Content:
- EC to Remove All Duplicate Voter ID Numbers
- Centring Care in India’s Economic Policy
- Women in South India, Delhi, Punjab Have Higher Levels of Obesity
- Jobs Rising but Salaries Not Keeping Pace with Inflation’
- In a First, Private U.S. Spacecraft Lands Upright on Lunar Surface
- Euclid Space Telescope Discovers New ‘Einstein Ring’ in Nearby Galaxy
EC to remove all duplicate voter ID numbers
Election Commission’s Stand
- Acknowledged reports of identical voter ID numbers across different states.
- Clarified that while some numbers may match, other details (demographics, constituency, polling booth) remain unique.
- Stated that a voter can only vote in their designated polling station in the enrolled state/UT.
Relevance : GS 2 (Polity, Elections)
Cause of Duplication
- Resulted from manual and decentralised processes used before digitization.
- Some State/UT CEO offices used the same EPIC series, leading to identical numbers across states.
- ERONET (Election Roll Management System) was later introduced for better electoral roll management.
Steps Taken by the EC
- Commitment to assign unique EPIC numbers to each voter.
- ERONET 2.0 update planned for seamless rectification of duplicate IDs.
- Ensuring transparency and voter roll integrity ahead of future elections.
Political Controversy
- West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee alleged that:
- BJP is manipulating voter rolls with EC’s support.
- Duplicate EPIC numbers are used to add out-of-state voters to Bengal’s list.
- EC dismissed allegations, calling it an issue of past administrative practices.
Implications
- Trust in electoral process: Ensuring unique IDs strengthens credibility.
- Political ramifications: Opposition parties may continue raising concerns over electoral transparency.
- Upcoming elections: Resolution of this issue is crucial before the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls.
Centring care in India’s economic policy
- Record Allocation: ₹4,49,028.68 crore allocated to the Gender Budget (GB), a 37.3% increase from FY24.
- Percentage of Total Budget: GB constitutes 8.86% of the total Union Budget 2025.
- Primary Driver: Increase due to inclusion of PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (24% of GB), rather than investments in care infrastructure or gender-responsive schemes.
- Missed Opportunity: Despite emphasis on care economy in Economic Surveys 2023-24 and 2024-25, tangible investments in care infrastructure remain absent.
Relevance : GS 2(Social Issues) , GS 3(Indian Economy)
Unpaid Care and Domestic Work (UCDW) – A Gendered Burden
- Global Average: Women spend 17.8% of their time on unpaid care and domestic work.
- India’s Disproportionate Burden: Indian women shoulder 40% more UCDW than their counterparts in South Africa and China.
- Labour Force Impact:
- 53% of Indian women remain out of the workforce due to care responsibilities, compared to 1.1% of men (ILO data).
- Women in low-income households juggle 17–19 hours of daily tasks, leading to ‘time poverty’ and deteriorating well-being.
Structural Challenges in the Global South
- Broader Scope of UCDW: Involves household care, farm work, water and fuel collection, cleaning, cooking.
- Time Burden:
- Women spend five hours daily collecting water vs. 1.5 hours for men.
- 73% of their time spent on unpaid work due to poor infrastructure.
- Climate Change Impact:
- Water-related unpaid labour in India projected to cost $1.4 billion by 2050 (high-emissions scenario).
- Exacerbated by low public investment and rigid social norms.
Proposed Solutions & Policy Imperatives
Recognise Care Work
- Economic Survey 2023-24:
- Public investment equivalent to 2% of GDP could create 11 million jobs while reducing care burden.
- ‘Three R Framework’: Recognise, Reduce, Redistribute, Represent.
- Time-Use Survey 2019:
- Revealed women spend 7 hours daily on UCDW.
- Solution: Integrate Time-use modules into existing household surveys.
Reduce UCDW Burden
- Infrastructure & Technology:
- Time-saving technologies and expanded access to affordable care services.
- Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM):
- Extended till 2028 to achieve 100% potable water coverage.
- Challenges: 4.51% decline in budget allocation; only half of villages have functional tap connections.
- Need for stronger implementation and water sustainability measures.
- Expansion of childcare centres, eldercare support, and assistive technologies to boost women’s workforce participation.
Redistribute Care Work
- From Home to State & Market:
- Urban Challenge Fund (₹1 lakh crore) → ₹10,000 crore allocated for FY 2025-26.
- Can finance up to 25% of bankable projects in urban redevelopment, water, sanitation.
- Smart Cities Mission: Leverage funds to scale up pilot care models like Bogotá’s Care Blocks (centralised care hubs).
Strengthen Women’s Representation
- Policy Inclusion: Women’s participation in decision-making increases effectiveness by 6-7 times.
- Need for Gender-Sensitive Economic Strategy:
- India must move beyond symbolic ‘Nari Shakti’ rhetoric.
- Budget must prioritise care work as a central pillar of inclusive economic growth.
Women in South India, Delhi, Punjab have higher levels of obesity
Key Findings from NFHS (2019-21)
- About 25% of men and women in India were overweight or obese, marking a 4 percentage point increase from 2015-16.
- Obesity is more prevalent among women in South Indian states, Delhi, and Punjab.
- The rate of increase in obesity among men was higher than that among women.
- The proportion of thin individuals (BMI below 18.4) declined significantly in both genders.
Relevance : GS 2(Health)
BMI Trends and Gender-Wise Changes
- BMI Increase (2015-16 to 2019-21):
- Men: Increased by 0.6 points (from 21.8 to 22.4).
- Women: Increased by 0.5 points (from 21.9 to 22.4).
- Overweight & Obesity:
- Overweight women: Increased from 15.5% to 17.6%.
- Overweight men: Increased from 15.9% to 18.9%.
- Obese women: Increased from 5.1% to 6.4%.
- Obese men: Increased from 3% to 4%.
- Thinness Decline:
- Mildly thin women: Dropped from 13.3% to 11%.
- Mildly thin men: Dropped from 12.2% to 9.6%.
- Moderately/severely thin women: Dropped from 9.6% to 7.7%.
- Moderately/severely thin men: Dropped from 8% to 6.6%.
Regional Trends
- Women’s obesity rates were highest in Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana.
- Men’s obesity rates were also highest in Delhi and South Indian states.
Dietary Patterns Linked to Obesity
- Over 40% of men and women consume fried foods regularly.
- Aerated drinks consumption:
- 16% of women
- 25% of men
Government Awareness & Call for Action
- PM Modi, in Mann Ki Baat, warned against rising obesity, particularly among children.
- Recommended reducing oil consumption by 10% per month for a healthier lifestyle.
‘Jobs rising but salaries not keeping pace with inflation’
Employment Growth:
- According to NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani, jobs in India have been increasing steadily.
- PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey) data indicates that the worker-population ratio (WPR) has increased from 34.7% in 2017-18 to 43.7% in 2023-24, outpacing population growth
Relevance : GS 3(Economy)
- Stagnation in Real Wages:
- While jobs are increasing, real wages for regular salaried jobs have not kept pace with inflation over the past seven years.
- This stagnation in wages is more prominent in formal employment.
- Skill Deficiency as the Main Cause:
- Lack of skilled workers is cited as the primary reason for stagnant real wages.
- The gap in skilled labor lowers productivity, affecting wage growth.
- Need for Skilling Initiatives:
- Emphasis on improving the quality of education, training, and skill development to address the wage stagnation issue.
- Government efforts are in place, but states and districts also need to enhance skilling programs.
Implications
- Positive Employment Trend: The rising worker-population ratio signals an expansion in job opportunities, countering claims of job stagnation.
- Challenges in Wage Growth: The failure of wages to keep up with inflation can lead to reduced purchasing power, affecting overall economic growth and consumption.
- Urgency for Skill Development: Addressing skill gaps is crucial to boosting productivity and improving real wages, ensuring sustainable wage growth alongside job creation.
- Decentralized Approach Needed: Skilling initiatives must go beyond central schemes and be implemented effectively at the district level, where job creation is more localized.
In a first, private U.S. spacecraft lands upright on lunar surface
- Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed on the Moon on March 3, 2025, at Mons Latreille in the Mare Crisium region.
- This marks the second private moon landing and the first to land upright.
- The mission is part of NASA’s Artemis program, aimed at reducing costs and supporting future crewed missions to the Moon.
Relevance :GS 3(Science and Technology)
Mission Details
- The lander, nicknamed “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, launched on January 15, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
- The spacecraft autonomously navigated a rocky lunar surface before slowing down from thousands of miles per hour to just 2 mph for touchdown.
- Unlike the previous private moon lander (February 2024), which landed sideways, Blue Ghost landed stable and upright.
Scientific Objectives & Payload
- The lander, about the size of a hippopotamus, carries 10 scientific instruments, including:
- Lunar soil analyzer to study the composition of the Moon’s surface.
- Radiation-tolerant computer to test long-term electronics survival.
- Navigation experiment using Earth’s satellite system to determine feasibility for future lunar missions.
Upcoming Observations
- March 14, 2025: Blue Ghost will capture high-definition imagery of a total solar eclipse, when Earth blocks sunlight from the Moon.
- March 16, 2025: The lander will record a lunar sunset to study how dust levitates above the Moon’s surface—phenomenon first observed during the Apollo missions.
Significance
- Strengthens public-private partnerships in space exploration under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS).
- Provides critical data to support future Artemis missions and crewed Moon landings.
- Demonstrates advancements in autonomous navigation and lunar surface exploration.
Euclid space telescope discovers new ‘Einstein ring’ in nearby galaxy
Background:
- Discovery: The Euclid space telescope (ESA) spotted an Einstein ring in the galaxy NGC 6505, 590 million light-years away.
- Significance: Only five other gravitational lenses at similar distances have been found. The ring is composed of distorted images of a galaxy 4.5 billion light-years away.
- Discovery Process:
- First noticed by astronomer Bruno Altieri in September 2023 in an unfocused image.
- Confirmed after Euclid’s systems were fully operational.
Relevance : GS 3(Science and Technology)
Scientific Background:
- Gravitational Lensing: Massive objects like galaxies bend light, acting as cosmic lenses.
- Einstein’s Prediction: In his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein predicted that mass curves spacetime, altering the path of light.
- Einstein Ring: A special case of strong gravitational lensing where the background object, lens, and observer are nearly perfectly aligned, forming a ring-like structure.
- First Einstein Ring: Discovered in 1998, over 80 years after Einstein’s prediction.
Scientific and Astronomical Impact:
- Testing General Relativity: Einstein rings provide experimental validation of relativity.
- Understanding Dark Matter: Can help trace dark matter distributions, which remain undetectable otherwise.
- Cosmic Expansion: Offers insights into the universe’s expansion rate and distant galaxy evolution.
Euclid’s Mission & Future Prospects:
- Launched by ESA in July 2023. Began full-scale scanning on February 14, 2024.
- Goal: Expected to discover 100,000 new gravitational lenses.
- Limitations: Finding another Einstein ring as close as Altieri’s is unlikely due to the limited observable volume near Earth.
Conclusion:
- The discovery of Altieri’s Ring underscores Euclid’s potential in advancing astrophysics, especially in understanding dark matter and cosmic structures.
- Future observations may refine knowledge of gravitational lensing and the universe’s large-scale structure.
