11 April 2024, The Hindu
Jobs, inflation key issues in LS polls, finds survey
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GS 3: Indian Economy
- Unemployment and price rise are the key concerns of nearly half the electorate, the CSDS-Lokniti pre-poll survey in the run-up to the 2024 general elections revealed.
- This was a significant finding in the first part of a series of articles on the pre-poll survey.
- Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed (62%) across localities, with the highest among cities (65%), expressed that getting jobs had become more difficult.
- The numbers for those living in villages and towns were 62% and 59%, respectively; 65% of the men shared this opinion compared with 59% of the women.
- Only 12% said getting jobs had become easier.
Anonymous political hoardings not allowed: EC
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GS 2: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act (RPA)
- Cracking down on anonymous political hoardings, the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday sought the disclosure of names of their publishers and printers for traceability and accountability.
- Disclosure of the identity of publishers was crucial for “regulating campaign financing and fixing of responsibility in case the content is found unbecoming of the framework of the Model Code of Conduct or the statutory provisions”, the poll body said.
The advent of a holistic approach to ‘one health’
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- The interdependence between humans, animals and environment has been made increasingly evident with the emergence of pandemics such as COVID-19.
- It is not just humans who are affected by pandemics but also livestock — an example being the outbreak of lumpy skin disease that has spread across countries.
- The recent decision on the ‘National One Health Mission’ by the cabinet marks a milestone.
- In July 2022, the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) endorsed the setting up of the ‘National One Health Mission’.
- Since then, 13 Ministries and Departments as well as science funding agencies — this includes the Department Of Science and Technology, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Department of Pharmaceuticals, and AYUSH, or Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy — the Ministries of Health, Animal Husbandry and Environment as well as Defence came together to shape the mission, taking one of the most holistic approaches to one health and pandemic preparedness in the world.
Economy takes front seat in 2024 campaign
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GS 3: Indian Economy
- As the campaign hots up and voters in some parts gear up for voting, all the masala required for the Opposition to corner the ruling BJP is in place and over the next few weeks we shall witness a keen battle on the questions of economy.
- Does economics trump politics or does politics sidestep economics?
- This has been a perennial debate while analysing electoral politics.
- This debate is revisiting us in the 2024 campaign.
- The CSDS-Lokniti pre-poll survey 2024 responses provide visible evidence of the concerns about limited employment opportunities, spiralling prices, increasing corruption, rising rural distress and perception of deteriorating economic conditions of the households.
- Is this likely to be capitalised on by the Opposition as part of its electoral campaign or will the ruling party be able to oset its impact with a counter-narrative?
On unemployment in Indian States
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GS 3: Indian Economy
- A recent report released by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Institute for Human Development (IHD) revealed that two out of every three unemployed individuals was a young graduate.
- Perhaps graduates do not possess the requisite skills required for the growing modern sector. This necessitates a focus on teaching infrastructure and standards.
- Out of the 27 States considered, 12 States have unemployment rates less than the national average.
Citizen connect: evaluating the development pitch raised by NDA government
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GS 3: Indian Economy
- Development has consistently figured as a major consideration for Indians while deciding whom to vote for in the Lok Sabha election.
- In the 2014 election, two in 10 voters held the lack of development in the country to be the most important factor influencing their choice about whom to support.
- In its bid to dislodge the Congress-led UPA government from power, the BJP tried to tap into this sense of frustration by making development the central plank of its campaign.
- In that election, 30% of voters felt that Narendra Modi would be better for the country’s development.
- In 2019, development once again emerged as a key issue for 14% of voters.
- Given the centrality of the issue, the question then is whether the incumbent government managed to satisfy the voters’ expectations about development.
- As the BJP-led NDA government is eyeing a third term, the answer to this question can form the basis for evaluating the ruling dispensation’s developmental pitch.
- The pre-poll study provides a window on this issue.
India to send new defence attachés to several missions in Africa
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GS 2: International Relations
- In a sign of expanding focus on military diplomacy, India is set to send defence attachés (DA) to a number of its missions in Africa for the first time, sources here have confirmed.
- The move is part of a larger adjustment of the DA in Indian missions scattered across continents and regions and is being implemented as India deals with dynamic situations in Indo-Pacific, Red Sea-Indian Ocean and Eurasia.
- A source privy to the internal discussion said that out of all the continents, it is Africa that is expected to get four new DA.
- Out of that, one DA is likely to be sent to the Francophone western Africa, and three others are expected to be sent to three countries in eastern and southeastern Africa.
After crude oil, it’s Russian diamonds; India raises concern over sanctions with Europe
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GS 3: Indian Economy (international trade)
- Faced with mounting losses and consignment delays due to new European Union-G7 sanctions, Indian diamond exporters are calling for a separate screening process to be set up in India, so that the newly mandated procedures for exports to Western countries can be processed smoothly.
- The issue, which could prove as protracted as discussions over sanctions on Russian oil have been, was raised with a delegation from Belgium, one of the main sources of India’s diamond imports, during the visit of the Belgian Foreign Secretary Theodora Gentzis (April 9-10), who met with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday, held talks at the Joint Economic Council with Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal, and held the second India-Belgian Foreign Office Consultations (FoC) co-chaired by the MEA Secretary (West) Pavan Kapoor in Delhi on Wednesday.
If there’s a theory of AI, computer science is unlikely to provide it
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GS 3: General awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nanotechnology, bio-technology
- The popular understanding seems to be that the day is not far o when artificial intelligence (AI) will be able to think like humans and interact, at least through languages, in a way that is indistinguishable from real humans.
- Such a day has been called “the singularity,” a pivotal moment for the human race.
- With the recent success of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, which are capable of interpreting language use and composing sentences, many think this day is imminent.
- When confronted with such a possibility, Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most inuential philosophers of the 20th century, famously said, “But a machine surely cannot think!”
- He perhaps meant the concepts of thinking and intelligence can only apply to living objects; it would be grammatically and logically incorrect otherwise.
- Nevertheless, machines can indeed share some traits of human behaviour, so even without precise definitions of these terms, their increasing use for machines is perhaps germane.
- In fact, in the eventuality that we do go past the “singularity”— a proposition that sounds frightening — a machine may have to be treated someday like a person.
