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In its first meeting, the high-level committee on “one nation, one election” chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind decided to invite national and state parties, as well as the Law Commission of India, to seek their views on holding simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha, State assemblies and local bodies.
The committee “decided to invite recognised national political parties, political parties having government in states, political parties having their representatives in Parliament, other recognised state political parties for seeking suggestions/ view points on the issue of simultaneous elections in the country.
In addition, the Committee will also invite Law Commission of India to make their suggestions/ viewpoints on the issue of simultaneous elections in the country.
Official sources said the first meeting — which went on for around 65 minutes — hit the ground running on the major election reform, wherein modalities of how to take it forward were discussed.
The next meeting is likely to be held in mid-October, even as there is no consensus on the exact date. Individual members will be asked about their availability and a suitable date for the next meeting will be arrived at.
Micron begins construction of India’s first chip assembly plant (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
US memory chip maker Micron Technology Saturday initiated the construction of its semiconductor packaging plant in Gujarat, India’s first such facility which is expected to spur the country’s chip manufacturing ambitions.
Micron has selected Tata Projects to build the semiconductor assembly and test facility in Sanand town, near Ahmedabad, with both signing a formal agreement during Saturday’s groundbreaking ceremony. Micron also said it has begun the recruitment process for the new plant.
The plant is to be developed in two phases. Phase one will include a 5,00,000-square-foot clean-room space, scheduled to be operational by late 2024.
Sources with knowledge of the construction deal pegged the estimated first phase cost at Rs 4,000 crore. Apart from construction, Tata Projects will also handle certain operational parts of the plant, including sourcing the equipment required to package chips.
Govt & Politics
Bipartisan effort behind constitution also seen in passage of women’s bill: CJI (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said that he found the “same bipartisan effort” in the passing of the women’s reservation Bill by the Parliament as in the drafting of India’s Constitution by the Constituent Assembly.
The CJI was delivering the inaugural address at the International Lawyers’ Conference organised by the Bar Council of India here. Speaking on the occasion, the CJI stressed the need for “nations, institutions and most importantly individuals are open to engage with and learn from one another, without feeling threatened or belittled”.
The CJI said “the drafting of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly is a classic example of engaging beyond partisan lines. Individuals from different regions of India, diverse backgrounds, and even conflicting ideologies came together to draft the Constitution in one voice”.
He pointed out such “bipartisan effort” could be seen in the passage of the women’s reservation Bill too. “We find the same bipartisan effort has gone into the passing of the women’s reservation Bill recently in Parliament and this is something which we as citizens of India must be proud of, adding that there can be no better example than the Indian Constitution to illustrate the engagement between nations, constitutions and legal systems.
Express Network
Mobile internet services back in Manipur after five months (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Nearly five months after mobile internet services were snapped in Manipur, the facility was restored, hours after Chief Minister N Biren Singh announced the same.
The internet services, both mobile internet and broadband, were snapped in Manipur on May 3, the day violence first engulfed the state.
The internet ban, first imposed for a period of five days, continued to be extended for five days at a time, citing the law-and-order situation in the state.
Biren announced on Saturday, “As a precautionary step to prevent unwanted incidents, the state government had imposed a ban on the internet. But from today, the internet will be restored.”
Opinion
India’s first women MP’s punched above their weight (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
After decades of being on the backburner, the Bill to reserve 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies has finally been passed.
How the larger representation of women in Parliament affects policy decisions on socio-economic issues has been studied and debated for decades now.
The women members of the India’s first Lok Sabha introduced Bills related to dowry, marriage, women and children’s institutions, divorce, food and health, which were of immediate concern to them.
In the years to come, they would go on to bring forward Bills which were of wider national and international concerns.
It is worth noting that the issue of women’s reservation had traversed through complicated territory through the final years of colonial rule in India, when the British were still negotiating how much self-rule ought to be handed over to Indians.
The British government under the 1935 Government of India Act had granted women 41 reserved seats in the provincial legislatures and limited reservation in central legislatures.
Ironically, at that time, the policy was heavily criticised by women’s organisations themselves who saw the reservation as a way of dividing the nationalist movement and a violation of the “integrity of the universal demand of Indian women for absolute equality of political status”.
World
Amid South China Sea tensions, Vietnam in talks with US officials for largest arms deal (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The Biden administration is in talks with Vietnam over an agreement for the largest arms transfer in history between the ex-Cold War adversaries, according to two people familiar with a deal that could irk China and sideline Russia.
A package, which could come together within the next year, could consummate the newly upgraded partnership between Washington and Hanoi with the sale of a fleet of American F-16 fighter jets as the Southeast Asian nation faces tensions with Beijing in the disputed South China Sea, one of the people said.
Prachanda in China says Nepal is ready to take BRI project further (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Nepal will continue to actively participate in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda has said, laying to rest speculation that he would push Beijing for measures to safeguard Nepal from falling into a debt trap.
Prachanda, who flew to Hangzhou from New York to witness the inaugural session of the Asian Games, has told Chinese President Xi Jinping that his government will further promote the Trans-Himalayan network as it will “greatly assist” Nepal’s national economic development. The Trans-Himalayan network, an economic corridor between Nepal and China, is part of the BRI.
Prachanda’s assurances to Xi, covered widely by the Chinese press, were in contrast to speculation he would ask Beijing to build the BRI projects in Nepal under a grant mechanism, which would allay fears that the project will push Nepal into a debt trap.
Economy
India can aim for 8 fold expansion of economy; MDBs have last chance to address global issues (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
A combination of free market forces addressing energy-related infrastructure needs, questions of reform in a number of key states, and supporting a more effective public sector could generate an eight-fold expansion in India’s economy by 2050 with an annual growth rate of 8 per cent, former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said.
Summers also said the multilateral development banks (MDBs) have a last chance to “move dramatically” to address current issues such as climate change failing which there might be a move towards new multilateral institutions.
I think this is a reasonable thing to say that a stretched target, an ambitious goal, a possible aspiration for India is an eight-fold growth between now and the end of the half century, that an 8 per cent a year, which isn’t my forecast on current policy.
But I believe given India’s potential even in the more challenging world economy, I believe that is an imaginable goal and an eight-fold expansion of the economy is transformative on the lives of hundreds of millions of people,” Summers said while delivering a lecture.