Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
India and Bangladesh should resolve all bilateral issues, including the differences over the waters of the Teesta, “at an early date”, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said.
After holding bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the visiting leader described India as the “most important and closest neighbour” that is bound with Bangladesh through 54 common rivers and 4,000 km of border.
The two sides signed seven agreements covering railways, science and technology, space cooperation, media, and water sharing.
The two countries had resolved many outstanding issues in the spirit of friendship and cooperation and we hope that all outstanding issues, including Teesta Water Sharing Treaty, would be concluded at an early date, referring to the long-standing riparian issue that has eluded resolution.
The two sides, however, made a significant beginning in river-water sharing by reaching an agreement — a first in 28 years — on drawing water from the common border river Kushiyara for supplying to parts of lower Assam as well as Sylhet in Bangladesh.
Mr. Modi highlighted the values that made India and Bangladesh to put up a joint fight in the Liberation War of 1971 and said, “In order keep the spirit of 1971 alive, it is necessary that we confront those forces that want to hurt our common values.”
The pact over the Kushiyara was the first river-related agreement that the two sides reached 28 years after the conclusion of the Ganga Waters Agreement of 1996. He also said that India had extended the period of sharing flood water-related information in real time that would help Bangladesh counter the annual floods.
Mr. Kwatra did not mention the Ukraine war’s impact on the economic prospects of the South Asian region, but hinted at it saying the leaders discussed “regional and global issues”.
The Ministries of Railways of India and Bangladesh signed an agreement on training of personnel of the Bangladesh Railway in India.
In a bid to help Bangladesh deal with energy crisis, the two leaders unveiled Unit 1 of the Maitree power plant, a 1,320-MW supercritical coal-fired thermal power plant, at Rampal in Khulna division of Bangladesh.
SC asks Centre, States to allay EWS quota concerns (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
A Constitution Bench asked the Centre, States and petitioners to firm up a slew of concerns raised in the Supreme Court about granting reservation on a purely economic basis, one of them being whether it is a violation of the very basic structure of the Constitution to exclude Scheduled Castes, Tribes and some of the most impoverished, socially and educationally backward classes in the country from the scope of the quota.
The five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit is considering the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment, which provides a 10% quota to economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society in government jobs and educational institutions.
The Bench asked the draft issues to be circulated so that the Union, States and petitioners could study them. The court scheduled the next hearing on Thursday to “crystallise” the issues finally.
The CJI said the Bench would start hearing the case on Tuesday next. Chief Justice Lalit indicated that the arguments on both sides should conclude in seven days.
Mr. Sankaranarayanan has highlighted five draft issues in the case. These include whether the 103rd Amendment violated the Indira Sawhney judgment of 1992 which had prohibited reservation on the basis of a “purely” economic criterion.
Besides raising the question of whether the amendment “breached the Basic Structure of the Constitution in excluding the SEBCs/OBc/SCs/STs from the scope of EWS reservation”, the draft issues highlights if the 10% EWS quota infringed the 50% ceiling limit for reservation.
The draft document has also asked the court ruminate and decide if the EWS quota should be imposed in private unaided institutions.
Finally, the court wants the government, States and parties to consider the draft issue as to “whether the 103rd Constitution Amendment breaches the equality code and the Constitutional scheme by giving sanctity to the ‘existing reservation’, whichare only created temporarily by enabling provisions”.
The challenge to the 103rd Constitutional Amendment was referred to a five-judge Bench in August 2020. The three-judge Bench, which had referred the case to the larger Bench, had refused to stay the implementation of the amendment.
Economic reservation was introduced in the Constitution by amending Articles 15 and 16 and adding clauses empowering the State governments to provide reservation on the basis of economic backwardness.
India gets its first nasal COVID vaccine(Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
India’s first nasal COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech, has been approved for primary immunisation in those 18 and above, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said. The company said it was optimised for supply and administration.
The approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation for restricted use in emergencies will further strengthen India’s fight against the pandemic, the Minister tweeted.
India has harnessed its science, research and development, and human resources in the fight against COVID-19 under PM Narendra Modi’s leadership. With the science-driven approach and SabkaPrayas.
The company noted that the ChAd36-SARS-CoV-S COVID-19 (Chimpanzee Adenovirus Vectored) recombinant vaccine has been evaluated to determine its impact on safety.
The vaccine is stable between two and eight degrees Celsius for easy storage and distribution. The company said it had established manufacturing capabilities at multiple sites across the country.
Krishna Ella, chairman, Bharat Biotech, said: “iNCOVACC will be a global game changer in intra-nasal vaccines technology and delivery systems.
Despite the lack of demand for vaccines, we continued product development in intra-nasal vaccines to ensure that we are well prepared with platform technologies for future infectious diseases.”
The reactogenic events and adverse events that were documented during the trial were highly comparable to the published data from other vaccines.
Product development data will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and made available in the public domain,” he said. The vaccine has the double benefit of enabling faster development of variant-specific vaccines and easy nasal delivery that enables mass immunisation to protect from emerging variants of concern.
It promises to become an important tool in mass vaccinations during pandemics and endemics. The product will be launched and available for use in due course of time.
Editorial
For Vizhinjam, business as usual is not an option (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Revenues from the ₹7,525-crore deep-water port and terminal at Vizhinjam in Kerala will only be justified if the project provides sufficient safeguards against ecological destruction and addresses the rights of households displaced by the project.
Nowhere is this socio-environmental imperative bigger than in Thiruvananthapuram because of its precarious ecology and coast-reliant economy.
It is politically hard, but developmentally critical, to make a mid-course shift, to put port development with coastal management on a sustainable track.
Singapore, Shanghai, and Dubai took advantage of ports to become hubs, earn incomes, and drive economic growth. Vizhinjam’s proximity to east-west shipping routes, its natural undredged draft of some 20 metres, and suitability for large vessels all make it a unique site.
But in a lopsided agreement, the Government of Kerala bears 67% of the financing and the Concessionaire (extended to a generous 40 years) 33%, with a low internal rate of return of 3.7% for the Government and 15% for the Concessionaire.
Despite the locational advantages, the Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt. Ltd., finds the deal attractive only with the inclusion of large real estate components in prime port property. The financial picture of the enterprise for Kerala State is dicey at best.
Another crucial issue is that any revenue generation is at the cost of a heavy human toll. Some 350 families that have lost homes to coastal erosion last year, and those living in makeshift schools and camps are just a foretaste of things to come if coastal erosion and extreme cyclones continue unabated. Port projects in China, Kenya, and Vietnam have seen vast resettlement and livelihood outlays by the owners over the life of the project.
A further danger is an irreversibly destroyed ecology, triggering deadlier hazards of nature. Ports without adequate safeguards in a highly delicate ecology unleash destruction on marine life and the livelihoods of the local population. Visakhapatnam and Chennai show how siltation, coastal erosion and accretion can be exacerbated by deepening of harbour channels in ecologically sensitive areas; this risk is just greater for Vizhinjam by an order of magnitude.
Building safeguards could potentially run economic growth and socio-economic sustainability in tandem. A 2017 study warned of the fallout for the shoreline and marine ecosystem from construction of breakwater and dredging.
But no funds have been earmarked for maintenance dredging within operational expenses, based on the false premise that siltation would be “negligible”, with “minimum literal drift along the project site”.
India, 7% plus annual growth, and the realities(Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The National Statistical Office’s real GDP growth estimate of 13.5% for the first quarter of 2022-23 is 2.7% points lower than the Reserve Bank of India’s earlier assessment of 16.2%.
Assuming that the central bank’s estimates of the remaining three quarters of the fiscal year at 6.2% in 2Q, 4.1% in 3Q, and 4% in 4Q are realised, the annual GDP growth using the NSO’s 1Q estimate works out to be 6.7%. Compared to the pre-COVID-19 GDP level of Rs. 35.5 lakh crore in 1Q of 2019-20, real GDP at Rs. 36.9 lakh crore shows an increase of only 3.8%.
This indicates that the performance of the Indian economy is not fully normalised yet which would be consistent with a growth of 6.5% to 7%. In order at least to reach an annual growth of 7%, GDP may have to grow at about 5% in 3Q and 4Q of 2022-23.
Out of the eight Gross Value Added (GVA) sectors, the first quarter growth performance is higher than the average of 12.7% in public administration, defence and other services (26.3%), trade, hotels, transport et al . (25.7%), construction (16.8%), and electricity, gas, water supply et al. (14.7%).
Agricultural growth has remained robust, showing a growth of 4.5% in 1Q of 2022-23, which is the highest growth over nine consecutive quarters.
Growth in manufacturing, at 4.8%, however, is much below the overall average. A more relevant comparison would be to look at the increase with respect to corresponding output levels in the pre-COVID-19 normal year, that is in 1Q of 2019-20.
In this comparison, manufacturing seems to have done better with an increase of 7% in 1Q of 2022-23 while the trade, hotels, transport et al .sector has remained below its pre-COVID-19 level by a margin of minus 15.5%.
This was the main contact-intensive sector which suffered the most during COVID-19 and which may show better recovery in succeeding quarters. Construction has also increased by a small margin of 1.2% when compared to its 1Q 2019-20 level.
On the demand side, all major segments showed magnitudes in 1Q of 2022-23 that were higher than their corresponding levels in 1Q of 2019-20. Recovery in domestic demand has been reflected in the growth rates of private final consumption expenditure (PFCE), at 25.9%, and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) at 20.1% over the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
As compared to its 1Q 2019-20 level, the GFCF showed a growth of 6.7%. The ratio of gross fixed capital formation to GDP at current prices is 29.2% in 1Q of 2022-23 which is 1% point higher than the investment rate of 28.2% in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
OPED
The burden that women bear (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 1, Women Related Issues)
On August 15, while houses hoisted flags, Malti rushed at the crack of dawn to the public tap 500 metres away before residents swarmed the place.
Water supply lasts only two hours, twice a day, for a village shy of 10,000 residents. Even if Malti gets ahead in line, there is no guaranteed supply. She makes four-five trips home, carrying 10-12 vessels of water in less than an hour.
She repeats the process in the evening to sufficiently provide for her low-income household comprising her husband, two sons, and in-laws.
Like Malti, 75% of women across India undertake such time-consuming efforts every day to ensure their families have water (NFHS-5). But drudgery does not end here.
The remaining hours are spent securing fuel and caregiving — gendered responsibilities that shackle them further to their homes.
For these women, freedom is relief from domestic drudgery, from doing repetitive tasks out of no choice owing to socio-cultural norms and limited access to resources like water, fuel and household appliances.
Malti’s daily drill was no different when India turned 50. As a pre-teen on the cusp of getting married, she queued up for an hour with her mother before it was their turn at the hand pump.
If the hand pump was broken/empty, they walked 2.5 kilometres to the public well that promised longer queues and worse quality, losing four-five hours to collect water (National Commission for Women Report, 2005).
The private wells of upper-caste neighbours, though nearby, continue to be out of reach. Purchasing water or waiting for the unreliable tanker, though costly, are the only alternatives.
After securing water, Malti’s chores at home, primarily cooking, begin. Unlike her mother’s reliance on firewood and/or agricultural residue, Malti uses a cleaner LPG cylinder received under the Pradhan MantriUjjwalaYojana.
But with difficulties in refilling gas and increasing prices, she still searches for firewood, like 52% of rural India (Council on Energy, Environment and Water Report 2021).
ButMalti only gathers such fuel once or twice a week, unlike her mother who spent an hour each day (NITI Aayog). The absence of a refrigerator at home means daily shopping and cooking three fresh meals for her family, which takes three hours.
Add serving food, doing the dishes, laundry, and looking after her boys, and Malti’s day is full. With rising inflation, Malti wants to add to her family earnings. She hopes to secure a sewing machine under the new government scheme. But this is not relief from drudgery; it is a few hours of work, though paid, after the family goes to bed.
Domestic drudgery has severe consequences: exhaustion, musculoskeletal disorders, lower immunity, and higher mental stress. It threatens women’s physical safety. Drudgery also affects women from an early age.
Though universal education is promised, median years of schooling for girls is still 4.9 compared to 7.3 for boys. It is telling that Malti, like her mother and grandmother, had to forgo her school bag and shoulder water vessels.
Though women bear these burdens for their family, drudgery also means less time devoted to childcare. PallaviChoudhuri and Sonalde Desai (National Council of Applied Economic Research) find this can impact cognitive development and education levels among children.
Explainer
The controversy over K.K. Shailaja’s nomination for the Ramon Magsaysay Award (Page no. 8)
(Miscellaneous )
The story so far: The decision of former Kerala Health Minister K.K. Shailaja to decline an offer to be considered for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award this year has sparked a row following allegations that the CPI(M) (Communist Party of India (Marxist)) restrained her from accepting the honour.
The party cited the ‘anti-communist’ credentials of the former Philippines President as the reason for declining the offer. Magsaysay was a “staunch anti-communist” who oversaw the defeat of communists (Hukbalahap) in Philippines in the 1950s, leaders of the Left said. “…this award is in the name of Ramon Magsaysay who has a history of brutal oppression of the communists in the Philippines,” said CPI(M) general secretary SitaramYechury to news agency PTI.
Ms. Shailaja told The Hindu that she turned down the award after consulting the central leadership. “The NGOs may not be in favour of the communist ideology.
And hence it was not right that I receive it as an individual because I was considered for something which was actually part of a collective effort.
So, I decided not to accept the award. I thanked them and politely refused the award saying I was not interested in receiving it in an individual capacity,” Ms. Shailaja said.
Born in 1907, Ramon Magsaysay served as the seventh President of the Philippines from December 1953 to March 1957 before he was killed in a plane crash on Mount Manunggal in Cebu island.During World War II, he served as a guerilla leader against the Japanese as part of the 31st Infantry Division of the Philippines.
The U.S. took note of his military leadership during the war and appointed him as the military governor of his home province after the Philippines attained independence in 1946.
Ramon Magsaysay started his political journey with his election to the House of Representatives in 1946. He came into prominence with his appointment as the Secretary of National Defence to deal with the communist-led Huks movement.
In 1953, Ramon Magsaysay became President of the Philippines. As President, Magsaysay led several agrarian, military and administrative reforms. His three-year tenure is often cited as the ‘golden years’ of the Philippines.
Following the death of President Ramon Magsaysay in 1957, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) established the Ramon Magsaysay Awards in the President’s honour in agreement with the Philippines government.
Later, the Fund set up the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, a non-profit organisation to manage Asia’s biggest honour that recognises selfless work transforming lives.
Regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, the award was initially given for contributions to government service, public service, community leadership, journalism, literature and creative communication arts, and peace and international understanding.
The category of ‘emergent leadership’ was added later.From India, 58 have bagged the international honour. Some of the past awardees include Mother Teresa, Satyajit Ray, VergheseKurien, Arvind Kejriwal, Mahasweta Devi and Aruna Roy.
News
Quad discusses China moves, COVID vaccine (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Shared concerns over China’s moves in both the Indian Ocean Region and the Pacific Island countries, as well as the situation in Sri Lanka, came up during the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) of Quad countries, that ended in Delhi.
The meeting, which reviewed projects agreed to by leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. during the Quad Summit in Tokyo this year, and set the course for a Ministerial-level meeting of the four countries.
It is due to be held in India next year, also held discussions on Quad proposals like the vaccine initiative that has run into trouble over the past year, as well as cooperation on emerging technologies, infrastructure funding for Indo-Pacific countries. and projects to counter climate change in vulnerable regions.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a tweet that the officials discussed: “regional & global developments, reaffirming their vision for a free, open & inclusive Indo-Pacific.
Meanwhile, both S. Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong addressed the Delhi-based Australia-India Leadership Dialogue, an annual conference run by the Australia India Institute (AII), via video messages on Tuesday.
The Quad has emerged as a key platform for ensuring progress, prosperity, stability and security. We are also engaged in advancing the realisation of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. And trilaterally, along with Japan, we are working on promoting supply chain resilience.
The Minister said that it was in the “realm of politics and strategy” that the India-Australia transformation in ties has been the “sharpest” in recent years.
Much of the growing convergence has been driven by concerns about the region’s stability, prosperity and security, in a veiled reference to tensions with China and concerns over Beijing’s growing influence in the island nations near India and Australia.
Earlier this month, India and the U.S. went head to head with China over the docking of its “research and satellite tracking” ship, the Yuan Wang 5, at Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. Despite public appeals from both countries to the Sri Lankan government, however, the ship was allowed to dock and replenish stocks.
In the Solomon Islands near Australia, the government, that has recently signed a security deal with China, denied docking permission for two international warships, the British patrol boat H.M.S. Spey and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Oliver Henry, who had to divert to other ports. According to officials, the Quad SOM, that was the first meeting of the grouping since the Taiwan crisis, spoke about the need to share information on possible security concerns in the Indo-Pacific maritime sphere, and “maintaining the rule-based global order”. However, the officials said that it was “erroneous” to portray their discussions as seeking to “counter or contain” China.
The Hindu launches book on Harappan civilization (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 1, History)
A sense of ownership must be created among the local people about the importance of preserving the archaeological findings, particularly in less-known places, ThangamThennarasu, Tamil Nadu Minister for Industries, Tamil Development and Archaeology.
Lauding the extensive book that has intricate details of the Harappan civilisation, Mr. Thennarasu said it would serve as an eye-opener.
Noting that there were several archaeological sites that faced disturbances and encroachments, he said local people must be involved in preserving the exquisite findings.
Elaborating on the remarkable changes in archaeological explorations after the progress in the Keezhadi excavation, he saidmore research needs to be done on the possible links of Keezhadi with the Harappan civilisation.
The Minister pointed as examples the Adhichanallur excavations bearing several similarities with the Harappan civilisation, and the punch mark coins discovered at the Keezhadi site revealing trade links between north and south, remarking that there are many opportunities to establish Tamil Nadu’s links with the northern civilisation.
Citing epigraphist IravathamMahadevan who recorded similarities between the script in the Indus Valley and an early form of Dravidian language, Mr. Thennarasu said the State government has also allocated funds to study the possible links.
Many puzzles about Harappan civilisation still need to be unravelled. Indus script and seals have been only partially deciphered and more explorations are essential to learn about the civilisation.
Every archaeological excavation has provided new discoveries and artefacts right from the times of British archaeologist John Marshall.
The 356-page book curated by T.S. Subramanian, former Associate Editor, Frontline, has about 600 photographs, maps and several illustrations. Besides articles by Mr. Subramanian, the book has articles by several scholars.
Appreciating the book as substantial work by The Hindu team, Mr. Ram recalled his involvement with the subject during a recent visit to the earliest site of the Harappan civilisation.
Other civilisations such as Sumerian, Mesopotamian and Egyptian were better researched, he added. The Harappan civilisation was also an extensive civilisation and a fascinating subject; several Harappan sites have been discovered but not all have been excavated yet, he said.
‘Limited change’ in cities under clean air scheme (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
An analysis by the environmental think tank, Centre for Science and Environment, reported “barely any difference” in trends in particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) between the group of cities under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and those outside its ambit.
The covers 132 of India’s most polluted or so-called non-attainment cities. This is defined as a city whose air quality did not meet the national ambient air quality standards of 2011 to 2015.
The NCAP launched in 2019 aims to bring a 20%-30% reduction in pollution levels from PM2.5 and PM10 particles by 2024, using 2017 pollution levels as a base.
Cities are required to quantify improvement starting 2020-21, which requires 15% and more reduction in the annual average PM10 concentration and a concurrent increase in “good air” days to at least 200. Anything fewer will be considered ‘low’ and the funding consequently reduced.
For disbursing funds, the Central Pollution Control Board, which coordinates the programme, only considers levels of PM10, the relatively larger, coarser particles.
However PM2.5, the smaller, more dangerous particles, aren’t monitored as robustly in all cities, mostly due to the lack of equipment.
The CSE in its national analysis of PM2.5 levels in cities for which data is available found that between 2019 and 2021, only 14 of 43 (NCAP) cities registered a 10% or more reduction in their PM2.5 level between 2019 and 2021. Only 43 cities, said the CSE, were considered as they had adequate data to scientifically establish a long-term trend.
On the other hand, out of 46 non-NCAP cities with adequate data, 21 recorded significant improvement in their annual PM2.5 value with 5% or more decline between 2019 and 2021. There were 16 NCAP cities and 15 non-NCAP cities that registered a significant increase in their annual PM2.5 levels — with near identical numbers.
Cities in Punjab, Rajasthan and Maharashtra dominated the list of cities which registered a significant increase in PM2.5 levels between 2019 and 2021. Chennai, Varanasi and Pune show the most improvement among NCAP cities.
But unlike cities with increasing pollution level which have a very clear regional pattern, there was no regional pattern seen among cities reporting significant improvement in their air quality, the CSE analysis noted.
The cities of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat dominate the list of non-NCAP cities that have registered significant increase in air pollution levels.
Business
FinMin pays 14 States Rs. 7,183 cr. in deficit grant (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Centre State Relations)
The Finance Ministry released the sixth instalment of revenue deficit grant of Rs. 7,183 crore to 14 States for the current fiscal.
The Department of Expenditure has on Tuesday released the 6th monthly instalment of Post Devolution Revenue Deficit (PDRD) Grant of Rs. 7,183.42 crore to 14 States.
The 15th Finance Commission had recommended a total PDRD grant of Rs. 86,201 crore to 14 States for the financial year 2022-23.
The Ministry said that with this fund release, the total amount of PDRD grants released to the States in 2022-23 stood at Rs. 43,100.50 crore.