CIC PULLS UP RBI FOR NON-DISCLOSURE OF DEMONETISATION RECORDS
The Central Information
Commission has pulled up the Reserve Bank of India for perfunctory handling of
an RTI application seeking records of its board meetings where the issue of
demonetisation was deliberated, and issued a show-cause notice to its Central
Public Information Officer. Activist Venkatesh Nayak had sought records of all
meetings of the RBI Central Board of Directors along with the papers,
presentations or other documents placed before it, which led to the decision of
demonetisation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, 2016.
Not getting any information from the RBI, which cited an exemption clause to deny
the records, Nayak approached the commission, the highest adjudicating body in
matters pertaining to the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The petitioner told
Information Commissioner Suresh Chandra that the information is not exempted
under section 8 (1) (a) of the RTI Act as claimed by the CPIO. The section
exempts from disclosure the information which would prejudicially affect the
sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or
economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to
incitement of an offence. During the hearing, nearly 15 months after the RTI
application was filed, the RBI's representative accepted that the information
prima facie was wrongly denied He further explained that considering the requests
of the citizens after the instant RTI application was filed by the appellant
and several rulings of the courts as well as this commission, they are ready
and willing to provide the minutes of the meetings, Chandra noted. The
commission takes a serious view of the perfunctory handling of RTI application
and absence of CPIO, during hearing and he is advised to attend the next date
of hearing to explain as to why penalty should not be imposed on him, Chandra
said. He also said the CPIO should submit his written submissions and arguments
before the next date of hearing.
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RBI TO PAY RS 28,000 CRORE AS INTERIM DIVIDEND TO GOVERNMENT
The central board of the
Reserve Bank of India on Monday decided to pay Rs 28,000 crore as an interim
dividend to the government. This is the second successive year when an interim
dividend has been provided. This takes the government's total surplus to Rs
68,000 crore. The central bank has already paid Rs 40,000 crore as interim
dividend to the government. For the government, the RBI's interim dividend to
be paid during the current fiscal is very crucial. In the last fiscal, the RBI
had paid an interim dividend of Rs 10,000 crore to the Centre.
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RBI MAY NUDGE BANK CHIEFS TO CUT INTEREST RATES IN THURSDAY’S
MEET
The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) may prod commercial banks in a scheduled meeting on Thursday to cut
interest rates after its unexpected 25 basis points policy rate cut on 7
February. Shaktikanta Das said transmission of rates is very important after
the central bank announces a rate cut. I am having an interaction CEOs and MDs
of various banks, both public and private sector, that is now scheduled to be
held on 21 February. We will discuss that issue with the banks. And see what
needs to be done, he added. When asked about high real interest rates, Jaitley
evaded the question. The RBI knows the real situation. Let’s leave their
jurisdiction to them, he said. India’s retail inflation slowed to a 19-month
low in January at 2.05%, opening more space for the central bank to cut
interest rates. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI on 7 February
changed its stance from calibrated tightening to neutral and cut the policy
rate by 25 basis points on the back of benign headline retail inflation and
slowing global growth. Das said while credit growth to the commercial sector as
a whole has shown some improvement, it is not broadbased. It is not flowing
into various sectors as it should be, he added.
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INDIA NEEDS FEWER AND MEGA BANKS: ARUN JAITLEY
Arun Jaitley on Monday
said India needs fewer and mega banks to achieve economies of scale in the
sector. After the amalgamation of five associates and Bharatiya Mahila Bank
with SBI in 2017, the government earlier this year approved the merger of Dena
Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda. With the experience in the past
really has been of SBI merger, now it is second one which is taking place,
Jaitley said. India needs fewer and mega banks which are strong because in
every sense, from borrowing rates to optimum utilisation, the economies of
scale as far as banking sector is concerned are of great help, he said. The
amalgamation, the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in India, would
be effective from April 1, 2019. After the merger, the number of public sector
banks will come down to 18.
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CIC APPOINTMENT NEEDN'T BE CONFINED TO BUREAUCRATS, SAYS
SUPREME COURT
The Supreme Court on
Friday said that the appointment of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC)
and information commissioners at the central and state levels need not be
confined to bureaucrats and should be completed within six months The
directions issued by a bench comprising justices A.K. Sikri and S. Abdul Nazeer
are expected to ensure transparency in the process. The move is significant
because the landmark Right To Information (RTI) Act was put into effect after
years of a citizens’ movement for a tough transparency law. A long-standing
demand by several transparency activists has been that the appointment to the
information commissions should be more diverse particularly with respect to the
non-bureaucratic appointments to the top posts. The Central Information
Commission and the state information commissions (SICs) oversee the
implementation of the RTI Act, including hearing appeals. The process should
start two months before vacancies come up and if the process for pending
vacancies has already started, it should be completed in two or three months,
the Supreme Court held. The apex court said that the process of shortlisting
and appointing candidates for information commissioners should be made public
on the website to ensure transparency. The top court observed that talent and
experience from varied fields should be considered while appointing the
information commissioners and that the appointments should not be restricted to
retired bureaucrats. The Supreme Court was responding to a public interest
litigation by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj seeking directions for transparency
in the process of appointments of CICs and information commissioners.
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AYUSHMAN BHARAT: HOW WORLD’S LARGEST HEALTHCARE SCHEME FARED
IN FIRST 150 DAYS
Over 12 lakh people have
been treated in less than 150 days since the launch of Ayushman Bharat scheme.
In addition, more than 1.7 crore beneficiary e-cards have been generated
providing access to healthcare under the world’s largest healthcare scheme,
according to Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) dashboard. At present
14,856 hospitals have been empaneled under the scheme.
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CORRECTIVE ACTION WILL BE TAKEN TO PROTECT CITIZENS' PRIVACY,
OWNERSHIP OF DATA, ASSURES SURESH PRABHU
The government will use
artificial intelligence for good governance, and corrective action will be
taken to protect citizens' privacy and ownership of data, Suresh Prabhu said
Monday. The commerce and industry minister also said that India is transporting
more data than the US and China put together He said top six companies in the
world are using this data with value addition and monetisation. Corrective
action will be taken to protect citizens' privacy and ownership of data India
is strengthening its legal system and regulatory framework to deal with this
world of digital data, he said here at an open meet on artificial intelligence
(AI). The minister also said that AI is the technology of today, and one who
masters this will rule the world. Every country is developing an AI strategy
and India too is working on developing that for the use of AI for the common
good, Prabhu added. As per estimates, the number of internet users in India has
crossed over 500 million.
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GOVERNMENT'S DISINVESTMENT PROCEEDS TOUCH RS 53,558 CRORE IN CURRENT
FISCAL
The government's
disinvestment proceeds have touched Rs 53,558 crore so far in the current
fiscal, as against the full year budget target of Rs 80,000 crore. Last week,
as much as Rs 10,000 crore came in from Bharat-22 ETF and, another Rs 5,379
crore from the sale of Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI)
stake in Axis Bank. The government has sold as much as 3 per cent stake in Axis
Bank held via SUUTI through an offer for sale (OFS) and raised about Rs 5,300
crore. Besides, the additional offering or Bharat-22 Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
garnered about Rs 10,000 crore to the exchequer. The issue got bids worth Rs
49,528 crore, with foreign investors pouring in Rs 38,000 crore and retail
buyers Rs 2,000 crore. Share buyback by Indian Oil corporation (IOC) fetched Rs
2,647 crore to the disinvestment kitty, while BHEL, NHPC and Cochin Shipyard
garnered Rs 992 crore, Rs 398 crore and Rs 137 crore, respectively. NLC share
buyback garnered Rs 990 crore, while NALCO and KIOCL got Rs 260 crore and Rs
205 crore, respectively. Besides, strategic disinvestment of HSCC fetched Rs
285 crore.vOFS of Coal India earned Rs 5,218 crore while sale of units of CPSE
ETF garnered Rs 17,000 crore. Besides, sale of Bharat-22 ETF has fetched Rs
8,325 crore in June 2018. The intial public offer (IPO) of PSUs RITES, IRCON,
MIDHANI and Garden Reach Shipbuilders, fetched over Rs 1,700 crore.
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ODISHA GOVT ASKS BANKS TO EXPEDITE SANCTIONING AND DISBURSEMENT
OF LOANS TO MSMES BY FEB END
The Odisha Government has
asked the state commercial banks to speed up the sanctioning and disbursement
of assistances against the eligible pending loan applications of Micro Small
and Medium Enterprise (MSME) units by the end of February 2019. With regard to
this, LN Gupta issued an instruction to the bankers at a sub-committee meeting
of the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) on MSME. It was also revealed that
Prime Minister Employment Guarantee Program (PMEGP) assistance of Rs 51.88
crore has been disbursed during the FY 2018-19 till February 15, 2019 for
promotion of 2,079 MSME units. Besides, the Khadi and Village Industries
Commission (KVIC) Director informed that those applicants, who have repaid the
first loan under the PMEGP and are ready to provide 10 per cent contribution,
can avail the second loan for expansion and up-gradation of their projects up
to Rs 1 crore. The maximum subsidy on the second loan would be Rs 15 lakh.
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‘MAKE IN INDIA’ HAS NOT EASED MANUFACTURING WOES
When the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) swept into power in 2014, one of its first acts was to launch the
‘Make in India’ initiative with the ambitious vow of converting India into a
global manufacturing hub. Specifically, the government set targets to increase
growth in the manufacturing sector to 12-14% per annum, pull up the share of
manufacturing in gross domestic product (GDP) to 25% by 2022 (from 16%) and
create 100 million jobs in manufacturing. Five years on and these targets seem
like distant dreams. A central focus of Make in India has been to attract more
investment. Yet, data from the project-tracking database of the Centre for
Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows that growth in new investment projects
has plunged since 2015. The overall value of investment in National Democratic
Alliance -II (NDA-II) has been less than both United Progressive Alliance-I
(UPA-I) and UPA-II. As a share of investments, manufacturing investments have
the same share as they did earlier at less than a third of overall investments.
Data on industrial growth from the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) shows that
there has been a deceleration in industrial growth in the first half of the
NDA-II regime (from 2014-15 till 2016-17). In this period, industrial job
growth has been anaemic and wage growth has been falling, ASI data shows. One
area where this government has fared relatively better has been in attracting
foreign direct investment (FDI) to the country. In 2017, FDI equity inflows
reached a peak of ₹2.8 trillion according to CMIE. However, despite this increase
in FDI inflows, FDI in the manufacturing sector remained sluggish under NDA-II
(based on a broad classification of sector-wise FDI inflows into manufacturing
and non- manufacturing sectors). Under the current regime, FDI in manufacturing
constituted 28% of total FDI, significantly below the average level of 44%
during UPA-II. Make in India has also not succeeded in turning around India’s
position in global trade. Growth in exports, after a decline in 2015 and 2016,
recovered in 2017, but, as a previous Plain Facts column pointed out, the
recovery in India’s merchandise exports only reflects a larger trend across
South-east Asia. Despite the bump, India’s exports constituted only 1.7% of
global manufacturing exports as of 2017, only slightly higher than what it was
in 2014 (1.6%). Among all economies for which World Trade Organization (WTO)
provides data, India stood 16th in 2014, and moved up one rank to 15th in 2017.
In contrast, China’s share in manufacturing exports saw an exponential rise in
the 2000s and the country has remained a manufacturing giant, contributing to
17.48% of world manufacturing exports. Other leading countries in manufacturing
exports are Germany (10.4%), US (9.3%) and Japan (5%). So, despite significant
publicity, after four years of its launch, NDA’s flagship manufacturing
programme does not seem to have succeeded in making India a major manufacturing
hub. Perhaps in recognition of the limited impact of the scheme, the government
has merely postponed its target of increasing the share of manufacturing in GDP
to 25% by three years (to 2025).
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FLIPKART BETS ON ALPHA-BETA TANGO TO SYNC WITH FDI NORMS
Flipkart is creating a
layer of B2B (business-to-business) entities that will act as intermediaries
between its wholesale arm and prominent sellers on its platform to comply with
foreign investment rules for ecommerce marketplaces, people familiar with the
development said. Flipkart, which Walmart acquired for $16 billion in May, has
appointed eight-nine such independent entities, code-named alpha sellers, which
will buy goods from Flipkart India, the wholesale arm of the Flipkart Group,
according to the people. The alpha sellers will supply merchandise to beta
sellers, which will offer them on the Flipkart marketplace. The introduction of
the intermediary alpha sellers will help Flipkart meet a cap of 25% on vendors
purchasing goods from entities related to marketplace operators, the people
said. Inventory of a vendor will be deemed to be controlled by ecommerce
marketplace entity if more than 25% of purchases of such a vendor are from the
marketplace entity or its group companies, the government said in a note on December
26, prescribing norms that came into effect on February 1. Previously, some
preferred sellers of Flipkart including Super-ComNet, OmniTech Retail and
RetailNet used to purchase products directly from Flipkart’s wholesale unit and
sell them to consumers on the online marketplace. Flipkart wholesale will
invoice to alpha and then alpha sells it to beta, said a person familiar with
the plans. Flipkart said it is in compliance with the latest FDI rules. At
Flipkart marketplace, we are delighted to be serving as a platform for
connecting lakhs of sellers and customers and committed to ensure sellers on
our marketplace continue to access the consumers across the country efficiently
and in a cost-effective way, a Flipkart spokesperson said.
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UNION HOME MINISTER TO LAUNCH VARIOUS WOMEN SAFETY INITIATIVES
Rajnath Singh will launch
various initiatives for women safety These initiatives will include launch of
Emergency Response Support System in 16 states/UTs and Mumbai city,
Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) and Safe City
Implementation Monitoring Portal. To provide effective deterrence against the
offence of rape, the Government has enacted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act,
2018 And for effective implementation of the Act the measures to strengthen investigation
and prosecution machinery and to instil a sense of security amongst women,
Government is launching these initiatives.
Emergency Response Support
System (ERSS)
The Union Home Minister
will launch the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS). The ERSS is a
pan-India single number (112) based response system for persons in distress. A
citizen may use the following methods to access the emergency services
·
Dial 112 from phone
·
Press power button on
smart phone 3 time quickly to activate panic call to ERC.
·
In case of feature phone,
long press of 5 or 9 key on the phone will activate the panic call.
·
Log onto ERSS website for
the State and lodge emergency
·
Email SOS alert to State
ERC
·
Use 112 India Mobile App,
which is available free on Google Playstore and Apple store.
Under this system, all the
states have to set up a dedicated Emergency Response Centre (ERC). It will have
a team of trained Call-takers and Dispatchers to handle emergency requests
relating to assistance from Police, Fire & Rescue, Health and other
emergency services. Police can view all events after an Emergency call is made
at the ERC. The ERCs are connected to District Command Centres (DCC) and the
Emergency Response Vehicles, and assistance/response to victims are facilitated
through them. ERSS is designed to be a common protocol managed by each
State/UT. ERSS also provides a 112 India mobile App for making distress calls
by any person. For Women and children, 112 India App provides a special SHOUT
feature which alerts registered volunteers in the vicinity of victim for
immediate assistance. The Central Government is funding Rs. 321.69 crore to the
States/UTs for ERSS as part of Nirbhaya scheme project. The service has already
been launched in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
Investigation Tracking
System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO)
Rajnath Singh will also
launch the Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) on the
occasion. The ITSSO is meant for Law Enforcement Agencies in the country. The
Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) is an online module
available to law enforcement agencies at all levels - National, State, District
and Police Station that allows State to undertake real-time monitoring and
management for completion of investigation in rape cases in 2 months. It
leverages the existing CCTNS data base, which covers nearly 15000 police
stations in the country. ITSSO would greatly strengthen States ability for
analytics and prognosis for timely investigation and prosecution in rape cases.
·
The Criminal Law Amendment
in April 2018 prescribes stringent penal provisions including death penalty for
rape of a girl below the age of 12 years. For swift administration of justice in
such cases, the Act also inter-alia mandates completion of investigation and
trials within 2 months. To enhance women safety in the country, Government has
formulated a multi-pronged action plan and initiated a series of measures.
ITSSO is one of such measures developed by MHA towards Smart Policing.
Safe City Implementation
Monitoring (SCIM) portal
In order to instil sense
of security in women in metro cities, Government has identified eight cities
for implementation of Safe City projects in first phase at a cost of Rs. 2,919
crore. The projects are funded under Nirbhaya Fund scheme. The projects have
been prepared jointly by Municipal bodies and City Police and reflect
integrated action for safety of womn. Safe City projects involves creation of
on-ground assets, resources & behaviour change programs for safety of
women. The projects will supplement existing assets and meet citizen demands
for safe eco-system for women in these cities. Important features of the Safe
City projects include:
·
Identification of crime
Hot-spots in each city.
·
Saturating such Hot-spots
with increased CCTV surveillance.
·
Automated Number Plate
Reading (ANPR) and drone-based surveillance also being deployed in few cities
as per requirement.
·
Setting up women police
out-posts for facilitating ease of access by any aggrieved woman to report
incidence or seek assistance.
·
Patrols by Women police in
vulnerable areas.
·
Setting up Women Help
Desks in Police Stations with facility for trained Counsellors.
·
Augmentation of existing
women support centers like Asha Jyoti Kendra or Bharosa centers etc.
·
Implementing Safety
measures in buses, including Cameras.
·
Improving Street Lighting
in identified Hot Spot areas.
·
Setting up Toilets for
women.
·
Undertaking social
awareness programmes on women safety and gender sensitivity.
All the above measures
would be coordinated through an Integrated Smart Control Room in the city. In
order to facilitate States to monitor and manage the Safe City projects and
avoid duplication on ground, an online Safe City Implementation Monitoring
(SCIM) portal has been developed by MHA. SCIM will facilitate online tracking
of deployment of assets and infrastructure created under the Safe City
projects. SCIM facilitates an evidence based online monitoring system. Details
on assets and infrastructure are captured along with latitude and longitude
using GPS for greater transparency. SCIM also creates a digital repository of
assets, infrastructure and social outreach programs, as well as best practices
achieved in each City.
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UNION HOME MINISTER INAUGURATES CYBER CRIME UNIT OF DELHI
POLICE AND NATIONAL CYBER FORENSIC LAB
Rajnath Singh has said
cyber crimes pose a challenge to traditional policing and called upon the Police
personnel to hone their skills to tackle the threats posed from the cyber
world. Inaugurating the Cyber Prevention, Awareness & Detection Centre
(CyPAD) of Delhi Police and National Cyber Forensic Lab, MHA, he pointed out
that cyber crime has emerged as a big challenge and said, If we have to build
public trust in a Digital World, then we will have to bear Zero Tolerance
towards Cyber Crime. The Home Minister said in this era of internet and
computers, there exists an aspect of cyber crime whether it is cyber cheating
or fraud, women harassment or terror recruitment which needs to be strongly
addressed. Internet is a platform not only aiding the evolution of social
media, but also crucial to online banking, shopping and remotely operated
systems in industry. We have to develop institutional mechanisms for
undertaking timely assessment to challenges in cyber space and securing it for
the common man, he said. Shri Rajnath Singh said MHA has initiated several
steps in the last more than four years to deal with cyber crimes. This includes
setting up of an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Phone Frauds. Under the Cyber
Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme, the online
cybercrime reporting portal cybercrime.gov.in has been operationalized. Training
programmes have been designed for law enforcement agencies, public prosecutors
and judges. For effectively tackling challenges to cyber space, we need an
institutional mechanism at the national level involving the private sector also
and coordination at the national and international levels, he added. MHA has
constituted an Expert Group for a detailed study and initiated creation of the
Cyber Crime Coordination Centre which will deal with cyber forensics, cyber
investigation, cyber research and innovation, threat analytics and cyber
training, said Shri Rajnath Singh. The setting up of the Indian Cyber Crime
Coordination Centre (i-4C) is a step towards its implementation. Under the
i-4C, the National Cyber Forensics Lab has been inaugurated, he added.
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PFRDA HOPES TO REACH 2.72 CRORE SUBSCRIBERS UNDER APY, NPS BY
MAR-END: HEMANT CONTRACTOR
Pension fund regulator
PFRDA has reached a subscriber base of 2.65 crore in its flagship National Pension
System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) schemes and hopes to cover nearly
2.72 crore subscribers by the end of the current financial year. In a break-up,
PFRDA said there are nearly 1.45 crore subscribers under APY and the remaining
1.20 crore have NPS accounts. The number of subscribers has now touched 2.65
crore and we have just crossed the Rs 3-lakh crore asset under management. Last
year (fiscal), the corpus grew almost 40-45 per cent. This year also, so far,
it has been good. Typically, February and March are the busiest months for us.
So, we expect to touch similar levels this year as well, said Hemant G
Contractor. The Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan (PMSYM) scheme provides for
an assured monthly pension of Rs 3,000 with a contribution of Rs 100 per month
for workers in the unorganised sector after the retirement age (60 years). This
new government scheme is like APY. The only difference being is that it is only
a Rs 3,000 pension scheme. In this scheme, the govt co-contributes up to 50 per
cent of the total corpus which is not the case with APY, Contractor said on the
sidelines of a PFRDA conference on NPS. APY, mainly targeting the unorganised
sector employees, offers five slabs of pension from Rs 1,000-5,000 per month
upon retirement. Employees in the age bracket of 18-40 years can sign up for an
APY account.
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MANMOHAN SINGH’S JOBLESS GROWTH CHARGE IS FACTUALLY WRONG
BJP MP Rajeev
Chandrasekhar on Monday said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s charge of
jobless growth is factually wrong as the NDA government had so far spent Rs 10
lakh crore on the infrastructure sector, which has been creating downstream
jobs as confirmed by EPFO data. He said Singh was perhaps referring to the
leaked draft survey conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) to
buttress his claims on high jobless growth rate. Indian economy is in a far
stronger and better place today than it was in 2014 when Singh demitted office,
Chandrasekhar added. Singh, said jobless growth has slipped into job-loss
growth, which, together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos, has made the
growing number of aspirational youths restless. Let us be clear-our economy is
in a far stronger and better place today than it was in 2014 when Dr Singh
demitted office. The damaged economy he left behind has been rebuilt slowly and
surely and we are on a path of sustainably high growth, he said. The NSSO
survey did not capture all the important measures that the budget 2018 did to
revitalise the MSMEs and informal sector, Chandrasekhar said. There is no real
job data in government historically because of the dominance of informal and
unorganised sector in overall jobs, he added.
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SUPREME COURT ADMITS RELIANCE INFRA PETITION ON AIRPORT METRO
ARBITRATION
The Supreme Court has
admitted Anil Ambani promoted Reliance Infrastructure's (RInfra) special leave
petition challenging a Delhi High Court order which set aside an arbitral award
for the Airport Metro project, the company said in its statement. The Hon’ble
Supreme Court has entertained the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by
Reliance Infrastructure's special purpose vehicle Delhi Airport Metro Express
Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL) challenging the judgement of Hon’ble Division Bench of Delhi
High Court, which set aside the over Rs 5,800 crore arbitral award won by
DAMEPL against DMRC, Reliance Infra said in its statement on Monday. The
Supreme Court has also directed DMRC to continue servicing the debt taken for
the Airport metro express project. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has issued notice
to DMRC in the SLP. A short notice was also issued to DMRC on DAMEPL's plea for
interim relief, so that DMRC continues to service the debt of DAMEPL pending
the disposal of SLP by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, Reliance Infra said in its
statement. DAMEPL was formed to develop the Airport metro project, which the
company later terminated its concession agreement for. DAEMPL later claimed the
Rs 5800 crore arbitration award as termination compensation for the project.
DAMEPL had filed the petition with the Supreme Court after a Division Bench of
the Hon’ble Delhi High Court had set aside an order of the Single Judge Bench
of Hon’ble Delhi High Court upholding the over Rs. 5,800 crore arbitral award
in favour of DAMEPL against DMRC.
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DHFL YET TO DECIDE ON STAKE SALE
Dewan Housing Finance Corp
Ltd (DHFL) is yet to take a decision on bringing in strategic investors, the
Indian debt-laden housing finance company said on Monday after a report that it
was in talks about selling stake. The home loan provider said it was keen to
sell assets and some of its businesses to improve liquidity, however, it
clarified that talks about the matter has not taken place as yet. Dewan's
promoters are looking to sell a 10% stake through various ways, including an
open offer. The company's Chief Executive Harshil Mehta had resigned last week.
Kapil Wadhawan, chairman and managing director, has taken additional charge as
CEO and will remain in the position until a strategic partner comes in,
according to the report.
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STATES ALLOCATION: PANEL STICKS TO 2011 CENSUS
The 15th Finance
Commission will not alter its approach on solely using the 2011 Census for
population figures in its calculations for allocations to States N.K. Singh said.
However, he added that other measures would be included that would ensure that
States that have performed well by controlling population growth would not be
penalised The final decision is that, as far as we are concerned, the
Commission is a recipient of the Terms of Reference (ToR), Mr. Singh said. It
is not the creator of the Terms. Having received the Presidential Order, we are
obligated by the Constitution to act on the basis of the Presidential Order. It
is very clear that wherever population has to be used as a criterion, that
population should be what is in the Census of 2011. The ToR also do say [we
are] to look at incentives for States that have achieved success in terms of
replacement rates and better demographic management, Mr. Singh added. So we
will be looking at that. The intention of the Commission is to try and see that
in no way is efficiency and performance penalised, so we will try to see what
kind of a balance we are able to come up with. The panel will be visiting
Telangana on Monday, which would take the total number of States so far visited
to 19. After Telangana, the Commission is scheduled to visit Rajasthan. It is a
race against time, Mr. Singh said. There is an order from the President that by
November 1 our report is expected. We will try to conform to that deadline to
the extent possible. The point is that flexibility is very limited in the sense
that our report will be an overarching factor for the first regular Budget of
the new government, that is, the Budget presented in 2020. He said that the
recommendations of the Commission, especially to do with the quantum of
devolution to the States, will have a bearing on not only the Central Budget
but also those presented by the States for the year 2020-21. In general, State
finances are in a weaker position than the Centre’s, but we need not be in a
celebratory mood regarding the Centre’s finances either. he said. Perhaps for
very good reasons, they have kicked the can on the fiscal deficit and debt
targets down the road. The Chairman, however, said the Commission had not yet
finalised whether it would be altering the previous Commission’s recommendation
that 42% of the Centre’s tax revenue be shared with the States. The truth is we
have not decided about the 42% devolution amount, Mr. Singh said. It has not
been decided for many reasons, but the most important is that we are still
waiting for the submissions of the Central government. It has to come very
soon. Unless we get the Central government’s requirements and calculation, we
can’t decide on it.
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SC TO CONSIDER PLEA FOR URGENT HEARING OF PIL AGAINST ART 370
GRANTING SPECIAL STATUS TO J-K
The Supreme Court on
Monday said that it would look into the plea seeking urgent hearing of a PIL
challenging the constitutional validity of Article 370 of the Constitution
which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliament's power
to make laws for the state. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took
note of the submission of lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay that his plea was
of extreme national importance and needed to be listed for urgent hearing. Give
the mentioning memo to the Registrar. We will see it, the bench, which also
comprised Justice Sanjiv Khanna, said. Upadhyay, in his plea which was filed in
September last year, has contended that the special provision was temporary in
nature at the time of framing of the Constitution and Article 370(3) lapsed
with the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly on January
26, 1957. The plea also seeks a declaration from the apex court that the
separate Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir was arbitrary and unconstitutional
on various grounds including that it was against the supremacy of the
Constitution of India and contrary to dictum of 'One Nation, One Constitution,
One National Anthem and One National Flag'. The Constitution of Jammu and
Kashmir is invalid mainly for the reason that the same has not yet got the
assent of the President, which is mandatory as per provisions of the
Constitution of India, the plea, which may come up for hearing next week, said.
The petition, filed through advocate R D Upadhyay, claims that the maximum life
span of Article 370 was only till the existence of the Constituent Assembly,
that was January 26, 1950 when the national document was adopted. It claimed
that the Article empowered the state legislature to frame any law without
attracting a challenge on the grounds of violation of the right to equality of
people from other states or any other right under the Constitution.
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HIGH COURT RESERVES VERDICT IN NATIONAL HERALD EVICTION CASE
The Delhi High Court on
Monday reserved verdict on a plea by National Herald publisher AJL challenging
a single judge direction to vacate the premises here, arguing that transfer of
shares to YI, in which Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi
are shareholders, won't make them the building's owners. A bench of Chief
Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao reserved its decision after
Associated Journals Ltd concluded its arguments. The court also asked AJL and
the Centre's lawyers to file their written submissions in three days During the
over an hour long hearing, AJL, represented by senior advocate Abhishek M
Singhvi, reiterated the argument that transfer of the company's majority shares
to Young India (YI) would not make Gandhis the owners of the Herald building
here. Singhvi also contended that the Centre never raised the issue of lack of
printing activity at the Herald building prior to June 2018, by when publishing
of some of its online editions had already commenced.
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TIME TO TURN CAUTIOUS ON INDIA INC, DEBT LEVELS TO TRIPLE BY
NEXT YEAR: S&P
Global Rating agency
Standard and Poor's (S&P) on Tuesday warned that it's time to turn cautious
on rated Indian corporates as their revenue growth is likely to slow down in
the next 18-24 months Global risks such as stability of commodity prices as
well as demand from the US and China will have a greater bearing on Indian
companies rather than domestic demand in the next year or two, it cautioned.
India's central government elections may pose additional risks for Indian
corporates A change of administration may trigger expansionary government
spending which may push up borrowing costs or even raise inflation, S&P
said in a statement. However, the performance of companies rated by S&P
should remain stable, given low costs, capacity expansion, and benign input prices,
said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Krishnakumar Somasundaram
Vishwanathan in a report titled Indian Corporate 2019 Outlook--Time For
Caution. With the exception of telecom, growth in other sectors in India has
been accompanied by margin stability. This trend is expected to continue. The
revenue environment for rated corporates is facing increasing global risks such
as China's slowdown, trade war escalation, or a disorderly Brexit, the report
said. The capital expenditure will be concentrated in few companies in fiscal
years 2020 (ending March 31) and 2021 for either one-off capacity building or
defending market positions against disruptive trends. A gradual taper down of
capital expenditures for rated companies in aggregate is likely to turn
discretionary cash flows positive for the first time in three years, it said.
Over the decade from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2020 (estimates), rated corporates
will double their aggregate EBITDA but this will be accompanied by tripling of
debt. We expect half a turn of deleveraging over the next two years, which
means debt to EBITDA reducing by 0.5x. But some corporates in cyclical
industries still have higher leverage than global peers, in addition to a
reduced financial cushion in the event of a downturn, said S&P .
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MAHARASHTRA FARMERS SET FOR LONG MARCH 2.0 AS DEMANDS REMAIN
UNFULFILLED
Less than a year after the
Kisan long march from Nasik to Mumbai, farmers, tribals and landless labourers
will once again be protesting on the same route Organised by the
CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the protest march will begin in
Nasik on February 20 and conclude in Mumbai on February 27. According to the
AIKS, the number of protestors – at 80,000 – is likely to be twice as much as
last year. The march is going to be bigger than last year. The numbers are more
and the days of the protest are also more, said Ajit Nawale, Maharashtra AIKS
general secretary. The AIKS has alleged that the promises made by the Devendra
Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government after last year’s protest have not been
fulfilled. A year has passed, but the government has not executed its promises.
There is dissent among the farmers, the AIKS said in a statement. The state
government has announced a loan waiver package of Rs 34,000 crore in 2017, the
government officially announced that it has been able to disburse only Rs
17,000 crore so far. We want the government to take immediate steps to fulfil
the commitment made to the farmers, said Ashok Dhawale, AIKS president. The
AIKS is demanding that loans be waived, minimum support prices be set at cost
plus 50% and the implementation of the Forest Rights Act. In addition, the AIKS
is also demanding that the government take urgent and immediate steps to deal
with the grim drought situation in the state.
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TELANGANA CABINET EXPANDED WITH INDUCTION OF 10 MINISTERS
Telangana Chief Minister
K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday expanded his cabinet with the induction of 10
new ministers. Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan administered the oath of office and
secrecy to the ministers at a ceremony held at Raj Bhavan. Of the new ministers
sworn in, five were in the previous cabinet while the rest are first-time
ministers. The ministers who took oath are A. Indrakaran Reddy, Eatala
Rajender, Koppula Eshwar, T. Srinivas Yadav, V. Prashanth Reddy, S. Niranjan
Reddy, V. Srinivas Goud, E. Dayakar Rao, Malla Reddy and G. Jagadishwar Reddy.
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INDANE LEAKED MILLIONS OF AADHAAR NUMBERS: FRENCH SECURITY
RESEARCHER
A French researcher has
claimed that he found a major security lapse that allegedly exposed millions of
Aadhaar numbers of dealers and distributors associated with Indane, an LPG
brand owned by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). Baptiste Robert, who goes by
the online handle Elliot Alderson and has exposed Aadhaar leaks in the past,
wrote in a blog post on Medium late Monday that the Aadhaar data of nearly 6.7
million dealers and distributors of Indane, accessible only with a valid
username and password, was left exposed Due to a lack of authentication in the
local dealers portal, Indane is leaking the names, addresses and the Aadhaar
numbers of their customers, said Alderson. Using a custom-built script to
scrape the database, Alderson found customer data for nearly 11,000 dealers,
including names and addresses of customers, before his IP was blocked by
Indane. I wrote the python script. By running this script, it gives us 11062
valid dealer ids. After more than 1 day, my script tested 9,490 dealers and
found that a total of 5,826,116 Indane customers are affected by this leak, he
wrote. The French researchers found 5.8 million Indane customer records before
his script was blocked. Unfortunately, Indane probably blocked my IP, so I
didn't test the remaining 1,572 dealers. By doing some basic math we can
estimate the final number of affected customers around 6,791,200, Alderson
added.
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END CASTE DISCRIMINATION, IDENTIFY THOSE WHO PROMOTE IT FOR
SELF-INTEREST: PM MODI
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on Tuesday invoked Sant Ravidas on his birth anniversary to urge people to
end caste discrimination and identify those who promote it for self interest.
Modi said caste discrimination is an impediment in achieving social harmony.
Irrespective of caste, creed and other factors, all should get benefit of
government schemes he said. Guruji (Sant Ravidas) had said that there should be
no discrimination on the basis of caste. Till caste discrimination is there,
people cannot connect with each other, social harmony is not possible and
equality cannot be ensured, the prime minister said. Without taking any names,
he asked people to identify those who, for their self-interest, create caste
discrimination and promote it. Unfortunately, caste discrimination could not be
removed till now. The New India will witness this change with help of the
youth, he added.
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INDIA NEEDS MORE WOMEN PARLIAMENTARIANS
The 16th Lok Sabha ended
its final session last week. Elections for the 17th Lok Sabha will probably be
announced in early March and will span the months of April and May. The
political buzz is all about vote shares, seats, coalitions and on who will be
prime minister. There is no attention being paid to the number of women in
Parliament. India ranks 153 out of 190 nations in the percentage of women in
the lower house of world parliaments. According to a list compiled by the
Inter-Parliamentary Union, Rwanda ranks first with 61% of its lower house
representatives being women. As a region, Nordic countries are leaders with an
average of about 40%. The UK and the US are relative laggards with 32% and 23%,
respectively. The United States’ current tally, though still moderate, is
bolstered by a very strong showing by women in the recent congressional
elections. Even Pakistan with 20% participation from women is ahead of India.
India had 65 women out of 545 members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the 16th
Lok Sabha in May 2014, for a 12% representation. Only the 15th and 16th Lok
Sabha changed a previously stagnant representation of under 9% recorded by Indian
women MPs since Independence. First, the Indian system has electoral
representation to the Lok Sabha based on population. Thus, Uttar Pradesh with a
population of over 200 million people has 80 MPs, Bihar with a population of
100 million has 40 seats and Maharashtra with a population of 114 million has
48. Four of the north-eastern states—Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and
Sikkim—have only one seat each. Uttar Pradesh shows a better than national
average representation of 17.5% (14 MPs) by women, while Maharashtra has the
national average of 12.5% (6 seats) and Bihar is much below the national
average at 7.9% (3 seats). While we allocate total seats to states by
population, the resultant women’s representation at 12% is far below the actual
population of women. So, on grounds of fairness, this is an anomaly. A fully
representative Parliament allows the different experiences of genders to craft
priorities and shape the economic and social future of a democratic society.
Second, there is documented evidence both at the international level and at the
gram panchayat (village) level to suggest that a greater representation of
women in elected office balances the process and prioritizations that elected
bodies focus on. A wide range of international studies have focused on policy
style, agenda and outcomes. In terms of policy styles, for instance, the
inclusion of women adds behind the scenes discussion rather than direct
confrontation on the floor of the House. In terms of agenda (as measured in
Rwanda), a wider range of family issues get tackled. That said, for national
parliaments there is no conclusive evidence yet that policy outcomes are
different. In an influential paper, Esther Duflo and Raghabendra Chattopadhyay
(NBER Working Paper 8615) show that in a randomised trial in West Bengal, women
pradhans (heads of village panchayats) focus on infrastructure that is relevant
to the needs of rural women, suggesting that at least at the local level
outcomes can be different. India has had a long-serving woman prime minister
and several women chief ministers and speakers of the House. Yet its record of
women parliamentarians is woefully poor. For a balanced future for the country,
it behoves us to debate and agree on how to change this.
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'SABKA VINAASH': YOGI ADITYANATH DESCRIBES SP, BSP, CONGRESS'
MOTTO
Yogi Adityanath Monday
said while the BJP's motto was Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, the opposition SP, BSP
and the Congress in the state stood for Sabka Vinaash (destruction of
everyone). SABKA stands for SP (Samajwadi Party), BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) and
Congress. Our Sabka slogan speaks about development of all. Their Sabka speaks
about destruction of everyone. We stand for Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas. Yours is
Sabka Saath, Sabka Vinaash, Adityanath said intervening the discussion. Taking
a dig at the Congress, he said, Every citizen of this country is proud of our
traditions If the Congress had tried to take pride in the country's traditions,
it would not have come to its lowest tally in the state and the country. This
situation has come as the Congress had insulted the culture and traditions of
the country. When you want to garner votes, you show your janeu (sacred threads
worn by Hindus). People have even started telling their 'Gotra' (sub-caste).
And even the SP did not find the Congress suitable to include it in the SP-BSP
alliance, the chief minister said, targeting the opposition Congress in the
state.
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MODI FLAGS OFF WORLD'S FIRST DIESEL TO ELECTRIC CONVERTED
LOCOMOTIVE
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on Tuesday flagged off the world's first diesel to electric converted
locomotive. The Prime Minister is scheduled to spend around six hours in Varanasi,
his parliamentary constituency, during which he will launch projects worth Rs
3,300 crore
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5.7 CRORE INDIANS DEPENDENT ON ALCOHOL, NEED TREATMENT:
GOVERNMENT SURVEY
A comprehensive government
survey that covers all states and Union Territories has revealed serious drug
and alcohol abuse with an estimated 5.7 crore persons requiring treatment for
alcohol dependency, 72 lakh individuals for cannabis use, 60 lakh for opioids
and 11 lakh for sedatives. The numbers may well be higher, but the survey,
which is based on a household survey of over 2 lakh households in 186
districts, presents a worrisome picture of drug and alcohol abuse that is
taking a heavy toll on health and economic productivity of individuals. A
respondent driven sampling survey of 70,293 people suffering from dependence on
illicit drugs was also carried out. The number of individuals affected by
cannabis abuse points to a growing problem with the drug easily available in cities
and even rural areas. Seen as a gateway drug that leads to harder drugs like
cocaine and heroin, cannabis carries the risk of mood and personality
disorders. For the first time, data on women users has also been collected.
Data shows while alcohol use is higher among men at 27.3% as compared to women
at 1.6%, it is reported among women in almost all states. Also, 6.4% of women
users are dependent on alcohol. More than half of the male population of
Chhattisgarh, Tripura and Punjab are alcohol users. In absolute numbers, UP has
the highest at 4.2 crore users, followed by 1.4 crore in West Bengal and 1.2
crore in MP. The survey found that of an estimated 16 crore alcohol consumers
in the 10-75 years bracket, as many as 19% of them were dependent on alcohol.
Besides alcohol and drug dependency, there are an estimated 4.6 lakh children
and 18 lakh adults in need of help for dependence on inhalants and sedatives.
Data collected between December 2017 to October 2018 also shows a severe lack
of treatment facilities. Only one in 38 people with alcohol dependency reported
getting any treatment while one in 180 reported getting in-patient treatment in
a hospital. For drug users, the number was one out of 20. These findings are
part of the Magnitude of Substance Abuse in India report prepared by the
National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of AIIMS for the the ministry of
social justice and empowerment. The number of people needing help in UP stands
at 28 lakh followed by Punjab at 5.7 lakh and Odisha at 4.9 lakh.
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'INTERNATIONAL VISION ZERO CONFERENCE’ TO PROMOTE OCCUPATIONAL
SAFETY AND HEALTH INAUGURATED IN MUMBAI
Shri Heeralal Samariya,
inaugurated the three days Conference on the VISION ZERO and its relevance to
Occupational Safety and Health being held from 18th to 20th, February, 2019 in
Mumbai. The concept of ‘Vision Zero’ is fast gaining international acceptance
and is expected to leverage the efforts of the Government of India to raise the
occupational safety and health standards in the country so as to improve the
occupational safety and health situation. The concept of Vision Zero is based
on four fundamental principles viz. life is non-negotiable, humans are
fallible, tolerable limits are defined by human physical resistance, and people
are entitled to safe transport and safe workplaces. The Vision is based on
principles of Controlling Risks, Ensuring Safety and Health in Machines,
Equipment and Workplaces and Skill Upgradation of Workforce.
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TEXTILES MINISTER LAYS FOUNDATION STONE OF HASTSHILP COMPLEX
Minster of Textiles in her
address stated that the Bhawan will be named Deen Dayal Antarashtriya Hastshilp
Bhawan and awardee artisans will be allocated space for marketing their
products, on rotation basis, and preference will be given to Divyang artisans. Smriti
Zubin Irani, also said that the Hastshilp Bhawan will have dormitory facilities
for handicrafts artisans who will come from all across the country. There will
be a separate research wing and research will be carried out on endangered
crafts and new and emerging handicrafts products and markets. The construction
of the Hastshilp Bhawan is being undertaken by NBCC at a cost of Rs.113.56
crores. The construction will be complete in 18 months.
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CENTRAL WAQF COUNCIL OBSERVED TWO-MINUTE SILENCE TO PAY
TRIBUTES TO SECURITY FORCE PERSONNEL
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today
said here that for the first time since the Independence, the Central
Government has been providing 100 per cent financial help to utilise Waqf
properties across the country for educational empowerment and job-oriented
skill development of the needy sections of the society. Naqvi said that the
Central Government has provided basic amenities to ensure educational
empowerment and job-oriented skill development of Minorities, especially girls,
in those backward areas of the country which were deprived of these facilities
since the Independence. He said that the campaign to utilise Waqf properties
across the country for socio-economic-educational empowerment and job-oriented
skill development has been successful. There are around 5.77 lakh registered
waqf properties across the country. During the last about 4-and-a-half years,
under PMJVK, 28 Degree Colleges, 2197 School Buildings, 40,201 Additional
Classrooms, 1213 Hostels, 191 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), 50
Polytechnics, 39,586 Anganwadi Centres, 405 Sadbhavna Mandaps, 89 Residential
Schools, 527 Market sheds etc have been constructed by the Modi Government in
the Minority concentrated areas. The Government has provided employment and
employment opportunities to more than 6 lakh Minority youths through various
job-oriented skill development schemes. During the last 2 years, more than 2
lakh artisans have been provided employment and employment opportunities
through Hunar Haat.
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INDIAN DELEGATION TO SAUDI ARABIA PITCHES FOR TRADE
COOPERATION
A high-level Indian
delegation led by Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant to Saudi Arabia has called for
bilateral cooperation with the Gulf nation in sectors like energy, food
processing, pharmaceuticals and infrastructure. The delegation visited Saudi
Arabia for two days from February 16. It comes ahead of the visit of Saudi
Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to India on
February 19 and 20. Invest India Grid was launched in Saudi Arabia. Invest
India is setting up a dedicated team for facilitating Saudi investments in
India, the Niti Aayog said in a statement. Six working groups have identified
40 investment, trade and business opportunities with vast potential for
expansion, it said.
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TWITTER RETAINS OLD MESSAGES EVEN AFTER THEY ARE DELETED:
REPORT
Micro-blogging site
Twitter has reportedly been retaining messages shared on its platform including
deleted messages along with data shared and received from accounts that have
been suspended or deactivated, the media reported. Security researcher Karan
Saini found years-old messages in a file from a data archive obtained through
the website from accounts that were no longer on Twitter, TechCrunch reported
on Saturday. Previously, Twitter allowed users to delete messages from the chat
itself with the unsend feature but now, users are only allowed to remove
messages from their own account. We are looking into this further to ensure we
have considered the entire scope of the issue, the report quoted a Twitter
spokesperson as saying. As part of its privacy policies, Twitter notes that
anyone wanting to leave the service can have their account deactivated and then
deleted and after a 30-day grace period, the account, along with its data,
disappears from the platform. But, in our tests, we could recover direct
messages from years ago - including old messages that had since been lost to
suspended or deleted accounts. By downloading your account's data, it is
possible to download all of the data Twitter stores on you, the report said.
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GOOGLE SAY NO EVIDENCE ITS IMAGES SHOWED PAK FLAG FOR 'TOILET
PAPER'
Google on Tuesday said that
it has found no evidence that its Search algorithms were showing the Pakistani
flag when looked for the best toilet paper in the world, the best China-made
toilet paper or just toilet paper. While we continue to investigate the matter,
we have not found any evidence that Google Images was ranking the Pakistani
flag in response to this particular search, a company spokesperson said.
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EVEN TRUMP'S TARIFF THREATS CAN'T DRIVE EUROPE TO MAKE RUSSIA
ITS PARTNER
As the US demands more
from Europe and castigates it ever more stridently, it’s increasingly clear
that Russia is missing a historic opportunity If President Vladimir Putin
hadn’t made Russia an unreliable partner for its neighbours, he’d be poised to
realize his fondest dream: of displacing the US as Europe’s security guarantor.
US pressure on Europe has gone far beyond President Donald Trump’s tariff
threats and military-spending harangues. US officials are demanding obedience
in many other areas, too. This month alone, Gordon Sondland, Trump’s envoy to
the European Union, said the EU really should be linking arms with the US to
check China in every respect. Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany,
lashed out at the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project expanding Russian natural gas
exports to Europe. Mike Pence, speaking in Warsaw on Feb. 14, deviated from the
written text of his speech to strengthen his demand that European countries
abandon the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as the US has done. At the Munich Security
Conference on Feb. 16, Pence again exhorted Europeans to fall in with the US on
Iran, on market access for Chinese companies such as Huawei and on Nord Stream
2. Despite European officials’ determination to preserve what’s left of the
US-led liberal world order, the cracks in the transatlantic alliance are
obvious They were one of the themes of the Munich conference, and they showed
in the prolonged silence Pence faced when he conveyed greetings from Trump,
expecting applause in response. And polls in key European countries show that
once relatively pro-American voters no longer trust the US. This month’s
DeutschlandTrend survey shows that only 24 percent of Germans consider the US a
trustworthy partner; over 50 per cent did before Trump’s election. Europe needs
a counterbalance to US influence Had it not grown so dependent, US officials
would have had to scale back their demands and start talking to Europeans as
equal partners. Ideally, the EU shouldn’t just be able to stand up for itself
economically (to be able to stand up to US sanctions when that’s in the
European interest) but also be capable of ensuring peace in its neighborhood —
the Balkans, Middle East, North Africa and the former Soviet Union — and
suppressing terrorist threats like the one from the Islamic State. Stronger
ties with one of the other two major powers, China or Russia, would be another
option. And if Russia were to try weakening Europe’s US dependence, it wouldn’t
be starting from scratch. Ever since Mikhail Gorbachev’s years as leader of the
Soviet Union, Russia has sought a new security architecture in Europe that
would reduce the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and
instead empower the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a large
but amorphous grouping that includes Russia. Putin, for whom resistance to US
hegemony has long been a foreign policy priority, shot himself in the foot
twice, first by dismantling Russia’s institutions in Europe’s plain sight and
then by attacking Ukraine after it moved toward closer ties with the EU. Of the
two strategic miscalculations, the second may seem more critical: Starting a
war not far from the EU’s borders is not the way to build alliances. But the
swing toward authoritarianism was the source of all future errors. A democratic
Russia wouldn’t have invaded Crimea or helped seal off eastern Ukraine from the
rest of the country. And, in a way, regular leadership changes guarantee policy
continuity better than authoritarian rule does; it’s easier for the Europeans
to hope the U.S. will return to normal after Trump than to entertain the
Russian alternative.
#For Source of Information copy and paste the heading in google.
Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya
Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya
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