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The inauguration of India’s new Parliament, built over the last two years, marks a moment in the life of a nation that draws on its civilizational history and, at the same time, holds the promise of a more prosperous and equitable future.
Suggesting that India is witnessing an awakening of national consciousness similar to what was seen during the decisive last 25-year phase of the freedom struggle, Modi projected the building as a symbol of a resurgent “new India” and linked it to his government’s welfare deliveries in the past nine years.
As many as 21 Opposition parties, led by the Congress, stayed away from the function protesting what they called was the Government’s “grave insult” to the President by not inviting her.
In her message read out at the inauguration ceremony, President Droupadi Murmu said she was glad that the Prime Minister, who symbolises the trust of Parliament, is inaugurating the building.
Delivering his first speech in the new building, Modi repeatedly tapped into the sense of “national pride” pointing out that the new building was a reflection of the aspirations and dreams of 140 crore Indians and a message to the world about the country’s determination.
Underlining that India was shedding the “mentality of slavery,” the Prime Minister’s speech, punctuated several times by loud applause, was peppered with references to “new India.”
Express network
Once out-of-print, how rare 19th century Assamese journals are going online now (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
There are not many copies of Cartoon — north-east India’s “first monthly cartoon journal”— around. So rare is the 1970s Assamese language political satire magazine that even its founder-editor, the late Pulak Gogoi, was once said to have been hard-pressed for a copy.
Gogoi, who passed away last year, would have been pleasantly surprised then to find that the journal — published between 1967 and 1973, and sold at 50 paisa apiece — now has a new virtual home.
Digitising Axom, a digital archiving and preservation project, led by two Assam-based trusts, has given Cartoon — and at least 125 other out-of-print Assamese journals — a second life online.
The range is immense: from love poems to political affairs, social commentary to children’s literature, humanitarian crises to tips on homemaking — all captured in an ambitious project to cover “every possible rare book and journal published in Assam”.
If a slim 16-page booklet, Gogona, provides an insight into the workings of a Bihu committee of Dibrugarh in the late 1950s, the 20 issues of the historic Orunodoi (1846), Assam’s first magazine, is a window into the social and political life of the time. There’s Jonaki (1889) that introduced romanticism in Assamese literature, Abahon (1929) that was considered to have pioneered photojournalism in the region and Ramdhenu that birthed a new crop of writers, many of whom went on to become the state’s leading literary luminaries.
Editorial
Nutrition in a warmer world (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
At the Hiroshima Summit 2023, the G7 nations stressed that the peak for global Green House Gas (GHG) emissions should be reached by 2025.
They also committed to an “Acceleration Agenda” for G7 countries to reach net-zero emissions by around 2040 and urged emerging economies to do so by around 2050. China has committed to net zero by 2060 and India by 2070.
However, emerging trends in climate change may not give humanity the luxury of being too late. Severe costs are likely to be inflicted in terms of human lives and livelihoods, especially for those working in the agriculture sector, with every 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature compared to pre-industrial levels.
India has the largest workforce (45.6 per cent in 2021-22) engaged in agriculture amongst G20 countries. The impact of climate change may be disproportionate for India.
There is renewed urgency in this matter as the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has forecast that global near-surface temperatures are likely to increase by 1.1°C to 1.8°C annually from 2023 to 2027.
It also anticipates that temperatures will exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one year within this period. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), India experienced its fifth hottest year on record in 2022.
Against this backdrop, that Indian agriculture faces a double whammy. Not only does it have to feed the largest population (1.42 billion in 2023 and likely to be 1.67 billion by 2050), it has to do so while contending with the increasing vagaries of nature.
Ideas Page
The new Parliament will give new energy and new strength to the world’s largest democracy (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Some moments come in the development journey of every country, which become immortal forever. Some dates become indelible signatures of history on the forehead of time. May 28, 2023, is such an auspicious occasion.
The country is celebrating Amrit Mahotsav on the occasion of 75 years of independence. In this Amrit Mahotsav, the people of India have gifted this new building of Parliament to their democracy.
This is not just a building. It is a reflection of the aspirations and dreams of 140 crore Indians. This is the temple of our democracy, giving the message of India’s determination to the world.
This new Parliament House will prove to be an important link connecting planning with reality, policy with construction, will power with action power, resolution with achievement.
This new building will become a means of realising the dreams of our freedom fighters. This new building will witness the sunrise of self-reliant India.
This new building will see the fulfilment of the resolutions of a developed India. This new building is also an ideal for the coexistence of the new and the old.
New patterns are created only by walking on new paths. Today, New India is setting new goals, forging new paths. There is new enthusiasm. New journey, new thinking. The direction is new, the vision is new. The resolution is new, the belief is new.
And, today, once again the whole world is looking at India, the determination of India, the intensity of the people of India, the spirit of the Indian people, with a sense of respect and hope.
When India moves forward, the world moves forward. This new building of the Parliament will call for the development of the world along with the development of India.
World
Erdogan wins Turkey’s runoff polls, add 5 years to his two decade rule (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won reelection Sunday, extending his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade as the country reels from high inflation and the aftermath of an earthquake that leveled entire cities.
A third term gives Erdogan, a polarizing populist, an even stronger hand domestically and internationally, and the election results will have implications far beyond the capital of Ankara. Turkey stands at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and it plays a key role in NATO.
With more than 99% of ballot boxes opened, unofficial results from competing news agencies showed Erdogan with 52% of the vote, compared with 48% for his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
The head of Turkey’s electoral board confirmed the victory, saying that even after accounting for outstanding votes, the result was another term for Erdogan.
In two speeches — one in Istanbul and one in Ankara — Erdogan thanked the nation for entrusting him with the presidency for five more years.
“We hope to be worthy of your trust, as we have been for 21 years,” he told supporters on a campaign bus outside his home in Istanbul in his first comments after the results emerged.
He ridiculed his challenger for his loss, saying “bye bye bye, Kemal,” as supporters booed. He said the divisions of the election are now over, but he continued to rail against his opponent as well as the former co-leader of the pro-Kurdish party who has been imprisoned for years over alleged links to terrorism.
Explained
Navic launch: why regional navigation system matters (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the first of the second-generation satellites for its navigation constellation successfully.
The 2,232 kg satellite, the heaviest in the constellation, was launched by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket that lifted off from Sriharikota.
Each of the seven satellites currently in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) constellation, operationally named NavIC, weighed much less — around 1,425 kg — at liftoff. They all rode the lighter Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), ISRO’s workhorse launch rocket.
The last IRNSS satellite, IRNSS-1I, was launched in April 2018 to replace an older, partially defunct satellite in the constellation. IRNSS-1I was ISRO’s ninth satellite for the NavIC constellation, but is considered to be the eighth because the IRNSS-1H — launched eight months earlier in August 2017 and originally intended to replace the older satellite — was lost after the heat shield of the payload failed to open on time.
As stated above, the second-generation satellite — christened NVS-01, the first of ISRO’s NVS series of payloads — is heavier. Other than that:
The satellite will have a Rubidium atomic clock onboard, a significant technology developed by India. “The space-qualified Rubidium atomic clock indigenously developed by Space Application Centre-Ahmedabad is an important technology which only a handful of countries possess.
Economy
India Inc dividend payout rises 26% in FY23 on strengthening economy (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Riding on the optimism of a ris- ing economy, increase in earn- ings and buoyant markets, India Inc has recommended a dividend payout of Rs 3.26 lakh crore for the financial year 2023.
This is a whopping 26 per cent rise from the nearly Rs 2.6-lakh crore cor- porates shelled out to investors in the year-ago period.
The dividend payout of Rs 3.26 lakh crore is by 317 compa- nies (of the BSE 500 that have de- clared dividends), while the pay- out ratio of these companies has also risen by 41.46 per cent in FY23 from 34.66 per cent in FY22.
IT major Tata Consultancy Services topped the charts of companies that have recom mended dividend for FY23, with a total payout of Rs 42,090 crore, a 167.4 per cent rise from that in the previous fiscal.