29 April 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
US rejects 1/3rd of MDH exports since Oct over salmonella
Page no-1
GS2- Effect of Policies and Politicsof Developed and Developing Countries
- The United States customs authorities refused 31 per cent of all spice-related shipments exported by Mahashian Di Hatti (MDH) Pvt Ltd over salmonella contamination in the last six months.
- The refusal rate since October 2023 has doubled from 15 per cent for all shipments sent in the year prior.
- The surge in refusal rate over salmonella contamination in recent months comes at a time when both Singapore and Hong Kong have suspended sales of certain MDH and Everest Food Products Pvt Ltd products after the alleged detection of a carcinogenic pesticide in spice mixes.
India, UK closer to pact on electric propulsion system for warships
Page no- 5
GS2- Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
- The Centre and the UK government are discussing the possibility of an agreement to develop an electric propulsion system in India to power domestic warships, The Indian Express has learnt.
- Indian warships are currently powered by diesel engines, gas turbines or steam turbines.
- The electric propulsion capability is meant to power larger warships with a displacement of over 6,000 tonnes.
A fragile consensus
Page no- 8
GS2- Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests
- Bipartisan support for a military assistance package worth $94 billion was approved in Washington last week.
- The assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan marks a major political victory for US President Joe Biden — he called Wednesday a “good day for world peace” as he signed the Bill into law.
- For months, Biden struggled to get the Republicans, who have a thin majority in the House of Representatives, to support military aid to Ukraine amid Kyiv’s growing desperation to stabilise the front against Russia.
- The Republicans had no issue with aiding Israel and Taiwan, but a large section of them was dead set against greater support for Ukraine.
- Sections of the extreme right backed by Trump would not allow the Speaker of the House to bring the issue to vote.
For future ready seniors
Page no- 8
GS2- Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections of the population by the Centre and States and the Performance of these Schemes
- Lost in the din about India’s demographic dividend is the silently rising population of older people in the country.
- The number of persons above 60 years is set to more than double from 100 million in 2011 to 230 million in 2036, making up nearly 15 per cent of the total population.
- This is projected to further rise to 319 million by 2050, nearly one-fifth of the total population.
Healing the soil
Page no-9
GS3- Major Crops - Cropping Patterns in various parts of the country
- Earth Day was observed on April 22. In 1970, millions of people came out in the US in support of saving this planet the only one that is known to have intelligent life so far.
- These concerned citizens, under the leadership of Senator Gaylord Nelson, felt at that time that humanity was damaging this planet’s environment in its race to development.
- The damage, they feared, could threaten the diversity of life on this planet. More than 50 years have passed, and many Conference of Parties (COPs) have been held, the latest being COP 28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November-December 2023.
Expectations of future policy impact mkts more than rate announcements: RBI paper
Page no- 13
GS3- Government Budgeting
- Indian equity markets are affected more by the changes in the market’s expectations of future monetary policy than the policy rate surprise on the day the Reserve Bank of India announces the policy, according to a working paper released by the RBI.
- This is in agreement with the conventional thinking that equity markets are forward-looking, the paper said.
- “We also find that volatility in equity markets is affected by both target factor (announcement of the policy) and path factor (expectations about the policy) as markets digest the policy announcements and traders adjust their portfolios throughout the day,” the RBI analysis prepared by RBI officials said.
