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The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee adopted a report recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra from the Lower House over a “cash-for-query” allegation. Six members, including suspended Congress MP Praneet Kaur, voted in favour of the report while four Opposition MPs opposed it.
The opposing members have filed dissent notes calling it a “fixed match” and saying the complaint filed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, which the panel reviewed, was not supported by a “shred of evidence”.
The report will be now tabled before the Lok Sabha on the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament scheduled to begin on December 4.
Ms. Moitra can be expelled only if the House votes in favour of the panel’s recommendation. This is the first time, since the Ethics Committee came into existence in the year 2000, that the panel has recommended expulsion of a Parliamentarian.
Bihar House passes Bill raising ceiling on caste quota to 65% (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Bihar Assembly unanimously passed a Bill to increase reservation for Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes from the existing 50% to 65%.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar assured House members that his government would implement the provisions of the Bill as soon as possible.
Together with the 10% Economically Backward Class (EWS) quota, the Bill will push reservation in Bihar to 75%, well past the 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court.
According to the legislation, named the Bihar Reservation Amendment Bill, quota for Extremely Backward Class (EBC) will be raised from the existing 18% to 25%; for Backward Class (BC) from 12% to 18%; for Scheduled Caste (SC) from 16% to 20%; and for Scheduled Tribe (ST), the quota will be doubled, from 1% to 2%. The existing 3% reservation for BC women has been scrapped.
Editorial
Acknowledge India’s economic successes too (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Indian economy has grown at an impressive rate in the post-COVID-19 years. In FY2023, it grew year-over-year (YoY) at 7.2%, the fastest among major economies. In FY2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects India’s YoY growth at 6.3%, again the fastest among major economies.
For those yet to absorb its full import (see https://tinyurl.com/wzxhde5a, for example), the tagline, ‘fastest-growing major economy,’ calls for some elaboration.
The word ‘major’ in the tagline makes it clear that India’s relatively high economic growth in the global context is not on account of its small size.
India is currently the fifth largest economy in the world in U.S. dollar terms and is projected by the IMF to become the third largest by 2027.
An economy as large as this and growing rapidly cannot be characterised by weak domestic demand, particularly when external demand growth has been uneven and uncertain.
Opinion
Should Indians work longer hours? (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Infosys founder Narayana Murthy recently said that young Indians should work 70 hours a week in order to compete with countries like China.
Should Indians work more? Arjun Nagarajan and Anamitra Roy Chowdhury discuss the question in a conversation moderated by Sonikka Loganathan.
Arjun Nagarajan: I want to de-emphasise the 70-hour number. Narayana Murthy said it in the context of India being at an inflection point with the largest population and a large demographic dividend.
If we miss these decades, it is difficult to move up the value chain. India cannot compare with post-war Germany and Japan (as Mr. Murthy said), but the message is about taking ownership.
In the 1990s to late 2020s, Indians worked 6-7 hours per day. Germany, during its heyday (industrial revolution), worked 40% to 50% more, and South Korea in the 1980s worked 30% to 33% more. Working longer is required, but these are broad generalisations and differ across sectors.
Text & Context
Why has the govt. issued a directive on deepfakes? (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
On 8 November, the Indian government instructed “social media intermediaries” to remove morphed videos or deepfakes from their platforms within 24 hours of a complaint being filed, in accordance with a requirement outlined in the IT Rules 2021.
The instructions came as deepfake videos of actors Rashmika Mandanna and Katrina Kaif surfaced online within the span of one week.
Deepfakes have been around since 2017 and refer to videos, audios or images created using a form of artificial intelligence called deep learning.
The term became popular when a Reddit contributor used publicly available AI-driven software to impose the faces of celebrities onto the bodies of people in pornographic videos.
Fast forward to 2023, deepfake tech, with the help of AI tools, allows semi and unskilled individuals to create fake content with morphed audio-visual clips and images.
News
India files appeal against death penalty to 8 former Navy personnel in Qatar (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The External Affairs Ministry said that the Indian Embassy in Qatar had been granted consular access on November 7 to the eight former Indian Navy personnel who are facing death penalty in the West Asian country.
The Ministry said India was considering “further legal steps” in the case. On November 7, our Embassy received another consular access to the detainees. We are in touch with the family members too, and the External Affairs Minister met them earlier this month in New Delhi.
Mr. Bagchi assured “all legal and consular assistance” to the eight former officials who were working in Al Dahra Company of Qatar. The Court of First Instance of Qatar passed a judgment on October 26 handing out the death penalty to them.
SC attains full strength as case log nears 80,000 (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court welcomed three new judges on Thursday, taking the judicial strength to its sanctioned capacity of 34, even as the pendency clock on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) dashboard threatens to hit a high of 80,000 cases in the next 24 hours.
Delhi High Court Chief Justice Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, and Rajasthan and Gauhati Chief Justices Augustine George Masih and Sandeep Mehta were sworn in as Supreme Court judges within three days of the Collegium recommending them, even as October alone saw the filing of nearly 5,000 cases.
The November 6 Collegium recommendation highlighted the perennial pendency and said it intended to tackle the backlog of the court, which bobbed up and down the 70,000-mark in 2022 following the pandemic, despite administrative and institutional changes, by getting rid of the problem of judicial vacancies.
In view of the ever mounting pendency of cases, the workload of judges has increased considerably. Bearing in mind the above, it has become necessary to ensure that the court has full working judge strength leaving no vacancy at any point of time.
World
Israel to begin four-hour pauses in northern Gaza (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israel will begin four-hour pauses in northern Gaza starting to allow people to flee hostilities, the White House said in what it called a step in the right direction.
White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said the pauses emerged out of discussions between U.S. and Israeli officials in recent days, including talks U.S. President Joe Biden had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr. Kirby said the pauses would allow people to get out of harm’s way and for deliveries of humanitarian aid and could be used as a way to get hostages out.
We’ve been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and that this process is starting today.
We understand that Israel will begin to implement four-hour pauses in areas of northern Gaza” with an announcement to come three hours in advance.
We think these are significant first steps here and obviously we want to see them continued for as long as they are needed.
Mr. Kirby also said a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants is not in order because it would help Hamas and “legitimise what they did on October 7 and we simply are not going to stand for that at this time”.
Business
‘RBI to hold rates till it clearly sights Fed heading to cut’ (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will keep interest rates on hold until rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve are “more clearly in sight”, Moody’s Investors Service said adding that post-festival demand dynamics in India, which will likely sustain growth in the near-term amid weak exports, will depend on inflation and the lagged impact of monetary tightening.
While ample reserves, solid domestic growth and largely contained inflationary pressures offered the RBI space to calibrate monetary policy, the persistence of elevated external risks would constrain the central bank into keeping interest rates high, Moody’s observed in a note.
It also noted that even as robust GST collections, auto sales and consumer optimism suggest urban demand is likely to stay strong during the ongoing festive season, rural demand “remains vulnerable to uneven monsoons that could lower crop yields and farm incomes”.
Science
Psoriasis patients contend with lack of awareness, bad lifestyle choices and poor insurance cover (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
This year’s theme for World Psoriasis Day observed was ‘Access for all’. Dermatologists treating psoriasis say lack of awareness about the condition and treatment leads to stigmatisation, even pushing people to consider ending their lives.
Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease that manifests as rashes usually on the face, elbows, knees and later spreads across the skin.
There are many kinds of psoriasis and among them the most common is psoriasis vulgaris. But there are also severe manifestations, leaving patients bed-ridden or with gnarled fingers.
The condition could be inherited, as in the case of V. Harish, 56, who was first diagnosed with arthritic psoriasis 15 years ago. He is among the 30% of patients who have joint involvements.
He underwent physiotherapy to stem further damage to his gnarled fingers. “My father also had psoriatic arthritis. Your lifestyle, food habits matter.
The medication is very expensive, but I was covered under group insurance. I had to take injections costing Rs. 35,000 every fortnight. I needed seven to eight doses before I could function reasonably.
I am on tablets now but over the years we become resistant to medicines and the condition relapses,” said Mr. Harish, among the lucky few whose family stood by him even when he was bed-ridden.