PIB Summary- 31st August, 2021 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

BIMSTEC

Context: 8th Meeting of Agricultural Experts of BIMSTEC Countries held.

Details

• India hosted the 8th Meeting of Agriculture Experts of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries virtually.
• The Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research & Education & the Director General, ICAR chaired the meeting.
• In the meeting, it was exhorted to enhance the engagement and deepen the cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors amongst the BIMSTEC Member States by encouraging the exchange of knowledge, germplasm, students and experts.

BIMSTEC – Recent Developments

• The 17th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting was held on 1st April 2021 and chaired by Sri Lanka, virtually, in the presence of all member states
• The meeting endorsed:
  • BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity
  • Took note of the BIMSTEC Centre for Weather and Climate, being hosted in India, is fully functional with the state of the art facilities to provide Disaster Early Warnings
  • The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiatives of BIMSTEC Startup Conclave in January 2021; BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise in Puri in February 2020; and Conference on Combating Drug Trafficking for BIMSTEC countries in February 2020, were appreciated by other member states
  • The proposal to host the 5th BIMSTEC Summit in Sri Lanka in the coming few months was also welcomed
• 24th BIMSTEC Day was observed on May 31, 2021

BIMSTEC – Important Facts

BIMSTEC – Objectives

Technological and economical cooperation among south Asian and South East Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
BIMSTEC is a sector-driven cooperative organization and covers cooperation in sectors like communication, leather, textiles, transport, fisheries, human resource development, tourism, agriculture, investment, technology and commerce etc. Currently, there are fourteen priority sectors and each member country voluntarily leads one or more sectors. Counterterrorism & transnational crime and telecommunication & transport are dealt with by India.
The grouping is a bridge between South Asia and South-East Asia and constitutes a reinforcement of relations between the seven countries. It is of utmost significance to India as it is major support in implementing its Act East Policy and the development of its ambitious ‘Sagar Mala’ project.
BIMSTEC, in its first, held a conference on “combating drug trafficking” in New Delhi in February 2020.

Principles of BIMSTEC

• Sovereign Equality
• Territorial Integrity
• Political Independence
• No-interference in Internal Affairs
• Peaceful Co- existence
• Mutual Benefit
• Constitute an addition to and not be a substitute for bilateral, regional or multilateral cooperation involving the Member States.

BIMSTEC – The first meeting of National Security Chiefs

1. The first meeting of National Security Chiefs of BIMSTEC member states was hosted by India in New Delhi on the 21st of March 2017.
2. The meeting was aimed at discussing the common security challenges faced by the member countries.
3. The necessity of addressing traditional and non-traditional security challenges to harness human security in the region was underlined, as security cooperation among the member nations is very important in achieving the objectives of the organization.
4. The Importance of maritime security was emphasized. The member states put forth their views to further strengthen the maritime security cooperation including Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.
5. An agreement was reached to arrive at collective strategies recognizing the Bay of Bengal as a common security space.
6. Urgent need for measures to counter and prevent the spread of terrorism, violent extremism and radicalization through coordination in law enforcement, security organizations and capacity building were also discussed in the meeting.

How BIMSTEC is Important for India?

1. It provides a new platform for India to engage with its neighbours with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) becoming dysfunctional because of differences between India and Pakistan.
2. BIMSTEC allows India to pursue three core policies-
   • Neighborhood First – primacy to the country’s immediate periphery;
   • Act East – connect India with Southeast Asia; and
   • Economic development of India’s northeastern states – by linking them to the Bay of Bengal region via Bangladesh and Myanmar.
3. Allows India to counter China’s creeping influence in countries around the Bay of Bengal due to the spread of its One Belt and One Road Initiative.

Challenges Faced by BIMSTEC

BIMSTEC does not seem to have made much progress even though there was not much bilateral tension – 

• Neglect by member states: It seems that India has used BIMSTEC only when it fails to work through SAARC in the regional setting and other major members like Thailand and Myanmar are focused more towards ASEAN than BIMSTEC.
• Inconsistent Meetings: BIMSTEC planned to hold summits every two years, ministerial meetings every year, but only four summits have taken place in 20 years upto 2018.
• Broad Focus Areas: The focus of BIMSTEC is very wide, including 14 areas of cooperation like connectivity, public health, agriculture etc. It is suggested that BIMSTEC should remain committed to small focus areas and cooperate in them efficiently.
• No FTA: BIMSTEC FTA was negotiated in 2004, talks on it are yet to be concluded.
• Bilateral Issues between Member Nations: Bangladesh is facing one of the worst refugee crisis of Rohingyas from Myanmar who are fleeing prosecution in the state of Rakhine in Myanmar. There is a border conflict between Myanmar and Thailand.
• BCIM: The formation of another sub-regional initiative, the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Forum, with the proactive membership of China, has created more doubts about the exclusive potential of BIMSTEC.

Naval Anti-Drone System (NADS)

Context: First indigenously developed anti-drone system, NADS to be inducted by the Indian Navy.

Details

• The Indian Navy has signed a contract with Navaratna Defence PSU Bharat Limited (BEL) for the supply of the first indigenous comprehensive Naval Anti Drone System (NADS) with both hard kill and soft kill capabilities.

About NADS

• It is the first indigenously developed anti-drone system to be inducted into the Indian Armed Forces.
• It was developed by DRDO and manufactured by BEL.
• The NADS can instantly detect and jam micro drones and use a laser-based kill mechanism to terminate targets. It will be an effective all-encompassing counter to the increased drone threat to strategic naval installations.
• The system offers 360 degree coverage.
• The NADS uses the help of Radar, Electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors and Radio Frequency (RF) detectors to detect and jam the micro drones.
• The DRDO’s RF/Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) detects the frequency which is being used by the controller and the signals are then jammed.

Indian Navy’s Maiden Exercise with Algerian Navy

What’s in the news?
INS Tabar took part in a Maritime Partnership Exercise with Algerian Navy ship ‘Ezzadjer’.

Details

• INS Tabar took part in the exercise as a part of her ongoing goodwill visit to Europe and Africa.
• The exercise enabled the two navies to understand the concept of operations followed by each other, enhanced interoperability and opened the possibility of increasing interaction and collaboration between them in future.

‘New Central Sector Scheme’ for Industrial Development of Jammu and Kashmir

Context: Union Home Minister launched a web portal for registration of units under the ‘New Central Sector Scheme’ for Industrial Development of Jammu and Kashmir.

About the scheme

• The scheme with a financial outlay of ₹28,400 crore is open for any eligible manufacturing entity or eligible service sector enterprise registered business enterprise under Goods and Service Tax (GST).
• It is expected that the UT of J&K will have an additional investment about ₹12,000 crore in establishment of about 1,200 industrial units.
• The entire process under the scheme i.e. applying for registration, submitting claims and their processing within the department, is through the portal deliberately done to avoid human interface.
• The scheme includes four types of incentives.
  • These are capital investment incentive, capital interest subvention, GST-linked incentive and working capital interest subvention.
• The quantum of assistance under the scheme is greater than earlier ones as the ‘GST-linked incentive component’ provides for a maximum of three times of investment made in plant and machinery in addition to the other components of the scheme.
• Benefits:
  • The scheme is anticipated to generate direct employment opportunity for about 78,000 persons including in primary sectors such as agriculture, horticulture, sericulture, animal husbandry & dairy and inland fisheries through backward linkage including gainful engagement of women at household in craft, handicraft and handloom.
  • Employment of about 35,000 persons already working in existing units is likely to be indirectly supported by the scheme through its working capital interest subvention component.