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The centre told the Supreme Court it began consultations with the Reserve Bank of India in February 2016 — at least eight months before notifying demonetisation i.e., withdrawal of legal tender character of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, on November 8, 2016.
It was taken after extensive consultation with the RBI and advance preparation… The then Finance Minister had stated in the Parliament… that Government consultation with RBI began in February 2016; however, the process of the consultation and the decision-making were kept confidential.
The withdrawal… of a significant portion of total currency value was a well-considered decision,” the Centre said in the affidavit, which it said should be read as part and parcel of its earlier two affidavits filed on December 1, 2016, and in October 2018.
Defending its action, the Centre said the decision was based on RBI’s recommendation for the withdrawal of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and its proposed draft scheme for implementation.
The Central Board of the RBI made a specific recommendation to the Central Government for the withdrawal of legal tender character of the existing series of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes.
The RBI also proposed a draft scheme for the implementation of the recommendation. The recommendation and the draft scheme were duly considered by the Central Government,” the Centre said in the affidavit. The final notification published in the Gazette of India was based on this.
In this case, changes were made to the design and specifications of the new bank notes introduced for the supply of currency into the economy.
Differences on Ukraine but dialogue vital: G20 (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Groupings)
While admitting “different assessments” among members on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the G20’s Bali Declaration on Wednesday underlined the need to “uphold international law”, and said the “use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible”.
Calling for a peaceful resolution of conflicts, it said that “today’s era must not be of war”, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a bilateral meeting on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Samarkand in September, where he said that “now is not the time for war”.
This year, we have also witnessed the war in Ukraine further adversely impact the global economy. There was a discussion on the issue.
Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy — constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks.
While India has not explicitly condemned the war in Ukraine, it has raised the issue of food, fuel and fertiliser shortage impacting the Global South – a community of the developing and the less-developed countries.
Referring to Russian and Chinese views, which have had a different interpretation on the basis of NATO’s perceived expansion, it said: “There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.
Recognising that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy.
From UAVs to refuellers: How Israel is helping India keep an eye on LAC (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
He has accompanied Indian troops on their battle readiness exercises, sat at the table with defence ministers, addressed chief ministers of five states on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to gather intelligence about Naxals, and once even joined the Andhra Pradesh police out on a mission. Ever since the Galwan incident of 2020, he has been keeping a close watch on the Sino-Indian boundary.
These days, AviBleser, vice-president of marketing for India at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), says he is working closely with the Indian Army and Indian Air Force to tailor solutions for their defence needs.
This includes the induction of Heron MK II, a state-of-the-art UAV that can fly at a height of 35,000 feet, cover a radius of 1000 km, see through dense clouds, work in bad weather and fly for 45 hours. It’s learnt that MK IIs are being deployed in Leh.
Last year, the Indian Army had also taken on lease Heron TPs, a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for all-weather missions, from IAI. Heron TP drones are one of the two drones made in Israel that can be armed, if needed.
Bleser traces his relationship with India to 1991 when he first met an Indian delegation at the Singapore air show. “I was travelling on a European passport, they invited me to South Block. It is after four years that the Ministry of Defence signed an agreement with the IAI to provide two search systems.”
The relationship has evolved over time – from being an importer of IsraeIi tech and equipment, Indian companies are now collaborating with IAI on a variety of ventures.
Express network
Uttarakhand moves to make anti-conversion law stronger (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Uttarakhand Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a proposal to make the state’s anti-conversion law — Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act — stronger with an amendment to make forced conversion a cognizable offence with a provision of 10-year imprisonment, like the law in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
The state government also reached an informal consensus on the proposal to shift Uttarakhand High Court from Nainital to Haldwani.
The decisions were taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. More than 20 such proposals were passed in the meeting.
“Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018, was passed with an intention to equally strengthen the importance of every religion in the state under the right to freedom of religion given by Articles 25, 26, 27 and 28.
Under the current, changed circumstances, and to strengthen the law, Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2022, is being passed by the Cabinet,” a source in the government said.
State minister Subodh Uniyal told The Indian Express that with the amendment, forced conversion will be a cognizable offence “with provision of 10 years of punishment”.
A legislation will soon be brought in the state Assembly introducing the amendments in the anti-conversion law, sources said. The Assembly session starts on November 29.
The 2018 state anti-conversion law stipulates a prison term of up to five years for anyone convicted of “forced or fraudulent” conversion.
In November 2020, UP Governor Anandiben Patel had promulgated the ordinance against “forced” or “fraudulent” religious conversions. The ordinance became an Act in March 2021.
The Editorial Page
President India (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Groupings)
The G20 Leaders Summit in Bali is the grand finale of Indonesia’s year-long presidency. The baton passes on to India on December 1, 2022.
Ever since the G20 was recast as an annual apex-level summit in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, developing countries chaired it only on four occasions — Mexico in 2012, China in 2016, Argentina in 2018 and now, Indonesia in 2022. India’s presidency marks the fifth such occasion. In a historic first for developing countries, the G20 troika after December 1 will comprise the past, the incoming and the next G20 presidencies, i.e., Indonesia, India and Brazil.
This is not only a moment for the Global South to try and set the tone for the theme of the Bali conference — “Recover Together, Recover Stronger” — but also a moment for regional groupings like Southeast Asia, South Asia and others to seek greater economic convergence on sustainable development goals.
In his address in Bali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightly pointed to the growing relevance of the G20 in a challenging global environment, citing climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine as major disruptors.
His call for a new world order for the post-Covid period is a candid reflection on the failure of the global community to reform multilateral institutions such as the UN and the lack of a global consensus on the way forward.
Modi’s cautionary words touch upon the hard realities of today and the existence of several fault-lines. The world is deeply divided over the situation in Ukraine, leaving developing countries to suffer the consequences of food, energy and fertiliser shortages. The primary concerns of the developing world relate to quotidian issues, not to the geopolitics of war.
The G20 presidency could provide an opportunity to India to assume the mantle of a peace-maker on behalf of the Global South. Today, the UN lacks credibility.
The Ideas Page
A long war & an opportunity (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International relations)
The voices emerging from the G20 summit confirm the North-South divergence between support for continued war in Ukraine and immediate cessation of hostilities accompanied by genuine negotiations.
Nine months after the hostilities began, the war of attrition in Ukraine remains stalemated at the high tables of global diplomacy. Despite the Russian withdrawal from Kherson and its euphoric repossession by Ukraine, the declaration of the “beginning of the end of war” by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy comes across more as a defiant call to continued fighting than a serious prediction.
Prospects of a quick, decisive victory of one side over the other or of a negotiated solution are nowhere in sight. The front in eastern Ukraine moves as the NATO-backed forces of Ukraine succeed in pushing the Russians back.
But new fronts open at sea, in air, cyber space and in random bombardment of targets far away from the actual fighting.
Further dampening the prospects of negotiation, the objectives of the belligerents keep evolving as the war unfolds. The initial Russian objectives to neutralise Ukraine and make it a buffer between NATO and its own territory, and protect the interests of the Russian minorities of Ukraine have morphed into territorial annexation. Ukrainian objectives, relentlessly voiced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and repeated by the US and the EU, are total defeat of Russia, war reparations to be paid by it (as Germany had to after the Second World War) and regime change in Moscow. The two objectives are totally incompatible. This forecloses any scope for negotiation.
The Security Council, where tit-for-tat resolutions by the belligerents keep getting stuck in the intricacies of superpower rivalry, stays paralysed.
The unsung martyrs of Mangarh (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 1, History)
The Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an apt occasion to introspect and motivate people to make sure the nation scales new heights. Several heroes who sacrificed their lives for the country during the freedom struggle have remained unsung.
On November 15, the country celebrated the second Janjatiya Gaurav Divas, the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, by recollecting the valour of tribal freedom fighters. Today, we pay our respects to the courageous tribal martyrs led by Govind Guru, who fought the British rulers in the early 20th century.
Born in a nomadic community in the Dungarpur-Banswara region of Rajasthan, Govind Guru was influenced by the teachings of Swami Dayanand Saraswati to work for the socio-religious upliftment of people from the Bhil community.
While the colonial state was engaged in an organised loot of India’s resources, Govind Guru drew from Indian traditions and ideals to promote harmony amongst the tribal communities.
He was 25 when he founded the Samp Sabha for this purpose in 1883. From 1903 onwards, Mangarh hill became famous for an annual congregation of the Bhils and other tribal groups in the region.
At that time, the demand for self-rule was gathering currency amongst the people of the country. The divide-and-rule policy of the British, the Bengal Partition and the drain of wealth from the country had dented the moral foundation of British rule.
Govind Guru demanded that the colonial state reduce the revenue rate during famines and stop encroaching on the religious freedom of tribal communities and harming their culture.
Explained
India to host terror funding meet:On table ,dark web,non profits misuse (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
India will host the Third No Money for Terror (NMFT) Conference on November 18-19. Delegates from 75 countries and international bodies are expected to attend the event, which will take up ways to combat global terrorist financing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate the conference, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah among the attendees.
The NMFT started in 2018 as an initiative of the French government which had, in 1989, laid the foundation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international body at the forefront of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
Just like the FATF, which earlier focused only on money laundering but expanded to include terrorist financing after the 9/11 attacks, the continuing activities of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, despite territorial defeats in Syria-Iraq and Afghanistan respectively, necessitated the NMFT conference.
In fact, the 2018 event was titled “International conference on combating the financing of Daesh and Al-Qaeda (Paris, 25-26 April 2018)”.
France had invited delegations from some 70 countries and the leaders of almost 20 agencies.The conference agreed on “fully criminalising terrorism financing… even in the absence of a link to a specific terrorist act”, and “enhancing the traceability and transparency of financial flows” by developing frameworks to tackle the risks associated with the use of cash, informal remittance systems (including hawalas), prepaid cards, anonymous means of payments, and by promoting digital transactions.
It also raised a red flag on new financial instruments being misused and made a commitment to “implement the FATF standards as they apply to crypto-assets”, urging the FATF “to advance global implementation”.
Importantly, the conference discussed “traceability and transparency of non-profit organisations (NPOs) and charitable funds”, calling for urgent and effective “implementation of FATF standards relating to non-profit organisations” without disrupting civil society activities.
Evaluating Old Pension Scheme (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Congress and AAP are promising to switch to the Old Pension Scheme. Congress has already reverted to the Old Pension Scheme in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and AAP has said it would do the same in Punjab. Turning the clock back on reform is bad politics, and certainly bad economics.
Pension to government employees at the Centre as well as states was fixed at 50 per cent of the last drawn basic pay. The attraction of the Old Pension Scheme or ‘OPS’ — called so since it existed before a new pension system came into effect for those joining government service from January 1, 2004 — lay in its promise of an assured or ‘defined’ benefit to the retiree. It was hence described as a ‘Defined Benefit Scheme’.
To illustrate, if a government employee’s basic monthly salary at the time of retirement was Rs 10,000, she would be assured of a pension of Rs 5,000.
Also, like the salaries of government employees, the monthly payouts of pensioners also increased with hikes in dearness allowance or DA announced by the government for serving employees.
DA — calculated as a percentage of the basic salary — is a kind of adjustment the government offers its employees and pensioners to make up for the steady increase in the cost of living.
DA hikes are announced twice a year, generally in January and July. A 4 per cent DA hike would mean that a retiree with a pension of Rs 5,000 a month would see her monthly income rise to Rs 5,200 a month.
As on date, the minimum pension paid by the government is Rs 9,000 a month, and the maximum is Rs 62,500 (50 per cent of the highest pay in the Central government, which is Rs 1,25,000 a month).
The main problem was that the pension liability remained unfunded — that is, there was no corpus specifically for pension, which would grow continuously and could be dipped into for payments.
The Government of India budget provided for pensions every year; there was no clear plan on how to pay year after year in the future.
Vostro /Nostro accounts (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The government announced that nine special Vostro accounts have been opened with two Indian banks after permission from the RBI to facilitate trade in rupee in the wake of sanctions on Russia by the US and European countries.
A Vostro account is an account that a domestic bank holds for a foreign bank in the domestic bank’s currency — which, in the case of India, is the rupee. The RBI allowed nine such accounts, including IndusInd Bank and Uco Bank.
In the case of trade with Russia, payments in rupee for the export and import of goods will go to these Vostro accounts. The owners and beneficiaries of this money will be the exporters and importers in both the countries. The banks will keep the record of money transferred.
Two kinds of accounts, Vostro and Nostro, are often mentioned together. Both Vostro and Nostro are technically the same type of account, with the difference being who opens the account and where.
So, if an Indian bank like the SBI wants to open an account in the United States, it will get in touch with a bank in the US, which will open a Nostro account and accept payments for SBI in dollars.
The account opened by the Indian bank in the US will be a Nostro account for the Indian bank, while for the US bank, the account will be considered a Vostro account.
Literally, Nostro means ‘ours’ and Vostro means ‘yours’ in Latin. Therefore, the accounts opened by IndusInd and UCO are Vostro, and the ones opened by Russia’s Sberbank and VTB Bank are Nostro accounts.
On July 11, the RBI put in place a mechanism to settle international trade in rupees “in order to promote growth of global trade with emphasis on exports from India and to support the increasing interest of the global trading community in the rupee”.
Patan Patola:Gujarat's ancient weave ,modi’s gift to italy pm (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 1, Art and Culture)
At the G20 summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted traditional artworks from Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh to world leaders.
According to a PTI report, PM Modi presented US President Joe Biden with Kangra miniature paintings; UK PM Rishi Sunak with ‘Mata Ni Pachedi’, a handmade Gujarat textile offered in temples; ‘Pithora’, a tribal folk art from Chhota Udaipur, to Australian leader Anthony Albanese; agate bowls from Kutch to the leaders of France, Germany and Singapore; and a ‘Patan Patola’ scarf to his Italian counterpart GiorgiaMeloni.
The ancient art of double ikat or Patola woven in pure silk dates back to the 11th century. The Patola fabrics bear an equal intensity of colours and design on both sides.
This peculiar quality has its origins in an intricate and difficult technique of dyeing or knot dyeing, known as ‘bandhani’, on the warp and weft separately before weaving.One of the major practitioners of the dwindling art form is the Salvi family from North Gujarat.
The last surviving family into Patola weaving is the Salvi family in Patan. From the oldest 70-year-old Rohit to the youngest 37-year-old Savan, the entire nine member-family of five men and four women is engaged with this art form.
The Salvi family shared that before World War II, Indonesia was the major buyer of Patolas. Legend has it that King Kumarpal of the Solanki dynasty invited some 700 families of Patola weavers from Jalna (Maharashtra) to settle in Patan in North Gujarat, and the Salvis are among them. The family has also been honoured with several national awards.
Patola is woven on primitive hand-operated harness looms made out of rosewood and bamboo strips. The loom lies on a slant. The other commonly worn Patola is the Rajkot Patola, woven on a flat loom.