Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
The surprise attack by Hamas on Israel has brought back memories of the Yom Kippur war, which started 50 years and a day ago, and reset equations in the Middle East forever.
What was the Yom Kippur war, and why is the current conflict being compared to it? We explain.
For one, this has been the deadliest attack on Israel since the Yom Kippur war of 1973. Gunmen from Hamas carried out a rampage in Israeli towns, killing at least 400 Israelis so far and abducting many civilians.
In retaliation, Israeli strikes have killed at least 313 Palestinians. In the Yom Kippur war, more than 2,500 Israeli soldiers were killed.
The second similarity is the criticism within Israel for the state being found unprepared. The attack on Saturday came as a surprise, despite Israel’s advanced intelligence and interception systems.
The Yom Kippur war, too, had found Israel unprepared, with many soldiers on leave because of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Judaism.
Arc of India’s ties with Israel (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
As Hamas, the militant group ruling the Gaza Strip, mounted one of the most audacious attacks on Israel — many have called it the worst inside the Jewish state’s territory since its creation in 1948 — Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed shock at what he called “terrorist attacks” and conveyed “solidarity with Israel”.
While the Ministry of External Affairs is yet to come out with an official statement, the Prime Minister’s words have been seen as siding with Israel.
The horrific visuals of civilians being tortured and killed not as “collateral damage” but as “target” have shocked many.
New Delhi has never condoned Hamas’ actions. But the arc of India’s ties with Israel and Palestine has been a roller coaster over the past seven decades.
India’s political attitude towards Israel was set quite firmly shortly after independence in 1947, when Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi vowed to support the Palestinian cause as they rejected the idea of two nations on the basis of religion.
While they had sympathy for the Jews, both were of the view that any State based on religious exclusivity could not sustain on moral and political grounds. This was in sync with their opposition to the partition of India.
Front Page
Israel to launch tougher military action, toll rises to nearly 1,000 (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The Israeli government formally declared war and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack from the Gaza Strip, portending greater fighting ahead as the toll from the conflict passed 900 dead and thousands wounded on both sides.
More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still trying to crush the last groups of militant fighters holed up in several towns of southern Israel.
At least 600 people have reportedly been killed in Israel — a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades — and more than 300 have been killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound the territory.
Authorities were still trying to determine how many civilians and soldiers were seized by Hamas fighters during the mayhem and taken back to Gaza. From videos and witnesses, the captives are known to include women, children, and the elderly.
As Sikkim picks up pieces, Teesta III reservoir, opening of its gates under lens (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
As rescue and relief gather pace in Sikkim ravaged by a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), the high storage volume in the Teesta-III dam’s reservoir and the failure to open its spillways are two key factors being looked into as probable triggers that exacerbated the GLOF’s impact.
Sikkim’s Opposition SDF has demanded a “forensic probe” into the dam break by Central agencies after Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang Saturday blamed the “substandard construction” of the Teesta-III dam.
Sikkim Urja Limited, the company that developed and ran Teesta-III, is scrambling for damage control mode. It announced a financial relief package of Rs 70 crore for four GLOF-affected districts. This package, tweeted Tamang, was in addition to the relief aid provided by the state.
Editorial
The rise of services (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Two major leaps are underway in India’s services sector that could define the trajectory of the country’s growth. One has to do with fast-evolving services exports to the rest of the world.
The other is the rapid transformation of domestic services. They are both changing in shape and form as they modernise. And it doesn’t end there.
We are also seeing signs of these new services rising up the value chain and crossing over into manufacturing. This is where we think it starts to get very exciting.
Let’s start with services exports. On a net basis, they are now raking in $60 billion a year more in revenues than three years ago.
The pandemic period was a shot in the arm for IT services. Work from home increased the demand for tech capability across firms.
And the exuberance continues, with a broadening out in both the services provided and the service providers. India is no longer the call centre of the 1990s. It’s not even the software solution provider of the early 2000s.
It has moved up the value chain and is now selling a host of professional services, ranging from accounting, legal, HR, to business development, design, and R&D. And the list is only increasing.
Ideas Page
Israel’s moment of reckoning (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The numbers are astounding. Over 600 deaths and 1,600 injuries, coordinated infiltration in 22 places by about a thousand militants and over 5,000 rockets.
In addition, dozens of persons, mostly women and children, kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip. Israel has confronted the largest single-day casualties in its history.
Even by Middle Eastern standards, the scale, surprise and size of the attacks by Hamas on Israel are unprecedented. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “avenge this black day.”
The full mobilisation of the reservists is underway and indicates an Israeli preparation for a ground offensive into the densely populated Gaza Strip, surrounded by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
Traditionally, Middle Eastern militant movements have been comfortable operating closer to civilians. This gives them both immunity from reprisals and ensures popular support in case of collateral damages.
Hamas is not an exception. A massive Israeli reprisal would cause enormous human and material destruction in the Gaza Strip. But the dead Israelis will not return.
Express Network
Security forces concerned over high weapons recovery in J&K (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
There has been a massive dip in incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, but the highest recoveries of arms, ammunition, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and detonators in the last four years has increased concern of security forces.
According to the annual report for 2022-23 from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the ongoing militancy in Jammu and Kashmir is linked with the infiltration of terrorists from across the “International Border” as well as the “Line of Control” in the Union Territory of J&K.
The Indian Express has accessed year wise data, compiled by security forces from 2018 to May 31 this year. The data shows 131 detonators were recovered in 2018, 31 in 2019, 97 in 2020, 89 in 2021, 154 last year and nine this year. “35 IEDs were recovered in 2018, twelve in 2019, five in 2020, 16 in 2021, 39 IEDs in 2022 and fifteen till May this year”.
Economy
CII’s business confidence index improves to 67.1 in second qtr of FY24 (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
CII's business confidence index improved to 67.1 in the July-September quarter of FY24, reflecting robust macro fundamentals of India's economy despite global headwinds, the industry body said.
The index showed a reading of 66.1 in the previous quarter (April-June FY24) and 62.2 in the same quarter last year.
The reading reaffirms the sustained positive momentum seen in host of high frequency indicators such as GST collection, air & rail passenger traffic, PMIs, among others in the second quarter.
The buoyancy seen in rural demand in the recent period, too, was mirrored by the results of the survey which established that nearly half of the respondents (52 per cent) anticipate an improvement in rural demand in the first half of the current fiscal, it added.
A majority of the respondents (66 per cent) feel that the Indian economy will grow in the range of 6-7 per cent in FY24, broadly in line with the forecast of RBI and other multilateral agencies.