Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
Note: There are few article on women and their status in society which are being left out of 9 PM Brief . These articles will be covered in standalone issue by the end of the week.
- GS PAPER 2
- Opposition sees amendment through in Rajya Sabha again {Bills & Legislations}
- LS passes bill to amend Enemy property Act {Bills & Legislations}
- Why India heed geography {International affair}
- Four corners of a good deal {International affairs}
- GS PAPER 3
- Vultures nests in WWS decline {Pollution}
- Good politics is good economy {Economics}
- Government raises fund limit to seed start-ups {Economics}
- Opacity International {Economy}
- India in the global economy {Economy}
GS PAPER 2
[1]. Opposition sees amendment through in Rajya Sabha again
What happened?
Rajya Sabha adopts ‘Motion of Thanks’ to the President for his address, with an amendment powered by the Congress.
What is ‘Motion of Thanks’ ?
The first session after each general election and the first session of every fiscal year is addressed by the President. In this address, the President outlines the policies and programmes of the government in the preceding year and ensuing year. The speech of president is generally drafted by ruling party and its contents outline the vision of the central government.
This address of the President, which corresponds to the ‘speech from the Throne in Britain’, is discussed in both the Houses of Parliament on a motion called ‘Motion of Thanks’.At the end of the discussion, the motion is put to vote.
What if ‘Motion of Thanks’ is not passed?
This motion must be passed in the House. Otherwise, it amounts to defeat of the government.
Purpose of the ‘Motion of Thanks’
This is an occasion available to the members of Parliament to raise discussions and debates to examine and criticise the government and administration for its lapses and failures.
Amendment moved
The Opposition forced passage of the amendment which regretted that the President’s address did not commit support to rights of all citizens to contest panchayat elections in the backdrop of new laws in Rajasthan and Haryana where matriculation has been fixed as the eligibility criteria for contesting polls.
What next?
The Motion of Thanks on the President’s address will now be sent back to him with a mention of the amendment passed.
Precedents
It is the fifth time in Parliamentary history and second time in the tenure of this government.
Has happened before in 1980, 1989 and 2001, and 2015 and every time in the Rajya Sabha.
[2]. LS passes bill to amend Enemy property Act
What is Enemy Property Act?
It guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China after the wars.
In the wake of the India-Pakistan war of 1965 and 1971, there was migration of people from India to Pakistan and under the Defence of India Rules framed under the Defence of India Act. The government of India took over the properties and companies of such persons who had taken Pakistani nationality. These enemy properties were vested by the Union government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.
The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016
It amends the Enemy Property Act,1968.
The amendments include that once an enemy property is vested in the Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death.
Objective of the Amendment
The new Bill ensures that the law of succession does not apply to enemy property; that there cannot be transfer of any property vested in the Custodian by an enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm and that the Custodian shall preserve the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the Act.
The amendments are aimed at plugging the loopholes in the Act to ensure that the enemy properties that have been vested in the Custodian remain so and do not revert to the enemy subject or firm.
[3]. Why India heed geography
India’s aspirations at world stage
It want a seat in the UN Security Council. It want to build international consensus around the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
But first regional aspirations should be fulfilled
It is not possible for India to be a world leader or an Asian leader without first being a South Asian leader.
What’s more, it is important for India to work on uniting, connecting, and sharing its prosperity with its neighbours before seeking the same from outside.
Demands of the neighbourhood
They desires cooperation rather than competition between India and China. And hope that their cooperation with China should not be seen as a threat to India.
Recent moves of the Government
There is curtailment of the visits by Ministry of External Affairs Diplomats abroad.
Travel visits of the Secretaries has been restricted to 4 times a year.
There is significant drop in development assistance to six SAARC countries.
What India should do
It should do an internal assessment of what it costs to project its power on the international sphere.
India needs to maintain the U.S.-China balance despite its obviously friendlier relationship with Washington than with Beijing over the last few years.
India’s valid concerns about China’s increased aggression towards China’s maritime neighbours must be balanced with India’s desire to resolve land-border issues as well as cooperate on developing the entire region along with China, which despite all the issues has been India’s largest trading partner since 2008.
[4] Four corners of a good deal
Indo-Asia-Pacific
In a event held at Delhi, US representative called for more US-India cooperation in the Asia-Pacific and pitched for greater cooperation between the U.S., India, Japan and Australia.
This 4 four-way arrangement has been limited to meetings and naval exercises and has been in depicted in defence terms and was not given much attention by India because it was considered a relationship made to contain China.
A new perspective
It should not be seen from national security perspective alone. It will make more sense if it is seen through the lens of energy security.
Need for such a relationship
Over the next few decades, India’s energy supplies will be increase by three to four times.
Most of the hydrocarbon imports of India come from unstable(West Asia) or faraway region(Venezuela).
In Central Asia, China has already seized many opportunities.
To seek access to Central Asia, we are developing Chabahar port in Iran, but it will be a difficult prospect as long as Afghanistan remains unstable. And also Pakistan denies transit rights to Afghanistan, so there is no direct access available.
Though sanctions has been lifted from Iran, but there India will have to face stiff competition from other importers.
Australia’s role
It can provide immense energy benefits to India. It already provides coal and uranium.
As LNG price has fallen by 75% since 2014, so this gives a golden opportunity to deepen our energy cooperation and it will lessen our dependence on Qatar (a volatile region) which is our current source of LNG imports.
Engaging with Australia will give us an opportunity to deepen our ties with Indonesia, which provides us more than 60% of its current coal imports. And it will advance India’s “Act East Policy”. Further, it will lessen the burden on India’s naval forces of protecting energy assets in areas more far-flung than South-east Asia.
This region is comparatively much stable, so it would ease concerns about the security of Indian energy assets and imports originating in this region.
Quadrilateral Relationship
For India, the quadrilateral relationship could enhance energy engagement with the U.S, Japan, and Australia.
GS PAPER 3
[1]. Vultures nests in WWS decline
The Hindu
Concern
Decline in Vulture population
Key points:
The nests of vulture population are dwindling in Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS), a safe habitat for different species of vultures in South India
The government had imposed curbs on the use of Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug acknowledged to have caused the decimation of vultures in the Indian subcontinent
[2]. Good economics is good politics
Current economic conditions
A domestic economy confronted with a rather adverse global environment.
An agricultural sector reeling from two successive year of droughts.
A manufacturing sector that has been limping along.
Expectations from the budget in such conditions
One school of thought who believes in impending doom for the economy felt that an expansionary Budget designed to stimulate aggregate demand was the only way out.
On the other hand, fiscal conservatives who believed with equally strong conviction that the Budget must keep the fiscal deficit under control.
The middle path
For fiscal consolidation, it has been announced that the budgetary deficit for the current year will not exceed 3.9 per cent of GDP, and lower the fiscal deficit for 2016-17 to 3.5 per cent of GDP.
Surprisingly, fiscal prudence does not seem to have come at the cost of a cut in government expenditure. There is a significant increase in the allocation to agriculture and rural development, as well as infrastructure.
How did the Government managed?
Assumptions regarding oil prices:
The government has benefited a great deal from the windfall gain arising from the steep fall in crude oil prices.
But there will be rise in the crude oil prices, if the global economy recovers because that will increase the demand of the oil.
Assumption regarding volume of resources to finance the government’s expenditure:-
It is hoped there will be significant increase in revenue from personal income tax but the bulk of this increase must come from better tax compliance since there has been only a modest increase in taxes for the super-rich.
It is assumed that disinvestment and the strategic sale of public sector enterprises will fetch the exchequer the sum of Rs.56,000 crore. For this to happen, the stock market will have to improve considerably.
Assumptions regarding non-budgetary sources of financing infrastructure projects:
The government cannot be completely certain that the targeted volume of resources will materialise from infrastructure projects, National Investment Infrastructure Fund(NIIF), market borrowings. There is also the danger that public borrowings will crowd out private borrowing if the overall credit scenario is not satisfactory.
Focus on Farms
A large increase in investment in irrigation.
The Budget also provides for an increase in funds allocated to gram panchayats.
Huge increase in outlay on rural development, including rural road construction.
Increased funding for government’s flagship programme — Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Other benefits to farmers include smoother credit flow, insurance against crop failures, and improved marketing facilities.
Ambitious target of doubling farm incomes within five years
For this to happen, farm incomes would have to record an average annual growth rate of about 14 per cent in order to achieve this target. The annual growth rate of agricultural output in India during any five-year period has not even touched half this level.
In order for Indian farmers to reach these levels of income, agricultural productivity has to increase dramatically and far fewer people have to depend on agriculture for a livelihood. This in turn requires massive migration of people from the rural to the urban sector.
Remarks on the Budget
There has been very little change in the structure of taxation. Tax compliance is sought to be increased by levying a penal tax on undisclosed incomes.
It is pro-poor rather than pro-rich.
There is an increase in investment in the rural sector and infrastructure, particularly road construction, and it is believed that relatively labour-intensive investments will have both a magnified effect on employment as well as output.
[3]. Government raises fund limit to seed start-ups
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) may invest up to Rs. 1 crore in every fresh start-up that it will seed from the next financial year.
Currently, the maximum permissible investment is Rs.50 lakh.
Start-ups Initiatives so far
A massive gathering of entrepreneurs from India and abroad was organised and it was addressed by Mr.Modi.Some of the initiatives were
Making the profits of fledgling units tax-free for three years
Rs.10,000 crore of government funding over four years
No visits by labour inspectors for three years and quicker and subsidised patent clearances.
How does DST funds start-ups?
The DST funds start-ups by routing them through so-called technology business incubators (TBI), which are typically located in universities.
Objective of the Start-ups
It will inspire India’s youth to become more entrepreneurial.
[4]. Opacity International
Indian Express
The government has “privately reassured” the US-India Business Council (USIBC),
Government will not allow the use of compulsory licensing for commercial use.
What is Compulsory licensing?
Compulsory licensing allows governments to grant the right to work a patent to someone other than the patent holder, if a product or process is nationally unavailable or overpriced.
Section 92 of the Indian Patents Act (IPA) assures patent holders that compulsory licences are to be granted only to deal with a “national emergency”, or “matters of extreme urgency”, or for “public non-commercial use”.
Assurance exists on the Indian statute books.
Compulsory licensing is an integral part of the Trips Agreement since 1995.
Issue
Communication from the USIBC to the US Trade Representative is “privately”.
Policy must always be created and operated transparently
Technically, the government has assured nothing new but it suggest that India is willing to pay heed to multinational requests to respect intellectual property and to protect incomes accruing from it, even if it amounts to disrespecting the right of its citizens to life and health.
WTO’s fourth ministerial conference in Doha in 2001
On national health against the transnational rights to intellectual property
Established the primacy of the right of member nations to protect public health and promote access to medicines for all
Clarified that each member has the sovereign right to decide the grounds for granting compulsory licences according to national interests, and implicitly did away with the need for an emergency or a situation of urgency, which are listed both in Trips and in the IPA.
Conclusion
The government is, therefore, under no compulsion to put multinational interest ahead of the imperative of public health. It only needs to be fair in its policy — and transparent.
[5]. India in the global economy
Global growth declined from an average of 4.5% to 3.5% over the past five years.
Both advanced economies and emerging markets have suffered.
Indian growth and exports have also shrunk.
Central Statistics Organisation and International Monetary Fund numbers indicate that India is now the fastest growing major economy in the world.
Irrespective of macro growth estimate and other indicators.
China’s growth has been badly hit because of its reliance on external demand.
Why Indian growth is declining as India’s primary engine of growth is putatively domestic?
Because its dependence on foreign goods and services increased from 20% to 24%.
India’s adjustment to the global demand compression was thus more imbalanced than that of China.
India might take over China’s role
According to the IMF World Economic Outlook database October 2015, China’s share of the global economy measured in current dollars was just 3.4% at market exchange rates, and 4.5% at purchasing power parity (PPP) in 1999. In comparison, India’s present (2015) share at market exchange rates is 4.8%, and 7.1 % at PPP.
Conclusion
India is unlikely to be the new engine of growth that can revive animal spirits and drive the global economy out of the Great Recession.
It needs to improve its export competitiveness through politically challenging structural reforms, rather than follow the western folly of expecting monetary policy to do so.
Since the timeline for the revival of external demand is uncertain, the primary focus of its Make in India, Start-up India and Skill India initiatives should be on leveraging domestic demand.
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