The News Editorial Analysis 14 October 2021

India rejects China’s opposition to Venkaiah’s Arunachal trip.

‘Does Not Stand to Reason’: India Rejects China’s Objection to Venkaiah’s ArunachalTrip.The Chinese foreign ministry had said that Beijing has “never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ established unilaterally and illegally by the Indian side”.

Dismissing Chinese opposition on vice president Venkaiah Naidu’s tour of Arunachal Pradesh, India on Wednesday said that China’s objection to the visit of an Indian leader to a “state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of the Indian people”.

Last week, vice president Naidu toured the north eastern states, which ended in Arunachal Pradesh on October 9. Four days later, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhang Lilian said that China “firmly opposes the Indian leader’s visit to this above-mentioned area”.

Stating that China’s position on the boundary issue is consistent and clear-cut, Zhao asserted that Beijing has “never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ established unilaterally and illegally by the Indian side”.

A few hours later, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi responded, “We reject such comments”.

Reiterating that Arunachal Pradesh is an “integral and inalienable” part of India, Bagchi noted that Indian leaders routinely travel to Arunachal Pradesh, as they do any other state of India. “Objecting to the visit of Indian leaders to a state of India does not stand to reason and understanding of Indian people,” he said.

The Chinese foreign ministry also said that India should “earnestly respect China’s major concerns, stop taking any action that would complicate and expand the boundary issue, and refrain from undermining mutual trust and bilateral relations”.

Zhao said that India should take “real actions” to maintain peace and stability at the border area and bring bilateral relations back on track.

The latest verbal volley took place just a couple of days after the 13th round of military talks on the Ladakh stand-off collapsed, followed by public recriminations. Since May 2020, Indian and Chinese soldiers have been engaged in an ongoing stand-off on multiple points in Eastern Ladakh, which saw the first fatalities at the border in over four decades. While the militaries have de-escalated at two points, China has refused to return to status quo at Dapsang Plains and hot springs.

India on Thursday iterated that the stand-off was caused by the “unilateral attempts of Chinese side to alter the status quo in violation of the bilateral agreements”.

“Therefore, we expect the Chinese side to work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols rather than trying to link unrelated issues,” said Bagchi.

Indian leaders, from the president to Union ministers, have frequently visited Arunachal Pradesh over the years. Other visitors to which China has publicly objected were Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and the US ambassador.

Agri-food systems need a transformative change for better production, nutrition, environment and life.

 Agriculture and related issues,PDS, Buffer Stock & Food Security.

Context: There is an urgent need for reorientation of the long-term direction of agri-food systems to not only enhance farm incomes but also ensure better access to safe and nutritious foods.

Challenge of malnutrition in India

• The findings from the first round of the Fifth National Family Health Survey suggest that nutrition-related indicators have worsened in most States.
• In addition, findings from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (2016-18) have highlighted the role of micro-nutrient malnutrition.
• Pathways for nutritional security consist of improving dietary diversity, kitchen gardens, reducing post-harvest losses,making safety net programmes more nutrition-sensitive, women’s empowerment, enforcement of standards and regulations, improving Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, nutrition education, and effective use of digital technology.

Agri-food system: Significance and challenges it faces

• The agri-food systems are the most important part of the Indian economy.
• India produces sufficient food, feed and fibre to sustain about 18% of the world’s population (as of 2020). Agriculture contributes about 16.5% to India’s GDP and employs 42.3% of the workforce (2019-20).
• A sustainable agri-food systemis one in which a variety of sufficient, nutritious and safe foods are made available at an affordable price to everyone, and nobody goes hungry or suffers from any form of malnutrition.
• However, the country’s agri-food systems are facing new and unprecedented challenges, especially related to economic and ecological sustainability, nutrition and the adoption of new agricultural technologies.
• The edifice of India’s biosecurity remains vulnerable to disasters and extreme events.

Way forward: Reorienting agri-food system :There is an urgent need for reorientation of the long-term direction of agri-food systems to not only enhance farm incomes but also ensure better access to safe and nutritious foods.

• Additionally, the agri-food systems need to be reoriented to minimise cost on the environment and the climate.
• This need is recognised by the theme of World Food Day 2021:‘Our actions are our future. Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life’.
• FAO’s support for the transformation of agri-food systems is rooted in agro-ecology.
• The more diverse an agricultural system, the greater its ability to adapt to shocks.
• Different combinations of integrated crop-livestock-forestry-fishery systems can help farmers produce a variety of products in the same area, at the same time or in rotation.
• In January this year, FAO in collaboration with NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Agriculture convened a National Dialogue to evolve a framework for the transition to a more sustainable agri-food systems by 2030 and identify pathways for enhancing farmers’ income and achieving nutritional security.

Conclusion

Food systems can help combat environmental degradation or climate change. Sustainable agri-food systems can deliver food security and nutrition for all, without compromising the economic, social and environmental bases.

Deconstructing climate finance.

Context

In the run-up to the 26th UNFCCC media reports have claimed that developed countries are inching closer to the target of providing $100 billion annually. This view has been bolstered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which claimed that climate finance provided by developed countries had reached $78.9 billion in 2018.

Issue of climate financing and claim of reaching the target of $100 billion

• These claims reaching the target of $100 billion annually are erroneous.
• First, the OECD figure includes private finance and export credits.
• Public finance:Developing countries have insisted that developed country climate finance should be from public sources and should be provided as grants or as concessional loans.
• However, the OECD report makes it clear that the public finance componentamounted to only $62.2 billion in 2018, with bilateral funding of about $32.7 billion and $29.2 billion through multilateral institutions.
• Nature of finance:Significantly, the final figure comes by adding loans and grants. Of the public finance component, loans comprise 74%, while grants make up only 20%.
• The report does not say how much of the total loan component of $46.3 billion is concessional.
• Non-concessional loans:From 2016 to 2018, 20% of bilateral loans, 76% of loans provided by multilateral development banks and 46% of loans provided by multilateral climate funds were non-concessional.
• Between 2013 and 2018, the share of loans has continued to rise, while the share of grants decreased.
• The OECD reports on climate finance have long been criticised for inflating climate finance figures.
• In contrast to the OECD report, Oxfam estimates that in 2017-18, out of an average of $59.5 billion of public climate finance reported by developed countries, the climate-specific net assistance ranged only between $19 and $22.5 billion per year.
• The 2018 Biennial Assessment of UNFCCC’s Standing Committee on Finance reports that on average, developed countries provided only $26 billion per year as climate-specific finance between 2011-2016.

Broken commitments from the US on climate financing

• S. President Joe Biden recently said that the U.S. will double its climate finance by $11.4 billion annually by 2024.
• It is Congress that will decide on the quantum after all.
• The U.S. also has a history of broken commitments, having promised $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) under President Barack Obama, but delivering only $1 billion.
• The future focus of U.S. climate finance is the mobilisation of private sector investment.
• The bulk of the money coming in would be through private funds, directed to those projects judged “bankable” and not selected based on developing countries’ priorities and needs.

Finance skews toward mitigation

• Climate finance has also remained skewed towards mitigation, despite the repeated calls for maintaining a balance between adaptation and mitigation.
• The 2016 Adaptation Gap Report of the UN Environment Programmehad noted that the annual costs of adaptation in developing countries could range from $140 to $300 billion annually by 2030 and rise to $500 billion by 2050.
• Currently available adaptation finance is significantly lower than the needs expressed in the Nationally Determined Contributions submitted by developing countries.

Conclusion

Delivering on climate finance is fundamental to trust in the multilateral process. Regrettably, while developing countries will continue to pressure developed countries to live up to their promises, the history of climate negotiations is not in their favour.

Gati Shakti’ will boost infra projects: PM

Modi launches Gati Shakti plan to boost infrastructure

Says taxpayers’ money wasted in past due to delayed projects

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched Rs 100 lakh crore Gati Shakti National Master Plan to boost Indian infrastructure and multi-modal connectivity over the next 25 years and reduce logistics cost for improved global competitiveness.

Noting that taxpayers’ money was wasted in the past by way of delayed projects and lack of inter-departmental coordination, the PM said the government was now nurturing a work culture of completing projects “in time and ahead of time by bringing departments together”.

“Over the years, the signage — work in progress — became a symbol of distrust in the government. Today 21st century India is leaving behind old practices. The Gati Shakti Plan will give impetus to 21st century India and remove obstacles from its path,” the PM said.

He said the subject of infrastructure was not even visible in political party manifestos. “Today some parties are criticising the development of infrastructure necessary for the development of the country even though it is globally accepted that building quality infrastructure is the only route to sustainable development which also boosts economic activity and creates large-scale jobs,” the PM said, adding that India was today working at a much faster speed than ever.

Citing a study showing logistics cost in India at 13 per cent of the GDP, the PM said the plan would reduce these costs and lay the foundation for a self-reliant India over the next 25 years. He said people, industry, manufacturers and farmers were at the heart of the plan, which would bring government departments on one platform, enhancing efficiency.

“Gaps between macro planning and micro implementation, lack of coordination between departments and advance information to the industry, an approach of working in silos were all hampering infrastructure development and leading to budget wastage. Such an approach dissipated energies instead of harnessing them. The new plan will change this and lead to optimum utilisation of resources,” the PM said.

Duplicates from Nepal add to India’s Darjeeling tea worries.

After years of countering cheaper teas imported from Kenya and Sri Lanka, the beverage industry in India has a new worry — duplicates Darjeeling teas brought in from Nepal.

The Tea Association of India (TAI) has raised the red flag on Nepal-origin teas reportedly sold in the domestic market as the premium Darjeeling teas, thereby “diluting the brand image of Darjeeling tea and adversely impacting prices”.

A concerted effort by the Tea Board along with Customs, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is required to check the damage to the Darjeeling brand, the TAI said in a paper on ‘Sustainability of Tea Industry in India’.

The paper said a revised treaty on trade signed in 2009 allowed the free and unhampered flow of goods between India and Nepal. But that should not be the reason for overlooking certain regulations, members of the association said.

Teas that were not FSSAI-compliant should not be allowed in and there should be no relaxation in testing parameters for the safety and health of Indian consumers, the paper said.

“The current trade between India and Nepal allows mandatory sanitary and phytosanitary certificates before products are allowed in the country. This should be strictly enforced and a notification may accordingly be issued,” the paper said.

Duty-free import

The TAI also pointed out that allowing duty-free import of poor-quality teas, primarily from Kenya and Sri Lanka, had been undermining the ‘self-reliant India’ and ‘vocal for local’ vision of the Narendra Modi-led Government.

If that were not damaging enough for domestic tea producers, Tea Board data records show 23.43 million kg of the 60.35 million kg of teas imported in the last three years have been re-exported.

“This underlines the fact that the remaining 36.92 million kg of imported teas have been sold in India in violation of the Food Safety Standard [Packaging & Labelling] Regulations, 2011,” the paper said, seeking mandatory submission of all import and re-export details to the Tea Board.

It also proposed a “robust rule of origin”, mandatory production of all sanitary and phytosanitary certification for all imports and mandatory checking of each consignment of imported teas according to FSSAI regulations.

‘Reality’ check

The TAI has sounded the Centre on the “depleted rupee balance” impacting payment for Indian teas imported by Iran. “The Central Bank of Iran has for the past few months stopped releasing any INR [Indian rupee] payment for tea imports from the Vostro Rupee-Rial trading account as the rupee balance stands depleted. The situation is adversely affecting Indian tea exports to Iran,” the paper said. Vostro is an account held by a foreign bank with a domestic bank in the local currency.

“Iran is one of the leading importers of Indian tea. The decline of tea exports to Iran is creating a demand-supply imbalance in the Indian domestic market leading to an over-supply,” it pointed out.

The TAI has urged the Centre to let the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allow payments in any currency from a third country for shipments to Iran to overcome the present crisis “since rupee payment is not activated or may be closed shortly”. The RBI may also consider giving permission to the commercial banks concerned to square up the export packing credit availed for export to Iran and closure of respective shipping bills, the paper said.

 India’s trade with China set to exceed $100 billion in 2021.

India’s trade with China is set to cross the $100 billion mark for the first time in 2021, with shipments hitting $90 billion after three quarters, an almost 30% jump from pre-pandemic levels.

Data from China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed two-way trade jumped 49% in the first nine months to $90.37 billion. India’s imports from China surged 51.7% to $68.4 billion, while India’s exports rose 42.5% to $21.9 billion.

Two-way trade was substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels, with bilateral trade up 29.7% compared to the same period in 2019, with India’s imports up 21.5% and exports to China up 64.5%.

India’s biggest exports to China are iron ore, cotton, and other raw material-based commodities. India imports mechanical and electrical machinery in large quantities, while imports of medical supplies have soared in the past two years.

Chinese trade officials attributed China’s overall trade performance to the country’s economic recovery as well stronger global demand.

The growth in trade with India was among the fastest for China’s major trading partners. While China’s total trade rose 22.7%, that with its biggest trading partners, ASEAN, the EU and the U.S., rose 21.1%, 20.5% and 24.9%, respectively.

The GAC said Chinese exports of mechanical and electrical products, as well as medicinal materials, grew robustly. Medicine and medicinal material exports more than doubled.