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The Supreme Court agreed to urgently hear a plea which said the Centre could take “unfair advantage” while filling the two vacancies of Election Commissioners (ECs) in the Election Commission of India (ECI) following the unexpected resignation of Arun Goel ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
A Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna agreed to list for hearing the plea by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, which said the new law on the appointments of ECs should be put on hold.
The NGO said the Chief Justice of India (CJI) should be brought back on board the high-profile selection committee headed by the Prime Minister for appointments of ECs to the top poll body as directed by a landmark Supreme Court judgment in the Anoop Baranwal case of March 2, 2023.
Editorial
India’s R&D funding, breaking down the numbers (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The announcement in the interim Budget for 2024-25, of a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore to bolster the research and innovation ecosystem within the country, has sparked enthusiasm within the scientific and research communities.
The decision to rebrand the slogan, ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ (by Lal Bahadur Shastri) to ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan’ (A.B. Vajpayee) to now ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan, Jai Anusandhan’ (by the Prime Minister) is intended to reinforce the foundation of research and innovation for development.
The significance of research and innovation cannot be overstated in fuelling economic growth, technological advancement, and global competitiveness.
However, to fully realise the impact, it is crucial to assess the current research and development (R&D) funding landscape in India and its resulting output.
This entails examining India’s comparatively lower R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP alongside its noteworthy output in terms of patent grants, PhDs awarded, and publication outputs.
Analysing the quality of this output is equally imperative in understanding the true implications of these initiatives.
Opinion
Higher engagement, better learning (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
The Annual Status of Education Report 2023 states that more than 86.8% individuals in the age group of 14-18 are enrolled in educational institutions, but one-fourth of them cannot read a Class 2-level text fluently in their regional languages.
India has been struggling with a learning deficit for years now. And though there is more awareness about this thanks to Pratham’s annual surveys, little seems to have changed on the ground.
Attendance in public schools tends to be low, so despite children being enrolled in school, many of them don’t learn much. This is largely because schools are unable to engage children.
Therefore, children and parents see little value in school. Across classrooms, government school teachers attribute poor student learning outcomes to poor student attendance.
When students don’t show up, teachers lose their motivation and do little to increase the level of engagement with learners, which could in turn motivate students to show up. It’s a chicken and egg situation.
Text & Context
How did Indians end up in the Russia-Ukraine war? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The deaths of two Indian nationals in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the recent raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which uncovered a human trafficking network recruiting Indians as “security helpers” and other personnel for the Russian military have sparked widespread concern.
This has highlighted the plight of dozens of Indians stuck on the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine war after they were deceived into working with the Russian military under false pretences.
The presence of Indians in combat roles on the Russian side, first surfaced in February this year. In a series of reports, brought attention to the situation, stating that some Indian nationals, initially hired as “army security helpers,” were compelled to fight against their will after their passports and documents were seized.
News
SC stops Assam govt. move to de-notify rhino habitat (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Supreme Court froze the Assam government’s move to withdraw an almost 26-year-old notification constituting the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary, which hosts one of the largest rhino populations in the country.
The State government was not right in resolving to withdraw the notification dated March 17, 1998 notifying Pobitora wildlife sanctuary. We direct that no further steps be taken with respect to the withdrawal of the notification dated March 17, 1998 by the State.
The Assam Cabinet had on March 10 withdrawn the notification issued by the State Forest Department in 1998. The Cabinet decision of March 10 said the notification was issued unilaterally by the Forest department without consulting the Revenue Department or even the Chief Minister.
Modi, British PM assess progress on free trade agreement negotiations (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke over the phone assessing the progress made on negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), as both countries face general elections.
New Delhi and London have been negotiating a deal since January 2022, but an agreement has thus far remained out of reach with British negotiators returning from India earlier after the 14th round of talks.
As the U.K. negotiating team left for India on March 4, a British official had said, it was a “last-gasp attempt to clinch an FTA before the Indian election campaign pauses talks.
Mr. Modi tweeted that he and Mr. Sunak had reaffirmed their commitment to the “early conclusion” of a “mutually beneficial” agreement.
PM starts portal for credit schemes for marginalised classes (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Launching the Pradhan Mantri Samajik Utthan evam Rozgar Adharit Jankalyan (PM-SURAJ) portal for credit support to entrepreneurs from disadvantaged sections of society virtually, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “This is a testament to our commitment to provide dignity and justice to the underprivileged. Modi gives you this guarantee – this campaign of development and respect for the deprived class will intensify in the coming five years.”
Mr. Modi also disbursed around ₹720 crore worth of credit to one lakh beneficiaries from the Scheduled Castes, Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Safai Karamcharis.
Business
‘REITs, InvITs and Muni bonds offer high growth opportunity’ (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) and Muni (Municipal) bonds have emerged as high growth areas for investment.
Within SEBI we have done a very simple exercise, sort of a back of the envelope exercise where we asked ourselves, how big can this market be? And we reached the conclusion that just as our equity market cap is about one time of the GDP, we believe that the total value of our REITs, INVITs and Muni bonds ecosystem can be another one time of GDP.
So that is the opportunity for growth which is available to us as a nation,” she said adding that the value of REITs, INVITs and Muni bonds would far exceed the value of goods and services produced by the corporate sector today.
World
Nepal PM Prachanda wins vote of confidence, third time in 15 months (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ won a vote of confidence in parliament on Wednesday with the support of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and other smaller parties.
It was Prachanda’s third confidence vote on Wednesday since he was elected Prime Minister in December 2022.
Speaker Devraj Ghimire announced after the vote that Prachanda secured 157 votes, while 110 members voted against.
In the 275-member parliament, he required a minimum of 138 votes to pass the floor test. During Wednesday’s vote 268 members were present in parliament.
In a dramatic move, Prachanda, a former rebel leader who led an armed struggle from 1996 to 2006, broke his one-year-old alliance with the Nepali Congress on March 4 to join hands with the UML.
Chinese military team visits Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
A Chinese military delegation recently visited the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal to discuss further cooperation in defence issues.
Beijing is seeking to build closer ties in South Asia in a push to counter its strategic rival India for influence.
Last week, the Maldives said it had signed a “military assistance” deal with China after ordering Indian troops deployed in the small but strategically-placed archipelago to leave.
And Beijing confirmed on Wednesday that a delegation had visited the country and met with pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu during a trip that also took them to Sri Lanka and Nepal from March 4 to 13.
Science
Overcoming theoretical limits on solar cell capacity (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology
In photovoltaics – i.e. the study of conversion of light energy into electrical energy — the Shockley-Queisser limit is a theoretical concept that defines the maximum capacity of a solar cell to produce electricity.
The Sun is the primary source of light and energy on the earth. Photovoltaic devices like solar cells allow us to harness this energy. Photovoltaic cells are made of semiconducting materials like (doped) silicon.
When sunlight interacts with a semiconductor, it excites electrons from the lower-energy valence band to the higher-energy conduction band.
This transition leaves behind a vacancy in the valence band called a hole. (To be more precise, a hole is a vacant site where an electron is supposed to be. Since it denotes the absence of an electron, a hole is also a place with positive charge.)