Mini

While in office, the 1960-born Kumar will oversee the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and several Assembly polls along with the elections of the president and vice-president of India.

The Ministry of Law has appointed former finance secretary and current Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar as the next chief election commissioner (CEC). He will assume charge from May 15 after incumbent CEC Sushil Chandra retires on May 14.

After the announcement, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted, “My best wishes to Shri Rajiv Kumar.”

Kumar was appointed as the election commissioner on September 1, 2020. He is likely to demit office in February 2025. While in office, Kumar will oversee the 2024 Lok Sabha election and several Assembly polls along with the elections of the president and vice-president of India.

More about Rajiv Kumar

Born on February 19, 1960, Kumar holds degrees in BSc, LLB, PGDM, and a Master’s degree in public policy. According to his LinkedIn profile, Kumar completed his LLB from Delhi University between 1979 and 1982. He is also an alumnus of the TERI School of Advanced Studies.

He is an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1984-batch, who superannuated from service in February 2020.

The 62-year-old officer has extensive experience in working “across the social sector, environment and forests, human resources, finance and banking sector,” a government statement had said earlier.

Kumar’s contribution as an officer

Kumar held the post of finance secretary between September 2017 and February 2020. During his tenure, he undertook several banking, insurance and pension reforms. To curb circulation of black money, the officer froze bank accounts of 3.38 lakh shell companies, which were used for creating fictitious equity.

For public sector banks, Kumar implemented a recapitalisation programme of Rs 2.11 lakh crore to support capital adequacy of these institutions and prevent default. He is credited with implementing prudential norms of lending for bankers and borrowers.

Kumar has been instrumental in streamlining the National Pension System (NPS) which extends its benefits to about 18 lakh central government employees.

Kumar has also held other positions such as director for the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), SBI and NABARD. He has also been member of the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC), Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), Bank Board Bureau (BBB) and Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Search Committee (FSRASC).

As the director and joint secretary in the Tribal Affairs Ministry between 2001 and 2007, Kumar drafted the Scheduled Tribes (Reorganisation of Forests Rights) Bill, 2005. It was under his supervision that the Special Central Assistance to States and Grants under Art. 275(1) of the Constitution was granted for the development of scheduled and tribal areas.

Prior to being appointed as the election commissioner, Kumar had held the post of chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board since April 2020.

Trekking in Himalayas

According to the ECI portal, Kumar is a keen trekker and has crossed several passes in the Himalayan Mountain range in Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tibet and Sikkim. He has also trekked in Sahyadri mountain ranges or the Western Ghats. Apart from trekking, Kumar enjoys listening to Indian vocal classical and devotional music, and practises meditation.

Dirty water and muck have accumulated in the 23 wastewater ponds in the rural areas of the district over the years, impacting groundwater recharge, said the officials

Twenty-three wastewater ponds in rural areas of Gurugram district are being revived to facilitate groundwater recharge and ensure long-term benefits to locals, said representatives of GuruJal on Monday.

GuruJal is an integrated water management initiative of the district administration which focuses on tackling water scarcity, groundwater depletion, flooding, and water stagnation in Gurugram.

“We are currently working on rejuvenating 23 wastewater ponds in the rural areas of the district, where dirty water and muck have accumulated over the years, impacting groundwater recharge. This water first needs to be treated and then the pond can be refilled. The technology used to treat the water will be decided after the water is sent to authorised labs for testing,” said Osho Kalia, a senior member of GuruJal.

“Locals will also be involved in the projects as we request them to take care of these ponds in the long run,” Kalia added.

These 23 ponds include wastewater ponds in Iqbalpur, Khentawas, Daula, Mojabad, Bhorakalan, Nawada, Budhera, Daultabad, Bilaspur, Tajnagar, Hariahera, Palasoli, Kasan, Wazirpur, Chandla Dungerwas, Dharampur, Binola, Goriawas, Bhaganki, Bhorakalan, Bilaspur Kalan, Mankrola and Syed Mohamamdpur.

These ponds have different timelines for completion, with work at some ponds like Mojabad being completed and currently in the monitoring stage, said representatives from GuruJal. The rejuvenation work for all the ponds is likely to be completed by next year.

The technologies to be used to treat the water include root zone technology (a natural treatment process wherein water is purified using the roots of plants), bio-filter technology (wherein waste water is filtered using biofilters like sand, gravel, or other filter medium grain, which are covered with biofilms--thin layer which has bacteria and microorganisms. These biofilms help break down the organic matter in the waste water, which is then released into the pond), advance eco-reactor technology, and dewatering), advance eco-reactor technology (a green alternative to waste water treatment, where organic and inert substance is mixed in specific formulation which creates an ecosystem with microbes, enzymes, worms that treats the waste water) and dewatering (wherein all the waste water from the pond is removed using machines to clean the bottom layer of the pond).

According to authorities, these ponds have turned into wastewater ponds because sewage, waste from cattle, dirty water from households is dumped here. Due to this, a layer of muck has formed at the bottom of these ponds, which prevents water from percolating into the ground.

Kalia said that the ponds will first be dewatered and desilted and a mini wastewater treatment plant will be installed at the pond. All water sources from the village will be connected to this plant, so that in the future only treated water is released into the water bodies.

Shiv Singh Rawat, superintending engineer of irrigation and water resources, Gurugram, said, “Initially there was no concept of wastewater ponds as water from wells or ponds was utilised and the ground would soak in the rest because of less concretisation. But over the years, wastewater generated from households was released into the ponds, polluting the existing water there. Now, with these projects, village-specific solutions are being provided, which will help the groundwater table recharge.”

According to the records of the district administration, a population of over 200,000 is dependent on some of the ponds, such as those in Daula, Mojabad and Khentawas.

At the pond in Daula, Sohna block, where authorities are using root zone technology, 17,321 kilolitres of water can be recharged every year by treating 91,250 kilolitres of wastewater. At Mojabad’s pond in Pataudi block, where the same technology is being used, 15,300 kilolitres of water can be recharged every year, authorities said. At Khentawas pond in Farrukhnagar block, 26,397 kilolitres of water can be recharged every year. At Daulatabad pond, 50465 kilolitres of water can be recharged every year.

GuruJal installed a piezometer at the Mojabad pond in 2020, and the team said it is planning to install more such meters at every pond under the Atal Bhujal Yojana, a central scheme for water conservation. A piezometer is a device that can measure the groundwater level and give daily updates.

In January 2020, the groundwater level at the Mojabad pond was 39.5m. In two years, the water level at this pond has increased by two metres and was measured at 37.2m on Friday morning, authorities said.

Experts working on groundwater conservation, however, said that these systems can work in the long run only if the community is involved.

Fawzia Tarannum, assistant professor, department of regional water studies, TERI School of Advanced Studies, said that these technologies can work for up to 15-20 years, helping groundwater recharge, providing water for cattle and agricultural use, only provided there is a proper maintenance mechanism.

“Be it root zone or bio-filter technology, the important factors to be considered prior to installation are the estimation of the total wastewater generation, proper forecasting of increase in wastewater, choosing the right technology depending on the quality of wastewater, efficiency of the treatment system, and a sustainability plan for operation and maintenance. A community-based planning and governance system should be instituted prior to commencing the project. Community should not be looked at as just the beneficiaries but should be considered as equal partners in decision-making and implementation of the project. Outreach programmes must be undertaken to understand the community dynamics and to bring them on board. For effective participation, it is important for community to understand the benefits that they shall derive from the project. Pond rejuvenation should actually be a social, cultural, ecological and recreational revival. Ecosystems with recreational spots, benches or community spaces can be made, so that people feel the need to preserve the water body,” said Tarannum.

The ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been felt across the globe, including the rise in prices of crude and sunflower oil. For countries dependent on importing oil, like India, how has this impacted local markets and the pockets of consumers? Does it also reveal India’s precarious geopolitical position in global trade?

That chicken in Telangana and the Russia-Ukraine War could belong in the same sentence seems unlikely. Yet, when Russian forces began missile and artillery attacks on Ukrainian forces on 24 February 2022, it sent ripples across the globe—when the supply of chicken feed from Ukraine was hit, India stepped in to meet global demand. This raised the price of feed, and consequently chicken for Indians. Fertilisers met the same fate as chicken feed with Russia’s export capabilities being hampered, as did the world’s liquid gold—crude oil. With Russia being one of the leading exporters of crude oil, the war’s impact was quickly reflected in global prices.

https://infogram.com/crude-oil-1h7k230wpkmlg2x

Such global volatility—and the unique shocks it creates across markets worldwide—encapsulates just how interlinked the world we live in is. But for a country like India which imports up to 80% of its oil, this moment is a reminder of its precarious dependence on conflict-afflicted countries for crude oil. How does the Russia-Ukraine war and the subsequent rise in crude oil prices impact India, and what does it reveal about India’s geopolitical position in the global oil trade?

Supply Hit in Russia, Inflation Felt in India

Of the heavy import dependence India has on oil, its dependence on Russia is only about 1%. The highest import —23%— comes from Iraq, followed by Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, and Nigeria. Nevertheless, the global shocks to oil prices followed by the war are bound to have domestic impacts. With every $1 per barrel increase in crude, an estimated 60-70 paisa per litre increases in retail fuel prices in India. After an election season wherein fuel prices remained stable, the impact of rising crude prices is now being felt by the Indian consumer—the last ten days of March saw six hikes in petrol and diesel prices, leading to an increase by ?4-4.10 per litre.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-proved-reserves?country=~OWID_WRL

The distribution of oil reserves across the world shows Russia as one of the dominant oil holders | From OurWorldInData 

“The rising crude oil prices of course hamper India’s supply chain of oil, but this prolonged disruption in energy also has other severe consequences, like the depreciation of the rupee,” says Vaishali Basu Sharma, Former Consultant at National Security Council Secretariat. Sharma is right. A recent report by Crisil states, “with the rising demand for dollars to pay for expensive oil imports, the depreciation pressure on the rupee will intensify.” The rupee has indeed seen a rise in the last few weeks, from 74.5/$ before the war, to crossing 76/$ as of 18th March this year. The Crisil report also estimates that the depreciation is here to stay. Combined with the Russia-Ukraine war, other factors like rate hikes by the US Fed would ensure that the rupee depreciates further before settling to 77/.5$ by March 2023. “With the depreciation, one can expect a slight inflation, and that will have an effect on employment and livelihoods of people in the country,” Sharma adds.

Another impact is on a resource that is a popular find in most Indian homes—sunflower oil. India imports  175,000 to 200,000 tons of this household necessity every month, a majority of which comes from Ukraine. But since February, only about 152,000 tons have arrived in India, owing to the war. Indian households are already facing the brunt of this, as a litre of the edible oil now costs ?195 in the retail market, as opposed to early February’s price of ? 141. 

In the face of the crude oil rises—and as a “resolve to stand up against Putin” — the United States took a strong stance and banned any import of Russia’s oil, natural gas, or coal into the country. India took a route of its own, it is one that also sheds light on the long-term relationship between India and Russia.

India-Russia Energy Deals: A Thing of Recent Past

“This is a significant action…that will further deprive President Putin of the economic resources he uses to fund his needless war of choice,” said the White House statement,  after enforcing the ban on oil imports from Russia on 8 March. Soon after, reports surfaced of Russia offering India and a few other importers discounted prices on crude oil. As Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Italy became few of the many nations who imposed sanctions on Russian energy, banking, private wealth, and technology—right from stopping operations of Starbucks in Russia to Paypal blocking Russian Banks— India mulled over these discounted prices. Three days later, reports confirmed that Indian Oil Corporation bought as much as 3 million barrels of crude oil that were offered by Russia at steep discounts of $20-25 per barrel. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited soon followed suit.

Not all companies have signed similar contracts. Some companies whose assets are exposed to the United States, like Reliance, are consciously not getting into contracts because that would be a complete violation of the US-imposed sanctions on oil imports.

– Dr Gopal Sarangi, an economist and faculty at TERI School of Advanced Studies

Why India chose to make use of the oil discounts becomes clearer looking at recent energy decisions that the two nations have committed to. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on his 2019 visit to Russia, he signed a Memorandum of Intent on developing a new trade route to transport oil amongst other goods from Russia to India. This 5600 nautical mile route between Vladivostok in eastern Russia and Chennai in India would take only 24 days, as opposed to the 40 days currently taken via the eastern Europe trade route.

Prime Minister Modi and President Putin discuss increasing trade and people-to-people linkages between India and Russia in 2019 | From Twitter

With 2020 came another such development. Public enterprise Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) signed a contract with the Russian oil exploration and processing company Rosneft for the supply of two million tonnes per annum of crude oil to India through the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. This was seen as Russia’s attempt to focus on strengthening trade ties with India through oil and gas—a resource that India lacks in domestic reserves—besides the already existing trade for defence systems.

“Considering these developments that would benefit India’s import basket of oil, it becomes understandable as to why India chose to abstain from voting in the UN General Assembly on demanding an immediate end to the Ukraine invasion,” Sharma adds. “But, the current war is also a reminder that India’s import dependence puts it in a constantly volatile and precarious situation to global shocks. India needs to look for oil import options that are stable, cheaper, and closer. Be it Russia, USA, or OPEC, India should maintain a diverse mix of suppliers in the interest of its energy security. As a second goal, it needs to look out for its own economy, and therefore [account for] discounts, long-term if possible. India has significant investments in Russian energy and that relationship should continue.”

Exposing India’s Volatile Position

This is not the first time that India has been at the centre of rising oil prices due to political uncertainty. In June 2019, two oil tankers were damaged by explosions in the Gulf of Oman, as tensions between Iran and the US escalated. As this route fell under the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint, it hiked oil prices, as international trade was impacted. India faced the brunt—of the 83% of total oil it imports, a huge 65% comes through the Strait of Hormuz. With such geopolitical uncertainties and volatility of oil prices, the “Indian economy is and will become even more exposed to such risks,” a 2020 International Energy Agency review stated. 

One way to reduce the shocks that India faces due to its high import basket of oil is to diversify the basket with other resources, like natural gas. Compared to other petroleum products, natural gas is known to have lesser carbon and is also considered a ‘bridge fuel’ to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. Amit Bhandari in his book India and the Changing Geopolitics of Oil states that India imports natural gas from Qatar, Australia and the US—not India’s traditional energy suppliers. “Widening the supplier base automatically reduces supplier risk… Moreover, Australia and the US are stable democracies – they don’t face instability that is common to oil-rich countries in West Asia, Africa and South America,” he continues in his book.

But, even diversifying to natural gas does not escape the impacts of geopolitical instability, as is evident in natural gas pipeline plans that India has initiated with its neighbours. An Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline to transport gas was preliminarily signed in 1995 but fizzled out over the decades. A major reason, as Sanket Sudhir Kulkarni discussed in his 2016 paper, was the constraints in attracting risk capital for the project—India found it difficult to find insurers for its crude oil imports from Iran, which is considered as hostile territory. Moreover, Iran had earlier shown lukewarm interest in the IPI pipeline, owing to the fact that Iran needed gas resources to meet its own domestic demand.

The route of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline via Wikimedia Commons

Decades later, another pipeline deal backed with investments made headway, which could aid India in reducing its dependence on Saudi Arabia. A Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline was envisioned, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Turkmenistan in 2015. Estimating a delivery of 90 million metric cubic metres per day of gas from Turkmenistan to South Asia, the pipeline would cover nearly 1700 km of distance. Unlike the IPI project, attracting investments for this project became easier after the Asia Development Bank (ADB) extended firm support backed by the US. However, after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last August, ADB refused support until the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan is recognised, proving yet again the impact of geopolitical instability on India’s oil supply.

Apart from pipelines, diversification to other energy sources can help reduce India’s import dependence. And that is not the only strategy.

Reducing India’s Energy Import Dependence

“Diversifying is an important long-term strategy but equally challenging,” Sarangi mentions. “For instance, many Indian states are promoting electric vehicles (EVs), but we need to also work to change the energy mix [a breakdown of primary energy sources for a country]. With EVs then, we should be prioritising its use in public transport, while most of the policies currently still focus on private transport, which would change the energy mix only minimally.”

To increase our domestic production and reduce import dependence by 10% by 2022, India also launched the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), a policy to boost the production of oil and gas in India. It envisions doing so by making exploration of all hydrocarbons smoother through steps like uniform licences for exploration and production. Sarangi mentions another exploration India can benefit from. “India is also home to basins of shale gas, which can diversify from oil demand. But fracking shale gas comes with concerns of large water requirements for the process, as well as the water pollution it leads to… we have to be mindful of it,” he adds.

The current Russia-Ukraine war goes to reveal India’s volatile position in the oil market, which has persisted through history and may well be here to stay. Yet, even as India gears up to reduce its import dependence when it comes to oils, especially crude, it should not come at the cost of diluting environmental norms, or we will be staring in the face of a vulnerability of a different kind, comprising ecological and climate exposures.