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Factory output grew at a higher-than-expected clip of 4.2 per cent in April, primarily driven by a low base effect and a pick-up in manufacturing and mining sectors, data released by National Statistical Office (NSO.
Separately, data released on consumer price index inflation showed retail inflation slipping to a 25-month low of 4.25 per cent in May on the back of easing food prices.
In absolute terms, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) increased to 140.2 in April from 134.5 in the year-ago period but was sequentially lower than 151.4 seen in March this year. Manufacturing, which has more than three-fourths (77.6 per cent) weight in IIP, increased 4.9 per cent in April as against 5.6 per cent in the year-ago period and 1.2 per cent in March.
Experts said manufacturing growth in April firmed up from a five-month low in March due to base effect, and sectors such as capital goods (6.2 per cent) and infrastructure/ construction goods (12.8 per cent) showed good growth on the back of a push for capital expenditure by the government.
Going ahead, it remains to be seen if this recovery will sustain amidst a global slowdown and its impact on external demand.
Govt & Politics
At G20 event, PM says development is a core issue for the global south (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Voicing the concerns of the Global South at the G20 Development Ministers’ meeting in Varanasi on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “development is a core issue for the Global South”.
The countries of Global South were severely impacted by the disruptions created by the global Covid pandemic. And, the food, fuel, and fertiliser crises because of geo-political tensions have delivered another blow.
Modi also called for reforms in multilateral financial institutions, particularly in expansion of eligibility criteria, to ensure that “finance is accessible to those in need”. He cited India’s Aspirational Districts programme.
Calling them pockets of under-development, he said, “Our experience shows that they have now emerged as the catalysts of growth in the country. I urge the G20 Development Ministers to study this model of development. It may be relevant as you work towards accelerating Agenda 2030.”
Highlighting the issue of growing data divide, Modi said that high-quality data is critical for meaningful policy-making, efficient resource allocation, and public service delivery.
In India, he said, digitalisation has brought about a revolutionary change where technology is being used as a tool to empower people, make data accessible, and ensure inclusivity. He added that India is willing to share its experience with partner countries.
Editorial
Biden’s new geo-economics (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to Delhi this week is expected to finalise the agreements that are to be unveiled during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington on June 22.
The public focus is on major deals to facilitate significant defence industrial collaboration and high-technology trade between the two nations.
The Indian policy communities, however, must also devote serious attention to the ambitious US plans to restructure the global economy away from the orthodoxies of the last four decades.
There is no better interlocutor than Sullivan to offer insights into the new economic grand strategy of the US that questions the globalisation dogma.
As the key adviser to Joe Biden on both domestic and foreign policy issues during the 2020 presidential campaign, Sullivan, then based at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, helped produce a report on ‘Making US Foreign Policy Work Better for the Middle Class’.
That report has become the ideological foundation for Biden’s strong commitment to ensuring that foreign economic policy serves the interests of the American people.
The focus on “economic security” has become the keystone for the Biden effort to engineer sweeping changes in Washington’s approach towards domestic manufacturing, international trade, technology coalitions, climate change, and multilateral development institutions.
Express Network
Biparjoy to be first June cyclone to cross Gujarat coast in 25 years (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
It is after 25 years that Gujarat coast is bracing for a cyclone in June. Biparjoy will be only the fifth cyclone of the ‘severe’ (wind speed of 48 – 63 kms/hr) or higher category to cross Gujarat, if realised, as per the forecast issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Biparjoy is the only third ‘extremely severe’ cyclone to develop in the Arabian Sea in June in 58 years.
The ‘Extremely Severe’ Cyclone Biparjoy (wind speed 90 – 119 kms/hr) is expected to cross Saurashtra-Kutch and Pakistan between Mandvi, Gujarat and Karachi, Pakistan near Jakhau Port in Gujarat by Thursday afternoon as ‘Very Severe’ cyclone with a maximum wind speed of 125 – 135 kms/hr, the IMD has predicted.”
Biporjoy was located 320kms south-southwest of Porbandar, 360kms south-southwest of Dwaraka, 440kms south of Jakhau Port, 440kms south-southwest of Naliya and 620kms south of Karachi, Pakistan.
Since 1891, only five cyclones of the ‘severe’ category (wind speed 89 – 117 kms/hr) or above have made a landfall over Gujarat in June, the IMD’s cyclone atlas stated. Notably, all of these were post 1900.
These ‘severe’ or higher intensity cyclones were during 1920, 1961, 1964, 1996 and 1998. Overall, 16 depressions and cyclones, formed in the Arabian Sea during the past 132 years, have reached Gujarat.
Explained
Man acquitted of rape of dead woman: What IPC says on necrophilia (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Karnataka High Court on May 30 held that having sexual intercourse with a woman’s dead body will not attract the offence of rape, punishable under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, as there is no provision in the IPC for it.
Partially allowing the convict’s appeal in a rape and murder case, a bench of Justices B. Veerappa and Venkatesh Naik recommended that the Centre should amend the IPC to protect the dignity of the dead.
It is high time for the Central government to amend the provisions of Section 377 of IPC” to include dead bodies of men, women, and animals.
On June 25, 2015, a 21-year-old woman was returning home after her computer class, when the accused Rangaraju held her, shut her mouth, and dragged her to a nearby bush.
Following this, he slit the woman’s throat and murdered her, an offence punishable under Section 302 IPC, and after that “raped” her.
After the police registered a case, they obtained a voluntary statement from the accused, following which they filed the chargesheet.
Taking cognizance of the offence, the magistrate sent the matter to the sessions judge, who formed charges against the accused for offences of murder and rape under Sections 302 and 376 IPC.
World
US decides to join UNESCO, pay back $600 (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
UNESCO announced Monday that the United States plans to rejoin the U.N. cultural and scientific agency — and pay more than $600 million in back dues — after a decade-long dispute sparked by the organization’s move to include Palestine as a member.
U.S. officials say the decision to return was motivated by concern that China is filling the gap left by the U.S. in UNESCO policymaking, notably in setting standards for artificial intelligence and technology education around the world.
The move will face a vote by UNESCO’s member states in the coming weeks. But approval seems a formality after the resounding applause that greeted the announcement in UNESCO’s Paris headquarters Monday. Not a single country raised an objection to the return of a country that was once the agency’s single biggest funder.
The U.S. and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011. The Trump administration decided in 2017 to withdraw from the agency altogether the following year, citing long-running anti-Israel bias and management problems.
UNESCO’s director general, Audrey Azoulay, has worked to address those concerns since her election in 2017, and that appears to have paid off.
China aircraft tracked US, France, Canada Japan Naval exercise (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
China deployed a reconnaissance plane over Pacific waters east of Taiwan last week that Chinese media said monitored and gathered intelligence on an exercise involving the navies of the United States, Japan, France and Canada.
A Y-9 cargo aircraft variant fitted with intelligence-gathering equipment most likely monitored and collected intelligence on the exercise, Chinese state-backed Global Times reported.
Two U.S. aircraft carriers, the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan, had been operating around the geopolitically important Ryukyu Islands in the Philippine Sea since Thursday, Global Times cited a Beijing-based think tank as saying.
The islands separate the East China Sea from the Philippine Sea, and dot the West Pacific between Japan and Taiwan, which China claims as its territory.
On Friday, the U.S. kicked off the exercise in the Philippine Sea, with two carrier strike groups jointly operating for the first time since June 2020, the U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement.
The Japanese defence ministry reported the sighting of one Y-9 reconnaissance variant in the Pacific. Military encounters between China and the United States and its allies in the Western Pacific have risen in recent years as China has grown increasingly assertive in the East and South China Seas, as well as around Taiwan.
Economy
Look for ways to adopt AI into audit techniques for effectiveness: CAG (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Observing that artificial intelligence (AI) is making “greater inroads” into governance, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India Girish Chandra Murmu said that Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) must inevitably prepare themselves for auditing AI-based governance systems, and look for opportunities to adopt AI into their audit techniques to increase their effectiveness.
Addressing the second SAI20 Summit of the SAI20 Engagement Group under the Indian Presidency of the G20. The reality of Artificial Intelligence has come a long way since the term was first coined in 1956 by John McCarty at a workshop held in Dartmouth.
Today, it is an integral part of our lives, whether we realise it or not. There is a curiosity whether and belief that AI can help countries achieve development goals, impacting economic growth while simultaneously disrupting labour markets.
At an individual layman level, ChatGPT compelled us to recognise it and also triggered the debate of its utility vis-à-vis its risks, especially if recklessly used by young students.
This combined with a spate of statements by the very developers in the field, concernedly commenting on its considerable carbon footprints, risks, ethicality and challenges, underscores the need for Responsible AI, addressing the Summit, which was inaugurated by PS Sreedharan Pillai, Governor of Goa. Amitabh Kant, India’s Sherpa at G20 also addressed the SAI20 Summit, which will discuss two themes—Blue Economy and Responsible AI—over two-days.