Editorials/Opinions Analysis For UPSC 10 July 2023

Editorials/Opinions Analysis For UPSC 10 July 2023

Contents

1. The Role of NaBFID in Infrastructure Development
2. To Address Khalistan, India Must Change Diplomacy

The Role of NaBFID in Infrastructure Development

Context

The National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID), in the context of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) and the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), is a key player in the financing of projects in these pipelines. To address the problems brought on by climate change, it is necessary to secure climate-resilient finance.

Relevance: 

GS Paper 3: Disaster-Resilient Infrastructure, GS Paper3: Green economy

Mains Question

explore the planning, design, building, operation, and maintenance phases as you explore the steps necessary to integrate climate resilience into infrastructure development. Talk about the role that local governments, strengthening data management, and flagship programmes have in supporting climate adaptation and mitigation policies. (250 Words)

Infrastructure Development Including Climate Resilience:

• Planning, Design, Construction, Operation, and Maintenance: Incorporating climate considerations into infrastructure development at all stages, including planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance, is essential to ensuring climate resilience. Infrastructure will be able to withstand and quickly recover from climatic disturbances thanks to this all-encompassing approach.
• Flagship Programmes and Climate Resilient Standards: The adoption of climate-resilient standards in infrastructure projects should be given priority by government programmes like AMRUT, the Smart Cities Mission, and Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna (PMAY). As a result, crucial infrastructure will be more resilient and sustainable growth will benefit.

Local Government and Climate Adaptation

• The National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) requires local governments to incorporate climate adaptation and mitigation methods into their development programmes. Local Government and Climate Adaptation. To increase climate resilience, it is essential to make sure that these provisions are effectively put into practise on a local level.
• 2016 Model Building Bye-Laws: Promoting climate resilience in infrastructure development requires adherence to the Model Building Bye-laws 2016 regulations, which include risk classification of buildings and climate-resilient construction.
• Improving Technical Capacity and Data Management: Updating Critical Infrastructure Records: For accurate land-use planning, many states lack current records of crucial infrastructure, including housing, water systems, and transportation networks. It requires immediate action to update and maintain such data.
• Improving Climate Modelling and Projections: India has to improve its technological capability for climate modelling and projects. A thorough road map can be made by working with organisations like ISRO, NRSA, and IMD to direct the design, development, and delivery of resilient infrastructure.
• Mobilising Institutional Collective Efforts: India should make use of its current institutional climate capacities to anticipate and respond to disasters related to climate change. Institutions like ISRO, NRSA, and IMD can contribute significantly to the production of thorough data that supports the development of robust infrastructure.

Including Climate Resilience in Funding for Infrastructure

• Limited Focus on Climate hazards: The integration of climate hazards inside the NIP generally focuses on acute physical concerns, ignoring chronic physical risks such rising temperatures and biodiversity loss. Green infrastructure and nature-based solutions are on the rise, and NIP should follow this trend.
• Emphasising Traditional Infrastructure: The NIP neglects the integration of green infrastructure solutions that international cities are utilising for flood protection, such as green roofs, in favour of concentrating on traditional grey infrastructure, such as stormwater drainage.

Increasing Transparency and Accountability:

• Voluntary Climate Disclosures: While international programmes require financial disclosures relating to climate change, such declarations are still mostly voluntary in India. Although it is a start in the right direction to require corporate responsibility and sustainability reporting (BRSR) from the top publicly traded corporations, efforts to mainstream sustainability and climate resilience need to be put into practise.
• Addressing Financial hazards: Climate change-related financial hazards are becoming more widely acknowledged on a worldwide scale. Stress testing has been started by central banks, and Indian authorities have developed frameworks for green/blue bonds and rules for stress testing the effects of climate change. Calculating climate hazards and taking credit risk into account, however, is a difficult procedure.

Leveraging Innovative Financing and Partnerships:

• Transition Bonds: NaBFID can benefit from the acceptance of transition bonds, which fund projects intended to lower emissions. NaBFID can draw in a variety of funding sources by using entity-level and project-level safeguards and creative financing arrangements.
• Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs): It is essential that NaBFID put a strong emphasis on structural initiatives to enhance asset provisioning and quality while also producing returns on investment. Cost overruns and delays can be reduced in PPPs by pre-planning, collaborating, and learning from the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL).

promoting climate-resilient financial tools

• Green Bonds and Sustainability-Linked Bonds: These financial products shift money from other uses to support climate mitigation and resilience initiatives. To improve the amount of green financing going into infrastructure, NaBFID can issue green bonds through private placements.
• Disclosure Standards and Emerging Infrastructure Standards: requiring financial disclosures relating to climate change and embracing emerging standards for infrastructure projects can increase transparency and credibility while incorporating the natural world into decision-making processes.

Conclusion

In summary, the funding of infrastructure by NaBFID is essential for India’s development. NaBFID can secure climate-resilient funding and direct funds towards sustainable projects by prioritising climate resilience, adopting green infrastructure, utilising innovative financial products, and establishing rigorous transparency rules.

To Address Khalistan, India Must Change Diplomacy

Context

• The Indian government is taking preemptive measures to ensure increased security and vigilance in light of the pro-Khalistan separatist rallies planned in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia on July 8 that will especially target Indian diplomatic missions and diplomats.
• Separatism is a political ideology or movement that, generally motivated by cultural, racial, or religious differences, attempts to sever a particular group or region from a larger governmental body. In the context of Khalistani separatism, it referred to an effort made in the 1970s and 1980s to form Khalistan, a separate Sikh state, in the Indian province of Punjab.

Relevance: 

GS Paper 3: Security -separatism GS Paper 2: international relations

Mains Question

Describe the development of the Khalistani separatist movement in India, emphasising the important occasions and causes that led to its rise. Examine and evaluate the efficiency of the Indian government’s strategy for battling Khalistani separatism. (150 words)

The development of Khalistani Separatism:

• Various Sikh separatist organisations first appeared in the 1970s and pushed for more political and economic autonomy for Sikhs. In response, the Indian government dismantled these groups and imprisoned their leaders.
• The Sikh political group Akali Dal proposed the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which demanded greater autonomy for Punjab and its Sikh populace.
• As security forces responded to Sikh militant strikes on government targets, bloodshed increased in the 1980s. With assistance from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and under the direction of a prominent religious figure at the time, J. S. Bhindranwale, Sikh terrorists also attacked the government and Hindu communities.
• The Indian government launched Operation Blue Star to drive out insurgents from the Golden Temple complex.
• Anti-Sikh riots broke out when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards.
• The Punjab Accord of 1985 sought to end conflict and give Punjab and its Sikh community greater autonomy, but the Khalistan question remained unsolved.
• During the 1990s, the insurgency began to wane as a result of successful counter-insurgency operations and internal strife among terrorist groupings.
• Sikh militancy after the 9/11 attacks decreased as it was linked to terrorism, leading to the establishment of Sikh Gurdwara administration committees for better Gurudwara administration. While support for Khalistan is waning, some Sikh organisations are still pushing for more autonomy within India.

The Indian government’s strategy to combat Khalistani separatism:

• Operation Black Thunder, which was carried out in 1988, was one of the country’s most significant counterinsurgency operations. Famous policeman K. P. S. Gill was instrumental in counterinsurgency efforts in the 1990s.
• In order to meet Sikh concerns, political actions were taken, such as the creation of separate gurdwara administration committees.
• To obtain information on militant activity and thwart their plans, intelligence operations were used.
• Measures were taken, such as the establishment of the Punjab Rural Development Board, to foster better links between the Sikh and Hindu communities.
• Joint efforts with bordering states like Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir were made to stop the transfer of weapons and terrorists across borders.

Pakistan’s Role in Provoking Unrest in Indian Punjab

• There are still extremist groups operating in Punjab with assistance from the ISI and linkages to Pakistan.
• In order to prepare terrorists for strikes in Punjab, the ISI continues to support and train them using techniques like dropping weapons and explosives using drones.
• Growing drug trafficking operations supported by Pakistan trap young people in organised crime with possible linkages to terrorism.
• Pakistan distributes fake Indian cash throughout Punjab to fund insurgency.
• To radicalise and recruit young Sikhs in India, the ISI uses social media.
• Pakistan finances pro-Khalistan rallies and protests in Western countries, particularly in Canada, to rekindle the Khalistani cause.
• Pakistan disputes its involvement in the Khalistani separatist movement and accuses India of violating Punjab’s human rights.
• This suggests that there is a proxy war taking place in Punjab. However, albeit under suspicion, initiatives have been done in the direction of peace, such as the opening of the Kartarpur corridor. In order to strengthen law and order in Punjab, put pressure on the international community to fight terrorism, and work with civil society to solve problems like drug abuse, India should take advantage of Pakistan’s current economic crisis. To maintain its integrity and unity as a nation, India must always be ready.

Concern and diplomatic action from India

• The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had discussions with partner nations, advocating preventative measures, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval discussed the issue with his British counterpart during talks in Delhi.
• Concerns have been expressed in New Delhi by alarming posters for demonstrations to “Kill India” and “Khalistan Freedom” that feature images of India’s top diplomats based there.
• The upcoming rallies serve as a test for respective governments to fulfil their international obligations by ensuring adequate protection for Indian diplomatic interests, investigating and sharing intelligence on violent organisations, and taking measures to prevent.

Reassessing Diplomatic Strategy:

• While the four nations that are seeing an increase in pro-Khalistan attacks bear the lion’s share of the blame, the Indian government must also reevaluate its public diplomacy strategy on this matter.
• Publicly criticising other governments, breaking off diplomatic ties, and taking punitive actions, like reducing security at the British High Commission, may be symbolic, but they lack diplomatic heft.The MEA has repeatedly summoned top diplomats from the other nations named, excluding the US, to discuss attacks, frequently without discriminating between violent events and simple graffiti.
• Although New Delhi has every right to be concerned about the security of Indian people and their belongings, it is crucial to respect the host nation’s sovereignty when it comes to problems of law and order and policing.The fact that both the victims and the offenders frequently have Indian ancestry is critically overlooked in India’s outspoken complaints on behalf of the Indian diaspora and the targeted community centres.
• In light of the intensifying protests and the seriousness of the threats, increased cooperation between governments, as opposed to brinkmanship, is required. Mechanisms for information sharing and intelligence collaboration should be established, and solutions to the rising violence committed by these groups should be sought.

Conclusion:

• In order to properly resolve the Khalistan issue, India must modify its diplomatic strategy. In order to safeguard Indian diplomatic interests, uphold international responsibilities, and deter criminal activity, the relevant governments must take quick action in response to the scheduled pro-Khalistan rallies.
• New Delhi should review its public diplomacy methods concurrently and shift away from symbolic actions in favour of encouraging cooperation with partner countries. In order to combat the escalating violence committed by pro-Khalistan organisations, India should engage in constructive conversation, information exchange, and intelligence cooperation. This is because it is understood that concerns of law and order lie under the purview of the host nation. By doing this, everyone involved can join forces to protect their interests and advance a peaceful resolution.