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The Telangana government has withdrawn the general consent given to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe cases in the state.
The order was issued by the Principal Secretary (Home) on August 30. The matter, however, came to light after the Additional Advocate General to the Telangana High Court informed the court about the withdrawal of consent during arguments in a petition filed by the BJP seeking a CBI probe into an alleged attempt to bribe four TRS MLAs.
The Cyberabad police had arrested three persons from a farmhouse at Moinabad while allegedly discussing plans to bribe the four TRS MLAs.
Tandur MLA P Rohith Reddy had tipped off the Cyberabad police who set up cameras and voice recorders to trap the three men discussing deals to pay Rs 50-100 crore to lure TRS MLAs into the BJP.
The BJP had moved the High Court seeking a CBI probe on the poaching allegation by TRS. The withdrawal of the general consent to CBI through the August 30 order issued by Telangana government came to be known during the course of the High Court hearing.
On August 30, the Telangana Home Department issued GO (Government Order) 51 which states that the “Government of Telangana hereby withdraws all previous general consents issued by the state government under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.”
The withdrawal of general consent to CBI by states has now become a political tool, with rising friction in Centre-state relations. In March, Meghalaya withdrew its general consent.
Earlier, eight states withdrew consent: Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Mizoram. In Maharashtra, the current government reversed the MVA’s move to withdraw consent.
Consequent to the withdrawal of all previous general consents issued earlier… prior consent of (the) Government of Telangana shall be required to be taken on a case-to-case basis for investigation of any offence or class of offences, under Section 3 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 by the Delhi Special Police Establishment, in the State of Telangana.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is governed by The Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, and it must mandatorily obtain the consent of the state government concerned before beginning to investigate a crime in a state.
General consent refers to consent by default, in the absence of which the CBI would have to seek the state government’s consent to probe each case.
Tata-Airbus unit: Make in India, Make for Globe, says PM Modi (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Laying the foundation stone for the Tata-Airbus C295 transport aircraft manufacturing project at Vadodara, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the project was a “big step” in the direction of making India a defence aerospace manufacturing hub, and preparing it to meet the rising demand for cargo and passenger aircraft in the future.
Today, we are taking a big step in making India a defence manufacturing hub. India is making its fighter planes, tanks, and submarine.
This Tata-Airbus project will push forward our motto ‘Make in India, Make for Globe’. Now, India will also manufacture transport planes… Soon, big passenger planes will also be built in India. The project will transform the defence aerospace sector of India and create a new ecosystem.
The Prime Minister said India is “reaching the top three countries in the world in terms of air traffic”. “As new passengers are being added, in 10-15 years, India itself will need more than 2,000 passenger and cargo aircraft. It shows how the sector will rise rapidly. India is preparing to meet this demand.
India has been manufacturing parts for airplanes for a long time but now it will manufacture an entire airplane. This project will be supported by more than 100 MSME and export orders will also be taken up.
The new facility is expected to undertake aircraft manufacturing and assembly and deliver mission-ready aircraft in transport configuration, equipped with an indigenous Electronic Warfare Suite to the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Seated on the dais during the foundation laying event were Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran, and Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer.
According to Modi, the “business-oriented policies” of the NDA government have ensured that the manufacturing sector witnesses growth despite the pandemic and war situations in the world.
Despite the situations due to Covid19 and the Ukraine war, which disrupted supply chains, India’s manufacturing sector has seen growth momentum. The operating conditions are continuously improving. There is emphasis on cost and quality as well. India is giving low-cost, high output.
Modi said his government adopted a “holistic approach” to put manufacturing in the front. “Earlier mindset had a notion that India cannot be a good manufacturer so it should work in the service industry.
It was assumed we have less skilled manpower. So, there was a gloom over manufacturing. But India is ready to be a leader in manufacturing. It has been possible because the government in eight years is focusing on skill development.
Investment-friendly policies have attracted FDI across 60 sectors and 31 states, he said. “In the aerospace sector alone, we have seen more than $3 billion investment since 2014, which is five times more than in the last 14 years. Defence and aerospace manufacturing sectors will cross $25 billion by 2025.
Editorial Page
Forging the Theater (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2)
India’s newly anointed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), even as he tackles thorny issues related to the management of two live borders, force-modernisation, competing budgetary claims and new personnel policies, will be under pressure to expedite the creation of new joint command structures.
While he receives unsolicited advice from many quarters, the only counsel that the CDS should heed is “to make haste slowly”.
This is because, contrary to popular impression, the appointment of a CDS did not call for the immediate creation of theatre commands.
The December 24, 2019 PIB note announcing Cabinet approval for creation of the post of CDS drew a clear line between achieving “integration” and the “creation of theatre commands”.
In one paragraph, the CDS is tasked, “As the Permanent Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee… to bring about jointness in operations, logistics, training …etc of the three Services, within three years”.
A separate paragraph mandates the Department of Military Affairs with “facilitation” of the “restructuring of Military Commands for optimal utilisation of resources, by bringing about jointness in operations, including through establishment of joint/theatre commands,” with no time stipulation.
Possibly due to a misinterpretation of the Cabinet’s intent, the process of reform got off to a false start in 2020 with the coining of a new term — “theaterisation” — which became its driver.
The creation of theatres should have been an end-state or ultimate aim of a process for engendering jointness and integration.
But once the “cart was put before the horse”, the process, predictably, ran into inter-service conflict, resulting in a logjam that persists.
The nine-month delay in the appointment of the second CDS may turn out to be a blessing in disguise if it leads to introspection by our military and political leadership.
Such introspection must take place against the background of the 30-month-old military confrontation with China and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Apart from this, there are some other imperatives that cannot be wished away.
First, any conflict with China will demand forces/resources from 4-6 of India’s 14 single service, and two tri-service commands (none of them co-located), as well the space and cyber agencies and the Special Forces division.
Facing them will be the PLA’s combined-arms forces under the unitary commander of its Western Theatre Command. One can imagine the command/control and logistic nightmare such a situation could create for India’s operational commanders and the fiascos that could ensue.
The obvious imperative is to integrate these 14 commands into 4-5 geographic or threat-based theatres and place necessary forces under a single commander charged with conduct of operations.
Idea Page
Getting Nutrition Wrong (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3)
India’s rank of 107 among 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI, 2022), released earlier this month by the aid agencies Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe (CWW), has caused some anguish within the Government of India. The Opposition parties have cited India’s poor score as “evidence” of the poor policies and performance of the government, which hit back by rejecting the GHI and alleging that the index is a deliberate attempt to taint India’s image. Many readers may not know that the GHI had its genesis at the IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute), where I had the privilege to serve for more than a decade.
Let me say at the very outset, the IFPRI is a very responsible and credible organisation, and would never ever venture into maligning any country’s image.
Having said that, let me also add that any index of such nature can have conceptual and empirical problems, and there is always scope to improve.
I recall when the GHI was envisioned, we at the IFPRI had discussed and debated many things from its nomenclature to weights of the different components that comprise the index. I, for one, had my reservations at that time and have so even now.
So, I sympathise with the government’s contention, “Three of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population.
The fourth and most important indicator estimate of the proportion of undernourished population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3,000.”
I agree with this statement and even go further in saying that the weightage diagram in this GHI needs a revisit if it has to represent the entire population.
What is the first problem with the GHI? The very nomenclature suggests a link to starvation — from the index, it might seem that a lot of people in the country do not get basic food.
That’s not the case in India. India has been giving literally free food (rice/wheat), 10/kg per person per month to more than 800 million people since April 2020 in the wake of Covid-19.
It also exported more than 30 MMT of cereals in 2021. This helped avert starvation deaths not only in India but also in many other countries. India’s gesture has been applauded by multilateral agencies like the UNDP, IMF, World Bank, etc.
The government’s anguish stems from the fact that the GHI does not consider this mega scheme of free food under the PMGKY (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana), but instead relies on an “opinion survey” of 3,000 in a country of 1.4 billion.
In defence, the authors of the GHI say that NSSO’s consumption data has not been generated after 2011. So they relied on this limited ‘opinion survey’. This is not a credible excuse for a large country like India.
Express Network
CAA doesn't affect Citizenship Rights (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Polity)
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 is a “narrow” piece of legislation that does not affect the existing regime for obtaining Indian citizenship, and legal migration, on the basis of valid documents and visa, continues to be permissible from all countries, the Union government told the Supreme Court.
These submissions were part of an affidavit filed by the government in response to petitions by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and others challenging the validity of the CAA.
Urging the top court to dismiss the pleas, the government said in its affidavit that the Act “does not in any way encourage illegal migration into Assam” and termed it an “unfounded…apprehension”.
It is submitted that the existing regime for obtaining citizenship of India by foreigners of any country is untouched by the CAA and remains the same. It is submitted that the legal migration, on the basis of valid documents and visa, continues to be permissible from all countries of the world including from the three specified countries.
Explaining its stand, the government said that Article 6 of the Constitution deems all migrants in India from Pakistan (including present-day Bangladesh) as citizens of India if such persons or their parents or grandparents were born in undivided India or such persons had migrated into India before 19th July, 1948.
If such persons had migrated after this date and got registered before a competent officer and had been resident in India for at least six months before the date of registration, then such persons were also deemed to be Indian citizens.
It is thus obvious that Article 6 deemed a special class of migrants post-partition [which clearly took place on religious lines and resulted in large scale migration on religious lines] as citizens of India due to their very special circumstances.
The Centre submitted that CAA “is a benign piece of legislation which seeks to provide a relaxation, in the nature of an amnesty, to specific communities from the specified countries with a clear cut-off date.
The CAA is a specific amendment which seeks to tackle a specific problem prevalent in the specified countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh) i.e. persecution on the ground of religion in light of the undisputable theocratic constitutional position in the specified countries, the systematic functioning of such States and the perception of fear that may be prevalent amongst minorities as per the de facto situation in the said countries.
The government said that the CAA does not seek to recognise or provide answers to any kind of persecution that may be taking place across the world. “In that regard, the CAA is a narrowly tailored legislation seeking to address the specific problem which awaited India’s attention for a solution since several decades,” it said.
The government also said that the constitutionality of CAA should be tested within that legislative domain and cannot be conflated to extend beyond that object.
On the Act exempting specified areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under “The Inner Line” notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, the govenrment said this “has been made on tangible material, historical reasons and the already prevalent classifications and cannot be said to be discriminatory”.
Govt recently printed 10k electoral bonds worth Rs 1 cr each, shows RTI reply (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Polity & Governance)
The Union government printed 10,000 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each sometime between August 1 and October 29, according to two Right to Information replies from State Bank of India (SBI) on those dates.
The most recent tranche of electoral bonds went on sale from October 1 to October 10, in the run-up to the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections.
The last time the government printed electoral bonds was in 2019, when bonds worth Rs 11,400 crore in different denominations were printed at the India Security Press in Nashik, according to the October 29 reply by SBI to RTI activist Kanhaiya Kumar.
SBI, the only bank authorised by the government to sell electoral bonds, said in the same reply that 10,000 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore were printed in the calendar year 2022.
In reply to Kumar’s earlier RTI query with the same question, SBI had on August 1 provided details of the printing of electoral bonds in 2018 and 2019 as the only instances of the same.
Asked whether the expenditure incurred on printing of the electoral bonds was borne by the exchequer or the purchaser of the bond, SBI in its October 29 reply stated: “The stationary is acquired from GoI [Government of India] by SBI for Sale at its Authorised Branches (sic).”
Over the years, poll bonds of Rs 1crore denomination, the highest denomination available in the scheme, have been the most popular choice for corporates and individuals.
The scheme also includes bonds with denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. These, however, find few takers.
Citing data provided by SBI in its recent reply, Kumar said the government had printed 10,000 of the new Rs 1 crore-denomination electoral bonds even when 5,068 of the bonds with the same denomination were lying unsold after the sale of a tranche in July. Since the start of the scheme in 2018, the government has printed 24,650 Rs 1 crore-denomination bonds so far, selling 10,108 of them.
Over the years, the electoral bonds of Rs 1 crore denomination, which are the highest denomination available in the scheme, have been the most popular choice for corporates and individuals who buy the bonds to give to political parties. According to SBI’s reply, about 94 per cent of the value of total electoral bonds sold so far have been in the form of bonds of Rs 1 crore denomination.
The scheme also includes bonds with denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. These, however, find few takers.
Asked for the phase-wise and denomination-wise details of unsold electoral bonds since 2018, SBI said the information was not available centrally as the authorised branches were the ones selling the bonds.
SC agrees to hear plea challenging first amendment to Constitution (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a PIL challenging changes made to the right to freedom of speech and expression by the first amendment to the Constitution in 1951, with the petitioner contending that the amendment damages the basic structure doctrine.
A bench presided by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, which took up the plea earlier this month, said there is a “legal issue”, which arises “for consideration”, and sought the Centre’s views.
“As legal issue arises for consideration, it will be open to the petitioner, who appears in-person, and learned counsel for the respondents to file written synopsis, not exceeding five pages, along with relied upon judgments,” the bench, also comprising Justice J K Maheshwari, said in its October 17 order.
In his plea, the petitioner, Senior Advocate K Radhakrishnan, said Section 3(1) of the 1951 Amending Act substituted original Clause (2) of Article 19 – dealing with reasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) – with a new Clause (2), which contained “two objectionable insertions” allowing restrictions also “in the interest of public order” and “in relation to incitement to an offence”. The new Clause (2) also omitted the expression “tends to overthrow the State” as appearing in the original Clause (2).
Section 3 (2) of the amending Act effected validation of certain laws even if they took away or abridged the right to freedom of speech and expression, the petitioner said.
The petition contended that these two insertions protect Sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code “from the vice of unconstitutionality”.
“The two questionable expressions inserted unduly abridge the fundamental right under Article 19 (1)(a),” the petition said. This undue abridgement “does not advance or sub serve any constitutional objectives” but “damages, inter alia democracy and republicanism and supremacy of the Constitution”, Radhakrishnan submitted.
Explained Page
What is the C295 aircraft, soon to be manufactured by the Tata-Airbus consortium in India? (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today (October 30) laid the foundation stone of a C295 aircraft manufacturing plant in Vadodara, Gujarat, of the Tata-Airbus consortium that will manufacture the transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
It is the first project of its kind in which a military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private company, PTI reported. It is also the first time that the C295 aircraft will be manufactured outside of Europe.
The manufacturing unit will cater to the export of the transport aircraft and for additional orders by the IAF. Here are the technical specifications of the C295 and its operational roles.
The C295 was originally produced by a Spanish aircraft manufacturer named Construccionaes Aeronauticcas SA. This company is now part of Airbus and the aircraft’s manufacturing takes place at Airbus’s plant in Spain.
In September 2021, India signed a Rs 21,935 crore deal with Airbus Defence and Space to procure 56 C295 aircraft to replace the IAF’s ageing Avro-748 planes, which entered service in the early 1960s.
Under the agreement, Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in ‘fly-away’ condition from its final assembly line in Seville, Spain within four years, and the subsequent 40 aircraft will be manufactured by Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) in India as part of an industrial partnership between the two companies.
The 16 fly-away aircraft are scheduled to be delivered to the IAF between September 2023 and August 2025. The first Made-in-India aircraft will be rolled out of the manufacturing facility in September 2026 and the remaining 39 will have to be produced by August 2031.
After the completion of the delivery of 56 aircraft to the IAF, Airbus Defence and Space will be allowed to sell the aircraft manufactured in India to civil operators and export to countries which are cleared by the Government of India.
The C295MW is a transport aircraft with 5 to 10-tonne capacity and a maximum speed of 480 kmph. It has a rear ramp door for quick reaction and para-dropping of troops and cargo. Short take-off and landing from semi-prepared surfaces are some other features.
The technical specifications put out by Airbus say that the aircraft has a cabin dimension of 12.7 metres or 41 feet and eight inches.
The company claims this aircraft has the longest unobstructed cabin in its class which can accommodate 71 seats. The company also claims that C295 can carry more cargo than its competitors with direct off-loading through the rear ramp.
How RBI fell behind the curve on containing inflation (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will convene to formulate its response to the Government of India about the high rate of inflation in the country.
The RBI is by law responsible for maintaining price stability. Under the “inflation-targeting” regime that began in 2016, the central bank is required to target an inflation rate of 4 per cent, with a leeway of 2 percentage points on either side. Thus, for any given month, RBI’s comfort zone for inflation lies between 2 per cent and 6 per cent.
Retail inflation for September was 7.4 per cent — which means the price level for retail consumers last month was 7.4 per cent higher than what it was in September 2021.
This also means that retail inflation — which is calculated using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — has been outside the RBI’s comfort zone for three consecutive quarters beginning January.
Under the RBI Act, 1934, if the central bank fails to meet the inflation target for three consecutive quarters, it is required to provide the following information to the government:
The MPC has six members including the RBI Governor — three each nominated by the RBI and the government. The MPC meets every two months — that is, six times a year — in February, April, June, August, October, and December to evaluate the current status and outlook for inflation and economic growth.
Based on that assessment, it tweaks the repo rate, which is the interest rate at which the RBI loans money to the banking system. It is for this reason that movements in the repo rate influence the overall interest rates in the economy.
Typically, when the MPC wants to contain inflation, it raises the repo rate. Such a “dear money” policy makes all types of borrowing — both for consumers (say, car loans) and producers (say, fresh business investments) — costlier and effectively slows down economic activity in the economy.
When inflation outlook is benign but growth is stalling, the RBI can choose to lower the repo rate and promote economic activity; such a “cheap money” policy incentivises people to spend money instead of saving it.
Economy
India, GCC group likely to start free trade pact negotiations next month (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries are expected to start negotiations for a free trade agreement next month with an aim to boost economic ties between the two regions. GCC is a union of six countries in the Gulf region -- Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain.
"Terms of reference for the agreement are being finalised and we expect to launch the negotiations next month," the official said. India has already implemented a free trade pact with the UAE in May this year.
According to experts, the GCC region holds huge trade potential and a trade agreement would help in further boosting India's exports to that market.
Rakesh Mohan Joshi, Director, Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore, said the GCC market is unexploited by domestic exporters and it holds huge potential.
GCC is a major import dependent region. We can increase our exports of food items, clothing and several other goods. Duty concessions under a trade agreement will help in tapping that market. It will be a win-win situation for both sides.
Mumbai-based exporter and founder chairman of Techno-craft Industries India, Sharad Kumar Saraf said the GCC has emerged as a major trading partner for India and there is huge potential for increasing investments between the two regions.
Sharing similar views, Federation of Indian Exports Organisation (FIEO) Vice Chairman Khalid Khan said sectors like chemicals, textiles, gems and jewellery and leather will get a major impetus by this agreement.
India imports predominately crude oil and natural gas from the Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and exports pearls, precious and semi-precious stones; metals; imitation jewellery; electrical machinery; iron and steel; and chemicals to these countries.
India's exports to the GCC increased by 58.26 per cent to about USD 44 billion in 2021-22 against USD 27.8 billion in 2020-21, according to data of the commerce ministry.
The share of these six countries in India's total exports has risen to 10.4 per cent in 2021-22 from 9.51 per cent in 2020-21.
Similarly, imports rose by 85.8 per cent to USD 110.73 billion compared to USD 59.6 billion in 2020-21, the data showed.
The share of GCC members in India's total imports rose to 18 per cent in 2021-22 from 15.5 per cent in 2020-21.
Bilateral trade has increased to USD 154.73 billion in 2021-22 from USD 87.4 billion in 2020-21.