1. #New Set Of Reforms Will Help Transform Agriculture From A Bottomless Pit Of Subsidies To An Enterprising Industry - / - / 2. ##India invites bid for One Sun One World One Grid to take on China’s Belt and Road Initiative - / - / 3. ### Xi Jinping tells Chinese military to prepare for war. Is it against India, US or Taiwan?
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*Farmers work in a field in Madhya Pradesh. (Rajarshi Mitra/Wikimedia Commons)
#Snapshot :
*India is bound to introduce measures that will help reinvent agriculture as an enterprising industry that serves the people.
*For this tech-enablement of the agricultural value chain and information dissemination among stakeholders are important.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Nature works in mysterious ways,” it’s often said to drive home the fundamentals when humans deviate from the "natural ways of living".
While the jury is still out on whether the coronavirus is lab-grown or of natural origin, the Covid-19 pandemic, as if confirming the often used phrase, has brought some fundamental changes in the way we have been living and co-living with nature.
One such fundamental change in narrative became conspicuous when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman used terms such as “value chain” and “farm gate infrastructure” while announcing the third part of the economic package, related to the agriculture sector, earlier this month.
Why I call it a fundamental change is because in many such announcements previously, the narrative has been to disburse cash and subsidies.
However, this time, the announcement explicitly talked about value chain and the need for creating farm gate infra level investments.
All the while the Finance Minister falling just short of using the term “demand driven supply chain”, yet hinting enough on the same, when she mentioned in the flow that the real issue is not the lack of supply at farm level but to find the market for the supply.
As an entrepreneur who is working at various crossroads of farm-to-fork supply chain and food and dairy processing, at the outset, I find this as a welcome change and an effort to identify the problem the way it should be.
This is significant because it shifts the narrative from supply (farmer) towards investing in a value chain that puts customer demand first, that too in an integrated fashion – a key tenet of value chain concept.
This could be something unpopular because, until this point, all governments had focused on giving subsidies, which resulted in unplanned supply explosion, followed by government procurement in the absence of demand and the net result – millions of tonnes of food and grain rotting.
No one cared enough about demand, as the subsidy-dependent farmer stayed in her comfort zone to continue to produce the way she has been doing for decades if not ages, and continued to find buyers in the form of governments through Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), minimum support price (MSP) routes etc.
A graphic below gives an idea of the extent to which the farm-to-fork supply chain is broken and also highlights the opportunity where government and other stakeholders such as entrepreneurs can intervene.
Currently, the penetration of technology in the agriculture value chain is abysmal to say the least. This lack of tech enablement in agricultural value chain has given birth to the mother of all problems – information asymmetry amongst the stakeholders such as farmers, kirana store managers and consumers.
A major indicator of this information asymmetry is the lack of a demand-driven value chain. This information asymmetry shows up in the form of various sub problems as highlighted in the graphic above.
A number of players, including established companies such as Reliance with its newly-launched JioMart platform are re-imagining farm-to-fork value chain by connecting farmers, kirana stores and consumers through easy-to-use applications to exchange produce, information, money or credit.
These apps address inherent supply demand mismatch issues and help in creating a demand-driven agro value chain.
But given the humongous size and spread of the farm-to-fork industry (almost $600 billion a year retail industry with 60 per cent of it being food retailing), no amount of interventions, howsoever big it may sound, is enough to reform the outlook of a modern day enterprise. Add to this the amount of setback that Covid-19 has caused by further hurting the supply chains.
At the same time, doubling of farmer’s income will require addressing issues such as accelerated market access, credit access, insurance coverage, and other infrastructure related investments in agriculture.
Given the low land holdings, India has relatively lower farm mechanisation. Moreover, the food processing sector requires due attention so as to play a vital role in reducing post-harvest losses and thus help in the creation of an additional demand for the farm output.
The most forward-looking of all the measures announced is this fund aimed at fixing the fundamental issue. This fund is targeted to address the lack of adequate cold chain and post-harvest management infrastructure in the vicinity of farm-gate causing gaps in value chains.
It is worthwhile to note that India today wastes Rs 58,000 crore worth of food every year. This wastage is criminal for a country like ours which ranks 102 in the Global Hunger Index.
The fund is intended to be a financing facility of Rs 100,000 crore for supporting agriculture infrastructure projects at farm-gate and aggregation points (primary agricultural cooperative societies, farmers producer organisations, agriculture entrepreneurs, startups, etc).
While the allocation figure may sound large enough when seen on standalone basis, it is at best a modest figure given the scale of broken infrastructure that needs attention.
While the modalities of how this fund will be executed are yet to be announced, the suggested way would be to have metrics-driven and milestone-based yet less of red tapism infested mechanism.
Given some of strides that Narendra Modi government has made in delivering large infrastructure projects with agility, the expectation is that the fund should bring a fundamental change in infrastructure.
===================================================
No better time to have a re-look at the half-century-old ECA that was enacted in days of scarcity. Today’s hunger challenge is not because of scarcity of food produce but because of wastage and leakages in the supply chain.
The act has often been an impediment to the growth of agricultural enterprise. More often than not, it has been an instrument of inspector raj to fleece entrepreneurs. It has stifled better demand supply match and appropriate revenue realisation to farmers.
Government has promised deregulation of agriculture food products including pulses, onion and potato, cereals, edible oils, oilseeds etc, and made a point that stock limit to be imposed under very exceptional circumstances like natural calamities, famine with surge in prices.
In my opinion, there could be hassles initially due to overstocking and hoarding etc, but if this act is regulated and done in consonance with better price discovery mechanism and fixing of demand supply asymmetry, this could be a path-breaking change.
===================================================
Licence raj may be over, but farmers in India are still bound to sell agriculture produce only to licensees in APMCs. This kind of licence system with the misplaced ECA has created a well-oiled, middlemen-run mechanism that results in hindrances in free flow of agricultural produce and fragmentation of markets and supply chain.
When the cross continental and cross national trade barriers have been rationalised, this kind of licence permit system is still acting as a barrier for free inter-state trade.
Finance Minister Sitharaman announced that a central law will be formulated to provide adequate choices to the farmer to sell produce at attractive price.
If this is done after due diligence and in consonance with the amendment of ECA, this will go a long way in optimising the role of middlemen, reduction of information asymmetry in the farm-to-fork value chain.
While the government has promised that it will promote a framework for e-trading of agriculture produce, there are a bunch of startups which are working to provide better market access for farm produce. A help from government in the nick of time, will be a shot in arm for these startups.
====================================================
I can personally relate with the ‘vocal for local with global outreach’ theme. During my stint with Unilever, our strategy revolved around creating some local jewels through local flavour based variants under the global food brands.
This drives home a point that even global brands have to reformulate their recipe to cater to local tastes and sensibilities. If we invert this, we get what the Prime Minister called as vocal for local with global outreach.
Most of the unorganised or even organised food tech brands fail to scale at a speed that is needed to be global phenomenon in the ever-changing consumer food preference.
Impetus such as this, flanked with the consciousness that the brands have to dream big, denote a heightened awareness in government corridors about the need to talk in a language that consumers and markets understand.
While Sitharaman spoke about support to existing micro food enterprises, farmer producer organisations, self help groups and cooperatives and a cluster-based approach, government must delineate certain specific provisions to private sector enterprises/startups as well.
This government, per se, has not shied away from talking about private sector in the same breath as it talks about co-operatives. More can be done on this front to drive a better result-oriented execution.
Apart from above key points, there were other points on the same lines such as animal husbandry infrastructure development fund – Rs 15,000 crore, Rs 20,000 crore for fishermen through Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, Rs 4,000 crore for promotion of herbal culture etc.
All these points had one central theme, that is willingness to look at agriculture beyond just a producer and social sector activity.
India having had treated agriculture as a bottomless pit that just needs subsidies to survive to re-imagining agriculture as an enterprising industry that exists to serve customer needs is bound to bring agility in modernisation of agriculture.
If this is done successfully, then it will be the most transformative of the most-widely pursued activity in our country.
Vikas Gulia, an IIMavericks Fellow at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, is a first-generation entrepreneur in the food and agriculture space.
==========================================================
*ISA has been an important part of India’s messaging in the global fight against climate change. Photo: Bloomberg
The pre-bid meeting called on 5 June by ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE), comes at a time of the coronavirus pandemic giving India the opportunity to be seen as taking a lead in evolving global strategies.
“This is by far one of the most ambitious schemes undertaken by any country and is of global significance in terms of sharing economic benefits," said a senior Indian government official, requesting anonymity.
According to the Request for Proposal (RFP) reviewed by Mint for inviting consultants for developing OSOWOG’ long-term vision, implementation plan, road map and institutional framework; comprises a technical and financial proposal.
Anand Kumar former MNRE secretary, who had worked on the concept and RFP of the global grid, and currently posted as secretary in the ministry of culture, said, "This would be the key to future renewable based energy systems globally. Creation of regional and international interconnected green grids can enable sharing of renewable energy across international borders and also balancing. Such grids should work in tandem with the existing grids and will not require parallel grid infrastructure, thus requiring only incremental investment."
“Our Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji have given us the vision of ‘One sun, One world, One grid. National renewable energy management centers in India have prospects of growing as regional and global management centers. Globalization provides the opportunity for learning quickly from developments elsewhere, and sharing of renewable energy resources to reduce the global carbon footprint and insulate the societies from pandemics like COVID 19," said Kumar.
This also comes in the backdrop of the US withdrawal from the Paris climate deal and China’s attempts to co-opt countries into its ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, a programme to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, including railways, ports and power grids, across Asia, Africa and Europe.
“India’s Prime Minister recently called for connecting solar energy supply across borders, with the mantra of 'One Sun One World One Grid' (OSOWOG). The vision behind the OSOWOG mantra is “The Sun Never Sets" and is a constant at some geographical location, globally, at any given point of time," the RFP said.
The global grid plan may also leverage the International Solar Alliance (ISA) co-founded by India that has 67 countries as members. It has become India’s calling card on climate change and is increasingly being viewed as a foreign policy tool.
“With India at the fulcrum, the solar spectrum can easily be divided into two broad zones viz. far East which would include countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia etc. and far West which would cover the Middle East and the Africa Region," the RFP added.
The ambitious task unveiled on 26 May has been taken up under the technical assistance program of the World Bank with the last date of proposal submission being 6 July.
Mint reported on 9 January about India starting consultations with the World Bank as its technical partner to implement the global electricity grid plan pitched by Prime Minister Modi.
The plan has been spread across three phases. The first phase deals with the Middle East—South Asia—-South East Asia (MESASEA) interconnection for sharing green energy sources such as solar for meeting electricity needs including peak demand.
Fostering cross-border energy trade is an important part of Modi’s South Asia-focused neighbourhood-first policy. India has been supplying power to Bangladesh and Nepal and has been championing a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) electricity grid minus Pakistan to meet electricity demand in the region.
The initial plans also involve setting up an under-sea link to connect with Oman in the West.
While the second phase deals with the MESASEA grid getting interconnected with the African power pools; the third and final phase is about global interconnection.
“It’s only a question of transmission," power and new and renewable energy minister Raj Kumar Singh had earlier told Mint.
“An interconnected grid would help all the participating entities in attracting investments in renewable energy sources as well as utilizing skills, technology and finances. Resulting economic benefits would positively impact poverty alleviation and support in mitigating water, sanitation, food and other socioeconomic challenges," the RFP said.
“Further, the proposed integration would lead to reduced project costs, higher efficiencies and increased asset utilization for all the participating entities," the RFP added.
This comes in the backdrop of India looking to expedite the ISA’ playbook of setting up a World Solar Bank (WSB) to be headquartered here, that may require a total equity capital of $10 billion. The proposed bank comes in the backdrop of Beijing taking the lead in creating Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB).
ISA has been an important part of India’s messaging in the global fight against climate change.
In his address to the nation on 12 May during the ongoing pandemic Modi said, “International Solar Alliance is India’s gift against Global Warming."
“We have seen the world before Corona and the global systems in detail. Even after the infliction of the Corona crisis, we are constantly watching the situation unfolding across the globe. When we look at these two periods from India’s perspective, it seems that the 21st century is the century for India," Modi said.
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*Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Le Kiqiang arriving for plenary session of National People's Congress in Beijing on May 25. Later, Xi Jinping asked Chinese military to prepare for war. (Photo: AP/PTI)
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*It is necessary to step up preparations for armed combat: Xi Jinping
*This follows a decision to increase the budget for the Chinese military by $178 billion
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Howsoever unusual it may sound, Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked its People's Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare for war even though the Covid-19 threat is not clearly over.
Xi Jinping, as quoted by state news agency Xinhua, said, "It is necessary to explore ways of training and preparing for war because epidemic control efforts have been normalised."
"It is necessary to step up preparations for armed combat, to flexibly carry out actual combat military training, and to improve our military's ability to perform military missions," said Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the week-long sitting of the National People's Congress (NPC), the national parliament of China.
This follows a decision to increase the budget for the Chinese military by $178 billion -- or 6.6 per cent -- over last year's allocation.
Xi Jinping's direction to the Chinese military to be battle-ready has come at a time when tension is growing between India and China in Ladakh and Sikkim sectors, and also at the Lipulekh tri-junction with Nepal.
China is understood to have played a role in the recent assertion by Nepal over Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas of Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand.
The situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh is tense. Indian and Chinese soldiers are locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball face-off in Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie.
The tension began on May 5, when around 250 soldiers from the Indian and Chinese sides engaged in a face-off. Over two days, some 100 soldiers from both sides received injuries.
Reports also suggested that the Chinese had "detained" some Indian soldiers for a few hours. The two sides agreed to disengage after a meeting between local commanders.
China has opposed Indian construction on its side of the LAC, calling it a violation of the agreement to maintain the status quo in the region till the boundary question is settled. China claims parts of Ladakh as its own territory. It occupied Aksai Chin during 1962 war and has refused to vacate it since.
China has been posturing aggressively since Ladakh was granted Union Territory status in 2019 following the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir.
India is undertaking road construction and infrastructure building activities in villages near the LAC as development work as well as to boost its strategic position. China has already built heavy infrastructure on the other side of LAC.
*China has been aggressive along LAC in Ladakh leading to face-off with Indian forces. (Photo: AFP file)
Currently, both sides are ramping up their presence in Ladakh in what looks like a replay of Doklam in 2017 at a tri-junction with Bhutan. Doklam had seen a message being sent following a meeting between Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the militaries of the two countries from their leadership to take all efforts to avoid confrontation.
In Sikkim, Chinese troops engaged in a physical brawl with Indian soldiers near the Naku La pass. This happened on May 9, four days after the face-off in Ladakh. Around 150 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in the face-off, leaving 10 soldiers injured on both sides.
On the Lipulekh tri-junction, India is likely to step up its military presence to secure its interests in case China turns aggressive directly or by fronting Nepal. The ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) has been guarding the Kalapani and Lipulekh areas.
China has also protested two MPs from the ruling BJP sending congratulatory messages to Tsai Ing-wen, who recently won her second term as the president of Taiwan. China does not recognise Taiwan, emphasising on the One-China policy. Its stated goal is to unify Taiwan with China, even by force if necessary.
Taiwan, on the other hand, has chosen a pro-independence leader -- Tsai -- for the second consecutive time. Under Tsai, Taiwan has been focusing on strengthening its defence against suspected Chinese aggression.
To boost its military preparedness, Taiwan conducted an ambitious test-fire of a missile in the middle of the Covid-19 outbreak in April. The missile, when developed, can hit targets deep inside China.
Under Tsai, Taiwan has struck defence deals with the US, purchasing F-16 fighter jets worth $8 billion and also over $2 billion pact for missiles for its army and navy.
There have been reports that China is preparing to forcibly occupy Taiwanese islands in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims at its sovereign water territory. A simulation video released by China recently heightened the speculation that it is planning to seize Taiwanese islands. China has planned a massive naval drill in nearby sea waters in the coming months.
The US has been standing with Taiwan solidly. That flies in the face of the Chinese assertion that no country should engage diplomatically or militarily with the island nation. The US-China relation is at its lowest in the years under President Donald Trump.
Trump's policies have led to an intense US-China trade war since 2018. The US's refusal to acknowledge the Chinese claim of the South and East China Seas have prompted China to claim that it faces a security threat from the Trump regime.
The war of words over the Covid-19 outbreak has further aggravated the tension between the US and China. Trump has openly accused China of spreading the pandemic to whole world, and feels it should be held accountable. Trump went on to say he does not feel like talking to Xi Jinping, and even poking China over pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
US air force bombers have conducted about 40 sorties over the South and East China Seas this year. They had run only about a dozen flights through 2019. The US navy has conducted what it calls "freedom of navigation operations" four times already in the two seas, drawing an angry reaction from China.
China says it faces real security threats from countries engaging in unilateral action to challenge its sovereign interests. This is the same argument that China uses against both India and the US to justify its assertion on contested territorial claims.
Against this backdrop, Xi Jinping has left many guessing his real intention behind making public through a state-run news agency his message to the Chinese military to be combat-ready. Does China really want a war? If so, against whom? And, why in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic?
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#OPINION : 29/05/2020 : 2177.
1. #New Set Of Reforms Will Help Transform Agriculture From A Bottomless Pit Of Subsidies To An Enterprising Industry : May 29, 2020 : Vikas Gulia : Swarajya : Media Report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Farmers work in a field in Madhya Pradesh. (Rajarshi Mitra/Wikimedia Commons)
#Snapshot :
*India is bound to introduce measures that will help reinvent agriculture as an enterprising industry that serves the people.
*For this tech-enablement of the agricultural value chain and information dissemination among stakeholders are important.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Nature works in mysterious ways,” it’s often said to drive home the fundamentals when humans deviate from the "natural ways of living".
While the jury is still out on whether the coronavirus is lab-grown or of natural origin, the Covid-19 pandemic, as if confirming the often used phrase, has brought some fundamental changes in the way we have been living and co-living with nature.
One such fundamental change in narrative became conspicuous when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman used terms such as “value chain” and “farm gate infrastructure” while announcing the third part of the economic package, related to the agriculture sector, earlier this month.
Why I call it a fundamental change is because in many such announcements previously, the narrative has been to disburse cash and subsidies.
However, this time, the announcement explicitly talked about value chain and the need for creating farm gate infra level investments.
All the while the Finance Minister falling just short of using the term “demand driven supply chain”, yet hinting enough on the same, when she mentioned in the flow that the real issue is not the lack of supply at farm level but to find the market for the supply.
As an entrepreneur who is working at various crossroads of farm-to-fork supply chain and food and dairy processing, at the outset, I find this as a welcome change and an effort to identify the problem the way it should be.
This is significant because it shifts the narrative from supply (farmer) towards investing in a value chain that puts customer demand first, that too in an integrated fashion – a key tenet of value chain concept.
This could be something unpopular because, until this point, all governments had focused on giving subsidies, which resulted in unplanned supply explosion, followed by government procurement in the absence of demand and the net result – millions of tonnes of food and grain rotting.
No one cared enough about demand, as the subsidy-dependent farmer stayed in her comfort zone to continue to produce the way she has been doing for decades if not ages, and continued to find buyers in the form of governments through Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), minimum support price (MSP) routes etc.
A graphic below gives an idea of the extent to which the farm-to-fork supply chain is broken and also highlights the opportunity where government and other stakeholders such as entrepreneurs can intervene.
Currently, the penetration of technology in the agriculture value chain is abysmal to say the least. This lack of tech enablement in agricultural value chain has given birth to the mother of all problems – information asymmetry amongst the stakeholders such as farmers, kirana store managers and consumers.
A major indicator of this information asymmetry is the lack of a demand-driven value chain. This information asymmetry shows up in the form of various sub problems as highlighted in the graphic above.
A number of players, including established companies such as Reliance with its newly-launched JioMart platform are re-imagining farm-to-fork value chain by connecting farmers, kirana stores and consumers through easy-to-use applications to exchange produce, information, money or credit.
These apps address inherent supply demand mismatch issues and help in creating a demand-driven agro value chain.
But given the humongous size and spread of the farm-to-fork industry (almost $600 billion a year retail industry with 60 per cent of it being food retailing), no amount of interventions, howsoever big it may sound, is enough to reform the outlook of a modern day enterprise. Add to this the amount of setback that Covid-19 has caused by further hurting the supply chains.
At the same time, doubling of farmer’s income will require addressing issues such as accelerated market access, credit access, insurance coverage, and other infrastructure related investments in agriculture.
Given the low land holdings, India has relatively lower farm mechanisation. Moreover, the food processing sector requires due attention so as to play a vital role in reducing post-harvest losses and thus help in the creation of an additional demand for the farm output.
#Here are key measures taken by the government to address these issues :
=================================================1) Rs 1 lakh crore fund for farm-gate infrastructure for farmers :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------The most forward-looking of all the measures announced is this fund aimed at fixing the fundamental issue. This fund is targeted to address the lack of adequate cold chain and post-harvest management infrastructure in the vicinity of farm-gate causing gaps in value chains.
It is worthwhile to note that India today wastes Rs 58,000 crore worth of food every year. This wastage is criminal for a country like ours which ranks 102 in the Global Hunger Index.
The fund is intended to be a financing facility of Rs 100,000 crore for supporting agriculture infrastructure projects at farm-gate and aggregation points (primary agricultural cooperative societies, farmers producer organisations, agriculture entrepreneurs, startups, etc).
While the allocation figure may sound large enough when seen on standalone basis, it is at best a modest figure given the scale of broken infrastructure that needs attention.
While the modalities of how this fund will be executed are yet to be announced, the suggested way would be to have metrics-driven and milestone-based yet less of red tapism infested mechanism.
Given some of strides that Narendra Modi government has made in delivering large infrastructure projects with agility, the expectation is that the fund should bring a fundamental change in infrastructure.
===================================================
2) Amendments to Essential Commodities Act (ECA) to enable better price realisation for farmers :
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------No better time to have a re-look at the half-century-old ECA that was enacted in days of scarcity. Today’s hunger challenge is not because of scarcity of food produce but because of wastage and leakages in the supply chain.
The act has often been an impediment to the growth of agricultural enterprise. More often than not, it has been an instrument of inspector raj to fleece entrepreneurs. It has stifled better demand supply match and appropriate revenue realisation to farmers.
Government has promised deregulation of agriculture food products including pulses, onion and potato, cereals, edible oils, oilseeds etc, and made a point that stock limit to be imposed under very exceptional circumstances like natural calamities, famine with surge in prices.
In my opinion, there could be hassles initially due to overstocking and hoarding etc, but if this act is regulated and done in consonance with better price discovery mechanism and fixing of demand supply asymmetry, this could be a path-breaking change.
===================================================
3) Agriculture marketing reforms to provide marketing choices to farmers :
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Licence raj may be over, but farmers in India are still bound to sell agriculture produce only to licensees in APMCs. This kind of licence system with the misplaced ECA has created a well-oiled, middlemen-run mechanism that results in hindrances in free flow of agricultural produce and fragmentation of markets and supply chain.
When the cross continental and cross national trade barriers have been rationalised, this kind of licence permit system is still acting as a barrier for free inter-state trade.
Finance Minister Sitharaman announced that a central law will be formulated to provide adequate choices to the farmer to sell produce at attractive price.
If this is done after due diligence and in consonance with the amendment of ECA, this will go a long way in optimising the role of middlemen, reduction of information asymmetry in the farm-to-fork value chain.
While the government has promised that it will promote a framework for e-trading of agriculture produce, there are a bunch of startups which are working to provide better market access for farm produce. A help from government in the nick of time, will be a shot in arm for these startups.
====================================================
4) Rs 10,000 crore scheme for formalisation of micro food enterprises (MFE) :
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I can personally relate with the ‘vocal for local with global outreach’ theme. During my stint with Unilever, our strategy revolved around creating some local jewels through local flavour based variants under the global food brands.
This drives home a point that even global brands have to reformulate their recipe to cater to local tastes and sensibilities. If we invert this, we get what the Prime Minister called as vocal for local with global outreach.
Most of the unorganised or even organised food tech brands fail to scale at a speed that is needed to be global phenomenon in the ever-changing consumer food preference.
Impetus such as this, flanked with the consciousness that the brands have to dream big, denote a heightened awareness in government corridors about the need to talk in a language that consumers and markets understand.
While Sitharaman spoke about support to existing micro food enterprises, farmer producer organisations, self help groups and cooperatives and a cluster-based approach, government must delineate certain specific provisions to private sector enterprises/startups as well.
This government, per se, has not shied away from talking about private sector in the same breath as it talks about co-operatives. More can be done on this front to drive a better result-oriented execution.
Apart from above key points, there were other points on the same lines such as animal husbandry infrastructure development fund – Rs 15,000 crore, Rs 20,000 crore for fishermen through Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, Rs 4,000 crore for promotion of herbal culture etc.
All these points had one central theme, that is willingness to look at agriculture beyond just a producer and social sector activity.
India having had treated agriculture as a bottomless pit that just needs subsidies to survive to re-imagining agriculture as an enterprising industry that exists to serve customer needs is bound to bring agility in modernisation of agriculture.
If this is done successfully, then it will be the most transformative of the most-widely pursued activity in our country.
Vikas Gulia, an IIMavericks Fellow at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, is a first-generation entrepreneur in the food and agriculture space.
==========================================================
2. NOTE : ##PM MODI JI AND HIS TEAM INDIA GIGANTIC ONE SUN ONE WORLD ONE GRID PLAN :
##India invites bid for One Sun One World One Grid to take on China’s Belt and Road Initiative : 28 May 2020 : livemint : PMO India : Report Card.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------##The global grid plan may also leverage the International Solar Alliance co-founded by India that has 67 countries as members. It has become India’s calling card on climate change and is increasingly being viewed as a foreign policy tool.
NEW DELHI : India has moved ahead with threading-the-needle for an ambitious global electricity grid, with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Tuesday calling for bids to roll-out the “One Sun One World One Grid" (OSOWOG) plan.The pre-bid meeting called on 5 June by ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE), comes at a time of the coronavirus pandemic giving India the opportunity to be seen as taking a lead in evolving global strategies.
“This is by far one of the most ambitious schemes undertaken by any country and is of global significance in terms of sharing economic benefits," said a senior Indian government official, requesting anonymity.
According to the Request for Proposal (RFP) reviewed by Mint for inviting consultants for developing OSOWOG’ long-term vision, implementation plan, road map and institutional framework; comprises a technical and financial proposal.
Anand Kumar former MNRE secretary, who had worked on the concept and RFP of the global grid, and currently posted as secretary in the ministry of culture, said, "This would be the key to future renewable based energy systems globally. Creation of regional and international interconnected green grids can enable sharing of renewable energy across international borders and also balancing. Such grids should work in tandem with the existing grids and will not require parallel grid infrastructure, thus requiring only incremental investment."
“Our Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji have given us the vision of ‘One sun, One world, One grid. National renewable energy management centers in India have prospects of growing as regional and global management centers. Globalization provides the opportunity for learning quickly from developments elsewhere, and sharing of renewable energy resources to reduce the global carbon footprint and insulate the societies from pandemics like COVID 19," said Kumar.
This also comes in the backdrop of the US withdrawal from the Paris climate deal and China’s attempts to co-opt countries into its ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, a programme to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, including railways, ports and power grids, across Asia, Africa and Europe.
“India’s Prime Minister recently called for connecting solar energy supply across borders, with the mantra of 'One Sun One World One Grid' (OSOWOG). The vision behind the OSOWOG mantra is “The Sun Never Sets" and is a constant at some geographical location, globally, at any given point of time," the RFP said.
The global grid plan may also leverage the International Solar Alliance (ISA) co-founded by India that has 67 countries as members. It has become India’s calling card on climate change and is increasingly being viewed as a foreign policy tool.
“With India at the fulcrum, the solar spectrum can easily be divided into two broad zones viz. far East which would include countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia etc. and far West which would cover the Middle East and the Africa Region," the RFP added.
The ambitious task unveiled on 26 May has been taken up under the technical assistance program of the World Bank with the last date of proposal submission being 6 July.
Mint reported on 9 January about India starting consultations with the World Bank as its technical partner to implement the global electricity grid plan pitched by Prime Minister Modi.
The plan has been spread across three phases. The first phase deals with the Middle East—South Asia—-South East Asia (MESASEA) interconnection for sharing green energy sources such as solar for meeting electricity needs including peak demand.
Fostering cross-border energy trade is an important part of Modi’s South Asia-focused neighbourhood-first policy. India has been supplying power to Bangladesh and Nepal and has been championing a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) electricity grid minus Pakistan to meet electricity demand in the region.
The initial plans also involve setting up an under-sea link to connect with Oman in the West.
While the second phase deals with the MESASEA grid getting interconnected with the African power pools; the third and final phase is about global interconnection.
“It’s only a question of transmission," power and new and renewable energy minister Raj Kumar Singh had earlier told Mint.
“An interconnected grid would help all the participating entities in attracting investments in renewable energy sources as well as utilizing skills, technology and finances. Resulting economic benefits would positively impact poverty alleviation and support in mitigating water, sanitation, food and other socioeconomic challenges," the RFP said.
“Further, the proposed integration would lead to reduced project costs, higher efficiencies and increased asset utilization for all the participating entities," the RFP added.
This comes in the backdrop of India looking to expedite the ISA’ playbook of setting up a World Solar Bank (WSB) to be headquartered here, that may require a total equity capital of $10 billion. The proposed bank comes in the backdrop of Beijing taking the lead in creating Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB).
ISA has been an important part of India’s messaging in the global fight against climate change.
In his address to the nation on 12 May during the ongoing pandemic Modi said, “International Solar Alliance is India’s gift against Global Warming."
“We have seen the world before Corona and the global systems in detail. Even after the infliction of the Corona crisis, we are constantly watching the situation unfolding across the globe. When we look at these two periods from India’s perspective, it seems that the 21st century is the century for India," Modi said.
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NOTE : WHEN WORLD UNDER CHINESE VIRUS IMPACT AND SUFFERINGS, CHINA INITIATE WAR CLOUDS AGAINST BHARATHAM ON LAME EXCUSES, WE ARE READY TO ACT AGAINST ANY SUCH BETRAYAL FROM THE CHINA'S PART :
3. ### Xi Jinping tells Chinese military to prepare for war. Is it against India, US or Taiwan? : May 27, 2020 : Prabhash K Dutta : India Today : Media Report.
###Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked the PLA to prepare for war without specifying who is the enemy. China is currently engaged in intense territorial dispute with India, Taiwan and also the US.
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HIGHLIGHTS :
*Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked the PLA to prepare for war*It is necessary to step up preparations for armed combat: Xi Jinping
*This follows a decision to increase the budget for the Chinese military by $178 billion
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Howsoever unusual it may sound, Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked its People's Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare for war even though the Covid-19 threat is not clearly over.
Xi Jinping, as quoted by state news agency Xinhua, said, "It is necessary to explore ways of training and preparing for war because epidemic control efforts have been normalised."
"It is necessary to step up preparations for armed combat, to flexibly carry out actual combat military training, and to improve our military's ability to perform military missions," said Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the week-long sitting of the National People's Congress (NPC), the national parliament of China.
This follows a decision to increase the budget for the Chinese military by $178 billion -- or 6.6 per cent -- over last year's allocation.
Xi Jinping's direction to the Chinese military to be battle-ready has come at a time when tension is growing between India and China in Ladakh and Sikkim sectors, and also at the Lipulekh tri-junction with Nepal.
China is understood to have played a role in the recent assertion by Nepal over Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas of Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand.
The situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh is tense. Indian and Chinese soldiers are locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball face-off in Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie.
The tension began on May 5, when around 250 soldiers from the Indian and Chinese sides engaged in a face-off. Over two days, some 100 soldiers from both sides received injuries.
Reports also suggested that the Chinese had "detained" some Indian soldiers for a few hours. The two sides agreed to disengage after a meeting between local commanders.
China has opposed Indian construction on its side of the LAC, calling it a violation of the agreement to maintain the status quo in the region till the boundary question is settled. China claims parts of Ladakh as its own territory. It occupied Aksai Chin during 1962 war and has refused to vacate it since.
China has been posturing aggressively since Ladakh was granted Union Territory status in 2019 following the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir.
India is undertaking road construction and infrastructure building activities in villages near the LAC as development work as well as to boost its strategic position. China has already built heavy infrastructure on the other side of LAC.
*China has been aggressive along LAC in Ladakh leading to face-off with Indian forces. (Photo: AFP file)
Currently, both sides are ramping up their presence in Ladakh in what looks like a replay of Doklam in 2017 at a tri-junction with Bhutan. Doklam had seen a message being sent following a meeting between Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the militaries of the two countries from their leadership to take all efforts to avoid confrontation.
In Sikkim, Chinese troops engaged in a physical brawl with Indian soldiers near the Naku La pass. This happened on May 9, four days after the face-off in Ladakh. Around 150 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in the face-off, leaving 10 soldiers injured on both sides.
On the Lipulekh tri-junction, India is likely to step up its military presence to secure its interests in case China turns aggressive directly or by fronting Nepal. The ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) has been guarding the Kalapani and Lipulekh areas.
China has also protested two MPs from the ruling BJP sending congratulatory messages to Tsai Ing-wen, who recently won her second term as the president of Taiwan. China does not recognise Taiwan, emphasising on the One-China policy. Its stated goal is to unify Taiwan with China, even by force if necessary.
Taiwan, on the other hand, has chosen a pro-independence leader -- Tsai -- for the second consecutive time. Under Tsai, Taiwan has been focusing on strengthening its defence against suspected Chinese aggression.
To boost its military preparedness, Taiwan conducted an ambitious test-fire of a missile in the middle of the Covid-19 outbreak in April. The missile, when developed, can hit targets deep inside China.
Under Tsai, Taiwan has struck defence deals with the US, purchasing F-16 fighter jets worth $8 billion and also over $2 billion pact for missiles for its army and navy.
There have been reports that China is preparing to forcibly occupy Taiwanese islands in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims at its sovereign water territory. A simulation video released by China recently heightened the speculation that it is planning to seize Taiwanese islands. China has planned a massive naval drill in nearby sea waters in the coming months.
The US has been standing with Taiwan solidly. That flies in the face of the Chinese assertion that no country should engage diplomatically or militarily with the island nation. The US-China relation is at its lowest in the years under President Donald Trump.
Trump's policies have led to an intense US-China trade war since 2018. The US's refusal to acknowledge the Chinese claim of the South and East China Seas have prompted China to claim that it faces a security threat from the Trump regime.
The war of words over the Covid-19 outbreak has further aggravated the tension between the US and China. Trump has openly accused China of spreading the pandemic to whole world, and feels it should be held accountable. Trump went on to say he does not feel like talking to Xi Jinping, and even poking China over pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
US air force bombers have conducted about 40 sorties over the South and East China Seas this year. They had run only about a dozen flights through 2019. The US navy has conducted what it calls "freedom of navigation operations" four times already in the two seas, drawing an angry reaction from China.
China says it faces real security threats from countries engaging in unilateral action to challenge its sovereign interests. This is the same argument that China uses against both India and the US to justify its assertion on contested territorial claims.
Against this backdrop, Xi Jinping has left many guessing his real intention behind making public through a state-run news agency his message to the Chinese military to be combat-ready. Does China really want a war? If so, against whom? And, why in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic?
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JAI HIND
JAI BHARATHAM
VANDHE MATHARAM
BHARAT MATHA KI JAI.
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