The Hindu Editorial Newspaper Analysis Free PDF

Table of Contents

Not above the law

 Salman Khan for hunting blackbuck in Rajasthan- 1998 should send out the message that
stardom does not confer impunity.
 Send out the powerful message that the judicial system feels no constraint
 Blackbuck case has been vigorously supported by the local Bishnoi community
 Bishnoi is a Hindu religious sect found in the Western Thar Desert and northern states of
India.
 Indian antelope, is an antelope found in India, Nepal and Pakistan
 Wildlife (Protection) Act, the landmark law from 1972 that shields the diversity of India’s
endangered animals mainly in 4% of its land area designated as protected, struggles to be
effective and conviction rates are low.
 Several species protected under the Schedules of the Wildlife Act
 Often found in areas that lie outside sanctuaries, and are commonly hunted.
 Forest departments must see the need for greater vigilance in such territories, which they can
exercise in partnership with local communities.

Forging a culture of innovation

 India’s innovation policy has to shift beyond a mere focus on R&D spending to transforming
the ecosystem
 On paper, India should be in a good position in terms of research and development
(R&D) spending.
 We are ranked third in the world in number of science and technology PhDs awarded
and have improved our ranking in the Global Innovation Index, from 66 to 60.
 And yet, there is no Indian university in the top hundred (QS World University Rankings,
2018) and only 46,904 patents were filed in India in 2016 (China filed over a million patents).
 We have enabled an ethos of publishing, but not “patenting, publishing and prospering”.
 India’s gross expenditure on R&D has increased by three times over the decade 2005-15
, crossing the ₹1 lakh crore mark in 2016-17.
 Centre spent 45.1% of the total amount in 2015, while private industry contributed 38.1%.
 The government’s R&D spending is equivalent to an Amazon or Alphabet’s R&D spend,
 While only 26 Indian companies in the list of top 2,500 companies globally by R&D spend.
 Our R&D activities still seem to be conducted in an ivory tower, instead of being
market-focussed
 India’s R&D spending, as a percentage of GDP, still lags significantly, at 0.69% in 2015 — this
share has been stagnating for the last decade.
 Even among other BRICS countries, only South Africa lags behind India in terms of R&D
expenditure.
 Over 90% of Indian startups face a risk of failure in their initial failure, partially due to a lack
of access to financing.
 Financing streams, to public and private players needs to be improved significantly,
with a reduction in institutional barriers
 R&D spend into patents can be affected by institutional constraints as well.
 Patent pendency times in India are among the highest in the major economies, with a
patent taking about 6-7 years between a request for examination and a final office action.
 In comparison, South Korea and China have pendency timings of 16 and 22
months, respectively
 Meanwhile, the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), which filed over 13,000
patents (2014-2017), shut down its commercialising arm, CSIR-Tech, due to lack of funding
 R&D, as a professional function, fails to attract top talent
 Our 216 researchers per million compare with China’s 1,177,
 Russia’s 3,131 and the U.S.’s 4,232
 Scientific publications has risen from 62,955 papers in 2009 to over 106,065 papers in
2013, with India’s share of global research publications rising from 2.2% to 3.7% in 2000-2013.
 And yet, over 35% of publications in “bogus journals” comes from India
 India’s educational policies need to be redesigned
 Atal Innovation Mission is an encouraging start, focussing on facilitating school-level financial
grants to help nurture an initial layer of innovation.
 But we need to move beyond this
 The future state of India’s R&D activities demands significant attention

Disruptive Mr. Trump

 The consistent undermining of multilateralism by the U.S. must be countered
 Seen rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs
 U.S. and China, set off by U.S. President Donald Trump levying import duties of 25% and
10% on American steel and aluminium imports, respectively, in early March. Mr. Trump, who
has repeatedly used the U.S. trade deficit of over $500 billion
 China produces approximately half the world’s steel and that the European Union, India
and other countries have complained about international steel markets being flooded with Ch
inese steel, only 3% of U.S. steel is sourced from China
 Interestingly, among those exempted from the tariffs are Canada and Mexico, top sources
for U.S steel imports.
 Trump has linked the threat of tariffs to the North American Free Trade Agreement, a trade
deal among the U.S., Canada and Mexico that Mr. Trump has pried open for renegotiation.
 China retaliated with tariffs that would impact $3 billion worth of American goods.
 This was followed by the U.S. proposing tariffs on more than $50 billion of Chinese goods, inc
luding in the aerospace, robotics and communication industries
 Beijing responded with a second round of proposed tariffs impacting a similar value
 The economic ties between the countries are deep
 Continues to undermine the World Trade Organisation and the international world
trade order
 Now that it has served the West well and developing countries are in a significantly stronger
position than when the WTO came into existence in 1995
 Trump has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is pushing changes to NAFTA and has
withdrawn from the Paris Agreement to combat climate change
 While large-scale protectionism & unilateralism may please some of Mr. Trump’s constituents
in the short run, undermining existing rules arbitrarily serves no nation, including the U.S.
 In the current climate, it is therefore especially important for India to be a good steward
(प्रबंधक) for responsible globalisation.
 Page-1- Tumultuous Budget session marked by disruptions ends
 Both Houses of Parliament adjourned sine die; over 240 hours of work lost
 5 YSRC MPs hand in resignations
 Political parties from Andhra Pradesh continued their dramatic protests in Parliament for
special status for the State on Friday
 NGT notice to U.P. govt
 Failure to comply with orders on cleaning the Ganga
 Process to procure 110 jet fighters begins
 entire cost could be easily worth over $15 billion
(almost ₹1•lakh crore), according to informal
estimates.
 Nepal PM pitches for Indian investments
 Starts dialogue on development projects and assistance
 Nepal’s economy at present depends heavily on global remittances, which make
up about 30% of its GDP.
 More than four million Nepalese live and work outside the Indian subcontinent,
with about five to seven million estimated to be living
and working in India, crossing an open border between
the two countries
 S. Korea’s Park gets 24 years jail
 The former President was found guilty of multiple criminal charges