Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Negotiators reached a historic deal at a U.N. biodiversity conference early Monday that would represent the most significant effort to protect the world’s lands and oceans and provide critical financing to save biodiversity in the developing world.
The global framework comes on the day the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15 is set to end in Montreal. China, which holds the presidency at this conference, released a new draft on Sunday that gave the sometimes-contentious talks much-needed momentum.
We have in our hands a package which I think can guide us as we all work together to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and put biodiversity on the path to recovery for the benefit of all people in the world.
Highlighting a principle enshrined in climate change negotiations — that countries historically responsible for global warming must pay for remedial measures more than developing countries — Mr. Yadav said that the same ought to be applied with respect to conservation of biodiversity too as climate change also had an impact on biodiversity.
He also underlined the need for a Global Biodiversity Fund and rejected a suggestion in a draft text of the agreement to phase out agricultural subsidies.
One of the proposed recommendations in the draft text is reducing the overall risk from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals by at least half by 2030.
The most significant part of the agreement is a commitment to protect 30% of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030, known as 30 by 30. Currently, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas are protected.
The deal also calls for raising $200 billion by 2030 for biodiversity from a range of sources and working to phase out or reform subsidies that could provide another $500 billion for nature.
As part of the financing package, the framework asks for increasing to at least $20 billion annually by 2025 the money that goes to poor countries. That number would increase to $30 billion each year by 2030.
Financing emerged late in the talks and risked derailing an agreement. Several African countries held up the final deal for almost nine hours. They wanted the creation of a new fund for biodiversity but agreed to the creation of one under the pre-existing Global Environmental Facility.
Editorial
A role for India in a world wide web (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
A recent statement by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar that India can play a “stabilising” and “bridging” role, at a time when the world no longer offers an “optimistic picture”, is intriguing.
He stated that India can contribute towards the “de-risking of the global economy” and in political terms, “in some way, help depolarise the world”.
Countries wanted to talk to us, because there is a belief that we are in touch with key players [and] we can influence them, we can shape the thinking, we can contribute, we are prepared, sometimes to say things which many others cannot see, or have reached out to countries and leaders in a way may not be possible for everybody to do so.”
Mr. Jaishankar’s is an ambitious formulation expressed, wisely, in cautious terms. In 2012, when I wrote my book, Pax Indica: India and the World in the 21st Century, many immediately misconstrued the title phrase to mean world domination, as in the familiar “Pax Romana” or “Pax Britannica”.
The idea of “Pax Indica”, to me, is not about India as a future “world leader” or even as “the next superpower”, a status assorted commentators claimed that it was heading irresistibly towards.
Instead “Pax Indica”, in my conception, was about India’s role in shaping the emerging global “network” which would define international relations and world politics in the 21st century.
Much of the conventional analyses of any country’s stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar economic and hard-power assumptions. But as India demonstrates daily, we are famously a land of paradoxes, and among those paradoxes is that so many speak about India as a great power of the 21st century when we are not yet able to feed, educate and employ all our people.
So it is not economic growth, military strength or population numbers that I would underscore when I think of our nation’s potential role in the world of the 21st century.
The cost to the country just for savings in CTC (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2021, India has about 100 million casual workers and 50 million salaried workers with no written job contract.
This gives us an estimate of 150 million contract workers — or about 30% of the total labour force in the country. In the Annual Survey of Industries, the share of contract employment in total industrial employment increased from 24% in 2004 to 38% in 2017.
These non-payroll contract workers are ubiquitously sighted as technicians, drivers, housekeeping staff in offices and commercial complexes, or just unskilled labour in factories.
As outsourcing became the trend, many manpower supplier firms mushroomed in the country to meet the ever-growing demand.
After 2001, the public sector also started outsourcing many vacancies, citing them as non-core activities. In the Public Enterprises Survey 2021, the share of casual/contract workers in public sector units (PSUs) was 17.1% in 2011-12, which increased to 19% in 2015-16 and 37.2% in 2020-21.
There were 4,81,395 contractual workers in central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in 2021. This figure was 2,68,815 in 2011, indicating the conversion of many permanent jobs into contractual ones.
Apparently, the cost to the company (CTC) is lower for contract employment when compared to permanent employment. This is considered beneficial for the economy as reduced CTC has not only improved profits for India Inc., but also attracts foreign investment.
Besides wages, there are five typical human resource costs: hiring costs, induction costs, career progression costs, severance and superannuation costs. Hiring costs are higher for the public sector when compared to the private sector.
Millions apply for a few hundred vacancies in the public sector. Conducting examinations on this scale becomes a nightmare for the state machinery. Hiring through manpower suppliers is cost and time efficient. As contract labour requires minimal training, it reduces CTC.
Opinion
Criminalising consensual relationships (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
India is home to the largest adolescent population in the world. The National Family Health Surveys indicate that a significant proportion of Indian teenagers are sexually active.
According to an analysis by Enfold Proactive Health Trust, ‘romantic cases’ (where the relationship was consensual, according to the girls, their family members, or the court) constituted 24.3% of the total cases registered and disposed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act between 2016 and 2020 by special courts in Assam, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
While POCSO’s objective is to protect children below 18 years from sexual abuse, its unintended effect has been the criminal prosecution and the deprivation of liberty of young people in consensual relationships.
The law is also used by parents of adolescent girls to curtail sexual expression and “safeguard family honour”. The ensuing criminal investigation and trial and the simultaneous inquiry under the child protection system have an adverse impact on the adolescents’ development, education, employment, self-esteem, social reputation, and family life.
For the adolescent boys, the long-term consequences of a conviction for statutory rape are incarceration and inclusion in the sex offenders registry.
The law casts adolescent girls as “victims”, thus rendering them voiceless. These girls are institutionalised in children’s homes when they refuse to return to their parents.
Adolescent boys are by default treated as children in conflict with the law and can even be tried as adults. Such blanket criminalisation of consensual sexual acts among or with adolescents is in gross oversight of their sexual development, bodily integrity and autonomy, and violates their right to life, privacy, and dignity.
The penal approach also impedes adolescents’ right to barrier-free access to sexual and reproductive health services and information recognised under the Rashtriya Kishor SwasthyaKaryakram.
The mandatory reporting obligation under the POCSO Act and the fear of the partner being reported to the police deters girls from availing themselves of medical services and inadvertently pushes them towards unsafe abortions.
Explainer
The minimum tax on big businesses (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Members of the European Union last week agreed in principle to implement a minimum tax of 15% on big businesses. Last year, 136 countries had agreed on a plan to redistribute tax rights across jurisdictions and enforce a minimum tax rate of 15% on large multinational corporations. It is estimated that the minimum tax rate would boost global tax revenues by $150 billion annually.
EU members have agreed to implement a minimum tax rate of 15% on big businesses in accordance with Pillar 2 of the global tax agreement framed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last year.
Under the OECD’s plan, governments will be equipped to impose additional taxes in case companies are found to be paying taxes that are considered too low.
This is to ensure that big businesses with global operations do not benefit by domiciling themselves in tax havens in order to save on taxes.
Pillar 1 of the OECD’s tax plan, on the other hand, tries to address the question of taxing rights. Large multinational companies have traditionally paid taxes in their home countries even though they did most of their business in foreign countries.
The OECD plan tries to give more taxing rights to the governments of countries where large businesses conduct a substantial amount of their business. As a result, large U.S. tech companies may have to pay more taxes to governments of developing countries.
Corporate tax rates across the world have been dropping over the last few decades as a result of competition between governments to spur economic growth through greater private investments.
Global corporate tax rates have fallen from over 40% in the 1980s to under 25% in 2020, thanks to global tax competition that was kick-started by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
The OECD’s tax plan tries to put an end to this “race to the bottom” which has made it harder for governments to shore up the revenues required to fund their rising spending budgets.
The minimum tax proposal is particularly relevant at a time when the fiscal state of governments across the world has deteriorated as seen in the worsening of public debt metrics.
What are carbon markets and how do they operate? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was passed in Parliament on December 12, despite the Opposition’s demands to send it for scrutiny to a parliamentary committee. The Bill empowers the government to establish carbon markets in India and specify a carbon credit trading scheme.
Article six of the 2015 Paris Agreement provides for the use of international carbon markets by countries to fulfil their nationally determined contributions (NDC) to keep global warming within 2°C.
Carbon markets are essentially a tool for putting a price on carbon emissions — they establish trading systems where carbon credits or allowances can be bought and sold.
A carbon credit is a kind of tradable permit that, as per UN standards, equals one tonne of carbon dioxide removed, reduced, or sequestered from the atmosphere.
A United Nations Development Program (UNDP) release this year noted that interest in carbon markets is growing globally — 83% of NDCs submitted by countries mention their intent to make use of international market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
There are broadly two types of carbon markets that exist today — compliance markets and voluntary markets. Voluntary markets are those in which emitters — corporations, private individuals, and others— buy carbon credits to offset the emission of one tonne of CO2 or an equivalent greenhouse gas.
Such carbon credits are created by activities which reduce CO2 from the air, such as afforestation. In a voluntary market, a corporation looking to compensate for its unavoidable emissions, purchases carbon credits from an entity engaged in projects that reduce, remove, capture, or avoid emissions.
For instance, in the aviation sector, airlines may purchase carbon credits to offset the carbon footprint of the flights they operate. Compliance markets on the other hand which are set up by policies at the national, regional, and/or international level are officially regulated.
Text & context
Contextualising Ambedkar’s idea of a moral democracy (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Significant Personalities)
Telang, S., &Kudupale, M., ‘Situating Democracy in Ambedkar’s Moral Discourse’, Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 0(0), December 13, 2022
There have been many studies on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s conceptualisation of democracy, predominantly explained through the lens of social, political and economic philosophies. Sangharsh Telang and Mayur Kudupale’s article, ‘Situating Democracy in Ambedkar’s Moral Discourse’ looks at how Ambedkar situates morality in his discourse of democracy. It also explores the moral foundation that paved the way for Ambedkar’s discourse on democracy.
The authors begin by explaining how in the process of understanding Ambedkar’s works, many have failed to explore the multitudes of Ambedkar’s idea of democracy, and through a one-dimensional study of his work, situated him within a dichotomous framework of social democracy versus liberal or political democracy.
But Ambedkar’s last work, The Buddha and His Dhamma, sheds light on how he understood democracy as a concept that affected every aspect of human life; it was essentially a way of life. Buddha, Kabir and Mahatma Phule’s philosophies played an important role in Ambedkar’s own engagement with democracy.
While the pillars of democracy are equality, liberty and fraternity, it needs to be looked at through a moral lens as well. And while it is well known that Ambedkar’s moral principles were rooted in Buddhist philosophies, he was also critical of extreme individualism that was a possible outcome of Buddhism, as such characteristics failed to engage in activism that challenged social order. Thus, he believed that there needed to be a balance between individualism and fraternity for a harmonious society.
Furthermore, Ambedkar gave utmost importance to practicality. For him, concepts and theories needed to be tested as they were supposed to be practised in society.
He used rationality and critical reasoning to analyse any subject matter, because he believed that a subject must first pass the test of rationality, failing which, it must be rejected, altered or modified.
Ambedkar used the lens of morality in investigating the caste system, the Hindu social system, the nature of religion and Indian history.
It was difficult to place Ambedkar’s framework of democracy within these rigid religious structures and socio-political systems, especially since he brought the most marginalised communities into the fold of democracy. Thus, Ambedkar attempts to construct a new structure based on the principles of Buddhism.
News
80% decline in insurgency related violence in northeast: Minister (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday said that consistent efforts by the Central government had “weakened the ecosystem of terror” and has seen a “pronounced” reduction of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. It has also resulted in a sharp 80% decline in insurgency related violence in Northeast India.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Thakur said that the government had worked on the legal front by strengthening the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and also taken steps at the enforcement level by giving the National Investigation Agency (NIA) a truly federal structure through amendments to the relevant law. The collective effect of these measures has been the weakening of the ecosystem of terrorism.
Without naming Pakistan, Thakur said a neighbouring country is seen sheltering terrorists and propounding acts of violence. He said that an era of peace has dawned on the northeastern region since 2014 as insurgency violence has seen a sharp decline of 80% and civilian deaths have seen an 89% drop. This has been achieved following the surrender of 6,000 militants since 2014, Mr. Thakur said.
The Minister said probe agencies have achieved a conviction rate of 94% in cases of terror financing. The government has worked to create an atmosphere of lasting peace across the northeastern region through a series of peace pacts such as the Bodo Accord, Bru-Reang Agreement, NLFT-Tripura Agreement, Karbi Anglong Agreement and the Assam-Meghalaya Inter State Boundary Agreement.
He said the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) too has been rolled back from large parts of the northeast, including the whole of Tripura and Meghalaya, and 60% of Assam.
The Minister highlighted the government’s operations to bring Indian nationals back home after the coronavirus outbreak and from conflict zones in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Mr. Thakur said India also offered a helping hand to foreign citizens under distress in the strife-torn regions of South Sudan and Yemen.