04-Mar-2024

#GS3 –01. Chip Making

India will, in the next five years, join the high-stake global stage of semi conductor manufacturing as it combine sun paralleled design capabilities with $10 billion of incentives to draw manufacturers to set up new fabs and units that will cut the dominance of Taiwan, South Korea and China. India’s “well-crafted policies” are attracting manufacturers to set up new fabs (semiconductor fabrication plants) and pour investment in related sectors. The already country has roughly one-third of global design talent.

– IT and tele-Comminister Ash-Wini Vaishnaw

#GS2 — 02. India-Maldives relation

We are bolstering forces on “strategically important” islands close to the Maldives, with a new base set to open just days before Male starts sending home Indian forces. India is suspicious of China’s growing presence in the archipelago nation, which straddles key east-west international shipping routes, and the new base will extend New Delhi’s “operational surveillance” of the area,

-Indian Navy

#GS2 –03. India at WTO

India did not yield ground on a permanent peace clause on the procurement of food grain for our public distribution system, giving the government freedom to buy as much as it wants, regardless of a flawed limitation formula. India also defended its policy space for subsidies. In most WTO member countries, be it developed or developing, irrespective of the size of their agriculture sector and its contribution to GDP, farmers play a key role in trade negotiations and domestic politics, and India is no exception. India was also successful in resisting the inclusion of environmental issues and labour standards in WTO talks. While it may have hurt the sentiments of its trade partners like the EU, with which a trade deal is under discussion, India is willing to discuss these topics bilaterally. For example,on14 November2023, India along with13 other countries signed the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework(IPEF) Supply Chain Resilience Agreement, which has both these components. The IPEF Agreement, for example, proposes to setup a Labour Rights Advisory Board, to support member countries in the promotion of labour rights in their supply chains, promote sustainable trade and investment, and facilitate opportunities for investment in businesses that respect labour rights as per ILO standards. Rather than try pushing the issue at a multilateral platform, trade partners like the EU and India can setup a mechanism for tripartite consultation across government, worker organizations and employer organizations, as proposed in the IPEF Agreement.

I am delighted to see India softening Its stance on the current moratorium on customs duty for e-commerce, which got extended for another two years. with the government supporting SME exports through e-commerce—there is a chapter dedicated to it in the recent Foreign Trade Policy—this was the right step. India is among the world’s leading exporters of IT/ITeS services and with the growing digitalization of services, from education to audio-visual media, and the global expansion of our startups, it is important to understand the full scope of the e-commerce sector first. Without a clear picture of its coverage and data on trade flows, it is better to support business as usual, and that is exactly the stand India took.
– ICRIER Professor Arpita Mukherjee

#GS3 — 04. Living Standards & HCES

The progress manifest in the 2022-23HCES results resonates with strides made in living standards through a gamut of thoughtfully crafted, evidence-based and people-centric efforts. These include, inter-alia, the strengthening of basic infrastructure such as rural roads, water pipelines, electricity, housing, etc, which, besides ensuring dignity of the individual, also empowers communities to use economic opportunities and participate in the growth process.

While the HCES makes a good start by imputing values of free-of-cost items received under welfare schemes, the rising contribution of a range of public services (which could not be imputed due to methodical complexity) implies that the real ‘consumption’ of households is better than what the data says. For instance, sanitary napkins being available at
₹1 apiece at Jan Aushadhi Kendras imply a significant rise in real living standards at relatively low house-hold spending levels. Similarly, the impact of prominent schemes such as the Swachh Bharat Mission, Ayushman Bharat and PM-A was Yojana in directly improving the living standards of Indian households could be interpreted as a (notional) rise in consumption expenditure, especially for the lower fractiles. The value imputations of education and health schemes alone showed a decline in the Gini Coefficient for 2011-12 by 0.08 percentage points.

– CEA V. Ananth Nageswaran

#GS3 — 05. App Delisting by Google

Google’s recent delisting of 23 Indian apps from its Play Store for non-compliance with its billing policy under-scores its market dominance. After protests erupted and the government signalled its reproach of its action, Google reinstated some of these apps. Central to this conflictlies the Google Play Billing System (GPBS) and is rules that govern Android smart-phone apps available at its app store, with the Supreme Court looking in to the matter. It was only after an industry backlash and order from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October 2022, calling out its practice as anti-competitive, that Google begrudgingly permitted app developers in India to use alternative billing systems. Its revised Play Store listing policy offered developers three choices: Adhere to the GPBS, adopt an alternative billing mechanism, or opt for a consumption-only model exempt from service fees. Critics, however, contend that its continued imposition of fees violates the CCI’s directives.

There is a lesson in this for policy makers. While India lagged the West onWeb1 and Web2, it cannot afford to miss Web 3 developments and the conversation on artificial intelligence (AI). If India does not acquire a seat at the global tablet o pursue its strategic interests, it will lose commercial opportunities in these spheres and also find Western narratives harder to counter when need be.

• Policy Researcher Srinath Sridharan

#Essay –06. Free Trade

Free trade has been proven, time and again, as a reliable path to economic development. It pushes the public and private sectors alike toward greater accountability and transparency.

–Jonah Goldberg