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Israel said there would be no humanitarian break to its siege of the Gaza Strip until all its hostages were freed, after the Red Cross pleaded for fuel to be allowed in to prevent overwhelmed hospitals from “turning into morgues”.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip in retribution for the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, when hundreds of gunmen poured across the barrier fence and rampaged through Israeli towns.
The gunmen killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians gunned down in their homes or on the streets, and carried scores of hostages back to Gaza.
The scale of the killings has emerged in recent days after Israeli forces reclaimed control of towns, finding homes strewn with bodies, including women who were raped and killed and children who were shot and burned.
Sri Lanka says it has a deal on its China debts (Page no. 2)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
More than a year after Sri Lanka plunged into an economic crisis, it has reached an agreement with the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of China to cover about $4.2 billion of its outstanding debt, according to a statement from its finance ministry on October 11.
India is also involved in the process of negotiating the debt Sri Lanka owes to it, given the island nation’s economic woes.
But China is the biggest bilateral creditor to Sri Lanka – having lent about $7 billion of the country’s total foreign debt of $42 billion (as of 2022). So what’s behind this deal?
In April 2022, Sri Lanka declared that it had failed to repay its debt of more than $83 billion, with more than half of it owed to foreign creditors. It also decided to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that month.
The crisis was years in the making and many factors were responsible, such as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government pushing through the largest tax cuts in Sri Lankan history as part of the 2019 elections campaign, impacting the government’s revenue sources. Another blow was dealt by the coronavirus pandemic, which hit the tourism industry.
Front Page
Retail inflation eases to 5.02%, IIP output hits 14 month high (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s industrial output jumped to a 14-month high of 10.3 per cent in August, primarily driven by a base effect along with an uptick in manufacturing, mining, capital goods and consumer durables.
Inflation rate for consumers, or retail inflation, also eased to a three-month low of 5.02 per cent in September with a sharp moderation in food prices, especially of vegetables, and the impact of the LPG price cut, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
Factory output gained on the back of a 9.3 per cent increase in manufacturing, which accounts for 77.6 per cent of the weight of the IIP (Index of Industrial Production).
Manufacturing output had grown by 5 per cent in July and had contracted by 0.5 per cent in August 2022. In absolute terms, it improved to 143.5 in August from 141.8 in July and 131.3 in the year-ago period.
As per the IIP data, seven of the 23 sectors in manufacturing registered a contraction in August, with furniture, apparel, and computer and electronics among the significant non-performers. Among the performing sectors, fabricated metal products, electrical equipment and basic metals fared better.
SC: We cannot kill child, need to balance out rights of unborn child (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Stating that the rights of a woman “must trump” when it comes to a request for Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP), the Supreme Court said it will also have to “balance out the rights of the unborn child”.
We can’t kill the child,” said Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud who was heading a three-judge bench that took up a married woman’s request for ending her 26-week pregnancy, a day after a two-judge all-woman bench disagreed on giving the go-ahead for the MTP procedure and referred her plea to the CJI.
Justice B V Nagarathna said the petitioner’s “decision” not to continue with the pregnancy “must be respected”, Justice Hima Kohli said “my judicial conscience does not permit” to accept her request because “which court will say stop the heartbeat of a foetus which has a life”.
The bench of CJI Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the woman if she was willing to wait a few more weeks in which case the child would have a better chance of being born healthy and could be given for adoption if she wished.
Govt & Politics
Report on PMAY – G points to bribes in Bihar cut in Bengal extortion in MP (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
A political party taking “cut money” for funds in West Bengal; panchayat officials collecting bribes in Bihar; the “stopping” of funds by a village secretary in Rajasthan; and the sarpanch “forcibly” taking funds in Madhya Pradesh.
These are among the cases flagged by the National Level Monitoring (NLM) agents after assessing the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) — the BJP-led Centre’s flagship programme to provide pucca houses to eligible beneficiaries — in the three reports on the same available with the Union Ministry for Rural Development. The reports were compiled by the Delhi-based CMI Social Research Centre and have been submitted to the ministry.
The ministry can depute NLM agencies for regular monitoring of its major schemes; special monitoring of an individual scheme; and in case of complaints or enquiries.
The special monitoring exercise was rolled out in three phases: 42 NLM agents visited 85 districts in 10 states (January 2022); another 45 went to 111 districts across 25 states (May 2022); and 43 agents visited 110 districts across 24 states (December 2022).
Developing border roads govt priority: PM in Uttarakhand (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation for multiple development projects in Uttarakhand worth around Rs 4,200 crore while attacking the state’s previous government for “lack of development in border areas.
Addressing a gathering after the event, Modi said the government’s priority is to develop border roads.
The projects he inauguarated include those related to roads, power, irrigation, drinking water, horticulture, education, health and disaster management.
They (the previous government) did not develop the border areas, fearing that our enemies might use them to enter the state. India today has left such thoughts behind and moved forward.
Over the last nine years, we have made over 4,200 km of road, 250 bridges, and 22 tunnels in the border areas. We are also planning to bring trains to our borders.
India is touching new heights, he said, emphasising on the connection between Uttarakhand and the Chandrayaan-3 success as the landing point is called Shiv-Shakti Point.
Express Network
Unconventional warfare tops anti terror meet talks (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
As the Israel-Hamas war entered the sixth day, an anti-terror conference of special forces held in Delhi discussed the challenges of combating “unconventional warfare” in the light of ongoing conflict in the region with 33 foreign delegates, including from Israel, attending the conference.
The two-day conference, organised by the National Security Guard, was attended by representatives from all special anti-terror forces in the country including those raised by state police, central armed police forces and the armed forces, making it the first such conference ever organised in the country.
While the basic aim of the conference was to achieve synergy and coordination among all special units India and friendly countries to deal with emergency situations, the conference is cognisant of the developments in the Middle East that have taken place over the weekend.
On the sidelines, a discussion was also held on how to prepare for unforeseen and unprecedented scenarios as witnessed during the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Erroneous, malafide intent: India rejects global hunger report (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2023, a standing the government termed “erroneous and having malafide intent”.
In the index released, India has a score of 28.7, indicating a serious level of hunger. The country came after neighbouring countries Pakistan (102nd), Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th) and Sri Lanka (60th). However, India fared better than South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara, which recorded a score of 27 each.
While the rate of undernourishment in India stood at 16.6 percent and under-five mortality at 3.1 percent, the prevalence of anaemia in women aged between 15 and 24 years stood at 58.1 percent.
As per the index, India also has the highest child wasting rate in the world at 18.7 percent, reflecting acute undernutrition. Wasting is measured based on children’s weight relative to their height.
The government, however, rejected the index calling it a flawed measure of “hunger” that does not reflect India’s true position.
Explained
Giant Ozone hole Found over Antartica: reason to worry? (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Satellite measurements over Antarctica have detected a giant hole in the ozone layer.
The hole, which scientists call an “ozone-depleted area” was 26 million square kilometers (10 million square miles) in size, roughly three times the size of Brazil.
The European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite made the recordings on September 16, 2023, as part of the EU’s environmental monitoring program.
Claus Zehner, the agency’s mission manager for Copernicus Sentinel-5P, told DW that this is one of the biggest ozone holes they’ve ever seen.
The satellite measured trace gases in the atmosphere in order to monitor the ozone and climate. It showed that this year’s ozone hole started earlier than usual, and had a big extension.
Experts believe the hole in the ozone is not likely to increase warming on the surface of Antarctica.
The ozone layer is a trace gas in the stratosphere, one of the four layers of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Editorial
Violence of pure identity (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The recurring tragedy that is the Palestine-Israel relationship should have something to tell us about the dangers of interpreting human histories through the constraining lens of religious imagination. It should also warn us against thinking that colonial ideas about identity and community have “ancient” — hence local — origins.
Palestine’s tragedy — and the extraordinary human suffering it has caused — is a cautionary tale for all societies that seek to flatten complex histories of co-existence among populations into the fiction of the “superiority” of any one group over others.
The history of the so-called Promised Land (Eretz Israel) that, according to Jewish tradition, rightfully belong to Jews, is one of both shifting narratives about borders and mythic memories.
In an ancient land, controlled at different times by a multiplicity of ruling powers and settled by just as heterogenous mix of populations, the territories of Eretz Israel have always been in flux.
Historians of the region — those not beholden to either the Israeli or Palestinian advocacy circle — suggest that even Jewish sources have differing accounts of the boundaries of the territory apparently promised by god to the Jewish people.
Economy
G20 panel on MDB suggests shifting from project based approach to country platforms (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The G20 expert panel on strengthening multilateral development banks (MDBs) wants these institutions to shift from an approach of individual projects and prioritise programmes identified by national governments with sectoral focus and long-term transformation plans.
In the second volume of its report, the panel with N K Singh and Lawrence Summers as co-conveners recommended that MDBs should focus on helping countries build and operationalise “country platforms”, or voluntary country-level mechanisms set out by respective governments to foster collaboration among development partners on the basis of a shared strategic vision and priorities.
The second volume of the Independent Expert Group on Strengthening Multilateral Development Banks is being taken up at the ongoing meeting of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 countries in Marrakech.
Apart from recommending that the MDBs operate more in sync with developmental priorities of individual nations and co-create multi-year programmes, the expert group also called for bringing private sector engagement to the centre of MDB operations, and significantly raising MDB financing. It also listed out suggestions on how these goals may be achieved.
World Bank to align processes with other MDBs (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked the World Bank to align the processes and procedures with other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) as it will benefit developing nations.
Participating in the 108th Meeting of the Development Committee Plenary of the World Bank Group (WBG) in Marrakech, Morocco, it is encouraging to see the progress towards G20 countries’ common goal of creating a Better, Bigger and more Effective’ World Bank to address the national and global challenges for maximising developmental impact.
We believe that the direction of the World Bank’s evolution will set the template across the MDB ecosystem. Exports dip to $34.47 bn in Sept, trade deficit shrinks to $19.37 bn India supports the World Bank’s new vision to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet, its new mission to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a liveable planet that gives World Bank a formidable mandate to both fight poverty and address global challenges.