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China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang accused the United States of attempting “to encircle China” through its Indo-Pacific strategy, taking aim at what he called “exclusive blocs” led by the U.S.
The U.S. ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’ seeks to gang up to form exclusive blocs, stir up confrontation, and undermine regional integration.
The ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’ claims to safeguard regional security, but in fact it provokes confrontation and seeks to create an Asia-Pacific version of NATO,” “the real purpose of its Indo-Pacific strategy is to encircle China”.
Chinese officials have previously referred to the India, U.S., Australia, Japan Quad grouping as well as the AUKUS (Australia-U.K.-U.S.) defence pact as being key elements of this strategy.
Editorial
Home and away (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
Migrant workers must feel safe and as integral part of the community
The rumours and fake news about migrant workers in Tamil Nadu being attacked have seen the quick intervention of the authorities, assuring the workers of their safety.
Many workers, most from Bihar, have been seen at railway stations waiting to leave for their home State after a video clip of violence between two groups of migrant workers was interpreted as an attack on migrant workers by locals.
In any case, some of the workers were planning to be home for Holi festivities. Even before the problem could snowball, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin did well to contact his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar.
There has been quick follow up elsewhere too. The Tamil Nadu police filed cases against those spreading rumours, which included the editor of the Dainik Bhaskar, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
A person has been arrested in Jamui district of Bihar for sharing a misleading video clip. The Bihar police have also found some videos and news reports to be misleading and fake.
Officials from Bihar and Jharkhand have visited the migrant hubs of Coimbatore and Tiruppur, and industry representatives are doing their bit to reassure the workers.
Challenging dogma (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The newspaper rule of thumb is that ‘dog-bites-man’ stories are not newsworthy. However, with a nearly 1.5 crore stray dog population (2019 livestock census), and a dubious distinction of being the world’s dog-bite-and-rabies-capital, India’s ‘stray dog menace’ has a steady presence in the media ecosystem, to the point of being anaesthetising.
Occasionally, this stupor is broken by the macabre. An infant in a Rajasthan hospital was reportedly taken away by stray dogs, while strays attacked a four-year-old, with fatal results, which was captured by CCTV cameras, in Telangana.
Both incidents constitute only a fraction of the many dog attacks. Despite the acknowledgement of the crisis by States, the Centre, the judiciary, municipalities, and non-governmental organisations, the problem festers.
Dogs have a unique relationship with man’s evolutionary history — one of companionship. This poses a moral dilemma of being responsible for their welfare but also confronting the vagaries of their evolution from wolves and their territorial instincts.
While by no means a conundrum unique to India, much of the world has drawn the line by de-recognising the rights of stray animals: if leashed and registered, human custodians are obliged to take care of them.
If not, the state — as a last resort — is encumbered to euthanise them, in the interest of public health. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act and the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001 (being updated), while aimed at limiting the stray population, do nothing to improve public safety.
The proposed draft rules, or the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2022, only put forth procedural changes in sterilisation and vaccination, permit only “incurably ill and mortally wounded” dogs to be euthanised, which is what existing rules permit, and make leaders of resident welfare associations responsible for feeding strays in pockets.
Role of the external sector and the fiscal side in recovery (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Indian Economy)
In continuation of the first piece published on March 7, where we discussed the role of consumption and investment in India’s post-pandemic economic recovery, here we look at the roles that external demand and the fiscal side may have played.
We plot the share of exports in GDP with the GDP growth rate in, which shows that the growth of exports (perhaps as a result of pent-up global demand) has contributed to the overall growth in the economy.
The level of exports is dependent on the income of the countries to which India exports. So, by virtue of being an exogenous factor, they can play a balancing role, particularly during domestic slowdowns, provided the global economy itself is also not slowing down.
Because if it does, this buoyancy of exports may not remain in the medium run. It shows that fiscal spending has also helped, even though the magnitude of its contribution in revival, which we saw in the first part, was not as significant as the other factors.
Let us focus on these two variables starting with the external sector. In the context of exports, it is often argued that depreciation of the rupee helps since Indian goods become cheaper for the rest of the world even as imports become more expensive.
In this context, outflow of footloose capital as has happened in the recent past (resulting from the rise in Fed rate) may not be all that bad since it depreciates our currency.
It shows that as the rupee lost value in real terms (what is called the real effective exchange rate), India’s trade balance deteriorated instead of improving.
So, despite a fall in the real value of the rupee, India lost to competitors (in the net). This is not as surprising as it may seem because, as the global economy slows, our exports slow down irrespective of whether our goods become cheaper.
On the other hand, our imports may continue to rise depending on how our economy grows. In other words, the loss of rupee is at best a sideshow in the Indian export-import story.
Other studies have shown that this has been the case even during the heydays of Indian high growth of the 2000s. We should not draw solace from a falling rupee.
Explainer
Is heat in India set to get worse? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
This year the month of February was the hottest so far since 1901 in India. According to a study in The Lancet, published in July 2021, with two decades of data (2000-2019), more than five million people died on average each year worldwide because of extreme temperatures.
The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that extreme heat events will grow with increasing global warming and that every increment of warming matters.
A study by the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) on the historical climate in India shows that temperature in India has been steadily increasing during both summer and winter.
The recorded increase in maximum and minimum temperature over 30 years (1990-2019) is up to 0.9ºC and 0.5ºC, respectively.
Summer temperatures have increased by 0.5ºC to 0.9ºC in many districts in Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and the northeast.
Likewise, winter temperatures have also increased by 0.5ºC to 0.9ºC in 54% of India’s districts, with higher levels of warming in the northern States compared to the southern States.
This increasing heat is a cause of suffering and death in extreme cases. It undermines systems such as agriculture and other climate-sensitive sectors that support the livelihoods and well-being of people.
A joint report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre on preparing for heatwaves state that an extreme-heat event that was likely to happen only once in every 50 years without the influence of humans on climate is now likely to happen five times with human-induced climate change in the same period.
If the warming is under 2ºC, such events will occur 14 times; if the warming is kept under 4ºC, they will occur almost 40 times.
How did the treaty on the high seas come through? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International relations)
Last week, the UN member states agreed on a historic treaty for protecting marine life in international waters that lie outside the jurisdiction of any country.
The ‘breakthrough’ followed talks led by the UN during the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) where negotiations were underway for the past two weeks. The treaty is yet to be formally adopted as members are yet to ratify it.
Parts of the sea that are not included in the territorial waters or the internal waters of a country are known as the high seas, according to the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas.
No country is responsible for the management and protection of resources on the high seas.
The high seas account for more than 60% of the world’s ocean area and cover about half of the Earth’s surface, which makes them a hub of marine life.
They are home to around 2.7 lakh known species, many of which are yet to be discovered. The high seas are fundamental to human survival and well-being.
News
Shaliza Dhami is first woman to be appointed to an IAF command post (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
In the first command appointment for a woman officer in the Indian Air Force, Group Captain Shaliza Dhami has been selected to take over the command of a frontline combat unit in the Western sector, the IAF said.
“Having been commended by the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief on two occasions, the officer is presently posted in the Operations branch of a frontline Command Headquarters.
Group Captain Dhami was commissioned in 2003 as a helicopter pilot and has over 2,800 hours of flying experience. She is a qualified flying instructor, and has served as Flight Commander of a helicopter unit in the Western sector. Congratulating the officer, Air Vice-Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd.), former Additional Director-General of the think tank Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), “Her younger brother was with us in CAPS, now an Assistant Professor in Imphal.”
The armed forces have opened up command appointments for women officers following a Supreme Court verdict.
Vice-President appoints his staff on House Committees (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
Eight members of the personal staff of Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar have been appointed to 20 committees that come within the ambit of the Upper House.
The order released by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, raised eyebrows, since there is no past precedent of personal staff working on the committees.
Four of these staffers are employed with the Chairman’s office and four of them with the Vice-President’s Secretariat.
Each Standing Committee has an official of the rank of Additional Secretary or Joint Secretary assisting in its functioning who also attends the meetings, which are strictly confidential.
According to a senior official in the Chairman’s Secretariat, the step has been taken for multiple reasons.
Recently, on Chairman’s directions, researchers working with the ‘Library, Research, Documentation and Information Service (LARRDIS)’ were also attached to these committees and their contributions were greatly appreciated.
The staffers will also add and contribute to the functioning of committees while also keeping the Chairman abreast of the functioning and performance of the various committees.
The concerns over linking Aadhaar with voter IDs (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Around 60% of India’s voters now have their Aadhaar linked to their name on the electoral rolls. Activists have raised concerns on disenfranchisement, coercion and privacy as a result of the exercise, which has achieved coverage of over 90% in States such as Tripura, which went to the polls recently, while lagging behind in Gujarat and Delhi, where only around 30% of the electorate has provided their Aadhaar to election officials.
The linking is being carried out by filling Form 6B, which is provided by election officials going door-to-door to collect Aadhaar or any other approved IDs from registered voters.
The form was the result of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act passed in 2021 to allow the linking. While the Election Commission (EC) maintains that the linking is optional, Form 6B requires voters to declare that they do not have an Aadhaar to avoid doing so.
The allure of Aadhaar for election authorities is clear: while the EC itself does not have access to the biometrics on the basis of which Aadhaar is issued, the unique identifier issued to each Indian resident allows authorities to flag voters who are registered to vote elsewhere or registered in multiple places. The EC does not authenticate Aadhaar it collects by way of biometrics or one-time passcodes sent by SMS.