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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday raised the policy repo rate by 35 basis points (bps) to 6.25%, downshifting gears from consecutive increases of 50 bps, and scaled down GDP growth hopes for the year to 6.8% from 7%, even as Governor Shaktikanta Das exuded confidence about the economy being resilient and asserted that “the worst of inflation” was behind us.
A 100 basis points equal one percentage point. The central bank retained its inflation projection for 2022-23 at 6.7%, noting that inflation will ease but stay well above the 6% upper tolerance limit set for the RBI.
Having hovered well over RBI’s upper tolerance limit of 6% since January 2022, retail inflation eased slightly on a sequential basis to 6.8% in October, but Mr. Das noted that core inflation remains sticky and the medium-term outlook “is exposed to heightened uncertainties from geopolitical tensions, financial market volatility and the rising incidence of weather-related disruptions”.
RBI Deputy Governor Michael Patra said the moderation of inflation will be “very grudging, very uneven” so the central bank must first “shepherd inflation firmly into the tolerance band (below 6%) and then to the 4% target”.
The RBI now expects inflation to average 5.9% in the January to March 2023 quarter, drop to 5% in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023-24 and edge up to 5.4% between July and September 2023, assuming a normal monsoon.
The central bank believes that the economy is “resilient” with the Q2 of 2022-23 clocking 6.3% GDP growth, in line with its estimate, and economic activity gaining further strength in October bolstered by urban consumption and a recovery in discretionary spending.
However, it expects GDP growth to wane to 4.4% in Q3 and 4.2% in Q4 owing to adverse spillovers from the global slowdown and its negative impact on India’s exports and overall economic activity.
States
ISRO inks MoU to establish SpaceTech Innovation Network (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed an MoU with Social Alpha, a multistage innovation curation and venture development platform for science and technology start-ups, to launch SpaceTech Innovation Network (SpIN).
SpIN is India’s first dedicated platform for innovation, curation, and venture development for the burgeoning space entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The space agency said that the tie-up is a one-of-a-kind public-private collaboration for start-ups and SMEs in the space industry.
This novel partnership is a significant step forward in providing further stimulus to India’s recent space reform policies and will work towards identifying and unleashing the market potential of the most promising space tech innovators and entrepreneurs in India.
It added that SpIN will primarily focus on facilitating space tech entrepreneurs in three distinct innovation categories: Geospatial Technologies and Downstream Applications; Enabling Technologies for Space & Mobility; and Aerospace Materials, Sensors, and Avionics.
Space applications cut across various domains from earth to sky. Innovative technologies are expected to bring a paradigm shift in utilising the space applications to maximise the economic, social, and environmental benefits for the larger society.
In line with the partnership announcement, SpIN has launched its first innovation challenge. Early-stage start-ups for developing solutions in areas of maritime and land transportation, urbanisation, mapping, and surveying, disaster management, food security, sustainable agriculture, environmental monitoring, and natural resources management, among others are encouraged to apply.
Koundinya sanctuary sees a massive shift as all¬ female herd from Tamil Nadu enters Chittoor (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
An 18-member herd of all female elephants from the forests of Gudiyattam and Pernambattu of Tamil Nadu are currently on the prowl in the Koundinya wildlife sanctuary zone in Chittoor district, apparently “in search of mates”.
The herd is accompanied by four calves, under the age of 3. The forest officials say that it’s a unique phenomenon to see such a large female herd crossing into the sanctuary.
The herd, with its habitat stretching from Gudiyattam to Mudumalai and Annamalai Hills of the Western Ghats, crossed into Chittoor district in the early hours of Tuesday.
As they could not negotiate the solar fencing, the herd took a detour into the Palamaner range crossing the busy Gudiyattam road.
Unlike the regular crop-raiding herd from Tamil Nadu, this “all-female herd” kept making gentle movements along the forest fringes, with little or no damage to the crops.
Senior forest watchers and elderly farmers observed that going by the trouble-free behaviour of the herd, it is a clear hint that they are in search of mates.
After staying put in the sanctuary for a month or two, the herd would again move to their regular habitats. This happens very rarely. It is a welcome sign that Koundinya sanctuary has become a haven for jumbo romance.
A majority of the elephant population in Koundinya sanctuary is male. We have about 40 tuskers and a negligible number of females. Only the female elephants move in large herds, while the tuskers form into small herds or move as loners.
Editorial
BIMSTEC as key to a new South Asian regional order (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
December 8 is commemorated as SAARC Charter Day. It was on this day, 37 years ago, that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), an intergovernmental organisation, was established by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to promote economic growth in South Asia.
Afghanistan acceded to SAARC later. However, SAARC has failed abjectly in accomplishing most of its objectives. South Asia continues to be an extremely poor and least integrated region in the world.
The intraregional trade and investment in South Asia are very low when compared to other regions such as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Pakistan has adopted an obstructionist attitude within SAARC by repeatedly blocking several vital initiatives such as the motor vehicles agreement, aimed at bolstering regional connectivity.
Deepening hostility between India and Pakistan has made matters worse. Since 2014, no SAARC summit has taken place leaving the organisation rudderless, and practically dead.
But why bother about SAARC? Because South Asia, that is India’s neighbourhood, is important for India’s national interests.
This is best captured in the current government’s ‘neighbourhood first’ policy. SAARC is the only intergovernmental organisation with a pan-South Asia reach. India can judiciously employ it to serve its interests in the entire region.
But India, in the last few years, has been looking at SAARC through the lens of Pakistan. Consequently, the deterioration in India-Pakistan relations has coincided with the incapacitation of SAARC, much to the delight of Pakistan.
A weakened SAARC also means heightened instability in other promising regional institutions such as the South Asian University (SAU), which is critical to buttressing India’s soft power in the region.
Opinion
Need for effective tourist police (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Service Sector)
Crimes against tourists and other foreign nationals appear to be on the rise in India. Consider several recent cases, and the lessons they suggest.
A few days ago, a Kerala session court sentenced two men to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a Latvian tourist in 2018. A 12-year-old Russian girl was raped in a hotel in Goa on April 6 this year. The rapist was an employee of the hotel in which the girl was staying with her mother.
An Iraqi couple staying at a hotel in Gurugram for the treatment of the husband in the Medanta hospital was accosted by two miscreants posing as policemen on October 23.
They accused the couple of carrying drugs and on the pretext of checking their wallets, fled with $15,000 the couple had saved for the treatment.
On September 2, a British woman lawyer lodged a complaint of sexual misconduct against a cab driver who was ferrying her from the airport to her hotel in South Delhi. The incident traumatised her to the extent that she left for the U.K. within two days of her arrival.
These are just a few incidents of foreigners falling victim to crimes in our country. Women are more prone to sexual attacks by criminals on the prowl in tourist destinations.
For every crime committed against foreigners, there would be several others that go unreported for multifarious reasons, with one of them being the fear instilled in them by the threats of these criminals. In the South Delhi incident, the British national was reluctant to lodge a formal complaint out of fear.
According to data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Delhi recorded 27 cases of crime against foreigners last year, a drastic decline from 62 cases reported in 2020 and 123 in 2019. Rajasthan has shown a sharp reduction in registration of crimes from 16 in 2019 to just 4 in 2020 and two cases last year, which could be attributed to the sharp decline in tourist arrivals due to COVID-19.
Explainer
The impasse over the appointment of judges (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The story so far:
Last week, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar commented on the on-going heated debate between the Central government and the Supreme Court over the matter of judicial appointments.
Referring to the 2015 verdict of the SC which struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and the 99th Amendment, Mr. Dhankhar asked how the judiciary could have run down a unanimously-passed constitutional provision which reflected “the will of people”.
In August 2014, Parliament passed the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, along with the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, which together provided for the creation of an independent commission to appoint judges to the Supreme Court (SC) and High Courts (HC).
This commission was to replace the collegium system. The two Bills were ratified by the required number of State Legislatures and got the President’s assent on December 31, 2014. Articles 124 and 217 of the Constitution deal with the appointment of judges to the SC and HCs of the country. Article 124(2) states “every Judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President” after “consultation” with the judges of the SC and the HCs.
So, while the collegium system itself does not figure in the Constitution, its legal basis is found in three SC judgments — usually referred to as the ‘Judges Cases’.
In order to replace this system which received criticism over the years for its lack of transparency, among other provisions, the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, introduced three primary Articles. Article 124A which created the NJAC, a constitutional body to replace the collegium system, Article 124B which conferred the NJAC with the power to make appointments to Courts and Article 124C which accorded express authority to Parliament to make laws regulating the manner of the NJAC’s functioning.
The debate around conjugal visits for prisoners (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The State of Punjab has furthered the cause of right to life and personal liberty of prisoners by allowing conjugal visits for inmates.
It is expected that this initiative will lead to strengthening of matrimonial bonds and also ensure good conduct of prisoners.
Broadly speaking, conjugal rights are rights created by marriage, that is, the right of the husband or the wife to the company of their spouse.
In the context of prisons, however, conjugal visits refer to the concept of allowing a prisoner to spend some time in privacy with his spouse within the precincts of a jail.
It is often argued that conjugal visits can have positive impacts in the form of psychological health benefits for prisoners, preservation of marital ties and, reduction in the rates of homosexuality and sexual aggression within prisons.
Aside from the above, it is also argued that conjugal visits are a fundamental right of the spouses of the prisoners. Prisoner rights are internationally recognised through the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights etc.
Through such instruments, prisoners are guaranteed the right to life and inherent dignity. The right to maintain family relations including conjugal visits are included in these treaties. Most prison Acts and Rules across the country accept the importance of maintenance of continuity in family and social relations.
In the case of Sunil Batra vs Delhi Administration (1979, SC), Justice Iyer observed that “visit to prisoners by family and friends are solace in isolation: and only a dehumanised system can derive vicarious delight in depriving prison inmates of this humane amenity.”
On the specific question of conjugal rights of prisoners, however, High Courts have differed in their rulings. In the case of Jasvir Singh vs State of Punjab, a couple convicted of murder and on death row made a petition to the court to enforce their right to procreate.
News
Bill to amend law on cooperative societies introduced in LS (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
A Bill to amend the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, aimed at bringing in transparency in the sector, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Many Opposition MPs asked for the Bill to be referred to a Standing Committee for review arguing that it encroached on the rights of States.
The Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was introduced by Minister of State (MoS) for Cooperation B.L. Verma.
The Bill seeks to strengthen governance, reform the electoral process, improve the monitoring mechanism, and ensure ease of doing business in multi-State cooperative societies.
It also aims to improve the composition of boards and ensure financial discipline, besides enabling the raising of funds in the multi-State cooperative societies.
In order to make the governance of multi-State cooperative societies more democratic, transparent and accountable, the Bill has provisions for setting up of a Cooperative Election Authority, a Cooperative Information Officer and a Cooperative Ombudsman. To promote equity and facilitate inclusiveness, provisions relating to representation of women and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe members on the boards of multi-State cooperative societies have been included.
Observing that cooperative federalism should have been followed before the preparation of this Bill, he said: “This (Bill) may lead to the concentration of power of the Central government, which may impact the autonomy and functioning of the multi-State cooperative societies and create potential for misuse.
News
Plan to install 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 to cost₹ 2.44 trillion (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
India’s plan to install 500 GW (gigawatt) of renewable energy capacity by 2030 will involve an investment of at least ₹2.44 lakh crore or ₹2.44 trillion.
As part of its international climate commitments, India has said that it would source roughly half its energy needs from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
Financing the energy transition of developing countries such as India is among the thorniest geo-political issues, with India having said multiple times at United Nations climate conferences that “trillions of dollars” will be required.
The committee, headed by the chairman of the Central Electricity Authority, had representatives from Solar Energy Corporation of India, Central Transmission Utility of India Ltd, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, National Institute of Solar Energy, and National Institute of Wind Energy.
They were tasked with setting out a plan for the transmission system required for having 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based installed capacity by 2030.
The planned, additional transmission systems required for having 500 GW of non-fossil fuel include 8,120 ckm (circuit kilometre) of High Voltage Direct Current Transmission corridors; 25,960 ckm of 765 kV (kilovolt) AC lines, 15,758 ckm of 400 kV lines and 1052 ckm of 220 kV cable at an estimated cost of ₹2.44 lakh crore. Circuit kilometres indicate the actual length of power-line needed to carry electricity.
The transmission plan also includes systems required for transporting 10 GW of off-shore wind-based energy located in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu at an estimated cost of ₹28,000 crore.
With the planned transmission system, the inter-regional capacity will increase to about 1.50 lakh MW by 2030 from 1.12 lakh MW at present.
Because renewable-energy generation is only available for a limited time every day, the plan envisages installing battery storage capacity worth 51.5 GW by 2030 to provide “round-the-clock power to end-consumers.
Business
RBI tweak to UPI will help in ecom, share purchases: Das (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The RBI on Wednesday said it would add a feature in the UPI platform to aid payments where delivery of goods and services happens later, like with e-commerce purchases, hotel bookings or investments.
“It has… been decided to introduce a single-block-and-multiple-debits functionality in UPI, which will significantly enhance the ease of making payments in e-commerce space and towards investments in securities,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said after announcing the bi-monthly policy review.
A customer could create a payment mandate against a merchant by blocking funds in his/her bank account, which can be debited when needed, he said.
Such a facility will build greater trust in transactions as merchants will be assured of timely payments, while the funds remain in the customer’s account till actual delivery of goods or services.
Mr. Das also announced that the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) will now include all payments and collections.The BBPS currently does not allow non-recurring payments, or collections even if they are recurring in nature.
So, professional service fees, education fees, tax payments, rent collections fall outside the ambit of the platform, he added.
Pharma, chemicals, iron, steel exports get RoDTEP boost (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
With India’s exports momentum hit by waning global demand, the government on Wednesday decided to extend the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) Scheme to the pharmaceuticals, chemicals and iron & steel sectors with effect from December 15.
The RoDTEP scheme, introduced in January 2021 to replace an earlier merchandise export incentive scheme, is meant to provide ‘zero rating’ of exports or ensure that no domestic taxes are added to goods meant for export.
However, these sectors had been excluded from the scheme so far due to fiscal constraints as well as on the grounds that their exports were doing well even without such benefits.
India’s goods exports contracted by more than 16% in October this year, slipping below the $30-billion mark for the first time in 20 months.
Engineering goods, the mainstay of India’s exports in recent years that also include steel products, dropped over 21% to $7.4 billion. Drugs and pharma exports had fell more than 9% in October, while chemical exports slid by a steeper 16.4%.
The government said it had thus accepted ‘a long-standing demand’ of industry and this ‘will go a long way in boosting and competitiveness in the global markets, generate employment and contribute to the overall economy’.
The expanded list of eligible export items under the scheme will increase from the current 8,731 export items to 10,342 items.