To support the strategic use of essential resources such as rare earth elements, India has launched the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM). This initiative aims to strengthen the country’s supply chain for critical minerals by boosting domestic production and establishing alternative international supply partnerships. According to a presentation by the Ministry of Mines in January, global events like China’s export restrictions, the Russia–Ukraine conflict, and other geopolitical factors have exposed vulnerabilities in the global critical mineral supply, underscoring the urgency of diversifying sources.

As part of the NCMM, the Indian government plans to oversee or support around 1,200 mineral exploration projects. It also intends to offer exploration licenses to encourage private sector participation and conduct auctions for additional critical mineral blocks

• The meeting had several significant outcomes, with the most crucial being the decision to reinstate military-to-military communications between the United States and China.
• This restoration is deemed essential to avert potentially disastrous miscalculations between the two nuclear-armed nations.
• The decision entails the resumption of regular information exchange under the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement, initiated in 1998.
• These communication channels had been closed following a controversial visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, the then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, in August 2022.
• This visit marked the first by a Speaker in 25 years and led to heightened tensions, particularly given Taiwan's disputed status.
• Taiwan, a self-ruled island, remains a contentious issue between China and the United States.
• China aims for the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland, while the U.S., adhering to the "one-China" policy, acknowledges Beijing as the sole legitimate government but stops short of endorsing Taiwan as part of China.
• The U.S. provides concrete security guarantees under the Taiwan Relations Act, and President Biden has reiterated the commitment to intervene if China were to attack Taiwan.
• The visit by Nancy Pelosi drew strong condemnation from Beijing, which viewed it as a serious violation of the existing status quo.
• President Xi Jinping, emphasizing his determination to reunify Taiwan with the mainland, warned the U.S. that it was "playing with fire."
• In response, China demonstrated its displeasure by launching ballistic missiles off the Taiwan coast and conducting military drills as a deterrent.
• Despite these tensions, the meeting succeeded in reopening channels of military communication, a critical step in preventing misunderstandings and potential conflicts between the two powerful nations.

3. Trade Dispute Dynamics

• Amid heightened political tensions between the United States and China, businesses from the world's two largest economies grapple with a volatile economic and trade policy landscape.
• President Biden, shortly after assuming office in June 2021, issued an executive order blacklisting 59 defence and surveillance companies associated with the "Chinese military-industrial complex."
• This move, coupled with the Trump administration's 2019 blacklisting of Chinese Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, set the tone for an increasingly contentious trade environment.

4. Strategic Economic Maneuvers

• Washington and Beijing strategically deploy their respective strengths to inflict maximum damage on each other.
• Notably, the Biden administration, in October 2022 and subsequently extended in October 2023, imposed sweeping controls on exports of advanced computer chips crucial for semiconductor manufacturing.
• These controls prohibit U.S. and non-U.S. firms with American technology in their products from supplying hardware and software to specific Chinese companies.
• American citizens and firms are also restricted from collaborating with Chinese chip makers without special permission.
• The rationale behind these export bans is to undermine Beijing's advancements in AI and supercomputing, which are perceived as threats to U.S. security interests.
• The Biden administration further reinforced its stance with an August executive order prohibiting U.S. investments in the high-tech sector.

5. China's Response and Counteractions

• China retaliated with reciprocal measures, imposing a ban in July on the export of gallium and germanium, essential raw materials for microchips and weapons system production.
• These materials are crucially listed in the U.S. inventory of items critical for economic and national security.
• Additionally, in October, China implemented restrictions on the export of various types of graphite, a vital mineral for electric vehicle battery production where China holds a dominant position in the global supply chain.
• The Chinese government further tightened control through anti-espionage and data protection laws, citing national security concerns.
• This led to the imposition of requirements on firms to designate digital tools specifically for China, establish China-specific email IDs, and segregate country-exclusive servers.
• The tit-for-tat measures underscore the complexity and intensity of the ongoing trade dispute between the two economic giants.

CIVIL SERVICES DAY

1. Context

2. Historical perspective

• Civil Servants for the East India Company used to be nominated by the Directors of the Company and thereafter trained at Haileybury College in London and then sent to India.
• Following Lord Macaulay’s Report of the Select Committee of the British Parliament, the concept of a merit-based modern Civil Service in India was introduced in 1854.
• The report recommended that the patronage-based system of East India Company should be replaced by a permanent Civil Service based on a merit-based system with entry through competitive examinations.
• For this purpose, a Civil Service Commission was set up in 1854 in London and competitive examinations were started in 1855. Initially, the examinations for Indian Civil Service were conducted only in London.
• The maximum age was 23 years and the minimum age was 18 years. The syllabus was designed such that European Classics had a predominant share of marks.
• All this made it difficult for Indian candidates. Nevertheless, in 1864, the first Indian, Shri Satyendranath Tagore brother of Shri Rabindranath Tagore succeeded.
• Three years later 4 other Indians succeeded. Throughout the next 50 years, Indians petitioned for simultaneous examinations to be held in India without success because the British Government did not want many Indians to succeed and enter the ICS.
• It was only after the First World War and the Montagu Chelmsford reforms that this was agreed to. From 1922 onwards the Indian Civil Service Examination began to be held in India also, first in Allahabad and later in Delhi with the setting up of the Federal Public Service Commission.
• The Examination in London continued to be conducted by the Civil Service Commission.

3. Appointments

• Similarly, prior to independence, superior police officers belonged to the Indian (Imperial) Police appointed by the Secretary of State by competitive examination.
• The first open competition for the service was held in England in June 1893, and 10 top candidates were appointed as Probationary Assistant Superintendents of Police.
• Entry into Imperial Police was thrown open to Indians only after 1920 and the following year examinations for the service were conducted both in England and India.
• Indianisation of the police service continued to be very slow despite the pronouncement and recommendations of the Islington Commission and the Lee Commission. Till 1931, Indians were appointed against 20% of the total posts of Superintendents of Police.
• However, because of the non-availability of suitable European candidates, more Indians were appointed to the Indian Police from the year 1939 onwards.

4. Regarding Indian Forest Service 

• Regarding Forest Service, British Indian Government started the Imperial Forest Department in 1864 and to organize the affairs of the Imperial Forest Department, the Imperial Forest Service was constituted in 1867.
• From 1867 to 1885, the officers appointed to Imperial Forest Service were trained in France and Germany. Till 1905, they were trained at Coopers Hill, London.
• In 1920, it was decided that further recruitment to the Imperial Forest Service would be made by direct recruitment in England and India and by promotion from the provincial service in India.
• After independence, the Indian Forest Service was created in 1966 under the All India Service Act 1951.

5. Classification of Civil Services

• Regarding Central Civil Services, the Civil Services in British India were classified as covenanted and uncovenanted services on the basis of the nature of work, pay scales, and appointing authority.
• In 1887, the Aitchinson Commission recommended the reorganization of the services on a new pattern and divided the services into three groups-Imperial, Provincial, and Subordinate.
• The recruiting and controlling authority of Imperial Services were the ‘Secretary of State’. Initially, mostly British candidates were recruited for these services.
• The appointing and controlling authority for Provincial services was the respective provincial government, which framed rules for these services with the approval of the Government of India.
• With the passing of the Indian Act of 1919, the Imperial Services headed by the Secretary of State for India were split into two-All India Services and Central Services.
• The central services were concerned with matters under the direct control of the Central Government.
• Apart from the Central Secretariat, the more important of these services were the Railway Services, the Indian Posts and Telegraph Service, and the Imperial Customs Service.
• For some of these, the Secretary of State used to make appointments but in the great majority of cases, their members were appointed and controlled by the Government of India.

6. Origin of Public Services Commission

• The origin of the Public Service Commission in India is found in the First Dispatch of the Government of India on the Indian Constitutional Reforms on the 5th March 1919 which referred to the need for setting up some permanent office charged with the regulation of service matters.
• This concept of a body intended to be charged primarily with the regulation of service matters found a somewhat more practical shape in the Government of India Act, of 1919.
• Section 96(C) of the Act provided for the establishment in India of a Public Service Commission which should “discharge, in regard to recruitment and control of the Public Services in India, such functions as may be assigned thereto by rules made by the Secretary of State in Council”.
• After the passing of the Government of India Act, of 1919, in spite of a prolonged correspondence among various levels on the functions and mechanisms of the body to be
  set up, no decision was taken on the setting up of the body.
• The subject was then referred to the Royal Commission on the Superior Civil Services in India (also known as Lee Commission).
• The Lee Commission, in their report in the year 1924, recommended that the statutory Public Service Commission contemplated by the Government of India Act, 1919 should be established without delay.
• Subsequent to the provisions of Section 96(C) of the Government of India Act, 1919 and the strong recommendations made by the Lee Commission in 1924 for the early establishment of a Public Service Commission, it was on October 1, 1926, that the Public Service Commission was set up in India for the first time.
• It consisted of four Members in addition to the Chairman. Sir Ross Barker, a member of the Home Civil Service of the United Kingdom was the first Chairman of the Commission.
• The functions of the Public Service Commission were not laid down in the Government of India Act, 1919, but were regulated by the Public Service Commission (Functions) Rules, 1926 framed under sub-section (2) of Section 96(C) of the Government of India Act, 1919.

7. Changes after the Government of India Act, 1935 

• Further, the Government of India Act, of 1935 envisaged a Public Service Commission for the Federation and a Provincial Public Service Commission for each Province or group of Provinces.
• Therefore, in terms of the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935, and with its coming into effect on 1st April 1937, the Public Service Commission became the Federal Public Service Commission.
• With the inauguration of the Constitution of India on January 26, 1950, the Federal Public Service Commission came to be known as the Union Public Service Commission, and the Chairman and Members of the Federal Public Service Commission became Chairman and Members of the Union Public Service Commission by virtue of Clause (1) of Article 378 of the Constitution.

• ASM is really important, keeping in mind the volatility of the Indian stock market.
• Let’s understand this with an example.
• If today, a stock enters the surveillance list. After entering the ASM, it will be moved to a 5% price band on the next day, which means now its price can only move 5% upwards or downwards from the previous day’s closing level. 
• The stock that entered the ASM list will discontinue if it is found to break the law of 5%. We can easily conclude from this that the stock is under strict rules upon entering the ASM list.
• Now assume that from the 5th day of trading, 100% of the margin money will be required to trade the stock, and if the PE ratio is moved above 100, the stock will come under the trade-to-trade settlement.
• Also, if the PE ratio is less than 10 or the Nifty 500 index, then the stock is removed from the list.
• Hence, we can say this discourages the intraday traders from trading, and the fight among these traders leads to a decrement in the price of the stocks that are seen as a drop in the price of the stock. 

4. Why should we care about ASM?