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National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met his counterparts from the US, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss an ambitious proposal being pushed by the White House to link West Asian countries through rail — using Indian expertise — and connect the region to South Asia via sea lanes.
Sources in New Delhi said Doval has travelled to Saudi Arabia for Sunday’s meeting. The participants are expected to discuss the broad contours of the massive joint project to build railway, maritime and road connectivity in the larger region, linking the Indian subcontinent in South Asia with West Asia — which the US calls the Middle East.
The development was first reported by US news website Axios. It said this is among the key initiatives the White House wants to push in the Middle East as China’s influence in the region grows. The Middle East is a key part of China’s Belt and Road vision.
The US, Saudi, Emirati and Indian national security advisers are expected on Sunday to discuss a possible major joint infrastructure project to connect Gulf and Arab countries via a network of railways that would also be connected to India via shipping lanes from ports in the region.
Editorial page
Beyond the optics (Page 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The year 2023 is truly India’s multilateral moment. India is host to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit scheduled for July 3-4, 2023.
It is also host to the subsequent G20 summit to be held on September 9-10. No host country of previous SCO and G-20 summits has convened as many meetings as India has.
These have often been accompanied by colourful side events. The locations have covered major cities of India, both ancient and modern.
The summits themselves promise to be major, even spectacular events, showcasing India’s rich cultural heritage and its contemporary achievements.
One positive fallout of this effort has been the urgent improvement of our urban spaces. Another has been the increase in public awareness of India’s external relations, not always a major concern among its people.
That this is related to creating a larger-than-life image of the ruling dispensation and its leadership in the run up to the 2024 general elections is undeniable.
But whatever be the motivation, it cannot be denied that India playing host to the SCO and G-20 summits this year has boosted its regional and international profile, expanded its diplomatic space, and created opportunities to advance its interests in a congested and contested geopolitical space.
Ideas page
A data shaped hole (Page 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Framing policy in the absence of data is like giving prescription sans diagnosis. The approach is flawed, even if one trusts the Good Doctor’s instincts to get it right most of the time without seeing the patient.
That’s what is happening with the Census and Household Consumer Expenditure (HCE) survey. India never missed conducting a single decennial Census between 1881 and 2011, including in 1941 at the height of World War II.
HCE surveys, providing granular data on consumption of food and non-food items based on large nationwide household samples, were carried out every five years or less — in 1972-73, 1977-78, 1983, 1987-88, 1993-94, 1999-2000, 2004-05, 2009-10 and 2011-12.
However, there’s been no Census after 2011. The National Statistical Office did an HCE survey in 2017-18, but its findings were junked and the results not released.
Express network
PM CARES Fund receives Rs 535 crores as foreign donations in three years (Page 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) received Rs 535.44 crore as foreign donations during the last three years, show the official records.
The Receipt and Payment Accounts (Audited) of the PM CARES Fund, which was set up in 2020 in wake of Covid-19 pandemic, shows that the value of foreign contributions received in the fund stood at Rs 0.40 crore during financial year 2019-20, Rs 494.92 crore in 2020-21, and Rs 40.12 crore in 2021-22.
The records show that the PM CARE Fund received Rs 24.85 crore as interest income from its foreign contribution account in three financial years from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
It shows that foreign contributions to the PM CARES Fund peaked during 2020-21, the financial year that witnessed the outbreak of the pandemic, but it plummeted in the following fiscal year, which saw havoc wrecked by the deadly second wave of Covid-19.
Like the fall in foreign contribution, voluntary contributions too declined to Rs 1,896.76 crore during 2021-22 from Rs 7,183.77 crore during 2020-21.
Explained
Changes in PMLA :what ,why and concern they raise (Page 13)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
Notifying changes to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the Finance Ministry has brought in practicing chartered accountants, company secretaries, and cost and works accountants carrying out financial transactions on behalf of their clients into the ambit of the money laundering law.
Lawyers and legal professionals, however, seem to have been kept out in the new definition of entities covered under the PMLA.
Union Finance Ministry said an activity will be recognised under the PMLA if these professionals carry out financial transactions on behalf of their client such as buying and selling of any immovable property; managing of client money, securities or other assets; management of bank, savings or securities accounts; organisation of contributions for the creation, operation or management of companies; creation, operation or management of companies, limited liability partnerships or trusts, and buying and selling of business entities.
Shoot at sight in Manipur: legal basis of govt’s order (Page 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
With the situation worsening in violence-hit Manipur, the state government Thursday authorised all District Magistrates to issue “shoot at sight orders” in “extreme cases”.
The order came a day after violent clashes broke out at several places during the ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ called by the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur (ATSUM).
The march was organised in protest against the demand for inclusion of the state’s Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category, following an April 19 Manipur High Court directive.
The Meiteis are the largest community in Manipur, making up roughly 64.6% of its population. In a plea before the High Court, the Meiteis argued that they were recognised as a tribe before the 1949 merger of the princely state of Manipur with the Union of India.
Owing to a loss of their identity as a tribe in the aftermath of the merger, the demand for ST status was felt within the community to “save the ancestral land, tradition, culture, and language” of the Meiteis.
Thus, the Meiteis sought inclusion in the ST list on account of the community being “victimised without any constitutional safeguards to date”.
Goa’s march forest fires, what report says, the problem and fears (Page 13)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
A forest department probe into the bushfires that impacted an area of about 4 sq km in Goa in the first half of March is learnt to have concluded that the fires were largely triggered by natural causes, confirming the central government’s submission to Parliament last month that a “prolonged dry spell, unprecedented high temperatures, and low humidity” caused “sporadic” fire incidents in the state.
Helicopters of the Navy and Air Force flew multiple sorties to douse fires on inaccessible hilltops in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.
Opposition parties and environmentalists have alleged the fires were “man-made”, deliberately lit by vested interests. Even the state Forest Minister, Vishwajit Rane, had said in March that the fires were “man-made”.
The opposition renewed its demand for a high-level investigation after a new fire was reported in South Goa earlier this month.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao alleged that a “fire mafia” could be behind the recent fires at Paroda Hills and in the Chapoli dam area.