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The Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) administration doubled down on its stand to implement the ‘land to the landless’ scheme in Jammu and Kashmir even as several political parties continued to oppose the move to “settle outsiders” in the Union Territory (UT).
On Monday, the L-G administration approved a proposal to allot five marlas (.031 acre) of land each to the landless living in the UT under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), with L-G Manoj Sinha describing the move as “path-breaking”.
The J&K government is providing land to the landless citizens who were ignored in the past. They will soon have their own house.” In an oblique reference to the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP
The housing scheme was implemented across the country, except J&K. It is the PM’s dream and it will be fulfilled.
Separatist Hurriyat, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said there is an opaqueness about the whole matter. Attempts are on to facilitate a demographic change in J&K and disempower its people by bringing in new laws.
PDP president and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti accused the L-G administration of “settling outsiders and importing slums” to Kashmir through this scheme. She has demanded that the list of beneficiaries be made public.
Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone said the administration should clarify whether the list of beneficiaries comprises only the erstwhile domicile holders before the abrogation of Article 370. Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir said the ‘land to the landless’ scheme was “another assault on J&K”.
Editorial
Sobriety after the euphoria of the U.S. state visit (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The euphoria stemming from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States in June is yet to subside. All of India continues to savour the images that marked this highly publicised visit.
Those with long memories of U.S.-India relations in the past are, hence, left to wonder whether this is the same U.S. that had let India down in the past at crucial moments.
Two U.S. Presidents in particular, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963 and Richard Nixon in 1971, are still remembered for their infamous roles in this respect. Johnson for denying aid to India in the wake of China’s perfidious attack on India in 1962, and Nixon during the India-Pakistan conflict in 1971 for sending the U.S. Seventh Fleet steaming up the Bay of Bengal in a show of force intended to deter India from supporting the ‘liberation struggle’ in East Bengal, which ultimately led to the birth of a new nation, Bangladesh.
This time, there was no room, whatsoever, to doubt in which corner the U.S. stands in relation to India. The promise of the transfer of technology in several areas, most conspicuously in terms of producing fighter jet engines for the Indian Air Force, and holding out the promise of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) marks a remarkable turn in the American attitude.
All this, and with the many more agreements on critical technologies on the anvil, could lead to a quantum jump in India’s military and aerospace capabilities.
Many are bound to view this as an attempt by the U.S. to persuade India to accept an alliance status, vis-à-vis, the U.S. The fine print on the recent negotiations does not, however, indicate this as a possibility at this time.
Strategic ties are certain to attain a new dimension, and the U.S. side certainly hopes it could lead to “a deeper, more effective, and more diverse defence partnership”.
Yet, and despite India’s attractiveness to the U.S. as a huge market for goods, and increasingly as a destination for state-of-the-art military items, there are ‘miles to go’ before India is viewed as an alliance partner.
Perceptions on what constitutes a successful visit often vary, but all things considered, the Prime Minister’s visit to the U.S. this time should be deemed a major success, and as enhancing India’s position as a prime defence technological partner of the U.S. It is certain to not only favourably impact India-U.S. relations but also India’s standing in the world.
The long road to finding true peace in Yemen (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
In April this year, just as the Saudi-led war in Yemen completed eight years, a diplomatic delegation from the kingdom reached Sanaa airport for talks with its Houthi enemies.
Some details of the talks soon became public: building on the year-long ceasefire, the two sides agreed to a six-month truce, to be followed by talks over three months to agree on a two-year “transition” period when the details of the Yemeni state that would emerge after the war would be finalised.
The Houthis asked that the blockade of Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port be eased and the kingdom to pay the salaries from the country’s oil revenues. An immediate exchange of prisoners was also agreed to.
Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of some Arab forces, had initiated military operations on March 26, 2015, to prevent the Houthis, a Shia militia representing the marginalised Zaidi community and aligned with Iran, from taking control of Yemen, with which the kingdom shares a porous 1,400-km border.
However, the war has ground to a stalemate, with the Houthis controlling the capital and the principal port, Hodeidah. The coalition controls the sea and the sky and large parts of the south, thus preventing essential food, medical and energy supplies from reaching the population.
With a death toll of about 4,00,000, including 85,000 children, and several million displaced, Yemen is in the throes of a severe humanitarian crisis: 80% of its people (over 20 million) need assistance, while six million are on the brink of starvation.
Given the estimated expenditure of about $60 billion in the eight-year conflict, Saudi Arabia has been anxious to obtain a face-saving exit.
The Saudi-Iran accord brokered by China in March provided this opportunity. There are reports that Iran has agreed to curtail military supplies to the Houthis and facilitate a peace process, thus opening the doors for the Saudi-Houthi engagement in April.
What has been achieved so far is the exchange of prisoners and the easing of the blockade on Sanaa and Hodeidah; humanitarian aid has come in and flights have taken Yemeni pilgrims, including Houthi leaders, to Mecca for the Haj.
News
‘Selective ban’ of messaging apps may be looked at: TRAI (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday put out a consultation paper asking if it would be possible for messaging apps such as WhatsApp to be brought under a licensing framework, and whether such apps can be banned “selectively” in places where an Internet shutdown would otherwise have been imposed.
TRAI had recommended in September 2020 that there was no need to regulate “OTT communication services,” the term for such apps that allow calling and texting over the Internet, often with encryption that makes it difficult for anyone to access the content of a conversation.
That recommendation does not hold up, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which is the licensor for telecom operators, told TRAI last September, according to a reference published by the telecom regulator.
Telecom operators have previously called for messaging apps to be regulated, and demanded that they pay for some of the costs networks incur in running their infrastructure.
WhatsApp complies globally with requests to share so-called “metadata”, such as a given user’s phonebook or the details of whom they called or messaged in a certain period.
They cannot, however, share the contents of messages exchanged between users, or recordings of phone calls, as these are end-to-end encrypted.
While this consultation is based on references received from the DoT months ago, it assumes special significance considering the ongoing Internet shutdown in Manipur.
The Manipur High Court has appointed a 12-member panel to look into whether it would be possible to restore Internet access while leaving social media websites and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which allow users to get around website and app restrictions, blocked.
‘Words like fake, false, misleading in IT Rules problematic’ (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Bombay High Court on Friday said words like, “fake, false and misleading” that are part of the new Information Technology Rules were “problematic”.
A Division Bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by political satirist Kunal Kamra, the Editors Guild of India and the Association of Indian Magazine and regional channels challenging the constitutional validity of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023.
The new Rules require social media intermediaries to censor or otherwise modify content that relates to the Union government if a government-mandated fact checking unit (FCU) directs them to do so.
“The wordings of the IT Rules where words like fake, false and misleading are problematic. Those are the only three criteria [to flag content as false]. We don’t know the business of the Central government.
The expression like fake is extremely problematic. One might argue something is false. Falsity puts us in a binary, fake doesn’t even attempt to do that. The word ‘misleading’ in the Rules is an extremely problematic area since it is an opinion.
Calling something ‘misleading’ is subjective, what is misleading for one may not necessarily be misleading for another.
Analysts may have their own figures. Is it fake news? I want to know what happens to editorial content online. You may find any editorial extremely hard hitting. For example, India’s relations with China. Words like fake, false, misleading are used in amendment. We are concerned about authority conferred on FCU.”.
World
‘U.S. to send cluster bombs, armoured vehicles to Ukraine (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine and is expected to announce that the Pentagon will send thousands of them as part of a new military aid package worth up to $800 million for the war effort against Russia, according to people familiar with the decision.
The decision comes despite widespread concerns that the bombs can cause civilian casualties and sparked a call from the UN to both Russia and Ukraine to avoid using them.
The Pentagon will provide munitions that have a reduced “dud rate”, meaning there will be far fewer unexploded rounds that can result in unintended civilian deaths.
The weapons will come from Pentagon stocks and will also include Bradley and Stryker armoured vehicles and an array of ammunition, such as rounds for howitzers and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.
Long sought by Ukraine, cluster bombs are weapons that open in the air, releasing submunitions, or bomblets, that are dispersed over a large area and are intended to wreak destruction on multiple targets at once.
Ukrainian officials have asked for the weapons to aid their campaign to push through lines of Russian troops and make gains in the ongoing counteroffensive. Russian forces are already using cluster munitions on the battlefield and in populated civilian areas.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, some cluster munitions leave behind bomblets that have a high rate of failure to explode — up to 40% in some cases. U.S. officials said that the rate of unexploded ordnance for the munitions that will be going to Ukraine is less than 3% and therefore will mean fewer threats left behind to civilians.
Business
Govt. to share PM Gati Shakti data (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The government is working out a mechanism to share data with industry and potential investors about multi-modal connectivity as well as other physical and social infrastructure captured on the PM Gati Shakti platform.
The Network Planning Group (NPG) under the platform which has multiple layers of geospatial data from across the country, has so far managed to evaluate and facilitate 85 large central infrastructure projects worth nearly ₹5.4 lakh crore so far.
At the NPG’s 51st meeting chaired by DPIIT Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh on Friday, the group evaluated five national highway projects worth ₹15,600 crore, which included two highways in Maharashtra, a ring road around Kanpur, and a tunnel project in Mizoram to help commuters and goods bypass the capital city of Aizawl.
A clutch of projects worth ₹719 crore, which are essentially disaster risk mitigation measures for Uttarakhand’s Garhwal region, were also taken up. These include 20 road stretches prone to landslides and 11 sinking zones.