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India’s refugee Policy & Issues with it
The article highlights the issue of the lack of refugee protection framework in India and suggests enacting domestic law to deal with the issue.

India’s record on refugee protection
- India, for the most part, has had a stellar record on the issue of refugee protection.
- But this moral tradition has come under great stress of late.
- New Delhi has been one of the largest recipients of refugees in the world in spite of not being a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.
Confusion in policies for immigrants and refugees
- Much of the debate in India is about illegal immigrants, not refugees, the two categories tend to get bunched together.
- Our policies towards illegal immigrants and refugees is confused is because as per Indian law, both categories of people are viewed as one and the same and are covered under the Foreigners Act, 1946.
- The act offers a simple definition of a foreigner — “foreigner” means “a person who is not a citizen of India”.
- There are fundamental differences between illegal immigrants and refugees, but India is legally ill-equipped to deal with them separately due to a lack of legal provisions.
- Also, India is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the key legal documents pertaining to refugee protection.
How absence of policy framework creates problems
- The absence of legal framework for refugees leads to policy ambiguity whereby India’s refugee policy is guided primarily by ad hocism and ‘political utility’.
- At the same time, the absence of a legal framework increases the possibility of the domestic politicisation of refugee protection and complicates its geopolitical faultlines.
- The absence of a clearly laid down refugee protection law also opens the door for geopolitical considerations while deciding to admit refugees or not.
- For example, India’s decision in the recent case of admitting Myanmarese refugees fleeing to India was influence by the possibility of irking the Generals in Naypyitaw.
- However, hypothetically speaking, if New Delhi had domestic legislation regarding refugees it could have tempered the expectations of the junta to return the fleeing Myanmarese.
Why India has not signed convention and protocol on refugee protection
- The definition of refugees in the 1951 convention only pertains to the violation of civil and political rights, but not economic rights, of individuals.
- If the violation of economic rights were to be included in the definition of a refugee, it would clearly pose a major burden on the developed world.
- This argument, if used in the South Asian context, could be a problematic proposition for India too.
- India also need to argue that the North is violating the convention in both letter and spirit, and make its accession conditional on the Western States rolling back the non-entrée (no entry) regime.
- The non-entrée regime is constituted by a range of legal and administrative measures that include visa restrictions, carrier sanctions, interdictions, third safe-country rule, restrictive interpretations of the definition of ‘refugee’, withdrawal of social welfare benefits to asylum seekers, and widespread practices of detention.”
- In other words, India must use its exemplary, though less than perfect, history of refugee protection to begin a global conversation on the issue.
Way forward
- What other options do we have to respond to the refugee situation we are faced with?
- The answer perhaps lies in a new domestic law aimed at refugees.
- The CAA, however, is not the answer to this problem primarily because of its deeply discriminatory nature.
- What is perhaps equally important is that such a domestic refugee law should allow for temporary shelter and work permit for refugees.
- India must also make a distinction between temporary migrant workers, illegal immigrants and refugees and deal with each of them differently through proper legal and institutional mechanisms.
Consider the question “What are the reasons for India’s not singing 1951 Refugee Convention? What are the options India can explore for refugee protection?

Conclusion

Our traditional practice of managing these issues with ambiguity and political expediency has become deeply counterproductive: It neither protects the refugees nor helps stop illegal immigration into the country.
April 10, 2021
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Give small savers what is due to them
The article highlights the issues with linking small savings interest rates with the yield on G-sec and its resetting on a quarterly basis.

Issue of small savings interest rate
- For decades, small savings have constituted an important source of household savings, funded development programmes of state governments and offered a safe and secure source of income to senior citizens.
- Recently, a notification on reducing the interest rates on small savings schemes quickly made headlines and was rescinded after 12 hours.
- For small savers, the pandemic turned into a triple whammy: Battling job losses, higher food prices and a sharp devaluation in the value of their savings and earnings thereof.
- Interest on the Senior Citizens’ Saving Scheme was cut to 7.4 per cent, effective from April 2020, from 8.7 per cent before,
- This was done despite the Gopinath Committee had recommended the rates should never be revised more than 100 basis points in a single year.
Linking small savings rate to G-sec yields
- The suggestion to link small savings rates to G-Sec yields was first made in 2001 by Y V Reddy, then deputy governor of RBI.
- Reddy committee suggested small savings rates should be reset once a year, allowing for a spread of up to 50 basis points.
- Reddy’s recommendations were reiterated by his successor Rakesh Mohan.
- The Gopinath Committee, set up in 2009 gave its report in June 2011 and annual revisions in small savings rates linked to G-sec yields got underway effective April 2012.
- In 2016, however, the government decided to reset them on a quarterly basis.
Why link small savings rate to G-sec yields
- Such linking is premised on the argument that the money collected through these schemes is invested in central and state government securities.
- While the yield on the government securities progressively declined over time, small savings rates remained downwardly rigid.
- This resulted in an asset-liability mismatch that threatened the viability of the NSSF.
- It is also argued that people’s dependence on small savings schemes had significantly declined since formal banking had rapidly expanded.
- Moreover, for those who used small savings as safety nets there were other alternatives such as old-age pension and other similar schemes.
Issues with resetting rates on quarterly basis
- All expert committees that examined the issue had strongly argued against resetting the rates on a quarterly basis.
- The fear was it could result in unfair rewards for small savers in the event the G-sec yields remain artificially low for a certain period of time.
- It did happen in the pandemic year when small savings rates faced the steepest cut in five years.
- The changed policy on small savings is also premised on the belief that markets offer fair outcomes.
- More often than not, that is not true.
- The experience of the past year bears it out.
- While retail inflation spiked, the RBI used every trick in its bag to hold G-sec yields down.
Way forward
- The government could go back to resetting the rates annually, keeping the revision under 100 basis points and allowing small savings rates a spread of at least 50 basis points, not up to 50 basis points, over and above the G-sec yields.
- Also, it may revisit the suggestion made by the Rakesh Mohan Committee to use a weighted average of G-sec yields over preceding two years — two-thirds weight for the later year, one-third for the earlier year.
Consider the question “What was the rationale for linking the interest rates on small savings to yield on G-sec? What are the issues with it?

Conclusion

Adopting the changes suggested here may require setting aside a few thousand crores to fill the resultant gap in the NSSF. But it is worth doing.
April 10, 2021
10th April 2021 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

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April 10, 2021
Freedom of Navigation Operations
The US Navy has had “asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of Lakshadweep Islands, inside India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), without requesting India’s prior consent, consistent with international law”.

Try this question:

Q.What do you mean by Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs)? What are its legal backings? Discuss its significance.

Freedom of Navigation Operations
- FONOPs are closely linked to the concept of freedom of navigation, and in particular to the enforcement of relevant international law and customs regarding freedom of navigation.
- It involves passage conducted by the US Navy through waters claimed by coastal nations as their exclusive territory.
- It is carried under the US policy of exercising and asserting its navigation and overflight rights and freedoms around the world”.
- It says these “assertions communicate that the US does not acquiesce to the excessive maritime claims of other nations, and thus prevents those claims from becoming accepted in international law”.
Significance of FONOPs
- FONOPs are a method of enforcing UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) and avoiding these negative outcomes by reinforcing freedom of navigation through practice.
- It is exercised by sailing through all areas of the sea permitted under UNCLOS, and particularly those areas that states have attempted to close off to free navigation as defined under UNCLOS.
What about EEZs?
- An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
- It is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.
- It stretches from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles from the coast of the state in question.
- It is also referred to as a maritime continental margin and, in colloquial usage, may include the continental shelf.
- The term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical mile limit.
- The difference between the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone is that the first confers full sovereignty over the waters, whereas the second is merely a “sovereign right” which refers to the coastal state’s rights below the surface of the sea.
- The surface waters, as can be seen on the map, are international waters.
Is FONOP violative of India’s EEZ?
- As per India’s Territorial Waters Act, 1976, the EEZ of India “is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial waters, and the limit of such zone is two hundred nautical miles from the baseline”.
- India’s “limit of the territorial waters is the line every point of which is at a distance of twelve nautical miles from the nearest point of the appropriate baseline”.
- Under the 1976 law, “all foreign ships (other than warships including submarines and other underwater vehicles) shall enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial waters”.
Back2Basics: UNCLOS
- The Law of the Sea Treaty formally known as the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982 at Montego Bay, Jamaica. It entered into force in 1994.
- The convention establishes a comprehensive set of rules governing the oceans and replaces previous U.N. Conventions on the Law of the Sea
- The convention defines the distance of 12 nautical miles from the baseline as Territorial Sea limit and a distance of 200 nautical miles distance as Exclusive Economic Zone limit.
April 10, 2021
People are free to choose religion: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has said people are free to choose their own religion and lashed out at a PIL claiming that there is mass religious conversion happening across the country.

Right to freedom of Religion

Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion to all persons in India. It provides that all persons in India, subject to public order, morality, health, and other provisions:
- Are equally entitled to freedom of conscience, and
- Have the right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion.
It further provides that this article shall not affect any existing law and shall not prevent the state from making any law relating to:
- Regulation or restriction of any economic, financial, political, or secular activity associated with religious practice.
- Providing social welfare and reform.
- Opening of Hindu religious institutions of public character for all the classes and sections of the Hindus.
What did the Supreme Court say?
- Instead, a Bench led by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman said people have a right under the Constitution to profess, practise and propagate religion.
- Justice Nariman said every person is the final judge of their own choice of religion or who their life partner should be. Courts cannot sit in judgment of a person’s choice of religion or a life partner.
- Religious faith is a part of the fundamental right to privacy.
- Justice Nariman reminded Mr Upadhyay of the Constitution Bench judgment which upheld inviolability of the right to privacy, equating it with the rights to life, dignity and liberty.
April 10, 2021
SARTHAQ Plan
Union Education Minister has launched ‘Students’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement through Quality Education (SARTHAQ), the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation plan for school education.

SARTHAQ
- SARTHAQ keeps in mind the concurrent nature of education and adheres to the spirit of federalism.
- The plan delineates the roadmap for the implementation of NEP 2020 for the next 10 years.
- States and Union Territories have been given the flexibility to adapt the plan with “local contextualization”.
- They have been allowed to modify the plan as per their needs and requirements.
Envisaged outcomes
- Increase in Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), Net Enrolment Ratio (NER), transition rate and retention rate at all levels and reduction in dropouts and out of school children.
- Access to quality ECCE and Universal Acquisition of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy by Grade 3.
- Improvement in Learning Outcomes at all stages with an emphasis on teaching and learning through mother tongue/local/regional languages in the early years.
- Integration of vocational education, sports, arts, knowledge of India, 21st-century skills, values of citizenship, awareness of environment conservation, etc. in the curriculum at all stages.
- Introduction of Experiential learning at all stages and adoption of innovative pedagogies by teachers in classroom transaction.
- Integration of technology in educational planning and governance and availability of ICT and quality e-content in classrooms.
April 10, 2021
Production of Poppy Straw
The Central government has decided to rope in the private sector to commence production of concentrated poppy straw from India’s opium crop.

What is the move?
- The move aims to boost the yield of alkaloids, used for medical purposes and exported to several countries.
- Among the few countries permitted to cultivate the opium poppy crop for export and extraction of alkaloids, India currently only extracts alkaloids from opium gum at facilities controlled by the Revenue Department.
- This entails farmers extracting gum by manually lancing the opium pods and selling the gum to government factories.
- The Ministry has now decided to switch to new technologies after trial cultivation reports submitted last year by two private firms showed higher extraction of alkaloids using the concentrated poppy straw (CPS).
Opium Poppy
- The milky fluid that seeps from cuts in the unripe poppy seed pod has, since ancient times, been scraped off and air-dried to produce what is known as opium.
- The seedpod is first incised with a multi-bladed tool.
- This lets the opium “gum” ooze out.
- The semi-dried “gum” is harvested with a curved spatula and then dried in open wooden boxes.
- The dried opium resin is placed in bags or rolled into balls for sale.
Why such a move?
- India’s opium crop acreage has been steadily declining over the years.
- The CPS extraction method is expected to help cut the occasional dependence on imports of products like codeine (extracted from opium) for medical uses.
Amendments to NDPS Act
- Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are the three traditionally opium-growing States, where poppy crop cultivation is allowed based on licences issued annually by the Central Bureau of Narcotics.
- While roping in private players in producing CPS and extracting alkaloids from it is likely to require amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
- The Revenue Department has decided to appoint a consultant to help frame the bidding parameters and concession agreements for the same.
April 10, 2021
[pib] NanoSniffer: A Microsensor based Explosive Trace Detector
A Union Minister has launched NanoSniffer, the world’s first Microsensor based Explosive Trace Detector (ETD) developed by NanoSniff Technologies, an IIT Bombay incubated startup.

Can you name some explosives?

NanoSniffer
- NanoSniffer is a 100% Made in India product in terms of research, development & manufacturing.
- It can detect explosives in less than 10 seconds and it also identifies and categorizes explosives into different classes. It detects all classes of military, conventional and homemade explosives.
- It gives visible & audible alerts with a sunlight-readable colour display.
- NanoSniffer provides trace detection of the nano-gram quantity of explosives & delivers result in seconds.
- It can accurately detect a wide range of military, commercial and homemade explosives threats.
- Further analysis of the algorithms also helps in the categorization of explosives into the appropriate class.
April 10, 2021
[Burning Issue] India and NATO
When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders meet later this year, they will debate the recommendations from a group of experts that advocates, among other things, extending a formal offer of partnership to India.

Such an idea has been discussed before but has always delayed on India’s aversion to entanglement in rival geopolitical blocs.

NATO: A backgrounder

NATO was found in the aftermath of the Second World War. Its purpose was to secure peace in Europe, to promote cooperation among its members and to guard their freedom – all of this in the context of countering the threat posed at the time by the Soviet Union.
- NATO is a military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of April 4, 1949.
- It sought to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.
- Its original members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- NATO has spread a web of partners, namely Egypt, Israel, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Finland.
Why was it founded?

Communist sweep in Europe post-WWII and rise of Soviet dominance
- After World War II in 1945, Western Europe was economically exhausted and militarily weak, and newly powerful communist parties had arisen in France and Italy.
- By contrast, the Soviet Union had emerged from the war with its armies dominating all the states of central and Eastern Europe.
- By 1948 communists under Moscow’s sponsorship had consolidated their control of the governments of those countries and suppressed all non-communist political activity.
- What became known as the Iron Curtain, a term popularized by Winston Churchill, had descended over central and Eastern Europe.
And the US (the torchbearer of individual liberty and the master of democracy) had to enter (for no reasons) …

In 1948 the United States launched the Marshall Plan.
- It infused massive amounts of economic aid to the countries of western and southern Europe on the condition that they cooperate with each other and engage in joint planning to hasten their mutual recovery.
- As for military recovery, under the Brussels Treaty of 1948, the UK, France, and the Low Countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg—concluded a collective-defense agreement called the Western European Union.
- It was soon recognized, however, that a more formidable alliance would be required to provide an adequate military counterweight to the Soviets.
Ideology of NATO
- The NATO ensures that the security of its European member countries is inseparably linked to that of its North American member countries.
- It commits the Allies to democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law, as well as to peaceful resolution of disputes.
- It also provides a unique forum for dialogue and cooperation across the Atlantic.
The Article 5

The heart of NATO is expressed in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, in which the signatory members agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.

NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in 2001, after the September 11 attacks organized by exiled Saudi Arabian millionaire Osama bin Laden destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City and part of the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., killing some 3,000 people.

NATO and its present relevance: China on radar

The end of the Cold War precipitated NATO’s identity crisis. With the US at the centrestage, the organization pivoted away from its longtime focus on collective defence against Moscow.
- In December 2019, US made it clear that China is now on NATO’s radar screen.
- Following continuous pressure by the Trump administration, the alliance agreed in April 2019 to initiate a study of China’s more assertive role on the international stage.
- This culminated in NATO formally acknowledging, in its December 2019 summit declaration about China’s growing influence and international policies present both opportunities and challenges.
Why NATO should focus on China?

China presents a novel and complex challenge for NATO and it cannot rush into a confrontation. Four important considerations dominate NATO’s approach.

(1) China is not the Soviet Union
- Beijing has far greater economic clout; modern Chinese citizens, unlike their earlier Soviet (and Chinese) counterparts, now live in a more market-oriented society.
- The US and Chinese economies are intertwined in a way that differ markedly from the US and Soviet experience in the Cold War.
- Despite talk of “decoupling,” China is continuing to integrate into global financial markets, which is something the Soviet Union never did.
(2) It dwells on new tasks
- NATO is well-suited to take on new responsibilities thanks to the ambiguity of its founding text.
- That is not, however, the case with China. Aside from internal difficulties, NATO is not facing an immediate threat to its survival, nor does it need new functions to justify its relevance.
(3) Repairing Transatlantic Divisions
- There has been some limited transatlantic convergence in recent years, as the European Union has toughened its stance, labeling China a “systemic rival” in 2019.
- Furthermore, the pandemic’s origins in China and the Beijing government’s initial response to the virus have given more voice to those who see China as a threat.
- Recently, the United States and Europe have quietly increased their cooperation when trying to tackle China, such as over the Belt and Road Initiative.
India and NATO

During the Cold War, India’s refusal was premised on its non-alignment. That argument had little justification once the Cold War ended during 1989-91. Since then, NATO has built partnerships with many neutral and non-aligned states.

Reasons for India’s reluctance
- India’s real problem is not with NATO, but with Delhi’s difficulty in thinking strategically about Europe. This inhibition has deep roots.
- Through the colonial era, Calcutta and Delhi viewed Europe through British eyes. After Independence, Delhi tended to see Europe through the Russian lens.
- In the last few years, Delhi has begun to develop an independent European framework but has some distance to go in consolidating it.
- Talking to NATO ought to be one important part of India’s European strategy.
As the Cold War enveloped the world, nuancing Europe became harder in Delhi. India began to see West Europe as an extension of the US and Eastern Europe as a collection of Soviet satellites.

Why should India join NATO?

Core to NATO’s future is its standing as an alliance of democracies, particularly given that its principal strategic competitors are China and Russia, major authoritarian powers.

(1) Non-alignment is irrelevant
- Non-alignment is a worn-out misnomer. India is under no illusions that a truly non-aligned path remains a viable option.
- China’s meteoric rise has dramatically heightened India’s need for closer security relationships with politically reliable, like-minded states.
- India’s policy of equidistance, with tilts towards Russia and China, is not viable enough to meet the juggernaut of China’s power in Indo-Pacific.
(2) India is already partner with its members
- An India-NATO dialogue would simply mean having regular contact with a military alliance, most of whose members are well-established partners of India.
- India has military exchanges with many members of NATO — including the US, Britain, and France — in bilateral and minilateral formats.
(3) Strategic benefits
- Longer-term, India would derive military-strategic benefits from partnership with the world’s most powerful alliance.
- In the event of a conflict, India would benefit from having prior planning and arrangements in place for cooperating with NATO and its Mediterranean partners.
(4) Technological benefits
- Partnering with NATO also carries technological benefits.
- Under a US Act, India now enjoys the same technology-sharing and cost-sharing perks as other non-NATO US allies for purposes of the Arms Export Control Act.
- It could also help to offset the growing concerns and negative scrutiny that India is increasingly attracting in Congress for its disproportionate reliance on Russian military equipment.
(5) Membership would not corner ties with Russia
- Russia has not made a secret of its allergy to the Quad and Delhi’s alliance with Washington.
- Putting NATO into that mix is unlikely to make much difference. Delhi, in turn, can’t be happy with the deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing.
- As mature states, India and Russia know they have to insulate their bilateral relationship from the larger structural trends buffeting the world today.
Way forward
- To play any role in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and NATO need partners like India, Australia and Japan.
- Delhi, in turn, knows that no single power can produce stability and security in the Indo-Pacific. India’s enthusiasm for the Quad is recognition of the need to build coalitions.
- More broadly, an institutionalized engagement with NATO should make it easier for Delhi to deal with the military establishments of its 30 member states.
- On a bilateral front, each of the members has much to offer in strengthening India’s national capabilities.
- India’s continued reluctance to engage a major European institution like NATO will be a stunning case of strategic self-denial.
Conclusion
- NATO is not offering membership to India; nor seems New Delhi interested. At this issue is the question of exploring potential common ground.
- A pragmatic engagement with NATO must be an important part of India’s new European orientation, especially amidst the continent’s search for a new role in the Indo-Pacific.
Treaties are concluded in the national interest purely. Hence India should think of NATO.

References

https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/interview-west-needs-redevelop-tools-and-mindset-strategic-competition

NATO’s Never-Ending Struggle for Relevance

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/why-india-must-not-say-no-to-nato-7260435/
April 10, 2021

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