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India and Bangladesh have welcomed the establishment of a joint technical committee to study the use of Ganga waters in Bangladesh, a joint statement issued on the third day of the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced.
The technical committee on the Ganga is one of the several initiatives, including several major connectivity and energy initiatives, that the two sides have announced.
The leaders welcomed the formation of a joint technical committee to conduct a study for optimum utilisation of water received by Bangladesh under the provisions of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, 1996. The Ganga Water Sharing Treaty is a 30-year agreement which is expected to be reviewed or renewed in 2026.
The Indian side also raised the “urgent” irrigation-related requirements in Tripura which can be addressed with the waters of the Feni, and urged Bangladesh for “early signing of the interim water sharing agreement” on the river. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina reviewed the upcoming bilateral connectivity initiatives involving railway tracks and rolling stock.
These include the conversion to dual gauge the Tongi-Akhaura line, supply of rolling stock, Kaunia-Lalmonirhat-Mogalhat-New Gitaldaha link and Hili-Birampur upgradation of track.
Similar works are also on on the Benapole-Jashore and Burimari-Changrabandhalines.These multiple rail track projects will create a smooth flow of goods and people within Bangladesh overcoming infrastructure bottlenecks.
India and Bangladesh have been in talks for the construction of an Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Sirajganj in the north-west of capital Dhaka and help in movement of bulk items.
States
‘Dry’ Bihar to turn liquor bottles into glass bangles (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Bihar government has decided to set up factories to make glass bangles out of seized liquor bottles through its Rural Livelihoods Promotion Programme, JEEVIKA.
Ever since prohibition was imposed in the State on April 5, 2016, lakhs of liquor bottles have been seized every month by the police or Excise Department officials and crushed using earth movers and excavators.
The bottles will be givento JEEVIKA workers who are trained in making glass bangles. The State Excise and Prohibition Department has allocated Rs. 1 crore to set up a glass-making factory in Patna and send women for training to other States.
Funded by the World Bank, JEEVIKA is a rural social and economic empowerment programme that comes under the Rural Development Department.
Last month, 3.7 lakh litres of liquor were seized in raids and over 30,000 people were arrested in connection with the illegal manufacture and sale of alcohol. Of late, the police and the Excise Department have been identifying illegal breweries on the banks of rivers using drones, ALTF (anti-liquor task force) personnel and choppers.
Earlier, offenders were booked under the State’s Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016. Several police personnel and Excise Department officials were also arrested for profiteering from the business.
Overcrowding in jails and a huge backlog of cases in courts led the government to amend the law under Article 37 of the Act.
First-time offenders are now set free after paying a fine between Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 5,000 in the presence of a magistrate. However, they have to serve a one-month jail term if they are unable to pay the fine.
Hundreds of people, mostly from poor and extremely backward communities, have died after consuming spurious liquor since 2016. “Piyega to marega (those who drink, will die)”, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has often stated.
Meanwhile, some businessmen are apprehensive about the economic viability of the government’s new initiative. “It may sound innovative but glass bangle-making involves the use of other material like limestone and soda.
Will the seized illegal liquor bottles be enough to sustain a glass bangle-making factory’s economic viability and will the government also provide soda and limestone to those involved in this bangle production business.
Editorial
How ideology muddled inflation control in India (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India reportedly stated that the inflation rate would be brought to its target level of 4% within 24 months. It had been above this level for 34 consecutive months already.
If the prognosis is correct, by 2024 it would have remained off target for close to five years. In the United States and the United Kingdom, the inflation rate has been off target for a lesser period, but it has lately run at rates close to four times the target.
Though the characteristics of India’s economy vary substantially when compared to those of the industrialised West, their governments follow the same approach to inflation control, termed ‘inflation targeting’ and implemented by their central banks. It would be reasonable to surmise then that the approach is ineffectual because it is flawed in its imagination.
The approach to inflation currently favoured in Anglo-American economics is the result of an evolution lasting close to a century. In the 1930s, the world faced an unprecedented crisis with the capitalist economies plunging into depression.
We can now see that this was a particular problem of such economies, for the Soviet Union was unaffected. The Great Depression was as much a crisis for the economics profession, for it was expected to come up with ideas on how the global economy could be lifted out of the morass it had sunk into.
The central banks were rendered helpless, for monetary policy, the preferred macroeconomic instrument, proved to be impotent under the circumstances. The profession responded momentously, through the publication by J.M. Keynes of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.
It provided the insight that at times, capitalist economies would require “the socialisation of investment”, by which he meant that the state would have to shoulder the burden of maintaining demand in the economy through its fiscal policy.
At some level, the message that when private investment was depressed public investment must take over, is no more than an application of economic accounting, but the proposal triggered an ideological backlash.
Not all economists of the time were well disposed to the government intervention and larger public deficits, even when temporary, that was being advocated.
However, confirmation of the validity of Keynesian economics came from an unexpected source. Hitler, through greater public spending on roads and armaments, showed that a market economy would respond to a Keynesian stimuli, and nothing like the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic followed.
OPED
The evolving role of CSR in funding NGOs (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
When COVID-19 spurred a nationwide lockdown in India in 2020, a grave need for localised social support emerged. Giving, both private and public, flowed to NGOs working towards combating pandemic-induced challenges such as loss of livelihood for vulnerable communities, food banks, and health and medical support.
In any such social effort, programme expenses attract the big cheques — especially when they come from corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in India.
For example, an NGO working on education outcomes might receive funding for books, other online resources, teacher training, curriculum design, etc.
But NGOs have other expenses too. In order to achieve long-term and sustained impact, they need to pay for administrative and support expenses not specifically tied to programmes— for instance, rent, electricity, technology and human resource costs.
These organisational development and indirect costs, combined with programme expenses, make up an NGOs’ true costs. And underfunding an NGO’s true costs reduces the efficacy and impact of the very programmes that funders support.
To understand how funders and NGOs perceive an NGO’s true costs, and what it takes to build a financially resilient social sector, we surveyed and interviewed over 500 NGOs, funders and intermediary organisations across India as part of our multi-year Pay-What-It-Takes-India initiative.
Based on a recent survey of nearly 80 diverse social sector funders, we discovered three distinct funder archetypes — programme proponents, adaptive funders, and organisation builders.
The three archetypes represent different beliefs in terms of how philanthropy becomes impact. And those beliefs manifest in different practices around funding indirect costs and organisational development.
Programme proponents value programme outcomes above all. Adaptive funders are not rigid and support indirect costs and organisational development, if the NGO makes a case. Organisation builders see value in investing in stronger organisations in addition to programmes.
CSR funders, who now represent a fifth of all private giving in India, principally fall under programme proponents. They mostly contribute little or no money to organisational development and limit what they pay for indirect costs to a fixed rate often below 5%.
Time for a joint space exercise (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
India and the U.S. will undertake joint military drills in October in Auli, Uttarakhand. Auli is at an altitude of 10,000 feet and some 95 km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The time is ripe for the inaugural India-U.S. joint space military exercise. First, this single act will push India’s defence partnership into a new orbit. Second, it will send a strong message to a common adversary. Third, it will have other ripple effects for the wider Quad.
Space has been singled out as a critical area of cooperation in the recent Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) meeting between India and the U.S.
For the first time in history, both countries are jointly staring at a common adversary. Nothing binds friends together as sharing the same displacement anxiety.
Space as a military domain is a well-accepted fact. In 2019, the U.S. stood up its space force as a branch under the department of the Air Force. At the time, it became the world’s only independent space force.
In India, historically, space has remained the sole jurisdiction of its civilian space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). However, the successful demonstration (dubbed Mission Shakti) of anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test in 2019 changed things forever. The same year, India conducted its first ever simulated space warfare exercise (IndSpaceX) with an eye on Chinese threats.
Furthermore, the launch of the tri-service Defence Space Agency (DSA) has permanently taken the military away from the shadows of civil space.
The government has also set up the Defence Space Research Agency (DSRA) to help develop space-based weapons for the DSA. Space is as much recognised as a military domain as land, water, air and cyber.
It will have actionable spill overs for the Quad, transform the moribund DTTI from a talk shop and send the right message to the adversary.
The lowest hanging fruit would be a joint anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test. It is essentially a missile launched from the Earth’s surface to destroy a satellite passing overhead. Both countries have demonstrated capability in this.
The test would be against a simulated orbital target as that does not create space debris and is not included in the wording of the U.S. moratorium.
Eventually, this will lead to other space military collaborations such as directed energy weapons, rendezvous and proximity operations (RPOs), co-orbital ASATs (in space micro satellites as a kinetic kill option), etc.
Explainer
Content moderation on Wikipedia (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
India summoned officials of Wikipedia, in response to cricketer Arshdeep Singh’s Wikipedia page being edited with misleading information that stated he was a “khalistani”. This was done by online trolls after Arshdeep Singh dropped a catch in India’s match against Pakistan.
The Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrashekhar tweeted that “no intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation” as it violated the government’s expectation of a safe and trusted internet.
To determine the role and liability of the Wikimedia Foundation (the owner of Wikipedia), in such instances, it is important to understand how content on the platform is moderated.
Since its inception in 2001, Wikipedia has become a household name. It describes itself as a “multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers through open collaboration and a wiki-based editing system”.
Unlike traditional encyclopedias that have entries from pre-identified authors, all of Wikipedia’s encyclopedic content is user generated. This means that anyone can contribute to its pool of knowledge by making edits to existing pages for updation or correction and can even add new pages.
While this model has its advantages in so far that it allows democratisation of knowledge, unhindered access to edit has also resulted in concerns relating to the reliability of information that it hosts.
Even though majority of the content is user generated, the Wikimedia Foundation has instituted some content moderation practices.
First, to increase its reliability and also to prevent vandalism and disruptive edits, over time restrictions have been placed on edits to the content that Wikipedia hosts.
One of these restrictions is to allow certain “protections” to be accorded to particular pages. A page may have varying degree of protection depending on the vulnerability of the page to vandalism, disruption and abuse.
To implement this system of protection, Wikipedia classifies users depending on the edit rights that they have. For example, one of the highest levels of protection that can be accorded to a page is “full protection”.
This means that only those users (called administrators) that have been given full edit rights (as per Wikipedia community review process) can make modifications.
A slightly lower level of protection is “semi protection”. “Semi protected” pages cannot be edited by unregistered users. Another category of protection is “pending changes”, which means that changes made will not be reflected on the page unless the changes are accepted by an editor with those rights.
The mandatory requirements for packaged commodities (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Department of Consumer Affairs, Legal Metrology Division has notified a draft amendment to the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011.
As stated in the notification, the Department of Consumer Affairs Legal Metrology Division has observed that many manufacturers/packagers/importers do not clearly label necessary declarations or prime constituents on the front of packaged commodities, which are deemed essential to be disclosed in order to protect consumer interests.
It is mandatory under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 to ensure a number of declarations, such as the name and address of the manufacturer/packer/importer, the country of origin, the common or generic name of the commodity, the net quantity, the month and year of manufacture, the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) and consumer care information. As a consumer-oriented policy, all prepackaged commodities should also be inspected.
As stated in Rule 2(h), the “principal display panel”, in relation to a package, means the total surface area of a package containing the information required in accordance with these rules, namely that all the information should be grouped together and given in one place — the pre-printed information could be grouped together and given in one place and the online information in another place.
Additionally, Rule 9(1)(a) provides that the declaration on the package must be legible and prominent. The consumers’ ‘right to be informed’ is violated when important declarations are not prominently displayed on the package.
If there is more than one major product, Rule 6(1)(b) states that “......the name or number of each product shall be mentioned on the package.” This sub-rule is however, not applicable to mechanical or electrical commodities.
As many blended food and cosmetic products are sold on the market, the key constituents need to be mentioned on the product packaging.
It is common for consumers to assume that brands’ claims are accurate, but such claims are usually misleading. Additionally, the front side of the package must contain the percentage of the composition of the unique selling proposition (USP).
As the name suggests, a USP also known as a unique selling point, is a marketing strategy designed to inform customers about the superiority of one’s own brand or product.
Listing the USP of a product on the front of the package without disclosing its composition percentage violates consumer rights. Also, packages displaying key constituents must display a percentage of the content used to make the product.
For example, if a brand sells aloe vera moisturiser or almond milk/biscuits, then the maximum percentage of the product should be aloe vera and almond, otherwise, the product name is misleading.
News
Cabinet approves PM SHRI scheme (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Union Cabinet approved the ‘PM Schools for Rising India’ (PM SHRI) scheme to turn existing government schools into model schools for implementation of the National Education Policy, 2022.
The scheme will be implemented as a Centrally sponsored scheme with a total project cost of ₹27,360 crore, with the Centre’s share being ₹18,128 crore for the period of five years from 2022-23 to 2026-27 for transforming nearly 14,500 schools across the country.
However, schools will be selected only if the State government agrees to implement the NEP “in entirety with the Centre laying down commitments for supporting these schools for achieving specified quality parameters” to become PM SHRI schools, according to a press statement of the Ministry of Education. These schools will also be “monitored vigorously” to assess their progress in implementing NEP.
The scheme has been announced at a time when some States, including Tamil Nadu, continue to oppose NEP for imposing a centralised education system on the entire country when education is a State subject as well as enforcing the three-language policy under which students will learn three languages out of which two have to be native to India.
Other grounds for opposition include mandatory school entry at three years, which could leave out many from marginalised communities, promotion of vocational courses from Class 6 at the cost of formal education, as well as the option to exit schools in Class 10 with the option to re-enter in Class 11.
A school will receive nearly ₹2 crore, and the money will be transferred directly to the school’s account through Direct Benefit Transfer. The principal or the local committee will be given the flexibility to determine the use of 40% of the fund.
The PM SHRI scheme also provides a “School Quality Assessment Framework” which will be developed for measuring key performance indicators for carrying out quality evaluation of schools selected from the current academic year.
The quality parameters that will be evaluated once a school is selected for the scheme will include implementation of NEP 2020, student registry for tracking enrolment and learning progress, improvement in learning outcomes of each child to achieve levels above State and National average, linkage of school with higher education institutions and local entrepreneurial ecosystem for mentoring as well as creating “students rooted in the heritage of India, proud of values of Bharat, conscious of duties towards society and responsibilities towards nation-building”.
Army undertakes major infra drive along LAC in Arunachal (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
After significantly upgrading firepower and infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, the Army is on a major drive for capability and infrastructure development in the rest of Arunachal Pradesh.
This includes road, bridges, tunnels, habitat and storage facilities, aviation facilities and upgrade of communications and surveillance, especially in the Upper Dibang Valley region, according to multiple Army officials.
A capability development matrix was being employed and road development, construction of habitat and aviation facilities were under way, Major General M.S. Bains, General Officer Commanding of the Army’s 2 Mountain Division, headquartered at Dinjan, told a group of journalists. We are in the process of linking various valleys.
We have gone for clear timelines for capability development based on a very clear perspective plan for future. Our overall combat readiness in the region is of a very high order.
Another official, who did not wish to be identified, explained that the capability and infrastructure development in the region was being undertaken under five verticals — habitat, aviation, road infrastructure, operational logistics and security infrastructure.
Of this, the strategic roads and border roads were being constructed by Central government agencies and Border Roads Organisation, while the Army was building the last mile tracks to connect these roads to the forwards posts on the Line of Actual Control.
A third official noted that apart from construction of roads, aviation facilities were being created along them which was also benefiting the civil population.
India has two road axis in the forested area in Lohit and Siang; now, efforts were underway to improve infrastructure across the board. Engineering Task Forces of various formations of the Army were being employed to speed up work, the second official cited above said while adding that the main working season was restricted to six months.
The Area of Responsibility of 2 Division covers the districts of upper Dibang, lower Dibang, Namsai, Lohit and Anjaw in Arunachal Pradesh. While Tawang and Kameng area is under the Army’s 4 Corps headquartered at Tezpur, RALP is under the 3 Corps based at Dimapur.
Since the May 2020 standoff with China in Eastern Ladakh, which is still under way, the Army has carried a major reorientation towards the LAC under which several formations facing the Western front were retasked to the LAC, in the backdrop of heightened Chinese activity across the LAC. Of the 3,488-km long LAC, 1,346 km falls in the Eastern sector.
Breather for coal plants draws anguish (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Union Environment Ministry has for the third time extended the deadline by which coal plants must install pollution control technologies to stem emissions, drawing criticism from environment and clean-energy activists.
The Ministry first specified emission norms for the control of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and mercury (Hg) from coal-fired power plants in December 2015, giving thermal power plant operators time until December 2017 to install equipment that would contain emission of these pollutants.
The deadline was then extended to 2022. Plant operators say that the high cost of retrofitting plants have delayed implementation of the norms.
Power plants in Delhi-NCR, which witnesses some of the worst pollution levels, were given a stricter deadline of 2020 to meet the pollution standards. However, non-compliance and limited progress by the Delhi-NCR power plants as well as other power plants across the country led to a new extension in March 2021, followed by the notification on Monday pushing it to 2025.
According to the latest notification, power plants within a 10-km radius of Delhi-NCR and in the vicinity of cities with a population of more than one million, have until December 31, 2024, to comply — an extra two years from the earlier deadline of December 2022.
For power plants within a 10-km radius of ‘critically polluted’ areas (as designated by the Environment Ministry) the deadline has been extended to December 31, 2025, from the earlier December 31, 2023.
Finally, for all other power plants across the country which had an earlier timeline of December 31, 2024, the new deadline stands at December 31, 2026.
Apart from this, all power plants scheduled to retire before December 31, 2027, will now be exempted from installing flue gas desulphurisation (FGD), or equipment that stems sulphur dioxide emissions, and instead they will just have to submit an exemption request to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) citing the grounds for retirement.
While multiple timeline extensions have been given for the installation of FGD to control SO2 emissions from coal based-power stations, there are sustained efforts toward diluting or doing away with the norms by the power plants, say environmentalists.
WHO to stress prevention of non-communicable diseases (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region on Wednesday resolved to accelerate progress for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, including oral and eye afflictions.
The region must build on the progress made in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. Though the trends are in the right direction, we need to accelerate efforts to achieve global, regional, and national goals.
Non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes, account for almost two-thirds of all deaths in the region.Nearly half these deaths occur prematurely between the ages of 30 and 69 in 2021.
The meeting noted the continuing high burden of disease and death due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, a large number of untreated cases of dental caries and oral health conditions, and challenges in the provision of comprehensive eye care.
The member countries endorsed the road map for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, an action plan for oral health and another plan for an integrated people-centered eye care during the session.
Though the trends are in the right direction, we need to accelerate efforts to achieve global, regional, and national goals
Business
CBDC to reduce time, cost in crossborder business: RBI’s Sankar (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Central bank digital currency (CBDC), to be launched this year, could become a tool for reducing time and cost for cross-border transactions, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar said.
The RBI has proposed to launch on a pilot basis this year, as announced in the Budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
In the Union Budget for 2022-23, the Finance Minister had said the RBI would roll out a digital equivalent to the rupee in the current financial year.
We have to understand that internationalisation of CBDC is crucial to addressing the payments issue that bodies like G20 and Bank for International Settlements [BIS] are dealing with now.
Observing that India has an excellent, cheap and fast domestic payments system, he said the cost of cross-border payment, however, is still high.There is a lot of scope for improvement in terms of both cost and speed.
CBDC is probably the most efficient answer to this, he said, adding, for example, if India CBDC and the U.S. CBDC systems can talk to each other, we don't have to wait for settling transactions.
That massively takes out the settlement risk from cross border transaction that reduces time that reduces cost. So, CBDC internationalisation is something that I'm looking forward to.
Concerning fraud management, Mr. Sankarsaiddigital payment needs to be scaled up while preserving system integrity, which essentially means technical stability.
It just doesn't mean that the technical failures of transactions have to be minimised, it also means that transactions themselves have to inspire confidence, we cannot have too many instances of frauds.
Fraud management is an area that we also need to focus on if we have to scale it up [digital payment].Citing the example of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for non-feature phones, the RBI pays special attention to the fact that digital payment technology should be inclusive.