India Last Week #8
A round-up of research & reportage on India across climate, energy, foreign policy, politics & more over the last week
Climate, Energy & Environment -
“Across India, the health ministry has recorded 24,849 suspected heatstroke cases and 56 deaths between March and May 31 this year. The actual number may be higher. To take the case of Bihar alone. Local media reports from Bihar pointed to 60 deaths in a span of 24 hours on May 30. Heatstroke deaths are undercounted not only because of bureaucratic hurdles, as activists allege, but also because they are very difficult to be medically labelled so.” Read more: Tabassum Barnagarwala, Scroll
“The Union Cabinet approved 1 GW offshore wind energy projects in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu with the total outlay of Rs 7,453 crore… The successful commissioning of 1 GW offshore wind projects will provide renewable electricity of about 3.72 billion units annually, which will result in annual reduction of 2.98 million ton of CO2 equivalent emission for a period of 25 years, as per the government.” Read more: The Economic Times
“The energy crisis of the early 1970s briefly opened up a radically new horizon of energetic possibilities that played out differently around the world. For India, that energy crisis did not begin with the famous Arab oil embargo of 1973. Instead, like many poor oil-importing nations, it experienced the first oil shock as merely one component of a broader climate-food-energy emergency that reverberated throughout the political system. This crisis brought a twinned set of fateful changes… Rising popular expectations collided with the energy crisis to impel a state-led embrace of coal, despite elite reservations about the environmental damage that would follow.” Read more: Elizabeth Chatterjee, American Historical Review
“A significant portion (68.92%) of street vendors have heard of the ‘heat waves’ concept, locally known as Loo and Andhi. In contrast, only a small fraction (9.56%) of street vendors know about the Delhi Heat Action Plan (HAP). This indicates that street vendors are aware of the heatwave but lack the systemic support to work or engage with government stakeholders to mitigate its impact. It has also been found that street vendors of Delhi have worked as street vendors for an average of 16.2 years, and still, a large number of vendors were not consulted during the preparation of HAP.” Read more: Manoranjan Ghosh, Greenpeace India and National Hawkers Federation
Economy -
“With 240 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, or lower house, the BJP is still by far India’s most dominant political force… While corporate leaders claim their investment plans remain unchanged, many will quietly begin hedging political bets in a way they have been unused to for a decade. Indian industrialists, executives, lobbyists and analysts told the Financial Times that many remained fearful of being seen to talk out of turn about the prime minister… Some Indian executives had privately grumbled about top-down government requests to invest in BJP stronghold states, such as Gujarat. “There might be possible diversification across states to appease some of the coalition parties,” said one western diplomat.” Read more: Chris Kay, Financial Times
“India’s most competitive businesses are in services and capital-intensive manufacturing, which employ very few people. When it comes to labour-intensive manufacturing such as garments and leather, India fares poorly. Poor job growth has hurt consumption demand in recent years. It also places an undue strain on the farm sector, which tends to absorb most of the unemployed and underemployed in the country.“The last decade has been spent repairing the supply side — from the banking system to infrastructure, to housing and bankruptcy,” economist Sajjid Chinoy wrote in an article recently. “Now the focus must turn to structurally boosting demand through employment, consumption and exports.” Read more: Pramit Bhattacharya, Hindustan Times
“At the 90th anniversary celebration of the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai on 1 April 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited as a success story the eRupee, or the Central Bank Digital Currency, the Indian central bank’s alternative to cash, stored in and used through digital wallets. Its supposed success story, however, was scripted through contentious means. The pilot of the eRupee began in December 2022. Even until October 2023, it was witnessing only about 25,000 transactions a day on average. On 27 December, however, this number saw a 40-fold jump with more than 1 million transactions recorded. More than a quarter of these transactions came from Bengaluru-headquartered Canara Bank, in the form of bogus exchanges of money among the bank’s employees under incessant pressure from the management.” Read more: Hemant Gairola, Article 14
Foreign Policy & Security —
“Foundational agreements and India’s STA-1 status have enabled the United States to progressively expand supply chain partners in the country. For example, Boeing has over 300 supply chain partners in India in the aerospace segment for both defense and civil needs. Lockheed-Martin has over seventy. Raytheon and General Atomics have initiated tie-ups as well. The INDUS-X will further bolster and expand these partnerships… An integral aspect of India-U.S. convergence is the potential for India to act as a maintenance hub for U.S. Navy assets in the region. A new beginning in the partnership was marked when U.S. Navy Ship (USNS) Charles Drew visited India for voyage repair for the first time in August 2022. This was followed by USNS Mathew Perry’s visit for repairs in March 2023.” Read more: Ajay Kumar and Tejas Bharadwaj, Carnegie India
“While India has improved significantly over the years in terms of logistics, airfields, a greater number of all-weather roads and capabilities for the IA, China’s capabilities in the form of air defences, air bases, heliports and logistics along the Sino-Indian boundary and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) has also improved considerably. There is a widespread consensus in India that a massive attack will not be executed by the PRC… It is entirely plausible that India might be falling prey to the same level of deception as before that China in contemporary parlance would restrict itself to “grey-zone operations” or the odd skirmish and intrusion throughout the Sino-Indian boundary and will not pursue an all-out war or a substantial attack. This assumption may be psychologically comforting but potentially damaging.” Read more: Kartik Bommakanti, Observer Research Foundation
“While the recent decline in Russian arms exports to India is primarily due to the ‘China factor’, it is also a by-product of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The resulting multiple sanctions on Russia have created logistical challenges, including delays in deliveries…. While it is unrealistic for India to withdraw from acquiring Russian arms and equipment in the short term, the continuing war is increasingly straining relations between New Delhi and Moscow.” Read more: Patrizia Cogo Morales, 9DashLine
People & Politics -
“Once the results were out, and in the days since then, neither the Godi Media nor the national media have gotten around to telling us, “sorry, we got it wrong” – but they seem to have had many explanations to offer on the BJP winning 240 seats in the Lok Sabha instead of the much repeated Abki baar, 400 paar (This time, we will cross 400.)… In the elections to the 18th Lok Sabha, the party won 36.6 percent of the votes polled. In the 2019 elections to the 17th Lok Sabha, it had won 37.7 percent of the votes polled. So, how did just a 1.1 percent drop in votes polled by the party lead to a fall of 63 seats in the Lok Sabha (303 seats minus 240 seats)? Any serious answer needs to start by first addressing this question, otherwise, the analysts are just feeding into the noise and ensuring that they continue paying their EMIs.” Read more: Vivek Kaul, Newslaundry
“Why has the 2021 Census been delayed for so long? Here is one plausible answer: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is delaying the Census because it wants to fast-track the “delimitation” exercise in anticipation of the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. If this sounds absurd, think again. The 84th amendment of the Constitution clearly states that the next delimitation exercise is to be based on the first census after 2026. If the next census happens, say, in 2024 or 2025, then delimitation will have to wait until after the following census, i.e. sometime in the 2030s. So, if the BJP wants delimitation before the 2029 elections, then it must continue to drag its feet on the census until 2026 or even 2027 (since a 2026 census may not qualify as having taken place “after 2026”)… The fact remains that postponing the Census is hard to justify. Aside from obstructing women’s reservation, it deprives millions of people of essential entitlements. They should not be held hostage to any party’s electoral stratagems.” Read more: Jean Dreze, The Hindu
“More than 22 crore aspirants applied for Union government jobs between 2014 and 2022. Among them was 27-year-old Pranjay (name changed for anonymity). Trained as an engineer, he applied for a job that required only matriculation – a technician’s role at the Indian Council for Agricultural Research under the Union government. He submitted his application in December 2021. Three years, repeated exams, and an abrupt cancellation of results later, he is still on a list, awaiting a job.” Read more: Suchak Patel, The Reporters’ Collective
Tech -
“Three breaches of critical police infrastructure within one week is an alarming series of events that signals not only weak cybersecurity practices, but also brings to question the myriad kinds of data the Telangana police collects from residents, how it stores and shares this data, and with what objectives.” Read more: Disha Verma, Internet Freedom Foundation
“The Foundation informed that it has written letters to the secretaries of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and has submitted “evidence” of the presence of sexually explicit content on these platforms along with the legal provisions the content violates. To justify their claims, Mahurkar displayed thick binders documenting the sexual content that these platforms host.” Read more: Kamya Pandey, Medianama
“For the past three years, Singh, 22 years old, has been working at the Amazon warehouse DEL 4, in Manesar, Gurgaon. “We are made to work for 10 hours, but we do not get even eight hours’ pay. And the targets are formidable. For example, I'm required to stick labels on 600 packages in an hour.” In the last two years, he has also taken part in a number of protests and demonstrations against the ecommerce behemoth, demanding freedom from workplace exploitation for himself and thousands of others like him… According to the Amazon India Workers’ Association (AIWA), things get more difficult for the workers during summers, especially during heat waves, because the normal working temperature is not maintained inside the warehouses. A company is required to maintain an indoor temperature in the working area not exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, according to The Factories Act 1948. However, warehouse workers report that the actual temperature inside the buildings goes as high as 36 degrees Celsius.” Read more: Md Asghar Khan, Outlook