📰 Birth, death reporting to be automated
Centre plans revamp of Civil Registration System that is linked to National Population Register
•The Central government is planning to revamp the Civil Registration System (CRS) to enable the registration of birth and death in real-time with minimum human interface that will be independent of location, according to the 2020-21 annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
•The CRS, run by the Registrar General of India (RGI), is linked to the National Population Register (NPR), which already has a database of 119 crore residents. The report said there was a need to update the NPR again, first collated in 2010 and updated in 2015 with Aadhaar, mobile and ration card numbers “to incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration. The NPR is to be updated with the decennial Census exercise that has been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
•The report stated, “The CRS system is facing challenges in terms of timelines, efficiency and uniformity, leading to delayed and under-coverage of birth and death. To address the challenges faced by the system in providing prompt service delivery to the public, the Government of India has decided to introduce transformational changes in the Civil Registration System of the country through an IT [information technology] enabled backbone leading to registration of birth and death in real-time basis with minimum human interface.”
•It said the changes would be in terms of automating the process delivery points so that the service delivery was time-bound, uniform and free from discretion. “The changes would be sustainable, scalable and independent of the location.”
•Last year, several instances of the online registration system being compromised were reported from States, with the login IDs and passwords of sub-registrars compromised and available in the open domain.
•Following this, Deputy Registrar General Sandhya Singh issued an advisory to the Chief Registrars of all States to avoid the misuse of the online portal user and login ID.
•“A few State governments have reported issuance of fake birth and death certificates, including misuse of the User/Login ID and password created in the existing portal/software developed for online registration of birth and death by unauthorised persons. This has resulted in the registration of criminal cases in some instances,” the July 28, 2021 advisory stated.
•Presently, the online software available on www.crsorgi.gov.in is operational in 22 States and Union Territories.
Amendments to Act
•The RGI that functions under the MHA has also proposed amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 that will enable it to “maintain the database of registered birth and deaths at the national level.”
•According to the proposed amendments, the database may be used to update the Population Register, Electoral Register, Aadhar, Ration Card, Passport and Driving License databases, The Hindu had reported.
•The registration of birth and death is mandatory under the RBD Act and the Chief Registrar is mandated to publish a statistical report on the registered births and deaths during the year.
•The RGI is empowered under Section 3(3) of the 1969 Act to take steps to coordinate and unify the activities of Chief Registrars of Births and Deaths of all States.
•The MHA report noted that the proportion of total registered births and deaths had witnessed a steady increase over the years. “The registration level of births has increased to 89.3% in 2018 from 81.3% in 2009. On the other hand, the registration level of deaths has increased from 66.9% in 2009 to 86.0% in 2018,” it pointed out, adding that the level of total registration of deaths was lower than that of births in most of the States except in Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and in the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep.
DChildren are considered the bulwark of a nation’s future, and easing the passage for their growth and development should be the highest priority
•While incremental progress has been recorded in various sectors of child and adolescent health across the globe, there is a real risk that nations might completely fail to meet the United Nation’s sustainable development targets. Consider this single fact: Over 8.6 million deaths occurred among children and adolescents (0-20 years) in 2019. A new Lancet series calls attention to the crisis in the children and adolescent sector, urging for a complete rehaul of the way things are being done now.
•A series of four papers set out the current position, with the gains that have been made globally, but points out the stark variations in the global scenario, with some nations’ showing more marked improvements than others.
•Series coordinator and author Zulfiqar Bhutta, from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Centre for Global Child Health, Toronto and the Aga Khan University, Karachi says: “We have less than eight years to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and many child and adolescent health targets are off track. A holistic approach that supports children and their families from before birth through early adulthood is urgently needed to bring us back in line, building a foundation that will last a lifetime and improve health outcomes, economies, and society.”
•Children are considered the bulwark of a nation’s future, and easing the passage for their growth and development is part of the process of not only ensuring human rights of individuals, but also guaranteeing a country’s hereafter.
The need for comprehensive care
•The papers in the series take a broadspan, expansive view of the situation — exploring the determinants and building blocks of thriving, from preconception through foetal development up to 20 years of age. The first considers conditions of survival, growth, disability and education, focusing on the crucial periods in the lifecycle before adulthood that form the foundation for building human capital. It indicates that globally, an estimated 8.62 million deaths occurred between 28 weeks of gestation and 20 years of age in 2019.
•Another paper studies the impact of early life poverty on growth and development of children. The authors use data from low and middle income countries to substantiate the negative effects of early life poverty on the survival, nutrition and cognitive development of children and adolescents.
•The third paper, reviewing the evidence available, acknowledges that progress has been made globally in improving the coverage of key maternal, newborn, and early childhood interventions in low-income and middle-income countries, recording the advancements as contributing to a fall in child mortality and morbidity. However, there are huge inequities, and several children and adolescents do not thrive or survive because low-cost interventions are not deployed to their benefit. While calling for scaling-up of evidence-based interventions for children under five years, the authors also go on to highlight interventions for school-going children and the period of transition from childhood to adolescence. This includes recommendations to support mental health, address unintentional injuries, non-communicable diseases, and neglected tropical diseases.
•Yet another paper looks at improving health and social systems for all children in low and middle income countries, and suggests structural innovations that could be employed to deliver quality services for them. The authors argue that “structural reforms are more likely to improve service quality substantially and at scale than are micro-level efforts. Promising approaches include governing for quality (eg, leadership, expert management, and learning systems), redesigning service delivery to maximise outcomes, and empowering families to better care for children and to demand quality care from health and social systems.”
Effects of the pandemic
•Naturally enough, the pandemic makes an appearance, read into the context of identifying the chinks in the armour or the challenges in delivering appropriate services to children and adolescents. “The COVID-19 pandemic showed us the devastating effects that gaps in care and education can have on children. Health and social systems must be better equipped to work together to address the emerging needs of children and families as part of the effort to rebuild equitable and resilient services,” according to Maureen Black from RTI International and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (U.S.).
•Dr. Bhutta adds: “The challenges faced in responding to the needs of children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic should serve as a wake-up call to the global community, underlining the urgent need to transform the child and adolescent health agenda on a global scale.”
•The series, while calling for efforts to reimagine the delivery of services that will help children thrive, mentions that a piecemeal approach, catering only to certain age groups may not be the best way to handle the crises.
•Instead, the authors call for comprehensive care that spans nutrition, preventive health, education, economic, and community support across age groups from preconception through the age of 20. The close involvement of families, particularly in offering support right from the stage of pregnancy, continuing through the relevant years allowing the child to bloom, is also recommended strongly. It’s in the best interests of nations to take these recommendations in earnest, and ensure their future is taken care of in the present.
📰 Indonesia’s palm oil export ban and its impact on India
India meets half of its annual need for 8.3 million tonnes of palm oil from Indonesia
•The story so far: Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer, exporter, and consumer of palm oil, would be banning all exports of the commodity and its raw materials from April 28 to reduce domestic shortages of cooking oil and bring down its skyrocketing prices, the country’s President, Joko Widodo, announced on Friday, April 22, 2022.
•Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the move would hit supplies of palm oil in other countries and was "among the harshest moves" the government undertook to stabilise the price of cooking oil in the country, calling it necessary nonetheless.
•This announcement came amid already surging global food prices as a consequence of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Food prices rose by nearly 13% globally in March according to the United Nations. It also came on the same day that policymakers raised global food security concerns at the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C., emphasising that countries should avoid hoarding food stocks and refrain from exercising export controls.
How important is palm oil to global supply chains?
•Palm oil is the world’s most widely used vegetable oil with its global production in the year 2020 being over 73 million tonnes (MT), according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It is estimated to be 77 million tonnes for the current year. Made from the African oil palm, it is used as cooking oil, and in everything from cosmetics, processed foods, cakes, chocolates, spreads, soaps, shampoo, and cleaning products to biofuel.
•The oil palm industry has come under criticism for what are reportedly unsustainable production practices leading to deforestation, and exploitative labour practices carried forward from the colonial era. However, palm oil is preferred by many as it is inexpensive; oil palms produce more oil per hectare than some other vegetable oil plants like soybean.
•Indonesia and Malaysia together account for almost 90% of the global palm oil production, with Indonesia producing the largest quantity at over 45 million tonnes in 2021.
•According to Reuters, palm oil makes up 40% of the global supply of the four most widely used edible oils: palm, soybean, rapeseed (canola), and sunflower oil. Indonesia is responsible for 60% of the global supply of palm oil. India is the biggest importer of palm oil.
Why are the prices of edible oils rising?
•The prices of palm oil rose this year as demand increased because of the short supply of alternative vegetable oils. The production of soybean oil, the second most-produced oil, is expected to take a hit this year due to a poor soybean season in major producer Argentina. The production of canola oil was hit in Canada last year due to drought; and supplies of sunflower oil, 80-90% of which is produced by Russia and Ukraine, has been badly hit by the ongoing conflict .
•Consumers across the globe have been bearing the brunt of these factors and the pandemic driving up global edible oil prices to record highs.
•After Indonesia’s unprecedented announcement to ban palm oil exports altogether, global markets of other vegetable oils saw spikes. The price of soybean oil on April 22, saw a 4.5% rise, taking it to a record high of 83.21 cents per pound on the Chicago Board of Trade. Soy oil prices have already seen a 50% rise so far this year.
How bad is Indonesia’s palm oil crisis?
•Indonesia uses palm oil for cooking purposes. The palm oil used for cooking is made by processing crude palm oil (CPO). Due to short supply of alternative vegetable oils, lower-than -expected output from second-biggest palm oil producer Malaysia due to pandemic-induced labour shortage, and the global food inflation linked to the pandemic and the Ukraine crisis, the global prices of CPO had risen significantly since the end of last year.
•The price of CPO rose from an already high rate of $1,131 per metric tonne in 2021 to its highest ever price of $1,552 in February this year. The global rise affected the price of palm oil in Indonesia, which sells two types of cooking oil — expensive branded cooking oil and cheaper non-branded oil in bulk. The country saw the price of branded palm oil go from 14,000 Indonesian rupiah (IDR) per litre in March 2021, to 22,000 IDR in March this year.
•In order to make cooking oil affordable, the Indonesian government introduced price caps in late January; deciding that the MRP of branded oil could not exceed 14,000 IDR, while that of the local product would remain at 11,500 IDR. The issue of consumers hoarding the commodity and reports of it being resold, made the government introduce a two-litre-per-person rule for buying cooking oil. Some sellers were inking the fingers of consumers, as done during voting, to ensure that they don’t buy twice.
•Amid reports of hoarding of cooking oil by consumers and producers, and producers being discouraged from making more oil owing to the gap between rising global prices and capped prices at home, Indonesia, the biggest palm oil maker, started witnessing an acute shortage of cooking oil.
•To meet domestic demands, the government announced another policy called domestic market obligation (DMO), under which it required CPO exporters to sell 20% of export volume domestically, at a fixed price of 9,300 IDR per kg. This was later increased to 30% of the export volume for domestic use.
•These policies, observers said, had an inverse effect on the domestic supply as the price controls and domestic quotas became ineffective amid the global price rise. The government retracted the price caps and export quota in late March but introduced a tax on exports, should the global prices go beyond $1,500 per metric tonne.
•Indonesian Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi also accused producers of engaging in illegal hoarding and cartel practices and of acquiring illicit export permits amid the export restrictions. Investigations into both these matters are currently underway in the country.
•The cooking oil shortage could in part also be attributed to Indonesia using large quantities of crude palm oil in making biodiesel, which it has branded as ‘green diesel’, despite palm oil production being known to be environmentally degrading. In late 2019, the country increased the palm oil content to be used in biodiesel to 30%. Reuters reported that it used over seven million tonnes of palm oil out of its total national output of 41.4 million tonnes in 2020, on biodiesel.
How will it impact India?
•India is the biggest importer of palm oil, which makes up 40% of its vegetable oil consumption, as per the USDA. India meets half of its annual need for 8.3 million tonnes of palm oil from Indonesia. Last year, the Centre also unveiled its plan to boost India’s domestic palm oil production.
📰 Preventing harm
Proactive intervention is needed to stop spread of hate and inflammatory speeches
•The value of proactive judicial intervention cannot be understated. After the Supreme Court called for “corrective measures” against the peddling of communal hate from supposedly religious platforms, the authorities in Uttarakhand have prevented the holding of a ‘dharam sansad’ in Roorkee by imposing prohibitory orders against such gatherings. At a time when communally motivated gatherings are becoming conspicuous in their frequency and vociferous in their fulminations against minorities, one would have expected the police to be more sensitive to the situation and prevent hate speeches. Counsel for Himachal Pradesh has said preventive steps were taken when one such gathering took place a few days ago, and that the participants were warned against any incitement, but those who have approached the Court against the trend of hate speeches at such meets, accuse the local authorities of inaction. It was one such religious conclave in Haridwar in December that witnessed extraordinarily inflammatory speeches being made against Muslims, some of them having a shockingly genocidal tenor. After dithering, the Uttarakhand police had then arrested Yati Narsinghanand, a controversial priest and Hindutva leader, who was among those who had allegedly called for armed violence against minorities. Even after obtaining bail, under a condition that he would not make any provocative speeches, he had participated in a similar event in Delhi. Instances of controversial religious figures making unacceptable comments at different places and occasions have emerged as a disturbing pattern, one that the Court may have to arrest by stern action.
•One way of looking at this phenomenon is to dismiss it as not being representative of the silent majority and as the activity of a few fringe elements. However, it cannot be gainsaid that the provocateurs are seeking to foster a collective fear among the majority that their interests are not being protected by an allegedly minority-friendly Constitution, and feeding off the same fear to spread their message of hate. The possible damage to the social fabric is incalculable, as the language of hatred may seep into the public consciousness as an acceptable thought process. The result may be an atmosphere in which communal harmony and public tranquillity will be at perennial risk. It is in this backdrop that modern democracies make a clear distinction between freedom of expression and speech that tends to incite hatred against a public group or section of society. The Supreme Court has recognised the potential for a wider societal impact beyond the distress caused to individual members of the targeted group. In cases relating to lynching and ‘khap panchayats’, the Court laid down guidelines on preventive, remedial and punitive measures. While these are to be followed without exceptions, there is also a need for considering new criminal and penal provisions to combat hate speech.
📰 Building back to avert a learning catastrophe
Governments and schools must focus on the most important priority in school education — learning recovery
•The COVID-19 pandemic has unarguably emerged as the biggest disruption in the field of school education in the last 100 years. It would take many more months before the medium- and long-term impact of school closure is fully comprehended. A joint report by UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank, ‘The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery’, released in early December 2021 had estimated that in the first 21 months of the pandemic, schools in countries around the world were either partially or fully closed for an average of 224 days. During the same period, schools in Indian States were closed for physical classes, for almost twice the duration, i.e., between 450 days to 480 days. Since the publication of this report, the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of the SARS-CoV-2-led surge globally, and the resultant third wave of COVID-19 in India further delayed the re-opening of schools. By March or early April 2022, when re-opened, schools in India had cumulatively closed for physical classes for around 570 days to 600 days — one of the longest school closures in the world.
COVID-19 will linger
•However, just when schools, parents and children have begun getting accustomed to regular offline classes, there are reports of an uptick in COVID-19 cases in Indian States including a few cases of children testing COVID-19 positive. This has again whipped up the demand from some sections of parents to move back to hybrid classes. There have been suggestions for the partial closure of schools or even temporary but full closure of schools, if there are a few cases of COVID-19 in a school. In fact, a few private schools have even moved to the hybrid mode.
•This demand for shifting to hybrid mode or that of partial closure with every single case in schoolchildren is not scientifically supported and could prove a big threat to school education in India. The reason is simple. SARS-CoV-2 will stay with humanity in the months and years to follow. COVID-19 cases are likely to be reported from all settings — including among schoolchildren — with an unpredictable rise and fall. Therefore, it is impractical, unnecessary, unscientific and unethical to even consider an ‘open and shut’ mode for schools.
Adverse outcomes are low
•Children are a part of family and society; therefore, when COVID-19 cases are being reported in a community, children are also likely to test positive. However, two years into the pandemic, what is proven is that while children do get SARS-CoV-2 infection at the same rate as adults, the probability of adverse outcome of moderate to severe disease is very low.
•The news of children being detected COVID-19 positive is drawing more media attention after school re-opening. However, there is no evidence that children have contracted the infection in schools. In most cases, they are more likely to have got the infection from family members. In fact, even before schools were re-opened, successive seroprevalence-surveys across Indian States have reported that nearly 70% to 90% of all children had already got infection (thus protected).
•Twenty-five months into the pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 infection is not an immediate concern; what matters is the outcome of that infection. Most healthy children do not develop severe outcomes, a situation which has not altered even with the emergence of newer variants of concern. In the foreseeable period — possibly for many months — COVID-19 cases would not be zero in any age group — this includes schoolchildren.
•Therefore, it is time that we, as a society, stop worrying about children contracting COVID-19 infection. The hybrid mode of learning or partial closure of schools are not the options any more. Rather, the focus has to be on how to keep schools fully open.
What the challenge is
•The recurring discourse on whether to move to hybrid classes or when to close schools is proving a big distraction from more pressing challenges in school education, namely, ‘the learning loss’. It is time we plan and act to ensure learning recovery.
•First, the re-opening of schools does not mean that all children have begun returning to school. It is time the Education Departments in every State lead the process so as to ensure that every school in every district ensures that no child has dropped out from the education system, and that every eligible child is enrolled. Special attention is needed for the enrolment of all children and girls, especially poor, backward, rural, urban slum-dwellers. Children who are eligible for admission in nursery or classes one and two will need special attention. This would be a key step in tackling pandemic-related enrolment inequities.
•Second, the learning loss during the last two years is humongous and ‘learning recovery’ should be the priority of every State government. There has to be focus on the need to assess the learning level of children and then strategise for learning recovery. It is also time to consider consolidating the curriculum and increasing teaching time. To ensure the success of such efforts, school teachers will need support and the training to accommodate the learning levels and needs of children. The mentor teacher initiatives in government schools in Delhi is proof of the potential of what can be achieved if teachers are supported well. Across India, in both government and private schools, we have very motivated teachers who can contribute to the process. It is time to support teachers. Innovative approaches and the participation of civil society organisations working in the field of education need to be explored.
Increase allocations
•Third, looking at the pandemic in the ‘rear view mirror’, it is time that every Indian State re-assesses the challenges in school education. Subject experts must examine the recommendations made in the National Education Policy 2020 in context of pandemic-related challenges, and fresh operational strategies must be developed and implemented in an accelerated manner. All of this would require additional government investment. In India, government spending on education accounts for about 3% of GDP, which is almost half the average for the education spending of low- and middle-income countries. The time has come for both the Union and State governments in India to increase financial allocation for school education.
•Fourth, there are studies and reports that mental health issues and needs in school-age children have doubled in the pandemic period. This calls for making provision for mental health services and counselling sessions for the school-age children. The Education and Health Departments in Indian States need to work together to ensure regular services such as school health, mental health as well as a health check-up for schoolchildren. In early March 2022, 20 school health clinics were opened in Delhi and every State needs to start similar initiatives to strengthen school health services. These initiatives should lay the foundation for more comprehensive approaches such as ‘health promoting schools’.
•Fifth, mid-day meal services have resumed after a gap of two years. There are 12 crore children in India whose nutritional status is dependent on these school meals. Any disruption in the supply of school meals also means a lack of sufficient nutrition for these children, and thus their weakened immunity and higher susceptibility to various infections. The supplementary nutrition programme in schools will essentially ensure that children remain protected from the severe outcome of COVID-19. In addition, learning from the pandemic, hand washing with soap and water and toilet facilities should be improved in every school, especially in rural and government schools. This will also prepare schools in preventing the possible spread of COVID-19 and also reduce other water-borne illnesses in school-age children. The role of both hygiene and nutrition in better learning has been proven for a long time.
Social, moral responsibility
•It is time to recognise that the risk of COVID-19 in children is very low, and far lower than other prevalent health concerns such as dengue, malaria and typhoid, and that the benefit of in-person education is far greater than any risk. Real learning does not happen in the four walls of homes or through online classes but it happens when teachers and other children are in school. Studies have shown that every month of school closure results in the loss of learning ability lags by two months. By that calculation, the learning of children in India has gone back by almost three years. So now that schools are reopening, we cannot start as if nothing has happened. We cannot be distracted, unnecessarily and repeatedly, by unscientific demands to move to hybrid mode or consider any form of temporary closure again .
•Realising the challenges posed by the pandemic, the Government needs to take every necessary step to bring school education back on track and develop a road map for learning recovery. Governments, parents, communities and schools need to work together. It is our moral and social responsibility towards the future of this nation.
📰 Social dialogue for safe workplaces
The OSH code calls for committees for workers’ safety
•With over six million people dying due to COVID-19 in the last two years, safety and health have become central to every local, national, and international discussion. As accidents, injuries, and diseases are prevalent in many industries, all of which directly and indirectly affect workers’ and their families’ well-being, it makes ensuring a preventative safety and health culture a critical component of any workplace. Globally, an estimated 2.9 million deaths and 402 million non-fatal injuries are attributed to occupational accidents and diseases. For the world of work to build forward from the pandemic in a more human-centred and resilient way, occupational safety and health (OSH) mechanisms need to be strengthened to establish workplaces that are not hazardous for workers.
•Since 2003, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has commemorated April 28 as World Day for Safety and Health at Work to stress the prevention of accidents and diseases at work by capitalising on our strength of tripartism and social dialogue. Our new publication, “Enhancing social dialogue towards a culture of safety and health,” and this year’s theme, “Act together to build a positive safety and health culture”, explores the role of social dialogue in creating a positive safety and health culture at workplaces, which will be made possible by cooperation and discussions between employers and workers.
Implementation of OSH code
•Occupational accidents and diseases cost 5.4% of the global GDP annually. While less tangibly, they materialise as presenteeism (working with less effectiveness), productivity losses associated with permanent impairment, and staff-turnover costs (i.e., loss of skilled staff). The Government of India declared the National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Workplace in February 2009 and compiled the available OSH information as National OSH Profile in 2018. The next important step is launching a strategic National OSH Programme. Effective implementation of the code of OSH and working conditions of 2020 is expected to extend OSH protection to more sectors, especially to informal workers who make up nearly 90% of India’s workforce, and provide fair and effective labour inspections, as labour inspection visits dropped from 1,21,757 in 2011 to 93,846 in 2016. The code should also promote active workplace OSH committees.
•At the national level, the government needs to include all relevant ministries to ensure that workers’ safety and health are prioritised in the national agenda. This requires allocating adequate resources to increase general awareness around OSH, knowledge of hazards and risks, and an understanding of their control and prevention measures. At the state level, workers’ and employers’ organisations, by way of bilateral discussions, must incorporate safety and health training at every level of their supply chains to ensure protection from workplace injuries and diseases. Social dialogue is essential for improving compliance and plays a vital role in building ownership and instilling commitment, which paves the way for the rapid and effective implementation of OSH policies.
OSH coverage across India
•India has some good practices for extending OSH coverage. The Government of Uttar Pradesh, in cooperation with employers and workers, carried out participatory OSH training workshops for metal and garment home-based workers. Most of these workers are in the informal economy and remain unreachable by other occupational health and safety initiatives. The Government of Kerala applied the ILO’s participatory OSH training methodologies and reached out to small construction sites for OSH improvements. The Government of Rajasthan generated OSH awareness among workers and employers in stone processing units for preventing occupational lung diseases.
•A reliable occupational accident and disease reporting system is vital for remedying victims and making effective prevention policies for safer and healthier workplaces. While India has such a mechanism, it is underutilised, with many injuries, accidents, and diseases going unregistered. The lack of awareness of health hazards at workplaces leads to misdiagnosis by doctors. Corrective action entails training doctors on the various occupational diseases and workplace hazards and risks.
•Occupational injuries and illnesses cause immeasurable suffering and loss to victims and their families. Moreover, they also entail economic losses for enterprises and economies. Therefore, strong social dialogue mechanisms for appropriately addressing occupational safety and health, by adequately investing in its prevention, will contribute to building a safe and healthy workforce and support productive enterprises, which form the bedrock of a sustainable economy.
📰 Energy independence through hydrogen
It can help lay the foundation of a new India which aims to be a global climate leader
•India’s Green Hydrogen Policy released on February 17, 2022 has addressed several critical challenges such as open access, waiver of inter-state transmission charges, banking, time-bound clearances, etc., and is expected to further boost India’s energy transition.
•India’s per capita energy consumption is about one-third of the global average and one-twelfth of the U.S. Increasing growth and economic prosperity would significantly increase India’s energy appetite furthering import dependence. This, coupled with volatility in prices, as seen during the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the roller-coaster ride of energy prices from historic lows in 2020 to record highs in 2021, could pose a serious threat to our energy security, accentuating an unequivocal need to strive for energy independence. The new age fuel, hydrogen, is touted as India’s gateway to energy independence. Hydrogen has a multifaceted role to play in the futuristic energy landscape, be it energy storage, long-haul transport, or decarbonisation of the industrial sector.
•In the long run, two envisioned prominent fuels are hydrogen and electricity. Though both are energy vectors, hydrogen can be stored on a large scale and for a longer duration explicitly affirming its huge potential to become a great balancer to the ever-increasing supply of variable renewable energy. It will complement and accelerate renewables into India’s clean energy transition, thereby supporting India’s ambitious plan to achieve 500 GW renewable capacity by 2030.
Hydrogen: a game-changer
•Hydrogen has a major role to play in the decarbonisation of India’s transport sector. The advantages of fuel cell vehicles over battery electric vehicles are faster fuelling and long-driving range thereby making them ideal for long-haul transportation which is a major constraint with Li-Ion batteries. In the industrial segment, hydrogen can de-carbonise ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors such as iron and steel, aluminium, copper etc. It is a huge prospect to produce fuels such as methanol, synthetic kerosene and green ammonia.
•India’s hydrogen consumption was around 7 Mt in 2020 and according to The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), it is anticipated to leapfrog to about 28 Mt in 2050. Assuming 25% export capacity, we can expect a requirement of 35 Mt by 2050. On the basis of this assumption, we can calculate that India would require a tentative capacity in the range of 192 GW to 224 GW of electrolysers by 2050, assuming all of it is green hydrogen. The global capacity of electrolysers has just crossed 300 MW in 2021. This signifies that India itself would require an electrolyser capacity of 640 to 750 times the current global capacity, by 2050.
•This would entail an exponential increase in electricity demand of around 1,500 to 1,800 TWh, implying that just for hydrogen production; India would require 110-130% of its current total electricity generation (2020-21) by 2050. Therefore, a road map for rapid growth in demand for electricity, especially from renewables should be prepared.
•Apart from the ever-increasing electricity demand, the high cost of hydrogen manufacturing and water scarcity could also pose a challenge. Production of 1 kg of hydrogen by electrolysis requires around nine litres of water. Therefore, hydrogen project planning should be holistic and targeted in areas that are not water-scarce.
•Creating a hydrogen economy is a chicken and egg problem as consumers seek lower costs which could be possible with scalability and large investments, but for those, producers seek assured demand. Hydrogen fulfils the three Es of India’s energy road map — energy security, energy sustainability and energy access — and India should strive to seize one more E, viz. economic opportunity so that industry can be encouraged to its full potential.
Five-step strategy
•On the demand side, a five-step strategy should be devised. Firstly, to create an initial demand, a mandate should be given to mature industries such as refining and fertilisers, with adequate incentives. Secondly, industries manufacturing low emission hydrogen-based products inter alia green steel and green cement need to be incentivised by government policies. Thirdly, blending hydrogen with natural gas can act as a big booster shot which can be facilitated by framing blending mandates, regulations and promoting H-CNG stations. Further, to promote FCEVs, hydrogen fuel stations may be planned on dedicated corridors where long-distance trucking is widespread. Lastly, the concept of carbon tariffs needs to be introduced on the lines of European countries.
•On the supply side too, a five-step strategy should be devised. Firstly, investment in R&D should be accelerated to bring its cost at par with fossils. Secondly, Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme with a target to produce 15 MMT of compressed biogas could be leveraged by exploring biogas conversion into hydrogen. Thirdly, to commercialise and scale-up nascent technologies, a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme may be introduced for hydrogen-based projects. Further, to secure affordable financing, electrolyser manufacturing and hydrogen projects need to be brought under Priority Sector Lending (PSL). Lastly, since two dominant cost factors for green hydrogen are renewable energy tariffs & electrolyser costs, and India has the advantage of one of the lowest renewable tariffs; the thrust should be on reducing the cost of electrolysers by implementing the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. This could help India become a global hub for electrolyser manufacturing and green hydrogen.
•On the transportation front, ammonia, having high energy density could be promoted as a mode of transportation. A hydrogen transportation system could also be built on the foundation created for natural gas by using its existing infrastructure. Additionally, hydrogen transportation projects may be integrated with PM Gati Shakti Master Plan.
•Hydrogen could completely transform India’s energy ecosystem by shifting its trajectory from an energy importer to a dominant exporter over the next few decades. India could export to projected future import centres like Japan, South Korea, etc.
•With hydrogen, India could lead the world in achieving Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. Hydrogen could lay the foundation of a new India which would be energy-independent; a global climate leader and international energy power. In COP 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a clarion call of panchamrit (five goals), with an ambitious target to achieve Net Zero by 2070. Hydrogen will certainly play a decisive role in India’s Net Zero ambition and in making India ‘Aatmanirbhar in energy’.
