Morning Brief: Economy Back On Growth Track; China’s New Doklam Tantrum; Cyclone Ockhi Wreaks Havoc

Good morning, dear reader! Here’s your morning news and views brief for today.

Economy Back On Growth Path: India’s economy seems to have emerged from the shadows of the impact of demonetisation and rollout issues linked to goods and services tax (GST) as the country’s growth staged a recovery in the September quarter. Data released by the Central Statistics Office on Thursday showed that the economy grew 6.3 per cent in July-September, the second quarter of the current fiscal year — faster than the June quarter's 5.7 per cent — the expansion led by robust manufacturing. "The deceleration trend in the overall growth which was witnessed since the first quarter of last fiscal year has been now reversed; The acceleration in growth this quarter has been helped by a rapid growth in manufacturing which increased from 1.2 per cent in the first quarter to 7 per cent in the second quarter," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. Growth had slowed to a three-year low in the first quarter as the impact of demonetisation and GST implementation issues hurt expansion.

Ban On Sale Of Cattle For Slaughter To Be Lifted: The Union government has put in motion a plan to withdraw its controversial 23 May notification banning sale of cattle for slaughter in livestock markets. The Environment Ministry has written to the Law Ministry seeking its view on withdrawal of the notification so it can bring an amended version in what sources described as a preliminary move. "Final decision on the amended version is awaited as consultations are still going on. The government had made it clear long ago that it would revisit the May notification and bring clarity to the entire issue," an official said. Sources in the environment ministry said talks were held on a suggestion to remove buffaloes from the definition of cattle. Animals which come under the purview of the notification are cows, bulls, bullocks, buffaloes, steers, heifers, calves and camels.

Indian Railways To Interconnect Metros With High-Speed Train Network: The Indian Railways is looking for an August 2022 launch of its ambitious project of reducing travel time by interconnecting four major metros with high-speed network of trains running at 160 kilometre per hour (kmph). The current average speed of trains on this network – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata – is around 88-90 kmph. Sources in the ministry say that an extra budgetary allocation of around Rs 36,000 crore will be required for the project. Known as the Golden Quadrilateral, the project envisages creation of a 10,000 km network of semi-high speed routes connecting the four major cities is likely to be launched on 15 August 2022 to coincide with 75 years of India's Independence. "We are still finalising the blueprint and efforts are on to officially launch the project by August 2022 to coincide with the celebrations around India's 75th year of Independence," a railway official said.

SC Tells States To Set Up Trauma Centres In Each District: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked all state governments to set up one trauma centre in each district, saying treatment soon after a road accident is crucial for saving the life of the victim. A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta passed the orders as part of regular mandamus in a public interest litigation filed by S Rajaseekaran, an orthopaedic surgeon and president of Indian Orthopaedic Association. The top court issued a slew of directions for road safety to save thousands of lives lost in road accidents and crores of rupees paid to mishap victims as compensation. The directions included setting up of permanent road safety cells, collection of road accident data and making it public, universal accident helpline number, inclusion of road safety education in school curriculum, preparing protocol for road design and identification of black spots. The country has recorded one death every three minutes in road accident.

Eight Die In Tamil Nadu And Kerala As Cyclone Ockhi Wreaks Havoc: Heavy rains and gushing winds hammered the southern coast of Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Thursday as cyclone Ockhi left behind a trail of destruction. Eight people have died in coastal Kerala and Tamil Nadu and nearly 90 fishermen remained missing as a depression above the Bay of Bengal turned into a cyclonic storm. Cyclone Ockhi, meteorologists say, is heading for Lakshadweep and is unlikely to make landfall in India. Currently, it is hovering 130 km west-southwest of Thiruvananthapuram. Schools in seven districts across the two states have been closed. In Kanyakumari and Thoothukudi districts of Tamil Nadu, strong winds uprooted more than 500 trees, snapped power lines and damaged settlements close to the sea. Heavy showers are likely to continue for the next 24 hours.

Indian Army To Court-Martial Soldier Who Complained About Sahayak System On Social Media: The Indian Army will court-martial Lance Naik Yagya Pratap Singh, the soldier who used social media to air his grievances against the sahayak system prevalent in the army. Lance Naik Singh, who was serving in 14 Rajput, was to retire on Thursday. He has now been attached to the administrative battalion of the Rajput regimental centre till the completion of the district court martial proceedings against him, according to the order issued by Lt Gen Harish Thukral, General Officer Commanding Uttar Bharat. The soldier criticised the sahayak system in the Army and alleged that he was forced to "wash clothes, polish boots and walk dogs" for seniors. In a YouTube video that went viral, he claimed soldiers like him, who work as sahayak of the officers should not be made to polish shoes of officers.

China Hints At Maintaining Sizeable Troops Presence Near Doklam In Winter: Asserting that Doklam is in Chinese territory, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Thursday hinted at maintaining sizable presence of its troops near the standoff area this during winter. "Donglong (Doklam) is Chinese territory," Col Wu Qian, spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Defence said today. "Based on this principle we will decide on the deployment of troops on our own," he said. India and China resolved the 73-day tense standoff on 28 August at Doklam area after the PLA stopped building a strategic road close to India's narrow Chicken Neck area connecting to North-Eastern states. Bhutan also claims the Doklam area to be its part. India objected to the road building by the PLA, saying that it endangered the security of the narrow corridor.

Brace For A Colder Winter, Warn Weathermen: This winter is going to be colder than the last, India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned. "The season's mean temperatures in most of the subdivisions are likely to be cooler than last year," IMD said in its winter forecast issued on Thursday. The season's mean temperatures are likely to be colder than normal by 0.5 degrees celsius in Karnataka. The same trend is likely for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Konkon region. Normal to below-normal cold wave conditions are likely over core cold weather zone, said IMD. This zone covers Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana and Met subdivisions of Marathwada, Vidarbha, Sourashtra and Madhya Maharashtra.

MUST READ OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

Credit Ratings, GST And The Ease Of Doing Business: Although quarterly filing for all will even out the playing field, small businesses will still be handicapped by voucher matching, if and when it happens. Any value-added tax system can yield advantages only if there is certainty of getting tax credits. Only then can businesses price their product taking inputs at cost exclusive of tax paid.

To Fix The Exports Slowdown, Audit What India Imports, And Why: There is need to rethink the top-down architecture and allow states and local governments to promote special administration areas to lure investments. The crux of competitiveness is efficiency. If India enables its economy to deliver global quality at Indian prices global competitiveness will follow.

Responding To The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Challenge: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor gives China a foothold in the western Indian Ocean with the Gwadar port, located near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Given the challenges that the corridor is facing, India will need to do much more to provide an effective counter-narrative.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

Despite Beijing’s Denials, Proof Emerges Of China Planning Diversion Of Brahmaputra Waters: China is most unlikely to pay heed to any objections from India and will go ahead with the construction of the 1000-km long tunnel to divert the waters of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) to the arid zones of Xinjiang province, say experts. The economic, military and demographic benefits of this project for China far outweigh the costs it will incur and the censure it will earn from India and other countries.

We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!

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