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With its population estimated to touch 142.86 crore by the middle of this year, marginally ahead of China at 142.57 crore, India is on track to be the world’s most populous country, according to the UNFPA’s State of World Population Report 2023 released.
According to the report, 68 per cent of India’s total population is between the ages of 15 and 64 years, which is considered the working population of a country.
About 25 per cent is between 0-14 years; 18 per cent between 10 and 19 years, 26 percent between 10 and 24 years, and 7 per cent above 65 years.
Last year, China remained the most populous country with an estimated 144.8 crore people while India’s population was estimated at 140.6 crore.
Another UN Report, World Population Prospects 2022, that was released in July last year, had said that by 2050, India’s population would reach 166.8 crore, far exceeding China’s declining population at 131.7 crore.
In 1950, India was at 86.1 crore, while China was at 114.4 crore. According to the UN projections, India’s population is expected to grow for the next three decades after which it will begin declining.
Ideas page
Imagination of us (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
While addressing the virtual Summit for Democracy co-hosted by the US, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Zambia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that “India is indeed the mother of democracy”, by claiming that “the idea of elected leaders was a common feature in ancient India, long before the rest of the world.”
This contention contests the Western conception of Indian democracy as a pale imitation of the Anglo-American system of governance.
The problem essentially lies in the conception of democracy as a product of monumental structures that were built out of European ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity. However, this forced consensus has, by and large, restricted the context of the philosophy of democracy, whose foundational principles evolved much earlier in ancient India.
While kingship held a central place in Indian political life, the democratic spirit and consciousness never disappeared. With the emergence of urban centres in the post-Vedic society, India saw the samiti and sabha pave the way for the emergence of other systems like gana, samgha and sreni. By the 6th century BCE, during the times of the Buddha, they evolved as oligarchies, the most powerful of which emerged as non-monarchical self-governing sovereign governments, best known as republics.
Sanskrit texts such as Ashtadhyayi and Buddhist canonical works like Majjhima Nikaya refer to several powerful republics of the time, such as the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, the Koliyas of Devadaha and Ramagrama, the Bulis of Allakappa, the Kalamas of Kesaputta, the Moriyas of Pipphalivana, the Bhaggas of Sumsumara hills, the Vajjis, and the Mallas.
The description of features of self-governance as outlined in the Buddhist sources indicates one of the earliest experiments with democracy in early Buddhist India.
Explained
Key SC verdicts that moved the needle on LGBTQ rights (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday continued to hear a batch of pleas seeking legal recognition for same-sex marriages. On the second day of the hearing, the court heard arguments on the changing legal landscape on LGBTQ rights and the evolution of the right to choose one’s partner. Here are some of the key cases that trace the shift in the law over the years.
Months after a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in ‘Suresh Koushal v Union of India’ upheld the constitutional validity of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, another Bench in April 2014 affirmed the constitutional rights of transgender persons under Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
In ‘NALSA’, the Court agreed with virtually the same arguments it rejected in Suresh Koushal. The court upheld the right of transgender persons to decide their gender and directed the Centre and state governments to grant legal recognition to their gender identity, such as male, female or the third gender.
In 2017, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution. In doing so, the verdict overruled a “discordant note which directly bears upon the evolution of the constitutional jurisprudence on the right to privacy” — the 2013 ‘Suresh Koushal’ ruling.
Deadnaming (Page no. 13)
(Miscellaneous)
Twitter has removed a policy that prohibited misgendering or deadnaming of transgender people on the social media platform.
The move has sparked a row as many believe that the safety standards that the social media platform once afforded to various marginalised groups are being compromised under the stewardship of Elon Musk.
According to Forbes, Twitter’s “hateful conduct policy” used to read: “We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanise, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”
As per the report, around 10 days ago, the last line was removed. It had been first introduced in 2018. Twitter also announced that it will only put warning labels on some tweets that might violate its rules against hateful conduct. Earlier, the tweets were removed from the platform.
Twitter’s decision to covertly roll back its long-time policy is the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike.
This decision to roll back LGBTQ safety pulls Twitter even more out of step with TikTok, Pinterest, and Meta, which all maintain similar policies to protect their transgender users at a time when anti-transgender rhetoric online is leading to real-world discrimination and violence.
Economy
Govt green flags project to aid R&D in quantum tech (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Union Cabinet approved the National Quantum Mission (NQM) in a bid to aid scientific and industrial research and development in quantum technology.
The mission involves a cost of Rs 6,003.65 crore from 2023-24 to 2030-31, and aims to put India among the top six leading nations involved in the research and development in quantum technologies.
NQM will mainly work towards strengthening India’s research and development in the quantum arena alongside indigenously building quantum-based (physical qubit) computers which are far more powerful and are able to perform the most complex problems in a highly secure manner.
It will target developing intermediate scale quantum computers with 50-1000 physical qubits in eight years in various platforms like superconducting and photonic technology.
Satellite based secure quantum communications between ground stations over a range of 2000 kilometres within India, long distance secure quantum communications with other countries, inter-city quantum key distribution over 2000 km as well as multi-node Quantum network with quantum memories are among the other objectives of the mission.
The mission will help develop magnetometers with high sensitivity in atomic systems and Atomic Clocks for precision timing, communications and navigation.
It will also support design and synthesis of quantum materials such as superconductors, novel semiconductor structures and topological materials for fabrication of quantum devices.
Single photon sources/detectors, entangled photon sources will also be developed for quantum communications, sensing and metrological applications.
Indian UK talk on crypto asset, risks (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
India and the UK on Wednesday discussed international developments regarding crypto assets and emphasised the importance of robust global approaches to deal with risks attached to this.
At the India-UK 2nd Financial Markets Dialogue participants from both countries provided updates on recent developments in their respective banking sectors, discussing banking trends and emerging vulnerabilities and risks in the sector.
Scope for augmenting knowledge on Central Banking Digital Currency (CBDC) through mutual learning was explored. Participants discussed international developments regarding crypto assets, and the importance of robust global approaches, and progress in delivering the G20 Roadmap.
The recent collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the ensuing sell-off in crypto markets have placed a spotlight on the vulnerabilities in the crypto ecosystem.
Crypto assets are self-referential instruments and do not strictly pass the test of being a financial asset because they have no intrinsic cash flows attached to them.
US regulators have disqualified Bitcoin, Ether and various other crypto assets as securities. Participants discussed matters relating to the insurance sector, including UK updates on Solvency II reforms and a consultation on the introduction of an Insurer Regulation Regime (IRR).