Editorial 1 : Critical for Green future
Recent Context:
- Recently, G20 Leaders’ Summit is going to in New Delhi under which there is a growing consensus on the importance of critical minerals for the clean energy transition.
- As, the outcome document of the G20 Energy Transitions Ministers’ meeting in Goa notes the “need to maintain reliable, responsible and sustainable supply chains of such critical minerals and materials”
Critical minerals and its significance
- Critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, silicon, graphite, and rare earth elements (REE) are used in clean technologies like solar modules, wind turbines, and batteries.
- The deployment of these technologies can help meet India’s sustainability targets of 500 GW of non-fossil power capacity by 2030 as well as the emissions-intensity target of 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
- Therefore, these minerals can be termed as the building blocks of modern civilization and important to a nation’s economic and national security and have no viable substitutes
Reliable supply chain is important for critical mineral
- The growing demand for clean technologies has led to an uptick in global mining of various critical minerals.
- According to a study conducted by the Union Ministry of Mines, the annual production of key minerals such as lithium, REE, and cobalt registered an increase of 240 per cent, 134 per cent, and 67 per cent respectively,
- In the case of minerals such as cobalt, copper, and nickel, the current mine production is already more than 2 per cent of global reserves.
- However, global supply chains of critical minerals are complex and can be vulnerable to unforeseen disruptions caused by the vagaries of trade treaties, geopolitical factors and natural disasters.
- Securing the supply chain of critical minerals is important for reducing our import dependence, strengthening national security, and developing a domestic value chain to cater to the growing demand.
Enhancing critical mineral exploration under Atmanirbhar Bharat: Government’s initiative
- To further the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat, the government is committed to the growth of the domestic critical minerals sector with a focus on exploration, processing, use and recycling
- Policy reforms have been undertaken through key amendments to the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957 in 2015, 2020, 2021, and recently in 2023.
- This envisaged the granting of mining licences and composite licences for mine development through a transparent and time-bound process.
- Moreover, the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) is supporting the exploration of critical minerals with private agencies being empanelled to receive funding for such activities.
- The MMDR Amendment Act, 2023 also facilitates mining by including a provision of Exploration Licenses (EL) for deep-seated and critical minerals. It also omitted six minerals including lithium, from the list of 12 atomic minerals.
Promoting fiscal federalism while exploration of critical minerals
- Government has taken the responsibility to exclusively auction concessions related to 24 critical minerals, while making sure that the revenues accrue to the concerned state governments.
- This measure will improve the revenue receipts of state governments, giving a healthy boost to their fiscal position.
There is need for international collaboration
- Apart from strengthening domestic mechanisms, collaborative international efforts through multilateral and bilateral engagements can help in building a resilient critical minerals value chain.
- Collective action is important to achieve our targets and the government is forming new partnerships and alliances related to critical minerals – these include India’s entry into the
- Minerals Security Partnership (MSP),
- the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) and
- the efforts of Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) to seek mineral acquisition opportunities in countries like Chile and Argentina.
Role of India during G20 summit to ensure critical minerals for the future.
- As, the voluntary high-level principles on critical mineralsa are discussed in G20, incorporating innovation and environmental and social governance will further strengthen our efforts to secure India’s critical minerals for the future.
- The vision of “One Earth, One Family, One Future” under India’s G20 presidency, highlights the importance of our shared goals related to emission reduction and climate change mitigation for a shared future.
Conclusion
Therefore, the groundwork laid down during India’s G20 presidency will strengthen our work on critical minerals, with India taking a leadership role.
Editorial 2 : G20 Summit: five things to note
Recent Context:
- On this Saturday morning, the world’s top leaders will gather in New Delhi for the G20 Summit to discuss the global challenges of our times and to possibly find a direction towards resolving some of them.
- Earlier, India has hosted multilateral conferences, events, and summits such as UNESCO conference in 1956, the Asian Games of 1982, the famous NAM Summit of March 1983, the Commonwealth Games of 2010, and the India-Africa Forum Summit in 2015. None of those could have rivalled the scale and importance of the G20 Summit of 2023.
Significance of G20 summit from India’s perspective:
- For the first time, leaders of all permanent members of the United Nations Security Council called the P-5 countries — will be in New Delhi at the same time. From India’s perspective, here are five things of challenges that need to take note of, and to watch out for.
Building consensus in polarized world:
- The Russia-Ukraine conflict has polarised the grouping, and India’s biggest challenge is to negotiate a “compromise” document in the G20 communique
- While the G7 wants condemnatory language on Russia’s actions and words, Moscow and Beijing will allow none of that in the declaration.
- At the G20 Summit in Bali last year, Indonesian negotiators managed to broker a compromise and find a language formulation that was acceptable to both the US-led Western alliance and the Russia-China bloc. Indian negotiators too would want to produce a consensus joint communique
Promoting inclusive development and awareness
- India is conducting 200-plus meetings across more than 50 locations has created a new template in size and scale.
- it will ensure the widespread awareness of India’s Presidency across cities and even Tier-2 towns. This could over time result in a situation where foreign policy and diplomacy become a talking point in India’s elections.
Widening the horizon of G 20 for future
- India is discussing an ambitious set of proposals across sectors — digital public infrastructure, gender, development, multilateral reforms, climate change, health and future pandemics, use of technology, etc.
- On most of these issues, the Sherpas will have to come up with final, actionable, concrete outcomes for the leaders’ declaration. These deliverables are also being discussed so they can be implemented by the future presidencies — Brazil and South Africa are next.
Raising the voice of global south
- India has taken up the mantle of leading the developing and underdeveloped world during its G20 Presidency.
- India took the lead in organising the Voice of the Global South Summit in January this year, which was attended by about 120 countries.
- The views and concerns expressed by these countries were brought to the table of the G20, who comprise 85% of the world’s GDP and 75% of global trade.
- India has advocated the expansion of the G20 by including the African Union, which represents the 54 countries of the continent. The G20 now has only one African country South Africa —as a member.
- It will strengthen the India’s claim to permanent membership of the UN Security Council and further it will have garnered the support and goodwill of the Global South, including the countries of the African continent.
Tussle between Indian-China over border dispute and G20 challenge
- Despite the border dispute, the two countries have earlier cooperated at the United Nations, BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the climate change conference (COP), and even the G20.
- Now, there is danger of bilateral ties going the India-Pakistan way at multilateral fora the virtual collapse of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) being an example.
- President Xi’s decision to stay away has put the consensus for the communique at risk. Premier Li has the tough task of bridging the gap and rebuilding trust.
Conclusion:
- Despite these potent challenges, global leaders are expecting to reach to conceal agreement for the border purpose of humanity while minimizing their areas of disagreement through dialogues.
- Therefore, the groundwork laid down during India’s G20 presidency will strengthen the vision of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam means “the world is a family”, with India taking a leadership role.