GS-II: Village Volunteer System.

Context:

The ward and village volunteer system has been launched in Andhra Pradesh.

About Village Volunteer System

• The scheme would be officially launched on 2 October 2019, which also marks 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It is aimed at providing governance services at doorsteps of people. Basic idea behind implementing scheme is to infuse confidence among people in government and to see that their basic needs are met at their door-steps.
• Village secretariats would be set up in each village to deliver governance to people in 72 hours. This scheme involves provision of one volunteer to cover 50 families in each village. Identity cards would be given to the volunteers and they would be given an honorarium of Rs 5,000 per month. The volunteers would first identify the beneficiaries, get to know their problems and then delineate the schemes being provided by the government for them.
• Telephone No Toll-free telephone number 1902 would be set up at call centre in Chief Minister Office (CMO) to receive grievances of people.

Significance

The scheme will be able to reach poorest of poor and make all villages self-sufficient.

GS-II: Chief Defence Service

Context

In his Independence Day address, Prime Minister announced the creation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff.

Who is Chief Defence Service?

• The Chief of Defence Staff is meant to be a single-point military advisor to the government on important defense and strategic issues for the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense.
• On long-term it provides for defence planning and management, including manpower, equipment and strategy, and above all, “jointsmanship” in operations.
• In most democracies, the CDS is seen as being above inter-Service rivalries and the immediate operational preoccupations of the individual military chief.
• India being a nuclear weapons state, the CDS will also act as the military advisor to the Prime Minister on nuclear issues.
• It is not clear yet how long the tenure of the CDS will be and whether the rank of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) will be the same or higher than the three army chiefs.
• Worth to mention here that all major countries, especially the nuclear weapon states, have a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

The history behind Chief Defence Service in India

It is not the first time that creation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is in progress. The proposal for setting up a Chief of Defence Staff has been contemplated around 20 years ago after the Kargil war of 1999 by the K. Subrahmanyam committee. But in the absence of political consensus and apprehensions among services it never moved forward.

What is the current status?

As of now the senior-most of the three Chiefs functions as the Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC). The role of COSC is additional and the tenures have been very short.

Why change it now?

• CoSC arrangement is seen as “unsatisfactory”, and its Chairman as a “figurehead”.
• The post did not further tri-service integration, resulting in inefficiency and an expensive duplication of assets.
• The CoSC system is a leftover from the colonial era, with only minor changes being carried out over the years.
• Apprehensions in the political class about a powerful military leader, along with inter-Services bickering, have long worked to disincentivise the upgrade of the post.

Naresh Chandra Committee recommendations

• In 2011, more than a decade after the KRC Report, the UPA government which had opposed the CDS proposal when in opposition, set up the Naresh Chandra Committee on defence and security.
• The 14-member Committee, comprising retired Service Chiefs and other defence experts, suggested a watered-down version of the CDS proposal, in which the Chairman CoSC in the rank of a four-star officer would have a fixed tenure of two years.

Way Forward

• Navy played a silent role while the Army and Air Force collaborated to evict intruders from Indian soil.
• The lessons learnt then prompted the K. Subrahmanyam Committee to propose having a CDS for the first time.
• But the threat matrix has changed since 1947 and the Indian Ocean region is fast metamorphosing into a major arena of friction, with increasing forays by the Chinese Navy and building up of regional navies with help from China.
• In a conflict situation, what would unfold are short and swift skirmishes which call for agility and swift action by the three services in unison.

GS-II: FATF group ‘blacklists’ Pakistan

Context

Terror funding watchdog FATF Asia-Pacific Group ‘blacklists’ Pakistan.

News

• Pakistan has been placed on the lowest rung, or “Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List (Blacklist) of the Financial Action Task Force’s Asia Pacific Group (APG) .
• The APG is one of nine regional affiliates of the FATF.
• APG has found Pakistan non-compliant on 32 of the 40 compliance parameters of terror financing and money laundering.
• While the placing does not bring any new punitive measures on Pakistan, it will mean quarterly reporting to the group on improvement in its financial safeguards.
• In June, the FATF had warned Pakistan that its failure to complete its action plan on terror financing could possibly lead to the country getting blacklisted.
• The Paris plenary of FATF in October will decide whether to remove Pakistan from the greylist, continue the listing, or downgrade it to a blacklist of non-cooperative countries.
• Officials said the downgrade might not occur, given that any three countries in the FATF can veto it, and Pakistan is likely to secure the backing of China, Turkey and Malaysia.
• Nevertheless, the APG decision on Friday would make it difficult for Pakistan to extricate itself from the greylist.

What are Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established in July 1989 by a Group of Seven (G-7) countries in a Summit held in Paris. The initial motive of FATF was to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering.
• In October 2001, the FATF expanded its wings to incorporate efforts to combat terror financing, money laundering and human trafficking.

Functions

• The FATF is an independent inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system so that it could not be used by terrorists and other anti-social elements.
• FATF has started dealing with Virtual currency.
• The FATF is an international policy-making body. It does not have any role in law enforcement matters, investigations or prosecution.

What are the Black List and Grey List of the FATF?

Black List

Countries which are supporting terror funding and money laundering activities are listed in the Black list. The FATF blacklist or OECD blacklist has been issued by the Financial Action Task Force since 2000 and lists countries which it judges to be non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terror funding.

Grey List

Those countries which are considered as the safe heaven for supporting terror funding and money laundering; included in this list. The inclusion in this list is not as severe as black listed.