6 June 2024, The Hindu
The roads to India’s redemocratisation, the challenges
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GS 2: Indian Constitution: features, amendments, significant provisions
- The 18th Indian general election probably marks the end of a cycle, in spite of the fact that it has not resulted in an alternation in power, a dimension usually needed for characterising an election as “critical”.
- The Bharatiya Janata Party’s loss of its majority seems to be sufficient. It might well be — but under certain conditions — for a re-democratisation process to reach its logical conclusion.
The great election over, the view from Washington
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- U.S. President Joe Biden, faced with a growing number of naysayers on the United States-India relationship, has barely blinked in Washington’s assiduous courtship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- With the Lok Sabha election handing Mr. Modi another victory, albeit a more modest one, the Biden administration — as well as a possible second Trump administration — believes that the U.S. calculation has been proven right.
- Seeking a strong India relationship remains, despite a few vocal critics, one of a dwindling number of areas of bipartisan consensus in Washington. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, for all their intense disagreements, have both prioritised ties with Mr. Modi. And both Presidents place great faith in their own abilities to forge relationships in person.
A return to an era of genuine coalitions
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GS 2: Indian Constitution: features, amendments, significant provisions
- As the results of the 2024 elections came trickling in, it was clear that the ‘silent’ voter had spoken quite strongly. The march of the ruling party, that was confident of a third term in office was halted in its tracks and had to claim a mandate under the wider cloak of the alliance it was leading.
- As the results settled, the ruling party was downplaying its own (under) performance and highlighting the majority secured by the coalition. The Opposition alliance led by the Congress is just 60 seats behind the ruling coalition in the new Lok Sabha.
Personal financial conditions played key role in voting choice
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment
- In democracies, economic currents often sway voters. With India’s economic rise, the state of national economy has come to occupy centre stage of political and public debates.
- Economic issues such as growth, unemployment, inflation, rural distress and so on figured prominently in political debates in the run up to the recently concluded general elections to the Lok Sabha.
- While the ruling party/alliance flaunted their impressive GDP numbers and new economic initiatives aimed at benefiting people, the Opposition bloc’s campaign remained focussed on unemployment, price rise and other forms of economic distress.
- Tapping into the downside of the economy, the Congress carefully crafted a package, called “Nyay” so as to be able to reach out to economically vulnerable sections.
Health, Defence Ministries to set up Tele MANAS cell
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to facilitate collaboration between the two Ministries in operating a special cell of Tele MANAS, the National Telemental Health Helpline of MoHFW, as a pilot project for a period of two years at the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune.
- Tele MANAS is the digital extension of the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), offering comprehensive, integrated, and inclusive 24/7 tele-mental health services.
- The initiative provides a toll-free number, 14416, in each State and Union Territory (UT) for easy access to mental health support.
Health Ministry reworks protocol as country’s TB elimination drive plateaus
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- India’s goal to achieve rapid decline in the burden of tuberculosis (TB) morbidity and mortality, while working towards the elimination of TB in the country by 2025, has plateaued, a senior Health Ministry official said.
- The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is looking at reworking the protocol, the official added, specifically TB medication and its duration, to reboot the TB-free initiative with zero deaths, disease, and poverty resulting from the disease.
- According to the Health Ministry, India has been engaged in TB control activities for more than 50 years, yet the disease continues to be the country’s severest health crisis.
Will not invest in planes if bilateral rights expanded for West Asian rivals: Air India
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- Air India will “not invest” in buying new aircraft, including widebodies, if the Government grants more seats under bilateral agreements to hubs in West Asia impeding “non-stop” international travel for Indians, said its CEO and MD Campbell Wilson.
- “If the rug is pulled from under us, if we can’t fill the aircraft, we will not take them,” he said at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2024.
- He made these comments while indirectly referring to rights granted for hubs like Dubai. He said 90% of passenger traffic to these hubs was to feed flights to destinations beyond like the U.S. and Europe.
With bad news from Cassini, is dark matter’s main rival theory dead?
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GS 3: General awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nanotechnology, bio-technology
- One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newton’s law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those laws working well everywhere in the Solar System.
- To prevent galaxies from flying apart, some additional gravity is needed. This is why the idea of an invisible substance called dark matter was first proposed. But nobody has ever seen the stuff. And there are no particles in the hugely successful Standard Model of particle physics that could be the dark matter – it must be something quite exotic.
Global project ‘paints’ evidence of air pollution in India
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GS 3: Environmental pollution and degradation
- Researchers and artists joined forces for a so-called “painting with light” international project to make invisible air pollution in India visible, demonstrating the health risks posed to the population.
- Combining digital light painting and low-cost air pollution sensors, the scientific team produced photographic evidence of pollution levels in cities across three countries – India, Ethiopia and the UK – to spark debate among local communities.
