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The Supreme Court said that it will hear petitions challenging the electoral bonds scheme on October 31. The 2018 scheme introduced instruments through which money could be donated to political parties in India.
However, in April last year, the court had said it would take up the petitions filed by two NGOs — Common Cause and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) — challenging the scheme. What exactly are electoral bonds and why are they facing a legal challenge? We explain.
Announced in the 2017 Union Budget, electoral bonds are interest-free bearer instruments used to donate money anonymously to political parties. Simply put, anyone can donate money to political parties through them.
Such bonds, which are sold in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore, can be bought from authorised branches of the State Bank of India (SBI).
As such, a donor is required to pay the amount — say Rs 10 lakh — via a cheque or a digital mechanism (cash is not allowed) to the authorised SBI branch.
Climate change risks: Cloud over India chip dreams, Moody’s flags flood fears (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Even as India moves to build out a domestic semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem to reduce its reliance on imports, the country’s ambition could be headed for troubled waters – it faces an overall doubling in the risk from flooding, as a consequence of climate change, in the next three decades or so.
According to Moody’s risk management solutions, by 2050, the costs of flooding are expected to rise by around 30 per cent, from water stress by 35 per cent, sea level rise by 60 per cent, and heat stress by 150 per cent by 2050 under a moderate climate change scenario.
With India also starting to initiate policies favouring greater self-sufficiency in semiconductors, it also faces an overall doubling in the risk from flooding by mid-century.
Govt & Politics
Rajnath in Italy: Focus on defence cooperation (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Defence minister Rajnath Singh held talks with his Italian counterpart Guido Crosetto in Rome during the first leg of his visit to Italy and France.
With emphasis on opportunities in defence industrial cooperation, the defence ministry said that both sides discussed a host of defence cooperation issues, including training, sharing of information, maritime exercises and maritime security. Singh suggested fostering interaction of Indian startups with Italian defence companies.
An Agreement on Cooperation in the field of defence was inked, which seeks to promote bilateral cooperation in varied defence domains, such as security and defence policy, R&D, education in military field, maritime domain awareness, sharing of defence information and industrial cooperation, including co-development, co-production and setting up of joint ventures.
Editorial
New Delhi, new Tel Aviv (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
It was not surprising that the horrible Hamas attack on Israel over the weekend quickly acquired a domestic political dimension in India.
Over the last few days, this newspaper has reported on the Congress Party’s difficulty reacting to the terror attack on Israel. If the main opposition party has flipped and flopped, the ruling BJP has been unambiguous in condemning the terror attack and expressing solidarity with Israel.
That, in turn, lent a new wrinkle to the political sparring between the two parties on the commitment to fight terror in the election season.
The interactive political dynamic between India and the Middle East cuts deeper. Geopolitics of the Middle East in the 20th century inevitably intersected with the international relations of South Asia and acquired a more intensive character after Partition.
However, the nature of that interaction has been changing in the 21st century. As the Middle East evolved in recent decades, so has Indian thinking.
But the changes in Indian policy on the Middle East have been more consequential during the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ideas Page
Stay the heavy hand (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
If any media outlet, think tank or non-governmental organisation is genuinely suspected of breaking a law, it must be investigated. If these investigations reveal a criminal act or illegal actions, it must be charged and prosecuted in a court of law.
The principle that these entities need to follow the law is obviously as applicable to them as to any individual or group. At the same time, law enforcement agencies have to bear in mind three propositions that are rooted in our democratic process.
These propositions are so intrinsic to our democracy that one does not have to be a lawyer, which this writer is not, to state them.
One, the more draconian the law invoked against these entities, or any individual or group for that matter, the more care has to be exercised by senior members of the police and the security services that the material on which action is being taken will stand up to judicial scrutiny.
It is unconscionable that individuals are locked up for years only to be ultimately released by the superior courts. It is equally reprehensible that organisations or media outlets are asked to close shop but the courts later find no legal justification for such drastic action.
Explained
What hottest Sept says about climate change (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
In keeping with this year’s trend — when almost every month so far has broken one or the other temperature record — September has turned out to be the hottest September ever, by a big margin.
And though there are three more months to go in the year, it is looking increasingly probable that 2023 will emerge as the warmest year ever, overtaking the record set in 2016.
The extraordinary streak of record-breaking temperature events this year have not come as a surprise. Scientists had been expecting this year to be very warm, mainly because of the development of El Nino in the Pacific Ocean, even though individual events could not be predicted. The remaining three months of the year are also forecast to be warmer than usual.
Hamas may have targeted Israel – Saudi deal (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Experts say one reason could be to disrupt or destroy ongoing negotiations, mediated by the United States, for the normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The two countries are on the cusp of signing an agreement that could potentially mark a tectonic shift in the political landscape of the Middle East.
But this deal, if it comes through, will also show that the support for an independent Palestinian state is no longer a priority for the Arab world, of which Saudi Arabia is the leader.
That is something that Hamas does not want. And notably, the militants attacked southern Israel just days after the US announced that the “basic framework” of the agreement was in place.
Nine hundred Israelis are now dead in the attack, and 150 have been taken hostage in Gaza. A fierce Israeli retaliation has killed almost 700 Palestinians so far.
Why Gandhi was against a Jewish state in Palestine (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English, or France to the French,” Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Harijan on November 26, 1938.
Gandhi’s article — ‘The Jews’ — has been the subject of intense debate over the years. It has been cited as evidence of his naivete by some, while others have seen it as further proof of his deep commitment to non-violence, regardless of consequences.
Amidst the latest bloody chapter in the history of Israel and Palestine, we look back at what Gandhi had to say on this, in Gandhi’s own words, “very difficult question”. Gandhi was deeply sympathetic to the Jewish people.
The Mahatma always made it clear that he had deep sympathies for the Jewish people who had historically been unjustly persecuted for their religion.
Economy
IMF raises India’s GDP forecast marginally to 6.3% for current fiscal (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised India’s GDP projection marginally by 0.2 per cent to 6.3 per cent even as it slashed the global growth forecast to 3 per cent.
IMF in July had estimated India’s GDP forecast at 6.1 per cent for 2023-24. However, this is lower than the RBI’s latest estimate of 6.5 per cent for the current financial year.
However, India’s growth is projected to be higher than China’s, the third-largest economy in the world. IMF’s ‘World Economic Outlook’ revised China’s growth forecast downward by 0.2 percentage points for 2023 and by 0.3 percentage points for 2024 to 5 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively.