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Hours after the curtains were drawn on the old Parliament to mark the move to its new premises, the women’s reservation Bill, stuck for 27 years, was said to have been cleared by the Narendra Modi Government reserving 33 per cent seats for women in Parliament and legislative Assemblies.
The Union Cabinet, which held an unscheduled meeting, is said to have cleared the path-breaking legislation, sources said.
They added that it is unlikely to be implemented in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It will be rolled out only after the delimitation process is over, most probably in 2029, sources said.
The Bill will be brought in the ongoing session but there are many ifs and buts…so the implementation is unlikely before the next Lok Sabha election.
Most probably, it will take place only after the delimitation (which is expected to be held in 2026) but the process will begin soon,” said a top source familiar with the developments.
Swachh Bharat, Beti Bachao to 33% quota via Ujjwala, Triple Talaq (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Narendra Modi government’s decision to bring the women’s reservation Bill ahead of state elections and the general elections next year caps its string of measures targeting social welfarism to women and framing it in terms of empowerment and representation.
In fact, Monday’s decision comes barely days after two such interventions. The first, announced late on August 29, was to slash the price of domestic cooking gas cylinders by Rs 200.
This was followed up last Wednesday (September 13) with the Cabinet decision to extend the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) — introduced in 2016 to provide cooking gas to deprived households that earlier used firewood and coal as fuel — to an additional 75-lakh poor households over three years beyond its current nine crore beneficiaries.
The Swachh Bharat scheme, under which an estimated 11 crore toilets were installed since 2014, was also framed as protecting the dignity of women who had to defecate in the open.
The Jal Jeevan Mission, to provide tap water connection to all rural households by 2024, has also been showcased as reducing the drudgery of women in villages for whom fetching drinking water has been a challenge. So far, 13 crore tap water connections have been provided under this scheme.
In Parliament
Two house panels on women’s bill: Govt should decide quota within quota, review after 15yrs (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The chequered legislative history of the Women’s Reservation Bill began 27 years ago when the H D Deve Gowda-led government introduced it in Parliament in September 1996.
Almost every government has since tried to push it through — the UPA government even managed to get it passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 — but the move could not come to fruition so far for lack of political will and consensus.
The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared the draft Bill to provide women reservation in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, which would be now tabled in both the Houses for consideration and passage during the ongoing special session of Parliament.
The Constitution (Eighty-first Amendment) Bill, 1996 (insertion of new Articles 330A and 332A) was first introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996 by Ramakant D Khalap, the then Minister of State for Law in the United Front government, a coalition of 13 parties.
It was a surprise move, with several leaders of the Janata Dal and other constituents of the ruling coalition not being in its favour. The Bill was referred to a Joint Committee headed by the CPI’s Geeta Mukherjee the following day.
Govt & Politics
Karnataka’s Hoysala temples on UNESCO World Heritage list (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas, which includes three temples in Karnataka, has been inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The Hoysala Temples, as they are also known, will be India’s 42nd UNESCO World Heritage Site. Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan, the university town in West Bengal, was also included as a world heritage site.
The announcement was made by the agency in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee is being held till September 25. “India submitted the nomination dossier for The Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas to the World Heritage Centre in January 2022.
The site has been on UNESCO’s tentative list since 2014,” the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) said after the announcement.
The Hoysala Temples, built in the 12th and 13 centuries by the Hoysala kings, are dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu.
The three temples include the Chennakeshava temple, the main temple in the complex at Belur (Hassan district), located at the centre of the traditional settlement which is surrounded by the remnants of a mud fort and a moat; the Hoysaleswara Temple on the banks of Dwarasamudra tank in Halebidu (Hassan district), a town which has many protected and unprotected temples, archaeological ruins and mounds; and the Keshava Temple at the centre of Somanathapura village (Mysore district).
Editorial
China’s democracy question (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
This question featured prominently in a conference I recently attended at Zhejiang University in China. The university is situated in Hangzhou, about 175 kilometres south of Shanghai, a distance commutable via road in a mere two and a half hours and via high-speed train in 45-50 minutes.
In international business circles today, Hangzhou is known as the city of Jack Ma, one of Asia’s richest, who in 1999 headquartered his Alibaba Group there.
Inside China, the city is well-known as a cultural and intellectual capital. It is also the site of the famous West Lake, where even Mao Zedong would take a rest.
A plaque in one of the villas commemorates Mao’s stay in the spring of 1957, when he tried to learn English. The university also has great national significance.
Reflecting in part how much the Chinese government is investing in science, as China rises, Zhejiang University, as a physics professor told me, has 150 physicists.
Some other universities such as Tsinghua in Beijing, he added, have even bigger constellations of physicists. In comparison, it should be noted that MIT, a legendary American university for science and engineering, has only 120 physicists.
But I was not there for an appreciation of Chinese science. I was participating in a conference on modernisation and political development. That is why the question of whether democracy can be conceptualised in a non-electoral way played an important role.
A win -win for all (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Digital India Programme had three main vision areas: Connectivity, software and services on demand and digital empowerment of citizens. Ubiquitous digital connectivity is a sine qua non today.
Fortunately, the connectivity landscape has been transformed in the last seven years due to multiple factors like the boom in mobile telephony, 4G coverage, significant reduction in tariffs and increased smartphone penetration.
Enabling policies like Net Neutrality and focus on building Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), particularly Digital ID and UPI, have further contributed to the Digital India vision, resulting in a massive increase in digital transactions.
However, this growth has also been accompanied by a huge surge in demand for data. Today, India’s per capita data consumption stands at a whopping 19.5 GB per month and the total data volume transported by mobile networks is more than the mobile networks of US and China combined.
Thus, the gap between demand and affordable supply still remains quite wide, especially for poor households and rural India.
The creation of inter-operable public Wi-Fi hotspots was one such idea proposed by TRAI in 2017. Similar in concept to the PCOs of yesteryears, it proposed to create millions of interoperable Wi-Fi hotspots called Public Data Offices (PDOs), which would foster a shared infrastructure as a last-mile distribution of broadband in sachet-sized packages of Rs 5-10.
The idea was successfully piloted and submitted to the Department of Telecom (DOT) as Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI), in March 2017.
As usual, there were oppositions to the idea. The Cellular Operators Association (COAI) gave a commitment to the government that there was no need for WANI, as they will create a million hotspots within a year. Obviously, nothing was done.
Ideas Page
Corridor to a new world (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
If you pulled at one end of the historic thread of the ancient Red Sea route, you might be led as far back as the beginning of the Common Era, towards an almost historic inevitability of that powerful connection which brought the coins of Tiberius to Punjab and took Indian Ocean pearls to Rome, and situated ancient India at the heart of a corridor that wielded both economic value and geopolitical clout.
But it is equally true that in the modern world, heads of state have never before convened deliberately around the high table at a global summit to pronounce a memorandum of understanding on an economic corridor.
On September 10 in New Delhi, the Prime Minister of India, President of the United States, Chancellor of Germany, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, President of UAE, Prime Minister of Italy, and the President of the EU unanimously agreed to establish the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).
The IMEC will be a route in the historic sense of the word (with the geopolitical and economic significance that entails), providing transport connectivity to accelerate the development and integration of Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe as a new locus of global power.
It envisions a reliable, cost-effective railway and ship-to-rail transit network to supplement maritime and road routes, enabling goods and services to move between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and the EU. IMEC is India’s moment.
World
US, Iran exchange prisoners in deal involving transfer of $6bn to Tehran (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Five US citizens left Iran and landed in Doha on Monday in a prisoner swap for five Iranians held in the United States and the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian funds in a rare deal between the long-time antagonists.
Five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement, adding they “will soon be reunited with their loved ones—after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering.”
It was unclear whether the exchange might bring progress on the many issues that divide the two nations, including Iran’s nuclear program, its support for regional Shi’ite militias, the presence of US troops in the Gulf and US sanctions on Iran.
A plane sent by mediator Qatar flew the five US citizens and two of their relatives out of Tehran after both sides got confirmation the funds had been transferred to accounts in Doha.
Earlier, two of the five Iranians landed in Qatar, a US official said. Three have opted not to return to Iran.
The five Iranian Americans – one of whom had been held for about eight years on charges the United States had rejected as baseless – were due to board a US government aircraft in Doha and then fly home to the United States.
Wang in Russia for security talks after meeting Sullivan in Malta (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
China’s top diplomat on Monday began several days of security consultations with Russian officials following his weekend talks with U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser in Malta.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who simultaneously holds the ruling Communist Party’s top foreign policy post, will be in Russia through Thursday for strategic security consultations.
Wang opened his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by hailing “strategic cooperation” between the two countries and their shared commitment to a “multipolar world” and a “more just world order,” terms Moscow and Beijing use to describe their efforts to counterbalance the perceived U.S. domination of global affairs.
China and Russia, as leading global powers and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, bear special responsibility for maintaining global strategic stability and global development.
The more violent the unilateral actions of hegemony and bloc confrontation become, the more important for us to keep up with the times, show a sense of duty as great powers, and further fulfill our international obligations.
Explained
Women’s reservation: Seeds of the idea under Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao govts (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Issues relating to ensuring greater representation of women in politics had been discussed even prior to Independence, and in the Constituent Assembly. In independent India, the issue got momentum only in the 1970s.
In 1971, responding to a request from the United Nations for a report on the status of women ahead of International Women’s Year, 1975, the Union Ministry of Education and Social Welfare appointed a Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) to examine the constitutional, administrative, and legal provisions that have a bearing on the social status of women, their education, and employment — and the impact of these provisions.
The Committee’s report, ‘Towards Equality’, noted that the Indian state had failed in its constitutional responsibility to ensure gender equality. Thereafter, several states began announcing reservations for women in local bodies.
In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi’s government constituted a 14-member committee under then Union minister Margaret Alva, which presented the National Perspective Plan for Women, 1988-2000 to the Prime Minister the following year. Among the committee’s 353 recommendations was the reservation of seats for women in elected bodies.
Economy
Stablising core inflation shows ease in price pressure across economy (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Retail inflation, which eased in August, is expected to decline sharply in September driven by corrections in vegetable prices, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.
In August, consumer price index (CPI) inflation eased to 6.83 per cent from a 15-month high of 7.44 per cent in July 2023. This moderation was on account of reversal in the prices of vegetables.
Hearteningly, the correction is not complete, and more is expected to drive down retail inflation in its September reading.
Furthermore, there are early indication of corrections in a broad range of vegetable prices going beyond the TOP (tomatoes, onions and potatoes) group,” the RBI said in the State of the Economy article, released in its monthly bulletin for September.
The article is authored by RBI Deputy Governor Michael Patra and other central bank officials. The RBI, however, said the views in the article are those of the authors and not of the institution.
Core inflation remained steady at 4.9 per cent in August. An important development for the conduct of monetary policy is the stabilizing of core inflation, which also reflects a broad-based easing of price pressures across its constituents, both goods and services.
According to the authors, a new risk to global financial stability stems from the commodity markets as crude prices ruling above $90 per barrel challenge 10-month highs due to Saudi Arabia and Russia extending voluntary production cuts to the end of 2023.
Net direct tax collection up 23.5 % till mid Sept on better advance mop up (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Net direct tax collection grew 23.51 per cent to over Rs 8.65 lakh crore till mid-September, on higher advance tax mop-up from corporates.
The net direct tax collection of Rs 8,65,117 crore (as on September 16) includes corporate income tax (CIT) at Rs 4,16,217 crore and personal income tax (PIT) including Securities Transaction Tax (STT) at Rs 4,47,291 crore.
Net direct tax collections for the current fiscal as on September 16, have grown at over 23.51 per cent. Advance tax collections stood at Rs 3.55 lakh crore till mid-September, a 21 per cent growth against Rs 2.94 lakh crore collected in the corresponding period of the preceding financial year.
The advance tax collection of Rs 3.55 lakh crore as on September 16, comprises CIT at Rs 2.80 lakh crore and PIT at Rs 74,858 crore.
On a gross basis, direct tax collection for the financial year 2023-24 stands at Rs 9.87 lakh crore, a 18.29 per cent growth over Rs 8.34 lakh crore in the corresponding period of the preceding financial year.