Current Affairs from the Hindu DATE: 29-10-15

Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE: 29-10-15

S.NO. NEWS ITEM SYLLUBUS ESSENCE OF THE ARTICLE

1. a) I.R Help change a) On the third day of the India-Africa Forum Summit, world order, Sudan forcefully demanded that the summit should seek Sudan tells India to change the world order. (Page 12)

2. a) I.R PoK delegation a) An 11-member delegation from Pakistan-occupied wants India, Pak Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan met civil society members to resume talks from J&K and jointly urged India and Pakistan to resume (Page 13) their dialogue and take the cross-LoC trade to next level.

3. a) I.R Carving out a path a) Opting out of CPEC is a diplomatic risk as Pakistan on Chinas road may exploit Indias absence in the regional grouping. (Page 11)

4. a) I.R US bomber pact in a) The US announced the contract for building the next contrast to Indian generation long-range strike bombers at a whopping $55 Rafale deal (Page billion, providing a stunning contrast to the way India has 13) gone about concluding the purchase of Rafale fighters from France.

5. a) International Nepal gets first a) Nepals Parliament elected communist lawmaker woman President Bidhya Bhandari as the countrys first woman President (Page 14) after the adoption of a landmark Constitution last month.

6. a) International Pakistan backed a) In deeply embarrassing remarks for Pakistan, former LeT: Musharraf president Pervez Musharraf has acknowledged that his (Page 14) country supported and trained terror groups like the LeT in the 1990s for fanning militancy in Kashmir.

7. a) International Day after a) China has sought to ease tensions with the US in the slamming US, South China Sea by calling for dialogue. China calls for talks (Page 14)

8. a) International Iran to join Syria a) The US has reversed long-standing opposition to peace talks (Page Irans participation in peace talks to end the Syrian civil 14) war, paving the way for a possible diplomatic breakthrough in the four-year conflict.

9. a) National Centre takes steps a) Officials of the Ministry of Housing and Urban to speed up Poverty Alleviation met the representatives of other

1 affordable housing Ministries to set up a system through which affordable schemes (Page 13) housing projects are cleared at a faster pace.

10. a) National Nutrition bureau a) Forty years after being established with a mandate to axed, anti-poverty generate data on nutritional status of socially vulnerable schemes starved groups, the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau has (Page 13) been shut down by the Union Health Ministry.

11. a) National Reforms need to a) Though reforms are aimed at increasing the efficiency reach the needy b) Economy through enhanced competition, they do not automatically (Page 10) result in growth. Neither does economic growth by itself translate into better social sector outcomes. A definite policy paradigm that prioritises social welfare is needed.

12. a) Economy Easing business a) The finding made in the World Banks Doing blues (Page 10) Business 2016 report that improvements in the regulatory environment helped lift Indias ranking four places higher will serve as a shot in the arm for the government, given PM Modis avowed focus on economic development.

S.NO. NEWS ITEM SYLLUBUS BACKGROUND IMPORTANT POINTS

1. a) I.R a) India-Africa Forum Help change a) On the third day of the Summit world order, India-Africa Forum Summit, Sudan tells India b) India – Sudan political disagreement over US (Page 12) relations became evident between India c) UNSC and Sudan, one of the major emerging energy suppliers for India. While India focused on the commercial aspect of India- Africa ties, Sudan forcefully demanded that summit should seek to change the world order. b) The Ministry of External Affairs highlighted the trade talks taking place between leaders of India and several African countries during the summit, but Sudans Foreign Minister told that his country

wanted to discuss Africas rightful place in changed UNSC and also wanted to highlight how American domination of world affairs was proving to be counter-productive. c) Sudan has criticised the global human rights campaign against President Al Bashir, suggesting that the campaign was motivated and was a facade for Western interests. India has faced considerable pressure for the last few months to support and act on the ICCs arrest warrant against Al Bashir. d) He said that India is an important buyer of energy from Sudan. Now, we want to diversify relationship with India and spread it to other areas like security which is crumbling all around due to mishandling. e) PM Modi held bilateral talks with heads of several African nations during which UN reforms, combating challenge of terrorism and boosting trade and investment, particularly in the oil and gas sector, figured prominently.

2. a) I.R a) India – Pakistan PoK delegation a) An 11-member delegation relations wants India, Pak from PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan to resume talks b) Pakistan-occupied met civil society members from (Page 13) Kashmir (PoK) J&K and jointly urged India and c) Line of Control Pakistan to resume their (LoC) dialogue and take the cross-LoC trade to next level. b) They expressed concern at

3 growing incidents of ceasefire violations. They commended the locals for continuing with the cross-LoC trade despite heightened tensions and growing civilian casualty.

3. a) I.R a) India – China Carving out a a) According to the author, relations path on Chinas New Delhi has recently made a road (Page 11) b) China-Pakistan subtle move by trying to reverse Economic Corridor the Kashmir discourse hitherto (CPEC) scripted and played by Pakistan c) Pakistan-occupied for seven decades. The new Kashmir (PoK) move is accompanied by a d) Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) sudden spurt in video clippings showing Pakistani atrocities in e) Chinas One Belt, Gilgit-Baltistan. Hopefully, this One Road (OBOR) is not a propaganda stunt and f) India-China Silk the policy shift will gain Route Corridor seriousness from now on. g) Shanghai b) New Delhis move comes Cooperation Organisation against the backdrop of Chinas (SCO) renewed push into PoK through h) South Asian its $46 billion CPEC initiative. Association for Regional The subsequent Karamay Cooperation (SAARC) Declaration of August 2015 defined Pakistans role in Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative. The nexus is nothing new but the motivation, significance and implications of CPEC needs careful analysis. c) The plan seemingly aims to build a crucial two-way bridge- link for China to access the Indian Ocean and conversely for Pakistan to reach out to Eurasia. But it is likely to deepen the already complex strategic ties between the two iron brothers, dubbed now as

equivalent to the US-Israel links. China expects CPEC will yield far-reaching economic benefits and regional security is instrumental for this purpose. d) First, the Karakoram (land) with Gwadar (sea) alignment has both commercial and military significance to serve as strategic chokepoints vis-a-vis India. Second, the CPEC is suspected to be about offsetting the growing US-India intimacy as also in Chinas quid pro quo to counter Indias Act East policy. Third, it seems linked to preventing the Afghan-Pak area from potentially becoming a safe haven for Uighur militants once the US troops leave Afghanistan. Beijings frantic initiatives for Afghan reconciliation talks explain that. e) Beijing seeks new opportunity to fill up gaps where India has largely failed. Considering PoKs strategic location, it could have many ramifications for India. It is here that CPEC is linked to Pakistans recent attempts at manipulating the legal and demographic profile of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). f) Meanwhile works under the CPEC have started, ranging from building of hydro projects, roads and tunnels to leasing land in Gwadar. While Beijing has justified CPEC as a livelihood project, Pakistan is

5 going the whole hog to get the landlocked SCO members to join the corridor and offering them access to Indian Ocean. g) For India, Chinas OBOR plan posed a dilemma: joining it raised fears of getting sucked into China game plan, but not joining is inconsistent with New Delhis broader diplomatic strategy. New Delhi also seems more peeved over the way Beijing announced the plan without prior discussion. Indias non-endorsement of OBOR has raised eyebrows on the future course of India-China relations. h) Clearly, India requires a two pronged strategy. First, New Delhi should start placing Gilgit-Baltistan plus Ladakh (82 percent of J&K) on centre-stage as a keystone policy to blunt both the Kashmir rhetoric and CPEC. It is also time to start working on Paks domestic resistance i.e. in Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. i) Second, India should explore opportunistic aspects in OBOR especially for regaining access to the northern axis, prevented by loss of GB to Pakistan. Therefore, India needs to weigh the option of getting a physical entry into GB, Sinkiang and Wakhan areas hitherto remained out-of-its-way - it cannot be in Indias interest to support the

project and not reap all the economic benefits. j) As in the SAARC, Pakistan would be on lookout to place India in the role of the spoiler within the SCO. Clearly, Russia and others would want India in OBOR as a counterweight to Chinese influence. Regardless of economic interests, India cannot ignore the symbolic significance as it was along the Silk Route that Indian trade and philosophy (Buddhism) once travelled to the rest of Asia. k) In fact, a countervailing strategy would be to offer a mollifying connectivity plan for a direct transport, energy, trade, fiber optics and communication highway connecting Persian Gulf with China through Indian Territory under the rubric India- China Silk Route Corridor. The idea could help open a new path and become a masterstroke counter-strategy in Indias long- term home and foreign policy.

4. a) I.R a) India – US relations US bomber pact a) US announced the contract in contrast to b) India-US bomber dealfor building the next generation long-range strike bombers at a Indian Rafale deal c) India-France Rafale (Page 13) deal whopping $55 billion, providing a stunning contrast to the way d) MMRCA India has gone about concluding the purchase of Rafale fighters from France. b) The way US military authorities went about selecting the new generation bombers is an instructive manual for the

7 way big spending military purchases are carried out in a transparent system. And it provides comparative frames to understand why the proposal to purchase 36 Rafale fighters from France, announced by PM Modi when he was in Paris in April, has not fully satisfied any of players involved in the deal. c) One of the most noticeable aspects is that the future bomber would integrate several existing technologies, so as to reduce cost and time needed to complete the project.

5. a) International a) Nepals internal Nepal gets first a) Nepals Parliament elected issues woman President communist lawmaker Bidhya (Page 14) b) Nepals new Bhandari as the countrys first Constitution woman President after the c) Communist Party of adoption of a landmark Nepal (Unified Marxist Constitution last month. Leninist) b) Bhandari (the vice-chair of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal) replaces Ram Baran Yadav. He was elected as the countrys first president in 2008 following the abolition of a 240- year-old Hindu monarchy. c) Bhandari (who served as Defence Minister from 2009 to 2011) was hailed by campaigners for her strong stance in favour of increasing female representation in Parliament to 33 percent.

6. a) International a) Lashkar-e-Taiba Pakistan backed a) In deeply embarrassing (LeT) LeT: Musharraf remarks for Pakistan, former (Page 14) b) Terrorism president Pervez Musharraf has

acknowledged that his country supported and trained terror groups like LeT in 1990s for fanning militancy in Kashmir. b) He also asserted that terror leaders like Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri were Pakistans heroes but later became villains. c) He made the remarks while responding to a question about the demand for action against LeTs Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. The Kashmiri freedom fighters including Saeed and Lakhvi were our heroes. Later the religious militancy turned into terrorism.

7. a) International a) China – US relations Day after a) China has sought to ease slamming US, b) South China Sea tensions with the US in the South China Sea by calling for China calls for c) Spratly islands talks (Page 14) dialogue. b) Tensions between Beijing and Washington in South China Sea had spiked after the US warship breached 12 nautical mile zone of an artificial island in the Spratly island chain, over which China claims and exercises sovereignty. c) Analysts say the US action has caused speculation inside China that Washington has decided to bury the formulation proposed by President Xi that China and US should establish a peaceful and collaborative major-country relationship.

9 8. a) International a) Syrian crisis Iran to join Syria a) The US has reversed long- peace talks (Page b) Islamic State (IS) standing opposition to Irans 14) participation in peace talks to end Syrian civil war, paving the way for a possible diplomatic breakthrough in 4-year conflict. b) Officials in Washington insisted the move was a genuine multilateral invitation and implied they had succeeded in overcoming Saudi Arabian opposition to Iran attending the talks in Vienna on Oct 30. c) The presence of Iran (which along with Russia) has been a crucial ally of the Syrian govt, could be a crucial factor in bringing the competing external players in the conflict to a common agreement on how to end the conflict. d) The ultimate goal that everyone wants to get to is to come up with a framework for a successful political transition in Syria which leads to a govt not led by Bashar al-Assad and that is representative of and responsive to the Syrian people.

9. a) National a) Housing for All by Centre takes steps a) Officials of the Ministry of 2022 to speed up Housing and Urban Poverty affordable Alleviation met representatives housing schemes of other Ministries to set up a (Page 13) system through which affordable housing projects are cleared at a faster pace. b) At present, the govt is battling a housing deficit of 18.78 million units and 95

percent of it is required for the economically weaker population which lives in and around the urban centres. c) So far, the main hurdle in filling housing stock is shortage of land in urban areas, stringent land use regulations, inadequate infrastructure to support more housing neighbourhoods, rising costs of construction material, insufficient financing, restricted mortgage financing and rent control laws. The ministry aims to build two crore houses in urban areas by 2022.

10. a) National a) National Nutrition Nutrition bureau a) Forty years after being Monitoring Bureau axed, anti-poverty established with a mandate to (NNMB) schemes starved generate data on nutritional (Page 13) b) Indian Council of status of socially vulnerable Medical Research (ICMR)groups, the National Nutrition c) Poverty Monitoring Bureau has been shut down by the Union Health Ministry. b) The bureau (under the ICMR) had been critical in informing the govts poverty alleviation interventions with periodic assessments of nutrient deficiency among tribal communities, pregnant women, adolescents and at-risk elderly population in India. c) The problem was that the bureau was running in a project mode. Govt programmes that run in a project mode for this long are not sustainable. d) Official said these decisions

11 have to be seen in the context of the fact that we have the largest population of the nutritionally deprived in the world. Our child malnutrition numbers are the highest in the world. This is a real emergency and the NNMB plays a very important role in projecting data in terms of what people are eating. The data gathered by the NNMB informs the policy intervention to address under-nutrition.

11. a) National a) Economic reforms in Reforms need to a) According to the author (C. India reach the needy b) Economy Rangarajan), whenever growth (Page 10) b) Economic growth slows down, it is blamed on the c) GDP slowdown in implementation of reforms. Despite the enormous d) Poverty ratio noise made about reforms, there e) Goods and Services is no clarity on what constitutes Tax (GST) reforms and what the impact of f) Land Acquisition Act reforms is on growth and social sector spending. b) Looking back, 1991 is an important landmark in the post- Independence economic history of our country. The country then faced an acute economic crisis, caused by a severe balance of payments problem. But the crisis was converted into an opportunity to bring about fundamental changes in the content and approach to economic policy. c) Until the end of the 1970s, and to a large extent even in the 1980s, development was state- directed and state-driven. The govt subscribed to the theory of

commanding heights which meant that key sectors of the economy were to be under state control. The private sector was kept in check through an elaborate scheme of licences and controls. In foreign trade, import substitution was the guiding principle and this meant quantitative controls on imports and high import tariffs. d) A fundamental shift from this perception to one supporting a liberalised economy occurred in the early 1990s. There is a common thread running through the various measures introduced since July 1991 - the objective of improving the productivity and efficiency of the economy by injecting a greater element of competition. e) Therefore, the touchstone of reforms is improved efficiency which comes from improved competition. However, the emphasis on efficiency does not exclude considerations of equity. If improved efficiency can lead to faster growth, that itself can generate larger surpluses in the hands of the govt which can be utilised to increase social sector expenditures and provide better social safety nets. f) In the post reform period beginning 1992-93, the economy has grown at an

13 average rate of 6.8 percent. In more recent period, the growth rate has been even higher. Over the decade beginning 2004-05, the average annual growth rate has been 7.6 percent. Between 2005-06 and 2010-11, the growth rate was 8.7 percent. Contrast this with the annual growth rate of 3.5 percent between 1952 and 1980. g) It is true that the Indian economy grew between 1980 and 1990 at 5.6 percent. But the economy faced its worst crisis in 1991-92 and the growth rate fell to 1.0 percent. It is extremely doubtful if, without a change in the strategy of development, growth would have picked up again. h) Social development has many dimensions. One composite indicator is the behaviour of the poverty ratio. However, over years, there have been some changes in the methodology for measuring poverty. That growth has a favourable impact on the poverty ratio is seen even from recent data. i) The annual rate of growth of per capita income in period between 1993-94 and 2004-05 was 4.3 percent and the growth rate for the period between 2004-05 and 2011-12 was 6.7 percent. The annual decline in the poverty ratio in percentage

points (according to the Suresh Tendulkar committees methodology) was 0.74 in first period and 2.18 in the second period. j) In fact, the finding that the decline in poverty was much faster in the latter period is valid irrespective of where the poverty line is drawn. Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, according to the Tendulkar Committees methodology, the reduction in poverty ratio was 7.9 points. According to the Rangarajan Committees methodology, it was 8.7 points. k) Without doubt, the poverty ratio still remains high. However, what is important to note is that the faster the growth, the greater the reduction in the poverty ratio. To reduce the poverty ratio substantially and to improve our performance on other social parameters, the country needs to grow faster in a sustained way. l) The objective of reforms is to improve efficiency through enhanced competition. The introduction of the GST will be a step in the right direction, as it will help in enhancing efficiency. Acquisition is against the spirit of competition and the reach of any Land Acquisition Act must therefore, be limited. m) Reforms do not necessarily

15 translate into growth. The policy framework that gave our country an annual growth rate exceeding 9 percent between 2005 and 2008 was very much in place when our economy witnessed a substantial slowdown post 2011. Reforms are at best a necessary condition for growth. n) To be credible, reforms must not only result in higher growth but also benefit all sections of society. Therefore, govt must pursue a two-fold strategy: of accelerating growth through an appropriate reform agenda and deploying the surpluses generated through growth to augment social welfare.

12. a) Economy a) World Banks Doing Easing business a) The finding made in the Business 2016 blues (Page 10) World Banks Doing Business b) Ease of doing 2016 report that improvements business in the regulatory environment c) Make in India helped lift Indias ranking four campaign places higher will serve as a shot in the arm for the govt, d) GST given PM Modis avowed focus on economic development. b) The overall ease of doing business ranking has climbed to 130 from a recalculated 134 last year following a change in methodology. And the distance- to-frontier score (which measures the absolute level of regulatory performance in an economy and the extent of improvement over time) has also advanced by two

percentage points. c) Only Bangladesh fares worse than India among the eight South Asian countries in the 189 nations on the list in resolving commercial disputes. And the regions largest economy ranks a lowly seventh above war-torn Afghanistan on the ease of obtaining the approvals necessary to build. d) Indeed, a herculean task lies ahead to achieve the govts goal of breaking into the top 50 rankings in order to make the country a favoured investment destination for foreign capital and spur domestic enterprise. e) Even the smaller Asian and South Asian economies of Indonesia and Sri Lanka significantly outscore India on several parameters, showing why businesses find it easier to invest in these countries. f) With several key bills to broaden economic reforms (including GST) stuck in a legislative logjam, Modi and his parliamentary managers will need all their political nous if the Make in India campaign is to succeed.