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With the Centre agreeing to its proposal to have a committee of experts to recommend measures to plug loopholes in the regulatory regime to prevent any loss to Indian investors due to market volatilities as was witnessed during the Adani-Hindenburg episode, the Supreme Court Monday agreed to its request to suggest what could be the remit of the proposed committee.
Meanwhile, in a note submitted to the top court, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said it is already enquiring into both, the allegations made in the Hindenburg report as well as the market activity immediately preceding and post the publication of the report, to identify violations of SEBI Regulations.
Hearing two PILs filed in the wake of the Hindenburg report that alleged fraud and stock price manipulation by the Adani Group, the SC had, on the last date of hearing, said it was “thinking aloud” on whether a committee of experts could be put in place to suggest possible improvements to the regulatory mechanism.
Responding to this Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Centre told the bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala that his “instructions are that existing structure — SEBI and are other agencies – are fully equipped, not only regime wise but otherwise also to take care of the situation.
However, responding to the suggestion which fell from Your Lordships as a loud thinking, we would have no objection…the government has no objection constituting a committee.
Top court dismisses plea against J&K delimitation panel (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Supreme Court dismissed a plea challenging the Centre’s decision to constitute a Delimitation Commission for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir under provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002, and the exercise of delimitation of assembly constituencies undertaken by the Commission on the basis of the 2011 Census.
While the court found “absolutely no merit in any of the contentions raised by the petitioners”, it referred to the J&K Reorganisation Act and clarified that its “findings…are on the footing that the exercise of power made in the year 2019 under clauses (1) and (3) of Article 370 of the Constitution is valid”.
“We are aware that the issue of the validity of the exercise of the said powers is the subject matter of petitions pending before this Court. Therefore, we have not dealt with the issue of validity.
Nothing stated in this judgment shall be construed as giving our imprimatur to the exercise of powers under clauses (1) and (3) of Article 370 of the Constitution.
The petitioners, Srinagar residents Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Mohammad Ayub Mattoo, had argued that delimitation cannot happen on the basis of the 2011 Census but must be carried out as per the 2001 Census or await “the first census after the year 2026”.
China plans to expand border rail via Aksai Chin: India on watch (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
AT A time when India and China are locked in a border standoff with over a lakh troops stationed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, Beijing has decided to accelerate its railway network to 4,000 km by 2025, cutting through the contentious Aksai Chin area close to the border.
Aksai Chin, claimed by both India and China, has been a point of dispute between the two countries since the late 1950s, and was at the centre of the 1962 India-China war.
New Delhi, which keeps a close watch on China’s infrastructure development along the border, views this as a possible force multiplier for the Chinese military, which can mobilise its forces from east to west with ease.
However, Delhi also feels that the announcement must be read as a psy-ops by Beijing, after over 33 months of the border standoff.
China’s plans to upgrade its railway network from its current 1,359 km was unveiled by the Tibet Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission.
Significantly for India, the Shigatse-Pakhuktso section of the proposed Xinjiang-Tibet Railway — which runs through Aksai Chin — will see progress by 2025, according to the plans reported in Chinese state media.
By 2025, the construction of several railway projects, including the Ya’an-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, the Shigatse-Pakhuktso section of the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway, and the Bomi-Ra’uk section of the Yunnan-Tibet Railway will all see major progress.
Express Network
Ahead of Scholz visit, German Security adviser says India voice heard in Russia (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
With German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expected to visit India later this month — around the time when the Russia-Ukraine war will complete a year – his Foreign and Security Policy Advisor, Jens Plötner, said on Monday that Delhi’s voice is “heard clearly” and “listened to” in Moscow, and that is important.
Scholz is expected to come to India in the last week of February — the dates that are being explored by the two sides are February 25-26.
This is significant since the Russia-Ukraine war will complete a year on February 24, and Scholz’s first standalone visit is a signal that Delhi plays an important role in Berlin’s strategic calculus.
Plötner, who met his counterpart National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Monday to prepare the ground for Scholz’s visit, said the two countries are working together on a range of areas, and identified climate change, economic potential and geopolitics as the three major areas of potential cooperation.
Calling it a “classic triple-win situation”, he underlined the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “Now, obviously as wonderful as our bilateral relations are, they are not evolving in a kind of clean environment.
We are embedded in a very messy international situation, which is full of challenges. The Russian war against Ukraine. This is a European war. But it is a war with global repercussions.
Editorial
Joshimath warning (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Disaster Management)
The Joshimath land subsidence is a warning for Mussoorie. This was the comment reportedly made by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Such a red flag had been raised by another body about Joshimath in 1976. In that year, the Mahesh Chandra Mishra Committee had said that heavy construction should be permitted only after evaluating the ground situation.
But the advice was ignored by our politicians and administrators and the disaster occurred. Such an act should not happen in Mussoorie.
On the surface there seems to be little resemblance between the dangers faced by our Himalayan resort and the devastation caused in Turkey and its neighbours. Earthquakes do not originate on the surface.
They start deep under the earth where the tectonic plates, on which the continental masses rest, are located. These plates float on slowly shifting coils of molten rock called magma.
The Turkish calamity happened in an area where three tectonic plates are in collision. Similarly, our Himalayas are being pushed up because the Indian plate is thrusting under the Eurasian plate like the blade of an enormous bulldozer.
But this is not the only reason for the instability of our mountains. They are also the world’s youngest range and have not had time to adjust to the pressures put on them by living creatures, particularly mankind.
It is like putting great burdens on the back of a growing child. The child’s body lacks the capacity to carry the additional load. The carrying capacity of Mussoorie was assessed by a group of experts from the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and published in 2001.
It concluded that “a substantial proportion of land, with a high degree of slope, has been put to urban uses …That the construction cannot expand is clear.” And yet Mussoorie continues to be overbuilt with many unsuitable and dangerous highrises.
Pricing it right (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s exports of farm produce are set to scale a new high in 2022-23, surpassing the $50.2 billion achieved last fiscal. But so are imports, which have grown at nearly twice the rate as exports during April-December 2022 over April-December 2021.
As a result, the overall agri-trade surplus is expected to further shrink from the $20.2 billion and $17.8 billion levels of 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively.
The surplus in agriculture trade matters because this is among the few sectors — software services being another — where India has some comparative advantage.
The slowing down of exports, and imports rising faster, has largely to do with world commodity prices. These had peaked in March-June period following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but have since fallen: The benchmark FAO Food Price Index reading for January was at a 16-month-low.
Policymakers in India should not be oblivious to the above international price movements. The ban or restrictions clamped on wheat, sugar and rice exports over the last one year, coupled with allowing duty-free imports of crude edible oils, were in response to high domestic as well as global food inflation.
While prices are still elevated and stocks not all that comfortable, the situation can change with bumper crops. The prospects of that in wheat, mustard, chickpea and red lentil look quite bright for now.
Both export and import policies need to react dynamically in the event. The Narendra Modi government has, in the past, also imposed stocking limits on the pulses, oilseeds and edible oil trade, going against the grain of its own now-aborted farm reform laws.
Such manifestly anti-producer measures aren’t in the long-term interest of consumers either. Tariffs, not quantitative restrictions, are the right instruments of trade policy.
Ideas Page
A force for all theatres (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The history of India’s use of air power in all its wars has been one of restraint, except during the 1971 war. The chequered leveraging of this potent military instrument has been due to two aspects.
The first is the worldwide inadequacy in the comprehension of the inherently complex and rapid technology-driven changes in air power’s characteristics and capabilities.
The other is India’s traditional surface-dominant security outlook that stems from dealing with a primarily continental threat. Both these factors have led to the continued viewing of air power from the isolated lens of a support service to the continental and maritime domains, despite the long, consistent, and demonstrated commitment of the Indian Air Force to national security.
With Asia as the crucible of the geopolitical churn in the world order, and the harsh reality of two adversaries with capable air forces on India’s unresolved borders, addressing the security challenges to the country require multi-domain expertise.
A continued two-dimensional approach seriously impacts national security — along with narrowing India’s strategic outlook, it limits its response options.
The IAF’s revised doctrine, therefore, underscores the necessity of a more holistic approach towards India’s security and lays out what aerospace can do to bolster it.
It provides for a clearer understanding of the redefined characteristics of aerospace power and its expanded capabilities, not just with respect to contemporary and future warfare and conflicts, but also its place in fostering nation-building, strengthening regional security and contributing to India’s larger national interests.
A pithy articulation of the Service objectives — evolved out of combat experience, invaluable assessments of international conflicts and its experience gained in international exercises — underpins the doctrine.
A novel air strategy covers the entire spectrum of future aerospace applications: Apart from peace and war, this also includes the unique no-war-no-peace condition confronting the country.
State-sponsored terrorism, increasing border stand-offs and internal security challenges make peace in India uneasy. Aerospace power helps shape security operations and external and internal security. Sovereignty protection, deterrence, air diplomacy and nation-building remain peace-time imperatives.
Explained
Fine of Rs 10 crore, life term: What is Uttarakhand’s new anti-cheating law(Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
A day after a protest in Dehradun over paper leaks and scams in government recruitment tests turned violent, the Uttarakhand Governor gave his assent to an ordinance brought by the Pushkar Singh Dhami-led BJP government to prevent the use of unfair means in exams.
The Uttarakhand Competitive Examination (Measures For Control and Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Ordinance, 2023, has provisions of fines up to Rs 10 crore and life imprisonment for the guilty.
It was urgently approved by CM Dhami and forwarded to Raj Bhavan. With Governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh’s assent, it became law within 24 hours.
The protest by the Uttarakhand Berozgaar Union had seen stones being hurled and the police resorting to lathi-charge on the protesters. Dhami met representatives of the Union, assuring them of his government’s commitment to conduct “unbiased, cheating-free and transparent exams”.
Provisions of the anti-cheating law
The ordinance said that the main aim behind the law was to prevent offences related to obstructing the sanctity of examinations, use of unfair means, leakage of question papers, and other irregularities.
It covers public examinations for recruitment to posts under the state government, autonomous bodies run by the government, and authorities, corporations, and institutions operated with grants of the state government.
According to the ordinance, if any examinee is caught cheating or causing another examinee to cheat in a competitive examination (online and offline) or to have indulged in unfair means, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for three years and with a minimum fine of Rs 5 lakh. If the fine is not paid, the examinee shall be jailed for another nine months.
Economy
Retail inflation rises to three months high 6.52 % in Jan (Page no. 23)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Retail inflation rose to a three-month high of 6.52 per cent in January, breaching the upper level of the medium-term 4+/-2 per cent target of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) again, primarily due to increase in food inflation driven by higher prices of cereals and products, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed on Monday.
Core inflation — non-food, non-fuel component — also remained sticky at 6.1 per cent in January, suggesting pricing power from the suppliers and manufacturers.
The reversal of the moderation in inflation rate after remaining sub-6 per cent for two months came despite a 11.7 per cent decline in vegetable prices in January.
This, experts said, increases the possibility of another rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), adding that there is scope for the government to also consider further measures to ease wheat and fuel prices.
The retail inflation based on the Combined Price Index (Combined) had eased to a one-year low of 5.72 per cent in December. It had stood at 6.01 per cent in January 2022.
Combined food price inflation (CFPI) rose to 5.94 per cent in January from 4.19 per cent in December and 5.43 per cent in the year-ago period.
Inflation rate for cereals and products increased to 16.12 per cent in January from 13.79 per cent a month ago, while inflation rate for meat and fish increased to 6.04 per cent from 5.13 per cent a month ago. Inflation rates for pulses and spices increased to 4.27 per cent and 21.09 per cent from 3.89 per cent and 20.35 per cent, respectively.
Clothing and footwear inflation eased to 9.08 per cent in January from 9.58 per cent a month ago, while fuel and light inflation rate moderated to 10.84 per cent from 10.97 per cent.