The Policy Monitor
While we have seen continuous increase in expenditure in clean energy over the past years (2021 alone saw the biggest jump yet of 27% in investment in low carbon energy compared to 2020) ,the urgency to achieve the net-zero target is yet to translate into large increases in spending on clean energy projects.
There is an inherent danger of economic mismanagement in populism, and the ongoing Sri Lankan crisis proves the argument. Gotayba Rajapaksa’s presidency is marked by successive disastrous economic policy decisions ranging from tax cuts, freebies, and anti-modern policies such as the ban on chemical fertilizers, so on and so forth.
Natural Farming, as the name suggests, is the art, practice and, increasingly, the science of working with nature to achieve much more with less. It relies more on soil biology than soil chemistry by encouraging multi cropping, round-the-year soil cover, addition of formulation made up of cow dung and urines to trigger the microorganisms in the soil system.
Reliance Industries (RIL), Future Retail and Amazon have been embroiled in an unyielding corporate struggle for over two years now. The dynamically changing developments afflicting this saga indicate just how large the stakes are in this game with each party trying to take the biggest bite out of the pie that is the Indian retail segment.
We are nearly seven years into the 2015 Paris Accord where the world came together and decided that we have to put a stop to the rising temperatures at 1.5 degrees of pre industrial levels, and we are already at 1.1 degrees. If the above statement is anything to go by, I would think it’s a safe, but heart-wrenching assumption that we will fail to effectively restrict the rise in temperatures.
As much as it sounds like opportunism, a diligent intervention to shore up international food supplies is far from an opportunistic gambit from India’s perspective and, even farther away from war profiteering. The CMI benchmark for wheat prices has risen by >50% since the Russian invasion began with global wheat prices touching $14 a bushel (approximately 30 kg).
India earns nearly Rs. 65,000 crores by exporting Rice, synonym to water export as it requires 4000-5000 litre to produce 1 kg. At the same time govt spend Rs. 1,34,280 crore by importing Oilseeds and Pulses, most eco-friendly crops known to improve soil fertility and contribute to human health.
India’s continuing emphasis on centralized production of energy, including in renewables, may lead her into a situation China finds itself in now: the government is being forced to dismantle thousands of badly planned dams.
For India’s urban areas to become more growth-oriented and productive and to increase the
capacity of the administrators, it is critical to build an excellent urban infrastructure, with
efficiency in service delivery and funding at the top of the priority list.
While the Central Government undoubtedly provides strategic leadership, state legislatures have a critical role in not just transferring capacities, assets, and functionaries, but also in creating an empowering environment through administrative and institutional transformation. A close assessment of total municipal income reveals that they accounted for only 1.08 percent of GDP in 2007–2008, and then dropped to 1.03 percent of GDP in 2012–2013.