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The principles of gender parity and equality before law are likely to shape the contours of the proposed Uniform Civil Code, suggestions for which have been invited by the Law Commission of India from religious organisations and the public at large.
Personal laws that clash with the constitutional mandate of gender equality will be examined and addressed in the proposed UCC. These could include laws that allow polygamy or prohibit equal rights for women in inheritance of property or in marriage.
It is likely that the UCC could be a string of tweaks in existing laws to bring in broad uniformity in personal laws over a single code governing all aspects of marriage and inheritance, sources indicated.
The proposed UCC is also likely to reframe personal laws to ensure equal treatment before law. This could include, for example, persons being denied inheritance rights under very narrow, specific grounds.
On the issue of benefits that a community might enjoy over others, the Law Commission is not in favour of dropping it altogether. For example, the concept of Hindu Undivided Family and the tax benefits it provides, one option could be to suggest simply extending it to other communities rather than doing away with it.
Proposed as a distinct category for taxation in 1917, apart from Hindus, families belonging to the Jain, Buddhist and Sikh faith can also create HUFs.
Editorial
Funding the future (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
An eight-member committee was formed in 2017 to draft a national education policy with K Kasturirangan, a distinguished space scientist, as chairman. The committee’s recommendations were published as National Education Policy 2020 (NEP-2020).
The report highlighted the lacunae in the higher education system, the most prominent being the rigid boundaries of disciplines and fields, thousands of stand-alone institutions, absence of research at most universities and colleges, and the lack of a transparent and competitive peer-reviewed research funding system.
One of the major recommendations of NEP-2020 was the establishment of a National Research Foundation (NRF) to manage a competitive grant system for R&D in universities and institutes involved with higher education.
The Central government has finally given clearance to the establishment of NRF. A budget of Rs 50,000 crore for research has been envisaged for the next five years.
The contribution of the Central government has been pegged at Rs 14,000 crore while the remaining 36,000 crore will be garnered from public sector enterprises, industry, foundations, and international research organisations.
It has been proposed to convert the Science Engineering Research Board (SERB) attached to DST into NRF. SERB deals with extramural support through a system that is akin to a competitive grant system.
The current annual budget of SERB is around Rs 1,000 crore, therefore the additional funds committed by the government will be around Rs 2,000 crore in a year.
Ideas Page
The sample is wrong (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
In India, estimates related to poverty, growth, employment, and unemployment are fiercely scrutinised and debated. Given the importance of these data in framing policies that have implications for more than a billion people, it becomes imperative that the surveys that produce these estimates are conducted at regular intervals in a pre-determined timely manner and are of the highest quality.
For data to inform policy, three issues merit consideration: One, availability of data, two, transparent and robust statistical analysis, and three, data quality.
In India, policymakers typically rely on the estimates of sample surveys of households to assess previous policies or to frame new policies.
For example, the National Sample Survey (NSS) of households has been conducted to determine the household consumption expenditure, including services or durables, or to provide estimates of persons with disabilities, or to provide estimates of expenditure related to domestic tourism, or to provide estimates related to drinking water, hygiene, conditions of the house, etc. For health, policymakers rely on the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for questions related to employment and unemployment.
Even though academics and journalists lament the non-frequent nature of some of these surveys (in particular, the household consumption expenditure survey), and there is a constant demand for increasing frequency and size of surveys, there is practically a consensus on the robustness and the representativeness of the survey methodology. There have been virtually no concerns or studies on these surveys’ data quality.
Express Network
US training for astonauts will help in Gaganyaan preparation : ISRO chairman (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The training Indian astronauts receive in the US for a proposed flight to the International Space Station, as per a recently signed US-India agreement, will help in preparations for the Gaganyaan manned mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath said.
The agreement was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the US. “There was a statement on human spaceflight which was about India and the US working together for a combined human spaceflight to the ISS.
This particular activity is something that the US wants and India also finds it beneficial for the Indian space program because once an Indian prepares to go to the ISS they will undergo a training program in the US and they are going to come back and discuss how the training and skills were imparted and this will help design our Gaganyaan better.
ISRO, which had earlier set a target of 2022 for carrying out the Gaganyaan mission, has now pushed the timeline for the mission to late 2024 or early 2025 to ensure the safety of the astronauts.
The ISRO chairman, who spoke to the media on the sidelines of a G20 meeting of space economy leaders in Bengaluru, indicated that the Gaganyaan programme was trying to gather more expertise to ensure that the spacecraft is adequately designed and safe for flying astronauts.
Somanath however refuted suggestions that Indian astronauts will first fly to the ISS on a US mission before a Gaganyaan mission is attempted.
Economy
Domestic demand strong but external sector may affect FY 24 growth: FinMin (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The external sector may challenge India’s growth outlook for 2023-24, the Finance Ministry said in a report released Thursday. The ministry flagged a number of factors that could constrain the pace of growth: volatility in global financial systems, sharp price corrections in global stock markets, the impact of El-Nino, and modest trade activity and FDI inflows owing to frail global demand.
The European Union’s (EU) introduction of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), for which reporting of carbon content in exports to the EU would be required to begin from October 1, 2023, is one of the impending downside risks to India’s exports, it said in the Annual Economic Review for 2022-23.
India’s domestic demand, however, is strong and high-frequency indicators indicate a healthy picture of the state of the economy, the ministry said, adding that urban demand conditions remain resilient, with higher growth in auto sales, fuel consumption and UPI transactions. Rural demand is also on its path to recovery with robust growth in two- and three-wheeler sales.
The challenge from the external sector comes as net exports did not work as well for the economy in the second half of 2022-23 as they did in the first half.
Also, high import prices and high import demand amid weak external demand have resulted in negative net exports in real terms that have shown a sharp downward trajectory and prevented India’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth from crossing the pre-pandemic trend trajectory, it said.
Council to discuss online gaming tax rate, GST on food & drinks at multiplexes (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will likely discuss the second report of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on online gaming, horse racing and casinos during its July 11 meeting.
The panel has failed to reach a consensus on the taxation rate, with Goa having suggested an 18 per cent rate for online gaming, while the other seven member states recommended a 28 per cent rate for all three categories.
Also on the discussion table are an exemption for cancer medicine Dinutuximab (Qarziba), and a clarification on the applicability of the tax rate for multi-utility vehicles and food or beverages served in multiplexes.
The GoM, in its first report in June 2022, had recommended a uniform 28 per cent rate for casinos, race courses and online gaming on the full value of the consideration paid (contest entry fee/bets pooled/coins purchased etc.).
Following this, three meetings of the GoM were conducted in July, September and November last year, and the discussions revolved around two questions: whether the activities of race course and online gaming amount to betting and gambling or not in the context of various High Court and Supreme Court judgments; and how should the supplies of casinos, race courses and online gaming be valued — on the full-face value of bets placed or on Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) (for casinos), totalisator fee (for race courses) and platform fee/GGR (for online gaming).
Explained
India and the SCO (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) this week, which was attended by China’s President Xi Jinping, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The leaders’ summit, which was hosted by India for the first time, was supposed to be held in person, but the government announced at the end of May that it would be a virtual meeting.
The SCO was founded in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India attended at the leadership level for the first time in 2009, and became a full member, along with Pakistan, in 2017.
Iran joined as a member this time, and the process is underway to grant SCO membership to Belarus.
When India and Pakistan entered the grouping, there was an understanding that member countries will not bring up bilateral issues at the multilateral level. Russia had backed India’s entry; the Chinese had supported Pakistan’s membership.
What is Instagram’s new Threads app and how is it taking on Twitter? (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Twitter landscape has changed dramatically since Elon Musk acquired the platform last year. Many new competitors have emerged, hoping to dethrone the giant. But despite the buzz around some of them, like Bluesky, none have really taken off. Instagram Threads is different.
Instagram Threads has not only breezed past 5 million users already, but it has also done so in record time. It outperformed ChatGPT, which reached 1 million users in 5 days.
Threads is a spin-off app from Instagram that focuses on conversations rather than visual content. You can log in with your Instagram account and share text updates and join public discussions.
The app resembles the Instagram comment section in its design, but offers the features of Twitter, such as replying and re-sharing posts. You can create posts with up to 500 characters (more than Twitter’s 280), links, up to 10 photos, and videos up to 5 minutes long.
You can’t edit threads. Unlike Twitter, Threads does not seem to use hashtags and does not have a trending section.
The sign-up process is the biggest reason for Instagram Threads’ initial success. Threads taps into Instagram’s existing 2.35 billion-strong userbase instead of building from the ground up like other Twitter competitors.
World
Sweden Turkey fail to end NATO bid standoff, will try again Monday (Page no. 21)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Sweden and Turkey made some progress in talks aimed at overcoming President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s objections to the Nordic country joining NATO, but gaps still remain in their positions and their leaders will meet next week to discuss them, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
NATO had hoped the problems would be resolved before its July 11-12 summit in Lithuania. Sweden’s entry would be a symbolically powerful moment and the latest indication that Russia’s war in Ukraine is driving countries to join the alliance. Those hopes have been all but dashed.
Stoltenberg told reporters after the meeting that he, Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson would hold talks in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Monday — on the eve of the summit — in an effort “to bridge the gap we still see.”
Fearing for their security, Sweden and neighboring Finland ended their longstanding policy of military nonalignment after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and applied to join NATO.
Only Turkey and Hungary have delayed Sweden’s membership. The other 29 allies, Stoltenberg and Sweden have all said the country has done enough to satisfy Turkey’s demands. Sweden has changed its constitution, modified anti-terror laws and lifted an arms embargo on Turkey, among other concessions.
But Turkey accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt.
NATO requires the unanimous approval of all 31 members to expand.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan acknowledged the changes in Sweden’s anti-terrorism laws and the lifting of arms restrictions.