Daily Current Affairs 1 June 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) The onset of Monsoon in India.

Skymet had forecast that the monsoons would reach Kerala on May 28 with an error margin of two days.

The IMD had announced June 5 as the onset date, though recently it said a cyclonic circulation in the Bay of Bengal would help advance the date and the rains could reach Kerala on June 1.

Background:

• Development of cyclones:
• Storms that develop in the sea begin as ‘Low Pressures’ and graduate to Depressions, Deep Depressions, and then onto three categories of cyclones.
• Influence of cyclones on Monsoons:
• Depressions are normal during the advent of monsoon and usually aid the monsoon’s advent and progress in India. However, a particularly strong storm can hinder the monsoon.
• In 2019, cyclone Vayu that formed in the Arabian Sea stalled the monsoon after it entered Kerala.
• Monsoon onset in 2020:
• The official date for the onset of monsoon in 2020 has been set as June 5, by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Details:

• Private agency Skymet Weather has announced that the Southwest Monsoons have arrived in Kerala ahead of its normal onset date of June 1.
• Skymet has announced that all conditions such as rainfall, out wave longwave radiation (OLR) value, and wind speed had been met to declare the onset over Kerala.
• But the India Meteorological Department said conditions were not yet ripe for the start of the Monsoon season on mainland India.
• There is now uncertainty over monsoon’s arrival over Kerala on the previously estimated date.
• The uncertainty is primarily due to a prominent weather model that hints at the development of a cyclone in the Arabian Sea after May 31, 2020.
• The model of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting is showing a cyclone developing in the Arabian Sea.
• The strength and trajectory of this weather system could delay the monsoon’s progress.

Parameters for Monsoons:

• The IMD says there are three major conditions to declare the onset.
• If after May 10, 60% of the 14 weather stations — Minicoy, Amini, Thiruvananthapuram, Punalur, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Kochi, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Thalassery, Kannur, Kudulu and Mangalore — report rainfall of 2.5 mm or more for two consecutive days, the onset over Kerala will be declared on the second day.
• The depth of the westerlies should be maintained up to 600 hectopascals (hPa). This gives an indirect measure of the wind speed.
• The Outwave Longwave Radiation (OLR) should be below 200 watts per square meter (wm-2).

IMD’s estimates:

• The IMD models are predicting that the depression observed in the Arabian Sea would likely be a Deep Depression, at most, and would not develop into a cyclone.
• The depression is likely to form in the Arabian Sea and turn towards Oman and not significantly influence the monsoon.

Source: The Hindu

2) Data Security guidelines by the Kerala state government.

• The government had contracted with Sprinklr, a U.S.-based data analytics firm, to crunch the health data of citizens to understand how the pandemic would behave in the State.
• The Opposition had approached the Kerala High Court, accusing the Kerala Government of having used the outbreak as a cover to allow the U.S.-based firm to “harvest and monetize” the medical information of the State’s population.
• The High Court had considered the Opposition’s plea.

Details:

• The Kerala Government has issued guidelines for the collection of personal information following the Sprinklr controversy. The government aims to address some of the points raised by the HC judgment.
• The guidelines mandate that agencies and departments should collect sensitive personal data of citizens only with their legally recorded informed consent.

Source: The Hindu

3) Crisis in the airline sector.

Weak finances:

• Despite many positive developments since the deregulation of the sector, India’s potential has not been realized.
• Indian aviation has been caught in a cycle of profitless growth, punctuated by regular crises every 5-7 years. Five of India’s six airlines have been operating with weak balance sheets.

COVID crisis:

• The aviation sector which was already weak has been further affected by the COVID crisis. It has exposed the vulnerability of the aviation industry.

Challenges:

• One of the main problems with the airline sector is the low entry barrier as airlines require paid-up capital of just $7 million to start and the renewal of an Air Operator Permit (AOP) does not involve any test of financial fitness.
• The entry of many players in the sector and the price war is making the business unviable.
• A major issue with Indian airlines is their low-yield and high-cost structure. The operating environment in India is characterized by high costs and poor planning.
• The Indian aviation sector has been suffering on account of profitless growth.

Way forward:

• Structural and regulatory changes:
• The industry experts have called for immediate structural and regulatory changes that could help revive the sector.
• The changes should result in a higher yield market for airlines to remain sustainable.
• Infrastructure development:
• Despite the current setback, India must invest in improving aviation-related infrastructure. This will give a fillip to the industry in the form of government expenditure.

Source: The Hindu

4) Draft e-commerce policy.

• India does not have an e-commerce policy yet.
• E-commerce is a fast emerging sector and there is a need to have a definite, clear, and coherent policy, keeping in tune with the requirement of the society and service providers.

Details:

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will be putting out a draft e-commerce policy in the public domain to seek views and comments.

Challenges:

• Data regulations:
• Several foreign e-commerce firms have raised concerns over some points in the draft about data.
• Quality of products:
• There are a lot of counterfeit and inferior products being listed on the e-commerce platforms. There have also been reports of violation of various safety standards in the products being sold via e-commerce platforms.

Way forward:

• Detailed guidelines:
• The e-commerce policy should lay down a very clear policy on what is data; what kind of data the e-commerce companies can use; how the citizens’ right of privacy can be protected; how the e-commerce data is being leveraged for other purposes; commercial benefits accrue to the e-commerce data holder; how citizens can have access to those benefits.
• Balancing the interests of all stakeholders:
• The policy measures should balance the interests of the customers and service providers.
• Consumer rights:
• The protection of consumer rights is of the utmost importance.
• There is a need to prevent the sale of substandard goods on the e-commerce platforms for which the platforms themselves can have quality control measures.

Source: The Hindu

5) The Delhi Government’s Tree Transplantation Policy 2020.

Under the Tree Transplantation Policy 2020, for a development project, 80% of trees affected by the developmental activities at a particular site have to be transplanted.

Streamlined with previous policy:

• The existing policy of planting 10 saplings for each tree being felled will continue, and also 10 saplings will have to be planted for each tree being transplanted too, according to the new policy.

Institutional framework:

• The government is expected to come out with a list of impaneled technical agencies, which will be doing the transplantation.
• A dedicated ‘Tree Transplantation Cell’ will also be established.

Exceptions:

• The exception to the 80% transplantation rule will be given in projects where less than 10 trees are felled and also in “exceptional cases” where a government committee gives permission.

Post-implementation evaluation:

• For projects in which 100 or more trees have been transplanted, a social audit at the end of one year of completion of transplantation will be done to establish a survival rate.

Concerns:

• The environmental experts have been critical about the Tree Transplantation Policy.
• They have argued the need for a tree preservation policy over the tree transplantation policy. They have suggested that the projects should be redesigned keeping tree preservation in mind.
• Tree transplantation is expensive and the survival rate is problematic.

Source: The Hindu

6) Assam plans to provide functional tap connections to 13 lakh rural households in 2020-21

• Assam presented the Annual Action Plan for consideration and approval of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The government of India approved Rs 1407 Crore for 2020-21 under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). In 2020-21, State plans to provide tap connections to 13 lakh households out of a total of 63 lakhs. Realization of the goal of Jal Jeevan Mission in Assam is not difficult taking into account the abundant water resources in the State i.e. both groundwater and surface water.
• The state is giving emphasis on capitalizing on ‘low-hanging fruits’ i.e. in the villages/ habitations where piped water supply schemes already exist, to yield the desired results. The state plans to immediately provide household tap connections to all remaining households belonging to weaker and marginalized sections on priority. A defined roadmap is also charted for the effective implementation of the Village Action Plan (VAP) with the active participation of the rural community. Strengthening of existing drinking water sources for the long-term sustainability of drinking water supply systems through the convergence of various programs like MGNREGS, SBM (G), 15th Finance Commission Grants to PRIs, District Mineral Development Fund, CAMPA, Local Area Development Fund, etc. at village level is planned for judicious use of all available resources.   
• While planning, thrust is given on covering households in quality-affected habitations, aspirational districts, SC/ ST dominated villages/ habitations, Sansad Adarsh Gramin Yojana villages, etc. on priority
• Above all, local village community/ Gram Panchayats and or its sub-committee/ user groups are being involved in planning, implementation, management, operation, and maintenance of water supply systems in villages to ensure long-term sustainability. Jal Jeevan Mission encourages participation of the local community in surveillance of water quality. PHE department is duty-bound to empower and engage with the community. For this, action plan carried out to incorporate the entire value-chain- from timely procurement of kits, the supply of kits to the community, identification of at least five women in every village, training women for use of Field Test Kits and reporting and collating the reports with laboratory-based findings of the water sources.
• In the wake of the Covid–19 pandemic, people mustn’t crowd public stand posts/ public water sources to fetch drinking water. Therefore, State is taking up water supply works in villages to provide household tap connections, which will help in practicing social distancing, and will additionally help local people in getting employment and boost the rural economy.
• When the country is grappling with the CoVid-19 pandemic, it has become very important to provide a livelihood to the migrant workers who have returned to their native villages. These migrant laborers are basically skilled and semi-skilled ones, whose services could be utilized in by providing jobs related to water supply especially plumbing, fitting, water conservation works, etc. in every village to ensure sufficient groundwater availability leading to water security, water availability for agriculture and most importantly will help in the provision of drinking water to every rural household.
• With the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission, people in rural areas now aspire to get tap connections in their household premises, which they could not even think of till last year. With the active support of States, the Ministry of Jal Shakti is steering the Mission to bring cheers in the lives of rural folks by making provision of potable water in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality on a regular and long-term basis.
• Jal Jeevan Mission announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year aims to provide tap water connections to 18 Crore rural households of the country by the year 2024.  This ambitious scheme is benefitting all the States as the States are working hard to ensure every rural household gets water tap connection to bring improvements in their lives. This transformational Mission focusses on the principle of ‘equity and inclusiveness’ to ensure universal coverage of every rural household.

Source: PIB

7) Indian Navy Commences Next Phase of Operation “Samudra Setu”

• The next phase of Operation “Samudra Setu” to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas will commence on 01 June 2020.
• In this phase, Indian Navy Ship Jalashwa will repatriate 700 personnel from Colombo, the Republic of Sri Lanka to Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, and subsequently repatriate another 700 personnel from Malè, the Republic of Maldives to Tuticorin.
• Indian Navy has already repatriated 1,488 Indian nationals from Malè to Kochi during the previous phase of operations.
• Indian Missions in Sri Lanka and the Maldives are preparing a list of Indian nationals to be evacuated and will facilitate their embarkation after the requisite medical screening. COVID-related social distancing norms have been catered onboard and evacuees would be provided basic amenities and medical facilities during the sea-passage. 
• After disembarkation at Tuticorin, the evacuated personnel will be entrusted to the care of State authorities. This operation is being progressed in close coordination with Ministries of External Affairs, Home Affairs, Health, and various other agencies of the Government of India and State governments.

Source: PIB

8) IT Minister Launches National AI Portal of India

• Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Law and Justice and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad launched India’s national Artificial Intelligence Portal called www.ai.gov.in
• This portal has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT and IT Industry. National e-Governance Division of the Ministry of Electronics and IT and NASSCOM from the IT industry will jointly run this portal. This portal shall work as a one-stop digital platform for AI-related developments in India, sharing of resources such as articles, startups, investment funds in AI, resources, companies, and educational institutions related to AI in India. The portal will also share documents, case studies, research reports, etc. It has a section about learning and new job roles related to AI.
• Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, Communications and Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, also launched a National Program for the youth, “Responsible AI for Youth”. The aim of this program is to give the young students of our country a platform and empower them with appropriate new age tech mindset, relevant AI skill-sets and access to required AI tool-sets to make them digitally ready for the future. The Program has been created and launched by the National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics & IT in collaboration with Intel India, with support from the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), Ministry of Human Resource Development. DoSE&L will help reach-out to State Education Departments to nominate teachers as per eligibility criteria.
• “Responsible AI for Youth” will empower the youth to become AI-ready and help reduce the skill gap, while enabling youth to create meaningful social impact solutions. The Program is designed to reach out to students from Government schools pan India and provide them with an opportunity to become part of the skilled workforce inclusively.

Details of Responsible AI for Youth Programme:

• The National Programme is open to students of classes 8 - 12 from Central and State government-run schools (including KVS, NVS, JNV) from across the country - all 28States and 8Union Territories and aims to bring about a change in the thought process and create a bridge for the digital divide. The Program will be implemented in a phase-wise manner and in its first phase, each of the State Education Department will nominate 10 teachers as per the eligibility criteria. Teachers may also self nominate themselves by fulfilling the eligibility criteria. These teachers will be provided orientation sessions aimed to help them understand the premise and identify 25-50 potential students for the Program. The identified students will attend online training sessions on AI and understand how to identify social impact ideas/projects that may be created using AI and submit their ideas through a 60 seconds video explaining a proposed AI-enabled solution.
• From the submitted ideas in the form of videos, the top 100 ideas will be shortlisted and these students will be invited to attend residential boot camps or online sessions (subject to COVID-19 situation); to take them through a deep dive AI journey. Post the boot-camps/ online sessions, these students will be asked to create real-time projects and submit their final project in a video format on the website.
• Adequate handholding will be provided by Intel certified AI coaches and mentors throughout to ensure that ideas mature as prototypes. The experts will shortlist the top 50 project ideas and students will be invited to showcase their projects either face to face or in an online format. Further, the top 20 innovative projects will be selected by an independent committee of experts and provided opportunities to showcase at the relevant platforms.

Source: PIB

9) IASST scientists develop herbal medicine loaded smart bandage for wounds

• Scientists from the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India have developed a pH-responsive smart bandage that can deliver the medicine applied in the wound at the pH that is suitable for the wound. The scientists have developed the delivery system by fabricating a nanotechnology-based cotton patch that uses cheap and sustainable materials like cotton and jute.
• a nanocomposite hydrogel bound compact cotton patch incorporated with jute carbon dots were fabricated to carry out the drug release. Jute has been used for the first time as a precursor in synthesizing fluorescent carbon dots, and water was used as the dispersion medium. Herbal formulation neem leaf (Azadirachtaindica) extract was taken as the model drug to exemplify the release study.
• This study published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. demonstrated the stimuli-responsive drug delivery system using natural products – jute and neem leaf extract. The jute carbon dots were immobilized in the hydrogel matrix-bound cotton patch and could effectively exemplify different drug release pattern at two different pH levels --lower at pH 5 than at higher at pH 7.
• The stimuli-responsive nature of the fabricated hybrid cotton patch acts as an advantage as in case of growth of bacterial infections in a wound, and this induces the release of drugs at lower pH which is favorable under these conditions. This pH-responsive behavior of the fabricated cotton patch lies in the unique behavior of the jute carbon dots incorporated in the system because of the different molecular linkages formed during the carbon dot preparation.
• Around any wound, pH changes due to bacterial infections. Hence they developed a pH-responsive drug delivery system with the cotton patch. Carbon dots which are zero-dimensional nanomaterials, due to their unique carbon core and surface functional groups can be designed to exhibit different behavior towards different pH. They are also known for their low toxicity and great biocompatibility. Therefore, different carbon dots were used as a nano-filler in fabricating hybrid cotton patches to check the drug release behavior.
• The development of such a stimuli-responsive behavior of a hybrid cotton patch paves the way for utilizing it as smart wound-dressing or bandage material. The use of cheap and sustainable materials like cotton and jute to fabricate the patch makes the whole process biocompatible, non-toxic, low cost, and sustainable. 

The scheme depicting the fabrication of pH-responsive cotton patch

Source: PIB

10) GDP Decreases to 11-year Low

According to the provisional data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), economic growth slowed to an 11-year low of 4.2% in 2019-20.

Key Points

• Growth in the Fiscal Year 2019-20:
• The provisional growth estimate for the year 2019-20 is at 4.2%.
• The budget estimate for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in 2019-2020 was stated at 8.5%, the NSO’s previous estimates had pushed the projection down to 5%.
• The Indian economy grew at 6.1% in 2018-19.
• The growth rate in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA), slowed to 3.9% in 2019-20 from 6% growth in the previous year.
• GVA is GDP minus net product taxes and reflects supply-side growth.
• The nominal GDP growth rate, which accounts for inflation, is estimated to have grown at 7.2% in 2019-20, sharply lower than 11% in the previous year.
• Growth in Final Quarter of 2019-20:
• In the final quarter of the year, that is, January 2020 - March 2020, the growth rate of GDP fell to 3.1%.
• This is the lowest growth rate in the last 44 quarters.
• Agriculture and mining sectors grew in the fourth quarter at rates of 5.9% and 5.2% respectively.
• Public administration, defense, and other services grew at 10.1%.
• The manufacturing sector contracted to a negative growth of 1.4%.
• The three components of demand have also fallen i.e. consumption demand has slowed, while investments and exports are both in negative territory.
• Analysis of the growth data:
• Nominal GDP growth: There are two reasons why the sharp deceleration in the nominal GDP matters.
• First, the nominal GDP growth rate is the base of all fiscal calculations (revenue and spending) in the country.
• A sharp divergence in the nominal GDP growth rate basically upsets all other calculations in the economy.
• For instance, a sharp fall means the government does not get the revenues it had hoped for, and, as such, it can’t spend as much as it wanted to.
• Second, this substantial deceleration reflects poorly on the government’s fiscal marksmanship.
• In other words, it shows that the government was not able to assess the magnitude of economic growth deceleration that was underway.
• Poor fiscal marksmanship, in turn, leads to inaccurate policymaking because a government could end up making policies for an economy that doesn’t actually exist on the ground.
• This sharp deceleration also shows the continued weakening of India’s growth momentum even before it was hit by the Covid-19 lockdown in the last week of March.
• Negative Growth of Manufacturing:
• It has been argued in the past, that for India to grow and create jobs for the millions that enter its workforce each year, manufacturing growth has to rise.
• But 2019 paints a dismal picture in this regard. Manufacturing contracted for three of the four quarters.

Conclusion

• Economists have highlighted that GDP is headed for a contraction in 2020-21 due to the impact of Covid-19. Therefore, government expenditure will be the growth engine in the year 2020-21. Weak commodity prices and import demand will also provide some support to growth.

Key Terms

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP):
• It is a measure of economic activity in a country. It is the total value of a country’s annual output of goods and services. It gives the economic output from the consumers’ side.
• GDP = Private consumption + Gross investment + Government investment + Government spending + (exports-imports)
• Gross Value Added (GVA):
• It is the sum of a country’s GDP and net of subsidies and taxes in the economy. It provides the rupee value for the number of goods and services produced in an economy after deducting the cost of inputs and raw materials that have gone into the production of those goods and services.
• Gross Value Added = GDP + subsidies on products - taxes on products
• Nominal GDP:
• It is GDP evaluated at current market prices. It includes all of the changes in market prices that have occurred during the current year due to inflation or deflation.
• It is different from the Real GDP which is calculated in a way such that goods and services are evaluated at some constant set of prices.
• The National Statistical Office
• NSO is the central statistical agency of the Government-mandated under the Statistical Services Act, 1980 under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
• It is responsible for the development of arrangements for providing statistical information services to meet the needs of the Government and other users for information on which to base policy, planning, monitoring, and management decisions.
• The services include collecting, compiling, and disseminating official statistical information.
• All business operations in NSO are done in compliance with international standards, procedures, and best practices.

Source: The Hindu

11) Inspire faculty from NIT Srinagar working on the marriage of material science & electrochemistry for sustainable energy

• Dr. Malik Abdul Wahid from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar is a recipient of the INSPIRE Faculty award instituted by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India working in the area of energy research towards the marriage of material science and electrochemistry to develop sustainable energy and affordable energy sources. His focus is mainly on electrodes and electrolyte material electrochemistry.
• The major components of Dr. Malik’s current research interests include material research on the electrode development for Sodium-ion (Na-ion) battery, which offers a 20% cost reduction compared to present Lithium-ion (Li-ion) technology.  He has been focusing on the two aspects, i.e., cost reduction and efficiency elevation. For the former, he is currently focused upon the stabilization of a combination of carbon-based anodes and organic cathodes. While for the latter, he is exploring the new cathode chemistries. Two of his recent projects are the development of layered high capacity cathodes by suitable doping that offers high capacity and stability and Sulphate-phosphate hybrid cathodes. Similarly, Sodium (Na) metal anode hosts with heavy Na deposition capacities are being developed.  The mentioned projects are a new direction to the field of Na ion battery research.
• Along with his collaborators at IISER Pune, Dr. Malik developed a Si-Phosphorene nano-composite material for efficient Si stabilization as an anode in Li-ion battery, which was published in the journal Sustainable Energy Fuels. The obtained material delivers five times more capacity than carbon-based electrodes and can be fully charged in about 15 minutes.
• His team at NIT Srinagar employed a simple hydrothermal strategy to synthesize reduced graphene oxide (rGO) wrapped high aspect ratio 1-dimensional SbSe nano-structure. The work has been published in the journal Chem Phys Chem. They achieved a decent performance with the reversible capacity of 550 mAhg-1 at a specific current of 100 mAg-1which implies that 5 to 6g of synthesized material would run a high range android cell phone.
• “INSPIRE Faculty award is a prestigious award and should be distinguished from a regular faculty position in any institute. To honor the positions, I have co-founded a center of excellence (COE), namely, the Interdisciplinary Division of Renewable Energy and Advanced Materials (iDRAEM) at NIT Srinagar. The COE primarily worked with my & collaborator’s research grant, but recently institute promised funding support. Additionally, with the possible support of MHRD (under the FAST scheme), the center is set to blossom and cater to some high-quality research.” Dr. Malik said.
• At present, this center co-founded by Dr. Malik caters to the research in the advanced areas of energy storage and super-hydrophobic surfaces for water harvesting, besides focusing on the local resources of J&K. Dr. Wahid has already published a paper on the application of walnut shell derived carbon as Na ion battery anode applications (ACS Omega, 2017, 2 (7), pp 3601–3609). The material has a lot of scopes to be employed for advanced electrode applications. Similarly, waste dairy products and aquatic flora of Dal lake appear to have appropriate morphology to be employed as precursors for the electrode grade carbon.  Energy storage activities under iDRAEM partly focus on the synthesis of high-quality carbon materials from local precursors. Lotus stem is very promising in being porous to be employed as a precursor for electrode grade carbon material.  It also undertakes challenges of developing high-quality hydrophobic surfaces by replicating the hydrophobic leaf structure of local plants of DAL lake.

Source: PIB

12) One Sun One World One Grid

Recently, the Government of India has called for bids to roll-out the ‘One Sun One World One Grid’ (OSOWOG) plan.

• The plan focuses on a framework for facilitating global cooperation, building a global ecosystem of interconnected renewable energy resources (mainly solar energy) that can be seamlessly shared.

Key Points

• The vision behind the OSOWOG is ‘The Sun Never Sets’ and is a constant at some geographical location, globally, at any given point of time.
• This is by far one of the most ambitious schemes undertaken by any country and is of global significance in terms of sharing economic benefits.
• It has been taken up under the technical assistance program of the World Bank.
• OSOWOG plan may also leverage the International Solar Alliance (ISA), co-founded by India that has 67 countries as members.
• With India in the middle, the solar spectrum can easily be divided into two broad zones, which are:
• The Far East including countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia, etc.
• Far West covering the Middle East and the Africa Region.
• Three Phases of the Plan:
• First Phase: It deals with the Middle East, South Asia, and South-East Asia (MESASEA) interconnection.
• Fostering cross-border energy trade is an important part of India’s Neighbourhood-first policy.
• India has been supplying power to Bangladesh and Nepal and has been championing a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) electricity grid minus Pakistan to meet electricity demand in the region.
• The initial plans also involve setting up an under-sea link to connect with Oman in the West.
• Second Phase: It deals with the MESASEA grid getting interconnected with the African power pools.
• Third Phase: It is about global interconnection.
• Significance:
• The proposed integration would lead to reduced project costs, higher efficiencies, and increased asset utilization for all the participating entities.
• This plan will require only incremental investment because it will not require a parallel grid infrastructure due to working with existing grids.
• It will help all the participating entities in attracting investments in renewable energy sources as well as utilizing skills, technology, and finances.
• Resulting economic benefits would positively impact poverty alleviation and support in mitigating water, sanitation, food, and other socio-economic challenges.
• It will allow national renewable energy management centers in India to grow as regional and global management centers.
• This move, during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, allows India to be seen as taking a lead in evolving global strategies.
• Backdrops:
• India is already expediting ISA's plan to set up the World Solar Bank (WSB) with a capital of USD 10 billion.
• WSB aims to compete with other newly created funding institutions like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB).
• The USA’s withdrawal from the Paris climate deal.
• OSOWOG will help to mitigate its ill effects on climate by providing clean and renewable energy sources, enabling member countries to fulfill their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) towards reducing global warming.
• China’s attempts to co-opt countries into its One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, a program to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, including railways, ports and power grids, across Asia, Africa, and Europe.
• OSOWOG will provide a strategic rebalance in favor of India and will control the increasing Chinese dominance in the Asian subcontinent, providing a better alternative to developing countries.

Way Forward

• The move is the key to future renewable-based energy systems globally because regional and international interconnected green grids can enable the sharing and balancing of renewable energy across international borders.
• It allows grabbing opportunities to learn quickly from global developments and share renewable energy resources to reduce the global carbon footprint and insulate the societies from pandemics.

Source: Mint