Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 2
- Asylum seekers can own property {Polity}
- Law and diplomacy on South China Sea {International}
- Beijing in choppy waters {International}
- GS PAPER 3
- India Post to sell collectible stamps {Economy}
- Ashok Patnaik is NATGRID chief {Security}
- State-run firms to help revive fertiliser units {Economy}
- New Central scheme targets skilling of one crore people {Economy}
GS PAPER 2
[1]Asylum seekers can own property
News:
- The Union cabinet has now approved proposals for extending a few advantages to “persecuted” minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh residing in India on long term visas.
- As approved by the Union Cabinet, the benefits include buying property for self-occupation or for the use of self-employment. They can also open a bank account, get licences, PAN card and Aadhar Card.
- They are also allowed free movement within the State of their stay. The government has also permitted them to apply for long-term visas from the place of their current residence, even if they have moved to the present place without seeking permission.
Analysis:
- Many people belonging to the communities like Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian have come to India after persecution, seeking shelter in the country.
- According to the Union Cabinet, the Centre has taken several measures in the past two years to reduce the problems of the persecuted minorities from the neighbour countries who have been living in India for long.
- The government has now removed the penalty on late application for extension of their short- or long-term visas. The Citizenship Rules, 2009, will be amended to help such people to get citizenship.
- Also the registration fees for citizenship will be reduced to Rs. 100 from Rs. 3,000-15,000.
[2]Law and diplomacy on South China Sea
Issue
- Diplomatic issues related to ruling of PCA over South China dispute.
Key points:-
- While China has rejected UNCLOS principles in its claims against the Philippines, it is expressly invoking the Convention’s provisions in its claims against Japan, regarding the dispute surrounding the fuel-rich Senkaku Islands.
- The ruling draws attention to the glaring fact of non-ratification of UNCLOS by the U.S. Washington may now have to reconsider ratifying the Convention itself, especially if China decides to withdraw from it and thus undermine support for a global rules-based order.
- Finally, it is but a few months before China hosts the G20 meeting. This is both an informal deadline for the necessary detente to begin, but also a genuine opportunity for rapprochement between Chinese and regional leaders.
More sensible diplomacy is expected from China in the near future
- The setback at The Hague comes at a critical juncture in China’s bid to bolster its global economic status.
- This relates to its long-standing ambition to be accorded recognition as a market economy under the World Trade Organisation.
- As the 2016 deadline looms, China insists the upgrade is automatic as per WTO rules.
- The European Parliament thinks otherwise, and voted overwhelmingly in a non-binding resolution in May to delay a decision.
- Currently, Brussels levies anti-dumping tariffs on imports from Beijing to mitigate the effects of supposedly unfairly low prices on a range of commodities.
- Against this backdrop, the Chinese leadership is unlikely to allow itself any distraction in the form of a long-drawn confrontation in its backyard, with its adverse diplomatic fallout.
- Instead, Beijing is more likely to rally support to its cause for increased trade.
[3]Beijing in choppy waters
Issue
- China’s repudiation of international mediation on South China Sea could be greatly counter-productive.
Why the behaviour of China is disturbing as far as the award of the PCA is concerned?
- China is among the nations that ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, UNCLOS, which provided for the binding arbitration.
- President Xi Jinping’s flat rejection of the tribunal marks an extraordinary unwillingness to play by rules his country helped write, and profited from.
- Second, China has demanded that the world accept a nine-dash line it has marked on maps of the South China Sea, but has never provided an official explanation of the basis of its legitimacy, nor of what rights flow from it.
- Put simply, China is demanding that its claims to the South China Sea be accepted simply because it is making them.
Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ)
- China said it could establish a military air defence zone in the South China Sea.
- The imposition of an ADIZ would require overflying planes to first notify China.
- It has made clear that it has all the rights to establish an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).
What is China trying to achieve by doing all this?
- In recent years, China has expanded its naval capacity, as well as the instruments with which to deny the US’ great carrier fleets their unchallenged reign of the oceans.
- China is seeking to make a simple point about power to its near-neighbours: Insubordinate nations like the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam must cease to expect help from the US, the traditional guardian of the Pacific Ocean.
- Thus, China wants to coerce those states which could offer the US access to seas off its periphery, while it maintains control of critical trade routes.
Why this move is counter-productive?
- China’s muscle-flexing has ensured the US Navy is, today, more actively involved in the region than it has been for over a decade.
- The Philippines, which only years ago cheered the eviction of US forces from Subic Bay, has today welcomed it back.
- From Vietnam to India, states across China’s rim are seeking closer alliances with Washington.
Ripple effects of China’s move
- For years now China has been creating artificial islands in the SCS, and sparked worldwide tensions when it unilaterally set up an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea in 2013.
- In the post-ruling scenario, there is a risk that the hawks prevail in Beijing and Chinese maritime operations of this sort will escalate tensions further, risking a flashpoint.
- The fallout of this could be severe in the region, especially considering that in recent months the U.S. has sailed a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, as well as guided-missile destroyers into the South China Sea.
Silverlining
- It is also possible that the ruling is an inflection point for strategic reset as it increases pressure on Beijing to engage bilaterally with the Philippines and others, and begin the hard work of untangling the dangerous mess of overlapping territorial claims.
GS PAPER 3
[1]India Post to sell collectible stamps
Context
In yet another move to generate revenue, department of post is planning to moot a separate company for carrying philately business.
Analysis
- The sale of stamps will produce revenue.India post is expecting a boost of around 250% this year from its philately business.
- The separate company which would be setup up would be a public limited company, govt. Will have complete ownership and it would be setup with an authorised capital of Rs. 100 crore.
- The company will have one corporate office, 4 zonal offices and 7 officials in its board of directors. The Secretary, Deptt. of Post will be the non-official chairman.
- The chairman and managing director will be the Indian Post official of the rank of Joint Secretary.
Apart from this, steps like including a chapter on philately for class V, VI and VII are also being proposed to spread interest in philately.
[2]Ashok Patnaik is NATGRID chief
News:
- 1983 batch Gujrat Cadre IPS officer Ashok Patnaik has been appointed as the CEO of National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID). Patnaik is currently serving as additional director in the Intelligence Bureau.
- This will be effective from the date of assumption of charge of the post upto December 31, 2018 — the date of his retirement on superannuation or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
What is NATGRID?
- NATGRID is a counter terrorism programme, conceived by former Home minister P Chidambaram is looking forward to combine 21 databases related to sensitive personal information into a single database for access by authorized officers from 10 central agencies like R&AW, IB, CBI, DRI and ED.
- It will utilize technologies like Big Data and analytics to analyse this data and help agencies to track suspected terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks.
- It is essentially a data transfer tool that hopes to give investigators a 360 degree profile of a suspect. In the first phase, 10 user agencies and 21 service providers will be connected, while about 950 additional organizations will be connected later. In subsequent years, over 1,000 additional organisations will be connected.
- The Rs 3,400 crore NATGRID project was approved by Cabinet Committee on Security in June 2011. The plan allocation for the project in Budget Estimates 2016-17 stands at Rs 45 crore.
[3]State-run firms to help revive fertiliser units
Context
The union cabinet has planned to three non-functional fertilizer plants at Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni.
Analysis
- A consortium of Coal India Limited, NTPC and Indian Oil Corporation is formed to carry out the revival of the fertilizer plants.
- These three fertilizers units would be revived by means of special purpose vehicle of public sector units, namely, National Thermal Power Corporation, Coal India, Indian Oil Corporation and FCIL and HFCL, through ‘nomination route.
- The revival and setting up of these units will meet the urea demand of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
- Revival of these plants is expected to created 1200 direct and 4500 indirect jobs.
- The pressure on rail and roadways due to long distance transportation of urea fro west and central region to eastern region, will also be eased.
- State-run gas utility GAIL India has planned to lay a gas pipeline from Jagdishpur to Haldia, while these fertiliser units will serve as anchor customers for the pipeline.
- To increase domestic production of urea, the government has also approved the revival of Talcher (Odisha) and Ramagundam (Telangana) units of FCIL through the Nomination route.
Conclusion
India imports almost 75 lakh tonnes of urea from abroad. Such initiatives in urea sector are bound to decrease this import and further foster self-reliance
[4]New Central scheme targets skilling of one crore people
Issue
- New version of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
About the Scheme
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana is a unique initiative by the Government of India that aims to offer 24 lakh Indian youth meaningful, industry relevant, skill based training.
- Under this scheme, the trainees will be offered a financial reward and a government certification on successful completion of training and assessment, which will help them in securing a job for a better future.
Key features in the new version of the Scheme
- It includes a mechanism to revive the traditional Guru-Shishya approach to train youth with the help of local craftsmen and trade practitioners.
- As per the approved plan, training centres will be categorised on the basis of their infrastructure and past performance and third party agencies will be deployed to validate their training efforts and placement records.
- Members of Parliament will also be roped in to mobilise youth for training, monitor the scheme in their constituencies and post-training placement of trainees.
- For youths from the Kashmir Valley, the Leh region, the north-eastern States and Left-wing extremism-affected districts, residential programmes will be promoted.
- Training partners under the scheme will be required to ensure valid Aadhaar numbers of trainees at the time of enrolment and subsequently track attendance through students’ biometrics.
- The new version of the PMKVY would strengthen the system and make trainings more effective with robust monitoring of outcomes.
Leave a Reply