Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 2
- Gujarat must give up terror bill – {State Laws and Bills}
- Arunachal’s double crisis – {State Emergency}
- What teachers must learn – {Education}
- Deepening the French Connection – {India & France}
- Russia encouraging provinces to develop ties with India – {India & Russia}
- US considers re-merger of India, Pakistan desks – {International Affairs}
- GS PAPER 3
- Visa on arrival to attract Japan, Korea investors – {Investment & Tourism}
- Push for IMF reforms – {International Monetary Organisation}
- Government may ask central bank to consider roads as a priority sector – {Banking – Priority Sector}
- From Plate to plough: How to expand inclusion – {Inclusive Growth}
- China and India in same choppy waters – {Global Financial Crisis}
- Conservation of Malabar wetlands remains a far cry – {Environment & Ecology}
GS PAPER 2
[1]. Gujarat must give up terror bill
Context: Gujarat control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Bil, 2015 has been refused by recalled by Union Home Ministry.
The different objections to the bill:
a) Some provisions of the bill are considered to be draconian.
b) APJ Abdul Kalam refused to sign the bill objecting to interception of communication made admissible evidence in court of law.
c) The centre forced the state to delete the clause which empowered State Home Secretary to authorise for interception of calls.
The recall of bill:
Bill has been recalled to rework on it taking more inputs from the state. There has also been concern that bill might get refused by the President again.
No learning from experience:
The bill has been modeled on the lines of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. There is no learning from the fact that Maharashtra law hasn’t achieved its objective. Also, whenever it has been initiated it has found itself falling flat on the face as such random clauses don’t help them put a solid case in court of law.
According to the author, there is no need for such laws at state level. Better resources, training to police personnel is the rather more important thing which is needed to combat the dark alley of organised crimes.
[2]. Arunachal’s double crisis
Already discussed
Extra points:-
Quite frequently, the party faces either of two problems:
- The state-level leader, often the CM, becomes so powerful that internal negotiations are just not possible — Arunachal seems to fall in this category.
- Or, there are state leaders not able to function effectively because of rampant factionalism. The Congress in Punjab has witnessed this again and again in the recent past. Karnataka, too, is fast moving in this direction.
Arunachal is a reminder of two things: One, the failure of institutional mechanisms is eroding our democracy; and two, it is becoming increasingly difficult to expect democratic sagacity from our political parties. Both reminders coming as a follow-up to Republic Day is indeed sobering — and worrying.
[3]. What teachers must learn
Context:-
Education should achieve three broad objectives. First, provide skills required for professional growth. Second, provide life skills, which include soft skills, maturity, and emotional growth. Third, build a strong character for being a good human being and citizen.
Problems of current educational framework:-
Education Machinery:-
First, there are systemic problems in our education machinery. India does not have enough teachers who can even understand, let alone practise, the methods being recommended by the various frameworks.
According to the World Bank, the average pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level in India is 35 — this is the highest among emerging economies, and much higher when compared to the developed world.
A high pupil-teacher ratio impedes the imparting of soft skills and has an adverse impact on the emotional growth of children. Finally, the heavily regulated private sector is hampered by archaic laws that discourage, and even prohibit, innovation.
Employability:-
The second set of reasons concerns the abundance of alternatives, which render the formal system ineffective, if not completely useless. The most glaring example is that of on-job training. The formal system is so de-linked from the industry’s requirements that practically every new entrant in the workforce has to be first skilled by the employer. The National Employability Report 2014 found that only 18 per cent of engineering graduates are employable.
Education system is yet to be updated:-
In this information age, our education system is one of the things most reminiscent of the bygone industrial age. It was designed for a standardised workforce to fill government offices and factories.
Today, for the most part, computers can handle standardisation tasks. What we now need is differentiation and innovation.
Rethinking the framework:-
We should rethink the necessity of children spending 12 years in school, compartmentalised into different classes with a nationally fixed curriculum.
Why should two kids in Class 8 study the same level of maths and history when one of them is passionate about maths and the other about history? Should they do so just because they are of the same age?
The initial 12 years, when children are most capable of learning, can be better spent in learning some other skills that will help them lead a happier and more successful life. A similar rethinking is needed for pedagogy and teacher-training, laws and regulations, and emotional and integral development.
Conclusion:-
In this process, policymakers should be facilitators, not implementers. They should improve the capacity of the failing public infrastructure, provide authority to the capable institutes, and allow flexibility where the private sector is concerned.
In the current situation, people achieve not because of the system but despite the system. This has to change so that we can effectively use our human resources.
[4]. Deepening the French Connection
Context: Presence of French President Francois Hollande as chief guest on Republic Day Parade. He is the fifth French leader to grace the occasion making France being the most number of invitee than any other country on Republic day.
India and France:
Robust Strategic Partnership:
a) Strategic partnership institutionalized at the level of National Security Adviser (NSA),
b) Includes understanding on Cyber security issues, counter terrorism, intelligence sharing in addition to earlier agenda like nuclear, space and defense.
c) There are many other areas of cooperation like climate change and sustainable development, economic, heritage preservation and cultural cooperation etc.
Terrorism:
a) Recent attacks in Paris and Charlie Hebedo office has made France realise the vulnerability. This has led to stand alone joint statement on terrorism which denounced caste system in approaching terror attacks where attacks in Mumbai , Nairobi etc. doesn’t seem as important as that if any on Paris, New York or London.
Economy:
a) Push to Jaitapur nuclear plant. New projects for cooperation between India and French Space agency dealing with environment and weather monitoring, mapping of water resources and a joint Thermal Infrared Earth Observation mission.
b) Signing of MOU on Rafale Deal which freezes the technical parameters, weapon payload and lifetime servicing and spares needed
c) Other significant things is joint venture proposed between private sector companies of both the countries. which can provide impetus to Make in India.
The Challenges in India & France relationship:
There is a lack of economic and trade relations as well as people – to – people relations. A lot has been done to improve business and trade relation with opening of many French enterprise in India and proposal of working together in areas of urbanisation, smart cities etc. Nagpur, Chandigarh and Puducherry will get French assistance in developing smart infra.
Lack of people to people interaction can be understood from the fact that out of 7 million tourist only 3 lakhs only are French. The people to people connection has been driven mostly by elite.
To renergise people – to – people relationship there is new vigour for educational exchanges and joint venture in the field of skill development. Encouraging Indian students to go to France varsity at the same time encouraging French youth to intern in Indian enterprise.
[5]. Russia encouraging provinces to develop ties with India
Context: Russia giving more freedom to its provinces to engage directly with Indian states.
Why is it being done?
a) India and Russia during inter-governmental discussion in 2015 decided to ramp up bilateral investment from $15 billion to $30 billion.
b) Russia bid to promote other provinces of the country which are far from Moscow.
What has been done?
a) Russia has given its provinces free hand to deal with Indian states in the field of agriculture, health, education and cultural cooperation
b) President Putin has been taking vacation to different provinces and engaging in activities there to showcase tourism potential of different provinces.
[6]. US considers re-merger of India, Pakistan desks
Context: The speculation that India will be hyphenated (joined) with Pakistan for purpose of US International relations.
What is current situation?
Seven years ago State Department was restructured to dehyphenate US relations with India ad Pakistan.
De-hypehnate refers to policy of US government where it will deal with India and Pakistan on different ground thereby not bringing in between their bilateral relations.
How it helped US?
US was able to forge stronger ties with India in coming days. Also, it was able to keep India on bay with regard to its military alliance with Pakistan in Afghanistan ops.
The Different Bodies:
SRAP – Special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan – Set up by Obama Administration in 2009.
Bureau of South and Central Asia (SCA) used to handle India, rest of subcontinent and central Asian republics.
India’s argument against the move:
- It will mean US can now rake up bilateral issues of India & Pakistan, making US the third party.
- Also, will mean indirectly that India supports US policy in Afghanistan.
GS PAPER 3
[1]. Visa on arrival to attract Japan, Korea investors
Context: Announcement in December by Indian PM that Japanese citizens would get visas on arrival has now been truncated to business community. Also, the government is thinking of including South Korea in this category.
The reason behind the move:
The move is being seen as incentive to investor for them to see India as an attractive destination for investment. The travel which is a precursor to any investment is thus being eased out for the investors coming from Japan and Korea.
[2]. Push for IMF reforms
Context: IMF recently adopted long standing demand for reforms in its structure (i.e.voting rights)
Reforms:
a) To adopt a country quota distribution that better reflects the power balance of emerging markets. This has resulted in shift of 6% points of quota (fund capital and voting rights) from developed countries to emerging countries.
Benefit of this move has been majorly IMF which will see its revenue rise to $659 billion from $ 329 billion.
b) Opposition against nominated Managing Director which led to abolition of the post. Disinterest was shown by Indian Executive director Arvind Virmani who brought forward the point the latest recession of 2008 was born in developed countries and it shows how there is a need to reform international institutions.
According to author, the first reform is just the beginning for IMF and should not be the end.
[3]. Government may ask central bank to consider roads as a priority sector
Context: Lending constraints in the road construction sector, need to review non performing assets and revive Rs. 40,000 crore worth of highway projects that have not taken off.
The Start:
Road Transport and Highway ministry has held talk with Indian Banks’ Association and received the move as suggestion which now it is ready to take up with RBI.
Case for Road Construction to be included in Priority Lending List:
Importance of road sector can be determined as its the nerve joining different economic centres in the country thereby supporting economic growth and nation building.
What else government is expecting from RBI:
- Ease non performing assets norms for bank loans to revive projects. Not to consider NPA if project has failed to take off beyond two years.
- Govt. can further ask RBI to allow banks to infuse more funds into projects which has cost overruns due to delays.
The Present Scenario & Reason for delay in Highway Project:
Government finding it hard to revive 19 projects worth Rs. 40,000 crore. The major reason for delay has been lack of funds from banks due to mounting NPAs in the sector. Government also blames the inefficient managerial class in construction companies.
Priority Sector Lending: The sectors of the economy which faces the crunch of funds due to delays or inaccessibility has been given special provision by RBI. 40% of all credit in India given by banks has to be given to these sectors. This is essentially meant for an all round development of the economy as opposed to focusing only on the financial sector.
Few Examples of Priority Sector In India:
a) Agriculture and allied activities b) Small scale Industries ( Micro, Medium and Small)
c) Education Loand d) Micro credit e) Housing loans for poor
[4]. From plate to plough: How to expand inclusion
Context:-
Financial inclusion is an important policy pillar of the government to ensure inclusive development (sabka saath, sabka vikas). What it means, in brief, is to mainstream financial services for the masses, especially credit at affordable costs from institutional sources.
Earlier Initiatives:-
This is not the first time financial inclusion is being given a thrust. Various governments tried to bolster it, and that was one of the reasons bank nationalisation took place. There have been some successes during 1951 to 1991, when the share of outstanding debt of rural households to institutional sources increased from 7.2 per cent in 1951 to 64 per cent by 1991.
But thereafter, the period of economic reforms showed a dismal performance, with the share of institutional sources declining from 64 to 56 per cent during 1991-2013.
Jan Dhan Yojana:-
Realising the importance of financial inclusion, the government took a bold step by introducing the Jan Dhan Yojana (JDY). So far, around 20 crore bank accounts have been opened, and more than Rs30,000 crore deposits received under JDY.
However, the real challenge is to prevent these accounts from remaining dormant.
Report on Financial inclusion:-
The report of the RBI Committee on Medium-Term Path on Financial Inclusion, released in December 2015, emphasised the role of a holistic strategy involving players like telecom operators, biometric systems, payment banks and land registrars for “last mile” service delivery.
Some of its major recommendations include linking all credit accounts with a biometric identifier, such as Aadhaar; moving away from short-term interest rate subvention on crop loans and towards a crop insurance scheme; and replacing various input and output subsidies with direct benefit transfers (DBT).
The report finds that although there has been significant improvement in access to banking services through expansion in a number of rural branches, banking correspondents and no-frill banking accounts, a large degree of financial exclusion prevails in east and northeastern India.
High interest rates (above 20 per cent) charged by the informal sector as well as micro financial institutions continue to be a concern.
Phasing out the interest subvention scheme:-
The interest subvention scheme was introduced in 2006-07, with the objective of providing substantial and cheap loans — at 7 per cent interest (upper limit of Rs 3 lakh), and if payment is regular, gradually lowered to 4 per cent.
Some states have extended loans even at zero interest rate to farmers. This has resulted in a significant increase in short-term agricultural credit, with actual disbursements consistently surpassing targets.
This is hailed as a grand success and the subsidy on account of it has increased from Rs 3,283 crore in FY12 to Rs 13,000 crore in FY16.
Agri credit scam:-
But this could be deceptive and a potential agri-credit scam. There’s reasonable evidence that a significant proportion of crop loans granted at subvented interest rates isn’t reaching target beneficiaries.
A farmer who receives loans at a concessional rate of 4 per cent can easily deposit at least a part of it in fixed deposits in the bank, earning about 8 per cent interest, or even becoming a moneylender to offer loans at 15-20 per cent interest to those who don’t have access to institutional sources of finance.
This suspicion is reaffirmed when one looks at the month-wise disbursement of agricultural credit, which spiked to 62 per cent of annual disbursement in the last quarter of FY14, with no corresponding spike in agri-production activities.
The latest crop insurance scheme is expected to cost the Centre around Rs 9,000 crore. This could easily be financed by releasing funds allocated to interest subvention.
Price support policies:-
The report also states that meaningful financial inclusion will be elusive without social cash transfers from government-to-person (G2P).
Recognising large leakages in welfare and anti-poverty schemes, many countries have moved from price support to income support.
However, India uses price policy (subsidised inputs) to support farmers and PDS grains for consumers. Such policies are inefficient and at times regressive, as they promote leakages and sub-optimal use of scarce resources.
Recent policy interventions utilising DBT in LPG subsidy have seen good success. Similar efforts are needed for food and input subsidies. Using the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) and digitising land records will be significant drivers of financial inclusion.
[5]. China and India in same choppy waters
When China’s growth rate has slowed down, some in India — and many in the government — seem to think it is a cause for celebration.
Chinese success:-
China has been the main driver of world growth for a decade. Through the 1997 Asian currency crisis and through the 2008 international financial crisis, China continued to grow at an unprecedented rate.
China became the world’s factory — from toys to shoes to steel to capital goods. China also accumulated the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves which at one point stood at an unbelievable USD 4 trillion.
It was only a matter of time before Chinese entrepreneurs got into the leaderboard in non-manufacturing.
Among the world’s leading service sector companies are China Mobile, China Life Insurance and Alibaba.
Among the world’s top 5 banks, three are Chinese banks.
Transition from Manufacture to services:-
China’s economy has gone through many ‘transitions’ and is undergoing one today. It has to transit from manufacturing to services, investment-driven to consumption-driven economy, and export-led to domestic demand-led growth.
Besides other causal factors, the pain and price of the transition are reflected in the slowdown of GDP growth and the depreciation of the currency (yuan).
Strong points of china:-
Despite the slowdown to 6.9 per cent in 2015, China had a record trade surplus of USD 595 billion. Despite capital flowing out at an average rate of USD 100 billion a month during the last eight months, China’s reserves are at USD 3.3 trillion.
Despite world demand falling, China’s exports in 2015 declined by only 2.5 per cent over 2014.
And despite bad investments, rising debt and loss of confidence among savers, the yuan depreciated by only 6 per cent in 2015.
India’s case:-
In comparison, India’s GDP growth in 2015-16 is not likely to exceed 7 per cent, India’s exports have declined by 18.08 per cent during April-December 2015 over the same period last year, there will be a current account deficit of about USD 30 billion, and the rupee has depreciated by 9 per cent during April 2015 to January 2016.
The stock market indices are back to the levels they were in May 2014. Job creation has practically collapsed.
What we need to know?
Empty boast There is no reason to boast that India is “doing better than China” or that “India is the fastest growing large economy”. India’s economy must transit from consumption-driven to investment-driven and from services-led to manufacturing-led. We will also experience pain. Competition among countries is different from competition among companies.
If China’s demand falls, it will import less from India. If commodity prices do not recover, China will continue to dump its products in India and Indian producers will suffer. If the yuan’s volatility roils world currency markets, the rupee will also be hit.
It is believed that the RBI may have spent USD 3.6 billion in the first two weeks of January to arrest the depreciation of the rupee.
Conclusion:-
So, in the short run, China’s woes may cause us more pain, not less.
We need to deal with real issues: the exchange rate and how India should deal with the probability of some depreciation; the travails of Indian producers and how the government can help them in the near term; how to arrest and then reverse the decline in exports; and how to enthuse Indian investors to make investments in the real economy (especially in manufacturing industries) when the reality is that many current projects are either stalled or have been scrapped.
China is a country that has recognised the imperative and the difficulties of transiting to a market economy and is struggling to find the right mix of policies. India is in the same situation.
[6]. Conservation of Malabar wetlands remains a far cry
Context: Warning from various agencies regarding wetlands in North Kerala seems to be falling on dumb ears.
The issues pertaining to wetland:
a) Illegal land reclamation b) Dumping of solid and non degradable waste c) Human encroachment
d) Government attempt to st up sewerage plant in wetland areas.
17 wetlands has been identified on the verge of extinction
What are wetlands?
According to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands; “Wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres.”
Importance of wetlands:
By: ForumIAS Editorial Team
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