Manish K Yadav

“India an emerging power and also one of the few countries in the
world in possession of a nuclear triad has impeccable credentials on the
issues of Non-proliferation and Disarmament. Indian leadership has
taken a principled stand of not signing the NPT and CTBT, following the
policy of positive neutrality and safeguarding national security; and its
stand on vertical and horizontal proliferation has also been pragmatic.
In the nuclear Neighborhood with a nuclear Somalia i.e. Pakistan with
its Islamic Bomb and Hegemonic Han China a known Proliferator,
India does not want to usher in Nuclear Winter with its so called Hindu
Bomb and is always ready for a constructive dialogue leading to signing
a fair and reasonable NPT and CTBT in the near future.”

India's aspiration to have a permanent seat at United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with or with- out Veto power is no longer a ‘Utopian Dream’ or a ‘Bridge too Far’ if India gets its act together by Multi-pronged Diplomacy and Strategic manoeuvre in Political, Economic, Humanitarian and Defense Preparedness aspects. India is not a wannabe super power like China which wants to bulldoze into the elite club of P-5. According to S. D. Muni “India is neither a restrained nor a reluctant power rather India is a cautious and constrained power depending on its economy” but having crossed the nuclear rubicon a decade and a half back and having the economy liberalized quarter a century back, it is ready to take on more responsibilities at the high table of United Nations as a great power.[

National Disaster Management Authority of India has emerged as a world leader in disaster response and has come a long way in projecting India as a resilientpower capable of protecting lives of its inhabitants and infrastructure while also showcasing its soft power credentials to the world not only it has done an commendable job in search and rescue operations in the recent floods of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh but was also involved in search and rescue when Earthquake hit Manipur and other regions of North East India earlier this year. Their prompt and excellent response in regions affected by cyclone Phailin and Hudhudin has also not gone unnoticed. NDMA’s good work in the recent Nepal earthquake(Operation Maitri) where India’s humanitarian diplomacy came in to full play was appreciated world over in the Organizations and Forums like UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction at Geneva, and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).The UN member countries which met in Sendai, Japan and signed a new DRR protocol replacing Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) has also heavily borrowed from the best practices and positive inputs of National Disaster Management Authority of India.

" WHO Constitution states that 'Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. WHO, the parent organisation being ECOSOC is a major spoke in the wheel of United Nations common family system. It has been also in the past and in the present actively and symbiotically involved in improving international public health as well as intervening in humanitarian crises on the issues of health and well-being. Its complementary role with other important international and national actors like ICRC, UNCERF, UNDAC, EM-DAT and NDMA in West Asia, Africa, Latin America, South and South East Asia cannot be understated in contemporary times " .

"From the time immemorial in the history of mankind there have been some basic tenants governing warfare in every religion and culture but it would be pertinent to say that the contemporary sets of rules and norms have evolved since the mid of 19th century and have consolidated in the form of International Humanitarian Law. ICRC post the Battle of Solferino and the United Nations and some regional politico-security organisations like NATO post World War II have been involved actively in Humanitarian Relief and Intervention and have different perspectives for core principles and pillars of Humanitarian Law during the conduct of any warlike Distinction, Military Necessity, Proportionality, Neutrality, and R2P etc. In this context long drawn conflicts like Israel-Palestine and Sri Lanka-Ethnic Tamils of our times warrant a careful study by the exponent and proponents of International Law of various rules and regulations of IHL, Laws of War and Occupation to provide legal as well as humanitarian relief to both the combatants and civilians."

“From the initial idea and path breaking work on Refugee and Internally Displaced People’s rights by the Norwegian Diplomat and Humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen at the turn of last century to the evolution of refugee rights legal framework at the turn of 21st century, the principles and corpus of law related to it has been widely studied and put in action. But the recent influx of the Syrian IDP’s as refugees in EU especially Hungary and Greece as transit points and Germany, France and UK as the final destination has led to a compassion fatigue. On the other hand in the near neighborhood of South Asia though not even a single nation has signed and ratified the 1951 Convention on Refugee Rights and its 1967 Protocol it has done commendable work in hosting and providing legal and physical protection to Refugees and Internally Displaced persons by enacting Principles and National Laws as the case in the point are SAARCLAW and Model National Law.”

There were three main reasons for planning this proposed research work: firstly it is an issue of National Importance and a crucial topic in the International Affairs, Secondly it is of high significance for India and other emerging countries i.e.: Brazil, Japan, South Africa, Germany etc. vying for UNSC permanent seat and Lastly fast contemporary international events are taking the world towards a democratic way of life.

“As a democratic country, India is naturally wedded to the cause of human rights. India is a regional power if not a regional hegemon is a foregone conclusion as seen in the past and the present contemporary world. Each regional and emerging power has overt and covert designs/ambitions of becoming a global power. But with great power comes great responsibilities which includes being a torch and standard-bearer of high moral and ethical code of conduct both at home and at international level (UNO and other International Forums) and that’s also the reason why India’s Human Rights credentials are one of the cornerstones of India’s National and Foreign Policy.”

In the last couple of decades, there have been extensive debates over the existence of global warming, today, the debate is largely over and a consensus has emerged in the global scientific community that Global Climate Change is occurring and that it will have a dramatic and adverse impact on the planet earth’s ecosystem. According to a report for the World Bank, by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) a German government-funded institute: the increase in earth’s temperature could result in a sea-level rise of 0.5 to 1 meter with higher levels also possible, by the year 2100 AD, affecting some of the most densely populated and vulnerable coastal cities and mega polis’s located in Bangladesh, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Philippines, USA, and Vietnam as well as small Island Nations all over the world especially in South Pacific like Fiji, Kiribati., Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Federated States of Nauru, Palau, Samoa and Solomon Islands.

With global warming, the glaciers are melting and these once majestic glacial mass which used to stretch to the edge of cities like La Paz and El Alto end up high in the mountains. The Glaciers are melting on all the six continents as well as in the Arctic Circle. If present warming trends continue, all glaciers in the Glacier National Park could be gone by 2030 AD. Over the next 100 years, climate change is expected to accelerate and contribute to major physical, ecological, social, and economic changes, many of which have already begun. India has been identified as one amongst the 27 countries that are most vulnerable to sea level rise caused by global warming.

No one knows how long our planet can sustain and take on this onslaught, what we do know for sure is that climate change especially due to increasing levels of Green House Gases is already harming the fragile ecosystems and humankind all over the world. Its reality can be seen in the melting glaciers, disintegrating polar ice caps, thawing permafrost, changing monsoon patterns, rising sea levels, and fatal heat waves. Scientists are not the only ones talking about El Nino and La Nina which cause global changes in both temperatures and rainfall, it’s also been discussed at length now by Academia, Civil Societies, and Political Leadership, all over the world.
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From the apple growers in the orchards of Himachal Pradesh to the farmers in the drought-prone region of Vidharbha and those living on the disappearing islands of Sunder bans Delta a sprawling archipelago, with a core area of 10000 square kilometres straddling between the Indian state of West Bengal and Bangladesh are already struggling with the impacts of climate change.

India has been involved in constructive engagements on Climate Change and Sustainable Development since the inception of United Nations Environment Programme in 1972, through Rio Declaration Earth Summit 1992, Kyoto Protocol 1997, Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development 2002, Copenhagen and the Paris Accord of 2009 and 2016 respectively within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). India is also a party to five major international conventions like the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-World Heritage Committee (UNESCO-WHC) etc.