The Hindu Editorial Analysis In English | Free PDF Download

Table of Contents

Rescuing IL&FS

Reserve Bank of India: the company is “systemically important”
Assets : ₹1,15,000 crore
Debt : ₹91,000 crore
Problem appears to be one of liquidity and not solvency.
Funding projects of 20-25 years payback period with relatively short-term funds of 8-10 years.
Centre decides to takeover the Board of Directors of IL&FS.
Centre will not allow the company to fail.
The interlinkages between IL&FS and other financial sector entities such as banks, mutual funds and infrastructure players are too strong and the company would have taken them all down with it if it were allowed to fail.
Get old top players out and get new management in.
There is a felt need here for long-term finance sources for infrastructure projects.
The Centre and the RBI should look at ways to deepen the debt markets where infrastructure players can borrow long-term.
Govt. puts Uday Kotak in charge to stem IL&FS crisis
The government finally intervened in the IL&FS crisis on Monday, superseding its board and appointing new members, with banker Uday Kotak as chairman.

Onset of the winter season has come to be associated with toxic atmospheric pollution in north India.
To address this, and under directions from the Supreme Court-constituted Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, or EPCA
Ironically, it was technology that contributed to the problem in the first place.
A task force, headed by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and comprising Environment Ministry officials and Chief Secretaries of these States, have been meeting since January to prepare for the winter.

Elkana asked of his fellow Israelis in a celebrated piece he wrote in the newspaper Ha’aretz, over thirty years ago. In it, he demanded that they desist from allowing the past — the Holocaust in Israel’s case — to condition their present or determine their future.
“History and collective memory are an inseparable part of any culture,” accepted Elkana, “but the past is not and must not be allowed to become the dominant element determining the future of society and the destiny of the people.”
He cautioned that “a climate in which an entire people determines its attitude to the present and shapes its future by emphasising the lessons of the past, is fraught with peril for the future of that society”.

The Punjab National Bank (PNB) grabbed headlines with a ₹13,000-crore loss on account of its high-profile client, Nirav Modi.
Subsequently, lacunae were identified in the procedures of its foreign exchange transactions.
Bankers are easily influenced by the rich and powerful?
At the epicentre are the banks misinterpreting the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) rules in favour of the buying houses, and thus creating an unequal playing field for the supporting manufacturer.
The buying house does not have its own manufacturing unit and hence outsources execution of the export order to a supporting manufacturer.
The supporting manufacturer is not the exporter since he does not have a contract with the importer.
The truth is that the buying house is transferring its liability and risk to the manufacturer, while continuing to enjoy the privilege of being an exporter.

Child abuse helpline gets lewd calls

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has been forced to temporarily shut down a helpline for reporting instances of child sexual abuse after the toll-free number was inundated with calls seeking sexual services.
The helpline was inaugurated in 2016 as part of the “e-box” initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to enable filing of complaints of sexual offences against children. The e-box is hosted on the NCPCR’s website and allows users to file a complaint online or call a toll free number.

Gir sees 21 lion deaths in 19 days

Gujarat’s Gir forest is the only abode of Asiatic lions in the world.
Government authorities have attributed the deaths to infighting and viral infection, prompting the State to bring in experts from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, and Delhi zoo.

Home, auto loan interest rates hiked

- Interest rates on home, auto and other loans have inched up with lending rates rising from Monday
- SBI increased its lending rates by 5 basis points across all loan tenures as a result of which retail loan rates will now rise to 8.5%.

Our judiciary the most robust: CJI

“We need to insulate justice from disruptive forces … Truth has no colour. Justice should have a human face and a human approach,” the outgoing Chief Justice said in his farewell speech a day before he retires.
Why should well-earning lawyers give up their legal practice to join the Bench, Mr. Venugopal asked. “In Singapore, one million Singapore dollars are paid to judges of the Supreme Court. We do not want something extravagant, but they should have some relationship to what an average lawyer earns.”
“In spite of the odds, we have committed judges. We are committed to the cause and we shall continue to be committed regardless of the inadequacies of remuneration and in spite of the possibilities of abuse of our names. We will not be alarmed with that. It comes with the system,” Justice Gogoi replied stoically.

India backs direct talks with Taliban

India on Monday expressed “readiness” to work towards implementing the Tashkent Declaration of March that called for direct talks with the Taliban without preconditions.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his official speech delivered here suggested a political dialogue between Kabul and the fighters to put an end to the conflict in Afghanistan and to restore regional stability.
The Uzbek leader who is visiting India soon after the visit by his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani is one of the tallest regional leaders to speak on dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban fighters who are challenging President Ghani’s government in large parts of Afghanistan.

Leaders will have to pay for damage by cadre: SC

Leaders of outfits who instigate a mob to an act of vandalism, which results in death or loss of public and private property, will personally face criminal action and are liable to compensate the victims of the violence, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

U.S.-Japanese pair win Nobel Medicine Prize

Two immunologists, James Allison of the U.S. and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, won the 2018 Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how the body’s natural defences can fight cancer, the jury said on Monday.
Unlike more traditional forms of cancer treatment that directly target cancer cells, Dr. Allison and Dr. Honjo figured out how to help the patient’s own immune system tackle the cancer more quickly.