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The Centre announced it would award the Bharat Ratna posthumously to Karpoori Thakur, former chief minister of Bihar. This is the birth centenary year of Thakur, also known as ‘Jannayak’, or the leader of the people.
Prominent political parties of Bihar, such as the RJD and the JD(U), have regularly demanded the Bharat Ratna for Thakur, known for his struggle to secure dignity, self respect, and development for the most disadvantaged sections of society.
Thakur’s (January 24, 1924-February 17, 1988) political life was one of contrasts — he managed to emerge as the tallest backward caste leader in Bihar despite belonging to the minority nai (barber) caste himself, but the rise of the leaders he mentored, from numerically stronger castes (Lalu Prasad from the Yadavs, Ram Vilas Paswan among Dalits), took away his pole position. He was chief minister twice for short tenures, but his radical policy decisions had an outsized impact, and resonate even today.
Express Network
Army deploys more troops, steps up vigil in Rajouri – Poonch (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The Army has significantly ramped up its troop strength in the Rajouri-Poonch sector and heightened surveillance of the area in the wake of multiple attacks on its personnel in the last three years.
The latest measures — after three major attacks on Indian security forces in the region last year — stall the earlier plan to reduce the strength of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) battalions from six to four companies.
RR is the counter-terrorism force deployed in J&K.
According to sources, over three brigades of additional troops are being inducted in the sector from various reserve and strike corps formations. A brigade comprises approximately 3,500 personnel.
The additional deployment will not increase the density of troops in the area and fill the voids left by the withdrawal of an RR force in 2021, but will strengthen Road Opening Parties (ROP) for better protection against ambushes. An ROP comprises troops responsible for safe passage of military vehicles.
Editorial
Challenge for Modi – Macron (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Will there be anything more than pomp and show during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India this week? To be sure, the two leaders could do with some uplifting pageantry.
For Macron, struggling to reinvent his presidency, the enthusiastic reception in India would be a relief. The royal Rajputana welcome in Jaipur to Macron should look good back in France. The French presidency is Republican by nature but imperial in style.
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is riding high at home, Macron’s visit marks continuing high-level political engagement from the Western chancelleries at a time when the liberal Anglo-Saxon media is going ballistic about his temple project and India’s retreat from secularism.
It is always wrong, though, to conflate Western geopolitical interests with the media articulation of liberal ideology. In any case, you can’t be more secular than the French in the East or the West.
But what about substance? The two leaders had met last July when Modi travelled to Paris to participate in the Bastille Day celebrations.
They had issued an ambitious new framework — Horizon 2047— to advance cooperation in many areas, including defence, space, and nuclear energy over the next quarter of a century.
Ideas Page
The most powerful safeguard (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
In any democracy, sovereignty is deemed to reside in the people and hence a parliament of their elected representatives represents the sovereignty of the people.
But precisely because majority is the heart of democracy and because it is equally a universal truth that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, anti-majoritarian safeguards are vital.
The highest bulwark of such safeguards is the Indian Constitution. Hence, the best way to institutionalise tyranny and constitutionalise dictatorship would be to amend the Constitution at the will of the majority.
That is the significance of Kesavananda Bharati (KB), India’s longest argued case with the largest bench. This 703-page judgment, spread over 11 judicial opinions, established a one-line permanent bulwark against tyranny and dictatorship: Even a constitutional amendment, validly passed by Parliament’s special majority, can be declared unconstitutional, if it violates the Basic Structure (BS) of the Constitution.
Basic Structure makes it impossible to constitutionalise gross aberrations or institutionalise tyranny, even if Parliament so decrees by a 100 per cent affirmative vote. Since the superior courts have the last word on a case-by-case basis to decide what is or is not BS, making them its final arbiter, this seemingly anti-democratic, anti-sovereignty device, administered by unelected judges, has become the most powerful permanent safeguard for enduring democracy.
World
China assures Pak support to defend sovereignty after Iran’s airstrike (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
China has assured Islamabad of its support in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity even while welcoming the restoration of diplomatic ties between Tehran and Islamabad after their recent air strikes against each other.
As China’s Foreign Minister Sun Weidong visited Pakistan on a mediation mission, a statement from Foreign Ministry on Monday said it is maintaining close contacts with Pakistan and Iran to “bridge their differences.”
China on January 18 offered to play a “constructive role” to ease tension between Pakistan and Iran following their missile strikes against each other and asked the two countries to "exercise restraint and calmness and avoid escalation.”
Economy
Centre’s sovereign AI push : Compute mission may get over Rs 10,000 crore (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Centre’s ambitious artificial intelligence (AI) Mission may soon head for Cabinet approval and could have an outlay of more than Rs 10,000 crore, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar told.
As part of the programme, the government wants to develop its own ‘sovereign AI’, build computational capacity in the country, and offer compute-as-a-service to India’s startups.
“We will take the proposal for the AI Mission to the Cabinet soon. We are still working out some contours, but the overall outlay for the initiative could be more than Rs 10,000 crore,” he said.
The Indian Express had earlier reported the capacity building will be done both within the government and through a public-private partnership model, highlighting New Delhi’s intention to reap dividends of the impending AI boom which it envisions will be a crucial economic driver.
Explained
The rooftop solar plan (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Shortly after returning from the Pran Pratishtha ceremony at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of a new programme to install rooftop solar systems on 1 crore houses.
“On the auspicious occasion of the consecration in Ayodhya, my resolve has been further strengthened that the people of India should have their own solar rooftop system on the roof of their houses,” Modi said, announcing the Pradhan Mantri Suryodaya Yojana.
“This will not only reduce the electricity bills of the poor and middle classes, but will also make India self-reliant in the energy sector,” the Prime Minister said on X (Twitter).
Although the 1-crore-households target is new, the installation of solar systems on rooftops has been an ongoing government programme for more than a decade. But it is running far behind schedule — and the announcement by the Prime Minister is an attempt to give a fresh push to decentralised solar power in the country.