Draft National Education Policy moots all-India entrance tests for UG courses in

public college’s #GS2 #Governance

Admission to undergraduate courses in all government-funded universities and colleges will soon be
through all-India entrance tests, if the draft National Education Policy is approved.

Private institutes will also be strongly encouraged to make use of the common admission tests, which
will be available from 2020. Both aptitude and subject knowledge-based tests will be offered.

The system seems to have some similarities to the SAT, a standardised aptitude test widely used for
admissions to colleges and universities in the United States. The SAT, however, is used as a criterion
alongside school grades.

In India, the common entrance test has largely been the domain of aspirants to professional or post-
graduate courses, but that is already changing.

The new National Testing Agency (NTA) has already conducted premier professional entrance tests —
JEE, NEET, and CMAT — this year. Later this month, the NTA will also conduct admission tests for
applicants to more than 170 Delhi University (DU) courses, including 12 undergraduate programmes.

These DU students could well be the pioneers of a new era in undergraduate admission if the draft
Policy is implemented.

“Admission to all undergraduate programmes of public HEIs [or Higher Education Institutions] will be
through a process of assessment through the NTA,” says the draft Policy. This seems to indicate that the
NTA assessment will replace Class 12 marks as the criteria for admission to these government funded
institutions.
This will help to eliminate the intensity, stressfulness, and wasted time of the Grade 12 examination
season faced by students every year as well as by so many higher educational institutions and
employers,” it adds.

The NTA testing system will offer flexibility. “[From] 2020 onwards, [the NTA] will administer aptitude
tests and tests in specific subjects that can be taken on multiple occasions during the year in order to
reduce the intense and unnecessary pressures of the university entrance examinations system,” adds
the draft Policy.

The NTA tests will aim to assess essential concepts, knowledge, and higher order skills from the
national common curriculum as per the NCF in each subject, for the purpose of aiding colleges and
universities in their admissions decisions.

Private institutions can set their own criteria, but “most educational institutions and many employers
will be encouraged to use these NTA tests”, according to the draft Policy.

The draft projects that the NTA will establish test centres across the country, offering tests in multiple
languages. The preferred mode of testing will be computer-based, though it is unclear if this means
multiple choice tests only.

Ultimately, NTA tests should be credible for admission not only to universities and colleges across India,
but other countries as well. The NTA’s vast assessment database could also be used for research and
policy making, adds the draft Policy.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/draft-national-education-policy-moots-all-india-entrance-
tests-for-ug-courses-in-public-colleges/article27690140.ece

Private agencies to handle PR work for Railways #Economy

In a major shift, the Railway Ministry has decided to hand over core public relations activities to
private agencies with more focus on social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter.

The largest employer of the Union Government will now hire professionals to devise communication
strategies to promote the image of the Railways and also in the management of passenger feedback and
public grievances.

In the existing system, Public Relations in the railways is managed by a CPRO at the zonal level who is
supported by Senior Public Relations Officers, Public Relations Inspectors and supporting staff at the
headquarters and divisional level.

Note to GMs

In a note to General Managers of zonal railways and production units, the Railway Board approved
hiring of agencies to lend professional expertise to the Public Relations department in disseminating
various initiatives of the railways, proactive perception analysis using analytical tools to improve
operations and service for passengers, management of customer feedback/passenger grievances
received though various social media platforms, sources in the Southern Railway said on Friday.

Communication strategy

One of the primary tasks of the PR agencies would be to formulate a result-oriented, comprehensive
communication strategy on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Quora, YouTube, LinkedIn and Medium and
other platforms that would be decided from time to time by the competent authority.

Based on the content provided by the respective Chief Public Relations Officers, the private agencies
would create promotional material such as creative crisp texts, images, GIFs, info graphics, animations
etc. in accordance with the social media guidelines.

They would aggregate the grievances received through various social media forums and pass them on
to the concerned railway officials for redress at the zonal level.

Open bidding

The sources said the private agencies chosen by the Zonal Railways through open bidding process would
analyse newspapers/magazines, websites and television channels as regards news relating to the
Railways.

A dedicated team of qualified analysts would be deployed to work in back-end offices to assist CPROs
in identifying issues/themes and “identifying influencers who are active in media.” The team would
comprise a team leader, social media manager, content analyst, content writers, and video editors
among others.

Interestingly, the agency would assist railway officials in gathering information and dissemination of the
same to media houses, creating responses effectively, briefing railway personnel on important matters
and creating background information on forthcoming events.

Content management

The outsourced work would include online storage and management of data and content and make
them available to railway officials when required.

The team would maintain a digital store in the form of an online portal and also mobile application
providing access to news and television coverage of railways.

Zonal Railways/Divisions/Production Units shall provide the private agency the required space,
electricity and furniture free of cost for its operations, the sources added.

In a related development, the Indian Railways notified that in order to meet the new scenario of
generation, processing and dissemination of information, it has approved the addition of a new chapter
on Social Media and Content Analysis in the Manual for Public Relations Department, 2007.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/private-agencies-to-handle-railway-pr-
work/article27690110.ece

NPP first from N-E to get national party status #GS2#Governance

The Election Commission of India declared the National People’s Party led by Meghalaya Chief
Minister Conrad K. Sangma as a national party.

This made the NPP, formed by his father and former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A. Sangma in 2013, the
first from the north-eastern region to earn the tag.

Four States

In its order, the ECI said that the NPP was given the national party status for fulfilling conditions such as
polling more than 6% of the total votes in the last general election and being recognised as a State party
in at least four States.

The NPP is recognised as a State party in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

The NPP is the single largest political family in Meghalaya with 21 MLAs in the 60-member House. Mr
Sangma heads the coalition government there.

The party has five MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh and four in Manipur. It had two MLAs in Nagaland until
they merged with the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party earlier this year.

Before NPP’s elevation, India had seven national parties. Trinamool Congress, led by West Bengal
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, became the seventh in September 2016.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kolkata/npp-first-from-n-e-to-get-national-party-
status/article27691816.ece

RBI relaxes stressed asset norms #GS3 #Economy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a new prudential framework for resolution of stressed assets,
effectively replacing its controversial 12 February 2018 circular with a mixed bag of norms applying to a
wider class of lenders.

Three major changes mark the new circular:

 The central bank has made it voluntary for lenders to take defaulters to the bankruptcy court;
 The framework now applies to a larger universe of lenders, which includes small banks and non-
banking finance companies (NBFCs); and
 Penal provisions have been introduced for lenders.
The new norms leave it to the discretion of lenders and give them 30 days to start working on a
resolution plan from the day of default. Earlier norms, struck down by the Supreme Court as too
general in nature, stipulated that even a one-day default must be reported and acted upon.

The so-called one-day default norms were not received well by the industry and a section of lenders.
After the norms came into force, power firms and associations from the power sector approached
various high courts across the country. The cases were then consolidated in the Supreme Court, which in
April 2018, quashed the 12 February circular.

The regulator made these provisions applicable to non-banks and small finance banks. This essentially
means that the lenders will also have to follow the early stress recognition guidelines of RBI.

These specify that borrowers must be categorized into special mention accounts based on their delay
in repayment. These categories are special mention account-0 (SMA-0) loans, where the repayment
overdue is between 1-30 days, SMA-1 (31-60 days) and SMA-2 (61-90 days).

The central bank said on Friday that lenders must put in place board-approved policies for resolution of
stressed assets, including the timelines for resolution. It said that it ideally expects lenders to initiate the
process of implementing a resolution plan (RP) even before a default.

Once a borrower is reported to be in default, lenders should start a review of the borrower account
within 30 days of the default.

During this review period of thirty days, lenders may decide on the resolution strategy, including the
nature of the RP, the approach for implementation of the RP," said RBI. The erstwhile guidelines had
called for corrective action as soon as there was a default.

While the review period for defaulters of ₹2,000 crore and above will start immediately, the review
period for defaulters between ₹1,500 crore and less than ₹2,000 crore will start only from 1 January
2020.

While the central bank has made it voluntary for lenders to use the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,
it has, at a same time, put in penal provisions for resolution plans that are not implemented. A lender
will have to set aside 20% more provisions if the plan is not implemented within 210 days from the
date of default and 35% if not implemented within 365 days of default.

The RBI circular is a mixed bag. The provisions on signing inter creditors agreement within 30 days of
default will be practically difficult. Also, the additional provisioning is not a strong deterrent as many
cases are already close to 100% provisioning. So the resolutions may get delayed.

On the positive side, provisioning will be frozen when the resolution plan under IBC is pending with
NCLT, hence, banks won’t be penalised for court delays. It will also give boost to interim finance market
as that would be treated as a standard asset."
Following the 12 February circular, several petitioners—including GMR Energy Ltd, Punjab-based textile
firm RattanIndia Power Ltd, Association of Power Producers (APP), Independent Power Producers
Association of India, Sugar Manufacturing Association from Tamil Nadu, and a shipbuilding association
from Gujarat—had intervened in the matter in different courts.

The Supreme Court had granted interim relief to stressed power firms, directing lenders to maintain a
status quo on the RBI circular for banks to resolve these cases within 180 days. The apex court directed
that all pleas filed by RBI relating to the February circular should be transferred to it.

Even though the revised framework does away with implementation of resolution plan for borrowers
overdue by up to 30 days, the overall framework is positive and will continue to incentivise banks for
accelerated resolution of stressed assets.

The RBI circular also mandated signing of inter-creditor agreement (ICA) by all lenders. “In cases where
RP is to be implemented, all lenders shall enter into an inter-creditor agreement during the review
period to provide for ground rules for finalization and implementation of the RP in respect of borrowers
with credit facilities from more than one lender," said the central bank.

The ICA, RBI said, will provide that any decision agreed upon by lenders representing by value 75% of
total outstanding credit facilities (fund based as well non-fund based) and 60% of lenders by number
shall be binding upon all the lenders.

https://www.livemint.com

SEBI, MCA sign pact for more data scrutiny #GS3 #Economy
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) signed a
memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate seamless sharing of data and information for
carrying out scrutiny, inspection, investigation and prosecution.

This assumes significance as the MCA has the database of all registered firms while SEBI only regulates
listed entities that may have unlisted subsidiaries, with the MCA having access to all the data of such
unlisted entities.

‘Backdrop of frauds’

“The MoU comes in the wake of increasing need for surveillance in the context of corporate frauds
affecting important sectors of the economy.

As the private sector plays an increasingly vital role in economic growth, the need for a robust corporate
governance mechanism becomes the need of the hour.

Incidentally, there is already a protocol of sharing of data between the capital markets regulator
Ministry and, in many cases, the regulator has also sent its orders against various entities to the MCA for
further action.
According to the SEBI statement, the MoU will facilitate the sharing of data and information between
the regulator and the MCA on an automatic and regular basis, while enabling sharing of specific
information such as details of suspended companies, delisted firms, shareholding pattern from the
SEBI and financial statements filed with the Registrar by corporates, returns of allotment of shares
and audit reports relating to corporates.

The MoU will ensure that both the MCA and the SEBI have seamless linkage for regulatory purposes
and in addition to regular exchange of data, the two will also exchange with each other, on request,
any available information for scrutiny, inspection, investigation and prosecution.

A Data Exchange Steering Group will meet periodically to review the data exchange status.

https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/sebi-mca-sign-pact-for-more-data-
scrutiny/article27690027.ece

Trump Allows High-Tech U.S. Bomb Parts to Be Built in Saudi Arabia #GS2 #IR
When the Trump administration declared an emergency last month and fast-tracked the sale of more
American arms to Saudi Arabia, it did more than anger members of Congress who opposed the sale on
humanitarian grounds.

It also raised concerns that the Saudis could gain access to technology that would let them produce their
own versions of American precision-guided bombs — weapons they have used in strikes on civilians
since they began fighting a war in Yemen four years ago.

The emergency authorization allows Raytheon Company, a top American defense firm, to team with
the Saudis to build high-tech bomb parts in Saudi Arabia. That provision, which has not been previously
reported, is part of a broad package of information the administration released this week to Congress.

The move grants Raytheon and the Saudis sweeping permission to begin assembling the control
systems, guidance electronics and circuit cards that are essential to the company’s Paveway smart
bombs. The United States has closely guarded such technology for national security reasons.

Multiple reports by human rights groups over the past four years have singled out the weapons as being
used in airstrikes on civilians. One attack, on a Sana funeral home in October 2016, led the Obama
administration to suspend bomb sales to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

The new arrangement is part of a larger arms package, previously blocked by Congress that includes
120,000 precision-guided bombs that Raytheon is prepared to ship to the coalition.

These will add to the tens of thousands of bombs that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have
already stockpiled, and some in Congress fear the surplus would let the countries continue fighting in
Yemen long into the future. The move also includes support for Saudi F-15 warplanes, mortars, anti-tank
missiles and .50-caliber rifles.
The emergency declaration, invoked in part because of tensions with Iran, prompted a broad bipartisan
pushback from lawmakers who were concerned not only about the war, but also about whether the
Trump administration was usurping congressional authority to approve arms sales.

“The Saudis and Emiratis have become so intertwined with the Trump administration that I don’t think
the president is capable of distinguishing America’s national interests from theirs,” said Representative
Tom Malinowski, a New Jersey Democrat who sits on the committee.

The administration has presented us no evidence that Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. face any substantially
new or intensified threat from Iran that would justify declaring an emergency.”

The defense firm has also cultivated ties to the Saudi government. During President Trump’s visit to the
kingdom in May 2017, Raytheon signed an agreement to work more closely with the Saudi Arabian
Military Industries Company, a holding company owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund. It was
unclear whether the new production deal fell under that plan.

If Saudi Arabia is able to develop an indigenous bomb-making capability as a result of this deal, it will
undermine U.S. leverage to prevent them from engaging in indiscriminate strikes of the kind it has
carried out in Yemen.

The authorization paperwork signed by Mr. Pompeo offers no timeline for the shared operations to get
underway, and Raytheon representatives have said they are still negotiating over details with the Saudi
government, according to a congressional aide.

Aside from potentially providing the Saudis with more bombs to use in Yemen airstrikes, the
arrangement raised security concerns among lawmakers, who were seeking assurances that the Saudis
could prevent the American technology from falling into the wrong hands.

Both Republicans and Democrats also noted that it called for creating manufacturing jobs in Saudi
Arabia that might otherwise have been located in the United States. And they expressed worry that the
Saudis might eventually copy the technology and use it to produce their own weapons, which they
would be free to use in Yemen or sell to whomever they chose.

The Saudis have been carrying out regular airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015, when Houthi rebels
overthrew the Saudi-backed government.

The war has created what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, pushing
millions to the edge of starvation and leading to the spread of cholera and the deaths of thousands of
civilians.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/us/saudi-arabia-arms-sales-raytheon.html

February 2019 Hindu & IE Editorial Compilation & Imp. Article for quoting as example

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