NDC-TIA India Component to focus on establishing a multi-stakeholder dialogue platform for decarbonizing transport in India Posted On: 26 AUG 2020 6:32PM by PIB Delhi

NITI Aayog will virtually launch the India Component of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)–Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA) tomorrow, 27 August.

GIZ Director, Division South Asia, Corinna Küsel, and Deputy Ambassador German Embassy, Stephan Grabherr, will open the event at 6 pm, followed by opening remarks by Dr Karsten Sach, Director General IK, International and European Policy, Climate Policy, Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, will deliver the keynote address, followed by a special address by Dr Young Tae Kim, Secretary General, International Transport Forum (ITF).

The event will inform the transport, energy, and climate stakeholders in India about planned project activities for the upcoming year. It will also offer the opportunity to provide input about India’s transport challenges and how they relate to CO2 reduction ambitions. The discussion will help focus the programme further on India’s specific needs and circumstances.

With the aim to promote a comprehensive approach to decarbonize transport in India, Vietnam, and China, NDC–TIA is a joint programme, supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and implemented by a consortium of seven organisations, namely:

1. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH 2. International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) 3. World Resources Institute (WRI)

4. International Transport Forum (ITF) 5. Agora Verkehrswende (AGORA)

6. Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT) Foundation 7. Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century e.V. (REN21)

NITI Aayog in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness released the Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2020 today. The first report to examine export preparedness and performance of Indian states, EPI intends to identify challenges and opportunities; enhance the effectiveness of government policies; and encourage a facilitative regulatory framework.

The structure of the EPI includes 4 pillars –Policy; Business Ecosystem; Export Ecosystem; Export Performance – and 11 sub-pillars –Export Promotion Policy; Institutional Framework; Business Environment; Infrastructure; Transport Connectivity; Access to Finance; Export Infrastructure; Trade Support; R&D Infrastructure; Export Diversification; and Growth Orientation.

“The Indian economy holds immense potential to become a strong exporter on the world stage. To realize this potential, it is crucial that India turns to its states and union territories and makes them active participants in the country’s export efforts. In an attempt to realize this vision, the Export Preparedness Index 2020 evaluates states’ potentials and capacities. It is hoped that the detailed insights from this Index will guide all stakeholders towards strengthening the export ecosystem at both the national and sub-national levels,” said NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar.

Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog, said, “The Export Preparedness Index is a data-driven effort to identify the core areas crucial for export promotion at the sub-national level. All the states and union territories have been assessed on crucial parameters that are critical for any typical economic unit to achieve sustainable export growth. The Index would be a helpful guide for the state governments to benchmark regional performance with respect to export promotion and thus deliver key policy insights on how to improve and enhance the same.”

What this edition of the EPI has shown is that most Indian states performed well on average across the sub-pillars of Exports Diversification, Transport Connectivity, and Infrastructure. The average score of Indian states in these three sub-pillars was above 50%. Also, given the low standard deviation in Export Diversification and Transport Connectivity, the averages are not skewed to the higher side by a few over-achievers. However, Indian states should also focus on other key components in order to improve export competitiveness.

Overall, most of the Coastal States are the best performers. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu occupy the top three ranks, respectively. Six of eight coastal states feature in the top ten rankings, indicating the presence of strong enabling and facilitating factors to promote exports. In the landlocked states, Rajasthan has performed the best, followed by Telangana and Haryana. Among the Himalayan states, Uttarakhand is the highest, followed by Tripura and Himachal Pradesh. Across the Union Territories, Delhi has performed the best, followed by Goa and Chandigarh.

The report also highlights that export orientation and preparedness are not just restricted to prosperous states. Even emerging states can undertake dynamic export policy measures, have functioning promotional councils, and synchronize with national logistical plans to grow their exports. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are two landlocked states that had initiated several measures to promote exports. Other states facing similar socio-economic challenges can look at the measures taken by Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and try to implement them to grow their exports.

Many northeastern states under the Growth Orientation sub-pillar were able to export more by focusing on their indigenous product baskets. This shows that a focused development of such baskets (like spices) can drive exports on one hand and also improve farmer incomes on the other in these states.

Based on the findings of the report, export promotion in India faces three fundamental challenges: intra- and inter-regional disparities in export infrastructure; poor trade support and growth orientation among states; and poor R&D infrastructure to promote complex and unique exports.

There is a need to emphasize on key strategies to address these challenges: a joint development of export infrastructure; strengthening industry-academia linkages; and creating state-level engagements for economic diplomacy. These strategies could be supported by revamped designs and standards for local products and by harnessing the innovating tendencies to provide new use cases for such products, with adequate support from the Centre.

To achieve the target of making India a developed economy by focusing on ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, there is a need to increase exports from all the states and union territories. The EPI provides invaluable insights on how states can attain this goal.

The final framework of the EPI was based on essential feedback from states, UTs and organizations like EXIM Bank, IIFT and DGCIS. The data has been primarily provided by state governments. For some of the indicators, RBI, DGCIS and Central ministries were consulted.

Framework The 4 pillars and the rationale behind selection of each of them are given below:

Policy: A comprehensive trade policy provides a strategic direction for exports and imports.

Business Ecosystem: An efficient business ecosystem can help states attract investments and create an enabling infrastructure for individuals to initiate start-ups.

Export Ecosystem: This pillar aims to assess the business environment, which is specific to exports.

Export Performance: This is the only output-based pillar and examines the reach of export footprints of States and Union Territories.

Context: With a view to promote Indian folk art, National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) a PSU under the Department of Fertilizers has displayed Maharashtra’s famous Warli painting on the outer walls of its Corporate Office in Noida.

Who are Warlis? The Warlis or Varlis are an indigenous tribe or Adivasis, living in Mountainous as well as coastal areas of Maharashtra-Gujarat border and surrounding areas.

They speak an unwritten Varli language which belong to the southern zone of the Indo-Aryan languages.

Warli Paintings: Maharashtra is known for its Warli folk paintings. Its roots may be traced to as early as the 10th century A.D. They bear a resemblance to those created in the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka. Scenes portraying hunting, fishing and farming, festivals and dances, trees and animals are used to surround the central theme of the painting. Women are mainly engaged in the creation of these paintings.

Unique features: A very basic graphic vocabulary like a circle, a triangle and a square are used in these rudimentary wall paintings which are monosyllabic in nature.

Context: China is “actively considering the establishment of a BRICS innovation base in China, in order to strengthen practical cooperation with the BRICS”.

Aim: To take forward 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI) cooperation among the five countries.

Rationale behind the proposal: China’s interest in promoting 5G within the BRICS bloc could be part of its interest in pushing tech giant Huawei internationally – Huawei’s name has come up as a contender to build the network in Brazil and South Africa even as it is embroiled in controversies in other countries.

How BRICS countries have responded? Russia said it would work with China on 5G. In South Africa, Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei is providing services to three of its telecom operators in the roll-out of their 5G networks. Brazil has allowed participation in trials but is yet to take a final call.

However, India is the only country in the grouping that is leaning towards excluding Chinese participation in the roll-out of its national 5G network.

Way ahead for India: India is unlikely to allow Chinese participation in 5G, particularly in the wake of recent moves to tighten investment from China and to ban 59 Chinese apps, citing national security concerns. The ban, which followed the June clash in Galwan Valley, cited a “threat to the sovereignty and integrity of India” posed by the apps.

Indian intelligence assessments have also expressed concerns on the possible direct or indirect links of several Chinese companies, including Huawei, with the Chinese military.

India has made clear a return to normalcy cannot be possible while tensions along the Line of Actual Control remain unresolved.

Similar efforts by UK- 5G club: In May, British government approached the US with the prospect of creating a 5G club of 10 democracies.

It includes G7 countries –UK, US, Italy, Germany, France, Japan and Canada – plus Australia, South Korea and India. It will aim to create alternative suppliers of 5G equipment and other technologies to avoid relying on China.

What underlying technologies make up 5G? 5G is based on OFDM (Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing), a method of modulating a digital signal across several different channels to reduce interference. 5G uses 5G NR air interface alongside OFDM principles. 5G also uses wider bandwidth technologies such as sub-6 GHz and mmWave.

The previous generations of mobile networks are 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G. First generation – 1G 1980s: 1G delivered analog voice. Second generation – 2G Early 1990s: 2G introduced digital voice (e.g. CDMA- Code Division Multiple Access).

Third generation – 3G Early 2000s: 3G brought mobile data (e.g. CDMA2000). Fourth generation – 4G LTE 2010s: 4G LTE ushered in the era of mobile broadband.

1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G all led to 5G, which is designed to provide more connectivity than was ever available before.

Context: Finance Minister recently said that two-wheelers are neither a luxury nor sin goods and so, merit a GST rate revision.

Two-wheelers currently attract 28% GST.

Sin goods: Sin goods are goods which consider harmful to society.

Example of sin goods: Alcohol and Tobacco, Candies, Drugs, Soft drinks, Fast foods, Coffee, Sugar, Gambling and Pornography.

What is sin tax? It is placed on goods that adversely affect health, most notably tobacco and alcohol.

Three principal arguments are used to justify this type of taxation: It can reduce consumption through increased prices. Compensate society for things like increased health system costs. Increase resources for the health sector.

Regulation in India: According to the current GST rate structure, some of the sin goods that attract a cess include cigarettes, pan masala and aerated drinks. Apart from sin goods, luxury products like cars also attract a cess.

Global examples: Countries such as the UK, Sweden and Canada impose Sin Taxes on a series of products and services, from tobacco and alcohol to lotteries, gambling and fuel, which chip in with sizeable revenues.

Mexico imposed a Soda Tax in 2013.

Why is it important? That excessive consumption of tobacco, alcohol or empty calories heightens health risks such as cancer, heart conditions and obesity, is quite well-documented by now.

Evidence from other countries that have imposed Sin Taxes shows the consumption of cigarettes and soft drinks has fallen significantly, after the new tax.

The huge revenues many State governments in India rake in from liquor sales (and taxes) show that Sin Taxes can mean a bonanza for the State.

Context: India’s multi-wavelength orbiting telescope, AstroSat, has detected light from a galaxy, called AUDFs01, in the extreme-ultraviolet (UV) light. The galaxy is 9.3 billion light years away from Earth.

Key points: The discovery was an international collaboration by astronomers from India, Switzerland, France, USA, Japan and the Netherlands. This is the first time that star-forming galaxies have been observed in this extreme UV environment.

Methodology used for this discovery: The team observed the galaxy within the patch of sky called the Hubble eXtreme Deep field (XDF), which itself sits at the centre of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF).

The HUDF is a small area in the constellation of Fornax, created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004. It contains thousands of galaxies, and became the deepest image of the universe ever taken at the time.

XDF contains about 5,500 galaxies. AstroSat looked at a part of XDF for 28 hours in October of 2016, a feat only space telescopes could perform because the atmosphere absorbs ultraviolet radiation.

About AstroSat: It is India’s first multi-wavelength space telescope, which has five telescopes seeing through different wavelengths simultaneously — visible, near UV, far UV, soft X-ray and hard X-ray.

Onboard the AstroSat is a 38-cm wide UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), which is capable of imaging in far and near-ultraviolet bands over a wide field of view.

AstroSat was launched on 28 September 2015 by ISRO into a near-Earth equatorial orbit.

It is a multi-institute collaborative project, involving IUCAA, ISRO, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bengaluru), and Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad), among others.

Context: The National Green Tribunal has slammed the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) over its report on the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) which proposes 20-30% reduction of air pollution by 2024.

What’s the issue? MoEF had recently informed the NGT that a committee has concluded that 20-30% pollutant reduction under the NCAP seems realistic. The Ministry had further said that pollution could not be controlled except to the extent of certain per cent.

However, the NGT has disapproved this submission saying that the MoEF’s view was against the constitutional mandate under Article 21 and also against statutory mandate.

Observations made by the NGT: Right to Clean Air stood recognised as part of Right to Life and failure to address air pollution was denial of Right to Life.

The enforcement of ‘Sustainable Development’ principle and ‘Public Trust Doctrine’ required stern measures to be adopted to give effect to the mandate of international obligations for which the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and other laws had been enacted.

What does the NCAP say on this? What are the issues? Under the NCAP, the target is to achieve norms in 10 years and reduce load to the extent of 35% in first three years with further reduction of pollution later.

This meant for 10 years pollution would remain unaddressed which is too long period of tolerating violations when clean air was Right to Life. Further, it is also not clear what type of pollutants or all pollutants would be reduced. Besides, in 2019, the number of Non-Attainment Cities (NACs) has gone up from 102 to 122.

Need of the hour: Violation of laid down air pollution levels resulting in large number of deaths and diseases needed to be addressed expeditiously. Targeted time of reduction of pollution loads needed to be reduced and planned steps needed to be sternly implemented on the ground.

About the National Clean Air Programme: Launched by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in 2019.

It was not notified under the Environment Protection Act or any other Act. It is envisaged as a scheme to provide the States and the Centre with a framework to combat air pollution.

It has a major goal of reducing the concentration of coarse (particulate matter of diameter 10 micrometer or less, or PM10) and fine particles (particulate matter of diameter 2.5 micrometer or less, or PM2.5) in the atmosphere by at least 20% by the year 2024, with 2017 as the base year for comparison.

Who all will participate? Apart from experts from the industry and academia, the programme will be a collaboration between the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, NITI Aayog, and Central Pollution Control Board.

Which cities will fall under this? Initially, 102 cities from 23 States and UTs were chosen as non-attainment cities. With the exception of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, most of those chosen are tier two cities.

The cities were selected on the basis of the ambient air quality data from the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) of 2011 – 2015. Maharashtra had the maximum number of cities chosen for the programme.

Established under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act 1985.

The Authority replaced the Processed Food Export Promotion Council (PFEPC). APEDA, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries,promotes export of agricultural and processed food products from India.

It has been mandated with the responsibility of export promotion and development of the scheduled products Fruits, Vegetables and their Products, Meat and Meat Products etc.

In addition to this, APEDA has been entrusted with the responsibility to monitor import of sugar.

Launched by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) in 2017.

It is aimed at creating employment for the Adivasis, farmers, unemployed youth, and women by roping them in beekeeping while also increasing India’s honey production.

ICICI Bank has announced the introduction of usage of satellite data-imagery from earth observation satellites—to assess credit worthiness of its customers belonging to the farm sector.

ICICI will be the first bank in India to do so. It will use the data to measure an array of parameters related to the land, irrigation and crop patterns and in combination with demographic and financial parameters to make faster lending decisions for farmers

Originally commissioned by the British Navy as HMS Hermes on November 18, 1959, the aircraft carrier had taken part in the Falkland Islands war in 1982.

India bought the British carrier in 1986 and rechristened it as INS Viraat. INS Viraat is the Guinness record holder for being the longest-serving warship of the world.

Why in News? One of the biggest ship recyclers at Alang — Shree Ram Group — has purchased the aircraft carrier.

This is the second aircraft carrier to be broken in India in the past six years. In 2014, INS Vikrant, which played a role in the historic 1971 war with Pakistan was broken down in Mumbai.