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Eight Indian Navy veterans who had been in Qatari custody since August 30, 2022 were released on Sunday in Doha. Indian officials escorted seven of the eight former death row prisoners to New Delhi by a passenger flight.
The development was followed by the announcement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Qatar on Wednesday afternoon on his way back home from the United Arab Emirates where he will pay a two-day visit during February 13-14.
We are happy to have seven of those Indian nationals back. The eighth Indian has also been released and we continue to work with the Qatar government to see how quickly his return to India would be possible.
Retail inflation eased to a 3-month low of 5.1% in Jan.; food prices sticky (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s retail inflation eased to a three-month low of 5.1% in January from 5.7% a month earlier, with food price rise cooling a bit to 8.3% compared with 9.5% in December 2023.
January’s headline inflation pace is slightly higher than the 5% average projected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week for the current final quarter of 2023-24.
Any interest rate cut hopes will have to wait till at least August if not longer, as the Central bank expects inflation to average 5% in the April to June quarter as well, before it hits its stated inflation target of 4% in the next quarter.
While overall inflation faced by urban consumers dropped to 4.92% from 5.5% a month ago, food inflation remained sharp at 9%, sliding a tad from 10.4% in December.
By contrast, rural consumers faced food inflation of 7.91% in January, down from 9% in December, but their overall price rise pace was higher than their urban counterparts at 5.34%.
Editorial
A global alliance to bridge the gender equity gap (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
Equality and inclusion are the cornerstones of India’s development journey. The New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, which was adopted at the G-20 under India’s presidency, is testament to this commitment.
By prioritising inclusion at the centre of focus areas such as socio-economic empowerment, bridging the digital divide, driving climate action, ensuring food security, nutrition, health, and well-being, among others, the declaration underlines the need for advocating a growth agenda that is driven by women-led development.
At the World Economic Forum in January this year, India took the mission for gender equity several steps ahead with the launch of the ‘Alliance for Global Good – Gender Equity and Equality’.
This multi-stakeholder initiative has placed India centre stage for accelerating the socio-economic cause as it will have a sustained global impact.
With the Alliance, India has managed to transition the two buzzwords, equity and equality, to the working agendas of stakeholders around the world.
Text & Context
Decoding India’s economic realities-II (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime has done little to address the major supply side factors driving food inflation, beyond imposing ad hoc export bans.
While cash transfer schemes like PM-Kisan or the distribution of free foodgrains to poorer households can provide much needed income support and relief, they can neither improve agricultural productivity nor modernise storage and marketing of food items like vegetables, pulses and cereals, whose prices are driving food inflation today.
The only method conceived by the NDA to address these issues was to facilitate a wholesale corporate takeover of India’s food and agricultural economy by enacting three farm laws in September 2020, which had to be eventually rescinded following a year-long protest by north Indian farmers.
Since then, the NDA-II government has remained as clueless as the UPA (United Progressive Alliance)-II was, in dealing with food inflation and agriculture.
News
Appointing Deputy CMs not a breach of Constitution: SC (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the appointment of Deputy Chief Ministers in States on the ground that no such position exists in the Constitution.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud found no harm in the appointment of Deputy Chief Ministers, reasoning that they were after all Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) of the States and Ministers of State governments.
Deputy CM’s are first and foremost Ministers in the government of the State. A person who holds the office of the Deputy Chief Minister must at any event, within a stipulated period, be an MLA. Such appointments do not breach the Constitution,” the CJI observed.
He said that these persons appointed did not draw a higher salary and were like any other Minister in the government
World
Political parties in Pakistan wrangle over premiership (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Pakistan’s two largest political parties were on Monday wrangling over who will be Prime Minister after an inconclusive election last week forced them to join forces and try to form a coalition in a parliament dominated by independents.
Former Prime Ministers Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif both declared victory on Friday, with independent candidates backed by the jailed Mr. Khan forming the largest group of 93 members of a total of 264 seats for which results were declared.
However, Mr. Khan cannot become Prime Minister from jail and his grouping cannot form a government as they nominally ran as independents as his party was barred from standing.
Mr. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was the largest recognised party with 75 seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, was second with 54.
Business
RuPay, UPI rolled out in Mauritius, Sri Lanka (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
RuPay cards and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) connectivity between India and Mauritius, as well as UPI connectivity between India and Sri Lanka were established on Monday to deepen financial integration and to facilitate digital payments among citizens of the three countries.
An Indian traveller to Mauritius will now be able to pay a merchant in Mauritius using UPI. Similarly, a Mauritian traveller will be able to pay a merchant in India using the Instant Payment System (IPS) app of Mauritius.
Further, with the adoption of RuPay technology, the MauCAS card scheme of Mauritius will enable banks in Mauritius to issue RuPay cards domestically.
Such cards can be used at ATMs and PoS terminals locally in Mauritius as well as in India. “Indian RuPay cards would also be accepted at ATMs and PoS terminals in Mauritius.
Science
Earth-wide telescope confirms black hole’s shadow is ‘real’ (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Scientists have unveiled new details of a colossal black hole 53 million light years away first photographed by the earth-wide Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017.
The feat provided the first visual evidence that black holes exist, confirming a fundamental prediction of general relativity.
In a new paper published on January 18, EHT scientists have reported capturing details at the level of the behemoth’s event horizon — the boundary beyond which light from the other side can’t reach an observer — showcasing the formation of a distinct ring around it.
The EHT’s previous run had revealed the black hole’s ‘shadow’, a result of the event horizon’s gravitational effects and a signature of its presence.
The picture also helped constrain the black hole’s mass and find that its size and shape align with the predictions of the general theory of relativity.
The image was hailed at the time as a matter of “astonishment and wonder” for revealing “a part of the universe that was off limits”.