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As another round of refugee crisis brews on the Mizoram-Bangladesh border, several members of the Kuki-Chin community were “pushed back” by the Border Security Force (BSF), according to K. Vanlalvena, a Rajya Sabha member from Mizoram.
He said not allowing the “ethnic Mizo” from Bangladesh to enter India would amount to “discrimination on ethnic grounds” as in the 1970s thousands of displaced Chakmas (mostly Buddhists) from Bangladesh were allowed to enter India and settle in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
The BSF personnel are seen distributing biscuits to the refugees and one of them directs that “if everyone has arrived they should march ahead.
A senior government official said it was “not a case of push-back” and a BSF team stopped them on coming to know that a group was headed towards Mizoram.
An official said the BSF had no instructions to let the refugees enter India and they returned on their own once explained that they would be treated as “illegal migrants,” if they continued to stay put in the Indian territory.
The official said BSF doctors also provided medical assistance to a pregnant woman, part of the group, who went into labour on the border.
The women gave birth to a healthy baby with the assistance of BSF doctors; she returned to Bangladesh with the group the next day.
Kuki-Chin, the Christian community from Bangladesh’s Chittagong hill tracts, share close ethnic ties with people in Mizoram. The first tranche of around 300 refugees came in November 2022.
The Mizoram government has approved setting up of temporary shelters and other amenities for the community, following an action by the Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion against some insurgents belonging to the group.
Mr. Vanlalvena said he had written to Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla to give necessary instructions to the BSF so that the displaced persons might be allowed to enter Mizoram and a “humanitarian catastrophe is avoided before it is too late.”
The January 4 letter stated that heavy fighting has erupted and is ongoing between Bangladesh Rifles troops and cadres of Kuki-Chin insurgent groups in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Due to these clashes, the civilian tribal people of neighbouring Chittagong hill tracts who are our ethnic brothers and sisters have fled in large numbers into our State seeking safety and refuge.
India’s GDP likely to grow 7% this fiscal, says NSO (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s real GDP is expected to grow 7% in 2022-23, slowing from 8.7% in FY22, as per the First Advance Estimates of National Income for the year released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
With GDP estimated to have clocked a 9.7% uptick in the first six months, the advance estimate implies that growth will moderate to 4.5% in the second half.
The NSO’s estimate is based on limited data, with almost three months to go in the year, and essentially serves as an input for the Union Budget formulation exercise.
Economists said some of the assumptions made about the second half were overtly rosy or grim — and could bode significant revisions ahead.
For instance, the NSO has assumed a 0.2% contraction in private consumption spending between October 2022 and March 2023, but optimistically expects an almost 12% rise in exports.
For the full year, gross value added (GVA) is expected to rise 6.7%, compared with 8.1% in 2021-22, with trade, hotels, transport and communication services recording the highest GVA expansion of 13.7%.
Manufacturing and mining GVA are estimated to grow just 1.6% and 2.4% in 2022-23, compared with 9.9% and 11.5, respectively, last year.Agriculture GVA is expected to accelerate to 3.5%, from 3%, but is only expected to rise 2.7% in the second half.
With sowing up 4.5% till December 30, improved fertiliser availability and healthy reservoir levels, we expect Rabi sowing this year to rise 1% to 2% in 2022-23, which would contribute to agricultural GVA growth of 3-4% in the second half.
Construction sector’s GVA is reckoned to grow 9.1% through the year, with electricity, gas, water and other utilities’ GVA rising 9%. Financial, real estate and professional services’ GVA is expected to grow 6.4% in 2022-23, from 4.2% in 2021-22.
SC transfers to itself all pleas related to same-sex marriage (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Supreme Court transferred to itself petitions pending in various High Courts seeking legal recognition of same sex marriage.
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said there was broad consensus among the petitioners to shift the cases to the Supreme Court for an authoritative ruling on the issue, especially on the question whether same sex marriage should be brought within the ambit of the Special Marriage Act of 1954.
Batches of petitions were pending before the Delhi, Kerala and Gujarat High Courts.The Bench, also comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala, directed the Centre to file its response to the petitions on or before February 15.
The Bench asked the parties to submit common compilations of arguments and judgments they want to place before the court during arguments for speedy and efficient adjudication.
It appointed advocates Arundhati Katju, for the petitioners, and advocate Kanu Agarwal, for the Union, as nodal counsel to coordinate the preparations for the court hearing.
One of the petitions filed by Supriya Chakraborty and Abhay Dang said the non-recognition of same sex marriage amounted to discrimination that struck at the root of dignity and self-fulfilment of LBTQ+ couples. A separate petition was also filed by ParthPhiroze Mehrotra and Uday Raj Anand.
The court issued notice in a separate petition filed by Utkarsh Saxena and Ananya Kotia challenging the mandatory requirement to issue public notice and objection to marriage contemplated under the Special Marriage Act and the Foreign Marriage Act.
States
To boost ‘Make in India’, Centre flags unfair tender norms (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Growth and Development)
The Union Government has flagged over a dozen “restrictive and discriminatory” conditions which prevented local suppliers from participating in the bidding process.
The tweaking of the tender conditions was in violation of the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017, issued to protect the interests of local suppliers.
Last week, the Ministry of Railways directed General Managers of all Zonal Railways and Production Units to make sure that all procuring agencies across the railway network complied with the PPP-MII Order and avoid including any “restrictive and discriminatory” conditions against the local suppliers.
The communication follows the latest guidelines issued by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry on December 20, 2022, which highlighted some of the common examples of “restrictive and discriminatory” conditions against local suppliers and some other eligibility norms that were non-compliant to the PPP-MII Order.
The DPIIT in consultation with the Department of Expenditure and the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) had identified over a dozen conditions commonly introduced in tender conditions that went against the local suppliers but suited the interests of foreign manufacturers and issued an advisory.
For instance, the advisory said that foreign technical standards like minus 25-degree temperature compatibility for certain equipment procured for airports were incorporated to eliminate ‘Make in India’ products without any justification of requirement of that specification value for intended end use of the equipment/service.
Among other tweaked tender norms were standard certification by foreign agencies without specifying any equivalent Indian certification or alternative in the procurement of medical and electronic devices.
Excessive turnover requirement as a pre-qualifying criteria, not commensurate with the financial capacity required for executing the contract, insisting on specific experience of supplying products to other nations such as export to G8 countries, additional requirement of bank guarantee and delayed payment terms were among other conditions that prevented the local manufacturers from taking part in the procurement process.
News
U.K. ship on permanent deployment in Indo¬Pacific makes first port call in India (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The Royal Navy’s offshore patrol vessel, HMS Tamar, sailed to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on January 6, 2023 as part of its permanent deployment in the Indo-Pacific.
India is the first port of call for the ship and underlines the United Kingdom’s and India’s intent to collaborate in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and wider Indo-Pacific., the U.K. High Commission said in a statement.
“Over the next five days, the ship and her crew will undertake capability demonstrations and maritime exercises with the Indian Navy. HMS Tamar is one of two Royal Navy vessels on permanent deployment in the Indo-Pacific as set out in the U.K.’s Integrated Review.
The work HMS Tamar and her crew are doing with allies, partners and friends across the Indo-Pacific is crucial. As threats to global peace and stability mount, the Royal Navy values deeply its relationship with the Indian Navy in a shared endeavour to confront those who challenge the rules-based system and ensure peace and prosperity on and from the sea,” First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key.
Acting British High Commissioner to India, Christina Scott, said: “HMSTamar’s deployment is the U.K.’s Indo-Pacific tilt in action and its visit, further evidence of the importance we attach to defence and security relationship with India”.
The Indo-Pacific, and indeed India, will drive future growth and prosperity for the world. It is imperative that it remains free and open to all in support of trade, shared security and values.
India and U.K. have signed a white shipping agreement which enables information sharing across the whole of the IOR, the statement noted.
In June 2021, the U.K. posted its first permanent liaison officer at the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram to enhance maritime domain awareness in the region.
In October 2021, U.K.’s carrier strike group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth undertook its maiden overseas deployment to IOR during which the two countries conducted Exercise Konkan Shakti involving all three services.
The Integrated Review published in March 2021 committed the U.K. to becoming the European country with the broadest, most integrated presence in the Indo-Pacific.
News
Remote work helped in saving jobs during COVID: ILO report (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Short-time work and work-sharing measures or other forms of job retention helped to reduce the volume of work and save jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, said a report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The report, titled Working Time and Work-Life Balance Around the World, said flexible working hours enabled individuals as well as companies, enterprises and industries to collectively reduce the hours of work, a trend already generated before the crisis.
The crisis also created the possibility of increasing the hours of work for new economic bottleneck areas, such as in the healthcare or pharmaceutical industries.
The telework contributed to the COVID-19 crisis response by reducing the social contacts of the employees and enabling them to perform work from outside the employer’s premises, thereby both maintaining organisational operations and preserving jobs, the report added.
The system of reduced working hours and flexible working time arrangements can benefit economies, enterprises and workers, and lay the ground for a better and more healthy work-life balance, the report noted.
The report looked at the working hours and working time arrangements and the effects of both on business performance and employees’ work-life balance.
It found that a substantial portion of the global workforce are working either long or short hours when compared to a standard eight-hour day/40 hour working week.
More than one-third of all workers are regularly working more than 48 hours per week, while a fifth of the global workforce is working short (part-time) hours of less than 35 per week. Informal economy workers are more likely to have long or short hours.
“Inclusive short-time work schemes with the highest possible allowances not only maintain employment but also sustain purchasing power and create the possibility of cushioning the effects of economic crises.
Teleworking helps maintain employment and also creates new scope for the autonomy of employees, in terms of regulating both their hours of work and their work–life balance. At the same time, however, it seems to be necessary to remedy the weaknesses of these working-time instruments that became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report suggested in its policy prescriptions to ILO member countries.