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Despite a tangible growth downturn in the farm and services sectors as well as consumer spending, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a higher-than-expected 7.6% in the July-September 2023 quarter, as per initial estimates from the National Statistical Office.
The second quarter (Q2) growth was slightly lower than the 7.8% rise in the previous quarter, but well over the central bank’s projected uptick of 6.5%. Growth in the Gross Value Added (GVA) in the economy eased slight to 7.4% in the second quarter of 2023-24, from 7.6% in Q1.
But the GVA growth in the farm sector skidded sharply to just 1.2% from 3.5% in Q1 while it more than halved for services sectors such as trade, hotels and transport from 9.2% in Q1 to 4.3%.
The first half of 2023-24 has thus provisionally recorded a 7.7% growth in GDP, with the GVA rising 7.6%, led by a 10.5% growth in construction and 9.3% uptick in manufacturing.
Editorial
Broadcast regulation 3.0, commissions and omissions (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill released in November by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is part of an arc of endeavours to regulate broadcasting in an integrated manner.
The last initiative to take on this ambitious task was back in 2007, in the form of the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill.
Ten years before that, when cable and satellite broadcasting was in its infancy, the Broadcasting Bill of 1997 scripted the first effort to visualise an integrated regulatory framework for this sector.
The recent third rendition of a Broadcasting Bill comes on the heels of a pre-consultation paper on ‘National Broadcasting Policy’ by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), a document initiated following a reference from the MIB.
There appear to be three positive propositions in the current Bill, albeit each requiring crucial refinements. First, it obliges broadcasting network operators and broadcasters to maintain records of subscriber data, and subject this to periodic external audits, as is the international norm.
Second, the Bill seeks to stipulate a methodology for audience measurement, and the sale of ratings data. Both mechanisms will bring the much-needed transparency in the opaque value chain of the cable and satellite television business in our country.
That said, the Bill completely lacks any guardrails to shield the privacy of subscribers and audiences in such practices of data collection.
Third, the provision to permit private actors in terrestrial broadcasting will encourage competition to Doordarshan, the state broadcaster, as is in many G-20 countries.
Back in 2016, TRAI had initiated consultations on this. At that time, there was an opinion about terrestrial broadcasting proving viable only for large players, including those already in cable and satellite broadcasting; consequently, such a move, it could be argued, is likely to diminish the diversity of suppliers in broadcasting as a whole.
This anxiety can be pacified if the Bill allows terrestrial broadcasting to those not involved in other forms of broadcasting.
Making this Israeli-Palestinian war the last (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
All wars end. The Israeli-Hamas war will also end. When and how are still to be determined. But doing so is urgent.
The United Nations says 1.3 million of the 2.3 million residents of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have been displaced, and almost half of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.
One outcome of a war is when both sides gain something of value to them. The Israeli-Hamas war is likely to end in that kind of scenario.
Israel will win in military terms, no doubt about that. But Hamas is likely to win in terms of a greatly increased following among Arab populations everywhere, including, especially, in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestine Authority, which has been ruling there for the past 30 years, has become vastly unpopular and corrupt. Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the most moderate Palestine leader Israel could have ever hoped for, has failed singularly in making any progress towards the objective of establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank. He is perceived as collaborating with Israel in its hunt for ‘terrorists’. The peace process has long been dead.
Opinion
Is the emerging global order bipolar? (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The world has witnessed several disruptions in recent years. China’s phenomenal rise has unleashed a superpower competition between Washington and Beijing.
Russia is challenging the post-World War security architecture in Europe through military means. In West Asia, Israel is engaged in a brutal war with Hamas.
The world is also witnessing the rise of several middle powers such as India. Everything is in a state of flux. I would look at the present world order as one of asymmetric bipolarity in which the U.S. still remains a pre-eminent power, but China is closing in very fast.
Meanwhile, there are other power centres emerging and they will play a significant role in the balance of power. I’d say an asymmetric, diffused world order is taking shape. With the passage of time, maybe these contours will be clearer.
Text & Context
Understanding simultaneous elections (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
In September, the Union Government notified the formation of a six-member panel to ‘examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections’ in the Lok Sabha, State assemblies and local bodies.
For this purpose, the panel has been entrusted with the task of proposing specific amendments to the Constitution and any other legal changes necessary to enable simultaneous elections.
The panel also has to give its opinion on whether the proposed amendments shall require the assent of half of the State assemblies, as stipulated in Article 368.
On October 25, the panel had an interaction with the Law Commission to discuss the roadmap to synchronise Parliamentary and Assembly elections by 2029.
The first four general elections involved simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. It was possible then as the Congress was in power both at the national and State levels.
The bifurcation of elections happened due to the advancing of Lok Sabha elections by the Congress, which after suffering a split in 1969 was looking to secure a majority of its own, riding on the populist appeal of Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
As of now the Lok Sabha elections coincide with the Assembly elections in four States namely Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim.
News
Three anti-submarine warfare ships for Indian Navy launched (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The first three of a series of eight anti-submarine warfare shallow water crafts being built by Cochin Shipyard Ltd. for the Navy were launched on the shipyard.
The ships, to be named INS Mahe, INS Malvan and INS Mangrol upon commissioning, were launched in the presence of the Vice-Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Sanjay J. Singh; the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Forces Command, Vice-Admiral Suraj Berry; and the Commandant of the Indian Naval Academy, Vice-Admiral Puneet Bahl, by their spouses Anjali Bahl, Kangana Berry and Zarine Lord Singh, respectively.
The shipyard inked the contract with the Defence Ministry to build the eight vessels in 2019.
Loss and Damage fund approved on day one of CoP-28 summit (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
On the first day of the 28th Conference of Parties or COP-28 here on Thursday, member countries agreed to make operational a Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund meant to compensate countries already dealing with climate change.
To be based at the World Bank but managed by an independent secretariat, the Fund has received commitments worth nearly $250 million from countries, though billions of dollars are still needed to meet its purpose.
The Fund was first announced at the conclusion of COP-27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, last year, but it has taken five separate meetings since then, through “transitional committees”, to get to a position where countries could unanimously agree on a text that was then passed by COP-28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. The demand for such a Fund is nearly three decades old.
The UAE, the host country, and Germany made a financial commitment of $100 million each; the U.S. $17 million, the U.K. approximately $50.6 million, and Japan $10 million for the Fund. The European Union committed $145 million, over and above the German contribution.
Kissinger, Nixon ‘helped’ Pakistan in 1971, documents from U.S. Archive reveal (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
A day after the war broke out between India and Pakistan in December 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon and National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, broke the U.S. arms ban on Pakistan and ensured that Islamabad received air support from third countries such as Jordan.
The information was part of a bunch of documents that were declassified earlier but were circulated by the National Security Archive of the U.S. on Thursday to mark Kissinger’s death.
The documents have shed renewed light on the crucial 13 days in the first fortnight of December 1971 and has revealed that Nixon-Kissinger duo was worried about India launching an all-out war against Pakistan.
A cable of December 4, a day after the war started, shows that the U.S. administration had come to believe that the war was started with India attacking Pakistan and that President Yahya Khan had sent an urgent appeal for military help from Washington DC.
India set to launch X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, says ISRO (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation has announced a plan to launch its first X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) to investigate the polarisation of intense X-ray sources.
In a recent update on its website, the ISRO said that while space-based X-ray astronomy had been established in India focusing on imaging, time-domain studies, and spectroscopy, the XPoSat mission marked a major value addition.
This research, supplementing traditional time and frequency domain studies, introduced a novel dimension to X-ray astronomy, generating anticipation and excitement within the scientific community.
The satellite will be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The date has not been revealed.
The XPoSat is designed for observation from a low earth orbit (non-sun synchronous orbit of 650-km altitude, low inclination of approximately six degrees) and will carry two scientific payloads.
With these two payloads, the mission is capable of simultaneous studies of temporal, spectral, and polarisation features of the bright X-ray sources.
World
China calls for immediate ‘sustained humanitarian truce’ in Israel-Hamas war (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
China called for a “sustained humanitarian truce” in the Israel-Hamas conflict in a position paper released by its Foreign Ministry.
Parties to the conflict should immediately realise a durable and sustained humanitarian truce. It called for a “comprehensive ceasefire and end of the fighting”.
And it urged the UN Security Council to send a “clear message” opposing the “forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population” as well as “calling for the release of all civilians and hostages held captive”.
The body must also “demand that parties to the conflict exercise restraint to prevent the conflict from widening and uphold peace and stability in West Asia”.
China said last week it welcomed a truce between Israel and Hamas, which began Friday and led to hostages being freed and the release of more than 100 Palestinian prisoners.
Business
Fiscal deficit touches 45% of full-year target (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The government’s fiscal deficit at the end of October stood at ₹8.03 lakh crore, or 45% of the full-year budget estimate, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts.
In actual terms, the fiscal deficit – the difference between expenditure and revenue – was at ₹8.03 lakh crore during the April-October period of 2023-24.
In the corresponding period last year, the deficit was at 45.6% of the budget estimates of 2022-23.
For 2023-24, the fiscal deficit of the government is estimated to be at ₹17.86 lakh crore, or 5.9% of the GDP. The Government of India received ₹15.9 lakh crore (58.6% of corresponding BE 2023-24 of total receipts) up to October 2023 comprising ₹13.01 lakh crore tax revenue (net), ₹2.65 lakh crore of non-tax revenue and ₹22,990 crore of non-debt capital receipts.
Science
The spread of AIDS can be stopped with science-backed protocols (Page no. 22)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Since the first diagnosed case of HIV in 1981, it is estimated that globally 39 million persons are now living with HIV. In India the figure is 2.4 million.
There were 1.3 million new HIV infections in 2022 globally and 63,000 in India. Most transmissions occur in the key population include female sex workers, men having sex with men, transgender community and injecting drug users.
Prevention interventions using behavioural change never stopped HIV spread significantly. There are no vaccines for HIV despite extensive research. Involving the communities and making them the focus will prevent infections.
Persons who acquire HIV end up with compromised immune systems which lead to opportunistic infections like tuberculosis, fungal meningitis, pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, variety of skin lesions and certain cancers.
These co-morbid conditions result in advanced HIV disease and progression to death. In 2022, 650,000 persons died due to these conditions globally. In India AIDS caused 42,000 deaths. Many of these opportunistic infections are preventable and treatable.
Air pollution causes over 2 million deaths annually in India: study (Page no. 22)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Outdoor air pollution from all sources accounts for 2.18 million deaths per year in India, second only to China, according to a modelling study published in The BMJ.
The research found that air pollution from using fossil fuels in industry, power generation, and transportation accounts for 5.1 million extra deaths a year worldwide.
This equates to 61 per cent of a total estimated 8.3 million deaths worldwide due to ambient (outdoor) air pollution from all sources in 2019, which could be avoided by replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy.
These new estimates of fossil fuel-related deaths are larger than most previously reported values suggesting that phasing out fossil fuels might have a greater impact on attributable mortality than previously thought.
The team, including researchers from Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany, used a new model to estimate all cause and cause-specific deaths due to fossil fuel-related air pollution and to assess potential health benefits from policies that replace fossil fuels with clean sources.
They assessed excess deaths -- the number of deaths above that expected during a given time period -- using data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study, NASA satellite-based fine particulate matter and population data, and atmospheric chemistry, aerosol, and relative risk modelling for 2019, in four scenarios.