📰 Forest, tree cover in India up by 2,261 sq km in two years
A.P. followed by Telangana, Odisha saw most increase: report
•Forest and tree cover in the country had increased by 2,261 square kilometres since the last assessment in 2019, according to the India State of Forest Report-2021 released on Thursday.
•Releasing the report, Environment and Forest Minister Bhupender Yadav said the total forest and tree cover was 80.9 million hectares, which accounted for 24.62% of the geographical area of the country. The report said 17 States and Union Territories had more than 33% of their area under forest cover. Mr. Yadav said the Narendra Modi government’s focus was to enrich the forests qualitatively.
•The report found that there had been a 1,540 sq km increase in forest cover and 721 sq km increase in tree cover since the last report in 2019.
Top 3 States
•“Increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest followed by very dense forest. Top three States showing increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km),” a Ministry statement said.
•Madhya Pradesh had the largest forest cover, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra. The top five States in terms of forest cover as a percentage of their total geographical area were Mizoram (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), Meghalaya (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90%).
Mangrove cover
•The total mangrove cover in the country had increased by 17 sq km, to reach 4,992 sq km. The total carbon stock in forests was estimated to be 7,204 million tonnes, an increase of 79.4 million tonnes from 2019.
•The Ministry said the survey used mid-resolution satellite data, followed by “rigorous ground truthing” and information from other sources.
•“The accuracy level achieved in the current assessment is significantly high. The accuracy of forest cover classification has been assessed 92.99%. The accuracy of classification between forest and non-forest classes has been assessed 95.79% against internationally accepted accuracy of classification of more than 85%,” the Ministry said.
📰 India extends $900 mn aid to Sri Lanka
It includes a $400 mn currency swap and deferred payment of $500 mn
•India on Thursday confirmed a $400 million currency swap with Sri Lanka while deferring another $500 million due for settlement to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), in a move aimed at helping the island nation witnessing an unprecedented economic crisis.
•In a tweet on Thursday, the Indian mission in Colombo said High Commissioner Gopal Baglay met Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and expressed “India’s strong support to Sri Lanka” in the wake of the Reserve Bank of India extending facilities of $900 million over the last week.
•“Had an excellent discussion with Indian High Commissioner to #SriLanka HE Gopal Baglay at my office this morning where he confirmed the #SAARC #SWAP by RBI and other forms of bilateral cooperation,” Mr. Cabraal said in a tweet.
•India’s assistance follows a request from Sri Lanka during Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s visit to New Delhi in December, for emergency financial assistance, including Lines of Credit for importing essentials and a currency swap to boost Sri Lanka’s draining foreign reserves. Sri Lanka is facing a severe dollar crunch that economists say might lead to a default on external debt and create a food shortage in the imports-reliant island nation. Colombo must service over $7 billion outstanding debt in 2022, including bond repayments of $500 million in January and $1 billion in July.
•The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has expressed confidence about paying off the foreign debt. Ruling out an IMF bailout, Governor Cabraal on Wednesday said Colombo is in talks with Beijing for a new loan, in addition to the $500 million loan and $1.5 billion currency swap extended by Beijing as pandemic-time support. The request, according to local media reports, was also discussed during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Colombo last week. Sri Lanka owes China over $5 billion already, and Colombo has requested Beijing to restructure it to provide some relief.
•The developments have prompted political commentators in Sri Lanka to pit India and China against each other, in providing timely assistance to the island nation.
•In July 2020, the RBI extended a similar swap facility — of $400 million — to help Sri Lanka cope with the impact of the first wave of the pandemic, and later provided a three-month roll over until February 2021, when the Central Bank of Sri Lanka settled it.
•Thursday’s announcement on RBI assistance includes deferring the payment of $500 million that Sri Lanka owes to the ACU, a regional initiative with the Central Banks and Monetary Authorities of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
‘Leveraging Trinco deal’
•Significantly, India’s confirmation of the swap comes a week after the two countries signed a long-pending agreement on jointly developing the strategically located Trincomalee oil tank farm along the north-eastern coast of the island. Diplomatic sources had earlier indicated that any financial support from New Delhi to Colombo would have to follow the signing of the deal. While RBI’s assistance seeks to help Sri Lanka meet its immediate challenge, the Trincomalee project has long-term implications both, in terms of investment from New Delhi and its strategic interests in the Indian Ocean.
•“India ranks third in the world in oil consumption, and it is predicted that India’s requirement will increase 50 % by the year 2030. Keeping these realities in mind, we have to appreciate what developing the Trincomalee facility can bring to each of our countries, and to the bilateral relationship,” said Milinda Moragoda, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to New Delhi.
•Apart from the obvious potential for storage in Trincomalee, the recent agreement gives both countries an opportunity to elevate “transactional” ties to a more “strategic level”, he told The Hindu, recalling a proposal made in the “roadmap" on bilateral ties he presented while taking charge in New Delhi last year.
•Much would depend on putting in place a business plan swiftly, Mr. Moragoda emphasised. As per the agreement, Indian Oil Corporation subsidiary Lanka IOC would operate 14 tanks for 50 years, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation would run 24 tanks, while a joint venture set up by the CPC with Lanka IOC would operate 61 tanks in the facility spanning some 850 acres. Refurbishing each tank is expected to cost at least $ 100 million. “The sooner we evolve a sound business plan, the better this project will work for both countries,” he said.
Under a new leadership, ISRO will need to continue innovation
•This year, the harvest festival brings a change at the helm for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with S. Somanath who heads the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thiruvananthapuram taking over as its chairperson. He succeeds K. Sivan, who also came to head ISRO after having led the efforts at VSSC. Mr. Somanath is the third consecutive chairperson of ISRO to have a master’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science. The organisation thus sees a continuation of the recent trend of being led by engineers. It is to be seen if Mr. Somanath’s specific expertise in leading innovations in rocket engines, the cryogenic engine, for instance, will shape future developments at ISRO. If earlier the Mars Orbiter Mission, which broke the records for expense by costing just ₹7 per kilometre, and Chandrayaan 2, had kept anticipation high, the new chairperson will oversee the unfurling of the human space flight programme — Gaganyaan. Another long-awaited mission is Aditya-L1. This has morphed and grown into what will be India’s grandest investment in space dedicated to science, specifically, solar physics. The aim to take a space observatory to the Lagrangian point one (L-1) to study the Sun offers yet another frontier for ISRO to breach.
•Mr. Somanath will also lead a transition in the stance of ISRO towards privatisation. Until a few years ago, ISRO had remained largely preoccupied with deriving socio-economic benefits from space technology and applications that were used by the Government of India and some international collaborations. Of course, these ventures had a strong industry participation, but privatisation reforms have been pursued hard recently. The first announcement came in 2019, with the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) being floated in March, and the commercial arm of ISRO was more firmly established. Apart from building and launching satellites, the company will provide launch services, build customised launch vehicles, provide services of Earth observation and communication through satellites and also transfer technology to Indian industry. As a sequel to the establishment of NSIL came the announcement of the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center, in June 2020 — a channel through which non-governmental private enterprises can carry out space activities. The country’s imagination to get up to speed with other competing nations would be put to the test under the new leadership. ISRO and its sister organisations have much to offer in the form of spin-offs and technology transfer. Underlying these questions is the anticipation which stems from the very nature of space science; it not only contributes to immense learning and perspective but also unfolds the very horizon, enhancing universal feelings of oneness.
📰 Liberal economics creates illiberal societies
A new form of ‘Gandhian’ democratic socialism powered by cooperative economic enterprises is required
•A surging tide of nationalism and authoritarianism has imperilled democracy globally, and within presumptively democratic nations — the United States, India, the United Kingdom, and the European Union — too.
•Economies are not doing well. The benefits of growth are being sucked up to the 1% on the top; ‘trickle down’ to those below has diminished. With every global crisis — the financial crisis of 2007-08 and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis — the rich get richer while millions at the bottom fall off the ladder. Inequalities of wealth have increased around the world and India is becoming one of the world’s most unequal countries.
Political, economic symptoms
•Like the COVID-19 virus, whose origins scientists are struggling to understand, another disease has been crippling the well-being of nations for 30 years. Political symptoms of the disease are the weakening of democracy and secularism. Its economic symptoms are inequities within economies and an unsustainability of economic growth. The socio-political and economic pathologies are inter-related. Economic despair is feeding the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, and identity politics. Liberals who continue to advocate for more liberal economics must understand how their ideas have caused the rise of anti-liberal societies and governments which they lament. They can no longer have their cake and eat it too.
•Opening national borders to free trade became an ideology in economics in the last 30 years. Taxes of incomes and wealth at the top were also reduced. The ideological justification was that the animal spirits of ‘wealth creators’ must not be dampened. Otherwise, the pie will not grow and there will not be enough to share. With higher taxes until the 1970s, the U.S. and many countries in Europe had built up their public health and education infrastructure and strengthened social security systems. The rich are now being taxed much less than they were. The pie has grown larger but the richest few have been eating, and hoarding, most of it themselves.
On ‘privatisation’
•Governments are hamstrung without resources to provide public goods. ‘Privatisation’ of everything became another ideological imperative in economics by the turn of the century. Selling off public enterprises raises resources for funds-starved governments. Another justification is efficiency in delivery of services, setting aside ethical questions of equity. When ‘public’ is converted to ‘private’, rich people can buy what they need. In fact, they can buy more with their higher incomes even if the services become more expensive — better health care as well as better education for their children at the world’s best schools. The children of wealthier people with better education have greater access to opportunities in the future also. The gaps between the haves and the have-nots become larger.
Return of history
•With not enough in the present, and receding hopes of better conditions in the future, people lose faith in their governments. History shows that whenever hopelessness spreads in societies, they are fertile grounds for messianic saviours who whip up pride in citizens’ identities to distract them from their woes. History has not ended, even though Francis Fukuyama said it had when the Soviet Union collapsed. With it, he suggested, the idea of totalitarian governments as saviours of the people had been debunked; and the idea of public ownership of property, which the communists had taken to an extreme by abolishing all private property, had failed.
•History has returned. Authoritarian governments are now being democratically elected by people seeking a way out of the morass. The U.S., the leader of the Cold War against the Soviets, built the “Washington Consensus” around a starkly “unsocialist”, capitalist ideology which swept across erstwhile socialist countries of Europe and India too. Socialism seems to be back in U.S. politics now with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and young Democrats.
•Liberal economists, promoting free markets, free trade, and privatisation, are worried by nationalism and authoritarian governments. They rail against “populist” policies of governments that subsidise the poor and adopt industrial strategies for self-reliance and jobs for their citizens. Liberals must re-examine their ideas of economics, to understand their own culpability in creating authoritarian and identitarian politics.
The property problem
•Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology traces the ideology of “property” rights and its encounters with evolving ideas of “human” rights over the last three centuries. In proprietarian societies, it is just that he who owns more must have a greater say in the governance of the enterprise. In truly democratic societies, human rights must prevail, and every person, billionaire or pauper, must have an equal right to determine the rules of the game.
•Democratic and capitalist principles were becoming reconciled with “socialist” ideas in Europe and the U.S. after the World Wars, and in developing countries such as India after the collapse of colonialism. The socialist era ended with the collapse of communism and the resurgence of neoliberal economics around the world afterwards.
•While communism had lifted living standards, and the health and education of masses of poorer people faster than capitalism could, communism’s solution to the “property” question — that there should be no private property — was a failure. It deprived people of personal liberties. Capitalism’s solution to the property problem — replacing all publicly owned enterprises with privately owned ones (and reducing taxes on wealth and high incomes) has not worked either. It has denied many of their basic human needs of health, education and social security, and equal opportunities for their children.
•The private property solution has also harmed the natural environment. The belief that private owners will husband natural resources sustainably for all has proven false. When natural resources, and knowledge converted into “intellectual property”, become the property of business corporations, they will use them for the purpose for which a business corporation is created — which is to increase the wealth of its owners. The ecological commons are harmed, and social equity suffers.
