The Hindu Editorial News Analysis 29th Dec 2017

Government has meanwhile proposed to hike the salaries and pensions of the judges,
with the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service)
Amendment Bill, 2017.

The tribal issue

• Given that the BJP won only 21 seats against the 28
  seats won by the Congress in the 60-member
  Assembly in the 2017 elections.
• Special effort to maintain a stable coalition government
  1)-21 BJP,
  2)-4 Nagaland People’s Front,
  3)-4 National People’s Party and
  4)-One Lok Janshakti Party MLAs.
• A proposed memorial to a Meitei king could send the wrong signal in Manipur
• Ibobi Singh, whose government passed three controversial bills in August 2015 the Protection of Manipur People Bill, the Manipur Land Revenue and Land
  Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, and the Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill — which upset the tribals and led to violent protests.

Testing times

• Central government has been working hard address India’s twin balance sheet problem, but
  it hasn’t had much to show in the form of results.
• Financial Stability Report released by the RBI, for one, suggests that India is still far
  away from solving the troubles ailing its banks and large business corporations.
• According to the report released last week, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in the
  banking system as a whole rose to 10.2% at the end of Sep, from 9.6% at the end of March.
• Report released by CARE Ratings, puts India •fifth among significant economies with the
  most NPAs.
• RBI expects NPAs continue to rise to as high as 11.1% of total outstanding loans by Sep2018
• Private bank NPAs increased by almost 41%, as compared to 17% in the case of public sector banks at the end of September
• Hope as credit growth has begun to turn corner and shown faster growth on a year-on-year
• Reforms undertaken until now -New Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
• National Company Law Tribunal
• Recapitalisation of public sector banks
• Structural reforms alone offer a viable long-term solution to the bad loans mess.

Growing forests

• Scientific national plan to expand good green cover is absolutely essential
• Disclosure in Parliament that the Centre is not ready with the rules to implement the
  Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016
• Demonstrates(दर्शातश है) that the government’s of environmental objectives,
• 1)-Including major commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change
• 2)-The Sustainable Development Goals, remains woefully(बुरी तरह) weak.
• The task is to make an assessment of suitable lands, preferably contiguous with protected
  areas that can be turned over for management to a joint apparatus consisting of forest
  department staff•and scientific experts
• The evidence on compensatory afforestation in a big project such as the Sardar Sarovar Dam, for instance, is not encouraging
• Sustainably managed forests is a key component of the commitment made under the Paris
  Agreement
• already a Green India Mission, which is distinct from the framework envisaged for
  compensatory afforestation.
• What the Centre needs do is to enable independent audit of all connected programmes, in order to sensibly deploy the financial resources now available.
• It must be emphasised, however, that replacing a natural forest with a plantation does
  not really serve the cause of nature, wildlife
• It is worth pointing out that the method used to calculate the net present value of forests.
• Some of the momentum for compensatory a•fforestation has come from judicial directives ,but now that there is a new law in place, it should be given a foundation of rules that rest on scientific credibility.

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

• Page-1– Bill to criminalise triple talaq passed in Lok Sabha
• Government refuses Congress’s plea for review by House panel
• 

• Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

• Page-6- WHO to classify ‘gaming disorder’ as mental health condition
• ‘About 7% of population studied had depressive symptoms’
• With more and more youngsters getting hooked to video
  games, both online and off-line, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is set to
  classify gaming disorder as a mental health condition next year.
• WHO has included gaming disorder in its list of mental health conditions
• Including behavioural changes and sleep disturbances
• Page-6– ‘India leads in global milk production’
• everal schemes initiated to double dairy farmers’ income: Agriculture Minister
• Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on
  Thursday said during the past three years, India has
  outpaced the global milk production with an annual
  growth rate of 5.53% compared with the 2.09%
  achieved globally.
• working on a National Action Plan Vision 2022, where along with enhancing the
• outreach of dairy cooperatives to additional villages and milk producers.
• ‘68 Yemenis killed in 2 Saudi-led air raids’
• Bitcoin too small in India to be regulated’
• Sector is too small to be regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or Finance Minister
• Bali’s beaches disappearing under mounds of garbage

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