The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 31 May 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 30 May 2023

• India has recently turned a net exporter of toys, during 2020-21 and 2021-22, ending decades of import dominance. Between 2018-19 and 2021-22, toy exports increased from $109 million (₹812 crore) to $177 million (₹1,237 crore); imports declined from $371 million (₹2,593 crore) to $110 million (₹819 crore), official data show.
• India hardly figures in the global toy trade, with its exports at a mere half-a-percentage point. Between 2014-19, the Indian toy industry witnessed negative productivity growth.
• Historically, Asia’s successful industrialising nations promoted toy exports for job creation, starting with Japan about a century ago, China since the 1980s, and currently Vietnam following in their footsteps.

 The Hindu Editorial Today

• Context: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) in India is working on an all-in-one policy plan to address the low insurance penetration in India.

Aim:

• To offer an affordable bundled insurance product that covers health, life, property, and accident risks.
• To expedite claim settlements by linking death registries onto a common platform
• To create a “UPI-like moment” in insurance, similar to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the banking sector

• Plan by IRDA (Bima Trinity of the policy):
• Bima Sugam: The portal will integrate insurers and distributors, providing customers with a one-stop shop for purchasing insurance policies and managing service requests and claim settlements. It will also be integrated with digitized birth and death registries
• Bima Vistar: It will be bundled risk cover product, which offers defined benefits for each risk and aims to provide faster claim payouts without the need for surveyors.
• Bima Vaahaks: The third component of the plan involves deploying a women-centric workforce called Bima Vaahaks (carriers) in each Gram Sabha (village council) to promote the benefits of insurance products.
• State-level insurance committees: To achieve the goal of providing insurance coverage for all citizens by 2047, the IRDA plans to establish State-level insurance committees and involve State governments in formulating district-level insurance plans.

Benefits:

• It will provide citizens with anaffordable single policy that covers health, life, property and accident
• Settling claims within a short timeframe (potentially within six to eight hours or a maximum of one day)
• Will allow policyholders to easily access their policies and submit death certificates, enabling quick processing and transfer of funds.
• About IRDA
• The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (founded 1999; HQ: Hyderabad) is a statutory body (under the IRDA Act 1999) and is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance and is tasked with regulating and licensing the insurance and re-insurance industries in India.
• A 10-member body- a Chairman, five full-time members, and four part-time members appointed by the Government of India.

• Context: India recently hosted a global Buddhist summit in New Delhi, which saw the participation of key figures from the global Buddhist community, including the Dalai Lama.
• What is soft power diplomacy?
• Soft power is the ability to obtain preferred outcomes by attraction rather than coercion or payment. Soft power diplomacy refers to the use of cultural, social, and economic means to influence the attitudes and behaviours of other countries, rather than relying solely on military or economic coercion. The concept of soft power was coined by Joseph Nye in the 1990s.
• Examples of soft power diplomacy include cultural exchanges, educational programs, humanitarian aid, and public diplomacy campaigns.

• India faces several challenges in promoting soft power through Buddhism, including:
• Many of India’s ancient Buddhist heritage sites are in a state of disrepair, which makes it challenging to attract visitors and promote Buddhist tourism.
• Competition with other countries: Despite being home to a number of key Buddhist sites, such as Bodhgaya, Sarnath, and Kushinagar, India has struggled to attract Buddhist tourists, who tend to favour sites in Thailand and Cambodia.
• Fragmented Buddhist community: The Indian Buddhist community is fragmented and divided along sectarian lines, which makes it challenging to create a unified approach to promoting Buddhism.
• India’s soft power is often overshadowed by its economic and political power, which means that its cultural influence, including that of Buddhism, is not always recognized on the international stage.
• “India has not given ‘Yuddha’ to the world but ‘Buddha’.” –PM Modi
• The India International Centre for Buddhist Culture and Heritage is coming up in Lumbini, Nepal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in May 2022.

• The latest report by the International Energy Agency, ‘World Energy Investment 2023,’ shows that investment in clean energy has increased in recent years, with the transition mainly fuelled by Electric Vehicles (EVs) and renewable power. However, investments are concentrated in advanced economies and China. More worryingly, the decline in the prices of clean energy technologies has reversed slightly in the past two years.
• The report shows that economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with global efforts in tackling energy scarcity have significantly propelled investments in the renewable energy sector. The report, which compares the International Energy Agency’s 2023 forecasts with the actual data from 2021, highlights a notable finding: annual investments in green energy have outpaced those in fossil fuels during this period, recording a growth of 24% against 15%.
• The report also highlights the influence of recent geopolitical events on the energy market. Specifically, it points out that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to substantial instability in the fossil fuel markets. Interestingly, this volatility has inadvertently accelerated the deployment of various renewable energy technologies, despite triggering an immediate scramble for oil and gas resources.

• Approximately 35 lakh students enrolled in Class 10 in 2021-2022 did not progress to Class 11, according to an analysis exercise carried out by the Ministry of Education (MoE).
• Of these 35 lakh students, 27.5 lakh failed, and 7.5 lakh students did not appear for the Class 10 examinations.
• While the failure rate of students in Central Boards, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is as low as 5%, it can be as high as 16% in State Boards.
• “There are a large number of students who are slipping through cracks after Class 10 and very few of these are going for open schooling. This missing cohort can be caught for skilling them or increasing open schooling enrolments,” the official said.
• Analysis of State-wise data on students passing and failing in Class 10 and 12 exams by the MoE reveals that results of students studying across up to 60 State Boards in India vary considerably from one State to another.
• Only 11 States contribute to 85% dropouts, or nearly 30 lakh students. They are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Assam, West Bengal, Haryana and Chhattisgarh.

• China sent three astronauts to its Tiangong space station on Tuesday, putting a civilian into orbit for the first time as it pursues plans to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030.
• The world’s second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars in its military-run space programme in a push to catch up with the United States and Russia.
• The Shenzhou-16 crew took off atop a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 9:31 a.m. (0301 IMT). They docked at the space station’s Tianhe core module on Tuesday afternoon, more than six hours after taking off.

Sharing is caring!