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India and Russia discussed “trade deficit” during the India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).
The sides reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral trade and economic relationship, and agreed to work together to unlock its full potential including addressing the trade deficit and market access issues.
Speaking at a business event organised by the FICCI on Monday, Mr. Manturov flagged the issue of payments in bilateral trade that had deepened in the backdrop of the Western sanctions on Russia.
Apart from interacting with Mr. Jaishankar, the Russian Minister also met Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. The visit is in continuation of the regular high-level dialogue between the two Sides.
States
ISRO plans to launch TeLEOS-2 on April 22 (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch Singapore’s TeLEOS-2 satellite on April 22, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The launch, which will be carried out by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is scheduled to take place at 2.19 p.m.
This launch will be the PSLV’s 55th mission and TeLEOS-2 is an Earth Observation Satellite developed by ST Engineering.
In 2015, ISRO launched TeLEOS-1, the first Singapore commercial Earth Observation Satellite, which was launched into a low Earth orbit for remote sensing applications. The ISRO has so far launched nine satellites belonging to Singapore.
The PSLV-C55 is ISRO’s third launch this year and the last PSLV mission was in November last year.
Editorial
The future of India’s civil society organisations (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s systematic suffocation of civil society over the last nine years has ensured that most governments no longer listen to civil society organisations (CSO) or movements, either in the pre-legislative stage or in the redress of lacunae in the implementation of government schemes.
Given that advocacy is effectively dead, the ability of civil society to shape policy and public discourse has shrunk drastically.
Because civil society is seen to be the new frontier for war and foreign interference, there has been a systematic clampdown on CSOs lobbying for greater constitutional and civic freedoms.
Therefore, activists, journalists, academics and students have been targeted by a plethora of the state’s governing instruments and non-state actors (who have resorted to violence and abuse, online and offline).
This has been further exacerbated by restricting the access of CSOs to resources (including cancelling Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act clearances, revoking 12A/80-G licences, imposing retrospective taxes, and pressuring private companies and philanthropists to redirect funding).
Because the BJP government has re-conceptualised vikas (development) as the furtherance of large projects, rather than citizen’s well-being, civil society is being vilified as disruptive to India’s development trajectory — and therefore anti-national.
This portends a grave threat to the system’s integrity because civil society is an indispensable safety valve for tensions in a polity.
Explainer
What are the latest developments in Yemen? (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Hundreds of prisoners captured during the war in Yemen were reunited with their families between April 14 to 16 amid diplomatic efforts to halt the conflict. The main warring sides in Yemen are the Iran-backed Houthis and the pro-Yemen government, Saudi-led coalition.
The two opposing sides had in March agreed to release 887 detainees after a ten-day meeting in Switzerland. The parties also agreed to meet again in May to discuss more such releases, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a press statement.
Flights of the ICRC carried 869 of the released detainees to six cities in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. An additional 104 detainees were released from Saudi Arabia to Yemen. The large-scale prisoner swap has given the people hope for a permanent ceasefire in Yemen.
The warring parties in control of parts of Yemen had signed the Stockholm Agreement in December 2018 whereby they had committed to freeing conflict-related detainees.
The agreement brokered by the United Nations had three main components — the Hudayah agreement, the prisoner exchange agreement, and the Taïz agreement.
The Hudayah agreement included a ceasefire in the city of Hodeidah and other clauses like no military reinforcements in the city and strengthened UN presence.
In November 2018, hundreds of people were killed in clashes in Hodeidah, an important port in Yemen, when government loyalists supported by a Saudi-led coalition launched an attack to oust the Iran-backed Houthi rebels from the Red Sea city.
The Taïz agreement includes the formation of a joint committee with participation from civil society and the UN.
The conflict in Yemen began in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring protests. President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to hand over power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Mr. Hadi found himself faced with an insurmountable task of tackling Yemen’s economic and security problems.
The Houthis, backed by Iran, took advantage of Mr. Hadi’s weak control and captured the Saada province in the north, and then Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, in 2014.
News
Ganga mission clears projects worth ₹638 crore (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Conservation)
The Jal Shakti Ministry’s National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) cleared eight projects worth ₹638 crore. The projects include the clean-up of the Hindon, a tributary of the Yamuna, stretches of which rank as among the most polluted in the country. This clean-up comprises four projects, worth ₹407.39 crore, approved for pollution abatement in Shamli district, Uttar Pradesh.
Once commissioned, the projects will stem the flow of polluted water into the Krishna River, which, as of now, discharges pollution from Shamli district into the Hindon.
A project for the development of seven ghats in Prayagraj was also approved. Two more sewage treatment projects were approved, one each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
Another project for Akhand Param Dham ghat development, at a total cost of ₹2.12 crore, was approved for Haridwar, Uttarakhand.