Editorial 1: Relook at Exports
Context: Recent trade data points to consequential shifts in India’s export basket
Recent Trends
- Three broad trends emerge.
- After registering robust growth in 2021-22, the country’s merchandise exports slumped in the second half of 2022-23. However, during this period, exports of electronic goods and mobile phones have seen a significant jump.
- Over the same period, services exports grew at a robust pace, even as the fourth quarter results of major IT firms suggest a subdued near-term outlook.
- Within services, exports of “other” IT services have gained considerable traction in the recent past.
- This suggests the emergence of other drivers of growth. How these trends play out could have a significant bearing on the country’s trade.
Surge in Electronic exports
- Data released last week showed that India’s merchandise exports grew by a mere 6 per cent in 2022-23. Excluding oil, exports were lower than in the previous year. However, in the midst of this weak performance, electronic exports have surged by around 50 per cent.
- And as per reports, exports of Apple’s iPhone have witnessed a remarkable surge. While value addition in the case of iPhones may currently be low, there are reports of the tech giant looking to increase localization, which would increase domestic value addition.
- Equally significant, the growing share of India in iPhones manufactured globally could act as a signaling factor for other companies looking at shifting their production bases away from China.
Services exports and IT majors
- In contrast is the weaker than expected fourth quarter (January-March) results of IT majors such as Infosys, despite services exports estimated to have grown by 27 per cent in 2022-23.
- The weakness can be traced to US and European companies, especially in the banking vertical, postponing their spending after the recent turmoil in financial markets. Economic uncertainty in these major markets is likely to continue to exert pressure on Indian IT firms.
Report by HSBC
- HSBC is a British multinational banking and financial services company that holds a corporate entity that is one of the biggest and leading financial and banking companies’ associations in the world.
- The global HSBC sector covers retail banking and fund management, corporate finance and markets, private and commercial finance, and investment banking.
- A recent report shows that “other” IT services have gained considerable momentum, growing at a faster pace than the IT majors. This category includes professional and management consulting (estimated to have grown by 29 per cent), followed by computer services and research and development.
- The report suggests that these activities are based out of global capacity centres, which are essentially delivery centres set up by multinational companies to provide tech services and research and development. As these centers grow in size and scope, their contribution to India’s exports will likely rise.
Conclusion
- However, the immediate outlook is shrouded in uncertainty. With the IMF’s latest world economic outlook projecting global growth and trade to slow down sharply, India’s exports will come under pressure.
- In this scenario, even though the government has recently unveiled a new trade policy, more needs to be done to boost the country’s exports — from reducing the frictions in trade to ensuring a competitive exchange rate, lowering tariffs, and signing broader and deeper free trade agreements.
Editorial 2: Why LGBTQIA+ couples should be allowed to adopt
Context: Recently, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) opposed the granting of adoption rights to same-sex couples and claimed that doing so is akin to “…endangering the children”
Looking into the Law
- Although it is possible for a single person who may identify as LGBTQI to adopt a child, persons in a non-heteronormative relationship cannot jointly adopt a child under Indian laws.
- The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act), allows heterosexual married couples, and single and divorced persons to adopt.
- The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 (HAMA) permits any male or female Hindu of sound mind to adopt, and for couples to adopt with the consent of their spouse. Both the HAMA and the JJ Act envisage a prospective adoptive couple to be heterosexual and married.
Denial of Rights
- In a situation where one partner in a non-heterosexual relationship adopts a child as a single parent, the other partner is deprived of legal recognition as an adoptive parent despite playing an equal role in the child’s upbringing.
- The child too is denied the rights and benefits that arise within a parental relationship and will not be entitled to the property of the other parent.
Evolving Families
- Family units are evolving beyond the conventional norms of heterosexual marriages. This was acknowledged by the Supreme Court in Deepika Singh v. Central Administrative Services, (2022) where it observed that “familial relationships may take the form of domestic, unmarried partnerships or queer relationships” and that these atypical manifestations of familial units are equally deserving of protection and benefits under the law.
The Best interest of the Child
- In the context of adoption, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 requires the best interest of the child to be the primary consideration.
- The JJ Act defines the “best interest of the child” to mean the basis for any decision concerning children to ensure their “basic rights and needs, identity, social well-being and physical, emotional and intellectual development.” The Adoption Regulations stipulate that the “child’s best interests shall be of paramount consideration while processing any adoption placement.
- The best interest of the child cannot, however, operate in exclusion of other human rights.
Sexual orientation or marital status cannot be the sole basis
- Sexual orientation or marital status cannot be the sole basis for the exclusion of same sex couples from jointly adopting as long as they meet the suitability criteria and can ensure the best interest of the child. The lack of legal recognition of marriage among same-sex couples also cannot be a reason to exclude them, as Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) permits applications from adoptive parents in live-in relationships, which it examines on a case-to-case basis.
- More importantly, an adopted child being raised by a same-sex couple through single parent adoption should not be discriminated against and deprived of the rights available to an adopted child raised by a heterosexual married couple.
Way Forward
- Both the Parliament and the Supreme Court should consider the best interest of children, as well as the fundamental right to equality and non-discrimination of children and couples identifying as LGBTQI while examining the matter.