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The grounds under which the Government of India will get to invoke powers to dissolve the board of any Indian Institute of Management are likely to be: i) persistent disobeying of its orders, ii) public interest and iii) inability of the board to perform its duties.
The Board of Governors is the highest decision-making body in an IIM, and the government acts through the Visitor of the IIMs, who is the President of India.
Earlier, only the Board of Governors in an IIM had the powers to audit the functioning of the institute and remove or appoint directors.
The Union government had little say in the matter. This changed three months ago when the Ministry of Education amended the IIM Act to assert more authority over the business schools, including giving itself powers to dissolve an IIM Board.
Govt & Politics
I&B ministry invites comments for new bill to cover OTT, digital news (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry invited comments on a new draft Bill that consolidates the legal framework for the broadcasting sector and extends it to OTT content and digital news and current affairs as well.
The ministry in a statement said comments have been invited for 30 days on the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill 2023.
I&B Minister Anurag Thakur said the new Bill was in keeping with PM Narendra Modi’s vision for “ease of doing business” and “ease of living”.
This pivotal legislation modernizes our broadcasting sector’s regulatory framework, replacing outdated Acts, Rules, and Guidelines with a unified, future-focused approach. It adapts to the dynamic world of OTT, Digital Media, DTH, IPTV, and more, promoting technological advancement and service evolution.
Digital ad policy gets Centre’s approval (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The government announced that it had approved a new policy allowing its advertising wing, the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC), to undertake advertisement campaigns on social media, OTT platforms and other digital media.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting approved the Digital Advertisement Policy, 2023 to enable and empower the [CBC]… to undertake campaigns in the digital media space.
The statement also said that the policy “marks a pivotal moment in CBC’s mission to disseminate information and create awareness regarding various schemes, programs, and policies of the Government of India in response to the evolving media landscape and the increased digitalization of media consumption”.
The CBC will now be able to empanel agencies working in the digital media space in order to reach out to podcast listeners, YouTube and OTT viewers and other social media users.
Editorial
The rice of the matter (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
With the air quality index (AQI) (PM 2.5) breaching the 400 mark in Delhi for most days this week, the Supreme Court (SC) bench has come down heavily on the adjoining states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
The bench has asked them to stop stubble burning in paddy fields forthwith, and then find long-term solutions. It also suggested making the local Station House Office (SHO) responsible for its implementation.
How far this will be implemented is yet to be seen. However, according to reports from Punjab, when officials went to the villages to stop stubble burning, they were forced to light farm fires.
This speaks of a breakdown in law and order.
Containing farm fires is critical if people in Delhi have to breathe without serious harm to their health. On November 7, as per the Decision Support System for air quality management in Delhi, biomass burning (mainly stubble burning) accounted for 37.85 per cent of pollution.
Notably, Delhi’s transport accounted for just 12.67 per cent, and Delhi’s construction and dust accounted for less than 3 per cent. Clearly, the most urgent action needed is controlling stubble burning in neighbouring states, notably Punjab.
Ideas Page
Wall street, China and India (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
It may not be obvious when international sentiment about Chinese growth and markets remains deeply depressed, but the case for China proved surprisingly strong this past week as Hong Kong’s central bank invited an all-star cast of international financiers to its second annual forum in the requisitely posh Four Seasons Hotel.
Most of the invitees were bankers and investors from Wall Street. Yet rather than beat up on the mainland, where the collapse of the property market has left both the macro economy and capital markets reeling, they unexpectedly focused their doom and gloom on their home market instead — and particularly on what is supposed to be the safest market of all — the market for US government debt.
Their concerns come at a time when the mantra, after 40 years of low to minimal interest rates, has become higher for longer.
The promise of a new life (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
When I heard Kozhikode had earned the title of the City of Literature from UNESCO, I remembered the day I walked its streets for the first time, laden with the hope of becoming a writer.
The first city I ran away to was Kozhikode. I had just dropped out of school to become a writer and I had two reasons to choose Kozhikode as the springboard for my literary career. One was a backup plan if the other failed, and in hindsight, each looks as inanely immature as the other.
A few days after my 16th birthday, the newspapers carried an article about a Japanese sailor who had come to Kozhikode to get a schooner built, on which he would rediscover the Silk Route.
The moment I finished reading the article I knew there was something in it for me, the seed of a story or a whole travelogue. And I wanted to be a part of that voyage at any cost.
The second reason was a legend in literature, Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, whose books were the prized possession of our home library and who occasionally wrote warm, personal letters to my father.
I didn’t want to meet him for an autograph, I wanted to be taken as his protégé. He would be my guru, and his home would be my gurukul, so that I would be rubbing shoulders with giants in literature who held regular durbars in his front yard under a mangosteen tree.
Economy
Rules of origin, IPR issues pending India – UK FTA to miss another Diwali (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The signing of the India-UK free trade agreement, originally slated for Diwali last year, is set to miss this year’s festival too as negotiators are still working on contentious issues including chapters pertaining to rules of origin and intellectual property rights (IPR).
While the talks have gathered momentum — 21 out of 26 chapters have been finalised and negotiations are happening in weekly rounds — there is an urgency to wrap up the deal as India heads for elections early next year. General elections in the UK, meanwhile, will take place latest by January 2025.
A government official said India has been able to secure “limited” short-term work permits for its service sector workforce under the movement of natural persons (mode 4) category.
Mode 4 refers to services traded by individuals of one WTO member through their presence in the territory of another. It covers employees of services firms and self-employed service suppliers.
The degree of mode 4 market access is “very limited” as it deals with commitments that provide a right of entry and stay only to highly skilled individuals and those transferred from an affiliate of a company with a commercial presence in the UK.
The discussion on rules of origin that ensures that products from third countries do not receive FTA benefits unless they undergo “significant transformation” in the exporting country, has been one of the most contentious.
Explained
Seeding clouds to clean the air (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Even as Delhi-NCR witnessed light showers, the Delhi government had announced earlier this week that it was considering cloud seeding or ‘artificial rain’ to wash away pollutants in the air.
The now mooted proposal has been attempted previously in India but only in the monsoon season – when clouds with moisture are present – and pre-monsoon months.
Besides, it has only been done before in the country with the purpose of bringing rainfall to drought-prone areas, and not to mitigate pollution.
Water vapour condenses around small particles to form the droplets that make up a cloud. These droplets collide and grow; as they get heavy and the cloud gets saturated, it rains.
Rapid melting of ice sheets in West Antartica now unavoidable (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The rapid melting of West Antarctica’s ice sheet due to warm waters around it is now unavoidable, no matter how much carbon emissions are cut, according to a new study.
If lost completely, the ice sheet would raise the global mean sea level by 5.3 metres or 17.4 feet — a potentially devastating consequence for millions of people living in vulnerable coastal cities across the world, including in India.
Even under a best-case scenario of limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels, water in West Antarctica will continue to get warmer three times faster than in the 20th century, leading to an increased melting of the region’s ice sheet.
The study, ‘Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the twenty-first century’, was published by the journal Nature last week.
It was carried out by Kaitlin Naughten and Paul R Holland, both of whom work at the British Antarctic Survey, and Jan De Rydt of the Northumbria University (UK).
World
Keeping light of undocumented Afghans go into hiding in Pakistan (Page no. 23)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
After living in Pakistan for years, thousands of Afghans have gone into hiding to escape a government order to expel undocumented foreigners because they fear persecution under a Taliban administration in their homeland, rights activists say.
Local supporters put a lock on the gate so neighbours believe the house is unoccupied.
The woman, who is from the Afghan capital Kabul, said she fears prosecution if she returns to Afghanistan because she converted from Islam to Christianity in 2019 and renunciation of the Islamic faith is a serious offence under the strict Islamic law practised by the Taliban.