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With the violence continuing in Manipur for more than a month now, the Centre on Saturday announced a peace committee, chaired by Governor Anusuiya Uikey, to “facilitate the peace-making process among various ethnic groups” in the state.
While the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the committee will include “representatives of different ethnic groups,” sources said the state government has reached out to several Kuki groups who have sought more time. On the other hand, several Meitei representatives are learnt to have agreed to be a part of the committee.
Meanwhile, the MHA has extended the deployment of 114 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in the state till June 30.
According to initial assessments, about 4,000 arms, including sophisticated weapons, and over 5.5 lakh ammunition — which were reportedly looted from government armouries — are still missing.
The peace committee was part of a series of measures, including a judicial probe panel, announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the end of his four-day visit to Manipur from May 29 to June 1.
Government of India has constituted Peace Committee in Manipur under the chairpersonship of the Governor, Manipur. The members of the committee include the Chief Minister, a few ministers in the state government, MP, MLAs and leaders from different political parties.
The committee includes “former civil servants, educationists, litterateurs, artists, social workers and representatives of different ethnic groups”, it said.
Kuki groups have asked for some time before informing about their decision. The state government has several Meitei representatives, and they have given their approval for joining.
Opinion
Balasore, Man-made disaster (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Thee most discussed issue in the country is the accident at Balasore involving three trains (two moving passenger trains and one stationary goods train). All facts concerning the accident point to one conclusion: it was a man-made disaster that was waiting to happen.
A suspicion has been sowed by the government that there were mischief-makers behind the tragedy. Maybe. If there were mischief, it was not the only one. Mischief means harm, damage, injury.
There is a long list of acts of omission and commission in the last nine years that contributed to the accident that has cost 275 lives and wrecked the lives of hundreds of families.
On average, the Indian Railways (IR) carries 2.2 crore passengers a day, mostly people belonging to the poor and middle classes. Their travel is subsidised. However, except the subsidy, the IR is biased in favour of the rich.
The result: priority for new trains over track maintenance and renewal; Vande Bharat and Tejas trains over capital expenditure on signaling and telecommunication; vanity projects (Bullet Train) over filling of the humongous number of vacancies in sanctioned posts; and speed over safety.
Of the total capital expenditure of Rs 1,39,245 crore in 2020-21, the amount spent on ‘Track Renewal’ was 8.6 per cent and on ‘Signaling and Telecommunication’ was 1.4 per cent, showing the low priority to matters that are crucial for safety. The percentages are estimated to be 7.2 per cent and 1.7 per cent in the Budget of 2023-24.
Economy
Finance ministry, RBI on same page for FY24 growth forecast, says CEA (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Stating that the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are on the same page over a 6.5 per cent GDP growth forecast for 2023-24, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran said investment and consumer momentum would underpin solid growth prospects over the coming year.
Nageswaran also spoke about the risk of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT affecting employment prospects, terming it as a “valid concern” but pointing out that it could turn into a “win-win” proposition as companies would be able to take up more projects and help India’s growth in the transition from a lower middle-income to a middle-income country by expanding up capacity and potential for the country’s IT-enabled enterprises to take on more assignments and more projects.
Both the Ministry of Finance and the RBI are on the same page with the growth forecast for the current fiscal which is 6.5 per cent with risks evenly balanced.
The domestic economic growth momentum is strong enough to overcome external risk factors,” he said at an industry interaction organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata.
Govt asks regulator CERC to begin process for coupling power exchanges (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The power ministry has asked Central Electricity Regulatory Authority (CERC) to initiate the process of coupling multiple power exchanges, a mechanism which seeks to ensure uniformity in price discovery of energy at trading platforms.
At present India has three power exchanges — Indian Electricity Exchange (IEX), Power Exchange of India (PXIL) and Hindustan Power Exchange (HPX).
In the present scenario, buyers and sellers at each exchange do trading of electricity and discover spot price separately at these exchanges. After coupling of exchanges, the price discovery would be uniform.
In a communique to the power regulator CERC, the ministry said, “Several stakeholders approached the Ministry of Power on the subject of market coupling in the context of multiple power exchanges.”
The ministry of power has decided to go ahead with the process...CERC is requested to take suitable action, so that the process of consultation and the finalisation of the construct for its implementation is done expeditiously and the same can be implemented.
Naveen Singh, head, business development at Hindustan Power Exchange, said in a statement that the decision to implement market coupling on power exchanges is a welcome move for the power market.