📰 Govt. bringing back artefacts from abroad
•The government is in the process of bringing back 40 artefacts, including 27 from Tamil Nadu, that had been taken to different countries illegally, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
•Answering a question by M.K. Raghavan, Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel said the government was working on bringing back 40 artefacts from Switzerland, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Singapore and the United States.
📰 Passports with advanced security features soon
Chips will be installed in the booklets, says Jaishankar
•The government is on its way to integrate all the diplomatic missions and posts into the Passport Seva Project shortly. On the occasion of the Passport Seva Divas on Monday, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar said India would soon deliver passport booklets with advanced security features.
•“It is noteworthy that the major passport issuing 25 missions and posts have been integrated [into the Passport Seva Project] during this period. We are taking steps to complete integrating all the missions and posts abroad in a time-bound manner which would enable us to deliver passport and passport-related services to our diaspora,” said Mr. Jaishankar. The Minister acknowledged the contribution of his predecessor Sushma Swaraj in bringing new dynamism in the process of passport delivery. He said India at present had 505 Passport Seva Kendras of which 412 were Post Office Passport Seva Kendras.
•He pointed out that India was on its way to deliver passport booklets with advance security features being produced at the India Security Press, Nashik. They would have chips installed for security. “We propose to pursue the manufacture of e-passports on priority so that a new passport booklet with advanced security features can be rolled out.”
•Mr. Jaishankar thanked the Department of Posts for ensuring availability of Passport Seva Kendras. The Passport Seva Project had been issuing one crore passports a every year, according to the government. The Minister acknowledged the role of the police departments in ensuring smooth functioning of the mechanism.
Law Minister says it will not infringe on privacy and no compulsory compliance will be sought
•The second week of the 17th Lok Sabha saw hectic business on Monday as several key Bills were introduced, as many as 10 questions were asked during Question Hour and the debate on the President’s Address got under way.
•Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad introduced the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha on Monday amid protests from Opposition members.
•Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal introduced a Bill that will allow trusts to set up units in special economic zones (SEZs), while Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy moved a Bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004, that will allow people living along the International Border the benefit of reservation in government jobs.
‘Defies SC order’
•The Aadhaar legislation to replace an ordinance issued in March seeks to impose strict penalties for violation of norms.
•Revolutionary Socialist Party leader N.K. Premachandran opposed the Bill on three grounds: it defies an earlier Supreme Court judgment, permits private agencies to store data and violates fundamental rights.
•“Aadhaar is in the national interest and it does not infringe privacy … I want to convince [everyone] that there is no compulsory compliance. SIM cards can be taken with or without Aadhaar,” Mr. Prasad told the Lok Sabha.
•The Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2019 too seeks to replace an ordinance, promulgated in March by the previous government, that will bring trusts under the definition of a juristic person for the purposes of setting up a unit in SEZs.
📰 It’s premature to count India out of the RCEP, says Centre
ASEAN countries raise pitch on free trade agreement
•Government officials said it would be ‘premature’ to suggest India could be cut out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) being negotiated by 16 countries led by the ASEAN bloc, if it doesn’t agree to join it by the year-end.
•The officials rejected a suggestion to that effect by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, who spoke on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit held in Bangkok on Sunday.
•Reiterating that India is ‘consistently’ engaged with RCEP negotiations, which will see a free trade agreement which includes ASEAN countries, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, Commerce Ministry sources said Indian delegations have a series of meetings planned in the next few weeks to discuss the way forward in RCEP.
Unresolved issues
•“India also has shown it is keen for the partnership to work, as seen by our consistent engagement on the issue. There are some issues that need to be ironed out still, but it would be extremely premature to talk about RCEP going ahead without India,” a Commerce Ministry official who preferred not to be named. In an interview to the CNBC channel, Mr. Mahathir said he would prefer to go ahead with a formulation of 13 countries that are willing to go ahead immediately, and allow outliers India, Australia and New Zealand to join the pact at a future date.
•“They [Malaysia] can have their perspective. They are not the full RCEP. We are sure that many other countries do not share this view and want to work with India in RCEP,” the official responded.
•While Mr. Mahathir’s messaging may have been bluntly put, others in the grouping have been nudging India to show progress on RCEP negotiations in time for a proposed final declaration in November this year. Last year, the government had been able to negotiate for time on RCEP given elections were due to be held in India, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia between March and May this year.
•“With the elections done, we expect the pressure to be ratcheted up by ASEAN countries to conclude the negotiations, and India will need to make a choice quite soon,” said a diplomat privy to the negotiations.
•In their Bangkok declaration on Sunday, ASEAN leaders stated their “strong commitment” to concluding RCEP negotiations, adding that ASEAN partners like India must “prioritise RCEP negotiations and work with ASEAN to conclude the RCEP negotiations within this year.” Last week, Singapore’s Minister of Communication & Information and Minister-in-Charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran said during a visit to Delhi that India must not stay out of the agreement.
•“India can ask itself, if it is better off inside such an agreement or outside such an agreement from business and also from a geopolitical point of view... if India is not part of it, I think it will be a loss.” Apart from giving up the first mover’s advantage, India, would give up the chance to frame the groupings rules and investment standards if it fails to join RCEP, say diplomats.
•Meanwhile the Chinese government, which is understood to have first proposed going ahead with 13 countries instead 16 also reached out to the government, sending a delegation led by Vice Minister for Commerce Wang Shouwen for talks with Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan earlier this month. Officials privy to the discussions on RCEP however said the talks were inconclusive.
•India’s main opposition to RCEP is the prospect of opening up its markets to China. Even though the grouping has accepted dual tariff rates for trade with China and other RCEP members, Indian industry has opposed RCEP for the larger impact on steel and aluminium, copper, pharmaceuticals and textile products and of allowing RCEP countries especially China and South Korea to “flood the Indian market.” India is the only RCEP country without a free trade pact with China, and has trade deficits with 11 of 16 RCEP countries.
📰 U.S. seeks non-military ways to stop Iran
Additional cyberattacks and clandestine operations to create unrest could be on the list, say officials
•U.S. intelligence and military officers are working on additional clandestine plans to counter Iranian aggression in the Gulf, pushed by the White House to develop new options that could help deter Tehran without escalating tensions into a full-out conventional war, according to current and former officials.
•The goal is to develop operations similar to the cyberattacks conducted on Thursday and that echo the shadow war the U.S. has accused Tehran of carrying out with attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf, according to U.S. officials briefed on the effort. Iran maintains that it was not responsible for the attacks on the tankers.
•The cyberattacks were aimed at an Iranian intelligence group that U.S. officials believe was behind a series of attacks on tankers in the Gulf region.
•The U.S. operation was intended to take down the computers and networks used by the intelligence group, at least temporarily. A separate online operation was aimed at taking out computers that control Iranian missile launches.
•The White House has told military and intelligence officials it wants options in line with the kind of operations conducted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the officials said.
•President Donald Trump has made clear he believes that, at this point, a direct strike would be escalatory, although he has repeatedly warned Iran against further aggression.
•Intelligence and military officials have told White House policymakers, including Mr. Trump, that without an additional U.S. response, Iran will continue to destabilise the region.
•Some divisions of opinion in the administration remain. A number of senior national security officials agree that further action against Iran is needed, but they are divided about how public that action needs to be.
Secret operations
•Officials did not provide specifics about the secret operations under consideration by the White House. But they could include a wide range of activities such as additional cyberattacks, clandestine operations aimed at disabling boats used by Iranians to conduct shipping attacks and covert operations inside Iran aimed at fomenting more unrest.
•The U.S. might also look for ways to divide or undermine the effectiveness of Iranian proxy groups, officials said.
•The CIA has long-standing secret plans for responding to Iranian provocations. Senior officials have discussed with the White House options for expanded covert operations by the agency, as well as plans to step up existing efforts to counter Iran’s efforts, according to current and former officials.
•One former U.S. military commander said there was a range of options that the Pentagon and the CIA could pursue that could keep Iran off balance but that would not have “crystal-clear attribution” to the U.S. A U.S. operation that was not publicly announced could still deter further action by Tehran, if Iran understood what U.S. operatives had done, the former officer said.
•Current and former officials say Iran’s covert attacks against shipping and its downing of a U.S. drone are an attempt to try to raise pressure on the U.S. Iran, they say, hopes that by sowing chaos in the Gulf it can drive up oil prices, which will put pressure on Mr. Trump and U.S. allies dependent on West Asian oil. Iran maintains that the drone it shot down had violated its airspace, while U.S. officials insist it had been over international waters.
•“From the Iranian perspective, unconventional attacks, threats against Gulf shipping and air routes and bellicose rhetoric represent the best ways to pressure the international community to compel the U.S. to relieve sanctions without igniting a conventional conflict,” said Norman T. Roule, a former national intelligence manager for Iran and a CIA West Asian expert.
Shadowy techniques
•Some officials believe the U.S. needs to be willing to master the kind of deniable, shadowy techniques Tehran has perfected in order to halt Iran’s aggressions. Others think that, while helpful, such clandestine attacks will not be enough to reassure U.S. allies or deter Iran.
•Iran will probably pause its activities for a time, senior U.S. officials said.
•But, with sanctions biting, they say Tehran will once again resume attacks on shipping. That will once more force the White House to consider a direct military strike.
📰 Modi, Xi and Putin to have trilateral summit at G-20
The meeting is of great significance, says Chinese official
•China on Monday confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will hold their second trilateral summit in Osaka, Japan, during the G-20 summit later this week.
•During a media briefing on the two-day G-20 summit that begins on June 28, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Jun said the meeting of the three leaders, who had recently met at Bishkek at the Shanghai Cooperation Organsiation (SCO) summit, was of “great significance”.
•He also signalled that the top-level trilateral mechanism of the Russia, India and China (RIC) had now become institutionalised.
•“Indeed, during the Osaka summit, the leaders of China, Russia and India will have a trilateral meeting. The mechanism of the trilateral meeting has maintained a sound momentum of development,” Mr. Zhang said.
‘Bullying practices’
•“Last year, during the Buenos Aires G-20 summit, the leaders of three countries also had a meeting. And this time, given the current international landscape, the meeting of the three leaders is also of great significance,” he said, responding to a question.
•Without naming the U.S., the Chinese diplomat stressed that ahead of the summit, the “international community has fully recognised the repercussions of unilateralism, protectionism and bullying practices”.
•China’s Vice-Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen, who also briefed the media, asserted, in reference to Washington, that “some individual country has been insisting on unilateralism, protectionism, abusing trade remedial measures (and) national security exceptionalism. That country has slapped tariffs on its trading partners, causing major threat to global trade, investment and economic growth”.
•The trio will meet again in September in Vladivostok for the Eastern Economic Forum where Mr. Modi will be the chief guest.
•Apart from adding weight to the global significance of Eurasia, the trilateral meeting in Osaka would also have a positive impact on bilateral relations, Mr. Zhang said.
📰 Pak. blacklisting absolutely a possibility: FATF president
It lacks in almost every respect of action plan, says Billingslea
•There is “absolutely a possibility” that Pakistan could be on its blacklist after the international financial watchdog’s next meeting in October in Paris, the outgoing president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Marshall Billingslea, said on Friday. The comments were made at a press briefing at the end of the FATF plenary held in Orlando, Florida, an audio call of which was released to the press on Monday morning.
•Pakistan had “significant” work to do and was, with regard to an action plan agreed in June 2018, “lacking in almost every respect”, Mr. Billingslea said.
•“Pakistan was cautioned in February at the plenary that they had missed almost all of their January milestones. And they were urged to not fail to meet the milestones in May. Unfortunately, Pakistan has yet again missed its May milestones,” he added.
•“Now the action plan itself is set to complete in September. So this [the June 16-21 Orlando plenary] was not the plenary where we would discuss a blacklisting issue. This was the plenary where we examine how far and how far behind Pakistan is on its action plan … and I must say they are far behind,” Mr. Billinglsea said.
•“There is much that must be done by September. If they fail to implement the action plan by September then the FATF has made clear that we will consider next steps.”
•China, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council were among those at the Orlando plenary who had asked that Pakistan be given more time to comply with the action plan, The Hindu had reported over the weekend.
•Getting on the FATF blacklist, which currently only has Iran and North Korea on it, could severely cripple and isolate a country financially, resulting in a downgraded credit rating and denying it loans and development assistance.
•Mr. Billingslea said he did not want to specify or prejudge outcomes and that this was his last plenary as President of the FATF, but reiterated that Pakistan had much work to do if it was going to meet the action plan requirements.
Not responsive enough
•In response to a question on whether Pakistan’s Central bank had enough regulatory measures in place and concerns about the grey economy in the country, Mr. Billinglsea said that Pakistan did not adequately appreciate the transnational terror financing risks.
•“… Pakistan does not either appreciate or chooses not to acknowledge the transnational, trans-border terrorist financing risk they face. Even though they did issue an addendum, an annex, to their national risk assessment following the February discussion. There are also a number of other structural and legal changes that have to be undertaken, including successful prosecution of terrorist financing cases,” he said.
•India had been pushing for Pakistan to get on the FATF blacklist for its failure to take “credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures” against terrorist activities.
•Mr. Billinglsea said, in response to a question on Pakistan having the capacity to meet its milestones, that if they did not currently have the capacity, they are expected to generate it, and soon, in order to meet their targets.
IMF decision
•He said that any conditionality associated with Pakistan’s loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would not automatically have a connection to the FATF outcomes, although the IMF could choose to link the two. The U.S. has been pushing for a conditionality on an approximately $6 billion IMF loan to Pakistan, agreed in May.
•“So the IMF is an observer organisation to the Financial Action Task Force and so they have complete visibility into everything that occurs within the task force, including a very detailed understanding of what the Pakistani action plan is. The decision however, to condition fund disbursement under an IMF programme based on structural benchmarks that might be associated with the Financial Action Task Force is purely an IMF decision,” he said.
📰 Basic needs, basic rights
India must recognise the right to a minimally decent life, so that no person falls below a certain level of existence
•Three thoughts occur to me in the aftermath of the horrific tragedy in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, where the systemic failure of health care has killed over a hundred children. First, like the constitutional principle of a basic structure, it is time to articulate an equally robust doctrine of basic rights. Second, these basic rights must be viewed primarily as positive, rights not against interference from the state (negative rights) but to the provision of something by it. Third, just as individuals are punished for legal violations, the government of the day must also be punished for the violation of these basic rights. This punishment need not await the next round of elections but must be meted out immediately, by the law itself. In short, defaulting governments must be held legally accountable. The systematic violation of basic rights must be treated on a par with the breakdown of constitutional machinery.
A solid necessity
•But what are basic rights? How are they different from other fundamental rights? Basic rights flow from basic needs such as physical security or subsistence. Needs are different from wants. You may want a chocolate every morning but don’t need it. Heavens won’t fall if you don’t get it. But basic needs are different: their non-fulfilment can cause great harm, even kill. The failure to get an antibiotic if you have a bacterial infection can hurt you very badly. Heavens will fall if you don’t get it! Moreover, wants are subjective; you cannot be mistaken that you desire that chocolate. But you may be misguided, even unaware of what you need. You may not be able to tell if you need an antibiotic because your mind can’t tell the difference between bacterial and viral infections. This determination is done by a more objective criterion. Needs depend on the way human bodies are constituted. They are a solid necessity; one cannot get on without them. Nor can they be fulfilled by substitutes. For us, nothing can take the place of water, food and air.
•It is true, of course, that though terribly important, basic needs are not what we live for. They don’t make our life worth living. But anything really worth pursuing depends on the satisfaction of basic needs. If we are continuously thirsty, cold, hungry, ill or homeless, we will be incapable of even framing a conception of worthwhile life, let alone pursue it. Imagine the plight of those who queue up for long hours to get a bucket of water or a place to bathe, dress or defecate. People suffer if basic needs are met inadequately or with delay. They are then denied a minimally decent life.
•When basic needs are not fully met, we feel vulnerable and helpless. We grieve, cry for help, seek assistance. We complain and demand elementary justice from our community, especially from the state. Elementary justice requires that before anything else, the state does everything at its disposal to satisfy all basic needs of its citizens, particularly of those who cannot fend for themselves. We feel aggrieved when the state abdicates this responsibility.
Security and subsistence
•But what does the language of rights add to the idea of basic needs? First, a right is something that is owed to us; it is not a favour. So, rights help the recognition of anything that satisfies basic needs as an entitlement. Basic rights are claims on the state to provide us with goods and services that satisfy our basic needs. Second, when something is identified as a basic right, it puts the state under a duty to enable its exercise. The state becomes its guarantor. For example, the right to physical security, the first basic right, is socially guaranteed when the state provides its people a well-trained, professional police force. When society and its government reneges on its commitment to do so, we hold them accountable. It follows that basic rights are a shield for the defenceless against the most damaging threats to their life which include starvation, pestilence and disease. As the philosopher Henry Shue, puts it, it is ‘an attempt to give to the powerless a veto over some economic, social and political forces that harm them’.
•These rights are basic also because many intrinsically valuable rights can be enjoyed only once these rights are secured. Imagine that we have a right to assemble freely in public but that just as one begins to exercise this right, one is threatened with assault, rape or murder. Most people will simply retreat. Is not a threat to physical security or bodily integrity the commonest weapon wielded by goons, political thugs and oppressive governments?
•The second is the right to minimum economic security and subsistence, that includes clean air, uncontaminated water, nutritious food, clothing and shelter. By showing the devastation caused by its absence, the Muzaffarpur tragedy amply proves that the right to primary health care is also an integral part of the right to subsistence. A straightforward link exists between malnutrition and disease. As Dr. T. Jacob John explained in an article in The Hindu on June 19, 2019 (OpEd page, “Averting deaths in Muzaffarpur”), encephalopathy, the biochemical disease that results from eating litchi fruit pulp, occurs only in malnourished children. It is common knowledge that malnourishment lowers resistance to disease. A similar link exists between disease, unemployment and poverty.
•Credible threats to these rights can be reduced by the government by establishing institutions and practices that assist the vulnerable; for example, by setting up hospitals with adequate number of doctors, nurses, beds, medical equipment, intensive care units, essential drugs and emergency treatments. For this, proper budgetary allocation is required that depends in turn on getting one’s political priority and commitment right. When a government fails to provide primary health care to those who can’t afford it, it violates their basic rights.
Vulnerability, accountability
•To these two basic rights, I add a third — the right to free public expression of helplessness and frustration, if deprived of other basic rights. The scope of freedom of expression is large and I don’t think all of it can be deemed basic. But the relevant part of it is. The right to make one’s vulnerability public, be informed about the acts of commission and omission of the government regarding anything that adversely affects the satisfaction of basic needs, to critically examine them and to hold state officials publicly accountable is a basic right on a par with right to physical security and subsistence and inseparably linked to them.
•It follows that governments must make arrangements for people to demand that their basic rights be satisfied, to complain when these demands are not met, to report lapses and omissions on the part of governments, point fingers at apathetic government officials, criticise the government for its failures and to do so without fear.
•These three basic rights can be summed up in a single phrase, the right to a minimally decent life. This is a threshold right. A society may soar, strive for great collective achievement. There are no limits to the longing for a better life. But the point of having a threshold of minimal decency is that our life must not fall below a certain level of existence. Anything short of a minimally decent life is simply not acceptable. It is this precisely that horrifies us about the callousness of the Bihar government in Muzaffarpur and governments in India more generally. They routinely abdicate responsibility for the suffering they directly or indirectly cause. This is why we must ask why governments are not immediately and severely penalised when they undermine the exercise of these basic rights.
📰 A war of masks between Iran and the U.S.
Both governments are trying to avoid a war and yet win a game of appearances
•On June 20, Iran and the United States came dangerously close to a direct armed conflict, with U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly ordering and then cancelling air strikes against Iran, after it shot down a high-tech U.S. drone over the Strait of Hormuz. A closer look at tensions between the two countries would make it seem as if the Iranian authorities were the ones attempting to escalate a regional crisis while avoiding a full-blown war with the U.S. For the Trump administration, it has been about being careful not to be drawn into a West Asian conflict and having the loss of any U.S. service personnel on its conscience.
Many layers
•Yet things are more complicated than what is appearing on news channels. On one side, the Ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) want to save their necks by convincing the U.S.’s allies in Europe, West Asia and Asia to pressure Washington into easing the devastating economic and financial sanctions that have affected the Iranian economy. On the other side, the hawks in Washington, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, have an ardent desire to restore U.S. deterrence by striking Iranian military infrastructure and nuclear installations. In the middle of this there are a number of state and non-state actors such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which would be the prime targets for Iranian attacks, or which would get militarily engaged on the side of Iran and go after U.S. targets.
•Once in war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the U.S. would have to contend with proxies backed by Tehran spreading across the region, armed with missiles, drones and as suicide bombers. There is virtually no way for Saudi Arabia and the UAE to protect themselves from Iranian proxy attacks. Let us take the example of Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have fought a coalition led by Saudi Arabia to a stalemate on the battlefield since 2015 and have succeeded in launching missiles and rockets into Saudi territory. In Lebanon and Iraq, the Iranian regime’s proxies have killed hundreds of American soldiers since the early 1980s. In 1983, a group linked to the Iranian-backed Shiite militia, Hezbollah, claimed responsibility for lethal bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and a U.S. Marine barracks.
•Nearly a month ago, in a meeting with Iran-linked Iraqi militias in Baghdad, Major General Qassim Suleimani, the chief of Iran’s Quds Force, which is a unit of the IRGC, asked them to prepare for a proxy war with the U.S. Strangely, Iran’s campaign of proxy war and sabotage will be designed to inflict some suffering on regional and international actors that have chosen to be with America in this conflict, while dissuading Mr. Trump and his advisers from taking military action against Iranian interests.
Giving peace a chance
•Given that “maximum pressure” sanctions have achieved their goal and the Iranian authorities are desperate to find a way out of this crisis, the role of potential mediators will be crucial. The government of President Hassan Rouhani is quietly trying out all possibilities to find a diplomatic pathway out of the crisis. But a dialogue between Arab leaders and the Iran could begin with more concrete help from Oman and Kuwait in order to de-escalate the war in Yemen and ensure maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz.
•Therefore, while Iran and the U.S. are on the edge of the abyss, global diplomacy behind closed doors has been working to find a way out. The removal of Russian missiles from Cuba was former U.S. President J.F. Kennedy grandest success. However, during the Cuban missile crisis, he had two dangerous situations to deal with simultaneously — missile emplacements and impeachment. In the same way, Mr. Trump is trying to find a way out of the tensions while trying not to damage his chances of a second term in the White House. America’s military and technological resources to break down the Islamic regime of Iran are limitless. The only matter to decide is whether it is intellectually wise and politically pragmatic to use all that might.
•Both Iran and the U.S. are trying to avoid this war while winning a game of appearances. This game reminds us of the theatrical concept of persona, which gives both Iran and the U.S. a source of political agency and a stable public role to present themselves as being intransigent, inflexible and uncompromising. Consequently, both countries are trying to keep their masks on in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity. But as Nathaniel Hawthorne writes in T he Scarlet Letter : “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”
📰 A sound foundation
The draft National Policy on Education has an important reform on the first stage of education
•The draft National Policy on Education is in the public domain for comments till June 30, 2019. A commendable reform suggested in the policy is creating a foundational stage as the first stage of school education. This reform proposes to bring the three years of pre-primary and the two years of Grades 1 and 2 into a composite unit with “a single curricular and pedagogical phase of play and discovery-based learning” between the ages of 3 and 8 years.
•This proposal suggests a significant departure from the present structure of school education, in which the pre-school stage of 3-6 years is delinked from Grades 1 and 2 and even kept out of the ambit of the Right To Education Act. It is currently under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
‘Best investment’
•The proposal’s implications need to be understood from two perspectives. One, this implies that Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) for 3- to 6-year-olds will become an integral part of the organised school structure, and thus become the responsibility of the education department. It should also make ECCE a justiciable right of all 3- to 6-year-olds. The committee considers ECCE to be “among the very best investments” that India could make in education since neuroscience evidence indicates that “over 85% of a child’s cumulative brain development occurs prior to the age of 6”.
•Secondly, the curriculum for Grades 1 and 2 will be developed in upward continuity with the pre-school curriculum, in terms of both content and pedagogy. If implemented well, this can have a positive impact on children’s learning as it would ensure a play-based, developmentally appropriate curriculum for children up to not just 6 but 8 years, which would give them a stronger foundation. This upward extension will further smoothen the transition from pre-school to the primary stage and consolidate the foundation for future learning.
•However, two significant concerns identified from collaborative research by Ambedkar University and ASER Centre need to be addressed in implementation. The preschool curriculum was observed to be primarily a downward extension of the primary curriculum. Children were engaged for most of the time in copying or rote learning of alphabet and numbers, a practice which is developmentally inappropriate and can be counterproductive from the perspective of a sound foundation.
Play-based learning
•Children at this stage require a curriculum which emphasises play-based learning opportunities that promote engagement with play materials, picture books, building blocks, puzzles, etc. and include teacher-led storytelling, conversations, rhymes, emergent literacy and numeracy activities, outdoor and indoor play. These opportunities will enable children to acquire not only the right foundation for development of skills prioritised for the 21st century, i.e. creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration and self-confidence, but also an abiding interest in lifelong learning.
•The second issue is the rigid structure of the primary grades’ curriculum, which changes annually with every grade, thus providing little or no opportunity for children to revisit the previous year’s curriculum. This rigidity comes possibly from a mistaken assumption made by curriculum framers that all children enter pre-school or a school grade at the prescribed age and move annually into the next grade, so that each grade is age-wise homogeneous; the reality is very different. Children tend to follow multiple pathways in these early years and it is difficult to predict at what age a child will be in which grade. Participation trends tend to stabilise only by the time children are around eight years old, when most come into the primary stage, often still in different grades. This leads to multi-age, multi-level composition at each level. Since age is a significant factor in learning, this diversity creates incompatibility with the given grade-wise curriculum and creates learning gaps for many children. This rigidity of the grade structure leads to cumulative learning deficits in children over time.
•The foundational stage can address this rigidity, but for this the requirement would be to develop a progressive curriculum upward from pre-school to primary stage. Further, it has to be in a spiral, not linear, mode with adequate flexibility to enable children to revisit concepts and learn at their own pace. Most importantly, basing the curriculum on play-based, developmentally appropriate content and pedagogy will help children to develop holistically and enjoy the learning process, an imperative for not only school learning but learning for life.
📰 House panel shies away from quantifying black money
Three agencies have come up with vastly differing figures, ranging from 7-120% of GDP, it says
•The Standing Committee on Finance has shied away from estimating the quantum of black money within and outside India, saying that different methods by various agencies are yielding vastly differing figures.
•The Standing Committee relied on three institutes — the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the National Institute of Financial Management and the National Council of Applied Economic Research — to come up with their estimates of unaccounted income in the country. The three estimates varied significantly, ranging from 7-120% of GDP.
•“It appears that the reliable estimation of unaccounted income and wealth inside and outside the country is a difficult task. This inference is validated by the widely varying estimates of the unaccounted income arrived at by these three institutes,” the report said.
•“The Chief Economic Adviser has opined that there is no scope for arriving at a common estimate of unaccounted income by combining estimates from the three reports.”
‘Lack of consensus’
•The report quotes Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey as saying that “there is a lack of consensus regarding the most suitable method in the Indian context”.
•The Standing Committee enumerated the various steps taken to curb the generation of black money. The report said the paucity of time and the limited number of stakeholders that could be examined meant that the findings should be considered as only preliminary in nature.
•“In the meantime, the Committee would expect the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) to continue their efforts with greater vigour to unearth and bring to book unaccounted income/wealth both within and outside the country including follow-up action on the seven reports of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted on Black Money as well as the three study reports on estimation of unaccounted money,” the report said.
📰 RBI unveils online portal for filing grievances
‘Data can be used by RBI for analytics’
•The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a Complaint Management System (CMS) — an online portal to facilitate bank customer grievance redressal processes. The CMS portal can be accessed on RBI’s website and complaints can be lodged against any of the entities regulated by the central bank.
•“CMS will be accessible on desktops as well as on mobile devices. The RBI also plans to introduce a dedicated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System for tracking the status of complaints. I am sure, with time, the customer-friendly nature of the CMS will be further enhanced,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while launching the application. CMS provides features such as acknowledgement through SMS and email notification, status tracking through unique registration number, receipt of closure advises and filing of appeals, where applicable. “Data from CMS can be leveraged by the RBI for analytics, which can be used for regulatory and supervisory interventions,” Mr. Das said.
📰 Upgraded planes in tough skies
The Indian Air Force must lay down clear red lines for continued operational effectiveness
•The recent crash of an AN-32, which was on an air maintenance sortie to the Mechuka Advanced Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh, has raised questions on flight safety in the Indian Air Force despite accident rates having declined exponentially over the past few decades.
•Air crashes today are subjected to the full glare of the media, exposing vulnerable families of the crash victims to needless trauma and also seriously hampering the remedial measures and outcomes that would flow from professionally conducted accident inquiries. In this milieu, it is important to explore some of the less-dissected issues that continue to plague aviation safety in the IAF.
•The IAF flies 38 different types of aircraft and has the most varied fleet among modern air forces. Its fleet comprises aircraft like the MiG-21 and the Avro that hardly fly anywhere else. Seven of these have not had a major accident in the last five years. The long-serving IL-76 has had an accident-free innings in the IAF, a fact that is missed by most.
•The U.K.’s Royal Air Force flew the Jaguar for 34 years (1973 to 2007) during which it had 67 accidents. In comparison, the IAF has lost 52 Jaguars over four decades. The U.S. Air Force flew slightly over two million flying hours in 2017 and suffered 83 ‘Category A’ mishaps. During the same period, the IAF flew 2,51,405 hours and had an accident rate of 0.24 for every 10,000 hours of flying. This translates to 8-9 ‘Category A’ mishaps — a comparable ratio. It would be unfair to make literal comparisons as the U.S. Air Force was and continues to be a dispersed force engaged in multiple locations like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Comparing the mishap rates
•While there was a rise of 17% when we consider the ‘Category A’ mishaps in the U.S. Air Force between 2013 and 2017, there was a decline in the IAF’s accident rate from 0.29 (2013-14) to 0.24 (2017-18). Similarly, when one compares the mishap rates between the F-16 fleet in the U.S. Air Force and the Mirage-2000 fleet in the IAF over the last five years, there is a positive story that emerges.
•There is constant criticism as regards the slow phasing-out of the older variants of the MiG-21 and the MiG-27 fleets, which merits reflection. That these aircraft have no business continuing to fly is a proposition upheld even by senior IAF leadership. However, further investigation reveals a complex web of operational necessities that have forced the IAF to stretch their life and manage the ensuing risks.
•For the IAF to remain combat ready for full-spectrum operations, it needs a continuously trained cockpit-to-crew ratio of between 1:1.75 to 1:2 that can undertake operations and seamlessly manage the switch to more advanced platforms as they get inducted into service. Currently, the ratios can barely sustain a limited conflict, leave alone extended ones.
•The MiG-21s and MiG-27s were supposed to have been replaced by Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), a process that is unfolding at a snail’s pace.
•Hypothetically, had all the MiG-21s and MiG-27s been phased out without replacement, there was no scope to increase the flying of other fleets to feed the residual pilots, due to maintenance and budgetary constraints. The IAF would then have been down to 25 squadrons and saddled with large numbers of fighter pilots without operational continuity. It would then have been tough to induct advanced platforms like the LCA and Rafale, which need pilots who are current and proficient.
•The IAF had very little choice in the matter and the bottom line is that the risks are rising and must be addressed with greater urgency. The way out is simple — an accelerated LCA production, no hiccups in the ongoing Rafale induction and a fast-tracking of the new deal for 114 fighter jets.
Shortage of training aircraft
•As far as other flying accidents are concerned, human error is responsible for around 50% of them while issues revolving around technical, environmental and miscellaneous factors are responsible for the rest. One of the major reasons for human error is training deficiencies due to a shortage of training aircraft.
•The non-availability of the HTT-40 to complement the reliable Pilatus, a delayed induction of the Intermediate Jet Trainer and a lack of clarity within the Ministry of Defence about the IAF’s proposal to buy additional Pilatus aircraft means that the IAF has keep the 40-year-old Kiran fly-worthy and compromise on training quality and future operational proficiency. The IAF flies air maintenance sorties to support the Indian Army and conducts humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions in the most inclement of weather conditions and highly varied and inhospitable terrain.
•Several weather- and terrain-related accidents on helicopter and transport aircraft like the MiG-17 and AN-32 are caused due to the non-availability of on-board equipment like Ground Proximity Warning Systems and Terrain Following Radar that allow such missions to be conducted in near-blind conditions. The recent accident may never have happened had there been a fleet of medium-lift aircraft with such systems.
Navigating crest tops
•An AN-32 can fly well above the crest tops but in case of a single-engine failure, it has to descend below 8,000 ft, which is below the crest tops in the region; hence the ground below has to be in contact at all times. Therefore, in sorties such as this, the route has to planned through known valleys — informed sources point out that the crashed aircraft may have been impacted by a visually obscured mountain located at some distance below the crest top.
•Replacing the Avro aircraft with a modern platform that can share the workload of the AN-32, particularly in high-altitude areas, is another key suggestion that can be considered. The Tata-Airbus C-295 with all modern systems has been clearly the IAF’s first choice and can maintain 19,000 ft on a single engine that would keep it above mountain tops in all areas serviced by the AN-32.
•Accidents will continue to happen and the IAF will have to balance risks with operational necessity. Speedy replacements for MiG-21s and MiG-27s, Jaguars, Avros, Kiran trainers and Cheetah/Chetak helicopters; fast-track modifications and upgrades that are required for operations in remote and hostile terrain; and upgrading of simulators as force enablers and not merely as training aids are among the necessary measures to improve flight safety. Finally, the IAF leadership must lay down clear red lines for continued operational effectiveness — a ‘we will fight and train with what we have’ attitude has ominous signals.
