By Jupiter! NASA’s new revelation
Earth-bound Gemini North telescope beams back image of haze-covered planet
•NASA’s Earth-bound Gemini North telescope has beamed back a stunning image of Jupiter showing haze particles over a range of altitudes, as seen in reflected sunlight.
•As the Juno spacecraft orbits Jupiter, the Gemini telescope is providing high-resolution images to help guide its exploration of the giant planet.
•Astronomers at the telescope on Maunakea in Hawaii are revealing “a treasure-trove of fascinating events in Jupiter’s atmosphere,” said Glenn Orton, principal investigator for the Gemini adaptive optics investigation at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the United States.
Cloud opacity
•In addition to images captured using adaptive optics, Michael Wong from the University of California, Berkeley, is using a longer wavelength filter on the telescope to look at cloud opacity on the planet.
•“These observations trace vertical flows that cannot be measured any other way, illuminating the weather, climate and general circulation in Jupiter’s atmosphere,” Mr. Wong said.
‘Still much to learn’
•“Events like this show that there’s still much to learn about Jupiter’s atmosphere,” Mr. Orton said.
•“The combination of Earth-based and spacecraft observations is a powerful one-two punch in exploring Jupiter,” he said.
Sharpest laser can help test Einstein’s theory
It has record-breaking precision
•Scientists have developed the world’s sharpest laser with record-breaking precision that can help make optical atomic clocks more precise as well as test Einstein’s theory of relativity.
•Theoretically, laser light has only one colour, frequency or wavelength. In reality, however, there is always a certain linewidth.
•Researchers, including those from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany, have now developed a laser with a linewidth of only 10 miliHertz (mHz) — closer to the ideal laser than ever before.
•This precision is useful for various applications such as optical atomic clocks, precision spectroscopy, radioastronomy and for testing the theory of relativity. More than 50 years have passed since the first technical realisation of the laser, and we cannot imagine how we could live without them today.
Numerous applications
•Laser light is used in numerous applications in industry, medicine and information technologies. Lasers have brought about a real revolution in fields of research and in metrology — or have even made some new fields possible in the first place.
•One of laser’s outstanding properties is the excellent coherence of the emitted light. Ideally, laser light has only one fixed wavelength or frequency. In practice, the spectrum of most types of lasers can, however, reach from a few kHz to a few MHz in width, which is not good enough for numerous experiments requiring high precision.
On eve of PM’s visit, Palestine hopes to keep India ties firm
Modi will be in Tel Aviv & Jerusalem from July 4; will not travel to Palestinian side
•India’s relations with Israel should not come at the “expense of ties” with Palestine, but the Palestinian Authority (PA) understands the need for India to de-hyphenate ties with both, says the Palestinian President’s diplomatic adviser Dr. Majdi ElKhaldi in an interview ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel.
•“Our interest is [for Palestine] to deepen our relationship, and we hope that stronger ties with Israel will not come at the expense of this relationship. We understand that India has to manage its own balance in the region, and we would like to make [a] separation between these ties as well,” Mr. ElKhaldi, toldThe Hindu in an interview over the telephone from Amman, Jordan, where he is currently.
•Mr. Modi will travel to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from July 4, and will be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel.
•However, unlike President Mukherjee, and three External Affairs Ministers Jaswant Singh (2000), S.M. Krishna (2012) and Sushma Swaraj (2016), Mr. Modi will not pay a visit to the Palestinian side.
•Instead, the government had hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Delhi in May this year, separately signing several agreements on development assistance, and backing Palestine’s claim to a “two-state solution.”
•“Our President spoke to Prime Minister Modi at length about the need to bring a resumption of Israel-Palestine dialogue and an acceptance of Palestine’s just demand for a two-state solution along the 1967-lines, with East Jerusalem as a capital,” Mr. ElKhaldi said.
China backs claim on territory with map
India stopped PLA from building road
•China has released a map to back its claim that Indian troops “transgressed” into the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector, which it claims as part of its territory.
•In the map, released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, a blue arrow with markings in Chinese points to Indian troops’ alleged transgression to prevent the People's Liberation Army (PLA) from building a strategic road. The map shows Doklam as part of Chinese territory.
•Bhutan has protested to China asserting that the area is part of its territory and Chinese action is violative of 1988 and 1998 agreements.
•The map is in addition to two photographs released on Thursday purportedly showing Indian troops on the Chinese side of the border. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang displayed the photographs of the alleged Indian “incursion” during a media briefing.
Photos uploaded
•Later, the Ministry uploaded them on its website. One photo showed two bulldozers stated to be that of the Indian military while another showed one bulldozer. A redline in the photos was tagged as “Chinese side of the border”.
•A standoff erupted between the two militaries after the Indian Army blocked construction of the road by China in the Doklam area. China alleged that the Indian troops “trespassed” the recognised delineated boundary on June 18. India on Friday expressed concerns over China constructing the road in the disputed area and said this had “serious” security implications.
Furore over ‘de-registering with a stroke of a pen’
Companies always given opportunity to respond before action is taken, say lawyers, accountants; link to demonetisation also unclear.
•The chartered accounting fraternity and lawyers have said they are unclear as to how Prime Minister Narendra Modi has linked certain alleged “suspicious and questionable operations” following demonetisation to the cancellation of registration of one lakh companies by the government — and that too, “with one stroke of a pen in one minute.”
•“The fate of one lakh companies has been locked with one stroke of a pen in one minute. The Registrar of Companies (RoC) has removed these one lakh companies. More will be found and even tougher action can be expected against shell companies,” Mr. Modi had said, addressing chartered accountants on Saturday.
•The CAs and lawyers contacted by The Hindu said they were waiting for a list of companies and the reasons for de-registration, as well as how this issue was linked to demonetisation. Whether under the provisions of the Income Tax Act or Companies Act, the companies are always given an opportunity to respond before any action is taken against them, including striking off the names, the sources said,. They added that they were not sure how the government had de-registered one lakh companies “with one stroke of a pen in one minute.”
•“This seems more like a veiled threat to all the companies to comply with the law,” said an expert, requesting anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue as the Prime Minister himself had made the statement.
Not unusual
•Sources pointed out that there is nothing unusual about striking off names of companies from the ‘register of companies’.
•As per the norms, the RoC can issue a show cause notice to a company if it has failed to start business within one year of incorporation or has not been carrying on any business for two immediately preceding financial years or has not applied for dormant status. The companies that get such a notice are given 30 days to submit their replies. If not satisfied with the response, the entity’s name can be struck off from the 'register of companies'. The government had in December last year notified the Companies Act provisions for striking off the names of companies.
•As per details submitted to Parliament, the names of 10,826 companies were struck off in 2014-15 (till November 4), while 10,344 companies were struck off in 2013-14, 13,414 companies in 2012-13 and 38,241 in 2011-12.
•In April this year, the government (RoCs in several States and union territories) had issued show cause notices to over two lakh companies under the Companies Act for striking off their names. The country has over 15 lakh registered firms.
GST positive for India’s credit profile: Moody’s
‘To support higher government revenue through improved tax compliance’
•The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime will be positive for India’s credit profile as it will contribute to productivity gains and higher GDP growth as well as support higher government revenue generation through improved tax compliance, according to global ratings agency Moody’s.
•William Foster, vice president, sovereign risk group, Moody’s Investors Service, said: “Over the medium term, we expect that the GST will contribute to productivity gains and higher GDP growth by improving the ease of doing business, unifying the national market and enhancing India’s attractiveness as a foreign investment destination.”
•It will also support higher government revenue generation through improved tax compliance and administration, he said in a statement issued on Sunday, adding that both would be positive for India’s credit profile, which is constrained by a relatively low revenue base.
•“We expect improved tax compliance to be driven by: incentivisation of tax credits in a GST system; greater ease of compliance through usage of a common, shared IT infrastructure between the central government and the states; and a reduction in the overall cost of compliance from simplified tax rates, uniform across the country. We expect the net impact of GST on government revenues to be positive.”
‘Industry prepared’
•Premier industry body Confederation of Indian Industry said the Indian industry was prepared for the rollout of the GST, adding that the regime will contribute to ease of doing business and accelerate new business ventures.
•Shobana Kamineni, President, CII, said: “… it (GST) gives us tremendous confidence that the Government will continue to facilitate investments and simplify the business environment.”
•“CII and Indian industry [are] committed to ensuring the success of GST for boosting India’s growth and development,” Ms. Kamineni added.
Steel sector bullish on GST, exporters worry
Reactions abound on impact of tax
•With India moving towards its biggest tax reform, here’s how various sectors in India have reacted to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and how it will impact business.
‘Teething issues’
•Following the implementation of the GST, the hospitality and travel sectors expect teething issues in the first few months but are not unduly worried, expecting support from government.
•OYO Rooms CEO Ritesh Agarwal said: “There may be challenges in compliance and implementation but over time, there will be more clarity and familiarity, enabling all stakeholders to adjust, adapt and adhere.”
•However, the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India vice president, Garish Oberoi, said the 28% GST for hotel rooms with a tariff of Rs. 7,500 per night and above is very steep. He asked the government to keep that rate only for rooms with tariff of Rs. 10,000 per night and above. For the travel sector, the GST rate for tour packages has increased marginally from 4.5% to 5%.
Exporters worry
•The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has approached the government to reduce the restrictions on using duty credit scrips — a pass that allows holders to import goods by not paying a certain amount in import duties. But with the implementation of GST, these scrips can now be utilised only for payment of basic customs duty and not Integrated Goods and Services Tax. Earlier, manufacturing exporters who imported raw material for export purposes were allowed to utilise these scrips for payment of customs, excise duty and service tax.
•FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai said exporters were worried as they have to arrange funds for payment of GST, which will be refunded to them upon exports. “This may lead to a blocking of funds for over six months in many cases, thus affecting competitiveness of exports,” Mr. Sahai said.
‘Tech compliance’
•The steel sector is feeling bullish after the GST rollout. Players in the sector said that with GST, unorganised players will have to move to the organised form of doing business. Steel Users Federation of India has said GST has abolished the special additional duty on imported goods which was a very cumbersome procedure.
•Indian Stainless Steel Development Association president K.K. Pahuja said GST will give the unorganised sector no other choice but to be tech-compliant. “People evading taxes would not be able to survive any longer.”
Thumbs up for 5%
•The cotton textile industry is also feeling positive. Southern India Mills Association chairman M. Senthil Kumar has welcomed the move to bring the entire cotton textile value chain at the lowest slab rate of 5% GST.
Integration of oil & gas majors is best avoided
•In his fourth budget speech, Finance minister Arun Jaitley revisited the idea of an integrated oil and gas sector. The idea first made its appearance during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government in 1998. The proposal was then rejected for encouraging a monopolistic scenario in distribution of essential goods like LPG, petrol, kerosene etc. In 2005, the Krishnamurthy committee formed by the UPA government debunked the idea as it would reduce competition and manpower in the oil and gas sector.
•Why, then, did the idea of an integrated oil major surface again in 2017 even after being rejected twice?
Five reasons
•Mr. Jaitley stated five major reasons for the same: better capacity to bear higher risks, avail economies of scale, create more shareholder value, make better investment decisions and be more competent globally. From the table, it is apparent that Indian firms are much smaller in size compared with top international oil companies. The Government’s track record of consolidating state run firms has not borne good results. The aviation sector suffered a major setback following the merger of Air India and India Airlines in 2007 and has not yet fully recovered. In oil and gas, minimum political interference and liberalisation have proven better in creating more shareholder value compared with integration. ONGC’s decision to bail out debt-ridden Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation has been said to be the result of political interference. With oil firms facing such allegations and inefficiencies, giving complete autonomy to one entity can risk the nation’s energy security.
•Another concern is employment generation. The graph shows that the sector has seen a continuous decline in manpower since FY11. The Krishnamurthy Committee had earlier deduced that such integration will result in manpower reduction. At a time when the government is struggling with job creation, it will be difficult to justify job losses due to restructuring.
•The ability of a company to take higher risks depends on the amount of capital it has. The financials of all six major oil PSUs show that they have more than the minimum amount of capital required. Size is also not the only factor that facilitates acquisition of offshore projects. Ireland’s Tullow Oil, with a market cap of only $3.62 billion, has expanded in several countries by forming consortia with local oil firms. Therefore, companies should focus on better strategy, techniques and management practices to negate shortcomings of their size. The Indian oil market today has hardly any competition and is dominated by IOCL, HPCL and BPCL. Curbing competition in the past has already adversely affected the aviation and banking sectors.
•So, any decision that creates a monopoly in the oil and gas sector must be carefully thought through. An important question here is whether a bigger oil company will help achieve the aims stated by Mr. Jaitley. Or, will it create new problems for the Indian people at large?
Aerosols ‘shrinking’ India’s monsoon
Greenhouse gases cause concern, but scientists are more worried about particulates
•While greenhouse gases, or GHGs, are causing concern about the long-term fate of the Indian monsoon, researchers now think aerosols from vehicular exhaust, half-burnt crop residue, dust and chemical effluents may be weakening the life-giving rainy season even more than GHGs.
•An Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, team led by climatologist R. Krishnan studying the likely monsoon impact of GHGs over the next century has come to this conclusion.
•In 2015, Mr. Krishnan reported in the journal Climate Dynamics that a mix of GHGs, aerosols and changes in forest and agricultural cover was affecting the strength of the monsoon, which was known to be weakening over the last 50 years. This result was based on mathematical modelling and computer simulation. The relative contribution of the individual factors, however, was not clear then.
•“New simulations suggest that aerosols may be a far more important factor than GHGs,” said Mr. Krishnan, who spoke at a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences in Bengaluru last week.
•He said aerosols were “the major cause of weakening of the monsoon.”
•The scientist and his team used an upgraded forecasting model that was used this year by the India Meteorological Department for forecasts. The model will help prepare India’s first home-grown forecast of climate change from global warming, and be part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, which are considered the global scientific consensus on the role of man-made pollution in climate change.
•Dust clouds shield the earth from the sun’s rays, depressing land and sea temperatures and reducing the variation between the two.
•A good monsoon, which is produced by the difference in temperature between land and sea, is thus weakened by aerosol accumulation. Aerosols cause air pollution and smog and aggravate conditions such as asthma.
Written-off in the hinterland
Our education system has failed to integrate the rural into the larger political community, the nation
•Rural Mandsaur, where five persons were killed during a demonstration recently, is a prosperous region of western Madhya Pradesh. More than a decade ago, I had the opportunity of spending two days with the children of a private residential school in Mandsaur.
•At that time, it was the only English-medium residential school. Its vast and opulent campus in the middle of sprawling green fields was a great anomaly. The school had little to do with its milieu. It represented the dream of a philanthropist to export the best human talent of his region to the global market. This dream resonated national policy trends which, since the mid-1980s, had chosen to view education mainly as human resource development. The idea that education can serve a village in ways that allow it to retain its best boys and girls had been discarded long ago. If you carried in your mind any residues of Gandhi’s ideas about village education, you would see the residential academy in rural Mandsaur as an incongruity.
•Here was an institution set up to give its metropolitan counterparts stiff competition on global playgrounds. The school had invested heavily in computers. Its strategy to serve rural children was neither purely commercial nor patronising. It was a professional bid to give rural youth an opportunity to aspire for legitimate heights. Some of them belonged to well-off farming families who could afford to send them to study in a residential school. But there were quite a few whose parents had small land holdings or minor jobs. For them, the school meant a potential break from the likelihood of a life dependent on shrinking income from agriculture and labour.
A supplier of talent
•The impact of education on rural life has remained consistent since colonial days. When a village boy did well at school, he was expected to shift to a nearby town. That is where he could expect his talent to be recognised. Gradually, villages became the supplier of talent to the city. Only those who were dependent on land stayed back. With the passage of time, land got subdivided into smaller pieces, making agriculture unattractive. In recent times, investments made land more productive, but real income declined. Work opportunities in villages in non-agricultural pursuits remained scarce, and, in the recent past, job growth has come to a standstill. The phenomenon of ‘waiting’ to find work, described by Craig Jeffrey in the context of Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh, is valid elsewhere too. One part of this phenomenon is the struggle to sustain one’s aspiration and the other part is living with frustration.
•It is quite common these days among parents in all districts of M.P. to send their sons and daughters to towns such as Bhopal and Indore for coaching. As a broad spectrum industry, coaching now represents an acceptable way of spending much of your youth. It fills time and protects you from feeling constantly frustrated. Countless young men and women find themselves in a formidable situation that offers neither a choice nor the hope that something will eventually turn up. Coaching classes provide access to a peer group where everyone is faced with a similar, chronic crisis. Lakhs of students from rural and semi-urban areas spend their youth getting coached indiscriminately for competitive entry into an ever-shrinking opportunity market. Every year, a new army of candidates for coaching is spewed out by rural schools. Many get absorbed in the coaching industry itself, or in its ancillary industry of private tuition.
Rural alienation
•Despite better connectivity by road and phone, villages continue to be alienated from the state’s imagination. The former Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, once said that migration from rural areas has a positive side to it because the state’s services are more accessible in cities. His belief that change in the rural-urban ratio of population will accelerate development is widely shared. It underpins development planning, especially the project of ‘rural development’. In a historical study of the Indian village, Manish Thakur has demonstrated how the term rural development represents an essentially colonial view of the village. This view also enjoys political and academic consensus. According to this view, modernity for the village can only mean its merger in the urban landscape. The legitimacy granted to panchayati raj has not diminished the political isolation of the village. The recent protests in Mandsaur and surrounding areas show that higher productivity and relative prosperity have not given the farming community any political clout or relief from uncertainty.
•Education could have been a means of integrating the rural into the larger political community symbolised by the nation. This did not happen for several reasons. To begin with, schools in rural areas remained neglected and attempts to improve them never gained momentum. Policy focus remained on selecting the talented from among rural children through schemes such as Navodaya Vidyalaya. The larger cohort of rural children suffered the consequences of low budgeting and poor staffing. The message that rural children received and absorbed was that they must change their behaviour and values in order to become good citizens. Education of the rural child has failed to depart from the stereotype which associates modernity with city life. Education has, indeed, exacerbated the rural-urban asymmetry, deepening the alienation of the rural citizen.
Farmers or peasants?
•An instructive aspect of the media coverage of the recent unrest in rural M.P. and Maharashtra is the disappearance of the distinction between farmers and peasants. Most people involved in agriculture in India are small-scale peasants. The term ‘farmer’ refers to the minority with substantial landholdings. Those who died in Mandsaur at the hands of the police were in all probability peasants, not farmers. Among the tens of thousands who have committed suicide out of despair, perhaps most were peasants. Their despair must be read and respected in the larger picture of visionless development. The loans they had failed to repay were minor by urban standards. Their distress reminds us that India has become morally blind in its hasty leap into what it believes to be modern.
Step back
Sustained tension at the Bhutan tri-junction suits neither China nor India
•The boundary stand-off with China at the Doka La tri-junction with Bhutan is by all accounts unprecedented; it demands calmer counsel on all sides. The tri-junction stretch of the boundary at Sikkim, though contested, has witnessed far fewer tensions than the western sector of the India-China boundary even as India and Bhutan have carried on separate negotiations with China. China’s action of sending People’s Liberation Army construction teams with earth moving equipment to forcibly build a road upsets a carefully preserved peace. In fact, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit in 2014 the stretch was opened as an alternative route to Kailash Mansarovar for Indian pilgrims as a confidence-building measure. That the PLA decided to undertake the action just as the year’s first group of pilgrims was reaching Nathu La cannot be a coincidence. Moreover, it came only days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral meeting with President Xi in Kazakhstan. The warmth that officials reported at the meeting was obviously misleading, and it is important for India and China to accept that relations have deteriorated steadily since Mr. Xi’s 2014 visit. The stand-off comes after a series of setbacks to bilateral ties. Delhi has expressed disappointment over China’s rejection of its concerns on sovereignty issues, and refusal to corner Pakistan on cross-border terrorism or help India’s bid for Nuclear Suppliers Group membership. In turn, India’s spurning of the Belt and Road Initiative and cooperation with the U.S. on maritime issues has not played well in China — neither has the uptick in rhetoric, including statements from the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister questioning India’s “One China Policy” on Tibet, and from Army chief Bipin Rawat on India being prepared for a two-and-a-half front war.
•These issues have to be addressed through sustained dialogue. In the immediate term, however, talks must focus on defusing the tensions at the tri-junction. China has made the withdrawal of Indian troops a precondition for dialogue. This would be unacceptable to India, unless the PLA also withdraws its troops and road-building teams. Apart from its own commitments to thestatus quo , Beijing must recognise the special relationship India and Bhutan have shared since 1947, the friendship treaty of 2007 that commits India to protecting Bhutan’s interests, and the close coordination between the two militaries. For its part, India would be keen to show that it recognises that the face-off is in Bhutanese territory, and the rules of engagement could be different from those of previous India-China bilateral clashes — at Depsang and Demchok in the western sector, for example. Bhutan’s sovereignty must be maintained as that is the basis for the “exemplary” ties between New Delhi and Thimphu. The Indian government has been wise to avoid escalation in the face of China’s aggressive barrage, but that should not stop it from communicating its position in more discreet ways.
Climate-proofed and inclusive
Projects to help people adapt to climate change should not inadvertently worsen living conditions of the poor
•How will future climate change affect the poor and how does one address both poverty and climate change? This is a conundrum faced by policymakers in India and other developing countries. Moreover, ‘climate-proofing’ sustainable development efforts is important; that is to say, current efforts should remain relevant in the face of future climate impacts.
•Among development practitioners, a paradigm shift has taken place in the last three decades or so: income alone is no longer considered as being sufficient to estimate and address poverty. One can have assets and a reasonable income and yet be poor in terms of education, nutrition, health and other living conditions. Nevertheless, in India and many other countries, governments continue to use income or consumption to estimate poverty, with specified thresholds associated with the ‘poverty line’.
•On this basis, using consumption expenditure data, the erstwhile Planning Commission estimated poverty in India to be at 22% of the population in 2011-12.
Dimensions of poverty
•People living in poverty in various parts of the world share multiple conditions and life circumstances that have been measured and studied as a proxy to assessing poverty. Following the work of Amartya Sen, in particular, and other welfare economists and political philosophers, the dimensions that are considered often include living standards, assets, health, income, consumption and status in their societies. Thus, measures such as nutrition, quality of the floor and roof of houses, access to energy services and drinking water, level of education, jobs, and social conditions such as caste all become relevant when one tries to understand the different manifestations of poverty.
•Some countries, such as Mexico, Chile and Colombia, use several dimensions to record poverty using the MPI (Multidimensional Poverty Index), a versatile tool developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) that looks at the dimensions of education, health and standard of living, giving them all equal weightage.
•Each dimension includes several markers or indicators that are measured to recognise deficiencies in each. Those who are deprived in at least a third of the weighted indicators are regarded as poor. Measures such as MPI help us to estimate not only how many people are poor, but also the quality and depth of their poverty. One can also estimate the number of people who are likely to become poor as a result of slight additional deprivations, as well as those who are in extreme poverty. The most recent MPI for India calculated using India Human Development Survey data of 2011-12, estimates that 41% of the people were multi-dimensionally poor.
•The adverse effects of climate change that are anticipated in South Asia are droughts, floods, heat waves, sea level rise and related problems such as food shortages, spread of diseases, loss of jobs and migration. These will harmfully affect the poorest and further deteriorate the quality of their lives. Numerous studies have shown that the poor suffer the worst effects from climate variability and climate change. One can understand these relationships by recognising that severe storms damage inadequately built houses; floods wash away those living on riverbanks; and the poorest are the most affected by severe droughts that lead to food shortages and higher food prices.
•Projects and programmes designed to help people adapt to the effects of climate change should therefore not inadvertently worsen the living conditions of the poor. Adaptation programmes ought to be designed so that challenges faced by people living in poverty are recognised and reduced. Development policies that consider the context of climate change are often called “climate proofing development”. But even the experts do not know how this should be done for specific sectors, policies, or particular local situations. Multi-dimensional understanding of poverty becomes important in this context of research and policy.
Multiple vulnerabilities
•If one were to estimate the various vulnerabilities for poverty at district levels and then overlay expected climate change impacts for these areas, future local problems due to the combination of these would become clearer for policymakers. It may of course be impossible to predict, with great certainty, the precise impact of future climate change at the local scale and estimate how these may interact with current shortcomings in particular dimensions of poverty. Yet, there is already enough general understanding from different parts of the world to take a commonsensical approach to addressing the combination of multiple vulnerabilities.
•If we learn for example that a district with severe nutritional deficiency might anticipate extended periods of drought from climate change, then the focus ought to be on improving local food access and to combine this with managing water efficiently to prepare for future water shortages. Similarly, proposed improvements in sanitation and housing ought to factor in the increased likelihood of future flooding events in low-lying areas and use appropriate design strategies that are resilient to water-logging.
•In 2015, countries agreed to meet 17 universal goals, officially known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs have targets and indicators that cover a broad range of concerns for human welfare. They include food security, education, poverty alleviation, access to safe and adequate water, energy, sanitation and so on.
•The deadline for reaching the SDGs is 2030. This will be a big test for India and other developing countries because these are in fact the major development challenges that the poor countries have been confronting for decades. India is taking the SDGs quite seriously and the NITI Aayog has been coordinating activities relating to their implementation, and emphasising their interconnected nature across economic, social and environmental pillars.
•Yet, it is critical to recognise that climate variability and climate change impacts can prevent us from reaching and maintaining the SDG targets. Measuring poverty through its different dimensions, along with the consumption measures, would help policymakers figure out which aspects of poverty expose the poor and exacerbate their vulnerability to climate change.
•Through such a process, India could also serve as a standard for other poor and developing countries that are beginning to think about inclusive “climate proofed development”.
