1. Heat and state

Poor living conditions have exacerbated the effects of heatwaves

In the brutal heatwave beating down on Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, one district in U.P., Ballia, reported the most deaths. The medical superintendent at the local government hospital was reportedly transferred after ascribing the deaths to the heat, followed by a visit by a State-appointed team to assess the local conditions. A member later told journalists that the team had expressed its doubts about the heat being a factor since the toll due to the same heatwave was lower in districts nearby. The member’s statement is a timely reminder that a heatwave is only half heat, the other being bad public infrastructure and social security. Ballia’s toll could be high because of, as the team suspects, contaminated water, or because the local people could not cool themselves. Heat’s deadliness depends on an individual’s general well-being, acclimatisation, physical exertion, comorbidities, location, relative humidity, and extent of heat exposure. But for all the complexity the interplay of these factors augurs, the fight against this mode of the climate crisis, which India is expected to suffer more often, can benefit considerably from some literacy and access to resources. Literacy needs to be rooted in a simple fact: heat is deadly when our bodies are unable to shed it as quickly as it accumulates. This can happen due to poor living conditions, adherence to caste- and gender-based strictures, or even in overcrowded hospitals. Amenities that can help include access to drinking water, indoor ventilation, health care, regular work breaks, and protections against wage loss. If a person dies in a heatwave, it is only fair to ask whether he/she was able to access these amenities.

If U.P. and Bihar are to forge a better way forward vis-à-vis their heat response, they need to register all heat-related deaths, assign the cause, ensure the medical certificates of the cause of death (MCCDs) follow the proper codes of the most recent revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, and issue them. Next, the Office of the Registrar General should compile and release MCCD data every year to facilitate independent research and policy input and to prevent time-wasting disputes over official versus actual figures. However, the office has not released the corresponding reports for 2021 and 2022. In the 2020 report, which was uploaded only last year, Bihar assigned causes to just 3.4% of registered deaths — the worst among States. Not everyone who dies during a heatwave has died due to the heat, but only if good living conditions have been the norm. If they have not, the state is as much to blame as the heat.

2. Senate Caucus to push for ‘NATO plus five’ status for India

Timed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrival in Washington, the U.S. Senate’s India Caucus Co-Chairs, Mark Warner (Democrat, Virginia) and John Cornyn (Republican, Texas), will introduce legislation to give India ‘NATO plus five’ defence status.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, however, had already rejected the framework for India.

The arrangement currently exists between the U.S, its NATO partners and five countries: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Israel. The Warner announcement follows a recommendation from a U.S. House of Representatives committee on China that India be included in the club.

“Senator Cornyn and I … will be introducing this week, both as a standalone Bill and as an amendment to the defence authorisation, an effort to upgrade India-US defence ties,” Mr. Warner told presspersons on a Tuesday press call.

“What we propose is adding India to the so-called ‘NATO plus five’ arrangement, where the United States is able to transfer with as little bureaucratic interference as possible defence equipment in a very strong way,” he said.

Mr. Jaishankar had said on June 9 that while he appreciated the Congressional panel’s sentiment of wanting “to do more with India”, the template it was proposing did not apply to the country. This is something the Biden administration (the Executive, which is separate from the U.S. Congress) understood “very, very well”, according to Mr. Jaishankar.

“A lot of Americans still have that NATO treaty construct in their heads,” Mr. Jaishankar had said, suggesting that it was the only template with which Americans looked at the world.

‘Increase defence trade’

Mr. Warner defended his move on Tuesday saying one of the most effective ways to improve India’s defence capabilities (he cited the threat from China) was to increase defence trade between the U.S. and India. On the Modi government’s human rights record, Mr. Warner said that individuals at the State Department would raise the issue with their counterparts this week and he hoped that Mr. Modi would reaffirm his commitment to democracy.

“I think India is one of the most powerful nations in the world. I hope that we will hear from Prime Minister Modi a reaffirmation of his commitment to democracy and all that entails,” Mr. Warner added.

Citing the example of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a far-right mob, the Senator said there were forces in the U.S. as well who questioned the country’s democratic principles.

“I think together these two great nations both need to make sure we are totally committed to democracy and human rights, freedom of belief and freedom of expression,” he said.

Mr. Warner said he was looking forward to welcoming Mr. Modi to Washington and wanted to move the India-U.S. relationship beyond common descriptions applied to it such as the world’s “oldest democracy” and the world’s “biggest democracy” to a “full-fledged partnership”.

3. India climbs eight places to 127 in global gender index: WEF report

The country had improved by 1.4 percentage points from 2022 figures, marking a partial recovery towards its 2020 parity level; it had closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap but had reached only 36.7% parity in economic participation, report says

India was ranked 127 among 146 countries in gender parity — up eight places from last year’s place — in the Gender Gap Report, 2023 of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

India was ranked 135 in 2022. The country had improved by 1.4 percentage points from then, marking a partial recovery towards its 2020 parity level, the report said.

India had closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap, the report said. However, it underlined that India had reached only 36.7% parity in economic participation and opportunity. The country had attained parity in enrolment across all levels of education, it said.

The index ranked Pakistan at 142, Bangladesh at 59, China at 107, Nepal at 116, Sri Lanka at 115 and Bhutan at 103. Iceland is the most gender-equal country for the 14th consecutive year and the only one to have closed more than 90% of its gender gap, the report said.

In India, while there had been an uptick in parity in wages and income, the share of women in senior positions and technical roles had dropped slightly since the last edition, the report said.

On political empowerment, India has registered 25.3% parity, with women making up 15.1% of MPs.

Of the 117 countries with available data since 2017, 18 — including Bolivia (50.4%), India (44.4%) and France (42.3%) — have achieved women’s representation of over 40% in local governance.

The report comes after Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani earlier this year said the WEF recognised the need to enumerate women’s participation in local government bodies after the government raised the issue with it in Geneva.

For India, the 1.9 percentage point improvement in sex ratio at birth had driven up parity after more than a decade , the report said.

“Compared with top scoring countries that register a 94.4% gender parity at birth, the indicator stands at 92.7% for India,” it said. Overall, the Southern Asian region has achieved 63.4% gender parity, the second-lowest of the eight regions.

4. Industry eyes access to Gati Shakti portal to boost capex in connectivity

CII moots that government could share information from portal after blocking out ‘sensitive’ data so as to facilitate greater private capital investments in infrastructure projects; data can help improve planning especially in logistics, allied sectors

Industry is hopeful that the government may soon agree to open up access to the PM Gati Shakti portal developed for planning multi-modal infrastructure projects, thus helping facilitate greater private capital investments especially in connectivity projects that are seen as critical to sustain the economy’s momentum.

Unveiled in October 2021, the PM Gati Shakti diplatform brings together 16 ministries, including Railways and Roadways, so as to spur an integrated and coordinated approach to planning and implementing infrastructure connectivity projects. So far, access to the portal’s data, which include detailed maps with existing economic and social infrastructure as well as upcoming projects, is restricted to Central and State government agencies.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president R. Dinesh, who is also the executive vice chairman of TVS Supply Chain Solutions, toldThe Hinduthat some access to the portal’s information trove would help not just logistics firms plan operations, but also enable fresh capital spending across allied sectors.

“We are saying [to the government] that we want access to the data,” Mr. Dinesh said. “And of course, you can block the sensitive data… and the rest should be made available. That can be a big benefit for all of the planning of the private sector as well. And that will actually help attract more capex and outside funding,” he added.

“I think that has been received and I hope it will happen soon… I don’t think there’s any major pushback to the idea,” the CII president said.