20 July 2024, The Hindu
Shivaji’s iconic wagh nakh on display at Satara Museum
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Prelims syllabus: History, Art & Culture
- The historic wagh nakh, the tiger claw-shaped weapon reportedly used by Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to kill Bijapur Sultanate general Afzal Khan in the 1659 Battle of Pratapgarh, has been put on display at the Satara Museum on Friday for the next seven months.
- The weapon, brought to India from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on July 17 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Maratha ruler’s ascension to the throne, received a grand welcome in Western Maharashtra’s Satara.
Karnataka HC issues notice to power supply firms on electrocution of jumbos
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GS 3: Environment Conservation
- The High Court of Karnataka on Friday ordered the issue of notice to Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (KPTLC) and various electricity supply companies (Escoms) after it was pointed out that sagging electrical wires passing through forests and illegal electrical fencing put up by private landowners were among the causes for electrocution of elephants and other wild animals.
- A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind passed the order while hearing a PIL petition, which the court suo motu initiated on June 14 based on newspaper reports on the unnatural death of 38-year-old Dasara elephant Ashwathama, which died at its camp in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve on June 11.
Living in denial about unemployment
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
- Recently, citing a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report that said that 8 crore jobs have been created in the last 3-4 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Opposition of creating false narratives about unemployment.
- He also said that a lot of infrastructure projects are coming up, which will create more jobs.
- This was not only an attempt to counter the narrative of high unemployment which has been bothering the ruling party, but also a response to a flurry of reports from financial institutions, such as Citigroup, in July, which pointed to inadequacy of employment generation in India.
The promise of parametric insurance
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GS 3: Disaster and disaster management.
- The warmest year on record was 2023. A report estimated that losses from natural disasters amounted to $280 billion in 2023, of which only about $100 billion was insured.
- The gap in insurance coverage was particularly wide between developed and developing economies.
- With the world experiencing a surge in extreme weather events, the insurance industry needs to enhance disaster resilience by devising a number of alternative methods of coverage.
Wrongheaded policy
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GS 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
- Despite the fact that attempts to provide reservation in jobs for local workers have been proven unconstitutional and have been rejected by courts, the temptation to pander to nativist sentiments remains among State governments.
- A case in point is the draft Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024, cleared by the Congress government’s cabinet but later “temporarily withheld” following an uproar from industry heads and trade bodies in Karnataka.
- The Bill envisaged that industries and other establishments would appoint local candidates in 50% of management positions and 70% of non-management positions, and set stringent criteria for defining local candidates.
- Similar Bills were passed in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, Haryana in 2020, and Jharkhand in 2023.
SC to hear plea to probe ‘quid pro quo’ via electoral bonds
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GS 2: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability
- Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on July 19, 2024, said a petition seeking the constitution of a Special Investigation Team to probe each and every instance of quid pro quo, corruption, and kickbacks revealed through the disclosure of details of the electoral bonds would be listed for hearing on July 22.
- The petition was filed by Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigation, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan, Neha Rathi, and Cheryl D’Souza.
Glitch in software update may have triggered global Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage: experts
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GS 3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life
- In the early hours (IST) of July 19, reports emerged that Microsoft’s Azure cloud service was facing an outage, affecting users in the Central U.S. area.
- Within the next few hours, the service outage spread like wildfire to several other countries, including India, disrupting flight operations and air traffic, forcing airports to shift to manual operations. Brokerages and stock exchanges were also hit, throwing the digital lives of many out of gear.
- The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT-In, has issued a severity rating of “Critical” for the incident.
UPSC files criminal case against Puja Khedkar for forgery
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GS 4: Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration
- The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police has registered an FIR against probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar for allegedly cheating the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
- The FIR has been registered for availing more than the permissible attempts in the civil services exam by faking identity, officials said on Friday.
- According to the official sources, the case was registered under sections of forgery, cheating, IT Act and disability act at the Crime Branch police station in Delhi.
- The Commission had given a written complaint to the police and sought action against the 'tainted' civil servant.
Elevating India’s capital goods for a global electronics revolution
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
- In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, a single invention changed the world: the steam engine.
- This marvel of engineering powered factories, drove progress and transformed economies.
- The steam engine symbolised a nation’s ability to innovate, produce, and lead.
- Today, India stands at a similar crossroads with its capital-goods industry, especially in the realm of electronics manufacturing.
- The industrial countries of East Asia did not invest in machinery by chance.
- Their investments were driven by export-oriented strategies and demands of international competition.
- To seize this moment, we must harness the same spirit of innovation that fuelled the Industrial Revolution.
