20 May 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
Ebrahim Raisi: Hardliner seen as successor to Supreme leader
Page no – the world section
GS2-Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests, Indian Diaspora
- Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has been killed in a helicopter crash in the mountains to the northwest of the country, close to its borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan.
- The helicopter, which was also carrying Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and the Governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati, disappeared in dense fog on Sunday (May 21).
- Raisi was returning to Tehran from an event with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, media reports said.
- Search and rescue teams working in rain and fog located the wreckage overnight. In pictures from the crash site, almost nothing of the aircraft except a part of its tail can be seen.
A story of J&K and PoK
Page no- 8
GS3- Linkages between Development and Spread of Extremism
- If you stand back and view the contrasts emerging from the post-election scenario in Pakistan and the ongoing electoral exercise in India, it proves helpful in drawing conclusions.
- More so if you leave aside everything else and just focus on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) where the first of the five phases of the general election ended a few days ago.
- The 38 per cent turnout of the Srinagar electorate was a definite surge from the abysmal 14.4 per cent in 2019.
- In 1996, it was 41 per cent, pointing to the downward spiral of terrorist and separatist violence after the initial spurt in 1989-90; in fact, the graph of foreign terrorists from Afghanistan had reached a low that year before rising sharply because of the presence of terrorists, mainly from Pakistan.
The curse of smallness
Page no- 8
GS3- Changes in Industrial Policy and their Effects on Industrial Growth
- The recent back and forth over an order demanding timely payments to MSMEs has once again revealed the gaps in knowledge about the structure as well as the everyday functioning of these enterprises.
- A government order, clearly in the interest of MSMEs, has led to unforeseen repercussions, marginalising smaller enterprises in the short term.
House is the key
Page no- 9
GS3- Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development and Employment
- There is a Hindi proverb, “Chhoti chabi bada tala khol sakti hai” (a small key can open a big lock).
- This may hold some lessons when it comes to big-picture thinking on a particular reform agenda that has recently captured policymakers’ attention: Transforming India’s manufacturing sector.
- The ambitions are clear — to grow India’s economy to $10 trillion by 2035, and with it, grow manufacturing’s share from 15 per cent of GDP to 25 per cent.
- The goal of this shift is to increase the employment elasticity of growth, which is to provide greater employment per unit of output.
- This implies a four-fold growth in manufacturing.
Green credits: Govt nod to 12 projects, 24 under consideration
Page no- 10
GS3-Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development
- The Centre has approved 12 greening projects under the Green Credit Program (GCP), which was notified last year as a market-based mechanism designed to incentivize voluntary environmental actions across diverse sectors, officials aware of the development said.
- Estimates of 24 plans submitted by different state forest departments are under consideration, the officials said.
Illegal mining in Sariska
Page no- 11
GS1- factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India)
- The Supreme Court has ordered the Rajasthan government to shutter 68 mines operating within a 1-kilometre periphery of the critical tiger habitat (CTH) of the Sariska reserve.
- The order, passed on May 15, is the latest of many attempts by the country’s top court since the 1990s to halt the mining of marble, dolomite, and limestone in Sariska in violation of laws.
- Both the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and Environment Protection Act, 1986 prohibit quarrying in and around a tiger reserve.
The ‘Her’ moment: OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s project Astra make real-life strides
Page no- 13
GS3- Awareness in the fields of IT
- “Well, you seem like a person, but you’re just a voice in a computer.” “I can understand how the limited perspective of an un-artificial mind would perceive it that way. You’ll get used to it.”
- Theodore Twombly fell in love with a digital assistant Samantha in the 2013 hit ‘Her’. The lifelike assistant, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, displayed a sense of humour, intelligence, and empathy that made her seem human to Theodore (played by Joaquin Phoenix).
