27 March 2023

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

 1 – IMD: GS II – Topic Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies:

 Context:

• The country’s two largest grain-producing States, Punjab and Haryana, are expected to continue to face heavy rain and strong winds over the next days, which worries farmers and experts. They are concerned that this would harm the wheat crop, which is almost ready for harvest.
• According to the India Meteorological Department, numerous districts of Punjab and Haryana have seen gusty winds over the past two days that have been blowing between 40 and 50 kilometres per hour (IMD). A new western disturbance that could bring further rain to the region next week has also been predicted.

About:

• IMD, commonly referred to as the India Meteorological Department, was established in 1875. The premier government agency for all areas relating to meteorology and related subjects, it serves as the country’s National Meteorological Service.
• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) was established in 1875. It is a division of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Indian government.
• It is the principal agency in charge of meteorological observations, seismology, and weather forecasting.
• IMD is one of the six regionally focused meteorological centres that make up the World Meteorological Organization.
• The Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) of Tropical Cyclones in New Delhi is responsible for naming the cyclones in the northern Indian Ocean.
• The headquarters of IMD are in New Delhi.

Objective:

• to compile weather data and provide current and future projections so that weather-sensitive industries like agriculture, irrigation, shipping, aviation, and offshore oil explorations can run as efficiently as possible.
• to give alerts concerning hazardous weather events, such as tropical cyclones, nor’easters, dust storms, heavy rain, snow, cold, and heat waves, which can cause both property damage and human fatalities.
• To provide the meteorological information required for managing water resources, industry, oil exploration, and other nation-building initiatives, IMD is essential.
• to conduct and further the study of meteorology and associated subjects.

Source  The  Hindu

 2 – MSME Sector: GS III –  Topic Indian Economy

 Context:

• The Finance Ministry has attempted to dispel the “narrative” that India’s MSMEs are seeing a downturn by citing data that it says shows how smaller enterprises have recently developed into more significant entities. Industry representatives challenge the accuracy of the Ministry’s analysis of the data.

About:

• The Indian economy has historically depended heavily on MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Companies). In addition to accounting for one-third of the country’s GDP, India’s 6.3 crore MSMEs also employ a sizeable portion of the population.
• Additionally, the sector provides employment for close to 110 million people and is a significant source of food. Since the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan is currently receiving so much attention, these MSMEs are now even more crucial to India’s economic and financial strategy.
• Given the importance of the industry, the Indian government forecasted that it would create 50 million new jobs and contribute half of India’s GDP over the ensuing five years.
• The implementation of the GST (goods and services tax) and demonetization, as well as Covid-19 (on the demand side), were structural reforms that had a negative effect on the MSME sector on the supply side and significant signs of a slowdown on the demand side.

Issues MSME Face:

• How far India still needs to go in its MSME journey is demonstrated by the fact that MSMEs account for respectively 55% and 60% of Germany’s and China’s GDPs. The following problems afflict the MSME sector.
• The Credit Puzzle: A concerning issue in India’s MSME sector has been the lack of financing available to MSMEs.
• The formal credit extended to this sector is 16 trillion. There is a 20 trillion dollar sustainable credit gap when compared to a 36 trillion dollar total demand.
• Because they have little access to the banking sector, MSMEs in India frequently turn to NBFCs and MFIs for their financial needs.
• Due to the liquidity crisis the NBFC sector has been dealing with since September 2018, MSMEs were in desperate need of cash.
• Lack of Formalization Among MSMEs: The main factor behind this loan gap is the absence of formalisation among MSMEs.
• Almost 86% of MSMEs operating in the country and engaged in manufacturing are unregistered.
• Among the 6.3 crore MSMEs, only about 1.1 crore are registered under the Goods and Services Tax regime.
• These days, even fewer people file income taxes. These needs have mostly gone unfulfilled due to the limited data availability, antiquated underwriting procedures, and the lending requirements of Indian MSMEs.
• Due to the use of outmoded technologies, the MSME sector in India produces goods that are less effective.
• Due to the development of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Robotics, and allied technologies, MSMEs confront a larger challenge than organised large-scale production (together referred to as Industrial Revolution 4.0).
• Regulatory Cholesterol: MSMEs need to get a lot of government services and approvals, thus the entrepreneur has to juggle a lot of different government entities.
• However, the requirements to get building licences, enforce contracts, pay taxes, start a corporation, and engage in cross-border trade make doing business challenging.
• Regulatory concerns and policy uncertainties have in the past hurt investor confidence.
• Problem with Scale Microbusinesses make up the majority of MSMEs.
• The MSME sector is made up of a large number of small, local enterprises, making it challenging to scale them up, especially when obtaining financing is challenging.
• These issues play a part in the shockingly low productivity of small manufacturing businesses in India when compared to larger ones. As a result, there is a pronounced “missing middle” in the size structure of enterprises, which hinders the growth of the Indian manufacturing sector and the creation of jobs.

How to Proceed:

• Bond Market in Development: The promotion of SME bond issuances may enable MSMEs to participate in debt capital markets as India’s bond markets start to take shape.
• These issuances will provide MSMEs lower interest rates than other financial intermediaries, but they could also represent a high-yield investment opportunity for qualified and experienced bond market investors.
• Given the growing importance of the data economy, it is imperative that an independent regulator be established. By providing MSMEs with guidance and consultation, this regulator will help them prosper in the new, digital economy.
• Reforming the labour laws is vital since they impede MSME growth. They must strike the right balance between providing MSMEs with a structure for expansion and providing sufficient protection for workers’ rights.
• Improved Regulation Despite efforts to make conducting business easier, small businesses still have to comply with onerous reporting, approval, and compliance requirements.
• If we are to actually create a country where MSMEs can influence our economic future, they must have access to a hassle-free regulatory framework that aids rather than inhibits them.

Conclusion:

• MSMEs play a critical role in a robust national economy. Paying attention to their development is essential for the country’s future. The government has implemented a number of enabling processes in recent years.
• India needs to take more of these kinds of initiatives, especially in light of the current environment. During the course of the next ten years, MSMEs will play a significant role in India’s transition from a developing to a well-established economic power.

Source  The  Hindu

3 – AFSPA: GS III – Topic Internal Security

 Context:

• On March 25, Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) “lowered the Disturbed Areas” in Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur due to the “significant improvement in the security situation in Northeast India”.
• The AFSPA has been repealed in one Assam district and the limits of four Manipur police stations, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) (Wangoi, Leimakhong, Nambol, and Moirang).

What exactly is AFSPA?

• It gives the army, state, and central police forces the right to shoot to kill, search homes, and destroy any property that is “likely” to be used by rebels in areas that the home ministry has deemed to be “disturbed.”
• The AFSPA is activated if there is a threat to India’s territorial integrity due to militancy or insurgency.
• Security personnel may “arrest without a warrant” someone who has done or is merely “about to commit a cognizable offence” based on “reasonable suspicion.”
• Additionally, it gives security forces legal immunity for their actions in areas prone to instability.
• Critics have brought up instances when the legislation may have led to human rights abuses, despite the military and the government’s claims that it is required to combat militancy and insurgency.

 History of the AFSPA Background:

Pre-Independence:

• The AFSPA has colonial roots, just like many other problematic statutes. The AFSPA was first enacted as an ordinance in 1942, during Gandhi’s Quit India Movement.
• On August 8, 1942, the movement’s leader was killed a day after it started, and violence broke out in various cities across the nation. Jawaharlal Nehru, VV Patel, and Mahatma Gandhi were among the prominent figures who have served time in prison.
• Viceroy Linlithgow, who at the time was worried by the rampant violence in the country, passed the Military Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance in 1942.
• In the event of domestic instability, this Ordinance practically gave the Military Forces “licence to murder.”
• To address internal security issues and unrest brought on by the division of four provinces—Bengal, Assam, East Bengal, and the United Provinces—the Indian government issued four ordinances similar to this one in 1947.

Post-Independence:

 The Indian Parliament passed three distinct AFSPA legislation for specific regions:

Assam and Manipur Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958:

• AFSPA was initially implemented to suppress the Naga insurgency in the Assam region.
• According to the Naga National Council (NNC), a “free and fair referendum” was held in 1951, and roughly 99% of Nagas backed the establishment of a “Free Sovereign Naga Kingdom.” Later, a boycott of the first general election in 1952 grew to encompass government employees and public schools.
• In order to solve the issue, the Assam government passed the Assam Preservation of Public Order (Autonomous District) Act in the Naga Hills in 1953. Moreover, police operations against the rebels were intensified. The Assam Disturbed Areas Act of 1955 gave the state police and paramilitary groups in the Naga Hills a legal foundation to fight insurgency after the situation deteriorated and the Assam state government dispatched the Assam Rifles to the area. Yet the state police and Assam Rifles were unable to put an end to the Naga insurrection, and in 1956 the rebel Naga Nationalist Council (NNC) set up a rival administration.
• The Military Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance 1958 was passed on May 22, 1958, by President Dr. Rajendra Prasad in response to this threat. It was later replaced by the Military Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act of 1958.
• According to the Military Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958, only the Governors of the States and the Administrators of the Union Territories have the power to declare certain regions of the concerned State or the Union Territory as “disturbed.”
• This power was granted, according to the bill’s “Objects and Reasons” section, because “it is considered desirable that the Central government should also have the power to declare areas as “disturbed,” in order to enable its armed forces to exercise special powers, keeping in mind the duty of the Union under Article 355 of the Indian Constitution, among other things, to protect every State against any internal disturbance.”
• Subsequently, it was extended to cover all of the North Eastern states.

 Granting Special Capabilities to the Armed Forces (Punjab and Chandigarh) Act 1983:

• The central government passed the Armed Forces (Punjab and Chandigarh) Special Powers Act in 1983 by repealing The Armed Forces (Punjab and Chandigarh) Special Powers Ordinance of 1983 in order to permit the central armed forces to operate in the state of Punjab and the union territory of Chandigarh while battling the Khalistan movement in the 1980s.
• In 1983, the Act became operative in Chandigarh and throughout Punjab. The wording of the Act mostly remained the same as those of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Assam and Manipur) of 1972, with the exception of two sections that provided the armed forces additional capabilities.
• Subsection (e), which stipulates that any vehicle may be forcibly stopped, examined, and impounded if it is believed to be carrying proclaimed offenders or ammunition, was added to Section 4.
• A soldier has the right to unlock any locks “if the key thereof is withheld,” according to Section 5 of the modified Act.
• The AFSPA was repealed in 1997, around 14 years after it went into existence, as the Khalistan movement lost steam. The Punjab government repealed the Disturbed Areas Act in 2008, but Chandigarh continued to use it until the Punjab and Haryana High Court struck it down in September 2012.

Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act of 1990:

• The AFSPA was put into effect in 1990 to confront the unanticipated rise in militancy and insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir.
• If the Central Government or the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir believe that all or a portion of the State is in such a chaotic and dangerous situation, this Act may be put into effect.
• Jammu & Kashmir introduced the Disturbed Areas Act (DAA), a novel piece of law, in 1992. The government asserted that even though J&K’s DAA had expired in 1998, the state may still be deemed a disturbed region under Section 1 of the AFSPA (3).
• The AFSPA is still in place in J&K despite being adopted there amid much controversy.
• These are the main traits of the AFSPA act:
• The Governor of a State and the Central Government may declare all or part of any state to be a disturbed region in order to prevent terrorist activities or any other action that could endanger India’s sovereignty or be disrespectful to the national anthem, flag, or constitution.
• The Central government may dispatch armed forces to assist the civilian authorities in accordance with Section 3 of the AFSPA if the governor of a state publishes an official notification in The Gazette of India. The Disturbed Areas Act of 1976 mandates that after being deemed “disturbed,” a territory must maintain the status quo for at least three months.
• Army personnel are specifically authorised to fire (even if it results in death) anyone who is breaking the law or is suspected of breaking the law under Section (4) of the AFSPA (this includes gatherings of five people or more, carrying weapons, etc.). The officer is only allowed to fire after sounding the alarm.
• Security forces have the right to conduct unauthorised searches and detain anyone without a warrant.
• A individual in detention must be sent to the closest police station as soon as possible.
• Before bringing a case against an officer who is currently on duty for alleged human rights abuses, the Central Government must first provide its approval.

Source The  Hindu

4 – India’s First Cable Stayed Rail Bridge: GS III – Topic Infrastructure related issues

 Context:

• The twenty-year-old Anji Khad bridge project in Jammu’s Reasi district has been delayed, significantly jeopardising the ambitious goal of the Indian Railways to connect Kashmir to Jammu and the rest of India.

About Anji Khad Bridge:

• The length of the Anji Khad Bridge is 473.25 metres.
• A single pylon on it soars 331 metres above the riverbank. Micropiles that were 40 metres deep had to be used to build the pylon on a vertical slope all the way around the 20-meter well foundation.
• It is designed to endure strong windstorms and is supported by 96 cables.
• An integrated system will keep an eye on it using numerous sensors spread out throughout the bridge. For more details, read Current Affairs’ article on the Anji Khad Bridge, Indian Railways’ First Cable-Stayed Rail Bridge.

Source The  Hindu