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The market across the border

Bilateral trade trajectory has been volatile.
2013-14: $2.70 billion
2017-18: $2.40 billion
During this time, while Pakistan’s exports to India were (and have been) fairly consistent, India’s exports decreased.
Overall, India still manages to have a significant trade surplus with Pakistan (about $1.4 billion in 2017-18).
Indirect trade (largely routed through a third country like the United Arab Emirates) is estimated by much research to be up to 10 times more — exemplifying the existence of a huge bilateral trade potential.

Developing a value chain

In textiles, while there is an existing bilateral engagement, there is potential for raw materials (raw cotton, fabric dye), grey fabric (polyester, chiffon, nylon), blended fabric (cotton-polyester-viscose blend for denim) and stitched clothes (track suits and sports wear) from Indian hubs such as Surat (Gujarat) and Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu) to Pakistan’s major production centre at Faisalabad and its Lahore and Karachi markets.
Similarly, from Pakistan, there is a huge demand for salwar-kameezdupatta made of lawn fabric and wedding attire (shararas).
The market opportunity for these few high-demand products alone is about $2.3 billion.
Pakistan’s sports goods manufacturing sector is emerging as an original equipment manufacturer for major global brands.
Sialkot is a global manufacturing hub for professional-level goods such as footballs, hockey sticks, quality leather goods, and weightlifting and cycling gloves, some of which is imported by India.

Also, footballs manufactured here were used in the FIFA World Cup.
However, manufacturers in Sialkot require quality raw materials or semi-finished products to produce these goods. India can play a key role here in exporting raw material and semi-finished goods such as latex, rubber, and football bladders, which would work out to be more economical for Sialkot than sourcing them from other countries such as Thailand.
In terms of finished goods, sportswear made of lycra is in demand in Pakistan.
The market opportunity here is $1.1 billion.
Pakistan is a major supplier of surgical instruments to the U.S., Germany, France and Belgium.
Direct imports from Pakistan to India in this area would ensure considerable cost benefits in terms of economics and logistics.

Currency crossfire

Indian rupee, already grappling with high crude oil prices and the growing heft of the U.S. dollar.
Turkish lira drops: standoff with the U.S.
Washington refusing to hand over an Islamic cleric charged by the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan government of masterminding the failed military coup in 2016.
At the end of 2017, Rupee was 63.84 to the dollar. Briefly crossed the 70-mark in early trading on Tuesday.
Lira has had a ripple effect on most emerging market currencies.

In contrast, the rupee’s fall from about ₹68.5 to ₹70 appears minor. Former Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu: correct value may be closer to 70-71
There is in fact no need to panic on account of the rupee.
Barring the gradual decline in its value this year, the Indian currency has been fairly stable over 2016 and 2017; with inflation being higher than in developed countries, its purchasing power at home has been falling.
Foreign exchange reserves currently around $400 billion

Siege of Ghazni

If the strategically important Ghazni city falls, it could alter the balance in the stalemated war, rendering the government in Kabul more vulnerable.
Ghazni is about 150 km from Kabul, and is close to a major highway connecting the capital to the south, the Taliban’s stronghold.
For months, Taliban fighters have been surrounding the city, and had even started collecting taxes on its outskirts.
100 security personnel and over 20 civilians dead.
Taliban’s strategy: make maximum military gains before entering into talks.

Almost 44% of Afghanistan’s 398 districts are controlled or contested by the insurgents.

INTERVIEW | O.P. RAWAT

The Lok Sabha has passed a Bill that allows ‘proxy voting’ for NRIs. Is this possible for voters in India?

Ans: This proxy is to encourage NRIs to register and vote. We have about three crore people of Indian origin settled abroad. Half of them are Indian citizens, nearly 10% may be voters. But the total number of NRIs registered in our electoral rolls is less than 25,000. It is very low. Why? Because they have to come here to vote. Who will spend that much money? They can now register at the address which is in their passport. The EC had suggested two options: either give them [NRIs] the authority to appoint proxies or have postal ballot. In Karnataka, we found that our embassy voters voted after registering online. So, we had suggested two options and the government has accepted proxy.

Bringing up a science

The marginalisation of research and education in evolutionary biology in India has justifiably been a matter of concern for some time.
Evolutionary biology is important in understanding multi-drug resistance in microbes, for instance. • Host-range expansion is a classic evolutionary biology concept. This is where, owing to climate change or other reasons, a pathogen moves from one host to another.
In education, too, evolutionary biology is at a disadvantage.

300 Army personnel move SC against prosecution

Over 300 Army officers on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against what they called “persecution” by the court and civilian agencies, like the CBI, for doing their duty in the insurgency-hit areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern States.
The petition, filed by senior officers at the level of Commanders, comes shortly after the court directed a CBI SIT to file chargesheets, in a time-bound manner, against Army officers involved in the Manipur extra-judicial killings, in which innocents were allegedly killed after being branded as insurgents.

No place for violence in society: President

Amid growing concern over mob violence and lynchings, President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday asserted that violence had no place in a civilised society and asked citizens not to be distracted by “contentious issues and extraneous debates”.
Addressing the nation on the eve of India’s 72nd Independence Day, the President recalled Mahatma Gandhi’s mantra that the power of ahimsa (nonviolence) was greater than the power of hinsa (violence).
Mr. Kovind said that every Indian who did not jump the queue and respected the civic space and rights of those ahead in the line lived up to the principles of the country’s freedom struggle. “It’s a very small gesture. Let us try and abide by it.”