The Assam Tribune Analysis 07-12-2020

The Assam Tribune Analysis
        07-12-2020

ARTICLE CONTENTS
     4 of 5 cyclones in 2020 were in severe category and above
     Iran’s National Security Council endorses law
     Govt committed to fulfil Ambedkar’s dreams: Modi
     ICAR bags FAO award for creating soil health awareness
     China completes first spacecraft rendezvous
     IISc working on COVID-19 detection using Raman Spectroscopy, AI
     Economic growth to reach pre-COVID levels by end of FY22: NITI Aayog
     RBI asks banks not to declare dividend for FY20
     Centre’s GST compensation formula gets nod from all States/UTs
     Job cuts, salary adjustments not as widespread as apprehended, says CII study

EDITORIAL DISCUSSION
     Desideratum of a liberal arts education in India
     Banking woes
     BTC election

GENERAL STUDIES 1: GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA

1. 4 of 5 cyclones in 2020 were in severe category and above
   Four of the five cyclones that originated either in the Bay of Bengal or in the Arabian Sea this year
    were in the category of severe cyclonic storm or above including Amphan which had escalated into
    a super cyclone. Formation of cyclones is not uncommon in the Arabian Sea during the pre-
    monsoon period and in the Bay of Bengal during the post-monsoon months of October to
    December.
   India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutunjay Mohapatra said since 1990
    four cyclones have formed every year in the seas along the eastern and western coasts (Bay of
    Bengal and Arabian Sea) of the country. It is normal to have five cyclones a year, he said. Amphan
    was the first cyclone of the year. It formed in the Bay of Bengal and intensified into a super cyclonic
    storm, the first since the super cyclone of Odisha that had ravaged the state in 1999, killing
    thousands.
   Amphan, however, weakened a bit to become an extremely severe cyclonic storm and slammed
    the coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh on May 19. Another circulation formed in the Arabian
    Sea within a fortnight, intensifying into a severe cyclonic storm which was called Nisarga. The storm
    hit Alibag, near Mumbai, and helped monsoon to arrive in Kerala on its normal date of June 1.
   Three cyclones – two in the Bay of Bengal and one in the Arabian Sea – have formed in the last one
    month. CycloneGatiintensified into a very severe cyclonic storm. It affected the western coast
    during its intensification stage, bringing rains over Kerala, but it crossed the Somalia coast on
    November 23. Another cyclone was brewing in the Bay of Bengal at the same time.
   Cyclone Nivar was initially projected to be a severe cyclonic storm. However, it intensified into a
    very severe cyclonic storm, crossing the Tamil Nadu coast on the night of November 25. Less than a
    week later, another storm gathered momentum and intensified into a cyclonic storm. Cyclone
    Burevi crossed the Sri Lanka coast on November 2, but as it crossed the south Tamil Nadu coast, its
    intensity reduced to a deep depression.

GENERAL STUDIES 2: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Iran’s National Security Council endorses law
   The Iranian Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has endorsed a Parliament-ratified “Strategic
    Action to Lift Embargoes” law, intended to reduce international monitoring of the country’s nuclear
    programme if embargoes were not lifted in the next two months. “The aforementioned law does
    not create a specific issue that damages national interests,” Xinhua news agency quoted a
    statement by the SNSC as saying following the endorsement on Saturday.
   What is contrary to national interests and is a matter of concern, the statement said, are
    undermining the dignity and status of the country’s legal institutions and damage to national unity
    and cohesion”. The SNSC therefore called on all internal Iranian parties to end “fruitless quarrels”,
    and warned it will not allow national interests to be endangered by “political games”.
   The organ underlined that its secretariat has not been involved in the making of the law. All
    procedures, it further said, have taken place in accordance with Parliament’s regulations and
    customary norms. On December 1, the Iranian Parliament passed the Bill, which urges the
    administration of President Hassan Rouhani to take several steps to increase the country’s nuclear
    activities for civil purposes, and may decrease international monitoring of these activities by the
    International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA).
   The law mandates the government to halt the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol
    document in two months, in case signatory states of the 2015 landmark nuclear agreement do not
    “normalise banking relations and completely remove barriers for exporting Iran’s oil”. Iran has
    reduced its commitments under the agreement called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
    (JCPOA) in response to the US’ withdrawal from the deal in 2018.
   In reaction to the US’ withdrawal and in response to Europe’s sluggishness in facilitating Iran’s
    banking transactions and oil exports, Tehran has been gradually moving away from its nuclear
    commitments since May, 2019.

GENERAL STUDIES 2: POLITY
1. Govt committed to fulfil Ambedkar’s dreams: Modi
   Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday paid tributes to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on
    ‘Mahaparinirvan Diwas’, saying his government is committed to fulfilling his dreams that he had for
    the nation. In a tweet, the Prime Minister said, “Remembering the great Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar
    on Mahaparinirvan Diwas.
   His thoughts and ideals continue to give strength to millions. We are committed to fulfilling the
    dreams he had for our nation.” Bhimrao Ranji Ambedkar, popularly known as Dr BR Ambedkar or
    Babasaheb Ambedkar, was an economist, educationist, politician, social reformer and the chief
    architect of the Indian Constitution. He was born to Bhimabai Murbadkar Sakpal and Ramji Maloji
    Sakpal on April 14, 1891 in Madhya Pradesh.
   Babasaheb fought all his life against discrimination, degradation, and deprivation in the Indian
    society. He was the one who inspired the Modern Buddhist Movement and campaigned against
    social discrimination of Dalits, women, and labour. He was Independent India's first law minister
    and the principal architect of the Constitution of India.
   In 1954, from June to October, Babasaheb was bedridden due to side-effects of medication and
    poor eyesight. His health worsened in 1955. On December 6, 1956, three days after completing his
    final manuscript The Buddha and His Dhamma, he died in his sleep at his Delhi home.

    GENERAL STUDIES 3: SCIENCE & TECHNLOY
1. ICAR bags FAO award for creating soil health awareness
   India’s agri-research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) today said it has bagged
    the prestigious ‘International King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award’ from the United Nation’s Food
    and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for raising awareness about importance of soil health among all
    stakeholders.
   The award was conferred to ICAR on the occasion of World Soil Day, celebrated on December 5,
    through a virtual function, ICAR said in a statement. India bagged the award for ICAR’s awareness
    initiative undertaken in December 2019, involving participation of more than 13,000 people
    through a social media campaign.

   Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand will give the award to ICAR in an official ceremony to
    be held in Bangkok in January 2021. ICAR said it organised interactive sessions in universities,
    awareness-raising activities in schools, exhibitions, screenings, field visits and training sessions, and
    reached out to all soil stakeholders in the country as part of its awareness programme.

2. China completes first spacecraft rendezvous
   The ascender of China’s Chang’e-5 probe successfully rendezvoused and docked with the orbiter-
    returner combination in lunar orbit on Sunday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has
    announced.
   This is the first time Chinese spacecraft have carried out rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit,
    reports Xinhua news agency. The samples collected on the Moon had been transferred from the
    ascender to the returner safely by 6.12 am, said the CNSA. Chang’e-5 is one of the most
    complicated and challenging missions in Chinese aerospace history, as well as the world’s first
    Moon-sample mission in more than 40 years.
   The Chang’e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, was launched on
    November 24, and its lander-ascender combination touched down on the north of the Mons
    Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the Moon
    on December 1.
   After the samples were collected and sealed, the ascender of Chang’e-5 took off from the lunar
    surface on December 3. Although China’s spacecraft had carried out several rendezvous and
    docking operations in low-Earth orbit, a unmanned rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, around
    380,000 km away, is much more difficult.
   The orbiter-returner combination gradually approached the ascender through longrange guidance-
    and shortrange autonomous control, and captured the ascender with holding claws. “We used an
    innovative error-compensation algorithm to further improve the anglemeasurement accuracy,
    which greatly enhanced the chances of a successful, precise docking,”said He Zhongqin, a designer
    on the microwave radar project.
   Next, the orbiter-returner will separate from the ascender, and wait for the right time to return to
    Earth.

3. IISc working on COVID-19 detection using Raman Spectroscopy, AI
   Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, are working on rapid identification
    of COVID-19 biomarkers in blood plasma using Raman spectroscopy and artificial intelligence.
    Raman Spectroscopy is a non-destructive chemical analysis technique which provides detailed
    information about chemical structure, phase and polymorphy, crystallinity and molecular
    interactions.
   It is based upon the interaction of light with the chemical bonds within a material. According to the
    team, using artificial intelligence and deep learning, the COVID- 19 detection process will be
    automated and rapid and there will be no requirement of any extraction procedure. “It is of critical
    importance to develop new technologies that can rapidly detect COVID-19 and perform mass
    testing, and at the same are costeffective. In this regard, Raman spectroscopy holds significant
    promise,” according to Dipankar Nandi, professor at IISc Bengaluru and principal investigator of the
    project.
   “Traditionally a chemist’s tool, Raman spectroscopy has found numerous applications in
    biomedicine, especially in disease diagnosis. This method probes bond vibrations and is very
    sensitive to the structural changes, giving a molecular fingerprint of the sample. Every disease is
    associated with a change in biochemistry which can either be a cause for disease manifestation or
    may be a consequence of the disease itself,” he added.
   The research is being conducted in collaboration with AIIMS, Bhopal, which will be providing
    patient samples and healthy controls. “Our proposal is directed at identifying COVID-19 biomarkers
    in the blood plasma of infected patients. No extraction procedure or reagents are required. The
    only requirement is a spectrometer and the patient samples.
   Using artificial intelligence and deep learning, the detection process will be automated and rapid.
    Spectra collected from infected COVID-19 patients and healthy controls will be used for training
    and building robust classification models,” according to Nandi.
   India’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 96.44 lakh, while the total number of people who have
    recuperated from the disease crossed 91 lakh pushing the national recovery rate to 94.37 per cent,
    according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday. The COVID- 19 active caseload
    plunged to almost 4 lakh after 138 days.

   The total coronavirus cases mounted to 96,44,222 with 36,011 new infections being reported in a
    day, while the death toll crossed to 1.40 lakh with 482 new fatalities on Sunday.

    GENERAL STUDIES 3: ECONOMY

1. Economic growth to reach pre-COVID levels by end of FY22: NITI Aayog
   India’s economic growth is likely to reach pre-COVID-19 levels by the end of the 2021-22 fiscal as
    the GDP contraction in this financial year is expected to be less than 8 per cent, NITI Aayog Vice-
    Chairman Rajiv Kumar said today.
   The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also revised its forecast of economic growth for the current
    fiscal year (2020- 21) to (-)7.5 per cent as against its earlier forecast of (-)9.5 per cent.
   “We should reach pre-COVID-19 levels at the end of fiscal year 2021-22 for sure,” Kumar told PTI
    when asked about growth projection for the next financial year. He added that the GDP contraction
    this fiscal is expected at less than 8 per cent. India’s economy recovered faster than expected in the
    September quarter as a pickup in manufacturing helped GDP clock a lower contraction of 7.5 per
    cent and held out hopes for further improvement on better consumer demand. Replying to a
    question on asset monetisation, he said this is ongoing work and it has received attention at the
    highest level.
   “We will continue to pursue this and make sure that the targets of asset monetisation are
    reached,” Kumar stressed. The government is looking to raise Rs 2.10-lakh crore through
    disinvestment in the current fiscal. This includes Rs 1.20-lakh crore from Central Public Sector
    Enterprise (CPSE) stake sale and Rs 90,000 crore from sale of government stake in financial
    institutions.
   Talking about banking reforms, he said the sector needs further expansion and an increase in
    competition because India’s private debt-to-GDP ratio remains limited to mid-50s. Stating that in
    the case of other emerging economy, private debt-to-GDP ratio is well beyond 100 per cent, Kumar
    said that “so we need to increase private debt and this will happen when our banking sector will
    expand”.
   On the Indian agriculture sector, he said the NITI Aayog now is very strongly pushing the
    programmes for chemical-free natural farming which has a potential to reduce cost for agriculture

production dramatically and also has very positive impact on the environment. Kumar said the
    expansion of natural farming all over the country will make Indian agriculture more competitive
    and it also promises to have a significant positive impact on farmers’ income.

2. RBI asks banks not to declare dividend for FY20
   The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to conserve capital and not make any dividend
    payments for financial year 2020. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in his monetary policy
    statement on Friday that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Reserve Bank has focused on
    resolution of stress among borrowers, and facilitating credit flow to the economy, while ensuring
    financial stability.
   “In continuation of this effort and to help banks conserve capital, while creating room for fresh
    lending, it has been decided after a review that commercial and cooperative banks will retain the
    profits and not make any dividend payout from the profits pertaining to financial year 2019-20,”
    Das said.
   The growing significance of NBFCs and their interlinkages with different segments in the financial
    system has made it imperative to enhance the resilience of the sector, Das said. Therefore, it has
    been decided to put in place transparent criteria as per a matrix of parameters for declaration of
    dividends by different categories of NBFCs.
   A draft circular containing the proposed criteria and parameters will be released soon for public
    comments. Further, the current regulatory regime for the NBFC sector, built on the principle of
    proportionality, warrants a review. It is felt that a scalebased regulatory approach linked to the
    systemic risk contribution of NBFCs could be the way forward. As part of the stakeholder
    consultation process, a discussion paper on this subject will be issued before January 15, 2021 for
    public comments.
   In April, RBI had announced that scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) and cooperative banks shall
    not make any dividend payouts from profits pertaining to the financial year ended March 31, 2020,
    until further instructions, which shall be reassessed based on financial results of banks for the
    quarter ending September 30, 2020.

3. Centre’s GST compensation formula gets nod from all States/UTs
   All the 28 States and three Union Territories with legislature have decided to go for the Centre-
    suggested compensation formula to meet the revenue shortfall arising out of the GST
    implementation. Jharkhand, the only remaining State, has now communicated its acceptance of
    Option- 1 given by the Centre. All the three Union Territories with Legislative Assembly, who are
    members of the GST Council, have already decided in favour of Option-1.
   The Central government has set up a special borrowing window for the States and Union Territories
    who choose Option-1 to borrow the amount of shortfall arising out of GST implementation. The
    window has been operationalised since October 23 and the Centre has already borrowed an
    amount of Rs 30,000 crore on behalf of the States in five instalments and passed it on to the ones
    who chose Option-1.
   Now Jharkhand will also receive funds raised through this window starting from the next round of
    borrowing. The next instalment of Rs 6,000 crore will be released on December 7.
   Under the terms of Option- 1, besides getting the facility of a special window for borrowings to
    meet the shortfall arising out of GST implementation, the States are also entitled to get
    unconditional permission to borrow the final instalment of 0.50 per cent of Gross State Domestic
    Product (GSDP) out of the 2 per cent additional borrowings permitted by the Centre under the
    Atmanirbhar Abhiyaan on May 17. This is over and above the Special Window of Rs 1.1-lakh crore.
   On receipt of the choice of Option-1, the Centre has granted additional borrowing permission of Rs
    1,765 crore to Jharkhand (0.50 per cent of the State’s GSDP).

4. Job cuts, salary adjustments not as widespread as apprehended, says CII study
   Despite a severe impact on revenue and cash inflows, display of compassion and community
    outreach produced a spontaneous level of commitment and loyalty from employees and that the
    job cuts and salary adjustments were not as widespread as originally apprehended, an industry
    body study said today.
   The CII study titled ‘Reimagining the Organisation for the New Normal: Role of HR’ conducted in
    partnership with Talentonic has revealed interesting facts about employer behaviour during the
    pandemic.

   As against what was widely perceived, reducing the headcount has been given 7th priority out of
    13 when it came to actions taken to deal with the crises while reducing or postponing salary or
    other payouts was given the 9th priority.
   The CII study was released today at the 10th CII National HR Conclave that brought together
    hundreds of CHROs and business leaders at a time when the ongoing pandemic has created
    humanitarian crises, bringing about major disruptions in lives of many.
   Releasing the report, Sanjay Behl, Chairman of CII National Committee on Leadership and HR, said
    that the CII conducted the study to understand these changes and the role of HR in this context. SY
    Siddiqui, Chairman of the Core Group conducting the study, observed that the insights and case
    studies captured here would provide a working direction to decision-makers in short and medium
    terms.
   Apart from the humanitarian aspect of providing livelihood support to employees in the current
    difficult period, the study revealed that the pandemic took a number of organisation to a more
    permanent reset wherein more permanent design changes are being made and entities are getting
    restructured.
   As per the study, empowerment has mushroomed as organisations struggled to find the agility and
    flexibility to deal with the crises. Moreover, work-from-home has solved many problems, although
    creating some concerns about fragmentation of cultures. In the whole period of the pandemic-
    induced disruptions, digitisation has been a huge tailwind but legacy issues remain, the study said,
    adding that it is also leading to the birth of a new leadership.
   The study has also distinctly identified a wide range of roles for the HR functions in what is now
    called the Year of the CHRO. These include keeping the balance between compassion and outcome,
    curating a new workplace culture, building flexibility in policy and process, and structuring
    organisations to produce outcome.
   Deepak Dhawan, FounderCEO of Talentonic, said: “The way the HR community in India has dealt
    with the crises has been truly remarkable. They have been on Ground Zero of the great reset and
    the role of HR and future challenges have clearly emerged.” The study combined survey responses
    from a wide range of CII members, spanning several sectors, and in-depth interviews with industry
    leaders across sectors and secondary research from published sources.

EDITORIAL DISCUSSION
    GENERAL STUDIES 2: GOVERNANCE

1. Desideratum of a liberal arts education in India
   With interminable unemployment and a burgeoning human population, the rising consciousness of
    reaping larger demographic dividends through vigorous skilling of the new millennium workforce
    and creation of innovative workplaces has defined the industry of education in recent times.
   The 2018 Future of Jobs report of the World Economic Forum notes that the future of work calls for
    greater creativity among the workforce, besides greater emotional intelligence, analytical thinking
    and decision-making, and a diversified knowledge base.
   In addition, the 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report speaks about the advent of ‘superjobs’
    wherein the job description is a hybrid of technical and soft skills unlike traditional job design,
    where working roles are fixed and steady. Inability of the current education system to fit the bill
    and the practicability of a liberal arts education to do so has generated worldwide debates on
    whether a liberal arts approach in teaching is the future of education.
   Recognizing this, the 2019 draft National Education Policy (NEP) proposed liberal arts as the key to
    comprehensive educational reforms in India. Liberal arts education has gathered a robust foothold
    in most of the advanced western nations while an emerging trend is being witnessed in the Asian
    nations.
   Its origins lie in ancient Greece where, to participate fully in workings of the Athenian democracy,
    citizens required to possess a wide range of skills across disciplines of trivium (verbal arts,
    grammar, logic and rhetoric) and quadrivium (numerical arts, astronomy, music and geometry).
    This type of an education attempted to cherish and nurture human freedom, freedom of thought
    and democratic participation.
   Centuries later, famous British theologian John Henry Newman defined liberal arts as a holistic
    education that fosters creativity and independent thinking, and allows to digest, master, rule and
    use knowledge, leading to survival, innovation and institutional diversity.
   The presence of liberal arts can also be traced back to the ancient Indian universities of Nalanda
    and Takshashila where the higher education curriculum consisted of a composite course of

humanities, social sciences, and natural and applied sciences. Needless to say, the profound ideals
    of a liberal arts education started fading away from the modern Indian education system with the
    advent of the fixed curriculum model of the British and a growing proclivity towards professional
    degrees.
   Why do we need a liberal arts education and why now? A liberal arts education is not just
    composed of ‘arts’ but a comprehensive approach towards learning that empowers an individual to
    acquire knowledge and skills, considered essential to deal with complexity, diversity and change. It
    enables students to attain a wider worldview via the paradigms of science, culture and society.
   We live in a social order where superstition, discrimination, and societal tension still leads the way.
    Liberal arts education attends to this by sensitizing students through development of a strong
    sense of social responsibility, cultural intelligence, critical thinking and progressive societal
    integration.
   Amusingly, traces of the liberal arts philosophy can be found in Mahatma Gandhi’s Wardha Scheme
    of Education of 1937. Designed to counter the ineffectiveness of primary education under the
    British rule, the scheme spoke about providing an education through some form of craft or
    productive work, such as fine arts or sports. Emphasis was laid upon freeing the child from the
    tyranny of purely academic instruction by a different set of instruction which can be self-supporting
    in later life.
   Although this scheme never came into action, it may be viewed as the basic structure for a modern
    liberal arts education in India. The 2020 NEP explicitly speaks about introducing a liberal arts
    approach in undergraduate programmes much akin to undergraduate college education in the
    western nations. Four-year undergraduate programmes in liberal arts is to be introduced with
    multiple exit options and appropriate certification for students.
   Moreover, five Indian Institute of Liberal Arts would be set up as ‘model multidisciplinary liberal
    arts institutions’. Overall, the NEP underlines critical thinking and creativity as the cornerstones of
    intellectual development of children. When implemented, this is expected to transform
    conventional classrooms into an ecosystem of constant creative learning.
   As such, what interventions do we need to initiate liberal arts curricula in our education system?
    Liberal arts courses may be introduced through effective practice in every discipline involving both
    departmental and interdepartmental offerings across the entire undergraduate program. Effective

practice refers to a range of pedagogic skills dedicated to bring about the best possible learning for
    a wide variety of learners.
   It may also be introduced at each stage of a student’s academic career. This will certainly open up
    learners’ perspective towards trans-disciplinary studies or intuitive thinking, which is necessary for
    the ‘superjobs’ we previously spoke about.
   This step may be followed by initiating classroom-based pedagogies of engagement. It refers to
    cooperative and problem-based learning that focuses on connecting with students, both
    emotionally and intellectually. Engaged pedagogy in liberal arts will enhance students’ retention of
    knowledge as well as its applicability in real life situations.
   Very recently, the higher educational institutions in Assam have introduced the Choice Based Credit
    System (CBCS) in their curricula as per the 2015 UGC CBCS directive. In this system, a ‘student-
    centric’ approach is followed which allows students to choose interdisciplinary courses or skill-
    oriented subjects based on individual learning goals. For instance, learners will get an opportunity
    to study Theatre Arts with Physics. This allows for greater flexibility and improved learning
    outcomes for them as they get prepared for jobs of the future.
   No doubt, the idea of a liberal arts education strikes a familiar chord with the CBCS system. With a
    sound CBCS framework in place, introducing a liberal arts approach would be much easier in
    educational institutions which will surely augment human capital formation in the state.

    GENERAL STUDIES 3: ECONOMY

1. Banking woes
   It is a sad but undeniable truth that public faith in the Indian bank system is being severely eroding
    for quite some years now. A number of occurrences in the past, related to deficiency in service,
    questionable dispensation of loans, sudden closure of banks due to insufficient resources and
    subsequent bailout efforts, etc., have raised question marks on the working of this vital sector, as
    also on the efficiency of the monitoring agency, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
   For instance, earlier this year it was disclosed that the RBI had allowed Indian banks to waive Rs
    68,607 crore loans obtained by the top 50 bank loan defaulters, ostensibly because there is no

possibility that this amount can ever be recovered! Not surprisingly, names of two absconders who
    fled the country and are living abroad, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, too were in the list.
   Although the RBI owed the nation an explanation as to how such a huge amount could be waived,
    there had been none so far! Similarly, the sudden collapse of Yes Bank, the fifth largest private
    bank of the country, in March this year, was a reminder that there is something rotten in the state
    of our banking industry, and that those responsible for ensuring accountability are not doing their
    jobs, given that Yes Bank’s management had successfully concealed its bad loan figures from RBI.
   The latest banking woe involves the HDFC Bank, the largest private sector lender in India, which
    apparently had been biting off more than it can chew, growing at a rate which its infrastructure
    cannot sustain, and thereby repeatedly having system-glitches which cause immense hardships to
    its clients.
   Apart from its lending, at 14.97 million customers, HDFC Bank is also the market leader in terms of
    the number of credit cards issued. On December 2, the RBI had to order HDFC Bank to halt all
    launches of its digital business generating activities under its programme Digital 2.0 and also to
    stop issuing credit cards to new customers.
   The directive of the RBI was due to several incidents of outages in internet banking, mobile banking
    and payment systems of HDFC Bank over the past two years, including recent outages in the bank’s
    internet banking and payment system on November 21 due to a power failure in the primary data
    centre. Considering that almost 90% of the lender’s transactions of this bank are digital, and with
    customers having been locked out of its online banking platform for as long as three days, the
    problems confronted by clients can well be imagined!
   No doubt the bank has pledged to “work with the experts and the regulator to fortify the identified
    areas for improvement,” yet frequent and prolonged glitches on such a reputed bank would serve
    further to erode public confidence in the banking sector.

GENERAL STUDIES 5: ASSAM POLITY

1. BTC election
   With the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) set to go for polls today, hectic politicking was
    witnessed across the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) landscape in its run-up. Ten constituencies
    in Udalguri and 11 in Baksa will go to the polls in the first phase with 132 candidates in fray. The
    second phase is scheduled for December 10. All the major political parties of the State were seen
    going the extra mile in their bid to woo the electorate in the 40 constituencies of the Council
    spread in the four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri.
   And unlike the previous three elections since the BTC’s formation in 2003, the polls this time are
    going to be different for reasons more than one. Political equations have changed dramatically in
    Bodoland following the recent peace accord with four factions of the NDFB and the ABSU – and the
    BJP’s severing its ties with the BPF which has been the dominant power in the BTC for three
    successive terms.
   Indeed, the ruling BPF is likely to find the going tough this time, with new equations threatening to
    cause an erosion of its share of both Bodo and nonBodo votes. Bodos constitute less than one-third
    of the total populace in BTR and the understanding between the BJP and the newly-floated but
    influential UPPL could severely impact the BPF’s electoral fortunes this time.
   The Hagrama Mohilary-led BPF will also be susceptible to the anti-incumbency heat as well after
    having been in power for three successive terms. While it is hazardous to make a precise guess on
    the poll outcome, one can foretell with conviction an intense poll battle not witnessed in Bodoland
    earlier.
   The shrill campaign of the BJP led by Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the retaliation by BPF
    supremo Hagrama Mohilary have added a lot of spice to the electoral battle. Indeed, the kind of
    keen interest taken by the BJP in the Council election goes to show that the saffron brigade is
    serious about further expanding its footprint in the Northeast.
   While the ruling BPF is banking heavily on its development poll plank, an aggressive BJP and its
    joining hands with the UPPL can topple the ruling party’s apple cart. The BPF has never really been
    able to improve the law and order in the region and that can well emerge as its Achilles heel, more
    so in view of the new equations this time.

   The biggest failure of the BPF has been its inability to crack down hard on the thriving racket of
    illegal firearms. The shadow of the gun always looms large over the electoral process in the region
    and the BTR administration, the State Government and the Election Commission will have to be
    proactive to ensure free and fair polls. Just a couple of days ahead of the polls, a huge cache of
    sophisticated arms, ammunition and explosives were recovered in Kokrajhar. The lawenforcing
    agencies have their task cut out before, during and after the elections.