Carbon emissions in India

 

News Flash

The International Energy Agency found that India’s carbon emissions grew by 4.8% during 2018, in spite of the national focus on climate change in energy policy.

 

Historical Responsibility of the developed nations

There is wide recognition of the fact that Indians are not historically responsible for the problem, but the stock of carbon dioxide linked to extreme climate impacts was created by the Nations like USA.

For India Per capita emissions remain less than 40% of the global average. Equity among nations is therefore at the centre of the discussion on energy emissions, and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is central to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). At the global level, renewable sources of energy grew by 7% during 2018, but that pace is grossly insufficient, considering the rise in demand.

 

Where India Should target ?

Intensive measures in key sectors —

• Scaling up renewable to raise their share in the energy mix.
• Greening transport
• Updating building codes
• Raising energy efficiency

India’s share in wind and solar energy’s growth was not according to the potential, indicating that India needs to ramp up its capacity in this area.

• In spite of falling prices and rising efficiency, the potential of rooftop solar photovoltaics remains poorly utilised. It is time State power utilities are made responsible for defined rates of growth in the installation of rooftop systems.
• A second priority area is the cleaning up of coal power plants, some of which are young and have decades of use ahead. India should look for technology transfer through the UNFCCC and receive financial linkage from the $100 billion annual climate fund proposed for 2020.
• India should encourage green transportation.. The Centre’s plan to expand electric mobility through financial incentives for buses, taxis and two-wheelers needs to be pursued vigorously, especially in the large cities. Inevitably, India will have to raise its ambition on emissions reduction.

Common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) CBDR principle of international environmental law establishing that all states are responsible for addressing global environmental destruction yet not equally responsible. It is because of the share of the developed countries in global carbon stock is very large which was created when they were on the way of intense industrialization. The principle balances, on the one hand, the need for all states to take responsibility for global environmental problems and, on the other hand, the need to recognize the wide differences in levels of economic development between states. These differences in turn are linked to the states’ contributions to, as well as their abilities to address, these problems.

 

International Energy Agency

• IEA is an inter-governmental organization established in 1974 as per framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• It is headquartered in Paris, France.
• Its prime focus is on the “3Es” of effectual energy policy: energy security, economic development and environmental protection.
• It also seeks to promote alternate energy sources (including renewable energy), rational energy policies and multinational energy technology co-operation.

Source: Indian Express

 

 

 

Udusalamma festival

 

News Flash

The residents of Hariharapura and nearby villages in Holenarsipur taluk, of Karnataka have resolved to go ahead with the Sidi ritual (hook swinging) as part of the Udusalamma festival on Saturday.local administration has given direction against this ritual’s performance.

Udusalamma Jatra is hold every March in honour of the devi, an incarnation of Durga in Hassan district, about 180 km from Bengaluru.The ritual actually begins five days before the main event when the four men go on a fast. They stop eating and are sequestered in separate rooms. On the final day, the men are pierced early in the morning. They then set out on a procession behind an idol of the goddess. The men with the hooks, the women with the locked lips, and around 15 young Dalit men, who dance along the route. Their counterparts from the upper castes carry the idol.

 

What is the issue?

Once every two years, Sidi is part of the Udusalamma festival. Some people from the the Dalit castes insert metal hooks into the fleshy portion of their back and then swing from a high raised tree trunk over the crowd. This act of hook swinging has been criticised for the inhuman exhibition of the cruelty. On the other hand believers say this is the issue of their faith in the deity and one performs the hook swinging according to one’s own wishes.

Till the 19th century, the hooks would directly fasten the person to the wooden pole and he would swing from them. This horror was banned by the British, and since then this modified version has been in vogue. People of seven villages are set to participate in the festival. A few Dalit men of Chakenahalli village are expected to perform Sidi and have been fasting for the past several days, as is customary.

The Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Act, 2017 prohibits such practices. In their appeal, the organisation maintained that a few Dalits of Chakenahalli village have been following this practice in the name of tradition. In April 2016, a Dalit youth died while performing Sidi at Hebbal village of Belur taluk, when the wooden pole broke into two pieces. To eliminate this kind of practices a wider community level dialogue is needed and administration should run education campaigns involving local community leaders in it.

Origins of the Ritual

The legend is that it is a voluntary punishment that the Dalits have taken upon themselves down the ages for the favour goddess Udusalamma shown to their ancestor to safe from being caught for the paddy bags he had stolen. The family took a vow to propitiate her every two years with Sidi as long as their progeny continues on earth.

Source: The Hindu

 

 

Article 35A

Article 35A was included into the Constitution of India in 1954 by a presidential order made under Article 370 of the Constitution of India. It empowers the government of Jammu and Kashmir to do two things:

• To define a class of persons as constituting “permanent residents” of the state.
• To allow the government to confer on these persons special rights and privileges with respect to matters of public employment and acquisition of immovable property in the state.
• In addition, it grants immunity to such special rights and privileges legislation from being annulled on the ground that they infringe one or the other of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Article 35A Article 35A is a provision incorporated in the Constitution giving the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature a carte blanche to decide who all are ‘permanent residents’ of the State and confer on them special rights and privileges in public sector jobs, acquisition of property in the State, scholarships and other public aid and welfare. The provision mandates that no act of the legislature coming under it can be challenged for violating the Constitution or any other law of the land. The Presidential Order was issued under Article 370 (1) (d) of the Constitution. This provision allows the President to make certain “exceptions and modifications” to the Constitution for the benefit of ‘State subjects’ of Jammu and Kashmir. So Article 35A was added to the Constitution as a testimony of the special consideration the Indian government accorded to the ‘permanent residents’ of Jammu and Kashmir.

 

Secularism in India

Secularism as espoused by the founding fathers of the Constitution has two dimensions:

• The Indian state must be equidistant from all religions.
• It shall allow all religions equal space in the public sphere. This understanding created a lot of confusion for two reasons :
• There is huge numerical disparity in the religious composition of the Indian nation. This demographic inequality paved the way for the intrusion, and now proliferation, of majoritarian religious symbols, idioms and practices in the state’s domain.
• Religious nature of Indian society and the consequent political import of identity based on religion to politics. Political parties, almost without exception, found it convenient to use religious sectarianism to advance their fortunes.

Source: The Hindu

 

 

 

Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG)

 

News Flash

State governments in Odisha and Telangana started their kind of targeted and limited MIG. Then came the MIG in the form of the PM KISAN Yojana already being implemented the government at the Centre.

 

Benefits

• Landless labourers, agricultural workers and marginal farmers suffer from multi-dimensional poverty. They have remained the poorest of Indians. Contract and informal sector workers in urban areas face a similar problem.These groups are forced to borrow from moneylenders and adhatiyas (middlemen) at usurious rates of 24-60% per annum.
• Income transfers will surely reduce income inequalities and help bring a large number of households out of the poverty trap or prevent them from falling into it in the event of shocks such as illness or death of an earner.
• A boost to economic activities by increasing overall demand.
• This income can be interest-free working capital for several categories of beneficiaries such as fruit and vegetable vendors and small artisans, and can promote their businesses and employment.

 

Cons of such a scheme 

• There is no fiscal space. The scheme will cost about 1.92% of the GDP. No government can afford it unless several existing welfare schemes are converted into direct income transfers, or the fiscal deficit is allowed to shoot up way above its existing level, 3.4% the GDP.
• Large income transfers can be inflationary, which will hurt the poor more than the rich.
• Large cash transfers can result in withdrawal of beneficiaries from the labour force.
• A MIG can also provide legitimacy to the state’s withdrawal of provisions of the basic services.

 

So what should be done 

Incremental steps to give income support. Like ₹15,000 per annum can be a good start. It will result in :

• Improvement of nutrient intake at high levels of impoverishment, as studies shows, even a small income supplement can trigger this.
• Increase in school attendance for students coming from poor households. This would mean improved health and educational outcomes.
• Moreover, with a modest income support the risk of beneficiaries opting out of the workforce will also be small.

Source: The Hindu

 

 

ATTENTION

Alemba Yimchunger

The services of Alemba Yimchunger, a forest guard at the Fakim Wildlife Sanctuary in Nagaland’s Kiphire district, have been recognised with Earth Day Network Star, an award by a U.S.-based international environment organisation that engages with green groups in 195 countries. Earth day is observed on 22nd April.