12 July 2024, The Hindu
Running on vegetable protein
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- Sravan Kumar Roy went from Bihar’s Darbhanga to Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur to study food technology.
- Despite their seeming differences, the two places are tied together by water — Darbhanga has wetlands and numerous rivers and ponds; Thanjavur is on the banks of the Cauvery.
- Both are known for rich cultivation, a lot of it being rice.
- At the National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management, where Roy did a BTech between 2009 and 2013, he was nicknamed ‘Makhana Man’.
- “I introduced my teachers and batchmates to this ‘wonder food’. Except for the four north Indian students on my campus, no one had heard about makhana.
- Everyone else only spoke about the cashew trees on campus,” he recalls. Foxnuts were then eaten only in north India during Hindu fasts, along with sabudana (sago) and kuttu ka atta (buckwheat flour).
On a ‘solaride’
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GS 3: Indian Economy - Infrastructure – Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
- With a target of covering 4,000 kilometers in 50 days on bicycle from Kashmir to Kanniyakumari, Chandigarh student Pankaj Mahla is on a mission to inspire people to install solar plants.
- The 20-year-old Punjab Engineering College student dreams of making an impact on the environment by getting 4,000 solar plants installed on this mission.
- “As I am pedaling 4,000 kms, I intend to enter at least 4,000 homes en route and convince the families to get solar panels installed.
- I will tell them, if they all do so, it will amount to growing 8,000 trees and prevent 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere,” he says.
Reading the tea leaves ahead of China’s Third Plenum
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GS 2: International Relations- India and its neighbourhood
- Commentators in the West have been stating for some time that it was time to move beyond the rosy vision of a post-Cold War world, as, according to them, Moscow and Beijing (and certain other states aligned with them) could no longer be expected to become responsible stakeholders within a rules-based international order.
- Against this backdrop, considerable attention is being devoted to the Third Plenum of China’s 20th Party Congress for signs of a possible thaw.
- There is a lingering hope that the plenum, scheduled to be held from July 15-18, might signify a shift in policy and a change in direction, at least as far as China is concerned.
- Pessimism is, nevertheless, rife in the West that China would ever subscribe to the idea that the security of every country is intimately linked to the security of the other. Yet, China is well known to spring surprises.
Breaking the taboo around men’s reproductive health
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- World Population Day (July 11) has passed. As we grapple with the multifaceted challenges of global population dynamics, it is crucial to turn the spotlight on a subject often overshadowed in discussions on reproductive health: male infertility.
- Male infertility remains a stigmatised issue, shrouded in silence and with misconceptions.
- This neglect exacerbates the emotional and psychological toll on those who are affected and impedes progress towards effective solutions.
Secular remedy
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GS 1: Society: Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism
- In holding that a divorced Muslim woman is not barred from invoking the secular remedy of seeking maintenance under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the Supreme Court of India has done well to clarify an important question concerning the impact of a 1986 law that appeared to restrict their relief to what is allowed in Muslim personal law alone.
- The enactment of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, was a watershed moment that is seen as having undermined the country’s secular ethos by seeking to nullify a Court judgment in the Shah Bano case (1985), which allowed a divorced Muslim woman to apply for maintenance from a magistrate under Section 125 of the CrPC.
- Subsequently, the 1986 law was upheld by a Constitution Bench in 2001 after coming close to declaring its provisions unconstitutional for discriminating against Muslim women.
Can of worms
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- Trust can be everything, in governance. The can of worms that split open with the publication of results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-UG-2024 has elevated the entrance examination for medical (and dental) seats to a metaphor for distrust in the system, among the people.
- This year, dogged by accusations of paper leak, malpractices, and technical failures, besides the grant of grace marks to some students, NEET, which was conceived to homogenise selection on merit, has now morphed into a beast that is far removed from its original idea.
Should States get special packages outside Finance Commission allocations?
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GS 2: devolution of powers and finances up to local levels (local self government)
- In the run-up to the Union Budget, Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Ministers of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, who are in a position to decide the political fate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre, have demanded special financial packages for their respective States.
- These packages could potentially increase the fiscal burden on the Centre and also on other States.
Why are dengue cases on the rise worldwide?
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- In the past few weeks, cases of dengue have been rising in some parts of the country. Karnataka, in particular, has been experiencing a rapid surge in cases in the last few days, while the cases have been climbing up in Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well.
- According to data published on the website of the National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases Control, the country has recorded 19,447 cases of dengue and 16 deaths till April 30, 2024.
- Going by this data, Kerala and Tamil Nadu accounted for the most number of cases; the former had 4,412 cases and 14 deaths and the latter registered 4,204 cases and two deaths.
- Karnataka, where cases are currently soaring, had, till then, recorded 2,503 cases and nil deaths. Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh were the only other States with over 1,000 cases each.
India hosts BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers amid raging Myanmar crisis
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- The seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) should find solutions to the regional challenges within itself, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on July 11 addressing the first BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers’ retreat held here.
- The meeting assumes significance as it is being held in the backdrop of major developments in neighbouring Myanmar where the military junta has been receiving battlefield setbacks against dozens of Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs).
