Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 1
1.‘Netaji may have survived the crash’ {Subhash Chandra Bose} - GS PAPER 2
- GS PAPER 3
- India opts not to join global terror database {Terrorism}
- Focus on safeguards framework {Nuclear Security}
- Lessons from Europe’s amnesia {International affairs}
- Core sectors expand 5.7% in Feb {Economy }
- Taxes from disinvestment help government receipts balloon {Disinvestment}
- India-European Union boost strategic partnership as free trade talks flounder {International trade}
- Centre extends safeguard duty on steel imports {Economy}
- Building with Brussels {International affairs}
- Is agriculture a business? {Agriculture}
- Diary item: The birth defect of this century {Terrorism}
- The curious case of rising currency in circulation {Economy}
GS PAPER 1
[1] ‘Netaji may have survived the crash’
There are many unverified documents that claim about the survival of Netaji Subash chandra bose from plane crash.
Like
- There is one five-page note in a 1992 file that suggests Bose may have survived the crash (But it does not have any name or date attached to it)
- an official in the governor’s house in Bengal, claimed that the monitoring service at the governor’s house picked up three broadcasts of Netaji … in December 1945, and January and February, 1946.
- The “broadcasts” referred to show Bose saying his heart was “burning” for India and that freedom must come within two years though it would not be possible through non-violence.
- The “broadcasts” also show him being respectful to Mahatma Gandhi.
- He also refers to himself as a “humble son … of Bharat Mata”.
- The same note also claims there was no documentary evidence of a plane crash; the cremation certificate said to be Bose’s is that of a non-staff member of the Japanese armed forces; the birth date of the deceased on it is not the same as that of Netaji, etc.
‘Admired Mussolini’
An account of Netaji’s travel in Europe — before his ‘death’ after a plane crash — in Interpress (International Biographic Press Service), 1949, says he
“ate a lot of beef” while travelling by train in Europe and admired both Mussolini and Stalin.
“He … had spent a week in a comfortable room of a train( Germany to Moscow) taking tea, milk, vodka and a large amount of beef. This was a matter of immense mental strength for a caste Hindu … But nothing such was improper to the superstition-less revolutionist Sri Basu.”
Conclusion:
Theories and claims of Netaji’s survival from plane crash is still ambiguous. People wants to know more about the Hero and his struggle for Indian independence after the plane crash if he really survived it.
GS PAPER 2
[1] British Medical Journal calls for radical revamp of MCI
News
British Medical Journal (BMJ) in its latest issue, said that India should revamp Medical council in order to eliminate corruption and unethical practices in health care system.
- The parliamentary standing committee in its report criticised the MCI for being a “biased” organisation, acting “against larger public health goals.”
- It described the Council as an “exclusive club” of medical doctors from corporate hospitals and private practice. (Earlier article on parliamentary standing committee report for MCI)
This issue sparked off when an editorial in BMJ in 2014 published which shows light on corruption in healthcare in India. Now the journal came on kickbacks for referrals from doctors, revenue targets at corporate hospitals, and capitation fees in private medical college in India.
MCI has failed to create a rigorous transparent system for accrediting medical colleges, leading to geographical mal-distribution and creation of ‘ghost faculties’ in private medical colleges.
It stated that admission should be granted on “merit” and “not the ability to pay a capitation fee.”
Aim of standing committee report
Extensive reforms in the MCI.
Removal of hurdles to the Common Medical Entrance Test for admission to MBBS and PG courses.
Conclusion
Need a strong political support to act on the committee’s recommendations as this will inevitably involve hurting well entrenched and powerful interests.
For the citizens of India strained by the dual burden of expensive and unethical healthcare, the report could be a powerful tool in their struggle to make the healthcare system deliver their needs.
GS PAPER 3
[1] India opts not to join global terror database
What?
India has decided not to join a U.S. maintained global terror database.
Why India has rejected it?
It has been opposed by the intelligence agencies like the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
What is HSPD-6?
- HSPD stands for Homeland Security Presidential Directive.
- HSPD-6 is a proposed agreement for exchange of terrorist screening information between the Terrorist Screening Centre (TCS) of the U.S. and a selected Indian security agency. It has been dropped from the agenda.
- US claimed that it has arrested many terror suspects in Canada and Australia with the help of HSPD-6.
Database includes
(1)Name of the terror suspect (2)Nationality (3)Date of Birth (4)Photos (5)Finger prints (if any)
(6)Passport Number
[2] Focus on safeguards framework
Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), an initiative of President Barack Obama to coordinate international efforts to prevent terror organisations from acquiring nuclear weapons or material.
Participating countries and agencies
50 countries and four international organisations — the European Union, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Interpol, and the U.N.
Russia will not be attending the summit because of the tensions between the US and Russia over the issue of Ukraine
India will circulate its national progress report on nuclear security measures.
Since the first NSS in 2010
- International measures have reduced the risk of nuclear theft
- Made the illicit transportation of nuclear material difficult
- Around 3800 kg of vulnerable fissile material has been secured
- 329 sea and airports around the world now scan cargo for radioactivity
What will happen at this summit
- Five action plans will be formed in this summit
- Expert officials of all the countries who will coordinate with each other as the Nuclear Security Contact group for further summits
Agencies that will assist in coordinating:
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- Interpol
- U.N.
- Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction
- Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism
Annual ministerial meetings of the IAEA that started last year, will make nuclear security part of its top agenda.The second IAEA ministerial meeting is in December 2016.
India’s nuclear security pose threats
- According to a recent report by the Washington DC-based Nuclear Threat Initiative ranked India low in nuclear security measures
- Corruption is the reason that could pose threat to nuclear material
Solutions
- Strengthening laws and regulations for on-site physical protection
- Control and accounting
- Mitigating the insider threat
- Ensuring protection of materials during transport is in line with IAEA guidance
[3] Lessons from Europe’s amnesia
News
Belgium being looked at a failed state
What has led to Belgium being looked as a failed state?
Belgium’s deeply divided society, sizeable numbers of alienated Muslims, and its constant search for political compromise have contributed in large measure to its image of being a “weak state” and hence an easy target for terrorists.
What lacks with Belgium and the EU
- The EU does not possess an intelligence agency of its own.
- Weakness of the authorities and the police as well as their unwillingness to take adequate counterterrorist measures, it was possible for Europe’s most wanted criminal to live there and evade arrest.
- Belgium’s insistence on open borders further aggravates the problem of adequate security
How IS was capable to carry out the attack
- The probes reveal that the IS has been steadily building the machinery to mount sustained terrorist attacks across Europe
- They used encrypted electronic communications and had resorted to false documentation to move freely between West Asia and Europe. They had also made full use of the easy facility of moving between Belgium and France
- Statistics suggest that Belgium is Europe’s per capita leading supplier of foreign fighters to the IS
IS attacks have reached far beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq
Assimilation of muslim migrants has little to do with the recent attacks, they are actually the revenge against the bombings in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, nor are they a reaction to the arrests of well known terrorists.
Selfless sacrifice and cooperation among its followers and supremacy of the faith has contributed to young fighters being trained and brainwashed by the IS. The U.S. and western bombings of IS-occupied areas of Syria and Iraq have provided the necessary fig leaf of martyrdom — deeply cherished by IS recruits and sympathisers as the weapon of the oppressed.
Why India should be careful
- Given this, India cannot remain complacent that it will remain unaffected by the IS as it is heir to a unique civilisational heritage.
- In December 2015, the IS issued a manifesto which claimed India as part of the Islamic Caliphate. It referred to a growing Hindu movement in the country directed against Muslims.
- The latest manifesto is a sequel to an earlier one, of June 2015, which had declared IS’s ambition to expand its jihad into India. This is reason enough for India to avoid the kind of amnesia that has engulfed Europe.
[4] Core sectors expand 5.7% in Feb Taxes
Output from the eight core infrastructure industries grew at the fastest pace in 15 months, clocking a 5.7 per cent growth in February
Positive numbers
The core sector growth number for February is encouraging at 5.7 per cent with a fairly diversified picture across: steel, electricity, refinery products and fertilisers.
production of fertilisers and cement posted a double-digit growth of 16.3 per cent
electricity rose to a five-month high of 9.2 per cent
Negative numbers
With this, the core sectors—coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity—saw a growth of 2.3 per cent in April-February 2015-16, lower than 5 per cent growth seen in the same period of the last financial year.
only steel saw a fall in output in February, by 0.5 per cent
On IIP
Registering a 3 per cent to 4 per cent growth in February. The core sectors constitute around 38 per cent of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
What is Index of Industrial Production (IIP)
It is an index for India which details out the growth of various sectors in an economy such as mining, electricity and manufacturing.
Poor performance of steel sector is due to:
Weak demand from end-users
Availability of cheaper imports
[5] Taxes from disinvestment help government receipts balloon
What?
Recently, Government has raised Rs 980 crores through the taxes it generated in disinvestment transactions in Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL).
Why in news?
Government has raised Rs25,000 crore in 2015-16. This is the highest amount(including taxes) garnered through disinvestment in a single year since 1991.
What next?
In 2016-17, the government plans to participate in more share buyback offers of central public sector units (PSUs).
What is Disinvestment?
- “Investment refers to the conversion of money or cash into securities, debentures, bonds or any other claims on money. As follows, disinvestment involves the conversion of money claims or securities into money or cash.”
- Disinvestment can also be defined as the action of an organisation (or government) selling or liquidating an asset or subsidiary. It is also referred to as ‘divestment’ or ‘divestiture.’
- In most contexts, disinvestment typically refers to sale from the government, partly or fully, of a government-owned enterprise.
- A company or a government organisation will typically disinvest an asset either as a strategic move for the company, or for raising resources to meet general/specific needs.
[6] India-European Union boost strategic partnership as free trade talks flounder
What happened?
The 13th India-EU Summit concluded in Brussels without a consensus on a bilateral free trade deal known as the BTIA (Broad based Trade and Investment Agreement)
What was achieved?
- Progress on talks related to foreign policy counter terrorism and outer space
- Best practices and setting up of work programmes related to government-to-government and business-to-business level
- India and the EIB signed the first tranche of a Euro 450-million-loan at the Summit towards the construction of a metro rail line planned in Lucknow.
- Countering violent extremism, disrupt recruitment of terrorists and prevent the free passage of foreign fighters in a joint declaration on counter terrorism
- Agreed to explore the possibility of India and EUROPOL, the EU’s law enforcement agency, to share intelligence.
- Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility (CAMM), which was also adopted, is designed to control and organize migration and on facilitating the return of irregular migrants and the possibility of exploring a ‘Readmission Agreement’ — returning visa over-stayers to their home countries. Also easier visa procedures for skilled workers.
EU-India Agenda for Action-2020
In this Agenda EU will help in developing a solution to clean up the river as well as developing legal and governance frameworks for managing the basin
What was not achieved?
- India has been pushing for opening European markets for its services sector and the movement of people to deliver those services while the EU has been keen on reducing or abolishing tariffs in several sectors, including in the automobile and wine and spirits sectors. The Brussels meetings evidently did not see the closing of gaps between the two sides.
- Both the parties failed to set a date for the next round of trade talks
[7] Centre extends safeguard duty on steel imports
Issue
To protect domestic industry from cheap Chinese imports
What has the government done
- The government has extended safeguard duty on steel imports till March 2018.
- Director General(Safeguards) had notified that increased imports of steel will cause serious injury to domestic industry
Why did the government take this step?
- The move is aimed at protecting the Indian industry from cheap China steel.
- The government is committed to safeguard the interests of all the stakeholder of the steel industry
What will the duty apply to and how much?
The 20 per cent safeguard duty will apply to import of “hot-rolled flat products of non-alloy and other alloy steel in coils of a width of 600 mm or more” till September 13, 2016.
Timeline for Safeguard duty
- It will drop in a staged manner to 18 per cent between September 14, 2016 and March 13, 2017
- 15 per cent from March 14, 2017 to September 13, 2017
- and 10 per cent between September 14, 2017 and March 13, 2018
[8] Building with Brussels
Issue
India should diverse its engagement with EU and should devote more attention to countries which were hitherto not given adequate attention.
India and the European Union
- Europe is India’s largest trading partner and biggest foreign investor.
- The joint declaration on terrorism at the EU-India Summit — calling for “a comprehensive approach to address terrorism” and urging the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism by the UN — is evidence of the convergence of interests, even as the “stronger, result-oriented” strategic partnership sets out a concrete roadmap for the next five years.
- There has been the resumption of stalled negotiations on the Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement — along with deepening the economic and technological partnership, with emphasis on Make in India, Skill India, Smart Cities and Digital India.
- Europe and India look to enhance their cooperation in battling climate change — following from COP21 and tied to the Swachh Bharat and Clean Ganga campaigns — and securing clean energy solutions as well as steering a new bilateral water partnership.
- “Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility” (CAMM), seeks to address restrictions on the movement of Indian professionals and enhance citizen contact.
- The new “EU-India Agenda for Action-2020” should create the deeper political understanding between both the countries.
- India will need to explore, together with Brussels, ways of investing in each other the attention and capacity hitherto missing.
- EU as a collective constitutes a prosperous and significant entity India must learn to work with.
[9] Is agriculture a business?
119 million farmers (“cultivators”) and another 144 million landless labourers, as per the 2011 Census. India’s largest private sector enterprise.
Important questions
Is farming really a business?
Even if it is, then to what extent?
Is there something about agriculture that makes it fundamentally different as a business?
There are some laws related to agriculture
- Agriculture is the only business where you have both production as well as price risks.
- For the farmer, however, production risks are a practically daily phenomenon: There might be inadequate rains at sowing, germination and vegetative growth stages; pest attacks during pod or boll formation; and hailstorm just when the crop is attaining maturity. On top of these is the risk of price crash at the time of harvest.
- The co-existence and high probability of both production and price risks are what also render farm insurance commercially unviable.
- That agriculture is the only business where you buy everything retail and sell everything wholesale.
- Many big business buy wholesale and sell wholesale.
- Some big businesses even buy wholesale and sell retail.
- Farmers are the only lot who pay retail prices for everything, from tractors to toothpaste, while being forced to sell their entire produce at wholesale rates.
- Agriculture is the only business where expansion is a crime.
- A farmer who cultivates even 25 acres or simply augments his holding size by leasing additional land is instantly dubbed a “kulak” or a capitalist in not the most glowing sense.
- We all love farmers when they are subsistence producers dependent on our kindheartedness, while being suspicious of those independent and big enough to demand that they be heard. For the latter, all crops are commercial — which is how it should be — and farming is about making money, just like any other business.
- it is the only business where introduction of new technology is a matter of controversy.
- It happened with dwarf wheat varieties and cross-bred cows in the 1960s and 1970s, and we are currently witnessing it in genetically modified (GM) crops. Any objective analysis would show that these technologies helped India become self-sufficient — even a net exporter — in foodgrains, milk and cotton, resulting in higher farm incomes as well.
Conclusion
- A time will come, hopefully, when our farmers will start challenging the above four laws of business operating against them. The day they do this, it isn’t going to be business as usual.
[10] Diary item: The birth defect of this century
Issue
Global terror is expanding and India should not become complacent, with regard to security issues.
Global terror
- Global terrorism has become the birth defect of this century.
- Terror attacks are taking place at new territories and no country seems immune to it.
- It is breeding indifference among the communities.
- Countries should co-operate with each other and should keep humanity above their petty national interest. For instance The Belgian police did nothing when Abdelhamid Abaaoud,who was on the most-wanted list was deported to its territory.
What is happening among the Muslim populations world over because of such attacks?
- Huge Muslim populations are abandoning nations their fathers fought to liberate from foreign rule and seeking sanctuary in the very countries that once subjugated them as colonies.
- This is not economic migration, but a political and social migration, a desperate search for security and social values that have disappeared from their ancestral nations.
How Indian Muslims are immune to this plague?
- Indian Muslims, with their unique history, are at heart culturally cosmopolitan, drawing their living ideology from the Quranic injunction “La qum deen o qum wa il ya deen (To you, your faith, to me, mine)”.
- This is the essence of what is known as the Barelvi school of thought.
Barelvi
- Barelvi is a term used for the movement following the Sunni Hanafi school of jurisprudence, originating in Bareilly with over 200 million followers in South Asia.
- The name derives from the north Indian town of Bareilly, the hometown of its founder and main leader Ahmed Raza Khan (1856–1921).
- The movement has to do with the practices and Sufism of Classic Islamic Mystics, it is often referred to as a Sufi movement.
- The movement was in existence (as is today) under the banner of Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jammat, but later started to refer to themselves as Barelvi’s to differentiate from the Deobandi movement, which was influenced by the Wahhabi movement in Arabia.
India and Pakistan
- Indians and Pakistanis are today arguably less afraid of nuclear war than of the terrorist monster that ravages the enemy and also savages the hand that feeds it.
- The governments of India and Pakistan and should cooperate on terrorism and fight this menace jointly as Terrorism is our common enemy.
[11] The curious case of rising currency in circulation
Issue
Rising currency in circulation along with slowing deposit growth is worsening the liquidity crunch
How has this happened?
- The key among these factors are higher inflation (which necessitates more spending) or higher transactions in sectors like retail and real estate (where there may be chunky payments in cash).
- There are other factors like elections, which also lead to temporary spikes.
Counter argument how this could not have happened
The reason FY16’s jump in circulation is puzzling is because inflation has not moved up compared to last year and transactions in sectors like real estate, by all accounts, have been down for most of the year. While state elections, such as in Bihar, may explain a temporary spike, they don’t explain why it has persisted.
Reasons for increase in the currency circulation
- Pick up in urban consumption demand post festive season suggests that strong purchases were made even after discount period ended from retailers and small shops against their rural counterparts
- Gems and jewellery output has increased and so the use of cash to buy gems and jewellery
- ATM withdrawals also increased
- All of this matters because the increase in circulation is being cited as a key reason for the liquidity tightness in the banking sector.
- The other reason for the liquidity crunch is weak deposit growth. This may be more easily explainable as deposits may be flowing towards other avenues such as equity as suggested by strong inflows into equity mutual funds through most of this year.
Some facts
- Currency in circulation last March was Rs.14.8 trillion.
- Now it is more than Rs.16.7 trillion.
- The difference is about Rs.2 trillion.
- Assuming that the liquidity conditions have to be maintained at the same level as last year, at least that Rs.2 trillion has to be injected as primary liquidity
How RBI feels
- RBI will yield to pressure from banks and ease liquidity through a cut in the cash reserve ratio. Bankers and economists are hopeful and say RBI is sympathetic to the issue.
- But they may choose to wait until a review of the liquidity framework—which the central bank is currently in the midst of—is completed.
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