New challenges: On India and Joe Biden
India must not fight shy of engaging with the Biden administration on contentious issues
With the late night call on Tuesday between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President-elect Joseph Biden done, Indian and U.S. officials can begin their formal interactions on the future of bilateral relations. The two leaders listed out their priorities, according to separate statements issued by the External Affairs Ministry and the Biden-Harris transition team. According to the readouts, the leaders committed to strengthening the Indo-U.S. Comprehensive “Global” Strategic Partnership, and cooperating on global challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, affordable vaccines, climate change and the Indo-Pacific region. Mr. Biden’s readout also included “strengthening democracy at home and abroad”, which was dropped from the MEA version, indicating New Delhi’s discomfort. Critical and recent comments made by Mr. Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris over Jammu and Kashmir, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and actions against NGOs should not make the Modi government shy from engaging with the U.S. on these issues.
Most remarkably, the leaders did not dwell on traditional security issues, global terrorism, conflict regions or even trade, but instead charted areas for Indo-U.S. cooperation that are more in line with their current challenges and indicate Mr. Biden’s own immediate priorities. On COVID-19, Mr. Biden and Mr. Modi have their work cut out, given that the U.S. (over 11 million cases) and India (over 8 million cases) remain the top two worst affected countries, and showing daily increases. Making affordable vaccines available to their afflicted populations will be the immediate challenge. On the need for economic recovery, their projected policies do not appear to be too divergent. Unveiling his administration’s economic revival policy, Mr. Biden announced a plan to “Buy American”, and to ensure no government contract goes to companies that do not make their products in America. The Modi government has already launched its “Atmanirbhar Bharat” programme on similar lines, with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar making it clear that the globalised economy and trading arrangements have been assessed as detrimental to India’s manufacturing industry. On climate change, a decision by the U.S. to re-enter the Paris Accord will be welcomed by India, that is also hoping to promote cooperation on the International Solar Alliance that it co-founded in 2016 with France. But it is unclear if Mr. Biden would revive the earlier U.S. promises of funding green technology that Mr. Trump cancelled when he walked out of the Paris Accord. Finally, it is significant that Mr. Biden expressed his commitment to the Indo-Pacific policy, but New Delhi will be keen to see just what shape the new administration intends to take in its measures to maintain a “secure and prosperous” Indo-Pacific, and how far the Biden Administration will challenge China’s moves in the region.
- fight shy of (phrase) – to try to avoid something; be reluctant to, be unwilling to, be hesitant to.शर्मीला, संकोची, डरपोक
- मनोहर--engaging
- contentious (adjective) – controversial, disputable, debatable, disputed.विवादास्पद
- president-elect (noun) – a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a president-elect (e.g. President-elect of the United States).
- बातचीत--interactions--प्रभाव डालना
- bilateral (adjective) – involving two groups or countries.
- (presidential) transition (noun) – The time between a presidential candidate winning the election and the inauguration ceremony is known as the “transition.” The transition is run by the president-elect’s nonprofit transition team, which is separate from the campaign and has its own staff and budget. The transition marks the beginning of the complex task of a president-elect taking over the administration of the federal government.
- readout (noun) – an official statement summing up the main points of a meeting/phone call between two leaders.पढ़ कर सुनाएं
- comprehensive (adjective) – all-inclusive, broad-based, complete/thorough.
- strategic partnership (noun) – it is a long-term interaction between two countries based on political, economic, social and historical factors (Courtesy: IDSA (Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses)).
- pandemic (noun) – the worldwide spread of a new disease; The illness spreads around the world and typically affects a large number of people across a wide area.
- affordable (adjective) – economical, inexpensive, reasonably priced.सस्ती
- vaccine (noun) – a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease.
- वृद्धि--strengthening
- climate change (noun) – a long-term change in the Earth’s climate, or of a region on Earth (Courtesy: NASA).
- The Indo-Pacific region (noun) – the Indo-Pacific region refers to the confluence (convergence) of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which interconnect in Southeast Asia.
- at home (phrase) – in one’s country.
- drop (verb) – exclude, discard, expel something.
- The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) (noun) – The Ministry of External Affairs (abbreviated as MEA) of India, also known as the Foreign Ministry, is the government agency responsible for the conduct of foreign relations of India.
- discomfort (noun) – embarrassment, uneasiness, awkwardness; trouble/problem, disadvantage.
- The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (noun) – The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for illegal migrants of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities, who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014. Muslims from those countries were not given such eligibility.
- non-government organisations (NGOs) (noun) – it is also referred to as nonprofit organisations, voluntary organisations ; a group of individuals who enter into an agreement, usually as volunteers, to form a body (or organisation) to accomplish a purpose. A voluntary organisation is an organisation in which whether its workers are paid/unpaid, is initiated & governed by its own members without external control.
- shy from (phrase) – avoid doing something; recoil from doing something, not to get involved in something.
- remarkably (adverb) – strikingly, exceptionally, incredibly.ध्यान से देखने से
- dwell on (phrasal verb) – to think, speak or write about a specific thing for a long time, especially something that is a source of sadness or displeasure.ध्यान केन्द्रित करना
- charted (adjective) – outlined, described, detailed.
- in line with (phrase) – in alignment with, in accordance with.
- सबसे खराब--worst
- have one’s work/task cut out (phrase) – be dealt with a difficult task.
- given (preposition) – considering, taking into account, bearing in mind.
- afflicted (adjective) – troubled, bothered, burdened, distressed, strained.पीड़ित
- divergent (adjective) – differing, varying, dissimilar/contrasting.विभिन्न
- अनुमान--projected
- unveil (verb) – present, disclose, make public.
- revival (noun) – improvement, restoration, re-establishment.पुनरजीवन
- Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (or) Self-reliant India Mission (noun) – the special economic package totaling Rs 20 lakh crore by the Indian government to tide over the Covid-19 crisis and it would focus on land, labour, liquidity and laws. It would benefit labourers, farmers, honest tax payers, MSMEs and cottage industry. This economic package would be around the 10 per cent of India’s GDP.
- make clear (phrase) – explain, clarify, elucidate.
- Economic globalisation (noun) – it refers to the increasing interdependence of world economies as a result of the growing scale of cross-border trade of commodities and services, flow of international capital and wide and rapid spread of technologies.
- assess (verb) – appraise, evaluate, analyse.मूल्यांकन
- detrimental (adjective) – undesirable, harmful, unfavourable, counterproductive.हानिकारक
- Paris Agreement/Accord (noun) – The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention (agreement) and for the first time brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
- International Solar Alliance (noun) – an alliance of 121 countries initiated by India, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. It is working towards making solar energy available 24/7 at affordable cost to all.
- revive (verb) – restore, revitalize, renew, bring back.
- green technology (noun) – it is also known as clean technology/sustainable technology; it is the application of one or more of environmental technologies to monitor, model and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement.
- walk out (phrasal verb) – depart, get out, leave suddenly; desert, abandon.
- keen (adjective) – eager, desirous, ready.उत्सुक
- take shape (phrase) – become clear/definite, become tangible, fall into place.
- measure (noun) – course of action, action, step, procedure.
- prosperous (adjective) – flourishing, thriving, successful, productive.समृद्ध, संपन्न, सफल
- far (adverb) – much.
- move (noun) – movement, action, activity.
Ed-2
Reinventing cities: On urban planning and disease spread
A new urban development paradigm should focus on cutting disease spread
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a reimagining of urban planning and development to make cities and towns healthy and liveable after COVID-19 reflects the reality of decrepit infrastructure aiding the virus’s spread. At the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, he emphasised resetting the mindset, processes and practices for safe urban living, and acknowledged that governments actually do little for the working millions. In the first hundred days of the pandemic, the top 10 cities affected worldwide accounted for 15% of the total cases, and data for populous Indian cities later showed large spikes that radiated into smaller towns. Rapid transmission in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai was the inevitable outcome of densification and an inability to practise distancing norms. In globally recognised Dharavi, which has one of the world’s highest slum densities, epidemiologists attribute a seemingly low viral impact to screening and herd immunity. The pandemic’s full social impact, especially among the poorer quintiles, has not been adequately measured here or elsewhere, and as the Prime Minister said, it is only clear that the cities “are not as they were before”. If governments are serious about the reset moment — he likened it to a post-World War reconstruction plan — they must resist returning to business-as-usual.
Good, affordable housing is the cornerstone of a sustainable and healthy city, but it also represents India’s weakest link. Unlike speculative housing investments, well-designed rental housing that is key to protecting migrant labour and other less affluent sections remains poorly funded. Mumbai is estimated to have added only 5% of rental housing in new residential construction (1961-2000), and that too led by private funding. The post-COVID-19 era, therefore, presents an opportunity to make schemes such as the Centre’s Affordable Rental Housing Complexes deliver at scale, focusing on new good houses built by the state — on the lines of the post-war reconstruction in Europe, Japan and South Korea. The Ministry of Housing, which has thus far focused on a limited set of expensive showpiece smart cities, could work on this imperative with the States, digitally aggregating and transparently publishing data on demand and supply for each city. It is also an open secret that laws on air pollution, municipal solid waste management and water quality are hardly enforced, and tokenism marks the approach to urban mobility. Past scourges such as cholera, the plague and the global flu pandemic a century ago led to change — as sewerage, waste handling, social housing and health care that reduced disease. Governments are now challenged by the pandemic to show the political will to reinvent cities.
Reinventing--बदलते
paradigm--उदाहरण, मिसाल,
decrepit--पुराना
emphasised--पर बल दिया
resetting- फिर से स्थापित करना--
populous--अधिक आबादी वाला,घनी आबादी वाला
inevitable-अपरिहार्य, अनिवार्य
norms-मानदंड
slum --गंदी बस्ती
attribute--विशेषता
seemingly--मालूम होता है
adequately--पर्याप्त रूप से
elsewhere--और कहीं,किसी दुसरे स्थान में
resist--विरोध
usual--सामान्य
cornerstone आधारशिला--
speculative--काल्पनिक
affluent--संपन्न, समृद्ध, प्रचुर
poorly--बीमार
imperative --अनिवार्य
enforced--लागू करना, विवश करना, बाध्य करना
mobility--चलना फिरना
scourges--गंभीर संकट
sewerage--मल, गंदे नाले, मैला
handling--संभालना,संचालन करना
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