The Hindu Editorial Analysis | 5th May’20 | PDF Download

Off course

• The Cauvery is a perennial source of controversies.
• Centre’s April 24 notification bringing the Cauvery Water Management Authority under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti.
• Several political parties, especially the Opposition, and some farmers’ associations were upset with the notification on the ground that the move has reduced the Authority to a “puppet” of the Centre.
• They point out that the CWMA was created on the direction of the Supreme Court in February 2018.
• Such an argument is weak, as the CWMA, a body corporate, has been working all along under the Ministry.

• Even in the case of its predecessor, the Cauvery River Authority (1998-2013) with the Prime Minister as the Chairman and Chief Ministers of the basin States as Members, the Union Ministry of Water Resources had administrative control.
• Besides, there are eight inter-State river water boards under the Jal Shakti Ministry.
• Apart from meeting the procedural requirement, the notification does not, in any way, alter the character, functions or powers of the CWMA that form part of a scheme drawn up a few years ago, and which was approved by the Supreme Court.
• Even two years after its formation, the Authority does not have a full-fledged chairman.

A way out of the pandemic

• India in particular is in a catch-22 situation.
• The infection curve hasn’t really flattened.
• So if the lockdown, without an alternative, is prematurely withdrawn, India stares at a potential health crisis.
• And if the lockdown continues in its current form, it is looking at an economic crisis as well as a food crisis.
• Can the global economy be kick-started while keeping the health crisis under reasonable control?
• Countries which have flattened the COVID-19 curve have either relied on mass-scale testing to segregate the infected from the uninfected (South Korea) or have had a carefully monitored, micro-managed region-specific quarantine strategy (China).
• India has adopted a strategy of a national lockdown without extensive testing which is neither here nor there, the result of which is we do not seem to be sure when to lift the lockdown.
• It is only a matter of time before a full-fledged crisis of food hits India (unless the lockdown is lifted to allow their production).
• A mass-scale production of test kits, PPEs, etc.

1. It will increase direct employment in the test kits and PPE production industries
2. It will create safe working conditions for other sectors

• It is true this will still not absorb all those who got displaced during the lockdown.
• Mass scale production of PPEs will not leave a trace of unused stocks in the long run.
• Reflect on how to confront issues of climate change.
• A grain stockist with a role still relevant
• Set up under the Food Corporations Act 1964, in its first decade, the FCI was at the forefront of India’s quest of self-sufficiency in rice and wheat following the Green Revolution, managing procurement and stocking grain that supported a vast Public Distribution System (PDS).
• Its operations were regarded as expensive and inefficient, a perception that has come to be accepted as fact.
• Rats and human rats have always been a problem for FCI.
• The FCI has consistently maintained the PDS, a lifeline for vulnerable millions across the country.
• Before the lockdown, many experts had observed that with 77 million tonnes of grains in its godowns and on the eve of a new round of procurement — of a bumper harvest of wheat — the FCI was facing a serious storage problem.

Shortage of modern storage facilities.

• Lack of “pro-active liquidation policy” for excess stocks.
• As of April 13, 2020, the FCI had already moved 3 million tonnes (post-lockdown), to States, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Karnataka and those in the Northeast, where demand outstrips within State procurement and/or stocks.
• The FCI has also enabled purchases by States and nongovernmental organisations directly from FCI depots, doing away with e-auctions typically conducted for the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS).
• Given the extended lockdown, the FCI is uniquely positioned to move grain across State borders where private sector players continue to face formidable challenges.
• “Pre-positioning” shipments, where grain is stored closer to demand hotspots.
• The FCI already has a decentralised network of godowns.
• In the current context, it would be useful for the State government and the FCI to maintain stocks at block headquarters or panchayats in food insecure or remote areas, in small hermetic silos or containers.
• In many States, there is a vibrant network of selfhelp groups formed under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) which can be tasked with last mile distribution of food aid other than the PDS.
• FIFO: It is time for the FCI to suspend this strategy, if it has not already, that enables movement that costs least time, money and effort.
• NAFED has already taken the initiative to procure and transport horticultural crops.
• The FCI should similarly consider expanding its role to support FPOs and farmer groups, to move a wider range of commodities including agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, packing materials and so on.
• Even in 2015, the Shanta Kumar report recommended repurposing the organisation as an “agency for innovations in Food Management System” and advocated shedding its dominant role in the procurement and distribution of grain.

Kashmir Encounter

• Five security personnel were martyred and two terrorists killed over the weekend in a fierce encounter in Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
• Among the soldiers who sacrificed their lives was Col Ashutosh Sharma, a decorated commanding officer of a Rashtriya Rifles battalion, while the slain terrorists included a top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander named Haider.
• The incident shows that Pakistan’s terror factories continue to operate despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
• In fact, army chief MM Naravane has affirmed that Pakistan’s strategy of pushing terrorists across the border continues unabated.
• The nullification of special status of Jammu & Kashmir by New Delhi last year didn’t lead to the kind of unrest that Islamabad had expected.
• All of this shows Pakistan won’t give up on terror no matter how difficult things become.
• In such a scenario, India needs to maintain vigil and strike back against any Pakistani terror designs.
• At the same time, keeping channels of regional cooperation open is wise as exemplified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video conference with all SAARC members to discuss a combined effort to fight Covid-19.

The pandemic isn’t changing everything

• A crisis as life-altering as the coronavirus pandemic naturally inspires speculation about how it will change everything.
• But it is worth recalling that a far deadlier predecessor, the Spanish Flu, killed 50 million to 100 million people between 1918 and 1920, and was followed by the Roaring 20s.
• Possibly, it simply accelerated trends that were already underway.
• The coronavirus hit at a time when the world was already turning inwards, largely in reaction to the global financial crisis of 2008.
• Nations have been erecting barriers to the free flow of people, money and goods, even as the flow of internet data has continued to rise rapidly.
• As lockdowns force people to work, shop, study and play at home, internet traffic has spiked 50- 70% in developed nations – creating new habits that to varying degrees could outlast the pandemic.
• Populist leaders more emboldened to bash foreigners; nations less willing to expose themselves to world trade, global banks and international migration; national economies more reliant on local industries.
• Global trade is projected to fall around 15% in 2020.
• Post-virus recovery could be dampened by more divisive trade politics.
• President Donald Trump has ratcheted up his antiglobal, anti-trade and anti-China rhetoric, saying “I’m not sure which is worse,” the World Health Organization or the World Trade Organization, both of which he accuses of favouring China.
• The big difference now is that anti-China rhetoric is growing more strident and common in many nations, including Britain, France, India, Brazil, Italy and Japan.
• President Emmanuel Macron of France. “Delegating our food supply” to others “is madness. We have to take back control,” he warned in March.
• Many nations are engaging in a form of food nationalism.
• Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, has imposed quotas on grain exports.
• Vietnam, one of the largest rice producers, suspended rice exports.
• More than 60 nations have limited or banned exports of face masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment, leaving many poor nations that don’t manufacture this gear naked in the face of the pandemic.
• Democracy was in retreat, and autocrats were on the march, before the virus appeared.
• The big risk is that leaders with autocratic tendencies will come out of the pandemic with greater leverage to control and close off societies, including democratic societies.
• The universalist spirit of globalisation was fading before the pandemic, and is harder to find now.
• After 1980, a combination of falling interest rates and financial deregulation set off a global explosion in lending.
• Driven originally by rising wages in China, later by rising concern about the uncertainties of doing business there, this retrenchment has been underway for years.
• The pandemic arrived like a propaganda gift from nature to populists who want to contain all things “global”, from migration to the internet.
• In recent years, China has led the way in creating a national internet, sealed off from the wider web, but Russia, Indonesia and others are following its lead.
• The European Centre for International Political Economy tracks a growing thicket of internet bans, rules and subsidies, including measures that attempt to ensure that data is stored locally, and difficult to transfer overseas.
• In the 2010s the number of “data localisation” rules doubled worldwide to more than 80.
• The number of active users of Google Classroom has doubled to more than 100 million since early March.
• Even before this year, the rise of online games had turned gaming into a $150 billion global industry, still growing fast, and already larger than the stagnating global music industry and box office combined. Then came the lockdowns.
• Verizon reports data volumes surging across the board but especially for digital games, up 75% in March.
• Trends that might have taken five or ten years to play out have unfolded in as many weeks, and all point in the same direction. To a world turning further inward.

NEWS

• Confusion prevails over who will foot migrants’ train fare
• Nod for return of stranded Indians
• The government has decided to allow hundreds of thousands of Indians stranded in different parts of the world to return home in a “phased manner” beginning May 7, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced on Monday.
• 1,074 recover as India adds 2,573 cases
• India on Monday registered the biggest single-day recovery so far of 1,074 COVID19 patients, taking the total to 11,761.
• The recovery rate stood at 27.52%.
• The 24-hour period also saw 2,573 new cases, pushing the tally to 42,836, of which 29, 685 are active cases. With 83 new deaths, the toll rose to 1,389.
• Migrants take to Surat streets in protest, clash with police
• Chaotic incidents involving hapless and desperate migrant workers continue in Gujarat as they grow impatient to return to their native States.
• On Monday, in the Kadodara area of Surat, hundreds of workers came out on the roads demanding that they be allowed to return to their States. The mob went berserk and clashed with policemen.
• Three CRPF jawans killed MARTYRED in militant attack

• India flays nod for Gilgit-Baltistan polls
• The External Affairs Ministry issued a “strong protest” on Monday over an order by the Pakistan Supreme Court allowing the Imran Khan government to hold elections in the region of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

• Indian health workers on edge in Oman
• As thousands of Indian expatriates wait to return home once the government begins to facilitate repatriation, 44-year-old J. Ramachandran, a medical professional in Oman, said he fears for both his health and future, as the numbers of those contracting the novel coronavirus in the West Asian country grow.
• Civil Services preliminary exam put off
• The preliminary examination of the Civil Services has been deferred from May 30, the Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Ministry said in a press statement on Monday.
• The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) held a special meeting on Monday to review the situation after extension of lockdown till May 17.
• DRDO develops a disinfection tower
• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an ultraviolet (UV) disinfection tower for rapid and chemical-free disinfection of high infection-prone areas.
• It was designed and developed by Laser Science & Technology Centre (LASTEC) based in Delhi with the help of New Age Instruments and Materials Private Limited, Gurugram.
• For a room of about 12 ft x12 ft dimension, the disinfection time is about 10 minutes.

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