Quote of the Day

 

“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

“मैं आज जो हूं उसका कारण है वे निर्णय जो मैंने कल किए थे।”
एलेनॉर रूज़वेल्ट

Current Affairs-September 30, 2021

 

INDIA

– Cabinet approves launch of ‘PM POSHAN in Schools’ scheme that will provide hot cooked meal to school children studying in classes 1-8 of government and government-aided schools across the country

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Govt. approves capital infusion of ₹4,400 crore to ECGC Ltd. (formerly known as Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd.) over a period of five years, i.e. from FY 2021-2022 to FY 2025- 2026

– CCEA approves listing of Export Credit Guarantee Corporation Ltd. (ECGC) though Initial Public Offer (IPO)

– Government approves continuation of the National Export Insurance Account (NEIA) scheme and infusion of Rs. 1,650 crore Grant-in-Aid over 5 years, i.e. from FY 2021-2022 to FY 2025-2026

– Finance Ministry expands scope of Rs 4.5 lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to support micro, small and medium enterprises

– Padmaja Chunduru appointed MD & CEO of National Securities Depositories (NSDL)

– Defence Acquisition Council headed approves proposals of value Rs.13,165 crores; approvals include Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH), Terminally Guided Munition (TGM) and rocket ammunition

– India’s external debt rose by 2.1% year-on-year to USD 570 billion as of March-end 2021

– UIDAI slashes Aadhaar authentication charge to Rs 3: CEO Saurabh Garg

– RBI announces removal of Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) restrictions on Indian Overseas Bank

– PM chairs 38th PRAGATI Meeting

WORLD

– Right Livelihood Award winners announced; 4 winners include Indian NGO LIFE (Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment)

– Japan: Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida wins governing party leadership election; set to become the next Prime Minister

– Tunisia: Geologist Najla Bouden appointed first female prime minister

– European Union’s general court annuls EU-Morocco deals over Western Sahara policies

– France, Greece sign defence deal; Athens to buy 3 warships

– International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction observed on Sept 29

– World Heart Day observed on Sept 29; theme: “Use Heart to Connect”

– World Rabies Day observed on Sept 28

Right Livelihood Award 2021

 Right Livelihood Award 2021 was conferred to Delhi-based environmental organisation “Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE)”. This award is also known as “Sweden’s alternative Nobel Prize”

Highlights

• LIFE has received the award for its “grassroots approach to empower vulnerable communities in protecting their livelihoods and claiming their right for a clean environment.”
• Other awardees include:

1. Cameroonian women rights activist Marthe Wandou,
2. Environmental activist from Russia, Vladimir Slivyak and
3. Indigenous rights defender from Canada, Freda Huson.

About Right Livelihood Award

Right Livelihood Award was established by Ole von Uexkull who happens to be the executive director of Right Livelihood. The award honours and supports people in solving global problems. It comprises of a cash prize of 1 million Swedish crowns and a long-term support that highlights and expands Laureates’ work.

How Awardees are shortlisted?

Awardees are shortlisted by the jury of Stockholm-based Right Livelihood.

Why LIFE received this award?

LIFE received the Award for its innovative legal work of empowering communities to protect their resources following the “environmental democracy in India.” According to Right Livelihood, despite a robust environmental protection law framework in India, access to justice for those planning to protect remaining forests and biodiversity in India is often limited. Thus, to bridge this gap, LIFE was founded.

About LIFE

LIFE was founded in 2005 by lawyers Ritwick Dutta and Rahul. It has been fighting against India’s most significant environmental threats. Some of the examples of environmental threats include construction of a large-scale bauxite mine in the Odisha and hydro-power project in Arunachal Pradesh. LIFE helps in stopping such construction.

Recognising the role of health in India’s social and economic growth

 Focus on a system that responds to the capacity of the State and other stakeholders in the immediate-term, while building on such capacity in the longer term. Better responsiveness to the needs of citizens can drive trust between citizens and the State.

As India begins marking its 75th year of Independence, it is an appropriate time to take stock of the priority we have accorded to our biggest resource — human capital. Today, India has the largest population of young people; an enviable resource that can move India on to a stronger economic path. Research has highlighted the links between building human capital (through nutrition, health, and education) and growth. And yet, data on nutrition, health, and education suggests that the value of this resource has not been recognised.

When we focus on health, there has been progress, but India remains well below peer countries — and where it needs to be — in terms of the well being of citizens. This stems from multiple reasons.

One, it is not clear if national and political incentives to improve health have been clear to leaders. There are two aspects to this. The first is linked to the limited attention to the links between health and human capital, and growth promotion — a case that positions health not merely as a welfare issue, but as an influencer of India’s growth.

The second is the limited attention to the impact of health care on poverty. Health-related expenditures are estimated to push 3.5% of the population below the poverty line; with those already below the poverty line pushed only deeper. Anirudh Krishna’s research across four continents found health-related expenses to be the prime reason for households descending into poverty and that millions of households live “one illness away” from poverty.

Political incentives could also be a factor of “credit”, and in India’s federal system, a lack of clarity in “credit” from the improved health care services may further diffuse political incentives. Reforming the health care system may also be viewed as too long-term an agenda, and, therefore, not conducive to immediate political gains. Additionally, the pathways at different governance and administrative levels are often not evident, constraining political interest from relevant leaders. Two, the absence of health as an electoral demand dilutes its political salience. Data from multiple CSDS Lokniti polls has highlighted that health figures low among voter priorities. The middle-class has exited from the use of public services, and increasingly, the poor are moving in the same direction.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the health sector has one of the lowest public investments at 1.3% of the Gross Domestic Product, with a disproportionate use of private services, and 64% of health care expenditure being out of pocket at the point of service.

However, leaders have sought political legitimacy through attention to targeted sectors and the initiation of reforms. Regime shifts in several countries such as Turkey, Indonesia, and Brazil saw leaders prioritising health to establish credibility with the voter base and reaping electoral benefits. Well implemented reforms fuelled citizen expectations, leading to demand, and creating the space for further reform. India has not witnessed too many examples of this.

State capacity is a central variable in the cycle of well-implemented reforms, tangible benefits, a social compact between the government and its citizens, and electoral gains. The absence of this confidence in capacity will likely lead to a clientelist model of delivering services, rather than a systems approach.

What is the path that India should take? One, focus on a system that responds to the capacity of the State and other stakeholders in the immediate-term, while building on such capacity in the longer-term. Better responsiveness to the needs of citizens can drive trust between citizens and the State. And do this while highlighting the role of health in a nation’s journey, and building citizens’ understanding of the primacy of health and its impact on their economic status.

A lot more needs to be done to identify paths to reform, through a combination of public and private provisions, with the State as a regulator. This can offer a coherent response to constraints and political benefits at the national, state and sub-state levels.

Sandhya Venkateswaran is member, Lancet Citizens Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System and Centre for Social and Economic Progress.

Source: Hindustan Times, 29/09/21

Challenges like climate change call for farm research to take centre stage, just like during the Green Revolution

Agriculture and climate change are too important to be left only to generalist bureaucrats, economists and activists.

Indian agriculture’s major challenge in the initial decades after Independence was to increase crop production and yields at any cost. Today, it’s about boosting farm incomes, while simultaneously ensuring production that is cost-competitive, resource-use efficient and climate-smart. The release of a new herbicide-tolerant rice variety by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) that can be directly sown, instead of requiring transplantation, is therefore welcome. Farmers transplant and grow paddy in flooded fields mainly to control weeds, which cannot emerge under water that acts as a natural herbicide. The IARI variety contains a mutated gene making the paddy plant “tolerant” to Imazethapyr, a herbicide effective against a wide range of weeds. This chemical when now sprayed will kill only the weeds, while the paddy can be cultivated without any nursery preparation, transplanting, puddling and flooding. Farmers would save about 30 per cent water, Rs 3,000-per-acre labour costs and 10-15 days’ time from direct seeding, compared to conventional transplantation.

The IARI variety — there’s a need for many more of these — highlights the importance of investing in public agricultural research. The first challenge that India confronted, of feeding its population and achieving a modicum of grain self-sufficiency, couldn’t have been met without the high-yielding semi-dwarf varieties bred during the 1960s and 1970s. The same goes for today’s challenges, especially from climate change. Average temperatures are rising, winters are getting shorter and the number of rainy days is falling even with overall “normal” monsoons. Growing crops and rearing animals under such circumstances — of extreme hot and cold or prolonged dry weather and intense downpours — is becoming increasingly tough, with farmers also facing problems of depleting water-tables, soaring energy costs and emergence of new pests and diseases. Coping with these stresses requires new breeding approaches (including gene modification and editing) and low-input, high-output agriculture technologies.

All this also means putting farm research on centre stage just like during the Green Revolution. Agriculture and climate change are too important to be left only to generalist bureaucrats, economists and activists. Research, unlike subsidies and welfare schemes, may not yield political dividends or pay in the short run. But the returns from farm research — IARI varieties alone account for over 95 per cent of India’s Rs 32,000-crore annual basmati rice exports and nearly half of its total wheat area — are more sustainable.

Source: Indian Express, 30-09-2021

What gives rise to the rural debt trap?

 

Sonal Ann D’Souza, Sunit Arora write: Inadequate access to affordable credit lies at the heart of rural distress

The All-India Debt and Investment Surveys (AIDIS), carried out by the National Statistical Office are among the most important nationally representative data sources on the rural credit market in India. Easy, timely access to formal-sector credit enables households to invest in income-generating activities. In its absence, non-institutional sources help meet short-term consumption needs. The AIDIS report published this month reveals that non-institutional sources have a strong presence in the rural credit market, notwithstanding the high costs involved in borrowing from them.

According to the report, the average debt per household in rural India is Rs 59,748, nearly half the average debt per household in urban India. A key indicator of access to credit is the incidence of indebtedness (IOI) — the proportion of households having outstanding loans on June 30 of the year in which the survey is conducted (2019 in this case). As per the latest AIDIS report, the IOI is 35 per cent in rural India — 17.8 per cent of rural households are indebted to institutional credit agencies, 10.2 per cent to non-institutional agencies and 7 per cent to both. Dependence on institutional sources is often seen as a positive development, signifying broadening financial inclusion, while reliance on non-institutional sources denotes vulnerability and backwardness.

The share of debt from institutional credit agencies in total outstanding debt in rural India is 66 per cent as compared to 87 per cent in urban India. In non-institutionalised debt, professional and agricultural moneylenders remain the primary sources of credit. Continuing dependence on informal credit points to interlinkages between labour/input markets and the rural credit market. This is troubling, as the rate of interest charged on 45 per cent of institutional debt is between 10 and 15 per cent, whereas on 44 per cent of non-institutional debt it falls between 20 and 25 per cent.

To know how socio-economic inequality shapes household indebtedness, the purpose of borrowing must be examined. Institutional credit is taken mainly for farm business and housing in rural India. A significant portion of debt from non-institutional sources is used for other household expenditure. The data indicates that better-off households have greater access to formal-sector credit and use it for more income-generating purposes. The top 10 per cent rural households in terms of asset ownership spend almost two-thirds of their institutional debt and 40 per cent of non-institutional debt on farm/non-farm business, whereas the bottom 10 per cent spend half of their total debt on household expenditure.

Access to institutional credit is largely determined by the ability of households to furnish assets as collateral.The report shows that the top 10 per cent of asset-owning households have borrowed 80 per cent of their total debt from institutional sources, whereas those in the bottom 50 per cent borrowed around 53 per cent of total debt from non-institutional sources. Moreover, the Debt-Asset Ratio (DAR) of the bottom 10 per cent asset-owning households in rural India is 39, much higher than the DAR of 2.6 estimated for the top 10 per cent households. This, coupled with higher borrowing from non-institutional sources, acts as a debt trap for households with fewer assets.

Access to credit is complicated by the interplay of social identities. The average asset ownership of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households in rural areas is one-third as compared to upper-caste households. The low asset ownership of marginalised social groups curtails their access to institutional credit.

Inadequate access to affordable credit lies at the heart of the rural distress. Lack of marketable collateral, credit demand for consumption purposes and informational constraints have been the primary reasons for a large proportion of the rural population being excluded from institutional finance. The credit policy needs to be revamped to accommodate the consumption needs of the rural poor and to find alternatives for collateral to bring the rural households within the network of institutional finance.

This column first appeared in the print edition on September 30, 2021 under the title ‘The rural debt trap’. The writers are research scholars at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, JNU

Source: Indian Express, 30/09/21

Quote of the Day

 

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Robert Brault

“छोटी छोटी बातों का आनंद उठाइए, क्योंकि हो सकता है कि किसी दिन आप मुड़ कर देखें तो आपको अनुभव हो कि ये तो बड़ी बातें थीं।”
रॉबर्ट ब्राल्ट

Current Affairs-September 29, 2021

 

INDIA

– PM Modi dedicates 35 crop varieties with special traits like climate resilience and higher nutrient content to nation; developed by the ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)

– PM inaugurates newly constructed campus of National Institute of Biotic Stress Tolerance in Raipur

– Agriculture Minister launches ‘Amul Honey’- a product of GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) Ltd.

– 17th Foundation Day of NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority) celebrated on Sept 28

– Home Minister Amit Shah releases training manual of Aapda Mitra Scheme and plan documents of Aapda Mitra and Common Alerting Protocol

– Bombay HC issues guidelines for safety of victims in workplace harassment cases

– DRDO successfully tests new version of Akash surface to air missile Akash Prime from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Odisha

– Defence Ministry increases income limit of disabled dependents for family pension

– Supreme Court lashes out at firecracker manufacturers for violating the spirit of its 2018 judgment banning toxic ingredients like barium in fireworks

– Country’s first Pan-India helpline for senior citizens: Elder Line (Toll Free No- 14567)

– Flight crew, air traffic controllers to be tested for drugs from Jan 31: DGCA

– Haryana extends ban on gutkha, pan masala till September 2022

– External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar meets with Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico City

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– S&P retains India’s 9.5% growth forecast for FY22; consumption, domestic macro indicators weak

– Bombay HC vacates stay granted two years ago on the 1,504 km Western Dedicated Freight Corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra

– Govt to support 75 startup innovations for healthcare challenges through ‘Amrit Grand Challenge Programme’

– 22,000 compliances reduced, 103 offences decriminalised: Government

– Govt. dissolves Ordnance Factory Board, transfers assets to 7 PSUs: Munition India Ltd., Armoured Vehicles Nigam Ltd., Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Ltd., Troop Comforts Ltd., Yantra India Ltd., India Optel Ltd. and Gliders India Ltd.

WORLD

– International Day for Universal Access to Information observed on Sept 28; theme: “The Right to Know – Building Back Better with Access to Information”

NCW Launches Training Program for Women in Dairy Farming

 

Key Facts

• To launch the training programme, NCW is collaborating with agricultural universities in India in order to identify and train women working in the field of dairy farming and allied activities in several like value addition, quality enhancement and packaging & marketing of dairy products.
• First programme under this project was organised on ”Value Added Dairy products” at Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences in Hisar for women self-help groups. It was organised in collaboration with the Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission.

Why this programme was launched?

This programme was launched because women in rural India are involved in every part of dairy farming but they have not attained financial independence. Thus, this project was launched with the aim of empower women and help them in achieving them financial independence.

How financial independence would be ensured?

This project seeks to help women in achieving financial independence by training them in aspects like quality enhancement of dairy products, value addition, packaging and marketing of their products and increasing the shelf life of products.

National Commission for Women (NCW)

NCW is the statutory body that advises the government on all policy matters related to women. The body was established on January 31, 1992 under the provisions of the Indian Constitution. It was established by an act called National Commission for Women Act, 1990.

Is the sun the only star visible during the day?

 Gazing into the night sky is undoubtedly one of the most ethereal experiences. Cloaked in a dark canvas studded with tiny glittering stars, the heavens remind us of the wonders and the mysteries of the majestic universe. It is very challenging to ascertain the total number of stars in the cosmos; the milky way galaxy alone is estimated to have nearly a 100 billion stars.  However, about 2500 stars are visible on a clear night on earth.

Stars have some important features in common; they are gigantic, ferocious balls of gas, basically hydrogen and helium, spewing out heat and light due to nuclear fusion. There is nothing tranquil about their world despite what the nursery rhymes and songs entail.Stars are the same, yet diverse. They can be of different colours like white, yellow, red or blue. They can be as small as a planet or so big that the sun is merely a speck in contrast but are very, very far from us.

Sky-gazing is primarily a night time adventure. However, since centuries man has been enthralled by the notion of viewing the stars in the daytime too. Not many know that the Moon, Venus and Jupiter, which are very close to us on the cosmic scale, can be spotted with the naked eye during daylight hours, the only hurdle being one should be sure of which part of the sky to explore.

Are stars “nocturnal” and disappear in the daytime? Of course not, they radiate light during the day as intensely as they do in the night. Although our sun is an average star, neither too big nor too small, not very hot nor cold, its proximity to us makes it shine 550,000 times brighter than the full moon and makes other stars too dull (about a trillion times dimmer) in comparison. It is the bright light from the sun that prevents us from discerning the light emanating from other stars in the daytime.

Just as we cannot see the glow of a candle in a brightly lit room, similarly the dim star light can be seen in the dark background at night and is submerged in the brilliant glare of the sun and the bright blue sky during the day. If one was on the moon, which does not have an atmosphere, there would be no scattering, the sky would be dark and the stars would be visible at all times. So, basically, the visibility of the stars is all about the contrast with the surroundings.

Man’s quest to see the stars in the day dates back to ancient times and is even documented by Aristotle. It was believed that if one gazed over a small section of sky from the bottom of a deep well, a coal pit or shaft of a tall chimney, one could see stars in the daylight. The notion was based on the fact that such a vantage point would reduce the amount of light entering the eye, make the pupil bigger allowing more light from the star to enter thus making it visible. The theory has been tested by many including the noted German scientist and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, and it has failed every time.

So the question still remains, is the sun the only star visible in the day? No. Armed with a telescope of a large aperture, we can see bright stars in the daylight. If the star is located further from the sun in the sky, it is cloudy and if the observation is made from a high spot, daytime star-gazing becomes feasible.

The most opportune time to see stars in the day without a telescope is during a total solar eclipse. With the sun’s disc covered by the moon, the twinkling stars in the sky offer a truly exhilarating experience.

The death of a star, when it becomes a supernova with brightness increasing a million-fold, offers a rare window of opportunity to see a star in the daytime but yet to be established.

Betelgeuse, a red supergiant, and part of the constellation Orion shall become a supernova anytime during the next 100,000 years. This will be a spectacular show with clear visibility of the star even in the daytime for about three months before it fades into a nighttime object visible for many centuries.

The possibility of seeing stars other than the sun in the daytime is surely an exotic and enchanting experience requiring precision and focus as we gaze into the infinite blue sky. It is surely an acute test of patience

,By Rachna Arora 

Source: Indian Express, 26/09/21

High ranking, pocket-friendly and closer home: Why Asian universities are becoming more popular among Indian students

 

While traditionally the ‘study abroad dream’ was largely restricted to America, the UK and Europe, there has been an increased popularity of Asian universities among students from India aspiring to study abroad in recent years.

The reaction of older generations among friends and family suggested that her acceptance into Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore was merely a “consolation prize”, says Ruchi, an alumnus of the university.

She, however, thinks otherwise. “Not much is known about the universities in Singapore, both about their educational standards and about their very beneficial and necessary financial aid,” she said. Ruchi chose to look beyond the illusion of college ranks and beyond the “American dream of freedom” in order to secure her future. She took into account “the fact that the initial money required to go to Europe and the USA was much more than that required to go to Singapore”.

A 50 per cent reduction in the tuition fees and three years’ work experience guaranteed made her secure her decision. While this was a wise move financially, NTU and NUS (National University of Singapore) were also ranked as a few of the best universities worldwide, said Ruchi.

, better availability of financial aid, easier work opportunities and the fact that Asian universities are increasingly being ranked as some of the best in the world are some of the reasons for their newfound desirability among Indians.

The fading of the ‘American dream’

The idea of living the ‘American dream’ has for long been the reason behind thousands of Indian students leaving for the United States each year. As per the Open Doors 2020 Report on International Educational Exchange, India was the second-largest source for international students in the United States after China. The data showed that 193,124 students from India had taken admission to an American university in the year 2019-20. “It is a false sense of a lucrative, successful and happy life that one could achieve by studying in the west,” says Radhika Bhargava, a PhD candidate from the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. According to college counselor  Shayantan Rahman, colleges like Berkeley and Harvard are “global brands” which make them more enticing to the parental generation, while newer, specialised and niche colleges are more appealing to the younger generation. While a lot of families prefer US universities due to their “perceived signalling value”, more and more people, particularly those from fairly middle-class backgrounds, are starting to move away from this trend.Bhargava completed her undergraduate and Masters degrees from the US before moving to Singapore for her doctorate. She says that while applying for her undergraduate studies she did not look at any country apart from the US. “Anything good in Asia was unheard of due to my lack of awareness. American universities are highly publicised,” she says.

The increased political and financial uncertainties in the west and lack of funding opportunities for her doctoral research on environmental conservation were the prime reasons for her to look for options in the east. “Now the financial situation of the west is shaky and the east is becoming stronger. Other factors like promoting their programs, being at par with the western education system, and also competing with them in internationally recognised ranking systems are reasons why Asia is becoming more desirable,” she says.

Easy access to financial aid

Money is a key factor driving decisions for aspirants of abroad education from India. Soumil Roychowdhury, an undergraduate student at Hong Kong University (HKU), says that one of the biggest factors behind his choice was that the university offered a large scholarship. “While I was preparing my applications, I had observed that countries like Hong Kong and Singapore are a lot more liberal with scholarship opportunities than universities in America,” he says.Speaking about why he encourages students to be open to education in Asian countries, Rahman says that countries like Singapore and Hong Kong “have various mechanisms for offering financial support to international students, often in exchange for a commitment to stay and work in that country”.  “They generally have lower tuition fees as compared to US colleges, which makes them a good option for families who may find a US undergraduate degree to be too expensive,” he says.

The decision to study abroad is also dependent on the availability of job opportunities and return on investment that one can expect. “The US makes it immensely difficult for many Indian graduates to obtain work visas, and the UK’s economic outlook post-Brexit is still unclear, so students are seeking alternatives,” notes Rahman.

“At the same time, acceptance rates to aspirational universities in these two countries have fallen to record lows (the acceptance rate for most elite US universities fell below 5% last year) making it hard for all but the best-prepared students to receive an offer,” he explains.

The kind of education one prefers

The choice of a university is also dependent on the kind of education one is looking for. Rishi Chandan, a 12th-grade student in Mumbai, who is preparing to apply to three universities in Singapore and Hong Kong, says the difference between American and Asian universities is in the “focus on merit”. “While applying to the Asian universities I feel there is not so much stress on my extracurriculars and more focus is placed on academic performance,” he says

Chandan believes that American universities offer more freedom when it comes to the choice of subjects and specialisation, for instance, several colleges allow a mix of arts, business and science. “There may be certain students who wish to add a mix of subjects, and for them the colleges in the west are more preferable,” he says.

Colleges in Asia, on the other hand, he feels, are “focused on the fundamentals of the specialisation, and ensure you can excel at it”. The education system in Asia being more academically driven similar to that in India also comes across as more appealing to Indian students, says Chandan.

Roychowdhury agrees there is a difference in priorities between American and Asian universities. “I think atleast in the beginning stages, the Asian schools have a more advanced curriculum. I think because of this fact, students in Asian schools pick up certain skills a bit earlier compared to American schools,” he says.

Close to home

Cost and quality of education aside, there is also the factor of distance from home that accounts for the choice of universities in Asia among Indian students. Chandan says he personally finds Asia to be a “comfortable place to live in”. “It’s closer to home for me and provides a familiar environment to study in.”

Bhargava says her family was happy with her choice of university in Singapore since it was closer, “which meant I could visit more often and they could afford to visit me too”.

Studying in the east, she says, has also enriched her understanding of the developments, strengths, capabilities, and opportunities in the global south. “I also understand rural, developing, local populations better by working and studying in Asia which I wouldn’t have been exposed to in the US.”

Source: Indian Express, 11/09/21

Who are the Taliban? Part 3: Why Taliban is not going to find it easy in second coming

 

The ability of challengers to pose a forceful and unified opposition will determine how the Taliban preserves control and presents themselves to the public, both in terms of leadership and policy

Every year, Afghanistan observes ‘Massoud Day,’ a national holiday in honour of Ahmad Shah Massoud, known to his supporters as the Lion of Panjshir. Massoud was a legendary guerrilla commander who defended his home province of Panjshir from the Soviets so successfully that the Wall Street Journal described him as “The Afghan Who Won the Cold War.” When the Taliban started their ascendence into Afghan politics in 1994, Massoud publicly denounced the group, citing his opposition to their interpretation of Islam and regressive value system. He later created and led the famed Northern Alliance, a diverse coalition against the Taliban that at one-point controlled territories housing over 30 per cent of Afghanistan’s population. The man who is believed to have said “we will never be a pawn in someone else’s game,” stood his ground when all other resistance leaders fled the country.

On September 9, 2001, two days before Al Qaeda’s attack on the Twin Towers, Massoud was assassinated. Later, reports emerged that he had been killed on the orders of Osama Bin Laden who wanted to curry favour with the Taliban thereby ensuring safe haven in Afghanistan after 9/11. Despite the remoteness of its location, Massoud’s funeral was attended by hundreds of thousands of people. He is remembered not just for his military tactics but also for his ability to bring together ethnic groups that centuries of rulers had failed to unite. The people of Panjshir Valley continue to fight the Taliban even today.

For centuries, foreign and domestic leaders have tried to conquer Afghanistan but failed to suppress the strong will of its people. If history is any precedent, the Taliban, while likely to take power, are also likely to struggle to retain it. Given their lack of governance experience and any discernible policy there are three main challengers to Taliban rule, namely, the Afghan government and security forces, foreign nations, and other competing groups. The ability of those challengers to pose a forceful and unified opposition will subsequently determine how the Taliban preserves control and presents themselves to the public, both in terms of leadership and policy.

The Afghan Government

Democracy in Afghanistan is contingent on the Afghan government’s ability to resist the onslaught of the Taliban. Based on their performance thus far, proponents of a democratic system have reasons to be pessimistic.

According to Vanda Felab-Brown, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, “the government and security forces are not just losing to the Taliban, they are giving up to them altogether.” When the Americans began the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, the Taliban controlled under 20 per cent of the country. Today, a little over two months later, they control over 54 per cent. Unsurprisingly, the collapse of organised resistance to the group has also hampered the progress of inter-Afghan peace talks. With little leverage, the Afghan government has struggled to elicit any significant concessions from them.

In January 2019, the Taliban chief negotiator, Abbas Stanekzai, said any peace agreement would require the dismantling of Afghan security forces. By July, the group instead announced that thousands of Taliban fighters would join the Afghan security forces after the withdrawal of US forces. To some, that’s an indication of moderation, to others, an indication of how little the group has to fear from existing state institutions. Falling in line with the latter, Felab-Brown believes that inter-Afghan peace talks will only meaningfully begin once the government manages to present a sustained military opposAfghan rulers for their part seem to accept the inevitability of their position. While never openly admitting defeat, statements from key officials indicate a willingness to share power with the Taliban. After meeting with Joe Biden, Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s current President, declared that he has called on the Taliban “to engage in a political process because a political settlement is the ultimate mechanism of ending the war.” Quoting Abraham Lincoln, he went on to assert that “the best way of treating an enemy is to turn him into a friend.”

Unlike Lincoln, however, Ghani has little military leverage and even less support from elements within his country. Hamid Karzai, a former President who is still politically very influential, took Ghani’s statements even further. In a thinly veiled display of contempt for his successor, Karzai stated in an interview with The Hindu that while he hopes for a continuation of democracy in Afghanistan, he also accepts that there is no way forward without the Taliban.

However, while the government may not be able to resist the group’s rise to power, it does have some mechanisms to keep them in check. The Taliban is still reliant on the government to provide basic services and Afghans who lament the corruption of government officials still depend on them for education and healthcare. According to Felab-Brown, “if there is a road to be built, the Taliban will order people to build the road. But if there is a hospital that needs to be built, equipped, and staffed, the Taliban are reliant on the government and international actors stepping in.” She asserts that while the Taliban are adept at providing swift justice and maintaining stability, they have “no technical capacity to organise social and public services themselves.” Additionally, the Taliban are still heavily dependent on foreign aid and need to stay in the good graces of the internationally backed government to ensure that those lines of funding remain open.

Given this complicated situation, observers retain some hope that the Afghan government can force the Taliban to accept a power-sharing agreement. This would include some sort of preservation of the existing political order, including provisions for elections and basic human rights. Ideally, it would result in the Taliban agreeing to cede power at the national level, while continuing to provide de facto governance to the provinces under their control. Essentially, in Felab-Brown’s opinion, the government (and most international observers) hope for an outcome resembling the deal in Colombia with FARC in 2016. However, she concludes that such an agreement is unlikely as “the Taliban have made it clear that they don’t want to share power with Ghani” and “any change in the balance of power would require a significant degradation of Taliban military facilities.”

Foreign Nations

Since the nineteenth century, Afghanistan has been bankrolled by a series of foreign powers from the British to the Russians to the Americans today. The US currently provides Afghan forces with $3 billion in aid annually. Moreover, international non-profits contribute strongly to the functioning of Afghan social services although exact monetary details remain unknown.ition to the Taliban.

In comparison, according to the UN, the Taliban generate anywhere between $300 million and $1.6 billion annually through various criminal activities including extortion and drug trafficking. Hypothetically, if the Taliban upsets the international community either by committing massive human rights violations or by supporting terrorism, there is a good chance that the US will ramp up funding to opposing groups and non-profits will withdraw funding for basic services. Perhaps more significantly, the Taliban will also risk isolating themselves from international trade. A combination of these three factors could subsequently result in the collapse of the Afghan economy and the end of Taliban rule.

For those reasons, most experts agree that the Taliban need international legitimacy to function. Based on the group’s attempts to form relations with the governments of India, China, Russia, and the US, it would seem like they too concur with that assessment. The Taliban clearly do not want to exist as a pariah state like they did in the 1990s but it is still uncertain what they would have to do to invoke international condemnation. Realpolitik maintains that countries can and should act in their own national interests. New Delhi may not like the idea of a Taliban-led Afghanistan, but it would like the idea of an Afghanistan solely under Pakistan’s orbit even less. The US similarly might not agree with the Taliban’s stance on women’s education but is also unwilling to dedicate any more time and resources into a prolonged ground conflict.

In an interview with Indianexpress.com, Carter Malkasian, a former advisor to the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “many countries have shown a willingness to deal with the Taliban as a necessity. We don’t know whether that will prove to be a good or a bad decision.” That calculus would change in the event of a terrorist attack being launched from Afghan soil. This red line over terrorism however could send the unintended message that barring interacting with terrorists, the Taliban can do what they’d like without having to worry about international interference.

This is akin to the situation with NATO in which the group provided memberships to certain countries but by excluding others, gave Russia the green light to invade them. On this point, Dipali Mukhopadhyay, Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, worries that the Taliban is capable of pushing the limits. “If they believe that they can get away with a lot as long as they do not allow, on paper, for a terrorist attack to be launched from Afghanistan, they will go for the most maximalist political position they can achieve.”

Ultimately, according to Malkasian, there are three ways in which the international community could interact with the Taliban. If the group supports extremism or interacts with terrorists, they would immediately be shunned and/or penalised, and no country would recognise them. If they continue as they are, countries will agree to do business with them but fail to formally recognise them. In the third scenario, which is contingent on significant internal reform of the Taliban, countries will recognise the group and continue to funnel resources into Afghanistan.

With this assessment in mind, the Taliban will have to decide how important international legitimacy is to them and how much they stand to lose or gain from it. On the surface, the third scenario is the optimal one, but the Taliban have historically functioned best as an insurgent group. For over two decades, they have derived their raison d’etre from being a bulwark against foreign oppression. In their mind, scenario one may cost them economically, but would provide fodder for masses by giving the Taliban an external enemy to blame for the country’s woes.

Other groups

Currently, according to Felab-Brown, the biggest challenges to Taliban rule are the power brokers across Afghanistan. Although fractured and often unorganised, local militias have considerable influence over certain regions along with the military capacity to defend their territory. In an ideal situation, those militias would band together as they did, to an extent, under the Northern Alliance. But Massoud’s achievement in putting the alliance together is remarkable because of how difficult it has been to get different factions to work together in the past.

Pashtuns, Uzbeks and Tajiks along with the countless other ethnic groups that make up the country have their own ideologies, beliefs and loyalties. Moreover, over the last decade, the Taliban has shown a willingness to accommodate those groups, shifting from being an entirely Pashtun organisation to being only a predominantly Pashtun organisation. Even if this inclusion is just for show, according to Felab-Brown, the Taliban “have been remarkable in terms of how they have managed to avoid deflection”. The biggest deflection she notes has been the Islamic State and they are not influential enough to mount a meaningful resistance to the Taliban.

Collectively, the militias have made limited headway. They have attempted to come together with President Ghani to form a national unity council against the Taliban, but progress has been hampered by internal power competition. Individually, there has been considerably more headway with individual militias backed by Iran and Russia resisting the advance of the Taliban in the North. Some reports even indicate that a new Northern Alliance is being formed under the leadership of former Vice-President Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum.

However, the Taliban have been better than the government at securing the loyalty of militias according to a report from the Brookings Institute. It states that the Taliban have been intensely negotiating with powerbrokers both in Pashtun strongholds in the South but also with Tajiks and minority politicians in the North. This strategy has been effective as of now, but Malkasian thinks  in the long term it could be undermined. “The Taliban have a commitment problem” he says, noting that “groups that are being included in the Taliban ranks have no reason to trust the Taliban or to believe that they will continue to be tolerant once they are in power.”The efficacy of local militias in resisting the Taliban will depend on public support for their cause. The Taliban are accepted in some conservative parts of the country but are deeply unpopular in others. Particularly in the Northern states and provincial capitals, young and educated Afghans oppose Taliban rule.

As a result, Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the powerful Taliban ally, the Haqqani network, like many other Taliban spokesmen, has recognised the need to appeal to popular sentiment. In an op-ed for the New York Times, he states that the Taliban will have to transition from being a “military and jihadi” movement into one that is capable of civilian governance. For that, he writes, the group will have to “behave well with the general public”. Haqqani understands that if the Taliban fail to govern effectively or are plagued by internal discord, they could struggle to hold many of the territories that they’ve gained by force.

“As soon as the Taliban are forced to present a governing project and political vision” says Mukhopadhyay, “the sooner the weaknesses in the group are exposed.” Given that the Taliban already allow for differences in policies depending on the cultural values of certain regions, it is possible that implementing a unified political vision will cause fissures within the group. Returning to public opinion, if the Taliban are unpopular in certain regions, especially the big cities, and are subsequently weakened internally by that unpopularity, the public could conceivably resist their rule. According to Malkasian, “even if the Taliban capture cities like Kabul, resistance against them can still continue.” Overthrowing them, however, may not be as plausible, especially given the Taliban’s strict control over the media and access to the internet.

If the militias do successfully challenge the Taliban it could result in a prolonged civil war across the country. This would in turn destabilise the economy and potentially provide a pathway for groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda to exert control. As mentioned before, this is the most likely outcome but also the least desirable one. Afghan security forces challenging the Taliban could result in some sort of quasi democracy in which elected officials hold minor positions. Foreign intervention and public opinion could force the group to moderate some of their harshest tendencies and could enable a patchwork of different policies across the country. However, challenges from the militias in comparison can only lead to further conflict. Given the plethora of ideologies the different militias espouse, they are almost incapable of providing a uniform system of governance and according to Malkasian “are unlikely to be able to take over and play the role that the Taliban have played.” Perhaps even more concerningly, Mukhopadhyay warns that “while the militias do represent a line of defence against the Taliban, their own value systems threaten the democratic progress that has been made.”

Source: Indian Express, 6/08/21

Research contradicts earlier findings on smoking and Covid-19. Smokers, everywhere, lose a silver lining

 

A section of scientists has questioned the earlier studies, claiming that some of the researchers had ties to the tobacco industry.

Spare a thought for the smokers. Last year, at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, researchers — first in France, later in China and India — published studies that seemed to indicate smokers were at less risk of contracting Covid, and when they did, experienced less severe symptoms. In France, there was reportedly a rush on tobacconists by non-smokers hoping to get a little extra protection. For smokers everywhere, here, at last, was a justification — as much for themselves as for those they have been shunned by for the smell and cloud of carcinogens they spread — to take another drag. Now, unfortunately, they have been robbed of the only silver lining that pierced the haze and the tar all too briefly.

A recent study in England has collated observational and genetic data on Covid-19 and tobacco use and found that compared to those who had never smoked, smokers were about 80 per cent more likely to be hospitalised after contracting the virus. A section of scientists has questioned the earlier studies, claiming that some of the researchers had ties to the tobacco industry.

Not surprisingly, the disappointment among tobacco addicts is palpable. Unlike other substances — alcohol, marijuana and more notorious narcotics — smoking doesn’t really get you high. The social cost for the addiction is hardly commensurate to the pleasure — train and plane journeys have you jonesing, you’re shunned to dark corners outside bars and sometimes, even from your own homes to service the need without bothering others. All this, while it burns a huge hole in your pocket and you slowly but surely watch your health deteriorate. From France, the birthplace of existentialism, there was hope that smoking had a purpose. From England, the birthplace of utilitarianism, that hope has been taken away.

Source:29/09/21

Regularly available, credible data on formal and informal work force is needed to inform policy, plug the gaps

 

It provides policymakers not only a sense of the extent of labour market distress during periods of economic upheaval, but also an understanding of the effectiveness of government policies.

On Monday, the Ministry of Labour and Employment released the findings of the new Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for the first quarter of the ongoing financial year. As most labour market data in India comes with a considerable lag, making it too late for any meaningful input in policymaking, the new survey is a welcome step towards filling the information void that surrounds the labour market. Regularly available, high quality, credible labour market data forms a valuable input. It provides policymakers not only a sense of the extent of labour market distress during periods of economic upheaval, but also an understanding of the effectiveness of government policies.

The quarterly survey provides data on employment in nine non-farm sectors of the economy — namely manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants, information technology/business process outsourcing and financial services. These nine sectors account for roughly 85 per cent of total employment in units employing 10 or more workers. According to this survey, organised sector employment stood at 3.08 crore during April-June 2021, up from 2.37 crore in 2013-14. This translates to an annual growth rate of just 3.3 per cent. While most sectors saw a rise in employment during this period, employment in trade, and accommodation and restaurants — sectors that are more likely to have been hit by the pandemic — was down by 25 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. In fact, as per the survey, employment actually fell in 27 per cent of the establishments due to the pandemic. However, the survey also says, during the period of the national lockdown last year (March 25-June 30, 2020), 81 per cent of workers received full wages, 16 per cent received reduced wages, while 3 per cent were denied wages. How this demand-side snapshot provided by an establishment-based survey reconciles with supply-side data from household surveys remains to be seen.

As the QES covers only establishments with at least 10 workers, it provides data essentially on the formal economy. Considering that informal workers (with no written contracts, and benefits) account for roughly 90 per cent of the labour force in India, the QES thus provides only a partial glimpse of the labour market. Only when data on the unorganised sector (establishments employing nine or less workers) is captured — this forms the second part of the framework of the labour bureau’s establishment-based surveys — will a more comprehensive picture of the labour market emerge.

Source: Indian Express, 29/09/21

Quote of the Day

 

“What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of living high.”
Doug Larson

“कुछ लोग जिसे ग़लती से जीवन स्तर की बढ़ती कीमतें समझ बैठते हैं, वह वास्तव में बढ़ चढ़ कर जीने की कीमत होती है।”
डग लारसन

Current Affairs- September 28, 2021

 

INDIA

– Candidates for seven Rajya Sabha seats elected

– PM launches Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission; every citizen to get digital health ID and health records digitally protected

– Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launches ‘Swachh Survekshan 2022’ annual cleanliness survey

– 4th Indo-US Health Dialogue being hosted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sept 27-28

– India, Oman ink pact to boost maritime security cooperation during visit of Chief of Navy Staff Admiral Karambir Singh

– EAM S. Jaishankar meets Singaporean counterpart in US; discusses Indo-Pacific, COVID-19

– Delhi: CM Arvind Kejriwal launches Delhi tourism’s mobile app ‘Dekho Meri Dilli’

– Gujarat: Nimaben Acharya becomes 1st woman Speaker of Assembly

– Lieutenant General Gurbirpal Singh takes charge as new Director General of National Cadet Corps (NCC)

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Centre sets up GoM led by led by Karnataka CM Basavaraj S. Bommai set up to rationalise GST rates

– Centre notifies medical device parks’ scheme

– RBI imposes Rs 2 crore penalty on RBL Bank for breaching deposit, board composition norms

– Ministry of Food Processing Industries, in association with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, virtually launches the PMFME (Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises) Scheme Seed Capital Module

– NCW launches Training, Capacity Building Program for Women in Dairy Farming

– India, Australia must work towards enhancing supply chain resilience: Piyush Goyal

WORLD

– Germany: Social Democrats beat outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative bloc in general elections

– Europe: San Marino votes in favor of legalising abortion in a referendum

– World Tourism Day observed on Sept 27; focus: “Tourism for Inclusive Growth”

– Greece: Strong quake rattles island of Crete; 1 dead

– Iceland: Close to 50% seats won by women in general elections

SPORTS

– Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins 100th Formula One race with victory in Russian GP at Sochi

– US defeats Europe 19-9 to win Ryder Cup golf tournament held in Wisconsin (US)