Month: December 2021

CPR FACULTY ANALYSE THE US TRADE POLICY
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

In what was seen as the beginning of a trade war, US President, Donald Trump recently imposed tariffs on goods from countries including Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union. The move saw immediate retaliation from US allies, with countries imposing heavy duties on a number of imports from the US. This policy of protectionism reflected Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, however it derailed trade relations with several allies. CPR faculty analyse this move of the US President in the curated media commentary below.

Brahma Chellaney writes in the ‘Asian Review’ about the risk of alienation India faces as the US imposes punitive sanctions on Iran and Russia, both of which have been ‘long-standing economic and political partners for India’. The challenge for New Delhi is going to be ‘how to balance those interests with its growing strategic partnership with the US, a top trading and defence partner of India’. Chellaney reiterates this in the ‘Times of India’, detailing how India should safeguard its interests by partnering with other key democracies in order to push back with full diplomatic strength. In an interview with ‘Radio Sputnik’ he details the effects of the sanctions imposed on Iran.

Shyam Saran writes in the ‘Hindustan Times’ analysing the trade war between the US and China, detailing how by alienating allies, Trump’s China policy has failed as China gets an opportunity ‘to make common cause with American allies both in Asia and Europe’. He writes in ‘India Today‘ about the tumultuous relationship of the US with China, Korea, Canada and Russia and the implications this has for India, highlighting that ‘spaces have opened up for India to enhance its external position’.

G Parthasarathy writes in ‘The Indian Panorama’ highlighting the destabalising impacts of Trump’s ‘America First’ approach. He further elaborates on this in ‘The New Indian Express’ detailing how the US President has completely turned the foreign policy upside down, from his UK visit where he was critical of Theresa May, to his behaviour at the G7 Summit and his trade policies that have warranted retaliation from allies.

TWO NEW BOOK CHAPTERS BY LAVANYA RAJAMANI.
PARIS AGREEMENT CLIMATE RESEARCH

Recently published by the Oxford University Press, The Paris Agreement on Climate Change features two book chapters written by Lavanya Rajamani, including i) Central Concepts in the Paris Agreement and How They Evolved and, ii) Guiding Principles and General Obligation (Article 2.2 and Article 3).

An edited volume of essays, the book provides an analysis of the legal requirements of the Paris Agreement, and clarifies the content of the provisions, placing them in context and elaborating on key issues surrounding the Agreement.

In the first of the two chapters, Rajamani charts the evolution of the central concepts in the Paris Agreement. She and her co-author argue that the Paris Agreement relies on a few key concepts to ensure its acceptability, namely those of ambition of a global effort to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, differentiation between developed and developing countries, and, the provision of support towards climate change efforts.

These concepts underpinned the four years of negotiations that led up to the Paris Agreement. An examination of these concepts, and how they play out in the text of Agreement, reveals the delicate balance the Agreement manages between a sincere commitment to climate change efforts while remaining sensitive to political, scientific and technical advances, and national circumstances and capabilities.

In the second chapter, Rajamani focuses more specifically on guiding principles of the Agreement articulated in Article 2.2 and Article 3 of the Paris Agreement. These include equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities in light of different national circumstances.

The chapter traces the difficult history of these principles at previous negotiations, and provides insight into the carefully chosen language that has critical significance. It also analyses how these principles have been operationalised across mitigation, adaptation, transparency, and, support.

For more details on the book, please visit the publisher page.

Additionally, Lavanya Rajamani has written extensively on the Paris Agreement for Annuaire Français De Droit International, the Journal of International Environmental Law, and, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, to name a select few. Her co-authored book, International Climate Change Law, published in May this year, discusses the Paris Agreement in depth.

Watch out for her article with Jutta Brunnée on ‘The Legality of Downgrading Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement: Lessons from the US Disengagement’, which will be out in the next issue of the Journal of Environmental Law.

More information on her work can be accessed here.

BOOK CHAPTER CO-AUTHORED BY EESHA KUNDURI
URBAN ECONOMY

Context:
Women’s migration has typically been understood as a relational phenomenon, where women are generally seen to be migrating for marriage or as accompanying family members (according to data from the Census and the National Sample Survey). This has been acknowledged as a key shortcoming in the way macro-data captures women’s migration, owing to the nature of the data which attributesonly a singular reason for migration.

Recent studies, however, have suggested that even if women migrate with families or due to marriage-related reasons, livelihood options at destination are factored into by households as part of their migration decisions.

Therefore, migration in general and women’s migration in particular, is complex and multi-faceted, and there is a growing recognition to unpack the nuances of people’s lived experiences of it. In light of this literature, and in the context of low workforce participation rates for women in Delhi (about 10.7 % as per 2011-12 data from the National Sample Survey), researchers Eesha Kunduri and Sonal Sharma decided to engage more deeply with work-life histories of women migrants. The objective of the research was to provide insights into women’s own assessment of their work in the city, and their hopes and expectations from it, since often these apsects are paid scant attention in meta-narratives of gendered work, occupations and migration.

How was the research conducted?
The research draws upon fieldwork among 40 women workers in informal housing settlements around two industrial estates in Delhi: Patparganj in East Delhi and Wazirpur in North-West Delhi. The qualitative data is complimented by insights from a sample survey of 317 workers: 77 female and 240 male workers.
Key findings:

The women interviewed mostly migrated with their husbands or a male household member, and started working out of the realisation that one member’s earnings were not sufficient to sustain in the city.
Typically, the women’s earnings averaged between 4000 and 5000 rupees a month, about a half of what male workers earn.
Women were found to be relegated to tasks on the lower end of the occupational hierarchy, such as removal of excess thread from clothes, in packing, labelling, etc. and as home-based workers (industrial outworkers) undertaking work such as sewing on the sides of jeans, taping of speaker components, putting threads into bookmarks, etc.
While these are precarious employment scenarios, what was notable was a strong sense of self-perception that women expressed with regard to their work and earnings, and a sense of freedom in city spaces. They commented on the sense of independence that their earnings, howsoever meagre, allowed them to have, including meeting small, everyday expenses by themselves, and in some cases, extending support to their children’s education in the city.
Interpreting the findings:
Kunduri and Sharma argue that women’s strong self-perception is related to the opportunities to be mobile in the city. The women workers in the study looked at the city as a space of freedom, especially when compared to the strict norms that governed their movements back in the village. Particularly, for the upper caste women guided by customs of ‘veiling’ (ghunghat) in the village, being able to step out of their home for work, to go to the market, and so on, was an enabling experience.

Women also reported about being able to enjoy leisure time in the city, which included activities like watching television, and chatting with other women in the neighbourhood. Home-based workers especially were seen to be working together in groups in courtyards or outside of tenement settlements, indicating the opportunities for socialisation.

Such everyday practices, the authors argue, also enabled women to cultivate networks that helped them to cope with the uncertainties of urban living, and also served as entry points for finding work opportunities.

However, it was also seen that localities that were relatively more homogenous in term of residents’ regional origins, caste and community backgrounds often reproducedvillage-alike restrictions on women’s mobility, in comparison to more heterogeneous localities which women found liberating.
An overall analysis suggests that mobility as a concept needs to be understood in its subjective dimensions cutting across social, spatial, economic aspects. The micro-narratives of freedom in the city, in relation to the village, particularly offer critical insights in this regard.

The book, Land, Labour and Livelihoods: Indian Women’s Perspectives, which includes the chapter by the authors, ‘Here, We Are Addicted To Loitering’: Exploring Narratives of Work and Mobility Among Migrant Women in Delhi, can be accessed at the publisher link here.

CURATED ANALYSIS BY CPR FACULTY
BUDGET ECONOMY

As Budget 2017 was announced by the Union government on 1 February, find below a curated analysis by CPR faculty.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes in The Indian Express that through this budget the government is trying to steady the ship after the demonetisation shock, explaining how it ‘is an exercise in forward-looking but cautious prudence’.

In an article in Hindustan Times, Rajiv Kumar writes that the budget is what the ‘doctor ordered for the economy’, as it addresses the critical tasks of ‘generating employment, promoting private investment, pushing up consumption, improving delivery of subsidies and public services’. He further writes in The Hindu on how the budget fulfills the three principle goals of reviving domestic investment; generating employment opportunities; and cleansing the economy of black money flows.

Yamini Aiyar writes in Livemint and in a Hindi article in Amar Ujala that the budget has maintained the status quo, as far as social sector schemes are concerned, and has been ‘remarkably silent’ on restructuring the ‘financing architecture for social policy post the 14th Finance Commission’. Avani Kapur reiterates this in another article in Deccan Herald, writing that despite riding high on expectations, Budget 2017 did not offer any major changes in majority of social sector schemes.

Kiran Bhatty writes in The Wire that the ‘attention deficit’ towards education remains unchanged in this year’s budget.

Sanjaya Baru and Rajiv Kumar also debate the budget on CNN News18 and Times Now (above) respectively.

THE FIRST ARTICLE IN A FOUR-PART SERIES ON INDIA’S AIR POLLUTION IN THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
AIR POLLUTION ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

The quality of India’s air needs to be addressed as a pan-India public health emergency. Air pollution was responsible for 12.5% of the total deaths in 2017, as per the most recent iteration of India State Level Burden Assessment. The World Health Organization reports nearly 100,000 deaths in infants to be attributable annually to air pollution in India. But deaths form only a part of the story — there is growing evidence of how it causes illnesses in nearly every organ of our body. It affects the elderly and babies still in their mothers’ wombs – newborns show traces of particulates in their blood stream. It affects all of us.

This article is the first of a four-part series by researchers at the Centre for Policy Research written in collaboration with leading air pollution researchers. We take stock of what we know about air pollution, and what we could do to improve the air quality in India. In this series, we focus on fine particulate matter (or PM2.5), a useful proxy indicator for air pollution. These particles — a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles, originating from different sources and comprising multiple chemical substances — are the most damaging, as they can penetrate the lung barrier and enter the systemic circulation. In this article, we will lay out four foundational facts about when, how much, and where we should worry about air pollution. In short, the answers are: most of the time, a lot, and all over India.

First, air pollution is a near year-round problem, even though we notice pollution much more during periodic spikes especially in winter (see figure). Many parts of India, especially in the Indo-Gangetic belt record poor air quality levels across the year. In 2018 (so far), PM2.5 levels were ‘poor,’ ‘very poor’ or ‘severe’ 56% of the time in Delhi (RK Puram), 49% in Patna and 32% in Kanpur. Conversely, it was ‘good’ for six days in Delhi, one day in Patna and 37 days in Kanpur. While it is understandable that we focus on the visible peaks, adverse health outcomes result primarily to high long-term exposure, not just pollution spikes. To understand the severity of the problem, we have to look at annual average levels of emissions.

Second, annual average emission levels in much of India are multiple times safe levels (see figure). Three quarters of India’s population lives in areas where levels of PM 2.5 exceed the Indian national standard of an annual mean of 40 microgram/m3. These norms themselves are four times the far lower levels recommended by the WHO (see figure). Big western cities such as London, New York City and Paris have air quality nearly at these levels, and make the news when some of their neighbourhoods exceed the WHO norms by a few microgram/m3. Our levels are not just somewhat higher but many multiples higher: 72 of 640 districts in India, primarily in Delhi, UP, Bihar, and Punjab, have annual averages 10 times the WHO levels. Even Beijing, infamous for its air pollution, had PM2.5 levels about half of Delhi’s in 2016. We often hear that India suffers from inadequate data and knowledge of air pollution. While India does indeed need much better data and more sensors – much of the data reported here is from satellite data – this uncertainty should not be a reason for inaction, since new monitors will only tell us what multiple above safe standards we are.

Third, air pollution is not just a city or industrial area problem but a regional problem. Satellite data shows that air pollution levels are especially poor across the entire Indo-Gangetic Belt stretching from Punjab and parts of Rajasthan in the west to Bihar in the east. To an extent, this is a curse of geography. Sandwiched between the Himalayas in the north, and the Vindhyas in the south, this belt becomes a virtual valley where outward dispersion is difficult. Thus, while cities contribute to their own air pollution through traffic, industry, and waste burning, they are also affected by emissions from the broader regional ‘airshed’. As a result, rural areas are frequently also polluted. In addition, emissions from cookstoves using solid fuels not only lead to high levels of indoor air pollution, but also account for an estimated quarter to a third of outdoor pollution. India is dealing with both modern sources of pollution such as industries and vehicles, as well as pollution from traditional practices such as cooking with firewood, and we need to tackle both.

Finally, PM2.5 levels have been growing. Across Punjab, pollution levels nearly doubled between 1998 and 2016. It is sobering that India’s air quality is worse than China’s even while its GDP (PPP) per capita is less than half that of China. Clearly, the environmental quality of India’s growth is not sustainable.

Any serious plan to mitigate air pollution has to be long-term in nature, target multiple sources, operate year-round, and focus on regions rather than cities. In subsequent articles, we describe the impact of air pollution on health, explore the different sources of air pollution and conclude with a reflection on an approach to air pollution across India.

Santosh Harish is a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. Navroz K Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research. 

This article is the first in a four-part series on India’s air pollution. The original article, which was published in the Hindustan Times on December 19, 2018, can be found here. For more information on CPR’s work on air pollution, visit the Clearing the Air? project page. 

In this Series:

Understanding the curse of air pollution (1/4)

Public Health in India a Casualty of Air Pollution (2/4)

Delhi Has a Complex Air Pollution Problem (3/4)

Air pollution: India’s waking up, but there’s a long way to go (4/4)

CO-AUTHORED BY PARTHA MUKHOPADHYAY AND MARIE-HÉLÈNE ZÉRAH
URBAN GOVERNANCE

This policy research working paper presents the results of an investigation of selected census towns in northern India. Census towns are settlements that India’s census classifies as urban although they continue to be governed as rural settlements. The 2011 census featured a remarkable increase in the number of census towns, which nearly tripled between 2001 and 2011, from 1,362 to 3,894. This increase contributed to nearly a third (29.5 percent) of the total increase in the urban population during this period.

Only part of this evolution can be attributed to the gradual urbanisation of settlements in the vicinity of larger towns. Instead, the majority of census towns appear as small ‘market towns,’ providing trade and other local services to a growing rural market. The case studies of representative census towns in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and West Bengal show the role of increased connectivity and growing rural incomes in driving the demand for the small-scale and non-tradable services, which are the main sources of non-farm employment in these settlements.

The case studies also reveal that the trade-offs between urban and rural administrative statuses are actively debated in many of these settlements. Although statistical comparisons do not show a significant impact of urban or rural administrative status on access to basic services, urban status is often favored by the social groups involved in the growing commercial and services sectors, and resisted by the residents still involved in the traditional farming sectors.

The full policy research working paper can be accessed here.