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There was no fresh forward movement on resolution of existing issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in the 19th round of military talks between India and China though both sides agreed to resolve these expeditiously.
A joint statement issued Tuesday said India and China have agreed to resolve remaining issues in an expeditious manner while keeping up the momentum of dialogue and negotiations through military and diplomatic channels.
It said that in the interim, the two sides have agreed to maintain the peace and tranquillity on the ground in the border areas.
On Monday, the two sides held the 19th round of military talks at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the Indian side.
As reported by The Indian Express, the focus of the meeting was on confidence building and ensuring adherence to border protocols and sharing of patrol information between troops of the two sides to avoid clashes.
The two sides had a positive, constructive and in-depth discussion on the resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in the Western Sector. In line with the guidance provided by the leadership, they exchanged views in an open and forward looking manner.
Sources in the government said that India had pressed for access to all old patrolling points along the LAC for early disengagement at the remaining friction points including legacy ones such as Depsang Plains and Demchok in the meeting. An overall reduction in troop density in the Ladakh region was also part of the agenda.
To make 2 crore lakhpati didis in villages, drone training for women (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
From making 2 crore “lakhpati didis” in villages to launching a scheme to train women Self Help Groups (SHGs) for using drones in agriculture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for women led development in the last Independence Day speech of his government before the next year’s general election.
Modi said that a women-led government is an additional force that will take India forward. India can proudly say that it has the most number of women pilots.
Whether it is the Chandrayaan or Moon mission, women are leading the programmes, thanking the mothers, sisters and daughters of the country for their capability.
Lauding women self-help groups, PM said that today 10 crore women are associated with SHGs and his dream is to make 2 crore ‘lakhpati didis’ in villages. “We are working to meet the target.
Modi also announced that his government will soon launch a scheme to train 15,000 women SHGs to operate drones for use in agriculture.
Talking of India’s women power, Modi narrated an incident when during a recent foreign trip, he was asked by a minister of the visiting country if girls in India are studying science and engineering.
Govt & Politics
Judiciary’s key challenge is to remove barriers to access justice, says CJI (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The “greatest challenge before Indian judiciary is to eliminate the barriers to accessing justice and the functionality of courts is “determined by how effectively they can answer the call of Constitutional duty.
Addressing the Independence Day celebrations organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the CJI also emphasised the need to overhaul court infrastructure on priority to make them accessible and inclusive.
The greatest challenge before Indian judiciary is to eliminate the barriers to accessing justice. We have to enhance access to justice procedurally by eliminating the constraints which prevent citizens from approaching courts, and substantively by building confidence in the court’s ability to dispense justice.
And we have the road map in place to make sure that the future Indian judiciary is inclusive and accessible to the last person in the line.
CJI Chandrachud gave details on the “plan to expand the Supreme Court” as part of modernising judicial infrastructure to meet future challenges. The plan, he noted, includes constructing a new building to accommodate 27 additional courts, 51 judges’ chambers, 4 registrar court rooms, 16 registrar chambers, and other requisite facilities for lawyers and litigants.
He said it will be executed in two phases: in the first phase, the museum and annexe building will be demolished to pave way for a new building providing for 15 courtrooms, judges’ chambers, the SCBA library, offices for the president, vice-president, and secretary of SCBA and SCAORA, an SCBA executive meeting Room, canteen, ladies Bar room, and other requisite facilities for lawyers and litigants.
Editorial
Investigating Manipur (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Violence in Manipur has been protracted and devastating. Looting, arson, sexual assault including gang rapes of women, and cold-blooded murders have shaken all of us.
Even police armouries have not been spared. Thousands of weapons including automatic weapons like LMG, SLRs with ammunition have been stolen.
Such attacks are not only alarming and destructive by their very nature but also embolden criminals elsewhere. They have challenged the very concept of a “state”.
The intensity of the internecine strife seems to have subsided to an extent. This is the time when police start to withdraw officers from public order duties and expect them to take up investigations.
Having been overworked for months and facing riotous mobs every day, it takes time for officers to switch to investigation mode.
And when the transition takes place in Manipur, the police would be staring at the humongous task of investigating more than 6,000 criminal cases.
The CBI will take over a few serious cases for investigations. But what happens to those not classified as very serious legally but are so from the perspective of victims and citizens? The CBI with its above 60 per cent conviction rate, despite lacking field-level resources would, in all probability, do better investigation.
The main reason being the very limited number of cases it will take up for investigation. The officers of the Bureau can also avail of sound legal advice at every step and services of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, New Delhi.
It is not so with Manipur police, though intervention by the Supreme Court may lead to some help from other state police organisations.
Ideas Page
A question for Supreme Court (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Among this country’s finest judges in recent times, S Muralidhar, retired on August 7, 2023 as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court.
The purpose of this piece is to ask the collegium why his retirement date was not August 7, 2026, from the Supreme Court.
Muralidhar had a sparkling career as a lawyer, mainly in the Supreme Court. His engagement with the law was wide and deep, as a lawyer and in his academic pursuits, which led to a doctorate from Delhi University for his thesis on legal aid and the criminal justice system in India.
His book, Law, Poverty and Legal Aid: Access to Criminal Justice, is a seminal contribution to the subject. He appeared in important cases, was the Election Commission’s counsel during T N Seshan’s time, and was also part-time member of the Law Commission of India. An impressive bio.
That profile acquired legendary proportions during his tenure as a judge of the Delhi High Court from 2006 to 2020. He was the ideal judge — quick to grasp, patient in hearing, fair in result, and ran his court with the efficiency of a management wizard: He was one of the first to insist on paperless performance. His was the ideal balance of the scales since he adjusted them ever so rightly to secure the ultimate higher balance of justice.
His array of significant cases is long. Along with Justice A P Shah, he authored the path-breaking Naz Foundation judgment that decriminalised consensual homosexuality by reading down Section 377 of the IPC.
He convicted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He sentenced 16 policemen to life imprisonment for the targeted killing of 38 Muslims in Hashimpura. He granted bail to Gautam Navlakha, one of the activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Economy
Infosys, Liberty Global sign SL6-bu deal to scale digital entertainment, connectivity (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
IT major Infosys and Liberty Global plc, a converged video, broadband, and communications company, have expanded their collaboration to evolve and scale Liberty Global’s digital entertainment and connectivity platforms.
The parties have entered into an initial five-year agreement, with an option to extend to eight years and beyond. Infosys will provide services to Liberty Global estimated at €1.5 billion over the initial five-year term and at €2.3 billion if the contract is extended to eight years.
The collaboration allows Liberty Global to realise run-rate savings in excess of €100 million per annum, inclusive of other savings and technology investments.
In addition, Liberty Global is licensing these platforms to Infosys so the digital services provider can offer services to new operators and new markets outside the Liberty Global family.
This will potentially enable new customers, around the world, to experience digital entertainment and connectivity services through Horizon for the first time.
Liberty Global will continue to control product roadmaps and retain all intellectual property for the Horizon entertainment and connectivity platforms.
Explained
India and Russia’s moon missions (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Russia’s mission to the moon, Luna 25, is generating interest in India too. This is because the Russian lander is likely to touch down close to the lunar South Pole a couple of days before India, taking away the title of the first country to soft-land close to the South Pole.
The Russian mission was launched on August 10. It is likely to enter the moon’s orbit by August 16 and attempt the soft landing by August 21 or 22. India’s mission to the moon cannot land before August 23, when it will be lunar dawn at the landing site.
Although Luna-25 was launched earlier this week aboard its Soyuz rocket — almost a month after the launch of Chandrayaan-3 on July 14 — it will cover the 3.84-lakh-km journey within days.
This is because the Russian mission was able to follow a more direct trajectory towards the moon, owing to its lighter payload and more fuel storage.
The lift-off mass for Luna 25 is just 1,750 kg as compared with the 3,900 kg of Chandrayaan-3. Chandrayaan’s Lander-Rover alone weighs 1,752 kg, with the propulsion module weighing another 2,148 kg.
With Sec 377 gone, why some fear men might loose p-rotection against rape (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, the proposed replacement for the Indian Penal Code (IPC), does not contain IPC Section 377 (or an equivalent section), which was read down by the Supreme Court in 2018.
While Section 377 (“unnatural offences”) remained in the IPC, it can no longer be used to criminalise gay sex between consenting adults.
But the absence of this section in the BNS can leave adult male victims of sexual assault without much recourse in the law, some experts have pointed out.
Section 377 of the IPC states: “Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
The explanation to the provision states that “penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offence.”
For decades, the LGBTQ community and others argued that this section was discriminatory, and provided legal protection to the harassment and intimidation of gay couples.
This archaic law criminalises sexual activities that were seen to be against “the order of nature”. Its roots lie in the offence of sodomy or buggery, which was first recorded as a crime in the medieval Common Law treatises of Fleta (1290) and Britton (1300).