Opposition Outing; Defence Deals; Pension Pressure
Opinion Watch
Opposition Outing
There is a suspense over the Opposition meeting on June 12 as new dates are under discussion, and The Asian Age in its Editorial has wondered if the Congress would oblige Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by sticking to his condition. The daily stated that Kumar has spelt out that only heads of the political parties should attend the meeting.
The daily has also ventured to suggest that the Congress wouldn’t like to give credence to Kumar by rushing into his hospitality because of his past flip-flops. The daily also underlined that the Congress now has a new-found confidence on the back of victory in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.
The commentary of the daily has past bias, for it plays Kumar’s too many political somersaults to build the script of a fractured Opposition. Informed sources have been telling that the Opposition constituents are thrashing out a template to work together by fully knowing that they can take out daggers anytime against each other.
Defence Deals
On top of the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington will be a deal to allow transfer of technology for jet engine, opined The Indian Express in its Editorial, while sifting the outcome of the visit of the US Defence Secretary Llyod Austin. The daily turned spotlight on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh telling Austin that the defence cooperation between the two countries should not be held hostage by tough conditionality.
The Noida-based daily also stated that India-US defence cooperation is looking up since 2016, while the western nations are seeking to ride the urgency in New Delhi to cut down Moscow dependency. It also underlined that much discussions have taken place for cooperation in critical technology, including manufacturing submarines.
The US and Germany clearly want to replicate French success in partnering India in defence cooperation. But it will be self-defeating if India just shifts out from Moscow to Washington for defence needs and not give a quantum jump to reaseach funding to gain true self-reliance, as wars will now be fought with future technology, which no country parts with.
Pension Pressure
The first beneficiary of the New Pension Scheme (NPS) will check bank account in 2034, and The Economic Times in its Editorial has argued the case for beefing up the fund to make it attractive against the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). The daily called for hybrid option for the NPS, while also calling for a rework of the functioning of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation.
The business daily even called for the pension fund managers to offer both the products with elements of defined-contributions. The daily stressed that pension funds should deliver higher returns.
While the Central government is seized of the urgency to rework the NPS, the Opposition will ride bring back the OPS bus with full vigour knowing that they can walk the talk until 2034. Fund managers also must know that they cannot draw hefty paychecks, while they deliver fixed deposits returns from their equity portfolios for NPS.
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