Daily News Digest 19 Feb 2024

Table of content

• Purulia Chau
• Bubonic plague
• Tripling Renewables by 2030
• Scheme Guidelines for Implementation of Pilot Projects for use of Green Hydrogen in the Steel Sector
• Farmer protest for Minimum Support Price (MSP)

Purulia Chau

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

Recently, the Purulia Chhau dance performed in Kozhikode, Kerala.

About Purulia Chau

• Purulia Chhau, a traditional folk dance form originating from the Purulia district of West Bengal.
• The Chhau performances range from acrobatic to martial and also include dances which are structured around religious themes.
• Masks form an integral part of Chhau dance in Purulia and Seraikella.
• Artists from the Purulia district of West Bengal perform the Chhau dance.
• Chhau dance three distinct styles hail from the regions of Seraikella, Purulia and Mayurbhanj.
• In 2010, the Chhau dance was inscribed in the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Bubonic plague

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

The bubonic plague has resurfaced in the United States. Earlier this week, health officials in Oregon confirmed the first case of the disease in the state since 2005.

About Bubonic plague

• The plague is caused by Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacteria, i.e. bacteria that can spread between animals and people. 
• Y pestis is usually found in small animals and their fleas.
• According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), humans can be infected in one of three ways — “the bite of infected vector fleas”, “unprotected contact with infectious bodily fluids or contaminated materials” (like bitten by an infected rat), and “the inhalation of respiratory droplets/small particles from a patient with pneumonic plague”.
• Human to human transmission of bubonic plague is rare. 
• Bubonic plague can advance and spread to the lungs, which is the more severe type of plague called pneumonic plague.
• Plague is a very severe disease in people, particularly in its septicaemic (systemic infection caused by circulating bacteria in bloodstream) and pneumonic forms, with a case-fatality ratio of 30% to 100% if left untreated.
• It can be treated and cured with antibiotics.

Tripling Renewables by 2030

Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins

Why in news?

A recent report, "Tripling Renewables by 2030: Interpreting the Global Goal at the Regional Level," published by Climate Analytics, examines the regional breakdown of a 1.5°C-aligned renewable energy rollout and calculates the associated investment needs.

Background

• At COP28, governments agreed to triple global renewable capacity by 2030. This, alongside doubling energy efficiency, is possibly the most powerful action the world can take in the transition away from fossil fuels this critical decade.
• To guide efforts towards the goal, governments need a clear roadmap and information on investment and climate finance needs, while civil society needs benchmarks to hold governments to account.
• In this report, we break down what a 1.5ºC-aligned renewables rollout would look like at the regional level and calculate the associated investment needs.
• In keeping with the tripling target and the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal, global renewable capacity needs to grow to 11.5 TW by 2030 – up 3.4x from 2022 levels.

Key finding of the report:

• Asia makes the biggest overall contribution, providing around half (47%) of the 8.1 TW of renewable capacity additions needed globally by 2030. This represents a 3.6x regional growth rate relative to 2022 levels.
  • Asia is the only region that is broadly on track to triple renewables in line with 1.5ºC by 2030. This is primarily driven by growth in China and India which compensates for laggards like South Korea, where renewable capacity is set to grow at half the rate of the region as a whole.
  • However, the spree of coal-fired power plant construction in China and India is a huge concern. If this continues, it will either jeopardise a 1.5ºC-aligned power sector transition or create large-scale stranded assets. 
• The OECD provides the next biggest share of global capacity additions at around a third (36%).
  • Renewables in the region scale at a slower rate of 3.1x due to lower electricity demand growth and a higher level of existing renewable capacity installed in 2022.
  • Based on current policies, the OECD will fall around a third short of this target. Addressing this shortfall would close around 60% of the 2 TW global gap between forecast renewable growth and a 1.5°C-aligned tripling. There is particularly slow growth in Japan, where capacity will grow only 50% over the decade. 
• Sub-Saharan Africa scales relatively quickly at 6.6x due to low levels of existing renewable capacity and high energy access needs.
  • Electricity demand is forecast to grow 66% per capita between 2020-2030 in the region, resulting in a renewables scale-up rate that is double the global average. Achieving such a rapid renewables rollout in Sub-Saharan Africa would require significantly upscaled international climate finance.
• $12 trillion needed to triple renewables in line with 1.5°C
  • Overall, tripling renewables in line with the 1.5°C temperature limit would require $12 trillion of investment in the power system up until 2030 – an average of $2 trillion per year starting in 2024.
  • Two-thirds ($8 trillion) would be invested in the installation of renewables, while around a third ($4 trillion) would be for the grid and storage infrastructure needed to support renewables. Without modernised, flexible and expanded grids, there can be no tripling. 
  • Investment in renewables and grid expansion needs to be massively upscaled to ensure a 1.5ºC aligned transition in the power sector. In 2023, global investment reached $1 trillion, around half of the annual investment needed on average between 2024-2030.
  • Over 2024-2030, the world is on track to invest $6.6 trillion in renewables and grids, leaving an investment shortfall of just over $5 trillion. However, the world is also set to invest over $6 trillion in fossil fuels under current policies. Shifting this money to renewables and grids could cover the investment gap entirely and put the power sector on track for 1.5ºC.
• • Over 2024-2030, the world is on track to invest $6.6 trillion in renewables and grids, leaving an investment shortfall of just over $5 trillion. However, the world is also set to invest over $6 trillion in fossil fuels under current policies. Shifting this money to renewables and grids could cover the investment gap entirely and put the power sector on track for 1.5ºC.
  • Some regions are at risk of falling behind in the effort to triple renewables due to a chronic lack of investment and international support.
  • This is particularly the case in Sub-Saharan Africa, where annual investment in renewables and grid expansion was around $20 billion in 2023 – just a fifth of the~$100 billion needed each year between 2024-2030.

Scheme Guidelines for Implementation of Pilot Projects for use of Green Hydrogen in the Steel Sector

Time to Read :🕑 7 Mins

Why in news?

On February 2nd, 2024, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) published the "Scheme Guidelines for Pilot Projects for Green Hydrogen in the Steel Sector" as part of the National Green Hydrogen Mission.

About Guidelines

• The Scheme will be implemented with a total budgetary outlay of Rs. 455 crores till FY 2029-30.
• MNRE will implement pilot projects in the Steel Sector, for replacing fossil fuels and fossil fuel-based feedstock with Green Hydrogen and its derivatives. 
• These pilot projects will be implemented through the Ministry of Steel and the Implementing Agencies nominated under this Scheme.
• Thrust areas - Three areas have been identified as thrust areas for the pilot projects in the steel sector. 
  • These are the use of Hydrogen in the Direct Reduced Ironmaking process; the use of Hydrogen in the Blast Furnace; and the substitution of fossil fuels with Green Hydrogen in a gradual manner. 
  • The scheme will also support pilot projects involving any other innovative use of hydrogen for reducing carbon emissions in iron and steel production.
• Blending - The scheme envisages that considering the higher costs of green hydrogen at present, steel plants could begin by blending a small percentage of green hydrogen in their processes, and increasing the blending proportion progressively, with improvement in cost-economics and advancement of technology. 
• New Plants - The guidelines also note that upcoming steel plants should be capable of operating with green hydrogen, thus ensuring that these plants are able to participate in future global low-carbon steel markets. 
  • The scheme will also consider greenfield projects aiming at 100% green steel.

Farmer protest for Minimum Support Price (MSP)

Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins

Why in news?

Farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh embark on the "Delhi Chalo" protest, demanding legal guarantees for Minimum Support Price (MSP).

About Ongoing farmers’ protest

• More than 250 farmers’ unions under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha ( KMM), which claims to have the allegiance of about 100 unions, and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political), a platform of another 150 unions, have called the protest that is being coordinated from Punjab.

Background

• The system of Minimum Support Prices (MSP) came into being in the 1960s and was supposed to provide an assurance of minimum remunerative prices to farmers with the promise that the government would purchase any quantity of farm produce that farmers are unable to sell at the minimum prices. 
• However, this promise was never kept, and the system of government procurement was created only for a few crops and functioned only in a few states. 
• This has become a major problem in recent years as, in any given year, market prices for several crops prevail at levels that are far below the MSP.

What are the demands of the farmers?

• The headline demand in the farmers’ 12-point agenda is for a law to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, and the determination of crop prices in accordance with the Dr M S Swaminathan Commission’s report. The other demands are:
  • Full debt waiver for farmers and labourers.
  • Implementation of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, with provisions for written consent from farmers before acquisition, and compensation at four times the collector rate.
  • Punishment for the perpetrators of the October 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri killings;
  • India should withdraw from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and freeze all free trade agreements.
  • Pensions for farmers and farm labourers.
  • Compensation for farmers who died during the Delhi protest, including a job for one family member.
  • The Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 should be scrapped.
  • 200 (instead of 100) days’ employment under MGNREGA per year, the daily wage of Rs 700, and the scheme should be linked with farming
  • Strict penalties and fines on companies producing fake seeds, pesticides, and fertilisers; improvements in seed quality.
  • National commission for spices such as chilli and turmeric.
  • Ensure the rights of indigenous peoples over water, forests, and land.

Why do farmers need a guarantee of MSP?

• Assured that remunerative prices are important not just for the welfare of farmers but also for India’s food security. For a large country like India, domestic production has to be the mainstay of food supply. As has been clear since the 1960s, dependence on imports for food grain not only makes India vulnerable to the vagaries of international markets, it can force the country to compromise on its strategic interests.
• Farmers, like all other self-employed persons and businesses, do what is most profitable. But unlike other businesses, farmers face a particularly vexed problem. 
• When they decide to sow a crop, they do not know how much the produce will sell for. Given the seasonality, and the fact that farmers sink a lot of resources in raising the crop, there is nothing they can do when the prices fall. 
• Having incurred large expenses, and often in debt, few farmers can hold the produce and wait for prices to rise. This is a major cause of farm losses, debt burden and distress among farmers.

Why can’t markets be allowed to determine equilibrium prices?

• There are many reasons why agricultural markets do not settle at equilibrium prices. 
  • Agricultural markets are notoriously imperfect. The number of producers/settlers is vast. On the other hand, often, a few large buyers/traders control the markets. This results in monopsonistic markets in which buyers exert undue influence over market prices and profiteer from it. This situation is made worse because farmers are often dependent on traders for finance and indebted to them. Also, individual farmers cannot predict either the conditions of demand at the time of harvest or the overall supply. 
  • Unpredictable weather conditions result in crop losses and supply shortages. 
  • On the other hand, there are years when a glut is caused because many farmers decide to grow a crop that was profitable in the previous year. 
  • Large businesses also have significant stocking capacity that they can use to sway market prices. 
  • For many crops, changes in supply conditions in other parts of the world have an impact on domestic prices in India.

How can MSP be guaranteed?

• There are two conventional ways.
  • The first is to force buyers to pay MSP. Sugar mills are required, by law, to pay cane growers a “fair and remunerative” or “state-advised” price within 14 days of purchase. But this approach risks implementation hurdles (recurrent cane payment arrears are proof), or worse, the private trade choosing to not buy at all. 
  • The second is for government agencies to buy the entire marketable produce of farmers offered at MSP. That is unsustainable, both physically and fiscally.
• But there’s a third option: price deficiency payments (PDP). 
  • It entails the government not physically purchasing or stocking any crop, and simply paying farmers the difference between the market price and MSP, if the former is lower. 
  • Such payment would be on the quantity of crop they sell to the private trade.

Way forward

• Instead of a guaranteed MSP, the government should step up public investment in agriculture. 
• Both Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have demonstrated the feasibility of delivering MSP to farmers at least in some crops other than rice, wheat, and sugarcane.
• One reason they have been able to do this is because of the already-created APMC mandi infrastructure and systems for farmer registration in these states. This makes it possible to record each transaction — what quantity of any crop a farmer has sold at a certain price — and to pay the difference vis-à-vis the MSP based on that.
• If a nationwide PDP scheme with 50% Central funding were to be implemented, it could perhaps incentivise other states to follow the examples of Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. They could, for a start, build the market infrastructure and systems that would ultimately enable even their farmers to get MSP, whether by law or otherwise.

Conclusion

Guaranteed MSP is not a solution to all problems. But a more remunerative price does create conditions where farmers can pay better wages to farm workers. Remunerative agriculture is critical for the rural economy, including farm workers, and is not beneficial only to large farmers. On the other hand, distress among farmers puts downward pressure on wages, depresses rural demand and slows down economic growth.