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India has called upon G20 countries to adopt multilateral action for faster extradition of fugitive economic offenders and recovery of assets both on domestic front as well as from abroad, during the first anti-corruption working group meeting held in Gurugram.
Chairing the meet with co-chair Italy, Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh said, “Economic offences have been a problem faced by many, especially when the offenders flee from the jurisdiction of the country.
India has put in place specialised legislation in this regard, in the form of Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, the term wherein ‘fugitive economic offender’ (FEO) is defined as an individual against whom a warrant of arrest in relation to scheduled offence has been issued by any court in India and who has left the country so as to avoid criminal prosecution; or the FEO abroad, refuses to return to face criminal prosecution”.
Mr. Singh said the Enforcement Directorate has transferred assets worth about $180 billion to public sector banks that suffered losses to the tune of around $272 billion due to frauds committed by high-net-worth individuals.
Editorial
Politics and ideology within the portals of the judiciary (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
That justice is blind is part of the myth system. “A judge is a lawyer who is a politician who has a friend,” Judge Paul Leahy once told his clerk Floyd Abrams.
In India, the episode of the collegium’s recommendation of Justice L. Victoria Gowri’s name and her appointment to the Madras High Court within weeks, has revived the debate on judicial appointments.
A two-judge Bench which made a distinction between ‘eligibility’ and ‘suitability’, said that the material on her alleged hate speeches was before the collegium.
The Supreme Court of India is a political court in the sense that it is the final arbiter of political disputes. Accordingly, the political and ideological positions of judges may influence their judgments — at least on contentious political questions.
Thus, concern about the ideological/political leanings of judges is perfectly justified. It is a centre of political power because it can influence the agenda of political action, control over which is what power politics is in reality all about.
The Court is routinely drawn into the politics of the establishment as well as the politics of the Opposition. In other words, “whether justices of the Court like it or not, understand it or not, care about it or not, the plain fact remains that the court can be used for purely party-political ends in certain situations beyond the control of the Court”.
Explainer
Understanding the Windsor framework (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The United Kingdom and the European Union struck a deal on February 27 regarding post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland, with a view to remove the border between Britain and Northern Ireland running through the Irish Sea.
The fact that the Republic of Ireland remained with the EU after Brexit led to complications on the trade front, a wrinkle that the U. K.’s conservative government ironed out with the Northern Ireland Protocol.
However, the Protocol, which allowed EU customs rules to apply across Northern Ireland, led to tensions in the province. The Windsor framework is the latest attempt at a remedy to the political complexities that have impacted trade and sentiments in the area.
Ever since the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 established the Irish Free State, the island’s counties comprising Northern Ireland, remained a part of the U.K.
The political split on the island was exacerbated by growing tensions, especially from the 1960s onwards, with spiralling violence between Unionists, who were set on Northern Ireland remaining within the U.K., and the Republicans, who favoured unification with the Republic of Ireland.
Over the following three decades of attacks that came to be known as “The Troubles”, more than 3,500 people died and many hundreds of thousands were injured.
This dark saga on the island ended only after the Good Friday Agreement was hammered out in 1998 between Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern of the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland respectively.
A key takeaway from the Agreement was that, respecting the wishes of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland, the province would remain a part of the U.K.
The people of the province would continue to be governed by blended political institutions, based on power-sharing between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Combining social welfare and capital markets through SSE (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
On February 22, the National Stock Exchange of India received the final approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to set up a Social Stock Exchange (SSE).
The SSE would function as a separate segment within the existing stock exchange and help social enterprises raise funds from the public through its mechanism.
It would serve as a medium for enterprises to seek finance for their social initiatives, acquire visibility and provide increased transparency about fund mobilisation and utilisation.
Retail investors can only invest in securities offered by for-profit social enterprises (SEs) under the Main Board. In all other cases, only institutional investors and non-institutional investors can invest in securities issued by SEs.
Any non-profit organisation (NPO) or for-profit social enterprise (FPSEs) that establishes the primacy of social intent would be recognised as a social enterprise (SE), which will make it eligible to be registered or listed on the SSE.
The seventeen plausible criteria as listed under Regulations 292E of SEBI’s ICDR (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018 entail that enterprises must be serving to eradicate either hunger, poverty, malnutrition and inequality; promoting education, employability, equality, empowerment of women and LGBTQIA+ communities; working towards environmental sustainability; protection of national heritage and art or bridging the digital divide, among other things. At least 67% of their activities must be directed towards attaining the stated objective. Corporate foundations, political or religious organisations or activities, professional or trade associations, infrastructure and housing companies (except affordable housing) would not be identified as an SE.
Text & Context
What’s in a name? The journey from Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, History)
A little over a thousand kilometres from the Taj in Agra rests a son of Mumtaz Mahal in Aurangabad. Not quite a mother’s darling, he failed to find his father’s love too, losing out to his brother Dara Shukoh.
Not that he did much to earn it, as the events from 1658 to 1666 prove when Shah Jahan was imprisoned at Agra. Actually, the man who lies buried in Khuldabad was his own man, doing his own thing his own way.
Enigma to most, Aurangzeb is depicted in history books by some historians as a pious Muslim, and a bigot by many others.
In reality, Aurangzeb, as Audrey Truschke writes in Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth, organised his life as a ruler of Hindustan around a few key ideals and preoccupations. He wanted to be a just king, a good Muslim, and a sustainer of Mughal culture and customs.
As a child, he had read the Koran and Hadith and was said to be fond of Rumi’s Masnavi. Exposed to Persian translations of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, he was fluent in Hindi and is credited with some Braj Bhasha compositions.
Amidst works of piety and literary registers of Hindi, Aurangzeb, who would go on to earn a living knitting caps, found time to fall in love with Hirabai, a dancer and singer, in 1653.
The romance lasted HirabaiZainabadi’s lifetime; her life ended a year later. She was buried in Aurangabad, not too far from Aurangzeb’s simple maqbara (tomb).
As for the emperor, given as he was to a Sufi streak, he was buried in the company of his spiritual preceptor. His tomb was to have no marble, no Persian tiles, no embellishment.
News
All five S-400 regiments expected to be delivered by early 2024 (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Deliveries of five regiments of S-400 air defence systems under a $5.43 billion deal with Russia are expected to be completed by year end or early 2024, according to official sources.
However, issues of delayed payments as well as insurance and reinsurance remain major stumbling blocks delaying deals in the pipeline, an issue that would be in focus during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s talks with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G-20 Foreign Ministers meeting taking place just after the first anniversary of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Delivery of the third S-400 regiment has been completed, as acknowledged by Russia’s Ambassador to India Denis Alipov earlier this month, which leaves the deliveries of two more regiments.
The second and third regiments saw delays of a few months. There have been delays in “milestone payments”.The three regiments are deployed along the Northen, Eastern and western borders.
In July 2019, the Union government said in a written reply in Parliament that S-400 deliveries were “likely to be made by April 2023”.
In August 2022, speaking at the Army Expo in Moscow, the CEO of Russia’s Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheyev had said that they would deliver all five S-400 regiments to India by late 2023.
Two Australian public universities to establish campuses in GIFT City (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Two Australian government universities, Deakin University and University of Wollongong, will be the first foreign education institutions to set up campuses in GIFT City, Gujarat.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan made the announcement on Wednesday in the presence of Australia’s Minister for Education Jason Clare, and former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist.
“In next week, another glorious chapter will be added. Two universities are coming to India. University of Wollongong and Deakin University will set up a campus in GIFT city of Gujarat.
This is a step forward. India is committed to become a developed country in the next 25 years and to achieve that status we have to give focus on education.
The Australian Minister for Education is on a visit to India from February 28 to March 4 to foster India-Australia relations in the field of education. Mr. Gilchrist is the global brand ambassador of the University of Wollongong.
The guests at the event included Australian High Commissioner Barry O’Farrell, and a delegation of Vice-Chancellors or Provosts of 21 Australian universities.
Scheduled Tribes panel requisitions FRA action reports from top court (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Conservation)
In the middle of a face-off with the Environment Ministry over the new Forest Conservation Rules (2022) potentially diluting the Forest Rights Act, 2006, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has now secured FRA implementation reports of all States and Union Territories by invoking its Constitutional powers to directly approach the Supreme Court of India.
After the Union government introduced the FCR, 2022 last year, the NCST had written to the Environment Ministry in September, asking that they be put on hold because they will invariably violate provisions of the FRA, which ensures that ownership of forest land remains with tribespeople and other traditional forest dwellers (OTFD), who live off the forest and its resources.
In response, Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Bhupendra Yadav had insisted that the rules were framed under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and that the NCST’s apprehension of these rules being in violation of the FRA was “not legally tenable”.
Amidst this, the ST Commission on February 3 wrote to the Supreme Court Registrar, invoking powers under Clause 8d of Article 338A, to seek all materials filed before the court in connection with a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the FRA. The top court on February 20 ordered that the documents be supplied to the Commission.
Sources in the NCST said that the Commission is looking to review the overall implementation of the FRA at the ground level, examine rejection of titles, encroachments on forest land, and propose requisite recommendations to further secure the rights of tribespeople, as per its Constitutional mandate.
This will be part of the report sent to the Office of the President of India, who will then table it in Parliament. Hence, we went to court for ‘authentic information.