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Switching sides for the fifth time in just over a decade, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA less than18 months after he left the alliance, and took oath as the Bihar Chief Minister for the ninth time.
BJP leaders Samrat Choudhary and former Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, named as Deputy Chief Ministers, were among the ministers sworn in.
Six other ministers, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Santosh Kumar Suman, Independent Sumit Kumar Singh, BJP's Prem Kumar, and JD(U)'s Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Shravan Kumar, also took the oath.
Speaking to reporters after the swearing-in ceremony, Kumar said: “I have come back where I was earlier. Now, there is no question of going back.”
Earlier in the day, citing the reason for his decision, which is seen as a big setback for the Opposition INDIA bloc ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, he said “things were not going well”.
Govt & Politics
Centre clarifies de-reservation policy after uproar over UGC draft guidelines (Page no. 7)
(GS paper 2, Governance)
The Education Ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) clarified that centrally funded universities will not de-reserve any reserved faculty positions after an uproar over UGC’s draft guidelines suggesting the possibility of opening unfilled vacancies for SC, ST, OBC candidates to general candidates in “rare and exceptional cases”.
On December 27, the higher education regulator had shared draft guidelines on implementing the reservation policy in higher education institutions for public feedback by January 28.
This draft, prepared by a four-member committee headed by the director of the Institute of Public Administration, Dr H S Rana, had a chapter on de-reservation of unfilled quota posts meant for teachers, officers, and employees of a university.
The chapter stated that while there is a “general ban on de-reservation of reserved vacancies in case of direct recruitment”, in exceptional circumstances it can be done if the university can provide adequate justification for it.
Editorial
Shaastra and Shastra (Page no. 8)
(GS paper 2, International Relation)
The book The Allure of Battle (2017) by Cathal Nolan argues that while most military history explains winners and losers through decisive battles and strategic genius, what matters is endurance and technology.
India’s first National Security Strategy document is being written and will propose accelerating domestic defence production.
However, the ongoing Ukraine and Israel conflicts confirm Nolan’s thesis that Shaastra (knowledge) and Shastra (weapons) are siblings; the distinction between civilian and military technology erodes with drones, satellite internet, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and clean energy.
We make the case that the strategy must include the goal of 10 universities in the top 100 global university rankings by India@100.
India confronts changing geopolitics. America accelerated China’s global economic integration, but rural and manufacturing American workers without degrees should have shot down the Pakistan Air Force plane that secretly took Henry Kissinger to China for reconciliation talks in 1971.
But America has changed its mind; its National Security Advisor aims to hobble China’s capabilities by placing “foundational technologies behind a high fence”.
Ideas Page
City and its monuments (Page no. 9)
(GS paper 1, Culture)
Once upon a time, the city leaders in Ahmedabad constructed institutions for the public good. Today, they knock down great buildings to suit short-term interests such as land speculation and private profit.
Ahmedabad is home to architecture of universal value, both ancient and modern. Not just timeless creations of the past such as the Adalaj Stepwell (Vaghela Dynasty, 1498) and the exquisite Sidi Saiyyed Mosque (1573), but also a string of modern masterpieces, such as the Millowners’ Association Building, Shodan and Sarabhai Houses, and the Sanskar Kendra City Museum (1954), all designed by Le Corbusier in the early 1950s; the Indian Institute of Management by Louis Kahn (1963); the Gandhi Ashram Museum (1962) and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Cricket Pavilion by Charles Correa (1963); or the School of Architecture (1966), and Sangath studio (1980) by Balkrishna Doshi.
Economy
FPI disclosure norms: What are the concerns and why is sebi seeking investor data from FPI’s (Page no. 11)
(GS paper 3, Economy)
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), who are mandated to liquidate their holdings as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) January-end deadline, will get seven months more to provide additional disclosures.
In August last year, the markets regulator had asked FPIs, who were holding more than 50 per cent of their equity AUM in a single corporate group or with an overall holding in Indian equity markets of over Rs 25,000 crore, to disclose granular details of all entities holding any ownership, economic interest, or exercising control in the FPI. The norms were announced to prevent the possible round-tripping by certain promoters using the FPI route.
In its August circular, Sebi said certain FPIs have been observed to hold a concentrated portion of their equity portfolio in a single investee company/ corporate group.
Explained
Why Delhi HC reaffirmed the ban on Sapinda marriages (Page no. 12)
(GS paper 2, Judiciary)
Delhi High Court this week rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of Section 5(v) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA), which prohibits marriage between two Hindus if they are “sapindas” of each other — “unless the custom or usage governing each of them permits of a marriage between the two”.
In its order passed on January 22 on a petition filed by a woman who had been trying for long to have this section struck down, the court said that “If the choice of a partner in a marriage is left unregulated, incestuous relationship may gain legitimacy.”
A sapinda marriage is one between individuals who are related to each other within a certain degree of closeness. Sapinda relationships for the purposes of the HMA are defined in Section 3 of the Act.
Two persons are said to be sapindas of each other if one is a lineal ascendant of the other within the limits of sapinda relationship, or if they have a common lineal ascendant who is within the limits of sapinda relationship with reference to each of them.
Subsidies under Modi 2.0 (Page no. 12)
(GS paper 3, Economy)
From New Welfarism to a renewed emphasis on subsidies and transfers —this is pretty much what has changed between the first and second term of the Narendra Modi government.
The Modi 1.0 period (2014-15 to 2018-19) saw a plethora of schemes launched for ensuring universal access to housing, toilets, drinking water, bank accounts, electricity and cooking gas connections.
Even as public funding for these normally privately provided, yet essential, goods and services went up — what the Modi government’s former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian termed “new welfarism” (https://shorturl.at/bhxPV) — the Centre’s subsidy bill fell, both in absolute and relative terms.
Between 2013-14 (the last year of the previous United Progressive Alliance government) and 2018-19, the Centre’s spending on major subsidies — the 3 Fs of food, fertiliser and fuel — dropped from Rs 244,717 crore to Rs 196,769 crore.
Relative to GDP, it more than halved from nearly 2.2% to just over 1%. Even after adding outlays under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA, a UPA legacy scheme) and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan, introduced in the last year of Modi 1.0), the decline was from 2.5% to 1.4% of GDP.