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News 1: Dark sky reserve to come up in Hanle, Ladakh
Background:
- Department of Science & Technology (DST) has announced the setting up of India’s first dark sky reserve at Hanle in Ladakh.
Hanle and dark sky reserve:
- Hanle, which is about 4,500 metres above sea level, hosts telescopes and is regarded as one of the world’s most optimal sites for astronomical observations.
- A dark sky reserve is a designation given to a place that has minimal artificial light interference. The designation is provided by The International Dark Sky Association which is a U.S.-based non-profit organization.
Ideal conditions of the reserve
- Located atop Mt. Saraswati in the Nilamkhul Plain in the Hanle Valley of Changthang, it is a dry, cold desert with sparse human population.
- The cloudless skies and low atmospheric water vapour make it one of the best sites.
Implications of setting up Hanle Dark sky reserve:
- It will help in boosting local tourism and economy through interventions of science and technology.
- This will promote astro-tourism, villagers will be trained to help people with astronomical observations and villages will be encouraged to promote homestays equipped with telescopes that visitors can use to view the night sky.
News 2: Scientists remain sceptical about how nano urea benefits crops
Background:
- Nano urea, a fertilizer patented and sold by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO), has been approved by the government for commercial for its potential to reduce import bill.
Nano urea and it’s benefits:
- IFFCO’s nano urea contains nitrogen, an element critical for plant development, in the form of granules that are a hundred thousand times finer than a sheet of paper.
- Nano urea process used “organic polymers” that kept the nano particles of nitrogen stable and in a form that could be sprayed on plants.
- Unlike the coarse particles that is thrown by farmers during sowing, the nano particle form of nano urea, when applied on to the leaves, stimulates enzymes such as nitrase and nitrite reductase, which help plants metabolise nitrogen.
- As nano particles are so small and numerous, they have a lot more surface area relative to their volume, and thus plants are exposed to nearly 10,000 times more in nitrogen.
- Nano urea have a shelf life of a year and it does not cake when it comes into contact with moisture.
- It increases crop productivity and reduces water and soil pollution.
- Application of 1 bottle of Nano Urea can effectively replace at least 1 bag of Urea
- Small size (20-50 nm) of Nano Urea increases its availability to crop by more than 80%.
Issues with nano urea:
- Plants need nitrogen to make protein and they source almost all of it from soil bacteria which live in a plant’s roots and break down the atmospheric nitrogen, or from chemicals such as urea into a form usable by plants. But not all urea cast on plants will be able to utilize it completely.
- Several agricultural scientists are of the view, that chemically packaged urea contains 46% nitrogen, which means a 45-kg sack contains about 20 kg of nitrogen. Contrastingly, nano urea sold in 500-ml bottles has only 4% nitrogen (or around 20 g). The challenge is how nano urea will be able to compensate the requirement of nitrogen required by plants.
- Another criticism is that Urea is highly water soluble and can reach the lowest form of concentration when absorbed. The issue is how increase in nanoparticles can increase the uptake effectiveness of nitrogen.
News 3: Hasina’s visit to focus on water sharing
Background:
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s September 5-8 India visit is expected to focus on issues such as water sharing, energy cooperation, uninterrupted commercial flow and greater connectivity.
Irritants in relations:
- Teesta water dispute is a long term issue as West Bengal objected to water sharing agreement of 2011 which allocates the share of water between India and Bangladesh about 42.5% and 37.5% respectively.
- The China factor plays a crucial role in upholding the security interests of India by Bangladesh while balancing its economic interests, which becomes difficult in this constantly changing geopolitical equation of South Asia.
- The rolling out of National Register for Citizens by India has caused concern in Bangladesh as the identification might lead to deportation to Bangladesh, which will face another issue in accommodating these migrants along with Rohingya refugees.
Convergence of India – Bangladesh interests:
- India and Bangladesh have historical links, common culture and social affinities which will promote tourism as strengthen ties and ultimately lead to open a golden chapter in our bilateral relations.
- Bangladesh is India’s South Asian Largest Trade partner.
- Bangladesh and India have signed motor connectivity pacts such as Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) initiative Motor Vehicles Agreement.
- India shares its longest border with Bangladesh and the continued cooperation between both the countries has led to apprehending of smugglers and non-state actors and successful ratification of India- Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement.
- The Maitree Thermal Power project will be inaugurated by the two prime ministers and this will strengthen ties in the domain of energy security.
News 4: Road accidents in India
Background:
- Former TATA Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry was killed in a road accident on National Highway in Maharashtra.
Precarious condition of roads:
- According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 1.5 lakh deaths occur on roads of India, of which National Highways account for one-third.
- Road accidents has dipped from 4,45,730 accidents in 2017 to 4,30, 116 in 2021.
- Death due to accidents has increased from 1,50,093 people in 2017 to 1,55,622 in 2021.
- As per World Bank Publication ,”Traffic Crash Injuries and Disabilities: The Burden on Indian Society”, in 2021 mentions that India accounts for 1% of vehicles of the world but has a share of 10% of death due to crash.
- During lockdown, deaths and accident cases came down.
Reason behind accidents:
- Due to low visibility in the months of December and January in the period between 6 pm – 9pm.
- Highest cases is attributed to negligent driving and speeding.
New 5: NCRB data regarding sedition cases
Background:
- Assam recorded the most number of sedition cases in the country in last eight years, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
NCRB report on sedition cases:
- In between 2014-2021, India had 475 cases of sedition, of which Assam accounted for 69 cases, which means that 1 in 6 sedition cases are from Assam. It is followed by Hryana with 42 cases and Jharkand with 40 cases.
- Cases registered under Section 124A of the IPC have been mentioned under the subhead ‘Sedition’ and cases registered under Section 121, 121A, 122 and 123 IPC have been given under the subsection ‘Others’.
Sedition:
- Sedition, which falls under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, is defined as any action that brings or attempts to bring hatred or contempt towards the government of India and has been illegal in India since 1870.
- In 1962, the Supreme Court decided on the constitutionality of Section 124A in Kedar Nath Singh v State of Bihar and upheld the constitutionality of sedition but limited its application.
- In 1995, the Supreme Court, in Balwant Singh v State of Punjab, held that mere sloganeering which evoked no public response did not amount to sedition.
News 6: Chile votes on proposed Constitution
Background:
- Chileans on Sunday voted in a plebiscite to adopt a new Constitution which will change the polity of South American country.
New constitution:
- The proposed charter is intended to replace a Constitution imposed by the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet 41 years ago.
- In 2021, Chileans elected delegates to a constitutional convention.
- It was the first in the world to be written by a convention split equally between male and female delegates.
- The new constitution focuses on social issues and gender parity, enshrines rights for the country’s Indigenous population, and puts environment and climate change at forefront.
- It also introduces rights to free education, health care and housing.
- The new Constitution would characterize Chile as a pluri-national state, establish autonomous Indigenous territories and recognize a parallel justice system in those areas.
About Chile:
- Type of Government: Unitary presidential republic
- Capital: Santiago
- Currency: Chilean peso
- Chile is world’s top copper producer.
- India and Chile have a preferential trade agreement
About plebiscite:
- In plebiscite, the opinion of the people is obtained on any issue of general public importance. It is generally issued to solve territorial disputes.
News 7: Tamil Nadu reiterates plea for a bench of Supreme Court in Chennai
Background:
- Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Sunday yet again reiterated the State’s request for establishing a Regional Bench of the Supreme Court in Chennai and allowing Tamil to be used in the Madras High Court as one of its official languages. He also insisted on representation of all sections in the appointment of judges.
Constitutional mandate:
- Article 130 of Constitution declares Delhi as seat of the Supreme Court. It also authorises Chief Justice of India to appoint other place or places as seat of Supreme Court and can take this decision with the approval from the President.
Setting up regional benches:
- 18th law commission of 2019 recommended setting up of regional benches of Supreme Court of India.
- Arguments Against:
- It might lessen the binding force of decisions of Supreme Court
- Huge infrastructure cost of setting these benches will again strain the public exchequer.
- It has been argued that setting up virtual courts is more effective than setting up regional benches
- Arguments in Favour:
- It will ensure the reduction of pendency of cases and will lead to speedy disposal of cases.
- It will make litigations less expensive for petitioners from areas aside from New Delhi as constant travelling causes a serious strain.
- It will ensure that justice is not denied to citizen due to any disabilities and will align to the core aim of Article 39A.
- Setting up regional benches will increase number seats of judges and will enhance the pace of justice delivery
News 8: PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Background :
PETA India has exposed the abuse of Assam’s elephant Joymala (known as Jeymalyatha in Tamil Nadu), including the use of weapons such as pliers by the latest mahout, who was brought in after numerous other mahouts were caught on video beating her. The shocking report also reveals that she was beaten so ruthlessly she can be heard screaming in pain in a viral video at the holiest of places – the sanctum sanctorum of the Krishnan Kovil temple, where she is kept chained to the floor.
Indian Elephant – Endangered
PETA-People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
- It is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president,
Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
- Provides for the protection of the country’s wild animals, birds, and plant species, in order to ensure environmental and ecological security. Among other things, the Act lays down restrictions on hunting many animal species.
- It provides for the establishment of wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, etc.
- It helped India become a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES – also known as the Washington Convention and was adopted as a result of a meeting of IUCN members)
The Act created six schedules which gave varying degrees of protection
- Schedule I and Schedule II (Part II) get absolute protection, and offences under these schedules attract the maximum penalties.
- Species listed in Schedule III and Schedule IV are also protected, but the penalties are much lower.
- Animals under Schedule V, e.g. common crows, fruit bats, rats and mice, are legally considered vermin and may be hunted freely
- The specified endemic plants in Schedule VI are prohibited from cultivation and planting
Constitutional Provision for Protection of Wildlife:
- Article 48A of the Constitution of India directs the State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard wildlife and forests. This article was added to the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment in 1976.
- Article 51A imposes certain fundamental duties for the people of India. One of them is to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.
Globally, around 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations.
This can pose a significant environmental and health threat.
In the absence of cost-effective, sustainable, disruptive water management solutions, about 70% of sewage is discharged untreated into India’s water bodies.
A staggering 21% of diseases are caused by contaminated water in India, according to the World Bank, and one in five children die before their fifth birthday because of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, according to Startup India.
As we confront these public health challenges emerging out of environmental concerns, expanding the scope of public health/environmental engineering science becomes pivotal.
For India to achieve its sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and to address the growing demands for water consumption and preservation of both surface water bodies and groundwater resources, it is essential to find and implement innovative ways of treating wastewater.
It is in this context why the specialised cadre of public health engineers, also known as sanitation engineers or environmental engineers, is best suited to provide the growing urban and rural water supply and to manage solid waste and wastewater.
Traditionally, engineering and public health have been understood as different fields.
Currently in India, civil engineering incorporates a course or two on environmental engineering for students to learn about wastewater management as a part of their pre-service and in-service training.
Most often, civil engineers do not have adequate skills to address public health problems. And public health professionals do not have adequate engineering skills.
India aims to supply 55 litres of water per person per day by 2024 under its Jal Jeevan Mission to install functional household tap connections.
The goal of reaching every rural household with functional tap water can be achieved in a sustainable and resilient manner only if the cadre of public health engineers is expanded and strengthened.
In India, public health engineering is executed by the Public Works Department or by health officials.
This differs from international trends. To manage a wastewater treatment plant in Europe, for example, a candidate must specialise in wastewater engineering.
Furthermore, public health engineering should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. Engineers can significantly contribute to public health in defining what is possible, identifying limitations, and shaping workable solutions with a problem-solving approach.
Similarly, public health professionals can contribute to engineering through well-researched understanding of health issues, measured risks and how course correction can be initiated.
Once both meet, a public health engineer can identify a health risk, work on developing concrete solutions such as new health and safety practices or specialised equipment, in order to correct the safety concern..
There is no doubt that the majority of diseases are water-related, transmitted through consumption of contaminated water, vectors breeding in stagnated water, or lack of adequate quantity of good quality water for proper personal hygiene.
Diseases cannot be contained unless we provide good quality and adequate quantity of water. Most of the world’s diseases can be prevented by considering this.
Training our young minds towards creating sustainable water management systems would be the first step.
Currently, institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) are considering initiating public health engineering as a separate discipline.
To leverage this opportunity even further, India needs to scale up in the same direction.
Consider this hypothetical situation: Rajalakshmi, from a remote Karnataka village spots a business opportunity.
She knows that flowers, discarded in the thousands by temples can be handcrafted into incense sticks.
She wants to find a market for the product and hopefully, employ some people to help her. Soon enough though, she discovers that starting a business is a herculean task for a person like her.
There is a laborious process of rules and regulations to go through, bribes to pay on the way and no actual means to transport her product to its market.
After making her first batch of agarbathis and taking it to Bengaluru by bus, she decides the venture is not easy and gives up.
On the flipside of this is a young entrepreneur in Bengaluru. Let’s call him Deepak. He wants to start an internet-based business selling sustainably made agarbathis.
He has no trouble getting investors and to mobilise supply chains. His paperwork is over in a matter of days and his business is set up quickly and ready to grow.
Never mind that the business is built on aggregation of small sellers who will not see half the profit .
Is this scenario really all that hypothetical or emblematic of how we think about entrepreneurship in India?
Between our national obsession with unicorns on one side and glorifying the person running a pakora stall for survival as an example of viable entrepreneurship on the other, is the middle ground in entrepreneurship—a space that should have seen millions of thriving small and medium businesses, but remains so sparsely occupied that you could almost miss it.
If we are to achieve meaningful economic growth in our country, we need to incorporate, in our national conversation on entrepreneurship, ways of addressing the missing middle.
Spread out across India’s small towns and cities, this is a class of entrepreneurs that have been hit by a triple wave over the last five years, buffeted first by the inadvertent fallout of demonetization, being unprepared for GST, and then by the endless pain of the covid-19 pandemic.
As we finally appear to be reaching some level of normality, now is the opportune time to identify the kind of industries that make up this layer, the opportunities they should be afforded, and the best ways to scale up their functioning in the shortest time frame.
But, why pay so much attention to these industries when we should be celebrating, as we do, our booming startup space?
It is indeed true that India has the third largest number of unicorns in the world now, adding 42 in 2021 alone. Braving all the disruptions of the pandemic, it was a year in which Indian startups raised $24.1 billion in equity investments, according to a NASSCOM-Zinnov report last year.
However, this is a story of lopsided growth.
The cities of Bengaluru, Delhi/NCR, and Mumbai together claim three-fourths of these startup deals while emerging hubs like Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, and Jaipur account for the rest.
This leap in the startup space has created 6.6 lakh direct jobs and a few million indirect jobs. Is that good enough for a country that sends 12 million fresh graduates to its workforce every year?
It doesn’t even make a dent on arguably our biggest unemployment in recent history—in April 2020 when the country shutdown to battle covid-19.
Technology-intensive start-ups are constrained in their ability to create jobs—and hybrid work models and artificial intelligence (AI) have further accelerated unemployment.
What we need to focus on, therefore, is the labour-intensive micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME). Here, we begin to get to a definitional notion of what we called the mundane middle and the problems it currently faces.
India has an estimated 63 million enterprises. But, out of 100 companies, 95 are micro enterprises—employing less than five people, four are small to medium and barely one is large.
The questions to ask are: why are Indian MSMEs failing to grow from micro to small and medium and then be spurred on to make the leap into large companies?
At the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME), we have advocated for a National Mission for Mass Entrepreneurship, the need for which is more pronounced now than ever before.
Whenever India has worked to achieve a significant economic milestone in a limited span of time, it has worked best in mission mode. Think of the Green Revolution or Operation Flood.
From across various states, there are enough examples of approaches that work to catalyse mass entrepreneurship.
The introduction of entrepreneurship mindset curriculum (EMC) in schools through alliance mode of working by a number of agencies has shown significant improvement in academic and life outcomes.
Through creative teaching methods, students are encouraged to inculcate 21st century skills like creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and leadership which are not only foundational for entrepreneurship but essential to thrive in our complex world.
Udhyam Learning Foundation has been involved with the Government of Delhi since 2018 to help young people across over 1,000 schools to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
One pilot programme introduced the concept of ‘seed money’ and saw 41 students turn their ideas into profit-making ventures. Other programmes teach qualities like grit and resourcefulness.
If you think these are isolated examples, consider some larger data trends.
The Observer Research Foundation and The World Economic Forum released the Young India and Work: A Survey of Youth Aspirations in 2018.
When asked which type of work arrangement they prefer, 49% of the youth surveyed said they prefer a job in the public sector.
However, 38% selected self-employment as an entrepreneur as their ideal type of job. The spirit of entrepreneurship is latent and waiting to be unleashed.
The same can be said for building networks of successful women entrepreneurs—so crucial when the participation of women in the Indian economy has declined to an abysmal 20%.
The majority of India’s 63 million firms are informal —fewer than 20% are registered for GST.
Research shows that companies that start out as formal enterprises become two-three times more productive than a similar informal business.
So why do firms prefer to be informal? In most cases, it’s because of the sheer cost and difficulty of complying with the different regulations.
We have academia and non-profits working as ecosystem enablers providing insights and evidence-based models for growth. We have large private corporations and philanthropic and funding agencies ready to invest.
It should be in the scope of a National Mass Entrepreneurship Mission to bring all of them together to work in mission mode so that the gap between thought leadership and action can finally be bridged.