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THE SOCIAL ISSUES

1. DISCRIMINATION AGAINST LGBTQI+ PERSONS HAS ECONOMIC COST, SAYS ILO REPORT

THE CONTEXT: Acknowledging that multiple and intersecting layers of discrimination aggravate work experiences for LGBTIQ+ persons, the International Labour Organization has issued a ‘learning guide’ for creating inclusive workplaces.

THE EXPLANATION:

• In spite of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognising that discrimination constitutes violation of human rights, only 29 countries legally recognise marriage equality, while 34 provide some same-sex partnership recognition.
• In India, same-sex marriage is not recognised. Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule in April this year introduced a private member’s Bill in the Lok Sabha to legalisesame-sex marriage, and provide the same marital rights to LGBTQIA+ couples that heterosexual people are entitled to.
• In the same month, the Allahabad high court rejected a plea by two women to recognise their marriage on the argument that such a union was not opposed by the Hindu Marriage Act.
• The report also navigates absence of LGBTIQ+ persons in the formulation of diversity and inclusion strategies in workplaces.
• For this report, ILO’s research primarily focuses on Argentina, Costa Rica, France, Indonesia, South Africa and Thailand but sheds light on global trends of harassment, violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.
• It also focuses on India, in a key sub-head on how discrimination against LGBTIQ+ persons has an economic cost.
• In 2014, a World Bank model highlighted that an economy of India’s size could lose up to $32 billion per year or 1.7% of that country’s gross domestic product (GDP) over social exclusion of LGBTIQ+ persons.
• There is a correlation between workplace bullying and poor physical and mental health, including depression, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts, the report says.
• Such discrimination results in lost labour time, lost productivity, under investment in human capital and the inefficient allocation of human resources. The decreased investment in human capital and sub optimal use of human resources also results in lower output at the broader economy level.
• Unsurprisingly, the report notes that persistent violence and harassment leads to poor work performance and attendance. Concealment of sexual orientation or gender identity due to fear of discriminatory treatment and violence can lead to considerable anxiety and loss of productivity.
• This leads to many excluding themselves from the formal economy altogether and isolating themselves, the report finds.
• “Developing human capital is a smart investment. Investing in networking and learning opportunities for LGBTIQ+ workers can contribute to finding the right people, help companies better utilise talent and build the social capital of marginalized individuals,” the ILO says.
• The report calls on governments to review national policy and labour law to assess a country’s work policy environment for LGBTIQ+ persons.
• This will allow the identification of concrete steps for improving the legal and policy environment, ending discrimination and exclusions, and complying with international instruments.Equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace make good business sense.
• Collaboration based on social dialogue, including with LGBTIQ+ workers and their representatives, and tripartite action by governments and employers’ and workers’ organisations are critical to ensuring an all-inclusive world of work, the ILO finds.
• In addition, social dialogue with LGBTIQ+ communities will allow the identification of barriers faced by community members entering the labour market and accessing government schemes.
• The report highlights how governments can work with diverse partners such as small and medium industry associations, sectoral unions and informal economy workers’ associations to monitor discrimination in the informal economy.

THE POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

2. APP-BASED ATTENDANCE HITS RURAL JOBS SCHEME WORKERS

THE CONTEXT: The Union government has made capturing of attendance through its app, National Mobile Monitoring System, compulsory at worksites where 20 or more workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are employed. This move comes despite many problems, including patchy Internet connectivity in rural areas and little or no technical support.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The Ministry of Rural Development had started the exercise on a pilot basis on May 21 last year. Initially, the utilization of application was to be voluntary but from May 16 this year, it has been made mandatory. The Ministry’s directive claims that the app, which requires two time-stamped and geo tagged photographs of the workers in a day, encourages transparency and increases citizen oversight.
• The biggest setback after the move has been for women employees, especially the supervisors or “work mates”. In a majority of cases, the employees’ families are averse to giving phones to women, especially smartphones. Hence, many women have dropped out.
• We had mobilised close to 15,000 women to work at these sites but the mandatory capturing of attendance through the app has led to their exclusion from the process. A majority of them do not have phones and they have to depend on their husbands or other men in their families. So essentially, we are on the reverse gear.
• In the last one year, the Union government has resolved some critical issues. As per the MGNREGA Act, the workers can do time-bound work or task-based work. The initial guidelines required uploading of geotagged and time-stamped photographs of the workers at about 11 a.m. and another one after 2 p.m. For task-based work, the workers had to stay back post 2 p.m. even if they had completed their work in order to take the photograph to be eligible for the wages. This requirement has now been suitably amended.
• There are other pitfalls that remain, primarily relating to technical glitches and minimal technical support.
• The supervisors of the worksites are expected to have a smartphone with Internet connection. According to officials from various States, there have been complaints from the mates that they are not given added incentives to pay for the smartphones or Internet connections.
• There is very little technical support provided. “Nobody at the village or even at the block level has any clear solution to offer in case the app doesn’t work or fails to upload a photograph. When we ask for help, the only thing they tell us to delete and reload the app

3. OVER 90 MILLION EXCLUDED FROM PDS ENTITLEMENT: REPORT

THE CONTEXT: More than 90 million eligible people have been excluded from legal entitlements under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TDPS), India’s tool to combat food insecurity, claimed a new report.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The Census of India 2011 remains the source of data for arriving at the number of people to be covered by the scheme. As a consequence, subsequent years have seen the exclusion of a large chunk of the population. This in-built fallacy in the legal framework led to exclusion of at least 12 per cent of population from the legal entitlements in the most legitimised way, the report claimed.
• The Union government is yet to start the Census process that was supposed to be over last year.
• The citizen’s report published by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) — that loosely translates to Keep the Promise Campaign — read:
• “Targetism, as the basis for provision of entitlements under TPDS, has always dampened the potential impact of the scheme. Despite being one of the most important schemes for addressing food insecurity in the country, complications pertaining to identification of beneficiaries continue to affect the efficacy of the whole scheme.”
• WNTA, started in 2005 by civil society organisations, tracks delivery by governments on promises and commitments.
• Most states have adopted both inclusion and exclusion criteria to identify priority households for TPDS under the National Food Security Act, 2013. Yet many do not automatically pass on TDPS benefits single women, socially vulnerable groups, transgenders, persons with disabilities and those chronically.
• States like Rajasthan, Sikkim, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh did not include any of these population groups in their respective automatic inclusion criteria. Most of the states did not include SCs and STs automatically, the report said.
• The National Human Rights Commission in May 2021 issued notices to the Centre, states and Union territories to ensure that nobodu eligible was deprived of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana —meant to provide free foodgrains to poor households during the COVID-19 pandemic — is deprived of the Right to Food due to problems regarding biometric authentication.
• The WNTA report quoted a recent study by Dalberg Advisors and Kantar Public, with technical support from NITI Aayog, which found some three million children have grown weaker since the pandemic.
• Findings from the Fifth round of National Family Health Survey also revealed that 89 per cent of children between the formative ages of 6-23 months do not receive a “minimum acceptable diet’’.
• Also, increasing number of people across all population groups, including children below five years, adolescent girls and boys, and pregnant women, is being affected by anaemia. At least 67 per cent children (6-59 months) have anaemia as compared to 58.6 per cent in the last survey conducted in 2015-16. Among adults, 57 per cent of women and 25 percent of men (in the 15-49 group) have anaemia. Among women, its prevalence has increased from 53 percent in 2015-16 to 57 per cent in 2019-21. In men, it has increased from 23 per cent to 25 per cent.
• The Promises and Reality report also goes on to highlight that most of the state food commissions suffer financial autonomy and the state governments have not gone beyond designating District Grievance Redressal Officers (DGRO) and forming vigilance committees.

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

4. SECURITY IN FRIENDSHIP: ON TOKYO QUAD SUMMIT

THE CONTEXT: The recent summit meeting of the leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, could not have come at a more critical juncture in world politics.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that has destabilised accepted norms on respecting territorial sovereignty; its knock-on effects on commodity and input prices, fuelling inflationary pressures and impacting global supply chains; and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that spotlighted deficiencies in public health infrastructure, the leaders of India, the United States, Australia and Japan are likely to have had a full and multidimensional policy agenda in Tokyo.
• For the leaders the obvious, if not always explicitly stated theme linking several global issues is the China factor and the unique strategic challenges that that country poses to the rules-based international order.
• While U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were blunt in their condemnation of Russia’s belligerence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese avoided any direct reference to Moscow, as indeed did the summit’s joint statement.
• On China, however, the four nations were on the same page, and the Quad joint statement called for continued cooperation towards maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific; championing adherence to international law as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and in maintaining freedom of navigation and overflight; and meeting challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the East and South China Seas.
• The Quad leaders affirmed the Dialogue’s two core messages. First, they will continue to strongly oppose coercive, provocative, and unilateral actions by Beijing that seek to change the status quo and heighten tensions across the region, including through manoeuvres such as the militarization of disputed territories, the dangerous use of coast guard vessels and maritime militia, and clandestine attempts to disrupt other nations’ offshore resource exploitation activities. To this end, military coordination between the Dialogue members will continue to provide strategic depth to the mission, including notably the annual Malabar exercise.
• The second message seeks to leverage Dialogue member resources in vaccine delivery, climate action, supply chain resilience, disaster response, cyber security infrastructure, and economic cooperation. Even though Beijing may consider the Quad to be an “Asian NATO”, the Dialogue can be about much more than a strategic push back on China’s hegemonic intentions.
• At a time when the liberal consensus on globalization has anyway run its course and across the Indo-Pacific, there is, post-pandemic, a strong appetite for deepening regional cooperation for trade and investment. In this context, the Quad is in pole position to shape economic alliances and regional security architecture towards a new world order based on national interest and realpolitik.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

5. GREEN HYDROGEN: FUEL OF THE FUTURE?

THE CONTEXT: At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a few days ago, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said India will emerge as the leader of green hydrogen by taking advantage of the current energy crisis across the globe. His assertion came almost a month after Oil India Limited (OIL) commissioned India’s first 99.99% pure green hydrogen plant in eastern Assam’s Jorhat.

THE EXPLANATION:

• A colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic and highly combustible gaseous substance, hydrogen is the lightest, simplest and most abundant member of the family of chemical elements in the universe. But a colour — green — prefixed to it makes hydrogen the “fuel of the future”. The ‘green’ depends on how the electricity is generated to obtain the hydrogen, which does not emit greenhouse gas when burned.
• Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis using renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind or hydel power.
• Hydrogen can be ‘grey’ and ‘blue’ too. Grey hydrogen is generated through fossil fuels such as coal and gas and currently accounts for 95% of the total production in South Asia. Blue hydrogen, too, is produced using electricity generated by burning fossil fuels but with technologies to prevent the carbon released in the process from entering the atmosphere.
• Under the Paris Agreement (a legally binding international treaty on climate change with the goal of limiting global warming to below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels) of 2015, India is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 33-35% from the 2005 levels. At the 2021 Conference of Parties in Glasgow, India reiterated its commitment to move from a fossil and import-dependent economy to a net-zero economy by 2070.
• India’s average annual energy import bill is more than $100 billion and the increased consumption of fossil fuel has made the country a high carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter, accounting for nearly 7% of the global CO2 burden. In order to become energy independent by 2047, the government stressed the need to introduce green hydrogen as an alternative fuel that can make India the global hub and a major exporter of hydrogen.
• The National Hydrogen Mission was launched on August 15, 2021, with a view to cutting down carbon emissions and increasing the use of renewable sources of energy.
• India has just begun to generate green hydrogen with the objective of raising non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030.
• It was on April 20, 2022 that the public sector OIL, which is headquartered in eastern Assam’s Duliajan, set up India’s first 99.99% pure green hydrogen pilot plant in keeping with the goal of “making the country ready for the pilot-scale production of hydrogen and its use in various applications” while “research and development efforts are ongoing for a reduction in the cost of production, storage and the transportation” of hydrogen.
• The plant was set up at the petroleum exploration major’s Jorhat pump station, also in eastern Assam.
• Powered by a 500 KW solar plant, the green hydrogen unit has an installed capacity to produce 10 kg of hydrogen per day and scale it up to 30 kg per day.
• A specialized blender has also been installed for blending green hydrogen produced from the unit with the natural gas supplied by the Assam Gas Corporation Limited and supplying the blended gas to the Jorhat area for domestic and industrial use.
• OIL has engaged experts from the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati to assess the impact of the blended gas on the existing facility.
• The intermittent nature of renewable energy, especially wind, leads to grid instability. Green hydrogen can be stored for long periods of time. The stored hydrogen can be used to produce electricity using fuel cells. In a fuel cell, a device that converts the energy of a chemical into electricity, hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water vapour. Hydrogen, thus, can act as an energy storage device and contribute to grid stability.
• Experts say the oxygen, produced as a by-product (8 kg of oxygen is produced per 1 kg of hydrogen), can also be monetized by using it for industrial and medical applications or for enriching the environment. The possibilities of hydrogen have made many countries pledge investments with Portugal having unveiled a national hydrogen strategy worth $7.7 billion in May.
• Renewable developers see green hydrogen as an emerging market and some have targeted the transport sector, although electric vehicles have begun to catch the imagination of consumers today.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

6. INDIA’S GDP TO TAKE A BIG HIT DUE TO PANDEMIC-LINKED LEARNING LOSSES FOR STUDENTS: ADB STUDY

THE CONTEXT: The gross domestic product (GDP) of India, which is among the countries with the longest school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, would see the highest decline in South Asia due to learning losses for the young, a new working paper published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has reckoned.

THE EXPLANATION:

• Starting with a $10.5 billion dent in 2023, the country’s economy could take a nearly $99 billion hit by 2030, translating into a 3.19% reduction in GDP from the baseline growth trends, according to the paper on ‘Potential Economic Impact of COVID-19 related School Closures’.
• India may thus account for over 10% of the global GDP decline of $943 billion estimated by the ADB on account of earning losses in 2030, with jobs for skilled labour expected to decline by 1%, and unskilled labour by 2% that year.
• India has notable enrollment in secondary education and among students in rural areas. Pandemic-induced school closures have also been more extensive there.
• Economies with a significant population of schoolchildren and college-going youth in rural areas and in the poorest and second wealth quintile — have been worst-hit as they lack access to stable Internet connection needed to study online.
• Learning and earning losses are significant because a notable portion of the impacted population will migrate to the unskilled labour force, the paper said. A large part of India’s work force is constituted by unskilled labour — 408.4 million as per the ADB paper’s estimates, compared to 72.65 million skilled workers.
• In terms of absolute change, India experiences the highest GDP decline in South Asia, at about $98.84 billion in 2030. In percentage terms, its GDP decreases by 0.34% in 2023, 1.36% in 2026, and 3.19% in 2030.
• School closures lead to declines in global GDP and employment. Moreover, the losses in global GDP and employment increase over time. Declines in global GDP amount to 0.19% in 2024, 0.64% in 2028, and 1.11% in 2030.
• India has the highest number of children enrolled in primary and secondary education among the Asian economies covered in the paper, at 255.74 million. The number of students in tertiary education were second only to China at 36.39 million, as per January 2022 data used for the research.
• While mooting greater investments in education and skills with a focus on narrowing the digital divide, the paper’s authors have said the most immediate challenge for governments is to help students recover “lost opportunities” by conducting assessments among impacted children.
• It is important to identify the learning gap and specific learning needs of individuals. Effective learning programs should be devised to offer appropriate support such as tutoring or special classes and help them to bridge the learning gap.
• Governments need to direct adequate funding and resources to young populations most affected by closures, such as those from the poor, rural and socially disadvantaged groups. It is important to keep school-age children in education as much as possible by providing financial support and incentives, while giving additional support for skills training to youth already out of school.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION FOR 27TH MAY 2022

Q1. Which among the following institution releases the Emission gap report?

1. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
2. The Global Green Growth Institute
3. United Nations Environment Programme
4. Global Alliance on Health and Pollution

ANSWER FOR THE 26^th MAY

Answer: A

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it under the said Act.
• NTCA has been fulfilling its mandate within the ambit of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for strengthening tiger conservation in the country by retaining an oversight through advisories/normative guidelines, based on appraisal of tiger status, ongoing conservation initiatives and recommendations of specially constituted Committees.
• The ‘Project Tiger’ is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, providing funding support to tiger range States for in-situ conservation of tigers in designated tiger reserves, and has put the endangered tiger on an assured path of recovery by saving it from extinction, as revealed by the recent findings of the All India tiger estimation using the refined methodology.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: The Minister for Environment & Forests is the current Chairperson of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.