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The government has withdrawn the Personal Data Protection Bill from Parliament as it looks to come up with a “comprehensive legal framework” for regulating online space including separate legislation on data privacy, the overall internet ecosystem, cybersecurity, telecom regulations, and harnessing non-personal data for boosting innovation in the country.
This comes after nearly four years of the Bill being in the works, where it went through multiple iterations including a review by a Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP), and faced pushback from a range of stakeholders including tech companies and privacy activists.
According to IT Ministry sources, the government is targeting the winter session of Parliament to introduce the new legislation.
A senior official said the new Bill will incorporate the broader ideas of data protection as recommended by the JCP and will be in line with the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment of 2017 in which it held privacy as a fundamental right.
Given the significant number of amendments suggested by the JCP, the need to comprehensively redraw the contours of the legislation was necessitated, the official said.
The data protection Bill has been in the works since 2018 when a panel, led by retired Supreme Court judge Justice B N Srikrishna, had prepared a draft version of the Bill. After that, it was reviewed by a JCP which submitted its recommendations and a draft Bill in November 2021.
Need committee to look at freebies issue, suggest measures: Supreme Court (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
With the Centre in favour of an end to freebies by political parties using public money to lure voters, the Supreme Court Wednesday sought suggestions from petitioners and respondents, in a plea seeking directions against freebies, on the composition of a committee, which can go into the issue “dispassionately” and make recommendations.
The bench of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli said, “After hearing the counsel, the considered opinion of the court is that… all the stakeholders, the beneficiaries and the people who are opposing these freebies.
In addition to that, the government as well as organisations like Niti Aayog, Finance Commission, RBI and Opposition parties have to be involved in the process of making some brainstorming and come to some conclusions on these issues. So, we direct all the parties to make their suggestions about the composition of such a body and make recommendations.
During the hearing, the CJI said the reality is that “no political party will allow to take out these freebies. All want this. That’s the reality”.
Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that such “populist announcements… distort the informed decision-making of the voter. They don’t know what’s going to fall on them. This is the way we are heading towards economic disaster”.
At the outset, the CJI said it is not only the rich who should get benefits but the poor too and said the question is to what extent can it be checked.
Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who is the petitioner, responded “from whose pocket it will come to go to whose pocket” will have to be considered so that the voter will know.
Concern in Delhi over not being part of US-led critical minerals alliance (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
There is growing concern in the Government over India not finding a place in the Minerals Security Partnership, an ambitious new US-led partnership to secure supply chains of critical minerals, aimed at reducing dependency on China.
The Union Finance Ministry is learnt to have communicated with the Ministry of External Affairs to explore the possibility of how New Delhi can join the 11-member group.
This assumes significance given that one of the key elements of India’s growth strategy is powered by an ambitious shift in the mobility space through the conversion of a large part of public and private transport to electric vehicles.
This, alongside a concerted electronics manufacturing push, underlines the need to secure the supply of critical minerals.
Besides the US, the MSP includes Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the European Commission.
The new grouping, industry insiders say, could focus on the supply chains of minerals such as Cobalt, Nickel, Lithium and also the 17 “rare earth” minerals.
While Cobalt, Nickel and Lithium are required for batteries used in electric vehicles, rare earth minerals are critical, in trace amounts, in the semiconductors and high-end electronics manufacturing.
This new alliance is seen as being primarily focused on evolving an alternative to China, which has created processing infrastructure in rare earth minerals and has acquired mines in Africa for elements such as cobalt.
India’s exclusion from the MSP comes when there is renewed cooperation with Washington DC on multiple other fronts, including the ‘Quad’ informal grouping that brings together the US, Japan, Australia and India. As part of this grouping, a Quad Vaccine Partnership was announced last year.
Subsequent to the Quad, India was included as a member of a new economic grouping alongside Israel, the UAE and the US — the I2U2 — that focuses on six key areas of cooperation: health, water, transportation, food security, space and energy.
In Parliament
Rajya Sabha unanimously passes anti-doping Bill (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Parliament passed a Bill that seeks to create a statutory framework for the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and National Dope testing laboratory.
After a detailed discussion, Rajya Sabha unanimously passed the National Anti-doping Bill. The legislation was cleared last week in Lok Sabha.
Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Anurag Thakur said the law will regulate anti-doping activities in sports, specifically highlighting that it will “accomplish building institutional capabilities in anti-doping and enabling the hosting of major sporting events”.
It will enable protecting rights of all sportspersons, ensuring time-bound justice to athletes, enhancing co-operation among agencies in fighting doping in sports, reinforcing India’s commitment to international obligation for clean sports, independent mechanism for anti-doping adjudication.
He said that the law will result in the establishment of more dope testing labs. This will help create job opportunities, both directly and indirectly, and create opportunities for academic research, science, and manufacturing relating to anti-doping, the minister said.
During the debate, nominated member and legendary athlete P T Usha, delivering her maiden speech, expressed her concern over doping-related activities being reported at grassroots levels.
We are yet to open our eyes to the abuse of doping in our country which was earlier confined only to the senior national levels but it has now reached the juniors, college and school levels, which is a serious concern that needs to be addressed.
When talented sport individuals are abusing performance-enhancing drugs, they are not only sacrificing their career and life for short-term benefits but they are also spoiling the talents of upcoming sports individuals who work very hard to improve their performance levels.
She said the new law can control doping activities to a certain extent. However, more “effective measures” need to be undertaken to curb these practices.
Govt. and Politics
Govt gives nod to stronger climate targets for 2030 (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Incorporating two of the promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Glasgow conference last year, India on Wednesday enhanced its climate change targets for 2030.
India has said it was now committing itself to at least 45 per cent reduction in emissions intensity of GDP (emissions per unit of GDP) from 2005 levels. The existing target was a 33 to 35 per cent reduction.
At the same time, India is also promising to ensure that at least 50 per cent of installed electricity generation capacity in 2030 would be based on non-fossil fuel-based sources. This is an increase from the existing 40 per cent target.
Both these enhanced targets have been included in India’s updated NDC, or nationally determined contributions, that every country has to periodically finalise and submit to the UN climate body.
The updated NDC was approved by the union cabinet on Wednesday. India’s first NDC was submitted in October 2015, just ahead of the finalisation of the Paris Agreement, which formalised this process.
The updated NDCs seek to enhance India’s contributions towards the achievement of the strengthening of global response to the threat of climate change, as agreed under the Paris Agreement. Such action will also help India usher in low emissions growth pathways,’’ said a statement from the Environment Ministry.
India’s first NDC had eight goals, but only three had quantified targets. Apart from the two mentioned above — those relating to emissions intensity, and proportion of non-fossil sources in electricity generation – India had set a forestry target, promising to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030.
In Glasgow last year, Prime Minister Modi had made a series of new promises to strengthen climate action from India. Only two of them, mentioned above, have been converted to official targets, but the others are also inter-linked, and progress on one would lead to corresponding progress on others.
Editorial Page
Taiwan between giants (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The daily game over the past 10 days has been about predicting whether the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s travel itinerary in Asia would include Taiwan.
The formal announcement of the itinerary did not include Taiwan and since she finally made it to Taipei on Tuesday, the omission is inexplicable.
Surely the intention was not to catch the Chinese by surprise. Yes, it did add drama to the visit which suits the publicity-savvy Pelosi just fine. Remember how in 1992, as part of a US Congressional delegation visiting China, Pelosi had unfurled a banner at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, expressing support for the young demonstrators who had died in the violent suppression of the pro-democracy movement in June 1989.
That got her a lot of eyeballs back home. Poking China in the eye may help the Democrats in the forthcoming congressional elections. The domestic imperative is clearly visible.
What is more telling than the fact of the visit itself is the long and circuitous route which Pelosi’s special aircraft took – it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei, avoiding the more direct route over the South China Sea, and the islands claimed and occupied by China.
Some of these islands are heavily militarised, with anti-aircraft batteries. The US rejects Chinese claims over these islands and regards the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait as international waterways, but in this case, chose not to press the point.
The detour taken by Pelosi reflects the change in the balance of power which has taken place in the region over the past decade adding a new wariness to American calculations. The Chinese would have taken note.
Now that the visit has taken place, attention has shifted to what China will do in retaliation. Having threatened dire consequences if the visit went ahead, Beijing’s reaction will need to be seen as substantial and visible.
The initial moves have been predictable. Military exercises around Taiwan have been expanded, with Chinese aircraft intruding more frequently across the informal median line which defines the zone of operations on each side.
Idea Page
Presidencies founding moment (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
An anecdote narrated by a colleague in Parliament about how a particular president perceived his role as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces provoked a question: Why did the founding fathers not vest this supreme command in the council of ministers headed by the prime minister, given that they made a conscious choice that India would be a parliamentary democracy, not an executive presidency?
Article 53 of the Constitution states that the executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President of India. Article 53(2) has a rather interesting formulation: “Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, the supreme command of the Defence Forces of the Union shall be vested in the President and the exercise thereof shall be regulated by law”.
The powers of the presidency are, of course, circumscribed by Article 74 which states that the president shall exercise his functions only on the aid and advice of the council of ministers headed by the prime minister.
Interestingly, if one peruses the debates of the Constituent Assembly on draft Article 42 that corresponds to Article 53 of the Constitution, there is absolutely no discussion on vesting the supreme command of the defence forces in the president.
It almost seems that the Constitution framers had taken it as a given that the supreme command of the armed forces would be vested in the presidency.
It is incredible that such an important aspect, even though the president of India is only a titular head, was not even debated by the Constituent Assembly.
However, any and every constitutional scheme has enough play in the joints to be interpreted in various ways, especially when a constitutional crisis comes to a head or an external emergency manifests. The term “defence forces of the Union” is nowhere defined in the Constitution.
Idea Page
Why has turnover threshold for GST invoicing has been halved from Oct 1 (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
In a step to ensure better flow of data on taxpayers to the authorities and higher compliance, the turnover threshold for e-invoicing has been halved to Rs 10 crore effective October 1 this year under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
Businesses with annual turnover of Rs 10 crore or more will have to generate e-invoices for business-to-business (B2B) transactions from October 1 this year. The existing threshold for this is Rs 20 crore.
Pursuant to the GST Council’s decision to introduce e-invoicing in a phased manner, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on August 1 notified lowering the e-invoice threshold to Rs 10 crore.
The GST Council approved the standard of e-invoice in its 37th meeting held on September 20, 2019. E-invoicing for B2B transactions was made mandatory for companies with turnover of over Rs 500 crore from October 1, 2020, which was then extended to those with turnover of over Rs 100 crore effective January 1, 2021.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during celebration of the 5th GST Day in New Delhi, Friday, July 1, 2022. From April 1, 2021, companies with turnover of over Rs 50 crore were generating B2B e-invoices. The threshold was brought down to Rs 20 crore beginning April 1, 2022. The CBIC now plans to further lower the threshold for e-invoice generation to Rs 5 crore.
The e-invoice system is for GST registered persons to upload all B2B invoices to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP). The IRP generates and returns a unique Invoice Reference Number (IRN), digitally signed e-invoice, and QR code to the user.
After following the e-invoicing process, the invoice copy (with QR Code containing inter alia, IRN) issued by the notified supplier to the buyer is commonly referred to as the ‘e-invoice’. SEZ units, insurance, banking (including NBFCs), goods transport agencies (transporting goods by road in goods carriages), passenger transport services, and multiplex cinema admissions are exempt from the e-invoice system. A GST invoice is valid only with a valid IRN.
E-invoice does not mean generation of invoices from a central portal of the tax department — rather, it is the generation of invoice in a standard format so that an invoice generated on one system can be read by another system, and then reporting of e-invoice to a central system.
Explained
Taiwan, China, and the US (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan for what she called a show of American solidarity with the island, defying repeated warnings from Beijing and fueling a new round of US-China tensions. This visit took place at a time when US-China relations are the poorest in decades.
In a phone call with President Joe Biden last week, President Xi Jinping had warned the US against any unilateral moves that would change the island status. “Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this,” he had said.
China views Pelosi’s visit as a serious violation of the “One China” principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiqués.
This, according to the Beijing, gravely undermines peace and stability in the region, and sends a wrong signal to the “separatist forces for Taiwan independence”.
It is important to distinguish between the One China Principle (yige zhongguo yuanze) and the One China Policy (yi zhong zhengce) to understand the cross-Taiwan Strait problems.
The PRC follows the One China Principle, a core belief that sees Taiwan as an inalienable part of China, with its sole legitimate government in Beijing. The US acknowledges this position but not necessarily its validity.
The US instead follows the One China Policy — meaning that the PRC was and is the only China, with no recognition for the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) as a separate sovereign entity.
At the same time, the US refuses to give in to the PRC’s demands to recognise Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan — it only acknowledges the Chinese position that Taiwan is a part of China.
The word ‘acknowledge’ is determinative for the US,” Warren Christopher, who was US Deputy Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter, told a Senate hearing when the Chinese attempted to change it to “recognise”.
The US has stuck to this position ever since — and used the “strategic ambiguity” that it creates to maintain the status quo and preserve stability in the Taiwan Strait.
A Chinese ‘spy ship,its trip to Srilanka and India’s concerns (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
India is closely monitoring the movement of a Chinese “spy ship” that is on its way to Sri Lanka and will dock at its Hambantota port around August 11.
The vessel’s visit to the Lankan port comes at a time when the country is battling a severe economic crisis, and India is learnt to have already lodged a verbal protest against the ship’s visit.
The ‘Yuan Wang 5’, a Chinese research and survey vessel, is en route to Hambantota, a strategically important deep-sea port developed mostly using loans from Beijing.
‘Yuan Wang’-class ships are used to track satellite, rocket and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches. China has around seven of these tracking ships that are capable of operating throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. The ships supplement Beijing’s land-based tracking stations.
According to a US Department of Defence report, these space support ships are operated by the PLA’s Strategic Support Force (SSF), which is “a theater command-level organization established to centralize the PLA’s strategic space, cyber, electronic, information, communications, and psychological warfare missions and capabilities”.
The ‘Yuan Wang 5’ was built at China’s Jiangnan Shipyard and it entered service in September 2007. This 222-metre long and 25.2-metre wide vessel has state-of-the-art tracking technology onboard for transoceanic aerospace observation.
Its last monitoring mission was the launch of China’s ‘Long March 5B’ rocket. It was also recently involved in maritime monitoring of the launch of China’s Tiangong space station’s first lab module.