The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 19 July 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 18 July 2023

• Throughout their relationship, New Delhi and Paris have built a tradition of joining each other’s national day parades — Chirac himself was guest at India’s Republic Day twice (his first appearance was in 1976), Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (1980), Nicolas Sarkozy (2008) and François Hollande (2016) have been guests since, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (2009) and now Prime
• Minister Narendra Modi were invited to the Bastille Day parade. While the purchase of defence equipment often overshadows the outcome of any of these big visits, it is the underlying philosophy of their engagement that propels India and France ties forward.
• While India’s ties with each of the P-5 countries is unique, the feature that sets apart the India-France relationship is this — geopolitics sans value judgements, and no pressure to align their positions.

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• A determined battle by environmentalists in the Supreme Court of India against Delhi University’s genetically modified (GM) herbicide-tolerant (HT) mustard is all that stands between GM food and Indian farmers and consumers.
• Bt cotton, the first and only GM crop approved in the country.
• GM crops are derived from plants whose genes are artificially modified, usually by inserting genetic material from another organism, in order to give it new properties, such as increased yield, tolerance to a herbicide, resistance to disease or drought, or improved nutritional value.
• Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee
• The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) functions under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
• It is responsible for the appraisal of activities involving large-scale use of hazardous microorganisms and recombinants in research and industrial production from the environmental angle.
• The committee is also responsible for the appraisal of proposals relating to the release of genetically engineered (GE) organisms and products into the environment including experimental field trials.
• GEAC is chaired by the Special Secretary/Additional Secretary of MoEF&CC and co-chaired by a representative from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

• What is Enforcement Directorate (ED)?
• The Enforcement Directorate was established in the year 1956 as an ‘Enforcement Unit’ under the Department of Economic Affairs.
• Later, in 1957, this Unit was renamed as ‘Enforcement Directorate’.

Administrative control

• Presently, it is under the administrative control of the Department of Revenue (under the Ministry of Finance) for operational purposes.

Functions

• ED is responsible for enforcement of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), and certain provisions under the PMLA.
• ED has the power to attach the asset of the culprits found guilty of the violation of FEMA.
• It has also been empowered to undertake, search, seizure, arrest, prosecution action, and survey, etc. against the offences committed under PMLA.

• The coverage rate for DPT3, the third dose of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccines, in India rose to an all-time of 93% in 2022, surpassing the previous pre-pandemic best of 91% recorded in 2019, and also marking a sharp increase from the 85% recorded in 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
• The number of zero-dose children (those that have not received even the first dose of DPT vaccine) halved to 2.3 million in 2022 from 4.6 million in 2021. Similarly, the number of partially vaccinated children (those that have received at least one dose of DPT vaccine but did not complete the primary series of three doses) reduced to 6.5 lakh in 2022 from 1.3 million in 2021.
• Indonesia reported a DPT3 coverage of 85% in 2022, the same as in 2019, but rising sharply from the 67% recorded in 2021. Bhutan recorded 98% and the Maldives 99%, surpassing their pre-pandemic rates. Bangladesh with 98% and Thailand 97% demonstrated consistency in routine immunisation coverage throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, the report said.

• In many regions in India, demeaning and derogatory names are given to girls. In the Satara district of Maharashtra, girl children, especially from poorer economic backgrounds, are given the name Nakoshi, Nakusa or Nakusha which translates to ‘unwanted’.
• A significant share of people prefers sons over daughters in India due to cultural notions that the family lineage is carried forward by men and that only sons will take care of their elderly parents.

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