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05 May 2023 : The Hindu Editorial Analysis

Editorial 1: Buoyancy check

Context

  • India’s services sector seems to have had a great start to the financial year, if one were to go purely by the findings of the S&P Global Services PMI Business Activity Index.

 

Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)

  • It is a survey-based measure that asks the respondents about changes in their perception of key business variables as compared with the previous month. It is an index of the prevailing direction of economic trends in the manufacturing and service sectors.
  • It is calculated separately for the manufacturing and services sectors and then a composite index is also constructed.
  • The PMI is a number from 0 to 100. A print above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction. A reading at 50 indicates no change.
  • It is usually released at the start of every month. It is, therefore, considered a good leading indicator of economic activity.

 

India’s  services sector

 

 
 

 

  • The service sector is the largest and fastest-growing sector in India and has the highest labour productivity. India’s services sector covers a wide variety of activities such as trade, hotel and restaurants, transport, storage and communication, financing, insurance, real estate, business services, community, social and personal services, and services associated with construction. The sector grew at 8.4 % (YoY) IN FY 22 and is expected to grow at 9.1 % IN FY 23 according to Economic Survey 2022-23.

 

Challenges

  • Impact of the pandemic:  India’s Services sector witnessed a significant setback during the COVID-19 pandemic which was led by a sharp contraction in all sub-sectors particularly ‘Trade, hotels, transport, communication & services related to broadcasting.
  • Impact of Demonetization: Demonetization, temporarily impacted the services sector as in the case of other sectors.
  • Employment in Services: Employment has not kept pace with the share of the sector in gross domestic product and has not produced the number or quality of jobs needed.
  • Lack of Policy: There is no policy leading to inclusive growth, and multiple, uncoordinated governing bodies adversely affect the growth of the sector.
  • Domestic Regulations and Services Trade Restrictiveness
  • Market Access Barriers: There are many market access barriers in India’s trading partner countries.

 

Government Initiatives

  • Structural reforms:
  1. The space sector was opened up, telecom related regulations were removed from the IT-BPO sector, and consumer protection regulations were introduced for e-commerce.
  2. Health Sector:  In October 2021, the Prime Minister of India approved the establishment of 157 new medical colleges to boost the accessibility of affordable health treatments among citizens.
  3. The Government of India has set up lakhs of  Ayushman health and wellness centres to provide affordable treatment of diseases like cancer, diabetes etc and check-up at the primary level.
  • Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme
  • Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship
  • National Broadband Mission:
  • BharatNet project.
  • Real Estate: Some of the recent policy measures taken by the Government include Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY- Urban), Smart Cities Mission etc
  • International Collaboration: For e.g India and the UK’s FTA (Free Trade Agreement). India and Australia’s broad-base cooperation in the spheres of the digital economy and cyber-enabled critical technologies.

 

Way forward

  • India is undergoing a structural change in the service sector in the present emerging scenario. But this structural change has created more opportunities for self-employment and innovation. The service sector is essential for almost every middle-class family. The poorest of Indian society also need to improve their living conditions, but it will not be entirely possible without the betterment of the service sector.

Editorial 2: What is behind Manipur’s widespread unrest?

Contex

  • Manipur has been restive since February following a eviction drive seen as targeting a specific tribal group. The drive led to protests but was triggered when Manipur High Court directed to the State to pursue a 10-year-old recommendation to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the non-tribal Meitei community.

 

Manipur’s ethnic composition

  • Geography has a lot to do with Manipur’s problems. The State is like a football stadium with the Imphal Valley representing the playfield at the centre and the surrounding hills the galleries.
  •  Four highways, two of them lifelines for the State, are the valley’s access points to the world beyond.
  • The valley comprises about 10% of Manipur’s landmass and is dominated by the non-tribal Meitei who account for more than 64% of the population of the State and yields 40 of the State’s 60 MLAs.
  • The hills comprising 90% of the geographical area are inhabited by more than 35% recognised tribes but send only 20 MLAs to the Assembly.
  • While a majority of the Meiteis are Hindus followed by Muslims, the 33 recognised tribes, broadly classified into ‘Any Naga tribes’ and ‘Any Kuki tribes’ are largely Christians.

 

The Meitei community

  • Meiteis were recognised as a tribe before the merger of the State with the Union of India in 1949. They argued that the ST status is needed to “preserve” the community and “save the ancestral land, tradition, culture, and language” of the Meiteis. They claimed that they needed constitutional safeguards against outsiders, stating that the community has been kept away from the hills while the tribal people can buy land in the “shrinking” Imphal Valley.

 

Concern by  tribal groups

  • The tribal groups say the Meiteis have a demographic and political advantage besides being more advanced than them academically and in other aspects. They feel the ST status to the Meiteis would lead to loss of job opportunities and allow them to acquire land in the hills and push the tribals out.
  •  Further it was pointed out that the language of the Meitei people is included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and many of them have access to benefits associated with the SC, OBC or EWS status
  • And lastly the  demand for ST status is a ploy to attenuate the fervent political demands of the Kukis and Nagas, as well as a tacit strategy of the dominant valley dwellers to make inroads into the hill areas of the State.

 

Challenges in Restoring Peace in Manipur

  • Many Conflicting Demands: The central government’s approach of a peaceful settlement with the militant outfits has proved counterproductive as the demands of many of the outfits conflict with each other, any conventional agreement with one group becomes a cause for agitation by other groups.
  • Proxy Groupings: Given that peace talks are on with the insurgents groups, there has been a tendency for the groups to continue the armed rebellion by another faction, with merely a change in nomenclature or by forming a new group.
  • Politician-Insurgents Nexus: The nexus between the politicians and insurgents and criminals adds to the woes of the state.
  • Border State: Manipur being a border state, with a porous international border in a hostile jungle environment, the inflow of arms and trans-border movement of insurgent outfits who rely on external countries for training and other required logistics support are continuing.

 

Way Forward

  • Transforming Manipur into a peaceful, stable and prosperous state will bring profound, long-lasting benefits to the nation. It will bring development and employment to an entire state and improve the lives of lakhs of people in the process. It will help increase India’s gross domestic product. It will encourage Indian tourists to travel within the country instead of going abroad. It will bring in more international tourism revenues. It will bring stability to the North-East and develop Manipur into a much-needed bridge to South-East Asia.