India withdraws Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan: What it means - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India withdraws Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan: What it means.

Most Favoured Nation status is given to an international trade partner to ensure non-discriminatory trade between all partner countries of the WTO.

Just a day after at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel lost their lives in a dastardly suicide bombing attack in Pulwama, the Indian government has withdrawn "Most Favoured Nation" or MFN status accorded to Pakistan.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Ministry of External Affairs will initiate all possible steps to ensure complete isolation from the international community of Pakistan, which is expected to have a hand in the attack carried out by terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.

"MEA will initiate all possible diplomatic steps which are to be taken to ensure the complete isolation from the international community of Pakistan of which incontrovertible is available of having a direct hand in this act," said Jaitley.
What is MFN status?
Most Favoured Nation status is given to an international trade partner to ensure non-discriminatory trade between all partner countries of the WTO.
A country which provides MFN status to another country has to provide concessions, privileges, and immunity in trade agreements. It is the first clause in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Under rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a member country is not allowed to discriminate between trade partners and if a special status is granted to one trade partner, the country is required to extend it to all members of the WTO.
In a nutshell, MFN is a non-discriminatory trade policy as it ensures equal trading among all WTO member nations rather than exclusive trading privileges. Since India and Pakistan are part of the WTO, both are required to grant MFN status to each other and other partner countries.
Does MFN status offer preferential treatment?
Although it sounds as if MFN offers preferential treatment, it only ensures non-discriminatory trade. It makes sure that any country receiving MFN status avoids any disadvantageous situation in comparison to the granter's other trade partners.
An MFN status helps reduce trade barriers and results in a reduction in tariffs. An MFN status helps in the promotion of free trade between two or more countries.
When did India grant MFN status to Pakistan?
India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996, just a year after the formation of the WTO. On the other hand, Pakistan is yet to award MFN status to India. The reason behind Pakistan's move to not grant MFN status to India is decades of conflict, mistrust, and war.
Yesterday's attack on the CRPF convoy, which left 40 troopers dead and several others injured, has forced India to revoke MFN status given to Pakistan. The move is expected to further Pakistan's trade advantages which it gets from India.
Considering that there is hardly any strong trade ties between the two neighbouring countries, such a move will only be symbolic. The move could also lead to increased illegal trade between the two countries.
While past requests have been made to revoke MFN status awarded to Pakistan, the Indian government finally decided on the move after yesterday's devious attack.
What happens now?
Sources in the commerce ministry will now write to WTO in order to revoke MFN status given to Pakistan by invoking Article 21 of WTO, also known as the Security Exceptions Article.
The process of communicating to WTO (file moved) has begun, suggested sources.
As of now, the value of trade between India and Pakistan stands at 2.61 billion dollars or Rs 1.86 lakh crore.
Pulwama terror attack
On Thursday at around 3:30 pm, an explosive-laden SUV rammed into one of the buses out of a 70-vehicle CRPF convoy at Awantipora town in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district. The bus, carrying around 35-40 soldiers, was passing through Gundipoora section when it was attacked.
Pakistan-based JeM has identified the suicide bomber responsible for the attack as Adil Ahmed Dar and released a video of him soon after the attack. He was reportedly part of the Pakistan-based terror group since 2018.
Currently, the situation in the Valley remains tense as all police convoys have been halted and an NIA team will be sent to Kashmir soon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the forces will be given full freedom to avenge the attack, adding that "Pakistan has made a huge mistake".
Many including the United States have condemned the heinous attack that has claimed the life of over 40 paramilitary troopers and left many injured. (Source: Indiatoday)


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India withdraws Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan: What it means

G20 member nations to promote policies that bridges all forms of digital divide - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

G20 member nations to promote policies that bridges all forms of digital divide

Ministerial resounds India’s concerns about data protection and individual privacy.

At the G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting in Salta, in the north-west of Argentina, G20 ministers and senior officials issued a declaration that reflects the G20’s commitment towards promoting “policies and actions that catalyze digital transformations. The Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting, held on 23-24 August, was attended by 33 heads of delegation- Ministers, senior officials and representatives from invited countries and international organizations, like EU, UNCTAD, ITU etc. India was represented by Union Minister for Electronics and IT & Law and Justice,Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Building on the contributions of the G20 Digital Economy Task Force, delegates deliberated upon efforts to create conditions that help governments, the private sector and civil society maximize the benefits and confront the challenges posed by technological progress. The other focus area of the meeting was digital inclusion, in particular the gender divide. Other related issued such as Digital government, digital infrastructure and measuring the digital economy were also deliberated.
Addressing the Plenary of the G-20 Digital Economy Ministerial meeting, Sh. Prasad said that India’s digital story is a story of hope and growth; of opportunities and profits. But above all it is a story of digital inclusion and empowerment. Digital India is a mass movement today touching the lives of a billion people. Minister Prasad said that he was very assured to note that an important theme of the meeting was bridging the gender divide adding that gender empowerment was an important focus for his government.
Highlighting the enormous scale of India’s digital infrastructure that included 1.21 billion mobile phones, of which 450 million are smartphones, nearly 500 million internet subscriber and an ever increasing broadband availability being supported by optical fibre connectivity in 250,000 village clusters, Minister Prasad said that the success of Digital India programme lay in the conscious efforts to bridge the digital divide and promote digital inclusion, based upon technology which is low cost, affordable, developmental and which fosters empowerment and inclusion.
The Minister, in particular, highlighted the important role played by India’s home grown technologies for promoting digital payment, including importance on interoperable open-source technologies so that these platforms can be used by others to develop more innovative structures as well as leading to new norms of digital identity based authentication which are a generation ahead. All this is in addition to the stellar role played by India’s IT companies, which have left their mark in 200 cities of 80 countries, enabling India to emerge as a profound digital power, with India’s digital economy likely to become 1 trillion $ economy in the next 3-5 years, he added.
Minister Prasad said that India believed in internet access for all, adding that the Internet is one of the finest creations of the human mind, but it cannot be the monopoly of a few. He also stated that while Cyber-space is truly global, it must be linked with local ideas, local culture and local views. He said that the largest and most dynamic markets for digital services are in Asia, Latin America and Africa with India having one of the largest foot-print of several popular social media and other digital platforms. It is only fair and just that the revenue and profit generated from these platforms be equitably reinvested in the largest markets to create more infrastructures and generate more job opportunities for the people there, he added.
Minister Prasad articulated India’s concerns about data protection and individual privacy and informed the meeting that India had already put in place stringent measures backed by laws passed by the parliament. He said that privacy cannot prohibit innovation nor can privacy become the shield for the corrupt or terrorists. We need data to improve business but the data must be anonymous, objective, and taken with consent, he added.
Minister Prasad stressed that India had taken a serious note of reported misuse of social media platform data. Such Platforms will never be allowed to abuse our election process for extraneous means, he added. He said that the purity of the democratic process should never be compromised and that India will take all required steps to deter and punish those who seek to vitiate this process.
India’s views received wide appreciation and support from several delegations including the hosts Argentina, Germany and the EU. Several other countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Indonesia and Japan expressed a keen desire to work with India in a range of IT and cyber related fields. India also presented a non-paper at the meeting listing its experience of using government platforms for inclusion and economic development, which was well received.
The meeting saw great interest in India’s JAM trinity of more than 300 million bank accounts of the poor along with Aadhar and mobiles which is empowering the poor by direct benefit transfer of their welfare entitlement into their bank account.
The G20 member nations agreed to promote policies that will contribute to bridging all forms of digital divide, with special attention to the digital gender divide. The countries agreed to promote digital government and digital infrastructure, strengthen the digital skills of the workforce, deepen the analysis towards digital economy measurement, and to share experiences and lesson learned”.
The G20 Ministerial meeting allowed India to showcase the inclusive use of digital technology by the Government to empower the people. It also allowed India to articulate it's views on global issues relating to cyber security, data protection and innovation for growth.(Source: pib)

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G20 member nations to promote policies that bridges all forms of digital divide

One Nation one poll: Law panel refers to UK Act before finalising report - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

One Nation one poll: Law panel refers to UK Act before finalising report .

United Kingdom may be a favourite destination for Indian economic offenders seeking refuge in the country, but its recently-enacted Act on fixed-term elections may prove to be handy for India. Before finalising its draft report on ‘One Nation, One Election’, the Law Commission had referred to the UK’s ‘The Fixed-term Parliaments Act, 2011’.

People with the knowledge of the matter told ET that the said Act was studied in detail since it answers several questions relating to fixed terms for Parliament and state assemblies. Incidentally, this is one of the chief objections raised by several political parties during the ongoing consultations with the commission. The common argument raised by the parties is that the proposed idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ is “against the federal arrangement”.
However, the commission is of the view that the “chain” of simultaneous elections continued in the country for two decades, after Independence up to 1967. The dissolution of certain state assemblies in 1968 and 1969 followed by dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 1970 lead to “disruption of simultaneous elections”.
Thus, the panel is of the view that if Parliament decides in favour of ‘One Nation, One Election’, it will “restore the chain of simultaneous elections”.
However, for such a restoration the system will have to provide that elections in a state can be conducted for the rest of the term. For instance, if after imposition of simultaneous elections, an elected government in a state has three years of mandate left, then elections may be conducted for the remainder of the term.
“It will be both factually incorrect and unfair to allege that the concept of simultaneous elections is against federalism. Our republic commenced with simultaneous elections which lasted for over two decades. If, at all, ‘One Nation, One Election’ were to become a reality, it would be only restoring the broken chain of simultaneous elections,” said a senior official.
On the second day of consultations with the commission, JDU, SP and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) argued in favour of ‘One Nation, One Election’. In a letter written to the commission’s Chairman, K Chandrashekar Rao of TRS stoutly supported the concept.
While backing simultaneous polls, SP insisted that it should be put into force from this year. Buoyed by the success in Uttar Pradesh bypolls, the party has told the commission that SP will support the proposal provided it is implemented before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Telugu Desam Party, All India Forward Bloc and Goa Forward Party have opposed the proposal.
DMK too opposed it saying the concept is against the basic tenets of the Constitution. ET had reported on July 7 that TMC and CPI have written to the commission arguing against simultaneous polls.
It might be mentioned here that the Niti Aayog has also advocated “fixed tenures” for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. As first reported by ET on April 18, the Aayog had also cited the said Act of the UK to buttress its point of “fixed tenures”. (Source: The Economic Times)


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One Nation one poll: Law panel refers to UK Act before finalising report."