As per official data, India has recorded a trade deficit  with nine of its top 10 trading partners  in 2023-24.

• India’s FY 2023-24 Trade Deficit Narrows Amid Shifts in Trade Dynamics with Major Partners
• Trade Deficit: India’s total trade deficit in FY 2023-24 narrowed down to $ 238.3 billion as against $ 264.9 billion in the previous fiscal.
• Increase in Deficit: India saw a rise in the deficit with China ($ 85 billion), Russia ($ 57.2 billion), Korea ($ 14.71 billion) and Hong Kong ($ 12.2 billion) in FY 2023-24, compared to 2022-23
• Reduction in deficit: The trade gap with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Indonesia, and Iraq narrowed.
• Trade surplus: India has a trade surplus of $ 36.74 billion with the US in 2023-24.
• India also records a surplus with other trade partners like the UK, Belgium, Italy, France and Bangladesh.
• Largest Trading Partner: China has overtook the USA to emerge as India’s largest trading partner with $ 118.4 billion of two-way commerce in 2023-24.
• Washington was the top trading partner of New Delhi during 2021-22 and 2022-23.
• Free trade agreement: India has a free trade agreement with four of its top trading partners ie. Singapore, the UAE, Korea and Indonesia (as part of the Asian bloc).

Trade Deficit:

• A trade deficit also known as a negative balance of trade (BOT) occurs when a country’s imports exceed its exports.
• The balance can be calculated on different categories of transactions ie, goods or merchandise, services, goods and services and also for international transactions ie. (current account, capital account, and financial account)
• Cutting trade deficit requires boosting exports, reducing unnecessary imports, developing domestic industries, and managing currency and debt levels effectively,

Advantages:

• Boost consumption: A trade deficit allows a country to consume more than it produces and in short run, can help nations to avoid shortages of goods and other economic problems.
• Comparative Advantage: It provides countries with comparative Advantage as the country can be more focused on its strength and resources rather than to worry about producing everything.

Concerns:

• Depreciation of currency: A rising trade deficit can cause the country’s currency to depreciate because more foreign currency is needed to cover for imports. This depreciation makes imports more expensive, worsening the deficit.
• More borrowing: The country might need to borrow more from foreign lenders to cover the imports, increasing external debt leading to depleted foreign exchange reserves
• Investment sentiments: overall rising Trade deficit can signal economic instability to investors, leading to reduced foreign investment.
• Dependency: Bilateral trade deficit becomes a major issue when a country gets overtly reliant on the other for critical supplies
• Example: India’s dependency on China for critical rare earth minerals and Active Pharma Ingredients.

Kerala Revises KFDC Order to Combat Invasive Species and Human-Wildlife Conflict.

• Recently, the Kerala government amended its earlier order of allowing the Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) to plant eucalyptus trees for its financial sustenance in 2024-2025 to limit permission to only cut exotic tree species from lands in the KFDC’s control.
• Issue with the Earlier Order: In 2021, the Kerala government had published an eco-restoration policy that sought to address the “proliferation of invasive species that are not suitable for our environment” and the resulting “depletion of natural forests”.
• Harmful Impacts: According to the policy, such depletion was in turn forcing wild animals to move to human-occupied land in search of food and thus increasing the prevalence of human-wildlife conflict.

Eucalyptus:

• It is a fast-growing evergreen tree native to Australia.
• Use: The eucalyptus tree oil is used as an antiseptic, a perfume, as a flavoring, in dental preparations and in industrial solvents.
• Distinctive Trait: It is adapted to grow in a wide range of climatic regimes or soil types and grows rapidly and establishes itself easily; etc.

Eco-Restoration:

• It is the process of reclaiming habitat and ecosystem functions by restoring the lands and waters on which plants and animals depend.
• Aim: It aims to initiate or accelerate ecosystem recovery by creating conditions for plants, animals and microorganisms to carry out the recovery process themselves.
• It is not a one-time activity and continues as the ecosystem recovers and matures.
• Involves: Restoration is a corrective step that involves eliminating or modifying causes of ecological degradation and re-establishing the natural processes like natural fires, floods, or predator-prey relationships that sustain and renew ecosystems over time.
• Actions: It may involve actions like removing invasive species, reintroducing lost species or functions, altering landforms, planting vegetation, changing hydrology and reintroducing wildlife.
• Practices: Reforestation and afforestation, wetlands restoration, river and stream restoration, peatland restoration, replanting mangroves and transplanting corals, etc.

India’s Initiatives:

1. Sundarbans Mangrove Restoration
2. National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA)
3. National Mission for a Green India (GIM)
4. Western Ghats Forest Landscape Restoration
5. Green Wall
6. National Afforestation Programme (NAP)
7. National Biodiversity Action Plan

Significance:

• Biodiversity Conservation: It helps to conserve biodiversity by providing species with the conditions they need to thrive.
• Climate Change Mitigation: It can sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (such as forests, peatlands and mangroves), thereby helping to mitigate climate change.
• Ecosystem Services: Healthier ecosystems, with richer biodiversity, yield greater benefits such as more fertile soils, bigger yields of timber and fish, and larger stores of greenhouse gases.
• It can help us to achieve all of the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Economic Benefits: The economic benefits of such interventions exceed nine times the cost of investment, whereas inaction is at least three times more costly than ecorestoration.
• It can help in creating jobs like planting trees, managing protected areas and eco-tourism. Also, it can support local economies through improved agriculture, fisheries, and forestry.

Challenges:

• Technical Challenges: Selection of appropriate native species, determining the best methods for re-establishing those species and managing invasive species.
• Funding: These actions can be expensive and require sustained funding for over long periods as ecosystems can take years or even decades to recover fully.

Need To Do:

• Social Considerations: Any restoration action must consider the needs and rights of local communities, ensuring that restoration efforts also support local livelihoods.
• There is a need to ensure the involvement of local communities in planning and implementation.
• Adequate Funding: To attain success, there is a need to secure ongoing funding and gain political support.
• Monitoring: Careful monitoring, and evaluation to assess progress is the need of the hour.
• Time has come to ensure that restoration goals are met and that the ecosystem can sustain itself in the long term.
• Restoration vs Conservation: Restoration is not a substitute for conservation. While it can restore biodiversity, structure, and function to ecosystems, it should not be used to justify destruction or unsustainable use.
• It may not succeed in re-establishing the full assemblage of native species or the full extent of the original ecosystem’s structure and function.

Recently, A New algal species “Oedocladium sahyadricum” discovered in the natural forests of Kumbhavurutty region of Western Ghats in Kollam.

Oedocladium Sahyadricum:

• The name ‘sahyadricum’ refers to the Western Ghats, also known as Sahyadri.

Features: 

• It is Dioecious (having the male and female reproductive organs in separate individuals.),
• Terrestrial, having a superior operculum (an operculum is a flap of some type found on algae, fungi, or vascular plants.).
• It looks like moss protonema, is velvety green but turns yellowish-green as it matures.
• Possessing ellipsoid oogonium (large cells that develop a pore in the cell wall that allows flagellated sperm cells to enter the cell.)
• Oospore (a thick-walled sexual spore that develops from a fertilized oosphere ).

Habitat:

• The alga was found as a thin mat of elongated strands on damp soil.
• Rainy weather is likely needed for its abundant growth.

Potential practical applications:

• In medicine, agriculture, and in the production of a natural pigment, astaxanthin.
• Algae play a significant role in ecosystems and have enormous economic importance in the world market, from high-value products to wastewater treatment.

INS Kiltan, one of the P28 (Project 28) Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Corvettes, recently visited Brunei and the Philippines.

P28:

• P28 aimed to build four indigenous ASW corvettes or Kamorta class corvettes, namely, INS Kamorta, INS Kadmatt, INS Kiltan, and INS Kavaratti.
• They can be deployed in nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare conditions and have been constructed using high-grade DMR 249A steel produced in India.
• The ships are equipped with a Combat Management System, Torpedo Tube Launchers, and an Infra-Red Signature Suppression System, among other features.

INS Kiltan:

• It is an indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare stealth corvette.
• This is the third of the four Kamorta-class corvettes being built under Project 28.
• The ship derives its name from one of the islands in the Aminidivi group of the strategically located Lakshadweep and Minicoy group of islands.
• Designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house organisation Directorate of Naval Design and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) in Kolkata

Features:

• It is India’s first major warship to have a superstructure of carbon fibre composite material resulting in improved stealth features, lower top weight and maintenance costs.
• The ship hosts a predominantly indigenous cutting-edge weapons and sensors suite which includes heavyweight torpedoes, ASW rockets, 76 mm caliber Medium Range gun and two multi-barrel 30 mm guns as close-in-weapon system (CIWS) with dedicated fire control systems, missile decoy rockets (Chaff), advanced ESM (Electronic Support Measure) system, most advanced bow mounted sonar and air surveillance radar.