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The transition to low-carbon development has the potential to add about 35 million green jobs in India by 2047. The International Labour Organization defines green jobs as “decent jobs that contribute to preservation or restoration of the environment”.
Many of these span across sectors, such as manufacturing, construction, renewable energy, energy efficiency and automobiles, which traditionally saw a lower representation of women.
Globally, men are likely to transition to green jobs faster than women. Even as India increased its renewable energy capacity by 250% between 2015 to 2021, women comprised merely 11% of workers in the solar rooftop sector.
The Annual Survey of Industries 2019-20 shows that women workers are mostly concentrated in industries such as apparel, textile, leather, food, and tobacco.
In contrast, a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) 2019 report shows that men comprise 85% of the work force in sectors such as infrastructure, transport, construction, and manufacturing.
Opinion
The dynamics of household consumption (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The eagerly awaited fact sheet of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 was released recently by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The results of the survey are significant as the last results on household consumption expenditure were released in 2011-12.
The HCES offers a close look at how households across India incur expenditures on consumable items in a given period. It captures auxiliary information on household characteristics and demographic details.
The information gleaned from the HCES is instrumental in constructing a weighing diagram for Consumer Price Indices, an index that tracks retail inflation.
The weights obtained from the HCES represent the relative significance of goods and services, determined by their respective shares in the overall consumption patterns of households.
Text & Context
Maharashtra’s latest Maratha quota law (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
On February 20, the Maharashtra Assembly unanimously passed a Bill granting 10% reservation in education and government jobs to the Maratha community.
However, activists have claimed that the new legislation is a “betrayal” of the community and instead seek a Maratha quota carved out from the existing reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) category.
The Bill does not disturb the existing OBC quota and is distinct from the Maharashtra government’s earlier notification on the issuance of Kunbi caste certificates to eligible Marathas for inclusion within the OBC category.
Thus, non-Kunbi Marathas will continue to be covered under the new law, making the Maratha community eligible for reservations under two separate categories for the first time. However, those who fall within the “creamy layer” bracket will not be entitled to the benefit.
Why did Google delist some Indian apps from Play Store? (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
On March 1, Google announced that it was pulling the apps of almost a dozen firms out of its marketplace for Android apps. While the announcement seemed sudden, it was preceded by years of wrangling between the search giant and Indian companies, with proceedings in the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court.
After the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology intervened, the apps were restored on Monday, but the issue remains unresolved.
At the heart of the issue is Google’s platform fees. For all in-app purchases that involve a purely digital service — such as an ebook purchase or an OTT streaming subscription — Google collects a fee of anywhere between 11 to 30% per transaction.
This fee, Google argues, helps the company pay for Google Play and develop the Android ecosystem. The exact fee paid by each developer varies.
If a developer is using Google’s own billing product, and is offering a recurring subscription service, or if they make less than $1 million a year in revenue from in-app payments, the company charges 15%.
For app purchases for bigger firms, the amount is 30%. In India and South Korea, where regulatory scrutiny on these fees has been among the most intense, Google collects 11% or 26% in fees if developers choose to use a different payment method.
However, Indian developers — like many global counterparts — see these fees as a high price to pay. Some, including Bharat Matrimony and Disney+ Hotstar, approached the courts at different stages to avoid paying the fee altogether.
News
Indian troops out, Maldives inks defence pact with China (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Days after a technical team from India arrived in the Maldives to replace troops that President Mohamed Muizzu wanted removed, the Maldivian Defence Ministry announced signing a military pact with China.
Maldives’s Minister of Defence Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon and Major General Zhang Baoqun, Deputy Director at China’s Office for International Military Cooperation signed an agreement on “China’s provision of military assistance gratis to the Republic of Maldives, fostering stronger bilateral ties”, the Maldivian Defence Ministry said. The two sides also held bilateral talks on military cooperation.
The Ministry’s post on social media platform X did not mention details of what the agreement entails. Further, China donated 12 green ambulances to the Maldives’s Health Ministry.
The development is in line with the two countries agreeing to “elevate” China-Maldives relations to a “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership”, during Mr. Muizzu’s five-day state visit to China in January.
World
Philippine and Chinese vessels collide in disputed South China Sea (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels collided in the disputed South China Sea and four Filipino crew members were injured in high-seas confrontations as Southeast Asian leaders gathered for an ASEAN summit where alarm over Beijing’s aggression at sea was expected to be raised.
The Chinese Coast Guard ships and accompanying vessels blocked the Philippine Coast Guard and supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal and executed dangerous manoeuvres that caused two minor collisions between the Chinese ships and two of the Philippine vessels.
The BRP Sindangan of the Philippine Coast Guard had minor structural damage from the collision that happened shortly after dawn.
Over an hour later, another Chinese coast guard ship first blocked and then collided with a supply boat the Philippine coast guard was escorting.
Science
AI has a big and growing carbon footprint, but algorithms can help (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Given the huge problem-solving potential of artificial intelligence (AI), it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think that AI could also help us in tackling the climate crisis.
However, when we consider the energy needs of AI models, it becomes clear that the technology is as much a part of the climate problem as a solution.
The emissions come from the infrastructure associated with AI, such as building and running the data centres that handle the large amounts of information required to sustain these systems.
But different technological approaches to how we build AI systems could help reduce its carbon footprint. Two technologies in particular hold promise for doing this: spiking neural networks and lifelong learning.
The lifetime of an AI system can be split into two phases: training and inference. During training, a relevant dataset is used to build and tune – improve – the system. In inference, the trained system generates predictions on previously unseen data.