Page 1: Govt. hikes GST for household items
- Tax hikes will kick in for over two dozen goods and services, ranging from unbranded food items, curd and buttermilk to low cost hotels, cheques and maps, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council decided.
Page 6: The anti-defection law — political facts, legal fiction
- The practice of legislators from changing political parties during their term continues unabated in Indian legislatures despite the Tenth Schedule having been inserted into the Constitution in 1985.
- Commonly known as the ‘anti-defection law’, it was meant to arrest the practice of legislators from changing political affiliations during their term in office.
- The second paragraph of the Tenth Schedule allows for disqualification of an elected member of a House if such member belonging to any political party has voluntarily given up membership of their party, or if they vote in the House against such party’s whip.
- Paragraph 4 creates an exception for mergers between political parties by introducing three crucial concepts — that of the “original political party”, the “legislature party”, and “deemed merger”.
- A “legislature party” means the group consisting of all elected members of a House for the time being belonging to one political party, whereas an “original political party” means the political party to which a member belongs.
- Interestingly, Paragraph 4 does not clarify whether the original political party refers to the party at the national level or the regional level, despite the fact that that is how the Election Commission of India recognises political parties.
- Paragraph 4 suggests that a merger can take place only when an original party merges with another political party, and at least two-thirds of the members of the legislature party have agreed to this merger. It is only when these two conditions are satisfied that a group of elected members can claim exemption from disqualification on grounds of merger.
- The second sub-paragraph (of Paragraph 4) says that a party shall be “deemed” to have merged with another party if, and only if, not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party concerned have agreed to such merger.
- Paragraph 4 seems to be creating a “legal fiction” so as to indicate that a merger of two-third members of a legislature party can be deemed to be a merger of political parties, even if there is no actual merger of the original political party with another party.
- The merger exception was created to save instances of the principled coming together of political groups from disqualification under the anti-defection law, and to strike a compromise between the right of dissent and party discipline. ∙ Defection gets easier in smaller legislative assemblies, where even a sole member can account for two-thirds of the legislature party’s strength to cross the floor without attracting disqualification.
- Law Commission in 1999 and the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution ((NCRWC) in 2002 recommended for deletion of Paragraph 4 from Tenth Schedule.
Page 7: The Indian challenge in Afghanistan
- India’s record as a ‘first responder’ is improving by the day as 24 hours after a massive earthquake hit Afghanistan, the Indian Air Force moved in with tonnes of relief. That is impressive.
- Stressing “historical and civilizational relationship ties” with the Afghan people, Delhi announced the arrival of a technical team to “closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders” for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance. This followed the arrival of a delegation led by a senior official to Afghanistan.
- India has around 400 projects in all the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. With the Taliban offering protection to foreign embassies, and acting quickly in the recent gurdwara bombing, it is possible that the Indian effort will continue unimpeded. It is also important to remember that the Taliban have never actively been anti-India. Difficulties in implementation are more likely to arise from intra-Afghan tensions rather than any hostility to India.
Page 7: A direct approach to conservation
- Incentives for biodiversity protection and sustainable use include biodiversity-relevant taxes, fees, levies, tradeable permits, and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). Through these economic instruments, governments can affect both public and private financing flows for biodiversity. Mobilisation of biodiversity finance through pesticide levies, admission fees to natural parks, hunting and fishing permit fees, and the trade-in energy-saving certificates has gained governmental support and political will, but the mobilisation of private and public finance for PES has lacked luster.
- People who can help provide the desired ecosystem service are rewarded based on their actions, or the quantity and quality of the services themselves.
- PES presents a unique scope for incentivising local land stewards to manage threatened ecosystems. It has the potential to achieve the dual goals of conservation and poverty alleviation towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. This places PES as one of the pivotal economic instruments for conservation.
- However, PES has not achieved much attention either in the research or policy mandate in the Indian subcontinent. This is in sharp contrast to the successful implementation of PES in Latin American and African countries.
- Limitations include a solid institutional mechanism capable of simultaneous transfer of funds from buyers to suppliers, monitoring through investment in local capacity building, cost efficiency, the scope for development benefits, and maintaining the sustainability of funds.
- The OECD (2019) Biodiversity: Finance and the Economic and Business Case for Action highlighted the importance of evaluating financial instruments’ performance in attaining biodiversity goals.
- A global initiative such as the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative to mobilise private sector finance to benefit people and the environment would help maintain the funds. The cheapest way to receive anything you desire is to pay for it directly. This would allow the country to effectuate the nation’s commitments to achieving the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Page 8: How Turkey made peace with Sweden and Finland joining NATO
- NATO announced the signing of a MoU between Turkey, Finland and Sweden which has led to Turkey vocalising its support for the inclusion of both the nations in NATO.
- The key provisions of the MoU include the following three points: a joint commitment between Turkey, Finland, and Sweden to counter terrorism; addressing the pending extradition of terror suspects through a bilateral legal framework, and investigating and interdicting “any financing and recruitment activities of the PKK and all other terrorist organisations.”
- Finland and Sweden assured that “their respective national regulatory frameworks for arms exports enable new commitments to Allies”. Both countries also promised to stand against disinformation and to fully commit to EU’s CSDP (Common Security and Defence Policy) and Turkey’s participation in the PESCO (Permanent Structured Co-operation) Project on Military Mobility.
- Turkey, after negotiations, agreed to withdraw its opposition for the following reasons. First, Finland and Sweden should promise to address counter-terrorism provisions within their countries. Finland has committed to modify its criminal code, and Sweden has assured to implement the new “Terrorist Offenses Act” from July 1. Second, Turkey had raised concerns about Finland and Sweden being home to Kurdish activists and militant organisations. Finland and Sweden have now agreed to execute the pending “deportations or extraditions” of listed ‘terror’ suspects made by Turkey. Third, lifting the arms embargo. There has been no clear definition about the category of weapons, but Finland and Sweden will remove the arms embargo against Turkey. Since Finland and Sweden have addressed all the above primary concerns of Turkey, Ankara has decided to withdraw its opposition to Helsinki and Stockholm.Turkey wanted the two countries to lift embargoes on weapons deliveries they imposed in response to Turkey’s 2019 military incursion into Syria.
- Russia shares a 1,340 kilometre long border with Finland. Sweden, though it does not share a land border, shares the Baltic Sea with Russia. The land/sea borders with Russia place both countries under direct threat from the Kremlin.
- Since 1948, Finland, Sweden and Russia have maintained economic cooperation, but the relations always remained strained due to the Cold War and Finland’s neutrality principle. If Sweden and Finland join NATO, it means an enlarged presence of the latter around the west and north of Russia. This would go against the very objective of Moscow interfering in Ukraine — maintaining Russian influence in its immediate neighbourhood.
- Both Sweden and Finland are part of the Arctic States; Russia currently holds the Arctic Council chair and will remain the chair until 2023.
What does this mean for NATO?
- First, strengthening the alliance. Both Finland and Sweden which have followed the non-alignment principle have broken from their natural rule and decided to join NATO. This does not only mean guarantee of security against Russia but it also gives NATO the power to engage.
- Second, NATO will gain strategic ground to counter Russia. The addition of more allies means a steady expansion of the NATO towards the East, through which it will now be able to exercise its military operations both on land and in the Baltic Sea, where Russia holds a strategic position.
- NATO will now also be able to position its weapon systems — further its combat formation and plan its attack techniques to power up deterrence and defence.
- In 1997, NATO initiated the rapprochement in order to build bridges with Russia. However, with Russia annexing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launching a war in Ukraine, NATO’s rapprochement efforts came to an end.
- Third, a secured Euro-Atlantic. NATO presence in the region will securitise and safeguard the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were earlier at risk due to their close proximity to Russia and Russian attacks. This will not only help Ukraine win the war but will also enable NATO to bring in advanced weapons such as fifth-generation aircraft, technological weapon systems and strong political institutions across the allied countries.
- The European Union and Washington both recognise the (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) PKK as a terrorist organisation because of the brutal tactics it employed during a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
Page 10: ISRO set to launch three satellites today
- Indian Space Research Organisation’s second dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Ltd., began.
- The PSLV-C53, the 55th flight of ISRO’s workhorse launch vehicle, will carry on board three satellites from Singapore.
- The satellites — DS-EO, a Singaporean Earth Observation Satellite, NeuSAR, Singapore’s first small commercial satellite carrying a SAR payload, and SCOOB-I satellite from the Nanyang Technological University — will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
Page 10: India-Australia defence talks in Dehradun
- Armies of India and Australia held the ninth Army to Army Staff Talks in Dehradun which were focused on joint military exercises, training cooperation and preparing a roadmap for enhanced defence cooperation.
- Talks were held at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) and both sides reviewed the road map for activities promoting defence cooperation like training courses between both the Armies, cadet exchange programmes between pre-commission training academies, bilateral ex Austra hind, subject matter expert exchange in niche domains, functional and high level visits, interaction between think tanks, virtual interactions in field of medical and doctrinal exchanges.
Page 12: Speeding major cause of death: Lancet study
- Steps taken to check vehicle speed on roads in India could alone have the biggest impact on ensuring road safety.
- Interventions focusing on four key risk factors such as speeding, drunk driving, non-use of crash helmets and seat belts could prevent 25% to 40% of the 13.5 lakh fatal road injuries worldwide every year.
- According to the Road Transport and Highway Ministry’s 2020 report, speeding accounted for 69.3% of deaths, non-wearing of helmets resulted in 30.1% deaths and non-use of seat belts caused 11.5% of deaths.
- Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are the eighth leading cause of death globally for all ages and the first cause in the 5-29 years age group.
- The second decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 sets an ambitious target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030 and the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister aims to halve the numbers for India by 2024.
Page 12: ‘G-20 summit expected to be in Delhi’
- India is expected to host the G-20 summit in Delhi, while a number of States, including Jammu and Kashmir and north eastern States, have been asked to suggest venues for about 100 “preparatory” meetings expected to be held between December 2022 and November 2023 during India’s G-20 presidency.
Page 12 : 63,000 farm co-ops to be digitized
- Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a proposal to digitise around 63,000 primary agricultural credit societies (PACS).
- PACS are the smallest unit in the cooperative sector and their computerisation will prove to be a boon for it.
- In this digital age, the decision of computerisation of PACS will increase their transparency, reliability and efficiency, and will also facilitate the accounting of multipurpose PACS.
- Each PACS will get around ₹4 lakh to upgrade its capacity and even old accounting records will be digitised and linked to a cloud based software.
Page 13: U.S. to bolster its military in Europe
- U.S. is enhancing its military presence in Europe for the long haul to bolster regional security after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ∙ U.S. is establishing a permanent headquarters in Poland, sending two additional F-35 fighter jet squadrons to the United Kingdom and will send more air defence and other capabilities to Germany and Italy.
Page 13: In a first, NATO lays out ‘challenges’ from China
- NATO, for the first time in its guiding blueprint, said China’s might challenges the alliance and Beijing’s closer ties to Moscow went against Western interests.
- The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values,” NATO’s strategic concept published at a summit in Madrid said.
- NATO accused China of targeting NATO members with its “malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric”.
- NATO’s guiding document — updated for the first time since 2010 — said Russia was the “most significant and direct threat to allies’ security” after its invasion of Ukraine.
Page 14: Rupee weakens past 79 on dollar buying by FPIs, oil firms
- The rupee has continued to move on the downhill journey since the beginning of the year, amid a backdrop of heavy foreign fund outflows from the domestic markets, strength in the safe-haven dollar towards two-decade highs, and firming crude oil prices.
- Strong long-term fundamentals, political stability, and a large pile of forex reserves are likely to provide a cushion to the Indian rupee.
- The Indian rupee has been adversely affected mainly by the FIIs pulling out funds from the equity market, rising crude prices, the deteriorating trade balance and dollar strengthening.
Page 14: ‘GST hike for pumpsets will affect farm sector’
- The increase in GST rates for pumpsets to 18% from 12%, as recommended by the GST Council, will hit the agriculture sector. ∙ The average minimum cost of an agriculture pumpset is ₹40,000, excluding GST. With the increase in GST from 12% to 18%, a farmer, who is the customer of the pumpset, would have to pay ₹2,400 more only towards GST.
- With this increase, the difference in cost between a branded pumpset and a locally-assembled one would widen and farmers would prefer to go for alternatives that would cost lower, he said. The assembled pumpsets would not have energy efficiency rating and increase in use of such pumpsets would indirectly result in electricity losses.
Team ULF