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The Supreme Court quashed the anticipatory bail granted by the Kerala High Court to former police and intelligence officers, including retired Kerala Director General of Police Siby Mathews, accused of being part of a conspiracy to frame ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in an espionage case in 1994.
A Bench led by Justice M.R. Shah remitted the anticipatory bail applications of the accused to the High Court for fresh consideration. The top court, in its judgment, directed the High Court Registry to list the case before the High Court Bench concerned within a week from December 2.
The High Court was asked to hear and finally decide the case at the earliest but not outside four weeks’ time.
Justice Shah, accompanied by Justice C.T. Ravikumar on the Bench, protected the accused, provided they cooperate with the investigation and without prejudice to the probe agencies, from arrest for the next five weeks till the High Court finally decided their anticipatory bail pleas.
The Bench asked the High Court to decide their pleas without being influenced by the interim arrangement.
The Bench said it has not commented on the merits of the case. It was left to the HC to pass an appropriate order on the anticipatory bail pleas in accordance with the law after considering the merits.
Editorial
Connecting India’s East with the Indo-Pacific (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Growth and Development)
Since 2018, India’s ‘Look East’ and ‘Act East’ policies have moved into the phase of Indo-Pacific policy and strategy. But what we in the national capital interpret as the ‘Indo-Pacific’ is different from the perceptions of this policy in Northeastern and eastern India.
There, the more important issues still are the need to ensure adequate security, speed up economic development, and connect better with the rest of India and select South Asian and Southeast Asian nations.
Hence, an effective way to work for a ‘free, open, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous’ Indo-Pacific is to see how these five characteristics may be made more applicable to our eastern region.
The Northeast which comprises seven ‘sisters’ or States and one ‘brother’, Sikkim, has been witnessing transformation as it heads towards better security conditions and development.
Recent participation in policy conversations in Imphal, the capital of Manipur, one of the four States bordering Myanmar (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram are the others) — helped in clarifying local needs and priorities.
Separately, wide-ranging interactions with the intelligentsia and artists in Kolkata shed light on how this major metropolis views the Indo-Pacific from the lens of culture.
A key takeaway is that by absorbing and factoring in the perspectives of stakeholders at the ground level, the Indo-Pacific policy can deliver better results.
Both Indo-Pacific conclaves were hosted by the Asian Confluence, a think tank leading in the study of India’s Northeast. The first was in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs and Manipur University, and the second had the United States Consulate General in Kolkata as the partner.
The view from Manipur was that security conditions have improved significantly since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Manipur in 2017.
News
Assam festival celebrates Barak, Bangla relations (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Art and Culture)
The first festival celebrating the linguistic and cultural ties between the Barak Valley region of Assam and the Sylhet segment of Bangladesh began on Friday evening.
Southern Assam’s Silchar town is hosting the two-day Silchar-Sylhet Festival that coincides with the 75th year of India’s independence and the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan.
Organised by the India Foundation, the festival underlines the commonalities between India and Bangladesh, specifically the Sylheti variant of the Bengali language and the Sylheti culture.
With the aim of revisiting the common values and shared heritage of the twin cities and their people separated by international borders, the festival will showcase tribal culture, cuisine, arts, crafts and local produce, entertainment and bring together eminent people from both sides to discuss and deliberate on issues of mutual growth and opportunity.
In addition, the festival will provide a platform to explore multi-disciplinary trade opportunities in sectors such as healthcare, tourism, education and digital infrastructure.
The event has been supported by the Union Ministry of Culture and the Assam government in association with the Bangladesh India Friendship Society and India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
A 75-member Bangladesh delegation led by the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister A.K. Abdul Momen is attending the festival.
After complaints, Centre set to prioritise wages for MGNREGS site supervisors (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Welfare Schemes)
Heeding to persistent complaints from Mates or site supervisors that their wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) are inordinately delayed, the Union Rural Development Ministry has devised a protocol to prioritise payment to Mates.
Under MGNREGA, wages of unskilled workers is to be paid within 15 days and if there is a delay, the Centre has to compensate them. Mates - who are the frontline supervisors of the programmes - are listed as semi-skilled workers because of the specialist nature of their job. What should have been a leg-up for them has unfortunately ended up being a complication.
Their wages come from the “material component”, 60% of which is paid by the Union government. This component is now being released erratically, caught up in bureaucratic delays and chronic fund crunch.
Owing to the delay, in many States, the Mates have started listing themselves as unskilled workers to get the wages on time.
The difference in wages as compared to the unskilled workers is usually minor and they can beat the delay in the payments for semi-skilled workers which can go up to a year.
The Ministry, to resolve this bind, has streamlined the process by which the attendance and wages of the Mates are recorded. The muster roll for Mates must be issued soon after generating muster roll for unskilled workers.
In the software, all other options will be disabled till this is done. It is also proposed that reports on day-wise pendency in payment to Mates may be generated.
Even with the new system we will have to wait for funds for the material component,” an official of Rajasthan Rural Development Department said.
Business
Bank credit grew almost 17% in fortnight to Nov. 18: RBI (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Indian banking system's outstanding credit grew by 16.96% for the fortnight ended November 18, the Reserve Bank said.
The bank credit grew to ₹133.29 lakh crore for the fortnight ended November 18 this year as against ₹113.96 lakh crore on November 19, 2021.
The deposit growth came at 9.30%, with the overall base ₹177.15 lakh crore as on November 18 as against ₹162.06 lakh crore in the year-earlier period.
Interestingly, amid a war for deposits in the system as banks jostle to raise the liabilities to fund the elevated credit growth, the overall deposits in the system declined marginally during the fortnight as against the ₹177.88 lakh crore as on November 4.
It can be noted that the current fiscal has seen a steady rise in credit growth in FY23 driven by a variety of reasons, including economic growth, borrowers' shift to the bank as against other credit substitutes amid rising interest rates, etc.