The Hindu Editorial Analysis | 5th October ’21 | PDF Download

Dirty money | Pioneer

• After Panama Papers, it’s the Pandora Papers
• The biggest cache yet of secret offshore affairs of the wealth of the heads of Government, business tycoons, celebrities and billionaires.
• To hide their wealth paying little or no tax.
• 35 world leaders, 300 public officials and 100 billionaires
• They use shell companies in tax havens to hold billions in cash and kind.
• It could be tax avoidance, which could be legal, tax evasion, definitely illegal, and outright hiding of wealth from tax authorities of one’s country of origin.
• It is not a crime to hold an offshore account so long as it is declared.
• But then, the whole purpose of hiding wealth or evading taxes will then be lost.
• What is required is a global anti-tax abuse network to take shape under a world body like the United Nations.
• On the one side is how countries help rich individuals hide their money from authorities while the other is how countries assist multinational corporations in evading paying full taxes on profits.
• One is not even talking criminal wealth, amassed through terrorism, trafficking and drugs.
• Tax Justice Network reported in November 2020 that nearly $430 billion is lost in tax each year to cross-border MNC tax abuse and private tax evasion.
• The MNCs may have shifted $1.38 trillion of profit offshore.
• Rich and powerful countries protect tax havens because they are in most cases the tax havens.
• The irony is that the group of wealthy countries that decides global rules on corporate tax is among those involved in most global corporate tax abuse.
• Last October, these OECD member countries came up with some feeble tax reform that did not address the problem at all.

Hello Taiwan | ToI

• China sent more than 100 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone over the weekend
• A clear threat to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific
• The latest round of provocative manoeuvres began last Friday with China celebrating its 73rd national day.

• Since 1949 Taiwan – officially Republic of China – has maintained a separate identity and evolved into a successful multiparty democracy.
• But ever since the current Democratic Progressive Party came to power in Taiwan in 2016 and refused to accept Beijing’s ‘One China’ formulation, the island state has been at the receiving end of sustained Chinese military, diplomatic and economic pressure.
• In that sense, Taiwan, much like India, is a frontline democratic state facing China’s aggression.
• Both New Delhi and Taipei have been targeted by Beijing’s grey-zone tactics that are meant to provoke and intimidate short of all-out conflict.
• This should actually bring India and Taiwan closer as Asian democracies.
• In fact, Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy seeks to boost ties with South and Southeast Asian nations, including India.
• Progress has been relatively slow with the Indian side still cautious about boosting ties with Taiwan given Chinese sensitivities.
• But after the Galwan valley clashes last year and repeated Chinese intrusions across the LAC, India should review its strict adherence to the ‘One China’ policy.
• Boosting ties with Taiwan also has standalone benefits.
• It is a semiconductor powerhouse and reportedly bilateral talks are underway to bring chip manufacturing – a key strategic sector – to India.
• Much cooperation can also be achieved in green technology, IT, digital healthcare and telecom with Taiwanese companies looking to relocate operations from China.
• Thus, India would do well to abandon its cautious approach and elevate ties with Taiwan both for strategic and economic reasons.

Talk To Small Kisans | ToI

• Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri tragedy
• Death of both farmers and BJP workers
• Farm unions’ strategy of agitating in Delhi and UP and social boycott of BJP lawmakers leaves GoI two options: politically isolating protesters or repealing farm laws.
• Now is the time to pull back and show political maturity, recognising the agitation can go out of hand, especially with Punjab and UP heading for polls.
• Lack of public consultation and disinclination to hear opposition views were a mistake.
• As GoI’s deliberations with farm unions have failed and are unlikely to succeed, Supreme Court must expedite longdelayed hearings on farm legislations.
• Big farmers benefiting from MSP and procurement support in rice, wheat and sugarcane in three states are not thinking of small farmers, who don’t benefit from the current system.
• Also, farm workers, a huge constituency, are not part of the spoils system engendered by the MSP regime.
• And on a broader scale, BJP must recognise that industrial jobs are the only answer to underemployed rural economic actors.

An alphabet soup New Delhi needs to sift through | TH

• The current ruckus over AUKUS has revealed the hazards of group diplomacy.
• Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had anticipated the hazards of group diplomacy, when President Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh proposed a regional organisation for South Asia.
• Apart from its reservations about the reference to security in the draft charter for SAARC, or the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, India was in a dilemma — that not joining the forum would look as though India was against regional cooperation.
• And if it joined, it faced the possibility of its neighbours ganging up and using the SAARC institutions to pressure India on various regional issues.
• India joined the Association with a number of conditionalities such as the exclusion of bilateral issues, decision-making by voting, and holding of meetings without all members being present.
• But despite the imperative for cooperation in vital fields, SAARC became an arena for India bashing, particularly by Pakistan.
• It was bilateral diplomacy in the guise of multilateralism and it became moribund as India did not attend the last summit.
• SAARC became a liability as it was clear that the region was not mature enough to have a regional instrumentality.
• Today, the world has a whole spectrum of groups — from the European Union at one end to the African Union at the other — with varying shades of cooperation.
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations

• The time, the money and the energy spent on convening not only summits but also a whole paraphernalia of ministerial, official and expert level meetings do not seem justified.
• Many groups which do not have “sunset” clauses continue even after they diminish in importance
• The growing agenda of the United Nations includes everything from peace on earth to celestial bodies and even UFOs.
• A Goldman Sachs economist found similarities among fast growing economies such as China, Russia, India and Brazil and recommended massive western investments in these countries.
• The countries concerned formed an intergovernmental group called BRIC and later BRICS, with South Africa added as a representative of the African continent.
• China quickly assumed the leadership of BRICS and tried to seek changes in the international economic system by establishing a bank, with the possibility of credit for its members.
• The result of this development was undermining the relevance of another, less ambitious, group of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), which had several common interests.
• As candidates for permanent membership of the Security Council, they had specific ideas on UN reform and on South-South cooperation.
• At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, delegations found some common elements of concern with dramatically different approaches.
• The SCO started off as a friendly group of China and some of the former Republics of the Soviet Union, but with the addition of India, Pakistan and Iran, it became a diverse group and it could not reach agreement.
• We know that frequent meetings with the leaders of China do not necessarily mean a meeting of minds as Beijing’s trajectory of thoughts and actions are highly unpredictable.
• Those who saw China’s President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in conversation in Mamallapuram (near Chennai), at the second informal summit between India and China, in October 2019, would never have thought that they would ever be in an armed conflict.
• Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations which are dependent on the Bay of Bengal: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
• Another group which India has championed is the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).
• The organisation was first established as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative in Mauritius in March 1995 and formally launched on March 6-7 1997 (then known as the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation). It also drags on without any significant progress.
• On the other hand, the two active groups, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), have eluded us even though we have major stakes in them.
• We ended up with membership of Wassenaar and the Australia Group, in which we were not interested.
• The Quad had a chequered history of India flirting with it for years till the Chinese threat became real in 2020, but New Delhi’s reluctance to call a spade a spade has driven the U.S. to new alliances such as a second Quad and then AUKUS as the U.S. wanted to fortify itself with allies against China.
• But the reaction of France to AUKUS has raised the issue of loyalty among allies even though AUKUS has made it clear that it was meant only to enable the U.S. to transfer nuclear propelled submarine technology to Australia.
• It stands to reason that India should also reconsider the plethora of groups we are in and rationalise them after a reality check.

NEWS

• Govt to investigate ‘Pandora Papers Leak’ by multi-agency group under CBDT Chairman
• PM Modi to inaugurate 3-day Urban conclave in Lucknow today
• India crosses 91 crore mark milestone in COVID-19 vaccination drive; Recovery rate stands at 97.89%
• First time in South Asia, a ‘Made in India’ drone used to transport COVID-19 vaccine, says Health Minister
• Developing new technologies indigenously in Defence Sector is the need of the hour: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
• David Julius & Ardem Patapoutian from US share 2021 prize in Medicine or Physiology
• Defence Secretary launched website www.indianrdc.mod.gov.in for Republic Day Celebrations – 2022
• Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stresses on need of roadmap for next 25 yrs to make India self-reliant in pharma field
• Khadi sales figure on Gandhi Jayanti once again crosses Rs. one crore mark at Khadi India outlet in Delhi
• New Delhi: 40th edition of India International Trade Fair 2021 to be held from 14th to 27th Nov at Pragati Maidan
• MoS I&B Dr L Murugan pays courtesy visit to PM Modi
• ADB signs agreement with Bangladesh for first tranche of USD 400 million loan for highway development
• CEO of another e-commerce platform arrested in Bangladesh
• No bar on foreign channels providing ad-free content in Bangladesh: I&B Minister Hasan Mahmud
• Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sworn in for second five-year term

ANS

Q.) According to the Reserve Bank of India’s ‘Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy’, which State has been ranked number one in terms of net per capita income growth in 2020-21?

1. Kerala
2. Maharashtra
3. Kranataka
4. West Bengal

MCQs

Q.) The first United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 which was held in September this year, discussed the food system transformation. How many Sustainable Development Goals out of 17 are directly related to food systme?

1. 9
2. 11
3. 13
4. 15

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