A brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
National
[1]. Government infra projects to boost construction equipment business
Current Scenario
The construction equipment industry is heading for a revival backed by major infrastructure projects from the government and may clock a double-digit growth in the next financial year ending March 2017.
Recently, Ministry for road transport, highways and shipping announced its plans to
- Increase the length of national highways to 1,50,000 km from the present 96,000 km including expressways.
- Constructing 30 km of National Highways a day.
- Four major corridor development projects such as the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, Amritsar-Kolkata, Vizag-Chennai and Bangalore-Mumbai.
Market Size
The Indian construction equipment industry is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2019-20, according to a report released by Indian construction equipment manufacturers association (ICEMA).
The current market size of the construction equipment including backhoe loader, concrete mixers excavator is around $2.8 billion.
[2]. Centre to map country’s training infrastructure
The government, is mapping the country’s existing training infrastructure, including thousands of private training institutes that are thriving but do not reflect in the official data.
- New enterprise- and household-level statistical surveys to be conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) would now glean details about training institutions, their capacities for imparting different skill sets and their utilisation by young job market aspirants.
- The government runs about 12,000 industrial training institutes and has direct access to data on their operations and outcomes, but that information is inadequate to assess the actual training capacity in the country, said a senior official in the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA).
- The NSDA, an arm of the skill development and entrepreneurship ministry, had requested the NSSO under the statistics ministry to incorporate new questions to capture these details into their household and enterprise surveys.
- The NSDA will discharge the following functions:
- Take all possible steps to meet skilling targets as envisaged in the 12th Five Year Plan and beyond;
- Coordinate and harmonize the approach to skill development among various Central Ministries/Departments, State Governments, the NSDC and the private sector;
- Anchor and operationalize the NSQF to ensure that quality and standards meet sector specific requirements;
- Be the nodal agency for State Skill Development Missions;
- Raise extra-budgetary resources for skill development from various sources such as international agencies, including multi-lateral agencies, and the private sector;
- Evaluate existing skill development schemes with a view to assessing their efficacy and suggest corrective action to make them more effective;
- Create and maintain a national data base related to skill development including development of a dynamic Labour Market Information System (LMIS);
- Take affirmative action for advocacy;
- Ensure that the skilling needs of the disadvantaged and the marginalized groups like SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities, women and differently abled persons are taken care of;
- Discharge any other function as may be assigned to it by the Government of India.
Current Scenario
- In July, while launching the Skill India Mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “India would be the biggest supplier of workforce to the world in the coming years as it had a huge pool of people who were young.We should not just map the demand for human resources in India but also globally, and gear up to meet that demand”.
[3]. India for protection of poor farmers’ interests at Nairobi WTO meet
World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade.India, at the forthcoming Nairobi meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), will put “all its energies” on pushing through a plan meant to protect the interests and livelihood of poor and vulnerable farmers.
Highlights
- The Indian position echoed the one recently proposed by the G-33 on an effective Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM).
- The G33 is a coalition of 48 nations including India, Indonesia and China, which took up the issue of developing countries getting considerable flexibility in limiting market opening of agriculture sector.
- The SSM is a trade remedy that would allow developing countries to temporarily hike import duties on farm products to counter sudden import surges and price falls, thereby, protecting the interests of poor farmers.
- It has been generally agreed that the developing countries could have an SSM, but developed countries including the US have opposed a proposal to enable developing countries to raise tariffs (using SSM) over and above the duty commitments made by them (developing countries) in the farm sector during the earlier Uruguay Round of WTO global trade pact negotiations.
- The Uruguay Round took place before the current Doha Round talks that began in 2001. The new SSM proposal was to include provisions to empower developing countries to impose additional duties (temporarily) on agriculture products when their imports breach specified ceilings on price or volume
What India wants
- India wants this SSM proposal to be taken up on a “high priority-basis” during the WTO ministerial meeting at Nairobi (Kenya) slated to start on December 15.
- There will not be any compromise on this (SSM) issue as it involves protection of poor farmers, which is of course a politically sensitive matter. It has to be given priority at the Kenya meet
Issues
- The developed world, including the US, European Union, Australia, along with leading agriculture producer and exporter Brazil, has expressed their disagreement with the proposal.
- The negotiations are over the extent to which different categories of (developing) countries will be allowed to hike duties (using the SSM) beyond their ‘bound tariff’ — or the duty ceiling as per their WTO commitments.
- The developing countries including India had, during recent discussions at the WTO, wanted an “effective” SSM for “addressing volatilities and instabilities causing import surges and price depressions.”
- The developing nations added that if these import surges and price depressions were “not immediately and effectively addressed as they occur, (they would) undermine poverty reduction efforts, livelihood and food security, and rural development in WTO Members.”
Reasons for Volatility in global prices of agricultural items- Huge subsidies given to the farm sector in developed countries.
- Developing countries members, including India, said that therefore, an effective SSM was “very important” for them.
- The developed countries instead want discussions on SSM to be linked to the issue of greater market access in farm products, the sources said.
- Another item that India wants to be taken up on priority at the Nairobi meeting is that of arriving at a permanent solution to the issue of public food stockholding in developing countries for the purpose of food security.
[4]. Concern over large gaps in airspace security
Adding a new parameter in the Air-Defense system,Recently there was the first successful test of the Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM), jointly developed by India and Israel, from an Israeli warship.
So how does a typical air Defense system function
- Air Defense networks are meant to detect, track and shoot down incoming enemy aircraft, missiles or drones.
- Any incoming hostile target is first detected by long-range radars connected to the SAM system and once the threat is identified and its trajectory determined, the long-range missiles are fired.
- For instance, if an incoming missile moves in beyond the range of a long-range missile, it is engaged with medium-range missiles.
- As the last resort if the missile is in close proximity, man-portable systems and shoulder-fired missiles like Igla are fired along with anti-aircraft guns.
- At the moment, upgrade and replacement programmes are in the pipeline in every single category among the three services.
Akash system
- Akash is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defense system developed
- The indigenous Akash short-range system has finally been delivered to the Army and Air Force.
- It can detect and target aircraft up to 30 km away at altitudes of up to 18,000 metres.
India has also initiated a series of joint development projects with Israel to develop SAM systems.
- The Air Force MR-SAM project worth Rs 10,076 crore, almost a replica of the LR-SAM but for land-based operations, was sanctioned in February 2009 to replace the Pichora systems in service. However, the missile is now expected to be inducted only in 2017, three years behind schedule.
- In a desperate move to fill gaps, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) recently approved the digitisation of the 24 Pichora SAMs of the Air Force at Rs. 1,800 crore. The Pichora system is of 1980’s vintage.
[5]. Hopes rise for Paris climate deal
- Paris is all prepared to host the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change conference beginning Today , raising expectations that the participation of nearly 150 countries in a leadership event will bring about a good agreement.
- The high-profile opening event , is intended to signal the seriousness with which climate change is being approached at CoP21, the conference of member countries.
- For India and other developing countries, the momentum that has built around the Paris conference is an opportunity to press their case for funds from the First World.
- France, the host, has been pursuing diplomacy with governments most connected with the issue.
[6]. A Manhattan Project For Coal
Coal
- In the run-up to the Paris conference, there is a growing call — first articulated clearly at this year’s summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations — to phase out fossil fuels.
- The US and others have also vowed to vote against fossil fuel energy projects in developing countries when multilateral development banks are voting on them. Meanwhile, the US produces at least 35 per cent more coal than India.
India & Coal
- A country struggling to provide basic electricity to about 25% of the population, according to conservative estimates — this smacks of a “carbon imperialism”.
- And such imperialism on the part of advanced nations could spell disaster for India and other developing countries.
- In fact, rather than replacing coal, the only way India and other poorer nations can both meet their needs and minimise damage to the environment may be to find effective techniques to “clean and green” coal.
- Under any plausible scenario, coal will provide about 40-60% of India’s energy until 2030. It will, and should, remain the country’s primary energy source because it is the cheapest fuel available.
- But India is neither unaware of the social costs of coal nor is it lax in promoting renewables.
- It has already started taxing carbon, both explicitly and implicitly. The coal tax has quadrupled to Rs 200 ($3) a tonne since 2014. This has resulted in an implicit carbon tax of $2 a tonne of CO2 on domestic coal. This may, of course, still not be enough to cover all the social costs of carbon use.
- There has also been a substantial indirect tax on carbon. In response to the fall in the oil price, the government has eliminated subsidies on petrol and diesel and increased taxes.
- India is committed to an ambitious renewables programme, ramping up renewables capacity from 35 gigawatts today to 175 gigawatts by 2022.
- India has therefore moved from a negative price — that is, a subsidy — to a positive price on carbon emissions. In contrast, the governments of most advanced countries have simply passed on the benefits to consumers, setting back the cause of curbing climate change.
Opinions & Editorials
[1]. Why India must up the stakes in Paris
Context: 21st session of the conference of parties (COP) that commences on November 30th, 2015 presents an opportunity for world leaders to come together on the issue of environmental change and carve a framework for sustainable development.
India has been blamed for climate negotiation deadlocks and painted as a naysayer. While it should not hesitate to defend its interests, it should be careful to not paint itself into a corner.
As a highly vulnerable country, with relatively high energy efficiency, low per capita carbon emissions, and a respectable track record of domestic initiatives, India has a good hand. But it has to play it well.
Substantive and political objectives
How does India achieve both substantive and political objectives coming out of Paris?
First, India needs to join the gathering consensus that the 2015 agreement will take the form of a legally binding treaty. A treaty signals the highest expression of political will, generates accountability and predictability in implementation, and typically survives national political changes.
Second, the Paris agreement will likely be a hybrid one containing ‘bottom-up’ elements comprising nationally determined contributions to climate action (mitigation, adaptation, and supportive actions such as finance), and some ‘top-down’ elements such as how these contributions are reviewed and updated. India needs to argue for a more, not less, effective review and update process.
Third, India needs a complementary but nuanced approach to ensure that such a review, update and stocktaking process maintains pressure on industrialised countries with much higher levels of total cumulative emissions over time, and far higher per capita emissions, and is not used to pressure India.
India could use a key idea at Paris — the ‘progression principle’ that each country moves over time to ever more ambitious pledges — to argue that progression should be based on current starting points which reflect developed and developing countries’ differences.
At the core of this approach is the idea that India seeks an ambitious and effective Paris agreement, but one founded on every country leveraging up its pledges and actions in a manner that recognises different starting points and responsibilities.
The alternative is to play for a weak agreement, one that is unlikely to place pressure on India, but will let developed countries off the hook as well. This leveraging downward is to be avoided; it is likely to expose India to enhanced climate risk, and make us vulnerable to the charge that we are unsupportive of the process.
Economic Digest
[1]. Incentives for Turkey to ‘tackle’ flow of migrants
Current Scenario
Fuelled by the Syrian war, some 850,000 people have entered the EU this year and more than 3,500 have died or gone missing in what has become Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.
Turkey is the main gateway for migrants and refugees to reach Europe, and Germany has pushed for the summit as it is the main destination for most of the people arriving in the bloc.
However the multi-billion-euro aid package will likely be tied to Turkey’s success in tackling the flow of migrants, while the timeframe of the payout is also still up in the air, European officials said.
Turkey is meanwhile set to get its wish for the acceleration of its bid for membership of the EU, which began in 2005 but has seen only one of 35 so-called “chapters” completed.
- Ahead of Refugee/igrant issue, European Union (EU) leaders will offer Turkey cash and a boost for its membership bid in exchange for its cooperation with the migrant crisis at a summit, but warned a final deal will involve “difficult” negotiations.
- The European Union is expected to agree a three-billion-euro ($3.2 billion) aid package for Turkey to help it stop the flow of refugees to Europe from the conflict in Syria, 2.2 million of whom are currently in Turkey.
- Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, standing in for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is also set to win a deal for the opening in December of a new chapter in Turkey’s stalled accession talks for the 28-nation bloc.
Issues
- Conditions are likely to be attached to both, while Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet on the Syrian border on Tuesday will also add strain to an already complicated relationship between Brussels and Ankara.
By: ForumIAS Editorial Team
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