26 May 2018: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS1 Related

B. GS2 Related

• Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said that there are various pending issues between India and Bangladesh, making an obvious reference to the Teesta river water dispute, and that they wanted to settle all of them in a friendly ambience.

Shared heritage

• Hasina and Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in two back-to-back events at Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan — the convocation of the university and the inauguration of the Bangladesh Bhavana — and laid emphasis on the shared cultural heritage.
• Hasina also urged for cooperation from all to put pressure on the government of Myanmar so that over one million Rohingya, who had taken shelter in Bangladesh, could return to their country

 A rare example

• The Prime Minister of Bangladesh gave an emotional speech on how India stood by Bangladesh during its liberation war of 1971 and then in 1975 when her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and other members of her family were assassinated.
• Reflecting on the land boundary agreement which settled the enclave issue, she said it was a rare example of border issues between two countries having been sorted out “amicably.”
• Modi said the relations between the two countries were born out of “shared struggles of the past” and both were facing common problems like climate change.
• He underlined the importance of mutual cooperation and said both countries can learn from each other in areas of public policy and culture.

Demand for water

• West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is going to have a meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Kolkata on Saturday evening.
• The key question of Saturday’s meeting between the Prime Minister and Ms. Banerjee is whether West Bengal will accept Bangladesh’s demand for releasing adequate water during the lean season. The Teesta water-sharing negotiations have been going on for decades, but yet to reach anywhere close to a settlement.
• An official of the Bengal’s Irrigation Department stated earlier that it was not clear to them what would Bengal gain by releasing water during the lean season. Especially when there is no water in Teesta in the winter, the lean season.

Business

• Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday met captains of industry and urged them to explore business opportunities in her country.
• She interacted with a section of the industry in a closed-door meeting whose main agenda was to explore India-Bangladesh business opportunities. Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner among the SAARC countries.
• She stressed the importance of creating a conducive, win-win situation for investors from both the countries to set up units in either country. She said that three land banks — near Dhaka, near Kusthia on the West Bengal-Bangladesh border, and near Chittagong — have been created for investors.
• She also spoke of the improvements in the economy and the emerging consumer market and creation of road and railway infrastructure to improve connectivity.
• Hasina has been listing the several advantages that the Indian industry could reap through investments in her country. These include a steady economic growth, competitive cost structure and a large market.
• Her government is offering attractive incentives to Indian investors like 100% repatriation of profits and invested capital.

Watch BYJU’S video on India-Bangladesh relations.

C. GS3 Related

• The Supreme Court on Friday refused to intervene with an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to freeze its own directive to publish a warning about hazardous lead content in Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) pipes.
• The Bench reasoned that the May 2 order was an interim one and the issue could be sorted out in the NGT itself, instead of being litigated in the Supreme Court.

Issue

• Last year, the NGT asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests to lay down standards for the use of lead in PVC pipes. The measure was to be implemented in consultation with the Indian Bureau of Standards. The tribunal intervened after learning that lead content in water pipes, used in buildings, contained toxic materials.

NGO’s plea

• The National Green Tribunal’s decision was based on a petition filed by Jan Sahyog Manch, an NGO, for a directive for remedy to ecological damage caused by lead in the manufacture of PVC pipes.

Lead and the environment

• Apart from some amount of lead found naturally in the environment, an increased amount of lead gets concentrated due to human activities like burning fossil fuels, mining, and manufacturing etc.
• Toxic effects of this heavy metal cause environmental and health problems, particularly in children. Mental retardation is one such example.
• Sources of lead pollution in India may be divided into two major categories: Industrial and domestic.
• The industrial lead exposures are mainly due to the particulates generated by coal burning and roasting of minerals i.e. iron pyrites, dolomite, alumina etc.
• The domestic lead exposures come mainly from cooking by use of the solid fuels (i.e. coal, biomass, agriculture waste, etc.), paints, ceramic glazes, cosmetic and fold remedies, drinking water and food, etc.

• Scientists in South Africa launched the world’s first optical telescope linked to a radio telescope, which will enable them in looking and listening at the same time to try to unravel the secrets of the universe.
• A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to receive radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky whereas an optical telescope is a telescope that gathers and focuses light, mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for direct view, or to make a photograph, or to collect data through electronic image sensors.
• The device forms part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project in the remote Karoo desert, which will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope system.
• It combines the new optical telescope MeerLITCH — Dutch for ‘more light’ — with the recently-completed 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, located 200 km away.
• Astronomers have previously had to wait for a cosmic incident to be picked up by a radio telescope and then carry out optic observations afterwards.
• But combining MeerLITCH, in the small town of Sutherland, with MeerKAT, also in the sparsely-populated North Cape province, will allow simultaneous study of cosmic events as they occur.

International endeavour

• The project has been six years in the making by a joint-team of South African, Dutch and British scientists.
• The optical telescope, built in the Netherlands and shipped to South Africa, uses a main mirror just 65 cm in diameter and a single 100-megapixel detector measuring 10 cm x 10 cm.
• It is housed in a white dome-shaped building made of carbon fibre to protect it against temperature fluctuations in the Karoo desert, which was chosen for its clear skies, dry climate and lack of pollution.
• Among the priorities for MeerLICHT, which cost about $1.1 million, is the study of black holes, neutron stars and stellar explosions, which must be scrutinised quickly before they fade away.

• Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) chairman M.S. Sahoo said that the Committee of Creditors (CoC), which is a group of people who represent a company’s creditors in a bankruptcy proceeding, is not being proactive enough in dealing with the cases and that the best of the code is not used.
• He was of the view that it is the role of the CoC to tell a business what all the possibilities are, so that the resolution plan can address all the issues and emphasised on CoC’s need to focus on resolution rather than recovery.
• He said that the code says that it is maximisation of value of assets for the corporate debtor, not for a stakeholder or a set of stakeholders. Moreover, CoC is in the position of a custodian or a trustee. So, it has a higher responsibility to look after the interest of all stakeholders.
• FICCI president Rashesh Shah discussed the consequences of 75% creditor approval required for plans to be passed and said that a lot of good plans were getting rejected because small creditors could hold up the whole process. He suggested that the threshold of rejection of a plan should be brought as low as possible, about 51%.

Also Read | Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

So far, Iran’s response to U.S. provocation has been rhetorical but President Rouhani has little room for manoeuvre.

Major issues

• The long-standing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in West Asia has been overshadowed by new flashpoints in the region, both internal and external, since the Arab Spring.
• The fight against the Islamic State and its offshoots, beginning with Iraq;
• The Syrian conflict that has drawn in the S., Russia, Iran and Turkey;
• Renewed skirmishing between Israel and Iran across the Golan Heights; and
• The civil war in Yemen where the involvement of Saudi Arabia and Iran has heightened tensions, exposing old regional fault lines.
• Growing drumbeats of a wider conflict can threaten to overturn the boundaries imposed after World War I.

U.S. withdrawal

• To this volatile mix, new uncertainty was added, when President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. was walking out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
• A flurry of diplomatic activity followed with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif visiting Beijing, Moscow and Brussels.
• In Brussels, he met the E-3 (France, Germany and U.K.) Foreign Ministers and the European Union (EU) High Representative Federica Mogherini to explore how the deal could be salvaged.
• This was followed by a summit in Sofia later in May where the EU leaders directed the European Commission to activate the Blocking Statute which forbids European companies from complying with the extra-territorial effects of U.S. sanctions.
• It also asked the European Investment Bank to set up a special purpose vehicle to protect European companies’ investments in Iran.
• Conceived in 1996, the Blocking Statute was a response to U.S. legislation imposing extra-territorial sanctions on companies engaging with Cuba.
• It empowered the EU to sequester assets of U.S. companies in Europe, equivalent to the penalties imposed on European companies.
• Eventually, the stand-off was resolved by introducing a waiver.
• The difference is that in 1996, the Clinton administration was sympathetic to the EU stand but in 2018, the Trump administration is prepared to be tougher than the U.S. Congress!

U.S. conditions

• This is clear from U.S. that unveiled a dozen conditions for Iran to fulfil including a permanent end to uranium enrichment, unfettered access for the inspectors, end to missile proliferation, ending support to Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi rebels (Yemen), Shia militias (Iraq) and Taliban and complete withdrawal from Syria.
• It is not a Plan B but an ultimatum, with no room for dialogue or diplomacy.

Rationale for the Iran deal

• Moreover, it throws down the gauntlet not just to Iran but also to its European partners.
• Many Europeans have expressed support for curbing Iran’s missile proliferation and testing and finding a way to extend nuclear enrichment restrictions beyond the 15-year timeframe set by the JCPOA.
• However, rather than walk away while Iran remains in full compliance with its obligations, the E-3 and EU would like to preserve the JCPOA and build upon it.
• On the other hand, the Trump administration would like to tear up the JCPOA and push Iran to negotiate a new deal under pressure of stronger sanctions.
• The push for JCPOA had come with the realisation by the Obama administration that Iran had successfully accelerated its uranium enrichment programme after the slowdown caused by the Stuxnet attack in 2009.
• By November 2013 when negotiations began and Iran agreed to freeze its programme, it was in a position to produce enough highly enriched uranium (25 kg) for one nuclear bomb within three months.
• After Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, kinetic options were off the table and there was no appetite for regime change.
• Post-Arab Spring, Barack Obama felt that the S.’s West Asia policy of dual containment served Israeli and Saudi interests but restricted American options in the region.
• He concluded that the JCPOA with its stringent verification provisions would slow down Iran’s nuclear programme, freezing it for 15 years, with accompanying sanctions relief strengthening the moderate elements in Iran represented by President Hassan Rouhani, and consequently increasing U.S. diplomatic options.
• In the Trump administration, They had pushed for retaining the JCPOA but with the induction of Secretary Pompeo and NSA John Bolton, the shift in the U.S. approach is apparent.

A coalition of the willing

• Pompeo’s speech questions the achievements of the 1979 Iranian revolution and is a barely veiled suggestion for regime change.
• His speech is reminiscent of the then U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s speech in August 2002 when he made the case for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq because Saddam Hussein was a leading sponsor of terrorism, had lied and cheated about his nuclear programme, had oppressed his people who deserved a life of dignity and freedom and was behaving like bully seeking regional domination. In March the following year, the U.S. invaded Iraq.

 To dismantle JCPOA

• Saudi Arabia and Israel had applauded Mr. Cheney’s speech then and today support Mr. Trump’s decision to dismantle the JCPOA.
• For both countries, the U.S. policy of dual containment (of Iran and Iraq) was a security bonus.
• They perceived the JCPOA as a move towards ending Iran’s isolation and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are Mr. Trump’s original cheerleaders.
• Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been engaged in a costly adventure in Yemen heightening tensions with Iran.
• In Syria, Iran has built up its presence by bringing in Shia militias and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps advisers to support the Syrian army, leading to growing tensions with Israel. Earlier, Israeli forces would strike weapons locations or convoys in Syria intended for strengthening Hezbollah.
• There has been an escalation targeting Iranian efforts to build infrastructure close to Golan Heights.
• After the U.S. announced its decision to withdraw from the JCPOA, Iran retaliated with a rocket barrage on Golan Heights resulting in a massive Israeli response targeting more than 70 Iranian targets inside Syria.

A critical point

• So far Iran’s response has been rhetorical but Mr. Rouhani has little room for manoeuvre as hardline elements in Iran critical of the deal are gaining ground.
• He is waiting to see if the Europeans, together with Russia and China, can save the JCPOA that has enabled oil exports to grow from 1 million barrels a day in 2015 to 2.6 million, and permitted access to western goods and technologies in sectors such as oil exploration, aviation, etc.
• In an address to Iranian officials, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said he expected the E-3, Russia and China to take up the matter in the UN Security Council, for the E-3 to stop criticism of Iran’s missile tests and regional behaviour and ensure concrete economic guarantees.

Conclusion

• However, the signs are not promising as large European companies cannot afford U.S. sanctions;
• Total and Airbus are already pulling out of their multibillion dollar deals. Iran does not want to be accused of killing the JCPOA but soon it will need to decide how long it will continue to abide with its intensive inspections regime.
• The day it issues that warning or ratchets up its responses in the region towards Israel and Saudi Arabia, it might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.
• Just as it is more difficult to verify Iran’s full compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty without the JCPOA’s enhanced verification provisions, it is more difficult to justify going to war with Iran when it is in full compliance with JCPOA. The U.S. decision may just have tipped the balance.

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Service & cadre: Not just UPSC exam, score in foundation course may also matter

Question 1. Consider the following statements regarding the Insolvency and Bankruptcy 
Code, 2016.

Question 2. Which of the following is/are members of the Organization of the Petroleum 
Exporting Countries (OPEC)?

Question 3. Which of the following is incorrectly matched?

Question 4. Which of the following statement with respect to National Green Tribunal is incorrect?

Also, check previous Daily News Analysis