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04.04.2024 Editorial
04.04.2024 Editorial
04.04.2024 Editorial
1 நகர்ப்புற ஏழைகள் மீது கவனம் செலுத்த வேண்டும் -தே. இந்திரனில் The Hindu 4
5 இந்தியாவின் பிரதுஷ் (PRATUSH) போல, வானியல் அறிஞர்கள் நிலவைச் சுற்றி The Hindu 33
தொலைநோக்கிகளை வைக்க விரும்புகிறார்கள் -பிரகாஷ் சந்திரா
9 கச்சத்தீவு மற்றும் வாட்ஜ் வங்கி (Wadge Bank) : அரை நூற்றாண்டுக்கு முன்பு Indian 53
மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்ட இரண்டு இந்தியா-இலங்கை ஒப்பந்தங்களின் கதை Express
- அருண் ஜனார்த்தனன்
11 தைவானில் கடுமையான நிலநடுக்கம் : நெருப்பு வளையம் (Ring of Fire) என்றால் என்ன? Indian 67
-அலிந்த் சௌஹான் Express
An analysis of income and employment trends of slum dwellers points to the prospects of
economic mobility and decent work for the poor in urban India
The India Employment Report (IER) 2024 by the Institute for Human Development and
International Labour Organization poses questions on the trickle-down effect of benefits
to the working class in the backdrop of a 5.4% average real economic growth, from
2015-16 to 2022-23. It also shows a divergent trend between rural and urban areas in
terms of employment and income. It demonstrates a relatively higher unemployment rate
in urban areas, at 4.8% in 2000 over the 1.5% in rural areas. However, average monthly
earnings are higher by 76% for self-employed, 44% for regular employed and 22% for
casual labour in urban areas in 2022. The coexistence of higher unemployment and
wages requires further investigation to understand its implications for the urban poor.
This article looks at the dynamics of employment and wages in pockets of deep urban
poverty, such as slums, and juxtaposes these with the findings of the IER 2024.
The higher income in urban areas and a better life have prompted rural-urban migration in
the past. As in the IER 2024, although overall migration has increased, the migration of
males has declined by 1.2% during 2000-08, and further marginally in 2021. This implies
that migration for economic mobility is losing its sheen. Rural poor households migrate to
slums instead of formal settlements. Hence, an analysis of income and employment
trends of slum dwellers would reveal the prospects of economic mobility and decent
work for the poor in urban India.
On the other hand, employment has increased by 9% in petty businesses or small shops.
Surprisingly, the share of other self-employed people has also declined by 3%. Among
occupations that were less popular earlier but which gained momentum in the last 10
years are truck driving and cleaning, by 5%, and construction and related work, by 4%.
The people employed in construction and related-work were minuscule in 2012.
Income trends
The average monthly income in 2012 was around ₹4,900. It decreased by 5% at constant
prices (2012) in 2019. Income was the highest for government employees in the slums in
both periods. However, at constant prices in 2012, their monthly income decreased by 5%
in 2019. On the other hand, the monthly income of domestic servants and unskilled
workers has remained the lowest. The highest decline in real income is observed for
construction and related work (51%), followed by petty business or small shop (32%) and
government service (32%) in 2019 as compared to 2012.
The decline in income and the rise in engagement with petty business or small shops and
construction or related work indicates a need for gainful employment options. Medium to
large shop owners have also lost real income by 26%. The popularity of labour work can
be explained by the rise in the real income of unskilled labour by 33%. Income of skilled or
semi-skilled labour increased by 12% but a lesser proportion are employed in 2019
The IER 2024 illustrates similar trends of changes in employment and wages. The share
of self-employed (including business) has increased from 38.7% to 41.3% for males and
from 34.5% to 44.8% for females in urban areas between 2000-19. However, real monthly
wages (at 2012 prices) declined for self-employed from ₹7,017 to ₹6,843 and for regular
workers from ₹12,100 to ₹11,155 but increased for casual workers (including labour) from
₹3,701 to ₹4,364 between 2012-19. This implies that the economic transition observed by
the IER 2024 is a reflection of the transformation happening in urban slums.
Interestingly, the fall in slum income of the highest income earners, government servants,
is accompanied by a doubling of the real income of the lowest income earners, domestic
servants. This implies that there was a general downfall in income, along with a reduction
in the differences in income from 2012-19. Other statistical measures also show a fall in
inequality in slums.
The gender composition within different occupation categories in Kolkata shows that
overall, the percentage of women in the workforce has declined by 3% in 2021-22
compared to 2012. However, the IER 2024 shows a 1.6% increase in women’s workforce
participation during 2012 and 2022. This may be due to an increase in female workforce
participation in non-slum areas rather than in slum areas.
The Pew Research Center surveyed the citizens of many countries in 2023 to gauge how
many prefer authoritarian rulers to multi-party democracy. The numbers choosing
dictators will dismay democrats. In the Global South: India (85%), Indonesia (77%), South
Africa (66%) and Brazil (57%). In the West: the United Kingdom (37%) and the United States
(32%), which are significant numbers too. China and Russia were not surveyed.
Citizens of democratic countries have lost trust in their governments’ economic policies.
Average incomes may be rising but the very rich are becoming much richer, faster. Large
corporations and financial institutions are compelling governments to set the rules of the
game in their favour by reducing taxes for them, emasculating labour institutions, and
exploiting the natural environment for their profit.
Moreover, the growth of the global economy and human population has brought humanity
to the brink. Scientists predict that the overuse of fossil energy for fuelling modern
consumptive lifestyles will make life on earth impossible beyond this century. Water,
fundamental for life, is also running out. India is among the most water stressed large
countries in the world.
India has 17.5% of the world’s population living on only 2.4% of the world’s land. In 2014,
India ranked 155 out of 178 countries in the global Environment Performance Index,
meanwhile, in 2022, India slipped to the very bottom — 180 out of 180. India, also the
world’s most populous country, has an additional problem, viz. to increase the incomes of
its citizens faster. While economists chase GDP targets, inequality is increasing and we
are spoiling the earth which supports the economy and sustains our lives.
Economics emerged as a distinct science out of philosophy and the humanities in the
early 20th century. Modern economists do not understand how societies function. By the
century’s end, free market fundamentalism had become an ideology. Leave it to the
“invisible hand” of the market because it knows best, these economists say. Behind the
invisible hand is the power of capital. The rights of capital, and its freedom to roam the
world across national boundaries and make more profits, trump the rights of human
beings moving across borders searching for safer lives.
Systems’ knowledge has been devalued by specialisation. Heart specialists can keep the
heart alive with amazing technologies. Brain specialists delve deeper into the biology of
the brain. They lose sight of the whole human being. Climate scientists research how to
remove carbon from the atmosphere, but the effects of their solutions on the livelihoods
of citizens are not in their science’s scope. High-tech solutions can improve parts of
complex systems while reducing overall health and well-being.
Any intelligence within a system cannot comprehend the system that produced it.
Modern science gave human beings hubris that they could conquer “unruly nature” as
Francis Bacon declared at the emergence of the European Enlightenment. The arrogant
scientific man thought he could change the system that had created him. His scientific
fixes of the world, and scientific improvements of his own genes, are threatening
humanity’s existence.
The world needs more caring, less competition. Women are natural family builders and
systems facilitators whereas men are brought up to compete. Rather than men teaching
Arun Maira is the author of Shaping the Future: A Guide for Systems Leaders
2023 ஆம் ஆண்டில், பியூ ஆராய்ச்சி மையம் (Pew Research Center survey)
உலகெங்கிலும் உள்ள மக்களிடம் ஆட்சியாளர்களுக்கான விருப்பம் குறித்து
கேட்டது. பலர் பல கட்சி ஜனநாயகத்தை விட சர்வாதிகார தலைவர்களை தேர்வு
செய்தனர். இந்த அறிக்கை ஜனநாயகத்தின் நம்பிக்கை கொண்டவர்களுக்கு
ஏமாற்றமளித்தது. உலகளாவிய தெற்கில் இந்தியா (85%), இந்தோனேசியா (77%),
தென்னாப்பிரிக்கா (66%), மற்றும் பிரேசில் (57%) மற்றும் மேற்கில் ஐக்கிய இராச்சியம்
(37%) மற்றும் அமெரிக்கா (32%) போன்ற நாடுகளில் கணிசமான எண்ணிக்கையினர்
சர்வாதிகாரிகளுக்கு ஆதரவாக உள்ளனர். சீனாவும் ரஷ்யாவும் இந்த ஆய்வின் ஒரு
பகுதியாக இல்லை என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.
ஒத்துழைப்புக்கான நிறுவனங்கள்
அருண் மைரா ’Shaping the Future: A Guide for Systems Leaders’ என்ற புத்தகத்தின்
ஆசிரியர்.
State governments are reluctant to wade in; the area is complex and requires attention
from medical and legal experts.
In early March this year, 30 people in Thrissur in Kerala executed living wills. Living wills
have been legal since 2018, when the Supreme Court of India created a process to allow
terminally-ill patients, with no hope of a cure, to withhold or withdraw treatment and die
with dignity. Since patients may not be able to communicate their wishes for a variety of
Writers explore the persistent hierarchy between social groups in education, and explain
why Scheduled Tribes are still the most disadvantaged. They offer remedial measures,
including the role of the bureaucracy in providing quality services at the local level.
In the Annual Status of Education Report, titled ‘ASER 2023: Beyond Basics’, released in
January, a survey by civil society organisation Pratham among rural students aged 14 to
18 years found that more than half struggled with basic mathematics, a skill they should
have mastered in Classes 3 and 4. The household survey conducted in 28 districts across
In this backdrop, an important study on the unique problems being faced by one of the
most marginalised communities of India, the Scheduled Tribes (STs), and what should be
done is Politics of Education in India: A Perspective from Below (Routledge), edited by
Ramdas Rupavath. In the Foreword, Werner Menski, Emeritus Professor of South Asian
Laws SOAS, University of London, says the scenario where tribals remain doubly
disadvantaged and that too many tribal children are still growing up without formal
educational provisions renders the study relevant for policymakers and educationists.
The ground realities vary from State to State, and “familiar problems persist when official
perceptions of tribal educational backwardness seem to overlook the undeniable
presence of sophisticated forms of traditional knowledge that might well be activated and
productively included within educational provisions.”
Local disconnect
Rupavath, in his Introduction, argues that education arrangements in India are not founded
on the resident-driven standard. Rather, these seem to have been forced on them. “For
instance, the training framework in India doesn’t consider the local dialects of the tribals.
Consequently, it is prompting only deficient improvement of the tribals.” That said, he also
stresses that education has brought a level of social portability for tribals. Divided in four
sections, the book examines critical aspects of tribal communities from education,
political participation, development issues, poverty, to the schemes in place to tackle the
gap between the privileged and the downtrodden.
After more than two years of ethnographic field research in States like Uttar Pradesh
and Himachal Pradesh, he found that often informal rules guide public officials and their
everyday relations with citizens, generating diverse ways of implementing policy and
ensuring better outcomes. He illuminates the possibilities of the bureaucracy to promote
inclusive development; and highlights the hurdles too.
In his book of essays, Smaller Citizens: Writings on the Making of Indian Citizens (Orient
BlackSwan), Krishna Kumar highlights gender and other inequalities — sex, caste,
rich/poor, urban/rural divide — that persist in education. Kumar writes about the
poor-quality teaching in many village schools. Mangla argues that to implement quality
In Education at the Crossroads (Niyogi Books), edited by Apoorvanand and Omita Goyal,
the writers highlight the state of education on campuses around the country. “Clearly, we
can see that far from being engines of transformation in our social relations, educational
institutions are mostly unequal spaces in themselves,” says Apoorvanand in his essay.
“The story is similar if we look at schools, where children from the Scheduled Castes and
Tribes still do not feel at home. Stories of villages boycotting schools with a Dalit cook,
for instance, are not exceptions.”
The fundamental challenge facing education today, says Apoorvanand, is to conceive and
design all its elements in such a way as to realise its democratic potential. “In a highly
unequal world such as ours, which has to deal with a societal mind in which inequality and
discrimination are deeply ingrained, it would mean equal and equitable distribution of
resources at all levels. Bypassing this question does not help.”
உள்ளூர் தொடர்பின்மை
Like India’s PRATUSH, astronomers want to put telescopes on, around the moon
-PRAKASH CHANDRA
Moon-based instruments have a better chance of spotting a weak signal from the
universe’s Dark Ages
Astronomers are looking forward to opening a new window on the universe by posting
high-resolution telescopes on the moon, and in orbit around it. There are numerous
proposals to do this from astronomers around the world — including one from India called
PRATUSH.
On the earth, optical telescopes (which collect visible light at longer wavelengths) and
radio telescopes (which collect radio waves with the shortest wavelengths) have to peer
through layers of the planet’s atmosphere. While it is becoming increasingly difficult for
optical instruments to see through the polluted skies, radio telescopes also contend with
radio and TV signals adding to the cacophony of the electromagnetic ‘hiss’ from the
communications channels used by radar systems, aircraft, and satellites. It also does not
help that the earth’s ionosphere blocks radio waves coming from outer space.
Scientists tried to find a way out of this by launching radio telescopes into orbit around
the earth. But this only made the problem worse, as orbiting telescopes started receiving
radio noise from the whole planet along with signals from outer space. So astronomers
are now seriously considering an idea they have toyed with since the 1950s: placing
optical and radio telescopes on the far side of the moon, which always faces away from
the earth.
The pristine, airless desolation of the moon provides optical telescopes crystal-clear
seeing conditions throughout the long lunar night, which lasts two weeks at a time. Radio
telescopes on the lunar far side will also be protected by a 3,475-km-thick wall — a.k.a.
the moon (its diameter is 3,476 km) — that blots out radio transmissions from the earth
and electrically charged plasma winds blowing from the Sun.
In the past, the enormous costs involved discouraged scientists from setting up lunar
telescopes. But renewed interest among spacefaring nations to return to the moon
promises to open up “the most radio-quiet location in the solar system”, to quote The
Royal Society, to astronomers.
This darkness persisted from some 300,000 to half a billion years after the Big Bang,
which is why there is so little direct evidence today of this important period in the cosmic
story. The blackness in the heavens was banished only when the first stars switched on
their nuclear power-plants and the cosmos continued to expand. We see this expansion
now as a faint glow called the cosmic microwave background (CMB) — the oldest light in
the universe — which can be captured by radio telescopes.
“We want to study the Dark Ages period because it connects how the early universe
evolved into the universe we see today,” Aritogi Suzuki, who heads the Lunar Surface
Electromagnetic Experiment, or LuSEE Night, a joint NASA-Berkeley Lab project,
scheduled for launch in December 2025, told this author via email. “We are going to land
on the far side of the moon, near the equator of the moon, and almost exactly opposite
from the earth. This location is helpful because it best shields radio frequency noise
coming from the earth.”
ESA is getting ready to launch a radio telescope to the moon’s far side on board its lunar
lander, ‘Argonaut’, by 2030. Other European projects on the anvil include super-sensitive
detectors to hunt for the elusive ripples of gravitational waves in space-time and an
infrared telescope located inside a permanently shadowed crater near the lunar south
pole.
Initially, ISRO will place PRATUSH into orbit around the earth. After some fine-tuning, the
space agency will launch it moonwards. “Although earth orbit will have significant radio
frequency interference (RFI), it will have advantages compared to ground-based
experiments, such as operating in free space and lesser ionosphere impact,” Mayuri S.
Rao and Saurabh Singh, principal investigators at RRI, explained in an email. “PRATUSH in
lunar orbit will have the ideal observing conditions operating in free space with minimal
RFI and no ionosphere to speak of.” It will carry a wideband frequency-independent
antenna, a self-calibrating analog receiver and a digital correlator to catch radio noise in
the all-important signal from the Dark Ages.
Asserts all export shipments in compliance with global norms; U.S. human rights group
report appears driven by ‘vested interests’ to dent India’s leadership in U.S. shrimp
market.
India, now the biggest supplier of America’s favourite seafood — shrimps — has strongly
refuted allegations of human rights and environmental abuses raised by a Chicago-based
human rights group, and top Commerce Ministry officials will meet seafood exporters on
Thursday to discuss efforts to scotch such attempts at maligning its global reputation.
In 2022-23, India’s seafood exports stood at $8.09 billion or ₹64,000 crore and shrimps
accounted for a bulk of these exports at $5.6 billion. India has emerged as one of the
world’s largest shrimp exporters and its share in the U.S. market has risen from 21% or
$1.3 billion to 40% in 2022-23 with shipments worth $2.4 billion, far ahead of rivals like
Thailand, China, Vietnam and Ecuador.
Terming a report from Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) that alleges working conditions
in some shrimp hatcheries, growing ponds and peeling sheds, as baseless, a senior official
asserted the entire value chain for India’s shrimp exports is certified by the Marine
Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and there is no scope for such
concerns about overseas shipments. “This seems to be driven by vested interests aimed
at maligning the reputation of our aquaculture sector and its products in global markets,”
he noted.
About a lakh shrimp farms in Andhra Pradesh alone account for almost 70% of India’s
shrimp output. Women are reckoned to account for 70% of the 8 million-odd jobs in the
The Ministry, which aims to scale up seafood exports to ₹1 lakh crore by 2025-26, is
likely to advise exporters to commission independent studies on the working conditions
at shrimp farms to dispel the concerns in major markets like the U.S. and EU. It has also
asked the Andhra Pradesh government to look into the allegations made in the CAL
report, such as workers facing ‘dangerous and abusive conditions’.
“The CAL report selectively highlights isolated instances without verifying their
authenticity and attempts to generalise the practices observed in India’s shrimp farming
and processing sector,” an MPEDA official added. Apart from regulatory agencies in India
which regularly monitor the shrimp value chain, there are also audits by inspectors of the
USFDA, European Commission and the GAC of China, so there is full compliance with
international regulations, he underlined.
Best case scenario for India’s economic development rests on nuclear power
-Jacob KoshyJACOB KOSHY
India must prioritise investment in this energy sector and expand related infrastructure if
it is to be on track to become developed nation by 2047 and achieve net zero by 2070.
For India to be a developed country by 2047 and on track to achieve net zero — or
effectively zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2070 — it must significantly prioritise
investments in nuclear energy and expanding related infrastructure, says a study by
academics at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
The authors used mathematical models to estimate what proportion of various sources of
energy would be required by 2030 and 2050 to arrive, by 2070, an ideal scenario of net
zero emissions. This was further tempered by scenarios of India’s population achieving a
human development index like Western European countries and the price of access to
energy going down. The best case, their calculations showed, were where emissions in
2070 fell to 0.55 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (‘net zero’ scenario). This translated to
nuclear power rising five-fold from today’s levels to 30 GW (gigawatt) by 2030 and 265
GW by 2050. To put in perspective, it means nuclear power contributing 4% of India’s
total energy by 2030 and sharply rising to 30% by 2050. In the same scenario, the share
of solar power falls from 42% in 2030 to 30% in 2050.
Uranium availability
Currently, figures from the Central Electricity Authority say solar energy accounts for
16% of India’s installed generation capacity and coal 49%. To achieve these idealistic
figures for nuclear energy would require a doubling of investments as well as the
assumption that uranium, a critical fuel but restricted by international embargo, is
available in necessary quantities.
The authors, led by Amit Garg, Professor, IIM Ahmedabad, said at a press conference that
there was no “silver bullet” to achieve net zero and “myriad technologies needed to
coexist” in India’s energy basket. Coal would likely be the “backbone” of the Indian energy
system and if the country has to phase down coal in the next three decades, it would
need to build adequate infrastructure for alternative sources such as nuclear power, in
addition to flexible grid infrastructure and storage to support the integration of renewable
Current controversy should be seen as vote-bank politics, with little remorse shown for
the loss of Indian territory or regard for the lives of our fishermen and fisherwomen
The ceding of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974 by the Congress-led Union government
is an issue that has been raised and debated by various parties, including the Bharatiya
Janata party (BJP), Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) — mostly as
vote-bank politics, with little remorse for the loss of Indian territory or regard for the
lives of our fishermen and fisherwomen. The Katchatheevu question has now attracted
attention because the current Prime Minister has raked it up, never mind that it could be
seen as an electoral gimmick.
Katchatheevu was ceded by the Congress government with the help of the bureaucracy
without taking into consideration the historical, cultural, territorial and political rights of
the state of Tamil Nadu. Consider the fact that the Indian leadership, even before the
agreements of 1974 and 1976, had recognised that India did not have a strong case for
sovereignty over the territory despite it being part of the zamindari of the Raja of
Ramanathapuram since 1803. Why was there this indifference to the territory in the
south, while territories under dispute with neighbours in other parts of the country were
considered as occupied or contested?
The political opportunism of the BJP and indefensible arguments of the Congress and
DMK are easy to see through for the common people. Another cruel joke related to this
controversy is the position of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which says that
Katchatheevu lies on the Sri Lankan side of the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime
Boundary Line (IMBL) and the affidavit submitted by the MEA in the Madras High Court
states that sovereignty over Katchatheevu “is a settled matter”. If this is a “settled”
subject and India did not have a strong claim over Katchatheevu then how were the
rights of Indian (Tamil) fishermen recognised in the 1974 agreement and how and why was
this entitlement withdrawn in the 1976 agreement, without offering a justification?
S Jaishankar has acknowledged the tragic reality that the ceding of Katchatheevu has
resulted in more than 6,000 Indian fishermen being detained and 1175 fishing vessels being
seized by the Sri Lankan government in the last 20 years. However, the current
government’s position on the issue over the past decade has been in line with the stance
taken by previous dispensations — why did the Modi government not raise the matter of
Katchtheevu for a public debate before, leave alone commit to change the position on the
issue?
In a democracy, elections become a process for reviving buried questions and settled
matters. In the matter of Katchatheevu, there is more than one truth.
The writer is a Professor and Former Head of the Department of Politics & Public
Administration, University of Madras He is currently the Visiting Professor and
Community Scholar at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of
Denver, Colorado, USA
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on: April 4, 2024 02:13 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/many-truths-of-katchatheevu-924872
5/
The BJP has reignited the Katchatheevu debate by accusing the Congress and DMK of
betraying the country. Under what circumstances did India give up its claim to the island?
What did it gain in return?
Weeks before voting for the Lok Sabha election in Tamil Nadu, the BJP has reignited the
decades-old Katchatheevu issue, accusing the Indira Gandhi government of “callously
giving away”, as the Prime Minister said in a post on social media, the island to Sri Lanka.
Did India indeed “cede” Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in 1974? What happened two
years later, in 1976, when India signed a second agreement with Sri Lanka? These
questions ponder the import of decisions taken a half century ago, weighing the trading
of territorial claims for maritime advantages and broad strategic interests off the coast of
Kanyakumari.
The island was under the control of the kingdom of the Ramanad Raja, a zamindari from
1795 to 1803 in Ramanathapuram in the Madras Presidency during British rule. The
“Indian fishermen and pilgrims will enjoy access to visit Katchatheevu as hitherto, and will
not be required by Sri Lanka to obtain travel documents or visas for these purposes,” the
agreement said. The agreement did not specify the fishing rights of Indian fishermen.
According to information obtained by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai under The RTI
Act, 2005, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu led by M Karunanidhi at the time silently
acquiesced to the Centre’s decision to sign the agreement. The RTI reply quoted from the
minutes of a meeting between then External Affairs Minister Kewal Singh and Karunanidhi
at Fort St. George in Chennai a month before the transfer of the island. According to
Annamalai, Karunanidhi was “party to this decision”, and had only asked if it was possible
to “postpone the decision by two years”.
Tamil Nadu Assembly records, however, show that Chief Minister Karunanidhi had
attempted to move a resolution in the House in 1974 against the Katchatheevu
agreement, but the opposition AIADMK had refused to go along.
An agreement reached between the two countries in March 1976 said “the Wadge
Bank…lies within the exclusive economic zone of India, and India shall have sovereign
rights over the area and its resources” and “the fishing vessels of Sri Lanka and persons
on board these vessels shall not engage in fishing in the Wadge Bank”.
However, “at the request of the Government of Sri Lanka and as a gesture of goodwill”,
India agreed that Sri Lankan boats licensed by India could fish in the Wadge Bank for
three years “from the date of establishment by India of its exclusive economic zone”. But
no more than six Sri Lankan fishing vessels were allowed, and their catch in the Wadge
Bank could not exceed 2,000 tonnes in any year.
The agreement also said that if India “decided to explore the Wadge Bank for petroleum
and other mineral resources” during the three-year period, the Sri Lankan boats “shall
terminate fishing activity… in these zones with effect from the date of commencement of
exploration”.
In the 1990s, the Palk Strait to the east of the Wadge Bank saw a proliferation of efficient
bottom-trawl fishing trawlers on the Indian side. The Sri Lankan military was battling the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the time, and its navy had no major presence in
the sea region. Indian fishing boats would routinely enter Sri Lankan waters for fishing
during this time.
The situation changed after the war ended in 2009. Even as Indian fishermen continued
to enter Sri Lankan waters due to the depletion of marine resources on the Indian side,
the Sri Lankan navy began to carry out arrests, and destroyed hundreds of fishing boats
for violating the maritime boundary. This provoked a renewed wave of demands from
political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the DMK and AIADMK, to retrieve Katchatheevu.
How did Sri Lanka react to the demands from the Indian Tamil parties?
The two countries have signed an international agreement on Katchatheevu, and Sri
Lanka has refused to link the status of the island with the Tamil fishermen’s issue.
A Sri Lankan Cabinet Minister told The Indian Express on Monday that linking the two
issues would be “inappropriate and inaccurate because the issue with regards to Indian
fishermen is all about the bottom-trawlers they use for fishing outside Indian waters,
which is illegal as per international maritime laws”.
“When this huge exploitation and depletion of maritime resources happen in the entire
ocean region, the victims of these trawlers owned by Indian Tamil fishermen are not
Muslims or Sinhala fishermen but the Sri Lankan Tamil fishermen,” the Sri Lankan Minister
said.
After becoming Chief Minister in 2011, Jayalalithaa moved a resolution in the state
Assembly raising the same demand. In 2012, amid increasing incidents of arrests of Indian
fishermen in Sri Lankan waters, she again moved the Supreme Court to expedite her
petition.
Now that the issue has been raked up again, what happens hereafter?
The BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar,
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and state BJP chief Annamalai, have launched
attacks on the Congress and DMK for allegedly surrendering the island to Sri Lanka. The
PM has said that “weakening India’s unity, integrity and interests has been Congress’ way
of working for 75 years”, and “DMK has done NOTHING to safeguard Tamil Nadu’s
interests”.
However, election campaign rhetoric aside, the Indian government does not seem to have
made any concrete move to examine the possibility of retrieving the island for India.
Asked what steps had been taken in this regard, Jaishankar said on Monday that “the
matter is sub judice”.
“Narendra Modi’s foreign policy with Sri Lanka is organic and healthy. So far, there has
not been an official communication from India to return the powers of Katchatheevu
island. No such request from India so far. If there is such a communication, the foreign
ministry will reply to that,” he said.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on: April 3, 2024 13:31 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-politics/katchatheevu-and-wadge-
bank-the-story-of-two-india-sri-lanka-agreements-from-a-half-century-ago-9247710/
The US and the UK sign agreement on AI safety testing: What is the deal?
-Soumyarendra Barik
The move comes as the world is figuring out a way to set guardrails around the fast
proliferation of AI systems.
Following through commitments made at the Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit last year,
the United States and the United Kingdom on Monday (April 1) signed an agreement that
would see them work together to develop tests for the most advanced artificial
intelligence (AI) models.
Both countries will share vital information about the capabilities and risks associated with
AI models and systems, according to the agreement, which has taken effect immediately.
They will also share fundamental technical research on AI safety and security with each
other, and work on aligning their approach towards safely deploying AI systems.
The US and the UK AI Safety Institutes have also laid out plans to build a common
approach to AI safety testing and to share their capabilities to ensure these risks can be
tackled effectively.
Speaking to The Indian Express, an AI expert said: “They intend to perform at least one
joint testing exercise on a publicly accessible model. They also intend to tap into a
collective pool of expertise by exploring personnel exchanges between the Institutes”.
As the US and the UK strengthen their partnership on AI safety, they have also
committed to develop similar partnerships with other countries to promote AI safety
across the globe, according to a press release by the US Department of Commerce.
Since last year, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in
the US has separately started consultation on the risks, benefits and potential policy
related to dual-use foundation models with widely available weights — parameters that AI
models learn during training and processing which help them make decisions. The
development came after the President Joe Biden administration issued an executive
order on the safe deployment of AI systems in 2023.The agency is seeking inputs on the
varying levels of openness of AI models; the benefits and risks of making model weights
widely available compared to the benefits and risks associated with closed models;
innovation, competition, safety, security, trustworthiness, equity, and national security
concerns with making AI model weights more or less open; and, the role of the US
government in guiding, supporting, or restricting the availability of AI model weights.
Meta, which has open-sourced its Llama model, in its submission to NTIA’s consultation
called open source the “foundation” of US innovation. “Continued leadership of this
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has taken a middle path in its comments. It said that while
releasing its flagship AI models via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and
commercial products like ChatGPT has enabled them to continue studying and mitigating
risks that were discovered after initial release, some of them may not have been possible
had the weights themselves been released.
“These experiences have convinced us that both open weights releases and API and
product-based releases are tools for achieving beneficial AI, and we believe the best
American AI ecosystem will include both,” it added.
Even as the private industry innovates rapidly, lawmakers around the world are grappling
with setting legislative guardrails around AI to curb some of its downsides. Recently, the
IT Ministry issued an advisory to generative AI companies deploying “untested” systems
in India to seek the government’s permission before doing so. However, after the
government’s move was criticised by people from across the world, the government
scrapped the advisory and issued a new one which had dropped the mention of seeking
government approval.Last year, the EU reached a deal with member states on its AI Act
which includes safeguards on the use of AI within the EU, including clear guardrails on its
adoption by law enforcement agencies. Consumers have been empowered to launch
complaints against any perceived violations.
The US White House also issued an Executive Order on AI, which is being offered as an
elaborate template that could work as a blueprint for every other country looking to
regulate AI. Last October, Washington released a blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights – seen
as a building block for the subsequent executive order.
Soumyarendra Barik is Special Correspondent with The Indian Express and reports on the
intersection of technology, policy and society.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on: April 3, 2024 14:26 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-sci-tech/us-uk-agreement-ai-safet
y-testing-9248773/
Taiwan is prone to earthquakes as it lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire” — where 90% of
the world’s earthquakes take place.
Nine people died and more than 800 got injured in Taiwan after the island was hit by its
biggest earthquake in at least 25 years on Wednesday (April 4) morning. While Taiwan’s
earthquake monitoring agency said the quake was 7.2 magnitude, the US Geological
Survey (USGS) put it at 7.4.
The epicentre of the quake was located just 18 kilometres south-southwest of Hualien
County, which is situated in eastern Taiwan. Multiple aftershocks were experienced, and
one of them was 6.5 magnitude, according to USGS.
Notably, Taiwan is prone to earthquakes as it lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire” — where
90% of the world’s earthquakes take place. The island and its surrounding waters have
registered about 2,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater since 1980, and
The Ring of Fire witnesses so many earthquakes due to constant sliding past, colliding
into, or moving above or below each other of the tectonic plates. As the edges of these
plates are quite rough, they get stuck with one another while the rest of the plate keeps
moving. An earthquake occurs when the plate has moved far enough and the edges
unstick on one of the faults.
Taiwan experiences earthquakes due to the interactions of two tectonic plates — the
Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate.
“Basically, when a ‘downgoing’ oceanic plate [like the Pacific Plate] is shoved into a hotter
mantle plate, it heats up, volatile elements mix, and this produces the magma. The magma
then rises up through the overlying plate and spurts out at the surface,” which leads to
the formation of volcanoes, according to a report by DW.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on: April 4, 2024 02:13 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-sci-tech/earthquake-taiwan-ring-o
f-fire-9249383/
Rising temperatures have increased the risk of glacial lake bursts of the kind that
devastated the Kedarnath valley in 2013 and parts of Chamoli in 2021. Uttarakhand has
commissioned a GLOF risk-assessment study.
The Uttarakhand government has constituted two teams of experts to evaluate the risk
posed by five potentially hazardous glacial lakes in the region. These lakes are prone to
The goal of the risk assessment exercise is to minimise the possibility of a GLOF incident
and provide more time for relief and evacuation in case of a breach.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which operates under the Union
Ministry of Home Affairs, has identified 188 glacial lakes in the Himalayan states that can
potentially be breached because of heavy rainfall. Thirteen of them are in Uttarakhand.
Rising surface temperatures across the globe, including India, have increased the risk of
GLOFs. Studies have shown that around 15 million people face the risk of sudden and
deadly flooding from glacial lakes, which are expanding and rising in numbers due to
global warming.
The more the glacier recedes, the bigger and more dangerous the lake becomes. Such
lakes are mostly dammed by unstable ice or sediment composed of loose rock and
debris. In case the boundary around them breaks, huge amounts of water rush down the
side of the mountains, which could cause flooding in the downstream areas — this is
referred to as a GLOF event.
GLOFs can be triggered by various reasons, including glacial calving, where sizable ice
chunks detach from the glacier into the lake, inducing sudden water displacement.
Incidents such as avalanches or landslides can also impact the stability of the boundary
around a glacial lake, leading to its failure, and the rapid discharge of water.
GLOFs can unleash large volumes of water, sediment, and debris downstream with
formidable force and velocity. The floodwaters can submerge valleys, obliterate
Since 1980, in the Himalayan region, particularly in southeastern Tibet and the
China-Nepal border area, GLOFs have become more frequent, according to a study,
‘Enhanced Glacial Lake Activity Threatens Numerous Communities and Infrastructure in
the Third Pole’, published in the journal Nature in 2023. The analysis was done by Taigang
Zhang, Weicai Wang, Baosheng An and Lele Wei — all from the Institute of Tibetan
Plateau Research in China.
“Approximately 6,353 sq km of land could be at risk from potential GLOFs, posing threats
to 55,808 buildings, 105 hydropower projects, 194 sq km of farmland, 5,005 km of roads,
and 4,038 bridges in the region,” according to the study.
Another analysis, ‘Glacial Lake Outburst Floods Threaten Millions Globally’, published in the
journal Nature in February 2023, showed that about 3 million people in India and 2 million
in Pakistan face the risk of GLOFs. This study was conducted by Caroline Taylor, Rachel
Carr and Stuart Dunning of Newcastle University, the United Kingdom, Tom Robinson of
the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Matthew Westoby of Northumbria
University, the UK.
“While the number and size of glacial lakes in these areas (India and Pakistan) isn’t as
large as in places like the Pacific Northwest or Tibet, it’s that extremely large population
and the fact that they are highly vulnerable that mean Pakistan and India have some of
the highest GLOF danger globally,” Tom Robinson, co-author of the study and lecturer in
Disaster Risk & Resilience at the University of Canterbury, told The Indian Express in
February last year.
Five highly sensitive glacial lakes fall into the ‘A’ category. These include Vasudhara Tal in
the Dhauliganga basin in Chamoli district, and four lakes in Pithoragarh district — Maban
Lake in Lassar Yangti Valley, Pyungru Lake in the Darma basin, an unclassified lake in the
Darma basin, and another unclassified lake in Kuthi Yangti Valley.
The areas of these five lakes range between 0.02 to 0.50 sq km, and they are situated
at elevations ranging from 4,351 metres to 4,868 metres.
The rising surface temperatures could worsen the situation in Uttarakhand. The hill annual
average maximum temperature may increase by 1.6-1.9 degree Celsius between
2021-2050, according to a 2021 study, ‘Locked Houses, Fallow Lands: Climate Change and
Migration in Uttarakhand, India’, carried out by the Germany-based Potsdam Institute for
Climate Research (PIK) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi. This
could exacerbate the risk of GLOFs in the state.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd, First published on: April 4, 2024 07:07 IST
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-climate/risk-from-glacial-lake-flood
s-9249967/
இந்த ஐந்து ஏரிகளின் அளவு 0.02 முதல் 0.50 சதுர கிலோமீட்டர் வரை
உள்ளது. அவை 4,351 மீட்டர் முதல் 4,868 மீட்டர் வரை உயரத்தில் அமைந்துள்ளன.
LRS outflows are a worry when the balance of payments situation is adverse, but the
country is quite well-placed now.
Indian citizens continue to remit substantial sums overseas under the Liberalised
Remittance Scheme (LRS), despite a sharp increase in the incidence of Tax Collection at
Source (TCS) from October last year. Data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) show
that LRS payouts increased to $27 billion in the April-January period of FY24 from $22
billion in the same period last year. Though monthly LRS transactions did dip from $3.4
billion in September to $1.8 billion in November, they climbed back to $2.6 billion by
January 2024.
These expenses, which have surged post-Covid, reflect aspirational spending by India’s
affluent population which is unlikely to give up its yen for foreign travel anytime soon.
Also, cross-border travel by executives of software firms and multinationals is an
inevitable offshoot of the success story crafted by India in technology and services
exports in recent years. Two, the second biggest contributor to LRS payouts, at 25 per
cent, is the funding of education and maintenance of close relatives (mainly students)
abroad. Investments by Indian families in foreign degrees for their wards do lead to an
outflow of dollars in the initial years. But these investments in education often yield
long-term payoffs in the form of youngsters sending money back to their families in India,
once they find employment abroad. This phenomenon has been a big reason behind
remittances into India from countries such as the US growing steadily in recent years. Of
the over $120 billion of inbound remittances in 2023, the US and UK contributed over a
fourth.
Finally, while LRS outflows are a worry when the balance of payments situation is
adverse, the country is quite well-placed now. With the TINA factor working in its favour,
India has seen a $40 billion influx of foreign portfolio investments into its debt and equity
markets in FY24. This is creating an embarrassment of dollar riches for the central bank,
which needs to sterilise these flows to prevent disorderly gains in the rupee. The RBI is
now sitting on record foreign exchange reserves of over $642 billion. LRS outflows can
help partly balance the influx of dollars.
© The Hindu Business Line (P) Ltd, First published on: April 03, 2024 at 09:45 PM.
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/editorial/lrs-outflows-an-offshoot-of-aspir
ational-india/article68024254.ece
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