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Nipah scare returned to Kerala, with two deaths from the viral infection being reported from Kozhikode district. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya confirmed the deaths.
Two more cases of the virus — transmitted from animals, such as bats or pigs, to humans and from human to human — have been confirmed.
The deaths of the two patients — aged 44 and 40 — were reported on August 30 and September 11, respectively. The nine-year-old child of the second patient and his 24-year-old relative are under treatment. The condition of the child is stated to be critical.
A Central team of four experts has been sent to Kerala to assist the State government in surveillance and reduction in response time.
The government medical colleges in Kerala were issued guidelines on the precautions to be taken and provided with protective kits.
Deaths due to Nipah were reported in the district in 2018 and 2021. The symptoms of Nipah are fever, muscle pain, and respiratory problems. An infected person can be asymptomatic, but can be a carrier of Nipah.
Retail inflation eases; food prices still bite (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s retail inflation eased slightly to 6.83% in August, from the 15-month high of 7.44% in July, but the rise in food prices remained elevated at around 10% and rural consumers continued to face over 7% inflation.
The year-on-year rise in vegetable prices, which had soared 37.4% in July, eased a little, but was still high at 26.1% last month. Inflation in cereals moderated marginally from around 13% in July to 11.85% in August but pulses prices rose 13% again, amid concerns about lower kharif sowing stoking them further in coming months.
While a 5.8% sequential drop in vegetable prices from July contributed almost half the decline in August’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), a slight dip in the inflation rate for clothing, footwear, housing and miscellaneous items helped too.
Editorial
Drop the bad idea of simultaneous elections (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
In recent weeks, there has been increasing discussion about the possibility of having national and State elections at the same time, popularly known as ‘one nation, one election’.
The formation of a committee, helmed by a former President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, to determine how this might be implemented, and what manner of constitutional changes might be required to make it a legal reality, have generated further debate.
The primary arguments in favour of simultaneous elections are twofold: first, that it will decrease the costs of conducting elections (and of electioneering); and second, that it will free up political parties from being in ‘permanent campaign mode’, and allow them to focus on governance (and, for that matter, constructive opposition) for a five-year period.
Opinion
The Bharatiya Nayay Sanhita needs a relook (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
It is important that the offences in any penal law are clearly defined. Those who administer the law must know what offence has been committed so that arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement does not occur.
In Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), the Supreme Court held Section 66A of the Information Technology Act as unconstitutional.
It found the term “grossly offensive” in the Section to be vague and devoid of precision. Recently, the Central government introduced a few new offences in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill to deal sternly with terrorism-related crimes and organised crimes. It is feared that some terms in the Bill may be challenged as they are vague.
The number of sections in the Sanhita has been reduced, mainly because various sections pertaining to ‘definition’ have been merged into one section, offences and punishments have been clubbed together, and offences of a similar nature brought under one section.
A few omitted sections are unnatural offences (Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code), adultery (Section 497 of the IPC) and attempt to commit suicide (Section 309 of the IPC, though not completely).
Text & Context
Climate Phenomena and Food Security (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
There has been a series of disruptive weather and climate phenomena in India this year, demonstrating the complexity of our precipitation system.
There was the Western disturbance, which usually brings much-needed moisture from European seas to the western Himalaya and parts of northern India in the winter and spring.
But this year, the Western disturbance lived up to its name and remained active late into the summer, snapping at the heels of the southwest monsoon.
The widespread destruction of infrastructure and loss of life due to landslides and flooding in the western Himalaya and northern India raised concerns about the sustainability and resilience of our development projects in the mountains and floodplains.
Between July 5 and July 20, the affected area was estimated to be between 2,124 and 7,362 sq. km. The population affected was potentially more than 25 lakh.
How fraternity in India is different from the idea enshrined in the Constitution (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The idea of fraternity, as philosopher Angel Puyol argues in his 2019 book Political Fraternity- Democracy beyond Freedom & Democracy, should be mainly understood in the domain of the political.
That is to say that the concept involves the emancipation and empowerment of the people despite its variegated history, since the time of Plato; and though neglected, it remains a significant tenet of liberal political philosophy along with the idea of liberty and equality.
India’s independence struggle, and the subsequent emergence of constitutional democracy saw the necessity of liberty, equality and fraternity for a complex Indian society at the precipice of becoming an independent republic.
In this context, Ambedkar’s stress on the inseparability of the three ideas and the underlining of fraternity cannot be emphasised enough.
The framers of the Indian Constitution knew the significance of fraternity in a society, divided on the basis of various hierarchical social inequalities.
Ironically though, fraternity also happens to be the constitutional value that has received the maximum neglect both in the world of ideas and in the political field of action.
However, the notion of fraternity has its own journey within India’s sociology, regardless of its huge political purchase otherwise.
While fraternity remains one of the chief goals of India’s parliamentary democracy, and is actually the foundational political objective of its constitutional democracy, the current nature of India’s fraternity is different from the political fraternity espoused in its Constitution.
News
SC refers plea against sedition law to a Constitution Bench (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court referred petitions challenging Section 124A, the provision for sedition in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), to a Constitution Bench while refusing to wait for Parliament’s word on the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, a draft law proposed to replace the British-made penal code of 1860.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud found no merit in a suggestion from the government to defer the case instead of referring it to a larger Bench of five judges.
Attorney-General R. Venkataramani said a “substantive hearing” of the case immediately would be untimely as the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill was before a parliamentary standing committee and may be tabled in the Winter Session along with the Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Bills, which are meant to replace the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively.
The court said its resolve against postponing the case was based on a well-settled legal principle that a new penal law would apply only prospectively.
Prosecutions under Section 124A, presently on hold following a Supreme Court order in May 2022, would persist even if the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill manages to pass muster in Parliament.
G-7 saved G-20 by agreeing to Declaration: German envoy (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
G-7 countries were able to “save” the G-20 from an early demise by agreeing to the draft declaration, German Ambassador Philipp Ackermann said, rejecting statements from several countries, including Ukraine, which suggested that Western countries, comprising the G-7 and the European Union, had totally “compromised” their stand on Russia and Ukraine.
On the contrary, Mr. Ackerman said, the German delegation had left Delhi “highly satisfied” with the outcome.
He credited “skilful Indian negotiations”, as well as a joint proposal by Indonesia, India, Brazil and South Africa, presented to the rest of the G-20 as a fait accompli hours before the Leaders’ Summit began, for the breakthrough in talks.
The joint proposal by the four consecutive hosts of the G-20, all belonging to “emerging economies”, contained the eight paragraphs that finally made it into the Summit declaration, word for word, without any changes.
The paragraphs under the heading “For the Planet, People, Peace and Prosperity”, which was also used in the document, had erased language from the Bali G-20 declaration that directly criticised Russia for the war in Ukraine.
South Korea keen on joining Quad, says envoy Chang Jae-bok (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
South Korea is keen on joining the Quad and the ball is now in the grouping’s court to decide on expansion, Chang Jae-bok, the South Korean envoy in India.
On the bilateral front, he said India and South Korea were negotiating expansion of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and had so far held 10 rounds of discussions, but there were lots of unresolved issues. He said that after the bilateral meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, there was some momentum.
On ease of doing business, the envoy, in a press interaction, said, We wish Indian authorities would work harder to make the business environment more friendly to Korean businesses.
He said South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol raised the issue of more friendly conditions and doing business in India during the bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We hope India will respond positively.
Rajnath lays foundation stone for Nyoma airfield near the LAC in eastern Ladakh (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh virtually laid the foundation stone for the Nyoma airfield in eastern Ladakh near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and also inaugurated the crucial Nechiphu tunnel on the axis to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
In all, he inaugurated 90 infrastructure projects built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) at a cost of over ₹2,900 crore, across 11 States and Union Territories, which include two revamped airfields in Bagdogra and Barrackpore in West Bengal, two helipads, 22 roads and 63 bridges.
Of these 90 projects, 36 are in Arunachal Pradesh; 26 in Ladakh; 11 in Jammu & Kashmir; five in Mizoram; three in Himachal Pradesh; two each in Sikkim, Uttarakhand and West Bengal; and one each in Nagaland, Rajasthan and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Business
July industrial output rises by 5.7%, a 5-month high gain (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s industrial output grew 5.7% in July, the fastest pace in five months, aided by an 8% surge in electricity generation and slightly healthier manufacturing growth of 4.6% that overall offset a 3.3% drop in mining and a second successive month of contraction in production of consumer durables.
The National Statistical Office which had estimated the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth at a three-month low of 3.7% in June, revised it fractionally upward to 3.75%.
The last time industrial output had grown at a sharper pace than July was in February 2023, with a 5.8% year-on-year uptick.
In absolute terms, however, July’s production levels marked a three-month low and were 1.04% lower than June. Infrastructure and construction goods continued to record sharp growth, rising 11.4% in July.
Consumer durables’ production remained in contraction mode for the seventh time in eight months, though the extent of shrinkage dropped from 6.9% in June to 2.7% in July.
For the first four months of 2023-24, this is the only use-based segment of industry with negative growth, down 2.7% from a year earlier.
But consumer demand for non-durables appeared to be strengthening, with an uptick of 7.4% in their output compared with just 1.2% in June.
Russian companies said to cease offering discounts on fertiliser supplies to India (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Russian companies have ceased offering fertiliser such as di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) to India at discounted prices due to tightening global supplies after becoming the biggest suppliers to the country last year, three industry sources told Reuters.
The move in August by Russian companies to offer fertilisers at market prices could increase India’s import costs and subsidy burden amid a rally in global prices, as top exporter, China, tries to curtail overseas sales.
“There are no discounts,” said a New Delhi-based senior industry official involved in the negotiations with overseas suppliers. “Russian companies are offering fertilisers at the market prices,” the official said, declining to be named.
India’s fertiliser imports from Russia more than tripled to a record 4.35 million tons in the 2022-23 financial year as suppliers gave discounts to the global market price for DAP, urea and NPK fertilisers.
World
North Korea’s Kim arrives in Russia to meet with Putin (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Russia ahead of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. has warned could see an arms deal to support Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.
Making a rare foreign trip and his first since the pandemic, an unsmiling Mr. Kim waved from the doorway of his heavily armoured private train as it departed from Pyongyang on Sunday evening.
Mr. Kim will meet Mr. Putin at an unspecified location in Russia’s Far East region later this week, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Mr. Putin is attending the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, the Far East city closest to the North Korean border, though there has been no indication that the internationally isolated pair would hold their talks there.
Reporters granted access to the Russian leader at the forum refrained from asking Mr. Putin details of the visit but he told journalists he would soon visit the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport some 1,000 km from Vladivostok.