The News Editorial Analysis 15 October 2021

India accepts Russia’s invite for talks with Taliban next week.

The Taliban, who captured power two months ago, have also been invited to the talks and this will bring them face-to-face with India, which evacuated its diplomatic staff from the country after the regime change there.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin

India has accepted a Russian invitation to join the Afghanistan talks in Moscow on October 20.

The Taliban, who captured power two months ago, have also been invited to the talks and this will bring them face-to-face with India, which evacuated its diplomatic staff from the country after the regime change there.

Confirming the Indian participation, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said Thursday: “We have received an invitation for the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan on October 20. We will be participating in it.”

It is likely that the MEA will send a Joint Secretary-level officer to the meeting – a final decision is yet to be made. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative on Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said Moscow had invited representatives of the Taliban to international talks on Afghanistan on October 20.

The talks follow a G20 summit on Afghanistan — it was held on October 12 — to help the country avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the wake of the power shift there.

India’s ambassador to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, had met Taliban representatives in Doha towards the end of August, and the meeting in Moscow will be the second for the Indians.

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The US exit from Afghanistan has had Russia, China and Pakistan seeking larger roles there, even as India calibrates its position. The Russians had indicated earlier that India could play a role “post-conflict” — a term they reserved for the US departure.

After Kabul’s fall in August, India raised questions on the lack of inclusivity in the new Taliban regime, rights of minorities, women and children, and also voiced concern on terrorism emanating from Afghanistan.

In March this year, Moscow hosted an international conference on Afghanistan in which Russia, United States, China and Pakistan released a joint statement, calling on the then-warring Afghan sides to reach a peace deal.

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The statement also asked the Taliban not to launch offensives in spring and summer. But as the US and its allies began withdrawing their troops after 20 years on the ground, the Taliban seized power in a lightning advance that led to the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government.

Russia is concerned about the impact in the wider region. Moscow has moved to engage the Taliban, but has stopped short of granting recognition to the group which is banned as a “terrorist” organisation in Russia.

Unlike Western countries that rushed to evacuate diplomats following the fall of Kabul on August 15, Russia has kept its embassy there open.

Health Ministry raises alert over COVID team vacancies: ‘Acute stress’

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan sought “early and timely action” to fill up the existing vacancies “and also the vacancies arising in the coming weeks”.

Health

THE Union Health Ministry has raised concern over vacancies in nine senior officer posts in its Covid team, saying this had put it under “acute stress”.In a letter dated October 13 to Deepti Umashankar, Establishment Officer and Additional Secretary, DoPT. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, “As you are aware that even though the pandemic of Covid-19 is declining, however we cannot let our guard down. At this crucial juncture, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is required to put in extra efforts to ensure full preparedness across the country. Vacant positions of one Joint Secretary and eight DS (Deputy Secretaries) / Directors have put this ministry under acute stress.”

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Bhushan sought “early and timely action” to fill up the existing vacancies “and also the vacancies arising in the coming weeks”.This is the second time in two months that Bhushan has highlighted vacancies in the Health Ministry. On August 12, he had written to the DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training) about the unfilled posts of additional secretary, joint secretary, director and deputy secretary under the Central Staffing Scheme of the Central Secretariat Services (CSS) in the Health Ministry.

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Asked about the letter, a Health Ministry official, who refused to be named, said: “Each ministry gives the list of vacancies every month to the DoPT. Otherwise how would they fill the vacancies?”

With his October 13 letter, Bhushan shared a list of 11 officers who have moved out of the ministry or are about to do so. On the top is Vandana Gurnani, Additional Secretary and Mission Director, National Health Mission, who went on one-year study leave in September 2021. The others include Joint Secretary Nipun Vinayak, who looked after oxygen supply during the severe Covid second wave and was repatriated prematurely to his Maharashtra cadre on August 31; and Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal, who has been the face of the ministry at Covid briefings and completes his tenure with the Health Ministry on November 28.

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Bhushan also named Bindu Tewari, an IRSME (Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers) official working in the Ministry as Director, who was repatriated to her parent cadre on July 7; and N Yuvaraj, who was moved out as Director from the Health Ministry to Joint Secretary in the Department of Pharmaceuticals.Besides them, Mahatme Sandeep Namdeo, posted in the Ministry as Deputy Secretary, is now Private Secretary to Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Communication; Yatish S G, another Deputy Secretary-level officer, was permanently repatriated to his parent IRTS cadre on September 13; and Vidushi Chaturvedi, Director in the Health Ministry, is “awaiting approval” for her selection as Deputy Director General in the UIDAI.CSS officers Vandana Jain and S K Jha, both Directors in the Ministry, have got promotions as Joint Secretaries. While Jain is Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, Jha has moved to the Department of Revenue, relieved with effect from August 26

India gets re-elected to UNHRC for 2022-24 term.

India was re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2022-24 term on Thursday and vowed to continue to work for the promotion and protection of human rights through “Samman, Samvad and Sahyog.”

“India gets re-elected to the @UN_HRC (2022-24) for a 6th term with overwhelming majority. Heartfelt gratitude to the @UN membership for reposing its faith in India.

“We will continue to work for promotion and protection of Human Rights through #Samman #Samvad #Sahyog #Samman #Samvad #Sahyog,” India’s Permanent Mission to the UN tweeted.

Congratulations to other UN Member States Benin, Cameroon, Gambia, Eritrea, @SomaliaatUN, @KazakhstanUN, @MYNewYorkUN1, @QatarAtUN, @UAEMissionToUN, Lithuania, Montenegro, @ArgentinaUN, Honduras, Paraguay, Finland, @LuxembourgUN and @USUN for their election to the @UN_HRC. pic.twitter.com/bp7U9XLkGr

— India at UN, NY (@IndiaUNNewYork) October 14, 2021

The UN General Assembly elected by secret ballot Argentina, Benin, Cameroon, Eritrea, Finland, Gambia, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Montenegro, Paraguay, Qatar, Somalia, UAE and the USA.

 ‘Inexcusable’ to cut supply: Centre to gencos importing coal as blackouts rise.

This is further contributing to the problem of low coal stock at thermal power plants using domestic coal which has led to plant outages and forced states to buy power on exchanges with some states having to impose rolling blackouts.

The Power Ministry has called out thermal plants using imported coal that have stopped operations due to high international coal prices, saying it is “inexcusable” for a generator to not offer power as per power purchase agreements (PPAs). Most plants fueled by imported coal have stopped operations as a sharp hike in global coal prices has made supply of power at contracted rates unviable.

This is further contributing to the problem of low coal stock at thermal power plants using domestic coal which has led to plant outages and forced states to buy power on exchanges with some states having to impose rolling blackouts.

“Not stocking fuel stocks or not giving availability on any pretext is inexcusable. Such conduct on the part of a seller should be immediately responded to by the procurer sternly by using all possible contractual and other available legal interventions at the level of state government,” Power Secretary Alok Kumar said in a meeting on October 7, according to minutes of the meeting reviewed by The Indian Express.

The meeting was attended by representatives of Tata Power, Essar Energy, Adani Power and the Central Electricity Authority (CERC) besides representatives of the Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Punjab governments. States facing power shortages have been forced to purchase power on exchanges at rates far higher than contracted in PPAs with the average market clearing price on the day ahead market at the India Energy Exchange hitting Rs 13.87 per unit on October 14 up from Rs 3.05 per unit a month ago.

All operators of thermal power plants using imported coal cited issues of high global prices and inability to transfer the cost of higher coal to the procurers under existing PPAs.

Tata Power said none of its units at the 4,000-MW Mundra power station had been operational since September 18 as supplying at rates agreed under existing PPAs would lead to under-recoveries of Rs 2.5 per unit (kilowatt-hour), which is higher than losses of fixed costs at Rs 0.90 per unit. The Gujarat government has since, however, agreed to accept supply from the Mundra plants at Rs 4.5 per unit which is higher than mentioned in the PPA, according to state officials.

Essar Gujarat, which operates a 1,200-MW plant, and Adani Mundra, which operates a 4,650-MW plant, both running on imported coal, too cited issues of inability to pass on the rise in cost of imported coal. The price of Indonesian coal has jumped from about $60 per tonne in March to over $200 per tonne due to a coal shortage in China. The coal shortage has prompted the government to allow plants using domestic coal to use a 10 per cent blend of imported coal to augment coal stocks.

While Gujarat said it was open to revoking ceiling tariffs in PPAs, representatives of the Rajasthan and Maharashtra government did not give a final opinion on removing ceiling tariffs to allow pass-through of high coal prices. Rajasthan consumers are currently facing power cuts as a result of the inability of thermal power plants to meet peak power demand. According to the Power System Operation Corporation, Rajasthan faced a shortfall of 17.89 million units of power on October 13, the highest shortfall of any state in the country, followed by Haryana and Punjab, which faced power shortage of 8.73 million units and 5.25 million units, respectively.

Separately, the Power Ministry issued an official release noting that the total thermal capacity facing outage due to low coal stocks had, on October 14, fallen to 5 GW (gigawatt) from 11 GW on October 12.

Global Hunger Index: India slips to rank 101, behind Pak, Bangladesh.

With this, only 15 countries, like Papua New Guinea (102), Afghanistan (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105), fared worse than India this year.

India has slipped to the 101st position among 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 from its 2020 ranking (94), to be placed behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

With this, only 15 countries — Papua New Guinea (102), Afghanistan (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105), Mozambique (106), Sierra Leone (106), Timor-Leste (108), Haiti (109), Liberia (110), Madagascar (111), Democratic Republic of Congo (112), Chad (113), Central African Republic (114), Yemen (115) and Somalia (116) — fared worse than India this year.

A total of 18 countries, including China, Kuwait and Brazil, shared the top rank with GHI score of less than five, the GHI website that tracks hunger and malnutrition across countries said on Thursday.

The report, prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe, mentioned the level of hunger in India as “alarming” with its GHI score decelerating from 38.8 in 2000 to the range of 28.8 – 27.5 between 2012 and 2021.

The GHI score is calculated on four indicators — undernourishment; child wasting (the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition); child stunting (children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).

According to the report, the share of wasting among children in India rose from 17.1 per cent between 1998-2002 to 17.3 per cent between 2016-2020, “People have been severely hit by COVID-19 and by pandemic related restrictions in India, the country with highest child wasting rate worldwide,” the report said.

Neighbouring countries like Nepal (76), Bangladesh (76), Myanmar (71) and Pakistan (92), which are still ahead of India at feeding its citizens, are also in the ‘alarming’ hunger category.

However, India has shown improvement in indicators like the under-5 mortality rate, prevalence of stunting among children and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food, the report said.

Stating that the fight against hunger is dangerously off track, the report said based on the current GHI projections, the world as a whole — and 47 countries in particular — will fail to achieve even a low level of hunger by 2030.

“Although GHI scores show that global hunger has been on the decline since 2000, progress is slowing. While the GHI score for the world fell 4.7 points, from 25.1 to 20.4, between 2006 and 2012, it has fallen just 2.5 points since 2012. After decades of decline, the global prevalence of undernourishment — one of the four indicators used to calculate GHI scores — is increasing. This shift may be a harbinger of reversals in other measures of hunger,” the report said.

Food security is under assault on multiple fronts, the report said, adding that worsening conflict, weather extremes associated with global climate change, and the economic and health challenges associated with Covid-19 are all driving hunger.