Table of Contents

Biological diversity in areas Beyond National Jurisdiction(BBNJ) Treaty: 20 years of talks later, half the Earth’s surface area to have binding environment treaty

What is the News?

The meeting of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC-4) was held in New York to conclude a draft of the instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas Beyond National Jurisdiction(BBNJ).

The IGC-4 is convened under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

What is Biological diversity in areas Beyond National Jurisdiction(BBNJ) Treaty?

  • The BBNJ Treaty also known as the “Treaty of the High Seas”, is an international agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction currently under negotiation at the United Nations.
  • This treaty is being developed within the framework of the UNCLOS, the main international agreement governing human activities at sea.
  • The treaty will cover the high seas beyond the exclusive economic zones or national waters of countries.
  • The negotiations under the treaty are centred around a package of elements namely:
    • the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, in particular, together and as a whole, marine genetic resources, including questions on the sharing of benefits
    • area-based management tools, including marine protected areas
    • environmental impact assessments
    • capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology

What is the need for the BBNJ Treaty?

  • High Seas encompass all areas that lie beyond national waters – specifically, they are outside the exclusive economic zone of any country.
  • According to the IUCN, high seas areas account for almost half of the Earth’s surface.
  • However, the high seas areas are largely unexplored, vastly deep and filled with marine life. At the same time, they are under increasing threat from overfishing, mining, climate change, and pollution. 
  • There is a lack of clear rules, persisting governance gaps and a lack of effective enforcement in the high seas, so only around 1% are currently protected. 

What is the High Seas Alliance?

  • High Seas Alliance was founded in 2011. It is a partnership of organizations and groups aimed at building a strong common voice and constituency for the conservation of the high seas. 
  • The Alliance is currently made up of 40+ NGOs plus the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Source: This post is based on an article “20 years of talks later, half the Earth’s surface area to have binding environment treaty” published in Down To Earth on 23rd March 2022 

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Explained: What is ‘Finlandization’, discussed as a possible option for Ukraine?

What is the News?

The French President has suggested Finlandization might be a realistic outcome for Ukraine if and when the Russia-Ukraine war ends.

What is Finlandization?

  • Finlandization refers to the policy of strict neutrality between Moscow (Russia) and the West that Finland followed during the decades of the Cold War.
  • The principle of neutrality was rooted in the Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance that Finland signed with the USSR in 1948.

What was the Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance?

  • Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance of 1948 also known as the YYA Treaty was the basis for Finland–Soviet relations from 1948 to 1992.
  • It was the main instrument in implementing the Finnish policy called Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine.
  • Under the treaty, the Soviets sought to deter Western powers from attacking the Soviet Union through Finnish territory and the Finns sought to increase Finland’s political independence from the Soviet Union. 
  • The treaty obligated Finland to resist armed attacks by “Germany or its allies” (in reality interpreted as the United States and allies) against Finland or against the Soviet Union through Finland. If necessary, Finland was to ask for Soviet military aid to do so.
  • The agreement also allowed Finland to pursue the path of democracy and capitalism while staying out of the conflict between the great powers.
  • In return, Finland did not participate in the Marshall Plan. It took neutral positions on matters on which the Soviet Union and  West disagreed. It stayed aloof from NATO and used this positioning to ward off pressure from Russia to become part of the Soviet bloc or the Warsaw Pact.
  • The treaty came to an end in 1992 with the signing of a new treaty between Finland and post-Soviet Russia.

Ukraine and Finlandization

Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977 had given some suggestions to settle Ukraine Crisis. These suggestions are:

  • Ukraine should have the right to freely choose its economic and political associations, including with Europe.
  • Ukraine should not join NATO. It should be free to create a government compatible with the expressed will of its people.
  • Ukraine should pursue a posture comparable to that of Finland. This will leave Ukraine with no doubt about its fierce independence and cooperates with the West in most fields but carefully avoids institutional hostility toward Russia.

Source: This post is based on an article “Explained: What is ‘Finlandization’, discussed as a possible option for Ukraine?” published in Indian Express on 23rd March 2022

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The National Land Monetisation Corporation

What is the News?

The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of the National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC), the Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) that the Finance Minister had announced in the Union Budget 2021-22.

What is Monetisation?

  • When the government monetises its assets, it essentially means that it is transferring the revenue rights of the asset (could be idle land, infrastructure, PSU) to a private player for a specified period of time. 
  • In such a transaction, the government gets in return an upfront payment from the private entity, a regular share of the revenue generated from the asset, a promise of steady investment into the asset and the title rights to the monetised asset. 

What are the ways to monetise Government assets?

  • There are multiple ways to monetise government assets:
  • In the case of land monetisation of certain spaces like offices, it can be done through a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) — a company that owns and operates a land asset and, sometimes, funds income-producing real estate. 
  • Assets of the government can also be monetised through the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) model.

What is the need for Monetisation?

There are different reasons why the government monetises its assets: 

  • 1) It is done to create new sources of revenue, 
  • 2) It is done to unlock the potential of unused or underused assets by involving institutional investors or private players, 
  • 3) It is also done to generate resources or capital for future asset creation such as using the money generated from monetisation to create new infrastructure projects.

What is the National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC)? 

  • The National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC) is being set up with the purpose of monetising surplus government-owned land. It is being set-up as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and will be set up as a wholly-owned Government of India company. It will have an initial authorised share capital of INR 5,000 crore and paid-up share capital of INR 150 crore.
  • The new company will be set up under the administrative jurisdiction of the finance ministry. The Board of Directors of NLMC will comprise senior Central Government officers and eminent experts to enable professional operations and management of the company.
  • The chairman, Non-government directors of the NLMC will be appointed through a merit-based selection process. It will be a lean organisation with minimal full-time staff, hired directly from the market on a contract basis.

How much land is currently available for monetisation? 

  • According to the Economic Survey 2021-2022, as of now, CPSEs have put nearly 3,400 acres of land on the table for potential monetisation. They have referred this land to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). 
  • In terms of government land, the Railways and Defence Ministries have the largest amount of government land in the country. 

What are the possible challenges for NLMC?

Firstly, the performance and productivity of the NLMC will depend on the government’s performance on its disinvestment targets. In FY 2021-22, the government has just been able to raise ₹12,423 crores so far through various forms of disinvestment.

In the Budget 2021-22, the government had initially set a disinvestment target of ₹1.75 lakh crore, which was later brought down to ₹78,000 crores. 

Secondly, the process of asset monetisation does not end when the government transfers revenue rights to private players. Identifying profitable revenue streams for the monetised land assets, ensuring adequate investment by the private player and setting up a dispute-resolution mechanism are also important tasks. 

Thirdly, another potential challenge would be the use of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a monetisation model. For instance, the results of the Centre’s PPP initiative launched in 2020 for the Railways were not encouraging.

Source: This post is based on an article “The National Land Monetisation Corporation” published in The Hindu on 23rd March 2022.

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Understanding hypersonic weapons

What is the News?

The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that it had used a hypersonic missile for the first time in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. 

What are Hypersonic weapons?

Hypersonic missiles are manoeuvrable weapons that fly at least at the speed of Mach 5 i.e. five times the speed of sound.

The speed of sound is Mach 1 and speeds above Mach 1 are supersonic and speeds above Mach 5 are hypersonic. 

How are Hypersonic weapons different from Ballistic Missiles?

  • Ballistic Missiles travel much faster. But they follow a fixed trajectory and travel outside the atmosphere to re-enter only near impact. 
  • Hypersonic weapons travel within the atmosphere and can manoeuvre midway. They can travel at high speeds, thus making their detection and interception extremely difficult. I.e., Radar and air defences cannot detect them till they are very close and have only a little time to react.

What are the types of Hypersonic weapons?

There are two types of hypersonic weapons systems.

  • 1) Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGV): These are launched from a rocket before gliding to the intended target,
  • 2) Hypersonic Cruise Missiles: These are powered by air-breathing high-speed engines or ‘scramjets’ after acquiring their target.

Which countries possess Hypersonic weapons?

  • Russia has announced its hypersonic missile ‘Kinzhal’ or Dagger in 2018 and has now used it for the first time in battle conditions in Ukraine. China is also said to have tested a Hypersonic weapon in 2021.
  • The US has also tested hypersonic weapons for decades. However, U.S. hypersonic development programmes are lagging behind China and Russia because most U.S. hypersonic weapons are not being designed for use with a nuclear warhead.
  • Apart from these countries, a number of other countries including Australia, India, France, Germany, and Japan — are also developing hypersonic weapons technology. 

About the Indian hypersonic missile programme

  • India operates approximately 12 hypersonic wind tunnels and is capable of testing speeds of up to Mach 13.
  • India is also developing an indigenous, dual-capable hypersonic cruise missile as part of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle(HSTDV) programme and successfully tested a Mach 6 scramjet in 2019 and 2020.
  • A hypersonic version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, joint development of India and Russia, is also under development.

Source: The post is based on an article “Understanding hypersonic weapons” published in The Hindu on 23rd March 2022

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Delhi municipal corporation bill gets Cabinet’s nod

What is the News?

The Union Cabinet has approved the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

What is Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022?

The Bill proposes a unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi by subsuming the South Delhi Municipal Corporation(SDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation(NDMC) and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation EDMC). 

What was the need for this Bill?

  • The Delhi Municipal Corporation was trifurcated into three Municipal Corporations in 2011. However, the division of the corporation was uneven in terms of territorial divisions and revenue generation. 
  • As a result, there is a huge gap in the resources available to the three corporations, vis–a–vis their obligation. This gap has widened over time, increasing the financial difficulties of the municipal corporations.
  • Hence, the Bill has been brought to create a unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Source: The post is based on an article “Delhi municipal corporation bill gets Cabinet’s nod” published in The Hindu on 23rd March 2022

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Needed, an Indian Legislative Service

What is the News?

Since the first Parliament in 1952, Secretaries-General of Rajya Sabha are usually parachuted from civil services and other services from time to time. On September 1, 2021, Dr. P.P.K. Ramacharyulu became the first Rajya Sabha Secretariat staff member who rose to the position of Secretary-General. However, he was replaced in less than 3 months.

Need for an independent secretariat:

  • Article 98 provides for separate secretariats for two houses of the Parliament. It is based on the principle that the secretariat should be independent from the executive.
  • The Secretary-General has a rank equivalent to Cabinet Secretary. They enjoy privileges such as freedom from arrest, immunity from criminal proceedings, and obstruction of their rights would amount to contempt of house.
  • They are mandated with many parliamentary and administrative responsibilities which require vast knowledge of parliamentary procedures, practice and precedents. Most civil servants lack this aspect of expertise.

Situation in Lok Sabha

Unlike Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha had nine of its staff (including lateral-entry officers) raised to Secretaries-General to date.

Issues with appointing civil servants as Secretary-General:

  • Conflict of interest:  Civil Servants come with the long-held baggage and the clout of their past career.
  • Breaches Separation of Power: Officials mandated with exercising one area of power may not expect to exercise the others.
  • Reduces answerability of the executive: Parliament must have technical and human resource competency to be an effective body for providing meaningful scrutiny and to make executive accountable. However, bureaucracy prevents that from happening.

Need for an All-India Service

  • Presence of variety of law making bodies: Ranging from Panchayat, Block Panchayat, Zila Parishad, Municipal Corporations.
  • Robust legislative institutions require well trained staff in place.

Hence, a common service can build a combined and experienced legislative staff cadre, enabling them to serve from across local bodies to the Union Parliament. Under Article 312 Rajya Sabha can pass a resolution to this effect. For example – in the UK, the Clerk of House of Commons is always appointed from the legislative staff pool created for serving the Parliament.

Source: This post is created based on the article “Needed, an Indian Legislative Service” published in The Hindu on 23rd March 2022.

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Stop applauding ‘all-woman police stations’ 

What is the News?

On March 8, International Women’s Day, a Commissioner of Police in Tamil Nadu appointed women police officers as “heads” of police stations for a day. Also, many “all-woman police stations” have been created by the politicians over the years. 

What are the issues with such measures? 

  • Such moves are gestures for glory, admiration and, of course, votes etc. without any substance.   
  • It is difficult for a woman victim to reach a distant “all-woman police station” to seek redressal when the nearest one was just next door.  
  • Most police leaders feel that creating all-woman stations is unjust to both male and female officers. It gives an impression that men in uniform are uncaring, inconsiderate and insensitive towards the cause of woman.  
  • It implies that the women officers are capable of dealing with only crimes against women.
  • Furthermore, it compartmentalises women officers rather than give them the independence of work” because women officers are interested in all kinds of police work. They are not interested just in women-related matters. 

Inadequate women in the police force

  • As per the Bureau of Police Research and Development, India has only around 10% women in the police.
  • There are around 25% women in the Bihar police, 19% in the Himachal Pradesh police force, 18% in Tamil Nadu police force, 12% in Delhi, around 18% in Chandigarh and Ladakh and 3% in Jammu and Kashmir Police Force. 

What are the measures to address women related crimes in India? 

Instead of changing the gender profile of personnel in a police station, which can lead to disruption in the functioning of the police stations, other measures are needed to address the situation.  

  • Special recruitment drives should be conducted for females. Their number should be brought up to the level of the pledged percentage, i.e., most police forces in states and Union territories have 30% or above reservations for women. It will ensure that each police station in the country has women police personnel in adequate numbers to attend to all citizens, including women victims and complainants. 
  • There is a need for sensitisation of the political and police leadership about this dismal failure related to women related crimes. 
  • The officers have to be trained well in all police subjects and deputed in both urban and rural police stations.  
  • Discouraging posting of women police personnel in computer sections, counselling cells, reception desks, etc
  • The infrastructure like toilets and changing rooms for women in police stations should be adequately created. 
  • Training in gender, respect to women and male cooperating with female colleagues must be an integral part of basic police training. These topics also deserve to be emphasised during in-service workshops.  
  • The women police personnel should be given leadership training and experience-sharing workshops to sharpen their professional skills.  

Source: The post is based on an article “Stop applauding ‘all-woman police stations’” published in the Indian Express on 23rd Mar 22 

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ICJ has ordered an end to invasion of Ukraine. This matters 

What is the News?

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) has issued a provision measure i.e., an order to Russia to immediately suspend its military operations in Ukraine  

What are the provisional measures?  

These are interim injunctions aimed to preserve the rights of the party to the dispute(like Ukraine in this case). It is an interim order because the final decision is pending on the merits of the case. 

Why did the ICJ order Russia to stop? 

Ukraine moved the ICJ against Russia based on claims that Russia has violated the Genocide Convention that is binding to both Russia and Ukraine.

Russia has waged war against Ukraine based on false claims that Ukraine is committing genocide in its own territory. In response, ICJ ordered to suspend the invasion as a provisional measure under Article 41 of the ICJ Statute.   

ICJ issued the order due to the following reasons:

  • ICJ had prima facie jurisdiction in the Russia-Ukraine Case. It is because the subject of genocide fell under the Genocide Convention.  
  • The provisional measure is important to preserve the rights claimed by the parties (here Ukraine) when a final decision is pending. Here, Ukraine claimed that it has a right not to be falsely accused of genocide crime and its territorial integrity cannot be threatened by Russia based on the false accusation.  
  • If ICJ does not order cessation of military action. It can lead to irreparable harm to Ukraine’s rights. It is visible with the magnitude of destruction that the ongoing war has caused. 

Significance of the ICJ order 

ICJ’s decision is binding on Russia. It constitutes part of its international legal obligations. Its non-compliance can lead to violation of international law.  

What happens in case of non-compliance of ICJ order?

  • In case of non-compliance with ICJ rulings, it is the responsibility of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to make arrangements for compliance. But as Russia is a permanent member of UNSC, it can veto any actions of the UNSC.  
  • Even if the ICJ order is not complied by the Russia, the ICJ decision is an impactful step in that direction. It implies an increasing weight of global opinion against Russia on its reckless abuse of international law. 

Source: The post is based on an article “ICJ has ordered an end to invasion of Ukraine, This matters” published in the Indian Express on 23rd Mar 22 

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India & Japan take recent shifts in their stride 

What is the News?

Recently, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was on visit to New Delhi. The visit was important for several reasons. 

What are the important outcomes of the visit?

  • Wrt Ukraine conflict:
    • In the Joint Statement, both sides called for international law to be respected and for an immediate cessation of violence in Ukraine.
    • It is mostly on lines of India’s Position. Therefore, this visit must have lowered down the probability of major diplomatic backlash against India.
    • It was because the western countries were not happy with India’s measured position in wake of the Ukraine Crisis.  
  • Wrt Myanmar crisis:
    • Both countries have similar stands on the Myanmar crisis, 2021. For example,
      • New Delhi and Tokyo have chosen to adopt quiet diplomacy and an ASEAN-brokered political solution to the crisis. 
    • The Japanese announcement of investment of worth $42 billion over the next five years is crucial for economic growth of India.  
    • Both agreed to have a range of partnerships in cybersecurity, development assistance, and clean energy development. For example, Tokyo’s vital support for high-technology innovation and development in the Northeast, 
    • Both restated their long-standing commitment to supporting the other’s bid for permanent membership at the UN Security Council.  
  • Defence Sector:
    • India and Japan signed a Mutual Logistics and Supply Agreement (MLSA) in 2020 which allows the militaries to access each other’s bases and a host of related supplies. In the context of the Ukraine crisis, this provided an opportunity for India to diversify its source of armaments and key technologies. 
  • Geostrategic Importance:
    • Both aims at providing security for the Indo-Pacific. Therefore, India, Japan, the United States and Australia are trying to build a new security architecture in Indo-Pacific.  

What are some issues in India-Japan ties? 

  • Defence:
    • India is facing rouble in acquiring Japan’s Shinmaywa US-2 maritime reconnaissance aircraft. In addition, Indo-Japanese MLSA is also a scaled-down version of the more expansive Japan-Australia Reciprocal Access Agreement.  
  • The Asia-Africa Growth Corridor is a crucial part of India’s diplomatic strategy has not come to reality so far. It is a joint Indo-Japanese effort to build infrastructure and connectivity projects in Africa and South-East Asia. 
  • There has been no progress on reworking the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which was signed in 2011. While the CEPA did boost bilateral trade, it has expanded India’s trade deficit with Japan. 

What is the way forward?

  • Both must urgently review and avoid the shortcomings that are coming up in the Indo-Japan efforts in the AAGC.  
  • The CEPA should be reworked as soon as possible. It remains critically important if Indo-Japanese trade is to be both robust and balanced. 

Source: The post is based on an article “India and Japan take recent shifts in their stride” published in the Business Standard on 22 March 2022 

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Ask the right questions for Ease of Doing Business 2.0

What is the News?

  • In her budget speech, Finance Minister expressed the government’s resolve to launch Ease of Doing Business 2.0 and Ease of Living programmes.
  • She highlighted that in recent years, over 25,000 compliance requirements were reduced and 1,486 Union laws repealed.

Has the reduction of compliance requirements impacted Ease of Doing Business in India?

It is difficult to estimate the impact due to the following reasons:

  • Govt has not given any additional information. For instance: What was the nature of these compliances and laws? For how long did these remain in the statute books and through what process were these identified, reviewed and discarded? 
  • Further, it was stated in Rajya Sabha that the info was based on aggregates of data uploaded on the Regulatory Compliance portal by central ministries/departments and states/Union Territories. But the portal, while live, remains inaccessible to the public, so the figure and its relevance cannot be put to open scrutiny.
  • Several repealed laws were mostly archaic in nature and did not necessarily impact the business environment. These include the Case Disabilities Removal Act, 1850, and the Fort William Act, 1881.

What are the factors that need to be considered while improving Ease of Doing Business 2.0?

  • The objective of any compliance and its dropping should be clear and legitimate.  For this, India’s regulatory reform exercise needs to be transparent and inclusive in nature, and open to public enquiry. Secrecy gives rise to suspicion and is against the principles of governance.
  • Issuing of new compliance requirements is a threat to the gains achieved via any compliance-reduction exercise. A recent report by Observer Research Foundation and Teamlease, titled Jailed for Doing Business, estimates that about 3,000 new compliances have hit businesses every year.
  • The government has till now relied on digitization to improve transparency and contain duplication & delays in its compliance framework. It seems to believe that leveraging technology, and integration of central and state systems and enabling single-point access of citizen centric services, will result in trust-based governance. These measures are necessary, but not sufficient, to EoDB 2.0.

What is the way forward?

For the Govt

  • Focus not only on the existing compliances but regulate the issuance of new ones is likely to have a positive impact in the long run.
  • It will need to trust entrepreneurs on adhering the rules, acknowledge the existence of a usual proportion of deviants, and make it harder for itself to issue new compliances.
  • It should be required to justify the need for every additional compliance requirement at the time of its issuance. Such an exercise should also cover existing compliances from time to time.

Other measures

  • Any compliance requirement must be proportionate. As per ORF-Teamlease report, as of now, there are 26,134 imprisonment clauses in India’s business laws. The budget introduced an additional one by making the publication of import and export data an offence punishable by a jail term.
  • Easing compliance burden on MSMEs: Evidence suggests that micro, small and medium enterprises bear a disproportionate compliance burden and are required to incur substantial compliance costs, which contribute to their remaining stunted.

Passing the justification test: For EoDB 2.0, the government must ask itself three questions about every existing and proposed compliance:

  • Is it legitimate?
  • Is it necessary? And,
  • is it proportionate?

Only if a requirement passes all three tests should it be retained or added to Indian statute books; else, it should be discarded. Asking these questions would also be the key to improvements in India on our ease of living.

Source: This post is based on the article “Ask the right questions for Ease of Doing Business 2.0” published in Livemint on 23rd Mar 22.

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World Water Day: Are we ready for the thirsty future? 

What is the News?

Notwithstanding, water scarcity and river pollution, we are making things worse for the conservation of the valuable resource.  

What is Water Scarcity? 

Water scarcity implies that either sufficient water is not available (because it does not rain, the water table has gone down, or the demands have increased) or water is inaccessible (because it is present in snow-capped mountains and glaciers, the infrastructure is not appropriate or because of geopolitical factors).   

Situation wrt Water Scarcity 

  • In the 15th century, Akbar left Fatehpur Sikri because of water scarcity.  
  • According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 50% of the world’s population will be facing acute water shortage by 2025.  
  • According to the World Resources Institute, India is among the top 20 countries facing severe water stress. India’s groundwater usage far exceeds that of China and the United States combined. 
  • In 2022, Indonesia announced that it may be shifting its capital from Jakarta. It fears that the entire city could sink by 2050 due to recurrent floods. 

What are the factors behind increasing water scarcity? 

  • Availability of water has become critical due to reduced water table coupled with declining rainfall, and persistent drought-like conditions.  
  • Agriculture: The Green Revolution led to extensive cultivation of water intensive crops. It led to high level of groundwater extraction. This further resulted into groundwater depletion. For example, the GW extraction is critical in States of the Northern Plains, and other states like Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.  
  • The factors like population increases, affluent lifestyles, and industrialisation are also contributing towards the looming water crisis. For example, Shimla has been facing acute water crisis and may face “Day Zero” in the coming future due to the problem of over tourism.  
  • In the coming years, Climate change may lead to shrinking of the Himalayan glaciers. It may make Ganga and Yamuna seasonal rivers. Consequentially, they will flow only during monsoon and not during summers.  

Why is it important to tackle the water crisis? 

  • Water is important for the survival of life on this planet. This can affect food production and the lives of millions of people dependent on these rivers.  It is also important for economic growth.   
  • The right to clean and right to safe water has been recognized as a human right by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010. 

What is the way forward? 

  • Policy related reforms are needed for water management. For example, the Interstate water dispute should be resolved in an amicable way.  
  • Inter-ministerial coordination should be  promoted between all the union ministries which are related to water use and consumption.  
  • The smart and climate-resilient agriculture should be adopted.
  • There has to be adequate infrastructure for distribution of water. It will lead to improved access to water and foster social equality.   
  • Mitigate climate change. It will mitigate associated extreme weather events. It will also ensure a water-secure world.  
  • Water management should be taken up at the local level. It is because water is a local resource. It depends on the hydrology, climate, terrain and geography of a particular area. Therefore, solutions should also be local.  

Source: The post is based on an article “World Water Day: Are we ready for the thirsty future?” published in Down to Earth on 22nd March 22 

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Recycling heat generated by datacentres 

What is the News?

  • Microsoft has partnered with Fortum, Finnish energy company to launch the world’s largest scheme to provide heat to homes, services and business in Finland with waste heat.
  • Heat would be sourced from a new data centre region that Microsoft has planned to build in the Helsinki metropolitan area in Finland. 

How will this work? 

  • First, excess heat generated by the data centre is captured.
  • It is transferred from the server cooling process to the district heating system which is a centralised location that captures heat.
  • The heat is then distributed from the district heating system to buildings for residential and commercial heating needs.   

What is a data centre? 

  • A data centre is an organization’s physical facility located in a dedicated building. It comprises computers servers, storage systems, etc. which are used to store the data, critical applications and data etc.  
  • These data centres consume large amounts of energy. Therefore, these physical facilities have temperature controls and energy efficiency systems. 
  • Around 75% of the electricity that is consumed by a data centre becomes waste heat. 
  • Therefore, a data centre can be used to heat up to 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter season, similar to a gas boiler. 

What’s the scale of their carbon footprint? 

  • On a global level, data centres consume more than 1% of the world’s total electricity. Therefore, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), they contribute to 0.3% of all global CO2 emissions.  
  • As per Ireland’s energy regulator, the data centres located in Ireland could use almost 30% of the country’s electricity by 2027. Therefore, they are going to endanger the climate goals. 

Why is recycling waste heat important? 

  • It can provide clean heat or climate friendly waste heat to homes, businesses and public buildings in the cities, for example Microsoft aims to provide it in the Helsinki. 
  • It can help the countries and cities reach their CO2 emission reduction targets. For example, it can reduce dependence on the coal-fired heat unit in the cities. 

Which other countries recycle waste heat from data centres? 

Datacentres thrive in cold climates. Therefore, recycled waste heat systems are used for district heating in the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as in Russia and China.  

Which other companies are doing this? 

  • Facebook is implementing a project in Odense, Denmark.
  • Apple is planning such a project in Denmark.
  • H&M has been distributing waste heat to nearby homes in Denmark since 2013.
  • An IBM data centre in Switzerland is heating a nearby community pool.
  • In Canada, Quebecor donates its heat to the editorial office of a local newspaper. 

Source: The post is based on an article “Recycling heat generated by datacentres” published in the Hindu on 23rd March 2022. 

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A blow to equitable access to essential medicines

What is the News?

In October 2020, India and South Africa tabled a proposal in the World Trade Organization (WTO) seeking temporary waiver from Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). This was to ensure availability of affordable vaccines, medicines and other medical products.

What are the reasons for such demand?

This was based on the contention that enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) were hindering timely availability of affordable medical products. Hence, rapid scaling up of manufacturing globally is required.

What is the stance of advanced countries?

  • US Approach: 
    • Initially, all advanced countries opposed the proposals. The advanced countries put the interests of pharmaceutical companies ahead of the interests of developing countries. However, after the Biden administration took office, the U.S. backed the waiver only for vaccines.
    • However, this has led to vaccine inequality as only 14% people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose.
  • The EU ‘solution’: 
    • The EU has forwarded a “compromise outcome”. While opposing the concept of “waiver”, the outcome proposed granting compulsory licenses to enhance vaccine production.
    • India and South Africa, who had earlier tabled the waiver proposal, have diluted their stand and have accepted the EU’s proposal.

When are compulsory licences granted?

Usually compulsory licenses are granted if patent holders charge high prices in exercise of their monopoly rights. Or if the efforts to obtain voluntary licenses from patent holders have failed.

What are the provisions of the ‘compromise outcome’ with respect to licensing?

  • The solution proposes that voluntary license, as a precondition for compulsory license, should be removed in case of medical emergency. Also, WTO members would be able to issue compulsory licenses even if their national legislation does not have provision for the same. These can be granted using executive orders, emergency decrees, and judicial or administrative orders.
  • Conditions attached with the compulsory licensing provisions:
  • The solution can only be used by an “eligible member” i.e., a “developing country member” of the WTO that “had exported less than 10% of world exports of COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2021”.
  • This implies that “least developed countries” are excluded. Also, countries like Bangladesh which are developing but have a growing pharmaceutical industry are also excluded.
  • These conditions were introduced to limit China’s expansion in the vaccine market. But in reality, China has developed several home-grwon vaccines and does not need compulsory licenses to expand its production base. Hence, the proposal is a severely truncated version of “waiver proposal”.

Additional conditions: The proposal has introduced additional conditions, such as listing all patents covered under compulsory licenses, which are above and beyond already existing TRIPS provisions.

Hence, compulsory licenses may not result in the outcome the waiver proponents were aiming for. It will make it difficult to scale up production of COVID-19 vaccines, medicines and medical devices in the developing world.

Source: This post is created based on the article “A blow to equitable access to essential medicines” published in The Hindu on 23rd March 2022.

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It may be time to revive Keynes’ idea of a global reserve currency

What is the News?

The US has weaponized its financial power to pressurize Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. The result of sanctions is that Russia cannot access around half of its foreign exchange reserves. This has led to discussion that other countries will try to diversify their reserves away from the US dollar.

Why is the US Dollar the global reserve currency?

  • The US runs on a structural current account deficit. It has been providing dollars to the rest of the world through this trade gap, by sending dollars rather than goods to countries with which it has a trade deficit.
  • It is also a global buyer of last resort whenever there has been an economic shock.

What are the advantages to the US?

  • The US does not face the usual balance of payments constraints. It only needs to print its own currency to pay the rest of the world, while other countries have to earn dollars.
  • Despite this advantage, there is no other country right now which is ready to replace the US by running a structural current account deficit.

What is the idea of ‘global currency’ as floated by Keynes?

  • It states that a Global Central Bank (International Clearing Union) would issue a Global Currency (Bancor). Countries would use this to make payments to each other.
    • Each country would get an initial allotment of bancor based on its net exports. The global central bank would be the manager of global liquidity. Bancor was supposed to be an international medium for exchange rather than a store of value.
  • However, this was rejected by the US at the Bretton Woods conference.

Can the Bancor idea be adopted in our times?

Economists have stated that there can be “common digital currency” – issued and regulated by the International Monetary Fund. The Fund can administer it on the basis of transparent digital distributed ledger and an algorithm that would adjust total supply according to trade volume.

What are the challenges associated with a global currency?

  • Currency is not just a function of trade flows: This means that the countries do not hold global reserve currency only to fund their international transactions, but also as a precaution in case of sudden shock.
  • Global currency and Global central bank cannot be pulled out of thin air: As network effect ensures that countries use the US dollar for transactions because other countries also use it. Any attempt to replace the US dollar will also cause geopolitical headwinds.

However, if global reserve currency is regarded as a public good, then Keynes’ idea can be revisited in the age of digital currencies.

Source: This post is created based on the article “It may be time to revive Keynes’ idea of a global reserve currency” published in Livemint on 23rd March 2022. Mint

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