2nd July 2018- The Hindu Editorial Complete Analysis

Table of Contents

Seychelles template

• New Delhi has clearly opted for a charm offensive in the Indian Ocean
Region (IOR).
• Seychelles President Danny Faure was in India
• Assumption Island agreement being put on hold
• It was about building a naval base on the island
• Discussion since 2003 & signed in 2015
• The deal was to include 30-year access to the base as well as permission to
station Indian military personnel on the ground, with facilities on the island
funded by India, owned by Seychelles and jointly managed.
• Opposition protests about loss of sovereignty
• Seychelles would build the naval facility “on its own”.
• India also announced a credit line of $100 million for Seychelles to purchase
defence equipment from India to build its maritime capacity, offered to
finance civilian infrastructure including the official buildings, and handed
over a Dornier aircraft for maritime surveillance purposes.

Risky recourse

• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA)
• Life Insurance Corporation of India to increase its stake in the ailing
state-owned IDBI Bank to 51%.
• IDBI placed under the Reserve Bank of India’s prompt corrective action
framework in May 2017 as a consequence of its non-performing assets
rising beyond a threshold.
• IDBI Bank got ₹12,865 crore in capital infusion from the government in
the last fiscal.
• The bank posted a net loss of ₹8,238 crore in the 12 months ended
March 31, 2018
• The government clearly sees it as a relatively painless way to
recapitalise the bleeding bank without adversely impacting its fiscal
position.
• State-controlled cash-rich corporations to help bail out other stateowned
companies or lenders are too significant to be glossed over.
Bhima-Koregaon and the fault in our laws
• Drawing attention to the multiple “Public Safety Acts” and “Defence
of India Acts” that had been the favourite weapons of the colonial
regime.
• Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA): vast discretionary powers
are conferred upon state agencies, judicial oversight is rendered
toothless, and personal liberty is set at naught.
• Section 43D(5) of the Act prohibits courts from granting bail
• effectively a warrant for perpetual imprisonment without trial.
• Maulana Hasrat Mohani: “so long as you do not prove anything openly
against anybody in a court of law, it should not be lawful to detain
anybody.”
• The power to keep citizens incarcerated for long periods of time, on
vague charges, and without affording them an opportunity to answer
their accusers in a swift and fair trial, is an anathema to democracy
and the rule of law.

Gearing up for space wars

• U.S. President Donald Trump: “space force” or a sixth branch of the
American armed forces
• Purpose: to deny the Russians and the Chinese advantages in space.
• Air Force: is not entirely enthusiastic about this new service
• James Mattis: ongoing missions, budgetary allocations, joint warfare
• Serious losses: spacecraft and debris, energy requirements are enormous
• American military goals, which are still undefined in space, could still
have consequences for India
• PAROS, or the prevention of an arms race in outer space
• For its part, New Delhi would do well to come out with an official
white paper on space weapons.
• More than their war-fighting attributes, space weapons have one
principal function — deterrence.
The dream of being an AI powerhouse
• NITI Aayog has chalked out an ambitious strategy for India to become
an artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse.
• Definition: AI is the use of computers to make decisions that are
normally made by humans.
• NITI Aayog envisions: agriculture, healthcare, education, smart cities
and infrastructure, and transport
• In agriculture, for example, machines will provide information to
farmers on the quality of soil, when to sow, where to spray herbicide,
and when to expect pest infestations.
• It’s an idea with great potential: India has 30 million farmers with
smartphones, but poor extension services.
• If computers help agricultural universities advise farmers on best
practices, India could see a farming revolution.
• The first problem is data.
• Unfortunately, India has sparse data in sectors like agriculture, and
this is already hampering AI-based businesses today.
• Bengaluru-based Intello Labs
• Climate-Connect, a Delhi-based firm, which uses AI to predict the
amount of power a solar plant will generate every 15 minutes.
• Deep learning needs data over many years to predict generation.
• Another problem for AI firms today is finding the right people.
• Can India then really become an “AI garage” for 40% of the world, as NITI Aayog envisions?
• AI is a collaborative process in which scientists developing solutions
for certain sectors need an intimate knowledge of those sectors.
• NITI Aayog’s ambitious road map does not mention deadlines or
funding.

Still thriving

• One tends to forget that the most populous of the Western countries,
the U.S., has a growing population and remains the most productive
and innovative in the world, as well as militarily the most powerful.
• The West continues to have most of the finest educational and
research facilities, and takes in the most brilliant and creative minds
from the rest of the world.
• The rich West hangs together
• Norway: with far fewer inhabitants than Bengaluru, that small Nordic
country has a sovereign pension fund of $1 trillion, the outcome of a
kind of prudence and foresight that ought to have left countries like
Venezuela, Nigeria and Congo enormously wealthy, if only those who
ran them had the integrity and wisdom to value public good over their
own.
• The robust legal and administrative systems in the West, the kind of
social security as well as democracy its people enjoy, the
accountability insisted upon, along with quick retribution of
wrongdoing makes life there so much more secure and predictable.
• And so, much as the world looks on the West as a spent force, there is
every reason to believe that it will dominate the 21st century, as it
has the two before that.
• The rest of the world badly needs a revolution in governance and
public accountability to overcome seemingly insurmountable
environmental, social and economic challenges.

Important News

• GST monthly revenue will exceed ₹1.1 lakh cr: Goyal
• A 216-foot-tall celebration of Ramanuja: The statue of the Bhakti saint
• Tax department launches ‘instant’ PAN card service
• Row over U.K.-India meet postponement
• Agni-V to be part of nuclear arsenal soon
• India’s longest-range ballistic missile, Agni-V, will be inducted into the nuclear
arsenal very soon, according to official sources.
• The Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) with a range of over 5,000 km can
reach most parts of China.
• INS Sahyadri wins praise for integrating yoga into regime
• Afghanistan bomber targeted convoy of Sikhs
• Iran vows to foil U.S. efforts to block its oil exports
• Is bioplastic a solution to plastic pollution?
1. When is the International Nurses Day celebrated every year?
A) May 12
B) May 13
C) May 14
D) May 15
2. Which Day is celebrated every year on second Saturday of
May?
A) World Forest Day
B) World Migratory Bird Day
C) World Family Day
D) World Water Day
Answers-
1. India signed USD 200 million loan deal with which
organisation for National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN
Abhiyaan)?
A) International Monetary Fund
B) Asian Development Bank
C) World Bank
D) United Nations
2. Who was elected as the new Prime Minister of
Malaysia?
A) Daim Zainuddin
B) Mahathir bin Mohamad
C) Najib Razak
D) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi