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Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip and cut off the water supply as it kept bombing targets in the crowded Palestinian enclave in response to the Hamas surprise assault it has likened to the 9/11 attacks.
Israeli media reported that more than 900 people were killed multi-pronged attacks by Hamas on the country’s south.
In Gaza, where Israel has launched a withering barrage of airstrikes, 560 people were reported dead.
The skies over Gaza were blackened by plumes of smoke from deafening explosions as Hamas kept launching rockets as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Hamas — whose militants surged into Israeli towns on Saturday, dragging off about 100 hostages — claimed on Monday that Israeli air strikes had killed four of the captives.
Israel said it had called up 3,00,000 army reservists for its “Swords of Iron” campaign, and truck convoys were moving tanks to the south, where its forces had dislodged the last holdout Hamas fighters from embattled towns.
Claudia Goldin wins 2023 Economics Nobel Prize for research on workplace gender gap (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Nobel Prize for economics was awarded to Harvard University professor Claudia Goldin for her research that has advanced the understanding of the gender gap in the labour market.
Ms. Goldin is just the third woman to win the prize out of 93 economics laureates.
She has studied 200 years of women’s participation in the workplace, showing that despite continued economic growth, women’s pay did not continuously catch up to men’s and a divide still exists despite women gaining higher levels of education than men.
Goldin’s research does not offer solutions, but it allows policymakers to tackle the entrenched problem, said economist Randi Hjalmarsson, a member of the Nobel committee.
Editorial
The silence around the state’s seizure of India’s press (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Over 50 years ago, the Supreme Court of India ruled that during an Emergency proclamation, individuals could not challenge illegal detentions.
While the ADM Jabalpur case is infamous for its disturbing decision, Justice H.R. Khanna’s courageous dissent is what stands apart. Later, the Court in the Justice K.S. Puttaswamy case recognised both the right to privacy and expressly repudiated ADM Jabalpur as a “discordant note”.
Yet, even six years after Puttaswamy, enforcement worries intensify. Recent actions against journalists from the online portal NewsClick, such as raids, seizures, and arrests, amplify the calls for protections of digital data.
To speak in a plain manner, many question whether they are living through an Emergency with ADM Jabalpur being dead only in letter but flourishing in spirit.
The Union executive’s aggressive actions against NewsClick, accusing staff of terrorism, reflect a wider issue.
India ranks 161 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, which considers “legal interference” in journalism. Tanishka Sodhi’s data from NewsLaundry shows that by May 2023, 44 media entities and journalists faced scrutiny from investigative and tax agencies over the previous five years.
Mental health and the floundering informal worker (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The theme of World Mental Health Day (October 10) this year is ‘mental health as a universal human right’. A segment often overlooked when it concerns mental health is the informal worker.
A study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) says that 15% of working-age adults, globally, live with a mental disorder.
On one hand, decent work influences mental health in a positive way while on the other, unemployment, or unstable or precarious employment, workplace discrimination, or poor and particularly unsafe working environments, can all pose a risk to a worker’s mental health.
Workers in low-paid, unrewarding or insecure jobs, or working in isolation, are more likely to be exposed to psychosocial risks, thus compromising their mental health.
India’s informal workforce accounts for more than 90% of the working population. These workers often operate without regulatory protection, work in unsafe working environments, endure long hours, have little access to social or financial protections, suffer high uncertainty and deep precarity, and face discrimination — all of which further undermine mental health and limit access to mental health care.
Gender disparities are also stark, with over 95% of India’s working women engaged in informal, low-paying, and precarious employment, often without social protection, in addition to suffering patriarchal structures and practices in their social and familial spaces.
Opinion
The end of the two-state solution (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The answer was always known; it was the question that had been unclear. From the very beginning of the Jewish-Arab conflict, the only viable long-term solution has been to divide the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea by creating two countries for two people.
Both the Arabs and Jews have had strong self-conceptions of nationhood tied to the same land — self-conceptions that did not reckon for the other. But for much of this 100-year war, Jews accepted the inevitability of partition while the Arabs rejected it.
For the last few decades, however, the situation seems to have been reversed. One section of the Palestinian leadership, much of the Arab world, and all of the West seem to have agreed on a two-state solution, while it is Israel that is balking at creating a sovereign Palestinian state in West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in East Jerusalem.
Understanding its reason is central to predicting the consequences of Hamas’s recent terror attacks on Israel, one that has killed more than 700 Israelis and provoked the Israeli response.
Explainer
The state of India’s Scheduled Areas (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
India’s 705 Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities — making up 8.6% of the country’s population — live in 26 States and six Union Territories.
Article 244, pertaining to the administration of Scheduled and Tribal Areas, is the single most important constitutional provision for STs.
Article 244(1) provides for the application of Fifth Schedule provisions to Scheduled Areas notified in any State other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. The Sixth Schedule applies to these States as per Article 244(2).
Scheduled Areas cover 11.3% of India’s land area, and have been notified in 10 States: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Himachal Pradesh.
In 2015, Kerala proposed to notify 2,133 habitations, five gram panchayats, and two wards in five districts as Scheduled Areas; it awaits the Indian government’s approval.
However, despite persistent demands by Adivasi organisations, villages have been left out in the 10 States with Scheduled Areas and in other States with ST populations.
As a result, 59% of India’s STs remain outside the purview of Article 244. They are denied rights under the laws applicable to Scheduled Areas, including the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 and the Biological Diversity Act 2002.
Text & Context
What is multimodal artificial intelligence and why is it important? (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
For anyone curious about what the next frontier of AI models would look like, all the signs are pointing towards multimodal systems, where users can engage with AI in several ways.
People absorb ideas and form context by drawing meaning from images, sounds, videos and text around them. A chatbot, even though it can write competent poetry and pass the U.S. bar, hardly matches up to this fullness of cognition.
If AI systems are to be as close a likeness of the human mind as possible, the natural course would have to be multimodal.
As another good old tech race shapes up, leading AI companies are already playing catchup. On September 25, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI announced that it had enabled its GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models to study images and analyse them in words, while its mobile apps will have speech synthesis so that people can have full-fledged conversations with the chatbot.
The Microsoft-backed company had promised multimodality in March, during the release of GPT-4 and kept the addition on the backburner.
However, the company has rushed the release after a report by The Information revealed that Google’s new yet-to-be-released multimodal large language model called Gemini, was already being tested in a bunch of companies.
News
Urban unemployment rate drops to 6.6% in Q1 (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), carried out by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), has reported that unemployment rate in urban areas of the country has shown a decrease during the period April-June 2023.
Similarly, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) for persons aged 15 and above and the worker-population ratio (WPR) have also improved during the period.
This national survey processed details from 5,639 first-stage sampling units (FSUs) and 1,67,916 people from 44,190 urban houses.
The LFPR in urban areas increased from 47.5% in April-June 2022 to 48.8% in April-June 2023. While it hovered around 73.5% for men during this period, for women, the LFPR increased from 20.9% to 23.2% during this period, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said.
The WPR in urban areas increased from 43.9% in April-June 2022 to 45.5% for persons aged 15 and above. For men, it increased from 68.3% to 69.2% and for women, it increased from 18.9% to 21.1% during this period.
The PLFS claimed a decreasing trend in unemployment rate (UR) for persons aged 15 and above.
Stroke deaths likely to surge to 9.7 million by 2050, says report (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Stroke, a highly preventable and treatable condition, could lead to nearly 10 million deaths annually by 2050, primarily affecting low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), warns a report published in the Lancet Neurology journal on Monday.
The projection comes from the collaborative effort of the World Stroke Organization and the Lancet Neurology Commission under which four studies have been published.
The report underscores that stroke deaths are expected to surge from 6.6 million in 2020 to a daunting 9.7 million by 2050. By 2050, it is estimated that the contribution of stroke deaths in LMICs will see an increase from 86% to 91%.
The report has emphasised the critical role of evidence-based, pragmatic solutions in combating this looming crisis and notes that implementing and rigorously monitoring the commission’s recommendations, which are firmly grounded in evidence, could lead to a significant reduction in the global stroke burden, effectively countering this ominous projection.
ICMR to conduct study to develop solutions to remedy childhood undernutrition (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is constituting a team to start a multi-centre research study to assess the effects of providing appropriate take home foods in combination with behaviour change intervention to ensure good complementary feeding practice that is nutritionally optimum to meet young children’s nutrient needs.
Time between six and 24 months is a critical age-window that influences subsequent growth trajectory and heightens the risk of wasting, stunting and undernutrition if the diet and care environment of children is not optimal. The period, typically, determines a child’s growth, development, and future potential.
Complementary feeding is defined as the process starting when breast milk alone is no longer sufficient to meet infants’ nutritional requirements, resulting in the need for other foods and liquids along with breast milk.
Business
IRDAI issues norms for Bima Vahaks (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) issued guidelines on Bima Vahaks, the women-centric, dedicated distribution channel to enhance insurance inclusion with a focus on rural areas.
A part of a multi-pronged strategy to achieve its ‘Insurance for All goal’, Bima Vahaks are expected to play a key role in taking Bima Vistaar, or ‘affordable, accessible and comprehensive cover’ mooted by the regulator, to the target segment.
These [the norms] will come into force from the date of launch of Bima Vistaar, a comprehensive insurance product which will be issued in due course. The norms enable insurers to make arrangements for onboarding and training Bima Vahaks.
The date will be notified separately, it said, setting December 2024 as deadline for deploying Bima Vahaks in all Gram Panchayats. Bima Vahaks will be given handheld devices integrated with insurers’ electronic platforms and will sell and service Bima Vistaar and other products specified by the IRDAI.
World
Sri Lanka to take over as Chair of Indian Ocean Rim Association (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Several Foreign Ministers, including those of India, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Iran, Malaysia and South Africa, will participate in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Ministers meeting in Colombo on October 11, 2023, according to the Sri Lankan government, which is preparing to take over as Chair of the regional grouping this week.
The Council of Ministers meeting in Colombo will see the participation of 16 Ministers, including the Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh, India, Iran, Mauritius, Malaysia and South Africa as well as ministerial and senior level participation from Australia, Comoros, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen (member countries) and from China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russia, Turkiye, the United Kingdom and United States of America (dialogue partners), a statement from President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry will chair the Council, the highest decision-making body of the IORA, taking over from the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, the current Chair, for the next two years.
The Ministers will deliberate on ways to cooperate on six priority areas identified by the IORA, including Trade and Investment, Maritime Safety and Security, Fisheries Management, Disaster Risk Management and Blue Economy.
The Council will be preceded by the 25th meeting of the Committee of IORA Senior Officials on October 9 and 10.
Science
India needs youth mental health focus to strike demographic gold (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
India is a country teeming with more than 1.4 billion people, and is in the throes of a demographic transformation. Its adolescent population, aged 10-19 years, accounts for a substantial portion of the national total, some 253 million.
This demographic segment is a significant part of what economists and demographers have come to call the ‘demographic dividend’.
These young minds hold the promise of economic prosperity and development – but few also acknowledge that this potential actually hinges on these young men’s and women’s physical as well as mental well-being.
Adolescent health and well-being have become important in public health discourses worldwide. Acknowledging the adolescent cohort’s pivotal role in society, the governments of both the States and the nation have introduced numerous policies and programmes to protect and respond to the health-wise needs of these young individuals.
However, a closer look reveals that mental health does not figure as predominantly as warranted in many of these policies.