Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has called on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states to strive for judicial cooperation in order to make the judicial system more approachable for the common people.
Addressing the conclusion of the 18th meeting of the Chief Justices/Chairpersons of the Supreme Courts of the member states here on Saturday, the CJI stressed “the need to collectively adopt new mechanisms to make court processes accessible”.
He highlighted several challenges facing the judicial systems in SCO member states and how the conference “allowed all member and observer states to reflect upon the challenges that are common to their jurisdictions”.
CJI Chandrachud “emphasised that these issues need to be tackled with mutual cooperation and by sharing experiences and wisdom gathered”.
Except Pakistan, representatives of all other SCO member states, two observer states — Islamic Republic of Iran and Republic of Belarus — the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) and SCO Secretariat were present at the two-day event. Pakistan joined through videoconferencing.
Editorial
Canberra calling (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The four-day visit of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has helped consolidate Australia’s position in the A list of India’s valued partners.
Thanks to the sustained efforts of the political leadership in both the capitals in recent years, the long-standing synergies between the two nations are now being translated into concrete outcomes in the political, economic, and the security domains.
During the Cold War, the occasional efforts at overcoming the political divergences in the worldviews of Delhi and Canberra did not succeed because there was little economic cooperation between the two countries.
It was only after India’s economic liberalisation that followed soon after the Cold War came to an end that the complementarity between India’s economic growth and Australia’s rich natural resources came into view.
Yet, it took nearly three decades for policies to catch up with new possibilities. The Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement that opened the door for freer commerce between the two nations came into force at the end of 2022.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Albanese are pushing for their trade bureaucracies to quickly complete the negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CECA) that will further integrate the two economies.
The China hand (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The Saudi-Iran deal, brokered by China, is sure to have far reaching consequences. The decision by the two West Asian Islamic rivals to re-establish diplomatic relations seven years after breaking off ties is not as much a surprise as Beijing’s convening power in the region.
The two sides had held several rounds of talks in Iraq and Oman. For Saudi Arabia, the drone attacks on its oil facilities in 2019, claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, was a reality check.
While then US President Donald Trump made clear to the Saudi monarchy that he was not going to be drawn into a direct conflict with Iran, the Biden Administration also signalled decreasing interest as a guarantor of peace in the region.
On the other side, Trump’s pullout from the Iran nuclear deal, the reimposition of sanctions on the country, plus the targeted killing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief Qassem Soleimani by the US, jolted the Islamic Republic.
The March 10 agreement followed negotiations in China. Significantly, Beijing is also a signatory to the deal, under which Iran and Saudi Arabia will reopen their embassies, as well as revive a 2001 security pact, and a 1998 agreement to build economic, commercial, scientific, cultural and sports ties.
The agreement greatly improves the chances of an end to the conflict in Yemen, and may also have an impact in other countries where the two adversaries are engaged in hostilities, notably Syria and Lebanon.
Ideas Page
Powering Amrit Kaal (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
As the world’s fastest-growing major economy with rising energy needs, India will account for approximately 25 per cent of the global energy demand growth between 2020-2040, as per BP energy outlook and IEA estimates.
Ensuring energy access, availability and affordability for our large population is imperative. This makes our case sui generis and has driven our energy strategy, now acknowledged the world over as being pragmatic and balanced.
When petrol and diesel prices went up by 35-40 per cent in the US, Canada, Spain and the UK, and despite importing over 85 per cent of its crude oil requirements and 55 per cent of its natural gas requirements, prices of diesel in India have actually gone down in the last 1 year.
When several countries in our neighbourhood have had dry outs and power cuts to manage demand, there has been no shortage of fuel anywhere in India, even during floods and natural calamity situations.
Men without women (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
India has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. For this year alone, IMF has forecast 6.8 per cent growth for the Indian economy in comparison to 1.6 per cent for the US.
Predicted to be the third-largest economy in the world by 2030, India is expected to be behind only the US and China. Despite its economic growth, women’s participation in the country’s economy, polity and society has not kept pace.
Elections in India have witnessed a striking contrast in recent times. The female voter turnout has increased in the country. Seven out of eight states that went to the polls in 2022 saw a jump in female voter turnout.
Though this sounds promising, the increasing proportion of women voters seen in local, state and general elections has not translated into more women contesting elections.
As per data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in India, women make up 14.44 per cent of the Lok Sabha. A glance at the data in the latest available report of the Election Commission of India (ECI), shows that women represent 10.5 per cent of all Members of Parliament as of October 2021.
For all the state assemblies, female MLAs’ representation stands at an average of 9 per cent. India’s ranking in this regard has fallen over the last few years. It is currently behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The data for May 2022 showed that women’s representation in Pakistan was 20 per cent, in Bangladesh 21 per cent, and in Nepal was 34 per cent. Since Independence, women’s representation in Lok Sabha has not even increased by 10 per cent.
Explained
Why ISRO brought the satellite back into the Earth’s atmosphere? (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Space)
The Indian Space Research Organisation brought down a satellite in a controlled manner after its end of life, for the first time earlier this week.
The weather satellite Megha Tropiques-1, which was developed as a joint mission by Indian and French space agencies, entered the atmosphere after the final two manoeuvres and burnt up over the Pacific Ocean.
The Megha Tropiques satellite was launched aboard a PSLV by the space agency in 2011. And, although the planned mission life of the satellite was only three years, it continued providing data on water cycle and energy exchanges in the tropics for nearly a decade.
With over 120kgs of fuel remaining in the satellite even after being decommissioned, the space agency determined that there was enough to attempt a controlled re-entry, where a series of 20 manoeuvres over eight months lowered the orbit of the satellite such that it re-entered the dense atmosphere on Tuesday and burned up.
This was the first time that the space agency attempted such a manoeuvre to clear out space debris despite the satellite not being built to do so.
The re-entry was not really planned as part of the mission; there was fuel left so Isro attempted it. Usually, satellites are left in their orbit and because of the gravitational pull of the earth, they come down to the atmosphere over years and years.
When the satellites re-enter the atmosphere, the friction causes it to heat up to extreme high temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius.
Without a heat shield, 99% of a satellite gets burnt up whether in a controlled re-entry or an uncontrolled one,” said Ajey Lele, senior fellow at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
A major bank failed. Here is why it is not 2008 again. (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The financial institution best known for its relationships with high-flying world technology startups and venture capital, Silicon Valley Bank, experienced one of the oldest problems in banking — a bank run — which led to its failure.
Its downfall is the largest failure of a financial institution since Washington Mutual collapsed at the height of the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
And it had immediate effects. Some startups that had ties to the bank scrambled to pay their workers, and feared they might have to pause projects or lay off or furlough employees until they could access their funds.
How did this happen? Here’s what to know about why the bank failed, who was affected most, and what to know about how it may, and may not affect, the wider banking system in the U.S.
Silicon Valley Bank was hit hard by the downturn in technology stocks over the past year as well as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive plan to increase interest rates to combat inflation.
The bank bought billions of dollars worth of bonds over the past couple of years, using customers’ deposits as a typical bank would normally operate.
These investments are typically safe, but the value of those investments fell because they paid lower interest rates than what a comparable bond would pay if issued in today’s higher interest rate environment.
Typically that’s not an issue, because banks hold onto those for a long time — unless they have to sell them in an emergency.
But Silicon Valley’s customers were largely startups and other tech-centric companies that started becoming more needy for cash over the past year.
Venture capital funding was drying up, companies were not able to get additional rounds of funding for unprofitable businesses, and therefore had to tap their existing funds — often deposited with Silicon Valley Bank, which sat in the center of the tech startup universe.
Economy
US to reboot India’s chip ambitions, will help plug-in to global alliances (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The deal between India and the United States on fostering private sector cooperation in semiconductor manufacturing could have three main upsides from New Delhi’s perspective.
The possibility of India getting aligned into a more central role in the global electronics supply chain is among the most important, especially the possibility of finding potential convergence in the chip manufacturing incentive scheme launched by the country and those by other governments across the world.
Then there is a commitment to mainstream India’s $10 billion in incentives by dovetailing component manufacturing projects from established foreign chip firms and industry leaders such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Intel Corp, as opposed to just marginal players that have shown interest in India’s incentive scheme so far.
There is also the possibility of India benefiting from a further realignment of the regional collaborative effort being fostered by the US in a pivotal role, as Washington tries to diversify the sourcing supply base for semiconductor chips and avoid duplication of efforts.
The US is already pursuing the “Chip 4” alliance initiative with three other top semiconductor makers — Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. India, Japan and Australia had announced plans in September 2021 to establish a semiconductor supply chain initiative “to secure access to semiconductors and their components”.
A further convergence of regional efforts is a distinct possibility if the US were to play a fostering role to avoid overlap of efforts by partner countries, heralding the possibility of India being possibly drafted into some of the mainstream chip alliances that are being discussed.