India Last Week #10
A round-up of research & reportage on India across climate, energy, foreign policy, politics & more over the last week
Climate, Energy & Environment -
“The Indian government, which inherited Great Nicobar Island from British colonizers, is about to build a massive transshipment terminal there. Described as a new Hong Kong, the $9-billion free-trade zone is to include a port with an eventual capacity to handle 16 million cargo containers a year, a town for 350,000 people resettled from mainland India, ancillary industries, a power plant and an international airport to be used by 4,000 peak-hour passengers. The project will fell close to a million primeval rainforest trees in its initial phase alone and ultimately spread over 244 square kilometers—nearly a fifth of Great Nicobar… Environmentalists have warned that the clear-cutting, blasting, dredging, construction, dumping of debris, ship traffic, pollution of multiple kinds and the enormous influx of outsiders with their animals and germs will devastate the Indigenous people and the creatures who live on and around Great Nicobar.” Read more: Madhusree Mukerjee, Scientific American
“Research and survey of 1209 HHs [households] across six districts have revealed a stark disparity in community representation, with over 41.5% of the population surveyed belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), 23% to Scheduled Tribes (ST), and 17% to Scheduled Castes (SC). Interestingly, only 15.5% were from the General category, shedding light on the disproportionate impact of the transition on marginalised groups. Work dynamics revealed that 38% of HHs were engaged in the coal sector… Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) revealed how caste-based prejudices impact hiring procedures in these regions. Fifteen out of 20 FGDs recorded that communities belonging to minorities had more informal and low paying jobs.” Read more: Pooja Gupta and Mohammed. A Faraz, National Foundation for India
“Around 77% of Indians who responded to a survey said they want the country to have stronger climate commitments. Results of the 2024 People’s Climate Vote survey, conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the University of Oxford’s Department of Sociology, and GeoPoll were published on June 20… Around 33% of those surveyed in India said that they think about climate change every day, and more than half worry more about it in comparison to the last year. Only 26%, however, think India is addressing climate change “very well”. Surveyed Indians also performed well on almost all parameters related to people’s priorities – the majority supports replacing oil and gas, protecting people from weather events and restoring nature, transnational support to combat climate change, and gaining help from richer countries.” Read more: The Hindu
“KIOCL [Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited] had applied for clearance in 2018. The then Deputy Conservator of Forests, Chief Conservator of Forests, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests as well as divisional and range forest officers were unanimous that around 1 lakh trees would be felled and that did not bode well for the environment. But then we learnt that the Union government had considered the proposal and decided it was favourable to allow mining. This was in 2022 [when the BJP was in power in the State]. We do not know how the decisions were taken at the State level because copies of letters don’t come to us…. The forest department conveyed that the trees, the land, and the ore belong to the State. So, we can decide on whether to go ahead with the permissions or impose some conditions.” Read more: Rishika Pardikar, Frontline
Economy -
“Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), which usually constitute 10% to 15% of foreign investments in developing Asia, declined by almost $30 billion to $57 billion in 2023. This decline accounted for about half of the total drop in FDI inflows to the region… The decline in FDI inflows to South Asia is mostly explained by a 43% decrease in India, while flows to other countries remained relatively stable.” Read more: UN Trade & Development, UNCTAD
“Thousands of Chinese engineers and technicians are struggling to obtain Indian visas, highlighting a bottleneck in the process and a potential hurdle in India’s push to become a major “China plus one” manufacturing nation…India-based global manufacturers rely in many cases on Chinese engineers and technicians to help install or operate their plants, but they have fallen foul of India’s bearish policies vis-à-vis Beijing.” Read more: John Reed, Financial Times
“It's a moment in the sun for India's sovereign bond market. Tens of billions of dollars are set to flow in as the world's fifth-largest economy makes its debut on an international bond index on June 28… This is a 1994 moment for India's sovereign bonds, Arvind Chari, the London-based chief investment officer of Q India (UK), said, recalling the year Indian equities debuted on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and kickstarted foreign investment in the country's listed enterprises. Today, foreign portfolio investors own almost a fifth of India's $5 trillion equity market.” Read more: Menaka Doshi, Bloomberg
“One might think that a securities regulator would be interested in meaningfully pursuing the parties that ran a secret offshore shell empire engaging in billions of dollars of undisclosed related party transactions through public companies while propping up its stocks through undisclosed share ownership via a network of sham investment entities. Instead, SEBI [Securities and Exchange Board of India] seems more interested in pursuing those who expose such practices. This stance is broadly in line with the actions of other elements of Indian government which have sought to arrest 4 journalists for writing critical articles about Adani and expelled members of parliament who were critical of Adani.” Read more: Hindenburg Research
Foreign Policy & Security -
“As part of the ongoing military outreach to Gulf countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, for instance, as many as 76 Saudi cadets have now begun sea training at the Southern Naval Command (SNC) at Kochi… "The Army trains around 3,100 foreign personnel from over 100 countries every year, which includes about 450 from African countries, another officer said. The Army even offers special training packages in its establishments like the counterinsurgency and jungle warfare school at Vairengte in Mizoram.” Read more: Rajat Pandit, Times of India
“The timing of the visit by a delegation of U.S. lawmakers to Dharamshala made it clear what it would be about. The delegation arrived just days after the passage of the ‘Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act’ in both Houses of U.S. Congress, which now awaits U.S. President Joe Biden’s signature… This is the first time in recent years that a public rally of this kind has been held in India. India’s External Affairs Minister hosted the delegation for a late dinner the same evening as the rally, and the Prime Minister met them the next day, indicating that this was a more considered decision by New Delhi…. However, New Delhi’s decision to allow American politicians to take centre stage amongst the Tibetan refugee population in India in order to promote a U.S. law and pitch U.S. policy is not a show of strength, but could convey weakness. It also denotes the danger of letting a carefully calibrated foreign policy narrative on Tibet spin out of its control.” Read more: Suhasini Haidar, The Hindu
“Pakistan’s relationship with India has a long history of volatility, but trade ties took a nosedive after 2019… However, recent developments suggest a potential thaw. After being elected this year, the prime ministers of both countries exchanged succinct congratulatory messages on the social media site X (formerly Twitter). More tellingly, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has recently advocated normalising relations with India… Estimates suggest billions of dollars flow between the two countries through smuggling and rerouting via Dubai and other hubs.” Read more: Fatima S Attarwala, Dawn
People & Politics -
“Twenty days after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished approximately 650 hutments in Jai Bhim Nagar, Powai, which resulted in stone-pelting from the residents, around 100 families from the settlement still camp on the footpaths. Bracing wind, rain and sun, the residents have been living under makeshift shelters, slowly losing hope for relief from the authorities… The families are partly surviving on food bought by them by others, some of them cooking. MP Varsha Gaikwad provides a daily tanker for washing needs while drinking water is bought or borrowed from building residents. The BMC has set up a mobile toilet with four seats each for men and women, proving highly inadequate.” Read more: Sabah Virani, Hindustan Times
“Naidu’s previous experience in leveraging parliamentary coalitions for regional economic development could be of great help to Andhra Pradesh in the next few years. His gamble with previous coalition federal governments (1996, 1997, and 1999) had yielded tremendous support for his government’s local development planning in Hyderabad until 2004… Naidu played a key role in reviving Hyderabad’s economy by promoting knowledge-based industries like IT and finance among others. At the time, he had leveraged his electoral support for the 1999 coalition and sought support from Vajpayee’s government several times to materialise his policy ambitions.” Read more: Goutham Raj Konda, The News Minute
“Quality administrative data is a crucial tool in effectively serving the public informing daily decisions that impact human health, equity, and development. For example, in India, data on the number of pregnant women in a district determines how much supply of supplementary nutrition and vaccines. Data on anaemia, weight, and blood pressure allows frontline workers to identify and intervene in high-risk pregnancies. Consequently, it is the most cost-effective and readily available data at the administration’s disposal for effective decision-making.” Read more: Jasmeet Khanuja, IDInsight
“The Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) has withdrawn the sudden dismissal of its staff, over 100 contractual staff members, including teaching and non-teaching appointed under programmes funded by the Tata Education Trust (TET) citing non-release of funds. The move came after the trust assured resources will be made available to the TISS… According to the TISS administration, the issue is resolved for now after the Tata Education Trust has assured release of funds… On Friday, the TISS dismissed as many as 55 teachers and close to 60 non-teaching staff members across its four campuses, without any notice. The staff via letters issued on June 28 were informed that the institute was unable to secure the release of grants for their salaries from the Tata Education Trust, even after several attempts.” Read more: Pallavi Smart, The Indian Express
Tech -
“India joined the satellite communication revolution in 1983 with the successful launch of the INSAT-1B with ISRO providing radio and TV connectivity to rural areas. However, the government retained a monopoly over broadcasting and satellite services since growth was slow. With the liberalization of the economy in the 1990s, private television channels appeared, and the telecommunication industry was opened to domestic and foreign entities. By 2000, ISRO had eight INSAT satellites in orbit, providing adequate transponder capacity to meet government and private demand. As global transponder demand rose faster than at home, ISRO felt it could be competitive in the global satellite communication market.” Read more: Rakesh Sood & Pranav R. Satyanath, Research Associate, Council for Strategic and Defense Research
“As an early adopter and vociferous campaigner of digital public infrastructure, India has played no small part in this story. Its G20 presidency in 2023 nudged the world’s leading economies to come to a consensus on the meaning of digital public infrastructure and its role in fostering resilience, innovation, and inclusive growth… In India’s case, the use of state coercion in the proliferation of digital infrastructure has proved to be a pain point for citizens. Examples range from official diktats for the denial of services and welfare benefits to those without Aadhaar to local campaigns by panchayat officers and community health workers to compel enrollment for the new digital health IDs under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.” Read more: Smriti Parsheera, Scroll
“India prefers to engage through UN bodies and traditional SDOs such as the ISO and ITU. India has funded an ITU office in India in 2023 and specifically mentioned its relevance in the setting of high-tech standards in areas such as 6G. As a member of the Quad, India signed on to the Principles on Critical and Emerging Technology Standards (2023). Bilaterally, the US and EU are important partners for India. In 2022, India and the US introduced the US–India Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) initiative as an institutional mechanism ‘to build open, accessible, secure, and resilient technology ecosystems and value chains, based on mutual confidence and trust, which reinforce our shared values and democratic institutions’. With the EU, India established a trade and technology council in 2023 to coordinate key challenges in trade, trusted technology and security. Cooperation on trustworthy AI is one of the topics.” Read more: Bart Hogeveen, Arindrajit Basu, Isha Suri & Baani Grewal, Australian Strategic Policy Insitute & Centre for Internet and Society
“A Bengaluru-based Indian technology company is among at least 10 firms from several countries against whom Japan has imposed sanctions for allegedly helping Russia evade punitive economic measures. The actions against the companies including asset freeze and export bans were announced by the Japanese Foreign Ministry… Japan has introduced punitive measures under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.” Read more: The Indian Express
Bonus -
“India is the largest producer of mangoes in the world, accounting for half of the global output. And yet, less than 0.5% of its annual production of 20-22 million tonnes is exported. That’s because the country’s best mango cultivators are ill-suited for commercial export and only a handful of popular ones drive the market. The birthplace of the fruit is yet to hit upon a variety that can dominate global markets… While the immediate outlook is gloomy, there is hope that Indian mangoes will claim their rightful place on the shelves in every corner of the world in the not-too-distant future, just as apples and oranges and pears and peaches from every corner of the world are making their way into urban Indian homes today.” Read more: Sayantan Bera, Mint
“In 2023, McKinsey Health Institute ran a survey through 30,000 employees spread across 30 countries to measure their physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. Indian respondents reported the highest rate for burnout (59%) and exhaustion (62%). For perspective, the global burnout average was 20%... According to the ADP Research Institute's People at Work 2023 report, 47 per cent of employees in India do not feel secure in their positions.” Read more: Sarthak Dev, Humanise