Category: current affairs

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…

Salvaging the idea and reality of Manipur Kham Khan Suan Hausing is Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad The stability and territorial integrity of a society such as Manipur can be secured only by genuine recognition and substantive accommodation of territorial rights and identities. The communal riots which erupted in Manipur since the evening of May 3, between the Meiteis and Kuki-Hmar-Zomi communities, have unleashed unprecedented human displacement, a tragic loss of lives and destruction of property, and show no signs of closure. As the nature and character of the riots transform from one of ethnic…

Buddhism, India’s soft power projection tool Abhishek Srivastava is Assistant Professor of Diplomacy and Disarmament, CIPOD, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi With its strong historical and cultural ties to Buddhism, India can play a lead role in shaping the discourse around Buddhist issues. There is much significance to India having hosted a two-day global Buddhist summit in New Delhi (April 20-21), which was organised by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation. The summit saw the participation of key figures from the global Buddhist community, including the Dalai Lama. It was at this summit that the…

Improve technology to detect IEDs IEDs are among the most potent tools deployed by the Maoists R.K. VIJ STATE OF PLAY Ten jawans and a civilian driver, who were returning in a van following an anti-Maoist operation, were killed in a blast caused by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada on April 26. The IED was planted beneath a metalled road. The was so forceful, it created a huge crater on the road. Though this attack, which according to the State police had been carried out by the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist), is under investigation, the…

The horizon for India beyond the G-20, SCO summits M.K. Narayanan is a former Director, Intelligence Bureau, a former National Security Adviser, and a former Governor of West Bengal India’s year-long presidency of the G-20, and leadership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), should not blind us to the persisting challenges the nation faces, due to a concatenation of circumstances. It must, hence, tone down the high expectations that are being generated of reaping a rich dividend from helming the two summits. Global peace, on which India’s Prime Minister had waxed eloquent at the last G-20 summit in Indonesia, is…