Standard Chartered gives 20-week paternity, adoption leave to all employees (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The Standard Chartered Bank recently announced that a 20-week paternity and adoption leave will be given to employees globally as part of its inclusion drive.
Inclusive culture:
- The leave will be made available irrespective of gender, relationship status, or how a child comes to permanently join an employee's family.
- Effective September 1, the new HR policy was part of the company's commitment to fostering an inclusive culture where employees are supported in balancing their personal lives with building successful careers.
- Maternity benefits will continue to be at 26 weeks, in line with the statutory requirements.
What is the law on maternity leave?
- The Indian Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, provided maternity benefits, which included paid leave, medical bonuses, and nursing breaks.
- The 1961 legislation lacked specific provisions extending maternity benefits to adoptive mothers, and this change was brought about through a 2017 amendment.
- The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act, 2017, not only extended the period of maternity leave for biological mothers but also inserted a provision extending maternity leave to adoptive mothers.
- The amendment revised Section 5 of the Act to allow 26 weeks of paid leave after childbirth to biological mothers previously entitled to 12 weeks.
- It also inserted Section 5(4), stipulating that surrogate or adoptive mothers legally adopting a child below three months would be entitled to a maternity benefit of 12 weeks from the date the child is handed over to the mother.
- However, a woman adopting a child older than three months is not entitled to any maternity leave.
What is the law on paternity leave?
- Rule 43-A provides paternity leave for a period of 15 days to a male employee with less than two surviving children.
- Paternity leave can be availed of during his wife's confinement for childbirth or up to six months from the date of delivery of the child.
- Under the Paternity Benefit Bill, 2017, fathers working in all sectors, including private and unorganised, are entitled to paternity leave.
- The bill made 15 days of fully paid leave available to fathers, out of which up to seven days can be availed preceding the expected date of pregnancy. The leave can be taken within three months from the child's delivery date.
- The bill proposed to extend similar benefits to adoptive parents.
Reliance announces Jio AirFibre
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, Reliance Jio has announced the launch of its fixed wireless broadband solution, which will leverage the telco’s 5G network.
- The offering, called Jio AirFibre, is expected to bring in close to 200 million paying users to the network over the next three years.
- Earlier Bharti Airtel had launched a similar product based on 5G technology in Delhi and Mumbai, called Xstream AirFiber.
Why could this be the beginning of a new market?
- In 2016, as Jio launched its 4G services, it also disrupted the Indian telecom market forever; bringing down the cost of mobile data significantly and leading to a boom in data consumption across the country.
- While the effects of that were largely felt for mobile users, with AirFibre, Jio is looking to replicate some of that success in India’s dwindling and minuscule home broadband market.
- JioAirFiber will use the company’s 5G network coverage and advanced wireless technologies to bypass the need for last-mile fibre. The result could increase daily connections by nearly ten times.
What is the broadband market in India like?
- Even as India has seen a significant uptake in mobile Internet users, home broadband coverage remains patchy.
- According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), there were a little over 35 million wired broadband subscribers in the country as of June 2023. The fixed wireless broadband market is tinier, around 950,000 subscribers as of June end.
- The current wired broadband companies are Reliance Jio (9.17 million), Bharti Airtel (6.54 million), BSNL (3.66 million), Atria Convergence (2.16 million) and Hathway (1.12 million).
What could be the AirFibre impact?
- Currently, Jio Fibre reaches 10 million homes and its optical fibre cable spans over 1.5 million kilometres. With Jio AirFiber, it has the potential to connect up to 150,000 homes every day.
- The company has increased its addressable market guidance for home broadband to 200 million homes versus 100 million homes earlier.
Why Palau, a Pacific island, has emerged as a battleground in US-China strategic contest
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- Lying 3,815 miles southeast of India, the Republic of Palau, made up of approximately 340 islands, islets, and atolls, is the latest Pacific Island country to be drawn onto the emerging battleground between the US and China.
Palau EEZ:
- The Palau EEZ is an area adjacent to the territorial sea.
- The coastal state has sovereign rights within the exclusive economic zone to explore and utilize the natural resources of the waters adjacent to the seabed and of the seabed, as well as to engage in other economic exploitation and exploration activities within the zone, such as the generation of energy from the water, currents, and winds.
US and Palau
- The US and Palau signed a bilateral law enforcement agreement recently allowing the US Coast Guard to enforce regulations at sea in Palau’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on behalf of Palau, in the absence of a Palauan officer.
- The signing of the agreement with the US, on the sidelines of the fifth annual Joint Heads of Pacific Security meeting held on 23-24 August in Palau, comes at a time when China is trying to increase its footprint in the Pacific Island countries (PIC), which includes Palau, because of its geostrategic importance.
China’s activities:
- China has also been flexing its muscles against Palau in recent months.
- In May, a Chinese research vessel reportedly showed an apparent interest in Palau’s underwater fiber optic connection during a journey into the Palau waters, slowing down as it passed the area.
- The research vessel reportedly entered Palau’s EEZ without providing any notification.
- While China is reportedly seeking a permanent military presence in the Pacific Islands, Chinese mining and construction firms are said to have increased operations in several Pacific island countries.
- In 2014 and 2018, President Xi Jinping reportedly made two visits to the South Pacific region and held meetings with leaders of PICs having diplomatic ties with China.
Taiwan factor:
- In June, Palau’s President Surangel S. Whipps Jr., accused China of undertaking surveying operations in the waters off Palau, claiming that perhaps China was punishing his nation for its position on Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province to be brought under Chinese control.
- Palau, located less than 2,000 miles south of Japan, 3,815 miles southeast of India, and about 950 miles southeast of the Philippines, is one of the countries that recognises Taiwan and maintains diplomatic relations with the island.
Strategic importance of Pacific Islands for US:
- The Pacific Islands are geostrategically significant, particularly owing to their importance for maintaining critical logistical supply lines and projection of military force.
- The logistics for maintaining crucial supply routes for the US and its allies in the region would be significantly affected, if China is able to entrench a military presence in the Pacific Islands.
- The Brookings Institution analysis calls this possibility a “high-impact risk” for Australia specifically, given that it has defence capabilities to support US-led coalitions.
- In June 2023, the US in an effort to boost ties with the PIC, renewed its economic assistance to Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia for the next 20 years. The US also reportedly hopes to renew the agreement with the Republic of Marshall Island as well. These three countries lie in a militarily strategic northwestern Pacific.
- In May, the United States and Papua New Guinea too reportedly signed a defence and maritime cooperation pact, and conducted their first combined marine operations in July.
Compact of Free Association (CFA):
- Palau’s Compact of Free Association (CFA) with the United States, a financial assistance commitment by the US was first agreed in 1986 and came into effect in 1994.
- While the terms of the CFA are indefinite, the economic elements of the agreement are for a 50-year term, with periodic reviews. Negotiations for the latest review began last year.
- Under the CFA, the US in exchange for exclusive military operating rights, provides Palau with financial assistance.
- The US has similar CFAs with two other PIC nations; the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI).
