The core group of secretaries on disinvestment has recently approved the disinvestment of five public sector undertakings (PSUs). This includes the entire shareholding of the government in four PSUs: Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) and THDC (operates and maintains the Tehri Hydro Power Complex), and 30% of the shareholding in Container Corporation of India Limited (Concor). The government currently holds 54.8% of Concor, so the sale will reduce its stake below 25%.
Over the last few years, the government has removed legislative barriers towards privatisation of several other PSUs. This raises the question whether the government plans to privatise them.
What was the Supreme Court’s order on privatisation of PSUs? In 2003, a similar proposal had been raised by the government for the sale of its shareholding in HPCL and BPCL. This proposal was challenged in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it would violate the provisions of the laws that transferred ownership of certain assets to the government (which later formed these PSUs). For example, BPCL was formed by nationalising Burmah Shell in India through an Act of Parliament, and merging their refinery and marketing companies. The Court ruled that the central government cannot proceed with the privatisation of HPCL and BPCL (i.e., reduce its direct or indirect ownership below 51%) without amending the concerned laws. So the government continues to hold majority stake directly in BPCL, and indirectly in HPCL ( through ONGC, another PSU).
The five Companies approved for privatisation include BPCL and SCI (into which two nationalised companies, the Jayanti Shipping Company, and the Mogul Line Limited were merged). The relevant nationalisation Acts have been repealed over the last five years.
How did the government remove the legislative barriers for privatisation? Between 2014 and 2019, Parliament passed six Repealing and Amending Acts which repealed around 722 laws. These included laws that had transferred the ownership of companies to the central government which later formed BPCL, HPCL, and OIL. These also repealed the laws that had transferred ownership of the companies to the central government which were later merged with the SCI. This implies that now the government can go ahead with the privatisation of these government companies as the conditions imposed by the Supreme Court’s order have been fulfilled. These Repealing and Amending Acts also repealed several other nationalisation laws that were later formed into PSUs. In the Table below, we have listed some of these companies. Note that the Law Commission of India (2014) had suggested the repeal of several of these laws (including the Esso Act, the Burmah Shell Act, the Burn Company Act) on the grounds that these laws do not serve any purpose with respect to the nationalised entity. However, it had suggested that a study of all the nationalisation Acts should be done before repealing these Acts, and if necessary a savings clause should be provided in the repealing Act.
Did Parliament scrutinise these Acts before passing them? Many of these repeals were made through the Repealing and Amending Act, 2016. These include the Acts relating to BPCL, HPCL, OIL, Coal India Limited, SCI, National Textiles Corporation, Hindustan Copper and Burn Standard Company Limited. The Bill was not referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, and was passed after a cursory debate (50 minutes in Lok Sabha and 20 minutes in Rajya Sabha). Similarly, the two Acts passed in 2017, that enable privatisation of SAIL, PowerGrid, and State Trading Corporation were not examined by a Standing Committee.
So what comes next? The repeal of these Acts have cleared the legislative hurdle for privatisation of these companies. That is, the government does not need prior approval of Parliament to sell its shareholding. Therefore, it is now up to the government to decide whether it wishes to privatise these entities.
Clearing the deck: Govt removing legislative barriers to privatisation M R Madhavan & Prachee Mishra, Business Standard, October 20, 2019 The core group of secretaries on disinvestment has recently approved the disinvestment of five public sector undertakings (PSUs). This includes the entire shareholding of the government in four PSUs: Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) and THDC (operates and maintains the Tehri Hydro Power Complex), and 30 per cent of the shareholding in Container Corporation of India Limited (Concor).
Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar & Union Minister for Chemical and FertilizersShri D. V. SadanandaGowda jointly inaugurate the Fertilizer Application Awareness Program at Pusa in New Delhi Posted On: 22 OCT 2019 7:04PM by PIB Delhi
In order to disseminate knowledge to farmers on optimum usage of fertilizer nutrients based on various parameters to sustain agricultural productivity and to make farmers aware of new developments in the field of fertilizer usage and management, the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar along with Union Minister for Chemical and Fertilizers Shri D. V. SadanandaGowda jointly inaugurated the bi-annual Fertilizer Application Awareness Program at Pusa in New Delhi today.
The event is organised jointly by both the Ministries before Kharif and Rabi season each year with the help of State Governments.
PM met with the JP Morgan International Council in New Delhi today. After 2007, this was the first time that the International Council met in India.
The International Council comprises of global statesmen like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Australian PM John Howard, former US Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of Defence Robert Gates as well as leading figures from the world of business and finance like Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase), Ratan Tata (Tata Group) and leading representatives from global companies like Nestle, Alibaba, Alfa, Iberdola, Kraft Heinz etc.
While welcoming the group to India, Prime Minister discussed his vision for making India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024. Prime Minister said that the development of world class physical infrastructure and improvements in affordable health-care and providing quality education were some other policy priorities for the Government.
People’s Participation remained a guiding tenet of policy making for the Government. On foreign policy front, India continued to work together with its strategic partners and close neighbors to build a fair and equitable multipolar world order.
Who was Tanaaji Malusare? He was a Maratha military leader and a close aide of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Hailing from the Malusare clan, Taanaji is popularly remembered for the Battle of Singhagad that took place in the year 1670. In the battle, Taanaji fought against Udaybhan Rathore, a formidable Rajput warrior, who was put in charge of Fort Kandhana (later named Singhagad) by Jai Singh.
Battle of Singhagad, 1670: In the year 1665, the Treaty of Purandar was signed between Jai Singh and Shivaji. Amongst several demands, the treaty had required the Maratha ruler to give up Fort Kandhana to the Mughals.
After it was taken over by the Mughals, the fort was guarded by Rajput, Pathan and Arab troop guards and was said to be impenetrable. This deeply disturbed and enraged Shivaji’s mother Rajmata Jijabai. Upon knowing this, Shivaji entrusted Taanaji, the only man he could think of capable of reconquering the fort Kondhana at any cost.
Outcomes of the battle: Even though the attack by Taanaji took the Mughals by surprise, the latter nonetheless outnumbered the Marathas.
The two clashed for long. Malusare was gravely wounded in the fight and died. Enraged by the death of their general, the Marathas fought under the leadership of his brother, Suryaji Malusare, and eventually vanquished the enemy. The fort was renamed as Singhagad (lion’s fort) by Shivaji to honour Tanaji.
On the sidelines, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a report on lead concentration in items like paints.
Permissible limit: Ninety ppm is the concentration limit recommended by the Model Law and Guidance for Regulating Lead Paint published by the UNEP in 2018. It is the lowest and most protective regulatory limit for lead paints that has been set in India and some other countries.
Key findings: Only 13 countries have laws which prescribe that lead concentration should not be more than 90 particles per million (ppm). These 13 countries are part of 73 countries out of the UN’s 193 members, which, as of September 30, 2019, had confirmed that they had legally binding controls on lead in paint, according to the UNEP report. The largest economic burden of lead exposure was borne by low- and middle-income countries.
Lead and it’s concentration: Lead is added to paints for various reasons, including enhancing the colour, reducing corrosion and decreasing the drying time. However, lead can reach soil, dust and groundwater through weathering or peeling of the patin.
It has several adverse health impacts: Lead exposure accounted for 1.06 million deaths from long-term effects and 24.4 million disability adjusted life years known as DALYs in 2007. Lead can cause permanent damage to the brain and nervous system, resulting in decreased IQ and increased behavioural problems.
It can also cause anaemia, increase the risk of kidney damage and hypertension, and impair reproductive function. Young children and pregnant women (whose developing foetus can be exposed) are especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of lead. Even relatively low levels of exposure can cause serious and irreversible neurological damage.
What needs to be done? The cost of eliminating the use of lead compounds in decorative paint is much lower than removing these paints from surfaces in homes. By contrast, the economic cost is low for eliminating the use of lead compounds in new decorative paints. In fact, many manufacturers have already successfully reformulated their paint products to avoid the intentional addition of lead.
According to the paint industry, the reformulation of residential and decorative paints to eliminate lead additives is feasible, and the technical and cost impacts are manageable.
Need of the hour: establishing laws and informing people about the hazardous effects of lead in paints remained key measures to curb its growing menace.
Key findings: Women safety: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal are deemed most unsafe for women. Riots cases: There were 58,880 incidents of rioting in 2017 of which the maximum incidents were reported from Bihar at 11,698, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 8,990. Of the total, communal and sectarian riots accounted for the largest.
Among union territories, Delhi recorded the most murder cases in 2017 at 487. Fake news: NCRB for the first time collected data on circulation of “false/fake news and rumours.” Maximum incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh (138).
A new category of offences committed by various categories of “Anti-National Elements”: Maximum offences were committed by Left Wing Extremist (LWE) operatives (652), followed by North East insurgents (421) and Terrorists (Jihadi and other elements) (371). Most killings took place in Chhattisgarh.
The rankings include public, private, higher education or deemed universities.
How are the institutions ranked? The methodology used eight indicators to determine the institutions’ rankings. These were: academic reputation (weight of 30%), employer reputation (20%), faculty-student ratio (20%), the proportion of staff with a PhD (10%), papers per faculty from Scopus database (10%), citations per paper from Scopus database (5%), the proportion of international students (2.5%), and the proportion of international faculty (2.5%).
Key findings: Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) dominate the list, with seven IITs figuring in the top ten Like last year, IIT-Bombay leads followed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).
This year, IIT-Delhi has improved its performance by one rank to overtake IIT-Madras. Delhi University, University of Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of Science are the only other non-IIT institutions in the top ten.
Way ahead for India: The rankings are an affirmation of faith in the premier Indian higher educational institutions. The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has been taking several steps to improve the global rankings, especially the world-renowned IITs by providing more funds and launching the Institutes of Eminence scheme under which institutes would be freed from regulatory framework. However, there’s still work to be done beyond the top universities.
Launched by: National Cyber Security Coordinator’s office in partnership with Data Security Council (DSCI) of India. What is TechSagar? It is a platform to discover India’s technological capability through a portal. It is a consolidated and comprehensive repository of India’s cyber tech capabilities which provides actionable insights about capabilities of the Indian Industry, academia and research across 25 technology areas like internet of things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), blockchain, cloud & virtualisation, robotics & automation, ar/vr, wireless & networking, and more.
The portal will list business and research entities from the IT industry, startups, academia, and individual researchers.
Significance: The repository will facilitate new opportunities for businesses and academia to collaborate, connect and innovate in future. TechSagar will allow targeted search, granular navigation and drill down methods using more than 3000 niche capabilities. As of now, the repository features 4000+ entities from industry, academia and research including large enterprises and start-ups providing a country level view of India’s cyber competencies.
About DSCI: Data Security Council of India (DSCI), is a not-for-profit, industry body on data protection in India, setup by NASSCOM. It is committed to making the cyberspace safe, secure and trusted by establishing best practices, standards and initiatives in cyber security and privacy.
To further its objectives, DSCI engages with governments and their agencies, regulators, industry sectors, industry associations and think tanks for policy advocacy, thought leadership, capacity building and outreach activities.
What is BHIM? Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is a UPI based payment interface. Developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Allows real time fund transfer. Launched in December, 2016.
What’s new in BHIM 2.0? Donation’ gateway, increased transaction limits for high value transactions, linking multiple bank accounts, offers from merchants, option of applying in IPO, gifting money. It also supports three additional languages — Konkani, Bhojpuri and Haryanvi — over and above the existing 13.
What is UPI? Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience. Each Bank provides its own UPI App for Android, Windows and iOS mobile platform(s).
About NPCI: NPCI is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.
It is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment and Settlement Infrastructure in India. It has been incorporated as a not for profit company. In 2016 the shareholding was broad-based to 56 member banks to include more banks representing all sectors.
Background: The Centre’s ecological flow notification, as it is called, came into effect last October and gave companies three years to modify their design plans, if required, to ensure that a minimum amount of water flowed during all seasons. Power producers generally hoard water to create reserves to increase power production.
Many environmentalists had long been demanding such provisions which ensure uninterrupted flow of the river.
National River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Conservation and Management) Bill, 2018- highlights: The bill propose to ban the construction of jetties, ports or “permanent hydraulic structures” in the Ganga, unless permitted by the National Ganga Rejuvenation Authority.
It proposes to create a management structure that will supervise the health of the 2,500-kilometre long Ganga which, the draft Bill defines, as ‘India’s national river.’
The Bill lays down a host of restrictions to ensure the “uninterrupted, ecological flow” of the river. Currently, a host of dams in the upper stretches of the river lead to the river’s flow being obstructed. The proposed legislation specifies that “unauthorized” activitiesthat cause obstruction or discontinuity of water in the River Ganga due to engineered diversion of water or stoppage of water.
The Armed Ganga Protection Corps (GPC)personnel will be provided by the ministry of home affairs and will be deployed by the National Ganga Rejuvenation Authority. The GPC personnel will have power to arrest those who pollute the river covering offences like obstructing the flow of the river to commercial fishing.
It specifies that the upper stretches of the Ganga — from its origins in the glaciers and until Haridwar — would have to maintain: 20% of the monthly average flow of the preceding 10-days between November and March, which is the dry season; 25% of the average during the ‘lean season’ of October, April and May; and 30% of monthly average during the monsoon months of June-September.
The Bill has listed out a list of offences marked as cognizable which includes: Construction activities causing obstruction in the river. Withdrawal of ground water for industrial or commercial consumption from the land fronting the river and its tributaries. Commercial fishing or aqua culture in the river and its tributaries. Discharging untreated or treated sewage into the river.
Need: According to a map of Ganga river water quality presented by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to National Green Tribunal (NGT) in August 2018, only five out of 70-odd monitoring stations had water that was fit for drinking and seven for bathing. After three decades of efforts to clean the national river, it is a sad state of affairs that the river is not even fit for bathing.
Rules will help in curbing growing threats to “individual rights and nation’s integrity, sovereignty, and security.
Background: The Supreme Court had expressed the need to regulate social media to curb fake news, defamation and trolling. It had also asked the Union government to come up with guidelines to prevent misuse of social media while protecting users’ privacy in three weeks’ time.
Existing regulations and misuse: In India, social media platforms already come under the purview of the Information Technology (IT) Act, the ‘intermediaries guidelines’ that were notified under the IT Act in 2011 and the Indian Penal Code. Under existing laws, social media channels are already required to take down content if they are directed to do so by a court or law enforcement. There are also reporting mechanisms on these platforms, where they exercise discretion to ascertain whether a reported post is violating community guidelines and needs to be taken down.
These, however, have been reported to be arbitrary – many posts on body positivity and menstruation, for instance, have been taken down in the past while other explicit imagery continues to be allowed. Many of the existing regulations themselves are “dangerously close to censorship and may have a chilling effect on freedom of speech, which is why cases are being fought on those in courts.” Another problem of a lot of regulatory measures is the vagueness of language which is exploited by state agencies to behave in a repressive way.
Need for regulations: The speed and reach of social media has meant that subversive rumours and fake news get aired with impunity. This has resulted in serious law and order problems. In India, this phenomenon has assumed dangerous proportions. Fake news on WhatsApp has led to lynchings and communal flare-ups in many parts of the country. This menace needs to be curbed.
Challenges before the government: Too stringent a policy of policing social media could violate the individual’s right to privacy. It’s not easy to force Facebook Inc., the owner of WhatsApp, to give up on the app’s unique selling proposition to the user of complete end-to-end confidentiality.
Way ahead: Any conversation on additional regulation of social media brings up concerns about privacy and surveillance. Therefore, any bid at regulating expression online has to be proportional and concrete with adequate redressal mechanisms and without any blanket provisions.
What is it? To counter corruption and speed up decision- making in military procurement, the government of India in 2001 decided to set up an integrated DAC. It is headed by the Defence Minister.
Objective: The objective of the DAC is to ensure expeditious procurement of the approved requirements of the Armed Forces, in terms of capabilities sought, and time frame prescribed, by optimally utilizing the allocated budgetary resources.
Functions: The DAC is responsible to give policy guidelines to acquisitions, based on long-term procurement plans. It also clears all acquisitions, which includes both imported and those produced indigenously or under a foreign license.
It came about to expedite scope of cooperation between partner countries on defence technology that become narrow due to presence of differing bureaucratic processes and legal requirements.
Essentially, DTII is an initiative to provide increased US senior level oversight and engagement to get beyond these obstacles.
DTTI initiative is led by Undersecretary of Defence for Acquisition and Sustainment from US and Secretary for Defence Protection from India. The aim of DTTI is to bring sustained leadership focus to the bilateral defence trade relationship and create opportunities for co-production and co-development of defence equipment.
Context: The Siachen glacier is “now open” for tourists and tourism. Key facts: Lies in the Karakoram Range system which is a part of western Himalayas. Lies to the south of the zone that separates Eurasion Plate with the Indian Plate, which is the result of convergence boundary interaction in geographical terms.
It is the highest battle field in the world and lies on LoC (Line of Control) between India and Pakistan. It has been continuously contested by Pakistan as its own part which has led to militarisation of the glacier. After the Indo-Pakistan war in 1971, an agreement was signed between the two countries in 1972, which came to be known as the Shimla Agreement, but it failed to clearly mention who controls the glacier.
However, in 1984, the Pakistan army tried to enter the glacier, forcing India to launch a military operation known as “Operation Meghdoot” and since then we have control over the glacier. A ceasefire agreement was signed between India and Pakistan in 2003
The glacier is the source of many rivers including Nubra River, a tributary of Shyok, which is a part of the Indus River System. Siachen Glacier also boasts of the world’s highest helipad built by India at Point Sonam, to supply its troops. India also installed the world’s highest telephone booth on the glacier.
The region is also a home to rare species of snow leopard, brown bear etc which may be affected by military presence. This has led to talks in international forums about creating a “Peace Park” in the area and demilitarise it.
Context: India’s apex oil trade body Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) has issued a short advisory asking its members, including importer-crushers and processors, to avoid importing palm oil from Malaysia.
This is in line with the Union Government’s strong objections to Malaysia’s “unprovoked” remarks and criticism on India’s move to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Key facts: India’s total annual palm oil import is approximately 9 million tonne out of which around 3-3.5 million tonne is imported from Malaysia and rest from Indonesia, another major palm oil producing country. Palm oil accounts for almost two-thirds of the country’s total edible oil imports.
US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF): It is a non-profit organization, with the primary objective of strengthening the India-US bilateral and strategic partnership through policy advocacy in the fields of economic growth, entrepreneurship, employment-creation, and innovation.
The Assam Cabinet has decided that no government jobs will be given to persons having more than two children after January 1, 2021.
In September 2017, the Assam Assembly had passed the ‘Population and Women Empowerment Policy of Assam’ that specified that job candidates with two children only would be eligible for government employment and the existing government staff were to strictly follow the two children family norm.