UPSC (IAS) Preparation - Only most important current affairs for UPSC / IAS /UKPSC

27 November 2014

Signing Of FTAs

The details of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) entered into India with countries and multi-country organisations are given below:

S. No.	Name of the Agreement and the participating countries	Date of Signing	Date of Implementation
1.	India - Bhutan Agreement on Trade, Commerce and Transit	17.01.1972 (revised on 28.07.2006) (Agreement is renewed, from time to time, by mutual consent to such changes and modifications as may be agreed upon between the two countries)	29.07.2006
2.	Revised Indo-Nepal Treaty of Trade	06.12.1991 (Revised on 27.10.2009) (The Treaty is amended/ modified by mutual consent of the contracting parties and the present Treaty is valid till 26.10.2016)	27.10.2009
3.	India - Sri Lanka FTA	28.12.1998	01.03.2000
4.	Agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives and Afghanistan)	04.01. 2004	01.01.2006 (Afghanistan became Eighth Member of SAARC from April, 2007 and the provisions of Trade Liberalization Programme are applicable to Afghanistan w.e.f. 07.08.2011).
5.	India - Thailand FTA - Early Harvest Scheme (EHS)	09.10.2003	01.09.2004
6.	India - Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)	29.06.2005	01.08.2005
7.	India - South Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)	07.08. 2009	01.01.2010
8.	India – ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam)	13.08.2009	1st January 2010 in respect of India and Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand. 1st June 2010 in respect of India and Vietnam. 1st September 2010 in respect of India and Myanmar. 1st October 2010 in respect of India and Indonesia. 1st November, 2010 in respect of India and Brunei. 24 January 2011 in respect of India and Laos. 1st June 2011 in respect of India and the Philippines. 1st August, 2011 in respect of India and Cambodia.
9.	India - Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement	16.02.2011	01.08.2011
10.	India - Malaysia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement	18.02.2011	01.07. 2011
11	India - ASEAN Services and Investment Agreement (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam)	9.9.2014	1.7.2015

In addition to the above-mentioned FTAs, India has signed Preferential Trade Agreement (limited tariff lines with Margin of Preference i.e. percentage of Tariff concession) with the following countries:

S. No.	Name of the Agreement and the participating countries	Date of Signing	Date of Implementation
1	Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) (Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka)	July, 1975 (revised Agreement signed on 02.11.2005)	01.11.1976
2	Global System of Trade Preferences (G S T P) (Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People`s Republic of Korea, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Romania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe)	13.4.1988	19.4.1989 (for 15 signatory countries)
3	India - Afghanistan PTA	06.03.2003	May, 2003
4	India - MERCOSUR PTA	25.01.2004	01.06.2009
5	India - Chile PTA	08.03. 2006	13.01.2009 (full implementation)

The Government is negotiating new FTAs, including expansion/review of some of the existing FTAs which is given below:

S. No.	Name of the Agreement
1	India - EU Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom)
2	India – Sri Lanka CEPA
3	India - Thailand CECA
4	India - Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA)
5	India EFTA BTIA (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland)
6	India - New Zealand FTA/CECA
7	India – Israel FTA
8	India - Singapore CECA (Second Review)
9	India – South African Custom Union (SACU) Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) (South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia)
10	India - MERCOSUR PTA (expansion) (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay)
11	India – Chile PTA (expansion)
12	BIMSTEC CECA (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal)
13	India - Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Framework Agreement (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and United Arab Emirates)
14	India – Canada CEPA
15	India - Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)
16	India – Australia FTA / CECA
17	Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement among ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) + 6 FTA Partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand)

(d) The free trade agreements (FTAs) complement the principles and agreements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). India considers these agreements as building blocks towards achieving the multilateral trade liberalisation objective.

Doubling India's Share in Global Trade

The long term vision of the government is to increase India’s exports of Merchandise and Services from present level of 464.1 billion USD (2013-14) to approximately 900 billion USD by 2018-19 (CAGR approximately 14%) and take India’s share of global exports to above 3%.

An aggressive product promotion strategy for high value items that have a strong manufacturing base is the main focus of the overall growth strategy. The core of the market strategy is to retain presence and market share in traditional markets, move up the value chain in providing export products in the developed countries’ markets; and open up new vistas, both in terms of markets and new products in these new markets. Strengthening efforts to build a brand image for important Indian exports, and promote a thrust for quality up-gradation.

The focus sectors have been identified as pharmaceuticals, electronics, automobiles, computer and software based smart engineering, environmental products etc. Labour intensive leather, gems & jewellery and textile sectors have high value addition, and have been areas -of- strength. Product diversification in these sectors with high value-addition has been accorded high priority.

Focus of the strategy is to penetrate into the markets in Asia (including ASEAN), Africa and Latin America to strengthen our presence in newly opened up markets. At the same time our aim would be to deepen engagement in the older markets.

As per the latest available data for April-Sept 2014-15 the 10 top export items are: Petroleum products; Pearls, Precious, Semiprecious Stones; Gold and other precious metal jewellary; Drug formulations, biologicals; Iron and Steel; RMG Cotton including accessories; Products of Iron and Steel; Motor vehicle/cars; Ship, boat and floating structure; Aircraft, Spacecraft and parts.

Top ten destinations of Indian exports during this period are: USA, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China, Singapore, UK, Brazil, Germany, Netherland.

Implementation of National Design Policy

The National Design Policy was approved by the Government on 8th February, 2007. The details of the Policy, inter alia, include:

• Promotion of Indian design through a well-defined and managed regulatory, promotional and institutional framework;

• Setting up of specialized Design Centres or “Innovation Hubs” for sectors such as automobile and transportation, jewellery, leather, soft goods, digital products, toys & games which will provide common facilities and enabling tools like rapid product development, high performance visualization, etc. along with enterprise incubation as well as financial support through mechanisms like venture funding, loans and market development assistance for start-up design-led ventures and young designers’ design firms/houses;

• Formulation of a scheme for setting up Design Cenres / Innovation Hubs in select locations/Industrial clusters/ backward states, particularly in the North East;

• Laying special focus on up-gradation of existing design institutes and faculty resources to international standards, particularly the National Institute of design (NID) and its new campuses/ centres with a view to spreading quality education in designs to all regions of India, four more National Institutes of Design on the pattern of NID will be set up in different regions of the country during the 11th Five Year Plan. The possibility of new models for setting up of such institutes, in keeping with the current economic and educational paradigms, will be explored. In this context, the public-private partnership mode could also be an option;

• Initiation of action to seek “Deemed University” or “University” under section 3(f) of the University Grants Commission Act, status for the NIDs, so that they can award degrees of B. Des. and M. Des. instead of just Diplomas as at present;

• Encouraging the establishment of departments of design in all the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and all the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) as well as in prestigious private sector Colleges of Engineering and Architecture;

• Preparation of a mechanism for recognizing and awarding industry achievers in creating a brand image for Indian designs though the award of a India Design Mark on designs which satisfy key design criteria like originality, innovation, aesthetic appeal, user-centricity, ergonomic features, safety and Eco-friendliness;

• Facilitating the establishment of a Chartered Society for Designers, (on the lines of the Institutions of Engineers, the Institution of Architects, the Medical Council, the Bar Council, etc.), to govern the registration of Design Professionals and the various matters relating to standards setting in the profession;

• Setting up an India Design Council (IDC) with eminent personalities drawn from different walks of life;

The implementation status of the Policy is as follows:

• Sustained increase in Student and Faculty exchange programmes with design and allied Institutions abroad. National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad entered into MoU with 66 Institutes of repute abroad. Design faculty were exposed to international standards of design education by visiting and interacting with Design and related Institutions abroad (121 exposure visits)

• Class room / studios and infrastructure facilities of the Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Bangalore campuses upgraded.

• Sector specific PG programmes in Design Disciplines introduced and continued.

• Since 2007, 139 number of foreign students from various countries and 201 number of NID students have studied in foreign institutes under the Students’ Exchange Programmes.

• India Design council (IDC), a Society under the aegis of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) was constituted on 02.03.2009 as a mandate of the Policy. IDC has already launched the I-Mark (India Design Mark) and started awarding the same from the year 2012.

• The National Institute of Design Act, 2014 has come into effect from 18th July 2014 which gives NID the status of ‘Institution of National Importance’. It also facilitates NID, Ahmedabad to award degrees of B.Des and M.Des instead of Diplomas to its students.

The Cabinet has on 28.02.2014 approved for financial support of Rs.434.00 crore to establish of 4 new NIDs at Jorhat (Assam), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) and Kurukshetra (Haryana).

Achievements in Space Science

The details of the major achievements made in the field of space during the last one year (since November 2013) are given below:

(i) Successful launch of India`s first interplanetary spacecraft, Mars Orbiter onboard Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C25 on November 05, 2013 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. On September 24, 2014, India`s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was successfully placed into an elliptical orbit around planet Mars.

(ii) Successful launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) with an indigenous cryogenic engine & stage on 5th January 2014 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The GSLV-D5 injected the GSAT-14 Communications Satellite, weighing 1982 kg, into a precise Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.

(iii) Successful launch of Indian navigational satellite IRNSS-1B, the second satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) onboard PSLV-C24 on April 04, 2014 and IRNSS-1C, the third satellite of IRNSS onboard PSLV-C26 on October 16, 2014 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

(iv) PSLV-C23 successfully launched French Earth Observation Satellite SPOT-7 along with four small satellites viz. AISAT (Germany), NLS 7.1 & 7.2 (Canada) and VELOX-1 (Singapore) on June 30, 2014 under commercial arrangements between ANTRIX and the respective foreign agencies.

The way in which the above achievements benefits the country are given below:

(i) Mars Orbiter Mission has benefitted the country by (1) technological up-gradation of the country in the area of space technology (2) providing excellent opportunities in planetary research for the scientific community of the country and enthuse the younger generation.

(ii) GSLV-D5 flight has benefitted the country by achieving self-reliance in launching 2000 kg class communication satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. GSAT-14 satellite has benefitted the country by augmenting the satellite communication infrastructure in the country with addition of 12 transponders.

(iii) IRNSS is a constellation of seven satellites and currently three satellites (IRNSS-1A, 1B & 1C) are in orbit. With the planned completion of constellation, IRNSS will benefit the country by providing positioning services with an absolute position accuracy of better than 20 meters over Indian Land Mass and a region extending to about 1500 Kms around India.

(iv) The successful launch of French satellite SPOT-7 along with four other foreign satellites has benefitted the country by enhancing the reliability and commercial prospects of India`s PSLV in the global market.

(v) The future space programme to be undertaken by ISRO envisages development of advanced launch vehicle systems including next generation GSLV MkIII, earth observational satellites with improved resolution (Resourcesat-2A, Cartosat-2E, Cartosat-3), advanced communication satellite (GSAT-11, GSAT-15, 16, 17, 18 & 19, GSAT-6), completion of IRNSS constellation (IRNSS-1D,1E,1F & 1G), development of critical technologies for space transportation system and satellites for space science and planetary exploration purposes, including Astrosat, Chandrayaan-2 & Aditya-1

Commercial Application of Space Technology ,

Commercial Application of Space Technology

The achievements of Antrix Corporation Limited in commercial exploitation of space technology during the 11th plan and the on-going 12th plan periods include:

i. Launch services for 34 Satellites from 15 Countries on-board ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

ii. Built and delivered two Communications Satellites for international customers, viz., “W2M” Satellite for M/s. EUTELSAT, Paris; and, “Hylas” Satellite for M/s. Avanti Plc, UK.

iii. Built, launched and operationalised a communication satellite (GSAT-7) for strategic users in the country.

iv. Leasing of communication transponders of Indian INSAT/ GSAT satellites as well as of foreign satellites for Direct-To-Home television broadcasting, Data Networking, Financial Services, Telephony, etc., to Government, strategic and private users.

v. Marketing of data from Indian Remote Sensing satellites (RISAT-1, Resourcesat-2, Oceansat-2, Cartosat-2 and Cartosat-1) to international customers through establishment of ground stations and data processing facilities, as well as data reseller network.

vi. Mission Support Services to Intelsat (USA), CNES, (France) and DLR (Germany) using ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network.

vii. Supply of Ground Equipments for tele-education, tele-medicine; Automatic Weather Stations, reception of high-resolution remote sensing data by strategic sector and reception of satellite data for meteorological applications.

viii. In terms of revenue, the total revenue during 11^th plan was `3492.53 Crores and during the first two years of 12^th plan (2012-14) was ` 1394.13 crores.

The Foreign Exchange earned from Commercial Exploitation of Space Technology during the said period, year-wise, is as under:

Sl.No.	Year	Rs.(in lakh)	Equivalent of USD (in lakh)	Equivalent of EURO (in lakh)
1	2007-2008	12679.57	205.60	8.94
2	2008-2009	14031.38	244.28	24.12
3	2009-2010	13228.97	121.59	59.11
4	2010-2011	8077.64	179.98	40.86
5	2011-2012	3135.54	21.99	6.29
	11th Five Year Plan Total	51153.1	773.44	139.32
1	2012-2013	11157.01	39.90	130.97
2	2013-2014	17470.66	55.78	175.98
	12th Five Year Plan Total	28627.67	95.68	306.95
	Grand Total	79780.77	869.12	446.27

The commercial projects launched by Antrix Corporation Limited (during 11^th plan and ongoing 12^thplan) in collaboration with global space companies include building and delivery of two Communication Satellites namely (i) “W2M” Satellite for M/s. EUTELSAT, Paris and (ii) “Hylas” Satellite for M/s. Avanti Plc, UK in commercial partnership with M/s. EADS Astrium (presently, Airbus Defence and Space), a leading global aerospace company.

Deepen private sector involvement in education

Deepen private sector involvement in education, says President

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee attended the 11th Convocation of Symbiosis International University today (November 26, 2014) at Pune.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said a sweeping up-gradation of India’s higher education sector calls for deepening of private sector involvement. Leading global universities like Harvard, Yale and Stanford have evolved out of private sector initiative. India’s private sector is engaged in several key areas like health, transport and financial services. In education too, private institutions play an important role as they account for nearly sixty per cent of total enrolment at the tertiary level. Yet at the same time, a disparity exists in the educational standards of the private system. Measures are therefore necessary to ensure better service delivery, benchmarks and excellence.

The President said in the past, our seats of higher learning like Nalanda, Takshashila, Vikramashila, Valabhi, Somapura and Odantapuri were global leaders. These universities attracted scholars from round the world. Today, instead, bright Indian students – around two lakh every year – go abroad seeking higher education. It is a matter of introspection as to how we can bring our centres of higher learning back into the fold of leading institutions in the world.

The President said high economic growth is central to a developing country like ours as it is a panacea for ills like poverty, deprivation and backwardness. Creation of growth is increasingly happening through knowledge-based sectors. Given that knowledge will spur greater progress in the future, it is critical for us to prepare a pool of skilled and capable manpower by focusing on education.

The President said that higher level institutions have a larger role to play in the society. Their engagement with social issues has to be at a much deeper level. Some major initiatives aimed at inclusive development have been launched recently. The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana envisages the adoption of villages for holistic development and their transformation into model villages for wider replication. He called upon Symbiosis University to take active part in this programme.