India Last Week #6
India Last Week #6
A round-up of research & reportage on India across climate, energy, foreign policy, politics & more over the last week
Climate, Energy & Environment -
“The Suryamitra scheme, therefore, has got just the right recipe for a just transition—building a solid foundation for India’s clean energy job market, encouraging solar entrepreneurship, promoting gender equality and keeping the underprivileged in focus. But a closer look at the programme, nine years after its launch, reveals the programme is yet to realise its full potential, much like the youth it aims to uplift.” Read more: Vandita Sariya, Carbon Copy
“India’s northern, northwestern and central regions are in the grip of a relentless heatwave, with temperatures even surpassing 50°C in some areas of Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi on May 28… The recommendations by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the United States permit continuous work at heavy intensities in hot environments up to 34°C and 30 per cent relative humidity… While intense heat driven by climate change remains relentless worldwide, individuals engaged in heavy physical labour are particularly at risk as their work exposes them to greater heat stress.” Read more: Shagun & Joel Michael, Down to Earth
“A study in five villages (Vadala, Akolekati, Karamba, Mardi, and Narotewadi) of Nannaj, Solapur district, observed bird species trends over a 13-year period (2009-2021). While the citizen science app, eBird, records 199 species in Nannaj, the study monitored 45, of which seven were migratory. It found that smaller-bodied species that were diet generalists – able to feed in several habitats – showed stability or increases in population. However, large-bodied, specialist birds like the great Indian bustard (GIB), showed “strong, consistent declines.” Some smaller-bodied species that were specialists, such as the great grey shrike and red-necked falcon, were also strongly declining.” Read more: Divya Kilikar, Mongabay
Economy -
“Thus far, services exports have flourished without much help from the government. But the state could do far more to improve the key raw material: the human capital of Indians. Doing so requires enhancing the quality of child care, education, skills training, and health care. An excellent government report detailing a new and improved national education policy has sat on the shelf, largely unimplemented. The government could also do more to negotiate new opportunities for services exports—for example, by finding ways for national health insurance systems in the West to allow and pay for telemedicine from India.” Read more: Rohit Lamba & Raghuram Rajan, Foreign Affairs
“More than 85 foreign semiconductor companies, including Intel and Nvidia, now conduct design work in Bangalore. Tech giants such as Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft also have R&D centres in the city, as do Boeing, an aircraft manufacturer, and Walmart, a retail giant. Mercedes-Benz, a German carmaker, employs nearly 6,000 workers at its R&D centre in Bangalore, its largest such operation outside Germany. Over the past four years its team in India has produced 32 patents.” Read more: The Economist
“Foreign investors poured in a net $20.74 billion into Indian equities last year, the most in emerging markets in Asia, but have pulled back this year ahead of the election. A lower margin of victory for Modi could lead to short-term volatility, fund managers said, while a win for the opposition could lead to a sharper correction due to policy uncertainty.” Read more: Ankur Banerjee, Jayshree P Upadhyay and Bharath Rajeswaran, Reuters
“From June last year, when the Shakti scheme was launched, to March this year, Karnataka’s GST collection 'presumably' increased by Rs 309.64 crore as the money women are saving is being used for consumption activities, translating into revenue for the government, the study said. This is the first study that quantifies the financial impact of Shakti, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government’s flagship guarantee scheme.” Read more: Deccan Herald
Foreign Policy & Security -
“The practice of superseding high-ranking officers for political considerations will have, in the long run, an adverse effect on the military’s professional wellbeing and the quality of the top leadership. Military is one field which must be kept insulated from politics. Political jostling in appointments to higher ranks will do lasting damage to the military. Consequently, failure in war can lead to unimaginable disaster. No country/region knows more than India about the fallout of military defeats spread over centuries.” Read more: Harwant Singh, The Tribune
“The current Indian political argument over “who is afraid of Pakistan’s atomic weapons” appears self-indulgent amidst sweeping changes in global nuclear politics and emerging challenges to the traditional ideas of nuclear deterrence… During the last decade, the Modi government sought to limit Pakistan’s atomic impunity and expand India’s options to enhance deterrence. To be sure, there has been some success, but few would claim that the problem of deterring Pakistan’s terrorism has been fixed for good. Equally unwise is the temptation to dismiss Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities. As Pakistan’s comprehensive national power declines in relation to India’s, Delhi must expect that Rawalpindi will double down on its nuclear weapon programme as the final insurance against the much-feared “Indian hegemony” in the region.” Read more: C. Raja Mohan, The Indian Express
“Though the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 first put a halt to recruitment, it was the announcement of the new Agnipath scheme of recruitment into the Indian armed forces of personnel below the rank of officers in June 2022 that struck the real blow. Under the scheme, youths between the ages of 17.5 and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure, at the end of which only 25 per cent would be inducted into regular service. Soon after, in August 2022, the Nepal government blocked the recruitment of their nationals when it was clear that the Agnipath scheme would equally apply to them.” Read more: Pradip Sagar, India Today
People & Politics -
“Many have pointed out that under Modi, BJP governments, both at the Centre and in the states, have had a disproportionately high number of upper castes. In this election, nearly half the candidates fielded by the party in Uttar Pradesh belong to the upper castes. The Modi era has not dented the dominance of this minuscule section of the Indian population, likely explaining why it remains the most dependable vote bank of the BJP – in fact, no other party can claim to have as dependable a vote bank.” Read more: Supriya Sharma, Scroll
“The [Reporters’] Collective reviewed budgetary allocations to 906 central sector schemes that the Union government listed in its budgets over five years from FY 2019-2020 to FY 2023-24 to find out how much the Modi government spent on them. We found that the government underfunded 651 or 71.9% of the 906 schemes. For one in every five schemes, the government spent half or lower than what it had promised. Of all the budget cuts, the harshest cut was reserved for welfare schemes. At least 75% of the welfare schemes got less money than what the government had promised.” Read more: Navya Asopa & Shreegireesh Jalihal, The Reporters’ Collective
“The hovercraft cut across the water and slid onto the sandy beach of a nearly deserted island. Vijay Nandaniya and nine other election workers clambered off the craft toting two electronic voting machines. They took a mile-long hike across sandy terrain hiding scorpions and venomous snakes, clutching the voting machines in their arms like newborns. They waded one stream and tiptoed across another on a bridge of grain bags and wooden sticks. When they reached the island’s sole village, the men, drenched in sweat, flopped down on the mud floor of a stone hut. No one said democracy was easy.” Read more: Shan Li and Rajesh Roy, Wall Street Journal
Tech -
“Some media outlets that have thrived in the Modi-era, with content promoting Hindu nationalism and vilifying minority groups, are in fact receiving foreign donations or operating in ways that may be inconsistent with Indian laws. Bellingcat identified two such far-right outlets–OpIndia and Hindu Existence. We also found two other outlets receiving donations in ways that lack transparency–and both of these sites have links to a RSS-affiliated organisation in the US.” Read more: Pooja Chaudhuri, Bellingcat
“Former Deputy Commissioner of Police (Task Force, Hyderabad City) P Radhakishan Rao has confessed to his involvement in the tapping of phones by some officers in the Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) when the BRS government was in power, police sources say… Sources said that the movements of several industrialists, builders, businessmen, journalists and bureaucrats were also kept under watch, mainly to track who they were talking to or meeting. After finding that many individuals had switched to using encrypted platforms like WhatsApp or Snapchat for communication, the then SIB chief Prabhakar Rao allegedly directed the team to track calls using Internet Protocol Data Records, sources said.” Read more: Sreenivas Janyala, The Indian Express