Table of Contents
Plurilateral Future
- Annual UN general assembly debate – PM Modi –
- How long India would have to wait before it was included in the decision making structures of the global body?
Salutary lesson
- India should have a permanent seat in the UNSC
- P5 worked in concert to guarantee its success.
- P5 survived Cold War
- Resurgence of populist nationalism across the world
- India should embrace plurilateral setups
- A multiplicity of plurilateral platforms could then form the basis of a reimagined multilateralism of the future.
- Vodafone won 13-year-long battle with India’s tax authorities
- International arbitration tribunal – Indian government’s efforts to claim more than ₹20,000 crore in tax (including related interest and penalties) from Vodafone using retrospective legislation was in clear breach of the ‘fair and equitable treatment’ protections afforded under Article 4(1) of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between India and the Netherlands.
- Supreme Court ruled in Vodafone’s favour in 2012
- The dispute began in September 2007 when tax authorities served a demand on Vodafone International Holdings BV for tax that it said Vodafone’s Dutch unit ought to have withheld while acquiring the controlling stake in the erstwhile Hutchison Essar Ltd. from Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd.
- Since the stake purchase transaction took place outside India between two overseas entities, Vodafone was emphatic from the start that it was not liable for any tax relating to the deal.
- The government of the day, however, amended the tax legislation to give retrospective effect to its claims.
- Any failure to learn a salutary lesson from this loss would only serve to undermine overseas investors’ faith in India’s commitment to international treaties and the rule of law.
The farmer’s freedom to sell
- Passing of the farm bills
- Govt: interest of farmers – giving them the freedom to sell their produce anywhere in the country and to any one they want.
- Opposition parties – “black day” – these pieces of legislation could destroy the existing system of MSP and the APMC markets
- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 (FPTC)
- The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 (FAPAFS)
- The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (ECA)
- The FPTC breaks the monopolistic powers of the APMC markets.
- FAPAFS allows contract farming
- ECA removes stocking limits on traders for a large number of commodities, with some caveats still in place.
- The economic rationale of these pieces of legislation is to provide greater choice and freedom to farmers to sell their produce and to buyers to buy and store, thereby creating competition in agricultural marketing.
- 10,000 FPOs and an Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) of Rs one lakh crore to handle post-harvest produce
- NABARD has been entrusted to implement this along with other agencies and state governments.
- NABARD has a lot of heavy lifting to do.
- It will make Indian agriculture globally competitive, and benefit farmers and consumers alike.
- Farmers in India have been implicitly taxed through restrictive trade and marketing policies.
- This is so much in contrast with China and other OECD countries that heavily subsidise their agriculture.
- Only six per cent of farmers gain from MSPs.
- Some states fear losing revenue from mandi fees and cess.
Diagnosing what ails medical education
- The new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to provide “universal access to quality education…” and bridge the “gap between the current state of learning outcomes and what is required… through undertaking major reforms that bring the highest quality, equity and integrity into the system, from early childhood care and education through higher education”.
- It suggests that …… It lays an emphasis on quality and holistic learning.
- The outcome sought in higher education is “… more than the creation of greater opportunities for individual employment. It represents the key to more vibrant, socially engaged, cooperative communities and a happier, cohesive, cultured, productive, innovative, progressive, and prosperous nation”.
- In a brief paragraph on medical education, it states that the aim is to train health care professionals “primarily required for working in primary care and secondary hospitals.”
- In the field of health care, there is a continuing shortage of health-care personnel.
- The infrastructure required for high-quality modern medical education is expensive.
- Private entities – completely commercialised education.
- The overwhelming majority of private medical colleges provide poor quality education at extremely high costs.
- When the courts are approached, which issues are seen as important depends on the Bench. Some judges wish to ensure quality and equity; others give importance to points of law on the rights of private parties, federalism and such issues.
- Under any scheme of admission, the number of students from government schools who are able to get admission to a medical college is very low.
- On the one hand, the Ministry of Human Resources Development repeatedly says that quality and equity are the cornerstones of good education.
- On the other, the economic policies consider education a consumer good which can be sold to the highest bidder.
- No amount of tweaking the methods of admission can address this contradiction.
- Only a resolute government, determined to ensure that economic policy facilitates quality and equity in education, can do it.
The benefits of a carbon tax
- China – the largest carbon dioxide emitter – it would balance out its carbon emissions with measures to offset them before 2060
- One way to cut effluents while earning revenues is to price the carbon content of domestic production and imports, be it energy or transport.
- With the International Monetary Fund endorsing the European Union’s plan to impose carbon levies on imports, India can be among the first movers in the developing world in taxing and switching from carbon-intensive fuels (like coal), the main sources of climate change.
- India ranks fifth in the Global Climate Risk Index 2020.
- Between 1998 and 2017, disaster-hit countries reported $2.9 trillion in direct economic losses, with 77% resulting from climate change, according to a United Nations report.
- The U.S. faced the highest losses, followed by China, Japan, and India.
- India has committed to 40% of electricity capacity being from non-fossil fuels by 2030, and lowering the ratio of emissions to GDP by one-third from 2005 levels.
- One way to price carbon is through emission trading, i.e., setting a maximum amount of allowable effluents from industries, and permitting those with low emissions to sell their extra space.
- Pilot projects on carbon trading in China have shown success.
- Another way is to put a carbon tax on economic activities — for example, on the use of fossil fuels like coal, as done in Canada and Sweden.
- Canada imposed a carbon tax at $20 per tonne of CO2 emissions in 2019, eventually rising to $50 per tonne.
- This is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by between 80 and 90 million tonnes by 2022.
- A carbon tax at $35 per tonne of CO2 emissions in India is estimated to be capable of generating some 2% of GDP through 2030.
- Big economies like India should also use their global monopsony, or the power of a large buyer in international trade, to impose a carbon tariff as envisaged by the EU.
- There is growing public support for climate action, but we need solutions that are seen to be in India’s interest.
NEWS
- India will become self reliant only when farmers & villages empowered: PM Modi
- President Ram Nath Kovind gives assent to three farm bills passed by parliament
- Govt committed to increase public healthcare spending from existing 1.15% of GDP to 2.5 % by 2025: Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan
- Union Home Minister Amit Shah virtually inaugurates ‘Destination North East-2020’
- British PM Boris Johnson urges world leaders to unite against COVID-19
- US Prez Trump vows to end his country’s reliance on China once and for all if voted to power
- PM Modi & his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen to hold virtual bilateral summit today
- Drugs Case Probe: Kshitij Ravi Prasad remanded in NCB custody till Oct 3
- Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan addresses virtual meet on theme of Tourism & rural development
- President Ram Nath Kovind give assent to Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020
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