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Describing the bilateral relations between India and France as “strong, trusted and consistent”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the two countries are now at a “turning point” as they complete 25 years of strategic partnership, and looked forward to working on a roadmap for the next 25 years of the strategic partnership.
Underlining that the India-France relationship is in “excellent shape”, Modi, who arrived in Paris on Thursday afternoon, said it “has been steady and resilient in the darkest storms”.
As far as 25 years of the strategic partnership is concerned, I feel we are now at a India-France ties strong, look forward to roadmap for next 25 years: PM turning point.
If we look at the post-pandemic global order and the shape that it is taking, I think the positive experience of our strategic partnership is an important step ahead.
So, we look forward to working on a roadmap for the next 25 years of the strategic partnership, which I think is very important for the relationship.
The relationship is in excellent shape. It is strong, trusted, consistent. It has been steady and resilient in the darkest storms,” he said in an interview to French newspaper Les Echos.
Countdown on for Chandrayaan 3 launch today: Soft landing on moon (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will embark on its second attempt to carry out a soft touchdown of a robotic lander on the surface of the moon with the launch of the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft on board the LVM3 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
If the soft-landing succeeds, India will become the fourth country in the world to have achieved this. Ahead of the launch, scheduled for 14.35 pm Friday from the second launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the countdown for the launch began Thursday afternoon with the mission authorisation board clearing the launch.
Announcing this, ISRO said that the mission readiness review had been completed and the “board has authorised the launch”.
The first part of the Chandrayaan 3 mission, spread over nearly 40 days with a possible moon rendezvous scheduled for August 23, will involve the launching of ISRO’s heavy lift LVM3 rocket into space with the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft onboard to an altitude of 179.192 km in a flight spanning 969.42 second (over 16 minutes).
During this period, the LVM3 rocket will carry its 3895-kg payload using three different rocket power stages with a maximum thrust of 10.242 km/sec (over 36000 km/hr) being provided by the indigenous cryogenic C-25 engine fired on the rocket in the final phase — just ahead of the separation of the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft from the rocket.
Govt & Politics
Artificial sweetener: WHO panel says no need to cut daily intake (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
A World Health Organization’s (WHO) committee categorised artificial sweetener aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. However, another committee simultaneously assessing the levels that can be safely consumed has said there is no need to reduce the previously established acceptable daily intake (ADI) for the sweetener.
As per the second committee’s analysis, consuming a couple of aspartame tablets in coffee and tea is unlikely to be harmful. It is the hidden aspartame in products like diet soda and ice creams that health experts are really worried about.
The current ADI of 0-40 mg/kg body weight is pretty high. Dr Francesco Branca, director, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO, said: “One can of diet soft drink has about 200 to 300 mg of aspartame.
This means an average adult weighing 70 kg can consume 9 to 14 cans of soda safely. However, we always recommend that people limit their consumption of sweeteners altogether.”
The analysis by WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer found the product to be “possibly carcinogenic to humans” — a categorisation generally used for things when there is either limited, but not convincing, evidence for cancer in humans or convincing evidence for cancer in experimental animals, but not both. It is the third-highest level out of the four levels in which IARC categorises carcinogens.
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Express Network
High time Parliament took note of age of consent across globe, says Bombay HC (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Observing that several countries have reduced the age of consent for adolescents to have a consensual sexual relationship, the Bombay High Court recently said it was high time our country and Parliament were cognizant of the happenings around the world.
The HC made the observation while raising concern over the increasing number of criminal cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in which the accused are castigated even when the adolescent victims maintain that they were in a consensual relationship.
The HC said the “criminalisation of romantic relationships has overburdened the criminal justice system by consuming significant time of the judiciary, police and the child protection system”.
A single-judge bench of Justice Bharati H Dangre on July 10 made the observations while quashing and setting aside the February 21, 2019 judgment of a special court. The special court under the POCSO Act had convicted a 25-year-old man and sentenced him to 10 years in jail for raping and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl despite the girl saying that they were in a consensual relationship.
The girl had told the special court that she was considered to be a major/adult under Muslim law and their nikah had taken place. The HC said it cannot concur with the trial court convicting the man merely on the ground of the girl being a minor, despite sexual intercourse being consensual.
A case of physical attraction or infatuation always comes forth, when a teenager enters into a sexual relationship and it is high time that our country is also cognizant of happenings around the world.
The bench observed that though the POCSO Act cannot stop natural feelings towards the opposite sex in adolescence, punishing a boy who entered into a consensual relationship with a minor girl, in grip of their biological changes, would be against “the best interest of child” and that “adolescents cannot be deprived of this right”.
It added that the “age of consent necessarily has to be distinguished from the age of marriage as sexual acts do not happen only in the confines of marriage and not only the society, but the judicial system must take note of this important aspect”.
Editorial
On UCC, intent matters (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
What the idea of God is to an agnostic, the proposal for UCC is to India. The idea in itself is absolutely superb. But as soon as one starts placing it in context, it starts looking less so.
A common code in civil uniformity is one thing. In the context of diversity, it is the diametric opposite. I have been working with Adivasis for several decades.
Some of them follow the custom of asking the husband to move over to the wife’s place after marriage and the wife has the right to drive the man out any time during their married cohabitation if she decides to do so in consultation with the community.
To me, this appears to be a custom much fairer than the custom of asking girls to go after marriage to dwell in families of men.
In some Indian communities, property is inherited by daughters, not by sons. Among the Khasis in Meghalaya, a woman is treated as the head of the family and she plays that role for all legal purposes.
Will the UCC take into account such a wonderful practice? I have known some communities that consider the cattle folk in the house as members of the family.
Among the Kinnaurs of Himachal Pradesh, the custom is for a woman to take up to five husbands. One can go on giving examples of rights, rituals and material substance related to birth, marriage, death, inheritance and authority followed by various communities in India that do not describe themselves as Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Buddhist, Christian or Sikh.
Ideas Page
Separate rights from freebies (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The current political discourse on freebies vs rights seems loud and superficial, like a shallow TV debate. A deeper examination of what constitutes a right and a freebie is needed in policy and political debates — nationally and globally.
With large numbers of people living under conditions of extreme economic vulnerability in several countries, poverty alleviation should be the central focus for governments across the ideological spectrum.
In electoral democracies, ensuring a minimum income is not only critical for the survival of millions, but it is equally critical to the survival of political parties. For electoral reasons — if nothing else — there is agreement across ideological divides that minimum income levels must be ensured.
The Rajasthan government’s stated intent of enacting a Minimum Income Guarantee Law in the next few days is a case in point.
This law is part of a basket of social security measures announced and implemented by the state government over the last three years.
The legislation doubles the minimum pension to Rs 1,000 per month, with a guaranteed annual increment of 15 per cent per year. The law provides for an enhanced entitlement of 25 days per rural family for work under MGNREGA, and an entitlement of 125 days of work under an urban employment programme. It thus guarantees 125 days of work on demand for all those who can, and social security for all those who can’t.
Explained
How Russia has become the world's top wheat exporter at Ukraine’s expense (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Russia is consolidating its position as the world’s top wheat exporter, even as Ukraine’s shipments are projected to more than halve from their peak and production plunge to a 11-year-low.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated Russia’s wheat exports at a record 45.5 million tonnes (mt) in 2022-23 (July-June), up from 33 mt, 39.1 mt and 34.5 mt in the preceding three marketing years. In the process, it has left behind the European Union, which had exported 39.8 mt in 2019-20, before slipping to 29.7 mt, 32 mt and 34 mt in the following three years.
Moreover, Russia’s wheat exports are expected to touch a new high of 47.5 mt in 2023-24, way ahead of the EU (38.5 mt), Canada (26.5 mt), Australia (25 mt) and Argentina (11 mt). Russia has gained largely at the expense of Ukraine.
The war-torn nation’s exports fell from 21 mt in 2019-20 to 16.8 mt in 2022-23 and are forecast to further decline to 10.5 mt in the new marketing year. USDA has projected the country’s production, too, to dip to 17.5 mt, the lowest since 2012-13.
The primary destinations for Russian wheat are the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, led by Egypt, Iran and Algeria.
While the Black Sea Grain Initiative helped Ukraine export 16.8 mt in 2022-23, about 39% of its wheat actually moved via the land route to Eastern Europe, instead of the specially-created corridors for shipping from the three designated ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny.
Ukraine’s markets have shifted dramatically from Asia and North Africa before the war to mainly Europe, mostly due to ease of shipment, according to the USDA.
World
China publishes interim rules for generative AI, to effect from Aug 15 (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
China issued interim measures to manage its booming generative artificial intelligence (AI) industry, saying they would apply only to services offered to the public as regulators seek to support development of the technology.
The rules, set to take effect on Aug. 15, come after Beijing signalled the end of its years-long crackdown on the tech industry, whose help it seeks to spur an economy recovering more slowly than expected after the scrapping of COVID-19 curbs.
The rules clarified the scope of what regulators will target, following draft rules published in April that required firms to submit security assessments before launching their offerings to the public.
The current version is very much in line with market expectations,” said Kai Wang, an analyst with Morningstar. It sends the positive signal that the regulators are paving the way for companies in China to launch their products on a large scale.
China sees AI as an area in which it wants to rival the United States, and on which it has set it sights on becoming a world leader by 2030.
It is seen to be ahead of the regulatory curve as countries globally grapple with setting guardrails for the technology popularised by the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot.