Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
The University Grants Commission (UGC) relaxed the criteria for appointing teachers in colleges and universities by reversing its decision to make a PhD degree mandatory for hiring assistant professors. It announced that the 2018 regulation has been amended.
PhD qualification for appointment as an assistant professor will continue to be optional. The National Eligibility Test (NET), State Eligibility Test (SET) and State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) shall be the minimum criteria for direct recruitment to the post of assistant professor in all higher education institutions.
He said SET and SLET won’t be the criteria for selecting assistant professors in Central universities. The new amendments will come into force from July 1.
Editorial
Striking a blow against affirmative action in America (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
In a ground-breaking decision, on June 29, 2023, in Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard, the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) deemed the race-conscious admission policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC) as unconstitutional and violative of the Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment.
As Chief Justice John Roberts stated, “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” This ruling profoundly impacts affirmative action programmes, where ‘race’ has historically been a factor to foster diversity in college admissions, such as in Texas and Michigan. Many believe that the Harvard judgment now makes affirmative action nearly impossible in the U.S.
SCOTUS underpinned its verdict with four reasons. First, it emphasised that the equal protection clause is colour-blind, and the term “equal protection” means identical treatment.
Thus, race-based affirmative action contravenes this promise. Second, it affirmed that any such contravention could only be justified if the state has a compelling goal, and affirmative action is absolutely necessary to attain it.
The state must articulate this goal clearly to enable judicial scrutiny. The court found Harvard and the UNC’s objectives, such as “training future leaders”, as commendable but vague.
Third, the Court reiterated an earlier ruling that affirmative action policies should have a ‘sunset clause’. However, both Harvard and the UNC lacked this.
Lastly, the court held that affirmative action should not rely on racial stereotypes or disadvantage anyone based on race — two aspects it identified as problematic in this case.
With Indian courts often drawing upon U.S. judgments, and given shared histories of discrimination based on caste and race (India and the U.S.), it is pertinent to examine the implications of this decision for India. Can this lead to ‘reservations’ being either curtailed or considerably diluted?
Choose a new palette for India’s creative economy (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Digital platforms and technology have enabled Indian artists and artisans to reach wider audiences. However, they face challenges that are related to economic sustainability, market access, the digital divide, crime in the art world and preservation.
A collaborative model promoting cultural economy can help encourage India’s soft power by creating an ecosystem of innovative technology-based start-ups, providing guidance, technical support, infrastructure, access to investors, and networking opportunities.
The creative economy is one of the youngest and fastest-growing sectors, with unique challenges that often go unnoticed by public and private investors.
There is now growing recognition of the economic importance of the arts sector as it helps in the creation of jobs, economic growth, tourism, exports, and overall societal development.
Recognising the economic importance of culture, the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (MONDIACULT 2022) was held to address contemporary issues in multicultural societies.
The goal was to share a vision for the future of cultural policies and to reaffirm the international community’s commitment to leveraging culture’s transformative power for sustainable development.
Online platforms, social media, and digital content creation enable artists, writers, film-makers, musicians, and other creatives to engage with audiences, and monetise their talents.
While Indian artists and artisans play a vital role in preserving traditional art forms and creating contemporary artworks, they face challenges that are related to economic sustainability, market access, and the preservation of traditional art forms in a rapidly changing society.
Government support, cultural institutions, and initiatives provide financial assistance, training programmes, and opportunities for artists to exhibit their work. However, more efforts are needed to promote contemporary artists as brands and ensure equal representation and financial assistance.
There are challenges in the selection of artists for financial assistance in organising cultural events. Lack of transparency in the selection process creates inequality in representation. There is no systematic or rotational mechanism in place to provide this assistance, and the selection process is often random or based on subjective criteria.
Opinion
An inclusive social policy for migrants (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
According to a recent estimate (Kerala Planning Board Report 2021), Kerala is an employment hub for 34 lakh inter-State migrant workers.
Higher wages, regularity of work, and better social and cultural milieu compared to many other States are the key drivers influencing the workers to flow towards Kerala.
Kerala has implemented a range of welfare, health, and literacy schemes for migrant workers. These policy initiatives sustain Kerala as a migrant-friendly state. Yet, systematic micro-level enquiries point to various shortcomings.
Preliminary observations of the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB 2022-25) study titled “Effect of Social Institution and Technological Interventions on Access to Healthcare Among Interstate Migrant Labourers in Kerala” conducted by the Mahatma Gandhi University reveal that the benefits entitled in these policies do not reach a majority of migrant workers.
Migrant labour governance is facing organising trouble, broadly conceived as unity trouble. Unity trouble refers to the absence of a disaggregated assessment of the work and life situations of the migrant labour population.
It is widely argued that the official name ‘guest worker’ is an ambiguous symbolic expression, uncritically reproduced by the media and even the research community.
Critics argue that this expression fails to account for the nuanced aspects of rights denials. They also argue that current policies lack a comprehensive vision compared to the Interstate Migrant Workmen Act, 1979.
Strikes by migrant labourers over the past three decades in Kerala point to the need for inclusive policy-making. It is crucial that policymakers address the core rights issues raised by the Uzhavoor strike (2012), which aimed to secure better wages; the Athirampuzha strike (2023), which demanded equal pay for equal work; the Etumanoor strike (2023), targeting contractors who denied the rights of workers; the anti-exploitation strike (2016) against the forced collection of union fee in Kochi Metro; and the anti-wage theft strike (2022) against contractors who absconded without paying workers.
Explainer
The risks of the Zaporizhzhia NPP (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Nuclear power plants (NPPs) are complex and sophisticated facilities with several layers of safety measures, but no NPP in the world is built to withstand war – yet this is the risk that has befallen the Zaporizhzhia NPP in Ukraine.
It was taken over by Russian forces in May 2022 and has since had to operate in conditions that threaten safety. In June, a Lithuania-based NGO named the Bellona Foundation published a report analysing the risks associated with the hostilities around the Zaporizhzhia NPP based on the facility’s design, safety measures, and the local geography.
The Zaporizhzhia NPP is located southwest of Zaporizhzhia city, along the Dnieper river. It has six VVER-1000 reactors for a total power generation capacity of 6 GW.
The reactor complex consists of the reactor vessel, in which uranium-dioxide fuel rods are immersed in water and control rods are inserted at the top. The water is both coolant and moderator.
A pressuriser holds the water at a high but constant pressure — around 150 atm — to prevent it from boiling. This is the primary cooling circuit.
As the water heats up, the heat is moved to a secondary cooling circuit, where it converts a separate volume of water into steam. This steam is fed to turbines to generate electricity.
In this design, the water in the primary circuit does not leave the reactor vessel at any time. In RBMK reactors like at Chernobyl, the coolant and the moderator are different (light water and nuclear graphite respectively) and the coolant — which is radioactive for having been exposed to the nuclear fuel — flows out of the reactor vessel.
One reason why Chernobyl became a disaster was because when the reactor was breached, the superhot graphite caught fire when it came in contact with air. Unlike Chernobyl, the VVER-1000 reactor and its power-generation units at Zaporizhzhia are placed inside a large airtight chamber called a containment.
The Bellona report evaluated the risk of different types of accidents at the facility based on the types of damage sustained. In the worst case scenario, the containment is completely damaged and a projectile strikes a reactor while it is generating power.
Iran’s induction in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
As Iran joins the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as its ninth member, leaders of the SCO at a virtual summit chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 4 stressed that the formation of a “more representative” and multipolar world order is in the global interest.
The SCO was built on the ‘Shanghai Five’ grouping of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which had come together in the post-Soviet era in 1996, in order to work on regional security, reduction of border troops, and terrorism.
In 2001, the Shanghai Five inducted Uzbekistan into the group and named it the SCO. The organisation has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure in Tashkent.
The SCO describes its main goals as: “strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, economy, research and technology and culture... making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.”
The latter part of the statement which calls to build a “new international political and economic order” did not sit well with the U.S. and Europe, and has led to the SCO being dubbed as “anti-NATO” for proposing military cooperation.
This concern was further heightened when heavy sanctions were placed on Russia for its actions in Crimea and China came to its aid, signing a $400 billion gas pipeline agreement.
Since then, through the personal bond between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the SCO has become a platform for Eurasian cooperation in a region rich with energy resources.
India and Pakistan joined the SCO as observers in 2005, and were admitted as full members in 2017. Since 2014, India and Pakistan have cut all ties, talks and trade with each other.
However, both countries have consistently attended all meetings of the SCO’s three councils — the Heads of State, Heads of Government, Council of Foreign Ministers.
News
Cabinet gives nod to Data Protection Bill (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill. The clearance paves the way for the Bill to be introduced in Parliament in the Monsoon Session, scheduled to begin on July 20.
Along with the data protection Bill, the Union government may also table the Indian Telecommunications Bill, a draft of which was circulated for public consultation last year.
The telecom Bill will overhaul the Telegraph Act, which is the legal framework for telecom firms and Internet service providers.
The data protection legislation specifies norms on management of personal data of Indian residents and requires explicit consent from people whose data is collected and used.
The official said that over 20,000 comments were received on the draft Bill though these would not be put out in the public domain. He said there was not much difference between the draft Bill that was circulated for public consultation and the final Bill, which would be tabled in Parliament.
The government has refused to provide copies of comments from industry, civil society, and government bodies on the Bills in response to Right to Information (RTI) queries.
The Bill essentially allows laypersons to complain to a Data Protection Board, consisting of technical experts, constituted by the government, if they have reason to believe that their personal data has been used without their consent (for example, mobile phone numbers or Aadhaar details).
It is not clear what changes, if any, have been made to the DPDP and telecom Bills following the consultation processes. Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in May that the telecom industry had held extensive meetings with the Union government after the draft was released in November.
The DPDP Bill also outlines practices for entities that collect personal data on how that data should be stored and processed to ensure there is no breach, as well as rights of persons whose data is being used.
In boost to ties, Taiwan to set up office in Mumbai (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
In a significant step aimed at boosting economic linkages, Taiwan announced it would open its third representative office in India in Mumbai, more than a decade after it last expanded its presence in India.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the move to establish in Mumbai a Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) — the term used to describe Taiwan’s de facto diplomatic missions because India and Taiwan do not maintain formal diplomatic relations — came in the light of Taiwan and India witnessing “significant progress in numerous domains, including economics and trade, science and technology, critical supply chains”.
Talks to open a TECC in Mumbai have been long in the works, following the opening of the TECC in Chennai in 2012, which has emerged as a hub for Taiwanese firms.
The TECC in Mumbai will help expand mutually beneficial trade and investment opportunities between Taiwan and India,” the statement said, adding that it “will provide visa services, document authentication, and emergency assistance to businesspeople, tourists, and Taiwanese nationals” in western India.
While India and Taiwan do not maintain formal diplomatic ties, the two sides in 1995 decided to open a TECC in New Delhi and an “India Taipei Association” in Taipei, which was a “turning point” to promote relations, said Ashok Kantha, former Indian Ambassador to China and Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi, who was at the time involved in setting up the offices as head of the China desk in the Ministry of External Affairs.
The Chennai office in 2012 was then instrumental in southern India becoming a hub for Taiwanese investment. Today, we are on the cusp of a major expansion for a number of reasons.
There is a critical mass and more importantly, the requisite strategic interest for both sides in the context of what is happening geopolitically, and the restructuring of global and regional value chains.
Mr. Kantha said opening the TECC in Mumbai thus had its own strong logic, and was not necessarily linked to the current downturn in India-China relations, which have been in a state of freeze since Chinese transgressions across the Line of Actual Control starting in April 2020.
Chandrayaan-3 integrated with launch vehicle LVM3 (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is planning to launch the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission in July, integrated the spacecraft with the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3).
Today, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 is mated with LVM3.
The ISRO is yet to announce the date of the launch. However, the launch window is between July 12 and 19. ISRO Chairman S. Somanath said that the space agency would pick the earliest possible date.
Chandrayaan-3, India’s third moon mission, follows Chandrayaan-2, to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
It consists of an indigenous lander module (LM), a propulsion module (PM), and a rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for inter-planetary missions.
According to the ISRO, the lander has the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site, and deploy the rover, which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
The lander and the rover have scientific payloads. The main function of the PM is to carry the LM from launch vehicle injection till final lunar 100-km circular polar orbit, and separate the LM from the PM. The PM also has one scientific payload, which will be operated post-separation of the LM.
India not averse to imposing ‘barriers’ to clean energy imports, says Union Minister (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Union Power Minister R.K. Singh said that India would not shy away from imposing “barriers” to Western imports of clean energy, if those countries raised barriers to India’s potential exports of green hydrogen. He was speaking at the inauguration of a three-day international conference on green hydrogen.
He said India wanted the whole world to partner with it, and not set up barriers as some countries had started doing. These countries had given speeches on the benefits and ethics of free trade and now they were setting up barriers.
If India put up barriers, then they would not be able to access the biggest market in the world outside China. “If you want to go to China that is your choice. My message to these countries is: two can play this game,” said Mr. Singh.
The Minister did not explicitly name the countries, but the allusions are to a recent global tender, worth at least €900 million (about ₹7,300 crore) by Germany inviting green ammonia imports from outside the European Union.
Green ammonia is made from hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources and nitrogen, and is a key industrial chemical.
Indian industry has reportedly told the government that some clauses of the tender were “restrictive” particularly one that said that the distance between the point where renewable energy was produced and where an electrolyser (which produces hydrogen) was located.
Mr. Singh alluded to the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act that promises subsidies of up to $3 a kg of clean hydrogen, as a “barrier.” India recently announced the National Green Hydrogen Mission to build capacity to produce at least 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year by 2030.
The Ministry of Renewable Energy issued guidelines last week for providing funds of ₹17,490 crore to support the manufacture of electrolysers.
World
U.K., Canada, Sweden, Ukraine take Iran to top UN court (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
The United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Ukraine launched a case against Iran at the United Nations’ highest court on Wednesday over the downing in 2020 of a Ukrainian passenger jet and the deaths of all 176 passengers and crew.
The four countries want the International Court of Justice to rule that Iran illegally shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane and to order Tehran to apologise and pay compensation to the families of the victims.
Flight PS752 was travelling from Tehran to Kyiv on January 8, 2020 when it was shot down soon after takeoff. The people killed included nationals and residents of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the U.K., as well as Afghanistan and Iran. Their ages ranged from one to 74.
Today’s legal action reflects our unwavering commitment to achieving transparency, justice and accountability for the families of the victims. They said they filed the case after Iran failed to respond to a December request for arbitration.
Following three days of denials in January 2020, Iran said its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard mistakenly downed the Ukrainian plane with two surface-to-air missiles. Iranian authorities blamed an air defence operator who they said mistook the Boeing 737-800 for an American cruise missile.
An Iranian court this year sentenced an air defence commander allegedly responsible for the downing to 13 years imprisonment.
But the countries that filed the case with the world court in The Hague called the prosecution “a sham and opaque trial”.
Business
‘A global rupee may raise volatility’ (Page no. 14)
As the Government of India presses ahead with its plan to internationalise the Indian Rupee (INR), an Inter-Departmental Group (IDG) of officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have in a report cautioned that internationalisation may result in increased volatility in the rupee’s exchange rate in the initial stages.
This would further have monetary implications as the obligation of a country to supply its currency to meet the global demand may come in conflict with its domestic monetary policies, popularly known as the Triffin dilemma.
Also, the internationalisation of a currency may accentuate an external shock, given the open channel of the flow of funds into and out of the country and from one currency to another.
However, the IDG held that the overall benefits of internationalisation in terms of limited exchange rate risk, lower cost of capital due to better access to international financial markets, high seigniorage benefits and reduced requirement of foreign exchange reserves far outweighed the concerns.
In accordance with the terms of reference, the IDG has recommended a roadmap to achieve rupee internationalisation. The group has also recommended designing a template and adopting a standardised approach for examining the proposals on bilateral and multilateral trade arrangements for invoicing, settlement and payment in INR and local currencies.
It said efforts must be made to enable INR as an additional settlement currency in existing multilateral mechanisms such as the Asian Clearing Union.