What to read in Indian Express

Hit by Covid, small & micro units wait for Rs 8.7 lakh crore in pending dues (Page no. 1) (GS Paper 3, Economy)

A critical problem faced by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector is delayed payments. It’s the smallest establishments — the micro and small units — which have been hit the hardest post-Covid with their pending dues touching Rs 8.73 lakh crore, almost 80 per cent of the total pending for the entire MSME sector until 2021.

Delayed payments, as percentage of sales, has seen a sharp spike from 46.16 per cent in 2020 to 65.73 per cent in 2021 for the “micro” segment and from 28.85 per cent to 31.10 per cent for “small” units, according to a report by the Bengaluru-based Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship shared with the Union MSME Ministry.

However, the rise in delayed payments as a percentage of sales has been much lower for “medium” segment units, up from 24.02 per cent in 2020 to 25.20 per cent in 2021.

Micro units are those with investments up to Rs 1 crore and turnover of less than Rs 5 crore. For small units, the investment limit is at Rs 10 crore and a turnover is pegged at less than 50 crore. A unit is termed medium if it has investments of up to Rs 20 crore with a turnover of less than Rs 100 crore.

Delayed payments — from customers in the private sector, government departments and public sector undertakings — are an impediment to the revival of smaller units.

A Crisil report showed that more than a quarter of India’s MSMEs lost market share of over 3 per cent due to the pandemic.

And half of them suffered a contraction in their earning margins because of a sharp rise in commodity prices during 2021 fiscal, compared with 2020. This is exacerbated by delayed payments.

 Free, but Burkapal tribals too broken to even hold grudge (Page no. 1)

(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)

When Madkam Hunga was arrested under UAPA in the 2017 Burkapal Maoist attack case, he had a wife — and two little girls aged 3 and 1. After being acquitted along with 112 other accused last weekend, he went to visit his mother.

There was a girl sitting next to my mother, and I asked who she was,” Hunga said. “When my mother replied it was my younger daughter, I could not hold back my tears.”

In the five years he spent in prison, Hunga has lost part of his vision, much of his strength, and his wife. “Tribal custom gives women the freedom to leave a marriage. With no one to take care of them, why would they stay? Almost all our wives left for other men,” he said.

Acquitted for lack of evidence five years and two months after they were jailed, the tribal men of Burkapal have returned to upended lives, empty homes, and a bleak future.

On Saturday, when The Indian Express visited the village, the men were sitting together discussing finances — and the lives of the children their mothers had abandoned in the village.

In these five years, everyone has had to spend much more than they can afford. We are working out who owes how much to whom.

Burkapal, located 72 km from the district headquarters Sukma, is close to where Maoists killed 25 personnel of the CRPF’s 74th battalion on April 24, 2017, and looted their weapons and ammunition. Police subsequently arrested 127 people, including 6 minors, from several villages in the area for allegedly helping the attackers.

Govt. and Politics

Joint theatre commands for tri-services soon: Rajnath (Page no. 6)

(GS Paper 3, Defence)

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced the setting up of “joint theatre commands” so as to have an enhanced coordination among all three services of the country’s armed forces.

Drawing a lesson from the coordination seen between the Army, Indian Air Force and the Navy during the Kargil war, we have decided to set up joint theatre commands in the country.

Referring to India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1999 Kargil war, he said they would emerge victorious again if a war happened in future.

Pitching for reclaiming Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Singh said it is part of India and will continue to remain part of this country.

PoK is a part of Indian territory and will continue to do so. How is it possible that Baba Amarnath (Lord Shiva’s form) is in India and Maa Sharda Shakti is across the Line of Control.

Referring to the Sharda Peeth, which has the ruins of a temple to Hindu goddess Saraswati, also known as Sharda, Singh said how can Shiv Saroop (Amarnath) be on this side of J&K and Shakti Saroop (Sharda) in PoK side.

Editorial Page

Expand Agnipath (Page no. 8)

(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)

The government has launched an Agnipath scheme for the armed forces of the country with a view to make these a leaner force without compromising on their combat abilities. A similar scheme is perhaps called for with regard to the All India Services (AIS).

The AIS have rendered excellent services to the country despite the severe constraints under which the officers function. However, we have reached a stage when some radical rethinking is required.

Services have an inbuilt tendency to proliferate. It is true that government activities today cover a much wider spectrum, that welfare schemes are now undertaken on a massive scale, and that law and order problems have become far more complex.

To cope with the increasing responsibilities, there has been a steady expansion of the civil services. Yet, there is a huge sense of dissatisfaction over their performance. Some bureaucrats have gone to the extent of suggesting that the IAS should be scrapped.

No one has suggested the abolition of police because, howsoever inefficient it might be, its total absence would result in lawlessness and chaos.

However, the fact remains that people are generally dissatisfied with the performance of the police and there are credible complaints about its brutality, third-degree methods and extra-judicial killings.

It has been noticed that once an officer is selected for the AIS, he/she develops a smug attitude that his/her career for the next 30/35 years is now secure and that, under normal circumstances, he/she would be able to reach the top level. There is no pressure to perform, no incentive to innovate, and no desire to excel.

No wonder, many of these officers become laid-back and are, most of the time, feathering their nests. There is no agni in them.

Senior officers of the IAS and IPS have gone to the Supreme Court for reforms in the civil services and the police. The judiciary has, from time to time, given directions for reforms but these have not been implemented in letter and spirit with the result that there has been hardly any change in the ground situation. Reforms are going to be a long haul.

 Idea Page

A President for republic (Page no. 9)

(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)

What is the significance of Droupadi Murmu becoming President of India? The answer to this question has more to do with vital issues of social democracy and republican spirit than with ideological or political divides.

The spotlight during presidential polls had so far been on the individual contestants and the process was seen as a test of the political hegemony of the ruling party.

The debate now has shifted from personality-centred politics to republicanism. While the former indicates elitism, the latter is fundamentally associated with political activism at the grassroots.

This change also underlines the cardinal difference between the Nehru and Modi eras. Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the Indian sovereign democratic republic without disassociating with European values, which was a reason for his emphasis on remaining a part of the British Commonwealth — despite stiff nationalist opposition. Narendra Modi discarded European values imposed on Indian political processes. For him, politics is about the masses.

Murmu — as both a woman and tribal leader — has the exceptional advantage of understanding and experiencing grass roots-level democratic institutions, in which she has worked. She struggled in a system where social hierarchies and economic inequality worked against her.

She belongs to the community of tribal people who constitute 8.6 per cent of India’s population and are spread across the country. This section of society has been the most marginalised since the colonial era. Tribal people’s per capita income, literacy rate, and health indices show their increasing marginalisation.

The displacement of more than 50 lakh tribal people since Independence has aggravated their misery. However, their contributions to the freedom movement and national economy were as significant as any other section of society.

From Tilka Majhi (Jharkhand) to Tirot Sing (Meghalaya), many displayed their patriotic fervour by standing against British colonialism.

US-India Tango (Page no. 9)

(GS Paper 2, International Relation)

In a 2009 interview, former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew anticipated the rise of a multipolar world and opined that “the Indians are going to be themselves, they will never be everybody’s lackey”.

The senior statesman rebuffed suggestions of the 21st century as a bipolar era dominated by the US and China, cast in the mould of the US-Soviet rivalry, and was prescient in foreseeing the emergence of a multipolar world, well before it was obvious.

The possibility of India’s continuing rise over this century seems to be on a stronger wicket today than it did a decade ago, marred as the early 2010s were by political instability and economic turmoil.

But such tectonic shifts are, by definition, not hostage to ephemeral forces of the moment — in the extant case, they are part of a larger reversion to the mean, with Asia once again taking its place as the geo-economic epicentre of the world.

Prior to the era of colonial exploitation followed by self-inflicted stagnation due to communist economic policies adopted across the region, the ancient civilisations of India and China dominated the world economy.

This was not due to large populations alone — there existed a deep history of scientific innovation and technological prowess, which spread by osmosis and intercourse from the East to the West.

The West, led principally by Great Britain, then stole a march over Asia with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. A pyrrhic victory for Britain in the Second World War marked the formal transfer of the Western bloc’s leadership to the US, which later became the preferred destination for high-quality human capital migrating out of Asia because of the government-enforced economic hara-kiri committed by leaders like Mao, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

Beijing coma (Page no. 9)

(GS Paper 2, International Relation)

The 16th round of talks between India and China at the Corps Commander level has ended with no sign of a Chinese withdrawal from eastern Ladakh. This came on the heels of talks on July 7 between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that failed to show any results.

While the MEA’s statement following the meeting called on China “to complete the disengagement from all remaining areas”, the Chinese statement made no reference to Ladakh whatsoever. Instead, it discussed Chinese concerns over Ukraine.

More than two years after the border crisis with China began in eastern Ladakh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategy can be summed up as DDLJ — deny, distract, lie, justify.

Speaking at an all-party meet on June 19, 2020, only four days after we lost 20 brave Indian soldiers in Galwan, the PM gave China a clean chit.

Yet, somehow, India has lost control of 1,000 square kilometres of territory where our troops could earlier patrol but are now either blocked by Chinese troops or are no longer able to enter because of disengagement agreements.

The BJP government uses the euphemism of “friction points” to describe the border situation. Please explain to the people of India why there is “friction” if Chinese troops are not in control of our territory.

The PM’s need to protect his image has also tied the government in knots: The Ministry of Defence in August 2020 was forced to take down a document on its website that directly contradicted the PM and admitted that “the Chinese side transgressed in the areas of Kugrang Nala, Gogra and the north bank of Pangong Tso lake”.

In November 2020, the MEA “took note” of a US report that China had built a 100-home village in disputed territory in Arunachal Pradesh, and that it would never accept China’s “illegal occupation” of our territory.

However, the then Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) contradicted this stance and denied any Chinese construction on our side.

Explained Page

Why monkeypox is spreading, but not as fast as Covid-19 (Page no. 11)

(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

The detection of monkeypox on Sunday in a 34-year-old Delhi resident, who had no history of international travel, marks India’s first case of local human-to-human transmission.

This comes a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), its highest level of alarm.

A PHEC is declared for “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response”.

The declaration for monkeypox came amid growing cases worldwide, with the viral infection spreading to regions where monkeypox had never been detected before.

There have been 14,533 probable and laboratory-confirmed monkeypox cases reported from 72 countries this year until July 20, according to the WHO, increasing from 3,040 cases across 47 countries recorded in the beginning of May.

Monkeypox is not a new disease like Covid-19, which emerged in 2019. The first monkeypox infection in a was identified human in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a nine-month-old boy.

Most infections initially were caused by interaction of humans and animals in rural, rainforest regions of the Congo basin. Before the 2022 outbreak, rising cases was being reported from Central and West Africa. The first outbreak outside Africa happened in 2003, when the United States saw over 70 cases.

Making use of forex reserves (Page no. 11)

(GS Paper 3, Economy)

From a peak of $642.45 billion on September 3, India’s foreign exchange reserves have dipped to $572.71 billion as of July 15. That’s a fall of almost $70 billion in just over 10 months.

How have the reserves depleted so much so fast? To answer this, one must first understand how they got accumulated in the first place.

A country typically accumulates forex reserves when its earnings from export of goods and services exceed payments against imports. The current account surpluses result in a build-up of reserves, as the central bank mops up all the excess foreign currency flowing into the country.

The most obvious parallel one can draw is with households or firms, whose excess of incomes over expenditures or retained profits get added to their savings or reserves.

Just as these savings/reserves are available for use by other households, firms and the government, the current account surpluses of a country may be invested in other countries. In the process, it becomes a net exporter of ‘capital’, in addition to goods and services.

The top 12 countries holding the highest foreign exchange reserves at the end of 2021. Nearly all of them run large and persistent current account surpluses.

Take China, whose $2.1 trillion cumulative surpluses over a 11-year period have helped build a $3.4 trillion official reserve chest. Or Germany, whose current account surpluses totaling about $3.1 trillion over 2011-21 have been mostly exported as capital rather than getting accumulated as reserve.

Marburg virus (Page no. 11)

(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)

Ghana announced the country’s first outbreak of Marburg virus disease after two people who were not related died June 27 and 28.

Word of a new outbreak of a lethal disease caused by viral infections added to the concerns of a public weary from battling the coronavirus pandemic and recently alarmed by the spread of monkeypox and a new case of polio.

Doctors and public health experts in the country immediately started searching for anyone who had been exposed and investigating the cause of the spread in an effort to contain infection.

For now, health researchers in Ghana and in other parts of the world said that there was no indication that the virus had spread further.

Marburg was first detected in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and in Belgrade, in what is now Serbia — in cases that were linked to African green monkeys imported from Uganda.

Other cases have since been found in Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, according to the World Health Organization. Last month’s cases in Ghana were the first recorded in that country.

There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments for the disease, medical experts said, but hydrating patients and treating their specific symptoms can improve their chances of survival.

The disease is clinically similar to Ebola in its spread, symptoms and progression, although it is caused by a different virus, according to WHO.

In Marburg’s case, fruit bats are considered to be the hosts of the virus, although researchers say it does not cause them illness.

Researchers believe that Ebola is likely carried by bats or by nonhuman primates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even though it has not spread widely, Marburg has been deadly, with case fatality rates ranging from 24% to 88%, depending on which strain people contract and the management of cases, according to WHO. Ebola case fatality rates are nearly the same.

Inside the minds of bees, and what we can learn from their intelligence (Page no. 11)

(GS Paper 3, Environment)

How intelligent are various life forms compared to humans? Studies over the years have revealed a surprising depth of intelligence in several life forms and have questioned the unipolar definitions of intelligence, with Homo sapiens placed at the top. Elephants, it was found, can remember and revere their deceased, rats were trained to detect explosives in war zones, and dolphins are capable of mimicking human names.

In a recent addition to research on animal intelligence and consciousness, Lars Chittka, a professor of sensory and behavioural ecology at Queen Mary University of London, finds in his latest book – The Mind of the Bee — that bees possess not only a remarkable level of cognitive intelligence, but also a high degree sentience or “consciousness”, which make them thinking and feeling beings.

Consciousness has been understood as a concept different from ordinary brain-intelligence (which commonly is known to include the cognitive ability of thinking and reasoning).

It includes the ability to be “sentient” and experience feelings and emotions. The ambit and nuance of “consciousness”, especially human consciousness, has been the subject matter of debate in philosophy and neuroscience.

It is thought to encapsulate a sophistical level of self-awareness and imagination — feelings and emotions that allow us to perceive ourselves, while simultaneously interacting with the world around us.

The nature of animal consciousness is far more difficult to assess as humans are fundamentally unable to understand the minds of animals and live the world through their eyes.

However, through decades of research — such as by zoologist Donald Griffin (The Question of Animal Awareness, 1976) — it is now accepted that animals too possess some form of consciousness.

In 2012, a group of neuroscientists signed the ‘Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness’, which affirmed evidence of consciousness within the animal kingdom and the ability of several species to “feel” and acutely perceive their sensations.