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Ahead of the 15th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Israel has listed Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba as a “terror organization”, its embassy said Tuesday.
Israel’s move comes at a time when it has asked India to proscribe Hamas as a terrorist outfit.
Part of Israel’s global diplomatic campaign to isolate Hamas, Tel Aviv’s measure – without an Indian request – is being welcomed in New Delhi.
Though there was no official statement on the Israeli announcement, sources said New Delhi and Tel Aviv have been on the same page on Pakistan-based terrorist outfits and Pakistan-sponsored terrorist activities in India.
Since both Indian and Israeli citizens were directly targeted during the 26/11 attacks – in which nationals of both countries were killed and Israelis were taken hostages in Chabad House in Mumbai – there is a great deal of alignment on the issue of terrorism.
In victoria Gray’s story of recovery, hope for Indian sickle cell anaemia patients (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
“I am free of pain and can move after 35 years,” says Victoria Gray, the world’s first sickle cell anaemia patient to recover with a revolutionary gene-editing therapy that won its inventors the Nobel Prize in 2020 and now holds out hope to millions around the world, including India, for a permanent cure.
Gray underwent a clinical trial in 2017 for the drug Casgevy, which uses the innovative gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and associated protein 9).
Given her consistent recovery and the drug’s efficacy in other trial participants, on November 16, the UK became the first country to approve its use for patients of sickle cell anaemia (SCA).
A genetic disease, SCA arises from mutations in haemoglobin-carrying genes, causing red blood cells to assume a crescent shape, potentially obstructing blood flow and leading to severe pain, organ damage, strokes, and other complications. Globally, the current remedy for sickle cell anaemia is limited to bone marrow transplants.
Express Network
SC asks Punjab govt why it can’t bear crop residue management expenses (Page no. 8)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Punjab government why it could not bear the manpower expenses and running costs of crop residue management machines so that it could be 100 percent free for marginal farmers. It said the Centre and state should forget the politics over Minimum Support Price (MSP) and work out plans to help farmers switch to crops other than paddy.
A two-judge bench presided by Justice S K Kaul was discussing the options to tackle stubble burning in Punjab, one of the major contributors to air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR), when Senior Advocate Amicus Curiae Aparajitha Singh pointed out that while a subsidy is provided for purchasing the machines, there was no cost for hiring from custom hiring centres.
Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh pointed out that there was still the question of manpower and fuel to run it which the farmer would find expensive.
Gujarat gets state fish, the expensive Ghol (Page no. 8)
The black-spotted croaker, or the ghol fish — considered a fisherman’s lottery — was declared the state fish of Gujarat.
The Gujarat government chose the ghol because of its economic value and its uniqueness. The fish is usually found in the Indo-Pacific region that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Pacific Ocean. The declaration will enable Gujarat to be a part of its conservation efforts.
Every state can declare a state fish. While deciding one for Gujarat, the first thing that came to our mind was the uniqueness of the fish species. This fish is not easily available.
Catches that are reported are far and few between. The second factor was the economic value of the fish, and third, we needed to conserve it and prevent it from over-exploitation.
Editorial
On our terms, in our time (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
As India’s Quad partners — Australia, Japan and the US — renew their high-level political engagement with China, should Delhi rethink its current approach to engaging Beijing?
The last few weeks have seen Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visit China after a period of prolonged tensions.
Last week, US President Joe Biden met with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in San Francisco on the margins of the APEC summit. President Xi also sat with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in San Francisco.
India, on its part, is unwilling to resume political and economic dialogue with China until the military confrontation in the Ladakh frontier, which began in the spring of 2020, is resolved to its satisfaction. India’s senior army commanders and diplomats have sat down several times to address the mutual concerns.
While there has been some progress, grudgingly allowed by China, many outstanding issues remain to be resolved. China wants India to put the border question aside and resume normal political and economic engagement. India refuses to budge and insists that the “state of the relationship will depend on the state of the border”.
India’s continual military dialogue with China is part of a three-fold strategy: the other elements are an effort to reduce India’s economic interdependence with Beijing and keep political engagement on hold.
Ideas Page
Leaning towards optimism (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The second quarter of a financial year generally tends to be a relatively stable period. The reason is that this is the pre-harvest time, and while there is some kharif output like soybean that enters the market towards the end of September, it is limited.
Similarly, there is only some residual rabi crop from the previous quarter that could come into the market. The same story holds for industry which witnesses demand post the kharif harvest which is also the festival season when spending picks up.
As almost all the festivals have been pushed this year, the bulk of the spending effect would be felt in the third quarter.
Though, possibly companies would have prepared (pre-stocked perhaps) for the season in September. However, not withstanding that, this time could be a bit different.
There has been a build-up of optimism from August onwards with companies preparing well in advance for the demand to fructify.
There has been a sharp increase in bank credit to the retail segment and the RBI’s concern about unsecured personal loans is also a reflection of households borrowing to meet consumption requirements.
Further, the Cricket World Cup cricket has created a buzz in the services sector with travel and tourism getting some boost.
Explained
Fight against climate change (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
As is routine during this time of the year — ahead of the annual COP summit on climate change — several studies and reports have come out in the last month assessing where we stand in the fight against climate change. And just like every previous year, the situation appears more grim, and the progress more marginal, than earlier.
The latest piece of disconcerting news, is about November 17 seeing daily average global temperatures exceeding the pre-industrial baseline by more than 2 degrees Celsius for the first time.
The runaway spike in global warming, the relatively lukewarm and ineffective response, and the resultant increase in weather-related disasters make it appear that climate change might already be a lost cause, at least as far as meeting the targets the world has set for itself is concerned.
Which countries recognise hamas as a terrorist organisation (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israel designated Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as a terror organisation on Tuesday (November 21), calling it a “deadly and reprehensible terror organization, responsible for the murder of hundreds of Indian civilians as well as others.”
The move comes a few days ahead of the 15th anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai that began on November 26, 2008, amid Israel’s ongoing conflict with the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas.
“While Israel only lists terror organisations who are actively operating against it from within or around its borders, or in a similar manner to India — those globally recognised by UNSC or the US State Department; the Israeli ministries of Defense and Foreign affairs, have jointly worked in the last few months towards an expedited and extraordinary listing of the Lashkar -e-Taiba organisation on this date, to highlight the importance of a Unified Global Front in combating terrorism,” the Embassy said in a statement.
Rare metal found in Sutlej sands: What is tantalum, what it is used for (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar has found the presence of tantalum, a rare metal, in the Sutlej river sand in Punjab.
The discovery has been made by a team headed by Dr Resmi Sebastian, assistant professor at the institute’s Civil Engineering Department.
According to experts, the presence of tantalum is significant not only for Punjab but also India as the metal is widely used in electronics and semiconductors.
Tantalum is a rare metal with the atomic number 73 — the number of protons found in one atom of the element. It’s grey, heavy, very hard, and one of the most corrosion-resistant metals in use today.
It possesses high corrosion resistance because when exposed to air, it forms an oxide layer that is extremely difficult to remove, even when it interacts with strong and hot acid environments.
Economy
Govt, RBI on high alert on inflation; transmission may temper demand (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Even as “inflationary pressures” have moderated, there are persistent downside risks to growth and macroeconomic stability from inflation which continues to keep the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on “high alert”, Ministry of Finance said in its latest monthly economic review for October 2023.
The Ministry also said that a fuller transmission of the monetary policy, which essentially means pass-through of the central bank’s rate hikes to consumers by banks, may also temper domestic demand.
“With more than half of the current financial year witnessing positive developments in the economy, the full financial year should conclude as projected with a strong growth performance and macroeconomic stability.
Yet risks on the downside persist. Inflation is one of them that has kept both the government and the RBI on high alert.
Financial flows in the external sector also need constant monitoring as they impact the value of rupee and the balance of payments. A fuller transmission of the monetary policy may also temper domestic demand.