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Billionaire Elon Musk’s social media company X (formerly Twitter) has said that it has received orders from the Indian government to block certain accounts and links, failing which the platform and its employees could face potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment.
This marks a new flashpoint in the escalating tensions between the social media platform and the Indian government, with the former having sued the Centre over content-blocking orders in 2022. The ruling last year, however, went against the company.
In an early morning post X’s government affairs handle said that while it was complying with New Delhi’s blocking orders, it “disagrees” with its actions.
“Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency. This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making,” it said in the post.
Govt & Politics
19K cr deal cleared for 200 Brahmos missiles for Navy (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
In a significant move, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has accorded approval for procurement of more than 200 BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and associated equipment for the Indian Navy at a cost of around Rs 19,000 crore.
The missiles will largely be deployed on various warships to enhance overall combat capabilities of the Navy, they said.
It is learnt that the proposal approved by the CCS entails acquisition of a mix of BrahMos missiles having a range of around 290 km and the latest extended range variant of the weapon with a range of around 450 km.
BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, an India-Russian joint venture, produces the supersonic cruise missiles that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land platforms.
BrahMos missile flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach or almost three times the speed of sound.
Express Network
Surrogacy rules changed to allow donor gamete for couples with medical issue (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Centre has modified the surrogacy rules again, allowing the egg or the sperm of a donor in case a medical condition of the “intending couple” necessitates it.
In case when the District Medical Board certifies that either husband or wife constituting the intending couple suffers from medical condition necessitating use of donor gamete, then surrogacy using donor gamete is allowed.
This comes after the Supreme Court last year allowed a woman with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) Syndrome — a rare congenital disorder that affects the reproductive system and can cause infertility — to undergo surrogacy with a donor egg.
The rule necessitating that both the egg and the sperm come from the “intending couple” was introduced in 2023. Prior to that, the rules allowed for donation of eggs but not the sperm.
CAG flags faults in rollout of PM Awas Yojana in MP (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has flagged irregularities in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) in Madhya Pradesh – with allegations ranging from the state government handing out Rs 15 crore in assistance to over 1,500 ineligible beneficiaries to more than 8,000 beneficiaries getting priority over more deprived beneficiaries from the SC and ST communities.
The public housing programme was introduced by the Centre in 2016 as an instrument of poverty alleviation. Its stated aim was to provide pucca houses with basic amenities to those living in kutcha and dilapidated houses in rural areas by 2022.
The CAG report, tabled in the Madhya Pradesh assembly on February 8, looks into the scheme’s implementation from 2016-21, when 26,28,525 houses were sanctioned and Rs 24,723 crore was paid to beneficiaries. Of the sanctioned houses, 82.35 percent were completed, the report states.
Though the scheme mandates that households with a vehicle or fishing boat be excluded, the CAG report flagged that “2,037 beneficiaries had two/three/four wheeler before sanction of a house in the 10 audited districts”.
Editorial
A long institutional road (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Two recent decisions by the Supreme Court, declaring the electoral bonds scheme unconstitutional and pronouncing AAP the winner in the mayoral race in Chandigarh, seem to strike a welcome blow on behalf of electoral democracy.
They also raise the expectation of some resistance from what had been, at least in relation to executive power, a more or less comatose Supreme Court.
It is a measure of how low the Court had sunk that two straightforward decisions come as something of a relief. It will be heartening if this trend continues, and if other institutions feel similarly empowered to do their constitutional duties. But there is also a danger of premature celebration. Decisions like these may, at best, be a tactical reprieve. They do not portend a pathway to regeneration just yet.
How should one think of these interventions in the context of the larger degradation of institutions? One has to keep two features of political legitimation in mind.
The first is that any institution, particularly the Court, has to often balance not antagonising the executive with considerations of its own legitimacy. If its own legitimacy collapses, it poses a threat to the existence of the institution.
Ideas Page
How to make MSP work (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The system of Minimum Support Prices (MSP) has remained under pressure since it was started in 1965, especially on issues related to inclusion of crops, the formula or basis of MSP, effective implementation and even its enforcement.
In fact, it is rather ironic that maximum protests around MSP are witnessed in the region which has benefitted the most from it and where it has been almost perfectly implemented.
The main reasons for excessive focus on MSP are inefficient and poorly competitive markets, the failure of markets to evolve to meet the changing requirements of the farm sector, neglect of non-price factors to raise productivity and crop income and the direct and instant effect of prices on farm income.
For almost 50 years, MSP implementation remained largely restricted to a few states and to paddy (rice), wheat and cotton.
Low growth rate in agricultural income, decline in the terms of trade for agriculture and increase in farmers suicides from the period between 1993-94 to 2004-5 directed attention towards remunerative prices to address agrarian distress.
The National Commission on Farmers (popularly known as Swaminathan Panel), constituted in 2004, submitted its report in 2006.
It made a large number of suggestions and recommendations, which also included reforms in the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) market, contract farming, land reform etc.
One of the many recommendations of the Commission was that MSP should be at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production.
Express Network
In a first, CERN scientists carry out laser cooling of positonium (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
In a first, an international team of physicists from the Anti-hydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS) collaboration has achieved a breakthrough by demonstrating the laser cooling of Positronium.
Positronium, comprising a bound electron ( e- ) and positron ( e+ ), is a fundamental atomic system. Due to its very short life, it annihilates with a half life of 142 nano-seconds.
Its mass is twice the electron mass and enjoys the unique distinction of being a pure leptonic atom. This hydrogen-like system, with halved frequencies for excitation, makes it a great contender for attempting laser cooling and thereby performing tests of fundamental theories in physics.
Physicists representing 19 European and one India research group comprising the Antihydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS) collaboration announced this scientific achievement on Thursday.
Economy
Economy to grow by 6.5% in 2024-25: India rating (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Indian economy is likely to grow by 6.5 per cent in the financial year 2024-25, India Ratings and Research said in its macroeconomic outlook released.
The estimate, lower than the 7 per cent growth forecast of the Reserve Bank of India, is seen coming on the back of sustained government capex, healthy corporate performance, continued softness in global commodity prices and prospect of a new private corporate capex cycle. In FY24, the National Statistical Office has projected India’s economy to grow at 7.3 per cent.
“Private corporate sector investments have been down and out for nearly a decade. But when we look at lead indicators, all of them are indicating that at the current juncture the private corporate sector is once again becoming more bullish about investments.
It may or may not be happening on the ground in the way we would like it to, but some flavour of that has already started becoming clearer at least in terms of intentions and the way they (corporates) are now approaching banks to finance their projects.
Explained
CBSE Open book plan : What is it, Why now, how it can impact students (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has proposed a pilot study to check the feasibility of open book exams for Classes 9 to 12.
The pilot will be held in select schools in November-December for subjects like English, Mathematics and Science for Classes 9 and 10, and English, Mathematics and Biology for Classes 11 and 12. The CBSE has proposed this form of assessment based on the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) released last year.
Through this pilot, the Board aims to study the time taken by students to complete such tests and gather feedback from teachers and students.
The pilot test will be designed and developed by June, for which the CBSE has sought Delhi University’s help.
In an open book exam (OBE), students are allowed to refer to their books and notes to answer questions.