Why in News?

Professor Claudia Goldin became the 3^rd woman to be awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences which is commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Highlights of her work:

1. Goldin demonstrated how and why gender differences in earnings and employment rates have changed over time, by analysing 200 years of the United States’ archives.
2. Significant observations from her work:
   1. Female participation in the labour market exhibited a U-shaped curve rather than an upward trend over the entire period.
   2. The economic growth occurring in varied periods did not translate to reducing gender differences in the labour market
   3. several factors that are influencing the supply and demand for female labour include:
      1. Opportunities for combining paid work and a family
      2. Decisions (and expectations) related to pursuing education and raising children
      3. Technical innovations
      4. Laws and norms
      5. Structural transformation in an economy.
   4. She highlighted that both men and women lose.
      1. “Men are able to have the family and step up because women step back in terms of their jobs, but both are deprived.”
      2. “Men forgo time with their family and women often forgo their career”.
3. Pay gap
4. Gender-blind recruitment
5. Role of the contraceptive pill in women’s career trajectories
6. Inequity within couples triggered by unequal care-giving
7. “Greedy jobs” that require high intensity and complete focus at an age when women must contend with their desire to nurture children.
8. Mention of “quiet revolutions” in the labour market of the US.
   1. Four distinct phases were mentioned in the Quiet Revolution that transformed women’s Employment, Education and Family.
      1. Late-19th century till the late-1970s: Evolutionary phase where married women’s employment rates increased.
      2. Mid-1960s: Revolutionary phase where American women started working because they found a sense of worth and meaning from their careers rather than making additional money for families.
   2. Three aspects of women’s choices grew over different phases:
      1. “Horizon”- while planning education the woman perceives that her lifetime labour force participation will be “long and continuous or intermittent and brief.
      2. “Identity” — whether woman derives a sense of personhood from her professional identity. (Shift from “jobs” to “career”).
      3. “Decision making”- women are fully autonomous in making their labour market choices. 

Why in the News?

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2023 ranked India 111 among 125 nations, a fall of four places from last year has received a push-back by the Indian government.

India scored poorer than several of its neighboring countries on the index, including Pakistan (102nd), Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th), and Sri Lanka (60th).

Global Hunger Index (GHI):

1. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.

GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators: 1. Undernourishment: This indicator measures the proportion of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements on a continuous basis. It is based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 2. Child Wasting: This indicator measures the proportion of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition. It is based on data from WHO, World Bank and UNICEF.  3. Child Stunting: This indicator measures the proportion of children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition. It is based on data from WHO, World Bank and UNICEF. 4. Child Mortality: This indicator measures the mortality rate of children under the age of five. It is based on data from the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. The four indicators are given different weightages in the calculation of the GHI score. Undernourishment is given the highest weight of one-third, while child wasting, child stunting and child mortality are given equal weights of one-sixth each. These four components together provide a multidimensional measure of hunger and undernutrition in countries.

3. Important observations of GHI, 2023:
   1. Global hunger remains too high, and progress on reducing hunger has largely stalled, with 2023 global GHI score at 18.3 considered moderate.

3. 2. The right to adequate food is being violated for nearly three-quarters of a billion people every day.
   3. This stagnation relative to 2015 figures largely reflects the combined effects of several crises such as:-
      1. COVID-19 pandemic
      2. The Russia-Ukraine war
      3. Economic stagnation
      4. Impacts of climate change
      5. Higher food prices
   4. The crises have aggravated inequalities between regions, countries, and groups.
   5. According to Global Hunger Index 2023 projections 58 countries will not achieve low hunger by 2030 at the current pace with the prevalence of undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting, and child mortality are all off track.
   6. Many youth in low- and middle-income countries are particularly vulnerable to food security and nutrition crises.
   7. Countries that still suffer from Hunger include:
      1. There are six countries with 2023 GHI scores in the alarming range—
         1. Central African Republic
         2. Madagascar
         3. Yemen
         4. Democratic Republic of the Congo
         5. Lesotho
         6. Niger
      2. Three additional countries that are provisionally designated as alarming
         1. Burundi
         2. Somalia
         3. South Sudan.

Why has the methodology of GHI being criticised?

1. Non-representative
   1. The calculation of the index is related to the health of children (3 of the 4 indicators) and cannot be representative of the entire population.
2. Very small sample size based on Opinion poll
   1. The fourth and most important indicator i.e., proportion of the undernourished population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3,000.
3. The report ignores the food security efforts undertaken to address the issues of hunger and malnutrition.

Bleak spots of India’s development story:

1. Undernutrition is a major problem despite schemes such as Poshan 2.0 and distribution of provisions under the National Food Security Act, 2013. The problems persist due to:

   1. Technical glitches
   2. Bureaucratic hurdles
   3. Social and economic inequalities
   4. Gender discrimination
2. National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 has found that 89% of children between the formative ages of 6-23 months do not receive a “minimum acceptable diet’.
3. High rates of anaemia were prevalent across large sections
   1. Children below six years
   2. Adolescent girls and boys
   3. Women between 15 to 49 years, including pregnant women.

Though criticisms about the methodology may be valid, it shouldn’t divert policymakers’ attention from the persistent problem of poor food intake.

Why in the News?

Australians will vote in a referendum to be held soon, to decide whether the country’s indigenous peoples should be formally consulted in making laws.

Who are the ‘First Peoples of Australia’?

1. ‘First Peoples of Australia’ or  ‘aboriginal’, refers to the indigenous inhabitants of the continent.
2. They are people who lived on the Australian mainland and surrounding islands for tens of thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived in the early 17th century.
3. The referendum shall pave way to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
4. The Torres Strait Islands is an archipelago(group of islands and the sea around them) of small islands in the Torres Strait, a narrow body of water between the northern tip of the state of Queensland and the large island of Papua New Guinea.

What does the referendum seek to do, and why?

1. It bases questions on:
   1. whether indigenous Australians should be recognised in the country’s Constitution
   2. whether a body called the indigenous “Voice to Parliament” should be set up to advise lawmakers on matters that impact their lives. 
2.  The Aboriginals find no mention in Australia’s 122-year-old Constitution.
3. Aboriginal people make up about 3.2% of Australia’s population and are below national averages on most socio-economic measures. 
4. Indigenous Australians have:
   1. A life expectancy 8 years shorter than non-Indigenous Australians
   2. Worse rates of disease and infant mortality
   3. A suicide rate twice as high as non-Indigenous Australians.
5. Constituting a body for Indigenous Australians would ensure a voice for the original inhabitants of the continent.

How far back before the arrival of the Europeans can Australia’s history be traced?

1. Ancient rock carvings suggest humans inhabited Australia some 45,000 years ago.
2. The first documented landing of a European was by the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon on the western side of Cape York peninsula in 1606.
3. The Europeans were aware at the time of a land mass in the southern hemisphere called Terra Australia Incognita, meaning Unknown South Land, but there is no confirmed evidence of claimed landings earlier.
4. Captain James Cook’s famous voyages took place in the second half of the 18th century and the early British settlers on the continent were criminals and convicts who were sent there to serve their prison sentences.
5. Between 1788 and 1868, more than 162,000 convicts in crimes committed in Britain and Ireland were transported to Australia.

How did the Australian government’s policies impact indigenous people?

1. Laws and policies made by the colonial settlers over time contributed to the marginalisation of the indigenous communities.
2. The indigenous communities fared increasingly worse than their non-native counterparts on indicators like education and life expectancy.
3. Under the Infants Welfare Act of 1935, indigenous children on Cape Barren Island were removed from their families based on claims of child neglect and were placed in the care of non-native families and institutions.
4. This has kept the children separate from their culture, often facing abuse as well and those children are now referred to as “The Stolen Generation”. 
5. In recent years, legislation to improve the status of indigenous Australians has been introduced.
   1. Voting rights were granted in 1962
   2. Australia’s apex court decided that native title exists over particular kinds of lands — unalienated Crown Lands, national parks and reserves in 1992
   3. The Stolen Generation was tracked in 1997 resulting in the “Bringing Them Home” report.

Why then does the referendum appear likely to fail?

1. For the referendum to be passed, > 50% of voters must vote in favour nationally, plus the majority of voters in the majority of Australian states.
2. Any constitutional alterations in Australia require a national referendum.
3. Voting is compulsory for all adults.
4. Opposition parties have opposed the referendum arguing that details of the proposed body have not been made clear. Also, such a move would amount to dividing Australian society on the lines of race.

Why in the News?

The recent Maldives Presidential election led to winning of Mohamed Muizzu who has been known for his Anti-India Campaign in Maldives.

India’s footprints in Maldives:

1. They are deep-rooted, both historically and in contemporary relations in spite of changes caused due to change in leadership in Maldives. 
2. India as the closest neighbour:
   1. Maldives with an area of 90,000 sq km encompasses 99.6 per cent of the sea and remaining land is distributed over more than 1,200 islands.
   2. It is predicted that 80% of Maldives will cease to exist by 2050 due to “Global Boiling”.
   3. Given that geography is destiny, it is true for both the countries as they are entwined.
3. Historical ties:
   1. Maldives’ challenges to democratic governance:
      1. a constitution that bars anyone non-Sunni to become a Maldivian citizen
      2. a nascent civil society
      3. a tradition of patronage
      4. a problem of increasing drug abuse
      5. a distorted labour market
      6. growing inequality
      7. an economy dependent on external factors
      8. growing trend of religious extremism
   2. India has always been a factor in Maldives, for instance, there was only Buddhism in Maldives which was replaced in the 12th century by Islam.
   3. During the British protectorate years (1887-1965), Maldives depended on India for essentials and The State Bank of India was the major financer that helped to build the country’s tourist economy.
   4. Even today, State Bank of India acts as the largest bank in the island country. 
   5. India provided a helping hand in all circumstances to Maldives:
      1. For instance, during an attempted coup in 1988.
      2. 2004 Tsunami
      3. 2014 water shortage
4. Enormous scale of cooperation with India:
   1. India’s gifting of helicopters
   2. Capacity building through joint exercises like the Ekuverin, Ekatha, surveillance assets
   3. Training of 1,400 MNDF trainers in recent years
   4. Disaster management
   5. Security assistance to Maldives in exchange of its hand of friendship and trust.
   6. Indian teachers and doctors play a critical role in the country especially in the remote inhabited islands. 
   7. Development projects such as greater Male connectivity.
   8. India provides most essential items in bulk like rice, wheat flour, sugar, potatoes and onions, eggs, vegetables as special dispensation.
5. High stakes of Maldives for India:
   1. Maldives is a first line of defence against
      1. Terrorism
      2. Piracy on the high seas
      3. Drug trafficking
      4. Narcotics
      5. Other maritime crimes
   2. The China factor:
      1. China’s entry into Maldives is solely to advance its own interests through debt financing, leading to debt traps and consequent hegemony of China.
      2. China’s policy of interference in the internal politics and support to conservative elements in Maldives can become a barrier in development of a vibrant democracy in Maldives.

Why in the News?

The lethal attacks by Hamas on Israel have overturned the latter’s efforts, supported by the US, to promote a normalisation of relations with Arab states.

• At the UNGA, Israel’s Prime Minister showcased two maps:
• one depicted an isolated Israel in 1948
• The other showed Arab neighbours that currently had peace agreements with Israel — Egypt, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Jordan. 
• The occupied Palestinian territories (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) were shown as integral parts of Israel.

U.S.-backed diplomacy:

1. The U.S. officials pushed for diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia to close within 2023.
2. Two Israeli Ministers visited Saudi Arabia for international conferences which signified increasing bonhomie between the two countries.
3. Three conditions were placed by Saudi before the U.S. before the normalisation deal:
   1. the approval of U.S. for a civilian nuclear programme that will provide for uranium enrichment within the country.
   2. An “iron-clad” U.S. security guarantee for Saudi
   3. Sales of advanced weapons.
4. The three conditions accepted by the US was criticised for many reasons:
   1. The U.S. politicians opposed the idea of giving security guarantees to an authoritarian state.
   2. Risk of Saudi Arabia developing its own nuclear programme that can pose an unacceptable proliferation risk
   3. Obstacles to the U.S. sales of advanced weapons, mainly due to Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record at home and in Yemen. 
   4. Concerns about Saudi insistence of transfer of technology along with supply of arms to develop its arms industry.
5. However, Palestinian interests and concerns were not considered in these normalisation discussions, and Israel failed to even talk about
   1. Palestinian aspirations for a sovereign and viable state or
   2. accept East Jerusalem as the capital of that state or
   3. at least promise freezing settlements in the West Bank, deferring annexation, or dismantling illegal outposts.

Palestinian interests in focus:

1. Some blame the Iran Islamic Republic to have instigated the Hamas attacks to block Saudi Arabia’s normalisation initiative with Israel.
   1. This fails to hold true as Saudi-Iran ties have already been normalised under Chinese mediation.
   2. This has been indicated by re-opened embassies in both capitals, exchange of high-level visits and expansion of economic cooperation.
2. Saudi has now asserted to stand by the Palestinian people for their legitimate rights.
3. The problems faced by Palestinians have come into focus:
   1. settlement expansion
   2. settler violence in the West Bank. 
   3. desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex
   4. repetition of systematic provocations of its sanctities
   5. dangers of the explosion of the situation as a result of the occupation

Why in the News?

Six working groups’ report on framing the Indian government’s artificial intelligence (AI) roadmap has recommendations for public-private partnerships to make semiconductors for AI applications.

PPP in Semiconductor manufacturing:

• The PPP model would be leveraged to build so-called “GPU clusters”.

• Such GPU clusters shall act as masses of resource-intensive graphics processors used by AI applications, which will be made available to Indian start-ups and researchers.

• The report recommends:

• Fiscal interventions to facilitate local manufacturing of robotics hardware

• Building of ‘demonstration facilities’ to test and show off technologies.

• Building capacity in the robotics sector

About:

Potential of the Indian Semiconductor Industry:

1. The Electronic Manufacturing sector has grown from $30 billion to over $100 billion.

2. India has more than 200 mobile manufacturing units.

3. Domestic semiconductor consumption is expected to reach $80 billion by 2026.

Facilitating factors for the growth of the industry:

Efforts taken to enable the growth of the industry:

• India’s Semiconductor Mission:

  •   Under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

  • To make India a global hub for electronics, chip manufacturing, and design.

  • Launched as part of the  ‘Make in India’ Initiative.

• The mission proposes a $10 billion incentive plan with a fiscal outlay of up to 50% of a project’s cost to display and semiconductor fabricators.

• Four Schemes under the Mission

  • Semiconductor Fab Scheme – A fiscal support of up to % of project cost on projects appraised by the Expenditure Finance Committee.

  • Display Fab Scheme - A fiscal support of up to % of project cost on projects appraised by the Expenditure Finance Committee.

  • Semiconductor and Semiconductor ATMP - fiscal support of 50% of capital expenditure to Compound Semiconductors / Silicon Photonics / Sensors (including MEMS) Fabs and Semiconductor Packaging (ATMP / OSAT) units.

  • Design Linked Incentive Scheme - offer financial incentives and design infrastructure support across various stages of development and deployment of semiconductor design(s) for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design(s) over a period of 5 years.

Challenges faced by the sector:

• Shortage of water and energy requirements.

• With ever increasing population and increased strain on water resources, access to water by semi-conductor industries will be a challenging one.

• Power outages and coal shortages remains a concern until they are offset by adoption of renewable energy to expand the power grid as the sector requires electric supply available 24X7, uninterrupted, 365 days a year, except for the scheduled maintenance.

• Need for Critical materials as raw materials for the semiconductor industry, as India either needs to import them or invest in domestic mining.

• India meets its current raw material requirements through imports from China, constituting 40%. 

• Domestic mining shall take considerable time and financial investments.

• Requirement of vast stretches of land protected from natural disasters such as Earthquakes.

• Shortage of Skilled workforce apart from design engineers who are trained in Device physics and process technology required for fabricating and manufacturing chips.

• Building a robust ecosystem because fabs require a variety of high-purity gases and wafers to fabricate the chips.

• Other Potential competitors for India:

  • China - It has considerable resources and political will

  • Taiwan – It holds a virtual monopoly in the global chip manufacturing industry, responsible for 60% of the global production.

  • Vietnam, the USA, and South Korea are also potential competitors.

Concerted efforts with the right policy implementation and resource facilitation shall enable India to emerge as a global hub for semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Why in News?

1. IIT Bombay-incubated Immunoadoptive Cell Therapy (ImmunoACT) has received Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation’s (CDSCO) marketing authorisation approval.
2. ImmunoACT shall be the ‘first’ humanised CD19-targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell (CAR-T cell) therapy product for relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphomas and leukaemia (blood cancer) in India.
3. ImmunoACT uses NexCAR19, an indigenously developed CD19 targeted CAR-T cell therapy.

What is Immuno ACT?

What is Curative petition

1. It acts the last resort for a petitioner for protection from the compensation of injustice in the court after the review petition is dismissed or has been exhausted.
2. It is a judicial innovation by the Supreme Court of India in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra and Anr. (2002) case.
3. Such petitions are considered to cure gross miscarriage of justice in the cases.
4. No time limit is given for filing curative petition.
5. Article 137 of Constitution of India guarantees Curative petition as it confers the power to the Supreme Court to review of its own judgements and orders.
6. review petition and curative petition differs in the aspect that the former is inherently provided in the constitution whereas, the emergence latter is in relation with the interpretation of the review petition by the Supreme Court which is enshrined in article 137.

Why in News

• There is a popular folk tale in Sikkim about two rivers, the male Rangeet and female Rungnyu (Teesta), and how the Rangeet turned back angrily after losing a race.
• In 2021, a protest song gave a modern twist to this tale, referring to the Teesta's rage at hydropower projects.
• On October 4, 2022, the South Lhonak glacial lake in northwest Sikkim breached its embankments and burst.
• This caused flash floods in the Teesta river basin downstream.
• The floods swept away 14 bridges and damaged a major hydropower dam.
• According to government data, the floods damaged 1,825 houses.
• At least 94 people lost their lives and 78 are still missing.
• Over 2,500 displaced people have been moved to 21 relief camps.
• The song predicting the Teesta's rage at hydropower projects seems prophetic now after the glacial lake burst flooding.

1. The Sikkim flash floods 2023 has led to wash away of Chungthang dam  by flooding of the Teesta River.
2. The dam and hydroelectric power station with 1200 MW capacity is located in Chungthang in Sikkim.
3. It is a run-of-the-river hydroelectric project commenced operation in 2017, used for power generation.
4. Teesta river:

1. The trans-Himalayan river  is a tributary of Brahmaputra River.
2. It  that traces through the states of Sikkim and West Bengal in India and Rangpur in Bangladesh.
3. Rangeet River is its main tributary

1. Gaza strip is a narrow piece of land located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea
2. It is bordered by Israel to the east and north, and Egypt to the southwest. 
3. It is ranked as the third most densely populated in the world with a population of 2 million in just 365 square kilometers of land area.
4. It is one of the two Palestinian territories, alongside the West Bank.
5. The area has been governed by the political and militant Islamist group Hamas since 2007 and has been under blockade since then.