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The drive for atmanirbharta or self-sufficiency in India’s military strength and the key role of women in the armed forces were in the spotlight at the 74th Republic Day celebrations, held at the renovated Kartavya Path, formerly Rajpath, in Delhi.
This year’s parade was the first with President Droupadi Murmu at the helm. The celebrations had a chief guest — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi — after two years without one owing to pandemic restrictions.
As the National Flag was unfurled on a cold and windy morning, the 21-gun salute was presented for the first time by Indian-made 105-mm field guns, replacing the seven vintage Quick Fire 25-pounder guns used since Independence.
The change was in line with the Union government’s push for the indigenous manufacture of defence equipment.
The Army showcased more Made-in-India equipment, including its main battle tank, Arjun, the NAG missile system, the K-9 Vajra-T gun system, the Akash air defence system, and the BrahMos missile.
States
Padma award is an honour for the Etikoppaka toy craft’ (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 1, Art and Culture)
The Union government choosing to confer Padma Shri on him in the art category is an honour to the Etikoppaka wooden toy craft, and it will go a long way in promoting the art, says C.V. Raju.
Mr. Raju is among the seven persons from Andhra Pradesh who have been selected for the Padma awards announced by the Union Home Ministry.
An agriculturist-turned-craftsman, Mr. Raju has his origins in Etikoppaka, a traditional craftsman village in Visakhapatnam district in coastal Andhra Pradesh. He is involved in promoting the toy craft and usage of natural dyes for the past few decades.
Quality and precision are valued, whether it is me or someone contributing to it. I’m planning to establish an interpretation centre, rather than counter sale, to promote the craft.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme, had hailed the good work of Mr. Raju in promoting the traditional toy industry that makes toys with soft wood and natural colours. These toys are suitable for children as they do not have harmful edges.
‘India’s first mission to study the sun to begin by June July’ (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the Aditya-L1 mission by June or July this year. Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space mission to observe the Sun and the solar corona.
ISRO chairman S. Somanath, speaking at the handover ceremony of the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC) payload on Thursday, said that the Aditya-L1 mission will be launched by June or July as the launch window for the mission would close by August.
The Aditya-L1 mission will be launched by ISRO to the L1 orbit (which is the first Lagrangian point of the Sun-Earth system). L1 orbit allows Aditya-L1 to look at the Sun continuously.
Aditya-L1 has seven payloads in total, of which the primary payload is the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), designed and fabricated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru. The other six payloads are being developed by the ISRO and other scientific institutions.
Understanding the effect of the Sun on the Earth and its surroundings has become very important now and Aditya-L1 aims to shed light on this topic.
It has taken 15 years for VELC from concept to completion, and this period was needed for a complex system like this. The VELC has been the finest collaboration between the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and the ISRO.
Following the handover of the VELC payload, the ISRO will now conduct further testing of VELC and its eventual integration with the Aditya-L1 spacecraft.
This is the main instrument (VELC payload) on board the Aditya-L1 satellite. There are also other instruments which are developed by the ISRO and other institutions.
Currently, we are getting ready with the satellite. The payload will be taken to the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, where we will integrate it with the Aditya-L1 satellite which will undergo a lot of testing, evaluation, and finally, it will be launched using the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)
Editorial
A betrayal of the very idea of the Mahatma (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 1, History)
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination (January 30, 1948) by a Hindu fanatic who thought the Mahatma was too soft on Muslims.
The momentous anniversary comes at a time when his legacy, the very idea of Gandhi, stands challenged by the prevailing ideological currents.
At a time when the standing of his historic detractors, whose descendants now form the ruling dispensation in the country, is at an all-time high, Gandhiji has been criticised for weakness, for having bent over too far to accommodate Muslim interests, and for his pacifism, which is seen by the jingoistic Hindutva movement as unmanly.
The Mahatma was killed, with the name of Rama on his lips, for being too pro-Muslim; indeed, he had just come out of a fast he had conducted to coerce his own followers, the Ministers of the new Indian government, to transfer a larger share than they had intended of the assets of undivided India to the new state of Pakistan.
Gandhiji had also announced his intention to spurn the country he had failed to keep united and to spend the rest of his years in Pakistan, a prospect that had made the government of Pakistan collectively choke.
But that was the enigma of Gandhiji in a nutshell: idealistic, quirky, quixotic, and determined, a man who answered to the beat of no other drummer, but got everyone else to march to his tune.
Someone once called him a cross between a saint and a Tammany Hall politician; like the best crossbreeds, he managed to distil all the qualities of both and yet transcend their contradictions.
The contradiction is mirrored in the attitude of the Hindutva-inspired Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr. Modi was schooled, like other Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharaks, in an intense dislike of Mahatma Gandhi, whose message of tolerance and pluralism was emphatically rejected as minority appeasement by the Sangh Parivar, and whose credo of non-violence, or ahimsa, was seen as an admission of weakness unworthy of manly Hindus.
Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar, whom Mr. Modi has described as one of his heroes, had expressed contempt for Gandhiji’s ‘perverse doctrine of non-violence and truth’ and claimed it ‘was bound to destroy the power of the country’.
A ‘Holocaust education’ for India to create a just present (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Six million Jews were murdered in cold blood — a consequence of the worst form of government-sponsored antisemitism in Nazi-Germany.
Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), we remember those who became the victims of the unprecedented and systematic killings. Remembering the dead is our responsibility, and fighting against antisemitism and hatred is our resolve.
Violence and hatred are learned behaviours that disrupt the core humanitarian principles of peaceful co-existence and acceptance of differences.
The Holocaust stands as a jarring example of the deadly consequences of hate crimes and antisemitism that made their way from the fringes to the mainstream.
With antisemitism as the case in point, this is particularly dangerous when used for power-related purposes, or to appease anxieties during times of crisis and uncertainty. In this way, ideologies of hate can permeate the social fabric as human frailty gets exploited.
Unfortunately, the world is still struggling with inequality, intolerance, and injustice in many places. As evidence suggests, a host of grave economic, cultural, religious and ethnic issues continue to provoke division, hate crimes, and violence in many parts of the globe.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of antisemitic incidents against Jews all around the world. Most of these were incidents of harassment but hate speech on social media, assaults and antisemitic vandalism have also spiked in recent years. We must counter these phenomena, to avoid wider societal tension and conflict.
Today, as we mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, we recall the systematic murder of six million Jews.
The Shoah or the Holocaust, in which Jews were systematically targeted solely for being born Jewish, stands out as a defining moment in history.
Education about the Holocaust helps us understand the processes and factors that lead to the eradication of human rights and democratic values, and identify circumstances that can lead to the increase in hate speech, violence, and even mass atrocities.
Opinion
Is there a level playing field for Indian sportswomen? (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
Over a week ago, India’s top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat, staged a protest against Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accusing him and coaches of the Federation of sexual harassment.
Singh was asked to step aside, and the Union Sports Ministry constituted a five-member oversight committee to investigate the charges.
The committee, led by the celebrated boxer M.C. Mary Kom, has also been tasked with managing the day-to-day affairs of the Federation until the submission of its report.
The controversy has yet again brought into focus the many problems in Indian sports governance. Questions have been raised over the conduct of the newly elected Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Athletes’ Commission, and the redressal mechanisms in place.
Considering the challenges, is there a level playing field for Indian sportswomen? Sharda Ugra and Deepthi Bopaiah discuss the question in a conversation moderated by N. Sudarshan. Edited excerpts:
It is a revolutionary act. In the last decade and a half, there have been sporadic complaints. But in this age of television and social media, we have seen senior athletes saying, ‘We’re standing up for our community as a whole.’
Very rarely will an athlete of Vinesh or Sakshi or Bajrang’s capabilities and achievements speak out and say, ‘We will not leave until the president of the Federation goes.’ It’s a reflection of how Indian sport has changed and [how] a lot of it has stayed the same.
Each one of them understands the responsibility of being a role model. And if you don’t be the change you want to see, you’re not going to see that [change] happening.
The Athletes’ Commission, which is supposed to be the voice of the athletes, had nothing to say. [Only] Shiva Keshavan put out a tweet. Ten athletes were unanimously elected [to the Commission].
Explainer
Japan to flush Fukushima wastewater (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Japan is expected to start flushing 1.25 million tonnes of wastewater from the embattled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean this year, as part of a $76-billion project to decommission the facility.
The project received the Japanese cabinet’s approval in 2021 and could take three decades to complete. The idea, which experts and officials in Japan had floated in 2016, has been controversial for its suspected impact on the water, marine life, fishers’ livelihoods and other countries in the area. It has also received flak within Japan for sidelining other options and stoked concerns about the government’s sincerity.
In March 2011, after an earthquake of 9 magnitude, a tsunami flooded the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma and damaged its diesel generators. The loss of power suspended coolant supply to reactors at the facility; the tsunami also disabled backup systems.
Soon, radioactive materials leaked from reactor pressure vessels, exploded in the facility’s upper levels, and exposed themselves to the ambient air, water, soil, and local population.
Winds also carried radioactive material thrown up into the air into the Pacific. Since then, the power plant and its surrounding land have been uninhabitable.
The water that the Japanese government wants to flush from the plant was used to cool the reactors, rainwater and groundwater. It contains radioactive isotopes from the damaged reactors and is thus itself radioactive.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima facility, has said that it has treated the water to remove most radioactive isotopes.
Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in 2021 that the water will be “far above safety standards”. His government required the water to have 1/40th as much tritium as the permitted limit.
Officials have defended the plan saying the TEPCO is running out of room for the water-tanks and that nuclear plants around the world regularly release water containing trace amounts of radionuclides into large water bodies.
Experts expect the affected water to poison the fish; “anyone who knows this is happening will, or should, avoid eating fish caught in the vicinity of the discharge point”.
News
India and Egypt reiterate support for Non¬Aligned Movement (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
India and Egypt reiterated support for the Non-Aligned Movement. A joint statement issued after the bilateral engagements for President Abdel Fateh el-Sisi, who was the chief guest at the Republic Day parade here, said both countries expressed desire for exchange of technology between their defence industries.
The two countries reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism, the principles of the United Nations Charter, international law, the founding values of the Non-Aligned Movement, and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states.
Mr. Sisi arrived here on January 24 and held restricted and delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House on Wednesday, where he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed bilateral diplomatic relations between India and Egypt. The two countries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.
India and Egypt agreed to “initiate new engagements to intensify military-to-military engagements” and planned more joint exercises between the armed forces of the two countries.
The ties have been on an upswing in the recent past and both delegations supported reform of the UN Security Council, where Egypt was a non-permanent member during 2016-17 and India had a similar stint during 2021-22.
Egypt’s relation with India was also helped by its display of pragmatism especially on the backdrop of the Nupur Sharma controversy of 2022 when Cairo maintained silence while certain Gulf countries were vocal in criticising India.
The two governments agreed to fight terrorism in all forms, “including cross-border terrorism” and intensify consultation between their respective National Security Councils.
Prime Minister Modi and President el-Sisi expressed concern over the spread of terrorism across the world and agreed that it poses one of the most serious security threats to humanity. Both leaders condemned the use of terrorism as a foreign policy tool.
States fall short of target to improve forest cover, quality’ (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
India is lagging behind in the targets to increase the number and quality of tree- and forest-cover plantations set in the Green India Mission, according to data accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The National Mission for a Green India (GIM) is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. It aims at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s forest cover and responding to climate change.
The target under the Mission is 10 million hectares (mha) of forest and non-forest lands for increasing the forest and tree cover and improving the quality of existing forests.
Improving tree cover is critical to sequester carbon and bolster India’s carbon stocks as part of its international commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
From 2015-16 to 2021-22, the Centre, based on submissions from 17 States, had approved a target of increasing tree and forest cover by 53,377 hectares and improving the quality of degraded forest by 1,66,656 ha.
In response to queries by a Kerala-based RTI campaigner, Govindan Nampoothiry, the Environment Ministry this month responded with figures from 17 States noting tree/forest cover had increased by 26,287 hectares and forest quality improved in only 1,02,096 hectares as of December 31, 2022.
For executing these projects, the Union government had allocated ₹681 crore but only ₹525 crore had been utilised, the Ministry revealed.
The States with a significant shortfall in tree cover include Andhra Pradesh, with a target of 186 ha but having only achieved 75 ha; Uttarakhand with a target of 6,446 ha but only 1,505 ha achieved; Madhya Pradesh targeting 5,858 ha but delivering 1,882 ha; and Kerala committing 1,686 ha but furnishing 616 ha.