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The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden’s bid to join NATO, drawing the previously nonaligned Nordic country closer to membership in the Western military alliance.
Sweden’s accession protocol will now need to be approved in the Turkish parliament’s general assembly for the last stage of the legislative process in Turkey. No date has been set.
Turkey, a NATO member, has delayed ratification of Sweden’s membership for more than a year, accusing the country of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara regards as threats to its security, including Kurdish militants and members of a network that Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016.
The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee had begun discussing Sweden’s membership in NATO last month.
But the meeting was adjourned after legislators from Erdogan’s ruling party submitted a motion for a postponement on grounds that some issues needed more clarification and that negotiations with Sweden hadn’t “matured” enough.
Russian oil imports to 8 month low in Oct as discount falls, OPEC share up (Page no. 2)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
With discounts on Russian crude oil shrinking, Moscow’s share in India’s oil imports declined to an eight-month low in October, while New Delhi’s traditional West Asian suppliers — Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — managed to claw back part of the market share they had ceded to Russia.
According to an analysis of India’s official trade data by The Indian Express, Russia’s share in India’s oil imports (by volume) in October was 31.9 per cent, down from 34.8 per cent in September. It declined for four consecutive months from the peak of 44.7 per cent registered in June.
On the other hand, the combined share of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE touched a seven-month high of 44.1 per cent in October, having risen consistently month-over-month since June.
Higher supply of crude from these three countries over the past few months has been leading the recovery in the share of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in India’s oil imports.
Front Page
India will hunt down attackers even from depth of sea, take action (Page no. 3)
Days after two merchant ships with Indian crew members came under drone attack, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh warned that India would “hunt down” the perpetrators, even from the “depths of the sea”, and take strict action against them.
Speaking at the commissioning of the stealth guided missile destroyer INS Imphal in Mumbai, Singh said the Indian government has taken the attacks on MV Chem Pluto and MV Sai Baba “very seriously” and the Navy has increased its surveillance.
India’s growing economic and strategic power has filled some forces with jealousy and hatred,” Singh said. “India plays the role of a net security provider in the entire Indian Ocean Region.
We will ensure that maritime trade in this region touches greater heights. For this, together with our friendly countries, we will keep the sea lanes secure. We have full confidence in the ability and strength of our Navy,” he said.
Govt & Politics
India, Russia sign pacts on future units of Kudankulam plant (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
India and Russia signed some “very important” agreements related to the construction of the future power-generating units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made the announcement after his “comprehensive and productive” meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on bilateral economic cooperation.
While addressing the Indian diaspora in Moscow, he said, “… we signed some very important agreements pertaining to the future units of the Kudankulam nuclear project.” With PM Narendra Modi skipping Russia for the annual summit for the second year in a row, Jaishankar is in Moscow on a five-day visit to meet the Russian leadership.
The Kudankulam nuclear power plant is being built in Tamil Nadu with the technical assistance of Russia. The construction began in March 2002.
Since February 2016, the first power unit of the Kudankulam NPP has been steadily operating at its design capacity of 1,000 MW. The plant is expected to start operating at full capacity in 2027, according to Russian state media.
Express Network
Scientists Arctic days: No sun no phones, polar bears for company (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
That’s the first thing that went through our minds after landing in the Arctic – there is just darkness and snow,” said B S Girish over a video call from Himadri, India’s permanent research station in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, the world’s northernmost inhabited place.
Less than a week after India flagged off its first winter scientific expedition (November to March) to the Arctic, commencing year-round observations in Svalbard – a sort of a ‘science village’ and the designated place for global scientific research – the team spoke to The Indian Express over video.
The sun set in the Arctic around the third week of October, and will not rise till the end of February or early March.
Whenever we step out, a thought crops up that maybe tomorrow morning, the sun will be out and we can explore. A minute later, it sets in that there will be no sunlight here, not for the next few months.
So, we are gradually getting used to that,” said Girish, who is part of the first batch of four researchers – from the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), the Indian Institute of Technology — Mandi, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology — Pune, and Raman Research Institute — Bengaluru.
Editorial
A missing industrial policy (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Make in India campaign launched in 2014 is a very different policy package from the dogma of self-sufficiency that India embraced in the 1970s. If the latter was chalk, this is cheese.
Make in India (MII) does not, by any stretch, bring back dirigiste recollections of the license raj, self-sufficiency, import-substituting industrialisation, and the like.
It is vastly dissimilar, although fears have been raised about the manner in which MII is being implemented in some sectors, particularly by raising tariff duties to provide protection to encourage the setting up of domestic industry.
Fears of this protectionist tendency spreading to other sectors may be exaggerated, but are not unfounded, especially for those who have lived through the 1970s and 1980s.
Those years of reckless protection created shortages, black markets, and rampant rent-seeking, all in the name of the poor and distributive justice.
After all, public policy has to be sold to constituencies that matter, and licensing of cars, scooters, telephones, and several other sectors only enriched producers and not the target consumers, who had no recourse.
The producers who benefitted from the protection, loved it and actively lobbied for the regime’s longevity. Imagine protecting components for mobile phone assembly in India in the same manner today — the industry will quickly be in shambles.
After all, on average, a mobile phone made on our shores has around 80-85 per cent of imported content (India Cellular and Electronics Association, 2022).
The point, empirically, is that MII is very different from self-sufficiency, and we should move on from this baseless comparison.
Ideas Page
Seeing the new South Asia (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The lament on “losing” South Asia becomes louder when “negative” (from Delhi’s perspective) developments — for example, the Maldives’ recent demand that India withdraw its military presence — occur in the region.
India’s South Asia debate, unfortunately, is sentimental, self-referential and disconnected from the changing regional reality.
The hawks are upset that our neighbours dare to challenge India’s presumed primacy in the region. The doves think it is all Delhi’s fault that our neighbours turn against India.
The former want Delhi to be “tougher”, and the latter want Delhi to be “nicer” to the neighbours. Neither tough nor nice policies will address India’s regional challenges, which are deeply structural. Several internal, regional, and external factors shape the South Asian dissonance.
The notion that Delhi is losing South Asia is rooted in India’s collective nostalgia for the legacy of the British Raj, which integrated the Subcontinent into a powerful geopolitical entity, established regional hegemony, and turned the neighbouring territories into protectorates and buffers. That world is long gone, along with the British departure from the Subcontinent.
Explained
INS Imphal inducted into the Navy: Its features, combat capabilities (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 3, Defense)
INS Imphal (Pennant D68), the third of four warships of Project 15B that together form the Visakhapatnam class stealth-guided missile destroyers, is set to be commissioned into the Indian Navy.
Here is all you need to know about the development, technological assets, weaponry and strategic significance of the Visakhapatnam class of ships – the youngest in the lineage of Delhi and Kolkata classes of indigenous destroyers.
Between 2014 and 2016, the Indian Navy commissioned three guided missile destroyers of Kolkata class under a project codenamed ‘15A’.
The Kolkata class included INS Kolkata, INS Kochi and INS Chennai. These ships were a step ahead of their precursor Delhi class of ships, which included INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai, built under Project 15 and commissioned between 1997 and 2001.
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL), one of India’s key Defence Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), has built all these ships. A ship class signifies a group of ships built with similar tonnage, usage, capabilities and weaponry.
Economy
CAD narrows to 1% of GDP in Q2 on smaller merchandise trade deficit (Page no. 21)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The country’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed sharply to $8.3 billion, or 1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), in the second quarter (July-September) of financial year 2023-24 (FY24) compared to $30.9 billion, or 3.8 per cent of GDP, in the same period last year.
During the first quarter (April-June) of FY24, CAD stood at $9.2 billion, or 1.1 per cent of GDP. Current account deficit is the difference between exports and imports of goods and services. It is a key indicator of the country’s external sector.
Underlying the lower CAD on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis in Q2 FY24 was the narrowing of merchandise trade deficit to $61 billion from $78.3 billion in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a release.
India’s current account deficit for Q2 FY24 printed at $8.3 billion, well below our expectation of around $13 billion, led primarily by a smaller-than-anticipated merchandise trade deficit.
India – Oman Free trade agreement likely in January (Page no. 21)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Oman are moving at a fast pace and the pact is likely to be signed next month.
Officials of the two countries concluded the second round of talks for the pact, officially dubbed as Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) earlier this month in Muscat.
With Oman, there is a very good progress and both sides are very eager to conclude this deal. It may be signed in January 2024. The negotiations on the text of most of the chapters have been concluded by both sides.
Oman is India's third-largest export destination among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The pact would help increase exports from India post the free trade agreement, as currently over 80 per cent of its goods enter Oman at an average 5 per cent import duties, and there are not many trade barriers.
According to think tank GTRI's (Global Trade Research Initiative) report, Indian goods worth $3.7 billion such as gasoline, iron and steel, electronics, and machinery will get a significant boost in Oman, once both sides reach a comprehensive free trade agreement.