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Mar 14, 2022
WHY MOST FAVOURED NATION WHAT REVOKING RUSSIA’S ‘MOST FAVOURED NATION’ STATUS MEANS
Recently, the United States, the European Union, Britain, Canada and Japan are considering revoking Russia's "most favoured nation" (MFN) status over its invasion of Ukraine.
What is ‘most favoured nation’ status?
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial
Women’s participation in economic activities
Why not a normal heart transplant?
Bretton Woods pact
What is ‘most favoured nation’ status?
- The World Trade Organization’s 164 members commit to treating other members equally so they can all benefit from each other’s lowest tariffs, highest import quotas and fewest trade barriers for goods and services.
- This principle of non-discrimination is known as most favoured nation (MFN) treatment. There are some exceptions, such as when members strike bilateral trade agreements or when members offer developing countries special access to their markets.
- For countries outside the WTO, such as Iran, North Korea, Syria or Russian ally Belarus, WTO members can impose whatever trade measures they wish without flouting global trading rules.
- The WTO provides the following exemptions from MFN provisions for the following:
- trade blocs like the USMCA and the European Union, which are allowed to discriminate against imports from outside the bloc
- trade barriers in response to unfair competition
- for trade preferences extended to developing countries
- for trade in services, on a limited basis
- In literal explanation, MFN doesn’t mean preferential treatment. Instead, it means non-discriminatory trade that ensures that the country receiving MFN status will not be in a disadvantageous situation compared to the granter’s other trade partners.
- When a country receives MFN status, it is expected to raise trade barriers and decrease tariffs. It is also expected to open up the market to trade in more commodities and free flow of goods.
- MFN essentially guarantees the most favourable trade conditions between two countries. These terms include the lowest possible trade tariffs, the least possible trade barriers and very crucial to trade relations– highest import quotas. The disclaimer only requires equal treatment of all Most Favoured Nations.
- The WTO rules allow discrimination in certain cases like in cases when a country signs free trade agreements in a region. In that situation, a country may grant special favours and trade concessions to a country as compared to non-member countries of that group.
- MFN status is extremely gainful to developing countries. The clear up sides are access to a wider market for trade goods, reduced cost of export items owing to highly reduced tariffs and trade barriers. These essentially lead to more competitive trade.
- MFN also cuts down bureaucratic hurdles and various kinds of tariffs are set at par for all imports.
- It then increases demand for the goods and gives a boost to the economy and export sector.
- It also heals the negative impact caused to the economy due to trade protectionism. This irks the domestic industry. However, in the long run, it makes them more competitive and robust.
- The main disadvantage is that the country has to give the same treatment to all other trade partners who are members of the WTO.
- This translates into a price war and vulnerability of the domestic industry as a result.
- The country is not able to protect domestic industry from the cheaper imports and in this price war, some domestic players have to face heavy losses or growth restrictions.
- There is no formal procedure for suspending MFN treatment and it is not clear whether members are obliged to inform the WTO if they do so.
- India suspended Pakistan’s MFN status in 2019 after a suicide attack by a Pakistan-based Islamist group killed 40 police. Pakistan never applied MFN status to India.
- Revoking Russia’s MFN status sends a strong signal that the United States and its Western allies do not consider Russia an economic partner in any way, but it does not in itself change conditions for trade.
- It does formally allow the Western allies to increase import tariffs or impose quotas on Russian goods, or even ban them, and to restrict services out of the country.
- They could also overlook Russian intellectual property rights.
- Ahead of MFN status removal, the United States had already announced a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas.
- Canada said, it was withdrawing MFN status for Russia and Belarus, which allowed Russian troops to move into Ukraine from its territory, setting a 35% general tariff on virtually all imports.
- Russia and Belarus will join North Korea as the only countries whose imports are subject to the general tariff.
- The European Union has already banned about 70% of all imports, such as tobacco, potash and products made of wood or steel, from non-WTO member Belarus.
- However, it is waiting for formal adoption of MFN suspension before taking similar action against Russia. Imports from Russia include mineral fuels, precious metals and stones, iron and steel, fertilizers and inorganic chemicals.
- The MFN move comes on top of unprecedented sanctions, export controls and banking restrictions aimed at pressuring Russian President to end the largest conflict in Europe since World War Two.
- India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996, a year after the formation of WTO.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s possible revision of the MFN treatment accorded to Pakistan will effectively close down trade further between the two countries.
- Pakistan still hasn’t granted India with MFN status. On the other hand, it came up with a dissimilar but globally popular Non-Discriminatory Market Access (NDMA) agreement.
- The reason Pakistan has chosen to adopt the NDMA with India is due to political mistrust and a history of border conflicts.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial
- The National Salt Satyagraha Memorial or Dandi Memorial is a memorial in Dandi, Gujarat, India, that honors the activists and participants of the Salt Satyagraha, an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India which was led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930.
- The memorial is spread over 15 acres (61,000 m2) and is located in the coastal town of Dandi, where the Salt March ended on 5 April 1930 and the British salt monopoly was broken by producing salt by boiling sea water. The project was developed at an estimated cost of ?89 crore (US$12 million).
- The 'National Salt Satyagraha Memorial', Dandi, Gujarat, India is conceived as an experiential journey recreating the spirit and the energy of the 1930 Dandi March led by Mahatma Gandhi and 80 of his fellow Satyagrahis, taking the visitors to the Monument step-by-step in order to visualize and understand the history of the historic Salt March and the methodology of Satyagraha, which finally led to India’s Independence from the British colonial rule.
- The monument is a 40-metre (130 ft) steel frame in "A" shape, symbolizing two hands. In order to protect it from sea coast weather, it is made up of a non-corroding material. At the apex of the monument, there is a 2.5-tonne (2,500 kg) glass cube representing the salt crystal. It is sculpted by Sadashiv Sathe.
- An artificial lake was created to symbolize the seashore aspect of the Salt Satyagraha. The lake is a non-permeable, geotextile-based lake which is sealed from the bottom and top to prevent salt infiltration. The lake is filled with harvested rainwater which is treated to produce sparkling clear water.
- In order to reinstate the virtue of Self-sufficiency reinforced by Gandhi in the Freedom Struggle, the memorial is made self-sufficient for its energy needs. To achieve this 40 Solar Trees are installed. This makes this memorial a net zero-energy project.
- The energy produced during the day is exported to the electricity grid and during the night, the energy required is imported back from the grid. This system avoids the need to install and maintain expensive batteries.
- The 24-day march from March 12 to April 5, 1930 was a tax resistance campaign against the British salt monopoly. Based on Gandhi’s principle of non-violence or Satyagraha, the march marked the inauguration of the civil disobedience movement.
- The Dandi march was easily the most significant organized movement against the British Raj after the non-cooperation movement of the early 1920s.
- In all the attention that it drove from the national and international media and world leaders, it was truly a turning point in the Indian Independence movement.
- The 1882 Salt Act gave the British a monopoly in the manufacture and sale of salt. Even though salt was freely available on the coasts of India, Indians were forced to buy it from the colonisers.
- Gandhi decided that if there was any one product through which the civil disobedience could be inaugurated, then it was salt. “Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life,” he said, explaining his choice, even though many in the working committee of the Congress were not too sure about it.
- The British government, including the Viceroy Lord Irwin too did not take the prospect of a campaign against the salt tax too seriously.
- Addressing a massive gathering in Ahmedabad on March 8, Gandhi declared his decision to break the salt laws. “That is for me one step, the first step, towards full freedom,” he said as quoted in historian Ramachandra Guha’s book, ‘Gandhi: The years that changed the world (1914-1948)’.
- Guha wrote, “Gandhi wanted this to be a long march, or pilgrimage perhaps, where his leisurely progress would enthuse people along the way and attract wider publicity too.” Finally, he decided on Dandi to be the point at which the salt law would be broken.
- There was great excitement in Ahmedabad on the eve of the march. A large crowd gathered around Sabarmati ashram and stayed through the night. Gandhi wrote to Nehru that night, informing him about rumours of his arrest. That did not happen though and Gandhi woke up a free man the following day.
- He gathered his walking mates, a group of 78 men, who were bona fide ashramites. These included Manilal Gandhi from South Africa and several others from all across India.
- “There were thirty-one marchers from Gujarat, thirteen from Maharashtra, lesser numbers from the United Provinces, Kerala, Punjab and Sindh, with Tamilnadu, Andhra, Karnataka, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa sending one man apiece.
- The diversity was social as well as geographical, for among the chosen marchers were many students and khadi workers, several ‘untouchables’, a few Muslims and one Christian,” wrote Guha. Even though women too wanted to be part of the march, Gandhi preferred to keep it restricted to men alone.
- They started out at 6:30 AM, amidst a large group cheering them along with flowers, greetings and rupee notes. On their way they stopped at a number of villages, where Gandhi addressed large crowds with fiery speeches on the need to boycott the salt tax.
- Newspapers of the day reported on how at every stop Gandhi was greeted by enthusiastic followers. Indescribable scenes of enthusiasm marked the progress of the march of the Swaraj Army on this fourth day.
- The rich and the poor, millionaires and mazurs [workers], ‘caste’ Hindus and so-called untouchables, one and all, vied with one another in honouring India’s great liberator. Other newspapers, particularly the international ones like the Time magazine and The Daily Telegraph, though provided a much bleaker picture of the march.
- Gandhi reached Dandi on April 5. The following day, early morning he proceeded along with the other marchers to the sea, where he picked up lumps of natural salt lying in a small pit. The act was symbolic, but was hugely covered by the press, and was the beginning of several other acts of civil disobedience in other parts of India.
- “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire,” said Gandhi while picking up the salt in his hand. “Now that the technical or ceremonial breach of the Salt Law has been committed it is open to anyone who would take the risk of prosecution under the Salt Law to manufacture salt wherever he wishes and wherever it is convenient. My advice is that the workers should everywhere manufacture salt to make use of it and to instruct the villagers to do so,” he told a representative of the Free Press.
- The popularity gained by the march shook up the British government. It responded by arresting more than 95,000 people by March 31. The following month Gandhi proceeded to Dharasana salt works from where he was arrested and taken to the Yerawada Central Jail.
- As Gandhi broke the salt laws in Dandi, similar acts of civil disobedience took place in other parts of India. In Bengal, for instance, volunteers led by Satish Chandra Dasgupta walked from Sodepur Ashram to the village of Mahisbathan to make salt.
- K.F Nariman in Bombay led another group of marchers to Haji Ali Point where they prepared salt at a nearby park.
- The illegal manufacture and sale of salt was accompanied by the boycott of foreign cloth and liquor. What started as salt satyagraha soon grew into mass satyagraha. Forest laws were flouted in Maharashtra, Karnataka and the Central Provinces.
- Peasants in Gujarat and Bengal refused to pay land and chowkidari taxes. Acts of violence too broke out in Calcutta, Karachi and Gujarat, but unlike what happened during the non-cooperation movement, Gandhi refused to suspend the civil disobedience movement this time.
- The Congress Working Committee decided to end Satyagraha only in 1934. Even though it did not immediately lead to self-rule or dominion status, the Salt Satyagraha did have some long-term effects.
- “Indian, British and world opinion increasingly recognised the legitimate claims of Gandhi and the Congress for Indian Independence,” wrote Richard L. Johnson who authored the book, ‘Gandhi’s experiments with truth: Essential writings by and about Mahatma Gandhi’. Moreover, the British also realised that control over India now depended completely on the consent of the Indias.
- Civil disobedience was initiated under the stewardship of Mahatma Gandhi. It was launched after the observance of Independence Day in 1930.
- The civil disobedience movement commenced with the infamous dandi march when Gandhi left the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad on foot with 78 other members of the Ashram for Dandi on 12 March 1930.
- After reaching Dandi, Gandhi broke the salt law. It was considered illegal to make salt as it was solely a government monopoly.
- The salt satyagraha led to a widespread acceptance of the civil Disobedience movement across the country. This event became symbolic of people’s defiance of the government policies.
- Civil disobedience movement was the first nationwide movement while all others were restricted to urban areas.
- This movement gave the people in rural areas the opportunity to participate.
- This movement witnessed the participation of women was in large numbers
- Kasturba Gandhi, Kamladevi Chattopadhyay, Avantikabai Gokhale, Lilavati Munshi, Hansaben Mehta were some of the prominent female leaders who led the satyagraha movement
- The motto of this movement was Non-violence.
- Despite continuous suppression by the British government, this movement did not turn back
- Following Gandhi’s footsteps, C. Rajgopalchari in Tamil Nadu led a similar march from Trichinopoly to Vedaranyam.
- In Peshawar, satyagraha was led by a Muslim Pashtun disciple of Gandhi, Ghaffar Khan, who had trained 50,000 nonviolent activists called Khudai Khidmatgar.
- At the same time Sarojini Naidu, a prominent leader in the congress led the movement in Darasana in Gujarat.
- The police opened a lathi charge which led to over 300 satyagrahis being severely injured.
- Consequently, there were demonstrations, hartals, a boycott of foreign goods, and later refusal to pay taxes. A lakh of participants including women participated in this movement.
- In order to consider the reforms by the Simon Commission, the British government convened the first-round table conference in November 1930.
- It was however boycotted by the Indian National Congress. The conference was attended by Indian princes, the Muslim League, Hindu Mahasabha, and some others.
- However, nothing came of it. The British realized that without the participation of congress no real constitutional changes would come about.
- The viceroy, Lord Irwin made efforts to persuade Congress to join the second-round table congress. Gandhi and Irwin reached an agreement wherein the government agreed to release all political prisoners against whom there were no charges of violence and in turn congress would suspend the civil disobedience movement.
- In the Karachi session in 1931, presided over by Vallabhbhai Patel, it was decided that the congress would participate in the 2nd round table congress. Gandhi represented the session which met in September 1931.
- At the Karachi session, an important resolution of fundamental rights and economic policy was passed. Besides laying down the policy of the nationalist movement on social and economic problems facing the country, it guaranteed fundamental rights to the people irrespective of caste and religion and favoured the nationalisation of industries.
- The session met with the participation of Indian princes, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communal leaders. However, the sole reason for their participation was to promote their vested interests. None of them were interested in the independence of India. Due to this, the second-round table conference was met with failure and no agreement could be reached.
- The government repression intensified and Gandhi and many other leaders were arrested. In all about 12,000 people were arrested.
- After the withdrawal of the movement in 1939, Congress passed a resolution that demanded that a constituent assembly, elected by the people on the basis of adult franchise, be convened. And that only such an assembly could frame the constitution for India.
- Even though Congress did not succeed, these garnered vast sections of the people to participate in the mass struggle. Radical objectives for the transformation of Indian society were also adopted.
- The civil disobedience in 1930 marked the first-time women became mass participants in the struggle for freedom. Thousands of women, from large cities to small villages, became active participants in satyagraha.
- Gandhi had asked that only men take part in the salt march, but eventually women began manufacturing and selling salt throughout India. It was clear that though only men were allowed within the march, that both men and women were expected to forward work that would help dissolve the salt laws.
- Usha Mehta, an early Gandhian activist, remarked that "Even our old aunts and great-aunts and grandmothers used to bring pitchers of salt water to their houses and manufacture illegal salt. And then they would shout at the top of their voices: 'We have broken the salt law!'"
- The growing number of women in the fight for sovereignty and self-rule was a "new and serious feature" according to Lord Irwin.
- A government report on the involvement of women stated "thousands of them emerged ... from the seclusion of their homes ... in order to join Congress demonstrations and assist in picketing: and their presence on these occasions made the work the police was required to perform particularly unpleasant."
- Though women did become involved in the march, it was clear that Gandhi saw women as still playing a secondary role within the movement, but created the beginning of a push for women to be more involved in the future.
- Sarojini Naidu was among the most visible leaders (male or female) of pre-independent India. As president of the Indian National Congress and the first woman governor of free India, she was a fervent advocate for India, avidly mobilizing support for the Indian independence movement. She was also the first woman to be arrested in the salt march.
- It created distrust towards the British government and laid the foundation for the freedom struggle, and popularised the new method of propaganda like the Prabhat, pheris, pamphlets, etc.
- Following the defiance of forest law in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Central province and the refusal to pay the rural ‘Chaukidari tax’ in Eastern India, the government ended the oppressive salt tax.
- It resembled unity among all castes, classes, religion and sex as well.
- Gradually, the campaign carried the message of nationalism to Harijans leading to their increasing participation in national and peasant movements.
- Imports of foreign clothes and other items fell.
- Elections to the Legislative Assembly were largely boycotted.
- The Civil Disobedience Movement and the Dandi- Maech exposed the Britisher’s real face and increased the feeling of unity and nationalism among Indians to get Independence as soon as possible. Its legacy thus brings the date of independence closer.
- This is a continuation of earlier efforts to encourage better utilization of large-scale data collected by the government machinery. A need was felt to take advantage of data generated through routine administrative processes for the better delivery of public services.
- Such policies exist in many countries and an efficient use of such data will go a long way in improving services. Despite the demands of academia and other stakeholders, large volumes of such data have remained unutilized.
- The draft policy is a step forward in realizing the potential of this large volume of data. Sharing it across various ministries and between central and state governments is a first step that can be taken easily. However, any data accessibility-and-use policy is incomplete without adequate public safeguards provided through a comprehensive data protection framework.
- Unfortunately, the progress on that front has been slow. The urgency of such a framework is all the more acute because the proposed policy suggests licensing of public-sector data on citizens to private entities.
- Other than issues of privacy and transparency, there are also issues of conflict of interest and misuse of such data for commercial or political purposes. At a time when data is “the new oil”, monetization of valuable public sector data without adequate safeguards can be counter-productive, with implications for governance of public services and the privacy of individuals.
- While the policy proposes greater openness and transparency in sharing public-sector data, this can contribute to policymaking only if data integrity is maintained and it can independently be verified. As public data is a by-product of government administration, its quality is only as good as that of the administration.
- To maintain the integrity of this data, it is essential to open databases for public scrutiny and academic analysis. Social audits could serve a purpose here. Provisions for this are in-built in programmes such as the one that is run under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
- Its social audit has not only raised the quality of data available on this job programme’s functioning, but also helped improve the scheme itself.
- However, such a process has not been successful in many states, given the two-way relationship between administrative functioning and programme outcomes. Administrative control over data has also been used to thwart attempts by users and citizens to obtain data for public use.
- A good example of this is the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which has been diluted to a large extent over the past decade. Citizens’ attempts to obtain public data have even led to many RTI activists losing their lives.
- Moreover, such data can at best be complementary to a systematic evaluation of administrative functioning and the efficacy of public services through independent surveys and research. Unfortunately, public data has often been used to discredit independent credible surveys, rather than complement them.
- Data from the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and E-Shram portal have been used to argue that jobs are being generated, as against separate evidence from the Periodic Labour Force Surveys of the National Statistical Office (NSO).
- Even though EPFO and E-Shram numbers indicate only job registration in government records (and thus formalization), these have been used to suit a political narrative. Similar attempts were made with other data collected by the NSO on indicators such as open defecation, access to potable water, and so on.
- Recent years have seen an unprecedented assault on the credibility of NSO survey data, its consumption survey of 2017-18 formally rejected. Even a basic exercise such as our decennial population census has become political, with unnecessary attempts to link it with a National Population Register.
- An essential part of our data policy should be to protect it from the very institution that generates it, which includes the administrative machinery as well as the political leadership. Our statistical system needs strengthening.
- An independent mechanism of evaluation and verification of public data is necessary for it to prove meaningfully useful. More so in cases where such data is closely linked to people’s access to essential public services. The policy will have little relevance unless safeguards are built in to protect privacy and the data is reliable enough for the purpose of holding the government accountable.
Women’s participation in economic activities
- Nearly a century has passed, and despite the multidimensional growth that India has achieved since, his concerns remain relevant even today. Although women constitute almost half of India’s population of 1.2 billion, they are largely excluded from participating in economic activities and decision-making, as well as access to resources of health, nutrition, education, etc.
- This exclusion and discrimination are reflected in low female labour force participation rates, with India recording a meagre 22.3% in 2021 in comparison with 30.3% in 1990.
- In the context of increased importance being given to innovation, technology and self-sustenance, especially in a post-covid era, economically weaker sections have faced an acute loss of jobs and income.
- Even though women have the potential to contribute to household finances, they often do not have the agency to participate in decisions related to avenues of income generation, thus many a time pushing their families to the brink of poverty.
- In a country that is at the cusp of a rapid transformation in terms of evolving employment opportunities, urbanization and innovation, female participation in the economy remains crucial to where India stands globally.
- Even though working women account for approximately 432 million, about 343 million are not in paid formal job roles or work.
- An estimated 324 million of them are not in the labour force; and another 19 million are part of the labour force but not employed. Hence, the nature of employment among women is either not accounted for in the formal economy, or women end up not having access to formal jobs due to existent socio-cultural complexities.
- As a society with deep-rooted patriarchy, even if women want to attain employment, the dominant tradition of female domestic responsibility coupled with social stigma limits their economic advancement and access to opportunities in comparison with their male equivalents.
- To overcome social stigmas around employment and give women the agency to break out of the shackles of subordination, entrepreneurship is an innovative and simple tool.
- To boost the participation of women in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, the government has introduced a plethora of schemes, such as the Mudra Yojana, Udyogini Scheme, Annapurna Scheme and Stand-Up India.
- However, despite efforts to create a better environment for women entrepreneurs in India, the arranging of finances remains the single biggest challenge. While the family may have an expendable income, its dominant members often refrain from contributing to a woman’s dream of financial independence.
- Moreover, even if women manage to apply for loans, the collateral against which these are offered, such as property, is often held in their spouse’s name, which further acts as a deterrent to start an enterprise. Coupled with social stigmas, no financial access results in unfulfilled ambitions of women, while limiting their opportunities to become self-reliant by gaining agency or mobility in the social sphere.
- In such a scenario, self-help groups (SHG) can act as a bridge between women entrepreneurs who have the will to begin an enterprise but do not have the resources to fulfil their dream, and the finances needed for it.
- An SHG comprises a small group of women who come together to make regular monetary contributions. Emerging as important micro-finance systems, SHGs work as platforms that promote solidarity among women, bringing them together on issues of health, nutrition, gender parity and gender justice.
- SHGs have already made a significant contribution in developing entrepreneurship aptitudes among rural women by enhancing their skills and giving them a chance to engage in various entrepreneurial activities.
- SHGs provide women entrepreneurs with micro-loans to sustain their businesses, while also creating an environment for them to develop greater agency and decision-making skills.
- In India, the SHG movement began in the 1980s, when several non-government organizations mobilized and organized poor communities in rural areas and offered them formal channels for social and financial support.
- This programme gained momentum with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development linking a small number of such groups with banks. Called the Self-Help Group Bank Linkage Programme, this revolutionary initiative connected group members, many of whom had never had a bank account before, to formal financial services in a sustainable and scalable manner.
- In Maharashtra, specifically, the concept of SHGs goes way back to 1947, when a few women of Amravati district established an SHG with just 25 paise.
- Today, apart from being a conduit for credit in the state, SHGs also deliver services ranging from entrepreneurial training, livelihood promotion and community development for women entrepreneurs.
- SHGs such as Mahila Arthik Vikas MahilaMandal, UMED Abhiyan under Maharashtra’s department of rural development’s State Rural Livelihood Mission, and government schemes such as Tejaswani, etc, have proven beneficial in the development of women entrepreneurship for the cause of women’s empowerment.
- A study conducted by Ashwini Deshpande and Shantanu Khanna in 2020 reported that SHGs in Maharashtra have had a strong impact on a range of indicators related to women’s empowerment in the state, including political participation, knowledge of administration, financial literacy, mobility and decision-making.
- In Maharashtra alone, 527,000 SHGs have had a role to play in accounting for over 50% of all women-led small-scale industrial units in India, which shows that SHGs can lead to the holistic development of women entrepreneurship.
- Self-help groups are exceedingly relevant today because their provision of micro-loans helps overcome regional imbalances as well as information asymmetries, thus offering a level playing field in terms of access to resources for women.
- The revolutionary momentum that SHGs have created has given women an important sense of self-assurance in their journey to become Aatmanirbhar or self-reliant.
- Observing the crucial role, they play; corporations and foundations globally have designed SHG-led programmes to help women achieve economic empowerment.
- Initiatives such as the UdyamStree campaign by EdelGive Foundation, for example, has focused on women entrepreneurs in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, among other states, by leveraging SHGs such as MAVIM, and other relevant stakeholders. Facebook’s Pragati and Google’s Women Will, among others, have also moved the needle in fostering a level-playing field for women entrepreneurs. With mortgage-free micro-loans at the core of the trust that SHGs build with their beneficiaries, they are one of India’s most important tools for women to achieve socio-economic self-reliance.
- “Millions of women in our hamlets know what unemployment means, give them access to economic activities and they will have access to power and self- confidence to which they hitherto have been strangers”- Mahatma Gandhi Young India (1930).
- The successful transplantation surgery was announced on January 10, a few days after it was carried out on 57-year-old David Bennett, who was suffering from severe arrhythmia, a life-threatening disorder affecting the rhythm of his heartbeat.
Why not a normal heart transplant?
- The experimental procedure was done after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency authorization for it on December 31, 2021. Bennett had been ruled ineligible for a conventional heart transplant or an artificial heart by major transplant centres.
- According to the FDA, xenotransplantation is “any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of either:
- Live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or
- Human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs.
- Xenotransplantation is seen as an alternative to the clinical transplantation of human organs whose demand around the world exceeds supply by a long distance.
- Xenotransplantation involving the heart was first tried in humans in the 1980s. A well-known case was that of an American baby, Stephanie Fae Beau Clair, better known as Baby Fae, who was born with a congenital heart defect, and who received a baboon heart in 1984.
- The surgery was successful, but Baby Fae died within a month of the transplant after the baboon heart was rejected by her body’s immune system. Even so, Baby Fae managed to survive xenotransplantation for much longer than in earlier experiments.
- Xenotransplantation, if found compatible in the long run, could help provide an alternative supply of organs to those with life-threatening diseases. The pig’s heart transplanted into Bennett did well initially, and he showed no signs of rejection for several weeks. Bennett spent time with his family, did physical therapy and watched the Super Bowl, The New York Times reported, quoting hospital officials.
- It was not immediately clear if his death ultimately occurred due to rejection of the xenotransplant heart by his body.
- Pig heart valves have been used for replacing damaged valves in humans for over 50 years now. There are several advantages to using the domesticated or farmed pig (Sus scrofa domestica) as the donor animal for xenotransplantation.
- The pig’s anatomical and physiological parameters are similar to that of humans, and the breeding of pigs in farms is widespread and cost-effective. Also, many varieties of pig breeds are farmed, which provides an opportunity for the size of the harvested organs to be matched with the specific needs of the human recipient.
- The molecular incompatibility between pigs and humans can trigger several immune complications after the transplant, which might lead to rejection of the xenograft. To pre-empt that situation, genetic engineering is used to tweak the genome of the pig so as to ‘disguise’ it, so that the immune system of the human recipient fails to recognise it, and the reactions that lead to xenograft rejection are not triggered.
- In the case of Bennett, the donor pig had been put through 10 genetic modifications intended to ‘deactivate’ or knock out four pig genes, and add six human genes.
- A “GalSafe” pig was used, from which a gene that codes for Alpha-gal (a sugar molecule) was removed. Alpha-gal can elicit a devastating immune response in humans, and GalSafe pigs have been well studied, and are approved by the USFDA for use in pharmacology.
- Reportedly, the gross foreign reserves dropped 24 per cent further in January 2022 to US$ 2.3 billion.
- Depletion in foreign reserves has led to uncertainty about Sri Lankan government’s ability to account for import of essential items and debt servicing.
- Sri Lankan authorities have acknowledged that they are facing increasing difficulty in settling the import bills due to the dollar crunches, particularly for import of fuel for daily requirements.
- The government and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) are however, confident that Sri Lanka will not default in debt servicing due to the current economic crisis.
- The Governor of the CBSL believes that the pressures on the economy will ease soon with a steady inflow of forex. The situation on the ground as well as the analyses of government’s policy measures and global geopolitical-economic developments including the fallout of Russia–Ukraine war, nonetheless suggest that a state of uncertainty is hovering over Sri Lankan economy.
- Since its independence, trade deficit has been a consistent feature of Sri Lankan economy, as its import bill has always been more than the revenue earned through export. A huge amount of the foreign exchange earned is being consumed to pay the import bill for years.
- In recent years, the government's debt-servicing commitment of the government has put additional pressure on the foreign reserves.
- On the other hand, foreign exchange inflow to the country declined first due to the impact of Easter Sunday attack on tourism sector in 2019 and then due to the outbreak of global pandemic which severely affected all the main foreign currency earning sectors of Sri Lanka, i.e., tourism, remittances, and export.
- As the government could not raise adequate liquidity owing to the unprecedented adverse market conditions, the CBSL continued to provide liquidity from the foreign reserves since 8 April 2020. Between 8 April and 22 June 2020, the Central Bank settled US$ 1,007 millions of government debt utilising the Central Bank’s foreign reserves.
- Debt commitment for the period July 2021–July 2022 is approximately US$ 5–7 billion.
- Reduction in the inflow of foreign reserves at a time when the outflow is significant has made the current foreign crisis worse in recent years.
- Due to the foreign reserve’s crisis, the country is facing severe fuel shortages leading to daily power cuts, shortage of food, medicines, cement and other essential items.
- Importers are finding it difficult to get a Letter of Credit (LOC) issued from the banks due to lack of foreign currency in the country. As a result, many of the containers are stuck at Colombo port for several days since payments are not settled.
- Due to shortage of fuel, many power plants have to be kept shut, which is resulting in a power crisis in the country. Some power plants are resorting to hydro energy using water basically used for irrigation purposes.
- Due to insufficient rain and increased use of reservoirs for the power plants, water shortage is anticipated which, as per experts, will badly affect agricultural production and may lead to a food crisis.
- According to the All-Island Private Pharmacy Owners' Association, a severe drug shortage is looming as the existing back-up stocks of medicines are due to be used up within three months. Reportedly, Sri Lanka has a five-percentage shortage of required medicines.
- Another fallout of the depletion of foreign reserves is downgrading of Sri Lanka’s sovereign ratings by the international rating agencies. It has impacted the investors’ confidence to invest in Sri Lanka as the country has been put in the ‘high-risk’ category of defaulting the debt servicing.
- The government has approached bilateral partners for loan, credit and currency swap facility to deal with the issue of settling import and debt. Special attention is also being given to boost investors’ confidence while dealing with the crisis situation by not defaulting on debt-servicing.
- Import Restrictions: The Sri Lankan government has banned import of luxury vehicles, chemical fertilisers and food items like turmeric to prevent foreign currency outflows.
- The government justifies the ban on chemical fertilizer to promote organic farming in the country, prevention of outflow of foreign currency was also a factor behind the chemical fertilizer import ban policy.
- Before the ban, Sri Lanka used to spend around US$ 400 million annually on fertiliser imports and more than US$ 7 million for turmeric imports.
- US$ 1.5 billion was spent in 2018 on vehicle imports.
- The government’s justification for the import ban is that it would prevent an outflow of foreign currency and encourage domestic production which could lead to growth of exports.
- Restrictions on forward contracts of foreign exchange: In view of the need to avoid excess volatility in the foreign exchange market, the CBSL has directed the licensed commercial banks to refrain from entering into forward contracts of foreign exchange for a period of three months.
- Enhancing Remittance Inflow: To enhance remittance inflows to the country, the government has introduced several policy initiatives like: proposal to diversify the foreign employment market which is now mostly dependent on the Middle Eastern countries;
- Establishing a contributory pension scheme for migrant employees; and to pay Sri Lankan Rs 2 per dollar above the normal exchange rate for the foreign exchange remittances converted at licensed banks.
- A Special Deposit Account scheme has also been introduced to attract more inward remittances to the country.
- Assistance from Bilateral Partners: Government of Sri Lanka is approaching bilateral partners for assistance to deal with the current economic crisis in the form of loans and currency swap facilities.
- Bangladesh has extended US$ 200 million currency swap facility.
- China extended US$ 1.5 billion swap facility. Sri Lanka has also received US$ 700 million from China Development Bank.
- India has so far committed financial assistance to the tune of US$ 2.4 billion which includes:
- US$ 400 million under the SAARC currency swap arrangement;
- Deferral of A.C.U. settlement of US$ 515.2 million in two months;
- US$ 500 million for importing fuel from India;
- US$ 1 billion for importing food, essential items, and medicine.
- In addition to this, Indian Oil Corporation has supplied 40,000 Metric Tonnes of fuel on 60 days credit.
- As part of the financial assistance package, India has also agreed to positively contribute to enhance Sri Lanka’s energy security by signing an MoU to jointly develop the Trincomalee oil tank farms; and by providing all kinds of assistance to tap Indian tourists for strengthening Sri Lanka’s tourism sector as well as enhancing Indian investments in Sri Lanka.
- Pakistan and Qatar have also agreed to provide assistance. Pakistan has agreed to extend US$ 200 million credit lines to import cement, basmati rice and medicines manufactured in Pakistan.
- Boosting investors’ confidence: To boost investors’ confidence, the government has made provisions for Special Deposit Accounts.
- The government is determined not to default in debt servicing commitment despite the shortages of foreign exchange. Despite repeated calls from the opposition parties, the government has decided not to request the lender to restructure the debt payment.
- No to International Monetary Fund (IMF) Bailout: Sri Lanka is not keen to approach IMF for bailout, as the IMF assistance comes with strings attached, which would impose additional burden on the people who are already facing challenges due to the pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis, according to the government. The incumbent government is also of the view that the IMF programmes implemented in Sri Lanka from time to time worsened the country’s economic problems. Though the government is confident that it would be able to deal with the situation without an IMF bailout, statements from the ruling party leaders suggest that the government might get technical advice from the IMF.
- The way the Sri Lankan government is handling the situation is not being appreciated by the economists and opposition parties.
- The critics are arguing that the government is focusing on short-term measures and on particular segments without taking a holistic approach to the overall economic interactions.
- It is argued that the import restrictions in the short period may have reduced expenditure and thus trade balance, however, continuing ban on imports would affect the exports too because export industry of Sri Lanka is largely dependent on import of intermediate capital goods. Import ban has affected many of the importers adversely.
- The government’s policy of banning chemical fertilisers has also been severely criticised as it is going to affect agricultural production and could escalate food insecurity in the country.
- Import ban has increased smuggling and illegal trade of banned items resulting in price rise.
- Selective control of imports has been used by the government in the past too whenever there was a fall in the revenue earned from exports, from 1948 till the 1960s. However, it only gave short-term relief and did not contribute much to the improvement of the overall economic situation of the country.
- The delegation of the European Union (EU) and the Embassies of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Romania in a joint statement issued on 19 November 2020, criticised Sri Lankan government’s import restrictions arguing that a prolonged import ban is not in line with World Trade Organization regulations and it is also likely to have a negative impact on Sri Lankan and European businesses, and on Foreign Direct Investment.
- The bilateral assistance in the form of currency swap facility received from Bangladesh, China and India has helped Sri Lanka to slightly improve its Gross Official Reserves, and facilitated to settle the debt servicing that was due in the month of January 2022.
- Indian assistance has also helped in dealing with the fuel shortages. Sri Lanka is relying heavily on the US$ 1 billion from India to foot the import bill of the food and medicines. Full realisation of the assistance offered by India is depending on completion of ministerial level formalities. The finance minister of Sri Lanka is likely to visit India for the same this month. China has not yet made any official commitment on Sri Lanka’s request for loan to repay the Chinese loans. According to the Sri Lankan Ambassador to China, discussions with the Chinese in this regard are at an advanced stage.
- Though the incumbent government is hopeful, Sri Lanka cannot totally depend on the bilateral assistance alone to overcome this crisis.
- Although the assistance is giving Sri Lanka a breathing space to manage the debt servicing and settlement of import bills with limited foreign reserves, it is worth noting that these assistances are coming in the form of loans.
- It is believed that the current economic situation is going to prevail for at least another two or three years. Sri Lanka needs a bailout with long-term, low-interest loans, with a grace period long enough to sustain during the current economic situation.
- Opposition parties and many experts in Sri Lanka believe that relying only on bilateral assistance is not enough, and are therefore pressing the government to approach IMF.
- The Sri Lankan government is hopeful that the foreign exchange situation will improve soon with the materialisation of envisaged inflows from the bilateral partners, as well as non-debt creating foreign currency inflows in the coming days. It is expected that the foreign exchange earnings from the tourism sector and remittances will improve soon. Despite the optimism of the government and the CBSL, it is unlikely that people of Sri Lanka are going to feel economic relief in the near future.
- Sri Lanka’s debt burden is huge. Its debt service obligation for the period July 2021 to 2026 is about US$ 29 billion.
- Uncertainty still exists about the improvement of the tourism and export sector. The escalation of war between Russia and Ukraine will have repercussions for Sri Lanka, as both Ukraine and Russia are important markets for Sri Lankan tourism. Of the total tourists who visited Sri Lanka this year till 11 February, Russians accounted for 15.8 per cent and Ukrainians accounted for 8.7 per cent.
- A lack of tourists from these countries due to the war will have implications for the tourism sector. Also, the Russia–Ukraine war has already caused global oil price rise, which would create further problems for Sri Lanka to import fuel for its daily requirements. The escalating situation between Ukraine and Russia may also impact the export as they are important markets for Sri Lankan tea.
- Before the pandemic, Sri Lanka was dependent on a large number of Chinese tourists. About 1,67,863 Chinese tourists visited Sri Lanka in 2019.26 It is not clear yet as to when China would lift the ban on people’s movement in and out of the country.
- EU is the second largest market for Sri Lanka’s export sector. EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) facilitates duty-free entry of the Sri Lankan products to EU. Unsatisfied with Sri Lanka’s human rights records, EU Parliament has threatened to review the GSP+ scheme extended to Sri Lanka through a resolution in June 2021.
- In the resolution, Sri Lankan government was asked to take proactive measures to improve its human rights records including abolition of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet took a critical stand in her report presented during the 49th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) beginning on 4 March 2022 for not implementing its pledge to establish war crimes accountability mechanisms.
- The report also asked the government to take “further steps to address the fundamental problems with the PTA and undertake deeper legal, institutional and security sector reforms that were critically needed to put an end to impunity and prevent any reoccurrence of past violations”.
- In its response Sri Lanka alleged that the report had an “intolerably intrusive character and there was a clear element of discrimination within it”. However, during the interactive dialogues following the presentation of the report, many of the participant countries asked the Sri Lankan government to “fully consider the numerous and consecutive recommendations made by various United Nations mechanisms and organizations”.
- Sri Lanka’s attitude towards those recommendations in coming days will determine the flow of assistance from the Western countries particularly from the EU to deal with the economic crisis. Withdrawal of GSP+ facility to Sri Lanka by the EU will be a big obstacle in the growth of export sector.
- At the domestic level, the government has to face the wrath of common people, opposition parties and even disappointment of some of the coalition partners because of its handling of the economic crisis, pandemic, overall governance and foreign affairs.
- All these factors cumulatively will pose serious challenges for Sri Lanka to overcome the current crisis. Even though the government as of now has refused to approach the IMF for assistance, it might be compelled to accept the same at a later date.
- In a speech delivered at the Oxford Internet Union in September last year, Elizabeth Denham, former information commissioner of the UK, made an impassioned plea for a new Bretton Woods pact for data.
Bretton Woods pact
- In September 1929, when the US stock market crashed, countries around the world scrambled to put in place measures to protect their economies from the economic repercussions that began to reverberate globally. However, rather than stemming the rot, these protectionist measures—tariff barriers, currency devaluation and discriminatory trade blocs—created an unstable international environment that ended up making things much worse. Many historians believe that had it not been for the advent of World War II, the repercussions of the Great Depression would have stayed with us for much longer.
- The experience of living through the 1930s was so unnerving to world leaders that in July 1944, while World War II was at its height, 44 Allied nations came together in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to participate in what was officially called the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference.
- By the time the conference concluded, participating countries had decided that instead of each continuing to use the gold standard, they would make the US dollar the global currency for trade, which would in turn be benchmarked against gold.
- In order for this new global arrangement to work, the summit’s participants committed themselves to a fixed exchange rate between their domestic currencies and the dollar, and to refrain from trade wars involving a cheapening of their currencies to increase exports.
- This agreement, which came to be known as the Bretton Woods Agreement, also resulted in the establishment of the International Monetary Fund, a multilateral agency from which member countries could borrow in order to adjust their currency’s value when they didn’t have the funds to do so themselves.
- While opinion is divided over the success of the Bretton Woods deal (particularly given that US President Richard Nixon permanently decoupled the US dollar from its gold anchor in 1971), there is little doubt that the agreement was responsible for the way in which the world approaches the international flow of funds to this day.
- It created a playbook for multilateral policy-making that requires countries to co-operate with one another in order to achieve global objectives, even if that calls for them to make short-term domestic sacrifices.
- At present, three different approaches to data governance are being practised by countries around the world. With each passing year, these differences were hardening to a point where it was becoming hard to find common ground.
- And yet, given our increasing dependence on data for almost everything we do, the fragmentation that this divergence causes will cause complications we can ill afford. It is necessary for countries to find common ground by agreeing on a base normative framework for governance, upon which we can then layer regional variations as required.
- “Our current approach to data protection,” considered nation by nation, can only take us so far. If we are to unlock the full potential of data driven innovation, supported by public trust in how data is used, we need an international approach to data protection standards. We need an international solution.”
- In the first place, Denham suggests that we should give up trying (as the EU has been doing since its General Data Protection Regulation came into effect) to get all countries in the world to enact a uniform global law. Instead, we should look to create a global alliance, membership to which would be open to nations with a demonstrated commitment to data protection backed by independent regulation, which would allow them to transfer low-risk data to fellow member countries.
- To be clear, this sets the bar for membership far lower than a GDPR-adequacy requirement would, but still provides individuals the assurance that their data will be subject to the same protections around the world.
- If we take this idea to its logical conclusion, we would need to create a brand-new multilateral institution for data that can be tasked with the responsibility of coordinating a regulatory dialogue between nations in order to achieve a sufficient level of regulatory harmonization.
- In keeping with the role that such an organization needs to play; it has been suggested that it should be established along the lines of the Financial Stability Board with a mandate to monitor and make recommendations on global data governance and cross-border data flows.
- Given the velocity of modern data flows and the variety of different digital pathways that they can traverse, nothing short of a technological solution will ensure compliance with the common regulatory principles that are eventually agreed upon.
- This will call for the development of a normative framework that can be directly embedded into national digital infrastructure, so that we are assured that data flowing through these systems meet basic data governance requirements.
- One of the primary objectives of such a Data Stability Board could be to develop a common set of technical standards and protocols for all aspects of data governance that member states could hard-code into their national systems, thus ensuring that they are interoperable, not just domestically, but among one another.
- In Havardx (which offers free online courses from Harvard University) and Edx (a massive open online course provider by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the enrolment of Indian students for Edx was second only to that of US students. Sadly only 16% of students completed these ‘digital only’ courses.
- Piramal Foundation’s own experience of working with about 2 million students and 700,000 educators during the pandemic has helped us see the lacunae in a digital-only approach.
- Students struggle in their transition to online learning, feel demotivated in the absence of a mentor or peer group, and also struggle with tests and assignments. Teachers, on the other hand, struggle with producing online content and find it difficult to keep children engaged.
- Model that combines online course instruction with weekly or fortnightly in-person educational sessions. As observed, phygital education makes it easier for students to transition to learning online, stay motivated to complete their courses and also complete their tests and assignments.
- Phygital education also helps teachers keep students engaged, read behaviour patterns among them that may be of relevance, and tailor their delivery accordingly.
- A phygital approach alone is not enough, though. We need many more components in order for it to be truly inclusive and game-changing, as it can prove to be.
- Employ a learning management system that is multi-lingual and accessible: Language barriers are a key challenge to online learning in our country, with such vast diversity of languages and dialects. Videos and frequently asked questions (FAQs) are primarily in English, and students struggle with access, navigation, understanding and synthesizing content.
- The website interface, applications, support and content for digital learning need to be made available in prominent regional languages. These need to be inclusive in other ways as well, keeping in mind the needs of people with disabilities, so that all learners embark on their learning journey with confidence.
- Enable the adoption, retention and completion of courses: Students are overwhelmed with creating online accounts and filling and uploading complex documents, and all this adds to their confusion about using applications. Fixing this requires building their digital literacy through simple, concise learning modules on how to operate a device and engage with a digital platform.
- Providing on-call support with minimum wait time via call centres, chatbots, etc, will help them overcome teething issues.
- Create engaging, immersive learning experiences: Shared teaching-learning experiences that have dipped because of the use of a virtual interface can be rebuilt by promoting a spirit of competition through periodic contests and events which rate performance and boost student motivation levels. A weekly in-person interaction between teachers and students will further enhance the experience for both.
- Link peer learners to create strong learning communities: One of the big challenges in digital education is the absence of a peer network. Students cope with the difficulty of studying alone, coupled with the boredom of online education, which can lead to discontinuity and drop-outs. Creating peer learning communities and linking groups of 3-5 students who are located in the same geographical vicinity will bring back joy, while fostering healthy competition and cross-learning.
- Improve the quality of instruction on digital platforms: Teachers face unique challenges with infrastructure required to teach online, an inability to adapt to the virtual-lecture mode, especially in the face of poor attendance and lack of real-time student feedback. Educators need to be supported in creating hygiene-checked content and regularly assessed to raise their competence levels. Additionally, curriculum frameworks need to be developed that encourage the creation of competency-based micro modular courses.
- Phygital education has the potential to transform education in India. It is the future because it contextualizes and reimagines education.
- However, we need to put in place an enabling environment that makes students and teachers feel comfortable and confident navigating this space in their own language. Blended education opens up immense opportunities for capacity building among frontline workers. It holds high empowerment potential because it can enable adults, especially women, resume education. Phygital education can serve as an engine of economic growth and a transformative force that empowers every Indian.
POSTED ON 14-03-2022 BY ADMIN
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