Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Ideas Page
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s plans to address a gathering of the Indian diaspora in New York this week is likely to make explicit an important reality — the diaspora is where India’s domestic politics intersects with foreign policy. A deeply polarised Indian polity, in turn, sharpens the divisions within the diaspora.
Until now, the dominant Indian image of the diaspora has been a simplistic one. According to the cliche, the members of the diaspora served as India’s unofficial ambassadors to the world – they celebrate and spread Indian culture, win friends and influence people for the benefit of the homeland.
This romantic notion is increasingly at odds with the ground reality. The diaspora carries within it all the faultlines of the Indian society that find expression in their lives abroad.
Several factors have come together to make the interaction between India and its diaspora at once more charged, contentious, and consequential. The Indian political class has never been as divided as it is today.
India’s internal gulf is bound to envelop the diaspora in the run-up to the 2024 general elections. Rahul Gandhi’s engagement with the diaspora in New York comes less than three weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for a state visit to the White House. The PM is also expected to address a diaspora event in the US.
During his visit to the UK in March this year, Rahul Gandhi did not hold back on his criticism of India’s trajectory under the NDA government. He is unlikely to bite his tongue in the US either.
The popular American notion that “domestic politics must end at the water’s edge” had some resonance in India too. The traditional Indian political reluctance to take domestic disputes abroad no longer operates.
Express Network
Which court will hear minor's complaint against WFI chief? (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Delhi High Court sought responses from its registrar general and the principal secretary of the Delhi government to determine which court will hear a plea for a court-monitored probe into a minor wrestler’s sexual harassment allegations against Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Appearing for the minor wrestler, senior advocate Narender Hooda submitted before a single judge bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma that one of the complaints has been moved on behalf of the minor wrestler.
In fact what has happened is that Rouse Avenue is MLA/MP (court). POCSO court is Patiala house. There is no one court which deals with MLA/MP and POCSO matters. That is why it has come before this honorable court.
Hooda had previously told The Indian Express that the minor’s complaint has been referred by the “court at Rouse Avenue to the High Court of Delhi to seek guidance in the matter because there is no one magistrate court that can deal with the POCSO case as well as a case involving an MLA or an MP”.
Justice Sharma said that the petitioner may have to move the administrative side, to which Hooda said, “This honorable court has the jurisdiction to monitor this till the time on the administrative side the honorable HC takes a decision to have a court which can be a POCSO as well as an MLA/MP court”.
Explained
Curbing airplane emissions (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Last week, France announced a ban on all short-haul domestic flights. A month earlier, the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, one of the busiest in Europe, banned private jets and small business planes. There is a growing clamour in Europe for a bigger crackdown on private aviation sector.
As the world continues to fall behind in the race against time to curb global warming, desperate and non-conventional measures seem to be beginning to kick in.
Aviation is a relatively small contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, and attempts to curtail these have not been very fruitful till now. These fresh measures are also likely to yield only marginal dividends.
France, last week, became the first country in the world to impose a ban on short-haul domestic flights. The country brought in a new law, effective from May 23, that bars air travel to destinations that can be covered by up to two-and-a-half hour journey by train. As of now, only three routes are affected by this law — those to the cities of Lyon, Nantes and Bordeaux from Paris — the Le Monde newspaper reported.
While the French law has great headline value, its impact on curbing emissions was unlikely to be anything more than nominal. Air transport, globally, accounts for just about 2 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions every year, and less than two per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. The three cancelled routes would have been contributing a minuscule part of the total emissions from aviation.
President in Govt contracts: SC on Art 299 (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court has held that the government, when entering into a contract under the President’s name, cannot claim immunity from the legal provisions of that contract under Article 299 of the Constitution, in a recent case.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said, “Having considered the purpose and object of Article 299, we are of the clear opinion that a contract entered into in the name of the President of India, cannot and will not create an immunity against the application of any statutory prescription imposing conditions on parties to an agreement, when the Government chooses to enter into a contract”.
The case dealt with an application filed by Glock Asia-Pacific Limited, a pistol manufacturing company, against the Centre regarding the appointment of an arbitrator in a tender-related dispute.
Article 298 grants the Centre and the state governments the power to carry on trade or business, acquire, hold, and dispose of property, and make contracts for any purpose, while Article 299 delineates the manner in which these contracts will be concluded. Articles 298 and 299 came after the Constitution came into effect and the government entered into contracts even in the pre-independence era. According to the Crown Proceedings Act of 1947, the Crown could not be sued in court for a contract it entered into.
What is Foucault’s Pendulum installed at the new Parliament building (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Suspended from the ceiling of the Central Foyer of India’s new Parliament building, inaugurated on Sunday (May 29), is a Foucault pendulum that all but touches the floor as it rotates on its axis.
The pendulum hangs from a skylight at the top of the Constitution Hall, and signifies the “integration of the idea of India with the idea of the cosmos”.
Created by the National Council of Science Museum (NCSM) in Kolkata, the pendulum is being dubbed as the largest such piece in India, 22 metre in height, and weighing a staggering 36 kg.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Arijit Dutta Choudhury, Director General of NSCM, said, “It is a matter of pride for all the members of NCSM that we could contribute in a small way to the development of the new parliament building.”
On the ground, a circular installation has been created to allow the pendulum’s movement, with a short grill around it, allowing the visitors to stand around.
At the latitude of the Parliament, it takes 49 hours, 59 minutes, and 18 seconds for the pendulum to complete one rotation, as per the details displayed at the installation.
This Foucault’s Pendulum is not something new the first one was installed in 1991 at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune.
World
China launches new spaceship with its first civilian on board (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
China launched a spacecraft carrying three astronauts, including its first civilian, to its Tiangong space station on Tuesday (May 30). This is the country’s fifth manned mission to a fully functional space station since 2021.
According to state media, the spacecraft, the Shenzhou-16, was launched atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in northwest China at 9:31 am.
In a statement, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre’s Director Zou Lipeng said the launch was a “complete success” and the “astronauts are in good condition”.
The crew of Shenzhou-16 includes Jing Haipeng as the leading commander on the mission, as well as Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao, the first Chinese civilian to travel to space. So far, the Asian country has also been sending astronauts chosen from its People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
While this is Jing’s fourth space mission — he is a senior spacecraft pilot from China’s first batch of astronaut trainees in the late 1990s, as per Reuters — it is Zhu’s and Gui’s first spaceflight.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Zhu is a postdoctoral fellow in aerodynamics, a former university teacher, and will serve as a spaceflight engineer. Meanwhile, Gui will be the payload specialist on the mission, looking after science experiments at the space station.
Economy
India’s growth momentum to sustain in FY 24 amid easing inflation: RBI (Page no. 21)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Despite facing challenges from an uninspiring global outlook, India’s growth momentum is likely to be sustained in 2023-24 amid easing inflationary pressures, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its annual report for 2022-23.
For 2023-24, real GDP growth is projected at 6.5 per cent with risks evenly balanced. The economy is expected to expand at 7 per cent in FY2023.
On the back of sound macroeconomic policies, softer commodity prices, a robust financial sector, a healthy corporate sector, continued fiscal policy thrust on quality of government expenditure, and new growth opportunities stemming from global realignment of supply chains, India’s growth momentum is likely to be sustained in 2023-24 in an atmosphere of easing inflationary pressures.
It said the real GDP growth at 6.5 per cent in FY2024 will be on account of softer global commodity and food prices, good rabi crop prospects, sustained buoyancy in contact-intensive services, the government’s continued thrust on capex, higher capacity utilisation in manufacturing, double-digit credit growth, receding drag on purchasing power from high inflation and rising optimism among businesses and consumers.
However, slowing global growth, protracted geopolitical tensions and a possible upsurge in financial markets volatility following new stress events in the global financial system could pose downside risks to growth.