Quote of the Day April 9, 2021

 

“No man is born into this world whose work is not born with him.”
Lowell

“संसार में ऐसा कोई व्यक्ति नहीं जन्मता है जिसके साथ उसका काम नहीं जन्मे।”
लॉवेल

Current Affairs: April 9, 2021

 

India

• PM Modi participates in virtual meeting with President of Seychelles Wavel Ramkalawan; the two leaders jointly inaugurate New Magistrates’ Court Building in Seychelles capital Mahe, a fast patrol vessel (FPV) christened as ‘PS Zoroaster’, one MW solar power plant and 10 HICDPs (High Impact Community Development Projects)
• India-Bahrain High Joint Commission meeting held in New Delhi; co-chaired by EAM S. Jaishankar and his Bahrain counterpart Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani
• 1st meeting of India-Maldives Joint Working Group on ‘Counter Terrorism, Countering Violent Extremism and De-Radicalisation’ held on a virtual platform
• Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria flies Su-30MKI fighter jet in Bengaluru to witness its ‘capability enhancement’
• Indian Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Bharat Pannu breaks two Guinness World Records for fastest solo cycling
• Army Chief Gen. M. M. Naravane leaves for Bangladesh on 5-day visit
• Project RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant Human Attacks using Bees) will soon be replicated in all states: Govt.
• Try artificial rain to douse forest fires: Uttarakhand High Court tells state govt.
• Varanasi Court orders ASI probe into Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque dispute

Economy & corporate

• RBI doubles limit of maximum balance that an individual customer can hold with payments banks to Rs 2 lakh

World

• India contributes $500,000 to United Nations Trust Fund for Counter-Terrorism; India’s total contribution now USD 1.05 million.
• BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) nations ask developed economies to provide finance to developing nations to battle climate change
• Australian air force to call its personnel aviators rather than airmen, women comprise 20%
• Recovery underway after worst global recession since World War II: IMF MD Christine Georgieva
• France: President Emmanuel Macron announces plans to scrap elite ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration) graduate school and replace it with a new institute; ENA seen as symbol of elitism

Sports

• Athlete Dutee Chand to receive Chhattisgarh government’s Veerni Award; holds national record of 11.22 secs in women’s 100m

India did well in transition to digital learning: Oxford report

 

The pandemic has paved the way for a hybrid model in education, combining digital and traditional methods of teaching and learning, but governments need to act so that progress from the past year is not lost, according to the report "Education: The Journey Towards a Digital Revolution".

The transition to online learning during the coronavirus-induced lockdown in India was done rather well, though unequal access to digital learning devices as well as lack of internet connectivity were major issues, according to the findings of a new report from Oxford University Press (OUP).

The pandemic has paved the way for a hybrid model in education, combining digital and traditional methods of teaching and learning, but governments need to act so that progress from the past year is not lost, according to the report “Education: The Journey Towards a Digital Revolution”.

It captured insights from experts across seven markets — India, the UK, Brazil, South Africa, Pakistan, Spain, and Turkey — as well as from hundreds of teachers globally, and extensive secondary research. With the pandemic affecting more than 1.7 billion students worldwide over the past 12 months, the report analyzed how teachers, students, and parents adapted to new ways of delivering education and will continue to utilise digital learning tools and resources to shape educational practice in the future.

“In India, compared to other countries, respondents felt that the transition to online learning was done rather well, scoring 3.3/5. However, a major issue identified by respondents was unequal access to digital learning devices, as well as a lack of internet connectivity and little familiarity around the tools required to facilitate online learning,” the report said.

“The majority of respondents in India (71 per cent) also felt that shifting to online has been detrimental to wellbeing. The priority for the government is to provide more funding, as well as addressing connectivity issues, particularly in rural areas,” it said.

The top three issues identified as having a negative impact on digital learning were: socio-economic barriers, lack of professional development opportunities for teachers, and disruption or uncertainty in day-to-day life caused by the pandemic. When asked what steps the government should take to support digital learning, the respondents sought support for improving connectivity, increased funding for technology and more professional development opportunities for teachers.

Speaking about the research, OUP CEO Nigel Portwood said the pandemic has, unsurprisingly, prompted a rapid increase in the adoption of digital learning.

“As we start to reimagine what education may look like in the future, it is imperative that the governments learn from those who have been on the frontline, delivering and receiving learning. We have a huge opportunity to learn from all our experience to develop education systems that will work for both local and global society,” he said.

Source: Indian Express, 9/04/21

Developing a counterinsurgency strategy that actually works

 The killing of 22 security personnel by Maoists in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh serves as a grim reminder that left-wing insurgency continues to be one of the biggest internal security threats for the country. Initial reports suggest that security forces in Chhattisgarh had launched a massive operation on April 4, after there were intelligence reports about the presence of top Maoist commander Hidma along with 60-70 Maoists in and around Tekulugudam Hill in Bijapur. As the forces reached the top of the hill and were combing through the intended “target” (Tekulugudam Hill), they came under heavy fire. It was then the forces realised that they had walked into a trap. The initial assessment indicates that there were around 300 Maoists, which included men and women belonging to the local tribal militia.

In the past few years, Maoist violence seemed to have been on a downward spiral. The government has, in fact, had some major successes in the form of arrests and surrender of important Maoist leaders. The figures associated with the key indicators of violence like the number of incidents also support the contention that “insurgency is on the downward spiral”. However, some experts believed that it was too early to sound the last post and cautioned that this drop could be the result of a “tactical withdrawal” by the Maoists, something which they have done in the past as well. The attack should thus serve as a wake-up call to those who had begun to get complacent about the Maoist threat. It appears that Maoists continue to hold on to their key strengths which include: (i) a robust and efficient intelligence network; (ii) the devolution of authority to local commanders; (iii) an ability to quickly readjust their strategy; (iv) extensive support from local tribes and the ability to organise them into a tribal militia for short-term tactical purposes and (v) domination of the local landscape.

This brings us to the most important question about the nature of the Counterinsurgency (hereafter COIN) strategy, which governments both in the states and at the Centre are adopting or should adopt. Debates about the utility of different COIN models in the Indian scenario have continued since India began dealing with its first full-blown insurgency in Nagaland in the 1950s. One school believes that given the Maoist insurgency posturing itself as a “people’s war”, the mandate is for a people-centric approach of “winning hearts and minds” that is built on the notions of competitive state-building to addresThe other school argues that an enemy-centric approach predicated on kinetic operations is best suited for the Maoist insurgency, where the fear of the population seceding from India is remote. The success of the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh in curbing the Maoist problem is often attributed to this enemy-centric approach. However, there is robust scholarly work available that shows that the Andhra government based its COIN strategy on a judicious mix of the enemy-centric and population-centric approaches. The successes achieved by the Greyhounds, Andhra’s elite special forces, could only be consolidated through the robust implementation of short-gestation-period developmental works in the Maoist-affected rural areas. Moreover, the erstwhile state is also the first state to have a comprehensive surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy.

After the 2014 guidelines of the central government were brought out, many states have crafted attractive surrender and rehabilitation policies. Odisha, for one, seems to have achieved fair success in its surrender policy but this was possible only after successful kinetic operations against Maoists. It is fair to say that a surrender and rehabilitation policy only works when there is sustained military pressure on the Maoists.

Another important question is whether the government should keep the option of talking to Maoists open. Debates about negotiating with insurgents and terrorists are often met with anger and, at times, disgust, at the possibility of sitting across a table from individuals who were responsible for some horrific violent acts. The US government had to share a table with the Taliban, which played host to al Qaeda as the latter prepared to kill thousands of innocent Americans. The willingness to talk to rebel groups seems to incentivise insurgents and may demonstrate that violence pays. Yet, time and again, governments face the distasteful reality of engaging with groups that have been involved in violent attacks against their forces and citizens. History is replete with examples that show the goal of ending terrorist violence or bringing an end to civil war invariably involves negotiating with the enemy, even the worst ones. And Maoists may not fall under the “worst” category, as successive governments have labelled them as “misguided” youth. Even the present central government’s surrender policy guidelines are aimed at bringing these “misguided” youth into the mainstream.s economic and governance deficiencies.

In the last decade or so, insurgency-affected states have started to undertake serious efforts to defeat the Maoist insurgency. Most of these states have raised special forces on the lines of Greyhounds, and are being given rigorous training in “counter-guerrilla” tactics and jungle warfare. A Maoist guerrilla can only be countered by a state guerrilla. The operating environment of these special forces has to demonstrate the employment of superior tactics to defeat the insurgents, something which at times seems lacking. Besides, the Maoists have mastered the art of exploiting the grey zone areas. The jungles around the interstate borders have always been the preferred hiding spaces for the Maoists. Soon after decimating the top state Congress leadership in Darbha in Chhattisgarh in 2013, the assault group moved to the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border to avoid any kind of kinetic response from the Chhattisgarh police. States must do more to synergise their efforts by launching coordinated operations, thereby denying Maoists any space for manoeuvrability. These efforts need to be supplemented by well-crafted development schemes. Proper implementation and timely disbursal of benefits add to the credibility of the government policies. It is also important to segregate the population from the insurgents both operationally and ideologically. The hawks and the doves need to be viewed and treated differently.

Indian counterinsurgency has to work with a dual objective of defeating the insurgents militarily and fully quell the insurgent impulses. This will need institutional overhauls. The conflict over the distribution of resources can be mended with economic development, but the bigger challenge would be to create a system where the tribal population feels that the government is representative, not repressive. Opening negotiation channels and policies like surrender and rehabilitation can give such a representative sense to the rebels that the government cares for them if they (rebels) are willing to shun the violent path. Lastly, the asymmetry in the distribution of power cannot solely be ironed out by just economic policies, it is critically important to create a system where the distribution of power is not controlled by the traditional elite.

Written by Sajid Farid Shapoo

This column first appeared in the print edition on April 9, 2021 under the title ‘Layers of counter-insurgency’. The writer is a senior IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre and a PhD scholar in Security Studies at Princeton University. Views are personal

Source: Indian Express, 9/04/21

Why India needs a ‘feminist’ foreign policy

 On March 31, the World Economic Forum released its annual Gender Gap Report 2021. India had slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of the 156 countries covered. The index is based on four dimensions, where political participation maintains the largest gap globally, worse than the 2019 edition of the report. Within the 156 countries covered, women hold only 26 per cent of parliamentary seats and 22 per cent of ministerial positions. India in some ways reflects this widening gap, where the number of ministers declined from 23.1 per cent in 2019 to 9.1 per cent in 2021. The number of women in Parliament stands low at 14.4 per cent.

In a time when 104 countries still have laws preventing women from certain types of jobs, and over 600 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not punishable, a gendered approach has to be mainstreamed into broader policy objectives. This means going beyond conventional considerations of development assistance and domestic policies to include core areas of foreign policy, economics, finance, trade and security. This also means that along with increasing representation, women and marginalised sections of society need to have a voice to provide alternative perspectives to policy making.

A feminist foreign policy as a political framework explores this very realm, first introduced and advocated by Sweden in 2014. Feminist approaches to international affairs can be traced back to the 1980s. In many ways this translated to a bottom-up development approach, especially with a donor-based mindset that benefitted the recipient, albeit often with caveats. While this slowly changed in the 1990s, core areas of security and diplomacy were still the domain of men, and remain so. The realisation that it is not only necessary to include women in peacebuilding and peacekeeping but the wider gamut of diplomacy and foreign and security policy is growing, with data indicating that the inclusion of diverse voices makes for a better basket of options in decision making and is no longer simply a virtuous standard to follow.

Since Sweden embarked on this path, several other countries — Canada, France, Germany and, more recently, Mexico — have forged their own, adopting either a feminist foreign policy or a gendered approach to aspects of policy making. However, the current conversation around a feminist/gendered foreign policy is still largely in small circles in North America and Europe. Greater diversity in thinking will allow for a global policy to be tailored and thus operationalised in a wider geography, accounting for vastly divergent social norms and practices, and lived histories.

As a non-permanent member of the UNSC and recently elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women for a four year term in September 2020, India has a key role to play. Gender considerations in India’s foreign policy are not new. Though located largely under the development assistance paradigm and peacekeeping, these have been incredibly successful. From 2007 when India deployed the first ever female unit to the UN Mission in Libya to supporting gender empowerment programmes through SAARC, IBSA, IORA and other multilateral fora, our programmes have been targeted at making women the engines for inclusive and sustainable growth. Many of our overseas programmes in partner countries have a gender component, as seen in Afghanistan, Lesotho and Cambodia. At home, 2015 saw a gender budget exercise within the MEA towards development assistance.

What is needed is a more formal designed approach that goes beyond a purely development model to wider access, representation and decision making. The WEF report and other similar indices is a call to do better on the domestic front; no matter how “feminist” our foreign and security policy might be, without balance at home it will not last.

In September 2020, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador T N Trimurti said our election to the CSW was a “ringing endorsement of our commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in all our endeavours”. We must now go further to sensitise and shape global discussions around gender mainstreaming. Our gender-based foreign assistance needs to be broadened and deepened and equally matched with lower barriers to participation in politics, diplomacy, the bureaucracy, military and other spaces of decision making. In doing this, India can easily claim a new unique feminist foreign policy adding to and smartly shaping the global conversation.

Written by Ambika Vishwanath

This column first appeared in the print edition on April 9, 2021 under the title ‘World according to women’. The writer is co-founder and director, The Kubernein Initiative

Source: Indian Express, 9/04/21

Quote of the Day April 8, 2021

 

“Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next ten years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends.”
Chanakya

“अपने बच्चों को पहले पांच वर्षों तक लाड़ प्यार करें। अगले दस वर्षों तक उनमें दोष निकालें और उन्हें अनुशासित करें। जब तक वे सोलह साल के हो जाएं तो उनसे मित्रवत व्यवहार करें। आपके बड़े हो चुके बच्चे आपके सर्वोत्तम मित्र होते हैं।”
चाणक्य

What is Jordan Crisis?

 Jordan is a unitary state that is ruled under a Constitutional Monarchy. Unitary state is a state that is governed as a single entity where the central government is ultimately supreme. In a Constitutional monarchy, a monarch (ruler or king) exercises authority in accordance to a written or unwritten constitution

What is Jordan Crisis?

The former crown prince Hamzah was recently placed under de facto house arrest. He is the half-brother of the King Abdullah. Hamzah was accused of undermining national security. This was because he attended the meetings with tribal leaders that openly criticized the ruling monarch. According to Jordanian Government, there had been an attempt for a political coup to destabilize the country. The Government also says that foreign entities also attended the meeting.

What is the significance of stability in Jordan?

• Jordan was created after the first world war. It has remained stable for decades in a part of the world that is prone to conflict and political uncertainty. According to the Gulf and Western countries, Jordan is a strategic partner that can be relied upon for further political objectives in the region. The support of Jordanian intelligence is highly important to fight against terrorism in the region. The conflicts in the region include Syrian crisis, Israel-Palestine conflict, etc. Jordan has served as a good host to the refugees from the war prone zones. Today refugees make up half of population of Jordan.
• During 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Jordan had welcomed refugees from Iraq. It currently hosts 10 lakh refugees from Syria.
• Jordan is highly important for the future peace deals between Israel and Palestine.

How did Jordan get amidst regional powers?

• Initially Jordan maintained close relations with the US and also with the Sunni Muslim powers of UAE and Saudi Arabia. They together stand against the Shia of Iran.
• In 1994, Jordan signed a peace deal with Israel and since then the two countries maintain diplomatic relations. However, the friction began after the Saudi-UAE’s blockade of Qatar in 2017. Saudi and UAE moved to punish Qatar for its ties with extremist groups. Jordan too downgraded its relations with Qatar. However, it maintained cordial terms with Qatar. It even accepted financial assistance from Qatar. This created tensions between Jordan and Saudi Arabia and its allies in the region.
• Jordan also faced criticisms for maintaining strong ties with Turkey.
• Jordan disagreed to back Syrian crisis along with UAE and Saudi Arabia. Later Jordan ended up in trouble after being exposed for munitions support for Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar.
• After UAE normalized its relations with Israel, the role of Jordan as the Interlocutor of the region has diminished. Interlocutor is a person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation.

Source: gktoday.in