GOI
aims to increase public expenditure by 2025.
The Union Health Ministry has pushed for an
increased expenditure on public health. In a meeting with the 15th Finance
Commission, the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, yesterday highlighted
that the government aims at gradually increasing the public health expenditure
to 2.5 per cent of the nation's GDP by the year 2025.
The Minister asserted that the outlay for primary
health expenditure will also be made nearly two third of the total public
health expenditure in the country.
Reiterating the government's target of the National
Health Policy 2017, Dr.Vardhan emphasized on the importance of increasing the
state’s health sector spending to nearly 8 per cent of their total budget.
The Health Ministry apprised the Finance Commission of the need to further
strengthen the public
health sector, surveillance and public health
management, preventive and promotive health care system in the country.
The Health Ministry has also revised its requirement
of around 4.9 lakh crores to 6.04 lakh crores in view of the COVID pandemic. It
has asked for additional resources for the States which would be utilized for
achievement of the National Health Policy targets.
Modi
claims India amongst the most opened up economies in the world.
Indian P M Modi has said that India is among the
most open economies in the world. He was interacting with the CEO of Google,
SundarPichai through video conferencing yesterday. The Prime Minister said that
Indians are adjusting to and adopting technology at a rapid pace.
Mr.Modi and Mr.Pichai spoke on a wide range of
subjects, particularly leveraging the power of technology to transform the
lives of India’s farmers, youngsters and entrepreneurs. Mr.Modi also spoke
about the recent steps taken by the government towards reforming agriculture
and creating new job opportunities.
The Prime Minister explored the idea of virtual labs
that can be used by students as well as farmers. On issue of data security and
cyber safety, he said, tech companies need to put in efforts to bridge the
trust deficit.
World Youth Skills Day is observed on 15 July.
World Youth Skills Day is observed on 15 July every
year. The day is aimed to recognize the importance of equipping young people
across the world with skills for employment and entrepreneurship. The day also
aims to highlight the crucial role of skilled youth in addressing current and future
global challenges.
Events:
World Youth Skills Day 2020 is to
take place in a challenging context. The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown
measures have led to the worldwide closure of technical and vocational
education and training (TVET) institutions, threatening the continuity of
skills development.
Many virtual events focusing on the theme of “Skills for a Resilient Youth” is
organized to mark the occasion.
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO)-International Project on Technical and Vocational
Education (UNEVOC) is organizing a Virtual Conference on Skills for a Resilient
Youth for a week. It will be held from 6-14 July 2020.
History:
In December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a
resolution and declared 15th July as World Youth Skills Day. UNGA established
the day with an aim to achieve better socio-economic conditions for the youth
as a means of addressing the challenges of unemployment and underemployment.
World Youth Skills Day is an opportunity for young people, training
institutions, public and private sector stakeholders to celebrate and
acknowledge the importance of equipping young people with skills for
employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship.
Polish President Andrzej Duda wins the 2020 Presidential
Election of Poland.
Polish President Andrzej Duda wins the 2020
Presidential Election of Poland
In the first round, Andrzej Duda gained the highest
43.50% of the total valid vote share followed by Rafal Trzaskowski with 30.46%
in the second place.
Polish President Andrzej Duda won the 2020 Presidential Election of Poland on 12 July 2020. He has secured another five-year in office. Andrzej Duda’s current term will expire on 6 August 2020.
Duda aligned with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS)
party and won 51.2% of the votes and Rafal Trzaskowski from the main opposition
center-right Civic Platform party secured 48.7%.
2020
Presidential Election of Poland:
The First Round of the 2020 Presidential Election of
Poland was conducted on 28 June 2020. A total of 11 candidates contested for
the post of President. In the first round, Andrzej Duda gained the highest
43.50% of the total valid vote share followed by Rafal Trzaskowski with 30.46%
in the second place. On 12 July 2020, the Second-Round election was conducted
in Poland.
Iran
kicks India from Chabahar rail project.
Four years after India and Iran signed an agreement
to construct a rail line from Chabahar port to Zahedan, along the border with
Afghanistan, the Iranian government has decided to proceed with the
construction on its own, citing delays from the Indian side in funding and
starting the project.
The development comes as China finalises a massive
25-year, $400 billion strategic partnership deal with Iran, which could cloud
India’s plans.
The railway project, which was being discussed
between the Iranian Railways and the state-owned Indian Railways Construction
Ltd (IRCON), was meant to be part of India’s commitment to the trilateral
agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan to build an alternate trade route
to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
In May 2016, during indian PM Modi’s visit to Tehran
to sign the Chabahar agreement with Iranian President Rouhani and Afghanistan
President Ghani, IRCON had signed anMoU with the Iranian Rail Ministry.
Indian
Army to acquire Raven and Spike Firefly.
The Indian army is to acquire hand-launched,
remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicle Raven from the US and
state-of-the-art Israeli Spike Firefly. The aim is to add lethality to its
ground infantry apart from long-range precision artillery shells with a range
of over 40 kilometers.
Highlights:
·
The first batch
of acquisition comprises 4-6 jets are likely to touch down in India on 27 July.
·
Indian Army is
set to acquire 200 pieces of RQ-11 UAV. RQ-11 UAV can fly up to 10 kilometers
at an altitude of 500 feet and speed up to 95 km per hour. It will help
infantry troops conduct reconnaissance of the battle theatre ahead and
placement of enemy troops.
·
The Spike
Firefly can deliver a precision strike on enemy troops hiding within a range of
1 kilometre. It has the ability to locate a target and will be called back if
the target has moved beyond ranger. It is developed under a joint venture (JV)
of Israeli company- Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel’s Ministry of
Defence.
U.S,
China and UAE to send unmanned spacecraft to Mars.
Mars is about to be invaded by planet Earth - big
time. Three countries - the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates -
are sending unmanned spacecraft to the red planet in quick succession beginning
this week, in the most sweeping effort yet to seek signs of ancient microscopic
life while scouting out the place for future astronauts.
The US, for its part, is dispatching a six-wheeled rover the size of a car, named Perseverance, to collect rock samples that will be brought back to Earth for analysis in about a decade.
Scientists want to know what Mars was like billions
of years ago when it had rivers, lakes and oceans that may have allowed simple,
tiny organisms to flourish before the planet morphed into the barren, wintry
desert world it is today.
Govt.
support not to fully mitigate negative impact of pandemic,claimsMoodys
The challenging economic and credit conditions
stemming from COVID-19 will weigh on ASEAN and Indian banks’ asset quality and
profitability, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new report.
Moody’s said the asset quality and profitability
will deteriorate from good levels in 2019 across most banking systems, with
Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines having the best asset quality with
non-performing loans below 2%.
While government support measures will offset some
of the pressure on banks, they will not fully eliminate the negative impact,
the report said.
Despite the challenging outlook, the majority of
banks are adequately capitalised, and their funding and liquidity will remain
sound and stable in 2020-21.
For instance, regulators in India, Thailand and
Vietnam have restricted bank dividends, a credit positive for banks, while the
largest banks will continue to benefit from deposit inflows as they are seen as
safe-heavens in times of stress.
“Moody’s expects the GDP of most ASEAN economies and
India will contract in 2020 and gradually recover in 2021.
Indian
Railways are going to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Indian Railways has stepped up its efforts to become
a Green Railway within a span of 10 years. It has set the target to achieve net
zero carbon emission by the year 2030.
Railways has taken a number of initiatives for
mitigation of global warming and combating climate change to achieve the Green
Railway status. Electrification of lines, improving energy efficiency of
trains, green certification for installation and stations, fitting bio toilets
in coaches and switching to renewable sources of energy are parts of Railways’
strategy for achieving net zero carbon emission.
Indian Railways has completed electrification of more than 40 thousand route
kilometres which is 63 per cent of the total broad gauge routes. More than 18
thousand six hundred kilometre electrification work has been completed during
the last six years.
Railways has fixed a electrification target of seven
thousand route kilometres for this financial year. All routes on the broad
gauge network have been planned to be electrified by the end of year 2023. In
all, 365-kilometre major connectivity work has been commissioned during COVID
pandemic period.
Yet
another challenge to the dalit movement.
Context:
The pandemic is forcing us to
understand the changing nature of society. In north India, specifically, it has
also reshaped the discourse on marginalisation.Dalit issues are part of this
discoursebut are submerged in the broader discussions on economic
vulnerabilities highlighted by COVID-19.
This pandemic has brought about two important shifts in the political discourse
on the marginalised.
As the lockdown caused untold suffering to poor,
migrant labourers, it brought them from the margins to the centre of
deliberations.
Second, discussions on the space for the
marginalised in the public health system and their safety are in focus.
However, the concerns of Dalits remain hidden under
the broader categories of poor, vulnerable, marginal, etc.
Changing
vocabulary:
In contemporary debates, there is a reappearance of
class-based vocabulary.Caste-based issues have either become invisible or are
only visible as part of the wider discourse.
Leaders such as Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Bhim Army chief
Chandrashekhar Azad have not been able to engage effectively with these new
shifts.They have not been able to carve outa location in these new debates for
their own politics.They have to reorient their exclusively caste-based language
and reshape their political discourse to be in tune with the times.
There are a large number of Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes among the migrant labourers.But Dalit leaders in north India
have not been able to represent their concerns.
It is possible that these shifts in political debates may continue in the
post-pandemic phase at least for a few years as vulnerabilitiesof the
marginalised will increase.
Key challenges:
The Dalit movement in north India is habituated in
using caste-based binaries in its mobilisational language but has failed to
respond to the changing political diction.
In fact, leaders have not changed their political
diction for 30 years, since the time of the Kanshi Ram-led Bahujan movement.
The movement is facing a crisis of agendas and social programmes.
The constant repetition of unfulfilled claims and
commitments and slogans and promises create disillusionment among a section of
their support base.
Another issue is that the Dalit movement in north
India is grappling with a leadership crisis.In States such as U.P., Bihar,
Punjab and Rajasthan, Dalit assertions are mostly centred around the electoral
politics of Dalit-Bahujan political groups and parties.Even alternative social
movements led by Jignesh Mevani and Mr. Azad seem to be caught in the logic of
electoral politics.
Leadership
crisis:
During the Bahujan movement in the 1990s, the idea
was that the movement and the party could facilitate each other.
But the BSP, which emerged from the Bahujan social
movement, developed gradually as a party structured like a pyramid. Under Ms.
Mayawati, it has stopped its reciprocal relationship with the Dalit movement.
In the BSP, the emergence of political leaders of
various Dalit-Bahujan castes at different levels became frozen.
This caused erosion in the broader social base and
ultimately weakened the Dalit movement.The Dalit movement is constantly facing
new challenges but its leaders are not able to change their strategies and
grammar of politics to respond to them.
Under the influences of the Ambedkarite ideology and the Dalit-Bahujan movements, an assertive and politically aware Dalit consciousness was being formed among a section of Dalit groups.In the meantime, interventions by Hindutva leaders among Dalits mobilised a section of the most marginalised Dalits under the Hindutva flag.Now the pandemic has posed a new challenge for the Dalit movement.
Conclusion:
Caste-based identities formed the
ideological resource base, but now concerns have gone beyond caste and
religion, thus posing a different challenge.The challenge may be temporary but
it may
lead to a paradigm shift for Dalit politics.The
Dalit movement has to evolve new social strategies for its expansion in order
to keep up with the changing times.
Gains from rains: on monsoon performance.
Context:
As of the most recent data available from the India Meteorological Department
(IMD), rainfall during the season has been 14% more than what is usual for this
period.
The month of June only accounts for about 17% of the monsoon rainfall spanning
June-September.
It is the month during which the monsoon sets in and that process can sometimes
be delayed for as much as a week.
Two branches:
June is also when the monsoon begins its journey
from two extremities of the country.
One branch starts its journey northwards from Kerala and the other wing — called
the Bay of Bengal branch — enters India from the southeast.
Both branches eventually converge in the north and
usually, this merging and strengthening of the monsoon currents over the
mainland takes at least until July 15.
The IMD never forecasts the possible rainfall likely
during June because of the vagaries involved in onset and the pace of the
journey.
This year, two significant things happened. The
monsoon set in at a textbook date of June 1.This was even after concerns that
Cyclone Amphan that had ravaged West Bengal would delay the monsoon’s entry
into India from the Andaman Sea.
The second factor was the record pace at which the monsoon covered the country.
Along with the monsoon onset this year, the IMD announced a revision to the
onset and withdrawal dates across several cities.According to this, the monsoon
covered India’s northern and western borders no later than July 8 as opposed to
the previous historical date of July 15.
This year, however, the monsoon broke even this
speed limit and covered the country by June 25 — at a pace that was
unprecedented since 2013.
Signalling
farmers:
The net result of all this: more rainy days in June
and a fairly even distribution across the country.
The IMD’s records show that only on four days in that month did daily rainfall
drop below its historical normal.
Except for northwest India, which is staring at a 3% deficit, the rainfall in
east, south and central India has posted surpluses of 13%-20%.While good rains
in June signal farmers to prepare the soil and sow kharif crop, the most
important months are July and August.These two months account for two-thirds of
the monsoon rain. This is also the time the monsoon goes into so-called ‘break’
conditions.
Breaks:
Prolonged breaks, or an absence of
rainfall, can even lead to drought.
In spite of significant improvements in data gathering and technological
advancement, meteorological agencies cannot yet reliably forecast the advent of
a break or how long it can last.
What is critical is that ‘normal rains’ also
obscurethe possibility of heavy rains or severe droughts in districts or over
larger areas.
Therefore, short and medium range forecasts need to
be strengthened and effectively communicated to the people.
Conclusion:
A steady, well-spread monsoon
spells good news for farmers and the economy.So far, India appears to be having
a good run with the monsoon.
