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Linking the huge pendency of cases in courts to vacant posts of judges, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, referring to the Supreme Court’s Collegium system of appointments to the higher judiciary, told Rajya Sabha that this issue will not be resolved until a “new system” on appointments is evolved.
He also said “there is a feeling among people of India that the long vacation which the courts obtain is not very convenient for justice-seekers” and it is his “obligation and duty to convey the message or sense of this House to the judiciary”.
Rijiju’s remarks in the House came days after he criticised the Collegium system as being “opaque” and the Vice-President called the Supreme Court’s 2015 judgement striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act a “severe compromise” of parliamentary sovereignty and disregard of the “mandate of the people”.
Replying to a question by Congress MP Rajeev Shukla in the Rajya Sabha on the number of working days of courts, Rijiju said the number of pending cases in the country was nearing 5 crore, having reached 4.90 crore.
He said there were many reasons for this, but the “primary one is the appointment of judges” and vacancies in the sanctioned strength.
The Minister’s written reply stated that the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court, High Courts, district and subordinate courts was 25,011 and the working strength was 19,192 as on December 12, 2022. He said 46 judges had been appointed to the Supreme Court from May 1, 2014 to December 5, 2022.
The reply stated that 69,598 cases were pending in the Supreme Court as on December 1, 2022, as per the court’s own website, and 59.56 lakh cases were pending in High Courts.
Govt & Politics
Fodder inflation rises to 27.66 % in November (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
There is no respite in sight for families dependent on cattle rearing as the annual rate of fodder inflation rose to 27.66 per cent in November.
Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry showed that the index value for fodder was recorded at 225.7 in November, registering an increase of 27.66 per cent over the same month last year (176.8).
Fodder inflation stood at 27.31 per cent in October and 0.68 per cent in November last year. Not only fodder, feed prices also trended upward. The inflation for ‘manufacture of prepared animal feeds’, a WPI subgroup, rose to 7.76 per cent in November. It was 3.38 per cent in October and 14.86 per cent last year.
The ‘manufacture of prepared animal feeds’ subgroup has a weight of 0.35630 in the WPI and includes five items — gola & similar cattle feed; rice bran extract; soya preparations excluding oil; cotton seed oil cake; and mustard oil cake.
In this sub-group, the highest inflation (36.28 per cent) was recorded by ‘rice bran extract’. It was followed by ‘gola & similar cattle feed’ (11.59 per cent) and ‘cotton seed oil cake’ (6.47 per cent).
Two other items, however, recorded negative inflation — soya preparations excluding oil (-9.96 per cent) and mustard oil cake (-25.09).
The level of fodder inflation in November 2022 was — the highest since June 2013, when it hit an all-time high of 29.70 per cent.
The upward trends in fodder and feed inflation are in contrast to softening of the overall WPI inflation in recent months. The overall WPI inflation has seen a downward trend in recent months, falling to 5.85 per cent in November– the lowest in the last 21 months — fodder inflation has been rising since December 2021, hovering over 20 per cent during the last 10 months.
Govt & Politics
Contemporary epicentre of terror still active: Jaishankar (Page no. 9)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that the "contemporary epicentre of terrorism" remains active as he lamented that evi- dence-backed proposals to blacklist terrorists are put on hold without adequate reason, in a veiled attack on China and its ally Pakistan.
Jaishankar, who presided over the UNSC Briefing: Global Counterterrorism Approach: Challenges and Way Forward', described terrorism as an existen tial threat to international peace.
The threat of terrorism has actually become more serious. We have seen the expansion of al-Qaeda, Da'esh, Boko Haram and al-Shabab and their affiliates," he said in his address to the 15-nation Council.
Jaishankar, speaking in his national capacity, said: "At the other end of the spectrum are 'lone wolf attacks inspired by online radicalisation and biases.
But some- where in all of this, we cannot for- get that old habits and established networks are still alive, especially in South Asia. The contemporary epicentre of terrorism remains very much active, whatever gloss may be applied to minimise un- pleasant realities."
He was seen as referring to Pakistan, which is ac- cused by its neighbours of har- bouring terrorists and providing havens to terrorist groups.
Agni -5 ballistic missile test fired successfully (Page no. 9)
INDIA carried out a successful night time flight test of the long-range surface-to-surface Nuclear Capable Ballistic missile, Agni-5 amidst increased tension with China following the recent clashes along the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) which operates the Agni-5, carried out the successful test of the missile from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha.
The nuclear capable missile which uses a three-stage solid fuelled engine, has been developed by the Defence Research and Development organisation (DRDO).
SFC is a key tri-services formation that manages and administers all the strategic assets and falls under purview of the Nuclear Command Authority of India.
Defence Ministry sources said that the test was carried out primarily to validate various new technologies onboard the missile which can strike targets at ranges of around 5,000 to 5,500 kilometers with a very high degree of accuracy.
Like all other tests, the flight performance of the missile was tracked and monitored by radars, range stations and tracking systems all through the mission including by the assets deployed in the sea. The last test conducted in October 2021 was also conducted at night.
The name Agni originates from Sanskrit word for fire and is taken in the context of Agni being one five primary elements or Panch Mahabhutas.
Others being Prithvi (Earth), Aapa (Water), Wayu (Air), Akash (Space). Of these names, Prithvi and Akash have been given to missiles developed by the DRDO.
Agni-5 has been successfully tested multiple times since 2012. At the time of the last test in October 2021, the Ministry of Defence in its statement had highlighted the posture of ‘credible minimum deterrence’ and ‘No First Use’ which are pivotal points of India’s nuclear doctrine, first published in 2003.
Express Network
WHO drew early link between kids deaths in Gambia, Haryana firm’s yrup: DCGI (Page no. 11)
Two months after the World Health Organization (WHO) raised an alert on four India-manufactured syrups, the country’s apex drug regulator has written to the intergovernmental body and stated that it made a “premature deduction…regarding the cause of death” of the children, and that all its further communications were a “reaffirmation of this deduction, without waiting for independent verification”.
The WHO medical alert in October linked four syrups manufactured by Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals — Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup — with the death of 70 children due to Acute Kidney Injury in the Gambia.
In the letter (dated December 13) to Dr Rogerio Gaspar, Director (Regulation and Prequalification), WHO, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Dr V G Somani, pointed out that the WHO backtracked from its initial commitment of providing granular details by stating that the responsibility of establishing the causal link between the deaths and syrups lies with the country in question — the Gambia.
The letter noted that the statement issued by WHO adversely impacted the image of India’s pharmaceutical products and caused irreparable damage to the supply chain “over an assumption that has not been substantiated by the WHO or its partners on ground”.
Citing media reports, the letter also stated that the Gambia has said that no direct causal relationship has been established between the deaths and the cough syrups, with some of the children not even having consumed the syrups in question.
After the alert was raised, the Union Health Ministry had set up a four-member expert panel to review the data sent by WHO, which has since sought details of initial signs and symptoms, treatment offered, investigations done, and clinical presentation after consumption of syrups.
This technical committee, the letter mentioned, has met several times, sought information from the WHO at least thrice, but never received any data.
Explained
LAC: Past tense present uncertain (Page no. 13)
The situation is stable but unpredictable,” Army chief General Manoj Pande said on November 12 about the Line of Actual Control with China, while speaking at a Delhi think tank.
We need to very carefully calibrate our action on the Line of Actual Control to be able to safeguard both our interests and our sensitivities, and yet be prepared to deal with all kinds of contingencies.
Such a contingency came up almost exactly a month later, in the early hours of December 9, when Chinese troops arrived at an Indian post on the LAC in the Yangtse area of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
Four days later, in a brief statement to Parliament, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said their intention was to alter the status quo in the region.
The facts of the incident are still unclear. Broadly, Chinese soldiers crossed over into the Indian side at 3 am. The number of soldiers is said to have been in the hundreds, with 600 the highest estimate and 200 the lowest, indicating serious intent.
There was a fierce clash, both sides using sticks, canes and clubs wrapped with barbed wire. On the Indian side, some 40 soldiers were injured.
A little over a third of the 3,488-km LAC — 1,346 km — falls in the Eastern sector. Ever since the stand-off in eastern Ladakh, trouble in some other sector of the contested border was anticipated, specially in Arunachal, where China claims virtually the entire state, and particularly Tawang, an important centre of Tibetan Buddhism.
Gen Pandey’s use of the word “unpredictable” to describe the situation at the LAC was accurate of the reality that anticipation is one thing, but knowing exactly where the PLA might precipitate a situation is another.
India and China have differing perceptions of the LAC at many places, and some 16 such points are listed in mutually agreed-upon documents.
Unlike in Ladakh, where there had been no overlapping Chinese claims in three places where the incursions took place in 2020 — Gogra, Hot Springs and Galwan — the trouble in Tawang, the western-most district of Arunachal, erupted at an “agreed” disputed point.
Editorial
Speaking of China (Page no. 14)
The recent clashes between India and China on the Tawang border are a reminder of the continuing strategic challenge of dealing with China. In geo-political terms this is the biggest challenge India faces, and it is now acquiring unprecedented dimensions. The risks of military confrontation have clearly escalated. Practically the entire border with China is now open to moves and counter moves from both sides. Diplomatic relations with China are at their lowest ebb.
The fact that there is no strategic dialogue between India and China at the highest levels of leadership ought to be a matter of concern under any circumstances.
It has long been clear that the impasse at the border cannot be managed purely by tactical-level talks. The modus vivendi that India and China had created from the mid-Eighties to the beginning of this century is clearly not surviving growth in both countries and their changing strategic orientations.
Third, there is, at least from an Indian point of view, a sense of the fundamental opacity of Chinese intentions and thinking on India.
It is easy to list out the frameworks that China might use to frame its relations with India. As Ambassador Vijay Gokhale, in his paper, “A Historical Evaluation of China’s India Policy: Lessons for India-China Relations”, has brilliantly reminded us, China has always viewed the relationship with India in the context of its global strategy.
Indeed, one palpable incommensurability in the diplomatic management of this relationship that is now apparent is this: India uses a bilateral frame, whereas for China it is India’s relationship with other countries that is the test of where India stands. In particular, India’s alignment with the United States has always been central to the Chinese framing of this relationship.
There is a lot of speculation that India’s increasing engagement and military exercises with the US are a proximate cause of concern. But here is the puzzle.
If the concern is to keep India out of US ambit, then surely China’s position on India is the surest way of achieving that goal. After all, even Nehru was, according to S Gopal, forced by the Chinese actions in late 1962 to say that “there was no non-alignment vis-a-vis China.”
Ideas Page
(Page no. 15)
There seems to be considerable optimism about India’s near-term growth prospects now that the major global energy and commodity shocks have subsided. But how will this growth be sustained? And even if these shocks have subsided, India still faces one big problem — its large current account deficit (CAD). How will this be managed? It turns out that the answer to both questions lies in one word — exports.
Let’s start with the second problem. Over the past year, the post-pandemic normalisation has caused the current account deficit to swell to exceptional proportions.
At home, normalisation has spurred a renewed demand for imported inputs. But abroad, it has had the opposite effect, leading to a decline in demand.
Foreign households are no longer demanding so many goods now that the lockdowns that kept them in their houses and the fiscal stimuli that gave them the money to spend have both ended. So, India’s imports have soared just at a time when its merchandise exports have started to fall.
Looking ahead, the situation seems set to worsen. Foreign demand will slow further as advanced countries slip into what now seem like inevitable recessions. In that case, India’s CAD could widen even further, possibly to four per cent of GDP in 2022-23 — double the level that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) traditionally regards as “safe”.
One possibility would be to attract foreign capital inflows worth at least four per cent of GDP. But is this realistic? The world is currently facing unprecedented levels of uncertainty.
After two years of the pandemic, we are witnessing a land war in Europe, the highest inflation in the developed world in the last four decades, the fastest pace of interest rate hikes in the history of the US Federal Reserve, an energy crisis in Europe, and a slowdown in China that continues to struggle with Covid-19.
In such an uncertain environment, foreign investors prefer to invest in safe assets such as US government bonds rather than emerging markets like India.
Economy
Centre to set borrowing limit for states at 3.5% of GSDP in FY 24 (Page no. 21)
The Centre will set the borrowing limit for states in FY24 at 3.5% of gross state domestic product (GSDP), including 50 basis points linked to power sector reforms. This is in sync with the fiscal path recommended by the 15th Finance Commission (FC).
While some states have demanded a higher ceiling for next year, officials said the Centre would rather stick to the fiscal consolidation path, as the Covid-induced higher borrowings under by states under increased limits in FY21 and FY22, raised their debt levels. Of course, all states did not exhaust the additional borrowing space even during the Covid period.
In the pre-budget meeting with union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on November 25, Bihar Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said the borrowing limit for states should be at 4% of GSDP for another year.
The Centre has set the borrowing limit at 3.5% of GSDP for FY23 with another 50 bps window if states carry out reforms in the power sector, taking the total space to 4%. Tamil Nadu has also sought a higher borrowing limit for the next fiscal.
For states, the FC had recommended a fiscal deficit limit of 4% for FY22, 3.5% in FY23 and 3% during FY24-26. If a state is unable to fully utilise the sanctioned borrowing limit during the first four years (FY22-FY25), it could avail the unutilised borrowing amount in subsequent years (within FY22-FY26).
Extra annual borrowing worth 0.5% of GSDP was recommended for states during the first four years (FY22-FY25) upon undertaking power sector reforms.
The reforms include a reduction in operational losses, revenue gap, payment of cash subsidy by adopting direct benefit transfer and tariff subsidy as a percentage of revenue.
The objective was to aid states to bridge the resource gap due to the adverse impact of Covid-19 on their revenues as well as to improve the quality of expenditure.
Except in FY10, FY16 and FY17, states had maintained their combined gross fiscal deficit below the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) ceiling of 3% of GDP till FY20.
The overshooting of the deficit in FY10 was due to the response to the global financial crisis, whereas the implementation of Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) was responsible for higher deficit in FY16 and FY17. In FY21, the states combined fiscal deficit came in at 4.2% and is estimated to be around 3.5% in FY22.