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The Bihar Cabinet has approved a proposal to increase reservations in the State for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) to 65%, from the current 50% quota, crossing the ceiling set by the Supreme Court.
A Bill to implement the increase will be introduced on November 9, during the ongoing Winter Session of the Assembly.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar proposed the increase hours after the caste survey report was tabled in the Assembly.
He proposed that SCs, who make up 19.7% of the population, according to the survey, should get a quota of 20%, higher than the current 16%. STs, who have a 1.7% share in the population, should see their reservation doubled from 1% to 2%.
Editorial
The problem with the ‘70 hours a week’ line (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The startling comment by Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy that youngsters in India must say, “This is my country. I want to work 70 hours a week”, in order to make the country competitive, and the support he received from several members of India Inc., is undoubtedly an example of how captains of industry can adroitly hide their lust for profits by preaching virtue. More importantly, it is an argument that fails the litmus test on three counts.
First, Mr. Narayana Murthy made a factually incorrect statement that extended working hours helped advanced countries such as Germany and Japan to succeed.
Second, he placed the burden of increasing productivity on the shoulders of workers, when the reality is that they have underinvested in innovation, the critical factor for raising productivity.
Third, Mr. Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour week proposal violates international labour standards (ILS), the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Decent Work Agenda and its Fundamental Conventions that lay down the working hours in order to ensure that women and men get decent and productive work.
The ILS is increasingly becoming the prerequisite for gaining market access in advanced countries and for companies to participate in supply chains. Non-adherence to ILS could, therefore, seriously affect the aspirations of Indian industry to expand their presence in global markets.
Opinion
In troubled waters in Qatar (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
On October 26, the news from Doha that its Court of First Instance had awarded the death sentence to eight Indian Navy veterans working there sent shock waves across India.
The Ministry of External Affairs extended “absolute support” to the veterans and promised to make every effort to bring them home. A former Indian Ambassador to Qatar has been tasked with monitoring the case from New Delhi.
This is perhaps the first instance in five decades of Indian migration to the Gulf that any Indian nationals have been accused of involvement in a breach of local security, and their culpability deemed serious enough to warrant the death penalty.
The facts relating to the case are meagre: the eight veterans — three captains, four commanders, and a sailor — were employed with a local company, Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services.
The company, now closed down, provided training and other support services to the Qatari Navy. The eight naval officials, in detention since August 2022, are accused of espionage.
Some sections of the media reported that the officials disclosed to Israel the specifications of an Italian submarine that Qatar contracted to obtain from an Italian company, Fincantieri.
But this has been disputed: it has been asserted authoritatively that there is no ongoing submarine contract and no Israeli connection.
Text & Context
Understanding the fundamentals of how electricity is transmitted (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
When India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the planned site of the Bhakra Nangal Dam in Bilaspur in 1954, he called dams “the temples of modern India”.
Contained in his turn of phrase were many indications about the way India was to develop in the coming decades, but it also spoke to the centrality of electricity in the modern nation and the foundations that power transmission laid for development.
Since energy exists in many forms, like light, sound, heat, etc., power and power transmission also exist in many forms.
For example, mechanical power in a car is transmitted using gears. However, electric power transmission is more complicated because of the multiple phases of electric current, and factors like voltage, impedance, frequency, etc.
News
Aditya-L1 captures first glimpse of solar flares (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS) payload, onboard the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, has captured the first glimpse of solar flares.
Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian mission to study the sun is currently on its journey to the destination of sun-earth L1 point (L1).
The Indian Space Research Organisation said the HEL1OS payload has captured the first high-energy X-ray glimpse of solar flares. “During its first observationon October 29, HEL1OS recorded the impulsive phase of solar flares.
The recorded data is consistent with the X-ray light curves provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites.”
7.5 million new cases of TB in 2022, shows WHO Global report (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
There was a major global recovery in the number of people diagnosed with TB and treated in 2022, after two years of COVID-related disruptions, says the just-released WHO Global TB Report.
While this has started to reverse or moderate, TB remains the world’s second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, and global TB targets have either been missed or remain off track.
The net reduction from 2015 to 2022 was 8.7%, far from the WHO End TB Strategy milestone of a 50% reduction by 2025.
The reported global number of people newly diagnosed with TB was 7.5 million in 2022. This is the highest number since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995, above the pre-COVID baseline (and previous historical peak) of 7.1 million in 2019, and up from 5.8 million in 2020 and 6.4 million in 2021.
The number in 2022 probably includes a sizeable backlog of people who developed TB in previous years, but whose diagnosis and treatment was delayed by COVID-related disruptions that affected access to and provision of health services, according to the report.
World
Israel will have an ‘overall security’ role in Gaza: PM (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israel will take “overall security responsibility” in Gaza indefinitely after its war with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, the clearest indication yet that Israel plans to maintain control over the coastal enclave one month into a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and levelled whole swaths of the territory.
In an interview with ABC News that aired late on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu expressed openness to “little pauses” in the fighting to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza or the release of some of the more than 240 hostages seized by Hamas in its October 7 attack into Israel that triggered the war.
But he ruled out any general ceasefire without the release of all the hostages, and the White House said there was no agreement on U.S. President Joe Biden’s call for a broader humanitarian pause after a phone call between the leaders.
The war has already come at a staggering cost, and Israel unleashed another wave of strikes across the territory.
Entire city blocks have been reduced to rubble, and around 70% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to head to the southern part of the besieged territory, which is also being bombed.
Business
‘Free grains to cost govt. at least another ₹15,000 cr. per year’ (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent announcement of the extension of the free foodgrains scheme for the next five years will cost the public exchequer at least ₹15,000 crore more each year, according to an official in the Union Finance Ministry.
The overall food subsidy bill is governed by the economic cost of rice and wheat, which is influenced by factors such as the cost of procurement, storage and distribution.
The additional ₹15,000 crore amount is merely the income that the Centre had received every year in the past through the sale of subsidised food grains to States for more than 80 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act. Under the Act, rice was supplied at the rate of ₹3 per kg, wheat at ₹2 per kg, and coarse grains at ₹1 per kg.
Science
Where do domesticated silkworm cocoons get their wild colours from? (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Silk, the queen of fibres, is drawn or reeled from cocoons of the silk moth (Bombyx mori). Humans domesticated it more than 5,000 years ago in China, from the wild moth (Bombyx mandarina).
The ancestral moth is today found in China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and far eastern Russia, whereas the domesticated moth is reared all over the world, including in India. In fact, India is the world’s second largest producer of raw silk after China.
Caterpillars, also known as silkworms, of both these species feed exclusively on leaves of mulberry plants (genus Morus).
The domesticated mothis much larger than its wild progenitor, and thus extrudes a longer silk fibre to build its larger cocoon, up to 900 metres long.
But it depends wholly on human care for its survival and reproduction. Since having been domesticated, it has lost the ability to fly, and since its need for camouflage no longer exists, it has also lost its caterpillar and adult-stage pigmentation.
‘Wild’ silks – which include the muga, tasar, and eri silks – are obtained from other moth species: namely, Antheraea assama, Antheraea mylitta, and Samia cynthia ricini.
These moths survive relatively independently of human care, and their caterpillars forage on a wider variety of trees. Non-mulberry silks comprise about 30% of all silk produced in India.
These silks have shorter, coarser, and harder threads compared to the long, fine, and smooth threads of the mulberry silks.