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A fully operational factory will be in place in Vadodara in Gujarat by November 2024 from where the first Indian-made C295 military transport aircraft will start rolling out 2026 onward.
The facility will be similar to the sprawling 1.2 million-sqm Airbus factory in Seville in Spain.
The aircraft will be manufactured under India’s first-ever ‘Make in India’ Aerospace programme in the private sector.
For the longest time, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has had a monopoly over manufacture of military aircraft in India.
In September 2021, India formalised the acquisition of 56 Airbus C295 aircraft to replace the legacy Avro fleet of the IAF at a cost of Rs 21,935 crore.
Under the deal, Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in ‘fly-away’ condition from its final assembly line in Seville while the remaining 40 aircraft will be manufactured and assembled by the Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) in India as part of an industrial partnership between the two companies at the factory in Vadodara.
At present, the only final assembly line for the C295 aircraft is located in Seville – it also produces the Airbus A400 aircraft.
This is the first time Airbus will have a full production system in another country, which Jorge Tamarit, head of the C295 programme in India, called “unprecedented” considering various time and supply chain constraints needed to pull this off.
Ideas Page
Parliament is a gated community (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Mohan Segal-directed 1956 film New Delhi opens with a shot of the old Parliament House. This is remarkable since the Parliament building (now the Museum of Democracy) has had very little visual presence in Indian popular culture or imagination. Just as significant is how the camera moves from the Parliament complex — a space of state power — to other spaces in the city, ones where the everyday life of the city and its people are lived.
The camera seems to be drawing a cinematic line between the spaces occupied by the state and those that are part of the lives of people. It links the state with the nation as if to suggest that the former is not — and must not be — a privileged island.
The camera connects the place that represents sovereignty to the places from where sovereignty must derive legitimacy.
At the end of colonial rule, it was proper that the old Parliament house — which served as the seat of imperial rule for 20 years — be symbolically wrenched from its imperial context and turned into a symbol of an independent nation-state.
Sovereignty is expressed as much through processes as through spectacles of governance. The spectacle of a formerly subjugated people occupying the space that was instrumental in its subjugation — and formulating a Constitution for self-governance within its walls — was more than just a matter of architectural convenience.
It narrated a powerful tale of taking over the house of the master — one who justified his superiority by characterising the subjugated as incapable of self-rule.
India and Sri Lanka five things to do (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
On July 21, Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe will be in India for a visit. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and finalise several investments supported by India, especially in energy, infrastructure and tourism.
Wickremesinghe was elected by a majority of MPs to tackle Sri Lanka’s economic crisis when the country defaulted on its sovereign debt in April 2022, and the measures implemented since are starting to stabilise the economy.
It’s perfect timing for both countries. India is emerging as a serious alternative to China for global investments, its manufacturing sector is being noticed, and it has embarked on ambitious trade agreements.
It is expending energy for a conducive neighbourhood too. India provided $5 billion in economic aid to Sri Lanka during its crisis in 2022, paving the way for the IMF’s $3 billion programme in March 2023.
Sri Lanka is now seeing interest from Indian private investment. Keeping Sri Lanka close helps to keep China at its periphery.
A determined Neighbourhood First policy from India will uplift South Asia’s regional attractiveness. Strategically, the bilateral engagement could naturally extend to the Indian Ocean, and beyond it, to the Indo-Pacific.
Explained
Rajasthan minimum income bill, Provisions what makes it unique (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Ashok Gehlot government tabled the Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023, which effectively seeks to cover the entire adult population of the state with guaranteed wages or pension.
Under the Bill, all families of the state get guaranteed employment of 125 days every year, while the aged, disabled, widows, and single women get a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month. Importantly, the pension will be increased at the rate of 15 per cent each year.
The Bill has three broad categories: right to minimum guaranteed income, right to guaranteed employment, and right to guaranteed social security pension.
The government anticipates an additional expenditure of Rs 2,500 crore per year for this scheme, which may increase with time.
Each adult citizen of the state has been guaranteed a minimum income for 125 days a year through the Rajasthan government’s flagship Indira Gandhi Shahri Rozgar Guarantee Yojana for urban areas, and through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in rural areas.
In his budget speech this year, Chief Minister Gehlot had increased the employment guarantee per family from 100 days to 125 days for his urban employment scheme. The state will supplement the MGNREGA’s 100 days by providing jobs for an additional 25 days in rural areas.
World
India supports UN efforts on Black Sea grain exports, hopes for early resolution (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
India has voiced support for the UN’s efforts in continuing the Black Sea Grain initiative and expressed hope for an early resolution to the present impasse, a day after Russia announced it was terminating implementation of the UN-brokered deal that allowed export of grain and related foodstuffs and fertilisers from Ukrainian ports.
Moscow said it was terminating the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative– a UN-brokered deal that allowed food exports from Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia– including the withdrawal of Russian security guarantees for navigation in the North-Western part of the Black Sea.
Addressing the UN General Assembly’s annual debate on the ‘Situation in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine’ on Tuesday, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador, Ruchira Kamboj, said New Delhi is concerned about the recent developments in the region, which have not helped in securing the larger cause of peace and stability.
India has supported the efforts of the UN Secretary-General in continuing the Black Sea Grain Initiative and hopes for an early resolution to the present impasse.
India continues to remain concerned over the situation in Ukraine. The conflict has resulted in the loss of lives and misery for its people, particularly for the women, children and elderly, with millions becoming homeless and forced to take shelter in neighbouring countries.
Kamboj asserted that India’s approach to the Ukrainian conflict will continue to be people-centric.
Economy
G20 expert group on MDBs suggests greater engagement with private sector (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Stressing on the scope of greater engagement with private sector for multilateral development banks (MDBs), the G20 Independent Expert Group on Strengthening MDBs has said that private financing worth $740 billion per year will be required to reach overall goals for additional climate and sustainable development goals (SDGs)-related finance, an increase of $500 billion over the 2019 level of sovereign borrowing and private participation in infrastructure.
The report by the expert group also stressed on the need for MDBs to mobilise more private capital.
MDBs only mobilise 0.6 dollars in private capital for each dollar they lend on their own account. They should aim to at least double this target.
The group was set up in March with Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh and former US Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers as co-convenors.
We anticipate that private financing amounting to $740 billion per year will be required to reach overall goals for additional climate and SDG-related finance, an increase of $500 billion over the 2019 level of sovereign borrowing and private participation in infrastructure.
Most of this additional private capital, perhaps $425 billion, would go towards sustainable infrastructure and other investments where profitable opportunities are already available, and to geographies where income levels are higher and macro-fundamentals are stronger.
The big-ticket items for private investment are in the transformation of the energy system, both in the greening of electricity supply, and in the electrification of end-use applications.