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A day after the Election Commission (EC) recognised the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena and allotted the party name and symbol of ‘bow and arrow’ to it, former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday launched an all-out attack on Shinde, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the poll panel.
Accusing Shinde of “stealing” the party symbol, Thackeray asked his supporters to teach a lesson to the “thief”. While he accused the Modi-led BJP government of misusing Central institutions and agencies to target the Opposition, Thackeray said the poll panel was “acting like a slave”.
Thackeray made these remarks while addressing supporters outside his residence, Matoshree, standing out of his vehicle’s sunroof – an image reminiscent of his father and Shiv Sena founder, Bal Thackeray, addressing his supporters from atop an Ambassador vehicle in the 1960s.
Asking party workers to prepare for elections, he said: “We should not rest till we teach the thief a lesson in elections. Start preparing for elections immediately… The thief has hurled a stone at a beehive. But he has not experienced the sting of honeybees”.
HAL readies plan for medium – lift choppers to replace ageing Mi17s (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
India will likely have an indigenous medium-lift helicopter in the next 8 to 10 years to replace the Russian Mi-17s which will start getting phased out by 2028.
Speaking to The Indian Express on the sidelines of the Aero India 2023, Abdul Rashid Tajar, Chief Manager (Design) Aerodynamics at HAL, said the preliminary design of the future 13-tonne Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH) has already been frozen and the detailed design for the helicopter will be undertaken soon.
The helicopter will also have a naval variant: the Deck-Based Multi-Role Helicopter. The helicopters should be ready for induction into the IAF after eight years when the Mi-17s will be phasing out.
Once the Russian Mi-17s, and subsequently the Mi-17 V5s, phase out, these medium-lift helicopters will fill the gap in the IAF’s transport chopper fleet. The IAF at present has around 250 Mi-17 choppers – each can carry over 30 troops and other loads.
The IMRH will be capable of supporting air assault, air transport, combat logistics, combat search and rescue, and casualty evacuation operations. It will be able to carry up to 4,500 kg of payload at sea level.
HAL is confident it can start rolling out its own medium-lift helicopters in 8 years when the IAF starts phasing out the Russian Mi-17 workhorses. These will be key to air assault, air transport, combat logistics, combat search and rescue, and evacuation operations.
The engine of the helicopter will be jointly developed by the French Safran Helicopter Engines and HAL. During the Aero India, both signed a workshare agreement for formation of a joint venture for design, development, manufacture and lifetime support of helicopter engines.
Express Network
12 Cheetahs from South Africa released in MPs Kuno (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Twelve South African cheetahs were Saturday released into their new home, Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, five months after the first batch of the big cats arrived from Namibia.
The cheetahs, seven male and five female, made the 8,000-km transcontinental journey from Johannesburg on an Indian Air Force C17 GlobeMaster aircraft, arriving at the Gwalior air base at 10 am. They were then ferried to Kuno in Mi17 helicopters at noon.
Eight of these cheetahs were placed in separate quarantine enclosures. The remaining four were kept in two bomas in pairs.
The big cats will live in these enclosures for a month to acclimatise to Indian conditions, before being released into a wider six-sq. km enclosure.
The eight Namibian cheetahs that arrived in Kuno on September 17 were released into the larger enclosure last year. They are healthy and have been hunting prey, said officials.
With the latest batch, India now has 10 male cheetahs and as many females at the park.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav released the cheetahs along with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
The MoU signed between India and South Africa in January this year entails the translocation of 10 cheetahs annually for five years until a “viable population” is established.
The cheetah is believed to have disappeared from the Indian landscape when Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya hunted and shot the last three recorded asiatic cheetahs in India in 1947. In 1952, the government declared it extinct.
Three of the South African cheetahs have been brought from Phinda Wildlife Reserve. The other nine are from Rooiberg.
Opinion
Tiger of Mysore or Tiphoo the tyrant? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, History)
The debate over whether to see Tipu Sultan, the 18th Century ruler of Mysore, as a patriot or a tyrant has in recent years fueled several political campaigns in Karnataka.
Recently, Karnataka Higher Education Minister Ashwath Narayan’s claim that Tipu was killed not by the British but by two Vokkaliga chieftans, Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, had caused a stir and criticised for being historically inaccurate. But the statement is also part of a carefully crafted narrative built by the British over the years. In killing ‘Tiphoo the Tyrant’, the colonial aggression of the Company had found its redemption.
The siege of Seringapatam in 1799 must have been a remarkably significant event in British history. Why else would it be a favoured subject of British art and popular literature for several decades afterwards.
The episode was a landmark moment for British imperial ambition in South Asia, marking the demise of possibly the most famous Indian, or rather ‘villain’ for the Empire, Tipu Sultan.
The Mysore ruler is known to have been the last bulwark against British expansionism in India, and a rather formidable one.
In her biography of the ruler, Kate Brittlebank, the leading authority on Tipu, noted how for 30 years, first father Haider Ali and then Tipu himself were at the forefront of British public consciousness.
Terrifying tales of attacks on British forces and threats to trading settlements such as Madras appeared in the newspapers of the day, embellished by distance as they were carried home by sea.
Through the four Anglo-Mysore wars, exaggerated stories of torture of British prisoners of war, along with their forcible conversions, made their way to the British public sphere with harrowing details. Tipu was perceived as the quintessential ‘oriental despot’ and frequently referred to as ‘Tiphoo the tyrant’.
World
Finland will not wait for Sweden to join NATO
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Finland’s top diplomat appeared to suggest that the country may have to consider joining NATO without Sweden after Turkey’s president cast serious doubt on the expansion of the military alliance.
We still have to evaluate the situation if it turns out that Sweden’s application is stalling for a long time to come,” Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told Finnish broadcaster YLE.
His comment came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Sweden not to expect support for its bid for NATO membership following weekend protests in Stockholm by an anti-Islam activist and pro-Kurdish groups. It was the first time a leading government official in either country had appeared to raise doubts about joining the alliance together.
Haavisto later backpedalled, telling reporters in Parliament that his comment earlier Tuesday had been “imprecise” and that Finland’s ambition to join NATO jointly with Sweden remained unchanged.
He said he had spoken with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who had stressed to Haavisto that the military bloc would like to see the two Nordic nations join simultaneously.
The bid by Sweden and Finland to join NATO needs the approval of all existing NATO members, including Turkey, which has so far blocked the expansion, saying Sweden in particular needs to crack down on exiled Kurdish militants and their sympathizers.
Until now, Sweden and Finland have been committed to joining the alliance together, but Haavisto’s comment to YLE raised concerns that Finland was considering proceeding without its Nordic neighbour.
Sweden respects the agreement between Sweden, Finland and Turkey regarding our NATO membership. We have done that so far and we shall continue to do so.
In a memorandum of understanding signed by the three countries at a NATO summit last year, Sweden and Finland committed not to support Kurdish militant groups and to lift arms embargos on Turkey imposed after its incursion into northern Syria in 2019.
Pro-Kurdish and anti-Turkish demonstrations in Stockholm have complicated the process. On Saturday, a far-right activist from Denmark staged a protest outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm where he burned the Quran, Islam’s holy book.
Economy
GST Council reaches consensus to create tribunal new rate cuts (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its 49th meeting, approved the creation of a national tribunal mechanism with state benches for the redressal of disputes, cleared pending compensation dues and announced new taxation rates for items, such as pencil sharpeners, rab (liquid jaggery), along with measures to plug evasion in tobacco products.
Regarding pending compensation dues to states, the government cleared the balance of Rs 16,982 crore for June 2022. Additionally, it cleared the admissible final GST compensation to six states/UTs — Delhi, Karnataka, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana — who have provided the revenue figures as certified by the Accountant General of the states amounting to Rs 16,524 crore.
Nearly 90 per cent of the compensation as a provisional amount is released to the states, and 5-8 per cent is retained subject to the AG’s certificate reaching us.
India to become major telecom tach exporter in 3yrs: Vaishnaw (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India's indigenous 4G/5G technology stack is ‘now ready’ and is poised to emerge as a major telecom technology exporter to the world in the coming three years, said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who is also Railways Minister said there is no programme for the privatisation of the national transporter.
The 5G services were launched on October 1, 2022, and within a span of 100 days have been rolled out in 200-plus cities.
The sheer speed of rollout has been appreciated by industry leaders globally and is being described in many international forums as the "fastest deployment happening anywhere in the world.
Vaishnaw highlighted the population-scale solutions being tested on India stack, across platforms such as payments, healthcare and identity. Each of these platforms is powerful in itself, but together become a dynamic force that can solve "any major problem in the world.
The minister said India is set to emerge as a telecom technology exporter to the world in the next three years. Today there are two Indian companies that are exporting to the world...telecom gear. In the coming three years, we will see India as a major telecom technology exporter in the world.
The minister talked of the rapid strides taken by India in developing its own 4G and 5G technology stack, a feat that caught the attention of the world.
The stack is now ready. It was initially tested for 1 million simultaneous calls, then for 5 million, and now it has been tested for 10 million simultaneous calls," he said terming it a "phenomenal success.
The minister gave a presentation outlining key initiatives under his three ministries of telecom, IT and Railways. For Railways, the focus is on transforming passenger experience, he said as he presented slides on how railways is redeveloping stations and terminals (New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Jaipur among others) with modern and futuristic design blueprint, and in the process creating new urban spaces while also preserving rich heritage.