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India expects Sri Lanka to implement the 13th Amendment and ensure a “life of dignity and respect” for its Tamil population, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
Welcoming Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe to India, Mr. Modi said both sides had held talks on a number of infrastructure projects that could ensure greater connectivity between the two countries.
He also announced a development assistance package for the Tamils of Indian origin who are marking the 200th anniversary of their arrival in the island nation.
We also talked about reconstruction and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. President Wickremesinghe presented his inclusive approach. We hope that Sri Lanka will fulfil the aspirations of the Tamils.
We expect that Sri Lanka will take forward the process of rebuilding for equality, justice and peace. We hope that Sri Lanka will fulfil its commitment to implement the Thirteenth Amendment and to hold Provincial Council elections.
President Wickremesinghe expressed his government’s “profound appreciation” for the support that India has extended to Sri Lanka over the past year, which he described as the “most challenging period in Sri Lanka’s modern history”.
Mr. Modi and Mr. Wickremesinghe spoke at the end of bilateral talks held at Hyderabad House where the two sides exchanged documents on cooperation in the field of animal husbandry, renewable energy, development projects in Trincomalee district in eastern Sri Lanka, and online payment services between the two sides.
States
Rajasthan passes Bills on minimum income, higher punishment for paper leaks (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Congress-ruled Rajasthan became the first and the only State in the country to give social security guarantee to the people with the passage of the Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill in the Assembly.
The Assembly also passed an Amendment Bill for enhancing the punishment up to life imprisonment for leaking question papers of recruitment exams.
The Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023, passed with voice vote, gives a guarantee for giving 125 days of employment in a financial year to all families residing in the rural and urban areas and a minimum pension of ₹1,000 every month to the elderly people, specially abled people and widows and single women.
There will also be guarantee of 15% annual increase in these pensions under the legislation. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal defended the provisions for entitlement-based social security in the Bill while replying to the debate in the House, during which the Opposition BJP MLAs suggested several amendments and sought circulation of the Bill to elicit public opinion.
Mr. Dhariwal said the two main components of the Bill, devoted to employment guarantee and social security, would provide a “combined relief” to the people reeling under the impact of inflation.
The families residing in the villages will get 25 days of additional employment under the Chief Minister’s Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme after completing 100 days in the Union government’s MGNREGS.
In the urban areas, the employment of 125 days per family will be given through the Indira Gandhi Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme.
If the government authorities fail to provide employment within 15 days from the receipt of application, the applicant will be entitled to get unemployment allowance on a weekly basis and in any case not later than a fortnight, according to the Bill.
Editorial
Publisher-platform imbalances need fixing (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
How can our news media be safeguarded against the market power of domineering search engines, social media giants, and other so-called ‘big tech’ players mediating the digital economy?
This is a classic public interest matter since the quality, diversity, and sustainability of publishers is of direct and immediate consequence to a user of digital news.
The numerous imbalances and fractures that scar the relationship between news publishers and technology platforms, are captured in two baskets of concerns: the absence of Fair Valuation (a matter of compensation), and that of Enumerative Accountability (a matter of transparency).
No doubt digital advertising revenues are jointly produced by publishers and platforms. However, publishers are hampered by a fair valuation of the share of such revenues generated by their journalism.
Moreover, they are entirely dependent on the terms imposed by platforms operating under monopolist or duopolistic conditions.
Such dependencies arise from platforms straddling multiple roles in digital news markets, especially as mediators in the search for online news content, and as providers of infrastructure to publishers to participate in the online advertising market.
The second imbalance stems from the lack of Enumerative Accountability. Platforms unilaterally define the measures of the quality and popularity of online news; they arbitrarily change measures to suit their own priorities, often after imposing them on publishers in the first place.
Further, they refuse to share relevant data on advertising and viewership with stakeholders in the news economy, including with regulators and others assessing the health of digital markets.
In 2021, Australia tackled this by proposing a mechanism to govern the interaction between publishers and platforms. But the platforms retaliated.
Facebook blocked its Australian users from accessing thousands of news sites, which included vital sources of public information during rampant wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.
They only ‘turned the news back on’ after winning major concessions from the Australian government that were enshrined in the final draft of the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, 2021.
An Internet ban will not restore peace in Manipur (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Manipur is burning but the rest of India did not care. The violence in the State began on May 3, 2023, but the nation was in deep slumber till July 19.
It took a video clip of sexual violence by a mob to surface and go viral on social media that day and 78 days for the Prime Minister of India to break his silence. During this period an Internet shutdown has continued in the northeast State.
Data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India show that the people of Manipur access the Internet primarily through their smartphones; and wired Internet users primarily constitute institutional, commercial and higher socio-economic groups. Out of a total pie of 0.05 million wireline and 2.36 wireless million users, about 2.2 million connect to the Internet. The Internet shutdown in Manipur, first enforced on May 3, is a case of blanket prohibition.
The entire State is affected, and it is not a case of some of a total of 16 districts being affected; it covers all web traffic and mediums of connectivity.
The orders issued by the Commissioner (Home) of Manipur under the Telecom Suspension Rules use vague language in order to “thwart the design and activities of anti-national and anti-social elements by stopping the spread of disinformation and false rumours, through various social media platforms”.
There is an absence of data or specific instances of violence being prevented due to the jamming of Internet connectivity. Before the weekly deadline lapses, a fresh order is passed, where each order is a mere reproduction of the earlier one but with minor changes in dates, thus making it clear that this could be indefinite.
One may wonder about compliance following the reported Supreme Court of India judgment on Internet shutdowns in Jammu and Kashmir. There is a breach of directions that was made clear in Anuradha Bhasin vs Union of India.
In this period, reports have filtered in — these are besides the protests in Delhi and the information flow here — that document the injury being caused to the people of Manipur.
The news is of extremes — from students from Manipur pursuing their education in the metropolitan cities running out of money to residents being unable to apply for their evacuation to relief camps.
Around May 19, petitions challenging these orders — such as Aribam Dhananjoy Sharma vs State of Manipur — were filed in the High Court of Manipur.
This case in particular is vital to understand evolving jurisprudence of “limited internet shutdowns” not only in Manipur but also the rest of India.
News
Can’t ask govt. to recognise a language as official one: SC (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court said it cannot direct the Centre to include Rajasthani as an official language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said the subject of the petition concerns a policy matter.
This is a policy matter and not for the courts to give a mandamus,” the Bench informed the petitioner, Ripudaman Singh. The court referred to a 1997 reported decision of the Supreme Court in the Kanhaiya Lal Sethia case to note that “to include or not to include a particular language in the VIIIth Schedule is a policy matter of the Union”.
World
Ukraine has started using U.S. cluster munitions on battlefield: White House (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Ukrainian forces are using United States-supplied cluster munitions on the battlefield, the White House said, as Kyiv seeks momentum in its grinding counteroffensive.
Washington provided the weapons to Ukraine for the first time earlier this month as Kyiv attempts to dislodge entrenched Russian forces and retake land lost in the early months of Moscow’s invasion last year.
The weapons, which disperse up to several hundred small explosive charges that can remain unexploded in the ground, are banned by many countries because of the long-term risks they pose to civilians.
Ukraine’s forces started using the munitions “in the last week or so”, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
They’re using them appropriately, they’re using them effectively and they are actually having an impact on Russia’s defensive formations and Russia’s defensive manoeuvring.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Kyiv’s counteroffensive, launched to push Russian troops back in the south and east of Ukraine, was failing despite military and financial support from Western countries.
Moscow’s forces still occupy swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine and over a month into Kyiv’s long-anticipated counteroffensive, large parts of the front appear to be frozen.