Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
A Gabon-flagged commercial oil tanker on its way to India with 25 crew, all of them Indian nationals, came under a drone attack in the southern Red Sea though no casualty was reported, Defence officials said.
This came a day after another India-bound cargo ship with 22 crew members, 21 of them Indians, was hit by a suspected drone in the Arabian Sea, about 200 nautical miles off the Gujarat coast.
No one has claimed responsibility for either of the two attacks which are the latest in a series of UAV and missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the Red Sea region, especially those linked to Israel, since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.
The US Central Command said attack, on MV Sai Baba, was carried out by the Houthis. On Saturday, it said, M V Chem Pluto, an oil tanker ferrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia to Mangalore, was hit by a drone launched from Iran.
Govt & Politics
Housing for vulnerable tribal groups: 1st instalment by Centre likely by mid Jan (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
The Centre has begun survey and registration to identify eligible beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) among 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) across 18 states and Union Territories, and aims to release the first instalment to them by mid-January, a source said.
The source said that the Ministry of Rural Development, that implements the PMAY-G, has started the survey on December 15 after making required modification in Aawas+app—the ministry’s online application to identify the beneficiaries under the rural housing scheme.
The survey is underway in 15 states—Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha and Rajasthan, the source said, adding that about 28,000 households have already covered under the survey.
Editorial
Poised for Viksit Bharat (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Let me begin by wishing our readers a very happy Christmas and season’s greetings. May Santa Claus bring us all the gifts of peace and prosperity.
When we talk of prosperity — individual or national — a lot depends upon individual efforts as well as the socio-economic milieu.
This socio-economic framework is heavily influenced by policies crafted by our leaders, elected or otherwise. Their success or failure can be gauged by the incremental prosperity they bring about at the national level as well as the individual level.
The leaders who usher in maximum prosperity on a sustainable basis are the real Santa Claus for the country and its people.
The BJP has recently won three state elections. It has embarked on Viksit Bharat Sankalp (resolve for a developed country) yatras in these states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been assuring that by 2047, India will be a developed country.
Ideas Page
Before the next bout (Page no. 11)
(Miscellaneous)
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections, held on December 21, which led to the election of an all male, 15-member body — 13 of whom are loyalists of former president Brij Bhushan Singh — stands dramatically suspended by the Sports Ministry.
The winning panel’s behaviour just after the results were declared shocked not only the wrestlers who had fought a tough battle against Brij Bhushan a few months ago, but even among those who closely supported their courageous fight.
The deeply anguished Olympian Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from wrestling as she placed her shoes on the table at an emotional press conference.
Another Olympian Bajrang Punia sought to return his prestigious Padma Shri along with a letter addressed to the Prime Minister expressing his disgust over the turn of events.
He was followed by a three-time Deaflympics gold medalist, wrestler Virender Singh, popularly known as “Goonga Pahalwan”, surrendering his Padma Shri in solidarity.
Economy
Regulatory mismatch in services sector challenge for India – UK FTA (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Lack of regulatory alignment with global standards in the service sector and resistance to foreign competition are among the chief deterrents in India’s efforts to strike deals with global services leaders such as the European Union and the United Kingdom (UK) that could boost services jobs in the country, a government official told The Indian Express.
However, India is on the “same page” with free trade agreement (FTA) partners on movement of business professionals as there is a strong demand for Indian professionals in the UK and European businesses too, the official said, adding that India needs business mobility for smooth movement of goods and services and “nobody is disputing it”.
Trade deals in the service sector assumes significance as India’s service sector contributes over 50 per cent to the gross domestic product but the growth has not been inclusive as the sector absorbs less than a third of the Indian workforce largely due to outdated regulations and barriers on foreign direct investment (FDI).
Explained
The changing Indian village (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
In 1916-17, Gilbert Slater, professor of economics at the University of Madras, surveyed five villages in present-day Tamil Nadu through his students.
Each student, who was a native of that particular village, canvassed a questionnaire designed to understand the socioeconomic conditions of rural households as they existed, as opposed to textbook knowledge.
The “Slater villages” — Dusi (North Arcot), Iruvelpattu (South Arcot), Palakurichi (Thanjavur), Vadamalaipuram (Ramanathapuram) and Gangaikondan (Tirunelveli) — were resurveyed by Madras University economists led by PJ Thomas in 1936-37.
One of the five — Palakurichi, now in Kilvelur taluka of Nagapattinam district — went on to be studied again in 1964 (by Margaret Haswell from the University of Oxford), 1983 (by S Guhan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies), 2004 (by V Surjit, a PhD student at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata), and 2019 (by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies, Bengaluru).
Palakurichi is, thus, a unique Indian village studied through repeated visits by scholars over a 100-year-plus period. The only comparable example is Palanpur, a village in Bilari tehsil of Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad district that has been surveyed every decade since Independence — in 1957-58, 1962-63, 1974-75, 1983-84, 1993, 2008-09, 2015 and 2022.