India Last Week #9
A round-up of research & reportage on India across climate, energy, foreign policy, politics & more over the last week
Climate, Energy & Environment -
“With the frequency and intensity of many natural disasters projected to increase, losses and damages will run into billions of U.S. dollars. State coffers may not have the funds to pay. India is cautiously experimenting with a novel tool to help bridge this finance gap: parametric insurance… The programme run by SEWA is one of several others to have mushroomed in the country in recent years, in response to rising floods, heat stress, and loss of productivity in renewable energy plants. But the benefits of parametric insurance are limited by how risks and damages are perceived. India’s experience with parametric insurance is still a work-in-progress, and experts say it must complement existing climate adaptation strategies, and not replace them.” Read more: Simrin Sirur, Mongabay
“Partnerships between CSOs and the government can help local implementers achieve last-mile delivery of their initiatives. For example, as part of Jodhpur’s HAP, Mahila Housing Trust and Natural Resources Defense Council conducted awareness campaigns on cool roof initiatives targeted at women in low-income households. These were aimed at increasing adoption and ensuring that funds directed towards the initiative reach its intended audience.” Read more: Tamanna Dalal, India Development Review
“India may account for 34 million of the 80 million global job losses by 2030. In 2019, the country lost about $69 billion due to climate related events, which is close to the loss over the previous decade, from 1998 to 2017 — what was earlier lost in a decade, is now being lost in a year. Floods affected 14 states in 2019, displacing 1.8 million people, and causing over 1,800 deaths.” Read more: Vandita Sariya, CarbonCopy
Economy -
“The bubble in hiring white-collar professionals, led by the information technology (IT) sector, has burst. High-paying jobs and guaranteed placements have been long considered a given at India’s premier engineering and management institutes. It is obviously no longer the case. According to information shared by an RTI applicant last month, 38% of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduates across 23 campuses — around 8,000 — were yet to be hired through campus placement this year.” Read more: Financial Express
“From 2018 to 2023, the overall growth of Chinese exports (measured in USD) was 36%. Their exports growth into India in this period was 53%. We believe it is now wise for the Indian state to establish non-tariff barriers against Chinese exports and overseas production sites of Chinese firms. We recognise that this constitutes protectionism, and violates the tenets of sound development strategy. But in this special moment, with regard to one trading partner, we believe it is appropriate. These restrictions are required for a finite period of time, in which the Chinese problem of macroeconomic adjustment will get done. They should not be viewed as indefinite restrictions.” Read more: Ajay Shah & Ila Patnaik, Business Standard
“The presence of dissenting voices amongst policymakers often strikes a symphony of divergent yet pertinent views, harmonising to navigate the intricate melodies of economic policy. When there is a consensus in voting, such tacit disagreements often tend to escape plain sight. Once such latent discordance becomes evident to forecasters, it casts doubt upon their prior judgement that was based on the apparent consensus in voting. Hence, it warrants a closer re-examination of their proposed estimates of policy variables, thereby reduces the possibility of lapses in future estimation.” Read more: Unninarayanan Kurup, Rajendra N. Paramanik & Rounak Sil, Ideas For India
“The government’s orientation towards growth oriented enterprises signals a trend of upcoming targeted schemes and programs. To regularly provide feedback to the government and advocate for a favourable policy environment, it is important to develop and nurture self-governed women’s entrepreneur associations at all levels (perhaps starting from district as a base unit). The associations have often identified ways in which women entrepreneurs could gain better access to appropriate resources.” Read more: Arshia Gupta, Alreena Renita Pinto & Balakrishnan Madhavan Kutty, World Bank
Foreign Policy & Security -
“India cannot afford to be so reactive. The world is throwing up a slew of strategic risks, from climate change to pandemics, which require decades of coordinated policy effort to address. China alone represents an unprecedented array of interconnected challenges, from an explosive naval build-up, to geoeconomic clout in South Asia, to leverage in global supply chains. And even distant conflicts, from Ukraine to Gaza, are revealing new technologies and tactics of war that will invariably spread to India’s neighbourhood. India needs a regular process to make sense of this tumult and plan for it. A regular and well-crafted NSS would give India five critical benefits that it currently lacks.” Read more: Arzan Tarapore, The Hindu
“India has been pursuing a longstanding balancing act in its relationship with Israel. New Delhi has attempted to cast itself as a conciliatory actor and a possible mediator in the conflict in Gaza, calling for peace and supporting calls for a ceasefire while also demanding that Hamas return captives still held in Gaza… “But reports that it is supplying Israel with weapons could disrupt that narrative,” Nicolas Blarel, the author of The Evolution of India’s Israel Policy, told Al Jazeera.” Read more: Federica Marsi, Al Jazeera
“In what could be his first visit since the Ukraine war began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel to Moscow in the coming weeks to hold bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin under the much-delayed annual summit mechanism that has been in place since 2000, but suspended for the past few years.” Read more: Suhasini Haidar, The Hindu
“One of the biggest concerns for the armed forces, especially the Army, is the accentuating shortage of personnel in the ‘below the officer’s rank’ cadres. There was no recruitment during the COVID-19 period for over two and a half years which created a deficiency. For context, around 60,000 soldiers may retire from the Army every year, while 40,000 are being recruited every year. So effectively the shortage is adding on year by year.” Read more: Dinakar Peri, The Hindu
People & Politics -
“In 2024, close to 24 lakh students took the NEET-UG exam to fill 1 lakh MBBS seats across the country. An estimated 14 lakh students appeared for the JEE mains. Of these, 2.5 lakh make to the JEE advanced to compete for about 59,937 (as of 2023) seats in the country’s premier engineering colleges. This staggering demand-supply gap is a result of decades of neglected investment. We simply do not have enough colleges, and certainly very few of quality, to cope with the growing numbers of high school graduates with big dreams. Scarcity intensifies competition beyond repair.” Read more: Yamini Aiyar, Deccan Herald
“On 5 May, 21-year-old Geeta* (name changed) sat for her third attempt at the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET), a nationwide entrance examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission in undergraduate medical programmes in India. "This was probably my last shot at fulfilling my dream of becoming a doctor. If I don't get admission into a medical college this year, my parents will force me enroll in any other three-year bachelor programme...and before I finish the course, I'll be married," she told The Quint. But as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probes irregularities in exam results, including widespread allegations of paper leak, Geeta's future hangs in the balance.” Read more: Himanshi Dahiya, The Quint
“There is truth, and then there are aspects of it. There is truth, and there is the subterfuge of it masquerading in its shadow. Truth: Narendra Modi is the only Indian other than Jawaharlal Nehru to have won a third consecutive term as prime minister. Aspect of that Truth: Narendra Modi did not actually win a third term in office on his own; unlike Nehru, Modi fell thirty seats short of a majority in the Lok Sabha in 2024 and hobbled to power on the crutches of allies. Subterfuge lurking in the shadows of that Truth: among all of India’s prime ministers other than Chandra Shekhar, who sneaked into South Block through the backdoor and remained in office for a trice, Narendra Modi has returned with the lowest personal margin of victory — 13.49% as opposed to such prime ministerial highs as 72.18% (Rajiv Gandhi, 1984) and his own 2019 surge of 45.22% over the nearest Varanasi rival.” Read more: Sankarshan Thakur, The Telegraph
“Ambedkar also observed that the two ways that the executive could avoid accountability were either by weakening Parliament, or by changing its composition. In recent times, we have seen examples of both, facilitated by a partisan Speaker. In the 2014-2019 Parliament, the Speaker simply refused to list an Opposition-led no-confidence motion against the government for debate and voting. In the 2019-2024 Parliament, the Speaker expelled a whole raft of Opposition MPs ahead of the discussion of far-reaching bills, such as the new criminal laws – which were eventually passed in the near-absence of the Opposition.” Read more: Gautam Bhatia, Hindustan Times
Tech -
“Section 20 (2) of the Act allows the government to stop the transmission of any message in the interest of public safety and during a public emergency. This majorly expands the number of government entities that may be able to intercept messages. In 2019, the government had informed the Lok Sabha that 10 central agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) can intercept telephone communications, provided they have the Union home secretary’s prior permission to do so. The same section allows the Centre or states to take temporary possession of any telecom service or network during a public emergency, including disaster management, or in the interest of public safety.” Read more: Subhayan Chakraborty, Business Standard
“The study is set against the prominent data breaches and the Indian Government’s effort to strengthen data protection measures. The study also examines the theoretical and legal aspects of consent by analysing the fundamental ideas that form the basis of the DPDP Act, 2023, protecting the consent framework. It questions whether the current form of the Act aligns with the landmark Privacy Judgement.” Read more: Aafreen Mitchelle Collaco, International Review of Law, Computers & Technology
“Isro’s newest rocket, the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) has been contracted by Australia’s Space Machines Company to launch a 450-kilogram satellite into lower earth orbit - LEO. A launch services agreement has been signed between Isro’s commercial arm - NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) and the Aussie company on the sidelines of the India Space Congress in New Delhi.” Read more: Nirmal John, Economic Times
Bonus -
“The rut of the Indian kitchen forms the crux of “The Great Indian Kitchen,” the Malayalam film called an “eye-opener” by The Times of India. It “ripped through patriarchy, the bedrock of the institutions of family and religion,” noted film critic Somya Rajendran in The News Minute. The story — with unnamed characters to signal its universality — centers around a young woman who gets married into an influential but conservative family. She soon finds her life reduced mostly to making three fresh meals a day for the family. She eats her meals alone after the men have been fed and have left their mess on the table for her to clean.” Read more: Surbhi Gupta, New Lines Magazine
Really loved the way you emphasized on women entrepreneurial growth in rural parts