Editorial 1: Forest and National Security
Context:
- Recently, Lok Sabha passed the Bill to let forest land be used for strategic needs.
- The Bill to amend the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, passed by Lok Sabha with a voice vote, exempts certain kinds of infrastructure or development projects from the need to get forest clearance, which is mandatory at present.
Forest in India:
- With only 21 percent of India’s land area having forest cover and even more worryingly, only 12.37 percent intact natural forest, we have a long way to go to meet our target of 33 percent forest cover.
- Additionally, the most biodiversity-rich part of the country, the northeastern states, show a net decline of 3,199 sq km of forest cover from 2009-2019 and much of the marginal increase in forest cover is in the form of commercial plantations and urban parks.
- These cannot replace the ecological functions performed by intact natural ecosystems.
Broad Concerns about Bill:
- Reclassification of forest areas
- Exemptions for projects near border areas and for security purposes
- Exemptions for zoos, safari parks, and ecotourism activities, and disempowering local communities.
Impacts of environmental damage by humans collectively:
- Extensive wildfires, prolonged and intense heat waves, extreme rainfall events, powerful and more frequent cyclones
- Rampant loss of biodiversity and the unraveling of ecosystems have all, and in many cases synergistically,
- Impacted the lives of billions of people
- Premature deaths, increasing incidence of diseases,
- Destruction of built infrastructure, declining soil fertility, and
- Decreasing the quality of air and water is a short list of the impacts we are suffering.
The Amendment provisions and their impact:
- The primary objective of this Bill is to increase the forest area of the country to meet our goals of conservation of forests, conservation of biodiversity, and the challenges posed by climate change
- Amendments to Forest Conservation Act threaten to erode India's fragile ecosystems.
- A provision allowing the central government to exempt clearance for “any other purposes”, could have disastrous consequences, as this could open the door to a whole host of activities on forest land that will no longer require clearances.
- Exempting such a large number of projects from the clearance process will mean that forest-dwelling people will no longer be consulted. This is an extremely important way that forest-dwelling people are given a voice.
- The Act also exempts all strategic linear projects of “national importance and concerning national security” within 100 km of international borders. It can also be seen promoting activities such as silvicultural operations, construction of zoos and wildlife safaris, eco-tourism facilities, and any other activities specified by the central government.
- The amendment also exempts certain types of land from the provisions of the Act such as forest land along a rail line or a public road maintained by the government providing access to a habitation or to a rail, and roadside amenity up to a maximum size of 0.10 hectare.
- Another objective of the Bill is the removal of ambiguity around the Supreme Court’s, 1996 judgement in TN Godavarman Thirumulpad.
- The Supreme Court directed that “forests” will not only include forest as understood in the dictionary sense but also any area recorded as forest in the government record irrespective of the ownership. The amendment will invalidate the SC’s 1996 judgment in T N Godavarman.
- The amendment also shall remove the 1980 Act’s restrictions on creating infrastructure that would aid national security and create livelihood opportunities for those living on the periphery of forests.
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T N Godavarman vs Union of India Case, 1996
- In 1996, a landmark ruling of the Supreme Court in the Godavarman case extended the Act’s ambit to all lands that satisfied “the dictionary definition of a forest”.
- The Court’s ruling prevented the deforestation of tracts that government surveys had not marked as forestland.
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Way Forward:
- Our natural ecosystems play a crucial role in buffering against increasingly unpredictable weather patterns caused by climate change.
- The loss of natural ecosystems will result in greater human displacement and heightened internal security risks.
- So, there is a need to balance the economic benefits of such activities with that of conserving forests. To strike such a balance, the subjects which require case-by-case examination by the central government need not be given blanket exemption.
Conclusion:
- Despite the laudable goals and objectives laid out in the preamble, the rest of the proposed amendments are at odds with what has been outlined in the preamble. This does raise questions related to the intent of this amendment.
By significantly reducing the geographical scope of the FCA, increasing the types of projects which can be exempted and drastically reducing the role of local communities in decision-making, the Act takes a step backward, which should be avoided at all costs.
Editorial 2 : Our Semicon Report card
Recent Context:
- The recent historic visit of the Prime Minister of India to the US led to a crucial agreement. Both nations agreed to partner in developing critical technologies that will shape our future — artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, high-performance computing, and space.
- Recently, a US-based Company – Micron Technology, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government of Gujarat to establish a Semiconductor Unit.
India Semiconductor Mission
- India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) has been set up as an Independent Business Division within Digital India Corporation.
- ISM has all the administrative and financial powers and is tasked with the responsibility of catalyzing the India Semiconductor ecosystem in manufacturing, packaging, and design.
- ISM has an advisory board consisting of some of the leading global experts in the field of semiconductors.
- ISM is serving as the nodal agency for efficient, coherent, and smooth implementation of the program for the development of the semiconductor and manufacturing ecosystem in India.
Objectives of ISM are as under:
- Formulate a comprehensive long-term strategy for developing sustainable semiconductors and display manufacturing facilities.
- Facilitate the adoption of secure microelectronics and develop a trusted semiconductor supply chain, including raw materials, specialty chemicals, gases, and manufacturing equipment.
- Enable a multi-fold growth of the Indian semiconductor design industry by providing requisite support
- Promote and facilitate indigenous Intellectual Property (IP) generation.
- Encourage, enable, and incentivize the Transfer of Technologies (ToT).
- Establish suitable mechanisms to harness economies of scale in the Indian semiconductor and display industry.
- Enable cutting-edge research in the semiconductors and display industry including evolutionary and revolutionary technologies through grants
- Enable collaborations and partnership programs with national and international agencies, industries, and institutions
Significance of Semiconductors:
- Semiconductors and displays are the foundation of modern electronics driving the next phase of digital transformation under Industry 4.0.
- Semiconductors are essential to almost all sectors of the economy including aerospace, automobiles, communications, clean energy, information technology and medical devices etc.
- The high demand for these critical components has outstripped supply, created a global chip shortage, and resulted in lost growth and jobs in the economy.
It is brimming with milestones & India is now at an inflection point
- Independent India’s history is replete with instances of how India missed the semiconductor and electronics bus. However, India is rebuilding its’s electronics ecosystem, making it one of the fastest-growing across the world.
- With setting a goal of a $1 trillion digital economy, aiming for it to contribute 20 percent to GDP.
- India is now being recognized as a trusted partner for various global challenges, ranging from sustainability and security to vaccines, electronics, and semiconductors.
- ISM initiative has contributed significantly to the expansion of the digital and innovation economy and secured a substantial share in the global semiconductor market.
- It has also catalyzed the growth of semiconductor design startups and supported India’s global partnerships with global majors
Challenges:
- Lack of political and strategic vision and incompetence.
- Lack of natural resources and infrastructure.
- Lack of skills, which are required to chip designing as well as mining of resources.
- It is a very complex and technology-intensive sector involving huge capital investments, high risk, long gestation and payback periods, and rapid changes in technology, which require significant and sustained investments.
Conclusion:
- India should also explore the opportunities to collaborate with other countries such as Taiwan and Japan or other technologically advanced, friendly nations to promote Domestic manufacturing and reduce import dependency in the Semiconductor Sector.
- India must also improvise research and development in this sector which is lacking.
- Instead, of the dream of swadeshi semiconductors, India should aim to become a key player in a trusted, plurilateral semiconductor ecosystem that keeps key adversaries out.