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India’s gross GST revenue touched Rs. 1,51,718 crore in October, 16.6% higher than a year ago, marking the second highest monthly collections since the launch of the indirect tax regime.
Revenue from domestic transactions, including imports of services, increased 18% during the month, with the Finance Ministry stating that October marked the second highest collection from domestic transactions “next only to April 2022”.
While the government did not share the overall revenue growth from import of goods for October, Integrated GST (IGST) collected on goods imports grew 13.02% over last October, while GST Cess inflows on such imports rose 18.02%.
This is the ninth month, and for eight months in a row now, that the monthly GST revenues have been more than the Rs. 1.4 lakh crore mark.
During September, whose transactions are reflected in October’s revenues, 8.3 crore e-way bills were generated, which the Ministry said “was significantly higher” than 7.7 crore bills generated a month earlier.There were significant variations among major States’ revenues during the month.
While Haryana recorded a 37% uptick, followed by Karnataka (33%), Kerala (29%), West Bengal (26%) and Tamil Nadu (25%), revenues grew slower than the national average in Gujarat and Telangana (11%), Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (10%) and Uttar Pradesh (16%).
Six States clocked negative growth, year-on-year, including Chhatisgarh (-3%), Assam (-13%), Mizoram and Manipur (-23% each) and Bihar (-1%). The erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir clocked a sharp 34% drop in revenues, even as they jumped 74% in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
Mulling remote vote facility for NRIs, govt. tells SC (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Union government in the Supreme Court said it was considering ways to facilitate non-resident Indians (NRI) to cast their votes remotely while ensuring the integrity of the electoral process.
A Bench led by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit was hearing several petitions, including one filed by V.P. Shamsheer, a UAE-based doctor represented by advocate HarisBeeran, to allow NRIs to vote through postal ballots.
Initially, the Bench said making the postal ballot facility available to soldiers serving in far-flung areas across the country was different from affording the same facility to someone who had chosen to reside abroad.
The court, however, acknowledged that migrant labourers would often find it beyond their limited means to fly in just to cast their vote.
Allowing NRIs to vote from abroad may see expatriates — a bulk of whom are migrant labourers, mostly from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and northern parts of the country — emerge as a decisive force in the country’s electoral politics.
The court noted that the government was aware of the issue and had even introduced a Bill to amend the Representation of the People Act to allow overseas Indians to vote by proxy. The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill had, however, lapsed with the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.
The court asked Attorney-General R. Venkataramani whether the government was considering the option of digital voting.
The Supreme Court was hearing petitions to make voting via postal ballots available for NRIs
Editorial
The truth about ‘the India story’ (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Governace)
As the COVID-19 pandemic fades and hopes rise for nations and societies to return to some kind of normalcy, there is effort all around to take stock of where we stand and what our prospects look like. It is in this spirit that I want to look back over the last few years at how India performed in terms of its economy.
These are polarising times and one hears some arguing that the Indian economy is doing dismally, and others chanting that it is a blazing success. The truth lies somewhere in between.
It is true that the Indian rupee has been doing very poorly (especially in comparison to the stated target of our political leaders to strengthen it) and inflation, at 7.41%, is high, but these are global problems. Virtually all currencies are losing out against the U.S. dollar, and inflation right now is a global phenomenon.
Where India is doing especially poorly is in employment generation. India’s unemployment rate is high. In October, it stood at 7.8%. However, what is really worrying is youth unemployment.
According to International Labour Organization (ILO) data, collated and presented by the World Bank, India’s youth unemployment, that is, from among people aged 15 to 24 years who are looking for work, the percent that does not find any, stands at 28.3%.
This places India in the cluster of troubled West Asian nations such as Iran (27.2%), Egypt (24.3%) and Syria (26.2%), and in a much worse state than most Asian countries such as Indonesia (16%), Malaysia (15.6%), and Bangladesh (14.7%).
India’s growth story is more mixed. In 2021-22, its GDP growth was 8.7%, which was among the highest in the world. This is good but, against this, we must offset the fact that much of this is the growth of climbing out of the pit into which we had fallen the previous year.
In 2020-21, India’s growth was minus 6.6%, which placed the country in the bottom half of the global growth chart. For 2022-23, the International Monetary Fund has cut India’s growth forecast to 6.1%.
There are two special worries related to this. First, given that most of India’s growth is occurring at the top end, with a few corporations raking in a disproportionate share of profits, and unemployment is so high, it is likely that large segments of the population are actually witnessing negative growth.
The second worry is not so much about India’s dropping rank in the world, as about how India’s performance has been sliding compared to its own past performance.
The short story of India’s growth is the following. After sluggish growth for about four decades after Independence, India’s growth picked up in the early 1990s, following the reform of 1991-93.
From 2003, it rose again, and India joined the ranks of the Asian super performers. From 2005 to 2008, it was being acclaimed globally for being on top of most charts. For three consecutive years, India grew at, respectively, 9.3%, 9.2% and 10.2%.
It must be pointed out that in recent years, the official Indian estimates for these years have been revised downwards. The latest Economic Survey has cut these growth rates to 7.9%, 8.0%, 8.0%.
But, even with that, India stood out. In fact, from 2003 to 2011, barring one year, the start of the Great Recession in 2008-09, India was on top of most global rankings in terms of growth performance.
What makes the current situation dire is not that India grew slower than a majority of nations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those were troubled times, and nations were often, understandably, caught on the wrong foot.
The weakest link in the air pollution fight (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
In the fight against air pollution in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, there are several important protagonists, none more so than India’s frontline environmental regulators, the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs), and the Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) in the Union Territories.
Their primary role is to regulate emissions from point sources such as industries and power plants that contribute substantially to ambient air pollution in urban and rural areas.
More recently, they have also been tasked with guiding cities in meeting targets under the National Clean Air Programme and spending Finance Commission grants for air quality improvements. In short, there is no future with clean air in which the SPCBs do not perform at the highest level possible.
The SPCBs were initially constituted under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. Under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the SPCB mandate was expanded to include air quality management.
Subsequently, several new environmental regulations added to their roles and functions. Unfortunately, this enhanced mandate has not been matched with increased capacity and capability in the Boards.
As environmental indicators such as air quality and water quality worsen in many parts of the country, the Boards are evidently failing to effectively discharge their statutory mandate.
Over the years, several reports that have been published, including those by the parliamentary standing committee and government committees, have identified reasons for the poor performance of the SPCBs.
In a recently published series of papers by the Centre for Policy Research, we find that many of these reasons continue to afflict the SPCBs.
This article unpacks three key institutional constraints under which SPCBs in the Indo-Gangetic Plain function, and discusses their implications on air quality governance in India.
First, the composition of SPCBs is a matter of serious concern as important stakeholders and those with crucial expertise are missing in most States. Boards are multi-member bodies headed by a chairperson and a member-secretary.
Their decisions and policies guide the day-to-day functioning of the organisation. Over 50% of the Board members across the 10 SPCBs and PCC studied represent potential polluters: local authorities, industries, and public sector corporations. They are subject to the SPCB’s regulatory measures, and their overwhelming presence raises fundamental questions around conflicts of interest.
Reporting rape (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2)
For a rape survivor, trauma comes in repeat doses. First, there is the gruesome act and then follows the difficult task of reporting the assault.
For years, an impediment to coming forward about a sexual offence has been the finger test a survivor is subjected to — a gross violation of privacy, a horror upon horrors.
On Monday, the Supreme Court of India moved to make amends, declaring that any person conducting the invasive “two finger” or “three finger” vaginal test on rape or sexual assault survivors will be found guilty of misconduct.
Calling it regressive, the Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said, “this so-called test has no scientific basis and neither proves nor disproves allegations of rape. It instead re-victimises and re-traumatises women who may have been sexually assaulted, and is an affront to their dignity”.
The apex court said whether a woman is “habituated to sexual intercourse” or “habitual to sexual intercourse” is irrelevant for the purposes of determining whether there has been a rape under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code.
The test, it said, is based on the incorrect assumption that a sexually active woman cannot be raped; and “it is patriarchal and sexist to suggest that a woman cannot be believed when she states that she was raped”.
The Court pointed at a legislative measure of 2013 when Section 53A was added to the Indian Evidence Act which clearly said that the “evidence of a victim’s character or of her previous sexual experience with any person shall not be relevant to the issue of consent or the quality of consent, in prosecutions of sexual offences”.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had issued guidelines, saying the finger test must not be conducted. The Court, upset that the practice still continues, has directed the Union and State Governments to do everything to spread the message, including amending the medical curriculum so that students are aware that the finger test procedure is not to be followed while examining a rape survivor.
Despite stringent laws in place after the Nirbhaya rape of 2012, things on the ground have not improved for a survivor who has to battle stigma and many other prejudices, not least the assumption that she is to blame for an assault.
Rapes often go unreported, and the conviction rate is low too (28.6% in 2021, according to National Crime Records Bureau data).
It is now up to the governments, health centres and police stations to act with sensitivity and without discrimination and ensure women have access to justice and dignity while reporting rape.
Explainer
The C-295 and India’s aircraft industry (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
On October 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi layed the foundation stone for the C-295 transport aircraft manufacturing facility in Vadodara to be set up by Airbus Defence and Space and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL).
This is the first time a private sector company would be manufacturing a full aircraft in the country. This is a huge step forward for India in the global aircraft manufacturing domain.
The C-295MW is a transport aircraft of 5-10 tonne capacity which will replace the legacy Avro aircraft in the Indian Air Force (IAF) procured in the 1960s.
The Request For Proposal (RFP) was issued to global firms in May 2013 and the sole bid by Airbus and TASL was approved by the Defence Acquisition Council in May 2015.
On September 24, 2021 the Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a ₹21,935 crore contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the acquisition of 56 C-295MW aircraft along with associated equipment.
In the words of N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, with the set-up of the final assembly line in Vadodara, the Tata Group will now be able to take aluminium ingots at one end of the value stream and turn it into an Airbus C-295 aircraft for the IAF.
Of the 56 aircraft contracted, 16 will come in fly-away condition from Spain between September 2023 and August 2025. The remaining 40 will be manufactured here to be delivered between September 2026 and 2031 at the rate of eight aircraft per year.
Nearly 240 engineers will be trained at the Airbus facility in Spain for the project, the MoD said. The C-295 has very good fuel efficiency and can take off and land from short as well as unprepared runways, according to Air Marshal Sandeep Singh, Vice Chief of IAF.
The IAF will base its first C-295 squadron in Vadodara by converting the Avro squadron located there, as the fly-away aircraft start coming in, he stated.
With the procurement of these aircraft, India has become the 35th C-295 operator worldwide. With 285 aircraft ordered and 38 operators in 34 different countries, the aircraft has achieved more than 5,00,000 flight hours.
The Navy and the Coast Guard have also expressed interest in the C-295 and it can be used in civilian roles as well as exported in the future.
The C-295 is also a potential replacement for the AN-32 aircraft, the workhorse of the IAF with over 100 of them in service. To questions on this Air Marshal Singh said that the AN-32s will be in service upto 2032 and beyond and that they would make a decision on its replacement in five years or so from now.
Over the last two decades, Indian companies, both public and private, have steadily expanded their footprint in the global supply chains of major defence and aerospace manufacturers supplying a range of components, systems and sub-systems.
News
Penalising doctors will help prevent ‘two finger’ test on rape victims, say activists (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The ‘two finger’ test on victims of sexual assault continues despite the courts repeatedly calling for an end to the practice and the Union Health Ministry’s guidelines prohibiting it eight years ago. This has possibly compelled the Supreme Court to direct its latest judgment at penalising doctors who perform the test.
The Supreme Court declared that any person conducting the “regressive” invasive “two finger” or “three finger” vaginal test on rape or sexual assault survivors will be found guilty of misconduct.
Activists and legal experts say the practice of this regressive test can be traced to deep-seated biases against women in society, and lack of awareness of guidelines from the courts as well as the government among police officials and medical practitioners on the ground.
After the 2013 Justice Verma Committee report on amendments to criminal law for a faster trial, and enhanced punishment in sexual assault cases, the Union Health Ministry brought out detailed guidelines for the medical examination of victims of sexual assault in early 2014.
The guidelines say, “Per-Vaginum examination commonly referred to by lay persons as ‘two-finger’ test must not be conducted for establishing rape, sexual violence” by medical practitioners who carry out medico-legal examination of victims of sexual assault. The guidelines are, however, are often not followed by police officials and doctors, the first points of contact for victims when they decide to complain.
In this context, the apex court’s direction to penalise doctors, and try them for medical misconduct, if they practise the two-finger test is a step in the right direction and can possibly help do away with this regressive practice, senior lawyer and rights activist Vrinda Grover said.
People working with victims of sexual assault, however, feel that in most cases, the victims are too traumatised and intimidated. Most are unaware of the regulations.
“Women have to muster up courage and complain against local officials and doctors. Only then the issue can be addressed,” advocate Sumithra Acharya said, adding, “Police are trained every now and then. We need to punish public servants who have violated the law. They are committing a criminal offence.”
Moreover, many medical practitioners are unaware that the police cannot direct them to carry out any test or procedure as medical examination is the domain of doctors. Thus, the 2014 guidelines have to be adopted rigorously.
Every government makes a lot noise about women’s safety but when it comes to actually doing things, we find all of them lacking.
Any person conducting the ‘regressive’ invasive ‘two finger’ or ‘three finger’ vaginal test on rape or sexual assault survivors will be found guilty of misconduct.
Pleas against poll freebies should be listed before three-judge Bench soon: SC (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
A Division Bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit, on Tuesday said petitions seeking a declaration that pre-poll promises of “irrational” freebies by political parties constitute a corrupt practice under the election law should be posted before a three-judge Bench “at the earliest”.
The focus of the litigation is a 2013 judgment of the court which held that such assurances of freebies to entice voters do not fall within the ambit of Section 123 (corrupt practices) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act.
The S. Subramaniam Balaji judgment, delivered by a two-judge Bench, had observed that “although the law is obvious that the promises in the election manifesto cannot be construed as ‘corrupt practice’ under Section 123 of the RP Act, the reality cannot be ruled out that distribution of freebies of any kind, undoubtedly, influences all people”.
Petitioner-advocate Ashwini Upadhyay submitted that the three-judge Bench, when the matter comes up before it, should focus on the review of the 2013 verdict.
Senior advocate P. Wilson, for the DMK, said the petition was politically motivated and ought to be dismissed. In August, the court referred the case to a three-judge Bench to consider whether an “enforceable” order could be passed to stop political parties in power from promising and distributing these freebies, completely divorced from actual welfare schemes, using public money in order to merely “capture vote banks”.
Freebies may create a situation wherein the State government cannot provide basic amenities due to lack of funds and the State is pushed towards imminent bankruptcy.
The court said the three-judge Bench should also deliberate if an expert body could be formed to independently study and make recommendations against the distribution of largesse at the cost of national economy and public welfare.
The 2013 judgment holds that assurances of freebies do not fall within the ambit of Section 123 of RP Act
At SCO meet, Jaishankar targets BRI (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
Connectivity projects must respect sovereignty issues, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, in a reference to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), at a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of Government hosted by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday.
Dr. Jaishankar pitched for more trade through Iran’s Chabahar port and the International North South Transport Corridors that India is a part of, aiming to improve bilateral trade with Central Asian countries.
A communique issued after the meeting named all countries, other than India, and said they “reaffirmed their support for the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative”, “including the work to promote the alignment of the ‘Belt and Road’ construction with the construction of the Eurasian Economic Union”.
“Our total trade with SCO Members is only $141 billion, which has potential to increase manifold. Fair market access is to our mutual benefit and only way to move forward,” Dr. Jaishankar said at the meet which included Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, and the Prime Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The bulk of India’s trade with SCO countries is with China, which crossed $100 billion this year.
In a series of tweets outlining his speech, Dr. Jaishankar took aim at China’s BRI saying, “Connectivity projects should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States and respect international law.”
India has refused to join the BRI, comprising a series of infrastructure projects that pass through Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, and has been developing and promoting the Shahid Beheshti terminal at Chabahar and the link through the INSTC as an alternative to both the BRI and to transit trade through Pakistan.
Without referring directly to the Ukraine war, and Russia’s decision to halt the grain initiative, Dr. Jaishankar said that India will “foster greater cooperation with SCO Member States on countering the food crisis”, particularly with millets.
In the SCO joint communique, all countries also criticised the “imposition of unilateral economic sanctions not endorsed by the UN Security Council”, and said the sanctions “adversely affect” the global economy, without naming U.S. and European Union sanctions on Russia.
Modi calls for road map to develop Mangarh Dham as a global tribal destination (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper3, Infrastructure)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for preparing a road map to develop Mangarh Dham in Rajasthan’s Banswara district as a tribal destination with a prominent identity at the global level. Mangarh Dham, situated near the Rajasthan-Gujarat boundary, is known for the massacre of tribespeople by the British Indian Army in 1913.
Addressing a public meeting at Mangardh Dham to mark the anniversary of the incident and commemorate tribal leader and social reformer Govind Guru, Mr. Modi said the memorial raised at the place was a symbol of bravery and sacrifice of tribal people.
He said such an impactful event of the freedom struggle had not found its place in the history books because of “unfortunate circumstances.
Nearly 1,500 Bhil tribals and forest dwellers were killed in a hill in Mangarh on November 17, 1913, when the British Indian Army opened fire on the protesters who were demanding abolition of bonded labour system and relaxation in heavy agricultural taxes imposed by the rulers of princely states. The tribes in the southern Rajasthan region were led by Govind Guru.
Mr. Modi said since Mangarh Dham was a shared heritage of the people of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the governments of the four States could work together and prepare a road map to bring the memorial site on the world map. The development of Mangarh Dham will make this area a place of inspiration for the new generation.
The Prime Minister refrained from declaring Mangarh Dham as a monument of national importance, the demand for which was raised by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Mr. Modi, who shared the dais with Mr. Gehlot as well as Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh and Bhupendra Patel of Gujarat, said if the memorial was taken to a new height, it could be called a national monument or any other name could be given to it.
The elected representatives of the tribal-dominated areas in Banswara and Dungarpur districts have been demanding since long that Mangarh Dham be declared a monument of national importance.The development of Mangarh Dham will make this area a place of inspiration for the new generation.
CAA is an internal matter of India: Bangladesh Minister (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Information Minister of Bangladesh Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which was framed to grant Indian nationality to minorities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan is an “internal matter” of India and pointed out that there are fanatical groups that exist both in Bangladesh and India that are working to “undermine social harmony”.
Answering questions from journalists at the Press Club of India (PCI) Mr. Mahmud, a veteran leader of the Awami League reiterated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s comments regarding the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and said that the followers of the Hindu faith in Bangladesh should not be regarded as a minority community as they belong to the mainstream of the country.
CAA is your internal matter and with the fact that an appeal has been submitted in the Supreme Court, it has also become a legal issue.
He refused to delve deeper into the issue as the matter is now before the Supreme Court. The comment on the CAA reflects the steady position of Bangladesh on the legislation which was enacted in 2019 but has remained unimplemented as the rules of the CAA has not been framed till now.
The issue returned to the headlines on Sunday after the Central government filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court that argued that the CAA is meant to provide “amnesty to specific communities” from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The Minister did not respond to a question on whether mentioning of Bangladesh in an affidavit amounted to dragging the neighbouring country into India’s politico-legal battles.
Mr. Mahmud strongly defended Dhaka’s record regarding minority rights and said that the Hindu festivals are celebrated freely in his country. “According to our constitution, everybody has equal rights.
But there are some fanatical groups both in India and Bangladesh that try to ignite fanaticism and try to destabilise the harmony across religious groups.
Our government has taken tough measures in the last couple of years against such miscreants and we have seen the festive manner in which Durga puja has taken place in Bangladesh this year.
Independence key to quality elections, says poll commissioner (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Maintaining independence is key to ensuring quality in the conduct of polls, Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey said on Tuesday. He called for collective action on the part of the election management bodies (EMBs) all over the world to strengthen democratic processes.
Mr. Pandey was speaking at the concluding ceremony of a two-day international conference on the “Role, framework and capacity of EMBs” organised by the Election Commission (EC).
Though elections are key to democracy, the quality of functional efficiency of conducting elections by the EMBs, in turn, depended on their effectiveness in addressing the challenges and maintaining independence.
While highlighting emerging challenges, Mr. Pandey emphasised the need for mutual cooperation, continuous engagement and knowledge-sharing among global EMBs in a regular, structured manner to address them.
Global standards and standard operating procedures need to be developed on the management of electoral rolls, polling management and electoral technology. Steps should be taken to control disinformation to ensure free, fair and transparent elections, he said. More democracies must be brought on board involving and engaging them in “strengthening electoral democracy”, he added.
Global standards need to be developed on the management of electoral rolls, polling management
Invasive tree spreading in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
An invasive species, Senna spectabilis, an exotic tree, has taken over between 800 hectares and 1,200 hectares of the buffer zones of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the picturesque Nilgiris hill district.
The Forest Department is coming up with a comprehensive strategy to tackle the invasive species, which continues to spread rapidly in the buffer zone.
Introduced as an ornamental species and for use as firewood from South and Central America, the species has become highly invasive in the Sigur plateau in both the core and buffer zones of the MTR.
Native species hit Over the last few years, its bright yellow flowers have become more visible across the Tiger Reserve. Conservationists say the invasive weed has a negative effect on local biodiversity, crowding out native species and limiting food availability for wildlife.
According to P. Arunkumar, Deputy Director, MTR (Buffer Zone), the Forest Department estimates that the species has spread over 800-1,200 hectares of the buffer zone.
Local residents said the species seemed to be spreading faster over the last five years. The Forest Department is still demarcating areas where the species is spreading.
According to officials, policy-level discussions are under way on Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL) plan to use wood from Senna spectabilis from the MTR for paper-making.
They said the funds so raised would be used in eco-restoration to bring back native species. Mr. Arunkumar said the Forest Department was also formulating a 10-yearplan to systematically remove Lantana camara, the other major weed that poses a threat to biodiversity in both the core and buffer zones of the Tiger Reserve. Senna spectabilis, along with Lantana camara, is among five major invasive weeds that had taken over vast swathes of the Nilgiris, with wattle being the other major invasive species. Eucalyptus and pine, though exotic, do not spread as quickly as the other species and are considered easier to manage, Forest Department officials said. Officials also stated that the Madras High Court was hearing petitions seeking the removal of exotic species, and that judges had inspected the Tiger Reserve this year to monitor the work in this regard.
Kerala’s alternative model for industries gives new life to a defunct Central PSU (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Bogged down by inept administration, Hindustan Newsprints Ltd. (HNL), a Centrally owned public sector unit that had long dominated Kerala’s industrial scene, ceased operations almost four years ago.
But this iconic piece of industrial infrastructure, located on the banks of the Muvattupuzha, is now the centrepiece of an alternative model of development propounded by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of the State.
When the State celebrated its 66th birth anniversary, the erstwhile industrial colossus resumed commercial production of paper. The first load of paper, rolled out by the unit, was flagged off by Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal.
Kerala is scripting a new history by taking over a defunct Central PSU through auction and resuming its industrial-scale operations.
The company, according to him, is expected to rake in profits from March and with this, it will start recruiting employees on a permanent basis.
The company intends to achieve an annual turnover of ₹3,000 crore with a production target of five lakh tonnes. In the process, it will also create as many as 3,000 jobs.
The company sources said the commercial operations had begun with the production of high-quality 45 gsm (grams per square metre) newsprint. The HNL had been facing liquidation when the Kerala government took it over with a National Company Law Tribunal approved bid of ₹146 crore.
The fund, mobilised through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board, was disbursed through the Committee of Creditors, a consortium of banks.
The State has chalked out a revival of the unit in four phases, which resumed operations as Kerala Paper Products Ltd. (KPPL) in January.
The outlay for the revival plan in the first two phases was ₹154.39 crore and the third phase envisages capacity expansion and portfolio diversification, entailing an investment of ₹650 crore.
Braverman terms migrants crossing Channel ‘invasion’ (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2)
Britain’s Interior Minister was facing criticism on Tuesday for describing migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats as an “invasion.”
Home Secretary Suella Braverman used the term while defending conditions at a processing centre for new arrivals where some 4,000 people have been held in a facility intended for 1,600.
Ms. Braverman referred to small-boat crossings on Monday as “the invasion of our southern coast” and said “illegal immigration is out of control.”
Her deputy, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, distanced himself from her words. “In a job like mine you have to choose your words very carefully,” he told Sky News. “And I would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life.”
However, Mr. Jenrick separately vowed “more radical” policies to counter illegal migration. “We... now need to look at some more radical options to ensure that our laws are appropriate, that economic migrants are returned swiftly and that we deter people from coming to the U.K.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who appointed Ms. Braverman after he took office last week, told his Cabinet on Tuesday that Britain “would always be a compassionate, welcoming country.
The number of asylum-seekers attempting to reach Britain by boat has increased steadily, and the system for considering applications has slowed to a crawl amid turmoil in the Conservative government.
Critics accuse Ms. Braverman of deliberately worsening conditions at Manston – the transit point for asylum seekers – by refusing to book hotel rooms for them.
Drug shortages persist in Sri Lanka amid continuing economic crisis (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2)
Sri Lanka’s painful economic crisis may have let up a little, mainly for those who can afford higher living costs, but shortages continue to affect its noted health care system, according to officials and medical practitioners.
Despite international lending agencies and bilateral partners, especially India, pumping in emergency credit, the health sector is still short of over 150 essential drugs.
We are trying our best to maintain an optimum level of supplies, but there is a shortage,” Dr. D.R.K. Herath, Deputy Director General of the Health Ministry’s Medical Supplies Division.
Compared to the severe shortages of fuel, food items, and medicines that Sri Lanka experienced earlier this year, when the government ran out of dollars, supplies have improved now, with the government rationing fuel, repurposing available funds, and obtaining support from bilateral partners, mainly India.
All the same, much of Sri Lanka’s fundamental economic challenges remain. In October, headline inflation was at 66%, while food inflation was at 85.6%.
The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) External Fund Facility (EFF), which Sri Lanka hoped would come through by the end of this year, may take longer, as Sri Lanka’s efforts to restructure its debt — a prerequisite for the EFF — appear delayed.
Meanwhile, to cope with the short supply of drugs, hospitals are using a recently set-up centralised system for supplies and coordinating among themselves. But the shortages are a “significant” factor for the day-to-day functioning of the country’s health sector.
Drugs used for treatment of cancer are in short supply, doctors said, while pointing to a shortage of medical devices and reagents used for laboratory tests and investigations.
Surgical supplies are inadequate and servicing medical equipment has become harder, they observed. “It is hard to quantify the impact of these shortages, but we can certainly say that it impacts the quality of medical care.
Medical professionals are raising funds from donors abroad and within the country to cope, and working with the Health Ministry in its efforts to source drugs.
Over 80% of Sri Lanka’s medical supplies are imported. In 2021, the island nation imported more than $800 million worth of pharmaceutical products.