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Days after it emerged that Russia had asked India for equipment, parts and products in short supply, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Monda that this request was part of discussions being held “for some years now” and not a “post February 24 conversation” — referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine this year.
With the visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock by his side, Jaishankar also defended the import of oil from Russia, saying the EU buys six times more oil than India.
Baerbock did not refer to oil imports but flagged the “global impact” of Russia’s “brutal war” against Ukraine which, she said, has created difficulties for India, too, on “energy supply” and “fertilisers”.
In contrast with her remarks in Pakistan in October, the German Minister did not refer to the role of the UN in J&K even as Jaishankar made it clear that India will engage with Pakistan bilaterally.
The two Foreign Ministers signed a mobility partnership pact after their bilateral meeting that covered global challenges, including the Ukraine conflict, the situation in Afghanistan and cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.
Speaking to reporters, Jaishankar said the mobility pact will make it easier for people to study, do research and work in both countries and is a “strong signal for a more contemporary bilateral partnership”.
Jaishankar said that he had also raised the case of a baby girl, Ariha Shah, who has been in foster care in Germany for more than a year, with her parents, a Gujarati couple, petitioning for her release.
“We have concerns that she should be in her linguistic, religious, cultural and social environment. This is her right,” he said. Baerbock said that, as a mother of two, she feels the “well-being of the child is first priority”.
Responding to questions from reporters on Russia’s request for key products in short supply, Jaishankar said India-Russia trade has been “quite small” and there has been an effort to increase it.
SC: Purpose of charity should not be conversion, allurement is dangerous (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Underlining that the issue of forced religious conversion is a “very serious” matter, the Supreme Court said Monday that while charity is welcome, its purpose should not be to convert the gullible.
The purpose of charity should not be conversion. Every charity or goodwork is welcome, but what is required to be considered is the intention.
Appearing for a Christian outfit, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde said conversion may be for different reasons. Some may believe that some deity cured them, he pointed out.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, referring to Acts made by some states, said, “Therefore, the statutory regime is that there is a statutory authority in place where a neutral authority which will decide whether this is in lieu of the grains or medicines or in lieu of some treatment being offered or there is a religious change of heart, the religious philosophical belief has changed etc.
Justice Shah said “when everybody is India, Bharat, everybody stays in India, they have to act as per the culture of India.That’s important for ensuring harmony also.
Mehta pointed out that the Constitution Bench ruling on the subject says that one cannot propagate with the intention to convert.
Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay, said there were judgments supporting his case.
Appearing for Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham (Kerala Rationalist Association), Senior Advocate C U Singh said Upadhyay’s petition is a plea based on hyperbole, exaggeration and lacks material to show any alarming situation.
Mehta pointed out that the Madhya Pradesh Act on the subject, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, was made after a judicial commission report.
The city
For better communication, Delhi Police to design, and adopt high-frequency radio systems (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
The Delhi Police will soon move to a more efficient internal communication system, aimed at faster exchange of information and bigger networks.
The force is set to design, install and supply the ‘Open Standard Digital Trunking Radio System’ (OS-DTRS) and will phase out the current tetranet wireless network services. The project will cost close to Rs 100 crore, tenders for which were issued on December 2.
The trunking system provides multiple channels and common groups for policemen. This way, they are communicating with more personnel using fewer groups, officials said. Groups are formed based on geographical area and function.
It will also have a voice logger system, which can be used to describe a crime scene, interrogation details and evidence. The logs are saved in the system.
The project’s master site will be at the Delhi Police HQ. Police are looking for private companies to run the system on 800 MHz frequency band and microwave links.
There will be a tower that can withstand wind speeds of up to 160 kmph. Around 15,000 concurrent radio sets will be made first and later expanded to 30,000 over time.
As per documents released by police, the master site will have OS-DTRS control and switching equipment, a network management system, 90 IP-based logger systems, 50-inch or bigger LED monitors, an antenna system and maintenance systems. Equipment and services are expected to run for at least 10 years and fix network issues faced by personnel on the ground.
The system will have talk groups, in which members have the same functions/role, and each radio system will have a unique ID. The system should support at least 250 talk groups, with the capability to expand… number of unique individual radio IDs.
The signalling language will permit the system to assign not less than 15,000 unique individual radio IDs (Identification), with the capability to expand to 30,000.
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The Ideas Page
Championing the global south (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
As it takes charge of the G20 forum, Delhi is proclaiming a new ambition — to champion the cause of the “Global South”. This has raised a number of questions about India’s intentions.
Some in Delhi welcome the return to ideas that so animated India in the past — non-alignment and Third World solidarity. India’s new international partners, especially in the US and Europe, wonder if Delhi is returning to anti-Western orientation. India’s eastern partners too are apprehensive that Delhi might privilege the “Global South” and downgrade the new forums — like the BRICS — built in recent years to promote a multipolar world.
Don’t forget that the NAM and Third World were against the North as a whole — that included the Soviet Union and not just the West.
The idea of the “third” world underlined that it was not only different from the “first” — the capitalist West — but also and the second — the socialist “East”.
Many of the old slogans from the second half of the 20th century — framed around the axes of West versus the East and the North versus the South — do not correspond with the ground realities.
Consider, for example, the fact that China — that has long been viewed as part of the East and the South — is the second largest economic and military power and sits at the top of the global hierarchy and has deep ties with the West.
The ideological exuberance of Third World radicalism in the 1970s exhausted itself quite quickly. By the 1980s, most countries had moved away from the so-called third path to economic development; they began to accept the so-called “Washington Consensus” on liberalisation and globalisation.
Counting the poor (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Issues related to poverty and hunger)
The Global Hunger Report has caused a lot of controversy with questions being raised as to what exactly we are talking about. India is definitely the fastest growing economy and has received praise when it comes to reaching out to the needy during Covid or in technology-led innovations like UPI.
There is a need to introspect on who exactly is poor in India. The concept is nebulous. There was a time when calorie intake was the yardstick.
But converting only 2,400 calories a day into a monetary value was always challenging. Besides, people cannot live with just calories.
They need access to other amenities like housing, clothing, education and so on. Hence the calorie concept, though a possible criteria, is not really workable today.
The World Bank uses the concept of income per day, which is now taken at $1.90. Roughly, this translates to Rs 160 a day in India, and for a family of four would mean Rs 640 a day.
On a monthly basis, this will come to around Rs 19,200 or Rs 2.3 lakh for a year. Such an approach runs the risk of using a universal yardstick across the world which is not right.
While a weak currency can give a high value in India, this amount may be too low for a developed country (in the US a burger costs more than $1.90).
Besides, using either the calorie or income approach runs the risk of extrapolation as it is not possible to get these numbers for the entire population.
Income tax data, while useful in indicating who pays tax, captures only a small segment as it leaves out the big universe of rural people. Hence one cannot even use the Rs 2.5 lakh per annum criterion as a cutoff for measuring the poor.
Economy
G20 Summit: India pitches for SDGs, digital public infra as top priorities (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Pointing to the significance of the Global South, India listed out accelerated, inclusive and resilient growth and progress on Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), particularly health and education, as the key priorities for the G20 Summit.
Beginning the first formal meeting of the Sherpa track in Udaipur, India’s Sherpa Amitabh Kant invoked India’s G20 presidency theme of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ — ‘One Earth One Family One Future’ — to evolve the strategies for green development, fostering climate finance, technological transformation and digital public infrastructure, readying multilateral institutions for the 21st century and a focus on the three Fs — food, fuel and fertilisers — alongside the broader theme of women-led development.
“Our perspective is that we should have a win-win collaboration between all of us, developing countries, Global South and advanced economies.
We need to bring new approaches. This is a unique forum of both developed world and emerging economies so we need to build approaches to benefit the world on key global issues. The world is facing a vast number of challenges,” Kant said in his opening remarks.
The challenges we face today can only be solved by working together through hope, harmony and healing and our first concern should be towards whose need is greatest and therefore, we need to focus on the Global South as well.
Our G20 presidency will seek to advocate the oneness of all in accordance with our theme of ‘One earth, One Family, One Future’ and our priorities will reflect not just the aspirations of all of you, the G20 partners but also the Global South whose voice is often unheard.
Ministry of External Affairs in a statement said the first day discussions were held on ‘Technological Transformation’ and ‘Green Development and Lifestyle for Environment (LIFE)’, a dialogue on ‘Global & Regional Economy: Prospects & Challenges’ along with an informal Chai pe Charcha session.
Nab global mafia in drug trafficking cases: Sitharaman to DRI officers (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked enforcement agencies to go after ‘big fish’ and nab those global mafia who control the operation of sending ‘mountains’ of illegal drugs into the country.
The minister asked revenue intelligence officers to engage more with their international counterparts to book ‘big handlers’ working behind the scene, and ensure that smugglers do not outsmart authorities.
Revenue intelligence officers should strive to bring each case to its logical conclusion at the earliest possible time, she said, adding that smugglers would certainly leave a trail and that should be used to reach the main handlers who are actually behind the operation.
Her comments come against the backdrop of huge quantity of drugs being caught at Gujarat ports in recent months. Last week, 143 kilogram of drugs valuing about Rs 478 crore was seized in poll-bound Gujarat.
Sitharaman was addressing the 65th foundation day of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which is primarily involved in busting of illegal trade of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, gold, diamond counterfeit currency notes and other goods into the country, besides taking punitive action against the offenders.
In last fiscal year (2021-22), DRI seized 3,463 kilogram of heroin (including the 2,988 kilogram seized at Mundra port), 833 kg of gold and 321 kg of cocaine, among other contraband.