Editorial Discussion And Analysis(7th March)

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Indian Diaspora(GS 2)

Author: – Sanam Arora & Vignesh Karthik K. R.

 

Brain Drain

• For centuries, from Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru to Amartya Sen and Manmohan Singh, Indians have gone abroad to pursue higher education.
• More than 7,50,000 Indian students are studying abroad, spending $24 billion in foreign economies, which is around 1% of India’s GDP.
• Demand is soaring for various reasons, including the gap in India’s supply of quality education against the demand.
• More than half the Indian population under the age of 25.
• No Indian university in the world’s top 100, it is natural that aspirational students would look to study abroad.

Large Benefits

• We celebrate the achievements of Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella.
• Yet, one has to only look at social media or hear some conversations to realise how much contempt a section of Indians shares towards those studying abroad.
• However, the larger benefits in terms of soft power, knowledge transfer and remittances that come back to India render such noise baseless.

Our Children in Ukraine

• It is estimated that around 20,000 Indian students were stranded in Ukraine.
• The work of the Union government, complemented by the efforts of some active State governments, is aimed at bringing our fellow citizens back home.
• There hasbeen unfortunate deaths of two Indian students (one died in shelling, the other suffered a stroke) in Ukraine.

Indians Stranded Abroad

• Around 2,000 students whose colleges have abruptly closed have been protesting in Canada.
• Lakhs of rupees in fees have been taken from them by colleges, which are now bankrupt, thereby jeopardizing the students’ futures.
• Something similar happened in the U.K. a few years ago with hundreds of ‘bogus’ colleges being closed.
• During Pandemic, Australia shut its borders to the thousands of Indian students enrolled to study on its campuses.
• India is the second largest source of international students after China, and this is expected to continue.

Mandating Protection

• Given a proper ecosystem, Indian students can significantly contribute to India’s development by transferring advanced knowledge and best practices.
• They are consumers of higher education abroad, and guests of the nations they reside in.
• It is only natural then for us to mandate protection of our people abroad by ensuring that host countries take on this responsibility.
• The Indian government should proactively create a safety net for the international students.
• International agreements that oblige host countries to ensure the welfare of Indian students during times of crises and contingencies should be given paramount importance

Way Forward

• The Free trade agreements India is currently negotiating with the K. and Australia make for great opportunity to do so.
• A mandatory student insurance scheme as well as responsibility of welfare of students in the foreign country should be incorporated.
• This will secure the interests of students who also spend considerably in the host country.
• Higher education has been one of the strongest exports for the U.K., generating £28.8 billion in revenue.
• Considerable chunk of students who study abroad are not from wealthy families.

Question Framed From Editorial

• “When the achievements of Indians abroad are ours to celebrate, so is the responsibility to safeguard their welfare”. Critically Evaluate (250 words)

 

 

International Relations (GS 2)

Nord Stream 2 in Cross Hairs

Author: – Ranjan Mathai

 

Nord Stream 2

• • Nord Stream is a gas pipeline that connects Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
  • The $11-billion gas pipeline project has already driven a wedge between Germany and the US
  • The project, owned by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, runs from western Siberia to Germany.
  • It has double the capacity of the already-in-use Nord Stream 1 pipeline. (110 billion cubic meters of gas)
  • The US has viewed the pipeline as a geopolitical tool for Russia to increase Moscow’s leverage over Europe.

Natural Gas- A Critical Fuel

• Despite global efforts to decarbonise energy, natural gas is set to remain one of the principal sources of primary energy till at least 2040.
• Europe is the world’s second largest market for natural gas.
• It is also the battleground between the superpowers of hydrocarbon energy, the S. and Russia.
• NATO & Warsaw Pact was underpinned by an energy order in which oil was sold to West Europe from West Asian/Middle Eastern fields controlled by U.S. companies.
• While oil was sold East Europe from the giant oilfields of the Soviet Union.

“Druzhba”- Dosti (Friendship)

• This also has been referred to as the Friendship Pipeline and is the world’s longest oil pipeline and one of the biggest oil pipeline networks in the world.
• It carries oil some 4,000 km from the eastern part of European Russia to points in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany.
• The name “Druzhba” means “friendship”, alluding to the fact that the pipeline supplied oil to the energy-hungry western regions of the Soviet Union &to Western Europe.
• This led to tensions between USA & USSR in the 1960s.

An Energy Transition

• The 1970s European energy transition to natural gas led to the geo economic linkage of giant Soviet gas fields to West European market.
• Thanks to Middle East oil supply crises of the 1970s and fall in U.S. domestic production.
• The U.S. had no alternative to offer except coal.
• However the defeat of Soviets in Afghanistan towards the end of the 80s &1986 oil price crash caused by friendly Saudi Arabia dented the Soviet economy.
• The victorious U.S. then used NATO expansion into Eastern Europe and the Baltic States to create a new European security order in the face of a diminished Russia.

Impact of Putin’s Push

• Vladimir Putin revived Russia by leveraging oil and gas production which provide 60% of exports, 25% of government revenue, and have boosted national reserves to $600 billion.
• It can, and has used gas as an instrument of influence in its “near abroad”
• For its main customer Germany, Russia has been a most reliable supplier right through the Cold War.
• Russia now supplies 35%-40% of the EU’s gas needs
• In 1994, a new pipeline was built to Germany via Belarus and Poland.
• In the early 2000s, the EU noted the stability of Russia’s gas deliveries.
• The Yamal–Europe natural gas pipeline is a 4,107 km long pipeline connecting Russian natural gas fields in the Yamal Peninsula and Western Siberia with Poland and Germany, through Belarus

The Two Nord Stream

• Both pipelines are gamechangers as they can meet nearly all of Germany’s import requirements.
• Crucially, however, they deprive Ukraine and East European transit countries of revenues and leave them dependent on Russia for continued supplies.
• Because of strident opposition to the Nord Stream project from the outset, and with U.S. support they have launched the Three Seas Initiative.
• Aim is to develop north-south gas connectivity using liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported via maritime terminals on the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas.

The Three Seas Initiative

• Launched in 2015 by Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
• The initiative creates a political platform to promote connectivity among nations in Central and Eastern Europe.
• Focus on supporting infrastructure, energy, and digital inter connectivity projects
• The initiative gets its name from the three seas that border the region: the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic Seas
• There are 12 states that are part of the initiative.
• Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia

Conclusion

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s support for Nord Stream 2 has been threatened since his assumption of office.
• A Month back Joe Biden had said that in case of an invasion of Ukraine “there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2”
• Nord Stream 2 is a well chosen target as the recently completed €10 billion asset is wholly owned by Russia’s Gazprom unlike Nord Stream.
• NST 1 has been functional for a decade which is jointly owned with European companies.
• The Nord Stream project has larger capacity than all of Russia’s current and planned gas pipelines to China.

Question Framed From Editorial

• What is Nord Stream 2 Pipeline? How are the sanctions imposed on this pipeline critical for EU’s Economy? (250 words)