4TH JUNE

Government to boost infrastructure in areas along China border

 • The MHA has come out with a fresh set of guidelines to utilise the funds under the border area
development programme(BADP). Aas per these new guidelines, 10% of the funds under the BADP would
be set aside for states and union territories that share a border with China. This includes Ladakh,
Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
 • Border area development programme(BADP)
The BADP was first launched in the 1980s under the seventh five year plan and initially it was meant only
for the Western border States. When the scheme was launched initially, its objective was to only fund
the creation of the border infrastructure in the Western Border States, that is, the border areas along
the Pakistani border in order to facilitate the deployment of the border security force. Later, a second
key objective was brought under the program which was to promote socio-economic development
along the border areas by using the funds to create infrastructure related to education, healthcare,
agriculture, irrigation etc. The program aims to meet the special development needs of the people living
in remote inaccessible areas situated near the international border and to saturate the border areas
with the essential infrastructure through convergence of Central/State/BADP/ local schemes and
participatory approach. This program now covers 16 states and 2 union territories including Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Under this program, priority is given to the areas closer to the border.

 As per the new guidelines of the MHA, 10% of the funds under BADP has been set aside for
states and union territories that share a border with China and the other 10% has been set aside
to provide assistance to those state governments which are the best performing under the
program and out of the remaining 80% of the funds, 40% of it has been allocated to the North
Eastern states and the remaining 60% has been allocated to all the other states.
 The border area development Program is an integral part of ensuring India's internal security
because border villages are located in remote and inaccessible locations and they are usually
underdeveloped. So the lack of development and the lack of adequate infrastructure in the
border areas would promote discontentment among the population that is residing in the
strategically located border villages. This discontent might make the border population feel that
the government and the rest of the country does not care about them and it increases the
disconnect with mainland India. This discontent could also be exploited by hostile foreign
countries against India.
 Then the lack of development and lack of opportunities might force the border population to
migrate to other areas of India and this could result in the depopulation of the border villages
which could weaken India's territorial place especially in areas where there is a border dispute.
Then upon this, the lack of border infrastructure and the inaccessibility of these remote villages
can affect the movement and deployment of the forces as well. So the BADP was launched
specifically to address these concerns and it helps not only in creating border infrastructure but
it also helps in promoting social economic development in these border villages.
 So such developments will promote goodwill for the government and the security forces among
the border population. It could help strengthen India's claims in the border areas. It could also
help Indian security forces and Indian intelligence agencies to collect intelligence by relying upon
the border population as sources and more importantly, during conflicts and standoffs, border
villages can provide the much needed logistics support to the security forces and the armed
forces.
 As per the new guidelines, the respective border guarding forces have been asked to select
strategically important villages that are located within 10 km from the international border with
the funds so that they could be spent for creating infrastructure and for promoting social
economic development. Under the ‘one border one force’ policy, one Central armed police
force has been given the mandate to guard one particular international border. For example, the
border security force(BSF) is responsible for guarding India's borders with Pakistan and
Bangladesh. Similarly, for India's borders with China, it is the ITBP or the Indo Tibetan border
Police. For India's borders with Nepal and Bhutan, it is the SSB or the Shastra Seema Bal and for
India's border with Myanmar, it is the Assam rifles.
 As for the new guidelines, 10% of the funds that has been allocated for villages located along
the China border would be spent on the construction of roads and bridges, creation of primary
health Care centres, playfields and sports infrastructure for the children and the youth and also
for constructing irrigation facilities in the border areas.

 Seven to Eleven
 This article evaluates the proposal of Donald Trump to expand the G7 into the G11 by including
India, Russia, Australia and South Korea.
 Prime Minister Modi has welcome this decision of Donald Trump and he has called this a
creative and farsighted decision of Trump which is in line with the new realities of the post
covid-19. So clearly, India has expressed its interest to be a part of such a group proposed by
Donald Trump. A similar stand has been taken by Australia and South Korea as well and both the
countries has welcomed this proposal.
 However, Russia, which has its own geopolitical conflict with the United States, has been
conscious and it has said that President Putin would be accepting terms of invitation to attend
this year's G7 summit and it would be willing to consider this proposal only if it is treated as an
equal partner. This concern of Russia is driven by the fact that it was suspended from the
grouping in 2014 over the issue of annexation of Crimea. The G7, which was the G8 until 2014,
voted for the suspension of Russia by the other members due to its annexation of Crimea and
this lead the foundation for increased hostilities between Russia and the western countries led
by the United States.
 Russia has said that it would consider this proposal and it would consider accepting Trump’s
invitation to the G7 summit only if it is assured of equal treating. But whether Russia joins the
grouping or not and whether G7 turns into the G10 or G11, irrespective of that, one thing is very
clear- this proposal of Donald Trump has been clearly aimed to sideline and isolate China and
hence we can say that this is an extension of the new cold war that is brewing between the
 United States and China. Prior to 2014, when the grouping was still the G8, that is, Russia was
still a part of the group, the then developed economies would reach out to five emerging
economies under the G8 +5 format. At every G8 summit, 5 emerging economies would be
invited to participate and this included China, members of the IBSA grouping( that is, India,
Brazil and South Africa) and Mexico. So just like India and other emerging economies, China also
has been a part of the G8 summit. But the exclusion of such a major power from the G11
definitely indicates the beginning of a new cold war between the two global powers.
 This cold war has been in the making over the last one decade and it began with the United
States deciding to shift the focus towards the Indo-pacific region through its pivot to Asia policy.
This policy of the United States which was adopted under the Obama administration was clearly
aimed at containing China and to allow the United States to play a role in the maritime disputes
involving China in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Now under Donald Trump, this
political rivalry between the US and China has increased further, especially as a result of the
ongoing trade war between the two countries the conflict between the two over the emerging
technologies such as 5g and the blame game between US and China surrounding the covid-19
pandemic. If the increasing economic and military might of China was a primary reason for the
United States to feel threatened about it superpower status, then these factors have further
added to rising tensions between two countries.
 So the proposal of Donald Trump to establish such a grouping in the middle of an ongoing cold
war is basically an invitation for these countries to choose sides between the United States and
China and this places India in a very tough position.
 What if India wants to join this proposed grouping, then it definitely brings India the much-
needed recognition that it deserves at the global high tea. Over the last two decades, India has
been seeking such recognition in order to ensure that its voice is heard at the global level. India
being the world's largest democracy and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it
has always felt that the existing global institutions and multilateral platforms have not
adequately recognized India's position and they have not given a voice for India's aspirations.
This is the primary reason why India has been a voice for reforms at the United Nations, World
Bank, the IMF etc and the proposal of Donald Trump to provide a seat for India alongside other
developed economies and leading powers in the world definitely gave India the much needed
recognition for India.
 But the editorial says that India will have to carefully value the geopolitical pros and cons of this
development before joining the grouping because as of now, the benefits of joining the
grouping is still very unclear. There are a number of roadblocks that lie ahead before the
creation of such a grouping and India will have to carefully considered that first and foremost,
this proposal to expand the G7 has to be approved by the other members of the G7. Gaining the
approval of the other members of G7 is still not guaranteed because there are deep internal
divisions within the G7 itself. Then, Russia might try to sabotage this proposal due to its hostile
relationship with the United States. It is highly unlikely that Russia would be willing to join a US
led grouping and abandon its close ally China. And thirdly, even if the proposal has taken
forward, will such a grouping be established before the Presidential elections that have been
 scheduled for November 2020, because if Trump was to lose the upcoming elections, then the
proposal may not be revived by the new administration. As of now, the US government has
indicated that Trump could host such a summit as early as September when the leaders of these
countries are anyways going to travel the United States to attend the UN general Assembly
summit.
 So without having more clarity on this uncertainty, India cannot afford to jump the gun and
accept the proposal to be a part of the expanded G7. Then upon this, would India be willing to
choose sides in this new cold war between the US and China? The question is would India be
willing to compromise on its principle of strategic autonomy and join The United States at the
cost of isolating China. The foundational principle of India's foreign policy is the maintenance of
its strategic autonomy. Over the last seven decades, India has consistently upheld this policy and
it has consciously chosen to be non-aligned without using any of the power blocks. Lets say,
1971, during the liberation of the Bangladesh civil war, India was forced to side with the Soviet
Union. But it was more because of the hostility that the United States had towards India during
the conflict and it was not a choice that India made.
 But after the collapse of the Soviet Union and after the cold war came to an end, India has
consistently followed the policy of strategic autonomy and it has maintained a considerable
distance from all the powers. It has chosen not to be a part of any power block and not to be
seen as an ally of any country. Instead, India has believed in maintaining friendly relations with
all the countries on a bilateral basis based on India's national interest.
 So, the question is if India accepts this proposal of Donald Trump and be a part of such a group
in which isolates China, would India be willing to increase tensions with China with which it
shares a long border and numerous border disputes. Despite the numerous differences and
conflicts that both India and China have, both the countries do share a close relationship and
partnership between India and China is very crucial for emerging Asia as well as for the rest of
the world. So would India be willing to breach this relationship in its neighborhood for the sake
of pursuing a close relationship with western countries and other global powers.
 This is a tough question that India needs to answer before it decides to join such a grouping.
Then, finally India should also consider whether the current G7 is really an effective platform for
addressing global issues. Deep divisions and issues have emerged within G7 members itself,
especially under the Trump administration. The United States in particular, has a number of
disagreement with other members of the G7 over a number of contentious issues such as
climate change, Iran's nuclear program. On the subject of climate change, European members of
G7 has been given to accept more commitments whereas United States has given up on its
responsibilities and commitments as far as global warming and climate change are concerned.
Then particularly under the Trump administration, the United States that entered into a trade
war with other members of the G7 such as Germany, Canada, etc over the last couple of years.
Donald Trump has publicly claimed that G7 is outdated and he has even criticized Canada,
Germany, France and United kingdom for not contributing enough to the group and and he had
claimed that the United States is a soul contributor to the grouping. Then over Iran's nuclear
program and the joint comprehensive plan of action of the Iran nuclear deal, deep differences
 were seen amongst the G7 Nations. When the Trump administration chose to quit the Iran
nuclear deal, the other members of G7, particularly France, UK and Germany, they were
opposed to this and they declared to uphold the commitments of the Iranian nuclear deal.
 All these differences between the G7 members was very evident in the last summit that was
held in France when no joint statement was issued by the grouping for the first time in the last
45 years. So before India decides to take up this offer of Donald Trump, it will have to carefully
evaluate the geopolitical pros and cons of this development.

 India's Parliament is missing in action

 The writer evaluates the failure of the Indian parliament to meet during the pandemic and the
lock down and how this affects accountability in the country. As the COVID-19 progressed,
governments around the world responded by imposing a lock down in order to enforce social
distancing norms. Through this lock down, government restricted various fundamental rights
such as right to movement, right to assemble, accept and governments have also spent large
sums of money as part of the pandemic response.
 Of course, the governments are dealing with an unprecedented crisis. But this does not mean
that the government should not be held accountable during a pandemic. In a parliamentary
democracy, it is the primary responsibility of the Parliament to hold the executive, that is the
government, accountable for its actions.
 To understand the role of the parliament in holding the Parliament accountable, we need to
look at the statements that were made by Dr BR Ambedkar in the constituent assembly while
making the case for a parliamentary democracy as opposed to a presidential democracy. Dr.
Ambedkar agreed that a presidential setup would provide for more stability. But on the other
hand, a parliamentary democracy would be the best suited model, especially for a large country
to hold the executive accountable for its act of omission and commission. The constituent
assembly favoured accountability over stability while establishing India as a parliamentary
democracy.
 Just like any other any other parliamentary democracy, the Indian parliament was designed to
hold the executive accountable. During the pandemic, parliaments around the world have met
virtually through video conferencing. For example, the Canadian Parliament has met during the
lock down and question it's government’s response to the pandemic. Even in countries that
have been badly affected by the COVID-19, like Italy, Brazil and France, the respective
parliaments have met and they have held the government accountable. But ironically, the
parliament of the world's largest democracy is yet to meet and hold the Modi government
accountable for its power pandemic response. Over the last two and a half months, the Lok
Sabha and Rajya Sabha and the parliamentary standing committee has failed to meet and as a
result, their failure to question the government as to on what basis the lockdown is imposed
and extended across the country. As a result, the Parliament has not been able to question as to
how the disaster management act was used to give the central government complete powers of
the states and the centre is not being questioned as to how the disaster management act which
does not have any specific provisions to deal with the covid-19 pandemic has been used.
 If the Indian Parliament and the parliamentary committees had met through video conferencing,
just like other parliaments of the world, then probably up to this time, a specific legislation could
be introduced as it had been done in few other countries. The government has not been held
accountable for the expenditure that it has called as a part of the pandemic response, the
government has not been questioned on the suspension of rights such as right to movement,
right to assemble etc. The Parliament has failed to highlight the privacy concerns of the Arogya
Setu app and it has failed to hold the government accountable for its failure in handling the
migrant crisis.
 If the Parliament and the standing committee had met, they would have questioned the
government over instances of police brutality that was reported across the country. So this is
just an illustration as to how the inability of the Parliament to function in the lockdown has
affected accountability in the country. The reason why the Parliament and the parliamentary
committees have not met is because the presiding officers of the Parliament, that is the speaker
of the Lok Sabha, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the government, they have failed to
summon the Parliament and the presiding officers have refused to summon the parliamentary
committee to meet through video conferencing,.
 Under article 85 of the Indian constitution, the government or the president can summon the
Parliament to meet at such a time and place as he thinks fit. So according to the writer, in the
interest of upholding the accountability, the government and the president could summon the
Parliament at a suitable place where social distancing norms could be enforced.
 Then with regard to parliamentary standing committee, members of opposition parties have
been requesting the presiding officers to allow them to meet through video conferencing. But
the presiding officers denied such permissions by stating the rules of procedure of the Lok Sabha
and Rajya Sabha. The rules of procedure of the house states that the parliamentary committees
can we meet only in the precincts of the Parliament. The very same rule also applies for an
exception and allows the presiding officer to let the parliamentary standing committee meet
outside the Parliament as well. The argument of the members of the opposition parties was
that, by making use of these exceptional provisions under the rules, parliamentary standing
committee could have allowed to meet through video conferencing. But permission was denied
by the presiding officers on the ground that such virtual meets through video conferencing could
compromise the confidentiality of the meetings of the parliamentary committees.
 But the writer says that there is no point about confidentiality as far as the meetings of the Lok
Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are concerned because the meetings of these two houses are
telecasted on television. But, the business of parliamentary standing committee has to be kept
confidential and secret. But for this, the government and the Parliament could have come up
with appropriate IT security and solutions in order to secure these video conferencing.
 The irony is that the world's largest democracy which labels itself as the hub for information
and technology has not been able to provide a platform for its parliamentary committee to
meet.

Time to discontinue free power for farmers

 The writer says that the time has come to discontinue free power for farmers. Providing free
power, electricity to farmers has always been a populist measure for political parties in order to
turn the farmers into their vote bank. This popular scheme which was followed by most state
governments, not only places an unnecessary burden on state finances, but it also results in
massive wastage of crude precious resources that is, water and electricity.
 Farmers rely upon electricity to operate their pump sets in order to extract groundwater and
irrigate their fields. Those who make a case for providing free electricity to farmers have to valid
arguments. The first argument is that those farmers were covered under canal irrigation, they
already receive canal water which is basically free of cost and this reduces the input cost. But for
farmers who are not covered under canal irrigation, they need to rely upon pump sets to extract
groundwater and irrigate their field and for this, they need to pay for electricity which increases
their input cost.
 Their argument is that farmers who are not covered under canal irrigation would be treated
unfairly if they are made to pay for electricity consumed by the pump sets. So, they argue that
such farmers deserve free power and this is definitely a valid argument. The other argument is
that providing free power reduces the input cost and increases agricultural activities and as a
result, it can ensure food security in the rural areas as well as the food security of the country
and also create livelihood opportunities for landless workers because an increase in the
agricultural activities will create more farming opportunities. So they argue that free electricity
is an incentive to increase agricultural activities and provide for more livelihood opportunities
for the country. This again is a valid argument made by the proponents of free power resources.
 But the drawback of this policy is that since it is a populist program, it is deliberately designed
to be universal in nature which basically means that the government is creating an incentive to
the farmer to waste precious resources such as electricity and water. It is a basic economic
concept that when a precious resource is provided for free, there is no incentive to conserve for
judicious usage and this results in massive wastage of electricity as well as water. So those who
are against the policy of providing free electricity to farmers, argue that this policy not only
places an unnecessary economic burden on the government and state finances, but it also has
an environmental cost especially in a country such as India, which already stands as the largest
exporter of groundwater in the world.
 The provision of free electricity will only promote its over exploitation. Studies have also shown
that providing free electricity tends to get misused at the ground level, especially by local
farmers and local officials and it also places and unnecessary financial burden on the distribution
companies. But since the proponents of power have a valid argument, the central government
was looking at a possible solution which could at least take away the environmental misuse
caused because most state governments are ok with that economic burden.
 So in order to make this policy more efficient and environment friendly, the then Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh had proposed a solution. He had called for the suspension of free power for
farmers and instead advocated the direct transfer of the subsidy to the farmers bank account.
But despite his proposal, the UPA government had failed to implement this recommendation.
But finally the Modi government has prescribed that state governments have to suspend
 providing free electricity to farmers and instead directly transfer the subsidy to the farmers bank
account through the DBT system(direct benefit transfer system ) and this has been made as a
condition if the central government has to raise the borrowing limits of the state governments.
 The writer appreciates this policy of the central government as it reduces the environmental
cost and also makes the policy more efficient and economically prudent. But however we need
to wait and watch as to how the state governments are going to respond. Tamil Nadu has
already opposed this proposal because Tamil Nadu was the first state to introduce the provision
of free electricity way back in 1984. Most state governments are likely to oppose this proposal
because political parties at the state level know very well that providing free electricity is a
populist measure which can create a vote bank for them during elections. We can expect a
similar response from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Punjab as well. Then such policies are
being continued but Karnataka might become the first state in southern India to implement DBT
system for power supply and this could set an example for other states to follow. Also,
Maharashtra is the only state in India which has scrapped providing free electricity to farmers.

Cabinets sets up secretaries group to attract investment

 The Union cabinet headed by thePrime minister has decided to establish an empowered group
of secretaries and also to setup project development cells in various ministries and departments
in order to attract investments.
 This decision has been taken due to the slowdown of industrial activity as a result of the covid-
19 pandemic. The government hopes that the establishment of these institutions will enable the
government to make more investor friendly decisions and speed of decision making and the
issuance of necessity clearances and promote inter-ministerial coordination in order to speed up
the implementation of new projects. The government also hopes that the empowered group of
secretaries and project development cells within various departments would be able to support
and hand hold the new industries. This decision is expected to enable the creation of lacs of
direct and indirect jobs and take India closer towards the ambition of turning it into a 5 trillion
economy.
 This empowered group will be headed by the Cabinet Secretary as the chairperson and the
Secretary of the Department for promotion of industry and internal trade within the ministry of
commerce will act as a member Convener of the department. The other members of the
empowered group include the CEO of Niti Aayog, the secretary of the Ministry of commerce, the
secretary from the Department of revenue and the Department of economic affairs and the
Ministry of finance and along with this, other secretary from concerned department will be
brought in base on the project.

 Cabinet nod for Agri-marketing reforms

 The Union cabinet has approved three important ordinances for improving the agricultural
sector in order to bring benefits to the farmers and the consumers who are suffering from the
impact of the pandemic.
 The first ordinance approved by the Union cabinet is to amend the outdated Essential
commodities act of 1955. This legislation traces back its origin to the Second world war and in
the 1930s to 1950s, this legislation had been brought to prevent holding and black marketing in
order to deal with shortage of food items and price rise, especially during wars and calamities.
Over the year, governments have included a number of essential commodities, thus restricting
their production, their storage, their movement and distribution. The food industry has always
felt that these excessive restrictions of the essential commodities act have always affected the
interest of the farmers and the industries. So de- regulating these commodities by amending the
essential commodities act was a part of the 10 year old debate and finally the government has
approved an ordinance which removes cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potato
from the list of essential commodities. This deregulation will apply for the production,
storage, ,movement and distribution of these commodities and it is expected to help bring
benefits to the farmer as well as the food processing industries.
 The 2nd ordinance that has approved is the following Produce trade and commerce promotion
and facilitation ordinance 2020. This ordinance allows the farmers to send their produce outside
the notified Mandis or APMC yards. Earlier, restrictions on agricultural marketing farmers were
restricted to sell their produce only at notified Mandis and agricultural produce marketing
communities that operated under the jurisdiction of the state governments. This restriction was
affecting the right of the farmer to send the produce to anywhere and it was only seen to be
benefiting the middle man with increased cost for the consumer as well. Plus the earlier
restrictions on agricultural marketing restricted the interstate trade and movement of
agricultural commodities. Through this ordinance, the centre is hoping to remove the barriers
on interstate movement of agricultural products and it also provides farmers the freedom to sell
their agricultural produce outside these notified Mandis or APMC yards.
 But this ordnance will face a constitutional challenge because agriculture and agricultural
markets are essentially state subjects under the seventh schedule of the Indian Constitution. A
number of state governments are likely to oppose this ordinance because if farmers are allowed
to sell outside APMC yards, then it is going to affect the revenue of the state governments
because currently, the state is imposing a levy on the produce that is being sold in the market
within the APMC yards. The state governments would be unwilling to let go of this restriction.
But the centre is hoping that since trade and commerce and food items fall under the
concurrent list, the ordinance can be pushed through.
 Apart from this, the third ordinance approved by the Union cabinet provides for the facilitation
of contract farming. The government hopes that these agricultural reforms will bring benefits to
the farmer as well as the consumer and attract more private and foreign investments in
agricultural logistics establishment of modern warehousing facilities, creation of cold storage,
infrastructure and such private and foreign investment in the food supply chain that is expected
to increase the farmers income as well as reduce the wastage of perishable commodities.
 5th JUNE

A chill in in US China relations

 This article evaluates the new cold war that is brewing between the United States and China.
This article evaluates the reasons behind these increasing geopolitical tensions between the US
and China and analyze the impact of this emerging cold war on the rest of the world, particularly
India. This cold war has been in the making for the last one decade and is particularly increased
over the last 4 years as a result of the increase aggression that is being displayed by both the
countries. What began as a geopolitical conflict over the South China Sea dispute has spilled
over to various other domains such as trade, war, technology, economy, governance as well as
travel and connectivity.
 Over the last one decade, the United States has closely watched the military rise of China and
its increasing military aggression in the South China Sea. In response to this increasing military
aggression of China, the United States came up with a diplomatic and military strategy that was
designed to primarily counter the rising influence of China. So this increasing hostility in the
military and strategic domains quickly spilt over into the trade and economic domain as well.
Under the Trump administration, the trade war the President Trump initiated against China
increased tensions between the two countries and it is yet to be resolved.
 Then, of late, we have also seen how Western countries led by The United States are trying to
counter China's dominance in the 5G technology domain. Then in the last 3 months, there has
been a series of developments which has increased tensions between the two countries and the
strategic exports conclude that they might very well be witnessing the beginning of a new cold
war between the two superpowers.
 As the US President Trump has held China to be responsible for the spread of the covid-19.
Along with this, the United States has been critical of the development that have taken place in
Hong Kong over the last one year. Last year, when pro-democracy protests broke out in Hong
Kong, the US government more than supported the protesters and this invited retaliatory
response from China. Then just few days back, China passed a controversial legislation which
allows mainland China to pass national security laws that will have application and jurisdiction in
Hong Kong. It is said that this Chinese legislation undermines the special administrative status
that Hong Kong enjoys. United States has criticized this legislation and it has expressed concern
over the status of human Rights in Hong Kong.
 As a response to this Chinese law, the United States has revoked Hong Kong special status and
this standoff between the two countries regarding the developments in Hong Kong has further
increased tensions. Then, just the other day, the United States decided to ban all passenger
flights from China because China had also not been allowing international flights as a result of
the covid-19.
 So such aggressive and retaliatory steps from both the countries has raised the prospects of the
beginning of a new cold war between the two countries. We basically have a situation where the
 world's largest economy has been repeatedly targeting China over the last 3 to 4 years and in
return, the world second largest economy has been displaying its own aggression and retaliating
against United States. This emerging cold war between the two of the world's largest economy
faces the risk of further escalation as there is a complete lack of trust and confidence on each
side.
 So the editorial says that disputes such as these can be resolved by only talks and cooperation
and both the countries should be willing to show signs of de-escalation. Take for example, the
issue of passenger flights. China has already sent de-escalation signal to the United States by
allowing foreign airlines to resume flights on a limited scale starting from the 18th of June. The
editorial hopes that the United States should see this is a sign of de-escalation sign from China
and it reciprocates by lifting the bans of passenger flight from China. Such de-escalation
measures will set the ground for the talks and negotiations which could help in resolving
intentions and hostility.
 But the increasing hostility towards China being shown by the Trump administration and the
refusal of China to back down has made the beginning of a new cold war almost inevitable. But
strategic experts point out that the so-called ‘cold war 2.0’ or the second version of the cold war
between US and China would be different from the earlier cold war that we have seen a few
decades ago between the United States and the Soviet Union.
 The cold war that we witnessed between the United States and the Soviet Union began after
the second world war in the 1958 and it lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union. This cold
war rivalry was largely based on ideological conflicts between the two superpowers -The United
States and the western countries ruled for democracy and capitalism, Soviet Union and its allies
good for Communism and socialism. So the defining feature of the first world war was the
ideological conflict between the two superpowers and it involved territorial conflicts.
 But, in comparison, if we look at the new cold war that is brewing between the United States
and China, it is largely being fought on economic, financial and strategic grounds and at least as
of now, there is no explicit ideological conflict between the two. So compared to the ideological
cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, the emerging cold war between the
US and China has a greater chance of being resolved though talks and negotiation. But for talks
to be held, there has to be an element of mutual trust and confidence in each other.
 In the past as well, United States and China have shared quite a complicated relationship. In the
1970s, that is when the United States was still logged in a cold war with the Soviet Union, China
was and is a major communist Ally to the Soviet Union. In fact, the United States had even cut
off diplomatic ties with China by blaming China for displaying territorial expansionism through
the annexation of Tibet.
 In the other column, Vijay Gokhale writes that during this cold war period, that is between 1950
to 1970, Communism had been formally established itself in Russia. So during this period, the
United States pursued the policy of regime change in China in order to push for an ideological
shift and defeat Communism and introduced democracy. So this covert attempt of the United
States to push for a regime change in China created a lot of suspicion amongst China's
 leadership and as a result, Chinese leaders to this day treat the United States as an existential
threat to China.
 But Vijay Gokhale writes that before Communism took root in China in the 1950s,the United
States used to look at China with a sense of fascination. But the rise of communism in 1948
under Mao and the establishment of the People's republic of China in 1949 affected the
relationship between these two countries for nearly two decades. After this brief period of
hostility, US President Richard Nixon pursued diplomatic reset with China through his national
security advisor Henry Kissinger in the late 1960s. The combination of Richard Nixon and Henry
kissinger managed to re-establish diplomatic relationships with China with the help of Pakistan
and this lead to a period of cordial relations between the two countries which lasted between
the 1977 to the the early 2000. During this period, the United States had pragmatic relationship
with China by keeping the ideological conflict aside and it built its relationship on the basis of
cooperation and mutual trust and respect.
 In fact from the 1980s,United States played a direct role in the economic crisis of China under
the hope that it could bring China under its theory of influence and it was expecting China to
behave as a responsible international player. But according to Vijay Gokhale, all the while China
was driven by its self-interest and national interest and it had no intention of being undermined
by the United States and it had no intention of being treated as a puppet of the United States
for the the suspicion that the United States posed an existential threat to China continued to
grow in the minds of the Chinese leadership even as a United States was enabling the rise and
growth of China. So, as soon as China emerged as a major power post 2008, it immediately
started asserting its newfound economic and military might and according to the writer, the
current equation that China displays is an extension of this mind set. After 2005, China started
seeing itself as not just an Asian power, but as a global power which could challenge American
hegemony in international office. Then through a series of diplomatic, military, economic and
strategic steps, China began to assert itself in global affairs and it began to spread its influence
around the world including the Asia-pacific region, the Indian Ocean region, across Europe,
Africa as well as across Latin America.
 The strategy of China post it into direct conflict with the United States which started seeing the
economic and military rise of China directed towards its economic and financial dominance of
the modern world and as China started to assert itself with regard to Maritime disputes in the
South China Sea, for the first time, the United States started seeing the rise of China as a threat
to its own dominance.
 In 2010, the United States immediately adopted the ‘pivot to Asia’ policy in order to focus
exclusively on the Indo-pacific region and it started deploying its diplomatic and military assets
from the Atlantic region towards the Indo-pacific region. So this strategy of the US was clearly
designed to contain the rise of China and contain its influence. In anticipation of this extension
of the threat posed by the United States, China initiated a modernization in almost all the
domain a couple of decades ago in order to challenge the American dominance. As a result of
this modernization, China has been able to completely transform its military and armed forces.
It had built a strong economy based on its manufacturing strength. It has also tried to counter
 Western dominance in global trade and commerce, in global financial institutions, through its
initiatives-belt and road initiative, the Asian infrastructure investment bank and the new
development Bank of BRICS. Then, in order to counter American dominance in satellite
navigation, China came up with its own version of GPS known as the Beidou. Then over the last
one decade, private technology companies of China, with the support of the Chinese
government, have pioneered innovations in the field of emerging technologies in order to
counter the technological superiority of the US government and private corporations.
 All these developments brings us to the current state where the Trump administration has
repeatedly tried to label China as America's enemy number 1 and has pursued aggressive and
hostile relationship with China in the hope that this issue could help Donald Trump get re-
elected in the upcoming Presidential elections. Trump’s popularity ratings have drastically
declined over the past few months as a result of the inefficiency in handling covid-19 pandemic
and the current state of the American economy with the unemployment rate consistently
increasing.
 So the editorial is of the opinion that Trump is exploiting China's lack of transparency over the
covid-19 to break forward its aggressive and assertive foreign policy to label China as enemy
number one in order to make China a campaign issue ahead of the Presidential elections.
 In response to this, China has retaliated against these actions of Donald Trump and it has only
increased the prospects of a new cold war. So the editorial says that the only way in which
tensions can be reduced between US and China is if both the countries are willing to change the
course and provide a chance for talks and negotiations in order to build mutual trust and
confidence.
 Vijay Gokhale says that this emerging cold war between US and China is going to have a
collateral damage on the global economy, particularly India. India is forced to choose a side
between the two. Then it would test India's principle of strategic autonomy and it would test
India's capacity to maintain strategic and decisional autonomy in foreign policy.

 Killing Gajah
 • recent news reports related to the death of an elephant in the palakkad district of Kerala
reportedly after consuming a pineapple filled with explosives has gone viral and is caused
massive outrage across the country these initial report has claimed that the elephant was
deliberately fat with the pineapple which led to create a repulsion and anger across the country
but however according to experts the elephant most likely might have consumed the pineapple
on its own which was made to be used as a snare to scare away okil wild boars which could
cause extensive damage to plant and crops but whatever is the version of events the death of a
pregnant elephant in this tragic manner is highly unfortunate and highlights threatpost to India's
environment and biodiversity due to increasing incidence of man animal conflict the editorial
points about that a number of elephants get killed every year in India as a result of such man
animal conflict incidents and this is a direct result of increasing commercial pressure on the
habitat of the elephants the need to expand and urban areas and agricultural activities and the
need to promote industrial non economic activities has ended up destroying sensitive habitats in
forest and as a result for migratory animals such as the elephant that traditional ranges has
been occupied and their migratory corridors have been blocked by human activities in fact it is
not just elephants which are being pushed into a conflict with humans due to habitat
destruction and habitat fragmentation but even number of other high value species and
threatened species face the same thing as the contact of wild animals with humans increases it
increases the threats faced by the animal itself the editorial points out that despite the threat
posed by habitat destruction and an regulated habitat activities to the natural rangers and
corridors of wild animals there has been no attempt made by the government to mitigate the
impact of economic development and industrialisation. the editorial says thatthe government
has failed to adopt a science based policy to prevent incidents of man animal conflict by
adopting measures such as the creation of soft landscapes the provision of migratory passages
especially in and around protected areas while approving new industrial projects and economic
activities according to the editorial there is no scientific culture in India which inspired the
governments conservation efforts the editorial says that environmental policies and regulations
of the government has been designed to favour economic development and commercial
activities even at the cost of destroying forests and the natural habitats of wild animals take for
example how even during the lock down the ministry of environment the national board for
wildlife and the expert appraisal committee manage to create a number of destructive projects
in protected areas despite this project dinner post by environmental groups such rampant
destruction of natural habitat of the animals reduces their ranges and makes a feeding grounds
in accessible to them so this reduction in their natural habitat and the acute shortage of food
that their face pushes the animals to venture into the human habitats such as the nearby
villages agricultural field plantations extra so when such incidents of man animal in conflict
increases the cost is Borne by both the animals and human beings for example the entry of wild
elephants and wild boars into agricultural fields and plantations could cause extensive damage
to the farmers the entry of carnivorous animals such as tigers who threatened human lives and
cattle in the nearby villages solocal who would have suffered such clauses as a result of man
animal conflict they tend to hold a grudge against the animals and in order to prevent the
occurrence of such incidents that end to use a number of in human and violin techniques to
keep the animals ok so every year hundreds of elephants tigers leopards and other high value
species and threatened species are killed across the country as a result of such preventive
techniques so in order to reduce such incidents the editorial provides to suggestions one day
editorial highlights how important it is for us to revisit the recommendations of the madhav
gadgil committee the ministry of environment and Forest headset of the Western ghats ecology
expert panel under the chairmanship of madhav gadgil committee had submitted its
recommendations in 2011 and in order to conserve the equality and biodiversity of the Western
ghats the madhav gadgil committee has recommended the zonification of the entire structure of
the Western ghats in 2-3 Eco sensitive zones and inside each zone human activities were
supposed to be strictly regulated with varying degrees of enforcement these restrictions and
regulations would apply for industrial activity is mining activities construction activities as
agriculture extra but all the state government Saturday part of the Western ghats had a poster
recommendations of the madhav gadgil committee due to pressure from the industry as well as
from the local villages the editorial says that such science-based zonification of the forest areas
and regulation of the industrial activities can help conserve habitats and prevent the occurrence
of such man animal conflict II recommendation of the editorial is for the government to provide
adequate and timely compensation to the victims of man animal conflict incidents because
when the victim to have suffered losses due to man animal conflict is there compensate
compensated adequately and in time it will reduce the chances of them adopting in such in
human methods to keep the animals of wave the editorial conclude by saying that it is this
culture of commercial exploitation of forest the natural resources that has led to the death of
this elephant in Kerala and this could change only if we adopt a cultural shift towards science
based conservation.

 • ****Swiss cheese and defence reforms****

 • this column evaluates the recent reforms that were introduced with respect to defence
procurement indigenization and modernization.

 • *****India Australia meet strengthens ties****

 • this refers to the India Australia virtual submit that was held by Narendra modi and Australian
prime Minister Scott Morrison.
 • first and foremost India and Australia have decided to elevate their bilateral relationship to
the comprehensive strategic partnership level this basically means that they will white in the
scope of the relationship by entering into operation in lower domains and they will for the deep
in their relationships in the existing domains of cooperation and as expected India and Australia
has signed the mutual logistic support agreement which will promote exchange of logistics
between the armed forces of both the countries through this agreement the Indian armed
forces will be able to access the military bases and military personalities of the Australian armed
forces and this is expected to for the enable cooperation between the two countries in the field
of disaster management humanitarian assistance and disaster relief joint exercises joint
operations counter-terrorism anti-piracy operation success then both the countries have signal
their focus on the indo-pacific region by kaveri coming out with joint declaration which outlines
a shared vision of India and Australia towards merit and cooperation in the indo-pacific region
upon this India and Australia have decided to elevate that 2 + 2 dialogue from the secretary
level 2 The mysterious level under this format at least once in every 2 years the foreign ministers
and defence ministers of both the countries would be interacting in order to bring greater
synergy in the foreign policy and national security policy of both the countries during the virtual
submit the two prime Ministers did focus extensive Leon the indo-pacific region and both the
leaders of expressed support for a free open and inclusive Indo Pacific region that is government
rules based order both the countries have reiterated that all the countries in the Pacific region
should hold freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight which is a basic rights that has
been recognised under the United Nations convention on the lawof the sea which is an
international law both the leaders have called upon countries in the indo-pacific region to
resolve any Maritime disputes through peaceful negotiations as per the mechanism that have
 been laid down under the UN convention on the law of the sea both the leaders have called
upon countries in the indo-pacific region to refrain from using any cohesive techniques while
dealing with Maritime disputes and instead they ask them to abide by the provisions of the
international law as laid down by the UN convention on the law of the sea so all these
statements and initiatives of the India and Australia concerning the indo-pacific region has been
clearly designed to send the clear message to China the message to China is that it cannot
employee ko sirf techniques while dealing with Maritime disputes in the South China Sea and
the end East China Sea the message to China is that it cannot restrict freedom of navigation and
freedom of overflight and it needs to respect the rules based order that is being laid out under
international law in fact these principles that India and Australia spoken about the same
principles that the United States has championed in order to counter Chinese aggression in the
indo-pacific region but apart from this is the necessity of discussion between the Indian prime
Minister and the Australian prime minister on China both the leaders of not made any direct
references to China and even the ongoing border dispute between India and China was
reportedly not discussed another issue that was not brought up was the Australia as request to
take part in the Malabar exercise that is hosted by India along with the United States and Japan
it is quite possible that India and Australia putting of this discussion for the time being in order
to not unnecessarily trigger China apart from this India and Australia has signed an agreement to
promote cooperation in the field of cyber security as well because Australia is a leader in the
domain of cyber security and it has gained a lot lot of expertise by being a part of the five is
group the five is refers to an intelligence collection and intelligent steering group between 5
like-minded democratic democratic countries including the United States United kingdom
Canada Australia and New Zealand being a part of this group Australia has gained considerable
expect is in the domain of cyber security as well and India would like to collaborate with
Australia in order to strengthen it cyber security architecture then finally India and Australia has
signed an agreement to promote mining and joint exploitation of the critical and strategic
minerals such as rare Earth metals rare Earth metals are a great strategic value especially
industries such as defence electronics space aeronautics unfortunately India happens to be
deficient with regard to search a critical resource but Australia and Indo Pacific region is set to
hold substantial reserves of rare Earth metals so both India and Australia would like to
collaborate in this domain and jointly exploit rare Earth metals in order to extract critical
minerals that find applications in strategic industries. 

6th june 2020

 • ****India China hold talks agree to resolve differences peacefully*****
 • India and China has been witnessing tensions along the line of actual control this has lead to war of
wordsskirmishes in the ladakh region to prevent any for the escalation and also to set key differences
between these two countries for industries as agreed to build upon A consensus according to India's
external ministry both sides agreed to have settle the differences through peaceful discussions bearing
in mind the importance of respecting each otherssensitivity concerns aspirations and not allowed them
to turn into disputes and at the same time the Chinese ministry has also said both sides agree to
implement the consensus that two countries do not constituted to each other and not let keydifferences
rice into disputes so both these countries have come into a consensus that this particular thread should
not be come into a dispute between India and China these countries also enter into another another
consensus that is because of the covid-19 the covid-19 is created a devastation across the world and it
has taken away many slices across the world so if we have to fight a war it has to be against the covid-19
and not against the people so the p stability and balance relationship between both the countries will
require is to promote stability in the current global scenario so with this ministerial talks to help a
complex that this thread should not enter into a mode of dispute now the military leaders will also need
to ensure that there is a framework to de escalate the tensions along the disputed border between the
two Nations the Indian military side would want to speak about Restoration of the status quo. we are
speaking about the line of actual control the Chinese soldiers had entered into an area of Indian territory
so the Indian military leaders would ask the Chinese military officers to pull back their soldiers and also
ensure status ko as before the month of May in this particular backdrop it is not only the military frame
for that is required but political and diplomatic intervention is very important to prevent any escalation
is what is the crux of this article.

 • ****shine a light****
 • ****lancet and NEJM retracts in controversial studies on covid-19****
 • LANCET HAPPENS TO BE ONE OF THE IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL MEDICAL JOURNALS OF THE
WORLD.it has recently conducted a study on hydroxychloroquine according to this study by the medical
journal they came up with a particular conclusion it found that there was no benefit from the use of this
hydroxychloroquinewhen hydroxychloroquine was given to all those patients were suffering from covid-
19 de derived no benefit from it and in fact after it was administered to the patients it has resulted in
high mortality rate so they said that when this particular antimalarial drug was given to the patient such
patients whom it was administrator to suffer from death and mortality when it was administered to
search patients to this particular argument the world health organisation data safety committee has also
found that there was no evidence with respect to higher mortality in fact clinical trials has been
conducted with respect to the beneficial use of hydroxychloroquine with this the world health
organisation has put to rest the claim that hydroxychloroquine will cause death to the covid-19 positive
patients while all this was happening researchers and scientific community started questioning the
methodology where did you get this data from how did landsat procure this particular data even if you
are taking the data who are the patients from whom you have takenwhat the patients in hospital what is
the source of this hospital which are the hospitals that you have considered even if there are death with
respect to the hospital which you have taken from thecountry of Australia the number of deaths that
you are claiming in the lancet journal is totally different from what country of Australia is claiming so the
numbers that you are saying in your landlord journal and the numbers that are given in the official
channel books of Australia is totally different so it question se methodology and how their source that
patient records and the mortality of attributed which is totally different from that which is present in the
journal and that which is present in the official channel books of the Australian government its author
says that the journal has sourced your information from surgisphere cooperation. but this corporation
does not have scientific expertise who would be able to check whether the information is right or wrong
so how can we believe this particular journal and its article that you have put out in the public forum is
what the researchers and the scientific community has been questioning this is where the land set and
another organisation that is the New England journal of medicine have retracted their studies so so they
have retracted because there has been lacunas with respect to this article and there has not been any
statistical evidences and experimentation elevenses and certain research protocols that is why these
two journals have taken back their statistics.
 • what can we learn from this debacle? are we sure that all the results given by thisjournals is less
legitimate are they not getting influenced by the pharmaceutical companies or are there any industrial
lobbies which are pushing in their agenda let's draw the inference from this particular article. the key
lesson is that the mistake to assume the scientific process has always diveresed d from the influence of
power privilege finance and politics. let's say for example there is a company this particular company
wants to push its particular product so it pays this medical journal to put out a positive view point about
this particular drug or about this product so medical journals have a closed financial conflict of interest
particularly in relationship with all those pharmaceutical companies some journals has been even
captured by the pharmaceutical companies that have they have come to depend on these
pharmaceutical companies many including some of the many prestigious journals published most trials
because of the funding that they require from the industrial bodies so the first key thing is the influence
at these companies draw to the medical journals. this points out to the means and methods in the
present scenario they came out with the study and statistics how did you draw this particular statistics
how did you get to a particular conclusion we should not always look at the result but instead we should
focus on the how how they got this particular information so you have taken this particular information
from a particular company is it a legitimate company do they have the expected to conduct this
particular experiments all this would have to be tested so the means and method to collect and collude
this particular information is very important and the global scrutiny of this particular method will also
have to be taken but here we should not only focus on the end. that is a result but we should also focus
on how this particular information is derived from a process this ultimately leads to people losing their
confidence and undermining the confidence in this medical journals which means that all the good work
that they have done in the past will completely avoid and in the near future doctor scientific people
researchers and infected people who want to read such medical journals will not trust this medical
journals this gives rise to a couple of a concerns as well.
 • discover ultimately influence how doctors treat the patients and the actions taken by the public
authorities let's say for example this is one of the trusted journals now it comes up with a particular
argument that hydroxychloroquine when it is administrator to the covid-19 leads to mortality so what
would happen your the doctors and the public authorities world over wood immediately stop
administering hydroxychloroquine to the patients so who are the measures officers the measures
officers are the people the measures officers are the persons who have been administered with this
particular drug so unfortunately this could cause a square among the public and genuine treatment may
be asked to be withdrawn because of this particular study or research put out by this journal then what
we have is called a peer review.
 • se lancet in this particular case has given out a particular study and certain information with respect
to an infection so I ask another friend or an organisation to review this whole process to review this
whole study only after the other organisation or another organisation or individual says that this
particular study is right and has a global scrutiny on it with respect to a particular organisation that is
when this has to be put out in the open forum now what we see is the peer review with respect to the
lancet was not taken and even in the past that have been scenarios that this particular peer review has
been very slow expensive ineffective anthrone to biased and use and has resulted in fraud as well so we
require a proper analysis global scrutiny and proper peer review such that this issue does not persist in
the near future so much more needs to be done to improve the ethical accountability of all the editors
and the journals in the near future is what is the Crux of this article.

 • *****right time to shift pharma gears****

 • coronavirus has said dark clouds on the activities of humans it has cage does in our homes and strip
does of all of our freedom that is suffering pain grief and Agni patients who are infected their families
and friends are essentials the poor are the measures officers the stomach so empty hands have no work
resulting in Missouri choking and suffocation ultimate leave so what is the solution of this problem the
answer to this is medicines and vaccines.
 • the global market for pharmaceuticals is currently worth 1.7% of the cross world product roughly
about 55% of this global pharmaceutical spending is for the brand name products which are typically
under patent according to the statistics about 1.7 % of the global money that is circulating in the market
is present in the pharmaceutical companies in that let's say there is an investment of about hundred
rupees by the pharmaceutical companies in that about 55 rupees goes in brand marketing let's suppose
there is a company like Himalaya which has an hand sanitizer so what the basically do is Himalaya starts
pushing this particular product or sanitizer on multiple other products into the market so about 55
rupees from hundred rupees of investment will be based for the brand marketing so what this article
says is about 1.7 % of the total money that is spent in the world economy is present in the
pharmaceutical market and for about every hundred rupees invested about 55 rupees spent in brand
marketing.
 • now the question is how do the pharmaceutical companies earn their revenues and profits.when it
comes to the investments of a company they picture their money for the r&d so most of the companies
that  are investing the money spent on the research and development instructor they have to find out
what is the root cause of that infection or that particular disease for which research needs to be
conducted development of a product needs to be conducted they have to pay to the scientific personal
and doctors as well so the most important factor for the company spending is with respect to the
research and development followed by this what they have to accomplish is the clinical trials now
research and development has been done with the particular medication weather this particular
medication is working in an efficient manner are there any side effects so these clinical trials will be
conducted on animals and this can also be conducted on the humans after getting dukan sent from that
particular patient so clinical trials to test the efficacy of the drug because of the research and
development will be taken then they also have to invest on the capital tired as well let se for example
they have to hire people so they require a building they require the equipments also belong to parents
that particular building as well so they have invested capital for the infrastructure for the maintenance
of it and also for multiple equipments so they have invested money for the capital of a infrastructure
followed by this in case if conducted a particular experimentation this experimentation currently did not
go right and it has failed and fork directly so much cost will also be added for developing a particular
product so let's say if the particular product is costing about hundred rupees this hundred rupees will
take the cost of the research and development clinical trials capital tied up and the research that has
failed as well so when the releasing a particular product what this means is all the cost that has been
invested in this particular product will be put up on that particular product and the same shall be
extracted from the consumer so what would happen how would the generate money so the min they
have found out that a particular medicine for a particular infection or a disease they would release
immediately into the market so what happens when released into the market so according to it when
the release a particular drug into the market they will start selling it so they will get about 20 years of
patenting rights so other companies will not be able to reverse engineering or they may not be able to
duplicate this particular drug and that company which has founded this particular medicine would get a
patent rights for up to 20 years they would be able to sell this particular drug in the market at the price
that they want to so that they can make profits now we have understood how companies invest their
money how they take back profit from the consumers but the problem is why is that the companies
don't invest on all types of infections and diseases what are the concerns with respect to the research
and development and also investments made by the private officials the answer to this are multiple let's
say some of the neglected diseases such as tuberculosis these are called as poor man's disease the
individuals in the private organisations do not invest or they do not come up with r and d with respect to
all these tering neglected diseases because they would not be able to generate the prophets the whole
motive of the private individuals is profit this is where to invest on those types of medicines those types
of infections when they are able to generate profit and not the ones which are completely neglected for
which is called as the poor man's disease one such example is with respect to the tuberculosis according
to the world health organisation there are about 20 neglected tropical diseases together that affect 1
billion people but attract only. 35 percent of the pharmaceutical industries research and development
because they do not invest because they do not get the prophet because it is a poor man's disease and
he would not be able to buy that particular drug for the product that is why the primary reason
investment goes only into those medicines that the rich are able to buy it let's suppose they want to
invest with money with respect to research and development for the neglected disease but then the
price of this particular drug or the medicine would be so high that the poor people would not be able to
afford it even millions of millions die from the lack of the access to medicines as we initially discussed
and they also die because they cannot afford it and third is the question of the healing value what also
happens izzat pharmaceutical companies and industrial law bees have a closed coordination with the
hospitals and also with the doctors as well so what they do is that they promote that particular drug and
their product their efficiency may not be tested as well that might not have healing value as well and
even if there is a healing value efficiency with respect to that particular disease hascomparatively
reduced over a period of time so all this means that there is a lobbying group which is influencing that
particular doctor or hospital and they are making a lot of prophets eventually which means that the
sufferers are the poor people this need some solution and practical exposure to alternative as well one
such alternative that we are discussing is what is called as health impact fund.
 • let's say there is a particular private company this private companies ultimate motive is about profit
making so they invest in only those type of diseases and derived medicines for it because they ultimately
want crossfit so they are neglecting the neglected diseases of the poor as well that is where this picture
of health impact fund comes in.what is the whole process of the funding of the health impact fund
according to it what we will have is the funding from the governments the governments of that
particular Nation will start investing in the particular fund so there will be multiple governments across
the world so what we will have is that one cent refund government will start in fusing money into this
particular fund and the same fund will eventually be used to contribute for the private investors let's
suppose there is a private investor he is identified a particular drug after due research and development
and he has come up with this particular medicine or vaccine for a particular infection so what happens
let's say this is priced for about 10000 rupees this is something huge this cannot be awarded by the poor
people so what would happen this has to be reduced to an amount let's say about 500 so how do we
reduce it all the countries and their governments will pitch in on a common pool. let's say this
commonpool has about 1 lakhin the Kitty teaser just hypothetical numbers now what would happen is
that this private company would be asked to join this health impact fund the minute they join this 10000
that is actually the cost price of this particular drug will be reduced about 500 rupees so they would be
able to recover the distribution cost they would be able to recover there is research and development
cost but they would not be able to recover their profits in order to recover their profits the money that
is present in this kit will be used and their will be rewarded to all those individual companies the profits
for the per private companies will be provided by this money that has been contributed by the global
community and its governments what are the advantages of this this can be segmented into 3 parts one
for the patient next for the government and third is for the private individuals how is that the private
individual of the company gets advantages first it may not have to worry about its profit because it is a
central pool which will be providing the profits and this profits is on the way basis of impact let's say
there is a particular drug and this particular drug has an impacted large number of people then some
percentage that is present in the central pool will be given as profits to this private organisation how is it
advantages for the government the government would be invested certain proportion of its GDP on this
particular Central full so it is reducing the amount of money that is investing on the medical drugs for its
own people by investing in this Central pool and for the patients now the private individuals will be
motivated to invest on the neglected diseases as well so the number of diseases that the private
individuals and the RND will be interesting is comparatively more and the drug will be comparatively
cheaper as well so these are the advantages for the private individuals the government as well as for the
patients and other advantage for the private organisations is that they would be able to sell their
product or the medicine at exorbitant prices for all those countries who are not part of the century
pulling so if those countries who are not part of the central pulling search countries cannot get the
cheaper medicines and other important factor is that this health impact fund will start recording the
private individuals and organisations not for their sales but for their efficiency of the medicine if they are
able to create an impact with respect to that disease then it is serving a large number of people the
revolving for that particular for company starts increasing so it is not the sales where they have a tie up
with the company or the hospital for that particular doctor but instead the number of people who has
come outside this particular disease is what will be considered and this is what is called as health impact
fund.so basically the health in fact. is about a sent to find their government start contributing and the
profit for the private investments will be given from this point on the basis of efficiency of the drug.
 • *****ahead of vote for UNSC seat India launches campaign brochure*****
 • what is this non permanent United Nation security seat?
 • go to 27th june 2019
 • in the present scenario India is in all likelihood set to take up its role as a non permanent member of
the United Nations security council for the year 2021 and 2022 as a part of this India is planning to
introduce some of the key initiatives what are those one it is about new opportunities with respect to
the United Nation security council it is planning to come up with the protocol with with respect to how
international terrorism has to be seen reforming this multilateral system of United Nations security
council and expanding the United Nations council and promoting technology to find solutions to to the
issue of terrorism and multiple other things for international peace and security for all this India has
come up with a brochure so what would be the approach that India has taken this is on the basis of 5S
that is about samman which is respect Samvaad which is about dialogue sahyog operation Shanti which
is about peace to create conditions for universal and samriddhi which is about prosperity of all other
countries. so what India seeks to achieve is step establishment of norms these norms are new
orientation for a reformed multilateral system.

 • ****draft  rules prohibit use of drone for delivery***

 • the government of India under the ministry of civil aviation has come up with the draught rules and
this is with respect to the unmanned aircraft rules of the year 2020 what does it include it in speaks
about importing the drones manufacturing the drones and owning the drones according to its usage
according to this particular analogy let's say there is a person who is importing a drone are there is a
person who is manufacturing a drone in India or he is using a drone for multiple purposes all these
people will have to take the approval of the director general of civil aviation the director general of civil
aviation also has all the powers to inspect that particular region wherever the manufacturing has been
taken place so only after it has looked into the manufacturing process the company and it is look into
the legitimacy of the company that is when licensing will be provided licences will also have to be
obtained for any kind of operation for obtaining licences if it is an individual that individual needs to be
about 18 years of age and in case their business operators they will have to be Indian nationals as well
only for Indian nationals and only if there are 18 years of age that is when the permissions will be given
according to the drone policy CEO in the case of companies the requirement is that the main place of
business has to be in India they have to be operative in India and the chairman and at least two thirds of
the directors have to be Indian citizens and in the present scenario the article says that this particular
rules will be put out in the public forum and all the stakeholdersapproach and their feedback would be
taken and eventually permission will also be given to multi status as well as those operating it is what is
the Crux of this article.

 • ****RBI creates 500 crore fund to boost payment infra****

 • Payments infrastructure development fund-this is an initiative that is taken by the reserve Bank of
India what happens under this initiative we all know about thepoint of sale machines this requires a
infrastructure where digital transaction can take place this infrastructure is currently comparatively
backward entire 3 as well as tyre fix cities this includes according to 2001 census their population is in
the range of 20000 to 50000 tier 4 includes 10000-20000 tier 5 includes 5000 to 10000 and tires 6 cities
includes less than 5000 population so in all these cities there is a need for digital transactions and
infrastructure to promote it the RBI has come up with payments infrastructure development fund
according to it will have an investment of about 500 crore where initial amount will be contributed by
RBI and then the other half of 250 crore will be given by the card issue in banks which means it can be
SBI or HDFC or it can also include card network operator which is like Visa and it can also include rupay
as well so 250 crores will be invested by the RBI in the other 250 crore will be invested by card issue in
banks and card networks so this pool of money will be used to build up the infrastructure in tier 3 to  tier
6 cities why is this important this will provide digitisation of payment system and give importance to
infrastructureacross the country so this PIDF will be governed by an advisory council and will be
managed and administration by the reserve Bank of India.
 

7th june 2020

 • ****Andhra Pradesh to hold talks with Orissa on water sharing*****
 • The Vamsadhara river happens to originate in the kalahadi district in Orissa and ultimately it releases
the Bay of Bengal near the state of Andhra Pradesh. Mahendrataneya is one of the important tributaries
of this river Vamsadhara. It flows to the states of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.because it flows through
the state of Orissa and Andhra Andhra Pradesh both these states in the year 1960 to entered into and
consensus what is this mutual agreement all about because it flows into the state of Andhra Pradesh
and Orissa said that there will be having an understanding of sharing this water in the ratio 50:50. So a
mutual understanding between the state of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh we entered into where the
water sharing is onthe basis of 5250 ratio so this water that is utilised by both these States will be used
for irrigation purposes drinking water industrial and other activities as well to meet the irrigation needs
Andhra Pradesh government came up with a particular project and that is what is called as the
vamsadhara project what is this vamsadhara project the vamsadhara project has to main canals one is
the left main canal and the right main canal the left main canal was constructed and there was no issue
in its construction and it was completed as well and irrigation facilities that was supposed to be provided
were taken up by Andhra Pradesh government then came the right main canal this right main canal
required the construction of the neradi barrage this neradi barrage which will require about hundred
and six acres of land that was supposed to be contributed from the state of Orissa so the left main canal
had no issues and they were able to constructed but for the construction of the right main canal which
required the construction of the average about 106 acres of land water be contributed by the Orissa
government everything was fair and fine and everything was acceptable the Orissa government did give
consent to it in the initial period but then the Orissa government also realised that this would require
excessive land acquisition than what was initially agreed that is the original agreement had required
about 106 acres of land from Orissa why Orissa becausethis is a river which flows through the state of
Orissa as well as Andhra Pradesh but then Orissa government realised that it required excessive land
acquisition which is something more than the one not six acres of land and they also realised at once
this particular bad is that is a niradi barrage is built the backwaters could inundate all the regions the
wages in the state of Orissa so the Orissa raise objections with respect to the narrative bridge sighting
the reasons that several villages in the state of Orissa will be inundated will be flooded and this would
ultimately harm the livelihood and the life of the farmers as well as a villages in the state of Orissa this is
when there was a conflict between the state of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh this is where the Andhra
Pradesh government filed complaint in the year 2009.define the complaint under the union ministry of
water resources the union water resource Minister was asked to set a particular tribunal and then this
particular complaint was to be referred to the tribunal that is when in the year 2010 the tribunal was
raised and that is was is called as the vamsadhara water dispute tribunal and this was headed by justice
mukundakam Sharma this tribunalneed multiple consultations they had you do deliberations and
discussions with all the stakeholders the state of Andhra Pradesh state of Orissa and they came up with
a particular order they said that Andhra Pradesh government would be able to complete the barrage
and they also said that they need to be a supervisory commity this supervisory commity will comprise of
all those representatives from the state of Andhra Pradesh from the State of odisha and their use will
also have the Central water commission as one of its members following this particular order given by
the tribunal the Orissa government appealed to the tribunal to modify this particular order and this
particular issue has been persisting from when this order was released by the tribunal and currently
stating the construction of the narrative bridge across the vamsadhara was possible only with the
consent of the state government officer the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister jaganmohan Reddy set that
he will soon have this discussion with his Orissa counterpart Mr Naveen patnaik to ironout all the
differences with respect to sharing the function dhara so that this particular project becomes a
successful mission.

 • ****serotonin triggers desert locust swarms****

 • we have discussed about the locusts worms and how this has been triggering economic losses for the
farmer what is the impact of it is to the economy and we have also discuss that some of the steps we
have to take in order to ensure that the amount of losses for the farmers are comparatively reduced all
this has been discussed in our past editions but what are the focusing under this article this article will
be focused on one of the components or a chemical known as serotonin which is happening to trigger
the desert locust swarms let's understand what this article in detail before we understand what this is all
about there is one of the important booklets and this booklet is what is called as the locust
environmental booklet this environmental booklet is released by the essay that is the food and the
agricultural organisation of the UnitedNations and this gives a update on the situation and the methods
of handling the locus forms so all the updates and what procedures will have to be taken up is given by
the Food and agriculture organisation in the booklet locust environmental booklet.
 • serotonin is one of the important chemicals it also acts as a neurotransmitter which helps in reeling all
the signals in the human brain from one cell to another so what does the basic functionary since it is a
chemical and since it is a neurotransmitter it helps in translating all the information from one cell of the
brain to the another cell so because of the widespread distribution of it cells in the human brain it is
believed to be influencing a variety of psychological as well as physical functions as well some of the
important functions include social behaviour appetite and digestion sleep and memory and it also has
enhancements with respect to the sexual desire and its functions that is the primary reason it is also
called as the happy chemical it is also called as the depression chemical because there has been an
number of researchers that has been conducted by the researchers with the world community this
community has currently said that incase this serotonin is comparatively less aur it is not secreted or
when there is production that has to be in the concrete level is not present that is when a person enters
the face of depression as well this studies have still been conducting but it is only few reporters and few
organisations and few scientific communities which has said that increase serotonin is not produced at
the optimal levels then this can also lead to depression these are some of the characteristics with
respect to the human body now the same serotonin can be applied to the locals does well when you
look at the locals they usually believe in staying all alone and wanted to have a secluded life and a
singleton they do not want mingle in groups but when the days touch between two locus what it
generates is a particular chemical called as serotonin usually all these locus especially those locusts
which are currently in swarms want to stay single but when they come together when there is a
mechanical touch it triggers a particular process in the body which want them to stay together and that
is what this serotonin does and this reference was given by a study which was conducted by the
Cambridge University as well as the University of city in Australia this study was conducted in a
laboratory setting they had a container and this container had some locus when the number of local
started increasing by edition into this container there was mechanical touch between these locus somo
the locusts more was the mechanical touch and this generated group activity because of simulations by
crowding and that is when there were secretions of serotonin now comes the important update when
they started adding substances that inhibited the production of the serotonin that came to be a
conclusion that the is crowding this touching process was significantly less so the came to a conclusion
that when there are together this will generate behavioral changes leading to for them to come
together because of the mechanical stimulation effects that was generated because of serotonin but
when they started adding substances that inhibit it the production of serotonin they started moving
away from each other and they wanted to enjoy the singleton life as a whole so what this article
currently says that it gives one of the important recommendations saying that in case we are able to
spray all the serotonin inhibitor molecules then we would be able to reduce the impact of this locust
worms is what this article is all about this can also be tried if some of the recommendations given under
this article in the past we have looked at number of pesticides and insecticides that have been tried to
reduce their population and also to kill them as well but this is one of the other recommendations that
can be taken after when the swarm begins to form.

 • ****tracking Google****
 • this article exposes the privacy relations of the Google as one of the important search engines when
we look at Google we have the normal mode and the private mode the private mode is also called as
incognito mode let's say you have opened your browser in a normal mode you might be looking for
some information in your office or you might be working on something in Google in your personal laptop
or you may serve some information in the Cyber centre or it might be on your personal phone as well
when you are using it on your normal mode people would be able to see what you have searched for so
you leave your trace of your history the websites that you have visited and the people can come to a
conclusion that this is what you are looking for.but when you enter the incognito mode are the private
mode you leave no trace of history so this means that a person who comes in next for the person who
logs in next will not have any idea about the history or what information you are looking for this means
that you have ensured that you have privacy with respect to a searches but what is the present scenario
this is what happens in Google when you enter into an incognito mode especially with respect to Google
chrome it clearly says that it will not save your browsing history cookies and side data and information
that are entered in forms but it also says that websites you visit can also track you your employee or the
school can track you and at the same time the internet service provider like the act or the atom or any
other service provider would be able to see what are your Google searches this is what the in incognito
mode is but now there is a case that is filed in the United States of America where they feel that once
they have entered into a private mode for the incognito mode Google has still been looking at you me
and all of us who has been searching on incognito this means that in spite of us going into the incognito
mode the private mode the Google is having a vigilant ise 1 hours and in creating the privacy of millions
of people who has been using internet through these users in a private mode and a lawsuit has been
filed asking Google to pay about $5000000 of using Google that it has been collecting all the information
about Private data which day has been holding on onto in the incognito mode so they believe that
Google gathers all the information through the Google analytics Google ad manager and other organs
that has been encrypted by Google so because they has been able to get all this information in spite of
them being in the incognito mode Google is able to each of us when we enter into the in incognito mode
this helps Google to understand who we are what we do when we had who are friends are what are
political inclination it also helps Google to understand our most intricate and embarrassing moments as
well all this means that in spite of meandering into the incognito mode Google has been violating our
privacy they say that users don't know when Google is tracking you when Google is not tracking us and it
is collect information whether we know or not not about this particular process they also have filed this
particular petition and have brought in multiple view points as well one such viewpoint is with respect to
the federal wiretap act what is Federal via time at this allows any intentional interception of of any wire
oral or electric communication so it has clearly mentioned that intentional tapping of any wire oral that
what we speak and the electronic communication through emails cannot be done by any of the
organisations intentionally or until the government give the permission but is Google violating it yes yes
the petitioners according to them Google has been violating intercepting all the personal information
and hence it is violating the federal fire type act and they have to be prosecuted is what the petitioner
state they also say that there is one of the important laws known as the California invasion of private at
the same act has also been violated by Google as privacy is not taken into consideration by the Google
as a company in fact Google and its YouTube was also asked to pay about 170 million dollar because
they had violated the privacy conditions of the children and they had taken some of the important
potentials of the children without the permission of the parents in the past few years as well for children
whenever they are using Google or YouTube in specific they have to take parental consent in case there
are drawing some information but both Google and YouTube have not done it without parental consent
they were able to take some of the information of the children and in the past Google has also been find
about 170 million dollar for this particular violation they also bring into picture and other important case
and that happens to be Arizona versus the Google case what is the Arizona versus the Google case. we
are moving in a era where everything is being tracked without locationwe have to GPS that is encrypted
in our phones the minute you step out you are at your home and you want to travel all the way from
your home to the traffic or you want to enter into a particular Cafe or you want to enter particular Mall
because there is location that is turned on Google is tracking us everyone of us in our every movement
but what this particular case is that let suppose the location is turned off and we do not want Google to
track you in spite of the location tracker been switched off and ask not giving permission Google was still
able to track your location and then Google was filed a lawsuit against this particular move. Google has
already been issued in the past for wiretapping and low violations in the year 2016 reportedly they filed
particular case where they were trackingall the moves of the Gmail users and they were flooded with all
the advertisements to the Gmail as well we might think that no one is watching us we might have all the
privacy that we require but unfortunately Google is looking into every move and that is how it is able to
generate revenues through the advertisements that is flooding your Gmail accounts as well it is this that
we have to understand with respect to this article.

 • ****figuring out covid-19 terminology****

 • what is an outbreak and outbreak is something that happens in a minute area a small region when
this expands to a country based to a larger community it is called an epidemic and when it spread across
multiple geographical locations or multiple countries rather than speaking to a particular country it is
known as a pandemic. but there are some terms which are given in this article which should be
discussed.
 • comorbidities-suppose there is a person who is suffering from heart disease he also has diabetes he
also has hypertension cancer and multiple other diseases which is already impacting him when this
person becomes infected with covid-19 the person has two two types of tissues first he is already
suffering from all these diseases and secondly there is a covid-19 infection that is what is called as
comorbidity there is an individual who is already suffering from a particular disease and now there is an
issue of covid-19 attacking him so special attention will have to be provided to this person because there
is concern of two issues that is inflicting this person that is what is called as comorbidity.
 • positivity rate-
suppose there are 10 people who are testedcovid-19 test that are conducted for 10 people out of 10
about five people are tested with covid-19 positive so the number of people who have this positivity
rate is about 50% so 10 people are tested for it but 5 people have covid-19 positive then I suppose out
of 10 there are only three people who are tested positive so the number of people who are infected is
33% that is what is called as positivity rate.
 • infection fatality rate-
let's suppose there are about hundred people out of hundred people there are 50 people who happen
to die because of their already affected because of it but they have not recovered in fact they kick the
bucket and ultimately lose their lives. so 50% happens to be the fatality rate and at the same time there
are 30 people who have passed away and 70 people have recovered than 30% happens to be the
infection fatality rate this rate also includes all those people but tests are not conducted but they still
happen to pass away because of covid-19 that is what is called as infection fatality rate.
 • cytokine Storm-
cytokines is nothing but a protein protein which helps us in building immunity let's say there is a foreign
body a virus or bacteria or any other foreign body which is alien to our body what this cytokinin does it
is a protein which helps in building immunity against this foreign body but when they cytokinin happens
to form abruptly and when the immune system is not able to stop it and when the immune system
starts spreading beyond the infected body what we will have a something called as cytokines from
cytokinin is required for the body when there is an abrupt production that is what is known as cytokines
Storm.so abhrak production of cytokinin more than what is required is called as cytokines Tom when
there is cytokines Tom this will obviously start attacking our own body gobbling up the red and white
blood cells and even damaging the liver as well they also dilate the blood vessels the increase the
temperature as well as the heartbeat besides forming blood clots in the system and suppressing the
oxygen utilisation as well as this has been given under this article so basically more production of the
cytokinin then what is required by the body is what is called as cytokine storm.

 • ***A hastag that turned into a rights movement****

 • this article is speaking about Black lives matter which happens to be one of the human
rightsmovement which was initiated by the African American community in the country of the United
States of America what is this black lives matter movement basically what happens is that there is racial
profiling there is violence that is circulated by the white supremacy against the black people in the
United States of America there is racism there is violence that is infected on all these people a
movement against this violence and racism is what is called as Black lives matter and this is happening in
the United States of America historical easy have something called as the slave trade what happens after
this people from the African community in the African continent worshipped in the United States of
America and they were treated as slaves in the United States of America they were asked to work in
fields they were employed in hazardous jobs and these people were not respected because of their skin
and their colour this racism has been perfect waited from a long time and even in the 21st century the
same racism is present in the United States of America as a result of this racism the black lives matter
movement came up this started speaking about the atrocities committed by the white people and also
by the institutional setups and administration the black lives matter is one of those rights movement
which protests against all those police atrocities and brutalities and about those institutional setup
which has racism inflicted into the society of The United States of America then we look at the
institutional setup we have brought the ratio is like racial profiling racial inequality in the United States
of America criminal justice system because of all these institutional buyers police brutality and atrocities
we need one organisation which is voicing its opinion against all these atrocities and that is what is that
lies matter does this black lives matter as a human rights movement came out in the year 2013 as a
movement on the social media what exactly happened there was an African American he was killed by a
white person in the United States of America after killing he was acquitted from this particular crime in
another 6 months so this is when they realised that the criminal justice system was completely in favour
of the white people and was not providing justice to the black people that is the African American
community this is where they started a particular movement called as the black lives matter on the
social media this was able to galvanize people this was able to bring Indian people from multiple sectors
and what they didis that brought all the marginalised sectors African community together to eradicate
the white supremacy and build a local power to intervene in violence inflicted to the black community
both by the state as well as the individuals now comes the point of significance we are living in a digital
era this does not require people to physically come out into the open fight against the government in
state what we require is that a long note a video commenting and also criticizing the move of the
government as well as some people what this will do in this digital era is galvanised the peopleand
remind the people of their rights and also show the strength that their lives also matterand their life
cannot be taken for granted people also put pressure on the government the government will then
bring about institutional reforms policy initiatives and also keep police reforms that is currently in
lacunae or there is a deficiency the hashtag I can't breed has gone viral signifying multiple aspects
analytics of white supremacy the domination of the system creating a suffocation to the environment
the poor whose lives don't matter and inequality which has exasperated in the society I can't breathe is
not just a physical attribute but a mental pain of atrocities imposed in the marginal sectors in the society
then this also inbox emotions in some other countries as well what has happened in the United States of
America when that person said I can't breathe the same said created emotions in India and other
countries as well this can evoke emotions in other countries and a new paradigm can be initiated in that
country then what we also have is riots riots is usuallygiven a negative connotation what are right is also
the language of the unheard the language of the marginal the language of the minority sections with
that particular country so the significant aspect is that this will mobilized the forces there will be able to
realise what their rights are and the show of strength will make the government come up with key
initiatives and reforms and the police brutality will ask to be kept under check now that there is a riot
that is happening these riots will ultimately result in Luton burning of the property and there will be
police violence required to break up the protests civil unrest when there is a riot that will be normal
activities which will be suspended leading to tension in the society for the a single day block a door a
series of locket will halt the economy and can bring the economy to a standstill which will hit many lives
in the society.

 • *****poaching doubled during lockdown says wildlife trade monitoring group****

 • according to report called Indian wildlife emits covid-19 crisis and analysis of the status of coaching in
illegal trade which was given by traffic which happens to be a legal wildlife trade monitoring group the
number of incidence of poaching with respect to the animals have increased during the lockdown why
has there been an increase in coaching and that is because of two reasons firstly because the animals
are killed for the meet that is for the self consumption and they are also traded as well because they are
look for meat and because they are traded for multiple other countries poaching has increased in the
last 2 months.how are the able to come to a conclusion one is because of the spike is a numbers when
the look at the period before lockdown and you consider the number of incidents after the lockdown
was implemented there is a certain fight with respect to poaching of animals so there is spike that they
have witnessed the other is with respect to the arrest. whenever there has been a violation with respect
to the forests there would be arrested by the forest personal the number of forests are also increased as
well so because of spike in number and because of forests they come to the conclusion that poaching
has increased in the last 2 months after lockdown was imposed so we can draw reference that in spite of
the lockdown animals are still under threat the numbers are still struggling so what we require is sum of
the measures that we can take one such measure is that coordination with the implementing authorities
the law enforcement agencies can not alone stop it it will require is multi-stakeholder eproc where
people the tribal society The other NGOs and the lion forcement agencies all Stefan together so that is
thread that is in fitted on the animals can comparatively be reduced so this will require multi-
stakeholder responsibility is what this article speaks about.

 • ****in the eye of the hcq storm****

 • medical journal article discussed yesterday
 

8th june 2020

 • ****restore April status along LAC: India
 • we had discussed few days ago the talks between senior military commanders of both the countries
had been scheduled to in order to resolve the border crisis as per established protocols and
agreements.the stocks had been held on vi of June and during these negotiations the Indian site has
insisted that the status quo as it existed in the month of April should be restored at all locations where
the border standoff has erupted basically India has demanded the Chinese to pull back their forces and
equipments to the p stand off position as it existed in the month of April before the border standoff
erupted in the first week of May in response to these Indian demands China has raised objections to
India's border infrastructure development along the line of actual control but to the Chinese
objectionIndia has said that infrastructure development on the border areas would continue to go on in
the territory that has been clearly established as Indian territory under previous agreements because
China has already developed border infrastructure on its side of the border India has said that its
construction activities would stop and it wants China to honour the existing agreements and restore the
status quo that existed in April but even do these high level talks at the level of senior military
commandments has failed to resolve the crisis it shows that talks at the military and diplomatic level are
going on to resolve the border crisisin a peaceful manner as per established protocols and agreements
but sources in the ministry of external affairs and the Indian army have indicated that unless and until a
diplomatic solution of political solution is found in the current prices troops of both the sides will
continue to hold onto the current positions so we can expect the standoff to get prolonged as it was
seen during the doklam incident of 2017.

 • *****in Persian gulf littoral, cooperative security is key****

 • this article is written by India's former vice president Dr Hamid Ansari in this column the writer
examines the critical role of the literal states of the Persian gulf in the global economy and how
turbulence in volatility in the region affects the global economy as well as the Indian economy and
India's energy requirement.
 • the eight countries that surround the Persian gulf are the littoral states of the Persian gulf this
includes Iran Iraq Kuwait Bahrain Qatar Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates and Oman these 8 littoral
states of the Persian gulf play a critical role in the global economy because all of them are major
producers of crude oil and natural gas in fact a majority of the global oil supplies passes to the Persian
gulf enters the narrow strait of hormuz which is a strategic choke point and then opens automatically
gulf of Oman and further to the Arabian Sea and the Indian ocean this region which is so crucial to the
global economy has been affected by turbulence in volatility over the last few decades and this lack of
stability and collective security in the region effects of global economy as well as the Indian economy
and India energy security as well the writer says that the last time that a Persian gulf was relatively
stable and peaceful was when it was under the British when it was been administered by the Indian civil
services but over the last 70 to 80 years various political religious and ideological divides have left open
the society and along with this the intraregional conflict among the members of the Persian gulf and
interference of external powers has led to a lot a political instability violence conflict and turbulence
over the last few decades as the British vacated the region of the second world war the power vacuum
in the Persian gulf was filled by the United States which was the then predominant power over the
decades the foreign policy doctrines of Richard Nixon Jimmy Carter and other subsequent American
Presidents has always tried to establish American hegemony in the Persian gulf in fact this policy of the
United States continues even to this day then apart from the United States are there extra regional
powers such as a Soviet Union during the cold war and then Russia following the collapse of the Soviet
Union the Israel and Turkey and European powers particularly the United kingdom and France have all
try to interfere in this region leading to greater destabilization and conflict then internally various
political religious and ideological conflict have divided the Persian girls and these internal divides have
always been exploited by the extra regional powers particularly by the United States in order to
establish it has many over the global oil markets but however since 1970 is attempts have been made to
rebuild cooperation among the Persian gulf members and promote collective security in order to reduce
external interference and counter table is empty stabilization in the region but these attempts at
building proper security has been delayed due to the political religious and ideological divides which
primary includes the divide between the shias and the sunnis is represented by the geopolitical conflicts
between the two major power blocks of the Persian gulf that is Saudi Arabia and Iran so
promotingcooperative and collective security in the Persian gulf is primarily centred on cooperation
between Saudi Arabia and Iran but these atoms have been detailed not only due to external
interference but also due to internal divides such as the rise of a Bathist Iraq under Saddam Husainthe
Iranian revolution of 1917 9 the conflict between Iran and Iraq extra external power is particularly
United States has right to explore exert its influence by exploiting these internal divides the writer says
that is this turbulence and volatility has to be reduced then there is a need for a platform which will
promote cooperative security amongst the members which seems to achieve the following two
objectives the first objective should be to promote intra regional cooperation amongst the literal states
of the Persian gulf and the second objective should be to reduce external interference the writer says
that any such cooperative security platform should be sure the following rights to the Persian gulf
countries this includes the freedom to exploit then hydrocarbon reserves and other natural resources
the freedom to export the resources and the freedom to pursue trade and commercial shipping as for
the respective national interests but more importantly such a cooperative security platform should help
the countries of the Persian gulf to resolve conflicts without the need for external interference from
extra regional powers but the writer says that in the current jio political environment establishing such a
cooperative security platform may not be possible because the ki regional grouping that is the gulf
cooperation council is currently aligned with the United States and their jointly locked in a g a political
conflict with Iran see the GCC which is primarily led by Saudi Arabia includes Bahrain Kuwait Oman Qatar
Saudi Arabia and UAE. this grouping representing the Suni powerblock has the blessings of the United
States and their have a mutually beneficial arrangement Sunny Saudi Arabia which sees the sua iran as
an existential threatenjoys unconditional military support from the United States and in return the Saudi
Arabia LED power block has allowed the US to interfere with the geopolitics of the region and thereby
with the global oil supplies as well this alignment between the gulf cooperation council and United
States serves American interests as well because the US shares of hostel relationship with Iran the
United States has consistently opposed iran's nuclear weapons program and it has recently walked out
of the Iran nuclear deal and import stringent economic sanctions against Iran which is stiffling its
economy the recent increasein tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and United States and Iran has
threatened oil supplies past the Persian gulf and strait of hormuz thereby having a major impact on the
global economy even though Kuwait Oman Qatar and UAE has initiated a separate dialogue with Iran in
order to stabilize the region this effort has failed as a result of other global development the spread of
the covid-19 pandemic  in the region in the sudden fall in the global oil prices and the turmoil between
the OPEC has reduced the relevance of the gulf cooperation council and it settings to affect the stability
in the region the writer says that the declining power status of the United States and increasing tensions
between US and Iran and dijiye political and economic factors related to the pandemics have affected
the stability of the region and this creates an urgent need to promote cooperative and collective security
in the region then as far as India's equation with the Persian gulf is concerned these 8 countries of the
Persian gulf and strategic ports such as the wamdarabas dubai etc they are located in the immediate
neighbourhood of India so naturally dejiye political and economic development in this region is going to
have a direct impact on the Indian economy these developments also have an impact on India's energy
security because the gulf cooperation countries account for nearly 34% of India's crude oil imports India
shares a very close and cordial relationship with most of the gulf cooperation council countries and all
the governments of the Persian gulf generally have a friendly approach towards India this close
relationship is built on the fact that bilateral trade between India and the Persian gulf account for nearly
121 billion dollars the region is also home to a large population of the Indian diaspora who contribute to
the in economy of these Persian gulf countries and also send back remittances of about 49 billion dollars
back to India there are close to 9 million Indian workers who decide and work in the Persian gulf country
is and they not only contribute to the economy is that they also contribute to the Indian economy by
sending back precious remittances which is crucial to trichy India's current account deficit apart from
this countries of the Persian gulf are also a crucial source of investment for India particularly in ATS
infrastructure sector oil refinery and petrochemicals in fact the state owned oil companies of Saudi
Arabian AbuDhabi are located looking to invest around 44 billion dollars in one of India's largest oil
refinery that is coming up at ratnavali in Maharashtra then Saudi Arabia aramco which is one of the
world's largest oil refineries is looking to acquire stake in the oil and petrol chemical business of reliance
industries India not only shares such a closed and cordial relationship with the countries of the gulf
cooperation council but it also shares a similar relationship with Iran as well but of late India ties with
Iran has been affected to an extent due to jio political developments involving the US and Iran the
American sanctions against Iran has left the US government to exert pressure on India to cut off trading
and business relations with Iran and this restraint the relationship between India and Iran leading to jio
political and economic consequences on India's national interests traditionally India has always try to
balance relationships with the gulf cooperation countries as well as with Iran India has traditionally try
to stay away from the local and regional disputes but this is increasingly becoming difficult due to the
increase in tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran as well as between the United States and Iran so in
this context the writer says that if India has to ensure its economic and energy security then it needs to
promote dialogue and stability in the Persian gulf and it needs to extend support to the establishment of
a cooperative security platform which can build collective security amongst the Persian gulf countries
their writer hope that such a platform can help stabilize relations between the sunni  powers and the
shia powers and reduce the external interference of extra regional powers.

 • ***paging the private sector in the covid-19 fight***

 • the writers exam in the role of India is private healthcare sector in tackling the covid-19 at the very
outset the writers make it clear that the covid-19 is not going to disappear anytime soon and the
pandemic is here to stay with us at least for coming few years so considering this in order to battle the
pandemic the country would require message resources and investments in order to strengthen its
healthcare infrastructure so the writer say that the pandemic has presented an opportunity to bring in
structural changes in the healthcare sector and rejuvenate private partnerships as of now India's fight
against the covid-19 has been largely led by the public healthcare sector which is already been trained
and overstretched as the number of cases continue to increase exponentially India will be required to
mobilize massive amount of resources and investments and this can be done only by mobilizing private
resources and by building more public-private partnerships India is staring at the possibility of dealing
with a few million cases in the coming months the public healthcare sector alone won't be able to bear
the load and hence the government needs to come out with clear cut policy which can mobilize private
healthcare resources and build partnerships between the public and private healthcare institutions their
writers point out that as of now the role of the private sector in India's fight against the pandemic is not
quite clear the lack of a clear cut policy and clear cut guidelines has affected The other healthcare
services be improved added by the health care sector leading to a cash crunch upon this the lack of
clarity on the charges and private hospitals can impose for covid-19 related services handicapping and
regulations of these prices has further cost and certain it is which has affected cash flow in the private
healthcare sector leading to the locking up of private healthcare resources for the writer says that the
government needs to make use of the pandemic as an opportunity and utilise the 2.1 lakh crore package
announce for the health care sector to unlock private healthcare resources and introduce structural
changes which could rejuvenate the health care sector 3 private participation the writers point out that
there are four areas in particular get the private healthcare industry cannot comment the resources of
the public health care sector this includes testing hospital infrastructure the procurement and supply of
biomedical equipments and establishment of a central intelligence system as we all know the key to
tackle in the pandemic is largely dependent on our ability to carry out mas testing the only way through
which the pandemic can be contained is by spelling of testing and the ability of the public health care
sector scale of testing at the national level is quite limited due to the train on its resources this is one of
the key areas where the private healthcare industry scan augment the resources of the public
healthcare industry and clear cut policy guidelines is written by the government then the private
healthcare sector can help in spelling of testing especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities the next year the
private healthcare sector can supplementary sources of the public health care sector is with regard to
hospital infrastructure because as the number of cases continue to grow hospitalization good increases
well the need for hospitalization would increase as well as special in tier 2 and tier 3 sectors as of now
most of the hospital infrastructure is concentrated in the urban areas and this challenge can be tackled
by dropping in the private healthcare sector to create the required hospital infrastructure in the tier 2
and tier 3 cities their writers appreciate the central government for recently increasing the viability gap
funding to 30% which provides a much-needed capital for private healthcare sector to ramp up
hospitalization infrastructure according to the writer this funding can be used to hire the private sector
to create IC used in public hospitals to provide skilled manpower such as doctors and healthcare
professionals and to provide treatment at fixed rates which could help in reducing the button on the
public hospitals next the private sector can play a key role in ramping up the procurement and supply of
biomedical equipments such as ventilators test kids accept the government can also offer in sentence
and buyback guarantee is in order to promote private healthcare industries to manufacture and supplier
essential biomedical equipments which is very much necessary to augment the resources of the public
health care sector then finally the private sector especially the IT companies that are involved in the
healthcare sector that can help the public authorities to create a central intelligence system that can
help in identification of patients carrying out contact tracing and tracking hospitalization through an
artificial intelligence system so this is how a well defined policy can make use of the pandemic as an
opportunity to bring in structural changes in the healthcare sector and dropping in the private sector 2
supplementary sources of the public healthcare sector.

 • ****addressing the elephant in the room***

 • just a couple of days ago we had an elaborate discussion on the topic of man animal conflict in the
context of the tragic death of an elephant in Kerala this column in today's newspaper takes this
discussion for the end it highlights the debate between environment conservation animal rights and
former rights as we discuss the other day the elephant in Kerala most likely died by accidentally
consuming and explosive-laden fruit that was actually meant to eliminate others smaller animals such as
wild boars or monkey is which cosmic destruction of crops search smaller animals which cosmic
destruction of crops and affect the well-being of farmers they can be declared as warmer mens under
the wildlife protection act of 1972 and the government can authorised there kaling as well as their
hunting in order to keep their numbers on the check when animals such as wild force when the explode
in the numbers and when there is an infestation they can destroy crops in the region leading to
significant losses which has to be Borne by the farmers usually in developed countries they are well
defined policies in place to deal with such threats with the government can order these animals to be
called for hunted down by the local villages themselves it is true that the calling and hunting of war
mens appears to be in human and goes against animal rights but in the largest scheme of things the
elimination of war mens is actually a scientific ways of promoting environment conservation and the
protection of largest threatened species because if the smaller governments are not eliminated to
search policy is it push the farmers in the local villages to resort illegal methods to keep such animals
away which might end up threatening the bigger threatened species of animals in developing countries
such as India's such provisions are rarely used because in most cases wildlife activists oppose the culling
of womens on humanitarian grounds and in the interest of animal rights but what they fail to
understand is that the failure to scientific li eliminate vermins could affect the largest interests of animal
conservation as well as the rights of the farmers the writer for the real estates how the focus from
animal lives and opposition to eliminate governments could affect the large larger interests of
environment conservation it takes examples of wild boars an elephant's that we have recently seen in
Kerala and it says that wild boars can be eliminated considering the destructive impact that they have an
agricultural crops he says that such elimination of wild boars will not affect the species because they
have been listed as least concern in the ucl list where as failure to eliminate the wild boars my tenda
pushing the farmers in the local villages to take up illegal methods which could Chetan raja animals and
threatened species such as the elephants which have been listed as endangered on the ucl red list so the
writer says that animal rights and humanitarian values should not come in the way of making a scientific
toys which could actually lead to the conservation of the environment as well as the promotion of
farmers welfare the writer also says that villages and farmers should not be made to unnecessarily
where the burden of increasing incidence of man animal conflict because the compensation that the
currently receive for the destruction of crops by vermins is already inadequate and the payments are
delayed due to red tapism and brock receive the inadequate compensation and the delay in payment by
might push the farmers and The villages to take up illegal methods to kill the governments and this
might end up threatening largest threatened species of animals as well the writer also says that it is not
search the village of the farmer who is responsible for such environmental destruction it is also the
organ develop who should share a larger part of the responsibility because at the end of the day The
villages and farmers at Rai main to meet the unsustainable demands of the urban dwellers so to
overcome this environmental crisis the writer suggests 2 solutions 1 is to adopt a scientific approach
towards the elimination of vrmins that is devoid of the emotion of animal rights second it is to focus on
the regulation of agricultural and industrial activities in order to reduce habitat destruction because it is 
habitat destruction which is pushing the wild animals in to closer contact with human beings.if you look
at elephants in India for example only 25% of the range falls within protected areas such as wildlife
sanctuaries and national parks. the rest of the range is not protected and this exposes elephants to
greater chances of man animal conflict because their habitat has been destroyed through
developmental activities.so in order to reduce the pressures of development on the habitat of wild
animals the writer suggests that the government should provide a subsidy to the farmers in order to
encourage them to adopt more sustainable ways of farming which doesn't return the natural habitat of
the wild animals and also called up on government institutions HLC national board for wildlife the forest
advisory committee to make more responsible decisions while uploading the diversion of forest land
towards industrial activities.

 • *****Nepal mein PLA host medical team****

 • according to the article Nepal is expected to host a team of medical experts from the people's
liberation army of China in order to help Nepal hunting the spread of the covid-19 in fact China will also
be sending a similar team of medical experts to Bangladesh as well and it has already deployed the team
of experts to Sri Lanka and Myanmar so these diplomatic initiatives of China helps us to understand how
the country is trying to increase its influence in India's neighbourhood by using the pandemic as an
opportunity.

 
9th june 2020
 • *****LG over rules Delhi government order to restrict covid-19 treatment****
 • the lieutenant Governor of Delhi has overruled the orders of Delhi government that had restricted
covid 19 treatment in government and private hospitals only to the Delhi residents earlier the Delhi
government had passed the controversial order that restricted over 19 treatment facilities in the
government and private hospitals of Delhi only to the residents of Delhi Delhi government had justify
this decision by citing a lack of capacity of treating outsiders and hence it was trying to prioritise
residents of Delhi by treating for copd 19 but the lieutenant Governor in is capacity as the chairperson of
the deadly disaster management authority has overruled the decision of the Delhi government and he
has stated in is order that right to health is integral to right to life that has been recognised as a
fundamental right under article 21 of the Indian constitution and hence this fundamental right cannot
be restricted on the basis of ones residency disorder of the lieutenant-governor highlights of conflict
between the office of the lieutenant Governor of Delhi government to the distribution of powers as far
as administration of the national capital region is concerned this development also highlight start the
Chief Minister of Delhi does not share the same powers as that of the chief ministers of other states
because in other states it is the Chief Minister who is the chairperson of the state disaster management
authority but in the case of Delhi the administrator of the NCR region that is the lieutenant Governor
access chairperson of the deadly disaster management authority and not the Chief Minister of Delhi is
also highlights the conflict between the office of the devil lieutenant Governor and the office of the
Delhi chief minister robot the distribution of powers.
 • Delhi enjoy special status by virtue of being the national capital of India since it is the national capital
it acts as a seat of power for the central government and it also houses foreign missions and embassies
so in this regard Delhi enjoy a unique strategic value and ensuring it security is a great concern for the
central government the central government good naturally have the desire to secure the seat of power
and it also has an obligation to ensure the security of the foreign missions in the national capital the
centre would like to utilise land as it deems fit and make our locations for various government offices as
well as foreign embassies for the purpose of security law and order and control over land the central
government would desire to have control over three state subjects that is land police and public order
which otherwise would have been placed under the state list of the seventh schedule of the Indian
Constitution so the need of the centre to exercise control over the subjects of land police and public
order was fulfilled through the 69th constitutional amendment act was introduced article 239 a and
article 239 abi to the Indian Constitution this article outlines the special status that is given to Delhi it
establishes Delhi as the national capital region and it has been set up as a union territory with an elected
legislative Assembly it also provides that the NCR region would be administered by the office of the
lieutenant Governor who would be appointed as the administrator by the central government to the
office of the President of India essentially the lieutenant Governor of Delhi apps on the advice of the
president and the home affairs in order to administer the NCR region and established the control of the
centre over the three subjects but with regard to all the other state subjects it is the council of Ministers
who are drawn from the electric legislative Assembly is headed by the Chief Minister who would
exercise which restriction administrative powers but this unique distribution of powers lays the ground
for a conflict between the office of the lieutenant Governor and the Delhi government over the year
complaint of the Chief Minister of Delhi and Delhi government has always been that the central
government unnecessarily interferes in the administration of the NCR region by misusing the office of
the lieutenant Governor after a series of legal battle between the LG is office and the Delhi government
the matter was finally settled by the supreme court in historic ruling in 2018 in this case the supreme
court held that the lieutenant Governor has no discretionary powers of his own the supreme court made
it clear that as far as a subjects of land police and public order are concerned the lieutenant-governor
would be acting as per the directions of the ministry of home affairs issued to the office of the President
of India and apart from these three excluded subjects a lieutenant governor is bound by the advice of
the council of Ministers of Delhi government but despite this ruling of the supreme court the power
tussle between the office of the lieutenant Governor of Delhi government has continued in few areas for
example in 2019 there was another legal battle between these two institutions which had reached the
door steps of the supreme court this dispute was over the powers of the Delhi government to appoint
and transfer government officers and to exercise control over the Anti corruption bureau in this ruling
the supreme court Drew a boundary between the powers of the lieutenant Governor and the Delhi
government and it recognised that that Delhi government had the power to appoint and transfer
officers where as the lieutenant Governor enjoys jurisdiction over the Anti corruption bureau but still
there are a number of other areas and subjects were the conflict keeps coming up and this is one of the
reasons why the elected government of Delhi has always been demanding full statehood for the NCR
region but the centre has taken the opposite stand and it says that they NCR region cannot be granted
full statehood because it is the national capital of India and binding the national capital it acquires a
strategic value for the centre and it would be very essential for the central government to exercise
control over at least these three subjects as far as the administration of the NCR region is concerned so
yesterday's order of the lieutenant-governor overall in the decision of the Delhi government falls under
the same category the lieutenant Governor as the chairperson of the Delhi disaster management
authority has passed this order but however this code open up a new legal battle between the office of
the lieutenant Governor and the Delhi government.

 • ****selling space****
 • this article examples of opportunities and concerns raised by commercial space exploration and the
involvement of private corporations in the space sector recently space x the us-based private space
company established by popular entreprenuer Elon Musk achieved a major milestone it successfully
launched a batch of astronauts from American soil after a gap of 9 years because nearly A decade ago
NASA the public sector space organisation of United States has shut down its human space program and
and manned missions due to budget constraints since 10 national lost the capabilities to launch
astronauts from American soil and it have to rely upon Russia to send astronauts Andre supplies to the
international space station this arrangement between USA and Russia was costing NASA nearly 80
million dollars for putting one astronaut in space so this was not only a financial burden for the United
States that it was also technological and strategic disadvantage so in order to nurture a homegrown
human space programmes introduced financial implications NASA tied up with private space players
such as basics through public private partnership initiative and as a result of this type and as a result of
years of effort on the part of space x it has successfully managed to launch astronauts from space
American soil and this achievement has opened up numerous possibilities as far as commercial space
flights are concerned this achievement of space x and the success of this type between space and NASA
not only present financial advantage for NASA as compared to the expensive launch is offered by Russia
but it also presents an opportunity to open up numerous commercial possibilities in space it shows that
is private space corporations are allowed to flourish in collaboration with public space organisations that
it could open of numerous possibilities and numerous opportunities for the commercial exploitation of
space in the largest interest of mankind in fact Elon Musk has already made ambitious plants of
colonizing mars.through space x he manage to place a Tesla roadster carin an orbit around the sun has
also proposed to make space travel as simple and easy as a travel in fact a Japanese billionaire has
already tied up with spaces to potentially become the first commercial travel to the moon and back the
reason why commercial space flight se so exciting is because it represents the technological leap and
provides an opportunity for the emergence of new innovations in technology because the private sector
is always driven by the profit motive unlike the public sector and this would force private space
organisations to reduce their cost of operation by developing reusable technology and this word for the
make space travel more affordable INSAT spacex's already been a Pioneer in the development of
reusable technology after numerous experiments and failures spacex's manage to come up with
reusable rockets and boosters which can vi secondly reduce the cost of space travel to the development
of such reusable technology can open of the doors for more innovation and for the emergence of new
technologies the editorial says that the success of this public private partnership model in the United
States of a lesson for India as well because India recently opened at space sector for private
participation so the successful partnership between acid and space x offers a lesson for ISRO and India's
private players in fact in ISRO has already taken up number of initiatives in order to increase private
participation in India space centre ISRO has tied up with the number of private players in order to
outsource the manufacturing of various components that go into rockets and satellites ISRO is also
looking into outsource the building of launch vehicles because it has already perfect the design of the
launch vehicles HSD PSLV so instead of getting involved in routine tasks such as manufacturing of
components and building of launch vehicle ISRO can transfer this technology to the private sector and
private players can take over these routine tasks such collaboration between the public and private
sector will free of is Rose resources which could otherwise be dedicated for research and development
as well as for space exploration activities collaboration between the public and private space player
scored allowed the private sector to bring it technical expertise and this would create opportunities for
renovation and the emotions of new technologies and this presents numerous commercial possibilities
for India's space sector but such a collaboration between the public and private sector also rises and
number of concerns first and foremost space exploration is a very risky business and hence failures are a
part and parcel of space exploration so the question is will the Indian government is row and India's
private companies have the appetite to bear the cost of failures which is gone to occur when you players
enter the domain and when u r technologies are being carried out if you look at specific it did not
achieve overnight success with its rocket the Falcon and the dragon capsule IT took years and years of
effort and numerous failures to achieve success but all the time NASA and space explorer patient
enough to allow this failures to happen so if India is looking and promoting such public private
partnership models then it should have the appetite to bear the cost of sucks failures this failures are in
fact essential to promote innovation and to allow the emergence of new technologies the next concern
is that can a public private partnership model keep the cost under control because of life private sector
is always given by the profit motive and this could create an incentive for inflating cost which may have
to be Borne by the public sector this model me also create more opportunities for corruption especially
when it comes to the selection of private players by ISRO so in order to address these concerns the
government needs to take adequate care in order to strike a fine balance between private interest and
the objectives of the public sector so it would be essential for the government to promote a system that
is based on transparency and accountability in order to address these concerns surrounding public
private partnership in the space sector.

 • ****who is afraid of monetization of the deficit?****

 • this article evaluates the current state of the Indian economy when the pandemic broke out and when
the logged on was imposed economic growth came to a standstill so in this context revising growth was
the governments top priority and several experts predicted that the government would be willing to
spend and provide a message fiscal stimulus even at the cost of increasing its that the experts felt that
even if the government go to increase its spending substantially which would eventually increased its
physical deficit and the public debt to GDP ratio they expected that the markets and the credit rating
agencies good not react negatively because they would understand that we are living in unprecedented
circumstances but contrary to this prediction the government did not significantly increased it spending
but despite this India's credit rating has been downgraded by the credit rating agencies recently
moodys  which is one of the major credit rating agencies of the world downgraded India's sovereign
credit rating from the BAA2 to BAA3. this credit rating of India is just one level above the junk category
now we might believe that movies has downgraded India spirit rating as a result of the economic impact
of the pandemic but Modi's has made it very very clear that the downgrade has nothing to do with the
pandemic according to mood is India's downgrade its credit rating is a result of a poor economic
fundamentals which existed even before the pandemic and the lock down in the pre pandemic days
movies has identified 3 particular reason for the Indian economy which can include slow economic
growth rising that especially fiscal deficit as well as public debt to GDP ratio and the weakness in India's
financial sector as a result of India's rising non performing assets now you might say that we need not be
worried about the rating provided by a foreign agency and the might even criticize Modi's for being
biased against India The mighty one question the methodology adopted by Modi's but at the end of the
day we cannot take not the fact that credit rating provided by institutions HS Modi's carries a lot of
weight in the global financial market and in the future if India's rating is downgraded to the junk
category Den investors especially foreign institutional investors woodfree the Indian capital markets
which would have a devastating impact on the stock markets and the currency markets of India so the
writer say that if India needs to avoid this situation that the government needs to focus entirely on
reviving economic growth through increased government spending that is through a message fiscal
stimulus without worrying about the rising death right now the government is worried that for the rise
in debt and fiscal deficit would have a negative impact on the market as well as on the perceptions of
the Indian economy in the eyes of the credit rating agencies so this belief of the government has forced
it to focus excessively on containing the fiscal deficit so as a result the government has been hesitant to
come out with the message fiscal stimulus package that could increase government spending and help
provide growth. instead the government has relied upon banksto give out loans in order to help trigger
economic and industrial activities especially in the m s m e sector the writer criticizes this approach of
the government of India and he says that the government should have instead focused on increasing
government spending especially on the infrastructure sector in order to help provide growth now the
question in your mind would be if the government increases spending, won't this increase fiscal deficit
of the country leading to a negative impact on India's credit rating which could for the remote negative
sentiments in the Indian market but the writer argues that an increase in government spending will not
necessarily have such and impact and in order to understand is argument we need to first understand
the two ways in which fiscal deficit can be increased.according to the writer there are two ways in which
fiscal deficit can be increased one is through a discretionary fiscal stimulus and second is through was
automatic stabilizer discretionary fiscal stimulus is a case where the government is deliberately adopting
a policy to increase government spending in order to revive economic growth the writer says that such
an increase in fiscal deficit will not be viewed negatively by the markets of the credit rating agencies
where as in the case of automatic stabilizer attracts a negative sentiment because this is a case where
physical deficit is increasing due to slow economic growth resulting in Puri revenue collection for the
government for the argument of the writer is started the government is looking to revise growth
without affecting the perception of the Indian economy by the market for the credit rating agencies then
it needs to increase government spending through a discretionary fiscal stimulus which will result in an
increase in fiscal deficit but such increasing fiscal deficit will not be viewed negatively by the market for
better credit rating agencies because it is when it has been designed as a matter of policy to revise
growth and this photo also help to increase revenue collection for the government which would for the
reducer fiscal deficit but on the other hand if the government is holding back on it spending and the
government is not giving out a major fiscal stimulus due to the features of increasing fiscal deficit then it
could result in the automatic stabilizer effect this is a k case where the government is incident to provide
a fiscal stimulus and hands growth would stagnant government revenues Vedic line for the leading to a
for the increase in fiscal deficit and development would be viewed negatively by the market and the
credit rating agencies and it carries the risk of India's credit rating downgrade to the junk category so the
writer advises the government to come up with the discretionary fiscal stimulus by monetizing the
deficit but in the market the term monitization of deficit stearates a lot of fear because generally the
term monitization of deficit is associated with the printing of notes on the printing of currency was the
central bank but the writer says that this is largely of misconception see markets are usually worried
that printing of notes by the RBI will result in an increase in money supply leading to inflation in the
economy but the writer says that this is an irrational fear because there is a lack of understanding as to
how the government can monetize its deficit deficit country monitor is not only by printing of note for
the central bank but also when the central bank by state treasury bills are the t bills from the
government.the writer also advises the government to look at modern monetary theory which
promotes the idea of monetizing the deficit through electronic means that is without having the central
bank to printnotes or by t bills from the government proponents of the modern monetary theory
advocate that the central bank and monitise the governments deficit by simply crediting the
governments account within electronic accounting entry this eliminates the need toprint notes or to buy
t bills and even do this route of deficit monitization lead to an increase in money supply it need not turn
inflationary because in an economy by demand is already very low and their unemployment is already
increasing it is highly unlikely that increase in money supply will lead to inflation so the writer says that
the government and the markets need not worry about any inflation tendencies and they need to
welcome monitization of the deficit in order to increase government spending and promote economic
growth.

 • ****the critical role of decentralized responses****

 • in this column the writer is of the opinion that the pandemic has highlighted the critical role of local
governments and decentralized system of government because in battle in the panda make it is the local
governments that is our Panchayat institutions and municipal bodies which are at the forefront of this
fight date at the identification of cases contacts racing establishment of containment zones nakshatra in
all the efforts it's the local government which are at the forefront of our fight at the pandemics so in this
context to the writer says that the pandemic has provided an opportunity to review the fiscal status of
our local governments and to physically empowered this grassroot institutions in order to truly make
them decentralized centres of governance for this purpose the writer explore three roots through which
local governments can be physically empowered first and foremost writer says that the central
government and state government need to strengthen the local finances of the local government for
example the local bodies could be allowed to raise more revenues from property tax collections and
record also be allowed to impose other local taxis with appropriate exemption from the state and the
centre local government school also be allowed by the state governments to monetize the land that is
under their jurisdiction and impose a betterment levy on the land then municipal bodies in the
panchayats could also be allowed to issue a corona containment Bondwith a decent interest rate in
order to raise revenue with the public the right a reminder as how the research and India Bond which
was issued in 1998 helped the government to mobilize around 4 billion dollars in just a matter of few
days according to the writer such taxation and revenue racing measures can help strengthen local
finances for the local governments and this would enable them to verbalize adequate resources in order
to deal with the economic and health impact of the pandemics then the writer appreciates the decision
of the central government to suspend the MPLADS pant for a period of 2 years as we discussed a couple
of months ago spending under MPLADS was largely discretionary and the centre decided to suspend the
fund for a period of 2 years in order to mobilize resources to find the betterment of the suspension of
the MPLADS  scheme will health Central government raise around 4000 crore rupees but the writer
suggest that the sentence to transfer this money to the local governments in order to strengthen their
finances then finally the writer says that the 15th finance commission should consider making a higher
allocation for the local governments because its allocation of 19000 crore rupees for the 2020-21
financial year is 3% higher than the early recommendation of the 14th finance commission so through
this recommendations the writer is making a case for the fiscal empowerment for local governments
which are at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic.

this column evaluates the pros and cons of diplomacy the pandemic has pushed private business schools
and colleges and even governments to conduct their businesses through virtual means by video
conferencing and the same holds good for the world of diplomacy and international relations as well
ever since a pandemic broke outvirtual summits between leaders have become the norm and we have
seen this with the SAARC summit that prime Minister Modi had called to discuss the Hobbit 1920 make
more recently biso virtual interaction between India and Australia and the same model was followed for
a meeting of the G20 leaders as well as the name countries in fact even other countries and
international organisations HSC United Nations the world health organisation excetra even they have
shifted to the virtual mode and this is completely transformed the shape of traditional diplomacy
diplomacy definitely bring the number of advantages first and foremost holding a virtual samay during a
panda make ensure safety of the top political leadership and prevent them from getting exposed to the
violence second it considerable brings down the cost involved in travel and in the organisation of the
summit and third it will save precious time for the leadership and we can count these are some of the
advantages of diplomacy but in the traditional world of diplomacy and international relations face-to-
face interaction between the leaders is highly valued that is reason why there is always a lot of height
associated with summit level interactions between the leaders because such events have an element of
personal connect which provides an opportunity for the two leaders as well as the diplomat on both the
sides to interact with the personal level this personal equation of fossil chemistry between the leaders in
the diplomats can actually set the tone for the entire relationship and it can also come in handy during
times of crisis also face to face summits between two leaders carries a lot of symbolic value and political
value because search some it's are usually high-profile events and the excitement surrounding such
summit can help the governments and shaping public opinion as well as for example the recent high
profile visit of Donald Trump to India similarly prime Minister Modi has carried out minister Sach hai
profile visits to other countries and such events carry a lot of political and symbolic value as well in fact
such face-to-face interaction between the two leaders is so preferred in the world of diplomacy that
there are strict protocols that govern the event and the interaction between the two leaders is tightly
choreographed thanks to the personal nature and the high profile nature of these events it usually
translates into substantial outcomes for by the for the bilateral relations take for example how the
personal interaction between prime Minister Modi and President XI jinping at the wahan informal
summit help the two leaders to resolve the doklam dispute and the even followed it up with other
informal summit at mamalapuram but in the case of diplomacy or virtual summit this element of person
interaction and the high profile nature of the event is completely missing so this has led to concerns
about the productivity of such virtual interaction between two countries leaders would also be
concerned that it diplomacy and virtual summit will not help them fulfill their political goals which could
be Touche public opinion as well as to term diplomatic issues into electoral issues then finally the
biggest concern with regard to diplomacy is cyber security because any interaction between two
countries and especially between two leaders is always confidential and there is no guarantee that in
the cyber domain confidentiality and secrecy can be maintained in such virtual submit could be
vulnerable to Cyber attacks which could be carried out by hostel countries but irrespective of these
concerns e diplomacy is the way forward for the time being as a result of the Phantom make and both
India and Australia have shown that substantial outcomes can still be achieved through virtual summers
as well because during this virtual interaction between prime Minister Modi and Scott Morrison number
of ki agreements have been signed between India and Australia spanning across various factors
including defence Maritime operation disaster management accept this shows that is Amit sar the way
to go for the time being or else bilateral relationship could start stagnating as a result of the pandemic.
 • ****the e-diplomacy experiment***
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