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A blink-and-miss two-second shot of Iranian women cutting their hair in protest, juxtaposed with an image of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has upset Tehran, forcing their Foreign Minister to cancel his visit to India next month.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was due to travel to India for the Raisina dialogue scheduled for March 3 and 4.
The Raisina Dialogue is the flagship think-tank event organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
A promotional video of the Raisina Dialogue was put out about a month ago, announcing the 2023 edition of the event. In the clip, just under two minutes, a two-second shot of Iranian women cutting their hair in protests is shown, along with an image of the Iranian President.
This angered the Iranian embassy which was preparing for the visit of Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian to India. Sources said the Iranian embassy reached out to ORF and the MEA, objected to the portrayal of their President and the protesters side-by-side and asked them to delete the sequence. However, the organisers didn’t oblige.
Govt ends age-65 cap for receiving organ from dead donor, eases rules (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The Union Health Ministry has done away with the age cap of 65 years for receiving an organ from a dead donor, and guidelines are being revised to allow the elderly to register on waiting lists.
Officials said that while preference will still be given to younger recipients, those above the age of 65 will not be completely barred from the process.
Although there was no age cap for living donor transplants (where family members donate organs like kidneys and livers), people over the age of 65 years couldn’t register to receive organs from deceased donors as per guidelines of NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation).
In the present scenario, the official said, the age of 65 is not considered very old and the elderly should get an organ transplant opportunity.
Another official said, “Preference will obviously be given to younger people who have more years of life left and are likely to be healthier.”
Organs from deceased donors accounted for nearly 17.8% of all transplants in 2022 in the country. The number of transplants has increased over the years.
The total number of deceased organ transplants climbed from 837 in 2013 to 2,765 in 2022. The total number of organ transplants – with organs from both deceased and living donors – increased from 4,990 in 2013 to 15,561 in 2022, according to data shared by the government.
Explained
Factors behind moderating CAD, how it will impact markets (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
While data released by the government on Wednesday shows that India’s exports and imports declined by 6.59% and 3.63% respectively in January, there are indications that the current account deficit (CAD) – the difference between exports and imports of goods and services – will moderate despite the global slowdown triggered by the rising inflation and interest rates.
The moderation in CAD, expected to be aided by the fall in commodity prices, rising workers remittances and services exports, and abatement of selling pressure by foreign investors, is set to boost sentiment on the investment front, as it will also bring the pressure off the currency.
When the value of the goods and services that a country imports exceeds the value of the products it exports, it is called the current account deficit. CAD and the fiscal deficit together make up the twin deficits – the enemies of the stock market and investors.
If the current account – the country’s trade and transactions with other countries – shows surplus, that indicates money is flowing into the country, boosting the foreign exchange reserves and the value of rupee against the dollar.
These are factors that will have ramifications on the economy and the stock markets as well as on returns on investments by people.
According to the RBI, the CAD, which was at $36.4 billion for the quarter ending September 2022, is expected to moderate in the second half of 2022-23 and remain eminently manageable and within the parameters of viability.
CAD for the first half of 2022-23 stood at 3.3% of GDP. The situation has shown improvement in Q3:2022-23 as imports moderated in the wake of lower commodity prices, resulting in narrowing of the merchandise trade deficit.
One year of war in Ukraine (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Earlier this month, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres sounded a grim prognosis about the prospects for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, which will mark a year on February 24.
The prospects for peace keep diminishing,” he said in a speech to the UN General Assembly on February 6. “The chances of further escalation and bloodshed keep growing. The world, Guterres said, was heading towards a “wider war”, and “I fear it is doing so with its eyes wide open.
The US-led Western alliance is expecting Russia to launch another big offensive in the coming days. Ukraine fears that a fresh offensive could come as early as on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which collates official civilian casualty numbers, said on February 13 that from February 24, 2022 to February 12, 2023, there were 18,955 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 7,199 killed and 11,756 injured.
Of the fatalities, 2,888 were men, 1,941 women, 226 boys, 180 girls, as well as 32 children and 1,932 adults whose sex was not determined.
As the war is being fought on Ukrainian territory only, the civilian casualties are entirely in that country. The number of military casualties is not clear yet, but could run into thousands on both sides. The war has displaced over 7.5 million people from Ukraine over the last year.
Editorial
Eye on China (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security/Infrastructure)
The government’s decision to allocate a substantial sum of money to improve facilities in places along the Line of Actual Control has come none too soon.
Under a “Vibrant Villages” programme, the government will spend Rs 4,800 crore for infrastructure development and to provide livelihood opportunities in the areas bordering China.
The plan is to upgrade 633 villages in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Ladakh. Over a third of the allocation will go towards road building in the border areas.
Tourism and sporting activities are being planned in these areas to provide livelihood opportunities for local people. A new 4.1 km all-weather tunnel will connect Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh making troops movement easier.
Further, the government will spend Rs 1,800 crore to raise seven new battalions of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) — that means 9,000 personnel — chiefly deployed along India’s borders with China alongside the Army.
Village and infrastructure development in the border areas mirrors reported actions by the Chinese military and civilian authorities on their side of the Line of Actual Control.
Ideas Page
Empowering the MP (Page no. 13)
India’s parliamentary constituencies (PCs) serve a dual role as geographical and administrative policy units headed by democratically elected Members of Parliament (MPs), who are responsible for fulfilling the needs and aspirations of their constituents through impactful policy.
For MPs to effectively engage with their constituents, it is imperative to understand and prioritise the issues most impacting their communities.
Unfortunately, at present, timely and readily available data on critical issues related to population health and socioeconomic well-being is lacking at the PC level.
With the launch of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDAP) in 2012, the Government of India (GOI) made a concerted effort to make a variety of data related to population health and well-being from current GOI schemes more accessible. In recent years, district-level data — whether from GOI administrative data or independent surveys such as the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) — has emerged as a key input for policy deliberations.
Increasing the availability of district-level data, or data that allows aggregation at the district level does not help the cause of the PC having the same data.
This is because the 750-plus district boundaries of India do not correspond or are aligned in a straightforward manner with the 543 PCs of India.
The districts and PC boundaries crisscross: A district can have parts of or an entirety of multiple PCs intersecting it. Similarly, a PC can have parts of a district or a multiplicity of entire districts intersecting it.
Even though there is substantial overlap in the names of districts and PCs (391 of the 543 PCs share the exact name of a district), having the same name doesn’t mean they are capturing the same population with regard to its size and composition.
With districts having the administrative responsibilities for customising and implementing GOI programmes, the MP from Kannauj would need to interact with district collectors (DC) from three districts to implement their promises towards their constituents.
Crucially, the MP will be given data by each of the three district administrations but will never get an accurate picture of the constituents he or she is serving.