📰 Outbreak of peace: on Ethiopia-Eritrea thaw
Resolution of the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict brings hope for stability and development
•Ethiopia’s decision this month to implement an earlier peace agreement with neighbouring Eritrea brokered by the African Union brings hope, despite the problems that loom ahead. The agreement signed by the two countries in Algiers in December 2000 was intended to bring an end to a conflict triggered by Eritrea, but the pact was never fully implemented. The two neighbours remained deadlocked in a conflict that has over time claimed more than 50,000 lives over a dispute concerning the border town of Badme. A boundaries delimitation commission had awarded the area to Eritrea in 2002, but Ethiopia refused to cede control. The presence of Ethiopian troops served to prolong the confrontation, as Eritrea mobilised its own forces under its autocratic leader, President Isaias Afwerki. The conflict gave the dictator a pretext to expand a large conscription programme, in the process enslaving thousands of young men and women and triggering a mass exodus to European countries. Desperate Eritrean migrants were among the hundreds who drowned off Italy’s Lampedusa island in 2013.
•Ethiopia’s decision to honour the terms of the peace accord is credited to its popular and young Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who assumed office this April. The rapprochement is part of a string of democratic reforms he has unveiled — including lifting the state of emergency, releasing thousands of political prisoners, and removing some Opposition parties from the list of terrorist groups. But there are already rumblings in the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, between the country’s ethnic Oromo majority and the politically dominant Tigrayan minority. The choice of Mr. Ahmed, an Oromo, as Prime Minister was aimed at restoring stability in the light of growing unrest in the community for greater political representation. Unless managed tactfully, these internal tensions within the governing coalition could impede the peace process. For Eritrea, a lasting settlement to the prolonged conflict on the Horn of Africa will constitute a major milestone, one that has come 25 years after it gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, following a prolonged guerrilla war. All the same, the end of hostilities could mean a diminishing role for the military and a loosening of President Afwerki’s grip over the state apparatus. The former rebel leader has resisted holding general elections since independence and has not honoured the 1997 constitution. Restoration of peace and democracy is an urgent priority in both countries, which are among the poorest in the world. Greater transparency and political accountability at home are also prerequisites for stability across the borders. Ethiopia and Eritrea are strategically located, both as gateways for global trade and for counter-terrorism operations. Peace will allow landlocked Ethiopia to access Eritrean ports, and tie the two countries into greater economic cooperation. The international community must step up to engage Ethiopia and Eritrea on fairer terms than it has during the course of the bitter conflict. But the path to redemption will ultimately lie in the political wisdom and vision of their leaders.
📰 Modi meets Cyril Ramaphosa amid media row over visit
Charges on rights violations in J&K almost stalled visit
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday as part of multiple bilaterals scheduled on the sidelines of the BRICs summit in Johannesburg even as local media reported that he had come close to pulling out of the summit.
•A report suggested that Johannesburg had sent Energy Minister Jeff Radebe at the last moment to diffuse a diplomatic crisis that erupted after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of the country wrote to Mr. Modi saying that they were investigating charges by the Muslim Lawyers Association on human rights violations in Kashmir. It was reported that Mr. Radebe explained to New Delhi that the NPA was not empowered to press charges as the Indian PM was protected by the Geneva Convention governing international summits. The Ministry of External Affairs has not commented on this episode so far.
📰 Protect critical personal data of citizens: draft Bill
•The draft personal data protection Bill 2018, submitted by the Justice B.N. Srikrishna-headed expert panel on Friday, has proposed that critical personal data of Indian citizens be processed in centres located within the country.
•The draft law, which comes after a year-long consultation process, however, has left it to the Central government to notify categories of personal data that will be considered as critical.
A copy in India
•Other personal data may be transferred outside the territory of India with some riders. However, at least one copy of the data will need to be stored in India. The draft Bill, which India hopes will become a model framework for protection of personal data for the world, will apply to processing of personal data within India, including the State.
•For data processors not present in India, the Act will apply to those carrying on business in India or other activities such as profiling which could cause privacy harms to data principals in India. The draft also provides for penalties for data processor as well as compensation to data principal to be imposed for violations of the data protection law. It has suggested a penalty of Rs. 15 crore or 4% of the total worldwide turnover of any data collection/processing entity, for violating provisions. Failure to take prompt action on a data security breach can attract up to Rs. 5 crore or 2% of turnover as a penalty.
•Personal data, the draft law states, may be processed on the basis of the consent of the data principal, given no later than at the commencement of the processing. It added that processing of sensitive personal data should be on the basis of “explicit consent.” The law, the committee in its recommendations said, will not have retrospective application and will come into force in a structured and phased manner. “Processing that is ongoing after the coming into force of the law would be covered.”
📰 Faculty numbers dip 2.34 lakh in 3 years
AISHE confirms rising vacancies in higher education
•The total number of teachers in higher educational institutions in India has come down by about 2.34-lakh in the last three years, as per the All India Survey on Higher Education report 2017-18.
•Coming at a time when there has been widespread concern over the continuing vacancies in universities, the report is likely to be an eye-opener on the dearth of teachers in Indian universities.
•The total number of teachers in higher educational institutions in India — inclusive of all posts from professor to temporary teacher — stood at 12.84 lakh in 2017-18. The figure for 2016-17 was 13.65 lakh and that for 2015-16 was 15.18 lakh, signalling a fall of about 2.34 lakh within three years. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, the number had been rising from 12.47 lakh to 15.18 lakh.
•The reason could be that professors who are retiring are not being replaced, and fresh vacancies at all levels are not being filled up.
•“It seems to be a case of sanctioned posts not being filled in State Universities. In Central Universities, there are sanctioned posts and funds, but the problem is that they are not being filled by the universities,” former University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman S.K. Thorat told The Hindu.
•A senior official of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MoHRD) told The Hindu that the 2017-18 figure may have gone down because only teachers who provided their Aadhar numbers were been shown as teachers from this year onward.
‘Continuous process’
•On July 23, 2018, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Vishwanath Gaikwad asked about the vacancies in the Lok Sabha.
•The reply from the MoHRD said: “Occurring and filling up of vacancies is a continuous process. Universities being autonomous institutions, the onus of filling up of vacant teaching posts lies with them.”
📰 India to give flash flood warning to Asian nations
Test version is being tried out by the Meteorological Dept.
•India has been designated as a nodal centre for preparing flash-flood forecasts by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
•That means India will have to develop a customised model that can issue advance warning of floods in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, according to Dr. Madhavan Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.
•On the sidelines of the Earth Sciences Foundation Day, Dr. Rajeevan said the IMD would be working to customise a weather model, developed by the United States and donated to the WMO, to warn of flash floods at least six hours in advance.
Six hours before
•A test version of this, according to Dr. Rajeevan, was being tried out by the IMD, and that was able to give a flood warning about an hour in advance. Using a combination of satellite mapping and ground-based observation, this system — called the Flash Flood Guidance System — aims to provide forecasts six hours in advance.
•Like India, several southeast Asian countries depend on the monsoon and are prone to its vagaries. The proposed model would provide forecasts by computing the likelihood of rainfall and the soil moisture levels to warn of possible floods, he said. Though Pakistan was among the list of countries that would benefit from the forecast, it had refused to participate in the scheme, Dr. Rajeevan added.
•While the science to warn of floods could be developed, India was yet to work out how exactly it would warn countries of potential inundation. India currently has a warning system for tsunamis that also doubles up a warning system for several Asian countries.
•The Central Water Commission, which monitors India’s dams, warns of rising water levels in the reservoirs, which are usually taken to be signs of imminent floods. The organisation has recently tied up with Google to develop a software application to visualise rising water levels during heavy rains.
•The WMO says flash floods account for 85% of flooding incidents across the world, causing some 5,000 deaths each year.
