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Neeraj Chopra added a World title to his Olympic gold, recording a best throw of 88.17m. The 25-year-old stamped his mark on the final early on with his winning throw coming in the second round.
Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem claimed silver (87.82m) ahead of Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (86.67m).
In the men’s 4x400m relay, India finished fifth with a timing of 2:59.92s. USA claimed the gold with 2:57.31 ahead of France (2:58.45) and Great Britain (2:58.71).
Editorial
Himalayan blunders that are ravaging the Himalayas (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Wonder-struck by the beauty and the magnificence of the Himalaya, an ancient Sanskrit poet wrote, “In a thousand ages of the gods, I could not tell you of the glories of the Himalaya.”
The snow-covered peaks, though increasingly diminishing, may still awaken the poet in us, but the barrenness of the hills below tell us the real story — that of steady environmental depredation.
Today, the repeated tragedies of bridges, roads and buildings being swept by raging rivers in the hill States of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, epitomise a flawed developmental paradigm institutionalised in an eco-fragile region.
Blocked roads after a landslide at Chamoli and sinking in Joshimath in Uttarakhand, road caving in Chamba in Himachal, accidents on the Char Dham routes, and deaths on the all-weather road are reports that have become everyday news from “Devbhoomi” (land of the gods).
In 2016, the Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna, a massive infrastructure project of 900 kilometre of road widening to double-laning with a paved shoulder (DLPS) design of 12m was implemented in the Garhwal region and a short stretch of Kumaon in Uttarakhand.
The project has claimed lakhs of trees and acres of forest land, many human and animal lives, and also the fertile topsoil of the fragile Himalaya. The tons of muck generated have choked water sources.
By law, a project of more than 100 km needs environmental clearance. But ambitious projects for tourism and plans that are the result of election agendas are time bound.
All laws of land are bypassed. In this case, this massive project was broken up into 53 small projects, each less than 100 km long, thus by-passing environmental impact assessment (EIA) requirements.
India’s Rohingya refugee children are not criminals (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
A five-month-old infant born to a Rohingya refugee died in a detention or holding centre in Jammu in July. A viral video shows the police tear gassing a small congested area in the holding centre.
Refugee women and children are also seen in the same space. As the explosion occurs, one can hear the shrieks of women and see children running in panic.
The Senior Superintendent of Police, Kathua, admitted that tear gas shells were used in an enclosed space which is not ideal but denied that the infant’s death was caused by tear gas.
What is important to note is that these people are not prisoners or criminals who are kept in jail-like conditions. The Rohingya of Myanmar are among the most persecuted people in the world.
August 25 marked six years since the Myanmar military launched a campaign of mass atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine State.
These genocidal attacks, which began in August 2017, caused more than 7,70,000 Rohingya to flee. At least 20,000 of them are in India.
In this particular holding centre in Jammu, which was a prison before, more than 250 Rohingya refugees including women and children have been confined there since March 2021. Most of them have UNHCR cards that validate their identity as ‘a refugee seeking safety’.
There are many troubling questions that arise from the Jammu incident. Most troubling is why children are being holed up as prisoners in detention centres.
These are children of an extremely vulnerable population that continues to fear ethnic cleansing. Globally, we have a shared responsibility to protect them, help them survive and thrive. Not imprison them, tear gas them and leave them to die.
Opinion
The importance of states in space missions (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
On August 23, with Chandrayaan-3’s lander module making a soft landing on the moon, India became only the fourth country after the erstwhile Soviet Union, the U.S., and China to accomplish this achievement.
It is a testament to the remarkable ingenuity of Indian scientists that this feat was carried out at a relatively low cost.
Three of these four countries have been late industrialisers; with only one “developed” nation, the U.S., among them.
By some estimates, the USSR was 50%-60% the size of the U.S. economy in the 1960s, when it landed the first spacecraft, Luna 9, on the moon.
According to World Bank data, when measured in purchasing power parity terms, China’s per capita income was around 22% that of the U.S. in 2013 at the time of its moon landing.
In contrast, India’s per capita income in 2022 was only 10.9% that of the U.S. Clearly, a relative shortfall in resources does not always pose a constraint in achieving ambitious scientific outcomes.
India’s health research is not aligned with its disease burden (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the significance of tailoring health research to the specific needs of individual countries.
But India’s investment in healthcare research is limited, with a misalignment between funded research areas and health challenges.
Disease burden, a composite metric of mortality and morbidity, represented through Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) by the World Health Organization, is a measure of a population’s health.
A recent collaborative study by the IISc in Bangalore and the Leiden University in The Netherlands shows a mismatch between India’s health-related research publications and DALYs.
Explainer
The state of scholarships for minorities (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
In the past few years, the Centre has discontinued two key educational schemes for religious minorities, narrowed the scope of another and gradually cut down on the expenditure incurred on multiple programmes of the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
India is home to over 30 crore (20%) people from religious minority communities. These include six religions notified under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
Among them, Muslims make up the largest religious minority but face challenges in various sectors. Their participation in salaried jobs is low and many are engaged in the informal sector, characterised by low wages, weak social security and poor working conditions.
The Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee was constituted by the UPA government to look into the social, economic and educational standing of Muslims in India.
In a comprehensive 400-page report tabled in Parliament in 2006, the Sachar Committee concluded that the Muslim minority was neglected in almost all dimensions of development.
By and large, Muslims rank somewhat above SC/ST but below Hindu OBCs [Other Backward Classes], Other Minorities and Hindu General [mostly upper castes] in almost all indicators considered.
Around the same time, the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government accepted the long-pending demand for a Ministry of Minority Affairs in 2006.
The new Ministry was to “ensure a more focused approach” on issues affecting the notified minorities, especially “educational empowerment, economic empowerment, infrastructure development and special needs.”
News
Don’t treat countries merely as a market, PM tells global industry (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned global businesses against treating countries only as a market, and urged them to move beyond their focus on bottomlines as a balance between the interests of producers and consumers was vital to sustain a profitable market.
Pointing to the “irreversible disruptions in the global supply chain” after the pandemic, he questioned the efficiency of such supply chains that failed to work when the world required it the most and presented India as a trustworthy solution to such disruptions that the world is dealing with today.
Addressing the closing session of the B20 Summit India, Mr. Modi mooted a reboot of the traditional “brand and sales” approach to business.
He said that businesses must focus on improving the purchasing power of people, underlining that a “self-centric” approach would harm everyone.
As a business, we also have to focus on creating an ecosystem that will benefit us in the long term. Now, due to the policies implemented by India in the past few years, 13.5 crore people have come out of poverty in just five years. These people are the new consumers. This neo middle class is also giving momentum to India’s growth.
Treating other countries only as a market will not work and even harm producing countries sooner or later, he warned, stressing that the way forward was to make “everyone equal partners in this progress”.
Government imposes restrictions on export of Basmati rice (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Union government halted the export of Basmati rice valued at less than $1,200 a tonne to restrict possible “illegal” shipment of plain white rice by wrongly classifying it as Basmati rice.
The export of non-Basmati white rice was prohibited on July 20, citing the rise in domestic prices. The Union Commerce Ministry said it had directed the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the agency responsible for regulation of export of Basmati rice, that contracts for Basmati exports with a value of $1,200 and above should be registered for issue of registration-cum-allocation certificate (RCAC).
It also asked the APEDA that contracts with a value below $1,200 a tonne may be kept in abeyance and evaluated by a committee to be set up by the APEDA Chairman for understanding the variation in prices and use of this route for export of non-Basmati white rice.
It has been noted that there has been large variation in the contract price of Basmati being exported with lowest contract price being $359 per MT in backdrop of average export price of $1214 per MT during August.
The Ministry directed the committee to submit its report within one month, and said a decision on lower price exports of Basmati can be taken based on the report.
The Ministry also directed the APEDA to hold consultations with traders to sensitise them to the matter and work with them to discourage any use of the window for export of non-Basmati white rice.
ISRO releases graph of temperature variation of topsoil in lunar South Pole (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released a graph of the temperature variation on the lunar surface with an increase in depth measured by the ChaSTE payload aboard Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander module.
According to the space agency, Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the South Pole, to understand the thermal behaviour of the moon’s surface.
The payload has a temperature probe equipped with a controlled penetration mechanism capable of reaching a depth of 10 cm beneath the surface.
The probe is fitted with 10 individual temperature sensors. The presented graph illustrates the temperature variations of the lunar surface/near-surface at various depths, as recorded during the probe’s penetration. This is the first such profile for the lunar South Pole. Detailed observations are underway.
The payload was developed by a team led by the Space Physics Laboratory (SPL) of the ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), in collaboration with the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.
World
Zimbabwe President hails high turnout after re-election (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
President Emmerson Mnangagwa called Zimbabwe a “mature democracy” after winning a second term in office despite the Opposition rejecting the result of a vote that international observers said fell short of democratic standards.
Mr. Mnangagwa, 80, won 52.6% of the ballots against 44% for his main challenger, Nelson Chamisa, 45, according to official results announced late on Saturday by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Zimbabweans voted for President and Parliament in polling marred by delays that sparked Opposition accusations of rigging and voter suppression.
Promise Mkwananzi, a spokesperson for Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), said the party did not sign the final tally, which he described as “false”.
The vote has been watched across southern Africa as a test of support for Mr. Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party, whose 43-year rule has been accompanied by a moribund economy and charges of authoritarianism.
Foreign monitors announced on Friday that the elections had failed to conform to regional and international standards.