1)Maareech –Advanced Torpedo Defence System of Indian Navy :-
- SMB (Seakeeping and Manoeuvring Basin) facility is one of its kind in the country, set up as a joint effort of DRDO and Indian Navy. The facility puts India among the few nations in the world having the capability to undertake comprehensive hydrodynamic model testing of naval platforms and weapon systems. SMB would help to design and build state-of-the-art naval combatants such as submarines, ships, torpedoes, etc.
- Maareech, a joint project of Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), Kochi and NSTL, Visakhapatnam is a state-of-the-art indigenous system for torpedo detection and countermeasures. This system offers a complete solution to detect and locate the incoming torpedo and to apply countermeasures to protect naval platform against torpedo attack. Two production grade Maareech systems have been developed and user evaluation trials completed onboard two Indian Navy ships.
2)Children’s day and Legacy of Nehru:-
Nehru was the foremost architect of India, his contribution is unparalleled from bringing India out of the clutch of Colonial masters to an Independent India as we see today. His policy of non-alignment has created the necessary space for our foreign policy makers. His intellect of not giving into any particular power bloc in his heydays , gave India its Independent foreign policy. As he wisely said , the modern temples of India are not the one people go to pray ,but the one where people go to work – He saw the Industry as the temple of modern India. His achievements are well-known and so his philosophy. He is best described by the foremost architect of Singapore – Lee Kuan Yew , who observed that ” Nehru is the demigod who chose not to be a dictator” . As the nation celebrates his birthday, we have complied the saying of the first Prime minister of this great country :-
- On life:- “Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.”
- On Peace :- “Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people”
- On Capitalism :- “The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.”
- On Culture :- “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit“
- On Democracy :- “Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse”
- Empowering People :- “The man who has gotten everything he wants is all in favor of peace and order.”
- On Democracy and Adult franchise:-
In 1951 Dec 20th, Nehru, while campaigning for the first democratic elections in India, took a short break to address a UNESCO symposium in Delhi. Although he believed democracy was the best form of governance, while speaking at the symposium he wondered loud…
“The quality of men who are selected by these modern democratic methods of adult franchise gradually deteriorates because of lack of thinking and the noise of propaganda….He[the voter] reacts to sound and to the din, he reacts to repetition and he produces either a dictator or a dumb politician who is insensitive. Such a politician can stand all the din in the world and still remain standing on his two feet and, therefore, he gets selected in the end because the others have collapsed because of the din ”
3)Rajiv Khel Abhiyan:-
It is a centrally sponsored scheme. It was launched in 2014 in place of erstwhile Panchayat Yuva Krida aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA).
Objective :-
- To provide universal access to sports in rural areas and promote sports culture among both boys and girls.
- To harness available and potential sporting talent among rural youth, through a well-designed competition structure from the block level.
- To put in place an effective mechanism to identify and nurture sporting talent in rural areas.
News:- Karwar district in Karnataka is gearing up to host various games under the State-level Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan. State-level competitions in Kho Kho, Kabaddi, Judo and Table Tennis will be conducted under the scheme.
4)Terrorist Strike at Paris:-
A set of shootings and explosions hit Paris late on Friday, killing at least 129 people and injuring more than 350 in one of the city’s densest districts on a Friday night. The identity of the terrorists and their motives are still unknown; ISIS claimed responsibility, but the veracity of the group’s claim is unclear
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, citing France’s “crusader campaign” in an apparent reference to the country’s role in air strikes against the group in Syria and Iraq. But the veracity of the claim remains unclear, although President Hollande blamed ISIS, as well.
5) Transparency International :-
Note:- This institution and its ranking has been mentioned by Prime Minister of India in his Wembley Stadium address while in UK visit.
Transparency International (TI) is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. Originally founded in Germany in May 1993 as a not-for-profit organization, Transparency International is now an international non-governmental organization.
It publishes an annual Global Corruption Barometer and Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide
India’s Ranking :-
Corruption Perceptions Index (2014) Rank: 85 /175
Significance:- India is ranked less corrupt than China in 18 Years.India jumped 10 places to rank 85 out of 175 countries and China dropped 20 places to rank 100, according to Wall Street Journal.
Criticism :- This being a NGO , it’s ranking was challenged from time to time and criticized for having vested interest.
Analysis:- Though the index is a good news for India, yet , the ranking by NGO instead of a governmental platform such World Bank should be treated with due care and due diligence.And this principle of caution applies for any other NGO as they are not inter-governmental engagements.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.