•-

+
S
T
A
R
T
 Neighbourhood first?
• “FIRSTS” in his visit
• Mr. Modi’s first visit to the Maldives, the only country
in South Asia he had not yet visited in his tenure, and
the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 7 years.
• First time Mr. Modi attended the swearing-in
ceremony of any other leader.
Russia
•Sochi Retreat • The fact that he did, and chose to be one among the
audience rather than on stage, may be a more visible
China
sign of a new, softer neighbourhood policy than the
•Wuhan Summit
one Mr. Modi’s government has pursued in previous
years.

• Nepal: ‘tough love’ policy and 2015 blockade

• 2018: Mr. Oli was re-elected
• Despite his anti-India campaign, the Modi government
wasted no time in reaching out
• Mr. Modi has made two visits to Nepal, with a
third one planned in December to be part of
the “Vivaha Panchami” festival.

• Maldives: when emergency was declared, New

Delhi made no attempt to threaten.
• Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka: India has
chosen to make no public political statement
that could be construed as interference or
preference for one side over the other.

• Moscow conference on Afghanistan

• 2 Union Ministers to Pakistan this week to join

Prime Minister Imran Khan for the ground-
breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur corridor
•-
 Together in an uncertain world
• Last week saw the European Union releasing its
strategy on India after 14 years.
• Tomasz Kozlowski: “India is on the top of the agenda
of the EU in the field of external relations… this
Afghanistan
strategy paper reflects that EU has taken India’s
Central Asia priorities very seriously. We are ready for a joint
leap.”
Terrorism
• The 2004 EU-India declaration on building bilateral
Radicalisation strategic partnership, which this road map replaces,
has not had much of a success in reconfiguring the
Extremism relationship as was expected.
Terrorist financing • A recognition of the need to develop defence and
security cooperation with India.
• Last few years: India’s relations with individual EU
nations has improved quite well, EU’s focus on India
has grown, so now both cannot afford to look away
from each other.
• -
• EU emerged as India’s largest trading partner
and biggest foreign investor
• There is widespread disappointment with the
trajectory of China’s evolution and the Trump
administration’s disdain for its Western allies
is highly disruptive
• EU will be part of the International Solar
Alliance, and has invited India to escort World
Food Programme vessels to transport food to
Somalia.
• The two have been coordinating closely on
regional issues.
• India needs resources and expertise from the
EU for its various priority areas, such as
cybersecurity, urbanisation, environmental
regeneration, and skill development.
 The death debate
• Bachan Singh (1980): upholding the validity of the
death penalty and laying down guidelines for awarding
death in ‘the rarest of rare’ cases’, still holds the
field.
• It is impossible to ignore the ethical and practical
dimensions of the debate in a world that is
increasingly questioning the wisdom of capital
punishment.
• Justice Joseph has underscored the arbitrary manner
in which it is awarded by different judges and the
way public discourse influences such decisions.
• Law Commission Report, 2015: constitutional
regulation of capital punishment attempted has failed
to prevent death sentences from being “arbitrarily
and freakishly imposed.
• There is a conflict between those who sense
the danger of inconsistent application and
those who believe in condign justice.

• This conflict can be resolved only if the debate

is taken to a higher plane: a moral position
that there shall be no death penalty in law,
regardless of the nature, circumstances and
consequences of an offence.

• Post-appeal reviews and curative petitions are

routinely admitted. Review petitions are now
heard in open court.

• The views of the Law Commission and Justice

Joseph should not be ignored.
 Wage drag
• International Labour Organisation: Global Wage Report
• Global wage growth, adjusted for inflation, slowed to
1.8% in 2017, from 2.4% in 2016, it shows. Worryingly,
this is the lowest rate since 2008.
• In the advanced G20 countries the pace eased to 0.4%,
with the U.S. posting an unchanged 0.7% growth and Europe
(excluding Eastern Europe) stalling at about zero.
• The emerging and developing economies in the G20 were
not spared a deceleration, with the growth in wages
slowing to 4.3%, from 4.9% in 2016.
• The ILO report observes that the acceleration of economic
growth in high-income countries in 2017 was led mainly by
higher investment spending rather than by private
consumption.
• For India’s policymakers, the message is clear: to reap the
demographic dividend we need not only jobs, but wage
expansion that is robust and equitable.
-
 Important News
• Manipur: SC rejects Army officers’ plea
• A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U.
Lalit dismissed a petition by 355 Army
officers, serving in insurgency-hit areas such
as Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern
region, against the court’s decision to order a
CBI probe into the encounter deaths in
Manipur between 2000 and 2012.
• Growth slows to 7.1% on oil, rupee
• Second-quarter GDP growth slowed to 7.1%,
from 8.2% in the preceding three-month
period, official estimates released on Friday
show. Gross Value Added (GVA) growth eased
to 6.9% in July-September, from 8%.
• Economists said while the slowdown was
anticipated, given that oil prices had been
high and the rupee had weakened against the
dollar during the quarter, the actual numbers
had surprised on the downside.
• Coalgate: former Coal Secretary convicted
• A Delhi court on Friday convicted former Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta in a
corruption case relating to allotment of coal blocks in West Bengal
during the previous UPA regime at the Centre.
• Five others, including one retired and another serving public servant —
K.S. Kropha and K.C. Samria — were held guilty of various offences
under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code, including
Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
• Pakistan FM scored self-goal with ‘googly’ remark, says New
Delhi
• ‘Army not ready for women in combat roles’
• Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Friday that while the force
would take in increasing numbers of woman officers in the coming
years, it wasn’t ready yet to cast them in combat roles.
• ‘Gujarat officers get all key posts’
• ‘Fake news affects voting behaviour in a big way’
• Modi meets Trump, Putin ahead of G20 summit
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday interacted with U.S. President
Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime
Minister Theresa May ahead of the G-20 summit .
• The brief exchange of views took place before the first trilateral
meeting between Mr. Modi, Mr. Trump and Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe scheduled for later in the day.
• Mr. Modi assured Mr. Guterres, that India will play its “due and
responsible” role at the crucial climate change negotiations in Poland
next week.
• Paris Agreement can’t be renegotiated: India
• India will resist attempts by countries to renegotiate the Paris
Agreement, said one of India’s key negotiators at climate talks set to
begin next week in Katowice, Poland.
• “India won’t create obstacles…however, we want that the Conference
of Parties-24 (discussions) be balanced, inclusive and consistent with
the Paris Agreement,” said C.K. Mishra, Secretary, Union Minister for
Environment, Forests and Climate Change. “Some countries are trying
to reopen the Paris Agreement.”
•-
-
 Vocabulary
• Genial

• Avuncular

• Backlash

• Dissuading

• Rapprochement

• Congruence
Pic/Map based answer
Map based quiz
 Answers-
Consider the following statements about National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)
1. It is a statutory body.
2. Any person who is a citizen of India is eligible for getting free legal services.
3. It organizes Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.
4. The functions of NALSA include spreading legal literacy and awareness and undertaking social justice litigations.

Select the correct answer using the codes below

A. 1 and 3
B. 1,2 and 3
C. 1,3 and 4
D. All of the above

• The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services
Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society.
• It organizes Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.
• Public awareness, equal opportunity and deliverable justice are the cornerstones on which the edifice
of NALSA is based. Apart from this, functions of NALSA include spreading legal literacy and awareness,
undertaking social justice litigations etc.
• Persons whose annual income does not exceed Rs. 1 lakh are eligible for getting free legal services.
 Questions-
Which one of the following is a good link between the
Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats?
A. Nallamala Forest
B. Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve
C. Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve
D. Nagarhole National Park
Which of the following is a salt lake?
A. Loktak Lake
B. Nainital Lake
C. Chilika Lake
D. Kolleru Lake
 Download PDF

https://www.facebook.com/PrashantTMavani

https://twitter.com/PrashantMavani
 Subscribe
.

Hit: Notification Bell

J
A
Like
I

H Comment
I
N Download PDF notes of this lecture from my FB page or Twitter or our Telegram Channel
D Do you know?
Nalanda = Na+alam+Daa, meaning “no stopping of the gift of knowledge”
So do gift share this lecture with your loved ones. Thanks