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Govt & Politics
India and Maldives marked a major step in their growing defence cooperation by launching construction of a harbour for the Coast Guard of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).
The foundation stone for the Coast Guard ‘Ekatha Harbour’ was laid by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Maldivian counterpart, Mariya Didi, at Sifavaru in Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF) atoll, where India is assisting in construction of a naval dockyard.
The UTF Harbour Project, as it is called, is among the biggest Indian grant-in-aid projects in Maldives. Singh was on a three-day visit to Maldives.
The UTF project, announced during External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit in February 2021, has been at the centre of a political controversy in the Maldives.
Allegations that the project was a cover for Indian military presence in the Indian Ocean nation were part of an “India Out” campaign, backed by the country’s Opposition leader Abdulla Yameen. Last April, Maldives President Ibrahim Solih banned anti-India protests as a threat to national security.
However, the rumblings have continued, with anti-India campaigners alleging that Indian troops were stationed in a fast patrol vessel India recently gifted to Maldives Coast Guard.
The ship was commissioned as CGS Huravee on Tuesday in the presence of Singh, Didi, and President Solih. It was given as replacement for an identically named older ship that India had given a few years ago.
The replacement gift was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during President Solih’s recent visit to India.
Ideas page
Ocean’s twenty (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Under the Indian presidency, G20 leaders will address urgent policy needs for collective progress, equity and inclusive growth when they meet in New Delhi this year.
With the summit theme of “One Earth, One Family, One Future”, India has set the tone and perspective for commitment to green development, circular economy and lifestyle behaviour changes as an actionable plan for achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
A slew of events will also be held across the country to focus on solutions to a wide range of issues from climate finance and technology sharing to financial inclusion and digital public infrastructure.
The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) will chair SAI20, the Engagement Group for Supreme Audit Institutions (SAls) of G20 countries in Goa in June.
Two priority areas have been selected for SAI20 deliberations — blue economy and responsible Artificial Intelligence. The engagement of SAIs in advising executives is crucial in balancing key developmental concerns while ensuring sustainable development.
SAIs’ role in promoting inter-generational equity and addressing climate change concerns highlights their importance in ensuring that the benefits of economic growth are shared fairly across generations.
For SAI20, the CAG is to prepare technology-driven tools to assess authorised development in coastal stretches and track marine water quality.
SAI20 member countries are being engaged in a collaborative exercise to evolve globally relevant audit toolkits along with a compendium of case studies and challenges in the broader framework of auditing coastal spaces, which, inter-alia, include legal and institutional frameworks, compliance to coastal regulation, biodiversity conservation, capacity building and compliance to SDGs.
The wrong remedy (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
The editorial ‘Maoist reminder’ (IE, April 28) is in fact a “reminder” of the growing securitisation of the political discourse.
It sounded more like a dossier of the NIA rather than an informed editorial that attempts to go to the root of the current impasse in central India and the ensuing spiral of violence between Maoist guerilla squads and security forces.
The editorial unsuspectingly draws on many of the assumptions of the dominant narrative from a statist perspective.
While the caution to follow the standard operating procedures is well-taken, it misses the woods for the trees in suggesting that more intelligence information or taking into account the challenges of the terrain would put an end to this problem.
The editorial is self-contradictory in, on the one hand, referring to the phenomenon as a “movement” and, on the other, evaluating its presence or impact purely in terms of its strike rate.
The fact that the incidence of violence has come down is a relief but violence alone cannot exhaust understanding if something is a “movement”. We need a political understanding of its efficacy or growing irrelevance.
World
UN tops prize for 3 Iranian women journalists who reported protest (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The United Nations announced that its premier prize for press freedom has been awarded to three imprisoned Iranian female journalists "for their commitment to truth and accountability."
The winners are Niloufar Hamedi, who broke the news that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died last September while being held by the morality police for wearing her headscarf too loosely, and Elaheh Mohammadi, who wrote about her funeral.
Amini's death touched off monthslong protests in dozens of cities across Iran. The demonstrations posed one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 2009 Green Movement protests drew millions to the streets.
The third winner is Narges Mohammadi, who has worked for many years as a journalist and is one of Iran's most prominent activists.
The U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization World Press Freedom Prize is named for Guillermo Cano, a Colombian journalism who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogota on December 17, 1986. UNESCO has awarded the prize to coincide with World Press Freedom Day on May 3 since 1997.
Economy
CBDC more environment-friendly than other cashless modes says RBI report (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Central bank digital currency (CBDC) or e-rupee, if designed keeping in mind the environment, social and governance (ESG) objectives, can be more environment friendly compared to alternative cashless methods.
The pilot phase of CBDC or digital rupee for both wholesale and retail uses was launched by the RBI in 2022.
Payments effected through CBDC would be instantaneous and final, and reduced reliance on clearing corporations and other settlement infrastructure could cut down energy consumption,” the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Report on Currency and Finance 2022-23.
The energy requirement of a digital currency depends on its underlying technological stack. Contingent on specific details of how they are configured, CBDCs can be more energy efficient than much of the current payment landscape, including credit and debit cards.
CBDCs are significantly more energy efficient than current credit card processing centres, in part because the latter involve energy-inefficient legacy systems.
The CBDC helps curb emissions by nullifying operations such as printing, storage, transportation, and replacement of physical currency.
In 2021-22, the total expenditure on printing of banknotes was Rs 4,985 crore and it does not account for the ESG costs of printing money.
The results of a climate stress-test revealed that public sector banks (PSBs) may be more vulnerable than private sector banks (PVBs) in India.
Climate stress tests are scenario-based exercises that assess the loss to the financial system/entities due to climate related risks by adapting the methodology of traditional stress tests to climate related exigencies.
A large number of estimates by various institutions suggest that the total financing requirements by India could be approximately 5 to 6 per cent of the annual GDP at the lower end.