13 June 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
On Armed forces table: Let double the Agniveer stay back, train them longer
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GS3-Various Security Forces and Agencies and their Mandate
- The Armed Forces are discussing possible tweaks to the Agnipath scheme for military recruitment including changes in the retention percentage of Agniveers from the current 25 per cent and increase in their training period.
- This follows feedback from the three services — a survey was conducted recently — that flagged certain issues with the scheme, The Indian Express has learnt.
Why Bihar, Andhra are unlikely to get special status, package instead
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GS2- Issues and Challenges Pertaining to the Federal Structure
- Internal discussions within the government suggest that the demand for special category status by the BJP’s two key allies, TDP and JD(U) for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, respectively, will be hard to meet since there are several states which may need a higher percentage of grants given their socio-economic and fiscal health.
- One of the biggest benefits for states classified as a special category earlier was that 90 per cent of funds under centrally sponsored schemes was contributed by the Centre, with only 10 per cent being the state contribution.
- For all other states, the split was 60:40 with the Centre contributing just 60 per cent.
Satnamis: Dalit religious community with a history of protests
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GS1-Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India
- Members of the Satnami religious sect set fire to the office of the Superintendent of Police and pelted the office of the District Collector with stones in Baloda Bazar in central Chhattisgarh on Monday after alleged inaction over the desecration of a religious site at Amar Cave in the district.
- Members of the mostly Scheduled Caste Satnami Samaj or Satnam Panth live mainly in Chhattisgarh and contiguous areas of Madhya Pradesh.
- The desecrated shrine, known as Jaitkham, is located about 5 km from Giraud village in Baloda Bazar district, at the birthplace of Guru Ghasidas, an 18th century saint to whom the Chhattisgarh Satnamis trace their theological lineage.
Heatwaves as disaster
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GS3-Disaster and Disaster Management
- The ongoing spell of extreme heat in many parts of the country has once again reopened discussions on the inclusion of heatwaves as one of the notified disasters under the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005.
- If the inclusion does happen, states will be allowed to use their disaster response funds to provide compensation and relief, and carry out a range of other activities for managing the fallout of a heatwave. Currently, states need to use their own funds for these activities.
How SpaceX’s starship could revolutionise space travel & exploration
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GS3-Awareness in the fields of Space
- Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starship rocket accomplished its first fully successful test flight last week, with both its booster and spacecraft making a gentle splashdown after an hour-long sub-orbital space flight.
- This was SpaceX’s fourth attempt to launch the mammoth Starship.
- Starships’ booster (called Super Heavy) detached from the upper section (or the Starship spacecraft), to make a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft, however, travelled halfway around the planet to make a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
Far right moves in
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GS2-Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests
- The centre-right, social democrats and liberals together have more than 400 seats in the European Parliament (EP) which will be inaugurated on July 18.
- That might put them in a comfortable position vis-a-vis the far right in the 720-member House.
- But Europe’s mainstream parties will be erring in ignoring the fault lines and points of dissonance that are behind extreme nationalists and anti-immigration parties getting more than 130 seats — about 20 per cent of the votes — in the EP elections.
- The House will also have 34 additional hard right members drawn from Poland, Bulgaria, Germany’s AfD and Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian Fidesz party.
- The numbers suggest that the far and hard right could be the second-largest group in the EP behind the traditional conservatives, the European People’s Party. Europe’s extreme right is not a cohesive force, yet the group’s sheer size would mean significant rightward pressure on EU policies.
Like people, elephants call each other by name, AI analysis of trumpeting suggests
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GS3-Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life
- A study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution shows how elephants — their rich social and emotional lives, as well as complex communication capacity has long been known — call each other by specific names.
- Using a combination of machine learning and field experiments, researchers are able to conclude that, while other animals such as dolphins and parrots mimic sounds of their fellows that can act as names, elephants are the first non-human species to use names that do not involve imitation — in essence, proper nouns.
Industrial production growth slips to 3-month low in April
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GS3-Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development
- India’s factory output based on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) moderated to a three-month low of 5 per cent in April due to slower manufacturing growth, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Wednesday showed.
- Manufacturing, which accounts for 77.6 per cent of the weight of the IIP, grew 3.9 per cent in April, down from 5.5 per cent in the year-ago period and 5.8 per cent a month ago.
US Fed holds rates steady, sees just one cut in 2024 despite inflation progress
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GS2-Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests
- The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday and pushed out the start of rate cuts to perhaps as late as December, with officials projecting only a single quarter-percentage-point reduction for the year amid rising estimates for what it will take to keep inflation in check.
- The markdown in the outlook for rate cuts, from three quarter-percentage-point reductions seen in the Fed’s March projections, was made despite the central bank’s acknowledgement in its new policy statement of “modest further progress” towards its 2% inflation target – an upgrade from its May 1 statement.
