Category: current affairs

Bulgarian writer wins International Booker Prize ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel won the International Booker Prize on Tuesday for Time Shelter, a darkly comic novel about the dangerous appeal of nostalgia. The book beat five other finalists to the prize, which recognises fiction from around the world that has been translated into English. Time Shelter imagines a clinic that recreates the past, with each floor reproducing a different decade. Intended as a way to help people with dementia unlock their memories, it soon becomes a magnet for people eager to escape the modern world. Facts about…

New Parliament to house sceptre that symbolised transfer of power in 1947 VIJAITA SINGH NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi will install the Sengol, a sceptre given by the British to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to represent the transfer of power in 1947, in the new Parliament building, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday. The sceptre, kept in a museum in Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad, will be installed near the podium of the Lok Sabha Speaker. “Sengol makes the spirit of August 15, 1947 unforgettable and the Parliament House is the most appropriate and sacred place to install it,”…

India-Australia ties built on trust: Modi Strong bond: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Sydney. Getty Images PRESS TRUST OF INDIA SYDNEY Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the foundation of India-Australia relations lies in mutual trust and respect, as he along with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese addressed the Indian diaspora at a mega event here. During the event, a suburb in Australia — Harris Park — was renamed “Little India”, reflecting the strong bond between the two strategic partners. Mr. Modi also announced that India would open a consulate in Brisbane to fulfil a…

It’s time to ensure safer skies Captain A. (Mohan) Ranganathan is a former airline instructor pilot and aviation safety adviser. He is also a former member of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council, India In 1997, a Bangalore-based NGO called the Environment Support Group filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Karnataka High Court. A key concern of the group was that the second runway in Mangalore airport would not be able to meet the standards required while dealing with an emergency, particularly during landings and take-offs. The court dismissed the PIL. In a new PIL in 2002, the…

Tracking SDG progress the Bhopal way K.V.S. Choudary is Municipal Commissioner, Bhopal Municipal Corporation Parul Agarwala is Country Programme Manager, UN-Habitat India Pushkal Shivam is Urban Planner, UN-Habitat India Bhopal has become the first city in India to join the growing global movement on localisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) following the release of its Voluntary Local Review (VLR). In 2015, the 193 member-states of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets as a plan of action for ‘people’, ‘the planet’, and ‘prosperity’. The resolution specifies mechanisms…

Tamil Nadu’s amended law on jallikattu valid: SC Youngsters celebrating the Supreme Court verdict on jallikattu at Tamukkam in Madurai on Thursday. Ashok. R Court terms it a “type of bovine sport” existing in T.N. for at least a century; it also found similar laws passed by Karnataka and Maharashtra, allowing bullock cart races and buffalo racing, valid KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Thursday termed jallikattu a “type of bovine sport” existing in Tamil Nadu for at least a century, and did not interfere with the State legislature’s finding that the bull-taming event is part of the cultural…

The nutritional value of millets In abundance: A farmer swats away preying birds around a millet farm at Moinabad in Telangana on the outskirts of Hyderabad on April 22. NAGARA GOPAL Why are millets popular sources of nutrition? What are the different parts of a millet kernel? How are nutrients in millets affected by processing and polishing? Can millets thrive in harsh, resource-poor conditions? VASUDEVAN MUKUNTH EXPLAINER The story so far: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has declared 2023 to be the ‘International Year of Millets’, giving these crops a shot in the arm even as countries worldwide are looking…

Welfare spending has been getting a regular pruning Fizza Suhel is a Research Associate at the Center for research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy and Environment (CECFEE) Indian Statistical Institute This year’s Union Budget was criticised by experts over a decline in allocations for welfare schemes in real terms, at a time of post-COVID-19 recovery when welfare spending should have been a priority. Similarly, last year’s Budget too ignored social spending in favour of capital expenditure. The analysis below, based on Budget papers, shows that the trend of declining central government spending on critical social schemes is not…

The problem with India’s multi-alignment stand Vinay Kaura is Assistant Professor, Department of International Affairs and Security Studies, Sardar Patel University of Police, Security and Criminal Justice, Jodhpur, and a Non-resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute, Washington DC China’s recent mediation efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis have once again spotlighted India’s approach to conflict resolution. By holding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s eastward expansion responsible for instigating the war; by painting America as the biggest obstacle to ceasefire; by exploiting the differences among western countries regarding the extent of support to Ukraine; by further cementing the Beijing-Moscow relationship,…

A ground view of the Indian Space Policy 2023 Rakesh Sood is a former diplomat who has worked and negotiated on the interface of technology, security and strategy Though the forward-looking document is qualitatively different from previous efforts, it needs to be followed up with suitable legislation, backed by clear rules and regulations On April 20 this year, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the Indian Space Policy 2023 that had been in the works for some years. The document has been received positively by industry. However, it needs to be followed up with suitable legislation, accompanied by clear…