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Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that India and Bangladesh share deep ties and no one can undermine the good bilateral relations between the two countries.
Shah said this during his visit to the India-Bangladesh border at Petrapole in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of several projects of the Land Ports Authority of India and the Border Security Force (BSF).
Speaking at the event, Shah said, “Our culture, religion, customs and lifestyle have been intertwined for thousands of years. No one can ever break our ties with Bangladesh. India has played a key role in Bangladesh’s history. The BSF played a major role in the Liberation War of 1971.”
The BSF has made enormous efforts to protect the international border in Bengal – be it the riverine border or land border. Without the BSF, we cannot imagine having a tight land-border security. When BSF personnel are standing guard at the border, no one in the country has to worry about their security.
Shah also inaugurated four joint outposts of the BSF, two residential complexes and an officer’s mess along with other projects – collectively worth Rs 108.3 crore.
Appreciating the LPAI’s role in strengthening India’s relations with neighbours, Shah said that trade of Rs 18,000 crore, through the authority, in the financial year 2016-17 has now crossed Rs 30,000 crore.
Express network
Cyclone Mocha likely to develop over Bay of Bengal today: IMD (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
A cyclone, which is most likely to swerve away from the Indian coast, is all set to develop over the southeast Bay of Bengal by Wednesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Once intensified, it is to be identified as Cyclone Mocha (pronounced as Mokha), a name suggested by Yemen.
This will be the first cyclonic storm of the year. India has dual cyclone seasons – pre-monsoon (April-June) and post-monsoon (October-December). Of these, the most cyclone-prone months are May and November.
Last May, around the same time, severe cyclone Asani came close to the Andhra Pradesh coast causing significant rainfall and gusting winds.
According to the latest satellite data updates recorded at 5.30 am Tuesday, the prevailing low-pressure system had intensified into a well-marked low-pressure system (wind speed less than 31 km/hr) over the South Andaman Sea and southeast Bay of Bengal.
This system is set to further intensify into a depression (wind speed 31-50 km/hr) by Tuesday evening and prevail over the same region.
It will subsequently develop into a cyclonic storm over the southeast and east-central Bay of Bengal.
India among top 5 countries where babies born too soon: study (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
Every two seconds, a baby is born too soon. Every 40 seconds, one of those babies dies.
Almost half of all pre-term births (babies born before the 37th week of pregnancy) in 2020 happened in five countries — India, Pakistan, Nigeria, China and Ethiopia — according to a new report released by the United Nations (UN) agencies and partners on Tuesday.
Together they accounted for 45 per cent of babies born too soon around the world, exposing them to a high mortality risk. This indicates a “silent emergency” for children’s survival and health.
An estimated 13.4 million babies were born pre-term in 2020 with nearly one million dying from complications. This is equivalent to around one in 10 babies as per the report titled ‘Born too Soon: Decade of Action on Pre-term Birth”, put together by WHO, United Nations Children’s Fund and Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) – the world’s largest alliance for women, children and adolescents.
In 2020, Bangladesh had the highest estimated pre-term birth rate (16.2 per cent), followed by Malawi (14.5 per cent) and Pakistan (14.4 per cent). India and South Africa, at an estimated 13 per cent each, were among the top five countries with high pre-term birth rates.
The total pre-term birth numbers for the five countries are alarming indeed as India tops the list with 30.16 lakh births, Pakistan is at 9.14 lakh, Nigeria at 7.74 lakh and China at 7.52 lakh. The report includes updated estimates from WHO and UNICEF.
Editorial
A new Arabian tale (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The weekend meeting in Riyadh between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the national security advisers of the US, UAE, and India underlines the growing strategic convergence between Delhi and Washington in the Gulf. It also highlights India’s new possibilities in the Arabian Peninsula.
The new India-US warmth on the Gulf is a major departure from the traditional approaches to the Middle East in both India and the US. In India, one of the entrenched principles of the Nehruvian foreign policy was the proposition that Delhi must either oppose Washington or keep its distance from it in the Middle East.
The self-imposed ideological taboo was broken with the formation of a four-nation grouping — unveiled in October 2021 — called I2U2 that brought the US, India, Israel, and the UAE together.
Joining hands with the US was not the only taboo that Modi’s foreign policy discarded. It rejected the notion that Delhi can’t be visibly friendly to Israel.
He also transformed India’s uneasy relations with the two Arabian kingdoms, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, into solid strategic partnerships.
Any proposition that India would sit down with the US, Israel and the Sunni kingdoms of the Gulf would have been dismissed as a fantasy just a few years ago. But here is Delhi doubling down with a new quadrilateral with the US, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
Explained
If diesel cars are banned (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy/Environment)
A panel formed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has recommended a ban on the use of diesel-powered four-wheel vehicles by 2027 in cities with a population of more than 1 million, and instead transition to electric and gas-fuelled vehicles.
The Energy Transition Advisory Committee, headed by former petroleum secretary Tarun Kapoor, has also recommended that city transport should be a mix of Metro trains and electric buses by 2030.
Diesel-driven 4-wheelers may be eliminated as soon as possible. Therefore, a ban on diesel-powered four-wheelers in all Million Plus cities and all towns with high pollution has to be enforced in five years, i.e. by 2027.
Also, “commercial vehicles may transition to LNG in the short term”, and “no diesel city buses addition be allowed in urban areas, to drive towards transition towards clean fuel urban public transport in about 10 years”.
The panel’s recommendations come in the wake of the government’s stated aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to produce 40% of its electricity from renewables as part of its 2070 net zero goal.
Diesel currently accounts for about 40% of India’s petroleum products consumption, according to estimates by the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell.
The proposed ban will have a significant footprint — a large number of cities in India have more than 1 million people, and include not just the metropolitan centres, but also smaller towns and cities such as Kota, Raipur, Dhanbad, Vijayawada, Jodhpur, and Amritsar.
Why the question of ED chief’s tenure is back in Supreme Court (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Supreme Court said it might revisit its 2021 ruling that the tenure of a superannuated officer may be extended only in exceptional circumstances. In 2021, the court was dealing with the appointment of Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The SC on Monday reserved its judgment on a batch of petitions challenging the third extension given to Mishra.
On September 8, 2021, a Bench of Justices B R Gavai and L Nageswara Rao upheld the Centre’s order extending the tenure of Mishra beyond two years.
The court said “there is no fetter on the power of the Central Government in appointing the Director of Enforcement beyond a period of two years”. On Section 25(d) of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, which lays down the minimum tenure of an ED Director, the SC said, “The words ‘not less than two years’ cannot be read to mean ‘not more than two years’.”
Mishra was appointed to the post for two years by an order dated November 19, 2018. On November 13, 2020, the Centre extended his tenure by a year.
The NGO Common Cause filed a PIL asking for the November 13, 2020 order to be set aside, on the ground that Mishra’s overall tenure of three years violated Section 25 of the CVC Act.
Economy
RBI and other central banks are ramping up gold holdings: why (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) gold reserves touched 794.64 metric tonnes in fiscal 2023, an increase of nearly 5 per cent over fiscal 2022, when it held 760.42 metric tonnes of gold.
Because, as part of the diversification process, the RBI has been adding gold to its reserves, which is considered a more safe, secure, and liquid asset, to safeguard its returns amid global uncertainty and a rising inflation scenario.
The RBI bought 34.22 tonnes of gold in fiscal 2023; in fiscal 2022, it had accumulated 65.11 tonnes of gold. Between the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 (the RBI used to follow the July-June accounting year then; this was changed to April-March starting 2020-21) and fiscal 2023, the RBI’s gold reserves swelled by 228.41 tonnes.
The 794.64 tonnes of gold reserves in fiscal 2023 also included gold deposits of 56.32 tonnes. In its half-yearly report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves: October 2022-March 2023, released on Monday (May 8), the RBI said 437.22 tonnes of gold is held overseas in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), and 301.10 tonnes of gold is held domestically.