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Govt & Politics
Former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna, noted industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and famous playback singer Suman Kalyanpur were given Padma awards by President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Besides them, billionaire stock market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who had passed away last year, was given the Padma Shri posthumously.
Krishna, a former external affairs minister, who is “known for his statesman-like vision and administrative acumen during a career spanning more than six decades”, was given the Padma Vibhushan, the Rashtrapati Bhavan tweeted. He was an external affairs minister in the Congress-led UPA government but had later joined the BJP.
Noted architect Balkrishna Doshi (posthumously) was also given Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second highest civilian honour. Doshi, known for using minimalistic, simple and eco-friendly approach to architecture, designed many iconic structures.
National party tag: Election Commission holds hearings with NCP, CPI, TMC (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Election Commission held hearings for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) to decide whether they should be allowed to retain their ‘national party’ status.
The EC had issued show-cause notices to the three parties in July 2019, asking them to explain why their national party status should not be revoked, after their performance in the Lok Sabha elections that year. Resuming the proceedings, the poll panel had asked the three parties to appear.
Under Para 6B the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, a party is eligible to be considered as a national party if it is a recognised state party in four or more states; if its candidates polled at least 6% of the valid votes in four or more states in the last Lok Sabha or Assembly election and it has at least four MPs elected in the last election or if it wins at least 2% of the total Lok Sabha seats in at least three states.
Express Network
No fertiliser shortage in Kharif season: minister (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Agriculture)
Observing that “sufficient fertiliser stock is available”, Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on said that there will be no shortage during the upcoming kharif season.
Briefing the media, Mandaviya said, “All requirements of fertilisers for kharif season will be fulfilled. There will be no shortage.”
Mandaviya said that against the requirement of 179.01 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of urea during the kharif season, the availability is expected to be 194.31 LMT.
As per data shared by the minister, availability of DAP is estimated at 45 LMT against kharif season’s requirement of 58.82 LMT. The government will import to meet the gap in supply of DAP.
According to Mandaviya, planning for the kharif season has been done, and imports will fill the gap between requirement and production. Fertiliser companies are advised to make advance planning for the upcoming kharif season.
Mandaviya said availability of fertiliser has remained comfortable during the ongoing Rabi season (2022-23). On PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness Generation, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother-Earth (PM-PRANAM), Mandaviya said his ministry will circulate a Cabinet note for approval of this new scheme soon after Parliament approves Budget.
PM-PRANAM was announced in 2023-24 Union Budget. Under the scheme, 50 per cent of fertiliser subsidy saved by a state by way of reduction in consumption in a year compared to previous three years’ average consumption will be given as a grant to states.
Editorial
Virus and Oneness challenge (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The recent rise in Covid-19 cases reminds us that the pandemic is not yet over. It has added some more concern to the ongoing influenza outbreaks.
On the global stage, countries and a range of institutions are negotiating the “pandemic treaty” — a global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
As is reasonably well known now, the Covid XBB 1.16 variant seems to be fuelling the surge, nearly a three-fold rise in cases over the last fortnight. So far, it has not caused any mortality in India.
With more than 6,000 currently active cases, 76 samples of XBB 1.16 have tested positive from eight states, the most so far from Karnataka and Maharashtra. XBB.1.5 has been reported from 38 countries and declared a variant of interest (VOI) by the WHO.
It is expected to emerge as a dominant strain in the UK and Europe and is rapidly spreading in the US as well. Even individuals who had received three or four doses of an mRNA vaccine (such as Moderna or Pfizer), plus suffered a BA.5 infection, were not immune to this variant. There is no evidence of any potential change in severity though.
The growth advantage of XBB 1.16 is nearly one-and-a-half times of XBB.1.5, making it a rather aggressive variant, and with immune escape properties too.
Another potential worry from Israel is the identification of a combination of the BA.1 (Omicron) and infectious BA.2 variants.
The virus was detected in the parents of an infant boy, in whom two viruses linked up and exchanged genetic materials. The current test positivity rate is 10 per cent, a worrying metric by all accounts.
Happiness paradox (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Reports)
A swim in the cool waters of a lake during the hot summer months, berry-picking and mushroom foraging in the forests and a sauna with friends and family every saturday.
Is it any wonder that Finland is, for the sixth year in a row, the happiest country in the world? According to the World Happiness Report 2023, published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, few people on the planet are as happy as the Scandinavians, with Denmark at number two and Iceland in the third spot.
The ranking uses six key factors to measure happiness — social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption. The other two nations of the region, Sweden and Norway, are at six and seven, respectively.
But how, then, to explain the fact that the happiest countries in the world are also among the highest consumers of antidepressants.
As per the data released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the use of antidepressants increased nearly two and half times across Europe between 2000 and 2020, with Iceland in the top spot, followed immediately by Sweden and Norway, with Finland and Denmark coming in at number eight and nine.
This paradox has of late become the focal point of the criticism directed at studies of happiness, with people from around the world, including Finns themselves, pointing out that the measures used often don’t account for such things as loneliness in highly-developed societies and the fact that material well-being does not preclude conditions like clinical depression.
Ideas Page
Answers in the offshore wind (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laudably prioritised renewables in the government’s domestic economic and energy policy. He has also elevated its status in international discussions, notably, in the G20.
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M K Stalin, has similarly embraced the green vision, committing the state to even faster adherence to the net zero target than the country (2050 versus 2070).
The two can come together in a bout of cooperative federalism to produce economic and energy benefits for Tamil Nadu and the country, and to advance India’s foreign policy goals. The surprising opportunity is in off-shore wind energy. Consider how.
The waters between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka are amongst the world’s best locations for generating offshore wind power (applied to wind not white whale, the sailors’ shouts in the novel Moby Dick are resonant: “There she blows! — there she blows!”)
The sites are relatively close to the respective coasts and the winds are strong. Most distinctively, the energy generated is not intermittent.
It is only available for about seven months, but during that period, the winds blow reasonably consistently, day and night.
The readily exploitable energy potential for Tamil Nadu is estimated at about 15 gigawatts, which is greater than its current renewable (wind and solar) capacity.
Express Network
44 Indian courses among top 100 in QS university ranking (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
IIT Bombay’s Mathematics programme at 92nd place, JNU’s sociology at 68th place are some of the courses that featured in the QS World University Rankings 2023 by subject. Apart from these 10 entries from BITS Pilani and two from OP Jindal university also made it to top 100.
Led by its Institutes of Eminence (IoE), India has improved its position in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject, with 44 courses, in their respective subject categories, offered in the country’s higher educational institutes ranked among the global top 100.
The rankings, released on Wednesday, show that the 11 declared Institutes IoEs account for 44 per cent of the 355 programmes offered by Indian universities which made it to the overall rankings. In the previous round, there were 299 entries, including 35 among the top 100.
While the rankings cover 54 academic disciplines, the Indian universities perform well in the fields of Computer Science, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Business Studies, and Physics.
Explained
High Seas Treaty (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Treaties)
Two weeks ago, negotiators from almost every country in the world finalised a new global treaty meant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources in the high seas.
In terms of its significance and impact, this treaty is being compared to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. High seas are open ocean areas that are outside the jurisdiction of any country — the reason why the treaty is commonly known as the agreement on “biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions”, or BBNJ.
Once the treaty becomes international law after ratification by member countries, it will regulate all human activities in the high seas with the objective of ensuring that ocean resources, including biodiversity, are utilised in a sustainable manner, and their benefits are shared equitably among countries.
Oceans are an integral part of the global climate cycle, and perform a range of ecological services including absorption of carbon dioxide and excess heat, because of which this treaty is also being considered as a landmark in the efforts to keep the planet habitable.
The high seas comprise 64 per cent of the ocean surface, and about 43 per cent of the Earth. These areas are home to about 2.2 million marine species and up to a trillion different kinds of microorganisms, according to the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI), a network of global experts on oceans.
Economy
High-speed internet: How will India develop a 6G network? (Page no. 23)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled a vision document for rollout of 6G communications technology in India by 2030.
As part of its 6G mission, India will identify priority areas for research by involving all stakeholders including industry, academia and service providers spanning theoretical and simulation studies, proof-of-concept prototypes and demonstrations and early market interventions through startups, the vision document said.
For regular users, 6G could be a huge opportunity. At present, the total annual purchase of smartphones is greater than 16 crore smartphones for about 30 crore Indian households.
This means that every household today is buying smartphones at an average of one phone every 2 years. A similar amount is being spent annually on two-wheelers, suggesting that an average Indian finds a personal smartphone as valuable, and necessary, as a personal vehicle.
While, technically, 6G does not exist today, it has been conceived as a far superior technology promising internet speeds up to 100 times faster than 5G.
PM Modi had formally launched 5G services in October 2022 and said at the time that India should be ready to launch 6G services in the next 10 years.
As opposed to 5G, which at its peak can offer internet speeds up to 10 gigabits per second, 6G promises to offer ultra-low latency with speeds up to 1 terabits per second.
As per the vision document, 6G use cases will include remote-controlled factories, constantly communicating self-driven cars and smart wearables taking inputs directly from human senses.
However, while 6G promises growth, it will simultaneously have to be balanced with sustainability since most 6G supporting communication devices will be battery-powered and can have a significant carbon footprint.