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A day after the Quad Foreign Ministers wrapped up a meeting that sent clear messages to Russia and China, New Delhi and Canberra announced that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be visiting India from March 8 to 11. This will be his first bilateral visit to the country after he took charge in May 2022.
Albanese will travel to Ahmedabad where he, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will watch the fourth cricket Test between Australia and India starting March 9. He will visit Mumbai for a meeting with the business community and head to Delhi for official engagements.
In a statement announcing the visit, Albanese said, “This will be my first visit to India as Prime Minister and I look forward to reinforcing the strong bond between our two countries.”
Our relationship with India is strong but it can be stronger. It is underpinned by our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which underscores a joint commitment to working together to enhance our defence, economic, and technological interests.
A stronger India-Australia partnership is good for the stability of our region. It also means more opportunities and more trade and investment, strengthening our economies and directly benefiting our people.
As we look to the future, India will continue to be an important partner and close friend to Australia. I look forward to hosting Prime Minister Modi in Australia mid-year for the Quad Leaders’ Summit and to visiting India again in September for the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
What it takes to buy an electoral bond (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
There is no signage indicating where exactly Electoral Bonds (EBs) are available in the large complex that houses the State Bank of India’s New Delhi main branch on Parliament Street.
A security guard tries to help, pointing to the sixth floor of the building that houses “government business”. On the sixth floor, where the NRI section is marked, there is again no sign indicating where EBs are sold in the open-plan office. Employees point to the desk of the official authorised to issue EBs.
The SBI’s New Delhi main branch is one of the 29 branches of the bank across the country authorised to sell EBs — five years ago, the sale window for the first tranche opened in March 2018.
So when the bank announced the sale of the 25th tranche of EBs from January 19 to January 28 this year, I decided to buy a bond of Rs 1,000 — the smallest denomination available under the government’s Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018 — on January 23.
According to a Right to Information (RTI) reply by the SBI to The Indian Express on February 15, my EB was among the 97 bonds of Rs 1,000 denomination sold so far.
A total of 21,171 bonds have been purchased since the first tranche was sold on March 1, 2018, and the scheme has facilitated the donation of over Rs 12,008.59 crore to political parties through anonymous donors.
Express Network
Faced with glut farmers say: Give potatoes instead of wheat through PDS (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The general secretary of the Aloo Utpadak Kisan Samiti, a potato growers’ body in Agra, points out that government agencies procure wheat and paddy at minimum support prices, of Rs 2,125 and Rs 2,040 per quintal respectively.
They can buy potatoes from us at half that price and give it out free just like rice and wheat. It will reduce their worry over low wheat stocks and falling production due to high temperatures. Poor consumers won’t mind getting aloo, which is as good and nutritious as wheat.
Potato is wholesaling at Rs 400-450 per quintal in Agra. Even this price is only for the ‘chatta‘ or larger table potatoes. The smaller-sized gulla (seed-grade) and kirri (baby) tubers are fetching “no rate”, claims Doongar Singh Chaudhary, owner of a cold store, Vaidyaji Sheetgrah Pvt. Ltd, at Khandauli near Agra: “Forget Reliance, Mother Dairy or BigBasket, nobody is purchasing and stocking up potatoes. Sab nadarad hain (all have vanished)”.
The first is a bumper crop from newer potato varieties, yielding more in lesser number of days. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra-Aligarh belt – also covering Mathura, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Hathras, Etah and Kasganj districts – traditionally grow Kufri Bahar, a variety from the Shimla-based Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) that gives 24-36 tonnes per hectare over 110-120 days duration.
The new varieties – CPRI’s Kufri Sangam, Kufri Mohan and Kufri Khyati, besides privately-bred hybrids such as 302, S-1 and Super 6 – yield 36-42 tonnes/hectare in just 60 days and up to 48-60 tonnes/hectare in 90 days.
Navy chief: Ties with others must to tackle maritime challenge (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
There’s a need for cooperation among countries to tackle maritime challenges, which are transnational and cannot be addressed individually by any one nation.
He was speaking at a panel discussion —The Future of Conflict: Lessons from the Third Decade — with Adm. John C. Aquilino, Commander, US Indo-Pacific Command of the United States, Adm. Sir Ben Key, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, UK, Gen. Koji Yamazaki, Japan’s Chief of Staff in the Ministry of Defence, and Vice Adm. Angus Topshee, Commander, Royal Canadian Navy.
His comments came a day after foreign ministers of Quad countries together called for peace in Ukraine and spoke about China’s aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific region and its attempts to block designation of terrorists at the UN.
Talking about the importance of working together in groups, Admiral Kumar said the US Navy in 2015 had talked of a 1,000-ship Navy, which would include all friendly partner navies. That is something we in the maritime domain always look forward to, to find how to cooperate and work together.
Admiral Kumar said at present, countries and their navies are looking at issue-based converges, so there may be agreement on certain things but not necessarily on others.
Express Network
Calibrated attempts being made to defame Indian judiciary, says Rijiju (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Hailing Indian judiciary and ‘wisdom’ of Indian judges, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said ‘calibrated attempts’ are being made from inside and outside the country to defame the judiciary.
Inaugurating the Nyaya Yajna, the first conference of Central government councils of eastern states here, the minister said: “Attempts are being made to tell the story that Indian judiciary is under attack, attempts are being made to speak in forums inside the country and outside the country to tell the world that Indian judiciary is under crisis.”
No, campaign whatsoever with ulterior motives can succeed in defaming India and its democratic set up. Nobody, no organisation, no political party can question the wisdom of the Indian judiciary. We stand by the spirit of the Indian Constitution.
Amid frequent run-ins between the Union government and the judiciary over appointment of judges, the law minister said differences may come, but that does not mean that the government is disregarding the judiciary and said there are misinterpretations.
Opinion
Is G20 meet India’s NAM moment with a difference (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
If you are at Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport and are on a connecting flight, you will transition from main terminal gates Z to concourse C.
No matter which direction you come from, you pass by mid-size advertorial screens that grab the attention of passers-by. Where one is used to seeing models demonstrating clothing brands or fragrances, one will be surprised to notice two Indian men, Narendra Modi and his protégé Shivraj Singh Chauhan, flashing through the screens with the G-20 as backdrop.
The advert was sponsored by the BJP-ruled Government of Madhya Pradesh, which, like other states, is one of the hosts of the G-20 meetings happening throughout the year.
India is the host of the latest edition of G-20, a forum of the 20 largest economies in the world. The aim of such a gathering is to collaborate on economic issues but also be another occasion for world leaders to discuss extra-economic issues.
World
China approves $1.3bn loan rollover for Pak: Finance minister (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd approved a rollover of a $1.3 billion loan for cash-strapped Pakistan, which will help shore up its depleting foreign exchange reserves.
The facility will be disbursed in three instalments. The first one of $500 million has been received by Pakistan's central bank.
The money, which Dar said has been repaid by Pakistan to the ICBC in recent months, is crucial for the South Asian economy, which is facing a balance of payment crisis, with its central bank foreign exchange reserves dropping to levels barely able to cover three weeks of imports.
Pakistan has already received a $700 million loan from China to help boost its forex reserves. Dar said the total $2 billion is in effect Pakistan borrowing back the debt repayments it has paid to Beijing for previously agreed loans.
He said Pakistan will need $5 billion external financing to close its financing gap this fiscal year, which ends in June.
More external financing will be coming to Pakistan only after Islamabad signs a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which the minister said should be done by next week.
The lender has been negotiating the deal with Pakistan since early last month to clear its ninth review, which if approved by its board will issue over $1 billion tranche of $6.5 billion bailout agreed in 2019.
Economy
Bank infra credit growth slows sharply to 2.3% in January 23 (Page no. 15)
The government’s capital expenditure push for the infrastructure sector notwithstanding, the rate of growth in the outstanding bank credit to the country’s core sector declined to 2.3 per cent as of January 2023 as against a growth of 10.7 per cent a year ago.
One reason is that companies are increasingly relying on fund mobilisation through corporate bonds.
Total credit outstanding to the infra sector rose by just Rs 27,000 crore to Rs 11.85 lakh crore as of January 2023 from Rs 11.58 lakh crore last year, according to the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India. Growth in outstanding bank credit to the power sector — a key driver of bank credit — came down to 2.8 per cent from 4.2 per cent a year ago. In absolute numbers, it works out to Rs 6.05 lakh crore as against Rs 5.89 lakh crore a year ago.