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*China is planning to divert the waters of the Yarlung Tsangpo (the upper stream of

India’s Brahmaputra) to its water-starved Xinjiang province

*1000 km-long tunnel

*Indian and Bangladeshi water experts have, understandably, raised alarm bells over

the plan for the adverse impacts it would have on downstream areas.

*For India, national security implications also follow as the Yarlung Tsangpo also flows

into a disputed border region with China.

*Sino-Indian history is replete with examples wherein despite tense bilateral

relations, cooperation over transboundary rivers has occurred.

*Despite border incursion by the Chinese army in the Depsang Valley in Ladakh in 2013, China and

India went ahead to sign the extension of the 2002 Memorandum of Understanding on data sharing

on the Brahmaputra river.

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*There are four critical points that emerge from the history of interactions over water between China and India.

1. Brahmaputra agreement between China and India is a suboptimal arrangement within broader bilateral relations.

2. Discussions over the YTB have often been overshadowed by the border dispute.

3. China’s approach to transboundary water sharing is shifting towards multilateralarrangements.

* In 2015, China signed the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) framework along with five other countries through which the Mekong flows.

4. Indian approach to the YTB issue is influenced by developmental imperatives and domestic politics.

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*First, it needs to clearly envision the desired end goal and strategic outcomes for

dealing with impending water conflicts.

*Second, it needs to de-emphasise China’s role for the time being and restrengthen its

relationship with Bangladesh. It needs to push the impending Teesta river agreement

and restore its image as a responsible upper riparian.

*Third, India needs to mirror its strength and firmness in negotiations with China on

water rights, as it did in the case of the Doklam stand-off and in opposing the Belt

and Road Initiative, rather than projecting itself as a victim.

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*From just a few cents in 2010 to hit a lifetime high of over $11,000 last week.

*In 2017 alone, bitcoin price has increased by over 1000%.

*all it took for the currency to reach $11,000 after breaching the $10,000 mark was a single day.

*True to its nature, bitcoin witnessed a sharp drop of 20% before recovering some of its losses to

close the day almost flat.

*The most notable among the critics has been J.P.Morgan chief executive officer

Jamie Dimon who called bitcoin a “fraud” that will make its investors poor.

*Yet the fundamental value of any currency is based not on its underlying technology

but on its general acceptability as money for the purpose of commerce.

*Morgan Stanley research note concluded that bitcoin’s acceptance “is virtually zero”.

*Typical of bubbles that are driven by emotion rather than value.

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* A special Central Bureau of Investigation

(CBI) Court, hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh

and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter

cases, issued a gag order prohibiting the

press from reporting on the court

proceedings.

* A few days after the Allahabad High Court

gagged the media from reporting on an

ongoing case concerning an alleged instance

of hate speech by the Chief Minister of

Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, in 2007

* As the great British judge, Lord Diplock,

noted, “if the way that courts behave

cannot be hidden from the public ear and

eye, this provides a safeguard against

judicial arbitrariness or idiosyncrasy and

maintains the public confidence in the

administration of justice.”

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A growing trend

*The Indian judiciary has had a historically ambivalent relationship with free speech, from upholding the constitutionality of sedition in 1962, to endorsing the law of criminal defamation in 2016.

*Jolly LLB 2, National Anthem, Advertising Standards Council of India

*The task of courts under the Constitution is to deliver justice, and a functional democracy is defined by a justice system that is open, transparent, and, above all, public.

*The authority of judges and courts stems from their fidelity to the laws and the Constitution, and the strength and quality of their legal reasoning.

*“secret justice”

*In 2012, the Supreme Court held that in certain circumstances, courts could pass “postponement orders” barring coverage of specific judicial proceedings.

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*The right to free speech, and the right to a fair trial

*Judges, by definition, are not only supposed to apply the law but also have to have

the relevant training and temperament to apply the law regardless of whatever

public outcry that might exist outside the courtroom.

*The argument for fair trial, therefore, betrays a startling lack of faith in the judiciary’s own ability

to decide controversial cases objectively.

*2012 Supreme Court judgment failed to adequately limit the kinds of cases in which

these exceptional “postponement orders” could be passed.

*Media reports court proceedings inaccurately; judicial observations are published out

of context just to provide good headline copy, and sometimes, there is outright

misquotation.

*Shri Justice C.S. Karnan

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*Per capita food production in India has increased by 26% (2004-05 to 2013-14), while

it has doubled in the last 50 years.

*Global Hunger Index (GHI) prepared by the International Food Policy Research

Institute (IFPRI), shows India’s hunger level in very poor light.

* The 2017 GHI score has India ranked 100 out of the 119 countries listed.

*The GHI for 2017 is calculated as a weighted average of four standardised indicators,

i.e. i. the percentage of population that is undernourished;

ii. percentage of children under five years who suffer from wasting;

iii. percentage of children under five who suffer from stunting,

iv. child mortality.

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*Undernourishment and child mortality each make up a third of the GHI score, while

child stunting and child wasting make up a sixth of the score, and together make up

a third of the score.

*Three of the four indicators, refer only to children below five who constitute only

11.5% of India’s population.

*Further, the percentage of the undernourished population is inclusive of

undernutrition among children. This way, the GHI assigns 70.5% weightage to children

below five who constitute only a minor population share and 29.5% weightage to the

population above five, which constitutes 81.5% of the total population.

*“Global Hunger and Child Health Index”

*The figure of the incidence of hunger depends on energy norms and the

methodological approach used in its estimation.

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*At a global level, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

(FAO) has an average norm of 1,800 kcal, while the Indian Council of Medical

Research-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) specified average norm of

2,400 kcal for rural areas and 2,100 kcal for urban areas in India, varies across

age, gender and activity-level.

*To avoid confusion about the status of hunger and undernourishment, India

should regularly prepare and publish official estimates of hunger, like that of

poverty. It will also help in tackling hunger.

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*In 1992, the United Nations announced that December 3 would be observed every year as International Day of Persons withDisabilities.

*While disabled persons continue to struggle to secure employmentand navigate their way around with poor infrastruture, and are still treated as “others”, it is worth recalling the advances in legislation on disability over the years.

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*1970s: when disability was started to be seen as a human rights issue

*UN General Assembly proclaimed in 1976 that 1981 would be the International Year of Disabled

Persons.

*1983-1992 was marked as the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons.

*The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 2006 was a big step

towards viewing persons as “subjects with rights” and not “objects of charity”.

India is a signatory to the UNCRPD and ratified it in 2007

*2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledges to “leave no one behind”.

*“beneficiaries and agents of change”

*However, attitudinal, institutional, and infrastructural barriers remain.

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*In 2011, the World Health Organisation came up with a world report on disability for the first time. Its introduction showed how disabled persons aren’t “other people”, but that all of us at some point will be “temporarily or permanently impaired” and those “who survive to old age will experience increasing difficulties in functioning.”

*In India, according to the 2011 Census, 2.21% of the population has one or multiple types of disabilities, making the country home to one of the largest disabled populations in the world.

*World Bank data suggest that the numbers are nearly four-five times higher.

*Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act was passed, replacing the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.

*21 kinds of disabilities compared to the previous seven, including dwarfism, speech and language disability, and three blood disorders.

*reservation in higher educational institutions from 3% to 5% and in government jobs from 3% to 4%, for a more inclusive society

*84% of seats for persons with disabilities lie vacant in top universities

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*The National Crime Records Bureau data for 2016

*Two important aspects, violent crime and crime against women, should prompt State governments to make a serious study of the underlying causes.

*Not all States are equally affected

*Crimes against women is up by 2.9% over that of 2015.

*As several studies have shown over the years, the annual data is useful in reviewing trends of extreme events, such as murder, but less so in the case of other offences that tend to be underreported.

*Last year’s data indicate that there is a rise in the number of cases involving juveniles.

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Air quality drops to ‘very poor’

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First phase of Chabahar port opened

*India said the construction of the Chabahar port in Iran will contribute to regional

trade and provide Afghanistan with “alternate access” to global markets, after the

inauguration of the first phase of the Shahid Beheshti Port in the Sistan-Baluchestan

province by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday.

*The port, whose new extension will take its capacity from 2.5 million tonnes to 8

million tonnes of cargo a year, is seen as an important route for India and Afghanistan

to bypass obstacles posed by Pakistan for trade on the direct route.

*It is also seen as a feeder port to the International North-South Transport Corridor

(INSTC) to Russia as well as land route to Central Asia.

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Watch out for ransomware in 2018: report

*Cybersecurity giant says high net worth individuals

and inter-connected home devices are at risk

*Mr. Grobman said there was an ‘arms race’ between

attackers and defenders, and “human intelligence

amplified by technology will be the winning factor”.

*As consumers increasingly network their homes, the

report warns that connected home device

manufacturers and service providers will seek to

overcome “thin profit margins by gathering more of

our personal data — with or without our agreement —

turning the home into a corporate store front”.

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Union Budget likely on February 1

*Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to present first post-GST and the Modi

government’s last full Budget on February 1 next year.

*The Budget session may begin on January 30 with President Ram Nath Kovind

addressing the Joint Session of both the Houses of Parliament, a government official

said.

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U.S. pulls out of UN’s pact on migration

*The administration of President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from a pact to improve the handling of migrant and refugee situations, deeming it “inconsistent” with its policies, the U.S. mission to the global body announced on Saturday.

*“Today, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations informed the UN Secretary-General that the United States is ending its participation in the Global Compact on Migration,” the Americans said in a statement.

*In September 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a non-binding political declaration, the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, pledging to uphold the rights of refugees, help them resettle and ensure they have access to education.

*Ambassador Nikki Haley said the country would continue its “generosity” in supporting migrants and refugees around the world, but that “our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone”.

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Inflation may force RBI to hold rates

*The Monetary Policy Committee, which will meet this

week, is likely to keep repo rates unchanged at 6% on inflation concerns, said a study.

*The retail inflation or consumer price index based-inflation accelerated to a seven-month high of 3.58% in

October from 3.28% in September.

*Rating agency ICRA said although CPI inflation for October was lower than the 4.2-4.6% range for the second half of FY18 that the MPC had forecast, certain risks persisted.

*“With the CPI inflation likely to track a rising trend over the second half and print at around 4.5% in March 2018, we expect an extended pause amid non-unanimous voting by the MPC in the December policy review,” ICRA MD and CEO Naresh Takkar said.

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*The supermoon appears above the

Gautama Buddha statue in Hyderabad on

Sunday.

*The phenomenon is observed when the

moon comes closest to the Earth.

K.V.S. Giri

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Question

Debate: Can Asia Africa Growth Corridor counter Belt and Road

Initiative?

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PrashantTMavani