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China has blocked a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to designate Abdul Rauf Azhar, brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar and deputy chief of the Pakistan-based proscribed terror group, as a “global terrorist”.
Azhar, referred to as Abdul Rauf Asghar in UN documents, was involved in the planning and execution of several terror attacks, including the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 (1999), attack on Parliament (2001), and attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot (2016).
A proposal was moved by India, co-sponsored by the US, to list Abdul Rauf Asghar in the UN Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee. China has, however, placed a technical hold on the proposal.
All other 14 member states of the UN Security Council were supportive of the listing proposal,” said a source. Listing him as a global terrorist would subject him to assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.
This is not the first time that China has obstructed the listing of terrorists in the 1267 Sanctions Committee. In June this year, China placed on hold a joint proposal by India and the US to list the deputy chief of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Abdul Rehman Makki, in the sanctions list. Makki was involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalising youths to resort to violence and planning attacks in India, including the Mumbai terror attacks (2008).
The source said there is “incontrovertible evidence” for both these listing proposals. “Both individuals have also been sanctioned by the US under its domestic legislation.
It is unfortunate that the sanctions committee has been prevented from playing its role due to political considerations. China’s actions expose its doublespeak and double standards when it comes to the international community’s shared battle against terrorism.
Such politically motivated actions by China, in nearly every listing case of a Pakistan-based terrorist, undermine the entire sanctity of the working methods of the UNSC Sanctions Committees.
A day before Beijing blocked this latest proposal, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, had said at a Security Council meeting chaired by permanent member and Council president China that “the practice of placing holds and blocks on listing requests without giving any justification must end”.
Supreme Court: Derecognising parties over freebies is anti-democratic (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Chief Justice of India N V Ramana acknowledged that the impact of freebies promised by political parties on the country’s fiscal health was “a serious issue” but said he was not in favour of derecognising any party over it because that would be “anti-democratic”.
Nobody is saying this is not an issue. This is a serious issue. People who are getting benefits may say this is a welfare state, and we are entitled to this.
People who are opposed may say we are paying tax…and it has to be spent on developmental activities, and not for distributing it in whatever way parties want.
Nobody can say this cannot be discussed, or debate cannot be initiated. The suggested committee can look into these issues,” he said while referring is anti-democratic to the court’s suggestion last week about the setting up of a panel to make recommendations.
The court also expressed its reservations on how far it can go into the issue. “I can’t ignore the amount of debate or exchange of views permeating in social media, newspapers, etc.
We seriously feel it is definitely an issue of concern. Some financial discipline has to be there. We are actually experiencing it in other countries…Definitely, there is an issue.
But in a country like India, there are issues of poverty, etc. We can’t ignore those issues also. The Government of India introduces certain schemes, state governments also introduce certain schemes, like feeding of people in drought areas, sometimes in COVID situations.
Express Network
Dhankhar takes over as the 14th Vice President of India (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was sworn in as the 14th Vice President of India. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to Dhankhar in a brief ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dhankhar’s predecessor M Venkaiah Naidu were among the dignitaries present at the ceremony. With Dhankhar also acting as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha by virtue of being the vice-president, both the Houses of Parliament will be presided over by leaders from Rajasthan.
Dhankar, who was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee for the vice-presidential post, defeated opposition‘s candidate Margaret Alva by a margin of 346 votes.
As per data provided by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, out of 780 votes, 725 were cast. Dhankar polled 528 votes while Alva got 182. There were 50 absentees and 15 votes were found invalid.
Born into a farmer’s family in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district in 1951, Dhankhar studied at a local government school before going to Sainik school in Chittorgarh. He is married to Sudesh Dhankhar.
Since his appointment as Bengal governor, Dhankhar had been virtually a one-man opposition, having taken on the TMC government regularly over various issues.
The acrimony between the Governor and the state government was been such that CM Banerjee had even blocked Dhankhar on social media.
According to the Raj Bhavan website, Dhankhar is an avid reader, a sports aficionado — he has been president of the Rajasthan Olympic Association and Rajasthan Tennis Association — and loves travelling with his family.
Explained
Inflation softening, what now? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Lower-than-expected United States inflation data at 8.5 per cent in July, down from the 9.1 per cent of June, has generally boosted investor sentiment around the world.
Indian markets were already drawing comfort from softening crude oil prices and overall inflation, and were on the rise.
However, experts say that inflation remains a concern, and central banks may continue to raise rates — which could impact demand and the margins and share prices of companies. They, therefore, call for a step-by-step deployment in equities.
As US inflation cooled in July, equity markets witnessed a relief rally. The Dow Jones Industrial in the US rose 1.6 per cent to close at 33,309, and Asian markets traded strong— with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong and Shanghai Composite in China rising 2.4 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.
In India, the benchmark Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 0.9 per cent to close at 59,332, the highest in four months. Since June 17 — when the Sensex closed at 51,360, the lowest since May 2021 — the index has risen 15.5 per cent, inching close to 60,000.
While softening crude prices and easing inflation have brought comfort, positive FPI flows over the last month have supported the markets — alongside continuing domestic retail inflows through mutual funds and direct investments.
FPI inflows turned positive in July — for the first time since September 2021 — with a net inflow of Rs 4,989 crore.
In August, they have already pumped in a net of Rs 20,204 crore. Between October 2021 and June 2022, FPIs had pulled out an aggregate of Rs 2,55,879 crore from Indian equities.
Inflows from DIIs, who invested a net of Rs 3,08,772 crore between October 2021 and July 2022, have provided strong support. August, however, has witnessed some profit-booking following the sharp recovery in markets, and DIIs have seen a net outflow — Rs 3,404 crore till date — for the first time in 11 months.
What is the ‘Butterfly Mine’ likely deployed by Russia in Ukraine? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The UK Ministry of Defence, in its intelligence assessment of the ongoing war in Ukraine, has and sounded an alarm on the possible use of PFM-1 series ‘Butterfly Mines’ by the Russian military in Donetsk and Kramatorsk. What are these mines and what kind of damage can they afflict?
As per an intelligence bulletin put out by UK Ministry of Defence a few days back on the security situation in Ukraine, Russia is likely to have deployed anti-personnel mines to deter freedom of movement along its defensive lines in the Donbas.
As per the bulletin, these mines have the potential to inflict widespread casualties amongst both the military and the local civilian population.
In Donetsk and Kramatorsk, Russia has highly likely attempted employment of PFM-1 and PFM-1S scatterable anti-personnel mines. Commonly called the ‘butterfly mine’, the PFM-1 series are deeply controversial, indiscriminate weapons.
PFM-1s were used to devastating effect in the Soviet-Afghan War where they allegedly maimed high numbers of children who “mistook them for toys.
It added that it is highly likely that the Soviet-era stock being used by Russia will have degraded over time and is now unreliable and unpredictable. This poses a threat to both the local population and humanitarian mine clearance operations, the bulletin says.
The PFM-1 and PFM-1S are two kinds of anti-personnel landmines that are commonly referred to as ‘Butterfly mines’ or ‘Green Parrots’.
These names are derived from the shape and colour of the mines. The main difference between the PFM-1 and PFM-1S mine is that the latter comes with a self destruction mechanism which gets activated within one to 40 hours.
The ‘Butterfly mine’ has earned a reputation for being particularly attractive to children because it looks like a coloured toy. It is very sensitive to touch and just the act of picking it up can set it off.
Because of the relatively lesser explosive packed in this small mine, it often injures and maims the handler rather than killing them. These mines are also difficult to detect because they are made of plastic and can evade metal detectors.
These mines can be deployed in the field of action through several means, which include being dropped from helicopters or through ballistic dispersion using artillery and mortar shells.
These mines glide to the ground without exploding and later explode on coming in contact. Since these mines were green in colour when they were first put to use they also earned the name ‘Green Parrots’.
Editorial Page
Who will save the police (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Since I worked in state police for many more years than in central agencies, I have a sure recipe for “killing” police as an organisation, a task our politicians have taken up in real earnestness.
I have observed that they prefer slow death to police as an institution, rather than the fast painless one. And that they are building up the muscle of central investigating agencies so that state police organisations become irrelevant and defunct.
Some of them, in any case, have lost their sheen to recent scandals. In the federal structure, states must be shown their proper place, especially those led by the Opposition.
And no better strategy than “picking up” those voicing dissent while making meaningless noises about healthy relations between Union and state.
Having risen from the ranks, the political “masters” know that the best way to “strike” at police is through police stations.
It is in these precincts that most of them have cooled their heels at the start of their careers and later lorded over with seamless ease. Police stations and outposts are the forums where maximum citizen-police interactions take place.
If the officer in-charge is impartial, efficient and compassionate, then who will approach the local member of legislature (MLA) or parliament (MP) for “divine” intervention?
The strategy commonly used with considerable finesse is to have a police station “manned” by an officer of choice who, in turn, pays daily obeisance to the mighty politician along with a bag that the officer does not bother to conceal. Neither does the self-serving narcissist politician.
The officer in-charge would naturally allocate “beats” to constables who give more time to local “dadas” belonging to the ruling party instead of investigating crime or maintaining order.
One need not worry if there is mid-term change in the ruling party as the same modus operandi will be adopted by the new wearer of the crown.
The collection is redistributed without any eyebrows being raised as the system has been well oiled and understood by all. If you think that the Crown and Zamindari system ended with the British, I can only pity you for your naivete.
After ensuring an “efficient” beat system and police station in the district, one has the onerous task of getting men and women of choice as chiefs of district police and their deputies.
Instead of spending energy on a number of selections, one chooses the district police chief who is then advised to get cronies of his choice — the team that comes after making due payments to the politicians, reimbursing their “personal expenditure” and simultaneously collecting from street hawkers, traders, merchants, restaurant and bar owners.
Breaking the taboo (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
It is perhaps not too surprising that India’s first formal engagement with the Brussels-based North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, as reported in this newspaper, took so long to organise.
NATO has been in existence since 1949 and has dominated European geopolitics since. After the end of the Cold War, it expanded in Europe and its engagement with Asia and its waters has significantly increased.
It is perhaps understandable that India, which rejected military alliances during the Cold War, deliberately stayed away from the US-led NATO and the Warsaw Pact led by the Soviet Union.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended the great Cold War divide in Europe.
While the Warsaw Pact disintegrated along with the Soviet Union, NATO endured as a military alliance of the triumphant West.
Although post-Soviet Russia engaged NATO as part of building a new Europe, talking to the world’s most powerful military grouping remained a political taboo in Delhi.
The entrenched nostalgia for the Soviet Union in the Indian political classes and the deference to Russian political sensitivities in the foreign policy establishment coupled with the persistent suspicion of the West saw Delhi refuse repeated requests for talks with NATO.
While Delhi struggled to come out of its defensive crouch, the Western military alliance reached out to key Asian countries, including China and Pakistan.
Many small countries across Asia take advantage of the engagement with NATO in a range of areas — from training to capacity building. But Delhi remained unmoved.
It was not that NATO was offering membership to India nor was Delhi interested in one. The question was only about politico-military exchanges. Yet the conservatives in Delhi continued to veto consultations with NATO.
The Modi government chose to break the ideological straitjacket and begin a formal engagement in December 2019 after constructing a new domestic consensus.
The first round of talks had covered a range of issues including Afghanistan, terrorism, China, Russia, and maritime security. COVID had apparently prevented a continuation of this dialogue in the following years.
The World
Antarctic ice shelf crumbling at edges: NASA study flags worrying loss to ice shelves (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Antarctica’s coastal glaciers are shedding icebergs more rapidly than nature can replenish the crumbling ice, doubling previous estimates of losses from the world’s largest ice sheet over the past 25 years.
The first-of-its-kind study, led by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles and published in the journal Nature, raises new concern about how fast climate change is weakening Antarctica’s floating ice shelves and accelerating the rise of global sea levels.
The study’s key finding was that the net loss of Antarctic ice from coastal glacier chunks “calving” off into the ocean is nearly as great as the net amount of ice that scientists already knew was being lost due to thinning caused by the melting of ice shelves from below by warming seas.
Taken together, thinning and calving have reduced the mass of Antarctica’s ice shelves by 12 trillion tons since 1997, double the previous estimate, the analysis concluded.
The net loss of the continent’s ice sheet from calving alone in the past quarter-century spans nearly 37,000 sq km (14,300 sq miles), an area almost the size of Switzerland, according to JPL scientist Chad Greene, the study’s lead author.
Antarctica is crumbling at its edges,” Greene said in a NASA announcement of the findings. “And when ice shelves dwindle and weaken, the continent’s massive glaciers tend to speed up and increase the rate of global sea level rise. The consequences could be enormous. Antarctica holds 88% of the sea level potential of all the world’s ice.
Ice shelves, permanent floating sheets of frozen freshwater attached to land, take thousands of years to form and act like buttresses holding back glaciers that would otherwise easily slide off into the ocean, causing seas to rise.
When ice shelves are stable, the long-term natural cycle of calving and re-growth keeps their size fairly constant.
In recent decades, though, warming oceans have weakened the shelves from underneath, a phenomenon previously documented by satellite altimeters measuring the changing height of the ice and showing losses averaging 149 million tons a year from 2002 to 2020, according to NASA.
Economy
UN: 7.3% of India population owned digital currency in world ;7 in the world (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Over 7 per cent of India’s population owns digital currency, according to the UN, which said that the use of cryptocurrency rose globally at an unprecedented rate during the Covid pandemic.
The UN trade and development body UNCTAD said that in 2021, developing countries accountedfor15of thetop20 economies when it comes to the share of the population that owns cryptocurrencies.
In India, 7.3 per cent of the population owned digital currency in 2021, ranking seventh in the list of top 20 global economies for digital currency ownership as share of population.
Global use of cryptocurrencies has increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic, including in developing countries.
In three policy briefs published on Wednesday, it said that while these private digital currencies have rewarded some and facilitate remittances, they are an unstable financial asset that can also bring social risks and costs.
The policy brief titled All that glitters is not gold: The high cost of leaving cryptocurrencies unregulated examines the reasons for the rapid uptake of cryptocurrencies in developing countries, including facilitation of remittances and as a hedge against currency and inflation risks.
It said that recent digital currency shocks in the market suggest that there are private risks to holding crypto, but if the central bank steps in to protect financial stability, then the problem becomes a public one.
If cryptocurrencies become a widespread means of payment and even replace domestic currencies unofficially (a process called cryptoisation), this could jeopardise the monetary sovereignty of countries.
In developing countries with unmet demand for reserve currencies, stablecoins pose particular risks. For some of these reasons, the International Monetary Fund has expressed the view that cryptocurrencies pose risks as legal tender.
The policy brief titled Public payment systems in the digital era: Responding to the financial stability and security-related risks of cryptocurrencies focuses on the implications of cryptocurrencies for the stability and security of monetary systems, and to financial stability.
It is argued that a domestic digital payment system that serves as a public good could fulfil at least some of the reasons for crypto use and limit the expansion of cryptocurrencies in developing countries, adding that depending on national capabilities and needs, monetary authorities could provide a central bank digital currency or, more readily, a fast retail payment system.