E. Editorials

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Another Afghan peace push and a role for India

What’s in News?

• The much awaited intra-Afghan talks between the Taliban and the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation opened in Doha, Qatar in September 2020.
• The initiation of intra-Afghan talks was a key element in the U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in Doha in February 2020 between the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, and the Taliban deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader.

Dynamics of negotiations:

• Direct negotiations with the Taliban began with Ambassador Khalilzad’s appointment as Special Envoy.
• The negotiations that began two years ago actually became a three-way negotiation.
  1. The Doha track was with the Taliban.
  2. A second track was with Islamabad/Rawalpindi to persuade the Pakistan Army to pressurise the Taliban to get them to the negotiating table.
  3. The third was with Kabul to ensure that the Afghan government would accept the Doha outcome.
• Originally Ambassador Khalilzad had spelt out four objectives:
  1. An end to violence by declaring a ceasefire.
  2. An intra-Afghan dialogue for a lasting peace.
  3. The Taliban cutting ties with terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda.
  4. S. troop withdrawal. Within months, the Taliban had whittled these down to just the last one with some palliatives regarding the third.

Concerns:

• The two elements that remained open ended in the U.S.-Taliban deal are the ceasefire declaration and the intra-Afghan talks.
• Instead of an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled reconciliation, it became a U.S.-led and Taliban-controlled process with nobody claiming ownership or responsibility.

Finite interests of major powers:

• The reality is major powers have limited interests. That is why no major power is taking ownership for the reconciliation talks, but merely content with being facilitators.
  • For the U.S.,the peace talks provide U.S. President Donald Trump an exit opportunity before his re-election bid.
  • The European Union has made it clear that its financial contribution will depend on the security environment and the human rights record.
  • China can always lean on Pakistan to preserve its security and connectivity interests.
  • For Russia, blocking the drug supply and keeping its southern periphery secure from extremist influences is key.

Evolving Indian stand:

• Addressing the opening session of the Doha meeting, India’s External Affairs Minister reiterated that the peace process must be “Afghan led, Afghan owned and Afghan controlled”; but Indian policy has evolved from its earlier hands-off approach to the Taliban.
• However, both Ambassador Khalilzad and Russian Special Envoy to Afghanistan Ambassador Zamir Kabulov have, on multiple occasions bluntly pointed out that if India had concerns regarding anti-India activities of terrorist groups, it must engage directly with the Taliban.

Read about Afghan Peace Process and India. For information on India’s concerns over Afghan peace deal refer: 2^nd March 2020 and 2nd May 2020 Comprehensive News Analysis.

Way forward:

• As much as the prospect for peace in Afghanistan depends on actual progress in the intra-Afghan talks, what is equally essential is regional consensus to support the peace process.
• India’s vision of a sovereign, united, stable, plural and democratic Afghanistan is one that is shared by a large constituency in Afghanistan, cutting across ethnic and provincial lines.
• India should increase its active engagement in the peace process which would allow it to work with like-minded forces in the region to ensure that the vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal does not lead to an undoing of the progress made so far.

Category: ECONOMY

2. Market failure – on Agriculture Reforms

Context:

The ambitious initiative government to bring about far-reaching reform in agriculture has drawn criticisms on a large scale, mainly over fears that the free market philosophy at its core could spell the end of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for produce that has so far been centrally procured by the government.

Background:

• Amendments have been proposed to the Essential Commodities Act. It is opined that the amendments to the Essential Commodities Act remove all cereals, pulses, oilseeds, potato and onion from trade restrictions and price control — which would ultimately benefit only the middlemen and traders.
• Lok Sabha passed the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.

This issue has been covered in: 17^th September 2020 PIB Summary and Analysis.

Also, read more about the agri marketing reforms covered in 17^th May 2020 and 4^th June 2020 Comprehensive News Analyses.

Concerns:

• Provisions in the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, providing for unrestricted commerce in designated trade areas outside APMC jurisdictions without levy of any fee have alarmed the states.
• Empowering the Centre to issue orders to States in furtherance of the law’s objectives, has drawn criticisms from the states.
  • The opposition to the Bills, particularly on trade, is because agriculture and markets are State subjects, and there should be no tinkering with the MSP and Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC).
  • MSPs and APMCs form the backbone of existing trading arrangements.
• Several States have already liberalised agricultural marketing, amending their APMC Acts, and some have allowed regulated private commerce including direct marketing.

Way forward:

• Evidence point out that mere liberalisation does not lead to private investment in new markets.
  • When Bihar removed the APMC system, markets suffered loss of fee revenue, with no significant private investments in the sector.
• To strengthen competition, the Centre should massively fund the expansion of the APMC market system.
• Efforts must be made towards removing trade cartels, and providing farmers good roads, logistics of scale and real time information.
• The emphasis should be on empowering farmers through State Farmers Commissions recommended by the NCF, to bring about a speedy government response to issues.
• Small farmers have been remarkably productive and shored up the economy even during a pandemic. Without strong institutional arrangements, laissez-faire (no economic interventionism) policy may harm lakhs of unorganised small farmers.

F. Tidbits

1. ‘Bamboo shoots can be among cheapest immunity boosters’

• Bamboo, the tallest grass on earth, according to experts is an immunity booster for increasing the human body’s resistance to viral attack.
• Bamboo shoots are emerging as high-value and safe edibles and growing in utility globally along with all other value-added bamboo products.
• The protein content in fresh bamboo shoots, considered as a nutraceutical. The term ‘nutraceutical’ is used to describe medicinally or nutritionally functional foods.
• They also contain 17 amino acids, eight of which are essential for the human body.

Note:

• According to the National Bamboo Mission, India has the highest area (13.96 million hectares) under bamboo and is the second richest country after China in terms of bamboo diversity with 136 species.
• As per International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) data, China exports 68% of the world’s bamboo and rattan products.

Read more about World Bamboo Day covered in 18^th September 2020 PIB Summary and Analysis.

2. U.S. to ban WeChat & TikTok, cites privacy, national security

• The U.S. will ban downloads of the Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat, with a total ban on the use of WeChat.
• It has cited national security and data privacy concerns for its move.
• Some security experts have raised concerns that ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese company that owns TikTok, would maintain access to information on the 100 million TikTok users in the U.S., creating a security risk.
• TikTok collects user data and moderates users’ posts. It grabs users’ locations and messages and tracks what they watch to figure out how best to target ads to them.

3. To boost trade, Pak. plans to set up markets on Afghan, Iran borders

What’s in News?

Pakistan will set up 18 markets along its border with Afghanistan and Iran to simultaneously boost trade with the both its neighbours.

• It also plans to curb the menace of smuggling that has dented the economies on both sides.
• Pakistan has been fencing its border with Afghanistan and Iran to curb the movement of militants and smuggling of goods.
• However, it has been setting up border crossings at designated points to promote lawful movements of persons and goods.

G. Prelims Facts

1. Death of two sloth bears worries Nandankanan zoo authorities

What’s in News?

Authorities at the Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) are concerned over the back-to-back deaths of two sloth bears at the park.

Sloth Bear:

• Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) is a nocturnal insectivorous species of bears found in India.
• It feeds on fruits, ants and termites.
• It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
• The sloth bear is listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• International trade of the sloth bear is prohibited as it is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Nandankanan zoo

• It is located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
• It lies in adjacent to Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary.
• It is the only zoological park in India to become an institutional member of World Association of Zoos and Aquarium (WAZA).
• The Nandankanan zoo hosts India’s only pangolin conservation breeding centre.
• It is the first zoo in the World to breed White tiger and Melanistic tiger.

2. Vaishwik Bharatiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Summit

What’s in News?

The Department of Science and Technology and the Defence Research and Development Organisation will be organising a month-long session of webinars and online discussions as a part of Vaishwik Bharatiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Summit involving non-resident Indian (NRI) scientists.

VAIBHAV Summit:

• The VAIBHAV Summit, is being organised to help develop a comprehensive road map to leverage the expertise and knowledge of global Indian researchers for solving emerging challenges.
• The summit is designed with the goal of creating an ecosystem of Knowledge and Innovation in the country through global outreach.
• By bringing the Indian overseas and resident academicians/scientists together, a structure of association will be evolved.
• The end product will be a road map and broad direction on the kind of research that will benefit India in the future.
• Key areas of discussion will include: quantum technologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning, electronics and semi-conductor technologies, communications technologies, photonics, computational and data sciences and aerospace technologies among others.

3. Continuity in change

What’s in News?

Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe has passed on the baton to his long-term associate, Yoshihide Suga who promises continuity rather than change as he takes the reins.

• For India, Mr. Abe’s exit is a loss, given his game-changing moves on India-Japan ties which included :
  • Upgrading the relationship to a Special Strategic and Global Partnership
  • Instituting the annual Prime Ministerial summits from 2006.
  • Spearheading both versions of the Quadrilateral with the U.S. and Australia.
  • Personally moving the India-Japan civil nuclear partnership through the Diet (parliament), Japan’s first with a non-NPT country.
  • Signing of the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, a significant step in defence cooperation.
• He shared his famous “three arrows” economic strategy called ‘Abenomics’ with India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India hopes that under PM Suga, Japan will not steer away from the course set by Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.

 1. Consider the following statements with respect to Members of Parliament 
Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS):

2. Consider the following statements with respect to Nandankanan Zoological Park:

3. What is the classification of Sloth Bears in the IUCN Red List:

4. Consider the following statements with respect to National Bamboo Mission: