Covering around 70% of the Earth’s surface, Ocean is the planet’s largest biosphere and is home to around 80% of all kinds of lives. It generates 50% of the oxygen, absorbs 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90% of the additional heat generated from different sources. Clearly, it is a vital buffer against the evil impacts of climate change. The Ocean produces food, jobs, minerals and energy resources for humanity to survive and thrive.

Climate Change has adversely affected the temperatures across the globe with intense heatwaves gradually changing weather patterns and disrupting the fine balance of beautiful nature. Warming temperatures pose a number of risks to human and all other forms of life on the earth in the form of frequent droughts, heat waves, storms, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans.

As the world looks to find solutions to this rising problem, The UN Ocean Conference promises to be an answer. The Conference, being held from June 27 to July 1, 2022, recognises the fact that oceans are critical to combat climate change, boost economic growth and reduce biodiversity loss across the globe. It brings up a unique opportunity to boost collective efforts and find science-based solutions to effectively address the challenges of Climate Change.

Human acts of thoughtless exploitation pose unprecedented threats to the oceans, therefore the UN has set targets of ‘Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water’ that emphasize a lot on preserving and protecting it.

To preserve lives on land & below the water, the Ocean conference addresses some of the most defining issues of our time like climate change, food insecurity, diseases, pandemics, diminishing biodiversity, economic inequality, conflicts and strife. The conference also stresses the need for an integrated, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach, as well as enhanced cooperation, coordination and policy coherence at all levels. It emphasizes the critical importance of effective partnerships enabling collective action and reaffirms the commitment to the implementation of Goal 14 with the full participation of all relevant stakeholders.

Solutions for a sustainably managed ocean involve green technology and innovative uses of marine resources, which also include addressing the threats to health, ecology, economy and governance of the ocean such as acidification, marine litter and pollution, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and the loss of habitats and biodiversity. Hence, the conference calls upon all stakeholders to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Co-hosted by Kenya and Portugal, the Ocean conference comes at a critical time when the world seeks to address many of the deep-rooted problems of our societies laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic, which requires major structural transformations and common shared solutions. More than 130 countries are participating in the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon from the 27th of June to the 1st of July 2022. Heads of Government with leaders from the private sector, the scientific community and other partners are trying to chart out a new pathway that would ensure the protection and conservation of the ocean and its resources. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also taken a lead in these global endeavours.

The strategic, economic, geopolitical and resource-rich significance of the Indian Ocean occupies a center-stage in a century that has seen trade, multilateralism and security outweighing all other areas of concern. The resource-filled oceanic depths, bare and untapped, are like a candy to the world, that has exhausted almost all the land and atmosperic resources and is left with no fruits hanging low enough. Indian ocean, particularly, is often at the center of discussion across the globe, as it is here that some of the most important trade routes of the 21st century make their way into. And over the past few years, India has rightly been able to guard its part of the high waters with responsible patrolling, new maritime and strategic policies, rollout of ambitious missions to explore sea resources, strengthening of maritime security setup and forces at its coasts and ports, etc., all garnished with its strong foreign diplomacy, collaborations and dialogue.

India recently launched its ambitious First manned ocean Mission ‘Samudrayan’, for which, a deep-submergence vehicle called Matsya 6000 is being indigenously developed in the country. With the launch of this Unique Ocean Mission, India joins the elite club of nations such as the USA, Russia, Japan, France, and China to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities. Not only has this opened a new chapter for India to explore ocean resources for drinking water, clean energy, but it has also marked India as one of the leading crusaders of Blue economy.

‘Save Soil’ is turning into a global movement. Projected data due to loss of biodiversity, poor top soil linked food shortage and malnutrition is very scary. It is an urgent requirement for leaders of the world to rejuvenate 15-20inches of top soil of the planet. In this context, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on the occasion of the World Environment Day, he also stressed on the efforts that have been taken in last few years in order to rejuvenate the soil of India. PM Modi conveyed that to save the soil, the government has focused on five main things. First- How to make the soil chemical free. Second- How to save the organisms that live in the soil, which are called Soil Organic Matter in technical language. Third- How to maintain soil moisture, how to increase the availability of water till it. Fourth- How to remove the damage that is happening to the soil due to less groundwater. And fifth, how to stop the continuous erosion of soil due to the reduction of forests.

All these five focal points have helped in health retention of soil through innovative schemes and initiatives which are based on collaboration, education and mordernisation. In 2015, the government launched the Soil Health Card, which is a printed report that is extended to the farmers for all their land or holdings. The card provides every farmer with soil nutrient status of his land and teaches him accordingly about the dosage of fertilizers and essential soil amendments that should be maintained for good soil health. Government also employs experts to help the farmers in carrying out the corrective measures. Thanks to this scheme, many Indian farmers now get a proper soil health record which assists them to undertake planned cultivation and largely prevents risks of crop failure that used to be very common before. So far, a total of 22,71,21,456 Soil Health Cards were issued to farmers between 2015-2019 across the country, whereas 11,531 new soil testing labs (491 static, 107 mobile, 8811 minilabs and 2122 village level labs) and strengthening of 829 labs have been sanctioned to the states. The massive success is indicated in the fact that since 2015, around 6.04 lakh demonstrations, 36,928 farmers’ trainings and 7,425 farmers’ melas have been organized/conducted under the programme. Village level rural development workers like Krishi Sakhis, Pasu Sakhis are even involved in educating farmers on right use of fertilizers.

The government has also been endorsing organic farming and use of Nano fertilizers that play a vital role in enhancing the efficiency of nutrients and in reducing soil contamination. The concept of ‘Low cost organic farming’ under the Schemes Parampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) & Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER), is also being promoted for quite some time. Apart from financial support, capacity-building for organic farming through trainings and seminars / awareness camps has been integral part of these schemes. For maintaining soil moisture, mega promotion of intiatives like PM Krishi Sinchayi Yojana, ‘Per drop more Crop’ campaign, etc. have worked wonders. Mass awareness through these has resulted in increasing water use efficiency at the farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies, i.e., drip and sprinkler irrigation systems. Use of drones for irrigation and controlled fertilizer spray is a recent addition in the newfound efforts to preserve soil nutrients and maintaining balance.

Lastly, for controlling continuous erosion of soil due to the reduction of forests, the government has rolled out strict initiatives to educate people and motivate them to go green. Some heartfelt initiatives also include the ‘Har Med Par Ped’ scheme to encourage tree plantation on farm land along with crops/ cropping system to help the farmers get additional income and make their farming systems more climate resilient and adaptive. Further, while National Afforestation Programme (NAP) is being implemented for afforestation of degraded forest lands, Green India Mission (GIM) aims at improving the quality of forest and increase in forest cover besides cross sectoral activities on landscape basis. In order to reclaim and develop barren lands, several location specific bio-engineering measures have also been developed to check soil erosion due to run-off of rain water. Concerned Indian Institutes have also developed reclamation technology, sub-surface drainage, bio-drainage, agroforestry interventions and salt tolerant crop varieties, etc. to improve the productivity of saline, sodic and waterlogged soils in the country.

“Brothers and sisters, you must be getting shocked to hear the Prime Minister speaking of cleanliness and the need to build toilets from the ramparts of the Red Fort… I want to make a beginning today itself and that is – all schools in the country should have toilets with separate toilets for girls…” these were the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he delivered his first-ever I-Day speech in 2014. The ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ (SBM), which seemed like a far-fetched dream has actually turned out to be such a massive reality, a national movement, an unprecedented success.

It was through this mission that all the villages declared themselves open defecation free as on 2nd October, 2019. This time frame of five years was enough to invoke a national conscience. The fundamental messaging has been so strong during SBM 1.0, that the mission which started with a physical undertaking of building toilets could also rightly foster the subtle sense of maintaining cleanliness with a selfless intent and ‘seva bhav’. Thus SBM 2.0 started with an unprecedented vehemence in India. From paying from their own pockets to fix hygiene related issues, to waste management, to cleanliness drives, to cleaning water bodies and beaches, various communities and individuals from across the country began taking up social, political, financial and all other kind of challenges to do wider good by providing for and helping society, thus adding to the growing success of the mission.

PM Modi often narrates such Swachhata stories in his monthly radio programme. Today’s edition of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ too highlighted instances of cleanliness efforts. PM Modi mentioned about efforts of devotees who are worshipping in the Dham of Baba Kedar these days. He said that the devotees are also performing the ‘sadhna’ of cleanliness as some are cleaning areas near the place of stay, while others engage in cleaning garbage along the travel route. PM also mentioned about Rudra Prayag’s Shriman Manoj Bainjwal who, for the last 25 years, has been running cleanliness campaigns and been engaging in making holy places plastic free. PM Modi also urged listeners to make constant efforts for cleanliness and tree plantation and inspire others to do the same.

Many other sub-initiatives under the mission have also resulted in mass awareness. A nationwide “Plogging” drive, which is a combination of both Fit India Movement and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, was launched around 2018-19. A special plog run was organised in 2019 to mark the 5th anniversary celebration of SBM which was held in over 50 cities across India. Earlier in 2018, Bengaluru Plog Run got registered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the participants’ effort had led to 33.4 tons of plastic waste collection in under 12 hours. Another effort is the ‘Swachh Survekshan’ ranking exercise which is taken up by the Government of India every year to assess and laud rural and urban areas for their levels of cleanliness and active implementation. Another addition in this row is the ‘Swachhata Start-Up Challenge’, a game-changer move launched by MoHUA-AFD to provide an impetus to innovative start-ups to come forward and drive catalytic transformation in the sanitation and waste management sector. Awareness campaigns for causes like ‘Waste Management’, single-use plastic, sanitation coverage in rural areas, etc. are being run aggressively across the nation.

Further, India recently witnessed the inauguration of its first “Amrit Sarovar” at Patwai, Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. This has kick-started India’s journey to coin a historic transformation as it targets to develop and rejuvenate 75 water bodies in each district, a massive drive which would lead to fresh creation of 50,000 water bodies in the country. Such a burgeoning zeal for cleanliness is not newfound but a result of years of pursuance through showcasing good will, good work and a sure vision.

Statistics show that by 2025, the value of the global waste management industry is expected to hit US $530 billion from US$330.6 billion in 2017. Rising population, economic activities and increasing urbanization have propelled the massive increase in global waste generation, which creates myriad of problems, especially in cities. The World Bank estimates that waste generation will increase to 3.40 billion tonnes in 2050, marking an approximate 70 percent increase from 2.01 billion tonnes in 2016.

By 2027, India is set to become the world’s most populous country as per projections of the United Nations with 7 new megacities. At this exponential population and urban growth rate, landfills almost 90% of the size of Bengaluru would be required for dumping if the waste remains untreated. Though, rapid urbanization presents a humungous challenge with the right policy framework and action, which can be turned into a golden opportunity.

‘Waste to Wealth’ is an effective solution to rising waste all across the globe. This unique idea of waste management brings scientific processing of waste to the forefront to build a zero landfill and zero waste nation, involving latest technology, government agencies, urban local bodies and users to seek relevant solutions. Unscientific disposal of mixed waste in open dumpsites generates harmful greenhouse emissions and contaminate soil and groundwater causing health and environment hazards. Diverting thousands of tons/year of fresh waste from entering landfill and generating valuable resources out of the waste, is the objective behind this idea. Further, showing a scientific solution for closing of open dumpsites and improvement in the living conditions of nearby settlements by preventing spread of water and air borne diseases is also a major goal of this project.

The ‘Waste-to-Energy’ and Waste Management market in India is also set to become a $14 billion opportunity by the year 2025. The population of 1.3 billion currently generates 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste a year. The scale of opportunity may be gauged from the fact that India has the potential to generate 3GW of electricity from waste by 2050. The ‘Waste to Wealth’ mission is one of the nine scientific missions of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PMSTIAC), which aims to identify, develop and deploy technologies to treat waste to generate energy, recycle materials and extract resources of value. The Identification and support to the development of modern technologies promises to create a clean and green environment. Now the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched the eighth edition of Swachh Survekshan (SS) – SS 2023 under Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0 with ‘Waste to Wealth’ as its theme or driving philosophy, reiterating its commitment to move towards a circular economy in waste management while tapping the immense scope of recovering value from waste. The idea also promises to assist and augment the Swachh Bharat and Smart City projects by leveraging science, technology and innovation to create ready reckoners that are financially viable for waste management, thereby streamlining waste handling in India.

The benefits of effective waste management are immense. India presents an opportunity in numerous sub-sectors of waste management including municipal solid waste, electronic waste, bio- 2 medical waste, agricultural waste and others. Additional weightage has been given to source segregation of waste, enhancement of waste processing capacity of cities to match the waste generation and reduction of waste going to the dumpsites. Indicators have been introduced with additional weightage on emphasizing the need for phased reduction of plastic, plastic waste processing, encourage waste to wonder parks and zero waste events.

Fiscal prudence is pre-requisite to sustainable growth, a lesson that the island nation of Sri Lanka is, unfortunately, showcasing from it’s ongoing economic upheaval. Every commitment, economic, strategic, bilateral or otherwise, has to be made taking into account the financial, political and growth realities of the country. In order to become advanced, powerful, empowered, glamorous, well-equipped, and similar adjectives, a nation must first strive to become relevant, a mantra being rightly followed by democracies like India. Relevance has now become the ultimate aim, everything else follows.

The island nation of Sri Lanka is in shreds, with protesters taking to the streets in defiance of curfews and cabinet ministers resigning en masse amidst crippling inflation. The South Asian republic has become a classic example of a twin deficits economy, with national expenditure exceeding national income and imports greater than exports. Though, It has sought loans from the Asian Development Bank, India and China to survive the crisis, it would be back-breaking for the country to carry a debt that mounts to billions now, due to accumulated borrowings, record inflation, lack of foreign currency, crucial sectors witnessing a sharp fall in demand thanks to the pandemic. Alleged government mismanagement is another parallel factor that has dragged Sri Lanka into not just an unprecedented economic crisis but also a massive political turmoil.

The Sri Lankan government over the last decade borrowed vast sums of money from foreign lenders to fund public services, which has landed the nation in a debt trap when hit by disasters, both natural, such as heavy monsoons, to man-made, including a government ban on chemical fertilizers that crippled farmers’ harvests. In addition to this, a severe shortage of foreign currency has left the country unable to pay for essential imports, including fuel, leading to debilitating power cuts that lasted up to 13 hours.

The crisis has turned real severe in matter of days, with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa now under a pressure to resign as protests escalate across the country. Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, one of the major contributors to its economy, which was already on a slow-down, reviving slowly after the COVID outbreak, has now been hit hard yet again. The Sri Lankan rupee is fast depreciating against the dollar and foreign debt is mounting. Government’s income has also taken a big hit due to a drop in tourism that has given rise to gas and fuel shortages, leading to massive power cuts. As a result, citizens of Sri Lanka have been facing the brunt of shortages and soaring inflation, waiting in lines for basic goods, skyrocketing prices of basic amenities, shortage of fuel and a defunct administration. This soon led to aggressive protests by the citizens and forced President Rajapaksa to declare national emergency in the state on April 1, followed by blocking of social media platforms across the nation.

To address the worsening situations, the country had to seek support from IMF and neighbour India. A consignment of 40,000 MT of diesel under Indian assistance through a Line of Credit of $500 mn was handed over to Colombo by India on 2nd April. Earlier in January, India had confirmed a $400 million currency swap with Sri Lanka while deferring another $500 million due for settlement to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU). India continues to provide fuel and goods assistance to the crisis-hit nation as it grapples to bring the situation under control. Sri Lanka has been provided with more than 270,000 MT of petrol and diesel by India so far. India also announced another $1 billion as a credit to Sri Lanka to help shore up the sinking economy of the island nation. The $1 billion lines of credit to Colombo will help in keeping their food prices and fuel costs under check.

“Socho Toh Kyun Hai Aaj, Sehma Sehma Paani…” this kids water anthem has brought water conservation issue at the forefront of children imagination. Not just now, even India’s ancient scriptures, texts and stories are filled with tales and proofs of how rivers were considered sacred, the most revered. So much so, that even Lord Krishna, in his impartations to Arjuna during the war of Mahabharatha, said, ‘I am the Ganges among rivers’ (Chapter 10 Verse 31 – पवन: पवतामस्मि राम: शस्त्रभृतामहम् | झषाणां मकरश्चास्मि स्रोतसामस्मि जाह्नवी).

Saving every drop of water becomes even more imperative for a country like India, which houses more than 18% of the world’s population, but has got only 4% of world’s renewable water resources. The current water requirement is estimated to be around 1,100 billion cubic meters per year. To meet this high requirement, the government, through various means and measures, has been trying to improve condition of water bodies and better treatment systems. In June 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had written to all Sarpanchs across the country stressing on importance of water conservation and harvesting and urged them to adopt all appropriate measures to make water conservation a mass movement.

For transferring water from surplus basins to deficit basins/areas, the Government of India formulated a National Perspective Plan (NPP) of interlinking of rivers. National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has identified 30 links for preparation of Feasibility Reports/ Detailed Project Reports under Inter-linking of Rivers Project. Atal Bhujal Yojana, a central sector scheme, is also being implemented in 8,774 gram panchayats of 81 districts of seven States namely Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The focus of the scheme is on community participation for sustainable ground water management. Provisions have been made for source recharging too like dedicated bore well recharge structures, rain water recharge, rejuvenation of existing water bodies, etc., in convergence with other schemes such as MGNREGS, Integrated Watershed Management Programme, 15th Finance Commission tied grants to RLBs/ PRIs, State schemes, CSR funds, and others. The government also launched the AMRUT 2.0 initiative in 2021 which focuses on making specified cities water secure through recycle/ reuse of treated sewage, rejuvenation of water bodies and water conservation.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) is another impactful initiative which aims to enhance physical access of water on farm and for expanding cultivable area under assured irrigation, improve on-farm water use efficiency, and introducing sustainable water conservation practices, etc. The Command Area Development & Water Management (CADWM) Programme and ‘Per Drop More Crop’ component under the PMKSY scheme and the National Water Mission’s ‘Sahi Fasal’ campaign have also brought in positive farm results and better agricultural growth. The Jal Jeevan mission is up and running to make provision of potable tap water supply to every rural household of the country at the service level of 55 litre per capita per day by 2024. This was followed by the recent launch of the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ campaign to endorse the practice of rainwater harvesting. The Centre has also requested all States/UTs to set up Jal Shakti Kendra in every district which shall provide all rain related information at one place.