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Tripura Governor Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya invited BJP leader and Chief Minister Manik Saha to form a new government in the State.
Dr. Saha will be sworn in on Wednesday as the 12th Chief Minister of the State since its formation in 1972. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders will attend the function.
In the Assembly election, the BJP won 32 of the 60 seats, while its ally, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), won one seat.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Saha was elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party. Union Minister of State for Social Justice Pratima Bhowmik, who won the Dhanpur seat in the Assembly election, proposed his name, party sources said. She was in contention for the top post.
Shukla Charan Noatia of the IPFT also backed the selection of Dr. Saha, who won the Town Bardowali seat by 1,257 votes.
He was made Chief Minister on May 15, 2022 after Biplab Kumar Deb stepped down in a surprise move. Party sources said the decision to reappoint Dr. Saha was taken at a meeting in New Delhi.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma attended the meeting. Party sources said Mr. Sarma met Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the composition of the Cabinet and its leader.
Editorial
The anti-defection law is facing convulsions (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
After long years of legislative meanderings, Parliament enacted the anti-defection law (10th Schedule) in 1985 to curb political defection.
The volume, intensity, recklessness and uncontrolled venality seen in defections in the 1960s and thereafter almost came to a stop after this.
Defections not only caused the frequent fall of governments but also caused great instability in political parties with power-seeking politicians wreaking havoc on political parties.
The Supreme Court of India in its first comprehensive judgment in the Kihoto Hollohan case characterised it as a political evil and upheld the right of Parliament to curb this evil through legislative mechanism.
Years have passed and this promise of political stability seems to be ending with the anti-defection law facing convulsions in Indian legislatures, especially in the last five years. The happenings in the State of Maharashtra are an example.
But before dealing with the questions of constitutional importance that have arisen in the Maharashtra Assembly, and which are presently before the Supreme Court, it is necessary to make a few general points about the scheme of the anti-defection law in India.
In fact, a closer reading of this law will show that this enactment had a two-point objective. The first was to curb the act of defection by disqualifying the defecting member.
The second was to protect political parties from debilitating instability. The fact is that frequent defections from even well-organised political parties leave them weak.
They find themselves incapable of keeping their flock together as politicians have a tendency to abandon a sinking ship and move out in search of greener pastures.
Indian democracy is based essentially on a party system where stable parties are a sine qua non of a stable democracy.
A ‘Zeitenwende’ in the India-Germany relationship (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
It is no secret that India’s relationship with Germany has traditionally lagged behind its relations with its other European partners such as France. Benign mutual neglect coupled with Germany’s primary focus on China are factors, but this appears to be changing rapidly.
Chancellor Scholz’s two-day visit to India, that began on February 25, 2023, significantly coincided with the first anniversary of Russia’s war on Ukraine, which has been, in Mr. Scholz’s own words, a Zeitenwende or turning point.
Indeed, the Russian invasion has been a watershed moment in Germany’s security policy, resulting in the abandonment of decades of post-war pacifism towards strategic matters.
This is evident in Germany’s pledge to boost defence spending to 2% of GDP and provide special funding to bolster the country’s military.
Russia’s war and China’s assertive posturing have brought into question Germany’s approach of Wandel durch Handel (change through trade), prompting a deep rethink of its energy and trade dependencies towards diversifying economic relations.
As ties with Russia and China enter uncharted waters, Europe’s increasing prioritisation of values-based partnerships with like-minded countries can advance India-German cooperation.
In this context, the German government’s coalition agreement in 2021 refers to relations with India among its top foreign policy priorities.
Mr. Scholz’s visit has built on German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s visit to India in December 2022, and the 6th India-Germany Inter-governmental Consultations, a biannual format of engagement that commenced in 2011, to expand cooperation in defence, trade, clean energy, migration, digital transformation, and the Indo-Pacific.
Opinion
How to become a green hydrogen superpower (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The 2023 Union Budget has allocated ₹19,700 crore for the National Green Hydrogen Mission. This will set in motion a programme that can position India as a green hydrogen (super)power.
India has committed to 50% electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030. But an energy transition in industry is needed at the same time.
Most industrial greenhouse gas emissions in India come from steel, cement, fertilizers and petrochemicals.
Green hydrogen holds the promise of fuelling industrial growth while simultaneously reducing industrial emissions. Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is energy-intensive.
When this energy comes from renewable/non-fossil sources, we get green hydrogen. It can serve as an energy source (heavy industry, long-distance mobility, aviation, and power storage) and an energy carrier (as green ammonia or blended with natural gas).
India is targeting at least five million tonnes of production by 2030, which is larger than that of any single economy. This would create demand for 100-125 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy, 60-100 GW of electrolysers, investment opportunity of ₹8 lakh crore, and cut 50 MMT of annual emissions.
With abundant sunshine and significant wind energy resources, India is geographically blessed to become one of the lowest-cost producers of green hydrogen.
Explainer
Multilateral reforms as a priority in the G-20 (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
While assuming the G-20 presidency in December 2022, India stated that its agenda would be inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented, and decisive. New Delhi also said that its primary objectives are to build global consensus over critical development and security issues and deliver global goods.
This resulted in placing multilateral reform as one of the top presidential priorities for India. Accordingly, the G-20 idea bank, Think 20, also placed multilateral reforms as one of its priorities.
The T20 Task Force on ‘Towards Reformed Multilateralism’ (TF7) aims to construct a roadmap for ‘Multilateralism 2.0’.
Multilateral cooperation today, is confronting multiple crises. First, due to persistent deadlocks, multilateralism has lost the majority’s trust.
Second, multilateralism is facing a utility crisis, where powerful member-states think it is no longer useful for them. Moreover, increasing great-power tensions, de-globalisation, populist nationalism, the pandemic, and climate emergencies added to the hardships.
This impasse led states to seek other arenas, including bilateral, plurilateral and minilateral groupings, which subsequently contributed to further polarisation of global politics.
However, cooperation and multilateral reform is the need of the hour. Most of the challenges nations face today are global in nature and require global solutions.
Pressing global issues such as conflicts, climate change, migration, macroeconomic instability, and cybersecurity can indeed only be solved collectively.
Furthermore, disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic have reversed the social and economic progress that the global society made in the past couple of decades.
News
Rushikulya sands teem with Olive Ridleys (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Nearly 6.37 lakh Olive Ridley turtles have arrived for mass nesting on the Rushikulya coast this year, setting a new record for the beach in Ganjam district of Odisha.
The arrival of the turtles for laying eggs from February 23 to March 2 — which is treated as the mass nesting period — was attributed to the emergence of new beaches near the Podam- petta area, Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer Sunny.
Mr. Khokkar said, this year, the beaches remained unaffected as there were no extreme weather events such as cyclone and heavy rain and the turtles ascended the perfectly sloped beaches at the Rushikulya river mouth. Last year, 5.5 lakh Olive Ridley turtles came to Rushikulya for mass nesting.
The actual number of Olive Ridleys coming to Rushikulya will go up as turtles keep coming to the coast after March 2. We are currently counting the number of turtles received during sporadic nesting witnessed after March 2. The forest division has stepped up super- vision to prevent turtle mortality by deploying more officials.
Turtles also arrive at Gahirmatha beach in Kendrapara district, which is known as the world’s largest known rookery. Puri and Devi river mouth beaches too host Olive Ridley turtles this time around.
Uncertainty over release of MGNREGS funds for Bengal as tussle with Centre goes on (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are likely to be withheld for West Bengal in the upcoming financial year, with no resolution to the tussle between the State and the Centre over the violation of rules in the implementation of the scheme.
Invoking Section 27 of the MGNREG Act, the Centre has been withholding funds for the State since December 2021.
West Bengal is the only State in the country against which this section was invoked. The Centre owes ₹7,500 crore out of which the labour wages amount to ₹2,744 crore.
Section 27 of the Act says, the Central Government may, on receipt of any complaint regarding the issue or improper utilisation of funds granted under this act in respect of any scheme if prima facie satisfied that there is a case, cause an investigation into the complaint made by any agency designated by it and if necessary, order stoppage of release of funds to the scheme.
The section, however, also states that “appropriate remedial measures for its proper implementation within a reasonable period of time” has to be taken.
Officials at the Union Ministry of Rural Development said that the Section was invoked only after three years and several warnings by the Centre, which the State ignored.
Centre gives nod for States to authenticate Aadhaar of prisoners (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Union Home Ministry of Home on Monday notified that prison authorities across States are allowed to conduct authentication of prison inmates through Aadhaar for extending benefits such as meeting with relatives and legal aid.
The notification said the Ministry having been authorised by the Union government to notify, under Rule 5 of the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020 and the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, “performance of Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates on a voluntary basis using Yes/No authentication facility, inter-alia, for delivery of various benefits/facilities to which they are entitled, such as, correctional reform measures, health, skilling, vocational training, interview with relatives, legal aid, etc.”, hereby notifies that the Prisons Department of the States and Union Territories are allowed to perform Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates.
It added that prison authorities of the States shall adhere to the guidelines with respect to the use of Aadhaar authentication as laid down by the Central government.
Earlier in November 2022, the Ministry wrote to prison authorities to organise special camps to make Aadhaar available for all prisoners.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has agreed to accept the Prisoner Induction Document (PID) as a valid document for enrolment or update of Aadhaar. By enrolling prisoners to Aadhaar, various aspects of day-to-day prison administration such as production before court, return to prison, transport, health facilities, shifting to hospital outside the campus, interviews, free legal aid, parole, temporary release mechanisms, education/vocational training, release from prisons etc. could be regulated, the Ministry had said.
Railways ties up with ISRO for train tracking (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
The Indian Railways is harnessing the power of data analytics for integrated transportation. It has commenced a project which will now enable real time tracking of train movements with the assistance of satellite imagery under the Real Time Train Information System (RTIS) project.
D.K. Singh, Managing Director, Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), said that the CRIS has collaborated with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for live tracking to help Railways run trains efficiently.
Mr. Singh, and the Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, spoke on the sidelines of a conference on ‘Reimagining Indian Railways: Harnessing the Power of Data Analytics for Integrated Transportation’ here on March 3.
Mr. Singh said that ISRO has developed its own regional navigation satellite system called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) and Bhuvan, a web-based utility which allows users to explore a set of map-based content being deployed for tracking.
We have taken bandwidth from ISRO and integrated our systems with NavIC and Bhuvan. Every locomotive is fitted with a device and a SIM, which communicates the train’s real position to the satellite and feedback is received. The movement is updated every three seconds.
Real-time tracking of trains is also useful during accidents, floods and landslips, when there is a need to pin down the train’s exact location for rendering help.
Until now, 4,000 locomotives have been installed with the technology, and new locomotives that are being manufactured come pre-installed with the tracking devices.
Mr. Vaishnaw emphasised the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum tech for the Indian Railways. Mr. Vaishnaw said that there was a pilot project underway between Sanchar Bhavan, which houses the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology, and Rail Bhavan, which houses the Ministry of Railways, to use quantum key encryption in order to exchange information in a way that is “non-hackable”.
World
South Korea pushes to end disputes with Japan over wartime forced labour (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
South Korea announced plans on Monday to compensate victims of Japan’s forced wartime labour, aiming to end a “vicious cycle” in the Asian powers’ relations and boost ties to counter the nuclear-armed North. Japan and the U.S. immediately welcomed the announcement, but victims have criticised the proposal because it falls far short of their demand for a full apology from Tokyo and direct compensation from the Japanese companies involved.
Seoul and Tokyo have already ramped up security cooperation in the face of growing threats from Kim Jong Un’s regime, but bilateral ties have long been strained over Tokyo’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Around 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labour by Japan during the 35-year occupation, according to data from Seoul, not including women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
Seoul’s plan is to take money from major South Korean companies that benefited from a 1965 reparations deal with Tokyo and use it to compensate victims.
The hope is that Japan will “positively respond to our major decision today with Japanese companies’ voluntary contributions and a comprehensive apology.
Tokyo insists the 1965 treaty — which saw the two countries restore diplomatic ties with a reparations package of about $800 million in grants and cheap loans — settled all claims between the two relating to the colonial period.
But Tokyo’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi welcomed the new plan, telling reporters it would help to restore “healthy” ties after years of tensions.
Washington hailed what it called a “groundbreaking new chapter of cooperation and partnership between two of the U.S.’s closest allies,” according to a statement from the White House.