GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

Context:

With the recently passed Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which promises for between a futures for women legislators, aims to increase female representation in legislative bodies and also enriches the diversity of perspectives, enhancing decision-making on a wide array of issues.

Historic Milestone in Gender Equality

• Women and Equality: Passage of Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam in Lok Sabha is a historic moment for gender equality and women's empowerment.
• Increasing societal acceptance: The bill received overwhelming support in Parliament, indicating a societal shift towards gender equality.
• Helps to break patriarchy: It allows women to occupy roles traditionally held by men, make crucial decisions, and break patriarchy's chains.

Striving for Increased Women's Representation

• Lesser representation in States: Despite progress, women's representation in state legislatures in India remains low, hindering their influence.
• India’s position globally: India lags behind both developed and developing countries in terms of female representation.
• Reservation and Benefits: Central government is taking steps to ensure 33% reservation for women, aiming to empower women at the grassroots level.

Importance of Women in Legislative Bodies

• Better and Inclusive policy making: Research shows that states with more female legislators are better at enacting family-focused, equitable policies.
• More perspectives to closer outlook: Increased female representation enriches diversity of perspectives, enhancing decision-making.
• Larger women MPs or MLAs must be a new normal: Passage of the bill sends a message that greater female representation will be the new normal in politics.

Context:

JP Morgan's inclusion of India in the GBI-EM index highlights India's growing appeal as an investment destination with potential benefits and challenges.

India's Inclusion in JP Morgan's GBI-EM Index

• JP Morgan's inclusion of India: The GBI-EM index signals India's growing attractiveness as an investment destination.
• Timeline: The inclusion process will span 10 months, potentially bringing in 45-50 billion dollars in investment over 12-15 months.
• Significance: India's inclusion in other global bond indices like FTSE EM and Bloomberg Barclays EM depends on overcoming operational challenges.

Implications of the Inclusion

• Impact on economic cycles: The inclusion will impact India's economic cycles and susceptibility to global capital market fluctuations.
• Constraints in twin deficit: It can ease financing constraints on India's twin deficits, lower risk premia, and deepen bond markets, benefiting corporates and banks.
• Dependence on government securities: India's infrastructure development can benefit from sustainable long-term financing through government securities.

Challenges

• Future Outlook: The macroeconomic scenario remains crucial, with challenges like fiscal responsibility, rising crude oil prices, and foreign fund reliance.
• Operational hurdles: such as international clearing and settlement, tax complexities, and repatriation of funds need addressing.
• Ongoing reforms and market transparency: can integrate India into global markets, fostering long-term capital inflows.

Context:

India’s agricultural sector is of utmost importance as it provides livelihood to almost three-fifths of the country’s population and contributes over a fifth of its gross domestic product.

Digital Agriculture's Importance and Challenges

• Empowering Agriculture through Technology: Digital agriculture (DA) addresses agricultural challenges through technology and aims to benefit small farmers.
• Potential Benefits and Existing Challenges: DA can boost productivity, market access, and resilience to climate change but faces issues like accessibility and digital literacy.
• Digital Agriculture's Role in India's Agricultural Growth: India's agriculture sector is vital, and DA can play a role in its growth, with the global DA market projected to reach $22.1 billion by 2028.

Initiatives and Potential of Digital Agriculture

• Government and Startups' Tech-Driven Initiatives: The government and startups have initiated DA projects using advanced technologies, like AI and blockchain, to assist farmers.
• Challenges in Digital Agriculture Implementation: Data inconsistencies and lack of access hinder DA's potential, calling for data standardization and sharing policies.
• Meeting Diverse Stakeholder Needs in Digital Agriculture: Stakeholders, including farmers, extension agents, and regulators, have diverse needs, requiring a unified digital solution and investment in infrastructure and capacity building.

Path Forward for Digital Agriculture in India

• Involvement of stakeholders’: DA's success depends on technology accessibility, affordability, supportive policies, and collaboration among stakeholders.
• Inclusion of Digital Public infrastructure: A unified platform, like an AgriStack, and the inclusion of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) can benefit farmers and agri-tech growth.
• Collaboration among research organizations: and technology platforms are crucial for developing digital tools for Indian agriculture.