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NATO announced that it would help buy up to 1,000 Patriot missiles so that allies can better protect their territory as Russia ramps up its air assault on Ukraine.
NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency said it will support a group of nations, including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain, in buying the Patriots, which are used to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles as well as enemy aircraft.
According to industry sources, the contract could be worth around $5.5 billion. The purchase could help allies free up more of their own defense systems for Ukraine.
The agency said that “other user nations are expected to benefit from the conditions of the contract,” without elaborating.
Front Page
Tiger Zinda hai: Big cat’s return brings hope in Bengal reserve (Page no. 2)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Two years ago, a fleeting glimpse of a tiger gave way to disappointment in West Bengal’s Buxa National Park, as the big cat was not to be seen again.
Then, on December 28, forest officials got an early New Year’s present as one of the camera traps in the national park captured a tiger crossing a dry riverbed. And three days later, on December 31, the tiger was captured at night, on a different camera.
The previous sighting, on December 12, 2021, was after 23 years of the big cat going missing from the tiger reserve. Experts are now hopeful that the tiger has returned for good, and what could follow is relocation of villages from inside the core area.
Experts say an increase in its prey base, expansion of the grassland, and controlling human interaction are potential reasons for the tiger’s comeback.
Buxa Tiger Reserve and National Park covers 760 square kilometers and is located in North Bengal’s Alipurduar district. Its Northern boundary runs along the border with Bhutan.
According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the Reserve has corridor connectivity across the border with the forests of Bhutan in the North; linkages with the Kochugaon forests and Manas Tiger Reserve in the East; and with the Jaldapara National Park on the West.
The first image shows the big cat near a dry rivulet during the day, while the second image is a close-up at night.
Express Network
SC guidelines for courts: Don not summon govt officials as first resort (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court cautioned courts against “routinely” summoning or “humiliating” government officials, laying down an elaborate set of guidelines that underlined the need to cultivate an “environment of respect”.
The standard operating procedures (SOPs), drawn up by a three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, were necessitated by an April 2023 Allahabad High Court order under which senior Uttar Pradesh government officials were taken into custody and faced bailable warrants — all over the notification of rules on domestic helps for former high court judges.
The top court, while pulling up the Allahabad High Court over the issue, said in the guidelines that courts should refrain from passing remarks that can humiliate government officials or making comments on their clothes, appearance, education or social standing.
The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said the physical presence of officials may be required in proceedings involving evidence such as documents or oral statements.
Except in these cases, “if the issues can be addressed through affidavits and other documents, physical presence may not be necessary and should not be directed as a routine measure,” said the SOP.
India to use Space X rocket to launch communications satellite (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Utilising the services of SpaceX for the first time, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will deploy its heavy communication satellite GSAT-20 through the Falcon-9 rocket of the private space agency towards the middle of this year.
GSAT-20, which can enable telecom providers to offer very high-speed Internet services, weighs about 4,700 kg, much heavier than launch capacity of ISRO’s most powerful rocket, LVM-3. For its heavier satellites, weighing more than 4,000 kg, India had been depending on the European launch provider Arianespace.
Arianespace’s heavy launch vehicle Ariane-5, however, was retired in July last year and its successor Ariane-6 is yet to make its debut.
Falcon-9, a reusable rocket, can carry double that weight, over 8,300 kg, to GTO. It has made 285 flights to different locations in space.
The Indian satellites flight on Falcon-9 has been facilitated by the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO, that entered into a launch agreement with SpaceX last year.
“(GSAT-20) will be launched on-board Falcon-9 under a launch service contract between NSIL and SpaceX,” the NSIL said in a statement on Wednesday.
Editorial
Reset the growth priority (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India is awash with discussions about where it is headed economically and how it might achieve its desired development goals.
Some of this discussion is unfortunately a distraction. One example of this is the spectacle of myriad commentators tying themselves in Gordian knots while projecting India’s march towards a $5 trillion economy by 2025.
Leaving aside the incredulousness of some of the assumptions underlying the projections, this exercise itself is a distraction because it focuses on aggregate GDP.
The development challenge is to make the average citizen better off. Hence, the relevant target should be GDP per person, not total GDP.
A recent book by Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba, Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future, has tried to frame the debate in more relevant terms.
The book asks whether India can grow and develop by prioritising service sector growth rather than industrial growth. The backdrop to the question is that the currently developed economies had gradually switched their economic resources from agriculture to manufacturing to services as they developed.
This pattern of structural transformation has also characterised the more recently industrialising Asian economies like China, Korea and Taiwan.
Ideas Page
Restoring the balance (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The start of 2023 witnessed a seismic event in India’s financial sector, triggered by Hindenburg Research’s allegations against the Adani Group.
This event not only shook the stock market but also raised serious questions about the integrity of corporate governance and regulatory oversight in India.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on this matter has become a landmark in India’s legal and financial governance, highlighting the resilience of the country’s institutional frameworks against manufactured sensationalism and unsubstantiated reports.
Hindenburg Research, known for its activist-investment approach, released a report accusing the Adani Group of various financial misdeeds.
The report quickly captured media attention, leading to a tumultuous response in the financial markets. The dramatic fall in stock prices and the ensuing public outcry led to multiple petitions being filed in the Supreme Court, prompting the formation of an Expert Committee to investigate these claims thoroughly.
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India demonstrated a commendable degree of judicial restraint in regulatory affairs.
The Court consciously chose not to encroach upon the functions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), underlining its respect for the autonomy of this vital regulatory body.
This approach not only reaffirms the robustness of India’s financial regulatory structures but also sets a precedent for the separation of powers, reinforcing the principle that regulatory bodies are best equipped to handle their specific domains.
The Court upheld the integrity of SEBI’s regulatory framework, cementing its role as a guardian of India’s financial stability.
Explained
Cyber kidnapping (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
A Chinese student who was a victim of ‘cyber kidnapping’ has been found in rural Utah, unharmed. The 17-year-old, Kai Zhuang, was reported missing on December 28. By the time the police traced him, his parents back in China had paid $80,000 in ransom.
The boy’s parents had informed his host school, in Utah’s Riverdale, that he appeared to have been kidnapped. The school then contacted the police.
He was found in a tent about 40 km north of Brigham City, where he seems to have self-isolated. What is ‘cyber kidnapping’, and how does it work?
Cyber kidnapping refers to a crime where the ‘kidnappers’ convince their victim to hide, and then contact their loved ones for ransom.
The victim is also made to send pictures that make it look like they are being held captive — showing them bound or gagged.
These are then shared with the family. Both parties believe their loved ones will be harmed if they don’t do as the kidnappers ask.
The ‘kidnappers’, though not physically present, monitor the victim online through video-call platforms.
VVPAT and fresh debate over them (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on December 30, requesting that a team of INDIA group leaders be provided with an opportunity to meet him and his colleagues to put forward their point of view on VVPATs.
In his letter to Rajiv Kumar, Jairam Ramesh said that on December 20, 2023, INDIA front leaders had requested an appointment with the ECI to “discuss and provide suggestions on the use of VVPATs” based on a resolution passed at a meeting of leaders of the bloc the previous day. The resolution called for 100% verification of VVPAT slips.
When a vote is cast, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine, which is attached to the ballot unit (BU) of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), prints out a slip of paper with the voter’s choice indicated on it. Though it remains behind glass, the printed slip is visible for seven seconds so the voter can see that the vote has been recorded correctly, before it falls into a box underneath.
The idea of the VVPAT machine first emerged in 2010, when the EC held a meeting with political parties to discuss the EVM and ways to make the polling process more transparent. After discussing the idea, the EC referred the matter to its Technical Expert Committee.
Economy
India Ratings raises FY 24 GDP growth estimate to 6.7% (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has revised upwards India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate for FY24 to 6.7 per cent from earlier 6.2 per cent, citing a number of factors including the resilience of the Indian economy, which grew 7.6 per cent in the second quarter of FY24.
According to Ind-Ra, the other factors that will boost the growth are: sustained government capex, deleveraged balance sheet of corporates/banking sector, the prospect of a new private corporate capex cycle, and sustained momentum in business and software services exports, coupled with remittances from the rest of the world despite global headwinds. However, it said there are risks to the global growth.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) expects the world merchandise trade volume to have grown only 0.8 per cent as against the expected 1.7 per cent in 2023. However, WTO expects world merchandise trade volume to grow 3.3 per cent in 2024.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the global growth to slow down to 2.9 per cent in 2024 (2023: 3 per cent), lower than the pre-pandemic average growth of 3.8 per cent (2000-19).
While the IMF expects the growth decline in emerging markets and developing economies in 2023 to have been only 10 bps in 2023 at 4 per cent (2022:4.1 per cent), it has been sharper in advanced economies at 110 bps to 1.5 per cent (2.6 per cent).