Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 2
- Namibia decries ‘nuclear apartheid’ {Foreign Policy}
- In a first, diplomats vow to fight for LGBT rights {International Relations}
- India-Bangladesh waterways transit inaugurated in Dhaka {Foreign Policy}
- On this highway, proceed with caution {Foreign Policy}
- The best way to welfare {Governance}
- GS PAPER 3
- Nervous takeoff{Aviation}
- NRIs can now apply online for National Pension Scheme{Economy}
GS PAPER 2
[1]Namibia decries ‘nuclear apartheid’
Issue
- Namibia, the world’s fourth largest uranium producer, signed an agreement with India in 2009 for uranium supply. But it is fettered by a regional pact which prohibits Namibia from selling uranium to India.
What is that regional pact?
- Namibia is a member of the African Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (ANWFZT).
- The treaty bars supply of Uranium to a country which is not a member of NPT(Non-Proliferation Treaty).
- The ANWFZT, also known as the Treaty of Pelindaba, is named after South Africa’s main Nuclear Research Centre, run by the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation.
- It was the location where South Africa’s atomic bombs of the 1970s were developed, constructed and subsequently stored.
What is suggested by Namibian president to tackle this?
- Namibia asked New Delhi to come up with similar agreements with other countries to help it convince the ANWFZT members.
- So far, India has signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements with 12 countries, including the United States, Russia, Korea and Japan.
[2] In a first, diplomats vow to fight for LGBT rights
Issue
- Diplomats of 27 countries issued a statement on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) rights
Analysis
- It was done on the occasion of a programme organised by American centre which was attended by several embassies as part of their month-long commemoration of LGBTI “Pride Month”, marking specially for the victims of the Orlando nightclub massacre in the U.S.
- The statement, issued mainly by countries in Europe, North and South America “reaffirmed a strong commitment to equal rights for LGBTI citizens.
Its significance for India
- The comments were significant as India continues to keep its British-era law Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalises LGBTI acts.
- The European diplomat said he hoped the “difficulties” for gay communities in India would end. “This cannot happen (with pressure) from outside, from us, but had to come from inside.
- In the joint statement issued by Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, U.K., USA, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain and Sweden amongst others, diplomats recorded that “India has long recognised a community of five to six million third gender Indians as citizens”.
[3]India-Bangladesh waterways transit inaugurated in Dhaka
Issue
- The India-Bangladesh waterways transit, carrying goods from Kolkata, was inaugurated on Thursday in Dhaka.
Background
- The opening is part of the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade signed by the Prime Ministers of the two nations last year.
- The transit would reduce the transportation cost substantially to carry goods from rest of India to country’s north-east as the distance reduces from about 1,700 km via Siliguri in north Bengal to about 500 km via Bangladesh.
Analysis
- In a first for New Delhi-Dhaka relations, the vessel carrying Indian goods consigned for Tripura marked the official transit to India’s north-east via the inland waterways of Bangladesh.
- The event marked the “first official transit [to India’s] North East via Bangladesh.”
- India will be investing in creating infrastructure (Port, Road and Rail) in Ashuganj and Akhaura, Bangladesh, to facilitate the smooth movement of goods.
[4]On this highway, proceed with caution
Issue
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event-filled visit to the United States, from June 6-8, has just ended, and he addressed a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress during this visit.
Analysis of PM’s address
- The Prime Minister came through as more restrained this time when compared to previous occasions.
- In his address the Prime Minister was more statesman than politician.
- Mr. Modi displayed a high degree of strategic wisdom in not launching an attack on China by name. Nor was there any criticism of the U.S. for implicitly acquiescing in Pakistan’s employment of terror as a strategic instrumentality vis-à-vis India.
- The Prime Minister was also careful not to highlight the difference in approach between Capitol Hill and the U.S. administration with regard to Pakistan’s record on terrorism, and the sale of F-16 fighter aircraft to that country.
Some of the takeaways from the visit
Important takeaways are:
(i) creation of a $20 million U.S.-India Clean Energy Finance initiative and a $40 million U.S.-India Catalytic Solar Finance Program, with equal financial contribution from the two countries and
(ii) an announcement that the U.S. recognises India as a “major defense partner”
- In both cases, the benefits are not as unalloyed as they may seem. The former could impede India’s efforts to obtain funds from non-U.S. approved sources, while the major defence partner label is unlikely to lead to a firm commitment by the U.S. to part with the entire range of “dual-use technologies”, as export of sensitive U.S. technologies is solely dictated by U.S. law.
- The coincidence of India of being admitted into the 34-member Missile Technology Control Regime during the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington adds little to India’s hopes of securing the entire range of “dual-use technologies”.
- Announcement of the start of preparatory work in India for six Westinghouse nuclear reactors does mark a significant thaw in civil nuclear matters after the deep freeze of many years. When completed, this should substantially raise the share of nuclear energy in India’s energy mix.
- However, while the Joint Statement avers that this had become possible on account of India ratifying the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, it left unsaid whether it also takes into account the specific obligations imposed under India’s Nuclear Liability law.
What is Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage?
- It sets parameters on a nuclear operator’s financial liability.
- It Seeks to establish a uniform global legal regime for compensation to victims in the unlikely event of a nuclear accident.
- It provides a uniform framework for channelling liability and providing speedy compensation after the nuclear accident.
Language and interpretations of some key issues
- A degree of opacity and vagueness surrounds the language employed with regard to some key issues, lending itself to differing interpretations.
- Uncertainty exists regarding the signing of the bilateral Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). The wording is delightfully vague, viz . that it would now be inked after “finalization of its text”. This could either mean it stands deferred or that it is a done deal.
- The absence of specific mention of the South China Sea (SCS) in the Joint Statement, though the SCS had found specific mention in the 2014 and 2015 summit statements, could have been passed off as a concession to Chinese concerns.
Taking on China
- All this of course involves hard choices. Care has to be taken to see that the price paid is not too high.
- The Obama administration had pronounced that the U.S. is “committed” to help India build its defense capabilities until it can be the “net provider of security in Asia”, regardless of whether or not there is a formal U.S.-India alliance. Thus U.S. expects India to act as a kind of bridgehead for an “anti-China alliance” in Asia.
- The paradox is that all this is taking place when evidence shows that many countries are moving closer to China. Even the U.S. is seen taking several conciliatory postures notwithstanding its periodic declamations against Chinese “expansionism”.
- Vietnam, a country which India has developed close relations with, is currently making overtures to China. At this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, considerable bonhomie was noticeable between the Chinese and Vietnamese delegations.
- Russia has more recently gone much closer to China.
Analysis
- Given this backdrop, India needs to carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of having too close a relationship with the U.S. Despite the current warmth in India-U.S. relations, the U.S.’s and India’s objectives still remain far apart. U.S. dependence on Pakistan is unlikely to shift substantially due to continuing U.S. interest in Afghanistan and Central Asia.
- While New Delhi would like Washington to consult it more actively on Afghanistan, there is little evidence that this was on the agenda during the recent Obama-Modi meeting.
- India and the U.S. also remain far apart on global trade. The U.S. is neither favourably inclined to accommodate India in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations nor has pressed strongly for India’s membership of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
- Arms sales and security dominate the U.S. agenda. India’s objectives are very different. It is not in India’s interest to be involved in any kind of showdown in the South China Sea, which involves an established superpower and a presumptive one, or to align with the U.S. to prevent China from dominating Asia.
[5]The best way to welfare
Issue
- Swiss voted against the idea of a Universal Basic Income.
What is universal basic income?
- A basic income is an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement. It is a form of minimum income guarantee that differs from those that now exist in various European countries in three important ways:
- It is being paid to individuals rather than households;
- It is paid irrespective of any income from other sources;
- It is paid without requiring the performance of any work or the willingness to accept a job if offered.
How Switzerland decides on policy matters
- They decide on policy by referendums — if a hundred thousand Swiss sign up to request that there be a vote on a particular reform, the results of the vote are binding on the government.
Why Swiss people voted against it
- The reasons varied — some were against the principle of giving people money for “doing nothing”. Fiscal conservatives were worried about the budgetary implications.
- Then there were those who were worried, mostly in the teeth of the evidence, that people will stop working — why would you clean houses for a living, if you have a cushion of 2,500 Swiss francs to live off?
- Finally, there was the right-wing paranoia that is everywhere these days — the fear of the migrant hordes coming to drink at the Swiss honeypot.
Even after poll why the debate continues
- The reason, in part, is that everyone in the West is very worried about the future of the labour market, with automatisation growing apace and robots starting to take over many manual and non-manual occupations. In particular, those who believe that we are headed to a future where only a small elite will be employable, are obviously very interested in how we can break the currently intimate connection between work and the standard of living, so that people are free to find something useful and pleasant to do with their time without the compulsion of feeding their families. Universal basic income, of course, is one way to get there.
- But even before we get there (if we do), there is the question of whether the current, multifariously fractured system of welfare, where multiple authorities give out different subsidies (money, food, housing, travel, education, healthcare), guided by their own priorities and targets (the young or the old, the mother or the child, the poor or the indigent), makes any sense. Why not have one universal basic subsidy that covers everything (perhaps except health and education) and let people decide how they will spend it, rather than trying to target subsidies based on our imperfect knowledge of what people need and deserve.
Its relevance in India
- Experts claims that the number of extant government “welfare schemes” exceeds 350, though most of those programmes are not much more than a name, an office and a few underemployed bureaucrats. Moreover, many of our bigger schemes, like MGNREGS or PDS, are far from being well targeted or well run.
- Thus some experts suggest that why not replace all schemes) by a single Universal Basic Income of, say, Rs 250 a week, which entitles every adult resident to a minimum weekly income as long as they verify their identity using Aadhaar (or in some other way) every week.
- The verification process will serve the dual purpose of making sure there is no fraud and discouraging the rich, who will find it unpleasant and a waste of time, from claiming a subsidy they don’t need.
Benefit of this
- At the very least, this will reduce poverty and free up the bureaucracy to do other things.
- But potentially, the benefits could be much larger. For example, the poor, liberated from having to worry about where their next meal or school fee will come from, might plan their lives better and invest more effectively in their children and their businesses.
- There is a privately financed pilot experiment covering several thousand poor households in Kenya run by the NGO GiveDirectly starting in the next few months that will offer us a chance to learn whether these hopes are well-founded.
GS PAPER 3
[1]Nervous takeoff + About to take off
Issue
- Critical analysis of the Civil Aviation Policy
- For background, refer to Govt. clears civil aviation policy, makes flying cheaper + New aviation policy a pie in the sky, say private airlines.
Regional Connectivity Scheme
- There will be demand driven selection of Airports/airstrips for revival in consultation with State Govts and airlines.
- But aiming for a Rs.2,500 air ticket for hour-long flights by securing concessions from States and airports and subsidising airlines is a populist gesture which reminds us of the old times of licence-permit raj.
No more 5/20
- 5/20 essentially required that a domestic airline must have operated for five years and must have at least 20 aircraft before it could offer overseas services.
- It has been replaced by a 0/20 which requires airlines to have a fleet of 20 aircrafts and no additional requirement of five years of domestic operations to fly international.
- But quick offers of international routes may not mean much for new airlines; it is not financially feasible to scale up to a fleet of 20 aircraft just to get the right to deploy the next one on an overseas route.
- The government should do away with the 20 aircraft requirement as well.
Open Sky Policy
- An open sky policy with SAARC countries is a positive step.
- But it has a misleading ring when applied to countries beyond a 5,000-km radius. India already has unused flying rights to EU countries and an open-sky policy with the U.S. and the U.K.
Cheaper travel
- The policy promises to bring down airport user charges and make flying cheaper.
- But the future tariffs at airports will be calculated on a hybrid till basis that allows operators to use just 30 per cent of non-aeronautical revenues to subsidise costs.
- This would not only push up airport costs, but also run counter to the single till approach followed by the independent airport economic regulator.
Conclusion
- The government scores high on intent but the new policy has gaps that need to be plugged.
- The government should do all it can to ensure that the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs in the civil aviation sector are low.
- It should also focus on better and swift regulation to deal with anti-competitive practices by individual airlines.
[2]NRIs can now apply online for National Pension Scheme
News
- The Government has announced that non-resident Indians (NRIs) can now open National Pension Scheme (NPS) accounts online.
Key points
- India has the second-largest diaspora in the world, with around 29 million people living in over 200 countries and out of these 25 per cent live in the Gulf countries.
- Requirement to open an account is an Aadhaar or PAN card.
- NRIs will get to open these NPS accounts on both repatriable and non-repatriable basis.
- On a repatriable basis, an NRI will have to remit the amount through his/her NRE/FCNR/NRO account.
- For Non-repatriable scheme, NRIs will be able to join NPS through their NRE/FCNR/NRO accounts. At the time of maturity or during partial withdrawal, the NPS funds would be deposited only in their NRO accounts.
- Both repatriable and non-repatriable schemes will greatly appeal to NRIs who intend to return to India after their employment abroad, in view of their attractive returns, low cost, flexibility and their being regulated by the PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority), a regulator established by the Central Government
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