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India accounted for one out of every five US student visas issued in 2022, US Ambassador Eric Garcetti said.
During his address on the seventh annual Student Visa Day organised by the US Mission in India, Garcetti emphasised that more Indian students come to the United States than from any other country, with the country surpassing the global average in terms of student visas issued.
Acknowledging the longstanding tradition of Indian students pursuing education in the US, he expressed the commitment to process the highest number of student visa applications in history and announced the availability of a greater number of visa appointments for students this year.
On the occasion, consular officers interviewed around 3,500 Indian student visa applicants from cities like New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
The embassy reported a record-breaking number – over 125,000 – of student visas issued in India in 2022. Indians also received the highest percentage of H&L employment visas (65%) and F1 student visas (17.5%) worldwide, according to a press release by the embassy.
Indian visitors constituted one of the largest groups of international visitors to the US, with over 1.2 million people from the country travelling to the US in the previous year, according to the embassy.
Govt & Politics
Cabinet announces hike in MSP for Kharif crops in 5% to 10% range (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Centre announced a 5.3% to 10.35% hike in minimum support prices (MSP) of all mandated Kharif crops for marketing season 2023-24, with moong seeing the highest increase and urad the lowest.
A decision of this effect was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA); the meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The CCEA approved the hike as recommended by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices.
In the 2022-23 marketing season, the increase in kharif crop MSP was recorded in the range of 4.44% to 8.86%. A higher hike in MSP of kharif crops for 2023-24 is significant since it comes months before the General Election next year.
Meanwhile, MSP of paddy, the most cultivated crop in the country, has seen a hike of 7%, with MSP of common paddy fixed at Rs 2,183 per quintal for 2023-24 — a 7.01% increase over last year’s Rs 2,040 per quintal.
For paddy-grade A, MSP has been announced at Rs 2,203 per quintal, which is 6.94% more than last year’s Rs 2,060 per quintal.
Briefing the media on the Cabinet’s decisions, Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal said the highest increase in MSP has been approved for moong.
The MSP for moong has been approved at Rs 8,558 per quintal for 2023-24, which is 10.35% (or Rs 803) higher than Rs 7,755 in 2022-23. In percentage terms, it is the highest hike among kharif crops for which MSP has been announced.
Economy
BSNL revival (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the third revival package for BSNL with a total outlay of Rs 89,047 crore.
It includes the allotment of 4G/5G spectrum for BSNL through equity infusion. The Cabinet allotted four spectrum bands – 700 MHz worth Rs 46,338.60 crore, 3,300 MHz for Rs 26,184.20 crore, 26 GHz for Rs 6,564.93 crore, and 2,500 MHz worth Rs 9,428.20 crore.
The authorized capital of BSNL will be increased from Rs. 1,50,000 crore to Rs. 2,10,000 crore. BSNL has been facing intense competition from Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea which have rolled out 4G services at low prices on voice calls and data.
With this revival package, BSNL will emerge as a stable telecom service provider focused on providing connectivity to remotest parts of India.
The new spectrum allotment will enable BSNL to provide pan India 4G and 5G services, provide 4G coverage in rural and uncovered villages under various connectivity projects, provide Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services for high-speed internet, and provide services/spectrum for Captive Non-Public Network (CNPN).
Explained
Big plans, some key gains (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
From a new policy that outlines the education roadmap for the next 20 years to sweeping changes in school textbooks and the opening up of the Indian higher education space to foreign players, the Modi government’s second term has proven to be more eventful in terms of education compared to the first.
In contrast, during the initial years of the first term, the Education Ministry was busy firefighting controversies, many of which were of its own making.
However, even as its education agenda picked up pace in 2019, there are a few promises and initiatives of the first innings that couldn’t take off at all or seem to have lost steam in the second:
Seven years in the making, the NEP 2020 is a policy document outlining a series of reforms to be pursued in education till 20240. A new education policy comes along every few decades, and India has had three to date.
The NEP 2020 proposes vital shifts — from creating a system in which “children not only learn but more importantly learn how to learn” to one in which “pedagogy must evolve to make education more experiential, inquiry-driven, flexible” and in which there is “no hard separation between arts and sciences”.
Ground level ozone in Delhi: What concerns CSE report flagged (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
According to a new analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), parts of the Delhi-NCR region witnessed ground-level ozone readings exceeding the national standards on 87 out of 92 days in the summer period between March and May. The worst affected parts in the area are New Delhi and South Delhi neighbourhoods.
Based on Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data on ozone levels from 58 stations across Delhi-NCR, the CSE analysis also noted that although the spatial spread — number of stations exceeding the standard across the core NCR — of ground-level ozone has been lower this year, its duration has increased.
This summer, at the stations which reported exceedance the rolling 8-hr average stayed above standard for 4.9 hours on average, which is up from 4.6 hours observed last summer.
Moreover, the region is seeing a rare phenomenon where ozone levels remain elevated hours after sunset — ground-level ozone should ideally become negligible during the night.
Another issue is that the pollutant, which once used to be prominent only during the summers, has become a yearlong problem.
Also known as tropospheric ozone, ground-level ozone is “a colourless and highly irritating gas that forms just above the Earth’s surface (up to 2 miles above the ground).,” as per Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
Notably, it’s not directly emitted into the air but rather produced when two primary pollutants react in sunlight and stagnant air.
These two primary pollutants are nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Therefore, ground-level ozone is called a “secondary” pollutant.
What is Kfon (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
The Kerala government Monday (June 5) officially launched the Kerala Fibre Optical Network (KFON), one of its flagship projects envisaged during the first term of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Through KFON, Kerala, which was the first state to declare the right to internet as a basic right, aims to reduce the digital divide by ensuring high speed broadband internet access to all houses and government offices.
It is also intended to give a fillip to e-governance and accelerate Kerala’s journey towards being a knowledge-based economy.
Basically, KFON will act as an infrastructure provider. It is an optical fibre cable network of 30,000 kms, with 375 Points-of-Presence across Kerala.
The KFON infrastructure will be shared with all service providers, including cable operators. While KFON will do the cable work for government offices, individual beneficiaries will have to depend on private, local internet service providers.
In many districts, Kerala Vision Broadband, an initiative of cable TV operators, is providing the internet service. The KFON infrastructure will also benefit private service providers as they can use its cable network. Internet connectivity to the households would be provided by local ISP/TSP/cable TV providers.
Why are under cotton cultivation is likely to shrink this Kharif season (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Ganesh Nanote has decided to cut his cotton crop area in the coming kharif season by three acres and divert it to tur/arhar (pigeon-pea). He’s ready to slash it further if the already-delayed southwest monsoon turns out less than normal.
This farmer from Nimbhora village in Maharashtra’s Akola district has reasons to limit his area sown under the fibre crop to 8 acres, from 11 acres last year, while keeping the same unchanged at 11 acres for soyabean and increasing from zero to 3 acres for tur.
The first is price: Out of the 100-odd quintals of kapas (raw un-ginned cotton) that Nanote harvested last year, he sold only 30 at Rs 7,000-7,200 per quintal this January. The balance 70 quintals is lying unsold.
After realising up to Rs 10,500/quintal for my 2021 crop, I expected to get at least Rs 9,000. But the rates are now just Rs 7,200-7,400”.
That’s still more than the government’s minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 6,620/quintal for medium-staple fibre kapas declared on Wednesday, but below what farmers like him had gotten used to.
This isn’t the case with tur, currently trading in the Akola market at Rs 9,700-9,800 per quintal, much above its new MSP of Rs 7,000.
Nanote plans to grow the kharif pulse on 3 acres, plus as an inter-crop with soyabean on 11 acres. Inter-crop means planting one row of tur after every three rows of soyabean, the latter maturing in 90-100 days and the former in 160-180 days.
World
Fiji considering security ties with China as tensions soar in the Pacific (Page no. 23)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Fiji’s leader indicated his nation is reconsidering its security ties with China at a time that geopolitical tensions in the Pacific are rising.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said Fiji was reviewing a contentious police cooperation agreement it signed with China in 2011 that has allowed Chinese police officers to be stationed in Fiji.
At one point during a news conference in Wellington with his New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins, Rabuka appeared to go one step further by referring to Fiji’s “discontinuation” of the agreement.
We need to look at that again before we decide whether we go back to it, or if we continue the way that we have in the past by cooperating with those who have similar democratic values and systems.
Rabuka said Fiji was finalizing a defense agreement with New Zealand, which it expected to complete next week. He said the new agreement would allow Fiji’s military to build its capacity and skill and be exposed to new technologies.