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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that several Indians who joined the Russian Army were already discharged after such cases were “strongly” taken up with the Russian authorities.
The Ministry said it has “seen some inaccurate reports in the media regarding Indians with the Russian Army seeking help for discharge”.
It reported that several workers hired as security helpers for the Russian Army have approached the Indian Embassy in Moscow seeking the government’s help to return home but have not received a response.
Each and every such case brought to the attention of the Indian Embassy in Moscow has been strongly taken up with the Russian authorities and those brought to the attention of the Ministry have been taken up with the Russian Embassy in New Delhi.
Several Indians have already been discharged as a result. We remain committed, as a matter of top priority, to actively pursuing with the Russian authorities all the relevant cases of Indian nationals for an early discharge from the Russian Army.
Editorial
Everything in the garden of elections is not lovely (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
This Court has consistently held that free and fair elections are a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. Elections at the local participatory level act as a microcosm of the largest democratic structure in the country, ensuring a free and fair electoral process throughout this process, therefore, is imperative to maintain the legitimacy of and trust in representative democracy.
So said the Supreme Court of India in Kuldeep Kumar vs Union Territory of Chandigarh and Others — otherwise known as the Chandigarh Mayor’s election case.
Though the Court has said the same or similar words in a number of its judgments in the past, the Chandigarh judgment, which was pronounced on February 20, 2024, by the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, and his brother Judges, Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, has taken on a new resonance. It is the context of this judgment that imparts great significance to these words.
Opinion
An expansive land management policy is overdue (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Land is central to all human activities. It provides ecological, economic, social, and cultural services. But this multi-dimensional character of land is often overlooked in land management practices, resulting is excessive stress, land degradation, and environmental draw down.
Globally, the annual losses of ecosystem services due to land degradation has been estimated at $6 trillion. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP14) in New Delhi in 2019 specifically discussed the problem of land degradation experienced by different countries and the need to find ways of achieving land degradation neutrality.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on ‘Climate Change and Land’ (2019) suggested country-level stocktaking of land management practices.
It also proposed several near- and long-term actions with the thrust on land management options that reduce competition for land with co-benefits and minimum negative impacts on key ecosystem services.
Text & Context
What is Bitcoin halving and what does it mean for the crypto community? (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Just as the sporting world eagerly awaits the Olympics every four years, those following cryptocurrency look forward to their own quadrennial event.
As athletes train for the 2024 Games in Paris this summer, crypto traders and Bitcoin miners are preparing for what is known as the ‘Bitcoin halving’—predicted to happen in April.
Bitcoin halving refers to the 50% reduction in the reward paid to Bitcoin miners who successfully process other people’s cryptocurrency transactions so that they can be added to the public digital ledger known as the blockchain.
In order to “grow” Bitcoin’s blockchain and keep the ecosystem running, Bitcoin miners rely on advanced computer equipment to solve a complex mathematical puzzle through a process known as ‘Proof of work.’
This intense activity is the reason Bitcoin transactions result in huge carbon footprints and require vast amount of electricity. No real mining is carried out.
News
Grant permanent commission to women: SC to Coast Guard (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court urged the Indian Coast Guard to ensure that women are granted permanent commission. “Women cannot be left out. If you do not do it, we will do it. So take a look at that,” Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, heading a three-judge Bench, addressed Attorney-General R. Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre.
Mr. Venkataramani had pointed to functional and operational difficulties in granting permanent commissions to Short Service Commission Officers.
You must have women on board,” Chief Justice Chandrachud stood firm, adjourning the case. The top court was hearing a plea filed by Indian Coast Guard officer Priyanka Tyagi seeking the grant of permanent commission to eligible women Short Service Commission Officers of the force.
India-specific AI model to find gestational age developed (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Researchers have developed an India-specific artificial intelligence model to precisely determine the gestational age of a foetus in the second and third trimester of pregnancy.
The model has been designed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad.
It is part of an interdisciplinary group for advanced research on birth outcomes — DBT India initiative (GARBH-Ini) programme.
The Garbhini-GA2 is the first late-trimester GA estimation model to be developed and validated using Indian population data.
Currently models used for Western population are in use which could prove erroneous when applied in the later part of pregnancy due to variations in the growth of the foetus in the Indian population, the researchers say.
World
Maryam Nawaz sworn in as Chief Minister of Punjab (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The eldest daughter and close aide of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif became the country’s first-ever woman Chief Minister in eastern Punjab province. Her rivals accused authorities of nepotism and boycotted the session of the provincial assembly.
Maryam Nawaz, 50, became Chief Minister in a 220-0 vote in her favour, beating out her rival Rana Aftab, nominated by the Sunni Ittehad Council and an ally of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Opposition lawmakers supporting Mr. Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in 2022, boycotted the 371-member Punjab Assembly session.
China’s anti-graft body to look into corruption in BRI projects (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative under which China doled out billions of dollars of investments will for the first time come under the scanner of the country’s anti-graft body amid allegations of corruption and the projects turning into debt traps for small and medium countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Fighting corruption related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will be among the priorities for the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s work report for 2024 (CCDI), the ruling Communist Party of China’s (CPC) powerful anti-graft body, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
The CCDI report released on Sunday stressed the need to eradicate the breeding grounds for corruption, deepen the system reforms and strengthen the institutions for discipline inspection and supervision.
Business
India seeks permanent solution to public food stockpile issue at WTO meet (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India on Monday called on WTO members to find a permanent solution to the long-pending public food stockpile issue, saying it is directly related to achieving the sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) should not negotiate rules on non-trade-related subjects like climate change, gender, and labour and rather these should be addressed in respective intergovernmental organizations.
The development agenda would remain incomplete without a permanent solution on public stockholding (PSH) for food security purposes which is directly related to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030.
Science
Will ‘colour molecules’ make quantum computers accessible? (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
A classical computer is a collection of information storage units called bits. These physical devices have two states each, denoted 0 and 1. Any computation that a computer performs is essentially the result of the manipulation of the states of bits.
Similarly, a qubit is a physical system with two quantum states, and it is the fundamental physical component of a quantum computer.
A qubit can exist in one of the two states or — unlike classical computers — a superposed state with contributions from both states.
This superposition is a quantum feature that the bits in conventional computers don’t exhibit. Superposed states, also known as coherent superpositions, are important in quantum information-processing protocols.
However, superpositions are fragile. The fragility arises out of the interaction between the qubit and other systems.
The more the number of interaction channels, the faster the superposition “decoheres” and the qubit ends up in one of the two states.
Scientists have unravelled anatomy that allows baleen whales to sing (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
It is one of the earth’s most haunting sounds, the “singing” of baleen whales like the humpback, heard over vast distances in the watery realm. Now scientists have finally figured out how these filter-feeding marine mammals do it.
Baleen whales — a group that includes the blue whale, the largest animal — use a larynx, or voice box, anatomically modified to enable underwater vocalisation. They have evolved a novel structure: a cushion consisting of fat and muscle that sits inside the larynx.
That means baleen whales make their sounds with their larynx, as do humans, while toothed whales — including dolphins, porpoises, killer whales and sperm whales — evolved a different mechanism employing a special organ in their nasal passages.