Table of Contents
Myanmar’s growing dependence on China
- Xi Jinping’s state visit to Myanmar last week
- The last visit by a Chinese President took place in 2001
- Indicator of the region’s changing geopolitics, reflecting adversely on the West and its allies.
- The present leadership of Myanmar feels compelled to keep moving closer to Beijing.
- China-Myanmar to have 2+2 ministerial meet also.
- Traditional “pauk-phaw” (fraternal) ties
- The relationship should encompass not only the governments but also the two peoples.
- Economic dimension: China has been Myanmar’s top partner for years.
- China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) a vital component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
- Kyaukphyu special economic zone
- China-Myanmar border economic zone
- New urban development of Yangon City
- There was no mention of Myitsone dam.
- China’s full support is for Myanmar.
- Beijing has positioned itself as the great defender of Myanmar’s legitimate rights, interests and national dignity at a time when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is about to pronounce on the charges of genocide against the Myanmar military.
- China’s growing relations with Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar is a challenge for India.
- Connectivity Electricity Energy Transportation Agriculture Finance Livelihood for both peoples
Untapped soft power
- Ravi Shankar Prasad: film industry is largely immune to the recession that is slowing down other major industries.
- Media and entertainment industry was amongst the fastest-growing sectors with a growth rate of 13%. India produces the maximum number of films in a year worldwide.
- It is still far from being recognised as an important sector for the government.
- Deeming the entertainment sector as a ‘luxury’ sector undermines its soft power.
- Siddharth Roy Kapur: spread of American content helped create desirability for the American dream.
- For a population of 1.37 billion people, India has less than 10,000 screens, of which 6,700 are single screens.
- China has about 60,000 screens for a population of 1.4 billion.
- The industry employs a vast number of technicians and creative professionals.
- Film education in the U.S. is accorded the same importance given to journalism or biotechnology.
- American states provide incentives such as tax shelters, cash rebates and grants to productions taking place in their territories.
- Films also generate seasonal employment by hiring local staff and parts of the crew.
- With high export potential, the content created helps disseminate the uniqueness of India’s culture.
Think climate change action, act glocal
- The annual Conference of the Parties (COP25), held in Madrid in December 2019, was a failure.
- Wealthy countries’ attitude is dangerous.
- Next CoP will be held at Glasgow, U.K. (in late 2020)
- There may be little change in the outcomes
- Climate activism is increasing awareness.
- Expert: parallel action COP at future summits
- Stalemate at the global level offers India the opportunity to focus earnestly on developing its climate change action at State and sub-State levels.
- India is extremely vulnerable to the effects of warming.
- Attention to climate change offers cobenefits to India for development.
- State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs)
- Ultimately, climate should be part and parcel of all thinking on development.
- Improving energy efficiency in industry reduces costs and local pollution
- Improving public transport reduces congestion, pollution and improves access
- Using natural farming methods reduces fossil fuel-based fertilizers,
- improves soil health and biodiversity.
WHO’s unexplained hesitancy
- Spread of coronavirus across China and three other countries.
- WHO’s updates have come in dribs and drabs.
- The confirmation that healthcare workers are also infected strengthens the evidence that the virus has already acquired the ability to spread among humans.
- On many occasions, the WHO has been accused of not acting on time, especially when new and dangerous viruses make thousands sick and kill many.
The flawed spin to India’s cotton story
- Genetically Modified (GM) pest resistant Bt cotton hybrids have captured the Indian market since their introduction in 2002.
- These now cover over 95% of the area under cotton, with the seeds produced entirely by the private sector.
- India’s cotton production in 2019 is projected as the highest ever: 354 lakh bales.
- This year, India is expected to be the world’s largest cotton producer, surpassing China in output.
- Extending GM technology to increase food crop yield
- India’s productivity (yield per unit area), is much lower than other major cotton-producing countries, meaning a much larger area is used for cotton production.
- India is the only country that grows cotton as hybrids and the first to develop hybrid cotton back in 1970.
- Hybrids are made by crossing two parent strains having different genetic characters.
- All other cotton-producing countries grow cotton not as hybrids but varieties for which seeds are produced by selffertilization.
- Using hybrids gives pricing control to the seed company and also ensures a continuous market.
- Increased yield from a hybrid is supposed to justify the high cost of hybrid seeds.
- Varieties are planted at high density (5 kg seeds/acre), whereas hybrids in India are bushy, long duration and planted at tenfold lower density (0.5 kg seeds/acre).
- Cotton is a dryland crop and 65% of area under cotton in India is rain-fed.
- Before GM cotton, when India persisted with hybrids from 1980-2002, while other countries shifted to HDP.
- The scope of evaluation by the GM regulatory process in India was narrow, and did not take this into account.
Agricultural distress is extremely high among cotton farmers.
- India is a signatory to international treaties on GMO regulation (the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety), which specifically provide for the inclusion of socio-economic considerations in GMO risk assessment.
- hybrids versus varieties agro-economic conditions Brazil + Turkey have achieved high productivity without the use of GM cotton by using alternative pest management approaches.
Playing with learning
- Annual Status of Education Report 2019: pre-school system fails to give children a strong foundation, especially in government-run facilities.
- Skills: ability to verbalise, count, calculate and make comparisons Indicates an apparent imbalance in State policies.
- Governments approach funding of institutions and teacher training for better outcomes.
Ending inaction
- “It is time Parliament rethinks on whether disqualification petitions ought to be entrusted to a Speaker as a quasi-judicial authority when such Speaker continues to belong to a particular political party either de jure or de facto,” bench led by justice RF Nariman
- Parliament may seriously consider amending the Constitution to “substitute” Speakers of the Lok Sabha and Assemblies as “arbiter of disputes concerning disqualifications” which arise under the Tenth Schedule “with a permanent tribunal”.
- This could be headed by a retired SC judge or a retired chief justice of a HC or some outside independent mechanism to ensure that such disputes are decided swiftly and impartially, thus giving real teeth to the provisions contained in the Tenth Schedule.
- The Tenth Schedule was inserted in the Constitution in 1985.
- It lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the House.
- A legislator is deemed to have defected if he
- either voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or
- disobeys the directives of the party leadership on a vote
- This implies that a legislator defying (abstaining or voting against) the party whip on any issue can lose his membership of the House.
- The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.
- The question awaiting determination by a larger Bench is whether courts have the power to direct Speakers to decide petitions seeking disqualification within a fixed time frame.
- Finding several pending complaints before Speakers, the Bench, in 2016, decided that it was time for an authoritative verdict on whether Speakers can be directed to dispose of defection questions within a time frame.
NEWS
- SC refuses to stay citizenship law without hearing the govt.
- Centre seeks guidelines on execution of convicts
- India drops 10 ranks in Democracy Index
- MBS may be linked to Bezos phone hack: UN experts
- Cabinet clears ₹4,372 cr. for six NIT campuses
- Coronavirus: 9,156 air passengers screened
- Cabinet approves pact with Brazil on legal cooperation
- Interpol notice against Nithyananda
- President confers Bal Shakti Puraskar on 49
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