Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 2
- Deepening crisis in Brazil {International Affairs}
- Close ties with India needed for regional stability, says China {International Affairs}
- Unmade in China { Security}
- Fixing educational policy’s failure {Education}
- The jobs discourse {Unemployment}
- The Indo-Us military alliance that isn’t {Foreign Policy}
- GS PAPER 3
- Trading bloc to India: Cut tariffs or exit FTA talks {FTA}
- Govt rolls back PF withdrawal norms {Indian Economy}
- RBI Governor says forex intervention to continue {Monetary Policy}
- Holds no water{Drought}
GS PAPER 2
[1] Deepening crisis in Brazil
What happened?
Brazil’s Lower House of Congress has decided to start impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.
What is the basis of impeachment?
The impeachment motion is based on allegations that during her 2014 campaign she manipulated government books to hide the real numbers relating to Brazil’s deficit.
Condition in Brazil
- Ever since her re-election, Brazil’s economy has been on a downward slide, with global commodity prices falling.
- Dilma’s response to slash public spending to rein in the deficit has alienated the core support base of the Workers Party (PT), the working population.
- Because of this, she became the easy target of the opposition and now, Brazil appears set to become even more deeply politically polarised given the resolve to press ahead with the impeachment process.
- There are daily street demonstrations by those for and opposed to Ms. Rousseff and there is virtual collapse of governance.
Unhealthy precedent
- The opposition’s claims that its battle to remove Ms. Rousseff is a fight against corruption is a cover for a larger power struggle and if the impeachment goes through, it would set an unhealthy precedent for a country with a history of coups.
[2] Close ties with India needed for regional stability, says China
China said
- China and India both are largest developing countries and major emerging economies
- Both are significant forces that drive forward world multi-polarisation.
- Close relations between China and India not only serve the interests of the both two sides, but also contribute to peace and stability of the region and the whole world.
- China would like to work closely with India.
- Intensive high level interaction reflect that ties between the two are enjoying a sound and stable momentum of development, with in-depth growth of political mutual trust, enhanced exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and sound coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs.
- Despite some differences between the two sides, both the countries are all willing to effectively manage and address these differences through friendly negotiation and consultation.
State-run Xinhua news agency quoted
- China reacted positively toward setting up a military hotline with India on border security. (Earlier 9 pm brief Military hotline with India)
- China advocated that the two sides “to do a good job in implementing the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries, enhance strategic communication, so as to safeguard common interests”.
Future aspect:
- China also suggested that the two country should strengthen defence exchanges.
- India and China could play in the success of the next G-20 summit and the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) summit.
[3] Unmade in China
Issue
- UN resolutions can not make India safe.
Recent events
- External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that China and India are common victims of terrorism and both should cooperate in combating the challenge of terrorism.
- China put a “technical hold” on India’s bid to declare Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council’s 1267 committee.
- Indian response was that if continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences.And it has described China’s policy against global terrorism as incomprehensible.
Condition in China
- China sees itself as a frontline state in the fight against Islamist violence as it faces a growing tide of fighters from the troubled Xinjiang to jihadist groups.
Then why China has blocked the resolution?
- Ensuring Pakistan’s intelligence services remain on its side is essential, as Beijing sees it, to containing the threat from across the Karakorum — and blocking Indian efforts to nail Azhar is a very small favour to an important partner.
Lessons for India
- UN resolutions aren’t going to make India more secure.
- India needs to focus on growing the country’s counter-terrorism capacity and building smart alliances with countries facing the same enemies, like Afghanistan.
[4] Fixing educational policy’s failure
School education in india saw a massive change since National policy on Education was made in 1986.
Despite so much efforts and policies made education outcomes have declined, with abilities in reading, writing and other comprehensive skills deteriorating among children aged 6 to 14 years
This is supported by Annual Status of Education Report (ASER, 2014), this states that about half of all Class V children in rural India were not able to read a simple paragraph or do basic math.
Now questions arises:
- How do we ensure that children learn basic language and numerical skills?
- How can technology be leveraged to provide quality school education?
- Are teacher performance assessments needed to build a culture of accountability?
- What are the ways to improve community participation in school management?
Evaluations conducted by researchers affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) provide do’s and don’ts to improve learning outcomes of children
Pedagogical solutions:
- A fundamental barrier faced by many children in India is the wide variation in learning levels among students in the same classroom.
- Restructuring classes by learning level, rather than by age or grade, can help children improve learning capabilities.
- LIke Pratham’s Read India programme is doing.
- What is Pratham’s Read India programme?
- Pratham’s flagship program, Read India, aims to improve the reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills of children between 6-14 years.
- Even though India has taken significant strides to improve enrolment levels in schools, a large percentage of children still lack these essential skills.
- Read India is executed with the help of Pratham staff members on the ground and is aided by volunteers from the local community.
- The volunteers are mobilized and trained by the Pratham team. Over the years, state governments have partnered with Pratham to implement the Read India programme.
- Summer camps led jointly by government teachers and volunteers.
An example of this type of setting in rural Haryana in a school, government school teachers with the help of pratham staff, showed improvement in basic Hindi skills.
Technological solutions:
- Technology also be used to ensure that students gain basic competencies in reading and arithmetic.
- Computer-assisted learning programme in Gujarat wherein children played self-paced math games showed large improvements in student math scores.
- Just giving one laptop to one child like in other countries itself does not ensure learning.
School governance:
- Some changes in school governance also improve the learning abilities of children of that school.
- Like incentivizing teacher presence and effort, and putting in place properly designed monitoring and accountability structures.
- Incentivising teacher presence and effort, there are many example monitoring attendance through daily photos of the teachers and linking teachers’ salaries to their attendance was found to be effective.
- Another way is linking teachers’ pay with their students test score performance.
- But Linking linking teachers’ pay with their students test score is having one danger of “teaching to the test”, as seen in an incentive programme for teachers in some countries that raised test scores in the short-term, mainly due to an increase in test preparation rather than broader improvements in learning.
Recognizing the importance of community participation, India’s RTE Act mandates the formation of school management committees
Effectiveness of community monitoring is mixed
- simply informing Village Education Committees about the quality of government schools in their village and about their role and rights did not improve education outcomes.
- In contrast, a programme where school management committees were trained and empowered to oversee recruitment of teachers as well as monitor them showed positive impact on learning outcomes.
Conclusion
- Well-designed reforms in pedagogy and school governance structures are critical to address India’s learning crisis. Going ahead,with new solutions,evaluations are also very important. Learning from findings and implementing them is the most crucial things.
[5] The jobs discourse
Context
- India’s social and economic policymaking should be based on creating jobs
World bank report
- It says a third of 1.8 billion people are not in employment, not in education or training worldwide, they are technically also not unemployed
What is labour force
- People who are employed and people who are actively looking for a job
Why is this happening in India
- Some people are preparing for government jobs exams which vary from civils, railways, police and paramilitary services and others.
- Charitable organisations sponsor aspirants from areas who are less able to get coaching from other institutes
- Although they are doing few small jobs to earn pocket money but it is only after they reach the cut off age they start to actively look for a job and enter the formal workforce
- The problem is lakhs of students compete for few hundred jobs, and in doing so, those who do not qualify have already wasted their precious years, that counts as a huge waste of human capital in India
What China had done
It had created 64 million jobs in its 12th(2011-15) five year plan and also looking to create more jobs in their next five year plan
What India needs to do
- PM has urged people to become an employer, Start-up India and Stand-up India are specifically made for entrepreneurs to create jobs, because to generate 12 million jobs by government every year is not possible by the government
- To create a reliable measure of job creation, because job market which are sometimes flexible get destroyed
[6] The Indo-Us military alliance that isn’t
Issue
- Logistical Exchange Memorandum of Understanding (LEMOA)
Already discussed, refer the following articles:
- Militaries of US-India to share their facilities.
- A firm handshake, not an embrace
- A ‘much-needed message’ to India’s neighbours
India and US are moving towards three “foundational agreements”:-
- Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement or LSA Logistics Support Agreement (LSA)
- Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA)
- Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA)
Key points:
- The signing of these foundational agreements has been equated to a military alliance between India and the US. This is incorrect.
- An assumption has been made that these agreements will upset China and therefore India should show more caution. Even if the assumption is well grounded, the conclusion certainly is not.
Utility of these agreements for India
- The most immediate utility for New Delhi of these agreements is the expected gains in defence co-production with the US as the latter eases the terms of technology transfer.
- For that, the signing of these agreements should be strictly made contingent on US assurance on transfer of technology.
Impediments in the defense partnership
- India’s red tapism
- Offset policies
- The major impediment is Washington’s reluctance to share high-end technology.
Real cause of worry
- India should be more worried about the Russian, rather than the Chinese, response to the signing of these agreements.
- Russia still remains India’s most reliable partner and every step must be taken to keep Moscow in confidence while New Delhi escalates its ties with the US.
- The last thing India needs is a Moscow-Beijing-Rawalpindi axis, even if it comes with Indian preponderance in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
GS PAPER 3
[1] Trading bloc to India: Cut tariffs or exit FTA talks
Context
India has been told to open up trade in products by reducing the import duties by the RCEP members
What happened
India had been asked to leave FTA talks or eliminate tariffs in 11th round held in February
What is RCEP
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement (FTA) between members of ASEAN and six Countries with which ASEAN has FTAs
- RCEP is one among three huge FTA’s in the world, others are:
- Trans Pacific Partnership(TPP) led by US
- Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment partnership(TTIP) between US and EU
- RCEP comprises of 46% of world population
- It accounts for 40% world trade
- 11th round happened in February in Brunei
- 12th round will happen at Perth, Australia in April
ASEAN(Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam)
Six others countries are – Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand
Why the objection
- The trading bloc sees India as obstructing with having a defensive strategy in opening up trade which is delaying the negotiation in FTA’s
- Unhappy and disappointed of India because India only focusing only services or manpower export and not in liberalising trade in goods and also in investment
How people in India see RCEP
- One, so called defensive, group sees it as an indirect FTA with China, if this happens then Chinese products would fill the Indian markets and thus local industries might collapse and also it says we already have FTA’s with ASEAN, Japan and Korea and FTAs with Australia and New Zealand are in working, so why have negotiate FTAs with CPEC
- The other group so called constructive group wants to go ahead with the negotiations and agree with agreements- removing duties(except in agriculture and industrial goods, which are prone to have major impact on economy if FTAs happen in these), it wants to take the opportunities and not be afraid of China
[2] Govt rolls back PF withdrawal norms
News
On 10 feb
- Government announced new rules for provident fund
-
It barred employees from withdrawing their provident fund corpus before retirement
- Employees were not allowed to withdraw their entire PF amount if they had quit or lost their present jobs, making it mandatory for them to wait till 58 years of age for a final settlement.
-
Government put a hold on this new norms for pf and said
- Norms would be relaxed to allow employees buying a house, getting a child married and pursuing professional education and healthcare to withdraw their entire PF savings. A similar exemption was granted to employees who join a government organization.
- decision will be ratified by the trustees of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) soon.
Earlier
- Employees could withdraw their own share of PF savings along with the interest on them. The balance, comprising the employer’s contribution, was to be withheld by the EPFO till the employee attained 58 years of age.
Reason for making it mandatory
- to provide a minimum social security to the workers at the time of retirement. Because 80 per cent of the claims settled pre-maturely.
- People are treating the EPF accounts as savings accounts, and not a social security instrument.
- Amendment to pf was carried out with the consent of trade unions and with the intention of promoting a decent accumulation of provident fund for the members at the end of their working lifetimes.
[3] RBI Governor says forex intervention to continue
What is a ‘Foreign Exchange Intervention’?
- A foreign exchange intervention is a monetary policy tool in which a central bank takes an active participatory role in influencing the monetary funds transfer rate of the national currency.
- Central banks, especially those in developing countries, intervene in the foreign exchange market in order to build reserves, stabilize the exchange rate and to correct misalignments.
- The success of foreign exchange intervention depends on how the central bank sterilizes the impact of its interventions, as well as general macroeconomic policies set by the government.
- Two difficulties that central banks face is determining the timing and amount of intervention, as this is often a judgment call rather than a cold, hard fact.
- The amount of reserves, the type of economic trouble facing the country and the ever changing market conditions makes taking the best course of action difficult.
Objective of Intervention
- Central bank intervention in the operations on the currency market in order to raise or lower the rate of the national currency by selling/buying foreign currency.
- A reduced rate of the national currency can be achieved through the purchase of foreign currency; increased rate is achieved through foreign currency sales.
Road Ahead
- India’s foreign exchange reserves swelled to a record high of $360 billion for the week ended April 1, largely on account of the central bank’s dollar purchases to rein in the rupee’s strength as foreign funds poured into Indian financial markets.
- RBI will continue to use currency intervention to reduce volatility in the country’s exchange rates.
- If there is too much fluctuation in Dollar to rupee exchange rate, we say “rupee is volatile”.
- India will intervene in the currency market when there’s a sustainable risk in global markets and the country sees a flood of capital coming in.
[4] Holds no water + Lessons of thirst
Context
Water crisis in Marathwada region has made the government of Maharashtra ban setting up any new sugar mills for five years
Marathwada
- 90 per cent of Marathwada lacks any irrigation facility, just increasing the budget allocation or announcing new projects is not enough
- Bridging the gap between irrigation capacity created and irrigation capacity utilised, by ensuring periodic de-silting and maintenance of canals would go a long way
Reason why this decision has been taken
- Sugarcane, which is being considered as a water guzzling crop
- It needs 2000 mm of water through flood irrigation, rainfall in the region is 821 mm average, and in 2014 it was 548 mm and in 2015 it was 532 mm
Counter arguments against this decision
- Subsidies in canal irrigation should be stopped because farmers use up more water than what is required
- Sugarcane get assured prices for their produce, if the water is properly metered farmers will more likely go for pulses, oilseeds and cotton which needs less amount of water, and this thereby will depend on farmers how much sugarcane they want to grow seeing the availability of water
- Also sugarcane produces green fodder
- Sugar has generated employment opportunities for many, the drought has given less rainfall in last few years, so blaming sugarcane seems unfair
Refer to related previous article The circle of economy, the cycle of drought
1. The lead article of the day is covered under Editorial Today. Click here to read.
2. Science and Technology and Environment articles has been left out, they will be covered in weekly compilation for next week.
BY: ForumIAS Editorial Team
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