the concern of urban local dwellers, these needs to be take care by Metropolitan planning committee as per provisions of 74th amendment act. Now the planning needs to be decentralized and participatory to accommodate the needs of the urban dwellers.

Also there is lack of human resource for undertaking planning on full scale. State planning departments and national planning institutions lack qualified planning professional. Need is to expand the scope of planners from physical to integrated planning- Land use, infrastructure, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, risk reduction, economic productivity and financial diversity.

• Finances

Major challenge is of revenue generation with the ULBs. This problem can be analyzed form two perspectives. First, the states have not given enough autonomy to ULBs to generate revenues and Second in some case the ULBs have failed to utilize even those tax and fee powers that they have been vested with.

There are two sources of municipal revenue i.e. municipal own revenue and assigned revenue. Municipal own revenue are generated by municipal own revenue through taxes and fee levied by them. Assigned revenues are those which are assigned to local governments by higher tier of government.

There is growing trend of declining ratio of own revenue. There is poor collection property taxes. Use of geographical information system to map all the properties in a city can have a huge impact on the assessment rate of properties that are not in tax net.

• Regulator

There is an exponential increase in real estate, encroaching the agricultural lands. Also, the rates are very high, which are not affordable and other irregularities are also in practice. For this, we need a regulator, which can make a level playing field and will be instrumental for affordable housing and checking corrupt practices in the Real estate sector.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

In June 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) published a “Consultative Document on Regulation of Microfinance”. 

• While the declared objective of this review is to promote the financial inclusion of the poor and competition among lenders, the likely impact of the recommendations is unfavourable to the poor. 
• Microfinance means providing small loans (microcredit) to very poor families to help them engage in productive activities or nurture their tiny businesses. 

Key recommendations of the RBI document

• The current ceiling on rate of interest charged by non-banking finance company-microfinance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) or regulated private microfinance companies needs to be removed, as it is biased against one lender (NBFC-MFIs) among the many (commercial banks, small finance banks, and NBFCs). 
• It proposes that the rate of interest be determined by the governing board of each agency, and assumes that “competitive forces” will bring down interest rates. 
• The RBI did not mention any initiative to expand low-cost credit through public sector commercial banks to the rural poor, the bulk of whom are rural women (as most loans are given to members of women’s groups).
• It also proposes to de-regulate the rate of interest charged by private microfinance agencies.
• According to current guidelines, the ‘maximum rate of interest rate charged by an NBFC-MFI shall be the lower of the following: 
  • the cost of funds plus a margin of 10% for larger MFIs (a loan portfolio of over ₹100 crore) and 12% for others; or 
  • the average base rate of the five largest commercial banks multiplied by 2.75’. 
• In June 2021, the average base rate announced by the RBI was 7.98%. The “official” rate of interest on microfinance was between 22% and 26% — roughly three times the base rate.

Concerns

• Microfinance is becoming increasingly important in the loan portfolio of poorer rural households. 
  • A study of two villages from southern Tamil Nadu found that a little more than half of the total borrowing by households resident in these two villages was of unsecured or collateral-free loans from private financial agencies (SFBs, NBFCs, NBFC-MFIs and some private banks).
• Unsecured microfinance loans from private financial agencies were of disproportionate significance to the poorest households — to poor peasants and wage workers, to persons from the Scheduled Castes and Most Backward Classes.
• These microfinance loans were rarely for productive activity and almost never for any group-based enterprise, but mainly for house improvement and meeting basic consumption needs.
• High interest rates: Poor borrowers took microfinance loans, at reported rates of interest of 22% to 26% a year, to meet day-to-day expenses and costs of house repair.
  • Whereas crop loans from Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in Tamil Nadu had a nil or zero interest charge if repaid in eight months. 
  • Kisan credit card loans from banks were charged 4% per annum (9% with an interest subvention of 5%) if paid in 12 months (or a penalty rate of 11%). 
  • Other types of loans from scheduled commercial banks carried an interest rate of 9%-12% a year. 
• The actual cost of microfinance loans is even higher: This is because every month the principal amount is reduced but the interest charge is the same. 
  • An “official” flat rate of interest used to calculate equal monthly instalments actually implies a rising effective rate of interest over time.
  • A processing fee of 1% is added and the insurance premium is deducted from the principal. As the principal is insured in case of death or default of the borrower or spouse.Aa high interest rate is in response to a high risk of default.
  • The borrowers do not understood the charges.
• Contrary to the RBI guideline of “no recovery at the borrower’s residence”, collection was at the doorstep. Note that a shift to digital transactions refers only to the sanction of a loan, as repayment is entirely in cash. 
  • If the borrower is unable to pay the instalment, other members of the self-help group have to contribute, with the group leader taking responsibility. 

Microfinance in India

• Microfinance, also called microcredit, is a type of banking service provided to unemployed or low-income individuals or groups who otherwise would have no other access to financial services.
• In India, all loans that are below Rs.1 lakh can be considered as microloans.
• There are different types of financial services providers for poor people- non-government organizations (NGOs); cooperatives etc.
• Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC)-MFIs in India are regulated by The Non-Banking Financial Company -Micro Finance Institutions (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2011.
• Priority Sector Lending

• All scheduled commercial banks and foreign banks (with a sizable presence in India) are mandated to set aside 40% of their Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANDC) for lending to these sectors.
• Regional rural banks, co-operative banks and small finance banks have to allocate 75% of ANDC to PSL.
• Lending by small finance banks (SFBs) to NBFC-MFIs has been recently included in priority sector advances. 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

The Ease of Doing Business Index (EoDB) has been abolished as the flagship product created by the World Bank came under attack on grounds that its data was modified.

Background:

• Recently World Bank informed it had paused the next Doing Business report and initiated a series of reviews and audits of the report and its methodology.
• World Bank also informed that it will be working on a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate.
• Ease of Doing Business Rankings was paused as World Bank found data irregularities on Doing Business 2018 and 2020 which were reported internally in June 2020.
• Ethical Issues: Distortion of data in the internal reports raised ethical matters, including the conduct of former Board officials as well as current and/or former Bank staff, leading to this decision of World Bank.

Ease of Doing Business Rankings: Key Points

• Background: The Ease of Doing Business Report was introduced by the World Bank in 2003.
• Objective: to provide an assessment of objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies.
• Parameters used for Ranking: Ease of Doing Business Report used the following ten parameters-
• Starting a Business,
• Dealing with Construction permits,
• Electricity availability,
• Property registration,
• Credit availability,
• Protecting minority Investors,
• Paying Taxes,
• Trading across borders,
• Contracts enforcement, and
• Resolving Insolvency.

Significance of Ease of Doing Business Report:

• Informs the actions of policymakers,
• Helps countries make better-informed decisions, and
• Allows stakeholders to measure economic and social improvements more accurately
• Acts as a valuable tool for the private sector, civil society, academia, journalists, and others, broadening understanding of global issues.

Ease of Doing Business Rankings: India’s Performance

• India showed the most notable improvement in 2017, 2018, and 2019 Ease of Doing Business Ranking.
• India’s 2017 Ranking- 100th Rank
• India’s 2018 Ranking- Placed at 77th Position
• India’s 2019 Ranking (most recent)- Secured 63rd Ranking

India’s ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Report basically depended on the performance of only two cities- Delhi and Mumbai.

• Weightage of Mumbai- 47%
• Weightage of Delhi- 53%

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The US has invited India to join the Artemis accords. Separately, at the summit of the Quadrilateral Forum, QUAD leaders agreed to set up a new Quad working group on outer space. 

• The growing commercialisation and militarisation of outer space have triggered the interest of the Quad leaders.

Significance of Moon exploration

• As technological capabilities grow, nations are looking beyond near-earth space ( also called the “brown waters”) to inter-planetary probes and deep space research.
• Nations are seeking routine access to the moon. Their attention has turned to the cis-lunar space, or the volume between the orbits around the earth and moon.

China’s Lunar Missions

• Beijing’s lunar mission, Chang’e, was unveiled in 2007. Since then, China has put two spacecraft in lunar orbit (Chang’e 1 and 2) and landed two rovers on the moon (Chang’e 3 and 4). 
  • Chang’e is the first to land on the far side of the moon that can’t be seen from the earth. 
  • The Chang’e 5 brought lunar material back to the earth. The last time a mission returned with lunar rock was the Soviet Luna 24 in 1976.
  • The next moon missions — Chang’e 6,7, and 8 — could contribute to the construction of an International Lunar Research Station in the south pole of the moon. 
• International Lunar Research Station: The ILRS will have a space station orbiting the Moon, a base on the surface that will have several intelligent robots performing a variety of jobs. 
  • To support the ILRS, Beijing aims to build a super-heavy rocket Long March CZ-9. 
  • It is expected to carry at least 50 tonnes to the moon. For a comparison, the payload of the Chandrayaan-2 launched by India’s PSLV rocket in July 2019 was about four tonnes.

Russia’s Moon explorations

• Russia, once a leading space actor, has now joined hands with China on the ILRS. Russia is reviving its Luna series of probes to the moon to complement the Chinese efforts.
• Luna 25, 26 and 27 will work in tandem with Chang’e 6,7 and 8 to undertake expansive reconnaissance and develop techniques for ultra-precise landings on the moon. 
• Together, these missions will lay the basis for the second stage of ILRS — a joint construction of the lunar base — starting from 2026.
• Russia is also threatening to cut off space cooperation with the US. It is a cooperation that emerged during the Cold War and has expanded since then.
• The US reached the moon in the 1960s. It shut down the Apollo programme in the early 1970s. 
• Geopolitics is driving Russia towards China. Space cooperation has become an extension of their strategic partnership against America. 
  • The broad advance of Beijing’s space programme, across the civilian and military domains, and its deepening collaboration with Moscow has shaken America.

Artemis Accords

• The Trump administration announced plans to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024. The new project was named Artemis.
• Artemis Accords are an agreement to abide by a broad set of principles to guide the expanding human activity on the moon – ranging from mining resources to setting up lunar colonies.
• It involves the construction of a permanent space station orbiting the moon, called Lunar Gateway, and a surface presence at the south pole of the moon that is supposed to have ice and could sustain future human activity. 
• The Artemis Accords will describe a shared vision for principles, grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to create a safe and transparent environment which facilitates exploration, science, and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy.
• The eight signatories were from Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Since then, many others have joined — Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, and Ukraine.
• The US is looking for partners for its Artemis programme.

Significance of Artemis Accords- Preserving the Outer Space Treaty(OST)

• The OST says outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, “is not subject to “national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”. 
  • It declares that outer space shall be the “province of all mankind” and its use “be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries”.
• One of the consequences of the growing lunar activity is the pressure on the current international space legal regime — the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. 
  • Earlier there were no capabilities on the earth to exploit outer space for commercial and military gain. That situation is changing, due to the advances in space technologies and the expansive investment of resources by major powers.
  • The breakdown of the post-Cold War harmony among the major powers has added fuel to the fire on the moon and set the stage for a prolonged geopolitical contestation for the moon.
• The US is promoting the Artemis Accords to preserve the OST regime in relation to the moon and promote transparency, interoperability, emergency assistance, and peaceful international cooperation.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

The current controversy over AUKUS — the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, has revealed the hazards of group diplomacy.

• Today, the world has a whole spectrum of groups — from the European Union at one end to the African Union at the other — with varying shades of cooperation. 
• Groups with acronyms such as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and numerical groups from a notional G-2 to a real G-77 which has more than a 100 members exist.

Relevance of multilateral groupings

• • Many of the newly founded groupings do not have regional, ideological or thematic homogeneity to lend them a reason for forming a group. The time, the money and the energy spent on convening summits do not seem justified. 
  • Lack of agenda: Finding the agenda for these organisations and groups is another difficult exercise. E.g the growing agenda of the United Nations includes everything from peace on earth to celestial bodies and even UFOs. 
  • Undermining genuine organizations: BRICS undermined the relevance of another, less ambitious, group of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), which had several common interests. As candidates for permanent membership of the Security Council, they had specific ideas on UN reform and on South-South cooperation.
    • A Goldman Sachs economist found similarities among fast growing economies such as China, Russia, India and Brazil and recommended massive western investments in these countries. 
    • The countries concerned formed an intergovernmental group called BRIC and later BRICS, with South Africa added as a representative of the African continent. 
    • China quickly assumed the leadership of BRICS and tried to seek changes in the international economic system by establishing a bank, with the possibility of credit for its members. 
  • Lack of consensus on critical issues: The recent BRICS summit had Afghanistan on its agenda and the diverse group was able to reach a conclusion only with different conditions. Russia and China were more sympathetic to the Taliban than the others. 
    • At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, delegations found some common elements of concern with dramatically different approaches. 
    • The SCO started off as a friendly group of China and some of the former Republics of the Soviet Union, but with the addition of India, Pakistan and Iran, it became a diverse group and it could not reach agreement. 

• The Quad and AUKUS

• • New Delhi’s reluctance to directly engage China has driven the U.S. to new alliances such as a second Quad and then AUKUS. 
  • US, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pak announce new Quad group for Afghan peace process
  • The U.S. wants to fortify itself with allies against China. 
  • But the negative reaction of France to AUKUS has raised the issue of loyalty among allies.
  • AUKUS is a new trilateral security partnership for the Indo-Pacific, between Australia, the UK and the US (AUKUS).
  • The major highlight of this arrangement is the sharing of US nuclear submarine technology to Australia.

India’s experiences with  groupings

• Decreasing relevance of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC): India joined the Association with a number of conditionalities such as the exclusion of bilateral issues, decision-making by voting, and holding of meetings without all members being present. 
  • But despite the imperative for cooperation in vital fields, SAARC became an arena for India bashing, particularly by Pakistan. 
  • India boycotted the SAARC Summit that was proposed to be held in Pakistan. 
  • SAARC became a liability as it was clear that the region was not mature enough to have a regional instrumentality.
• Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations which are dependent on the Bay of Bengal: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. 
  • The group remained dormant for many years till it was revived a few years ago as an alternative to SAARC. 
  • Though it has an ambitious agenda for sectoral cooperation, it has not gained much momentum.
• Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA): The organisation was first established as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative in Mauritius in March 1995 and formally launched on March 6-7 1997 (then known as the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation). It also has not achieved much significance.
• On the other hand, India is not a member of the two active groups, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). India has major stakes in them. We campaigned actively for membership of these two bodies, but gave up when we made no headway. 
  • India tried to acquire membership of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), NSG, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group. It got membership of MTCR, Wassenaar and the Australia Group. India missed NSG’s membership due to opposition from China.
  • The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is for the control of nuclear-related technology.
  • The Australia Group (AG) is for control of chemical and biological technology that could be weaponized.
  • The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is for the control of rockets and other aerial vehicles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction.
  • The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

The National Statistical Office’s Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households (SAAH) report for 2018-19 pegs the country’s “agricultural households” at 93.09 million.

Background: 

The objectives of the survey are:

• ownership and operational holdings of rural households
• ownership of livestock
• income, productive assets and indebtedness of agricultural households
• farming practices of agricultural households
• awareness and access to various technological developments in the field of agriculture
• receipts and expenditure of the agricultural households’ farm and non-farm businesses and receipts from all other economic activities pursued by the members of the agricultural households.

Indices of SAAH report

• Household type – Rural India has an estimated 90.2 million agricultural households— about 57.8% of the total estimated rural households in the country. An agricultural household was defined in the survey as a household receiving value of produce of more than Rs.3,000 from agriculture with at least one member self-employed in farming. What does this mean ? Around 58% of rural households are involved in agricultural activities. 40% make a living out of non-farming economic activities.Under the Census, any area not urban is deemed to be rural. What does this indicate? Farm sector’s share to GDP might keep falling even though rural area will have less of agriculture.
• Marginal Landholding– The percentage of landless households in rural India declined. Marginal landholdings rose. This is likely because of MGNREGS which probably dissuaded farming households from selling their land. This highlights the importance of MGNREGS.
• For marginal land owning families wage and salary employment was their principal source of income and not agriculture. Income from rearing livestock also is a significant component of total income.
• Income – Average monthly income per agricultural households around Rs. 6500. Farmers are earning less than even the person employed in the lowest rung of organized sector.
• Debt Level – Debt levels are very high. Nearly 52% of agricultural households in India are indebted , with levels of debt as high as 90% in AP.
• Access to Loans and Insurance – There is high dependence on non- institutional channels for credit. Loans are sourced from informal sources or moneylenders. The penetration of institutional sources like banks and cooperatives is rather low – only about 15%. Marginal landholdings households face maximum problem to access credit. Farm households are oblivious of crop insurance schemes that can help them hedge their production and income risks.
• Information about Government’s operations – Households are poorly informed of government procurement operations & MSP . Sale of crops is maximum to private procurement agencies. Farmers are unacquainted with new technologies . They do not receive adequate guidance from state run research institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and agricultural universities. There is considerable dependence on other progressive farmers, radio, private commercial agents.

Objectives of PM-KISAN scheme

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana is implemented as a central sector scheme by the Government of India. This scheme was introduced to augment the source of income of many small and marginal farmers. The main objectives of the PM-KISAN scheme are mentioned below:

• To provide income support to all eligible land-holding farmers and their families.
• PM-KISAN scheme also aims to supplement the financial needs of the farmers in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income.
• The scheme is expected to increase the coverage of PM-KISAN to around 14.5 crore beneficiaries. It aims to cover around 2 crores more farmers with an estimated expenditure of Rs. 87,217.50 crores will be funded by the Central Government.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

The first and historic United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) 2021 was held in September this year.

Background:

• It concluded after an intense ‘bottom-up’ process conceived in 2019 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to find solutions and ‘catalyse momentum’ to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food and help address rising hunger.
• There is a need to achieve the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030 and address climate change in view of food production, leaders and subject matter experts stressed at the United Nations Food System Summit September 23, 2021.
• This transformation can stem from an understanding that we must urgently move from incremental and siloed action towards a systems approach. The food system will not prosper until all sectors concerned work together, they said.
• According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), food systems encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food products.
• Food systems comprise all food products that originate from crop and livestock production, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which these diverse production systems are embedded.
• The world is looking forward to a simpler and more inclusive food system. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has already given the world a ‘One-Health’ vision, and the world is optimistic of a food system that recognises the associated concerns of non-judicious use of chemicals as well as unregulated animal intensification.

Public Distribution System in India

The Public Distribution System (PDS) which evolved as a system of management for food and distribution of food grains was relaunched as Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in June 1997. This programme is controlled by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India. TPDS emphasizes on the implementation and identification of the poor for proper arrangement and delivery of food grains. Therefore, the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under the Government of India plays the same role as the PDS but adds a special focus on the people below the poverty line.

Procurement of foodgrains:

• The center is responsible for procuring the food grains from farmers at a Minimum Support Price (MSP).
• The MSP is the price at which the FCI purchases the crop directly from farmers; generally, the MSP is higher than the market price.
• This is intended to provide price support to farmers and incentivize the production.
• Who sets MSP: Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
• Procurement: Two types of procurement, Centralised Procurement, and decentralized procurement.
• Centralized procurement is carried out by the FCI(Food corporation of India) where FCI buys crops directly from farmers.
• Decentralized procurement is a central scheme under which 10 states/Union Territories procure food grains for the central pool at MSP on behalf of FCI.
•  Why decentralized procurement? The purpose is to encourage local procurement of food grains and minimize expenditure incurred when transporting grains from surplus to deficit states over long distances.

Storage of food grains

According to the storage guidelines of the FCI, food grains are normally stored in covered godowns and silos. In case if FCI has insufficient storage space, it hires space from various agencies such as the central and state warehousing corporations (CWC, SWC), state government agencies and private parties.

ISSUES WITH STORAGE:

• Inadequate storage capacity with FCI.
• Food grains rotting or damaging on the CAP or Cover & Plinth storage.

Allocation of Foodgrains

• The central government allocates food grains from the central pool to the state governments at uniform Central Issue Price (CIP) for the distribution through PDS.
• Identification of poor people- The onus is on the state Government to identify the eligible households in each state. Apart from that allocation of food grains within State, issue of Ration Cards and supervision of the functioning of Fair Price Shops (FPSs) etc. rest with the State Governments.
• Allocation for BPL and AAY(Antyodaya Anna Yojana –poorest among the BPL families) families is done on the basis of the number of identified households.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

 Indian Prime Minister along with his counterparts from Australia and Japan attended the first in-person summit of Quad leaders hosted by the US President.

• The first in-person summit of the Quad powers — Australia, Japan, India and the United States — has clearly advanced the work begun by the virtual summit. 
• It is necessary to critically analyse the summit’s outcome in order to appreciate the development and formalisation of a new grouping and its direction in the coming years.

Key takeaways of the summit

• Joint statement: The leaders’ emphasized commitment to “a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is also inclusive and resilient”. Promoting security and prosperity in this region is a goal to be achieved through practical cooperation among the four powers.
• The self-image of Quad: The US President portrayed the Quad as a group of democratic partners “who share a worldview and have a common vision for the future”. 
  • The Indian Prime Minister was confident that the Quad would “play the role of a force for global good”.
  • The Australian Prime Minister stressed the point that the grouping wanted the Indo-Pacific region to “be always free from coercion”. It was an indirect criticism of China’s policy. 
  • The Japanese Prime Minister projected the Quad as “an extremely significant initiative”, designed to promote “a free and open international order based on the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific”.
• New areas of collaboration: The Washington summit added new areas of collaboration: infrastructure; cybersecurity and space; education and people-to-people relations. 
  • Infrastructure: The plan is to promote “sustainable infrastructure”, with stress on aligning the Quad with the G7’s Build Back Better World (B3W) Partnership, based on the G20’s quality infrastructure investment principles. 
    • The Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, will provide a transparent infrastructure partnership to help narrow the $40 trillion.
    • The G7 and its allies will use the B3W initiative to mobilise private-sector capital in areas such as climate, health and health security, digital technology, and gender equity and equality.
    • The Quad can focus on four key B3W elements: digital connectivity, climate, health security and gender equality infrastructure. 
    • The formation of an infrastructure coordination group composed of senior officials was announced. It will map and coordinate infrastructure needs and catalyse private-sector investment.
  • On cybersecurity, the Quad will cooperate on combating cyber threats and securing critical infrastructure. 
  • On the space front, the plan is to identify new collaboration opportunities, especially sharing of data to monitor climate change, disaster response and preparedness, and sustainable uses of ocean and marine resources. 
    • A senior cyber group and a new working group on space will be established. 
  • On education, the Quad fellowship programme will award 25 scholars from each Quad country — opportunities in leading STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programmes in the U.S. 
  • The three working groups on vaccines, climate and emerging technologies established last March, have reported progress. 
  • On vaccines, the Quad stands committed to donate over 1.2 billion doses globally, although only 79 million doses have been delivered so far. 
    • The production of vaccines in India — with the target of “at least 1 billion doses” of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022 — is on track. 
    • Vaccines are for free distribution in the Indo-Pacific region. Sufficient funding has been assured by Japan and Australia. 
    • Further research and step-up preparedness to handle future pandemics. 
  • Climate change: The Quad working group on climate change has focused on three thematic areas: climate ambition, clean-energy innovation, and climate adaptation and resilience. 
  • The Quad leaders emphasised enhanced action for achieving global net-zero emissions preferably by 2050, with an important clause — “taking into account national circumstances” — added at India’s instance. 
• A Quad shipping task force has now been launched to build a green-shipping network and green port infrastructure. 
• Critical and emerging technologies: Developing 5G and beyond 5G networks; supply chains of critical minerals including semiconductors; and emerging advances in biotechnology. 
  • To be successful, building the supply chains will need expert resources and coordination from each country. 
  • A contact group on Advanced Communications and Artificial Intelligence will focus on standards-development and foundational research.

Cooperation among the Quad members in the areas mentioned will help the grouping to address the economic and technological challenges posed by China.

Significance of Quad-ASEAN and Quad-EU relations:

• Regionally, the Quad sees the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as “the heart of the Indo-Pacific region”. 
  • Together with the small island States in the South Pacific, ASEAN countries gain benefit from growing cooperation within the Quad. 
• The European Union (EU) Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific was welcomed by the Quad. The EU is also looking to launch the “Global Gateway” as a scheme to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 
  • The EU faces challenges like potential risks of emerging technologies, ensuring supply chain resilience, and countering disinformation in the Indo-Pacific region.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context:

• In a speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meet on 17 September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dwelt on how Central Asia had been a connectivity bridge between various regional markets at different points in history. 
  • In the 21st century, India was committed to increasing its connectivity with land-locked Central Asia.

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• The land-locked Central Asian countries can benefit immensely by connecting with India’s vast market. Unfortunately, many connectivity options are not open to them today due to the lack of mutual trust. 
• India’s investment in Iran’s Chabahar port and efforts towards the International North-South (Transit) Corridor (INSTC) is driven by this reality.

India and Central Asian relations

• India’s decades-old wish of New Delhi to connect with the resource and fuel-rich Central Asian nations. 
• Since the emergence of the Central Asian Republics as independent countries in the early 1990s, New Delhi has been trying to establish contacts with those countries and boost trade opportunities. 
• Analysts have repeatedly spoken about the potential to collaborate in a variety of areas—from construction, sericulture and pharmaceuticals to IT and tourism. 
• India’s trade with the five Central Asian Republics—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan—was below $ 2 billion in 2018. 
  • Much of this trade was routed through Iran, Russia or the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 
  • In contrast, China’s trade with Central Asia was $50 billion-$60 billion in the same period.

Advantage to China

• The obvious advantage in China’s favour is geographical proximity. 
• In India’s case, tensions with Pakistan mean there is no viable land route towards Central Asia. And New Delhi’s efforts to look for a circuitous route via Iran (and Afghanistan) have floundered due to US sanctions aimed at containing Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme. 
• It is in the context of this potential Iran-Afghanistan bypass route that recent events acquire broader geopolitical relevance for India.

Concerns

• The takeover of Afghanistan by the Pakistan-backed Taliban on 15 August has severely set back India’s plans in Central Asia—at least for now. 
• The road ahead in the short term is difficult as India doesn’t seem to have any real leverage to get the connectivity projects with Central Asia going. India has been negotiating with individual bilateral partners though,” he said.

Central Asia’s importance

• While Central Asia is seen as fuel-rich and, hence, important for an energy-starved India, critics argue that with the world switching to greener sources of fuel, the region’s relevance would start diminishing in due course. 
  • But the Central Asian states are also mineral-rich, and Kazakhstan, for one, has been a source of uranium for India’s nuclear power plants. A country like India which is seen as a major economy has to have a presence in these markets.
• Another reason is that India can forge a common position on terrorism and radicalization, which is a matter of concern to the region as much as it is to India.. In recent years, New Delhi has engaged with Central Asian Republics in the defence sphere through military exercises. 
  • Political and economic engagement would also be important, given the imperatives of working together at a body such as the United Nations (UN).
• There is huge scope for collaboration in areas like building (power) transmission lines and contract farming; our people have set up universities there—Sharda and Amity are examples.
• There is scope for collaboration in the dairy sector too. Our people have been setting up pharmaceutical units in Russia that can serve these countries as well. 
• There is a cultural connection. (Bollywood stars like) Raj Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty are famous in these countries. 
• It is this that we need to develop into stronger bonds of trade and commercial bonds which will be possible once the INSTC (international transit corridor between India and Europe via Iran, Central Asia and Russia) fructifies. 

Routes to Central Asia

• In the 1990s, just years after the 1991 Soviet breakup, India explored a route through Iran’s Bandar Abbas port and Mashad—near the border with Turkmenistan—to Central Asia. 
  • This coincided with the first period of the Pakistan-backed Taliban in Afghanistan (between 1996 and 2001). But this project did not succeed.
• In 2000, India, Iran and Russia agreed on a new route for trade that later came to be known as INSTC. 
  • It was aimed at cutting the costs and time in moving cargo between Russia and India. The pact was ratified in 2002 and the original multi-modal route linked Mumbai in India to Bandar Abbas and Bandar-e-Anzali in Iran, then across the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan, Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia. 
  • Over the years, more countries joined the INSTC; the 7,200-kilometre multi-modal project with thousands of kilometres of all-weather highways now include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Central Asia, and Europe as offshoots of the original plan.
• In 2003, India and Iran announced the development of the Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province. 
  • The idea was to find a route bypassing Pakistan to Afghanistan.
  • The original idea was that India would construct the road linking Zaranj, the capital of Afghanistan’s Nimroz province and on the Afghan-Iran border, with Delaram, which was part of the road linking Herat in the west to Mazar-e-Sharif (close to the Afghan-Uzbek border in the north). 
  • Once Chabahar was complete, this would serve as an alternate route to Central Asia. That was New Delhi’s calculation.
• While India completed the Afghan road project in 2008, Indian officials said delays on the Iranian side resulted in New Delhi taking up the development of Chabahar as well to ensure that the project was completed.
  • But repeated US sanctions on Iran for its suspected nuclear programme meant that Indian firms were reluctant to participate in the projects, leading to cost and time overruns. 
  • Sanctions on Iran have played a major role in slowing down the INSTC.

The Pakistan-China factor

• Cut to 2021, with the Taliban in power in Kabul, India’s “Connect to Central Asia” plans seem to have come undone again. 
• With signs of friction within the Taliban and most of the commerce in the region being conducted by private traders, “there is room to watch the situation carefully.
• With aid cut off by global donors after the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s revenues have plummeted, the revenues of the current government in Kabul totalled some $2 billion—approximately $1.5 billion from the opium trade and $500 million from customs duties.
• If the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline materializes, any government in Kabul could get transit fees worth around $400 million annually. 
  • That could be a good reason for them to agree to guarantee security for the pipeline to India.

Current Status of India

• For now, India is keeping out a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan from a quadrilateral grouping that has been proposed to discuss the use of Chabahar port. 
  • At this point, alternatives to Indian connectivity projects also seem to be taking shape. 
• Pakistan, Uzbekistan, US and Afghanistan are expected to hold talks on a connectivity initiative announced in July 2021. Earlier this year, representatives of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to a road map for the Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway project.
• “Pakistan’s obstructionist attitude has played a big role in keeping India out of Central Asia. There was a plan to bring electricity from Tajikistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan. But Pakistan played spoilsport.
• Given its close ties with China, Pakistan would likely push Afghanistan to join connectivity projects initiated by Beijing and not New Delhi, analysts said. According to Kondapalli, China has so far announced $100 million for improving connectivity in Afghanistan. “It seems China is playing a waiting game,” he said. “In the past 20 years, Beijing has made considerable inroads into the region, boosting trade and co-opting Central Asian states into its Belt and Road Initiative,” Kondapalli said. “There are four energy pipelines from Central Asia to China, one implemented and three in the final stages,” he said.