Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
As the Chinese ballistic missile and satellite tracking ship Yuan Wang 5 arrived Tuesday morning at Hambantota port, a strategically important deep sea port in southern Sri Lanka.
China said the activities of its vessel will not affect the security of any country and should not be “obstructed” by any “third party” – a reference to India and its security concerns.
Last Saturday, Sri Lanka, which had deferred the visit of the Chinese military vessel following concerns raised by India, made a U-turn and allowed the ship to dock at the Hambantota port from August 16 to 22.
The Yuan Wang 5 is a powerful tracking vessel whose significant aerial reach — reportedly around 750 km — means that several ports in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh could be on China’s radar.
There was no official response from New Delhi to the development. On Sunday, ahead of the ship’s arrival, Sri Lanka President RanilWickemesinghe said China will not be allowed to use the port of Hambantota for military purposes.
Last week, before Colombo’s U-turn, the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs had said, “Sri Lanka is a sovereign country and makes its own independent decisions.”
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Yuan Wang 5 has “successfully berthed” at Hambantota port with “active cooperation from the Sri Lankan side”.
He said when the ship arrived, Ambassador Qi Zhenhong hosted the onsite welcoming ceremony at Hambantota port, which Beijing took over on a 99-year lease as a debt swap in 2017.
Referring to Indian and US concerns over the ship, Wang said, “I want to stress again that the marine scientific research activities of the Yuan Wang 5 are consistent with international law and international common practice.”
They do not affect the security and the economic interests of any country and should not be obstructedby any third party.
He said the ceremony was attended by a representative of Sri Lankan President RanilWickramasinghe besides “more than ten heads of parties and heads of friendly communities.”
“It will take some time for the Yuan Wang 5 research ship to complete the replenishment of necessary supplies,” he said.
Ships of the Yuan Wang class are used to track satellite, rocket and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches. The ships supplement Beijing’s land-based tracking stations.
Delhi Police in RTI reply: 80% match in facial recognition is deemed positive ID (Page no: 5)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Delhi Police, which has used facial recognition technology to identify those accused in major clashes that have taken place in the capital over the past two years, considered a match to be “positive” if there was an accuracy rate of 80 per cent, according to records obtained by digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
The records, shared under two RTI requests and reviewed by The Indian Express, throw light for the first time on how the Delhi Police uses facial recognition matches during investigations.
Facial recognition technology essentially maps, analyses and confirms the identity of a face in a photograph or video, typically using computer-generated filters to transform images into numerical expressions that can be compared. The key parameters include distance between the eyes and that from forehead to chin.
So far, the Delhi Police have used the technology to identify people suspected to have been involved in the 2020 riots, the clashes that broke out at Red Fort in 2021 during the farmers’ protest and the Jahangirpuri riots earlier this year.
The RTI records show that the police carries out “empirical investigation” for facial matches that have an accuracy of over 80 per cent before initiating any legal action. But even in cases where the accuracy is less than 80 per cent, the police considered it a “false positive result” which is again subject to “due verification with other corroborative evidence”, the records show.
According to experts, this suggests that even people, for whom the accuracy match may be lower, remain on the police radar. “Even if the technology does not give a sufficient enough result, the Delhi Police could continue to investigate anyone who may have gotten a very low score. Thus, any person who looks even slightly similar could end up being targeted, which could result in targeting communities who have been historically targeted,” said Anushka Jain, associate counsel, IFF.
To put the 80 per cent threshold in context, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ran a test in 2018 on Amazon’s facial recognition system, Rekognition, keeping the threshold at 80 per cent. The system ended up falsely associating 28 images of US Congress members with mugshots in a criminal database.
Editorial Page
Condemn and Listen (Page no: 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
It is a surprisingly difficult call, writing about the stabbing of Salman Rushdie in western New York. What can one say beyond saying that it is simply wrong, wrong, wrong — despicable, barbaric, heartbreaking, tragic — but what is the point of multiplying adjectives?
The world was a crappy place even before this happened. It is even crappier now. I am pretty much a free speech fundamentalist — almost, most of the time, and such an event merely reinforces that belief. Well, almost.
But it is impossible to finesse that “almost” in the context of the murderous attack that might well leave Rushdie with significant physical damage: One eye gone, liver compromised.
Or, indeed, to seek to derive some ironic consolation from the fact that at least his voice is back — practically as soon as he got off the ventilator. As AatishTaseer reported, Rushdie is back to talking, and joking. Free speech indeed — but at what cost!
But if I am forced to gloss that “almost”, I’d have to enter a few caveats — even as I recognise that now is not the time for caveats and reservations: Now is the time for sorrow, for lamentation and deep, deep condemnation.
There is nothing — repeat, nothing — to be said in favour or defence or even mitigation of this horrific act of violence. However, beyond the sorrow and the condemnation, there is a However. And if you hold a gun to my head, it is into that difficult terrain that I must now venture.
There is a complex negotiation — an uncertain and shifting border — between free speech and hate speech. Thus, what is free speech to one, may well appear like hate speech to another. And it is practically impossible to think about that ambiguous border without engaging with the inequalities of power in the world — and, indeed, with the inequality of the access to free speech.
After all, the “free speech” of the celebrity-with-a-megaphone is not quite comparable with the free speech of the forgotten millions who are free to whimper and to beg.
The right to free speech means nothing unless it includes the right to be heard, recognised, acknowledged. Then again, it is practically impossible, particularly in India, to think about the fraught possibility of free speech without engaging with the question of “hurt religious sentiments” and “hurt feelings”.
And so, inevitably, one comes up against yet another opposition, that between the right not to be insulted and humiliated and mocked in one’s deeply held beliefs, and the equally important right to blasphemy, to ridicule and to satire.
After all, if one is forced always to be pussy-footing around people’s beliefs and pieties — surely infinite, particularly in diverse, hybrid, harsh societies which inevitably leave large numbers with hurt, and inflammable, sensitivities — one might as well say goodbye to free speech.
Presumed Guilty (Page no: 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Indian criminal justice system discourse usually affirms the cardinal rule of the presumption of innocence. However, the “Prison Statistics of India 2020” paints a rather gloomy picture. The fact that 76 per cent of prisoners are undertrials indicates that this principle is followed in the breach.
The large percentage of undertrials in prison and pre-trial detentions are often a result of the unfair application of bail provisions. Primarily, this is because of unnecessary arrests by investigating agencies.
The first decade of the 21st century witnessed a series of amendments in provisions pertaining to arrests and bail. The modifications under Section 41 and incorporation of 41A in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) were significant attempts to reduce the number of arrests by the police in offences punishable by up to seven years of imprisonment. These initiatives had the potential to reduce custodial violence and lower the burden on courts.
However, despite these amendments and repeated directives by the courts about the judicious application of Sections 41 and 41A by investigating agencies, the proportion of bail applications pending before district courts, high courts and the Supreme Court largely remained unaltered.
The police continue to take a mechanical approach that regards detentions as the only effective option to complete the investigation. This defeats the objective of these provisions.
In the second week of July, in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI, the Supreme Court asserted the mandatory compliance of the less-used provisions of 41, 41A. It affirmed its 2014 verdict in Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar, which directed state governments “to instruct its police officers to not arrest the accused automatically when the offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may be less than seven years”.
The Court also said that investigating agencies are accountable for compliance with Section 41 and 41A. It reiterated the importance of the “bail over jail” rule and issued a slew of guidelines to prevent unnecessary arrest and remand.
The Court laid down a step-by-step procedure to ensure that the rights of the accused, as well as that of the society at large, are respected.
It suggested the enactment of a Bail Act to inject clarity in bail-related matters and asked the government to take a cue from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and many other legal systems as well as the 268th Law Commission report. Such a piece of legislation will not only make the granting of bail simpler but also make explicit the conditions when bail cannot be granted under the Indian Penal Code, Special Acts and for economic offences.
The possibility of Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI turning the tide against pre-trial detentions is being debated in the legal fraternity. A section of commentators does not seem optimistic given that the arrest of the wrongdoer is seen as an effective redressal mechanism by the victim and anything less than immediate detention by the police officer (notice for appearance u/s 41A) is considered a sign of complacency of the authorities.
Moreover, Section 41A has provisions that mandate the immediate arrest of the accused. Apprehensions about the lower courts abiding by the spirit of the judgment have also been raised.
Idea Page
Power, A Reality check (Page no: 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), along with planned changes to the law, are the latest in a series of attempts by the central government to tackle the challenges of the power sector.
Power sector reforms are overdue not just for their own sake but also because they are critical to rescuing state government finances.
Excellent recent reports by the RBI and PRS Legislative Research provide lucid analyses of the fiscal situation of the states. Intended probably as a wake-up call, the RBI’s report reassured more than it alarmed.
To be sure, a few states such as Punjab and Rajasthan had deficits and debt that exceeded the indicative targets set by the Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC). But overall most states either met both or one of these targets.
These reports highlight the challenges faced by states, owing to the dysfunctionality of the power sector discoms. But failing to fully integrate discom operations in the analysis of state government finances obscures the true picture. When this is done — as we do below — the reality is alarming.
India has made impressive strides in increasing access to the quantity and quality of electricity and in expanding renewable capacity, for which the government deserves credit. But the financial health of the power sector is rapidly deteriorating and flirting with catastrophe.
Our estimates suggest that for the fiscal year 2020-21, combined losses of the discoms are Rs 2.1 lakh crore without subsidies and grants which mount to Rs 3.0 lakh crore when arrears are included. These exceed by a factor of 2.7-3.8, respectively, the headline loss of 78,000 crore.
But even these numbers might underestimate the problem. The loss numbers only exclude grants under the UDAY scheme even though there are several other grants.
And the numbers only include discom arrears to the power generating companies (GENCOs) but not to others, resulting in overall payables of about Rs 2.4 lakh crore. The true arrears situation will therefore depend on the magnitude, certainty and timing of the discomsgetting paid for their receivables, much of which is owed by government actors. The true loss estimate could therefore be greater.
Express Network
Talaq-e-hasan practice not so improper, says Supreme Court (Page no: 16)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Supreme Court said it was of the prima facie view that the practice of talaq-e-hasan followed by Muslim men for divorce by saying ‘talaq’ to the wife once a month for three months, is “not so improper”.
A bench presided by Justice S K Kaul also asked the woman petitioner, who said her husband gave her “unilateral extra-judicial talaq” through a lawyer when her father refused to give more dowry, whether she is willing to explore the option of divorce by mutual consent if the question of ‘meher’ is taken care of.
We have also put to learned senior counsel whether in view of the allegation of respondent of irretrievable breakdown of marriage, would the petitioner be willing for a settlement by process of divorce by mutual consent on amounts being paid over and above the meher fixed.
In fact, we have brought to their notice that dissolution of marriage is also possible without the intervention of the court through ‘mubarat’,” the bench also comprising Justice M MSundresh said in its order.
Senior Advocate Pinky Anand, appearing for the petitioner, said she will take instructions following which the court adjourned the matter to August 29.
The petition by BenazeerHeena, a journalist, said she was married as per Islamic rituals on December 25, 2020, and a male child born out of the wedlock.
Heena alleged that she was tortured by her husband and his family members over dowry, forcing her to return to her parents in December 2021. She added that though she filed a complaint with the Delhi Commission for Women and also lodged an FIR on April 5, 2022, police said that talaq-e-hasan “is permitted under the Shariah” law.
Heena contended that all extra-judicial forms of talaq, including talaq-e-hasan are “arbitrary and irrational and contrary to Articles 14, 15, 21, 25 (of the Constitution) and international conventions on civil human rights”.
She said that the practice “is neither harmonious with the modern principles of human rights, nor an integral part of Islamic faith. Many Islamic nations have restricted such practices, while it continues to vex the Indian society in general and Muslim women “like her in particular”.
The petitioner urged the court to declare it void and unconstitutional. The plea also sought a direction to the Centre to frame guidelines for “gender neutral, religion neutral, uniform grounds of divorce and uniform procedure of divorce” for all.
Explained Page
F-INSAS, Nipun mines, LCA: New defence system in AtmaNirbhar Push (Page no: 18)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
A day after a made-in-India howitzer gun, the ATAGS, was used for the first time in the ceremonial 21-gun salute during the Independence Day celebrations, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday handed over several new defence systems, including the F-INSAS, the Nipun mines, the Landing Craft Assault (LCA), to the Army.
F-INSAS stands for Future Infantry Soldier As A System, a programme for infantry modernisation aimed at increasing the operational capability of the soldier.
As part of the project, soldiers are being equipped with modern systems that are lightweight, all-weather-all-terrain, cost-effective and low maintenance.
The full-gear of the F-INSAS system includes an AK-203 assault rifle, which is a Russian-origin gas-operated, magazine-fed, select-fire assault rifle.
It has a range of 300 metre, and is being made at Korwa near Amethi in a Russia-India joint venture. A contract for over six lakh AK-203 rifles was signed in December last year between the Ministry of Defence and the Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL).
On the weaponry front, other than the AK-203, the F-INSAS includes a multi-mode hand grenade, which can be used in defensive and offensive modes.
In defensive mode, the grenades are to be hurled when the thrower is in a shelter or has a cover, while the target is in the open and can be harmed by fragmentation.
In the offensive mode, the grenades do not fragment and the adversary is harmed by the blast or is stunned. The weapon kit also has a multi-purpose knife for close quarters combat.
Apart from this, the F-INSAS provides soldiers with ballistic helmets and ballistic goggles for protection against small projectiles and fragments, along with a bullet-proof vest.
The helmet and the bullet-proof jacket are capable of protecting the soldier against 9 mm bullets and ammunition fired from AK-47 rifles. For target acquisition, the soldier has rifle-mounted holographic sight for fast and accurate aiming with a range of 200 metre.
The helmet has a mounted night-vision device for operating in low-light conditions, and the option of installing a thermal imager sight. Thermal imagers covert infrared energy from objects into thermal images.
Bilkis case remissions (Page no: 18)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Gujarat government on Monday released 11 convicts in the BilkisBano murder and gangrape case of 2002 under its remission and premature release policy after one of the convicts, Radheshyam Shah, moved the Supreme Court.
Shah, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI court in Mumbai in 2008, had completed 15 years and 4 months in jail.
Under Articles 72 and 161 of the Constitution, the President and Governors have the power to pardon, and to suspend, remit, or commute a sentence passed by the courts.
Also, since prisons is a state subject, state governments have powers under Section 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to remit sentences.
However, Section 433A of the CrPC puts certain restrictions on these powers of remission: “Where a sentence of imprisonment for life is imposed on conviction of a person for an offence for which death is one of the punishments provided by law, or where a sentence of death imposed on a person has been commuted under Section 433 into one of imprisonment for life, such person shall not be released from prison unless he had served at least fourteen years of imprisonment.”
Prisoners are often released on the birth and death anniversaries of prominent leaders and other important occasions. For example, to mark the 76th Independence Day, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued guidelines to states to grant special remission for prisoners who have completed at least half their sentence — women and transgender prisoners above the age of 50, male convicts above the age of 60, and terminally ill convicts, among others.
States set up a Sentence Review Board to exercise the powers under Section 432 of the CrPC. The Supreme Court has held that states cannot exercise the power of remission arbitrarily, and must follow due process. While the policy varies from state to state, broadly the grounds for remission considered by the Board are the same.
Seriousness of the crime, the status of the co-accused and conduct in jail are the factors considered for granting remission.
Corneas bioengineered from pig collagen can restore sight, study finds (Page no: 18)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Damage to the cornea — the clear, outermost layer of the eye — is one of the leading causes of blindness across the world, leaving approximately 12.7 million people blind, and particularly affecting those in poorer countries where there is a scarcity of donated human corneas.
For the first time, researchers in Sweden have been able to create a successful alternative — bioengineered cornea implants made of collagen derived from pig skin.
The implant was used to successfully restore the vision of 20 people in India and Iran, most of whom were blind due to keratoconus, a disease that leads to thinning of the cornea. The findings were published in the journal Nature Biotechnology on August 11.
Researchers claim that there is a severe shortage of corneas, with only one available for 70 patients. Logistical and storage difficulties, along with expensive surgical equipment, further burden those living in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
As a substitute for human corneas, the researchers utilised medical-grade collagen derived from pig skin, a byproduct of the food industry that is already used in medical devices for glaucoma surgery.
This is not only cheaper and easier to access than donated corneas, but requires a less invasive procedure and can be stored for a significantly longer period — up to two years, the study notes.
The researchers developed a minimally invasive method without the use of stitches, where a small incision is made in the patient’s eye, and the implant is inserted over the existing cornea. This can be done with high-precision lasers or by using readily available surgical instruments.
This new method was used by surgeons in India and Iran, where there is a lack of donated corneas. Not only was the procedure safe for all 20 participants, the researchers found that 2 years after the operation, none of the patients were blind anymore.
Furthermore, 3 of the Indian participants who had earlier been blind, had perfect (20/20) vision after operation. The researchers said they want their method to be affordable for everyone.
Economy
Construction, food MSMEs fuel post-Covid credit rise (Page no: 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), those involved in food products and construction materials, as well as the ones involved in investments in technology are driving the post-Covid credit growth in the sector.
Lenders to MSMEs say e-commerce was strong even during the pandemic, and retail and food services picked up about a year back.
“Companies that have seen an increase in borrowing in terms of percentage of total disbursal include food products, which has seen an uptick in borrowing from around 14 per cent in FY19 and FY20 to nearly 20 per cent in FY21 and FY22.
During the same period, the construction materials industry has shown increased credit demand, going from around 4 per cent of the pie to over 7 per cent,” said Hardika Shah, founder & CEO, Kinara Capital, in an email.The MSME sector was one of the worst hit during the pandemic and the resultant lockdowns led to loss of business.
We have seen a strong pickup in demand for credit over the past 12 months across these categories. In terms of gradation, while e-commerce continued to be strong through the course of pandemic, retail and food services sectors picked up about 12 months back, and travel has seen a strong revival over the past 6-9 months.
The State Bank of India’s (SBI) Ecowrap report released in July also echoed the trend, stating that incremental credit to the MSME sector has been on an upswing.
Around 74 per cent of such is purely because of the credit guarantee scheme, and the remaining 26 per cent is because of other schemes including the definitional change in the MSME sector. In terms of overall credit growth, the ECLG scheme has contributed 15 per cent of the expansion,” read the report.
The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) was unveiled as part of the comprehensive package announced by the government in March 2020 to aid the MSME sector in view of the economic distress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Ecowrap report, around Rs 2.36 lakh crore has been disbursed to MSMEs under the ECLGS. However, it is not just the pandemic; the sector is also suffering from delayed payments.
Data from Bengaluru-based non-profit Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME), data analytics company Dun & Bradstreet, and Omidyar Network show that delayed payments to the MSME sector have increased to Rs 10.7 lakh crore till the end of 2021.