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

EDITORIAL 1: Address misgivings

Context

In the past five years, the government has taken steps to develop the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a bulwark of security to the east of the country’s peninsular area and as a crucial node for safeguarding India’s interests in the Indo-Pacific.

The project

• The project involves revamping airfields and jetties and building logistics and storage facilities, a base for military personnel, and a robust surveillance infrastructure.
• It also involves a massive infrastructure upgrade on Great Nicobar Island — an International Container Transshipment Terminal, a greenfield international airport, a township, and a gas and solar-based power plant spread.
• Given that the rapid enhancement of the capabilities of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy has greatly increased the strategic importance of the Bay of Bengal in the past two decades, Delhi’s infrastructure push and the building of a strong military deterrence at Great Nicobar hasn’t come a day too late.

Ecological sensitivity

• However, the island’s ecological sensitivity has made the challenge more complex.
• Civil society activists and wildlife conservationists have alleged that the infrastructure upgrade will harm the region’s indigenous communities, including the largely uncontacted Shompen people,it will have negative spinoffs for coral reefs and marine systems and pose a threat to endangered species, including the terrestrial Nicobar megapode bird and leatherback turtles.
• In 2023, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Ministry of Environment to constitute a high-powered committee (HPC) to revisit the environmental clearances to the Great Nicobar project.

The HPC

• The HPC has reportedly concluded that the environmental clearances accorded to the project “adhered to statutory provisions”. The government has, however, not made the panel’s report public.
• Keeping information classified is, of course, necessary at times in matters involving strategic affairs.
• But in an ecologically fragile region with a vulnerable local population, a project to create a formidable maritime bastion requires engagement with all sections of society.
• The government’s insistence on secrecy will do more harm than good,especially because the lack of transparency around due procedures was a major sticking point with civil society activists.
• The government has reportedly also wielded the RTI Act’s provisions on security and strategic concerns to deny right to information requests about environmental clearances.
• The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Limited, which is in charge of the infrastructure development activities, claims that its wildlife conservation plan (WCP) is derived from a framework developed by scientists at the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology. But the WCP, too, is not in the public domain.

Conclusion

Delhi has taken more than 70 years to recognise the strategic importance of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It now needs to set the record right on transparency — a project of national importance cannot be clouded with misgivings.

 

EDITORIAL 2: Old Delhi, new Washington

Context

Making sense of US President Donald Trump’s latest move — sending “tariff letters” to countries including long-standing Asian allies like Japan and South Korea — requires understanding the profound internal changes in America and their impact on the global order.

Tariff letters to India

• Trump has repeatedly said he would unilaterally set tariffs for most nations while striking deals selectively.
• India is in the second category and might see an interim agreement announced soon.
• Yet these developments should not distract India’s elite from grappling with the deeper forces shaping Trump’s worldview — a set of radical ideas that are shaking the international system to its foundations.

America’s unilateralism

• This new unilateralism is grounded in America’s “autonomy”. Unlike ageing allies in Europe and Asia or rivals like Russia and China, the US enjoys distinct advantage i.e.
• A relatively young and growing population supporting strong consumer demand and economic resilience; technological leadership in artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation enabling the reshoring of manufacturing and reducing dependence on global supply chains; and self-sufficiency in energy.
• Moreover, while the US economy is less reliant on exports, the rest of the world depends heavily on selling goods and services to American consumers.
• America’s unilateralism has also been reinforced by the political coalition behind Trump’s rise.
• The MAGA movement argues that globalisation has hollowed out American manufacturing and betrayed working people.
• The US is likely to remain the world’s preeminent power for the foreseeable future. China’s rapid rise once led to predictions that it would overtake the US in aggregate GDP this decade. That now seems less likely.

How should Delhi navigate this complex moment in America’s evolution?

• For one, Delhi already recognises that an unconstrained Trump is driving momentous global shifts that require major intellectual and policy adaptation in India.
• To its credit, Delhi has gone further than ever to negotiate a trade agreement with Washington and has learned to manage Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.
• Second, despite Trump’s often provocative pronouncements — on everything from trade to Indo-Pak peace — Delhi has maintained composure.
• Indian policymakers are acutely aware of the gap between signals from the White House and the rest of the US government. Staying engaged with the broader American establishment is essential to steady the relationship amid turbulence.
• Third, India has intensified its engagement with other major powers, both bilaterally and through forums like BRICS.
• The rhetoric at BRICS might suggest a return to the “glorious days” of the Non-Aligned Movement and the pursuit of a collective confrontation with the US.
• Sceptics, however, see Delhi as being as cynical as Beijing and Moscow in betting that bilateral deals with Washington matter more than grandstanding in multilateral gatherings.

Way forward

• One shortcoming of India’s approach is the limited appreciation of how US politics is reshaping its foreign, economic, and security policy.
• India needs American interlocutors who can do more than lament Delhi’s “illiberal turn” and can explain America’s own march away from liberalism.
• India needs friends who can go beyond objecting to India’s “lack of commitment” to the US partnershipand illuminate why Trump reserves his harshest criticism for America’s long-standing allies.
• India needs American experts who can move beyond criticising Delhi’s “Moscow connection” and help unpack Trump’s reasons for sparing Russia from the tariff wars.