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There is a new source of anxiety in the Valley after the Centre ended Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5, 2019.
Delayed or no police verification or adverse police reports have left hundreds without jobs and passports. According to top official sources, these have reached a five-digit mark in Kashmir, the highest in the past decade.
Several J&K politicians, including former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her daughter Iltija Mufti, alleged they were being denied passports. The Muftis have approached the court.
Imran Hafeez, 46, a doctor who works as an Associate Professor of Interventional Cardiology at the prestigious Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar, was due to be promoted as an Additional Professor last December after appearing in a series of interviews.
Though other doctors were promoted, Dr. Hafeez is among seven who were not allowed to join the new position. According to the institute’s administration, “police verification is pending in these cases”.
Dr. Hafeez’s father, Moulvi Mushtaq, is the uncle of Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Suspected militants killed Mushtaq in 2004 when they opened fire on him inside a mosque in the old city. Their aim was to stall the Srinagar-Delhi talks involving the Hurriyat faction headed by Mr. Farooq.
Pending police verification has become a tool to deny some professionals government jobs. Hundreds are denied passports for “security reasons”.
Eight parties write to PM against use of agencies for ‘political witch-hunt’ (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
Against the backdrop of the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), eight Opposition parties wrote a strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the alleged misuse of Central agencies for “political witch-hunt”, which, they said, is making Indian democracy veer close to an “autocracy”.
The signatories are Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao; Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal; Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann; West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee; Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) patriarch Sharad Pawar; Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav; Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah; and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The Congress is not on board, signalling moves towards the formation of a non-Congress, non-BJP third front. Among the signatories, the NCP and the RJD are Congress allies.
Editorial
Utilising India’s moment under the diplomatic sun (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
New Delhi is on a geopolitical high. It hosted the G-20 Foreign Ministers meeting (March 1-2, 2023), the G-20 Finance Ministers meeting (February 22-25) and the Quad Foreign Ministers meeting (March 3), and national capital has been teeming with global leaders and thinkers attending the Ministry of External Affairs-supported Raisina dialogue (March 2-4). A few weeks ago, India also organised the ‘Voice of Global South Summit’ (January 12–13).
For a country that has for far too long inhabited the sidelines of world politics, criticising and complaining, too powerless to assert itself, and often seen as an irritant by great powers for even having an opinion, India’s pivotal position at the G-20, the Quad (the United States, India, Australia and Japan), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Global South today has given it a sudden surge in stature and reputation. And yet, one year is too short in geopolitics, and geopolitics is not always a function of happy coincidences.
For New Delhi, this is its moment under the sun, the near realisation of a long-awaited pivotal power moment. From the pre-Independence days, through the 75 years of its independent existence, Indian leaders, from Jawaharlal Nehru to A.B. Vajpayee to Narendra Modi have often spoken of India’s role in the world — that its culture, history, demography and economic strength provide the country with a strong foundation for such a role.
For most part of its history though, New Delhi was too weak to assert itself, or too unimportant, but the solid foundations laid through the decades are starting to make a difference.
Contemporary India’s pivotal position in world politics is thanks to a fortunate confluence of deliberate and unforeseen factors which appear to be working in New Delhi’s favour.
A far stronger economic and military power, courted by great powers, New Delhi has cleverly used the failure of the post-war world order today to its advantage.
The worry about an aggressively rising China has further prompted global leaders to look for geopolitical alternatives in the Indo-Pacific region.
Attack on knowledge (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The decision of the Government of India to suspend the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licence of the country’s premier think tank, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) is bad in optics and substance.
The reasons that are being cited by the authorities include lapses in the income-tax paperwork of CPR’s staff, lack of due process in the accounting process, and diversion of funds to publication of books, which the authorities allege is not part of the CPR’s objectives.
An eagerness to drag the prestigious institution into a quagmire of legal processes is writ large over this entire exercise. The CPR has been working on improving governance and enhancing state capacity among other things, in collaboration with governments, and the public and private sectors.
There are many advocacy and campaign groups that have been facing the wrath of the government in the recent past, but the action against the CPR lowers the bar of tolerance for the political establishment to an abysmal level.
This betrays an inexplicable hostility towards knowledge creation of all kinds. The FCRA is a regulatory mechanism to ensure that foreign vested interests are not unduly influencing the domestic politics of India, but sweeping application of the law in a manner that clearly disables the non-governmental sector suggests a thoughtless approach bordering on vindictiveness.
The hardships of a career in Ayurvedic practice (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
Practice does not seem to be a feasible career option for most Ayurveda graduates. For a few idealists who consider this option, the hardships awaiting them are many.
Despite the publicity campaigns to promote Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH), the fact is that there is a trust-deficit in these systems. For understandable reasons, Ayurveda is not the medical system of first choice for many people.
(Even) Ayurveda practitioners don’t seem to trust it fully,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had noted in his speech at the sixth World Ayurveda Congress, in November 2014.
There is widespread scepticism in the public mind about the soundness of Ayurvedic theories and the fruitfulness of its practices. This scepticism is not altogether baseless.
The Ayurveda establishment has failed to keep pace with the intellectual and scientific advances of the times. Archaic theories that are apt to arouse suspicion in the minds of educated patients are peddled as sophisticated dogmas.
Treatments are made to escape straightforward experimental scrutiny because of their supposed rootedness in such theories. When theories are kept mystified, using them to downplay the demands for experimental verification of practices becomes rather easy. Thus, a major reason for the trust-deficit in Ayurveda is its diminished evidence-based quality.
That Ayurveda treatments are slow to heal is another common view that characterises the public image of Ayurveda. This view also warrants a careful study.
Ayurveda’s thrust is on patient benefit and not merely on patient gratification. Real patient benefit would be sustainable as opposed to patient gratification which is momentary. Sustainability of treatments requires a gradual transition from illness to wellness.
Sudden relief is deemed superficial and temporary. There is enough material in medical literature today to substantiate the prudence of this approach — at least, in principle.
The popular view that Ayurvedic treatments are slow to heal is thus a half-truth. It can be corrected by appropriate patient education.
Opinion
Patterns of violence in the Kashmir Valley (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
Targeted killings against Kashmiri Pandits and minorities in the Kashmir Valley have been on the rise. The death of Kashmiri Pandit and bank guard Sanjay Sharma in Pulwama, late last month, was the latest in a series of attacks against the minority community.
These attacks have increased fear in the community and raised concerns about the lack of security. Sharma’s killing was the second such incident against Kashmiri Pandits in Pulwama, the first being Janki Nath’s death in 1990 at the peak of militancy. Sharma’s attacker was killed in a follow-up operation.
However, this has done little to allay the fears of the community. All the major political parties in the Valley have condemned the attacks.
In 2022, terrorist attacks left 29 civilians dead, including three local Pandits, three other Hindus and eight non-local labourers in Jammu and Kashmir.
The unrest led to 5,500 Pandit employees moving out from the Valley. Since 2022, India has witnessed 315 incidents involving violent murders. Of these, Jammu and Kashmir accounts for 160 incidents followed by the Maoist insurgency which was responsible for 126 incidents.
Data from the South Asia Terrorism portal show that violence has been on the rise in the Valley, following a period of relative calm between 2011 and 2016 when a total of 562 incidents related to killings took place. In the last six years, however, there have been 948 incidents, close to a 70% rise
The number of incidents since 2010 that resulted in fatalities. A killing-related incident is a terrorism-related event which results in at least one death.
After 2016, there has been a spike in the deaths of both civilians and security forces in comparison to the early 2010s. However, deaths among both these sections declined since 2018. SATP records show 30 civilian deaths in 2022.
A bulk of them were killings of Kashmiri Pandits and migrants, revealing a dangerous pattern of terrorists seeking to target religious minorities in the Union Territory. The number of civilians and security personnel who were killed between 2010 and 2022.
Explainer
A breakdown of the higher pension scheme (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
The long wait of subscribers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and those who retired after September 1, 2014 to apply for higher PF pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) of 1995 came to an end on February 27 with the Organisation providing a web link on its members’ page.
The prospective beneficiaries fall under two categories — those who retired after September 1, 2014, and those who were in service prior to the date and continue to be in service.
The critical element is that in either of the cases, employers must have made PF contributions in excess of the mandatory ceiling of the pensionable salary.
Till now, 8,897 persons have sent their applications through their employers. The last date for availing the option of higher pension is May 3, 2023.
The present exercise of the EPFO has been necessitated by the judgment of the Supreme Court given on November 4, 2022 in the EPFO versus Sunil Kumar B case.
The verdict, apart from upholding the 2014 amendment brought in by the Union government, had given an opportunity to all employees, as on September 1, 2014, who did not exercise the option under paragraph 11 (4) of the EPS Rules for higher pension but were entitled to do so but could not due to the interpretation on cut-off date by the authorities.
It clearly stated that the time to exercise the option “shall stand extended by a further period of four months.” In the light of the Court’s directions, the EPFO issued a circular on February 20, laying down the broad contours of eligibility.
The 2014 amendment, which came into effect in September that year, raised the pensionable salary cap to ₹15,000 a month from ₹6,500 a month, and allowed employers to contribute 8.33% of the employees’ actual pay (even if it exceeds the cap) towards EPS. Between November 16, 1995 (the date of commencement of the Pension Scheme) and May 31, 2001, the salary cap was ₹5,000.
Even though employers, in many instances, had been making PF contributions over and above the ceiling for their employees, only 8.33% of the pensionable salary cap had got transferred to the Pension Fund.
Another important feature of the amendment is that unlike in the past when new employees covered under the Provident Fund (PF) compulsorily became members of the EPS, only those with the monthly wage of not exceeding ₹15,000 can now be members of the Pension Scheme.
What are ‘bio-computers’ and how do they function? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Science & technology)
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) recently outlined a plan for a potentially revolutionary new area of research called “organoid intelligence”, which aims to create “bio-computers”.
Here, brain cultures grown in the lab are coupled to real-world sensors and input/output devices. The scientists expect the technology to harness the processing power of the brain and understand the biological basis of human cognition, learning, and various neurological disorders.
Understanding how the human brain works has been a difficult challenge. Traditionally, researchers have used rat brains to investigate various human neurological disorders.
Now, in a quest to develop systems that are more relevant to humans, scientists are building 3D cultures of brain tissue in the lab, called brain organoids.
These “mini-brains” (with a size of up to 4 mm) are built using human stem cells and capture many structural and functional features of a developing human brain.
However, the human brain also requires various sensory inputs (touch, smell, vision, etc) to develop into the complex organ it is, and brain organoids developed in the lab aren’t sophisticated enough. They also do not have blood circulation, which limits how they can grow.
Recently, scientists transplanted these human brain organoid cultures into rat brains, where they formed connections with the rat brain, which in turn provided circulating blood.
Since the organoids had been transplanted to the visual system, when the scientists showed the experimental rats a light flash, the human neurons were activated, too, indicating that the human brain organoids were also functionally active.
Scientists have touted such a system as a way to study brain diseases in a human context. However, human brain organoids are still nested in the rat-brain microenvironment.
The effects of drugs in this model will have to be interpreted through various behavioural tests in rats, which could be insufficiently representative. Therefore, we need to address the limitations of lab-grown organoids and develop a more human-relevant system.
News
Away from the spotlight, India holds conference of global intelligence chiefs (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Amid the G-20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and ahead of the Raisina Dialogue, India quietly held the second conference of intelligence and security chiefs and top officials from around the world, called the Raisina Security Dialogue, on March 1 which saw participation from over 26 countries, confirmed multiple sources.
India is trying to make its presence felt in bringing together global intelligence agencies for exchanges on issues of common concern.
The focus of the discussions was largely on global security which encompassed counterterrorism, radicalisation, drugs trafficking, and illegal arms smuggling, among others.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval addressed the conference, which is modelled on the lines of the Munich Security Conference, the 59th edition of which took place from February 17 to 19, and Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue.
It was a broad-based discussion and shows the global confidence in India, said an official from one of the participating countries.
While the U.S. was absent, intelligence chiefs from the U.K., France, Japan and Bahrain were among those present, the source stated.
Sources said Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns was in India two weeks earlier, from February 16 to 17. He also travelled to Sri Lanka recently, they added.
Mr. Burns, who had missed the conference in April 2022 as well, last visited New Delhi in September 2021 to discuss the challenges arising from the Taliban takeover of Kabul, which also coincided with the visit of Russian Security Council chief General Nikolai Patrushev.
The security conference is organised by the country’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) that reports to Mr. Doval.
The conference was held for the first time in April 2022, a day before the start of Raisina Dialogue,India’s flagship conference on “geopolitics and geo-strategy” organised by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in collaboration with Observer Research Foundation (ORF). The eighth edition this year was held from March 2-4.
Nations secure pact to protect marine life in the high seas (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
For the first time, United Nations (UN) members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas. The treaty agreement concluded two weeks of talks in New York.
An updated framework to protect marine life in the regions outside national boundary waters, known as the high seas, had been in discussions for more than 20 years, but previous efforts to reach an agreement had repeatedly stalled.
Nichola Clark, an oceans expert at the Pew Charitable Trusts who observed the talks in New York, called the long-awaited treaty text “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect the oceans — a major win for biodiversity”.
The treaty will create a new body to manage conservation of ocean life and establish marine protected areas in the high seas. Ms. Clark said that is critical to achieve the UN Biodiversity Conference’s pledge to protect 30% of the planet’s waters, as well as its land, for conservation.
The crafting of the treaty represents “a historic and overwhelming success for international marine protection”, said Steffi Lemke, Germany's Environment Minister.
“For the first time, we are getting a binding agreement for the high seas, which until now have hardly been protected,” Ms. Lemke said.
Comprehensive protection of endangered species and habitats is now finally possible on more than 40% of the Earth’s surface.” The treaty also establishes ground rules for conducting environmental impact assessments for commercial activities in the oceans.
It means all activities planned for the high seas need to be looked at, though not all will go through a full assessment,” said Jessica Battle, an oceans governance expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
India close to ‘Hindu rate of growth’, says ex RBI chief(Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Indian Economy)
Sounding a note of caution, former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said that India was “dangerously close” to the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ in view of the subdued private sector investment, high interest rates and slowing global growth.
Mr. Rajan said that sequential slowdown in the quarterly growth, as revealed by the latest estimate of the national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) last month, was worrying.
The ‘Hindu rate of growth’ is a term describing low Indian economic growth rates from the 1950s to the 1980s, which averaged around 4%.
“Of course, the optimists will point to the upward revisions in past GDP numbers, but I am worried about the sequential slowdown.
With the private sector unwilling to invest, the RBI still hiking rates, and global growth likely to slow later in the year, I am not sure where we find additional growth momentum,” Mr. Rajan said.
The key question is what Indian growth will be in fiscal 2023-24, Mr. Rajan said, adding, “The RBI projects an even lower 4.2% for the last quarter of this fiscal.
At this point, the average annual growth of the October-December quarter relative to the similar pre-pandemic quarter three years ago is 3.7%.”
The government, he said, was doing its bit on infrastructure investment but its manufacturing thrust was yet to pay dividends.