Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Indian and Chinese troops clashed in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector in the early hours of December 9, beating each other up with sticks and canes in their closest encounter since the deadly Galwan incident in eastern Ladakh in June 2020.
The “face-off led to minor injuries to few personnel from both sides. Both sides immediately disengaged from the area. As a follow up of the incident, own (Indian) commander in the area held a flag meeting with his counterpart to discuss the issue in accordance with structured mechanisms to restore peace and tranquility.
The incident came days after China expressed objection to Operation Yudhabhyas, an India-US joint military exercise at Auli in the Uttarakhand hills, claiming it was a violation of 1993 and 1996 border agreements.
The continuing military tensions at different points along the 3,000 km-Line of Actual Control comes as New Delhi kicked off a series of events as part of its presidency of the G-20, a grouping of the world’s leading economies that includes China.
Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met at the G-20 summit in Bali in November and exchanged courtesies but did not hold any substantive talks or discussions.
The clash in Arunachal Pradesh took place at about 3 am last Friday at a nullah along the LAC in the Tawang heights near a point called Yangtse in Eastern Tawang. This part of the LAC is one of the “agreed disputed areas” between the two sides, according to military sources.
The clash in Tawang in the LAC's eastern sector, that includes Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, comes when tensions in the northern sector of Ladakh are yet to be fully resolved.
Indian and Chinese troops are positioned on either side of the nullah, but on this night, some 300 Chinese troops came into the Indian side.
The clash was “more than pushing and shoving”, the sources said, although it was not clear if there were any serious injuries on either side.
Editorial
Trading to win (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The ties between India and the UK are often described as a Living Bridge — a dynamic economic force of people, businesses and ideas.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi drives forward plans to make India a developed nation within the next 25 years and the UK forges deeper trade relationships around the globe, our connections are growing stronger every day.
India and the UK are two of the largest economies on the planet. Last year, we showed the world how our economic relationship is reaching new heights with an enhanced trade partnership.
At a stroke, we opened exciting opportunities for our businesses, from food and drink firms to life science startups. We lowered several trade barriers, pledged to bring down many more and set an ambitious target to double the value of India-UK trade by 2030.
Since then, Indian firms, including established businesses and recent startups, have been finding opportunities in the UK. British businesses in fields ranging from food to financial services are expanding and investing in India. The car manufacturer, McLaren, which has just opened a showroom in Mumbai, is one example.
An India-UK free trade agreement is a natural next step for us both, bringing two nations with extraordinary plans for their futures closer still.
This week I’m in Delhi for the launch of round six of our formal talks. I’m going to be meeting my counterpart, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, as we both seek to drive forward progress.
We’re coming to the negotiating table with the very highest of ambitions and a willingness to work together. However, we’re both clear that any free trade agreement must be a win-win for both countries.
This week we’ll be talking about how we can make sure this happens. I’m confident that Indian consumers and businesses will swiftly start to see tangible benefits from a modern, forward-looking free trade agreement.
A deal could mean more choice for Indian consumers and potentially lower prices on British manufactured products — from cars to chocolate.
Ideas Page
Let the court judge (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Supreme Court’s collegium does not fade easily from the news. First came the Union law minister’s outburst during the Constitution Day celebrations. In response to criticism that the government was sitting on the proposals of the collegium, he reportedly asked what then prevents the Court from going ahead and making the appointments.
This was more petulance than good sense, since the Memorandum of Procedure giving effect to the collegium system requires the government to respond to the collegium’s recommendations.
He was firmly put in place by Justice S K Kaul who promptly read him the riot act. More surprising was the outburst of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, a lawyer by training, who took exception to the Court striking down the National Judicial Commission Act as though it was outside the Court’s powers.
He was offside there; it is very much within the domain of the Court to strike down provisions of an enactment or the Act as a whole if it offends the basic structure of the Constitution, the superior document.
It is, of course, open to Parliament to think of another method to select judges, but till that is done and passes constitutional scrutiny, the present system holds the field and no amount of political muttering is going to change that.
If one employs a limited vision, and a black-and-white filter to thought, the straight answer to the straight question is that the collegium is not a creature sanctioned by the Constitution, and it has upset the method envisaged by the founding fathers to select judges, which was that the President would consult the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and other judges before making the appointment.
For many years since the inception of the Constitution that worked well enough, with the President largely going by what the CJI and his colleagues thought fit.
The cost of GST (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Five years ago, a new indirect tax system was launched by the Narendra Modi government. The Goods and Services Tax was introduced to replace the complex order of entry levies and sales tax in India.
It also aimed to modify tax compliance and administration within the country. Half a decade later this move has become a lot more than just being about “one nation, one tax”.
On a positive note, GST has been successful in facilitating the free movement of goods in the country. Earlier, checkposts served as bottlenecks that not only involved a lot of waiting time but were also breeding spots for corruption — as taxes varied from state to state, city to city and even local bodies.
The most welcome change that came along with GST is the e-invoice system. It has now become an integral part of doing business in India.
The segmented approach to this provision aided its acceptance. Starting with companies with a turnover of more than Rs 5 billion in October 2020, to business entities with an annual turnover above Rs 100 million in October 2022, the law has slowly expanded its coverage coverage.
The GST number that can track every supply chain transaction has helped to address fraudulent claims and fake invoicing.
However, GST is not just about tax collection anymore. It is important to note that the quantifiable parameters of GST success do not incorporate social and political costs, which have financial and administrative snowballing effects.
Further, GST has raised issues between states and the Centre. It harms producer states and rewards consumer states in terms of revenues. States like Tamil Nadu, which have invested highly in their manufacturing ecosystem, are facing new problems.
With GST, their major source of income from the view point of production is at stake. Though the government decided to roll out compensations for five years of revenue losses for such states, the pandemic affected this plan — the guarantee of 14 per cent growth for the first five years in GST revenues choked under depleted funds. Many states are thus coming together to demand an extension in these compensations because of their deteriorating finances.
Explained
Behind churn in Bangladesh (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
A massive rally by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Dhaka Saturday has signalled that the main opposition party has reorganised on the ground despite a severe government crackdown against it, channeling economic grievances and popular resentment against the perceived authoritarian style of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a three-term incumbent.
Thousands of people attended the Dhaka rally, the culmination of more than a month of such protests by the BNP across the country — in Rajshahi, Chittagong, Mymensingh, Khulna, Rangpur, Barisal, Faridpur, Sylhet and Comilla.
At every rally, including the one at Dhaka, two chairs on stage were kept empty – one for party leader and chairperson Khaleda Zia, who was jailed for seven years in 2017, was released in 2020 after her sentence was suspended on condition that she would not leave Dhaka, and has been unwell since last year; the other for acting chairperson Tarique Rehman, her son, who lives in London in self-exile after his life sentence in the 2004 Hasina assassination attempt case.
At the Dhaka rally, BNP set out a list of 10 demands, which include: to oversee next year’s national election, the formation of a neutral caretaker government, which was provided for in the Constitution in 1996 but was later abolished by the Sheikh Hasina government; the formation of a neutral Election Commission by the caretaker government for a level playing field for all parties; the abolition of EVMs; cancelling the convictions of all opposition and religious leaders; and withdrawal of “false cases” against opposition leaders.
The month-long mobilisation has raised the political heat in Bangladesh ahead of the 2023 national elections. Neither the government nor the Awami League has responded officially to the demands.
Awami League members have, however, questioned what the BNP was doing in Parliament for four years if they believed the election was rigged.
In the weeks leading up to the Dhaka rally, several BNP members were arrested from across the country. One person died in a clash with the police outside the party office.
A day before the rally, two top BNP leaders, party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and a member of the standing committee, Mirza Abbas, were arrested. The police, however, granted permission for the rally.
Economy
India will share its human-centric SDG story, and show progress in tech (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Groupings)
By assuming the year-long G20 Presidency, India for the first time will set the agenda, which, so far, was being done by the developed nations.
Through the presidency, India’s objective is to be the voice of the Global South, he added. India formally assumed the Presidency of G20, or Group of Twenty, from Indonesia on December 1. The first meeting of the Development Working Group (DWG) of the Sherpa track will be held from December 13-16 in Mumbai.
When India takes over the Presidency, this is for the first time that we will be setting the agenda. So far, the agenda was being set by the developed world and we were responding to that agenda.
The DWG is a platform for G-20 member countries to come together and prioritise multilateralism, share solutions that promote growth, remap development plans and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets.
The group has been acting as the custodian of G20 ‘development agenda’ since its inception in 2010. The DWG meetings aims to discuss developmental issues in developing countries (DC), least developed countries (LD) and island countries (small island developing states/SIDS).
Kant said India will be setting the G20 agenda at a time when it has done a lot of developmental work. “We have opened about 40 crore new bank accounts since 2015, equivalent to the entire population of the USA.
In digital payments we have done about 4,860 crore transactions, which is 3X of China and 7X greater than the combined digital payments of the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany,” he said.
During these four-day meetings, Kant said, India will share its human centric SDG story. The country will utilise the power of digital technology and data to showcase the progress it has made in the field of digital technology, he said, adding there will be discussions on LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), a behaviour-based movement that draws from India’s ancient and sustainable traditions, to nudge consumers, and in-turn markets, to adopt environmentally-conscious practices.