Editorial 1 : The relevance challenge
Introduction: The Group of Seven countries (G7) began its summit meeting at Puglia in southern Italy on the Mediterranean coastline on predictable lines. On the first day of the summit, the group announced that they reached a “deal” to “use profits from frozen Russian Central Bank assets” to shore up $46 billion support for Ukraine.
Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loans for Ukraine
- “With a view to supporting Ukraine’s current and future needs in the face of a prolonged defence against Russia, the G7 will launch ‘Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loans for Ukraine’ in order to make available approximately $ 50bn in additional funding to Ukraine by the end of the year”, a statement declared.
The G7 leaders’ rhetoric and problems in their own domestic politics
- Many G7 leaders may not last for long in their current positions.
- Biden faces a difficult election later this year. Indications are that Donald Trump will return to the White House, who had not a very pleasant relation with G7 leaders in his previous term.
- The UK is going to the polls on July 4, in which Rishi Sunak’s Conservative is likely to face a drubbing.
- Trudeau, too is unpopular within his own Liberal Party with a majority wanting another leader to lead them in the elections next year.
- In Europe, recently concluded elections to the European Parliament left the ruling liberal elites in several countries red-faced as the right-wing parties secured major mandates in country after country.
- In France, rattled by the results of that election, in which Marine Le Pen-led Rassemblement National (RN) party, branded by the adversaries as “far right”, secured a big majority, President Macron announced snap elections to parliament on June 30.
- If the right and far-right parties come together and win the elections, it may be the end of the road for Macron.
- In Germany too, the Far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made significant gains putting Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an awkward situation.
- The only leader going strong in the group is the prime minister of Italy. Her conservative Right-wing party, Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy — FdI), gained significantly in the EU elections.
The journey of G7 group: A diminishing relevance
- With this underlying political reality, the G7 itself has lost relevance and charm after five decades of its existence.
- Like its 21st-century cousin, the G20, this body too was essentially a product of a financial crisis, in the 1970s.
- Started as a group of six countries — the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK — the body got additional members like Canada and Russia soon and became G8.
- Several countries, including India, China, and the European Union became participants in the Outreach group since 2003.
- After the expulsion of Russia in 2014, when it occupied Crimea, the group became G7.
- At the time of its creation, the G8 was a powerful club of leading economies controlling almost 60 per cent of the world’s GDP.
- Today, that financial influence has greatly diminished. Moreover, the emergence of G20 — now G21 after the African Union was admitted last year at the behest of India — has overshadowed G7’s importance.
- G21 is a much bigger grouping controlling almost 80 per cent of the world’s economy.
- Unlike G7, which is primarily a club of the Western powers, it has representation from all parts of the world.
The crisis period and rise of minilateralisms
- While we have a global multilateral framework for managing peace in the world in the form of the United Nations and its allied Bretton Woods institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, recessions and other economic crises prompted America to create minilateral groups like the G7.
- They served their purpose during the economic crises but continued thereafter donning a political avatar undermining global multilateralism and championing partisan interests.
- As the UN is losing its relevance, the world is getting crowded with more and more such minilaterals like BRICS, SCO and AUKUS.
Indian and G7
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attending the Outreach segment of the summit along with his counterparts from other invited countries.
- Interestingly, the statement put out by him before leaving for Italy focused more on the bilateral relations between India and Italy than on the G7 summit agenda like “rules-based international order”.
- As rightly emphasised by PM Modi, India’s priority, whether at the G7 or any other minilateral, should be to bring synergy between the agendas and outcomes of the G20 summit presided over by it last year and the agenda of that minilateral.
- Ever since it became a member of the Outreach group in G7, India always tried to push agenda items that are relevant for the rest of the Global South like climate and energy transition issues.
Conclusion: Since many years of its existence, G7 represented a clique of western nations preaching to others. As world is becoming more multipolar, the relevance of G7 is coming into question. For the G7 to remain relevant, it must demonstrate seriousness about the issues that India is championing, like “artificial intelligence, energy, Africa, and the Mediterranean”.
Editorial 2 : Untidy exam
Introduction: The controversy over this year’s qualifying examination to medical colleges, the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET), draws attention to longstanding systemic deficits.
What is the controversy?
- The National Testing Agency (NTA) has reversed the grace marks of more than 1,500 candidates and given them the option of a re-test.
- These students were initially given the wrong question paper.
- They were then given compensatory marks to make up for the time lost in switching over to the correct paper.
- It required the Supreme Court’s nudge, in response to a slew of petitions, for the NTA to admit this “technical glitch”.
- Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the error happened in only six of the more than 4,500 examination centres.
The National Testing Agency
- The NTA was created in 2017 to conduct national-level examinations to higher institutions of learning.
- It does a fairly creditable job of holding the joint entrance examination of the IITs.
- But this year, the agency’s conduct of the NEET has left much to be desired.
- As the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday, the examination’s “sanctity has been compromised”.
The petition in Supreme Court
- The petitions to the Supreme Court have drawn attention to the extraordinarily high number of students who secured perfect marks.
- Sixty-seven students maxed this year’s exam, and a number of others have received a mark or two less — compare this to two toppers last year, one top ranker in 2022 and three toppers in 2021.
- The unusual numbers triggered allegations of arbitrary marking.
- The NTA’s response has been unconvincing.
- The agency first ascribed the maximum scores to “a comparatively easy paper”.
- It has since then shifted the needle to grace marks.
- However, only six of the 67 toppers benefited from compensatory marks.
The regular controversy regarding entrance exams: A demand supply mismatch if Indian Higher education system
- The number of students appearing for the NEET examination has more than doubled in a decade.
- This year, more than 24 lakh students competed for less than 1,10,000 seats.
- The high social value placed on medical — and engineering — education across India and the mismatch between demand and supply has fuelled hyper-competition.
- In such a situation, the NEET has become more of an elimination test than an examination that tests the aptitude of prospective doctors.
- The examination is also extremely brutal — only 0.25 make it to the top colleges.
Government efforts to ease out competitions: A way forward
- In recent years, the government has initiated conversations to reform the educational landscape.
- It should conduct similar exercises to address the shortfalls in medical education.
- For starters, it could take a cue from the UGC’s recent provision that allows bi-annual admissions in colleges and universities.
- Holding the NEET examination twice a year could ease some of the pressure on the medical education system.
- In the long run, ways must be found to increase opportunities and make them accessible, thereby making the examination system less fraught.
Conclusion: India entered the Amrit kaal, the quality of demography will determine its journey towards Viksit Bharat. In this regard, Higher education plays significant role. Government must increase the opportunities for young students and make the examinations less stressful for them.