4 July 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
Revamped class 6 English language textbook has content ‘Made in India’
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GS2-Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating Education
- The new English language textbook for Class 6 titled ‘Poorvi’, among the first to be developed by NCERT in line with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023, has a revamped content with most chapters rooted in an Indian context, with references to Indian culture, tradition, and ancient knowledge.
- While the old book had stories by non-Indian authors featuring non-Indian characters – “Patrick,” “Ms Beam” for example — the new textbook, except for five poems by non-Indian authors, has most of its content, which included nine prose pieces, situated in Indian settings with Indian characters
Air pollution behind 7% of deaths in 10 cities: Lancet study
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GS3- Environmental Pollution and Degradation
- About 11.5 per cent of deaths in Delhi every year, roughly 12,000 deaths, can be attributed to air pollution, the highest for any city in the country, a first-of-its-kind multi-city study in India, published in the Lancet, has revealed.
- Across 10 cities — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla and Varanasi — more than 33,000 deaths could be attributed to air pollution every year on an average, the study said.
- Shimla has the lowest mortality burden among these cities, with only 59 deaths every year, about 3.7 per cent of its total, that could be attributed to pollution.
- Together, about 7.2 per cent of all deaths in these cities, amounting to about 33,000 deaths every year, could be said to be caused by air pollution every year, the study said.
Large gap to bridge in quantum capabilities: Report
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GS3- Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology
- India may have done the right thing by launching a Rs 6,000 crore-worth National Quantum Mission to develop some of the most sought-after technologies for the future, but it would have to overcome a significantly large gap that currently exists between its capabilities and those of other leading countries in these areas like the United States and China, a new assessment of India’s potential in quantum technologies has revealed.
Govt forms 8 Cabinet committees; Security, appointments panels remain unchanged
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GS2-Structure, Organization and Functioning of the Executive
- The Union government Wednesday constituted eight Cabinet committees, with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) getting three new faces and the two most powerful panels — the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) — remaining unchanged.
- Home Minister Amit Shah is the sole Cabinet member to feature on all these panels.
Govt to release funds till Sept 30; 26 cities yet to get full Central share
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GS2-Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation
- Having extended the Smart Cities Mission deadline for a third time, till March 31, 2025, the Centre last week told the states and UTs that it will disburse the remaining funds till September 30 on a “first come first serve basis”, The Indian Express has learnt.
- Of the 100 cities under the Mission, 26 are yet to receive 100% share of the central funding as work on projects is still ongoing, according to Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.
An unexpected bounty
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GS3- Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development
- With a new government at the Centre, the economic policy discourse has now shifted to speculating about the Union Budget for 2024-25.
- This year’s budget is especially important for one specific reason. In an unexpected turn of events, the RBI announced last month that it is transferring a sizeable dividend to the government, significantly more than what was anticipated.
- This has triggered much discussion about how the government can spend this windfall. We need to ask a more fundamental question: Should the government spend it at all?
Answer is a question bank
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GS2-Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating Education
- The NDA government has rightly appointed a committee under the leadership of Koppillil Radhakrishnan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to “make recommendations on reforming the mechanism of the examination process and improving data security protocols and the structure and functioning of NTA (National Testing Agency)”.
- It was also courageous of the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to bite the bullet and unhesitatingly cancel the UGC-NET examination after investigations unearthed some wrongdoings.
Rights of the new worker
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GS3- Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development and Employment
- Back in 1930, when John Maynard Keynes predicted that within a hundred years, most people would be working for 15 hours a week, did the economist imagine how wildly wrong he would be?
- Not that there haven’t been stalwart efforts by certain European countries, like Spain, Belgium, Germany and Iceland, to experiment with encouraging workers to have a life outside work and find meaning in other avenues and pursuits.
- But even as these places institute the four-hour work week, the pull in the opposite direction — of overwork and constant hustle in pursuit of the corporate profits at the end of the rainbow — remains strong as ever.
We want to be part of planetary defence mission, study asteroid: ISRO chairman
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GS3- Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology; Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology
- The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is keen on participating in a planetary defence mission in space ahead of a close shave for Earth with the Apophis asteroid on April 13, 2029, ISRO chairman S Somanath and senior scientists said at an international workshop held in Bengaluru on Wednesday to mark Asteroid Day 2024.
- The aim of the asteroid workshop, with school students in attendance, is to raise awareness on the impact threats of asteroids, the importance of asteroid research for a better understanding of the universe, and to inspire innovative solutions for planetary defence, the ISRO said.
In ‘integrated partnership’ of global AI group with OECD, some trade-offs for India
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GS3- Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology
- During the sixth ministerial council meeting of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), representatives of the grouping announced an “integrated partnership” with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to bring “OECD members and GPAI countries on equal footing, under the GPAI brand” – but to arrive at this consensus, some trade-offs had to be made behind the scenes, The Indian Express has learnt.
Elections in the UK
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GS2- Comparison of the Indian Constitutional Scheme with that of Other Countries
- As the United Kingdom votes on Thursday, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is headed for a landslide victory — some opinion polls have given Labour more than 400 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.
- This will end the 14-year rule of the Conservative Party, also known as the Tory party, currently led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
What Labour’s win could mean for India-UK FTA
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GS2- Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests
- New Delhi and London have been negotiating a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) for more than two years to boost trade between the two nations.
- The agreement could result in a mutual tariff relaxation on a range of goods such as cars, clothes, alcoholic beverages, and medical instruments.
- However, a landslide victory for the Labour Party in the UK elections could lead to a change in the dynamic of the FTA negotiations.
Why SEBI accused Hindenburg of breaking Indian law over its Adani report
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GS3- Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development
- US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research announced on Monday (July 1) that it had received a show cause notice from India’s capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for short selling of Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) stock immediately before and after the release of its report last year accusing Adani of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
- Hindenburg rejected SEBI’s notice as “nonsense”, and an attempt to silence and intimidate those who expose corruption and malpractices. SEBI has not responded to requests seeking a comment.
