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The Bharat Ratna will be conferred on former Prime Ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, as well as Green Revolution pioneer M.S. Swaminathan, adding to the two awardees already announced earlier this year — socialist leader Karpoori Thakur, and former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani.
A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique made the announcement on Friday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauding his late predecessors — the Congress PM Rao’s liberalisation policies, and the Janata Party PM Singh’s championing of the farmers’ cause — as well as the late agricultural scientist Swaminathan’s services in the field.
This year’s tally of five Bharat Ratna awardees, one more than the four announced in 1999, is the highest that has ever been announced in a single year. Four of the five awards announced this year are posthumous.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge both welcomed the announcement. On the behalf of Indian National Congress, we welcome the Bharat Ratna being conferred to Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh and Dr. M.S. Swaminathan. Former Prime Minister and former Congress president, Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao has tremendously contributed to nation building.
Editorial
The decline of America’s leadership (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The traditional strengths of America are its values platform, its military power, its pivotal position in the global financial system, and as a technology pioneer.
The energetic pro-American lobby in India advocates ever-closer engagement with the United States, rejecting arguments about its diminishing influence.
This is contradicted by authoritative commentators such as Ian Bremmer (“The US is already the world’s most divided and dysfunctional advanced industrial democracy”), Laura Kuenssberg (“Western leaders in 2024 [are] grappling with a world where other dominant countries are less attached to conventional international rules”) and Andrew Whitehead (“America’s democracy seems to have lost the ability to renew itself”) with former U.S. President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden in the race for a second presidential term.
News
RS passes Bills to add Paharis, Valmikis to ST, SC lists in J&K (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
Amid ongoing protests in Jammu and Kashmir by the Scheduled Tribe Gujjar-Bakarwal community, the Rajya Sabha on Friday cleared the way for the addition of the Pahari ethnic group to the Union Territory’s ST list.
Along with it, the Upper House passed the Bills that added the Paddari Tribe, Gadda Brahmin, and Koli communities to the ST list and the Valmiki community (including synonyms) to the Scheduled Castes list of Jammu and Kashmir.
During his reply to the discussion on the Bills, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda addressed the concern of the existing ST communities in Jammu and Kashmir like the Gujjar-Bakarwal and Gaddi communities.
This Bill will ensure that the reservation already available for these existing tribes will be maintained while giving these new communities additional reservation. The work of ensuring that everyone gets justice and no community’s reservation is affected is being done through this Bill.
Cabinet nod to spectrum for Railways without TRAI reply (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
A day after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) floated a consultation paper on whether Indian Railways should be able to get — largely free — 5 Megahertz of wireless spectrum for carrying real-time data that would enhance passenger safety, the Union Cabinet in a surprise move on Thursday approved the proposal, even though TRAI’s response was pending.
The Railways had sought additional 5 Mhz of paired spectrum, free of charge, in the 700 MHz band in July last year, a month after the Balasore incident that left 296 dead and nearly 1,200 injured.
As per our understanding, the Cabinet has decided to reserve this 5MHz spectrum to keep it out of auctions, and it has not been allotted to the Railways as of yet.
In the past, when the Railways had received spectrum grants, for which they only needed to pay an annual royalty without bidding for the airwaves, the data transfer capacity was not sufficient to allow trains to continuously upload video footage for safety purposes.
India-Saudi Arabia joint military exercise ends (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The maiden joint military exercise, Sada Tanseeq,between the Indian Army and the Royal Saudi Land Force concluded atMahajan Field Firing Ranges in Jaipur.
The12-day exerciseaimed to achieve interoperability between the two forces and acquaint each other with operational procedures and combat drills under the UN mandate,Col. Amitabh Sharma, Defence spokesperson, said in a statement.
The Indian contingent of the 20th Battalion of The Brigade of Guards Regiment and the Saudi Arabian contingent comprising a group of 45 soldiers of Royal Saudi Land Force participated in the exercise which wasconducted in two phases.
World
U.S.-China tussle, warships in Indian Ocean dominate IOC conference (Page no. 14)
The militarisation of the Indian Ocean and “great power rivalry” are growing concerns for smaller countries in the region, said Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, inaugurating the Indian Ocean Conference in Perth on Friday, as the forum focused on regional cooperation for Indian Ocean Rim and littoral states got under way.
As External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke of challenges to international rule of law from the Red Sea to the Indo-Pacific, taking aim specifically at China, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it was necessary to find ways to reduce conflict in the region.
Instability increases when long-standing agreements are no longer observed, with no credible justification to justify a change of stance,” Mr. Jaishankar said, delivering a keynote address at the conference organised by the India Foundation, in a veiled reference to China’s amassing of troops at the Line of Actual Control since April 2020.
He also made an oblique reference to Chinese actions in the South China Sea, as he spoke of the challenges to freedom of navigation and overflights, and a disregard for internationally negotiated regimes like UNCLOS as “disturbing”.