22 August 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
Govt data: More state board students fail than those from Central boards
Page no- 6
GS2- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education
- The State school boards of Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and Telangana had more than 65% of class 12 students in the science stream in 2023, while the State boards of Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, and Nagaland had more than 75% of class 12 students in the Arts stream, data with the Union government shows.
- Among the boards, the Board of Intermediate Education, Andhra Pradesh had the highest percentage of class 12 students in the science stream (78%), while the Meghalaya Board of School Education had the lowest (11.4%). In the Meghalaya State board, 81.1% of class 12 students were in the Arts stream.
- The Tripura Board of Secondary Education had 84.6% of students in the Arts stream, while the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education had 78.4% of class 12 students in the Arts stream.
Why Malaysia changed tack on its ‘Orangutan Diplomacy’
Page no- 7
GS3- Conservation
- Malaysia’s Plantation and Commodities Minister Johari Ghani on August 18 tweaked his earlier proposal of sending critically endangered orangutans as gifts to palm oil-purchasing countries.
- According to the latest proposal, importers of Malaysian palm oil will be offered to “sponsor” one or more orangutans and the funds will be used for their conservation within Malaysia — instead of sending the adopted primates aboard.
- Ghani revised his policy after it faced widespread criticism, especially from wildlife conservationists who called it “obscene” and “repugnant”.
The Kyiv Opportunity
Page no- 8
GS2- India and its bilateral relations
- As the conflict in Ukraine entered a new phase following Kyiv’s deep inroads into Russia’s Kursk region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached neighbouring Poland’s capital Warsaw Wednesday for talks with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Andrzej Sebastian Duda Thursday.
- Modi will head to Kyiv later Thursday where he will meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — this is the first visit to Poland by an Indian Prime Minister after 45 years, and the first to Ukraine since it gained independence in 1991.
Law & impunity
Page no- 8
GS1- Women: Problems and Remedies
- The political, legal and social order that tolerates a laceratingly high threshold of sexual violence once again reveals the extent of sexual impunity in our polity.
- The horrific murder and rape of a resident doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata led to expressions of collective trauma, anger and mourning.
- It led to powerful protests by doctors, nurses, students, teachers, workers, and ordinary citizens demanding justice.
- The case now stands transferred to the CBI, after the directions of the Calcutta High Court.
- The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was justified on the grounds of gender justice.
- The mass renumbering of the penal code placed crimes against women at the beginning of the code.
- However, this meant nothing to victims, whether in Uttarakhand, Bihar or Maharashtra. Renumbering does not create a culture of deterrence. Nor does the death penalty.
Paying more for less
Page no- 9
GS3- Infrastructure: Telecom
- Custom has it that India is an extremely price-sensitive market.
- This is not surprising given that about 800 million people receive some kind of government support for sustenance.
- At least half of the other 600 million are labelled as India’s burgeoning middle class, willing to consume and spend on televisions, two-wheelers, washing machines and of course, mobile phones.
- In aggregate terms, India’s middle class outnumbers the population of Western Europe and is as much as, if not more than the US population.
- By any standards, India’s middle class is large and therefore the target of multinational corporations of the West and increasingly the East, on the lookout for new markets necessitated by ageing populations of their own.
- India’s low per capita consumption of automobiles, steel, aluminium, and televisions provides credibility to these claims.
- The middle class has also been the target of conglomerates in the country that sell soap, detergents, services and, of course, the ubiquitous mobile handset.
‘Africa, India can provide great impetus to cooperation in clean tech, green economy’
Page no- 11
GS2- India and its regional relations
- The partnership between India and Africa could serve as a catalyst for accelerated global rebalancing and the strengthening of the Global South, which augurs well for global peace and harmony, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said, stressing that India has historically never believed in expansion.
- “India’s participation, India’s footprint… is antithetical to expansion.
- Historically, this nation has never believed in expansion, and therefore, this partnership, which is deeply rooted in history, has the potential to contribute to significant global change for the betterment of humanity,” Dhankhar said at the 19th CII India Africa Business Conclave.
