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All undergraduate (UG) management courses will now need approval from the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), starting academic year 2024-25, unlike the conventional nod from an affiliating university.
Now, existing engineering colleges can also start such courses — Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS), and Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) among others — with the AICTE approval.
Announcing the move, the AICTE on Wednesday issued the Approval Process Handbook (APH) for 2024 till 2027. This handbook — which will be valid for three academic years for the first time — has introduced several changes in the approval process, with an aim to increase the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education to 50 per cent by 2035, which is 27 per cent at present, with close to 4 crore students enrolled in higher-educational institutions (HEIs) across India.
In Parliament
LS takes up bill for setting up tribal varsity in Telangana (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The Lok Sabha took up a bill for the establishment of the Sammakka Sarakka Central Tribal University in Telangana in pursuance of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
Piloting the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the lower house, Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar said the tribal university in Telangana is being established in pursuance of the commitments made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The central government, Sarkar said, will ensure early completion of the tribal university in Telangana.
Express Network
To achieve net-zero target, do not rely on burying emissions underground says scientist (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The idea that all the problematic carbon dioxide emissions in the future can be safely and permanently buried in the ground with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies might be extremely misplaced and impractical, a new study by researchers of Oxford University and Imperial College in London suggests.
It might be technically possible, and in some cases, desirable, but heavy reliance on CCS to achieve net-zero levels might not be viable.
CCS involves the capture of carbon from the source of emissions, like a power plant or a cement factory, and storing it below the ground in suitable geological structures such as depleted oil or gas reservoirs or some specific rock formations to prevent the release of these carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
All net-zero emissions pathways to 2050 put forward by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change involve some deployment of CCS technologies.
There are currently no projections which make the world net-zero without some sort of carbon capture and sequestration.
Garba gets UNESCO tag of intangible cultural heritage (Page no. 10)
The UNESCO approved the inclusion of garba, Gujarat’s most popular folk dance form, in its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity.
A decision to “inscribe” the dance form as “intangible heritage” was taken at the 18th session of the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Republic of Botswana.
With this, 15 elements from various parts of India have been inscripted to UNESCO’s representative list of ICH.
The committee’s evaluation body gave its approval to the nomination sent by the Indian government, in collaboration with the Gujarat government.
The chief of the committee’s evaluation body referred to garba as “ritualistic and devotional dance that is performed on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Navaratri, which is dedicated to the worship of the feminine energy”.
Express Network
Sec 6 A of citizenship Act part of legislative policy of Parliament: Centre to apex court (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Defending the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that the provision “is a part of the legislative policy of Parliament, arising from a political settlement with relevant parties, based on certain relevant considerations of State policy and foreign policy” and as such is not arbitrary and has a rational nexus with the object sought to be achieved.
In written submissions before a five-judge Constitution bench of the court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that “inasmuch as the object sought to be achieved by the legislation was to establish public order in the State and bring to an end a state of agitation in that State relating to a demand that there should be clear demarcation as to who are legitimate citizens and who are illegal migrants, there can be no doubt that there is rational relationship between the differentia and the objects sought to be achieved by the legislation in question”.
Ideas Page
The government’s bureaucrat (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court’s pronouncement that the extension to the Chief Secretary of Delhi does not violate any rule turned a nail-biting thriller into a damp squib. As a result, the story of a beleaguered government getting bypassed fell flat.
The grant of extensions to top officers is nothing new and began years ago under the UPA government with a slew of cabinet secretaries, then home and Defence secretaries.
This was done by changing the All-India service rules. Over the years, various state governments have also given extensions to Chief Secretaries – sometimes agreed to by the central government and sometimes by posing a fait accompli. The incumbent Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh was granted an extension in service just prior to his retirement as Urban Development Secretary and immediately dispatched to his current post and then given another extension.
World
Putin meets Mbs in Saudi: Oil, Gaza Ukraine wars on agenda for talks (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Russian President Vladimir Putin began a trip to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, hoping to shore up support in the Mideast from two major oil producers allied to the US as his war on Ukraine grinds on.
Putin landed in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms now hosting the United Nations' COP28 climate talks.
It marked his first trip to the region from before the coronavirus pandemic and the war and as he faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the war in Ukraine.
Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE has signed the ICC founding treaty, meaning they don't face any obligation to detain Putin over the warrant accusing him of being personally responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine during his war on the country. Putin skipped a summit in South Africa over concerns he could be arrested on arrival there.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's foreign minister, met a smiling Putin after he bounded down the stairs of his presidential plane. As he arrived at Abu Dhabi's Qasr al-Watan palace to meet Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country's ruler, the UAE's military acrobatics team flew in formation with red, white and blue smoke trailing them in the colours of the Russian flag.
Explained
Dhanvantairi image in NMC logo: Why are doctors protesting now (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The logo of the National Medical Commission (NMC), with a colourful image of physician god Dhanvantri in the centre, has drawn criticism from doctors, with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) urging the the apex medical education regulator to take “corrective steps”.
The logo of any national institution ought to capture the aspirations of all our citizens in an equal manner and by remaining neutral in all respects thereby eliminating any possibility of any part or section of the society feeling aggrieved in any manner.
Officials from the NMC, however, maintained that the image of Dhanvantri had always been a part of its logo, albeit as a dark silhouette. The new logo colourises the image, while also replacing the word ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’.
Chandrayaan – 3 propulsion module retraces steps to Earth orbit: Why it matters (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Scientists have brought the Propulsion Module (PM) of the Chandrayaan-3 mission — which took the Vikram lander to within 100 km of the surface of the Moon before it detached and made the historic controlled descent to the lunar surface on August 23 — back into Earth orbit.
The PM, carrying the lander, left the Earth’s orbit on August 1, and was inserted in a lunar orbit on August 5. Its successful return to Earth orbit is a significant achievement that marks a step towards bringing back samples from lunar missions in the future.
The manoeuvre, announced by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday, was not in the original mission plan. Like the impromptu ‘hop’ experiment of September 4 — in which the lander, just before going into sleep mode, fired its engines, lifted itself about 40 cm from the surface, and landed about 30-40 cm away — the PM’s return to Earth orbit utilised the logistics advantages of the near perfect mission, especially the availability of more than 100 kg of fuel.
Economy
Centre seeks nod for extra spending of 58378 crore (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The government sought Parliament’s nod to spend a net additional Rs 58,378 crore in the current fiscal ending March 2024, with a large chunk going towards MGNREGA and subsidy on fertiliser.
The gross additional spending sought by the government is over Rs 1.29 lakh crore, of which Rs 70,968 crore would be matched by savings and receipts.
The net additional spending by the government would be Rs 58,378.21 crore in the current fiscal, as per the Supplementary Demands for Grants tabled in Parliament.
The additional expenditure includes Rs 13,351 crore towards fertiliser subsidy and about Rs 7,000 crore towards spending by the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
The government also sought Parliament approval for an additional Rs 9,200 crore spending by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Rs 14,524 crore by the Ministry of Rural Development towards MGNREGA.