6 July 2024, The Hindu
Govt. sets up flood control room to monitor river level
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GS 3: Disaster Management
- A round-the-clock flood control room that will monitor real-time data from the Hathnikund barrage has been set up by the Delhi government, said Ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday.
- The flood control room will be monitored by various civic agencies, including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Delhi Development Authority, and the New Delhi Municipal Council, said the Aam Aadmi Party leaders.
African Swine Fever outbreak reported in Kerala’s Thrissur
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- As many as 310 pigs at Madakkathara panchayat in Thrissur district of Kerala are set to culled after an outbreak of African Swine Fever, a highly contagious swine disease, was reported at a private farm in the 14th ward of the panchayat.
- The disease was confirmed in the pigs at a farm owned by Kuttalapuzha Babu of Veliyanthara.
- The Thrissur District Collector has directed the district animal husbandry officer to cull the pigs and bury them, according to an official release here on July 5.
Spiritual orientation, religious practices and courts
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GS 1: Society: Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism
- “What is religion to one is superstition to another,” said Chief Justice Lathman of Australia in Adelaide Company of Jehovah’s Witnesses Inc vs Commonwealth (1943).
- Religion has been at the centre of human societal existence since time immemorial.
- Man is incurably religious; Indians more so. Right now, we are in a rush hour of god with religiosity on the rise and spirituality on the decline.
- In a significant yet controversial order in P. Navin Kumar (2024), by Justice G.R. Swaminathan of the Madras High Court, the religious practice of angapradakshinam has been allowed.
- The practice involves rolling over the banana leaves on which other devotees (in this instance) of Sri Sadasiva Brahmendral of Nerur village in Tamil Nadu had partaken food. The order overruled the 2015 order of Justice S. Manikumar.
‘Modi’s visit to Russia purely bilateral’
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- The timing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia is “purely bilateral”, said Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, dismissing suggestions that his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 9 would appear in contrast to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit that will begin in the U.S. on the same day. The summit is expected to focus on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
- Briefing the media about the upcoming visit on July 8 and 9, he said that when the two meet for the 22nd annual summit they will discuss the conflict in Ukraine, particularly the issue of Indians recruited by the Russian military, along with other global and regional issues.
- They are expected to focus, however, on the many issues pending between them since the last annual summit in 2021, with trade, connectivity, space, oil and LNG, defence supplies, payment issues given western sanctions as well as cooperation on nuclear power reactors in India high on the agenda.
At ₹1.27 lakh crore, defence production registered a new high in 2023-24, says Centre
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GS 3: General awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nanotechnology, bio-technology
- The country recorded its highest-ever growth in indigenous defence production in value terms during Financial Year (FY) 2023-24, the defence ministry announced on Friday.
- As per the data received from all Defence Public Sector undertakings (DPSUs), other PSUs manufacturing defence items and private companies, the value of defence production in the country has gone up to a record-high figure of ₹1,26,887 crore, reflecting a growth of 16.7% over the defence production of the previous financial year, the Ministry said in a statement.
- The value of defence production in FY 2022-23 was ₹1,08,684 crore.
‘Food costs lift veg thali price 10%’
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GS 3: Indian Economy (Inflation)
- Food inflation likely hardened further in June from the 8.7% mark recorded in April and May, going by Crisil’s food plate cost tracker, which showed that a home-cooked vegetarian meal’s cost rose 10% year-on-year to a six-month high, while non-vegetarian meal costs hit a seven-month peak.
- The cost of a non-vegetarian meal was 4% lower than a year earlier, but inched up 4% sequentially to ₹58, the highest price since November.
- The average vegetarian meal cost had touched ₹29.4, the highest so far in 2024 and 6% over May levels, Crisil’s calculations show.
Women get only 7% MSME credit: RBI ED
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GS 2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and the States and the performance of these schemes
- Reserve Bank's executive director Neeraj Nigam on July 5 said low labour force participation among women is a barrier to financial inclusion efforts and also to broader economic growth.
- He said there is also a need to up the credit supply to women, pointing out that only 7% of the overall outstanding loans to micro, small and medium enterprises are to women-led businesses.
