📰 Home Ministry puts Assam Rifles notification on hold
To revisit the matter in consultation with States concerned.
•The Union Home Ministry has kept its order that empowered Assam Rifles, deployed along the Myanmar border, to arrest anyone and search a place without warrant in border districts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram “in abeyance.”
•The notification was withheld after Opposition parties moved an adjournment motion against the order in the Assam Assembly. Home Ministry said the matter would be “revisited in consultation with the State governments concerned.”
•The notification said “an officer of the rank corresponding to that of the lowest rank of members of the Assam Rifles” will have the powers under the CrPC.
•It is not clear why the notification included Assam, as the State does not share its border with Myanmar. Assam Rifles has power to detain anyone where Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) is in place. But it was finding it difficult to operate in Mizoram, which is not covered by AFSPA. Entire Assam is under AFSPA. Assam Rifles, a central armed police force (CAPF) came into being in 1835. It is under the administrative control of the Home Ministry and operational control of the Army.
•A senior government official said after the Assam Rifles Act was amended in 2006, the powers under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) earlier available to it under the Assam Rifles Act, 1941, were not restored.
•The official said 13 years after the Act was amended, the issue has acquired urgency for effective enforcement of the Free Movement Regime along the Myanmar border (on the 16 km belt on either side). The Free Movement Regime was streamlined after the bilateral agreement between India and Myanmar on Land Border Crossing was finalised in 2018. “This will require giving suitable powers to Border Guarding Forces under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Passport Act, 1967 and Passport Entry into India Act, 1920,” the official explained.
•Assam Rifles personnel will exercise these powers and discharge their duties “under sub-section(1) of section 41, sections 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 149, 150, 151 and 152 of the CrPC within the local limits of the area comprised within the border districts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram,” the notification said. Section 41 of the CrPC states that any police officer may, without an order from a magistrate and without a warrant, arrest any person. Section 47 gives powers for search of place entered by person sought to be arrested.
Direction follows post-Pulwama troubles
•The Supreme Court on Friday firmly directed the Centre, the Chief Secretaries and the police chiefs of several States to ensure that Kashmiris and minority communities, especially students, are protected from any backlash in the aftermath of the February 14 Pulwama terror attack.
‘Be proactive’
•A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, issued notice and ordered the Chief Secretaries and police chiefs across several sensitive States to be proactive to nip any efforts by mobs to take the law into their hands. State police chiefs have been asked to direct officers to take prompt action on complaints.
•The Supreme Court, in its order, also provided the contact details of nodal officers in 35 States and Union Territories.
•These officers are charged with protecting Kashmiris and minorities in their respective jurisdictions.
Officers put in charge
•“Nodal officers would take necessary steps to prevent acts of violence, discrimination and other coercive acts against Kashmiris (including students enrolled with the institutions in the respondent States and the Union Territories) and other minorities in the wake of the terrorist attack,” the court said.
•Reflecting the matter’s urgency, the Bench took up the petition filed by advocate Tariq Adeeb, represented by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, as the first item for hearing though it had been numbered 51 in the day’s list of cases.
📰 Without land or recourse
The Supreme Court order on the eviction of forest dwellers raises very disturbing questions
•The order of the Supreme Court issued on February 13 with respect to the claims of forest-dwelling peoples in India — the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers — is a case of the Supreme Court speaking against itself. In effect, the court has ordered the eviction of lakhs of people whose claims as forest dwellers have been rejected under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, or FRA. That this order negates the claims of citizens under special protection of the Constitution, viz. the Scheduled Tribes and other vulnerable communities already pushed by gross governmental neglect precariously to the edge, is another matter altogether. The question before us today centres on the responsibility of the Supreme Court in upholding constitutional claims and equal citizenship.
The background
•The order in question was issued in the case of Wildlife First & Ors v. Ministry of Forest and Environment & Ors. The question before the court as stated in the order of 2016 when the matter was last heard related to “the constitutional validity of the [FRA] and also the questions pertaining to the preservation of forests in the context of the above-mentioned Act.” The details regarding claims made under the FRA that were placed before the court by the petitioner in 2016 showed that of the 44 lakh claims filed before appropriate authorities in the different States, 20.5 lakh claims (46.5%) were rejected. The order of 2016 went on to observe: “Obviously, a claim in the context of the above-mentioned Act is based on an assertion that a claimant has been in possession of a certain parcel of land located in the forest areas.” True. A claim is made either for individual or community rights by the people/communities covered by the FRA. This is a plain reading of the Act, which is unambiguous on this score.
•From here, however, that order did a jurisprudential somersault to observe, “If the claim is found to be not tenable by the competent authority, the result would be that the claimant is not entitled for the grant of any Patta or any other right under the Act but such a claimant is also either required to be evicted from that parcel of land or some other action is to be taken in accordance with law” (emphasis added). This was the material part of the order. In other words, the claimant cannot contest the decision of the authority, said the court. With respect to action to be taken against those “unauthorisedly in possession of forest land”, the States were then asked by the Supreme Court to report on concrete measures taken to evict the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers from the forest. In the very next paragraph, which pertained to the State of Tamil Nadu, the order referred to action against those people whose claims had been rejected as “eviction of encroachers”.
What now?
•In the present order of February 2019, the Supreme Court specifically directs governments in 21 States by name to carry out evictions of rejected claimants without further delay and report on or before July 12. There are several questions that must be foregrounded for immediate attention.
•The most obvious one has to do with the meanings attached to the rejection of claims. According to the 2014 report of the High-Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities in India, constituted by the Government of India (Xaxa Committee), 60% of the forest area in the country is in tribal areas — protected by Article 19(5) and Schedules V and VI of the Constitution. With specific reference to claims under the FRA, reiterating the finding of several other studies that have documented the deep procedural flaws in processing claims, the Xaxa Committee observed that “claims are being rejected without assigning reasons, or based on wrong interpretation of the ‘OTFD’ definition and the ‘dependence’ clause, or simply for lack of evidence or ‘absence of GPS survey’ (lacunae which only require the claim to be referred back to the lower-level body), or because the land is wrongly considered as ‘not forest land’, or because only forest offence receipts are considered as adequate evidence. The rejections are not being communicated to the claimants, and their right to appeal is not being explained to them nor its exercise facilitated.” The mere rejection of claims by the state therefore does not add up to a finding of the crime of “encroachment” — the sheer volume of rejections should instead set alarm bells ringing in the court of procedural improprieties.
•Interestingly, in this case it appears as if a private party — Wildlife First — is pitted against the state. A closer examination reveals that it is, in fact, Wildlife First and the state together which have joined forces against the most vulnerable communities in the country living in areas constitutionally protected from encroachment even by the state — can we forget the stellar Samata judgment of the Supreme Court in 1997?
•Why must we worry about this order of the Supreme Court in 2019? As has been widely reported, the immediate result will be the forced eviction of over one million people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes and other forest communities. Importantly, the area marked for eviction falls under areas designated under Schedule V and Schedule VI of the Constitution — there is no reference to the implications for governance in the Scheduled Areas and whether the Supreme Court, in fact, has the authority to order evictions of Scheduled Tribes from Scheduled Areas. In a democratic country with citizens (not subjects) and a written Constitution which is affirmed by the people who are sovereign, how can we countenance the dismantling of an entire constitutional apparatus that prescribes the non-derogable boundaries to Adivasi homelands and institutional mechanisms that promote autonomy and restrain interference in self-governance?
Against the safeguards
•At an even more fundamental level, we are speaking of special protections under the Constitution — even more today than ever before. The presence of Article 19(5) in the Fundamental Rights chapter of the Constitution, which specifically enjoins the state to make laws “for the protection of the interests of any Scheduled Tribe”, is vital. How has the Supreme Court ordered the eviction in complete disregard of this core and express fundamental right protection to Adivasis (as distinct from legal/statutory protection), which protects them from a range of state and non-state intrusions in Scheduled Areas as well as from the perennial threat of eviction from their homelands? Is it not the supreme obligation of the Supreme Court to protect the Scheduled Tribes and other vulnerable communities from the grave harms of violent dispossession?
•Finally, in the recent judgments of the apex court on the right to privacy and Section 377, the court has sung paeans to autonomy, liberty, dignity, fraternity and constitutional morality — the pillars of transformative constitutionalism. It is the same court in the same era that has now ordered the dispossession of entire communities protected under the Constitution. We, as citizens, have every reason to worry.
📰 Centre lists projects to stop flow of India’s share of water to Pak.
Ravi-Beas link below Ujh will help, says Water Ministry
•A day after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said India had decided to “stop” the flow of its share of river water to Pakistan, the Water Resources Ministry on Friday issued details of various projects being implemented for the same.
•The Indus system comprises the rivers Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. The basin is mainly shared between India and Pakistan with a small share for China and Afghanistan, the Ministry said in the statement.
•Under the Indus Water Treaty signed by India and Pakistan in 1960, the waters of three rivers — Ravi, Sutlej and Beas (eastern rivers) of about 33 million acre feet (MAF) were allocated to India for exclusive use.
•About 2 MAF of water annually from the Ravi is reported to be still flowing unutilised to Pakistan below Madhopur.
•Among India’s various schemes is the Shahpurkandi project that will help in utilising the water from the Thein dam to irrigate 37,000 hectares of land in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, and generate 206 MW of power, the statement said.
•Another facility is the Ujh multipurpose project that will create a storage of about 781 million cubic metre of water on river Ujh , a tributary of Ravi.
•The third project is the second Ravi-Beas link below Ujh, the statement said.
📰 ‘Audit source code of VVPATs, EVMs’
‘Lack of independent review has put democracy in peril’
•The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Election Commission to respond to a petition for an audit of the source code of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) and electronic voting machines (EVMs) in light of the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
•A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi decided to examine the petition filed by advocate Sunil Ahya, who said EVMs ran the risk of tampering as there was no review of their software. Mr. Ahya submitted there should be an independent audit and subsequent locking of the source code to prevent tampering.
•The source code, the brain of the machine, played a crucial role in the conduct of fair elections.
•The lack of review or an independent audit put democracy in peril, and encroached upon the fundamental right of freedom of expression, Mr. Ahya, who appeared in person, submitted.
•The petitioner sought directions to register a hash function of the source code with an appropriate public authority, as part of software audit review process.
📰 China uses DNA to track its people, with U.S. help
Govt. is preparing a DNA database that could be used to chase down Uighurs who resist Beijing’s plans, say rights groups
•The authorities called it a free health check. Tahir Imin had his doubts.
•They drew blood from the 38-year-old Muslim, scanned his face, recorded his voice and took his fingerprints. They didn’t bother to check his heart or kidneys, and they rebuffed his request to see the results.
•“They said, ‘You don’t have the right to ask about this’,” Mr. Imin said. “If you want to ask more,’ they said, ‘you can go to the police’.”
•Mr. Imin was one of millions of people caught up in a vast Chinese campaign of surveillance and oppression. To give it teeth, Chinese officials are collecting DNA — and they got unlikely corporate and academic help from the U.S. to do it.
•China wants to make the country’s Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, more subservient to the Communist Party. It has detained up to 1 million people in what China calls “re-education” camps, drawing condemnation from human rights groups and a threat of sanctions from the Trump administration.
•Collecting genetic material is a key part of China’s campaign, according to human rights groups and Uighur activists. They say a comprehensive DNA database could be used to chase down any Uighurs who resist conforming to the campaign.
•Police forces in the U.S. and elsewhere use genetic material from family members to find suspects and solve crimes. Chinese officials, who are building a broad nationwide database of DNA samples, have cited the crime-fighting benefits of China’s own genetic studies.
U.S. company
•To bolster their DNA capabilities, scientists affiliated with China’s police used equipment made by Thermo Fisher, a Massachusetts company. For comparison with Uighur DNA, they also relied on genetic material from people around the world that was provided by Kenneth Kidd, a prominent Yale University geneticist.
•On Wednesday, Thermo Fisher said it would no longer sell its equipment in Xinjiang, the part of China where the campaign to track Uighurs is mostly taking place. The company said it was working with U.S. officials to figure out how its technology was being used.
•Mr. Kidd said he had been unaware of how his material and know-how were being used. He said he believed Chinese scientists were acting within scientific norms that require informed consent by DNA donors.
•China’s campaign poses a direct challenge to the scientific community and the way it makes cutting-edge knowledge publicly available. The campaign relies in part on public DNA databases and commercial technology, much of it made or managed in the U.S. In turn, Chinese scientists have contributed Uighur DNA samples to a global database, potentially violating scientific norms of consent.
•Cooperation from the global scientific community “legitimises this type of genetic surveillance,” said Mark Munsterhjelm, an assistant professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario who has closely tracked the use of U.S. technology in Xinjiang.
•In Xinjiang, in northwestern China, the programme was known as “Physicals for All.” From 2016-17, nearly 36 million people took part in it, according to Xinhua. Officials collected DNA samples, images of irises and other personal data, according to Uighurs and rights groups. Xinjiang has a population of about 24.5 million.
‘Internal use’
•In a statement, the Xinjiang government denied that it collects DNA samples as part of the free medical check-ups. It said the DNA machines that were bought by Xinjiang officials were for “internal use”. China has for decades maintained an iron grip in Xinjiang. In recent years, it has blamed Uighurs for a series of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China, including a 2013 incident in which a driver struck two people in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
•In late 2016, the Communist Party embarked on a campaign to turn the Uighurs and other largely Muslim minority groups into loyal supporters. The government locked up hundreds of thousands of them in what it called job training camps, touted as a way to escape poverty, backwardness and radical Islam. It also began to take DNA samples.
📰 Saudi Arabia, China cement ties during Crown Prince’s visit
Riyadh distances itself from Beijing’s approach in Xinjiang
•China and Saudi Arabia have cemented ties based on a stronger energy relationship as well as Riyadh’s decision to distance itself from the controversy surrounding Beijing’s approach towards Xinjiang.
•Saudi Arabia has also pledged support for the Belt and Road Initiative — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature connectivity enterprise.
•A statement by the Saudi energy giant, Aramco, said the company had agreed to set up a joint venture with China’s military equipment heavyweight, Norinco. The two would build a refining and petrochemical complex, worth more than $10 billion in the northeastern Chinese city of Panjin.
•They would form the Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Company — a new firm that would include a refinery processing 300,000 barrels per day, as well as an ethylene cracker. The deal was signed during Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to China.
•Reuters referred to a report from Chinese state-television, which quoted President Xi as saying that the two countries must strengthen international cooperation on de-radicalisation to “prevent the infiltration and spread of extremist thinking”.
•According to the report, Prince Mohammed told President Xi that Riyadh respected and supported China’s right to protect its own security and take counter-terror and de-radicalisation steps.
•The state-run English language China Global Television Network also quoted President Xi as saying that Beijing and Riyadh should promote counter-terrorism cooperation in West Asia, strengthen international cooperation, and prevent the spread of “extreme ideas”.
📰 International Olympic Committee halts talks with India after denial of visa to Pakistan shooters
India denied visas to Pakistani shooters for the World Cup that starts on Saturday in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, which killed 40 CRPF personnel.
•India’s future as a host for sporting events remained uncertain following a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday.
•The issue arose when India refused visa requests from two Pakistani shooters expected to participate in the ongoing ISSF World Cup here on Saturday.
•In a letter to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the IOC made it clear that all future international sporting events in India would be put on hold unless the host gave a written guarantee that there would be no discrimination on participation of athletes.
Seeks written guarantee
•“The IOC Executive Board decided to suspend all discussions with the Indian NOC and government regarding the potential applications for hosting future sports and Olympic-related events in India, until clear written guarantees are obtained from the Indian government to ensure the entry of all participants in such events in full compliance with the rules of the Olympic Charter – and to recommend that the IFs neither award to nor hold sports events in India until the above-mentioned guarantees are obtained,” the IOC ruled.
•According to the IOC, it was “informed on 18 February that the Indian government authorities failed to grant an entry visa to the Pakistani delegation comprising two athletes and one official who were meant to participate in the ISSF World Cup. This is a qualification competition for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in which direct quotas are earned by the respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs). The two Pakistani athletes were due to compete in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event, starting on Saturday, in which two quota places are available for the Games.”
•The IOC decided to restrict the withdrawal of recognition as an Olympic qualification event to the 25m rapid fire pistol competition in which the two Pakistani athletes were supposed to participate. “This happened in the interest of the other 500 athletes from 61 countries participating in the other events,” the IOC noted.
•Efforts made to salvage the situation proved in vain. “The ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) was asked to make a proposal on how the two available Olympic quota places will now be otherwise reassigned,” the IOC said.
•In IOC’s view, the Indian stand was, “against the Fundamental Principles of the Olympic Charter, in particular the principles of non-discrimination, as well as the IOC’s and the Olympic Movement’s position, reiterated on many occasions over the past few years, that equal treatment must be guaranteed for all participating athletes and sporting delegations at international sports events, without any form of discrimination or political interference from the host country.”
•Reacting to the development, former IOC member Randhir Singh told The Hindu, “This issue has to be taken seriously. It can impact Indian sports in a big way. The government will have to give it in writing that no individual would be denied visa to participate in a sporting event in India.”
•Former IOA president and veteran sports administrator Vijay Kumar Malhotra wanted a policy on this subject.
•“The IOC has a policy which we have to adhere to as far as uniform participation is concerned. We can’t discriminate,” he said.
•The IOC sanctions may lead to cancellation of international events this year in badminton, chess, golf and hockey, among others.
•“The government will have to draw up a clear policy on this. We can’t afford to be denied sporting events,” Mr. Malhotra added.
📰 Terror monitor keeps Pak. on grey list, seeks action
Condemns Pulwama attack, in which 40 jawans were killed
•Condemning the Pulwama February 14 attack, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), issued a stern statement to Pakistan to comply with an action plan on terror financing or face further action, according to a decision taken at its plenary session in Paris on Friday.
•The week-long deliberations of the 37-member group decided not to remove Pakistan from the ‘grey list’, as Islamabad had lobbied for, but also did not accept an Indian demand to move Pakistan to the ‘black list’ yet.
Last-minute action
•The ‘grey-listing’ continued despite a last-minute decision by the Pakistan government on Thursday to put the Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-e Insaniat Foundation, two offshoots of the Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e Taiba on its ‘schedule-1’ list of banned organisations.
•The FATF criticised Pakistan for not demonstrating “a proper understanding” of the terror financing risks posed by “Da’esh (Islamic State), Al Qaeda, Jamaat-ud Dawa, Falah-e-Insaniat-Foundation, Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e Mohammad, Haqqani Network, and persons affiliated with the Taliban,” and told the Pakistani government to show that remedial actions and sanctions are applied as well as demonstrating that its authorities were taking action on “illegal money or value transfer services” to these groups, sources told The Hindu .
Joint proposal
•Pakistan was put on the ‘grey list’ or watch list of the FATF in June 2018 after a proposal moved by the U.S., the U.K., Germany and France was passed.
•The resolution gave the Pakistani government a 15-month, 27-point action plan on enforcing measures to counter money laundering and financing of terrorist groups (AML/CFT regime).
📰 India, Russia close to inking multi-billion agreement for AK-103 assault rifles
They are slated to be bulk produced in India with technology transfer
•India and Russia are close to concluding an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for a multi-billion deal to locally bulk manufacture AK-103 assault rifles in the next few months, Victor N. Kladov, Director International Cooperation and Regional Policy of Rostec State Corporation told The Hindu at the ongoing Aero India.
•However, he brushed aside concerns of U.S. sanctions on the defence deals, flagging money transfers as the issue.
•India has signed several multi-billion dollar defence deals with Russia in the last couple of years and more are in the pipeline.
•“We expect it to be signed anytime soon. It is in the final stage of negotiations. A Government-to-Government agreement is being prepared and will be signed in the nearest future. Upon signing that, there will be direct business negotiations between Kalashnikov from our side and India’s Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Mr. Kladov said in a conversation with The Hindu.
•The Army has recently signed a contract for 72,400 assault rifles from Sig Sauer of the U.S. and another tender for 93,895 Close Quarter Battle (CQB) carbines is in advanced stage of conclusion. These rifles are for frontline troops deployed in forward areas.
•However, the Army is looking to replace the indigenous INSAS (Indian National Small Arms System) rifles in use with a modern rifle. The AK-103 will be bulk produced by the OFB with technology transfer.
•Mr. Kladov stated that initially different companies were proposed from the Indian side for the tie-up. However, the Indian government realised it would be “wrong to pick up a start-p company” and arrange for production of such sophisticated equipment, he stated.
•OFB was set up by the government to produce small arms and ammunition which is why it is easier for them to absorb technology as they already produce a lot, Mr. Kladov stated. “This agreement is already at a very high state of readiness.”
Streamlining payments
•India recently signed deals for S-400 air defence systems and stealth frigates and one for Kamov-226T helicopters is in an advanced stage of negotiations. The deals are progressing in the backdrop of the looming threat of U.S. sanctions.
•Mr. Kladov said the sanctions to a certain extent may influence their (Russia) cooperation with some countries as they face “immense outside pressure and even threats and it influences their decision making.” “But a country like India is not subject to outside pressure… Once we see an obstacle to our cooperation, we overcome it or we bypass the obstacle,” he stated.
•Here he flagged the issue of payments and money transfer as a matter of concern. “There is only problem of streamlining banking structure and balancing mutual trade,” To address this leaders of the two countries have already agreed to use the national currencies for payments (rupee-rouble exchange).
•In a bid to improve after-sales support and spares availability, a major concern of Indian armed forces with Russian equipment, Mr. Kladov said 14 Russian holding companies have now been given rights to do direct deals for after-ales spares and support. “They are free to set up Joint Ventures for lifetime support. We are moving to a new model of servicing,” he added.
Other specifications of the Ak-103
•There is a side dove-tail mounting rail for optical, collimator or night sights.
•These will replace the INSAS rifles in use by the Indian Army.
📰 Missed target: on India refusing visa to Pakistani competitors
In sending a strong message to Pakistan, India should not shoot itself in the foot
•The decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to revoke Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualification status for the men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol event from the New Delhi shooting World Cup is a controversy Indian sport could have done without. This has come after India refused visas to two Pakistani competitors, in the backdrop of heightened bilateral tensions after the terror attack in Pulwama. The IOC has declared that this is against the Olympic Charter’s principles, of which non-discrimination, equal treatment of all athletes and sporting delegations and political non-interference are supreme. It is clear that in the clamour to send Pakistan what it perceives to be the right message, India has shot itself in the foot. In the short term, the scrapping of two out of 16 quota places will deny three Indian shooters, including 16-year-old Anish Bhanwala who won the gold in the event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, an opportunity to make the Olympic grade at home. While the National Rifle Association of India has thanked the IOC for sparing the 14 other places by restricting the withdrawal of recognition to just one event, three Indian shooters, for no fault of theirs, have ended up as collateral damage.
•The long-term consequences, however, could be more severe. The IOC, in a strongly worded statement, said that it has decided to “suspend all discussions with the Indian National Olympic Committees and government regarding the potential applications for hosting future sports and Olympic-related eventsuntil clear written guarantees are obtained…to ensure the entry of all participants.” This means negotiations regarding India’s potential bids for the 2026 Youth Olympics, 2030 Asian Games and 2032 Olympics are set to go into cold storage. While it is true that the IOC’s record in dealing with the overlapping worlds of geopolitics and sports is uneven, there have been precedents of strong action in similar cases. Ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait had its qualification status removed after an Israeli delegate wasn’t granted a visa. Less than a month ago, Malaysia was stripped of the World Para Swimming Championship for turning down visa requests from Israeli participants. The entire episode has also played out at a time when sections of the BCCI, egged on by a few yesteryear greats, seemingly mulled over the option of calling for a complete ban on Pakistan from the upcoming ICC World Cup in England. Going by experience, beyond feeding into a certain kind of atmospherics, such bans on sportspersons and interactions in international sports events will have no meaningful effect.
📰 Labour Bureau submits report on jobs created by MUDRA loans
•The Labour Bureau has completed its survey on employment generated by the MUDRA loan scheme, giving the Centre a potential data tool to combat other reports showing a dismal scenario on jobs.
•“We have completed the survey and submitted the report to the Labour Ministry,” said a senior Labour Bureau official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is awaiting the Minister’s approval now… it is likely to be released in the first week of March,” the official said, declining to comment on the survey’s findings.
•The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana was introduced in April 2015 as an effort to extend affordable credit to micro and small enterprises. Loans up to ₹10 lakh are extended to these non-corporate, non-farm enterprises by the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) through last-mile financial institutions. So far, 15.56 crore loans worth a total of ₹7.23 lakh crore have been disbursed.
•Before stepping down as vice chairman of Niti Aayog in August 2017, Arvind Panagariya, had submitted a report on the recommendations of a task force he had chaired on improving jobs data. One recommendation was to analyse the extent of employment and self-employment generated by MUDRA loans.
•In December 2017, faced with mounting criticism on the failure to create job opportunities, the Labour Ministry had asked the Labour Bureau to initiate the survey on jobs created through the MUDRA scheme.
•The Labour Bureau’s completed report on MUDRA loans has now been submitted to the Centre at a time when it is taking flak for not releasing the results of the National Sample Survey Organisation’s periodic labour force survey. According to a report in the Business Standard, a leaked copy of the NSSO’s findings showed that unemployment hit a 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017-18.
•Central government ministers and officials have already attempted to use the MUDRA scheme’s performance to combat criticism based on the leaked NSSO job survey report.
•Some economists, however, have advised caution in the interpretation of MUDRA data, especially as it relates to jobs.
•“Every new loan certainly doesn’t imply creation of a new job,” ICRIER fellow Radhicka Kapoor, wrote in a working paper titled ‘Waiting for Jobs’. “It is improbable that these loans are being given to those who were formerly unemployed. They are more likely being given to people who are moving to self employment from other jobs resulting in no new net job creation.” Further, she asserted: “Given that the average size of the loan disbursed under MUDRA is quite small, it is unlikely that the loan seekers are providing a job to anyone other than themselves.”
📰 Modi receives Seoul Peace Prize for 2018
Award committee recognises his contribution to the growth of Indian and global economies.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday received the prestigious Seoul Peace Prize for 2018 for his contribution to international cooperation and fostering global economic growth.
•The award was presented to him by the Seoul Peace Prize Foundation at a grand ceremony in Seoul. A short film on the life and achievements of Mr. Modi was screened at the event.
•While conferring the award on Mr. Modi, the award committee recognised his contribution to the growth of Indian and global economies, crediting ‘Modinomics’ for reducing social and economic disparity between the rich and the poor.
•The committee also pointed to his contribution to regional and global peace through a proactive policy with countries around the world.
•Mr. Modi is the 14th recepient of the award and the past laureates include former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and renowned international relief organizations like Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam.
•The Prize was established in 1990 to commemorate the success of the 24th Olympic Games held in Seoul. The award was established to crystalise Korean people’s yearning for peace on the Korean peninsula and in the rest of the world.
📰 ‘Time for independent debt management office’
To help lower cost of debt: NITI Aayog
•NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar on Friday made a strong case for setting up of an independent debt management office outside the purview of Reserve Bank of India, saying it was “an idea whose time has come.”
•The idea of a Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) was proposed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his February 2015 Budget speech, though it has not yet been implemented.
•“... It is important for this particular office to be separate, because then you can pay much more attention on public debt management. That will help the government bring down cost of its debt,” Mr. Kumar said at an event organised by NITI Aayog here. At present, the government debt, including market borrowing, is managed by the Reserve Bank of India.
•The government has to decide how to segregate different functions of the RBI, Mr. Kumar said.
📰 Joint effort vital for 5G roll-out
Regulation, licensing framework should be an enabler: TRAI
•A combined effort by industry players and regulators will be essential for timely roll-out of 5G services in India, as per a white paper on ‘Enabling 5G in India’ by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
•“There should not be any regulatory or licensing barrier on the path of adoption of newer and better technologies; rather, regulation and licensing framework should be an enabler in fostering newer technologies,” the white paper said.
•The Centre is aiming to launch 5G in India by 2020. It is expected that the cumulative economic impact of next generation technology would be about $1 trillion by 2035. 5G, the white paper said, would enable new capabilities and use cases, which were set to impact not only consumer services but also many industries.
•“With the range of 5G use cases across industry verticals requiring different characteristics, for example, low latency and high reliability application for robotics in manufacturing and automotive sectors; high data throughput requirements for augmented reality use cases; the traditional offerings based on connection speed and volume of usage could see a shift,” it said.
•Noting that at this stage it is difficult to predict which use cases would drive the demand for 5G services in the country, the white paper said that scope of existing committees, such as the one of machine2machine, can be broadened for inclusion of all the 5G use cases.
•“Combined efforts of industry players and regulators to align on various related aspects will be essential for timely roll-out of the services,” it said. It added that operators with existing 4G footprints would be able to leverage their 4G infrastructure for providing 5G services and hence, their investment requirement would be relatively lower.
📰 India to have own DNS for safe browsing
‘Move will also ensure domain name server availability to smaller providers’
•The government will soon roll out a public Domain Name Server, or DNS, for India aimed at providing a faster and more secure browsing experience for Internet users in the country, while ensuring that citizens’ data is stored locally.
•A DNS is a like a directory for the Internet. It helps to convert domain names that are easy for people to remember into IP addresses, which are used by computers/machines to communicate. If the DNS is either slow or fails to work, users will not be able to locate web addresses.
•“The main aim of bringing our own public DNS is to ensure availability, particularly for smaller Interest Service Providers (ISPs) who don’t have credible DNS. Bigger ones usually have their own DNS,” an IT Ministry official said.
•Pointing out that there were other open DNS servers, including Google Public DNS, the official said the government’s system would prevent users from visiting malicious websites.
•The roll-out, which will be executed by the National Informatics Centre – the technology arm of the government – will be completed in the next four to six months, the official said. NIC is already using the public DNS within the government network.
‘Mechanism in place’
•Asked if the move would enable the government to block content or help in surveillance, the official said, “If the government wants to block a website, we have a mechanism in place. We can send a list to the ISPs for reasons such as child porn or fake news, and they have to comply with the order.”
•“If you use any public DNS, they access and use all your data. It is not that users will compulsorily need to shift to India public DNS. A user is free to choose any DNS,” the official said, adding that with the government’s public DNS, Indian users’ data would be stored within the country.
•The ministry, as part of its ongoing awareness campaign for safer Internet, also plans to reach out to end-users to educate them on DNS and how they could shift to an Indian public DNS if they desired.
