The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 24 July 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 22 July 2023

• The overhaul involves converting the system from conventional relay interlocking to electronic interlocking technology, which is harder to tamper with.
• In the 12 years since the electronic interlocking technology was introduced in the country, less than 40% of the 7,325 railway stations have made the switch.
• The Balasore accident occurred due to manual tampering of signalling equipment involving multiple copper wires. A top Ministry official said the revamp would involve replacing the copper cables, used in electromechanical systems, with optical fibre, used in completely electronic systems.

 The Hindu Editorial Today

• “What kind of a global power will India be?” There are those who argue that India should aspire to be a great power and assert its growing power internationally; others argue that India should focus on the uplift of millions of its people above the poverty line, improve governance and reconcile within the country before venturing into making a better world.
• Let us start with the India of 1991 — a weak, poor, and deeply beleaguered country with a foreign exchange reserve of $5.8 billion and a nominal GDP of $270.11 billion. For a population of 846 million, around 50% of whom were poor, those were miserable figures.
• Fast forward three decades to 2023. India’s foreign exchange reserve has grown to around $600 billion, and a war with Pakistan is not something Indian leaders lose sleep over — China has taken that place though — and there is a general sense of foreign policy optimism. The reforms initiated after the 1991 economic crisis not only led to higher GDP growth but also significant poverty reduction.
• Ranked as the world’s fifth largest economy, India’s nominal GDP could soon touch $4 trillion; it has one of the largest militaries in the world with over a hundred nuclear weapons.
• Despite being the fifth largest economy in the world, its GDP per capita was $1,947 in 2021 whereas that of Bangladesh, at $2,227, was more than that of India even though Bangladesh is only the 40th largest military in the world.
• One of the most pressing concerns for India’s political class is to reduce poverty and improve the well-being of millions of Indians living under the poverty line, a task that is bound to divert its attention from serious external engagements.

• After hitting a record $775 billion in 2022-23, India’s exports are off to a rocky start this year. Outbound shipments of goods, that had crossed $450 billion last year, have contracted 15.1% through the April to June 2023 quarter.
• Excluding gold and oil imports, the value of shipments coming into the country is down 10.5% in the first quarter.
• Services exports are still growing but at a far more sombre pace.
• Indian policymakers should redouble efforts to improve competitiveness vis-à-vis rivals such as Vietnam, and keep a closer watch on divergent trends in different markets to help exporters capture incremental, even if fractional, global demand.

• The Uniform Civil Code is mentioned in Article 44 of the Indian Constitution, which is part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.
• These principles are not legally enforceable but are meant to guide the state in making policies.
• The only state in India that has a UCC is Goa, which retained its common family law known as the Goa Civil Code after it was liberated from Portuguese rule in 1961.

Q) Discuss the possible factors that inhibit India from enacting for its citizens a uniform civil code as provided for in the Directive Principles of State Policy. (2015)

• The target in the Paris Agreement, to keep the planet’s surface from warming by 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, has been touted as a monumental goal. However, despite negotiations for more than two decades, global carbon emissions have not slowed.
• the 2 degrees Celsius target was not derived scientifically. The economics Nobel laureate William Nordhaus cautiously noted in the 1970s that a warming of 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level could render the planet warmer than it has ever been in several hundred-thousand years.
• More importantly, India should continue its leadership role by demanding that the community centred on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) be prepared to improve projections that quantify impacts at local scales.

• Bedaquiline has now become the cornerstone to cure drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). Last week, a major barrier for drug resistant TB care ended, when Johnson & Johnson’s patent on bedaquiline expired on July 18. This long-awaited expiry will allow generic manufacturers to supply the drug, but J&J appears intent on maintaining its monopoly over the bedaquiline market.
• J&J has filed secondary patents over bedaquiline till 2027, which were granted in 66 low-and middle-income countries. It includes 34 countries with high burden of TB, multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), and TB/HIV.
• Tuberculosis was the world’s deadliest infectious disease, as declared by the WHO, before COVID-19 swept the world. Each year, nearly half a million people develop drug-resistant TB and nearly 10.4 million people develop drug-sensitive TB. One-third of the world’s population has latent TB, a version of the disease that can turn active as immunity falls. Nearly 2.8 million patients, the most in the world, live in India making it a national public health emergency.

Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan

• Vision:
• It has been envisioned to bring together all community stakeholders to support those on TB treatment and accelerate the country’s progress towards TB elimination.
• This is aimed at working towards TB elimination from the country by 2025.

Components of the scheme:

• The Ni-kshay Mitra initiative which forms a vital component of the `Abhiyaan’ is also launched along with the Abhiyaan.
• This portal provides a platform for donors to provide various forms of support to those undergoing TB treatment.

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