THE ASSAM TRIBUNE ANALYSIS

DATE – 11 MARCH 2021

For Preliminary and Mains examination

As per new Pattern of APSC

(Also useful for UPSC and other State level government examinations)

Answers of MCQs of 10-03-2021 1. A. Ease of Doing Business 2020 is a report published by The World Bank to 'Compare Business Regulation in 190 Economies'. 2. B. The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report was first published in 2007 by the World Economic Forum. 3. B 4. D. The DRDO Nishant is an unmanned aerial vehicle developed by India's Aeronautical Development Establishment, a branch of Defence Research and Development Organisation for the . 5. D

MCQs of 11-03-2021 Q1. Which of the following is not a part of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD) or QUAD Group

A. India B. Australia C. Japan D. South Korea

Q2. The S-400 air defence missile systems will be delivered to India by which country?

A. Israel B. USA C. Russia D. Finland

Q3. “Indra 2020” is a bilateral Naval exercise between India and which country?

A. China B. SriLanka C. USA D. Russia

Q4. India signed ‘Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA)’ with which country?

A. Japan

B. France C. Germany D. Brazil

Q5. Which Indian city is to play host to the Asia’s largest aero show, Aero India-21?

A. Gurgaon B. Bengaluru C. Vishakhapatnam D. Kolkata

CONTENTS

1. Deepika Padukone, Borosil India head in WEF’s new list ( GS 2 – International Organisation ) 2. Hope first Quad summit is conducive, ‘not the opposite’: China ( GS 2 – International Relations ) 3. Navy’s third Kalavari class submarine commissioned ( GS 3 – Defence )

EDITORIAL

1. Gender budgeting ( GS 2 – Gender ) 2. Saivism through the ages in Assam ( GS 5 – Religion ) 3. A much-needed step ( GS 5 – Infrastructure )

Deepika Padukone, Borosil India head in WEF’s new list  Actor Deepika Padukone and several Indian citizens and India-origin persons today joined the list of the Young Global Leaders (YGLs) compiled by the World Economic Forum.

 Announcing its 2021 class of YGLs, the WEF said these are the world’s most promising 112 of tomorrow’s leaders under the age of 40 and are involved in activities ranging from advocating for public healthcare to campaigning for inclusivity in medical research.

 They join a group of Nobel Prize recipients, Pulitzer winners, heads of state and chief executive officers committed to improving the state of the world, said the Geneva-based organisation that describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation.

 The Forum of Young Global Leaders was founded in 2005 by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the WEF, to create a world where leaders take responsibility for a sustainable future while meeting increasingly complex and interrelated challenges.

 Currently, there are 1,400 members and alumni from over 120 countries, and notable members include Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern and Sanna Marin, Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, actor Yao Chen, lawyer Amal Clooney and filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu.

 “YGLs are active in today’s most exciting and dynamic fields and focus on impact.

 “In the past year, they have worked on more than 30 COVID-19-related initiatives, including expanding the use of free public digital health services, launching data challenges to build an ecosystem that can help tackle the pandemic, creating mobile intensive care shelters, opening mental health support platforms and working on vaccine development,” the WEF said.

 It further said the class of 2021 is gender-equal and has representatives from 56 countries. These members will take part in a five-year programme, which offers executive education courses, expeditions and opportunities to collaborate and test ideas among a trusted network of peers.

 “The YGL Class of 2021 is comprised of thoughtful and courageous leaders who will shape a more sustainable and inclusive post-pandemic era,” said Mariah Levin, Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.

 The 2021 YGL class members from the academia and research field include Devi Sridhar (University Lecturer in Global Health Politics, University of Oxford, UK), Adriana Cargill (independent journalist, USA), Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (captain of Bangladesh cricket team) and Rohan Ramakrishnan (Founder and CEO of the ASEAN Post, Malaysia).

 From the business field, there are Nirvana Chaudhary (MD of Nepal’s Chaudhary Group), Shreevar Kheruka (MD and CEO of Borosil India) and Srikanth Bolla (CEO of Bollant Industries, India).

 Members from the civil society and social entrepreneurship arena include Amit Paley (CEO of The Trevor Project, USA), Anulika Ajufo (Principal of the UK’s Soros Economic Development Fund) and Deepika Padukone (Founder of the Live Love Laugh Foundation, India).

 Others on the list include Vasudha Vats (Global Commercial Lead/Senior Director, Pfizer, USA), Vivek Ramaswamy (Founder and CEO of Roivant Sciences, USA), Ameya Prabhu (Managing Partner of UAP Advisors, India) and Maleeka Bokhari (Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice, Pakistan).

 The list also include Aditi Avasthi (Founder and CEO of Indiavidual Learning, India), Gazal Kalra (Co- founder of Rivigo, India), Hitesh Wadhwa (Vice-President for Strategic Initiatives at Tech Mahindra, India), Hriday Ravindranath (Chief Technology and Information Officer, Global Services at BT Group, India) and Suren Aloyan (Founder, Chairman and CEO, Dasaran, Armenia). – PTI

Hope first Quad summit is conducive, ‘not the opposite’: China

 As the US, India, Australia and Japan are set to hold their first Leaders’ Summit of Quad on Friday, a wary China on Wednesday hoped that the four countries will do things that are “conducive” to regional peace and stability instead of the “opposite”.

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga will attend the virtual summit, which is the first conclave of the top leaders of the Quadrilateral alliance, which was often projected in the official media here as an alliance against China’s rise.

 Asked for his reaction to the first Leaders’ summit of the Quad, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that China believes that any regional cooperation architecture should follow the principle of peaceful development and win-win cooperation, which is the prevailing trend of the times.

 “We hope the relevant countries will keep in mind the common interests of the regional countries, uphold the principles of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation and do things that are conducive to regional peace stability and prosperity rather than the opposite,” Zhao said.

 In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.

 The US has been favouring making Quad a security architecture to check China’s growing assertiveness.

 A commentary in the state-run Global Times on the reports of Quad summit two days ago said, “The busy schedule of arrangements seems, to Chinese observers, like a “water-testing” move from the US to sound out its Asian partners’ attitude toward forming an “unbreakable alliance” to counter China’s rise.

 Zhao also reacted cautiously when asked about the reports that Quad leaders will reach an agreement to increase their vaccine assistance to the developing countries to counter China’s vaccines diplomacy.

 “China is a committed frontrunner in promoting international vaccine cooperation.” but it is opposed to vaccine nationalism and politicisation of vaccine cooperation, he said. – PTI

Navy’s third Kalavari class submarine commissioned  ’s third stealth Scorpene class Submarine INS Karanj, equipped with potent weapons and sensors to neutralise any threat above or below the sea surface, was commissioned here on Wednesday.

 Former Navy chief Admiral VS Shekhawat, who was part of the commissioning crew of the old Karanj and later the Commanding Officer during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, was the chief guest for the commissioning ceremony at the Naval Dockyard.

 Six Scorpene class submarines are being built in India by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) Mumbai, under collaboration with Naval Group, France, a Navy spokesperson said in a release.

 INS Karanj is the third Kalavari-class submarine to be commissioned into the Navy. The diesel-electric submarines based on the Scorpene design are also referred as Scorpene class submarines.

 INS Karanj would form part of the Western Naval Command’s submarine fleet and would be another potent part of the Command’s arsenal.

 Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh and senior Navy and MoD officers were among those present at the commissioning ceremony.

 The crew of the erstwhile Karanj, a Russian origin Foxtrot class submarine which was decommissioned in 2003, were also special invitees for the ceremony.

 During his address, the Navy Chief said, “This impetus to indigenisation and Aatmanirbhar Bharat is a fundamental tenet of the Indian Navy’s growth story and future operational capabilities.”

 This year is being celebrated as the Swarnim Vijay Varsh which marks 50 years of the 1971 Indo-Pak war. The old Karanj, commissioned on September 4, 1969 at Riga in the erstwhile USSR, also took active part in that war.

 In recognition of the valiant action of her officers and crew, a number of personnel on board were decorated, including the award of Vir Chakra to the then Commanding Officer Cdr Shekhawat.

 The commissioning Commanding Officer of the old Karanj Cdr MNR Samant later became the first Chief of the Naval Staff of the newly formed Bangladesh Navy in 1971.

 The Scorpene class submarines are among the most advanced conventional submarines in the world. “They are equipped with the latest global technologies. More deadly and stealthier than their predecessors, these submarines are equipped with potent weapons and sensors to neutralise any threat above or below the sea surface,” a press release stated. – PTI

EDITORIAL

Gender budgeting

 These platitudes are forgotten the very next day because there are too few women at the top to push this agenda. If women don’t want this neglect to persist, they have to continually challenge the system. This means making a noise loud enough to be heard in the corridors of power.  International Women’s Day is celebrated with great fanfare across the world. Most often the celebrations camouflage the entrenched lack of attention to women’s empowerment issues. Ironically most celebrations are organized by women themselves for themselves. A day later everything is back to

business as usual and all the platitudes forgotten. Women go back to their woeful situation scraping the bottom of the barrel to see if there is anything at all left for them. For the thousands of women eking out a livelihood to support their families, either because the husband has abandoned them; they are too poor and need both sources of income or because the husband blows up everything in liquor, life is a long and arduous battle – a daily battle that takes a toll on their health and leaves them with no time for simple leisure. The very thought of the existential dilemmas of such women is heart-rending, except that governments and policymakers are not known to have hearts; much less to feel.

 It is but natural that India would be ranked 112th among 153 countries in the annual Global Gender Gap Index 2020 published by the World Economic Forum. The WEF published its first gender gap index in 2006. The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 153 countries on their progress towards gender parity in four critical dimensions: They include (a) Economic Participation and Opportunity (b) Educational Attainment (c) Health and Survival (d) Political Empowerment.

 This index enables countries to track progress on relative gaps between women and men on health, education, economy and politics. The WEF report is a pointer to countries that they need to buck up and reduce the gender gaps and to set priorities relevant to each of the above four indicators to improve the lives of women and men in the respective countries. Economic participation, educational attainments and political participation and decision making all require that women have access to health and are not undernourished, anaemic, and having to struggle to survive their child births which is the case for many women in the states of Bihar, UP, Assam and Meghalaya where the maternal and infant mortality figures continue to remain high.

 If women have to struggle even to access basic healthcare, then how can we expect them to engage in economic activities and entrepreneurship with the self-confidence that is required to run businesses? It is sad that gender budgeting has remained the one factor that has kept women at subsistence level in this country and the north-eastern region as a whole.

 In the past, powerful women’s groups had engaged vigorously with the Central Government and the Planning Commission on the need for gender budgeting so that resources are equitably allocated between women and men since every policy impacts women and men differently. For instance, in the area of health, women because of their reproductive roles are vulnerable to many more cancers than men. Women have to deal with cancer of the uterus, breast, cervix, ovaries, over and above the other cancers that affect men such as throat, bone, oesophageal, stomach, etc. In fact in the past, the Planning Commission had included women with vast experiences in the concept that the social construction of gender is difficult to dismantle as it is embedded in patriarchy. Now with the NITI Aayog replacing the Planning Commission, one is unsure if such engagements continue or if gender sensitivity is even an attribute of the new planning system.

 Some might question why gender budgeting is important. The answer is that budget-making is essentially an exercise for allocation of resources; resources translate into opportunities. A gendered budget as opposed to a gender-neutral budget is one where the financial resources allocated by governments are put through the gender prism, because (I repeat) every policy affects women and men differently. Similarly financial resources allocation too will impact the genders differently. Hence gender budgeting is the process of preparing budgets by analysing gender inequality, hierarchies, and salary discrepancies between women and men. Not only that but even the participation of women in the workforce would rely a lot on whether they have the access and training required to meet the professional requirements of the work vacancies they seek to fill. Training requires resources. If the resources are not equitably allocated then as a natural selection process men usually are selected for training while women would lose out. Gender budgeting ensures that the benefits of the nation’s development reach women and men equally.

 Much has been spoken about and volumes written on women’s empowerment, not just on the occasion of International Women’s Day but over the years. These platitudes are forgotten the very next day because there are too few women at the top to push this agenda. If women don’t want this neglect to persist, they have to continually challenge the system. This means making a noise loud enough to be heard in the corridors of power.

 There are four women in the Meghalaya Assembly today, there were eight in the Assam Assembly, none in Mizoram or Nagaland. These women should transcend their ideological differences and make common cause on these issues. They are better placed than most women to raise these issues in the Assembly and outside it.

 Much of what is taken for granted in our country and in Meghalaya is rooted in gender inequality. Take the national budgets for instance. Women represent 48.1% of the nation. But they are way behind on many avenues such as health, economic opportunities and education. Data for female participation in the workforce is available only up to 2011 and stands at 32.67% in Meghalaya. Urban women had lesser employment opportunities than rural women. All these disparities and gender gaps will continue unless gender is mainstreamed across all policies including especially the financing policy of the Government.

 Many countries today have realized the importance of gender budgeting because that alone can bring about a real change when it comes to women’s empowerment. Indeed the merits of gender budgeting cannot be overemphasized. Firstly, there will be greater participation of women in the economy through a conscious effort to increase these levels through government policies. Equal representation of women and men in the workforce can have a great positive impact on the economy too. According to the International Monetary Fund, the GDP in India could be boosted by 27% if women had the same opportunities as men.

 But gender budgeting is a complex process because it aims to restructure the existing social, political and economic mechanisms of the country. Since the inclusion of a gender budgeting statement in 2005, India has taken some concrete steps towards pushing for that equality. However, this hasn’t been a smooth process. For example, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) had given 100% allocation for women. However, this scheme benefited both male and female children. How this can be corrected requires strategic thinking.

 Gender budgeting may be complex but it is necessary for these actions to take place to increase gender responsiveness of both the State and Central governments. One would like to believe that the women MPs would give this noble idea a huge push but it seems that they are still not aligned as women but are more driven by partisan considerations. Even the 33% reservation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies has been stonewalled and women are themselves not pushing this issue further. India as a nation still has a long way to traverse the barriers for achieving gender equality. So much for women’s empowerment and for the tokenism called International Women’s Day!

Saivism through the ages in Assam

 Lord Siva has a non-Aryan origin, and is a later entry into the Hindu fold. In Assam all the three streams of Hinduism – Saivism, Saktism and Vaishnavism – have been in harmony. Assam is a meeting ground of different races, tribes and sub-tribes; their customs, traditions and rituals are intermixed thoroughly. Among the temples the Siva temples are numerous compared to other gods. The Kalika Purana mentions 15 places of Siva worship, five Devi temples and another five Vishnu temples.  The popularity of Saivism can be ascertained from the 10 copper plates of seven Hindu kings spreading over a period from 7th century to 12th century AD. Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang) recorded, “There were hundreds of Deva temples, many of which were dedicated to Siva.” He mentioned the worship of other sects too. The Kalika Purana though fully devoted to Devi worship contains chapters eulogizing the worship of Siva, Vishnu and other gods. The ruins of a Siva temple dating back to 600 AD, the oldest in Assam, have been discovered in Tezpur. There have been references in the Yogini Tantra that the number of Siva Lingas in Kamrup exceeds a million.

 Raibahadur Gunabhiram Baruah postulated the theory that Siva worship came to Kamrupa at the instance of Jalpesvara, a mythological king of modern Jalpaiguri who founded the temple called Jalpesvara when it was a part of Kamrupa. According to Banikanta Kakati, when the Aryan migration started since the beginning of the Christian era, the Aryans came into contact with the aboriginal people of this land. In the process the Vedic religion underwent radical changes chiefly by adoptions of deities and religious myths

which were beyond the Brahminical ethos. Both the ways of worship, the Aryan mode and the local ways of worshipping Siva, are being practised even now.

 The king of Cooch Behar Naranarayan offered worship to Siva in accordance with Sastric (Vedic) rituals on the eve of his expedition against the Ahom kingdom. But his Kachari soldiers insisted that Lord Siva be worshipped according to tribal rites. Worship was done by sacrificing pigs, buffaloes, he-goats, etc., and offering of liquor and the dancing of women. Haria Mandal, father of Bisva Singha, and 12 other associated chiefs were the followers of Lord Siva. Siva is also referred to as Batho, Bathou, Bathau-Brai and Siva-Rai by the Bodo tribe and his consort is known as Bali Khungri.

 Even in the epic age, Bhagadatta was an ardent worshipper of Lord Siva and his successor Brajadatta too was a devotee of Siva. In the initial verse of Nidhanpur copper plate grant, Bhaskarvarman invokes Siva in his praise. In the Harsha Charita, there has been mention that Bhaskarvarman had resolved ‘never to do homage to any being except the lotus feet of Siva’. Also in the Guwahati grant of Indrapala, the opening verse has reference to Siva and Gauri. In the same grant belonging to the 11th century, there has been mention that the king constructed numerous Siva temples in his kingdom. Thus it has been observed that both in the recorded history and in the prehistoric distant past, the prominent kings of this province were devotees of Lord Siva.

 The influence of the Brahminical culture started shaping the religious ethos this land and this continued till the time of the Ahoms, when a synthesis started. The Nidhanpur copper plate grant of Bhutivarman of the 6th century bears the names of 205 Brahmans who settled in Assam to spread the Vedic religion. The non-Aryan people were converted to Hinduism. The Brahmans concocted the story that the Koch people were the descendants of Lord Siva and Bhima of the Mahabharata was a progenitor of the Kacharis. The Ahoms are said to be the descendants of Indra. In the process different ethnic groups were absorbed into the Hindu fold. The Ahom kings patronized Hinduism, built many Siva temples in this region.

 In the Kalika Purana and Yogini Tantra, Siva appears merely in his Bhairaba form rather than a normal god. There was a practice of keeping temple girls in the Siva temples till the recent past. In the land grant of Varnamala Deva of the 9th century, there is mention of Daluhangana (temple girl). The principal queen

of Ahom king Siva Singha, Phuleswari, was a temple girl. Another striking feature as noted by Banikanta Kakati is the animal sacrifice on the occasion of Siva Saturdarsi where the castrated goats are strangled to death in the precincts of temples.

 As Siva is worshipped mostly in the Linga form, not many Siva images are found. The earliest Siva image was found at the Sun temple in Tezpur, a standing Siva in the Smapada-sthanaka position with two hands. An image of Nataraj Siva in the dancing posture with 10 hands curved in a big stone was found near Guwahati. Yet another Nataraj image of Siva was found in Bamuni Hill with six hands. A composite image of Siva and Vishnu is located in North Guwahati that reflects the cordial relations amongst the different sects. The Assam State Museum is in possession of a few more Siva images of different ages.

A much-needed step  The inauguration of the Maitri Setu over the Feni river connecting Tripura is a much-needed step towards realizing the goal of enhanced connectivity between India’s Northeast and Bangladesh. The urgency of linking the strategic Northeast with its Southeast Asian neighbours such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China can hardly be overemphasized. As a new World Bank study noted, transport connectivity between the two South Asian neighbours would increase national income by as much as 17% in Bangladesh and 8% in India.  The 1.9-km Feni river bridge has now made Tripura capital Agartala the closest city in the country to an international sea port. As Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, the opening of the bridge – a testimony to Bangladesh’s continued commitment to support India in strengthening connectivity in the region – will also significantly help Bangladesh’s trade with Nepal and Bhutan.  The World Bank report further found that improved connectivity could yield a whopping 297% increase in Bangladesh’s exports to India and a 172% increase in India’s exports to Bangladesh. This means that new vistas in trade and commerce between the two countries through the Northeast had been in existence for a long time and adding further to the recent interventions will facilitate realization of that goal. The growing thrust on boosting connectivity can be particularly effective in the development of BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) countries and the World Bank, too, can be an active partner to

invest in the area. The BBIN sub-region, in fact, holds the key to emerge as an economic growth node for South Asia in general.

 With the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) motor vehicles agreement (MVA) now in place, it should be made comparable to the best global practices and the lacunae removed for seamless regional connectivity. The MVA among the BBIN network facilitates unhindered cross-border movement of cargo, passenger, and personal vehicles between these four countries. The World Bank has called for regional policy actions by the partner countries to strengthen the MVA and priority proposals for infrastructure investments that will help the countries maximize their benefits.

 Notwithstanding the international borders the Northeast shares with Southeast Asia, and also the fact that there existed traditional bilateral engagements between the regions, the kind of mutual interactions we have today can hardly be said to be satisfactory. On the other hand, the proximity with its SE Asian neighbours – if harnessed pragmatically – could have had a positive impact on the Northeast’s economy. Regrettably, the tendency of New Delhi to view and assess everything concerning the Northeast through the security prism remained a stumbling block in realizing the region’s latent potential. Thankfully, things are changing gradually now, with the ostensible pretext of security now getting somewhat sidelined.