Daily PT Capsule May 4

Here is the digest of  today’s important newspaper articles and quiz!

Trade Facilitation panel to be set up

After ratifying the World Trade Organization(WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement, the government is in the process of setting up a National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF)  to coordinate and implement it.

The NCTF, which is in line with the government’s “Ease of Doing Business” initiatives, is meant to institutionalise coordination on trade facilitation between the 35-plus central government departments, private players and state governments.

Analysis

What is the Trade Facilitation Agreement? – The Trade Facilitation Agreement contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. It also sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues. It further contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building in this area.

How will it help India? – TFA will help in the world’s best trade practices being shared among the WTO member countries ratifying the pact. India has made rapid strides in streamlining its processes on the lines of international best practices,  yet the country needs to ensure speedy legislation so that there are visible beneficial outcomes.

The agreement is supposed to enable domestic manufacturers connect more easily to regional and Global Value Chains.

Source: TheHindu, WTO

India rejects findings of US religious panel

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom  in its annual report for 2015-16 said that India is on a “negative trajectory in terms of religious freedom”.  The USCIRF declared that it will monitor the situation in India closely to determine if it “should be recommended to the U.S. State Department for designation as a ‘country of particular concern, or CPC under the International Religious Freedom Act for systematic, ongoing egregious violations of religious freedom.

The Indian official response rejected the report as it did not  have “proper understanding of India, its Constitution and its society.”

“India is a vibrant pluralistic society founded on strong democratic principles. The Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens including the right to freedom of religion. The government does not see the locus standi of a foreign entity like the USCIRF to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens’ Constitutionally protected rights. We take no cognizance of their report,”  Spokesperson of the MEA said.

Analysis

What is the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom? – USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world, dedicated to defending the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad. USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations and makes policy recommendations to the President,the Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties.

Source: TheHindu, USCIRF

Parliamentary panel on DRDO

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has called on the Defence Research and Development Organisation to reorient itself with a technology road map, focusing its energy on developing certain key technologies.

It has called for scientific, technical and concurrent audit of all ongoing DRDO projects by an independent agency, expressing its dismay over the closure of several projects at the initial stage itself. “The committee expresses its concern on the wasteful expenditure incurred by DRDO on closure of major projects like Airborne Surveillance Platform, Cargo Ammunition, GPS-based system as an alternative to fire direction radar” and several air-defence gun systems, the panel said.

Analysis

What are the major issues with DRDO? – While ISRO has been achieving difficult feats consistently, DRDO as an organization has failed at many fronts. The difference in effectiveness of both the organizations makes one wonder where the difference lies.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was set up in 1958 with a vision to “provide our defence services a decisive edge by equipping them with internationally competitive systems and solutions”.

DRDO’s list of successes is short-primarily the Agni and Prithvi missiles. Its list of failures is much longer. The Light Combat Aircraft (ICA) project, which was commissioned in 2001, is running late by many years. The costs have gone up from an original estimate of around Rs 3,300 crore to over Rs 5,780 crore. The Kaveri Engine for ICA is running late by 16 years.

One of the basic problems in the organisation of the country’s defence is that threat perceptions are not based on any systematic analysis by the Services of the geopolitical and the geostrategic environment in the country’s neighborhood and a comprehensive technical assessment based on that of medium- to long-term operational requirements of weapons and systems. Any demand placed on the national defence R&D system should reflect such an assessment. Unfortunately, many of the Services’ demands would seem to be derived from foreign vendors’ sales pitches what have come to be termed BBC (Best of Brochure Claims) in DRDO circles. As a result, system specifications (which constantly keep changing) placed on defence R&D would seem to mirror not the actual dynamics of the security environment of the country but the dynamics of technological evolution of the global defence industry, which the DRDO is expected to realise fully.

DRDO is also facing problem of talent crunch. The attrition rate has been high in the organization to the private sector and it has not been able to attract talent. The current team of top scientists at DRDO are close to their retirement age.

DRDO is also known for wasting its time and resources in doing too many things. There has been lack of focus and ability to deliver on promises because of it. Lack of substantial autonomy to allocate work to private players is one of the reasons behind it.

Source: TheHindu, IndiaToday

Airfares cap during crisis

The government is set to hold talks with domestic airlines to cap airfares on short routes during natural calamities or unpredictable situations. The issue had been raised in the parliament where there were concerns related to steep increase in airfares during “unpredictable disruptions in transport services on account of natural calamities or agitation.”

The civil aviation minister said the government had intervened during the Chennai floods to cap airfares on certain routes. During the Chennai floods, alternate flight operations were commenced from the Arakkonam airbase of the Navy with the active cooperation of many airlines and capping of fares from Arakkonam to Bengaluru and Hyderabad at Rs.2, 000.

There have been recent cases like the Jat agitation, where domestic carriers had charged exorbitant airfares on the Delhi-Chandigarh route during protests by the Jat community, demanding job reservations.

Analysis

Is it correct to put floor and caps on prices? – There have been concerns regarding fluctuating prices of air fares. The topic has been discussed in the Parliament as well. There has also been concerns that the price decrease in Aviation Turbine fuel has not been passed on to the customers.

The Union Minister of Civil Aviation has said that “Competition has kept the prices down and we should not discourage that. In our analysis, if we take a year of ticketing, 1.7 per cent of the ticketing (air tickets) were priced high. So if you go into floors and caps, we will be pushing up the cost of tickets to about 98 per cent and bringing it down for the rest. I don’t think that is how policy is formulated. We would like to keep it (ticket prices) down and things to be passed on (to passengers)”.

While putting price control is against the spirit of a market economy, crisis situations could be exempted from the non-interference rule. The public as well as the private sectors are equally morally responsible for lending a helping hand during a crisis situation.

Source: TheHindu

Take the Quiz below to know your preparation Level!