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:India-U.S. 2+2 talks

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and their counterparts Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis.
Nature of relation: from estranged democracies prickly partners.
Three factors have contributed to the emerging strategic convergence.

End of the Cold War
Opening of the Indian economy

Trade grew and today stands at more than $120 billion a year with an ambitious target of touching $500 billion in five years. Reciprocal FDI: $20 billion from USA, $15 billion from India 3. Three-million-strong Indian diaspora.
U.S. is used to dealing with junior partners & India is not a junior partner and neither we want to see ourselves as one.
India: strategic autonomy
Both have a habit of preaching and problems arise when they preach to each other.
The over a dozen rounds of talks between Jaswant Singh and Strobe Talbott during 1998-2000 marked the most intense dialogue between the two countries.
The next phase was the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership steered by the then National Security Advisers, Brajesh Mishra and Condoleezza Rice.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush: leading to the conclusion of the India-U.S. bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement in 2008.
Defence dialogue began in 1995, formalized a decade later and in 2015 it has been extended for next 10 years.
Today, the U.S. is the country with which India undertakes the largest number of military exercises which have gradually evolved in scale and complexity.
Diversification of defence products:

C-130J Hercules, C-17 Globemaster, Apache, Chinook heavy lift helicopters

2016: ‘Major Defence Partner’
Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA-1) category: putting it on a par with allies in terms of technology access

The sedition debate

Rulers everywhere tend to treat trenchant criticism as attempts to excite disaffection and disloyalty.
Indian Penal Code: Section 124-A
Centre and the States: repeatedly misused it.
The Law Commission, for the third time in five decades, is now in the process of revisiting the section. • 1968: no 1971: minor changes 2018: yes repeal it
Its definition remains too wide.
There can only be two ways of undoing the harm it does to citizens’ fundamental rights: it can be amended so that there is a much narrower definition of what constitutes sedition, but the far better course is to do away with it altogether.

Submerging markets

₹ the worst-performing currency in Asia.
Emerging market economies’ currencies resume their prolonged slide against the U.S. dollar.
Turkish lira, the Argentine peso and the South African rand, have suffered much larger losses owing to a serious loss of confidence among investors.
15 percentage point increase in interest rates by Argentina’s central bank
All happening because of increasing demand for the dollar across the globe.
The tightening of liquidity in the West: yield higher returns

Story of a leaking ship

A&N administration and NITI Aayog would be organising an investors’ meet in New Delhi on August 10 for tourism projects under a plan called ‘holistic development of the islands’.
Islands Development Agency (IDA)
“air strips, jetty, helipads, Roll On/Roll Off (RORO) ferry and roads works” “provide world class and sustainable tourism infrastructure with low environmental impact and provision for socio-economic involvement of local population”
‘Hole in the Hull of MV Swarajdweep Panics Islanders’
Shipping is, or certainly should be, the lifeline.
A truly holistic development plan for an island system should have a robust shipping system as its first building block.
If such a basic and critical element cannot be ensured, what is the guarantee that the grand plans and promises will not meet the same fate?

No need for uniform civil code now, says law panel

Law Commission: government’s topmost law advisory body
The Law Commission of India on Friday said a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is “neither necessary nor desirable at this stage.”
In an 185-page consultation paper, the Commission said secularism) cannot contradict the plurality prevalent in the country.
The Commission, led by former Supreme Court judge B.S. Chauhan, said, “Cultural diversity cannot be compromised to the extent that our urge for uniformity itself becomes a reason for threat to the territorial integrity of the nation.”
A unified nation does not necessarily need to have “uniformity.”
“Efforts have to be made to reconcile our diversity with universal and indisputable arguments on human rights,” the Commission said.
The term ‘secularism’ has meaning only if it assures the expression of any form of difference.
It said the way forward may not be UCC, but the codification of all personal laws so that prejudices and stereotypes in every one of them would come to light and can be tested on the anvil of fundamental rights of the Constitution.
“By codification of different personal laws, one can arrive at certain universal principles that prioritise equity rather than imposition of a Uniform Code, which would discourage many from using the law altogether, given that matters of marriage and divorce can also be settled extra-judicially,” the commission reasoned.
It suggested certain measures in marriage and divorce which should be uniformly accepted in the personal laws of all religions. These amendments in personal laws include fixing the marriageable age for boys and girls at 18 years so that they marry as equals, making adultery a ground for divorce for men and women and to simplify divorce procedure.

– With 8.2% Growth, Economy Begins FY19 on a High Note

India’s economy grew at its fastest in over two years, propelled by double-digit growth in manufacturing and robust consumer spending, making for a strong start to the last financial year before the ruling party faces polls in 2019.
Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded quicker than even the most optimistic forecast at 8.2% in the June quarter, data released by the statistics office showed. GDP had grown 5.6% in the yearearlier quarter and 7.7% in the March quarter.
This is the fastest growth since 9.3% in the January-March period of 2016 and well above 6.7% growth recorded by China for the same quarter.
India thus maintains its status as the world’s fastest-growing economy and is on track to overtake the UK to become the fifth biggest after edging ahead of France last year.
“Reforms and fiscal prudence are serving us well. India is witnessing an expansion of the neo middle class.”
– Activists’ letters proof of plot to kill PM, claim police
The Maharashtra police on Friday said they had “conclusive” evidence, including “thousands” of letters, establishing links between five activists arrested on Wednesday and banned Maoist organisations, arms traders in Nepal and extremists in J&K.
Addressing the media here,

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh said the activists were all working to further the designs of banned organisations plotting to carry out a ‘Rajiv Gandhilike’ assassination to end ‘Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) Raj.’ ‘Govt. services at doorstep from Sept. 10’

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter on Friday to announce that residents of Delhi will be able to avail of doorstep delivery of various government services, including driving licences, marriage certificates and ration cards, from September 10.
Terming it a “revolution in governance”, which would be a “big blow to corruption”, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi had proposed the doorstep delivery of services earlier this year. Diesel price sees steepest increase
The price of domestic cooking gas (LPG) was on Friday increased by ₹1.49 per cylinder, while diesel price crossed the ₹70 a litre mark for the first time on a drop in the rupee value.
Subsidised LPG will cost ₹499.51 a cylinder in Delhi, against ₹498.02 now, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said in a statement.
Diesel rates were increased by 28 paise a litre, the steepest since the daily revision was effected in mid-June last year. SAARC meet to allow India-Pak. interface
The first face-to-face engagement between the new Pakistani government and India could come later this month when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi attend the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) Council of Ministers’ meeting in New York, officials in Delhi and Islamabad confirmed.
However, they said there were no plans “so far” for a one-on-one meeting between the two Ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which begins on September 25.
– Court refuses to extend motor insurance deadline
Longer duration motor third party insurance cover is all set to become mandatory for new cars and two-wheelers as scheduled from September 1, with the Supreme Court on Friday refusing to extend the deadline.
A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and S. Abdul Nazeer dismissed an application filed by the General Insurance Council (GIC) seeking extension of the deadline set by the apex court.
According to sources, a few insurers are ready with long term comprehensive motor cover, comprising both MTP and own damage, as well as a bundled product.
Under the latter, they would offer MTP for the stipulated time-frame plus own damage for a year that can be renewed.

Census 2021 to collect OBC data, use maps

The 2011 caste data collected as part of the Socio-economic Caste Census (SECC) is yet to be released by the Centre. The National Commission for Backward Classes says there are 2,479 entries on the Central list of the OBCs. “We are committed to giving the correct social perspective of the country. We will know how much a community has progressed and who has not,” the Minister said on condition of anonymity. He refused to elaborate whether this was being done to extend reservation benefits to the OBCs in the future.
The 2011 Census collected information in 29 categories that included a separate column for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. A senior Home Ministry official said the OBCs would be an option in the column in 2021.
Littoral: of, relating to, or situated on the shore of the sea or a lake.