VISION

Monday, September 14, 2020

Daily Current Affairs, 14th September 2020

1) Hindi Diwas celebrated on 14 September

•Hindi Diwas or Hindi Day is observed every year on 14 September to mark the popularity of Hindi as an official language of India. The language was adopted under Article 343 of the Indian Constitution. The first Hindi day was celebrated on 14th September 1953.

2) Govt sets up Empowered Group of Ministers to oversee OFB’s Corporatisation

•Central Government has constituted an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to oversee the process of the corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is the chairman of this EGoM. As part of the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” (self-reliant India) initiative, the government had announced on May 16 that it would improve the autonomy, accountability and efficiency in ordnance supplies by converting the OFB, which is a subordinate office of the defence ministry, into one or more government-owned corporate entities.

3) India-US hold 2 plus 2 intersessional meeting

•India and the United States held a bilateral 2+2 Inter-sessional meeting in virtual mode. During the meeting, both sides reviewed the progress and developments in bilateral ties in defence, security, and foreign policy areas. They explored opportunities for enhancing ongoing cooperation in these fields based on mutual interest. They also exchanged views about regional developments, and agreed to pursue their quest for a free, open, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

4) PM Modi addresses the ‘Grih Pravesham’ event in MP

•Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has addressed the ‘Grih Pravesham’ event in Madhya Pradesh through video conferencing. Under this, 1.75 Lakh Families in Madhya Pradesh were delivered pucca houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Grameen (PMAY-G).

•PM Modi also interacted with the beneficiaries from Dhar, Singrauli and Gwalior under PMAY-G in Madhya Pradesh. Building a house under PMAY-G takes about 125 days but during this period of Corona, it was completed in just about 45 to 60 days which is a record in itself.

5) Odisha govt launches ‘GARIMA’ scheme for sanitation workers

•The Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik has launched a new scheme named ‘GARIMA’ which aims to ensure the economic safety and social dignity of core sanitation workers in the state. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Department, Odisha has signed a Ministry of Understanding (MoU) with not-for-profit organisation Urban Management Centre for providing the technical support to implement the scheme.

6) Subhash Kamath becomes new Chairman of ASCI

•Subhash Kamath has been elected as the chairman of the board of governors of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Kamath, who was serving as ASCI vice-chairman, will replace Rohit Gupta, president, Sony Pictures Networks.

7) Jane Fraser named the 1st female CEO of Citigroup

•Citigroup has named Jane Fraser as its next chief executive officer. She will be the first female CEO of this major global bank. She will succeed Michael Corbat, who is retiring in February 2021. Fraser has been a rising star in the financial industry, with a career that spans investment banking, wealth management, troubled mortgage workouts and strategy in Latin America.

8) V Muraleedharan participates in 27th ASEAN regional forum

•Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan participated in the 27th ASEAN regional forum. During the 27th ASEAN regional forum, the minister shared India’s views on maritime security, counter terrorism as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. He also stated that India will co-chair ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) workshops on port security and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

9) ADB & Suguna Foods Private Limited signs $15 million deal

•The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed an agreement for $15 million of debt financing through the subscription of nonconvertible debentures for Suguna Foods Private Limited (Suguna). The deal will help in sustaining poultry farming operations, as well as rural livelihoods and food security in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

•With this deal, the ADB will offer essential liquidity support to Suguna’s operations and also help the company build inventory buffers and make timely payments to contract farmers and suppliers. It will also encourage local lenders to support the business and help attract other medium- and long-term capital and international partners.

10) CARE ratings projects India’s GDP to contact between 8-8.2% in FY21

•The Indian rating agency, CARE Ratings has projected the GDP of India to contract in the range 8 to 8.2% for 2020-21 (FY21). This is more than its earlier projection of -6.4%. The decline in GDP growth by around 8 per cent would also be associated with a decline in the gross fixed capital formation.

11) Japan’s Naomi Osaka wins US Open Tennis Tournament

•Japan’s Naomi Osaka defeated Victoria Azarenka of Belarus to clinch the Women’s Singles title in the 2020 US Open Tennis tournament. This is the third Grand Slam title for the fourth seed Osaka. Osaka previously won the title at the 2018 US Open and 2019 Australian Open. She is now the first Asian player to win three Grand Slam singles titles. The victory has moved up Osaka to number 3 in the world rankings.

12) Dominic Thiem wins US Open Men’s Tennis Tournament 2020

•Austria’s Dominic Thiem defeated Alexander Zverev to win the men’s singles title at the 2020 US Open tournament. It was Thiem’s first Grand Slam title, and he becomes the first player in the Open Era to rally from two sets down in a US Open final.

•Thiem is also the first player to capture a Grand Slam title from two sets down since Gaston Gaudio at 2004 French Open. For the first time in six years, there was a first-time Grand Slam champion at the US Open.

13) Lewis Hamilton wins F1 Tuscan Grand Prix 2020

•Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-Great Britain) has won the Formula One Tuscan Grand Prix 2020 held at Mugello Circuit, Italy. This was his 6th win of the season and 90th F1 win of his career.

•Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes-Finland) came second followed by Alexander Albon (Red Bull – Thailand) at third place. The Tuscan Grand Prix (first edition) was the ninth race of the 2020 Formula One World Championship.

The HINDU Notes – 14th September 2020

the hindu notes

VisionIAS 15:04

📰 In LAC talks, from peace to conflict prevention

There seem to be irreconcilable differences between India and China over fundamentals of the key border agreements

•The ongoing crisis in eastern Ladakh has raised many issues on the range and trajectory of India-China relations. Among these is the future relevance of various agreements that were signed between the two countries to maintain peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that serves as a de facto border.

Agreements over the years

•Some experts argue that the genesis of the current problem lies in the first agreement signed between India and China in 1993. They say India should not have accepted the term ‘LAC’ in this agreement as there was no clarity as to where this line lay on the ground, and this ambiguity has forced India to adopt a policy of appeasement on the LAC. The absence of a delineated LAC is undoubtedly problematic, but it would also be appropriate to put the various agreements in a historical context, and dispassionately analyse their impact and their future relevance.

•After the 1962 war, the India-China border was loosely controlled by both sides, with a fairly sparse deployment of troops. That did not mean that border claims were diluted by either side, as witnessed in the bloody clash at Nathu La in 1967. The China Study Group, established in 1976, gave clarity to India’s claims by laying down the patrolling points and guiding the scope of military activity along the LAC.

•A significant change in border management occurred after the Chinese occupation of a post in the Sumdorong Chu Valley in 1986. The massive response by the Indian Army sparked realisation on both sides that the boundary issue needed to be brought to the fore, and pending a settlement, some mechanism must be evolved to keep peace along the LAC.

•I was posted as a young Major in the China desk of the Military Operations Directorate when Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made the breakthrough visit to Beijing in 1988. After his visit, we had started working on a number of drafts on confidence-building measures along the LAC. Many of these recommendations were incorporated in the Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China Border Areas, signed in 1993 (https://bit.ly/3k5HNi2).

•The 1993 agreement formalised the LAC concept. However, understanding that there were differing perceptions, it called for creating a group of diplomatic and military experts for “resolution of differences between the two sides on the alignment of the line of actual control”. The agreement eschewed the use of force to settle the boundary issue and, as part of confidence-building measures, restricted military exercises and air activity close to the LAC. An essential part of the agreement was a reduction in “military forces along the line of actual control in conformity with the requirements of the principle of mutual and equal security to ceilings to be mutually agreed”.

•This was followed by the 1996 Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on Confidence-Building Measures in the Military Field Along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China Border Areas (https://bit.ly/2GXxkqD). It called for reducing or limiting military forces to minimum levels and limiting the deployment of major armaments such as tanks, artillery guns, and missiles to mutually agreed levels. A 2005 protocol (https://bit.ly/3hy3HJe), or the Protocol between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on Modalities for the Implementation of Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field Along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China Border Areas, added more confidence-building measures outlining the procedure to be adopted when soldiers of the two sides came to a face-to-face situation while patrolling areas where there was a differing perception of the LAC. The protocol also agreed to expand the mechanism of border meeting points and exchanges between the two militaries. Interestingly, there was no mention of a reduction in military forces.

Unimplemented aspects

•Did these agreements serve a useful purpose? Undoubtedly, they resulted in an extended period of calm along the LAC and ensured that not a shot was fired. However, two unimplemented aspects of the agreements, combined with a shift in military posture by both sides, has led to an erosion of confidence-building measures between the two armies in the past few years.

•First, the differences in the alignment of the LAC could not be resolved. Attempts were made, and maps were exchanged of the Central sector, but there were apparent irreconcilable differences over the Western sector, and the process stalled in 2002. Second, the agreement on reducing military forces along the LAC to the minimum was neither seriously discussed nor implemented.

•In the late 1980s, when rapprochement with China was being considered, the Indian Army looked towards Pakistan as the major threat. However, even at that time, papers produced by my superiors in the Military Operations Directorate stated that in about 15 years, India’s primary adversary would be China. By the mid-2000s, the northern borders came into increasing focus of the military and the government.

•In 2006, a decision was taken to build 73 strategic roads along the LAC. In 2010, two new divisions were raised to strengthen deployment in Arunachal Pradesh, and additional formations were deployed in Ladakh. In 2013, the Indian government sanctioned the raising of a Mountain Strike Corps for the Northern border. As infrastructure improved on the Indian side and larger forces were available for patrolling the LAC, face-offs with Chinese patrols increased. In many cases, the Chinese soldiers complained that they were being prevented from going up to areas that they had traditionally patrolled, but India was defending its perception of the LAC more robustly.

•There is also a mistaken notion that the LAC is some fuzzy and unclear line. India’s perception of the LAC is clearly marked on its military maps, and while the soldiers understand that there are areas of differing perception, there is no ambiguity about the line that they are tasked to defend. Some media reports point out that the Indian Army had not been patrolling in the Depsang area after the 2013 intrusion by the Chinese. I will only briefly state that this is not true.

•As face-offs between the two armies became more frequent, protocols weakened. The first manifestation of this came in the Depsang intrusion in 2013, and the attempted intrusion at Chumar in 2014. In between Depsang and Chumar, both countries signed the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement, or the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on Border Defence Cooperation (https://bit.ly/3c5yBaN), but it had little impact on the ground.

After Doklam

•Even after Chumar, although protocols had weakened, they were still holding, and held out till the Doklam incident of 2017. It was after Doklam that we saw greater aggression by both sides. On August 15, 2017, videos were flashed all over the media of Indian and Chinese soldiers at Pangong Tso involved in stone-throwing. Today, the brutality of deaths along the LAC, the complete loss of trust, and disregard for the LAC by China have left all agreements in tatters.

•Can we go back to a situation where both sides revert to respecting the past agreements? I think it is no longer possible because two fundamentals of the agreements — resolution of the differing perceptions of the LAC and reduction of military forces — which have been ignored over the years stand unimplemented. There seem to be irreconcilable differences over these fundamentals.

•This reality is reflected in the five-point consensus arrived at in the recent meeting between the two Foreign Ministers. The two sides have agreed to “conclude new Confidence Building Measures to maintain and enhance peace and tranquillity in the border areas”. This is a good step forward, although we should no longer be talking about peace and tranquillity along the LAC, but conflict prevention.