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Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for a record ninth time, returning to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance just 18 months after he left it, in his fifth switch in political loyalties since 2015. Six Ministers and two Deputy Chief Ministers, both from the BJP, were sworn in with him.
Mr. Kumar said his latest switch was “in the interest of Bihar”. The BJP said that its renewed “alliance with the JD(U) happened for the development of Bihar”.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), with which Mr. Kumar has broken up again, said, “The game is not over yet”, predicting the JD(U)’s demise as a party.
Since November 2005, Mr. Kumar has been making repeated political turnarounds to remain the Chief Minister of Bihar, apart from a brief hiatus after his party’s poor performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Editorial
The year commences, but with deep foreboding (Page no. 6)
(GS paper 2, International Relation)
Seldom has a new year commenced with such deep foreboding as 2024. Both the geopolitical and domestic outlook appear distinctly unfavourable. Predicting how much worse the situation could become as the year advances could, however, be hazardous.
The war in Ukraine, while stalemated at present, is set to enter a new phase. Since neither side appears ready for peace talks or negotiations, the danger is that one side or the other might be tempted to escalate matters in their favour by resorting to still more dangerous weapons available in their armoury, not excluding nuclear.
It is obvious that neither Russia nor Ukraine (plus the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) can afford to be seen as having been forced to retreat — for if Russia is compelled to step back, not only would it mean the humbling of Russia per se but it would also signal a major victory for the West.
If, on the other hand, Ukraine (plus NATO) is compelled to accept peace on Russia’s terms, it would comprehensively alter the politics of Europe. Key questions would thereafter arise about the very utility of NATO as a bulwark against aggression.
Opinion
Aadhaar-based pay a bad idea for MGNREGS (Page no. 7)
(GS paper 2, Governance)
On January 1, the Rural Development Ministry made Aadhaar-Based Payment Systems (ABPS) mandatory in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
This is after five deadline extensions by the Union government, disregarding several memorandums by workers to the Ministry to not make ABPS mandatory.
There are two modes of wage payments in MGNREGS: account-based and ABPS. For the first, wage transfers use the workers’ name, bank account number, and the IFSC code of the bank branch.
For ABPS, a few steps are minimally needed. First, a worker’s Aadhaar number must be seeded with their job card, which means authenticating her job card details with the Aadhaar database.
Authentication is successful only when all the details including spelling and gender in the job cards match with those in the Aadhaar database. Second, their Aadhaar must be linked to their bank account.
Third, the Aadhaar number of each worker must be mapped correctly through their bank branch with a software mapper of the National Payments Corporation of India, which acts as a clearing house of ABPS.
The Aadhaar number acts as the financial address and cash transferred gets deposited to the last Aadhaar-linked bank account.
Incorrectness in any of the above steps for ABPS means that the worker is denied work, does not receive wages, or is not paid in their preferred account.
Consequently, workers have to spend hundreds of rupees and lose several days of their livelihood to fix these technological glitches.
Explainer
Analysing China’s ties with Africa (Page no. 8)
(GS paper 2, International Relation)
From January 13-18, the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, visited four African countries, Egypt, Tunisia, Togo and the Ivory Coast. This was Wang Yi’s 11th annual trip to Africa to enhance economic and security cooperation with the continent.
Wang Yi’s visit to Africa had multiple objectives. The major agenda was to implement the outcomes of the China-Africa Leaders Dialogue held in August 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
It included the execution of three initiatives, including support for Africa’s industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, and cooperation on talent development.
The visit sets a precedent for the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation 2024 (FOCAC). In Egypt, which shares the Rafah border with Gaza, China has communicated its intention to be a global actor, mediating peace in Gaza.
Wang Yi met with the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, calling for an “immediate and comprehensive ceasefire” in Gaza.
What are the RBI’s guidelines on State ‘guarantees’? (Page no. 8)
(GS paper 3, Economy)
On January 16, a working group constituted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made certain recommendations to address issues relating to guarantees extended by State governments.
Among other things, the Working Group prescribed a uniform reporting framework for the guarantees extended, besides expanding the definition of what constitutes a ‘guarantee.’
A ‘guarantee’ is contingent liability of a State, processed by an accessory contract, that protects the lender/investor from the risk of borrower defaulting.
They promise to be answerable for the debt, default or miscarriage of the latter. The entity to whom the guarantee is given is the ‘creditor’, the defaulting entity on whose behalf the guarantee is given is called the ‘principal debtor’ and the entity giving the guarantee (State governments in this context) is called the ‘surety’.
If A delivers certain goods or services to B and B does not make the agreed-upon payment, B is defaulting and at the risk of being sued for the debt.
Text & Context
What is end-to-end encryption and how does it secure information? (Page no. 9)
(GS paper 3, Science and Technology)
Information is wealth, and an important way to protect it is encryption. End-to-end (E2E) encryption in particular protects information in a way that has transformed human rights organisations’, law-enforcement agencies’, and tech companies’ outlook on their ability to access information about individuals to protect, prosecute or profit from their engagement, as the case may be.
Fundamentally, encryption is the act of changing some consumable information into an inconsumable form based on some rules. There are different kinds of such rules.
The key is some data using which a computer can ‘unlock’ (decrypt) some ‘locked’ (encrypted) text, knowing the set of rules used to ‘lock’ it.
News
INSAT-3DS satellite sent to launch port in Sriharikota (Page no. 12)
(GS paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said that the INSAT-3DS satellite has been flagged off to the launch port at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The satellite is an exclusive meteorological satellite with the primary objective to provide continuity of services to the existing in-orbit INSAT-3D and 3DR satellites and significantly enhancing the capabilities of the INSAT system.
The satellite is likely to be launched on board the GSLV F14 next month.
The ISRO said it had successfully completed satellite assembly, integration and testing activities at the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru.
“Pre-shipment review was held with the participation of members from the user community on January 25,” it said. Indian industries have also significantly contributed in the making of the satellite.
Germany seeks inter-governmental deal for submarines with India (Page no. 1)
(GS paper 2, International Relation)
Germany has presented an inter-governmental proposal for sale of six advanced conventional submarines to India for the Navy’s P-75I procurement programme, diplomatic sources confirmed. A senior German delegation was in New Delhi recently to take the discussions forward.
The senior officials were here two weeks ago. They had good talks in order to move the process forward,” a diplomatic source in the know said.
The race for the deal, expected to cost upwards of ₹45,000 crore, is between Germany and Spain, and the process has been considerably delayed.
India and Germany discussed the deal at the highest level during the visit of German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in June 2023, when he made a strong pitch for the bid by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) in his talks with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Mr. Pistorius had said that the submarine deal could become a “flagship project” between the two countries.
World
Burkina, Mali, Niger quit West African bloc (Page no. 13)
(GS paper 2, International Relation)
The military regimes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announced their immediate withdrawal from the West African bloc ECOWAS.
The leaders of the three Sahel nations issued a statement saying it was a “sovereign decision” to leave the Economic Community of West African States “without delay”.
Struggling with jihadist violence and poverty, the regimes have had tense ties with ECOWAS since coups took place in Niger last July, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Mali in 2020.
All three were suspended from ECOWAS with Niger and Mali facing heavy sanctions. They have hardened their positions in recent months and joined forces in an “Alliance of Sahel States”.
Nepal, China to sign implementation plan of BRI projects (Page no. 13)
(GS paper 2, International Relation)
Nepal and China will sign the implementation plan of the Belt and Road Initiative “very soon”, Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha said, seven years after the two neighbours inked an agreement to undertake ambitious Beijing-backed infrastructure projects in the Himalayan nation.
“Once we sign the implementation plan, we will move into the implementation phase,” Mr. Shrestha, also the Minister for Home Affairs, said while addressing an event here that is part of the Silk Road Youth Forum and South Asian Cooperation Conference.
His statement came as Sun Haiyan, a senior leader of China’s ruling Communist Party, was visiting Nepal and meeting the country’s top leaders.
Science
The genomic revolution promises to transform cancer care (Page no. 20)
(GS paper 2, International Relation)
Cancer has emerged as a major public health concern worldwide with about 20 million new patients being added every year.
The World Health Organization has estimated the cancer burden will increase by almost 60% over the next decade, potentially rendering it the second major cause of death. India alone adds approximately 1.4 million new cancer cases every year, with almost 1 in 1,000 Indians being diagnosed annually, per the National Cancer Registry.
Cancer is a disease of the genome. It is caused by changes in genes that cause some cells to divide in an uncontrolled way.
These changes can be inherited or acquired. Inherited genetic variants form the basis of many hereditary cancers, including breast and ovarian cancer.
Advancements in genomic technologies in the past couple of decades, including global initiatives such as the Cancer Genome Atlas, have provided a shot in the arm to understand the molecular underpinnings of cancer, which, in turn, have yielded a new generation of therapies that target molecular defects.