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A major demand of the farmers who broke through police barricades and braved tear gas on their way to Delhi on Tuesday (February 13) is for the enactment of a law to guarantee minimum support prices (MSP) for all crops, as per the formula recommended by the Dr M S Swaminathan Commission.
In the evening, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge announced the party had made a “historic” decision to provide this legal guarantee to farmers.
This comes at a time when a committee appointed by the central government in July 2022 continues to deliberate on ways to make MSP more “effective and transparent”.
This panel was constituted seven months after farmers who had gathered at Delhi’s border called off their year-long protest, after the Prime Minister announced the repeal of the farm laws. The committee’s terms of reference do not include a legal guarantee for MSP.
High in sky, a new gen eye (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Last week, the Bengaluru-based National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) successfully flew a prototype of a new-generation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is being seen as a huge technology breakthrough.
It was no ordinary UAV. This one can fly at great heights, about 20 km from ground, runs entirely on solar power, and can remain in the air for months on end.
Such UAVs belong to a class of flying objects called HAPS, or high-altitude pseudo-satellite vehicles, or HALE, that is high-altitude long-endurance vehicles.
The primary utility of HAPS vehicles is in the field of surveillance and monitoring, but there are other situations, like disaster management, wherein it can be very useful.
HAPS technology is still under development. Several countries, and companies, have developed and flown such vehicles with encouraging success, but none has mastered the technology yet.
The world record for a vehicle of this class is held by the Airbus-manufactured Zephyr, which flew continuously for 64 days in August 2022 before crashing.
Front Pages
India – UAE ink pact on linking digital payment platforms, trade, energy (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi met UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, India and the UAE signed pacts on bilateral investment promotion, port infrastructure development, power trade, interlinking of digital payment platforms like the UPI, credit and debit cards, and an intergovernmental framework agreement on the India-Middle East Economic Corridor.
Calling MBZ his “brother” several times in his opening statement before the bilateral meeting, Modi, who reached Abu Dhabi on Tuesday afternoon, said, “Whenever I have come here, I feel like I have come home and I am with my family.”
Express Network
Govt readies mechanism to monitor organ transplants for foreigners (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Government is looking at establishing “systems for monitoring of transplantation of foreigners” to prevent buying and selling of organs, with the Union Health Secretary requesting the Ministry of External Affairs to appoint a nodal person.
Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra in his letter has also requested Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra to disseminate information to all foreign embassies and missions in India that the law here does not allow commercial dealings in organs and the embassies need to provide a ‘Form 21’ certifying the relationship between the donor and recipient.
Recent media reports have highlighted that in some of the cases, the veracity of such documents to establish relationship between the donor and recipient, their identity documents, proof of residence etc cannot be established confidently and the same may not be genuine.
This came weeks after The Indian Express on January 3 reported that several lapses in the processes were found by a committee set up by the Delhi government to review allegations of commercial dealing in organs by Myanmar nationals who underwent transplant in Delhi’s Apollo Hospital.
Editorial
An Arabian valentine (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
It is perhaps fitting that one of his last international trips in his second term as Prime Minister takes Narendra Modi to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The inauguration of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan (BAPS) temple in Abu Dhabi and the release of eight Indian ex-naval personnel held on espionage charges in Doha this week are two different kinds of events.
Together, they are a high water mark for Modi’s diplomacy and symbolise the transformation of India’s relations with the Gulf during the last 10 years.
It was unimaginable that a large Hindu temple would be built in the deeply Islamic and conservative Arabian peninsula with full state support, and the Indian Prime Minister would be there for its inauguration.
When the eight former naval personnel were handed a death sentence last October, it was considered near impossible to secure their release.
Much has changed in how India and Arabia deal with each other today. The new terms of endearment with the Arabian Gulf constitute one of the most significant gains for Indian diplomacy in recent decades. Five factors underlie this transformation.
Ideas Page
Election is over challenge begins (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Pakistan’s fragile democratic process has delivered yet another varied and tumultuous result. A hung parliament has confounded pollsters and generals alike, setting the scene for some familiar skull duggery ahead.
The expectation is that a coalition might be stitched between the Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N and the Bhutto-Zardari-led PPP under the watchful eye of the military.
Yet, with neither party being the largest in parliament, whether this outcome genuinely reflects popular aspirations remains to be seen. What is certain though is that stability in Pakistan is of profound importance, not just domestically but beyond its shores.
A few immediate trends can be discerned from the verdict. First, the results do not point to any surge for PML-N across the electorate.
Supporters had hoped that Nawaz Sharif’s homecoming after several years in exile would galvanise the public. But a tally of approximately 75 seats out of 265 is hardly convincing.
The party did well in its traditional sphere of influence in Punjab but it wasn’t as dominant as before. It fared poorly in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Nawaz Sharif’s claim of economic competence failed to persuade the voters. He stood in two constituencies with mixed results — he won from Lahore but embarrassingly lost in Mansehra to a PTI-backed candidate.
That’s not a headline the party wants to trumpet. The overall impression remains of a party rooted in its Punjabi heritage, struggling to create a pan-Pakistan identity.
Economy
India susceptible to trade disputes without permanent solution for food security (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India will be susceptible to trade disputes at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and face increased push back over food subsidies if it fails to achieve a permanent solution on public stockholding for food grains at the 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi later this month, according to senior trade experts and former negotiators.
A permanent solution at WTO will give India and a coalition of developing countries the flexibility to give out higher farm support.
This assumes special significance as farmers are holding yet again protests in the national capital seeking a law to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for all crops. Several farmers groups have long held the opinion that India should walk out of WTO.
However, giving out higher farm support could land India into legal disputes at WTO on account of distorting global trade.
India is already facing pushback from the Cairns Group — a group of agricultural exporting countries that include Australia, Brazil and Canada who claim that India’s public stockholding (PSH) programme is highly subsidised, especially for rice, and that this is affecting food security of other countries.
World
Minus Imran’s PTI leading parties in Pakistan unite to form coalition govt (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Pakistan’s leading parties, minus jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, announced that they will try to form a coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, ending speculation about the future form of the political set-up.
Though it was not explicitly announced as who would be the prime minister, PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif said he would request his elder brother and the 74-year-old party supremo Nawaz Sharif to become the premier for a record fourth time.
However, Shehbaz, 72, would likely lead a government like the one he headed after Imran Khan was voted out of power in April 2022.
Shehbaz along with Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) met at the residence of Shujaat Hussain of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) after a consultative meeting.