La Excellence IAS

My Notes – 28Sep2016

Caste struggles

democracy is a value and elections are a process to realise this value. So, democracy is concerned with justice, equality. But, the castes having numbers are trying to be assertive of their numbers to demand favourable laws and benefits. Upper caste movements for reservations is a reflection of this. Consolidation of privileges, accumulation of power is the objective of new caste movement. This reduces democracy to a zero sum game. Democracy can not be a tyranny of numbers.

WTO ruling – A case for accepting the WTO ruling

Context – India has the domestic content requirement for the solar panels installed under Jawahar Lal Nehru National solar mission. That is the panels need to be procured in India and the electricity produced From the solar power developers will be bought by the government and sells it to the discoms. WTO appellate body has declared this domestic content requirements as illegal.

Issues

  1. WTO treaty prohibits the discrimination between imported and domestic produce. But, the exception is the Government procurement. Here in the case of Jawaharlal Nehru national solar mission Government is not procuring the solar panels but buying the electricity from the solar power developers.
  2. Another exception is, discrimination is allowed if the products are in short supply. Here short supply mean import and domestic short supply. Solar panels are not min short supply.
  3. To keep compliance with any international treaty an exception can be made. But, India failed to show an international legal norm that is in direct application in India.

In this scenario, India – USA are aiming for an increase in trade to $500bn., It need to reduce there trade barriers between the countries.

Uniform Asylum law

Context – Baloch leader mr. Bugti has asked for an Asylum in India. What are the legal issues associated with it?

  1. India is not a signatory of UN convention on Refugees, 1951 and it do not have a domestic asylum law. So, it is dealing with asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Burma, Tibet under different policies. So, a uniform asylum law is required in India for all refugee communities.
  2. Rights and duties of the refugees in India are not clearly defined.
  3. If refugee status is given to Mr.Bugti, is India going to consider the demands of asylum from the larger Baloch community in the future?

Troubled waters

Note – Diplomacy shall happen with rational analysis and pragmatic caution. It shall not be swayed by the popular mood.

Prime Minister Modi held that Blood and water can not flow together citing the water treaty between India and Pakistan, Pakistan sponsoring the terror. In this scenario, India need to be cautious in its future actions.

  1. Revoking Indus water treaty will threaten regional stability and India's credibility globally.
  2. Dams required to hold the course of rivers needs Huge finances and time to be built.
  3. Revoking the MFN, will little impact the Pakistan as bilateral business between both the nations is very less.

So, a rational analysis and a calm mind is required to calibrate an action against the Pakistan.

News

WEF ranks India as 39th most competitive economy.

India has risen sharply by 16 notches to the 39th position in the World economic forums Global competitiveness Report of 2016-17. India did extremely well on innovation, goods market efficiency, business sophistication. India falls back on technological readiness due to digital divide.

SAARC – India declared it can not attend the SAARC summit to be held in Islamabad. Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh are also likely to follow the suit.

Graphene Nano sheets

University of Madras researchers are able to to produce graphemes nano sheets from the graphite material with out using any strong oxidising or reducing agents. They used water, glacial acetic acid and ultrasound for the same.

Cauvery - Give 6,000 cusecs to T.N. for 3 days, Karnataka told

Supreme Court of India has ordered the Karnataka Government to release water to TamilNadu.

Question of the day

Do You think India need a uniform asylum law? Discuss the provisions of UN convention on refugees.