Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has asked India to withdraw its troops from the island nation by March 15, a top official said, posing the latest in a series of diplomatic challenges from Male to New Delhi since his September election win.
Abdullah Nazim Ibrahim, the Principal Secretary to President Muizzu on Public Policy, told a media conference at the Presidential Palace in Male that Indian military personnel will no longer be permitted to reside in the Maldives, according to Male-based media.
The senior official’s announcement was made even as the India-Maldives High-Level Core Group — set up when Mr. Muizzu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the UN climate summit (COP-28) in Dubai — held its first meeting in Male.
However, a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs after the meeting made no mention of a request for Indian troops’ withdrawal.
Instead, it noted that both sides discussed “finding a mutually workable solution to enable continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medvac [medical evacuation] services to the people of Maldives”.
States
Women commandos take on Maoist stronghold (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
Staring into the challenging terrain of the Dandakaranya forest, 11 women officers from Maharashtra Police stand ready at a critical outpost in Gadchiroli district’s Wangeturi, 20 km from the Maoist frontier of Abujmarh, known as the ‘unknown hills’ in the native language — Gondi.
After intensive training in jungle warfare and weaponry, these women are now informally commandos, and positioned at a critical intersection along the so-called Red Corridor, directly facing the Maoist headquarters in the hills bordering Chhattisgarh.
200-strong force
The officers are part of a 200-strong force safeguarding a ballistic-proof MAC-walled outpost set up within a record 24 hours last November, after a 106-km trek through Chhattisgarh from Gadchiroli town.
It is situated at the furthest edge of the left wing extremism (LWE)-affected district, just four km from the ‘unmanned’ Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border.
“Amid the potential onslaught of bullets tearing through the forest, we can precisely target the enemy from the outpost. We are trained to deal with such situations and are proud to be part of this elite and historic team.
Editorial
A Speaker’s flawed move to determine the real faction (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, Rahul Narwekar, was required to decide whether the breakaway group of Shiv Sena Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) under the leadership of Eknath Shinde voluntarily gave up the membership of their party and later voted against the whip issued by that party, the Shiv Sena, and thereby incurred disqualification.
Voluntarily giving up the membership of their original party or voting against the whip of the party are treated as defection and the Members of the legislature who do either of these things are liable to be disqualified under the anti-defection law contained in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
It was immaterial that Eknath Shinde later became the Chief Minister or that a majority of the Shiv Sena’s legislators joined the Shinde group or that the original Shiv Sena party became a minority in the Assembly.
These facts are irrelevant for the determination of the question of disqualification under the Tenth Schedule.
Opinion
Regulating India’s online gaming industry (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
As we know, market failures manifesting in various forms such as monopolies, externalities, and information asymmetries not only diminish economic value but also erode societal well-being, which results in decline in the trust of users.
It is precisely in these cases that government regulatory intervention becomes vital. The measure of adequacy in this context hinges on a simple criterion — the benefits of government intervention must surpass its potential costs. The benefits include safeguarding public interest and trust.
Online services have become central to how most of us live our lives. With a staggering 692 million Internet users, India has the world’s second-largest Internet user base and ranks eighth globally in terms of time spent on mobile apps.
The average daily mobile app usage has surged to 4.9 hours, a 32% increase since 2019. Notably, a significant 82% of usage is dedicated to media and entertainment with social media accounting for roughly half of this engagement.
While this trend has generated significant benefits to people, it has also created new concerns. For instance, the Internet has been inundated with AI-generated deep fake videos of celebrities.
These technologically advanced simulations have blurred the lines between what’s real and what’s not. Market failure in online services has taken new characteristics and complexities due to the intricate interplay of data and algorithms.
News
New investments slid 46% in Q3 as manufacturing, infra outlays shrank (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Fresh investment plans almost halved between October and December 2023 from the previous quarter, with public capital expenditure projects tripping at a faster pace of almost 60%, while proposed private sector outlays fell 35%.
This marked the third successive quarter of sequential decline in new investment projects after they hit a record high in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022-23.
Proposed investments halved for all sectors barring electricity, with irrigation (down 75%) and manufacturing (61.5% lower) witnessing the sharpest drop.
The decline in manufacturing investment plans came on the back of quarter-on-quarter drops of 77.6% and 2.3% in the first two quarters of 2023-24, respectively and was most pronounced in critical sectors such as automobiles (-63.8%), steel (-74.8%), and cement (-89%).
From around 30% of the ₹7.05-lakh crore of new investments announced in Q2 of this year, manufacturing projects accounted for just 21% or ₹80,000-odd crore of the ₹3.83-lakh crore investments planned in Q3. Overall investment plans dropped 45.7% quarter-on-quarter.
Rising sea, shrinking sands erode flair of the famed Ganga Sagar Mela (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Rising sea level and erosion of the beach in front of the Kapil Muni temple on Sagar Island are turning out to be a damper on the Ganga Sagar Mela as the West Bengal government is desperately seeking a “national fair” status for the annual religious congregation.
As thousands of pilgrims descend on the island in the southernmost tip of West Bengal for the dip on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, about one kilometre of the beach in front of the temple is covered with mud.
The administration has put up warning signs and diverted pilgrims to other beaches on the island, away from the temple, for the holy dip.
With the auspicious holy dip for Makar Sankranti starting at 13 minutes past midnight on Monday, several Ministers of the West Bengal government had been expressing helplessness in maintaining the island.
World
Israel strikes south, central Gaza, as war enters 100th day (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israeli tanks and aircraft hit targets in southern and central Gaza and there were fierce gun battles in some areas as the war reached 100 days since the October 7 attack led by gunmen from the Islamist Hamas movement.
Communications and Internet services were down for the third day running, complicating the work of ambulance crews trying to help people in areas hit by fighting.
Fighting was concentrated in the southern city of Khan Younis, where Hamas said its fighters hit an Israeli tank, as well as in Al-Bureij and Al Maghazi in central Gaza, where the military said several militants were killed.
The military also said its forces destroyed several rocket pits used by Hamas to fire missiles at Israel.
Over the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said 125 people had been killed and 265 wounded, bringing the total number confirmed to have been killed since the start of the war to almost 24,000, with more than 60,000 wounded.
In the northern Gaza Strip, health officials said an Israeli air strike killed a local journalist, raising the number of journalists killed in the Israeli offensive to more than 100, according to the Gaza government media office.