10 July 2023 : Indian Express
Indian Express
10-July–2023
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1. Climate of concern
Syllabus – GS III
Context – India seems ready to take on El Nino. But vegetable prices are a matter of concern.
Predictions
- As per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the monsoon rainfall momentum has picked up in India, and the overall deficiency of rainfall in June has reduced to 5 per cent compared to its Long Period Average (LPA).
- The IMD has also predicted that the July rainfall will be normal, and so would be the overall rainfall for the monsoon season (June to September).
- The sowing of important Kharif crops, especially rice, maize and millets, pulses, oilseeds, and cotton, will likely pick up. That will give much-needed relief to agriculturalists and observers of agriculture and food prices.
- However, the spread of rainfall is so far quite uneven. Large parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, and even West Bengal are reeling under rain deficiency of more than 20 per cent. This is somewhat worrying.
- On top of this, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)’s report has declared 2023 to be an El Nino year with a 90 per cent probability.
- July 3 and 4 have been reported to be the hottest days on Earth. Fast warming of the Pacific Ocean from July to September can play spoilsport with the Indian monsoon.
- One only hopes that the positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) can neutralize the negative impact of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and that India can escape a drought.
Damage
- Indian rainfall data from 1950 to 2022 shows that there have been 15 drought years when weighted all of India’s rainfall is deficient by at least 10 per cent of its LPA.
- Of these 15 drought years, 11 coincided with El Nino occurrence. This suggests a strong correlation between El Nino and Indian droughts.
- But all El Nino years have not necessarily resulted in droughts.
- It may be noted that of the 15 droughts since 1950, three droughts years—1965, 1979, and 2002—have been the most damaging in terms of percentage drop in food grain production (19 per cent, 16.8 per cent, and 17.9 per cent, respectively) over the previous years.
- The extent of damage depends on the intensity of drought, which could be influenced by the intensity and timing of El Nino and whether the IOD is positive or negative at that time of the year.
- Over a longer period, irrigation cover for food grains has also been increasing, from 18 per cent in 1951 to 53 per cent in 2015, providing a cushion against droughts.
Policies of Government
- On the policy front, the government has been proactive in taming food prices.
- Wheat exports have been banned, and now stocking limits have also been imposed on traders and processors of wheat.
- Rice exports have attracted export duty of 20 per cent on common rice.
- Most pulses have also been under export controls/restrictions and stocking limits.
- The government has also been undertaking open market operations in wheat and rice to bring down cereal inflation, which is still hovering in double digits.
- Aggressive open market sales of wheat by the government to about 3.4MT just before wheat procurement season began in April helped substantially bring down wheat wholesale prices.
- That, in turn, enabled the government to procure 26MT of wheat.
- However, some vegetable prices are getting totally out of control—tomatoes, ginger, chillies, for example.
- It seems that the government’s “Operation Green”, which started off with tomatoes, onions and potatoes (TOP) and extended to other vegetables, has not delivered in taming prices of TOP.
- It needs a serious re-visit, and our research in this area suggests that it needs to be taken out of the ambit of the Ministry of Food Processing and entrusted with an independent body specializing in vegetable value chains with a clear mandate to stabilize the TOP prices and production and increase the share of producers in the consumer’s rupee, somewhat akin to National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in the case of milk.
- Regarding cereals and pulses, we suggest market operations for rice can be increased until the new crop comes to market.
- There are ample rice stocks with FCI, way above the buffer stock norms.
- But for wheat, the government needs to hold on to its reserves and use them judiciously from November to March, when demand will be peaking.
- Import duties on wheat need to be reduced from 40 per cent to 10 per cent to augment supplies. Trade estimates of wheat production are much lower than the government estimate of 112 MT.
- In the case of pulses, especially yellow peas, the import duty needs to be reduced to just 10 per cent. We hope these measures can help contain food grain prices.
2. EMPOWERING THE DIGITAL NAGRIK
Syllabus – GS III
Context – The Government will reportedly introduce a revised version of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. This is an opportune moment for the government to consider further improving the Bill.
Advantages of Data Portability and Interoperability
- They will empower ordinary users or digital nagriks. Right now, online users are powerless regarding the scope and extent to which their data is collected, stored and processed by data-hungry platforms.
- They have little choice but to sign up for digital platforms that use their data carelessly, as evidenced by the recent spate of breaches in India.
- This is because they depend on these platforms for essential services—everything from education to employment.
- These platforms have become chokepoints or gatekeepers that come in between users and their friends, customers and
- So, users shapelessly agree to one-sided take-it-or-leave-it contracts that essentially empower platforms with near-absolute power over their data.
- With data portability, digital nagriks can vote with their feet. They won’t be at the mercy of powerful platforms, forced to suffer harms such as pervasive surveillance.
- Indeed, some of the ways in which big data systems exploit users are harrowing. Many small businesses, for example, sell their wares on large e-commerce platforms in the hope of supplementing their income.
- Only to find that the same e-commerce platforms leverage the data they generate to launch rival products and undercut their business.
- Data portability will put platforms on notice that they cannot continue to exploit their users’ data irresponsibly.
- These platforms will have to live up to the title of “data fiduciaries” (entities that act in the best interest of their users) assigned to them in the Bill.
- This is because if they don’t, their users can easily port their data to a rival platform.
- The nascent ecosystems of start-ups in India will also benefit. They will be able to overcome the barriers to entry that have been stymying competition in the technology sector.
- This is because they will now have an effective pitch to attract dissatisfied users with incumbent platforms.
- Users may be dissuaded from moving to new platforms even if they want to because they will lose access to their existing data.
- But the promise of better privacy and data security will work in a world with data portability because users can move to new services, gain better treatment, and still access their previously generated data.
- If the government introduces interoperability, then the situation becomes even better for users and start-ups.
- Interoperability means that users will get to port their data and take their data with them— they will also get to keep in touch with the original platform they were on and engage with the platform users they leave behind.
- A Twitter user, for instance, could leave the microblogging site with her data in tow to join a rival start-up platform.
- In addition, thanks to interoperability, she can continue communicating with her Twitter contacts.
- The barriers that dissuaded her from moving will no longer constrain her.
- Think of how e-mail currently works. You don’t have to have a Gmail account to e-mail someone with a Gmail account and vice versa.
- This is because e-mail is interoperable. People can communicate with each other across platforms.
- If interoperability is introduced, then the rest of the internet will look like e-mail. People can break through the walled gardens that currently prevent them from engaging in cross-platform interaction.
- Thus, in the spirit of user empowerment, the government should consider introducing data portability and interoperability provisions in the Bill. Doing so will constrain incumbent tech platforms from abusing user data, empower digital nagriks and boost the start-up ecosystem.
For Enquiry
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