Editorial 1 : Change and Challenge
Introduction: India’s vote on UN resolution marks a new realism in Middle East policy.
India’s recent action of UN resolutions over Israel-Hamas conflict
- India’s abstention on the Arab resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza, and
- Support for a failed Canadian amendment condemning the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel
India’s traditional reaction on Insarel-Palestien issue
- In the past, India voted with the Arab resolutions against Israel as a matter of routine;
- Delhi also ducked the question of terrorism emanating from the Arab world.
- With its latest vote on the latest UNGA resolution, Delhi has underlined the primacy of its concerns on international terrorism without abandoning its demand for a two-state solution in Palestine.
What is two-state solution in Palestine?
- Two-state solution, proposed framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing two states for two peoples: Israel for the Jewish people and Palestine for the Palestinian people.
- In 1993 the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed on a plan to implement a two-state solution as part of the Oslo Accords, leading to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Challenge of present government over India’s new realist policy on Palestine issue
- Government needs to guard against inviting the charge of playing “vote bank” politics with a region (Middle- East) that is of vital interest to India. (the charges that were levied on previous Congress led governments)
What steps New Delhi should take to overcome foreign policy challenges coming from Middle East?
- First is to step up outreach to the Arab world and explain Delhi’s abiding commitment to Palestine’s full statehood, publicly press Israel to respect the laws of war, and shore up humanitarian assistance to Gaza. (PM’s recent call to Arab leaders is good step), at the same time Delhi must also consider the outrage of Arab street over Israel brutal repression on Gaza.
- Second, the government needs to invite Opposition leaders for a full briefing and explain the considerations shaping its regional policy. By all accounts, the Opposition’s thinking on the Middle East is frozen in the past and an update is long overdue.
- Finally, Delhi can ill-afford to send out the impression that it is preventing pro-Palestine protests while encouraging demonstrations in support of Israel by groups on the other side of the ideological fence.
- Delhi needs to crack down on the extremist groups that are reportedly spreading disinformation in favor of Tel Aviv and participating in cyber-attacks against Hamas sites.
- The BJP government cannot let fringe groups undermine its carefully crafted strategy of interest-based realism in the Middle East.
Conclusion: New Delhi’s new realist policy is a good step to promote India’s national interest in volatile Middle-East theatre. It must be cautious to not to be seen as too biased towards Israel and abandoning Palestinian cause in Middle-East.
Editorial 2 : Policy to what end, at whose cost
Introduction: As election is coming close, government is adopting various policies to tame the food inflation in India. The manner in which these food inflations are handled is becoming problematic to agricultural exports in India.
The interesting case of Minimum Export Price on Basmati rice
- India has been exporting, on an average, about 4.5 million tonnes (MT) a year over the last five years or so.
- India announced a Minimum Export Price of $1200/tonnes on Basmati rice.
- This is a premium rice consumed by the upper middle class and the rich in India, and is exported to Gulf countries, some European countries and also the US.
- Punjab and Haryana are the primary producers.
- The export price normally hovers between $800 to $1,000/tonne.
- By putting an MEP of $1,200, practically, much of the basmati export is restricted.
Significance of announcing MEP on Basmati rice
- Exporting the rice becomes uncompetitive for traders.
- Loosing the export market of Basmati rice to competitors like Pakistan.
- Less remuneration to farmers.
- Benefit to urban middle class, as Basmati rice become cheaper.
Other restrictive policies of Government
- The restrictive export policies cover broken rice, non-basmati white rice, parboiled rice, either through complete export bans or export duties.
- Wheat export bans, an export duty of 40 percent on onions, and so on.
Consequences of such restrictive policies
- It is well known that India is the largest exporter of rice in the world accounting for about 40 per cent global exports in 2022-23.
- Much of the non-basmati rice goes to several African countries, who pressed the panic button when India announced ban on exports of non-basmati white rice.
- That does not give India a good image of a leader of the Global South.
- Backlash to the dream of doubling agri-exports. (In 2013-14, India’s agri-exports touched $43.27 billion, up from $8.67 billion in 2004-05. This is almost a five-fold growth in 10 years. If the same momentum had been maintained, agri-exports should have touched $200 billion. But in reality, they may not touch even $50 billion this year (2023-24)).
Objectives of India’s Agriculture Export Policy 2018
- To double agricultural exports from present ~US$ 30+ Billion to ~US$ 60+ Billion by 2022 and reach US$ 100 Billion in the next few years thereafter, with a stable trade policy regime.
- To diversify the export basket, destinations and boost high value and value-added agricultural exports including a focus on perishables.
- To promote novel, indigenous, organic, ethnic, traditional and non-traditional Agri products exports.
- To provide an institutional mechanism for pursuing market access, tackling barriers and deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues.
- Enable farmers to get the benefit of export opportunities in the overseas market.
Reason for India’s restrictive agri-export policy
- To favour domestic consumers at the cost of farmers — a typical urban consumer bias, which inflicts a large “implicit tax” on our farmers.
A way forward for government policy on agri-export and tackling food inflation
- Domestic consumers can to be helped through domestic income policy, targeted towards only the vulnerable sections of society. (poverty is hovering around 15 per cent as per multi-dimensional poverty line of NITI)
- Agriculture exports also reflect how competitive our agriculture is vis-à-vis the rest of the world, and how much surplus it can generate.
- It requires massive investments in agriculture R&D, seeds, irrigation, fertilisers, better farming practices including precision agriculture. (India’s overall investment in agriculture R&D, both of the Centre and of states together, hovers around 0.5 per cent of the agri-GDP)
- It needs to be immediately doubled, if not tripled, if India is to become a powerhouse of agricultural production as well as agri-exports.
Conclusion: there is no dearth of money being spent on agriculture or consumers to have food security. But the manner in which that money is spent is suboptimal. A nation’s power will be reflected in its capacity to innovate, produce and export to the world at competitive prices. For that more R&D in agriculture and less knee-jerk reaction should be the way forward for India.