Mint Public Policy Summit and Awards

Climate change, sustainable development and clean energy

Climate change is arguably the largest, most complex issue facing humanity. To keep global warming below 2°C, India along with 196 countries, has agreed to gradually reduce the use of fossil fuels, switching to clean energy sources and reducing CO2 emissions to reach net carbon neutrality by 2050. Decarbonisation is a major way to keep global warming within acceptable levels. The April 2022 report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned of significant dangers from global warming – worsening natural disasters and an ecosystem collapse over time.

Urbanization is intrinsic to development and often serves as a major driver of economic growth. Only 32% of the country’s population is living in the cities but that is going to change by 2050. Cities occupy just 3 percent of India’s land, but they contribute 60 percent of its GDP. Balancing the needs of our modern societies by incorporating sustainability into our development and using cleaner sources of energy to power lives is crucial for liveable conditions to endure on our planet. Governmental action at various levels has been trying to counter environmental degradation.

Housing, sanitation and waste management

Access to safe, affordable and adequate housing is a basic human necessity. It is a prerequisite for access to stable livelihoods, health, education, social and cultural development. This segment thus positively impacts other targets essential for sustainable development. According to an assessment by the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF), investment in low-income housing can have “a profound and direct impact on at least 14 of the SDGs,” through access to basic services and inclusive and sustainable growth. In mid-2020, India launched the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) scheme targeting dwelling units and dormitories for migrant workers as a sub-scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Urban. Some of the key indicators across centre, states and the districts are affordable and safe housing, rehabilitation of slum dwellers, low-cost housing for urban poor/migrants, women empowerment through house ownerships, disaster-proof housing, rate of overcrowding and so on.

A lot of people in low- and middle-income countries die due to inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene each year, representing majority of total diarrhoeal deaths. Poor sanitation is the major cause of these deaths and is a foremost factor in various overlooked tropical diseases, such as intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. Poor sanitation reduces human well-being, social and economic development due to impacts such as anxiety, risk of sexual assault, and lost opportunities for education and work. Sanitation is a state subject therefore the major indicators of Sanitation and Waste Management at State and District levels are:

Availability of safely managed sanitation services

Private sanitation facilities connected to sewers

Number of families in the region with access to toilets / number of public toilets in the region

Environment sanitation – Designated open area of waste disposal or undesignated open area

Waste segregation, composting, recycling and sustainable disposal practices.

Economic Growth and Employment

Prosperity for the populace is the hallmark of progress. However, with the pandemic-induced downturn and the ongoing recovery, state and private actors have been pushed to the limit, many of whom were unable to sustain fluctuations and disruptions in the global supply chain and consumer demand. Several MSMEs struggled with access to credit and global markets. Millions of daily wage earners and employees were out of work. The discernible economic growth of India is a testimony to MSME development and revival, especially post the most serious wave of the pandemic. India has around 63.4 million MSMEs, which contribute around 6.11% of the manufacturing GDP and 24.63% of the GDP from service activities as well as 33.4% of the country’s manufacturing output. Earlier this year, the government released the draft National Policy for MSMEs, proposing multiple measures to promote competitiveness, technology upgradation, cluster and infrastructure development, procurement of MSME products and dedicated credit support. The major indicatives of MSME growth at the Centre, state and district levels are: Ease of doing business, Export of services, promoting startups, Financial Literacy and education, Market linkages, Leveraging PLI schemes. The pandemic has caused an increase in unemployment rate, which was at 7.9% in December 2021 (Source: CMIE). Key performance indicators like Unemployment rate, Employment to population ratio, Labour force participation rate can be used to track this area.

Health, wellness and life expectancy

Access to quality healthcare and robust public health facilities and infrastructure are critical to the progress of any society, especially in the aftermath of a devasting pandemic. The primacy of healthcare as an aspect of public policy and governance around the world has heightened, alongside general awareness thanks to the abundance of information in the digital age. India’s dual system of public and private healthcare infrastructure was under stress during the Covid-19 pandemic. Vaccination drives and governmental schemes in this regard have also been essential in enabling some levels of pre-covid normalcy. Further, the advancement, protection and awareness around mental health is also a vital concern. A draft bill for a new national public health law is currently being formulated. Some indicative measures of health and wellness at centre, state and district levels are as follows:

Number of skilled healthcare professionals
Maternal and children mortality rate
Prevalence of under nourishment
Health expenditure as a percentage of GDP
Doctor to patient ratio
Nurse to patient ratio
Hospital beds to population ratio
Rate of hospitalisation per capita

Education for all

India’s emergence as a regional power and its massive influence globally is thanks to a large educated and trained population. However, much work is underway to provide universal coverage and access. Government and joint programmes have come into place to enable more children to remain in school, make access to education easier and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Several issues arose due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with millions of children out of school and unable to progress with their planned learning and development.

Educational policies are primarily developed at the central level, but states can also make their own laws on education because it is a concurrent subject under the Constitution. India’s third National Education Policy (2020) is based on the four pillars of Access, Equity, Quality and Accountability and shifts the focus from “what to think” to “how to think” in the digital age. Mint seeks to recognise the best policy designs and interventions by public officials in this backdrop. The KPIs for this sector are: Gross enrolment ratio, female literacy, transition rate from primary to higher levels, number of schools with basic infrastructure, learning outcomes and student-teacher ratio.

Poverty, Food Security and Delivery of Citizen Services

India’s progress on eradicating poverty and providing basic food security to its citizens has been healthy in recent decades. The gains are mainly due to large scale government programmes and subsidies in the realm of food distribution, agriculture, irrigation and meal schemes for various parts of society. Rapid growth of digital technology has also made its in-roads in governance. Electronic-governance or e-governance has the ability to make processes seamless, reduce the time taken for completion of basic tasks like getting a new telephone connection, filing for taxes etc. Through e-governance, government services are made available to citizens and businesses in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner. Digital India was launched in 2015 to with the aim of developing a secure and stable digital infrastructure, delivering government services digitally and achieving universal digital literacy. Several Indian states such as Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra, besides others, have state-specific e-governance policies. Some of the key indicators for the adoption of e-governance at the centre, state and district level would be last-mile internet connectivity, technology adoption by the marginalized and illiterate communities, accessibility of technological devices, time reduction in delivery of essential G2C services and ease of doing business.