Context:

• Recently, the External Affairs Minister outlined that Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific is in the interests of India and Vietnam.

India and Vietnam Relations

• India and Vietnam relations since their foundations.
• India and Vietnam traditionally close and cordial relations have their historical roots in the common struggle for liberation from foreign rule.
• In 1954, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the first visitors to Vietnam.
• In 1958, President Ho Chi Minh went to India. 
• In recent times, India and Vietnam’s political contacts have strengthened as reflected in several high-level visits by leaders from both sides. 
• Trade and economic linkages continue to grow.
• India’s thrust under the ‘Act East’ policy combined with Vietnam’s growing engagement within the region and with India has paid rich dividends.
• Vietnam is an important regional partner in South East Asia. 
• India and Vietnam closely cooperate in various regional forums such as;
  • ASEAN
  • East Asia Summit
  • Mekong Ganga Cooperation
  • Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) besides UN and WTO.  

About Vietnam

• Vietnam is situated in Southeast Asia along the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula. 
• It is located in the Northern and Eastern hemispheres of the Earth. 

• Vietnam has land borders with three countries:  China, Cambodia and Laos.
• To the south and east, the country is bordered by the South China Sea, and the Gulf of Thailand lies to the southwest.
• The Annam Highlands covers much of the central landscape, and in the southern areas, the coastal lowlands and Mekong River Delta merge. 
• The Red River (Song Hong), and the Mekong are the most significant rivers.

News Source: The Hindu

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Context:

• Leaders and officials gathered in Beijing to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
• For the third consecutive time, India is set to boycott a summit of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

What is the BRI?

• Called “One Belt, One Road” in Chinese, the Belt and Road Initiative started as a program for Chinese companies to build transportation, energy and other infrastructure overseas funded by Chinese development bank loans.
• Goal: It was launched in 2013 to boost trade and the global economy by enhancing China’s connectivity with other regions, resembling a modern Silk Road linking China to the Middle East and Europe.
• Investments: Estimated $1 trillion
• Participating Countries: A total of 152 countries have signed a BRI agreement with China, though Italy, the only western European country to do so, is expected to drop out.

What are the challenges of China’s Belt and Road Initiative?

• Debt Trap Diplomacy: Nations have borrowed heavily from China for BRI projects, and they now face challenges in repaying these loans. This has led to accusations of “debt trap diplomacy,” where countries risk losing control of strategic assets if they default on their loans.
  • For example, Sri Lanka had to hand over control of the Hambantota port to China due to mounting debt.

India’s Stand

• India strongly opposes China’s BRI project, particularly the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), because it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
• India’s main concern is that this project disregards its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

News Source: Economic Times

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Context:

• Militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah are involved in the ongoing conflicts with Israel.

What is Hamas?

• Hamas is the largest Palestinian militant Islamist group and a major political party.
• It governs over two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and is known for its armed resistance against Israel.
• Designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other countries.

Formation of Hamas

• Founded in the late 1980s during the first Palestinian intifada, a resistance movement against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
• Evolved from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, previously non-confrontational.
• Hamas was created to specifically confront the Israeli occupation.
• Emerged due to a sense of failure within the Palestinian national movement, as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) recognized Israel’s right to exist and abandoned armed struggle, while Hamas sought to adhere to the military strategy of resistance.

Hezbollah

• Hezbollah, meaning ‘Party of God,’ is a Shiite Islamic militant organization based in Lebanon.
• It’s recognized as the world’s most heavily armed non-state actor, possessing various types of missiles and rockets.
• Founded during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) amid ethnic and religious tensions.
• Inspired by the Iranian Islamic Revolution (1979) and supported by Iran’s funds and training.
• Main goals include opposing Israel, Western influence in West Asia, and supporting the Syrian government during its civil war.
• Currently involved in Lebanese politics, holding seats in the Parliament and participating in the government.

News Source: The Indian Express

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Context:

• The Karnataka government is considering moving waste processing facilities from Bengaluru to the outskirts. Officials have been tasked with identifying land parcels, each spanning 100 acres, in various directions from the city.

BBMP Solid Waste Management Plan

• Bengaluru generates 5,000 tonnes per day (TPD) waste, expected to reach 6,000 TPD  over the next four or five years.
• Current processing capacity: 2,000 TPD, leaving 3,000 TPD for landfill disposal.

Historical Issues with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Waste-Processing Facilities

• Common problems:
  • Consistently receiving more waste than their intended capacity.
  • Operating at less than 50% efficiency.
  • Excess material in the process led to leachate and odor issues.
• Consequences: Negative impact on the environment and well-being of nearby residents and their livelihoods.

Addressing Local Concerns in Solid Waste Management Facilities

• Odor and Leachate Management
  • Implement tertiary-level facilities to treat leachate.
  • Ensure proper treatment for internal use.
• Reducing Odor Issues
  • Equip waste-processing plants with high-capacity lane turners or windrow-turning equipment.
  • Frequent turning of compost material to expedite the composting process, improve aeration, and minimize odors.
• Land Acquisition and Land-Use Changes
  • Opt for state-owned vacant plots to expedite new facility setup.
  • Conduct thorough geotechnical investigations to mitigate land-use impact.
• Engaging Local Farmers and Offering Free Organic Compost
  • Involve farmers as primary consumers of the compost.
  • Provide free organic compost to nearby villages.
  • Potential to significantly reduce farmers’ reliance on chemical fertilizers, saving them substantial costs.
  • Could replace up to 50% of chemical fertilizers in Bangalore Rural and Ramanagara districts using Bengaluru’s annual waste output.

News Source: The Hindu

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Context:

• India aspires to become a global hub for green hydrogen production, but it faces resource challenges.

What is the National Green Hydrogen Mission?

• The Union Cabinet has approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission in Jan 2023.
• Budget Outlay: Rs. 19,744 crore, for various components.
• Aims: To make India a global hub for the production, utilization, and export of green hydrogen and its derivatives.
• Implementation: Ministry of New & Renewable Energy
• Sub Schemes under the National Green Hydrogen Mission:
  • Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition Programme (SIGHT)
    • It will fund the domestic manufacturing of electrolysers and produce green hydrogen.
  • Green Hydrogen Hubs:
    • States and regions capable of supporting large scale production and/or utilization of hydrogen will be identified and developed as Green Hydrogen Hubs.

• National Green Hydrogen Mission Outcomes by 2030:
  • Development of a green hydrogen production capacity of at least 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) per year.
  • Addition of about 125 GW of renewable energy capacity.Over Rs. 8 lakh crore in total investments.Creation of over six lakh jobs.
  • Reduction in fossil fuel imports over Rs. 1 lakh crore.
  • Averting nearly 50 MMT of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

• National Green Hydrogen Mission: Benefits and Goals

• • Creation of export opportunities for green hydrogen and its derivatives.
  • Decarbonization of industrial, mobility, and energy sectors.
  • Reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels.
  • Development of indigenous manufacturing capabilities.
  • Employment opportunities and technological advancements.

What are the challenges associated with National Green Hydrogen Mission?

• Incentive Disparity:  The starting incentive of Rs 50 per kilogram, dropping to Rs 40 in the second year and Rs 30 in the third year, is perceived as insufficient to stimulate significant investment.
  • Global Comparisons: The US provides up to $3 per kilogram in base tax credit. Additionally, the U.S. has committed $8 billion for the development of regional hydrogen hubs.
  • Europe offers around 4 Euros/Kg for green hydrogen projects, making it a more attractive destination.
• Funding Insufficiency: The government’s allocation of around Rs 5,400 crores for funding 1.35 million tonnes of green hydrogen production for three years is considered meager. 
  • It represents only around 40% of the total budget for fuel production. 

News Source: Business Standard

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Context:

• This article is based on the news “Why is marital status a criteria for woman to avail surrogacy under surrogacy law: Delhi HC to Centre” which was published in the Indian Express. Recently, the Delhi High Court asked the Centre why marital status is a criteria for a woman to avail surrogacy under the Surrogacy Law. 

Surrogacy Law in Court

• The court was hearing a plea by a 44-year-old single, unmarried woman challenging section 2(1)(s) of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act (SRA) 2021  which excludes women like her from availing the procedure. 
• Under this section, an “intending woman” means an Indian woman who is a “widow” or “divorcee” between the age of 35 and 45 years and who intends to avail the surrogacy.

What is surrogacy?

• Surrogacy is a contractual undertaking whereby the surrogate mother agrees to conceive a child through artificial insemination with the sperm of the natural father, and to terminate all of her parental rights after the child’s birth.
  • Altruistic Surrogacy: When the surrogate offers to carry the child of the commissioning couple in her womb purely out of love and empathy for their need to have a child. 
  • Commercial Surrogacy: When money is paid to the surrogate for her services, it is taken as an act of commercialisation. 

• Reasons for booming surrogacy market in India
  • Infertility is a growing healthcare which is increasing the need for alternative methods of reproduction to enable people to become parents. 
  • Availability of potential surrogate mothers.
  • Availability of medical technology at an affordable cost.
  • Access to high-quality medical care is easy, cheap, and hassle-free.

Surrogacy Law; Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021

• Definition: A practice where a woman gives birth to a child for an intending couple with the intention to hand over the child after the birth to the intending couple.
• Regulation of surrogacy in India
  • Prohibits: Commercial surrogacy.
  • Permits: Altruistic surrogacy for intending couples who suffer from proven infertility.
  • Rights of surrogate child: A child born out of surrogacy procedure, shall be deemed to be a biological child of the intending couple or intending woman.
  • Prohibition of abortion: At any stage of surrogacy except in such conditions as may be prescribed.

• Surrogacy in India; Eligibility criteria for surrogate mother
  • Close relative of the intending couple.
  • A married woman having a child of her own.
  • Age: 25 to 35 years old.
  • Surrogate only once in her lifetime.
  • Possess a certificate of medical and psychological fitness for surrogacy.
  • The surrogate mother cannot provide her own gametes for surrogacy.
• Surrogacy in India; Other Provisions
  • It bans commercial surrogacy, and makes it a non-bailable offence with imprisonment extending to 10 years and with fine upto 10 lakh rupees.
  • The Intending Couple: Must be an Indian man and woman, legally married, within the specified age groups with no surviving biological, adopted or surrogate child and must suffer from a medical indication necessitating gestational surrogacy.
  • An Intending Woman: Must be a widow or divorcee and within the specified age group.

Surrogacy in India: Why Regulation is Necessary?

• Exploitation Concerns: Surrogate mothers faced economic vulnerabilities, leading to jeopardizing their rights and well-being during and after the surrogacy process.
  • Lion’s share is taken by middlemen who connect women with the clinics, leaving little cash with surrogate mothers.
• Commercialization Issues: It raised ethical questions and created a market-driven approach to human reproduction.
  • For instance, the contracting party has no obligation towards pregnancy loss, maternal mortality, other health risks, post-natal care and recovery of the surrogate mother.
• Grey Area: The absence of comprehensive and clear legal guidelines created uncertainty for all parties involved, including intended parents, surrogate mothers, and medical practitioners.
  • For instance, surrogate mothers often did not know the terms of their contract leading to their economic and social exploitation.
• Parental Rights and Citizenship Issues: Legal uncertainties regarding the citizenship and parental rights of children born through surrogacy need clarification.

What are the challenges associated with surrogacy in India?

• Constitutional Validity of Surrogacy Law: The surrogacy law has been challenged before the Supreme Court. 
  • Under Sarmishta Chakraborty v/s Union of India the court held that the right of women to have a reproductive choice is an integral part of her personal liberty as enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
• Against Right to Equality: Permitting limited conditional surrogacy to married Indian couples and disqualifying other persons on basis of nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or age does not pass the test of equality.
  • The surrogacy law is seen as discriminatory, exclusionary and arbitrary, and negates reproductive rights. 
• Against Same-Sex Couples: In the event of same-sex marriage becoming legal in India, the surrogacy law may deny a legally married male homosexual couple a biological child through surrogacy to complete their family. 
  • This violates the personal rights of the LGBTQ community and goes against the Supreme Court of India decisions, including Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India case.
• High Potential Misuse: Section 42 of the Surrogacy Act presumes that the surrogate mother was compelled by the intending couple to render surrogacy services. 
  • A surrogate mother can negate an altruistic surrogacy agreement or allege that her consent was taken on account of some fear of injury, or under a misconception to compel the intending couple to give extortionist payments.
• Unsupportive to Medical Practitioner: The Act provides for 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh for a medical practitioner for contravention of any provision of the Act. It will fend off doctors and they might not undertake surrogacy procedures.
• Balancing Competing Interests: On the one hand, the state has a responsibility to safeguard the interests of the unborn child and prohibit the surrogate’s exploitation. 
  • On the other hand, lies the right of women to control their own reproductive processes and the right of individuals to parent. 
  • Surrogacy laws in India have had difficulty striking a balance between these competing interests.

Surrogacy in India; Way Forward

• Ensuring Human Rights are Upheld: Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that all men and women of full age have the right to found a family [Article 16(1)] and to the decisions of Indian Supreme Court declaring that family, procreation and sexual orientation are integral to the dignity of an individual. 
• Solving Ethical Dilemmas:  Some argue that surrogacy exploits and commodifies women’s bodies and children. Loss of natural reproduction can cause psychological problems for the surrogate mother.
  • However, according to the utilitarian stance, whatever is beneficial to the greatest number of people is considered to be good. In this case, the couple completes their family and surrogates may receive monetary or other kinds of benefits.

• Providing Practical Solutions: Unlike the proverbial ostrich burying its head in the sand, hoping that the surrogacy market will disappear by merely banning commercial surrogacy, the government may improve the regulation of surrogacy in India.
• The implementation of the laws must be periodically reviewed including regular consultations with stakeholders to ensure that the rights of the surrogates, children born into surrogacy, and ART donors are protected.

Conclusion:

Instead of imposing a ban, the commercial surrogacy market, a balanced path by the Government would be the adoption of a rights-based approach addressing the concerns of the surrogate mother, children born out of surrogacy, and other stakeholders in the surrogacy market.

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Context:

• This article is based on the news “A new beginning” which was published in the Business Standard. The entire Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor spanning the 1,337 km Ludhiana in Punjab and Sonnagar in Bihar is complete. Commercial operations on the full corridor are likely to start in November 2023.

Dedicated Freight Corridors; Transforming Rail Freight in India

• The operational corridor will benefit the thermal power plants in UP, Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Rajasthan as it will cater largely to coal traffic.
• The surging domestic economy, booming infrastructure construction and growing international trade led to the conception of the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) along the Eastern and Western arms of the Golden Quadrilateral.
• Over the year, Railways lost the share in freight traffic from 88% in 1950-51 to 26% in 2021-22. Also, the National highways along these corridors comprising 0.5% of the road network carried almost 40% of the road freight.
• The National Rail Plan (NRP) strives to enhance the rail share in the country’s freight transport from 27 percent to 45 percent in which Dedicated Freight Corridors  will play a very important role owing to the reduced transit time and lower logistics cost.

What is a dedicated freight corridor?

• The Ministry of Railways (MoR) has taken up construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) viz. Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana Punjab to Dankuni West Bengal (1,760 km) and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1506 Kms.).
• The Connecting Link for Eastern & Western Arm is under construction between Dadri & Khurja.

Also read: Decarbonising Transport Sector

What is the significance of a dedicated freight corridor?

Saturation of the Existing Infrastructure

• The Indian Railways’ Golden quadrilateral linking the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Howrah, and its two diagonals (Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Howrah) comprises 16% of the route but carry more than 52% of the passenger traffic and 58% of revenue earning freight traffic of IR. 
• This trunk route is highly saturated with line capacity utilization varying between 115% to 150%.

Efficiencies

• Railways are about 12 times more efficient in freight traffic than road transport and three times more efficient in passenger traffic.
• The average speed of freight trains on the DFCs will be 50-60 kmph from the existing 25 kmph on Indian railway tracks.
• The Western DFC has cut freight travel times between 24 to 48 hours for cargo moving between North India and port infrastructure on the western coast of India.

• Reduce logistic cost: Railway transportation is generally more cost-effective than road transportation for bulk goods like salt, Coal, cement, etc. 
• Each kilometer-long freight train on the Eastern dedicated freight corridor  will replace some 72 trucks on average. This will ease congestion on India’s often vercrowded roads and highways, which carry an overwhelming 60 percent of the country’s freight, and make the roads safer, as per a World Bank report.
• The logistics cost in India is 13 percent of the GDP  compared to 8 percent of the global average, making it difficult for Indian exports to compete globally.
• India improves in the logistics ranking of the World Bank by jumping 6 places to Rank 38 out of 139 countries in the Logistics Performance Index (LPI 2023)

Green Impact: The corridor will rely entirely on electric locomotives, which in turn will result in a substantial reduction in carbon emissions. 

• It is expected that dedicated freight corridor will save more than 450 million tons of CO2 in the first 30 years of operation (Assessment based on Ernst & Young study).
• For instance, the Khurja-Bhaupur section alone will decrease the country’s CO2 emissions by some 4.2 million tonnes between 2022 and 2052 and significantly reduce air pollution.

Industrial Development And Regional Revitalisation

• Establishing industrial zones at strategic junctions along its route is poised to breathe new life into some of India’s poorest and most densely populated regions.
  • The Nangal Chaudhary Integrated Multi-Modal Logistics Hub (IMLH) Project facilitates economic activities between the National Capital Region (NCR)/Northern States and the Mumbai Port (JN Port) by utilizing the cost-efficient and high-speed Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC).

What are the challenges with dedicated freight corridors?

• Project Target  and Cost
  • The Project is facing a delay over the original deadline of 2017-18. This delay has increased costs for both legs of the project by 54 percent to Rs 1.24 trillion.
  • In 2022, for instance, the Comptroller & Auditor General pulled up the DFCCIL for cost overruns because of the slow pace of handing over land to contractors, utility shifting, delays in design, and overhead equipment work, pointing to sheer organizational inefficiency. 
• Planning and execution
  • Planning has been an issue since the project’s conception. MoR approached the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs with cost estimates based on the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Feasibility Report without forming a financing plan for EDFC or a CA between MoR and SPV. [CAG, 2015].
  • The original Easter dedicated freight corridor was to extend as far as Dankuni, West Bengal. The current one terminates at Son Nagar, Bihar.
• Double stack vs Single stack
  • The project has adopted different technical standards for WDFC and EDFC. This makes a seamless movement of double-stack trains from WDFC to EDFC impossible. 
  • Moving dimensions made for double-stacked containers is 7.1 meters for WDFC and EDFC single-stack container operations is 5.1 meters.
• Renewable resources vs coal 
  • With an inclination towards using renewable resources in the future, the viability of the EDFC could be a concern since most of the traffic was expected to be coal for power plants in northern India from the coal fields in the east. 
• Industrial Corridors: The progress for Logistics Parks and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor(DMIC) has been very slow. DMIC was approved in 2007 by the Union Cabinet. Eleven years after the approval, the DMIC is progressing slowly. 
  • Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Corridor, approved by GoI in 2014, was to be developed along the alignment of EDFC, however, even after 10 years, the progress has been only up to preparing the ‘Perspective Plan’.
• Land acquisition: As of December 2018, DFCCIL has acquired 98.5% of the required land. Though only 1.5% remains (presumably due to difficulties in land acquisition), these have a higher number of affected patches per kilometer. It can pose a problem in constructing the DFC and further delay the project’s completion timeline.

Way Forward

• Land acquisition: Given the land acquisition difficulties in India, the fact that 1077 km out of 1504 km of WDFC and 1111 km out of 1318 km of the non-PPP EDFC are adjacent to the existing IR network has been a positive for DFCCIL. 
• Ownership of SPV: The Committee on Infrastructure had constituted a Task Force in May 2005. It recommends that the SPV should have a joint ownership between MoR and the “users of bulk freight services largely in the public sector. It would have ensured an adequate equity base, which could be used to leverage market borrowings to raise capital for investment in the dedicated Freight corridor 
• Industrial Corridor: Establishing industrial zones at strategic junctions along its route is poised to breathe new life into some of India’s poorest and most densely populated regions. This development will create jobs and stimulate economic growth in areas that have traditionally lagged behind in industrialization.
• Future DFC Corridors: The Union Budget 2021-22, announced that the government would in the future undertake dedicated freight corridor projects — East Coast, East-West Corridor and North-South Corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada. The Processes are still in the nascent stage and need to be fast-tracked for timely completion of projects.
• Expansion to Neighbouring Countries: Enhancing intra-regional trade is necessary to increase connectivity in south asian regions. The ensuing economic growth would also play a key role in bridging the trust deficit in the region and raising the opportunity cost of conflict.
• It also helps to counter increasing China’s presence through its Belt and road initiative.

Conclusion:

The completion of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor in India marks a significant step in transforming rail freight, reducing logistics costs, and promoting economic growth. Despite challenges, further expansion and strategic planning hold the key to maximizing the benefits of dedicated freight corridors for the country’s development.

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