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PIB – October 10 , 2019

GS- 2 Paper

Topic covered– Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

Context                         

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways to attend the 9th RCEP Intersessional Ministerial meeting to be held on at Bangkok in Thailand. 

About 9th RCEP Intersessional Ministerial meet

  • The 9th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) intersessional Ministerial meeting is to be held in Bangkok, Thailand
  • This will be the last Ministerial before the 3rdLeaders Summit to be held on November 4th2019 in Bangkok.
  • The 9thIntersessional Ministerial Meeting comes at a crucial stage where the RCEP is scheduled to be announced as concluded in November 2019.
  • The focus and emphasis of the meetings chaired by the Commerce and Industry Minister was on putting in place appropriate safeguards including auto-trigger mechanism against sudden surge in imports from RCEP countries.
  • The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with six partners namely People’s Republic of China (ACFTA), Republic of Korea (AKFTA), Japan (AJCEP), India (AIFTA) and Australia and New Zealand (AANZFTA).

About RCEP

  • The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
  • The member countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
  • Its six FTA partners are China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
  • RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.
  • RCEP is the world’s largest economic bloc, covering nearly half of the global economy.
  • The RCEP negotiations were launched by leaders from 10 ASEAN member states (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and 6 ASEAN FTA partners (Australia, People’s Republic of China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and New Zealand).

Objectives

  • The objective of launching RCEP negotiation is to achieve a modern, comprehensive, high quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement among the ASEAN member states and ASEAN’s FTA partners.
  • RCEP aims to boost goods trade by eliminating most tariff and non-tariff barriers.
  • To provide the region’s consumers greater choice of quality products at affordable rates.
  • It also seeks to liberalise investment norms and do away with services trade restrictions.

Significance of RCEP for India

  • RCEP is considered as an alternative to the other important multilateral treaty named Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
  • The TPP agreement excludes two of the important Asian powers – China and India.
  • The RCEP provides an opportunity to establish greater economic stature of India among the other South Asian countries.
  • It can play an important role in the success of India’s Act East policy.
  • RCEP agreement would complement India’s existing free trade agreements with ASEAN nations and some of its member countries.
  • India will have access to vast regional markets of these countries thereby helping its economy.

Importance of RCEP

  • In 2017, prospective RCEP member states accounted for a population of 3.4 billion people with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP, PPP) of 49.5 trillion USD, approximately 39 percent of the world’s GDP.
  • It is combined GDPs of India and China making up more than half that amount.
  • RCEP is the world’s largest economic bloc, covering nearly half of the global economy.
  • It is estimated that by 2050 the GDP of RCEP member states is likely to amount to nearly 250 trillion USD with the combined GDPs of India and China making up more than 75 percent of the amount.

Concerns of India

  • India’s main concern is that agreeing to eliminate tariffs altogether will mainly help China.
  • India is worried that China would dump its low-cost steel and other products and thus it will cause serious harm to its domestic industries.
  • India has got massive trade deficit with China. Under these circumstances, India proposed differential market access strategy for China.
  • There are demands by other RCEP countries for lowering customs duties on a number of products and greater access to the market than India has been willing to provide.

GS-2 Paper

Topic– Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare (CCHFW)

Context

Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurates 13th Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare (CCHFW).

About CCHFW

  • The Central Council of Health and Family Welfare (CCHFW) was set up under Article 263 of the Constitution.
  • It aims to provide support and advice to the Department of Health on policy formulation.
  • The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India in collaboration with the WHO Country Office for India has compiled and digitized the proceedings of all Central Council meetings held from the year 1988 upto 2010.

13th conference of CCHFW

  • The 13th Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare.
  • The CCHFW meeting was aimed at building consensus on national health priorities i.e. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through Ayushman Bharat, eliminating TB and other priority agenda such as strengthening medical infrastructure.
  • The conference also aims to promote steps towards the target of National Health Policy 2017, that is, to allocate 2.5% of GDP to health by 2025.

Key points of the Conference

The conference is to be focused on 4 pillars of healthcare-

  1. Universal Health Coverage
  2. Mission mode interventions
  3. Quality and accessible affordable healthcare services
  4. Adequate Infrastructure
  • The Union Health Minister released the reports on-
  • National Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy Survey India (2015 – 19).
  • Report on National Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy survey India (2015 – 19).
  • Leaflets on Suicide Prevention marking the World Mental Health Day was released.
  • SUMAN – Surakshit Matritva Aashwasam – A new initiative for zero preventable maternal and new born deaths was launched.

For Prelims-

India Carpet Expo

Context

The Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC) is organizing the 38thIndia Carpet Expo.

Highlights

  • The Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC) is organizing the 38thIndia Carpet Expo (15thin Varanasi).
  • It aims to promote the cultural heritage and weaving skills of Indian hand-made carpets.
  • India carpet expo is a platform for international carpet buyers, buying houses, buying agents, architects.
  • The Expo is organized twice a year in Varanasi and Delhi.
  • India Carpet Expo is one of the largest handmade carpet fairs in Asia.
  • The major carpet producing centres in India are in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, North East Region of India, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
  • India exports 85-90% of its total carpet production.
  • India is exporting its handmade carpets to more than 70 countries in the world, mainly to the USA, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, France, Italy and Brazil. Recently, exports have also started to China.
  • Germany and other European countries were the traditional markets for export of Indian products followed by USA. 
  • The European markets have been fully developed and have reached saturation point.
  • Indian Handmade Carpet Industry is highly labour intensive and provides employment to over 20 lakh workers and artisans especially women directly or indirectly in the rural areas.

 

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