Editorial 1 : An elusive grand bargain
Introduction: When the Joe Biden administration described its China strategy as “responsible competition”, many analysts in India and beyond dismissed it as mission impossible. The administration insisted that it would cooperate with China where possible and challenge it where it must, which to many commentators looked unsustainable to practise.
The USA’s re-approachment to China is seen in nervousness in India
- For many in the Indian strategic community, maintaining a balance between competition and cooperation is unsustainable.
- They worry that the engagement track will prevail at the expense of America’s friends and partners and in favour of Beijing.
- To be sure, as a power far away from Asia and facing no direct threats from China, there will always be reasons for the US to find an accommodation with China.
- As the world’s largest economies with massive interdependence and as leading military powers, their imperatives to engage are real.
- So are the contradictions between Washington and Beijing.
Cooperation with China
- The growing sense of economic threat from China and the prospect that Beijing is trying to nudge America out of Asia has brought Washington together on the idea of pushing back.
- This is one of the few things that Democrats and Republicans agree on — the difference is on how hard to push back.
- While some section of Republicans holds a total confrontational policy against China, Biden is sticking to a “responsible competition” policy with China.
- Several current developments involving the US and China give us a sense of this strategy.
- A long telephone call between Biden and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. This is part of the high-level communication between the two sides that began in Bali at the end of 2022 on the margins of the G20 summit. President Xi visited the US to attend the San Francisco summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum last November.
- This week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is on an extended tour of China.
Confrontation with China
1. Looking to Japan
- This week President Biden is hosting the Japanese Prime Minister on a state visit to the White House.
- Fumio Kishida is the third leader of the Quad to receive this special welcome under the Biden presidency.
- The two other state visits were from South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and French President Emmanuel Macron.
- The short list of state visits indicates the continuing strategic importance Biden attaches to the Indo-Pacific, despite the war in the heart of Europe.
- Under Kishida, Japan has emerged as the lynchpin of Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy and has promised to significantly raise its defence budget and develop new capabilities to deter China, North Korea, and Russia.
- The new and assertive security role of Asia’s second-largest economy marks Tokyo’s pivot away from entrenched post-war pacifism and an important structural change in post-war Asian geopolitics.
- Beyond strengthening the bilateral security partnership with Japan, the US wants Tokyo to become a part of the AUKUS initiative — the planned advanced technology partnership between Australia, the UK and the US — unveiled in 2021.
- The first pillar of the AUKUS arrangement involves the transfer of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines from Washington and London to Canberra.
- Japan, with its strong anti-nuclear orientation, will not be part of it.
2. AUKUS’ new avatar
- Tokyo is likely to emerge as a valuable addition to the second pillar of AUKUS, which is looking to jointly develop advanced military technologies.
- These include hypersonic, underwater, cyber, AI, and quantum computing technologies.
- Japan is expected to bring its excellent scientific and technical skills and manufacturing prowess to develop and retain the lead over China.
- Drawing Japan into AUKUS is part of the Biden administration’s strategy to look beyond bilateral alliances and draw its friends and partners into a range of overlapping minilateral institutions.
- India is familiar with the Quad arrangement that brings India into regional collaboration with Australia, Japan, and the United States.
- Minilateralism is now becoming part of the Asian security landscape amidst the inability of the regional multilateral mechanisms led by the ASEAN to cope with the changing regional geopolitical dynamic.
- The Biden administration has also set up the so-called “Chip Four” alliance that brings the world’s major producers of semiconductors — Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the United States.
- Following the bilateral summit with Kishida, Biden is hosting a trilateral summit with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Biden and Kishida are expected to offer strong support to Marcos, who is standing up to China in the disputed South China Sea.
- The US is also reinforcing these coalitions by encouraging its Asian friends to develop partnerships with each other with or without direct US participation.
3. The Asian security networks
- The new approach is about building a web of Asian security networks that pool the region’s military resources, enhance deterrence and ensure peace.
- The US, for example, is asking Japan to expand its security assistance to countries in the Indo-Pacific including the Philippines.
- It has nudged South Korea to expand advanced technology cooperation with India.
- The recent visits of External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Manila and Kuala Lumpur have seen India stepping up its own bilateral engagement in East Asia.
- The US strategy in the Indo-Pacific is about strengthening its allies, building new partnerships, constructing minilaterals, and promoting independent cooperation between its Asian partners.
- China’s focus instead is on reviving bilateral ties with the US and getting Washington’s endorsement of Beijing’s primacy in Asia.
- While Washington actively courts China’s large neighbours, Beijing has yet to make nice to them on political or territorial issues.
- America’s vigorous competition with China delivers greater agency for Beijing’s neighbours, including Delhi.
- Beijing’s quest for a grand bargain with Washington for a Chinese sphere of influence in Asia is leaving its neighbours out in the cold.
- For now, at least, there is little evidence that the Chinese leadership is rethinking its Asian strategy.
Conclusion: As the world’s largest economies with massive interdependence and as leading military powers, the US and China’s imperatives to engage are real. So are the contradictions between Washington and Beijing.
Editorial 2 : To be a doctor
Introduction: In February 2022, 18,000 Indian medical students studying in Ukraine were forced to return home after the country’s conflict with Russia escalated into a war. As war continues, Indian students are finding other foreign countries for their medical education, which is a cause of concern for India.
How Indian students are diversifying their destination for medical education?
- With tensions between Russia and Ukraine showing little sign of abating, countries in Central Asia, Eastern and Southeastern Europe have become the preferred destination for a large number of the repatriated students.
- According to a report in Indian Express newspaper, 70 per cent of these MBBS aspirants are now pursuing their dreams in colleges in Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia.
- These countries are also attracting new batches of Indian students.
- These developments also point to the deficits in the Indian medical education system.
Status of medical education in India
- In July last year, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Lok Sabha that India added more than 220 medical colleges in the last five years.
- The number of medical seats grew more than 60 per cent to 1,07,950.
- However, medical college seats are still far less than the number of aspirants who leave school with the dream of becoming a doctor.
- Last year, for instance, more than two million students took the NEET examination for entrance to MBBS courses.
- In other words, the ratio of medical college seats to aspirants is about 20:1.
- The need to offer more opportunities to students who seek a medical career cannot be more pressing.
- A 2019 study by researchers commissioned by the National Institute of Educational Planning revealed that a large section of students who migrate for medical education come from aspirational middle and lower middle classes, including those from rural areas.
- NEET figures attest to the increase in the aspirational quotient of the medical profession — the number of students taking the test has increased almost three times in the past 10 years.
- But the examination remains extremely brutal — only the top 0.25 per cent make it to the elite colleges.
- Government institutions are more affordable than those run by private bodies, but they account for only about half of the seats on offer.
How number of medical education seats can be increased in India?
- Experts have suggested a variety of ways out of the problem.
- In 2020, the Niti Aayog proposed linking private colleges to district hospitals to serve underserved areas.
- Another school of thought advocates enhancing the skills of paramedics and nurses to cater to non-specialist demands of the medical sector.
- In other words, tweaks in medical pedagogy could significantly increase the numbers of the professionals, equivalents of the general practitioners today.
- Several European countries have deployed this strategy with great success.
- Moreover, MBBS graduates from foreign institutes have to undergo another rigorous test to practice in India.
- In several parts of Europe, in contrast, the transfer of credits ensures a relatively easier transition to hospital internship for migrants.
- In recent years, the government has initiated conversations to reform the educational landscape.
- It should conduct similar exercises to address the absences and shortfalls in medical education.
Conclusion: The predicament of Indian medical students in Ukraine highlights gaps and absences in the education system at home. The progress in this field is not keeping pace with the growth of the number of aspirants. Hence out-of-the-box thinking for the growth of medical education in India is need of the hour.