Friday, June 09, 2023
Current Affairs-June 8, 2023
INDIA
- Cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ in Arabian Sea rapidly intensifies into very severe cyclonic storm.
- Government approves over Rs 89 thousand crore revival package for BSNL.
- Karnataka: Enrolment to avail free power under Gruha Jyoti to start from 15th June.
- Centre has set the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy sown in the kharif or monsoon season at ₹2,183 per quintal.
- Wrestlers suspend protest till June 15, as the Sports Minister assured that the Delhi police would complete the probe by June 15.
ECONOMY & CORPORATE
- RBI issues updated list of entities not authorized to deal in forex transactions.
- Google Pay introduces UPI verification through Aadhaar
- CCEA approved the continuation of a central-sector scheme for “Exploration of Coal and Lignite” with an outlay of ₹2,980 crore from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
- Report: Over one-third of ₹2,000 currency notes returned so far.
WORLD
- Germany is preparing to host the biggest air deployment exercise in NATO’s history, Air Defender 23 exercise.
- Kuwait votes in Opposition-led Parliament, elects one woman in its seventh general election.
- Thousands flee their homes after destruction of Ukraine’s Kakhovka Dam.
- Canada wildfire smoke triggers air quality concerns in New York.
SPORTS
- Singapore Open 2023: Satwik-Chirag and Jolly-Gopichand crashed out in the first-round.
Mizoram Government’s High-Level Committee on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
The Mizoram government has taken a significant step towards addressing the challenges faced by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Manipur. Under the leadership of Lalchamliana, the High-Level Committee on IDPs has been established. Additionally, an executive committee has been formed to implement decisions related to the IDPs. These initiatives aim to provide relief and humanitarian assistance to those affected by ethnic clashes.
Leadership and Purpose
Lalchamliana, the Minister for Home and Disaster Management, is heading the High-Level Committee on IDPs in Mizoram. The executive committee, with H. Lalengmawia as the member secretary, is responsible for the implementation of decisions pertaining to the IDPs. The primary objective of these committees is to ensure effective measures for the well-being of the IDPs.
Refugees and Displaced Population
Mizoram currently provides shelter to more than 40,000 refugees from Myanmar who fled their country due to the military junta. Additionally, there are 772 refugees from Bangladesh who have sought refuge in Mizoram, escaping the crackdown by the Bangladesh army. Moreover, almost 9,000 IDPs from Manipur are facing ethnic clashes and are in need of support and assistance.
Provision of Relief and Assistance
The executive committee, in collaboration with various departments, is working towards providing relief and humanitarian assistance to the IDPs from Manipur in Mizoram. Liaison with concerned departments ensures the effective implementation of relief measures and addresses the urgent needs of the affected population.
Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee (MKHC)
The Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee, representing major churches, plays a crucial role in supporting the efforts of the committees. Their involvement ensures a collaborative approach in addressing the challenges faced by the IDPs and provides additional support in humanitarian initiatives.
Ensuring Oversight and Supervision
The High-Level Committee on IDPs is entrusted with overseeing and supervising the provision of relief and basic humanitarian assistance. Through these committees, the Mizoram government aims to ensure that the IDPs receive the necessary support, including access to food, shelter, healthcare, and other essential services.
Current Affairs- June 7, 2023
INDIA
- Odisha: 288 deaths confirmed in Balasore train crash, says Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena.
- Haryana to launch special campaign to raise awareness about door-to-door waste collection and segregation.
- Foundation stone of ONGC National Disaster Mitigation Centre was launched in Jammu.
- Indian Navy to commemorate 130 years anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘ Satyagraha ’ at the place where it began.
- World Food Safety Day: Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya to release State Food Safety Index.
- Madhya Pradesh to launch CM Learn and Earn scheme; At least one lakh youth will be provided training.
ECONOMY & CORPORATE
- RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee’s three-day meeting begins in Mumbai.
- State-backed infrastructure lender, NaBFID plans to raise Rs 10,000 crore via bonds.
- RBI permits banking units at IFSC to settle Non-deliverable foreign exchange derivative contracts (NDDCs) in rupee.
- Bajaj Finserv has entered into the mutual fund business.
WORLD
- Former PM Jacinda Ardern receives New Zealand’s second-highest honour.
- Iran unveils new ‘hypersonic missile’ that can cover 1,400 km.
- China and Russia conducted joint air force patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.
- World Bank cuts 2023 global growth forecast to 2.1% in 2023 after growing 3.1% in 2022.
SPORTS
- Siddharth Choudhary clinches gold in men’s shot-put event of U-20 Asian Athletics Championships in South Korea.
- French Open: Carlos Alcaraz to play against Novak Djokovic in semi-final.
National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Rankings 2023
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Rankings 2023 were recently released by Minister of State for Education and External Affairs, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh. These rankings serve as a significant benchmark to assess the quality and performance of educational institutions across the country.
An Overview of NIRF Rankings 2023
The NIRF rankings encompass four major categories: Overall, Colleges, Universities, and Research Institutions. The rankings aim to provide valuable insights into the progress and performance of institutions in terms of academic excellence, research output, and overall institutional quality. These rankings are available on the official website of NIRF at nirfindia.org.
Expanding Categories and Dimensions
In its eighth edition, the NIRF rankings have expanded from four to twelve categories, including eight subject-specific rankings. This expansion allows for a more comprehensive assessment of institutions across various domains. The subject domains now include Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Law, Medical, Architecture and Planning, Dental, and a new addition—Agriculture and Allied Sectors.
Top Performers in the Overall Category
In the overall category, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras secured the top position, maintaining its success from the previous year. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru emerged as the leading university, reaffirming its commitment to academic excellence. Additionally, IISc Bangalore was recognized as the second-best institution in the overall category.
Excellence in Universities
In the university rankings, IISc Bengaluru retained its top position, showcasing its consistent commitment to research and academic prowess. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) secured the second and third spots, respectively, highlighting their contributions to the academic landscape of the country.
Leaders in Engineering
When it comes to engineering institutes, IIT Madras emerged as the top performer for the second consecutive year. IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Roorkee followed closely, showcasing their exceptional contributions to engineering education and research.
Noteworthy Management Institutions
In the field of management, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad secured the top spot, demonstrating its excellence in producing business leaders. IIM Bangalore, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Calcutta, and IIM Delhi were also recognized for their outstanding contributions to management education.
Recognizing Achievements in Other Domains
The NIRF rankings also acknowledge the top performers in other domains such as Pharmacy, Colleges, Medical, Research Institutions, Innovation, Law, Architecture, Dental, and Agriculture and Allied Sectors. These rankings shed light on the institutions that have excelled in their respective fields and contribute significantly to the growth of those domains.
The Significance of NIRF Rankings
The NIRF rankings play a crucial role in evaluating and improving the quality of higher education in India. By providing a comprehensive assessment and comparison of institutions, the rankings help students make informed decisions about their academic pursuits. The NIRF rankings align with the government’s efforts to enhance the quality and accessibility of education across the nation.
With the expansion of categories and a growing number of participating institutions, the NIRF rankings continue to evolve and become more inclusive. They serve as a reliable guide for students, parents, and educational stakeholders, enabling them to identify and appreciate the best institutions in India.
An uncertain future
Existential threats that can haunt the earth in the near future are human-made — unintended consequences of our intense desire for material consumption and comfort
The world is challenged by many existential threats. Some of them are old, some more recent, and some hanging over a not-so-distant future. If one considers all the threats together, the forecast indeed induces a sense of foreboding. All the cheers of good tidings cannot overcome the possibility of a grim future. All these threats are human-made — unintended consequences of our intense desire for material consumption and comfort.
The first threat is an old one, that of nuclear weapons being used in an arena of war, leading to mass destruction. More countries than ever before are armed with growing numbers of deadly weapons. In most of these nations, the political leadership does not signal the maturity and responsibility that the ownership of these weapons demands. There are many related worries. Rogue terrorists could make nuclear weapons themselves, a task that is possible and relatively cheap. What is even more terrifying is the knowledge that not all nuclear weapons manufactured are accurately accounted for. Although no mishap has occurred so far, this does not mean that a disaster is impossible. Geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan, between Russia and Ukraine, between North Korea and the United States of America are all flashpoints that might ignite without much warning.
The potential of nuclear disaster is aggravated by the fact that nations are moving away from global collaborations and cooperation to more inward-looking ideologies where the fear of and hatred for the foreigner and the immigrant are deeply entrenched. Fanned by political hot air from authoritarian leaders, this crude brand of nationalism survives and flourishes. Tension about the backlash of retreat from the globalisation of the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of this century does not mean a return to the world of the 1980s. That is not possible anymore. Consumers have exhibited a huge appetite for goods and services from all over the world. New international supply chains had made that possible to a large extent. Now, with the growing political preference for protectionism, the supply chains are broken, while domestic production systems have not re-adjusted yet. Hence, costs of production have risen fast, as have inflationary pressures across the globe. Output growth is sluggish, with strong recessionary tendencies being witnessed even in some strong economies of the world.The global economic disorder,along with a disrupted financial system, is here to stay, at least for some time.
The magic of economic growth and material prosperity has accelerated the use of fossil fuels, resulting in ever-increasing carbon emissions. The unstoppable increase in emissions has brought the threat of climate change closer and closer. Now, most serious climate scientists believe that the average temperature rise is likely to be closer to 2° Celsius than 1.5° Celsius. At the moment, even a rise of 3° Celsius by the end of the century cannot be ruled out. The signs of climate change and the attendant unpredictable and unusual weather events have clearly shown that climate tipping points are much closer than we thought. Climate change is, arguably, the most important one of the long list of environmental threats looming on the horizon. The great growth story has resulted in a great acceleration in the use and depletion of critical natural resources such as fresh water, soil nutrients, forest cover, biodiversity, minerals and ocean ecosystems through acidification. Despite a long list of international meetings and agreements on the reduction of carbon emissions, there has been no success. As of now, the way the nations of the world are behaving, the targets of the Paris Agreement will remain unfulfilled. Economic development is unsustainable.
Last, but not the least, is the threat that appears as a seductive solution to many of humanity’s problems of health, education and effective governance — the threat from the new technologies of artificial intelligence and machine learning. It has often been claimed with the wisdom of hindsight that new technologies are initially always suspected of displacing human beings from their jobs. However, all new technology has ultimately resulted in creating more jobs and made human life a little less troublesome. This time, the emerging technology is qualitatively different from the older technologies, including the first wave of the information and communication technology revolution. These new technologies can make a device take its own decisions, not necessarily sticking to the set of instructions given to it at the time of training. In this way, it takes something away from human beings. Moreover, the new technologies can be creative and generate new ideas on their own. Unlike the entire gamut of machines that humans have known and used since the Stone Age, the new ones will have autonomy and agency. Hence, they will ultimately be able to learn and act on their own. They will dominate humans according to the laws of evolution and might ultimately displace us from being the most influential species on planet earth. The comparison of their intelligence and our own, according to some scientists, would be the difference between our brains and that of a frog’s. And we do not show a great deal of respect for the cerebral ability of frogs.
As these threats keep growing in magnitude over time, the cocktail effect can be quite deadly. All these threats increase vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities, in turn, create insecurities. First of all, there will be a steady rise in insecurities of all sorts that will become manifest in everyday life. Insecurity about the loss of economic stability, insecurity about lethal diseases, about natural disasters like floods and fires, insecurity about displacement and, above all, insecurity about bodily suffering and death. Despite the staggering rise in global inequalities in income and wealth over the last 100 years, these insecurities will be felt by the rich and the poor alike. The rich might be able to defend themselves a little while longer than the poor, but ultimately the bell will toll for them too.
Human behaviour tends to be very defensive when faced with a variety of threats. Thinking tends to become short-term and self-centred with a focus on survival. An alternative behavioural response is to believe that the threats are overstated and not immediate in nature. Then people have a marked tendency to ignore them altogether or assign unusually low probabilities of their occurrence. In the political arena, such threats are used to exploit the vulnerabilities and insecurities that arise. People look for distraction or salvation from threats. A political saviour who can distract attention, in whatever fashion, from the perils of the here and now would be considered a messiah. A charismatic false prophet who can make people forget their real condition could swiftly rise to the helm of power. People also wilfully accept greater control and authoritarianism, thereby relegating the responsibility over their own lives. The whole culture of fear and anxiety discourages the need to think freely. The authoritarian repressions of dialogue and dissent are not objected to. Most refuse to believe the terrible news. Instead, in the brave new world of forgetfulness, they wear a smile on their faces, and a badge of their leader on their chests.
Anup Sinha
Source: The Telegraph India
Manipur crisis reveals the limits of BJP’s politics in the Northeast
The continuing violence in Manipur ought to be shocking for many reasons. But its sheer scale, endurance and brutality is still not getting national attention. As is typical, the prime minister who is never shy of taking leadership credit, is completely absent when there is an actual crisis that goes to the heart of both constitutional values and national security. In this instance, it seems like the double-engine sarkar, even after invoking Article 355, is unable to control the violence.
It takes nothing away from the culpability of the present dispensation to acknowledge the long-standing and irresolvable contradictions of Manipur politics. Whenever the central organising axis of politics is a distributive conflict between identity-based groups, there is a high chance of violence. This is particularly the case where the conflict inherently has the character of a zero-sum game. In Manipur, the politics of distribution between Kukis and Meiteis turns on four goods whose inherent logic is zero-sum.
The first is inclusion in the ST quota which is the proximate background to the current conflict. By its very nature, the inclusion of more groups in the ST quota will be a threat to existing beneficiaries. The second is land, and the tension between the valley and the hills. This is also a zero-sum resource, where protecting the land rights of Kukis is seen as foreclosing the opportunities for other groups. The third is political representation, where historically Kukis have felt dominated by the Meiteis. The fourth is patronage by the state in the informal economy, in which groups compete against one another for control of informal trade. Each state intervention in regulating trade becomes a locus of conflict.
Place on top of that a default demand that the boundaries of ethnicity and territorial governance should, as much as possible, coincide. In principle, these demands could be negotiated through building inclusive democratic institutions. But this is easier said than done, when every policy instrument in contention — quotas, land, representation, and the state-economy nexus — are defined in terms of zero-sum games. The tragedy of Manipur was that, in part, there was no other game in town, one that could prise politics away from this zero-sum alignment of distribution and ethnicity.
Dealing with such a situation requires at least three things. It requires a capable state impartially enforcing constitutional values. It requires a political culture that respects identity but does not politicise it. It requires a development narrative that all sections of society can potentially participate in.
Instead, the Indian state made Manipur a charnel house of human rights violations, abetted violence and militarisation to unprecedented levels. It opportunistically used ethnicity both for electoral alliances and divide and rule. In some ways, under colonial divide and rule, the state pretended to hover above the various contending groups. The point of divide and rule was to present the state as neutral and shore up its legitimacy. But in democratic India divide and rule has meant the state itself getting implicated with one group or the other. The result was a weakening of the state’s capacity to govern. We can see the long-term effects of this even in the present crisis, where there is widespread agreement that the state security forces and police cannot be trusted to be neutral and impartial. This creates a vicious cycle where all ethnic groups feel the need to preemptively protect themselves. And finally, the state was not a neutral actor in the economy.
It is worth remembering this structural contradiction when we diagnose the present moment. The politics of majoritarianism in Manipur was always more complicated. It was this history that had first given the BJP an opening, where the Congress was seen as an instrument of the Valley, so much so that the Kukis called for supporting the BJP. But the current dispensation, rather than seizing the opportunity to create a new politics, has made the same mistakes. Only this time, the consequences are even more tragic and irrevocable. The violence has given a lie to the BJP’s project in three senses. The first is that the BJP can build a capable law and order state. In this instance, that state has proven to be both deeply incompetent and partisan. The ease with which literally thousands of weapons have been looted would shame any half capable state. But more disturbingly, the pattern that the state is seen to be a partisan actor in the violence continues unabated. Second, it exposes the ideological dangers of the BJP’s project.
The BJP tried for a brief moment to run with the hare and hunt with the hound. It tried to capitalise on Kuki construal of Congress in Manipur as majoritarian at the same time as it politicised and promoted Meitei identity. Now that contradiction has burst open: A visible demonstration of the limits of Hindutva accommodation. Contingently convenient alliances will, in the end, be overrun by the ideological juggernaut. And third, it has shown that the BJP’s political instincts can be overrated: Its capacity to negotiate complicated social fissures in the North-east has been overestimated. What the BJP had touted as the moment of its greatest ideological triumph, winning in the North-east, is turning out to also expose the limitations of its politics.
It is not going to be easy for Manipur to recover from this violence. There are no credible public institutions that can hold perpetrators of violence to account, impartially. The nature of the violence is such that both the Kukis and Meiteis will be left with a deep sense of victimhood. But there is a deeper question: Is there any political force left in the state that can do the job of political mediation? In a situation where, singly, all parties are considered partisan, the only possibility would be an all-party mediation, one that tries to lift Manipur out of a fatal combination of zero-sum identity politics. But such imaginative gestures are now beyond our ruling establishment.
When I first read journalist Sudeep Chakravarti’s book, “The Eastern Gate”, one line stood out. He recounts a visit to Churachandpur, ground zero of the current violence, where he sees a sign by a church: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in death.” Alas, these words seem all too prophetic at the moment, when no one is prepared to break the mould of politics in Manipur. Nero will, of course, continue to fiddle, while Manipur burns.
Written by Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Source: Indian Express, 9/06/23
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