- NATIONAL
- International
- Editorial Opinion
- Demonetisation and after / When cash is not king / Economists see ‘short-term pain, long-term gain’ / Eye on the big prize
- Hope floats in Colombia
- The breakthrough with Japan / India, Japan and a new regional architecture
- The Legal Aid Lifeline
- Forest rights and wrongs
- A large accumulation of small defeats
- Improving India’s job creation ranking
Click here to Download 9 PM Daily Brief PDF (15th November 2016)
NATIONAL
[1]. Azhar: Uri out of India’s proposal to U.N.
Context: India to submit a proposal before United Nations sanction committee to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as an international terrorist.
Masood Azhar: Founder and leader of UN-designated terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Arrested by India in 1994 was later released in 1999 for the exchange of passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight (IC814). Presently, in protective custody of Pakistan after accusation of Pathankot attack.
UN Sanctions Committee: A subsidiary body of the security council. Sanctions offer the Security Council an important instrument to enforce its decisions. The Council has resorted to mandatory sanctions as an enforcement tool when peace has been threatened and diplomatic efforts have failed.
The Story so far: India has submitted the proposal twice earlier only to be put on technical hold by China first in March’ 16 and then in October’16.
The irony: JeM has been designated a terror outfit by UN in 2001, but its founder, financier, and motivator is still not a designated Internationa terrorist.
The implication: It makes one question the composition and functioning of Security council. As India raised the confusing selective approach to terrorism.
Why India drops Azhar name from Uri Attack?
The modus operandi of Uri attack is much similar in style of LeT than JeM. Also, National Investigative Agency (NIA) is still probing the matter, and there is no evidence as such to connect it to JeM leader.
INTERNATIONAL
[1]. China insists on NPT for NSG entry
Context: India’s repeated effort to enter 48 member export control group of nuclear weapons i.e. Nuclear Suppliers Group. And, China’s continuous stand against the same. This is again in news due to Indo – Japan Nuclear Agreement during the visit of India’s PM Narendra Modi to Japan.
The agenda of Vienna Meet of NSG: To discuss the “technical, legal and political aspects of non-NPT states’ participation in the NSG,” First attempt since inception of NSG in 1975 to allow entry of non NPT signatory in NSG.
China’s Stand: China is against any preferential treatment meted out to India. Whatever formulae is agreed upon should be applicable to all non NPT signatory seeking entry into NSG. Also, the forumlae should be non-discriminatory; without prejudice to the core value of the NSG and the effectiveness, authority and integrity of the international non-proliferation regime with the NPT as its cornerstone; and without contradicting the customary international law in the field of non-proliferation.”
India’s Stand: India sees NPT and NSG as two different entity. NSG is only concerned with export control and has nothing to do with proliferation. Hence, NPT signatory is not a valid condition put forward to India to gain membership of NSG.
[2]. Israeli President arrives on 6-day visit
Israeli President: Reuven Rivlin
Only the second president after Ezer Weizman (1997), to visit India.
The focus of the visit is on agricultual co-operation.
Editorial/OPINION
[1]. Demonetisation and after / When cash is not king / Economists see ‘short-term pain, long-term gain’ / Eye on the big prize / Better regulation for a less-cash economy
The Hindu | The Hindu | The Hindu | Indian Express | Live Mint
A comprehensive article on Demonetisation and its different aspects and dimensions will be created and Published on next week Tuesday based on all the editorials till Monday.
[2]. Hope floats in Colombia
Context: Peace deal between Government and rebels of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The Issue: The earlier accord has been rejected in the vote and repeated referendum can lead to political and moral deficit casting doubts over current effort.
Fact: The Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was awarded Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless effort to bring peace in Colombia.
The deal: The author says the deal look no way more effective than previous deals but the changing economic scenario which is gaining momentum in the country can see through the deal to its end.
The Debate: Should the leaders of FARC be allowed to participate in the political process?
The president has the provision enumerated in the deal as he thinks that any peace process anywhere in the world has provided a legal route to politics for rebel groups.
The people against it cities violation of rule of law if political eligibility is provided to criminals.
Also, chances of FARC top officials being rewarded public posts has augmented the sentiment of voter against the deal.
[3]. The breakthrough with Japan / India, Japan, and a new regional architecture
Context: The recent and second visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan.
The Pacts/ Achievements:
- supporting India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and
- rationalising the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train timeline to
- easing of Indian student visas,
- training of 30,000 Indians in Japanese-style manufacturing practices, and
- merging of India’s “Act East Policy” with Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy”
- Tokyo is also stepping up its infrastructure investment in India with the two sides even taking forward potential Japanese investment in India’s development of the Chabahar port in Iran.
The Nuclear Deal and its imporatnce:
India become first Non NPT signatory with whom Japan has signed Nuclear Deal. There is a provision that Japan can strike down deal if Indian carries out any further Nuclear Test.
This will help India – US Nuclear deal become operational where parent companies of US based nuclear companies are Japanese. For e.g. Westinghouse belongs to Toshiba.
Why there is a larger co-operation between India and Japan?
- India and Japan are equally suspicious of China.
- Japan is skeptic of US commitments in East Asia for some time . Also, win of Donald Trump magnifies the skepticism.
- Trump’s election has also increased the uncertainties for India
- Defence cooperation with India, comprising sales, co-production and co-development of military hardware and joint military exercises, can help Japan outgrow some of its constitutional restrictions while Abe builds domestic opinion favouring a greater role for the Japanese military.
- Abe envision a “broader Asia”, linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans to form the Indo-Pacific and reconstituting Japan’s role as a security provider in the region and beyond, India seems most willing to acknowledge Tokyo’s centrality in shaping the evolving security architecture in the Indo-Pacific.
[4]. The Legal Aid Lifeline
Context: The recent escape and encounter of 8 SIMI members in Bhopal. The article looks into deaths in police custody due to torture.
The article looks into loopholes of police functioning and training, which has led to deaths in police custody.
For the author the solution is:
Access to lawyers. Legal rights are denied because there is no one to defend people against violations. The availability of lawyer at the earliest point in the investigation can reduce the vulnerability to torture for an arrested person.
The Law: The 1987 Legal Service Authorities Act mandates free legal aid to persons in “custody”, but there are no legal aid schemes or practical procedures that lay down what needs to be done to get lawyers to the police stations
How can it be tackled?
- The National Legal Services Authority should design processes that ensure lawyers are either stationed at police stations on a rotational basis or available on call.
- Police must be instructed to contact the closest legal aid committee after every arrest
- Lawyers must be given unhindered access to confer with the arrested person before interrogation and allowed to sit in during interrogation
- The assesment of lawyers against the due process also needs to be done.
[5]. Forest rights and wrongs
The issues plaguing the Forests Right Act (FRA)
- Intended initially for tribals communities only, was later extended to all forest dwellers.
- Individual rights trumped community rights. evidence lies in statistics of ministry of tribal affairs report on FRA implementation. Claim of individual rights enables them to encash real estate and other financial opportunities
- No time limit was definitively set. This has led to “deforest, encroach and claim rights”.
The challenges that is being faced by the forest communities.
- Encroachers are not being evicted even after their claims have been rejected
- Most lands allotted are unfit for agriculture, which leads them to be employed as landless labour on larger estates.
- The allotment of such lands means that the tribal families have to survive on sustenance farming without access to water, sanitation, health, education and medical facilities
[6]. A large accumulation of small defeats
Has been covered under the Editorial Today segment for today. Click Here to read
[7]. Improving India’s job creation ranking
Context: Issue of Global Competitiveness Index by World Economic Forum. India was ranked 39th gaining 16 places over the previous index.
Issue: India’s performance is low when compared to global standard. Also, there are many a challenges in her pathways.
These challenges are reflected in
- high average tariff that India is maintaining on its imports
- low level of factor accumulation
- relatively high incremental capital-output ratio
- less than optimal domestic regulatory environment
- near absence of regulatory harmonization
These are also reasons for India not improving her rank in ease of doing business Index released by World Bank.
India’s Performance on other indexes
- Gender Gap indicator of women’s health, India is third last.
- Global hunger index, India lies among the bottom group of countries
The Job Creation:
India GDP has grown over past two years, but the number of jobs created in 2015 is way less than earlier years. This reflects exclusionary nature of GDP growth.
The Reason:
- Much growth is in services sector – which require middle to high skill people, this leaves poor and unskilled dry,
- Agriculture and manufacturing have ceased to offer large scale employment. This was where most of the poor were dependent for the job.
- Lack of quality and affordable healthcare and education robs the poor of opportunity to compete with their well-off counterparts in the job market
The consequences of theses has been:
- poor get stuck in unproductive agricultural activities
- under employed in informal structure
- India remaining a low middle-income country for over a couple of decades.
To create jobs the focus need to be on:
- productive agriculture and – will provide a continuous push towards the growth of domestic aggregate demand accompanied by socio-political stability
- mass manufacturing – help India get embedded into global production networks
How can this be done?
- emphasis on micro, small and medium enterprises
- reforming factor markets such as land, labour, capital, and attracting investment in those labour-intensive sectors which are expected to be vacated by East and South-East Asian countries
- structural reforms in its factor markets, rather than short-term cyclical reforms
- we need continuous regulatory harmonization
Given the sluggishness in international trade negotiations, time is on India’s side for undertaking such reforms
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