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The unifier of modern India

Princely States & 3 options

Stick with India
Stick with Pak
Stay independent

“By far the most important achievement of the present government is the unification of the States into the Dominion of India. Had you failed in this, the results would have been disastrous… Nothing has added to the prestige of the present government more than the brilliant policy you have followed with the States.” – Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India
Patel’s sole aim: to build a strong and united India.
‘Operation Polo’: integration of Hyderabad
In a swift operation lasting five days, Hyderabad State was liberated in September 1948.
“Hyderabad, a State covering 80,000 square miles in the heart of peninsular India, was at that time in the grip of an unscrupulous minority which aimed at secession from India. Had the bid succeeded, India might not have survived as a political unit. This situation needed a man of iron who would not balk at coercive action, and in the Sardar, India had at that vital moment just the man.” – W. Gordon Graham, Christian Science Monitor
The complicated case of Junagarh, Gujarat, was also handled with dexterity by Patel.
The problem of Jammu and Kashmir would have been resolved long back had Sardar Patel been given a free hand to handle it at that time.
“Bloodless Revolution” by Sardar Patel
Patel was an ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi and never swerved in his loyalty to his mentor, although there were occasions when he differed with him.
Similarly, he did not see eye-to-eye with Jawaharlal Nehru on certain issues, including the handling of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Iron Man of India was the chief architect of India’s steel frame — the civil services.
“Officers must be guided by a real spirit of service in their day-to-day administration, for in no other manner can they fit in the scheme of things. Your predecessors were brought up in the traditions in which they felt out of touch and kept themselves aloof from the common run of the people. It will be your bounden duty to treat the common men in India as your own or to put it correctly, to feel yourself to be one of them.” – Sardar Patel
Withdraw of his candidacy for the post of Congress President in favour of Pandit Nehru in 1946.
As we pay our tributes to the great statesman on his birth anniversary today, on October 31, let us try to emulate his qualities and work towards realising his dream of providing ‘Suraaj’ in a new and prosperous India.

Universities and patents

Universities and patents benefit each other.
Patents help universities to improve their ranking, establish an innovation ecosystem, incubate knowledge-based start-ups, earn additional revenue and measure research activity.
University Grants Commission asks all unis to set up Intellectual Property (IP) Centres.
We simply do not have enough IP professionals in the country.
The Central government conducts the only competitive examination in the country to check a person’s proficiency in IP.
Fine-tuning the patent agent examination to cater to the growing IP needs of the country can be a successful way to build a band of professionals and create career opportunities.
Upon clearing it the person is entitled to practise before the Patent Office as a registered patent agent. • The number of patents applied for, granted and commercialised by universities and institutes is factored in in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings: no surprise that the top ranked engineering institutes in India are also the leading filers of patents.

Averting polarisation

The decision of a Bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi to put off even the exercise of fixing a date for the final hearing is quite pragmatic.
There are voices for an ordinance to enable the construction of a temple.
A solution, unless judicially driven, is unlikely to command constitutional legitimacy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address in 2014, had called for a 10-year moratorium on communal and sectarian issues.

Zia, cornered

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s conviction in yet another case of corruption
She has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment.
Sense of vengeance prevails between two major political party in B’desh.
Bangladesh under Awami rule has recorded steady economic growth and has had creditable successes in welfare delivery and public health measures, seen tangibly in the lowered infant mortality and fertility rates and in sanitation. Define ‘strategic partners’
U.S. President Donald Trump has turned down an invitation from India to attend next year’s Republic Day parade as the chief guest.
The t-word need not be a dirty one in international diplomacy.
Indian conceptions emphasise technology transfers and intelligence-sharing, while U.S. conceptions envision deep levels of operational cooperation.

Important News

CBI officer moves SC for SIT probe in Asthana case
Ajay Kumar Bassi, the CBI officer who probed corruption allegations against the agency’s Special Director, R.K. Asthana, before he was removed from the case, approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday with a plea to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the case.
Purohit, Sadhvi indicted in Malegaon case
Ten years after a motorcycle bomb exploded at Malegaon in Maharashtra, killing six persons, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday framed charges against seven accused.
Jaitley blames RBI for crisis of bad loans
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday criticised the Reserve Bank of India for failing to check the “indiscriminate lending” between 2008 and 2014 that had led to the present bad loan crisis in the banking industry.
‘India among nations that face grave danger to soil biodiversity’
Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas prepared by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The WWF’s ‘risk index’ for the globe — indicating threats from loss of aboveground diversity, pollution and nutrient over-loading, over-grazing, intensive agriculture, fire, soil erosion, desertification and climate change — shows India among countries whose soil biodiversity faces the highest level of risk. Coloured red on the Atlas, these include Pakistan, China, several countries in Africa and Europe, and most of North America.
Soil biodiversity encompasses the presence of micro-organisms, micro-fauna (nematodes and tardigrades for example), and macro-fauna (ants, termites and earthworms).
The findings were part of the bi-annual Living Planet Report (LPR) 2018. “A key aspect of this year’s report is the threat to soil biodiversity and pollinators [such as bees],” Ravi Singh, CEO, WWF-India, said.
India invites Italian firms to invest in defence sector
The invitation was extended during the high-level discussion between visiting Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which also included an agreement to counter terror financing and state sponsors of terrorism.

Financial News

CP redemptions keep NBFCs on edge
With commercial papers (CPs) worth ₹1 lakh crore coming up for redemption by mid-November, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) are in a quandary on how to tide over the liquidity crisis. The estimate is from two bankers who did not wish to be quoted.
While large lenders are sitting on comfortable liquidity, it is the mid and small NBFCs and MFIs that are likely to face the crunch.
Banks and mutual funds are the main sources of funding for housing finance companies and other NBFCs.
While banks contribute about 40% of the funding, MFs contribute 30%.
According to estimates, 55% of NBFC papers with mutual funds have less than 90 days maturity, which could lead to redemption pressures.