The News Editorial Analysis 10th November 2021

Why is MHA tasked to monitor foreign funds for NGOs, asks SC

It is to safeguard national security, says govt. as pleas challenge changes to FCRA

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the government why the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been tasked to keep an eye on the inflow and subsequent outflow of foreign funds to NGOs under the foreign contributions regulations law.

“Why has the whole operation been brought under the Ministry of Home Affairs and not under the finance department?,” Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, heading a three-judge Bench, asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The question was posed during the hearing of petitions challenging the amendments to the Foreign Contributions Regulations law in 2020. The petitions argued that the amendments severely restricted the use of foreign funds by NGOs for their activities and transfer to other philanthropic organisations within the country.

IB inputs

Mr. Mehta said Intelligence Bureau (IB) inputs have shown that foreign funds entering India were used to fund activities that destabilise national peace and security.

The inputs even indicated that the money was used to train naxals.

“There is an element of national security, integrity of the nation involved here. Why should someone sitting in some foreign country pay… Every transaction is watched by the Ministry of Home Affairs, from the very beginning… Money has come to fund naxal activities,” Mr. Mehta responded to the court’s query.

Congress, BJP trade charges after new report on Rafale

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress traded charges on Tuesday, a day after fresh revelations by French investigative portal Mediapart indicated that kickbacks of at least €7.5 million were paid in the Rafale deal between 2007 and 2012.

The BJP said the Indian National Congress should be renamed “I Need Commission” and alleged that the failed negotiations for the aircraft, when the Congress was in power, was because of the latter’s dissatisfaction with the “cut”.

The Congress, on the other hand, accused the Narendra Modi government of a “cover up” in the scam and shying away from registering an FIR even 36 months after evidence emerged on middleman Sushen Gupta’s role in the deal.

At a press conference, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the government is busy “burying the black melting pot of corruption, kickbacks and collusion”.

‘Monitoring Chinese assets in Indian Ocean’

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh said the Navy was monitoring the Chinese naval and maritime assets deployed in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) for any activities “inimical to our interests.”

In an exclusive interview to The Hindu on the sidelines of the Goa Maritime Conclave (GMC), Admiral Singh said the logistics deals and foundational agreements signed by India have helped the Navy achieve ‘Reach and Sustenance’. The third edition of GMC 2021, being hosted by the Indian Navy, has the participation of Navy Chiefs and heads of maritime forces from 12 Indian Ocean nations. Admiral Singh said that nine International Liaison Officers have reported at the IFC-IOR since GMC 2019.

U.K. includes Covaxin to its list of vaccines

Starting with November 22, Indian travellers fully vaccinated with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin will be able to travel to the U.K. without the requirement of mandatory self-isolation, British High Commissioner Alex Ellis said on Tuesday.

The announcement came soon after Foreign Secretary of the U.K. Elizabeth Truss said that her country has “expanded” the list of recognised vaccines for “inbound travel” indicating that Covaxin is part of the revised list.

“From 4 a.m. on Monday, 22 November, the government will recognise vaccines on the World Health Organisation’s Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL). As a result, Sinovac, Sinopharm Beijing, and Covaxin will be added to our list of approved vaccines for inbound travel, benefiting more fully vaccinated people from countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and India,” announced a travel update from the UK government.

India needs to sign up for life-course immunization

The COVID-19 vaccination drive is a reminder that the benefits of many vaccines have yet to reach the adult population

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most people linked and associated vaccination with children only. The fact is that vaccines — ever since the first vaccine against smallpox became available in 1798 — had always been for a far wider age group, including for adults. However, soon after smallpox eradication and the launch of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) across the world in the 1970s — and in India in 1978 — there were concerted efforts to increase vaccine use and coverage in children. Scientifically, the benefit of most vaccines are greater if administered earlier in life — infancy and childhood — a reason children are usually prioritised and vaccines recommended for every child. For the remaining age groups including adults, vaccines are recommended for specific sub-groups such as older people or those with specific health conditions.

The COVID-19 vaccines are exceptions in some sense. These are the first vaccines which have been recommended for all adults, who have been given priority over children. In fact, the jury is still out on whether, which age sub-group and when children should receive COVID-19 vaccines.

The importance of vaccines, which are considered to be among the most cost-effective public health interventions, has been recognised globally. Yet, the full benefits of vaccines do not reach all children and other age groups. There are wide inequities in vaccine coverage in children by geography, gender, parent’s education and family’s socio-economic status, and other stratifiers. The coverage of most available vaccines in adults in India is sub-optimal. The COVID-19 vaccination drive is an opportunity to take stock of the status of adult immunisation and the future ahead.

Need for adult vaccination

Following the outbreaks of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in 2005-06 — in the years that followed — India had conducted mass scale JE vaccination in the endemic districts, which included the adult age group. Then, there had been a limited use of Swine Flu vaccines for health workers during the H1N1 (2009) pandemic in 2009-10. Other than that, there has been limited focus on the systematic efforts for adult vaccination in India. The first and only national vaccine policy of India, released in 2011, had no mention of adult vaccination. The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) in India, on a few occasions, discussed adult immunisation but stayed away from any recommendation for the general population except for the vaccination of health workers as high-risk groups, for hepatitis B vaccine, etc.

Outside the Government, professional groups such as the Association of Physicians of India and the Indian Society of Nephrology have released guidelines on adult vaccination; however, as these are voluntary and the private sector share in vaccination in India is very small, understandably, the impact remains unknown and is likely to be low.

There is very limited data on the burden of vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) in adult age groups — in most settings including India. Lately, review of available data has pointed that the increased childhood vaccination coverage has resulted in proportionately higher cases of VPDs in the older age groups. It is known that the burden of VPDs in adults (in comparison to children) is relatively low; the larger adult population renders a greater social impact in terms of absenteeism from work (due to illnesses) and the associated costs of health care seeking and hospitalisation.

There is emerging scientific evidence on waning immunity and the need of booster doses in the adult age group for the vaccines administered in childhood. The vaccines which have become available in the last two decades (which adults had not received as children), have potential to be beneficial. As an example, there are more deaths due to pneumonia in adults than in children. A proportion of those illnesses, hospitalisations and deaths — in all age groups — can be prevented by increasing coverage of currently licensed vaccines which prevents pneumonia and related complications. Fortunately, these vaccines have become part of childhood vaccination programmes; however, the coverage and benefits need to be expanded to the identified high-risk adult population. The available evidence has resulted in the global stakeholders agreeing to ‘the Immunization Agenda 2030’ (https://bit.ly/3qlKnH1) which has emphasised that countries should consider extending the benefit of vaccines to all age groups.

An opportunity in hand

The COVID-19 vaccination drive has drawn our attention to the possibilities of adult vaccination, which should be used effectively.

The initiatives should be taken to educate public, health-care providers and members of professional associations about currently available vaccines for adult age groups. This can help people to make an informed choice and healthcare providers to share information with citizens. Various training programmes and graduate and postgraduate teaching curricula should be revised to have content on adult vaccination.

The current discourse should be used to plan and develop a national adult vaccination strategy and road map for India. It can be done through a few coordinated efforts.

The steps to take

First, the mandate of NTAGI needs to be expanded to adult vaccination. NTAGI may start with a review of available scientific evidence and providing recommendations on adult vaccination in India. These recommendations can be regularly revisited and revised once additional data become available. A NTAGI sub-group on adult vaccination can also be constituted to facilitate the process.

Second, the VPD surveillance system and the capacity to record, report and analyse data on the disease burden and immunisation coverage need to be strengthened. The focus has to be on analysing immunisation coverage and VPD surveillance data by age and other related stratifiers.

Third, the capacity of research and academic institutions to conduct operational research including the cost benefit analysis and to guide evidence-informed decisions needs to be boosted. Such analysis and evidence can be used by NTAGI in decision making processes.

Fourth, the process for developing and drafting a road map, possibly India’s national adult vaccination policy and strategy should be initiated. Any such policy should factor-in the learnings and lessons from the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive as well. In fact, policy questions in need of the answers should be identified now, and the process to generate evidence started. Otherwise, we may be at risk of asking policy questions 10 years down the line which can be answered in a few years from now.

Fifth, on a more operational level, the shortage of life-saving rabies vaccine in India in 2019 is a reminder of the risk and vulnerability in vaccine supply. To ensure vaccine security and be future ready for adult vaccination, the existing public sector vaccine manufacturing units in India should be revived and more need to be set up.

Vaccination policy for adults

The childhood vaccination programme is amongst the best performing government health programmes in India. In COVID-19 vaccination, it was the government facilities which have delivered 93%- 95% of total vaccine shots. The COVID-19 vaccination is a reminder that the benefits of already licensed vaccines are yet to reach the adult population. It is an opportunity for health policy makers in India to institutionalise mechanisms to examine the need, take policy decisions on adult vaccination and empower adult citizens to make informed choices on whether they wish to get currently available vaccines. It is time to plan for and expand the benefits of vaccines, for all age groups as part of the Universal Immunization Programme Plus in India. Drafting and developing a national adult vaccination policy and strategy for India could be one such concrete step in this direction.

Chandrakant Lahariya, a physician-epidemiologist, is a vaccines and health systems specialist. His forthcoming book is ‘The Lighthouse of Peeragarhi: What We Need To Prevent Diseases And Protect Health’

India must remain safe for diversity

Nehru’s vision is vindicated when we safeguard the common space available to each identity

There are three kinds of writers coexisting within Shashi Tharoor, says David Davidar in his introduction to Pride, Prejudice and Punditry: “The writer of newspaper columns, book reviews, and magazine articles; the creator of literary fiction; and the author of heavyweight books of popular history, sociology, and current affairs.” This is an edited excerpt of a profile of Jawaharlal Nehru and his idea of India from the book, a collection of the best of Tharoor’s fiction and non-fiction:

Jawaharlal Nehru was a skilled exponent of soft power, much before the term was even coined: he developed a role for India in the world based entirely on its civilisational history and its moral standing, making India the voice of the oppressed and the marginalised against the big power hegemons of the day. This gave our country enormous standing and prestige across the world for years, and strengthened our own self-respect as we stood, proud and independent, on the global stage.

Indeed, we are still drawing from these traditions. After all, in the information age, it is not the side with the bigger army that wins, but the side which tells the better story. India must remain the ‘land of the better story’. As a society with a free press and a thriving mass media, with a people whose creative energies are daily encouraged to express themselves in a variety of appealing ways, India has an extraordinary ability to tell stories that are more persuasive and attractive than those of its rivals. This is not about propaganda; indeed, it will not work if it is directed from above, least of all by government. But its impact, though intangible, can be huge. This soft power, too, is Nehru’s legacy; he created a standing for India out of all proportion to our military strength or economic might.

Yet soft power is not just what we can deliberately and consciously exhibit or put on display; it is rather how others see what we are, whether or not we are trying to show it to the world. It is not just material accomplishments that enhance India’s soft power. Even more important are the values and principles for which India stands, and I do believe Nehru would have applauded this evolution of his own approach to world affairs.

Absorbing transformations

India has in recent years undergone profound transformations in its politics (from the dominant Congress system to a proliferation of regional parties to the dominance of the now-ascendant Bharatiya Janata Party), its economics (from a controlled ‘socialist’ economy to a thriving, if mixed, free-enterprise system), its trade (from protectionism to globalisation and perhaps partially back again), and its social relations (from a rigidly hierarchical caste system to a more egalitarian policy affirming opportunities and outcomes for the ‘lowest’ castes, and from a secular political culture to one in which a party of the Hindu majority is overtly asserting its strength). Now, any of these transformations could have been enough to throw another country into a turbulent revolution. But we have had all four in India and yet we have absorbed them, and made all the changes work, because the Indian revolution is a democratic one, sustained by a larger idea of India, an India which safeguards the common space available to each identity, an India that remains safe for diversity. That was Nehru’s vision, and this is his vindication.

The truth is that Nehru’s extraordinary life and career is part of the inheritance of every Indian. The very term ‘Indian’ was imbued with such meaning by Nehru that it is impossible to use it without acknowledging a debt: our passports incarnate his ideals. Where those ideals came from, whether they were brought to fulfilment by their own progenitor, and to what degree they remain viable today, are all legitimate issues for debate. Nehru’s impact on India is too great not to be re-examined periodically. His legacy is ours, whether we agree with everything he stood for or not. What we are today, both for good and for ill, we owe in great measure to one man. That is why his story is not simply history.

Today, both Gandhi’s and Nehru’s legacies are fundamentally contested, and many Indians have strayed from the ideals bequeathed to them by Gandhi and Nehru, Ambedkar and Patel. Yet they, in their very different ways, each represented that rare kind of leader who is not diminished by the inadequacies of his followers. Today, the ruling BJP and its followers lose no opportunity to denigrate Nehru, especially on social media, accusing him of every conceivable sin of both commission and omission. It is like throwing pebbles at a mountain. They cannot even begin to dent the scale of his contributions to India.

Even the most distinguished leader of the BJP has in the past — despite many areas of disagreement — acknowledged the legacy of Nehru as a champion of the country. Speaking in Parliament on Nehru’s death, Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared emotionally — and poetically — that with the prime minister’s passing ‘a dream has remained half-fulfilled, a song has become silent, and a flame has vanished into the Unknown. The dream was of a world free of fear and hunger; the song a great epic resonant with the spirit of the Gita and as fragrant as a rose, the flame a candle which burnt all night long, showing us the way.’ The loss, Vajpayee averred, was not merely that of a family or even of a party. Mother India, he said, was in mourning because ‘her beloved Prince has gone to sleep’; even humanity was sad because its servant and worshipper had left it forever. Vajpayee went on to describe the departed prime minister as a ‘benefactor of the downtrodden’ and the ‘chief actor of the world stage’ whom he compared to none less than Lord Ram, for like Valmiki’s (and the Hindutvavadis’) hero, Nehru was ‘the orchestrator of the impossible and inconceivable’. He too (I’m still quoting Vajpayee) ‘was not afraid of compromise but would never compromise under duress’.

One might say that these words were only to be expected from a gracious adversary in tribute to a deceased prime minister. But Vajpayee’s statements went far beyond the claims of ritual. He called on the nation to rededicate itself to Nehru’s ideals. ‘With unity, discipline and self confidence,’ Vajpayee said, in words that could never have been Narendra Modi’s, ‘we must make this Republic of ours flourish. The leader has gone, but the followers remain. The sun has set, yet by the shadow of stars we must find our way. These are testing times, but we must dedicate ourselves to his great aim, so that India can become strong, capable and prosperous….’

This remains the cherished goal of all Indians. As we make our political choices, we would do well to recall the first leader of independent India and the values and principles on which he built our democratic polity.

Excerpted with permission from Aleph Book Company. Shashi Tharoor is a Congress MP

There are shades of equality

The Kerala government’s decision to reserve a higher proportion of scholarships for Muslims is justified

Assume that in a classroom, a teacher is faced with students with differing command over the English language. There are three groups: some students are excellent, some require minimal guidance, and some others, a lot of attention. The teacher decides to give a special class of half an hour for the second group and a class for two hours for the third. Since the first group needs no additional support, they won’t be given any. Is the teacher wrongfully discriminating among her students? Most of us would think that she is not. Treating students at different levels in the same way would do little to help those who lag behind. Those students could benefit from some support to catch up with those ahead. This is the idea behind affirmative action and reasonable accommodation: to enable those who are worse off to become on par with others.

What is true in the classroom context is also true in a policy context. The controversy around the award of scholarships to minority students in Kerala illustrates this. The dispute surrounds the question of how scholarships for minority students should be distributed between different minority groups. On October 29, the Supreme Court issued notice on an appeal of the Kerala government against a High Court order directing it to award the scholarships by the proportion of minorities in the overall population of the State.

Minority scholarships

The background of the decision is as follows. The Kerala government passed an executive order in 2015 prescribing that minority communities will be entitled to scholarships. Of the scholarships, 80% were distributed to Muslim students and 20% to Latin Catholics and converted Christians. In Justine Pallivathukkal v. State of Kerala (2021), the Kerala High Court set aside this order holding that all minorities must be treated alike. Hence, it held that the only relevant criterion is the minority groups’ share of the population.

The government argued that its policy was based on the findings of the Sachar Committee report and the Kerala Padana report on the disadvantages faced by Muslims. It pointed out that Muslims were far behind Christians, Dalits and Adivasis in college enrolment, just as they are in employment and land ownership. Besides, studies on discrimination in labour and housing markets reveal that Muslims experience substantial levels of discrimination when applying for jobs or housing, often even more than Dalits.

Equalising access

All of this underlines the point that some minorities face greater obstacles than others. Scholarships for minority students are a form of affirmative action. The aim is to facilitate students from these communities to study, and reduce the inequalities between different communities. If that is the goal, the only sensible policy is one which identifies the most disadvantaged groups. This is exactly what the Kerala government did.

Hence, reserving a higher proportion of scholarships for Muslims is justified. The different kinds of backwardness of a community must be considered while awarding scholarship schemes. Any other scheme defeats the purpose of offering scholarships to students from minority communities. The High Court prohibited an allocation sensitive to social realities by adopting a form of blind equality approach. This was a mistake. This is not in consonance with the constitutional and just vision of equality, a vision which needs to be mindful of social inequalities. As the Supreme Court rightly noted in B. K. Pavitra v. Union of India (2019), “For equality to be truly effective or substantive, the principle must recognise existing inequalities in society to overcome them.”

It is important, therefore, that the Supreme Court corrects the error of the High Court. This case will be significant for constitutional law. It will determine how representation is understood in the law on reservations. The High Court’s reasoning suggests that access to the benefits of affirmative action must follow an approach which is blind to the relative backwardness of different communities. This is dangerous in the Indian context. One of Ambedkar’s great insights was that the caste system is a form of graded inequality. Even when we identify disadvantaged castes or communities, we need to remember the forms of inequality and hierarchy among them. The logic of the High Court’s judgment forbids this. It tells us that once we identify the beneficiaries of measures of affirmative action, we need to treat everyone alike regardless of any inequalities or hierarchies between them. We should not let such bad reasoning obstruct affirmative efforts to remove inequality. The fight against inequality is too important for that.

Thulasi K. Raj is a lawyer at the Supreme Court and Bastian Steuwer is a political philosopher at Rutgers University

China exports warship to Pak., to be deployed in Indian Ocean

It will ‘strengthen Pak. Navy’s capabilities to respond to maritime challenges’

China on Monday delivered to Pakistan’s Navy what its official media described as the “most advanced” Chinese warship ever exported, which is to be deployed by Pakistan in the Indian Ocean.

The delivery of the Type 054A frigate is the latest example of increasingly close military cooperation, which many Chinese and Pakistani analysts see as aimed at bolstering Pakistani capabilities in an effort to balance India in the region.

Pakistan’s envoy to China, Moin Ul Haque, told the Communist Party-run newspaper Global Times on Tuesday that the commissioning of the frigate “in the context of the overall security paradigm of the region” would “strengthen Pakistan Navy’s capabilities to respond to maritime challenges to ensure seaward defence, maintain peace, stability and balance of power in the Indian Ocean region”.

The newspaper quoted the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), which designed and built the frigate, as saying the warship was delivered to the Pakistan Navy in a commissioning ceremony in Shanghai.

PNS Tughril

It has been named PNS Tughril by the Pakistani Navy, and it is “the first hull of four Type 054 frigates being constructed for the Pakistan Navy”, the Pakistan Navy told the newspaper,

“Being equipped with state-of-the-art combat management and an electronic warfare system along with modern self-defence capabilities, the Type 054A/P frigate can simultaneously execute a number of naval warfare missions in a highly intense multi-threat environment,” it added.

Taiwan says China capable of air, sea blockade of island

‘Beijing beefing up its ability to launch amphibious assaults’

China is capable of blockading Taiwan’s major ports and airports to cut off key transport links, the island’s Defence Ministry warned on Tuesday, with Beijing-Taipei tensions at their highest in years. Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which sees the self-ruled democratic island as part of its territory to be brought into its fold, by force if necessary.

Beijing has ramped up pressure since Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan’s President in 2016, as she views the island as a sovereign nation and not part of “one China”.

Beijing is strengthening its air, sea and land strike capabilities against the island, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said in a biennial report released Tuesday. Those capabilities include imposing a “blockade agai- nst our critical harbours, airports and outbound flight routes, to cut off our air and sea lines of communication”, the report added.

The report also warned that China is capable of striking all of Taiwan with its missile arsenal, including ballistic and cruise variants, and is also beefing up its ability to launch amphibious assaults on the island.

Taiwan’s Defence Minister warned last month that military tensions with China were at their highest in four decades, after record incursions by Chinese warplanes into the island’s air defence identification zone.

The zone is not the same as Taiwan’s territorial airspace but includes a far greater area that overlaps with part of China’s own air defence identification zone.

China’s “frequent manipulation of grey zone threats” such as the warplane incursions, as well as other methods of warfare, including cyberattacks, are aimed at “seizing Taiwan without a fight”, the Defence Ministry report said.

Oil rises again as lifting of U.S. travel curbs boosts demand

Reuters London

Oil rose towards $84 a barrel on Tuesday, gaining for a third session, as the lifting of travel restrictions by the U.S. and more signs of a global post-pandemic recovery lifted the demand outlook, while supply remained tight.

On Monday, travellers took off for the United States again, while the passing of U.S. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill and better-than-expected Chinese exports helped paint a picture of a recovering global economy.

Brent crude rose 31 cents, or 0.4%, to $83.74 a barrel by 1150 GMT, after gaining 0.8% on Monday.

Jet fuel

“With the reopening of U.S. borders for vaccinated travellers, jet fuel demand ought to receive a healthy boost,” said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.

“The passage of the $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure bill in Congress is also expected to provide additional help.”

The price of Brent has risen more than 60% this year and hit $86.70, a three-year high, on Oct. 25, supported by supply restraint by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, and recovering demand.

At a meeting last week, OPEC+ decided to stick to its existing pace of easing of record output cuts and rebuff U.S. pleas to pump more — helping to keep supply tight for the near term in the view of some analysts.

JPMorgan Chase said global demand for oil in November was already almost back to pre-pandemic levels of 100 million barrels per day, following 2020’s collapse.

Snarled supply chains force manufacturing exodus from Asia

Fashion and shoe retailers relocating production to Balkans, Latin America to sites closer to their stores in U.S., Europe

Major clothing and shoe companies are moving production to countries closer to their U.S. and European stores, smarting from a resurgence in cases of the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus in Vietnam and China that slowed or shut down production for several weeks earlier this year.

The disclosures come amid a massive shipping logjam that is driving up costs and forcing companies to rethink their globe-spanning supply chains and low-cost manufacturing hubs in Asia..

The latest example is Spanish fashion retailer Mango, which told Reuters on Friday it has “accelerated” its process of increasing local production in countries such as Turkey, Morocco and Portugal. In 2019, the company largely sourced its products from China and Vietnam. Mango told Reuters that it would “considerably” expand the number of units manufactured locally in Europe in 2022.

Brazil, Mexico gain

Similarly, U.S. shoe retailer Steve Madden on Wednesday said it had pulled back production in Vietnam and had shifted 50% of its footwear production to Brazil and Mexico from China, while rubber clogs maker Crocs said last month it was moving production to countries including Indonesia and Bosnia.

Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Czech Republic, Morocco and Turkey were some of the countries drawing new interest from clothing and shoe producers, though China continues to produce a large share of the apparel for U.S. and European clothing chains.

“We are seeing a lot of growth in freight and trucking activity in the former Soviet Republics… a big rise in Hungary and Romania,” said Barry Conlon, chief executive of Overhaul, a supply chain risk management firm.

In Turkey, apparel exports are expected to reach $20 billion this year, an all-time high, driven by a spike in orders from the European Union, Turkey’s Union of Chambers Clothing and Garment Council data showed. In 2020, exports hit $17 billion.

Business boom in Bosnia

In Bosnia & Herzegovina, exports of textiles, leather and footwear amounted to 739.56 million marka ($436.65 million) in the first half of 2021, which was higher than for all of 2020.

“Many companies from the European Union, which is our most important trading partner, are looking for new suppliers and new supply chains in the Balkan market,” said Professor Muris Pozderac, secretary of the association of textile, clothing, leather and footwear in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

In Guatemala, where Nordstrom significantly shifted its private-label volume production in 2020, clothing exports were a touch over $1 billion as of the end of August, up 34.2% from 2020 and even 8.8% higher than in 2019.

To be sure, many companies are also still heavily reliant on Vietnam, where recent production stoppages have caused significant disruptions. Vietnam’s government said in October that it will fall short of its garment exports target this year, by $5 billion in a worst-case scenario, due to the impacts of coronavirus restrictions and a shortage of workers.

Sarnobat takes silver

Rahi Sarnobat shot the silver in women’s 25-metre sports pistol in the President’s Cup shooting championship in Wroclaw, Poland.

Doreen Vennekamp of Germany shot brilliantly in the first few rounds of the final to take the lead and sustained it to push Sarnobat to the silver 33 points to 31.

Manu Bhaker also made the final, but placed sixth. Bhaker made the mixed rapid fire pistol gold medal match partnering Ozgur Varlik of Turkey. The duo beat Xiao Jianuixuan of China and Peeter Olesk of Estonia 9-7 in the final.

Chinki Yadav and Marko Carrillo of Peru placed eighth in the second stage of qualification.

Anjum Moudgil shot 584 in the second stage and failed to qualify for the final by one point in the women’s rifle 3-position event. She had shot 587 in the first stage in the 10-shooter field.

In the mixed team competition of the 3-position event, Moudgil and Petar Gorsa of Croatia placed ninth in the first stage with a combined score of 878.

The results: Women’s 25m sports pistol: 1. Doreen Vennekamp (Ger) 33 (588); 2. Rahi Sarnobat 31 (583); 3. Mathilde Lamolle (Fra) 27 (582); 6. Manu Bhaker 17 (583); 9. Chinki Yadav 578.

Mixed rapid fire pistol: 1. Ozgur Varlik (Tur) & Manu Bhaker 9 (366) 557; 2. Xiao Jianuixuan (Chn) & Peeter Olesk (Est) 7 (370) 560; 3. Doreen Vennekamp (Ger) & Clement Bessaguet (Fra) 10 (364) 569; 4. Kim Minjung (Kor) & Olier Geis (Ger) 4 (356), 549; 8. Chinki Yadav & Marko Carrillo (Per) 337 (547).