Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 23rd March 2022

 CONTEXT

The Union Cabinet on March 9 approved the creation of the National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC)

WHAT IS THE NLMC AND WHAT WILL IT DO

• Firm, fully owned by the government
• Fall under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance
• Function –
  • Carry out the monetisation of government and public sector assets in the form of surplus, unused or underused land assets
  • Monetising underutilised or unused land parcels of Central Public Sector Enterprises
  • Facilitate the monetisation of assets belonging to PSUs that have ceased operations or are in line for a strategic disinvestment
  • The surplus land and building assets of such enterprises are expected to be transferred to the NLMC, which will then hold, manage and monetise them.
  • Act as an advisory body and support other government entities and CPSEs in identifying their surplus non-core assets and monetising them in an efficient and professional manner, maximising the scope of value realisation.

WHAT DOES MONETISATION MEAN

When the government monetises its assets, it essentially means that it is transferring the revenue rights of the asset (could be idle land, infrastructure, PSU) to a private player for a specified period of time. In such a transaction, the government gets in return an upfront payment from the private entity, regular share of the revenue generated from the asset, a promise of steady investment into the asset, and the title rights to the monetised asset.

WHAT ARE THE  WAYS OF MONETIZATION

• There are multiple ways to monetise government assets; in the case of land monetisation of certain spaces like offices, it can be done through a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) — a company that owns and operates a land asset and sometimes, funds income-producing real estate. Assets of the government can also be monetised through the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) model.
• There are different reasons why the government monetises its assets. One of them is to create new sources of revenue. The economy has already been hit due to the coronavirus pandemic and revenues are essential to fulfil the Narendra Modi government’s target of achieving a $5 trillion economy.
• Monetisation is also done to unlock the potential of unused or underused assets by involving institutional investors or private players.
• Thirdly, it is also done to generate resources or capital for future asset creation, such as using the money generated from monetisation to create new infrastructure projects.

HOW WILL THE NLMC FUNCTION?

The firm will hire professionals from the private sector with a merit based approach, similar to other specialised government companies like the National investment and infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Invest India

This is because asset monetisation of real estate requires expertise in valuation of property, market research, investment banking, land management, legal diligence and other related skill sets.

The NLMC will undertake monetisation as an agency function and is expected to act as a directory of best practices in land monetisation.

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE CHALLENGES FOR NLMC?

• The performance and productivity of the NLMC will also depend on the government’s performance on its disinvestment targets
• In FY 2021-22, the government has just been able to raise ₹12,423.67 crore so far through various forms of disinvestment. In the budget 2021-22, the government had initially set a disinvestment target of ₹1.75 lakh crore which was later brought down to ₹78,000 crore
• The procedure to find a bidder for state-owned carrier Air India also took a considerable amount of time and negotiations before the Tata Group came in.
• Besides, the process of asset monetisation does not end when the government transfers revenue rights to private players, identifying profitable revenue streams for the monetised land assets, ensuring adequate investment by the private player and setting up a dispute-resolution mechanism are also important tasks
• It had invited private parties to run 150 trains of the Indian Railways but when bids were thrown open, nine clusters of trains saw no bidders while there were only two interested bidders for three clusters. Even for these three clusters, IRCTC — the Railways’ own firm, was the single serious bidder. The presence of just a few serious bidders would also give rise to the possibility of a less competitive space, meaning a few private entities might create a monopoly or duopoly in operating surplus government land.

NEWS

Russian Ministry of Defence announced recently that it had used a hypersonic missile for the first time in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine

WHAT IS A HYPERSONIC MISSILE?

• Weapon system which flies at least at the speed of Mach 5 i.e. five times the speed of sound and is manoeuvrable
• Manoeuvrability of the hypersonic missile is what sets it apart from a ballistic missile as the latter follows a set course or a ballistic trajectory
• Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles do not follow a ballistic trajectory and can be manoeuvred to the intended target
• Two types of hypersonic weapons systems are Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGV) and Hypersonic Cruise Missiles
• The HGV are launched from a rocket before gliding to the intended target while the hypersonic cruise missile is powered by air breathing high speed engines or ‘scramjets’ after acquiring their target

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF HYPERSONIC MISSILES?

Can enable responsive, long range strike options against distant, defended or time critical threats (such as road mobile missiles) when other forces are unavailable, denied access or not preferred

ARE HYPERSONIC MISSILES DETECTABLE IN FLIGHT?

• A Congressional Research Service report on hypersonic missiles released in October 2021 states that hypersonic weapons could challenge detection and defence due to their speed, manoeuvrability and low altitude of flight
• Delayed detection makes it difficult for the responders to the missile attack to assess their options and to attempt to intercept the missile

WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE INDIAN HYPERSONIC MISSILE PROGRAMME?

• The Congressional report states that India is also developing an indigenous, dual capable (conventional as well as nuclear) hypersonic cruise missile as part of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle programme and has successfully tested a Mach 6 scramjet in June 2019 and September 2020
• India operates approximately 12 hypersonic wind tunnels and is capable of testing speeds upto Mach 13. 

 NEWS

Shaheed Diwas is observed every year in India on March 23 to mark the death anniversaries of the courageous freedom fighters- Sukhdev Thapar, Bhagat Singh, and Shivaram Rajguru

DETAILS

• The three freedom fighters who are particularly remembered on this day are- Sukhdev Thapar, Bhagat Singh, and Shivaram Rajguru
• What were they guilty of : Killing deputy police superintendent JP Saunders in 1928, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai
• All three were sentenced to death and it was on March 23, 1931, the trio was hanged in the Lahore Jail
• At the time when they were hanged, Sukhdev, Singh was 23 years old while Rajguru was only 22 years old

 NEWS

48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was held in Islamabad

OIC

• Was known as the Organisation of the Islamic Conference until 2011
• Second largest inter-governmental organisation in the world after the United Nations
• Membership of 57 countries spread across four continents
• Describes itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world”
• Objective - Safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world
• Established by the First Islamic Summit Conference held in Rabat, Morocco, in September 1969
• In 1970 the first meeting of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) was held in Jeddah, which decided to establish a permanent secretariat in that city, headed by the secretary general of the organisation

The OIC and India

• As the country with the world’s second largest Muslim community, India had been invited to the founding conference at Rabat in 1969
• In 2006, with post-reforms India having come to occupy an important position in the world, Saudi Arabia invited New Delhi to join as an Observer. But India stayed away because of a multiplicity of reasons, not least because as a secular country, it did not want to join an organisation that was founded on the religious identity of nations
• Again, at the 45th session of the Foreign Ministers’ Summit in May 2018, Bangladesh, the host country, suggested that India, where more than 10% of the world’s Muslims live, should be given Observer status. But Pakistan opposed the
• In 2019, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), invited then Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to address the Inaugural Plenary of the 46th Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Abu Dhabi as the “Guest of Honour”

OIC’s position on Kashmir

The OIC has been generally supportive of Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir, and has issued statements criticising the alleged Indian “atrocities” in the state. However, New Delhi has long been used to combating these statements, and has consistently and forcefully put forward its position

NEWS

United Nations is celebrating the World Water Day on 22nd of March in an effort to focus on importance of freshwater.

DETAILS

• The day is celebrated to commemorate water and it tries to raise awareness about the lives of billions of people who do not have access to freshwater.
• The main focus is to initiate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by the year 2030.
• The idea of World Water Day was conceived during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.
• The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on March 22 and declared observation of World Day for Water
• The day is further used to emphasise that water and sanitation measures are important to poverty reduction, economic growth, and environmental sustainability.

CELEBRATIONS IN INDIA

• World Water Day 2022 Celebrations with the theme “Groundwater-Making the Invisible Visible
• NMCG Organises “Young Minds: Pledging River Rejuvenation” Event Comprising Students & Leading Educators.