Daily PIB Analysis For UPSC/IAS | Free PDF Download -1st October 2018 -

Table of Contents

Chinese way of Colonisation

Zambia in Africa is facing a debt crisis.
There was a time, when booming copper prices, boomed Zambian economy.
But prices started falling in 2011, Zambia borrowed to stimulate the economy and maintain growth impulses.
Money was spent on vanity projects and infrastructure investments, with project costs routinely inflated.
Zambia asked International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bail-out.
IMF had earlier warned Zambia about ballooning debt and suggested a halt on fresh borrowings.
Negotiations were called off after IMF was not convinced of Zambia’s seriousness.
China has been picking up debt wherever IMF or other multilateral agencies are unable to provide a lifeline.
China now owns anywhere between 25-33% of Zambia’s external debt.
China: debt relief against the security of state infrastructure assets.
In Zambia, for example, there is apprehension that China has established ownership over state power utility Zesco.
This template is being repeated across countries.
In Djibouti, China has established its first overseas naval base (with estimated capacity to house 10,000 troops), which has translated into other collateral projects with Chinese investments: a free-trade zone, financing of a multipurpose port project, a $4-billion gas project, international airports and a key railway line.
China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: Republic of Congo’s indeterminate debt situation forced its president to visit Beijing to obtain a precise picture of their indebtedness.
Obadiah Malafia, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has written: “It is only now becoming apparent that the little prints in Chinese loan agreements collateralise key domestic assets in the event that the indebted country is unable to pay back its loans.”
Closer home, the debt-for-equity swap in Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, or Malaysia’s recent cancellation of two Chinese projects out of fears of a debt-trap, has raised red flags over China’s economic diplomacy through the instrument of collateralized debt.
Fears of China’s debt-trap diplomacy gained fresh currency after the recent triennial Forum on China Africa Cooperation in which Chinese President Xi Jinping committed $60 billion of fresh funding for Africa, with a special focus on financing construction of railways across the continent.
Observers see this as an example of China combining its excess foreign exchange reserves with spare domestic industrial capacity to further the Belt-Road project.
For example, the Chinese naval base in Djibouti has upset the region’s security equilibrium, with a special impact on the US and its allies, all of whom have military bases in the area. The panic might have also been triggered by China’s first overseas military exercise there PMO

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated a series of development projects including an LNG terminal at Mundra port, Anjar – Mundra Port Gas Transmission Project and Palanpur- Pali- Badmer Gas Pipeline Project in Gujarat this afternoon.
Mr Modi dedicated these development projects worth more than 6000 crore rupees from Satapar village near Anjar in Kutch district.
Addressing a public rally at Satapar village, Mr. Modi said, energy is quintessential for development and no nation can come out of poverty without it.
The Prime Minister said, natural gas supply from Mundra to Anjar will boost industrialization in the Kutch region.
He said that now an LNG will reach to Pali and Badmer in East Rajasthan through the Palanpur- Pali Badmer Gas Pipeline project.
He said, Gujarat is emerging as a LNG hub of the country.
The Prime Minister said, the government is committed to providing LNG to Punjab and other states through pipeline for the production of Urea.
Mr Modi said, 10 crore new LPG gas connections have been given during the last 4 years against the 13 crore gas connections given by previous governments in the last 60 years.
He said, the government will ensure that not a single family remains without an LPG gas connection.
He said, the government wants to strengthen existing infrastructure and at the same time wants to focus on futuristic development projects.
The Prime Minister said, the government has provided electricity to 18 thousand villages in one thousand days and now committed to providing electricity to the houses of four crore families under the Saubhagya Yojana in next one year.
He said that government is constantly working on all schemes including Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana and Ayushyman Bharat Yojana to bring the qualitative change in the life of poor people.

PM’s Mann ki Baat

India is committed to peace, but not at the cost of compromising its self-respect and sovereignty.
Mr Modi said, in the two world-wars fought in the 20th century, over a lakh of Indian soldiers made the supreme sacrifice that too in a war where India was not involved in any way.
The Prime Minister said, last week on the occasion of the centenary of the Battle of Haifa in Israel, the nation remembered and paid tributes to the brave soldiers. Mr Modi asserted that, even today, India is one of the largest contributors to various United Nations Peace Keeping Forces.
Every Indian, irrespective of region, caste, religion, sect or language, is ever eager to express joy and show solidarity with the soldiers.

Punsari Village

- More than 100 delegates from 60 countries visited Punsari village in Sabarkantha district in Gujarat today.
- This visit is significant for Punsari village in connection with unique development with cleanliness and sanitation achievements under Panchayat system.
- The foreign delegates are in India to participate in the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention being held in New Delhi from 29th September to 2nd October.

Punsari village located at about 80 kilo meters away from Gandhinagar has a unique facilities like internal free of cost bus service, own website, clean and mineral containing drinking water supply through own RO plant, zero tax dues, cctv network and digital library.

MEA

Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reached Delhi this evening on the second leg of his two day visit to India.
He is being accompanied by his spouse and a High Level Delegation.
Earlier in the day, the visiting dignitary arrived in Agra where he visited the Taj Mahal.
The Uzbek President will hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in the afternoon.
He will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Ministry of Defence

Exercise Yudh Abhyas, a joint Indo-US Military exercise which witnessed participation of an Infantry Battalion of Indian Army and the 1 st Battalion 23 Infantry Regiment of US Army concluded at Chaubatia, Uttarakhand on 29 Sep 2018.
The exercise was the 14th in the Yudh Abhyas series, which started in 2004 under US Army Pacific Partnership Programme.
Exercise Yudh Abhyas strengthens and broadens interoperability and cooperation between the Indian and US armies.
It is the fourth Indian US Army exercise at Chaubattia and complements number of other exchanges and exercise between the forces.
Besides promoting understanding and interoperability between the two armies, it further helped in strengthening ties between India and US.