Humans Collective

 Topic: India-ASEAN FTA review Why in News? India and the 10-member ASEAN have agreed to initiate a review of the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in goods to make it “more user-friendly, simple and trade facilitative”. India is not happy about the fact that its trade deficit with ASEAN has widened significantly since the pact was implemented in January 2010. A NITI Aayog study reveals that India’s trade deficit with ASEAN doubled to $10 billion in 2017 from $5 billion in 2011. A review of the India-ASEAN FTA would make the pact simpler and more user-friendly. In the joint statement, the ministers of both sides welcomed the recommendations of the ASEAN-India Business Council to further promote the potential of bilateral trade through the utilisation of the ASEAN-India FTA as well as furthering cooperation in some areas of mutual interest, such as financial technology, connectivity, start-ups and innovation, empowerment of youth, and women and MSME develo...

The HINDU editorial notes September 21,2019 1) An Independent fiscal watchdog for Parliament The Rafale controversy highlighted the need of an independent and nonpartisan  facts collection body for the benefit of parliamentarians and electorate. Besides the amount of information that Parliamentarians have to scrutinize in budget document has exponentially increased in recent times. Thus there is a  need for an independent fiscal watch dog along the lines of  Parliamentary Budget Offices(PBO) of UK,Australia. PBOs need not always be seen as challenger to Government statistics and ministries ,it might as well  augment and verify the government's statistics.                     pic credits: livemint.com                How PBO differs from the existing Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) ? CAG provides retrospective analysis of financial acco...

THE HINDU EDITORIAL NOTES September 20,2019   1) Over the hills and far, far away In last week of July ,eleven Himalayan states of Indian met in Dehradun demanding a Green Bonus or a payment for environmental services they provide to the nation. The states asked for help to develop hydro power resources , subsidies to compensate for their environmental protection measures . Be it political social or economic ,Indian mainstream plains based culture has found it difficult to come to terms with specificity of Himalayan region. Many notable scholars have researched and written about this issue of how structurally different are the Himalayan regions from the Indian mainstream in terms of their social and economic structure.But hardly these research findings are translated into policy formula . This integration problem of Mountainside lifestyle with majoritarian plain inhabiting people is not unique to India.China , Myanmar , Thailand also experience the same problem. ...

THE HINDU EDITORIAL Analysis and Notes September 19,2019 1) Obama was right about Iran                 pic credits: express.co.uk This article compares Obama’s carrot and stick approach towards Iran with that of Trump’s unilateral maximum pressure approach When Trump pulled US unilaterally out of the Iran nuclear deal ,he felt that Iran would eventually cave into another deal under maximum pressure of sanctions But to Trump’s dismay, Iran retaliated for Trump's unpredictability with its own unpredictable behavior and retaliated for Trump's maximum pressure with maximum resistance. Post US withdrawal from nuclear deal and subsequent unilateral sanctions , Iran initially waited for other signatories of the deal (P5+EU +Germany) to react, but they remained mere spectators in front of US unilateral sanctions Iran then upped its ante through two pronged approach Firstly a step by step violation...

THE HINDU EDITORIAL NOTES September 18,2019 1) Red sea red lines and Yemen's inflection point Yemen is currently embroiled in a civil war between the Saudi supported Government forces and Iran backed Houthi rebels. Yemen although located at Southwest of oil rich Arab peninsula ,is a poor country ,due to lack of oil resources and decades long ethnic strife between northern Shia dominated groups and southern Sunni dominated groups. The year 1930 saw Yemen being coerced by powerful neighbor Saudi Arabia to cede some territories,this was first of many foreign intervention in Yemen's politics. In 1960s war to depose Imam and to establish Republic , Saudi Arabia rooted for monarchy and Egypt backed republican forces,finally a Yemeni republic was established.A fully united Yemen was founded on 1990,but secessionist elements of south tried to cede away . Since 2000 there has been insurrection movement against top leaders ,in 2011 the Yemeni Arab spring movement took pl...

THE HINDU EDITORIAL NOTES September 17,2019 1) The slow climb to the trillion economy peak                      pic credits: businessworld,in This article strongly expresses that growth without development will lead to disaster All the tall claims of 5 trillion economy if not adequately translated to human capital formation will not yield a long term growth If current trends continue,the five trillion economy even if achieved will mean that top 10% will take up the biggest chunk of the gdp leaving the 90% trailing at bottom The expenditure of government on education  stands at 4 % of gdp and 1% of gdp of health,these are abysmal figures and unbecoming of a high growth economy Similarly depreciation of environment to meet short term growth targets will ultimately render millions of poor Indians vulnerable to vagaries of climate change Before aiming for high ambitious targets ,the government has to start re...

THE HINDU EDITORIAL NOTES  September 16,2019 1) Why India's growth rates are off the brink World renowned Economic experts were too late in predicting the 2008 recession, Is Indian economy on a similar path to recession and has our economists failed to predict it sooner The Indian economy has been witnessing 5 consecutive quarters of  slow growth,the recently release quarter estimates puts the gdp growth rate @ 5%, Yet the economic survey and RBI estimates has put 7% gdp growth rate The international institutions although doubtful of India's data collection has no other way than to rely on official figures published by India government ,hence they projected 7% growth rate Even if the economy is growing at 5% growth rate, which is not a bad number,the real question is why is the economy not attracting investment and why has consumption become stagnant Realizing the gravity of slow down ,the finance ministry,RBI ,NITI Aayog ,PMEAC has now gone into a post budget re...