India, Russia said to suspend talks to settle trade in rupees

• India and Russia have halted efforts to settle bilateral trade in rupees, after months of negotiations failed to convince Moscow to keep rupees in its coffers
• This would be a major setback for Indian importers of cheap oil and coal from Russia who were awaiting a rupee payment mechanism to help lower currency conversion costs.
• With a high trade gap in favour of Russia, Moscow believes it will end up with an annual rupee surplus of over $40 billion if such a mechanism is worked out and feels rupee accumulation is ‘not desirable’
• The rupee is not fully convertible and India’s share of global exports of goods is just about 2%. These factors reduce the necessity for other countries to hold rupees.
• India started exploring a rupee settlement mechanism with Russia soon after the invasion of Ukraine. Most trade is in dollars but an increasing amount is being done in currencies like the UAE dirham.

SCO Ministers meet today to discuss economic ties

• Stepping up economic cooperation, including discussing national currency payments for mutual trade, will be on the agenda for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
• The proposal, which comes in the wake of the Ukraine war and sanctions imposed on Russia, which is one of the founder members of the organisation, came from Central Asian members, said sources, indicating that “initial discussions” had begun between the eight-member group
• India is already in bilateral discussions with Russia on using national payments, third-country payments and other means over circumventing unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union, and is part of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) grouping that is also discussing a multilateral payment mechanism.
• While traditionally, security and terrorism used to dominate the SCO’s agenda, but during its presidency, India is bringing on the table issues of economic and cultural cooperation between the members as well
• The sources said that the SCO Foreign Ministers will discuss the induction of Iran and Belarus as full members at their meeting, and will forward their applications to the summit.
• India, that has no ties at a political level with co-member Pakistan, and strained ties with SCO founder China due to the military stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) three years ago, as well as a member of U.S.-led groupings like the Quad which have been criticised by SCO co-founder Russia, India’s position is appreciated as a “balancing” force.
• India is able to play such a versatile role, as a member of different groupings such as Quad (U.S.-India-Japan-Australia), G-20, BRICS, in IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) and the SCO. This shows that India’s role is appreciated and India is seen as a balancing force

Stop caste survey immediately, High Court tells Bihar govt.

The Patna High Court ordered a stay on the caste-based survey being conducted by the Bihar government.

Advocate said the Bihar government was misusing the contingency fund and the right to conduct such surveys was beyond the State’s jurisdiction.

State, said the survey was being conducted to make plans for public welfare.

Data security concerns

The petitioners have made out a prima facie case against the continuation of the caste-based survey. There is also the question raised of data integrity and security, which has to be more elaborately addressed by the State

Prima facie, HC of the opinion that the State has no power to carry out a caste-based survey, in the manner in which it is fashioned now, which would amount to a census, thus impinging upon the legislative power of the Union Parliament

• Census:
  • The origin of the Census in India goes back to the colonial exercise of 1881.
  • Census has evolved and been used by the government, policymakers, academics, and others to capture the Indian population, access resources, map social change, delimitation exercise, etc.
  • However, as early as the 1940s, W.W.M. Yeatts, Census Commissioner for India for the 1941 Census, had pointed out that “the census is a large, immensely powerful, but blunt instrument unsuited for specialized inquiry.”
• First Caste Census as SECC (Socio-Economic and Caste Census):
  • SECC was conducted for the first time in 1931.
  • SECC is meant to canvass every Indian family, both in rural and urban India, and ask about their:
    • Economic status, so as to allow Central and State authorities to come up with a range of indicators of deprivation, permutations, and combinations of which could be used by each authority to define a poor or deprived person.
    • It is also meant to ask every person their specific caste name to allow the government to re-evaluate which caste groups were economically worst off and which were better off.
  • SECC has the potential to allow for a mapping of inequalities at a broader level.
• Difference Between Census & SECC:
  • The Census provides a portrait of the Indian population, while the SECC is a tool to identify beneficiaries of state support.
  • Since the Census falls under the Census Act of 1948, all data are considered confidential, whereas according to the SECC website, “all the personal information given in the SECC is open for use by Government
  • departments to grant and/or restrict benefits to households.”