What to Read in Indian Express Editorial( Topic and Syllabus wise)

EDITORIAL 1: The right size of government

Introduction

For a large, fast-growing and complex economy like India, there is a necessity for a certain minimum size of the government. While this is true for every aspect of the government, it is particularly crucial for public services that touch ordinary citizens on a day-to-day basis such as law and order, healthcare and education. Together these determine the quality of life of an average citizen within the country.

A sharp contrast

• Technological advancements and innovations in governance models have led to unprecedented improvements in the efficiency of welfare programmes in India.
• By most staffing norms, we have an acute shortage of nurses, policemen, teachers and public development officers.
• The ideological belief that smaller governments are better for the growth and development of a nation stands in sharp contrast to the economic reality of market breakdowns, particularly in areas of health, education and safety.
• Human resource investments in areas of public health, public education and law and order are critical for long-term economic growthand improvement in basic quality of life for an average Indian.

Lessons from China’s Qing dynasty

• Given the size and complexity of India, among the lessons from history, on the perils of evangelical allegiance to the ideology of a smaller government, the example of the pitiful demise of the Qing dynasty is worth recalling.
• The Qing dynasty’s government size was notably small, primarily due to ideological constraints rather than structural limitations.
• The Qing state’s fiscal conservatism was deeply influenced by Confucian political ethics and the traumatic memory of the Ming dynasty’s collapse, which was attributed to excessive taxation.
• This historical lesson led Qing rulers to adopt a cautious approach. Consequently, the government maintained a minimal presence in economic affairs, resulting in a grossly limited capacity to mobilise resources and people for state functions.
• When compared to other contemporary states, the Qing government was exceptionally small.
• While European and Japanese states had tax-to-GDP ratios ranging from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, the Qing’s formal tax revenue constituted only about 1 per cent of GDP by the mid-19th century.
• Qing dynasty’s small government size was not merely a result of economic or administrative limitations but was fundamentally shaped by ideological beliefs that prioritised small government and feared the social and economic consequencesof fiscal expansion.
• This ideological framework not only defined the Qing state’s fiscal policies but also had lasting effects on China’s economic development trajectory for two centuries.

On the mode of ‘improvement’

• Within the context of India’s current status, improving “state capacity” for good governance is at the heart of most reforms — at the central as well as the state levels.
• The real economy of India is moving much faster than our traditional data are able to capture, hence our administrative capacity is constantly doing a catch-up.
• Technology is a great enabler and critical to modernisation, but not a complete substitute for human resources.
• Shortage of human resources becomes a binding constraint to overall improvements in outcome.
• This is obvious in public health, public education and maintenance of law and orderin particular – where no matter how much improvement occurs in infrastructure, budgets and technology – the feet on the ground remain a critical bottleneck.

Way forward

• We need to recruit more people for public service in India, across different sectors and we need to do this urgently.
• We have to ensure that the most capable and hardworking people are brought into public service. This requires innovations in recruitment and parity with the rest of the fast-growing economyto avoid long-term distortions.
• Parity in terms of pay as well as performance. Keeping the government sector small and privileged has long-term economic and social costs for the nation.
• While we modernise the economy, we must also modernise the state– by strengthening quality as well as its numbers.

 

EDITORIAL 2: Fields of the future

Context

By muzzling trait monetisation and hindering technology transfer, India’s rigid regulatory posture has stalled crop innovation, forced reliance on imports, and squandered a chance to lead the gene revolution.

The only  GM crop

• The only crop that is GM in India is cotton. It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government in 2002 when this bold decision to allow Bt cotton was taken.
• Today, more than 90 per cent of India’s cotton area is under Bt cotton, and its seed is fed to cattle.
• Vajpayee envisioned that science could transform agriculture. He extended the original slogan of “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” , given by Lal Bahadur Shastri, to include “Jai Vigyan” .
• The results were dramatic. Cotton production surged from 13.6 million bales in 2002–03 to 39.8 million bales in 2013–14 — a phenomenal 193 per cent growth.
• Productivity shot up by 87 per cent and cultivated area expanded by 56 per cent, with Bt cotton dominating.
• Farmers’ incomes soared, and Gujarat even witnessed an agrarian boom — the state averaged over 8 per cent annual growth in agri GDP.
• By then, India had become the world’s second-largest cotton producer after China and the second-largest exporter after the US, hitting $4.1 billion of net exports during 2011-12.

The issues

• Finance Minister has declared agriculture and dairy as sacrosanct “red lines,” warning that accepting GM imports could jeopardise both farmers’ livelihoods and food safety.
• Meanwhile, global GM crop adoption has skyrocketed since 1996. As of 2023, over 200 million hectares of GM soyabean, maize, canola, and more are in cultivation across 76 countries.
• Since 2015, however, India’s cotton story has hit a roadblock. Productivity gains have not only flattened but even dipped.
• The yield has slumped from 566 kg/ha in 2013-14 to around 436 kg/ha in 2023-24 — far below the global average of approximately 770 kg/ha, and way behind China’s nearly 1,945 kg/ha and Brazil’s around 1,839 kg/ha.
• This decline is commensurate with a roughly 2 per cent average annual drop in cotton production since 2015, driven largely by pest outbreaks like pink bollworm and whiteflies, tangled regulations, and a prohibition on next-generation cotton seeds such as herbicide-tolerant (HT) Bt cotton.

Indian agriculture’s prospects

• HT-Bt cotton, engineered to survive glyphosate spraying,never received official clearance in India.
• Despite this, the seeds have leaked into farms across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Punjab. Industry bodies and surveys estimate that illegal HT-Bt covers 15–25 per cent of cotton acreage.
• This illegal spread reflects farmers’ desperate response to technology and pest attacks. Yet, because these seeds are unregulated, farmers risk crop failure with no recourse, and legitimate seed suppliers are undercut by a shadow economy that harvests their brand names without accountability.
• The rise of illicit HT-Bt cotton underscores a deep disconnect between regulation and reality.
• While the government blocks commercialisation citing ecological and health concerns, the seeds continue to spread — unchecked and untested.
• India was poised to lead the gene revolution and serve as a major seed exporter to Asia and Africa.
• However, policy inertia — from 2003 to 2021—driven by activist and ideological opposition, deprived farmers of potential gains.
• Consequently, cotton exports began to decline after 2011-12,and by 2024-25, India turned into a net importer of raw cotton, with net imports valued at $0.4 billion.
• The issue of GM crops goes far beyond Bt cotton. Approval for Bt brinjal and GM mustard (DMH 11), developed at Delhi University by Deepak Pental’s team, remains on hold.
• These crops cleared in principle by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) haven’t received full commercial green light.

Way forward

• The need of the hour is a strong, science-led political leadership. The future of agriculture belongs to technology adopters and innovators.
• From plate to plough, India’s future depends on embracing gene technology.As Vajpayee often said, what IT (information technology) is for India, BT (biotechnology) is for Bharat. It can bring prosperity in rural areas.