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India has approached the Russian authorities for “early discharge” of Indians working as support staff with the Russian Army, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, urging Indian nationals to stay away from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The comments by Ministry’s spokesperson states that at least three Indian citizens who were hired as security helpers by Russia were forced to fight alongside the country’s forces along its border with Ukraine.
Subsequently reported that there are around 100 Indians who are said to have been hired by the Russian Army over the past year.
We are aware that a few Indian nationals have signed up for support jobs with the Russian army. The Indian embassy has regularly taken up this matter with the relevant Russian authorities for their early discharge. We urge all Indian nationals to exercise due caution and stay away from this conflict.
States
ISRO, PAPA detects solar wind impact of coronal mass ejections (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) payload onboard the Aditya-L1 has detected the impact of coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
PAPA is an energy and mass analyser designed for in-situ measurements of solar wind electrons and ions in the low energy range. It has two sensors: the Solar Wind Electron Energy Probe (SWEEP, measuring electrons in the energy range of 10 eV to 3 keV) and the Solar Wind Ion Composition Analyser (SWICAR, measuring ions in the energy range of 10 eV to 25 keV and mass range of 1-60 amu).
The sensors are also equipped to measure the direction of arrival of solar wind particles. The payload has been operational since December 12, 2023.
Editorial
Changing the growth paradigm (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
More GDP does not improve the well-being of citizens if it does not put more income in their pockets, he says. They need decent jobs, which the Indian economy has not provided despite impressive growth of GDP.
The health of any complex system, whether the human body or a nation’s economy, cannot be determined by its size. What matters is the shape it is in. GDP growth has become the dominant measure of the health of all economies.
The dominant paradigm is, first, increase the size of the pie before its redistribution. It has replaced “socialist” models which were concerned with conditions at the bottom.
Economists do not agree on how the well-being of citizens should be measured; and what the best measures of poverty, employment, and adequate income are.
In their models, such hard-to-quantify conditions are taken care of by some invisible hand when GDP grows. India is becoming one of the most unequal countries in the world with this flawed model of economic progress.
News
Centre amends surrogacy rules, allows couples to use donor gametes (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Union government has modified the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules, 2022 and notified that both gametes need not come from a married couple in case they are certified as suffering from a medical condition.
As per the latest amendment, the couple can have a child born through surrogacy but must have at least one gamete from the intending couple.
Also, single women (widow or divorcee) undergoing surrogacy must use self-eggs and donor sperm to avail surrogacy procedures, the notification has said.
The latest amendment comes after the Supreme Court asked why the Centre was not taking a decision on the matter. The Union Health Ministry has now amended the earlier rules that stated that couples undergoing surrogacy must have both gametes from the intending couple.
World
Israeli PM proposes plan for post-war Gaza: reports (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israel seeks open-ended control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip, according to a long-awaited postwar plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was swiftly rejected by Palestinian leaders and runs counter to Washington’s vision for the war-ravaged enclave.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the two-page document to his security Cabinet late on Thursday for approval.
Deep disagreements over Gaza’s future have led to increasingly public friction between Israel and the U.S., its closest ally.
The Biden administration seeks eventual Palestinian governance in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to Palestinian statehood, an outcome vehemently opposed by Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing government. Mr. Netanyahu’s plan envisions hand-picked Palestinians in Gaza administering the territory.
Armenia says ‘froze’ participation in Moscow-led security bloc (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Armenia has suspended its participation in a Russia-led security bloc, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview published, Yerevan’s latest step to distance itself from Moscow.
Russia and Armenia have traditionally been allies but relations soured last year when Russian peacekeepers did not intervene to stop Azerbaijan taking control of Nagorno-Karabakh from the Armenian separatists who ran the enclave.
In practice, we have frozen our participation in this organisation,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told the France 24 channel, referring to the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).
The bloc, a defence pact, is led by Russia and comprises several former Soviet republics. Armenia boycotted a CSTO summit at the end of last year.
Business
India’s stance on data transfers at WTO spooks semiconductor industry giants (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
A global consortium of semiconductor industry groups has asked India to reconsider its plan to push for duties on cross-border digital e-commerce and data transfers at an upcoming global trade meeting, warning that India’s stance will stifle its own chip design industry.
Ministers from across the globe are convening for a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Abu Dhabi early next week to try to discuss several trade-related issues, including extending a moratorium in place since 1998 on applying duties on electronic transmissions.
Developing nations like India, South Africa and Indonesia are set to oppose efforts by U.S. and Europe to extend the moratorium. If no accord is made, the moratorium would expire this year.
The moratorium’s collapse would mean tariffs on digital e-commerce and an innumerable number of transfers of chip design data across countries, raising costs and worsening chip shortages, the World Semiconductor Council (WSC) wrote to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The chip sector is a key plank of Mr. Modi’s agenda to push India’s economic growth, with a $10 billion incentive package in place to boost the industry.