Army to convene selection board for women personnel
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in news:
- Army headquarters is in the process of convening a special selection board for screening women officers for grant of Permanent Commission (PC).
- Women officers who joined the Army through the Women Special Entry Scheme (WSES) and Short Service Commission Women (SSCW) are being considered.
Background:
- The Supreme Court in February 2020 had given a verdict that directed the government that women officers be granted PC and command postings in all services other than combat.
- In July 2020, a formal Government Sanction Letter was issued by the Ministry of Defence for the grant of PC to women officers in the Army.
Trump bars H-1B visa holders from federal jobs
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in News:
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order preventing federal agencies from contracting or subcontracting foreign workers — mainly those on H-1B visas.
Background:
- The move follows an announcement by the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) that it would outsource 20% of its technology jobs to companies based in foreign countries.
- In June 2020, H-1B visas, along with other types of foreign work visas were suspended until the end of 2020 to protect American workers in a crucial election year.
Key Details:
- The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) said the order comes at a time when there is a huge shortage of skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Management (STEM) in the U.S., that workers on short-term, non-immigrant visas such as H-1B and L-1 help bridge.
- NASSCOM is the association that represents the Indian IT services and ITES industry.
- It is opined that this measure would hit recovery when the world opens up post the COVID-19 induced lockdowns, as it is important for the U.S. to be able to access talent critical to the recovery phase.
Different Visas:
- H4 visas (H-1B dependents), L visas (intra-company transfers), as well as H-2B (non-agricultural workers) and J visas will be on pause through the year-end.
- H-1B visa is required to work in a specialty occupation. Requires a higher education degree or its equivalent. Includes fashion models of distinguished merit and ability and government-to-government research and development, or co-production projects administered by the Department of Defence.
- L1 visas allow companies to transfer highly skilled workers to US for a period of up to seven years.
- H-2B visas allow food and agricultural workers to seek employment in the US.
- H-1B, H-2B, J and L visa holders, and their spouses or children already present in the US shall not be impacted by the new worker visa ban.
- The order was issued ostensibly to protect American jobs during the ongoing pandemic.
- It has been criticised by the tech industry as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle as damaging to the U.S. economy.
Why did the US suspend non-immigrant worker visas?
- Since it was started in 1952, the H-1 visa scheme has undergone many changes and revisions to allow or disallow certain categories of skilled workers in the US, depending on the economic situation of the country.
- The technology boom coupled with the arrival of the internet and low-cost computers in developing nations such as India and China saw a large number of graduates willing to work at relatively low costs in the US, a win-win situation for both the employer and the employee.
- However, it has since often been criticised for sending low cost workers to the US at the expense of domestic workers.
- In his executive order extending the ban, Trump said that while under normal circumstances, “properly administered temporary worker programs can provide benefits to the economy,”, the extraordinary economic contraction created due to COVID-19 posed a threat to the US workers.
How does it impact Indian IT companies?
- Indian IT companies are amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the US H-1B visa regime, and have since the 1990s cornered a lion’s share of the total number of visas issued each year.
- Indian IT companies also offer subcontracts to Indian nationals already present in the US with valid H-1B visas.
- As of April 1, 2020, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had received about 2.5 lakh H-1B work visa applications, according to official data.
- Indians had applied for as many as 1.84 lakh or 67 per cent of the total H-1B work visas for the current financial year ending March 2021.
- Apart from the suspension of these work visas, the executive order signed by Trump has also made sweeping changes to the H-1B work visa norms, which will no longer be decided by the currently prevalent lottery system.
- The new norms will now favour highly-skilled workers who are paid the highest wages by their respective companies.
- This could result in a significant impact on margins and worker wages of Indian IT companies which send thousands of low-cost employees to work on client sites in the US.
- However, as per research agency ICRA, the move will be mildly negative for the Indian IT services sector considering their high dependence on such visas.
Ahead of FATF meet, India to highlight Pakistan’s inaction
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in news:
In the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meetings scheduled in October 2020, Pakistan’s performance in acting against terror-financing infrastructure will be assessed.
Key Details:
- The Pakistani establishment has to prove that it is serious about dismantling the terror-funding infrastructure.
- Pakistan has to ensure that cases against key figures and organisations involved in raising funds and masterminding terror attacks attain finality and such elements are punished.
- Ahead of the crucial FATF meetings, Indian agencies plan to highlight its inaction in the Pulwama, 26/11 Mumbai attack and Daniel Pearl murder cases.
- The United States has also repeatedly asked Pakistan to bring four accused persons, Mazhar Iqbal, Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, to justice.
- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established in 1989after a decision by members of the G-7 and the European Commission. It functions out of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris.
- The 9/11 terror attacks pointed out that if the world were to actually fight global terror, it would need to not only follow the money trail for terror financing but also hold countries that allowed terrorists safe haven and financial assistance to account.
- In October 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S., the FATF which was up till then working onmoney laundering and white-collar crimes, met in Washington DC to discuss a radical shift in its goals.
- The FATF plenary then adopted an eight-point amendment to its charter that added Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT)to its tasks on Anti-Money Laundering (AML/CFT).
Functioning of the FATF:
- FATF has 39 member-countrieswhich regularly review the conduct of nations in stopping terror-related transactions worldwide.
- FATF is not an enforcement agency itself, but a task force composed of 39 member governments who fund the FATF and agree on its mandate. This means that FATF depends on the voluntary implementation of its reports by member countries. The FATF follows a principle of ostracism against members who don’t comply with its strictures along with collaboration with the global banking system.
- Decisions are made by the grouping on a consensus basis, as they conduct reviews of countries on AML/CFT parameters (called “Mutual evaluations”), and then either clear them, or use a “colour coded” reference for them, placing countries in the “increased monitoring” category or the “grey list”, or the “high risk jurisdictions” or “call for action” category, as the “blacklist”is formally known.
- At present, only Iran and North Korea are on the blacklist, while 18 countries, including Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Iceland, Jamaica and Mauritius, are on the grey list.
- The decisions are taken by consensus in the 39-member group, which has helped ensure that the FATF doesn’t at present suffer from the polarisation that has virtually paralysed the UNSC. The FATF runs differently from other multilateral agencies, as its primary focus is on reviewing all actions based on technical guidelines and there is very little scope for geopolitics.
India’s stakes:
- India became an observer in the grouping in 2006, and was inducted as a full member in 2010.
- India’s long and sometimes lone battle over the past few decades in holding Pakistan to account for cross-border terror activities, including in Jammu and Kashmir, the IC-814 hijacking, 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Pathankot airbase attack in 2015, Uri Army base in 2016, and many others has had limited effect.
- While Pakistan has clearly disregarded warnings from India, the U.S. and other countries to crack down on a number of cross-border terror groups that exist on its soil, it remains eager to avoid the FATF strictures.
- Pakistan has been kept on the group’s radar since 2008 and is currently on the grey list. It has to prove that it is making progress on the FATF’s report, that gave it a gruelling 27-point action plan to fulfil, or face a blacklisting, which means severe financial restrictions, a downgrading by credit agencies, and most significantly, possible loan cuts by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- Pakistan has taken a few measures owing to pressure by the FATF. It has changed terror laws to include all UN Security Council-designated individuals and organisations, shown progress in the prosecution of leaders of LeT and JeM including the re-arrest of the Mumbai attack’s mastermind Hafiz Saeed, and has tightened all banking mechanisms to show that it has frozen funding to the terror groups.