Table of Contents
Helping Kerala and National Pride
• Rs 700 crore of aid from UAE to Kerala to help rebuild flood-ravaged
• Shivshankar Menon and Nirupama Rao (both ex Indian Foreign Service)
both have tweeted hinting at the need for some exception to be made in this case.
• Why India is declining foreign financial aid?
• India is perhaps fearing that accepting financial aid could compromise its independence in decision making.
• This apprehension is misplaced in the present situation, as it cannot be anyone’s case that India of today would be vulnerable to undesirable pressures if it accepts humanitarian aid.
• Cold War era: 2 categories of aid, military and economic
• Both types of aids were often used as instruments of foreign policy – mainly by the US and erstwhile USSR – to influence decisions in donee nations.
• Humanitarian assistance, the 3 rd category aid, was on the other hand,
not used to achieve strategic objectives even then.
• e.g. when the US cut off aid to Pakistan in 1979 upon evidence that it had covertly acquired uranium enrichment technology, the Carter administration exempted food aid from the sanctions.
• During the Cold War many nations, including India, relied heavily on the largesse of the major donor nations.
• Yet India showed the courage to accept US aid without compromising India’s foreign policy and pursued its strategy of non-alignment with unwavering commitment.
• It was not that US aid was limited, it was diverse and extensive.
• It was so huge that Washington, not knowing what to do with much of the Indian currency it had accumulated under PL480 rupee payments, got its ambassador Patrick Moynihan to sign off to India, in February 1974, the largest cheque until then (Rs 1,664 crore).
• This was at a time when India’s economy was only a shadow of what it is today, and the nation more vulnerable.
• Today the situation is very different. Cold War is history, India is not the India of yesteryear and the aid in question is purely humanitarian assistance
• The second reason for opposing aid is that India has purportedly become a large economic power today.
• We would be wise in not forgetting that our poor are amongst the poorest in the world and we rank 140th among nations in per capita income.
• Especially during human disasters, there is no room for vainglory.
• Providing speedy and effective mitigation during natural disasters is also an issue of human rights.
• Even the most advanced nations do not let their economic power hinder the acceptance of humanitarian aid in calamities
• A IL-76 aircraft of the squadron piloted by Group Captain Rajat Sharma, has just returned after flying 22 tonnes of specialised relief material ranging from blankets, tarpaulins to personal hygiene kits to victims of the Katrina hurricane disaster, which the pilot said was ‘graciously accepted by the US authorities’.
• “They were graciously accepted by the US authorities.” • When the world’s only superpower and a nation with a per capita income over 50 times that of India in 2005 (when Katrina struck) could accept a measly $5 million as aid from India, what kind of self-pride are we worrying about?
• In 2011, when Japan was struck by earthquake, 179 countries and territories sent aid to, what was until a year before, the world’s second largest economy.
• Both men and material poured into the country. Japan even accepted aid from China – a nation with which it has several disputes – and assistance of $7 million from Thailand, whose per capita income was then only 11.4% of Japan’s.
• The fear of the government that accepting humanitarian aid would compromise India’s independence in policy is exaggerated.
• In today’s interdependent world, nations are moving towards a paradigm where natural calamity in one nation is seen as a calamity everywhere, with human lives as the rallying cause and lesser importance ascribed to nationalities.
PMO
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today reviewed the progress made towards rollout of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, under
Ayushman Bharat.
• Chairing the 28th interaction through PRAGATI in New Delhi, Mr Modi
also reviewed the progress of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi
Pariyojana.
• During the interaction, he took stock of the progress in resolution of
grievances related to income tax.
• The Prime Minister reiterated that all systems should be made
technology-driven and human interface should be reduced to the
minimum.
• Noting the progress made in bringing corrupt officials to book, the
Prime Minister said that the various initiatives and measures taken by
the Income Tax Department to facilitate the people, should be
communicated to all taxpayers suitably.
• Mr Modi also reviewed the progress of nine important infrastructure
projects in the railway, road, and petroleum sectors.
• These projects are spread over several states including Andhra
Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha,
Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
SC
• The Supreme Court has ruled that the five alleged Maoist
sympathizers — Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonzalves, Arun Ferreira,
Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha — arrested yesterday will
not be sent to jail but be under house arrest under police watch
until the 6th of September.
• A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra observed that dissent
is the safety valve of democracy.
• The apex court issued notice to the Maharashtra government and
the state police on a plea by five prominent persons against the
arrests in connection with the case.
4th BIMSTEC
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that BIMSTEC is the amalgamation
of India’s “Neighborhood First” and “Look East” policy.
• Mr Modi was addressing the inaugural session of 4th Bay of Bengal
Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
(BIMSTEC) Summit in Kathmandu.
• The Prime Minister said the summit is a very good opportunity to take
concrete steps to fulfill the aspirations and expectations of the people
of BIMSTEC region.
• Mr Modi stressed upon enhancing connectivity among the member states.
He said India’s North East region will have an important role to enhance
connectivity with the BIMSTEC states.
• The Prime Minister said all member states have faced the menace of
terrorism, transnational crimes and drug trafficking.
• He said that to tackle these problems, member states have to unite and
create a proper legal framework.
• Mr. Modi proposed creation of a special forum for women
parliamentarians.
• He invited all BIMSTEC leaders as Guest of Honor at the international
Buddhist Conclave to be hosted by India in August 2020.
• The theme of the two-day summit is ‘Towards Peaceful, Prosperous and
Sustainable Bay of Bengal Region
Law Commission
• The Law Commission has endorsed the proposal of simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls in its draft report submitted to the government today.
• In its report, the Commission said holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies is a solution to prevent the country from being in constant election mode.
• It has recommended changes in the Constitution and the electoral law to hold simultaneous polls.
• The panel said, such an exercise will, save public money, help reduce the burden on the administrative set up and security forces and ensure better implementation of government policies.
FM
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said demonetization fulfilled the objective of making India a tax compliant society. He said, the positive impact of demonetisation is more formalisation of the economy, higher tax revenue, higher expenditure and higher growth.
• In a Facebook post, Mr Jaitley, rejected the claims that demonetisation has failed as most of the currency came back into the banks. He said mere deposit of cash does not lead to a presumption that it is tax paid money.
• Mr. Jaitley asserted that the invalidation of the non-deposited currency was not the only object of demonetisation and the larger purpose was to move India from a tax non-compliant society to a compliant society.
• Mr. Jaitley added that post demonetisation about 1.8 million depositors have been identified for this enquiry and many of them are being slapped with tax and penalties.
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