9 PM Daily Current Affairs Brief – April 24 2017

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Live Mint

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[1]Global economics: Why financial cycles matter

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The Hindu

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Front Page / NATIONAL

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[1]Step up spending on infra, PM tells States

 

The Hindu

 

Context

NITI Aayog formulating 15-year vision plan

 

What has happened?

• Stating that the vision of ‘New India’ could only be realised if all States work together, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged them to speed up capital expenditure and infrastructure creation
• Poor infrastructure was hampering economic development
• Change in budget presentation dateenables timely availability of funds at the beginning of the financial year now
• Mamata stays away
• GST preparations
• States should make legislative arrangements “without delay” for GST roll-out from July 1. He also pointed out that suggestions have come in to change the financial year to January-December from current April-March period

 

Backdrop

Third meeting of the Governing Council of the NITI Aayog

 

[2]SC bats for the rights of Internet users

 

The Hindu

 

Context

More and more problems make their way to the court

 

What has happened?

• The Supreme Court has made it clear that it wants to protect the rights of the citizen and make Internet companies liable under Indian laws
• The court is against imposing any general online ban as that would curtail the right of the genuine information-seeker to gain knowledge and information from the Internet

 

Objectionable content

• These cases have seen the ordinary man engage Internet giants like Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in litigation in the Supreme Court
• These petitions demand that the Internet giants should also be made liable for the objectionable and illegal content posted online

 

PCPNDT Act

• In a separate case, Dr. Sabu Mathew George took on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft for hosting pre-natal sex determination advertisements on their search engines in violation of Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) (PCPNDT) Act of 1994.
• These cases have led the court to order Internet companies to set up in-house expert bodies to scour the Internet and remove objectionable and illegal content

 

Nodal Officers

• The litigation has further triggered the government to appoint nodal officers at State levels to keep tabs on the Net for offensive material
• The government’s officers would alert the search engines, who are liable to remove the objectionable material within the next 36 hours

 

Right to be left alone

A Constitution Bench of five judges has started hearing two law students who have challenged the 2016 contract entered into by WhatsApp to give Facebook access to information and personal details shared by millions of its users is a violation of their privacy and free speech

 

[3]Heat claimed 4,620 lives in four years

 

The Hindu

 

Context

Over 90 % died in A.P., Telangana

 

What has happened?

Over 4,620 people died in India due to severe heat wave over the last four years, of which only Andhra Pradesh and Telangana accounted for about 92 per cent, according to the government data

 

IMD alerts

Since last year IMD has started issuing heat wave alerts

 

Heat Wave

• A heat wave is declared when the temperature crosses 45 degrees Celsius.
• If the temperature rises 4 to 5 degrees above normal, then the condition is termed as a ‘heat wave.’ If the variance is over 6 degrees above normal, then it is classified as a ‘severe heat wave.’
• With global temperatures on the rise, the instances of heat wave are increasing.

[4]BEL, ECIL to make VVPAT machines

 

The Hindu

 

Context

Panel issues letter of intent to PSUs

 

What has happened?

• With the Union Cabinet clearing fund allocations, the Election Commission has issued a letter of intent for buying 16.15 lakh voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines
• The machines will be procured in 2017-18 and 2018-19 at an estimated cost of Rs. 3,173.47 crore from the public sector undertakings Bharat Electronics Ltd. and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd.

 

Approved design

• These VVPATs will be manufactured only as per the design approved by the commission, based on the recommendations of the Technical Experts Committee on EVMs, constituted by the electoral body.
• The committee comprises eminent Professors from the Indian Institutes of Technology

 

EC reminders

• The decision came after almost a dozen reminders from the EC on release of funds, the last communication flagging an urgent need to procure the VVPATS given the “prevailing environment”.
• After the recent Assembly elections in the five States, the Opposition parties had raised serious doubts over the integrity of EVMs, even as several of them demanded use of VVPATS to ensure transparency.
• They had petitioned the Election Commission and the President seeking intervention.

 

[5]Cyprus sees role for India

The Hindu

 

Context

Thinks New Delhi can help in unification efforts as it is close to Ankara

 

What has happened?

• President of the Republic of Cyprus, NicosAnastasiades, will ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi if there is any way he can help in his country’s efforts to reunify the northern and southern parts of Cyprus
• He visits New Delhi from April 25, with four ministers and a strong business delegation

 

Hard to predict

President Anastasiades felt it was too early to predict how Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan might behave as regards the Cyprus question

 

Promises concessions

• Can play a constructive role in speaking to their partners to give the most favorable treatment for India
• Cyprus is pitching itself as both an investment destination and as a bridge to both Europe and the Gulf region, given both its location as well as its relations with the countries in the region

 

Cyprus supports India

• In its bid to enter the UN Security Council as a permanent member
• It supports India’s efforts on the Nuclear Suppliers Group
• Cyprus has consistently spoken in favour of India in various international fora on Kashmir
• The President’s visit is likely to see further steps being taken to deepen the bilateral engagement

 

[5]Corruption, the top pain: poll

 

The Hindu

 

Context

Drive under PM’s New India campaign shows the issue got the highest response

 

What has happened?

• Corruption and the ways to fight it remain a major concern for the people, if the poll for pledges taken under the New India campaign run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 12 is any indicator
• Nearly 70% of the respondents voted for a pledge to fight corruption
• This was followed by Swachch Bharat and at number three was the campaign for Accessible India, of making public spaces accessible for the physically challenged
• Data shared showed that 84.7% of respondents on the hashtags were male, and 15.3% were women

 

Findings significant

Findings of the polls were significant in that the “government may tap into the enthusiasm” while prioritising issues

 

[6]Now, Australia wants a LEMOA

 

The Hindu

 

Context

But India would rather have its agreement with the U.S. operationalised first

 

What has happened?

• Australia has put forward a proposal to have a logistics support agreement with India on the lines of the one concluded with the U.S
• India has said that it would first like to get the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Understanding (LEMOA) with the U.S. operational
• Australia has proposed a logistics agreement and has already submitted a draft to India

 

Why?

India and Australia have been expanding their military-to-military cooperation, especially in the maritime domain, given their shared interests and concerns in the Indian Ocean, with the rapid expansion of China’s naval presence in the region

 

Observer status

• The proposal comes in the backdrop of Australia’s recent request for observer status during this year’s Malabar trilateral naval exercises scheduled to be held in July
• While a formal decision has not yet been taken, officials indicated that it may not be accepted this year

 

[7]Beijing’s Belt-Road plan overshadows BCIM meet

 

The Hindu

 

Context

Joint Study Group meeting of the Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) has evoked little interest

 

What has happened?

The two-day meeting of the Joint Study Group, a sub-regional group of the BCIM, is to review economic integration of the region focussing on trade and energy cooperation while facilitating the construction of an economic corridor from Kumning in south-west China to Kolkata

 

Why Little Interest?

There is a change of government in Delhi which may have triggered some re-thinking on various projects including BCIM

 

Backdrop

The idea of the economic corridor, about 3,000 kilometres in length, from Kunming to Kolkata — via Mandalay in Myanmar, Imphal and Silchar in India, Dhaka and Jessore in Bangladesh, — gained momentum following the meeting in 2013 between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Two subsequent meetings were held — one in Kunming (2013) and the other in Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh (2014). Though the Study Group was to have met in six months, the meeting will take place next week

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Editorial/OPINION

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[1]Tale of two sections

 

The Hindu

 

Context

It’s time 295A and 153A of the IPC are revisited, to end vexatious (causing or tending to cause annoyance, frustration, or worry)criminal prosecution.

 

Recent Case

• The Supreme Court has intervened to spare cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni the ordeal of facing a criminal trial for allegedly insulting the Hindu religion by being featured in the likeness of a deity on the cover of a business magazine

 

• Sec 295A:The court quashed a criminal complaint filed against him in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, a provision that makes “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings” a punishable offence.

 

Relief but process is the punishment

Judicial relief does come in the end, but the bitter truth is that the process is the punishment

 

Lower Courts Should be Careful

So It is time our lower courts stop taking reflexive cognizance of trivial or vexatious cases filed on the basis that the religious, caste or cultural sensitivities of some group have been offended

 

IPC — 153A

Intended to punish those who promote enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and language, and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony, this section has been employed to harass writers and artists and cast a chill on free expression

 

The Problem with these laws

Inherently Subjective: There is no guessing what causes insult/offence/hurt to people, leaving it open for such provisions to be blatantly misused

 

Conclusion

The two IPC provisions encourage the creation of what novelist Monica Ali described as a “marketplace of outrage” — an economy that feeds on anger and hostility. They need to be read down, their scope narrowed in a way that moral vigilantes and those who affect an emotional victimhood can no longer exploit the law to serve their narrow chauvinistic ends

 

[2]At war with itself

 

The Hindu

 

Context

Afghanistan and its allies need a coherent, gritty plan to roll back Taliban advances

 

What has happened?

The attack on a military base in Afghanistan in which at least 140 people, mostly unarmed soldiers, died, speaks volumes about the state of security in the war-ravaged country

 

Taliban Rising

• By running over such a fortified structure, the Taliban are effectively challenging the professionalism, resolve and resources of the entire force
• Taliban made steady and substantial gains in the civil war over the last couple of years, since most American troops withdrew from Afghanistan as part of the drawdown plan. Now the group controls or has influence in more than half the country

 

Afghanistan Govt. on backfoot

As Taliban expands and strengthens its hold in the countryside, the govt. has failed to reach out to people.

 

Afghanistan needs International Support

• The U.S. would do well to help the Afghan security forces craft a credible, sustainable military strategy and provide them more resources and training to take on the Taliban
• Dropping the biggest non-nuclear bomb (MOAB) in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan may make headlines, but, as last week’s attack suggests, they hardly deter the militants.

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Economy

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[1]SEBI lines up reforms to check flow of black money

 

The Hindu

 

Context

New guidelines planned for offshore derivative instruments

 

What has happened?

Capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), will soon put in place stricter norms to check any flow of black money into stock market though controversy-ridden P-Notes and also initiate steps for allowing mutual fund investments through e-wallets

 

Bad Loan

SEBI will also making it easier for banks and financial institutions to get shares of the companies they have exposure to by way of conversion of loan into equity, a move seen as a major boost to the steps for handling the bad loan menace

 

Taking stock of probes

• The SEBI board will also take stock of long-pending investigations and cases, involving some big corporates, and will consider putting in place an internal guidance note for dealing with quasi-judicial matters.
• It would also discuss the implementation of graded surveillance measures by the stock exchanges to check any manipulation of share prices.

 

P-Notes

While SEBI has tightened its norms repeatedly over the recent years to check any loophole, the government now wants the regulator to explicitly impose restrictions on resident Indians and NRIs from being ‘beneficiary owners’ of these instruments.

 

[2] Centre mulls nodal body for transport

 

The Hindu

 

Context

A unified ministry to deliver a multi-modal system planned

 

What has happened?

The Union government is planning to establish a single unified transport ministry by merging the Ministries of Aviation, Railways, Surface Transport and Shipping so as to ensure greater ease of doing business and boost India’s trade

 

Logistics and Integrated Transport Board

• Will be a nodal body at the central level for all transport-related matters across modes
• The ‘umbrella’ Board — likely to be chaired by a Union Cabinet Minister or a Secretary to Government of India — will include top officials from other Ministries concerned such as Finance, Commerce & Industry, External Affairs and Home, as well as senior representatives from the Indian industry and legal experts, especially to address competition aspects

 

Minimum government

• In line with the government’s slogan of ‘minimum government and maximum governance
• To know whether having a single unified ‘logistics and integrated transport body’ at the national level would be advantageous compared with the present system, Centre is considering the report of the National Transport Development Policy Committee, chaired by Rakesh Mohan

 

National Transport Development Policy Committee

• The report, submitted to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January 2014, had pointed out that
• Nearly all of the 100 largest economies, all of the OECD countries, and all of India’s emerging market ‘peers,’ the BRICS countries, have a Ministry of Transport or similar integrated equivalent rather than the collection of mode-specific ministries found in India
• It further noted that “some of these consolidated national agencies are also combined with the Ministry (or equivalent) of communication, a categorisation reminiscent of India’s early post-independence structure.”

 

Larger goals

• The Centre is also reportedly planning to build 35 multi-modal logistics parks by investing more than Rs. 50,000 crore
• In a bid to link India to global supply chains and logistics, the Union Cabinet had last month approved India’s accession to the United Nations TIR Convention
• It will allow Indian traders hassle-free access to the global system for movement of goods by road or multi- modal means across the territories.

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Indian Express

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Live Mint

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[1]Global economics: Why financial cycles matter

 

Live Mint

 

Context

The financial cycle often does not move in sync with the business cycle

 

Secular Stagnation

• The North Atlantic financial crisis of September 2008 almost brought down the world economy
• The global economy has still not recovered from the effects of the financial crisis
• The latest data does show signs of a cyclical bounce, but the underlying structural problems have not disappeared
• The standard view is that the world is now suffering from secular stagnation
• Potential growth has fallen because of weak effective demand on the one hand and lack of technological progress on the other

 

Alternate View of the BIS (Bank for International Settlements)

The persistent low growth in much of the world economy is not because of secular stagnation but the financial sector drag

 

Important lessons to be learnt from the BIS view: Neo-Austrian:

• There is a financial cycle that often does not move in sync with the business cycle. The financial cycle tends to be much longer than the business cycle—15-20 years rather than 8-10 years, according to several studies
• Loose monetary policy in the years leading to the financial crisis led to both excess leverage as well as the misallocation of capital
• Most of the policy response after 2009 has focused on demand stimulus. Not enough attention has been paid to balance-sheet repair
• The equilibrium rate of interest that is so crucial to much of modern monetary thinking is, in the current global situation, not negative but actually positive

 

Structural Forms needed

The overdependence on monetary expansion to deal with what is actually a structural problem in the world economy has led policymakers to focus on closing output gaps while they have been relatively more sanguine about other risks

And these risks are evident: excess credit growth, rising property prices, increasing debt service ratio and frothy asset markets. These could be the forerunners of another financial crisis in the future

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