The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is likely to significantly impact several areas, from attracting more foreign investment to possibly ushering a transformation of Indian Railways. Here is how.
Background–
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, will be laying the foundation stone for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project on 14 September.
In-detail:-
In its size, scale and sweep, this project is probably the single largest foreign direct investment into India since independence. Expected to cost approximately $15 billion (Rs 90,000 crore), it is fully funded by the Japanese through a soft loan at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent per annum.
It has been ensured that repayment of this loan is to begin after 15 years and to be repaid over the next 35 years. What makes this loan arrangement attractive is that even loans from multilateral agencies come with more stringent terms. The low interest rate and extended repayment period have the calculated effect of addressing upfront any potential economic downsides in the project.
Besides this sweet deal, the project has significant geopolitical ramifications. At the outset, it signifies the dynamics of the Indo-Japanese relationship and the confidence Japan has on India in general and the government in particular. This in turn will draw in future investments into India from foreign countries on several such projects.
More importantly, the terms of any investment into India, private or government, will henceforth be benchmarked against the terms of this project. Anyone funding projects in India on interest rates above 0.1 per cent and for a term of less than 50 years will surely raise eyebrows.
What is especially astonishing is that for the first time since independence, one sovereign nation has invested so heavily in India on such favourable terms for the latter and for such extended periods. Obviously, the Japanese have more faith in the Indian economy than probably some of our own economists. The glass ceiling has well and truly been broken.
But that is not all. If the economics and geopolitics of the project bring about the ‘make in India’ angle, the technology transfer along with the ‘make in India’ commitment by the Japanese make the project a possible pivot to the entire Make in India campaign. According to experts, the significant fallout of this project would be on this ambitious national project.
As per the agreement between the two governments, this project has well-defined ‘Make in India’ & ‘transfer of technology’ objectives. Consequently, it is understood that four sub-groups with representatives from the Indian and Japanese industries are closely working to identify potential items and sub-systems to ensure that the project has a significant Make in India component. In this connection, the Indian government and the Railway Ministry are encouraging active interaction between the industries of India and Japan. Industry sources believe that quite a few joint ventures will be formed in the near future to ensure manufacturing within India for the project. A significant impact of this will be a quantum leap in the technology available to Indian Railways apart from the change in work culture.
Left to itself and without the promised transfer of technology, training and ensuring ‘make in India’, this project may well be an aid packaged as investment. It is not, though. India, in her current state of development, requires investment (which includes transfer of technology), not aid. Therefore, in this case, the Japanese have redefined the idea of investment and cooperation.
Readers may recall the car manufacturing revolution ushered in by the Maruti-Suzuki tie-up in India in the early 1980s. In just 30 years, India has emerged as a global giant in automobile manufacturing. Today, it not only manufactures world-class cars but also exports to advanced countries, and some of them are domestic brands competing with the best internationally. Only those who have witnessed the rapid transformation of the Indian automobile industry in the past three decades will appreciate this transformation.
Likewise, the bullet train project is expected to revolutionise the construction sector in India by bringing in new technology and work culture. To absorb the desired cutting-edge technology and train adequate manpower, a world-class High Speed Rail Training Institute is being simultaneously planned and developed in India. Expected to be fully functional by the end of 2020, this institute will train about 4,000-strong staff in the next three years, who will, besides being involved in operations and maintenance of the project, also serve as the backbone for future development of other high-speed corridors in India.
Let us also not forget that Indian Railways has been a fiefdom of successive railway ministers and a grim reminder of the failed socialist economics. The upcoming bullet train is all set to alter the functioning of Indian Railways. Currently, the speed of our trains, its cleanliness, and safety records are abysmal. A transformation requires a cultural transplant. And it is getting it through the introduction of the bullet trains. Hopefully, the cross-fertilisation of ideas with the Japanese will transform this moribund organisation into a world-class unit not too far in the future.
Of course, the usual suspects seek answers to the very same questions that they raised when computers were introduced in the late 1980s. The answer to that came from the ordinary Indian within a decade or so, as India became a superpower in computers. Again, people raised questions about the introduction of mobile phones and termed it elitist. But mobile phones ensured the telecom revolution within a decade or so – what the landlines could not achieve in six decades. Today, we boast of a Digital India dream, thanks to the revolution in this sector. This, again, was possible, thanks to the ability of the ordinary Indian in absorbing new technology. At every turn, Indians have lapped up technology and profited from it.
Hopefully, Indians will embrace the bullet train technology too, which in turn is expected to spur manufacturing in India while simultaneously strengthening the Indo-Japanese relationship.
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- LEAF is supported by transnational corporations (TNCs) like Unilever plc, Amazon.com, Inc, Nestle, Airbnb, Inc as well as Emergent, a US-based non-profit.
- The world lost more than 10 million hectares of primary tropical forest cover last year, an area roughly the size of Switzerland.
- Ending tropical and subtropical forest loss by 2030 is a crucial part of meeting global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Protecting tropical forests offers one of the biggest opportunities for climate action in the coming decade.
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- The LEAF coalition initiative is a step towards concretising the aims and objectives of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism.
- REDD+ was created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It monetised the value of carbon locked up in the tropical forests of most developing countries, thereby propelling these countries to help mitigate climate change.
- It is a unique initiative as it seeks to help developing countries in battling the double-edged sword of development versus ecological commitment.
- The initiative comes at a crucial time. The tropics have lost close to 12.2 million hectares (mha) of tree cover last year according to global estimates released by Global Forest Watch.
- Of this, a loss of 4.2 mha occurred within humid tropical primary forests alone. It should come as no surprise that most of these lost forests were located in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
- Brazil has fared dismally on the parameter of ‘annual primary forest loss’ among all countries. It has lost 1.7 mha of primary forests that are rich storehouse of carbon. India’s estimated loss in 2020 stands at 20.8 kilo hectares.
- Between 2002-2020, Brazil’s total area of humid primary forest reduced by 7.7 per cent while India’s reduced by 3.4 per cent.
- Although the loss in India is not as drastic as in Brazil, its position is nevertheless precarious. For India, this loss is equivalent to 951 metric tonnes worth carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere.
- It is important to draw comparisons between Brazil and India as both countries have adopted a rather lackadaisical attitude towards deforestation-induced climate change. The Brazilian government hardly did anything to control the massive fires that gutted the Amazon rainforest in 2019.
- It is mostly around May that forest fires peak in India. However, this year India, witnessed massive forest fires in early March in states like Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram among others.
- The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service claimed that 0.2 metric tonnes of carbon was emitted in the Uttarakhand forest fires.
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- With the deadline for proposal submission fast approaching, India needs to act swiftly on a revised strategy.
- Although India has pledged to carry out its REDD+ commitments, it is impossible to do so without seeking knowledge from its forest dwelling population.
Context:-
At the recently concluded Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021, Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund plan that shall be offered to countries committed to arrest the decline of their tropical forests by 2030.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]What is LEAF Coalition?
Why LEAF Coalition?
Brazil & India
According to the UN-REDD programme, after the energy sector, deforestation accounts for massive carbon emissions — close to 11 per cent — in the atmosphere. Rapid urbanisation and commercialisation of forest produce are the main causes behind rampant deforestation across tropical forests.
Tribes, Forests and Government
Disregarding climate change as a valid excuse for the fires, Indian government officials were quick to lay the blame for deforestation on activities of forest dwellers and even labelled them “mischievous elements” and “unwanted elements”.
Policy makers around the world have emphasised the role of indigenous tribes and local communities in checking deforestation. These communities depend on forests for their survival as well as livelihood. Hence, they understand the need to protect forests. However, by posing legitimate environmental concerns as obstacles to real development, governments of developing countries swiftly avoid protection of forests and rights of forest dwellers.
For instance, the Government of India has not been forthcoming in recognising the socio-economic, civil, political or even cultural rights of forest dwellers. According to data from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs in December, 2020 over 55 per cent of this population has still not been granted either individual or community ownership of their lands.
To make matters worse, the government has undertaken systematic and sustained measures to render the landmark Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 ineffective in its implementation. The Act had sought to legitimise claims of forest dwellers on occupied forest land.
Various government decisions have seriously undermined the position of indigenous people within India. These include proposing amendments to the obsolete Indian Forest Act, 1927 that give forest officials the power to take away forest dwellers’ rights and to even use firearms with impunity.
There is also the Supreme Court’s order of February, 2019 directing state governments to evict illegal encroachers of forest land or millions of forest dwellers inhabiting forests since generations as a measure to conserve wildlife. Finally, there is the lack of data on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths among the forest dwelling population;
Tardy administration, insufficient supervision, apathetic attitude and a lack of political intent defeat the cause of forest dwelling populations in India, thereby directly affecting efforts at arresting deforestation.
Way Forward
Tuntiak Katan, a global indigenous leader from Ecuador and general coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, aptly indicated the next steps at the Climate Summit:
“The first step is recognition of land rights. The second step is the recognition of the contributions of local communities and indigenous communities, meaning the contributions of indigenous peoples.We also need recognition of traditional knowledge practices in order to fight climate change”
Perhaps India can begin by taking the first step.