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Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against decoupling from China as he addressed the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Wednesday, criticizing Western efforts to reduce dependence on the Chinese economy.
Xi also lauded his grand plan - Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - launched 10 years ago of building global infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes, saying "blueprints turned into real projects".
To support Belt and Road projects, the China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China, the country's two policy lenders, will each set up a financing window of 350 billion yuan ($48 billion), with the state-run Silk Road Fund adding 80 billion yuan to the pool, according to an official statement issued after the forum.
At the forum that ended on Wednesday, $97.2 billion worth of cooperation projects were signed.
Israel to let Egypt deliver limited aid to Gaza after Biden’s request (Page no. 2)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israel said that it will allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The first crack in a punishing 10-day siege on the territory came one day after a blast at a hospital killed hundreds and put immense strain on Gaza’s struggling medical system.
The announcement to allow water, food and other supplies happened as fury over the blast at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital spread across the Middle East, and as U.S. President Joe Biden visited Israel in hopes of preventing a wider conflict in the region.
There were conflicting claims of who was behind the explosion on Tuesday night, but protests flared quickly as many Arab leaders said Israel was responsible.
Hamas officials in Gaza blamed an Israeli airstrike, saying hundreds were killed. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.
The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence.
Front Page
Winter coming, Army turns to tech, more surveillance for troop redeployment at LAC (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Redeployment of troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which could also include a reduction in the overall number of troops from the icy heights of eastern Ladakh while maintaining adequate reserves in depth areas, will be part of the Army’s winter posture in the region, The Indian Express has learnt.
Top sources in the government said there will be a strong domination of the border using the latest surveillance devices, winter air surveillance operations by helicopters and limited patrolling when required over the next few months.
With no substantive forward movement in the 20th round of military talks between India and China last week, the Army is now preparing for the fourth consecutive winter in eastern Ladakh since the start of the standoff in May 2020.
Ahead of Assembly polls, Centre hikes MSP for Wheat, 5 other Rabi crops (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Weeks before the crucial Assembly elections in five states, the Centre announced hikes in the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and five other rabi crops for the 2024-25 marketing season.
The hike in wheat MSP — by Rs 150 per quintal or 7 per cent — is significant as it is the second largest crop after paddy in terms of area coverage.
In the crop year 2022-23, the area under wheat in the country stood at 318.25 lakh hectare, while production is estimated to be 110 million tonnes.
Two of the five poll-bound states – Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan – are among the top five wheat producing states in the country. The other three are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana.
The absolute hike of Rs 150 in the wheat MSP, which makes it Rs 2,275 per quintal, is the highest after 2007-08 when an equal hike was announced. In terms of percentage points, the latest hike is the highest since 2011-12, when an increase of 9.83 per cent was announced.
The MSP for five other rabi crops — barley, gram, lentil (masur), rapeseed & mustard and safflower — have been increased in the range of 2.65 per cent to 7.08 per cent.
Govt & Politics
SC to hear pleas seeking relook at its PMLA verdict (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Despite vehement objections from the Centre and Enforcement Directorate regarding procedure, the Supreme Court decided to go ahead with the hearing of a batch of pleas seeking reconsideration of its July 2022 judgment upholding provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and the probe agency’s powers under it.
Sorry, there is nothing which says may not. If we are not inclined, we will not,” said Justice S K Kaul, presiding over a three-judge bench, as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and ED, protested the court taking up fresh pleas while the review petition against the judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vs Union of India is pending.
The hearing saw sharp exchanges between SG Mehta and Justice Kaul, with the former emphatically saying, “Your Lordships cannot look into it”, and the latter saying, “I have never seen you so agitated”.
Express Network
President launches agri roadmap for Bihar, bats for organic farming (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Launching an agricultural roadmap for Bihar, President Droupadi Murmu called for climate-friendly agricultural practices and suggested that the state’s farmers take up organic cultivation.
For some time, Bihar has received less rain. Otherwise, rivers and ponds have been part of its identity. Water conservation is required. Climate-resilient agriculture will play a key role in environment conservation.
Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav were present at the launch of the fourth Agricultural Roadmap that will run till 2028.
The President said it was heartening to learn that the agriculture roadmap provides for mega food parks and export infrastructure.
She also praised increased productivity in wheat and maize farming in Bihar and spoke of how the state had become one of the top producers of honey, makhana and fish.
Explained
OBCs and subcategories (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2Social Justice)
The Minister for Backward Classes Welfare in Andhra Pradesh said on Wednesday (October 18) that the state will begin a backward classes census “from November 15, one week here and there”.
C Srinivasa Venugopala Krishna said the 139 backward-class communities in the state were unaware of their numerical strength, and the data would help the government serve them better.
The publication of the results of the caste survey in Bihar earlier this month had raised the possibility that other states too would announce similar exercises as the country enters a new cycle of elections.
The enumeration of castes, as well as the sub-categorisation of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in order to ensure equity in the distribution of reservation benefits have been hot-button issues for long.
The expression ‘OBC’ was coined to denote backward/ marginalised communities and castes that were not Scheduled Castes (SCs) or Scheduled Tribes (STs).
It is recognised that social backwardness in India has traditionally been a direct consequence of caste status, and that other types of backwardness have flowed from this initial handicap.
What caused largest Marsquake? (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Just like on Earth, the surface of Mars sometimes vigorously shakes and unsurprisingly, that is called a marsquake. The largest ever marsquake recorded in history happened in 2022 and scientists now finally know the reason behind it.
A study published rules out the possibility that the marsquake was caused by a meteor impact. The quake had a magnitude of 4.7 and since its seismic signal was similar to previous quakes that were caused by meteoroid impacts, scientists initially believed that it might have been caused by an impact as well. This launched an international search for a fresh crater at the time.
Mars is smaller than Earth but it has around the same land surface area as our planet because it has no oceans. This huge amount of ground—about 144 million square kilometres—had to be surveyed.
For that, the researchers sought contributions from the European Space Agency, (ESA) the Chinese National Space Agency, (CNSA) the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency.
Severe spells of drought in the Amazon: Causes, impact, warning bells (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Amazon rainforest is reeling from an intense drought. Numerous rivers vital for travel have dried up. As a result, there is no water, food, or medicine in villages of Indigenous communities living in the area.
The Rio Negro, one of the world’s largest rivers by discharge levels, has fallen to a record low level of 13.59 metres near the city of Manaus, Brazilian authorities said on Monday (October 16).
“We have never seen anything like this. It is the worst drought in history,” said Wilson Lima, who is the governor of Amazonas (a Brazilian state, covered almost entirely by the Amazon rainforest).
The latest calamity is another addition to the long list of causes that are accelerating the destruction of the Amazon, called the planet’s lungs.
It covers nearly seven million square kilometres, or about the area of Australia, and stores more than 150 billion metric tonnes of carbon.
Editorial
Its back on us (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Nowhere in the world where queer sex has been decriminalised, has law reform that introduced marriage equality followed within five years.
Indeed, even where civil partnership rights have been recognised for queer people, it has often taken several years for marital rights to then be conferred.
To expect such rapid change in India – an even more complex context given personal laws – was to be untethered from reality.
And, to expect the Supreme Court to provide marriage equality in such a context was naïve at best. After witnessing the hearings in the case, any wise reader of the bench should have known that the claim for marriage equality was not on the cards.
Ideas Page
Revolution and its sutradhar (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
In March 1963, after an invitation was extended to him by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the American agronomist Norman Borlaug came to Delhi and toured the country’s major wheat-growing areas to study the crop that was in the grain-filling stage prior to harvesting.
He was accompanied by M S Swaminathan, then the head of IARI’s division of botany, and his colleagues, including S P Kohli, M V Rao and V S Mathur. Based on his field observations, Borlaug decided to send about 100 kg seeds each of four semi-dwarf wheat varieties he had bred at Mexico under a Rockefeller Foundation-funded programme — Sonora 63, Sonora 64, Mayo 64 and Lerma Rojo 64A — for testing under Indian conditions.
The seeds arrived in October 1963. Swaminathan — who had first recognised the potential of growing the Mexican varieties and was instrumental in getting Borlaug to India — arranged for their sowing in November, at trial fields in IARI (Delhi) as well as in Ludhiana (Punjab), Pantnagar and Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), and Pusa (Bihar).