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A U.S. security envoy had talks with Israel about shifting its strategy in Gaza toward surgical operations against Hamas from a broad ground campaign, and President Joe Biden appealed for civilian lives in the Palestinian territory to be saved.
With nightfall on Thursday, Israeli tanks and planes intensified bombardment of the northern Gaza neighbourhoods of Shejaia, Zeitoun and Daraj as well as Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
Four people, including two children, were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike on a house in Khan Younis in southern Gaza early on Friday.
Israel has been pounding the 25-mile (40-kilometer) length of Gaza with no sign of a pause in hostilities or a ceasefire that would enable delivery of more desperately needed basic supplies for civilians to survive as their homes have been destroyed.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in retaliation for a rampage by Hamas, the Iran-backed group that rules Gaza, whose fighters killed 1,200 Israelis and seized 240 hostages in a cross-border raid on Oct. 7.
Israeli forces have besieged the coastal strip and laid much of it to waste, with nearly 19,000 people confirmed dead, according to Palestinian health officials, and thousands more feared buried under the rubble.
Explained
Why green push needs balancing, COP coal breather is key (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Fossil fuel phase-out was the most hotly contested issue at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, which ended with an agreement to “transition away from fossil fuels”, but without a mention of their “phase-out”.
A strong pushback by India and some other countries including China and South Africa to a proposal stipulating that no new coal-fired power plants can be commissioned without an in-built carbon capture and storage facility, ultimately led to the omission of the clause from the final climate deal that was agreed upon in Dubai.
At a review meeting held less than a week before the beginning of COP28, the Union Power Ministry decided to step up its coal-powered generation capacity, with plans to add at least 80 gigawatts (GW, where 1 GW is equal to 1,000 megawatts or MW) by 2031-32.
While this was broadly in line with the National Electricity Plan for 2022-27, the new blueprint for the country’s power sector released by planners earlier this year, it marked a discernible pivot and a policy reversal from earlier years — given that the central government had been focused almost entirely on renewable energy for incremental capacity addition, and fresh coal-fired capacity was virtually ruled out.
Front Page
SC declines to stay HC order for Shahi Idgah complex survey (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court declined to stay the Allahabad High Court order allowing an application for an inspection of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex in Mathura by a court-appointed commissioner.
Hindu petitioners contend that the mosque was built on the Krishna Janmasthan, the birthplace of Lord Krishna.
Muslim litigants maintain that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 bars changing the character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
At this stage, we will not stay anything. Let him continue. If any adverse order is passed, you can come,” Justice Sanjiv Khanna, presiding over a two-judge bench, told Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi who appeared for the Committee of Management Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah that approached the Supreme Court against the order passed Thursday by Justice Mayank Kumar Jain of the Allahabad High Court.
First in India: Delhi airport set to get body, CTX scanners by May (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Full body scanners and computer tomography X-ray (CTX) scanners, awaited for long, are likely to be installed by May 2024 at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, according to Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) Director General Zulfiquar Hasan.
The scanners, which are already in place at numerous airports globally, allow faster and rigorous screening of passengers than metal detectors and manual frisking. CTX scanners are used to screen cabin or carry-on baggage and do not require passengers to segregate electronic devices and liquids separately for screening.
Together, the two machines are expected to reduce time taken in passengers’ security check before departure, which is likely to play a part in easing congestion and wait time at busy airports.
Earlier this year, the BCAS had directed all airports handling over 1 crore passengers and 50 lakh passengers annually to install full body scanners and CTX scanners, respectively, by December 31.
However, certain “provisioning issues” have delayed the process and the first scanners are now expected only by May starting with the IGI Airport.
Govt & Politics
Implementing women’s reservation law: HC refuses to entertain plea (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Delhi High Court refused to entertain a plea for a “time-bound” and “urgent” implementation of the Women’s reservation law to ensure 33% quota for women in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
A single judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad said the prayers in the petition were in the nature of “public interest” and granted the petitioner, advocate Yogamaya M G, the liberty to withdraw the petition and file a PIL.
The advocate, representing the central government, said the issue of implementation was already pending before the SC.
“The lack of tangible progress or a clear roadmap for implementation raises concerns about the sincerity of the authorities in giving effect to this vital legislative measure,” the plea states.
The plea made political parties, including the Congress and BJP, as respondents and sought a direction to EC to issue a directive to all parties for their responses and plans for the implementation of the law before the 2024 polls.
Iran announces visa free travel for Indians (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Iran has announced that it was lifting visa requirements for citizens of India as well as 32 other countries — being an addition to several other countries that have recently announced visa-free travel for Indian nationals.
This move is aimed at boosting tourism with more visitors from across the world, said Ezzatollah Zarghami, Iranian minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, following a cabinet meeting.
This decision aims at showcasing Iran’s commitment to global interaction, said Zarghami, adding, “Iran aims to counter negative perceptions and rumours with this move, while combating the phenomenon of ‘Iranophobia perpetuated by the global arrogance system’.
Thirty-two other countries in Iran’s visa-free travel list include Russia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Mauritania, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Seychelles, Indonesia, Darussalam, Japan, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, and Belarus.
Editorial
A paradox in Palestine (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
There is a horrific war unfolding in Gaza. The war itself was a response to Hamas’ barbaric attack on Israel. But the scale of what Israel is inflicting on Gaza has acquired barbaric proportions of its own: Close to 19,000 dead, 50,000 injured, over 6,000 children dead, half of a densely populated area bombed to rubble, and nearly a million and a half displaced.
Increasingly, this is becoming a war to humiliate a people as much as to achieve any possible military objectives. These facts have to be pointedly stated.
There are many wars, from Sudan to Yemen, that have been made invisible. But no war is being more talked about and yet cloaked in a deep sense of unreality.
Part of the problem is that this war has become an occasion to litigate everything but the stopping of the war itself. The longer this war goes on, the more potential it has to deepen the ideological fissures within the West, weakening and isolating it.
The war has torn to shreds whatever might remain of liberal values and the liberal world order. It was Hannah Arendt who was deeply concerned about the ways we produce unreality.
But nothing exemplifies the sense of unreality more than Germany. It has cancelled a political thought prize awarded to Jewish writer Masha Gessen given in Arendt’s name because they wrote on the ghettoisation of Gaza.
It is symptomatic of a pathology in Europe that Arendt would have understood: A refusal to think politically, and, once again, ironically, in the name of combatting anti-Semitism, retreating to a language of racialised exceptionalism.
Ideas Page
A journey for organs (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
News about organ transplantation swings from uplifting to disheartening. Newspapers carry frequent stories of acts of spontaneous solidarity by ordinary Indians donating organs of family members who have suddenly passed away due to catastrophic injuries, causing brain death.
This donation is to complete strangers without any expectation in return. We have recently witnessed parents donating the organs of their babies who are brain-dead in what must be a state of unimaginable grief.
There is also regular news of extraordinary scientific breakthroughs in transplantation. Transplantation is an example of solidarity, science and teamwork in healthcare.
Simultaneously there is news of scandals, often involving the buying of organs from the vulnerable. Last year, a Kolkata hospital was at the centre of a news investigation which described street children from Nepal being lured as kidney donors for wealthy Indian and foreign patients.
More recently, newspapers reported what seems like an elaborate Myanmar-based ring which arranged paid kidney donors and got transplants performed in a prominent Delhi hospital by faking documents.
The buying and selling of human organs is a very old and global phenomenon. It has been deemed illegal in most of the world including India.
This is not just from a moral prism but also to protect the rights of the vulnerable. But organ commerce continues, given the acute demand and a world where the commodification of the body is normalised.
However, selling organs still evokes revulsion. Also, unethical transplantation requires the collusion of expert doctors whose professional oaths condemn organ trading. Morality and ethics collide with market medicine.
Economy
Imports shrink 4.3%, trade deficit narrows in November (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s merchandise exports growth slipped into the negative zone in November, as challenges in the key markets saw no sign of easing, but the government insisted green shoots are “stabilising” and for the full year shipments could reach “decent levels.”
Exports in November were down 2.8% on year to $ 33.9 billion, while imports saw a contraction of 4.3% to $ 54.98 billion.
Trade deficit came down to $ 20.58 billion in the month, a steep decline from a high $29.9 billion (revised from $31.46 billion) in October.
In the first eight months of the financial year merchandise export growth has been in positive territory only in August and October.
ICT import duty: India challenges WTO panel ruling in favour of EU (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Settlement talks between India and the EU on the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) import duty case have broken down after seven months as New Delhi took the matter to the appellate body, the World Trade Organisation’s highest court for dispute resolution.
Brussels had dragged New Delhi into WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism in 2019, challenging its levy of import duty on a wide range of ICT products on ground that the duty was inconsistent with global trade norms and was hurting €600 million of its tech exports to India.
India and the EU have negotiated to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution (MAS) for the past seven months, but the EU has now filed for adoption of panel report on December 7 and therefore, India has appealed against it on December 8 in the WTO.
He said that during the negotiations, the EU was seeking customs duty concessions on certain goods, which was not acceptable to India as it violates WTO rules. These concessions can only be given in a free trade agreement, Kumar added.