The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 23 May 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 22 May 2023

• Why in News?
• The third forum for India-Pacific islands co-operation (FIPIC Summit), which was held today at Port Moresby was jointly hosted with Papua New Guinea.
• Prime minister of India co- chaired the summit with PM of Papua New Guinea.
• The discussions encompassed various areas of cooperation, including commerce, technology, healthcare, and climate change.
• Forum for India-Pacific Islands cooperation (FIPIC) is a multinational grouping for cooperation between India and 14 Pacific Islands nations.
• It include 14 islands named- Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
• All Head of state/head of government of the above countries met in Suva, Fiji in November 2014 for the first time where the annual summit was conceptualised.
• The FIPIC initiative marks a serious effort to expand India’s engagement in the Pacific region.
• A major part of India’s engagement with these countries is through development assistance under South-South Cooperation, mainly in capacity building (training, scholarships, grant-in-aid and loan assistance) and community development projects.
• In 2015, FIPIC Trade Office at Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) to promote Trade & Investment opportunities between India & Pacific Island Countries.

 The Hindu Editorial Today

• By holding the meeting of the “G-7”, or the so-called group of the world’s most industrialised nations, in Hiroshima, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who belongs to the city, wanted to send out a message of global solidarity for peace.
• In addition to the symbolism of bringing leaders of all G-7 members with the EU leadership to the peace memorial for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing, the grouping issued a special “Hiroshima Vision Statement on Nuclear Disarmament”.
• The summit’s importance was underlined by the fact that the U.S. President, Joseph Biden, only the second sitting American President to visit the city, made a particular point of attending the summit.
• If the G-7 grouping wishes to broaden its prism, it must recognise that it is grossly unrepresentative of the world today.
• While members together represent more than half the world’s net wealth, the G-7 accounts for less than a third of the global GDP, and just over a tenth of the world’s population.
• As the spotlight shifts to the G-20 summit later this year in Delhi, it is hoped the grouping will work towards a more inclusive outlook and help in building a more comprehensive global consensus on some of the bigger challenges the world faces today.

• RBI has asserted that the latest move is in pursuance of its ‘Clean Note Policy’ and does not alter the legal tender status of the withdrawn notes.
• The central bank has, however, set a September 30 deadline for the exchange or deposit of the withdrawn currency, thereby triggering difficulties for the common individual to continue to use the note.
• Reports from across the country speak of consumers, including wage earners in sectors such as construction, struggling to pay for the purchase of medicines, petrol and other day-to-day essentials despite the notes continuing to remain legal tender.

• On February 19, the extent of sea ice in Antarctica fell to the lowest level ever recorded. This is in continuation of the worrying trend where sea ice cover shrinks as global temperatures rise. Sea ice melts during Antarctica’s summer, which starts around October and ends in March, and then freezes again during the winter months.
• Data show that in the last six years, the Antarctic sea ice cover has recorded major declines. The increased melting of sea ice leads to a rise in global sea levels, which poses a major threat to coastal cities. According to NASA, meltwater from Antarctic ice accounts for about one-third of the global average rise in sea level since 1993.
• Such a drastic reduction in ice also changes the way in which water flows across the world, affecting global weather and underwater ecosystems.
• The Southern Ocean, according to a report by the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is important for the transfer of heat from the atmosphere to the global oceans. Scientists say that the increase in cold, fresh water from the melted ice leads to a disruption in the way hot, cold, fresh and salty water is circulated across the globe.
• This change in temperature and density can subsequently affect weather patterns, and alter deep water nutrient flows.
• Beyond the underwater nutrients, algae that feed smaller crustaceans like krill, which feed whales, seals, penguins and other birds, are found growing on the sea ice.
• Diminishing sea ice means that less food is available to support the Antarctic food chain.
• With global temperatures rising, the Antarctic region saw higher air temperatures this year. Less sea ice also means that more of the sun’s heat, which would otherwise be reflected back, is absorbed by the darker coloured ocean. Heat is trapped in what is known as the ice-albedo feedback cycle.

• The Education Ministry organised a workshop in New Delhi on Monday with the aim of unifying a network of 60 school examination Boards of various States and Union Territories under one umbrella.
• The workshop will study school assessments, examination practices and equivalence of Boards across the country.
• The main component of this plan is PARAKH, the National Assessment Centre, which has been set up as an organisation under the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
• The mandate of PARAKH is to work on bringing the school Boards across States and Union Territories on a common platform.
• Recently, the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) has notified India’s first national assessment regulator, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), which aims to set up assessment guidelines for all boards.

What is PARAKH?

• PARAKH has been launched as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 that envisaged a standard-setting body to advise school boards regarding new assessment patterns and latest research, and promote collaborations between them.
• It will act as a constituent unit of the NCERT.
• It will also be tasked with holding periodic learning outcome tests like the National Achievement Survey (NAS) and State Achievement Surveys.
• It will work on three major assessment areas: large-scale assessments, school-based assessment, and examination reforms.

• The first month of 2023-24 has seen strong, albeit seasonally moderated economic activity, and demand is expected to strengthen in the wake of receding inflation, fuelling a virtuous investment cycle whose signs are already visible despite higher interest rates, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.
• “There are downside risks to growth and upside risks to inflation, partly channelled through the external sector and partly originating from weather uncertainties. Yet a strong point going India’s way is the strength of its domestic demand,” it said in its economic review of April.
• “Consumption has shown steady and broad-based growth, while investment in capacity creation and real estate is finding traction… As inflation further recedes, demand will become stronger and lay the foundation of a virtuous capex upcycle,” it emphasised, while conceding it is too early to forecast the entire year’s outcomes.
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) means the monetary measurement of the total market value of all the finished goods and services that nations manufacture within their borders and sell over a given time period. GDP acts as an indicator of a nation’s economic health.
• Formula For Calculating GDP
• GDP = C + I + G + IX
• where,
• C = Consumption
• I = Investment
• G = Government Expenditure
• IX = Export – Import

• By 2050, India’s elderly population will touch 319 million — three times the number identified by the 2011 Census. The number of people over the age of 60 is projected to increase from 8.6% of the population (2011 Census) to 20% by 2050.
• At the same time, the overwhelming majority of India’s elderly are not covered, or covered adequately, by pension and social welfare.

Therefore, the burden often falls on children to take care of their parents.

• In the West, the welfare of the elderly is guaranteed through relatively well-funded pension and social security systems.
• But in India, which has the world’s second largest population of people over the age of 60 and where over 90% of the workforce is in the unorganised sector, pensions are limited to a tiny minority employed in the public sector, and to a lesser extent, in the private sector.
• In the case of a health shock, however, there was more support from daughters (11%) as compared to sons (8%) — which goes against the grain of beliefs and myths that underpin son preference.
• Under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) scheme, India has important schemes of non-contributory pensions for the elderly, widowed women and disabled persons.
• It is administered by the Ministry of Rural Development.

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