8 Feb 2024

#GS3 –01. AI in India

AI is the first ‘platform shift’ where India has kept pace with the world in the development of technology. The four previous shifts were personal computers, internet, mobile devices and cloud computing.
– Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Key Terms/Issues : Divestment, Fiscal Deficit

#GS3 — 02. Thalinomics

The cost of a home-cooked vegetarian thali fell 6% to ₹28 last month,while non-vegetarian thali registeredan8%month- on-month decline to ₹52.A typical vegetarian thali includes roti,vegetables (onion, tomato, potato), rice, dal,curd, and salad. The non-vegetarian version replaces dal with chicken(broiler).Despite fluctuating commodity prices, the share of ingredients used for arriving at the prices remains constant.
– CRISIL

#GS3 –03. Forex Reserves

Oman has allotted a specific zone to India in the strategically located Port of Duqm. The move will augment the Indian Navy’s role as a net security provider amid the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean region. The port provides a logistical base for India in the field of maritime cooperation. It will also enhance India’s role as a first responder in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
– Commentary in News

#GS1 — 04. Separatism

The Congress which openly strangled democracy due to its greed for power, dismissed dozens of democratically elected governments overnight and tried to shutdown newspapers, is now trying to build a narrative for breaking the country. I wish to share my pain hearing the words ‘breaking the nation’; new narratives are being created for political gains. Nothing can be worse for this country than a whole state speaking this language.

Congress should stop the ‘discourse of dividing the country into north-south’ as it imperils the future of the country. It is unfortunate that the Karnataka government was ‘building such a narrative through advertisements. For us, a nation is not just a piece of land but an element of inspiration. If any part of the country is deprived of development, then Bharat will not be able to develop. If a thorn pricks your foot, then the eyes shed tears. If one part of the country is in pain, the whole nation feels it.

Congress did not give requisite reservation to OBCs, EWS and gave Bharat Ratna ‘only to its own family members’, while ignoring Babasaheb Ambedkar, but now preaching social justice.
-PM Modi

#GS3 — 05. Oil Demand

India’s diesel demand will rise rapidly in the next six years while petrol sales will only marginally grow as increased adoption of EVs, biofuels and fuel efficiency measures disproportionately weigh on petrol demand.

Domestic diesel demand is projected to rise from 1.8 million barrels per day (mbd) in 2023 to 2.3 mbd in 2030, an increase of 4.5% annually, IEA said in its India Oil Market Outlook. By comparison, petrol demand is estimated to rise a modest 0.7% every year to 1 mbd in 2030 from 0.9 mbd in 2023. Diesel demand growth will account for almost half of the rise in India’s national oil demand, which is expected to increase by 1.2 mbd by 2030 to 6.6 mbd. The overall oil demand is forecast to rise 3.2% annually, lower than 4.5% of diesel. The oil demand growth in India is expected to surpass that of China’s in 2027.

India’s current car fleet of around 58 million cars to grow more than 40% by 2030. The domestic demand for jet fuel is expected to increase by 6.9% per year to 0.3 mbd by 2030. India’s per capita jet fuel consumption is very low compared to the global average, which means the demand for the fuel can grow at a much faster pace.
– IEA

#GS2–#Essay –06.North South Integration

There has never been a compelling reason for humanity to recognise a North-South world — until now. Climate change, the biggest and most rapid environmental transformation humanity has ever experienced, tilts our planet’s strategic axis from west-east to south-north. With every life form on the planet instinctively migrating toward the poles, our world enters a decades-long period of turbulence — a geopolitical reorganisation of the world order.

Our planet’s lower latitudes, or what I dub Middle Earth, will suffer the harshest environmental transformation over the next several decades. Stretching 30 degrees north and south of the equator and home to more than half of humanity, much of Middle Earth will later this century regularly endure a climate like today’s Saharan Desert, meaning an average temperature approaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit with extremely low rainfall.

The Sahara thus previews the coming geopolitical attrition: sparse populations, weak states, ungoverned spaces, and bad actors galore. Climate change already renders portions of Middle Earth economically unfeasible, contributing to state failure like in Sudan today. A good example are Central America’s Northern Triangle states of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador – the so-called Dry Corridor that already sends waves of food-insecure climate refugees to America’s southern border in search of more sustainable existence.
-Commentary in News

#GS2 –07. Skilling

The skill development and entrepreneurship ministry to frame model guidelines for continuously updating curricula for instructors and trainers.

The ministry to consider necessary interventions for trade certification of Agniveers, besides reiterating that the large number of vacancies of trainers and instructors in industrial training institutes (ITIs) across the country