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Rishi Sunak took charge as the 57th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is the country’s third PM in 50 days after first Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss were forced from office by a rebellion within the ruling Conservative Party. Sunak takes over the reins at a time when the UK is facing one of its gravest economic and political crises in recent memory.
In his first address, Prime Minister Sunak said: “Our country is facing a profound economic crisis. The aftermath of Covid still lingers. Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains the world over”.
He said that the goal of the Truss government to boost growth was a “noble one”; however, “mistakes were made”, and he had been elected leader of the Tories, and PM, “in part, to fix them”. A medium-term fiscal statement is to be presented before Parliament on October 31.
Prime Minister Sunak committed to delivering on the Conservative Party’s 2019 election manifesto. The Tories had won under the leadership of Johnson, with the promise to “get Brexit done”, and to follow through with the goal of making Britain stronger and “unleashing [its] potential”. This is what the manifesto promised:
Strengthening the National Health Service (NHS), the UK’s publicly funded healthcare system: This meant upgrading existing hospitals, building new ones, and increasing the salaries of staff, including nurses, midwives, and cleaners. This was to be funded by the biggest-ever cash increase in the budget allocation to the NHS.
This involved tax cuts for the working class, protection of pensions for the retired, and levelling up the skills of British workers and making them more employable.
However, all this was before the twin shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which dented the British economy and upended the government’s fiscal math.
In terms of overall output (in US$), the economy has been largely stagnant since the start of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, which hit one of the UK’s biggest growth drivers — the financial centre of London.
The decision to leave the EU made matters worse. It became tougher for the UK to trade with its closest trading partners in Europe.
The higher compliance costs hit small businesses, and several businesses were forced to move out of the UK in order to protect their market share.
It was in this phase of reduced GDP per capita and reduced GDP per person employed, that the COVID disruption and the war in Ukraine hit the British economy.
Govt. and Politics
Let’snotinterfereineachother’sinternalaffairs,saysChinaenvoy(Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
India and China need to respect each other’s political systems and uphold the principle of non-interference in internal affairs.
In his farewell remarks posted on the Chinese embassy website on Tuesday, the Sun said, “China and India are important neighbours,it is only natural for China and India to have some differences.
The key is how to handle the differences. We should be aware that the common interests of the two countries are greater than differences.
The two countries need to respect each other’s political systems and development paths, and uphold the principle of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Stressing on the need for enhancing communication and cooperation, he said that China has optimised the visa application process for Indian citizens, resumed processing visa applications for students pursuing long-term study, and those visiting for other purposes.
Up to now, more than 1,800 visas have been issued to the Indian students, and we hope there will be more and more exchange of visits between our peoples.
Noting that the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was successfully held, Sun said: “It made clear what banners the party will hold, what path it will take, what goals it wants to achieve and how it will achieve them. Comrade Xi Jinping was elected the general secretary,which is the call of the times, the choice of history, and the aspiration of the people.
Recalling that he took charge as Chinese ambassador to India in July 2019, Sun said he witnessed the bilateral trade volume between the two countries exceeding (US) $120 billion, adding that during this period, China-India relations also experienced “ups and downs”.
We believe that, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of our two countries and with the joint efforts of both sides, the bilateral relations will eventually have the clouds cleared and return to the right track,” he said, in an oblique reference to the border situation.
He also took a swipe at the Quad and other Indo-Pacific strategies, saying, “If the Western theory of geopolitics is applied to China-India relationship, then major neighboring countries like us will inevitably view each other as threats and rivals.
Consequently, competition and confrontation will be the main mode of interaction, and zero-sum game will be an inevitable result, we should break out of the ‘geopolitics trap’ and find a new path that is different from the past.”
Underlining that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached a host of important consensus, Sun said: “There is enough room in the world for China and India to develop together…I am convinced that the cause of China-India friendship is correct and has broad prospects.
Idea Page
Of, by and for Xi(Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The 20th Party Congress ended, predictably, on October 22 with Xi Jinping remaining as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CCP) for a third five-year term.
Before every party congress, the western world wonders who’s in and who’s out and educates the rest about what it might mean. It is time that Indians do our own thinking.
We are neither in a strategic competition for global power with China as America is, nor do we have Europe’s dilemma over China’s economic potential and its political values.
Rather, we are a significant neighbour with a troubled relationship that needs to be managed correctly. A proper reading of the congress from our national perspective is, therefore, a good starting point to analyse what happened in Beijing.
Personnel changes are significant, but the key point is that Xi has political control. He determines the norms for political office.
Age, experience and performance are no longer barriers. Xi’s new core team, the Politburo Standing Committee, is loyal and, in turn, they enjoy his trust. There is no successor.
The amendments to the CCP constitution have cemented Xi’s position as the supreme leader. Two key phrases — “Two Safeguards” (safeguard the unified centralised leadership of the Central Committee and safeguard Xi as the core of the central committee) and “Two Establishes” (establish Xi as the core of the party and his thought as the guiding principle) guarantee his power.
The party has justified Xi’s continuation as general secretary by declaring that his continued leadership is vital when China is facing “a situation of unparalleled complexity, a fight of unparalleled graveness and tasks of unparalleled difficulty”.
His guidance is thus deemed necessary to “remove serious hidden dangers in the party, the country and the military and set the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on an irreversible historical course”. The message is messianic in its implications.
References to the hidden dangers within the system suggest that there might be internal challenges and, hence, the CCP constitution has been amended to add certain “obligations” on all party members to fully align with Xi.
These mandate the compulsory study of party history and Xi Thought at all levels, stricter provisions related to political integrity and party discipline, and new tasks for the commissions on discipline inspection.
In other words, the precision instruments to enforce the “obligations” have also been sharpened. In short, Xi is steadily putting into place the ideological, constitutional and coercive instruments that will keep him in power for the foreseeable future. India will have to deal with him from a long-term perspective.
Explained
The heaviness of rockets, why it mattersin space flight (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) crossed an important milestone with the successful launch of the LVM3 M2/OneWeb India-1 mission.
The LVM3 rocket carried almost 6 tonnes of payload into lower-earth orbit, the most that any ISRO mission has delivered into space till date.
The success of the flight not only re-validated the viability of the LVM3 rocket, ISRO’s most advanced launch vehicle, for keenly-awaited missions like the Gaganyaan, but also affirmed the agency’s claim as a serious player in the heavy satellite launch market.
Very few countries have the capability to launch satellites weighing more than 2 tonnes. Until recently, even ISRO used to take the services of Ariane rockets of Europe to launch its heavy satellites.
The LVM3 rocket, which used to be called GSLV Mk-III earlier, is meant to end that dependence, and also become the vehicle for the more ambitious parts of India’s space programmes — manned missions, Moon landings and deep space explorations — in the near future.
India currently has three operational launch vehicles — the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV, of which there are multiple versions; the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle or GSLV Mk-II; and the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 or LVM3.
The PSLV has been the most commonly used, having carried as many as 53 successful missions since 1993. Only two flights of PSLV have failed.
The GSLV-MkII rocket has been used in 14 missions, of which four have ended in failures, most recently in August last year. The LVM3 has flown five times, including the Chandrayaan 2 mission, and has never disappointed.
In addition, ISRO has been working on a reusable launch vehicle (RLV). Unlike other rockets, the RLV would not end up in space as waste. Instead, it can be brought back and refurbished for use multiple times.
India currently has three operational launch vehicles — the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV, of which there are multiple versions; the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle or GSLV Mk-II; and the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 or LVM3.
LVM3 is the culmination of more than three decades of efforts to indigenously develop a rocket that can carry heavier payloads, or venture much deeper into space.
These requirements not only result in a massive increase in the size of the rocket, but also necessitate a change in the engines and the kind of fuel being used.
Compared to vehicles that ply on land, or even on water, rockets are an extremely inefficient medium of transport. The passenger (or payload) comprises barely 2 to 4 per cent of the weight of the rocket.
Between 80 and 90 per cent of the launch-time weight of any space mission is the fuel, or the propellant. This is because of the unique nature of a space journey, which involves overcoming the tremendous force of gravity.
Climate change amplifying healthimpacts of multiple crises,saysThe Lancetreport ahead of COP27(Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Ahead of this year’s United Nations climate change conference (COP27), a major new report has said that the continued dependence on fossil fuels is compounding the health impacts of the multiple crises the world is facing — including the fallouts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, and climate change.
Our report this year reveals we are at a critical juncture. We see how climate change is driving severe health impacts all around the world, while the persistent global fossil fuel dependence compounds these health harms amidst multiple global crises, keeping households vulnerable to volatile fossil fuel markets, exposed to energy poverty, and dangerous levels of air pollution.
DrRomanello is co-author of The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of fossil fuels.
New findings presented in the seventh annual global report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change reveal that governments and companies continue to follow strategies that increasingly threaten the health and survival of all people alive today, and of future generations.
The report represents the work of 99 experts from 51 institutions, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
According to a fact sheet on the specific impacts on India — which uses data from the report but is not itself a part of the report — climate change is affecting almost every pillar of food security:
The duration of the growth season for maize has decreased by 2%, compared to a 1981-2010 baseline, while rice and winter wheat have each decreased by 1%.
From 2012-2021, infants under one year old experienced an average of 72 million more person-days of heatwaves per year, compared to 1985-2005. For the same period, adults over 65 experienced 301 million more person-days. This means that, on average, from 2012-2021, each infant experienced an additional 0.9 heatwave days per year while adults over 65 experienced an additional 3.7 per person, compared to 1986-2021.
From 2000-2004 to 2017-2021, heat-related deaths increased by 55% in India.In 2021, Indians lost 167.2 billion potential labour hours due to heat exposure with income losses equivalent to about 5.4% of national GDP.
From 1951-1960 to 2012-2021, the number of months suitable for dengue transmission by Aedesaegypti rose by 1.69%, reaching 5.6 months each year.
These are early warnings and we need to take mitigation measures like adapting heat action plans in each city. For instance, the Ahmedabad heat action plan that has shown mortality can be reduced, should be adapted everywhere.
Economy
CCIslaps Rs. 936-cr penaltyonGoogle for abusing itsdominant market position(Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on Google for abusing its dominant market position with respect to its Play Store policies.
It also issued a cease-and-desist order and directed the tech firm to modify its conduct within a defined timeline, which includes allowing mobile app developers to use third-party payment services on its app store.
Google has been given 30 days to provide the requisite financial details and supporting documents.Last week, the antitrust regulator had imposed a penalty of Rs 1,338 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple categories related to Android mobile device ecosystem in the country.
According to CCI, Play Store policies require app developers to exclusively and mandatorily use Google Play’s billing system (GPBS) not only for receiving payments for apps and other digital products but also for certain in-app purchases.
Further, app developers cannot, within an app, provide users with a direct link to a webpage containing an alternative payment method or use language that encourages a user to purchase the digital item outside of the app.
If the app developers do not comply with GPBS, they are not permitted to list their apps on Play Store and stand to lose out on the vast pool of potential customers in the form of Android users.
Making access to the Play Store dependent on mandatory usage of GPBS for paid apps and in-app purchases is one sided and arbitrary, and devoid of any legitimate business interest. The app developers are left bereft of the inherent choice to use payment processor of their liking from the open market.
Interestingly, Google is not applying the same policy on its own apps like YouTube. This amounts to imposition of discriminatory conditions as well as pricing as YouTube is not paying the service fee as being imposed on other apps covered in the GPBS requirements.
The CCI launched an investigation into Google’s Play Store policies in 2020 upon complaints by domestic app developers.
It also examined the allegations of exclusion of rival UPI payment apps such as PhonePe, Paytm and BharatPe as alternative payment options on Play Store.
The Commission found that Google’s own UPI payment service ‘Google Pay’ has by default been integrated with the “intent flow” payment methodology whereas other UPI apps can only process transitions through the “collect flow” methodology.
The intent flow payment methodology is widely considered superior and user-friendly in comparison to collect flow technology, with intent flow offering significant advantages to both customers and merchants. The success rate with the intent flow methodology was also found to be higher due to lower latency.
Google, however, informed CCI that it recently changed its policy and allowed rival UPI apps to be integrated with the superior intent flow methodology.