China–India relations, also called Sino-Indian relations or Indo–Chinese relations, refers to the bilateral relationship between China and India. China and India had historically peaceful relations for thousands of years of recorded history. But the tone of the relationship has varied in modern time, especially after the rule of Communist Party in China; the two nations have sought economic cooperation with each other, while frequent border disputes and economic nationalism in both countries are a major point of contention. The modern relationship began in 1950 when India was among the first countries to end formal ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan) and recognize the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate government of Mainland China. China and India are two of the major regional powers in Asia, and are the two most populous countries and among the fastest growing major economies in the world. Growth in diplomatic and economic influence has increased the significance of their bilateral relationship.

Cultural and economic relations between China and India date back to ancient times. The Silk Road not only served as a major trade route between India and China, but is also credited for facilitating the spread of Buddhism from India to East Asia. During the 19th century, China was involved in a growing opium trade with the East India Company, which exported opium grown in India. During World War II, both British India and Republic of China played a crucial role in halting the progress of Imperial Japan.

Relations between contemporary China and India have been characterized by border disputes, resulting in three military conflicts – the Sino-Indian War of 1962, the Sino-Indian war of 1967, and the 1987 Sino-Indian skirmish. In early 2017, the two countries clashed at the Doklam plateau along the disputed Sino-Bhutanese border. However, since the late 1980s, both countries have successfully rebuilt diplomatic and economic ties. In 2008, China became India’s largest trading partner and the two countries have also extended their strategic and military relations.

Despite growing economic and strategic ties, there are a lot of hurdles for India and the PRC to overcome. India faces trade imbalance heavily in favor of China. The two countries failed to resolve their border dispute and Indian media outlets have repeatedly reported Chinese military incursions into Indian territory. Both countries have steadily established military infrastructure along border areas including amidst the 2020 China–India skirmishes. Additionally, India remains wary about China’s strong strategic bilateral relations with Pakistan, and China’s funding to the separatist groups in Northeast India, while China has expressed concerns about Indian military and economic activities in the disputed South China Sea.

One of the major social issues in India is unemployment. As the Indian labour laws are inflexible and restrictive, and its infrastructure is poor, which is actually the main reason for India’s unemployment situation, according to The Economist. As of September 2018, according to the Indian Government, India had 31 million jobless people. The scenario of Assam, in the case of unemployment, is also worst. As per statistics made available by the state Skill Employment and Entrepreneurship department, the total numbers of registered employed in the state is 19,63,376; of them, 16,65,866 are educated or skilled ones and  2,97,510 unskilled ones. Further, as per statistics, the state has 942 unemployed medical graduates, 7,804 jobless engineering graduates, 327 jobless veterinary graduates, 832 jobless Agri graduates, 16575 postgraduates, 3,97,824 general graduates, 6,82,796 H.S.- passed candidates, 5,67,340 HSLC passed candidates and 46,137 others. The highest number of unemployed have their names registered in Guwahati which is almost 3 lakh. The lack of skill-based education in schools and colleges is the main reason for unemployment. Our education system is primarily concerned with the quality and knowledge and written examination more than practical based tasks. For these reasons, after completion of graduation, while facing interviews, students find themselves lacking in confidence and skills. The rapid growth of population also being the burden on cultivation, low productivity in the agriculture sector, defective economic planning, lack of capital etc are also some of the foremost reason for unemployment. The overall result of the unemployment is rate is already not so good; while now due to the coronavirus effect, it has left a devastating impact on the economy of India. The world has changed in the last few months, because of the rare disaster coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a tragically large number of human lives being lost. As the countries already implemented necessary quarantine and social distancing practices to prevent a pandemic, the whole world has been put in a Great Lockdown. There is uncertainty about its impact on people’s live and livelihoods. In addition, many countries are now facing multiple problems -a health crisis, a financial crisis, and a collapse in commodity prices which interact in complex ways. The COVID-19 crisis has led to a severe economic loss of the country. Within a month, unemployment rose from 6.7% on 15 March to 26% on 19th April. During the lockdown, an estimated 14 crore ( 140 million) people lost employment. It is reported that, compared to the previous year, more than 45% of households across the nation’s income is dropped. The Indian economy was expected to lose over 32,000 crore every day during the first 21 days of complete lockdown. The country’s unemployment rate rose to 27.11 % for the week ended May 3, up from the under 7% level before the start of the pandemic in mid-March, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said. The Mumbai-based think tank said the rate of unemployment was the highest in the urban areas, which constitute the most number of red zones due to the coronavirus cases, at 29.22%, as against 26.69% for the rural areas. When it was announced on March 25 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put the country under lockdown to arrest the spread of coronavirus infections; analysts had warned about the unemployment issue ever since then.  The government has so far announced income and food support to the vulnerable people as part of an Rs. 1.70 lakh crore fiscal stimulus to the economic -financial- and possibly humanitarian crisis. But it is a worst-case scenario, that 100 million and more Indian jobs will be at risk during and after the Covid-19 lockdown stage. From the end of March, most companies have come up with the three main decisions – dismissing the people, asking employees to go on indefinite leave without pay and slashing salaries by as much as 85%. During May-July, 2018, the beginning of the year of Narendra Modi’s government said the lack of employment opportunities and rising prices are India’s most pressing challenges. The lockdown has left tens of millions of migrant workers unemployed. They are often from rural areas but live most of the year in India’s megacities serving as day laborer’s, construction workers, or domestic help. Advocates for the poor say that while they support the lockdown to save lives, the way it has been rolled out with apparently little guidance for the poorest of India’s poor- may mean the lockdown itself endangers more lives than the coronavirus. India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced more than 22 billion in coronavirus relief money. Sitharaman told reporters  “ to reach food to the poorest of the poor, to reach money in the hands of those who need it immediately.” But according to many economists, that’s not enough, “ we need a much, much larger stimulus- at least two or three times that amount”, says Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Migrant workers fled India’s cities after Narendra Modi’s lockdown left them suddenly unemployed. Now the employers that let them go may need to offer big incentives to lure them back, “ the country has seen two lockdowns till now, both different in certain aspects, and now we have to think of the way ahead. Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted on Monday that the country will have to give importance to the economy as well, because the lockdown, has severely affected the economy.

In this ongoing crisis where coronavirus has spread the entire world, the economic condition of India, as well as  Assam too has seen a massive downfall. Assam’s educated unemployment rate stands at 17 lakh, as per data provided in the assembly on December 2019. In Assam too, the economic slowdown unfolded across the state, due to lockdown. Migrant workers and students from Assam stuck on different places of India have returned already. State Government has arranged food and lodging for them. The migrants who have returned to Assam say they won’t go back outside of Assam. They feel that it was a lack of opportunities that took them away, but now they will create opportunities locally. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal ordered to create jobs for the migrants who returned from the different parts of the country. He also mentioned prioritizing the skills of the migrant workers. “The Chief Minister directed the panchayat and rural development department to allot jobs under MGNREGA at the earliest.” An official release said. There is no clear indication as to when the country as a whole might emerge from the lockdown. So, it is also high time for the Government to look into the matter of unemployment seriously along with tackling the rare corona pandemic.

In the 20th century entire world considered USA, Russia, Japan and some of the European countries As the global leaders. But in the 21st century two more countries from Asia emerged as the global leader that is India and China. Now the question is who is a global leader? Though there is no clear cut definition, a global leader is one who can a play major role in world affairs, work for maintaining peace and tranquillity and can extend all type of help in preventing global crisis such as climate change, food insecurity, hunger, poverty etc.

As mentioned above India emerged as a global leader in the 21th century due to it’s all round development. She got freedom from British government in 1947.From there on she never looked back and made rapid progress in the growth trajectory. First of all entire credit goes to her founding fathers and constitution writers. They did not left any loophole in the constitution .They established a responsible legislative body to make law and new policy, an executive body to execute various policy enacted by legislation and an independent judiciary to safe guard the constitution and the fundamental rights of each citizens. No individual or politician in India can take the power and law into his own hand at will, like what is happening in African countries, even in Pakistan .Pakistan is a country got freedom with India but the military power there has the power to topple the civilian government creating instability. But this is not the case with India, her founding father made a system by amalgamating the best features of other democratic countries. That is why India is known as one of the stable country of the world.

Since independence India became part of all important international organisations and plays a significant rule in creation of non-aligned movement during the Russian USA cold war period. Now India is member of major international organisation such as UNO, WORLD BANK, IMF, UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO, WTO, FATF etc. Currently India is a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for two years for which the election was held this year. In that election she got a record 189 votes, only four countries voted against its membership. This shows her popularity throughout the world.

In the first three to four decade after independence India could not play any major role in international affairs due to her fragile economic condition and involvement in three major wars, two with Pakistan and one with China, she was mostly dependent on foreign aid for it’s socio economic and infrastructure development, but after 1991 economic liberalisation she has become a major contributor of aid to the third world countries. In 2008 India achieved a remarkable feat by becoming a trillion dollar economy. Currently India is at the cynosure of the world leader for it’s contribution to each and every continent of the globe.

Currently India is engaged with various countries for their infrastructure development, capacity building, and socio economic development. Being a part of south Asia India always take the leading role in promoting peace, financial stability, and facilitating free trade among the south Asian countries under the SAARC umbrella. She is helping Srilanka by providing financial and technical assistance in the construction of railway line, road, housing for displaced Tamils during LTTE war, renovating a Kankasanthurai harbour. She has provided $1 billion grant in aid to Bangladesh for their infrastructure development at the interest rate of .75%. India has allowed Bhutan and Nepal to use it’s land to do trade with Bangladesh and to import or export goods using Bangladesh port. Due to India’s sincere effort the relation with Pakistan is also improving.

India formed south south co-operation with Brazil and South Africa to provide financial help to the least developed countries which were earlier dependent only on the north for aid. India started an India Africa e-network project to connect all the 53 countries of Africa through fibre optic connection. This network will also be connected with some of the reputed technical institutions and famous medical colleges to provide e-education and telemedicine services to African people. Apart from this some of the other Indian project in Africa got international acclamation like construction of railway line linking Ethiopia and Djibouti, setting up of 80 institutions for capacity building in various sectors such as food processing, agriculture, textile, weather forecasting and rural development.

India has the observer status of SCO and also planning to join CSTO. She is working closely with the SCO member countries in maintaining peace and stability and preventing terrorism, drug trafficking from central and south Asia. She is also planning to extend help in construction of nuclear reactors for some of the central Asia countries like Kazakistan.She is the world’s 6th largest contributor to the Afghanistan infrastructure project and also providing training to Afghanistan security forces so that they can protect their country after Americas pull out from 2014.Along with this India has taken the responsibility of giving training to Afghan Gov. employees through VV Giri National labour institute , constructing road from delaram to Zarang and building power plants to meet its energy need.

With the grouping like BIMSTEC, Mekong Ganga co-operation, India ASEAN summit, East Asia summit India is maintaining cordial relations with all the south east asean countries. India has promised to promote culture by protecting all important historic monuments through ASI of India. She has proposed to build a highway which will connect Myanmar, Thailand , Laos ,Vietnam and Cambodia to facilitate free movement of goods and spur economic development in that region. India also establishing training institutions to provide vocational training to the students as a part of Indian ITEC (Indian technical and economic co-operation) program. She is also providing grant in aid to these countries. Recently Indian P.M Dr Manmohan Singh offered 500 million grant in aid to Myanmar. As a peace loving nation India wants peace to prevail in the west Asia and North Africa. She wants an amicable resolution of outstanding issues between Israel and Palestine and India is one among the few countries who recognised Palestine as an independent state. As a larger democracy of the world she promotes democratic government instead of autocratic Government throughout world.

Above all India has developed strong institutional capabilities that will benefit the world community. Indian election commission providing all necessary assistance to the countries which want a strong impartial election process in their system. Recently Indian election commission extend help to Egypt for their election reform. India also providing it’s wonder machine EVC(electronic voting machine) to Nepal, Mexico, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Afghanistan etc. for conduction of their election. Indian CAG (Controller and auditor general) which is another example of a unique institution in the field of audit appointed as the external auditor of two major UN organisations: IAEA and world intellectual property right.

India has one of the largest and advanced security forces in the world. She has a strong navy, army and air force which is not only protecting our countries but also engaged in UN’s peace keeping process weather it is in Srilanka, Somalia , Afghanistan or any other countries. She has also engaged in the Indian Ocean’s international transit corridor to protect the merchant vessel from the Somalia pirates which has become a sanctuary for them. Till now India escorted more the 1000 vessels including some Indian vessels. India has a well develop space research centres (ISRO) which is regularly launching satellites for itself and for other countries. The types of satellites include communication satellite, weather forecasting, remote sensing etc. Recently ISRO launched a satellite called meghatropics with collaboration with France which will benefit all tropical countries. This will provide real time data regarding rainfall pattern in tropical region thereby helping farmers in agriculture and ensure food security. India is World’s first country to identify presence of water on Moon surface through her Chandrayan-I mission and planning for Chandrayan-II mission to send humans on to the moon surface.

21st century belongs to the country leading in food production and having large work force and India has both the above factor. India’s food production is increasing year by year to feed the world And she has one of the largest work forces of the world which is a boon for her. The contribution India will make to the global society is prefigured by the upsurge in the national mood which is marked by ambition, optimism and the spirit to accept the challenge of innovation and accomplishment. There is no doubt that India is a present leader. The world leaders should acknowledge it by providing unequivocal support for its quest as a permanent member in UN’s reformed Security Council. Then only her efforts and contribution towards the world will be rewarded.

Custom duty
is a type of indirect tax that is levied on the goods transported across the
borders of a nation. Tax levied on goods imported from foreign countries is
known as import duty and goods exported to the foreign countries is known as export
duty. The value of these duties depends on various factors. Duties levied based
on the value of the goods is known as velorem duties and duties levied
depending on the quantity of the goods is referred to as specific duties.

The main
objective of levying these taxes is to ensure the safety of a country’s
economy, environment, jobs and citizens by managing the transportation of goods
in and out of the country.

In India,
custom duties come under the Customs Act, 1962. According to this, the
government has a right to impose these taxes on both, the import as well as the
export of the goods. Any matters corresponding to these are looked after by the
Central Board of Excise and Custom (CBEC) which is a part of the Department of Revenue
of the Ministry of Finance.

The
government charges the exporter with export duty to send the goods across the
national borders and when any goods are received by a country from outside the
borders then the buyer or the customs broker must pay the pre-decided amount
first in order to retrieve the delivery.

How are
these customs duties imputed? Under the Customs Valuation Rules 2007, there are
various rules laid down to impute the value of these taxes.

Rule 3 and 4
– Comparative Value Method, comparison of transaction value of similar
goods.

Rule 7 – Deducting
Value Method, use of sale price of imported goods in the importing country.

Rule 8 – Computed
Value Method, combines the cost of materials, fabrications and profits in
the production country.

Rule 9 – Fallback
Method, based on the previous methods

On the 1^st
of July 2017, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented which shook the
entire tax system. It is basically a tax that eliminates all the other indirect
taxes and makes the tax system much easier. There are 3 different categories of
GST – Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), State Goods and Services Tax
(SGST) and Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST). The first two are for
intra-state transactions and the last one is for inter-state transactions.

The customs
duty which are included in GST are the Countervailing Duty (CVD) and Special
Additional Duty (SAD). The Basics Customs Duty (BCD) is still regulated as it is. When any goods are imported in India, IGST is imposed on
them along with BCD. Before IGST, there were several other taxes such as anti-dumping duty, safeguard duty, central excise duty and
service charges which made the whole tax system a lot more complicated whereas
now, only one integrated tax is chargeable.

The introduction of GST made the whole international
logistics process easier and less complicated. Although, this policy adopted by
the government was criticized by many for various factors but all in all, it
has reduced the possibility of loopholes in the taxation system and has made it
more transparent.

Current Bharat Bandh is being organized on 27th September from 6 am to 4 pm by Samyukta Kisan Morcha.

What is Bharat Bandh?

It is a bandh or shut down of public sector services/government services spread out all across India. It is a sort of protest conducted by political activists or parties with the help of general public against government policies/laws or reforms which they don’t find compliable. The general public is expected to not go to their works and rather stay at their homes. The supreme court disallows the practice of bandhs with the exception of voluntary bandhs. Find more information on bandhs and their history here.

Purpose of Bharat Bandh

This time the bandh will be organized to highlight the farmers’ protest against the three farm laws passed during September 2020 by the Parliament of India. It is to signify the protest making its way into the 10th month. 9 long grueling months of protest in front of the Capital with little to no response. The arrangement of bandh this time hopes for the Parliament to revoke the farm laws.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM)

It is an Indian farmers association group that has 40+ farmer unions clubbed together to voice out their problems and concerns. It was formed in November 2020 in regards against the farm laws. The group hopes for the laws to be revoked due to the laws’ harsh conditions on the farmers. SKM has launched yet another bandh this time assuring the bandh to be voluntary, peaceful and respectable. A lot other public association unions have merged hands with SKM and its farmers in support of the bandh. Get to know more on SKM and their farmers here.

Affects

Since this is a nation-wide movement, we can expect the closure of many government and commercial establishments or institutes. The farmers have requested for the closure of all shops, malls and markets. Road and rail transport will also be affected if not closed during the entire bandh. SKM will not be involved with any essential services involved with healthcare whatsoever.