Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:27-04-15

S.NO. NEWS ITEM SYLLUBUS ESSENCE OF THE ARTICLE

1. a) I.R a) India and Afghanistan have a difference of New Delhi, Kabul perception over the groups responsible for violence, to tackle including the latest suicide bombing in Jalalabad that differences on killed 33 people. terror (Page 10)

2. a) I.R Changed a) Though no stranger to India, Ashraf Ghani will now variables, same be under scrutiny for what he says about how he equation (Page 8) visualises India-Afghanistan relations. He will be engaging with a new India leadership that has displayed no anxiety about the fact that he waited for six months before visiting New Delhi.

3. a) I.R Modis visit a a) Labour partys leader and Prime Ministerial policy priority: candidate Ed Miliband told that an invitation to PM Modi Miliband (Page to visit the UK would be high on the agenda if it forms a 12) govt after the elections on May 7.

4. a) International India must review a) Editor-in-chief of The Guardian has said that India fossil fuel must plan to reduce its dependence on coal, which is subsidies (Pages 1 having devastating effects and the fear of the rest of the and 9) world about India is that it is going to burn vast amounts of dirty coal in very inefficient ways.

5. a) National A bill for juvenile a) The Cabinets nod to amendments in the Juvenile injustice (Page 9) b) Polity Justice Bill would not only violate the basic principles of the Constitution, but also be in conflict with evidence- based social policy.

6. a) National High costs push a) A new study says that five billion people globally do surgical care out b) Health not have access to safe, affordable surgery and of reach (Page 10) anaesthesia when they need them.

7. a) Economy Is time ripe for the a) The RBI Governor and the Minister of State for plunge? (Page 15) Finance have expressed the hope that India will move to full convertibility status sooner rather than later.

8. a) Economy The knotty issue a) The taxation dispute between the Indian govt and of MAT (Page 15) foreign investors seems never-ending. It came to the fore again this month when foreign investors were asked to pay a minimum alternative tax for capital gains made in Indian stock markets.

1 9. a) Environment Lion-tailed a) Lion-tailed macaques may be synonymous with macaque makes b) Geography Kerala but it is hard to find one in the open for they are Kollam its home known to live only in some pockets of the dense jungles (Page 6) of the southern portion of the Western Ghats.

S.NO. NEWS ITEM SYLLUBUS BACKGROUND IMPORTANT POINTS

1. a) I.R a) India – Afghanistan a) Afghanistan President New Delhi, Kabul relations Ashraf Ghani will land in Delhi to tackle for his first state visit and meet differences on b) Mutual legal PM Modi for what both sides terror (Page 10) assistance agreement describe as a learning visit. c) Motor vehicles agreement b) Officials said this would be the first time they would d) Cheetal helicopters have a chance to talk about the e) Taliban tough questions on Afghanistan and Indias future engagement, with specific concerns in New Delhi about Ghanis plan of reconciliation with the Taliban as well as his new-found closeness to Pakistan. c) India and Afghanistan have a difference of perception over the groups responsible for violence, including the latest suicide bombing in Jalalabad that killed 33 people. While Ghani had said the attack had been carried out by Islamic State militants, Indian officials believe Pakistan-supported groups were responsible. d) Modi and Ghani will discuss Indian military equipment supplies to Afghanistan. Three Cheetal helicopters (built by HAL) have now been flown to Kabul ahead of the visit. e) India and Afghanistan will announce agreements on easing Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:27-04-15

motor vehicle travel, a mutual legal assistance or extradition treaty, as well as a cooperation agreement between chambers of commerce.

2. a) I.R a) India – Afghanistan Changed a) Afghanistans first Strategic relations variables, same Partnership Agreement was equation (Page 8) b) Afghanistan – China signed with India in 2011 and relations was supported across the board c) Afghanistan – in the Afghan Parliament at the Pakistan relations time of ratification. d) Inter-Services b) While Afghan President Intelligence (ISI) Ashraf Ghani is no stranger to e) National Solidarity India, this time around he will Programme (NSP) be under scrutiny for what he says about how he visualises f) China-Pakistan Economic Corridor India-Afghanistan relations. He (CPEC) will do well to keep in mind that he is engaging with a new g) Afghan Pakistan Indian leadership which has Transit and Trade Agreement (APTTA) adopted a more robust and active foreign policy posture h) One Belt, One Road and displayed no anxiety about initiative the fact that he waited for six months before visiting India. c) Incidentally, former President Hamid Karzai also had his share of ups and downs with India. In the early years, he tried hard to build relations with Pakistan, confident that the US would support him in this effort but became disillusioned when he discovered that it had no stomach for reining Pakistan in, even after realising that the growing Taliban insurgency had its roots across the border. d) Unlike his predecessor, Ghani is more of a technocrat

3 rather than a politician. As Finance Minister during President Karzais first term, Ghani conceptualised the NSP, a local community-led development programme. Incidentally, this highly successful scheme was ably implemented by Mohammad Hanif Atmar who is now Ghanis National Security Adviser. e) Unlike Karzai who could spend hours interacting closely with tribal leaders, Ghani is more at home with policy experts, graphs and power point displays and hardly tolerates dissent. Second, he is a man in a hurry. He knows that his election was a contested one. His legitimacy rests on the tenuous compromise of a National Unity Govt, supported by US. f) Ghani also realises that the US is headed for elections in 2016 and while he was able to convince US President Obama to maintain current US troop presence of nearly 10,000 till end-2016, there is uncertainty about the US and Western role and commitment, post-2016. g) Ghani is under pressure to conclude a peace process with the Taliban and get some investment into the Afghan economy so that economic growth, which has declined from 9 percent annually (during Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:27-04-15

the last decade) to 2 percent is resumed. He is all too aware of Pakistans ability to play the role of spoiler and has tried hard to start on a clean slate with Pakistan. h) In addition to supporting the Pakistan Army, Ghani is also trying to get China to invest in Afghanistans reconstruction. Given the uncertainty about sustained Western financial support, if the Chinese can be tempted to invest as part of the One Belt, One Road initiative, it could even generate pressure on ISI to enable a meaningful peace process with Taliban to move forward. i) The announcements made during Chinese President Xis recent visit to Pakistan (in April) about projects worth $46 billion being launched around the CPEC, coupled with Gen. Sharifs statement that a dedicated division could be raised to ensure security for the Chinese-aided projects would have sounded encouraging to Ghani. j) India need not feel unduly concerned about Ghani testing his Pakistan-China project. This does not reduce the wealth of goodwill built up over the past decade with all sections of the Afghan community covering countrywide economic

5 cooperation projects, infrastructure, health, nutrition, institution building, human resource development and industry. This cooperation should be expanded provided security is managed. k) India should urge Ghani to use his influence to open up transit through Pakistan for India-Afghan trade so that Afghan farmers can rediscover their traditional markets for fruit and dry fruits. Today, the APTTA is seen as a barrier because of delays at the borders, restrictions on vehicles, and Afghan trucks having to return empty as they are barred from picking up Indian goods. l) At the same time, India needs to accelerate the expansion of the Chabahar port on the Iranian coast which provides an alternative route to Afghanistan and Central Asia. m) Even as Ghani clears the air about his agenda, India should wish him well and as a proud Afghan, he understands that India is a strategic partner because we share the same vision of a stable, united, independent and democratic Afghanistan where all its ethnic groups live and prosper together.

3. a) I.R a) India – UK relations a) Labour partys leader and Modis visit a Prime Ministerial candidate Ed policy priority: b) Economic ties Miliband told that an invitation Miliband (Page Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:27-04-15

c) Climate change to PM Modi to visit UK would 12) be high on agenda if it forms a govt after elections on May 7. b) He said I know when it comes to all of major issues that we face, whether it is growing our economy, or climate change, or on every major issue, good relations with India are absolutely crucial. A close relationship with India is a very big foreign policy priority for me. c) The UK is the only major Western country that Modi has not visited after becoming PM.

4. a) International a) Climate change a) Alan Rusbridger (Editor- India must review in-chief of The Guardian) has fossil fuel b) Fossil fuels said that India must plan to subsidies (Pages 1 reduce its dependence on coal, and 9) c) Global warming which is having devastating effects and the fear of the rest of the world about India is that it is going to burn vast amounts of dirty coal in very inefficient ways. b) It draws attention to global impact of climate change from dependence on fossil fuels and argues the moral and financial case for moving to renewable energy. He said that India must look at the issue of subsidies by which fossil fuels are supported, pointing to China where the cost of solar energy has been steadily dropping. c) The idea for Keep it in the Ground (the campaign on disinvestment in fossil fuel- based energy companies launched by The Guardian early this year) was seeded by him.

7 d) In order to save the planet from catastrophic climate change, global temperatures have to stay within a 2 degrees Celsius threshold. This can be achieved if the 200 top fossil fuel companies wind up operations or shift to alternate renewable fuels.

5. a) National a) Juvenile Justice Act a) Nearly 25 years ago, India A bill for juvenile signed the United Nations injustice (Page 9) b) Polity b) Juvenile Justice Convention on the Rights of the (Care and Protection) Bill Child and joined the world in making a promise to protect and c) United Nations promote the rights of children. Convention on the Rights Today, with the govts proposed of the Child amendments to Juvenile Justice Bill, India is in serious danger d) Parliamentary of going back on that promise. Standing Committee b) In Aug 2014, the govt e) Supreme Court introduced the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection Bill) in Lok Sabha which proposes to introduce a judicial waiver system in India whereby juvenile offenders aged between 16 and 18 years would be tried and punished as adults for a certain class of crimes. Subsequently, this Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee which examined this in detail and submitted strong objections in February this year. c) Media reports indicate that the Cabinet has decided to go ahead with this Bill. In authors opinion, doing this would result in violating the basic principles of the international juvenile criminal system and our own Constitution. More importantly, this would be a regressive move Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:27-04-15

which would run foul of evidence-based social policy. d) Some people have spoken in support of the proposed Bill on the ground that seriousness of the crime reflects the mental maturity of the juvenile. Unfortunately, this argument seems to have ignored all the research in neuroscience and psychology. It is now well accepted that adolescence is a period of tremendous physiological, hormonal, emotional and structural changes in the human brain, making it a time of great vulnerability. e) As a society, when we have collectively failed to provide our children with the right environment to grow in, how fair is it for us to penalise them using an adult criminal system? f) Even countries such as US and UK (which introduced the judicial waiver system) have now accepted that they have been ineffective in addressing juvenile crime rate, public safety and recidivism. It is for us to now decide whether we want juveniles to reform and rejoin our society or become hardened criminals themselves. g) According to media reports, the Union Cabinet has decided to override the Parliamentary Standing Committees recommendations. We can expect the Bill to be discussed in the Lok Sabha in

9 the next few days. h) The unanimous opinion of all of them was that the changes proposed in this Bill are harmful to the rights of Indian children. Even the Supreme Court (in the cases of Swamy vs Raju (2014) and Salil Bali vs Union of India (2013)) has upheld the constitutionality of existing juvenile justice system. i) The Parliamentary Standing Committee studied the Bill in detail and stated that subjecting children in the age group of 16 to 18 years to an adult criminal system would be unconstitutional. Keeping in mind the prevailing scientific, judicial and parliamentary wisdom, the author call upon political parties across the ruling and opposition benches to stop this Bill in its tracks.

6. a) National a) Healthcare system a) A new study says that five High costs push billion people globally do not surgical care out b) Health b) Mortality have access to safe, affordable of reach (Page 10) c) Rajiv Aarogyasri surgery and anaesthesia when Community Health they need them. Insurance Scheme (RACHIS) b) Researchers found that postal code areas with high incidence of acute abdominal mortality in India were more likely to be located further from a hospital capable of providing appropriate emergency surgical care than areas with low mortality. In the absence of surgical care, common, easily treatable illnesses become fatal. c) Researchers claim in Rajiv Aarogyasri Community Health Insurance Scheme that provides Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:27-04-15

access to free tertiary medical care across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

7. a) Economy a) Full convertibility of a) It is not for the first time Is time ripe for the rupee that the topic of full the plunge? (Page convertibility of the rupee has 15) b) Current Account engaged policy-makers at the Deficit (CAD) highest levels. Just this month the RBI Governor Rajan and the c) Fiscal Deficit Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha have expressed the d) GDP hope that India will move to full e) Tarapore committee convertibility status sooner rather than later. recommendations b) According to Sinha, a full convertibility of the rupee will enable India to play a positive and useful role in the global economy. c) To understand full convertibility better one has to interpret terms such as convertibility of the rupee in relation to current account and how it differs from capital account. d) Two points are very relevant here. Even experts agree that there can be no watertight division between current account and capital account convertibility. Second, no country in the world has full convertibility of its currency, which involves free capital flows in and out of the country. e) In a full convertibility regime, money can freely flow in and out of the country with minimal restrictions. It needs to be stated here that for India, fully compliant on the current account, full convertibility

11 remains a goal and path towards it needs to be measured. f) Expert groups, the two Tarapore Committees (1997 and again in Sept 2006) have defined road maps, where progress is to be measured in terms of the attainment of specific goals such as those relating to fiscal and current account deficits and inflation. g) The twin deficits (current account and the fiscal deficits) have posed problems but over the recent past, the govt of the day seems to have got a grip on these. The CAD has jumped from 4.8 percent of the GDP in 2012-13 to 1.7 percent during the next year. In fiscal deficit, the govt managed to contain it at 4.1 percent but the recommended target of 3 percent of the GDP has been pushed back by a year. h) The reason why the Governor and the minister reside on the subject may have to do with drawing attention on the host of issues that need to be tackled for India to march ahead towards convertibility.

8. a) Economy a) Minimum a) The taxation dispute The knotty issue Alternative Tax (MAT) between the Indian govt and FIs of MAT (Page seems never-ending. It came to 15) b) Foreign Investors (FIs) the fore again this month when foreign investors were asked to c) Indian stock market pay a MAT for capital gains d) Tax Treaty Pact made in Indian stock markets. b) MAT was first introduced in 1996 to make companies pay at least some tax. That is because some were paying little Current Affairs from The Hindu DATE:27-04-15

or no tax, as they were enjoying tax exemptions, but at the same time were reporting profits and even paying handsome dividends to the shareholders. c) MAT is calculated at 18.5 percent on the book profit or at the usual corporate rates, and whichever is higher is payable as tax. Foreign investors in India have had to pay 15 percent on short-term listed equity gains, 5 percent on gains from bonds, and nothing on long-term gains. d) The Finance Ministry has said that foreign investors domiciled in countries that have tax treaty pacts with India do not have to pay MAT taxes. These countries include Singapore and Mauritius. However, those outside of treaty countries, it could be long drawn legal battle. e) Foreign investors have been the major drivers of the stock market. They have pumped in over $50 billion in the Indian markets since the election of PM Modi in May last year. Any uncertainty over tax is likely to hurt investor sentiment.

9. a) Environment a) Lion-tailed macaque a) Lion-tailed macaques may Lion-tailed be synonymous with Kerala but macaque makes b) Geography b) Western Ghats it is hard to find one in the open Kollam its home for they are known to live only (Page 6) in some pockets of the dense jungles of the southern portion of the Western Ghats. b) Being diurnal by nature it is hard to spot one even inside it

13 natural habitats. But people in many pockets on the outskirts of Kollam city now have a lion- tailed macaque in their midst. It was first spotted near a temple in Thazhuthala near Kottiyam.