Context: 

The 18th G20 Summit successfully concluded in New Delhi with India handing over the Presidency to Brazil.

More on News:

• The PM of India has proposed to hold another virtual review session of the G-20 Summit at the end of November.

Key Deliverables Under India’s G20 Presidency:

• India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor:
  • Aim: To integrate transport corridors between Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe.

• • Participants: India, the US, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, the UAE, France, Germany and Italy.
  • The project is a part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII).Significance of IMEC:
    • Offers an alternative to China’s BRI, focusing on transparency and climate-resilient infrastructure.
    • Enhances India’s self-reliance and aligns with initiatives like Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat.

• Addition of African Union as a G20 New Permanent Member:
• Significance: G20’s Inclusivity Boost: This will make G20 more inclusive, deepen cooperation with Africa, and help realize its developmental aspirations.
  • Global Representation: It provides the AU with a platform for global representation and a voice in shaping international economic policies and decisions. 
  • Trade and Investment: The AU can advocate for fairer trade practices and increased investment in African economies. 
• Setting up of Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA):
  • India, Singapore, Bangladesh, Italy, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Mauritius and UAE, launched the Global Biofuel Alliance.
  • Aim: It is an international initiative aimed at promoting the development and deployment of biofuels as a low-carbon pathway to sustainable energy.
  • Significance: 
    • Bolster’s biofuels markets, 
    • Encourage the development of relevant standards, 
    • Facilitate sustainable global biofuels trade and information sharing, and 
    • Promote collaboration with international biofuels organizations. 
• Jaipur Call for Action for fostering access to information for MSMEs:
  • G20 ministers issued the ‘Jaipur Call for Action’ to:

• • • Enhance MSME Information: Improve access to information for MSMEs.ITC’s Role: Requested the International Trade Center (ITC), Geneva, to develop an implementation plan for upgrading its Global Trade Helpdesk to address MSMEs’ informational needs, in consultation with UNCTAD and WTO.
    • Other Consensus: Digitalization of trade documents, a G20 Generic Mapping Framework for Global Value Chains.
  • Significance: The Jaipur Call for Action and its successful implementation will support the accessibility of trade related information and will spur the integration of MSMEs in world trade. 
• Goa Roadmap for Tourism as a vehicle to achieve SDGs:
  • Goa Roadmap for Tourism: The Goa Roadmap is a key deliverable of India’s G20 Tourism Track. The roadmap focuses on five interconnected priorities:
    • Green Tourism, Digitalization, Skills, Tourism MSMEs and Destination Management
• Mainstreaming Lifestyles for Sustainable Development (LiFE):
  • G20 High-Level Principles on Lifestyles for Sustainable Development (LiFE):
    • HLPs provide an impetus to ambitious actions for achieving development, environment and climate goals, with a focus on human-centric and pro-growth approach to climate action and sustainable economic growth. 
    • HLPs will promote Indian ethos, values, and ways of life.
  • Travel for LiFE:
    • Support the development of smart destinations that are responsible and sustainable. 
• Gandhinagar Implementation Roadmap (GIR) & Gandhinagar Information Platform (GIP) for Priority Landscapes:
  • GIR and GIP will help restore land impacted by forest fires and mining, and reinforce the implementation of the G20 Global Land Initiative (GLI). 
  • This will support achieving the G20 ambition of reducing land degradation by 50% by 2040.
• Chennai High-Level Principles for a Sustainable and Resilient Blue/Ocean-based Economy:
  • HLPs will help address sustainable economic growth, protection, conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of the marine environment, social equity, gender equality, and human development. 
    • The World Bank defines the blue economy as the “sustainable use of ocean resources to benefit economies, livelihoods and ocean ecosystem health”.
• G20 2023 Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP):
  • New FIAP provides an action-oriented and forward-looking roadmap for rapidly advancing the financial inclusion of individuals and MSMEs. 
  • India will lead the implementation of the new FIAP for the next three years starting from 2024. 
• Millet and Other Ancient Grains International Research Initiative (MAHARISHI) – Outcome of the 12th G20 Meeting of Agriculture Chief Scientists (MACS):
  • Aim: To bolster research and awareness concerning agro-biodiversity, food security, and nutrition, aligning with the International Year of Millets 2023 (IYoM 2023) programme initiated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
  • Secretariat:  Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) in Hyderabad, with technical support from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and other international organizations.
• Reforming International Financial Institutions:
  • Better, bigger, and more effective MDBs:
    • There is a need to enhance the representation and voice of developing countries in global international economic and financial institutions.
    • MDBs should enhance their operating models.
    • They should improve responsiveness and accessibility.
    • Additionally, MDBs should substantially increase their financing capacity.
  • Roadmap to implement the Independent Review on MDBs Capital Adequacy Framework (CAF):
    • Roadmap provides a stocktake of the status of implementation of CAF recommendations by each MDB as reported by the Banks, as well as forward-looking G20 guidance on how to pace up the implementation of the voluntary recommendations, subject to each MDB’s governance framework and internal mandates
  • Established the G20 independent expert group on strengthening MDBs. 
    • Expert group was set up in the Indian Presidency, to delve and suggest ways to significantly enhance credit. Volume I of the report gives recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of MDBs.
• Building Digital Public Infrastructure:
  • G20 Framework for Digital Public Infrastructure:
    • The DPI framework will help ensure equitable access to and last-mile delivery of essential services at a societal scale, streamline governance, propel economic growth, enhance data security, drive financial inclusion, and foster sustainable development. 
  • Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository (GDPIR):
    • GDPIR, a virtual repository of DPI, proposed to be created by the Presidency, aims to share best practices and experiences in the development and deployment of DPI to bridge existing information and knowledge-sharing gaps.
• Fostering Digital Ecosystems:
  • Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH):
    • GIDH, launched in Gandhinagar in August 2023, aims to develop a WHO-managed network, enabling a global digital health ecosystem for standards-based digital health transformation through the convergence of efforts and investments made in digital health around the globe.

Conclusion: 

• The G20 Summit demonstrated a strong commitment to future Presidencies, including Brazil in 2024, South Africa in 2025, and the United States in 2026.
• The Summit recognized and appreciated the contributions of all Engagement Groups and Initiatives of India’s G20 Presidency.
• India’s G20 Presidency set a new standard by conducting over 200 meetings in 60 cities across the country, exemplifying the democratization of diplomacy and people-centric engagement.
• India demonstrated its ability to convene and generate New Delhi Declaration among the G20 members on key global issues, showcasing its leadership on the world stage.

News Source: The Indian Express

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Context: 

• The Prime Minister recently remarked that state-provided freebies may yield political results in the short term, but it will lead to a great social and economic price in the long term with the poor paying a heavy price.

More about the news: 

• Webinar against freebies: A webinar titled ‘Freebies Culture and its Impact on Indian Politics & Democracy’ was organised by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in view of a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging freebies.

• • ADR is a non-partisan, non-governmental organization that aims to improve governance and strengthen democracy in the area of electoral and political reforms. 
• OPS as a populist move: The choice of certain states to revert to the old pension scheme (OPS) has been criticised as a populist measure to attract government employees.
  • Five states – Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have decided to go back to the OPS. 
• Rise of Populist policies: Political parties in states preparing for assembly elections have begun pledging freebies, which include cash transfers and supplementary income initiatives.
  • Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and  Mizoram in late November and early December.

Freebies:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a bulletin in June 2022 defined ‘freebies’ as “a public welfare measure that is provided free of charge.
  • It includes provisions like free electricity, water, public transportation, the waiver of outstanding utility bills, and farm loan waivers. 

Welfare Measures: 

• It is a public policy intervention deriving sanctity from directive principles of the Constitution having long-term impacts on production and productivity.
  • Welfare schemes like mid-day meals, PDS, MGNREGA, health insurance schemes have played a crucial role in the improvement of lives of both the rural and urban poor in the country

Difference between freebies and welfare measures: 

Concerns associated with excessive use of freebies:

• Heavy Tax Burden on States: Many states are burdened with substantial debts, limiting their capacity to invest in more significant welfare programs. 
  • Punjab’s electricity subsidy constitutes over 16 percent of its total revenues.
  • State Finance: A Risk Analysis’, a report released by the RBI in June 2022, stated that the slowdown in state revenues and increasing subsidy burden have added to the state government’s debt. 
  • New sources of risks have emerged in the form of rising expenditure on non-merit freebies, expanding contingent liabilities, and the ballooning overdue of DISCOMs.
• Against Constitutional Principles: Making promises when the states lack money to guarantee fundamental rights and implement directive principles is against constitutional principles.
• Shrinkage of fiscal space: The subsidy burden needs to be to be funded through debt, which will result in mounting deficits.
  • It will lead to breach of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) rules and the states ending up in a debt trap.
  • The report also reveals that the debt-GSDP ratio is the highest in Punjab, Rajasthan, Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.
  • Debt-to-gross state domestic product ratio(Debt-GSDP): It is a measure of how much the liabilities are as a proportion of the size of the state’s economy.
• Violation of the principle of a level-playing field: Freebies gives the political parties undue advantage by making promises to provide private goods for only a section of voters.
  • For instance, promising cycles for girl students or laptops for college students, or grinders for housewives, etc.
• Opportunity Cost: States offering loan waivers often have to cut spending on crucial infrastructure such as roadways development and skill development.
• Social Impact: Despite receiving more resources, the RBI’s study reveals a decline in social sector spending by states, particularly in vital areas like health and education.
  • The share of subsidies in the total revenue expenditure of states has increased from 7.8 per cent in 2019-20 to 8.2 per cent in 2021-22.
  • States like Punjab and Chhattisgarh are on top as they spend 10 percent of their revenue expenditure on subsidies.
• Environmental concerns: States offer free electricity to farmers, leading to overuse of groundwater and the continuation of traditional crop patterns. 
  • In Punjab and Haryana, the ground water extraction stands at 161 % and 134 % against the national average of 61 % due to highly subsidised electricity.

Challenges in curtailing Freebie Culture:

• Lack of regulatory powers with ECI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has stated that it lacks the authority to regulate or penalize political parties for making electoral promises. 
  • According to the ECI, the offering or distribution of freebies, either before or after an election, falls under the jurisdiction of the respective party.
• No assessment of financial viability of populist policies: Political parties often fail to clarify the funding sources for the promises made in the form of freebies.
• Lack of Information to the Voters:  They don’t delve into the financial aspects of freebies, prompting political parties to compete for promising freebies. 

Way Forward: 

• Responsibility of voters: Voters need to be vigilant and inquire about the financial implications of the populist policies.
• Empowering the ECI with greater authority: Statutory provisions as a backup or warnings on the use of funds are needed.
• Model Manifesto: The ECI needs to prepare a Model Manifesto to be followed by all political parties. 
  • ECI could bring in certain measures under the MCC to introduce a responsible way of making promises to the public. 
  • Voters need to decide whether an election campaign is credible and whether the promises and the freebies are in their interest.
• Fixing limit of welfare schemes: Fixing spending of 1% of GSDP or 1% of state own tax collections or state revenue expenditure would help to implement welfare schemes properly.
• Distinction between freebies and welfare measures: There has to be a distinction between the offer of ornaments, television sets, consumer electronics free of cost and real welfarist offers. 
• Tracking social sector budgetary allocations: Prioritizing higher resource allocation to welfare schemes is needed.
  • India’s spending on health and education, at 4.7%, lags behind that of other developing countries, such as sub-Saharan Africa, which spends 7%.
• Role of Finance Commission: It should consider the state’s debt burden during state allocations, and assess whether the state’s economy can sustain the financial impact of freebies over the long term.
  • A committee should be formed comprising constitutional bodies, such as the Law Commission of India, to put down a proposal on how to deal with the issue.

News Source: Business Standard

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Context:

Recently genetic manipulation of mosquitoes is discussed which will lead to control of their populations by interfering with their reproduction.

More About News:

• Mosquitoes serve as vectors for various other diseases. Together with climate change and its cascading consequences, mosquito-borne diseases such as Malaria, dengue, Zika, lymphatic filariasis, and yellow fever are on rise.
• Conventional approaches such as spraying of synthetic pyrethroids include permethrin, sumithrin to is less effective, it has become imperative that newer approaches to mosquito control gain prominence.

About  Gene Drive Technology:

• Gene drive is a method that enhances the inheritance  of a modified or preferred trait in a specific species.
• The fundamental idea behind genetic manipulation of mosquitoes is to systematically control their populations by interfering with their reproduction.
• The objective of Gene Drive Technology is for mosquitoes to selectively inherit some genes, rather than the inheritance to follow the rules of Mendelian genetics.

How Does It Work?

• A protein (CSIRP) cuts the mosquito’s DNA at a part that doesn’t encode a particular sequence in the genome. 
• This triggers a natural mechanism in the cell containing the DNA to repair it and forces the cell to incorporate a sequence, called the drive sequence, into the damaged portion.
• It genetically enhanced a gene expressed in the midgut of mosquitoes to secrete two antimicrobial substances called magainin 2 and melittin. 
• They are detrimental to the Plasmodium parasite’s development in the midgut and also reduce the lifespan of female mosquitoes.

Source: The Hindu

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Context: The pink bollworm (PWB) has taken a toll on the fiber crop (cotton), even as new “mating disruption” technologies to control the pest are showing promise.

About Mating Disruptions Technology:

• Mating disruption involves the use of sex pheromones to prevent male insects finding females and mating.
• Pheromones are chemicals produced by an insect to communicate in some way with others of the same species.

Distribution and Cotton Production In India:

• Economic importance: Cotton is cultivated primarily for lint while seed and its by-products have also gained commercial importance in recent times.
• Cotton composition: Lint or fiber: 35-45% ,Seed: 55-65% Seed ,oil: 10-12% , Meal and Hull: 35-40% 
• Climate and cultivation:
  • Cotton is a tropical and subtropical crop
  • Crop cycle: 4-5 MonthsOptimum temperature: 21C to 28 C 
  • Rainfall: Moderate, 50-75 cm mm 
  • Sunny days are important at all stages of growth, particularly during flowering and maturity stages.
  • Soil: Black Soil (Regur Soil).
  • Crop Seasons: Kharif.

The Bt revolution: Between 2000-01 and 2013-14, India’s cotton production, in terms of lint, almost tripled from 140 lakh to 398 lakh bales (170 kg). 

• Today Bt cotton Occupies 95%  cotton cultivated areas, average per-hectare lint yields more than doubled from 278 kg in 2000-01 to 566 kg in 2013-14. However, the gains didn’t last. 
• The charts show both production and yields falling after 2013-14, to 343.5 lakh bales and 447 kg/hectare in 2022-23.

Source: The Indian Express

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Context:

Crude oil prices, which have been firming up for the past few weeks on expectations of high demand and tightening supply, are at a nearly 10-month high.

More on News: 

• Global benchmark Brent crude breached the $90-per-barrel mark for the first time in 2023.
• Major oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia announced an extension of their voluntary supply cuts — totalling 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) — till the end of 2023.

Reasons For High Oil Prices

• Supply side : Production cuts by OPEC+.
  • Sanctions on Major Oil Producing Nations Such as Iran and Venezuela continue. Demand side Signs of improved macroeconomic conditions.Easing of inflation in major oil consumers like the US.
  • Revocation of ‘Zero-Covid Policy’ in China.
  • Rising demad due to growth of petrochemicals industries.

Impact Of HIgh Oil Prices

• Global economy:
  • Inflationary pressures and spell bad news for the fragile global economy.
  • Jeopardize global economic recovery, and lead to destruction in oil demand.
• Indian economy:
  • India imports around 87 percent of its requirement of crude oil, high oil prices can cause a big headache for the economy.
  • High inflation which affects disposable incomes and discretionary spending.
  • Negatively impact India’s trade balance.
  • Depreciation  of the rupee and Increased pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
  • Low profitability in key sectors (Oil Marketing companies) with high energy cost.
• Transition to Green Economy:
  • High oil prices also incentivise faster transition to cleaner fuels, particularly in the mobility sector.

Way Ahead: In short term, diversification from OPEC+ Countries (to Iran or Venezuela), whereas in Long term focus should be  Renewable energy which enables transition to Green Economy.

Source: The Indian Express

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Housewives make up over 50% of India’s female suicides

Context:

World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), celebrated annually on 10 September, is organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

More on News:

• Aim: Raising awareness about the pressing problem, reducing the social stigma associated with it, and increasing overall awareness.
• The National Family Health Survey (2019­-21) highlights the challenges faced by married women, including limited mobility, restricted financial autonomy, and marital control, as well as physical, sexual, and emotional abuse in the hands of their spouses.
• The number of women who died by suicide in India reached a peak of 45,026 in 2021. More than half of them were housewives (Table 1).
• Over 30% of all suicides (men and women) were due to issues relating to family or marriage.
• In 2021, among the major States, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Karnataka featured at the top of this list.
• Table 2 shows that 35% of married women in the poorest 20% of households had faced physical or emotional or sexual violence, and less than half of them had sought help.

Places in News

Morocco

Context: 

A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck Morocco’s High Atlas mountains leading to the death of over 2,000 people.

More on News:

• According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the oblique-reverse faulting at shallow depth within the High Atlas Mountain range caused the earthquake.
• The northward convergence of the African plate with respect to the Eurasian plate is a complex plate boundary.

About Morocco:

• Morocco is situated in the Maghreb region of North Africa.
• It has a northern coastline along the Mediterranean Sea and the western coastline, along with the Atlantic Ocean.
• The Strait of Gibraltar that lies between Morocco and Spain separates Africa from Europe and connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean.
• It shares land borders with Algeria to the east and Western Sahara to the south.

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