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Daily Briefing

- Daily briefing: Shooter Avani Lekhara wins big at Paris Paralympics; review of IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack; and more

Daily briefing: Shooter Avani Lekhara wins big at Paris Paralympics; review of IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack; and more

In today's edition: Vistara will soon be Air India; in the backdrop of the Justice K Hema Committee report, The Indian Express' Nikhila Henry in Kochi; and more

Written by Vibha B Madhava

New Delhi | August 31, 2024 09:13 IST

Top news - August 31

Good morning!

As the week draws to a close, here’s a round-up of stories that we at Express think you should catch up on:

🚨Big Story:

Historic second: India opened its medal tally at the 2024 Paris Paralympics and how! On Friday, Avani Lekhara became the first Indian to win two gold medals in the Games history finishing first in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing. Bouncing back from a surgery for gallbladder stones, the 22-year-old reigning champion from the Tokyo Games beat her own Paralympic record of 249.6 points with a sensational 249.7 this time.

Mona Agarwal, Preethi Pal and Manish Narwal also made the podium, bringing home a total of four medals on Day 1 of shooting at the Paralympics.

⚡Must Read

Big Picture |  The release of the Justice K Hema Committee report earlier this month lifted a cloak of silence that had enveloped the Malayalam film industry for far too long. With its 17-member executive committee stepping down, much of the focus so far has been on the all-powerful Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) that represents the actors. But beyond the big names, there are countless stories of sexual misconduct – from make-up artists to directors – caught up within unequal power dynamics. The Indian Express’ Nikhila Henry travels to Kochi to document the voices of many such women.

“We are the orphans of the Malayalam film industry”

The report that set off the storm in Kerala also accommodates to the ‘extras’ – the many nameless, faceless junior artistes who populate film sets, but don’t make it to the end credits. Beyond sexual exploitation, our colleague Nikhila writes on how they find themselves “treated worse than slaves” and denied basic facilities on Malayalam film sets.

✍🏼 Express Opinion

In today’s pick from the Opinions, columnist Anjum Rajabali delves deep into the recently released documentary Angry Young Men, on the screenwriting duo of Hindi cinema Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. After penning down his thoughts on how the limited Netflix series showcases nostalgia, but refused to examine the writers’ work, he makes sure to put out a “personal thank you for Deewar, of course”.

🌌 Express Explained

Last boarding call: After November 11, all Vistara airline flights will be operated by Tata Group’s flagship airlines Air India. What does this operational merger mean for your flight bookings and what can you expect in terms of product and service quality? We explain.

P.S. If you are a Club Vistara member, you should check out how your account will get linked to Air India’s ‘Flying Returns’ programme.

🍿 Web Series Review

In her latest piece, Shubhra Gupta pens her review of IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack, the Netflix series based on the hijacking of Indian Airlines 814 in December 1999. On the depiction of the convoluted way the week-long hostage situation played out, she unpacks the “handsomely produced and directed” series and tells us how the responsibility for keeping everyone calm onboard was down to the crew led by director Anubhav Sinha.

Until next time

Vibha B Madhava

Front Page

- Maharashtra Minister gets govt to allot Navi Mumbai land meant for OBCs to trust that he heads

- India says its development projects in Bangladesh have been impacted

- Certification for my film Emergency has been stopped, censors got threats: Kangana Ranaut

- Farm, services slowdown push GDP growth rate to five-quarter low of 6.7%

- 1984 anti-Sikh riots: Delhi court orders framing of charges against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler

- Curtains on brand Vistara: Airline to operate flights till November 11, will merge ops with Air India thereafter

- After 7 years, Ayodhya land circle rates set to rise — by 50% to 200%

- A G Noorani (1930 – 2024): ‘Fearless, straightforward… more of a lawyer outside courtrooms’

- Mystery over deaths of two UP girls: Police say suicide, kin deny, 2 youths from village booked

Maharashtra Minister gets govt to allot Navi Mumbai land meant for OBCs to trust that he heads

Documents reviewed by The Indian Express reveal that after Cidco identified three land parcel options, Minister Rathod, a Sena MLA from Yavatmal, who belongs to the Banjara community, took the lead in reviewing these, and shortlisted one land parcel for AIBSS.

Written by Alok Deshpande

Mumbai | Updated: August 31, 2024 11:04 IST

When contacted, Rathod said he was ready to return the land and any other interested organisation can come forward to build the community centre.(Twitter/@SanjayDRathods)

A SHIV SENA Minister in Eknath Shinde’s Cabinet in Maharashtra got the state government in November 2023 to allot a parcel of land in Navi Mumbai to his own trust by the city planning agency Cidco for a community centre for the Banjara people, who are included in the Other Backward Class list.

While the demand for a community centre was first made in November 2022 by the All India Banjara Seva Sangh (AIBSS), an organisation representing the Banjara community, the state government allotted 5,600 sq m land a year later to Shri Sant Dr Ramrao Maharaj Charitable Trust, a trust then headed by Food and Drug Administration Minister Sanjay Rathod. He now holds the water conservation portfolio.

Documents reviewed by The Indian Express reveal that after Cidco identified three land parcel options, Minister Rathod, a Sena MLA from Yavatmal, who belongs to the Banjara community, took the lead in reviewing these, and shortlisted one land parcel for AIBSS. Cidco was entrusted with the responsibility to identify land for the centre.

When contacted, Rathod said he was ready to return the land and any other interested organisation can come forward to build the community centre. “There was no conflict of interest in getting the land since it was meant for a social cause and not for profit-making. Our’s was one of the many organisations keen to build the community centre,” he told The Indian Express.

But what has led to allegations of “abuse of power” and “unethical” behaviour is a letter written on June 16, 2023, by the Minister’s private secretary Vishal Rathod in the minister’s letterhead to the then Cidco Managing Director. In this letter, the Private Secretary sought to ensure that once land is finalised for the center for the Banjara community, “the plot should be transferred in the name of ‘Shri Sant Dr Ramrao Maharaj Charitable Trust’.”

Taking cognizance, Cidco wrote to the then Principal Secretary of the Urban Development Department on July 28, 2023, and as per this letter, Chief Minister Shinde had in an earlier meeting in February that year discussed the AIBSS request for a community centre. It also referred to a review meeting on May 8, 2023, when the then Chief Secretary asked Cidco to send a proposal of a suitable plot since previously discussed plots were reserved for other purposes.

A day later on May 9, 2023, Minister Sanjay Rathod visited the Cidco office and inspected the three plots identified for the purpose by the agency and finalised two of them. His Private Secretary then wrote on June 16, 2023, to Cidco making a request to transfer the said land to Shri Sant Dr Ramrao Maharaj Charitable Trust.

Both the shortlisted plots were reserved for ‘religious’ purposes. “In case the corporation issues an advertisement for the community center, the organisation representing Gor Banjara community can apply and in case it fits the criteria it can pay the fixed lease amount and get the land,” the letter from Cidco suggested.

When asked how the Private Secretary can write on his (the Minister’s) letterhead to Cidco, Minister Rathod said the question was not valid since he was ready to return the land.

One-and-a-half months after Cidco’s letter to the UDD, the state Cabinet decided on September 16, 2023, to hand over the land totalling 5,600 sq mt for the construction of the community centre. The Cabinet decision, however, did not mention the beneficiary then. But on November 1, 2023, the UDD issued a government resolution stating the plot was handed over to Shri Sant Dr Ramrao Maharaj Charitable Trust.

“Necessary action should be taken by Cidco’s Land Use Change Committee to sanction the land use change to social from existing religious,” the Government Resolution said. “Relaxation is being given to Rule Number 25 of Navi Mumbai Disposal of Lands (Amendment) Regulations, 2008, for direct distribution of the said plot for Gor Banjara community centre without calling public tenders,” it said.

When asked how the UDD can hand over the land parcel to a trust headed by the Minister and if it was not a case of conflict of interest, a senior official from the UDD, who did not wish to be named said, “The GR was issued based on the Cabinet decision as per the routine procedure.”

But some members of the Banjara community have now raised questions alleging this was “unethical” and showed “abuse of power” by the minister. The All India Gorbanjara Jagran Parishad, another organisation representing the Banjaras, has filed a complaint with the state Lokayukta. “The entire process is nothing but abuse of power. The minister has ensured that the land goes to a trust headed by him, which is not only unethical but illegal. There has to be a thorough inquiry into it and therefore we have approached everyone including the Governor, Chief Minister and two deputy CMs.We hope to get justice,” said Vitthal Darve, Secretary of the Parishad.

Darve further said that his organisation’s complaint has been heard by the Lokayukta and directions given to the state government to furnish all documents.

Minister Rathod said work had not yet commenced on the plot. “We have not been able to begin work within six months as per the guidelines. So, if any other organisation wants to come forward and apply for this land, they can. It will be given to them,” he said.

When contacted, Shankar Pawar of AIBSS, the organisation that had first raised the demand for the land, said he was unaware about the development. “Yes, I had raised the demand. But I have no idea what has happened to it now. I will get back to you after studying it,” he said.

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India says its development projects in Bangladesh have been impacted

Flagging ‘political changes’ in Dhaka, Jaishankar cautions: ‘Can be disruptive’

Written by Shubhajit Roy

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:04 IST

The development projects in Bangladesh have been temporarily halted due to the current situation there “as many people working on various development projects there had to return”, said Jaishankar. (AP Photo)

For the first time since the ouster of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5, India said Friday that the “development projects” there have been impacted due to the law and order situation in the country.

Also Friday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, in remarks on the Bangladesh developments, underlined “we also have to recognise that there are political changes, and they can be disruptive”.

Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said “bilateral projects have been impacted” due to the turmoil in Bangladesh.

Responding to questions, Jaiswal said, “regarding bilateral projects…yes, because of the turmoil in Bangladesh, our projects have been impacted. Let me tell you that our development cooperation activities with Bangladesh are aimed at the welfare of the people of Bangladesh… The Prime Minister, in his Independence Day speech as well, had stated that India will always be a well-wisher of Bangladesh in its development journey.

“Work on some of the projects has stalled, and has been affected because of the law and order situation there. Once the situation stabilises, normalcy is restored, then we will talk to (Dhaka), we will engage in consultations with the interim government about our development initiatives and then see how best to take those forward and what sort of understanding we can reach on them,” he said.

The development projects in Bangladesh, he said, have been temporarily halted due to the current situation there “as many people working on various development projects there had to return”.

Visa services, he said, have been impacted as well. “Presently, limited Indian visa services are available in Bangladesh. These are being granted for emergency or medical purposes. You would appreciate that full visa services can only resume once law and order is restored and normalcy is established,” he said.

Bangladesh is the largest development partner of India. Over the last decade and half, India has extended three Lines of Credits (LOC) to Bangladesh amounting to around USD 8 billion for development of infrastructure in various sectors including roads, railways, shipping and ports.

In addition to LOCs, the Government of India has also been providing grant assistance to Bangladesh for various infrastructure projects including construction of the Akhaura-Agartala rail link, dredging of inland waterways in Bangladesh and construction of the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline.

High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) constitute an active pillar of India’s development assistance. Government of India has funded 77 HICDPs including construction of student hostels, academic buildings, skill development and training institutions, cultural centres, and orphanages etc. in Bangladesh and another 16 HICDPs are being implemented, with all the 93 projects amounting to over USD 50 million.

Speaking at the release of former Indian diplomat Rajiv Sikri’s book ‘Strategic Conundrums: Reshaping India’s Foreign Policy’, Jaishankar said India has to find a ground of mutual interest with Bangladesh and India would deal with “the government of the day”.

“Since Bangladesh’s independence, our relationship has gone up and down, and it is natural that we will deal with the government of the day. But we also have to recognise that there are political changes, and they can be disruptive. And clearly, here we have to look for mutuality of interest,” he said.

The MEA also rejected reports about an India link to the floods in Bangladesh. “We have seen the CNN report on the flood situation in Bangladesh. Its narrative is misleading and suggests that India is somehow responsible for the floods. This is factually not correct and ignores the facts mentioned in the press releases issued by the Government of India clarifying the situation. They have also ignored that we have regular and timely exchange of data and critical information between the two countries through existing joint mechanisms for water resources management,” Jaiswal said.

On Sheikh Hasina’s status and future amid growing calls for extradition, the MEA spokesperson said, “Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh came to India at a very short notice for reasons of safety. We have nothing further to add on the matter.”

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Certification for my film Emergency has been stopped, censors got threats: Kangana Ranaut

Kangana Ranaut was gearing up for the release of her much-awaited film Emergency on September 6. However, the film has been put on hold after leaders of the Sikh community sent notice to the CBFC.

By: Express News Service

Chandigarh, Mumbai | Updated: August 31, 2024 07:36 IST

Kangana Ranaut expresses disappointment over the delay in certification of her film Emergency. (Image: Kangana/Facebook)

ACTOR AND Mandi Lok Sabha MP Kangana Ranaut Friday said that the clearance for her film, Emergency, has been “stopped” because of “threats” to members of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Until late Friday, there was no response from the CBFC to the claim.

The film was slated for release in theatres on September 6.

Posting a video on her X handle, Kangana said, “There are rumours doing the rounds that our film, Emergency, has been granted Censor certificate. This is not true. In fact, our film had been cleared but certification has been stopped because many threats were coming in. Death threats. The Censor Board members are getting threats. We are under pressure not to show the assassination of Indira Gandhi, not to show Bhindranwale, not to show the Punjab riots. I don’t know what will be left to show then… This is unbelievable for me and I am very sorry for the state of things in this country.”

This comes a day after Kangana, facing heat from within the BJP over her comments about the 2020-21 farmers’ protests, met party president and Union Health Minister J P Nadda at his residence in Delhi. Sources in the party said the meeting lasted nearing 30 minutes, and she was told to be careful about what she says in public while promoting her upcoming film.

The film’s trailer, released a few weeks ago, showed Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, leader of the separatist Khalistan movement, promising to bring votes for Indira’s political party in lieu of a separate Sikh state. The Delhi unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal had sent a legal notice to the CBFC, asking it to stop the release of the film, citing concerns over its portrayal of Sikhs.

The film’s trailer also evoked a sharp reaction from Sikh organisations, including the Akal Takht and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

SGPC officials said they had sent letters to the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting and the CBFC chairperson, demanding a ban on the film. Parts of Punjab had also witnessed stray protests.

On Tuesday, the SGPC too had issued a legal notice to the producers of the film for allegedly “misrepresenting the character and history of the Sikh” community. Additionally, a PIL was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking a ban on its release.

SGPC secretary Partap Singh said the notice was issued under the direction of SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami. He said the trailer contained numerous anti-Sikh scenes that deeply hurt the community’s sentiments. “An attempt has been made to show Sikhs as terrorists and separatists, which is unacceptable and far from the truth,” he said.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal had urged that the film be reviewed by the SGPC before its release, expressing concerns that the Sikh community should not be defamed.

Jagmohan Singh Raju, the BJP’s Punjab general secretary and advisor to the National Commission for Minorities, had also written to the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, requesting that the CBFC exercise “double diligence” before certifying the movie.

The film’s story is written by the actor, and its screenplay by Ritesh Shah. It also stars Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Mahima Choudhary and the late Satish Kaushik.

Click for more updates and latest Bollywood news along with Entertainment updates. Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the world at The Indian Express.

Farm, services slowdown push GDP growth rate to five-quarter low of 6.7%

Elections brought down govt capital spending and investment, says CEA

Written by Aanchal Magazine

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 02:17 IST

Sectorally, agriculture posted a Gross Value Added (GVA) growth rate of 2.0 per cent in April-June as against 3.7 per cent growth in the year-ago period. (Representational photo)

India’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth slipped to a five-quarter low of 6.7 per cent in April-June 2024-25 due to slower growth in agriculture, government spending and services, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday showed. The quarterly GDP growth rate for Q1, which fell below the 7-per-cent mark for the first time in a year, came in much lower than the projection of 7.1 per cent given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and 7.8 per cent growth seen in the previous quarter and 8.2 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Manufacturing and construction sectors, however, showed firm signs of growth with growth rates of 7.0 per cent and 10.5 per cent, respectively, in April-June as against 5 per cent and 8.6 per cent growth in the year-ago period. Public spending was on the slower side, especially in the election phase, with government final consumption expenditure contracting by 0.2 per cent in April-June. However, Private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) — the proxy for consumption demand — picked up pace to record a seven-quarter high growth of 7.4 per cent in Q1 as against 5.5 per cent in the year-ago period.

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said the slower GDP growth rate was “well within the consensus anticipation”. “The conduct of elections brought down capital spending. That is reflected in the government final consumption expenditure,” he said.

“Growth is expected to pick up hereon with an improvement in rural consumption demand and will be 6.5-7 per cent in this financial year,” CEA said. When asked about the slower pace of growth in tertiary or services sector, which posted an overall growth rate of 7.2 per cent in April-June as against 10.7 per cent in the year-ago period, Nageswaran said there was a very strong recovery in the first two-three years after the Covid-19 pandemic and those high levels have been maintained, resulting in a strong increase in base.

With capital expenditure by the government having contracted by 35 per cent in April-June (and contraction of 18 per cent in April-July), economists said that the government will have to put in extra effort to make up for the loss in spending in the initial months to boost growth going ahead.

“The main reason for the lower growth performance can be linked to the underspending reflected in GoI’s capital expenditure growth in the first quarter, which as per CGA’s data was (-)35.0 per cent. In both the interim and final budgets for FY2025, the GoI has provided for an annual growth in capital expenditure of around 17.0 per cent. In order to make up for the loss of momentum of capital spending, the GoI will have to make an extra effort to accelerate it in the post monsoon months of the fiscal year,” DK Srivastava, Chief Policy Advisor, EY India and Advisory Council to the 16th Finance Commission said.

Sectorally, agriculture posted a Gross Value Added (GVA) growth rate of 2.0 per cent in April-June as against 3.7 per cent growth in the year-ago period, while mining grew by 7.2 per cent as against 7.0 per cent. In the services sector, Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication & Broadcasting Services recorded GVA growth of 5.7 per cent in April-June, slower than 9.7 per cent in the year-ago period. Financial, Real Estate & Professional Services grew by 7.1 per cent in Q1 compared with 12.6 per cent in the year-ago period, while Public Administration, Defence & Other Services grew by 9.5 per cent in Q1 as against 8.3 per cent in the year-ago period.

Overall growth rate in GVA terms came in lower at 6.8 per cent in April-June as against 8.3 per cent in Q1 FY24. Usually, GVA comes in lower than the GDP, but this time it was 0.1 percentage points higher. GDP is GVA plus net product taxes (taxes – subsidies).

“Usually, real GDP growth exceeds GVA growth due to a positive contribution of indirect taxes net of subsidies. However, central government subsidies show a low growth of 3.6% in the first quarter and a negative growth of (-)10.9% in the first four months of FY2025. This implies that even going forward, the growth rates of GVA and GDP may remain close together,” Srivastava said.

Government expenditure contracted by 0.2 per cent in Q1 as against a contraction of 0.1 per cent in Q1 FY24. Investments — as reflected in Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) — grew by 7.5 per cent as against 8.5 per cent in the year-ago period, which economists said mainly reflects growth in private investment since central government’s capital spending in the first quarter had remained negative.

“The GFCF growth increased to 7.5 per cent YoY in 1QFY25 from a four-quarter low of 6.5 per cent in 4QFY24. Notably, the public sector capex (union, 24 states and central public sector enterprises) was sharply down by 33.3 per cent YoY to Rs 3.8 trillion in 1QFY25. The major components apart from public sector for capex are households and the private sector. A stagnation in the public sector capex (in view of the parliamentary elections) along with a steady capex by the household sector (as visible via the housing sales data) indicates a modest pickup in the private sector capex,” Paras Jasrai, Senior Economic Analyst, India Ratings said.

Aanchal Magazine

Aanchal Magazine is Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and reports on the macro economy and fiscal policy, with a special focus on economic science, labour trends, taxation and revenue metrics. With over 12 years of newsroom experience, she has also reported in detail on macroeconomic data such as trends and policy actions related to inflation, GDP growth and fiscal arithmetic. Interested in the history of her homeland, Kashmir, she likes to read about its culture and tradition in her spare time, along with trying to map the journeys of displacement from there.   ... Read More

1984 anti-Sikh riots: Delhi court orders framing of charges against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler

In its charge sheet filed against Tytler in May last year, CBI accused him of “inciting, instigating and provoking the mob” assembled near the Pul Bangash Gurdwara on November 1, 1984.

Written by Nirbhay Thakur

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 02:15 IST

Relying on the testimony of a witness, CBI claimed that Tytler instigated the mob by shouting “Kill the Sikhs, they have killed our mother!" (File Photo)

Nearly 40 years after three men were killed by a mob which torched the Pul Bangash Gurdwara in Delhi during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, now 80, is set to face trial for charges including hate speech and murder.

On Friday, Judge Rakesh Syal of the Rouse Avenue court ordered framing of charges against Tytler under Indian Penal Code sections murder (302); abetment (109); rioting (147); promoting enmity between groups (153A) and being a part of unlawful assembly (143).

After initially filing a closure report, giving a clean chit to Tytler, the CBI was directed to reopen the investigation against him in 2007. On two other occasions, in 2009 and 2014, the CBI closed the case against Tytler but the court refused to accept the report. In April 2023, the agency said it had fresh evidence against Tytler — a corroboration of his voice sample with a particular speech he made 39 years ago.

Senior Advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for complainant Lakhwinder Kaur, wife of Badal Singh who was killed along with Sardar Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh in the attack, told The Indian Express: “This has been a torturous fight… I think it’s the first time in this country when the CBI filed three closure reports and all three were rejected by the Courts. This clearly shows that proper investigation was not being done. Finally, the fourth time the investigation is happening correctly.”

In its chargesheet filed in May 2023, the CBI had accused him of “inciting, instigating and provoking the mob” that had assembled near the Pul Bangash Gurdwara at Azad Market, Bara Hindu Rao on November 1, 1984. A day earlier, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards

Relying on the testimony of a witness, the CBI said that Tytler instigated the mob by shouting “Kill the Sikhs, they have killed our mother” — the “mother” being a reference to Indira Gandhi.

In 2000, the Justice Nanavati Commission was constituted to inquire into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. Following a report by this Commission, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued directions to the CBI to investigate the case against Tytler and others. The case against Tytler was first registered by the CBI on November 22, 2005.

On February 12, 2015, the MHA also issued an order, constituting an SIT to “re-investigate” “appropriately” the “serious” criminal cases that had been filed in Delhi, but were closed.

This SIT, comprising 69 people including four ACPs, 11 inspectors and two prosecutors, traced 293 such closed cases. After months, 199 cases were closed due to “incomplete, illegible” records or lack of witnesses.

Between 2016 and 2017, 60 of the remaining cases were scrutinised. Eventually, a closure report was filed in 52 due to lack of evidence or witnesses. In the remaining eight cases, police filed chargesheets in five cases.

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Curtains on brand Vistara: Airline to operate flights till November 11, will merge ops with Air India thereafter

The wheels for the merger were set in motion in 2022 after the Tata group acquired Air India from the government.

Written by Sukalp Sharma

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 02:11 IST

For Vistara flights on or after November 12, the flight numbers will change to those of Air India. (Photo: X/@airvistara)

VISTARA will operationally merge with the Tata group’s flagship airline Air India on November 12, drawing curtains on the decade-old airline brand that made a mark for its product and service quality as India’s foremost full-service carrier. The wheels for the merger were set in motion in 2022 after the Tata group acquired Air India from the government.

“Starting 03 September 2024, customers will, progressively, no longer be able to make bookings with Vistara for travel on or after 12 November 2024. All Vistara aircraft thereafter will be operated by Air India and bookings for the routes operated by these aircraft will be redirected to Air India’s website. Vistara will continue to take bookings and operate flights as usual till 11 November 2024,” Vistara said in a statement Friday.

“As the merger process moves ahead, regular updates will be shared with customers on the websites and social media channels of Vistara and Air India, and via e-mail. This includes information on web check-in, lounge access, ancillary services, and all other possible touchpoints. All efforts will be made by the dedicated teams across both airlines to ensure a seamless transition,” the airline said.

The announcement came close on the heels of the government approving Singapore Airlines’s investment into the merged carrier. As a joint venture partner in Vistara, Singapore Airlines holds 49 per cent stake in the airline and will have 25.1 per cent stake in the enlarged Air India after the merger. The Indian government’s approval to Singapore Airline’s Rs 2,059-crore investment in the merged airline was the final hurdle before the merger.

“Air India welcomes the Union Cabinet’s approval for the foreign direct investment by Singapore Airlines in Air India. This is an important milestone that facilitates the merger process between Vistara and Air India, and the broader transformation of the Air India Group,” Air India said in a statement.

“We are immensely grateful to all our customers for their support and patronage over the last 10 years. As we progress further in our growth journey, we want to emphasize that this merger is about offering them more choice with a larger fleet and a wider network, while elevating the overall travel experience. Vistara and Air India are committed to ensuring that this transition is smooth and hassle-free. We are excited about this new phase in our journey and look forward to welcoming our customers again soon — as Air India,” said Vistara’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vinod Kannan.

For Vistara flights on or after November 12, the flight numbers will change to those of Air India, even though in nearly all cases the aircraft, schedule and operating crew will be unchanged until early 2025. All customers already booked on Vistara flights after November 12 will automatically have their reservation converted to Air India flight numbers. This will occur in phases during September, and customers will be individually informed when this occurs.

“For our Vistara colleagues, the HR (human resources) teams are working on the transfer of those who have not already been seconded into Air India. As with those who have already joined, we look forward to welcoming our new Air Indians, helping them feel at home, and to having their assistance in catalysing and accelerating the new Air India,” Air India’s CEO Campbell Wilson said in an internal communication to Air India employees.

Kannan, too, shared the news with Vistara employees in an internal communication and thanked them for their contribution to Vistara’s growth. Kannan, who is also the chief integration officer for the merger, told Vistara employees about the merger roadmap over the coming weeks and updated them on staff migration and harmonization activities. He also tried to dispel fears among Vistara employees, saying that the merger is the “beginning of an exciting new chapter” in the airline’s growth story that will provide “numerous opportunities” to all employees.

Apart from merging Air India and Vistara, the Tata group is also in the process of merging its budget carriers Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India). Once both the mergers are complete, the Air India group will have a full-service carrier Air India and a low-cost airline Air India Express. The consolidation is a critical part of Air India’s transformation programme Vihaan.Ai, that seeks to build Air India into an airline of global repute.

Sukalp Sharma

Sukalp Sharma is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 13 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. Before joining The Indian Express, Sukalp had long and enriching stints at financial newswire Informist and the Express Group’s pink paper The Financial Express. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More

After 7 years, Ayodhya land circle rates set to rise — by 50% to 200%

The proposed rates are mostly 50 per cent to 200 per cent higher than the prevailing rate which has been in force since August 2017.

Written by Shyamlal Yadav

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 10:40 IST

The deadline for receiving suggestions is September 4 and the rates will then be finalised and notified.

After a gap of seven years, the circle rate of land in Ayodhya is set to increase. On Thursday, the District Magistrate put out a list of proposed circle rates and invited public feedback.

The proposed rates are mostly 50 per cent to 200 per cent higher than the prevailing rate which has been in force since August 2017.

The deadline for receiving suggestions is September 4 and the rates will then be finalised and notified.

On July 10, The Indian Express reported that the circle rate in Ayodhya had not been revised for seven years despite a surge in land transactions and the soaring market value of land ever since the 2019 ruling of the Supreme Court which cleared the decks for the construction of the Ram temple.

District Magistrate Chandravijay Singh did not respond to phone calls from The Indian Express for comment on the proposed rates.

The Uttar Pradesh Stamp (Amendment) Act, 1997, which was amended in 2015, states that the “District Collector, as far as possible, in every August month, will determine Rs per square metre minimum value of Agriculture/non-Agriculture land” and other immovable properties considering use of land, irrigation facilities, distance from road, market, bus station, railway station, factories, educational institutions, hospitals and government offices; its location within urban, semi-urban or rural areas; and other possibilities like distance from developed areas.

The list circulated shows that in certain areas, the proposed hike in rate is 200 per cent. For instance, in Tihura Manjha where the circle rate for ‘agriculture’ land since August 2017 ranges from Rs 11 lakh to Rs 23 lakh per hectare, the proposed rates range between Rs 33 lakh and Rs 69 lakh per hectare. This is a village where the House of Abhinandan Lodha has purchased land.

The UP Avas Vikas Parishad, which proposed a township spread over nearly 1,800 acres, had acquired nearly 600 acres until March this year in villages such as Shahnawaz Pur Majha, Barhata Manjha and Tihura Manjha. The remaining acquisition process is underway.

In the Lok Sabha elections this year, SP candidate Awadhesh Prasad defeated the sitting BJP MP to take the Ayodhya (Faizabad) seat. The Milkipur (SC) Assembly seat, vacated by Prasad, will be going to polls later this year.

Ayodhya is among 54 districts of Uttar Pradesh where the circle rate was last revised in 2017. In 21 districts, it was revised in 2023. The rates were also revised in districts adjoining Ayodhya such as Barabanki, Ambedkar Nagar, Gonda and Basti and Sultanpur.

The circle rate is the district administration’s assessment of land value in its jurisdiction, based on which stamp duty is fixed on sale or purchase, and based on which the administration acquires property from land owners, including farmers.

One of the farmers, Durga Prasad Yadav, had sought a hike in circle rate and approached the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on October 5, 2021. The matter is yet to be listed.

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Shyamlal Yadav

Shyamlal Yadav is one of the pioneers of the effective use of RTI for investigative reporting. He is a member of the Investigative Team. His reporting on polluted rivers, foreign travel of public servants, MPs appointing relatives as assistants, fake journals, LIC’s lapsed policies, Honorary doctorates conferred to politicians and officials, Bank officials putting their own money into Jan Dhan accounts and more has made a huge impact. He is member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He has been part of global investigations like Paradise Papers, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, Uber Files and Hidden Treasures. After his investigation in March 2023 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York returned 16 antiquities to India. Besides investigative work, he keeps writing on social and political issues. ... Read More

A G Noorani (1930 – 2024): ‘Fearless, straightforward… more of a lawyer outside courtrooms’

From the Ram Janmabhoomi issue to the annexation of Hyderabad to India, from Kashmir constitutionalism to the RSS, Noorani’s scholarship extended to several areas.

Written by Apurva Vishwanath , Omkar Gokhale

Mumbai, New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 22:15 IST

A G Noorani (1930 - 2024)

He wrote — and wrote fearlessly — on the Emergency, on Kashmir, on the Babri Masjid. A leading voice on constitutional law and issues of Kashmir and Indian Muslims, Abdul Ghafoor Abdul Majeed Noorani, or A G Noorani, rarely minced words when he argued his case — both as a senior lawyer practising in the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court and in his writings. On Thursday, Noorani, scholar, lawyer, commentator and author, passed away in Mumbai at the age of 93.

“He was a man of conviction and wrote fearlessly… He called a spade a spade. During the Emergency, his book on Kashmir saw him getting arrested. Then, many members of the Bombay Bar had stood up for Noorani against the restrictions placed on him. Noorani also openly wrote about the Babri Masjid issue. He was a secularist to the core,” said senior advocate Yusuf Muchhala, who practised for over four decades in the Bombay High Court, from where Noorani began his career.

From the Ram Janmabhoomi issue to the annexation of Hyderabad to India, from Kashmir constitutionalism to the RSS, Noorani’s scholarship extended to several areas. His 2013 book on Kashmir, The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012, which traces the complex history of the region, was submitted to the Supreme Court in an annexure as essential reading during the 2023 case challenging the abrogation of Article 370.

It is learnt that Noorani was working on a book on the Supreme Court’s Ayodhya verdict of November 2019. Lawyers involved in the case recollected that Noorani would call them up seeking papers for the book.

Born in Mumbai in 1930, Noorani studied law at the Government Law College in the city. While he practised in the Bombay High Court and defended several high-profile clients, including Sheikh Abdullah, N T Rama Rao and J Jayalalithaa, Noorani was known more for his work outside the courtrooms.

“He was more of a lawyer outside the courtrooms. His scholarship and journalism were meticulous. He was a leading political commentator for decades. He did not just give his opinion, it was rigorous research that informed his views,” senior advocate Shyam Divan told The Indian Express.

As a young lawyer, Noorani went to Dharamshala as legal help to the Dalai Lama. He only returned when his mother came to visit him and found the weather too harsh for her son to live there.

“He was a man of great intellectual integrity. What stood out was his courage and absolute fearlessness. It is important, especially in a day and age when the number of fearless lawyers has diminished. His scholarship and erudition are of the highest quality,” said senior advocate Navroz Seervai.

Many in the legal fraternity refer to Noorani also as a journalist, given this off-court persona.

“His passing away is a great loss to society. He was a great lawyer, journalist and was a man of integrity, character and honesty and was straightforward,” said senior advocate Muchhala.

Those who knew Noorani say he had “many admirers and only a few friends” and talk mostly of his scholarship than the man himself.

“That is how, he would have wanted to be remembered. His work had integrity and never compromised on his views for advancing his career,” advocate Warisha Farasat said.

“Even when I tried to talk to him about his personal life, the man remained steadfast in not talking about himself. We have lost one of our finest and most fearless constitutional thinkers. He was a true nationalist and stood up against communalism,” senior advocate Raju Ramachandran said.

Even personal anecdotes regarding Noorani are about aspects of his scholarship — a special chair on which he spent long hours writing, his long-hand style of writing, researching without the internet and keeping meticulous files of newspaper clippings of issues he was interested in. Among his cherished friends was Mithilesh, an employee of the Delhi bookstore Bahrison’s, who would send him book suggestions and ship them to Mumbai, while Noorani would promptly send a cheque back.

“He remained single and was surrounded by his books till his last days,” Ramachandan added.

In his book, Men And Women In My Life, author Khushwant Singh wrote that Noorani once told him that he had only two interests — “vakalat and siyasat (law and politics)”.

Condolences poured in from political circles too.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and MP from Hyderabad recollected Noorani’s love for food and how he always had recommendations across cities for the best chai, paaya, samosas and biryani. “He never accepted any civilian awards and even refused to allow me to take pictures of him. I requested him to allow me to interview him so his views are recorded for posterity but he refused,” Owasi told The Indian Express.

In a message on X, Owaisi said, “A G Noorani, a giant among scholars has passed away. I learnt a great deal from him, from the Constitution, to Kashmir, to China & even the art of appreciating good food. May Allah grant him maghfirah.”

“Sorry to hear about the demise of A G Noorani Sb earlier today. Noorani Sb was a man of letters, an accomplished lawyer, a scholar & a political commentator. He wrote extensively on matters of law and on subjects like Kashmir, RSS and the Constitution. May Allah grant him the highest place in Jannat,” former J&K CM Omar Abdullah said in a post on X.

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Mystery over deaths of two UP girls: Police say suicide, kin deny, 2 youths from village booked

On Thursday evening, the father of one of the girls filed a complaint, and hours later, police booked two youths on charges of abetment to suicide.

Written by Maulshree Seth

Farrukhabad | Updated: August 30, 2024 10:41 IST

On the night of August 26-27, they were found hanging from two ends of the same dupatta. (Representational File)

Days after the bodies of two Dalit girls, aged 15 and 18, were recovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad, police have booked two youths from the village, even as the case remains mired in mystery.

Though police maintain the two girls died by suicide, their families insist this is not possible. On Thursday evening, the father of one of the girls filed a complaint, and hours later, police booked two youths on charges of abetment to suicide.

“We are sure that things will become clear by tomorrow,” Alok Priyadarshi, Superintendent of Police, Farrukhabad, told The Indian Express on Thursday evening.

The two girls, their families say, were inseparable. In fact, the younger of the two would mostly stay at the older girl’s home, which is right next door. Both were out of the schooling system. The 15-year-old’s father cited her mother leaving as the reason, while the older girl’s family said she dropped out during Covid and never resumed her education.

On the night of August 26-27, they were found hanging from two ends of the same dupatta. “Yeh hatya hai (this was murder),” said the father of the younger girl.

Standing inside their small, unplastered home where one room is used for storage and the other has just a single khat and a stove, he said that when his wife left him, the girl was just one year old. He sent the child and her brother to stay with their aunt.

The aunt said she never thought of sending her to school since that would have meant “taking risks”.

“My husband died and, along with five children of my own, I was given the responsibility of these two siblings. The best I could do was to feed them; school was never an option,” she told The Indian Express. The girl’s brother was sent to Delhi to become an electrician.

The girl returned home just a year ago, and would spend most of her time at the 18-year-old’s residence, coming back only to cook for her father.

Her father said he last saw the two girls going for a Janmashtami function, around 9 pm, but did not worry since many girls from the area were there. When they did not return, the families looked for them at night, before their bodies were discovered in the morning, he said.

At the home of the elder girl, which has bigger rooms, her mother said between sobs: “Atmahatya toh nahi hai (this isn’t suicide).”

“There was never a fight at home, nor were they scolded. Why would two happy girls, going to a celebration, suddenly hang themselves?” she said.

Asked why the family did not file an FIR earlier, her father said they were busy with the last rites, and got confused by the post-mortem report. The girl’s father, who spoke even as policemen in plainclothes stood next to him, said, “Police have informed us about conversation records between the girls and two boys from the neighbourhood, including that night. We never knew about it.”

Their families had little to say about what the girls aspired to do or become. The elder one had a sewing machine at home, and had learnt how to stitch, and the younger girl had picked up the skill from her.

Both would use their parents’ mobile phones since they had none.

Since the incident, the neighbourhood has been abuzz with talk of not letting young girls out of home. Hardly four homes away, the only girl from around 120 households to have a college degree said she dreams of joining the police force one day, but might never be allowed to leave the village.

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India

- ‘Crimes against women matter of grave concern’: PM Modi bats for swift justice

- Heavy rains likely in Andhra as low-pressure area intensifies into depression

- Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla invites artisans to view their works in new Parliament

- All you need to know about the 3 Vande Bharat trains PM Modi will flag off today

- Kedarnath helicopter crash: Chopper being airlifted falls off mid air as towing rope snaps

- Bengal government effects bureaucratic reshuffle

- Meet Bihar’s new police chief, a classically trained singer who has held many crucial posts

- Advocate dies by suicide in Goa, blames woman cop probing his son’s molestation case in note

- ‘She dragged me by the hair, kicked me’: Video shows Dalit woman, grandson being assaulted at police station in Madhya Pradesh; 6 cops suspended

- ‘Time’, ‘people of other religions…’: Why Assam assembly did away with 3-hour break that allowed for Friday prayers

- Congress appoints secretaries, joint secys in key reshuffle

- CJI: Justice Kohli has shown you don’t have to forsake femininity to succeed

- ‘Recruitment of Maoists’: NIA searches nine locations

- T V Somanathan takes over as Cabinet Secretary from Rajiv Gauba

- Akal Takht declares Sukhbir a tankhaiya for his ‘mistakes’ as Punjab Deputy CM, SAD chief

- Divorce plea: Supreme Court orders Omar Abdullah, Payal to appear for mediation

- Indians stuck at Sao Paulo airport have been given food, water: MEA

- UCC will be a measure to ensure justice for women: Vice President Dhankhar

- CSC Conclave: Doval discusses transnational threats with member NSAs

- Lok Sabha poll defeat is a reflection of my popularity, not BJP’s: Manipur CM

- Waqf (amendment) Bill: Stakeholders appear before joint panel, Opp walks out briefly

- Shah urges Uttarakhand farmers to move towards organic farming

- BJP hits out at Congress over ‘grim financial situation’ in Himachal

- HAL signs airframer contract with SAFHAL Helicopter Engines to design, develop high power engines for its indigenous medium lift helicopters

‘Crimes against women matter of grave concern’: PM Modi bats for swift justice

Modi further said that there were several stringent laws to deal with crimes against women and there was a need to ensure better coordination among the criminal justice system to ensure swift justice.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 12:57 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud during the inauguration of the National Conference of District Judiciary, in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

At a time when protests have been raging across the country over crimes against women, in the backdrop of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while calling the atrocities a “matter of grave concern for the society”, stressed on the need for faster delivery of justice.

“The faster justice is delivered in cases of atrocities against women, the greater assurance half of the population will have about their safety,” the Prime Minister said at the inaugural ceremony of the two-day National Conference on District Judiciary organised by the Supreme Court in New Delhi.

Modi further said that there were several stringent laws to deal with crimes against women and there was a need to ensure better coordination among the criminal justice system to ensure swift justice.

This comes as protests continue against the rape and murder of the trainee doctor at Kolkata’s state-run R G Kar Medical Hospital which is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Further, the sexual assault on two four-year-old girls at a school in Maharashtra’s Badlapur stirred up discussion on concerns related to children’s safety in the country.

Modi on three new criminal laws

At the conference, the Prime Minister also spoke about how the newly implemented criminal laws is not just to punish citizens but protect them as well. “We have got our new justice system by the name of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. These laws represent the idea of citizens first, dignity first and justice first. Our criminal laws have been freed from colonial thinking. The idea of Nyaya Sanhita is not just to punish citizens, but to protect them as well. Strict laws have been made regarding crimes against women and children,” PM Modi said.

The event, starting Saturday, is expected to feature over 800 members of the district judiciary from across the country including the Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud, the Attorney General of India, and judges of the top court.

The conference follows the All India District Judges Conference held at Kutch in March 2024, the CJI said in his address. The aim of such conferences is to address crucial issues concerning the Indian judiciary and legal system, deliberations on the apex court’s roles within the framework of law and society, he added.

With a commemorative stamp and coin, the PM also marked 75 years of the Supreme Court during the ceremony on Saturday morning.

Besides PM Modi and Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, SCBA president Kapil Sibal and BCI chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra were also present during the inaugural address.

— With PTI inputs

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Heavy rains likely in Andhra as low-pressure area intensifies into depression

The well marked low-pressure area over west central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh and South Odisha moved west and northwestwards to intensify into depression by 5:30 am on Saturday, it said.

By: PTI

Amaravati | Updated: August 31, 2024 11:14 IST

The well marked low-pressure area over west central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh and South Odisha moved west and northwestwards to intensify into depression by 5:30 am on Saturday, it said. (Express File)

The India Meteorological Department predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall on Saturday in several parts of Andhra Pradesh as the low-pressure system over Bay of Bengal intensified into a depression.

“Continuous light to moderate rains would prevail. Heavy to very heavy rains are most likely today over many districts of Andhra Pradesh,” a Met Department official said.

The well marked low-pressure area over west central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh and South Odisha moved west and northwestwards to intensify into depression by 5:30 am on Saturday, it said.

Currently located near latitude 17.5 degrees north and longitude 84.5 degrees east, the weather system is likely to move further west and northwestwards to cross north Andhra Pradesh and adjoining south Odisha coasts between Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur, close to Kalingapatnam around midnight Saturday.

Further, the weather department noted that squally weather with wind speeds reaching up to 50 km per hour is prevailing over west central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal.

Squally weather could intensify with winds speeds reaching up to 65 kmph on Saturday off north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts, it said.

Under the influence of the weather system, West Godavari district headquarters Bhimavaram witnessed continuous rainfall since Friday evening, with several roads getting inundated.

Vijayawada also experienced heavy rains, throwing life out of gear and flooding several roads in the city. The district administration declared a holiday for schools on Saturday.

Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) managing director R Kurmanadh said parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh will receive heavy rainfall today, accompanied by heavy surface winds.

Isolated places in Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Parvatipuram Manyam, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Visakhapatnam districts are expected to receive heavy rain, he said.

He cautioned people to be wary of overflowing canals and streams, including uprooted power lines and low lying areas.

According to the Met Department, rough sea conditions are very likely to prevail along and off north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Central Water Commission (CWC) warned that most of the rivers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are expected to swell over the next two days.

As increased water flows are expected into several projects such as Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam, Thottapalli, Madduvalasa, Sriram Sagar and others, the CWC called for water discharge as per standard operating procedures (SoPs) after informing the downstream areas.

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Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla invites artisans to view their works in new Parliament

As reported by The Indian Express on August 29, Jaya Jaitly, president-founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti, who brought these artisans together for the project, had written to Birla on August 27.

Written by Divya A

New Delhi | August 31, 2024 10:41 IST

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday invited the artisans to take a guided tour of the Parliament. (X/@ombirlakota)

Days after 400-odd artisans, who created a set of installations for one of the galleries in the new Parliament building, sought his intervention to view their works on display, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday invited them to take a guided tour of the Parliament.

As reported by The Indian Express on August 29, Jaya Jaitly, president-founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti, who brought these artisans together for the project, had written to Birla on August 27 seeking permission for them to be allowed inside the gallery, in small groups if needed, when the House is not in session. She also also suggested guided tours be arranged for the public.

“We have received a call from the Speaker’s office to give the names of the artisans who have worked on the project and organise their visit to the Parliament,” Jaitly said on Friday. She said her organisation would now get in touch with all the 400-odd artisans to come to Delhi for the visit and that the names of those who confirm their presence will be passed on to the Speaker’s office.

Shilp Gallery in the new Parliament building has eight installations by these craftspeople. For the gallery, artisans specialising in diverse craft traditions were roped in from across the country — from Srinagar to Aligarh, Kutch to East Midnapore — to create the installations under themes assigned by the Ministry of Culture like gyan (knowledge), prakriti (nature), aastha (faith), ullas (happiness), parv (celebration), swavlamban (self-reliance) and yatra (journey).

From using traditional forms of storytelling like the kavad to showcase the country’s festivals, or calligraphy to present the different scripts of India through poems and shlokas, the gallery is a rich layering of India’s numerous crafts.

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Divya A

Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More

All you need to know about the 3 Vande Bharat trains PM Modi will flag off today

Two would be flagged off by the Southern railways in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and one would be inaugurated in Uttar Pradesh.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 11:10 IST

The new express trains are expected to improve connectivity on Meerut-Lucknow, Madurai-Bengaluru and Chennai Egmore-Nagercoil routes, the ministry added. (Express Photo)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate Vande Bharat trains on three new routes – Meerut – Lucknow, Madurai – Bengaluru and Chennai – Nagercoil – through video conferencing on Saturday.

“Realising Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Make in India’ and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the state-of-the-art Vande Bharat Express will improve the connectivity on three routes: Meerut – Lucknow ; Madurai – Bengaluru and Chennai – Nagercoil,” a press release by the PM office stated.

According to the press release the Meerut City – Lucknow Vande Bharat will help passengers save around 1 hour in comparison to the current fastest train between the two cities.

Hon’ble PM Shri @NarendraModi will flag off 3 #VandeBharatExpress trains, strengthening Rail network in the nation.

Watch Live: https://t.co/sGOPHT2WOp pic.twitter.com/mBlbBnENdG

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) August 31, 2024

While Chennai Egmore – Nagercoil Vande Bharat and Madurai – Bengaluru Vande Bharat trains are expected to save more than 2 hours and around 1 hour 30 minutes respectively in travel time.

“The introduction of these Vande Bharat Express trains will herald a new standard of rail service to meet the needs of regular travellers, professionals, business and student community in immense measure,” it stated.

Routes and timings:

1. The Meerut – Lucknow Vande Bharat Express:

The train will commence regular service on Sunday from Lucknow, and it will begin operations from Meerut City Junction on Monday.

It will run six days a week, with Tuesday as a rest day.

The train will depart from Lucknow at 2:45 PM and from Meerut at 6:35 AM.

It aims to provide a faster commute to pilgrimage sites such as the Digambar Jain Temple, Mansa Devi Mandir, Surajkund Temple, and Augharnath Temple, among others.

2. Chennai Egmore- Nagercoil Vande Bharat Express

— The train covers a distance of 726 km within Tamil Nadu and is the first Vande Bharat service connecting the scenic town of Nagercoil with Chennai.

— It will offer a faster travel experience to residents of 12 districts in Tamil Nadu: Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Virudhunagar, Madurai, Dindigul, Trichy, Perambalur, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Chengalpattu, and Chennai.

— Train No. 20627 will depart from Chennai Egmore at 5:00 AM and reach Nagercoil at 1:50 PM the same day.

— Train No. 20628 will leave Nagercoil Junction at 2:20 PM and arrive at Chennai Egmore at 11:00 PM.

— It will make stops at Tambaram, Villupuram, Tiruchirappalli, Dindigul, Madurai, Kovilpatti, and Tirunelveli before reaching Nagercoil Junction.

3. Madurai-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express

— The train service will operate six days a week, with Tuesday as a rest day.

— It will depart from Madurai at 5:15 AM and arrive at Bengaluru Cantonment at 1:00 PM, according to the release.

— The return journey will see the train leaving Bengaluru Cantonment at 1:30 PM and reaching Madurai at 9:45 PM.

— Stoppages on both sides of the route will include Dindigul, Tiruchirappalli, Karur, Namakkal, Salem, and Krishnarajapuram.

The Vande Bharat Express, also known as Train 18, is a semi-high-speed modern train introduced by Indian Railways. It was launched in February 2019 with a vision of India stepping towards a high-speed rail network.

With modern facilities and amenities, these trains provide a comfortable and convenient way to travel across India. The super-fast AC chair car connects major cities, ensuring a swift and hassle-free journey.

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Kedarnath helicopter crash: Chopper being airlifted falls off mid air as towing rope snaps

A video of the incident shows the helicopter falling from mid-air as the rope snapped.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 11:42 IST

The video shared by news agency PTI captures the moment the towing rope snapped, causing the helicopter to crash.

A damaged helicopter, that was being airlifted from Kedarnath by an Indian Army chopper, crashed Saturday morning as the towing rope snapped, news agency PTI reported.

A video of the incident shows the helicopter falling from mid-air as the rope snapped.

Reacting to the incident, District Tourism Officer Rahul Chaubey said: “There was a plan to take the helicopter to Gauchar airstrip on Saturday with the help of an Mi-17 chopper for repairs. After covering a little distance, the Mi-17 started losing balance owing to the weight of the helicopter and strong winds. As such, it had to drop the other chopper near Tharu camp. There was no passenger or luggage in the helicopter. A team has reached the spot and is inspecting the situation.”

VIDEO | Uttarakhand: A defective helicopter, which was being air lifted from #Kedarnath by another chopper, accidentally fell from mid-air as the towing rope snapped, earlier today.#UttarakhandNews

(Source: Third Party) pic.twitter.com/yYo9nCXRIw

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 31, 2024

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), whose personnel were present at the location of the crash, said in a statement: “Today, the SDRF rescue team received information through Police post Lincholi that a faulty helicopter of a private company, which was being towed by another helicopter from Shri Kedarnath helipad to Gochar helipad, fell into the river at Lincholi near Tharu Camp.”

It added: “The SDRF team has reached the spot and relief work is going on. There has been no loss of life in this incident. Search is being conducted by the SDRF team.”

SDRF personnel at the crash site. (Photo: ANI)

Earlier in May, A Leonardo A119 Koala helicopter, owned by Kestrel Aviation and bearing the callsign VT-CLR, lost control as it approached the Kedarnath helipad for landing. The helicopter had six passengers aboard. The pilot managed to make an emergency landing approximately 100 metres from the helipad.

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Bengal government effects bureaucratic reshuffle

Pant, a 1991-batch IAS officer, earlier held the additional charge of the Department of Planning and Statistics.

By: PTI

Kolkata | August 31, 2024 09:37 IST

According to an order issued on Friday night, Additional Chief Secretary Prabhat Kumar Mishra, a 1993-batch IAS officer, has been given the responsibility of the Finance Department with additional charge of the Department of Planning and Statistics. (Express File)

The West Bengal government has effected a bureaucratic reshuffle, giving new responsibilities to three senior IAS officers.

According to an order issued on Friday night, Additional Chief Secretary Prabhat Kumar Mishra, a 1993-batch IAS officer, has been given the responsibility of the Finance Department with additional charge of the Department of Planning and Statistics.

Mishra was earlier looking after irrigation and waterways with additional charge of the Water Resources Investigation and Development Department and Project Director, AIDM.

Finance Department’s Additional Chief Secretary Manoj Pant has been entrusted with the responsibility of irrigation and waterways.

Pant, a 1991-batch IAS officer, earlier held the additional charge of the Department of Planning and Statistics.

Additional Chief Secretary Roshni Sen, a 1993-batch officer, is the new ACS of the Water Resources Investigation and Development Department and Project Director ADMI, earlier looked after by Mishra.

Sen will continue to look after fisheries, aquaculture, aquatic resources and fishing harbour in the capacity of additional chief secretary and discharge responsibilities as the chairman and managing director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation.

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Meet Bihar’s new police chief, a classically trained singer who has held many crucial posts

Says priority is to have zero-tolerance towards crime, urges people to reach out to him

Written by Santosh Singh

Patna | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:59 IST

On Friday, after assuming charge as DGP, Raj said: “I first thank the state government for bestowing the honour on me. My top priority is to keep working towards the state government's zero-tolerance policy on crime. Any Bihar resident can meet me or my officers for legal and policing reasons.”

Alok Raj, 1989-batch Bihar cadre IPS officer, on Friday took over as Bihar’s Director General of Police (DGP). Raj replaced R S Bhatti, who was appointed Wednesday as director general of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

In December 2022, Bhatti had been made Bihar DGP even though he was a year junior to Raj.

Raj is currently also DG, Vigilance Investigation Bureau, and will continue to hold the post along with his new role as DGP. He is set for retirement on December 31, 2025.

He has previously served as superintendent of police of Sitamarhi and Begusarai, and subsequently as CRPF DIG and IG.

The 2025 Assembly election in Bihar will be conducted during Raj’s tenure as police chief. He has been known for his role in holding the 2008 panchayat elections in West Bengal’s Nandigram in the aftermath of unrest in the area.

On Friday, after assuming charge as DGP, Raj said: “I first thank the state government for bestowing the honour on me. My top priority is to keep working towards the state government’s zero-tolerance policy on crime. Any Bihar resident can meet me or my officers for legal and policing reasons.”

A classically trained singer, Raj has two music albums to his name – one of Kabir Bhajans and another of Dushyant Kumar ghazals. He was also a topper in Geology from Patna Science College.

He is the son-in-law of former Chhattisgarh and Tripura Governor D N Sahay.

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Advocate dies by suicide in Goa, blames woman cop probing his son’s molestation case in note

Police said they are “in the process of lodging an FIR” against officials named by 71-year-old’s family

Written by Pavneet Singh Chadha

Panaji | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:08 IST

According to the police, the man’s elder son, a lawyer, was accused of stalking and molesting a woman and a case was registered against him at a police station in South Goa last week. A police team had gone to their house on Wednesday night to question him.

A day after a police team went to his home to question his son in an alleged molestation case, a 71-year-old advocate allegedly committed suicide at his residence in South Goa on Thursday. In a purported note that he left behind, the man held a woman police sub-inspector and constables who accompanied her responsible for the suicide.

The advocate’s family on Friday filed a police complaint demanding an FIR against the police officials for alleged abetment to suicide and threatening the man. Police said they are “in the process of lodging an FIR”.

Police said the suicide was reported around 1.30 pm on Thursday, following which inquest proceedings were initiated.

The purported suicide note, signed by the victim, states, “I blame police sub inspector… and constable accompanying her, who was extremely rude to me, responsible for my suicide.”

According to the police, the man’s elder son, a lawyer, was accused of stalking and molesting a woman and a case was registered against him at a police station in South Goa last week. A police team had gone to their house on Wednesday night to question him.

In the police complaint, the 71-year-old’s younger son said his brother was admitted to the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB) for treatment and this had been communicated to the police. He claimed that on Wednesday, at 10.15 pm, a woman police sub-inspector along with at least four police constables came to their house to search for his brother.

“She was informed by my father that my brother has been admitted… but she and other policemen searched for him in the house and asked us where we had hidden him,” the complaint claims.

“The woman sub-inspector was also touching her pistol in between due to which my father was very tense. Next morning, he was very disturbed by the incident from the previous night,” he claimed in the complaint.

A senior police official said, “An FIR is being registered against the sub-inspector and others named in the complaint.”

According to the police, on Thursday morning, the man’s wife and younger son had gone to IPHB. On their return, they discovered his body.

A group of lawyers staged a protest at the police station on Friday, demanding an FIR against the officials. The family also refused to take custody of the body till an enquiry was initiated and an FIR lodged. Police said the body has been taken to South Goa District Hospital for preservation.

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‘She dragged me by the hair, kicked me’: Video shows Dalit woman, grandson being assaulted at police station in Madhya Pradesh; 6 cops suspended

The complaint also alleged that four police constables “caught hold of my grandson and hit him on his legs several times with a wooden stick”.

Written by Jayprakash S Naidu

Raipur | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:09 IST

Later in the day, the six police personnel were suspended.

A police inspector and five constables of the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni city have been suspended after a video allegedly showing them assaulting a 55-year-old Dalit woman and her 15-year-old grandson in police custody surfaced on social media.

In a complaint filed Tuesday, 55-year-old Kusum Vanshkar said that on October 29 last year, she and her 15-year-old grandson were taken to Katni GRP police station in connection with an inquiry into her older son Deepak (35), a suspect in a theft case.

“On the pretext of questioning, inspector Aruna Vahane shut the door of her room and started pulling my hair and dragged me by my hair and assaulted me with a wooden stick, and kicked me and mercilessly assaulted me between 6 pm to 7 pm,” she alleged in the complaint.

The complaint also alleged that four police constables “caught hold of my grandson and hit him on his legs several times with a wooden stick”.

The incident had purportedly been captured on a CCTV camera inside the police station, and the clip went viral on social media recently.

The video prompted Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to issue a public statement Thursday evening promising action against the police personnel involved.

“An old video of assault by officers/employees of GRP Katni police station is going viral on social media. When it came to my notice, immediately this morning, instructions were given to send DIG Rail to the spot for investigation. According to preliminary investigation, orders have been given to suspend the then police station in-charge GRP Katni, along with a head constable and four constables with immediate effect. Also, senior police officers have been directed to ensure that such misconduct is not repeated in future,” Yadav wrote in a post on X.

Later in the day, the six police personnel were suspended.

They were identified as inspector Aruna Vahane, head constable Ajay Shrivastav, and constables Shoaib Abbasi, Salman Khan, Omkar Sirsam, and Varsha Dubey.

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‘Time’, ‘people of other religions…’: Why Assam assembly did away with 3-hour break that allowed for Friday prayers

‘Had become like a tradition from the time of the British during Saadullah saab’s Chief Ministership,’ says Speaker

Written by Sukrita Baruah

Guwahati | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:11 IST

Speaking to reporters, Speaker Biswajit Daimary said this was a provision unique to the Assam Legislative Assembly introduced during the premiership of Muhammad Saadullah in pre-Independence Assam.

The Assam Legislative Assembly Friday did away with a provision in its Rules of Procedure, under which the House used to be adjourned for three hours between 11 am to 2 pm on Fridays.

Though the Rules of Procedure did not explicitly mention that this was to enable Muslim MLAs to offer Friday prayers, the Assam government, while announcing the decision, said that this was the purpose of the rule.

Rule 11 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assam Legislative Assembly stated: “The House shall ordinarily commence from 9:30 am to 2 pm on all weekdays except Fridays and Saturday. On Friday, the House shall sit from 9:30 am to 11:30 am and 3 pm to 5 pm.”

With the amendment approved by the Assembly on Friday, from next session onwards, the House will sit for the same hours on Friday as the rest of the week.

Speaking to reporters, Speaker Biswajit Daimary said this was a provision unique to the Assam Legislative Assembly introduced during the premiership of Muhammad Saadullah in pre-Independence Assam.

“In the Assam legislative assembly, it had become like a tradition from the time of the British during Saadullah saab’s Chief Ministership. At that time, Bangladesh was with Assam and the capital was in Shillong. Maybe then there were many members who were followers of the Islamic religion and they brought this proposal… Since I’ve become Speaker, I’ve noticed that on Friday, when there’s some important matters to discuss, it becomes very difficult for time. The other thing is that in today’s day and age, everybody is very conscious about their rights. People of other religions have also sometimes started saying that we should also get some time for prayers… I took information from all the legislative assemblies and found that no assembly adjourns the house for any religion or prayer. Even in the Parliament, there is no such rule,” he said.

He said that the proposal to amend this rule was presented before the Rules Committee, which is headed by him, and the committee unanimously agreed. The motion for the amendment had been introduced in the Assembly on August 28 and was passed on Friday.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on social media: “By doing away with the two-hour Jumma break, the Assam Assembly has prioritised productivity and shed another vestige of colonial baggage. This practice was introduced by Muslim League’s Syed Saadulla in 1937… My gratitude to Hon’ble Speaker Biswajit Daimary dangoriya and our legislators for this historical decision.”

While the amendment was not protested in the house, Dhing MLA from AIUDF Aminul Islam, who is also a part of the Rules Committee, claimed that the Speaker had told members that he was facing pressure from BJP members.

“Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, the highest number of Muslim MLAs is in Assam. So if there’s no break and if they all go to do jumma namaz during that time, a lot of work of the assembly where their participation is involved, they will be absent. That’s why it was given. Friday is for private members’ business, so different MLAs’ names keep coming up for participation. We had wanted all this to be discussed,” he told reporters.

CPI(M) leader from West Bengal, Hannan Mollah, called it a “heinous decision”. He was quoted by ANI as saying, “This is dangerous to the country and the mindset is anti-national. This mindset is against the unity of the country.”

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Congress appoints secretaries, joint secys in key reshuffle

Former president of All India Mahila Congress Netta D'Souza, former NSUI president Neeraj Kundan, and Naveen Sharma will work as AICC secretaries along with Venugopal.

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:47 IST

Two former MLAs of Rajasthan, Danish Abrar and Divya Maderna, were appointed secretaries for Delhi and J&K and Ladakh, respectively.

In the first major organisational reshuffle after the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Friday appointed new secretaries and joint secretaries and some state office-bearers — to be associated with the party’s general secretaries and in-charges in the states.

Pranav Jha and Gaurav Pandhi, coordinators in the office of the Congress president, were made AICC secretaries. While Vineet Punia, an AICC secretary in the party’s communication department, was given similar responsibility, Ruchira Chaturvedi was appointed secretary in the department along with him. Two former MLAs of Rajasthan, Danish Abrar and Divya Maderna, were appointed secretaries for Delhi and J&K and Ladakh, respectively.

Former president of All India Mahila Congress Netta D’Souza, former NSUI president Neeraj Kundan, and Naveen Sharma will work as AICC secretaries along with Venugopal. Dheeraj Gurjar, Pradeep Narwal, Rajesh Tiwari, Tauqir Alam, Nilanshi Chaturvedi and Satyanarayan Patel will be AICC secretaries in UP. Subhashini Yadav, daughter of late Sharad Yadav, was appointed a secretary.

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CJI: Justice Kohli has shown you don’t have to forsake femininity to succeed

CJI Chandrachud was speaking at the farewell hosted by the Supreme Court Bar Association for Justice Kohli, who was elevated to the Supreme Court on August 31, 2021 and retires on September 1.

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:49 IST

CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli at the farewell.(File Photo)

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Friday praised Supreme Court judge Justice Hima Kohli and called her a “voice of reason” and a “role model” for budding lawyers, especially women advocates.

Lauding her sensitivity and judicial decision-making, the CJI said Justice Kohli used her voice to highlight issues facing women in the profession. “Above all,” the CJI said, “Justice Hima Kohli has sent, I think, a very crucial message that to succeed as a woman, you do not have to forsake your femininity.”

“I think that is very crucial because every woman professional brings a crucial element of her own ingrained compassion and sensitivity to succeed in our profession. You don’t have to behave like a man. You can continue to be a woman and bring the best traits of a woman to the profession,” the CJI said.

CJI Chandrachud was speaking at the farewell hosted by the Supreme Court Bar Association for Justice Kohli, who was elevated to the Supreme Court on August 31, 2021 and retires on September 1.

The CJI also flagged the lack of a level-playing field for women in the legal profession and called for steps to

address this. “The problem with the legal profession is that there is no level playing field for women when they enter the profession,” the CJI said and urged senior lawyers to stop recruiting to their chambers “purely on the basis

of networks or them being children of friends”.

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‘Recruitment of Maoists’: NIA searches nine locations

The NIA on Friday searched multiple locations in Haryana, Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, in connection with a Naxal recruitment case involving leaders of the banned CPI(Maoist) organisation. “Nine locations, linked with various accused and suspects in the case, were searched. These included four locations in Punjab, two each in UP and Haryana and one […]

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:49 IST

Repesentative Image

The NIA on Friday searched multiple locations in Haryana, Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, in connection with a Naxal recruitment case involving leaders of the banned CPI(Maoist) organisation.

“Nine locations, linked with various accused and suspects in the case, were searched. These included four locations in Punjab, two each in UP and Haryana and one in Delhi. All these states, along with Himachal Pradesh, constitute the National Regional Bureau (NRB), which the terrorist organisation is aggressively targeting in a bid to re-energise itself,” an NIA spokesperson said in a statement.

“Several digital devices (laptop, cellphones, pen drives, compact discs, hard drive, compact discs, memory cards), SIM cards, and pocket diaries were seized during the raids on the premises of suspects believed to be close aides of various accused in the instant case,” the spokesperson said.

“NIA probes revealed these suspects were receiving funds for propagation of CPI(Maoist) ideology from Prashant Bose, head of the erstwhile Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB). ERB, particularly in Jharkhand, had been funding the suspects, believed to be long-time associates and OGWs of the accused, to recruit cadres and raise the organisation in the northern states,” said the spokesperson.

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T V Somanathan takes over as Cabinet Secretary from Rajiv Gauba

In Tamil Nadu, Somnath served in key positions such as Secretary to the Chief Minister.

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:49 IST

T V Somanathan (Photo: Wikipedia)

T V Somanathan took over as Cabinet Secretary Friday following the superannuation of Rajiv Gauba, an official statement said.

Gauba had been Cabinet Secretary since 2019 and completed an unprecedented five-year term. Until recently the Finance Secretary, Somanathan was named Cabinet Secretary on August 10 with a two-year tenure.

A 1987-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, Somanathan is a qualified chartered accountant, cost accountant and company secretary. He has held important assignments at the Centre, including as Joint Secretary and later as Additional Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office.

He also served as a Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs and was deputed as Director for Corporate Affairs at the World Bank in Washington DC.

Somanathan was holding the charge of Finance Secretary and Secretary in the Department of Expenditure when he was named Cabinet Secretary.

In Tamil Nadu, he served in key positions such as Secretary to the Chief Minister.

Somanathan was additional chief secretary and commissioner of commercial taxes during the GST rollout.

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Akal Takht declares Sukhbir a tankhaiya for his ‘mistakes’ as Punjab Deputy CM, SAD chief

The decision to declare Badal 'tankhaiya' was taken by the five high priests of the Akal Takht — the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs.

Written by Kamaldeep Singh Brar

Amritsar | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:50 IST

Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal

The Akal Takht Friday declared Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal ‘tankhaiya’ — guilty of violating the Sikh religious code — for the “mistakes” made by him as deputy chief minister and party chief from 2007 to 2017 and the decisions that he took that “deeply harmed the image of the ‘Panth’ and caused damage to Sikh interests”.

The decision to declare Badal ‘tankhaiya’ was taken by the five high priests of the Akal Takht — the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs. Reading the order, Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, the head priest, asked Badal to appear before the Akal Takht within 15 days to seek apology.

“Decisions made during Sukhbir Badal’s tenure as deputy chief minister and president SAD since 2007 have negatively impacted SAD and its condition has deteriorated. Sikh interests have been harmed. Sukhbir Badal will remain a ‘tankhaiya’ until he apologises for his sins,” said Jathedar.

The Akal Takht head priest also directed the Sikh leaders, who were part of the Cabinet in the Akali Dal-led governments from 2007 to 2017, to appear in person to submit their written explanation in 15 days.

Soon after the declaration, Badal, in a post on X, said, “I humbly bow my head and accept the command issued by the Sri Akal Takht Sahib. I will soon present myself before Sri Akal Takht Sahib to seek forgiveness”.

No Sikh can communicate or keep relationship with the one who has been declared ‘tankhayia’ by Akal Takht. Such person’s excommunication can end only when he or she completes atonement according to the sentence announced by the Akal Takht.

Badal joins former President Giani Zail Singh, former Punjab CM Surjit Singh Barnala, and former Union Minister Buta Singh, among other political leaders who were declared ‘tankhayia’ by the Akal Takht. Most of the political leaders declared tankhayia in the past ended up struggling in their political career.

Badal, however, is still the president of the Akali Dal, even though, he had on Thursday appointed senior leader Balwinder Singh Bhunder as party’s working president — a first in party’s over a century old history.

The Jathedar did not give details of the “mistakes” committed by Badal or his party. However, it was during Badal’s tenure as deputy CM that the incidents of theft of a ‘bir’ of the Guru Ganth Sahib and putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters took place at Bargari in Faridkot in 2015. In subsequent protests, two persons were killed in police firing — the two incidents later had serious ramifications on Akali Dal, which was reduced to 17 seats in 2017 state polls and further to three in 2022.

Earlier, Badal, without mentioning the mistakes, had sought “unconditional forgiveness” and had also submitted his explanation after the Jathedar asked him to appear in person before the Akal Takht following allegations levelled by the party’s rebel leaders, who have asked him to step down.

On July 1, rebel SAD leaders — including former MPs Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Prem Singh Chadumajra, former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, and several other senior leaders — had appeared before the Akal Takht and apologised for the “four mistakes” committed when the party was in power in Punjab between 2007 and 2017.

The “mistakes” including the failure to punish those responsible for the 2015 sacrilege incidents, the subsequent police firing at Behbal Kalan on protesters, pardoning Dera Sacha Sauda chief in the 2007 blasphemy case, and the appointments of police officers, including Sumedh Singh Saini as Punjab Police chief in 2012.

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Divorce plea: Supreme Court orders Omar Abdullah, Payal to appear for mediation

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, which took up a petition filed by Omar, said it will now hear the matter after it receives the mediator’s report.

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:50 IST

The Supreme Court on Friday asked former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his estranged wife Payal Abdullah, who are caught in a divorce battle, to appear before its mediation centre to see if the differences can be resolved.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, which took up a petition filed by Omar, said it will now hear the matter after it receives the mediator’s report.

The National Conference vice president had approached the SC after the Delhi High Court upheld the Family Court order dismissing his prayer for divorce. He urged the court to exercise powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to grant them separation. Omar’s counsel, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, pointed out to the court that Omar and Payal had been living separately for almost 15 years now.

Appearing for Payal, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan said, “We think there can be an attempt at mediation.” The bench also agreed, even as it pointed out that there was a Constitution Bench judgement in Omar’s favour.

The bench was referring to a May 1, 2023, 5-judge Constitution Bench ruling that said the SC can dissolve a marriage on the ground of “irretrievable breakdown”, by exercising its powers under Article 142(1) of Constitution even if one of the parties opposes it.

Sibal expressed doubts that mediation would resolve the situation but agreed to the court’s suggestion.

Omar and Payal married in September 1994 but have been living separately since 2009.

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Indians stuck at Sao Paulo airport have been given food, water: MEA

Hundreds of migrants from India, Nepal and Vietnam have been stuck at the airport for weeks in alarming conditions — sleeping on the floor as they wait to enter Brazil, according to reports published last week.

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:39 IST

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal (File Photo)

Indian nationals stuck at the São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, Brazil, are being provided food and water, the MEA said on Friday, adding that the Indian consulate is in touch with the Brazilian authorities and trying to collect more details.

Hundreds of migrants from India, Nepal and Vietnam have been stuck at the airport for weeks in alarming conditions — sleeping on the floor as they wait to enter Brazil, according to reports published last week.

Addressing medipersons Friday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “The Brazilian authorities have informed our Consulate in Sao Paulo on August 27, 2024, that several Indians are stranded at Guarulhos airport. Our Consulate is in touch with the Brazilian Foreign Office representative in Sao Paulo regarding this. They have also sought a meeting with the authorities concerned, and are trying to collect further information.”

Jaiswal, however, said that the situation about Indians being stuck at the airport has been “exaggerated”.

It was reported last week that at least 666 Asian migrants — including “hundreds of Indian, Nepalese and Vietnamese citizens — have been stuck at the airport for weeks”, who are waiting to enter Brazil.

The migrants have been waiting to enter the country without visas, and are staying in the airport in poor conditions and sleeping on the floor, the media reports had stated, adding that they had also been staying in a restricted area with no food or water.

“The Indians are being taken care of — in terms of food and water,” Jaiswal said.

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UCC will be a measure to ensure justice for women: Vice President Dhankhar

Addressing students at Delhi University’s Bharati College, the V-P reiterated President Droupadi Murmu’s recent expression on violence against women and said “enough is enough”.

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:46 IST

V-P Jagdeep Dhankhar in New Delhi on Friday. (PTI Photo)

Stressing on the importance of a zero-tolerance approach towards crime against women, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said that implementing a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) would be a step forward to ensure justice for women.

Addressing students at Delhi University’s Bharati College, the V-P reiterated President Droupadi Murmu’s recent expression on violence against women and said “enough is enough”. “When you make a girl or a woman a victim, you are injuring our civilisation. You are injuring sublimity. You are behaving like a monster. You are exemplifying barbarity to an extreme, draconian level. Nothing should come in the way. I want everyone in the country to heed the same sage and timely caution by the President of India,” Dhankhar said.

Mentioning that the UCC was in the Directive Principles of State Policy, the V-P said: “…the UCC, which has been on the shelf for too long, is a small measure of justice for your segment. Look around and see what it means. It will help in several ways, but mainly it will help your gender.”

Further, urging young women students to become financially independent, Dhankhar said: “It is quintessentially important for you to unleash your energy and potential”. “Girls are the most important stakeholders in the development of the nation. They constitute the backbone and spinal strength of the rural economy, agro-economy, and informal economy.”

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CSC Conclave: Doval discusses transnational threats with member NSAs

The Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) brings together National Security Advisors (NSA) and Deputy NSAs from India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Mauritius.

By: PTI

Colombo | August 31, 2024 03:47 IST

NSA Ajit Dpval

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the representatives of the Maldives, Mauritius and Sri Lanka on Friday signed the Charter and an MoU for the establishment of the Colombo Security Conclave Secretariat here to promote regional security by addressing transnational threats and challenges of common concern to the member states.

The Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) brings together National Security Advisors (NSA) and Deputy NSAs from India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Mauritius.

It deals with maritime security, counter-terrorism and cyber security with India bringing to the fore its own strategic concerns in the Indian Ocean and promotes regional security by addressing transnational threats and challenges of common concern to the Member States.

“Pursuant to the discussions at the 6th NSA level meeting of CSC held in December 2023 in Mauritius, the Charter & Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the CSC Secretariat were signed in Colombo on August 30, 2024 by India, Maldives, Mauritius and Sri Lanka”, the Indian High Commission here said.

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Lok Sabha poll defeat is a reflection of my popularity, not BJP’s: Manipur CM

Vows peace in 6 months, rules out resignation & separate administration for Kukis

Written by VIJAY JOSHI, Kumar Rakesh

Imphal | August 31, 2024 03:44 IST

Chief Minister N Biren Singh in Imhpal on Friday. (PTI Photo)

With ethnic violence gradually subsiding, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has promised to fully restore peace in the state in six months with the Centre’s help, and also ruled out stepping down, saying he has neither committed a crime nor spawned a scandal.

In an interview with PTI Videos here on Thursday, Singh said that he has appointed an emissary to hold talks with Kuki-zo and Meitei leaders. The clashes between the Kuki-zo and Meiti ethnic groups since May 2023 has left 226 dead, according to official count. He identified the emissary as Dinganglung Gangmei, a Naga MLA and the chairman of the Hill Area Committee.

Singh said along with dialogue, the Central government’s involvement will be critical in bringing peace. “I don’t think it will stretch long. Within 5-6 months peace should return. It is our hope and I am also confident,” said Singh, who is a Meitei and remains largely mistrusted by the Kukis.

During the interview he repeatedly emphasised that he does not want to identify himself as a Meitei when he is sitting on the chair. “I am a CM for all”.

Singh said the origins of the conflict go back to his first term as CM in 2017-2022 when he cracked down on illegal drug trade and migration from neighbouring Myanmar.

Singh said a Manipur High Court decision in March 2023 recommending scheduled tribe(ST) status to Meiteis further fuelled anger among Kukis who felt their rights were being diluted, although the court order was not implemented by Singh’s government. The High Court itself withdrew the paragraph on ST status from its order in February this year. The conflict has also extracted a political cost on PM Narendra Modi who has been criticized by the opposition and his critics for not visiting Manipur.

“The PM may not have come but he has sent his home minister. And PM has so often spoken about Manipur, even from Lal Quila on Independence Day… and whatever is being done here in terms of security, funding etc, is under his leadership only. In a complex situation a PM coming was not necessary,” Singh said.

According to Singh, the BJP’s loss in both Lok Sabha seats from Manipur, including the Meitei-dominated Inner Manipur, was a reflection on his popularity, and not because his party was any less popular.

He also made it clear that he will not tolerate pro-Meitei militant outfits, such as Arambai Tengoll, which has openly advocated violence against Kukis.

“I told them you will not do any anti-national or communal act. You have to support the government. I gave clear warning ‘you will not say anything’. Not one word has come from their mouth in 5 months. I will not let them be extremist, anti-national,” he said.

Singh, whose move to resign was dramatically foiled by his supporters who snatched and tore his resignation letter in full public view during the peak of the unrest last year, said he has no intention of quitting now. “Why should I resign? Have I stolen anything? Is there a scandal against me? Have I worked against the nation or state? I have saved the state from illegal migration, illegal poppy cultivation. My job is to protect Manipur and people of Manipur. There is no question (of resigning),” he said.

He also rejected the demand of Kukis for a separate administration. “Manipur is a small state. Our forefathers have a history of 2000 years. Many sacrifices were made to make this state. This state can’t be broken or have a separate administration. We will not allow this,” he said.

However, one can look at what can be done through the autonomous councils with focus on development, he said. He added that it is important to develop hill areas for which he will request the Centre to give a special package.

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Waqf (amendment) Bill: Stakeholders appear before joint panel, Opp walks out briefly

LS Sect invites public suggestions on Bill

Written by Asad Rehman

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 03:25 IST

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Friday also invited suggestions on the Bill. It said “memoranda containing views/suggestions from the public in general and NGOs/experts/stakeholders and institutions in particular” are invited.

The second meeting of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill lasted more than eight hours Friday, and it also saw Opposition members staging a walkout who later claimed that “the ruling side MPs were not ready to listen” to them.

It is learnt that all the Opposition members walked out of the meeting around 4.30 pm when a BJP member was speaking in favour of one of the proposed provisions in the Bill. Later, the Opposition said one among them was not allowed to intervene and they walked out in protest. But they returned minutes later and the meeting resumed.

Parliamentary committee proceedings are privileged and details of exchanges between members during meetings are not made public.

The committee had on Friday invited Muslim organisations and Waqf Board representatives who have been opposing any changes to the Waqf Act of 1995.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill was sent to a Joint Committee of Parliament following strong objections from the Opposition and the BJP-led government’s own allies favouring a detailed discussion on the proposed changes.

BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, who heads the  Joint Committee, said it heard oral evidence from stakeholders. In his post on X, Pal said the stakeholders included All India Sunni Jamiatul Ulama Mumbai, Indian Muslims for Civil Rights (IMCR), Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Boards and Rajasthan Muslim Waqf.

BJP allies JD (U), LJP (Ram Vilas) and TDP have so far taken a “neutral” stand and at least two of these parties want concerns expressed by Muslim organisations to be addressed.

A clause in the proposed Bill which gives the District Collector the power to adjudicate in disputes related to Waqf properties has been opposed by the Opposition on the grounds that the District Collector is a representative of the government and is appointed by it and will never rule against the government in which it is a party.

The issue of the proposed Bill cancelling the provision in the existing Act on “Waqf by user” has also had the Opposition questioning how Waqf deeds for centuries and decades old Waqf properties will be produced now.

According to the Opposition, the proposed Bill, by omitting the provisions relating to “Waqf by user,” makes a Waqf property suspect in the absence of a valid Waqfnama.

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Friday also invited suggestions on the Bill. It said “memoranda containing views/suggestions from the public in general and NGOs/experts/stakeholders and institutions in particular” are invited.

The Secretariat said those “desirous of submitting written memoranda/suggestions to the Committee may send two copies thereof either in English or in Hindi to the Lok Sabha Joint Secretary (JM).”

“The memoranda/suggestions submitted to the Committee would form part of the records of the Committee and would be treated as ‘confidential’ and enjoy privileges of the Committee,” the Secretariat said in a statement.

“Those who are desirous of appearing before the Committee, besides submitting memoranda, are requested to specifically indicate so. However, the Committee’s decision in this regard shall be final,” it stated.

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Asad Rehman

Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More

Shah urges Uttarakhand farmers to move towards organic farming

Hime Minister Amit Shah also linked the rise in diseases like cancer, thyroid issues, and diabetes to the increased use of chemical fertilisers in agriculture.

Written by Harikishan Sharma

New Delhi | August 31, 2024 03:19 IST

Union Home Ministrer Amit Shah (File Photo)

Union Minister of Home and Cooperation Amit Shah Friday urged Uttarakhand farmers to adopt organic farming. He was speaking on the occasion of signing of an MoU between National Co-operative Organics Ltd (NCOL) and Uttarakhand Jaivik Utpad Parishad for procurement of organic cereals to provide better rates to farmers for their produce.

“I also request the farmers of Uttarakhand to keep their fields clean, make them purely organic and move towards natural farming… If Uttarakhand becomes 100 per cent organic, there may not be a requirement for testing centres. I believe, even chemical fertiliser shops will be shut down,” Shah said.

He also linked the rise in diseases like cancer, thyroid issues, and diabetes to the increased use of chemical fertilisers in agriculture. Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of doubling farmers’ income, of which one of the points was to increase income through organic farming. Shah said that chemical fertilizers not only affect human health but also have an impact on farm land. Due to excessive use of fertilizers, the soil loses its fertility, he said. Shah said that when the BJP mentioned organic farming in its manifesto, many observers were surprised. “They even asked why organic farming found a place in the BJP’s manifesto,” Shah said.

Shah said NCOL, set up to address gaps in the organic farming sector, plans to establish a network of testing labs in collaboration with Amul. These labs will verify both organic farms and produce, aiming to create trusted ‘Bharat’ organic brands.

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Harikishan Sharma

Harikishan Sharma, Senior Assistant Editor at The Indian Express' National Bureau, specializes in reporting on governance, policy, and data. He covers the Prime Minister’s Office and pivotal central ministries, such as the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Cooperation, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Rural Development, and Ministry of Jal Shakti. His work primarily revolves around reporting and policy analysis. In addition to this, he authors a weekly column titled "STATE-ISTICALLY SPEAKING," which is prominently featured on The Indian Express website. In this column, he immerses readers in narratives deeply rooted in socio-economic, political, and electoral data, providing insightful perspectives on these critical aspects of governance and society. ... Read More

BJP hits out at Congress over ‘grim financial situation’ in Himachal

The Chief Minister had announced Thursday that all Himachal Pradesh ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries, chairpersons and vice chairpersons of boards and corporations would not draw their salaries and allowances for two months.

By: Express News Service

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 02:22 IST

Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (File Photo)

The BJP on Friday flagged the “grim financial situation” in Himachal Pradesh under the Congress government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

The Chief Minister had announced Thursday that all Himachal Pradesh ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries, chairpersons and vice chairpersons of boards and corporations would not draw their salaries and allowances for two months.

“Among the nine hill states, Himachal Pradesh is worst affected by economic distress. Wherever the Congress goes, it brings misery along with it. (Congress MP) Rahul Gandhi used to say that money would swiftly be credited to people’s accounts. The money did not come, though bankruptcy has come swiftly,” BJP national spokesperson Prem Shukla said at a press conference at the party headquarters here.

Shukla also attacked Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government over alleged land allotment irregularities in the state, demanded an apology from Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for casting aspersions on the process of grant of bail to BRS leader K Kavitha in the Delhi excise policy case, accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for trying to “spread anarchy” through her statement that “the fire BJP wants to start in Bengal will not spare Assam, Bihar, Manipur or Odisha”.

“The Congress and INDI alliance governments have become masters of those who indulge in corruption, immoral acts and rape. Mamata Banerjee threatened common people and students in Bengal. She said this fire would reach Delhi travelling through Odisha, Assam and North East,” Shukla said. “Rahul Gandhi has already threatened to set the country on fire. Before Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh Yadav had also threatened to set the country on fire…,” he said.

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HAL signs airframer contract with SAFHAL Helicopter Engines to design, develop high power engines for its indigenous medium lift helicopters

Aravalli will be powering the 13-ton Medium Lift class Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH) and the Deck-Based Multi-Role Helicopter (DBMRH).

Written by Amrita Nayak Dutta

New Delhi | August 31, 2024 02:09 IST

SAFHAL is a joint venture between Safran Helicopter Engines SAS and HAL and is tasked with the design, development, production, sales and support of new generation helicopter engines in India. (File Photo)

State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Friday signed an airframer contract with SAFHAL Helicopter Engines Pvt. Ltd. (SAFHAL) to begin the joint design, development, manufacture, supply and support of a new generation high power engine ‘Aravalli’ for two helicopters which it is designing and developing.

Aravalli will be powering the 13-ton Medium Lift class Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH) and the Deck-Based Multi-Role Helicopter (DBMRH).

SAFHAL is a joint venture between Safran Helicopter Engines SAS and HAL and is tasked with the design, development, production, sales and support of new generation helicopter engines in India.

A statement from HAL said that under this strategic contract, SAFHAL will work with its parent companies on cutting-edge engine technologies, ensuring superior performance, reliability, and operational efficiency.

“This collaboration involves state-of-the-art design, advanced manufacturing processes and rigorous testing protocols to meet the highest global standards,” it said.

IMRH—the indigenous medium lift helicopter which is likely to be ready in the next eight to 10 years will replace the Russian Mi-17s which will start getting phased out by 2028.

Its naval version–the 12.5-ton DBMRH is also being developed by HAL for the Indian Navy.

As per HAL, the engines will be designed to operate in diverse and challenging environments in which these helicopters get deployed.

“Future extension to the civil market for offshore operations, utility, VVIP transport etc., is also planned followed by MRO activities,” it said.

In a statement, HAL said the name ‘Aravalli’ has been derived from the mighty mountain range of India, symbolises the aspirations of the country in achieving Atmanirbharta in critical engine technologies.

It quoted HAL chairman C B Ananthakrishnan as stating that the collaboration will not only ensure operational capabilities of the IMRH and DBMRH platforms, but also contribute to the broader goal of indigenous development of critical defence technologies.

Cedric GOUBET, CEO of Safran Helicopter Engines said, ” With this project, we are enriching the collaboration with HAL as well as the strategic relationship between India and France.”

“Our combined expertise and resources will ensure the success of the IMRH and DBMRH programs, while contributing to the growth of India’s aerospace and defence sector,” he added.

The HAL statement said that Safran Helicopter Engines has been its partner of choice for powering its helicopters, starting with the Artouste engines used in Cheetah and Chetak, followed by Shakti engine and its variants powering the ALH, LCH and LUH.

In a joint statement issued in July last year, India and France had said they will support industrial cooperation for motorization of heavy-lift helicopters under the IMRH programme with the French Safran Helicopter Engine, which had earlier signed a Shareholders’ Agreement with HAL for engine development.

The contract was signed by S Anbuvelan, CEO (Helicopter Complex), HAL and Olivier SAVIN, Director, SAFHAL Helicopter Engines and EVP, Sales & Marketing, Safran Helicopter Engines and S K Mehta, Director, SAFHAL Helicopter Engines and Executive Director (Finance), HAL.

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Delhi Confidential

- delhi confidential: Promise Kept

delhi confidential: Promise Kept

BJP MP Jagdambika Pal had a packed schedule this week. He was in Delhi Thursday to attend the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 03:03 IST

Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister Ganesh Joshi

Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister Ganesh Joshi got emotional while speaking at an event attended by Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Friday. “I had never thought in my life… I was just a soldier in the Army. When I became an MLA, my name was also being discussed for a ministerial berth but I wasn’t selected. Then I came to meet Amit Shah-ji.

He asked me whether I was alright. I said, ‘Sir I am fine but I don’t have a God father.’ I hope you (Shah) remember it,” Joshi told Shah.

He said Shah had told him then that whenever there would be a Cabinet expansion in the state, he would be made a minister. “I don’t have words because today a small person like me is sitting with you (Shah),” Joshi said.

Balancing Act

The Congress leadership in Haryana is being cautious while balancing internal equations. While the party high command has made it clear that the Leader of Opposition in the state, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will be the face of the party as he is its best bet in the elections, senior Congress leaders are ensuring that the others are kept in good humour.

Recently, when senior party leader Kumari Selja objected to the appointment of a leader in the war room, CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi ensured her concerns were addressed. Soon, the leader was replaced.

Tasks Too Many

BJP MP Jagdambika Pal had a packed schedule this week. He was in Delhi Thursday to attend the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts. Later in the day, he travelled to Lucknow for a meeting with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the floods in his Lok Sabha seat Domariyaganj.

His tour to his home state was short as he travelled to Delhi Friday morning to chair two consecutive meetings of the joint committee of Parliament on the Waqf Amendment Bill. Pal was in Lucknow earlier this week, too, to attend a session on the Waqf Bill.

Opinion

- Stop expecting billionaires to act on climate change. They’re part of the problem

- Ram Madhav writes: Indian politics has failed to attract young leaders

- Can India ensure that its elderly are taken care of?

- What Indian Hindus don’t understand about Hindus in Bangladesh

- Anjum Rajabali writes: Salim-Javed, thank you for ‘Deewaar’

- Remembering A G Noorani: A scholar of justice

- Express View: On Delhi and Beijing, a hint of hope

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Stop expecting billionaires to act on climate change. They’re part of the problem

Controversy over Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol’s private jet commute is yet another reminder of how much the super-rich have contributed to the climate crisis

Written by Alind Chauhan

August 31, 2024 12:29 IST

While the company, a self-proclaimed leader in environmental sustainability, encourages its customers to use paper straws and cups, it has offered to Niccol a mode of transportation which is recognised as a major source of carbon emissions.

Last week, Starbucks announced that its newly-appointed CEO, Brian Niccol, would report to the company’s Seattle headquarters three times a week, just like other employees. The requirement suggests that even senior executives are not above company policies at the world’s biggest coffee chain. But there is a catch here.

Unlike other workers who come to the office via public transport or cars, Niccol, who lives more than 1,600 kilometres away in California, will get a company-owned jet to travel to Seattle.

The job perk has exposed Starbucks’ double standards. While the company, a self-proclaimed leader in environmental sustainability, encourages its customers to use paper straws and cups, it has offered to Niccol a mode of transportation which is recognised as a major source of carbon emissions.

Impact of private jet travel on climate

In just one hour, a single private jet can emit two tonnes of carbon dioxide. Moreover, these jets are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes (per passenger), and 50 times more polluting than trains.

In 2022, jet travel, whether via large commercial jet or small private jet, was responsible for about 800 million tonnes of CO2. To make matters worse, private jet use has consistently increased in recent years. The number of private jet flights in Europe in 2022 rose by a whopping 64 per cent, and emitted more than 5.3 million tonnes of CO2, according to a 2023 analysis by Greenpeace.

The richest are the biggest climate wreckers

But the Niccol-Starbucks controversy is not just about how private jets disproportionately damage the environment compared with other forms of transportation. It tells us that the billionaires and super-rich like Niccol (his sign-on pay package with Starbucks is worth up to $113 million, one of the largest such executive deals in corporate history) do not want to do their bit to tackle the climate crisis.

Consider this: The richest 1 per cent of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66 per cent, according to a 2023 joint investigation by The Guardian, Oxfam, the Stockholm Environment Institute and other experts. “[T]his elite group, made up of 77 million people including billionaires, millionaires and those paid more than $140,000 (£112,500) a year, accounted for 16 per cent of all CO2 emissions in 2019 — enough to cause more than a million excess deaths due to heat,” the investigation revealed.

Many of these super-rich — especially Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos — claim to have climate action high on their agenda. They are investing billions of dollars in carbon removing technologies, nuclear energy, and establishing new funds. However, such actions seem to be either superficial or an attempt to influence climate-related policies and regulations in their favour.

For instance, in 2021, Bezos gave an $18 million grant to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), an organisation which assesses whether some of the world’s most prominent companies are reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with the Paris agreement. Three years later, the SBTi board “unexpectedly” announced plans to allow companies to meet their climate targets with carbon offsets from the unregulated voluntary carbon market for indirect emissions, according to a different report by The Guardian.

“The move provoked internal fury. Staff and technical advisers said they were not consulted about the announcement and warned it could open the door to greenwashing,” the report said.

In 2022, the Elon Musk Foundation, along with the nonprofit XPRIZE, provided 15 groups with $1 million in funding to scale up carbon removal solutions. However, such technologies are way too expensive and are nowhere close to reaching a level where they can tackle climate change, according to experts. Some claim that carbon removal or capture solutions are just a false promise and a way for fossil fuel companies and others to keep releasing GHG emissions.

The billionaires and super-rich do not care about the climate crisis because it is not profitable for them to do so. In fact, they became rich, in the first place, by exploiting the environment. A 2016 report by the World Economic Forum said, “[T]he market mechanisms under capitalism do not provide incentives for preserving the environment. Firms are constantly threatened by market competition to cut costs and optimise profit. The environment thus falls prey to the compulsive market behaviour of the capitalist mode of production.”

Therefore, many experts suggest that higher taxes on the rich can help solve the issue. It would at least provide the much-needed funds for climate mitigation and adaptation, especially in the Global South.

alind.chauhan@expressindia.com

Ram Madhav writes: Indian politics has failed to attract young leaders

Even when efforts were made, they resulted in dynastic politics and nepotism

Written by Ram Madhav

Updated: August 31, 2024 09:03 IST

As pointed out by PM Modi, the youth of the country are ready. Is the political class ready? The joke is that leaders do not talk about younger ones to come forward until their own sons and daughters are ready to take over. Can this mindset change?

“Your children are not your children,” wrote the Lebanese American writer and poet Khalil Gibran in his poem ‘On Children’. “They,” he wrote, “are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.” In principle, no one disagrees with this idea. Gibran’s poem became the basis for the platitudes that many routinely offer about the “future belonging to the youth”. Franklin Roosevelt had famously said that “we cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future”.

Today, however, these words sound somewhat patronising. The reality is that not just the future, but the present is in the hands of the youth. There was a time, not long ago, when our industry, businesses, social organisations and even cultural activity were being led by the not-so-young. But things have changed in the last couple of decades. The advent of Industry 3.0 has brought the power of young people to the fore. With technology and innovation becoming the key to progress, young leadership is making its impact in every field of public life, be it industry, R&D, trade and commerce and even sunrise sectors like social media. They are part of the digital revolution, NGOs and social movements.

There are several success stories in business and industry. Larry Page was just 25 when he founded Google. Mark Zuckerberg was not even 20 when he founded Facebook. Unlike the last generation business czars like John D Rockefeller and George Soros who became rich and famous in their 50s, entrepreneurs like Elon Musk entered into sectors like e-vehicles in their 30s and revolutionised them. India, too, has several such examples of young people making it big in industry, trade and commerce. The IT industry — which has brought the country fame and money — is dominated by young people.

Yet, globally, there is one area where youngsters struggle to make headway — politics. Almost 50 per cent of the world’s population is below 30 years. In countries such as India, that number is almost 60 per cent. Yet, according to the data provided by the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth, less than 2 per cent of the elected legislators are young. In 2016, the UN took this up as a challenge and launched a campaign, “Not Too Young To Run”. Several UN bodies like UNDP, OHCHR, and Inter-Parliamentary Union joined this campaign whose objective was to “raise awareness about the issue of age discrimination and promote and expand the rights of young people to run for public office”.

This remains a serious challenge in the developing world too. Even in a vibrant democracy like India, the average age of elected representatives to state legislatures and Parliament remains discouraging. Despite the massive youth bulge in the country, the average age of the just-elected members of the 18th Lok Sabha is 56 years, as per the analysis of PRS Legislative Research group. Although down from 59 years in the 17th Lok Sabha, these numbers still do not represent the predominantly young nation. PRS concluded that only 11 per cent of MPs are below 40 years of age, and 38 per cent are between 41 and 55. Nearly half of the MPs are above 55 years in age.

Not that efforts were not made to bring in young leaders, but they resulted in promoting nepotism and dynastic politics. Sadly, this politics which plagues almost all the major parties, barring the BJP and the Left parties, began long ago during the Independence movement. Belonging to a political family should not be a stumbling block for a capable leader to rise in public life, but what often happens is that family credentials, not capability, determine one’s rise. From Tamil Nadu to Jammu Kashmir, this predominance of political families denies many capable, clean and committed youngsters a chance to enter and grow in public life.

This bad practice began during the freedom movement when Motilal Nehru was accused of using his political and economic clout to influence the Congress leadership in promoting his son. Jawaharlal Nehru was a capable leader but what worked in his favour to catapult him to the president of the All India Congress Committee at a relatively young age of 40 years was his lineage. After Independence, this tradition continued in Congress, with Indira Gandhi rising to become party president in her early 40s. Whether Jawaharlal Nehru wanted it or not is an ongoing debate in academic circles because his biographers give both versions — his support and opposition — in this matter. But since then, Congress essentially became a fiefdom of the Nehru-Gandhi family. The same is the plight of many regional parties in the country.

Prime minister Narendra Modi highlighted this irony in his Independence Day address this year calling “parivaarvad” (nepotism) and “jaativaad” (casteism) as the evils to be rooted out. “It is essential to free our political landscape from the grip of dynastic rule. Our mission is to empower a new generation of leaders — one lakh young individuals who don’t have any political legacy in their families. We want to see young people without any family connections in politics to step forward, lead and represent the people,” he said, insisting that the youth will change the definition of politics in the times to come.

He reiterated it again during his monthly Mann ki Baat radio address this Sunday stating that “many youths are ready to enter politics. They only need the right opportunity and guidance”.

As pointed out by PM Modi, the youth of the country are ready. Is the political class ready? The joke is that leaders do not talk about younger ones to come forward until their own sons and daughters are ready to take over. Can this mindset change?

The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP. Views are personal

Can India ensure that its elderly are taken care of?

India needs to take the lead in redefining what it means to be an older adult

Written by Rohini Nilekani

Updated: August 31, 2024 09:05 IST

We are still struggling to reap the demographic dividend of our broad youth base. Soon, we will have to figure out how hundreds of millions of senior citizens can contribute to and be cared for in our society.

What do you think of if someone asks you to describe old age?

At a recent interaction with community service organisations (CSOs) working on longevity, I learnt that your answer would probably depend on how old you are. Younger respondents quickly conjure up words like walking stick, grey hair and nursing home. Financially secure seniors cite freedom from responsibility, travel, the joy of grandchildren, and spirituality. This difference in mental models is important to internalise as India turns from a young country with 50 per cent below the age of 25 years to a country with the largest population of elderly in the whole world.

We are still struggling to reap the demographic dividend of our broad youth base. Soon, we will have to figure out how hundreds of millions of senior citizens can contribute to and be cared for in our society.

Just recently, I turned 65. So did lakhs of other people in India. Sixty-five seems different to me — a new way of feeling old. The country’s average lifespan is 67.2 years. I am sharply aware of both my mortality and my privileges. I can access the best medical care, the best fitness options and nutrition. I can continue to write and work actively. I meditate, I pray. I stay positive with the blessing of many friendships, and a loving family. These are all things that global research has proven to produce better outcomes as one ages.

So, I am determined to make this the best decade of my life yet. To be part of a positive revolution in the mindset on ageing. To give at least as much as I receive; to cultivate and spread faith in human innovation and to nurture gratitude for the miracle of life.

This is what older people want to do for themselves and society — but not everyone gets to do it. In India, 40 per cent of older adults experience poverty, compared to less than 10 per cent of the general population. Only 14 per cent can use the Internet, and less than 5 per cent report being part of a social organisation. The elderly are more likely to be female, have much less education and live more in rural areas. More than one in three seniors still do not have the luxury of retiring, and many continue to do unpaid work, 65 per cent of those in agriculture and allied activities. Those who do retire can feel a sudden lack of purpose, a loneliness. With the rapid nuclearisation of families, in just 20 years, an estimated 80 million elderly will live alone or with just a spouse.

There are reams of data on how much will change in our demographics, and what we can reasonably predict about the quality of life and care, social security, and public amenities. We can share the estimates of mental health disorders among the elderly.

But data do not tell the whole story, or the only story. The good news is that samaaj-based institutions have been very active in India for decades. HelpAge India was set up in 1978 and works with two million elderly, actively advocating better state intervention. Since 1999, the Agewell Foundation has worked with a network of 80,000 volunteers across 768 districts to reach 25,000 seniors daily. Carers Worldwide aims to reduce the burden of 2,00,000 unpaid senior caregivers. The list goes on. These organisations do not just want to help seniors, they want to change the narrative on ageing. Grey Shades showcases many intrepid seniors who are giving back gracefully. Like army veteran and psychiatrist Rajinder Singh, 91, who is setting up a third mental well-being centre to address addiction in young people in Punjab. Like Harbhajan Kaur, 99, who realised her ambition to earn some income by becoming a cooking sensation at the age of 90. CSOs are trying to normalise these exceptions so that longevity and health spans are reimagined in a society that takes the elderly for granted. It shouldn’t. One in three seniors want to actively volunteer and contribute to their communities if they can find the opportunity.

Can India take the lead in redefining what it means to be an older adult? Can we do it in time for the seismic shift in our demographics? It depends. So far, the state is only just beginning to wake up. Less than 5 per cent of senior citizens get any reliable social security payments or services. Some policies, including the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 are simply unimplementable. There is a long way to go.

The private sector has still not tapped the potential of senior citizens to keep contributing productively. Nor has it stepped in to provide better living and recreational facilities, even though the “silver economy” is currently pegged at $7 billion. We have nothing like the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), a strong advocacy body with 38 million members that markets must reckon with in providing senior citizen products and services.

It is the society that must lead the way. And private philanthropy is critical to kickstart the multi-sectoral innovation we need.

At 65, I often turn to the Beatles song that captured the angst of a whole generation. “When I get older losing my hair, many years from now…Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four?”

The country will soon have to answer that question to hundreds of millions of folks, on whose shoulders it now stands.

The writer is co-founder, EkStep, chairperson, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and author of Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar: A Citizen First Approach

What Indian Hindus don’t understand about Hindus in Bangladesh

They are not helpless. They only want to amplify their demands to ensure that Bangladesh remains inclusive and secular

By: Editorial

Updated: August 31, 2024 09:10 IST

Some have suggested that Sheikh Hasina was the only person to guarantee Hindu existence in Bangladesh. To suggest that authoritarianism is necessary or to suggest that Bangladeshi Hindus are helpless is a deep disservice to a community that is integral to the fabric of Bangladesh and broader Bengali society.

By Ria Chakrabarty

On August 5, when I saw the news that Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign, as a Bengali Hindu, I experienced two emotions in immediate succession: Joy at what student protesters had achieved and fear for what could happen to Bangladeshi minorities, especially Hindus. These fears were not unfounded. Bengali Hindus, in both India and Bangladesh, know that over the decades, when East Bengal has descended into chaos, Hindus have been in the crosshairs. That night, predictably, reports started emerging that extremists took advantage of the power vacuum Hasina left behind to attack minority communities. As Human Rights Watch noted, political actors took advantage of the power vacuum to attack their opponents, and extremists took advantage to attack religious and ethnic minorities.

In response, Bangladeshis organically began defending Hindu temples, Christian churches, and other minority community institutions. Led by the student protesters, Bangladeshis, just as they did in 1971, stood shoulder to shoulder to protect all communities and the idea of Bangladesh. The student protest leaders and their chosen interim government leader Mohammad Yunus have insisted that the next government must be a secular democracy that respects the rights of all, including minorities. Hindus have been crucial to the student protest, as Bengali Hindu students have always been in the history of East Bengal.

As Bangladeshis celebrate another freedom struggle, minorities are demanding that they be included in this new age of liberation. They want fundamental reforms to the Bangladeshi government, including a Minority Affairs Ministry and a 10 per cent reservation for minorities in Parliament.

But Indian Hindus have not taken the time to understand and listen to Bangladeshi Hindus. Some have suggested that Sheikh Hasina was the only person to guarantee Hindu existence in Bangladesh. To suggest that authoritarianism is necessary or to suggest that Bangladeshi Hindus are helpless is a deep disservice to a community that is integral to the fabric of Bangladesh and broader Bengali society. Bangladeshi Hindu students fought and died for this student protest movement alongside hundreds of their peers, as they have fought and died for the rights of all Bengalis in the Bengali Language Movement, the Six Point Movement, the Liberation War, and subsequent fights to fulfill the promise of secular democracy.

However, Indians, and Hindus in the diaspora, have been bombarded with appeals to protect helpless Hindu Bangladeshis from genocide. The far-right has used AI images of rows of dead Bangladeshi Hindus to ask the global Hindu community to keep all eyes on Bangladesh. Far-right Hindu diaspora organisations which have no presence in the Bengali community, are using our Bangladeshi brothers and sisters’ fears to suggest that Sheikh Hasina was the only one protecting Bangladeshi Hindus from genocide. One Twitter account compared Muhammad Yunus to Aung San Suu Kyi. Unlike Suu Kyi, who over her many years in power, supported the military in its genocide of the Rohingya, Yunus has roundly rejected anti-minority violence. In fact, Yunus has pleaded for an end to the anti-minority violence in his one week in power. At Dhakeshwari Temple, Bangladesh’s national Hindu temple, Yunus affirmed his dedication to protecting the rights of all. The current Bangladeshi political leadership has shown remarkable compassion and intentionality, unlike leaders interacting with protesters in the rest of South Asia.

Indian Hindus must take their lead from the response by leaders in Bangladesh calling for support for minorities. Non-Bangladeshi Hindus need to be far more responsible in addressing what is happening to our brethren in Bangladesh. Far-right misinformation drowns out real concerns by Bangladeshi minorities about their safety. Indian misinformation actually makes Bangladeshi Hindus even more vulnerable, as their fears get dismissed as foreign propaganda.

Instead of consuming Indian hysteria that is designed to whip up violence against Indian Muslims, Indian Hindus should listen to the thousands of Bangladeshi Hindus pouring into the streets to demand structural changes to the Bangladeshi government. As protest leader Bipra Prasun Das noted, Bangladeshi Hindus need other Hindus to hear their concerns with real empathy. Bangladeshi Hindus do not deserve to be used as political cudgels to divide Indians along communal lines. Hindus owe it to each other to listen rather than use each other’s stories for their own selfish needs.

Bangladeshi Hindus are not helpless. They are not asking outside powers to save them. They do not want the return of authoritarianism. And they certainly do not want to leave their homes. What they need is for their fellow Hindus to amplify their concrete demands to ensure that Bangladesh is truly an inclusive, secular democracy that serves every Bangladeshi, regardless of faith, caste, or ethnicity.

The writer is senior policy director at Hindus for Human Rights, an organisation that advocates for human rights in South Asia and the Hindu diaspora

Anjum Rajabali writes: Salim-Javed, thank you for ‘Deewaar’

But a look back at Salim-Javed's work must also point out this: Their stories about personal arcs of hurt heroes did not challenge the socio-political status quo

Written by Anjum Rajabali

Updated: August 31, 2024 09:30 IST

Given the enormous clout that they commanded, they could well have woven social issues into their plots. Instead, their stories pointedly steered clear of raising deeper questions that may leave the audience disturbed or thoughtful, thereby perhaps affecting the chances of commercial success. (C R Sasikumar)

The recently released documentary, Angry Young Men, on the screenwriting duo of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, who became a powerhouse of dramatic scripts spawning an unprecedented 20 commercially successful movies in the Seventies, has quickly gathered fans while attracting some criticism too.

It showcases nostalgia by tracing each one’s early personal history, relationship with their parents, turbulent emotional equation with their fathers, economic hardship, professional frustration, and finally the serendipitous combination that forged a creative and personal bond which produced all the compelling stories that have given them a permanent place in the history of popular Hindi cinema.

There are two aspects that the series brings out movingly. One is their aggressive emotionality in the early years. Even as their struggle was riddled with crippling frustration, they never ceased being ambitious. Instead of despairing, they were angry. Angry at being denied what they believed they deserved. They nurtured that rage, promising themselves that they would get it. This is, doubtless, reflected in their male protagonists. And this could have had a lot to do with how they handled success when it came to them.

The other is the deeply genuine warmth in their bond when they were together. The series encourages us to imagine their closeness, mutual trust, Akhtar’s adoration of his 10-year-older alter ego, their accelerating self-confidence, their exultation at the seemingly unstoppable success, their audacity, the Midas complex, and finally the sense of omnipotence. And then, the sobering pain in the aftermath of their separation. The nostalgia works.

However, what is seriously disappointing is the striking refusal to examine their work. After all, it was their writing that brought them lasting fame and is the reason for our interest in them. From the two-hour series, you come away with no understanding, no insight about them as writers, something that history should remember them for.

At least one episode could have been devoted to their work. We would love to know what inspired their iconic films, how they always constructed dramatically strong plots, why their character always had a deep, unresolved inner conflict that infused the narrative with dramatic energy, whether the dialogue needed much rewriting to get that surfeit of crackling loaded lines, if their writing was intuitive, what was their process of sourcing promising material. And, how much of their personalities fertilised their characters. Peppered with examples.

While much of their early work is worthy of study, Deewaar and Sholay, of course, stand in a class by themselves. For different reasons.

Sholay has an incomparably larger fanbase and that stands to reason. While its screenplay is problematically uneven, it offers every kind of entertainment element that an Indian audience seeks from a mainstream film. There is no way the writers consciously did this, but Sholay has each of the nine rasas (navrasas), which perhaps no other film has. Apart from being superbly directed with excellent support from every technical department, it has background music that enhances every sequence, viscerally riveting action, a deliciously unrepentant evil dacoit, a charismatic star cast and of course, absolutely terrific comedy with crackling lines. It had to become India’s most loved film.

Deewaar’s script occupies a near-mythical status for screenwriters. While it owes its inspiration to Mother India (the Oedipal obsession, the absent weak father) and Ganga Jamuna (the cop-brother having to kill the dacoit-brother who brought him up), it offers you the experience of a completely fresh story set in the urban industrial milieu of crime and unemployment.

Through the sheer consistency of Vijay’s characterisation with its unwavering focus on the trauma of the cowardly father’s betrayal, the writing never loses empathy for the torment that starts driving his self-destructive choices. In his relentless bid to over-compensate for his emotional pain and his mother’s suffering, Vijay’s impossible quest for inner peace finally impels him towards his own death. The character’s partial resonance with the Karna archetype is unconscious but unmistakable. (Equally unmistakable is the resonance with its two writers and their angst!)

While several excellent films earlier had had strong dramatic plots with mythical underpinnings, none had the tightly structured screenplay, the sharpness of scene construction, and the wit and economy of dramatic dialogue of this one. And of course, there was the huge Bachchan factor that just exploded on screen. Compelling! But even the lay audience knew that the script was the thing. Without it, there wasn’t much that even the great Bachchan could have done.

What Salim-Javed deserve credit for is inspiring dozens of young people to become film writers. All of us took up screenwriting because we wished to write like them. We wanted to write a Deewaar! While not flawless, its script continues to be one of the most important examples for aspiring Indian screenwriters to learn from.

Their example offers other important learnings too. One is that, ironically, the one thing that they yearned for with resoluteness during their struggling days itself became the reason for their decline as writers when they achieved it. Success, the double-edged sword! While in the heavily commercialised world of popular cinema, the desire for success can be a valuable motivation, a blinkered pursuit of it can thwart one’s originality and rapidly dilute creative authenticity.

It nudges one towards safe choices, pushing one into a formula groove. Intensely needy for success, the duo couldn’t escape that. Unfortunately, in creative work, there cannot be a pre-set successful model. One must reinvent the wheel for every new idea.

Hence, a serious concern is that none of their films challenged the existing status quo — be it in terms of class, caste, communalism or gender. Their stories were about hurt heroes who, mostly by vigilante action, fought to avenge personal injustice inflicted by a bad individual. Or, of course, about intra-family conflict. Never was a comment on the system or the ideology that engendered that injustice or on the social inequality that makes exploitation inevitable allowed into the story. In other words, it never offered you a socio-political perspective, even in its sub-text.

Given the enormous clout that they commanded, they could well have woven social issues into their plots. Instead, their stories pointedly steered clear of raising deeper questions that may leave the audience disturbed or thoughtful, thereby perhaps affecting the chances of commercial success. The only purpose of cinema, then, was to entertain, where entertainment was defined as an enjoyable experience. Unlike those whose work they admired, like Mehboob Khan, K Asif, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, who also worked with the mainstream form, Salim-Javed’s films depoliticised cinema.

The lasting impact that their work has left on Hindi cinema is still to be studied seriously, analysed and understood. And yet, what is clear is that Indian screenwriters will be grateful to them for bringing the script centre-stage. It’s a position that writers of today are once again seeking to give it.

And yes, a personal thank you for Deewaar, of course!

Rajabali is a screenwriter, teacher and activist of the Screenwriters Association

Remembering A G Noorani: A scholar of justice

He embodied the spirit of the secular and progressive India that our forefathers imagined

Written by Warisha Farasat

Updated: August 31, 2024 09:18 IST

Noorani ‘sahab’ embodied the spirit of the secular and progressive India that our forefathers imagined. Merely calling him prolific does injustice to his writings and legacy. His rigour was unparalleled, and he dedicated his life to recording legal and political history over many decades.

Abdul Ghafoor Noorani is no more. But people like Noorani sahab don’t die. He will live through his stellar body of work and his contributions as a scholar who defended the ideals of justice enshrined in the Constitution. He will undoubtedly be remembered not only for his unmatched intellectual brilliance but also for his unquestioned moral rectitude.

Born in 1930, Noorani sahab witnessed the partition of the subcontinent and the constitution-writing process as a young man. He started his career at the Bombay High Court. As he became an authoritative voice on constitutional issues, he was often consulted by the political class on complex problems.

As a young law student, I was first introduced to Noorani sahab through his newspaper columns where he dealt with issues ranging from constitutional law to geopolitics. Along with a meticulous analysis of the legal landscapes, his writings were always replete with anecdotes that made the most complex aspects of constitutional law easily accessible. In fact, this careful legal analysis punctuated with anecdotes was a hallmark of his writings. He had perfected the art of weaving in constitutional assembly debates with contemporary political questions, making it impossible for the forces that misrepresented the intent of the founders of our Constitution to defend their political actions.

Unlike his writings, Noorani sahab wasn’t easily accessible in person. However, I was fortunate to know him and benefit from his legal and political scholarship. I met him recently in his small Napean Sea Road apartment in Bombay. The apartment itself is a testament to his inimitable life and legacy. On the shelves, there were too many books to count. From Ibn Batuta’s travelogues, to books on the Palestine question, to the original editions of H M Seervai, it was all there. In one corner, his own books were neatly stacked.

Noorani sahab was the biggest living expert on Kashmir. His work on Article 370 (Article 370: A Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir) was the only book cited several times during the recent proceedings of the constitution bench of the Supreme Court. His book The Kashmir Dispute is a meticulously researched work which records every twist and turn in this vexed issue with irrefutable evidence. He had first-hand knowledge of every aspect of the Kashmir issue, having closely worked with or followed every major actor in the dispute. He had even represented Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah when he was incarcerated by the Union government.

His scholarship, however, wasn’t limited to Kashmir or the courtroom. Noorani sahab was one of the most formidable scholars of India’s diplomacy. On the Sino-India relationship, his book India-China Boundary Problems, 1846-1947: History and Diplomacy is a must-read. Similarly, his works The Gulf Wars and Brezhnev Plan for Asian Security: Russia in Asia are treasure troves on geopolitics, and his book Citizens’ Rights, Judges and State Accountability is an important resource on civil liberties. The range of Noorani sahab’s scholarship could be understood by the wide-ranging issues he dealt with in his books, including Islam and Jihad, Badruddin Tyabji and Jinnah and Tilak: Comrades in the Freedom Struggle, as well as extensive work on the RSS, Savarkar and Hindutva.

What distinguished Noorani sahab was his moral courage. His aversion to sycophancy was legendary, and he always said things as they needed to be said. This is why, despite his great intellectual prowess and integrity, he was never a darling of any government. Over his decades of work, he spared no political dispensation in defence of the core values of the Constitution.

Noorani sahab’s love for food was second only to his love for constitutional law. It is said that there was not a single kebab take-out joint left in Mumbai from where he had not ordered his favourite galouti or kakori kebabs. He had a soft spot for Kashmiri food, and relished the traditional wazwan.

Noorani sahab embodied the spirit of the secular and progressive India that our forefathers imagined. Merely calling him prolific does injustice to his writings and legacy. His rigour was unparalleled, and he dedicated his life to recording legal and political history over many decades. In this era of smartphones, and social media feeds, when uninformed polemical debates replace real conversation or engagement, there is much to learn from a man who never used email or a computer. Noorani sahab taught us that there is no shortcut to excellence or empathy. I hope that those who cherish the fundamental principles of our Constitution, rule of law and secular ethos celebrate Noorani sahab’s life and legacy by setting up a foundation to keep his memory alive and make his work available to the next generations.  May you rest in peace Noorani sahab.

The writer is a lawyer practising in Delhi

Express View: On Delhi and Beijing, a hint of hope

A precarious road lies ahead, but India and China could be inching towards solutions both sides can live with

By: Editorial

August 31, 2024 07:00 IST

On the political front, Beijing is recognising the costs of its military aggression — in the form of deteriorating relations with a major Asian neighbour and lost business opportunities in one of the world’s fast-growing markets.

the latest round of talks with China on easing the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh raises hopes for the long-awaited breakthrough that could end the current political stalemate in bilateral relations. The Foreign Office has described the talks as “constructive and forward looking” and said that the two sides are looking to “narrow down differences and find early resolution of the outstanding issues”. The optimistic tone follows two meetings in quick succession between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi. That these talks have been going on since the surprise Chinese aggression across the Line of Actual Control during the Spring of 2020 without restoration of status quo ante on the border suggests that India must temper its optimism. The well-known but divergent approaches of Delhi and Beijing to the negotiations reinforce the case for considerable caution in assessing the immediate prospects of a breakthrough.

India, which had cut off all political engagement and severely limited commercial ties with China since 2020, insists that the “state of the border” will reflect the “state of the bilateral relations.” China has argued against India’s condition that settling the border stand-off must precede renewal of bilateral relations. China has called, instead, for putting the border question in its “proper place” and going ahead with the “normalisation” of the relationship. The hint of hope arises out of the assessment that Beijing and Delhi may be inching towards a finessing of the situation that could take them to a common ground. Over the last many rounds, the two militaries have “disengaged” from several friction points that emerged from Chinese aggression and the Indian riposte in 2020. The current focus appears to be on resolving two legacy issues that arose from earlier military crises in Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh. Military experts have long pointed to solutions that both sides could live with.

On the political front, Beijing is recognising the costs of its military aggression — in the form of deteriorating relations with a major Asian neighbour and lost business opportunities in one of the world’s fast-growing markets. Delhi, too, sees that the lack of normal engagement with Beijing, at a time when most major powers, including India’s Quad partners, are talking to China, is problematic. A potential deal involves China agreeing to ease the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh and India restoring political dialogue and ending the constraints on commerce with China. The NDA government’s annual Economic Survey as well as several industry groups have been pressing the government to take a fresh look at the economic measures imposed against Beijing in the summer of 2020. As Delhi looks for a long-awaited closure to the current phase of tensions with Beijing, it must reach out to the Opposition parties, the foreign policy community and the public at large to explain the contours of the potential deal and make the case for it in terms of India’s national interest. Talks with China have always been shrouded in mystery that even experts find hard to decode. The political polarisation within the country and the hyper-nationalism that has run unchecked over the last decade could derail even a sensible arrangement with China.

Express View: A timely warning on SME stocks

As millions of new investors enter the markets, the guiding objective should be to safeguard investor interests and protect the integrity of markets

By: Editorial

August 31, 2024 06:50 IST

In July, the NSE imposed a cap of 90 per cent on the issue price of SME IPOs. However, continued vigilance is required.

The Indian stock markets continue to climb upwards. Since the beginning of this year, the BSE Sensex is up almost 14 per cent. Investor enthusiasm is, however, not confined to the larger companies, the smaller companies are also witnessing spectacular gains. The BSE Smallcap index has risen by 30 per cent year-to-date, while the mid cap index is up around 33 per cent. However, for some time now, there have been concerns that across segments, especially in the small and midcap space, certain stocks have been trading at valuations that are difficult to justify. In fact, earlier, some mutual funds had restricted flows into their small cap schemes. In March, Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch had also spoken of the “froth” in certain market segments. But the euphoria continues. There are numerous examples of such investor exuberance. Recently Resourceful Automobiles, a Delhi-based company with only two showrooms and eight employees, came out with an initial public offering of Rs 11.99 crore. The issue was oversubscribed 418 times, with bids for around Rs 5,000 crore. In the case of Aesthetik Engineers, the company came out with an IPO of Rs 26.47 crore that was heavily oversubscribed with bids worth Rs 18,000 crore. Since April, 108 SME IPOs have hit the market — of these, 99 listed at a premium, and in some cases, there were huge gains.

Questions have been raised by market analysts over the participants in some of the heavily oversubscribed SME IPOs, about whether they are “causing frenzy” in the hope of eventually dumping their shares on “gullible retail investors”. The worry has been that considering the relatively smaller float available in the case of smaller companies, they may be easier to manipulate. Earlier this year, the SEBI Chairperson had spoken on the possibility of price manipulation in IPOs and trading of small and medium enterprises. On Wednesday, the stock market regulator also said that some SME companies and/or their promoters have post-listing painted an “unrealistic” assessment of their operations to create a positive narrative about the company. This is meant to induce investors to buy the stocks, allowing the promoters to offload their shares at higher prices. SEBI has asked investors to be “watchful”.

In July, the NSE imposed a cap of 90 per cent on the issue price of SME IPOs. However, continued vigilance is required. As millions of new investors enter the markets — as per a report, the total number of demat accounts has increased to 16.2 crore as of June — the guiding objective should be to safeguard investor interests and protect the integrity of markets.

Recommitting to Test cricket: Afghanistan vs New Zealand, in India

That India is hosting the first-ever Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand shows BCCI's commitment to this version of the game

By: Editorial

Updated: August 31, 2024 06:54 IST

Afghanistan’s best-known cricketer, Rashid Khan, will not be in action against the Kiwis, having stepped aside from Test cricket for a year.

A test match between Afghanistan and New Zealand wouldn’t normally set pulses racing. One of the teams is a relatively new entrant to the longest format of cricket while the other, despite having a proud history across various versions of the game, has never been considered one of the bigger sides, often being patronised for “punching above their weight”. But the upcoming contest, set to begin on September 9 at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground, assumes significance due to the perceived crisis the five-day format is currently suffering, in the face of the unprecedented riches on offer for players in domestic T20 leagues around the world.

Afghanistan’s best-known cricketer, Rashid Khan, will not be in action against the Kiwis, having stepped aside from Test cricket for a year. New Zealand’s greatest-ever batsman, Kane Williamson, is part of the squad, but he and several of his colleagues now pick and choose international commitments after turning down their board’s central contracts. In fact, the conundrum that these two teams and others like the West Indies face, is symptomatic of the problems confronting Test cricket. This has prompted incoming International Cricket Council chair Jay Shah to propose a dedicated Test cricket fund worth Rs 125 crore for countries outside India, England and Australia to ensure that players get a minimum match fee of $10,000, and that boards can manage touring and operational costs.

That India is hosting the first-ever Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand shows the BCCI’s commitment to the longest format for the last several years. The proceedings on the field at Greater Noida will be keenly followed. But the match itself is more significant as an indicator of the health of Test cricket. India will be front and centre of the picture, even if its own team doesn’t take the field.

August 31, 1984, Forty Years Ago: Army concessions

Mrs Gandhi’s government announced major concessions to the armed forces, carrying out a widespread cadre review for officers and men. The government’s decision involves an extra expenditure of Rs 30 crore a year.

By: Editorial

Updated: August 31, 2024 06:50 IST

The decision has been taken in view of the government’s anxiety about the prevailing stagnation at various levels in the three services and their inability to attract suitable candidates.

Mrs Gandhi’s government announced major concessions to the armed forces, carrying out a widespread cadre review for officers and men. The government’s decision involves an extra expenditure of Rs 30 crore a year. The decision has been taken in view of the government’s anxiety about the prevailing stagnation at various levels in the three services and their inability to attract suitable candidates.

Indo-Pak tensions

Six Pakistani soldiers were killed when they attempted to sneak into the Indian territory through the line of actual control in the Uri sector, according to official sources in Srinagar. The sources said that the major clash was sparked off when under heavy covering fire, some Pakistani troops tried to enter the Indian territory but were repulsed.

Saving The Sikh Panth

The proposed world Sikh convention on September 2, which has been banned by the government, may, if it comes about, empower the five Sikh high priests to disband all political organisations of the Sikhs, including the Akali Dal in the state, it is authoritatively learnt. Sources close to the high priests hinted that since the struggle with the Centre was mostly confined to “saving the Sikh Panth”. It was necessary that all political factions and in-fighting among the Sikhs must stop.

Rat Wreaks Havoc

The divine carrier of Lord Ganesha, a day after Ganesh Chaturthi, committed hara kiri but not before playing havoc with two newspapers on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg. The well-fed rodent got into the junction box of the Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking in the Times of India building and caused a short circuit which set off a chain reaction to the main feeder. Four jumpers were burnt and power was cut off to the Indian Express building, and the Times of India building.

It’s about time marital rape was criminalised

Opponents of criminalising marital rape including the government argue that it will threaten the ‘sanctity of family life’, claiming it could increase false allegations, disrupt marital harmony and undermine the institution of marriage itself. However, this argument is a smokescreen that ignores the lived realities of countless women

Written by Kartikey Singh

Updated: August 30, 2024 19:07 IST

While civil remedies exist under laws such as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005), these do not address the criminalisation of marital rape directly and are limited to “protection orders, judicial separation and monetary compensation”. (File)

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud will soon hear Hrishikesh Sahoo v the State of Karnataka and decide the constitutionality of the marital rape exception (MRE) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. Section 375 (exception 2) of IPC and now Section 63 (exception 2) of the “reformative” Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) continue to allow husbands to have sex with their wives against their will or without their consent. This stands as a glaring anomaly in the Indian criminal justice system that otherwise seeks to protect the bodily integrity and autonomy of individuals.

The issue arose in 2017 when Hrishikesh Sahoo, accused by his wife of multiple offences including rape and cruelty, invoked the MRE, which was rejected by the Karnataka High Court (HC), deeming the exception “regressive” and “discriminatory”, relying on the Justice J S Verma Committee report. This led to an appeal in the SC following a split verdict by the Delhi HC in 2022 and several new petitions.

While civil remedies exist under laws such as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005), these do not address the criminalisation of marital rape directly and are limited to “protection orders, judicial separation and monetary compensation”. The forthcoming judicial review presents an opportunity to eliminate a discriminatory legal relic that violates Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution, potentially transforming women’s rights in India.

The effects of marital rape

While comprehensive data on marital rape remains scarce due to stigma, fear, shame, illiteracy, and legal barriers, available statistics are troubling. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) reports that about one-third of married women (18-49 years) in India have experienced physical or sexual violence from their husbands. Marital rape strips women of their agency, reducing them to mere objects for sexual gratification within the marriage. It leads to severe psychological effects, including chronic depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidal tendencies. Physically, it can cause chronic pain, reproductive issues, and injuries that go untreated due to fear of further violence or social ostracism.

Among married women in India, more than 95 per cent who endured sexual violence identified their husbands/former husbands as the perpetrators (NFHS 5). What is even more concerning is that over 90 per cent of those who endured sexual violence did not seek help from anyone. It is often because they do not recognise it as a crime; rather it is seen as a husband’s “right”, reflecting entrenched gender roles. Abused women are frequently isolated from support networks and are economically dependent on their abusers: Only 27 per cent of married women are employed compared to 92 per cent of married men (NFHS 5). This makes it harder to leave or seek a divorce. In India, societal pressure to uphold the “sanctity of marriage” at all costs forces victims to endure abuse, which further alienates them.

Abusive marriages also harm children, who grow up in environments of fear and instability, causing anxiety, depression, and aggression that impact their long-term emotional and social development, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The legal conundrum

The SC’s decision will revolve around three crucial questions. First, does the MRE violate a married woman’s right to equality by denying her the same legal remedies as unmarried women? By retaining this exception, the state creates two distinct classes of victims of non-consensual sex, providing unequal protection of the law, which fails the tests of “intelligible differentia” and “rational nexus”. This must be considered in light of the principle of “substantive equality” for removing “systemic or legal barriers”, to ensure that all women, regardless of marital status, receive equal protection against sexual violence. The Court could draw upon the doctrine of “transformative constitutionalism” — where constitutional interpretation drives social change — to hold that the MRE is anachronistic and incompatible with modern constitutional values. In this conflict between constitutional and social morality, the court should uphold the former, as it had done in the past.

India has seen a series of landmark judgments that have progressively expanded the rights of women, particularly where the black letter of the law was either silent or explicitly against them. For instance, the SC’s decisions in cases such as Vishaka v State of Rajasthan (1997), which established guidelines for preventing sexual harassment in the workplace; Independent Thought v Union of India (2017), which criminalised marital rape of minor wives (15 to 18 years); and Shayara Bano v Union of India (2017), where the practice of triple talaq was struck down as unconstitutional.

Further, on the question of equality within marriage, the MRE contradicts Article 15(1) of the Constitution, which prohibits sex-based discrimination. This exception upholds the outdated doctrine of coverture, a relic of English common law, which posited that a wife’s legal identity is subsumed under that of her husband upon marriage. While this doctrine has been dismantled in other areas, such as in the decriminalisation of adultery (Section 497 IPC), the MRE still denies women autonomy and consent within marriage. “Marriage in a constitutional regime is founded on the equality of and between spouses. Each of them is entitled to the same liberty which Part III guarantees…”, the SC held in Joseph Shine. The top court should build on this jurisprudence.

The third question concerns whether the exception violates a wife’s right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court’s ruling in K S Puttaswamy (2017) established privacy as a fundamental right, including bodily autonomy and sexual integrity. The MRE infringes on this right by denying married women the autonomy to refuse sex, thus violating their privacy. A parallel could be drawn to Navtej Singh Johar v Union of India (2018), where the apex court recognised that privacy includes the right to choose one’s partner and the nature of intimate relationships.

Moreover, Puttaswamy extends privacy protection to personal relationships, including marriage, free from state interference. Yet, the MRE represents a form of “negative” state action, where the state effectively sanctions the violation of a woman’s bodily autonomy by her husband, an infringement on her fundamental right to live with dignity as well.

The sanctity of family vs women’s rights: A false dichotomy

Opponents of criminalising marital rape, including the government, argue that it will threaten the “sanctity of family life”, claiming it could increase false allegations, disrupt marital harmony and undermine the institution of marriage itself. However, this argument is a smokescreen that ignores the lived realities of countless women. The sanctity cannot be preserved at the cost of women’s dignity, safety, and rights as true marital harmony is based on mutual respect and consent, not coercion or fear.

India’s retention of the MRE is an outlier and marks a regression in the global movement towards gender equality. It contradicts international human rights standards, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women — particularly Article 2(f) — which mandates the abolition of discriminatory laws and practices against women. Most advanced nations have criminalised marital rape, with the Soviet Union leading the way in 1922. Today, about 150 countries, including Singapore (2019), have made marital rape a criminal offence.

With the government firmly opposing the criminalisation of marital rape, the Court must iron out the flaws.

Singh is a final-year student at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL), Patiala, and Co-convener at the Centre for Constitutional Law and Governance at RGNUL

Definitely, not maybe: The music of Oasis still resonates

Oasis shaped, and was shaped by the times when the UK was emerging from the grim Thatcherite years.

Written by Kaushik Das Gupta

Updated: August 30, 2024 14:05 IST

Oasis brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher performing in 2005. (Photo: Wikipedia commons)

“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It won’t be televised.” With these words, Noel and Liam Gallagher announced an end to their warring. Oasis, the 1990s cult band, which hasn’t performed since 2009, will go on a two-month world tour in July next year. Ticket counters will open almost 11 months earlier on August 31. Tracks from the first recording of the band’s second album (What’s the story) Morning Glory? will be rereleased online on Friday. Fans, though, will be keeping their fingers crossed, given the brothers’ record of acrimony.

Messy splits are a part of rock-pop lore – Roger Waters and David Gilmour, the late Dicky Betts and Gregg Allman, Eddie Van Halen-David Lee Roth, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler. Even the Jackson siblings fought. But with Noel and Liam, one thing that fans always knew – the next fight was just around the counter. It was often a part of the performance – Liam’s head arched up in unbridled contempt towards his elder brother, with little regard for other bandmates and irreverence for the audience, was the band’s unwritten signature. At one concert, the younger Gallagher repeatedly heckled Robbie Williams with homophobic innuendos. Those at their receiving end ranged from the Russian football team to Kylie Minogue, from the royal family to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Liam performing at the Gasometer, Vienna, February 1, 2006. (Wikipedia commons)

But great songwriting, Noel’s guitar playing, Liam’s nasal vocals and his sense of phrasing could make the music soar above the Gallagher brothers’ arrogance.

In the early 1990s, England was in an economic slump, large parts of the cultural landscape were bare, and British rock was struggling under the weight of American grunge. It was then that the band helmed by the two brothers from a working-class background in Manchester declared that they would be the next big thing after the Beatles. The members of Oasis were part of the generation of the young adults who had lived under the crushing neo-liberal policies of Thatcherism.

Liam Gallager performing at an Oasis concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, September 11, 2005. (Wikimedia commons)

‘Bring it on Down’ from their debut album, Definitely Maybe captured the zeitgeist of the times. Its lines, “You are the outcast, You are the underclass. But you don’t care. Because you are living fast. You are the uninvited guest who stays till the end,” along with its sharp guitar chords and frenetic drumming evoked the back-to-the-walls, yet hopeful, life of the youth in council-estate housing. So did ‘Supersonic’ with its tribute to the Beatles writ large: “I need to be myself/I can’t be no-one else, I’m feeling supersonic, give me gin and tonic/You can have it all, but how much do you want it?You make me laugh/Give me your autograph/Can I ride with you in your BMW?/You can sail with me in my yellow submarine”.

Along with other bands such as Blur, Suede, Elastica, Pulp and Sleeper, Oasis became the voice of young British White Men — of Britpop – which looked upon the Swinging Sixties with a sense of longing. Perhaps, the longing made sense: The Sixties were a time when the welfare state was strong and the white working class never had it better. Definitely Maybe opened to record sales. And in the years that followed the constant one-upmanship between Oasis and Blur rivalry was often likened to the Beatles-Rolling Stone rivalry.

If the Beatles drew from Chuck Berry and Little Richards, Oasis made no secret of being inspired by the Fab Four – sometimes even being criticised for being imitators — including from Paul McCartney, who also admitted that he liked what Oasis was doing. All said and done, in many ways, Oasis was old-fashioned rock and roll. And the band – like much of Britpop – positioned itself as a counter to the often dark lyrics of American grunge acts like Nirvana. Noel Gallagher once said that he wrote, ‘Live Forever’ as a counter to Kurt Cobain’s, ‘I hate myself, I want to die’ – incidentally, Cobain too was a Beatles fan.

Noel at the Oasis Concert, Bell Centre, Montreal, Canada on 5th September, 2008. (wikimedia commons)

If the Gallagher brothers revolted against the grimness of the Thatcher years, they – and many of their contemporaries – also embodied the hyper-individualism and, at times, the anti-intellectualism of the years they grew up in. That made them perfect mascots for Blairite Britain – Noel and Liam were, in fact, amongst the first to be toasted by Tony Blair after New Labour’s victory in 1997.

Art often transcends its time. It also shapes and, in turn, is shaped by the contradictions of the times. Much after the brothers split, Oasis continued to bust charts on streaming platforms. In 2020-21, with the pandemic raging and the Conservative Party making a mess of running England, ‘Wonderwall’ — about a friend who would come and “save you from yourself” – crossed one billion streams on Spotify, the first British ’90s song to do so.

The City and I | Scary tales, fairy tales: Othering and belonging in Udaipur

Now that Udaipur is in news again — not as a celebrity wedding venue but for communal tension after a fight between two students of a government school turned ugly.

Written by Amrita Nandy

Updated: August 30, 2024 19:07 IST

As life unfolded in this new city, so did my answers, although the questions had ceased. (Express Illustration by C R Sasikumar)

Last year, when I shifted from Delhi to Udaipur, for the first many months I was answering curious questions about how it is to live here. In popular imagination, Udaipur is often seen through its much-peddled romance, natural beauty, and historic charm. This definitive mythos can overshadow the other parallel realities of such a fabled landscape.

In my early answers to those questions, the comparison between Udaipur and Delhi was rife. I missed Delhi’s everyday conveniences of grocery-on-call, its smooth and broad roads, the large, canopied trees and numerous gardens. But I also loved Udaipur’s cleaner air, and the constant, gentle breeze. My elderly parents no longer had to avoid the outdoors; instead, they basked in the winter sun without having to wear masks. The house I had rented was beside a small flower and vegetable farm; this implies a steady supply of fresh flowers and vegetables at our door. The view of green hills from the windows is wonderful, at least till high-rises obscure it. And the pristine countryside and lakes are minutes away.

As life unfolded in this new city, so did my answers, although the questions had ceased. Now that Udaipur is in news again — not as a celebrity wedding venue but for communal tension after a fight between two students of a government school turned ugly — this seems like an opportune moment to offer an updated, longer response on how living here “feels”.

During my early search for domestic workers in our neighbourhood, the three women I approached said they cannot take on more work but one of them revealed something else. “Aap khate peete ho,” she said. Khaate peete is a colloquial euphemism for those who eat eggs, non-vegetarian food and drink alcohol. In plain words, it is a sign of one’s caste — non-Brahmins or not-good-enough Brahmins. Out of kindness, she suggested that she would find me a Rajput woman because people like her (Brahmins) would not work for people like me. She pointed to the houses where she worked — each one belonged to a Brahmin family. My affinity with her as a woman and all the cultural mandates that our common gender bestowed stood bulldozed by the supposedly more powerful axis of caste.

Although such tragic caste marking is a banal reality of our country, such an encounter was a first for the privileged me, but not the last. A couple of days before Holi, I was standing outside the house watching children play with water guns and colour. One of them – a lovely seven-year-old girl who calls me Mausi — came to colour me. I hugged her but refused the colour. She immediately asked, “Why? Are you not a Brahmin?” This felt devastating, coming from a child that young. Her speech betrayed no inhibition — she associated my refusal as a sign of otherness, the us and them.

In due course, my eyes and ears became alert to such markers. In the market and on the streets, the angry, black, masculinist totem of Hanuman cannot be missed. There are many more vehicles here with the word “Hindu” on its rear window or bumper sticker than I have seen elsewhere. Ever so often, there are rallies on motorbikes and cars with “Jai Sri Ram” flags. When I am asked for a landmark to our house, I mention the unmissable bridge on the river and, sadly, the very tall and large flag with the words “Hindu Rashtra”.

It did not surprise me when I heard anecdotes about Muslims not being able to find a house in the city. This brazen ethno-nationalism is, of course, evident in online spaces, too. In the colony’s messaging group, when I objected to hateful messages against a minority community, I was dissed by men and women older than me. On a senior citizens’ group that I joined on behalf of my parents, a woman forwarded another similar message in defiance of my response. I spoke of the harm it does to all of us and quit the group.

A fortnight ago, cars were torched and stoned after a communal riot-like situation gripped the city after the stabbing. That very day, a plumber who visited us sported an unusually large red tilak on his forehead. “What if they think I am one of them because I have a beard?” he said, when he saw me looking at it.

A day after my birthday, a man came to deliver my birthday cake. He blamed the halaat (situation) in the city for the delay. “I hope better sense prevails,” I said. His retort was instant. “They will keep doing this. We must all react the way they did. In fact, you should also participate.” A man delivering desserts was also apparently carrying invisible bitterness and a flaming torch.

Soon after we heard that Section 144 had been imposed to “maintain law and order”, that the administration had bulldozed the house of the accused boy, in utter and complete breach of law and order.

Against such a backdrop, which unfortunately is not unique to Udaipur, living here can feel terrifying. There is a sense of foreboding that belies the advertised tranquillity. Besides, this deepening social schism does not reflect its syncretic cultural history.

Yet, multitudes abound here too, in all of their light and shade. I have also been witness to some of the finest expressions of love and belonging across communities. Last year, a Hindu couple who lost their daughter, their only child, offered their home to a young Muslim girl struggling to rent a room in the city. For many years now, a native family has been funding educational scholarships for hundreds of Muslim children. The city is also, still, home to some of the oldest Gandhian academic institutions. There is the doctor couple who serve tribals in the rural outposts of Udaipur and wait for the annual visit of their Kashmiri Muslim friend. There are women from different communities who organise pot lucks to undo India’s rising food politics. Public Eid milans here see well-attended multi-faith prayers and gatherings. In the older parts of the city, many shops have Hindu-Muslim men working together for generations.

Like the single candle that dispels the darkness in a room, the hope and healing of these few but powerful examples is enough to believe in the fairy-tale charm that Udaipur embodies.

Nandy is visiting faculty, National Law School, Bangalore, and author. Her work spans issues of gender, human rights, and culture.

What’s wrong if women want to escape Mr Space Hog on a flight?

Forget the gender politics, women-only seats offer the joy of not having to battle an entitled man for the arm-rest

Written by Rama Bijapurkar

Updated: August 30, 2024 13:43 IST

We have women-only compartments in trains. What’s wrong with extending the concept to aircraft?

Thank you, Indigo, for your customer sensitivity.

Safe Harbour Clause: For all men reading this, the caveat is “present company excluded”!

Indigo Airlines’ latest offering enabling women fliers to select seats next to other women is utterly welcome. Forget the gender politics, it’s the joy of not having to battle an unthinking, entitled man for your share of the armrest that is just so appealing. Also, since the average male flier seems to have more body volume than the average female flier, who has also been taught through years of conditioning to “sit properly”, the men tend to occupy more “airspace” around their seats. Many women avoid taking even the most convenient flight, if only a middle seat is available. Many of them also choose aisle seats despite being bumped into by service carts and people and risking brain damage from carelessly opened overhead luggage bins. It’s not that they don’t yearn for a quiet window seat with a place to rest their heads and sleep after a long work day before they head home for a second shift of family seva. It’s just that if there is a Mr Space Hog in the next seat, you don’t have the aisle to spill over into, unless you have an aisle seat. Battling on both sides is too stressful.

Truth be told, this space-hog behaviour of the male flier stems from an uncontested, automatic sense of entitlement, conditioned behaviour, rather than any desire to harass anybody. Men reading this may think — are probably thinking — she’s overbraining and over analysing this. But trust us, we women have to have antennae continuously on high alert to help us through the complicated machinations needed to take care of ourselves even in everyday situations, like commuting or walking in crowded — or lonely — public spaces.

We have ladies coupes in trains, ladies compartments in locals, ladies special buses and ladies-only toilets for the many reasons that don’t need to be enumerated. So what’s wrong with extending the concept to aircraft? Of course the devil is in the details and one is not sure exactly how this will work. Since there’s no free courtesy that Indigo extends to anyone, as in the other forms of seat selection, additional fees may be levied for this too, in the spirit of adding value to customers and extracting value from them. Women will be free to trade off benefits and costs and choose between a seat with more leg space next to a man and a normal seat next to a woman. Whether this will be women-only rows or not is unclear, but Indigo algorithms will figure out how to efficiently get the job done. What if men use the new visibility of gender data when selecting seats to travel next to women and say to them (as they likely may) “Don’t protest about my hogging space, go travel in the pink seats or shut up”? Well Indigo, with your “girl power” focus, find us a solution. The airline has been very good at disciplining us so far. In exchange for efficiency, they have got us to stand in straight lines, board in sequence, stand uncomplainingly in caged buses on hot tarmacs waiting for aircraft cleaning, dispose of our own garbage etc. So maybe they will handle this behaviour too.

Execution also reflects the difference between a good idea and a commitment that is built into the DNA of the brand. Pink colour coding for women-occupied seats? As a friend pointed out, it signals the patriarchal, stereotypical idea of the weaker sex needing protection, not empowerment via choices. As we know, purple is the new pink and maybe royal blue would work just as well.

Before other businesses rush to do the same in the name of “new trend”, here are two cautionary anecdotes. One is about a five-star hotel chain that offers a “women-only” floor. “For your safety” said the young women at the check-in counter. Until then, it had not occurred to me that a five-star hotel was unsafe for a woman. Surely, it was the hotel’s problem to keep me safe and not put me in a “zenana”. But worse, when I needed electrical help at midnight, a burly bearded electrician appeared. They hadn’t thought through the plan, clearly!

And then there was the iconic chairman of an iconic Indian company who wanted to address a European board director’s struggle to follow the discussion when his Indian colleagues animatedly talked at the same time. So, he, like Indigo, created a systemic solution to a cultural problem. He designed a conference room where one speaker’s microphone had to be switched off before another’s could come on. The result was everybody focusing on being the “fastest finger first” to jab their microphone and no one was listening to anyone else! So, from my perch as an evangelist of customer-centricity, Indigo gets a thumbs up for listening to consumer pain and devising solutions.

As far as how the solution will work in our “we are like that only” world, the jury is still out.

The writer’s most recent book is Lilliput Land: How “Small” is Driving India’s Mega Consumption Story

Derek O’Brien writes: Between 2012 Delhi rape and R G Kar, little has changed

Speeches in Parliament are not enough. This August we failed a young doctor in Kolkata. We failed a tribal woman in Raigarh. We failed a 15-year-old in Jodhpur, a 7-year-old in Delhi, two 4-year-olds in Badlapur

Written by Derek O’Brien

Updated: August 30, 2024 12:35 IST

Doctors, Students, Interns and health workers of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital during the protest at the hospital premises in connection with a doctor killed inside the hospital, in Kolkata. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)

Two days after the Delhi gangrape, Parliament debated the “demand for severe punishment against perpetrators of gangrape of a young woman on 16 December, 2012 in the capital”. Thirty-seven Members of Parliament, including this columnist, spoke in both Houses. In the last fortnight, as we witnessed the entirely understandable public outrage, one reflected on transcripts from some of those speeches. Here are a few excerpts from what, sadly, turned out to be hollow words.

M Venkaiah Naidu (BJP): “Every 18 hours, there is a rape, and every 14 hours, there is an atrocity committed against a woman. There are around 10,000 cases of atrocities on women pending in various courts in Delhi… what is required is the political will to deal with such situations and sending a strong message to perpetrators of this sort of heinous crimes that they will not be spared; they will be taken to task. ”

Jaya Bachchan (SP): “Everybody will forget what is going to happen to her, but she will remember for the rest of her life. It will be a scar. It is a terrible mental torture more than physical. How are you going to repay for this? Every day, women are getting raped by their fathers, their brothers, their cousins, their uncles. I personally feel very, very ashamed that I am sitting in this House and I am helpless and I am not being able to do anything.”

Renuka Choudhary (INC): “Collectively, it is a social failure. It is not enough for us to treat this as yet another statistic and that tomorrow things will finish and thereafter another incident will happen like this.”

Javed Akhtar (Nominated): “We all need to think about this issue at two levels, at the level of the administration and at the level of society. We need to punish the accused with the strictest punishments. However, I don’t agree that it should be death by hanging, not that I have any sympathy with the rapists, but death sentence is just a shadow that does not solve the problem.”

Mayawati (BSP): “Action taken against the perpetrators must set an example for everyone so that crimes like these do not take place in the future. The actions taken by the government against the perpetrators must be publicised so that the people who get involved in these kinds of heinous acts do not even think of committing such acts. There needs to be a change in the laws and the laws relating to crimes against women must be made stricter.”

Tiruchi Siva (DMK): “I hope the outcomes of this discussion would send the message across this country that such heinous crimes would not happen again in this country. It means, your stringent action should send such a message across the country that any person involved in such a crime will be severely dealt with.”

D Raja (CPI): “Our women are not safe. Our children are not safe. It should be a collective social responsibility to protect our women and children. We should collectively think about how to address this menace.”

T N Seema (CPIM): “We want strict action, we want immediate action and we want assurance. Fast track courts should be set up in all districts. Young boys should be educated in school itself to treat women as equal citizens.”

Sushma Swaraj, in Lok Sabha (BJP): “Madam Speaker, you used a word to describe the incident — ‘heinous’. There cannot be a more appropriate description of the incident. I have stated multiple times that people who commit crimes like these must be hanged. After the incident, the victim is neither living nor dead, even if she survives, she will spend the rest of her life in vegetative state. Do the accused not deserve death by hanging?”

And here is what your columnist said (speaking on behalf of AITC): “I stand here nervous and scared as the father of a 17-year-old daughter living in India. Whenever there is a rape we think that it is a woman’s issue. We often want to make it a woman’s only issue. I strongly believe it is much beyond being just a woman’s issue. In fact, it is actually a male issue. This is about men. And I say this as a man. We men sometimes stop behaving like human beings and start acting like animals. It is time we now seriously took up this issue of preventing rape. Prevention. We first need to create effective social communication. We must do this and then spread this message through different media.”

It’s 2024. Twelve years on. More bestial, heinous crimes. This August we failed a young doctor in Kolkata. We failed a tribal woman in Raigarh. We failed a 15-year-old in Jodhpur, a 7-year-old in Delhi, two 4-year-olds in Badlapur.

Only speeches in Parliament are not enough. Let’s pledge to turn words into action. Swiftly.

The writer is MP and leader, All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party (Rajya Sabha). Additional research by Ayashman Dey

Women-only airline seats won’t solve problem of male misbehaviour

IndiGo needs to demonstrate its leadership in ensuring top-class safety protocols with a well-trained crew who are sensitised to act upon instances quickly. The last thing they should be doing is asking women to ghettoise themselves

Written by Ashwini Deshpande

Updated: August 30, 2024 12:38 IST

If the issue is sexual safety, isolating women is not the solution. Airline staff can and should isolate the perpetrator, rather than nudging women to isolate themselves. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)

Among all the dismal statistics about gender gaps in India, there are some numbers that shine. One of these is that India is the global leader in the proportion of women pilots. With 15 per cent women pilots, India is way ahead of the global average of 5 per cent. The International Society of Women Airline Pilots released a “gender equality in the airline industry” report in 2021. The report noted that at 12.4 per cent, India ranked top in gender equality at the flight deck.

If gender equality or women’s advancement is the goal, the aviation industry is getting several things right. Since this is without any special programme to train or target female pilots, it reveals the aspirations of young women to break barriers to enter traditionally male-dominated fields.

This is about the staff in the airline industry. What about passengers?

The issue of sexual safety in the skies is an important one globally, not just in India. While there are no definitive statistics, there are reports of groping, touching and fondling that women have reported to airline staff all across the globe. These are typically silent assaults, which are unwelcome, repugnant and often not reported.

Most victims are women; however, there have been incidents when young men or adolescent boys have been targeted. The perpetrators are always adult males. This has nothing to do with the class of travel: Women could be targeted regardless of whether they were travelling economy or first class.

We should also note, for perspective, that over three million passengers fly every day, and obnoxious passengers stand out because they are exceptions rather than the rule.

How do international airlines deal with misbehaving passengers? The flight staff are trained to restrain the perpetrators, stop serving alcohol to unruly passengers, and if needed, offer to relocate the woman, provided another seat is available. Incidentally, most instances on international flights involve an inebriated passenger. This was also what happened in the urination case on an Air India flight (business class) in 2023.

In the US, passengers take recourse to the legal system for redressal. In India, with an overburdened judicial system this may not be an option.

With this context, the recent “pink seats” announcement by Indigo airlines is puzzling. A new feature allows women to see the sex of other passengers when choosing their seats. They can choose to sit next to women to avoid sitting next to men. Undoubtedly, for some women, having this choice will give a sense of temporary respite.

But what about women who choose seats for comfort — front or exit row, aisle or window seats, and end up seated next to a man? Men might assume that women who do not choose the pink seats are more “broadminded”.

If the issue is sexual safety, isolating women is not the solution. Airline staff can and should isolate the perpetrator, rather than nudging women to isolate themselves.

What about women’s compartments in commuter trains and women’s seats in buses? The logic there is different. In the short-to-medium term, we need these measures. Trains and buses are overpacked daily commute options where ensuring any kind of order is much harder than inside an airplane, unless people self-regulate, as indeed they do in several parts of the world.

Some might claim that women need freedom not just from sexual assault but also boorish and inconsiderate behaviour. Absolutely. Women deal with “manspreading” and “man-sitting” all the time, not to mention men pushing themselves ahead and breaking queues. Many male passengers have no idea that the armrest between two seats is to be shared between both passengers, it is not their birthright to lean over and occupy the entire space.

But this will never change if women slink out of the way. At the Delhi airport recently, each security belt had three-four airport staff, catching passengers trying to break the queue (which included women too) by shoving their bags ahead of passengers who were in line. Costly but effective, and certainly worth implementing till passengers learn the protocols of civilised behaviour.

Indigo claims that it has the highest number (678) of women pilots among all airlines, thus contributing to India’s top rank in this dimension. If this is indeed true, Indigo needs to demonstrate its leadership also in ensuring top-class safety protocols with a well-trained crew who are sensitised to detect and act upon instances quickly and efficiently. The last thing they should be doing is asking women to ghettoise themselves. Because, you know, “men will be men”.

The writer is professor of economics and founder director, CEDA, Ashoka University. Views are personal

R G Kar case is not about violence against a healthcare worker — it is violence against a woman

This is not to say that violence against healthcare workers can ever be condoned. But by demanding a new law for healthcare worker protection, we overlook poor implementation of existing legal frameworks and fail to seek institutional accountability

Written by Anima Anjuri, Harshda Bargal

+2 More

- Vivek Divan

- Reonia Mathew

Updated: August 30, 2024 12:33 IST

Medical professionals protest against the rape and murder of a female trainee doctor at Kolkata's R G Kar Medical College.

It has been stunning to witness how a case of horrific sexual violence — and that is what the RG Kar hospital atrocity is — has been cast as an issue of healthcare workers’ safety. Even in the hallowed portals of the Supreme Court. Let us be clear — this is a case of yet another woman being brutalised in what has seemingly become a norm in India. That it has happened in a hospital gives it another layer of egregiousness, if that were even possible, because certain locales are meant to be shelters for all. So, while it is a workplace safety issue due to the crime’s location, this is essentially a case of sexual violence. Had it happened in a school, corporate office or government ministry, this would still be a case of sexual violence at its core, and not about the security of teachers, executives or government functionaries.

Let us also recall that violence often comes from within. In the last six months alone, women (a dental student, a nurse and a doctor) were at the receiving end of assault, rape and molestation in Rohtak, Moradabad and Rishikesh respectively. This is surely the case in other professions too, and as lawyers who write this, we must unsparingly look at our own ecosystem. In the RG Kar atrocity, it is still far from clear that the perpetrator was a patient, visitor, or an “outsider”.

This incident should be a wake-up call to ensure that all workplaces are secure for all women, and that the culture of patriarchy within which perpetrators carry out violence with such impunity is radically altered. Not just in city hospitals but in khaps, within homes, in colleges, or while travelling by public transport. Particularly in relation to healthcare settings, this means protection for women who are not just doctors but also nurses, receptionists, janitorial staff or patients.

Demands from the protests have been misguided for various reasons. For one, by seeking the death penalty for perpetrators of sexual violence in healthcare settings, they fail to account for whether such measures will address systemic issues. They have also skewed the focus away from the main issue of sexual violence and the underlying systemic injustice that allows vicious crimes against women, towards safety of healthcare workers.

While it has been conveniently conflated by the Indian Medical Association and other vested interests, the issue of violence against healthcare workers is an entirely different one. It cannot be said enough — the brutalised person was not ravaged because she was a doctor; it was because she was a woman.

This is not to say that violence against healthcare workers can ever be condoned. This community’s committed service in government hospitals during Covid-19 should never be forgotten. Even when the state went silent during the Delta phase, this community did all it could to help. A vivid image of that time is of one of our more deplorable human traits — the prejudice we demonstrated against the frontline responders who returned to their homes in building societies, where they were threatened and shunned.

Demands have been made to legislate a central criminal law to prevent and deter violence against healthcare workers. They have, fortunately, been rejected by the Union government — so far. After all, the criminal law, as it is, is sufficient to cover such instances. By demanding a new law for healthcare worker protection, we overlook poor implementation of existing legal frameworks and fail to seek institutional accountability.

Not introducing new legislation does not absolve the responsibility of private and government healthcare to take measures to ensure the safety of frontline workers like ASHAs and ANMs and those in institutions like nurses and doctors. These measures must also address the sexual and gender-based violence that women healthcare workers face. Yet, demands of the IMA, such as a panopticon of airport-like security standards, including surveillance towers, armed guards and sniffer dogs, are hardly conducive to a wholesome healthcare experience. Such reactions also suggest that there are larger questions at play, which need to be answered.

We live in times where healthcare institutions are increasingly unfeeling and intimidating, mammoth corporate mazes where the user is disempowered. Their motives are so profit-centric that one enters them with cynicism, but also abject need. Resembling the stereotypical government department, when something is confusing or goes wrong it becomes almost impossible to articulate grievance, find a remedy, or pin accountability. We also live in a time where the public health system has received no attention from the state, weakening what should be the most accessible architecture to decrepitude.

In such times, the effort of all — the healthcare community, public health experts, policymakers, governments, affected communities — should be to find solutions that make healthcare an experience that is informed, competent, empathetic, affordable, resilient, transparent, hygienic, efficient. But when attempts to legislate the right to health are compromised due to the lobbying of doctors’ associations, as in Rajasthan recently, the message sent is one of hostility. The same can be said about the resistance to implementing the Clinical Establishments Act. When medical education continues to be devoid of any substantial focus on ethical practice, or linked to a larger understanding of public health and public good, values-based medicine will remain a pipe dream.

In a context such as this, the vortex we will be swallowed in is one where patients and their families are not communicated with, corporatisation and privatisation become the dominant impersonal and avaricious character of healthcare and health insurance, and the disempowered become even more so, lashing out the only means they have left.

Much needs to be done to address the insidious nature of sexual violence. To stem that rot, an honest reckoning must take place: How we raise boys, the token and surface adulation we give women, our inability to make accountable the misogyny in our institutions, and the hypocrisy with which we approach sex and gender education.

Much also needs to be done to ensure that the healthcare system is sensitive to the needs of its users. Government budgeting to ensure a doubling of investment in healthcare is an essential start. It will lead to improved infrastructure at primary health and other levels, and more competent, sensitive and well-trained personnel. Along with this is the need for better accountability of health systems, which can only be achieved through robust monitoring, and making these systems participatory and transparent sites of engagement, feedback and improvement through community involvement and oversight.

At the heart of all of this must lie the unhindered ability to question authority and make it accountable, to feel safe in complaining of violations, and to dissent against a stagnant system.

The writers are at the Centre for Health Equity, Law & Policy, ILS Pune

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- UPSC Essentials : Daily subject-wise quiz | Polity and Governance MCQs on Parliamentary sessions, Money Bill, ECI and more (Week 73)

- Art and Culture with Devdutt Pattanaik | The significance of Vedas and their rituals

ISRO’s Aditya-L1: Why was it placed around Lagrange point 1

The Aditya-L1 mission is designed to place a satellite in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system. What are the Lagrangian points for the Sun-Earth system, and how many of them are there?

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 10:10 IST

ISRO's PSLV-C57 carrying Aditya-L1, India's maiden solar mission spacecraft, lifts off from the launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota. (PTI/File)

— Amit Kumar

(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and erudite scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Amit Kumar, a doctoral candidate at IIT Delhi, delves into India’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1, and explains five Lagrange points.)

India’s first solar mission, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, recently completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point. The Aditya-L1 mission – a solar observatory at Lagrangian point L1 – was launched on September 2, 2023 and was inserted in its targeted halo orbit on January 6, 2024.

As the first space mission, Aditya-L1 is dedicated to studying the Sun from a distance of 1.5 million kilometres (approximately 1% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun). It is the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) second mission in the astronomy observatory class, following AstroSat (studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously) in 2015.

But how does Aditya-L1 help in understanding the Sun? Why was it placed in a halo orbit around Lagrange point 1? What are Lagrange points and halo orbit?

Aditya-L1 mission

Aditya-L1 mission was launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) rocket and reached its destination in 127 days. This PSLV (the Workhorse of ISRO) has been instrumental in launching a variety of missions, including India’s Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan.

The Aditya-L1 mission is designed to place a satellite in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system.

Lagrangian points (L-point) are named after the mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who first described these points in his work on the three-body problem in 1772.

In a three-body system, there are five specific positions where the gravitational forces of the two larger bodies balance the centripetal force felt by a smaller third object, allowing it to remain in a stable or semi-stable position relative to the two larger bodies. In other words, it is a position in space where the gravitational forces of two large celestial bodies, such as the Earth and the Moon, or the Earth and the Sun, balance with the centripetal force of a satellite. This creates a point of equilibrium where the small object can maintain a stable position relative to the two large bodies.

What are L-Points or Lagrange points

There are five L-Points for the Sun-Earth system, each with unique properties, where a satellite can maintain a stable orbit within the gravitational influence of the Sun and Earth.

L1: It is located between the Earth and the Sun, where their gravitational forces balance with the centripetal force of a satellite. A satellite placed at L1 Lagrange point can maintain a stable orbit while continuously observing the Sun. The L1 point offers the significant advantage of providing an uninterrupted view of the Sun without any occultation or eclipses.

L2: It is located on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, where the gravitational forces of the Earth and the Sun balance with the centripetal force of a satellite. This position allows a spacecraft to maintain a stable orbit with a continuous view of deep space.

L3: It is located on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth, directly behind the Sun from Earth’s perspective. It is not typically used for space missions, as it is always hidden from Earth’s view by the Sun, making communication and observation difficult.

The five Lagrangian points for the Sun-Earth system. L1 and L2 are on the line joining the Sun to the Earth. (Image courtesy ISRO)

L4: It is located 60 degrees ahead of the smaller body (like the Moon in the Earth-Moon system or Earth in the Sun-Earth system) along its orbit around the larger body. In the case of the Earth-Sun system, it forms an equilateral triangle with the earth and sun. L4 is considered a stable Lagrange point, meaning that if an object is slightly disturbed from this point, it will tend to orbit around the L4 point rather than drift away. This makes L4 an interesting location for placing satellites, space-based observatories, or even serving as potential locations for future space colonies.

L5: It is located 60 degrees behind the Earth along its orbit around the sun. It is located at the other stable point that forms an equilateral triangle with the Sun and the Earth. Similar to L4, the L5 point is a stable equilibrium point. If an object is slightly perturbed from this point, it will orbit around L5 rather than drift away. It has been proposed as a location for space colonies, space stations, and other long-term missions.

These five points are mirrored in other pairs of bodies. For example, the Earth-Moon system has its own set of Lagrange points. L1 is between Earth and the moon, L2 is on the far side of the moon, L3 is on the opposite side of Earth to the moon, and L4 and L5 are 60 degrees in front of and behind the Moon in its orbit around Earth.

Due to their stability, the L4 and L5 points are ideal for long-term, low-maintenance space missions or potential colonisation. This stability contrasts with the other Lagrange points (L1, L2, and L3), which are characterised by unstable equilibrium and require continuous propulsion to maintain their positions.

Significance of the L1 location

A halo orbit is a type of three-dimensional periodic orbit that exists near the five L-points. Unlike simple 2D circular or elliptical orbits, halo orbits trace a 3D loop around these points, resembling a halo, which extends above and below the orbital plane. In such an orbit, a spacecraft can maintain its position around an unstable Lagrange point with minimal use of thrusters (fuel) for station-keeping.

Placing Aditya L1 in a halo orbit (around L1-point) allows continuous, and uninterrupted observation of the Sun without Earth’s shadow interference, providing a stable point for solar monitoring. In contrast, a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) would subject the spacecraft to periodic eclipses and limited viewing windows, reducing observation efficiency and data continuity.

The L1 location significantly reduces the influence of Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field, thereby improving the quality of solar data collected compared to LEO (just a few hundred kilometres away from the Earth). Being located at the L1 point allows Aditya-L1 to monitor solar activities before they reach Earth. This early detection capability is crucial for space weather forecasting, providing advanced warnings that can protect satellites, power grids, and communication systems on the Earth.

A satellite in LEO would not be able to provide early detection of solar events as effectively. Thus, the mission benefits from continuous solar observation, minimal atmospheric interference, stable thermal conditions, and enhanced ability to monitor and predict space weather events. SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) is in halo orbit (around L1 point), allowing it to continuously observe the Sun. In addition, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is placed in a halo orbit (around L2 point), giving it an uninterrupted view of deep space.

The Aditya-L1 mission is designed to observe and analyse various aspects of the Sun’s outermost layers, particularly the corona (the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere), photosphere (the visible surface of the Sun), and chromosphere (the second layer between the photosphere and the corona) using a satellite placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system.

Post Read Question

What is the Aditya-L1 mission? Why was it placed in a halo orbit around L1?

What are the Lagrangian points for the Sun-Earth system?

Aditya-L1 spacecraft recently completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point? Discuss its findings.

(Amit Kumar is a doctoral candidate at IIT Delhi. In the second part of the article, he will discuss the significance of the Aditya-L1 mission, its payloads and the way forward. )

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UPSC Key | LAC, Chip push, INS Arighaat and more

Exclusive for Subscribers Daily: How are the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and migratory bird species relevant to the UPSC Exam? What significance do topics like Chip push and INS Arighaat have for your preliminary and main exams? You can learn more by reading the Indian Express UPSC Key for August 30th, 2024.

Written by Khushboo Kumari

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 10:46 IST

The expression “narrow down the differences” has been used for the first time in the India-China bilateral talks on the border standoff. Know more in our UPSC Key. (File Photo)

🚨 Attention: UPSC Key is now all 7 Days a Week!🚨

Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for August 30, 2024. If you missed the August 29th, 2024 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here.

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Front

LAC talks: India, China for ‘intensified contact’ to ‘narrow down differences’

UPSC Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: GS-I, II, III: Geography, International Relations, Internal Security

What’s the ongoing story- Signalling some progress in diplomatic negotiations to resolve the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops that began in May 2020 along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, India said Thursday that the two sides had a “frank, constructive and forward-looking” exchange of views in Beijing on the situation along the LAC to “narrow down the differences” and “find early resolution of the outstanding issues”.

Prerequisites:

— How LAC was demarcated?

— What is the border conflict between India and China?

— Map work: Depsang Plains, Demchok, Gogra-Hot Springs, Pangong Tso, and Siachen Glacier

Key takeaways:

— The MEA, in its statement, said, “The 31st meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held on 29th August 2024 in Beijing…the two sides had a frank, constructive and forward-looking exchange of views on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to narrow down the differences and find early resolution of the outstanding issues”.

— The remaining friction points along the LAC in eastern Ladakh primarily include legacy ones such as Depsang Plains and Demchok. The last formal disengagement along the LAC took place in September 2022 when both sides pulled back troops to disengage from Patrolling Point-15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area of eastern Ladakh.

— Friction points such as Galwan Valley, north and south banks of Pangong Tso and the Gogra-Hot Springs area have seen some amount of resolution since the beginning of the standoff with the creation of buffer zones along the LAC.

For Your Information:

— Ladakh certainly has been and will continue to remain a serious flashpoint. There are no borders here except a 1,597 km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC), a notional demarcation separating India and China since 1962.

— Even the LAC is not well defined. Both countries have differing perceptions. The patrolling is done till 65 earmarked Patrol Points (PPs) stretching from Karakoram to Chumur. The recent dispute points occurred at PP9, 10, 11, 12, 12A and 13 in Depsang, PP14 in Galwan, PP15 and PP16 in Hot Springs/ Chang Chenmo, and PP17 and 17A in Gogra.

Points to Ponder:

— What are the steps taken by India and China in resolving border disputes?

— What are the internal security challenges along the LAC?

Post Read Question:

Prelims

(1) Siachen Glacier is situated to the (UPSC CSE 2020)

(a) East of Aksai Chin

(b) East of Leh

(c) North of Gilgit

(d) North of Nubra Valley

Mains

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is viewed as a cardinal subset of China’s larger ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative. Give a brief description of CPEC and enumerate the reasons why India has distanced itself from the same. (UPSC CSE 2018)

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

India-China border dispute: Beyond the hype, the reality of the LAC

In new chip push, Centre ready with $15-billion blueprint

UPSC Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic Development

Mains Examination: GS-II, GS-III: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors, Indian Economy

What’s the ongoing story-  After having committed nearly all of the $10 billion in subsidies under its ambitious semiconductor manufacturing incentive policy, the government has prepared a blueprint for the second phase of the scheme — it could increase the outlay of the programme to $15 billion.

Prerequisites:

— What is the significance of the semiconductor industry?

— What is a semiconductor fabrication plant?

Key takeaways:

— India has ambitions to become a major chip hub on the lines of the United States, Taiwan and South Korea, and has been courting foreign companies to set up operations in the country.

— So far, the country has approved a fabrication plant worth $11 billion being set up by Tata Electronics in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip, and three different chip assembly plants being set up by the Tatas, US-based Micron Technology, and Murugappa Group’s CG Power in partnership with Japan’s Renesas.

— The new scheme could see an increased focus on fabrication plants, and more advanced display technologies as India looks to climb the complexity ladder in the chips ecosystem, going beyond packaging and assembly plants where countries such as Malaysia already have a stranglehold.

For Your Information:

— This could also be significant given that about 70% of the current global manufacturing capacity is confined to South Korea, Taiwan and China, with the US and Japan making up for much of the rest, according to data from California-based semiconductor lobby organisation SEMI.

— Most modern-day semiconductors are integrated circuits, also referred to as ‘chips’… Fabs are the highly specialised semiconductor manufacturing facilities that print the miniaturised integrated circuits from the chip design into the silicon wafers.

— The fabrication process is intricate and requires clean rooms designed to maintain sterile conditions to prevent contamination by air particles. There could be between 500 and 1,500 steps in the overall manufacturing process of semiconductor wafers, requiring multiple inputs…

— But, more than the complexity of the manufacturing process itself, having a domestic fabrication plant is a big boost for India’s economic and strategic imperatives given that these chips are used in practically all downstream industries — from rockets to power steering in a car and toasters in the kitchen.

Points to Ponder:

— What is the significance of the semiconductor?

— What are the issues concerning domestic manufacturing of semiconductors?

— What is the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)?

— India’s agreement with other countries (USA, Taiwan, EU) on cooperation in the semiconductor ecosystem.

Post Read Question:

(2) With reference to Semiconductor industry, consider the following statements :

1. The Indian government has created a dedicated task-force called the India Semiconductor Mission, which aims to serve as a focal point for an efficient implementation of India’s chip ambitions.

2. More than 90 per cent of the world’s most advanced chips required for almost all electronic equipment such as smartphones, car components, data centres, fighter jets and AI technologies, are made in South Korea.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

How India’s first semiconductor fabrication plant can help plug in to global value chain

Big leap for chip mission: 3 plants, Rs 1.26 lakh crore investment get Govt nod

Govt & Politics

India gets second nuclear submarine with commissioning of INS Arighaat

UPSC Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: GS-III: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenisation of technology and development of new technology

What’s the ongoing story- India Thursday got its second nuclear submarine with the commissioning of INS Arighaat into the Navy, a move that will significantly boost the country’s deterrence capability.

Prerequisites:

— What are the features of India’s nuclear submarine?

— What is the INS Arihant project?

Key takeaways:

— The discreet commissioning ceremony of the Arihant-class vessel in Visakhapatnam was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

— INS Arighaat will join its predecessor INS Arihant strengthening the country’s nuclear triad — the ability to fire nuclear missiles from platforms in the air, land and sea.

— India gets second nuclear submarine with commissioning of INS ArighaatDefence Minister Rajnath Singh during the commissioning of INS Arighaat in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

India Thursday got its second nuclear submarine with the commissioning of INS Arighaat into the Navy, a move that will significantly boost the country’s deterrence capability.

— The discreet commissioning ceremony of the Arihant-class vessel in Visakhapatnam was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. He said in his address that INS Arighaat will “enhance nuclear deterrence, help in establishing strategic balance and peace in the region, and play a decisive role in the security of the country.”

— INS Arighaat will join its predecessor INS Arihant strengthening the country’s nuclear triad – the ability to fire nuclear missiles from platforms in the air, land and sea.

— The 6,000-tonne nuclear-propelled submarine will be armed with indigenously made K-15 missiles which have a range of over 700 km, and have undergone extensive trials over the last few months.

— Like INS Arihant, it is powered by 83 MW pressurised light-water reactors which allows it to remain submerged for longer periods when compared to conventional submarines.

— The INS Arihant project was initiated over three decades ago, involving Russian assistance, private companies and the research establishment. The first-in-class vessel was commissioned into the Navy in August 2016 and had conducted its first deterrence patrol in 2018, thus completing the establishment of India’s nuclear triad.

— INS Arihant had also carried out a successful launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in October 2022.

Points to Ponder:

— What are the advantages and disadvantages of the nuclear submarine?

— What are the different types of submarines?

— What are India’s submarine programs?

Post Read Question:

(3) Consider the following statements:

1. India’s first and only indigenously designed and constructed nuclear-powered submarine is INS Arihant.

2. The first submarine inducted into the Indian Navy was the Russian Foxtrot-class submarine INS Kalvari.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

New Scorpene class submarines for the Navy: Why they are a crucial buy

Pak invites Modi to SCO meeting in Islamabad in October

UPSC Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: GS-II: International Relations

What’s the ongoing story- Pakistan on Thursday said that it has invited India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of Government meeting to be held in October.

Prerequisites:

— What is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)?

— How has the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation evolved?

Key takeaways:

— Pakistan holds the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government (CHG) and in that capacity, will host the two-day in-person SCO Heads of Governments Meeting in October.

— The SCO council of heads of government level is the second-highest body in the grouping. In the last seven years, since 2017, India has been represented at the level of External Affairs Minister or Defence Minister.

—  In 2020, when India hosted the SCO head of government level meeting virtually, Pakistan was represented by Pakistan’s Parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs.

— The SCO heads of state level meeting is the highest body in the grouping, which is usually attended by Presidents and Prime Ministers. PM Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin attend the SCO heads of state level meeting.

— Pakistan’s then foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India in May 2023 to attend the in-person two-day meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers in Goa, which was the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in almost 12 years.

For Your Information:

— SCO origins lie in the “Shanghai Five”, formed in 1996 and consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

— With the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 into 15 independent countries, there were concerns in the region about extremist religious groups and ethnic tensions coming to the fore. To manage these issues, a grouping was created for cooperation on security matters.

— Building on this, SCO was established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai as an international organisation, and also included Uzbekistan as a sixth member.

— The member countries are India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus. Belarus joined SCO as the 10th member on 4th July 2024.

Points to Ponder:

— Is SCO relevant today?

— What is the significance of SCO for India?

— What are the challenges of the SCO?

Post Read Question:

Prelims

(4) Consider the following: (UPSC CSE 2022)

1. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

2. Missile Technology Control Regime

3. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

India is a member of which of the above?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Mains

Critically examine the aims and objectives of SCO. What importance does it hold for India? (UPSC CSE 2021)

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

UPSC Issue at a Glance | Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and India: 5 Key Questions You Must Know for Prelims and Mains

Explained

On wings of microlight aircraft, helping birds find lost routes

UPSC Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: GS-III: Environment

What’s the ongoing story- How do you teach a migratory bird where to fly to? This was the question facing conservationists trying to re-establish the northern bald ibis — known for its distinctive black-and-green plumage, bald red head and long curved beak — in the wild in Europe.

Prerequisites:

— IUCN status and habitat of the northern bald ibis, or the Waldrapp

— What are migratory birds?

Key takeaways:

— These birds — known in German as Waldrapp — once soared over much of Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. By the 17th century, they were effectively hunted to extinction in the wild, with only a few colonies surviving in Morocco and Syria.

— Biologist Johannes Fritz and his Austria-based conservation group Waldrappteam have brought the bird’s population in central Europe from zero to almost 300 since 2002.

— But these birds, born of ancestors raised in zoos, do not instinctively know where to migrate to in winter…

— Initially, the birds were taught to fly from Bavaria to Tuscany in central Italy. This was the route that wild Waldrapps in central Europe historically flew. The first independent migration took place in 2011, and many birds have since flown on the roughly 550-km route.

— But the effects of climate change have meant that these birds are now flying later in the season. This leads them to cross the Alps in colder, more dangerous weather, and without the help of warm currents of air that rise upward and enable flying birds to conserve energy.

— This is why Waldrappteam pioneered a new, albeit much longer route last year, from Bavaria to Andalusia in southern Spain…

— Global warming threatens plant and animal species around the world. For migratory birds that undertake lengthy journeys to find ideal ecological conditions and habitats for feeding, breeding, and raising their young, climate change poses particular challenges.

— Studies show global warming is altering migration patterns, both routes and timing, exposing birds to new environments and conditions, affecting availability of food and habitat, and disrupting interactions between species. Some bird species have chosen not to migrate altogether, or to migrate to locations where they become invasive species, posing threats to others.

— This is why the conservation of the northern bald ibis is significant. “This method which we’ve developed with the bald ibis is urgently needed for an increasing number of other migratory bird species,” Fritz told The Guardian, adding that this is “a flagship project which indicates what is possible”.

For Your Information:

— The Sultanpur National Park in Farrukhnagar, Gurugram has reported a decrease of 20-30 per cent in the number of migratory birds this season, forest department officials said.

— Chahal said that the number of migratory birds had come down in many other areas including Bharatpur and Okhla. One of the reasons for this could be the change in temperature levels, he said.

Points to Ponder:

— What were the reasons for the extinction of Waldrapp?

— What is the impact of global warming on migratory birds?

— What steps need to be taken to protect the migratory species?

Post Read Question:

(5) Which of the following is not a bird? (UPSC CSE 2022)

(a) Golden Mahseer

(b) Indian Nightjar

(c) Spoonbill

(d) White Ibis

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

Fewer migratory birds in Gurugram’s Sultanpur National Park this season

Assam’s Muslim marriage law

UPSC Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: GS-II: Government policies and interventions

What’s the ongoing story- The Assam Legislative Assembly on Thursday passed the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024, a proposed law with the stated objectives of preventing “child marriages” and “marriages without the consent of the parties”, and to “check polygamy”.

Prerequisites:

— What is polygamy?

— What are the Muslim Personal Laws on marriage?

Key takeaways:

— The registration of marriages and divorces between Muslims in Assam had been taking place under the colonial-era Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act, 1935.

— This Act was in line with Muslim personal law and authorised the state to grant a licence to “any person, being a Muslim” to register such marriages and divorces. There were 95 such Muslim registrars or kazis across the state, and they were deemed to be public servants.

— The Cabinet decided to scrap the law in February this year. In March, the government notified an Ordinance repealing the 1935 Act with immediate effect… On Thursday, the Assembly passed the Assam Repealing Bill, 2024 to replace the Ordinance.

— The government’s main argument for doing away with the 1935 Act was that it allowed the registration of marriages of and between minors.

For Your Information:

—- Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, any marriage below the prescribed age of 18 years for women and 21 for men is illegal, and the perpetrators of a forced child marriage can be punished. However, child marriages are illegal but not void. It is voidable at the option of the minor party. This means, the marriage can be declared void by a court only if the minor party petitions the court.

— The legal age of marriage is 18 and 21 for a woman and a man respectively, and marriage at a younger age comes under the banned practice of child marriage.

— Personal laws that govern marriage and other practices for communities prescribe certain criteria for marriage, including age…For Muslims, the criterion is attaining puberty, which is assumed when the bride or groom turns 15.

— At the same time, particular laws exist for the prohibition of child marriage: The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

— Under the Child Marriage Prevention Act, any marriage below the prescribed age is illegal and the perpetrators of forced child marriage can be punished.

— But the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act does not have any provision that says the law would override any other laws on the issue. So, there is a discrepancy between the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and the Muslim personal law on the minimum age of marriage, and there is no clarity on what law supersedes the other.

Points to Ponder:

— What is the difference between Personal laws and the Special Marriage Act?

— What is the discrepancy in the age of marriage between the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and Muslim Personal Law?

— Why is child marriage still prevalent in India?

— What is the issue of the Unifrom Civil Code (UCC)?

Post Read Question:

Prelims

(6) Which Article of the Constitution of India safeguards one’s right to marry the person of one’s choice? (UPSC CSE 2019)

(a) Article 19

(b) Article 21

(c) Article 25

(d) Article 29

Mains

Customs and traditions suppress reason leading to obscurantism. Do you agree? (UPSC CSE 2020)

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

Case in Supreme Court: Can an underage Muslim girl marry after attaining puberty?

Explained: Personal laws in marriage

Editorial

Peacemaker’s Predicament

UPSC Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: GS-II: International Relations

What’s the ongoing story- Vivek Katju writes: Modi is one of the few international leaders to have visited both Moscow and Kyiv. He has constantly advocated the path of diplomacy and dialogue to end Russia’s Ukraine war. Indeed, Modi told Putin, in a face-to-face meeting in Uzbekistan, in September 2022, that this was not an era of war.

Prerequisites:

— What is the Russia-Ukraine war all about and what have been the key events?

— How has been the global support for Ukraine and what peace efforts have been made so far?

Key takeaways:

— “The dichotomy between PM Modi’s desire for peace and justice in Ukraine and the compulsions of India’s deep interests in Russia has been witnessed since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

— There is a historical parallel going back four decades to what the West and Ukraine want of India at this stage. That parallel lies in the situation which arose in Afghanistan following the Soviet intrusion in that country on Christmas Eve of 1979. India was deeply unhappy with the Russian action but like now, then too, it did not publicly criticise Russia.

— By the mid-1980s, as India’s ties warmed up with the US and as it became clear that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to withdraw from a “bleeding ulcer”, the US urged Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to use his influence on Russia to hold firm to its intention to withdraw. However, when India wanted a say in a post-Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, it virtually told India to lay off.

— The Ukraine war has impacted the Global South adversely and it has international geopolitical implications involving the US and China. However, at its core, it is a European war. It has upset the European security architecture.

— The fact is that on the Ukraine issue, the US and its allies on the one side and China and Russia on the other have locked horns. Ultimately it is they that have to unlock them. Do they see a role for other powers, including India? There is nothing to suggest that they want India and others to do anything but condemn Russian action and apply economic pressure.

— Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Ukraine. The fact is that Indian-Ukraine relations got off to a bad start. It is now perhaps forgotten that Ukraine supplied Pakistan with over 300 T-80 battle tanks over India’s strenuous objections.

— Ukraine was also one of the few countries to have used the word “condemned” for India’s nuclear tests of 1998. Naturally, this cast a long shadow over the relationship.

Points to Ponder:

— What are the challenges in the India-Ukraine relationship?

— What are the areas of cooperation between India and Ukraine relationship?

— What is the significance of Global South for India?

Post Read Question:

(7) Which country is expected to announce an additional $275 million in military aid for Ukraine?

(a) India

(b) China

(c) United States

(d) United Kingdom

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

When PM Modi meets President Zelenskyy

Express View on Modi-Zelenskyy meet: Momentous in Kyiv

ALSO IN NEWS

Court’s next step

While granting bail to an accused in a money laundering case, Prem Prakash vs Enforcement Directorate, the Supreme Court has underlined that the legal principle “jail is the exception, bail is the rule” will apply even in cases registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Read more: SC underlines: Bail is the rule, jail exception even in PMLA cases

PRELIMS ANSWER KEY

1. (d)   2. (a)   3. (b)   4. (d)   5. (a)   6. (b)   7. (c)

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UPSC Essentials | Daily subject-wise quiz : International Relations MCQs on Pacific Islands Forum, Atacama salt flat and more (Week 73)

Are you preparing for UPSC CSE Prelims 2025? What is Security of Supply Arrangement and where is Atacama salt flat loacted? Check your progress and revise your topics through this quiz on International Relations.

Written by Nitendra Pal Singh

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 10:45 IST

Roof tiles are seen scattered by strong winds of a typhoon in a residential area. Find a question on the region where typhoon Shanshan made landfall in today's quiz. (AP photo)

UPSC Essentials brings to you its initiative of subject-wise quizzes. These quizzes are designed to help you revise some of the most important topics from the static part of the syllabus. Attempt today’s subject quiz on the International Relations Quiz to check your progress. Come back tomorrow to solve the MCQs on Weekly Current Affairs.

🚨 The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the August edition of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨

QUESTION 1

With reference to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), consider the following statements:

1. It is an intergovernmental organisation which consists of 48 member states located in the Pacific and Indian Ocean region.

2. The forum was founded in 1971.

3. The countries of this grouping are among the world’s worst-affected countries due to rising sea levels.

4. Recently, Australia has left the PIF.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) Only three

(d) All four

Explanation

— The annual meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) began on Monday (August 26) in Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga. At this year’s week-long meeting, climate change and the China-US battle for influence over the strategic region are dominating the discussions.

— PIF is an intergovernmental organisation which consists of 18 member states located in the Pacific region. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

— It was formed in 1971. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— Pacific Island countries: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

— The countries of this grouping are among the world’s worst-affected countries due to rising sea levels. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

— Australia and New Zealand are among the wealthiest and largest countries which are part of the organisation. Hence, statement 4 is not correct.

— The PIF aims to push for economic growth, enhance political governance and security for the region, and strengthen regional cooperation.

— The organisation discusses priority issues at its annual meeting, where decisions made by the member states are reached by consensus. The decisions are implemented by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 2

Consider the following:

1. Under SOSA, the two countries will provide reciprocal priority support to each other for goods and services that promote national defence.

2. The Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Assignment of Liaison Officers is a progression on a decision taken earlier to increase information-sharing between the two countries.

The two countries discussed above are:

(a) India-Russia

(b) India-Ukraine

(c) India-Italy

(d) India-United States

Explanation

— India and the US have signed a Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) and Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Assignment of Liaison Officers.

— During Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s four-day official visit that concluded on Sunday (August 25), the partner nations agreed to advance priority co-production projects including jet engines, unmanned platforms, munitions, and ground mobility systems under the 2023 US-India Roadmap for Defence Industrial Cooperation.

Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA)

— SOSA requires the United States and India to offer reciprocal priority support for goods and services that promote national defence. The US Department of Defence (DoD) stated that it will “enable both countries to acquire the industrial resources they need from one another to resolve unanticipated supply chain disruptions to meet national security needs”.

— India is the 18th SOSA partner of the US.

MoU on Liaison Officers

— The Memorandum of Agreement on the Assignment of Liaison Officials builds on an earlier decision to boost intelligence cooperation between India and the US, as well as to station Indian armed services officials in critical strategic US commands. India will send its first liaison officer to the US Special Operations Command headquarters in Florida.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 3

Atacama salt flat is sinking at a rate of 1 to 2 centimetres per year due to lithium brine extraction. It is located in:

(a) Argentina

(b) Peru

(c) Chile

(d) Bolivia

Explanation

— According to a new study, Chile’s Atacama salt flat is sinking at a pace of 1 to 2 cm per year as a result of lithium brine extraction, a process in which salt-rich water is pumped to the surface and into a series of evaporation ponds to extract lithium.

— For their study, researchers at the University of Chile examined satellite data acquired between 2020 and 2023 to detect deformations in the Earth’s crust of the Atacama salt flat, one of the world’s major lithium sources.

— This is happening because pumping occurs quicker than aquifer recharge, resulting in subsidence, or downward vertical displacement of the Earth’s surface.

— According to the report, the affected area is around 8 kilometres north and south by 5 kilometres east and west.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 4

Which among the following African countries is facing a food crisis and struggling due to insecurity and rising costs?

(a) South Africa

(b) Namibia

(c) Nigeria

(d) Ghana

Explanation

— According to recent research conducted by many international development partners, more than 31.8 million Nigerians are currently experiencing severe food shortages.

— According to the Nigerian government, the problem is exacerbated by continued security concerns and the elimination of fuel subsidies.

— The data, presented in meetings with government officials, show a substantial increase in food insecurity, with the number of affected individuals rising from 18.6 million in October to December 2023, as previously estimated by the UN World Food Programme.

— “The rise in food prices, caused by the removal of fuel subsidies and compounded by security issues, has left millions of Nigerians vulnerable,” the Ministry of budget and economic planning noted, according to Reuters.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 5

Which of the following countries is recently affected by the typhoon Shanshan?

(a) Philippines

(b) Japan

(c) China

(d) Malaysia

Explanation

— Typhoon Shanshan has devastated Japan, delivering torrential rain and high winds that have prompted predictions of flooding and landslides.

— The storm hit the southwestern province of Kyushu causing havoc far from its centre.

— Shanshan has produced gusts powerful enough to overturn lorries, with speeds of up to 180 km/h (112 mph). This typhoon’s path is constantly altering, making it unpredictable.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

Previous Daily Subject-Wise-Quiz

Daily subject-wise quiz — Polity and Governance (Week 73)

Daily Subject-wise quiz — History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 73)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Environment, Geography, Science and Technology (Week 73)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Economy (Week 73)

Daily subject-wise quiz – International Relations (Week 71)

Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week.

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UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 1 : Questions on freshwater crisis in urban India and skill development (Week 66)

Are you preparing for UPSC CSE 2024 or CSE 2025? Here are questions from GS paper 1 for this week with essential points as the fodder for your answers. Why urban cities in India like Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi are facing water crisis? Do not miss points to ponder and answer in the comment box below. Try them out!

Written by Nitendra Pal Singh

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 10:49 IST

Millions of Indians face water shortages every summer when water demand rises in farms, offices and homes against a limited supply, but a prolonged heatwave this year has worsened the shortfall, including in Delhi and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru. Attempt a question on the freshwater crisis in urban India in today's answer writing practice. (PTI photo)

UPSC Essentials brings to you its initiative for the practice of Mains answer writing. It covers essential topics of static and dynamic parts of the UPSC Civil Services syllabus covered under various GS papers. This answer-writing practice is designed to help you as a value addition to your UPSC CSE Mains. Attempt today’s answer writing on questions related to topics of GS-1 to check your progress.

🚨 The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the August edition of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨

QUESTION 1

There is a need to fix the problem of freshwater available for urban India. Discuss.

QUESTION 2

How India’s skilling initiatives are crucial for addressing both domestic employment challenges and global competitiveness?

General points on the structure of the answers

Introduction

— The introduction of the answer is essential and should be restricted to 3-5 lines. Remember, a one-liner is not a standard introduction.

— It may consist of basic information by giving some definitions from the trusted source and authentic facts.

Body

— It is the central part of the answer and one should understand the demand of the question to provide rich content.

— The answer must be preferably written as a mix of points and short paragraphs rather than using long paragraphs or just points.

— Using facts from authentic government sources makes your answer more comprehensive. Analysis is important based on the demand of the question, but do not over analyse.

QUESTION 1: There is a need to fix the problem of freshwater available for urban India. Discuss.

Note: This is not a model answer. It only provides you with thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— A significant portion of India’s urban population lacks access to safe drinking water. Last month, the Pey Jal Survekshan disclosed that barely 10% of Indian cities fulfil safe drinking water criteria.

— Water quality is known to deteriorate in the distribution network due to a variety of variables, including chemicals emitted by aged pipes, sediment building, and pathogen accumulation. The problem is exacerbated in Indian cities by leaking pipes, many of which are adjacent to sewer systems.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

— According to the standards of the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation—the technical wing of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that sets norms for water supply and sanitation—Indian cities require 135 litres of water daily per capita.

— Businesses or entities that make and sell packaged drinking water (PDW) and water purifiers have taken advantage of this shortfall. The country’s dependence on drinking water sold in 20-litre jars has grown among households. Despite having access to piped water, recent research found that 70% of households in Chennai and 38% of households in Kolkata regularly buy water jars.

— Over the past fifteen years, the PDW model—which depends on decentralised water purification and non-pipe delivery—has changed. A variety of stakeholders, including both local doorstep service providers and global corporations, are involved.

— The model passes the reliability criterion since it has a stand-alone water supply, primarily groundwater, and an established network of producers, distributors, and retailers.

— The technique of purifying massive amounts of water to drinking water quality standards and distributing it via a network that cannot ensure safe delivery requires inspection for repair and maintenance.

— The paradigm of decentralised treatment and non-pipe drinking water supply used by the PDW business is promising. Bengaluru’s latest issue has prompted city officials to experiment with water ATMs. Other cities, notably Delhi, are only getting started with such efforts.

— The WHO’s concerns concerning the reverse osmosis process employed by the industry to filter water, which depletes the water of critical minerals, are equally true.

Recent water crisis

— Earlier this year, Bengaluru experienced its worst water crisis in decades caused by unregulated urban growth and depleting groundwater resources.

— Chennai also experienced shortages in recent years indicating that water supply is rarely factored in urban planning.

— In Delhi, the scorching temperatures have led to a similar emergency, reigniting an old dispute over water allocation to the capital.

Conclusion:

— India is expected to be the most severely affected as the global urban population facing water scarcity is projected to increase from 933 million in 2016 to 1.7-2.4 billion people in 2050, according to the flagship UN report.

— The government has prioritised providing tap water connections, but the quality of aquifers remains neglected. Historically, the country attempted to solve water deficiencies by focussing on supply-side characteristics.

— There is little cooperation among departments responsible for surface and groundwater, irrigation resources, and drinking water. Despite the fact that floods and droughts occur with alarming frequency in most parts of the country, rainwater harvesting plans remain primarily on paper.

(Source: Drying up: What Urban India needs to fix its water problem, How to fix India’s urban water crisis, from Bengaluru to Chennai and beyond by Sachin Tiwale)

Points to Ponder

How can water shortage affect India’s credit strength?

Read United Nations World Water Development Report 2023

Related Previous Year Questions

Why is the world today confronted with a crisis of availability of and access to freshwater resources? (2023)

India is well endowed with fresh water resources. Critically examine why it still suffers from water scarcity. (2015)

QUESTION 2: How India’s skilling initiatives are crucial for addressing both domestic employment challenges and global competitiveness?

Note: This is not a model answer. It only provides you with thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— India is at a watershed moment in which empowering people with skills promotes economic resilience and social inclusion.

— India must create a roadmap that allows every person of the workforce to obtain meaningful occupational and vocational skills, upskill to increase the quality of their employment, and reskill to use new tools to enhance their competences.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

— The Union Budget 2024 establishes a policy framework and ecology for the country’s youth, who have the potential to drive high economic growth. It has appropriately prioritised the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), positioning it at the forefront of enabling and empowering our youth. Some other initiatives include:

(i) The primary initiatives include a centrally sponsored project under the Prime Minister’s package that will train 20 lakh young people over the next five years.

(ii) Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) will get a significant allocation during the next five years.

(iii) Hundred ITIs would be upgraded using a hub-and-spoke approach, with a total investment of Rs 60,000 crore.

— The capacity of five national institutes will be expanded with the goal of benefiting 20 lakh students, connecting ITI training with industry demands, and establishing a strong pathway for workforce development.

— A significant change is the revision of the Model Skill Loan Scheme up to Rs 7.5 lakh, with a guarantee from a government-sponsored fund, which is intended to benefit 25,000 students per year and will allow us to place a stronger emphasis on outcomes under our main priority areas, programmes, and initiatives.

— The Skill India Mission now supports all of the government’s main schemes, including PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), PM Vishwakarma, PM JANMAN Yojana, Lakhpati Didi, Solar Mission, Green Hydrogen Mission, and AI for India.

— The Mission has provided millions of young Indians with the skills they need to succeed in a constantly changing work environment. As Skill India celebrates ten years, it is critical to reinvent the Skill 2.0 landscape and take a comprehensive approach to future advancements.

— Apprenticeship training has emerged as a key driver of skill development and economic progress. To establish a more favourable training structure, the Centre updated the Apprentices Act of 1961.

— Integrating apprenticeships into the educational system and connecting them to higher education programs is critical. To make apprenticeships more appealing, the government shares stipend costs with employers through the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) and has simplified processes to speed up stipend payments.

— The Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) is a platform for all skilling requirements, with the goal of serving as an information repository for all government skilling and entrepreneurial activities.

Conclusion:

— India is poised to become the greatest contributor to the global workforce. The goal should be to make the country a global hub for innovation, education, entrepreneurship, and high-quality skills.

— It is especially pertinent in rural India, where fair access to long-term livelihood prospects is critical for both economic stability and social cohesion.

(Source: Skilling India — for the world by Jayant Chaudhary)

Points to Ponder

Skill development programmes

Importance of Skill India Digital

What are the challenges for Skill India Digital?

Related Previous Year Questions

Examine the uniqueness of tribal knowledge systems when compared with mainstream knowledge and cultural systems. (2021)

Skill development programmes have succeeded in increasing human resources supply to various sectors. In the context of the statement analyse the linkages between education, skill and employment. (2023)

Previous Mains Answer Practice

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 65)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 64)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 66)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 65)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 65)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 66)

Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week.

Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.

Small Industries — Role, importance and challenges

How are Small Scale Industries as part of MSMEs instrumental in employment creation and economic growth?

Written by Nitendra Pal Singh

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 10:30 IST

According to MoSPI it employs about 175 lakh people. (Source: Pixabay.com)

Small-scale industries make up about 95 per cent of all industrial units and form a significant part of the economic structure of the nation. Mahatma Gandhi said that “The salvation of India lies in cottage and small scale industries”. According to MoSPI, it employs about 175 lakh people. Hence, this sector plays an important role in employment generation too. The range of industries includes modern small-scale industries, unorganised traditional industries, and organised big and medium-sized businesses.

How are small industries compared to other industries under MSMEs?

Classification of Industries

Classification/Industry type

Micro

Small

Medium

Investment

Not more than Rs.1 crore

Not more than Rs.10 crore

Not more than Rs.50 crore

Annual Turnover

Not more than Rs. 5 crore

Not more than Rs. 50 crore

Not more than Rs. 250 crore

Role of small industries in the Indian Economy

Growth of entrepreneurial activities: Small industries’ innovative business practices have aided in expanding the influence of entrepreneurial activities. This has led to include more economic sectors and offer a wider variety of goods and services satisfying both local and international consumer needs.

Industrialisation of rural and underdeveloped areas: They have lowered regional imbalances and ensured a more equitable distribution of wealth and income across the country.

Employment generation: These small industries in India play a critical role in the country’s economic growth by creating large employment opportunities at a significantly lower capital cost than large industries.

What are Village and Small Industries?

Village and Small Industry (VSI) is the colloquial term for unorganised traditional sectors and small-scale industries. The seven sub-sectors that make up the VSI sector are handicrafts, handlooms, Khadi and Village Industries, Coir, Sericulture, Power Looms, and Small Scale Industries.

Government’s initiatives

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP): The program’s objective is to create jobs by establishing new microbusinesses, projects, and self-employment endeavours in both rural and urban sections of the nation. Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), the national nodal body, is responsible for implementing the scheme. The State offices of KVIC, State Khadi and Village Industries Boards (KVIB), District Industries Centres (DIC), Coir Board (for coir-related activities), and Banks are the entities that carry out the scheme at the State level.

Collateral-Free Credit Provision for MSME: Banks and other financial institutions (including NBFCs) are guaranteed to offer collateral-free credit to Micro and Small Businesses. The Scheme covers up to Rs. 5 crore (w.e.f. 01.04.2023) per borrowing unit of collateral-free credit facilities (term loans and/or working capital) provided to micro and small businesses by qualified lending institutions.

A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry & Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE): The ASPIRE program was given approval to continue from 2021–2022 to 2025–2026 with a budgetary expenditure of Rs. 194.87 crore. On January 28, 2022, the updated guidelines were released, incorporating the subsequent goals and actions:

(i) Reduce unemployment and generate jobs,

(ii) Encourage India’s entrepreneurial culture,

(iii) Encourage innovation to boost the MSME sector’s competitiveness.

Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Programmes (ESDP): The program’s goal is to encourage young people from a variety of social backgrounds, such as women, SC/ST, disabled people, ex-servicemen, and BPL individuals, to think about a career in self-employment or entrepreneurship.

Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI): The scheme aims to create competitive, long-term sustainable employment opportunities for traditional industries and artisans by organising them into clusters. It also aims to improve the marketability of the products produced by these clusters, equip traditional artisans of the associated clusters with improved skills, provide improved tools and equipment for artisans, strengthen the cluster governance systems with active stakeholder participation, and develop innovative products, advanced technologies, advanced processes, market intelligence, and new models of public-private partnerships.

MSME Champions Scheme: For a period of five years, from 2021–2022 to 2025–2026, the MSME Champions program consists of three parts:

1. MSME-Sustainable (ZED) Certification Scheme

2. MSME-Competitive (Lean) Scheme

3. MSME-Innovative (for Incubation, IPR and Design) Scheme

Greening MSME: SIDBI has launched a programme called “Greening MSME” which provides financial assistance with a maximum limit of INR 20 crores to MSMEs to implement energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable technologies.

Note: The State Governments have the primary duty for the development and promotion of these small industries.

Challenges

Shubham Gupta, Manager (Climate Finance), Climate Resilience Practice programme, World Resources Institute India discusses the following challenges :

Access to finance: It is one of the most significant issues for Indian MSMEs, with a total financing shortfall estimated to reach $400 billion. While bridging this gap may take much longer, targeted green finance schemes in key technologies and sectors such as waste management, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, and renewables can help MSME growth in these areas.

Interest rates: By lowering interest rates and making consumer finance, housing loans, and vehicle loans easily accessible to consumers, the Central Government should act to boost demand in the market.

Climate commitments and transitioning to low-carbon: The only thing small enterprises can do is follow the applicable environmental regulations. Even as the global demand and supply chains quickly migrate to greener, environmentally friendly processes and products while capitalising on newly created business opportunities, there is no strategic plan to enable MSMEs to deal with transition risks.

Unorganised nature: As a result of its fragmented structure and small-scale businesses (almost all Indian MSMEs are micro-sized), the sector is one of the most susceptible in the country’s economy. This vulnerability has been brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is estimated that millions of MSMEs will have to close their doors due to decreased demand brought on by the lockdown.

Green transition of MSMEs: It is necessary to acknowledge that their exposure to policy and demand uncertainties is greater on the downside than on the upside. Even if they understand the commercial case for going green, the majority of them are too financially and technically limited to invest in new actions. Nonetheless, some government initiatives can help remove current obstacles.

Incentives and penalties: Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) behaviour might be encouraged to go beyond simple compliance by taxing negative externalities and providing subsidies or tax breaks for green expenditures. Updating environmental legislation can also take into account the hazards that various industries provide. Before being widely enforced, these policies must first be evaluated for their effect on MSMEs.

Way ahead

Ranjana Das in her Opinion column for The Indian Express (How MSMEs can benefit by adopting sustainable practices)  suggests:

(i) MSMEs should adopt good practices such as including low energy strategies, adopting renewable, waste management, safety of women, and timely wage payment.

(ii) Governments, business groups, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders can take an active role in raising awareness, sharing best practices, and offering training and resources. Governments and investors can provide financial incentives, such as tax breaks, subsidies, grants, and low-interest loans, to encourage MSMEs to adopt sustainable practices or invest in sustainable technologies.

(iii) Larger firms can help MSMEs implement sustainable practices by providing training, technical assistance, and financing.

(Sources: mospi.gov.in, msme.gov.in, Greening MSMEs by Shubham Gupta, How MSMEs can benefit by adopting sustainable practices by Ranjana Das)

UPSC Essentials | Daily subject-wise quiz : Economy MCQs on Zero tillage, PMJDY and more (Week 73)

Are you preparing for UPSC CSE Prelims 2025? What are the features of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and what is the importance of recently launched Unified Lending Interface. Read it to know more. Check your progress and revise your topics through this quiz on Economy.

Written by Nitendra Pal Singh

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 10:38 IST

The Krishi-DSS is part of the Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on July 23. Find a question on Krishi-DSS in today's quiz. (File Photo)

UPSC Essentials brings to you its initiative of subject-wise quizzes. These quizzes are designed to help you revise some of the most important topics from the static part of the syllabus. Attempt today’s subject quiz on Economy to check your progress. Come back tomorrow to solve the International Relations Quiz.

🚨 The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the August edition of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨

QUESTION 1

With reference to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), consider the following statements:

1. The scheme provided an unprecedented boost to the government’s campaign for financial inclusion.

2. It was launched in 2016.

3. The objective of the PMJDY was to open a Basic Savings Bank Account for unbanked individuals.

4. These accounts are required to maintain any minimum balance in PMJDY accounts.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) Only three

(d) All four

Explanation

— As the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) completed 10 years on Wednesday (August 28), Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the “momentous” achievement of the scheme that has been “paramount in boosting financial inclusion and giving dignity to crores of people, especially women, youth, and the marginalised communities”. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— The PMJDY was launched on August 28, 2014, as a national mission for financial inclusion. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

— Guinness World Records recognised the achievement: “The most bank accounts opened in 1 week as part of a financial inclusion campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by Department of Financial Services, Government of India from 23 to 29 August 2014.”

— The foremost objective of the PMJDY was to open a Basic Savings Bank Account for unbanked individuals. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

— There was no requirement to maintain any minimum balance in PMJDY accounts, and these accounts earned interest on deposits like regular accounts. Hence, statement 4 is not correct.

Features of PMJDY

— PMJDY account-holders were given RuPay debit cards.

— An accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh was available with RuPay cards issued to PMJDY account holders. The cover was enhanced to Rs 2 lakh for new PMJDY accounts opened after August 28, 2018.

— PMJDY accounts are also eligible for Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Atal Pension Yojana (APY), and the Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Bank (MUDRA) scheme.

— Eligible PMJDY account holders can avail overdraft (OD) facility up to Rs 10,000.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 2

Consider the following statements about the Unified Payments Interface:

1. It is a real-time payment system launched in India in 2018.

2. It was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

3. It is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application.

4. It does not cater “Peer to Peer” collect requests.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

(a) 1 and 4 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1, 2 and 3 only

(d) 3 and 4 only

Explanation

— Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said that a nationwide launch of the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) will happen in due course. Similar to Unified Payment Interface (UPI), which has revolutionised the retail payment system in the country.

What is Unified Lending Interface?

— With rapid progress in digitalisation, India has adopted the concept of digital public infrastructure, which promotes banks, NBFCs, fintech companies, and start-ups to develop and supply innovative payment, credit, and other financial solutions.

— The RBI Governor stated that the ULI platform will allow for a seamless and consent-based flow of digital information, including land records from several states, from multiple data service providers to lenders. It will reduce the time required for credit appraisals, particularly for smaller and rural borrowers.

What is Unified Payments Interface?

— The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) unveiled the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, in April 2016. Hence, statement 1 is not correct and statement 2 is correct.

— It is a system that integrates several bank accounts into a single mobile application (from any participating bank), combining various banking capabilities, seamless fund routing, and merchant payments under one hood. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

— UPI also supports “Peer to Peer” collect requests, which can be planned and paid as needed and conveniently. Hence, statement 4 is not correct.

— It allows for round-the-clock instant money transfers via mobile device. It enables a single mobile application to access many bank accounts.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 3

Krishi-Decision Support System (Krishi-DSS) is a first-of-its-kind geospatial platform specifically designed for Indian agriculture. It will provide access to:

1. Groundwater levels

2. Health of the soil

3. Weather information

4. Satellite images

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 1, 2 and 4 only

(c) 2 and 4 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Explanation

— The Centre government announced the Krishi-Decision Support System (K-DSS) portal, a satellite-based geospatial platform that will give farmers information on weather, groundwater levels, soil health, reservoir storage levels, and other data, such as satellite photos.

— The Krishi-DSS is a geospatial platform specifically intended for Indian agriculture.

— The agricultural ministry hosted the National Conference on Space Driven Solutions for agricultural Transformation in India, where it was introduced.

— The Krishi-DSS is part of the Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture and will serve as a repository for standardised geospatial data on weather, soil, crop, reservoir, and groundwater.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 4

With reference to the labour force participation in India, consider the following statements:

1. The labour force participation rate of females decreased from 2017-18 to 2022-23.

2. The labour force participation rate of males increased from 2017-18 to 2022-23.

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

— The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) has become the major source of measuring and understanding trends in India’s labour markets.

— The PLFS 2017-18 noted that “the unemployment rate among the youth was much higher compared to that in the overall population.” The unemployment rate was 6 per cent whereas the youth unemployment rate (age 15-29 years) was 18 per cent.

— According to the PLFS 2022-23, the unemployment rate has decreased, but the gap between total labour force and youth unemployment remains considerable. The overall unemployment rate for 2022-23 is 3.2%, while the young unemployment rate is 10%.

— The rural youth unemployment rate is 8%, whereas the urban unemployment rate is nearly double, at 15.7%.

— The unemployment rates for male and female youth are 9.7% and 10%, respectively. Female labour force participation climbed from 17% in 2017-18 to 27.8% in 2022-23. Male labour force participation was 55.5% in 2017-18, and it climbed marginally to 56.2% in 2022-23. Hence, statement 1 is not correct and statement 2 is correct.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 5

With reference to the Zero tillage, consider the following statements:

1. It is the practice of growing crops without disturbing the soil strata through traditional tillage methods.

2. It preserves the soil structure and enhances fertility.

3. It helps in reducing soil erosion.

4. It improves the water retention capacity of soil.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) Only three

(d) All four

Explanation

— Zero tillage, often known as no-till farming, is the process of cultivating crops without disturbing soil strata using typical tillage methods. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— This strategy retains soil structure while increasing fertility, resulting in several environmental and economic benefits. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— This method entails spreading seeds directly into the soil, generally using specialised equipment that digs furrows without turning the soil.

— This approach dramatically minimises soil erosion while increasing soil’s water retention capacity. Hence, statement 3 and 4 are correct.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

Previous Daily Subject-Wise-Quiz

Daily subject-wise quiz — Polity and Governance (Week 73)

Daily Subject-wise quiz — History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 73)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Environment, Geography, Science and Technology (Week 73)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Economy (Week 72)

Daily subject-wise quiz – International Relations (Week 71)

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UPSC Issue at a Glance | Lateral entry and civil service reforms: 4 Key Questions You Must Know for Prelims and Mains

With the recent debate on lateral entry, civil service reforms have once again become a topic of discussion. Here are four important Q&As on lateral entry and civil service reforms that you shouldn't miss.

Written by Roshni Yadav

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 10:44 IST

The sixth Pay Commission had recommended the identification of some posts requiring technical or specialised knowledge not “encadred” in any of government services to be filled with suitable candidates on contract.

UPSC Issue at a Glance is a new initiative of UPSC Essentials to focus your prelims and mains exam preparation on an issue that has been in the news. Every Thursday, cover a new topic in Q&A format and don’t miss MCQs, Points to Ponder and key takeaways. Also, don’t forget to check the answers of MCQs towards the end of the article. This week’s topic is Lateral entry and civil service reforms. Let’s get started!

If you missed last week’s UPSC Issue at a Glance | Mpox outbreak and Public Health Emergency: 5 Key Questions You Must Know for Prelims and Mains from the Indian Express, read it here.

What is the issue?

Recently, the Central government instructed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to withdraw its advertisement of applications for lateral recruitment to senior bureaucratic positions at the Centre. Opposition party leaders had criticized the policy for not including reservations for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates. In this context, it becomes crucial to understand the lateral entry policy and civil service reforms from a broader perspective.

UPSC Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: GS-II: Role of Civil Services in a Democracy, Government Policies & Interventions

Other areas of relevance: UPSC Aspirants will find it useful in Essays, and Current affairs for their Personality tests.

What will you learn from this article?

1. What is the policy of lateral entry in bureaucracy?
2. What were the reasons behind the introduction of lateral entry?

3. What are the criticisms of lateral entry?

4. What are the other civil service reforms suggested by various committees?

Question 1: What is the policy of lateral entry in bureaucracy?

Lateral entry refers to the practice of recruiting individuals from the private sector for administrative positions within the government, even if they have not been part of the traditional bureaucratic setup.

Under the lateral entry policy government recruits some prominent persons for specific assignments in government, keeping in view their specialized knowledge and expertise in the domain area. Generally, these recruitments are made at the level of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary. The officers at these levels play an important role in policy-making.

In 2017, NITI Aayog, in its three-year Action Agenda, and the Sectoral Group of Secretaries on Governance in its report submitted in February, recommended the induction of personnel at middle and senior management levels in the central government. These ‘lateral entrants’ would be part of the central secretariat which, till then, had only career bureaucrats from the All India Services/ Central Civil Services. They would be given contracts of three years, extendable to a total term of five years.

Do you know?

A Joint Secretary, appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), has the third-highest rank (after Secretary and Additional Secretary) in a Department, and functions as the administrative head of a wing in the Department.
Directors are one rank below Joint Secretaries, and Deputy Secretaries are one rank below Directors, although in most ministries, they perform the same job.

While Director/Deputy Secretaries are considered middle-level officials in a department, the Joint Secretary-level is where the decision-making starts.

Points to Ponder:

— What are the constitutional provisions related to the Union Public Service Commission?

Question 2: What were the reasons behind the introduction of lateral entry?

The question often arises as to why we need lateral entry into the bureaucracy when we already have mechanisms for recruiting bureaucrats who have the necessary experience for efficient administration, policy-making, and implementation. However, there are several reasons behind the introduction of the lateral entry policy.

1. Bringing in Fresh Talent: In 2019, Minister of State for the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Jitendra Singh told the Rajya Sabha that “lateral recruitment is aimed at achieving the twin objectives of bringing in fresh talent as well as augment the availability of manpower”.

According to Ravi Kapoor—“Lateral entrants, particularly those from the private sector, can infuse the bureaucracy with fresh ideas and innovative approaches, which are often lacking in government institutions…The private sector’s emphasis on efficiency and innovation is something the public sector can benefit from, and lateral entrants bring that much-needed perspective.”

2. Domain expertise: The idea behind lateral recruitment is for the government to tap into individuals’ domain expertise and specialised know-how, regardless of whether they are career bureaucrats or not.

On August 8, 2024, while responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Jitendra Singh said, “Keeping in view their specialized knowledge and expertise in the domain area, lateral recruitment at the level of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary in Government of India, has been undertaken to appoint persons for specific assignments.”

3. Augmenting Manpower: The adoption of the lateral entry policy is also driven by the need to address the shortage of personnel, especially in mid-level and higher-level services.

Do you know?

The Baswan committee report (2016) brings important historical information into the light as it provides that “the first batch of IAS officers joined in 1948 and it was recognized that there was a serious gap in the posting of All-India Service officers given the fact that the last batch of the ICS joined in 1943. It was against this background that a decision was taken to fill in a number of posts other than through the competitive examination.
In pre-independence days such gaps were taken care of by promoting senior Provincial Civil Service Officers against listed’ posts, which were, in effect, Cadre Posts. Besides, there was no provision for promotion to the ICS and the IP from the Provincial Services.”

Points to Ponder:

— What is the expertise vs generalist or speciality vs lack of public service experience?

Question 3: What are the criticisms of lateral entry?

The fundamental concept of lateral entry is to bring in experts to the bureaucracy. However, this policy has faced criticism on various fronts.

1. Issue of Reservation: Lateral entries have been criticised on the grounds that there are no quotas for SC, ST and OBC candidates in such recruitment. Files obtained from the DoPT by The Indian Express under the RTI Act state that “In a single post cadre, reservation does not apply. Since each post to be filled under this scheme [lateral entry] is a Single Post, reservation is not applicable”.

13-point roster

Reservation in public jobs and universities is implemented via what is known as the “13-point roster”. According to this policy, a candidate’s position on a roster of openings is determined by dividing the quota percentage of their group (SC, ST, OBC, and now EWS) by a hundred.

2. Lack of clarity with a mandate for the lateral entrant: The lateral entry policy has also been criticised for the lack of clarity regarding the mandate for the lateral entrant.

Dhiraj Nayyar writes— “There is a difference in bringing expertise and being part of the decision-making process. For the former, the government doesn’t strictly need to hire “outsiders”. Expertise is widely available and used by almost every ministry — expert committees, consultations, think tank engagements, etc. To be disrupters, lateral entrants need to be able to stamp their authority on decision making. For this to happen, there need to be more lateral entrants at all levels in ministries. Anyone familiar with the functioning of government knows that there is a long chain in decision-making and a minority of one cannot override it. Also, it requires an understanding of the system and an ability to work with the “permanent” establishment. No training or orientation is provided for this. By the time networks are built, it is time to move on.”

3. Uncertainty with loyalty: Lateral entrants, often appointed for shorter tenures, may lack the long-term commitment and loyalty that permanent civil servants develop. Moreover, potential conflicts of interest between public service and private sector backgrounds could influence decision-making. To mitigate these risks, the selection process by UPSC must be transparent, and contractual clauses should address conflicts of interest, enforce non-disclosure agreements, and ensure accountability, Ravi Kapoor says.

4. Issues of Transparency and Conflict of Interest: From time to time, the lateral policy has also been criticised on the grounds of transparency, accountability, and conflict of interest.

Lateral entry into the Indian bureaucracy is a complex issue with potential benefits and concerns regarding social justice, accountability and transparency.

According to Express View on lateral entry in bureaucracy—

“The fact is that lateral entry is desirable and that, as it has done in the past, it can bring in much-needed fresh ideas and energy. It is required to enrich state capacities to meet the increasingly complex tasks of governance. While lateral entrants are no magical cure for systemic ills and deficiencies, and a case may be made for a more fundamental restructuring, they can help fill the gaps of expertise and specialisation for specific durations, for well-defined objectives.

Be it the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, 2005, or the Sixth Pay Commission, 2013, or the recommendations of the Niti Aayog in 2017, the need for the induction of personnel at senior and middle management levels in government has been repeatedly upheld and affirmed.

In recent years, the government has also expanded the scale and ambit of the lateral hiring strategy. And yet, the problem arises when the demands of “expertise” and “merit” are ranged against the imperatives of “social justice” and “equality”. They need not be seen as antagonistic, and they are, in fact, aligned and mutually reinforcing. As the Supreme Court underlined in its recent judgment on subquotas for SCs and STs, the binary of merit vs reservation must be challenged in a country of great inequalities. Merit should be understood in terms of the social goods of equality and inclusivity — the conflict is between haves and have-nots, and not between merit and distributive justice.”

Points to Ponder:

— Why are there no quotas in lateral recruitment?

Question 4: What are the other civil services reforms suggested by various committees?

Administration is meant to achieve something and not to exist in some kind of an ivory tower following certain rules of procedure and Narcissus-like looking on itself with complete satisfaction. The test, after all, is the human being and their welfare.

—Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

The recent controversies related to the Union Public Service Commission and lateral entry have brought the need for civil service reforms to light. Various expert committees, the Finance Commission, and the Administrative Reforms Commission have extensively provided recommendations for civil service reforms.

1. Making Civil Service Citizen-friendly: P.C Hota committee recommended that civil service should be more responsive and citizen-friendly. It said “to make the civil service citizen-friendly, each office/Department/Ministry must identify the points of citizen interface in their programmes…The office/Department/Ministry will also have to benchmark the quality of services and the period within which services can be delivered. The grievance redressal mechanism should be strengthened and held accountable.”

2. Capacity-building of Civil Servants:  P.C Hota committee report highlights that special emphasis should be given to the intellectual growth of the civil servants and on upgrading their domain knowledge. It says “Apart from the stagnation at various levels, some of these services no longer serve the purposes for which they were set up. Their services are no longer being utilized optimally. If it is decided that a particular service is no longer required or requires a different set of skills, steps should be taken to either upgrade the skills of the existing incumbents or modify the recruitment processes to achieve the desired outcome.”

Srivatsa Krishna writes—

The bureaucracy that took India through the last 75 years can’t be the one to take it through the next 75 — we need a proactive, imaginative, technology-savvy, enabling bureaucracy

3. Reform in the recruitment process: The Hota Committee recommended that the age for entry into the higher civil services should be between 21 and 24 years, with a relaxation of 5 years for SC/ST candidates and 3 years for OBC candidates.

The committee also suggested that aptitude and leadership tests may be introduced for selection, and that probationers may be allowed one month after commencement of training to exercise their option for Services.

Srivatsa Krishna writes— “Changes in recruitment procedures, like the interview group spending considerable time with the candidates and not deciding based on a half-hour interview, along with psychometric tests, will improve the incoming pool of civil servants. Most importantly, after 15 years of service, all officers must undergo a thorough evaluation to enable them to move further, and those who do not make it should be put out to pasture.”

Mission Karmayogi

Mission Karmayogi is a new capacity-building scheme for civil servants aimed at upgrading the post-recruitment training mechanism of the officers and employees at all levels. It aims to prepare Indian civil servants for the future by making them more creative, constructive, imaginative, innovative, proactive, professional, progressive, transparent and technology-enabled.

4. Promoting E-governance in Civil Services: To promote transparency and efficiency in civil services, e-governance should be implemented in administrative processes.

E-governance

E-governance is a broad term encompassing the continuous involvement of citizens in the governance of the country through electronic interfaces. This means that citizens participate not only in policy-making but also provide feedback on the impact of policies using information technology.

Points to Ponder:

— What is iGOT Karmayogi Bharat learning portal?

— What are the recommendations of the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission?

— What administrative reforms have been taken by the government for making governance more accessible?

Post Read Questions

Prelims

(1) Consider the following statements:

1. iGOT Karmayogi is an online learning platform being developed as an integral part of the Digital India stack for capacity building of all government employees.

2. It will provide ‘anytime-anywhere-any device’ learning to train users.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

(2) Consider the following statements regarding reservations:

1. Reservation in public jobs and universities is through “13-point roster”.

2. A candidate’s position on a roster of openings is determined by dividing the quota percentage of their group by a hundred.

Which of the statements given above is/are not correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Mains

1. “Institutional quality is a crucial driver of economic performance”. In this context suggest reforms in the Civil Service to strengthen democracy. (UPSC CSE 2020)

2. What do you understand by the terms ‘governance’, ‘good governance’ and ‘ethical governance’? (UPSC CSE 2016)

3. Discuss the specific rules and guidelines that govern the behaviour of civil servants in India.

Prelims Answer Key

1. (c)  2. (d)

(Sources:  Centre directs UPSC to withdraw ad for lateral entry into bureaucracy,  Baswan Committee Report, Lateral Entry: A challenging reform, Express View on lateral entry, Hota Committee report (2004), UPSC Essentials | Expert talk : Is lateral entry a disadvantage for Civil Services?)

PREVIOUS UPSC ISSUE AT A GLANCE

UPSC Issue at a Glance | Food Safety : 5 Key Questions You Must Know for Prelims and Mains

UPSC Issue at a Glance | Landslides : 5 Key Questions You Must Know for Prelims and Mains

UPSC Issue at a Glance | Coalition Government: 4 key questions you must know for your exams

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Biodiversity: What is it, and why does it matter?

Biodiversity tries to measure the variation among organisms in a community or ecosystem. But how is biodiversity measured? Is there a single best way to measure biodiversity?

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 18:23 IST

Species diversity, the number of biological species in a given area or group, has been the most common measure of biodiversity for a long time. (Representational Image)

— Siddharth Bharath

(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and erudite scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Dr. Siddharth Bharath simplifies biodiversity and discusses its significance by linking the concept to everyday life.)

Imagine this: You look out onto a busy city street, and everyone looks exactly the same. They speak in the same voice. They all have the same actions and mannerisms. They wear the same clothes. This would feel very strange. We intuitively know that this situation cannot happen in a city because no two people are the same.

We live in a world of endless variety. That is true among humans, and among all living things. We use the word biodiversity to describe that variety. Let’s explore biodiversity, its importance, ways to measure it, and, in doing so, celebrate some of the beauty and wonder of our natural world.

What is biodiversity

Understanding how biodiversity sustains us is crucial for our own well being. All of the diversity of the life we see on our planet has evolved over millions of years. We have evolved alongside them – the plants and animals that provide us with food and medicine, the bacteria in our gut that do a lot of our digestion, and the fungi that break down and recycle wastes back into the ecosystem. The rich variety of life makes ecosystems function.

In addition to all the tangible ways that nature contributes to our well being, there are a whole host of intangible contributions – beauty, inspiration, relaxation, culture – that come from biodiversity for us.

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defines biodiversity as: “The variability among living organisms from all sources, including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.”

Biodiversity tries to measure such variation among organisms in a community or ecosystem. It can be measured in different ways, using different metrics.

Some measures of biodiversity

We would never expect that class, caste, gender or any single axis of difference in humans would fully explain the diversity of life experiences present in a group of humans. That view would be simplistic and naive, and the same is true for biological life.

In fact, no single way of measuring biodiversity is the best, rather we have to choose which measures to use in each situation. Let us try different ways of measuring and categorising the differences between people in a busy city, and see how that relates to biodiversity.

We can group people by their ancestry – trace parents and children across generations. A century ago this would be done by documenting actual lineages, but today it can be done by analysing DNA. The scientific term for this is phylogeny.

You can analyse certain regions of DNA that change very slowly and are common to nearly all life. This results in a tree of life – with organisms that are closer together having a common ancestor more recently than organisms that are far apart. If we measure the diversity of life in a group by this method, we get phylogenetic diversity (also called genetic diversity). This kind of diversity is intuitive to describe but is quite complex to operationalise into a measure.

We can also group people by occupation – performing different roles within the society. A small village might have fewer occupations present, and many people will be performing multiple roles. A large city will have people who are able to devote their full time to very specialised occupations. This diversity of occupations is called functional diversity (or ecological diversity).

Functional diversity in biology measures how different organisms are in terms of what they are doing in their environment and interacting with other organisms. For example, compare two communities of insects that we find on two different patches of forest floor. Community A has dung beetles, yellow dung flies and two species of millipedes. Community B has dung beetles, a ground nesting bee, crickets and one species of ant.

Community A only has species that are very similar in function, they all eat animal dung and decompose material on the forest floor. Community B consists of insects that perform very different activities. So while both communities have four species each, B is more functionally diverse than A. These two ways of measuring diversity, while easy to define, are not the most commonly used.

Species diversity, the number of biological species in a given area or group, has been the most common measure of biodiversity for a long time. Species are defined in different ways based on which kind of organisms you are dealing with. For animals, one easy definition has been that individuals of two different species cannot mate and produce fertile offspring.

For microorganisms like bacteria, the definition is based on their genetics. When you zoom into it, the borders of definition of a species are not completely clear. It is a categorisation that we make for our convenience. Much like how two states or two nations might seem very different, but when you zoom into the border between them, you realise there is a lot more similarity between the two groups of people living on opposite sides of the border. The border is a negotiated construct, much like species are.

How to measure the diversity of a community

Each of these three ways of measuring diversity detailed above can be expressed by different numbers. For example, species richness is just the count of how many different species are in an area.

Consider a community of 100 plants, where there are 10 plants each of 10 species, it has a species richness of 10 (think of a vegetable patch containing 10 different vegetables and greens). A second community of 100 plants, with 91 of one species, and 1 each of 9 other species, also has a species richness of 10 (think of a field of mostly wheat plants with a couple of weeds growing around the edges).

The second community is far less diverse than the first, but species richness doesn’t capture that difference. Ecologists have developed many metrics that combine both richness and abundance of species to give better measures of the diversity of a community. The same carries over to measures of functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity, though those are a little less intuitive to understand for a beginner.

Most people would find the measures discussed above quite abstract. Popular discourse about biodiversity tends to focus on one or a few species in each ecosystem, using their presence as a proxy for the health of a whole ecosystem. There are a couple of different concepts that do this.

Species shaping ecosystems

Governments, conservation agencies and the media pick a few charismatic species to frame conservation efforts – tigers, elephants, pandas, peacocks, rhinoceros, orangutans etc. These are often called flagship species for biodiversity, using the name of one species to try and support whole ecosystems where they are present.

However, flagship species are essentially the models picked by the marketing department for advertisements about a company, not the actual workers, engineers or scientists who are actually doing the work of the company.

Keystone species are those whose impact on an ecosystem is disproportionately large compared to its abundance. It is named like the small keystone in an arch which is crucial to keeping the arch from falling. For example, pollinators like bees are crucial to the reproduction of many different plant species.

Ecosystem engineers refer to species that significantly change the structure of the ecosystem, and which other species depend on. Termites are ecosystem engineers in savannahs, changing the abundance and regularity of trees that are present.

Indicator species refer to species whose presence shows the health of the ecosystem. Lichen growing on trees are quite sensitive to air pollution, and therefore their presence indicates that the air is relatively clean in an area.

Invasive species are species that are not “originally” from an area but are spreading rapidly and displacing local species. Lantana camara, an ornamental shrub brought by the British to be a garden plant, is invasive in huge areas of the Western Ghats, completely taking over the forest understory.

However, each of the above categories is also a measure of convenience, and is problematic in many ways. The presence of a keystone species doesn’t mean an ecosystem is in good shape, and the presence of invasive species doesn’t automatically mean things are bad. Understanding biodiversity and ecosystem health is complex, and it’s important to know and respect the proxies that we are using to do so.

Post Read Question

Understanding how biodiversity sustains us is crucial for our own well being. Comment.

How would you go about measuring the diversity of plants in a forest, as compared to a nearby agricultural field?

What are some concepts that show species that disproportionately shape ecosystems? Critically analyse with examples.

(Dr. Siddharth Bharath is an ecologist, educator and entrepreneur based in Bengaluru. He works with Swissnex in India.)

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UPSC Essentials | Daily subject-wise quiz : History, Culture and Social Issues MCQs on British India at the Olympics, Lahore Resolution (Week 73)

Are you preparing for UPSC CSE Prelims 2025? Check your progress and revise your topics through this quiz on History and Culture.

Written by Nitendra Pal Singh

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 18:22 IST

Check your progress and revise your topics through this quiz on History and Culture. Find a question on British India at the Olympics in today's quiz. (Personal Collection of Bipinchandra Chaugule)

UPSC Essentials brings to you its initiative of daily subject-wise quizzes. These quizzes are designed to help you revise some of the most important topics from the static part of the syllabus.  Attempt today’s subject quiz on History, Culture and Social Issues to check your progress. Come back tomorrow to solve the Environment, Geography, Science and Technology MCQs. Don’t miss checking the answers and explanations.

🚨 The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the August edition of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨

QUESTION 1

Consider the following statements:

Statement 1: Till the early 1930s, many Muslims had been agitating for better representation and safeguarding of their rights within the Indian Union.

Statement 2: The Lahore Resolution, adopted by the All-India Muslim League in March 1940, marked a significant turning point, seeking to elevate the status of the Indian Muslims from a minority group to a separate nation.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

(a) Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are correct and Statement 2 is the correct explanation for Statement 1.

(b) Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are correct and Statement 2 is not the correct explanation for Statement 1.

(c) Statement 1 is correct but Statement 2 is incorrect.

(d) Statement 1 is incorrect but Statement 2 is correct.

Explanation

— Pakistan National Day is observed on March 23, the day the Lahore Resolution was adopted in 1940 by the Muslim League.

— The Lahore Resolution, adopted by the All-India Muslim League during its general session in Lahore from March 22 to March 24, 1940, formally called for an independent state for India’s Muslims.

— Till the early 1930s, many Muslims had been agitating for better representation and safeguarding of their rights within the Indian Union. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— The Lahore Resolution, adopted by the All-India Muslim League in March 1940, marked a significant turning point, seeking to elevate the status of the Indian Muslims from a minority group to a separate nation. It positioned Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the “Sole Spokesman” for Muslims, and the Muslim League’s demands became non-negotiable. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— The resolution declared that “it is the considered view of this Session of the All India Muslim League that no constitutional plan would be workable in this country or acceptable to Muslims unless it is designed on the following basic principle, namely that geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North-Western and Eastern Zones of India, should be grouped to constitute “Independent States” in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.”

— The resolution also demanded that “in other parts of India where the Mussalmans are in a minority, adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specially provided in the constitution for them and other minorities for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights and interests in consultation with them.”

Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 are correct and Statement 2 is the correct explanation for Statement 1.

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 2

Leang Karampuang cave was in the news recently. Consider the following statements:

1. It is the world’s oldest known figurative cave.

2. The cave is situated in Meghalaya.

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

— According to a recent study, researchers have determined that the world’s oldest known figurative cave painting dates back 51,200 years by using a new dating technique. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— Leang Karampuang cave, located on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the painting in red pigment shows a pig with its mouth partially open and three part-human, part-animal stick figures, or therianthrope. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

— The researchers in the study wrote: “Our findings show that figurative portrayals of anthropomorphic figures and animals have a deeper origin in the history of modern human (Homo sapiens) image-making than recognised to date, as does their representation in composed scenes.”

— The finding is based on dating using uranium series (U-series) analysis of calcite deposits overlying rock art in the limestone caves. Laser beams were used during the process and by comparing the ratio between the parent isotope (uranium) and the daughter isotope (thorium) researchers were able to date the paintings.

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 3

With reference to the British India at the Olympics, consider the following statements:

1. India’s association with the Olympics started with the 1900 Paris Olympics.

2. Norman Pritchard was the first Indian to participate in the Olympics.

3. The Indian football team won the country’s first gold medal in 1928.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

Explanation

— Norman Pritchard has taken on an almost mythical quality in the history of Indian sport. Born to two British citizens on June 23, 1875, in Calcutta, Pritchard was a gifted runner. He visited London in 1900, presumably with no forthright knowledge that the relatively unknown Olympic games would be taking place in Paris later that year. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— India’s Olympic history dates back to the second-ever modern Games, held in Paris in 1900. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— India first sent a national delegation to the Olympics in 1920 and its first official Olympic association was formed only in 1927.

— The Indian hockey team won the country’s first gold medal in 1928. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

— Between 1928 and 1960, the Indian hockey team won seven out of eight Olympic gold medals. Apart from K D Jadhav’s bronze in wrestling in 1952, India won its first medal outside of hockey in 1996, when Leander Paes won a bronze in men’s tennis doubles.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 4

Consider the following statements:

1. These people live in the jungles of Amazon and Southeast Asia.

2. The people of this tribe are nomadic hunter-gatherers.

3. The Peru government created the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve to protect the territory of these people.

The above mentioned statements refer to:

(a) Chono people

(b) Puelche people

(c) Mashco Piro tribe

(d) Maasai people

Explanation

— Survival International, an indigenous rights NGO, has released rare images of the Mashco Piro tribespeople, one of the world’s 100-odd uncontacted tribes.

— The Mashco Piro, with a possible population of around 750, are thought to be the largest of such tribes.

— Almost all of them live in the jungles of Amazon and Southeast Asia. These nomadic hunters and gatherers reside in the Amazon jungles of Peru’s Madre de Dios Region, near the border with Brazil and Bolivia.

— Peru’s government has prohibited all contact with the Mashco Piro, fearing the spread of a sickness to which the populace is not immune. The tribe is quite secluded, only communicating with the natives on rare occasions, however they have contacted the Yine people.

— In 2002, the Peruvian government established the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve to protect the Mashco Piro territory.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 5

Which of the following Vedas mostly contains spells for domestic purposes such as health and good fortune?

(a) Rig Veda

(b) Yajur Veda

(c) Sama Veda

(d) Atharva Veda

Explanation

— Vedic poetry, also known as mantra, occurs in the form of compilations called Samhitas. The Rig Samhitas are the earliest collections of Vedic poetry. There are around 1,000 poems organised into ten books, or mandalas. Ninety majority of them are invocations to gods who reside in the sky, inviting them to a dinner in exchange for worldly achievement, such as having children, good health, victory in combat, and so on. Ten percent are associated with various world-related ideas and speculations.

— A component of the Rig Vedic poetry is included into the Sama Veda, which is a musical adaptation of the Rig Veda. There are two sorts of melodies: the first is sung in the town known as Grama Gan, and the second is sung in the forest known as the Aranya Gan.

— The Yajur Veda also includes numerous Rig Vedic poetry. It also features a few original ones. But some poems are specifically about conducting rituals. Yajus are particular poetry or mantras that are intended to be said when conducting specific ritual tasks.

— The Trayi, or basic Vedas, are made up of three parts: the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Yajur Veda.

— The Atharva Veda is also a collection of poetry, but they were mostly spells used for domestic purposes such as health, good fortune, and warding off malicious spirits, jealousy, and rage.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

Previous Daily Subject-Wise-Quiz

Daily subject-wise quiz — Polity and Governance (Week 72)

Daily Subject-wise quiz — History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 72)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Environment, Geography, Science and Technology (Week 72)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Economy (Week 72)

Daily subject-wise quiz – International Relations (Week 71)

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UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 3 : Questions on RBI interventions in controlling the Indian rupee and impacts of the oil spill (Week 66)

Are you preparing for UPSC CSE 2024 or CSE 2025? Here are questions from GS paper 3 for this week with essential points as the fodder for your answers. Do not miss points to ponder and answer in the comment box below. Try them out.

Written by Nitendra Pal Singh

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 18:21 IST

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd said the leakage on the pipeline was arrested in the morning hours of Saturday and currently officials were engaged in flushing to make the pipeline hydrocarbon free. Attempt a question on the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the oil spill in today's answer writing practice. (AP/Representational)

UPSC Essentials brings to you its initiative for the practice of Mains answer writing. It covers essential topics of static and dynamic parts of the UPSC Civil Services syllabus covered under various GS papers. This answer-writing practice is designed to help you as a value addition to your UPSC CSE Mains. Attempt today’s answer writing on questions related to topics of GS-3 to check your progress.

🚨 The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the August edition of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨

QUESTION 1

Discuss the potential adverse consequences of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) interventions in controlling the value of the Indian rupee.

QUESTION 2

Discuss the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the oil spill. Give some recent examples.

General points on the structure of the answers

Introduction

— The introduction of the answer is essential and should be restricted to 3-5 lines. Remember, a one-liner is not a standard introduction.

— It may consist of basic information by giving some definitions from the trusted source and authentic facts.

Body

— It is the central part of the answer and one should understand the demand of the question to provide rich content.

— The answer must be preferably written as a mix of points and short paragraphs rather than using long paragraphs or just points.

— Using facts from authentic government sources makes your answer more comprehensive. Analysis is important based on the demand of the question, but do not over analyse.

QUESTION 1: Discuss the potential adverse consequences of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) interventions in controlling the value of the Indian rupee.

Note: This is not a model answer. It only provides you with thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— The Indian rupee has a managed floating exchange rate regime, which implies that the central bank intervenes in the foreign currency market to buy or sell dollars in order to keep the rupee’s value stable.

— In recent times, however, the RBI appears to be using its regulatory authorities to gain more control over the currency.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

— Currency volatility is not a market failure, but rather the currency’s movement in reaction to demand and supply dynamics.

— The employment of regulatory authorities for currency management creates uncertainty in the central bank’s currency policy while also raising the cost of doing business in RBI-regulated sectors.

— Rajeswari Sengupta and Bhargavi Zaveri Shah outline three such regulatory approaches and the challenges that come with them.

— Prohibiting speculative trades on exchanges: This exacerbates the difficulties of taking rupee exposure in India. In 2008, the RBI allowed Indian exchanges to launch a currency derivatives segment. At that time, the RBI’s guidelines on currency Futures and Options allowed Indian residents to participate in this market “to hedge an exposure to foreign exchange rate risk or otherwise”. While the RBI continued to prescribe the product design, position limits, and trading hours, the general trend was towards opening up this market.

— These regulations explicitly allowed taking positions in rupee-linked currency derivatives up to $100 million across all exchanges, “without having to establish existence of underlying exposure”.

— Regulating offshore trading platforms: The RBI proposed to regulate offshore electronic trading platforms (ETPs), which facilitate rupee-linked derivative transactions. Published on its website in April 2024, this proposal seeks to empower the RBI to oversee the offshore currency forwards market, commonly called the non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market.

— The NDF market lets anyone deal in the rupee without having to physically deliver the currency, lowering the cost of trading. The rupee NDF market has risen significantly in recent years, and is now estimated to be over three times the size of the onshore market. This has raised fears among the RBI that the offshore market, over which it has no direct jurisdiction or control, may be playing an important role in deciding the rupee’s value. The current regulation plan requires ETPs to register with the RBI and gives very comprehensive authorities on the central bank, such as the ability to refuse registration, collect information, designate “eligible instruments” that Indian residents may trade in, and impose additional terms and conditions.

— RBI’s instructions to banks: Earlier this month, when the rupee-dollar exchange rate depreciated close to the 84 mark in the spot market, the RBI is reported to have orally instructed some large commercial banks to not add to their existing trading positions against the rupee. This step seems to have been taken to stem further rupee depreciation.

— On August 16, the RBI advised banks that conduct commerce with the United Arab Emirates to partially settle their trade payments in rupees rather than dollars. This means that banks should change rupees directly to dirhams and vice versa, without first converting them to dollars. One goal of this action appears to be to lessen dollar dependence in international trade. However, settling transactions in rupees helps buffer the currency from the impact of dollar outflows, reducing the magnitude of rupee depreciation against the dollar.

Conclusion:

— The RBI should not attempt to regulate the rupee’s volatility by indiscriminately expanding its regulatory powers. Regulations define the regulations of the game.

— Unlike market operations in which central banks purchase and sell currency in foreign exchange markets, changes to the rules of the game can have a longer-term, negative impact on the incentives and costs of doing business in the country.

(Source: Why RBI’s attempts to control the Rupee can have adverse consequences by Rajeswari Sengupta and Bhargavi Zaveri Shah)

Points to Ponder

What is foreign exchange?

Role of RBI in monetary policy

Functions of RBI

Related Previous Year Questions

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the defence sector is now set to be liberalized. What influence this is expected to have on Indian defence and economy in the short and long run? (2014)

Justify the need for FDI for the development of the Indian economy. Why there is gap between MoUs signed and actual FDIs? Suggest remedial steps to be taken for increasing actual FDIs in India. (2016)

QUESTION 2: Discuss the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the oil spill. Give some recent examples.

Note: This is not a model answer. It only provides you with thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— Accidents involving oil tankers, drilling rigs, pipelines, or refineries, can be triggered by natural disasters, human error, or equipment failure.

— The environmental consequences are influenced by factors such as the type of oil, the volume of the spill, weather conditions, and proximity to sensitive ecosystems.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

How do oil spills impact the environment?

— The long-term impacts of oil spills are extensive, affecting marine ecosystems, habitats, and local economies. These spills can wipe out animal populations, with toxic substances accumulating in the food chain and posing significant risks to higher-level predators, including humans. This bioaccumulation can result in long-term health problems and a reduction in biodiversity, disrupting entire ecosystems.

— When oil spills into water, it rapidly spreads. Due to its lighter density compared to water, it forms a layer that obstructs sunlight and disrupts photosynthesis in marine plants and phytoplankton, which are crucial for oxygen production. The microscopic algae are consumed by fish and other marine animals, and form the base of multiple food chains.

— Marine animals, especially those near the surface, face immediate dangers from toxic exposure. With oil coating the feathers of birds, they may lose their insulation abilities, leading to hypothermia and drowning.

— Coastal ecosystems: These ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, and marshlands, are especially at risk, as oil can suffocate these habitats and kill vital plants and animals. Recovery can take decades, with some species facing the threat of extinction.

— Effect on economy: The economic fallout is significant for communities dependent on fishing and tourism. The cleanup effort is often costly and lengthy, diverting resources from other critical areas.

Recent examples:

— Philippines: Typhoon Gaemi has wreaked havoc across Taiwan, the Philippines and parts of southeastern China. The resultant heavy rains also led to the sinking of the oil tanker MT Terra Nova, laden with 1.4 million litres of oil, in Manila Bay.

— Peru: In 2022, the government declared a 90-day “environmental emergency” in damaged coastal territories, after an oil spill that saw 6,000 barrels of crude oil pour into the sea.

Conclusion:

— Fur and feathers soaked in oil can negatively impact an animal’s capacity to control their body temperature. Additionally, it may alter an animal’s natural buoyancy, leading to drowning. Moreover, birds are likely to swallow the oil due to their propensity for self-preening, which could harm both their organs and digestive systems.

— Burns, eye irritation, and neurological problems can all result from inhaling fumes from more volatile petroleum products like kerosene or jet fuel.

(Source: Ship carrying 1.4 million litres of oil sinks near Philippines: How oil spills impact the environment, http://www.noaa.gov, http://www.weforum.org)

Points to Ponder

How do oil spill affect marine populations

How do oil spills affect terrestrial populations

Related Previous Year Questions

What is oil pollution? What are its impacts on the marine ecosystem? In what way is oil pollution particularly harmful for a country like India? (2023)

Explain the causes and effects of coastal erosion in India. What are the available coastal management techniques for combating the hazard? (2022)

Previous Mains Answer Practice

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 65)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 64)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 64)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 65)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 65)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 64)

Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week.

Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.

UPSC Essentials : Daily subject-wise quiz | Polity and Governance MCQs on Parliamentary sessions, Money Bill, ECI and more (Week 73)

Are you preparing for UPSC CSE Prelims 2025? Check your progress and revise your topics through this quiz on Polity and Governance.

Written by Nitendra Pal Singh

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 12:00 IST

Check your progress and revise your topics through this quiz on Polity and Governance. Find a question on parliamentary sessions in today's quiz. (File Photo)

UPSC Essentials brings to you its initiative of daily subject-wise quizzes. These quizzes are designed to help you revise some of the most important topics from the static part of the syllabus. Attempt today’s subject quiz on Polity and Governance to check your progress. Come back tomorrow to solve the History, Culture, and Social Issues MCQs. Don’t miss checking the answers and explanations.

🚨 The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the August edition of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨

QUESTION 1

Which of the following statements about the Election Commission of India (ECI) is correct?

1. The President appoints the Chief Election Commissioner and all election commissioners.

2. The chief and the other two election commissioners get the same pay and benefits as judges of the High Court.

3. The ECI is empowered to supervise, oversee, and manage elections to municipalities and panchayats.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 only

(d) 1 and 3 only

Explanation

— The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a permanent, independent, and constitutional authority responsible for conducting free and fair elections in the Union and the States of India.

— The ECI is empowered to supervise, oversee, and manage elections to Parliament, state legislatures, and the offices of President and Vice President of India. Since the ECI does not oversee elections to state-level urban bodies like municipalities and panchayats, there is a separate State Election Commission. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

— The Chief Election Commissioner and all election commissioners are appointed by the President. The President determines his or her tenure of office and the conditions of service for each commissioner. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— The chief and the other two election commissioners get the same pay and benefits as judges of the Supreme Court, along with the same authorities. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

— The President appoints the Election Commissioner and the other Election Commissioners. They serve in that capacity for a certain period of time, not to exceed six years, or until they turn 65. They are on the same level as Indian Supreme Court justices.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 2

Which of the following provisions comes under the definition of the Money Bill?

1. the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax

2. borrowing of money or the giving of any guarantee by the Government of India

3. the custody of the Contingency Fund of India

4. imposition of fines or other pecuniary penalties

5. payment of fees for licences or fees for services rendered

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1, 2 and 4 only

(b) 2, 3 and 5 only

(c) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

(d) 1, 2 and 3 only

Explanation

— A Bill shall be deemed to be a Money Bill if it contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the following matters, namely:

(a) the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax;

(b) the regulation of the borrowing of money or the giving of any guarantee by the Government of India, or the amendment of the law with respect to any financial obligations undertaken or to be undertaken by the Government of India;

(c) the custody of the Consolidated Fund or the Contingency Fund of India, the payment of moneys into or the withdrawal of moneys from any such Fund;

(d) the appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund of India;

(e) the declaring of any expenditure to be expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or the increasing of the amount of any such expenditure;

(f) the receipt of money on account of the Consolidated Fund of India or the public account of India or the custody or issue of such money or the audit of the accounts of the Union or of a State; or

(g) any matter incidental to any of the matters specified in sub-clauses (a) to (f).

— A Bill shall not be deemed to be a Money Bill by reason only that it provides for the imposition of fines or other pecuniary penalties, or for the demand or payment of fees for licences or fees for services rendered, or by reason that it provides for the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax by any local authority or body for local purposes.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

(Other Source: Constitution of India)

QUESTION 3

With reference to the parliamentary sessions, consider the following statements:

1. The Constitution specifies that six months should not elapse between two parliamentary sessions.

2. This provision of parliamentary sessions is borrowed by the framers of the Constitution from the Government of India Act of 1919.

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

— The government determines the date and duration of parliamentary sessions. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs takes this decision.

— It currently has ten Ministers, including those for Defence, Home, Finance, Agriculture, Tribal Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, and Information and Broadcasting.

— The Law Minister and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs have been invited as special guests to the Committee. The decision of the Committee is communicated to the President, who then convenes Members of Parliament for the session.

— The Constitution specifies that six months should not elapse between two parliamentary sessions. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— This provision is a colonial legacy. The framers of the Constitution borrowed it from the Government of India Act of 1935. It allowed the British Governor General to call a session of the central legislature at his discretion, requiring that the gap between two sessions should not be more than 12 months. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 4

With reference to the amendment to the constitution, consider the following statements:

1. Provisions related to Fundamental Rights can be amended by a simple majority.

2. Provisions related to abolition or creation of legislative councils need the amendment Bill to be passed in both Houses of Parliament by a majority of not less than two thirds of the members present and voting.

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation

— The Constitution prescribes three different standards for amending different provisions.

Simple majority

— Several provisions of the Constitution can be amended using the same simple legislative procedure used to pass any ordinary legislation in Parliament. This is accomplished by a simple majority of those present and voting. For example, admission or establishment of new states, formation of new states, abolition or creation of legislative council. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

— Article 368, interestingly, does not directly make a list of such ‘less significant’ provisions. However, such provisions are excluded from the scope of Article 368 throughout the Constitution, creating a separate category.

Special majority

— For amending provisions that do not fall under the first category, Article 368 requires that the amendment Bill is passed in both Houses of Parliament by a majority of not less than two thirds of the members present and voting. For example, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principle of State Policy. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

— According to Rule 158 of the Lok Sabha Rules, ‘total membership’ refers to the total number of members of the House, regardless of any current vacancies or absentees.

Ratification by states

— A third category of provisions need not just a special majority to be amended, but also require ratification by the legislatures of at least half of the states. Only after the states’ ratification can such an amendment be presented to the President for assent. For example, Election of the President and its manner, distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the States.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

QUESTION 5

Which of the following articles of the Constitution of India provides for the separation of judiciary from executive?

(a) Article 48

(b) Article 49

(c) Article 50

(d) Article 51

Explanation

— Article 50 of the Constitution of India provides for the separation of judiciary from executive.

— The State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

(Source: Constitution of India)

Previous Daily Subject-Wise-Quiz

Daily subject-wise quiz — Polity and Governance (Week 72)

Daily Subject-wise quiz — History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 72)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Environment, Geography, Science and Technology (Week 72)

Daily subject-wise quiz — Economy (Week 72)

Daily subject-wise quiz – International Relations (Week 72)

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Art and Culture with Devdutt Pattanaik | The significance of Vedas and their rituals

The three primary Vedas - Rig Veda, Sama Veda and Yajur Veda - were part of public rituals. Why was the Atharva Veda neither seen as part of the primary Vedic canon nor as part of public rituals?

Written by Devdutt Pattanaik

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 12:01 IST

Rigveda manuscript page (Source: Ms. Sarah Welch/Wikimedia Commons)

(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC aspirants written by seasoned writers and erudite scholars on issues and concepts spanning History, Polity, International Relations, Art, Culture and Heritage, Environment, Geography, Science and Technology, and so on. Read and reflect with subject experts and boost your chance of cracking the much-coveted UPSC CSE. In the following article, Devdutt Pattanaik, a renowned writer who specialises in mythology and culture, explains Vedic poetry, Vedic prose, and Vedic philosophy.)

When we talk about the Veda, we have to differentiate between Vedic poetry, Vedic prose, and Vedic philosophy. Vedic poetry is the oldest part of the Veda, which is over 3,000 years old. Vedic prose came later and was followed by Vedic philosophy. They were transmitted orally by Brahmin families and put down in writing less than 2,000 years ago.

Vedic poetry, or mantra, exists as collections or Samhitas. The Rig Samhitas are the oldest collection of Vedic poetry. There are about 1,000 poems divided into 10 books or mandalas. Ninety percent of these are invocations to gods who live in the sky, invited to a meal in exchange for which the host asks for success in worldly matters, such as having children, health, victory in battle and so forth. Ten percent are linked to various kinds of philosophies and speculations about the world.

Vedas and rituals

A portion of the Rig Vedic poetry becomes part of the Sama Veda, where words of the Rig Veda are turned into melodies. The melodies are of two types: the first is sung in the settlement called the Grama Gan, and the second is sung in the forest known as the Aranya Gan.

The Yajur Veda also contains many Rig Vedic poems. Additionally, it has a few original ones too. But these poems are specifically linked to performing rituals. There are special poems or mantras, known as yajus, which are meant to be said when performing certain ritual actions.

The Rig Veda can be said to be the lyrics, Sama Veda the music, and Yajur Veda the instructions, all three of which form the Trayi or the primary Vedas.

In many scriptures, it is these three that are considered the Veda. They were part of public rituals.

The Atharva Veda is also a set of poems, but these were primarily spells used for domestic matters such as health, good fortune, and to ward off malevolent spirits and people’s jealousy and anger. There are some speculative hymns here too, but generally, the Atharva Veda was not seen as part of the primary Vedic canon. They were not part of public rituals.

Brahmanas and Aranyakas

Rig Veda was compiled in the Haryana region. The other Vedas were composed in the Ganga-Yamuna basin east of the river Gandak. While Rig Veda refers to a nomadic pastoral people, the Yajur Veda refers to a people establishing farms and living a settled life, moving eastwards.

Over time, prose started being written. These were known as the Brahmanas and Aranyakas, which were meant to perform large congregational ceremonial rituals related to kingship. Aryanakas (forest texts) are for rituals performed outside the village. Brahmanas are prose texts of rituals.

The rituals were performed fortnightly on full moon days and new moon days, or they were performed every four months to mark the end of the pre-monsoon period, the monsoon period, and the post-monsoon period. They were also related to the king’s coronation and annual rituals to increase the king’s power.

These were gradually documented in the Sulba Sutras. However, these started losing value after 500 BCE when Buddhism arose in the eastern part of India. After this period, we find mostly domestic Vedic rituals becoming important, and these were documented in the Grihya Sutras. Another set of prose that emerged around this time was the Shastra literature, such as the Dharmashastras.

Vedic philosophy

After 500 AD, we find both Vedic poetry and Vedic prose losing their value and a gradual rise in Vedic philosophy, which is traced to the Upanishads. Seen from the present lens, we know that there were different Vedic schools across India. Each one focused on one poetry book, either the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, or the Yajur Veda. Each of these has a prose text and a philosophy or Upanishads.

But today, when people talk about the Vedas, they refer to Vedic philosophy or Vedanta. These became popular after 500 AD, especially after 800 AD, thanks to Adi Shankaracharya and those who followed him. In Vedic philosophy, ritualism is downplayed and more importance is given to philosophical ideas like Atma and its relationship with the human body and the world around us. These are concepts like moksha or liberation.

The ritual school or Mimamsa school eventually merged with temple practices. Even today, when people refer to the word Veda, they really refer to Vedic philosophy and very little to Vedic poetry, Vedic chanting, and Vedic rituals.

Post Read Question

Discuss the essence of the Vedas?

What are the salient features of  the Vedic period?

Comment on the significance of Vedic rituals in Hinduism.

What is the difference between the Vedas and the Vedic philosophy?

(Devdutt Pattanaik is a renowned mythologist who writes on art, culture and heritage.)

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By: Deutsche Welle

August 31, 2024 07:50 IST

Gas flaring, when operators burn off natural gas linked to oil production, turns methane into CO2 that then goes into the atmosphere. (Matthew Brown/AP/picture alliance)

Written by Beatrice Christofaro

What’s colorless, odorless, is the main component of natural gas and traps massive amounts of heat in the atmosphere? The answer is methane or CH4.

Over a 20-year timescale, methane traps around 84 times as much heat as carbon dioxide (CO2), which is released by burning fossil fuels and is probably the most famous greenhouse gas of all.

The key difference between them is how long they stick around. On average, methane fades away after about 12 years while CO2 continues to warm the planet over centuries. That means CO2 is the main contributor to climate change, but potent methane still wreaks plenty of havoc in its short lifetime. It’s responsible for about a third of global warming since the Industrial Revolution.

Where does methane come from?

Methane does sometimes come from non-human sources like wetlands. These habitats contain things like permafrost, which is frozen ground that’s also filled with carbon from animals and plants that have been dead for hundreds of thousands of years.

As temperatures rise with global warming, wetland permafrost thaws. That unleashes carbon, previously locked in the ice, in the form of CO2 and methane.

But 60% of the methane that makes it into the atmosphere comes from human activities. That can be from agriculture — think cows’ burps and farts and manure fertilizer — but also from decomposing waste in landfills and the energy sector.

How does the energy sector release methane?

Most energy consumed by humans comes from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Oil and gas are responsible for most energy sector methane emissions. The greenhouse gas pours out when companies produce, transport and store these fossil fuels.

Methane emissions can happen unintentionally. For example, it often escapes into the atmosphere when the equipment is rusty or damaged or even has something as simple as a loose screw.

Then there is gas flaring. That’s when operators burn off natural gas linked to oil production. Flaring turns methane into CO2 that then goes into the atmosphere, but raw methane can still escape during the process.

Sometimes companies release small amounts of natural gas directly into the atmosphere, which is called venting. Operators flare and vent because it can be expensive to process and transport the relatively small amount of gas that comes out of the ground during oil extraction. Or they do it for safety reasons, such as to reduce dangerous pressure increases.

What can we do to reduce methane emissions?

The solutions can be surprisingly simple at times. Oil and gas companies could slash their methane emissions by a whopping 75% if they spotted and fixed leaks, according to the International Energy Agency. It quite literally comes down to plumbing and updating faulty equipment.

That’s why the European Union passed a new regulation in May that will force fossil fuel companies to routinely measure, report and reduce how much methane they are emitting. If they spot a leak, they need to fix it within 15 working days.

The regulation also bans flaring and venting in most cases. Venting is only allowed if there is a safety emergency. Flaring can only happen if it’s not technically possible to reinject the natural gas into the ground on-site or transport it somewhere else.

INS Arighaat: India’s second nuclear sub

Induction of INS Arighaat, India’s second nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine of the Arihant class, significantly boosts India’s nuclear deterrence capabilities, and strengthens its nuclear triad

Written by Amrita Nayak Dutta

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:34 IST

The 6,000-tonne INS Arighaat will join its predecessor, the nuclear submarine INS Arihant, as a key component of the India’s nuclear triad, which refers to a country’s ability to launch nuclear missiles from platforms in the air, land, and at sea. (File)

India’s second nuclear submarine, the Arighaat, was commissioned into the Indian Navy on Thursday at Visakhapatnam. The submarine has undergone extensive trials over the last few months.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said at the commissioning ceremony that the Arihant-class submarine will “further strengthen India’s nuclear triad, enhance nuclear deterrence, help in establishing strategic balance and peace in the region, and play a decisive role in the security of the country”.

Meet Arighaat…

The 6,000-tonne INS Arighaat will join its predecessor, the nuclear submarine INS Arihant, as a key component of the India’s nuclear triad, which refers to a country’s ability to launch nuclear missiles from platforms in the air, land, and at sea.

India is part of a select group of countries with nuclear triad capabilities. These include the United States, Russia, China, and France. The induction of INS Arihant into the Navy in 2016 provided India with maritime strike capability for the first time.

The commissioning of INS Arighaat will enhance the Navy’s nuclear strike capability. The nuclear-capable Agni 2, Agni 4, and Agni 5 missiles can be launched from land, and fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force such as the Rafales, Su-30MKIs, and Mirage 2000s can deliver nuclear warheads.

The nuclear-propelled Arighaat will be armed with indigenously built K-15 missiles, with a range of more than 700 km. Like Arihant, Arighaat is powered by 83 MW pressurised light-water nuclear reactors, which allow it to remain submerged and undetected for much longer than conventional diesel-electric submarines.

Under its “No first-use” policy, India is committed to using nuclear weapons only for deterrence and retaliation. With its ability to survive a nuclear attack and then launch a retaliatory strike, a nuclear sub acts as a very strong deterrent.

The Arighaat is significantly more technologically advanced than the Arihant, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. The construction of Arighaat involved advanced design and manufacturing technology, detailed research and development, utilisation of special materials, complex engineering, and highly skilled workmanship, the statement said.

“It has the distinction of having the indigenous systems and equipment which were conceptualised, designed, manufactured and integrated by Indian scientists, industry, and naval personnel,” it said.

…And the Arihant

India’s nuclear-powered submarine project was initiated more than three decades ago, involving both private firms and the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), with help from Russia. Arihant was launched in 2009, and commissioned into the Navy in 2016 as its first nuclear-powered submarine.

INS Arihant conducted its first deterrence patrol in 2018, thus establishing India’s nuclear triad. In October 2022, the Ministry of Defence announced the successful launch, “with very high accuracy”, of a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in the Bay of Bengal by Arihant.

Navy’s submarines

Two nuclear ballistic submarines (SSBNs) larger than Arihant and Arighaat, of around 7,000-tonne displacement, are currently being built. The first of these two subs is said to have been launched in 2021, and is awaiting commissioning pending trials and tests; the second is in the works as part of a separate classified project.

In comparison, the United States has 14 Ohio-class SSBNs and 53 fast-attack submarines. China has 12 nuclear submarines, of which six are nuclear-powered attack submarines.

The Indian Navy also has 16 conventional submarines in service — seven Kilo (Sindhughosh) class, four Shishumar class, and five French Scorpène (Kalvari) class attack submarines.

India procured the USSR-developed, diesel electric Kilo-class submarines from the mid-1980s onward. These boats have a lifespan of around 30 years, and can serve for somewhat longer after retrofitting with modern devices.

The Shishumar class submarines, developed by the German yard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) and subsequently built in India, were commissioned from the 1980s onward.

The Kalvari class submarines were built at India’s Mazagon Dock in partnership with France’s Naval Group. The first of these submarines, INS Kalvari, was commissioned in 2017, followed by several other vessels.

To carry out its full spectrum of operations, the Navy is authorised to have 18 submarines, a milestone that has been achieved with the commissioning of INS Arighaat. However, at any time, around 30 per cent of the fleet is under refit (repair and renovation), which brings down the strength of operational submarines.

The Navy has gone for medium refit and life certification, which includes all major repairs and replacements on a ship. This has been done to extend the lives of some of the aging subs until the new boats come in.

Vistara will soon be Air India: How will merger affect flyers?

Not much change in terms of service; bookings and loyalty programme will be automatically transferred

Written by Sukalp Sharma

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 07:31 IST

Singapore Airlines, which holds a 49% in Vistara, and will have 25.1% shareholding in the enlarged Air India post the merger. (Express, Wikimedia Commons)

The decade-old Vistara, an airline reputed for its excellent product and service quality, will fly into the sunset in November after its operational merger with the Tata group’s flagship airline Air India.

An announcement by both the airlines on Friday said that Vistara will continue to operate flights only till November 11. After this date, all Vistara flights will be operated by Air India. How is the merger likely to affect Vistara customers?

What will happen to Vistara flight bookings?

Nothing will change for customers booked on Vistara flights till November 11. Those already booked on Vistara flights from November 12 onwards will automatically have their reservations converted to Air India flight numbers. New electronic tickets will be generated for them. This process will be carried out in phases in September, and customers will be individually informed when their ticket is converted.

Customers looking to book Vistara flights for November 12 and beyond will progressively not be able to do so from September 3 — they will have to book flights through Air India instead. Customers can still book flights scheduled for November 11 and earlier directly through Vistara.

Similarly, for most add-on services and booking modifications, customers booked on Vistara flights till November 11 can use Vistara’s website, mobile application, and call centre. For bookings beyond November 11, they would be required to do so through Air India.

What will the change be like in terms of product and service quality?

Given Vistara’s positioning as a premium airline, many customers are wondering what is likely to change post-merger terms of service and product quality.

Customers should not expect many changes, at least initially. All Vistara aircraft and crew will be migrated to Air India’s air operator certificate or AOC, and branded as Air India flights from November 12 onwards. But for nearly all such flights, the schedule, operating crew, and aircraft will be from Vistara’s existing fleet until early 2025, Air India’s CEO Campbell Wilson said in an internal communication to employees.

This means that at least for a few weeks after the merger, those flying on what will then be the erstwhile Vistara aircraft can expect continuity in terms of product and service in most cases. But it is impossible to completely rule out use of Air India aircraft and crew even in the early days as aircraft allotment is contingent upon complexities of scheduling and availability.

In time, the line between Vistara and Air India in terms of product and service would progressively blur as the carriers’ integration — aircraft, crew, and network — gathers pace. Aircraft and crew deployment is likely to be a lot more unified a few months down the line.

That said, Air India is currently refurbishing its older aircraft while it continues to induct new aircraft on a regular basis. This exercise has seen Air India add the premium economy class to its cabin layout, much like Vistara. Air India hopes that its fleet modernisation exercise will enhance its product and service quality to the level currently being offered by Vistara.

What will happen to Club Vistara, the carrier’s loyalty programme?

After the integration of the two airlines is complete, Club Vistara will merge with Air India’s frequent flyer programme Flying Returns. All Club Vistara accounts will eventually be migrated to Flying Returns.

Those with existing accounts in both loyalty programmes can link the two accounts via Vistara’s website. If a customer does not link the two accounts by the time of the merger, the accounts will be automatically merged, provided key identification and contact details are common in both accounts. For accounts where there is any mismatch in these details, a new Flying Returns account will be created to which Club Vistara points will be transferred. Members can later merge duplicate Flying Returns accounts.

A member’s tier status in the loyalty programme will be assigned based on the cumulative points of both Club Vistara and Flying Returns. Members will either maintain their current Club Vistara tier status or get upgraded based on their cumulative points under the two programmes. Going forward, the rules of Flying Returns will apply.

“On the day of migration, the Club Vistara points balance, and the Tier Points available in the member accounts will be transferred to the Flying Returns programme at a 1:1 ratio. The points will remain valid for at least one year from the date of migration, even if they are due to expire sooner,” Vistara’s website says. It adds that valid and unused flight or upgrade vouchers issued to Club Vistara members will be transferred to their Flying Returns accounts with existing validity.

Both Air India and Vistara have co-branded credit cards as part of their loyalty programme offerings, but the airlines and their partner credit card companies have so far not provided details of how the offerings and point accruals on these cards will shape up with the merger of Club Vistara and Flying Returns. These are expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Sukalp Sharma

Sukalp Sharma is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 13 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. Before joining The Indian Express, Sukalp had long and enriching stints at financial newswire Informist and the Express Group’s pink paper The Financial Express. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More

Who is Jagdish Tytler, and what was his alleged role 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi?

A court in Delhi has ordered the framing of charges against Jagdish Tytler in connection to his alleged role in the anti-Sikh violence in Delhi in 1984. Here is a recall

Written by Arjun Sengupta , Nirbhay Thakur

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 22:12 IST

President Giani Zail Singh administering the oath of office to Jagdish Tytler as Minister of State for Civil Aviation at Rashtrapati Bhawan on September 25, 1985. (Express Archive Photo)

A court in Delhi has ordered the framing of charges against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, almost 40 years after three Sikh men were burnt to death in Pul Bangash Gurdwara in Delhi during the 1984 anti-Sikh violence.

In its charge sheet filed against Tytler last May, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had accused him of “inciting, instigating and provoking the mob” that had assembled near the Pul Bangash Gurdwara on November 1, 1984.

Tytler will be charged under sections 302 (murder) read with 109 (abetment), 147 (rioting), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups based on religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste, or community), and 143 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Here is a recall of the 1984 violence, and Tytler’s alleged role in it.

Blue Star, Indira’s assassination & carnage in Delhi

Operation Blue Star saw the Indian Army enter the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984 to neutralise militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who had taken refuge there. While it achieved its objectives, it caused massive damage to the Sikh community’s holiest shrine, and led to many civilian casualties.

For many Sikhs, this was an affront to their religion and community. Indira Gandhi, who as prime minister had given the go-ahead for the operation, was deemed responsible. On October 31, 1984, two of Indira’s Sikh bodyguards gunned the prime minister down as she was walking down the lawn of her Safdarjung Road house, ostensibly to “avenge” Blue Star.

Indira’s killing provoked a carnage in Delhi — over the next three days, Delhi burnt as close to 3,000 innocent Sikhs were murdered by mobs. Congress party leaders were accused of instigating violence and leading the mobs; state machinery was also allegedly used to identify and target innocent Sikhs. It is in the context of this violence that Tytler, who was a 40-year-old Congress MP at the time, has been implicated.

Nanavati Commission, violence in Pul Bangash & Tytler’s “probable” role

Despite grave allegations against the top Congress leadership, the official investigation in the aftermath of the violence did not make much headway.

In 2000, the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee appointed a commission under former Supreme Court judge Justice G T Nanavati to submit a comprehensive report on the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. The commission made its submissions in 2005.

The Nanavati Commission report provides details of what transpired on November 1, 1984 at the Pul Bangash Gurdwara. It said: “At about 1.30 pm, a big mob of about 3,000 to 4,000 persons attacked Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Pul Bagash… The mob hurled petrol bombs and sprinkled kerosene on the Gurudwara and set it on fire.”

The report said three Sikh men were burnt alive by the mob, and that the police did nothing to prevent the killings. It referred to eyewitness accounts to say that “the mob was led by Shri Jagdish Tytler, Congress (I) MP”. Tytler at the time was a rising figure in the Congress party.

The Commission concluded that “Jagdish Tytler, Ram Lal, Kaka Bali, Ram Chander Nagoria and Tarvinder Singh Bedi, who were all Congress(I) leaders or workers, were in some way involved in the attacks on Sikhs or their properties” in North Delhi.

It stated that “it [was] safe to record a finding that there is credible evidence against Shri Jagdish Tytler to the effect that very probably he had a hand in organizing attacks on Sikhs”.

The Commission recommended that the government take further action. Tytler, who in 2005 was a member of the Union cabinet, resigned soon after the publication of the Nanavati Commission report.

Tytler has maintained that he was not present at Pul Bangash on the day of the violence, and that he was instead at Indira’s residence where her body had been kept.

CBI investigation, allegations against Tytler

The case against Tytler was registered by the CBI on November 22, 2005 on directions of the Union Home Ministry (MHA) in view of the findings of the Nanavati Commission.

On February 12, 2015, the MHA constituted a Special Investigation Team to “re-investigate” Tytler’s role, among other such cases about the 1984 violence. After further investigation, which included the collection of Tytler’s voice sample last April to corroborate evidence that the agency had gathered, a charge sheet was filed last May.

Relying on the testimony of a witness, CBI had claimed Tytler instigated the mob by shouting “Kill the Sikhs, they have killed our mother!”, a reference to Indira Gandhi.

INS Arighaat commissioned: Why a second nuclear submarine matters for India

Induction of INS Arighaat, the second nuclear-powered submarine of the Arihant class, significantly boosts India’s nuclear deterrence capabilities. It strengthens the nuclear triad, the ability to launch missiles from land, air, and maritime platforms

Written by Amrita Nayak Dutta

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 22:36 IST

INS Arihant, the first indigenously developed nuclear submarine with Indian Navy. INS Arighaat is an Arihant-class submarine. (Source: Reuters file)

India’s second nuclear submarine, the Arighaat, was commissioned into the Indian Navy on Thursday at Visakhapatnam. The submarine has undergone extensive trials over the last few months.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said at the commissioning ceremony that the Arihant-class submarine will “further strengthen India’s nuclear triad, enhance nuclear deterrence, help in establishing strategic balance and peace in the region, and play a decisive role in the security of the country”.

Meet Arighaat…

The 6,000-tonne INS Arighaat will join its predecessor, the nuclear submarine INS Arihant, as a key component of the India’s nuclear triad, which refers to a country’s ability to launch nuclear missiles from platforms in the air, land, and at sea.

India is part of a select group of countries with nuclear triad capabilities, which includes the United States, Russia, China, and France. The induction of INS Arihant into the Navy in 2016 provided India with maritime strike capability for the first time.

The commissioning of INS Arighaat will enhance the Navy’s nuclear strike capability. The nuclear-capable Agni 2, Agni 4, and Agni 5 missiles can be launched from land, and fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force such as the Rafales, Su-30MKIs, and Mirage 2000s can deliver nuclear warheads.

The nuclear-propelled Arighaat will be armed with indigenously built K-15 missiles, with a range of more than 700 km. Like Arihant, Arighaat is powered by 83 MW pressurised light-water nuclear reactors, which allow it to remain submerged and undetected for much longer than conventional diesel-electric submarines.

Under its “No first-use” policy, India is committed to using nuclear weapons only for deterrence and retaliation. With its ability to survive a nuclear attack and then launch a retaliatory strike, a nuclear sub acts as a very strong deterrent.

The Arighaat is significantly more technologically advanced than the Arihant, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. The construction of Arighaat involved advanced design and manufacturing technology, detailed research and development, utilisation of special materials, complex engineering, and highly skilled workmanship, the statement said.

“It has the distinction of having the indigenous systems and equipment which were conceptualised, designed, manufactured and integrated by Indian scientists, industry, and naval personnel,” it said.

…And the Arihant

India’s nuclear-powered submarine project was initiated more than three decades ago, involving both private firms and the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), with help from Russia. Arihant was launched in 2009, and commissioned into the Navy in 2016 as its first nuclear-powered submarine.

INS Arihant conducted its first deterrence patrol in 2018, thus establishing India’s nuclear triad. In October 2022, the Ministry of Defence announced the successful launch, “with very high accuracy”, of a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in the Bay of Bengal by Arihant.

Navy’s submarines

Two nuclear ballistic submarines (SSBNs) larger than Arihant and Arighaat, of around 7,000-tonne displacement, are currently being built. The first of these two subs is said to have been launched in 2021, and is awaiting commissioning pending trials and tests; the second is in the works as part of a separate classified project.

In comparison, the United States has 14 Ohio-class SSBNs and 53 fast-attack submarines. China has 12 nuclear submarines, of which six are nuclear-powered attack submarines.

The Indian Navy also has 16 conventional submarines in service — seven Kilo (Sindhughosh) class, four Shishumar class, and five French Scorpène (Kalvari) class attack submarines.

India procured the USSR-developed, diesel electric Kilo-class submarines from the mid-1980s onward. These boats have a lifespan of around 30 years, and can serve for somewhat longer after retrofitting with modern devices.

The Shishumar class submarines, developed by the German yard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) and subsequently built in India, were commissioned from the 1980s onward.

The Kalvari class submarines were built at India’s Mazagon Dock in partnership with France’s Naval Group. The first of these submarines, INS Kalvari, was commissioned in 2017, followed by several other vessels.

To carry out its full spectrum of operations, the Navy is authorised to have 18 submarines, a milestone that has been achieved with the commissioning of INS Arighaat. However, at any time, around 30 per cent of the fleet is under refit (repair and renovation), which brings down the strength of operational submarines.

The Navy has gone for medium refit and life certification, which includes all major repairs and replacements on a ship. This has been done to extend the lives of some of the aging subs until the new boats come in.

Striking a balancing act: 5 takeaways from Kamala Harris’ first major interview as nominee

In the much-anticipated conversation, the Democratic presidential nominee tried to strike a balance between defending the Biden administration’s policies and laying out her own agenda for 2025

By: Explained Desk

New Delhi | August 30, 2024 16:57 IST

Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris reacts as she holds a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, US, August 29, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday gave her first major interview since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. Harris, alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, was interviewed by CNN anchor Dana Bash.

In the much-anticipated conversation, the Democratic presidential nominee tried to strike a balance between defending the Biden administration’s policies and laying out her own agenda for 2025.

Here are five key takeaways from the interview of Harris and Walz.

Harris defends her policy flip flops

One major criticism of Harris has been that she has changed her position on several issues since 2019 when she first campaigned for the presidency.

For instance, in 2020, Harris supported Medicare for All legislation but has since backed away from that position.

In 2019, she said fracking should be banned. A year later, during the 2020 vice presidential debate, Harris promised that she wouldn’t seek to ban fracking, “nor will I going forward.”

In her interview with Bash, the vice president defended her shifting stances, saying, “My values have not changed.”

To support her point, she highlighted her fundamental belief that climate change is a real and present danger.

Harris outlines her ‘Day One’ agenda

The Democratic presidential nominee told Bash that if elected, she would first begin to work towards bolstering the middle class.

Her administration, she said, would “do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class”.

Asked why she hasn’t already done those things as vice president, Harris defended Biden’s record but said, “There’s more to do.”

Harris vies for votes of disgruntled Republicans

In the interview, Harries tried to woo disaffected Republicans by hinting that she would consider appointing a Republican to her Cabinet staff.

“It would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican,” she said.

The last two administrations — Trump’s and Biden’s — have not appointed Cabinet members from the opposing party. The last president to do so was Democrat Barack Obama, with the appointment of Republicans such as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Harris gives more details on Biden’s withdrawal

The vice president told Bash that when Biden called to tell her that he was going to stand aside from his reelection bid, she was with her family and baby nieces, and just had pancakes.

Harris said she asked Biden if he was sure of his decision, and he reiterated that he was.

When Bash asked the vice president if she asked for Biden’s endorsement on that call, Harris said, “My first thought was not about me, to be honest with you. My first thought was about him.”

Waltz gives neither a stellar nor bad performance

In the interview, Waltz mostly sat silent, waiting for Bash to ask him questions — at one point, he did not say anything for a full eight minutes.

When asked about a past comment when he said he carried weapons “in war” despite never actually serving in combat, Waltz said that “I speak candidly”, and that people “know where my heart is”.

How drones can revolutionise pesticide and fertiliser application in Punjab fields

Drone-based application of fertilisers and pesticides come with numerous advantages, from more efficient and uniform application, to health and environmental benefits

Written by Anju Agnihotri Chaba

Jalandhar | August 30, 2024 16:34 IST

Drones have the potential to revolutionise pesticide and fertiliser application. (Wikimedia Commons)

Farmers in the village of Bhagthala Khurd in Faridkot district recently used drones to spray pesticides on their maize and moong crops. Villages in Kapurthala and Amritsar have seen drones being deployed for similar purposes.

In Punjab, 93 out of 100 drones made available to farmers by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) under the Centre’s ‘NAMO Drone Didi’ scheme are already operational. These drones cost Rs 16 lakh each, and come equipped with 12-litre water tanks.

Experts suggest that these drones may revolutionise pesticide or fertiliser application in Punjab fields, which has traditionally been carried out manually either by hired labourers or the farmers themselves. However, manual application comes with several challenges. Drones address many of these, and provide other benefits like reducing costs and increasing yields.

1. 01
Protecting farmers from pesticides

Manual application of pesticides is labour-intensive. It can take a worker several hours to cover an acre of land — a task which drones can complete in only 5-7 minutes — during which they come in close contact with harmful pesticides. This is particularly important when it comes to tall crops like maize and sugarcane, where workers often get drenched in pesticides during application.

Close and prolonged contact with pesticides as well as chemical fertilisers can be very harmful to farmers’ health. In Punjab, this has been a major issue with farmers seeing higher-than-normal incidence of cancer cases, kidney ailments, immunological disorders, Parkinson’s disease, and infertility as a result of wanton pesticide application. By taking pesticide application out of farmers’ hands (literally) drones can thus protect farmers’ health.

2. 02
More efficient application

Drones allow for more efficient application in more ways than one.

Manual spraying often leaves some parts of the crop untreated. This adversely impacts yields. In contrast, drone-based applications are more uniform. Gurpreet Singh, a farmer from the village of Bhagthala Kalan in Faridkot district, reported that pests persisted even after two manual sprayings, but since he began to use a drone for pesticide application, his maize crop became healthy and yields have gone up.

Moreover, drones address the challenge of applying nano fertilisers such as nano urea and nano DAP, which need to be used in very small quantities. Uniform manual applications of these nano fertilisers can be challenging, preventing their widespread use even though they are more cost-efficient. For example, a 500 ml bottle of nano urea which is sufficient for covering one acre of farmland costs Rs 225 — a 45 kg bag of urea costs Rs 266, with farmers needing 2.5 to 3 bags per acre. Nano fertilisers are also more environmentally friendly (more on that later).

3. 03
Crop monitoring and emergency applications

Drones can also be used for capturing detailed, real-time images of the fields, allowing farmers to monitor crop health and make prompt interventions if needed. This is especially important in the case of epidemics.

For instance, in recent years, the pink bollworm has ravaged cotton crops in Punjab (and neighbouring states). This pestilence can be mitigated by regular and proper monitoring of crops — something which farmers often fail to do. Drones are a game-changer in this regard. Moreover, drones can quickly cover vast swathes of land with pesticides not only in cases of pink bollworm infestation but also during ocust swarms and whitefly infestations.

4. 04
Environmental benefits

Drones can be environmentally beneficial in several ways.

First, up to 90 per cent nutrients in nano fertilisers applied via drones are absorbed by plants, reducing runoff and minimising air, water, and soil pollution. In contrast, traditional application methods can lead up to 60 per cent of nutrients being lost to the air.

Second, leave based application — unlike soil based application of traditional urea and DAP fertilisers — are significantly better when it comes to soil pollution. In Punjab, where fertiliser usage is already the highest in the country, this reduction in soil pollution is beneficial for soil health, and over time, the health of crops and consumers themselves.

Third, traditional methods of pesticide application are extremely water-intensive. Drones can cut down water consumption by up to 90 per cent.

5. 05
Other innovative uses

Besides spraying pesticides and fertilisers, drones are also being explored for innovative projects such as “seed ball” bombing — basically dropping balls of soil and cow dung containing seeds over swathes of land. In Hoshiarpur, this is being seen as a way to potentially reforest large swathes of land.

Challenges

Perhaps the biggest issue, when it comes to the adoption of drones, is the elimination of several jobs which were till now being held by labourers. This is especially so because not only are drones more efficient, they are also cheaper than hiring labourers. Drones cost roughly Rs 200 per acre of coverage, whereas labour costs currently stand at around Rs 300 per acre.

Additionally, pilots also need training, not only to fly drones but to effectively cover entire fields while spraying fertilisers and pesticides.

What flyers can expect in early days of Vistara’s merger with Air India

Vistara and Air India announced Friday that the former will continue to operate flights only till November 11, after which all Vistara flights will be operated as Air India flights. Here is what this means for Vistara flyers

Written by Sukalp Sharma

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 22:13 IST

The decade-old Vistara has made a name for its product quality and service. (Wikimedia Commons)

Vistara, the decade-old airline brand that made a mark as India’s foremost full-service carrier for its product and service quality, will fly into the sunset in November with its operational merger with the Tata group’s flagship airline Air India.

Vistara and Air India announced Friday that the former will continue to operate flights only till November 11, after which all Vistara flights will be operated as Air India flights.

The announcement came close on the heels of the government approving Singapore Airlines’s investment into the merged carrier. As a joint venture partner in Vistara, Singapore Airlines holds 49 per cent stake in the airline and will have 25.1 per cent shareholding in the enlarged Air India after the merger. The wheels for the merger were set in motion in 2022 after the Tata group acquired Air India from the government.

The Indian government’s approval to Singapore Airline’s Rs 2,059-crore investment in the merged airline was the final hurdle before the merger. With all regulatory approvals for the merger now in place, the movement of aircraft and crew from the Vistara’s air operator certificate (AOC) to that of Air India will be done on November 12. The consolidation is a critical part of Air India’s transformation programme that seeks to build it into an airline of global repute.

How is this merger likely to affect Vistara customers in terms of bookings, product, service, and loyalty programmes?

What will happen to bookings for Vistara flights?

For customers booked on Vistara flights till November 11, nothing changes as the airline will continue to operate flights till that day. For those already booked on Vistara flights scheduled for November 12 and later, their flights will be operated by Air India.

For Vistara flights on or after November 12, the flight numbers will change to those of Air India. All customers already booked on Vistara flights November 12 onwards will automatically have their reservations converted to Air India flight numbers, and new electronic tickets will be generated for them. This will occur in phases during September, and customers will be individually informed when this occurs.

Customers looking to book Vistara flights for November 12 or beyond will progressively not be able to do so from September 3, and will have to book the flights through Air India instead. Those looking to fly a Vistara flight scheduled for November 11 or earlier can continue to book directly with Vistara.

Similarly, for most add-on services and booking modifications, customers booked on Vistara flights till November 11 can use Vistara’s website, mobile application, and call centre. For booking beyond November 11, they would be required to do so through Air India.

Will the product and service for Vistara customers change immediately?

Given Vistara’s brand and positioning as a premium airline, one question that is bound to crop up in the minds of many of its customers would be: what are the changes in product and service that one can expect from November 12? The short answer: not too many changes in most cases, at least initially.

From November 12, all Vistara flights will be operated under the Air India brand as all aircraft and crew of Vistara would have migrated to the Air India AOC on November 12. However, for nearly all such flights, the schedule, operating crew, and the aircraft will be from Vistara’s existing fleet until early 2025, Air India’s Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson said in an internal communication to employees.

This means that at least for the first few weeks, those flying on what will then be the erstwhile Vistara aircraft can expect continuity in terms of product and service in most cases. But the possibility of use of Air India planes for such flights, even in the early days of the merger, cannot be completely ruled out as aircraft allotment is contingent upon complexities of scheduling and availability.

Of course, after the initial few months, the lines between the Vistara and Air India in terms of product and service would progressively blur as the carriers’ integration — aircraft, crew, and network — gathers pace. A few months down the line, aircraft and crew deployment is likely to be a lot more unified.

Air India is in the process of refurbishing its older aircraft even as it continues to induct new aircraft on a regular basis. As part of the exercise, Air India is also adding the premium economy class to its cabin layout. Vistara already has the premium economy offering. With this fleet modernisation exercise and new planes coming in, Air India hopes to enhance its product and service quality and bring it up to the level offered by Vistara.

What will happen to Vistara’s loyalty programme Club Vistara?

Along with the merger of Vistara into Air India, Club Vistara will also merge with Air India’s frequent flyer programme Flying Returns. The Club Vistara programme will continue to exist until the integration of the two airlines is complete, after which Club Vistara accounts will be migrated to Flying Returns.

Those with existing accounts in both loyalty programmes can link the two accounts through the Club Vistara section on Vistara’s website. In case a customer does not link the two accounts by the time of the merger, her accounts will be automatically merged, provided key identification and contact details are common in both accounts. For accounts where there is any mismatch in these details, a new Flying Returns account will be created and the Club Vistara points will be transferred to the new account. Members can then merge any duplicate Flying Returns accounts that may have been created due to data mismatch.

A member’s tier status in the loyalty programme will be assigned based on the cumulative points of both Club Vistara and Flying Returns. Members will be able to at least maintain their current Club Vistara tier status or get upgraded based on their cumulative points under the two programmes. Going forward, the rules of Flying Returns will apply.

“On the day of migration, the CV (Club Vistara) points balance, and the Tier Points available in the member accounts will be transferred to the Flying Returns program at a 1:1 ratio. The points will remain valid for at least one year from the date of migration, even if they are due to expire sooner,” Vistara states on its website. It added that valid and unused flight or upgrade vouchers issued to Club Vistara members will be transferred to their Flying Returns accounts with existing validity.

Both Air India and Vistara have co-branded credit cards as part of their loyalty programme offerings, but the airlines and their partner credit card companies have so far not provided details of how the offerings and point accruals on these cards will shape up with the merger of Club Vistara and Flying Returns. The details are expected to be released over the coming weeks.

Sukalp Sharma

Sukalp Sharma is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 13 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. Before joining The Indian Express, Sukalp had long and enriching stints at financial newswire Informist and the Express Group’s pink paper The Financial Express. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More

India plans $15 billion second push for chipmaking. Here’s what to know

The government has approved four semiconductor manufacturing projects that will cost almost Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Chipmaking is a vital industry, but very costly to get into — and India is late in the field.

Written by Soumyarendra Barik

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 20:32 IST

India currently has virtually no footprint in manufacturing semiconductor chips. The bulk of the global chip production happens in countries like Taiwan and the United States. (Via Canva)

The government plans to increase the funding outlay for the second phase of its chip manufacturing incentive policy to $15 billion from the $10 billion it had committed for the first phase.

Tata is building India’s first commercial fabrication plant along with its Taiwanese partner Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) for a cost of more than Rs 91,000 crore. The government has also approved three assembly and testing plants, which are called ATMP and OSAT in chip parlance.

The assembly and testing plants are less complex than the semiconductor fabrication plant. The first of these three plants was approved in June 2023, and is being built by US-based Micron Technology. Tata is building an assembly plant in Assam to cater to specific clients. The third facility is being built by C G Power and Industrial Solutions of the Murugappa Group, in partnership with Renesas Electronics of Japan.

The govt’s commitment of money

The four projects will together cost more than Rs 1.48 lakh crore, and the central government will spend almost Rs 59,000 crore in capex subsidies. Here is a breakdown of how much each plant will cost, and the subsidy commitments made by the central government. State governments have sought to sweeten the deal by offering land and electricity to the plants at cheaper rates.

Scheme

Applicant

Total Project Cost (₹ cr)

Eligibile Project Cost (₹ cr)

Incentive Approved (₹ cr)

Modified scheme for setting up of semicon fabs in India

TEPL (fab)

91,526

67,956

33,978

Modified scheme for setting up of compound semicon/silicon photonics/sensors fab and semicon/ATMP/OSAT facilities in India

Micron Techonology Inc. (ATMP)

22,516

22,516

11,258

TEPL (OSAT)

27,120

20,449

10,225

CG Power & Industrial Solutions Ltd. (ATMP

7,584

7,002

3,501

TOTAL

1,48,746

1,17,923

58,962

(Source: Government’s internal documents)

Why chipmaking prowess matters

India currently has virtually no footprint in manufacturing semiconductor chips. The bulk of the global chip production happens in countries like Taiwan and the United States. The US has a chip incentive scheme with an outlay of around $50 billion, several times that of India’s. The European Union too is wooing chip manufacturers and has announced an incentive scheme of size similar to that of the US’s.

Domestic fabrication plants will boost India’s economic and strategic imperatives, given that chips are used in practically all downstream industries from rockets to power steering in cars to kitchen toasters.

In a global climate of geopolitical tensions, with the relationship between the US and China, two of the world’s most influential countries in the technology value chain, at an all-time low, India hopes to seek out opportunities to boost the local industry with help from government-funded schemes.

It is important to take a realistic view

It is important to note that the Tata-PSMC fab will not produce cutting-edge nodes, which requires a level of technology that is not available with either of these companies.

The entry barriers to chip manufacturing are quite high, as China, which has poured a lot of money into its Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), has discovered. An enormous amount of technological innovation is needed to manufacture chips of smaller node sizes, which is an area in which companies such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC) have a massive advantage.

Soumyarendra Barik

Soumyarendra Barik is Special Correspondent with The Indian Express and reports on the intersection of technology, policy and society. With over five years of newsroom experience, he has reported on issues of gig workers’ rights, privacy, India’s prevalent digital divide and a range of other policy interventions that impact big tech companies. He once also tailed a food delivery worker for over 12 hours to quantify the amount of money they make, and the pain they go through while doing so. In his free time, he likes to nerd about watches, Formula 1 and football. ... Read More

What are BJP’s corruption allegations against Mallikarjun Kharge’s family?

Priyank Kharge, the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, is Karnataka’s minister for IT/BT and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj. The BJP has alleged a “scam” in the allotment of a five-acre parcel of land identified for civic amenities (CA) near Bengaluru.

Written by Akram M

Bengaluru | Updated: August 30, 2024 12:57 IST

At a press conference on Wednesday, Priyank Kharge challenged the BJP to identify any illegality in the allocation of the CA to the trust for a skill development centre.

Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council Chalawady Narayanaswamy on Wednesday (August 28) asked Governor Thawarchand Gehlot to dismiss state minister Priyank Kharge for allegedly “snatching away yet another opportunity from deserving SC (Scheduled Caste) entrepreneurs”.

Kharge, the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, is Karnataka’s minister for IT/BT and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj. The BJP has alleged a “scam” in the allotment of a five-acre parcel of land identified for civic amenities (CA) in an industrial park near Bengaluru airport to a trust run by the Kharge family.

Priyank is a trustee of the beneficiary Siddhartha Vihar Trust, and his brother Rahul Kharge is the chairman.

What is this piece of land, and how was it allotted?

In February this year, the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) issued a notification for allotment of civic amenities (CA) plots in industrial areas set up by it. The applicants had to satisfy various criteria to be eligible for the allotment of these sites.

The CA sites were meant for centres of research and development, innovation, and excellence; skill development/technical institutes; educational institutions; offices of government or public sector units; etc. As per a government order issued in November 2023, the CA plots were to be given on a 10-year lease-cum-sale basis.

A total 24.1 per cent of the total sites area developed by the KIADB is reserved for ST/ST entrepreneurs from the state. This year, applications were sought for the allotment of 193 CA sites reserved for SCs/ STs, spread across industrial areas in 12 districts.

The CA site at the centre of the controversy is a 5-acre plot at the Hi Tech Defence and Aerospace Park Phase-1 (Hardware Sector) in Bengaluru Urban district. The land parcel is part of 45.94 acres set aside for civic amenities at the park, to be allocated under the SC quota.

What is the Siddhartha Vihar Trust, and why did it ask for a CA site?

Apart from Mallikarjun Kharge’s sons Rahul and Priyank, the Congress president himself is a trustee, as is his son-in-law, Radhakrishna, who is the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Gulbarga. The Siddhartha Vihar Trust built the popular Buddha Vihar complex, a Buddhist spiritual centre spread over 24 acres off Sedam Road outside Kalaburagi (formerly Gulbarga) in northern Karnataka.

In its application to KIADB, the trust asked for the CA site to build a not-for-profit skill development centre and training institute at an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore. The promoters were supposed to put in Rs 10 crore, and another Rs 10 crore was to be raised in loans. The skill development centre, which was expected to be headed by Rahul Kharge, reportedly had plans to collaborate with the Indo-German Training Centre.

The Trust had sought either a 2.17-acre AM-3 plot or a 5-acre AM-4 plot at the industrial park. Under the lease-cum-sale agreement, the price of the plot in question was Rs 2.8 crore per acre.

What has the BJP alleged?

The BJP has pointed to several alleged irregularities in KIADB’s allocation of CA sites. Applications were invited on February 8 with February 23 as the last date to apply — according to Narayanaswamy, this small 14-day window was to “make sure no one knew about it”.

The State Level Single Window Clearance Committee reviewed the applications on March 4, and the list of allottees was cleared a day later at a meeting chaired by Industries Minister M B Patil. According to Narayanaswamy’s complaint to the Governor, allocation to the Kharges when Priyank is a minister amounted to a conflict of interest, “a criminal breach of trust”, and a “breach of (the minister’s) oath”.

What is the Kharges’ defence?

At a press conference on Wednesday, Priyank Kharge challenged the BJP to identify any illegality in the allocation of the CA to the trust for a skill development centre. “We have not sought any subsidy, nor deferred payment for the sites. Is there any law preventing us from applying for the sites?” he said.

According to Priyank, applications were received for 43 of the 193 sites. “Were there other applicants for the site, and were we unduly favoured? We have been running the trust for the past two decades. Where is the quid pro quo?” he said.

He alleged that the BJP was targeting the Kharge family for opposing the RSS, and the controversy had been “pre-scripted” to destabilise the government.

It has been pointed out that in the last days of Basavaraj Bommai’s BJP government last year, Nirani Sugars Ltd, which is owned by then Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani, received approval for a Rs 86.91 crore project to expand the capacity of its sugar plant in Bagalkot district.

The in-principle approval came on March 29, 2023, the day the Model Code of Conduct came into effect.

How conservationists are helping once-extinct birds find lost migration routes

Over the last two decades, breeding and rewilding efforts have borne fruit. Biologist Johannes Fritz and his Austria-based conservation group Waldrappteam have brought the bird’s population in central Europe from zero to almost 300 since 2002.

Written by Arjun Sengupta

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 12:57 IST

The migration in 2022, supported by airborne foster parents. (The Associated Press)

How do you teach a migratory bird where to fly to? This was the question facing conservationists trying to re-establish the northern bald ibis — known for its distinctive black-and-green plumage, bald red head and long curved beak — in the wild in Europe.

These birds — known in German as Waldrapp — once soared over much of Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. By the 17th century, they were effectively hunted to extinction in the wild, with only a few colonies surviving in Morocco and Syria.

Over the last two decades, breeding and rewilding efforts have borne fruit. Biologist Johannes Fritz and his Austria-based conservation group Waldrappteam have brought the bird’s population in central Europe from zero to almost 300 since 2002.

But these birds, born of ancestors raised in zoos, do not instinctively know where to migrate to in winter. Early reintroduction attempts failed because they did not go to suitable wintering grounds, and perished in the cold. This led conservationists to adopt a fascinating new strategy.

Flying with birds

Inspired by the 1996 film Fly Away Home in which the protagonist pilots a tiny airplane to show orphaned geese their migratory path, Waldrappteam’s scientist “foster parents” use ultralight aircraft to lead young birds down long migration routes.

To prepare for the journey, days-old chicks are removed from their breeding colonies and brought to human foster parents with whom they bond and develop a trusting relationship.

“We take good care of them and see that they are healthy birds… Also, we interact with them,” Barbara Steininger, a Waldrappteam foster mother, told The Associated Press. Steininger and other foster parents sitting in the aircraft wave at the birds and encourage them as they fly over alpine meadows and foothills.

“It’s an almost surreal experience, to be up there in the sky with these birds, experiencing them in the air, perfectly shaped for flying. It’s a touching and extraordinary experience,” Fritz told The Guardian.

Climate challenge

Initially, the birds were taught to fly from Bavaria to Tuscany in central Italy. This was the route that wild Waldrapps in central Europe historically flew. The first independent migration took place in 2011, and many birds have since flown on the roughly 550-km route.

But the effects of climate change have meant that these birds are now flying later in the season. This leads them to cross the Alps in colder, more dangerous weather, and without the help of warm currents of air that rise upward and enable flying birds to conserve energy.

This is why Waldrappteam pioneered a new, albeit much longer route last year, from Bavaria to Andalusia in southern Spain. This year’s route is roughly 2,800 km, about 300 km longer than last year’s. Fritz set off earlier this month with a flock of 36 birds from an airfield in Paterzell in upper Bavaria. The journey will be completed in early October.

Blueprint for others

Global warming threatens plant and animal species around the world. For migratory birds that undertake lengthy journeys to find ideal ecological conditions and habitats for feeding, breeding, and raising their young, climate change poses particular challenges.

Studies show global warming is altering migration patterns, both routes and timing, exposing birds to new environments and conditions, affecting availability of food and habitat, and disrupting interactions between species. Some bird species have chosen not to migrate altogether, or to migrate to locations where they become invasive species, posing threats to others.

This is why the conservation of the northern bald ibis is significant. “This method which we’ve developed with the bald ibis is urgently needed for an increasing number of other migratory bird species,” Fritz told The Guardian, adding that this is “a flagship project which indicates what is possible”.

With inputs from the AP

What Assam’s new Muslim marriage law says, why it was introduced

Bill passed by the Assembly seeks to prevent child marriage, check polygamy, and end the role of kazis in the process of registration of marriages. Some have called the new procedure needlessly complex

Written by Sukrita Baruah

Guwahati | Updated: August 30, 2024 22:10 IST

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma addresses a press conference, in Guwahati, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (PTI Photo)

The Assam Legislative Assembly on Thursday (August 28) passed the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024, a proposed law with the stated objectives of preventing “child marriages” and “marriages without the consent of the parties”, and to “check polygamy”.

The Assam Assembly also repealed an existing 89-year-old Act for the registration of Muslim marriages and divorces in the state, confirming an Ordinance promulgated five months ago.

The now-repealed law

The registration of marriages and divorces between Muslims in Assam had been taking place under the colonial-era Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act, 1935.

This Act was in line with Muslim personal law, and authorised the state to grant a licence to “any person, being a Muslim” to register such marriages and divorces. There were 95 such Muslim registrars or kazis across the state, and they were deemed to be public servants.

Govt’s rationale for repeal

The Cabinet decided to scrap the law in February this year. In March, the government notified an Ordinance repealing the 1935 Act with immediate effect. There has been no legislation governing the registration of marriages and divorces between Muslims in Assam since then.

On Thursday, the Assembly passed the Assam Repealing Bill, 2024 to replace the Ordinance.

The government’s main argument for doing away with the 1935 Act was that it allowed the registration of marriages of and between minors.

It had in particular pointed to Section 8 of the repealed Act that lay down the procedure to make an application to the registrar, which said, “…provided that if the bride and groom, or both, be minors, application shall be made on their behalf by their respective lawful guardians…”.

Section 10 of the Act, which laid down the procedure for making entries in the marriage register, had the same provision.

Features of the new law

The Bill passed by the Assembly on Thursday regulates marriage between two Muslim persons which “includes ‘nikah’ or any other ceremony by which two persons are made husband and wife following Muslim personal law and Islamic rituals”.

📌 There is no role for kazis in registering marriages under the new law. The registering officer shall be the government’s Marriage and Divorce Registrar in that jurisdiction, who is the Sub-Registrar.

📌 For a marriage to be registered under the new law, seven conditions must be fulfilled. Important among these conditions: the woman should have attained 18 years of age and the man 21 years of age before the marriage; “the marriage has been solemnized on free consent of both parties”; at least one of the parties must be resident within the district of the Marriage and Divorce Registrar for 30 days before giving notice of registration to the officer; and the parties shall not be within the prohibited degree of relationship as per Muslim law.

📌 The parties are required to give the registering officer at least 30 days’ notice before the intended registration, with documents attesting to their identities, age, and place of residence. This provision is similar to one in the Special Marriage Act.

📌 Objections to the marriage are allowed within the 30-day period on grounds of violation of any of the conditions laid down in the Bill, which will then be inquired into by the Registrar. If the Registrar after inquiry refuses to solemnize the marriage, the Bill provides for two stages of appeal, to the District Registrar and then, the Registrar General of Marriages.

📌 The registering officers must act if they find that either of the parties is underage. If the officer makes this discovery during the scrutiny of documents, she must immediately report it to the jurisdictional Child Marriage Protection Officer appointed under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, and transmit all relevant records “for the effective prosecution of persons contravening the provisions of the…Act and for initiating appropriate legal action”.

📌 An officer who “knowingly and wilfully” registers a marriage that violates any of the conditions is liable to be imprisoned for up to a year and fined up to Rs 50,000.

📌 The Bill states that its provisions “shall be in addition to and not in derogation of the provisions of the prevailing Muslim personal laws.” However, under Muslim personal law, the marriage of a bride who has attained puberty is considered valid — and puberty is presumed, in the absence of evidence, on completion of the age of 15 years. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to an early hearing of a plea by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights seeking an authoritative pronouncement on whether Muslim personal law allowing child marriages will prevail over the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. This is a question on which different High Courts have made differing observations.

Debate in the House

Aminul Islam, MLA of the opposition AIUDF from Mankachar, questioned the need to repeal the 1935 Act if the primary objective was to prevent child marriages — this objective could have been achieved by amending Sections 8 and 10 of the old Act, he said.

Islam argued that the 1935 Act had been amended as recently as in 2010 to make registration under the Act compulsory; it had been voluntary originally.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma responded that these amendments would not have sufficed, and that the government’s intention was also to end the role of the kazis. He referred to the government’s crackdown against child marriages last year, in which more than 4,000 people had been arrested — mostly men who had married underage girls, and their relatives and religious functionaries who had solemnized these marriages.

“…We found that the kazis register child marriages… When the cases came up in the High Court, they said that they have the power to register child marriages…and…the High Court gave them bail because kazis have the power to register child marriages under the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Registration Act… It means that they (kazis) are not opposed to child marriage in principle,” the chief minister said, adding that registration by a government officer will increase accountability.

Sarma referred to the Supreme Court’s 2006 verdict in Seema vs. Ashwani Kumar in which the court had directed the central and state governments to ensure compulsory registration of marriages. “That means that the state has been given the responsibility of getting marriages registered. The state can’t rely on a kazi arrangement for this,” he said, referring to kazis as “private entities”.

Islam also said that the simpler process of registering under the older Act had been replaced by a more complex one, drawn from the provisions of the Special Marriage Act.

“Most of the provisions have been drawn from the Special Marriage Act which is an option for inter-religious marriages… It can be terrible…to make the registration of marriages between two Muslims so difficult,” he said, pointing out that “lakhs of people” would be impacted.

What was the IC-814 aircraft hijack, the subject of a new Netflix series?

On the afternoon of December 24, 1999, hijackers gained control of a Kathmandu-New Delhi flight. The hijack ended on December 31 with India releasing three terrorists, raising questions about the government’s handling of the crisis.

Written by Rishika Singh

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 22:06 IST

Taliban militia in front of the hijacked Indian Airlines IC-814 flight at Kandahar airport in December 1999. (Express archives)

The Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack was released on Thursday (August 29), based on the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 — considered one of the worst terrorist acts in India’s history.

On the afternoon of December 24, 1999, five men hijacked an aircraft of the government-owned Indian Airlines. The hijacking would come to an end more than a week later, after negotiations, the release of three terrorists, the involvement of the Taliban, and the death of one of the 179 passengers onboard.

The incident also raised serious concerns about the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government’s response. Here is what happened.

What was flight IC-814?

Flight IC-814, an Airbus 300, was to travel from the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on December 24, 1999.

In the book IC 814 Hijacked: The Inside Story, written by flight engineer Anil. K Jaggia and journalist Saurabh Shukla, Jaggia recalled that all the passengers were seated around 4 pm, with the 11 crew members also prepared for take-off.

By 4.39 pm, the flight reached Indian airspace and those in the cockpit were having tea and coffee. Steward Anil Sharma was leaving the area when an intruder pushed him and walked in, startling Captain Devi Sharan and Jaggia.

Jaggia wrote of the intruder, “In the instant we caught a glimpse of him, we knew we were in trouble, for his face was masked under a red balaclava. Even his eyes behind the slit in the monkey-cap were hidden behind photochromatic lenses”. The man held a grenade in his left hand and a revolver in his right.

“We were being hijacked. The intruder barked: ‘Koi hoshiyari nahin karega. Koi hilega nahin. Tayyara hamare kabaze main hain. (Nobody move or try to act smart, we have seized the aircraft.)’”, Jaggia recalled. At 4.53 pm, the aircraft was hijacked.

What happened to the IC-814 in Amritsar?

According to the statement from then Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh in Parliament on March 1, 2000, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) in Delhi first received information of the hijacking at 4.56 pm. This was thanks to Captain Sharan sending a coded message unseen by the hijackers, who demanded that the aircraft be taken to Lahore, Pakistan.

After the ATC refused permission to land in Lahore, the flight reached Amritsar at 7 pm and the hijackers demanded refuelling. Writing in The Indian Express in 2019, then Director General of Police (DGP) for Punjab Sarabjit Singh recalled how he refused to allow refuelling, finding it odd that the aircraft engines were running throughout.

Singh was also communicating with the Central Crisis Management Group (CMG). Assisted by the central committee at the ATC in New Delhi, it was procedurally mandated to take charge in case of a hijacking. Its members included Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) H.S. Khola, senior intelligence and security officials and aviation experts.

Singh recalled how Shyamal Datta, then director of the Intelligence Bureau, asked if Singh could immobilise the aircraft, “One suggestion being that we could maybe puncture the tyres by shooting at them. It was an outlandish suggestion, and I don’t know if others were listening at the other end when I used some expletives and asked him if he thought those were cycle tyres. They were huge tubeless tyres, multiple to each wheel, and puncturing them would have set off huge explosions and possibly not had any impact.”

As the government strictly believed in ensuring no passenger casualties, its options were limited.

Former Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) chief and CMG member AS Dulat said earlier this month that there was no definite solution proposed in the CMG, either. “The Home Minister came, Principal Secretary, NSA (National Security Adviser) came… nobody decided anything……and then we blamed DGP Punjab [Sarabjit Singh]… He said ‘my Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had told me I don’t want bloodshed in Amritsar. Let it pass if it has to pass’. But Delhi took no decision and after the plane took off from Amritsar everybody blamed everybody,” said Dulat.

Suddenly, the IC-814 took off after about 47 minutes from Amritsar, as hijackers grew suspicious of what was unfolding. The aircraft landed at Lahore at 8.01 pm. “Permission to land was given only when the pilot informed ATC Lahore that he would be forced to crash-land the aircraft as fuel had got exhausted,” the External Affairs Minister’s statement said. The aircraft was then refuelled.

At 10.32 pm, it took off for Kabul, Afghanistan. However, Kabul informed them that there were no night landing facilities and the aircraft thus headed for Dubai, landing at 01.32 am on December 25. Following discussions between the UAE authorities and the hijackers, 27 passengers were released. The dead body of one passenger named Rupin Katyal, who had been stabbed by the hijackers earlier, was also off-loaded. The released passengers reached India on a special flight.

The final negotiations

The aircraft then took off at 6.20 am and landed at the Kandahar airport in Afghanistan at 8.33 am. It stayed there until the hijacking ended on December 31.

Jaswant Singh said he also reached out to countries in the region for help in diffusing the situation. Direct discussions between hijackers and Indian officials happened between December 27 and 31, with Singh going to Kandahar.

Initially, the hijackers demanded the release of 36 terrorists held in India, including Masood Azhar who later founded the Jaish-e-Mohammed — involved in the 2019 Pulwama attacks. They also asked for the coffin of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) leader Sajad Afghani and US$ 200 million.

India released Masood Azhar in 1999. (Express archives)

The Taliban government in Afghanistan, despite not being recognised by India, was also involved in the negotiations. It “advised the hijackers that their demands for money and the coffin of Sajad Afghani were unIslamic. These were, therefore, dropped by the hijackers. Our urging thereafter that a demand for release of terrorists was also un-Islamic was not pressed by the Taliban with the hijackers,” the MEA said.

Ultimately, the Indian government released three terrorists: Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Zargar and Omar Shaikh. Taliban said they would then have the aircraft under their jurisdiction. Despite the Indian government asking for the hijackers and the released terrorists to be treated as criminals under the law, the Taliban let them leave Afghanistan after 10 hours.

Hostage passengers and crew reached Delhi via two special flights. The hijacked aircraft returned to New Delhi on January 1, 2000.

Aftermath

The Indian government said in its statement, “The hijacking incident has once again highlighted the complicity of Pakistan and of organisations patronised and supported by it in terrorist acts against India.” It said the police arrested four operatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) of Pakistan in Mumbai. The operatives belonged to the HuM.

“Their interrogation has established that the hijacking was masterminded by Pakistan’s ISI with the assistance of the Harkat. It was further revealed that all the five hijackers were also Pakistanis. The hijackers are now believed to be in Pakistan,” the government said.

The incident also led to criticism of the Central government’s role. Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, then the Civil Aviation Minister, later said the decision-making largely happened within the Prime Minister’s Office and the CMG was not kept in the loop.

Dulat wrote in his 2015 book Kashmir — The Vajpayee Years about the incident critically, recalling how then Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was against the release of terrorists. “I will not let this Kashmiri fellow (Zargar) go, he’s a killer. He will not be released,’’ Abdullah had reportedly said. The opposition Congress launched an attack against the BJP, over the decision to release terrorists.

Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader and a Union Minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet during the incident, claimed there was no option left: “Anyone who is criticising that decision should come out openly and say we should have sacrificed the lives of passengers held and not released the terrorists. There was absolutely no other option, except to brittle down their demand as much as we could through negotiations and then the very minimum had to be accepted.”

Who is Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway which attained a $1 trillion market cap?

Warren Buffett is well-regarded in investment circles for his acumen and business principles which have helped him amass at least $146 billion in personal wealth. His is also the only non-tech company to have hit the $1 trillion milestone.

Written by Anagha Jayakumar

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 12:51 IST

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. (File Photo - Reuters)

American multinational conglomerate and holding company, Berkshire Hathaway became the first non-tech company to attain $1 trillion in market capitalisation on Wednesday (August 28). This comes mere weeks after the company sold nearly half of its shares in Apple, which led to it amassing $280 billion in cash holdings.

Known as the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett is well-regarded in investment circles for his insight and acumen which has helped him accumulate a personal fortune of $146 billion, according to Forbes.

A keen mind for business

Born in 1930 to congressman and stockbroker Howard Buffett, Warren took a keen interest in business early in life. He made his first investment as a 14-year-old, using up his savings from selling soft drinks and newspapers to buy 40 acres of land, which he then rented.

Buffett completed his Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska, and later pursued his Master’s in Economics from Columbia University, following a rejection from Harvard Business School. His stints as an investment analyst at his father’s firm, Buffett-Falk & Co. in 1951-54 and as a securities analyst at Graham-Newman Corp. in 1955-56, as well as a few investment partnerships, were immensely successful: he was already a millionaire as a 30-year-old in 1962.

He met Charlie Munger in 1959, who would become a life-long collaborator and fellow advocate of value investing. Together, the duo in 1965 would revitalise Berkshire Hathaway, then a struggling textile company in New England, first by using its earnings to fund other investments, and then as a brand that would become a holding company once the textile business was closed.

Today, Buffett is regarded as a maverick investor driven by business principles that rely on a steady, thorough analysis of the market. Foremost of these principles is value investing.

Value investing

While in Columbia, he was mentored by Benjamin Graham who is regarded as the father of value investing. Buffett would become the fiercest advocate of this principle, which involves selecting stocks that may be underestimated by the stock market and seem to be trading at less than their intrinsic value.

This is based on an understanding of the stock market’s volatility, which results in ‘overreactions’ that may not indicate a company’s long-term fundamentals. Value investors stand to profit by purchasing stocks at discounted prices, and are generally long-term investors of high-quality companies.

How Berkshire Hathaway became such a valuable company

Buffett’s acquisition of the textile business was driven by spite, following a failed transaction with its previous owner, Seabury Stanton. He quickly realised that acquiring a textile business was a futile endeavour given the limited opportunities for growth in this industry, and sought to diversify his holdings.

Relying on the value investing principle he sought out such companies which seemed to be underdogs in the field — experiencing a spot of trouble even as their business fundamentals remained sound. Thus Berkshire came to acquire a diverse array of companies such as GEICO, Fruit of the Loom, Coca-Cola, Duracell and the World Book Encyclopaedia.

Over the years Buffett has invested in companies for the long haul with the intent of holding on to his investments long enough to see them appreciate over time. Munger, who joined Berkshire Hathaway as its vice chairman in 1978, described their shared philosophy for investment thus, “We have three baskets for investing: yes, no, and too tough to understand.”

For a long time, this meant avoiding investments in tech companies, a move that bore fruit when Berkshire stayed steady during the Dot Com Boom and Bust of the late 90s-early aughts. However, he reversed this position in 2016 when he began buying Apple shares, driven by the devotion Apple users show to their devices and viewing the company itself as a “moat,” a business that does not stand to lose its market share while open to growing profit margins.

Buffett has often credited Munger with directing him away from “cigar-butt” investments, mediocre companies that were about to shut shop and could be readily snatched up. “The blueprint he gave me was simple: forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices; instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices,” Buffett wrote to shareholders in 2015.

National Sports Day: Story of Dhyan Chand, India’s first sporting superstar

National Sports Day 2024: Who was Dhyan Chand? Why does he mean so much to Indian sports? On the 119th anniversary of his birth, here is the story of India’s first sporting superstar.

Written by Tushar Bhaduri

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 20:31 IST

Dhyan Chand with the ball in the 1936 Olympic semi-finals versus France. (Wikimedia Commons)

The National Sports Day is celebrated on August 29 in the memory of Dhyan Chand, the first superstar of Indian hockey, and arguably India’s first sporting superstar.

Here is why he means so much to Indian sports.

Wizard of the game

Quite simply, Dhyan Chand, born in Allahabad in 1905, was the first superstar of hockey, and considered a wizard of the game. He was the chief protagonist as India won three consecutive Olympic hockey gold medals — Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932, and Berlin 1936. He is said to have wowed the watching public with his sublime skills, intricate dribbling and gluttonous appetite for scoring.

During those tournaments, there was no team that could compete with India — and most of India’s matches were won with huge victory margins. India beat hosts the Netherlands 3-0 in the 1928 final, the United States were thrashed by a scarcely-believable margin of 24-1 in the 1932 gold medal match, while Germany went down 8-1 in the 1936 decider.

In all, Dhyan Chand played 12 Olympic matches, and scored an unbelievable 33 goals — just shy of scoring a hattrick each game!

Anecdotes and apocryphal stories

Many stories surrounding Dhyan Chand’s prowess with a hockey stick are difficult to confirm. Some are definitely apocryphal.

It is said that once his sublime skill and close control of the ball aroused such suspicion that his stick was broken to see whether there was a magnet inside. One has to remember that the game was played on natural grass in those days in contrast to the astro turf now, and the surface would often be bumpy and uneven. This made ball control more difficult for lesser mortals.

During the 1936 Berlin Games, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler — a proponent of Aryan racial superiority — was so enamoured with Dhyan Chand’s play that he offered him German citizenship and the post of Colonel in his country’s Army, a proposition that the Indian ace is said to have promptly refused.

A shining light in Indian sports

Dhyan Chand played during India’s pre-independence years, a time when the local population was subjugated and made to feel inferior by the ruling British. This is what gave his achievements on the field even more importance for Indians. Seeing an Indian dominating Europeans in a sport invented by them evoked a lot of pride.

Moreover, for a long time, hockey was the only sport in which India consistently excelled at the international and Olympic stage. In fact, starting from Amsterdam 1928, India won seven of the eight hockey gold medals at the Games. Apart from K D Jadhav’s wrestling bronze at Helsinki 1952, India had to wait until Atlanta 1996 and tennis player Leander Paes for an Olympic medal in a sport other than hockey.

There were other great contemporary players like K D Singh ‘Babu’, Roop Singh, and Balbir Singh, but Dhyan Chand’s name was always taken first.

Recognition of his achievements

Apart from August 29 being celebrated as the National Sports Day, numerous awards and other honours are named after Dhyan Chand. In 2021, the Narendra Modi government renamed the erstwhile Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour, after Dhyan Chand. An award for lifetime achievement in sport was already named after him.

New Delhi’s National Stadium was renamed Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in 2002.

This is an updated version of an explainer originally published in 2021.

What are jiu-jitsu & aikido, practised by Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra

Both jiu-jitsu and aikido are forms of martial arts which originated in Japan, with an emphasis on grappling, weight and energy manipulation.

By: Explained Desk

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 13:01 IST

Rahul Gandhi has said a "Bharat Dojo Yatra" is coming soon. (Screengrab/PTI)

Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, said on Thursday (August 29) that during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra earlier this year he had “a daily routine of practising jiu-jitsu every evening” which brought together young martial arts students from towns where they stayed.

“Our goal was to introduce these young minds to the beauty of the ‘Gentle Art’ — a harmonious blend of meditation, jiu-jitsu, Aikido, and non-violent conflict resolution techniques. We aimed to instill in them the value of transforming violence into gentleness, giving them the tools to build a more compassionate and safer society,” he posted on X, adding that a “Bharat Dojo Yatra is coming soon”.

During the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, as we journeyed across thousands of kilometers, we had a daily routine of practicing jiu-jitsu every evening at our campsite. What began as a simple way to stay fit quickly evolved into a community activity, bringing together fellow yatris and… pic.twitter.com/Zvmw78ShDX

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 29, 2024

Dojo in the Japanese language refers to a place of learning martial arts, somewhat like an akhada for kushti (wrestling) in India.

Here is a brief introduction to the martial arts that Rahul referred to.

Jujutsu: the ‘gentle art’

A family of martial arts originating in Japan, jujutsu translates to “gentle art” — “ju” means “soft/ supple/ gentle” and “jutsu” means “art/technique”. Jiu-jitsu is a somewhat inaccurate (in terms of pronunciation), albeit popular Romanisation of the Japanese word.

The most commonly accepted story of jujutsu’s origin dates to late 16th century Japan, during the age of the samurai — Japan’s warrior class which held significant political power between the 12th and 19th centuries.

It is believed that samurai warriors developed various grappling and self-defence techniques for situations in which they lost their weapons (the legendary katana swords) during battle.

Since striking with bare hands against heavily armoured opponents — as the samurai were during battle — was ineffective, practitioners came up with more efficient ways of neutralising the opponent in the form of pins, joint locks, and throws. At the heart of these techniques was the principle of manipulating the opponent’s energy against them, rather than directly opposing it.

Jujutsu’s many offshoots

Over time, as jujutsu became popular in Japan and overseas, multiple offshoots were born, which influenced various other combat sports. These include:

- Judo, which was developed in the late 19th century from several traditional styles of jujutsu, and became an Olympic sport in the 1964 Tokyo Games;

- Sambo, a combat sport developed by the Soviet Red Army in the 1920s to improve soldiers’ hand-to-hand combat abilities;

- Brazilian jiu-jitsu was developed in the 1920s, and is today one of the most popular self-defence styles, which revolves around the principle of a smaller, weaker person defeating a bigger, stronger opponent with the help of leverage and weight distribution; and

- MMA or mixed martial arts, the most popular combat sport today, borrows heavily from jujutsu and other styles which it has influenced.

Interest in jujutsu, especially the modern Brazilian form, skyrocketed after Royce Gracie’s legendary performance in the first United Fighting Championship (UFC) in 1993. Gracie methodically defeated much larger and stronger opponents while barely throwing around any kicks and punches, and relying instead on submission holds.

Aikido: The art of not hurting one’s foe

Aikido is an offshoot of jujutsu. It was developed by martial artist Morihei Ueshiba in the early 20th century, which makes it among the youngest of Japan’s many martial arts. Aikido literally means the “way of harmonising energy”, and is different from most other martial arts.

It takes jujutsu’s principle of manipulating an opponent’s energy to its logical extreme. Aikido’s goal is to end conflict non-violently — to deflect strikes rather than overpower one’s adversary, and to “match the opponent’s force”. The idea is to not only defend oneself, but to also protect or not hurt the attacker.

According to a phrase often used by Ueshiba, “true victory, final victory over oneself, here and now” — meaning that an Aikido practitioner’s primary goal is to overcome oneself rather than cultivating violence or aggression.

This is why there are no aikido competitions. Rather, practitioners carry out demonstrations, and engage in a number of practices for their holistic mental and physical growth.

Some have criticised aikido’s worth as a real-world fighting technique, arguing that aikido practitioners cannot hold their own against other, more violent forms of fighting. However, others argue that the skills and discipline that aikido inculcates are extremely important not just for self-defence but also for life.

Rahul Gandhi is a black belt in aikido, which denotes the highest level of technical proficiency in the martial art.

Why govt has strengthened security for RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, brought his cover on par with Amit Shah’s

Z+ is the highest level of security, but in case of some protectees, an additional ASL layer of cover is mandated based on the threat perception.

Written by Mahender Singh Manral

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 13:01 IST

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) addresses the 101st anniversary of Lokmanya Seva Sangh at Vile Parle in Mumbai on 27 March 2024. (Express File photo - Sankhadeep Banerjee)

Following receipt of fresh threat inputs from intelligence agencies, “Advance Security Liaison” (ASL) drill has been added to RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s security, strengthening his existing ‘Z+’ category cover. Home Minister Amit Shah is the only other ASL protectee.

What ASL protection entails

The ASL drill is focused on preparation and management of security measures to ensure the safety of the protectee. A special team visits the location to assess security arrangements ahead of the arrival of the protectee. The team identifies shortcomings, makes a threat analysis, and assesses the planning and coordination with local police.

The ASL protocol requires the district administration, police, health department, and other local agencies to collaborate to ensure the protectee’s security.

The protocol mandates the protectee’s travel only by specially designed aircraft, and thorough anti-sabotage inspections and multi-layered security rings.

Reason for ASL on top of Z+

Ten individuals are currently covered by Z+ security — the highest level of security cover — provided by personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). The additional ASL layer is provided only to some Z+ protectees, based on the analysis of the threat perception for them.

The CISF also provides protection to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, and to Keshav Kunj, the RSS office in Delhi. The CISF provides varying levels of security to some 200 individuals in all.

Mohan Bhagwat’s security

Security agencies have recently received inputs that certain banned outfits may target the RSS chief.

The ASL drill was so far initiated only during his visits to certain sensitive and vulnerable locations. However, after central agencies observed some shortcomings, the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered a security review.

Following completion of the review and assessment of the threat, fresh directions were issued on August 16. All states and Union Territories have been informed of the security upgrade for Bhagwat.

Mahender Singh Manral

Mahender Singh Manral is an Assistant Editor with the national bureau of The Indian Express. He is known for his impactful and breaking stories. He covers the Ministry of Home Affairs, Investigative Agencies, National Investigative Agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, Law Enforcement Agencies, Paramilitary Forces, and internal security. Prior to this, Manral had extensively reported on city-based crime stories along with that he also covered the anti-corruption branch of the Delhi government for a decade. He is known for his knack for News and a detailed understanding of stories. He also worked with Mail Today as a senior correspondent for eleven months. He has also worked with The Pioneer for two years where he was exclusively covering crime beat. During his initial days of the career he also worked with The Statesman newspaper in the national capital, where he was entrusted with beats like crime, education, and the Delhi Jal Board. A graduate in Mass Communication, Manral is always in search of stories that impact lives. ... Read More

What Australia’s new cap on number of international students means; its possible impact on Indians

Australia’s 2.7 lakh cap for new international students in 2025 is lower than admissions over the past five years.

Written by Raakhi Jagga

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 13:02 IST

Australia has also recently more-than-doubled the visa processing fee for international students. (File)

Australia’s Education Minister Jason Clare on Tuesday (August 27) announced plans to introduce a National Planning Level (NPL) to cap the number of new international students at 2.7 lakh for the calendar year 2025, pending parliamentary approval.

This cap marks the lowest intake in the past five years, and a significant decrease from the 5.61 lakh international students who started their studies in 2023. The announcement comes merely a month after a hike in Australia’s visa processing fee came into effect on July 1.

Here is what this means, and how it will impact Indians.

What the 2025 cap entails

Of the maximum 2.7 lakh new international students who will be admitted in 2025, publicly funded universities will admit 1.45 lakh students, maintaining the 2023 levels in terms of admissions. The number of new intakes will go down elsewhere — the vocational education and training (VET) sector will enroll 95,000 new students, while other universities and non-university providers will see their intake capped at 30,000.

According to the Australia’s Education Department, 5.61 lakh international students were admitted in 2023, 3.88 lakh in 2022, 2.82 lakh in 2021, 3.96 lakh in 2020, and 5.19 lakh in 2019. Moreover, between January and May 2024, the total commencements has been around 2.89 lakhs — the highest on record for this period, and 16% higher than the corresponding period in 2019. Another intake of students in November is pending, and might see the total number of admissions balloon to even higher than in 2023.

Thus, the student intake in Australia in 2025 will be the lowest in the past five years — and by a lot, especially if one keeps in mind that the Covid-19 pandemic would have depressed admissions between 2020 to as late as 2022.

Some categories of students are, however, excluded from the cap. These include school students, those pursuing research degrees, students undertaking standalone English language courses (ELICOS), non-award students, government-sponsored scholars, students that are part of an Australian transnational education arrangement or twinning arrangement, key partner foreign government scholarship holders, and students from the Asia Pacific and Timor Leste.

Cap comes after visa fee hike

From July 1, 2024 onwards, Australia more than doubled its visa processing fee for international students from AUD 710 to AUD 1,600 (as of exchange rate on August 29, Rs 40,524 to Rs 91,321). This was the steepest hike in the past five years.

The visa application fee in 2020-21 was AUD 620, which was increased to AUD 630 in 2021-22 and, further to 650 AUD in 2022-23. It had climbed to AUD 710 in 2023-24.

Australia’s visa-processing fee for international students is the highest when it comes to popular study destinations for Indians. Gaurav Chaudhary, a Ludhiana based immigration consultant, said that the Canadian student visa costs around the equivalent of AUD 170, the US student visa costs AUD 290, the New Zealand student visa costs AUD 345, and the UK student visa costs AUD 940.

Lose-lose for students, universities

The capping will decrease the number of international applicants to Australian colleges and universities, just like they have done in Canada after it introduced its own caps. The number of Indian students heading to Australia will go down, and shrink the business of immigration in India, Chaudhary noted.

And this comes on the back of moves by the Australian government to curb migration into the country over the past six months or so. Beginning on January 1 this year, Australia had introduced higher IELTS band score requirements, and the Genuine Student Test for applicants.

Currently, Australia is home to over 7 lakh overseas students, many of whom tend to prolong their stay in the country by enrolling into various courses, one after another, while they apply for permanent residency (PR). The government’s recent changes might be an attempt to “fix the country’s migration system”, consultants in India feel.

At the same time, universities too might be adversely impacted. The Group of Eight (Go8) universities in Australia, a group of Australia’s top research-intensive universities, has termed the capping as “bad policy”.

How ISRO designed humanoid skull which will be used in Gaganyaan

The design for Vyomitra’s skull, fashioned by ISRO’s Inertial Systems Unit  in the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, was finalised recently.

Written by Anjali Marar

Bengaluru | Updated: August 30, 2024 13:02 IST

Final skull design with lattice structures. Journal of Institution of Engineers, India

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) uncrewed Gaganyaan mission in 2025 will carry the female half humanoid Vyomitra (literally “space friend”). The design for Vyomitra’s skull, fashioned by ISRO’s Inertial Systems Unit  in the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, was finalised recently.

What are humanoids?

Humanoids (or half-humanoids) are robotic systems designed to resemble humans — Vyomitra comes with movable arms, a torso, a face, and a neck — and function autonomously in space.

In general, robotic systems are used to assist astronauts in performing repetitive and/or dangerous tasks in space, like cleaning of solar panels or fixing faulty equipment located outside the spacecraft. This protects astronauts, and allows them to work on the scientific mission at hand.

Why will ISRO send a humanoid to space next year?

Next year’s mission is primarily designed to be a technology demonstration of the Vyomitra. It will see the half humanoid use its robotic arms to perform operations at the crew console, visually monitor various systems inside the crew module, and communicate with the Earth-based mission control team.

ISRO will evaluate the performance of the robot’s technology to measure the likely impacts of space travel on human beings, ahead of India’s first crewed mission planned for later in 2025.

How did ISRO design the humanoid skull for Vyomitra?

The recently-designed Vyomitra skull will house the key components of the robot. It has been made using an aluminium alloy (AlSi10Mg) known for its high flexibility, light weight, heat resistance, and mechanical properties. This alloy is commonly used for making automotive engines and aerospace components.

Crucially, the skull has been designed to be incredibly sturdy, capable of withstanding some extreme vibrational loads that are experienced during a rocket launch. The high strength of the aluminium alloy offers a yield strength of more than 220 MegaPascals (1 MPa = 1 million pascals). Yield strength refers to the maximum stress that can be applied to a material before it begins to deform permanently.

The humanoid skull model has dimensions of 200mm x 200mm, and weighs only 800 grams.

AlSi10Mg is also amenable to the Additive Manufacturing (or AM) technique. This is how the humanoid skull was created. AM enables easy induction of lattice structures, as incorporated in the humanoid skull design. Importantly, it helps in significant reduction of the overall weight of the final product. Unlike conventional manufacturing techniques, AM follows a process in which a desired part or product is created in a layered manner, a commonly deployed mechanism in 3D printing.

Sturdy yet flexible, lightweight materials are often used to build payloads for space missions. This is because heavier the payload, more the fuel required to reach space, and larger the rocket needed.

10 years of Jan Dhan: How the scheme has had a transformative impact on financial, banking sector

Since its launch in 2014, the government’s flagship financial inclusion scheme has resulted in the opening of more than half a billion bank accounts.

Written by Harikishan Sharma

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 13:02 IST

PM Narendra Modi and then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at the launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana in New Delhi on August 28, 2014. (Anil Sharma/Express Archive)

As the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) completed 10 years on Wednesday (August 28), Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the “momentous” achievement of the scheme that has been “paramount in boosting financial inclusion and giving dignity to crores of people, especially women, youth, and the marginalised communities”.

The PMJDY was launched on August 28, 2014, as a national mission for financial inclusion. Over the last decade, 53.13 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened, with 29.56 crore women beneficiaries, more than the population of the European Union, and almost the same as the population of the United States respectively, the government said.

I-Day announcement

The PMJDY was one of the early initiatives of the Modi government. The Prime Minister announced the scheme in his first Independence Day address on August 15, 2014.

“I have come here with a pledge to launch a scheme on this festival of freedom. It will be called Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana,” Modi said from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

“I wish to connect the poorest citizens of the country with the facility of bank accounts through this yojana… This yojana will open the window. …An account holder under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana will be given a debit card. An insurance of one lakh rupees will be guaranteed with that debit card for each poor family…,” he said.

Features of the Jan Dhan Yojana

The scheme was launched on August 28. Banks organised 77,892 camps around the country, and opened about 1.8 crore accounts. Guinness World Records recognised the achievement: “The most bank accounts opened in 1 week as part of a financial inclusion campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by Department of Financial Services, Government of India from 23 to 29 August 2014.”

The launch of PMJDY provided an unprecedented boost to the government’s campaign for financial inclusion, at a scale never seen before. Earlier governments too, had taken initiatives for financial inclusion — for instance, the previous UPA government began a scheme of no-frills bank accounts for people who did not have an account — but they had failed to gain traction.

* The foremost objective of the PMJDY was to open a Basic Savings Bank Account for unbanked individuals. There was no requirement to maintain any minimum balance in PMJDY accounts, and these accounts earned interest on deposits like regular accounts.

* PMJDY account-holders were given RuPay debit cards.

* An accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh was available with RuPay cards issued to PMJDY account holders. The cover was enhanced to Rs 2 lakh for new PMJDY accounts opened after August 28, 2018.

* Eligible PMJDY account holders can avail overdraft (OD) facility up to Rs 10,000.

* PMJDY accounts are also eligible for Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Atal Pension Yojana (APY), and the Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Bank (MUDRA) scheme.

Progress of the scheme

As of August 14, 2024, the number of PMJDY accounts stands at 53.13 crore — including 35.37 crore accounts in rural and semi-urban areas, and 17.76 crore accounts in urban areas — and total deposits at Rs 2,31,235.97 crore. More than half the PMJDY accounts (29.56 crore) are in the names of women. A total 36.14 crore RuPay debit cards have been issued to PMJDY account holders. (See charts)

Progress of the Jan Dhan scheme.

Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts.

The largest share of PMJDY accounts is with public sector banks (41.42 crore accounts until August 14), followed by Regional Rural Banks (9.89 crore accounts), private sector banks (1.64 crore), and Rural Cooperative Banks (0.19 crore).

A statewise analysis of PMJDY accounts shows the most accounts have been opened in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state (9.45 crore), and the fewest in Lakshadweep (only 9,256 accounts). There are 15 states apart from UP with more than 1 crore PMJDY bank accounts: Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Assam, Odisha, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Haryana.

Impact of Jan Dhan Yojana

The scheme, which is one of the components of the JAM trinity of PMJDY, Aadhaar, and mobile, has had a transformative impact on the financial and banking sectors of the economy.

* First, the opening of more than half a billion bank accounts has fuelled demand for banking services, encouraging commercial banks to expand their infrastructure in recent years.

The number of branches of scheduled commercial banks in the country has increased by 46 per cent to 1,54,983 in 2023 from 1,05,992 in 2013. Of the total 1.54 lakh branches, 35 per cent are in rural areas, 28 per cent in semi-urban areas, 18 per cent in urban areas, and 19 per cent in metropolitan areas.

The number of ATMs has increased by 30 per cent from 1,66,894 at the end of June 2014 to 2,16,914 in 2024. The number of Points of Sale (POS) has increased from 10.88 lakh to 89.67 lakh during the last 10 years.

* Second, the rollout of payment solutions such as UPI — launched two years after the PMJDY — has eased and increased banking transactions.

The Reserve Bank of India, in its Report on Currency and Finance released on June 29, 2024, noted, “India’s financial inclusion initiatives received a fillip when PMJDY was launched in 2014… The digital technological revolution widened the usability of bank accounts from a traditional deposit or credit account to a payment intermediary. As per the World Bank’s Findex database, 78 per cent of Indian adults (population with 15 years or more of age) had a bank account in 2021 as compared to 53 per cent in 2014.”

* Third, PMJDY accounts have become the bedrock of the government’s DBT architecture. While this has ensured faster delivery of benefits to the poor, the JAM trinity has played a crucial role in improving efficiency by weeding out ineligible or fake beneficiaries.

In fact, DBT and other governance reforms resulted in a gain of Rs 3.48 lakh crore in the implementation of government schemes including MG-NREGS and PM-Kisan until March 2023, according to data from the RBI’s Report on Currency and Finance.

Harikishan Sharma

Harikishan Sharma, Senior Assistant Editor at The Indian Express' National Bureau, specializes in reporting on governance, policy, and data. He covers the Prime Minister’s Office and pivotal central ministries, such as the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Cooperation, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Rural Development, and Ministry of Jal Shakti. His work primarily revolves around reporting and policy analysis. In addition to this, he authors a weekly column titled "STATE-ISTICALLY SPEAKING," which is prominently featured on The Indian Express website. In this column, he immerses readers in narratives deeply rooted in socio-economic, political, and electoral data, providing insightful perspectives on these critical aspects of governance and society. ... Read More

Himachal Pradesh passes Bill to raise women’s marriage age from 18 to 21 years: What happens next?

What amendments has the Bill introduced to the PCM Act? How will the Bill’s amendments to a central law come into force?

Written by Ajoy Sinha Karpuram , Saurabh Parashar

New Delhi, Shimla | Updated: August 30, 2024 20:32 IST

While presenting the Bill in the Assembly on Tuesday, Health, Social Justice, and Empowerment Minister Dhani Ram Shandil said it was necessary to raise the minimum age of marriage for women to provide opportunities to them. (Via Canva)

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday (August 27) passed a Bill to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years. The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Himachal Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2024, was passed by voice vote. The Bill amended the Prohibition of Child Marriage (PCM) Act, which was passed by Parliament in 2006.

What amendments has the Bill introduced to the PCM Act? How will the Bill’s amendments to a central law come into force?

Why did the Himachal Pradesh Assembly pass the Bill?

While presenting the Bill in the Assembly on Tuesday, Health, Social Justice, and Empowerment Minister Dhani Ram Shandil said it was necessary to raise the minimum age of marriage for women to provide opportunities to them.

“Some girls still marry at a young age, which hinders their education and ability to progress in life… Additionally, many women are unable to achieve success in their careers due to early marriage,” he said.

The minister also highlighted that early marriage and motherhood often severely impact the health of women. According to the ‘Statement of Objects and Reasons’ provided with the Bill,  “The early marriages…act as a hindrance not only in the progress of their (women’s) career but also in their physical development.”

What amendments has the Bill introduced to the PCM Act?

As it stands, Section 2(a) of the PCM Act defines a “child” as someone “who, if male, has not completed twenty-one years of age, and if a female, has not completed eighteen years of age”. The Himachal Bill eliminates this distinction on the basis of age between “males” and “females”. It defines a “child” as “a male or female who has not completed twenty-one years of age”.

The Bill also amends Section 2(b) of the PCM Act, which defines “child marriage” as “a marriage to which either of the contracting parties is a child”. The Bill has added a clause giving it overriding effect over “anything contrary or inconsistent therewith contained in any other law…including any custom or usage or practice governing the parties”.

This means that the new marriage age for women will apply to everyone in Himachal Pradesh regardless of what any other law may state, or even if the religious or cultural practices of the individuals getting married allow legal minors to get married. The Bill introduces Section 18A to the PCM Act, which gives the same overriding effect to the entire central law and its provisions.

The Bill increases the time-period for filing a petition to annul a marriage. Under Section 3 of the PCM Act, the “contracting party who was a child at the time of the marriage” can file a petition to annul the marriage within two years of attaining majority (before they turn 20 for women, and 23 for men). The Bill increases this period to five years, allowing both women and men to file petitions to annul the marriage before they turn 23 years old (the minimum age for marriage at 21 years is higher than the age of majority at 18 years).

How will the Bill’s amendments to the PCM Act come into force?

The Concurrent List — or List III under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India — contains a list of subjects that both the central and state governments can pass laws on. Entry 5 of the Concurrent List comprises a number of subjects including “ marriage and divorce; infants and minors;…all matters in respect of which parties in judicial proceedings were immediately before the commencement of this Constitution subject to their personal law”. This allows both the Centre and states to enact laws to address child marriage.

Typically, under Article 200 of the Constitution, a Bill passed by a state Assembly will be handed over to the Governor of that state for her assent. The Governor can then declare that she assents to the Bill (making it a law), return the Bill for reconsideration, or “reserve” it for consideration by the President. The President can then declare that she assents or withholds assent to the Bill, or direct the Governor to send it back for reconsideration.

However, the Bill passed by Himachal Pradesh amends the PCM Act by introducing a different marriage age for women, making it inconsistent with the Act passed by Parliament. Under Article 254(1) of the Constitution, if the state legislature enacts a law dealing with a subject in the Concurrent List and that law is “repugnant” — inconsistent or contradictory — with a central law, then the repugnant portion of the state law will be “void”.

The exception to this is provided under Article 254(2). If the Bill in question is repugnant to an earlier or existing law made by Parliament, the Bill must be reserved for the President’s consideration and needs to receive her assent as per Article 201. Only then can the repugnant provision in the state law be valid. So, for the Himachal Pradesh Bill to come into force, Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla must reserve the Bill for President Droupadi Murmu’s consideration, who must then decide to give her assent to the Bill.

This process was seen in action in the case of Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill, which provided common provisions for subjects such as marriage, divorce, etc. for everyone residing in the state.

These subjects were previously governed by personal laws (enacted by Parliament) and the customs of residents depending on their religious or cultural identity. The Bill passed by the state Assembly in February became law only after President Murmu gave her assent to it in March.

Who are the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the country’s largest Islamist party?

The Jamaat was barred from contesting elections in 2013 on the ground that its charter violated Bangladesh's constitution by “opposing secularism”.

Written by Arjun Sengupta

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 12:46 IST

Dr Shafiqur Rahman, Ameer (Supremo) of Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami during an interview. (PTI Photo)

Bangladesh’s interim government on Wednesday (August 28) lifted the ban on the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, paving the way for its return to active politics.

The Sheikh Hasina government had cracked down on the Jamaat for being a “militant and terrorist” organisation, and hanged or imprisoned many of its top leaders for “war crimes” committed during the 1971 Liberation War. The Jamaat was barred from contesting elections in 2013 on the ground that its charter violated Bangladesh’s constitution by “opposing secularism”.

On Wednesday, interim Law Affairs Adviser Asif Nazrul said the ban on the Jamaat was “politically motivated” and “not based on ideology”, The Associated Press reported.

Largest Islamist party

On its website, the Jamaat says it wants to “safeguard the independence, territorial sovereignty and Islamic values of Bangladesh”, and “implement the Islamic code of life… with a view to turning Bangladesh into an Islamic welfare state…”.

Bangladesh’s “largest Islamic party” traces its roots to the Jamaat-e-Islami established in Lahore in 1941 by Islamic theologian Abul Ala Maududi. Its foundational goal was to promote Islamic values in India, and eventually establish an unified Islamic state in the subcontinent.

The Partition — which the Jamaat actively opposed — dashed its original plans. After 1947, the organisation split on country lines. In India, the Jamaat was largely relegated to political irrelevance, but its influence grew in both wings of Pakistan.

Role in Liberation War

While India was partitioned on religious lines, Pakistan struggled to hold together its geographically separated and culturally dissimilar East and West. Soon, the Bengali-speaking people in the East rebelled against the dominance of the Urdu-speaking West Pakistani elite, and started to demand first greater autonomy, and eventually a separate country.

Jamaat, with its goal of keeping Muslims together, opposed the partition of Pakistan, and stood firmly with the (West) Pakistani establishment. It provided leadership and manpower to paramilitary organisations and committees established by the Pakistan Army to crush the freedom struggle.

These included the Al Shams and Al Badr armed groups, which were recruited from the Jamaat’s student wing, and the East Pakistan Central Peace Committee, also known as the Shanti Committee. Ghulam Azam, then leader of the Jamaat in East Pakistan, was one of the founding members of the Shanti Committee.

These “razakars” (collaborators), along with the Pakistan Army (largely made up of West Pakistani recruits) carried out innumerable atrocities and human rights violations during the Liberation War, including the targeted killing of Bengali intellectuals, torture, abductions, rapes, and attacks on the minority Hindus.

Some 3 million people are estimated to have been killed during the nine-month Liberation War, more than 200,000 women were raped, and about 10 million were forced to flee East Pakistan.

Activities in Bangladesh

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman banned all religious organisations from participating in politics. Many Jamaat leaders, including Ghulam Azam, fled the country to escape prosecution for their role during the war. The Jamaat was effectively wiped out from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh passed the International Crimes Tribunal Act in 1973 “to provide for the detention, prosecution and punishment of persons for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under the international law”.

But it would be decades before anyone would be actually prosecuted. Mujib was assassinated by a group of army officers in 1975, and Bangladesh then witnessed a series of coups, counter-coups, and military rule under various individuals. The Awami League remained out of power until 1996, and the Jamaat made a comeback during this time.

Ziaur Rahman, one of the individuals behind Mujib’s assassination and the 1975 coup, would eventually lift the prohibition on religious parties from entering politics, and his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) would ally with the revived Jamaat. His wife Khaleda Zia, who later became prime minister herself (1991-96, 2001-06), continued the alliance.

Crackdown by Hasina

The Jamaat had been rehabilitated during the Khaleda years, but its role during the Liberation War was not forgotten. After coming to power in late 2008, Hasina announced that she would use the 1973 Act to prosecute war criminals. This Act would be amended in 2009, and its ambit expanded.

On March 25, 2010, Hasina’s government announced the formation of a three-member tribunal, a seven-member investigation agency, and a twelve-member prosecution team to prosecute war criminals.

On February 5, 2013, Abdul Quader Mollah, who was a member of the Al Badr militia in 1971, was convicted of killing 344 civilians among other war crimes, and sentenced to life in prison. Following massive protests against the “lenient” punishment, the Bangladesh Supreme Court handed Mollah the death sentence. He was executed on December 12, 2013 — the first Jamaat leader to be hanged for war crimes.

Others followed suit: Mohommad Kamaruzzaman in April 2015, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed in November 2015, and Motiur Rahman Nizami in March 2016. Numerous others were imprisoned. Ghulam Azam, who had been repatriated during Khaleda’s first term, was given 90 years in prison, where he died in 2014.

The arrests and executions drew widespread international condemnation. The likes of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticised the flimsy process of the tribunal. Hasina’s critics alleged that the war crimes crackdown was a pretext to physically remove the opposition.

The Jamaat too, maintains this position, and denies any role in the atrocities of 1971.

Business

- DGTR recommends anti-dumping duty on aluminium foils imported from China

- We’re not getting into rate war, competition for deposits to continue: SBI Chairman

- Cotton exports to Bangladesh hit as Dhaka’s Western garment orders dry up

- Bank credit growth rises further to 15.1% as of July, deposits lag behind: RBI

- ONGC Videsh seeks US nod to operate projects in sanction-hit Venezuela under ‘Chevron model’

- APSEZ acquires 80% stake in global OSV operator Astro Offshore for $185 million

- Forex kitty swells by $7 billion to hit record high of $681.69 billion

- Key infra sectors’ growth slows down to 6.1 pc in July

- Sensex, Nifty extend gains to scale fresh peaks on firm global cues

- Entering your 40s? Here’s how to strategise your investments

- Stock market today: Sensex, Nifty hit all-time highs in early trade

- In new chip push, Centre ready with $15-billion blueprint

- ‘Next move in the rupee is towards 80, not 90’: Ruchir Sharma at Express Adda

DGTR recommends anti-dumping duty on aluminium foils imported from China

Anti-dumping investigations are conducted by countries to determine whether domestic industries have been harmed due to a surge in cheap imports. The Ministry of Finance makes the final decision on whether to impose duties.

Written by Ravi Dutta Mishra

New Delhi | August 31, 2024 04:50 IST

The industry warned that an anti-dumping duty would increase the cost of downstream finished goods, making the Indian downstream industry unviable.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Friday recommended the imposition of an anti-dumping duty on aluminium foils imported from China, after observing that Chinese imports had captured 30 per cent of the Indian market despite sufficient domestic capacity.

This follows a request for an inquiry from Hindalco, one of India’s largest aluminium manufacturing companies, on the grounds of injury to domestic companies. Other applicants included Shyam Sel & Power Ltd, Venkateshwara Electrocast Pvt. Ltd, and Ravi Raj Foils Ltd.

Anti-dumping investigations are conducted by countries to determine whether domestic industries have been harmed due to a surge in cheap imports. The Ministry of Finance makes the final decision on whether to impose duties.

The DGTR stated that imports of “aluminium foil up to 80 microns, excluding aluminium foil below 5.5 microns for non-capacitor applications,” are undercutting the prices of the domestic industry. This price undercutting has forced the domestic industry to reduce its selling price below the cost of production, the DGTR said.

The foil is used as a packaging material for the conservation and preservation of edible and food products. The recommended duty ranges between $619 per tonne and $873 per tonne.

“The combined capacities and production of these domestic producers during the period of investigation (POI) were 1,32,140 MT and 69,572 MT, respectively, against known Indian capacity and production of 2,89,735 MT and 1,26,495 MT. These companies thus collectively command about 45 per cent of capacity and 54 per cent of production in the POI,” the order dated 30 August read.

Notably, other companies, in their views submissions to the DGTR, warned against the “creation of a monopoly”.

“If duties are imposed, it will adversely affect downstream producers and lead to an inability to source the subject goods with good product quality and lead times, impacting the ability of downstream producers to meet customer demands. Due care should be taken to prevent the creation of a monopoly,” the industries’ submission to the DGTR stated.

The industry warned that an anti-dumping duty would increase the cost of downstream finished goods, making the Indian downstream industry unviable. Moreover, imports of finished goods from other countries would increase, causing injury to the flexible packaging industry in India.

Despite several efforts to curb imports from China, goods are increasingly making their way from the neighbouring country. Imports from China have already crossed $60 billion during the first seven months of 2024, which is 10 per cent higher than the $55 billion recorded during the same period last year. Imports from China in FY24 exceeded $100 billion.

We’re not getting into rate war, competition for deposits to continue: SBI Chairman

Banks have been witnessing a bigger growth in credit offtake and a sluggish growth in deposits of late.

Written by George Mathew

Mumbai | August 31, 2024 04:49 IST

Challa Sreenivasulu Setty

State Bank of India Chairman (SBI) CS Setty on Friday said most of the banks including SBI are not getting into a rate war but competition for deposits is likely to continue for some time amid the movement of funds to other asset classes.

Addressing the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) in Mumbai, Setty said, “It is a fact that due to the change in asset allocation of the customers, some movement of investments is going to other asset classes. So, obviously, increase in credit growth and savings to other asset classes is putting pressure on deposits of the banks.”

“We want to attract customers by way of improved service quality and some banks are looking at opening branches,” Setty said. Banks have been witnessing a bigger growth in credit offtake and a sluggish growth in deposits of late.

“Everyone is looking at how to get more value out of their existing customers and attract new customers by offering better quality of service. Essentially there will be some tweaking in interest rates particularly in the one-to-two-year bucket, which is the popular one. Competition for deposits is likely to continue for some time,” Setty said.

“Fortunately, we have very comfortable CD ratio, and we are not under pressure to reduce CD ratio. We have robust credit growth, and we expect 14-15 per cent credit growth,” he said. Even if we have 8-10 per cent deposit growth in SBI, because of the large base in absolute number, it will be larger than the absolute amount of credit growth, he said.

On the fintech sector, Setty said, “the good thing about fintech ecosystem is they are reshaping the way we do business. It is helping conventional players to re-imagine customer journey. The agility to deliver is a good factor of fintechs.”

“One suggestion for fintechs is – any solution that fintechs bring in, it should be available to scale. The scalability has to be brought in,” he said.

Sharing his views on AI (artificial intelligence) and Gen AI, Setty said, “we are widely using AI for quite some time. We were the first to have AI/ML based lending models on personal loans. We use AI extensively for lending, fraud management, KYC, proactive risk management and our approach to AI is enterprise-wide adoption of AI.”

As far as Gen AI is concerned, it is too early to say what will be the commercial impact of Gen AI in the BFSI space, essentially the first use case is to be knowledge based – how easily internal knowledge is available to employees, and efficient delivery of services, he said.

On the digital transformation of the SBI, Setty said, “SBI is a microcosm of India… it is as diversified as our country. The digital transformation for SBI is a five-year roadmap and this five year roadmap has different elements.”

“It is not just about digital at the front-end, we are focusing more on technology and technology resilience,” he said.

“This includes investment in data architecture, revisiting infrastructure, network, and what we are focusing now is especially the customer omni-channel experience – a customer who is a branch customer can seamlessly move to internet banking, but this requires deeper architecture of IT platform and this is what we will do in 2.0. It is about scalability, robustness, resilience and more importantly cybersecurity,” Setty said.

“We are also looking at large scale adoption of marketing technology, which will enable us to make hyper personalization offers for retail, financial inclusion, MSMEs, and our digital transformation is also focusing on new to bank customers,” Setty said.

Cotton exports to Bangladesh hit as Dhaka’s Western garment orders dry up

The decline in orders from Bangladesh has had a spillover effect on the Indian textile industry, which supplies raw materials and other input items to Bangladesh.

Written by Ravi Dutta Mishra

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 08:58 IST

The Bangladeshi textile and garment industry, which accounts for over 80 per cent of Bangladesh’s total export earnings and contributes approximately 11 per cent to the nation’s GDP. (Express Photo)

Even as production units in Bangladesh resume operations, with workers putting in extra hours to clear backlogged orders, Western garment and footwear firms have temporarily paused placing new orders in the violence-hit neighbouring country, industry sources told The Indian Express.

The decline in orders from Bangladesh has had a spillover effect on the Indian textile industry, which supplies raw materials and other input items to Bangladesh. While fresh inquiries for garments are coming to India, Indian cotton exports to Bangladesh have begun to decline, industry executives said.

“New orders are not coming in from Western companies. The workers and the administration understand that production is the lifeline, and they are working overtime to complete orders. Some items are being sourced from India to fulfil the orders, and even more technicians are coming from India,” M. Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairman of Chennai-based Farida Group, said. The Group has investments in Bangladesh’s footwear sector.

Ahmed stated that much of the production is taking place in Dhaka and Chittagong, which are relatively isolated from the protests. There were disruptions earlier in August, but normalcy is returning, he said, adding that Western orders will eventually resume due to the favourable duty climate owing to Bangladesh’s status as a least developed country (LDC).

“Western companies are looking at India as an alternative, but much depends on the capacity to deliver, which at the moment has qualitative and quantitative mismatches between Indian and Bangladeshi product offerings,” said Chandrima Chatterjee, Secretary General of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI).

Chatterjee mentioned that garment inquiries are coming in, but the immediate impact on the Indian textile industry has been negative since our exports of input materials to Bangladesh have slowed down. However, our PLI scheme and PM Mitra scheme are steps in the right direction to cater to national demand, she added.

A garment sector executive who did not wish to be named said that Western companies were already looking at India even before the ongoing crisis in Bangladesh. The European market is increasingly concerned about human rights issues in Bangladesh and is therefore looking at the Indian market.

“The saturation in Bangladesh began some time ago, but orders had not been moving to India. Most of them are going to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. India has a lot of opportunities, but our product mix is not changing, and the benefits are not arriving,” the executive said on condition of anonymity.

The Bangladeshi textile and garment industry, which accounts for over 80 per cent of Bangladesh’s total export earnings and contributes approximately 11 per cent to the nation’s GDP.

Bangladesh’s $45 billion clothing industry, which employs over four million workers, was already affected due to the weakening electricity generation infrastructure, hit by higher input costs following the start of the Russia-Ukraine war and adverse weather events, according to S&P Global. The situation in Bangladesh continues to be a concern, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden discussed the situation in Bangladesh on Monday.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also said that the Indian garment and knitted fabric sector is experiencing “a bit of uncertainty” amid the ongoing political developments in the neighbouring country of Bangladesh.

She expressed hope that the interim government there would settle things “sooner rather than later”, adding that efforts are being made to ensure that borders with the neighbouring country are safe.

Bank credit growth rises further to 15.1% as of July, deposits lag behind: RBI

According to the RBI, growth in credit card outstanding declined to 22 per cent to Rs 2.75 lakh crore from 32.4 per cent a year ago.

Written by George Mathew

Mumbai | August 31, 2024 04:00 IST

Credit to agriculture and allied activities remained robust registering a growth of 18.1 per cent at Rs 21.55 lakh crore in July 2024, compared with 16.7 per cent a year ago, RBI said. (File Photo)

Non-food bank credit registered a growth of 15.1 per cent to Rs 162.92 lakh crore as of July 2024 as compared with 14.7 per cent a year ago, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s latest data.

However, deposit growth of banks lagged behind at 11.3 per cent at Rs 213.28 lakh crore, RBI data shows. With deposits growth slowing down, banks are racing to mobilise funds through special deposit schemes and other innovative plans to meet the credit demand in the system. Many banks have reported a decline in deposits during the quarter ended June 2024 as customers are now looking at alternative avenues like the capital markets to park their funds at better returns.

Credit to agriculture and allied activities remained robust registering a growth of 18.1 per cent at Rs 21.55 lakh crore in July 2024, compared with 16.7 per cent a year ago, RBI said.

Credit growth to industry strengthened significantly at 10.2 per cent to Rs 37.05 lakh crore in July 2024 compared with 4.6 per cent in July 2023. Among major industries, credit to chemicals and chemical products, food processing, petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels and infrastructure recorded a higher growth in July 2024 as compared to their growth a year ago, while credit to basic metal and metal product and textiles moderated, the RBI said.

The central bank said credit growth to medium industries rose to 17.2 per cent to Rs 3.17 lakh crore and large industry by 8.5 per cent to Rs 26.74 lakh crore.

Credit growth to services sector moderated to 15.4 per cent in July 2024 from 19.7 per cent a year ago, primarily driven down by relatively lower credit growth in non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and trade segments. Credit growth in commercial real estate, tourism, hotels and restaurants and computer software accelerated during July 2024, the RBI said,

However, personal loans growth was lower at 17.8 per cent to Rs 51.39 lakh crore in July 2024 as compared to 18.4 per cent a year ago, largely due to moderation in growth recorded in other personal loans and vehicle loans. However, credit growth to housing, the largest constituent of the segment, accelerated.

According to the RBI, growth in credit card outstanding declined to 22 per cent to Rs 2.75 lakh crore from 32.4 per cent a year ago.

As per ICRA’s assessment, the recent regulatory actions like urging banks to reduce their credit-to-deposit (CD) ratio, increasing risk weights towards high growing loan segments, and the proposal to review the LCR framework, all point to the need to align credit growth with deposit growth while focusing on growing retail deposits.

The non-food bank credit (NFBC) growth may slow down to Rs 19.0-20.5 lakh crore (11.6-12.5 per cent YoY) in FY2025 from Rs 22.3 lakh crore (16.3 per cent) in FY2024. Incremental deposit growth is expected to moderate to Rs 19.4-20.0 lakh crore (9.5-9.8 per cent YoY) in FY2025 from Rs. 23.2 lakh crore (12.9 per cent YoY) in FY2024.

With credit growth outpacing deposit growth, the CD ratio reached an all-time high of 78.0 per cent (80.2 per cent including impact of HDFC merger) as of March 2024 in the last five years. Thereafter, following the regulatory nudge to banks to moderate their CD ratio, there has been a slight dip to 77.1 per cent as of June 2024 with incremental CD ratio declining to 60 per cent in Q1 FY2025, ICRA said.

Banks are expected to witness a moderation their credit growth targets in the run-up to the proposed implementation of revised LCR norms from April 1, 2025, resulting in an improvement (decline) in the CD ratio and increase in liquidity buffers.

ONGC Videsh seeks US nod to operate projects in sanction-hit Venezuela under ‘Chevron model’

Given Washington’s sanctions on the Latin American country’s oil and gas sector, companies cannot use American banking channels, services, and US dollars for these projects, unless they have a specific license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of Treasury.

Written by Sukalp Sharma

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 22:34 IST

The model is referred to as the Chevron model in the oil industry because US major Chevron was the first one to operate in Venezuela through this route. (Wikimedia Commons)

ONGC Videsh (OVL) has sought special approvals from the United States to operate two Venezuelan oil projects in a bid to recover over $500 million in pending dividends and increase production from the projects.

OVL’s Managing Director Rajarshi Gupta said the company wants to operate projects in Venezuela under the so-called “Chevron model”, which allows foreign oil companies to operate in sanction-hit Venezuela after receiving specific approvals from the US. The model is referred to as the Chevron model in the oil industry because US major Chevron was the first one to operate in Venezuela through this route.

Given Washington’s sanctions on the Latin American country’s oil and gas sector, companies cannot use American banking channels, services, and US dollars for these projects, unless they have a specific license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of Treasury. The specific license for this type of operation usually gives foreign companies major control over finances, operations, production, and marketing of oil from Venezuelan projects, despite Venezuela’s state-owned oil major Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA) being the majority shareholder.

“You can do some operations subject to a few conditions. We have asked for some clarifications, and we have requested for a specific license to operate in Venezuela. That is in the final stages of consideration to the best of our understanding,” Gupta said Friday in an interaction with journalists, adding that the company was hopeful of receiving the specific license.

According to Gupta, if the OFAC approval comes in, OVL intends to use revenue from the projects to recover its dividends worth over $500 million that are currently stuck in Venezuela, apart from investing further to increase oil output from the two projects, and paying dividends to other project partners. OVL is the overseas investment arm of state-owned energy behemoth Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

The two projects — San Cristobal and Carabobo 1 — currently have a cumulative oil output of 12,000-15,000 barrels per day (bpd). With additional investment and wells, the output can easily be increased to around 30,000 bpd in a year and up to 45,000-50,000 bpd over the subsequent few years, Gupta said. OVL holds a 40 per cent stake in the San Cristobal project and 11 per cent in Carabobo 1. PDVSA is the majority shareholder in both projects.

Sukalp Sharma

Sukalp Sharma is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 13 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. Before joining The Indian Express, Sukalp had long and enriching stints at financial newswire Informist and the Express Group’s pink paper The Financial Express. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More

APSEZ acquires 80% stake in global OSV operator Astro Offshore for $185 million

According to the statement, incorporated in 2009, Astro is a leading global OSV operator in the Middle East, India, Far East Asia and Africa.

By: PTI

New Delhi | August 30, 2024 19:06 IST

The company in a statement said the existing promoters of Astro will hold the remaining 20 per cent stake. (File Photo)

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) on Friday said it has entered into an agreement to acquire 80 per cent stake in Astro Offshore for USD 185 million in an all-cash deal.

The company in a statement said the existing promoters of Astro will hold the remaining 20 per cent stake.

“APSEZ has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 80 per cent stake in Astro, in an all-cash deal for USD 185 million, implying an EV of USD 235 million and EV/ FY25E EBITDA at 4.4x. The transaction is expected to be value accretive from the first year itself,” it said.

According to the statement, incorporated in 2009, Astro is a leading global OSV operator in the Middle East, India, Far East Asia and Africa.

Astro owns a fleet of 26 Offshore Support Vessels (OSVs) comprising Anchor Handling Tugs (AHTs), flat top barges, Multipurpose Support Vessels (MPSVs) and workboats, and provides vessel management and complementary services, the statement said.

During the year ending April 30, 2024, Astro posted a USD 95 million revenue and USD 41 million EBITDA. As of April 30, 2024, Astro was net cash positive.

According to the statement, there are no regulatory approvals required and the transaction is expected to close within a month, subject to fulfilment of operational conditions precedent.

“Acquisition is part of APSEZ’s roadmap to becoming one of the world’s largest marine operators,” the statement said, adding Astro will enhance APSEZ’s global marine portfolio and add new Tier-1 customers to the roster.

APSEZ whole-time director and CEO Ashwani Gupta said, “The acquisition will also give us access to an impressive roster of Tier-1 customers while further consolidating our footprint across the Arabian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and Far East Asia.” Astro Offshore managing director Mark Humphreys said, “This partnership with APSEZ represents a critical inflection point for us.” APSEZ, a part of the globally diversified Adani Group, is the largest port developer and operator in India with 7 strategically located ports and terminals on the west coast and 8 ports and terminals on the east coast.

Forex kitty swells by $7 billion to hit record high of $681.69 billion

The overall reserves had jumped by USD 4.546 billion to USD 674.664 billion in the previous reporting week.

By: PTI

Mumbai | August 30, 2024 17:59 IST

The previous all-time high for the overall reserves was recorded at USD 674.919 billion as of August 2. (Express Archives)

India’s forex reserves jumped by USD 7.023 billion to touch a new high of USD 681.688 billion in the week ended August 23, the RBI said on Friday.

The overall reserves had jumped by USD 4.546 billion to USD 674.664 billion in the previous reporting week.

The previous all-time high for the overall reserves was recorded at USD 674.919 billion as of August 2.

For the week ended August 23, foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased by USD 5.983 billion to USD 597.552 billion, the data released on Friday showed.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound, and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

Gold reserves increased by USD 893 million to USD 60.997 billion during the week, the RBI said.

The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were up by USD 118 million to USD 18.459 billion, the apex bank said.

India’s reserve position with the IMF was up by USD 30 million to USD 4.68 billion in the reporting week, the apex bank data showed.

Key infra sectors’ growth slows down to 6.1 pc in July

The growth of core sectors -- coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity -- was 8.5 per cent in July 2023.

By: PTI

New Delhi | August 30, 2024 17:37 IST

The growth rate, however, is up from 5.1 per cent in June. (File photo)

The growth in production of eight key infrastructure sectors slowed down to 6.1 per cent in July this year due to a decline in the output of crude oil and natural gas, according to official data released on Friday.

The growth rate, however, is up from 5.1 per cent in June.

The growth of core sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity — was 8.5 per cent in July 2023.

During April-July this fiscal, the output of core sectors rose by 6.1 per cent against 6.6 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

The eight core sectors contribute 40.27 per cent to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which measures overall industrial growth.

Crude oil and natural gas output contracted by (-) 2.9 per cent and (-) 1.3 per cent, respectively, in July.

Sensex, Nifty extend gains to scale fresh peaks on firm global cues

Among the 30 Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Power Grid, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel and Tata Consultancy Services were the biggest gainers.

By: PTI

Mumbai | August 30, 2024 16:47 IST

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 3,259.56 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data. (File photo)

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty marched higher to scale fresh lifetime closing peaks on Friday, tracking a largely firm trend in global markets and renewed foreign fund inflows.

Buying in index majors Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and Infosys also fuelled the rally in equities.

Rallying for the ninth straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 231.16 points or 0.28 per cent to settle at an all-time closing high of 82,365.77. During the day, it jumped 502.42 points or 0.61 per cent to hit a record intra-day peak of 82,637.03.

The NSE Nifty soared 83.95 points or 0.33 per cent to hit a new lifetime closing high of 25,235.90, taking its victorious run to the 12th day in a row. During the day, it surged 116.4 points or 0.46 per cent to hit a new record intra-day peak of 25,268.35.

Among the 30 Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Power Grid, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel and Tata Consultancy Services were the biggest gainers.

In contrast, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra and ITC were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled with gains.

European markets were trading in positive territory. The US markets ended on a mixed note on Thursday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 3,259.56 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Domestic Institutional Investors lapped up equities worth Rs 2,690.85 crore.

“Continuation of accumulation of quality large-caps by the DIIs (Domestic Institutional Investors) and HNIs and the FIIs reducing their selling significantly and buying on certain days have contributed to the resilience of the market,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.08 per cent to USD 80 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark jumped 349.05 points or 0.43 per cent to settle at an all-time closing high of 82,134.61 on Thursday, extending its winning momentum to the eighth day in a row.

Rallying for the 11th straight session, the Nifty surged 99.60 points or 0.40 per cent to settle at a new closing high of 25,151.95.

Entering your 40s? Here’s how to strategise your investments

Strategic investment planning at this stage should be aimed at reducing debt, increasing focus asset building, and maximising savings wherever possible. Let’s find out how you can go about doing that.

Written by Adhil Shetty

August 30, 2024 14:04 IST

Understand your cash flow by reviewing your income and expenses, and identify areas where you can save or invest more.

As you move through life, your responsibilities tend to change every few years. These responsibilities necessitate changes to financial planning as well. Speaking of different life stages, your 40s are often marked by a significant shift in financial responsibilities. At this age, you are more likely to be well-established in your career earning a higher income, and may have increased family commitments, such as children’s education, supporting ageing parents, and planning for your retirement. Strategic investment planning at this stage should be aimed at reducing debt, increasing focus asset building, and maximising savings wherever possible. Let’s find out how you can go about doing that.

Evaluate Financial Goals and Obligations

The first step should be to evaluate your financial status and understand your responsibilities. Next, you need to ensure your investment strategy aligns with your current financial situation and goals. Review what you own versus what you owe. Understand your cash flow by reviewing your income and expenses, and identify areas where you can save or invest more.

To create a robust investment strategy, it is essential to have clear, measurable goals. Identify your short-term goals, such as paying off high-interest debt or building an emergency fund. Medium-term goals might include funding your children’s education or saving for significant purchases, like home renovations. Long-term goals should primarily focus on retirement, and aim to accumulate adequate wealth to sustain your lifestyle post-retirement. For instance, if you plan to send your children abroad for higher education, estimate the required costs, taking inflation into account and plan your investments accordingly.

Diversify Your Investment Portfolio

Once you know the estimated costs of your goals, choose investments that align with your risk appetite. Assess your current finances to find out your risk tolerance. Diversification is key to reduce risk and maximise returns. A diversified portfolio comprises a balanced mix of debt and equity instruments. The general rule of investing recommends increasing the percentage of debt investments while reducing equity, as you age. The exact ratio, however, will depend on your risk tolerance.

For instance, if a 60:40 ratio of debt and equity I suitable for you, stick to it. If you think you can increase your equity to 70% without affecting your risk tolerance, you may do so. You can tweak your asset allocation based on your changing risk tolerance to ensure it helps you achieve the desired returns.

Try to Clear Off Your Debts

Reducing your debt burden is crucial at every life stage. But, in your 40s, as you approach retirement and your risk appetite reduces, clearing debt becomes even more important. Go about this strategically – take calculated risks with high-return investments. These can generate the funds needed to prepay, foreclose, or completely clear your debts. If necessary, explore a debt consolidation loan that will allow you to manage and repay all your debts in one go.

Maximise Retirement Savings

Ideally, retirement planning should begin as soon as you start earning. If you haven’t started yet, start now. Count the number of years you have to create your fund. Account for inflation and calculate the amount you’ll need to maintain your current lifestyle post retiring. Based on these estimates, gather the necessary funds and invest them in suitable instruments. If you have begun investing for retirement, try to increase your contributions.

Buy Insurance to Protect Your Family

Having adequate insurance ensures your family is financially protected, and your investments are not disrupted due to an unexpected event. Health insurance is essential for medical emergencies which can otherwise deplete your savings. Life insurance provides financial security to your loved ones if something were to happen to you. Consider critical illness and disability insurance for additional coverage.

Plan for Children’s Education

Children’s education is a major expense in today’s times that requires robust financial planning. The key is to start early – invest in education savings plans or set up a dedicated investment account for this expense. Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) in mutual funds, with the benefit of compounding, are an effective way to save for this long-term expense.

Regularly Review and Adjust Your Plan

As mentioned, your goals, responsibilities, and financial situation can change with time. Considering that, you must review your goals and investment strategy regularly, to ensure they are aligned. As your income and family’s needs change, adjust your portfolio to accommodate the new needs. You can also seek professional advice from a financial planner to ensure you’re on the right path, financially.

Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of an emergency fund – it is crucial to protect your savings and investments in times of emergency. Having an emergency fund will reduce your reliance on unsecured credit. Calculate your non-negotiable expenses and start creating a fund that can cover these expenses for at least 6-9 months. If you have a fund and have recently dipped into it, ensure you replenish it.

Stock market today: Sensex, Nifty hit all-time highs in early trade

The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.33% to 25,235.9 as of 9:21 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 0.33% to 82,396.22, with both the benchmarks hitting all-time highs.

By: Reuters

Bengaluru | Updated: August 30, 2024 10:41 IST

The Nifty has risen for the previous 11 consecutive sessions, marking its longest winning streak in about 17 years, supported by expectations of a U.S. rate cut in September and healthy domestic inflows.

Indian shares hit record highs just after the open on Friday, tracking gains in regional peers after US economic data eased growth concerns, while investors await domestic quarterly growth data.

The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.33% to 25,235.9 as of 9:21 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 0.33% to 82,396.22, with both the benchmarks hitting all-time highs.

The Nifty has risen for the previous 11 consecutive sessions, marking its longest winning streak in about 17 years, supported by expectations of a US rate cut in September and healthy domestic inflows.

Domestic institutional investors (DII) have purchased shares worth $6.14 billion, on a net basis, so far in August, about twice the net foreign portfolio investors (FPI) outflows.

Asian markets rose, with the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.7%. Most Wall Street equities rose overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average at a record closing high, on robust U.S. economic data.

Market participants now await US core personal consumption expenditures data, the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, on Friday to confirm bets of the September rate cut.

Investors also await India’s April-June growth data, due after market hours. A Reuters poll showed growth likely slowed to 6.9% year-on-year in the quarter due to reduced government spending because of national elections.

Eleven of the 13 major sectors logged gains. The broader, more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps rose about 0.5% each.

Among individual stocks, SpiceJet fell about 4% after India’s aviation watchdog placed the budget airline under enhanced surveillance after a recent audit revealed “certain deficiencies”.

Sugar stocks like Balrampur Chini Mills, Shree Renuka, Bajaj Hindusthan and Dwarikesh Sugar rose between 3% and 10% after the government said sugar mills could use cane juice or syrup to produce ethanol from November.

In new chip push, Centre ready with $15-billion blueprint

India has ambitions to become a major chip hub on the lines of the United States, Taiwan and South Korea, and has been courting foreign companies to set up operations in the country.

Written by Soumyarendra Barik

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 16:47 IST

Under the new scheme, the government could also offer capital equipment and ecosystem support such as gases, chemicals, and raw materials needed at assembly and testing plants.

AFTER HAVING committed nearly all of the $10 billion in subsidies under its ambitious semiconductor manufacturing incentive policy, the government has prepared a blueprint for the second phase of the scheme — it could increase the outlay of the programme to $15 billion, offer capital support for raw materials and gases used in chip manufacturing, and reduce subsidies for assembly and testing plants, The Indian Express has learnt.

“In a short period of time, we managed to clear four chip proposals including a fabrication plant. The original incentive policy outlay of $10 billion will almost get over once subsidy payments are made to the entities setting up these facilities.

We want to attract more such plants, and therefore, have pegged that the new 2.0 scheme should have a higher outlay of $15 billion so that we can remain competitive, given that many countries are trying to attract chip manufacturing,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity since the discussions are currently private.

The IT Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

India has ambitions to become a major chip hub on the lines of the United States, Taiwan and South Korea, and has been courting foreign companies to set up operations in the country. So far, the country has approved a fabrication plant worth $11 billion being set up by Tata Electronics in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip, and three different chip assembly plants being set up by the Tatas, US-based Micron Technology, and Murugappa Group’s CG Power in partnership with Japan’s Renesas.

In an internal note prepared with the projections for the renewal of the scheme, the government has also decided to reduce the capex subsidy for assembly and testing plants (ATMP/OSAT) from the current 50 per cent to 30 per cent for conventional packaging technologies, and 40 per cent for advanced packaging technologies.

In the first iteration of the incentive policy, which was released in December 2021, the Centre had offered a 30 per cent capex subsidy for chip packaging and testing plants. However, in September 2022, it had increased the subsidy for such plants to 50 per cent. It is understood that it was done as a precursor to Micron Technology’s proposal, as the government wanted to facilitate the company establishing an assembly plant in India, which was eventually approved in June 2023.

Now though, the government wants to go back to its earlier subsidy contribution, there is a growing perception within sections of the administration that it has overspent on packaging and assembly plants. For instance, in Micron’s case, nearly 70 per cent of its $2.7 billion plant will be paid through subsidies offered by the Central Government, and the Gujarat government.

The government also does not want to support technology transfer costs under the new incentive scheme, it is understood. This means that companies partnering with others for using their chip manufacturing technology may have to pay out of their own pocket.

Under the new scheme, the government could also offer capital equipment and ecosystem support such as gases, chemicals, and raw materials needed at assembly and testing plants. It could also look at incentivising fabrication of micro-LED displays.

It is also learnt that Micron Technology’s ATMP plant in Gujarat’s Sanand is running 133 days behind schedule, due to the company’s inability to hire sufficient construction headcount. The Tatas have sought that the requirement for PSMC to demonstrate capability to manufacture 28 nanometre chips should be exempted for extending fiscal support for the node. The government is considering the company’s request, but has not come to a conclusion yet.

Soumyarendra Barik

Soumyarendra Barik is Special Correspondent with The Indian Express and reports on the intersection of technology, policy and society. With over five years of newsroom experience, he has reported on issues of gig workers’ rights, privacy, India’s prevalent digital divide and a range of other policy interventions that impact big tech companies. He once also tailed a food delivery worker for over 12 hours to quantify the amount of money they make, and the pain they go through while doing so. In his free time, he likes to nerd about watches, Formula 1 and football. ... Read More

‘Next move in the rupee is towards 80, not 90’: Ruchir Sharma at Express Adda

The rupee closed at an all-time low of 83.97 against the dollar on August 12. On Thursday, the domestic currency opened at 83.92 compared to the previous close of 83.97.

By: ENS Economic Bureau

Mumbai | Updated: August 30, 2024 12:14 IST

Sharma, who is the Chairman of Rockefeller International and Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Breakout Capital, said a strong dollar tends to help the US, and a weak dollar leads to higher capital flows to emerging markets. (Express photo by Narendra Vaskar)

The Indian rupee, which is currently hovering around 84 level against the US dollar, is likely to strengthen to 80, said Ruchir Sharma, global investor, author, fund manager and political commentator.

The rupee closed at an all-time low of 83.97 against the dollar on August 12. On Thursday, the domestic currency opened at 83.92 compared to the previous close of 83.97.

“…Rupee is 84 today. I am going to bet that the next move in the rupee is towards 80, not 90,” he said at the Express Adda, organised by the Indian Express on August 27.

He was in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, and K V Kamath, Chairman, National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) and Chairman Jio Financial Services.

Sharma, who is the Chairman of Rockefeller International and Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Breakout Capital, said a strong dollar tends to help the US, and a weak dollar leads to higher capital flows to emerging markets.

“I fundamentally believe that emerging markets are going to benefit from a weak dollar over the next five to 10 years,” he said, adding that if the US dollar weakens then India will see more capital inflows which will help in keeping interest rates lower than the current level.

He noted after the US imposed sanctions on Russia in 2022, central banks around the world started buying gold, which resulted in the decline in the share of the US dollar in their foreign exchange reserves. These central banks have also started buying smaller currencies like the Swiss Franc and Australian dollar.

Sunday Eye

- How rapper Arivu of Enjoy Enjaami fame, is channeling the stories of his ancestors to assert himself culturally

How rapper Arivu of Enjoy Enjaami fame, is channeling the stories of his ancestors to assert himself culturally

The Tamil anti-caste rapper Arivu speaks on his new album dedicated to his grandmother, asserting his Dalit identity and the idea of revolution through music.

Written by Suanshu Khurana

Updated: August 31, 2024 08:49 IST

Arivu's latest album Valliamma Peraandi: Volume 1 speaks of caste, discrimination, struggle and untouchability.

It was in Arakkonam, the sweltry railway town about 60 km from Chennai, that Tamil rapper Arivarasu Kalainesan, better known as Arivu, saw for the first time what it meant to be a Dalit in India.

His poor scores in class led one of the teachers to berate him with a speech about ‘his place in society’ and told him that education was not for those who belonged to lower castes. The boy wept, his young mind trying to decipher the complicated social hierarchies around him.

The first resistance to this discrimination came from his grandmother, Valliamma, who had once been a labourer in Sri Lanka’s tea estates, living there under harsh conditions and even harsher supervisors, and was repatriated to India in the ’60s after Sri Lanka got independence and declared that those who migrated from India during the colonial rule were now stateless. Once back and displaced, she, like others from her community, was subject to massive caste discrimination and poverty. Arivu speaks of his ancestors not being able to walk on the common road or wear slippers while walking on the dominant streets. When Valliamma heard about her grandson, she marched into the school and contested: “We are all the same by birth,” so how was her grandson being told that “education was not for him because he belonged to a certain caste”?

Also Read | What Arivu’s fight and faith taught me

“She said something very political with that one sentence, even though she never went to school. She has always had a certain awareness of what’s significant. The power of my grandmother, who came and stood up for me, was inspiring. When I walk on the common streets today or travel in a car, with confidence, I know that the struggle behind this is that of my ancestors,” says Arivu, 31, whose latest album, the 12-song Valliamma Peraandi: Volume 1 (Sony Music), speaks of caste, discrimination, struggle and untouchability. It is also a tribute to Valliamma, who is proudly placed alongside the musician on the album cover. “I’m trying to be more free musically, and I end up sounding only more political,” says Arivu. The album is also his experiment with independent space in the Tamil music scene, which is mostly dominated by and dependent on film music.

Arivu along with his troupe — The Ambassa Band — will perform songs from Valliamma Peraandi: Volume 1 at South Side Story in New Delhi.

This Sunday (September 1), Arivu along with his troupe — The Ambassa Band — will perform songs from this new album at South Side Story, a two-day festival, organised by Red FM to showcase the diverse heritage of south India in the Capital. Others artistes at the festival include Carnatic classical vocalist TM Krishna, popular Kerala rock band Thaikuddam Bridge, Malayalam playback singer Nithya Mammen and Bengaluru-based contemporary progressive rock band Agam. On his visit to Delhi last year, Arivu was doubtful whether north Indians would understand his lyrics. “But when it came to rhythm and sound, language didn’t matter. The love was immense,” says Arivu.

Arivu’s popularity largely harks back to the viral song and video Enjoy Enjaami (2021) — the rapper’s collaboration with singer Dhee and producer Santhosh Narayanan under AR Rahman’s independent music label, maajja. He had also been singing with The Casteless Collective, a Chennai-based indie band founded by filmmaker Pa Ranjith, where the ensemble explored themes of caste, oppression and education.

Also Read | How the visual aesthetic of Dhee and Arivu’s Enjoy Enjaami falls short of its gutsy politics about Dalit landlessness

Enjoy Enjaami came with clear political undertones. It spoke of the connection between land and people, how labourers nurture the earth and later are asked to leave and work elsewhere. It came from the story of his grandmother: My garden is flourishing / Yet my throat remains dry…

The solid rap in the piece is slick and then merges into the Oppari style of singing, a mourning ritual practised by a Dalit sub-caste in Tamil Nadu. “The wails had haunted me even as a child; the feeling of agony they carry. It was also a way for our mothers to vent. I have decided to turn this agony into rap. Even though the language differs, the land differs, this pain is universal,” says Arivu, who began writing poetry on caste in school but political consciousness evolved in college, especially during MBA days when he met Ranjith and joined The Casteless Collective almost a decade ago.

While Enjoy Enjaami received over 450 million views, it was also embroiled in a controversy over credit. After a remix was released by Dhee and DJ Snake, which did not feature Arivu, Dhee along with Kidakuzhi Mariyammal performed the song at the opening ceremony of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, where Narayanan was credited as the composer. Arivu claimed to have written and composed the piece. While all three came out with their statements on the matter, the story shifted from credit to cultural appropriation of the Dalit struggle. “It is actually the society that allows this. We are taken for granted. Our culture, our art, our life is taken for granted,” says Arivu.

He says that it is caste that has led him to become a product of politics. “Knowingly or unknowingly we are representing our land and our culture. It was later that I realised that the privilege of education came through the struggle of my parents and grandparents. The trade we do, the food we eat, everything is political,” says Arivu, who grew up “without any entertainment” in life. But there were always folk songs, which people sang at births, weddings, deaths and in the fields while tilling the land. He gradually discovered that folk music and hip-hop had an intrinsic connection.

Watch | First single of Nilavuku Enmel Ennadi Kobam out: Dhanush, GV Prakash Kumar and Arivu let Golden Sparrow flutter high

“Folk music is the rap of Tamil culture. It has that same rhythmic ability, the wordplay. The swag and accent have been imported from Western music. But the origins of hip-hop are all in protest music. In our land folk music carries the protest culture,” says Arivu.

But much of his music education came through Ambedkarite songs by writer and singer Dalit Subbaiah. Arivu heard him through rural folk singers. “You could digest an Ambedkar concept very easily with Dalit Subbaiah’s writings. I am here because of artistes like him,” says Arivu, adding, “We are judged by identity. It’s our right to be free, to be accepted. And because I am saved, it does not mean that everyone is. I want to connect with other people and their love should come through an understanding of our culture, our history. My music is a small contribution to this greater revolution.”

Tech Review

- iQOO Z9s Pro: A powerhouse smartphone you can actually afford

- Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: The iPhone Pro Max killer?

iQOO Z9s Pro: A powerhouse smartphone you can actually afford

iQOO Z9s Pro is a well-balanced smartphone that doesn't compromise on almost anything.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Rs. 24,999

Written by Vivek Umashankar

Bengaluru | August 30, 2024 20:00 IST

A good-looking mid-range smartphone. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

In 2024, there is no shortage of quality smartphones under Rs 30,000. However, when the budget drops to Rs 25,000, the many available options tend to compromise on one feature or another. This is where the iQOO Z9s Pro shines, offering a well-balanced smartphone experience at just under Rs 25,000.

At this price range, users expect more than just performance. I’ve been using the iQOO Z9s Pro to see how it fares against the competition, and here are my observations.

Looks and feels like a flagship

The curved display and the back panel give it a premium look and feel. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The iQOO Z9s Pro closely resembles the company’s flagship iQOO 12, and I appreciate that. The sleek, curved design and the oval-shaped camera island sets it apart. The Luxe Marble variant feels premium in hand, though the back panel smudges easily.

Its 6.77-inch curved AMOLED screen with FHD+ resolution is sharp, vivid, and exceptionally bright––boasting a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, one of the brightest displays on a smartphone––even in harsh sunlight. The optical, in-display fingerprint sensor is also fast and accurate.

The display is sharp and bright with excellent visibility even under direct sunlight. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

With its attractive design and excellent display, the iQOO Z9s Pro is perfect for everyday use, whether you’re watching videos or scrolling through hundreds of Instagram reels.

A camera that takes pictures in a snap

The fast shutter speed ensures clear-looking pictures at all time. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

In a typical mid-range smartphone style, the iQOO Z9s Pro has two cameras at the back – a 50 MP primary camera and an 8 MP ultra-wide angle camera. Unlike some of the similarly priced phones––such as the OnePlus Nord 4 or the Motorola Edge 50 that I recently reviewed––the iQOO Z9s Pro has a really fast shutter speed that ensures blur-free images, even while capturing fast-moving subjects.

Similarly, I also noted that the pictures from the primary camera look true to life and retain a lot of details. While the phone can record up to 4K resolution videos on the main camera, the ultra-stabilisation is limited to 1080p. I did not notice much of a difference in shooting normal and ultra-stabilisation mode.

Take a look at some of the camera samples from the iQOO Z9s Pro:

iQOO Z9s Pro camera sample. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

iQOO Z9s Pro camera sample. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

iQOO Z9s Pro camera sample. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

iQOO Z9s Pro camera sample. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

iQOO Z9s Pro camera sample. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

iQOO Z9s Pro camera sample. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

A power efficient, adequately fast processor

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 helps deliver excellent battery life. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 powering the iQOO Z9s Pro isn’t as powerful as the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 or the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3, but at this segment, it delivers class-leading performance. With an AnTuTu score of over 8 lakh and a CPU stability score of 95 per cent, it is really an efficient processor.

In fact, even while I was playing COD: Mobile for a while or running AnTuTu benchmark, the phone just got warm to the touch, whereas most of the smartphones would get really hot. The same also goes while using it under normal circumstances, where the phone doesn’t get heated up.

Well-optimised software with some AI features

Image editing using AI Eraser. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The iQOO Z9s Pro runs on Android 14-based FunTouchOS, which includes some bloatware but is well-optimised. I noticed minimal lag or stutter during use. I will even go on to say that the iQOO Z9s Pro is more stable than the OnePlus Nord 4 (review), and I always thought I would prefer OxygenOS to FunTouchOS.

iQOO has introduced new AI features like AI Photo Enhance and AI Eraser, which allow users to remove unwanted objects from photos or improve image quality. These features require an active internet connection and can be accessed from the gallery app. Their performance is similar to other Android smartphones, with results varying depending on the image.

Impressive battery life, backed by 80W fast charging

The device offers an all-day battery life. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The iQOO Z9s Pro weighs 185 grams despite packing a massive 5,500 mAh battery, that easily lasts over a day for most users. I consider myself a heavy user, and the phone has easily offered over six hours of screen-on-time almost every day, except when I was stress-testing the device with continuous gaming. With 80W fast charging, the phone can be fully charged in less than 50 minutes.

A well-balanced mid-range smartphone

An excellent smartphone under Rs 25,000. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The iQOO Z9s Pro doesn’t go overboard on one or two features, compromising on others. Instead, it offers a well-balanced experience for regular users, gamers, and smartphone shutterbugs.

The iQOO Z9s Pro is an easy recommendation for those seeking a solid smartphone under Rs 30,000. If you’re looking for a more performance-focused device, alternatives like the Poco F6 (review) or OnePlus Nord 4 might be worth considering.

iQOO Z9s Pro

Pros

Cons

Flagship-like design and premium feel

Back panel smudges easily

Excellent display: sharp, vivid, exceptionally bright

AI features require active internet connection

Fast and accurate in-display fingerprint sensor

Some bloatware in FunTouchOS

Fast shutter speed for blur-free images

Ultra-stabilisation limited to 1080p video

True-to-life images with good detail retention

Power-efficient processor with minimal heating

Well-optimised software with minimal lag

Impressive battery life

80W fast charging

Balanced performance across various use cases

Competitive price point

Science

- NASA adjusts SpaceX crew to rescue Boeing’s stranded astronauts

- Boeing Starliner to return on September 6 without Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore

- Chandrayaan-3 data shows sharp temperature difference just centimetres beneath moon’s surface: Study

NASA adjusts SpaceX crew to rescue Boeing’s stranded astronauts

NASA made this adjustment due to technical issues with the Boeing Starliner capsule, which was originally planned to bring Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore back but is now considered unsafe.

By: Express Web Desk

Updated: August 31, 2024 01:31 IST

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose inside the ISS's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner on June 13, 2024. (AP photo)

NASA on Friday cut the number of astronauts in the next crew to make space on the return trip for the two astronauts – Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are currently stranded on the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch to the ISS in September aboard a SpaceX rocket. They will return to Earth in February, bringing with them astronauts Williams and Wilmore, who have been on the ISS since June. This decision was necessitated by the technical issues marred the Boeing Starliner capsule, which was originally intended to transport Williams and Wilmore back to Earth.

As a result of this adjustment, NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, who were initially scheduled to join the upcoming SpaceX mission, have been removed from the crew. NASA has assured that they will be assigned to future missions.

This decision is part of NASA’s focus on safety. After retiring the Space Shuttle program, the US relied on Russia to send astronauts to the ISS until SpaceX started in 2020. NASA and Russia continue to share missions. Next month, NASA’s Don Pettit will launch to the ISS, while Tracy Dyson will return to Earth on a Russian spacecraft.

The Starliner capsule, which has had issues, will return to Earth on September 6 without its crew. It will undock from the ISS and land in New Mexico about six hours later. NASA decided not to use the Starliner for the return trip because of safety concerns, specifically problems with its propulsion system.

Boeing has faced many challenges with the Starliner program, costing them millions of dollars. If the uncrewed return goes well, NASA might still decide to certify the Starliner for future human missions. However, any more issues could harm Boeing’s reputation and the future of the program.

Williams and Wilmore are now expected to return to Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in February. The Crew Dragon has successfully carried astronauts since 2020 and has become a reliable option for NASA.

(With inputs from AP and CNN)

Boeing Starliner to return on September 6 without Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore

Nasa has announced that the space capsule will begin its departure depending on the weather and the absence of technical issues.

By: Science Desk

New Delhi | Updated: August 31, 2024 09:50 IST

The CST-100 Starliner autonomously approaches the International Space Station during the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 in May 2022. (File Image: NASA)

After nearly two months, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft seems finally gearing up to return to Earth. The spacecraft that took off on June 5 with astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, suffered helium leaks and multiple thruster failures, following which the duo was stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).

On Thursday evening, days after Nasa officially announced that the stranded astronauts will return on the SpaceX Crew Dragon, the space agency said that Starliner will leave the ISS on September 6. The departure is subject to weather conditions and if there are no technical issues.

Nasa said that if all goes as planned, the capsule will undock at 6:04 PM EDT (around 3:30 PM IST) on September 6. It would likely land under parachutes six hours later at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

After launching on June 5, Starliner with its first-ever crewed mission docked successfully to the ISS a day later. However, the docking was following helium leaks and five of its 28 thrusters failed on its way to the orbiting lab. The mission, a Crew Flight Test (CFT) was intended for around 10 days. However, following the technical glitches, Nasa and Boeing extended the spacecraft’s orbital stay multiple times till they were able to examine the thruster issue and to see if it may hinder the capsule’s return.

After it was reported that Williams and Wilmore were stranded on ISS, several reports surfaced about their stay, health condition, and potential dangers of returning on the Starliner. However, on August 25, Nasa addressed a press conference where it officially said that the duo will be returning on Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon early next year.

Nasa officials also said that both astronauts are safe and prepared to stay longer. The agency said that Williams and Wilmore will be using their spare time aboard ISS to conduct science experiments along with the station’s seven astronauts. The SpaceX Crew Dragon is due to be launched next month as part of a routine astronaut rotation mission and is expected to return in February 2025 along with Williams and Wilmore. The Crew Dragon has four seats, two of which will be kept empty for Wilmore and Williams.

In the middle of all this, Nasa’s decision to pitch Boeing’s rival SpaceX for the return is one of its most consequential decisions. Boeing was optimistic about the Starliner mission with hopes that it would revive the troubled program after years of development issues and budget overruns.

Chandrayaan-3 data shows sharp temperature difference just centimetres beneath moon’s surface: Study

Scientists are looking at whether the moon can serve as a base for deep space exploration and whether long-term habitation is possible on the Earth’s satellite.

Written by Anonna Dutt

New Delhi | Updated: August 30, 2024 11:59 IST

The lunar day is equivalent to 14 Earth days — the Chandrayaan-3 mission was scheduled such that all the experiments could conduct experiments for nearly the entire duration. (Photos: X/@isro)

There is an extreme temperature difference of nearly 60 degree C between the surface of the moon and just 10 cm within it, according to a yet-to-be-published study based on data from the ChaSTE payload on Chandrayaan-3 lander. This extreme heat non-conductivity of the lunar surface can pave the way for temperature-controlled habitats under it, said a senior scientist from the Indian Space and Research Organisation (Isro).

Scientists are looking at whether the moon can serve as a base for deep space exploration and whether long-term habitation is possible on the Earth’s satellite.

The Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) experiment carried on the lander was like a thermometer that was wedged 10 cm into the lunar regolith — the lunar soil, rock chips, and mineral fragments that make up the top layer of the moon. The instrument had 10 sensors — each 1 cm apart — to measure the temperature at different levels within this layer.

“There are 10 sensors on it to measure the temperature at different depths for 10 days. We could see how the temperature was varying in different depths as the sun passed over the region,” the Isro scientist said.

The lunar day is equivalent to 14 Earth days — the Chandrayaan-3 mission was scheduled such that all the experiments could conduct experiments for nearly the entire duration.

After 10 days, a live thermal conductivity test was carried out. “There was a heater placed on the eighth sensor at the depth of about 8 cm. We turned on the heater after ten days to see how the regolith conducts the heat. The heater was turned on for four hours, switched off, and then the decline in temperature was measured by the sensors. That gave us the first information about the actual thermal conductivity of the moon,” the scientist said, adding that the paper is to be published soon.

The scientists said the experiment showed that the surface of the moon was completely non-conducting. “If it is non-conducting, I can use it as a thermal blanket for a human habitat. It’s like using a blanket during the winter nights — the temperature outside may be low, but if we make a habitat inside, any heat generated will remain trapped,” the scientist said.

One of the challenges of lunar missions is the extreme temperature variance — ranging from 121 degree C during the day to -133 degree C during the night. In deep craters, temperatures as low as -246 degree C have also been recorded.

Anonna Dutt

Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More

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