📰 Putin unveils Russia’s ‘Arctic power’ with launch of nuclear icebreakers
•President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday touted Russia’s Arctic power at a flag-raising ceremony and dock launch for two nuclear-powered icebreakers that will ensure year-round navigation in the Western Arctic.
•Presiding via video link from the Kremlin at the launch ceremony in the former imperial capital of Saint Petersburg in northern Russia, Mr. Putin said that, going ahead, such icebreakers were of strategic importance for the country.
•“Both icebreakers were laid down as part of a large serial project and are part of our large-scale, systematic work to re-equip and replenish the domestic icebreaker fleet, to strengthen Russia’s status as a great Arctic power,” Mr. Putin said.
Greater significance
•The Arctic is taking on greater strategic significance due to climate change, as a shrinking ice cap opens up new sea lanes. Vast oil and gas resources lie in Russia’s Arctic regions, including a liquefied natural gas plant on the Yamal Peninsula.
•The 173.3-metre Yakutia, with a displacement of up to 33,540 tonnes, can smash through ice of up to three metres. It will enter service in 2024. Two other icebreakers in the same series, the Arktika and the Sibir, are already in service, and another, the Chukotka, is scheduled for 2026.
Bigger icebreaker
•Mr. Putin said a super-powerful nuclear 209-metre icebreaker known as Rossiya, with a displacement of up to 71,380 tonnes, would be completed by 2027. It will be able to break through ice four metres thick.
•“They are needed for the study and development of the Arctic, to ensure safe, sustainable navigation in this region,” Mr. Putin said.
📰 Think local climate action, think Meenangadi
•If India has to achieve the set of goals enunciated in the ‘Panchamrit’ resolution of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow 2021, it is necessary that panchayati raj institutions, the third tier of government which are closest to the people are involved. Although international and national policies have been formulated with large-scale investments, it is necessary to have a suitable local action plan for implementation and enforcement, initiated and coordinated by local governments. In the context of greater devolution that has taken place, panchayats, as local governments, can play a pivotal role in tackling many of the causes and effects of climate change.
•Over the past few decades, there has been a manyfold increase in the number of climate-related national disasters. Much of India’s population still lives in the rural areas and is involved in agriculture and other agri-based activities. The greater variability in rainfall and temperatures, etc. experienced of late has directly affected the livelihood and well-being of millions of rural households. India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change 2008 identifies a range of priority areas for coordinated intervention at the national and State levels. However, there would have been better results had panchayati raj institutions been given a greater role. Through the ongoing decentralisation process which ensures people’s participation, panchayats can play a crucial and frontline role in coordinating effective responses to climate risks, enabling adaptation and building climate-change resilient communities.
Carbon neutrality projects across India
•The climate change discussion also focuses on the emerging and widely accepted concept of ‘carbon neutrality’ which puts forth the notion of zero carbon developments, nature conservation, food, energy and seeds sufficiency, and economic development. As human activities are the cause of the current climate crisis, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to growing and extreme weather events are critical. Zero carbon development which promotes sustainable living is the effective solution to reducing anthropogenic emissions and improving climate resilience.
•In recent years, many panchayats have come forward with the concept of carbon neutrality, a prominent example being Meenangadi gram panchayat in Kerala’s Wayanad district, which serves as a model to emulate. In 2016, the panchayat envisaged a project called ‘Carbon neutral Meenangadi’, the aim being to transform Meenangadi into a state of carbon neutrality. There were campaigns, classes and studies to begin with. An awareness programme was conducted initially. A greenhouse gases emission inventory was also prepared. The panchayat was found to be carbon positive. An action plan was prepared by organising gram sabha meetings. Socio-economic surveys and energy-use mapping were also carried out. Several multi sector schemes were implemented to reduce emissions, increase carbon sequestration, and preserve the ecology and bio-diversity. ‘Tree banking’ was one of landmark schemes introduced to aid carbon neutral activities which encouraged the planting of more trees by extending interest-free loans. Interestingly 1,58,816 trees were planted which have also been geo-tagged to monitor their growth. The entire community was involved in the process, with school students, youth, and technical and academic institutions given different assignments. Five years have passed and the changes are visible. Local economic development was another thrust area where LED bulb manufacturing and related micro-enterprises were initiated.
•There is also the example of Palli gram panchayat in Jammu and Kashmir that has followed the same people-centric model, with specific local activities. The panchayat has prepared a climate-resilient plan where villagers have been made aware of climate change Mitigation factors such as reducing energy consumption, cutting down on the use of fossil fuels, the use of solar energy, abandoning plastics and promoting plantation and water conservation measures were given prominence. Bio-gas plants and solar panels were also introduced. A solar plant (500KW) has been installed to power 340 households. A Gram Panchayat Development Plan for 2022-23 is being prepared by integrating a climate-resilient plan.
•There are many other panchayats that have also initiated carbon neutral programmes. In Seechewal gram panchayat, the Kali Bein river was rejuvenated with people’s involvement. Odanthurai panchayat in Tamil Nadu has its own windmill (350 KW). Tikekarwadi gram panchayat in Maharashtra is well known for its extensive use of biogas plants and green energy production. Chapparapadavu gram panchayat in Kerala has several green islands that have been nurtured by the community. Many more panchayats are coming forward in this regard.
The ‘Clean and Green Village’ theme
•The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has focused its attention on localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on a thematic basis. ‘Clean and Green Village’ has been identified as the fifth theme where panchayats can take up activities on natural resource management, biodiversity protection, waste management and afforestation activities. According to the latest data, 1,09,135 gram panchayats have prioritised ‘Clean & Green Village’ as one of their focus areas for 2022-23.The Ministry has highlighted the need for the documentation of best practices and for wider dissemination. The net result is that many panchayats are coming forward with their eco plans. The integrated Panchayat Development Plan prepared by all panchayats is a stepping stone towards addressing many of the environmental concerns of villages.
•In today’s age of rapid technological advancements and digital transformation, India’s rural local bodies are silently contributing their strength to ensuring the global target of carbon neutrality, as envisaged in the UN conference on climate change.
•The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, on November 18. The journey towards a data protection legislation began in 2011 when the Department of Personnel and Training initiated discussions on the Right to Privacy Bill, 2011. As per an Office Memorandum dated September 29, 2011, the then Attorney General, Goolam Vahanvati, opined that conditions under which the government can carry out “interception of communication” should be spelt out in the Bill. This opinion was also echoed by the Group of Experts on Privacy, headed by Justice A.P. Shah, in 2012. The report of the group emphasised the need to examine the impact of the increased collection of citizen information by the government on the right to privacy. Since then, civil society organisations, lawyers and politicians have consistently demanded surveillance reform, highlighting how personal data can only be protected when the government’s power to conduct surveillance of citizens is meaningfully regulated. However, like its predecessors, the latest Bill also fails to confront India’s growth into a surveillance society.
The surveillance architecture
•The surveillance architecture in India comprises mainly of Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885; Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000; and the procedural rules promulgated under them. But this architecture does not meaningfully define the grounds under which, or the manner in which, surveillance may be conducted. It also does not contain safeguards such as ex-ante or ex-post facto independent review of interception directions. The concentration of power with the executive thus creates a lack of accountability and enables abuse. Evidence for this emerges not only from instances of political surveillance, but also from the slivers of transparency that accidentally emerge from telecom companies. For instance, submissions by Airtel to the Telecommunications Department, as part of the public consultation process for the Indian Telecommunication Bill, reveal that excessive data collection requests are already a reality. Airtel has asked the government to share the costs it incurs to comply with the increasing demands from law enforcement agencies to carry out surveillance.
•Apart from outright surveillance, unfettered collection and processing of citizen data for other purposes, such as digital governance, raise concerns. Agitation over the nature of the surveillance architecture was voiced by the Supreme Court in its right to privacy decision in 2017 and by the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee in 2018. However, all iterations of the data protection legislation since — the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, the draft Data Protection Bill, 2021 and the 2022 Bill — have no proposals for surveillance reform. Worse, personal data can be processed even without the person’s consent.
Blanket exemptions
•Like previous iterations, Clause 18(2) of the 2022 Bill allows the Union government to provide blanket exemptions for selected government agencies. However, this Bill is more egregious than previous iterations as it permits exemption to private sector entities that may include individual companies or a class of them, by assessing the volume and nature of personal data under Clause 18(3). Comparative legal regimes, which, as per the explanatory note, were considered before proposing the Bill, do not contain comparable provisions. Such blanket exemptions to state agencies, let alone private corporations, are absent in foreign legislations.While the existing or proposed legislations in the European Union and in the U.S. permit security agencies to claim exemptions on a case-by-case basis, depending on why they are collecting personal data, they do not contain blanket exemption powers to an entire government entity. Further, other jurisdictions exercise meaningful oversight over state surveillance. For instance, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in the U.K. is authorised to hear complaints against misuse of surveillance powers and can impose monetary penalties in case of a breach. Under the new Bill in India, exempted state agencies and private entities will not be within the purview of the Data Protection Board, the body responsible for imposing penalties in case fiduciaries infringe privacy.
•Interestingly, the explanatory note accompanying the Bill elaborates on the seven principles it seeks to promote, including transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, and preventing the unauthorised collection of personal data. But when matched against the actual provisions, the Bill appears to serve a rhetorical value. This can also be noticed by the government’s refusal to share statistical data on the number of surveillance orders issued yearly, thereby hampering any meaningful transparency. Further, in direct violation of purpose limitation, inter-departmental sharing of data is not only allowed, but encouraged by draft policies such as the draft National Data Governance Framework Policy, 2022, facilitating the creation of comprehensive profiles of citizens. In addition, provisions of other legislation, such as the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022, which allows for overzealous collection and storage of biometric data for 75 years, are in direct contrast with the principles of data minimisation and prevention of unauthorised collection of personal data.
•The preamble to the 2022 Bill states that the purpose is to protect the personal data of individuals and ensure that personal data is processed only for lawful purposes. Unfortunately, by choosing to protect state surveillance, the new Bill fails to fulfil its mandate of protecting the right to privacy of citizens.
📰 Tamil Nadu gets its first biodiversity heritage site
•The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday issued a notification declaring Arittapatti and Meenakshipuram villages in Madurai district the first biodiversity heritage site in the State.
•The site, comprising 139.63 hectares in Arittapatti village (in Melur taluk) and 53.58 hectares in Meenakshipuram village (Madurai East taluk), will be known as the Arittapatti Biodiversity Heritage Site, said a notification. Arittapatti, known for its ecological and historical significance, houses around 250 species of birds, including three important raptors — the Laggar Falcon, the Shaheen Falcon and Bonelli’s Eagle. It is also home to wildlife such as the Indian pangolin, slender loris and pythons. The area is surrounded by a chain of seven hillocks or inselbergs, that serve as a watershed, charging “72 lakes, 200 natural springs and three check-dams”, the notification said.
•The Anaikondan tank, built during the reign of the Pandiyan kings in the 16th century, is one of them. Several megalithic structures, rock-cut temples, Tamil Brahmi inscriptions and Jain beds add to the historical significance of the region.
•District Forest Officer S. Gurusamy Dabbala said that notifying an area a biodiversity heritage site would help in protecting its rich and exclusive ecosystem. “Through the steps to be initiated by the Forest Department soon, factors that may harm the biodiversity will be kept at bay.”
•To prevent the loss of biodiversity and preserve the cultural and architectural heritage, the government, as recommended by the Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Board, has declared Arittapatti a biodiversity heritage site.
📰 Skill training of MGNREGS workers lags; Centre blames it on the States
Unnati project launched in 2020 to reduce dependence on job scheme has trained 25,056 persons against the two lakh target; the government plans to link project with the labour budget, hoping to influence the performance of the States
•Facing less than a lukewarm response to project Unnati, which aims to reduce dependence on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) by imparting skill training to its beneficiaries, the Union Rural Development Ministry wants to link performances of the States under the project with its labour budget for the next financial year.
•Since its inception in 2020, just a little over 25,000 persons have been trained under the project, falling far short of its target of two lakh. The project was slated to end in March 2022, but has been extended by two years.
•Speaking to The Hindu, Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh said, “The State governments’ indifference towards Unnati project is emblematic of their apathy for the workers. But we can’t turn a blind eye to it, and therefore, the labour budget of the States will be influenced by their performance under the project.”
•Unnati was launched with the intention of upgrading the skill base of MGNREGS workers to help them transition from partial employment to full employment. The aim of the project is to train one adult member (18-45 age group) of a household that has completed 100 days of work under the MGNREGS.
•“If a household is working for 100 days under the MGNREGS, that shows that they are completely dependent on it for their livelihood and are the poorest of the lot. Thus, this criterion was used as the baseline,” a senior official said. The selected candidate is eligible for wages on a par with that given under the MGNREGS during the training.
•“At least 20% of the households that complete 100 days of work under the MGNREGS should be targeted by the States under the scheme [Unnati],” the Minister added.
•The performance so far has been far below this 20% target. In the financial year 2020-21, for example, 71 lakh households worked for 100 days in the country under the MGNREGS, but only 8,658 persons received training under the Unnati project. Similarly, in 2021-22, the number of eligible households stood at 59 lakh, but only 12,577 persons were trained. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that coincided with the launch of the project is also blamed for its tardy implementation. With cases on the wane, the Ministry is hoping that the project will pick up pace.
•“We have to realise that there is a huge shortage of skilled manpower in the country. While, we provide assistance to the unskilled workers, it is equally essential for sustainable growth that we upgrade their skills,” Mr. Singh said.
•Under the project, the selected candidates are skilled using three established training programmes — the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDU-GKY), the Rural Self Training Institute (RSETI) and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra. The Grameen Kaushal Yojana is a placement-linked programme, in which 70% of the trained candidates have to be compulsorily employed with a minimum salary of ₹6,000 a month.
📰 The SC ruling on pensions for women IAF officers
What are the landmark cases which have paved the way for a more egalitarian Army? What are the different ways in which the Army, the Navy and the IAF have made provisions for its women cadets?
The story so far:
•In an order on November 16, the Supreme Court asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to consider the grant of pensionary benefits to 32 Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers, who fought for 12 long years to be reinstated and granted permanent commission. This is the latest in a series of legal judgements related to women officers in the armed forces, giving them equal opportunities along with their male counterparts.
What did the Court say?
•A Bench comprising of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) D. Y. Chandrachud, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice J.B. Pardiwala said in their order that “These women SSC officers had the legitimate expectation of being granted an opportunity to claim permanent commission in terms of prevailing policy”. The Bench further remarked that, “we are of the view that these women SSC officers be considered for grant of pensionary benefits,” while exercising its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution for doing complete justice in any matter pending before it. The officers had joined the service between 1993-1998 and were granted extensions of six and four years successively before being released from service between 2006 to 2009.
•“Reinstatement cannot be a viable option keeping in mind the requirement related to exigencies of serving the nation,” it noted. The cases of the appellants will be evaluated on the basis of the HR Policy of November, 2010, the court said while making it clear that the officers shall not be entitled to arrears of salary. The CJI also appreciated the IAF for taking a “fair approach”.
Does the Army also offer permanent commission?
•The Navy and the IAF had opened up permanent commission to women much before the Army.
•In a landmark judgment in the Babita Puniya case in February 2020, the Supreme Court directed that women officers in the Army be granted permanent commission (PC) as well as command postings in all services other than combat. Further, on March 25, 2021 the Supreme Court in Lt. Col. Nitisha vs. Union of India held that the Army’s selective evaluation process discriminated against and disproportionately affected women officers seeking permanent commission.
•Giving an overview on women officers in the armed forces, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha in response to a question from Member of Parliament Priyanka Chaturvedi in August, Minister of State Ajay Bhatt said that in the Army, women are commissioned in 10 arms and services as officers and that permanent commission had been granted. “Women serve as medical doctors and dentists in the Indian armed forces. Only women serve as nurses in Military Nursing Service. Women are being inducted as jawans in Corps of Military Police since 2019,” the reply said.
•In another reply to Parliament, the government informed that the National Defence Academy (NDA) has started inducting women cadets from the Autumn 2022 term, with 19 vacancies being allotted to women. The Navy has also opened 12 branches, cadres and specialisations for women officers. It has already announced that women would be inducted as Agniveers under the Agnipath scheme, with training set to commence shortly. On the IAF, the reply added that, “women serve in all arms and services as officers in the IAF akin to their male counterparts.” As per a written reply in Parliament in March, there are 1,640 women officers in the IAF excluding medical, dental and nursing officers. This number incudes 15 fighter pilots, and 53 transport and helicopter pilots each. The fighter stream of IAF was opened for women in 2016.
📰 Strategy to save
The National Suicide Prevention Strategy must percolate to every district
•The best first step towards addressing a malaise is to recognise that it exists. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s recently published National Suicide Prevention Strategy fits right there. It has been a long time coming, but the Strategy, finally in the public realm, calls attention to the massive burden of suicides in the country, and initiates steps to achieve a reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030. At the same time, it has measured the paces forward with a time-bound action plan that takes into account the grim realities of a varying ground situation in India. The problem is indeed dire, and without targeted intervention programmes, and stigma reduction strategies, a public health crisis of gargantuan proportions is imminent. Globally, suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds and also the second leading cause of death for females aged 15-19 years, as per WHO estimates. In India, more than one lakh lives are lost every year to suicide. In the past three years, the suicide rate has increased from 10.2 to 11.3 per 1,00,000 population. As per National Crime Records Bureau statistics, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka have the highest percentage share of suicides (2018-2020), ranging between 8% to 11%. The most common reasons include family problems and illnesses, while other causes include marital conflicts, love affairs, bankruptcy, substance abuse and dependence. Further, in approximately 10% of cases, the cause for suicide remains unknown. Importantly, the document notes that contrary to belief, the majority of suicides are preventable.
•The Strategy is etched with evidence-based practices to reduce the number of suicides, inspired by WHO’s strategy for the South East Asian region, and strings together multiple sectoral collaborations to provide a cohesive strategy and achieve the intended reduction in the number of suicides. In addition to committing to establishing effective surveillance mechanisms within the next three years, and psychiatric outpatient departments in all districts over five years, the Strategy also intends to write in mental health in the curriculum in educational institutions within the next eight years. Addressing issues relevant to India, including access to pesticides, and alcoholism, has set the Strategy on the path towards achievement of the goals. It is, however, incumbent on the Government to stay the course until the targets are achieved. Of course, in a federal country, any success is possible only if States are enthusiastic participants in the roll out.
📰 The ‘India pole’ in international politics
•“Whose side is India on?” is one foundational question that constantly confronts practitioners, thinkers and commentators of India’s foreign policy. The ongoing war in Ukraine on the one hand and the confrontation between Russia (India’s traditional partner) and the United States and the West (also India’s partners) on the other have increased the frequency/regularity of this question. So whose side is India on, after all? Is India with Russia or with the U.S./the West in this war? The problem with these rather unidimensional questions is that they habitually assume that there are just a few select sides in world politics, and India is not a side with any geopolitical agency of major consequence. Notably, India gets asked “Whose side are you on?” far more than China does, for China is viewed as a side.
•When great powers seek India’s support during geopolitical contestations, such as the one over Ukraine, they end up facing a stubborn India that is reluctant to toe the line. The inherent reason behind Indian reluctance, however, is not stubbornness but a sense of self which views itself as a pole in the international system, and not as a satellite state or a camp follower. India refuses to take sides because it views itself as a side whose interests are not accounted for by other camps or poles.
•Some reflections on ‘India as a pole’ is perhaps appropriate at a time when India assumes the chair of the G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), two institutions that are geopolitically significant today.
India is ‘a side’
•Indian policymakers, notwithstanding the relative material incapacity of the state, inherently think of themselves as a pole in the international system. New Delhi’s constant exhortations of a multipolar world are also very much in tune with this thinking about itself as a pole in a multipolar world.
•There is a rich history to it. The origins of this thought can be found in the character of the country’s long struggle for independence; the pre and post-Independence articulations of leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhiji, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak among others on international politics; the (not uncontested) primacy India inherited as the legatee state of the British empire in South Asia; India’s larger than life civilisational sense of self; and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) experiment, have all contributed to India’s desire for a unique foreign policy identity and a voice in the comity of nations. For much of its modern independent history, India’s foreign policy has been a unique experiment. It has had its pitfalls, and has led to foreign policy mistakes, but that does not take away from its unique sense of external agency. Modern India’s largely endogenous moorings have lent themselves to the self-assumed identity of a unique pole in a multipolar world. Herein lies the origin of a modern state which refuses to be led by another pole or easily aligned to one, but sees itself as a pole instead.
•Historically, India’s view of itself as a pole is evident in the manner in which it used to pursue non-alignment for several decades after Independence. Some vestiges of this continue to inform India’s foreign policy to this day. It is also important to point out that India’s non-alignment is often misunderstood given that a number of foreign commentators and practitioners interpret it as neutrality. For India, however, non-alignment is not neutrality, but the ability to take a position on a given issue on a case-by-case basis.
What it entails
•What does being a pole mean for India? The classical view of polarity is one of domination of the international system by the great powers, the balances of power by them, and alliance-building based on ideology or distribution of power for the purposes of such balancing. India, however, has a different view of itself as a pole. It has not actively sought to dominate the South Asian regional subsystem even when it could (even though it occasionally and reluctantly intervened, but often with disastrous consequences); its balancing behaviour has been subpar, it has refused to build alliances in the classical sense of the term, or sought camp followers or allegiances. As a matter of fact, even its occasional balancing behaviour (for instance, the 1971 India-Soviet Treaty during the Bangladesh war) was contingent on emergencies.
•If India’s idea of being a pole in the international system is not strictly governed by the classical understanding, what indeed are the various elements of India’s idea of being a pole? For one, and to be fair, it does believe it has a strategic periphery in South Asia where it has a natural claim to primacy. Two, it discourages interference by other powers in that space. Three, it often tends to speak for ‘underprivileged collectives’, physical (South Asia) or otherwise (NAM, developing nations, global south, etc. in varying degrees); and it welcomes the rule of law and regional order. India’s historical focus on the region has been more of a provider of common goods than as a rule setter or/of demander of allegiance. Could one say, without nationalistic overindulgence, that India’s idea of being a pole is deeply entrenched in a normative framework? Perhaps.
What the world ought to know
•If the above is a complicated but reasonably accurate description of India’s sense of its place in the world, those seeking to win India over to one camp or another must note that New Delhi detests falling in line. India’s recent or past statements on issues of global importance — be it Ukraine or Iraq, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s aerial campaign in Serbia, or bringing climate change to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) — indicate that it tends to take positions that not just suit its interests but are also informed by its sense of being a unique player on the global stage. This is key to understanding India’s external behaviour.
•Notwithstanding the geopolitical difficulties that India faces today, India is a pivotal power in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, with an ability to help tackle security, climate and other challenges of global consequence. Western powers must, therefore, treat India as a partner rather than as a cheerleader. They should mainstream India into global institutions such as the UNSC, and consult India rather than dictate to India which side to take. The question to ask India is not “whose side are you on?” but “what is your side?”.
•As India becomes the chair of the G20 and the SCO in 2022, it will further seek to assert itself as a major pole in the international system, and dissuade demands to follow one camp or another. Therefore, those wishing to work with India on the global stage must learn to deal with the ‘India pole’.
