India has a long coastline of 7516 km, which makes the significance of coastal security paramount. India’s development is closely linked to its maritime and therefore it is critical to ensure the security of coastal areas. India’s coastal architecture has taken a more robust shape after the 26/11 attack and includes the Indian Coast Guard, Coastal Surveillance Network, Marine Police, and National Committee for Strengthening Maritime and Coastal Security, etc. Coastal security is an indispensable part of India’s security architecture due to the following reasons:

• Important for internal security: Due to large and unmanned coastlines, infiltration is relatively easier from the sea. Terrorists and illegal migrants take to sea routes where security measures are comparatively lax, enabling them to ‘move, hide and strike’ with relative ease.
• Protection of strategic assets: The Indian coast has a number of strategic installations such as naval bases, nuclear power plants, satellite and missile launching ranges, and ports. These strategic installations are vital for the security, development, and prosperity of the country, making them high-value targets for terrorists.
• Trade routes and mineral reserves: India’s sea dependence on oil is about 93%, which includes India’s offshore oil production and petroleum exports. Further, 95% of India’s trade by volume and 68% of trade by value comes via the Indian Ocean. The beach and dune sands in India contain heavy minerals (HMs) like ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon, monazite, and sillimanite.
• Geostrategic interests: India aims to become a ‘net security provider’ in the Indian Ocean region. Also, it is seen as the lynchpin for the Indo-Pacific strategy by the West to counter China.

India could safeguard its internal and external interests only if it enhances its capability by strengthening its coastal as well as maritime security. However, there remain certain loopholes in India’s present coastal security architecture:

• The lackadaisical approach of the State governments: Under the Coastal Security Scheme, the Coastal states and Union Territories are required to establish coastal police stations, raise marine police, and procure boats to patrol the shallow coastal waters. However, the slow pace of construction of coastal police stations and limited personnel allotment by most of the states has resulted in suboptimal development and utilization of the coastal security architecture.
• The multiplicity of agencies: There are approximately 15 agencies involved in various facets of coastal security. This results in poor coordination leading to issues like inadequate utilization of resources, duplication of efforts, and inconsistent implementation of coastal security initiatives. The multiplicity of agencies also results in ambiguity of jurisdictions of various bodies.
• Disproportionate focus on terrorism: Indian security agencies have tended to predominantly focus on the terrorism threat. This has placed less emphasis on non-traditional challenges such as human trafficking, IUU fishing, climate-induced crises, the threat of piracy, and maritime pollution.
• Marine police as the weak link: Marine police duties require special skills such as seafaring and sea combat, the ability to handle boats, etc. Presently, the marine police force is manned by personnel derived from the central pool of the state police. Thus, the force consistently falls short on human resource capabilities.

However, to address these gaps, the government has undertaken a few steps. In 2022, the country’s first National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC) was appointed. It will ensure cooperation and harmonized functioning between the various agencies and stakeholders tasked to ensure the protection of India’s vast coastline.

La Niña refers to the large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, coupled with changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation, namely winds, pressure and rainfall. The current La Niña episode started in September 2020 and has continued for a third consecutive year and has thus been classified as a ‘triple dip’ La Niña. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the first “triple-dip” La Niña of the 21st century will continue to affect different parts of the world as given below:

• Impact on atmospheric pressure: La Niña is characterized by lower-than-normal air pressure over the western Pacific. These low-pressure zones contribute to increased rainfall.
  • Rainfall associated with the summer monsoon in Southeast Asia tends to be greater than normal, especially in northwest India and Bangladesh. This generally benefits the Indian economy, which depends on the monsoon for agriculture and industry.
  • However, strong La Niña events are associated with catastrophic floods in northern Australia.
• Drought conditions: La Niña is also characterized by higher-than-normal pressure over the central and eastern Pacific. This results in decreased cloud production and rainfall in that region.
  • Drier-than-normal conditions are observed along the west coast of tropical South America, the Gulf Coast of the United States, and the pampas region of southern South America.
• Temporary cooling impact on global temperatures: During La Niña years, the colder surfaces allow the oceans to absorb more heat from the atmosphere. Consequently, the air temperatures tend to go down, producing a cooling effect, but this is not enough to reverse or neutralize the impacts of global warming.
• Impact on fishing industry: La Niña usually has a positive impact on the fishing industry of western South America. Upwelling brings cold, nutrient-rich waters to the surface. Nutrients include plankton eaten by fish and crustaceans. Higher-level predators, including high-value fish species such as sea bass, prey on the crustaceans.

In light of these impacts, concerns are raised about the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe for millions of people in different parts of the world especially in the Horn of Africa, which is witnessing one of the longest and the most severe droughts. It is necessary to provide tailored information to the humanitarian sector and to support sensitive sectors like agriculture, food security, health, and disaster risk reduction.

Money laundering is the process of hiding the source of money obtained from illegal sources and converting it to a clean source through the use of shell companies and complex transactions such as layering, integration, etc. thereby avoiding prosecution, conviction, and confiscation of the criminal funds.

Several steps have been taken to counter money laundering, such as:

• Global efforts:
  • Financial Action Task Force (FATF): It designs and promotes global policies and standards to combat financial crimes.
  • UN Vienna Convention, 1988: It lays down the groundwork for efforts to combat money laundering by obliging the member states to criminalize the laundering of money from drug trafficking, and promote international cooperation in criminal investigation and extradition in such cases.
  • Basel Committee on Banking Supervision: It is an international Committee formed to develop standards for banking regulation. It has developed a series of highly influential policy recommendations known as the Basel Accords.
• Strict legislations:
  • Anti-money laundering laws have been adopted by many countries based on the model laws formulated by the IMF. For example, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005 in India.
  • The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 not only includes the power to impose fines, summons, and production of documents and evidence, but also possesses the power of survey, search and seizure, confiscation of property, and arresting the person involved.

Despite these initiatives, it is very difficult to trace money laundering offences due to the following reasons:

• Managing cross-border and multi-jurisdictional anti-money laundering compliance standards poses a significant challenge for banks and financial institutions.
• Many countries have not ratified the international conventions yet as the cost of prevention of money laundering for society and financial institutions is often high, and strict regulations may become a hindrance for a poor or developing country.
• The regulators often lack authority to investigate and have limited access to time-sensitive data needed for surveillance purposes. They also possess insufficient resources for inspection, surveillance, and investigation, and have a limited enforcement mandate.
• Financial institutions may not have the necessary data, technology resources, and skilled professionals to detect and prevent money laundering activities effectively.
• The rules/legislations need to be continuously updated due to the rapid rise in technological innovations such as virtual currencies.

In this regard, technology can help in combating the menace of money laundering:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: They will help in providing complete risk assessment and identifying high-risk individuals by checking them against national and international checklists such as global and regional sanctions, watch lists, politically exposed persons (PEPs), and adverse media mentions.
• Cognitive computing: It can manage large amounts of structured and unstructured information and make determinations that are evidence-based, evaluate multiple options, and continually evolve to account for new outcomes and actions.
• Cloud computing: It can help with the rationalization of disparate data sources both within and external to an institution. The enriched data would help in enriching the knowledge related to customers, beneficial ownership, or other required anti-money laundering remediation activities.
• Graph analytics: They thrive on high levels of complexity and interconnectedness and in discerning significant relationship patterns among varied data types. Graph analytics can help in determining relationships among anti-money laundering documents to make connections and flag anomalies.

Manual processes are often slow, while financial manipulators are becoming more sophisticated than ever. Therefore, use of technology along with a more coordinated global strategy against money laundering is required.