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Focus on gender equality, raising the marriageable age of women to 21, equal rights for daughters in ancestral properties, legal rights for LGBTQ couples and registration of live-in relationships.
These are some of the suggestions an expert committee, constituted by the BJP government in Uttarakhand to examine issues relating to the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), is likely to make in its report.
However, the most crucial will be the committee’s recommendation on the suggestion for uniformity in the number of children that a couple can have — a suggestion being viewed as a backdoor entry for a population control policy.
Seven months into consultations, the five-member committee, led by former Supreme Court judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, has received an “overwhelming suggestion” from a wide range of stakeholders that there should be uniformity in the number of children for a couple.
The committee has been flooded with suggestions as people are concerned about the population explosion. They ask what will happen to human rights and how will we ensure equality and rights to children from weaker sections of the society.
The committee, which has already consulted more than 2.5 lakh people since it was formed in May this year, is expected to submit its report in three months.
It was formed immediately after the Pushkar Singh Dhami-led BJP government returned to power earlier this year to fulfil the party’s poll promise of introducing UCC in the state.
Express Network
Probing server attack CERT – IN finds holes in AIIMS cyber security (Page no.12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
In a novel diplomatic step, India is moving in to strategically engage with a new geopolitical grouping: the Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking countries) as Delhi wants to leverage the untapped potential and the historical connect.
The Lusophone world is spread in nine countries across four continents, and Portuguese is the most widely-spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere. Officials feel that from Vasco da Gama onwards, India’s Portuguese connection has not been diplomatically leveraged.
With this realisation, to further India’s engagement with the Lusophone world, India is hosting a four-day cultural extravaganza in Goa.
The International Lusophone Festival kicked off on Saturday evening at the Raj Bhavan, in the presence of Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, and MoS Culture and External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi.
Portuguese is one of the official languages of the continental organisations: African Union, Organization of American States, European Union and of multiple regional organisations, as well as official language of UNESCO General Conference.
More than 265-million speakers worldwide; most widely spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere; regarded as the language of the first globalisation in the modern era.
There is huge potential to expand and strengthen trade and economic collaboration between India and Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) countries.
Officials said that India’s engagement in the CPLP could be a substantial force multiplier for expanded cooperation in cutting-edge fields of technology, such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and materials science for post-Covid recovery and resilience.
Female Kuno cheetah kills nilgai calf in sign of diversifying prey base (Page no.13)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Breaking the pattern of Namibian cheetahs killing only cheetals, a female cheetah, Asha, preyed on a nilgai (Asian antelope) calf in her third hunt at the Kuno National Park.
According to Madhya Pradesh forest officials, Asha killed the nilgai calf estimated to be of 25-30 kg, giving credence to the belief that the African big cats will eventually diversify their kill base.
Before translocating cheetahs to Kuno-Palpur, discussions were held around their prey base. It was believed that these African cheetahs may not be able to kill a cheetal or a nilgai. But Asha, who is the smallest among the lot, managing to hunt down a nilgai calf is a very encouraging sign.
He said that they will now work towards increasing nilgai and cheetal numbers to widen prey base for the cheetahs.
With the International Cheetah Day falling on December 4, forest officials at the Kuno are organising awareness drives among the villagers.
All the eight African cheetahs translocated from Namibia on September 17 were released into a larger enclosure on November 28.
The release was done in a staggered manner starting with male brothers Freddie and Elton on November 5. Three female cheetahs — Savanah, Sasha and Sayyaya — were the last to be released on November 28, completing the first phase of acclimatisation period of cheetahs into their new habitat.
Savana, Sasha and Sayyaya are being closely monitored as since November 28 as they have not made a single big kill yet. They are surviving on small kills such as hare. At their quarantine bomas, all cheetahs were fed buffalo meat.
Forest officials pointed out that unlike the five other cheetahs, these three female cheetahs were born in the wild but raised in semi-wild conditions under constant care and protection of wildlife experts at Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia.
Opinion
Shivaji’s Agra escape & the many narratives (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 1, History)
On August 23, 1666, the Fauzdar of Narwar in Central India (now, Madhya Pradesh) petitioned the Mughal court and said: “Siva(ji) walked past the post at Narwar along with five riders around the evening prayer time.
When asked to identify himself, he said, ‘We are in the employ of Sivaji.’ He also showed the bonafide travel document. When asked, he identified himself as Sivaji.
Unaware of the massive manhunt ordered to capture the Great Maratha king, the Fauzdar did not realise the import of this disclosure. He had helped the great Maratha leader escape from the mighty Mughal court.
There are multiple narratives surrounding Shivaji’s Great Escape from Agra, each with varying degrees of truth. The daily proceedings from the Mughal court (Akhbarat), the reports of the Mughal court proceedings communicated home by the Agra correspondent of the Rajput princes (Rajasthan Letters), the Marathi chronicle (Bakhar) by Sabhasad, and the Jedhe Family records contain some of these contemporary narratives.
The event has been so deeply etched in popular memory that people still refer to the Great Escape of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as an example of astuteness and the invincible spirit of freedom.
Maharashtra Tourism Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha probably thought he was doing just that when, last week, he drew parallels between the Great Escape and CM Eknath Shinde’s defection — and drew flak for his remarks.
These events prompted Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to send his most trusted Mansabdar, Mirza Raje Jaisingh, to counter the emerging political authority of the Marathas.
The large Mughal army invaded and plundered the Maratha countryside, including a number of forts. The contingent led by Jaisingh besieged the mighty Maratha fortress of Purandar for about two months in 1665.
The balance of military power was clearly in favour of the Mughals. As a pragmatic solution, both parties signed the Treaty of Purandar. It was customary for any signatory of such a treaty to pay homage to the emperor in a formal Shukrana ritual of thanks.
Economy
Why NPCI has extended UPI market cap deadline by 2 yrs. (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has extended by two years the deadline to comply with its 30 per cent cap on the market share of platforms operating on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The move is being seen as a major relief for Walmart and Flipkart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay, which currently command a majority of the UPI market share.
NPCI had initially planned to enforce the market cap rules in January 2021, saying it would limit any single payments app from processing more than 30 per cent of UPI transactions in a month, but has postponed the timeline several times since.
In a circular issued Friday, it extended the deadline yet again until December 31, 2024, “taking into account the present usage and future potential of UPI and other relevant factors”.
In view of the significant potential of digital payments and the need for multi-fold penetration from its current state, it is imperative that other existing and new players (banks and non-banks) shall scale-up their consumer outreach for the growth of UPI and achieve overall market equilibrium,” read the NPCI circular.
Industry analysts believe the move comes as a shot in the arm for PhonePe and Google Pay, which collectively control more than 80 per cent of UPI’s market share.
For platforms like Paytm and WhatsApp Pay, however, the extension could be seen as a natural loss. As of October, Paytm had a market share of 15 per cent on UPI. In comparison, PhonePe had a 47 per cent market share, while GooglePay accounted for around 35 per cent.
After touching a new high of Rs 12.11 lakh crore in October, the UPI transaction value for the month of November came in at Rs 11.90 lakh crore. However, the transaction count at 7.3 billion in October remained the same in November.
According to the Reserve Bank of India’s Payment Vision 2025, UPI is expected to register an average annualised growth of 50 per cent.
Will tighten scrutiny of imports (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The government will come up with a methodology to check imports from neighbouring nations, which are non-compliant to trusted source rules of the telecom sector, Union minister for communications and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday.
The minister had a meeting with over 40 CEOs of telecom gear makers that have qualified for production linked incentive scheme and decided to set up 4-5 task forces to provide market support to them as well as streamline their business for value addition in the economy.
Telecom gear makers expressed concern around import of network gear from China, which is being routed through other neighbouring countries.
When asked about concerns around such imports, the minister said, “This issue was discussed. Representatives from customs department, finance ministry and other ministries… work will be done on it to devise how to check it in a methodical manner.” The minister said that the companies under telecom PLI are close to start export of their gears and India will become an exporting nation very soon.
During the meeting, many new ideas came, for which we have set up 5-6 task forces. A task force has been set up for creating the component ecosystem.
Another task force has been set up for developing 4-5 chips, then taking those chips from design to production. Third task force has been set up to develop highly skilled workers, designers in the telecom sector.
He said that the companies asked for support testing and certification, which is required for exporting products, for which another task force has been set up to optimise the use of test beds in IIT Madras, Telecom Engineering Centre.