World Bank, Commitments under UNFCCC and Paris agreement, Ganga a clean and healthy river, “SankalpParva”
1. 15th Finance Commission holds meeting with the World Bank
- For a better understanding of the contours of India’s Health Sector and in view of the Union Government’s need and intention for reprioritisation of its health spending, the 15th Finance commission held a detailed meeting with representatives of the World Bank, Niti Aayog and member of the Commission’s High level group (HLG) on the health sector.
- The meeting started off with Dr. Junaid Ahmad stating that World Bank has been engaged in India’s health sector for long time.
- Recently, in context of the pandemic, a billion-dollar loan has been given by World Bank to the Government of India.
- It has been engaged in helping State governments to strengthen service delivery through district hospitals.
- World Bank has recently successfully concluded a 20 year long partnership with Government of India in the area of HIV.
- He stated that States in India are going to be the anchor in implementation of health programs.
- As States are so different from each other, the solutions for them will be custom made.
- Health, he said, was not just a social expenditure but also important for economic growth and development of the country.
- In this regard, he felt that the Finance Commission may like to look at health in three different ways: grants to enhance per capita spending, block grant for capacity building and a performance incentives for certain health outcomes.
- Similarly, in context of health a pivotal role may be played by local bodies. Also, more than 60% of health demand in India is supplied by private sector.
- Leveraging private clinics along with DBT may be used as tools to increase engagement with private sector.
- Importance of non-communicable disease can’t be undermined. Another area that needs focus is infectious disease programs like tuberculosis.
- Dr. Junaid Ahmad also stressed on the importance of engagement with Centrally Sponsored schemes with Government of India for implementation of these programs.
- He cited the example where World Bank had engaged in implementation of Samgra Shiksha Abhiyan with five States of India.
- Similarly, in health sector, institutions like district hospitals, primary health centres, private providers, municipalities, social sector system may be leveraged carefully.
- World Bank, he suggested, could play a role in designing and implementation of such programs while working closely with such institutions.
- Government’s programs needed to be converged with Finance Commission recommendations along with efforts of World Bank towards a common goal.
- There is scope for service delivery reforms by using innovation, leveraging technology, institutional strengthening, coordination and empowering of States.
- Greater attention to resource allocation is required within States.
- Service delivery should rely on a robust public/private mix.
- Government of India can be an enabler of ‘open source’ approach to promote service delivery reforms. For example, financing via centrally-sponsored schemes that allows flexibility in implementation and course-correction, setting accountability mechanisms with states linked to central schemes and promoting knowledge transfer platforms may be used.
- Strengthen national and state institutions to effectively prepare for pandemics (NCDC) and develop ICMR as a global center for excellence in medical research.
- Strengthen inter-agency coordination for disease preparedness and response.
- Institutions like ICMR, NCDC and NDMA should be strengthened for disease preparedness, diagnostics, investigation, response and population health. Institutional reforms and innovations should be promoted in vertical disease control programs like TB, HIV, VBD. Local bodies like municipalities should also be strengthened in terms of resources and capacity building so that they can play incremental role in health care delivery.
- Chairman stated that the Fifteenth Finance Commission, for the first time, will devote an entire chapter on health financing.
- He also opined that the High Level Committee on Health sector constituted by Fifteenth Finance Commission and the World Bank will dove-tail their study and analysis to come up with suitable recommendations for health sector.
- The Government of India’s spending on health through Centrally sponsored schemes will also be studied in detail by the Commission before it gave its recommendations to the Union government.
2. Developed countries must implement the financial and technological commitments under UNFCCC and Paris agreement
- The fourth edition of the virtual Ministerial on Climate Action witnessed countries exchanging views on how countries are aligning economic recovery plans with the Paris Agreement and the critical enabling conditions to ensure continued climate action.
- The meeting was co-chaired by European Union, China and Canada to advance discussions on the full implementation of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and to demonstrate continued political commitment to global climate action.
- Union Environment Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar, representing India said developed country parties, once again, to do their part as envisaged under UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement, for extending financial and technological support to developing countries.
- “The promise of USD 1 trillion by 2020 has not been fulfilled so far, and I hope that in the remaining 5 months of 2020, the promised amount is mobilized and delivered, for further strengthening climate actions in developing countries.”, stressed the Environment Minister.
- India has achieved reduction of 21% in emission intensity of its GDP between 2005 and 2014, thereby achieving its pre-2020 voluntary target.
- Further, India’s renewable energy installed capacity has increased by 226% in last 5 years and stands more than 87 Gigawatt.
- “The share of non-fossil sources in installed capacity of electricity generation increased from 30.5% in March 2015 to 37.7% in May 2020 and our Prime Minister has further announced the aspirational target of increasing our renewable energy capacity to 450 GW”.
- India’s total forest and tree cover is 8,07,276 sq. km. which is 24.56% of the total geographical area of the country.
- More than 360 million LED bulbs have been distributed under UJALA scheme, which has led to energy saving of about 47 billion units of electricity per year and reduction of 38 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
- Highlighting India’s efforts towards cleaner fuel Shri Javadekar said that India has also leapfrogged from Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) to Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) emission norms by April 1, 2020 which was earlier to be adopted by 2024.
- The minister also highlighted how India had levied a coal cess of INR 400/- as, part of one of the most explicit green initiatives & this is now subsumed under Goods and Services Tax(GST).
- Under Smart Cities Mission, first-of-its-kind initiative – Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2019 has been launched which intends to provide clear roadmap for cities and urban India towards combating climate change through adoption of both mitigation and adaptation measures.
- The fourth edition of the meeting was attended by Ministers and representatives of about 30 countries and was held virtually for the first time in view of the ongoing pandemic.
- The purpose was to ensure that progress is made on climate action.
3. World Bank provides $400 million to enhance support to make the Ganga a clean and healthy river
- The World Bank and the Government of India today signed a loan agreement to enhance support for the Namami Gange programme that seeks to rejuvenate the Ganga river.
- The Second National Ganga River Basin Project will help stem pollution in the iconic river and strengthen the management of the river basin which is home to more than 500 million people.
- The Ganga is India’s most important cultural, economic and environmental resource, and the government’s Namami Gange program seeks to ensure that the river returns to a pollution-free, ecologically healthy state.
- The new project will extend the Government of India and World Bank’s engagement in this critical national programme to make the Ganga a clean, healthy river.
- The World Bank has been supporting the government’s efforts since 2011 through the ongoing National Ganga River Basin Project, which helped set up the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) as the nodal agency to manage the river, and financed sewage treatment infrastructure in several riverside towns and cities.
Ongoing National Ganga River Basin Project:
a) Helped set up the National Mission for Clean Ganga
b) Helping build sewage collection and treatment infrastructure in 20 towns along the mainstem of the Ganga
c) 1,275 MLD sewage treatment capacity created
d) 3,632 km of sewage network built
e) Helped foster public mobilisation for Ganga rejunivation
- The government’s Namami Gange Program has revitalized India’s efforts to rejuvenating the Ganga.
- The first World Bank project helped build critical sewage infrastructure in 20 pollution hotspots along the river, and this Project will help scale this up to the tributaries.
- It will also help government strengthen the institutions needed to manage a river basin as large and complex as the Ganga Basin.
- The sprawling Ganga Basin provides over one-third of India’s surface water, includes the country’s largest irrigated area, and is key to India’s water and food security.
- Over 40 percent of India’s GDP is generated in the densely populated Basin.
- But the Ganga river is today is facing pressures from human and economic activity that impact its water quality and flows.
- The Project will also help NMCG develop state-of-the-art tools to help manage the river basin more effectively.
- Over 80 per cent of the pollution load in the Ganga comes from untreated domestic wastewater from towns and cities along the river and its tributaries.
- The SNGRBP will finance sewage networks and treatment plants in select urban areas to help control pollution discharges.
- These infrastructure investments and the jobs they will generate will also help India’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis.
- To ensure that these infrastructure assets function effectively and are well maintained, the Project will build on the innovative Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) of public private partnership introduced under the ongoing NGRBP, and which has become the solution of choice for sewage treatment investments in the Ganga Basin.
- Under this model, the government pays a private operator 40 percent of the capital cost to build a sewage treatment plant during the construction period.
- The remaining 60 percent is paid as performance-linked payments over 15 years to ensure that the operator runs and maintains the plant efficiently.
- The $400 million operation includes a proposed Guarantee of up to $19 million to backstop the government’s payment obligations for three Hybrid-Annuity-Model Public Private Partnership (HAM-PPP) investments on the Ganga’s tributaries.
- This is the first-ever IBRD Guarantee for wastewater treatment and the first IBRD Guarantee in the water sector in India and is expected to help free up public resources in the current economic situation.
- The $381 million variable spread loan has a maturity of 18.5 years including a grace period of 5 years.
- The $19 million Guarantee Expiry Date will be 18 years from the Guarantee Effectiveness Date.
4. Culture Ministry is celebrating “SankalpParva” from 28th June to 12th July 2020
- In order to commemorate SankalpParv, Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent charge) Shri Prahlad Singh Patel planted trees in Qila Rai Pithora and the National Archives of India in Delhi.
- the Ministry of Culture is celebrating “SankalpParva” from 28th June to 12th July 2020, where Ministry expects all its Subordinate Offices, Academies, attached Institutions and affiliated Institutions to plant trees in its campus or in the surroundings wherever it is possible.
- The Ministry of Culture recommends to plant five trees which have been identified by our Prime Minister and which represent the herbal heritage of our country.
- These trees are (i) “Bargad” (ii) “Awla” (iii) “Pepal” (iv) “Ashok” (v) “Bel”.
- The Institutions must also ensure that the employee to take care of plant planted by them during the year so that it survives and flourish.
