Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- Even as the Law Commission is now close to finalising its report on the conduct of simultaneous polls, the Election Commission (EC), in its meeting with members of the law panel earlier this year, is learnt to have underlined the need for a “definite lead time” of up to a year before implementation, citing “steep” logistical challenges in manufacturing voting machines.
• What Election Commission said regarding “one nation, one poll”?
• What the Law Commission, headed by Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, former Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court said regarding the “one nation, one poll”?
• What are the issues and concerns flagged by the Election Commission (EC)?
• What is the significance of semiconductors and chips in the context of simultaneous elections?
• For Your Information-Sources told The Indian Express that in its feedback to the law panel earlier this year regarding the feasibility of conducting simultaneous polls, the EC flagged concerns about the global shortage of semiconductors and chips, which is an essential component for manufacturing Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) & Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (or VVPAT) machines. This shortage posed significant challenges in meeting the EC’s additional voting machine requirements (about 4 lakh) for just the Lok Sabha polls in 2024, not taking into account the additional number required for conducting all elections together.
“They (EC) felt that a definite lead time of up to a year would be required for ramping up the voting machine production lines, keeping in view the current commitments of the two manufacturers (Bharat Electronic Ltd. and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd). Moreover, the shortage of semiconductors, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, has further messed up the timelines for EVM procurement,” said a source who did not want to be identified.
The EC has never opposed the idea of holding simultaneous elections, as long as the logistical arrangements for EVM procurement are addressed, there is consensus among political parties, and there are corresponding amendments to the Constitution. The poll panel, however, wants six months to a year to prepare for it.
This isn’t the first time the EC has raised concerns about production challenges related to the semiconductor shortage. Earlier this year, in its submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law, and Justice, the poll panel attributed its inability to spend over 80 per cent of the budget allocated for procuring EVMs in 2022-2023, till January 31, to the global shortage of semiconductors, which resulted in delays in the machine manufacturing process.
The EC is firmly against roping in private manufacturers to increase production capacity, fearing potential damage to the credibility of the electoral process and public faith.
The EC has provided estimates to the Law Commission on the additional number of EVMs and VVPAT machines it would require if assembly and Lok Sabha polls are held simultaneously in 2024 and 2029. A voting machine essentially consists of three parts: a control unit, a ballot unit, and a VVPAT. For 2024, an additional 11.49 lakh control units (which initiate the voting process), 15.97 lakh ballot units (on which voters casts their vote), and 12.37 lakh VVPATs (which produce a printout post-voting to verify the voter’s choice) will be needed, with an additional cost of approximately Rs 5,200 crore.
If elections were to be held simultaneously in 2029, the EC would require a total of 53.76 lakh ballot units, 38.67 lakh control units, and 41.65 lakh VVPATs. The anticipated shortfall is 26.55 lakh ballot units, 17.78 lakh control units and 17.79 lakh VVPATs, for which the government would need to allocate close to Rs 8,000 crore. The increased demand for voting machines and VVPATs in 2029 is due to the growing number of voters and polling stations. The latter is expected to increase from 11.8 lakh in 2024 to 13.57 lakh in 2029.
• Know about Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)
• What are Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)?
• What are Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)?
• Do You Know- EVM or Electronic Voting Machines are used to cast vote without revealing your identity. It is used in Indian General and State Elections. It has replaced paper ballots in local, state and general (parliamentary) elections in India.
EVM has two parts, it consists of a ‘control unit’ and a ‘balloting unit’, connected by a 5-metre cable. The control unit is with the Election Commission-appointed polling officer; the balloting unit is in the voting compartment into which the voter enters to cast the vote in secret by pressing the button against the name and symbol of the candidate of her choice. The control unit is the EVM’s ‘brain’ — the balloting unit is turned on only after the polling officer presses the ‘Ballot’ button on it. The EVM runs on a 6 volt single alkaline battery fitted in the control unit, and can even be used in areas that have no electricity. The use of EVM started back in 1982 Kerala Assembly elections. Prior to this only ballot papers and ballot boxes were allowed. There are only two Indian PSUs that manufacture EVM machines. Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) being the first and Electronics Corporation of Indian Limited (ECIL) the other. The secret source code is only accessible to a few engineers. Engineers who are in the factory have no clue about the constituency wise deployment of the machine.
Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines are used during election process to verify that the vote polled by a voter goes to the correct candidate. VVPATs are a second line of verification and are particularly useful in the time when allegations around Electronic Voting Machines’ tampering crop up. Parties have been making regular demands for VVPATs to be used during elections after alleging EVMs may not be completely secure and tamper proof.
VVPAT system gives instant feedback to the voter showing that the vote polled has in fact been allotted against the candidate chosen. After a voter presses the button on the EVM against the chosen candidate, the VVPAT prints a slip containing name of the candidate and the election symbol and drops it automatically into a sealed box. The machines give the chance for the voter to verify their vote. The machine is placed in a glass case in a way that only the voter can see it. The slip is displayed to the voter for seven seconds after which the VVPAT machine cuts it and drops in into the storage box with a beep. The machines can be accessed, though, by the polling officials and not by the voter.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍The 360° UPSC Debate | Does India Need Simultaneous Elections?
India sought diplomatic parity due to Canada’s interference: Jaishankar
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-Days after Canada announced the withdrawal of 41 diplomats from India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday that India invoked diplomatic parity due to concerns over “continuous interference” in its “internal affairs” by Canadian personnel.
• Why India-Canada relationship is going through “a difficult phase”?
• “India invoked diplomatic parity due to concerns over “continuous interference” in its “internal affairs” by Canadian personnel”-What you understand by the term diplomatic parity?
• What exactly MEA said?
• “Parity is very much provided for by the Vienna Convention, which is the relevant international rule on this”-What is Vienna Convention?
• “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called India’s actions as violation of Geneva convention”-What is Geneva convention?
• For Your Information-The term “Vienna Convention” can refer to any of a number of treaties signed in Vienna, most of which are related to the harmonisation or formalisation of the procedures of international diplomacy. The treaty being referred to by the MEA in this instance is the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), which “provides a complete framework for the establishment, maintenance and termination of diplomatic relations on a basis of consent between independent sovereign States”, as per an introductory note on the treaty in UN’s Audiovisual Library of International Law. Most notably, the Convention codifies the longstanding custom of diplomatic immunity, in which diplomatic missions are granted privileges that enable diplomats to perform their functions without fear of coercion or harassment by the host country. It affirms the concept of “inviolability” of a diplomatic mission, which has been one of the enduring cornerstones of international diplomacy. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations entered into force on April 24, 1964 and is nearly universally ratified, with Palau and South Sudan being the exceptions.
• Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations-Know in detail
• What does the Vienna Convention say about obligations of a “receiving State”?
• For Your Information-In a statement Friday, the MEA said, “The state of our bilateral relations, the much higher number of Canadian diplomats in India, and their continued interference in our internal affairs warrant a parity in mutual diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Ottawa.” It said they have been “engaged with the Canadian side on this over the last month in order to work out the details and modalities of its implementation”.
The MEA said its actions in implementing parity were fully consistent with Article 11.1 of the Vienna Convention. It cited the convention on diplomatic relations: “In the absence of specific agreement as to the size of the mission, the receiving State may require that the size of a mission be kept within limits considered by it to be reasonable and normal, having regard to circumstances and conditions in the receiving State and to the needs of the particular mission.”
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Canada recalls 41 diplomats, Trudeau says India making life hard for millions
Can be more patient to bring down inflation to 4%: RBI panel member
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee member Jayanth R Varma is of the view that there is a need to be more patient when it comes to gliding inflation to the 4 per cent target, and this is the price to pay for avoiding a growth shock.
• “Price stability and financial stability complement each other”-Analyse
• With retail inflation at 5 per cent now and an environment of greater economic stability, how fast should the Reserve Bank of India go in reining in inflation?
• “There’s also difference of opinion on withdrawal of accommodation, or loose monetary policy with higher liquidity in the system”-What is that?
• Food inflation being increasingly driven by two items-Which are those items?
• What happens when inflation goes up?
• Inflation and Purchasing power-connect the dots
• But food inflation is not new?
• Why food inflation appear to be hurting people’s pockets more this time?
• How does food inflation affect the average Indian consumer’s cost of living?
• How policy makers deal with this situation?
• What factor distinguishes Indian inflation from many other developed countries?
• What is Inflation?
• Know the Types of Inflation like Moderate Inflation, Galloping Inflation, Hyper-Inflation, Stagflation, Deflation, Core Inflation etc.
• What are the causes of Inflation in the present situation
• How Inflation is Measured in India?
• What is the Long term, Medium Term and Short-term impact of Inflation?
• New Standard for Measuring Inflation in India and Old Standard for Measuring Inflation-Key Differences
• Steps or Measures Taken by GOI to Control Inflation
• What do you understand by Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Consumer Price Index? WPI and CPI is published by whom?
• What is the Monetary Policy Committee?
• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a Statutory Body-True or False?
• What is the Primary Objective of monetary policy in India?
• There are several direct and indirect instruments that are used for implementing monetary policy-What are they?
• What is REPO rate?
• What is Current Repo Rate?
• What’s the RBI assessment on inflation?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
THE EDITORIAL PAGE
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance
Main Examination: General Studies II: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-Faizan Mustafa , Kunal Sharma Writes: There is a saying amongst Muslims: “…went to get exemptions from prayers (namaz), instead, but got the additional duty of fasting”. This sums up the much-awaited verdict in the marriage equality matter — Supriya Chakraborty v Union of India. Forget the recognition of marriages for sexual minorities or civil unions of queer people, it appears that even others seem to have lost the fundamental right to marry in heterosexual marriages.
• Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously rejected to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriage-What exactly Supreme Court Said in Supriya Chakraborty v Union of India?
• “Despite dissenting opinions articulated by the Chief Justice of India and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who accorded recognition to the right to establish unions and jointly undertake adoption, the bench was surprisingly unequivocal in asserting that there is no fundamental right to marriage under the Indian Constitution”-Discuss
• “After months of anticipation, the pronouncement is a profound letdown for the LGBTQIA+ community and constitutional law teachers”-Why?
• “The decision appears to have succumbed to the prevailing ethos of majoritarian morality rather than oft-repeated “constitutional morality”-Do you agree with the same?
• majoritarian morality vs constitutional morality-compare
• Could you provide further instances in which judicial rulings have yielded to the dominant ethos of majority morality rather than adhering to constitutional morality?
• Do you agree with the authors that the judgment become a classic case of judicial restraint?
• What “institutional limitations” Supreme Court cited in its verdict?
• Supreme Court’s Verdict-The bench was unanimous that marriage is a statutory right and not a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution and, hence, a subject matter for the Parliament and state legislatures.
“This Court cannot either strike down the Constitutional validity of SMA or read words into the SMA because of its institutional limitations. This Court cannot read words into the provisions of the SMA and provisions of other allied laws such as the ISA (Indian Succession Act) and the HSA (Hindu Succession Act) because that would amount to judicial legislation. The Court, in the exercise of the power of judicial review, must steer clear of matters, particularly those impinging on policy, which fall in the legislative domain,” the CJI said, a view that other judges agreed with.
In the four separate judgments – by the CJI, Justice Kaul, Justice Bhat and Justice Narasimha – there was agreement in the bench that “queerness is a natural phenomenon” and “is not urban or elite”, that “there exists no fundamental right to marry under the Constitution… that the Special Marriage Act, 1954 (SMA), is neither unconstitutional nor can it be interpreted in such a manner so as to enable marriage between queer persons; and that… transgender persons in heterosexual relationships, have the right to solemnize marriage under existing legal frameworks”.
According to CJI, “in pursuance of the power conferred by Articles 245 and 246 read with Entry 5 of the Concurrent List, Parliament has enacted laws creating and regulating the socio-legal institution of marriage. The State legislatures have made amendments to such laws with the assent of the President since the subject of marriage is in the Concurrent List. The petitioners seek that the Court recognise the right to marry as a fundamental right. As explained above, this would mean that even if Parliament and the State legislatures have not created an institution of marriage in exercise of their powers under Entry 5 of the Concurrent List, they would be obligated to create an institution because of the positive postulate encompassed in the right to marry. This argument cannot be accepted.”
Though it concluded that there is no fundamental right to marry, the CJI’s ruling said “there is a right or freedom to enter into a union” as laid down in various judgments of the court – Navtej Johar, K S Puttaswamy, NALSA, Shakti Vahini, Shafin Jahan etc – “and that having regard to our constitutional values, which entail respect to the choice of a person whether or when to enter into marriage and the right to choose a marital partner”.
The three judges, who formed the majority view, called this the “right to relationship”.
The five-bench Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud, which declined to recognise same-sex marriages, also considered the issue of adoption by non-heterosexual couples. The current adoption rules of the country under the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) allow unmarried persons to adopt children only in an individual capacity. Unmarried couples, including queer couples, cannot jointly adopt a child. The eligibility criteria for prospective adoptive parents under Regulation 5 (3) require a couple to have been in at least two years of “stable marital relationship”.
CJI Chandrachud said that this Regulation was discriminating against the queer community and hence was violating the Article 15 of the Constitution. The majority view by Justices S Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha acknowledged that the needs of such couples to have and raise family in every sense of the term has to be accommodated within the framework of the law, but held that the regulation cannot be held void.
“This exclusion has the effect of reinforcing the disadvantage already faced by the queer community. Law cannot make an assumption on good and bad parenting based on the sexuality of individuals. Such an assumption perpetuates a stereotype based on sexuality that only heterosexuals are good parents…,” the CJI read out. The CJI said that the regulation shall be read down to exclude the word “marital” so that it includes both married and unmarried couples as well as queer couples so that they too can jointly adopt a child.
“Though the additional criteria adopted by the state notifications would also affect a heterosexual person’s eligibility to adopt a child, it would disproportionately affect a non-heterosexual couple, as their unions are not recognised by the law in the form of marriage. An unmarried heterosexual couple has the option of marrying to meet the eligibility but this option is not available to a non-heterosexual couple,” the CJI said.
He said that while the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act granted CARA the power to subscribe additional criteria, it cannot exceed the scope of legislative policy. He said that the JJ Act does not preclude unmarried couples from adopting a child stating that the best interest of the child has to be the main objective.
While Justice S K Kaul agreed with the CJI, Justices S Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha had a different view.
“This is not to say that unmarried couples whether queer or heterosexual are not capable or suitable to be adoptive parents. However, once the law permits, as it has done adoption by both single individuals, the likelihood of their joining and cohabiting cannot be ruled out. In such an event, de facto family unit can and does come about,” Justice Bhat said.
He added that the Regulation 5 (3) of CARA cannot be held void, at the same time the CARA and Central government ‘should appropriately’ consider such family units where single individuals have committed to adopt and thereafter start living in a non-matrimonial relationship.
“In an unforeseen eventuality, the adopted child in question could face exclusion from the benefits otherwise adopted by the children of married couples. This aspect needs consideration for which the court is not the appropriate forum,” Justice Bhat said.
The three judges also said that the underlying assumption in law that unmarried heterosexual or queer couples should not adopt needs to be closely examined. It said that the state needs to explore every possibility and not rule out any policy or legislative choice to ensure maximum welfare and benefits reach the largest number of children.
• What are the issues associated with the legalisation of same sex marriage in India?
• What is the Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954?
• The legal recognition for same sex marriage is a little more complex-why?
• What is the Concept behind marriages in Indian Subcontinent or in the Indian Society?
• The Institution of Marriage-Why marriage is referred as an institution?
• Why same-sex wedding is not legal in India?
• How same sex marriage can be legalised in India?
• What is the global acceptance of same-sex marriages?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍On gay rights, SC moves the needle forward — but walks back on its role
📍Safe houses, sensitising police: CJI lists measures against discrimination
📍Special Marriage Act: SC says smaller bench can look into issues
📍Same-sex marriage petitioners say SC verdict disheartening
ECONOMY
Forex swap maturity: Banks get ready to return $5billion to RBI
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-With $5 billion forex swap between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and banks set to mature today, a majority of lenders have arranged for dollars to be delivered to the RBI. In April last year, the RBI conducted a dollar/rupee (USD/INR) sell-buy swap auction for an amount of $ 5 billion. Under the swap, the central bank sold dollars to banks with an agreement to buy back those dollars at maturity, which is October 23.
• What is a swap in forex?
• What exactly is meant by the term “Dollar-Rupee Swap Auction”?
• “The absorption of $5 billion forex swap by the RBI will release Rs 40,000 crore of rupee liquidity into the banking system”-Why this is significant?
• What is the liquidity of the banking system?
• What is the liquidity deficit of banks in India?
• How liquidity is managed by RBI?
• Do You Know-Higher demand for dollars created some temporary dollar liquidity shortage in the banking system. In order to meet their dollar demand, banks, in the last few days, bought dollars under USD/INR buy-sell swap either from the interbank market or from exporters or other forex market participants to deliver dollars to the RBI. These swaps are of shorter tenure with maturity of one to two days.
Forex dealers said it is the RBI which is supplying dollars to the market through select banks.
Though banks are expecting the forex swap to mature today, they are not certain how the RBI is going to take the delivery of dollars.
Some market participants feel that the central bank may stagger the absorption of dollars over a few days so that banks do not have to supply the entire $5 billion in one go.
Spreading of the dollar delivery will not exert pressure on the rupee. This will also mean that the entire Rs 40,000 crore rupee liquidity will not come back to the system in one day.
The RBI has been maintaining that it does not want excessive liquidity in the system as it can pose risks to both price and financial stability. Bankers said that even if the Rs 40,000 of rupee liquidity comes back to the system today, the RBI can use instruments such as variable reverse repo rate auction or OMO-sales (open market operations sales) to manage liquidity.
According to Investopedia, a foreign currency swap is an agreement between two foreign parties to swap interest payments on a loan made in one currency for interest payments on a loan made in another currency.
A foreign currency swap can involve exchanging principal, as well. This would be exchanged back when the agreement ends. Usually, though, a swap involves notional principal that’s just used to calculate interest and isn’t actually exchanged.
One purpose of engaging in a currency swap is to procure loans in foreign currency at more favorable interest rates than might be available borrowing directly in a foreign market.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Explained: What does RBI’s $5 billion dollar-rupee swap mean?
EXPLAINED
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story- 2024 is going to be a massively significant year for the global economy because it will witness elections in some of the biggest and most influential economies. These include India, Russia, the UK, the EU and the US. Together, the GDP of these countries is more than $54 trillion — that’s around 52% of the global GDP in 2023.
Thanks to a deeply interconnected, between them, these countries and their leaders would not only decide the course of their respective economies but also influence the shape of policymaking in other countries. From the global standpoint, however, the most important election within these could be the one in the US where, as things stand, President Joe Biden is likely to run for re-election.
However, with just about 12 months left, Biden is facing a stiff challenge from Donald Trump — the man he defeated in 2020. Most opinion polls suggest that President Biden’s approval ratings are at their lowest point.
• What is Bidenomics?
• For Your Information-According to the White House, Biden’s economic vision is centred around three key pillars:
1. Making smart public investments in America
2. Empowering and educating workers to grow the middle class
3. Promoting competition to lower costs and help entrepreneurs and small businesses thrive
In other words, Bidenomics involves policies that improve US’s physical and digital infrastructure, reduce its trade dependence on rivals such as China, raise the living standards and opportunities available for the middle 40% and the bottom 50% of the US population and, in doing all these things, boost job creation within its borders.
To achieve these goals, the Biden administration has tweaked both the tax regime as well as its spending choices. On the one hand, it aimed to raise $737 billion via more and higher taxation, while on the other, it decided to make fresh spending worth $500 billion towards investments in clean energy and in reducing healthcare costs.
It has also taken several steps to contain the concentration of economic powers in the hands of the few and tried to empower labour unions to safeguard labour rights.
• Why Bidenomics matters?
• When it comes to Bidenomics, there are two main concerns-What are they?
• What is the rationale behind Bidenomics?
• For Your Information- In common parlance, Bidenomics is a term that is used to refer to any and every policy choice made by the Biden administration. But the term was not coined by Biden or his team even though they have adopted it over the years. That is not to say that Bidenomics doesn’t have a cogent idea behind it. It does, even though it is a reaction to the dominant way in which the US economy was structured, especially since 1981 when Republican President Ronald Reagan took office.
Under Reagan/ Reaganomics, the idea was to provide tax cuts to the businesses in a bid to incentivise economic activity even as the role of the government in the economy was reduced. The hope was that the resultant benefits of lower taxes and faster economic growth will trickle down to the broader economy. To some extent this happened. But broadly speaking, over the decades since, this top-down approach made the rich richer without necessarily bringing about as much widespread prosperity as its proponents had promised. The sharp rise in inequality — be it of income or wealth — in the ensuing decades is a damning indictment of this approach.
There were many who were not surprised by its failure. Noted economist, and a former US Ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith had said the following for the trickle-down theory: it is “the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”
A June statement by the Biden White House explained why Bidenomics was unveiled: “Even as they faced an immediate economic and public health crisis—with a raging pandemic, elevated unemployment, snarled supply chains, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses at risk of shuttering—the President and Vice President understood that it wouldn’t be enough to simply go back to the economy we had before the pandemic. That economy was saddled with longstanding challenges that held America back—including rising inequality and disinvestment from communities across the country. President Biden recognized that some of those challenges were rooted in a failed trickle-down theory that supported slashing taxes for the wealthy and big corporations, shrinking public investment in critical priorities like infrastructure and education, and failing to safeguard market competition.”
Biden bluntly stated: “trickle-down economics has never worked. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out.”
• Did it work?
• Why are so many people unhappy with Bidenomics?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍ExplainSpeaking | What is Bidenomics and how it defied Trump and inflation
Jagannath temple’s treasure room: row over its opening
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-As Assembly and General elections draw closer in Odisha, the demand to open the Ratna Bhandar (treasure room) of the Puri Jagannath Temple is growing louder again. The treasure room at the temple has not been unlocked for three decades.
On Wednesday (October 18), a BJP delegation led by former Odisha unit president Samir Mohanty met Puri royal scion and chairperson of Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee (SJTMC), Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb, demanding its opening.
This came two days after the Congress staged a show of strength in Puri and raised the issue of the Ratna Bhandar, among other matters.
• What is Puri temple Ratna Bhandar?
• Who wants the Ratna Bhandar opened, and why?
• When was the Ratna Bhandar last opened?
• What is the process to open the treasure house?
• Have the missing keys been found?
• Why has the issue resurfaced?
• What has the Orissa HC said?
• Jagannath Temple one of the important Hindu temple- Know its Significance (Hint: Char Dham)
• Why no non-Hindus?
• Jagannath Temple and Vaishnava Traditions-Connect the dots
• Jagannath Temple-Know some facts like it was built by the Ganga dynasty king Anantavarman Chodaganga in the 12th century CE
• Jagannath Temple also as ‘Yamanika Tirtha’-Why?
• Jagannath Temple-know the architectural features and Style of the temple (Is it Dravidian, Nagara, Vesara style or Different from these three Architectural Style?)
• Know more about Architectural features of Odisha temples classification like Rekhapida, Pidhadeul And Khakra
• Know more about-Paintings theme associated with lord Jagannath like Patachitra or Pattachitra
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Explained: Amendment to the Jagannath Temple Act
Amid divide, Bedouin Arabs serving in the Israeli army: history, present
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-Among the casualties on the Israeli side since the October 7 Hamas assault plunged Israel and Gaza into a vortex of violence, are at least four Bedouin soldiers. A popular video on social media shows local Israelis expressing their gratitude to a Bedouin commander named Ashraf for putting up an effective defence against Hamas fighters.
The Bedouins are a nomadic Muslim Arab people who live mainly in the Negev desert of southern Israel. They have traditionally been pastoralists with no powerful or exclusive national affiliation, who would, until about a century and a half ago, wander the area between Saudi Arabia and the Sinai with their livestock.
• How did the Bedouins come to join the Israel Defence Forces (IDF)?
• Is it compulsory for the Bedouin to train with the IDF?
• To what extent are the Bedouin integrated in Israeli society?
• For Your Information-Many of the Bedouin serving in desert reconnaissance units hail from the north of Israel. In communities like Shibli in the north, Bedouin have coexisted with Jewish and Arab communities since the 1950s.
One individual who underwent army conscription and now works with the Israeli civil services, told this reporter in an interview last year that training with the Israeli army helped him appreciate aspects of Jewish culture, even though he did struggle with the Hebrew language initially.
The Bedouin population in Israel currently numbers 210,000 individuals residing in various regions of the state, with a significant presence in the Negev desert in the South.
In 2020, the Israeli foreign ministry appointed Ishmael Khaldi as Israel’s first Bedouin ambassador. The first Bedouin high-tech company in Israel, Sadel Technologies, was co-founded by Ibrahim Sana, a Bedouin, and his two partners.
In November 2022, the Israeli government launched Operation Negev Shield, one of the goals of which is to help Bedouin communities integrate into society through educational programmes aimed at steering young men away from criminal activity. Each week, IDF officers visit schools in various Bedouin communities to educate children.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
Most Read
📍In bid to belong, Israeli Arabs sign up for Israel’s army
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