13 April 2024, The Hindu
Inflation slowed, yet no relief on food bills
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GS 3: Indian Economy (Inflation)
- India’s retail inflation moderated to a ten-month low of 4.85% in March from 5.1% in February, but food inflation remained sticky at 8.52%, little changed from the 8.66% recorded in the previous month as price rise accelerated in cereals and meat, while vegetables, pulses, spices and eggs remained in double-digit inflation.
- While inflation for urban consumers cooled significantly from 4.8% in February to 4.14% in March, rural consumers had it harder as they experienced a slightly higher inflation of 5.45% in March compared with 5.34% in the previous month.
‘UCC does not target live-in couples, it has been brought for their own security’
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Prelims syllabus: Current events of national and international importance
- Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, in an exclusive interview, explains how his government’s move to usher in UCC is in concord with Constitutional guarantees, as are many of the stringent laws that have come out during the BJP rule in the State.
IISc researchers design novel hydrogel to remove microplastics from water
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GS 3: Achievements of Indians in science & technology.Indigenisation of technology and developing new technology
- Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have designed a sustainable hydrogel to remove microplastics from water.
- According to IISc, microplastics pose a great threat to human health as these tiny plastic debris can enter our bodies through the water we drink and increase the risk of illnesses.
- They are an environmental hazard and found even in remote areas such as polar ice caps and deep ocean trenches, endangering aquatic and terrestrial lifeforms.
Risky premise
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GS 3: Indian Economy (international trade)
- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday raised its forecast for India’s GDP growth in the current fiscal year ending on March 31, 2025, to 7%, from 6.7% earlier, citing robust public and private investment as well as expectations of a gradual improvement in consumer demand as the rural economy recovers.
- The regional multilateral lender also projected that India’s economy would expand by 7.2% in fiscal 2025-26.
- The ADB’s latest growth forecast for India’s GDP is, however, still slower than the 7.6% pace that India’s National Statistical Office has estimated for the 12 months that ended on March 31.
Data for better education, a brighter future for students
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- As it has almost been a tradition since 2005, except during the COVID-19 years, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 was released in mid-January this year.
- And, as it has also become customary, the report has got much attention. Amidst a surfeit of insights that the report has offered, what has grabbed the headlines is the foundational skills of 14-18 years old.
- As much as the learning outcomes data is concerning, practitioners and policymakers must dig deeper into the data to glean actionable insights for improving education and overall outcomes for India’s adolescents and youth.
- First, the ASER 2023 Beyond Basics survey was carried out in 28 rural districts across 26 States of the country.
- While the sample is not nationally representative, it is still representative of the district level and indicative of broader trends of the activities, abilities (including digital abilities), and aspirations of 14-18 year olds.
- The report shows that, overall, 26% of 14-18 year olds cannot read a standard two level text in their regional language.
India welcomes steps by Taliban to restore assets to minorities
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GS 2: International Relations- India and its neighbourhood
- India has welcomed the Taliban’s initiative to restore property to the minority Sikhs and Hindus of Afghanistan.
- In a bid to cleanse Afghanistan’s major cities of property mafia, the ‘Justice Ministry’ of the Taliban administration in Kabul in recent weeks has initiated a largescale crackdown on the owners of properties who had gained these illegally in the previous decades.
- Responding to a question from The Hindu during the weekly press briefing, Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs on Friday said, “We have seen repots on this issue.
- If the Taliban administration has decided to restore property rights to their citizens belonging to Afghan Hindu and Sikh community, we see this as a positive development.”
Third of land conflicts in constituencies where forest rights key issue for election
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GS 3: Environment- Conservation
- Nearly a third of land-related conflicts are in parliamentary constituencies where the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) is an “important” election issue, says an analysis by Land Conflict Watch, a comprehensive database of land-related conflicts in India.
- Out of the 781 conflicts in the database, 264 conflicts were mapped to constituencies where FRA is a key issue. Notably, 117 land conflicts were found to directly affect forest dwelling communities and involve nearly 2.1 lakh hectares of land as well as 6.1 lakh people, the analysis released on April 12 noted.
TRAI moots allowing only Indian entities in ‘regulatory sandboxes’
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment
- Only Indian nationals or entities should be eligible to participate in telecom regulatory sandboxes that can provide real-time but regulated access to networks and customer resources during product or technology tests, sector regulator TRAI recommended on Friday.
- The Telecommunications Act, 2023, has introduced the provision of setting up multiple regulatory sandboxes.
- The regulatory sandbox (RS) will emphasise on testing of new products, services, processes and business models in a live testing environment on a limited set of users for a specified period of time after obtaining certain regulatory relaxations.
- The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended that the Department of Telecom shall put in place an end-to-end digital process to handle RS applications and all related activities, including intimations, approvals, sharing of information, monitoring, reporting requirements, etc.
