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CURRENT AFFAIRS – 12/06/2023

Embracing nature’s warmth: A herd of sambar deer resting by a pond in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. Good rainfall in the past three weeks in the reserve has garnished the surroundings with greenery.M. Sathyamoorthy   Facts about the News Sambar Deer:  Sambar is a large deer species native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They are primarily found in forested areas, including both deciduous and evergreen forests. They are highly adaptable and can also be found in grasslands, swamps, and even coastal areas. They are known to thrive in a variety of habitats, from sea level to high altitudes.…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 10/06/2023

The necessity of electricity distribution companies Ajay Shankar is Distinguished Fellow, the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and a former Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India The Electricity Act 2003 provided the framework for the dismantling of the State Electricity Boards and the separation of generation, transmission and distribution into separate companies. Electricity generation was delicensed, while transmission and distribution remained licenced and regulated activities. Promoting competition, protecting consumer interests, and the supply of electricity to all were key objectives of the legislation. Under the new regime, a competitive industry structure in generation has evolved.…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 09/06/2023

Getting railway safety back on track after Odisha Sudhanshu Mani is a retired General Manager, Indian Railways, creator of Train 18/Vande Bharat, and an independent rail consultant There have been innumerable television debates following the train accident involving the 12841 Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express, the 12864 Sir M. Visvesvaraya Terminal Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district, Odisha, on the evening of June 2. But the key question that many panellists have failed to address convincingly, barring the familiar platitudes, is about how the Indian Railways can work to ensure that such catastrophes are…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 08/06/2023

Tackling the human-dog conflict Alokparna Sengupta is an animal advocate with over 15 years of experience and Managing Director of Humane Society International/India Dogs have evoked different emotions in people for hundreds of years. You can hate them or love them, but you cannot ignore them. Over the past few decades, for example, the growing population of street dogs has posed increasing challenges for municipalities and cities across the country. With so many interest holders and their beliefs, it has been difficult to discuss the issue as many emotions are involved. The cynicism of some stakeholders has even led to…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 07/06/2023

A global order as technology’s much needed pole star Amar Patnaik is a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Odisha; a former CAG bureaucrat and an advocate Ever since the Dot-com bubble burst in 2000, the rapid scale and pace of development of technology have, radically and disruptively transformed our societies and daily lives. While there is no denying that this has made life easier, it has also thrown up complex challenges that call for a revisit of some fundamental notions in polity and governance. Challenges to notion of nation-state First, as defined by political theorists, a nation-state is a…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 06/06/2023

Eye on oil India must bring pump prices of petrol and diesel in line with global oil prices The world’s largest grouping of crude oil producers, commonly known as OPEC+, agreed on Sunday to extend ongoing production cuts into 2024 as it seeks to keep oil prices from falling amid concerns about a global economic slowdown. OPEC major and leading producer Saudi Arabia also voluntarily vowed to reduce output by an extra 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, sending international oil future contracts higher on Monday. The more than 20-nation OPEC+ bloc, which has been striving to curtail…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 03/06/2023

International trade has a carbon problem Prabhash Ranjan teaches at the South Asian University. Views are personal The European Union’s (EU) key climate law, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), has spooked India. New Delhi fears that CBAM will cripple the export of its carbon-intensive products to the EU. While India’s exports may be limited to aluminium, iron, and steel, and affect only 1.8% of its total exports to the EU, India has reportedly decried CBAM as being protectionist and discriminatory. There is also talk of challenging the CBAM at the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s dispute settlement body. This debate…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 02/06/2023

At the root of India’s manufacturing challenge Pulapre Balakrishnan is an economist The issue of manufacturing or services as the desirable path for India’s economy makes the rounds in public fora periodically. In the early part of this century, when India’s software exports were booming, it had been asked why India’s services sector should not leapfrog over manufacturing to propel the economy forward. This proposal challenged the standard model of economic development, for, in most successful economies, industrial expansion had come first. The frustration of the Indian economic policy maker can be well understood. The economic reforms of 1991 had…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 01/06/2023

Biodiversity is us and we are biodiversity Kamal Bawa is President Emeritus of the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and the Convener of Biodiversity Collaborative The observance of International Biodiversity Day (May 22) was yet another reminder of the pivotal role our natural world plays in resolving the climate change crisis, which, along with the decline of biodiversity, poses an existential threat to our future. Biodiversity, the rich variety of life forms and their interconnections with each other and the environment, is everywhere: inside our bodies as ubiquitous microbiomes, in our backyards, villages, towns,…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 31/05/2023

Scientist team discovers new exoplanet with mass 13 times that of Jupiter HEMANTH C.S. BENGALURU A new Jupiter-size exoplanet with the highest density known till this date and mass 13 times than that of Jupiter, has been discovered by an international team of scientists led by Prof. Abhijit Chakraborty at the Exoplanet Research Group of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. An exoplanet is any planet beyond the solar system and the one discovered by scientists from India, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. is with a density of ~14 g/cm3. Massive giant exoplanets are those having mass greater than four…