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International (GS Paper 2)

All 16 nations set for final RCEP deal

Context: Negotiating teams and diplomats from all 16 RCEP countries meet for a “Track

1.5” round table on “Global and Regional Trade and Economic Integration Issues. The meeting will be inaugurated by Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, who is expected to articulate India’s continuing concerns about signing on to the agreement.

What is RCEP?

The negotiations of RCEP were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.

It is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 member states of ASEAN ( Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam )and its six FTA partners Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Japan and Korea.

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The objective of RCEP negotiations is to achieve a modern, comprehensive, and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement that will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, electronic commerce, dispute settlement and other issues.

What are the Safeguard Measures sought by India?

India is seeking a mechanism to ‘cap’ imports as a safeguard measure in case its withdrawal of tariffs under RCEP leads to a sudden surge in goods flooding the Indian market.

Other sticking points have been over a dual tariff mechanism for countries India doesn’t have an FTA with like China, and the rest, as well as the need for freedom of movement for services from India to the other countries.

With Australia and New Zealand in particular, India has been negotiating on agricultural and dairy imports.

Why RCEP has assumed so much importance in today’s times?

RCEP is the world's largest economic bloc, covering nearly half of the global economy.

If completed, RCEP will be the world’s biggest FTA, comprising countries that makeup 45% of the world’s population with 33% of its GDP, and at least 28% of all trade in the world today, which are projected to form half the world’s GDP by 2050.

What are the Advantages of RCEP for India?

By joining RCEP, India’s inward and outward foreign direct investment will get a boost, particularly export-oriented FDI.

India’s MSMEs could effectively integrate into the regional value and supply chains.

India could enhance strategic and economic status in the Asia-Pacific region and can complement its Act East Policy.

It can augment India’s existing free trade agreements with the ASEAN

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The RCEP would help India streamline the rules and regulations of doing trade, which will reduce trade costs.

RCEP will bolster opportunities for Indian service sector companies particularly ICT, health care, education services to access new markets.

What are the Disadvantages of RCEP for India?

NITI Aayog held that India’s trade deficit with the ASEAN, Korea and Japan has widened post-FTAs.

Tariff elimination due to RCEP could worsen the trade deficit

Most of the RCEP countries have very high tariffs on certain products sensitive to them, such as rice, footwear, dairy products and honey, which they can continue to shield through the sensitive lists.

Disproportionate loss of customs revenue could occur since import duties are also a source of revenue for India

India has demanded that the ASEAN countries should open up their services sector so that Indian professionals can have easier entry into their market. However, ASEAN countries are very sensitive about protecting service sector and have not offered much liberalisation even within the bloc to each-other.

Greater access to Chinese goods could impact Indian manufacturing sector

It could threatens farming livelihoods.

It may also endangers country’s self-sufficient dairy sector.

Why India should not miss RCEP?

India's entry into RCEP may act as a double-edged sword for India:

While several labour groups and industry bodies have lobbied against the agreement and argued for more protection, several economists have pointed out that not joining the RCEP will cut India out of the world’s biggest trade bloc.

Not joining RCEP, it would make India’s exports price uncompetitive with other RCEP members’ exports in each RCEP market

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Some of the sectors have been identified as potential sources of India’s export growth impulses

India would get greater market access in other countries not only in terms of goods, but in services and investments also.

In the event of declining economic growth, India should not stay out of the largest free-trade bloc in the world

Apart from this, RCEP provides a chance for India to bring in historic trade reforms, which in itself will cement India's position as a major global economy and make Indian industry competitive.

Source: TH

Education (GS Paper 2)

Initiatives Of MHRD To Boost Research and Innovation

Context : MHRD’s Innovation Cell (MIC) organized the first Annual Innovation Festival in

coordination with AICTE. During this event, Innovation cell showcased more than 70 top

students’ innovations from across India.

Following initiatives have been launched during the event:

Institution’s Innovation Council (IICs) in Higher Educational Institutes

It was lauched to promote innovation and start-up in academia through multitudinous modes

leading to an innovation promotion eco-system in these campuses.

The primary mandate is to encourage, inspire and nurture young students by supporting them to work with new ideas and transform these ideas into innovations of tomorrow while they are in their informative years

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Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA)

It is an initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development to systematically rank all major educational institutions and universities on indicators related to the promotion of “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development” amongst their students and faculties. The India innovation ranking aims at :

Setting direction for HEIs towards streamlining and establishing a strong startup ecosystem in campus and region.

Measuring Innovation & Startup ecosystem based on Input, Process, Output and Outcome based parameters.

Focusing on both quantity and quality aspects of Startup Eco-System available at Institute.

Also measure the impact created by these innovations and Startups in society and market.

Aiming at uplifting India’s Position in the Global Innovation Index from 57th to top 30 in a time period of 5 Years.

Smart India Hackathon

It is a flagship program and nationwide initiative by MHRD’s Innovation Cell (MIC) and AICTE to

provide students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus to inculcate a culture of product innovation and to create a mindset to solve problems.

Protsahan Mudra

• It is real-time rewards engine to give rewards to students and teachers daily or as close to the action that qualifies for the reward. The innovative approach rewarding as a recognition and encouragement tool will democratize the process of Protsahan.

The Council has announced the Vishwakarma Award 2019 with the theme of “How to enhance the income of Village” with an overall aim to expand the rural economy.

Significance:

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• AICTE and MIC are promoting start-ups and innovation culture which will eventually result in society of job creators instead of job seekers.

• AICTE and MHRD innovation Cell have taken up several path braking initiatives to bring the desired tectonic shift in quality of education

• Innovations related to agriculture, environment, animal husbandry, healthcare etc has potential to make remarkable and wide- ranging impact on the society. Source: PIB

Internal Security (GS Paper 3)

NATGRID wants to link social media accounts to central database

Context: The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) wants to link social media accounts to the

huge database of records related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details among others. About

The project initially started in 2009 with a budget of ₹2,800 crore, is an online database for collating scattered pieces of information and putting them on one platform.

At least 10 central agencies like Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and others will have access to the data on a secured platform.

The 10 user agencies will be linked independently with certain databases that would be procured from 21 providing organisations and include telecom, tax records, bank, immigration, etc. to enable the generation of intelligence inputs.

Section 69 of the Information Technology (IT) Act

The Central government, under Section 69 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, has the

power to impose reasonable restrictions on this right and intercept, decrypt or monitor

Internet traffic or electronic data whenever there is a threat to national security, national

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integrity, security of the state, and friendly relations with other countries, or in the interest of

public order and decency, or to prevent incitement to commission of an offence

Related Case:

In People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India (1996), the Supreme Court had set rules for the judicious exercise of surveillance and interception in phone tapping cases. The same fundamental principles should hold good in cyberspace too.

Should Social Media accounts be linked to central database?

Arguments for: The Govt. of India has claimed that social media has brought new challenges for law enforcement agencies, including:

inducement for recruitment of terrorists

circulation of obscene content

spread of disharmony

incitement to violence

fake news

cyber terrorism

Anti National items

Online gender-based violence

There have been several cases where the police have expressed their inability to trace offenders because intermediaries have refused to cooperate.

The importance of reserving powers to conduct surveillance cannot be undermined as it would help in securing national security

Arguments Against:

It could jeopardise the entire exercise as it could be exposed to unknown virus attacks from the open-source Internet.

Linking the social media accounts to sensitive government data could expose the system to “trojan attacks.”

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Retrograde step as it directly contradictory to the fundamental right to freedom enshrined in

our Constitution. India might soon end up as a police state/ Surveillance state with bureaucrats at the lowest

level having access to personal information of virtually every citizen.

The Supreme Court, in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), ruled that privacy is a

fundamental right. But this right is not unbridled or absolute. The Constitution of India

guarantees every citizen the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21.

Suspicion of surveillance may also negatively impact business operations and thus profitability

International Example: In the light of the revelations made by Edward Snowden that showed

how agencies in the US were using provisions of the Patriot Act to secretly collect information

on millions of Americans

Source: TH

Science and Technology (GS Paper 3)

Water found for first time on potentially habitable planet

Context: Astronomers have for the first time discovered water in the atmosphere of an

exoplanet with Earth-like temperatures that could support life.

The discovery is the first successful atmospheric detection for an exoplanet orbiting in its star’s

‘habitable zone’, at a distance where water can exist in liquid form.

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Features of K2-I8b

According to the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, K2-18b, which is eight times the mass of Earth, is now the only planet orbiting a star outside the Solar System, or ‘exoplanet’, known to have both water and temperatures that could be potentially habitable.

The planet orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18, which is about 110 light-years from Earth in the Leo constellation.

K2-18b is not ‘Earth 2.0’ as it is significantly heavier and has a different atmospheric composition.

It brings us closer to answering the fundamental question of uniqueness of Earth.

The research team used archive data from 2016 and 2017 captured by the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope and developed open-source algorithms to analyse the starlight filtered through K2-18b’s atmosphere.

The results revealed the molecular signature of water vapour, also indicating the presence of hydrogen and helium in the planet’s atmosphere

Researchers believed that other molecules including nitrogen and methane may be present but, with current observations, they remain undetectable.

Further studies are required to estimate cloud coverage and the percentage of atmospheric water present as per the Researchers Source: TH

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Environment and Ecology (GS Paper 3)

Drought Toolbox

Context: Drought Toolbox was officially launched during the 14th Conference of Parties

(COP14) to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) held at Greater Noida, India.

About Drought toolbox:

The drought toolbox uses 30 parameters, including soil moisture, rainfall data and temperature data of the present and past, can accurately evaluate the vulnerability of different geographic regions to drought.

Why there is a need for such a toolbox?

The current procedure of declaring drought is very complex in most countries. In South Africa, for instance, there is a need to align as many as nine different policies before drought declaration. The process is complicated in India, too

Hence, there was the need for a better tool to forecast droughts and minimise their socio-economic impact

Drought toolbox is an online web platform — a one-stop shop for all drought-preparedness measures with a link to the various relevant tools in other organisations The tools are categorised in line with three pillars of drought preparedness:

Monitoring, early warning and forecasting tools used by decision-makers. Vulnerability assessment tools for identifying hotspots. Risk mitigation tools with key “policy” and “technical” measures.

Impact of Drought: According to World Bank study, Droughts have caused loss of foodgrains that can feed as

many as 81 million people every day. Droughts, which are normally difficult to foresee is four times costlier than floods.

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A 2 degree Celsius increase in global temperatures will put an additional 441 million people at the risk of facing drought globally. Source: TH

Editorial

Environment and Ecology (GS Paper 3)

A case for differential global carbon tax

Context : As per recent IPCC report, total global emissions will need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

• If these targets are not met, tropical regions of the world, which are densely populated in the global South are likely to be most negatively affected because of their low altitudes and pre-existing high temperatures.

What’s the issue now?

The global South has historically contributed less to the problem and even at present its per capita carbon emissions are much smaller in comparison to the countries in the global North.

But they happen to be at the receiving end of the lifestyle choices made by the global North.

At this point, burden of adjustment cannot be equal when the underlying relationship between the two worlds has been historically unequal.

What needs to be done?

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Just Energy Transition (JET) model

It is premised on a sense of global justice in terms of climatic fallouts and the respective contributions of the countries.

It will also help the resource-poor developing countries to make the energy transition without having to worry about finances unduly.

Burden Sharing

Apart from funding their own energy transition, countries should partially support the transition for the countries at the bottom. This sharing of the burden of development should be done in a way that inverts this injustice funnel. Countries have to spend around 1.5% of their GDP.

Way Ahead:

A genuine global consensus/collective agreement is needed on the mitigation of this problem.

Both worlds need to contribute to averting this danger in their self-interest.

Sources: TH