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RELEASING the names of those who purchased electoral bonds would be a “breach of promise” made by the government and in violation of bank confidentiality norms but the Centre is unlikely to contest landmark Supreme Court verdict that struck down the scheme as “unconstitutional.
The view in the establishment is that the fraught issue of poll funding in the wake of the apex court’s order should be left to the next government which may “consider” alternative ways to “better the election funding system.
With the 15th session of the 17th Lok Sabha already prorogued and election notification barely weeks away, sources said, the government is neither considering filing a review petition nor issuing an ordinance to put in a new funding system.
However, the source added that “the PIL (Public Interest Litigation) route” can be used by someone.
Recce aircraft to anti-tank mines: Green light to big ticket purchases (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) Friday cleared a series of big-ticket procurements worth Rs 84,560 crore for the armed forces including 15 maritime reconnaissance and multi-mission maritime aircraft for the Navy and the Coast Guard as well as six flight refueller aircraft for the IAF and new generation anti-tank mines for the Army.
The DAC, headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, is among the top bodies for clearing major capital acquisitions for defence. The Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) is the first step in the long Defence procurement process. The grant of AoN does not always lead to a final order.
Sources said these 15 maritime reconnaissance aircraft will be the marine versions of the C-295 medium lift tactical aircraft inducted by the IAF last year. Of the 15, nine will be for the Navy and six for the Coast Guard.
Govt & Politics
ISRO’s naughty boy rocket to launch India’s latest weather satellite today (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Meteorological satellite INSAT-3DS will be launched into space on board a Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV), in a crucial mission for the rocket nicknamed “naughty boy” for its spotty record.
The GSLV-F14 will lift off at 5.35 pm Saturday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, the ISRO said. It will be the rocket’s 16th mission overall and its 10th flight using the indigenously developed cryogenic engine.
The mission’s success will be crucial for the GSLV, which is scheduled to carry later this year the Earth observation satellite, NISAR, which is being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO.
NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide “spatially and temporally consistent” data for understanding changes in Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, sea level rise and natural hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis, according to ISRO.
At least four of the 15 launches using the GSLV so far have been unsuccessful. In comparison, only three of the 60 missions so far by ISRO’s workhorse PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), and none of the seven by its successor LVM-3, have failed.
Cartosat 2 which aided urban planning for more than a decade brought down (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Seventeen years after its launch, Cartosat-2, the first of ISRO’s second generation of high-resolution imaging satellites primarily used in urban planning has been deorbited.
Cartosat-2 bid adieu with a descent into Earth’s atmosphere on February 14, 2024, as predicted,” an ISRO statement said, adding that analysis indicated all of its components would have disintegrated.
According to the statement, the satellite, launched on January 10, 2007 and weighing 680 kg, operated in a sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of 635 km. It performed 14.78 orbits around Earth in a day.
Until 2019, the satellite equipped with over 12,000 coupled charged devices used its “panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras” to generate high-resolution images that were extensively used for urban planning, monitoring of road networks and water distribution, creation of land use maps, among others.
According to ISRO, Cartosat-2’s natural de-orbiting phase was initially estimated to be around 30 years since launch, but given its lowering onboard fuel, it was decided to lower its perigee — the point of its orbit at which the satellite is closest to Earth— from 635 km to 380 km in 2020.
World
World leaders denounces Putin over Navalnys death (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
World leaders and Russian opposition activists wasted no time in blaming the reported death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny on President Vladimir Putin and his government.
It is obvious that he was killed by Putin,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was visiting Germany for the Munich Security Conference as he sought aid for his country’s efforts to fight off an invasion by Russia.
Putin doesn’t care who dies — only for him to hold his position. This is why he must hold onto nothing. Putin must lose everything and be held responsible for his deeds.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington does not know exactly what happened, “but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something Putin and his thugs did.”
Editorial
The MSP fallacy (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Farmers are back on the streets. Unlike the last time, when they marched to Delhi against the enactment of the three contentious farm laws, this time there is no immediate trigger.
The demands of the farmers are manifold, but primarily, they are asking for a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Prices (MSP).
While this has been a longstanding demand, there is little clarity on what it actually means. The lack of clarity has obviously led to fear mongering, with exaggerated claims about fiscal costs, monopolisation of agricultural trade and missing markets.
There was similar fear mongering during the run-up to enactment of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
The reality is that neither of these pieces of legislation has bankrupted the government. Instead, they proved to be a lifeline for people during the pandemic.
MSP is a simple mechanism to ensure the price stability of essential agricultural commodities. Similar mechanisms are available to farmers in other countries.
The purpose is to insulate farmers from price volatility with government actions through active intervention when the market prices fall below the MSP. It has been in existence in India for more than five decades.
Why, then, are farmers asking for a legal guarantee? Every year the government announces MSP for 23 crops before the sowing season.
But for most crops, the announcement of MSP is not followed by any intervention by the government. It is in practice only implemented for rice and wheat, two major crops, and occasionally for pulses and other crops.
But even in these cases, market intervention by the government is not done to support the farmers, but to fulfil the statutory requirements to fulfil its obligations under NFSA. Farmers are only demanding that the government implement the MSP scheme as envisaged.
Economy
Copper is key to energy transition, strong demand in India may emerge from 2030 (Page no. 21)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
As demand for copper grew by 16 per cent year-on-year in FY23, policymakers and corporations have increasingly turned their attention to the critical role of copper in spurring economic growth.
In recent months, discourse has centred around securing copper supply chains, building adequate domestic infrastructure for copper processing, and promoting exploration for copper mining.
In a conversation with Aggam Walia, Mayur Karmarkar, India team leader at the International Copper Association, talked about India’s copper import dependency, gave an overview of domestic copper demand, and assessed the strategy of domestic companies acquiring copper mines abroad.
Copper demand is often seen as a barometer of economic activity. Can you explain why?
Unlike most other commodities, copper prices are linked to three things– the demand/supply scenario, the overall money market, and the speculative environment.
A combination of these three also works very well for oil. If you track copper and oil prices, they move more or less together. It is therefore a global economic indicator by and large.
Also, unlike other commodities which are dependent on very specific sectors, copper is used in all the sectors of the economy.
Explained
What Swaminathan panel said (Page no. 23)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The first of the 12 demands made by protesting Punjab farmers in their email sent to the government on February 6 was for a law to guarantee the procurement of all crops for all farmers at MSP, and for the determination of crop prices as per the recommendations of the Dr Swaminathan Commission.
Three rounds of talks held in Chandigarh between three Union Ministers and the leaders of farm unions have remained inconclusive.
Agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan, who was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna this month, played a major role in the changes in Indian agriculture in the 1960s and 70s that helped India achieve food security.
On November 18, 2004, the Ministry of Agriculture constituted a National Commission on Farmers (NCF) under Prof Swaminathan.
The commission also had two full-time members, Dr Ram Badan Singh and Y C Nanda; four part-time members, Dr R L Pitale, Jagadish Pradhan, Chanda Nimbkar, and Atul Kumar Anjan; and a member secretary, Atul Sinha.
The 10-point terms of reference of the commission, which reflected the Common Minimum Programme of the Congress-led UPA government, included suggesting a “comprehensive medium-term strategy for food and nutrition security”, and ways of “enhancing productivity, profitability, and sustainability of the major farming systems” in the country.
China’s defence villages along LAC which it is populating (Page no. 23)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The Chinese people have started occupying several of the country’s model ‘Xiaokang’ border defence villages, along its border with India’s northeastern region.
Since 2019, China has been building villages along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which separates India and China, but they were unoccupied until a few months ago.
Some villages along the LAC, and opposite the Lohit Valley and the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, are now being occupied by residents, The Indian Express has learnt from officials.
China has been constructing 628 such Xiaokang or “well-off villages” along India’s borders with the Tibet Autonomous Region for over five years now. These have been constructed all along the LAC, including the Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh borders.
The structures include mostly double-storey, large and spacious buildings. The construction for most of these planned villages has already been completed.