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Dimilitarization of Siachen: For and Against

Context : A report in Indian Express that banks have written off  many zeros ( lesser than 2G scam though) of debt in last 2 years.

Q. What is the state of banks in India at present?

1. Situation is very alarming with mounting bad loans.

2. Bad loans haven’t bottomed out. They are only going up and expected to reach up to 6.5% from more than 5% right now in a year.

3. Bad loansn are putting strain on return on asset, profitability.

4. Substantial erosion in the valuation of banks. Valuation of all PSBs is half of private banks. It will put problems in bank recapitalization.

Q. Why are NPAs rising?

1. General economic downturn. Sectors such as steel, commodities even infrastructure are feling the pinch.

2. Policy paralysis leading to stalled projects.

3. Improper management of loans by the banks leading to assets remaininh underutilized.

4. Crony capitalism.

5. Judicial system which take years and years to resolve cases and in the process all the value of asset is lost.

Q. But why the pace has increased in last few quarters?

1. RBI governor has asked banks to clean up the balance sheets by march 2017. Earlier loans were not being shown as NPAs, now same loans are being shown as NPAs.

2. General economic downturn esp commodity collapse

Q. Why is situation of public sector banks so alarming compared to private sector banks?

1. Social banking distorts public sector culture.

2. Loans under various political compulsion.

3. Crony capitalism, political interference. They have to back up govt policies.

4. Do not have autonomy. They have to act counter cyclically i.e. lend more at the time of general economic downturn to turn the economy around.

Q. But why the write off ? Will any good come out of it?

1. Balance sheets will be cleaned up. Actual state of NPAs will be out in public domain.

2. At present banks linger on with bad loans, do not classify that as NPA, keep on lending to repay the loan, eventually promoters lose interest. So called ever greening the loans and extend and pretend policy.

3. Beside write off, must include infusion of promoter equity and appropriate govt policy to resolve sector wise problems like debt of state electricity board.

Q. What is the way forward now?

to recover existing loan

1. Pass the bankruptcy code.

2. Create Asset Restructuring company (ARC) backed by govt and RBI and let it be handled by professionals.

3. Though standing committee reports that Corporate Debt Restructuring(CDR) has failed, where CDR is done, throw the old management out and run those companies by professionals.

On long term basis

1. Let PSBs run on commercial lines, give them autonomy and ensure day to day functioning is handed over to professionals without govt interference.

2. Provide subsidies via budgetary provision, don’t ask banks to subsidize.

3. Delink banks from deptt of banking to avoid political interference.

Now it’s mandatory to pass all the credit information to Credit Information Bureau of India Ltd. (CIBIL) and find out standing of promoters, company before sanctioning any new loan. make this institution even more effective. It will bring transparency and sunlight is the best disinfectant.

 

 

 

Can you please suggest the best coaching material for economics mains.

Why does rupee weakens when FII take back their invested money??

After decades of struggle, finally democracy triumphed over military junta and Myanmar parliament enters democratic era after 54 years of military rule. It’s time to glance over India-Myanmar relations and how India will be benefited from such stable democratic government.

India and Myanmar have traditionally had much in common, with cultural, historical, ethnic and religious ties, in addition to sharing a long geographical land border and maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal. Let’s see it in brief!

How did India and Myanmar engagement begin ?

• Myanmar is India’s bridge to east, and an important ally for growing its regional power.
• India and Myanmar’s relationship officially got underway after the Treaty of Friendship was signed in 1951.
• For many years, India did not open up to the authoritarian regime, and it was only over a period of time that India started engaging with the military junta of Myanmar.
• The region’s focus has revolved around the SAARC countries and China, Myanmar is becoming increasingly important for India in both a strategic and economic context.

What about bilateral trade ties?

• Bilateral trade has grown from $12.4 million in 1980-81 to $2.18 billion in 2013-14.
• Agricultural items like beans and pulses and forest based products make up nearly 90 percent of India’s imports.
• Myanmar is also the beneficiary of a duty-free tariff preference scheme for least developed countries (LDCs).
• Both countries also signed a border trade agreement in 1994 and have 2 trade points along their 1,643 km border.
• India has also promoted some trade events such as the India Product Show 2012, which represented 19 Indian companies.

But, How shared cultural links promote unique relations between both countries?

• The two countries have shared cultural exchanges through various cultural troupes.
• One such exchange was in 2009 when Myanmar sent a 13 member student group that attended a SAARC cultural festival in India.
• This was followed by another major event at which the Indian embassy in Yangon organized the annual Indian Film Festival, which is a major event on the Yangon cultural calendar.

Does India have historical bond with Myanmar?

• Yes! Yangon was once a center for India’s independence struggle.
• The Indian National Army (INA), formed by Indian nationalists during World War II in 1942 with the motto of Ittehad, Itmad aur Qurbani (Unity, Faith and Sacrifice).
• Comprised over 40,000 soldiers, who fought valiantly against the British imperialist forces.
• Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose became leader of the INA in 1943 and undertook a groundbreaking march towards Indian territories from Burmese soil with the aim of achieving Indian independence.<This time we can expect question on Netaji and his work, as we know current happenings about Netaji’s files declassified>
• General Aung San, Burma’s independence hero, was a close friend of Netaji, the supreme commander of the INA.
• That friendship was reflected in cordial relationship between the soldiers of the INA and their counterparts in the Burmese National Army (BNA).
• So, it’s good to use this historical bond for building more coherent and strong relations with Myanmar.

How Myanmar is Strategically significant to India?

• Myanmar is strategically important to India as it is the only ASEAN country that shares a land border with India.
• It is also the only country that can act as a link between India and ASEAN.
• Myanmar is India’s gateway to Southeast Asia and could be the required impetus to realize India’s Look East Policy.
• India has also decided to upgrade the Kalewa-Yargyi road segment to highway standard.
• Myanmar would develop the Yargyi-Monywa portion, and this would help to connect Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar.
• This in turn would improve India’s connectivity and relationship with both Myanmar and Thailand.

How can India become regional pivot in Asia?

• If India is to become an assertive regional player in Asia, it has to work toward developing policies that would improve and strengthen it domestically.
• This will encourage more confidence in its ability to lead the region and be an important global player.
• Competition with China should also be considered and taken seriously. As China’s growing influence in the region would lead to a more one-sided dynamic in the region.
• China has asserted itself through its soft power as well as through its trade and economic relations with Myanmar by taking up large infrastructure projects in the country.
• India on the other hand needs to use its soft power more effectively, and at the same time strengthen itself domestically and regionally.

What are advantages that India has over China with regard to Myanmar?

• One is the democratic process, which results in different governments at the center and states through free and fair elections.
• There is also the respect for institutions that are strong enough to hold the country together.
• Finally, cooperation in different multilateral forums such as ASEAN and BIMSTEC strengthen the relationship between the 2 countries.
• Apart from these reasons, India has sent a clear signal that while economic ties are important, it is keen to build a holistic relationship and is prepared to assist in institution building in Myanmar.

What is the significance of Connectivity in India-Myanmar Relations? 

<How North-Eastern region can play vital role in this?>

• Myanmar’s vast oil and natural gas reserves and other resources make it a natural partner for many countries in the world.
• India, being its next door neighbour, cannot be indifferent to this reality.
• Besides, geo-political considerations, historical and civilizational links, and the ethnic overlap across their borders, have all come together to make India’s North-East the land bridge between the South and South-East Asia through Myanmar.
• The 1,640 km-long border between Myanmar and the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram signifies the importance of this eastern neighbour for India.
• India expects to reap various economic benefits by bolstering bilateral trade and investment, which critically depends upon better connectivity in the region.

How bilateral cooperation agreement gives impetus to India’s Look-East Policy?

• The strategic location of Myanmar is pivotal to India in reaching out to the economically vibrant South-East Asian countries.
• India’s Look-East Policy envisages building infrastructure and expanding the transportation network including railroads, aimed at furthering surface connectivity in the region.
• It is recognized that in addition to more economic contacts, such connectivity will promote social stability in the region by facilitating people-to-people contact amongst trans-border ethnic groups.
• It is expected that insurgent outfits would lose their recruitment base once the local resources begin to be exploited and employment is generated leading to overall development. 
• Concrete economic benefits are expected to come up in the region with establishment of border haats.
• In addition, internal trade routes have the potential to enhance accessibility to sub-regional markets that connect Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan.

Way forward

• The basic foundation for the relationship between India and Myanmar has been laid by previous governments, the onus is on the present Indian administration to demonstrate that it can take the relationship to a higher level.
• India can become a strong regional player through a more proactive approach, cement India’s place in the region and grow into a powerful, global country.

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Published with inputs from Arun

Video discussion is in Hindi. Because the issue is very important, it has been translated and discussed here in English.

Context: 10 Indian soldiers martyred in an avalanche on Siachen glacier a few days back.

Q. Tell us a few things about Siachen?

1. It’s world’s highest battlefield.

2. Outside of polar region, it is world’s longest glacier(76km)

3. It is a disputed region being a part of Kashmir.

4. It was considered so inhabitable that its coordinates were not even demarcated during Karachi agreement (1949) and shimla agreement.

5. The Glacier region is not just the glacier per se but includes the Saltoro Ridge, a crucial mountainous stretch which acts as a watershed.

Q. What’s the dispute over this region?

Dispute is as to which side (India or Pakistan) this glacier belongs to.

1. The origin of Siachen dispute lies in the fact that both the Karachi Agreement of 1949 and the Shimla Agreement of 1972 have left the status of Indo-Pak boundary vague North of Pt NJ 9842.
2. While the Karachi Agreement says, “From Pt NJ 9842, the ceasefire line will run Northwards to the Glaciers”, Shimla Agreement does not even make a mention of it.’
3. Pakistan, on the other hand, believes that the alignment of the boundary runs in a north-easterly direction to the Karakoram Pass.

This conflicting interpretation is the source of conflict.

Q. When so many soldiers die due to extreme weather, why don’t we come to an understanding and vacate the post?

It’s true that it costs us 5 crore daily and  more than 1000 soldiers have martyred due to avalanche and extreme conditions, we can’t even think of vacating the posts due to its strategic significance.

1. The Saltoro Ridge overlooks the area of Gilgit–Baltistan of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).

2.  It guards the routes leading to Leh, the principal town and capital of Ladakh.

3.  it overlooks and dominates the Shaksgam Valley, which was illegally ceded to China by Pakistan

4. it is close to the Karakoram Pass through which the Karakoram Highway passes connecting Gilgit-Baltistan to Xinjiang Province of China.

Before thinking of vacating the posts, we should question ourselves whether the reasons for which we went there in the 1st place, for which 1000s of soldiers have lost their lives, still exist or they have disappeared. Short answer is situation is even more complex now with the unwarranted entry of the PLA in the garb of road builders, and the administration in the Northern Areas and the POK.

Q. So why did we go there in the 1st place?

1. Pakistan had been sending expeditions there and giving passes to foreign expeditions in effect trying to establish it’s sovereignty there.

2.  Pakistan was buying high altitude equipment to occupy the heights. Fortunately, same company which supplied equipment to India also supplied them to Pakistan and India came to know about it.

3.  To thwart the Pakistani designs to occupy the undemarcated region, India troops had to occupy the heights and passes in 1984 (Operation Meghdoot)

Fact remains if we vacate the posts, Pakistan will occupy them the next week and it will be next to impossible for us to dislodge them from there.

Q. So what’s the solution? I thought, it was considered a low hanging fruitt.

1. Alternative is demilitarisation with a bilateral agreement not to reoccupy the heights at any cost and eventual delimitation or demarcation.

2. Pakistan demands demilitraisation 1st followed by demarcation while India wouldn’t demilitarize without delineating teh actual ground position line (AGPL) first. Who can trus pakis!

3. Ultimate solution is solution of Kashmir issue. siachen is part of kashmir. We need holistic solution, piecemeal solutions won’t do.

The basic issue is of lack of trust which will not be addressed by withdrawal and may not lead to delimitation.

 

Hello sir ,

This 2016 prelims will be my second attempt .. And I have learnt my syllabus .. so What is the ideal time to start prelims mode of study ? what is the ideal time per day to be devoted to answer writing ? what should be ideal level of preparation at various months in this UPSC journey … Please reply ..

Lately, there’s an absence of news cards from the Indian Express. There are some very good articles in it. Let’s take 9th February for example, two really good articles on NPAs, their causes and solution strategies.

when will the 2nd issue gonna come because first one is totally amazing and instead of buying online i buy the hard copy…….so just wanted when it comes so i can grab another one……really great work guys………..

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The Miracle Man

He is a harbinger of change and has brought joy to the people of Tousem, a Manipur subdivision considered one of India’s most backward, by giving them what they needed most — a motorable road that connects them to the outside world.

Wouldn’t you want to know about him!

Armstrong Pame is a 2009 batch IAS officer.

Armstrong Pame belongs to Tamenglong district of Manipur.

He is the first IAS officer from Zeme Tribe of the Naga Peoples.

He graduated from St.Stephens College, DU.

The People’s Road

He is acclaimed for building a 100 km road famously known as the “Peoples’ Road“.

The road connects Tousem with the rest of Manipur, as also with Assam and Nagaland.

Now let’s see the inspiring, exciting, sometimes depressing but fascinating story of People’s Road…

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Why take so much trouble?

Pame recounted the incident that led him to launch the 100-km road: “In 2012, I became SDM of Tousem. I travelled to many villages and saw how people were carrying sacks of rice on their backs, walking for hours, and patients being taken on makeshift bamboo stretchers due to the non-availability of motorable roads. When I asked villagers what they wanted me to do for them, their only wish was for a road.”

He was moved by the plight of people when he saw how they had to trudge for five hours by first crossing a river and then a stretch that can by no stretch of imagination be called a road to reach Tamenglong just 50 km away.

Hear it in the voice of ‘The Miracle Man’ himself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvee9TA4LKk

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The fund raising… no government help…

In August 2012, he raised INR40 Lakh for this purpose through Facebook page.

Mr. Pame said he asked the government for funds to build the road but his proposal was turned down due to paucity of resources. But he was really moved by the plight of people; so he decided to raise the funds on his own in August 2012 through Facebook.

Charity must begin from home; so he put in Rs. 5 lakh and his brother, who teaches in the Delhi University, donated Rs.1 lakh. Even his mother paid his dad’s one month’s pension of Rs. 5,000.

He recalls, “One night I got a call from a person in the U.S. who wanted to donate $2,500 for the road. The next day a Sikh gentleman living in New York said he would give $3,000. And after the media reported about this effort, we never looked back”.

In a short span of time, Rs. 40 lakh was raised for the road.

The Recognition

For his efforts in building road with donation and volunteers he was invited to Facebook headquarters in California.

In 2012, he was nominated for CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in Public service category.

But was 40 lakhs enough?

Since Rs. 40 lakh was not a huge amount for building a road, he convinced local contractors to give earth movers and road-rollers for free.

Enthused by the way Mr. Pame was able to put together the resources, the residents of Tousem volunteered to build the road — thus saving labour costs.

The people’s support

In an interview he said: For me the most touching part was the day when I came to see the work, about 250 people including more than 100 women folk came with spades and tools to work in the road. I asked them “What are they doing?” They replied “It is our road we are doing it with you Sir.” I was speechless.

It’s a miracle…

He says, “Sometimes I still cannot believe that we have done it. It’s a miracle. I don’t know whether I can do it again.”

“I was called crazy, but I was determined.”

His message to the youth

In his own words- To everyone, I would like to just give words of encouragement to give your best in whatever you do. You should live life to the fullest. When life is lived beyond me, I, and myself; life is just not about surviving but should be a living one.  Let’s live life to the fullest.

Published with inputs from Swapnil | Image - Quora