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INDEX

1. National news 1.1. TN files for contempt against centre

1.2 EC backs one seat, one candidate policy

1.3 Govt forms committee to regulate news portals

2. International News 2.1 Are foreigners getting hearts before Indians

3. Polity and Governance 3.1 CVC wants to keep an eye on private banks

3.2 EC to take a call on electoral bonds soon

3.3 CVC witness a dramatic drop in complaints

4. Economy 4.1 RBI holds rates; cuts inflation forecast

4.2 RBI bars banks from dealing with virtual currencies

4.3 RBI switches back to GDP to measure economy

5. Science and Tech 5.1 After glitch, ISRO trying to restore link with GSAT-6A

5.2 Govt. bans imports of hormone oxytocin

6. Environment / Geography 6.1 India third most vulnerable country to cyber threats

7. India and World

7.1 India, Japan, US Stress keeping sea lanes open


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Current Affairs (1 to 10 April, 2018)

1. National News

1.1. TN files for contempt against centre

Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court to initiate contempt proceedings against the Union

government for its “wilful disobedience” in not implementing the court’s February 16 judgment

in the Cauvery dispute.

In its petition, the State said the Centre had failed to frame a scheme within the time limit set by

the court, by not setting up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation

Committee to monitor the allocation of the river water among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala

and Puducherry.

Election constraints

The contempt petition has been filed at a time when the Centre has also moved the court for a

three-month extension of time to implement the verdict. The Karnataka Assembly election is to

be held on May 12.

While seeking clarification on some aspects of the verdict, the Centre claimed that notifying the

scheme during the election process would lead to “public outrage” and “cause law and order

problems.”

Tamil Nadu accused the Centre of refusing to act to “protect the interests of the farmers and the

larger interests of the State.”

Six-week deadline

The contempt petition wants the court to “purge the contempt forthwith” by directing the

Centre to frame a scheme by providing for the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the

Cauvery Water Regulation Committee as per the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s order of

2007.

As per the February 16 judgment in the appeals, the Centre had to frame the scheme in six

weeks. The deadline ended on March 29.

In its application, the Centre asked the apex court to clarify whether it was open to it to frame a

scheme “at variance” with the tribunal’s recommendations.

For one, it wanted to know whether a CMB can have a mixture of administrative and technical

expertise rather than the purely technical body envisaged by the tribunal.

Secondly, the Centre asked whether it could accord the CMB functions different from those

recommended by the tribunal.

Finally, the Centre asked the Supreme Court for its opinion on the framing of the scheme under

Section 6A of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act of 1956, considering the divergent views

expressed between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.


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Tamil Nadu wants the CMB as per the 2007 tribunal order, while Karnataka wants a two-layer

scheme, one headed by a committee led by the Union Water Resources Secretary.

The Centre’s application, filed after the court closed this week, is pending.

1.2 EC backs one seat, one candidate policy

The Supreme Court asked the Centre to respond to an affidavit filed by the Election Commission

(EC) of India to amend the law to prevent candidates contesting from multiple constituencies.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was hearing a petition filed by advocate

Ashwini Upadhyay seeking a declaration striking down Section 33(7) of the Representation of

the People Act of 1951, which allows candidates to contest from two constituencies at a time, as

invalid and unconstitutional.

Mr. Upadhyay has asked the court to direct the Centre and the Election Commission to

“discourage” independent candidates from contesting parliamentary and State Assembly

elections.

The EC informed the court that it had proposed the amendment of Section 33(7) way back in

July 2004. It was one of the 22 “urgent electoral reforms” the EC had suggested to a Rajya Sabha

Parliamentary Standing Committee.

It had pointed out that there had been cases of a person contesting from two constituencies and

winning from both. “The consequence is that a by-election would be required from one

constituency, involving avoidable labour and expenditure...”

The EC concluded that the “law should be amended to provide that a person cannot contest

from more than one constituency at a time.”

EC suggestion

It suggested that a candidate should deposit ₹5 lakh for contesting in two constituencies in an

Assembly election or ₹10 lakh in a general election.

This would be used for the conduct of a by-election in the eventuality that he or she had to

relinquish seat. The court posted the case for hearing in July.

1.3 Govt forms committee to regulate news portals

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has instituted a committee to regulate online

portals, including news websites, entertainment sites and media aggregators.

The 10-member committee, formed on Wednesday, will include secretaries of the departments

of Home, Legal Affairs, Electronics and Information and Technology, and Industrial Policy and

Promotion. The CEO of MyGov and a representative each of the Press Council of India and

National Broadcasters’ Association will also be part of the committee.

In its order, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting noted that both print and electronic

media are regulated but online media does not come under the ambit of regulatory mechanism.


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The content telecast on television channels are regulated in terms of the programme and

advertisement codes under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994. Similarly, the

autonomous body Press Council of India regulates the print media.

The committee, broadly, will look at three things. One is to bring online information

dissemination under regulation. Second is to propose a policy for foreign direct investment in

this media. Third is to look at international best practices on such existing regulatory

mechanism.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani had announced on Twitter that her ministry

was working on bringing online news too under regulation mechanism. The ministry has been

consulting both National Broadcasters’ Association and Press Council of India for over a month

on the issue.


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2. International News

2.1 Are foreigners getting hearts before Indians

In a bid to ensure that comparatively wealthier foreign patients aren’t getting hearts out of turn,

the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) is seeking greater clarity from

hospitals on cadaver hearts allocated to foreign nationals for transplantation.

While there are a set of robust rules that hospitals adhere to, members of NOTTO, who had a

meeting in Delhi last week, held discussions on why an Indian patient may not be allocated the

organ when it’s her rightful turn, and explored possible measures to remedy such practices.

“A major factor in heart transplants is affordability. We don’t want to leave any scope where

hospitals play up the cost factor to discourage Indian patients from accepting the organs,” he

said, adding that last week’s meeting brought together members from all the Regional Organ

and Tissue Transplant Organisations (ROTTO).

The members discussed the need for hospitals to share all the details of the foreign patients on

their waiting list, including the time of registration and a detailed explanation on why an Indian

patient could not be a candidate for the organ.

Priority list

“As per protocol, Indian patients are always given first priority. Only when we don’t have an

Indian patient, say, due to a blood group or weight mismatch, or in cases when the Indian

candidate refuses the organ for some reason, a foreigner is given the opportunity,” said Dr.

Suresh Rao, head of the Cardiac Critical Care and Cardiac Anesthesia at Fortis Malar Hospital,

Chennai.

The hospital has carried out 184 heart transplants in the last few years, of which 53 were of

foreign nationals. “At times, when the organ is available in a different city, the cost of the air

ambulance goes up to ₹15-₹20 lakh. Stable Indian patients refuse to spend on an air ambulance.

They think they will get the organ if they wait for a few more days. In such situations, foreigners

get a chance,” Dr. Rao said, adding that the waiting list for foreigners (within a month of arrival)

was 22%, and was 2% for Indian patients at their hospital.


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3. Polity and Governance

3.1 CVC wants to keep an eye on private banks

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has urged the Prime Minister’s Office to bring private

sector banks under its watch, citing the fact that they have been involved in many recent

instances of malfeasance.

Vigilance officers in all State-owned public sector banks are required to report irregularities and

possible wrongdoing to the CVC, India’s apex body for checking corruption in the government.

Private sector banks are out of the CVC’s purview, but are subjected to statutory audits from the

Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Deviating from norms

Private banks have been rapped in recent months by the banking regulator for deviating from

norms that govern the disclosure of non-performing assets (NPAs), leading to under-reporting.

The processes followed for lending decisions among private lenders have also come under the

scanner.

The Central Bureau of Investigation disclosed last week that it has initiated a preliminary inquiry

into loans granted by the country’s largest private lender ICICI Bank to Videocon Industries as it

suspects a nexus between Deepak Kochhar, husband of the bank’s CEO and managing director

Chanda Kochhar, and Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot.

In February, soon after the disclosure of a ₹12,800 crore fraud at the country’s second largest

public sector bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), the CVC had summoned senior officials from

the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Finance Ministry and the bank’s Chief Vigilance Officer to

understand how the fraud perpetrated by firms owned by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi went

undetected for so long.

“The temptation to engage in fraud at the level of employee or employees is always present, in

banks (or in corporations), be it in public sector or private sector,” RBI Governor Urjit Patel said

on March 14, adding that investigative, vigilance and legal deterrence could be a powerful

mechanism to induce discipline against such frauds. He said the central bank should have more

regulatory powers over public sector banks.

3.2 EC to take a call on electoral bonds soon

The Election Commission will soon take a fresh view of the electoral bonds after analysing the

terms of the government notification and the outcome of two rounds of their sales since March.

The Union government had notified the scheme on January 2. As per the rule, only registered

political parties which have secured not less than 1% of the votes polled in the previous Lok

Sabha or Assembly elections are eligible for these bonds.


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The first round of sales was allowed in the designated branches of State Bank of India (SBI) in

New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai from March 1 to 10. The second phase, which started

on April 2, will continue till April 10.

“In the first round, bonds worth ₹222 crore were issued by SBI. This fact was not reported

directly to the Election Commission. The government disclosed it in the Lok Sabha in response to

the question from an MP, and that was how it came into the public domain,” an official said.

It is learnt that Election Commission officials held a meeting on the basis of this information.

“Now that the second phase of sales is under way, we will wait for more details for further

analysis,” the official said.

The EC Secretariat is also examining the notification to determine whether all the concerns

raised by the Election Commission have been addressed. The Election Commission had earlier

told a parliamentary committee that the introduction of electoral bonds would be a retrograde

measure in the effort to make political funding transparent.

It had submitted that the changes made to the election laws for the bonds could compromise

transparency.

The amendment to Section 29C of the Representation of the People Act has made it no longer

mandatory for the parties to report the details of donations received through the bonds.

Furthermore, it is not clear at this stage how the details of the bonds will be shared with the

Election Commission. However, the issuing bank has their money trails. These bonds, which do

not carry the names of the donors, remain valid for 15 days.

3.3 CVC witness a dramatic drop in complaints

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) saw a dramatic drop in the total number of complaints

received by it in 2017, keeping in line with the drop in actions by various government

departments in cracking down on corruption.

The 23,609 complaints received in 2017 by the CVC was less than half of almost 50,000

complaints received in 2016, and the lowest in the previous five years.

Officials said some of this can be explained by the improved system for weeding out duplication

of complaints and a few other streamlining exercises undertaken in recent years.

However, others, including whistle blowers and civil servants, said a deeper study was required

to assess if the public was losing its trust in anti-corruption bodies because of their perceived

inefficiency, quality of investigations and possible manipulations at various levels.

They also suggest that the government should notify the original Whistle Blowers Protection

Act, 2011, appoint a Lokpal, and initiate other steps for strengthening anti-corruption

mechanisms.

According to the CVC’s annual report submitted to Parliament last week, in the calender year

2017, the agency tackled a total of 26,052 complaints, which included 2,443 brought forward

from 2016. Of this, 22,386 complaints were disposed off, and 3,666 complaints remained

pending at the end of 2017.


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Out of them, 2,391 complaints were anonymous, and, the report says, “In majority of

complaints the allegations were found to be either vague or unverifiable”.

Quality of investigation

The annual report itself highlights one possible reason why there is a general public

disenchantment with anti-corruption mechanisms. When it receives a complaint, the CVC calls

for inquiry reports from the appropriate agencies.

“As per the laid down procedure, the inquiry/ investigation reports are required to be sent to

the Commission within a period of three months. However, it is observed that in a majority of

cases, there is considerable delay in finalising and submitting reports to the Commission,” the

report says.

A Central Bureau of Investigation source points out that there was a need to look at the quality

of investigation done by agencies. “We have seen a consistent drop in the quality of

investigation. While the early steps such as raids and PEs (Preliminary Enquiry) are well

publicised, the follow-ups, including investigation and charge sheet are weak,” he pointed out.

According to the CVC’s annual report, based on the CBI’s investigations, the CVC provided the

first stage of advice in 171 investigation reports of CBI. Of them, only 30% resulted in criminal

proceedings.

A significant 22% of the CBI investigation reports resulted in closure of those cases, while

another 33% resulted in only administrative actions such as warnings or caution.

In the case of investigations submitted by Chief Vigilance Officers of various government

departments, almost half of them were closed without any action.

Only 0.63% of those investigations led to criminal proceedings. Thus, of the total of 2,069

investigation reports examined by CVC in 2017, 45% were closed without any action, while only

3.09% led to criminal proceedings.

A similar drop in the number of punishments given out by the CVC, too, is visible. The total

punishments awarded in 2017 was 2,589, against 3,296 in the previous year. In 2015, it was

3,592.


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4. Economy

4.1 RBI holds rates; cuts inflation forecast

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept interest rates unchanged in the first policy meeting of

2018-19, as expected, but surprised markets with a dovish tone that some interpreted as

opening up the possibility of a rate cut, even as early as September.

The six-member monetary policy committee opted, by majority, to hold the repo rate at 6%,

with a sole member recommending instead that the policy rate be raised by 25 basis points.

The central bank lowered its projection retail inflation for the first half of the current financial

year to 4.7-5.1% from 5.1-5.6% and to 4.4% in H2, from 4.5-4.6%.

Importantly, it emphasised that excluding the impact of house rent allowance of the seventh

pay commission for central government employees, consumer price inflation is projected at 4.4-

4.7% for April-September, and at 4.4% for October-December.

The RBI said several factors were expected to accelerate the pace of economic activity in 2018-

19.

“While the MPC’s assessment of GDP growth in 2017-18 of 6.6% was lower than a year ago,

which was 7.1%, there were important intra-year turning points, most notably investment

demand accelerated in the second half of 2017-18 and recent high frequency indicators point to

some further strengthening with capital goods production registering a 19-month high growth in

January this year,” RBI Governor Urjit Patel told reporters.

GDP growth is projected to strengthen from 6.6% in 2017-18 to 7.4% in 2018-19 — in the range

of 7.3-7.4% in H1 and 7.3-7.6% in H2.

“The monetary policy committee was of the view that the pace of economic growth could

accelerate in 2018-19 on clearer signs of revival in investment activity and sustained

improvement in global demand,” Dr. Patel said.

The MPC noted that growth has been recovering and the output gap is closing which is also

reflected in a pick-up in credit offtake in recent months.

‘Unexpectedly dovish’

“This was an unexpectedly dovish policy with the RBI highlighting inflation risks but at the same

time revising their forecasts downward,” said Abheek Barua, chief economist, HDFC Bank.

The RBI’s inflation outlook cheered the markets as the yield on 10-year government bond slid 16

basis points to a four month low of 7.13%.

“If this is a permanent shift in the paradigm of inflation management from a singular focus on

bringing long term inflation down to 4% to a an approach that is more supportive of growth,

then the RBI might go for a long pause,” Mr. Barua said.


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4.2 RBI bars banks from dealing with virtual currencies

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to stop providing service to any entity dealing

with virtual currencies, with immediate effect.

“In view of the associated risks, it has been decided that, with immediate effect, entities

regulated by RBI shall not deal with or provide services to any individual or business entities

dealing with or settling VCs,” the central bank said in a statement.

Three-month deadline

Regulated entities that are already providing such services should exit the relationship within

three months.

After advising all stakeholders about the risks of virtual currencies, the central bank had decided

to ring-fence the RBI regulated entities from the risk of dealing with entities associated with

virtual currencies, RBI deputy governor B.P. Kanungo said.

“However, we also recognise that the blockchain technology or distributed ledger technology

that lies beneath the virtual currencies has a potential benefit for financial inclusion. We believe

they can be exploited for the benefit of the economy,” Mr. Kanungo said.

RBI also said it would explore introducing digital currency and had formed an interdepartmental

group to study and provide guidance on the desirability and feasibility to introduce a central

bank digital currency. The report will be submitted by end-June 2018.

4.3 RBI switches back to GDP to measure economy

The Reserve Bank switched back to the gross domestic product (GDP)-based measure to offer its

growth estimates from the gross value added (GVA) methodology, citing global best practices.

The government had started analysing growth estimates using GVA methodology from January

2015 and had also changed the base year to 2018 from January.

Demand perspective

While GVA gives a picture of the state of economic activity from the producers’ side or supply

side, the GDP model gives the picture from the consumers’ side or demand perspective.

Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said on Thursday that the switch to GDP is mainly to conform to

international standards.

“Globally, the performance of most economies is gauged in terms of gross domestic product

(GDP). This is also the approach followed by multilateral institutions, international analysts and

investors, and primarily they all stick to this norms because it facilitates easy cross-country

comparisons,” Mr. Acharya told reporters at the customary post-policy presser.

Even the Central Statistical Office had started using GDP as the main measure of economic

activities since January 15 this year, he added.

“So, even though there are good economic reasons to employ GVA as the supply side measure

of economic activity, we have decided to switch to GDP-based model,” Mr. Acharya said.


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5. Science and Tech

5.1 After glitch, ISRO trying to restore link with GSAT-6A

A day after GSAT-6A, the country’s newest communication satellite, went incommunicado in

space, officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Sunday that they were

working to restore the link with it.

The silence is initially believed to have been caused by a power glitch or a short circuit on the

satellite.

The spacecraft, launched on March 29, was meant to support military communications in hostile

regions using handy ground terminals. Built to last 10-12 years, it was to be a standby for its

three-year-old replica GSAT-6.

ISRO chief hopeful

ISRO Chairman K. Sivan, for whom this was the first mission after taking charge, said, “Going by

preliminary data, we expect that we will be able to recover the satellite. Its systems are in good

health. Our teams are working round the clock to re-establish contact with the satellite.


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The launch of the navigation satellite IRNSS-1I is scheduled for April 12. An expert committee is

looking into the issue and will suggest recovery and other options.

Orbit correction

After the 36-minute second orbit correction of Friday, GSAT-6A had an orbital period of 18-20

hours, close to the final 24 hours. The command team at the ISRO’s Master Control Facility

(MCF) at Hassan would get another shot at recovery when the satellite passes over India on

Monday morning.

Dr. Sivan also referred to the latest case of Russian scientists getting back an Angolan satellite

that had lost its link after launch in December.

5.2 Govt. bans imports of hormone oxytocin

The Union government on Friday banned imports of the hormone oxytocin to stop its misuse in

the livestock industry, where activists say it causes hormonal imbalances and shortens the lives

of milch animals.

Often called the ‘love hormone’, oxytocin is released naturally in human bonding activities such

as sex, childbirth and breastfeeding.

The government also asked customs officials to step up vigilance against those likely to try and

smuggle oxytocin into India, the Central Board of Excise and Customs said in a notice on its

website.

The government has decided to rely on domestic production to satisfy requirements of the

hormone.

The drug’s abuse in animals shortens their lives and makes them barren sooner, India’s Women

and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has said.

India halted retail sales of the prescription-only drug in 2014, but regulators have struggled to

curb illegal sales, and the volume of imports is unclear.

Friday’s ban follows an order by the drugs regulator last year for officials to clamp down on

factories that produce the hormone in bulk despite not meeting manufacturing standards.

A panel of top drug experts had recommended an import ban in February, the minutes of their

meeting, posted on the drug regulator’s website, show.

It also recommended that sale be limited to registered government hospitals and clinics, a bar

code system used on all forms of the drug to ensure tracking and prevent abuse.


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6. Security

6.1 India third most vulnerable country to cyber threats

India emerged as the third most vulnerable country in terms of risk of cyber threats, such as

malware, spam and ransomware, in 2017, moving up one place over previous year, according to

a report by security solutions provider Symantec.

In 2017, 5.09% of global threats detected were in India, slightly less than 5.11% in 2016. The U.S.

(26.61%) was most vulnerable to such attacks, followed by China (10.95%), according to

‘Internet Security Threat Report’.

The global threat ranking is based on eight metrics — malware, spam, phishing, bots, network

attacks, web attacks, ransomware and cryptominers.

As per the report, India continues to be second most impacted by spam and bots, third most

impacted by network attacks, and fourth most impacted by ransomware.

The report also pointed out that with the threat landscape becoming more diverse, attackers

are working harder to discover new avenues of attack and cover their tracks while doing so.

“From the sudden spread of WannaCry and Petya/NotPetya, to the swift growth in coinminers,

2017 provided us with another reminder that digital security threats can come from new and

unexpected sources,” it said.

Cyber criminals, it said, are rapidly adding “cryptojacking” to their arsenal as the ransomware

market becomes overpriced and overcrowded.

Real threat

“Cryptojacking is a rising threat to cyber and personal security,” Tarun Kaura, Director,

Enterprise Security Product Management, Asia Pacific and Japan, at Symantec said, adding that,

“The massive profit incentive puts people, devices and organisations at risk of unauthorised

coinminers siphoning resources from their systems, further motivating criminals to infiltrate

everything from home PCs to giant data centers.”

"This coin mining gold rush resulted in an 8,500% increase in detections of coinminers on

endpoint computers during the final quarter of 2017.”

While the immediate impact of coin mining is typically performance related — slowing down

devices, overheating batteries and in some cases, rendering devices unusable— there are

broader implications, particularly for organisations.

“Corporate networks are at risk of shutdown from coinminers aggressively propagated across

their environment. There may also be financial implications for organisations who get billed for

cloud CPU usage by coinminers,” Symantec said.


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7. India and World

7.1 India, Japan, US Stress keeping sea lanes open

Senior diplomats of India, Japan and the U.S. held the 9th trilateral meeting here on Wednesday,

focussing on connectivity, counter-terrorism and other regional and global issues of common

concern, a joint press release issued after the meeting, said.

“The officials reviewed the outcomes of the Trilateral Infrastructure Working Group that met in

Washington in February and agreed to continue to collaborate to promote increased

connectivity in the Indo-Pacific,” the press release said.

It said the talks drew from the guidelines laid out by the Foreign Ministers of the three nations

who met in New York on September 18, 2017, on the sidelines of the United Nations General

Assembly session.

Enhanced cooperation

The meeting is crucial as it comes against the backdrop of the ongoing trade war between China

and the Trump administration that erupted after both sides imposed tariffs on each other’s

goods.

Echoing India’s concern about maintaining freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and the

western Pacific Ocean, the trilateral emphasised on importance of keeping the sea lanes open.

The U.S. was represented in Wednesday’s talks by Alice Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant

Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, and Susan Thornton, Acting Assistant

Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

“All sides agreed to remain engaged and strengthen cooperation in support for a free, open,

prosperous, peaceful and inclusive Indo-Pacific region through partnership with countries in the

region,” the release said.


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