Maritime India Summit, 2016:-
About:-Maritime India Summit 2016 (MIS 2016) is a maiden flagship initiative of Ministry of Shipping, Government of India that will provide a unique global platform for investors to explore potential business opportunities in the Indian Maritime Sector.
The Summit will showcase exciting investment opportunities in:
- Shipbuilding, Ship Repair and Ship Recycling
- Port Modernization and New Port Development
- Port-based Industrial Development, Port-based Smart Cities and Maritime Cluster Development
- Hinterland Connectivity Projects and Multi-Modal Logistics Hubs
- Inland Waterways and Coastal Shipping for Cargo and Passenger movement
- Dredging
- Lighthouse Tourism and Cruise Shipping
- Renewable Energy Projects in Ports
- Other Maritime Sector related services (Financing, Legal, Design etc.)
India has 12 Major Ports, administered by the Central Government, and around 200 notified Non-Major Ports, administered by the State Governments. In 2014-15, out of the 200 Non-Major Ports, 69 ports were reported to have handled cargo traffic.
The infrastructure sector, particularly the Maritime Sector, is expected to grow significantly with the increase in international and domestic trade volumes. Since about 95% of India’s trade by volume is via the maritime route (Source : NTDPC), there is a continuous need to develop India’s ports and trade related infrastructure to accelerate growth in the manufacturing industry and to aid the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
India has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. Of the total navigable length of 14,500 km, 5200 km of the river and 4000 km of canals can be used by mechanized crafts. Freight transportation by waterways is highly underutilised in the country as compared to countries and regions like the United States, China and the European Union. India has recognized 106 waterways of which 6 are declared as national waterways. Economic viability of a waterway to carry traffic as an alternative to rail and road depends on its length which should be a minimum 500 km and 250 km for both cases respectively. Apart from this, it should have a large hinterland coverage area and potential in order to generate enough traffic on routes.
Globally domestic waterways are found to be cost effective as well as environmentally friendly means of transporting freight. This is also true in India – for instance, the cost of moving coal via coastal shipping is one-sixth of the cost of moving it by the currently preferred means of railways.
Key Initiatives
- Development of NW5 – The significance of NW5 lies in its location close to Talcher-Paradip region which is abundant in resources and industries and therefore provide opportunities for evacuation of different commodities including thermal coal, coking coal and iron-ore. Financial considerations in terms of revenue and expenditure for both the barge owners and IWAI present a strong case for moving cargo on NW5 after relevant infrastructural improvements. A number of steps in terms of infrastructural projects are required to be undertaken to make the project feasible. These include dredging to ensure minimum draft of 2.5-3 m and ensuring channel width of 55-60 m. Other steps include building atleast 5 barrages or navigational locks and a barge jetty/terminal at Paradip, Talcher and Kalinganagar.
- Development of NW4 – This waterway which connects the upcoming capital of Amaravati to the coastal parts of the state is extremely important for the development of new industrial hinterlands proposed under the various nodes of Visakhapatnam Chennai Industrial Corridor. The stretch will have a potential to transport 3-5 MTPA of bulk commodities by 2020.
- Development of NW2 – This waterway, stretching for a distance of 891 km from Dhubri to Sadiya, has immense potential to cater to the traffic in the north eastern region of the country. Basic commodities like foodgrains, fertilizers, etc. can be transported through the route.
- Development of NW1 – With a length of 1620 km, NW1 is the longest waterway in India. It is a stretch of the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hoogly river system from Allahabad to Haldia. Key opportunities lie in 11 major power plants being located on the banks of NW1 with a cumulative capacity of 12,000 MW as well as multiple chemical and food exporters in UP and West Bengal.
India’s economy has surged ahead in recent years. The pressures of a growing economy have naturally pushed its transport system to full capacity. The movement of bulk commodities is one of the major responsibilities of India’s transportation system. Thermal coal alone accounts for around 61 percent of the freight volume on the Indian Railways and 24 percent of the seaport freight mix.Water currently contributes less than 10 percent to India’s modal mix. China uses its inland waterways to transport raw material and finished goods between Eastern and Western provinces; water contributes 24 percent to China’s freight modal mix. Australia carries 17 percent of goods through coastal shipping. In Germany, 11 percent of goods are moved through inland waterways and coastal shipping. A strong economic case for coastal movement can be made for most of the key commodities.
The Indian Shipbuilding and Ship Repair industry primarily comprises firms that develop, build and repair – ships, underwater equipment and naval architectures for the shipping industry, fishing industry, naval defence and extraction of ocean resources. A growing Indian economy, favorable government policies and incentives framework, a long coastline and growing sea borne trade present a huge business opportunity within the Indian Shipbuilding Ship Repair and Ship Recycling industry.
Three marine clusters for India could include:
- Gujarat – Combining the steel cluster at Hazira, upcoming automobile cluster at Sanand, Shipyard at Pipavav, Ship-breaking yard at Alang, and Gujarat International Finance Tec-City.
- Tamil Nadu – Combining the automotive clusters at Chennai and Ennore and proposed new steel cluster near Chennai/Ennore.
- Andaman & Nicobar Islands – Marine cluster to leverage the potential of the region for tourism and possibly MRO services for ships passing through the international east-west trade route
Green initiatives for Major Ports:
- In order to promote the use of green energy at the Major Ports, the Ministry of Shipping has recently introduced an incentive scheme under which the Ministry will share up to 50% of the total project cost that promote the use of green energy, such as, waste water treatment, renewable energy generation and the use of Bio-diesel. Each Port will be given a financial grant up to Rs 25 crore (US$ 4 Million) for undertaking these projects.
Marine environmental pollution monitoring:
- Anti-fouling System Convention of International Maritime Organization has been incorporated in the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.
- Anti-fouling certificates will be issued to all Indian vessels bearing 400 gross tonnage or more.
Use of bio-diesel at Haldia Dock Complex:
- Environment friendly, bio-diesel is used for operations of locomotives.
- It has resulted in reduction in the consumption of high speed diesel and in turn reduced environmental pollution.
Lighthouse Tourism
India has as many as 189 lighthouses dotting its vast coast line including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea. Steeped in rich maritime heritage, each lighthouse has a tremendous tourism potential.
The Ministry of Shipping through the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) has drawn up a programme for developing tourism in the land adjacent to 78 lighthouses, in the first phase, under Public Private Partnership (PPP). The key objective of this initiative is to enhance development of the existing lighthouses and its surrounding areas into a unique maritime tourism landmark. This initiative also offers investment opportunities related to development of hotels, resorts, viewing galleries, adventure sports, thematic restaurant and allied tourism facilities at the proposed lighthouse location
Facts and Figures of Indian Maritime Sector:-
- India is one of the fastest growing major economies in the world with an expected GDP growth rate of 7.5% in 2015-16
- India’s long coastline of 7,517 km and a navigable inland waterways of 14,426 km offers immense potential for development
- 4th most attractive FDI destination in the World as per UNCTAD
- Over the last decade, seaborne trade has grown at twice the global growth rate of 3.3%
- Maritime Container trade has grown at 6.5%, which is higher than the world average of 5.4% over the past 10 years (FY 2005 – 2015)
- Cargo traffic at Indian ports has doubled to 1 billion tonnes per annum over the last decade (FY 2005 – 2015) and is expected to reach 1.7 billion tonnes per annum by 2022
- US$ 2.6 Bn invested in Ports and Shipping sector between 2011 and 2014
- 150 + projects identified in Indian maritime sector offering numerous investment opportunities.
Major Ports in India:-
Ancient Ports of India:-
- Barygaza – which today is known as Bharuch in Gujarat;
- Lothal in Gujrat
- Muziris which today is known as Kodungallur near Cochin in Kerala;
- Korkai which is today’s Tuticorin;
- Kaveripattinam which is in Nagapattanam District of Tamil Nadu;
- Arikamedu which is in Ariyankuppam District of Puducherry
National Agriculture Market(NAM)
Background:-
Details :-
With nearly 58 per cent of its people continuing to depend upon agriculture for their livelihood, the critical role of the sector cannot be gain said. Agriculture sector is also highly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of nature that impact the crop enterprise at its production stage.
Further, the sector is also exposed to the current weaknesses of the agricultural marketing system. The annual income of a farmer depends upon both yield and the price that his produce fetches. While the Government has rolled out large number of programmes to improve yield levels on a sustainable basis, it recognises the need for creating a competitive market structure in the country that will generate marketing efficiency. Only when the market is integrated over space and time, can market efficiency be realised.
Integration of agri-markets across the country through the e-platform is seen as an important measure for overcoming the challenges posed by the present agri-marketing system namely – fragmentation of State into multiple market areas, each administered by separate APMC, multiple levy of mandi fees, requirement for multiple license for trading in different APMCs, licensing barriers leading to conditions of monopoly, poor quality of infrastructure and low use of technology, information asymmetry, opaque process for price discovery, high level of market charges, movement controls, etc. The need to unify the markets both at State and National level is, therefore, clearly the requirement of time, in order to provide better price to farmers, improve supply chain, reduce wastages and create a unified national market.
For integration with the e-platform the States/UTs will need to undertake prior reforms in respect of (i) a single license to be valid across the State, (ii) single point levy of market fee and (iii) provision for electronic auction as a mode for price discovery. Only those States/UTs that have completed these three pre-requisites will be eligible for assistance under the scheme.
The e-marketing platform should promote reform of the agricultural marketing sector and apart from promoting free flow of agri commodities across the country should result in greater farmer satisfaction as the prospects for marketing of his produce would be significantly enhanced. He will have improved access to market related information and better price discovery through a more efficient, transparent and competitive marketing platform which gives him access to a greater number of buyers within the State and from outside, through transparent auction processes. It would also increase his access to markets through warehouse based sales and thus obviate the need to transport his produce to the mandi.
The Why , What and How:-
Why is the National Agriculture Market (NAM) a necessity today?
The purpose behind NAM is the creation of a common national market for agricultural commodities through an e-platform network. At present, agricultural produce market committees (APMCs) regulate market yards, limiting the scope of trading in agricultural commodities at the first point of sale where farmers bring in their produce following the harvest at a mandi located nearby. Mandis located across a state are not integrated and there are substantial transaction costs for moving the produce from one mandi to another within a state. Separate licences for each mandi are required for trading in different market areas within a state. This has led to a highly fragmented market and there is a high transaction cost for buying and selling agricultural commodities. Besides, it creates barriers for free movement of agricultural goods across the country.
NAM is an online platform with a physical market or mandi at the backend. Agriculture ministry officials say that NAM is not a parallel marketing structure but rather an instrument to create a national network of physical mandis which can be accessed online. According to the official document, NAM seeks to leverage the physical infrastructure of mandis through an online trading portal, enabling buyers situated even outside the state to participate in trading at the local level.
What is the government’s plan for developing NAM?
The electronic platform under NAM is being created through a special software developed by the agriculture ministry and the same is provided to each mandi—which agrees to come on board—free of cost. There are some basic criteria for a state to integrate into NAM. For instance, the concerned state must amend its APMC Acts by bringing in provision for electronic trading. Besides, states must provide a single licence to anyone willing to trade through NAM in a local mandi.
The agriculture ministry is aiming at integrating 200 markets in NAM by September 2016; 200 more regulated markets would be integrated with NAM by March 2017 and the rest 185 markets by March 2018.
How will NAM function and what are the benefits that it would bring?
NAM increases the choice for a farmer after he brings in his produce to a mandi. Local traders can bid for the produce, as also traders on the electronic platform sitting in other states. The farmer may choose to accept either the local offer or online. In either case, the transaction will be on the books of the local mandi and they will continue to earn the transaction fee. With more mandis coming onto the NAM platform, the volume of business will significantly increase, as there will be greater competition for specific produce, resulting in higher transaction fees for a mandi. Agriculture ministry officials say that the gradual integration of all major mandis into NAM e-platform would ensure common procedures for issue of licences, levy of fee and movement of produce.
Over 5-7 years, the ministry expects significant benefits through higher returns to farmers, lower transaction costs for buyers, and stable prices and availability to consumers. “NAM will also facilitate the emergence of integrated value chains in major agricultural commodities across the country and help promote scientific storage and movement of agri goods,” the official document on NAM notes.
Does this imply that various taxes and levies imposed by APMCs will be subsumed in NAM?
According to agriculture ministry officials, NAM—which is currently being implemented through the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (a body under the agriculture ministry)—would not lead to reduction in various levies imposed by states besides mandi taxes. However, because of single registration given to traders in a state, this would lead to payment of mandi taxes only at one place even if the concerned trader is buying commodities through the NAM platform in multiple markets across a state. The government is aiming at reduction in taxes and levies imposed by states in the next phase of reforms.
How will quality checks and payment systems work under NAM?
The concerned APMC—which has agreed to be part of NAM—will ensure quality standards of agricultural goods sold through its platform. NAM envisages harmonisation of quality standards of agricultural produce and provisions of assaying (quality testing) infrastructure in every market to enable informed bidding by buyers. By end-March, as many as 14 states amended their respective APMC Acts for making provisions for e-trading. These are Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
Are existing APMCs or mandis capable of handling NAM?
Experts say that infrastructure available for NAM at local markets varies from state to state. The NAM platform is being supported by agriculture ministry, which is bearing maintenance costs for each mandi. The integration cost for local mandis and customisation of software, training, etc, will also be paid for by the ministry as a one-time grant of around R30 lakh at the time of accepting the mandi in the national network. However, the running costs of the software at the local level, staff costs for quality check, etc, will be met with the transaction fee to be generated through the sale of produce. The key reason behind this support is to avoid any upfront investment by the mandi when it integrates into NAM, and enable it to support the running cost through additional generation of revenue.
How will NAM operate in the current form?
The 21 mandis where NAM is being formally launched would offer trading in commodities such as chana, castor seed, paddy, wheat, maize, onion, mustard and tamarind. But fruits and vegetables, where there often are prices fluctuations, are yet to be included in the NAM platform. Besides, the country’s two biggest mandis—Azadpur (Delhi) and Vashi (Mumbai)—have not yet agreed to come on board. A number of states which have amended their APMC Acts are yet to make changes for allowing the sale of fruits and vegetables through e-trading platform. Farmers face price volatility in selling fruits and vegetables as these are perishable, while in case of other commodities such as grains and pulses there are several traders involved in procurement.
What needs to be done from here?
Experts say that as long as fruits and vegetables are kept outside the purview of NAM, the volatility in prices would continue, thus depriving farmers from getting better prices. Barriers hampering interstate transfer of agricultural commodities also have to be removed. High taxes and levies imposed by states such as Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh on agricultural commodities trade have to be brought down; this would boost interstate trade and farmers’ income.
World output faces risk of 3.9 % drop by 2021
The decline in oil prices has helped countries such as India improve their external positions, but low commodity prices have kept risks elevated in emerging market economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest Global Financial Stability Report.
- The financial stability report assesses the risks faced by the global financial system and the current edition surveys the issues that surfaced since October 2015.
- The spill-over effects of the growing uncertainty about China’s economy and setbacks to growth and confidence in advanced economies are other factors undermining global financial stability. These developments tightened financial conditions, reduced risk appetite, raised credit risks and stymied balance sheet repair.
- Global output could decline 3.9% by 2021 if action isn’t taken to address the risks faced by the financial system.
The main message of this report is that additional measures are needed to deliver a more balanced and potent policy mix for improving the growth and inflation outlook and securing financial stability. In the absence of such measures, market turmoil may recur. However, if timely measures are taken, world output could expand by 1.7%, relative to the baseline, by 2018.
The report identifies a window of opportunity in the current economic recovery to deal with what it calls a “triad of global challenges,” namely, the legacy issues in advanced economies, vulnerabilities in emerging markets and greater systemic market liquidity risks. IMF suggests that in advanced economies, banks must deal with bad assets and other legacy issues.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.
On March 31, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its annual Gender Gap Report 2021. The Global Gender Gap report is an annual report released by the WEF. The gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. The gap between men and women across health, education, politics, and economics widened for the first time since records began in 2006.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]No need to remember all the data, only pick out few important ones to use in your answers.
The Global gender gap index aims to measure this gap in four key areas : health, education, economics, and politics. It surveys economies to measure gender disparity by collating and analyzing data that fall under four indices : economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The 2021 Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity. The index aims to serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men in health, education, economy, and politics.
Although no country has achieved full gender parity, the top two countries (Iceland and Finland) have closed at least 85% of their gap, and the remaining seven countries (Lithuania, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Rwanda, and Ireland) have closed at least 80% of their gap. Geographically, the global top 10 continues to be dominated by Nordic countries, with —Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden—in the top five.
The top 10 is completed by one country from Asia Pacific (New Zealand 4th), two Sub-Saharan countries (Namibia, 6th and Rwanda, 7th, one country from Eastern Europe (the new entrant to the top 10, Lithuania, 8th), and another two Western European countries (Ireland, 9th, and Switzerland, 10th, another country in the top-10 for the first time).There is a relatively equitable distribution of available income, resources, and opportunities for men and women in these countries. The tremendous gender gaps are identified primarily in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.
Here, we can discuss the overall global gender gap scores across the index’s four main components : Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
The indicators of the four main components are
(1) Economic Participation and Opportunity:
o Labour force participation rate,
o wage equality for similar work,
o estimated earned income,
o Legislators, senior officials, and managers,
o Professional and technical workers.
(2) Educational Attainment:
o Literacy rate (%)
o Enrollment in primary education (%)
o Enrollment in secondary education (%)
o Enrollment in tertiary education (%).
(3) Health and Survival:
o Sex ratio at birth (%)
o Healthy life expectancy (years).
(4) Political Empowerment:
o Women in Parliament (%)
o Women in Ministerial positions (%)
o Years with a female head of State (last 50 years)
o The share of tenure years.
The objective is to shed light on which factors are driving the overall average decline in the global gender gap score. The analysis results show that this year’s decline is mainly caused by a reversal in performance on the Political Empowerment gap.
Global Trends and Outcomes:
– Globally, this year, i.e., 2021, the average distance completed to gender parity gap is 68% (This means that the remaining gender gap to close stands at 32%) a step back compared to 2020 (-0.6 percentage points). These figures are mainly driven by a decline in the performance of large countries. On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.
– The gender gap in Political Empowerment remains the largest of the four gaps tracked, with only 22% closed to date, having further widened since the 2020 edition of the report by 2.4 percentage points. Across the 156 countries covered by the index, women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 Parliament seats and 22.6% of over 3,400 Ministers worldwide. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of State as of January 15, 2021. At the current rate of progress, the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 145.5 years to attain gender parity in politics.
– The gender gap in Economic Participation and Opportunity remains the second-largest of the four key gaps tracked by the index. According to this year’s index results, 58% of this gap has been closed so far. The gap has seen marginal improvement since the 2020 edition of the report, and as a result, we estimate that it will take another 267.6 years to close.
– Gender gaps in Educational Attainment and Health and Survival are nearly closed. In Educational Attainment, 95% of this gender gap has been closed globally, with 37 countries already attaining gender parity. However, the ‘last mile’ of progress is proceeding slowly. The index estimates that it will take another 14.2 years to close this gap on its current trajectory completely.
In Health and Survival, 96% of this gender gap has been closed, registering a marginal decline since last year (not due to COVID-19), and the time to close this gap remains undefined. For both education and health, while progress is higher than economy and politics in the global data, there are important future implications of disruptions due to the pandemic and continued variations in quality across income, geography, race, and ethnicity.
India-Specific Findings:
India had slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of the 156 countries covered. The pandemic causing a disproportionate impact on women jeopardizes rolling back the little progress made in the last decades-forcing more women to drop off the workforce and leaving them vulnerable to domestic violence.
India’s poor performance on the Global Gender Gap report card hints at a serious wake-up call and learning lessons from the Nordic region for the Government and policy makers.
Within the 156 countries covered, women hold only 26 percent of Parliamentary seats and 22 percent of Ministerial positions. India, in some ways, reflects this widening gap, where the number of Ministers declined from 23.1 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2021. The number of women in Parliament stands low at 14.4 percent. In India, the gender gap has widened to 62.5 %, down from 66.8% the previous year.
It is mainly due to women’s inadequate representation in politics, technical and leadership roles, a decrease in women’s labor force participation rate, poor healthcare, lagging female to male literacy ratio, and income inequality.
The gap is the widest on the political empowerment dimension, with economic participation and opportunity being next in line. However, the gap on educational attainment and health and survival has been practically bridged.
India is the third-worst performer among South Asian countries, with Pakistan and Afghanistan trailing and Bangladesh being at the top. The report states that the country fared the worst in political empowerment, regressing from 23.9% to 9.1%.
Its ranking on the health and survival dimension is among the five worst performers. The economic participation and opportunity gap saw a decline of 3% compared to 2020, while India’s educational attainment front is in the 114th position.
India has deteriorated to 51st place from 18th place in 2020 on political empowerment. Still, it has slipped to 155th position from 150th position in 2020 on health and survival, 151st place in economic participation and opportunity from 149th place, and 114th place for educational attainment from 112th.
In 2020 reports, among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap of 64.6% is larger than the political gender gap of 58.9%. In 2021 report, among the 156 countries, the economic gender gap of India is 67.4%, 3.8% gender gap in education, 6.3% gap in health and survival, and 72.4% gender gap in political empowerment. In health and survival, the gender gap of the sex ratio at birth is above 9.1%, and healthy life expectancy is almost the same.
Discrimination against women has also been reflected in Health and Survival subindex statistics. With 93.7% of this gap closed to date, India ranks among the bottom five countries in this subindex. The wide sex ratio at birth gaps is due to the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices. Besides, more than one in four women has faced intimate violence in her lifetime.The gender gap in the literacy rate is above 20.1%.
Yet, gender gaps persist in literacy : one-third of women are illiterate (34.2%) than 17.6% of men. In political empowerment, globally, women in Parliament is at 128th position and gender gap of 83.2%, and 90% gap in a Ministerial position. The gap in wages equality for similar work is above 51.8%. On health and survival, four large countries Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and China, fare poorly, with millions of women there not getting the same access to health as men.
The pandemic has only slowed down in its tracks the progress India was making towards achieving gender parity. The country urgently needs to focus on “health and survival,” which points towards a skewed sex ratio because of the high incidence of gender-based sex-selective practices and women’s economic participation. Women’s labour force participation rate and the share of women in technical roles declined in 2020, reducing the estimated earned income of women, one-fifth of men.
Learning from the Nordic region, noteworthy participation of women in politics, institutions, and public life is the catalyst for transformational change. Women need to be equal participants in the labour force to pioneer the societal changes the world needs in this integral period of transition.
Every effort must be directed towards achieving gender parallelism by facilitating women in leadership and decision-making positions. Social protection programmes should be gender-responsive and account for the differential needs of women and girls. Research and scientific literature also provide unequivocal evidence that countries led by women are dealing with the pandemic more effectively than many others.
Gendered inequality, thereby, is a global concern. India should focus on targeted policies and earmarked public and private investments in care and equalized access. Women are not ready to wait for another century for equality. It’s time India accelerates its efforts and fight for an inclusive, equal, global recovery.
India will not fully develop unless both women and men are equally supported to reach their full potential. There are risks, violations, and vulnerabilities women face just because they are women. Most of these risks are directly linked to women’s economic, political, social, and cultural disadvantages in their daily lives. It becomes acute during crises and disasters.
With the prevalence of gender discrimination, and social norms and practices, women become exposed to the possibility of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child domestic work, poor education and health, sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence. Many of these manifestations will not change unless women are valued more.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]2021 WEF Global Gender Gap report, which confirmed its 2016 finding of a decline in worldwide progress towards gender parity.
Over 2.8 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. As many as 104 countries still have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, 59 countries have no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, and it is astonishing that a handful of countries still allow husbands to legally stop their wives from working.
Globally, women’s participation in the labour force is estimated at 63% (as against 94% of men who participate), but India’s is at a dismal 25% or so currently. Most women are in informal and vulnerable employment—domestic help, agriculture, etc—and are always paid less than men.
Recent reports from Assam suggest that women workers in plantations are paid much less than men and never promoted to supervisory roles. The gender wage gap is about 24% globally, and women have lost far more jobs than men during lockdowns.
The problem of gender disparity is compounded by hurdles put up by governments, society and businesses: unequal access to social security schemes, banking services, education, digital services and so on, even as a glass ceiling has kept leadership roles out of women’s reach.
Yes, many governments and businesses had been working on parity before the pandemic struck. But the global gender gap, defined by differences reflected in the social, political, intellectual, cultural and economic attainments or attitudes of men and women, will not narrow in the near future without all major stakeholders working together on a clear agenda—that of economic growth by inclusion.
The WEF report estimates 135 years to close the gap at our current rate of progress based on four pillars: educational attainment, health, economic participation and political empowerment.
India has slipped from rank 112 to 140 in a single year, confirming how hard women were hit by the pandemic. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two Asian countries that fared worse.
Here are a few things we must do:
One, frame policies for equal-opportunity employment. Use technology and artificial intelligence to eliminate biases of gender, caste, etc, and select candidates at all levels on merit. Numerous surveys indicate that women in general have a better chance of landing jobs if their gender is not known to recruiters.
Two, foster a culture of gender sensitivity. Take a review of current policies and move from gender-neutral to gender-sensitive. Encourage and insist on diversity and inclusion at all levels, and promote more women internally to leadership roles. Demolish silos to let women grab potential opportunities in hitherto male-dominant roles. Work-from-home has taught us how efficiently women can manage flex-timings and productivity.
Three, deploy corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the education and skilling of women and girls at the bottom of the pyramid. CSR allocations to toilet building, the PM-Cares fund and firms’ own trusts could be re-channelled for this.
Four, get more women into research and development (R&D) roles. A study of over 4,000 companies found that more women in R&D jobs resulted in radical innovation. It appears women score far higher than men in championing change. If you seek growth from affordable products and services for low-income groups, women often have the best ideas.
Five, break barriers to allow progress. Cultural and structural issues must be fixed. Unconscious biases and discrimination are rampant even in highly-esteemed organizations. Establish fair and transparent human resource policies.
Six, get involved in local communities to engage them. As Michael Porter said, it is not possible for businesses to sustain long-term shareholder value without ensuring the welfare of the communities they exist in. It is in the best interest of enterprises to engage with local communities to understand and work towards lowering cultural and other barriers in society. It will also help connect with potential customers, employees and special interest groups driving the gender-equity agenda and achieve better diversity.