[Mission 2023] INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 04 March 2023

GS Paper 1

 Syllabus: Indian Geography, Cropping Pattern

Source: PIB

Context: India has taken several steps to boost the output, create a niche brand for Indian tea and ensure the welfare of the families associated with the tea industry.

• Indian tea exports are expected to achieve more than 95% of its target of about US $ 900 million

Initiatives by the Tea Board of India:

• Promotion for packaged Tea of Indian origin: Financial reimbursement – up to 25% of the cost is given
  • Speciality Tea Logos are displayed prominently at all important forums and events
• Subsidies for Domestic Exporters to participate in International Fairs and Exhibitions.
• Tea Development and Promotion Scheme ( period of 2021-26): To enhance the productivity and quality of production in India through— Plantation development of small tea farmers; Supporting the tea producers and traders in market promotion activities; Worker’s welfare; Online Licensing System; Chai Sahyog Mobile App
• Formation of 352 Self Help Groups (SHG), 440 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) and 17Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs)
• The assistance of education stipend to the wards of Small Tea Growers

Conclusion: You can write the keyword “AROMA” for Tea promotion:

Insta Links

Mindmap: Tea Industry in India

Mains Links

Q.Tea industry is facing a number of problems resulting in low production of tea and tea leaves. Examine. (250 Words)

Prelims Links

GS Paper 2/3

Syllabus: S&T/Government Programmes/Role of Women and Women’s Organization

Source: TH

 Context: Women from rural India are adopting clean energy-based livelihood technologies (from solar refrigerators to silk-reeling machines) to catalyse their businesses and transform women’s livelihoods at the grassroots.

Highlights of a study (by CEEW):

• Out of the 13,000 early adopters of clean tech livelihood appliances, more than 80% are women.
• Distributed renewable energy (DRE)-powered technologies provide an additional advantage to women farmers by enhancing income opportunities through mechanisation.
• They also free women from several gender-assigned manual activities that are laborious.
• By 2030, India is expected to see 30 million women-owned MSMEs employing around 150 million people.

Challenges in scaling up these accomplishments:

• Novelty and a high starting price of these technologies
• Perceived as high-risk purchases, especially by women users
• The relatively lower risk appetite of rural women due to socioeconomic reasons
• Limited avenues to avail financing
• Lack of established market linkages
• Limited mobility/networks of women outside their villages

Way ahead – How to scale up this impact?

• Leverage the experience of early women adopters.
• Organise hyperlocal events and demos – create spaces for women to network, and become aware.
• Enable easy finance to purchase products. Financiers should consider the technologies themselves as collateral while easing the loan application process.
• Ensure adequate after-sales services and buy-backs.
• Support backwards and forward market linkage – finding and connecting producers to consumption hubs in urban areas.
• Collectivising women or establishing business models that enable them to sell to an intermediary can ensure a regular revenue stream.
• Enable policy convergence. Efforts towards promoting livelihoods for women from State rural livelihood missions, agriculture departments, etc., must be converged.
• Leveraging the reach of government institutions is imperative.

Conclusion: Similar to how it takes a village to raise a child, a village of politicians, investors, financiers, and technology promoters, is required to fully realise the potential of rural women and clean technologies.

Insta Links:

Schemes for women farmers

Mains Links:

Examine the role of the ‘Gig Economy’ in the process of empowerment of women in India. (UPSC 2021)

GS Paper 2

Syllabus: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population

Source: DTE, UNICEF

 Context: Only 26.4 per cent(just 1 in 4 children) of children aged 0-15 years are shielded by social protection, leaving the remaining 73.6 per cent exposed to poverty, exclusion and multidimensional deprivations, noted a new United Nations (UN) report titled – More than a billion reasons: The urgent need to build universal social protection for children.

Need for Social Protection:

• Social protection policies are powerful tools for alleviating poverty for children and their families at risk of falling into poverty and helping all children deprived of key services.
• Social protection can also shield children from other major risks, such as child labour and forced labour.

Key findings of the report:

• 2.4 billion Children in this world need adequate social protection.
• Nearly 1.77 billion children aged 0-18 years lack access to a child or family cash benefit, a fundamental pillar of a social protection system
• Regional disparities
• One billion children live in multidimensional poverty without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water.
• Gender disparity
• Children with disabilities or living in a household with a family member with a disability are more vulnerable to poverty

Stats on India in the report:

• The report stated that 31 states in India had implemented the national ‘PM CARES for Children’ scheme. So far, only 4,302 children have received support from the scheme.

Recommendations given to achieve universal social protection for children:

• Provide a comprehensive range of benefits that supports children and families through a life-cycle approach.
• Authorities are advised to provide child benefits through national social protection systems that also connect families to crucial health and social services, such as free or affordable quality childcare.
• Increase budget allocation for children: Ensure sustainable and equitable financing of social protection systems
• Build social protection systems that are rights-based, inclusive, gender-responsive, informed by social dialogue and able to effectively respond to multiple shocks and crises, and that can therefore deliver for children and families.
• Guarantee access to decent work and adequate employee benefits.
• Ensure that social protection systems are adapted to developments in the world of work to enhance economic security for parents, caregivers and their families.

Conclusion: Following the above recommendations will help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of achieving substantial social protection coverage by 2030.

Insta Links:

ILO: World Social Protection Report 2020-22

Mains Link: UPSC 2016

Examine the main provisions of the National Child Policy and throw light on the status of its implementation.

GS Paper 3

 Syllabus: Environment, Conservation

Source: IE

 Context: The certification industry offers a multi-layer audit system that seeks to authenticate the origin, legality, and sustainability of forest-based products such as timber, etc.

Background:

• With climate change, deforestation has become a critically sensitive issue globally.
• Forests absorb large amounts of CO2, keeping a check on global warming.
• At the Glasgow climate meeting (2021), more than 100 countries took a pledge to stop and reverse deforestation by 2030.
• Europe and the US have passed laws that regulate the entry and sale of forest-based products in their markets. This is where the certification industry comes in.
• The industry, through independent third-party audits, helps in establishing whether forests were being managed in a sustainable manner.

Two major international standards for sustainable management of forests and forest-based products:

• Developed by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – More popular and expensive
• Developed by Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certifications (PEFC) – Endorses the ‘national’ standards of any country

How will they work?

• Organisations like FSC/PEFC are only the developers and owners of standards like, for example, the ISO/BIS.
• They are not involved in the evaluation and auditing of the processes.
• That is the job of certification bodies authorised by the FSC or PEFC.

Two main types of certification on offer:

• Forest management (FM)
• Chain of Custody (CoC): Guarantees the traceability of a forest product like timber throughout the supply chain from origin to market.

Forest certification in India:

• Though the industry has been operating in India for the last 15 years, forests in only one state (UP) are certified.
• 41 divisions of the UP Forest Corporation (UPFC) are PEFC-certified and are managed according to the standards developed by the nonprofit Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF).
• Some other states too obtained certification. However, all of these expired over time.
• Many agroforestry projects (paper mills, etc), meant for captive use of the industry, too have forest management certification.

Challenges:

• There are a large number of CoC certifications, but the dropout rate is 40%.
• India’s wood import bill is Rs 50,000-60,000 crores per year.
  • India’s forests contribute just about five million cubic metres (5%) of wood every year.
  • Almost 85% of the demand is met by trees outside forests (ToF) and about 10% is imported.
• India allows the export of only processed wood, not timber.

Way ahead:

• India-specific standards: Since ToF are so important, new certification standards are being developed for their sustainable management.
• The government’s own standards: The corruption in the private certification space has come under sustained criticism.

Conclusion: A simple, transparent, easy to adopt and internationally accepted indigenous system of certifications will take into account India’s national circumstances and will make available sustainably grown and managed forest products in the domestic market.

Insta Links:

India’s first forest-certification scheme gets global recognition

GS Paper 3

 Syllabus: Environment, Conservation, Pollution

Source: DTE

Context: According to the IEA’s ‘CO2 Emissions in 2022’ report, global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose by under 1% in 2022.

Background:

• The report is the first in a new series, the Global Energy Transitions Stocktake, which will bring together the IEA’s latest analysis in one place.
• This will make it freely accessible in support of the first Global Stocktake in the lead-up to the COP28 Climate Change Conference (Dubai, UAE).

About the report:

• It covers CO2 emissions from all energy combustion and industrial processes.
• It also includes information on methane and nitrous oxide emissions, providing a complete picture of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2022.

Important takeaways from the report:

• Global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by 0.9%/321 million tonnes in 2022, reaching a new high of more than 36.8 billion tonnes.
• The rise in emissions last year was far smaller than the exceptional jump of over 6% in 2021.
• However, the report called for stronger actions to accelerate the clean energy transition to move the world towards meeting its energy and climate goals.

Reasons behind better results in 2022: Growth of solar, wind, electric vehicles, heat pumps and energy efficiency helped limit the impacts of increased use of coal and oil amid the global energy crisis.

Region-specific findings:

• China’s emissions were broadly flat in 2022 due to strict Covid-19 measures.
• The EU emissions fell by 2.5%, thanks to the record deployment of renewables and energy savings measures in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also contributed.
• In the US, emissions grew by 0.8% as buildings increased their energy consumption to cope with extreme temperatures.
• Excluding China, emissions from Asia’s emerging and developing economies increased by 4.2%, reflecting their rapid economic and energy demand growth.

Fuel-by-fuel analysis:

• CO2 emissions from coal grew by 1.6% as the global energy crisis continued to spur a wave of gas-to-coal switching in Asia.
• The increase in coal emissions balanced the 1.6% decline in emissions from natural gas as supplies were limited by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• CO2 emissions from oil grew by 2.5% (came mainly from the aviation sector) but still remained below pre-pandemic levels.

Insta Links:

Who should pay for climate damage?

Prelims Links: (UPSC 2020)

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Energy, Environment, Conservation

Source: IE

Context: India’s energy strategy is presently recognised as being pragmatic and balanced since it is motivated by assuring energy access, availability, and affordability for its vast population.

What is energy justice? Energy justice envisions elements of a global energy system that fairly distributes both energy services’ benefits and burdens and can be used as a framework to identify energy injustices.

Short-term actions towards ensuring energy justice in India:

• Massive cuts in excise duty and VAT rates of petrol and diesel.
• An export cess on petrol, diesel and ATF.
• Windfall tax on domestically produced petroleum products to prevent refiners and producers from profiteering at the cost of domestic consumers.
• Subsidised administered pricing mechanism (APM) gas for the city gas distribution sector was drastically increased.
• Revising the New Domestic Gas Pricing Guidelines 2014 to rationalise and reform APM gas pricing.

Outcome:

• Prices of diesel in India have gone down in the last year: This is when petrol and diesel prices went up by 35-40% in global markets, India imports over 85% of its crude oil requirements and 55% of its natural gas requirements.
• No shortage of fuel anywhere in India: This is when several neighbourhood countries have had dry outs and power cuts to manage demand.

Long-term actions towards ensuring energy justice:

1. Expanding the network of crude oil suppliers: This strategic decision not only ensured affordable energy for Indian consumers but also had a calming effect on global petroleum markets.

2. Strengthening ties: With countries like the US (energy trade has gone up 13 times in the last four years) and Russia to ensure a reliable supply of crude oil.

Expanding petrochemical production:

• India is a global exporter of petroleum products and its refining capacity is the fourth largest in the world after the US, China, and Russia.
• Efforts are underway to further enhance this capacity to 450 MMT by 2040.

3. Innovation and investments in exploration and production (E&P): India wants to boost its net geographic area under exploration from 8% to 15% (0.5 million sq km) by 2025 and has reduced the prohibited/no-go areas in EEZ by 99%.

4. Energy transition: However, as demonstrated at Glasgow, India is committed to becoming net-zero in emissions by 2070.

5. Moving towards a gas-based economy:

• By increasing the share of gas from the current 3 to 15% by 2030.
• India has connected more than 9.5 crore families with clean cooking fuel in the past nine years.
• PNG connections have increased from 28 lakh in 2014 to over 1 crore in 2023.
• The number of CNG stations in India has gone up from 938 in 2014 to 4,900 in 2023.
• Since 2014, India has increased the length of its gas pipeline network from 14,700 km to 22,000 km in 2023.

6. Biofuel revolution:

• At the recent India Energy Week 2023, India launched E20 – 20% ethanol blended gasoline – which will be expanded across the country in the next two years.
• India’s ethanol-blending gasoline has grown from just 53% in 2013-14 to 10.17% in 2023.
• India is also setting up five 2nd generation ethanol plants, which can convert agricultural waste into biofuel → reducing pollution due to stubble burning → generating income for farmers.

7. Developing the entire green hydrogen ecosystem:

• The National Green Hydrogen Mission has been launched with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore to accelerate India’s efforts towards –
  • 4 MT of annual green hydrogen production and
  • Rs 1 lakh crore of fossil fuel import savings by 2030.

8. An integrated path for transitioning India’s future mobility pathways:

• Along with green hydrogen and biofuels, India is also supporting electric vehicles through a production-linked incentive scheme.
• India is targeting the installation of alternative fuel stations (EV charging/CNG/ LPG/LNG/CBG etc.) at 22,000 retail outlets by May 2024.

Conclusion:

• According to IEA estimates, India will account for ~25% of global energy demand growth between 2020-2040.
• As India aspires to become a $26 trillion economy by 2047, implementing a unique strategy for ensuring energy security and achieving energy independence is the need of the hour.

Insta Links: The Road to Energy Atmanirbharta

Mains Links:

1. “Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy is the sine qua non to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.Comment on the progress made in India in this regard. (UPSC 2018)

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Linkages between Development and Spread of Extremism

Source: IE

Context: The efficacy of the Maoist movement needs to be gauged in terms of their declining social base, not on the basis of how many violent incidents occur.

What led to the failure of the above approaches:

• Declining Maoist presence/violence could well be a political strategy of the Maoists to go silent/underground and wait for lapses on the part of the security forces.
• Eminent Domain doctrine, argues that all resources belong to the nation and can be extracted in the “national interest”.
• Development is seen as a zero-sum game by either side leads.
• A single conception of development to address the various, occasionally incompatible demands of oppressed groups.
• The securitisation paradigm is also insufficient to comprehend social exclusion.

Conclusion:

• Both Ambedkar and Gandhi were of the view that social exclusion and caste cannot be addressed through violence.
• To end the social exclusion of tribals there is the need to understand that development is a multi-faceted process.

Insta Links: LWE

Mains Links:

1. The persisting drives of the government for the development of large industries in backward areas have resulted in isolating the tribal population and the farmers who face multiple displacements with Malkangiri and naxalbari foci, discuss the corrective strategies needed to win the left-wing extremism (LWE) doctrine affected citizens back into the mainstream of social and economic growth. (UPSC 2015)

Content for Mains Enrichment (CME)

 Source: Niti Aayog

Every day in this section we are bringing best practices from each category. Today’s best practices will cover ‘SOCIAL WELFARE’

 Source: IE

Context: The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the European Union’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has derecognised six Indian central counterparties (CCPs) from April 30, 2023.

What are Clearing corporations (CC)?

CC is an organization associated with an exchange to handle the confirmation, settlement, and delivery of transactions in a prompt and efficient manner.

Examples of CCs:

The CCPs are The Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), Indian Clearing Corporation Ltd (ICCL), NSE Clearing Ltd (NSCCL), Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing (MCXCCL), India International Clearing Corporation (IFSC) Ltd (IICC), and NSE IFSC Clearing Corporation Ltd (NICCL).

Why has ESMA derecognized Indian CCs?

The decision to derecognise Indian CCPs came due to ‘no cooperation arrangements’ between ESMA and Indian regulators – the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).

Impact:

As per the European Market Infrastructure Regulations (EMIR), a CCP in a third country can provide clearing services to European banks only if it is recognised by ESMA. With the withdrawal of recognition, these CCPs will no longer be able to provide services to clearing members and trading venues established in the EU.

Government’s stand – ESMA’s threat is unreasonable since all clearing corporations are well-regulated in India.