Table of Contents
The Hindu Editorial News Paper Analysis – [UPSC/SSC/IBPS] Current affairs
2+2 = ?
• India-U.S. defence relationship
• Three agreements
1. Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA)
2. “HOTLINES”: between Defence & Foreign ministers of both sides
3. First tri-services military exercises
• COMCASA is the third of four “foundational”, or enabling, agreements signed by India after more than a decade of negotiations, and is perceived as an inevitable consequence of the
large amount of U.S. defence hardware it has been purchasing.
• U.S. decision to include India in the top tier of countries entitled to Strategic Trade Authorisation (STA-1)
• Indo-Pacific region & debt-financing: clearly aimed at Beijing
• Trade: India did not receive a clear-cut assurance of its GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) status. USA expects, that we should buy more from them.
• No public statement was made on Chabahar port
• No firm commitment about Russia
Handover of Chabahar port on track
• India on Friday said Iran has stuck to the agreed time frame in its plans to hand over the operational responsibility of a part of the Chabahar port to an Indian entity in October.
• The development came a day after official sources indicated that the U.S. would give a ‘carve-out’ to India’s investment in the project. “They have moved as per schedule so far and we
hope the hand-over will happen as agreed,” said an official.
• The positive observation came a day after Iran’s Transport Minister said here that Tehran would proceed with handing over the responsibility of running the port to an Indian company in a month.
COMCASA to help keep a watch over Indian Ocean
• The foundational agreement Communications Compatibility and SecurityAgreement (COMCASA) which India concluded with the U.S. at the 2+2 dialogue will enable Indian military to get a better picture of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) which is seeing increasing Chinese movements, officials said.
• “With CISMOA [COMCASA is an India-specific version of CISMOA], Indian armed forces will get to fully exploit the capability of the military platforms procured from the US. For instance, the P-8I reconnaissance aircraft of the Navy which have emerged as a major force multiplier are currently operating at limited capacity,” a defence official said.
• As a consequence of CISMOA, India will get access to Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System, or CENTRIXS, which is the secure communication system network of the US.
• Navy ships with CENTRIXS on board can communicate securely with the U.S. Navy when needed and can benefit from the wider situational picture of the region as they have a large number of ships and aircraft deployed.
Post office solutions
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)
• Specifications
✓Deposits of up to ₹1 lakh from customers
✓Cannot use these funds to give out loans
• Rural and unorganised sectors
• The payments bank will also have a digital platform that is expected to make financial services more accessible even from remote locations.
• Challenge: profit
• The first wave of new payments banks that commenced business last year — Airtel, Paytm and Fino — have not exactly set the market on fire.
• Banks have traditionally stayed away from the business of pure deposit banking, unless customers have been willing to pay for these services, for a good reason.
• To generate revenues, it plans to charge fees on money transfers and other financial services while investing idle customer deposits in safe government securities in order to earn interest.
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