Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: India-Maldives relations
Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih issued a decree banning the ‘India Out’ campaign, now led by former President Abdulla Yameen, terming it a “threat to national security”.
The India-Out Campaign
- Maldivian protesters recently demanded the Solih administration to ‘stop selling national assets to foreigners’, implying India.
- ‘India Out’ campaign in Maldives had started sometime last year as on-ground protests in the Maldives and later widely spread across social media platforms under the same hashtag.
- It is not related to people-to-people conflict (Indian diaspora) but is discontent on close relationship between Maldivian government & India.
Causes for the anti-India sentiments
- Political instability: The anti-India sentiment is nearly a decade old and can be traced back to when Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom became president in 2013. He used anti-India sentiments for his political mobilization and started tilting China.
- Controversy over helicopter gift: Two Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters (ALF) that were given by India to the Maldives for ocean search-and-rescue operations. Opposition tried to portray this as military presence in the country.
- Confidential agreements: Most agreements being signed between the Ibrahim Solih government and India are backdoor and has not been publicly discussed in the Maldives Parliament.
- Alleged interference in domestic politics: India being a big neighbour, there are unsubstantiated perceptions & allegations on Indian Diplomats stationed in Maldives interfering in Domestic affairs.
Restoration of ties
- Ibrahim Mohamed Solih who became President in 2018 has restored Maldives close ties with India.
India-Maldives Relations: A backgrounder
- India and Maldives are neighbors sharing a maritime border.
- Both nations established diplomatic relations after the independence of Maldives from British rule in 1966.
- India was one of the first nations to recognize Maldives’ independence.
- Since then, India and Maldives have developed close strategic, military, economic and cultural relations.
- Maldivians generally regard Indians and India as a friend and trusted neighbor in the field economic, social and political.
Major irritants in ties
- Political Instability: India’s major concern has been the impact of political instability in the neighborhood on its security and development.
- Increasing radicalization: In the past decade or so, the number of Maldivians drawn towards terrorist groups like the Islamic State (IS) and Pakistan-based jihadist groups has been increasing.
- Inclination towards terror: Radicalism in the island nation has increased the possibility of Pakistan-based terror groups using remote Maldivian islands as a launch pad for terror attacks against India and Indian interests.
- Chinese affinity: China’s strategic footprint in India’s neighborhood has increased. The Maldives has emerged as an important ‘pearl’ in China’s “String of Pearls” construct in South Asia.
Recent gestures by India
[1] 2014 Malé drinking-water crisis
- In the wake of a drinking water crisis in Malé in December 2014, following collapse of the island’s only water treatment plant, Maldives urged India for immediate help.
- India came to rescue by sending its heavy lift transporters like C-17 Globemaster III, Il-76 carrying bottled water.
[2] 2020 Covid-19 crisis
- During the COVID-19 crisis of 2020, India extended help to Maldives in the form of financial, material and logistical support.
- Also, the IAF airlifted 6.2 tonnes of essential medicines and hospital consumables to Maldives, as part of ‘Operation Sanjeevani’.
[3] Greater Male Connectivity Project
- India has recently announced the signing of a $500-million infrastructure project for the construction of the Greater Malé Connectivity Project (GMCP).
- This infrastructure project, the largest-ever by India in the Maldives, involves the construction of a 6.74-km-long bridge and causeway link.
Why is Maldives significant for India?
- Increasing maritime cooperation: As maritime economic activity in the Indian Ocean has risen dramatically in recent decades, the geopolitical competition too in the Indian Ocean has intensified.
- Toll Gate in Indian Ocean: It is situated at the hub of commercial sea-lanes running through the Indian Ocean. More than 97% of India’s international trade by volume and 75% by value passes through the region.
- Naval cooperation: Maldives is an important partner in India’s role as the net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region.
- Important SAARC member: Besides, Maldives is a member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC).
- People To People Contact: There is a significant population of Maldivian students in India. They are aided by a liberal visa-free regime extended by India. There is also medical tourism.
- Major destination for Tourists: Tourism is the mainstay of the Maldivian economy. The country is now a major tourist destination for some Indians and a job destination for others.
Conclusion
- There is a significant Indian diaspora in the Maldives. Innumerable Indians work across the hospitality, education, and health-care sectors of the Maldives economy.
- India must use its Diaspora more extensively for strengthening its relations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SPACs
Mains level: Not Much
The government is reportedly considering a regulatory framework for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to lay the ground for the possible listing of Indian companies through this route in the future.
What are SPACs?
- An SPAC, or a blank-cheque company, is an entity specifically set up with the objective of acquiring a firm in a particular sector.
- They aim to raise money in an initial public offering (IPO) without any operations or revenues.
- The money that is raised from the public is kept in an escrow account, which can be accessed while making the acquisition.
- If the acquisition is not made within two years of the IPO, the SPAC is delisted and the money is returned to the investors.
- While SPACs are essentially shell companies, a key factor that makes them attractive to investors are the people who sponsor them.
- Globally, prominent celebrities have participated in SPACs.
Why in news?
- According to reports, the Company Law Committee was set up in 2019 to make recommendations to boost ease of doing business in India.
- This committee has made this suggestion regarding SPACs in its report submitted to the government recently.
- The concept of SPAC has existed for nearly a decade now, and several investors and company promoters have used this route to take their investments public.
- The vehicle gained momentum in 2020, which was a record year for SPAC deals; this record was broken in 2021.
Where does India stand?
- Early last year, renewable energy producer ReNew Power announced an agreement to merge with RMG Acquisition Corp II, a blank-cheque company.
- This became the first involving an Indian company during the latest boom in SPAC deals.
- As things stand now, the Indian regulatory framework does not allow the creation of blank cheque companies.
- The Companies Act, 2013 stipulates that the Registrar of Companies can strike off a company if it does not commence operations within a year of incorporation.
Risk factors around SPACs
- The boom in investor firms going for SPACs and then looking for target companies have tilted the scales in favour of investee firms.
- This has the potential, theoretically, to limit returns for retail investors post-merger.
- SPACs are mandated to return money to their investors in the event no merger is made within two years.
- However the fineprint of several SPAC prospectuses shows that certain clauses could potentially prevent investors from getting their monies back.
- Historically, though, this has not happened yet.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Europa
Mains level: Hunt for extra-terrestrial life
A team of researchers from Stanford University have said that on one of Jupiter’s moons Europa, a prime candidate for life in the solar system might have abundance of water pockets beneath formations called double ridges.
About Europa
- Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and its diameter is about one-quarter that of the Earth.
- Even though Europa has a very thin oxygen atmosphere, it is considered one of the most promising places in the solar system to find present-day environments that are suitable for life beyond the Earth.
- It is also believed that underneath Europa’s icy surface the amount of water is twice that on Earth.
- NASA notes that scientists believe Europa’s ice shell is 15-25 km thick and is floating on an ocean, which is estimated to be 60-150 km deep.
- Interestingly, while its diameter is less than the Earth’s, Europa probably contains twice the amount of the water in all of the Earth’s oceans.
- NASA is expected to launch its Europa Clipper in 2024.
- The module will orbit Jupiter and conduct multiple close flybys to Europa to gather data on the moon’s atmosphere, surface and its interior.
What is the new finding?
- It is already known that Europa, whose surface is mostly solid water ice, contains water beneath it.
- The researchers are now saying that the double ridges – the formations which are most common on Europa’s surface and are similar to those seen on Earth’s Greenland ice sheet .
- They are formed over shallow pockets of water.
Significance of the recent findings
- The central implication is that the shallow water pockets beneath the double ridge increase the potential habitability of the moon.
- The ice shell, which is potentially miles thick, has been a difficult prospect for scientists to sample.
- But according to the new evidence, the ice shell is believed to be less of a barrier and more of a dynamic system.
- This means that the ice shell does not behave like an inert block of ice, but rather undergoes a variety of geological and hydrological processes.
- This suggests active volcanism and thus a possibility for life.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sarmat Missile
Mains level: ICBMs
Amidst stiff resistance from Ukraine in the ongoing war and harsh sanctions imposed by the West, Russia went ahead and tested its new Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Sarmat.
What is Sarmat?
- The RS-28 Sarmat (NATO name Satan-II) is reported to be able to carry ten or more warheads and decoys
- It has the capability of firing over either of the earth’s poles with a range of 11,000 to 18,000 km.
- It is expected to pose a significant challenge to the ground-and-satellite-based radar tracking systems of the western powers, particularly the USA.
- The ten warheads are Multiple Independently-Targetable Re-entry Vehicles and each has a blast yield of .75 MT.
- The Sarmat will also be the first Russian missile which can carry smaller hypersonic boost-glide vehicles. These are manoeuvrable and hard to intercept.
- It is a liquid-fuelled missile as compared to US ICBMs which have moved on to solid fuel systems.
Who is it named after?
- The Sarmat is named after nomadic tribes that roamed the steppes of present-day Southern Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the early medieval period.
- Sarmatians were highly developed in horsemanship and warfare.
- It goes on to say that the administrative capabilities and political expertise of Sarmatians contributed to their gaining widespread influence and by the 5th century BC.
- They held control of the land between the Urals and the Don River.
- In the 4th century they crossed the Don and conquered the Scythians, replacing them as rulers of almost all of southern Russia by the 2nd century.
Was Russia known to be developing this missile?
- It was widely known that Russia was developing a new ICBM to replace its older ones.
- An announcement in this regard was made by Vladimir Putin in 2018 while making his State of the Nation address to the Federal Assembly.
- He had stated at the time that the first Regiment fully armed with Sarmat ICBM will be operational by the end of 2022.
- The deteriorating relations between Russia and the Western Powers is said to have given an impetus to its development.
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