Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Quad members
Mains level: Paper 2- Future course of action for Quad
The article discusses the future course of action for the Quad and issues it faces in the present circumstances.
Evolution of the Quad
- In 2007, the Quad (the United States, Japan, India, and Australia) was an idea whose time had not yet come.
- The global financial crisis was yet to happen as America continued to enjoy its ‘unipolar moment’.
- The American still expected China to become a ‘responsible stake-holder’.
- America required Chinese goodwill in handling issues with North Korea and Iran, and the War on Terror.
- Japan and Australia were riding the China Boom to prosperity.
- If India was ambivalent at the time, it was because this mirrored the uncertainties of others.
China’s reaction and naval expansion
- When the idea of Quad was barely on the table; the Chinese, labelled it as an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
- The real reason for China’s hyperreaction was out of concern that such a grouping would “out” China’s plans for naval expansion by focusing on the Indo-Pacific maritime space.
- Once the idea of Quad 1.0 had died down, China advanced a new claim — the Nine-Dash Line — in the South China Sea.
- It undertook the rapid kind of warship building activity
- It built its first overseas base in Djibouti.
- It started systematically to explore the surface and sub-surface environment in the Indian Ocean beyond the Malacca Straits.
- China’s dismissal of the Arbitral Award in the dispute with the Philippines on the South China Sea and its militarization of the islands has given a second chance to the Quad.
Quad: A plurilateral mechanism
- The Quad nations need to better explain that the Indo-Pacific Vision is an overarching framework being discussed in a transparent manner.
- They should also explain that the objective of Indo-Pacific vision is of advancing everyone’s economic and security interests.
- The Quad is a plurilateral mechanism between countries that share interest on specific matters.
- In 2016, China itself established a Quadrilateral Cooperation and Coordination Mechanism with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
- The Quad is no exception.
Way forward
- The forthcoming Ministerial Quad meeting will be an opportunity to define the idea and chart a future path.
- Needless provocation of China should be avoided.
- Other countries might be invited to join in the future.
- An outreach to the Indian Ocean littoral states is especially important since there are reports from some quarters suggesting that India is seeking to deny access to some extra-regional countries through the Indian Ocean.
Conclusion
A positive agenda built around collective action in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, monitoring shipping for search and rescue or anti-piracy operations, infrastructure assistance to climatically vulnerable states, connectivity initiatives and similar activities, will re-assure the littoral States that the Quad will be a factor for regional benefit, and a far cry from Chinese allegations that it is some sort of a military alliance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Eight Schedule
Mains level: Paper 2- Eighth Schedule and related issues
The article discusses the issues with excessive attention given to Hindi and how the neglect of another language could lead to the loss of language and the way of life associated with it as well.
Debate in Constituent Assembly and issues in the adoption of Hindi
- The issue of adopting a national language could not be resolved when the Constituent Assembly began drafting India’s Constitution.
- Members from the Hindi-speaking provinces who moved a number of pro-Hindi amendments and argued for adopting Hindi as the sole national language.
- Widespread resistance to the imposition of Hindi led to the passage of the Official Languages Act of 1963, which provided for the continued use of English for all official purposes.
- Hindi became the sole working language of the Union government by 1965 with the State governments free to function in the language of their choice.
- The constitutional directive for the Union government to encourage the spread of Hindi was retained within Central government entities in non-Hindi-speaking States.
Issues with the Eighth Schedule
- According to the 2001 Census, India has 30 languages that are spoken by more than a million people each.
- The Constitution lists 22 languages and protects them in the eighth schedule.
- Many languages are kept out of this schedule even if they deserve to be included.
- This includes Tulu which is spoken by over 1.8 million people and has inscriptions dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries.
- While Hindi, a much younger Indo-Aryan language, has been gaining prominence since before independence.
- When a refined language loses its status in literary and daily interactions, the way of life associated with it also vanishes.
- The Census found that while Hindi is the fastest growing language, the number of speakers of other languages has dropped.
Way forward
- While discussing Hindi and its use, let us also focus on the merit of other Indian languages.
- Instead of focusing on one national language, we should learn a language beyond the mother tongue and get to know a different way of life too.
Conclusion
If we don’t protect and promote other well-evolved or endangered and indigenous languages, our future generations may end up never understanding their ‘real’ roots and culture
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission
Mains level: Significance of Venture Capital Fund for Schedule caste
Union Social Justice Minister launched the Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission(ASIIM) under Venture Capital Fund for SCs, with a view to promoting innovation and enterprise among SC students studying in higher educational institutions.
What is ASIIM ?
- Under Ambedkar Social Innovation Incubation Mission initiative, one thousand SC youth will be identified in the next four years with start-up ideas through the Technology Business Incubators in various higher educational institutions.
- They will be funded 30 lakh rupees in three years as equity funding to translate their start-up ideas into commercial ventures.
- Successful ventures would further qualify for venture funding of up to five Crore rupees from the Venture Capital Fund for SCs.
Venture Capital Fund for SCs:
- The Social Justice Ministry had launched the Venture Capital Fund for SCs in 2014-15 with a view to developing entrepreneurship amongst the SC and Divyang youth and to enable them to become job-givers.
- The objective of this fund is to provide concessional finance to the entities of the SC entrepreneurs. Under this fund, 117 companies promoted by SC entrepreneurs have been sanctioned financial assistance to set up business ventures.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sawantwadi toys
Mains level: NA
Context- Online Release of Picture Postcard on Sawantwadi Toy by India Post.
What are Sawantwadi toys ?
- Sawantwadi toys refers to hand made works of art made of wood in Sawantwadi a town in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. Most of these toys are made in the village of Kolgaon in Sawantwadi taluka.
- These toys are made from the wood of the Indian Coral tree (Erythrina variegata).
- Craftsmen who make these toys belong to the Chittari community who came to Sawantwadi from Karwar and Goa.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kanaklata Barua
Mains level: Role of women in Indian National Movement
A Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV) named ICGS Kanaklata Barua was commissioned in the Indian Coast Guard on Wednesday, in Kolkata. It is named after a teenage freedom fighter who was shot dead in Assam during the Quit India Movement.
Who was Kanaklata Barua ?
- One of the youngest martyrs of the Quit India Movement, Kanaklata Barua has iconic status in Assam. Barua.
- Then 17, led the Mukti Bahini, a procession of freedom fighters to unfurl the Tricolour at Gohpur police station on September 20, 1942. When police did not let them move forward, an altercation led to firing, killing Barua at the head of the procession.
- She had joined the Mrityu Bahini [a kind of a suicide squad] just two days before the incident. The squad strictly admitted members aged 18 and above but Kanaklata was an exception. She wanted to lead the procession and after much persuasion she was allowed to.
- Even as Barua fell to bullets, she did not let go of the flag. She did not want it to touch the ground. Another woman volunteer behind her — Mukunda Kakoty — came and held the flag, and she, too, was shot.
How important is her legacy ?
- 1940’s was a time where you saw a lot of women coming to the fore, leading processions, patriotic fervour was at its peak — and Kanaklata was a product of this time.
- There are schools named after her, there are two statues, there is a ship. While we see her as an icon now, people in her village hated her then — she was a rebel, who questioned patriarchy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kelkar committee and defense offset
Mains level: Procurement of defense equipments
What are defence offsets ?
- In simplest terms, the offset is an obligation by an international player to boost India’s domestic defence industry if India is buying defence equipment from it.
- Since defence contracts are costly, the government wants part of that money either to benefit the Indian industry, or to allow the country to gain in terms of technology.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) defined offsets as a “mechanism generally established with the triple objectives of: (a) partially compensating for a significant outflow of a buyer country’s resources in a large purchase of foreign goods (b) facilitating induction of technology and (c) adding capacities and capabilities of domestic industry”.
When was the policy introduced?
- The policy was adopted on the recommendations of the Vijay Kelkar Committee in 2005.
- The idea was that since India has been buying a lot of defence equipment from foreign countries, so that India can leverage its buying power by making them discharge offset obligations, which is the norm world over.
- The Sixth Standing Committee on Defence (2005-06) had recommended in December 2005 in its report on Defence Procurement Policy and Procedure that modalities for implementation of offset contracts should be worked out.
- The first offset contract was signed in 2007.
How can a foreign vendor fulfil its offset obligations?
- There are multiple routes. Until 2016, the vendor had to declare around the time of signing the contract the details about how it will go about it. In April 2016, the new policy amended it to allow it to provide it “either at the time of seeking offset credits or one year prior to discharge of offset obligations”.
- Investment in ‘kind’ in terms of transfer of technology (TOT) to Indian enterprises, through joint ventures or through the non-equity route for eligible products and services.
- Investment in ‘kind’ in Indian enterprises in terms of provision of equipment through the non-equity route for manufacture and/or maintenance of products and services.
- Provision of equipment and/or TOT to government institutions and establishments engaged in the manufacture and/or maintenance of eligible products, and provision of eligible services, including DRDO (as distinct from Indian enterprises).
- Technology acquisition by DRDO in areas of high technology.
Will no defence contracts have offset clauses now ?
- Only government-to-government agreements (G2G), ab initio single vendor contracts or inter-governmental agreements (IGA) will not have offset clauses anymore. For example, the deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets, signed between the Indian and French governments in 2016, was an IGA.
- IGA is an agreement between two countries, and could be an umbrella contract, under which you can go on signing individual contracts. G2G is transaction specific, or an acquisition specific agreement.
Why was the clause removed?
- Vendors would “load” extra cost in the contract to balance the costs, and doing away with the offsets can bring down the costs in such contracts.
Conclusion- The CAG is not very hopeful of the obligations being met by 2024. It said the audit “found that the foreign vendors made various offset commitments to qualify for the main supply contract but later, were not earnest about fulfilling these commitments”.
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