Swarajya: Recent Episodes
Swarajya
A big tent platform for liberal right of centre discourse that reaches out, engages and caters to the new India. In 1956, journalist Khasa Subba Rau with the patronage of C Rajagoplachari “Rajaji”, India’s last Governor-General, freedom fighter and statesman hailed by Mahatma Gandhi as his “conscience keeper”, launched a weekly magazine called Swarajya. Swarajya was intended to convey the founders’ quest to translate the joy of freedom not only from foreign rule, but full freedom as defined and promised by the preamble of our constitution.
Jason Miller is an American communications strategist, political adviser and CEO, best known as the chief spokesman for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign and transition of Donald Trump. He was a Senior Adviser to the Trump 2020 re-election campaign. Miller was formerly a partner and executive vice-president at Jamestown Associates.
Last Tuesday, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav sealed an alliance with Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), a former BJP ally. In the 2017 Assembly polls, out of the 325 seats in the 403-member House won by the BJP and its allies, the SBSP had won four after contesting in eight. Then BJP chief Amit Shah had held a rally with Rajbhar in Mau in the run-up to the 2017 polls, something that Akhilesh Yadav did on Tuesday.
The Rajbhar community accounts for an estimated 3-4 per cent of UP’s population. This may be a small proportion, but the fact that the community is concentrated in eastern UP — which means a higher proportion of the population in that region — gives it the potential to sway several seats in the upcoming elections. Besides, the SBSP’s support base is not restricted just to the Rajbhar community, but also extends to other Most Backward Classes (MBCs) such as Chauhan, Pal, Prajapati, Vishwakarma, Bhar, Mallah, and Vishwakarma.
Out of 90 seats in eastern UP’s 18 districts, there are around 25-30 constituencies where Rajbhars are high in number, including up to 1 lakh in some of them. In its near-sweep of the state, the BJP gained significantly in eastern UP, growing from 14 seats in 2012 to 72 in 2017, while the SP slipped from 52 to 9.
The SBSP itself claims that its influence spreads wider, covering 150 seats, and that the alliance helped the NDA win 146 of these seats. The SP has already forged an alliance with the Mahan Dal Party, which is another party that addresses the Backward Classes, and is headed by Keshav Dev Maurya.
Since the announcement about Covaxin data submission by Bharat Biotech for the approval from World Health Organization (WHO), reports have been emerging, predicting the date for the final decision on the Indian Covid -19 vaccine.
According to WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, the agency’s technical advisory group will meet on 26 October to consider granting Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to the vaccine.
Many people in India are keeping an eye on it because their travel plans are dependent on the WHO's EUL for the vaccine. Young people who have taken Covaxin and want to study abroad are hoping for approval from the UN agency, as numerous nations, notably the United States, have declared they will recognise vaccines approved by the global health body.
Despite the fact that various public health organisations have spoken out against requiring vaccination as a condition of travel, the practice continues in a number of nations, including in Europe.
Earlier this week, the WHO said on Twitter that it understands that many people are waiting for its recommendation on whether Bharat Biotech's Covid vaccine Covaxin should be added to the EUL, but it can't rush it, adding that it needs more evidence from the Hyderabad-based vaccine maker.
Yesterday (21 October), India crossed the remarkable milestone of 100 crore Covid-19 vaccinations. What makes this achievement especially impressive is that it was achieved in only nine months of the start of the drive. This is a testament to the state capacity of India and proves once again how efficient it can be when it sets its eyes on executing a particular project.
As we celebrate this stupendous accomplishment, there are four things that need to be realised. First, while one has to appreciate the Narendra Modi-led government for delivering on the execution front and especially the brilliant way it used technology and developed the CoWin platform, the man who deserves overwhelming credit for the vaccine century, is Adar Poonawalla whose Serum Institute of India (SII) is responsible for around 88 per cent of total doses administered in the country so far.
Second, the low figure of fully vaccinated people shouldn’t worry us as of now. Third, the biggest signal of vaccination drive reaching its end is the slowing pace of daily vaccinations. That’s what is happening in India as well.
Fourth, estimating that 65 crore people can be fully vaccinated (at max) by this year’s end and Dose 1 coverage reaches 75 crore (80 per cent of total adult population), this means that we will be needing around 40 crore doses until new year (on the higher side). With monthly capacity already at 25 crore and around 11 crore doses still in stock with the states, it gives India enough space to indulge in smart vaccine diplomacy and also allow Serum to meet its prior international commitments. We can hope to export 20-25 crore doses by this year’s end. With a total export of 30 crore doses (including 6.5 crore doses supplied earlier), image of India as the biggest force for good during the Covid-19 pandemic would be burnished.
In recent years, probably the most talked-about promising technology is 'blockchain', which has primarily been linked to cryptocurrencies. But this technology has the potential to revolutionise a variety of industries, including finance and trade.
On 15 October, the Finance Ministry's Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) began a prototype Electronic Cargo Tracking System(ECTS) initiative based on blockchain technology. The initiative seeks to achieve secure container documentation and GPS-based tracking.
According to a recent tweet from Prasar Bharati News Services (PBNS), CBIC India “explores new frontiers for promoting #DigitalIndia by adopting blockchain for tracking movement of containers to a bonded warehouse”. This warehouse is located in Delhi Customs' Inland Container Depot or ICD Tughlakabad Import Commissionerate.
It was reported that the Finance Ministry has cooperated with the Asian Development Bank for this initiative. The International Chamber of Commerce's 2020 Global Trade Survey found that the Covid-19 pandemic caused lockdowns and working from home are hastening the migration to digital commerce solutions, such as Blockchain.
It noted that 44 per cent of surveyed banks said that as they aim to assure future growth, technologies like Blockchain, digital trade, and online trading platforms are important areas of development and strategic focus in the near term. More than half of those polled agreed that a growing number of document types used in trade might be digital.
The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 100-crore milestone on Thursday and the economic recovery is expected.
In the last seven years, the comprehensive entrepreneurial environment of India has gained tremendous support from its ruling government. Policy initiatives of the Narendra Modi government like Make In India, Skill Development India, MUDRA Bank, Digital India, Startup India, and now ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ are a few of the vital determinants of the upgradation of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.
In the recent past, the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, also known as the growth engine of the Indian economy, has witnessed three macroeconomic events concerning its operation and survival. Demonetisation, goods and services tax (GST) implementation, and the black swan Covid-19 pandemic.
India’s MSME sector is on the verge of attaining the pre-Covid levels, but several sectors continue to struggle, especially the ones pertaining to the clientele studying in schools, colleges, or working in offices. The precious metal sector is also reeling under the threat of an imminent third wave, thus denting the festive spending.
Many in India have been trying to falsely portray the latest horrific attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh as “isolated incidents” that are aberrations and not reflective of the ‘secular and syncretic’ culture of Bangladesh. But they are wrong, and grossly so.
The attacks this time (they started Wednesday last week and are continuing) are part of the Hindu genocide that commenced exactly 75 years ago in Noakhali where hundreds of Hindus were killed, countless womenfolk raped and forcibly converted to Islam, and Hindus displaced from their properties.
Since 1946, Hindus in Bangladesh have been attacked, maimed and killed, Hindu women (including minor girls) raped, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to old men or sold to brothels, millions of acres of land belonging to Hindus have been forcibly taken over and tens of thousands of Hindus have been evicted from their homes and denied livelihood.
That is why millions of Hindus have migrated to India since 1947. Had the continuing attacks on them been ‘isolated incidents’ and ‘aberrations’, millions of Hindus would not have fled their homes and heath and abandoned whatever little they possessed across the border to migrate to India and become ‘stateless citizens’ here over the last 75 years.
The widespread and well-coordinated attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh could not have happened without the complicity of ruling Awami League functionaries and leaders.
And it was primarily because of the involvement of members of the ruling party that the police remained mute bystanders when Islamist mobs assaulted and killed Hindus, molested and raped Hindu women and girls, destroyed Durga Puja pandals, attacked, looted and desecrated mandirs and targeted Hindu homes and businesses.
Top office bearers of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, the apex body of minority bodies in that country, told Swarajya over the phone from Dhaka, Chittagong and other parts of the country that the involvement of members and leaders of the ruling Awami League, as well as the radical Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, is very apparent.
Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari, the general secretary of the ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness) in Bangladesh, has gone on record alleging that “some activists” of the Awami League were closely involved in the attacks on mandirs and Hindu religious institutions. He urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take strong action against her own party men involved in attacks on Hindus.
An ISKCON mandir was attacked and desecrated in Noakhali district of Bangladesh, and two members of the order were brutally killed on Friday (15 October). Brahmachari warned that the order would not “sit and idly watch” attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.
While Centre has capped paddy (non-basmati) procurement quantity from Punjab at 170 lakh tonnes on MSP rates, the state is pushing for a revised estimate of 190 lakh tonnes. Experts, however, claim that even this figure will not serve the purpose. They want the state to work out an estimate based on sown varieties and not loosely on the basis of few prevalent varieties.
Around 32 per cent area of paddy in Punjab is under long duration varieties which give nearly 85 to 100 mann (34 to 40 quintals) yield per acre. Around 68 per cent area is under seven short duration varieties — PR-121, PR-126, PR-114, PR-112, PR -124 and PR-129, PR-127 — which take 123 days to 143 days including the nursery period.
According to the Punjab Agriculture Department, 26.05 lakh hectares (LH) is under paddy this year and by this calculation Punjab has around 8.34 LH under long duration and 17.72 LH under short duration. If the average yield of PAU’s surveys is considered, then average yield of long varieties and short varieties should be around 67.52 lakh tonnes and 132.85 lakh tonnes, respectively, and the total of which comes out to be 200.38 lakh tonnes which is around 10 lakh tonnes above the government’s revised target (190 lakh tonnes).
Vice Chairman, Punjab Mandi Board (PMB), Vijay Kalra, said that their capping will create unrest among farmers. Every variety, he added, has its own potential yield and capping per acre yield will create lot of confusion.
Until a few days ago, the discussion around Kashmir was restricted to the huge influx of tourists this year, investment proposals and other detailed project reports pertaining to the development in the valley, infrastructure projects and connectivity, and ideas around governance to further economic development and social integration of the valley with the other parts of India.
However, the recent killing spree, aided by several terrorist groups, especially ‘The Resistance Front’ along with Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have shifted the discussion away from the development prospects to the underlying violence within the valley.
In Srinagar, a renowned local pharmacist and a street vendor from Bihar were targeted. Less than a week ago, two teachers were gunned down. They were first asked to step apart from their Muslim colleagues and then shot. Three Muslims were also killed in separate incidents, one of them being the president of a local traders’ body.
Even if we discount the religion factor for the sake of argument, given that even Muslims were killed by these terrorist groups, two questions arise. One, is this the end to the peace process that was ushered in the valley after the revocation of Article 370 and furthered by the buffer offered by the pandemic, and two, is this about eradicating certain religious communities from Kashmir completely or more?
As per the NFHS-4 (2015-16), in India, 27 per cent of women aged 20-24 years got married before attaining the legal minimum age of 18. For Rajasthan, the number stood at 35 per cent.
The state assembly passed the Rajasthan Compulsory Registration of Marriages (Amendment) Bill, 2021 by voice vote to amend the Rajasthan Compulsory Registration of Marriages Act 2009.
There is not much difference between the both. The 2009 act had stated the same, with the only difference being that the age mentioned was 21 years for both boys and girls.
The Rajasthan government has decided to recall the recently passed marriage registration bill to re-examine it, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday, citing concerns that its provisions will encourage child marriages.
Gehlot said that the state government will urge the governor to return the bill for legal consultations. "There has been a controversy in the country that this law will encourage child marriage. We decided that it was not a question of our prestige. We will request the governor to return the bill we have passed," Gehlot said addressing a programme on International Girl Child Day.
"I want to assure you that I will not compromise on that. We will get it re-examined and if we consider it necessary then we will take it forward or else we will not take it forward. We have no problem," the chief minister said.
India and China held the 13th Corps Commander-level talks on the Ladakh standoff on October 10. The meeting, which started at 10:30 am, lasted for around eight-and-half hours, and concluded at 7 pm.
The 13th round of military talks was held in Moldo on the Chinese side of the LAC in eastern Ladakh. The Indian delegation was led by Lt Gen PGK Menon, the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps.
The two sides discussed disengagement from the Hot Springs area in eastern Ladakh, Indian Army sources said. The talks took place in the backdrop of two recent incidents of attempted transgressions by the Chinese troops - one in the Barahoti sector of Uttarakhand and another in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh.
Last week, Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a brief face-off near Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh. It was resolved within few hours following talks between commanders of the two sides as per established protocols, people familiar with the development said on Friday. Similarly, in August, close to 100 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) had transgressed the LAC in the Barahoti sector.
Last month, a 64-year-old cleric Maulana Kalim Siddiqui was arrested by Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorism squad (ATS) with accusations of illegal religious conversions, creating enmity, misuse of foreign funds and women trafficking.
Siddiqui is widely popular among the Muslim population of India as well as neighbouring countries as a religious preacher. Since his arrest, Islamic institutions across the country, including Aligarh Muslim University, have been staging street protests, demanding his immediate release.
In a press note, the ATS described Siddiqui as “Khalifa of Ali Mian in Dawah activities”, that is, kingpin of conversion rackets in India. The note says he has converted more than five lakh non-Muslims to Islam, mostly in Haryana’s (notorious) Mewat.
Siddiqui is the most prominent of all arrests made so far by Uttar Pradesh ATS in its ongoing crackdown on Islamic conversion groups in the state. Before him, Mohammed Umar Gautam, Mohammed Jehangir, Abu Bakar and Adam alias Prasad Kanwre, among several others, have been booked and jailed.
A native of Muzaffarnagar district in UP, Kalim Siddiqui has been accused by the anti-terrorism agency of carrying out mass conversions in the guise of social welfare work. The agency has said that Siddiqui uses the various trusts and non-government organisations run by him for his Dawah activities.
These include Shah Walliullah Trust (Delhi), Global Peace Centre and Peace Mission (Mustafabad, Delhi), Madrassa Sabeel-us-Salam (Shaheen Bagh, Delhi), Dawat-e-Islam Trust (Mewat, Haryana) and World Peace Organisation (Delhi). Of these, Dawat-e-Islam Trust in Mewat is said to have converted most people.
Millennia have passed since the dharma yudhha of the cousins shook the land of Bharata. But this history of our ancestors continues to fascinate us. Even today, we have passionate discussions about the people and their actions in the epic, fervidly defending our favourites and denouncing others.
The number of works on the Mahabharata-adaptations, retellings and fiction-that still get written is a testimony to its enduring relevance. While the general storyline is largely known, a lot of questions and myths prevail, such as-What was the geographical extent of the war? Did Drona actually refuse to take on Karna as his disciple?
What were Draupadi's responsibilities as the queen of Indraprastha? Did she ever mock Duryodhana? Were the women in the time of the Mahabharata meek and submissive? What were the names of the war formations during the time? What role did the sons of the Pandavas play? Does the south of India feature at all in the Mahabharata?
What happened after the war? These and many other intriguing questions continue to mystify the contemporary reader. Author Ami Ganatra debunks myths, quashes popular notions and offers insights into such aspects not commonly known or erroneously known, based solely on facts as narrated in Vyasa's Mahabharata from generally accepted authentic sources.
For a history of such prominence and influence as the Mahabharata, it is important to get the story right. So pick this book up, sit back and unveil the lesser-known facts and truths about the great epic.
With a global gas shortage, Britain is facing an energy crisis. Several gas companies have gone bankrupt with the rapid increase in gas prices. These companies have also asked the UK government for aid, but so far no action has been taken.
The regulator, Ofgem, sets caps for energy prices for consumers and reviews it twice each year. Though bills were set to increase for UK households from October 1 after Ofgem’s most recent price increase, the rapid increase in prices left many small players in the lurch.
Larger players are usually locked in long-term supply contracts, while smaller firms buy directly through the wholesale markets. Smaller suppliers can command higher margins by undercutting their larger rivals when prices in the wholesale markets are lower.
When wholesale market prices increase, as they did recently, the smaller firms face a margin squeeze. Closure of Britain’s gas storage facilities has further exacerbated the problem.
But, the crisis also points towards a greater problem — UK’s dependence on gas-based power. The UK government has been focusing on increasing the share of renewable power, and has scaled back coal.
Thermal plants now contribute to around 2 per cent of the UK’s total power requirement. UK is also reliant on renewable energy with 25 per cent of its power requirements coming from renewable sources.
However, abnormally low wind speeds have resulted in lower wind energy production. Wind energy contributes to around 18 per cent of the country’s power.
Scientists at Stanford University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill have developed a new technology that has the potential to revolutionise vaccine administration. The scientists have created a 3D printed vaccine patch that is as small as the tip of the finger and claimed to have the ability to provide "greater protection" than a traditional vaccine shot.
The vaccine patch includes microneedles which are just long enough to adhere to the skin and then targets immune cells directly. As said in the UNC's website, "The resulting immune response from the vaccine patch was 10 times greater than a vaccine delivered into an arm muscle with a needle jab, according to a study conducted in animals and published by the team of scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
This patch is also painless, self-administrable and does not require to be kept in the freezer. According to the developers, all of these benefits should make the vaccines more efficient and easier to deploy around the world.
The coronavirus pandemic has served as a harsh reminder of the impact that timely immunisation can have. A vaccination, on the other hand, usually necessitates a trip to a clinic or hospital. Healthcare workers are assigned to store and administer the jabs.
Although it appears to be a straightforward operation, there are a number of obstacles that can obstruct mass vaccination, ranging from the required cold storage to the necessity for qualified experts to administer the shots—we have seen the shortage of healthcare professionals during the pandemic.
Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah attended the 'National Cooperative Conference' held in New Delhi as the Chief Guest. Shah said that the vision of welfare of the poor and Antyodaya cannot happen without cooperatives.
"We will strengthen the PACS as 65,000 PACS is a small number for six lakh villages and a target will be set to have PACS in every second village within the next 5 years and to increase this number from 65,000 to 3 lakhs, the Ministry of Cooperation will prepare a proper legal roadmap.", Shah said.
Shah said that it will be ensured that all PACS are computerized in which the Government of India is also going to contribute in a big way. Such a software will also be made which will connect PACS, DCB and NABARD. The Ministry of Cooperation is also working on what can be done to convert PACS into FPO.
If farm incomes have to improve in India, it is important to understand the business of farming. This entails a holistic look at the entire process, from the farmer buying inputs for cultivation to selling his produce. Any such analysis requires information on farm balance sheets.
The latest Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (SAS) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) gives this information from July 2018 to June 2019. SAS is the most comprehensive document on farm incomes in India.
The Indian Army has finally placed an order for 118 improved Arjun Main Battle Tanks or MBTs, called Arjun Mark-1A. The tanks, which will cost the Army Rs 7,523 crore, will come with 72 improvements — 14 major and 58 minor — over the current version.
Developed by the DRDO's Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) in the 1980s and the 90s, and built by the Ordnance Factory Board's Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) in Tamil Nadu's Avadi, the induction of the Arjun MBT into the Indian Army began only in 2005.
Between 2005 and 2010, two regiments of Arjun Mark-1 were inducted for the desert sector along the border with Pakistan in Rajasthan. In a competitive trial organised by the Indian Army in 2010, the Arjun MBT outperformed the Russian-origin T-90, which is in service in large numbers, on every crucial parameter, whether driving across rugged sand-dunes or engaging targets and accurately hitting target.
Yet, no more orders for the Arjun MBT followed, even as the Army inducted hundreds of T-90s. The Indian Army currently operates two regiments of 124 Arjun Mark-1s in the desert sector along the border with Pakistan in Rajasthan.
Some of the improvements in the new version include upgraded firepower, new transmission systems, an improved gunner's main sight, integrated with automatic target tracking and day-and-night stabilised sights to enable the tank to engage targets accurately and even when it is on the move. In February this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had handed over the first Arjun Mark-1A to Army chief General MM Naravane in Chennai.
One of China’s main engines for growth has been its property sector. The rapid urbanisation allowed developers to build houses and sell them at a rapid pace. Today, the sector contributes to 30 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Raising debt to finance these projects was not a concern as the government, which controlled the banks, was ready to funnel money into the sector.
However, smaller cities have seen a slowdown in growth, even oversupply, as millions of homes lie vacant — the infamous ‘ghost cities’ of China. The rapid debt-fuelled party in the property sector has lasted for more than two decades despite facing years of criticism.
The total credit shelled out to non-financial companies in China has formed 160 per cent of the country’s GDP as of September 2020. This is almost twice that of American corporations, whose debt to GDP value has lingered around 60 per cent to 80 per cent.
The highly leveraged nature of the economy makes it quite fragile. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has realised its folly and is now trying to rein in the boom. In order to make the economy more resilient, the CCP embarked on a project to curb heavy borrowing in the sector.
The ‘three red lines’ referred to conditions placed on property developers to rein in their credit, and stop the economy’s heavy dependence on infrastructure and real estate. The three conditions included a limit on net debt to equity, liabilities to assets and cash to short term debt.
Depending on the company’s metrics in relation to each of these conditions, banks would decide the incremental amount of debt. Any company that failed on all metrics would not be issued more debt.
The Evergrande Group had failed on all of these metrics, according to the figures in the financial reports released by the company for its Cayman Islands investors. The failure to meet the financial standards, prompted the company to sell stakes in group companies and get them listed on the exchanges.
Amit Bagaria is the author of 14 books and discusses them in this episode of Swarajya Conversations. However, the discussion is mainly focused on Congress-Mukt Bharat, whose Hindi edition has been released recently. This book presents a history of Indian National Congress.
The first three chapters of this easy-to-read book are about Congress party’s corruption. The next three analyse the 2019 elections in great detail. Then comes a chapter about the Left Front and one on the performance of Congress in each state since Sonia became the party president. T
he next eight chapters are about Modi, his successes, his failures, and the work he has done in 80 months. The longest chapter, divided into 14 sections, details the successes and failures of India’s 14 prime ministers.
Next comes an analysis on the Modi 2.0 ministry and the author’s pick of who should be in charge of each ministry. “Is Congress Becoming Anti-India” and “Congress-Mukt Bharat” are the final two chapters. The Appendix lays out ‘Agenda 2024’ for India.
To put things in the most simple of perspectives, this Account Aggregator (AA) framework is to credit what UPI has become to money transfers.
The aggregators, which will be licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will be critical in bridging the credit gap between financial lenders and millions of borrowers in India with limited or lack of credit history. They will be structured as non-banking financial companies.
The framework had been in deliberation since 2016, and now, as it is finally underway, eight banks, that is the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IDFC First Bank, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Federal Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank have already signed up for the framework. However, these are only the early adopters, and many more will be joining the bandwagon soon.
So, where does the account aggregator come in when it comes to ease of credit for urban borrowers or expansion of credit when it comes to borrowers in rural India, an untapped market with infinite economic potential.
Last Wednesday (15 September), Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom announced a new trilateral security partnership — known by the acronym AUKUS — to work together in the Indo-Pacific region.
The pact is aimed at the Chinese threat in the Indo-Pacific, which has grown dramatically in recent years, and involves cooperation on emerging technologies, including defence-related artificial intelligence.
Among other things, the US and the UK will help Australia build a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy, for which the three countries will draw up a joint plan over the coming 18 months.
France has reacted to the announcement with outrage, saying the move was a “stab in the back” from Australia and the US. “We had established a trusting relationship with Australia, and this trust was betrayed," Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s Foreign Affairs Minister, has said.
The announcement of the Australia-US-UK pact has sparked concerns in some quarters in Delhi because India is not a member of the new group. But there is no good reason to believe that the pact, which is mostly aimed at arming Australia with SSNs, will replace the QUAD or reduce its utility in countering China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific.
Congress has opted for a self-destructive pursuit in Punjab. All the party had to do was wait for six-odd months, wait for the election campaign to begin, get Sidhu and Captain Amarinder Singh (CAS) together in what would have been an engineered yet imminent and indispensable power transition. The election was anyway in the Congress' bag, given the way the farmer protests had played out, and all they had to do was plead before the farmers in a few rallies, and the job would have been done.
Yet, Rahul Gandhi woke up and opted for chaos, to put it in the language of the meme universe. The Akalis, however, relatively are in a far better position than they were six months ago, for they could now, like the Congress, play the caste card, build upon the political debris of the Congress, and capture the Jat-Sikh vote that had been critical to their victories in 2007 and 2012.
The work on the 1380 kilometers-long Delhi-Mumbai expressway that will cut down the travelling time between the two key cities will be rounded up by March 2023.
Moreover, the first phase of this highway from Delhi-Jaipur (Dausa)-Lalsot along with Vadodra-Ankaleshwar will be opened up after six months in March 2022.
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari recently conducted a two-day comprehensive review meeting to assess the progress made in this ambitious infrastructure project.
The expressway is deemed to improve the connectivity to multiple economic hubs like Jaipur, Kota, Udaipur, Kishangarh, Chittorgarh, Vadodra, Indore, Bhopal, Surat and Ahmedabad.
Certain key features of this expressway are as follows:
Though the expressway is of eight lanes, it can be expanded to 12 lanes depending upon the prevalent volume of traffic.
About two million trees and shrubs are to be planted along the highway and it is the first Asian project that will have animal overpasses to ensure that there is undisturbed wildlife movement.
Two iconic eight-lane tunnels will be a part of this expressway.
Moreover, this project is estimated to have created about 50 lakh man days of employment. Several logistics parks, fuel stations, resorts, restaurants and several facilities will adorn the expressway on its both sides.
Importantly, helicopter ambulance service will be provided to accident victims in this highway. It will also have a heliport that the drone serices can make use of for their business purposes.
Union minister for road and transport Nitin Gadkari also stated earlier that Delhi-Mumbai Expressway would fetch toll revenue of up to Rs 1,500 crore every month.
Whether it’s utilities (Aadhaar, Bharat Billpay, Digilocker), healthcare (CoWin, Aarogya Setu, e-Sanjeevani), travel and transportation (FASTag, Parivahan/Passport Sewa), finance and banking (UPI, GSTN, IMPS, AEPS), Agriculture (e-NAM), procurement (GeM) or welfare (Umang, MyGov), the Union government (and even states governments like mKisan by Karnataka and GlobalLinker by Telangana) have proved that they have the wherewithal to create world-class tech digital public (or club) goods (FASTag is a club good where only those who pay can use it while CoWin is a public good).
These have been executed like standalone projects and without any systematic ecosystem within the government. Now, some might argue that these have been successful precisely because of this reason for permanent bureaucracy is the bane of good governance in India. Still, there is case to be made for a tech czar or a chief technology officer (CTO) operating out of the Prime Minister’s Office who can not only efficiently manage the ever increasing number of these digital public goods but also work towards creating new ones (and even closing down the ones that don’t work or modify the ones which have flaws).
It goes without saying that such a person will have to be given autonomy the level a typical CTO enjoys in corporate world for building teams for different projects and chucking out those with performance issues. In the government, there is a limit to what can be paid to the executives, so good talent needs to be attracted with non-monetary incentives which only the government can provide (say, a flat in Lutyens for the duration of their employment). To avoid, permanent bureaucracy, short term contracts may be a good idea. In short, corporatisation of at least this section of government will have to be mandatory for it to work.
The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on Tuesday signed 5 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for pilot projects with five private companies — CISCO, Ninjacart, Jio Platforms Limited, ITC Limited and NCDEX e-Markets Limited (NeML).
According to the Agriculture Ministry, Jio Platforms Limited will conduct its pilot project to provide advisories to farmers in two districts of Maharashtra– Jalna and Nasik. The ITC Limited has signed the MoU for building a “Customized ‘Site Specific Crop Advisory’ service.”
“The proposal will be implemented in identified villages of Sehore and Vidisha districts of Madhya Pradesh and support Wheat crop operations,” the Ministry said sharing the details about the MoU done with the ITC Limited.
According to the Ministry, Cisco will “conceptualize a Proof of Concept in effective knowledge sharing between farmers, administration, academia and industry” in two districts–Kaithal (Haryana) and Morena (Madhya Pradesh).
Under its MoU with the Ministry, the NCDEX e Markets Limited (NeML) will work on four services–Market Linkages, Aggregation of demand, Financial Linkages and Data Sanitization– across three Districts–Guntur (Andhra Pradesh), Devanagere (Karnataka) and Nasik (Maharashtra).
The statement said that Ninjacart will develop and host the Agri Marketplace Platform (AMP), which will enable bringing together all the participants in the post-harvest market linkage.
The Union government did issue advisories to Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland that border Myanmar to prevent entry of nationals from that country fleeing the crackdown by the military junta there. But Mizoram made it clear that it would not prevent the influx “on humanitarian grounds.”
The Union Home Ministry asked the three states not to provide any asylum to Myanmarese nationals and directed them to arrest illegal infiltrators from Myanmar and deport them. The states were reminded that they do not have the powers to offer asylum to foreigners and that India is not a signatory to 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1957 Protocol.
The Assam Rifles, which guards the India-Myanmar border, was also asked to step up vigil along the border and prevent entry of Myanmarese into India. But the border is unfenced and most areas are thickly forested, thus making it impossible to prevent the frequent breaches that occur.
Mizoram had also refused to abide by the directives of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on the grounds that the Mizos and the Chin are of the same ethnic stock and the state is “obliged on moral and humanitarian grounds” to offer refuge to nationals of Myanmar who are fleeing the military junta.
Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Zoramthanga wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that Mizoram would continue to provide refuge to the fleeing Myanmarese. Mizoram shares a 510-kilometre-long border with Myanmar, and more than 10,000 Myanmarese are said to have taken shelter in Mizoram.
The MHA’s directives against providing refuge to Myanmar nationals was met with widespread protests on the streets of capital Aizawl and other places in the state.