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1. Money-laundering- Introduction and causes
2. Regulation of Money Laundering – International Laws/Conventions
3. Regulation of Money Laundering in India

With its growing financial strength, India is vulnerable to money laundering activities even though the country’s strict foreign exchange laws make it difficult for criminals to launder money.

Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002

The aforesaid Act was enacted to prevent money-laundering and to provide for confiscation of property derived from, or involved in, money-laundering. The Act extends to the whole of India including J&K.

Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND)

Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND) was set by the Government of India as the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.

FIU-IND is also responsible for coordinating and strengthening efforts of national and international intelligence, investigation and enforcement agencies in pursuing the global efforts against money laundering and related crimes. FIU-IND is an independent body reporting directly to the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC) headed by the Finance Minister.

Role of Reserve Bank of India

The regulatory purview of the Reserve Bank extends to a large segment of financial institutions, including commercial banks, co-operative banks, non-banking financial institutions and various financial markets. The Board for Financial Supervision (BFS) continues to exercise its supervisory role over those segments of the financial institutions that are under the purview of the Reserve Bank.

Recently, the RBI has issued a series of master circulars to the banks, about the precautions to be exercised in handling their customers’ transactions. Important amongst these is a guidance note issued about treatment of customer and key to knowing the customer. The identity, background and standing of the customer should be verified not only at the time of commencement of relationship, but also be updated from time to time, to reflect the changes in circumstances and the nature of operations of the account.

Role of Securities Exchange Board of India

Indian securities market is also prone to money-laundering activities. Intermediaries registered under the SEBI are under reporting obligation of PMLA. FIU-IND has also issued certain guidelines relating to KYC to be followed by these intermediaries.

The main source of money-laundering would be the Participatory Notes Transaction and Overseas Direct Investment Routes.

The PN/ODI route and its cover of anonymity is being used by certain entities without there being any real time check, control and due diligence on their credentials. Such a lapse has very grim portents as far as the market integrity and interest of investors are concerned.

SEBI has almost taken a full circle on the issue of Participatory Notes. SEBI has taken certain important measures in favor of the Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) as well as the unregistered foreign investors who intend to invest in the Indian Securities market. KYC norms are now mandatory in order to do P-notes transactions in Indian market.

Suggested Measures

• The Government of India should move forward expeditiously with amendments to the PMLA that explicitly criminalize terrorist financing, and expand the list of predicate offenses so as to meet FATF’s core recommendations.
• Further steps in tax reform will also assist in negating the popularity of hawala and in reducing money laundering, fraud, and financial crimes.
• The GOI should ratify the UN Conventions against Transnational Organized Crime and Corruption.
• The GOI needs to promulgate and implement new regulations for non government organizations including charities.
• Given the number of terrorist attacks in India and the fact that in India hawala is directly linked to terrorist financing, the GOI should prioritize cooperation with international initiatives that provide increased transparency in alternative remittance systems.
• India should devote more law enforcement and customs resources to curb abuses in the diamond trade.
• It should also consider the establishment of a Trade Transparency Unit (TTU) that promotes trade transparency; in India, trade is the “backdoor” to underground financial systems.
• The GOI also needs to strengthen regulations and enforcement targeting illegal transactions in informal money transfer channels.

Money laundering is a truly global phenomenon. The increasing integration of the world’s financial system, as technology has improved and barriers to the free movement of capital have been reduced, has meant that money launderers can make use of this system to hide their ill-gotten gains. They are able to quickly move their criminally derived cash proceeds between national jurisdictions, complicating the task of tracing and confiscating these assets.

Action at the international level to combat money laundering began in 1988 with two important initiatives:

The Basel Committee on Banking Regulations and Supervisory Practices 

The Basel Statement of Principles on the prevention of criminal use of the banking system was a significant breakthrough on the financial front to have some controlling mechanism for money-laundering on an international plane.

The Statement of Principles does not restrict itself to drug-related money laundering but extends to all aspects of laundering through the banking system, i.e. the deposit, transfer and/or concealment of money derived from illicit activities whether robbery, terrorism, fraud or drugs. It seeks to deny the banking system to those involved in money laundering by the application of the four basic principles:

1. Know Your Customer (KYC) – This mandates the bank to take reasonable efforts to determine their customer’s true identity, and have effective procedures for verifying the bonafides of a new customer.
2. Compliance with Laws – Bank management should ensure high ethical standards in complying with laws and regulation and keep a vigil to not provide services when any money-laundering activity is suspected.
3. Cooperation with Law Enforcement Agencies
4. Adherence to the Statement

The United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances

This UN Convention was one of the historic conventions inasmuch as the parties to the Convention recognized the links between illicit drug traffic and other related organised criminal activities which undermine the legitimate economies and threaten the stability, security and sovereignty of States and that illicit drug trafficking is an international criminal activity that generates large profits and wealth, enabling transnational, criminal organizations to penetrate, contaminate and corrupt the structures of government, legitimate commercial and financial businesses and society at all levels.

The treaty required the signatories to criminalize the laundering of drug money, and to confiscate it where found. All countries ratifying agree to introduce a comprehensive criminal law against laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking and to introduce measures to identify, trace, and freeze or seize the proceeds of drug trafficking.

Based on the convention many countries have framed their national legislations. Council of Europe Convention on Laundering is motivated by this convention as well as this convention gave a framework for FATF to work.

GPML

The Global Programme against Money Laundering was established in 1997 in response to the mandate given to UNODC by the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. GPML mandate was strengthened in 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Political Declaration and Action Plan against Money Laundering which broadened its remit beyond drug offences to all serious crime.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body founded by G7 Countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom), created in 1989, whose purpose is the development and promotion of national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The Forty Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) have been established as the international standard for effective antimoney laundering measures.

Mahatma Gandhi said:

“Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or another will always be needed.”

The primary function of money is to serve as a medium of exchange, and as such it is accepted without question in final discharge of debts or payment of goods or services.

Money is the root cause of many evils like corruption, black marketing, smuggling, drug trafficking, tax evasion, and the buck does not stop here it goes to the extent of sex tourism and human trafficking (a human selling another human in the era of human rights).

The more developed the nation, the more the standard of living of the people. People want more money to cater to their needs and at a point of time they don’t hesitate to have money from any source (black or white who cares). This is the available soft corner where the concept of money laundering enters and prospers.

Money Laundering refers to the conversion or “Laundering” of money which is illegally obtained, so as to make it appear to originate from a legitimate source. Money Laundering is being employed by launderers worldwide to conceal criminal activity associated with it such as drug / arms trafficking, terrorism and extortion.

Article 1 of EC Directive defines the term ‘money laundering’ as “the conversion of property, knowing that such property is derived from serious crime, for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property or of assisting any person who is involved in the committing such an offence or offences to evade the legal consequences of his action, and the concealment or disguise of the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement, rights with respect to, or ownership of property, knowing that such property is derived from serious crime”.

Thus, Money Laundering is not an independent crime, it depends upon another crime (predicate offence), the proceeds of which is the subject matter of the crime in money laundering. From the legal point of view, the Achilles’ heel in defining and criminalizing money laundering relates to the so-called ‘predicate offences’ understood as the criminal offences which generated the proceeds thus making laundering necessary.

Hiding or disguising the source of certain proceeds will of course, not amount to money laundering unless these proceeds were obtained from a criminal activity. Therefore, what exactly amounts to money laundering, which actions and who can be prosecuted is largely dependant on what constitutes a predicate crime for the purpose of money laundering.

Money Laundering – An Organized Crime:

Money Laundering has a close nexus with organized crime. Money Launderers accumulate enormous profits through drug trafficking, international frauds, arms dealing etc.

Cash transactions are predominantly used for Money Laundering as they facilitate the concealment of the true ownership and origin of money. It is well recognized that through the huge profits the criminals earn from drug trafficking and other illegal means, by way of money laundering could contaminate and corrupt the structure of the State at all levels, this definitely leads to corruption. Further, this adds to constant pursuit of profits and the expansion into new areas of criminal activity.

Through money laundering, organized crime diversifies its sources of income and enlarges its sphere of action. The social danger of money laundering consists in the consolidation of the economic power of criminal organizations, enabling them to penetrate the legitimate economy. In advanced societies, crime is increasingly economic in character.

Criminal associations now tend to be organized like business enterprises and to follow the same tendencies as legitimate firms; specialization, growth, expansion in international markets and linkage with other enterprises. The holders of capital of illegal origin are prepared to bear considerable cost in order to legalize its use.

As per an estimate of the International Monetary Fund, the aggregate size of money laundering in the world could be somewhere between two and five percent of the worlds Gross Domestic Product. Although money laundering is impossible to measure with precision, it is estimated that US$300 billion to US$500 billion in proceeds from serious crime (not tax evasion) is laundered each year.

It is really not possible to enlist all the techniques of Money Laundering exercise; however, some techniques are illustrated for the sake of understanding:

1. Hawala – Hawala is an alternative or parallel remittance system. It exists and operates outside of, or parallel to ‘traditional’ banking or financial channels. It was developed in India, before the introduction of western banking practices, and is currently a major remittance system used around the world. In hawala networks the money is not moved physically.
2. Structuring Deposits – Also known as smurfing, this method entails breaking up large amounts of money into smaller, less-suspicious amounts. In the United States, thisn smaller amount has to be below $10,000 — the dollar amount at which U.S. banks have to report the transaction to the government. The money is then deposited into one or more bank accounts either by multiple people (smurfs) or by a single person over an extended period of time.
3. Third-Party Cheques – Utilizing counter cheques or banker’s drafts drawn on different institutions and clearing them via various third-party accounts. Third party cheques and traveller’s cheques are often purchased using proceeds of crime. Since these are negotiable in many countries, the nexus with the source money is difficult to establish.
4. Credit Cards – Clearing credit and charge card balances at the counters of different banks. Such cards have a number of uses and can be used across international borders. For example, to purchase assets, for payment of services or goods received or in a global network of cash-dispensing machines.

Causes of Increase in Money Laundering and Inability to Control

There are various causes for increase in Money Laundering and the few of them can be enlisted as follows which is popularly known as ‘Features of an Ideal Financial Haven’:

• No deals for sharing tax information with other countries –
• Availability of instant corporations
• Corporate Secrecy Laws – as the corporate law of certain countries enables launderers to hide behind shell companies.
• Excellent Electronic Communication
• Tight Bank Secrecy Laws
• A Government that is Relatively Invulnerable to Outside Pressures
• A high degree of Economic Dependence on the Financial Services Sector
• A Geographical Location that Facilitates Business Travel to and from rich neighbors.
• Increase in sophistication and employment of professional people for doing the task

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Basics of cyber security

Cyberspace is being used for a variety of malicious activities, from crime to state-sponsored attacks on critical infrastructure.

The interconnectedness of cyber networks means that even the most basic responses end up having a ripple effect or unintended consequences.

India has been at the receiving end of various forms of cyber threats; from attacks on critical infrastructure to cybercrime and the latest manifestation of the misuse of social media.

While threats have existed right from the early days of cyberspace, the sporadic nature of the attacks and their targets suggested that they were largely the handiwork of hackers and low-level criminal elements.

The major delivery vehicles were spam mails containing viruses and malware. These were however manageable and up-to-date antivirus programmes and firewalls were deemed sufficient for keeping such risks at bay.

Subsequently, new forms of malware such as Worms and Trojans, which exploited the vulnerabilities of buggy software, also began to make their appearance. Phishing and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks also entered the lexicon. Whilst the former was a technique for gaining personal information for purposes of identity theft or access to e-mails or bank accounts, the latter consisted of malevolent attacks on websites with the intention of making them inaccessible.

The rise of an international criminal economy on the Internet with its tentacles in a variety of areas and with close linkages to a hacking community for which it provides the monetary resources and direction insofar as the kind of malware to be created and the networks to be penetrated goes, is a key component of the cyber threat.

Civil Functions of Cyber Security

Civil functions over the cyber-space have four denominators :-

• Public Services (health, education, civil-supplies, social security schemes, essential services),
• Financial Services (banking, subsidy funding),
• Industry (manufacturing, service sector, R&D, trade),
• Governance (policy, procedure, statistics, survey, records, administration).

Accordingly, civil functions of cybersecurity aim at securing the cyberspace in a manner as to prevent inimical acts of the following kinds:

• Sabotage of ‘National Information Infrastructure’ (NII) through intrusion into electromagnetic spectrum,
• Inducing collapse, corruption or diversion of the nation’s Information Technology (IT) driven public service, administrative, economic, technical and infrastructure.
• Psychological subversion of the society to manipulate public opinion.

Cyber Security Mechanisms

Considering India’s policy orientations, protection of the cyber-space from manipulations and intrusions from inimical parties would mostly be sought to be passive measures; execution of pro-active disabling actions seems to be rather farfetched in our context. Accordingly, the civil functions of cybersecurity in involve the following mechanisms:-

• Warning and response to cyber-attacks,
• Retrieval of cyber-assets – primary, secondary and tertiary data, protocols and processes, and,
• Restoration of the compromised cyber driven systems – economic, industrial, technological, societal systems.

Cyber Warfare in the Military Domain

In the military domain, operations that are undertaken to gain information superiority fall under the ambit of ‘Information Warfare’ (IW). Within that ambit, defensive ‘Information Operations’ (IO) are waged by means of weaponized intervention, electronic warfare etc., ‘cyber warfare’ being one such mean that is cyber-space.

Cyberwarfare, therefore, is truly a ‘military operations of war’, to be conducted as an element of offensive and defensive IO, and waged in the same measures. It is distinguished by the predominance of offensive content and is to be prosecuted through military-dedicated IT-based satellites, data warehouses, maps, net-works, GPS, UAV, AWACs, PGM etc.

However, while civil functions are to be operational at all times, the military function during peace-time is to prepare and letting go at war-time to disable the opponent’s military, quasi-military and civil infrastructure. Herein lies the distinction between the civil and military functions.

Conversely, there are many commonalities between the two functions with respect to the above discussed civil cybersecurity mechanisms as well as the software and processes.

The Regime of Cyber Security

Most advanced countries have instituted robust mechanisms to protect their cyber domain.

In this respect, USA enjoys overwhelming superiority even if she takes elaborate activities under wraps. Besides passive measures, she secures her cyber-space by a technology driven barrage of highly complex cyber-intrusions and deliberate enticement of cyber-attacks from adversaries and friends alike to break into their algorithm. To do so, civil and military functions of cybersecurity enmeshed to produce the best results, cyber- attacks like ‘Gauss’, ‘Stuxnet’, ‘Duqu’, ‘Flame’ etc. being a few known ones.

China, on the other hand, depends upon mass of cyber operatives, reportedly two million strong, to support her cyber security regime, much of which is committed on internal surveillance and the rest intrusive hacking.

The score for the European nations stands even despite many reported hacking attacks from China and Russia, not to speak of their all-weather any case, not being at the centre-stage of a global circus, the European stakes are mainly limited to economic cyber-assets.

India is a novice in comparison, even if there have been some tentative attempts made to venture into the realm of cyber security. These attempts are however, confined just to work-station access-denials, blocks against hacking and back-up storage.

While India was among the first countries to have an Information Technology Act, set up a Computer Emergency Response team (CERT) and even locate responsibility for cybersecurity within the National Security Council, it has subsequently lagged behind other countries in responding to cybersecurity threats.

A Structure for Cyber Security

Having discussed the functions of civil cyber security and military cyber warfare and the differences as well as commonalities between the two, it becomes apparent there would have to be a substantial degree of congruence of resources and efforts in protecting the Indian cyber-space; and Two, when it comes to prosecution it would have to be a purely military venture.

Thus appears the necessity for an apex body to coordinate these primary and secondary functions at the national we may conclude the discussion with a brief look at some of the measures that might afford the desired level of protection to the indigenous cyber-space.

These be:-

• Establishment of a ‘National Cyber Regulatory, Control and Security Authority’ (NCRCSA), to coordinate between the civil NCSP and the military ‘Cyber Incorporation of a ‘Cyber Research Department’ would also be necessary.
• Regulation, coordination and strengthening of the civilian cyber activities of the ‘National Information Centre’, ‘National Crisis Management Centre’, Response Centre’, ‘National Information Infrastructure Protection Centre’, ‘Computer Emergency Response Teams’, NDMA, NTRO, Department of IT, DOT, and the private sector under the aegis of the proposed NCRCSA. The responsibility and wherewithal for cyber security is too diffused at present to be cyber-attack, and respond to it quickly and effectively.
• ‘Cyber Command’ may be formed to plan and prepare prosecution of Cyber Warfare across the service barriers, and in coordination with the national A ‘Cyber Warfare Research Establishment’ must form part of this Command. NCSP and Cyber Warfare must be permanent and continuously performing with permanent set ups and flexible recruitment and training rules, and as stated, function under the overarching management of the proposed command.

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Role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges

Cyberspace has changed many old concepts. In this globalised world everyone is neighbour of other. There is no established concept of boundaries.

The use of social media has become a ubiquitous component of the ever more interconnected world in which we now live.

The term “social media” refers to internet-based applications that enable people to communicate and share resources and information. Social media can be accessed by computer, smart and cellular phones, and mobile phone text messaging (SMS).

The use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can provide organisations with new and innovative ways in which to engage with their staff.

However this highly dynamic and end-user focused environment also brings with it a number of security concerns. The data held within social media can provide an attacker with a wealth of information about the internal workings of an organisation, including detail on roles and responsibilities, projects, relationships and expose information about internal IT systems, including the ability to identify security vulnerabilities.

Social networking sites (or social media) and the challenges that it throws up in the space of cyber-warfare are indeed issues that have drawn the attention of security and law enforcement agencies in recent times.

The ability of individuals to share information with an audience of millions is at the heart of the particular challenge that social media presents. In addition to giving anyone the power to disseminate sensitive information, social media also gives the same power to spread false information, which can be just as damaging.

The rapid spread of false information through social media is among the emerging risks identified by the World Economic Forum in its Global Risks 2013 report.

The mass exodus of a number of northeast Indians from many parts of India in the aftermath of the ethnic strife in Assam, triggered by a cyber hate campaign in 2012 and recently in Bangalore and other cities are a case in point.

According to a survey analysis on social media usage in India, India’s web users have 153 million active social media accounts. Half of them are monthly active Facebook users. Twitter is also expanding its base amongst Indian citizens. It also reflects the changing patterns of communication among urban India.

Social media is used by terrorist organisations as a tool for ideological radicalization, recruitment, communication and training. In addition, terrorist groups take advantage of it to communicate with cybercrime organisations and to coordinate along with the fundraising activities (from illicit activities) carried out in part (drug smuggling, gun running) or completely (e.g. phishing 9) on the Internet.

Present scenario in India

For the government, the internet has always been a tool for better governance and its application has been technical, with issues of e-governance handled by technocrats. Not much thought has been given to the aspect of content and here lies its biggest shortcoming.

The NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation), the apex intelligence body under the National Security Advisor, still does not have an official mandate of a monitoring agency.

If one required authorities to engage and counter-propaganda, the most common refrain is the predicament of the fear of the Official Secrets Act that hovers above like the sword of Damocles.

The Supreme Court of India, on March 24, 2015, struck down Section 66 A of the Information and Technology Act, which allows police to arrest people for posting “offensive content” on the internet. The bench said the public’s right to know is directly affected by Section 66 A and the Section clearly affects the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression enshrined in the Constitution of India.

What can be done?

Social media analysis generated intelligence or SOCMINT is being developed as a successful model in many countries abroad to isolate hotspots or subjects that go viral and is used as a predictive tool.

India too is looking at these models but is still at the stage of experimentation, trial and error.

The Mumbai Police has launched a project called “Social Media Lab”, the first of its kind in the country. The lab would monitor relevant information from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, as well as all other open sources in the public domain. About 20 specially-trained officers are supposed to work in shifts.

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Challenges to internal security through communication networks

Communication networks are a part of our critical information infrastructure which was defined in the IT Act, 2000 as “the computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety.”

Communications networks are crucial to the connectivity of other critical infrastructure, viz. civil aviation, shipping, railways, power, nuclear, oil and gas, finance, banking, communication, information technology, law enforcement, intelligence agencies, space, defence, and government networks. Therefore, threats can be both through the networks as well as to the networks.

Information Warfare (IW)

In near future, Information warfare will control the form and future of war.

Because of the increasing relevance of information technology (IT) to people’s lives, individuals who take part in IW are not all soldiers and that anybody who understands computers may become a fighter.

IW is inexpensive as the targeted party can be delivered a paralysing blow through the net and it may be difficult for the latter to discern where the attack originated. Large amount of useless information can be created to block or stop the functioning of an adversary’s information system.

Thus, a People’s War in context of IW can be carried out by hundreds of millions of people, using open-type modern information systems. Even political mobilisation for war can be achieved via the internet, by sending patriotic e-mail messages and by setting up databases for education.

IW consists of five major elements and two general areas.

The five elements are:

• Substantive destruction, the use of hard weapons to destroy enemy headquarters, command posts, and command and control (C2) information centres
• Electronic warfare, the use of electronic means of jamming or the use of anti-radiation [electromagnetic] weapons to attack enemy information and intelligence collection systems such as communications and radar
• Military deception, the use of operations such as tactical feints [simulated attacks] to shield or deceive enemy intelligence collection systems
• Operational secrecy, the use of all means to maintain secrecy and keep the enemy from collecting intelligence on our operations.
• Psychological warfare, the use of TV, radio, and leaflets to undermine the enemy’s military morale.

The two general areas are information protection (defence) and information attack (offence).

Information defence means preventing the destruction of one’s own information systems, ensuring that these systems can perform their normal functions. In future wars, key information and information systems will become “combat priorities”, the key targets of enemy attack. It also includes many other manifestations of IW like computer virus warfare, precision warfare and stealth warfare, all dependent in some manner on information and software programmes.

Implications for India

The concept of information superiority is somewhat analogous to similar concepts of air, sea or space superiority. This is because proper use of information is as lethal as other kinds of power.

The Indian concepts of IW are generally based on Western concepts and according to the 2004 Army Doctrine, IW encompasses the elements of command and control warfare, intelligence based warfare, electronic warfare, cyber warfare, psychological warfare and network centric warfare, military deception and secrecy as well as media support.

Information operations can vary from physical destruction to psychological operations to computer network defence.

It is in this context that a Defence Information Warfare Agency (DIWA) under the Integrated Defence Staff Headquarters has been formed to coordinate efforts of the three services and certain other agencies to handle all aspects of information warfare.

Securing networks

Securing the networks is complicated by a number of factors.

In the first instance, much of the hardware and software that make up the communications ecosystem is sourced externally; as a case in point, Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE have supplied about 20 per cent of telecommunications equipment while Indian manufacturers have about 3 per cent of the market.

As recent incidents have shown, foreign governments are taking advantage of the market penetration and dominance of their companies to infiltrate and compromise telecommunications networks. This is a potent combination of expertise and resources.

The task of securing the networks is also complicated by the fact that much of the infrastructure is in the hands of private companies who see measures such as security auditing and other regulations and frameworks as adding to their costs.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has also repeatedly urged telecom companies to take note of vulnerabilities in their equipment and told them they would be held responsible and subject to penalties if the vulnerabilities are not addressed.

Even though Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) at national and lower levels have been formed to respond to cyberattacks on civilian infrastructure, the concept is more defensive in nature. A proactive concept like that of net force may be more appropriate.

The government in the National Telecom Policy of 2012 has set a target for domestic production of telecom equipment to meet the Indian telecom sector’s demand to the extent of 60 to 80 percent by 2020.

A number of other measures, such as making local certification mandatory, have been announced, but there is a need for a more integrated and strategic approach to securing the networks since they are so crucial to the economic, social and political well-being of the country.