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Vinod Kumar Shukla, at 87, has won the PEN America award for lifetime achievement in literature, one of the most coveted literary prizes worldwide, after decades of composing acclaimed novels like Naukar Ki Kameez (1979) and poetry collections like Sab Kuch Hona Bacha Rahega (1992).
On the win that will be felicitated on March 2 in New York, judges Amit Chaudhuri, Roya Hakakian, and MaazaMengiste said in a statement, “Shukla’s prose and poetry are marked by acute, often defamiliarising, observation.
The voice that emerges is that of a deeply intelligent onlooker; a daydreamer struck occasionally by wonder. Writing for decades without the recognition he deserves; Shukla has created literature that changes how we understand the modern.
Shukla, whose works incorporate magic-realist elements and have won the Sahitya Akademi award and the Atta Galatta–Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize, was born on January 1, 1937 in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh (then Madhya Pradesh). His first published work was a poetry collection Lagbhag Jai Hind (1971), followed by Vah Aadmi Chala Gaya Naya Garam Coat PehankarVichar Ki Tarah (1981).
Naukar Ki Kameez was his first novel, adapted into a 1999 Hindi film by Mani Kaul, telling the story of a clerk in a government office who is found to fit into the shirt of a domestic help who runs away from his employer’s house.
Forced to do errands outside his job description, the narrative follows his journey into the life of the upper class and the tensions that emerge therein.
Express Network
UK foreign secy to launch exchange plan, announce Indo-Pacific tech envoy (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is visiting India to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting and to mark a new scheme allowing young Britons and Indians to live and work in each other’s country for up to two years, which was announced by the Home Secretary earlier this week.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will meet Cleverly on Wednesday, ahead of the G-20 foreign ministers’ gathering in New Delhi. They are expected to discuss progress on the UK-India 2030 Roadmap, which aims to bolster the two countries’ ties in defence and security, trade and investment.
During a visit to IIT Delhi, Cleverly will mark the opening of the Young Professionals Scheme, a partnership between the UK and India which allows up 3,000 Britons and 3,000 Indians each year the right to live and work in the other country for up to two years.
He will also announce the creation of the UK’s first Tech Envoy to the Indo-Pacific region, who will boost ties with India as a priority.
This envoy is the second of its kind to be announced by the UK (after the appointment of a Tech Envoy to the US in late 2020) and demonstrates our commitment to the region and tech-diplomacy.
Express Network
Centre set to invite state views again on Punchhi panel (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Nearly five years after announcing that its work on the Punchhi Commission’s report on Centre-state relations is “complete”, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided to start the process of seeking the states’ comments on the issue afresh.
The matter recently came to light in Parliament through a reply given by the MHA to an unstarred question asked by Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, the Rajya Sabha member of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The party is planning to rake up the Punchhi panel’s recommendations to rally “like-minded Opposition parties” on “the cause of federalism”.
“It has been decided to obtain updated comments of the State Governments/ UT Administrations on the recommendations of the Standing Committee.
In view of this, a meeting of the ISC (Inter-State Council) to discuss the Punchhi Commission recommendations could not be held,” the Minister of State in the Home Ministry Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha on February 8.
The Punchhi Commission was constituted by the then Manmohan Singh-led UPA government in April 2007 under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Madan Mohan Punchhi.
In 2010, the Commission submitted its report to the Centre in seven volumes. Among its recommendations were those pertaining to clipping of the Governors’ wings.
India, Denmark can show world that it’s possible to deliver on climate goals: minister (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
India and Denmark can together show the world that delivering on ambitious climate and sustainable energy goals is possible, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav said. He was addressing the ‘India-Denmark: Partners for Green and Sustainable Progress Conference’ in New Delhi Tuesday. The event was attended by Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
The Indo-Danish Green Strategic Partnership is an appropriate forum to exchange ideas, best practices, knowledge, technology and capacity-building for promoting sustainable lifestyles including LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), not only in Denmark and India, but in Europe and the whole world.
The Union minister said that since the launch of the Green Strategic Partnership during the virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen on September 28, 2020, the bilateral cooperation is focused on promoting green and sustainable development.
During PM Modi’s visit to Denmark in May 2022, India and Denmark agreed to further strengthen the Green Strategic Partnership with a focus on green hydrogen, renewable energy and wastewater management.
“India and Denmark have set very ambitious national targets on climate and energy that will contribute to an ambitious implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Together, the two countries can show the world that delivering on ambitious climate and sustainable energy goals is possible. It is also necessary, at the same time, to commit ourselves to the founding principles of the Rio Convention.
Explained
Sisodia case: how the right against self-incrimination works (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Supreme Court refused to hear a plea by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia seeking bail in the excise policy case after a Delhi court on Monday remanded him in CBI custody till March 4.
The Supreme Court disapproved of Sisodia approaching it directly under Article 32 of the Constitution when the remedy of moving the High Court under Section 482 of the CrPC was available to him.
Special CBI judge M K Nagpal had granted CBI Sisodia’s custody on the grounds that he had “failed to provide satisfactory answers” during investigation. The court had rejected Sisodia’s arguments that he had a right against self-incrimination.
The right against self-incrimination has its origins in Roman law, and evolved as a distinct right in the English jurisprudence.
The right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the right to remain silent in an interrogation essentially flow from this constitutionally guaranteed right against self-incrimination.
This right also ensures that police cannot coerce anyone to confess to a crime, and obtain a conviction based on that confession.
What is Windsor Framework, which will replace the Northern Ireland Protocol (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The UK government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reached a landmark deal with the European Union (EU) on post-Brexit trade rules that will govern Northern Ireland.
The ‘Windsor Framework’ will replace the Northern Ireland Protocol, which had proved to be among the thorniest of Brexit fall-outs, creating problems both economic and political.
After the UK left the European Union, Northern Ireland remained its only constituent that shared a land border with an EU-member, the Republic of Ireland.
Since the EU and the UK have different product standards, border checks would be necessary before goods could move from Northern Ireland to Ireland.
However, the two Irelands have had a long history of conflict, with a hard-fought peace secured only in 1998 under the Belfast Agreement, also called the Good Friday agreement.
Fiddling with this border was thus considered too dangerous, and it was decided the checks would be conducted between Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland (which together with Great Britain forms the United Kingdom). This was called the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Under the protocol, Northern Ireland remained in the EU single market, and trade-and-customs inspections of goods coming from Great Britain took place at its ports along the Irish Sea.
The checks made trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland cumbersome, with food products, especially, losing out on shelf life while they waited for clearance.
Some taxation and spending policies of the UK government could not be implemented in Northern Ireland because of EU rules. The sale of medicines, too, was caught between different British and EU rules.
Ideas page
Cooperation amid conflict (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The inability of the G20 finance ministers to agree on a joint statement last week points to an important reality about multilateralism.
When great powers are at peace with each other, multilateralism has reasonable chances of success; but when they are at each other’s throats, the room for global cooperation shrinks.
Multilateralism, then, is not an activity independent of power politics. The outcome of the gathering of the G20 foreign ministers this week is unlikely to be any different from what we have seen with the finance ministers.
The shadow of the great power rivalry on the G20 is only likely to darken in the days ahead as China and Russia consolidate their “alliance without limits” and Washington rallies the collective West to stand up against Moscow and Beijing.
To be functional, multilateral institutions like the G20, United Nations and World Trade Organisation need at least a minimal understanding among the major powers on the global rules of the road.
Such an understanding was not obtained during the Cold War except in a few areas like nuclear arms control. Although the UN was set up after the Second World War with the expectation that the great powers would work together, the world saw the allies turn adversaries and sharply divide the world into competing economic and military blocs.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, curtains fell on the prolonged East-West Cold War. It opened doors for an expansive phase of multilateralism for nearly a quarter of a century — whether it was great power cooperation at the UN or in the creation of the WTO.
When the financial crisis of 2008 broke out, the Bush administration rallied the top 20 economies of the world to stabilise the global economy.
That world of shared interests among the top nations no longer exists. It is no surprise, then, that consensus on key issues eludes the G20 today.