Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Coronavirus News (114)

Why India Should Allow Dual Citizenship If foreign citizens of Indian descent return home to be in politics or government, they are more likely to do so in order to fix many of the developmental challenges that forced their migration, rather than to serve any ‘grand designs’ of foreign sabotage in India. ..........

Shashi Tharoor introduced a bill in Parliament to amend the Indian Constitution and allow dual citizenship for Indians.

........ people of Indian origin have risen to high offices, including as presidents and prime ministers of various countries. At one point in 2014, America had over half a dozen Indian-origin politicians in office – two of them as Governors. ........ For years, Indian foreign policy discourse has suffered from introversion and fence-sitting on matters of international politics and security. A large part of the domestic debate on foreign policy is restricted to the immediate neighbourhood – and often just one country out of them all: Pakistan. ......... it will reinstate India’s legacy as a civilisation that is open rather than insular, global rather than protectionist, and confident rather than insecure. For India’s aspirations to be a global power, there are few attributes more pertinent than those.

From the Secession of Pakistan to the Partitioning of India The creation of Pakistan was more a secession from India’s multicultural freedom movement than a partition of Indian territory into two states on the basis of religion. The ruling political ideology in India has now pledged allegiance to the ideals of the secession of Pakistan. ............ The Muslim League – the principal party of those who sought the secession of Pakistan – suffered heavy electoral losses year after year, even in the provinces whose secession it demanded: As late as in the elections of 1936-37, the Muslim League blanked out in Sind and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). In Bengal, it failed to capture even a third of the seats reserved for Muslims. In all, the Muslim League garnered fewer than 5 percent of the Muslim vote across the country. ........ Secession was successfully achieved, not through the force of ballots, but through the force of violence. The dubious nature of the two-nation theory lies in the fact that Muslims were so well integrated across the entire geography of undivided India that, for several years after independence, India had more Muslims than Pakistan, despite forced mass migration of Hindus and Muslims across the border. ........ India did not become the Hindu Republic of India; instead, it stayed true to the multicultural values of the larger freedom movement, which established Indian nationalism on the basis of universal principles rather than cultural or religious identity. .......

“That was a partition of India’s soil; this has become a partition of India’s soul.”



India’s Art of the Impossible Trade Deal For decades, India has remained among the most protectionist of the larger developing economies, despite adopting liberalization policies nearly 30 years ago. ...... India had introduced the second-most number of trade restrictions among all G20 economies between 2016 and 2018 (the highest number belonged to the United States, where President Trump has been waging a trade war on multiple fronts). ....... To most international commentators and economists, this is baffling: India’s economic boom since 1991 has owed enormously to trade and globalization ........ For years, India has pushed countries around the world – both developing and developed – to open up their borders to high-skilled Indian professionals and more sophisticated industries such as IT and pharmaceuticals. These are areas where Indian exports (and labour) are highly competitive, producing output of fair quality at low prices. ........ But in the Indian economy, only a minority of the workforce is engaged in activities where India is competitive: In 2018, only 31 percent of Indians worked in the services sector (and an even smaller percentage worked in areas such as IT or pharmaceuticals); the remaining 69 percent were employed in manufacturing or agriculture – sectors which remain plagued by regulatory red tape, infrastructural woes and labour productivity issues. ........

Opening up to trade in sectors where India is less competitive means political pushback from the majority of the workforce. Yet, on the other hand, trade blocs would not open up to Indian professionals or exports in services without liberalization in industrial or agricultural goods.

........ “services such as IT tend to be neglected by traditional trade deals [such as RCEP]. Only ambitious, forward-looking agreements venture deeply into these areas, and those deals usually entail a degree of openness to foreign manufacturers that would terrify India’s industrialists.” What’s worse, in an era of heightened populism and right-wing nationalism, countries around the world are increasingly pulling up barriers to immigration and trade in services. ..... The Modi government has said that it would like to pursue trade talks with the EU and the United States instead – it might have better luck there, but only if India is willing to open up to dairy products and manufactured goods in return.

How India Can Help Prepare the World for COVID-19 Vaccines the next 12-18 months will be critical for countries. They must prepare themselves for an extensive immunization program. ......... Modi called the International Solar Alliance (ISA) India’s “gift to the world” in the fight against climate change. The ISA is an inter-governmental organization, jointly launched by India and France in 2015 on the sidelines of the COP21 summit in Paris. The idea was to harness clean and low-cost solar power in solar-rich countries to make them energy secure and self-reliant. ..........

Unfortunately, most countries do not have a strong enough cold chain network to handle a mass immunization program for COVID-19.

...... Most of the ISA’s membership is African, with the continent contributing 34 ratified members. And India is attempting to establish itself as a responsible global leader by spreading its medicine diplomacy far and wide in Africa.

India Needs a Basic Income Scheme Instead of Welfare Subsidies The coronavirus lockdown has reinforced the merits of a basic income scheme. But apart from alleviating distress, the replacement of wasteful subsidies by a basic income scheme would even be financially prudent. It would make economic reform more viable and the public sector more efficient. ..........

the biggest advantage of a basic income scheme is the simplicity of its implementation

. India’s traditional welfare system has depended upon a dense network of schemes, most of which do not involve direct cash transfers. In almost all of these schemes, there are significant leakages which prevent the beneficiaries from receiving their full entitlement. .......

approximately one-fifth of households in the poorest 40 percent of the population do not receive any subsidies – a result of corruption and low state capacity.

...... for every rupee that the Indian government spends on welfare, society incurs a cost of three rupees. ...... A basic income scheme would serve as a safety net that insulates the poor from sudden drastic changes in income. The past six years have shown how low-income groups are the most adversely affected by economic crises, ranging from demonetisation to the current lockdown. This is supplemented by the nature of the informal economy (or even the formal gig economy) which breeds instability in employment. A basic income would alleviate the distress caused by the possible loss of employment income. .........

direct cash transfers in Latin America, Africa and Asia actually led to a decrease in alcohol and tobacco consumption around 82 percent of the time. This effect was even greater when cash transfer programs were targeted at women

........ a similar study in Madhya Pradesh showed that such unconditional cash transfers led to increased food security, a decrease in alcohol consumption and increased school attendance. This shows that low-income groups are actually far more adept at understanding their basic needs than policymakers. ....... Depending on the nature of the scheme, the cost could be anything between Rs 2 lakh crores and Rs 10 lakh crores (the estimated cost of the Congress NYAY plan was Rs 3.66 lakh crores). Nonetheless, there are several ways by which this fiscal gap can be plugged. Firstly, a basic income scheme would make the PM-Kisan Scheme redundant, saving the exchequer Rs 54,000 crores. Similarly, other welfare schemes like the PDS or MNREGA could be significantly reduced as a basic income scheme would eliminate their primary purpose. ....... a basic income scheme would reduce and remove the political imperative for governments to maintain several irrelevant public sector jobs – many of which have been sustained only as a means of providing employment. ........ the government spends an exorbitant amount of around 1.04 percent of GDP on subsidies that do not directly benefit low-income households. A replacement of such wasteful subsidies by a basic income scheme would be extremely financially prudent.........

the 190 million people who still do not have a bank account

...... The current migrant worker crisis emphasises the need to combine market and state more efficiently and equitably. It is time for a basic income scheme – one that merges the noble redistributive intent of socialism with the efficiency of the free market.

Inter-Religious Harmony in India Amidst the Coronavirus In these times, even as pious religious slogans like Jai Shri Ram have come to be used politically, many Muslims are rising above religious barriers and reflecting remarkable stories of love over hate. Yusuf Sheikh, one of those who attended the funeral in Bandra, said, “We knew Premchandra Mahavir quite well. At such times, we should show humanity transcending religious barriers.” .......... In Loyaitola village of Malda district in West Bengal, a group of Muslims – chanting Bolo Hari, Bolo Hari and Ram naam satya hai – carried the body of 90-year-old Binay Saha to the cremation ground. “Our father died of old age,” said his son, Shyamal Saha. “We were anxious about how to cremate him during the lockdown. None of our relatives would be able to come.” Saddam Sheikh, a neighbour, said, “We (Muslims of the village) are neighbours and carried out our duty. No religion is greater than humanity.” ......... In Aurangabad, Maharashtra, a Hindu man died and, due to the fear of the coronavirus, none of his relatives came to perform his last rites. Farhat Ahmad, a functionary of the Tablighi Jamaat in Aurangabad, lifted the bier and cremated the body. ....... over 1,000 Christian-run hospitals in India, with 60,000 inpatient beds, are fighting the coronavirus. During these testing times, members of all religious communities are running kitchens for people in distress.........

one, pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity; two, pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference; three, pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments which doesn’t require us to leave our differences; four, pluralism is based on dialogue.




 

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