Prashant Mavani, is an expert in current affairs analysis and holds a MSc in Management from University of Surrey (U.K.). Above all he is a passionate teacher.

Veer Vinod Kinariwala20-Sep-1924 to 09-Aug-1942

• Union government’s position: Rohingya a potential security threat is a disturbing attempt to paint the persecuted community in a poor light so that it could justify their deportation in future.• Security angle: There are many anti-India insurgent groups in Myanmar. These groups are responsible

for violence in North East India.

• Centre’s affidavit in the Supreme Court• that providing for refugees from out of the country’s limited resources would have an adverse impact on

its citizens, as they would be deprived of their legitimate share in employment, housing, educational and medical facilities

• that there is growing stridency in Rohingya militancy• that Buddhist citizens face threat of violence from the refugees

• The intention to deport them by itself constitutes an unusual abandonment of humanitarian principles, as India has an exemplary record in taking care of refugees from many countries since Independence.

• India is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, 1951, but it has so far adhered to its normative standards.

• Principle of non-refoulement: under which refugees cannot be forced to return to conditions of danger.

• Deportation of illegal immigrants is a matter of executive policy.

• The right to life and liberty under Article 21 is not confined to citizens, but anyone who has to face the rigours of law on Indian soil.

• But when an entire class of people is identified for deportation and accused of plotting against the host country, it is unlikely that fairness can be assured in every case.

• Big brothers cant behave in such a way.

• On September 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi admonished a students convention for forgetting the significance of 1893.• “Had we not forgotten the significance of our own 9/11, there would have been no

9/11 in 2001,” he added.

• Swami Vivekananda’s speech: “I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.”

• S.D. Singh, the Inspector General of Police in Jammu, where the largest Rohingyaconcentration is located, has told NDTV that there are only a few cases of petty crime against them, the sort that poor refugees are often accused of, and they are not a threat to national security. Several other police officers have said that the same seems to be true of Rohingya settled in Jaipur, Delhi, Chandigarh and parts of Haryana such as Faridabad and Mewat.

• Second, the claim that the Rohingya are carrying out hawala transactions is nothing but an insult to their poor and wretched status. If they had the money for hawala transactions they would surely spend it on improving their miserable existence.

• Third, the claim that the Rohingya will indulge in violence against Buddhists in India is simply bizarre. You could just as well say that Hindu refugees fleeing Pakistan and Bangladesh could be a threat to Indian Muslims. This argument suggests the government is dredging up whatever fear it can to demonise the Rohingya in the eyes of the Supreme Court.

Suu Kyi promises to resettle ‘verified’ Rohingya refugees

• Suu Kyi pledged on Tuesday to hold rights violators to account over the Rohingya crisis but refused to blame the country’s army, as the UN Secretary-General demanded an end to the military campaign and a better deal for the Muslim minority.

• U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: “The authorities in Myanmar must end the military operations and allow unhindered humanitarian access,” Mr. Guterres told the UNGA’s opening. “They must also address the grievances of the Rohingya, whose status has been left unresolved for far too long.”

• In her 30-minute speech, Ms. Suu Kyi reached out to critics and said Myanmar stood ready to take back refugees in accordance with a “verification” process agreed with Bangladesh in the early 1990s. “Those who have been verified as refugees from this country will be accepted without any problems,” she added.

• Without blaming any single group, Ms. Suu Kyi promised to punish anyone found guilty of abuses “regardless of their religion, race or political position.”

• Iraqi Kurdistan’s decision to go ahead with a proposed independence referendum

• Kurds, the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia but without a state, are scattered in various countries, including Turkey, Iran and Syria.• In Turkey, Kurdish rebels are involved in a protracted civil war, while in Syria they have established a

regional government.

• For generations, Iraqi Kurds have been at the receiving end in the dysfunctional relationship between Baghdad and Erbil.

• Scheduled for September 25• Iraqi Supreme Court has already asked the Kurdistan Regional Government to suspend the vote

• Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has threatened to use force if the referendum turns violent.

• Fears that a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum, which is almost certain, would enhance the nationalist aspirations of Kurds living in other countries and further destabilise the region.

• Mr. Barzani himself has often signalled compromise.

• In recent years, both Baghdad and Erbil cooperated in the fight against the Islamic State.

• Opportunity for Bagdad to sort out the issue

• Wait and watch

• Global trade and intellectual property are at a crossroads.

• Trump administration is considering pulling the U.S. out of most free trade agreements on the ground that it needs a more favourable environment for its companies and its people.

• Trade deals are becoming the new Trojan horse to ensure stronger patent protection and continued profits to global companies.

• he Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) embodied an international regulatory regime for the first time, in 1995.

• Although it represented a major compromise for most developing countries, it was only the starting point for many other nations, which have since then promoted excessive protection of private investor interests through bilateral trade agreements, often at the expense of wider public interests.

• Corporate libertarians, riding high on increased market power, continue to lobby their governments for absolute protection of intellectual property (IP) rights of corporations.

• Over the past 20 years, the American strategy has been a neat one: to pursue bilateral agreements with individual countries one by one to ensure stronger IP protection across markets, by sidestepping the multilateral regime.

• Crux of the matter• patent protection is getting stronger in all sectors in a large number of countries• the conditions for its grant are becoming greatly relaxed

• With little show of original effort as in the case of evergreening — but also patents can be claimed on all possible inventions (and discoveries) that are of relevance to the present, and even to the future.

• A superstar firm today is not necessarily one with the greatest technological breakthroughs or the largest research and development labs, but surely is one that has a large IP portfolio, engages in extensive litigation on patent issues, and thrives on licensing revenues.

• The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s recent Trade and Development Report calls for stronger measures to protect domestic sectors against the undue domination of large companies.• for example, the analysis that ranges 20 years (from 1996) shows that profits of domestic companies are

in sharp decline since the late 2000s while those for the American MNC affiliates operating in the Indian market are rising steeply.

• At home, support for innovation has to be accompanied with instruments that guard against the misuse of market power, coercive bargaining and aggressive merger and acquisition strategies if local firms should survive and flourish.

• Upcoming WTO meet in Argentina: reopen the discussion on balancing the global IP system with development.

Trump vows to ‘destroy’ North Korea

• U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea unless Pyongyang backs down from its nuclear challenge, mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

• His comments rattled the world leaders gathered before him in the green-marbled U.N. General Assembly hall, where minutes earlier U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had appealed for statesmanship.

• Mr. Trump’s ire was focussed largely on North Korea and Iran, and while he thanked Russia and China for supporting the efforts to deal with the threats from Pyongyang, he also indirectly criticised them when he said that any trade with North Korea was morally questionable.

• USA also backed India’s entry in to United Nations Security Council as a permanent member.

25 new judges for two HCs

• In a move towards reducing the large number of vacancies in the higher judiciary, President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday cleared the appointment of 25 judges in two High Courts.

• Additional judges usually have a term of two years and are elevated to the rank of a permanent judge based on their performance.

• Apart from the fresh appointments on Tuesday, the Supreme Court collegium also has to decide on 60 recommendations from 13 High Courts across the country.

• The collegium also has to take a call on appointing full-time Chief Justices for the High Courts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Calcutta, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Manipur. They are currently headed by Acting Chief Justices.

India calls for a representative UN• India has extended support to efforts of U.S. President Donald Trump to reform the

UN, saying it should include the expansion of the number of permanent and non-permanent members of the world body to keep pace with the changed times.

• During a discussion on UN reform on Monday, Mr. Trump insisted that he had always seen the “great potential” of the organisation, but warned that “bureaucracy” was stopping it from realising its potential.

• The high-level meeting on UN reforms chaired by Mr. Trump. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also attended the meeting.

• Mr. Guterres said,• “We are reforming our peace and security architecture — to ensure we are stronger in

prevention, more agile in mediation, and more effective and cost-effective in peacekeeping operations.

• “We are reforming our development system to become much more field-focused, well-coordinated and accountable to better assist countries through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — our contribution to a fair globalisation.”

• “We need to bring decision-making closer to the people we serve; trust and empower managers; reform cumbersome and costly budgetary procedures; and eliminate duplicative structures,” he added.

Rajnath reviews steps for cybersecurity

• Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday reviewed the preparedness of agencies to check financial cybercrimes.

• In view of the growing number of financial frauds using cards and e-wallets, Mr. Singh asked agencies to strengthen surveillance and legal frameworks to check the menace

• Capacity building of various stakeholders such as police officers, judicial officers, forensic scientists as well as officials in the banking sector has been identified as a key measure, the official added.

• As per the information reported to, and tracked by, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 44,679, 49,455 and 50,362 cybersecurity incidents were observed during 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.• CERT-In is an office within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. • It is the nodal agency to deal with cyber security threats like hacking and phishing.

August was second hottest on record: NASA

• Last month was the second warmest August in 137 years of modern record-keeping, according to an analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA.

• The measured value is “consistent with the trend in global average surface temperatures that has been observed during the past few decades”, NASA said.

• Last month was 0.85 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean August temperature from 1951-1980. It was surpassed by August 2016, which was still affected by the 2015-2016 El Nino and was 0.99 degrees Celsius warmer than normal, according to the agency.

• The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations did not cover enough of the planet.

Mexico plans a Mayan theme park

• Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced plans on Monday for an $840 million Mayan theme park on the Caribbean coast to rival the major theme parks in the United States.

• Mr. Pena Nieto said the park would bolster Mexico’s place as a “high-quality tourism destination”.

• Mexico became the eighth most-visited country in the world last year, according to the World Tourism Organization, with 35 million international arrivals who spent some $19.6 billion.

• The vital sector represents some 8.7% of the Mexican economy.

• Questions

1. Name fuels that are out of GST regime

2. Important river/s of Iraq

3. Bamiyan Buddha are found in which country?

4. The only primate found in Sundarbans are?

The End

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