📰 Willow Warbler sighted for the first time in country
One of the longest migrating small birds spotted at Punchakkari on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram
•Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), one of the longest migrating small birds that breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic, has been sighted for the first time in the country at Punchakkari in the capital.
•The bird was spotted by Nirmal George, Associate Professor in Pharmacology and programme officer of the National Service Scheme (NSS) of Sree Gokulam Medical College and Research Foundation, Venjaramoodu, around 9.30 a.m. on November 14.
•“The abnormal behaviour, shape, and non-familiarity with other warblers commonly seen in this area was what caught my attention. The photographs were taken from a distance. Although I visited the area again in the evening to get more photos of the bird, I had to return home disappointed,” says Dr. George.
•Posting of the photographs of the bird on the WhatsApp group of his birding team and consultations with 10 international experts helped identify the bird.
•“It is the first time that Phylloscopus trochilus is being sighted and reported in the country,” he said.
Long wing feathers
•While the bird weighs around 10 g, its long wing feathers that help fly long distances makes it peculiar. Usually seen in European and the Palearctic regions, the birds migrate to sub-Saharan Africa during early winter.
•Warblers are generally difficult to identify owing to the small size and change in plumage twice a year.
•They are also the most difficult groups of birds to identify in the field for their striking resemblance to each other.
•Dr. George, who has been into birding for a year, has identified 163 species of birds and photographed over 100 species. Most of them were from Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, and Idukki districts.
•Biodiversity consultant Sujith V. Gopalan says 17 species of warblers have been recorded from Kerala and the Willow Warbler forms the 18th warbler and 533rd species of bird to be recorded from the State.
•The Vellayani-Punchakkari paddy fields are a birding hotspot on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. It is known to harbour more than 213 species of birds that include both resident and migratory ones. As many as seven species of warblers have been recorded from the Vellayani-Punchakkari fields.
While it is unclear if the Sri Lankan government is considering seeking RCEP membership, Colombo seems open to the idea.
•Sri Lanka’s growing emphasis on tapping the emerging Asian market would make the China-led Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement seem an ideal forum to build trade ties in the region. But given the island nation’s current economic challenges and India’s decision to opt out of the formidable grouping, the road is far from easy for Sri Lanka, according to economists.
•Few would dispute Sri Lanka’s distinct advantage, thanks to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, along one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. “We must develop the [southern] Hambantota and Colombo Ports together with the Airports to be a centre in the international commercial processes,” Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said on November 17, unveiling his government’s maiden Budget. He also underscored his government’s priority to swiftly developing the China-backed $1.4 billion Colombo Port City as a hub for international business and investment.
•“I believe that our neighbouring India will be a powerful economy in the world in the next decade. I also believe China together with several other Asian countries will be amongst the five most powerful economies in the world,” Mr. Rajapaksa said, of the “high growth Asian Market”.
•While he made no direct reference to the RCEP that was signed just days prior to his speech, his message reiterated the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration’s stated trade vision, as well as former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s passionate argument that Sri Lanka needed to turn more eastward in its economic and trade diplomacy. While it is unclear if the Sri Lankan government is considering seeking RCEP membership, Colombo seems open to the idea.
•“In the current situation amid a global pandemic, no country can stick to an isolationist policy. Countries have to work together, putting aside their political differences. Sri Lanka is pro-trade and we will explore all multilateral arrangements including the RCEP to explore what they can offer,” Tharaka Balasuriya, State Minister of Regional Co-operation, told The Hindu.
•However, even if Sri Lanka were to make overtures or tap at the RCEP’s door, “there may well be a queue,” said Dushni Weerakoon, noted economist and Executive Director of the Colombo-based Institute of Policy Studies. “Given Sri Lanka’s emphasis on Asia-centred trade, RCEP would seem a natural choice. But it is not that straightforward,” she said, pointing to at least three main factors.
•To start with, Sri Lanka’s current trade policy “remains unclear”. Following the coronavirus outbreak early this year, the government slapped significant import restrictions to conserve its draining foreign reserves. Moreover, the government’s position on Free Trade Agreements (FTA) has not been consistent.
•For instance, the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India is “in limbo”, while Colombo has expressed interest to revive FTA negotiations with China. “Had the Sri Lanka-India ETCA agreement been in place already, and had India also been part of RCEP, it would have made life a lot easier for Sri Lanka,” Ms. Weerakoon noted. The government is also re-examining the FTA signed with Singapore.
•Further, while the U.S. and the EU are Sri Lanka’s two largest export markets, India and China are the two biggest sources of imports, and Asian countries have largely engaged as sources of import, development financing and FDIs, she added, pointing to Sri Lanka’s challenges in navigating a complex trade terrain.
Lessons for Sri Lanka
•In terms of overall economic strategy, the RCEP offers lessons to Sri Lanka, according to Indrajit Coomaraswamy, renowned Sri Lankan economist and former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Colombo is seeking to diversify its export basket and markets by looking to expand trade with, among others, countries in the Asia-Pacific region. “RCEP would make it more difficult for Sri Lanka to compete with the likes of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, not to mention the wealthier ASEAN countries, in the lucrative markets of China — unless a bilateral agreement is finalised quickly — Japan, South Korea as well as Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
•Further, if India was to eventually become a member of RCEP, there could be a boost to Sino-Indian economic relations within a rules- based framework that could potentially reduce bilateral tensions, in his view.
•Sharing a broader reading of the development, Mr. Coomaraswamy observed that the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, marked by the disruption to global supply chains, led to a critique of globalization and a case was made for greater autarky. “The age of hyper-globalisation with one hegemonic power has probably ended to be replaced by a more multipolar world. At the same time, RCEP demonstrates that the world is not retreating to a new era of fortress like inward looking economies. It is noteworthy that the 15 countries in what has been the most dynamic sub-region in the world have come together to drive growth, employment generation and higher incomes through increased integration of their economies on the back of reduced tariff,” he said.
📰 Another bailout: On Lakshmi Vilas Bank
Overall banking sector health is a concern despite the RBI’s pre-emptive rescue efforts
•The RBI’s decision to recommend the imposition of a one-month moratorium on Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) and almost simultaneously announce a draft scheme of amalgamation that entails the Indian unit of the Singapore government-controlled DBS Bank taking over the capital-starved private lender marks a welcome intervention by the banking regulator. The well-choreographed move will protect the interests of depositors and employees, while shareholders will see the value of their holdings written off once the merger is operationalised. Coming just about eight months after another flailing private lender, Yes Bank, was rescued by an RBI-orchestrated capital infusion, the Karur-based bank’s proposed bailout signals that the regulator is keen to proactively step in to ward off risks to wider financial sector stability. That the LVB had become a candidate for regulatory intervention was evident after its continuous losses, steady erosion of its net worth and inability to raise fresh capital to bolster its balance sheet. Despite being placed under the RBI’s Prompt Corrective Action framework in September 2019, the lender’s finances deteriorated to the point where its gross ratio of non-performing assets to advances shot up to 25.4% in March 2020 and the Tier 1 Capital ratio turned a negative 0.88% at the end of that quarter. The capital ratio subsequently worsened to -4.85% by the end of September, tipping the central bank’s hand.
•Overall banking sector health, however, remains a significant concern notwithstanding this latest rescue effort. On Wednesday, Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, flagged the wide-ranging damage the COVID-19 pandemic had inflicted on the global economy and warned of deeper legacy scars — more stress on corporate balance sheets and governments burdened with large debt. For all its liquidity bolstering measures since March, the RBI now faces the prospect of having to maintain a heightened vigil over scheduled commercial banks, as well as non-banking financial companies and mortgage lenders, given the threat of contagion from a failure here. The RBI had in its Financial Stability Report in July pointed out that its stress tests indicated that the gross NPA ratio of commercial banks could worsen to 14.7% by March 2021, from 8.5% a year earlier, if the pandemic’s adverse economic impact caused the GDP to contract by 8.9% in the current fiscal. In October, the bank forecast India’s GDP would shrink by 9.5% and earlier this month cautioned that “lurking around the corner” was the major risk of stress intensifying among households and firms that could spill over into the financial sector. The RBI has its task cut out in ensuring it keeps the crucial engine of credit ticking over as the economy strives to revive.
📰 Curbing on-air bigotry: On free speech, hate speech and regulation
The distinction between free speech and hate speech should be at the heart of regulation.
•The Supreme Court’s posers to the Union government on the measures it can and is willing to take against communally slanted television coverage should not end in undesirable consequences. The questions appear to be an attempt to elicit a commitment to a course of action that will curb inflammatory journalism on broadcast media. However, the Court’s warning that if the government fails to explain its mechanism to deal with the problem, it would create one on its own may take the debate down a slippery slope. The Court is hearing petitions against the communal colour given by some channels to the incidence of large clusters of COVID-19 infections among those who attended a Tablighi Jamaat event in New Delhi. The portrayal of the participants as intentional super-spreaders was vicious and motivated. Curiously, the Centre seems reluctant to intervene, while the Court seems to be batting for greater media regulation. The Centre’s affidavit stated that media coverage “predominantly struck a balanced and neutral perspective” and that it was open to the viewers to choose from a number of varying perspectives given by different media channels. However, the Court is keen to know what action has been taken under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act against offending broadcasters. One hopes that the Centre’s position arises from a commitment to media freedom, and is not based on a partisan leniency towards channels that peddled a certain narrative that suited its interests.
•The Court appears unconvinced that the present mechanism of self-regulation, the National Broadcasting Standards Authority, is effective. It would be in order if the self-regulation mechanism deals with departures from normative journalism. And the government is, in any case, empowered under the Act to prohibit transmission of programmes that violate the programme or advertising codes (Section 19) and even an entire channel, in public interest (Section 20). In the past, channels have been asked by the I&B Ministry to take some programmes off the air. There is no doubt that egregious violations of norms are not uncommon. Depending on the damage done to individuals or institutions, or even society at large, there is enough scope for action under the penal law. However, there is a class of violation of norms in broadcasting that stands apart. The case of Sudarshan News, which began a series that propagated hate against Muslims, is a flagrant example. The government has merely administered a ‘caution’ to the channel and asked it to moderate the content of future episodes and avoid breaching the Programme Code. In September, while ordering the suspension of further episodes, the Court distinguished between free speech and ‘hate speech’. The distinction should be at the heart of any order creating a new mechanism, if at all one is needed, to deal with broadcast media excesses.
📰 India’s mask of economic liberalism is off
Trade protectionism seems to be the official policy, with the government following the path of its ideological leanings
•India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar recently disapproved of free trade and globalisation. Sounding like a politician of the bygone era where the government shielded the domestic industry from competition by putting up protectionist barriers, he said, “in the name of openness, we have allowed subsidi[s]ed products and unfair production advantages from abroad to prevail... justified by the mantra of an open and globali[s]ed economy. It was quite extraordinary that an economy as attractive as India allowed the framework to be set by others.” He was speaking at a “dialogue”. Taking a dig at free trade agreements (FTAs), the Minister said, “the effect of past trade agreements has been to de-industriali[s]e some sectors.”
•The fact that these observations were made just a day after 15 countries of the Asia-Pacific region signed, on November 15, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, the largest regional trading arrangement, is no coincidence. The Minister tried hard to rationalise the government’s decision to walk away from RCEP last year. However, there are several flaws in Mr. Jaishankar’s arguments.
Rhetoric versus reality
•First, by refusing to sign RCEP — a sign of weakness, not boldness — India is now truly at the margins of the regional and global economy. With trade multilateralism at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) remaining sluggish, FTAs are the gateways for international trade. By not being part of any major FTA, India cannot be part of the global value chains. India’s competitors such as the East Asian nations, by virtue of they being embedded in mega-FTAs, are in a far superior position to be part of global value chains and attract foreign investment.
•Second, has India embraced the economic openness that Mr. Jaishankar laments about? While India is surely a much more open economy than it was three decades ago, globally, India continues to remain relatively closed when compared to other major economies. According to the WTO, India’s applied most favoured nation import tariffs are 13.8%, which is the highest for any major economy. Likewise, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, on the import restrictiveness index, India figures in the ‘very restrictive’ category. From 1995-2019, India has initiated anti-dumping measures 972 times (the highest in the world), zealously endeavouring to protect domestic industry.
•Third, in blaming FTAs for the woes of India’s manufacturing, the External Affairs Minister is contradicting his own government’s economic survey presented earlier this year, which concluded that India has benefitted overall from FTAs signed so far. Moreover, impugning FTAs for deindustrialisation means being oblivious to the real problem of the Indian industry — which is the lack of competitiveness and absence of structural reforms.
•Fourth, the External Affairs Minister , following the finest traditions of the Narendra Modi government, criticised the past governments for compromising India’s interests by doing business as per the ‘framework’ set by others. However, he did not share why his government utterly failed in the last six years to convince 15 other RCEP nations about a framework that would be advantageous to India.
•Finally, in criticising economic openness and globalisation, the External Affairs Minister wholly ignored the fact that India has been one of the major beneficiaries of economic globalisation — a fact attested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Post-1991, the Indian economy grew at a faster pace, ushering in an era of economic prosperity. According to the economist and professor, Arvind Panagariya, poverty in rural and urban India, which stood at close to 40% in 2004-05, almost halved to about 20% by 2011-12. This was due to India clocking an average economic growth rate of almost 8% with international trade being a major engine of progress.
Economic illiberalism
•The comments of the External Affairs Minister give us a window to understanding the larger ideological moorings of the Narendra Modi government on free trade. When Mr. Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, it was widely perceived that while his government might be socially conservative, it would be economically liberal and advocate globalisation and free trade. This was even though all ideological gurus of the Sangh Parivar, whether Deen Dayal Upadhyay or Dattopant Thengadi, championed swadeshi (indigenous products) over videshi (imports). Over the last few years, the Narendra Modi government has started walking on the path shown by its ideological gurus. Tariffs have been increased, FTAs are being demonised, and ‘vocal for local’, which strikes at the heart of international trade and globalisation, is the new mantra.
•The Prime Minister’s desire to make India a global destination for foreign investment is a pipe dream because it is naive to expect foreign investors to be gung-ho about investing in India if trade protectionism is the government’s official policy. The mask of economic liberalism is finally off and the real ideological colours are there for everyone to see.
📰 Healthcare workers, people aged above 65 will be given priority for COVID-19 vaccine: Harsh Vardhan
“It is natural the vaccine distribution would have to be prioritised.”
•Noting that it is natural to prioritise COVID-19 vaccine distribution, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said healthcare workers and people aged above 65 will be early recipients when a vaccine becomes available.
•Addressing a webinar organised by the FICCI FLO on ‘The Shifting Healthcare Paradigm During and Post-Covid’, Mr. Vardhan said COVID-19 vaccine will be available in the next few months and it is estimated that by July-August 400-500 million doses will be made available for 25-30 crore people.
•“It is natural the vaccine distribution would have to be prioritised. As you know the healthcare workers who are corona warriors they will be prioritised, then people who are above 65 years of age they have been prioritised, then those from 50-65 years of age have been prioritised,” he said.
•“Then those below 50 years who have other diseases. It is all being decided by experts with a scientific point of view. We have made a very detailed, meticulous plan on this. What we would have to do in March-April next year, we have started planning for it from now only,” Mr. Vardhan added.
•The minister said one can protect oneself from this deadly virus with small precautions like wearing a good quality mask properly, maintaining social distance and taking care of hand-hygiene.
•India’s coronavirus caseload mounted to 89,58,483 on Thursday with 45,576 infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,31,578 with 585 new fatalities.
•The phase-3 trial of the Oxford vaccine of the Serum Institute is almost near completion, while the phase-3 clinical trial of the indigenously-developed vaccine candidate of the Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has already started.
•Dr Reddy’s Laboratories will soon start the combined phase-2 and phase-3 clinical trials of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, in India. Also, the Biological E Limited has started early phases 1 and 2 human trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
•Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said their vaccine candidate was found to be more than 95% effective in preventing COVID-19, while Moderna on Monday said its vaccine candidate against COVID-19 found it to have an efficacy of 94.5%.
