Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Diversity keeps us united: Kovind

News

• Addressing the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly on Sunday, President Ramnath Kovind said the people of India had different food habits, clothing styles, religious beliefs and traditions, and this diversity was the country’s strength.

Beyond News

• Mr. Kovind said Arunachal Pradesh — where different tribes coexisted and also conserved their own traditions — expressed India’s unity in diversity beautifully.
• He said the border State presented a unique opportunity for trade with neighbouring countries, and hoped that it would help extend business relations with ASEAN nations as per the Act East policy.
• This was Mr. Kovind’s first visit to the State — which China claims is part of Tibet — after becoming President.
• He commended the Centre for its “effective steps” to step up development in the State, making specific mention of a Shatabdi train being extended to Itanagar and the construction of the Trans-Arunachal highway.

He said that the State had immense potential for organic farming, horticulture and tourism.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

China offers to mediate dialogue between Bangladesh, Myanmar

News

• China has expressed its willingness to facilitate a dialogue between Bangladesh and Myanmar to solve the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Beyond News

• China does not want the Rohingya issue to overshadow or slow down the progress of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor initiative.

Mr. Wang’s visit came days after the UN revived a resolution on Myanmar that was dropped last year due to the country’s progress on human rights.

• The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on human rights, called on Myanmar to end operations that have “led to the systematic violation and abuse of human rights” of Rohingya Muslims.
• A total of 135 countries voted in favour of the resolution and 10, including China, against it, while there were 26 abstentions.

Making caste slur on SC/STs over phone an offence, says SC

 News

• The Supreme Court has ruled that using casteist remarks over phone in a public place against the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category amounts to criminal offence, warranting a jail of a maximum five years.

Beyond News

• The apex court refused to stay criminal proceedings and quash an FIR against a person, who allegedly used derogatory casteist remarks over phone to a woman from the the SC/ST category.
• Also said that section 3(1)(s) of SC/ST Act relates to a person, who abuses any member of a SC or ST by caste name in any place “within public view“.

Many CBSE schools add another subject to accommodate Kannada

News

Many private schools under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) are finding themselves in fix over how to“accommodate” Kannada as a language in the curriculum. In October, months after the 2017–18 academic year started, the State government made it mandatory for all schools to teach Kannada.

What the rules state

• The rules for the Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015 were finalised on October 21, 2017
• Schools will have to teach Kannada from this academic year
• Teaching Kannada should be implemented in a phased manner. By the 2026–27 academic year, Kannada should be taught in all classes — 1 to 10
• Students who come from other States and enrol in schools in Karnataka between classes two and eight will have to study class one syllabus of Kannada. They will later have to gradually study the next year’s texts as they move from one class to the other

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

New J&K surrender policy to target local militants

News

• With a fresh surrender policy being framed by the government, the Army and the J&K Police, in a joint appeal , asked all local militants to give up arms and assured them “full cooperation” to join the mainstream.

Beyond News

• Over 130 local militants are still active in the Valley.
• J&K DGP S.P. Vaid said that, they are after foreign terrorists. They want to give the local boys a chance to surrender.
• The return of Majid Khan (who had joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba) will start a new phase and he hope, mothers of other militants will follow suit [in making an appeal].
• They said local militants could use the helpline if they want to come back. A police official said the government had taken inputs from all security agencies to frame the fresh policy.

India Inc: who’s growing, who’s slowing

Studying their sales growth patterns threw up these findings.

• Aggregate sales growth for Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies slumped from 6.5% in July-September 2016 to 2.9% in the demonetisation quarter.
• Automobile sales shifted into first gear from 13.2% growth in July-September 2016 to 4.2% in the October-December quarter. Sales for retailers fell off a precipice from a 31% growth to a measly 1%. Consumer durable sales, already sluggish before demonetisation grew at just 3.5% in the note ban quarter.
• Telecom services went from 7.1% growth in July-September 2016 to a 1.7% contraction in October-December 2016. Entertainment (multiplexes, cable TV providers) saw a halving of growth from 14% to 7% and media firms’ (newspapers, broadcasters, television channels) slowed sharply from 9.2% to 1.2%.

GST apart, sector-specific issues have also played villain to some export-oriented sectors.

• For software services, the backlash against offshoring and changing business models have posed a challenge. For pharmaceutical exporters, pricing pressure on generics in the U.S. market and regulatory crackdowns have hit growth.

Findings

• Overall, numbers from India Inc. suggest that, while the economy isn’t back to firing on all cylinders, the accelerating sectors outnumber the slowing ones.
• Extrapolating sector-wise numbers to the economy as a whole should come with caveats. In India, only the largest and most established firms tend to list themselves in the public markets. Therefore, these numbers essentially capture the trends for the best and brightest of Indian businesses.

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