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6 *When Yemen plunged into chaos after the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012, Houthi rebels mobilised forces and captured the capital city Sana a and western parts of the country. *Saudi Arabia, which shares a long border with Yemen, was wary of the rising influence of the Shia Houthis, who it sees as Iran-sponsored militia. *The Saudis formed a coalition of anti-houthi Sunni groups in Yemen and provided them with money and weapons, while its warplanes started attacking Houthi positions in March *The war has dragged on since, with Sana a still under Houthi control. *Saudi Arabia appears desperate to change the outcome of the war.

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8 *Past 33 months: Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemen with help from its Western allies, turning the country into a humanitarian tragedy. *United Nations: Yemen is now on the brink of the world s largest famine *17 million people are dependent on external aid for food and medicine, while the country is fighting a massive cholera outbreak. *The breakdown of government services, lack of drinking water and a crumbling health sector, besides the miseries of civil war and aerial bombardment, are fast turning Yemen into a failed state, and a breeding ground for extremist groups such as al-qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. *Houthis have ground-level support among Shias and perhaps assistance from Iran, but it is unclear whether they are capable of controlling the whole of Yemen and uniting its diverse populace. *On the other side, Saudi Arabia has allies on the ground and superior air power, but it has still failed to defeat the Houthis.

9 *- Power games: Houthi fighters guard a street leading to the residence of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sana a. Saleh, inset, was killed on Monday by his former allies, days after he parted ways with the Houthis and joined hands with Saudi Arabia.

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11 * BAIL-IN clause in the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 *Introduced in Parliament this August *Anxiety: safety of funds parked by millions of households in bank deposits *Fears that it will enable banks to be bailed in by depositors funds rather than being bailed out by taxpayers (or potential buyers). *When banks, in turn, face collapse, the fear is that depositors could face similar haircuts or write-downs on the value of their savings in the bank and perhaps be issued securities instead. *Mr. Jaitley said a lot of corrections could still take place; *the Bill is currently being reviewed by a parliamentary committee whose report will be considered by the Cabinet.

12 *The Bill proposes the scrapping of the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (set up in the early 1960s in the aftermath of the collapse of two banks), which guarantees repayment of bank deposits up to Rs1 lakh in case a bank is liquidated. * Need to revisit the existing Rs1 lakh deposit guarantee, which hasn t been revised since 1993 *A new Resolution Corporation under the Finance Ministry will steer financial entities out of the woods and offer a similar cover for deposits. *BAIL-IN clause: committee framing the FRDI law has noted that it should typically be used where continuing a firm s services is considered vital but its sale is unviable. *To ensure that those gains from Jan Dhan and Demonetisation should clarify about safety of deposit.

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14 *Simultaneous Elections: one nation one election *Mr. Modi also cited four reasons: Massive Expenditure: *Election Commission incurs a total cost of roughly Rs8,000 crore to conduct all State and federal elections in a span of five years, or roughly Rs1,500 crore every year. *Nearly 600 million Indians vote in India s elections, which means, it costs Rs27 per voter per year to keep India an electoral democracy. *0.05% of India s total annual expenditure is not a large price Code of conduct and polls *Agreed to by political parties in 1979 *prohibits the ruling party from incurring capital expenditure for certain projects after elections are announced.

15 *If India is indeed embarking on a path of cooperative federalism as the Prime Minister also claims, then more such projects will be undertaken by each State and not by the Centre. *The solution is to reform the code and not the electoral cycle. *Depending on their national leaders is the problem and the prerogative of the national parties. *West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, in 2016 Diversion of security and civil staff from primary duties; *A disruption to public life twice in five years is not a binding constraint in the larger interests of interim accountability. *The right of a voter to exercise her choice twice in a span of five years and hold governments accountable is much more important than just casting her vote once and having no option to express her opinion for the next five years.

16 Voter behavior *There is clear empirical evidence that most Indian voters tend to choose the same party when elections are held simultaneously to both Centre and State, with the relationship diminishing as elections are held farther away. Political autonomy *Today, any elected State government can choose to dissolve its Assembly and call for fresh elections. *If elections are to be held simultaneously, States will have to give up this power and wait for a national election schedule. *Goes against the very grain of political autonomy under our federal structure.

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20 *As the Maldives announced its Free Trade Agreement with China last week, alarm bells rang around the world. *In 1405, China s most famous sea warrior-diplomat, Admiral Zheng He, set sail on seven ocean voyages. * With 300 ships and around 28,000 men, Admiral Zheng s flotillas were an awe-inspiring sight as they travelled from Vietnam to Mecca to Africa, stopping in countries in the Indian Ocean such as India along the way. *Admiral Zheng s ostensible purpose was to carry gifts and goods for trade to each of the ports he reached. * He took Chinese silk, porcelain and lacquered goods and brought back spices, pearls, and rare woods. *But in later expeditions, he extended the Ming dynasty s desire for suzerainty to his agenda, often using muscle power when diplomacy didn t work. *Vira Alakesvara, the ruler of Sri Lanka, refused to recognise the Ming Emperor Yongle and was taken to China as a prisoner.

21 *China celebrated the 600th anniversary of Admiral Zheng s voyages in 2005, the U.S. began to worry about how far China would go with its naval ambitions. *China s goal, it said, was to build a blue-water navy to control the sea lanes, but also to develop undersea mines and missile capabilities to deter the potential disruption of its energy supplies from potential threats. * String of pearls is a byword in the region *Like the treasure voyages, the Chinese government has set out to win the world with three different sorts of maritime manoeuvres: the Belt and Road Initiative that includes the Maritime Silk Route, trade routes, and a string of naval bases and port projects from Djibouti, to Gwadar to Hambantota to the man-made islands of the South China Sea.

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24 *Convention Against Torture (CAT) came into force in 1987 and India signed it in *Today, the CAT has 162 state parties; 83 are signatories. *In refusing to ratify the CAT, India is in the inglorious company of Angola, the Bahamas, Brunei, Gambia, Haiti, Palau, and Sudan. *Promises to keep *In 2011, desiring to be appointed on the HRC of the UN, India took the extraordinary step of voluntarily pledging to ratify the CAT. *India has been making promises but doesn t seem intent on keeping them *UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said that it was an erroneous idea and a misconception that the state must enact legislation first and ratify later. *Ratification only signals the beginning of a process to amend national laws so that they conform to international human rights standards.

25 *Prevention of Torture Bill *food deprivation, forcible feeding, sleep deprivation, sound bombardment, electric shocks, cigarette burning, and other forms *Select Committee of Parliament endorsed the Bill and made some positive recommendations for rehabilitation, compensation and witness protection. *In showing the world that India has no intention of combating the terror of its own forces and of implementing its promises made to the UN, the government has undermined India s prestige. *To be a world power, India must act like one.

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27 Rape of minors to attract death in M.P. *The Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a Bill awarding death to those found guilty of raping girls aged 12 and below. *With this, Madhya Pradesh becomes the first State where those convicted of such rapes will face the gallows. *The Bill will now be sent to the President for his assent, after which it will become a law, *Capital punishment would be awarded to convicts under Section 376 (A), which is related to rape, and Section 376 (D, A), pertaining to gang-rape.

28 *Jack of all fruits and king of Tumakuru *it produces a unique variety of jackfruit, with deep, coppery red flakes that are not only tasty but also have high nutritive value. *But now the farmer is set to earn 10 lakh from this tree over the next year. *Since Mr. Paramesha does not have the wherewithal to multiply this variety, the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with him, under which its scientists will multiply it through grafting. *IIHR will not only sell these saplings under its banner but will also provide 75% of the proceeds to the farmer.

29 *Rajasthan Ordinance lapses *The controversial criminal law Ordinance of the Rajasthan government, which gave protection to the public servants and imposed restrictions on the media, lapsed *The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, promulgated on September 6, provided immunity to serving and retired public servants, judges and magistrates from probe and prosecution on complaints about their alleged offences without prior sanction by the authorities. *After the Bill s introduction in the Assembly, the Ordinance was valid for a six-week period, which ended on Monday. *It also barred the media from reporting on such accusations till the sanction was given.

30 *Rajnath calls meet of CMs on Rohingya *The issue of Rohingya and Bangladeshis trying to cross over to India would be among the key issues to be discussed at a meeting of Chief Ministers of eastern States called by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on December 7 in Kolkata. *Cross-border smuggling of fake currencies and drugs will also be included on the agenda. *The Chief Ministers and Home Ministers of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram will huddle for the day-long meeting where the illegal entry of Rohingya and Bangladeshis would be discussed threadbare, a senior official with the Home Ministry said. *As per the official estimate, around 36,000 Rohingya are currently living in various parts of India.

31 *Use discretion fairly in probes, Jatiley tells DRI *Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday asked revenue intelligence officials to use their discretion fairly and reasonably in their investigations and use technology to deal with offenders. * The power of revenue officers are quite wide so the exercise of discretion has to be fair, reasonable and productive, he said at the celebration of 60th anniversary of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), CBEC. *Mr. Jaitley said that only when the success rate of prosecution and penalty is high, it would act as a deterrent to offenders. *Technology is a great enabler for the offenders and the DRI should use it effectively to track down economic crimes.

32 Centre prepares to redefine employment *For the past three and half years, the NDA government has had a battle on its hands when it came to providing an enabling ecosystem for adequate job creation. *The government s own data showed that job creation in the formal sector was slowest in almost a decade, but it has said that it felt the ground reality on jobs was not being properly captured as the existing system takes into account only the formal sector. *commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu said all the economic activity in India, including in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and informal sectors, will soon get properly captured.

33 *21st century India cannot shun leprosy patients: SC *Twenty-first century society cannot justify shunning persons affected by leprosy or keeping them hidden in homes and away from the mainstream, the Supreme Court declared in an order on Monday. *The court asked the Centre to respond in eight weeks to a call to repeal 119 Central and State laws in practice since the 1950s that discriminate against leprosy patientsdespite the fact that modern medicine completely cures the disease.

34 *Questions 1. Who? 2. If Chief Justice of India is not available, then who will administer the oath of office to the President? 3. What is MTCR? How it helps India?

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