CURRENT AFFAIRS
16 JULY 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) I am not joining BJP, says Sachin Pilot.
Speaking exclusively, former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot categorically denied that he was going to join the BJP. The news that I am joining the BJP is absolutely false. He said that no, I am not joining the BJP. Pilot also confirmed that he had been in touch with party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra but those talks have not led to any resolution. He clarified that his grievances were not against the party but specifically against Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. He remains a Congress MLA from Tonk. In a related development, Rajasthan Speaker has issued notice to Pilot and other MLAs to initiate disqualification proceedings against them. The All India Congress Committee (AICC), however, has been sending mixed signals: it stated that the doors remained open for Pilot, but at the same time also dissolved all District Congress Committees that had his appointees. Gehlot, meanwhile, announced that the Congress had proof of the BJP’s attempts to poach its MLAs in Rajasthan ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, and that was why similar precautions (that is, MLAs being bundled off to a resort) were being taken. The Rajasthan CM also had scathing words for his former deputy. He said that speaking good English, giving good bytes, and being handsome was not everything in politics, What is inside your heart for the country, your ideology, policies, and commitment… Everything is considered.
B) Reliance’s 5G move; Google to invest ₹33,737 crore in Jio.
Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani has announced that his group’s digital arm Jio is developing a home-grown 5G telecom solution. Reliance Jio has designed and developed a 5G solution from scratch. It will be available for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available, and could be ready for field deployment next year. The larger context here is that China, and specifically the telecom giant Huawei, had very much been in the lead in establishing 5G networks across the world. The Chinese firm was also expected to be part of India’s 5G rollout plans, as it had earlier been permitted to participate in trials for the new technology. Meanwhile, Google has said it is investing ₹33,737 crore in Jio Platforms for a 7.7% stake, adding to a slew of investments since April that has crossed ₹1.52 lakh crore. Google joins Facebook, which opened the investment cycle in various Platforms of Jio by picking up a 9.99% stake for ₹43,573.62 crore, as well as chipmaker Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc.
C) Election Commissioner Lavasa appointed as ADB vice-president.
On 15 July, the multilateral agency announced that Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has been appointed as vice-president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Appointed as Election Commissioner in January 2018, Lavasa was set to succeed Sunil Arora as the next Chief Election Commissioner in April next year. He still has two years of his tenure left. If he takes up the ADB job, this will be only the second instance of an Election Commissioner’s premature exit in the poll body’s history. During the 2010 Lok Sabha campaign, Lavasa had prepared a dissenting note on the decisions taken by the poll panel on complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The EC panel had given a clean chit to Modi on all complaints of Model Code of Conduct violations. Subsequently, Lavasa began to skip panel meetings by alleging that minority decisions were being suppressed in a manner contrary to well-established conventions observed by multi-member statutory bodies. Later the Income Tax department sent a notice to his wife Novel S Lavasa over alleged discrepancies in returns filings. The Enforcement Directorate also started investigating Lavasa’s son, Abir Lavasa, for allegedly violating foreign exchange laws.
D) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments
The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 9,66,048 with the death toll at 24,960. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, headed by Congress leader Anand Sharma, said at a meeting on 15 July that the government should set up a national database of migrant workers so that they do not fall out of the social security cover. Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal, along with others from his Ministry were also present at the meeting. The officials informed the panel that if a nationwide lockdown had not been imposed, the number of cases could have gone up to 50 lakh and we would have seen nearly 1.5 lakh deaths.
E) Supreme Court to hear appeals from Martha Quota.
On a day-to-day basis, from July 27,the Supreme Court of India will start hearing of a batch of appeals challenging a decision of the Bombay High Court upholding a State law providing reservation to Maratha community in education and government jobs in Maharashtra. On 15 July, a three-judge Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao decided to hear the appeals via virtual court system. However, the court declined to pass any interim orders. Several appeals have been filed against the HC decision allowing 12-13% quota to the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act. They have argued that the decision is erroneous as the State law has breached the 50% cap on reservation fixed by a Constitution Bench in the Indira Sawhney judgment.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) India and European Union push trade talks.
India and the European Union (European Union) committed to a framework for strategic cooperation until 2025, and vowed to cooperate on their response to the coronavirus pandemic and at the United Nations Security Council. The assurances came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen via videoconference on 15 July. In a new initiative to revive talks on a free trade agreement that have been suspended since 2013, the two sides announced a “high-level dialogue” between Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan to try and take the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) forward. PM Modi said that their partnership is important for global peace and stability, and this reality is clearer given the situation around the world. He also referred to shared “universal values” of democracy, pluralism, respect for international institutions and multilateralism between India and the EU. In particular, officials said the leaders discussed India’s tensions with China at the Line of Actual Control, the situation with Iran and concerns over cross-border terrorism from Pakistan. The EU leadership also raised concerns over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the Citizenship Amendment Act.
B) Government reviews the progress of disengagement talks at LAC.
The fourth round of Corps Commander-level talks between India and China held on 14 July in Eastern Ladakh went on for 15 hours as both sides worked to finalise the the next phase of disengagement. Details of the talks are awaited. The focus of the talks was to work out the modalities of the second phase of disengagement from the standoff areas, and also the pullback of the massive deployment of troops of China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In a separate development, the Defence Ministry on 15 July once again gave emergency powers to the armed forces to procure weapons systems costing upto ₹300 crores on an urgent basis.
