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The Indian Armed Forces are looking at possible employment opportunities for transgender persons and the roles they could perform, while examining the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, and its implications.
Highly-placed sources said a joint study group was constituted by the Principal Personnel Officers Committee (PPOC) after it met in August.
The group, headed by a senior officer in the Directorate General of Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS), was tasked with deliberating on the implications of the Act and suggesting a way forward for its implementation in the defence forces.
The PPOC comprises top officers of the three services and the AFMS is the tri-service medical organisation of the Armed Forces.
Editorial
A bond of secrecy (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Almost everything in favour of and against the disclosure (or non-disclosure) of funding received via electoral bonds is in the public domain, save the identity of the giver and the receiver, and their bond.
The introduction of the bond as an instrument of political funding per se cannot be questioned but not making the information public has been questioned as being antithetical to the principle of transparency and against the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
That political parties have themselves steadfastly resisted being brought into the ambit of the RTI Act despite feeble attempts by statutory bodies, speaks volumes about their commitment.
The Election Commission of India too had consistently argued against electoral bonds till it decided not to oppose the matter for reasons that remain as mysterious as the instrument.
Even in past hearings, the Supreme Court (SC) raised inconvenient questions and appeared to be seeing the point made by the petitioners questioning the merit and intent of this opaque instrument.
Instead of sealing the fate of the bond, it ordered the envelopes containing vital information to be sealed. The Court refrained from staying or delegitimising electoral bonds leaving everyone wondering if yet another opportunity to pronounce on a matter of “great pith and moment” was lost in the absence of “the native hue of resolution”.
Ideas Page
With a little help from the Sun (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
There is a private sector-led revolution underway to lift 500 million people out of energy poverty. The transformation is thanks to clean energy mini-grids that are popping up in rural communities across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Small Island Developing States and, in the process, serving many small businesses and households.
This success followed a first generation of government-supported mini-grids, which taught two essential lessons: The necessity of being adaptable to the needs of local communities and having a sustainable operational model.
According to the World Bank — which recently set a target to fund a thousand mini-grids in Nigeria, where over 90 million people still live without electricity — private sector owned and operated solar mini-grids are the most cost effective and sustainable way to bring electricity for the first time to 75 per cent of the 675 million people worldwide who still live in darkness, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It says 20,000 mini-grids have been installed to date, and $220 billion is needed to build the 2,10,000 mini-grids required to achieve these targets.
Solar mini-grids are displacing the default energy source for rural communities — expensive and polluting diesel generation — at a fraction of the cost and with immediate environmental benefit.
Express Network
MHA extends ban on seven Meitei extremist groups their affiliates for five years (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
Amid the ongoing crisis in Manipur, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday notified an extension of its ban under the UAPA of seven “Meitei Extremist Organisations” and their affiliates for a period of five years.
The groups are: the People’s Liberation Army and its political wing, the Revolutionary People’s Front; the United National Liberation Front and its armed wing, the Manipur People’s Army; the People’s Revolutionary Army of Kangleipak and its armed wing, the “Red Army”; The Kangleipak Communist Party and its armed wing, also called the “Red Army”; the Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup; the Coordination Committee; and the Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak.
The MHA notification collectively referred to them as “Meitei Extremist Organisations”, having the professed aim of the secession of Manipur from India through armed struggle and “and to incite indigenous people of Manipur for such secession”.
Explained
Tracked while on bail: How GPS anklets work (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Earlier this month, a prisoner in Jammu and Kashmir was released on bail after he was tagged with a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking device to monitor his movements. This is the first time in the country that a GPS tracker has been put to such use.
Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, who is accused of offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), was let out of jail after a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jammu upheld the prosecution’s plea and ordered police to affix a GPS tracker anklet on his foot.
Bhat, an associate of late Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Geelani, was arrested in 2011 by a joint team of Delhi Police and Srinagar Police from his residence in Srinagar.
The police claimed to have recovered Rs 21 lakh, two cell phones and a paper containing some phone numbers, and alleged that Bhat was a hawala operator who used the money to finance separatists.
Once upon a time, a plan to join red sea with Mediterranean through Israel (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
It has been speculated that one of the reasons behind Israel’s desire to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip and completely control the Palestinian enclave is to give itself the chance to better explore a dramatic economic opportunity that has been talked about for several decades, but for which peace and political stability in the region is an essential prerequisite.
The idea is to cut a canal through the Israeli-controlled Negev Desert from the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba — the eastern arm of the Red Sea that juts into Israel’s southern tip and south-western Jordan — to the Eastern Mediterranean coast, thus creating an alternative to the Egyptian-controlled Suez Canal that starts from the western arm of the Red Sea and passes to the southeastern Mediterranean through the northern Sinai peninsula.
This so-called Ben Gurion Canal Project, which was first envisioned in the 1960s would, if it were to be actually completed, transform global maritime dynamics by taking away Egypt’s monopoly over the shortest route between Europe and Asia.
Economy
India, ADB sign $400 mn loan pact to build high quality urban infra (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India on Monday signed a $400 million policy-based loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to create high-quality urban infrastructure, improve service delivery, and promote efficient governance systems, according to a statement from the finance ministry.
The programme also envisages integrated planning reforms to control urban sprawls and foster systemic and planned urbanisation through enhancing the entire ecosystem of legal, regulatory, and institutional reforms.
The sub-programme 1, approved in 2021 with the financing of $350 million, established national-level policies and guidelines to improve urban services, while the latest sub-programme 2 supports investment planning and reform actions at the state and urban local body (ULB) levels.
The loan agreement for the sub-programme 2 was signed between Juhi Mukherjee, joint secretary, department of economic affairs, ministry of finance, and Takeo Konishi, country director of ADB’s India resident mission.
World
Disturbing goodwill and social harmony Nepal bans Tik-Tok (Page no. 23)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Nepal’s government decided to ban the popular social media app TikTok on Monday, saying it was disrupting “social harmony” in the country.
The announcement was made following a Cabinet meeting. Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said the app would be banned immediately.
The government has decided to ban TikTok as it was necessary to regulate the use of the social media platform that was disrupting social harmony, goodwill and flow of indecent materials.
He said that to make social media platforms accountable, the government has asked the companies to register and open a liaison office in Nepal, pay taxes and abide by the country’s laws and regulations.
It wasn’t clear what triggered the ban or if TikTok had refused to comply with Nepal’s requests. The company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has faced scrutiny in a number of countries because of concerns that Beijing could use the app to harvest user data or advance its interests.
Countries including the United States, Britain and New Zealand have banned the app on government phones despite TikTok repeatedly denying that it has ever shared data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked.
Nepal has banned all pornographic sites in 2018.