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News 1: India eyes IMF support ahead of G20 chair
Background:
- India will soon be taking over the G20 chair in December where the agendas such as debates and climate change will be discussed while India will take up some of the issues.
About IMF:
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF), a Bretton Woods institution, works to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for all of its 190 member countries.
- It does so by supporting economic policies that promote financial stability and monetary cooperation, which are essential to increase productivity, job creation, and economic well-being.
Primary functions of IMF
- Facilitate international monetary cooperation
- To promote exchange rate stability and orderly exchange arrangements
- To assist in the establishment of multilateral payment systems and elimination of foreign exchange restrictions.
- Providing assistance to member countries by providing short term capital to correct maladjustment in Balance of Payments.
- Encourages the expansion of trade and economic growth
Reports published by IMF: World economic outlook, Global Financial Stability Report, Fiscal Monitor, Regional Economic Outlook
About G20:
- It is an intergovernmental forum of 19 countries and the European Union.
- It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development.
- Together, the G20 members represent more than 80 percent of world GDP, 75 percent of international trade and 60 percent of the world population.
Members: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. Spain is also invited as a permanent guest.
News 2: CBDC to reduce, cost in cross-border business: RBI’s Sankar
Background:
- RBI Bank Deputy Governor R. Rabi Sankar expressed that CBDC (Central bank digital currency), which is to be introduced this year, could become a tool for reducing time and cost for cross-border transactions.
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget 2022-23 announced to roll out CBDC, which is digital equivalent of a rupee, on a pilot basis this fiscal year.
About CBDC:
- A CBDC is the legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. It is the same as a fiat currency and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Only its form is different.
- It is sovereign currency in an electronic form, and it would appear as liability (currency in circulation) on a central bank’s balance sheet. CBDCs should be exchangeable at par with cash.
Benefits:
- Internationalization of CBDC is crucial to addressing the payments issue that bodies like G-20 and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) are dealing with now.
- CBDC of two countries can settle transactions without a waiting time and this reduces risk and cost of cross border transactions and ultimately leads to globalization of payment systems.
- India’s high currency to GDP ratio holds out another benefit of CBDCs. As large cash usage which involves the cost of printing, transporting, storing and distributing currency can be reduced by CBDCs.
- Central banks seek to meet the public’s need for digital currencies, manifested in the increasing use of private virtual currencies, and thereby avoid the more damaging consequences of such private currencies.
Associated challenges of adopting CBDCs:
- CBDCs, depending on the extent of its use, can cause a reduction in the transaction demand for bank deposits. This might lead to shifting away from bank deposits, which in turn might reduce the need for government guarantees on deposits.
- If banks begin to lose deposits over time, their ability for credit creation gets constrained. Since central banks cannot provide credit to the private sector, the impact on the role of bank credit needs to be well understood.
- Availability of CBDC makes it easy for depositors to withdraw balances if there is stress on any bank. So, bank runs may be easier now.
News 3 – Xi, Putin to hold talks in Uzbekistan
Background:
China’s President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks next week on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend.
About SCO:
- SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organization, established in 2001, and aims to maintain peace, security and stability in the region.
- Prior to creation of SCO in 2001, Shanghai Five was there which included the members China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
- Headquarter: Beijing
- Members: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan. India and Pakistan became members in 2017. In September 2021, it was announced Iran will become a full-time member.
- Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure – Shanghai Cooperation Organization (RATS-SCO): RATS is a permanent body of the SCO and is intended to facilitate coordination and interaction between the SCO member states in the fight against terrorism, extremism and separatism.
News 4: Ukraine backs UN peace force at nuclear plant
Background:
- Ukraine would support the deployment of UN peacekeepers at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant, a day after the UN atomic watchdog called for a security zone around the site.
Details:
- IAEA called for a demilitarised security zone to be established at the plant in southern Ukraine, which the Russians took over in March. There has been repeated shelling around the site, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster.
About Zaporizhzhia plant:
- It is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and is included in top 10 nuclear power plants by capacity.
- It was built by the Soviet Union near the city of Enerhodar, on the southern shore of the Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper river.
About IAEA:
- The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957. Though established independently of the United Nations through its own international treaty (the IAEA Statute), the IAEA reports to both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the UN.
- IAEA serves as an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation on the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nuclear power worldwide
- Head Quarter- Vienna, Austria
- India is a member. Almost all except few countries like North-Korea are not its members.
News 5: Army takes major infra drive along LAC in Arunachal
Background:
- After significantly upgrading firepower and infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, the Army is on a major drive for capability and infrastructure development in the rest of Arunachal Pradesh.
Details of infrastructure development:
- This includes road, bridges, tunnels, habitat and storage facilities, aviation facilities and upgrade of communications and surveillance, especially in the Upper Dibang Valley region, according to multiple Army officials.
- A capability development matrix was being employed and road development, construction of habitat and aviation facilities are under way.
- India has two road axis in the forested area in Lohit and Siang; now, efforts were underway to improve infrastructure across the board.
About Border Roads Organization:
- BRO was conceived and raised in 1960 for coordinating the speedy development of a network of roads in the North and the Northeastern border regions of the country.
- To support the armed forces, meet their strategic needs by committed, dedicated and cost-effective development and sustenance of the infrastructure.
- It works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence.
News 6: Breather for coal plants draws anguish
Background:
- The Union Environment Ministry has for the third time extended the deadline by which coal plants must install pollution-control technologies to reduce emissions, drawing criticism from environment and clean-energy activists.
Details of the extended norms:
- The Ministry first specified emission norms for the control of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and mercury (Hg) from coal-fired power plants in December 2015.
- According to the latest notification, power plants within a 10-km radius of the NCR and in the vicinity of cities with a population of more than one million have until December 31, 2024, to meet the deadline.
- For power plants within a 10-km radius of “critically polluted” areas (as designated by the Environment Ministry), the deadline has been extended to December 31, 2025. Finally, for all other power plants across the country, the deadline stands at December 31, 2026.
Problems associated with extended deadline for compliance:
- Sunil Dahiya, analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, has expressed that the basic science and chemistry of SO2’s role behind building up PM2.5 concentrations through sulphate formation is being ignored.
- Nivit Yadav of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said, “Our analysis shows that till date, only 4% of India’s coal power capacity has installed equipment to control SO2 emissions and another 41% has identified the vendors for equipment. The remaining 55% of the capacity has not taken any concrete steps to meet the norms.”
News 7: WHO to stress prevention of non-communicable diseases
Background:
- The member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region on Wednesday resolved to accelerate progress for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, including oral and eye afflictions.
Non-communicable diseases:
- As per WHO, Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral factors.
- Non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes, account for almost two-thirds of all deaths in the region.
- Nearly half these deaths occur prematurely between the ages of 30 and 69 in 2021.
Socio-economic impact of NCDs:
- NCDs threaten progress towards achieving the target of reducing premature deaths from NCDs by one-third by 2030, which is one of the goals of Sustainable Development Goals.
- The rapid rise in NCDs is predicted to impede poverty reduction initiatives in low-income countries, particularly by increasing household costs associated with health care.Vulnerable and socially disadvantaged people get sicker and die soon. As they are exposed to harmful products, such as tobacco, or unhealthy dietary practices, and have limited access to health services.
- Due to low resources, NCDs rapidly drain household resources and increase out of pocket expenditure burden and push few of these people to poverty and this again hampers development of both country and the person.
About WHO:
- WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health.
- The WHO Constitution states its main objective as “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health”.
- Headquarter – Geneva, Switzerland.
News 8: BRO to maintain paths to Amarnath temple
Background:
- The J&K administration has handed over the twin routes to the Amarnath cave temple in the highly ecologically sensitive locations in south and central Kashmir to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for maintenance.
About Amarnath temple:
- Amarnath Temple is located in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.
- Amarnath cave is the abode of Mahamaya Shakti Peetha, which is one of the 51 peethas present in India.
- The cave is an ice cave, it contains a certain amount of ice stalagmites.
- The surrounding basins of the temples are feeding glaciers for many streams, including the famous Lidder stream in Pahalgam. Both Pahalgam in south Kashmir and Sonamarg in central Kashmir are used as base camps and are covered by dense forests.
News 9: Cabinet approves PM SHRI scheme
Background:
- The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the ‘PM Schools for Rising India’ (PM SHRI) scheme to turn existing government schools into model schools for implementation of the National Education Policy, 2022.
About PM SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India) scheme:
- Type: Centrally sponsored scheme
- Outlay: Total project cost of ₹27,360 crore, with the Centre’s share being ₹18,128 crore
- Time: For a period of five years from 2022-23 to 2026-27
- Targets: Transforming nearly 14,500 schools across the country.
- Requirements: Schools will be selected only if the State government agrees to implement the NEP entirely and aligned with quality standards laid down by the Centre and schools will be monitored regularly.
- These schools will be equipped with modern infrastructure including labs, smart classrooms, libraries, sports equipment, art room etc. which is inclusive and accessible.
- These schools shall also be developed as green schools with water conservation, waste recycling, energy-efficient infrastructure and integration of organic lifestyle in curriculum.
News 10: Positive secularism is allowed: student to SC in case
Background:
- India believes in ‘positive secularism’ based on tolerance of all religious faiths and not ‘negative secularism’ followed in countries like France which holds that display of religion in public is offensive, Aishat Shifa, a student from Karnataka who has challenged the ban on wearing hijab to school, told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Secularism:
- Secularism is a doctrine which opposes intra-religious and inter-religious forms of domination. It promotes freedom within religions and equality, between, as well as within, religions.
- Western model of secularism does not allow interference of the state in religion and vice-versa.
- Indian secularism opposes both inter-religious and intra-religious domination, deals with religious freedom of individuals and minority communities, and encourages state supported religious reform.
- India also does not have an official religion and normally is disengaged with religion but may engage with religion if required so as to support peaceful coexistence.
“Western dictionaries define secularism as absence of religion but Indian secularism does not mean irreligiousness.It means profusion of religions.”
News 11: New Delhi, Dhaka hail Ganga panel
Background:
India and Bangladesh welcomed the establishment of a joint technical committee to study the use of Ganga waters in Bangladesh, a joint statement issued on the third day of the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday.
Ganga water sharing treaty:
- The Ganga Water Sharing Treaty is a 30-year agreement which is expected to be reviewed or renewed in 2026.
- The treaty was signed on 12 December 1996 and is essentially regarding the sharing of lean-season flows.
- India shall release downstream of Farakka Barrage, water at a rate not less than 90% (ninety per cent) of Bangladesh’s share.
India – Bangladesh cooperation:
- The Indian side also raised the “urgent” irrigation-related requirements in Tripura which can be addressed with the waters of the Feni, and urged Bangladesh for “early signing of the interim water sharing agreement” on the river.
- Multiple rail track projects such as Benapole-Jashori and others will create a smooth flow of goods and people within Bangladesh overcoming infrastructure bottlenecks.
- India and Bangladesh have been in talks for the construction of an Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Sirajganj in the north-west of capital Dhaka and help in movement of bulk items.
- Both countries reviewed the progress of the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline which will further boost energy supply in Bangladesh.
About Feni River:
- It is a trans-boundary river between Bangladesh and India (Tripura)
- The Feni River originates in South Tripura district and flows through Sabroom town and then enters Bangladesh
News 12: Encroached drains, construction boom: Why Bengaluru drowned
Background:
- Recently, the tech city Bengaluru, was submerged under water triggering fears, health hazards and property damages.
Reasons behind flooding:
- Heavy rains contributed to the collapse of urban infrastructure
- Unauthorized and unabated construction and encroached drain stopped the natural drainage and led to urban flooding
- As per experts, poor drainage system, drains were clogged with solid and building demolition waste, unscientific remodeling which included narrowing and concretization of drains, loss of interconnectivity among lakes (as concretized drains increases the velocity of rainwater), and encroachment of buffer areas has exacerbation of flooding in Bengaluru.
Solutions to reduce flooding:
- New culverts and drains need to be introduced so as to move water along valley sections in Bengaluru.
- Widening of existing drains
- Water sensitive urban design and planning and green infrastructure approach for stormwater management.
- Mapping areas that were previously affected by floods, on the basis of geography will help create flood risk assessment.
News 13: Covid distress: One in 6 MSME loan accounts under Govt pandemic relief package turns NPA
Background:
- Under the Right to Information Act, it was found that loans provided under Extended Credit Line Guarantee Scheme have turned bad in just 27 months.
Details:
- The defaults are mainly in the lower end of the loan bands (upto 20 lakhs).
- National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd, has said in response to RTI, 16.4% of the total 98.86 lakh accounts, disbursed since May 2020 may turn into NPA.
- Rationale provided by some experts, mention that as per current NPA categorization norms, if even one loan account of customers turns bad, all loan accounts will be categorized as NPAs, even if the other accounts continue to be serviced.
- As per a report of SBI, ECLGS was crucial in keeping MSMEs afloat, as it saved an estimated 13.5lakh MSME accounts, 1.5 crore jobs and prevented 14% of outstanding MSME loans amounting to 18 lakh crore turning bad.
About ECLGS scheme:
- Ministry: Ministry of Finance
- To provide financial assistance to pandemic hit economy by provide Rupees 3 lakh unsecured loan to MSMEs and companies
News 14: IIM dropout, BBA, MBA students among 7 held for drugs smuggling through darknet
Background: Seven persons, including an IIM dropout and a fashion designer, have been arrested by the Delhi police for allegedly sourcing drugs such as LSD, MDMA and marijuana from abroad through darknet and supplying it to college and school students through courier service
Darknet:
One liner:
- Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia.
- Russia is the world’s top natural gas exporter.
Recent Posts
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.