Daily Current Affairs 03rd June 2020

Daily Current Affairs 03rd June 2020 iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-03rd-june-2020/

Today’s Important Topic’s For UPSC Preparation 1. LAC AND ITS OVERLAPPING CLAIM OF INDIA AND CHINA. 2. 60 MILLION COULD BE PUSHED INTO EXTREME POVERTY IN 2020.

3. ELECTRONICS INCENTIVE SCHEMES.

LAC AND ITS OVERLAPPING CLAIM OF INDIA AND CHINA CONTEXT Reports of a heavy Chinese presence at Depsang, an area at a crucial dip (called the Bulge) on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) have increased tensions between Indian and Chinese troops, sources aware of the month-long standoff at various points in Ladakh and Sikkim said.

WHY DESPANG? The “Depsang plain” is one of the few places in the Western Sector where light armour (vehicles) would have ease of manoeuvre, so any Chinese buildup there is a cause for concern.The buildup invokes memories of both the 1962 war, when Chinese troops had occupied all of the Depsang plains, and more recently, April 2013, when the PLA crossed the LAC and pitched tents on the Indian side for three weeks, before they agreed to pull out.

Which are the tension points?

RECENTLY, On May 14, Indian Army Chief General Manoj Naravane said incidents at the Pangong lake in Ladakh on May 5 and at Naku La in Sikkim on May 9 had led to injuries, caused by “aggressive behaviour on both sides”. He said the two sides had disengaged. Stand-offs at two other spots in Ladakh, in the Galwan valley and in Demchok, have reportedly escalated with a build-up of troops by both sides Face-off and stand-off situations occur along the LAC in areas where India and China have overlapping claim lines. The LAC has never been demarcated. Differing perceptions are particularly acute in around two dozen spots across the Western (Ladakh), Middle (Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), Sikkim, and Eastern (Arunachal Pradesh) sectors of the India-China border. The boundary in the Sikkim sector is broadly agreed, but has not been delineated. Face-offs occur when patrols encounter each other in the contested zones between overlapping claim lines.

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PAST NEGOTIATIONS AND WHY THEY HAVEN’T BEEN FRUITFUL There are four agreements pertaining to LAC signed in September 1993, November 1996, April 2005 and October 2013.

According to the 1993 agreement (on the maintenance of peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border areas), “pending an ultimate solution”, “the two sides shall strictly respect and observe the LAC between the two sides… No activities of either side shall overstep the LAC”.

Further, both the 1993 and the 1996 agreement (on confidence-building measures in the military field along the LAC) say they “will reduce or limit their respective military forces within mutually agreed geographical zones along the LAC.” This was to apply to major categories of armaments and cover various other aspects as well, including air intrusions “within ten kilometres along the LAC”.

The specification of this LAC as the starting point and the central focus has made several key stipulations and articles of the four agreements effectively inoperable for more than a quarter of a century.

Astonishingly, nowhere in the 1993 agreement is there the provision to recognise the existing lines of deployment of the respective armies, as they were in 1993. The agreement does not reflect any attempt to have each side recognise the other’s line of deployment of troops at the time it was signed.

If both armies are to respect the LAC, where is the line? The ambiguity over the LAC has brought a prolonged sense of unease and uncertainty and thus exponentially contributed to the military build-up in those areas. The absence of a definition of this line allows ever new and surreptitious advances on the ground.

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2005 BOUNDARY NEGOTIATIONS In 2005, an agreement on political parameters and guiding principles completed the first of three stages of the talks.

The 2005 agreement said both sides “shall safeguard due interests of their settled populations in border areas”.

The current, and most difficult, stage involves agreeing a framework to resolve the dispute in all sectors.

The final step will involve delineating and demarcating the boundary in maps and on the ground.

PROSPECTS OF DISPUTE SETTLEMENT The likelihood appears remote.

The main differences are in the Western and Eastern sectors.

India sees China as occupying 38,000 sq km in Aksai In the east, China claims as much as 90,000 sq km, extending all across Arunachal Pradesh.

One particular sticking point appears to involve China’s claims to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, which has been increasingly raised by China in recent years A swap was hinted at by China in 1960 and in the early 1980s, which would have essentially formalised the status quo.

Both sides have now ruled out the status quo as a settlement, agreeing to meaningful and mutual adjustments.

At the same time, the most realistic solution will involve only minor adjustments along the LAC, considering neither side will be willing to part with territory already held.

BOTH PARTIES VIEWS India insists that its relations with China won’t improve fundamentally until the border dispute is resolved China appears to view an unsettled border as holding some leverage with India, one of the many pressure points it could use to keep India off-guard

CONCLUSION Demarcation of entire boundary is unlikely to happen in the near future.Building confidence measures and reducing the conflict points will subdue the tensions.

SOURCE: THE HINDU

60 MILLION COULD BE PUSHED INTO EXTREME POVERTY IN 2020 CONTEXT The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have “severe” short and long term effects on economic growth, the World Bank said in its Global Economic Prospects (GEP) June 2020 report, part of which was released on Tuesday. EMDEs (Emerging Market and Developing Economies) are especially vulnerable.

WORLD BANK’S DEFINITION OF POVERTY 3/8

The World Bank defines poverty in absolute terms. The bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.90 per day. (PPP), and moderate poverty as less than $3.10 a day.

It has been estimated that in 2008, 1.4 billion people had consumption levels below US$1.25 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day. The proportion of the developing world’s population living in extreme economic poverty has fallen from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.

Much of the improvement has occurred in East and South Asia. In Sub-Saharan Africa GDP/capita shrank with 14 percent, and extreme poverty increased from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001. Other regions have seen little or no change.

SILVER LININGS AND SUGGESTIONS OF THE REPORT Policy choices made today — including greater debt transparency to invite new investment, faster advances in digital connectivity, and a major expansion of cash safety nets for the poor — will help limit the damage and build a stronger recovery.

The financing and building of productive infrastructure are among the hardest-to-solve development challenges in the post-pandemic recovery. We need to see measures to speed litigation and the resolution of bankruptcies and reform the costly subsidies, monopolies and protected state-owned enterprises that have slowed development.

Along with addressing health emergencies and securing core public services in the short run, policies to boost long-term growth, such as improving the environment for business, improving governance, and enhancing the outcomes of education and public health investments would be needed.

SPILLOVER EFFECTS The report said EMDEs face health crises, restrictions and external shocks like falling trade, tourism and commodity prices, as well as capital outflows. These countries are expected to have a 3-8% output loss in the short term.

EDMEs are also expected to witness the spillover effects of the U.S., the Euro Area and China, which represent almost half of global output, being unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels of output before the end of 2021. If these three big economies simultaneously lose 1% in output, EDMEs (excluding China) are expected to lose 1.3% in their output with the lag of a year.Growth is likely to slow more in commodityexporting EMDEs than in commodity-importing ones

Poverty Estimation in India Poverty estimation in India is carried out by NITI Aayog’s task force through the calculation of poverty line based on the data captured by the National Sample Survey Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI).

Poverty line estimation in India is based on the consumption expenditure and not on the income levels.

Poverty is measured based on consumer expenditure surveys of the National Sample Survey Organisation. A poor household is defined as one with an expenditure level below a specific poverty line.

The incidence of poverty is measured by the poverty ratio, which is the ratio of the number of poor to the total population expressed as a percentage. It is also known as head-count ratio.

Alagh Committee (1979) determined a poverty line based on a minimum daily requirement of 2400 and 2100 calories for an adult in Rural and Urban area respectively.

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Subsequently different committees; Lakdawala Committee (1993), Tendulkar Committee (2009), Rangarajan committee (2012) did the poverty estimation.

As per the Rangarajan committee report (2014), the poverty line is estimated as Monthly Per Capita Expenditure of Rs. 1407 in urban areas and Rs. 972 in rural areas. According to this estimate, poverty in India stood at 29.5% in 2011-12 which is significantly higher than the Tendulkar model which is 21.5%.

SOURCE: THE HINDU

ELECTRONICS INCENTIVE SCHEMES CONTEXT Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday launched three incentive schemes with a total outlay of about ₹48,000 crore to boost large-scale manufacturing of electronics in the country.

The three schemes are – Production Linked Incentive (outlay of nearly ₹41,000 crore), Component Manufacturing Scheme (about ₹3,300 crore) and Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (about ₹3,800 crore).

Production Linked Incentive(PLI) Scheme: Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI), which is targeted at mobile phone manufacturing and specified electronic components, the government initially plans to incentivise 10 firms – five global and five local.

The PLI Scheme shall extend an incentive of 4% to 6% on incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India and covered under the target segments, to eligible companies, for a period of five years subsequent to the base year.

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Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS): The SPECS shall provide financial incentive of 25% on capital expenditure for the identified list of electronic goods, i.e., electronic components, semiconductor/ display fabrication units, Assembly, Test, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) units, specialized sub-assemblies and capital goods for manufacture of aforesaid goods.

Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme: The EMC 2.0 shall provide support for creation of world class infrastructure along with common facilities and amenities, including Ready Built Factory (RBF) sheds / Plug and Play facilities for attracting major global electronics manufacturers, along with their supply chains.

NECESSITY AND PROSPECTS The schemes will help in building a robust manufacturing ecosystem which will be an asset to the global economy and developing a strong ecosystem across the value chain and integrating it with global value chains.

The Schemes will help offset the disability for domestic electronics manufacturing and hence, strengthen the electronics manufacturing ecosystem in the country.

The three Schemes together will enable domestic supply chain of components and state-of-the-art infrastructure and common facilities for large anchor units and their supply chain partners.

These Schemes shall contribute significantly to achieving a USD 1 Trillion digital economy and a USD 5 Trillion GDP by 2025.

The three new Schemes are expected to attract substantial investments, increase production of mobile phones and their parts/ components to around Rs.10,00,000 crore by 2025 and generate around 5 lakh direct and 15 lakh indirect jobs.

Employment generation: With the three new schemes, the government aims to manufacture electronics worth ₹8 lakh crore, while generating employment for about 10 lakh people in the next five years.

PAST INITIATIVES AND ACHIEVEMENTS Promotion of electronics manufacturing has been a key component of the Make in India program.

With efforts such as the National Policy on Electronics, 2019, Modified Special Incentive Scheme (MSIPS), Electronics Manufacturing Clusters and Electronics Development Fund etc, India’s production of electronics grew from USD 29 billion in 2014 to USD 70 billion in 2019.

The growth in mobile phone manufacturing in particular has been remarkable during this period.

From just 2 mobile phone factories in 2014, India now has become the 2nd largest mobile phone producer in the world.

While the exports of electronics has increased from Rs. 38,263 crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 61,908 crore in 201819, India’s share in global electronics production has reached 3% in 2018 from just 1.3% in 2012.

National Policy on Electronics 2019

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The Policy envisions positioning India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing – (ESDM) by Encouraging and driving capabilities in the country for developing core components, including chipsets, and Creating an enabling environment for the industry to compete globally.

Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme(M-SIPS) To offset disability and attract investments in Electronic manufacturing, Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) was notified in 2012.

The scheme is available for both new projects and expansion projects.

The scheme provides capital subsidy of 20% in SEZ (25% in non-SEZ) for units engaged in electronics manufacturing.

Electronics Development Fund (EDF) Creating a vibrant ecosystem of innovation, Research and Development (R&D) with active industry involvement is essential for a thriving electronics industry.

It is with this objective that an Electronics Development Fund (EDF) is set up as a “Fund of Funds” to participate in professionally managed “Daughter Funds” which provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of Electronics, Nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT).

Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) To make India a global player in the field of Electronics Manufacturing and to offset disabilities faced by industries for reliable infrastructure, the Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) scheme was notified in 2012.

The scheme provide support for creation of world-class infrastructure for attracting investments in the Electronics Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) Sector.

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SOURCE: PIB and THE HINDU Download

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