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UPSC Essentials | Weekly news express with MCQs: India as most populous nation, WMO’s Climate report, and more

The Indian Express’ UPSC weekly news express covers some of the important and burning topics of current affairs news from this week to help you prepare for UPSC-CSE. Try out the MCQs and check your answers provided towards the end of the article.

Weekly news express with MCQs: India as most populous nation, WMO's Climate report, and moreThe UNFPA has said the population of the world is 8,045 million, of which the largest share (65%) is of people between the ages of 15 and 64 years, followed by those in the 10-24 years group (24%). 10 per cent of the population is above 65 years of age. UNFPA latest report finds a place in our weekly news express. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)
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UPSC Essentials | Weekly news express with MCQs: India as most populous nation, WMO’s Climate report, and more
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The Indian Express’ UPSC weekly news express covers some of the important and burning topics of current affairs news from this week to help you prepare for UPSC-CSE. Try out the MCQs and check your answers provided towards the end of the article.

India becomes world’s most populous nation

WHY IN NEWS?

— India is now the most populous country in the world, having overtaken China in population, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said in its State of World Population (SOWP) report, ‘8 Billion Lives, Infinite Possibilities’, released on April 19. In November 2022, the UN had announced that the world’s population had crossed the 8 billion mark.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Esha Roy explains:

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— The UNFPA has said the population of the world is 8,045 million, of which the largest share (65 per cent) is of people between the ages of 15 and 64 years, followed by those in the 10-24 years group (24 per cent). 10 per cent of the population is above 65 years of age.

— According to the UN’s 2022 report, the world’s two most populous regions are Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, with 2.3 billion people, representing 29 per cent of the global population; and Central and Southern Asia, with 2.1 billion (26 per cent). China and India accounted for the largest populations in these regions, with more than 1.4 billion each in 2022.

Festive offer

— Central and Southern Asia is expected to become the most populous region in the world by 2037.

— Earlier UN reports had said that the population growth in South Asia will begin to decline before 2100. The latest UN projections suggest that the global population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.

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— More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries — the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to continue growing through 2100 and to contribute more than half of the global population increase anticipated through 2050.

What is the outlook for population growth?

— The 2023 report has said that while numbers will continue to grow for several decades, latest projections suggest that the rate of global population growth has fallen, and has been at less than 1 per cent since 2020.

— This is largely due to declining fertility; around two thirds of people live in a country or area with a total fertility rate at or below 2.1 children per woman (widely considered the “replacement fertility” rate, also called “zero-growth fertility” rate). In 1950 the global fertility rate stood at 5.

— The UN has said that already 60% of the world’s population lives in a region where the fertility rate is below replacement level, up from 40% in 1990. It is international migration that is now the driver of growth in many countries, with 281 million people living outside their country of birth in 2020. Migration has also occurred due to war, famines, and other catastrophes, it has pointed out.

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— South Asia clocks some of the highest emigration trends, according to the report, with India seeing an estimated net outflow of 3.5 million between 2010 and 2021. Pakistan has the highest net flow of migrants of 16.5 million during the same period.

— Central and Southern Asia is expected to become the most populous region in the world by 2037. (AP Photo)

— Despite the continuing decline in the average number of births per woman, the total annual number of births has remained stable at around 140 million since the late 1980s “due to the youthful age distribution of the global population”, the UN said in an earlier report.

— In 2021, 134 million babies were born worldwide. In the future, the number of newborns is expected to slightly increase to reach 138 million annually between 2040 and 2045, despite the continuous decline in the average number of births per woman.

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— In 2021, most births worldwide occurred in the two most populous regions—Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

How has life expectancy contributed to the global population growth?

— One of the reasons for population growth globally flagged by the UNFPA has been that of increasing life expectancy. Fertility rates have been dropping in various parts of the world, as have mortality rates all over the world, with better access to health care and improving standards of living. This also means that parts of the world, such as Japan, have a rapidly ageing population.

— The 2023 report finds that life expectancy among men now stands at 71 years while among women it stands at 76 years.

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— Globally, life expectancy reached 72.8 years in 2019, an increase of almost 9 years since 1990, the UN said in its 2022 report.

— Further reductions in mortality are projected to result in an average longevity of around 77.2 years globally in 2050. The share of the global population aged 65 years or above is projected to rise from 10 per cent in 2022 to 16 per cent in 2050.

— By 2050, the number of persons aged 65 years and above is expected to be more than double that of 5 year olds and the same as 12 year olds, the UN has said.

— Once fertility rates drop in high fertility regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, the global population will start to decline.

Where does India stand in the big population picture?

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— The UN report states that India now has 1,428.6 million people and is the most populous country in the world, outstripping China’s population.

— As much as 68% of India’s population belongs to the 15-64 years category, and 26% in the 10-24 years group, making India one of the youngest countries in the world.

— However, the fertility rate in India has been steadily dropping. The National Family Health 5 Survey (2019-21) found that India attained a Total Fertility Rate of 2.0 for the first time, less than the replacement level of 2.1, falling from 2.2 in NFHS 4 (2015-16).

— Experts say that India’s large population is a result of the “population momentum” from earlier decades, and that the country’s population is likely to start its decline closer to 2050.

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— The increased use of contraceptive methods, spacing of pregnancies, access to health care and the impetus to family planning, besides increasing wealth and education, has contributed to the rate of growth of population slowing.

“India’s growth rate stood at 2.3 per cent in 1972, which has dropped to less than 1 per cent now. In this period, the number of children each Indian woman has during her lifetime has come down from about 5.4 to less than 2.1 now. This means that we have attained the Replacement Fertility Rate, at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next. This shows that usage of modern contraceptives is rising across the country,’’Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India, Poonam Muttreja, said.

— Life expectancy for men in India is the same as the global life expectancy of 71 years, while it is marginally lower for women at 74 years.

Is India’s large population a good thing or a bad thing?

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— Experts have been talking about the opportunity of India’s “demographic dividend”. What this means is that with 68% of its population as youth, and working population, India could have one of the largest workforces in the world, giving it a global advantage.

— The population in many countries, like Japan and South Korea, are on the decline. A declining fertility rate, women not having children, is accompanied by an ageing population, and one that is out of the workforce. This is the situation that India now needs to capitalise on to spur its economic growth further, by educating and skilling its youth, and providing this skilled labour to countries which will be in dire need of such a work force in the near future.

FYI:

What else you should know?

Amitabh Sinha Explains:

Faster growth than India’s own estimates

— The most reliable figures for India’s population comes from the Census that happens every 10 years. The last Census took place in 2011, and the 2021 exercise had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The process has not yet been initiated.

— The 2011 Census had put India’s population at 1,210 million (121.08 crore, 1,210,854,977 to be exact). In July 2020, the Census office had released population projections for years 2012-2036, which remain the official estimates of India’s current population.

— According to these projections, India’s population in 2023 was expected to be only 1,388 million (about 139 crore), significantly less than what the UNFPA’s State of World Population report and several other estimates have been suggesting. In fact, according to these projections, India’s population even in 2026 would be smaller than what UNFPA has estimated for the middle of this year.

— Improvements in life expectancy and decline in mortality rates, both of them positive indicators, could be some of the major reasons for the faster-than-expected growth in population in the short term.

— The UNFPA report says that if India’s population continues to grow at the current pace — a shade below one per cent every year — it would double from the present value in the next 75 years. That would be the case with global population as well, currently slightly above 8 billion. Of course, both India’s and the world’s population are expected to stabilise much ahead of that.

Delayed Census

— An authoritative assessment of India’s current population has been hampered by an intriguing delay in carrying out the Census 2021 exercise. The pandemic is no longer an obstacle in carrying out any activity, but even more than a year after normalcy has been restored, there are no indications of the process being initiated in the near future. The Census exercise, being carried out every 10 years since the 1870s, has never been disrupted for this long.

— The government is yet to reveal its plans for Census 2021. When asked about it in Parliament, it has maintained that it wanted to conduct the Census on time, but was forced by circumstances to postpone it.

“The intent of the government for conducting Census 2021 was notified in the Gazette of India on 28th March, 2019 (before the emergence of the pandemic). Subsequently, a notification under Citizenship Rules was published in the Gazette of India on 31st July, 2019 to prepare and update the Population Register along with the first phase of Census, i.e. Houselisting and Housing Census.

— However, due to the outbreak of Covid19 pandemic, the conduct of Census 2021, updating of National Population Register and the related field activities have been postponed until further orders,” Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in response to a written Parliament question in Lok Sabha on February 7 this year. There has been no further official word on this.

— In December last year, the office of the Registrar General of India had pushed the deadline to freeze administrative boundaries, the first step in the Census exercise, to June 30 this year. That means that the work is unlikely to begin at least till the end of June. With General Elections scheduled for next year, the Census exercise is unlikely to proceed at a fast pace. It usually takes at least two years for the Census exercise to get completed. Many datasets take several years after the completion of the exercise to come out.

— The delay in completing the 2021 Census could have damaging implications for a variety of sectors, and could potentially impact India’s growth prospects as well. The Census exercise produces basic input data for all sorts of indicators used for planning and policy implementation. These indicators are also used for investment and trade decisions by global partners. In the absence of reliable indicators, based on solid numbers from the Census, the quality of these decisions could suffer.

(Sources: UN population report —Key takeaways for India and the world by Esha Roy , India becomes world’s most populous nation: What’s behind the population numbers? by Amitabh Sinha)

Point to ponder: As India becomes most populous, we need to step up investments in education and professional skilling of youth. Discuss.

1. MCQ: 

With reference to Census in India, consider the following statements:

1. Census is conducted by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs.

2. The Image based form processing technology (using ICR/OCR) was introduced for the first time in India for processing census 2011 data.

Which of the above statements are not true?

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

State of the Global Climate report 2022

WHY IN NEWS?

— The world’s glaciers melted at dramatic speed last year, with global sea levels rising at double the pace they did two decades ago, a UN climate report said on Friday, ahead of Earth Day.

— The report released on Friday shows that record levels of heat-trapping by greenhouse gases is causing large-scale changes to the land, ocean and the atmosphere.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

— The WMO State of the Global Climate report 2022 focuses on key climate indicators – greenhouse gases, temperatures, sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification, sea ice and glaciers. It also highlights the impacts of climate change and extreme weather.

1. Drought, floods and heatwaves affect large parts of the world and the costs are rising

2. Global mean temperatures for the past 8 years have been the highest on record

3. Sea level and ocean heat are at record levels – and this trend will continue for many centuries

4. Antarctic sea ice falls to lowest extent on record

5. Europe shatters records for glacier melt

Deutsche Welle writes:

— The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said saving glaciers was now effectively a lost cause. The annual report also recorded sea levels rising at an annual average of 4.62 millimeters in the past decade.

— The report said the years between 2015-2022 were the warmest on record. The heatwave which struck Europe last summer caused more than 15,000 deaths.

— The melting rate of some European glaciers was also “off the charts,” according to the report, with some glaciers losing up to 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) of average thickness between October 2021 and October 2022.

“We have already lost this melting of glaciers game and sea level rise game so that’s bad news,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told a press conference. This is due to the high level of greenhouse gases which have already been emitted, causing water to continue to rise for “thousands of years.”

Record high temperatures

— The La Nina cooling weather phenomenon failed to ease the temperature hikes, with the past eight years considered the highest mean temperatures on record.

— In 2021, greenhouse gas concentrations peaked. Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration was at 415.7 parts per million globally, which is 149 per cent of the pre-industrial level. Methane meanwhile stood at 262 per cent and nitrous oxide at 124 per cent. 2022 data suggested they continued to increase.

— Oceans were meanwhile the warmest on record. Some 58  per cent of ocean surfaces experienced a marine heatwave, the WMO said.

“Around 90 per cent of the energy trapped in the climate system by greenhouse gases goes into the ocean, somewhat ameliorating even higher temperature increases but posing risks to marine ecosystems,” a summary of the report read.

— Taalas predicted the extreme weather patterns to continue into the 2060s, even with successful mitigation steps, due to the damage already done. He said however that with enough effort, things could take a turn for the better afterwards.

“The good news would be that we would be able to phase out this negative trend and even reach the 1.5 degrees (Celsius) limit,” he said.

“We have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions. But we must pick up the pace. We need accelerated climate action with deeper, faster emissions cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We also need massively scaled-up investments in adaptation and resilience, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities who have done the least to cause the crisis,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, in a press statement.

FYI:

What else you should know?

Earth Day 2023

— Every year, April 22 is celebrated as Earth Day, an annual event where people take time out to demonstrate their support for protecting the planet and its environment.

— For 2023, the theme for Earth Day is “Invest in our planet,” calling for people and businesses to work together towards building a healthy economy for the planet.

— According to EarthDay.org, which coordinates Earth Day events globally, the theme for the 2023 Earth Day calls on humanity to build a healthier economy while also making sure we work towards a more equitable future for everyone.

— For this to happen, businesses, inventors, investors, and financial markets should lead the way by encouraging green innovation and practices. The private sector holds incredible power that can be wielded to bring about significant large-scale changes.

— Governments must also do their part by incentivising citizens, businesses and other institutions to work towards this framework of an equitable and sustainable global system. Individual citizens of the planet can do their part with their votes and their wallets—by voting for politics that puts environmental conservation at the forefront and by buying from businesses that do the same.

What is Earth Day, and how did it come about?

— The first Earth day was celebrated more than 50 years ago on April 22, 1970. In a 2019 interview with Time, Denis Hayes, the man who organised the first Earth Day, explained how the event came to be.

— A number of environmental issues came to the forefront of public debate in the late 60s. Rachel Carson published her seminal book Silent Spring in 1962, which could be thought of as the “first shot in the war over the environment.”

— Not long after, in 1969, the Santa Barbara oil spill brought about visual imagery of environmental destruction to people. They saw animals covered in oil and saw them die on camera. Decades before the Bellandur lake in Bengaluru began routinely catching fire, in 1969, the Cuyahoga River in the United States caught fire.

— The seemingly dystopian imagery of water set ablaze added fuel to the fire of a public outcry over environmental destruction. All of this was also happening at a time when America was building massive interstate highways when even people who were not environmental activists were raising concerns about their neighbourhoods being polluted by the tailpipe emissions of cars.

— In a 1969 UNESCO conference, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honour the Earth and the concept of peace. The organisation selected March 21 next year to celebrate this day, planning for it to coincide with the vernal equinox, which marked the first day of spring.

— Just a month after the United Nations proposal, US Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed that such a day be set aside for Americans to focus on similar issues. The senator reached out to Hayes to build the staff to organise the movement.

— They selected the date of April 22 because, according to The Weather Channel, it was the “perfect intersection of fair springtime weather and suitability for a college student’s semester schedule.”

— A large number of the team working with the senator and Hayes were college students, and April 22 in 1970 fell on a Wednesday, which was the middle of the week, meaning that most college students would be on campus. The event was a wild success with more than 20 million Americans participating, according to some estimates.

— That date stuck, and we now celebrate Earth Day on April 22 every year, irrespective of which day of the week it falls on.

(Sources: public.wmo.int, Past 8 years ‘warmest on record’: What a new UN climate report says by Deutsche Welle, Earth Day 2023: Meaning, history & significance of the day celebrating the planet )

Point to ponder: Why India needs a ‘Mission Adaptation’ in its climate change strategy?

2. MCQ:

“Climate Action Tracker” which monitors the emission reduction pledges of different countries is a (2022) :

(a) Database created by coalition of research organisations

(b) Wing of “International Panel of Climate Change”

(c) Committee under “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”

(d) Agency promoted and financed by United Nations Environment Programme and World Bank

— The Supreme Court continued to hear a batch of pleas seeking legal recognition for same-sex marriages. The court heard arguments on the changing legal landscape on LGBTQ rights and the evolution of the right to choose one’s partner.
— Here are some of the key cases that trace the shift in the law over the years.
CASE JUDGEMENT/ RULING
NALSA v Union of India Months after a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in ‘Suresh Koushal v Union of India’ upheld the constitutional validity of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, another Bench in April 2014 affirmed the constitutional rights of transgender persons under Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

In ‘NALSA’, the Court agreed with virtually the same arguments it rejected in Suresh Koushal. The court upheld the right of transgender persons to decide their gender and directed the Centre and state governments to grant legal recognition to their gender identity, such as male, female or the third gender.

KS Puttaswamy v Union of India In 2017, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution. In doing so, the verdict overruled a “discordant note which directly bears upon the evolution of the constitutional jurisprudence on the right to privacy” — the 2013 ‘Suresh Koushal’ ruling.

“The view in Koushal that the High Court had erroneously relied upon international precedents “in its anxiety to protect the so-called rights of LGBT persons” is…in our view, unsustainable. The expression “so-called” seems to suggest the exercise of a liberty in the garb of a right which is illusory. This is an inappropriate construction of the privacy based claims of the LGBT population. Their rights are not “so-called” but are real rights founded on sound constitutional doctrine. They inhere in the right to life. They dwell in privacy and dignity. They constitute the essence of liberty and freedom. Sexual orientation is an essential component of identity. Equal protection demands protection of the identity of every individual without discrimination,” a concurring opinion by Justice DY Chandrachud stated.

Shafin Jahan v Union of India The SC in March 2018 set aside a Kerala High Court judgment that annulled the marriage of a 24-year-old woman who converted to Islam and married a man of her choice. The ruling recognised the right to choose one’s partner as a facet of the fundamental right to liberty and dignity.
Shakti Vahini v Union of India A three-judge Bench on the SC in March 2018 issued directives to prevent honour killings at the behest of khap panchayats and protect persons who marry without the approval of the panchayats. In the ruling, the Court recognised the right to choose a life partner as a fundamental right.
Navtej Johar v Union of India In August 2018, the SC heard a curative petition against the ‘Koushal’ ruling. A five-judge Constitution Bench struck down IPC Section 377 to the extent that it criminalised homosexuality. The ‘Navtej’ ruling essentially said that the LGBTQ community are equal citizens and underlined that there cannot be discrimination in law based on sexual orientation and gender.
Deepika Singh vs Central Administrative Tribunal The SC in August last year decided in favour of a woman who was denied maternity leave for her first biological child on the ground that she had already availed the benefit for her two non-biological children. The ruling recognised “atypical” families, including queer marriages, which could not be confined in the traditional parenting roles.

(Source: Key Supreme Court verdicts that moved the needle on LGBTQ rights in India)

Point to ponder: 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”. Comment.

3. MCQ:

Which Article of the Constitution of India safeguards one’s right to marry the person of one’s choice? (2019)

(a) Article 19

(b) Article 21

(c) Article 25

(d) Article 29

Critical minerals supply chains: challenges India faces

WHY IN NEWS?

— A recent working paper from Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) extends the earlier minerals assessment for 23 minerals by assessing the criticality levels of 43 select minerals for India based on their economic importance (demand-side factors) and supply risks (supply-side factors) which are determined through the evaluation of specific indicators.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Rajesh Chadha, Ganesh Sivamani, Karthik Bansal Explain:
—  Critical minerals refer to mineral resources, both primary and processed, which are essential inputs in the production process of an economy, and whose supplies are likely to be disrupted due to the risks of non-availability or unaffordable price spikes. To tackle such supply risks, major global economies periodically evaluate which minerals are critical for their jurisdiction through a quantitative assessment.

— Minerals such as antimony, cobalt, gallium, graphite, lithium, nickel, niobium, and strontium are among the 22 assessed to be critical for India. Many of these are required to meet the manufacturing needs of green technologies, high-tech equipment, aviation, and national defence.

—  However, while India has a significant mineral geological potential, many minerals are not readily available domestically. Hence, India needs to develop a national strategy to ensure resilient critical minerals supply chains, which focuses on minerals found to be critical in this study.

What are the challenges?

—  India faces global and domestic challenges in assuring resilient critical minerals supply chains. On the international front, there currently exist four significant risks.

1.  China, the most dominant player in the critical mineral supply chains, still struggles with Covid-19-related lockdowns. As a result, the extraction, processing and exports of critical minerals are at risk of slowdown.

2. Russia is one of the significant producers of nickel, palladium, titanium sponge metal, and the rare earth element scandium. Ukraine is one of the major producers of titanium. It also has reserves of lithium, cobalt, graphite, and rare earth elements, including tantalum, niobium, and beryllium. The war between the two countries has implications for these critical mineral supply chains.

3. As the balance of power shifts across continents and countries, the critical mineral supply chains may get affected due to the strategic partnership between China and Russia. As a result, developed countries have jointly drawn up partnership strategies, including the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) and G7’s Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance, while developing countries have missed out.

4. Manufacturing renewable energy technologies would require increasing quantities of minerals, including copper, manganese, zinc, and indium. Likewise, the transition to electric vehicles would require increasing amounts of minerals, including copper, lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements.

However, India does not have many of these mineral reserves, or its requirements may be higher than the availability, necessitating reliance on foreign partners to meet domestic needs.

What is the way forward?

— On the domestic front, while India has a geological potential similar to mining-rich Western Australia, much still needs to be explored. India faces four significant challenges to enable their sustainable extraction.

1. Many critical and strategic minerals constitute part of the list of atomic minerals in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act, 1957. However, the present policy regime reserves these minerals only for public sector undertakings. Some of these are minerals and ores bearing beryllium, lithium, niobium, titanium, tantalum, zirconium, beach sand minerals, and rare earth group minerals containing uranium and thorium.

2.  Given the increasing importance of critical and strategic minerals, there is an imperative need to create a new list of such minerals in the MMDR Act. The list may include minerals such as molybdenum, rhenium, tungsten, cadmium, indium, gallium, graphite, vanadium, tellurium, selenium, nickel, cobalt, tin, the platinum group of elements, and fertiliser minerals such as glauconitic, potash, and phosphate (without uranium).

These minerals must be prospected, explored, and mined on priority, as any delays may hinder India’s emissions reduction and climate change mitigation timeline.

3. The reconnaissance and exploration of minerals must be encouraged, with particular attention given to deep-seated minerals. This will call for a collective effort by the government, ‘junior’ miners, and major mining companies.

4. An innovative regime must be devised to allocate critical mineral mining assets, which adequately incentivises private explorers, including ‘junior’ explorers. Given the long lead times of setting up new exploration, extraction, and processing activities, these issues must be addressed soon if India is to utilise its natural wealth for its manufacturing needs.

5. India needs to determine where and how the processing of minerals and assembly of critical minerals-embedded equipment will occur. Currently, India relies on global supplies of various processed critical minerals, as there are limited domestic sources.

— India requires a critical minerals strategy comprising measures aimed at making the country AatmaNirbhar (self-reliant) in critical minerals needed for sustainable economic growth and green technologies for climate action, national defence, and affirmative action for protecting the interests of the affected communities and regions.

— In addition, India must actively engage in bilateral and plurilateral arrangements for building assured and resilient critical mineral supply chains. Furthermore, the assessment of critical minerals for India needs to be updated every three years to keep pace with changing domestic and global scenarios.

—  A national critical minerals strategy for India, underpinned by the minerals identified in this study, can help focus on priority concerns in supply risks, domestic policy regimes, and sustainability.

(Source: What are the challenges India faces in assuring resilient critical minerals supply chains? by by Rajesh Chadha, Ganesh Sivamani, Karthik Bansal)

Point to ponder: India’s exclusion from US-led critical minerals alliance points to lack of expertise. Do you agree?

4. MCQ:

With reference to Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), which of the following countries are part of it?

1. Australia
2. Canada
3. Finland
4. France
5. Germany
6. Japan

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2, 5 and 6

(b) 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

(c) 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6

(d) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

ANSWERS TO MCQs: 1 (b), 2(a), 3(b), 4 (d)

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First uploaded on: 23-04-2023 at 15:54 IST
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