3 November 2024

• Economy: India's fossil fuel subsidies were cut from 25 billion dollars in 2013 to 3.5 billion dollars by 2023, a reduction of 85 per cent over a decade.
• Conservation: Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve elephant deaths revived a 1934 historical record on kodo millet poisoning.
• Urbanisation: India's urban population reached 500 million, about 40 per cent of total population, with housing shortfall at 18.78 million units.
• Elections: Maharashtra and Jharkhand voted in November; results were due on 23 November.

GS area: Economy, Environment

The Asian Development Bank highlighted India's decade-long fossil fuel subsidy reduction, framing it as a model for the region.

• Peak subsidies: About 25 billion dollars in 2013 for oil and gas.
• Current subsidies: About 3.5 billion dollars in 2023. That is an 85 per cent reduction.
• Method: India used a phased "remove, target, and shift" approach. Petrol and diesel subsidies were eliminated between 2010 and 2017. A coal cess was imposed and the revenue went to clean energy.
• Coal cess: Revenue funded the Green Energy Corridor and the National Solar Mission.
• Renewable shift: Renewable energy subsidies peaked in 2017. After 2017, GST compensation arrangements diverted some of the cess revenue away from renewables.
• Net-zero target: India committed to net-zero by 2070 at COP26.

The reform is cited by international bodies as a rare case of a major developing economy systematically rolling back fossil fuel support.

Static linkage: Energy policy, environmental economics, India-ADB relations.

GS area: Society, Geography

India's urban population crossed 500 million, about 40 per cent of total. The growth has outpaced urban planning capacity.

• Urban growth rate: Rose from 27.7 per cent in 2001 to 31.1 per cent in 2011. The 2024 estimate stands at 40 per cent.
• Housing shortfall: 18.78 million units, concentrated among low-income and economically weaker sections.
• Pollution: Nine of the ten most polluted cities globally are in India, per global air quality surveys.
• Government schemes for cities:
  • Smart Cities Mission: select cities receive funding for ICT-led governance and infrastructure.
  • AMRUT: Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation. Basic services for smaller cities.
  • Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban: housing for the urban poor.
  • Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban: sanitation.
  • DAY-NULM: Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Urban Livelihoods Mission. Urban poverty reduction.
• SDG Goal 11: "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable."

Static linkage: Urbanisation (geography), social justice, government schemes.

GS area: Environment and Ecology, International Relations

COP-16, the biodiversity conference held in Cali, Colombia in October 2024, produced commitments India took forward to November.

• The 30-by-30 target: Conserve 30 per cent of land and ocean and restore 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems by 2030.
• India's financial commitment: 81,664 crore rupees for biodiversity between 2025 and 2030.
• Ramsar sites: India expanded its Ramsar wetland count from 26 in 2014 to 85 by 2024, targeting 100.
• CBD: Convention on Biological Diversity. The parent treaty under which COP-16 meets. Adopted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
• Unresolved: Digital Sequence Information benefit-sharing. Developing countries want companies that profit from genetic data to share royalties with the source countries. No deal was reached.
• Funding gap: The $200 billion annually needed for biodiversity was nowhere near fully pledged.

Static linkage: Biodiversity conventions, India's environmental commitments, protected areas.

GS area: Health, Science and Technology

A case of type-1 vaccine-derived poliovirus was confirmed in Meghalaya.

• India's polio-free status: Declared by the WHO on 27 March 2014. The last wild poliovirus case was in 2011.
• Wild vs. vaccine-derived: The oral polio vaccine uses a live attenuated virus. In rare cases the virus mutates, regains transmissibility and causes paralysis. This is a vaccine-derived poliovirus.
• Three types: Circulating (cVDPV), immune-deficiency associated (iVDPV) and ambiguous (aVDPV).
• Transmission: Fecal-oral route, same as wild poliovirus.
• Response: Areas with low oral vaccine coverage are most at risk. Supplementary immunisation rounds are the standard response.

Static linkage: Public health, disease eradication, immunisation policy.

GS area: Environment, Internal Security

Sand mining on rivers in Assam continued to draw regulatory attention.

• Rivers affected: Kolong River (Assam, joins Brahmaputra), Dudhnoi and Manda rivers on the Assam-Meghalaya border, Kulsi River (habitat for endangered Gangetic dolphin), Morakolohi River.
• Gangetic dolphin: India's national aquatic animal. Listed as endangered. The Kulsi River is a critical habitat.
• Environmental impact: Sand is a river's structural material. Removing it causes bank erosion, lowers the water table, disrupts fish breeding, and damages bridge foundations.
• Legal framework: The Environment Protection Act, 1986, and the Sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change govern extraction.

Static linkage: River ecology, environment protection, illegal extraction.

• LignoSat: The world's first wooden satellite, developed by Kyoto University with Sumitomo Forestry. Made from Japanese honoki (magnolia) wood. Launched on a SpaceX rocket to the ISS. A six-month mission tests wood's resilience in space. The material burns harmlessly on re-entry, creating less orbital debris than aluminium.
• Tumaini Festival: Held annually at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. Established in 2014 by Menes La Plume. Celebrates refugee resilience through music, art and crafts. Dzaleka was designed for 10,000 but now holds over 60,000 refugees, primarily from DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Somalia.