📰 ₹11,000 crore for new edible oil mission, says PM Modi
India’s dependence on expensive imports has driven retail oil prices to a new high, says PM
•The Centre will spend ₹11,000 crore for a new mission to ensure self-sufficiency in edible oil production at a time when India’s dependence on expensive imports has driven retail oil prices to new highs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday. This financial outlay for the National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) will be over a five-year period, Agriculture Ministry officials later confirmed.
•The Prime Minister was speaking at a virtual event to release the ninth instalment of income support worth ₹19,500 crore to 9.75 crore farmers under the PM Kisan scheme.
•“Today, when India is being recognised as a major agricultural exporting country, then it is not appropriate for us to depend on imports for our edible oil needs,” said Mr. Modi, noting that the share of imported palm oil is more than 55%. “We have to change this situation. The thousands of crores that we have to give to others abroad to buy edible oil should be given to the farmers of the country only,” he added, naming north-eastern India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as prime locations for oil palm cultivation.
Cutting import dependence
•In response to a Rajya Sabha query in February 2020, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had said the NMEO proposal would aim to reduce import dependence from 60% to 45% by 2024-25, by increasing domestic edible oil production from 10.5 million tonnes to 18 million tonnes, a 70% growth target. It projected a 55% growth in oilseed production, to 47.8 million tonnes. It is not clear whether these targets have changed under the final version of the mission.
Rise in yields
•The NMEO-OP’s predecessor was the National Mission on Oil Seeds and Oil Palm, which was launched at the fag end of the UPA government’s tenure and later merged with the National Food Security Mission. Laying out its achievements in May 2020, the Agriculture Ministry said oilseed production had grown 35% from 27.5 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 37.3 million tonnes by 2020-21. Although oilseed acreage rose only 8.6% over that six year period, yields rose more than 20%.
•At the PM-Kisan event, Mr. Modi noted that although the country’s granaries are full of cereals such as rice and wheat, with the government making record purchases from farmers at MSP rates, self-sufficiency is yet to be attained in pulses and oil. Previous efforts to boost the production of pulses in the country had resulted in a 50% growth over the last six years, he said. “The work we did in pulses, or in the past with wheat and paddy, now we have to take the same resolution for the production of edible oil also. For our country to be self-sufficient in this edible oil, we have to work fast,” he added.
•Noting that August 9 is the anniversary of the Quit India movement which fought for political independence, the Prime Minister said the NMEO-OP would resolve to allow India to be independent or self-reliant in edible oil production. “Through this mission, more than ₹11,000 crore will be invested in the edible oil ecosystem. The government will ensure that farmers get all needed facilities, from quality seeds to technology. Along with promoting the cultivation of oil palm, this mission will also expand the cultivation of our other traditional oilseed crops,” he said.
“For free, maritime trade, it is also necessary that we fully respect the rights of the seafarers of other countries,” Mr Modi said.
•A week into India’s United Nations Security Council (UNSC) month-long presidency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a debate on maritime security.
•The debate, titled, ‘Enhancing Maritime Security — A Case for International Cooperation’, had heads of state or government in attendance, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and Premier of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh.
•The UNSC adopted a ‘Presidential [India’s] Statement’ which reaffirmed that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) establishes the legal framework for maritime activities.
•Prime Minister Modi outlined a five-principle framework for the debate. The first was removing barriers to maritime trade. In this context, Mr Modi highlighted SAGAR (‘Security and Growth for all in the Region’) — a 2015 Indian framework for regional maritime security.
•“For free, maritime trade, it is also necessary that we fully respect the rights of the seafarers of other countries,” Mr. Modi said.
•Second, Mr. Modi said, maritime disputes “should be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law,” adding that this was “extremely important for promoting mutual trust and confidence, and ensuring global peace and stability.”
•“It was with this understanding, and maturity, that India resolved its maritime boundary with its neighbour Bangladesh,” the Prime Minister said.
•Mr. Modi underlining the need for maritime disputes to be resolved peacefully is presumably aimed at China’s actions in the South China Sea, where it has militarised islands and unilaterally enforced its claims over disputed waters. That was also a point Mr. Modi had underlined in his speech on India and the Indo-Pacific at the 2018 Shangri La dialogue, where he said India supported “a common rules-based order for the region” that “must believe in sovereignty and territorial integrity” and “rules and norms based on the consent of all, not on the power of the few”, as well as the peaceful settlement of disputes.
•The third principle Mr Modi proposed at Monday’s debate was that countries jointly tackle maritime threats from non-state actors and natural disasters.
•“India’s role in the Indian Ocean has been that of a net security provider,” he said.
•Fourth, he said the maritime environment and marine resources needed to be conserved, highlighting pollution from plastic waste and oil spills.
•Fifth, Mr Modi called for responsible maritime connectivity, saying a structure was required to boost maritime trade, with the development of global norms and standards.
•External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar chaired the meeting after Mr Modi. Several speeches, including that of Mr. Modi, Mr. Putin and Mr. Blinken were interrupted or overlaid in parts by a non-muted microphone.
Putin-Blinken spat
•Mr Putin was the only Head of State/ Government of the Permanent-5 or P-5 members of the UNSC who participated in the discussion.
•“Russia has always played an important role in global maritime security. It is an important player in global security, safety and prosperity,” Mr. Modi said after Mr. Putin’s remarks.
•This was in sharp contrast to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments on Russia later in the debate.
•“In the Black Sea, Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov, we see continued aggressive actions against Ukraine with dangerous incursions on the sea and in the air, and the harassment of vessels, which are disrupting commerce, and energy access,” Mr Blinken said, in a reference to Russia. He suggested China was violating maritime laws and he held Iran responsible for the attack on MV Mercer Street.
•“Somebody asserts that resolving the dispute in the South China Sea is not the business of the United States or any other country that is not a claimant to the islands and waters,” Mr Blinken said. “But it is the business. And even more — the responsibility — of every member state to defend the rules that we all agreed to follow and peacefully resolve maritime disputes,” he said.
•“What’s more, when a state faces no consequences for ignoring these rules, it fuels greater impunity and instability everywhere,” he added.
•The U.S. has not ratified UNCLOS but recognizes it as international law.
•China was represented by its Deputy Representative to the UN, Dai Bing. Referring indirectly to the Quad — the grouping of India, Australia, the U.S. and Japan — Mr Dai slammed the formation of “exclusive groupings” and pointed out that the United States has not signed UNCLOS.
•“The UNSC is not the right platform for a discussion on the South China Sea,” Mr Dai said, referring to Mr Blinken’s remarks.
•He also referred to several instances in which marine life was affected by the industrial actions of major powers, calling out Japan for releasing the radioactive water of the Fukushima nuclear reactors.
•The African Union was represented by the DRC’s s Christophe Lutundula Apala PenApala, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. India has been a proponent of greater representation of African interests at the Security Council.
•French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the maritime domain has emerged as a theatre for new generation of challenges and urged greater cooperation among the members of the UN Security Council to deal with the issue. He also condemned the attack on MV Mercer Street, as did UK’s Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace who was present at the meeting.
•“Like India, the UK has a vision for a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific. That is why the United Kingdom’s recent Integrated Review of Foreign, Security, Defence and Development policy set out the importance we attach to the Indo-Pacific,” Mr. Wallace said.
•“Whatever happens there, matters to the world,” he said.
📰 Govt. delaying Collegium recommendations on appointment of judges to High Courts, says SC
It has affected the early adjudication of important cases, says apex court
•The Centre’s delay, for months and years on end, to act on the recommendations of the Collegium and appoint judges to High Courts has affected the early adjudication of important cases, especially high-stake commercial issues, the Supreme Court lashed out in an order on Monday.
•“The Delhi High Court will be with less than 50% judges in a week’s time, having only 29 judges out of a strength of 60 judges... Two decades back when one of us [Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul] was appointed as a judge, it was as the 32nd judge of the Court whereas the strength was 33 judges,” a Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy noted in the order.
•The government’s “recalcitrant attitude” has left the High Courts with skeletal judicial strength. The government has ignored the timeline set by the Supreme Court to decide on the Collegium recommendations.
•“The recommendations take months and years to reach the Collegium and thereafter months and years no decisions are taken post the Collegium. The judicial institution of the High Courts is manned by a number of judges where it will become almost impossible to have an early adjudication even on important issues,” the Supreme Court said.
•“If there is some element of loss being caused by the inability of the judicial institution to take up matters, this is a direct consequence of there being inadequate number of judges,” the apex court said.
•The court said the government “must realise” that adequate number of judges is a ‘necessity’ for early adjudication of commercial disputes.
•The order was passed in an appeal involving government investigation arising from anti-dumping proceedings.
📰 Parliament proceedings | Parliament passes Bills on tribunal reforms, taxation
Bill to set up new Central university in Ladakh also cleared
•Parliament on Monday cleared three Bills to abolish several appellate tribunals, to end retrospective tax on indirect transfer of Indian assets, and create a new Central university in Ladakh. The three Bills were cleared by the Rajya Sabha, having been passed by the Lok Sabha earlier in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.
•The first of the three Bills to be cleared, the Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Bill, 2021, will replace an ordinance. During the discussion on the Bill, Biju Janata Dal’s Sujeet Kumar, who was the first speaker, said that the legislation would help in removing an extra layer of adjudication. He, however, pointed out that there were still some key flaws in the Bill, including the fact that short tenures of the members would ensure executive hold on the tribunals. Also age criterion set in the Bill was meaningless. “If you can become a High Court Judge at 40 years, it is not logical that to be a member of tribunals as per the Bill you have to be 50 years old,” he said.
•The Opposition utilised the opportunity to speak on the Bill to raise the Pegasus cyber attack issue. DMK MP N.R Elango said, “I oppose the Bill. The government wants to remove certain tribunals, which will increase the burden of the High Courts. Rather, I would demand that the government establish a tribunal to investigate Pegasus cyber attack.”
•In her response, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman questioned the Congress for raising concerns about judicial independence, being a party that curtailed the same during the Emergency. She said the government fully respected the independence of the judiciary, but also respected the power of the legislature.
•The House then took up and returned the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, after the Opposition staged a walkout over what they termed was the last-minutes inclusion of the Bill in the day’s list of business.
•Ms. Sitharaman said the amendment would undo the 2012 amendment that brought in retrospective taxation. India’s sovereign right would not be diluted by the Bill, she said.
📰 Glaciers will keep shrinking: IPCC report
‘Fall in snow cover in Hindu Kush Himalayan region’
•Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region will keep shrinking and the snow cover will retreat to higher altitudes, the latest IPCC report said on Monday.
•The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), approved by 195 member-countries, warned that extreme precipitation is projected to increase in major mountainous regions with potential cascading consequences of floods, landslides and lake outbursts in all scenarios.
•One of the authors of the report, Krishna Achuta Rao, said that in the HKH region, the snow cover had reduced since the early 21st century and glaciers had thinned, retreated and lost mass since the 1970s. However, he said, the Karakoram glaciers had either slightly gained mass or were in an approximately balanced state.
•“Snow-covered areas and snow volumes will decrease during the 21st century, snowline elevations will rise and glacier mass is likely to decline with greater mass loss in higher greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Rising temperatures and precipitation can increase the occurrence of glacial lake outburst floods and landslides over moraine-dammed lakes,” Mr. Rao said.
Permafrost thaw
•According to the report, mountain glaciers will continue to shrink and permafrost to thaw in all regions where they are present.
•Another author of the report, Swapna Panickal, who is a scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said human influence was responsible for the retreat of glaciers since the 20th century and that was not only the case in the two poles, but also for mountain glaciers.
📰 IPCC report forecasts a future of severe weather
Global warming to trigger extreme rain in South India, it says
•The current global warming trends overall are likely to lead an increase in annual mean precipitation over India, with more severe rains expected over southern India in the coming decades, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Report, public on Monday.
•The planet was irrevocably headed towards warming by 1.5° Celsius over pre-industrial times in the next two decades, according to the most updated scientific consensus from the IPCC.
•Keeping global warming below 2° Celsius of pre-industrial levels by the turn of century and endeavouring to limit it to 1.5°C was at the heart of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Unless extremely deep emission cuts were undertaken by all countries immediately, these goals were unlikely to be met. In line with this, the IPCC has recommended that countries strive to achieve net zero emissions — that is, no additional greenhouse gases were emitted — by 2050.
•In the most ambitious emissions pathway, the projection is that globe would reach the 1.5°C in the 2030s, overshoot to 1.6°C, with temperatures dropping back down to 1.4°C at the end of the century.
•India has not yet committed to a net zero timeline.
•The Sixth Assessment Report, has been finalised and approved by 234 authors and 195 governments, and updates the scientific consensus on extreme weather, human attribution, the carbon budget, feedback cycles, and charts the future state of the climate since the 5th Assessment Report of 2014. The 3,000-plus-page report said warming is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extremes such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms. Tropical cyclones are getting stronger and wetter, while Arctic sea ice is dwindling in the summer and permafrost is thawing. All of these trends will get worse, the report said.
•India is currently the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter, but per capita emissions are much lower. The U.S. emitted nearly 9 times more greenhouse gases per capita than India in 2018. Based on existing commitments by countries to curb their emission, the world is on track for global temperature warming by at least 2.7°C by 2100, predicts the report, calling it ‘Code red for humanity’.
•The latest scientific assessment will influence discussions on the Conference of Parties meeting in Glasgow later this year where countries are expected to announce plans and steps they have taken to curb emissions. The report release follows a two-week long plenary session held virtually from July 26 to August 6, 2021, in which the report was scrutinized line-by-line for approval by government representatives in dialogue with report authors.
Impact on India
•The report warns that with a 7,517 km coastline, India will face significant threats from rising seas. Across six Indian port cities — Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Surat and Visakhapatnam — 28.6 million people will be exposed to coastal flooding if sea levels rise 50cm, according to one study that forms part of the IPCC report.
•“With warming, we are seeing that there are specially varying patterns of change that are projected over the future. There is intensification of the water cycle, which is going to affect the rainfall patterns... Change in the monsoon precipitation is also expected,” said Dr. Swapna Panickal, Scientist with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology at Pune and among the authors of the report. “While there isn’t much (scientific) model agreement on the changes in the heavy precipitation events, we can definitely say that hot extremes are projected to increase and cold extremes are projected to decrease in the 21st century,” she said.
•Alok Sharma, COP26 President said in a statement: “The science is clear. The impacts of the climate crisis can be seen around the world and if we don’t act now, we will continue to see the worst effects impact lives, livelihoods and natural habitats. Our message to every country, government, business and part of society is simple. The next decade is decisive, follow the science and embrace your responsibility to keep the goal of 1.5C alive. We can do this together, by coming forward with ambitious 2030 emission reduction targets and long-term strategies with a pathway to net zero.”
•"Developed Countries have usurped far more than their fair share of the global carbon budget. Reaching net zero alone is not enough, as it is the cumulative emissions up to net zero that determine the temperature that is reached. This has been amply borne out in the IPCC report. It vindicates India’s position that historical cumulative emissions are the source of the climate crisis that the World faces today, " anvironment minister, Bhupendra Yadav, said in a statement.
📰 ‘Climate report must be death knell for fossil fuels’
Can’t delay ambitious climate action any longer: Blinken
•A bombshell climate science report “must sound a death knell” for coal, oil and gas, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, warning that fossil fuels were destroying the planet.
•The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature goal of the Paris Agreement would likely be breached around 2030 — a decade earlier than it itself projected just three years ago.
•“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet,” Mr. Guterres said in a statement.
•World leaders, green groups and influencers reacted on Monday to the “terrifying” UN climate science report with a mix of horror and hopefulness as the scale of the emergency dawned on many.
•“This moment requires world leaders, the private sector and individuals to act together with urgency and do everything it takes to protect our planet,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
•“We cannot delay ambitious climate action any longer,” he added.
•U.S. Presidential envoy on climate John Kerry said the IPCC report showed “the climate crisis is not only here, it is growing increasingly severe”.
‘It’s not too late’
•Frans Timmermans, the European Union’s deputy climate chief said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group 1 report showed “it’s not too late to stem the tide and prevent runaway climate change”.
•Britain’s Boris Johnson, whose government is hosting a crucial climate summit in November, said the assessment “makes for sobering reading”.
•“I hope today’s IPCC report will be a wake-up call for the world to take action now, before we meet in Glasgow in November for the critical COP26 summit,” he said.
•Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said the 3,500-page assessment confirmed that climate vulnerable nations were “on the edge of extinction”.
•Saleemul Huq, director of Dhaka-based environmental think tank ICCCAD, said the IPCC report was “the final warning that bubble of empty promises is about to burst”.
•Climate wunderkind Greta Thunberg said the report was a “solid (but cautious) summary” of the state of the planet. “It doesn’t tell us what to do,” she said on Twitter.
•“It is up to us to be brave and take decisions based on the scientific evidence provided in these reports. We can still avoid the worst consequences...”
📰 Road ahead from Gogra: on India-China disengagement process
While disengagement happens, a long-lasting solution along the LAC remains a challenge
•After the talks on July 31, India and China have taken one more step towards restoring peace and normalcy on the LAC by disengaging at Gogra. It is, however, only one step, and the road ahead towards returning to the status quo of April 2020, before the tensions of last summer upended years of a carefully managed even if uneasy peace along the LAC, remains uncertain. It has taken 12 rounds of military-level talks to see both sides disengage and put in place buffer zones in the Galwan Valley, the site of the June 2020 clash that marked the worst violence since 1967, Pangong Lake, and now Patrolling Point 17 in Gogra. The disengagement process at PP17 took place on August 4 and 5, with a return to permanent bases. The next round of talks will discuss PP15 in Hot Springs. Demchok, where China has transgressed in relatively smaller numbers than the deployments seen in Pangong Lake, also remains unresolved. Beijing has appeared unwilling to discuss the strategically significant Depsang plains, where the Chinese side has been blocking Indian patrols. The buffer zone model, where both sides temporarily cease patrolling in disputed areas, has appeared to work so far in keeping the peace. It is, however, only a temporary measure, and one that India should not accept as permanent as it would prevent India from enforcing its territorial claims and favour the PLA, which can deploy faster in larger numbers owing to more favourable terrain and better logistics.
•The next step will be full de-escalation, and a withdrawal of some of the new forward deployments that have come up close to the LAC. India has signalled that it is prepared for the long haul; its message: relations cannot return to normal without a full restoration of normalcy on the borders. While the strategic motivations of China’s border deployments last year are not clear, the tactical objectives are not difficult to ascertain. Since the 2017 Doklam crisis, China has consistently stepped up building new permanent airbases and air defence units closer to the LAC, with at least 13 new positions coming up since then, according to an analysis of satellite images from Stratfor. India has been moving to rapidly upgrade its own infrastructure to close the gap. The result is an entirely changed security dynamic along the LAC. There is a need to come up urgently with new protocols and confidence-building measures, as both sides gradually resume patrolling in the buffer zones. The multiple transgressions by China and the violence of last year have set back years of efforts to carefully manage the borders and thrown into doubt whether the four agreements regulating the behaviour of both sides still remain valid. While the recent moves towards restoring the peace are certainly welcome, finding a more long-lasting solution to ensure peace along the LAC will present a taller challenge.
📰 Code red: On IPCC's warning on climate points
IPCC’s warning on climate points to a small window of opportunity that still exists
•The IPCC has issued arguably its strongest warning yet on impending catastrophe from unmitigated global warming caused by human activity, lending scientific credence to the argument that rising wildfires, heatwaves, extreme rainfall and floods witnessed in recent times are all strongly influenced by a changing climate. In a stark report on the physical science basis of climate change contributed for a broader Assessment Report of the UN, the IPCC’s Working Group I has called for deep cuts to carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases and a move to net zero emissions, as the world would otherwise exceed 1.5°C and 2°C of warming during the 21st century with permanent consequences. Climate change is described by many as a far greater threat to humanity than COVID-19, because of its irreversible impacts. The latest report is bound to strengthen the criticism that leaders in many countries have stonewalled and avoided moving away from coal and other fossil fuels, while even those who promised to act, failed to influence the multilateral system. The new report attributes catastrophic events to sustained global warming, particularly the frequency and intensity of hot extremes, marine heatwaves, heavy precipitation, agricultural and ecological droughts, proportion of intense tropical cyclones, reductions in Arctic Sea ice, snow cover and permafrost. A phenomenon such as heavy rainfall over land, for instance, could be 10.5% wetter in a world warmer by 1.5°C, and occur 1.5 times more often, compared to the 1850-1900 period.
•More than five years after the Paris Agreement was concluded, there is no consensus on raising ambition to reduce emissions, making access to low carbon technologies easier, and adequately funding mitigation and adaptation. COVID-19 had the unexpected effect of marginally and temporarily depressing emissions. The IPCC’s analysis presents scenarios of large-scale collapse of climate systems that future leaders would find virtually impossible to manage. Heatwaves and heavy rainfall events experienced with increasing frequency and intensity are just two of these, while disruptions to the global water cycle pose a more unpredictable threat. Also, if emissions continue to rise, oceans and land, two important sinks and the latter a key part of India’s climate action plan , would be greatly weakened in their ability to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. The new report sets the stage for the CoP26 conference in November. The only one course to adopt there is for developed countries with legacy emissions to effect deep cuts, transfer technology without strings to emerging economies and heavily fund mitigation and adaptation. Developing nations should then have no hesitation in committing themselves to steeper emissions cuts.
📰 A circular economy for plastic
The India Plastics Pact will benefit society, the economy and the environment
•The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has long been at the forefront of addressing issues challenging the well-being of society. Of the many sustainability challenges that impact societies, climate change and plastic waste have a special significance. A 2019 report by the Center for International Environmental Law suggests that by 2050, greenhouse gas emissions from plastic could reach over 56 gigatonnes, 10-13% of the remaining carbon budget. However, viewed from the angle of livelihoods, post-consumer segregation, collection and disposal of plastics make up about half of the income of 1.5- 4 million waste-pickers in India.
•A 2021 report commissioned by Google, Closing the Plastics Circularity Gap, suggests that unless large-scale global interventions are made, “we should expect to mismanage more than 7.7 billion metric tonnes of plastic waste globally over the next 20 years... [which is] equivalent to 16-times the weight of the human population...” Among the many applications of plastic, plastic packaging is the largest.
The solution
•For India, the solution must be multi-pronged, systemic, and large scale, to create a visible impact. The Plastics Pacts model offers such a solution and is active in a number of countries including the U.K., South Africa, and Australia. It is now being brought to India by CII and WWF India.
•The Plastics Pacts are business-led initiatives and transform the plastics packaging value chain for all formats and products. The Pacts bring together everyone from across the plastics value chain to implement practical solutions. All Pacts unite behind four targets: to eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign and innovation; to ensure all plastic packaging is reusable or recyclable; to increase the reuse, collection, and recycling of plastic packaging; and to increase recycled content in plastic packaging.
•The India Plastics Pact, the first in Asia, will be launched in September at the CII Annual Sustainability Summit. It can be expected to boost demand for recycled content, investments in recycling infrastructure, jobs in the waste sector, and beyond. The first Plastics Pact was launched in the U.K. in 2018, by WRAP, a global NGO based in the U.K., in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The U.K. Pact helped channel over £120 million worth of investments in recycling infrastructure resulting in 300,000 tonnes of new recycling capacity. The Pact will support the Extended Producer Responsibility framework of the government and improve solid waste management as envisioned in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Integral to the Pact’s framework is the involvement of the informal waste sector crucial to post-consumer segregation, collection and processing of plastic waste. The India Plastics Pact is supported by WRAP, which supports many Pacts globally. This association will ensure access to expertise and knowledge from different Pacts worldwide.
The India Plastics Pact
•The India Plastics Pact focuses on solutions and innovation. Members’ accountability is ensured through ambitious targets and annual data reporting. The Pact will develop a road map for guidance, form action groups composed of members, and initiate innovation projects. While the India Plastics Pact will be active in India, it will link globally with other Plastics Pacts. Many Indian businesses and organisations have expressed an interest in signing up to the Pact. Deeper and long-lasting benefits will be felt across the supply chains of these businesses, most of which comprise MSMEs. The Pact will encourage development and maturing of the entire plastics production and management ecosystem. Apart from benefits to society and economy, delivering the targets will drive circularity of plastics and help tackle pollution. They will lead to significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
📰 Misinformation through a feminist lens
Sexism and online harassment prevent women from taking vocal stands and hinder progress
•The online world amplifies the social norms of the physical world. Women face aggressive and offensive trolling on the Internet, designed to undermine and discredit them professionally and shame them into silence. A perfect example is the ‘Sulli Deals’ app recently created on GitHub that auctioned Muslim women. The active participation of vocal women, especially from minority communities, is resisted by those who do not wish the social order to be disrupted. This isn’t to say that men are not targeted online, but the attacks faced by both sexes are vastly different. Misinformation/disinformation also targets men and women differently and unsurprisingly so, especially in India where gender disparity among Internet users is high.
Gendering misinformation
•Take, for instance, the type of misinformation used against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi who come from the same socio-economic and political background. Mr. Gandhi is referred to as ‘Pappu’ by his critics. The usual misinformation targeting him questions his intellect. But the same cannot be said for his mother. Whether it’s Hollywood actresses sporting bikinis misidentified as Ms. Gandhi or a morphed photo that shows her sitting on a man’s lap, she is portrayed to be an ‘indecent’ woman to undercut her politics. Ms. Gandhi’s position of power does not shield her from vulgar misinformation.
•A report by Amnesty International last year said that 95 female politicians out of 724 received nearly one million hateful mentions on Twitter between March and May, one in five of which was sexist or misogynistic.
•But misinformation like other forms of abuse has inter-sectional challenges. While actor Swara Bhaskar receives some of the most sexist troll attacks, activist Safoora Zargar is targeted for being a woman as well as a Muslim. After her arrest for participating in protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, pornographic videos were shared in Ms. Zargar’s name on social media. Organised disinformation and sexism intersect with Islamophobia, castetism, religious bigotry and other forms of discrimination to threaten vocal women from minority communities.
•The harassment is so rampant that more often than not, women are asked to either ignore the abusers or block such handles. As always, women are expected to take precautionary measures instead of men being asked to behave. We also seldom question Twitter on its failure to stop the spread of pornographic content. The women of Shaheen Bagh were targeted in a similar fashion. Surely a social media giant has the ability to detect and purge nudity, especially when shared with hateful captions?
•Gendering misinformation should be a part of the feminist discourse. The world has drastically changed after the advent of the Internet and the digital space has the power to impact democracies. But women do not get an equal opportunity to make themselves heard because they are shut down with sexism or, worse, the threat of sexual violence. Former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union leader Shehla Rashid was forced to delete her Facebook account after receiving rape threats for speaking in favour of interfaith marriage. Journalist Rana Ayyub has also complained several times of rape threats making their way into her Twitter messages. A report that I wrote in 2018 revealed how thousands of men on a closed Facebook group, ‘Sharing is Caring’, sold Instagram and Facebook pages featuring young women. Many of these metamorphosed into political pages after gaining a substantial following. I was targeted with sexist attacks after the workings of the group were made public. Its members shared my pictures while commenting ‘sharing is caring’, a sexist pun on the group’s name.
•But while on the one hand women are targeted with sexist attacks, on the other, their sexuality is used to further misinformation. Some men hide behind female pseudonyms to get attention. Last year, the Chhattisgarh Police arrested a 31-year-old man for running multiple fake Facebook accounts posing as a woman and “posting provocative comments that could hurt social harmony”.
•Men are at the centre of the disinformation ecosystem in India — an ecosystem created by them and for them. While women also share false news, the number of men disseminating misinformation is higher for the simple reason that they are greater in number on the Internet (almost double the female population). Men manufacture false news and also fall for such news. They are proof that ‘women gossip more’ is a gender stereotype. Even if we look at this phenomenon from a greater perspective, there are more men in politics and they rely on disinformation to keep propaganda alive. A recent report by UNESCO on online harassment faced by women journalists says that political actors instigate and fuel online violence campaigns against women journalists. India is privy to such abuse — women journalists and activists are targeted not only by troll armies but also by office-bearers of political parties.
•One of the most recent incidents that exposes gendered disinformation in India is the Rhea Chakraborty saga. Actor Sushant Singh Rajput was hailed as a self-made man without faults but Ms. Chakraborty was trashed on television and on social media — both spaces dominated by men — as a ‘gold-digging seductress’. The whole episode was a reminder of deep-rooted internalised misogyny in the country. Women also participated in propagating Ms. Chakraborty as the ‘culprit’ and rejoiced when she was arrested. Why did they not show solidarity? Because patriarchal norms, while subordinating women, also give them the power to oppress women more vulnerable than them.
A symbiotic relationship
•Misinformation and sexism have a symbiotic relationship. Misinformation piggybacks on sexism to discredit vocal women and sexism uses misinformation to reinforce patriarchal norms. While organised misinformation and trolling affect women on a personal level, the issue that is often ignored is the effect they have on democracy. A healthy democracy is participatory and promotes gender inclusiveness. Sexism and misinformation intimidate women from taking vocal stands and are antithetical to a progressive society.
•Historically, feminist movements have led to democratisation. Women empowerment cannot be separated from a modern society. Savitribai Phule could reform modern education in the 1800s because her husband Jotirao Phule, a ‘Shudra’ himself, equipped her with knowledge restricted for the Brahmin community. Jotirao was also fortunate to receive education in the first place because of the foresight of his widowed aunt. Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju, the only openly gay women lawyers in India, reformed the LGBTQ movement in the country by winning the landmark case in 2018 that decriminalised gay sex. These women went against the social norms of their time to make India more democratically sound. There is no extent to the reforms that women are capable of bringing and progress can happen faster with solidarity. But women who don’t conform to social norms are almost never supported and the intersection of sexism and misinformation justifies their abuse. While social media gives a platform for women to raise issues, repeated abuse takes away that freedom. Social media, the place that bolstered the #MeToo movement, is the same place used to shut women down.
📰 The shaky foundation of the labour law reforms
It could be a long wait before employers and workers enjoy the so-called benefits extended by the labour codes
•The National Democratic Alliance government enacted the Code on Wages in August 2019 and the other three Codes, viz., the Industrial Relations Code, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code and Code on Social Security (CSS) in September 2020. Later, it had framed the draft rules albeit incompletely under all the codes — incompletely because the rules have not covered some aspects of the Codes, e.g. rules regarding recognition of central trade unions have not been framed so far.
A rushed exercise
•Controversies surround the processes of the enactment of codes and the framing of rules. The Government has held only symbolic and partial consultation with the central trade unions. The three codes were passed in Parliament even as the Opposition parties, otherwise insignificant, boycotted the proceedings. The tearing hurry in which the Government carried out the reforms even during the COVID-19 period gave tremendous hope to employers and potential investors. It announced its intentions of implementing the Codes from April 1, 2021 even as State governments were completely unprepared with the rules. Further, the major political parties reallocated their energies to regional elections rather than the implementation of codes. Symbolically, labour law reforms have been affected and the government can boast of it. Since the Government has not shown serious intent to implement the codes, the NDA government effected reforms to boast that it has executed the long-pending reforms; simply put, it is more symbolic rather than a meaningful act.
Court directives
•The central government has deferred the possible date of implementation to October 1, 2021, again tentatively. In the meanwhile, the Supreme Court of India has exerted pressure on both the central and the State governments to implement a ‘one nation, one ration card’ (ONOR) scheme and register all the unorganised workers under the National Database for Unorganized Workers (NDUW), which was to have been done by July 31, 2021. Government agencies are rushing to comply with both the directives. In ONOR, Aadhaar seeding and the universal availability of an electronic point of sale (EPOS) system are necessary. And for the NDUW, it has to register each of the approximately 400 million workers, a conservative figure.
•Perhaps, the Supreme Court passed such an extraordinary perhaps impracticable order following the hesitancy in early 2020 to provide relief to suffering migrant workers following the national lockdown. The governments did not honour the Supreme Court’s orders relating to the registration of construction workers for many years. So, it has a bad track record. One is not sure when governments would comply fully and well with the Supreme Court’s orders. Unorganised workers including migrant workers will continue to be deprived of their promised and extended entitlements.
Government’s line vs reality
•The Government said the codes would extend universal minimum wages and social security, enable enhanced industrial safety and the provision of social security to gig workers, among other things. The Industrial Relations Code provides for recognition of trade union(s) by employers, a labour right that eluded workers for seven decades. On the other hand, employers celebrated the extension of tremendous flexibility to them, even those unasked, such as relief from framing standing orders for most firms. But do they enjoy these benefits?
•On August 3, 2021, I browsed the Simpliance website (a law portal) to assess the record of State governments regarding rules under the codes. It was a revelation to find that major States such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi have not issued the draft rules under any codes. Karnataka, Gujarat and Jharkhand have framed Rules for the Code on Wages and the Industrial Relations Code. Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab have framed rules for all the codes. Even though the Code on Wages was enacted in August 2019, it was only in March 2021 that the central government notified the constitution of an advisory committee. On June 3, 2021 it also announced an expert committee with a tenure of three years to advise it on minimum wages. Then, on July 12, 2021, it announced that the wage index’s base year would be shifted from 1965 to 2019 to use the revised wage index to determine minimum wages. The Government seems to be clueless regarding the implementation of minimum wages.
Poor safety record
•The incidence of major industrial accidents has remained undiminished even during the COVID-19 period. For instance, IndustriAll reported that between May to June, 32 major industrial accidents occurred in India, killing 75 workers. The media reported four accidents in Vizag during 2020. Safe in India’s annual reports, CRUSHED, for 2019 and 2020, provide a disturbing picture of industrial accidents in the automobile industry in the Gurgaon region. Industrial safety continues to be a grave concern even after the enactment of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code.
•According to several research reports, COVID-19 intensified informality, led to the withdrawal of workers from the labour market, reduced earnings, increased unemployment and widened inequality. The non-statutory floor level minimum wage remains a meagre ₹178 still even as Wholesale Price Index-inflation rates have galloped to 12% in June 2021. The Government’s relief measures to workers, especially unorganised and migrant workers and even to the so-called organised sector workers, are too meagre to make any difference. It did not implement the widely endorsed measure of direct benefit transfer at least for low-income families.
In perspective
•Thus, we see two aspects concerning labour market governance in India. One, the Government has failed to provide legal visibility to millions of unorganised and migrant workers, even after decades, and despite direction by the highest court in the land. Two, despite the gazetting of four Codes, age-old laws are in force. Thus, they reflect poorly not only on the governance abilities of the governments but also on the countervailing power of the Opposition parties. Were the labour law reforms rushed with little or no debate and consultation whatsoever, only to remain in the gazette books? Employers and workers cannot enjoy the so-called benefits extended by the codes.
•Given the facts mentioned above, the legislative impasse continues; one does not know how long it would be. However, India would score impressively on the ease of doing business exercise by any agency including the World Bank by the mere execution of labour reforms without them being implemented: what else then is needed!
