1. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar visit to Germany and France
Tags: International News
Foreign Minister S. Jaishanker was on a week-long trip to Germany and France from 18 to 23 February 2022.
Visit to Germany
He visited Germany to participate in the 58th Munich Security Conference 2022.
The Munich Security conference was held in Munich city of Germany from 18-20 February 2022.
“Turning the Tide. Unlearning Helplessness” is the conference motto.
Visit to France
Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was on a visit to France from 20-23 February 2022.
He held bilateral talks with the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs., Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian.
India and France foreign ministers adopted the “ India-France Roadmap on the Blue Economy and Ocean Governance” declaration which aims to enhance partnership in the field of blue economy, by way of institutional, economic ,infrastructural and scientific cooperation .
Munich Security Conference
The Munich Security Conference has been held in the German city of Munich since 1963. It is held in the month of February and discusses matters of International security and world politics.
2. Jammu & Kashmir the first Union Territory in the country to have District Good Governance Index
Tags: State News
The Union Minister of Home and Cooperation Shri Amit Shah virtually released India’s First “District Good Governance Index” for 20 Districts of UT of Jammu and Kashmir, prepared by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) in collaboration with the Government of Jammu & Kashmir, in the presence of the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir Shri Manoj Sinha at Convention Centre Jammu.
- This is in pursuance of the announcements made in the “Behtar e-Hukumat – Kashmir Aelamia” resolution adopted on July 2, 2021, in the Regional Conference on Replication of Good Governance Practices held at Srinagar.
- The National Good Governance Index 2021 indicated that Jammu and Kashmir had registered an increase of 3.7 percent in Good Governance Indicators over the 2019 to 2021 period with noticeable improvements in Commerce and Industry, Agriculture, and Allied Sectors, Public Infrastructure & Utilities, Judiciary, and Public Safety Sectors.
- The District Good Governance Index has helped identify the impact of various governance interventions at the district level and provide a futuristic roadmap for improving district-level governance with targeted interventions.
The Sectors covered are-
- Agriculture and Allied Sector – Universal coverage has been achieved in the Kisan Credit Card scheme, Soil Health Card Scheme, and Animal Vaccination.
- Commerce and Industry Sector – There is a 109 percent increase in credit to handicrafts in the 2019-2021 period.
- Human Resources Development Sector – In almost 10 districts 100 percent of skill training have been imparted to registered students.
- Public Health Sector – Full Immunization represents a significant success story,
- Public Infrastructure and Utilities Sector – Ganderbal and Srinagar achieved 100 percent access to safe drinking water, 18 districts achieved 100 percent access to sanitation facilities.
- Social Welfare and Development Sector – 80 percent Aadhar seeding of ration cards represents a major milestone.
- Financial Inclusion Sector – Financial inclusion under Jan Dhan Yojana has achieved universal coverage.
- Judicial and Public Safety Sector- Disposal of court cases has gone up significantly.
- Citizen-Centric Governance Sector – Almost 100 percent progress in grievance redressal.
Highlights-
- The Jammu district has topped the composite ranking, followed by Doda and Samba districts of the Jammu Division.
- Srinagar district has come at the fifth position
- There is very marginal difference among the 20 districts in their composite score, showing all-round development in the UT
- Jammu district ranked best on the ‘Commerce and Industry sector, while Srinagar district ranked best on the ‘Public Infrastructure and Utilities’ sector.
- Kishtwar topped in ‘Agriculture and Allied Sector’, Pulwama topped in ‘Human Resource Development', Reasi topped in ‘Public Health’, Ramban topped in ‘Social Welfare and Development’, and Ganderbal topped in the ‘Financial Inclusion’ sector.
3. PEACE ELUDES YEMEN
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An Arab country marked by war, large-scale destruction and perennial hunger, Yemen is once again in the spotlight following an attack on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by the Houthi group which led to a retaliatory attack on its bases in Yemen by the coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia. The seven year old civil war in the country has turned into a proxy war between the Iranian backed Shia Houthi rebels who overthrew the Yemeni government and the Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi led government backed by an international alliance led by Sunni Saudi Arabia.The involvement of other combatants, including an al-Qaeda affiliate and the self-declared Islamic State, as well as the emergence of rival factions within groups, has complicated the picture in a strategically important country which sits on a strait linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden , through which much of the world’s oil shipments pass.
- The conflict has killed some 233,000 people, including 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure and displaced more than one million people and given rise to cholera outbreaks, medicine shortages, and threats of famine. The United Nations calls the humanitarian crisis in Yemen “the worst in the world”.
How did the War started in Yemen
Yemen is one of the poorest Arab countries in the world which has been torn apart by a bloody civil war since 2014. Yemen's war began in September 2014, when the Houthis seized Yemeni capital Sanaa and began a march south to try to seize the entire country. Beginning in March 2015, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia launched a campaign of economic isolation and air strikes against the Houthi insurgents, with U.S. logistical and intelligence support. They wanted to stop and defeat the Houthi insurgency which they accused of being supported by Iran.
Why is Yemen at war
Situated along the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen had been split in the Cold War between a Soviet backed Marxist People Democratic Republic of Yemen or South Yemen and North Yemen or Yemen Arab Republic backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The two nations became a unified Yemen in 1990 after the demise of the Soviet Union and Ali Abdullah Saleh, a military officer who had ruled North Yemen since 1978, assumed leadership of the new country. However the Southern Yemeni felt that they were not given an adequate share of power by the Saleh’s North Yemen elite. The attempt to secede from Yemen in 1994 was brutally crushed by the Saleh government. However after the overthrow of the Saleh government the southern movement has again been revived.
Power struggle in Yemen
Abdullah Saleh ran an autocratic and brutal regime in Yemen. The Saleh regime was caught in the popular Arab Spring protest which swept through Arab countries in early 2010. It started from Tunisia and overthrew Arab dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen .
Popular protests broke out against the Saleh regime in Yemen in 2011. Under domestic and international pressure Saleh resigned. Under a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council and United States saleh agreed to hand over power to his deputy, Vice -President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
However Saleh never gave up his ambition to be the ruler of Yemen again. The security forces of Yemen were divided and a section of the security forces were still loyal to Saleh and against the Hadi government.
Hadi's government struggled and Saleh, seeing a second chance to regain power, had his forces side with the same Houthis he had battled as president as they swept into the capital in 2014. Saleh ultimately switched sides again to back Hadi but his luck had run out — the Houthis killed him in 2017.
Immediate cause for crisis and weakening of the Hadi Government
Yemen is one of the poorest Arab countries and it is facing an economic crisis. To tide over the economic crisis, the Hadi government approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan . The IMF put tough conditions for loans including raising fuel prices and cutting subsidies. The Hadi government cut fuel subsidies and increased the gas prices. This led to a widespread protest in the country. It weakened the Hadi government and provided an opportunity to the Houthis to expand their base outside their traditional areas of Saada Province. It led an organized mass protest against the fuel hike, demanding a roll back of price hike and change in the government. The Houthi captured the capital Saana in 2015 and Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia.
Who are the Houthis
The Houthis are a large clan originating from Yemen’s northwestern Saada province. They practice the Zaydi form of Shiism. Zaydis make up around 35 percent of Yemen’s population. A Zaydi imamate ruled Yemen for 1,000 years, before being overthrown in 1962. Since then, the Zaydis – stripped of their political power – have struggled to restore their authority and influence in Yemen. In the 1980s, the Houthi clan began a movement to revive Zaydi traditions.
The Houthis’ ideology is centered around the teachings of their founder, the late Husayn al-Houthi, who advocated the domination of the country by the sayyids. They constitute a minority group, whose core members claim to be descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (aka sayyids).
Their rise should be seen in light of the systematic social and religious discrimination of the sayyids (i.e., Muhammad’s descendants) since 1970 by the government in Sanaa as well as the appalling governance and corruption of the regime of the late dictator Ali Abdullah Salih, the country’s president from 1978 until 2011. On the one hand, the Houthis seek to make the sayyids the dominant political group and a member of their own family the supreme ruler, thus guaranteeing that they will never be marginalized and persecuted again.
Since 2011, the Houthi movement has expanded beyond its Zaydi roots and become a wider movement opposed to President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. The insurgents have also begun referring to themselves as Ansarullah, or “Party of God.”
Role of Iran and Saudi Arabia
Houthis are Shia muslims and Iranians considers themselves a natural leader of Shias in the world as it has the largest Shia muslim population in the world. Iranian officials have supported the Houthis’ cause “Iran supports the rightful struggles of Ansarullah in Yemen and considers this movement as part of the successful Islamic Awakening movements,” Ali Akbar Velyati, senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in October 2014.
Iran has been accused by the United States, Saudi Arabia of providing arms and ammunition to the Houthi rebels. Iran has denied this but there is considerable evidence that points to heavy Iranian involvement in the Yemen Conflict.
Saudi Arabia believes that Houthi’s are a proxy of Iran and they feared that through Houthis, Iran would come close to its southern border.
Saudi Arabia decided in March 2015 to enter the Yemeni civil war by leading a military coalition against the Houthis with the aim of reinstating the internationally recognized Yemeni government. Saudi troops have been deployed along the borders and in some Yemeni provinces but it has relied mostly on airstrikes against Houthi-held areas. Saudi Arabia has also provided a base in exile for Hadi and logistical support for the ground fighting in northern Yemen.
Despite overwhelming military superiority, the Saudis along with their Yemeni allies have been unable to defeat the Houthis, who now control much of north Yemen and rule over two thirds of the population.
Role of Other Powers
UAE
The United Arab Emirates deployed some ground troops and suffered casualties in the war before largely ending its military presence on the ground in 2019. It holds sway via tens of thousands of Yemenis, mostly from the southern provinces, that it armed and trained.
Western Countries
The United States, Britain, France and other Western countries actively backed the alliance with weapons, logistics and intelligence throughout the war until late 2020. U.S. President Joe Biden halted U.S. support to the war and made ending it a priority of his foreign policy amid an uproar over civilian casualties by the coalition's bombings.
Other countries in the coalition have been less closely involved, though Sudan has put some troops on the ground.
Houthis are not the only group which are active in Yemen. There are Southern sepratist movement supported by UAE, Al-AQaeda and its sympathizers who are trying to exploit the civil war in Yemen.
Seperatist in South Yemen
After gaining Independence from Britain in 1967, South Yemen became a communist country. It was reunified with North Yemen in 1990 after the collapse of the communist government in South Yemen.
However the Southern Yemeni felt that they were not given an adequate share of power by the Saleh’s North Yemen elite. The attempt to secede from Yemen in 1994 was brutally crushed by the Saleh government. However after the overthrow of the Saleh government the southern movement has again been revived.
The sepratist has set up a Southern Sepratist Council Led by Abu Dhabi-based general Aidaroos al-Zubaidi,The separatists captured the southern ports of Mukalla from al Qaeda and Aden from the Houthis in 2015. They have more than 50,000 fighters, armed and trained by the UAE. The sepratist are fighting against the Houthis and are allied with the Hadi government but it wants independence.
AL QAEDA IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA
Militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the local affiliate of the rival Islamic State group (IS) have also taken advantage of the instability, carrying out deadly attacks and occasionally seizing territory from the government in the south.
The Islamic State marked its 2015 entrance into Yemen with suicide attacks on two Zaydi mosques in Sanaa, which killed close to 140 worshippers. Though the group has claimed other high-profile attacks, including the assassination of Aden’s governor in late 2015, its following lags behind that of AQAP. The United Nations estimates that the Islamic State has hundreds of fighters in Yemen, while AQAP has around seven thousand.
Peace Efforts in Yemen
Effort has been made to find a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Yemen. The United Nations passed a resolution no 2216. UN Security Council Resolution 2216 officially recognizes Hadi as the country's president. It also calls for the Houthis to return Sanaa, which they captured in 2014, and demands the Houthis stop using Yemen as a base to attack neighboring countries.
The Houthis who have always been excluded from power in the Yemeni power structure have never accepted the UN demand. They believe that if they give up their military gains they will again be sidelined in Yemen. To increase their bargaining power, Houthis have stepped up their attack on the last government stronghold of the Marib in the north and the capital of the oil rich province. The Houthis' already control the capital Sana'a and the Northern part of the country. If Marib falls then they will also control the oil resources of Yemen.
The Hadi government is very weak and is not in a position to militarily defeat the Houthi without extensive support from Saudi Arabia.
Yemen is unfortunately caught in a regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. They are supporting the factions in Yemen. Unless and until there is an understanding between the two countries a peace remains elusive to the country. The Joe Biden administration in the United States has indicated its willingness to bring peace in the region. The Biden adminstration has reversed the Trump administration decision to designate Houthi as a terrorist organisation. The US policy towards Iran and an understanding between Saudi Arabia and Iran will hold key to the peace in Yemen.
4. E-Governance award for Nagaland’s Mon district
Tags: National News
Nagaland’s Mon District Administration has been conferred with the prestigious National Award for e-governance 2020-21 (Silver) at the recently concluded 24th National Conference on e-Governance at Hyderabad on 7th - 8th January 2022.
The theme for this year’s conference is “India’s Techade: Digital Governance in a Post Pandemic World”
- The award was presented by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) by Union Minister of State (MoS) Dr. Jitendra Singh.
- The district’s project titled “Technology in Aid to Administration” won silver in the category of “Use of information and communication technology in the management of COVID19”
- The project was initiated to mitigate the hardships caused to the public while enforcing COVID-19 Appropriate Behaviour (CAB), and thereby curb the escalating spread of COVID-19 infections.
- The project has been reducing the hardship of people, increasing the effectiveness of administration, and keeping people safe from Covid.
5. National Conference on E-Governance 2022
Tags: National News
The 24th National Conference on E- Governance 2022 was held at Hyderabad on 7 and 8 January 2022.
It was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh.
- The conference has been organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, in association with the State Government of Telangana
- The theme of this Conference is ‘India’s Techade: Digital Governance in a Post Pandemic World’.
6. Good Governance Index
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What is Good Governance
- Governance is defined as the use of power and authority by those in government to provide goods and services to the people to uphold the common good and fulfill the aspirations and needs of the common man. People expect their government to proceed with its tasks in a way that maximum results follow with minimum cost or investment.
- Governance becomes good when the decisions and actions of the government are based on peoples’ consent, legitimacy, and accountability. It is a concept that is inclusive and positive in nature.
What are the features of Good Governance
As per World Bank reports of 1989 and 1992, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Commission on Global Governance (1995), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 1997, the attributes of good governance refers to
- people’s participation in governance,
- accountability of the decision-makers,
- women’s participation in decision making,
- meeting the needs of disadvantaged groups,
- guarantee of human rights,
- keeping the needs of the future generation in mind while decision making and whether the people own their structures of governance or not.
What is Good Governance Index
- To emphasize the government’s commitment towards good governance ,the Government of India declared 25 December as the Good Governance Day. It is the birth date of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was started in 2014 .
- To encourage and assess the performance of the State government in Good governance and to promote citizen centric development in the country, the Government of India launched the Good governance Index.
- The objective of GGI is to create a tool that can be used uniformly across the States to assess the impact of various schemes and programs of the Central and State Governments including UTs on the people.
- Another significant contribution of the GGI would be contributing in tracking the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the state level. The identified sectors and indicators are directly linked to some of the critical SDG indicators from an overall governance point of view.
- It is released on Good Governance Day (25th December)
Who publishes the Good Governance Index
- The Index is published by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) under the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
- The framework for assessing the quality of governance is prepared by the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad in collaboration with AC Nielsen
When was it first published
It was first published in 2019 and and it is released after every two years. The latest edition is released on 25th December 2021.
What is included in the Good Governance Index
The GGI 2020-21 encompassed 10 Governance Sectors and 58 Governance Indicators
- Agriculture and Allied Sector
- Commerce & Industries
- Human Resource Development
- Public Health
- Public Infrastructure & Utilities
- Economic Governance
- Social Welfare & Development
- Judicial & Public Security
- Environment,
- Citizen-Centric Governance.
Change as compared to the 2019 Index
The 2019 index included 10 governance sectors and 50 governance indicators . In the 2021 index the governance sectors are 10 but the governance indicators have been increased to 58.
Highlights of the 2021 Index
The GGI 2020-21 categorizes States and UTs into four categories
- Group A - It includes Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh
- Group B - It includes Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and West Bengal
- North-East and Hill States - It includes Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh
- Union Territories - It includes Delhi, Puducherry, Daman & Diu, Chandigarh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra &Nagar Haveli, and Lakshadweep
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa top the composite rank score covering 10 sectors.
Ranking of the States group wise
- Group A:
- Gujarat has topped the composite ranking (12.3% increase over the GGI 2019 indicators), followed by Maharashtra and Goa.
- Group B:
- Madhya Pradesh tops the list followed by Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
- North-East and Hill States:
- Himachal Pradesh topped the list followed by Mizoram and Uttarakhand.
- Union Territories:
- Delhi topped the list.
UP has secured top position in Commerce & Industry sector
The GGI 2021 says that 20 States have improved their composite GGI scores over the GGI 2019 index scores. This indicates that overall governance in the states of India is moving in a positive direction.
Written by Shankha Shubhra Dutta
7. Kerala Tops NITI Health Index
Tags: National News
- National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has released the fourth edition of the State Health Index for 2019–20.
Theme of the report
- The report, titled “Healthy States, Progressive India”, ranks states and Union Territories on their year-on-year incremental performance in health outcomes as well as their overall status.
Who brings out the report
- The report has been developed by NITI Aayog, with technical assistance from the World Bank, and in close consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
The Health Index is a weighted composite index based on 24 indicators in three domains:
- Health Outcomes
- Governance and Information
- Key inputs and process
Highlights of the Report
NITI Aayog has divided the states into Larger States’, Smaller States’ and Union
Territories’.
Ranking of states
- Largest State
- Amongst the Largest States Kerala is the best performer states followed by Tamilnadu, Telangana ,Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
- The Bottom ranked state was Uttar Pradesh followed by Uttarakhand ,Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
- Smaller States
- Amongst Smaller states,Mizoram topped the rank while Nagaland came at the bottom
- Union Territories .
- Amongst Union Territories , Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu topped the rank while Puduchhery was ranked at the bottom.
The first Health Report 2017 was released by the NITI Aayog in 2018
8. Record Capital raised by Indian Company through Overseas Bonds in 2021
Tags: Economics/Business
- Indian companies has raised a record $22 billion in 2021 through overseas bonds
- Earlier in 2019 the Indian companies raised $19 billion through overseas bonds.
- The issuance of ESG compliant bonds by the Indian companies was $8.29 billion in 2021 as compared to $ 1.37 billion in 2020.
Overseas bonds
- It is a debt creating receipt issued by a company in foreign market to raise capital for its business.
- It is generally issued in the currency of the country.
- It has a fixed time period(maturity period) and the company which has issued the bonds pays interest on it to the person who has bought the bonds till the maturity period of the bond
- At the end of the maturity period the company returns the principal amount to the person who has bought the bond.
ESG
- It stands for Environment, Society and Governance.
- The ESG criteria is used by environmentally and socially conscious investors to judge a company business and its impact on environment and other ethical issues .
- Companies which score high on these criteria will be able to attract more funding at an easier interest rate .
9. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
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Relevance: Recently India has extended its support for the United Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) with freedom of navigation. Time and again India has raised its voice for the same on the many international forums.
Background:
- The law of the sea developed from the struggle between coastal states, who sought to expand their control over marine areas adjacent to their coastlines. By the end of the 18th century, it was understood that states had sovereignty over their territorial sea.
- The maximum breadth of the territorial sea was generally considered to be three miles - the distance that a shore-based cannon could reach and that a coastal state could therefore control.
- After the Second World War, the international community requested that the United Nations International law Commission consider codifying the existing laws relating to the oceans. The commission began working towards this in 1949 and prepared four draft conventions, which were adopted at the first UN Conference on the Law of the Sea:
- Hence, The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty which was adopted and signed in 1982. It replaced the four Geneva Conventions of April, 1958.
- Also known as Law of the Sea, it divides marine areas into five main zones namely- Internal Waters, Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the High Seas.
- Internal Water: Internal waters are all the waters that fall landward of the baseline, such as lakes, rivers, and tidewaters. States have the same sovereign jurisdiction over internal waters as they do over other territories.
- Territorial sea: It can be defined as the area which extends up to 12 nautical miles(nm) from the baseline of a country's coastal state. The territorial sea is under the jurisdiction of that particular country; however, foreign ships (both merchant and military) are allowed passage through it.
- Contiguous Zone: The contiguous zone extends seaward up to 24 nm from its baselines. It is an intermediary zone between the territorial sea and the high seas. The coastal state has the right to both prevent and punish infringement of fiscal, immigration, sanitary, and customs laws within its territory and territorial sea.
- Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has special sovereign rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind. It stretches from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from the coast of the sovereign state.
- High Seas: It can be defined as the part of the sea that is not included in the exclusive economic zone, in the territorial sea, or in the internal waters of a coastal state or archipelagic waters of an archipelagic state.
Important Features
- Nations are provided with full money rights by UNCLOS for a 200-mile zone along the shoreline.
- The sea and oceanic bed extending to this area are regarded to be the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of a country and that country can use these waters for their economic utilization.
- Another important organization that plays a vital role in UNCLOS operations is the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
- Other important parties involved in Nautical Law and its functioning are the International Seabed Authority and the International Whaling Commission.
- The Convention has created three new institutions on the international scene :
- the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
- the International Seabed Authority
- the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
- India is a state party to the UNCLOS.
Issues Involved
- The United States of America has not ratified the UNCLOS because according to it the convention violated U.S. sovereignty and gave too much power to Communist countries like the Soviet Union and even after the end of the cold war it has refused to sign it
- The United States also feels that it might have to surrender its sovereignty to the International Seabed Authority (ISA),which has oversight over deep seabed mining.
- At present 133 States have signed and ratified UNCLOS; Canada, Israel, Turkey, USA, and Venezuela are the most prominent among those that have not ratified.
- Many nations have irresponsibly exploited the natural resources in the sea and violated the principle of “good order at sea”.
- Few dominant countries have given new and inappropriate interpretations of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) due to “hegemonic tendencies”, and that this was creating obstacles to a stable maritime order based on rules.
- Challenges such as piracy, terrorism, illegal smuggling of arms and narcotics, human trafficking, illegal fishing, and damage to the environment are equally responsible for affecting the maritime domain.
- Recently China's new maritime law has spiked tension on the south china sea region which will also impact India's maritime security. China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea and East China Sea, by its fishing militia have been a source of international concern.
- India’s 55 % of trade passes through the Strait of Malacca which opens into the South China Sea. If China controls the region, it will upset the global trade practices and countries like India will directly get affected.
- The freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) conducted by a US warship, the USS John Paul Jones, in India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a reminder that India needs to define its maritime territory.
https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/navigation-with-permission/article34320149.ece
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/rajnath-singh-ins-visakhapatnam-china-unclos-7633884/
-Written by Rashmi
10. Gujarat tops the Good Governance Index 2021
Tags: National News
- Gujarat has topped the Good Governance Index 2021 followed by Maharstra and Goa.
- The Good Governance Index 2021 was released by the Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Mr. Amit Shah on 25 December on the occasion of Good Governance Day.
- The Index is prepared by the Department of Administrative Reform and Public Grievances (DARPG) under the Union ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
- The first Good Governance Index was released in 2019.
- The index is released after every two years.
- Good Governance Index, GGI 2021 Framework covers ten sectors and 58 indicators. The sectors of GGI 2020-21 are 1) Agriculture and Allied Sectors, 2) Commerce & Industries, 3) Human Resource Development, 4) Public Health, 5.) Public Infrastructure & Utilities, 6) Economic Governance, 7) Social Welfare & Development, 8) Judicial & Public Security, 9) Environment, and 10) Citizen-Centric Governance.
- The GGI 2020-21 categorises States and UTs into four categories, i.e., (i) Other States – Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North-East and Hill States; and (iv) Union Territories.
