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Countering the charge of the Opposition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India is the fastest-growing major economy in the world.
She said while the workforce has gone up which is evident from the substantial increase in the number of people enrolled with the EPFO, the unemployment rate has declined significantly.
Sitharaman was replying to a debate on the Interim Budget for 2024-25. She said the Indian economy is expected to clock over 7 per cent growth rate for the fourth year in a row.
She also said that retail inflation was stable and has come down within the tolerance band as a result of the steps taken by the government to check price rise, especially in perishable commodities.
The Finance Minister said India’s retail inflation has declined from an average of 6.8 per cent in April-December 2022 to 5.5 per cent in the corresponding period of 2023. The retail inflation is now stable and within the notified tolerance band of 2 per cent to 6 per cent, she said.
Express Network
UCC bill gets Uttarakhand Assembly nod (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Uniform Civil Code (UCC), Uttarakhand, Bill 2024, which seeks to “govern and regulate the laws related to marriage and divorce, successions, live-in relationships, and matters related thereto” was passed in the Assembly Wednesday following a two-day discussion. The Bill will now be sent to President Droupadi Murmu for her assent after which it will become a law.
Introduced by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami Tuesday, deliberations were held on the UCC Bill before the House approved it by a voice vote. Uttarakhand is now poised to become the first state to get a common law on marriage, divorce, land, property and inheritance for all citizens, irrespective of their religion. The code, however, will not apply to the Scheduled Tribes.
Although Goa is governed by a UCC (Portuguese Civil Code), the Assembly did not pass any law. The code was retained after its liberation in 1961.
Rs 4797cr PRITHVI to boost atmosphere, polar and ocean research says Rijiju (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 4,797 crore research scheme to boost and maintain research momentum in the fields of ocean, atmospheric and polar sciences, Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju said.
The PRITHvi VIgyan (PRITHVI) will be an umbrella scheme spearheaded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to help continue many of the ongoing research projects and efforts in the areas of atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere and biosphere till 2026 Rijiju said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
With climate change and its adverse impacts affecting globally, be it in the form of extreme weather events like heavy rainfall, floods, rising sea levels, depleting glaciers, cyclones of higher intensities or prolonged dry spells — the need for improving understanding the roles of atmosphere-ocean-poles has become increasingly necessary.
Explained
Picking election commissioners (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey is set to retire on February 14, and his successor will be picked through a consultative process being adopted for the first time.
The selection will be made by a committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and a Union minister. A similar committee, comprising the PM, Chowdhury, and Home Minister Amit Shah, met to appoint the Lokpal and the Central Vigilance Commissioner.
Before this, members of the Election Commission were appointed solely at the discretion of the government. The two other members of the Commission are Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Arun Goel.
It was the Supreme Court that forced the government’s hand. Four petitions were filed before the apex court in 2015, 2017, 2021, and 2022, which broadly called for a fair and transparent system to choose Election Commissioners.
Why budget plans for deep tech and research funding matter (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
In her Interim Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 1 lakh crore fund to provide long-term, low-cost or zero-interest loans for research and development.
She also promised to launch a new scheme to strengthen deep-tech capabilities in the defence sector — an announcement that is likely to be followed up later in the year with a larger policy to promote deep tech startups across all sectors, not just defence.
The separate announcements on the fund and defence deep tech are intricately linked, and must be seen together with the government’s other plans for the R&D sector.
Hamas ceasefire plan: What are the three stages it proposes (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that total victory in Gaza was within reach, rejecting the latest offer from Hamas for a ceasefire to ensure the return of hostages still held in the besieged enclave.
Amid mounting deaths and devastation, Hamas had proposed a three-stage plan to halt its ongoing conflict with Israel.
The plan, which envisaged three truce periods of 45 days each, was in response to a proposal sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and cleared by Israel and the US.
The details of that proposal were not widely reported, but Reuters has seen the Hamas document. The ceasefire plan came on a day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel again, and Saudi Arabia has said it will not normalise ties with the Jewish nation unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised.
Editorial
Taking cancer on (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
For decades, oncologists have relied on chemotherapy, radiation and surgery to treat cancer patients. These are still the primary methods to treat the dreaded disease.
In the past two decades, however, research has extended the frontiers of anti-cancer interventions. Drugs have been developed to home in on the molecules cancer cells require to survive and spread.
Immune system-boosting drugs have shown the ability to shrink tumours in some patients with advanced malignancy. CAR T-cell therapy is among the most promising recent developments, especially because it has shown the ability to eradicate advanced leukemias and lymphomas.
Most of the early research in this field was conducted in laboratories in the US, Europe and China. In October, India joined this elite list after the country’s drug regulator approved a CAR T-cell therapy incubated at Tata Memorial Centre and IIT Bombay laboratories.
Now, a 64-year-old former army doctor has become the first patient in the country to be free of cancer cells after being administered this therapy.
Ideas Page
Pakistan like Bangladesh (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Almost everyone who follows events in Pakistan now believes that the results of Pakistan’s elections scheduled for February 8 are pre-determined, as is the long-term outcome.
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) is expected to emerge as the single largest party and its leader, Nawaz Sharif, is predicted to become prime minister for a fourth time.
Given the Pakistani military’s control over the country’s affairs, and its past tendency of toppling leaders it once supported, it is also being predicted that it is only a matter of time before a fallout between the next civilian prime minister and the generals occurs.
But these predictions are based on Pakistan’s turbulent history and make little provision for altered circumstances.
Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) dominates social media, and mainstream media coverage is shaped by the revulsion among journalists for the highhandedness of Pakistan’s military establishment.
PTI supporters on social media predict a revolution; mainstream media coverage assumes that the past will repeat itself. What if neither happens?
World
Netanyahu rejects Hamas truce offer : Total victory in Gaza within reach (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the ceasefire deal in Gaza sent over by Hamas fighters. Netanyahu has claimed that “total victory" is possible in Gaza within months.
The war between Israel and Hamas fighters in Gaza has been going on for almost 4 months now, killing nearly 30,000 Palestinians.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu called the Hamas fighters ‘delusional’ in seeking a ceasefire and hostage deal. Matters flared up between Israel and Gaza, after a multi-pronged attack by Hamas fighters in Israel on 7 October.
There is not a commitment - there has to be a negotiation, it's a process, and at the moment, from what I see from Hamas, it's not happening.
Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel's goal is "complete victory" and that the country will "not do less than that."
"We are on the way to complete victory. The victory is achievable; it's not a matter of years or decades, it's a matter of months.
Economy
India to exclude labour, green issues during WTO discussion (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Amid rising environment related measures being introduced in trade policies such as European Union’s carbon tax and deforestation law that could hurt exports from developing nations, India is set to bat for exclusion of labour and environment issues from negotiations held at the World trade Organization (WTO).
The official said that New Delhi will object to any work programme or negotiations on non-trade issues such as environment, gender, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) at the WTO’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC) that will be held from February 26-29 at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
International trade experts have pointed out that developed nations have been pushing for non-trade issues in the garb of sustainability to reverse the growing trade deficit that it has with the developing nations.
Moreover, through WTO reform, the developed nations are pushing for fundamental changes in the structure of WTO to favour rich nations.
Insurance for all: IRDAI propose obligatory life, health coverage in gram panchayats across India (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Insurance regulator IRDAI has proposed to make insurance coverage, including life, health and motor, obligatory on the part of insurance companies in gram panchayats across the country in order to achieve the objective of “insurance for all”.
The minimum number of lives to be covered by all life insurers in all gram panchayats in the country should be 30 per cent in each gram panchayat subject to a minimum of 25,000 gram panchayats as driven by lead insurer in the first year, IRDAI has proposed.
This increases to 40 per cent lives subject to a minimum 50,000 gram panchayats and 50 per cent lives subject to a minimum of 75,000 gram panchayats in year 2 and 3 respectively, IRDAI said in its draft Rural, Social Sector and Motor Third Party Obligations Regulations, 2024.
The same formula will be applicable in the case of dwellings under fire insurance, motor (comprehensive and third party) and lives under health and personal accident insurance.
Over 40 crore people still don’t have health insurance coverage in India. On motor third party insurance, the obligations are specified for goods carrying and passenger carrying vehicles as nearly 50 per cent of the vehicles in these 2 categories are uninsured.