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India is investing in roads and highways infrastructure worth Rs 3 lakh crore in its border areas near China in the Northeast, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in remarks that come against the background of the latest faceoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Tawang sector along the Arunachal Pradesh border.
“It is a sensitive matter. Work is going on. We are making roads and highways, be it in Arunachal, Meghalaya or Tripura. Ask any taxi driver there, they will tell you,” Gadkari said at the Express Adda programme.
He was responding to a question on whether India was building border roads in light of the “ups and downs” in bilateral ties with China over the past couple of years.
The Union Minister was in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, Indian Express Group, and Vandita Mishra, National Opinion Editor, The Indian Express.
Gadkari also said that he will ask states to increase the speed limit of national highways to 140 kmph on eight-lane expressways and 120 kmph on six-lane highways, adding that he has asked his Ministry to formulate rules for trucks and buses to ply in lanes.
Speaking on road safety, Gadkari said he was passionate about reducing accidents. “About 60 per cent of those who die in accidents are between 18 and 24 years of age. So many people don’t die in wars and in Covid.
For the same reason, we cannot allow two-wheelers in expressways,” he said. On the proposed vehicle scrappage policy, Gadkari said he was not in favour of scrapping vintage vehicles.
In a freewheeling conversation on infrastructure, economy and politics, Gadkari said he wanted to build the highway infrastructure with funds invested by the poor of the country, who would benefit from the returns, and not money from abroad.
Gadkari, who helms the Government’s ambitious plans of delivering large-scale road infrastructure, said that roads in the country will be as good as those in America by the end of 2024.
In Parliament
Pendency high, Supreme Court must not take up bail pleas, frivolous PILs: Kiren Rijiju (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Speaking on the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (Amendment) Bill-2022 on Wednesday, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju told Rajya Sabha that a constitutional body like Supreme Court should not be hearing “bail applications and frivolous PILs’’ at a time when pendency of cases is so high.
Rijiju introduced the Bill to rename the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre as the India International Arbitration Centre in the Upper House and it was passed by voice vote.
The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill in August 2022, which expands this to include the conduct of other forms of alternative dispute resolution, besides arbitration.
We are the fifth biggest economy in the world, yet we are not the international hub of arbitration,’’ said Rijiju, adding that Rs 75 lakh had already been granted to the centre.
The Centre has also proposed the appointment of a chairman and two expert members from the ministry.
Agreeing with many of the suggestions and criticism from MPs on the state of arbitration in the country.
Batting for an institutionalised mechanism for arbitration, Rijiju said, “It will have a predetermined arbitration procedure, which will be laid down by the Centre.
There will be updated rules in lieu of the latest developments. An efficient panel of arbitrators and professional support will come up. There will be world-class infrastructure.’’
Bill for ST status to Gond community in 4 UP districts gets RS nod (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed with voice vote the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Second Amendment) Bill-2022, which seeks to give the ST status to the Gond community in four districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The Bill, introduced by Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, was passed by the Lok Sabha in April this year.
The passing of the Bill will ensure the inclusion of the Gond community in the Scheduled Tribes list in four districts of Uttar Pradesh — Sant Kabir Nagar, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Kushinagar and Chandauli. As many as 26 MPs took part in the discussion on the Bill.
In his address to the House, Munda took a dig at the Opposition, alleging that previous governments had consistently ignored the welfare of the tribals. The demand for inclusion of the Gond community in the ST list was first raised in the 1980s, said the minister.
This is new India when these communities are being connected with basic facilities which is being recognised even at the international level. Bhagwan Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary will now be celebrated as Janjaatiya Gaurav Diwas.
He further said that if the Opposition was truly sympathetic towards the tribal community as they claimed, then the first tribal President of India DroupadiMurmu, would have been elected unanimously.
The minister further said that the budget allocation under the Scheduled Tribes Component has increased from Rs 24,594 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 85,930 crore in 2021-22. He said, steps have been taken for the education and economic development of Scheduled Tribes in the country.
He cited Pradhan Mantri Aadi Adarsh Gram Yojana, saying it has been implemented in 35,000 villages.
Editorial page
A bigger CAPEX push (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The budget season is upon us. The 2023-24 Union budget will be announced on February 1, followed by the states’ respective budgets. These budgets will set the policy tone for the rest of the year and, as such, are followed closely.
Much has changed during the pandemic. Most importantly, the overall fiscal deficit of the government has soared and we believe the next few years will be all about getting it back on track.
This is important because interest payments on past debt make up a whopping 50 per cent of net tax revenues for the central government, leaving very little room for other spending.
Given the needs of the economy on various fronts like health, education and capex, it is important to lower the interest burden over time. That can only be achieved by fiscal consolidation.
It is clear to us that the performance of central and state finances has been different for at least four reasons. This is an important point because many wrongly assume that performance levels have been similar.
One, central government tax revenues have risen faster than state revenues. Both benefitted as small and informal firms struggled with the lockdowns and lost market share to large firms, which tend to pay more taxes.
But the reason for the disparity is simple. A large chunk of the tax revenues in the early part of the pandemic period came from the “special” duty and surcharge on oil, which went primarily to the central government.
To be fair, the central government subsequently cut the duty on oil (in both 2021-22 and 2022-23) and the tax share that went to the states rose somewhat.
Two, the Centre has committed to more current expenditure than the states. While it increased across the board during the pandemic, current expenditure rose more for the central government.
This was led by higher social welfare spending (for instance, on the free food distribution scheme) and, more recently, higher subsidies (for example, fertilisers) in the face of rising commodity prices.
The common perception is that states have gone all out on unsustainable current expenditure. But the data shows that it’s just a few states which have spent heavily (for example, Telangana, Assam, West Bengal and Punjab).
Ideas page
Galwan to Tawang (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The December 9 face-off on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Yangtse sub sector of Tawang is the first major violent confrontation between the Indian Army and PLA since the aggression at Galwan two years ago.
Reports indicate that 200-300 PLA soldiers were trying to dislodge one LAC post held by about 50 Indian soldiers. These reports also indicate that the Indian Army retaliated strongly, helped by prompt reinforcements, and sent the PLA packing despite being outnumbered. Injuries have been sustained by soldiers of both sides, with the PLA suffering more.
Face-offs in this area occur almost annually. The last one had occurred at the same spot in October last year. However, what happened on December 9 was different in terms of the strength of the PLA forces and their intent.
This was no routine patrol put out by the Chinese. As Union Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh stated, it was a blatant attempt by the PLA to change the status quo on the LAC by force.
The PLA’s attempt to seize an Indian Army post in the thick of winter, when routine troop turnover was in process, indicates a pre-planned operation to exploit a window of opportunity.
The intent seems to have been to seize the post in an area claimed by the Chinese. Once seized, the post could have received reinforcements, and been made virtually impregnable during winter.
The LAC would have been permanently altered. The operation would have been publicised as a victory and India would have been shown in poor light.
The total consolidation of power and control over the PLA by Xi Jinping means that the Tawang incident was not the outcome of a local initiative. This operation could have only been conceived at the highest levels in China.
The LAC is a political issue in China. Politically, even a small victory over the Indian Army through salami slicing, could have diverted attention from China’s internal economic and social turmoil created by the country’s zero-Covid policy.
It could have also raised the PLA’s morale and reignited the dying flames of nationalism in China — a recourse to nationalism has been a consistent theme in Xi Jinping’s policies.
Capturing a post in winter from the tough Indian Army would have given China a huge geopolitical advantage, and Beijing could have claimed to have taught India a lesson.
A silent revolution (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, Women Empowerment)
On the occasion of the 75th year of India’s independence, the Prime Minister articulated a bold vision that in the coming 25 years, “Nari Shakti” would play a vital role in India’s socio-economic developmental journey.
Culturally and mythologically, women have enjoyed an elevated status in India. For example, it is mentioned in the Kena Upanishad that it was the goddess Uma who enlightened the three powerful but ignorant gods, Indra, Vayu, and Agni, to the profound mystery of Brahman.
Despite the recognition of women’s power in ancient texts and thought, the experience of women in the modern era has been far from ideal. They have faced discrimination in the household and at jobs, and for a long time, they were victims of political indifference and neglect.
However, in recent decades, “Nari Shakti” has been reasserted through micro and silent revolutions. Here, I wish to lend a voice to some of the silent women-led changes transforming our society politically and economically and also highlight the challenges that remain in women fulfilling their true potential as modern nation-builders of India.
Women voters are an essential driver of Indian democracy. Our research on women voters using historical data has revealed that since 2010, the gender gap in voter turnout has diminished significantly and the recent trends show women voter turnout often exceeds male voter turnout.
This massive increase is a nationwide phenomenon and is also observed in less developed regions of the country where traditionally, the status of women has been significantly lower.
A key implication of this is that women voters can no longer be marginalised or neglected; they demand respect and command attention.
This silent revolution has compelled political entrepreneurs and grounded leaders to design policies addressing issues that women care about. It is not surprising that some of the most dramatic policy changes concerning poverty reduction since 2015-16 have been in the form of networking of households across the nation through amenities such as cooking fuel, sanitation, water, and electricity.
A bond that holds firm (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, Art and Culture)
Uniting India spiritually, culturally and historically has been one of the main missions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A sterling example of this is the month-long “Kashi-Tamil Sangamam”, which will culminate on December 16 in the world’s oldest living city — Kashi, also known as Varanasi.
While inaugurating this cultural and spiritual extravaganza last month, PM Modi said that “Kashi is the cultural capital of India whereas Tamil Nadu and Tamil culture are at the centre of India’s antiquity and glory”.
He drew several parallels between Kashi and Tamil Nadu to give the message that India is a united country, and its traditions and heritage are strongly interwoven.
The Kashi-Tamil Sangamam is the confluence of Kashi and Tamil Nadu, which are timeless centres of Indian civilisation. It is an effort to strengthen the bond between the North and South, make people aware of the cultural proximity of the two centres and bring the young generation closer to great Indian traditions, arts, culture and religion.
Today, Kashi’s glory has been restored as the global centre of spiritualism and culture. We also have Dakshin Kashi in Tamil Nadu. When PM Modi says both have their importance in the form of “Kashi-Kanchi” in the “Sapta Puris” (the seven holy pilgrimage sites in Hinduism), he takes us on a journey from Baba Vishwanath Dham in Kashi to Lord Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu.
PM Modi says, “Both Kashi and Tamil Nadu are the birthplaces and ‘karma bhoomi’ (workplace) of the greatest acharyas of Indian spirituality.
Kashi is the land of devotees of Tulsi, while Tamil Nadu is the land of Saint Thiruvalluvar. You can find the same energy in different colours of Kashi and Tamil Nadu in every sphere and dimension of life.
This eternal love for Kashi is in the Tamil hearts, which never faded away in the past, nor will it ever fade away in the future”. The Kashi-Tamil Sangamam has also helped to bring the Hindi and Tamil-speaking people closer. PM reminded us that the names of several temples and towns in Tamil Nadu have been named after Divya Kashi while a sizable Tamil population has made Kashi home.
Explained
India’s trade China (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Amid fresh demands for snapping of trade ties with China in the wake of the Tawang skirmish, official data show that India’s imports from the neighbouring country spiked sharply post the Galwan clash, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
China is India’s second biggest trading partner after the United States. In 2021-22, India-China bilateral trade stood at $115.83 billion, which was 11.19 per cent of India’s total merchandise trade of $1,035 billion. The US was just a notch above, with 11.54 per cent ($119.48 billion) share.
Till 20 years ago, China figured at the 10th position (2001-12) or lower (12th in 2000-01; 16th in 1999-00; 18th in 1998-99). However, from 2002-03, it started an upward march and became India’s top trading partner in 2011-12.
In the next year, the UAE dislodged it to the second place. However, China bounced back and again became India’s top trading partner in 2013-14, and remained there till 2017-18. For the next two years (2018-19 and 2019-20), the US was at the top but in 2020-21, China again became India’s number trading partner.
While China and the US have both been India’s top trading partners in recent years, there is a big difference between the trade with the world’s two largest economies.
While with the US, India had a trade surplus of $32.85 billion during 2021-22, with China, it had a trade deficit of $73.31 billion, the highest for any country.
In fact, India’s trade deficit with China during 2021-2022 was double the previous year’s level ($44.02 billion) and it was an all-time high.
Apart from the US and China, the other eight countries and regions among India’s top-10 trading partners during 2021-22 were UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, and Australia.India’s trade deficit with China has increased from $1 billion to $73 billion in the past 21 years.
Data show that imports from China have skyrocketed since the beginning of this century—from $2 billion in 2001-02 to $94.57 billion in 2021-20.
However, during this period, India’s exports to China have increased at a snail’s pace—from about $1 billion to $21 billion. Due to this surge in imports, India’s trade deficit with China has increased from about $1 billion in 2001-02 to $73 billion.
It is expected to rise further this year.
Lockerbie bombing (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Authorities in Scotland said Sunday (December 12) that a Libyan man named Abu AgelaMas’udKheir Al-Marimi, suspected of making the bomb that destroyed a passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 is in US custody. The majority of those killed in the explosion were Americans.
The Lockerbie bombing was the biggest terrorist attack to be carried out on UK soil. Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said in a statement: “Scottish prosecutors and police, working with the UK government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with al-Megrahi to justice.”
On the day, a bomb planted aboard Pam Am Flight 103 exploded less than half an hour after the jet departed London’s Heathrow airport, bound for New York. The attack destroyed the jet, which was carrying citizens from 21 countries. Among the victims were 190 Americans.
Investigators soon tied the bombing to Libya, whose government had previously been involved in hostilities with the US and other Western governments. About two years before the attack, Libya was blamed for the bombing of a Berlin disco that killed three people.
In 1991, the US charged two Libyan intelligence officers with planting the bomb aboard the jet. But the country’s leader, the late Col. Moammar Gadhafi, refused to turn them over. After long negotiations, Libya agreed in 1999 to surrender them for prosecution by a panel of Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands.
One of the men, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted and given a life sentence. The other, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty. Scottish officials released Al-Megrahi on humanitarian grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died in Libya in 2012.
Cervical cancer target still distant: Lancet (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
More than 6,00,000 new cases of cervical cancer and more than 3,40,000 deaths from the disease were reported around the world in 2020, according to an observational study published in The Lancet Global Health journal.
India reported 1,23,907 new cases of cervical cancer and 77,348 deaths, according to the study. Though the incidence of cervical cancer has decreased in many parts of the world —notably in Latin America, Asia, Western Europe, and North America — over the past three decades, the burden remains high in many low- and middle-income countries.
The study used the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) 2020 database to estimate the burden of cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates in 185 countries.
In 2020, overall incidence was 13 per 1,00,000 women; mortality was 7 per 1,00,000 women. As many as 172 out of the 185 countries saw more than the 4 cases per 1,00,000 women per year threshold for elimination set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The development of effective vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, and screening programmes have made cervical cancer a largely preventable disease.
In 2020, the WHO announced a target to accelerate the elimination of the disease as a public health problem, aiming to reduce incidence to less than 4 cases per 1,00,000 women per year in every country by 2030.
This study tracks the progress on cervical cancer rates and identifies the countries and regions where scaling up efforts are required to reach WHO targets.
Dr Deependra Singh, cancer epidemiologist with IARC/ WHO, France, told The Indian Express: “The effectiveness of vaccination in reducing cervical cancer incidence takes several years or decades.
The screening and treatment of precancerous and invasive cervical cancer is still fundamental to achieving the WHO’s elimination target. Vaccination should be encouraged together with sexual health education in schools; it should be part of the school curriculum.”
As Earth heats up, Arctic faces disproportionate impacts: NOAA (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
As humans warm the planet, the once reliably frigid and frozen Arctic is becoming wetter and stormier, with shifts in its climate and seasons that are forcing local communities, wildlife and ecosystems to adapt, scientists said Tuesday in an annual assessment of the region.
Even though 2022 was only the Arctic’s sixth warmest year on record, researchers saw plenty of new signs this year of how the region is changing.
A September heat wave in Greenland, for instance, caused the most severe melting of the island’s ice sheet for that time of the year in over four decades of continuous satellite monitoring. In 2021, an August heat wave had caused it to rain at the ice sheet’s summit for the first time.
“Insights about the circumpolar region are relevant to the conversation about our warming planet now more than ever,” said Richard Spinrad, administrator of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We’re seeing the impacts of climate change happen first in polar regions.”
Temperatures in the Arctic Circle have been rising much more quickly than those in the rest of the planet, transforming the region’s climate into one defined less by sea ice, snow and permafrost and more by open water, rain and green landscapes.
Over the past four decades, the region has warmed at four times the global average rate, not two or three times as had often been reported, scientists in Finland said this year.
Nearly 150 experts from 11 nations compiled this year’s assessment of Arctic conditions, the Arctic Report Card, which NOAA has produced since 2006.
This year’s report card was issued on Tuesday in Chicago at a conference of the American Geophysical Union, the society of earth, atmospheric and oceanic scientists.
Warming at the top of the Earth raises sea levels worldwide, changes the way heat and water circulate in the oceans, and might even influence extreme weather events like heat waves and rainstorms, scientists say. But Arctic communities feel the impacts first.
Beyond OPS vs NPS, question of India’s broken pension system (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
For a while now the issue of the old pension scheme (OPS) versus the new pension scheme (NPS) has dominated news. Unfortunately, instead of creating morelight, the debate has only generated heat as it has morphed into a political slugfest between Congress supporters and BJP supporters.
In a nutshell, the detractors of the OPS argue that it is fiscally unsustainable — that is, governments in India do not have the money to fund it — while the detractors of NPS call NPS politically unsustainable — that is, it fails to address the felt needs of the people.
The dominant narrative, however, is that Congress is resurrecting the OPS — a scheme that it threw in the dustbin in the first place — just to achieve political power even though it knows that it will be financially ruinous for governments in the future. That’s why you might have read that Congress’ return to OPS has been labelled as both bad economics as well as bad politics.
This article aims to take a step back and help you understand how to think about a pensions system in our country. Once there is an agreement on the framework, the analysis becomes less chaotic and more inclusive.
And it is important to be inclusive because contrary to how it appears at the moment, even those who don’t serve the government in India get old and require an old-age pension.
To be sure, according to the World Economic Forum: “For the first time in human history, people aged 65 and over outnumber children aged five or younger”.
And while this stress may be less for a country such as India, which has a relatively younger population profile, there is such a thing as longevity risk.
Longevity risk points to a scenario where rising life expectancy could result in pension and insurance companies needing more cash because people are living for longer than anticipated.
A good starting point is a working paper titled “Public Expenditure on Old-Age Income Support in India: Largesse for a Few, Illusory for Most” by Mukesh Kumar Anand and Rahul Chakraborty of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. NIPFP is an autonomous research institute under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
There is an index for ranking the pension systems across the world. It is called the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index.
The 2022 edition of this index ranks India’s pension system at 41 out of the 44 countries it considers. That’s a low rank but it is also important to note that India has consistently ranked low on this index even when only 16 countries were analysed in 2011.