DEVOLUTION OF POWERS TO STATES TO MICRO-MANAGE
Introduction As COVID-19 lockdown is easing up, the states will now have to take care that they open up in a manner that does not aggravate the pandemic, while also addressing economic and humanitarian imperatives. Not a time to start relaxing The doubling rate of the coronavirus infection has improved to 13.6 per cent and […]
THE CHANGING NATURE OF CHINESE DIPLOMACY
Introduction: Foreign Policies of Persuasion and compromise U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that if you “speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far”. Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China, practiced Roosevelt’s belief. Where Mao preferred to exercise his power from “out of the barrel of a gun”, […]
20th May – Editorials/Opinions Analyses
Contents The changing nature of Chinese diplomacy Devolution of powers to states to micro-manage Self-Reliance, Not Self Isolation India isn’t prepared to meet its defence needs THE CHANGING NATURE OF CHINESE DIPLOMACY Focus: GS-II Governance Introduction: Foreign Policies of Persuasion and compromise U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that if you “speak softly and carry a […]
20th May Current Affairs
Contents A.P. gas leak: SC declines to interfere with NGT order UNODC: COVID-19 unlikely to affect illicit drug supply Hotter oceans spawn super cyclones India, U.S. to collaborate on COVID-19 vaccine trials Reform or face permanent funding cuts, Trump tells WHO Changed dynamic along India-China border Criteria for ‘medium’ MSME units to be revised India […]
BRACING THE ECONOMIC FALLOUT OF CORONAVIRUS
China today is a bigger contributor to global growth than the US, Europe and Japan added together. It is a given that the lockdown in Hubei province will have a significant impact on the $13.6 trillion Chinese economy that is today the fulcrum around which global trade growth turns The beleaguered Chinese banking system is […]
DEFANGING AI
AI should be deployed for purposes that raise productivity but do not displace workers in the country, makes good sense, given India’s problem of unemployment For decades, production has been highly capital intensive despite the abundant availability of labour Rules that make it hard to let go of workers also act as a disincentive to […]
EVOLVING BRAIN: IMPACT OF INCOME INEQUALITY
Income inequality is an undeniable reality in India and in most other parts of the world Research studies seek to understand how income levels may be correlated with differences in the structure of the human brain. The brain evolves constantly over a person’s lifespan This happens as a response to the brain’s external environment—which is […]
A MARRIAGE STORY FOR EVERYONE
Why in news? A petition recently filed in the Kerala High Court by a male same-sex couple challenges the constitutionality of the Special Marriage Act on the ground that it discriminates against same-sex couples who want to formalize their relationship through marriage Special marriage act of 1954 Special Marriage Act of 1954 allows and facilitates […]
TOWARDS A NEW WORLD ORDER
Why in news? The latest Oxfam Report presented at Davos points out that 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than 4.6 billion people. The emergence of billionaires and oligarchs in different parts of the world coincides with increased poverty among the already poor people, especially children. Excess consumption Egregious consumption of energy by the developed world […]
TERROR AND PUNISHMENT
The Pakistani government, which for years tried to protect Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, finally got a conviction and a jail term for the cleric in two terror financing cases The Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and his close aide Malik Zafar Iqbal have been sentenced to five-and-a-half years by an anti-terrorism court, vindicating India’s […]