20 June 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
Who owns Alexander the Great? It’s a diplomatic minefield
Page no- the world section
GS2- Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests
- The center of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, a Balkan country born just 33 years ago as an independent state, is awash in history.
- A statue of Alexander the Great looms over the central square. One of his father, Philip II of Macedon, towers above a nearby piazza atop an oversize pedestal.
- The city is also littered with tributes in bronze, stone and plaster to generations of other heroes from what the country sees as its glorious and very long history.
- The problem, though, is that most of the history on display is claimed by other countries.
- Present-day North Macedonia, birthed by the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, has no real connection to Alexander the Great, who lived 2,000 years ago down the road in what is now Greece, and many of the other historical figures honored with statues are Bulgarian.
As NEET reaches Shah table, NET cancelled, hitting 9 lakh students
Page no- 1
GS2- Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education
- The Ministry of Education (MoE) announced late Wednesday night the cancellation of the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET), just a day after over 9 lakh candidates appeared for it across 317 cities, following inputs from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs that “the integrity of the examination may have been compromised”.
- With this decision, UGC-NET — key to finding an entry-level teaching job in Indian universities and also for admissions to PhD programmes — becomes the first centrally-conducted public examination to be scrapped after the Centre introduced a new anti-paper leak law.
Condition of workers at Amazon warehouse: NHRC notice to ministry
Page no- 4
GS2- Statutory, Regulatory and various Quasi-judicial Bodies
- Taking suo motu cognizance of the condition of labourers in “a multinational company’s” warehouses in Haryana’s Manesar, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notice to the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment seeking a report in a week.
- Quoting from The Indian Express report on the condition of workers at Amazon India, the Commission expressed concern over the reported allegations “despite pro-worker laws and policies of the government”.
Cabinet clears scheme for forensic infra with outlay of 2200 cr Rupees
Page no- 6
GS2- Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation
- In a bid to have more scientific investigations across the country to achieve better conviction rates in criminal cases, the Union Cabinet Wednesday approved the National Forensic Infrastructure Enhancement Scheme (NFIES).
- The scheme, with a financial outlay of Rs 2,254.43 crore during the period from 2024-25 to 2028-29, aims to establish campuses of National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) across the country apart from setting up more central forensic science laboratories enhancing existing infrastructure of NFSU, Delhi.
Air pollution killed 8.1 million globally, 2.1 million in India in 2021: Report
Page no- 8
GS3- Environmental Pollution and Degradation
- Air pollution has caused 8.1 million deaths around the world in 2021 with China and India accounting for more than half of the global burden at 2.3 and 2.1 million deaths respectively, according to the recently released State of Global Air Report.
- As per the report, air pollution is considered to be one of the biggest killers globally, second only to high blood pressure. In fact, it outranks tobacco consumption as a leading cause of death and disability, said the report.
- Of the total deaths, 700,000 were children under the age of 5 years. “Air pollution poses an enormous — and growing — public health challenge,” the report states.
Costs of inequality
Page no- 10
GS1- Role of Women and Women’s Organization
- The 2024 edition of the Global Gender Gap Index places India at 129 out of the 146 countries it surveyed. This puts India at the 18th position from the bottom.
- For comparison, of the 156 countries included in 2021, India was at the 17th position from the bottom. Thus, overall, India’s ranking has remained in the bottom 20 over years.
- Like all indices, the Global Gender Gap index, first introduced in 2006, is a précis measure.
- It is a combination of four different sub-indices — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment — each summarising multiple indicators.
- The index lies between 0 and 1, with 1 denoting complete parity. It is important to note that this index focuses on gender gaps, that is, the focus is on the position of women relative to men (gender equality), rather than to their absolute position.
- The idea is to track changes in gender gaps both over time and across countries.
Take the next steps
Page no- 10
GS3- Security Challenges and their Management in Border Areas - Linkages of Organized Crime with Terrorism
- That the BJP is undertaking a review of its electoral setbacks in Uttar Pradesh, as reported by this newspaper, where its tally dipped to 33 from 62 in 2019, and where it lost both the prestigious Ayodhya (Faizabad) and Amethi seats, is good news — for the BJP.
- Done honestly, a probing look back could help it understand what went wrong and what it can do to get back on its feet in the politically crucial state.
- For the rest, however, far more consequential is how this internal nuts-and-bolts exercise informs the party’s larger reading of the mandate and how that translates, going ahead, in its government’s politics and policy.
- The fact is, Verdict 2024 is complex, not given to glib readings. The people of India have rebuked the incumbent but returned it to power, in a more edgy coalition — they have given the Opposition alliance a stronger voice, not a shot at forming the government.
- In reading the verdict, the temptation for the BJP will be to see its new dependence on allies as a constraint it must find ways to somehow sidestep and overcome in coming days.
- If it is to respect the mandate, however, its real challenge will be to acknowledge that for the third-term NDA, there is no going back to many of its old ways.
Don’t wait for KAVACH
Page no- 11
GS3- Infrastructure: Railways
- What is most striking about any train accident which results in deaths is that most of the time, the accident was avoidable. Safety is a feature of rail operations – it is not an externality.
- Yet, once again, two trains collided at Rangapani, and one of these, unfortunately, was the passenger-carrying Kanchenjunga Express. Many precious lives were lost and several people were injured, including crew members entrusted with the responsibility of safe operations.
- Collisions are the worst kind of accidents and invariably result in casualties.
- During the year 2022-23, a total of six collisions took place on the Indian Railways compared with only two during 2021-22. In 2023-24, four more have taken place.
- Most of these collisions involved casualties and injuries to passengers. While the numbers show improvements overall, when you take a long-term perspective, safety from harm does take precedence over speed and comfort.
- And so the only performance indicator for accidents on the IR is that they must be at zero.
When north needs south
Page no- 11
GS2- Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
- About a decade ago the words “Global South” evoked images of countries with low growth, financial instability, and weak governance.
- Having learned from crises, these countries have now emerged as a bridge to the future for the global economy.
- The latest World Bank/IMF forecasts indicate that growth will hold steady at around 3 per cent and most indicators point to central banks exiting from tight monetary policy and achieving a soft landing.
- The latest forecast for global growth five years from now, at 3 per cent, is the lowest in decades.
- What is striking about these forecasts is that for the next two to three decades, nearly three-fourths of the global growth will come from middle- and low-income countries, with Asia leading the way.
- Without deep financial markets, the availability of sustainable financing will be a binding constraint for growth in the Global South — and by extension for global growth because the Global South attracts capital at prohibitive rates and at short tenure.
- It is in the interest of the Global North to support the growth potential of the Global South. But the present international financial architecture is ill-suited for this purpose. That must change.
Calangute panchayat in Goa proposes tax on entry of tourists
Page no- 12
GS2- Devolution of Powers and Finances up to Local Levels and Challenges
- Days after proposing that tourists would require hotel reservation before entering the jurisdiction of their village, the Calangute panchayat in North Goa has passed a resolution to impose a “tax” on these visitors.
- In a resolution that was adopted at a meeting on June 7, the panchayat of Calangute, a tourist hotspot, cited similar taxes being imposed in Maharashtra’s Mahabaleshwar and resolved to write to the district collector, the police chief and the government to set-up check posts — with assistance from police personnel and panchayat staff — for verification of all tourists’ vehicles at five entry roads to the village to “avoid and stop public nuisance”.
Inflation gradually easing, but food prices volatile, elevated
Page no-17
GS3- Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development
- Consumer price-based inflation (CPI) is gradually moderating but volatile and elevated food inflation continues to pose a threat to the disinflation process, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) article said.
- Headline inflation, as measured by year-on-year changes in the all-India Consumer Price-based Inflation (CPI), softened to 4.7 per cent in May 2024 – the lowest in the last 12 months – from 4.8 per cent in April.
- “Headline inflation is gradually easing, driven by sustained softening of its core component, although the path of disinflation is interrupted by volatile and elevated food prices,” the ‘State of the Economy’ article published in the RBI’s June bulletin said.
Rupees 76200 cr Maharashtra port project gets Cabinet nod
Page no- 17
GS3- Infrastructure: Ports
- The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the development of a Rs 76,200-crore all-weather greenfield deep draft major port at Vadhavan in Maharashtra, according to an official statement.
- The statement said the project will be constructed by Vadhavan Port Project Limited (VPPL), an SPV formed by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) and Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB), with a shareholding of 74 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively.
- The port will be one of the top 10 ports in the world, it added.
As a new campus rises at an ancient site, the story of Nalanda
Page no- 18
GS1- Indian Culture - Salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times
- The campus of Nalanda University was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.
- Spread across 455 acres, it is located in Rajgir, roughly 100 km from Patna, and merely 12 km away from the ruins of the eponymous ancient Buddhist monastery, considered to be among the greatest centres of learning in all of Antiquity.
Security in Parliament
Page no- 18
GS3- Various Security Forces and Agencies and their Mandate
