Editorials Discussion & Analysis Delhi’s Quad partners are also making

inroads in its backyard, ushering

significant changes in the region.

Table of Contents Contestation in Indian Ocean & South

Asia Not New
• China has long tried to mark its influence
in these regions and enhance its strategic
ambitions.
• Namely, to limit Indian influence,
military power, and status and to sustain
its energy supply and economic growth.
• Beijing’s outreach in South Asia increased
manifold in the early 2000s with its
economic boom.
• began to further its strategic ends in the
region through loans, financial incentives,
and mega-infrastructure projects.
• This became more institutionalized with
Note: Questions of The Day- Towards the end the launch of the BRI in 2013.
of the PDF. • It is only with the Galwan clashes in 2020
that the Indian strategic thinking is
Click here to watch the following topics on deeming Beijing as a bigger threat than
YouTube. that of Islamabad.
International Relations (GS 2) • Beijing’s larger strategic and diplomatic
presence and grand ambitions have
The New Normal in Indo Pacific
continued to trigger angst for New Delhi.
(The Hindu, 21st December 2022)
Author – Harsh V. Panth & Aditya Gowdara Post Galwan- Reorientation in
Shivamurthy Neighbourhood
Emerging Fault Lines • In the Maldives, New Delhi is
reciprocating President Ibrahim Solih’s
• Considering their geo-political and geo-
‘India First’ policy.
economic prominence and India’s
emergence as a major power. • With massive economic assistance,
grants, and infrastructure projects and by
• The Indian Ocean and South Asian
also cooperating on maritime security.
regions are emerging as the New Fault
line towards the end of 2022. • In Nepal, Prime Minister Deuba’s
government has attempted to improve
• As tensions between an aggressive China
Nepal’s overall bilateral relations with
and an emerging India intensify, New
India.
• In crisis-hit Sri Lanka, India, this year • But, most importantly, South Asian
alone, has provided economic and countries would also hesitate to
humanitarian assistance and investments completely move away from China as
worth $4 billion. they hope to exercise their agency by
balancing with China and India.
India’s QUAD Partners Outreach in
Neighbourhood Turmoil in South Asia
• Japan is also finalizing its talks with Sri • Nepal, the Maldives and Bhutan are
Lanka on debt restructuring. struggling with depleting forex reserves.
• In the Maldives, Australia and the U.S. • Bangladesh has reached a bailout
have committed to opening their agreement worth $4.5 billion with the
embassies and new areas of cooperation. International Monetary Fund.
• In 2020, the U.S. signed a defence and • Sri Lanka is yet to chart its way out of the
security framework with the Maldives. economic crisis.
• Earlier this year, Nepal also ratified the • Energy shortages, inflation, and negative
U.S.’s Millennium Challenge Cooperation or slow economic growth are also
much to China’s displeasure. disrupting day-to-day activities in these
countries.
Will China Be Deterred by India’s/
QUAD’s Outreach? Polity & Governance/
• The recent success of India and its Constitutional Bodies (GS 2)
partners is unlikely to deter China from Fourth Branch Institutions (The
furthering its presence in the region. Hindu, 21st December 2022)
• Such outcome is more unlikely, with Author – Gautam Bhatia
tensions rising against India, and the
Classical Understanding
Quad partners making inroads in South
Asia. • According to the classical understanding
of modern democracy, there are three
• Beijing hosted its first-ever China-Indian
“wings” of state: the legislature, the
Ocean Region Forum.
executive, and the judiciary.
• This was meant to institutionalize its
• The task of the Constitution is to allocate
presence in the region and challenge new
powers between these three wings, and to
initiatives such as the Quad and the
ensure that there is an adequate degree of
Colombo Security Conclave.
checks and balances between them.
Balance Act Likely
• Traditionally, bodies that are involved
• Beijing will continue to leverage its with administrative and
financial and economic might and implementational issues — elections
political influence in South Asia. being among them — are believed to fall
within the executive domain.
Fourth Branch Institutions • Against which it will be obligated to
• Healthy constitutional democracies need enforce the constitutional right to
what are known as “fourth branch information.
institutions” • Extensive government control over the
• The reason why a “fourth branch” — in Central Information Commission —
addition to the legislature, the executive, including control over appointments.
and the judiciary. • This has led to it becoming a largely
• Primarily many of the basic rights and toothless and ineffective body, and the
guarantees that we enjoy cannot be eventual frustration of the right to
effective without an infrastructure of information.
implementation. Example from Overseas
For Instance • South African and Kenyan Constitutions
• RTI is a staple feature of most modern have dedicated constitutional provisions
constitutional democracies. for “fourth branch institutions”.

• Without an infrastructure of • Such as Human Rights Commissions,

implementation, the right to information Election Commissions, and so on, calling
will remain only a paper guarantee. these “integrity institutions”, and
requiring them to be “independent.”
• We need, for example, an information
commission, adequately staffed and • The appointments process for such bodies
funded, which will oversee the on-ground normally involves multiple stakeholders
enforcement of the right to information. from different wings of the state.

• The commission needs to compel In India

recalcitrant public institutions to release • While the Constitution goes to some
public information, adjudicate disputes, degree to protect the independence of
and so on. fourth branch institutions while officials
Insulating CIC from Government? are in office.

• Citizens will attempt to invoke RTI to • The power of appointment lies

extract public documents from exclusively with the executive.
government departments, in the interests • Formally, the President of India acting on
of transparency. the aid and advice of the Council of
• Governments, therefore, have a direct Ministers.
interest in such cases, and as history has • To put the point simply, the government
shown are rarely willing to be transparent decides who gets to be in charge of
of their own accord. running fourth branch institutions.
• To be effective, therefore, an Information Let’s Understand
Commission needs to be thoroughly
• The link between the power of
independent of the government.
appointment to a body, and its control, is
 both intuitive and has been empirically • All the different forms of life, plants as
established in multiple contexts. well as animals, that inhabit this planet.
• As the South African constitutional court • Signatories to the Convention on
correctly noted in one of its landmark Biological Diversity (CBD), a 1993
judgments- agreement, meet every two years .
• True and functional independence is • The Montreal meeting was the 15th
effectively impossible if the power to edition of this conference, hence the name
appoint rests entirely within a single COP15 — or the 15th Conference of the
individual, office, or entity. Parties to the CBD.

To Sum it Up Global Biodiversity framework

• It is important to note that almost no • The Montreal Conference has delivered a
constitutional democracy in the world new agreement called the Global
allows the political executive sole power Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
to staff a body as important to sustaining • This contains four goals and 23 targets
democracy as an Election Commission. that need to be achieved by 2030.
• Appointment processes involve the • The GBF is being compared to the 2015
government, the Opposition, Paris Agreement on climate change that is
independent experts, and judicial experts, guiding global climate action.
in a manner that no one centre of power
• 188 of 196 member governments agreed
has dominance, or a veto.
on a new framework to halt the sharp and
• The problem, however, is that an steady loss of biological species.
appointments process is difficult to create
• Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity
simply by judicial decree.
Framework (GBF) that sets out four goals
• It is something that needs political for 2050, and 23 targets for 2030.
consensus, public deliberation, and,
• To save existing biodiversity and ensure
perhaps, a carefully crafted legislation.
that 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland
Biodiversity (GS 3) water, coastal and marine ecosystems
New Global Biodiversity come under effective restoration.
Framework (The Hindu, 21st Why is Biodiversity Important?
December 2022) • Often called the web of life, biodiversity
Author – G. AnanthaKrishnan signifies the variety of species on earth,
Context which are all connected and sustain the
balance of ecosystems, enabling humans
• A major international environmental
to coexist.
conference has just concluded in
Montreal, Canada. • They interact with the environment to
perform a host of functions.
• Promising to take urgent action to protect
and restore the world’s biodiversity.
• The CBD states that only about 1.75 • Compensation for countries that preserve
million species have so far been biodiversity
identified. • Halting human activity linked to species
• Including numerous insects, while there extinction
may be some 13 million species. • Reducing by half the spread of invasive
Ecosystem Services alien species

• Providing humans with food, fuel, fibre, • Cutting Pollution to Non-harmful levels
shelter • Minimising climate change impact and
• Building materials, air and water ocean acidification
purification 4 GBF Goals Towards 2050
• Stabilization of climate • Maintaining ecosystem integrity and
• Pollination of plants including those used health to halt extinctions
in agriculture • Measuring and valuing ecosystem
• Moderating the effects of flood, drought, services provided by biodiversity
extreme temperatures and wind. • Sharing monetary and non-monetary
Do You Know? gains from genetic resources and digital
• According to the Intergovernmental sequencing of genetic resources with
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity indigenous people and local communities
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a quarter • Raising resources for all countries to close
of the plants and animals it assessed for a biodiversity finance gap of an estimated
the 2019 Global Biodiversity Outlook are $700 billion.
threatened.
In Alignment with SDG
• This translates to about one million
• The GBF is aligned with UN Sustainable
species facing extinction.
Development Goals, three of which
Kunming- Montreal Pact directly deal with the environment and
• The agreement to implement the GBF was thus with biodiversity:
pushed through on December 18 by the o Goal 13 on Climate action
Chinese conference presidency and host o Goal 14 on Life below water
Canada.
o Goal 15 on Life on land
• This came in the face of objections from
What is Expected from Member Nations?
some African countries such as the
Democratic Republic of Congo, • Member nations need to submit a revised
Cameroon and Uganda. and updated national biodiversity
strategy and action plan in the conference
Targets for 2030 to be held in 2024.
• Protection for Degraded Areas
• Further, the parties to the CBD should
• Resource mobilisation for conservation submit national reports in 2026 and 2029
 to help prepare global reviews. • It finances international environmental
• Countries would have to review existing conventions and country-driven
laws relating to not just the environment, initiatives that generate global benefits.
but areas such as industry, agriculture • The GEF partnership connects 184
and land use. member governments with civil society,
• To ensure that the national strategy and Indigenous Peoples, and the private
action plan adequately protects sector, and works closely with other
biodiversity. environmental financiers for efficiency
and impact.
Mobilising Funding
• Over the past three decades, the GEF has
• By 2030, the GBF hopes to see at least $200 provided more than $22 billion in grants
billion raised per year from all sources. and blended finance and mobilized
• Domestic, international, public and another $120 billion in co-financing for
private — towards implementation of the more than 5,000 national and regional
national action plans. projects, plus 27,000 community-led
• In terms of international funding, initiatives through its Small Grants
developing countries should get at least Programme.
$20 billion a year by 2025 and at least $30 • Since then, the partnership has evolved to
billion by 2030 through contributions include 184 countries and 18 agencies as
from developed countries. well as civil society organizations,
• Global Environment Facility (GEF), a Indigenous Peoples, and the private
multilateral body that partners countries sector.
and agencies. • The GEF is a country-driven organization
• It has been asked to establish in 2023, and that was founded on the principles of
until 2030, a Special Trust Fund to support collaboration and partnership.
the implementation of the GBF. • During its early years, countries
• Complementing this, the GBF envisages implemented activities with the support
that there will be access to justice and of three agencies.
information related to biodiversity for • The World Bank, the United Nations
indigenous peoples and local Development Programme (UNDP), and
communities, respecting their cultures the United Nations Environment
and rights over lands. Programme (UNEP).

About GEF
• The Global Environment Facility is the
world’s largest funder of biodiversity
protection, nature restoration, pollution
reduction, and climate change response in
developing countries.
 Question of The Day
Q.) Indian constitutional history is no
stranger to the perils of executive power
over appointments to independent bodies.
Comment (150 Words)

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