1. OPEN MARKET SALE SCHEME
TAG: GS 3: ECONOMY
THE CONTEXT: States have been looking at alternative ways of procuring wheat and rice in the aftermath of the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) quantity restrictions followed by the refusal to allow states to procure the two food grains through its Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS).
EXPLANATION:
- Centre has made it clear that the reason for first restricting supplies per bidder and eventually excluding states for the OMSS was to curb inflation and regulate supply.
- State government in Karnataka announced that being unable to procure enough rice in the market at a reasonable cost in time to meet the needs of its free good grain distribution scheme for BPL families- the Anna Bhagya scheme, it had decided to temporarily give cash to the beneficiaries in lieu of the promised five kg of free rice.
What is the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS)?
- Firstly, the procurement of food grains like wheat and paddy for the central pool happens in Rabi and Kharif marketing seasons by the FCI and State corporations according to procurement estimates finalised by the government of India before the seasons. These purchases happen as per the Minimum Support Price.
- From the central pool, the government has to set aside wheat and rice for the beneficiaries of free foodgrains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), maintain a buffer stock, and have a marketable surplus.
- Under the Open Market Sale Scheme, the FCI from time to time sells surplus food grains from the central pool especially wheat and rice in the open market to traders, bulk consumers, retail chains and so on at pre-determined prices. The Corporation does this through e-auctions where open market bidders can buy specified quantities at the prices set at the start of a cycle and revised routinely.
- Usually, states are also allowed to procure food grains through the OMSS without participating in the auctions, for their needs beyond what they get from the central pool to distribute to NFSA beneficiaries.
- The idea is to activate the OMSS during the lean season, the time between harvests, to improve and regulate domestic supply and availability of the two grains and bring down their prices in the open market; essentially making the scheme a measure to curb food grain inflation.
How has the Centre revised the OMSS?
- Recently, the Centre decided to restrict the quantity that a single bidder can purchase in a single bid under the OMSS. While the maximum quantity allowed earlier was 3,000 metric tonnes (MT) per bid for a buyer, it will now range from 10-100 metric tonnes (MT).
- The rationale given for the same by the Corporation is that the quantities have been reduced this time “to accommodate more small and marginal buyers and to ensure wider reach of the scheme”.
- The body contends this move will allow the supplies to the general public immediately. The objective behind the move is also to curb retail prices as allowing smaller bids should ideally break monopolies of bulk buyers, allowing more competitive bids by small buyers.
- Another reason for the move is to meet the FCI’s food security obligations. The Centre said that in recent years, production of agriculture crops was affected due to untimely rains, rise in temperature in the month of March and so on, making it incumbent upon the FCI to release its stocks “judicious manner under the OMSS (D)” so that the overall stock position is maintained at a comfortable level”.
2. GREEN CREDIT PROGRAMME
TAG: GS 3: ENVIRONMENT
THE CONTEXT: The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has notified draft rules for ‘Green Credit’, an incentive that individuals, farmer-producer organisations (FPO), industries, rural and urban local bodies, among other stakeholders, will be able to earn for environment positive actions.
EXPLANATION:
- The ministry proposed the draft Green Credit Programme Implementation Rules 2023 in a notification issued June 26, 2023 and has invited for objections and suggestions within 60 days.
- The programme will incentivise individuals & organisations to take positive actions for the environment.
- By ‘green credit’, the government means a singular unit of an incentive provided for a specified activity, delivering a positive impact on the environment.
- The activities include:
- Tree plantation-based green credit: To promote activities for increasing the green cover across the country through tree plantation and related activities
- Water-based green credit: To promote water conservation, water harvesting and water use efficiency / savings, including treatment and reuse of wastewater
- Sustainable agriculture-based green credit: To promote natural and regenerative agricultural practices and land restoration to improve productivity, soil health and nutritional value of food produced
- Waste management-based green credit: To promote sustainable and improved practices for waste management, including collection, segregation and treatment
- Air pollution reduction-based green credit: To promote measures for reducing air pollution and other pollution abatement activities
- Mangrove conservation and restoration-based green credit: To promote measures for conservation and restoration of mangroves
- Ecomark-based green credit: To encourage manufacturers to obtain ‘Ecomark’ label for their goods and services
- Sustainable building and infrastructure-based green credit: To encourage the construction of buildings and other infrastructure using sustainable technologies and materials
- Through the programme, thresholds and benchmarks will be developed for each green credit activity.
- The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education shall be the administrator of the programme. The institute will develop guidelines, processes and procedures for implementation of the programme and develop methodologies and standards, registration process and associated measurement, reporting and verification mechanisms.
- The green credits will be tradable and those earning it will be able to put these credits up for sale on a proposed domestic market platform.
- It was first announced in the 2023-24 budget with a view to leverage a competitive market-based approach and incentivise voluntary environmental actions of various stakeholders.
- Apart from incentivising individual / community behaviour, the Green Credit Programme will encourage private sector industries and companies as well as other entities to meet their existing obligations, stemming from other legal frameworks, by taking actions which are able to converge with activities relevant for generating or buying green credits.
- It’s a first of its kind instrument that seeks to value and reward multiple ecosystem services to allow green projects to achieve optimal returns beyond just carbon. In fact, the scheme will allow project proponents to also access carbon markets additionally.
3. GROUNDWATER EXTRACTION HAS TILTED EARTH’S SPIN
TAG: GS 1: GEOGRAPHY
THE CONTEXT: Humans have caused marked tilts in the Earth’s axis by pumping water out of the ground and moving it elsewhere, according to a new study. Pronounced shifts in the Earth’s axis of rotation can impact our planet’s climate, noted the study published in Geophysical Research Letters, the journal of the American Geophysical Union, on June 15, 2023.
EXPLANATION:
- Groundwater pumping has tilted the planet nearly 80 centimetres east between 1993 and 2010 alone. The water circulated across the planet determines how mass is distributed. Scientists had predicted that between 1993 and 2010, people pumped 2,150 gigatons of groundwater, or more than 6 millimetres (0.24 inches), of sea level increase. However, it is difficult to validate that estimate.
- Attempts to slow groundwater depletion rates in sensitive regions could alter the change in drift.
- Humans have caused marked tilts in the Earth’s axis by pumping water out of the ground and moving it elsewhere, according to a new study.
- The planet’s geographic north and south poles are where its axis intersects the surface; however, they are not fixed. The axis and hence the poles fluctuate due to variations in the Earth’s mass distribution.
- In the past, the poles’ drift was only caused by natural forces like ocean currents and the convection of heated rock deep beneath the Earth. But the new research pitched the redistribution of groundwater as the primary culprit for the drift.
- Rotational pole normally changes by several metres within about a year, so changes due to groundwater pumping don’t run the risk of shifting seasons. But on geologic time scales, polar drift can have an impact on climate.Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.
- Redistributing water from the mid-latitudes significantly influences polar drift; therefore, the location of redistribution determines polar drift. During the study period, most redistribution occurred in western North America and northwestern India both located at mid-latitudes.
- In the new study, researchers analysed changes in the drift of Earth’s rotational pole and water movement first, by accounting for just ice sheets and glaciers and then by adding different groundwater redistribution scenarios.
- Although the shift isn’t significant enough to have real-life consequences, the study shows that humans have extracted so much water from the ground that it has impacted the planet’s axis and contributed to global sea level rise.
Earth’s axis keeps shifting
- Earth spins around an imaginary axis which passes through the north pole, its centre of mass and the south pole — just like a top spins around its spindle. Scientists for years have known that the poles and the axis keep shifting naturally as the mass distribution in and on the planet changes. This phenomenon is known as “polar motion”.
- There are several other reasons responsible for polar motion like ocean currents and even hurricanes. But this phenomenon is also impacted by human activities. In 2016, a team of researchers demonstrated that climate-driven changes in water mass distribution, led by the melting of glaciers and ice in Greenland, can cause Earth’s axis to drift. Five years later, another study said climate change was causing the rotational axis to shift more than usual since the 1990s.
4. ‘HORIZONTAL’ RESERVATION
TAG: GS 2: POLITY
THE CONTEXT: In the 2014 NALSA judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that transgender persons have a right to reservation, owing to the fact that they “are a socially and educationally backward class. In response to a clarification requested by the Bombay High Court, the Maharashtra government said on June 13 that it will be difficult to provide “additional reservations” to transgender persons in education and public employment, given the reservation that exists so far for various communities in India.
EXPLANATION:
- Considering the extent of vertical and horizontal reservations which are already provided, providing additional reservations for transgender persons seems difficult. The issue is pending before the Supreme Court.
- Trans persons in India have been fighting for the right to horizontal reservation for a long time.
What have the courts said on reservation for the transgender community?
- In the National Legal Services Authority of India (NALSA) v Union of India (2014) case, the Supreme Court ruled that transgender persons have a right to reservation, owing to the fact that they “are a socially and educationally backward class”.
- With regards to reservation, the judgment noted: “We direct the Centre and the State Governments to take steps to treat them [transgender persons] as socially and educationally backward classes of citizens and extend all kinds of reservation in cases of admission in educational institutions and for public appointments.”
- The NALSA judgment entitles trans persons to reservations on constitutional grounds. It does not, however, mention the nature of reservations – whether they are to be vertical or horizontal.
First, what are horizontal reservations?
- In India, historically oppressed and disadvantaged communities have a right to affirmative action policies. Reservation in education and employment can be divided into two broad categories, namely, vertical and horizontal.
- Vertical reservations are provisions aimed at addressing social asymmetry arising out of caste hierarchy. These include reservations for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).
- Horizontal reservation, on the other hand, cuts across all vertical groups to provide affirmative policies for disadvantaged groups within categories. For example, disabled persons are guaranteed horizontal reservation in all the aforementioned vertical categories, general and reserved (vertical) alike, by the Central government States like Uttarakhand and Bihar have also rolled out policies that guarantee horizontal reservation for women. This means that a woman who belongs to the SC category should be able to avail reservation based on both caste and gender. The horizontal model ensures this. This is exactly what transgender persons are fighting for, as well.
What is the demand for horizontal reservation?
- It has to do with the need for mandating provisions for a community that has been marginalized for long in society and recognising the different aspects making up their social identity.
- In this regard, the NALSA verdict has largely been interpreted as directing reservations for transgender people in the OBC category. This perhaps stems from the bench identifying the community as “a socially and educationally backward class”. So far, no implementation has happened even to that end.
- Since the NALSA judgment, there has been no direction from the Central government on delivering on the right to reservation for trans persons.
- Alternatively, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, included in its purview the right of disabled persons to accrue horizontal reservation. Since this Act has been implemented, horizontal reservation for disabled people is now ensured under the Central government.
5. CRITICAL MINERALS
TAG: PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE
THE CONTEXT: In a strategic move, the Centre has identified 30 critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, tin and copper, which are essential for the country’s economic development and national security.
EXPLANATION:
- The identification of these minerals which form part of multiple strategic value chains, including clean technologies initiatives such as zero-emission vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels; information and communication technologies, including semiconductors; and advanced manufacturing inputs and materials such as defence applications, permanent magnets, ceramics was done on the basis of a report on critical minerals prepared by an expert team constituted by the Ministry of Mines November, 2022.
- The ministry will revisit the list periodically.
The exercise
- While elements such as cobalt, nickel and lithium are required for batteries used in electric vehicles or cellphones, rare earth minerals are critical, in trace amounts, in the semiconductors and high-end electronics manufacturing. Most countries of the world have identified critical minerals as per their national priorities and future requirements.
- In India too, some efforts have been made in the past to identify the minerals that are critical for the country, including an initiative in 2011 by the Planning Commission of India (now NITI Aayog) that highlighted the need for the “assured availability of mineral resources for the country’s industrial growth”, with a clear focus on the well-planned exploration and management of already discovered resources.
- That report analysed 11 groups of minerals under categories such as metallic, nonmetallic, precious stones and metals, and strategic minerals. From 2017 to 2020, a big thrust was accorded to the study of exploration and development of rare earth elements in the country.
- The specific trigger for the latest exercise are India’s international commitments towards reducing carbon emissions, which require the country to urgently relook at its mineral requirements for energy transition and net-zero commitments.
- In November 2022, the Ministry of Mines had constituted a seven-member Committee under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Policy), Ministry of Mines to identify a list of minerals critical to our country and the panel decided to have a three-stage assessment to arrive at a list of critical minerals. Critical minerals
- One of the definitions cited in the report characterises a mineral as critical when the risk of supply shortage and associated impact on the economy is (relatively) higher than other raw materials.
- This definition of a critical mineral was first adopted in the US and the subsequent legislation that resulted from the analysis, the report said. The European Union also carried out a similar exercise and categorised critical minerals on the basis of two prerequisites: supply risk and economic importance.
- Australia refers to critical minerals as: “metals, non-metals and minerals that are considered vital for the economic well-being of the world’s major and emerging economies, yet whose supply may be at risk due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, trade policy or other factors”.
Three-stage process
- In its three-stage assessment for identifying the minerals critical to India, the panel, in the first stage, looked at the strategies of various countries such as Australia, USA, Canada, UK, Japan and South Korea.
- Accordingly, a total of 69 elements/ minerals that were considered critical by major global economies were identified for further examination, the report said, adding that due importance was given to domestic initiatives as well.
- In the second stage of assessment, an inter ministerial consultation was carried out with different ministries to identify minerals critical to their sectors. Comments and suggestions were received from the Ministry of Power, Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Department of Fertilisers, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Pharmaceuticals, NITI Aayog, etc.
- The third stage assessment was to derive an empirical formula for evaluating minerals criticality, taking cognizance of the EU methodology that considers two major factors — economic importance and supply risk.
- Based on this process, a total of 30 minerals were found to be most critical for India, out of which two are critical as fertiliser minerals: Antimony, Beryllium, Bismuth, Cobalt, Copper, Gallium, Germanium, Graphite, Hafnium, Indium, Lithium, Molybdenum, Niobium, Nickel, PGE, Phosphorous, Potash, REE, Rhenium, Silicon, Strontium, Tantalum, Tellurium, Tin, Titanium, Tungsten, Vanadium, Zirconium, Selenium and Cadmium.
Domestic and global outreach
- The Geological Survey of India, an attached office of Ministry of Mines, has carried out a G3 stage mineral exploration (fairly advanced) during Field Season 2020-21 and 2021-22 in Salal- Haimna areas of Reasi district, Jammu & Kashmir, and estimated an inferred resource of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium ore. The estimated value of lithium at that site will be estimated on completion of further exploration. Based on the mapping outcome, more exploration programmes on various mineral commodities including lithium will be taken up in future in different parts of the country, including Jammu & Kashmir.
- In addition, a joint venture company namely Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL) has been incorporated with equity contribution from three Central Public Sector Enterprises. It is mandated to identify and acquire overseas mineral assets of critical and strategic nature such as lithium, cobalt and others so as to ensure supply side assurance. KABIL has initiated engagement with several state owned-organisations of the shortlisted source countries through the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassies in countries like Argentina and Australia to acquire mineral assets, including lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements.
- In a fresh boost, India has recently been inducted into the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP), a US-led collaboration of 14 countries that aims to catalyse public and private investment in critical mineral supply chains globally. India’s inclusion assumes significance given that one of the key elements of New Delhi’s growth strategy is powered by an ambitious shift in the mobility space through the conversion of a large part of public and private transport to electric vehicles.
- India is seen as a late mover in attempts to enter the lithium value chain, coming at a time when EVs are predicted to be a sector ripe for disruption. The year 2023 could be an inflection point for battery technology – with several potential improvements to the Li-ion technology, and alternatives to this combination in various stages of commercialization.
