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A day before the historic Mughal Gardens was to open to the public for the season, the Rashtrapati Bhavan announced Saturday that it was giving it “a common name” of ‘Amrit Udyan’.
Announcing that the gardens can be visited by the general public from January 31 to March 26, Deputy Press Secretary to the President Navika Gupta said, “On the occasion of the celebration of 75 years of Independence as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the President of India has given a common name to the Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens as Amrit Udyan.”
BJP leaders welcomed the decision as “historic”, with several saying it showed that India was coming out of “slave mentality”.
By the end of day, the old boards with the name ‘Mughal Gardens’ on them were gone, replaced with new ones saying ‘Amrit Udyan’.
Spread over 15 acres, the grounds drew their name from being laid out in the style of gardens built by the Mughals in Jammu & Kashmir, as well as around the Taj Mahal.
As per the Rashtrapati Bhavan website, which describes the gardens as “the soul of the Presidential Palace”, miniature paintings of India and Persia were also an inspiration for them.
Last year, the pathway from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, which was earlier known as Rajpath, was renamed Kartavya Path.
It symbolises a shift from erstwhile Rajpath being an icon of power to Kartavya Path being an example of public ownership and empowerment.” These are “steps… in line with the Prime Minister’s second ‘Panch Pran’ for New India in Amrit Kaal: ‘remove any trace of colonial mindset.
Explained |The different styles that came together to form Mughal Gardens, now Amrit Udyan Law Minister Kiren Rijiju hailed President Droupadi Murmu for the new name for the Mughal Gardens, calling it “a powerful symbol of our nation’s progress and a reflection of a brighter future for New India”.
Govt & Politics
In 2021, House panel urged Centre to renegotiate Indus Treaty (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Citing “pressing issues” such as climate change and global warming as a reason, a Parliamentary standing committee had in 2021 recommended renegotiation of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).
In its report, the Departmentally Related Standing Committees on Water Resources, had noted, “The Committee observe that although Indus Water Treaty has stood the test of time, they are of the view that the Treaty was framed on the basis of knowledge and technology existing at the time of its agreement in 1960s.
The perspective of both nations at that time was confined to river management and usage of water through construction of dams, barrages, canals and hydro-power generation.”
Present-day pressing issues such as climate change, global warming and environmental impact assessment, etc, were not taken into account by the Treaty.
In view of this, there is a need to re-negotiate the Treaty so as to establish some kind of institutional structure or legislative framework to address the impact of climate change on water availability in the Indus basin and other challenges, which are not covered under the Treaty.”
Thus, the panel recommended that the Centre take “necessary diplomatic measures to renegotiate the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan,” according to the report, tabled in Parliament on August 5, 2021.
The committee highlighted that although India, under IWT, has the right to create water capacity storage up to 3.6 million acre-feet (MAF) on Western rivers, “no” storage capacity has been created so far by India.
Besides, the Treaty provides India the right to develop Irrigated Cropped Area (ICA) of 13,43,477 acres (9,12,477 acres without creating any storage and 4,31,000 acres after creation of conservation storage and release of a specified quantum of water into the river annually) through waters of western rivers. However, as per the latest data for the crop year 2019-20, the ICA developed by India on Western rivers is 7,59,859 acres.”
Express Network
China tightening grip in region : Top cops cite CAA big brother attitude as reasons (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Growing economic and military might of China, India’s “big brother” attitude and issues of NRC and CAA have created a chasm between India and its neighbours, which China is exploiting to increase its regional influence, papers presented by IPS officers during the recently concluded conference of DGPs and IGPs.
Organised this month by the Intelligence Bureau, the conference was attended by PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, besides top police officers from across the country.
While an IG-rank officer from the Northeast flagged the narrative around National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying it opened the window for China to enter Bangladesh, another officer from the south underlined India’s “big brother” attitude that alienated Nepal.
Most officers argued that on one hand China’s disproportionate economic and military might have had an obvious impact on realigning relationships in India’s neighbourhood, on the other hand, the Communist nation is increasingly being seen as a bulwark against India.
More than a dozen papers were submitted under the topic ‘Chinese influence in the neighbourhood and implications for India’ during the conference.
Talking about Chinese influence in Bangladesh, one of the papers said, “After ‘targeting all of India’s friendly neighbours’ such as Nepal and Sri Lanka, China has now started focusing on Bangladesh…”
Emphasising the impact of CAA, the paper said, “Dhaka apprehends that India will push all illegal foreigners towards Bangladesh under the NRC.
Immediately after passing the CAA, Beijing has allowed 97% of Bangladesh’s exports to China under its duty-free and quota-free programme.” it said China has taken initiative to build a mega smart city near Dhaka, an airport in Sylhet in eastern Bangladesh and that India is now concerned about China’s pressure on Dhaka to hand over certain lucrative infrastructure and connectivity projects to provoke New Delhi.
Economy
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
As India prepares for centralised power market shift, EU moves a different way (Page no. 11)
As India readies a template to dismantle its existing power market design — a decentralised, voluntary and short-term market that coexists with long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed outside the spot market — in favour of a radically different, mandatory-pool model that entirely jettisons fixed-price contracts, the European Union has signalled a move in exactly the opposite direction.
Brussels has readied a proposal that aims to establish a new market for long-term contracts on the lines of PPAs that provide power plants with a fixed price for their electricity, primarily to yield more stable electricity bills for users amid volatility in prices in their energy market triggered by a combination of factors: the impact of surging gas prices following the Ukraine war on Europe’s largely gas-powered grid and the flaw that this gas price surge has exposed in its current marginal pricing market design.
The EU is attempting to tweak its power market design to avoid a repeat of last year, when Russian gas supply cuts pushed electricity prices there to new highs. Because Europe’s marginal pricing market design means electricity prices are set by the costs of the marginal producer — generally a gas-fired plant — the spike in fuel prices precipitated an electricity price shock that affected households and industrial users.
In a public consultation earlier this week, the European Commission laid out multiple options to revamp the way power plants sell electricity as part of the broader market reform.
This includes plans to expand Europe’s use of long-term contracts that provide power plants with a fixed price for their electricity — or what are called contracts for difference (CfD) — and PPAs.
Both of these are expected to generate a buffer between energy consumers and volatile prices in the short-term energy markets, yielding more stable electricity bills for households and companies.
Even as Europe has signalled the move back to more long-term contracts, India is readying the blueprint to move towards a new electricity market model called the Market-Based Economic Dispatch (MBED) mechanism, under which the Union Ministry of Power proposes to centralise scheduling for dispatching the entire annual electricity consumption of around 1,400 billion units.
If implemented, this will mark a clear shift from a decentralised model followed now, which has been buttressed by the Electricity Act 2003 and follow-on reforms.
The implementation of the first phase of MBED was earlier planned to start with effect from April 1 last year, but was put off, with a date yet to be announced.
Centre sets up three grievance committees to take up user complaints against social media platforms (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Union government has notified the formation of three grievance appellate committees that will address user complaints against social media and other internet-based platforms.
These panels will also be empowered to oversee and revoke content moderation-related decisions taken by these platforms.
According to the notification, issued late Friday night, each of the three grievances appellate committees (GACs) will have a chairperson, two whole-time members from different government entities and retired senior executives from the industry for a term of three years from the date of assumption of office.
The proposal has previously drawn criticism over fears that government appointed panels will be able to dictate content-moderation decisions taken by social media firms.
The first panel will be chaired by the chief executive officer of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ashutosh Shukla and Punjab National Bank’s (PNB) former chief general manager and chief information officer Sunil Soni have been appointed as the whole-time members of the panel.
The second panel will be chaired by the joint secretary in charge of the Policy and Administration Division in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Indian Navy’s retired Commodore Sunil Kumar Gupta and Kavindra Sharma, the former vice-president (consulting) of L&T Infotech, have been appointed as the whole-time members of this panel.
The third panel will be chaired by Kavita Bhatia, a senior scientist at the Ministry of Electronics and IT. Former traffic service officer of the Indian Railways Sanjay Goel and former managing director and chief executive officer of IDBI Intech Krishnagiri Ragothamarao have been appointed as the whole-time members of the third panel.