In this section, we are presenting our readers/aspirants compilation of selected editorials of national daily viz. The Hindu, The live mint,The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, PIB etc. This section caters the requirement of Civil Services Mains (GS + Essay) , PCS, HAS Mains (GS + Essay) & others essay writing competition.
1.CJI calls it right: Print’s credibility in contrast to social media’s dangers
Chief Justice of India NV Ramana was spot on when he observed that the communal overtones of content published by social media and YouTube channels all work to show India in a poor light, never mind that some of these offenders consider themselves ‘patriotic’. CJI rightly noted these entities have no accountability and could freely besmirch individuals and institutions they disliked and were circulating content without verification or paying any notice to facts. These observations came while hearing Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and others protesting ‘biased’ reporting on Tablighi Jamaat in the early part of India’s Covid spread.
CJI’s accompanying observations on the print media, which he said, again rightly, does responsible reporting and has in-built corrective mechanisms, highlight a great dichotomy. News published in newspapers is gathered by professional journalists and gets to print after several levels of fact-checking and editorial gatekeeping. This doesn’t make newspapers perfect. But it ensures reputed mastheads are not platforms for fake or defamatory or hateful content. In contrast, social media has become a cesspool of all these and worse because it doesn’t employ as many editorial nets as the ocean of posts require. Here, it is also important to distinguish social media from digital news portals, which include digital publications of the print media. The latter go through the same due diligence as newspapers and face the same regulatory regime.
Strangely and indefensibly, GoI’s purported response to social media excesses, IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2021, doesn’t quite make this distinction between genuine news outlets in the digital space and wild wastelands of social media and fly-by-night hate factories. Not surprisingly, IT rules are facing stiff legal challenges in high courts. GoI should listen to what CJI said: Content is dangerous when it promotes falsehood and hate. That means more severe scrutiny of social media companies and letting digital news outlets do their job.
2.Ending the forever: On American interference
The U.S might not find it easy to resist the impulse to remake other nations
President Joe Biden has mounted a stiff defence of his position on pulling American troops and civilians out of Kabul, an operation widely regarded as botched and disastrous, vowing that the era of meddling in the politics of other nations had ended. His comments came in the context of sharp criticism of an evidently poorly planned exit, coterminous with deadly terror attacks near Kabul airport. Since the withdrawal, U.S. polls suggest that nearly twice as many people disapproved of his management of the end of the long war as those who approved, that 56% of surveyed individuals disapproved of his performance on foreign policy, and his overall job approval rating had hit a new low of 44%. When the poll statistic of 71% of Americans believing that the U.S. mission in Afghanistan was a failure is taken together with Mr. Biden’s promise to eschew the regime change paradigm in foreign policy, it begs the question of whether such a new era of U.S. non-interventionism is possible or likely. The answer depends on the extent to which the U.S. believes it can manage the forces of international terrorism from afar, sans boots on the ground. That also partly depends on the strategic role of Pakistan, China, and Russia in the South Asia region. Neither sets of factors inspires hope that the messy troop pull-out was anything other than one step in another round of the classic historical cycles in Afghanistan, of foreign occupation, ‘regime change,’ abandonment and lapse into lawlessness, orthodoxy, and flirtations with terror outfits in the neighbourhood.
The U.S. has a rich history of shaping or toppling foreign governments and seeking to influence forces made abroad that had an impact on American shores. In the early 20th century, the centre of gravity of such clandestine operations was in the North American hemisphere, and it included the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. In the post-Second World War and post-Cold War periods, it included the likes of Iran, Indonesia, and Venezuela, including alleged interference in the elections of Italy, the Philippines and Japan. With a foreign policy elite and intelligence community deeply inured to habitually meddling in the politics of other nations for at least a century, the odds that Mr. Biden will be the leader to turn their heads from this preoccupation are low. It is true that ever since the advent of his predecessor, Donald Trump, the U.S. has been on an inexorable path towards a more inward-focused paradigm of policymaking, putting “America First” and reconsidering if not rejecting certain elements of the rules-based international order. But in America, historically, the clarion call for nativist populism has always coexisted to an extent with the temptation to meddle abroad. The impulses of the Biden administration may, therefore, only lead to a temporary lull in this disturbing trend.
3.An uneven uptick: On GST revenue trends
GST revenue trends indicate the recovery is neither smooth nor fast
With gross revenues of ₹1.12-lakh crore in August, the GST has now yielded over ₹1-lakh crore a month for almost a full year. The only blip in the past 11 months came in June, when takings fell below ₹93,000 crore in the aftermath of the second COVID-19 wave that compelled mobility restrictions across States. Those curbs have been progressively easing up — just as they were a year ago when the country saw a phased unlocking from the national lockdown. Compared to those lows, the August collections are 30% higher and also 14% above the pre-pandemic levels of 2019-20, though one must remember India’s growth had stuttered sharply that year. While revenues from domestic transactions were up 27%, key industrial States saw faster growth, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Going forward, the Government expects such ‘robust’ GST revenues to persist. Most economists agree that may be the case, unless the fears of a third wave come true, triggering lockdowns.
But it is unclear if the economy is recovering ‘fast’ in tandem with the easing out of COVID-related restrictions. The GST collected in August pertains largely to economic activity in July and the mobility restrictions in most States had been eased further that month compared to June, including in the southern States. GST e-way bills generated in July surged to an average of 2.1 million from 1.8 million in June. Yet, on a sequential basis, GST revenues in August are almost 4% lower than the ₹1.16-lakh crore collected in July. This recovery appears choppy rather than ‘fast’. Similarly, the Government’s claims of higher compliance levels reiterated over the past several months need to be matched with accompanying numbers. At the start of the GST regime four years ago, it had 6.6 million taxpayers. On GST Day this July, the Finance Minister said this had risen to 12.8 million. But how many of them are filing returns each month is no longer known since the Government stopped disclosing that number from February 2021. This makes it virtually impossible to distil the effects of compliance and growth on GST revenues. Deviating from standard data points spikes suspicions about what they strive to hide. The Government would do well to restore and enhance its quality of data disclosures — even State-wise revenues have been selectively shared recently. As the Reserve Bank of India Governor has highlighted, the economy is still delicately poised — manufacturing recovery has stumbled in August, services remain stressed, exports stay strong but have slipped on a month-on-month basis just like GST collections. There is surely a need to talk things up when the chips are down, but ultimately only facts and figures can invest words with meaning.
4.Review projects in Himalayan states
Instead of approving hydro and road projects, step back and assess impact. In an era of the climate crisis and extreme weather events, the Himalayas cannot endure the kind of rampant construction that needs large-scale hill cutting, change in the land-use pattern, fragmentation of natural systems and overexploitation of resources
Eight years after the Supreme Court (SC) imposed a moratorium on allowing hydro-electric projects in Uttarakhand, the Union ministries of environment, power and jal shakti have reached a consensus on green-lighting the construction of seven hydel projects on the Ganga and its tributaries in the state. Their consent has been conveyed to the SC. On the list is the Tapovan-Vishnugad project, which was destroyed by a flash flood in Chamoli district, in February. If the SC, which imposed the moratorium after the 2013 flash floods, accepts the decision, it may pave the way for several other hydel projects in the state. Since the moratorium, the environment ministry’s position has shifted from accepting the first expert committee’s report that blamed dams for aggravating the 2013 disaster to backing the latest expert panel’s conclusion that 26 hydel projects can be built with design modifications.