📰 India, U.S. militaries match skills in Alaska
Two sides set to hone skills in counter-terror operations in mountainous terrain and cold climate conditions
•The 17th edition of the India-U.S. bilateral exercise, Yudh Abhyas 2021, got under way at the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Alaska, U.S., with the two sides set to hone their skills in counter-terror operations in mountainous terrain and cold climate conditions.
•Interestingly, this is the only India-U.S. service exercise continuing in bilateral format.
Exercise became trilateral
•The India-U.S. Malabar naval exercise became trilateral with the addition of Japan in 2015 and further brought in all the Quad partners together with the inclusion of Australia in 2020. Similarly, Japan joined the India-U.S. bilateral air exercise, Cope India, as an Observer in 2018 and the plan is to make it trilateral in phases. India and the U.S. also hold a tri-service exercise.
•“The exercise aims at enhancing understanding, cooperation and inter-operability. It will focus on combined arms manoeuvres in cold climatic conditions and is primarily aimed at sharing tactical level drills and learning best practices from each other,” the Army said. The exercise scheduled from October 15 to 29 will culminate after a 48-hour validation phase.
•Exercise Yudh Abhyas is the largest running joint military training and defence cooperation endeavour between the two countries, the Army said.
•From the U.S. side, 300 soldiers belonging to the First Squadron (Airborne) of the 40th Cavalry Regiment and 350 soldiers of the 7 Madras infantry battalion of the Army are participating in the exercise. The 14-day training schedule includes activities on joint training in a counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism environment under the U.N. mandate, the Army said.
•“This will help them in undertaking joint operations at the battalion level in mountainous terrain with cold climatic conditions under the ambit of the U.N.” The previous version of this exercise was held at the Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in Bikaner in February 2021.
•At the opening ceremony, Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, Commander US Army, Alaska, stressed upon the importance of free exchange of ideas, concepts and best practices and the necessity to learn from each others’ experiences.
Trilateral formats
•Other than the Malabar, Japan had sent observers for the first time during Cope India 2018 as an Observer in 2018. As was reported by The Hindu then, the U.S. had proposed a trilateral air exercise with the three countries and so Japan was included as an Observer and the exercise elevated to trilateral level in phases.
•This leaves the bilateral Army exercise between the two countries in which too, the U.S. had suggested the inclusion of Japan few years back but was not accepted by India at that time. It could happen in the future, an official source said.
It ‘circled the globe before speeding towards its target, demonstrating an advanced space capability that caught U.S. intelligence by surprise,’ the Financial Times reported.
•China’s military has carried out its first-ever test of a “nuclear capable hypersonic missile”, according to a report on October 17.
•The missile in August “circled the globe before speeding towards its target, demonstrating an advanced space capability that caught U.S. intelligence by surprise,” the Financial Times reported.
•The newspaper quoted five people familiar with the test as saying the Chinese military launched a rocket that carried a hypersonic glide vehicle “which flew through low-orbit space before cruising down towards its target.” The missile “missed its target by about two-dozen miles”, three people told the newspaper, but two others added that it “showed that China had made astounding progress on hypersonic weapons and was far more advanced than U.S. officials realised.”
•The Financial Times noted that only the U.S., Russia and China were developing hypersonic glide vehicles, that are launched on rockets and then orbit the earth on their own speed. They are difficult to track because unlike ballistic missiles, they “do not follow the fixed parabolic trajectory”. The newspaper said the test would post a big challenge to U.S. missile defence systems because “the weapon could, in theory, fly over the South Pole.” “That would pose a big challenge for the U.S. military because its missiles defence systems are focused on the northern polar route,” the report said.
•The newspaper quoted security experts as saying the test was conducted in August. It noted that the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, which carries out launches, had in July announced its 77th launch of a Long March rocket, and in end-August said it had carried out a 79th flight, sparking speculation about a secretive 78th launch that had not been reported.
📰 The founder of a ‘mini-India’
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s ideas on religious unity and the use of education for national integration are still relevant
•Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, an iconic social reformer and founder of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), which has completed 100 years, was born on October 17, 1817. That was a long time ago, but his thought process is as relevant today as ever before.
Integration through education
•With the new National Education Policy, the role of education in national integration has been rekindled. National integration is a reality today. During colonialism, it was an ideal for Sir Syed. His distinctiveness lay in the way he used education as a tool for national integration. He said in 1883: “It is the... verdict of all the nations and great seers of the world that national progress depends on education and training (of the people). If, therefore, we desire the prosperity and development of our nation, we should strive for a national system of education to educate our people in science and technology.”
•Some scholars on colonial history have criticised some of Sir Syed’s statements on social order and his perceived closeness with the colonial government. However, to draw a generalised conclusion on Sir Syed’s convictions merely through the lens of some quotes without understanding their context would not be a fair way to assess his legacy. A person’s text should be judged in the context of the time in which they lived. The period of Sir Syed’s life was characterised by rapid transition — Mughal rule yielding to British imperialism. We must not underestimate the challenges posed by the new order for someone brought up in the old order. Sir Syed embraced change against all the odds.
•When Sir Syed started his project of educational renaissance, he invited all Indians to come together to join hands in the struggle against illiteracy. This arose from his wish to unshackle Hindus and Muslims from medieval thinking towards broad-mindedness, reason and progress. It is critical to understand that while his approach always remained inclusive, he gave special attention to Muslims as Hindus had embarked to the path to scientific education much earlier than Muslims. It is a known fact that the debate on the tension between religion and science had settled earlier among Hindus than Muslims. Sir Syed laid out his vision for Hindu-Muslim unity in a speech in January 1883 where he said, “India is like a bride which has got two beautiful and captivating eyes — Hindus and Muslims. Within the ranks of the Hindus or Muslims themselves, or even between brothers as also between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, there is dissension. But to make it perennial is a symptom of the decay of the family, the country, and of the nation.”
Inter-faith understanding
•The bonhomie between the two communities has always existed since the inception of the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College, the precursor of AMU. This was not a small task. During colonial rule, a narrative of hatred had been engineered by the British. Sir Syed led by example. During the Bismillah ceremony of his grandson Ross Masood, Sir Syed placed him in the lap of his friend Raja Jai Kishan Das. When Sir Syed established a madarsa in Ghazipur, he elected Raja Dev Narayan Singh as patron of the school. Sanskrit was one of the five languages taught at this school. The managing committee of MAO College comprised 22 members of whom nine were Hindus.
•Sir Syed laid the foundation of comparative religious studies and revived the spirit of Dara Shikoh’s philosophy — to bring major communities of India together by finding commonalities in their religions and assimilate them as a one mighty stream. This is why AMU established the Dara Shikoh Centre for Interfaith Understanding. Section 5 (2)(b) of the AMU Act empowers the university to promote the study of religions, civilisation and culture of India.
•In AMU’s 100 years, it has not only contributed to nation-building but also played a role in India’s quest for building friendly ties with the Muslim world. For this, AMU is recognised as an institution of national importance under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. During the course of history, AMU has passed through many challenges but never has it abandoned its inclusive character. Apart from drawing students from 26 other countries, it has students from 31 States and Union Territories and thus represents India’s multi-religious, multi-racial and multi-lingual character. This is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the centenary celebrations of AMU in 2020, called the institution a “mini-India”. Mr. Modi underscored the principles of ‘nation first’ and ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, while emphasising that Sir Syed established AMU with a rational, progressive and scientific mindset. It is appreciable that the Prime Minister invoked the contribution of a 19th century reformer in the making of 21st century India. This is a testament to the vision of a man who was far ahead of his times.
📰 Alarming hunger or statistical artefact?
The low rank on the Global Hunger Index should push India to look again at its policies and interventions
•This year’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) did not go down well with the government. This was expected given that it ranks India 101 out of 116 countries for which reliable and comparable data exist. To add insult to injury, the GHI puts India far below some of its neighbouring countries. Barring last year’s rank of 94 out of 107 countries, India’s rank has been between 100 and 103 since 2017. This year’s slide in the rank assumes significance especially in the context of COVID-19.
•Is India’s performance on hunger as dismal as denoted by the index or is it partly a statistical artefact? This question assumes immediacy, especially since the government has questioned the methodology and claimed that the ranking does not represent the ground reality. This calls for careful scrutiny of the methodology, especially of the GHI’s components.
•The GHI has four components. The first — insufficient calorie intake — is applicable for all age groups, whereas the remaining three — wasting (low weight for height), stunting (low height for age) and mortality — are confined to children under five years. The data on deficiency in calorie intake, accorded 33% weight, is sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Suite of Food Security Indicators (2021). Had the GHI been estimated using the latest data on calorie intake, usually provided by the National Sample Survey Office, things might have looked even worse given that the leaked report of 2019 indicated that consumption expenditure in India declined between 2011-12 and 2017-18 by 4%. In rural India, it was worse at about 10% per annum.
•The data on child wasting and stunting (2016-2020), each accounting for 16.6% of weight, are from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and World Bank, complemented with the latest data from the Demographic and Health Surveys. Under-five mortality data are for 2019 from the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Contrary to what is being claimed by the government, the assessment of the situation of hunger is not based on the results of a ‘four question’ opinion poll, conducted telephonically by Gallup. However, this does not mean that the GHI is free from inadequacies.
A problematic component
•Conceptually, the GHI is largely children-oriented with a higher emphasis on undernutrition than on hunger and its hidden forms, including micronutrient deficiencies. The first component — calorie insufficiency — is problematic for many reasons. The lower calorie intake, which does not necessarily mean deficiency, may also stem from reduced physical activity, better social infrastructure (road, transport and healthcare) and access to energy-saving appliances at home, among others. Recent analysis establishes that ‘physical disease environment’ at the State level also significantly influences the calorie intake. For a vast and diverse country like India, using a uniform calorie norm to arrive at deficiency prevalence means failing to recognise the huge regional imbalances in factors that may lead to differentiated calorie requirements at the State level. From this vantage point, a large proportion of the population in Kerala and Tamil Nadu may get counted as calorie deficient despite them being better in nutritional outcome indicators. So, prevalence of calorie deficiency in these States may be overestimated.
•Conversely, there are States that have a higher average level of calorie intake, such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, but their needs may even be higher than the earmarked level of required calories for India as a whole because these States have high prevalence of communicable diseases and low level of mechanisation in the economy. Thus, it is likely that the existing methodology might underestimate the prevalence of calorie deficiency in these States. All this raises questions on the appropriateness of the calorie component of the index. India’s own official estimates of prevalence of calorie deficiency are not free from this anomaly.
Tackling wasting and stunting
•The GHI highlights India’s dismal record in a domain that it can hardly defend, which is child undernutrition. India’s wasting prevalence (17.3%) is one among the highest in the world. Its performance in stunting, when compared to wasting, is not that dismal, though. Child stunting in India declined from 54.2% in 1998–2002 to 34.7% in 2016-2020, whereas child wasting remains around 17% throughout the two decades of the 21st century.
•Stunting is a chronic, long-term measure of undernutrition, while wasting is an acute, short-term measure. Child wasting can manifest as a result of an immediate lack of nutritional intake and sudden exposure to an infectious atmosphere. Quite possibly, several episodes of wasting without much time to recoup can translate into stunting. However, a higher order of priority was accorded to stunting, both in research and policy, for the right reasons as it is a stable indicator and does not oscillate with minor changes in circumstances, while wasting does. Sporadic emergent circumstances in different regions may increase wasting prevalence. Effectively countering episodes of wasting resulting from such sporadic adversities is key to making sustained and quick progress in child nutrition. Thus, variations in wasting prevalence across the region should guide the relative emphasis of policy attention.
•If India can tackle wasting by effectively monitoring regions that are more vulnerable to socioeconomic and environmental crises, it can possibly improve wasting and stunting simultaneously. There seems to be no short-cut way of improving stunting without addressing wasting. Additionally, studies say that COVID-19 is likely to exacerbate child undernutrition in general and child wasting in particular. Such insights should have driven social policy to counter the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on food and nutrition insecurity. Unfortunately, India lost this opportunity as Integrated Child Development Scheme services were either non-functional or severely disrupted — partly because the staff and services were utilised to attend to the COVID-19 emergency.
An exception
•India’s relatively better performance in the other component of GHI — child mortality — merits a mention. Studies suggest that child undernutrition and mortality are usually closely related, as child undernutrition plays an important facilitating role in child mortality. However, India appears to be an exception in this regard. India’s child mortality rate has been lower compared to Sub-Saharan African countries despite it having higher levels of stunting. This implies that though India was not able to ensure better nutritional security for all children under five years, it was able to save many lives due to the availability of and access to better health facilities.
•The low ranking does not mean that India fares uniformly poor in every aspect. Should we then dismiss the GHI as it shows India in a bad light and relegate it to political white noise because it does not suit us? Or should we gracefully accept its insights informing us that our performance in some aspects might actually be dismal and requires urgent attention and course correction? This ranking should prompt us to look at our policy focus and interventions and ensure that they can effectively address the concerns raised by the GHI, especially against pandemic-induced nutrition insecurity.
📰 Powering the energy sector
The Electricity (Amendment) Bill is a game-changer
•In an energy-dependent country like India, the availability of energy supplies at affordable rates is pivotal for fulfilling developmental priorities. But the energy sector is beset with problems. The distribution sector has for long been the bane of the power sector, consistently making huge losses owing to problems such as expensive long-term power purchase agreements, poor infrastructure, inefficient operations, and leakages and weaknesses in State-level tariff policies. Most discoms are deep into the red as high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses are chipping into their revenues.
Dismantling state monopoly
•Against this backdrop, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill of 2020 is a game-changing reform. The wide-ranging provisions of the Bill will set the process of de-licensing power distribution after the monopoly of the state is dismantled. This will provide the consumers with an option of choosing the service provider, switch their power supplier and enable the entry of private companies in distribution, thereby resulting in increased competition. In fact, privatisation of discoms in Delhi has reduced AT&C losses significantly from 55% in 2002 to 9% in 2020.
•Open access for purchasing power from the open market should be implemented across States and barriers in the form of cross subsidy surcharge, additional surcharge and electricity duty being applied by States should be reviewed. Discoms and regulators should be brought on board for proper implementation of open access, which will provide more options to consumers to choose their discom just as they are able to choose telecom providers.
•The question of tariffs needs to be revisited if the power sector is to be strengthened. Tariffs ought to be reflective of average cost of supply to begin with and eventually move to customer category-wise cost of supply in a defined time frame. This will facilitate reduction in cross subsidies. All this will happen when discoms are made autonomous and are allowed by regulatory authorities to revise tariffs without interference from the States.
•Electrical energy should be covered under GST, with a lower rate of GST, as this will make it possible for power generator/transmission/distribution utilities to get a refund of input credit, which in turn will reduce the cost of power. Other antidotes to the problem include use of technology solutions such as installation of smart meters and smart grids which will reduce AT&C losses and restore financial viability of the sector.
Push for renewal energy
•The impetus to renewal energy, which will help us mitigate the impact of climate change, is much needed. One option is to encourage roof-top solar plants. Despite its inherent benefits, the segment has shown relatively slow progress with an estimated installed capacity of 5-6 GW as on date, well short of the 2022 target.
•Another welcome feature of the Bill is the strengthening of the regulatory architecture of the sector. This will be done by appointing a member with a legal background in every electricity regulatory commission and strengthening the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity. This will ensure faster resolution of long-pending issues and reduce legal hassles.
•The Bill also underpins the importance of green energy by proposing a penalty for non-compliance with the renewable energy purchase obligations which mandate States and power distribution companies to purchase a specified quantity of electricity from renewable and hydro sources. This will ensure that India gradually moves towards non-fossil fuels thereby helping it meet its global climate change commitments.
•Some other significant features of the Bill such as the creation of an Electricity Contract Enforcement Authority to supervise the fulfillment of contractual obligations under power purchase agreement, cost reflective tariffs and provision of subsidy through DBT are commendable. Early passage of the Bill is critical as it will help unleash a path-breaking reform for bringing efficiency and profitability to the distribution sector.
