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India is “rolling out the red carpet” for the semiconductor industry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday as he pitched the country as a viable chip-making hub to global investors. He said today the world needs a “trusted partner” for its supply chains and there could be no better option than India.
“Earlier, people were questioning our aim to make chips and were asking ‘why invest (in India)’. Now, the question has changed to ‘why not invest’,” the Prime Minister said, addressing the inaugural session of Semicon India 2023, which is being attended by industry executives from across the world.
Whoever moves fast in this will get the first mover’s advantage… we are rolling out the red carpet for them,” he said.
“In 21st century India, there are abundant opportunities.
India’s democracy, demography, dividend, will double, triple your business,” Modi told the gathering, which included heads of top chip-making companies such as Micron Technology, Foxconn and Vedanta Group.
The world is recovering from the side-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the Prime Minister said, adding that it is not just India that needs chips, but the world, which needs a “trusted partner” for supply chains.
All of us have seen the global pandemic and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war.
India also understands that semiconductors are not only our need, but the world needs a trusted, reliable, cheap supply chain.
For G 20, India and Japan try to frame a consensus document (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi has met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi and the two countries have started coordinating their positions in an attempt to frame a consensus document for the Summit of the G20 leaders, sources have told The Indian Express.
Japan’s role is crucial since it currently chairs the G7 grouping which has been the most vocal over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As the G20 chair, India is working with Japan and other G7 countries on the one side, and Russia-China on the other side to formulate the G20 leaders’ declaration in Delhi.
India wants the Delhi declaration to be a consensus document, and not a chair summary. The meetings of G20 Foreign Ministers and Finance Ministers have been coming up only with a chair summary, which is not a consensus document.
Speaking at the India-Japan Forum organised by Delhi-based think tank Ananta Centre Friday, Foreign Minister Hayashi said, “Japan emphasised at the G7 Hiroshima Summit… to uphold the free and open international order based on the rule of law.
The leaders of the G7, invited countries including India, and Ukraine discussed peace and stability of the world, and agreed on the point that unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world. They also agreed on the significance of the rule of law and the principles of the United Nations Charter.”
In Parliament
Changes to law trigger debate over punishment for substandard drugs (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Changes to the Act governing manufacturing, storage and sale of medicines in India through the Jan Vishwas Bill passed in the Lok Sabha has led to a debate, with some saying that it will allow drug makers to get off lightly on charges of making substandard medicines.
One of the amendments proposed under the Bill will allow compounding — paying a fine instead of facing imprisonment — for some offences.
The Jan Vishwas Bill was brought to Parliament with the aim of improving ease of doing business through amendments across 42 laws, doing away with some provisions of imprisonment or converting some fines to penalties that do not necessitate prosecution. The Bill will amend two sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
The first amendment seeks to change the punishment for a repeated offence of using a government analysis or test report for advertising a drug.
The previous punishment was imprisonment up to two years or a fine of more than Rs10,000, which has now been proposed to only a fine, but more than Rs 5 lakh.
The second amendment allows for “compounding” of the punishment to one to two years imprisonment and a fine of more than Rs 20,000 for drugs not of standard quality (NSQ), as defined under Section 27 (d) of the 1940 Act. Compounding is a legal provision that allows one to pay a fine instead of undergoing criminal proceedings.
Section 27 of the existing Drugs and Cosmetics Act has provisions for punishments for different types of offences — a) adulterated or spurious drugs that lead to death or grievous injury carrying a sentence of up to life imprisonment, b) adulterated medicines that do not fall under the previous category of medicine manufactured without a licence carrying a sentence of up to five years, and c) spurious medicines other than the ones that fall under the first category carrying a sentence of up to seven years.
No woman has yet qualified to join military’s Special Forces, Govt to LS (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
No woman in the Indian Armed Forces has yet been able to qualify for induction into its elite special forces, despite a few of them volunteering to join the units, the government told Parliament.
Women Officers in the Indian Armed Forces are eligible to volunteer for induction. into the special forces without any gender bias, provided they meet selection Qualitative Requirements (QRs), and successfully complete the training,” Minister of State in the Defence Ministry Ajay Bhatt told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
Bhatt said that in the Indian Air Force, a total of two women officers have volunteered till date for special forces training and were detailed to undergo the same, but could not pass the training.
In the Indian Navy, 20 women Agniveers (sailors) had appeared for the aptitude test for induction into special forces. However, none of them qualified.
The Para-Special Forces of the Army, the Marine Commandos of the Navy and the Garud Commandos of the IAF undergo months of gruelling probation and need to maintain extremely high standards of physical and mental fitness before they qualify to become a member of a special forces unit.
Once qualified, they undergo specialised training for the specialised task a unit is mandated to perform. For example, the Army has Special Forces units—each specialising in deserts, jungles, mountains and counter-terrorism roles.
Editorial
Ease of doing research (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, (Science and Technology)
The Union Cabinet recently cleared a bill enabling the setting up of the National Research Foundation (NRF), with a corpus of Rs 50,000 crore, to be placed in Parliament in the Monsoon Session.
The announcement has been welcomed by researchers and academics who have been waiting to see the promised increase in R&D spends by the government.
At this juncture, it is useful to remind ourselves of the promise of the NRF, described in detail in the Draft NEP (DNEP) 2019 as well as in the detailed project report (DPR) 2019.
The NRF is founded on the belief that the advancement of human well-being and progress relies on the creation of new scientific and social knowledge.
It emphasises a verifiable and methodological assessment of the idea of truth. It aims to foster a culture of free inquiry, mentorship and support within India’s universities and institutions of higher education and research. It recognises the urgent need to enhance the research and educational ecosystem to match the country’s population.
As enunciated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the US, “There is no single factor more important to the intellectual, social, and economic progress of a nation, and to the enhanced well-being of its citizens, than the continuous creation and acquisition of new knowledge”.
The NRF would aim to become a major driver of that progress for India, helping to grow the nation’s economy sustainably, enhance its security, promote well-being and societal progress, and help cement India’s position as a global leader.
Ideas Page
From Delhi to Manipur (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
According to Greek mythology, Pandora was the first female created from clay. She was sent by the Greek god Zeus to the Titan Prometheus with a jar of evil spirits to teach him a lesson for stealing fire from heaven. Pandora opens the jar and releases the swarm of spirits that “forever plague mankind”.
That is where the saying “Pandora’s Box” came from. This theme of women as wicked and cunning creatures continued in the European tradition.
The Babylonians restricted women to the role of housekeepers and wives. In the Greek epic The Iliad, Homer’s Helen of Troy, the queen of Sparta, comes out as a weak and compromised woman who left her husband King Menelaus and eloped with the Trojan prince Paris.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle was enraged by Helen’s promiscuity and argued that freedom for women caused Sparta’s ruin.
His opinion that women bring disorder and evil, and were “utterly useless and caused more confusion than the enemy”, led to later philosophers like Thucydides to command that “the greatest glory for women is to be least talked about among men, whether in praise or blame.”
Through the story of Eve, Western literature perpetuated this myth about women as lesser beings. In a moving article in
Explained
Stapled visa (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
India withdrew its eight-athlete wushu contingent from the Summer World University Games beginning in Chengdu on Friday (July 28) after China issued stapled visas to three athletes from the team who belong to Arunachal Pradesh.
Wushu is the Chinese term for martial arts. Two hundred and twenty-seven Indian athletes are participating in 11 other sports at the games that are held every two years, and are officially known as the FISU World University Games.
The Chengdu edition was originally scheduled for 2021 but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the original 2023 games, scheduled to be held in Yekaterinburg, were cancelled after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
A stapled visa is simply an unstamped piece of paper that is attached by a pin or staples to a page of the passport and can be torn off or detached at will. This is different from a regular visa that is affixed to the passport by the issuing authority and stamped.
China has made it a practice to issue stapled visas to Indian nationals from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. It says the visas are valid documents, but the Government of India has consistently refused to accept this position.
Porous border and Manipur crisis (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
The illegal migration of tribal Kuki-Chin peoples into India from Myanmar is one of the key issues in the ongoing ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kukis in Manipur.
While the Meiteis have accused these illegal migrants and the alleged “narco-terror network” along the Indo-Myanmar Border (IMB) of fomenting trouble in the state, the Kukis have blamed the Meiteis and Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a Meitei himself, of using this as a pretext for “ethnic cleansing”.
Amid this charged and sensitive debate in the state, questions have been raised on the Free Movement Regime (FMR) that facilitates migration across the IMB.
The border between India and Myanmar runs for 1,643 km in the four states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh.
The FMR is a mutually agreed arrangement between the two countries that allows tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.
The FMR was implemented in 2018 as part of the Narendra Modi government’s Act East policy at a time when diplomatic relations between India and Myanmar were on the upswing.
In fact, the FMR was to be put in place in 2017 itself, but was deferred due to the Rohingya refugee crisis that erupted that August.
Economy
To tap global capital, India firms can list directly on IFSC exchanges: FM (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has decided to enable listed and unlisted domestic companies to directly list their equity shares on the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Ahmedabad.
The decision will facilitate access to global capital and result in a better valuation of the Indian companies, she said at the launch of the Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF) and AMC Repo Clearing Ltd (ARCL).
The facility will be operationalised shortly and will enable start-ups and companies of like nature to access the global market through GIFT IFSC.
The existing legal framework in the country does not permit the direct listing of equity shares of companies incorporated in India on foreign stock exchanges.
The only available routes for companies incorporated in India to access the equity capital markets of foreign jurisdictions are through the American Depository Receipts (ADR) and Global Depository Receipts (GDR) regimes.
In 2018, a Sebi-appointed expert committee made certain recommendations for listing equity shares of domestic companies on foreign exchanges.
Highlighting the reforms undertaken by the government over the last few years, Sitharaman said one of the major steps that the government has taken is to consolidate the laws dealing with the securities market in the country into a single Securities Market Code.
This is vital as it is intended to consolidate the three different laws – the SCRA (Securities Contracts (Regulations) Act) of 1956, SEBI Act of 1992, and the Depositories Act of 1996 – into a single Act with updated and rationalised provisions.
World
Japan raises alarm over China-Russia ties, Taiwan, Worst threat since WWII (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The Japanese government stepped up its alarm over Chinese assertiveness, warning in a report issued that the country faces its worst security threats since World War II as it plans to implement a new strategy that calls for a major military buildup.
The 2023 defense white paper, approved by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet, is the first since the government adopted a controversial new National Security Strategy in December, seen as a break from Japan’s postwar policy limiting the use of force to self-defense.
China, Russia and North Korea contribute to “the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II,” according to the 510-page report.
It says China’s external stance and military activities have become a “serious concern for Japan and the international community and present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge.”
Russian and Chinese delegates joined North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in North Korea’s capital for a military parade that showed off the country’s latest drones and long-range nuclear-capable missiles.